Delayed WSOP Trip Report #1

Ok, I have been really late in getting this up here. I have been back for over a week and been busy at work and did not feel like posting over the weekend. So for all two of you who have been waiting here it is..... Day 1. I got down there late Tuesday evening/Weds morning of the 27th/28th. I went to go check out the poker room at the Bellagio and it was pretty early like 2:00am so there was not a whole lot going on. There were still a few games going, a $100/200 and a few $30/60 and smaller, but not packed. There was also a few big games going on and Aaron was still up playing. I can't even remember what he was playing I think a mixed triple draw game around $200/400 or $400/800. I watched a bit and then went over to the Rio to check in to the WSOP get my card and sign up for the PLHE $1500 event the next day. That late at night there was no one there and I zipped in and out in less than 15 minutes. I popped back to the Bellagio to say goodnight to Aaron and my buddy Joe who was also there playing $30/60 and went to bed to play the days event later.

Event #3 $1500 PLHE. I sat down at my fist table and recognized no one. I also did not recognize any cards. I was looking down at garbage for the first hour. When you start with very little chips my strategy is to play tight and wait for a hand to try to get started. This was not going to work because I was not going to get cards so as the second round started I started to gamble a bit to collect some blinds. I stayed around even $1500 for a while at least, but could not make anything good happen. We broke tables and I was put at a table with Hasan Habib and Robert Mizrachi, both Hasan and Robert went bust soon after I got there as they were pretty short stacked when I arrived. I then got moved again right before the end of the 2nd round and once again to a table with no one that I knew. At the start of the 3rd round I picked up pocket 10's in second position. I made it $400 to go playing $50/$100 blinds and got called to my immediate left and a late position caller. Flop came 6,6,4 rainbow. Good flop for my hand. I bet $800 into a $1350 pot and got called in both spots. Now I only started the hand with around $1600 so this left me only $400 left. Turn was a 9. I went all in for my last $400 and the first player dumped but the last player insta called, oops, he showed my A,6 off for flopped trips and I was done. I guess I could have just moved in on the flop but the result would have been the same. After the guy called with A,6 pre-flop I was doomed. I would have had some chips if I would have caught a 10 on the river but a J sealed my fate. Off to the Bellagio to play some live games....

The room was absolutely packed in the afternoon, I put my name on the $100/200 list and talked to Aaron and Joe and everyone else from Seattle down there. There were lots of guys from Seattle down there. Old ones that had moved to LA and Vegas and guys that were from our game. Now I don't know what the Bellagio was/is thinking, but they are running a $1000 buy in tournament at 2:00pm in the afternoon and taking up tables in the main cardroom. I know they are trying to get all the players that bust out of the main WSOP events into the Bellagio, but they could have run this in the Fontana room and left the tables for live games. They have to make more off the rake than the juice from this tournament, it just killed the live games for a good chunk of the afternoon. So that said I had to wait a few hours for them to free up some tables and they started a 3rd must move $100/200 game. I jump into the game and proceed to get up a quick $2,000. It is all down hill from there. I never get any more hands to hold up, and I just get buried. The other aspect to the game was that there were not very many soft spots. Lots of really good limit players in this game all week. You had to really time and set up bluffs well and for the most part you had to turn over the winning hand, which of course I could not manage to do all week. There are some really good players coming out of Canterbury in Minnesota. There was a pack of them maybe 6 or 7 that rotated in this game and all of them were good. I played with all of them over time and very few of them booked a loss. Good players all and nice as well. I liked them all. One in particular that went by the name of Sketch(sp?) was super good. I played with him every day, and he never went on tilt, or played poorly, never. I am sure he is going to kill this game if he stays for the entire series. I played until 5:00am and could never get anything going, booked a loss, and went to bed to play in the $1500 limit event the next day. I will try to follow up with tournament day #2 tomorrow. Hope you are all winning and are having fun at the WSOP. Aaron had a good picture taken during day one of the $1500 NLHE #2, here it is for all to see from Cardplayer site......