Posts Tagged ‘Las Vegas’

The second installment of my trip report from the main event of the 2010 World Series of Poker, covering Days 3 and 4, has just been published in the September issue of 2+2 Magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

I came into Day 4 with a monster stack relative to the field. I had over 500,000 chips, when the average was about 180,000, ranking me 27th among the more than 1,200 players who remained. Day 4 was a particularly good day for this, as it was also the day that would separate the players who would win nothing from those who would take home at least $19,000. With 747 players to be paid, no one wanted to be eliminated in 748th place (or 762nd, for that matter), which meant that most people were playing more conservatively than usual.  Read the complete post...

The first installment of my 2010 WSOP main event trip report, covering Days 1 and 2, is now appearing in the 2+2 Internet Magazine:

“We began play with 30,000 chips each and blinds of just 50 and 100. On the very first hand, about half the table folded before the player on my right, a young French Canadian in a red hoodie who looked sort of like a raccoon, made a small raise to 200. I was next to act holding K5s. I re-raised to 600. Everyone folded, and just like that I was up to 30,350 chips. It was the most I would have all day.”

If you want to find out what went wrong on Day 1 and why I got called a “douchebag” on Day 2, then read the article. And of course, let me know what you think of it!

This year’s WSOP journey ended for me about an hour ago. Out of more than 7000 players, I finished 87th and won just shy of $80,000. There was nothing dramatic about it. I lost two very standard pre-flop hands to Eric Baldwin, once with A4s < KJs for a 700K pot and once with A8s < JTs for a 1.6M chip pot. Then I made a standard preflop shove with A7, got called by QQ, and lost.

There is always a modest amount of disappointment when it’s all over, but of course all in all I’m quite pleased with the result. I’m also very happy that for the first time ever I feel like I played through this whole tournament without making any big mistakes and with only a few small ones. That doesn’t mean that everything always went my way, but as they say you play the cards you’re dealt, and I believe that I would play most of them the same way if I had it to do all over again.  Read the complete post...

What a run. In the last two days I’ve 20x’ed my chips without ever seeing TT, QQ, KK, or AA. I did have AK quite a few times today, though, and I connected with a few flops when it counted.

I stole more than my share of pots for a few hands, then made a questionable 4-bet shove with AKo. UTG+1 had raised to 2500, and I called with AKo next to his act. Then Brian Jensen re-raised to 8500, the raiser folded, and I shoved like 55K. He snap-called with KK, and then though I turned a flush draw, I couldn’t get there on the river. I probably should have just 3-bet the original raiser, and that would have had the added advantage of being able to get away if Brian cold 4-bet. Anyway, that didn’t help.  Read the complete post...

Today was everything that Wednesday was not, namely fun and profitable. I had a very enjoyable table and showed a handsome profit to boot.

Early on I doubled up with Q’s vs. 9’s on a 4h 4s 3h 2h board. We both had a heart, so he was in real bad shape there.

Then after getting a kind of aggro image I opened to 1100 with Ad 9s UTG+1 at 200/400/25. Two loose guys on my left call and decent tourney player on button makes it 4400. I 4-bet him to 12K, and he called quite quickly. I was ready to be done with the hand, but I flopped Qd 6d 5d, so I had to go with it. I get 16K, and he quickly called again. The turn was 4s, and at this point even if I knew he had a pair I was basically committed to the pot, so I shoved my last 25K. He tanked for a long time and made what I think was a good call with JJ no diamond. Unfortunately for him I drilled the Jd on the river to double up again.  Read the complete post...

Well, today’s the day! I’ll be playing Day 1C, beginning in about 3 hours. I know I don’t tweet much outside of poker tournaments, but I will be sending updates from my phone about chip counts and big pots. You can follow me at www.twitter.com/thinkingpoker. Of course I’ll post some more detailed info to the blog tomorrow as well.

Thanks to all those who are rooting for me!

Thanks to everyone who’s asked how the series is going for me or what my WSOP plans are- I’m flattered by your interest. As you’ve probably figured out, I’m not in Las Vegas now. I will be playing the main event, hopefully Day 1C (July 7), but nothing else. I just don’t enjoy live poker very much, and there are things I’d rather be doing with my summer than hanging out in the Amazon Room every day. For instance, I’m currently camping in Grand Teton National Park (this missive being posted automagically by Wordpress), and will spend Fourth of July in Jackson, WY before flying out to Vegas.

There will most certainly be WSOP hands and a trip report, hopefully in quite a few installments!

Over two weeks ago, I won the FTOPS Tournament of Champions, the prize for which was a seat in the WSOP Main Event. I never received the money or any further information, so eventually I wrote them to ask about it. It sounds like the only incentive they are offering me to play is three nights’ hotel accommodations and dinner with an unspecified several of their red pros. My understanding was that the FTP incentives package also included a seat in the 2011 WSOP for any of their people who cash this year and also $10M if you win the whole thing.  Read the complete post...