I draw Green Table 188. It’s right on the rail again for easy viewing. Amazing how many of my tables have been primed for viewing. I know my table will break pretty quickly based on earlier tournaments. Well….wrong again Chris. With the $2500 NL starting today the tables broke differently. In fact, while my table was physically moved once, my table never did break. This was fortunate as it was pretty soft. Only one really good player, Scott Bohlman, came to my table late. He made deep runs in the Main Event at both Matthew’s table a few years ago, and Yankee’s final table last year.
Off we go. Nothing eventful the first level. I limp after limpers with
Flop:
One of the looser players at the table leads out and the guy calls on my right. I raise, the loose player calls and the other player thinks and folds.
Turn:
He checks to me, I bet, and he thinks and calls. I actually thought there was a fair chance that he would fold. He seemed weak. Two overs? Hmmm This doesn’t bode well with only bottom pair.
River:
We both check and he shows 
Gotta love it. The guy is disgusted who folded to my flop raise. He had middle pair. This puts me over 3700 from the starting stack of 3K. It’s nice to move in the right direction early.
Seat 5 and Seat 10 are vacant. That’s normal for the late registrants. And there were a lot of those. 2300 players entered Day 1A yesterday. And around 1500 enter today. We will play 8.5 levels today and then both fields will be combined for tomorrow. There should be about 600 remaining as we head to Day 2. About 400 will make the money.
Finally we get a player in Seat 5. Very personable and very poor. Perfect. Two limpers and I have AKo. I make a healthy raise and they fold. Love those limpers. I get AA and win that with a 3-bet preflop. These guaranteed wins are fine! I chip up to close to 4500 or so as we near the end of Level 2. With about 3 minutes left until the break I am in the BB. UTG, an older gentlemen who is fairly active, limps. A poor player at the other end raises 3x to 150. It folds to me and I look down at
. Very nice. I raise to 675. UTG doesn’t think very long at all and announces “All in.” He pushes about 3500 into the middle. And the other guy immediately says, “I’m all in too.” He has about the same stack. Wow. I think for a while. It’s break time and most of the players leave the table. I’m not that worried about the second guy. He calls too quickly. If he had AA he would have been more deliberate. But the limp/push from UTG---that is scary. This guy has not done anything of the sort so far. Well it’s scary but who knows. It’s the last hand before the break. And I have KK. I can’t fold but I gave it due consideration. “I call.”
UTG:
MP:
The poker gods are with me early and five blanks are dealt. Yeah me! It takes me a while to stack my chips. I head out to meet with the guys and tell them my good fortune. Phill is nowhere in site, that’s not good, but Hazey and Yanks are chugging along. “I have 16,500 at the break!” I announce. Yeah sure…..you can’t count Chris. You had 11,500. Flushed with victory I guess. Still a very good start.
New German guy moves into Seat 8. He takes a bunch of chips out of the pocket of his sweats. This is a no no. All those chips, according to the rules, have been forfeited. It is clear that he has no idea he has just disqualified himself. No one says a word. I mention to the dealer after the next hand, “You had better tell that gentlemen down there that if he conceals his chips on a table move again he will likely get disqualified. Let him know that.” The dealer is clueless and doesn’t even understand what I said. Another player chimes in and explains to the guy that what he did is bad, but we won’t report him. I’m not sure he understood. The German is pretty good but eventually, 3 or 4 hours later, goes busto.
Levels 3 and 4 are very serene. Just nice chipping up. I keep getting garbage or nice starting hands. I get dealt AK about 5 times. I hit TPTK on the flop 3 times and win those right then. I miss twice but my c-bets take it down anyway. Phill comes by to say he busted and to wish me GL. Thanks! At the end of Level 4, going into our second break, I have 14,100. Hazey and Yanks are still in too, and they are chipping up also.
Two more levels until dinner. I go completely card dead. I steal occasionally but really just to maintain. I’m happy I have the big stack so that I can be patient. Well I’m always patient, but I can be patient without sweating it. We get to the last hand before dinner. I’m in the CO and two players, including the BTN, have already taken off. It folds to me. Well I’m raising for sure. Hope I have something. I look down at
. Not too shabby. I raise to 525. We are playing 100/200a25 so I’ll win 525 right now if the blinds fold. The BB is pretty stubborn though. He calls. He calls pretty loosely, but he isn’t tricky and when he misses the flop he just folds.
Flop:
He checks, I bet, he folds. Very nice.
I have 14,075 at Dinner. I lost one whopping green chip those two hours. I can handle that.
Phill still nowhere to be found, but Yanks, Hazey, Yank’s friend Matt who just got in town from Atlanta, and I have dinner at American Bar and Grill. My third Seabass of the Series
Back to the wars. We will only play 35 minutes into Level 9 tonight, so we have just over 2 ½ hours remaining. We head to Level 7. 150/300a25. I’m still card dead. We play through Level 7 and are now off to Level 8. 200/400a50. Some new additions to the table. They are all soft with the exception of Seat 7. He seems good and has a fair number of chips. More than me. And Seat 3, to my immediate left, is also pretty good and has me outchipped too. I’m around 12500, and that’s only somewhat above average at this point. Seat 1, an impulsive Asian lady who has already inquired as to whether a straight-flush beats quads, limps. I raise to 1275. Seat 5 calls. Now the player in Seat 7, in the BB, announces, “I’m all in.” Oh boy, I’m at risk if I call. Lady folds. OK I have about 30BBs and he could be just trying to pick up the pot. There is already close to 4K in the pot before the push. He’s not doing that with air, but his range is pretty wide. Does it include AQ? Who knows, I think so. It’s 11,200 to me to win like 16K or so. I can’t pass up this chance with AK—easy call with the pot odds. “I call.” He flips up 99. Off to the races.
Flop Axx
Turn x
River x
Whoohoo. The other guy is sick. He’s down to 2K. I know how he feels. Been there, done that. But do I care about him at this moment? No way! Up to 27K. Nice Chris. And just then Dr. No arrives to sweat me. Thomas you can be my good luck charm!
I get two nice hands in a row. There is a raise in ep. I’m OTB with
. Oh boy. The BB has the perfect squeeze stack too. And he’s good enough to do it. I call. But the BB only calls. Rats!
But what a flop:
They check to me, I bet, and they fold. I think I bet too much here. I bet like 2/3 of the pot, I think 1/3-45% is more like it.
Lady limps. I raise 4x with TT. She folds. It’s nice to have a stack. Scott Bohlman arrives at the table and he’s in Seat 8. I don’t recognize him but he has a ton of chips and a ton a green chips. So he is obviously very active.
He raises the first hand to 1050. Lady calls in the CO. I have
OTB and call. One of the blinds calls.
Flop:
No c-bet from Scott. It checks to me and I bet 3200. Blind folds, Scott asks how much I’m playing, doesn’t think very long, and calls. Lady folds. Fasten your seat belts.
Turn:
He checks. OK what to do. Board is pretty scary and I figure this guy is capable of c/r bluffs. Board is drawy. Do I really want to build a pot now, or hope that he bluffs the river. It’s fairly dangerous to give a free card here, but I really know nothing about this guy other than he is dangerous. If I bet and he raises of course I’m calling. I decide to opt for the chicken route and check behind. I think this is poor. Not terrible, but not a good mindset. There is about 45 minutes left in play for the night. I’m tired but still focused. I don’t think this check is nearly as bad as some might think, but I think it is symptomatic of a scared mentality. I won’t check in this situation if it happens again. I do have to win all the chips in the tournament. Feasting off the small stacks is preferable, but nothing ventured nothing gained. Anyway….
River:
Another overcard. Ughh. And a gut shot on the board. He checks. Wish he had bet that scare card. Now I am worried. If he c/r me all in can I call? I think a check behind is prudent here, unlike the turn. Damn King. I check. He says, “Two pair.” I say, “Three-of-a- kind,” as I flip up my set. He mucks, showing
as he mucks.
Feel bad about my turn check, but that’s poker. I can worry about that later. We break shortly after that. Our last break. Yanks is busted, but Hazey doing great too. He’s got about 30K, me 36K.
We say goodnight to Yanks and Matt. They are off to gamble. Gambling in Vegas??? Dr. No hangs around to rail me. The last 35 minutes are uneventful. I steal the blinds once, Scott calms down and plays more sedately. He’s losing too—he arrived at our table with probably 45K and ended with about 25K. They announce, “Deal one more hand and bag up for tonight.” To add a bizarre finish to the night we finally get a dealer change. Our dealer has been dealing to us since Level 5. There must have been a huge amount of action because normally they push through every half hour or hour at the most. But he is finally let go with one hand remaining. And he is replaced by a dealer named “Elvis”. And he’s in Elvisgarb too, the hair and all. Weird. Anyway Elvis deals one hand, we bag up, and off we go. I’m at Table 199 Saturday at 2:30pm with 33,725 chips. Hazey close to 28K, nice!
…..it’s Day 2 and I got my not so restful 5 hours of sleep. But a couple of naps in the morning and I’m ready to go. Got restocked with tangerines, almonds, and dried cranberries from Fresh and Easy. I’m ready. 600 survivors roughly of the almost 4000 who went to Post and 398 of us get paid. It is amazing how we break the bubble just after beginning Level 11 every time. We have 25 minutes remaining in Level 9, so in 1.5 hours we should be in the money. My table draw appears to be pretty unlucky. The alleged chip leader, with a huge huge stack, is James Dempsey who is in Seat 7. He’s on my right as I drew Seat 8. Pokernews has him at 144K in chips which just seems outlandishly high. It is….he has 44K. But he’s finished 2nd and 1st already this year, and he is crazy laggy, but obviously very good too. I’m second at the table with my 33K. Everyone else is <20K. Seats 1 and 2 are young hotshots. Seat 4 is Minh Nguyen, double bracelet holder. And Seat 6 is David Peters, another very accomplished player.
The very first hand sets the tone. Seat 2 is in the BB, and Dempsey raises to like 1400 at 300-600. The BB, with 18K, calls.
Flop:
. Seat 2 checks and Dempsey c-bet 2300. Seat 2 raises to 5K. Dempsey calls.
Turn:
It goes ck ck
River:
. Now Seat 2, after a brief pause, pushes his last 11K or so. Dempsey instacalls. Seat 2 shrugs and instamucks. Dempsey doesn’t want to show but you have to show the winning hand. The other hand gets shown also.
Seat 2:
Dempsey:
Wow. Dempsey discussed this hand much later with a friend. I don’t know if he had played against Seat 2 before, probably not, but he put him on connectors from the start. No reraise pre=no pair and no Ace. And then the reraise on the flop convinced him. He said he was going to call the river with Ace High, but the Ace hitting the turn, he suspected, would kill the action. It didn’t. Interesting analysis. Well as you can see with this guy being on my right there will be no folding to me in late position or the blinds, that’s for sure. Shortly thereafter Dempsey gets involved with Seat 3, who turns out to be reckless and pretty bad. Seat 3 raises and Dempsey 3 bets out of the BB.
Flop:
Dempsey c-bets and the other guy calls.
Turn:
Dempsey checks, Seat 3 bets, Dempsey raises, and Seat 3 pushes. Dempsey calls quickly.
Dempsey:
Seat 3:
I’m praying for a blank, and get my wish. Seat 3 doubles. This didn’t deter Dempsey and he quickly builds his stack back to starting stack or more. Now he tangles with Peters in Seat 6. Peters was <20K, and he raises in mp. Dempsey reraises and Peters moves in. I didn’t catch the exact pot odds but Dempsey was getting 2-1 at least I believe. He calls quickly.
Peters:
Dempsey:
Flop was 2xx oohs and aahs
Turn was Q more oohs and aahs.
I think Dempsey’s 3-bet pre was kind of weird. Yes he has some players behind so maybe he just had to make a standard 3-bet. Then he felt he had pot odds to call. So no mistake just looked that way. Except 22 is quite weak to be 3-betting into a relative shortie. Don’t like that at all. Why not fold?
As you can see I’m not talking about my hands. Well there’s a good reason. I’m getting squat. Seat 1 busts on a cooler, good. And is replaced by a young guy with a bunch of tattoos. He’s not good. Way too reckless. And I play my only hand before the bubble against him.
I’m OTB and for some reason it folds to me. This was the only time the entire day. I have
and raise. Seat 1, Mr. Tatoo, calls. He has about 30K like I do and we are playing 400-800a100.
Flop:
Now he donk bets. This looks good. Why is he doing that? He certainly doesn’t have an Ace. I call.
Turn is a low blank. He checks, I check.
River pairs the 3. Now he leads out for 5K. I have an easy call and should have an easy win. I call after some thought, ala Mike Caro showboat, and he instamucks. I have to show the hand to win the pot. I do. It is the only hand that I will show for another 6 hours. Wow. I’m up close to 40K now and the bubble is approaching. We finish Level 10, take a break, and when we come back it is like 20 to the money, something like that. We get to the bubble within 10 minutes. Right before the bubble, it actually was the second to last hand before the bubble burst, Dempsey raises in the CO. I look down and see AJo OTB. Normally I would take a flop with this. But I just muck it. I know the bubble is bursting within an orbit and I don’t want to even deal with this. Mr. Tatoo in the BB calls.
Flop is KQT two spades. Yike, what a flop. But it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
Mr. Tatoo donks right out, Dempsey raises, and Mr. Tatoo pushes. Dempsey quickly calls. Tatoo at risk.
Tatoo: KQo
Dempsey: A7ss for the nut flush draw and the gutter.
Turn is a spade. No help on the river for Tatoo. He is busted and devastated. Almost in tears. Poker can be cruel. But I’m not busted….I’m on to the next hand.
That hand is dealt and the dealers are all told to stand up when finished. After 5 minutes or so the sweet announcement comes. “Congratulations, you’ve all made the money!” Very nice. Almost everyone in my Seat would have been out the door. But not me. You can argue my fold is a mistake. I’m absolutely convinced with the structure it isn’t.
Hazey has made the money too. Congrats Andy! We are now all in Amazon Blue, and the way that the tables are breaking I’m not moving until we get down to 54 players. We might break for the night before that. This is a mixed blessing with Peters and Dempsey at my table. But I do have position on them. All in all I’m happy with the set up.
Minh Nguyen busts on a questionable play. He’s got like 12BBs in the SB. Loose new French guy in Seat 1 who speaks no English at all, doesn’t even know numbers in English, raises. Nguyen calls and I figure he must have a monster. Peters in the BB squeezes with not that big a stack. Seat 1 folds and Minh calls.
Minh 66
Peters KJo
Board Jxxxx and Minh out the door. I don’t get it. Why didn’t he push preflop? Don’t let two overs be in there from the BB. I think the pot was big enough already. Maybe he was planning a stop-n-go. Dunno. Anyway another good player gone.
I go completely card dead. Well not completely. I play 3 hands over the next few hours.
Hand 1: There is a limper. Dempsey raises. I know he has any two here and is just going to take it down. I’ve done it many times myself. I decide with my image I’m going to reraise. I need chips. But I look down and see
. Geez, now I almost want to just call. But I don’t want the limper or the blinds coming along. Too dangerous. And besides one of them might have a hand. I reraise and they both quickly fold.
Hand 2: I get dealt AA in the BB. By this time Dempsey has busted. Peters raises in the CO. Nice. I call. Flop is a bunch of low blanks. I check, he c-bets, I raise, he instamucks. Thank you I needed those.
Hand 3: Folds to me in the CO. I raise with AKo. Seat 1, Mr. French, puts in a healthy reraise from the SB. Back to me. I push. He’s not a happy camper and eventually folds.
Those hands were all key in helping me maintain >=20BBs for about 3 levels.
Alex Jacob comes to the table in Seat 2 quite short. <15BBs. I didn’t know who he was until Dr. No informed me. He was patient with a short stack, and he wasn’t super active even after he acquired some chips. On one hand Seat 9 raises. Jacob in the BB pushes. Seat 9 instacalls for his life with quite a few BBs. Like 30-40BBs. Seat 9: 88 Jacob: A6s. Actually Seat 9 was a very good player and I think Jacob, who hadn’t been at the table very long, considered him a lightweight. Who knows. Anyway the flop comes A6x and Seat 9 is history. How do these guys do it?
Before this Peters raises. Seat 9 has 20BBs and ships. Jacobs with a stack just calls. Very scary. Peters goes into the tank and pushes. It’s a big big pot if Jacob calls for his life and he thinks a long time. But he has to be quite strong. I don’t get it. Finally he calls.
Seat 9: JJ
Jacob: KK
Peters: AKo
I don’t like Peter’s play at all. Does he think he has folding equity against Jacob? I seriously doubt it.
Board comes 98xTQ. Seat 9 triples+. Jacob ends up about even. Peters lost a huge amount of chips.
Here’s another hand that Jacob had against the Frenchman. Sometimes you just need to get lucky.
http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting ... htm?page=6
Hazey busts just a little while before dinner. GG and nice payday. Dinner break comes and Andy and I have dinner in the Poker Kitchen. It’s huge and really pretty good. Excellent salad/wrap station. Built to your specs.
I’m back at it and Hazey txts that he’s off to OShea’s to meet yanks and win some money off those clueless poker players there I think. The night before Hazey, yanks, yank’s friend and Dr. NO all took some money from the Rio playing BJ. Well done!
Not much poker talk here because I am super card dead. Very disgusting. But it really doesn’t frustrate me. I’m just playing what’s dealt me. Eventually Dr. No show up to root me on. 300 remain, now 250, now 200….. Payout goes up occasionally but I don’t pay attention to that at all. I need chips!
We are now onto Level 15. 1500/3000a400. I’m in trouble and down to 13BBs. First hand back I get A3s in the HJ. I push and they all fold. Next hand I get AQo from the HJ+1. I raise and they all fold. These are huge as there is 8100 in the pot preflop. But after this it’s back to fold, fold, fold. The play is show with all the antes and pots counted out for all ins. We aren’t getting 25 hands per level. Sucks. I need hands.
I’m back to 13BBs and I’m in the BB. Jacob raises in MP1. Folds to me and I look down at
. I push and he calls quickly tabling 
. Board runs out 8xxx8 and I’m history.
I finish 115th for $3K+ And now the fun begins. I go to collect and there is a big line. I give them my info and they say they will call me up when it’s my turn. Dr. No and I sit down on the floor over in the corner waiting. Then a few minutes later a bunch of Security come running in. It was funny. About 8 of them but they had on 4 different uniforms. Navy blue top, Khaki top, Powder Blue top, and even one guy with a Yellow shirt. Don’t know what was going one but it must be pretty serious. They leave after a couple of minutes….didn’t drag anyone away….and it’s still a mystery. Then one of the head guys who was running my tournament, Tournament 54, comes in and says, “The computers are messed up and since 123rd place they are telling us to pay you out per the Tournament 56 payouts. And those are like double what you are owed." LOL. Geez, how in the world could that happen. Anyway he says, “Just be patient we will have this all straightened out shortly.” I’ve heard this before. I tell the good Dr., “We are outta here…I’ll collect tomorrow. Here are the brief notes from pokernews.
http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting ... htm?page=3
http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting ... htm?page=3
So 115th. I can't complain although it is frustrating to not really get into the game on Day 2. But still, for most of the Day I am back to average with one double up. And even later I am not much below average with a single double up.
Happy with the cash, that's 3/7 this year at the WSOP. But not really. I know I got good cards that held up Day 1, but Day 2 was really kind of hopeless. I'm definitely ready for a deep run. Could I be saving it for the ME???????
Happy Fourth of July!
Chris
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