Some more pics

The crowd to fight your way through to get to the tournament area

Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher from ST:TNG) who now writes for PokerStars

Still happy before it started

Finally thanks to everyone for their support and for reading this!

WSOP Wrap Up

After having some time to reflect on it, I think I have a lot to learn about deep stack live tournaments. I'm going to attempt to write down these thoughts in hopes it'll be useful if I ever play any other large tournaments.

Small pots - I'm sure I could have conserved a lot of chips by playing less aggressively and keeping pots small. Ironically, I went into the tournament with the intention of playing more aggressively and stealing more pots. Those kind of were at odds with each other since everytime I took a stab at pots I'd be bloating them up and it would result in more chips required to push someone out and making it more likely to get called since the pot is so large.

Physical tells - not sure if I had any but I got picked off on two big bluffs so it's something I need to consider. I think I need to pause and act more deliberately each time. It would also help a lot at thinking through the hand. I'm still too used to having only 15 seconds to think online and usually just go with my instincts. Against most of the people at the table I wasn't too worried about giving off tells but there was one guy who was obviously much more comfortable playing live most of the table.

Identifying the fish - one thing I've read a few times is that you must identify the people who can't get away from top pair types of hands and stack them early before they lose their chips to someone else. Very good advice. I think I did a good job of doing so, but just wasn't able to get involved with them with a decent hand.

I'm pretty sure I'm able to play strong hands much better than I can play mid/weak hands. That might be an obvious statement but I think I am reasonably good at getting max value out of strong hands, as opposed to keeping the pots smaller for weaker hands.

Some other interesting hands, from memory:

Early in the first level I get QQ UTG+1 and raise to 150. Aggressive guy makes it 500, everyone else folds and I repop him to 1500. He reraises to 3000. I think, look at him and ponder. He has been very active but says reasonably confidently "I have a monster, no bs, I'll show you if you fold". Immediately I discount AA but not 100%. But what does he put in a 4th raise with? And a min raise at that. Hellmuth says 4th raise = AA. So I think KK is most likely. I fold, he shows QQ I quietly puke in my mouth and manage to agree when someone asks if I have AK.

Last hand before a break. I pick up JJ and raise. Bad/loose guy (who raises KJo UTG, plays many Ax hands out of position) reraises out of the SB. Knowing he over values hands I reraise him and he calls. Flop Axx. Most of the table has left for the break but one guy stayed behind to watch the action. the SB leads out with a healthy bet into the pot. I think and he says I'll show if you fold. Ugh.. that dreaded line again. I ask him if that means if it's good or bad and he shrugs. I think AK is most likely here since AA and KK probably would have gotten all the chips in preflop. I think I make the easy decision to fold and he shows QQ. Bah.. at least I was behind but I really didn't think he had it in him to make a move like that with and A high flop and so much raising going on preflop. The guy watching says I laid down KK there and I don't do anything to disagree with him. So the moral is if they want you to fold (by offering to show), it's usually a good hand that can't stand too much action.

The bust out hand. I think I cold called because I gave the UTG raise too much credit. I had only played about 2 orbits with that table and the normal raise was 800 (too high in my opinion). I didn't expect much action but I think Agustin might have been right for me to reraise and hopefully isolate with position or fold to a reraise. I also regret leading out and bloating the pot but after two checks to me I habitually stab at it. I think that was a big mistake though because someone has AA/KK/QQ/TT/JJ and none of them are going anywhere. Once I did that though I was committed.. running the numbers I'm 33% vs a set, 55% vs QQ or KK and 45% vs AA. So an easy call even if I go home 2 out of 3 times.

The day after busting out I played about 6 hours of mixed games at Treasure Island (they call it "tangerine" for some reason). We played Razz, 5 card draw (no one ever plays that anymore), stud (high), omaha hi/low, 2-7 triple draw low, crazy pineapple and eventually badugi got thrown in. It was originally 4-handed with 3 other internet players who had been up all night playing those games for mostly the first time. It was a friendly game with lots of discussion about the hands. I was extremely impressed with how sharp they were in their analysis of other players hands, making good value bets or making good folds. I mean really impressed, especially since they had been up for more than 24 hours. I was a lot of fun until some local pros showed up and actually tried to play seriously. Very educational though and much more fun that just grinding out hold'em even if I gave back all my winnings from the previous days. I think we'll start to see these other games grow in popularity on the online sites pretty fast. Stars is going to start offering HORSE soon and it'll even be their biggest tournament ($5000) in the upcoming World Series of Online Poker.