Vegas Was Fun, WSOP was Rough; Bad Beats, Doyle and Penn & Teller

So I'm sitting at Mccarren right now, waiting to get on the plane back to the LA. The trip was a lot of fun, but, unfortunately, I barely made it three hours in Event #39.

I was very happy with how I played. I consistently got my money in way ahead and made good, timely steals. Unfortunately, variance picked a bad time to rear its head.

I began around noon with $4500 chips along with the other 2700 entrants. My first table was pretty soft, but that didn't stop me from getting involved in some big pots pretty quickly. Within the first rotation I picked up AKo and raised from LP to 3x (150 as blinds began at 25-50). I got two callers, a late position guy and the small blind. The flop came down 3 low/mid spades. I had the K of spades, so with that and overcards, a cbet was certainly in order. The late position caller folded but the small blind called. The turn was the Queen of hearts. Check, check. The river was the fourth spade, a 7. The small blind led for about $750. Knowing that I could only be beat by the Ace of spades (but also knowing that a raise would only be called by that Ace), I called. A4, Ace of Spades, I lost 1/3 of my stack. Ouch.

After another rotation, it was folded around to me in the small blind, where I looked down and saw a lovely KK. Wanting to build a pot, I raised to 200. The big blind called and the flop came 10-10-9. I thought this was a pretty good flop for an overpair but certainly vulnerable to draws, so I cbet 2/3rds pot and was called. The turn was a blank four. My initial instinct was to fire again to protect my hand. But something stopped me. When the big blind called on the flop it was pretty quick. I had a feeling he didn't think I was that strong. The board was hard to hit and my raise was from a steal position. Even though there were some bad river cards for me if he checked behind, I thought it might be better to go for the check-raise. I did, he obliged, and I quickly moved in, not thrilled to get all my chips in 15 minutes into my first WSOP event(!)

After he tanked, I started to root for a call. Obviously a ten would have snapped me. At that point I figured he had a draw, a small pair, or maybe a 9. He waited forever before folding, and told me that he had 9-7. I dragged a big pot and was up to about 5k. Soon after this, the dealer informed us that we would be the first table in the huge room to break (table breaks were planned ahead of time). Disappointing, as I'd liked the table. After a few more hands we were all moved, and I sat down in seat 7 of a different table not too far from where I'd started.

I ended up playing the first hand I was dealt, pocket 4s. A player raised in middle position and I called from the Cutoff. We were still at 25/50, so we were deep enough to set mine. The player on the button directly behind me also called, the blinds folded, and we saw an Ace high flop 3 handed. I missed my set so I was planning on folding pretty quickly. Oddly, the pre flop raiser checked. I checked too and the button quickly checked behind. The turn was a 7. Again, the pre flop raiser checked. Now I realized this was a good steal opportunity. There was no way an ace or strong hand checked twice here. So I fired and the button and pfr instantly folded. Easy money.

After that, I didn't see too many playable hands for awhile. I watched the table closely and tried to pick up on the dynamics between players and their individual styles. On my right was a small woman with glasses who, it quickly became apparent, was a bulldog. Throughout the time I was at the table, I saw her reraise quite a bit and take down some big pots. I was glad she was on my right(!) At the same time, on her right was the pre flop raiser from the 4s hand. He was raising virtually every hand from middle and late position. It was annoying, but exploitable. I figured I'd be in some pots with him at some point, but simply couldn't get good enough hands to take advantage at this point.

After a few more rotations, the player two to my left opened from early position for 3.5x, his standard raise, even though the rest of the table had been opening to 2.5. I was in the big blind, and it was folded around to me. I looked down and saw a lovely sight: pocket kings! Now I tried to figure out the best way to make money on the hand. I ended up flatting for two reasons. First, I reasoned that the raiser would (correctly), see a 3bet from the big blind into an early position raiser as VERY strong. Unless he had a VERY big hand, at least JJ+ or AK, he might be able to get away pre-flop. At worst, he could call and then escape on many flops. Secondly, I was concerned that if an Ace came off I could end up playing a big pot out of position against a raiser very likely to have an Ace in his hand.

The flop came down queen high with no flush or straight draws. The raiser cbet into me about 2/3rds pot. I paused for awhile, checked my cards, pretending to consider folding, then repopped him 3x his original bet. He quickly moved all in for 2800 more. I had him covered by a little over a thousand and quickly called. He turned over AQo. Of course I then turned over my KK and he immediately went white and said to me "nice hand!" I wasn't feeling so confident however, as with most of my chips in, even though I was pretty far ahead, he was hardly dead. I think I was about a 4:1 favorite at this point with him drawing to 5 outs. I said loudly "the hand isn't over yet!" The turn was a jack. The river.... another queen. BAM. I was down to 1300 chips.

I was shellshocked, of course. My opponent apologized profusely for the beat, which was gracious, but I told him not to worry, as I'd gotten exactly what I wanted in that spot. I got my money in a huge favorite and since I hadn't repopped him pre, I got why he thought AQo might be good there. That's exactly what I wanted him to think. So I couldn't really complain, but now I was hurting. Before I'd splashed around in a few smaller pots, stolen some blinds here and there. Now I was suddenly in short stack mode with thirteen big blinds and visions of not even making the first break were going through my head.

I fought valiently to keep my spirits up and stay focused. Only four hands later I picked up AQo in late position and opened to 300, almost 1/3 of my remaining stack. I got called by the button, a european looking guy who wasn't very active but looked like he knew what he was doing. The flop was just awful, 9-8-5, two spades (no spade in my hand). Cbetting (or shoving) seemed like suicide. Once I bet I would be committed and even if I were ahead I couldn't be far ahead! Sadly, I didn't see any option but to check/fold and give up. It left me with ten big blinds, which at least gave me a chance to get my money in better than that.

After this hand I went utterly card-dead for what seemed like forever. It was immensely frustrating, as I wanted to get back in the game and steal some pots. Still, I had to remain focused and not take silly risks yet. I still had enough big blinds to wait for a good spot, and with the slow structure of the tournament (hour levels... at this point about halfway through level 2, 50/100), I did have the time to be a little more careful. After playing fold-em poker for what felt like forever, it was folded around to me in late position and I looked down and saw... two aces!

I wasn't waiting for Aces. I'd planned on getting my money in with any pair as the open raiser and most pairs as a re-raiser, AQs+ and maybe some other hands depending on the situation. For example, if I saw a spot where I could triple up with a hand likely to have good equity like J10s or 76s, I might have grabbed it. Instead, I got the aces. Now, after waiting that long for anything, I didn't feel raising was the right play. I only had ten big blinds, so any reasonable player would see that I intended to commit myself on nearly any flop. I settled on limping, which wasn't an easy decsion by any means, since slow-playing KK had cost me such a big pot. Nevertheless, it seemed like the best chance I had to double up. I limped, no one raised, the small blind completed and we saw the flop 3 ways. J7x, two diamonds. The small blind led out for about half pot and I pushed over him fairly quickly. I figured he probably had a flush draw, or, hopefully, top pair, and wanted to either end the hand now or get it in ahead. He had a 7 with no FD, though he caught one on the turn. Fortunately, I held on the river and now I was up to a walloping 2100 of my original 4500 stack.

Very soon after the first break hit. We had half an hour. I decided to go back to my hotel room, which was a good brisk walk away from the convention center where the tournament was being held. I did so for a few reasons... first, I'd brought Janessa's Ipod to keep me loose, but it was totally dead, so it needed charging. Janessa was at the spa so I couldn't yet ask her to do anything about it. Second, I realized that running back and forth would be good for me, because it'd keep my blood flowing and keep me loose after sitting for so long. So I went back and carefully thought out a plan for the next hour. When I went back the blinds would be 75/150, leaving me with 13 or so big blinds. A very awkward stack size. I remembered that this stack size was potentially ideal for re-stealing loose raisers, and resolved to use this information to my advantage.

It didn't take too long for me to get the chance. Our aggro raiser mentioned before opened for the 200th time in a row from middle position soon after we returned. I looked down to find J10s in the small blind. I paused. Although I knew this was an ideal re-steal spot, I was still a little nervous about executing it, knowing that it was essentially a semi-bluff. Still, poker is about risk, and I needed chips. I couldn't get a much better spot than this, and J10s played pretty decently against a steal range. So I shoved. The big blind instafolded and said "Good luck." The original raiser hemmed and hawed and tanked. I felt sure he would call me and that he was deep enough to do so and sat there very nervously until he finally mucked. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, though I said aloud, "I wanted a call but I guess I'll take this." I don't know if I convinced anyone but it felt tricky ! (LOL).

Now I had a little over 3000. Not great, but a little room to manuever at least. Only a few hands later our intrepid maniac raised again to 400, 2.5x. I looked down to see AJo in the cutoff. I am not normally fond of calling raises with this type of hand, even in position, but given how wide the raiser's range appeared to be and that I had position on him, I decided to take a flop and see if I could either hit it or out play him. The big blind also called. The flop came down jack-7-2 rainbow. It was as dry a flop as you can imagine, and clearly I was either way ahead or way behind. The bb checked, the raiser cbet about 2/3rds pot and now I had a decsion. I was short enough that a reraise would commit me to the pot, and even though the board was dry, I would obviously hate a Queen or King on the turn or river, so calling didn't seem like the best option. Still, I had a player behind me who might have something worth playing. I tanked for what felt like forever (probably to the other players too!) before pushing in. I reasoned that he probably didn't have top set since I had a jack in my hand, that two pairs were very unlikely given the board, and that because of how loose a raiser he was pre-flop, I was ahead so much of the time that I had no other real option but to move in. The big blind folded and the original raiser snap-folded, looking very frustrated. Since I figured I might want to play back at him again, I flipped over my AJ and told him "I'm not bluffing you," dragging a good pot.

Now I was up to over 4k again, and I felt great. I'd weathered a very challenging storm to get back into contention. I now had enough chips to really play poker again. I got involved in some more small pots and generally was doing pretty well, until an amazing donk made himself known to the table. The gentlemen on my left got involved in a big pot with a guy in seat one. I hadn't watched the whole hand but on the turn he shoved all in on a 7-8-10-5 board with two spades. Seat one tanked, and seemed ready to fold, but surprisingly he called, turning over Q9. Queen high with a gutshot!! 4 outs to what turned out to be a set of 8s. Holy crap! This nut had basically called of his whole stack with a gutshot...which...he HIT. Jack on the river. Unreal!

The whole table was stunned. When seat one got up for awhile we all commented and joked about the play. It was crazy. Several hands later, the aggro guy opened small and the aggressive woman next to him moved in over the top of him. Amazingly, seat one, in the big blind, coldcalled both raises. When the hands were turned over, there could no longer be any doubt this guy was a world class retard. He had pocket 4s. The original raiser had Aces and the woman next to me had 10s. The original raiser was short, so I mentioned to the woman that at least she had a good side pot. Predictably(?) a 4 flopped, no one caught up, the original raiser was eliminated, and the woman next to me took a big hit to her stack. A player near me confided that he had folded a 4 meaning this guy had 1-outted his way to a bigger stack(!)

Well, obviously he became the focus of the table, playing too many hands too aggressively but managing to get lucky a lot of the time, though losing occasionally. I raised his earl yposition limp once from the button and he immediately overshoved. He re-popped the woman next to me several times stating that he didn't like being bullied. The woman insisted "I'm not bullying you sir," but that did not seem to placate him. A little later, with her in the big blind, he open raised from mp. She mucked 10-6s (which I inadvertendly saw over her shoulder) and he proudly flipped over 2-3o.

The very next hand I was in the big blind when nutball open limped and a player in late position behind him limped behind. I looked down to find AJo. Not my favorite hand, strong in this situation, but not fun to play out of position. The blinds were still 75/150, so I raised to 800. The donk moved in pretty quickly and the late position raiser folded. I felt sick. He had me covered, and the thought of bouncing out of my first WSOP with AJ was not a good one.

At the same time, I knew that I was probably ahead and that this might be my best chance to get a sizable stack. I slumped my head on the table grinding it into my arm. A crying call certainly. Someone near me said "Good luck" and I said "Thanks, I'll need it!" Someone else said, "No, you won't," and the donk rolled over A8o. I was a little relieved he didn't have KQ or something like that where it was basically a flip, but still wasn't ready to feel good until the hand was over. An ace flopped. The turn was a blank. The river was a by-now predictable 8 and I was done.

Obviously I was stunned. It took me a good thirty minutes to really get my head back. It had been a crazy 3 hours. I'd gotten my money in consistenly ahead and played some of the best poker of my life. I'd stolen pots, made a blind-blind steal, picked off bluffs, played through an extremely challenging short stack situation and fought back, and generally was in A-game mode nearly the entire time. Still, I was railed before the second break in my first WSOP event. It hurt, I'm not going to lie.

I took solace in two important facts. First, as I said, I played the best poker of my life and it was on the biggest stage yet of my young poker "career." That was and is immensely satisfying. I wanted to see if I could play in those situations and thrive. I did. That felt nice. Secondly, I was still in Vegas until Sunday, my wife was around, and I could still have a lovely time. We in fact did just that.

We had dinner reservations at Gaylord, an Indian restaurant in the Rio, for 7pm, which was around when I'd figured the dinner break would be. We decided to get tickets to see Penn and Teller that night and make a date night out of it. It turned into a wonderful evening. P&T were awesome and worth every penny of the $85 tickets. We had an amazing dinner at Gaylord, split a nice bottle of Pinot and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

The other thing we did a decent bit of was railing. We wandered through WSOP and saw a bunch of great players. As soon as we walked into the spectator room we nearly walked INTO T.J. Cloutier. Wow, that man is HUGE. We then saw Men, "The Master" Nguyen playing a cash game nearby. Very cool. It turned out that TWO final tables were going at this point. A stud 8 table and an NLH one. The Stud8 table featured Jeff Lisandro and... Doyle Brunson! We looked but didn't see Doyle. A break was taken soon after we came in so we figured he was probably in the bathroom. Anyway, the final tables at the Rio are open to all to watch. They are in enclosed areas but the spectator seating is open, and there is a nice porch overlooking them that you can watch them from. At this point we didn't see much.

We walked over then to an area where the limit 2k event was being played. There were only about 45 players left, Hellmuth and Negreanu among them. We didn't see Phil, but Daniel was present and loud. We watched him play for a bit until the dinner break hit and he ran out, twittering as he went. Again, cool

Later, before dinner, I checked the live updates from the WSOP page and saw that Doyle was down to a short stack and almost out. We rushed down and made it just in time to see his last two hands. It was simply amazing seeing Doyle play at a WSOP final table. The highlight of my trip, without a doubt! Later we saw Greg Raymer in the hallway, though I didn't approach him. We watched a bit more of the final table action in the 8 or better tournament after P&T, and saw Lisandro survived and was 3 handed - he ultimately won the bracelet, though we didn't wait around to see it. We did get to see Matusow come in and rail him which was pretty cool too. Also, the night before I'd seen Humberto Brenes walking around and had managed (somehow!) to resist the urge to yell HUMBERRRRTO! at him.

All in all, a great trip. I was disappointed I'd run so bad, obviously, but Janessa and I had a ton of fun anyways. There's always next year. I am planning on putting some savings together to try to play several events next year, including, hopefully the main event. That's my trip report, and I'm sticking to it.

This Wkd: Vegas & WSOP Event #39

2009 40th Annual World Series of Poker

No-Limit Hold’em (Event 39)

Rio Hotel & Casino - Saturday, June 20, 2009 to Monday, June 22, 2009 No-Limit Hold’em (Event 39) No Rebuy/Add-ons Structure Sheet $1,500 Yup, off I go to take a stab at this thing. I figure it's about time I try, and so I'm off tonight. Janessa and I are staying at the Rio. She'll enjoy a lovely spa experience while I toil away at the tables in search of treasure! I am pumped.