So onto the deets (very long)

I've won an entry into the World Series of Poker Main Event. This is the biggest tournament of the year in poker. The entry fee is $10,000 and I'd guess more than 5,000 people will enter (they've capped the max # of entries at 6600). It takes place on July 7-15 - yes, in just a week and a half - so I just squeeked in just in time.

The tournament I played in was a $33 + rebuy tournament, which meant that for the first hour, if you were at the starting amount of chips or lower you could buy more chips for another $30. There were 252 people entered. First prize was the entry into the WSOP plus $1000 for travel expenses, and places 2 through 8 paid $650.

All you non-poker players can just stop reading here because now I'll get into the stuff only the poker geeks are interested in.

It was the 5th $33 tournament I had played in. I also had 3 other attempts in $650 tournaments, and a couple of $160 double shootouts. Total amount invested in WSOP qualifier was $2130.. which seems like a lot now that I total it all up. Hmmm. Anyway...

I didn't have much success with any of the other qualifiers I played in, so didn't really have high hopes for this one either but was playing a whole bunch of tournaments this afternoon just for the heck of it. This one started off pretty weirdly. I forgot to rebuy immediately as I normally do, but in the first hand I had QQ UTG. Raised and got 3 callers. Flop came J53 and I bet out, got raised, and we got all the chips in. He turns over K5, I win, and he doesn't rebuy! So long and thanks for your chips.

Things are pretty slow and uneventful until the 3rd hand. I get KK, get all the chips in preflop with AQ and win again. He also leaves the tourney! So I've knocked 2 people out of a rebuy, tripled up and became chip leader after 3 hands. Nice.

It's still in the rebuy period so I don't go crazy, just wanting to hold on to a decent stack until the rebuys are over. I probably play about 5-6 of the next 50 hands, which is ultra-tight during a rebuy, but still lose about 1/3 of my chips with hands like AQ against QQ TT and 88, and then defending my BB with KJo. Down to about 2500, it's time to start pushing and hoping to double up before the rebuys are over.
Unfortunately I don't get the chance, but on the last hand there are 3 limpers, I push with A9o and get no callers. 3000 in chips, plus 2000 for the $30 add on and I exit the rebuy period with almost 5000 in chips which is pretty much the minimum stack you could have at this point since if you had 0 chips, you could do a double rebuy (1500x2) and an add-on. Oh well.

So after the rebuys are over, the real poker starts. Build my stack to 6700, whittle it down to 3000 with the blinds 100/200. Normally I'd just go on tilt here and start pushing marginal hands hoping to double up since the only worthwhile prize is first, but for some reason this time I actually have some patience and fold things like A3.
My patience is rewarded, as the next hand I get AKs in the SB with 3 limpers, push and get no callers.

Next hand, blinds 100/200, 3 early limpers, I have 9d8d on the button and call, SB folds and BB checks. Questionable with such a small stack (17.5BB) but hey, I said I'm on semi-tilt. Flop comes 593 rainbow. First limper checks, next limper bets 800, next limper pushes, and before I can react something hits the call button. I know if I waited another 10 seconds I'd have folded there. The bettor calls and I know I'm toast here. They both have me covered. The hands are revealed... AKs and AQs. Wow. I close my eyes, wait 5 seconds, open them to see the board 5935J. I'm suddenly well back into the game with 11k in chips.

It lasts all of 2 hands, when I lose 5k with AJ vs 66 on a 69J board. I tread water for a few hands until Kuzak is moved to my table. This is a fellow who I had met at the Toronto airport when we happened to be on the same plane to the WPT in the Bahamas. He's a great tournament player and a frequent poster to 2+2. I think having him there at the table made me play a lot better.. probably because I didn't want to do something really dumb in front of someone I know. We've got about the sme chips and I resolve to last longer than he does.

I catch a pretty big break when there's one UTG limper, and I check in the BB with 34o. Flop comes 454. Check, check. Turn J. He bets 2BB, I min raise, he calls. Turn T. Bet out 2BB again, he pushes, I call. He flips TJ and I win. It's another form of luck that's not always so obvious like sucking out on someone... but to have the turn and river come with basically the only two cards that will give the other player the second best hand.

We're about 150 hands into the tournament now, and the chip leader shows up at the table with about 61k. Next biggest is 19k, and then I have 12k. It's obvious where he got the chips from, because he starts calling all-ins with mid pair and rivering people. Nice to be able to afford to do things like that.

I get down to about 6000 in chips with the blinds 600/1200.. and then 4500.. amazingly my patience holds out. I win a race with AK vs 99 and more than double up to 11k with some dead money in the pot. Still the short stack, but then I double up with AA when I get a limper, a cold caller and everyone folds to my flop bet.

I have 19.5k now, the average stack is probably 20-25k, and the blinds are 600/1200. This is where the tournament starts becoming crapshooty. Most hands are raised and taken down pre-flop, or raised and reraised and taken down preflop.

I'm down to 16k, blinds 1000/2000. A 30k stack raises to 10k. A 40k stack cold calls!? I push my 16k with TT and both just call. I'm sweating again. Flop comes 2h 8s 7h. The initial raiser pushes into a dry side pot, and I know for sure I'm toast for sure. The cold caller folds, and amazingly, the raiser flips over A3o!? What a terrible play (as the cold caller immediately informs the table) and I agree, except I win a huge pot and am near the chip lead with 52k. He could have easily saved my tournament there since there was a Q on the turn which may have hit the cold caller.

At this point I like to think it turn into the TripleQ stealing show but apparently my memory was a little wrong. I ended up raising about 50% of the hands that it was folded to me, but there weren't that many of them since there were a lot of short stack all-ins at this point.

I manage to steal my way down to 19k with the blinds 1500/3000. The SB has a huge stack of 110k, he raises my BB to 9k and I push with A6o. He calls and flips A5o. Nice. Flop comes 79T, I resign myself to a split pot but pray for a low card. My prayers are answered when the turn comes 5. Ugh. I guess I should be more specific when I ask for low cards. However, it's not over as the river comes a beautiful 6. Hey, best hand won right?

I tread water around 40k. Then double up when a mid position raiser calls off 1/2 his stack to my push. AK vs KT. KT!? He had been a very lucky player, sucking out 5 times to build a huge stack, but luckily for me not this time.

DOwn to about 10-11 people, and I float between 1st-3rd position in chips. There are a few short stacks so I never tangle with the other big stacks and we all methodically bust out the short stacks. We finally whittle down the huge luckbox who comes over the top of a early raiser.. with A8s!? He runs into 99 and is down to less than 2BB, and shortly busts out. I have a brief heart attack when I reraise with AKh, get called my AQo and flop comes Q39 2 hearts. Luckily I make the flush.

We're down to 5, with one big stack and one short stack. One of the guys has his chat turned on, apparently he had it banned before. Often PokerStars will turn off the chat of people who curse a lot or have been abusive to other players. I guess they unbanned him for this table in case he wanted to make a deal. One of the mid stacks busts out when someone calls his top pair all-in with ace high, then rivers the ace.

The short stack hangs on for quite awhile, then finally busts when the SB pushes with 36o, and he calls with 95o getting 3:1. I guess the SB figured his cards were live. We lose the 3rd place guy when he pushes in with Q8 on the 79T flop, only to run into J8 with the flopped straight. Bad beats all night and they keep on coming.

Heads up starts with me at 283k, and N1LE at 537k. I suggest a save (i.e. winner pays loser something), and he offers me $2000 for the seat. Umm... no.
Turns out I made the right decision because he's pretty passive heads up. I start out stealing with 2.5xBB raises, but eventually figure out he'll fold a lot of hands to 2xBB raises so I go with that. He also calls a lot of raises, then folds to a flop bet. It's a pretty long heads up match lasting about 50 hands. Nothing too memorable, except for this hand.

N1LE calls with the SB, and I raise with A3o. He calls. Flop comes J53 two clubs. I bet out, he min raises. Normally I've never seen him play back at me, so would fold to the raise, but for some reason my instincts tell me the min raise is weak, so I quickly push. He's getting about 3:1 to call and has me covered, but he folds! Phew.. in hindsight think if I waited another 10 seconds, I would have folded.

Next hand I think he's upset since he bluffs off 1/3 of his stack with J high to my slowplayed top pair.

3 hands later, we get all the chips in preflop with my 33 vs his A3o and he doesn't hit the ace. I don't think I can really describe how he felt, so I'll end it here with his eloquent comments:

N1LE [observer] said, "FVCK this website"
N1LE [observer] said, "FVCK lee jones"
N1LE [observer] said, "FVCK pokerstars"

And now we know why his chat was banned.

So who wants to go to vegas with me?

Against all odds, I managed to win a $33+rebuy tourney and WSOP main event entry. 1st place out of 250 or so entrants got the seat. Details to follow.

The update you've all been waiting for... Shana! 

Allen's Hand

Sorry, forgot to mention that Allen had AKs when he busted me out.

One final note

I think I was out 180th out of 461. Not too bad for my first time in a live tournament.

I'm out

Well, here comes the post I didn't want to write.

I started out with about 26k in chips. My game plan was to loosen up a bit, see more flops and take shots at short stacks if possible. The deck continues to hit me over the head for the first few hands. Reraise with AK and take it down preflop. Raise with AJ and take down the blinds and antes. Limp with KJs after one limper, flop top two and take it down on the turn. I build my stack up to about 40k. It quiets down for awhile until one woman going all in for a few hands in a row. She goes in with K8o, gets called by AA and flops trip 8's. Her stack is maybe 20k or so now, but she continues to play a lot of pots and goes all-in pre-flop or post flop.

And then comes the first big hand. Early raise, 3 cold callers, I have 87s on the button so what the heck. It's only 1500 to call. Flop comes Js, 5s, 9h. Raiser checks, the all-in woman bets 2000, two cold callers drop, I think for a bit and raise to 7000 hoping for a free card. Raiser folds. The woman goes all in. It's about 10k more to call, so I definitely have pot odds and have to call. I figure she's got a 9 or a J. But no, she has KTo. I'm stunned. One less than the most possible outs since she has one of the tens I need. Turn 9, river A. I'm down to 21k-ish. Still workable.

I take it easy for an orbit or two to keep my composure.

Then, with blinds 300/600+100 Allen Cunningham raises to 1800 UTG. I look down at QQ, and I don't think I can let it go. I'm sure he'd raise with AA, KK, AK, QQ, JJ. I raise it to 5k. He asks for my stack count, then pushes in. I beat him into the pot with a call. Flop comes 3 low cards, but I still can't start breathing yet. Turn comes the dreaded A. I get up, dazed.

I think it's going to be difficult to get my mind off these hands for awhile, but I don't think I would have played them differently. I'll be quite a bit of work to enjoy the rest of the vacation here, but I'll try my best.

I'll see everyone back at home...

Table Draw, Day 3

Table 9, seat 5. I'm the fourth largest stack at the table with 3 others in the 30k range. Only player I recognize is Allen Cunningham. A couple of smaller stacks in the low 10k range. Not too bad.

After the first day

Man, I'm beat and it's only 10pm. I sure felt myself slipping after 9 hours of poker. Luckily the cards have been running very good and I'm up to 26,575 now. I have not had bluff (much) and I have only showed down two hands vs. all-ins. AA and AJs. We'll redraw for tomorrow so I can't take advantage of my tight image anymore.

First hand after the dinner break, blinds 100/200+25 I started out with AJs, raised early to 600 and got reraised all-in by 77 all-in with less than 1000. Off to the races and I turn a flush on him.

Second hand I raise with AQo and steal the blinds and antes.

Third hand I raise UTG+1 to 600 with red kings and figure someone's going to look me up now. Sure enough the really aggressive huge stacked bully calls me. Flop comes Axx with two to a suit. Well, I figure I'll play it like AK protecting against a flush draw. I check, he bets 1500 and I check raise to 5000. He lays it down after a few seconds thought. Phew. That puts me at 20,000 and I decide I better slow down.

Not much happens for while.. the bully goes to battle a couple of times with a 10k stack or so, who gets really lucky by doing things like hitting a gutshot all-in and hitting two pair with his A9 vs. AKs. He is very re-aggressive, reraising all-in a few times and either not getting callers or making hands.

Seat 3 is somewhat of a revolving seat. There are still 7 of us from the original 10 still at the table since the beginning of the day, but seat 3 has gone through 5 people already. Cursed, we decide.

With blinds and antes growing to 200/400+75 the short stacks get really tight and the big stack gets really aggressive - it seemed like only once he doesn't open raise, but no one has the guts to take a shot. Must be nice to have 52k or so.

I make a couple of "loose" plays like calling a raise and cold caller (although that Mr. bully) with ATs in the big blind, and manage to flop top pair with the T. I bet out 5k and the bully folds, saying it was push or fold. I would have been left with 10k if I folded so I'm not sure if I would have called a push. Tight image helps I guess.

So I'm probably in decent shape now, maybe in the top 1/2 or top 1/3 of the field. We'll pay again with about 270 people so it'll be another slogging day tomorrow. I've been really happy with my play, although most of the hands have played themselves and I haven't needed to make any fancy plays yet. Conserve and survive again. Hope it continues tomorrow!

The poker hunch 

Dinner break, day 1

16975 in chips (started with 10,000). Blinds going to be 150/300+50 ante. We started the day with about 260 people and are down to 190 I think.

I was really nervous and it showed at the beginning. I was hoping people would mistake it for shaking hands = big hands.

It was during the first level I managed to get most of my chips. First 4 out of 5 hands I had Ax and had to fold since I was in mid/early position. However, on the fifth hand, the x was a T and I was in the big blind. One limper to me. Flop comes AKT. I bet, limper calls. Turn brick. I bet, limper calls. Same on the river. I think I was too cautious here, and just bet a small fraction of the pot. Limper calls and turns over AJ and I win the first pot. It turned out this guy won his way in via the rebuy sat last night and was terrible. He shortly got crippled later when he called a check raise all-in with A9 and the board 578. Like the guy next to me said, no one else here could have made that call. I have 12k or so.

7th hand of the tournament. Folded to me on the button, I look down at pocket kings. Raise to 200. BB reraises to 2000. I start panicking about busting out on the 7th hand of the tournament, so I call. I decide to see if an A comes on the flop. Flop comes T84. BB bets out 2000. I start to think.. does he have aces? Does he have aces? Argh.. I don't know how long I took, but it must have been 3-4 minutes. People started asking how long we could wait to think.. you can think for as long as you want, but someone can call a clock on you. Then you have 1 min 10 seconds left to think. Anyway, I decide screw it.. if it's Aces so be it. All-in. The guy thinks for a sec, then says i'd have called if you didn't do through that acting job. He folds and gets really pissed off. I wasn't acting though, I was seriously just not wanting to bust out so early. I caught up to him later and he said he had QQ and figured the only thing he could beat was JJ. Good laydown on his part. So I end up with 16,000 or so.

From there not much happens... up and down between 12k and 18k. A really young kid who won't tell us his pokerstars name builds up a stack to 25k or so with really agressive play and really good cards.

On the third level or so, I get AQh in the cut off. UTG raises 3x BB. He's pretty tight so I decide to call and see a flop. In retrospect, a really bad idea. Flop comes Qxx all black. He bets about 1/3 of his stack for 2000. Man.. I hit the flop and I think I make an too tight laydown. I'm happy with my 16000 and don't want to turn it into 10k. Too tight? Probably, but ah well.. probably should have reraised pre flop or something to see where I was.

Anyway, Gloria was nice enough to bring me dinner. Time to eat and I'll check in after the day is done.