Vegas July 2016 (WSOP Tag Team)

Day 3 - WSOP Daily Deepstacks

Last Updated: 2016-07-08 12:36:33

This will be short for two reasons. I don't have a lot to talk about even tho we are up quite late, and we're playing early Friday and don't expect to have much time to write.

Starbucks for breakfast again, started to take a walk up the strip to kill time and to work off some of what we've eaten but only got as far as Cosmopolitan. Quick stop at the bank and on to Rio.

Today was the most card dead I've been in a long time. I barely played a hand in two tournaments. In the 2pm in the second round I lost over 1/3 of my stack when someone caught a gutshot. Later that guy would lose a set vs set. Justice, but not to my benefit. I then had a stretch of over an hour without a single playable hand. And Patrick wasn't faring much better.

Eventually I was under 10 big blinds, went all in with the first ace I saw, ran into JJ, no help, done.

Patrick meanwhile lost a chunk of his stack with AQ in a four way all in where the main pot was won by someone with A-9 but a shorter stack than Patrick, the side pot left Patrick minus about a quarter of the stack he started the hand with and therefore on the short side. But he then doubled up with 86 suited. 86 way, way better than AQ :-)

I headed over to buy into the 5pm at the end of the first level, we got seated at a new table so everyone started the same. Again, however, I had nothing to work with all tournament. I did have one of the craziest tables I have ever sat at tho.

First, there's a hand that goes like this (and understand we're in the third blind level with mostly starting stack sizes):

I'm not sure if the 2 and 3 seats were in blinds or limped, suddenly don't remember where button was, but 7 seat makes it 550 to go (blinds should have been 100/200). Folds to the 2 seat who made it 2050. 3 seat calls 2050.

7 seat goes all-in. 2 seat calls. 3 seat shrugs and calls.

7 seat has only A-J. 2 seat has TT. 3 seat, who turned out to be slightly the big stack, CALLS with 8-5 of clubs.

Huh????

Flop includes a 10, 2 seat wins. You'd think he'd be happy...

7 seat is out. 3 seat has more chips. Dealer takes big chips from the 3 seat because he doesn't have exact change anyway, then gives him 250 in green 25 denomination chips in change.

2 seat starts BERATING THE DEALER for giving change in 25s because he wasn't sure he gave the correct change. Outright NASTY because he didn't like HOW he made change.

There's no question that the dealer was steaming, but to his great credit he kept his composure and spoke to the idiot 2 seat firmly but politely. 2 seat eventually calms down.

3 seat busts out a few hands later, then goes and rebuys and gets the same seat back. Can't make it up. Didn't go all in with 8-5 suited again as far as I remember...

And FWIW, I've seen the 2 seat guy in past years at these tournaments and he is a bit of a jerk at times. He goes hot and cold between being overly friendly and talking about hands as tho a tourist (I guess he happens to be out here when I am every year?) but flies off the handle at the smallest perceived slight. That said, to his credit when we had a dealer change he did sincerely apologize to the dealer he yelled at. I don't think the dealer was accepting of the apology, I wouldn't be, but to his credit he did say thanks and leave.

Round 4 brought some more fun to the table.

9 seat on the button. Bunch of limpers, including me, around the table including the 8 seat. 10 seat picks up his cards, moves them forward and puts them down. Dealer grabs them to muck them, 1 seat checks his option...and 10 seat goes nuts. Says he didn't muck his cards he was just moving them. Everyone at the table agrees he mucked. But the dealer still had his cards in hand, not in muck.

"Floor table 114!!!"

"Floor" comes to the table, 8 seat is first to try to tell him the story. Dealer confirms the story, as does everyone else at the table.

Player is given back his hand "this one time", he calls, and dealer is instructed that if he moves his cards forward again the dealer is to put them immediately in the muck.

8 seat isn't completely ready to let go and mumbles something about how he should have been made to muck.

"Hey, fuck you!" from the 10 seat.

"Fuck you!" from the 2 seat.

They snipe a little more, dealer lets it go, calms things down.

8 seat still isn't done tho. Hand plays out, 10 seat had mucked on flop I think, 8 seat wins the pot and starts making comments about how he wished the 10 seat was still in the hand because he wanted all of the 10 seats chips.

"Fuck you"

10 seat stands up and gets his face no more than 6 inches from the 8 seats face. I don't remember what was said, but it wasn't good.

"FLOOR TABLE 114!!!!!!!"

I think "floor" saw what was going on from afar and called security over because they arrived about the same time. He cheerfully but firmly talked to the two guys, calmed them down, gave them each a one-round penalty, asked them to leave.

8 seat tried to hang out a few tables away. About a hand later the floor man grabbed a security guy by the shoulder, pointed at 8 seat, and security showed him where he was allowed to wait.

The 1 seat was empty. An older gentleman sat down just before our friends penalty is over. I've seen him before too. I sorta knew what was coming in some form or another...

This guys act...well, I don't think it's an act, I think it's really him...lets say his MO is to not bet correctly and do all kinds of little things he's not supposed to do and then get belligerent about it. It's the living stereotype of the crusty old guy who simply is going to do what he wants to do and nobody is going to tell him what he can or can't do...

I forget exactly what happened, but I do remember that his first hand at the table the dealer had to make a decision about how he tried to bet or call and he wasn't happy about what the dealer made him do. One hand. That's all it took.

Second hand at the table he's in the big blind. Fighters coming back after this hand is over.

There's a raise, 1 seat calls, we're 3 or 4 handed.

Flop comes, there's some action, 1 seat still in hand. Turn comes, he says "I'm gonna check my two pair".

Folks...this isn't your home game. In a casino, a $185 buyin is just as serious about rules as a $10,000 buyin. It's very simple. You can't talk about your hand. Ever. You can't say what you have, you can't say what you don't have. You can't say "hey there's three diamonds on the board". You can't say "there's the straight" when a 4th consecutive card comes on the table.

Talk about the weather. Talk about how much the Phillies suck and can't beat the Rockies. Don't talk about your cards or the cards you see on the board. Ever.

It's really that simple, and it's 100% of the time.

"FLOOR TABLE 114!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Floor explains the rules.

1 seat isn't having any of it. He insists he's allowed to lie about his hand and wasn't telling the truth about it. And he won't let go.

But they do let the hand play out, floor stays until it's over.

At the river, there's a bet. 1 seat is folding. But he wants the dealer and the floor to know he lied about his two pair and lifts his cards up over his head to hold them in floor's face.

Floor asks him politely to put his cards down.

Asks him again.

And again.

1 seat wants to make damn sure they see what he had.

"Sir, your cards MUST remain ON THE TABLE"

Cards still being held up.

"Sir put your cards down now, PLEASE"

Cards finally go down.

1 seat gets a one round penalty for talking about his hand as the fighters are walking back to the table.

He sits back in the chair, folds his arms and isn't leaving.

We play a hand while he's sitting there, arms folded, waiting for security to come over and let him know if he doesn't leave he's going to get help leaving...wow.

He finally gets up and leaves.

I'm still card dead, Patrick busts out of the 2pm. We're getting late in round 4, buyins about to be cut off, but they're starting up new tables so I tell Patrick about it and tell him he still has time to get in. I sort of talk him into playing. He buys in.

As he's sitting down at the end of the round (he played one hand before break) I bust out on TT vs AK.

Now I have nothing to do, resisted the urge to buy back in myself, so I go back and forth between watching "Team Little" in day two of the tag team event and Patrick.

Mom and Dad Little are proud of their boy. He's now playing exclusively for the team. Mom doesn't like cussing (someone was standing near her who was just one of those people who drops an F-bomb every third sentence) and wished "that guy would just shut up, such language". They made final table, shortest stack but alive.

Patrick meanwhile milked a short-ish stack for hours. Finally getting close to the money doubled up a couple of times with 9s. First time flop 9-7-7, got almost all of someone's chips as they bet into Patrick on flop and turn, then called Patrick's river bet. Very next hand 99 again, calls two all-ins, both had 2 overs, 9s hold up.

After that, Patrick got just enough cards to maintain his stack, and build a little sometimes as blinds went up. He was never the biggest stack, but he was never the shortest stack either.

Ended up 14th out of 350, about 2.5 times his buyin. A great run!

I need to say this: The people who work the WSOP, every one of them, deserve medals for putting up with the shit they put up with day in and day out with smiles on their faces from people who play in these tournaments. I never stop being astounded by the amount of garbage they put up with from ungrateful players and they deal with it gracefully almost 100% of the time. Even when they do let some of their own frustration show they never do more than speak firmly and directly. It's very impressive.

Patrick now has 2 cashes in 5 tournaments. Gotta admit I'm jealous.

So Friday and Saturday the plan is 11am at Aria (crap I need to get going) followed by 5pm at Rio if Aria doesn't work out.

Wish us luck!