Level 8: 250/500(75)
Last level for late reg. Field is surprisingly small this year; the clock currently says there are only 563 entrants. Way down from years past.
Started with 6025, ended 14300
7-4o
8-2o
Q-10o
J-4o
7-4s
A-9o, I shove, no callers
8-4o
10-5o
K-8hh utg, I almost push, fold preflop instead, flop comes HH & someone else shoves, no callers.
BB: 72ss, folds to button, button shoves
SB: 9-8cc, call, 3 players to the flop, flop is 8 high, I shove, no callers
Button: K-8ss, someone makes it 1100 from early position, I fold
10-8o

Last hand before break I pick up AKo. AIPF and I’m snap called by QQ.
Ace in the window and I double to 14,300. Whew I needed that!

Tournament note: Coming back from the second 20-min break, I see there are only about 20 tables remaining... things are moving at a decent pace.
Also, up until now it’s been all hand shuffle at all tables, because not all tables had shufflemasters installed. Now that we’re down to 20 tables all have the machines so well going to finally start using them. More hands per level now, yay.

Also, I miscounted my stack before, I actually have 15300.

Level 9: 300/600(100)
Started w/15300, ended with 15600.

Moved to another new table right into the BB and had both my blinds stolen to start the level, down 1100 to begin.

Picked up A5s on the button and call a 1200 raise from the hijack. SB is a new player and shoves. She was complaining about something when she sat down and seems VERY tilted but we all fold. She says, “you should have called, I was just on tilt.” OhMmmKay.

From the BB I make it 1600 w/ two black Kong’s, SB calls, flop comes AK10 and he checks, I bet 1K and he insta folds.

**TOURNAMENT UPDATE:** The official count is 566 entries and they’re paying 85 spots. They announced that Min-cash is $837 and it sounded like he said first place pays $68k.

162 runners remain at this time.

Level 10: 400/800(100)
Started 15600, ended 16500
Lots of all ins but no knock outs. Couple of horrific suck outs that gratefully happened to others and not me. Kept my head down most of this level.
Players remaining: 135

Level 11: 500/1000(100)
Started with 16500, ended 19300.

Called 2K from the small blind w/KQdd, flop comes AcQcQh & I shove, no callers. After seeing all the suckouts I didn’t want to chance another ace peeling off.

Players remaining: 104
This thing is moving along very quickly, indeed!

Level 12: 600/1200(200)
Started with 19300, ended 21300

For the first 2/3 of this level I saw no card higher than a 10 his level except for back-to-back Q6 in my blinds, both of which got shoved on by the button. All blinds stolen, tried to defend once, to no avail.

I did have one Raise-and-take with 10s10c.

PFR an A10 and got 3bet large, I folded.

Once again the last hand before the break was the biggest hand of the level for me. I’m in the B.B. with 64s and get raised to 2500 for the 3rd consecutive time by the SB. I defend and flop trip 4s but there’s a flush draw out there. He leads for 3K or so, I raise & he snap folds.

Most usefully I have confirmed my read on when he’s betting light.

Thought we’d make the money before dinner but there are still 89 players remaining going into the dinner break.

Thoughts during the dinner break:

Avg chip stack is 31K, so I do know I have some catching up to do.
I won’t have a problem changing gears after the bubble although I already know which players at my table will be playing the big-stack bubble bully. If either of them makes any move whatsoever I am likely to shove since chances are they’re just raising light to take advantage of the natural pre-bubble timidness (timidity?). I’ll be in the SB when we return so I’m sure this will be put to the test right away, lol. If I make a read, I WILL go with it.

My play overall improved a few years ago when I decided to adopt a mindset of “why bother to make a read, if you’re not going to go with it”.

This LifeWater, Kind granola bar and peppered Jack Links was not worth $15 LOL. I’m not a big junk food eater but for some reason For some reason I could really go for some Cheez-Its right now. There’s enough time to try & find some.

At the beginning of the tournament, the TD promised to have TVs. brought in “so EVERYONE can see the Golden Knights Gane”!! & said this with much fanfare in a self-congratulatory tone. Well they only brought in 2 small TVs, only one of which was visible from the part of the room with live tables remaining. And it was outside the stanchions, so railbirds crowded around it and blocked it so we couldn’t see it anyway.

Fortunately I found 4 big screen TVs in the wsop cafe lounge. There are only 5 ppl in here at the moment, good! Maybe this will make them rethink their exhorbitant prices. I remember playing years ago and they gave us a free dinner w/the tournament entry... gee, what happened to that??

Level 13: 800/1600(200)
Started with 21300, ended with 18500.
First hand back from the break it’s raised to 3500 and I call with AQs (I know, I know).
5 callers. Flop comes 246 rainbow. Bet, raise, shove to me and I fold. 2 players are heads up and it’s trip 6s vs open ended straight flush draw. Q on the turn (whew!) but 6s hold for a 50K+ pot.

A10o and I fold to a pfr of 3500. Big stack makes it 10.5K and the raiser folds.

We are now hand for hand on the bubble with 86 remaining.

**TOURNAMENT NOTE** This year, during hand-for-hand play they are running 2 minutes off the clock for each hand.

There’s an all in and a call at my table with a board of Js-5d-3s
It’s 53o vs 8s9s. Board runs out 8-9 and the bubble bursts.
Another table lost a player so they’ll chop 85th place.

Very next hand is my B.B., there’s a 3 way all in and the same dude that won last hand knocks them both out.

UTG raised to 5K and I fold Q5hh with 16200 in the SB, 82 remaining and the next pay jump is 81 so I’ll sit tight for now. Dude that knocked everyone out is sitting on a 75K+ stack.

I pick up A8o on the button; folds around to me and I shove, no callers.

79 players remaining; next jump is 71. Time to make a move.

Level 14: 1K/2K(300)
Started with 18500, ended with 0.
First hand I shove A10o from middle position & take it. I’m up to 23300.
Second hand I preflop shove QQ and BigStackDude tanks(??) with KK. Flop comes 10 high so even if it hadn’t all gone in preflop, it was surely going in there.

His kings hold, and I’m out.

Overall I’m satisfied with my play, I never got it in bad & only made what I think were 2 bad lay downs. There was obviously no avoiding the cooler in that last hand.

I cash out just under $900 with no regrets, my play was a solid B+. Maybe I could have been slightly more aggressive here & there but it would have made no difference at the end of the day, given that the cooler would have ended my tournament no matter how the hand was played.

Now... what to do with the other $500 lammer I still have remaining? Can’t play the colossus or millionaire maker, (too many days). I’m leaning towards the $1K w/$300 Bounty event.

I’ll sleep on it.

Im going to assume nobody is reading this but me, but it was still helpful for me to write it down, I can use it later to re-analyze hands and look for ways to improve. Any suggestions/comments are welcome and appreciated.

P.S.: none of the exhorbitantly-prices kiosks has Cheez-it’s, but I found some at an exhorbitantly-priced vending machine across from Starbucks. $2.25 for a 1.5oz pouch that should be two-for-a-dollar. I never even got a chance to open the bag until now as I’m walking to the car, lol.

They hit the spot.

Congrats on the run! Def should have jammed the AQs hand and overbetting KQ on AQQ bc you're scared another ace will peel is no good. Can't play that scared.

I absolutely agree with you. The AQ hand was definitely one of the ones I had in mind when I mentioned I should have been more aggressive in spots. I was freerolling after all and really should have made that move. Maybe another factor was that when I played this event in a previous year, I was knocked out when I preflop jammed AQ of spades. Logically I know that should definitely not have been a factor. Gotta toughen up but I guess this time around I decided in general to err on the side of less gambool to ensure I locked in a win.

For the KQ hand, I freely admit that I had just seen so many ridiculous beats that I just wanted the hand to be over. Again, that was not a logical decision, and you are correct in pointing out that I should NOT have been playing scared of the flush completing or another Ace hitting in that spot. I definitely should have tried to extract at least 1 more street of value.

One note of correction, I technically misstated when i said I "never" got it in bad. Strictly speaking, there was the one hand I reported in level 3 where I stuck in my AK into an AA preflop shove in level 3. (I turned Broadway to double up). And of course my final hand, where I preflop shoved QQ and was snapped off by KK. But it's tough to categorize either of these as "getting it in bad"; when all the action was limited to preflop shove-n-call I'd say it's reasonable to classify them as simple cooler scenarios.

Really enjoyed the updates! I was pulling for you to make ut to the FT, but a good run nevertheless. I wpuld have shoved AQ as well, but dont let that 1 hand get to you. Keep us updated on your next event.

That's a tough spot near the bubble, I think you played it well.

A lot of potential scare cards OTT, so understandable.

Enjoyed the reports, congrats on the cash, good luck!

Congrats and thanks for the running updates - it was fun to follow.

Now take the family to DisneyLand with a big smile on your face. !

Thanks for the play-by-play. Very enjoyable to follow along. Gets the WSOP juices going!! 12 days and I'm there!! Well done and have fun at Disney.

I enjoyed your play commentary. Well done for cashing. hope you play anotherevent.

I was rooting for you until you said you like Cheezits. WTH?


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Cheezits are the one snack to rule them all. Perfectly baked cheese goodness.

Sooo.... I won another $1K in lammers...

Monster Stack!!

Or 1500 Bounty on Monday....

I plan to probably sell the lammers but ALSO I'm very likely to turn around and play the $1K NLH Bounty next Friday. It is a 1-day tournament, which fits with my work schedule. And, bounty tournaments are definitely my "thing", plus I'm quite comfortable at the super-turbo pace (20min levels).