This is taken from my ongoing thread in the staking forum and are my thoughts on the Colossus event that just went down in the great state of Nevada.
World Series of Poker 2015 Update #4
Colossus.
Now officially the mother of all live tournaments after it's been confirmed there was well over twenty thousand entries with the final total coming in at 23,374. Which was probably also the number of times nits folded their big blinds with hands like Ax, K10 offsuit, and 109 suited to 2x raises from backpacking veggie burrito eating queers. Had to make a few runs for the bathroom to throw up when I saw just how overly tight the tables were.
I really wasn't so disgusted at the fact most the recreational players were playing like a dripping wet pussy. I was more concerned with how they were letting all you poker goobers get away with bloody murder. You know I am always rooting for the fish to break you because most of you poker scenesters are obsessed with dressing harder than you work on your game off the table and that really soaks my ****ing sock.
It's 2015. You would think some of you have learned by now to conduct yourself like a true professional while on the felt. I am still seeing a lot of you openly berating the novices, over celebrating your suck outs after you couldn't figure out you were beat, and doing way too much talking about advanced poker concepts before and after hands. The only equity you should be talking about is the kind you have built up in your home. Oops. I forgot. Most of you still live with your parent's basement or grind houses where you're so depressed with life your bedroom is littered with piss cups because you usually refuse to leave it.
You know some of you may crush the game of poker. But, a lot of these people coming out to drop $565.00 USD to play with the pros in a World Series of Poker event actually crush life. They have beautiful wives, good jobs, 401ks, kids they are putting through college, and are kind enough to give you their action even though they know most of you toolsheds have an edge on them.
You can call them stupid and belittle them to their face all you want. But, much like Ian Mackeye said on the obscure Pailhead track he made with Ministry,
"I will refuse."
When Colossus is over many may remember it as the largest accumulation of poker fish in one place. However, I will remember it as a testament that poker is still one of the greatest games in the entire world. It is a raw combination of skill and guts blended with just enough chance that a recreational player could beat a seasoned pro on any given day. A game so unique you can literally have a CEO, racist, homophobe, cop, queer, nggr, drug dealer, little old lady, and a piece of white trash grinding a $200 stack he got from selling off his food stamps at the same table. **** you if you think it's dying.
Colossus is the good people shouting from rooftops all over the world that interest in the game is still as strong as ever. If The World Series of Poker would pay big name pros to play in more of the lower buy-in events I bet the game could even start to grow even larger. A lot of you don't realize just how excited the average guy gets when he's able to tell a poker story about how he sat by Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, Doyle Brunson, or any other player they've seen frequently on their television. I think all the well known pros who didn't take the time to fire at least one bullet at the biggest tournament of all time made a pretty selfish mistake. Much love to the ones that did. What a great opportunity for those who should be an ambassador of the game to show up and say hello to all the people who have made the game as big as it is today.
I'd be lying if I tried to say I wasn't excited to be donning the American flag pants, sunglasses, wolf shirt, and "Back To Back World War Champions" hat so all you guys who read my threads would have a chance to spot me and say hello. You know on the second day I played I actually debuted a new Hawaiin shirt tourist look I hadn't broke out since the WSOP circuit events in West Palm Beach. But, by some chance a reader recognized me and when our table was getting broke he said said, "Well Lotgrinder, at least I can say I sat with a legend now. I had my wife drive all the way here cross country and was reading all the threads you put out since 2013. Thanks for all the inspiration and incredible stories. I'll be sure to buy your book." Then the rest of the table got all excited like, "Who? Who? Who is this guy?" Had to assure them all I was a loser to calm things down and by the time the guy who liked me tried explaining what I do on forums we were both being looked upon as such. Oh well.
Anyway, I shotgunned two steaming hot bullets that swirled frantically in the air right into the heart of this poker tournament beast known as Colossus in order to try to take the damn thing down. But, left The Rio's conference center this time with my head held high. I played some of my best tournament poker to date.
Here's a recap of the action...
Bullet #1
Was fired on Friday at 7pm. As I said I quickly realized the tables were too tight but wanted to build a credible image of being tight myself so I didn't open much early on. I did a lot of splashing around with speculative hands, though. Mainly because for as tight as people were pre-flop, they were very sticky post flop and I knew if I could make two pair against someone's top pair I could get an easy double up. However, luck would not grant me that opportunity and bullet #1 was a steady grind of well timed raising, 3betting, and 3bet steal shoving light into active openers ranges when we felt they were weak. We were able to keep at an 8bb stack all the way up to near a 20bb stack in level 9. But, when we got our 1010 all in vs AJ for what was going to be around a total of 20bb pot we were greeted with an ace in the window of the flop and got busted out of the tournament.
To put in perspective how tight the field was I literally was still 2x opening/not shoving when I was down to 10bb. The big stacks at my table who were on 25bb+ were so nitty they hardly ever even decided to defend their small or big blinds. At one point in MP2 when nits were in the blinds I really 2x opened 94 sooooooted knowing I could still fold to a shove and be able to scoop lots of uncontested blinds/antes even with 8bb. I am not exaggerating that overly tight TAGS were folding stuff like A2 offsuit saying, "I think you got me beat," when I'd shove from the cut off or button. It was lawllllzzztacular. Which was the reason I decided to fire bullet #2 even though I was going to be coming in on a "late wave" with 25 big blinds.
Bullet #2
Was much the same as Bullet #1 except this time we were sitting with around 20bb in level 9 when we picked up pocket queens in mid position #2. There was a 2x raise from an active opener, a call, and when it got to me I really didn't want to **** around and I just zipped it all in. Sadly, a black man on the button heemed and hawed for some time and decided to call us with pocket 10's. Of course he flopped quads on us and instead of going into level 10 with 40bb we were out of the biggest live tournament in poker history. This was simply not our time to win. But, I feel it's coming. I was very happy with the way I identified my opponents weaknesses and used it against them relentlessly in every level.
In closing I would like to say that I am sorry to hear that some players are scamming their stakers saying they played all four flights and really just played one or two. I definitely did not use all four of my bullets and I have two on hand I will refund with mark-up. In addition I would like to give one big gigantic lawlllllzzzzzzzzz to all the poker goobers complaining about the prize distribution of Colossus. It is way better for the poker community to make sure everybody gets around $1,000.00 who cashed than making sure the winner gets $1,000,000.00. I saw some people trying to say Colossus won't even get ten thousand people next year because the payout structure is wrong.
No. Sorry boys and girls. If you think that way it is you that are wrong.
Colossus was mainly compromised (I'd say 85%+) of recreational players who were just happy to be here so they could tell all their friends, family, co-workers, and golfing buddies that they got to play in a World Series of Poker bracelet event. It is only a small minority of you internet warriors that are all up in arms about the pay structure like you're some broke tattered fukk that just lost rights to his food stamps and can't pawn them off to smoke some weed.
Get over it.
Colossus was nothing but great for poker and The World Series of Poker brand.
Congratulations to all of you that decided to partake in it.
What a great day for poker.