Vegas June 2014 (WSOP)

Day 3 - WSOP Day 2

Last Updated: 2014-06-28 12:13:39

For the 4th year in a row I finished my first day at the WSOP bagging up chips to return the next day. For the 3rd year in a row I left that second day much earlier than I had hoped.

Up fairly early so I had a lot of time to kill with a 3pm start time. I decided to burn some calories and some time by walking the strip from the Luxor to the Fashion Show Mall and back (a nice little 5-mile round trip). About 1/2 way back I get a text from Maria that her and Hans are in town. I take a quick shower, hit the buffet at Bellagio, then make a quick stop at Aria to say hi to Hans.

Then I head over to the Rio, get a chance to chat a little with Maria since I show up while she's on break at the ladies event. Then it was time to clear my head and find my table.

The situation at the table was pretty simple. 6 of the 9 players were below starting stack. Their only play was to go all-in, and so for me I had to be prepared to play for half my stack on any hand I decided to play. And I had to play some hands...

I couldn't make an opening raise without being prepared to call an all-in because pot odds would always dictate a call on any hand good enough to open with. That cuts back my opening range because I have to have something that's going to play well against the range of a short stacks all-in.

To make matters a little tougher, I'm in the 7 seat and the table chip leader (by far) is in the 8 seat so I'm betting into him and in the 10 seat is the only other stack bigger than mine (30K or so) so basically I'm betting into the only two people at the table who can stack me. That's a tough spot!

Second hand I get K-Q of spades, I raise out, hold my breath waiting for the all-in...but it folds around. One down. Just a few hands later a push into me, I look down at 10-10, can't fold that given the table dynamics, she has A-K and catches.

So now I'm down to 11K or so, still on the first orbit. It folds around to me in either the small blind or on the button, I look down and see an A-3 offsuit, I push, I get called by K-Q, flop a 3, river an ace. I'm actually back up above where I started! I'm involved in two pre-flop all-ins before the button gets all the way around the table! Crazy.

In the second orbit I look down at A-J of spades. I make it 2000 to go (400/800/100 blinds/antes), the 9 seat calls. It folds around to one of the short stacks who goes all in for 6300. Call, call. Board ran out K-J-5-X-K, check down every street, my A-J is good and I'm around 39K.

Three times now invloved in an all-in with the button barely around the table once. Things finally settle down for me.

A little later in the level I get pocket Kings on the button (I've been getting Kings more than aces for sure). I make it 2000, the big stack in the small blind makes it 5100, big blind folds. I make it 15,100, probably a little high, and the big stack folds.

A few hands later I win another pot with A-Q of clubs when I flop a flush draw and c-bet and just like that I'm up to 47,000! More than double what I sat down at the table with!

This is going as good as I could have hoped, right?

I ended level 10 at 45K after some blinds.

Thought I was going to sit out level 11. I was card dead, doubt I saw more than 2 flops and was down around 40K when a somewhat loose player who had joined the table raised out and I looked down at aces. I reraise, he pushed, I called, I'm up against 9-9.

9 on the river, I'm back down to 11K. Ouch. A couple of hands later we go on break and are informed our table will break up when we return.

Blinds now 600/1200/200 so I'm under 10 bigs. About 5 hands in at the new table I look down at A-9, I go all in, get called by 2-2, no help and I'm done. Something like 2350 out of over 7800 players. I did see that they were able to get into the money last night, probably late. When I looked around 1:30 am they were down around 750 left and they paid 792.

How nice it would have been to have been sitting on a 70-80K stack if those aces had held up. Very frustrating to get that far and go out like that, but what can you do.

#ontothenextone

So over to Aria for the 7:00 and another bout of insanity. I get there around 6:30 for the 7:00 tournament and the line is out the door of the poker room and into the slot area. Must have been 50-100 people in line. When I finally get to the cage it was 5-10 minutes to start time and I was alternate number 95. And as I left I saw that the line was still as long as it was when I got into it.

They delayed the start of the tournament for 45 minutes hoping tables would clear up from the 1:00 that was still going on, where they had gotten 370 players. Wow. I thought 250+ on wednesday was big for Aria. That worked out well, they were calling alternates up to 80 before the first cards went into the air. Since they were calling in the 80s I moved over close to where the tournament director was and there was Maria! Her ladies tournament went as well as my day 2, and Hans was still alive in the 1:00 with about 70 left paying 36. Unfortunately I don't think he made it to final 50, I went looking for him between hands and couldn't find him.

It was probably only 10 minutes into the first level when they opened another table, and thanks to some no-shows off the alternate list (how do you buyin and leave before it even starts?) I was the last person seated at it.

Just like Wednesday I was card dead for quite a while to start the tournament. I was down to around 6500-7000 from 10K start when I doubled up after going all in with A-K and getting called by a shorter stack with just Q-5. Ace high wins. Another stretch of not playing much when I'm a little on the short side again, I look down and see one ace and go all-in. It folds to the big blind who thinks for a while and folds. I look at the other card and it's also an ace. Argh.

Can't get action from AA, but two hands later do the same thing, this time I get called, second card is only a 9 but I'm up against 44. I catch and double up. Wow, I have chips to play with!

I work my way up to about 36.5K by the end of level 9 and at that point we're at 66 players paying 27!

Limper other side of table at 800/1600/200, I call small blind w/99 hoping to flop a set, BB checks his option. The flop comes K-9-X, I check to trap, it checks around. The turn is a Jack, I bet, no action. And this has been part of the story for me this trip. Even when I have well disguised big hands I just can't get any action on them. Everyone makes a continuation bet seemingly every hand until I actually want them to, then they just check instead.

A few hands later a short stack shoves, I call w/ A-Q, he turns over 10-9dd. He flops trip 10s, I get flush draw on turn but no luck. Down to 30K. OK, not horrible.

But no cards for a couple of orbits drops me down to the mid 20s, blinds are up to 1000/2000/300 (the easiest round to remember, 1-2-3) and I look down at pocket queens. Under the gun min-raises, I go all in, he calls, turns over A-K and he flops a King. Mid 50s out of 265. Dammit.

The good news is that for me it's deep run after deep run. I know the cashes will come. #ontothenextone.

So for my last day Saturday I'm going to take my first shot at the daily 3pm deep stack at the WSOP. Last Saturday they got 833 players, not a bad little tournament.