DAY 2 THE FLOW

As I'm heading back to the table I realize I'm kinda dehydrated. This will not do! I stop and check the screen on my way to the table and notice that 30 more people need to bust for us to get a pay jump. That's a lot. I put it out my mind. As I'm sitting down the drink guy is coming around so I snatch up several bottles of water, and cards are in the air.

New dealer, I'm in LP, I see some folds and lean forward and crane my neck to the right to take a peek at pokerstars pro. There he is, back straight, head forward, left arm on the felt. So I ask the dealer "does seat 10 have cards?" the dealer ignores me.

...

Seriously? I ask again, "does seat 10 have cards?" Dealer says "Yes, its your action." I look at my cards and peep QQ again so I raise. Big stack in the blinds shoves. OK then. I call.

He's got 99 and I hold. I double up. T85,000... I've got some chips to play with. Awesome! Annnnnnnd back into zenfolding mode we go.

You all might think I'm leaving hands out of this missive. But I'm not. At this point in the tournament I've VPIP'd maybe 15 times. If it seems like I have a monster every time I play a hand, its because I did have a monster every time I played a hand. I only played monsters.

Time for a little tangent... you see, about every month or two I grab my laptop and head over to pfapfap's house and take a break from my cashgames and grind tournaments for the day with him (usually on different sites). As he grinds I fire up like a dozen MTTs between $1 and $10 and just hack away. Whenever I get into a "spot" I lean over and say "what do I do here?" He says "shove!" or "fold!" or "how loose is that guy?" or "are the blinds tight?" or whatever. But there's this thing he does... When he gets in a spot he nudges me and says "check this out." I look over and he's got m=4 facing a MP open and holding 88. He clicks fold. I say "What the hell did you fold for you were ahead!" He says "meh". That's it, doesn't explain, just "meh". Like clockwork 15 minutes later he will nudge me again and when I look over there's two people allin infront of him and he's holding AA. So I get to watch as he calls, busts 2 people in one hand and makes the final table. "That's what happens if you're patient," he says.

So I'm not playing any marginal spots. Heck, I'm avoiding spots where I'm ahead. When I crush, then I play. I can't imagine playing a cashgame this way. Why anyone would play against you I can't fathom. But a tournament has its own ticking clock in the form of the blinds that make people desperate. they can't fold Ax or a pocket pair preflop. They can't fold 2 pair on a flushed board. Of course, just as often that ticking clock is forcing you to put money in in marginal spots. But while the clock is on my side, while I'm not super short stacked, this weaktight nit thing seems to be working out OK.

So, since I was dehydrated I downed a couple botles of watper pretty quick, and just 20 minutes into the level I've got to piss like a racehorse. Its 1:40 until the next break. That will not do. How am I going to make this work? Obviously I'm going to have to miss a few hands. As a smoker I'm used to this, so I will miss my EP hands and be back before the BB hits me. Heck, deepstacked in a tournament even AA is a pretty marginal spot from UTG. As long as I'm not short, missing a few hands shouldn't be a problem. I should probably do it before the blinds go up tho. So about 40 minutes into the level I start looking for a spot where I fold in EP with a couple hands to go until the blinds. Bam, there it is. I bail and hustle out back. As soon as I'm outside I light up a cidarette. I take a piss (yes, while smoking) then hustle back inside dumping my butt as I enter the door and swing back to the table. I watch a big hand finish and get dealt back in UTG. I like this. This will work.

I fold until another dealer comes in. The first hand I ask him "Does seat 10 have cards?" This guy is on top of it! He says to me "No its your action. In the future look at me and if I'm looking right (*turn his head to the right*) the action is on him, and I will turn my head like this (*turns his head to me*) and look at you when its your action." I think I'm in love! So for the next 30 minutes while I'm folding I just chit chat with the dealer. He's from the Horseshoe in New Orleans so I ask all about the poker scene down there and other stuff about post-Katrina New Orleans. Eventually his down is over and we get a new dealer. I'm slightly sad. I continue folding.

So I lean forward and crane my neck to the right and there he is, back straight, head forward, left arm on the felt. I ask the dealer "Does seat 10 have cards?" He looks at seat 10 and says "Ahhhhhhhhhh I think... ahhhh... no its your action." I peek and fold.

A minute later I lean forward and crane my neck to the right and there he is, back straightt, head forward, left arm on the felt. I ask the dealer "Does seat 10 have cards?" He looks at seat 10 and says "Ahhhhhhhhhh I think... ahhhh... yeah, its his turn." *sigh* OK passive/agressive didn't work. The dealers are not helping. I start berating pokerstars pro.

"Dude, you can not cover your cards like that! They HAVE to be visible to the table!" He sits there in the same statuesque pose, back straight, head forward, left arm on the table. I'm starting to get really pissed. I recognize the feeling of anger, and it feels disturningly similar to tilt. So I fall back on zen-ness, and accept it. Because he looks EXACTLY the same with and without cards, I have to watch this guy from BEFORE its his action the entire time until he acts. That means I'm leaned forward with my neck turned 90 degrees to the right almost constantly, with only a short reprive for a couple seconds between hands. Its awkward and uncomfortable. But, I am a machine.

I fold for another 40 minutes until the following situation comes up: internet player opens from MP. LAG guy 3bets to about $18k from LP. pokerstars pro folds. I peek down at AKs. They both have me covered. Not really any maneuvering room here. Good spot.

I shove. Conveneiently about 50 feet away, but directly in front of me, there's a TV. I'm not quite if I should be throwing reverse tell or even if I want a call so i just freeze up and watch TV for a bit. Internet player snap-folds. LAG guy goes into the tank. This guy has been pretty loose and agressive. His steal range here is pretty wide, but if he's tanking it must be a real hand. I hear him shuffling chips, but I just sit motionless watching TV. "Fine. I call," so I snap out of it and turn up my hand. LAG guy swears. Awesome! He turn up AJs.

Wow, I wasn't expecting that! No jack, no flushes, I hold and double up to almost T170,000. Now I can feel the flow. I am moving in the flow, the flow is moving me. This is good. I fold some more.

There's a new player at the table that I can't quite put my finger on. We'll call him "long hair". Long hair is not a TAG, he's too loose. But he's not a LAG. He's getting involved with some marginal hands in some marginal spots, but under no stretch of the imagination would I call him a bad player. There is a method to his madness, and I can't quite figure it out.

Long hair has built himself quite a stack, but he getis into a pretty serious cooler spot and nearly busts. He's got only T17,000 left, and blinds are like 1.2k/2.4k and he shoves all in on the very next hand from UTG. It folds to me on the button. I don't think he's tilting here, but with such a short M its pretty imperative for him to make some moves so I think he can be pretty light here. I peek down at KQs. I look to my left. Neither of the blinds have looked at their cards yet so I've got nothing. I call. Every player busted moves me up in the money and I feel its my duty as a big stack to try and start picking them off. Both blinds fold *phew* and I turn up KhQh. He showes Ah7s. the board completely bricks off and his ace-high wins.

I continue folding. About a half hour later another spot comes up. LAG guy opens from early middle position. He's quite LAG. Folds to me and I find QQ. I don't know if I want to play for stacks here. I do know I don't want to narrow his range at all. This guy WILL spew some chips off to me post flop. I'm in position. I'm comfortable folding 1/3 of flops and getting 2 streets of value on the rest. Good spot. I call.

SB folds, then the plan goes to hell. BB doesn't fold. BB thinks for a bit, then says "I'm all in". LAG snap folds. I ask for a count as I start working this through. BB is Joe, a late 30s Asian fellow. He is very much a strightforward TAG. He has a strong range here. But its also a great squeeze spot and I expect he will know that. I don't think there's any BS in his range, but I do think he can squeeze pretty wide here. I have queens. Queens are good. The dealer informs me that Joe has 80,000 chips. I tell the dealer I call and show him my queens.

Joe turns up AKo. Some guy at the other end of the table says "classic!" At least I didn't have to wait for the river to soulcrush me... before the flop even comes out I can see the Ace in the window, and I start cutting out my chips to send over to Joe.

I continue folding.

I have about T60,000 left. I'm not in the danger zone or anything, I still have some breathing room. But I was || this close to getting out of shortstack mode and being in the running for this thing. That's OK. I'm f good with a short stack. I focum my mind on recalculating my M, figuring out ranges before I look at my hand, folding. Back to the grind.

At this point I have spent five or six hours with my head continuously turned to the right. Its getting really sore and painfull. I can feel the muscles knotting up. (I'm getting pains in my shoulder while sitting here writing this from just thinking about it.) pokerstars pro takes a bad beat and loses about half his stack. He is a robot, back stright, head forward, left arm on the fel, but I can feel the tilt coming from over there. He's playing solid but he starts playing too many hands. He has to fold on the flop. He has to fold on the turn. Its getting warm in here. Finally he's too short to play postflop and has to shove. There's a caller. Its a flip. One time dealer!!

YES!!!!! pokerstars pro is eliminated. I think I'm happeir about this than I was about making the money. Not out of spite, or any kind of schdenfreude. Its just my neck couldn't take much more of this. I go back to folding.

I fold for another couple hours. Then right before the dinner break I pick up some hands and steal the blinds 3 times in an orbit. Once I get a caller, but he folds to the flop cbet. I have T77k when they announce its time for a 60 minute dinner break.

Kurt this is fantastic. I really appreciate your recollection of your WSOP tournament.

awsome

This is awesome Kurt. Thanks for writing it and well done.

Makes me want to go down to the cardroom and play a tourny right now. Stop being a bad influence on my BRM decisions! lol Great post!

Very very well written. nh sir.

Best COTW so far AIENC.

DAY TWO THE BLURRRRRR

pfapfap had been texting earlier, and the sweet ass table he found broke up, so he was thinking of coming down to the Rio to grab dinner with me. He showed right before 8, right before the dinner break. I find him and I'm like "WTF 60 minutes yesterday we had 90!" He's like "whaever, where do you want to eat?" I'm kinda freaking because when we had 90 minutes I walked back and forth through the ENTIRE Rio complex checking out all the menus at all the restaurants and there wasn't a single one with a vegetarian dish on the menu. I ended up eating at a cafe and ordering a chicken qusedilla hold the chicken. "No time," I say, "I know where I can get food. Follow me." and I book it stright back to the cafe for another chicken qusedilla hold the chicken.

I have no idea what we talked about over dinner, but I'm reasonably sure it wasn't poker. When we were done he asked me if I minded if he would sweat me for a little while. "No, that'd be cool." He says "OK, but if it gets annoying let me know I can dissapear." "whatever dude. Its cool."

I fold for about 45 minutes and then they break my table. I get sent to new table where I take seat 6. Joe is here too; he takes seat 1. I don't know anyone else so I start my chit chat. "HI, I'm Kurt. I'm from California. Where are you from?" There's an Australian bloke next to me who pick up the conversation. His name is Jimmy. Jimmy has a beer in his hand. Nice.

Jimmy pulls out a payouts sheet from his pocket and checks where we're at. "How much right now?" I ask. "$3500" he says and turns around to check the montor, "but just 10 more people until we're up to $4k." "Awesome!" I say. Jimmy and I hit it off great. No one else at the table feels like talking; its serious time at this table - except for me and Jimmy. But we just keep cracking jokes busting eachother up. The dealer makes a comment that I am loopy and giddy. This laughing, joking, giggling, keeps up for at least 20 or 30 minutes while I'm folding when this spot comes up:

Folds to Jimmy on the button. He raises. I peek at 44. M is less than 10. Jimmy's range is **** here. I suddenly stop laughing and say "I'm allin." and push all my chips straight forward, then freeze and stare off into the distance. The table is suddenly, and strangly, quiet. BB insta folds. Jimmy grumbles for a minute then folds. I start stacking chips.

"Sorry to do that man, but I wasn't messing around. I had a hand." Jimmy doesn't miss a beat "No its cool, I raised you first." I like Jimmy. Other players at the table: there's a yound asian kid next to Joe wearing a "vicrotypoker.com" hoodie. There's a middle aged latino guy on my left. There's smoking hot girl wearing a lowcut blouse showing off major cleavage 2 to my left. I am determined not to look at her tits. In seat 10 is an immense overweight middleage white guy.

To be honest, I can't tell you about specific hands anymore; it all becomes a blur. I am a machine for stacks, position, reads, ranges, hand, decision. Stacks, position, reads, ranges, hand, decision. Stacks, position, reads, ranges, hand, decision. On a smoke break I actually try to think back to the last hand I won and I can't remember it. The past is behind me. I am thoroughly ensonced in the present. There is nothing in the world but stacks, position, reads, ranges, hand, decision.

What I can tell you is I have now completely "built in" my hydration/nicotine routine. There's 2 hours between breaks. As soon as a break ends I pound 2 or 3 bottles of water. Then about 40 minutes into the level I look for a spot where I can get away in EP but be back before the blinds. Then I hustle outside, smoke while I piss, then hustle back and post the BB. Then i don't drink until the next break when I pee again and start the cycle over. I'm a freaking machine at it now, and its keeping perfectly hydrated in perpetuity. This will work.

The only detail I can fill in about these hours is what I can glean from twitter after the fact. It seems I was playing well. My updates show me chipping up from 77k chips at the dinner breat to over 115k chips. And also, from pfapfap's twitter (he was still sweating me):

I know I was having a blast. So yes, there's a 5-hour chunk of time at the WSOP and all I'm giving you is "I folded a lot, probably doubled up somewhere, and was having a blast."

Stacks, position, reads, ranges, hand, decision.

Oh, I do remember one hand I wasn't in. Joe limps UTG. You remember Joe, right? The strightforward TAG who 3bet squeezed my IP QQ coldcall and doubled thorugh me earlier in the day? Yeah him. Let me tell you something about Joe. Joe does not have an UTG limping range. I am puzzling this through and by the time action gets to me in the HJ I've decided that joe has exactly AA. I peek to my left and the 50s latino guy is ready to call. I'm thinking I pretty much have to call this with ATC and attemt to double through him. I see J2 off suit and ponder stack sizes for a minute and just fold. 50s latino guy calls. Hot chick in SB folds. Fat guy in the BB tanks. He thinks for like a minute. He checks.

3 to the flop and it comes J83 rainbow. BB checks, Joe bets pot, BU raises him. BB gets out of the way and Joe overbet ships. BU insta snap-calls him and turns up KJo for TP2K. Joe turns up AA. Borad bricks off, BU is going home, and Joe is stacking monster ammounts of chips. I smile. Then resume folding.

I've just finished day 1 and it's been an amazing read. I haven't been this eager to resume reading a poker story since I first read Anthony Holden's Big Deal. The inner monologue running through it is amazing. Great stuff OP.

This story is incredible, and I can't stand tournament poker. Can't wait for more.

This thread is awesome. Can't wait for the next installment.

BTW, the picture of me that everyone's got in their avatars... that's me on day 2 while I was in the zone / in the blur. You can see a good quality version of it here.

this is such an amazing read! its really inspirational. thanx for writing this!!

Lot of us waiting to post so story doesn't get too seperated

That's silly. Plus I haven't written it yet I needs motivation!

Easily my favorite read on 2plus2...thanks for the time and effort!

This might not be the most informative, but its definately the most fun COTW ever.

+1 to loving this thread. I'm really hoping to be in vegas next summer for the WSOP and possibly play in ME if I can win a seat.

Aren't you learning how to final table a WSOP event?????

Even though I know how this ends I still can't wait to read the rest of it.

^^^

Pretty much this!!

Also: Kurt, you're a vegetarian?

This thread is teaching me:

[ ]How to final table a WSOP event
[x]Live tournament poker sounds like it would drive me crazy
[x]Check next WSOP to see if Kurt is selling again

love it

A vegetarian who smokes. Interesting.