Finally Some Poker, the $1K WSOP Day 1B (Event 47)
I get out of bed after another sleepless night. I'm tired beyond exhaustion, but I feel good about playing the 1K WSOP event today. Since I'm up so early, I'm able to take my time in the morning and get myself prepared for the (hopefully) long day ahead of me. I get some cardio done, tons of stretching, listen to some good music, and have some breakfast. This is important as I realize I only ate breakfast yesterday and didn't eat the rest of the day (It was a Hash House a Go Go scrambler, so a huge breakfast). A little H2H and I'm feeling better than I have all weekend. Being the "smart" guy I am, I decide to try a different route to the Rio, obviously making me late for the noon start time. No big deal, in large field tournaments, a lot of people are late and it's usually a short table for the first half hour of so.
As I'm pulling up, I get a feeling that I think only the late great Hunter S. Thompson can describe. "I was feeling better now, warm and sleepy and absolutely free. With the palms zipping past and the big sun burning down on the road ahead, I had a flash of something I hadn't felt since my first months in Europe-a mixture of ignorance and a loose, "what the hell" kind of confidence that comes on a man when the wind picks up and he begins to move in a hard straight line toward and unknown horizon." I never had a "Europe" specifically, but a similar experience for sure.
I find valet parking just for WSOP players, which is right next to the pavillion. This is huge, since i won't have to walk the parking garage and the length of the casino to get in...a big time saver. Walking into the room, everything I've felt for the last couple of days, is gone. I am in no way intimidated by this atmosphere; in some respects I would say I relish it. I quickly find my seat at a near full table. Two lesser known pros are to my left. I see more "major" pros everywhere. In my game, I've just walked out of a Field Box seat, stepped in the box, and am ready to face Tim Lincecum.
We're starting with 3k in chips, 1 hour blinds. I can tell it's a talkative table before I even sit down. I walk in to AQ offsuit in middle postion first hand and put up somewhere in the neighborhood of a 3x bet. Immediately I hear the table talking, "Did you even look? Where did you come from?" etc... I of course follow this up with a nice, "Hey, I was late and need to make up for lost time", or some BS. This is a great situation for me because even if I lose this hand before we get to the river, I'm going to try to send a message that I'm a loose and aggressive player, which I'm not. Two callers and a junk flop later, I put out a continuation bet (will be know henceforth as a CBet throughout this blog) and get raised substantially. Looks like someone flopped a set...they did (people showing their hands to me will be a running theme this whole trip, I don't understand) Oh well, I'm still going to use this to further the image I'm creating. I raise in Early position 3 out of the next 5 hands, winning 2 of them after CBetting the flop, folding the other when someone led into me after the flop. I'm not winning a lot of chips, but the trap is now set. I'm in the blinds the next 2 hands, which weren't raised, so as far as anyone can tell, I play a ton of pots. Once the button has passed me, I can wait a reasonable amount of time for a good hand and get paid on it. The next half hour sees me picking up a couple small pots in position to maintain my loose appearance, until I finally get a hand and board that I love to play. With the blinds still only at 25/50, I'm in mid/late position with A5 suited. A min-2.5 raise coming at me with 2 callers in front and a call from the luckbox bigstack behind me...beautiful. Now I get to play a decent hand on the cheap with money in the pot. A106 flops with 2 of my suits. Checked twice to me, I'm betting this. Call from the big stack, fold fold. Heads up to the turn. It's a blank, but I'm firing at that all day, he doesn't have an A, and he calls. Blank river, I bet, get called. My A is good, he had the same suit as me, K6. If only I catch that flush, I'm definitely doubling up. Oh well, this gets me pretty healthy early, up to about 5k. Pretty uneventful up to the first break at the 2 hour mark from here.
Go on the lunch break, I'm in line with Umberto Brenes. I pick up a sandwich and stand at a hightop table and who joins me, but Umberto Brenes and Men the Master. It was only for a minute, and I'm not a fanboy because let's face it, I'm here to beat them not get their autograph....but it was still pretty cool.
A few hands after the break, I pick up AQ of hearts in mid position. A raise from a tight playing woman in early position is an immediate red flag, but of course I have to flat here. We're at 50/100, I think the raise was 400. Flop is KK7, with 2 hearts. She checks, I make it 450, she immediately raises to 1k. Easily AK, but in all honesty, she could have quad K's here as excited as she looks. I call the raise anyway, hoping to catch a heart and bust her trips. Trash on the turn and she can't get her chips in fast enough. I happily fold, as I'm not putting just about all my chips in on a 1 card draw. Down to about 3500 in chips, I'm still ok after this hand. Two hands later, our table is broken and I'm now at a new table. I fold 3 straight hands as I watch an aggressive, younger Evelyn Ng looking player being as aggressive one can. I plan to take advantage of this as soon as I can. Next hand, I'm looking at AK offsuit at under the gun + 1 position. Still at 50/100, I make a "weak" raise to 275. Two calls next to me, AggressNg raises to 800 all day from the button. After what I've seen these last couple of hands, I believe this is a semi-bluff move. I don't think she has a pair here or she goes all in, so I shove. First guy folds, second guy pines for about 3 minutes, talking to himself, huffing and puffing to the point where I definitely think he's calling. No doubt he had QQ or JJ in this spot. He finally folds and she asks for a count and calls before the dealer can even touch my chips. She's got a suited AQ. Flop is trash, turn is a Q. I'm out of the tournament just like that.
I try to play some Sit and Go's, but the only ones available are $525, and I'm a little too steamed to play something like that right now, so I go.
Some other highlights from Sunday...
I call Enterprise to tell them about the stolen tag and they tell me to come back so they can put a new one on. I get over there and they proceed to show me what a Nevada temp tag looks like...it's a piece of paper taped to the front window. There never was a tag on the car, I just didn't notice...I'm an idiot.
Played a $40 + 1 rebuy + 1 add on for a total of $60 tournament at the Imperial Palace. I'm the 7th alternate, which means I don't get into the tourney until an hour into it. They give me 4000 in chips and the blinds are already at 200/400, with 300/600 only 3 minutes away. That didn't seem too fair, but I decide to go for it anyway, finishing 10th when a big stack called my all in with J7 against my AK and flops 2 pair. Not very dissappointed here. I decide to have fun, drink a little, and play cash for the rest of the evening which made me a couple hundred. Give a hundred back at a silly 3 card poker game just for fun to cap the day (GD booze, I hate this game but get sucked in when I drink). The only hand of significance from this couple hour session was the first I played, when I called a raise to $5 from the BTN, with Q10 off. I flop broadway and have 2 people leading into me. BB leads out for $15 on the flop, a caller behind, I flat. Trash on the turn, BB fires $30 to a call, whereupon I make it $60. BB calls, other guy folds. River is another blank, BB bets $50, and subsequently calls me when I put him all in for another $75. He had AJ....easy game. I pretty much just rode that win for the rest of the night, as I just wanted to relax. There were actually about 4 solid players at the table throughout the night, which I didn't expect from the IP. One of which was a pro/poker software developer who had led a tremendous life to this point. We had a very long discussion on anti-aggressive poker strategy, as well as poker in Macau, and life. A good time, and a good game.
I'm pooling it up tomorrow, so it may be a few days between posts from here (Got to get my bronzed Adonis on). I'm finally settling in, got 3.5 hours of sleep Sunday night, which was a Godsend. For now, the crankiness has dissipated and I'm looking forward to some Rio Deepstack and Venetian Deepstack tournaments later this week. Sorry some of these posts drag on, but I want to chronicle as much as I can in case I need it for future reference.
