In the interest of saving time while in full grind mode, I'm not really going to type up many reports or hands, but I'll make a post like this one every now and then. I am also not even attempting to keep an eye on grammar, spelling, etc, so if my post quality is down a little, you'll have to suffer through it... I can't be losing too much grind time during the trip out here!
Colossus
Reflecting on all four flights of the Colossus, I might have made five mistakes. One probably wasn't in the long run and three were very marginal.
Two were the same play - I had AK high, was highly confident my opponent was weak, and was being laid a really good price on the turn with an option to jam or call. I decided to call. In both cases, the opponent was bluffing with an underpair, I bricked the river, and it went check-check. This could be a little results oriented, but I do believe a jam was the most +EV play in both spots. It folds out the bluffs that beat me, and it gets value from draws that call off - but does pay off very oddly slow-played hands that make no sense given the action. I was trying to lessen my variance a little bit, but I should have embraced it in this event. I had a similar situation in Flight D, ripped it in, and the villain folded. Sometimes these extreme novices take really weird lines that are hard to get used to exploiting.
One was heroing off with a pocket pair and two overs out because I was trying to soul read an opponent that looked terrified. I knew they felt weak, but I underestimated how much they would s*** themselves over pushing all-in with top pair weak kicker, because, you know, it's the WSOP. This is the one I'd really like to have back, but it was a small pot.
One was calling off A6 in what is probably only a slight mistake. One villain opened to 2x, I 3bet light to 4.4x on the button, and the SB jammed about 17x. On the one hand, it's a cold 4bet, and I could range it very narrowly. On the other hand, my raise was small and could be perceived as really weak, and I only needed around 35% equity. I ran some ranges and came up with about 33%, so it was a small mistake. It didn't cripple my stack or cost me any fold equity with regard to my stack size, either.
Finally, I hero folded AA in a spot that it's never supposed to be good and with a soul read that the villain had a monster. The trouble is, she thought QT (no spade) was a monster on a QsJs6s5x board. I made a big pre flop raise, the flop checked through and I bet the turn. She made a significant raise, was totally calm despite being a nervous wreck throughout the tournament, and when I asked her to show, proudly turned it over like it was the stone cold nuts. Right physical read, and I can't say I thought highly of her game, but I didn't think she was quite clueless enough to value raise QTo no spade there. She's the one who later sucked out to the chop with AJ vs my AK on the QJTQ board, so despite not believing in the "find a better spot," mentality, I did end up having about an 85% chance of getting all of her chips anyway a couple hands later. In the long run, in this spot, it's going to be the right fold with the AA, so I can't beat myself up.
Odds and Ends
That aside, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I played damn near my A game and MORE than well enough to bag not just a respectable stack, but a deep stack, in all four flights. I just didn't run good at all. It is what it is, and I ran fine in cash games around town and crushed it pretty hard in between Colossus flights, so I'm still having a great week dollar wise. I've just always been a huge fan of the WSOP, so cashes and bracelets do mean something to me, and it hurt a little losing my last bullet in this one and knowing that probably my best shot (given the four bullets) was gone.
I also know that playing cash the whole time was very likely way more +EV, and I'm seriously considering reducing my tournament schedule. Barring shipping a final table or something on the next one I play, I'm unlikely to play more than three more. Coming in I was considering the Milly Maker, Monster Stack, Extended Play, Little One, 777, and the Main, and possibly firing multiple bullets in a couple depending on how things were going.
I still plan on playing the Main, and 2 out of the Milly, the Monster and the Extended play, but there's virtually no chance I play the Little One or the 777.
The Railbirds
I played in some cash games that had a ton of railbirds around them, despite no famous names at the table. Both times I was in the biggest NLHE game in the room in terms of action/stacks, and it was weird to have 10-15 people crowded against the rail to watch, and hearing them talk quietly about me and others at the table. I'm paranoid about someone seeing my cards from the rail and signaling, so I didn't like that, but the energy from the whole thing was pretty cool.
That said, I may be hunting for different games/atmosphere at other locations in the coming days for a variety of reasons.
Famous Names
I'm sure I played with some bracelet winners and what not that I didn't recognize, but I did also play with T.J. Cloutier, Rep Porter and Athanasios Polychronopoulos. All of them were nice and carried themselves well at the table. It was kind of funny seeing people stumble over themselves to get pictures with Cloutier, but at the same time, the Colossus had a ton of fans moreso than serious players, so I hope they enjoyed themselves and I credit him for being very gracious.
I don't think anyone else at the table recognized Rep or Athanasios, and I tried not to blow up their spots on that. I was sitting next to Athanasios, and had a nice chat with him - awesome player, good dude, great story teller too.
I also heard an awesome story about Stu Ungar from a dealer, but I'll save that for later.
I also played with a bracelet winner in the cash games who didn't carry himself well, so, I just won't name him. I'm not going down that road, and most of you probably haven't heard of him anyway. Maybe he was just salty because I took him for a couple big pots.
Roadside Twisters
That funnel cloud story really plays well at the table, but it's still a little too painfully fresh to be glad that I have it in the story arsenal
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