World Series of Poker
My WSOP experience was short and disappointing. I lasted only through the middle of the third level or about 4 hours.
I pretty quickly was down to around 7500 playing tight. Lost some chips with AKs, open raising preflop in middle position, getting three callers and giving up on JTx rainbow flop, as it had to hit someone. I had 4 clean outs. Then I lost some more with JJ, reraising a frequent raiser (who had previously reraised someone with ATo) on my immediate right, who reraised me back and showed QQ after I folded. Then I lost AQs, after getting three callers to my open raise and flop QTx of diamonds. I bet, get reraised, call planning to bet hard on an offsuit turn. Turn Jd, I check, he bets, I fold, he shows Ad. I probably had him before the turn.
Then I got back to my high-water mark of about 10750 with A7o twice and AA once. First I raised with A7o 2 off the button and made two continuation bets to get the big blind to fold. Then the frequent raiser on my right got folded to in the small blind and tripled my big blind. I found an ace and called. Flop QTx rainbow, he bets something between 1/2 and 3/4 of the pot, I call since I may still have the best hand and I have position. Turn K, he checks looking quite disgusted, I bet a good portion of the pot, he fold and claims to have 77. Sweet. Then my open-raise with AA got two callers, K-high flop, I get check-raised by big blind who had previously busted someone else's AA in the same situation after he flopped two pair, I reraise to find out where I stand, he folds. I was ready to give it up.
All in all, I felt pretty good about my play. I was probably tighter than the table in general, and I didn't know where my chips would come from, as there were no obvious suckers at the table. There was one lady two to my right who seemed to be the weakest link, but she didn't look uncomfortable or not confident. There was a lot of post-flop maneuvering and nobody had busted yet. There was one short stack right behind me (the one whose AA got cracked).
I had 9300 in chips, still pretty good, blinds 100-200, next level 100-200 (25). I got KK in 2nd position, made it 700 to go, one caller behind me on whom I had no distinct read, and then the guy (same guy who had cracked AA and beat my AQs) with about 15K stack whom by then I had pegged as the best player at the table (he made at least top 200, as did the aggressive guy on my right) reraised 2500 more. At this point it was all-in or fold. I was reasonably sure he had AA and really wanted to fold. Then I remembered how I had spent the previous day talking to another Pokerroom team member who got crippled with KK vs AA, telling him that we are just aren't good enough to be able to afford to fold KK preflop, and that was probably the thing that made me say "all-in". The caller folded, and the raiser insta-called, so I knew he had aces. And off I went.
It took me two days to rationalize the fold of KK in that situation. While there were almost 5K in the pot, and it was a nice amount at the time, average stack in the money was going to be around 100K. He was only calling my all-in if I was beat, and risking the whole tournament (besides having a strong read) on 5K was pretty stupid. So it was one of those rare instances where folding KK preflop was the correct move. But if the worst one can say about my game is that I'm not good enough to fold kings, I'll take that as a compliment.
In other news, "O" was O-some. Otherwise, Las Vegas is a rather depressing city. I hope I'll be back here next year.
I pretty quickly was down to around 7500 playing tight. Lost some chips with AKs, open raising preflop in middle position, getting three callers and giving up on JTx rainbow flop, as it had to hit someone. I had 4 clean outs. Then I lost some more with JJ, reraising a frequent raiser (who had previously reraised someone with ATo) on my immediate right, who reraised me back and showed QQ after I folded. Then I lost AQs, after getting three callers to my open raise and flop QTx of diamonds. I bet, get reraised, call planning to bet hard on an offsuit turn. Turn Jd, I check, he bets, I fold, he shows Ad. I probably had him before the turn.
Then I got back to my high-water mark of about 10750 with A7o twice and AA once. First I raised with A7o 2 off the button and made two continuation bets to get the big blind to fold. Then the frequent raiser on my right got folded to in the small blind and tripled my big blind. I found an ace and called. Flop QTx rainbow, he bets something between 1/2 and 3/4 of the pot, I call since I may still have the best hand and I have position. Turn K, he checks looking quite disgusted, I bet a good portion of the pot, he fold and claims to have 77. Sweet. Then my open-raise with AA got two callers, K-high flop, I get check-raised by big blind who had previously busted someone else's AA in the same situation after he flopped two pair, I reraise to find out where I stand, he folds. I was ready to give it up.
All in all, I felt pretty good about my play. I was probably tighter than the table in general, and I didn't know where my chips would come from, as there were no obvious suckers at the table. There was one lady two to my right who seemed to be the weakest link, but she didn't look uncomfortable or not confident. There was a lot of post-flop maneuvering and nobody had busted yet. There was one short stack right behind me (the one whose AA got cracked).
I had 9300 in chips, still pretty good, blinds 100-200, next level 100-200 (25). I got KK in 2nd position, made it 700 to go, one caller behind me on whom I had no distinct read, and then the guy (same guy who had cracked AA and beat my AQs) with about 15K stack whom by then I had pegged as the best player at the table (he made at least top 200, as did the aggressive guy on my right) reraised 2500 more. At this point it was all-in or fold. I was reasonably sure he had AA and really wanted to fold. Then I remembered how I had spent the previous day talking to another Pokerroom team member who got crippled with KK vs AA, telling him that we are just aren't good enough to be able to afford to fold KK preflop, and that was probably the thing that made me say "all-in". The caller folded, and the raiser insta-called, so I knew he had aces. And off I went.
It took me two days to rationalize the fold of KK in that situation. While there were almost 5K in the pot, and it was a nice amount at the time, average stack in the money was going to be around 100K. He was only calling my all-in if I was beat, and risking the whole tournament (besides having a strong read) on 5K was pretty stupid. So it was one of those rare instances where folding KK preflop was the correct move. But if the worst one can say about my game is that I'm not good enough to fold kings, I'll take that as a compliment.
In other news, "O" was O-some. Otherwise, Las Vegas is a rather depressing city. I hope I'll be back here next year.