The Cards Go Dead: WSOP Pt. 2
I meet my H-town friends at Caesars the next morning - Friday - for some tournament action. For those who haven't been, the Caesars tourney probably has the best structure for the price in town. For $80 you get 1500TC with one $50 rebuy/add-on for 3,000TC. Blinds start at 25-50 & increase every 40 minutes. Not bad. I decide to wait to add-on, hoping to double up early.
About 5 minutes in an early position raises to 175. I look down at AKc & reraise to 500. He goes all in & I call, looking to race & hopefully double up early. If I don't I always have the rebuy. He flips over KK, I don't improve & I rebuy. That's just the start.
I win a couple of small pots raising preflop & putting in the continuation bet post-flop with no calls. Nothing major. The break comes & I have ~4500TC. Probably around average. With the blinds becoming 200/400/25 I have to double up soon.
A few hands after the break I'm UTG with AKo. I raise to 1200 & get called by the cutoff - same guy who had KK earlier - & the BB. Flop comes T83 rainbow, BB checks & I move all in. Cutoff calls & BB folds. Cutoff shows 97h (WTF?) & of course spikes a 9 on the river & IGH WAY too early. I shake my head as I get up, tell the guy he made a horrible call & leave. Shouldn't an UTG raise get some respect? I mean, 97? Then calling a pot-sized all in with an OESD? The dude had to think he was behind. Oh well, such is the mentality of donkeys these days.
I proceed to lose another $400 over the next few hours playing 10/20 limit & 1/2 NL when I catch no cards, hit no draws, get a preflop raise called by Q-fucking-2 & a flop of QQ6. Just wasn't my day.
Long story short - and I can't remember everything else that happened - but I lost around $700 that first day at Caesars & MGM. I guess I was shell shocked at MGM because I played tighter & weaker than normal - a bad run can do that to you - which contributed to about $200 more out of my bankroll. Frustrating times. I didn't need this hit going into the Main Event. My confidence was shaken.
So I took Saturday off from poker & went to the Rio to find my buddies who were playing. The staff at the Rio woudn't let any spectators in until all the alternates had been seated, something about a fire hazard? So Mrs. Stump & I hung around the Expo a while & did a little shopping & sight-seeing.
Later that night, after the PartyPoker party at Studio 54 (I need to go off on a tangent here. We all know Mike Sexton from WPT broadcasts & PartyPoker commercials, right? He's pretty much straight-laced, sort of squarish, right? Well you should have seen him in his suit cutting a rug on the dance floor with the scantily-clad Party girls! WOW! Dude was getting down!) Mrs. Stump & I were in our room about to hit the sack when one of my friends from H-town calls & tells me AJ is second in chips with 65k.
The wife & I get dressed & head to the Rio to check out my boy. We finally find him - yes, they let spectators in by then - & he tells me he's back down to 45k, a result of running unsuccessful bluffs a few times. So I sweat him for about an hour - along with Phil Ivey, John Juanda, & Eric "Rizen" Lynch - before heading to bed. AJ ended the night with about 46k but didn't make it thru Day 2.
Wifey & I headed to bed, where I don't think I slept but 2 hours thinking about what was about to happen. Playing in the biggest tournament of my life, let alone the poker world. Overwhelming. But I'll get to that next time. Until then take care.
About 5 minutes in an early position raises to 175. I look down at AKc & reraise to 500. He goes all in & I call, looking to race & hopefully double up early. If I don't I always have the rebuy. He flips over KK, I don't improve & I rebuy. That's just the start.
I win a couple of small pots raising preflop & putting in the continuation bet post-flop with no calls. Nothing major. The break comes & I have ~4500TC. Probably around average. With the blinds becoming 200/400/25 I have to double up soon.
A few hands after the break I'm UTG with AKo. I raise to 1200 & get called by the cutoff - same guy who had KK earlier - & the BB. Flop comes T83 rainbow, BB checks & I move all in. Cutoff calls & BB folds. Cutoff shows 97h (WTF?) & of course spikes a 9 on the river & IGH WAY too early. I shake my head as I get up, tell the guy he made a horrible call & leave. Shouldn't an UTG raise get some respect? I mean, 97? Then calling a pot-sized all in with an OESD? The dude had to think he was behind. Oh well, such is the mentality of donkeys these days.
I proceed to lose another $400 over the next few hours playing 10/20 limit & 1/2 NL when I catch no cards, hit no draws, get a preflop raise called by Q-fucking-2 & a flop of QQ6. Just wasn't my day.
Long story short - and I can't remember everything else that happened - but I lost around $700 that first day at Caesars & MGM. I guess I was shell shocked at MGM because I played tighter & weaker than normal - a bad run can do that to you - which contributed to about $200 more out of my bankroll. Frustrating times. I didn't need this hit going into the Main Event. My confidence was shaken.
So I took Saturday off from poker & went to the Rio to find my buddies who were playing. The staff at the Rio woudn't let any spectators in until all the alternates had been seated, something about a fire hazard? So Mrs. Stump & I hung around the Expo a while & did a little shopping & sight-seeing.
Later that night, after the PartyPoker party at Studio 54 (I need to go off on a tangent here. We all know Mike Sexton from WPT broadcasts & PartyPoker commercials, right? He's pretty much straight-laced, sort of squarish, right? Well you should have seen him in his suit cutting a rug on the dance floor with the scantily-clad Party girls! WOW! Dude was getting down!) Mrs. Stump & I were in our room about to hit the sack when one of my friends from H-town calls & tells me AJ is second in chips with 65k.
The wife & I get dressed & head to the Rio to check out my boy. We finally find him - yes, they let spectators in by then - & he tells me he's back down to 45k, a result of running unsuccessful bluffs a few times. So I sweat him for about an hour - along with Phil Ivey, John Juanda, & Eric "Rizen" Lynch - before heading to bed. AJ ended the night with about 46k but didn't make it thru Day 2.
Wifey & I headed to bed, where I don't think I slept but 2 hours thinking about what was about to happen. Playing in the biggest tournament of my life, let alone the poker world. Overwhelming. But I'll get to that next time. Until then take care.
posted by SugarlandStump at 8:25 AM
1 Comments:
Looking forward to reading more. Tough luck in the Caesar's. I did love that tourney structure myself and ended up having some luck too.
Post a Comment
<< Home