2010 WSOP Event 39 NL Shootout
Heck. This is generally a very soft field, but my table was very unsoft. Half Euro whizkids, strong American online players, and Gavin Smith. Despite Gavin's MapleLeaf-TexCobb shtick, he's a lot smarter than he lets on. He let slip that he's gotten his hyperturbo ROI up to the point where he's making money on rakeback. That's pretty strong.
I won a nice pot early, dwindled for almost two hours, then picked off a short stack all-in right before the break to get my stack near doubling. But upon resumption, the bottom fell out. Six-handed, EVERY pot was three bet, and I had zero strong hands. Next level jump I'm at a stack:blind factor of 15, so I just waved off the gray area and went into fold-jam mode. First jam was w an A8o in the cutoff. Next orbit I have KQo on the button. German kid thinks forever in his BB and I guess he got a read finally and called with .. KJo. Heh. J in the window. Game over.
Right before the start of play, kid next to me says something about he'd rather be playing Scrabble. I lay low, not appearing to be to eager. One second later, Gavin in his drunk-Canuck-looking-for-a-bar-fight tone (aka default) says, "Wellll, you don't look so smart. I bet you couldn't even beat, uh, oh, him!" pointing at me. So much for the slow play.
Congrats to Albert for his final table in the HORSE! And congrats to Bill for his second. And props to Phil Ivey for making insane bets (for an insane amount) just to motivate himself, and then bringing it home. I happened to be present for the negotiations last year, and this is a direct quote, "I know I'm giving you the best of it. I know this is a bad bet. I know I'm going to win it anyway." There are hundreds of poker players I respect and admire. There is only one that frightens me. And there are probably 500 people who say the exact same thing.
Phil and Bill 'cdotes
On several occasions, I've written about my friend Matt, the world's worst sports bettor. I was talking about him to jorj95 on day 2 of the HORSE and Ivey was on my left. Ivey was long Celtics in multiple ways. "Who does he like tonight? (game 7)" Quick texts:
jim: "Ivey wants to know who you like tonight"
matt: "Celtics"
jim: "You've done it. You tilted Ivey."
--
On the first break of the 3k HORSE:
jim: "I just read The Road; have you read it?"
jerrod: "Yeah, I wouldn't do well in that spot."
jim: "Me neither. I feel lucky to live in an era where my skills afford me survival."
jerrod: "It's staggering how different a skill set would be needed at any other time in history."
(Bill, kinda squinting, walks up)
jim: "It always seemed to me that astigmatism would be one of those traits that would weed out of the gene pool a long time ago when we were less flexible in our adaptations."
bill: "Well, there's compensations, so near-sighted people are more likely to possess superior intelligence."
jim: "Couldn't you say that about any attribute pair? Perhaps near-sighted people have higher sperm counts or run faster."
bill: "Of course. It's just that -- oh crap, there's 90 seconds left in the break and I have to pee" (dashes back out of amazon room)
jerrod: "That wasn't a very well managed break by Bill"
jim: "perhaps he's a fast near-sighter."
I won a nice pot early, dwindled for almost two hours, then picked off a short stack all-in right before the break to get my stack near doubling. But upon resumption, the bottom fell out. Six-handed, EVERY pot was three bet, and I had zero strong hands. Next level jump I'm at a stack:blind factor of 15, so I just waved off the gray area and went into fold-jam mode. First jam was w an A8o in the cutoff. Next orbit I have KQo on the button. German kid thinks forever in his BB and I guess he got a read finally and called with .. KJo. Heh. J in the window. Game over.
Right before the start of play, kid next to me says something about he'd rather be playing Scrabble. I lay low, not appearing to be to eager. One second later, Gavin in his drunk-Canuck-looking-for-a-bar-fight tone (aka default) says, "Wellll, you don't look so smart. I bet you couldn't even beat, uh, oh, him!" pointing at me. So much for the slow play.
Congrats to Albert for his final table in the HORSE! And congrats to Bill for his second. And props to Phil Ivey for making insane bets (for an insane amount) just to motivate himself, and then bringing it home. I happened to be present for the negotiations last year, and this is a direct quote, "I know I'm giving you the best of it. I know this is a bad bet. I know I'm going to win it anyway." There are hundreds of poker players I respect and admire. There is only one that frightens me. And there are probably 500 people who say the exact same thing.
Phil and Bill 'cdotes
On several occasions, I've written about my friend Matt, the world's worst sports bettor. I was talking about him to jorj95 on day 2 of the HORSE and Ivey was on my left. Ivey was long Celtics in multiple ways. "Who does he like tonight? (game 7)" Quick texts:
jim: "Ivey wants to know who you like tonight"
matt: "Celtics"
jim: "You've done it. You tilted Ivey."
--
On the first break of the 3k HORSE:
jim: "I just read The Road; have you read it?"
jerrod: "Yeah, I wouldn't do well in that spot."
jim: "Me neither. I feel lucky to live in an era where my skills afford me survival."
jerrod: "It's staggering how different a skill set would be needed at any other time in history."
(Bill, kinda squinting, walks up)
jim: "It always seemed to me that astigmatism would be one of those traits that would weed out of the gene pool a long time ago when we were less flexible in our adaptations."
bill: "Well, there's compensations, so near-sighted people are more likely to possess superior intelligence."
jim: "Couldn't you say that about any attribute pair? Perhaps near-sighted people have higher sperm counts or run faster."
bill: "Of course. It's just that -- oh crap, there's 90 seconds left in the break and I have to pee" (dashes back out of amazon room)
jerrod: "That wasn't a very well managed break by Bill"
jim: "perhaps he's a fast near-sighter."