June 16, 2007
I love Vegas, I love the WSOP.
Current mood: Hungover
I love vegas, and I love the WSOP.
Yesterday I played in event 25. It was great for my first WSOP try. I ended up taking around 200th to 300th for no cash. This is not official yet but I only counted around 20 or 30 tables left when I was busted out. 153 paid out and there were over 1600 entries. I am very happy with my play and felt very comfortable playing at this level. I don't find it very realistic to think you are going to cash at your first try in the WSOP but I was pleasently surprised to see that I did in fact have what it took to play this game against these players. I have no doubt I will cash in the WSOP eventually. A lot of bad players and even more really good ones. It was not the push fest you are led to believe you are going to play in that you see on tv.
The way they had the tourney set up was half was inside the Rio's convention hall (where the main room was) and the rest of the tourney completely filled up a "tent' (more like a giant metal shed with A/C) with at least 50 tables in it. I was very surprised to see how smoothly the tourney went and they way they broke the tables down in perfect order with no glitches. Easily the nicest tourney I have ever played in (it better be, this is the fucking WSOP). Needless to say I was very impressed with the Rio and the WSOP. It was a great expierience.
One thing that surprised me was the amount of pros in the game. One table over Evelyn Ng, Phil Hellmuth, and Michael Mizrachi were all at the same table. Phil just had to show off by getting a chip runner to go cash out a $25,000 chip he had on him. I can only guess why he needed 25k to sit at a tournament table. I have seen every pro imaginable form Annie Duke and her brother to Scotty Nguyen and Greg Raymer. As far as my first table it was very easy. We had one guy who obviously was WAY out of his league go out in about 5 hands. Not many solid players at this table, maybe two. Other than that nothing to really talk about. It was early and we were one of the first tables to break. We all started with $4,000 in chips and I left this table with around $6,000.
My second table was a little different. Still out in the tent, 2 seats to my left was a guy I thought I recognized. It turned out he won a circuit event or bracelet before. I can't remember his name but I really was not too impressed. Sure he was a solid player but he was like an open book. He liked to open raise for 2 1/2 the big blind and rarely ever re-raised or showed too much strength the whole time I was there and we must have sat together for 4 hours. I won a lot of little pots off of him by re-raising him.
Things were running along smoothly and I busted out the guy on my left which left a seat open. You never know what you are going to get as far as the player who is going to fill the seat. It was pretty funny as a guy says "wow look at that stack" and I look over to see Mark Seif filling a rack with yellow (1k) and light blue ($500) chips and say "damn feel sorry for his table." There was an open seat on my left. Oops. The blinds are at 100/200 now and I have around 12k when of all sudden the chip leader Mark Seif is sat directly to my left (his chip count was 34k eith the blinds at 100/200 no ante!). A major pro with tons of chips on my immediate left. I had the worst seat in the house. (I realized later that the red head guy to the circuit winners left was in fact PearJammer. I did not know that at the time)
He actually turned out to be a nice guy. Him and the circuit winner guy (now both to my immediate left) were talking a little as Seif recognized him and me and Seif actually talked a bit. Seif discussed some 100k+ prop bets and talked bad about Lindgren to wich the circuit winner guy said "uh yeah, he's my backer." Me and Seif joked about how if someone dies from the heat in the tent if the release we signed would allow them to show it on tv. He laughed, I laughed, the whole table laughed, he had 34k in chips, it was gonna be a long day. It was my first time playing with a major player and it was very cool. You realize he can bust just as soon as you and you play your game. Sure you have to adjust but it is'nt really because he is a pro, it is because you have the toureny's chip leader on your left.
I had come into the tourney thinking I would try and long ball it. Sort of a Kill Phil type strategy where you try to get a lot in pre-flop and not let the better players have a chance to out-play you on the flop but it was appearent early on that I WAS one of the better players at my table and ended up playing almost exclusivley post flop, short balling it, out-playing my opponents. I had some chips but with the chip leader on your left there is always fear that you may be raised even if you raise. You adust. Play tighter. I cannot really recall any certain hands but I must have played 5 or six hands post flop with Seif and I won at least half of them. Very cool to have a known pro fold to you multiple times, not to mention the times I took his blinds uncontested. One hand when he first sat down I took a pot around 4k from Seif and he said "wierd, thats the first pot I have lost today." I told him that "with his chip stack, I believe him." Well this table lasted about 2 hours and when we broke I ended up at my next to last table.
I enjoyed this table. Just about everyone was pretty solid and we must have gone 4 hours only losing about 3 people. We were in the tent for a while and moved into the main room right at dinner break. The 5k HORSE tourney was in full swing and the table directly next to me had Doyle Brunson, John Juanda, and Chris Fergusen in the 8, 7, and 6 slots. What a table. At this point I was card dead. I would take a pot here and there but my stack could not creep up over the 14k mark. At one point I had around 17k but a bad flop in a multi-way pot with AK brought me back down as I was forced to bow out of a huge pot with a lot of post-flop action. I watched as there was really nothing I could do but watch my stack dwindle away. 12k, 8k, win a small pot, back up to 14k, lose one, down to 8k, up to 10k, yadda yadda yadda. I was card dead but I was stealing pots when I could and playing very solid, I don't think I could have done anything different unless I could see my opponents hole cards. Eventually the blinds were at 300/600 with a 75 ante and our table broke. Everyone wished everyone good luck. Nice people, I hope they all did good and it was great to be at the table with all of them. ( I realized a few days later that the woman on my immediate left was Katja Thater. I had no clue who she was until I saw that she won the Razz event which I played in 2 days later. Of all the players I sat with in the NL event she showed the most strength. When she was in a pot you had to play for it, she was a damn good player)
I drew "table 3 seat 8" and went and sat down. The blinds were now at t400/800/100 and I had barely any chips ( around 9k), it was going to be time to make a move and pray, as if it hadn't been for a while. I sat down and looked at my opponents stacks first and noticed something funny about the stack on my right. Two plastic sharks. I looked over and on my immediate right was Humberto Brenes. I looked at him, smiled and said "ha! you even have the sharks!" he laughed, I laughed, it was cool. Humberto was a very nice guy. Very soft spoken while I was at the table with him. I took a picture of the sharks and he said "no here is a picture" and pointed one of the sharks (which was some wierd laser pointer that looked like a shark) a the other shark and made me take a picture. He was a very nice guy and really made no huge moves while I was at the table. Well about 45 minutes into this table I pick up a10 off suit. A guy who has won the last 5 pots in a row and been raising ever since I got there makes it 2500 to go. I only have 8k now and really have no choice and push. I am hoping he has an underpair because I need to race here but he doesn't. He has AQ, flop, turn, and river are all bricks and I am sent home around 200th place. I didn't cash but I loved the expierience and will do everything I can to be back every year.
I love Vegas and I love the WSOP. There really is nowhere else I would rather be. I have a $1500 RAZZ tourney tomorrow at 5 and I am sure the field will be rich with pros. Can't wait for the next time I am watching poker on t.v. and can say "I played with him." Now if only I can get a bracelet
