WSOP 2010 Report 5
I had been hoping to day two the $1500 NL event last week not because I knew that would mean cashing, but so I could avoid having to play in the $5000 six max event. Although I was quite confident I was a +EV player in the field I'd much rather avoid the thing and the nasty line up of players that inhabit it. Despite spending the four months leading up to the series playing and writing about poker heavily, I'm just not as confident in my game compared to the fields as I was say, two years ago. Granted I feel I made some quality progress during that time, hanging out with a household of such phenomenal players makes me acutely aware of what I know and what I don't know, and when talking poker with them the don't know becomes quickly apparent. I think after another year of hard work and high volume play and study my game will be back at a place where I feel ready to fuck shit up in the majority of fields.
I arrived at the table a few minutes late and found Shaun Buchanon waiting for me on my immediate left and Antonio Esfandiari on his immediate left. I had only met Antonio briefly before, but I was aware that we had highly similiar social interests and it wasn't but a couple minutes in that we were talking about going out to clubs and chasing girls. Antonio proposed a game of "Lodden Thinks" at $200 a question and after assigning the French kid in seat one to be our brain we were off and running. Questions varied from the simple "How many push ups could Barrack Obama do?" to the speculative "How many women has Mike Matusow slept with?" to the appealing yet unfortunately imaginary "How much would Tony pay to have Scarlet Johansson do anything he wanted all day every day for a straight week?" After talking to him for a while it's definitely no mystery why he does well with women; he's a confident, friendly, and real chill guy. We also played some poker together:
Effective stacks: ~15,000
Blinds 50/75. I hold Qs Qc UTG. 5 handed.
Preflop: I raise to 200, CO folds, Antonio calls on the button, SB calls, BB folds.
Flop: Th 5s 3h
SB checks, I bet 500, Antonio calls, SB calls.
Turn: 3c
SB checks, I bet 1300 (I think this should be a bit larger), Antonio calls, SB folds.
River: Ah
I check, Antonio bets 3100, I fold.
Between action a large rail gathered to overhear and semi participate in our often amusing and occasionally vulgar game of "Lodden Thinks". People were suggesting questions and offering various side bets, all while Antonio absolutely smashed me at the game. Even if he let me choose the question or it was on a topic I felt pretty informed about he always seemed to have a better grasp of what the third person was thinking and anticipating. "We're gonna get along just fine kid" he told me. "Yea, I take losing pretty well, I have a lot of practice at it" I returned. When we weren't chatting about the question at hand Shawn Buchanon was making my life absolute hell on my immediate left, mixing in a barrage of 3-bets and flats in position which were often followed by flop calls or raises and then multiple barrels of betting. The end result was usually my folding, but I finally found a hand to go into station mode with:
My stack: ~10,000, Shawn: ~30,000.
Blinds: 75/150, I hold Ah 9s on the CO.
Preflop: Folds to me on the CO, I raise to 400, Shawn calls on the button, both blinds fold.
Flop: 9d 5s 2h
I bet 600, Shawn calls.
Turn: 3d
Although this a spot where I'd often double barrel for value, because the dynamic with Shawn had almost been with my betting flop and checking turn I thought I got more value that way. I checked, Shawn bet 900, and I called.
River: 2d
I checked, Shawn bet 2200, I called, and Shawn tabled KdTd for a flush.
Fortunately, it wasn't long until I found an opportunity to get some chips back from him:
My stack: ~7,500, Shawn: ~33,000.
Blinds: 75/150, I hold Ks Kc on the button.
Preflop: Folds to me on the button, I riase to 400, Shawn reraises to 1150 in the SB, BB folds, I shove for about 7500, Shawn calls and tables 99.
Board: T 8 3 7 2
A few orbits later a player with 4900 chips on the button raised the 100/200 blinds to 500 and I shoved on him in the BB with 66. He thought it over and made the call with 77, but I slammed a 6 out on the flop to add even more chips to my stack. Only a couple orbits later I was involved with Antonio in a large pot that continued my rollercoaster ride straight up:
My stack: ~24,000, Antonio: ~33,000
Blinds: 100/200, I hold As8s on the HJ
Preflop: UTG calls for 200, I raise to 800, Shawn calls on the CO, Antonio calls on the button, SB calls, BB folds, UTG calls.
Flop: Ts 4s 2h
BB checks, UTG checks, I bet 2600, Shawn folds, Antonio calls, SB folds, UTG folds.
Turn: 9d
I bet 5600, Antonio thinks for a bit and calls.
River: 3s
I bet 8800, Antonio shoves, and I naturally call very fast. Antonio tables Ks9s for the second nuts and a massive cooler in my favor and taking the opportunity for him to play deep stacked poker against me in position.
Even though he was crippled we continued our games of "Lodden Thinks". The French guy in seat 1 had busted so we assigned the new guy in the seat to be our brain. We did some of the same questions and wound up asking him how many push ups Barrack Obama could do. After we got his answer, which was in the 40's, we started discussing the potential of our push up prop bet. I said I'd do it at the break and Antonio said he'd do it in two days since he did a chest work out the other day. I figured we'd have a simple bet and said I'd wager $200 on it, which lead to Andy Black in seat six instantly announcing in his quaint Irish accent "I'll bet ten thousand on Antonio." My mind went racing; Antonio is a lean guy and has likely done plenty of push up bets, but I'm the guy who spends his life in the fucking gym. People rarely have a sense of my size in my suits because they're cut so thin, yet hidden behind them is roughly 190 pounds on my 6'1" frame. Still, I feel like whenever someone extremely confidently throws out an offer for 50 times the original wager you need to stop and reflect about what they might know that you don't. As Damon Runyon said ""Son, one of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider." I declined Andy's bet, and he instantly offered again at $5,000. I said I was just looking for a friendly bet, and Antonio and I wound up booking it for $500 in two days time. A few hands after booking it Antonio walked over and pushed his hand into my chest in a examining fashion. "Ah shit" he blurted. Still, he said he could do about 70 in a row, and considering I don't train for endurance very often I wasn't sure what I was actually capable of.
Antonio wound up busting a little after the second break, having taken something like $1500 from me in Lodden thinks. We discussed the push up bet and decided it'd be inconvienent for both of us, so he bought out for $100 and we made plans to settle up in the next couple days. The table become quieter and I focused intensely on the action. I soon found myself engaged in a large pot with the guy who had been our second brain in our betting, a young and friendly guy in seat 1:
My stack: ~52,000, HJ: ~26,000.
Blinds 100/200 with a 25 ante, I hold AsTd on the button.
Preflop: UTG folds, HJ raises to 500, CO folds, I call, SB folds, BB calls.
Flop: Qd 9d Jh
BB checks, HJ bets 1300, I call, BB folds.
Turn: 5d
HJ thinks for a while and bets 2400, I raise to 7000. I think this is a decent spot to bluff raise because my hand isn't quite good enough that I like a call, particularly since my implied are weak on the straight. Additionally, his bet sizing indicates that he's either trying to incite action (likely with a flush, which makes my outs dead most of the time) or blocking with a speculative hand, plus I hadn't gotten out of line post flop much and thought I'd get a lot of credibility. Unfortunately, the HJ thought things over for a while then popped me back to 13,000. I thought things over briefly then released my hand.
For a long time nothing major happened. Our table was eventually broken and I found myself at a new one with less familiar faces. I slowly and steadily lost chips over a long duration without any major hands, even though the structure was deep and play was complex. Mostly I was just card dead. At the 400/800 level my stack had plummeted down to around 21,000, though I made a couple hands when I took flops out of the BB with suited connectors in multi way pots and after making a light 3 bet and taking the blinds a few times I was back to 40,000. I got moved yet again and a few orbits into my table I got involved in a large pot again:
My stack: ~40,000, BB: ~60,000
Blinds 500/1000 with a 100 ante. I hold KsJc in the SB.
Preflop: Folds to me in the SB, I raise to 3000, BB calls.
Flop: Qd 6h 4d
I bet 4000, BB calls.
Turn: Kc
I bet 9000, BB calls.
River: 3h
I shove for 26,100, the BB tanks for quite some time and hesitantly makes the call. I table my top pair and he mucks his hand.
Only a couple orbits later I then got involved of was likely the largest pot of the tournament up to that point against fellow online player and friendly guy 'Dankstacks'. Time was running out for the day, and the SB mentioned out loud that he really hoped he either doubled up or busted since he didn't want to come back to a short stack the next day:
My stack: ~92,000, Dank: ~80,000, SB: ~20,000.
Blinds 500/1000 with 100 ante. I hold AsAc on the button.
Preflop: Folds to me on the button, I raise to 2500, the SB shoves for 20k, the BB thinks over his options and calls, I ask him how much he's playing, glance at them both, then shove. Dank double checks his stack, then says "Yea, I gotta call" and tables AQo. The SB shows KTo and I was in position to win a massive pot.
Flop: 6c 9c Ah
They were near dead on the flop.
Turn: 9
River: 3
I collected a massive pot, and when things ended for the day I was going into day two with 180,500 chips and the title of second place right behind friend and fellow Savvy instructor Christian Harder.
WSOP 2010 Report 4
It has been a hectic and busy week or so at the WSOP. It began last Sunday, when I played that weekends $1000 event and made it through day one. It started easy when I played a big pot early with KK. My opponent four bet my 3 bet of 225 to 475 and I called. The flop came K93 and I check called a bet of 475. The turn was an 8 and my opponent checked behind when I checked. The river arrived with a Q and I fired out a bet of 1200. He shoved, I called quickly, and he tabled QQ thinking he’d gotten lucky on the river. Not so much.
I got my stack up to about 8000 before losing with AJ to a very short stacks AK and hung around the 6000 area forever. I played an interesting hand that my opponent posted on 2+2 at the following link: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/87/high-stakes-mtt/wsop-1k-33-pre-807340/
In the hand, I held A6o in the BB. The button was a guy of perhaps 30 who said out loud that he didn’t play online, but I knew that he knew who I was and he was playing quite well and certainly put serious thought into his decisions, so I thought there was a good chance he was an online guy covering himself or simply joking around. The SB between us was a pretty nity Asian dude with about 6,500. I had just under 6000 in the BB at 150/300 with a 25 ante and the button had 13,500. It folded to him and he seemed to consider all his options, then elected to shove. The SB folded and I started thinking about what I believed his likely range to shove. I guessed that he would raise/call his best hands, as he had opened the button small before and had the correct image to let us think that he could raise/fold the spot. I decided he would likely shove something like 22-66, A2s-A6s, A5o-A8o, KQ off and suited, KJ off and suited, JTs, QJs and though I didn’t have poker stove handy in my brain, I estimated that I might be slightly ahead of his range, which plus the money in the pot made it a call. When I run A6o in the stove against that range it comes out as 49.1%, making it a slightly +EV call. In the thread the player on the button said his jam range is likely something like 22-66, A2s, A3s, and A4-A7o, which I am 48.2% against. Either way, I made the call and binked an ace against his 33, putting me in a comfortable position to make a run.
Not long after at the same level I played a hand with AK where the CO open shoved for 4500 and I reshoved AKo next to act on the button with 13,150. The SB folded and the BB overcalled for the full amount, starting the hand with about 16,000. The BB had QQ and the CO had KTo, but that didn’t stop the board from running out K7469 and giving me a ton of chips. I finished up that evening with an above average stack of 30 some thousand and came back the next day running hot immediately. In the early goings I found AA UTG and opened the standard 2.5X. The next player to act was a smart online guy who I spoke to a bit and he made a tiny reraise. It then folded to the very tight SB who shoved for about 21 BB, and when it folded back to me I thought briefly and jammed it in. The UTG+1 player made a good fold of QQ and when the SB turned over KK and I held I managed to win a massive pot for the second time this series where I was dealt AA when both KK and QQ were also dealt out that hand. Easy game.
I also played a fairly interesting hand against fellow PokerSavvyPlus instructor Andrew Chen. Andrew opened in mid position to 2800 and with roughly 60k effective stacks I made it 7500 on the button with Jh8h. It folded back to Andrew and after considering his options he elected to call. The flop came A J X rainbow and we both checked. The turn was the 6d putting a backdoor flush out and Andrewy check/called a bet of 9000. The river brought a likely needed 8d and Andrew check-called my bet of 15,000 after much consideration. He told me he had AhQh and I told him I thought the river decision is a very interesting spot from his side. Unfortunately, Andrew’s bad luck continued and he was eliminated not long after dinner, but having played with him it was clear to me why he’s done so well recently.
Unfortunately, things went mostly downhill from there. Nothing particularly major happened for a long time, but I seemed to lose every hand I played. I ran AQs into AKo for about 21 BB and had to 3 bet/fold AQo when I was intending to call a 4 bet from the original raiser but online player TheNorfman cold 4 bet shoved over my 3 bet. I wound up getting moved tables and hung around 10 BB for a while before open shoving Q9o on the HJ into a few players who were calling much too tight, and the BB woke up with JJ which held up. I finished 109th for around $3000 and my second cash of the series.
During the mid part of my day two during the event I was fortunate enough to have James McManus seated on my direct right. We had played and spoke once before perhaps a year or two before, but I didn’t expect him to remember me considering how many people would talk to him about his book. I told him that I loved his book (Positively Fifth Street) and that it was one of my inspirations for my blog. I read it on the plane ride to Australia for my first major live tournament when I was 20. The combination of poker action, seedy murder investigation, prominent poker player interactions, and highly honest and entertaining self reflection was at the perfect balance, and I really appreciated that he didn’t hold anything back. He complimented me on my suit and tie, and we had a discussion about why so many of the young players seem to feel it necessary to disrespect the older generations that came before them in the game. I used to be one of the young guns who had nothing but wise cracks and insults for many of my elders within the industry, but my view point has changed heavily over the last couple years. I still maintain that I think the online players have become the supreme caliber of player in the game and that many of the old school guys have fundamental leaks, but I respect what they’ve accomplished for having come from a time when they had much fewer tools and information to assist at getting better. At one point during play McManus got all in with 88 against over cards, and when a young player on my left commented he had an 8 McManus angrily blurted that it was “idiotic” to state that during the hand. However, an orbit or so later McManus walked over to the young man, shoot his hand, and apologized for his outburst. I understand that very, very few people will ever become as emotionally detached to the game that I am, and seeing a display of frustration, annoyance, or anger is pretty common. However, what’s not common is those who lash out realizing they’ve made an error and being mature enough to man up and apologize. I suppose that was one of the most appealing aspects of his writing to me; McManus never pretended to be perfect in his book, and he presented the story as accurately as he knew how from his perspective.
Having made the second day of that tournament I had to miss the highly appealing $2,500 no limit six max tournament and wound up taking Tuesday off as there was nothing for me to play.
On Wednesday I played in the $1500 event. I played two relevant hands against the same opponent. In the first I raised the 25/50 blinds with KK on the CO and got a call from the SB. The flop came AJ3 rainbow and we both checked. The turn came a 4 and he bet out 400. I called (and I don’t think folding is bad considering his sizing) and the river came K. He checked, I bet 1000, he called, and I announced “I got lucky on the river” as I turned over my hand (unless he hero called QJ.) He saw my hand and grumbled out a few comments about the situation before mucking.
The next level I found AJo on the HJ with a stack of about 5500. There was a limp from a weak-loose player in front of me and I raised to 50/100 blinds to 400. The player I had sucked out in the KK hand called on the button and it folded back to the limper who also called. The flop came 4c Jd Js and I bet out 600 when the limper checked. The flat caller made it 1200 and the limper folded. I called and the turn brought the 2s. I checked and my opponent instantly moved all in, leading to an instant call from me. He tabled As4s and when the river slammed down a Ts he started boasting “Yes! We are even now, that’s for before! We’re even!” I glanced at him blankly, adjusted my suit, and wished the table luck then left without another word. For those of you who might be tempted to exchange a few words with the guys out there who talk to you like this on the table or after a bust out hand I highly discourage it; don’t waste time on their pointless banter and don’t point out their errors in logic, just calmly take their money over the long term and laugh yourself all the way to the bank. Of course, I was pretty thrilled to get busted considering I had an open invitation to a cabana at the Aria pool with Bellagio dealer Todd and some nice people I met a few weeks back at a house party, so I guess that made swallowing the shit talk easier.
Off the table things have been equally busy. I still try to get in the gym six days a week but generally end up having to settle for five when I last too long in some event and it’s closed when I get home. If I miss a work out I either push it to the next day, or combine two groups of muscles into a longer double work out so nothing gets skipped. On days off from lifting I aim to either go running outside or hit the gym and sit on a stationary bike for 30 minutes or so. I’ve loosened up the diet a ton and have started drinking again, which turns me into a total animal. Last Friday I got raging drunk at a birthday party in a club at the Hard Rock. My friend JaspudUF and I scoured the club for girls, and upon realizing the place was sporting a weak ratio I demanded that we go to the strip and hit on girls on the sidewalk and in the hallways of casinos. Things are very, very blurry, but what I do know is that I apparently approached some girl in a hallway of New York-New York as she was walking out of a bathroom, said a bunch of things I no longer remember, and after 3-5 minutes of banter and making out I lead her by the hand down the hallway and happened upon the closed Starbucks. I tore open the counter and lead her into the backroom which was separated from the store front by a curtain. We started furiously making out and I whipped out my wallet then slammed it down on a counter and started grabbing for a condom. She said she something along the lines of “Not being that kind of girl” but she then unzipped my pants, tore off my underwear, and went down on me. This went on for a while and when it ended I told her I had weed back at mine and that we needed to smoke it. We got a taxi, went to the house, blazed, and sex for a while until I stumbled off her and into the bathroom then got on my own knees so I could clutch the toilet for about half an hour and wished I could vomit. I never managed to. I came out to find her unconscious so I sat on the computer upstairs and chugged water in hopes of avoiding a vicious hangover. I believe I got to bed around 4am. I ran into JaspudUF last night at a club and he put a few of the pieces of that night back together for me, and said that when I ran off to approach her that her friends looked over and saw us then commented “Jeez…he can do better” and I don’t believe they were attempting to compliment me. Girls can be so mean.
I woke up that Saturday morning at 8am and although I didn’t have a hangover I was feeling pretty awful. I realized I had no idea what her name was or anything we’d talked about, so when I rolled out of bed around 9am I decided that I was going to fuck the whole day up real proper. I threw on some jeans, a cowboy hat, then went to the kitchen and started ripping the bubbler at a frantic pace. I ordered her a cab and I left her with the advice that she “Have fun in Vegas kid.” I had plans to do a guest spot on PokerRoad as well as play host to Erik Fast and Card player’s High Stakes Living show, so I felt the only responsible thing to do was continue getting messed up throughout the whole day. I kept up a steady stream of bubbler hits and joints throughout the morning and began drinking at the tapas restaurant across the street around 11am. After downing some beer and sangria at the restaurant I sent friend and PokerRoad host Bryan Devonshire a text that read “I’m brining beer and I haven’t been sober in roughly 16 hours.” I went to the grocery store, purchased a case of Fat Tire, and was driven over to the Rio.
On the show we discussed the now infamous Stoney’s truck story with Devo and I reading the text thread between Holdplz and Smitty out loud, as we had on our table earlier that week. Devo and host Jeremiah are both real fun guys who are high on life experience and run a pretty cool show. I caught a ride back to the house when we finished and continued to smoke and drink in anticipation of Cardplayer showing up. They arrived to find Chewy and I drinking and clowning around, leading to the following episode of High Stakes Living: http://www.cardplayer.com/cptv/channels/10-lifestyle/poker-videos/4194-high-stakes-living-andrew-lichtenberger-tony-dunst-and-friends
After they left I just kept going on the sauce then Devo and I headed out to check out a small reggae concert by a pool that goes off every Saturday. I’ve known Devo for a few years now but this was the first time we ever kicked it for a long time one on one. I’ve always really liked the guy, but after getting to spend so much time talking to him I have to say I’m really impressed by the attitude and enthusiasm that he approaches life with. We come from pretty separate backgrounds and in fact are quite opposite in many regards, but we’re both open minded and easy going to the point that we can appreciate that we learn from the others differences and enjoy gathering perspective from another guy who has done a lot of random shit with his life. The evening ended by heading over to his brothers bar before he dropped me off at home and I ripped a few more night caps. It had been a long time since I spent an entire day getting fucked up (well, there was the beer pong tournament I guess) and while it’s nothing something I like to make a habit of, I have to say I had an ass load of fun doing it and felt nostalgic for college. Ah, for the times when getting wasted all day was the norm and not suspect behavior.
The Story of the 2010 Doyle Brunson Beer Pong Classic
Authors Note: I wrote this one a while ago, but it got stuck on the computer with no internet and nobody has any removable memory. This day was pretty much the end of my three month diet and abstaining from alcohol. I’d also like to take this opportunity to call out a heads up beer pong match between Leo Murphy and Wretchy, that shit needs to go down.
May 27th, 2010: I am surrounded by the kind of filth that only a pack of 20 something degens with no legitimate responsibilities in life can make. There are bottles everywhere, God knows how many red disposable cups, dozens of cans, fast food wrappers, an empty milk carton, no chairs in the kitchen, a bubbler and piece (which I am making simultaneous use of to alleviate the hangover), a fold up beer pong table, three people on the couches and two beer pong trophies, both already broken in some capacity. Additionally, I have just been handed half a weed cup cake, my first consumption of the morning. Yesterday was definitely the kind of day worth breaking the no drinking rule, and assuredly the kind where you wind up paying for doing so.
I began my day with kempo. I was up at the crack of dawn; also known as 12:15pm around here. We did an entire day of practice falling over and tucking your head up into your chest so you don’t slam your head and are still capable of fighting from the ground or getting back up. I told my instructor about my upcoming beer pong tournament that day and he said maybe this was something I’d need by the end of the day. He didn’t know it at the time, but kempo instructor David Williams had made a good read.
We were out the door at 1:30pm, driving to the North side of the strip in a car that had a roughly zero percent chance of being driven home by anyone in the car. The 3rd Annual Doyle Brunson Beer Pong Classic was being held at Hogs and Heifers, a downtown Las Vegas bar that was packed with people by the time we arrived. Everyone began drinking immediately and with much enthusiasm and consistency. Having been almost entirely sober for some time I decided to pace myself starting my day with only one jagerbomb as opposed to the many of Chewy and Dan. I’d drafted my buddy Leo Murphy as a last minute replacement when my partner to be Randal Flowers had to drop out due to transportation issues getting in to Vegas. We’d played the previous night for some practice and I found out that Leo Murphy is apparently the ultimate beer pong ringer. I like to think I throw a respectable game of beer pong with my Wisconsin heritage, but this man from Ohio can throw a damn ping pong ball in a cup like a laser guided missile.
Tons of great guys and girls were out for it, and everyone was clowning around while getting wasted. I think it’s a real fun event for a poker room to organize, and for the first time today I was introduced to Doyle Brunson through my friend Lara Miller. I’d never run into him on the table, and I said no particularly relevant words upon our meeting. As a writer, I have a lot of respect for his work on Supersystem and his often clever blog plus I think it’s pretty cool he’ll still come out and get drunk in the afternoon with the kids at his age. With the WSOP only days away many people are already in town checking into their houses and hotels so there were plenty of people to catch up with. We all milled about drinking and chatting until a woman with a megaphone started screaming the rules at us then announced that it was game time.
We had a pretty quick victory in the first round, then an ultra close second match against Todd Brunson and Brett Jungblut with much playful trash talking. The third match was by far the most important of the tournament; a heads up match against house mates Luckychewy and KingDan. There was a flurry of betting going on, and by the time the dust settled I had $1250 riding on it myself, with the potential to win $1000. Dan was raging drunk at this stage, as he had taken several shots between rounds in the tournament, and Chewy wasn’t holding up that much better. Meanwhile, Leo and I had paced ourselves, and blew them the fuck out within minutes. We had a pretty close semi final match, but made it through to the finals against my friends Shawn Green and Mandy Baker. I started out hot but by the end of the game I was bricking everything and flat out whiffing the last cup. It didn’t matter though, because Leo was an unstoppable force and drained the last cup multiple times even after they came back with two rebuttles. When we finally won Leo picked me up and I started yelling all kinds of random shit and high-fiving anyone in my proximity. On top of our championship trophy, I managed to win the “Best shit talker” trophy by making many absurd claims throughout the day, such as telling my opponents in an interview that “I will eat your fucking children!” Upon being awarded the trophy I requested the megaphone from the woman on the bar and yelled into it “AND I WANNA TELL MY PUNK ASS OPPONENTS THAT YOU’RE ALL A BUNCH OF BITCHES, MOTHER FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKERS!!!” I believe that was it, but I’m sure the video has it more accurately: http://www.bluffmagazine.com/videos/video.asp?vid=38
Things are slightly blurry after the win. I recall we mostly hung around drinking for a while, and that I must have done more fist pounds, high-fives, and nubs throughout the afternoon than any prior in my life. Dom didn’t drink and wound up driving us home, where there was more beer waiting, not to mention the pipe. We continued getting ripped and made plans to go out to Lavo in a big group that night. I’d left my new dark suit in the front of the house and while sprinting barefoot at full speed to retrieve it (because, of course I should sprint in the house) I slipped on a bunch of liquid Dan had spilled and completely upended, coming crashing down on the floor a second later. I slammed my ass and it hurt a ton, but what I didn’t do was hit my head because I’d had it instinctually tucked into my chest. I lay on the floor for quite some time, unable to move. When I finally got up I was hobbling, and had difficulty moving around the rest of the night. It still has me limping.
When we got into the strip we wound up in line for our table at Lavo. By the time we got inside an entire days drinking was really catching up to me and I felt exhausted. When they sat us I just posted up on the wall and started dozing off in the middle of the blaring club. Dan was equally wasted, and we soon made plans to depart. I’m pretty confident we took a cab home, though I’ll have to consult Dan to make sure; I merely remember that neither of us drove.
I was actually up for a few hours once I got home, and I seem to recall playing some Nintendo Wii. I woke up a few hours after falling asleep, and remembered the hard way that there are some reasons why it’s nice to rarely drink besides a diet. I’ve found this morning that Pokernews has done a fun article and video about the day, which can be seen here: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2010/05/tony-dunst-dominates-day-of-trash-talking-drinking-at-doyle-8359.htm and numerous other sites put up video for it:
http://www.bluffmagazine.com/videos/video.asp?vid=25
http://www.cardplayer.com/cptv/channels/10-lifestyle/poker-videos/4154-2010-brunson-beer-pong-challenge
They catch me yelling about eating peoples children in the interview, and at the end Leo and I are clearly both raving drunk and talking all kinds of shit, my favorite line being when Leo says we’re “Proud to have this established achievement.” In post victory interviews I stated that “This is the single greatest moment in my life…everything else was just leading up to this.” Clearly, having won the first tournament of the summer I now feel like a huge favorite to continue in dominating form for the remainder, and can confidently say I’m the favorite to win the WSOP main event. Ivey might be Ivey, but he doesn’t have two fucking beer pong trophies, does he?
WSOP 2010 Report 3
Two days, two tournaments, two dinner breaks; unfortunately that's all I have to show for them. It began on Tuesday when I played the $5,000 no limit event at the WSOP. I was put on a late start table so we missed the first level and began at 50/100. I was thrown into the action immediately when I looked down at aces UTG on the first hand:
Effective stacks: 15,000
Blinds 50/100
I hold AsAc UTG 8 handed.
Villain on the button is a young guy in a pink shirt wearing a Titan sponsored pro patch. Pretty safe bet that he's Euro.
Preflop: I raise to 300, folds to MP, MP calls, folds to SB, SB calls, BB folds.
Flop: Qh Th 6c
SB checks, I bet 600, MP folds, SB calls.
Turn: 9s
SB leads 1400, I call.
River: 2c
SB tanks for a very long time, then leads 5525. I think there are a lot more combinations of strong hands in his range than semi bluffs that whiffed the river then decided to bomb over pot after tanking forever. I folded without much thought.
Things didn't improve from there on. An orbit later I found QQ UTG, raised to 300, got 3 bet from the SB to 1200, and folded when he lead a KJJ flop. After playing and watching him for another 90 minutes I wished I could have the hand back so I could snap call flop and turn and reconsider the river, this guy was going real hard with the 3 bets early in the tournament.
The WSOP $5,000 reminds me of a Sunday 100 rebuys. Everyone who is good plays, but there's also an awful lot of randoms that show up due to the field size and potential for a big score. The end result is a tournament with the strange combination of many ultra tough and ultra soft spots at nearly every table. On the plus side, the event is filled is filled with guys I've been friends with and playing against for years, so it was a bit of a social event for the online boys. I was invited out to join the large pot party gatherings out in the parking lot, and found roughly half of online MTT'ers out there. There are many guys who smoke heavily every break and swear by it, whereas other guys smoked often when playing live but later decided to quit because they felt it altered their focus. The jury is still out on whether pot is a performance enhancing or inhibiting drug, but I know many of the top players who quite simply won't play without it. I only rarely smoke and play, and find that although poker becomes more interesting and intriguing, my ability to remember detail is severely impaired.
My 5k event continued and ended without particularly interesting incident. I was so card dead that I barely played a hand past pre-flop and for an event with such an excellent structure, I only wound up writing down six hands, only one of which I felt was worth posting in HSMTT. I busted when a player who had been limping fairly frequently limped in EP and it folded to me in LP with KsQs and a stack of 7900 at 300/600 with a 75. I shoved it in, got called by the limper's 88, and had the board run out K6948. The dramatic sequence of cards doesn't change the fact that I merely lost a flip, and every time someone throws a tantrum over something like that I just roll my eyes. Correction, every time someone throws a tantrum over anything in poker I generally roll my eyes.
I quite simply do not understand the level of emotionality people engage in as a result of poker. It's comprehensible when it's a small time player taking a shot at something that would be life changing, but I routinely watch guys who have been doing this for years or have millions in winnings acting like a bunch of fucking children just because something didn't go their way during the course of the game, online players included (though less so, as apparently half are stoned at all times). For the amount of time the online guys commit to seeking the optimal technical route to playing a hand you'd think they'd strive to reach the optimal mental state and clarity required to keep their in game thought process pristine. For all the money lost to mathematical leaks, how much do they speak off due to tilt and emotional ones? As I tell people who ask whether I even care or not "Maybe I don't care, or maybe I care so much that I realize the optimal route for reaching my desired outcome is by learning to function as if I don't care at all." That and it prevents a bust out from ruining a day that still has hours of potential left in it.
The next day I went over to the Venetian to play in their $1500 deep stack no limit event since the WSOP had nothing on for someone like me that day. The 20,000 starting stack and hour levels provided an excellent structure, which allowed for a couple interesting spots over the course of the day which I have posted on 2+2:
Hand 1: Venetian $1500 deep stack event. It's very early in the tournament, and nobody really has any history with each other. Villain is one of those guys with long hair and a beard who could be anything between 21 and 35, but my guess is mid 20's. He doesn't give off a strong online player vibe, but he could be. I haven't been involved in any large pots yet, and we have no history together. This was also my first three bet.
Effective stacks: 20,000
Blinds 50/100
I hold Kd Ks in MP, 8 handed.
Preflop: UTG folds, UTG+1 opens to 250, I reraise to 800, folds to the button, button cold 4 bets to 1800, folds back to me, I call.
Flop: K Q 4 rainbow
I check, villain bets 2000, I...
Best line for max value?
Hand 2: Early in one of the $1500 WSOP events. Opponent is a guy of perhaps 30 who doesn't look like a full blown internet pro in the traditional sense, but I also saw Ckingusc say hello to him so I'd guess he's not just a total random. The fact that he open limped would also indicate he's almost certainly not some online pro I'm unaware of.
I had been somewhat active but not especially so leading up to the hand, and had not been involved in any major pots thus far, or played any hands against this exact opponent.
My stack: ~4000
HJ: ~3800
Blinds 25/50. I hold Ac8s on the button.
Preflop: Folds around to the HJ, HJ calls 50, CO calls 50, I raise to 250, both blinds fold, HJ calls, CO calls.
Flop: Ah 9c 6c
Checks to met, I bet 550, HJ calls, CO folds
Turn: Jd
HJ thinks briefly and leads 1350...
In other news, the house engaged in a thoroughly entertaining prop bet that cost me $3,000 the other night. Chewy and I were hanging out at the house when we got a call from Aaron about a potential bet; our housemate Ash was going to run home from the ice cream shop they were at within three hours after eating a pound of frozen yogurt and the Naked Fish he'd had at dinner. The run was approximately 15 miles in the heat of the Las Vegas evening, which was in the mid 80's. Every single person in the house bet against him, totaling $22,000 in action, which Ash scooped by arriving home with 40 minutes to spare and at a comfortable jog. Sure, he vomited three times during the course of his run and didn't have any water for the first five miles, but normally obscene obstacles are incapable of impeding someone like Ash. He told us that if we had tried to get him to buy out in the first quarter of the run it would be no problem, but somehow he found a second wind and made us all look stupid. What a sicko.
WSOP 2010 Report Two
It has not been easy to regularly update the blog during the series. I’ve actually been busting the majority of my events in very early fashion, but I often wind up spending the remainder of my evening in the gym, out with friends, or getting very high, resulting in very little else getting done. Additionally, my laptop is broke again, the downstairs computer no longer gets internet, the upstairs computer constantly crashes, and my new desktop has yet to arrive. While the WSOP is certainly the biggest poker event of the year it is also clearly the largest social event on the poker calendar as well. Tons of people are in town from all over the world, many of which you may only get to see during that part of the year. How could you possibly say no to an intriguing dinner invitation or a fun night out at the bar or club in favor of going home to sit in front of your computer? Fortunately, I busted very early today and had to get some business done at the bank, and somehow resisted the temptation to make my usual strip walk in search of girls to chat up.
I have played eight events thus far and cashed one, a $1500 no limit event that I got something like 200th in for just over the min cash. Outside of that I haven’t made a single dinner break, and most days there’s not even a particularly interesting bust out hand to cause the early exit. The fact is, if you don’t wind up increasing your stack in the first couple levels of the smaller buy in events you generally only have about 30 BB left by the third and things can go awfully quick from that point onward. That said, I’ve managed to accumulate a number of close hands over the events I’ve played, which I think is probably more interesting to read and certainly more interesting to write than just listing the generic hands where I got my chips. If I go deep in something I’ll put more emphasis on writing a full tournament report, but for now I’ll go with the more efficient route. These hands have all been posted for discussion on 2+2:
Hand 1: Very early in one of the WSOP $1500 events. In the first orbit I opened 3 hands when we were 5 handed and didn't have to show any of them down. In a later hand I played with Karam I raised UTG 7 handed and he was the only caller in position. The flop came JJT with a flush draw, I bet he called. Turn was an 8 and I check folded to him.
We missed the first full level because we were a late creation table and they made us wait until 1pm to begin play.
My general read on Karam is a pretty aggro guy who is very much capable of adjusting to an opponent, and I think he perceives me as pretty aggro. Other guy in the hand is in his mid 30's perhaps and thus far has been pretty quiet. When the action got back to him after Karam's 4 bet he thought for quite a while before sticking it in and didn't seem to be bullshitting, but hey some guy tricked me earlier this week so what do I know.
My plan was to never fold to Karam, but after the other dude shoves I'm not so sure...
My stack: 4100
Opponents: ~4500
Blinds 50/100, I hold AKo on the button 7 handed.
Preflop: Karam opens UTG to 250, UTG+1 calls, folds to me on the button, I reraise to 850, both blinds fold, karam 4 bets to 1750, UTG+1 tank shoves, I...
Hand 2: WSOP $1000 NLH. I've got a moderately aggressive image but I hadn't been super active recently so nobody thinks I'm crazy or anything. My opponent is a pretty old guy, 65 perhaps, who hasn't been involved in many hands. He seems kind of loose, not a total nit but certainly nowhere near as aggro as we're used to, and likely not capable of value betting that thin. I'm unsure whether he can bluff; I certainly haven't seen him get caught with one.
I guess the questions are, do we think he bluffs when he has a missed draw, and do we think he blocking bets a 9 when a fairly obvious scare card K comes, particularly with live players propensity to put you on AK when you take the bet flop-check turn line on low card boards.
My stack: ~9,500
BB: ~6,000
Blinds 75/150, I hold 6s6h UTG+1 9 handed.
Preflop: 1 fold, I raise to 400, folds to the HJ, HJ calls, folds to the BB, BB calls.
Flop: 9d 7s 3s
BB checks, I bet 750, button folds, BB calls.
Turn: 5d
BB checks, I check.
River: Kh
BB bets 700, I...
Hand 3: WSOP $1500 PLH. Opponent is Randallin, who needs no introduction around here. We have tons of history, talk strategy often, and have a mutual respect for each other’s game. Our table is surprisingly difficult for a $1500 event at the series; for some reason when they turn that 'N' into a 'P' about 1500 fish decide not to show up.
We have no history leading up to this hand for this particular tournament. I feel like Randall definitely could be flatting his big pairs here preflop since he has no reason to believe I think I'd get it in with him real light with these conditions, though he did recently 3 bet a raise from another EP raiser and had to show down Q8cc, which he likely believes I was paying attention for.
My stack: ~4000
Randall: ~3100
Blinds 25/50
I hold Jd JS UTG+1.
Preflop: UTG folds, I raise to 150, folds to Randall in MP2, Randall calls, folds to the button, button calls, blinds fold.
Flop: T 4 2
I bet 300, Randall raises to 1300, button folds, I...
Hand 4: Early in one of the $1500 WSOP events. Opponent is a guy of perhaps 30 who doesn't look like a full blown internet pro in the traditional sense, but I also saw Ckingusc say hello to him so I'd guess he's not just a total random. The fact that he open limped would also indicate he's almost certainly not some online pro I'm unaware of.
I had been somewhat active but not especially so leading up to the hand, and had not been involved in any major pots thus far, or played any hands against this exact opponent.
My stack: ~4000
HJ: ~3800
Blinds 25/50. I hold Ac8s on the button.
Preflop: Folds around to the HJ, HJ calls 50, CO calls 50, I raise to 250, both blinds fold, HJ calls, CO calls.
Flop: Ah 9c 6c
Checks to met, I bet 550, HJ calls, CO folds
Turn: Jd
HJ thinks briefly and leads 1350...
So not an awesome WSOP thus far results wise, but it’s still early and I feel good about my level of focus and concentration on the table. I’m also putting in a huge amount of volume without any mental difficulty, and I like to think that while I might not be the best player in any field I might have the best disposition at the table. Tons of people have been saying hello to me this year both on and off the table, and unless I’m quite busy I’m always happy to shoot the shit for a while. I even had a guy named Jason recognize me at Blue Martini last Wednesday (which is ladies night for those who ought to know) and he kindly bought us a round of drinks then started chatting up girls with us. Given that I’m new in town I make an effort to have an interesting interaction with just about everyone over the course of my day, and often say ridiculous shit just for my own amusement and to get a read on the other persons sense of humor. For example, when going for coffee at Starbucks today I looked into my wallet and found that I had $203 on me, two 100’s and three one’s. My coffee was 3.50 and some, so I remarked to the girl at the cashier “Do you have change for a large, it seems I’m only carrying ones and one hundreds. Apparently I only hang out at the very best and very worst strip clubs in town.”
“Hahaha, yea I feel you, gotta change it up.”
“Exactly, totally depends on what kind of mood I’m in.”
“I feel you.”
“Except I think people have way more fun on the nights when I make it rain with the $100’s.”
Which reminds me, if you haven’t seen the youtube video of Pac Man Jones making it rain in the strip club on the night he was involved with a shooting you need to do so immediately:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fkWgycqC0o
The guy turns $40,000 into ones and just stands up on stage spewing them off and is then joined by rapper Nelly, who is clearly aware that this is not the kind of activity that should be recorded. My favorite aspect is the ultra serious tone in which the narrator describes their increasingly outlandish actions. I’m kind of disappointed that Pac Man and Nelly forgot to invite me to such an epic night out, but I’ll let it slide this time.
I’ve been out the majority of nights during the series, but I’m taking it easy on the alcohol most of them and usually leaving early, except this Saturday which was a massive evening out at the new club at Encore, Surrender. For those of you who hate clubs because they’re too crowded and noisy this place is for you; it’s a mostly outdoor club that has a pool as its centerpiece instead of a dance floor and there’s tons of space to move around without issue. We headed out with a group around 20, but by the time everyone else that had been invited rocked up we must have had 40 milling about our couple of cabanas. Our super awesome PA came with us as she often does, and dragged some girls over to the table. I was fairly intoxicated at this point, and introduced myself to one of them with something like “Fuck you are tall.” We started grinding and she asked if I knew somewhere I could get her drugs. I told her we had plenty of pot but she started asking bout coke and pills, something I don’t know shit about. I decided this was the perfect girl to attempt a super fast public lay on, a recent fascination of mine that I’ve yet to pull off.
I’ve found that the aspects of picking up girls are vastly different in Las Vegas than most cities. In more sane conditions you normally have to build some comfort with the girl and become a real person at some stage, because the girl anticipates seeing you again and potentially dating you in a more serious manner. However, in Las Vegas the girls aren’t particularly fussed about that kind of thing because your being a real person is unnecessary given that they’ll be leaving town Monday/tomorrow/in four hours. As a result, your normal progression of approach, transition, attract, qualify, comfort, seduce can be reduced and altered to attract, isolate, escalate. This is the basic idea behind most ultra fast lays, but it is especially relevant in Las Vegas because it carries a highly sexualized atmosphere and a motto that tells people “Whatever the fuck you want to do here is okay, we won’t tell and it’s all irrelevant as soon as you go home.” The end result is that if you’re willing to take the shot and you have a place in mind to do it, you can pull off some really absurd shit. The trick is to think ahead about your logistics; if you pull a girl who is keen for some action but she’s sharing a hotel room with a bunch of her friends odds are you’re going to have to get creative. Always be thinking about logistics. In our particular venue the most reasonable potential location was the small balcony on the outside of the cabana which had a door you could close behind it. I took the girl by the hand, lead her out, asked the people out there for some privacy, answered quietly “Because I’m going to try and have sex out here” when asked why, and closed the door behind me. I took a shot, got rejected, was questioned as to her name, answered correctly, took another shot, got rejected again, bantered a while, then gave up. I found out she later went down on our PA in the girl’s bathroom, so I only wound up with a fun story out of association.
Meanwhile, the truck fucking story had a much better ending than possibility predicted. To his knowledge, Smitty had gotten the number of the girl he hooked up with in there prior to having sprinted out of her truck in his fervor of drunken confusion. He began texting her regularly in an attempt to get his wallet back, and made several references to the truck incident and requests for his wallet, most of which were answered with some degree of playful confusion. At one stage the girl told him that she was “grinding online” and asked if he was “playing tomorrow’s 5k”, leading him to believe it just so happened that he met a poker playing girl who was down with some quick truck lovin’. After days of back and forth and increasingly perplexing responses from the girl he finally posed three absolute questions
“1. Do you own a truck? 2. Did we have sex in that truck? 3. Do you have my wallet?” to which he received the response of
“Dude, this is Holdplz…so no to all.”
I wound up on a table with my friend Brian Devonshire earlier in the week and told him the story. Holdplz was at a table not far away and I went to retrieve his cell phone since the conversation contained on it is absolutely hysterical. Brian and I read it aloud to everyone and had them all cracking up, resulting in his suggesting that Smitty and I come on PokerRoad this Saturday and do a reading for the show. I have been applying heavy peer pressure on Smitty to follow through with it ever since.
Our household is now complete for the duration of the WSOP. We have the usual three, myself, Luckychewy, and KingDan, with the addition of Will, Starky, Aejones, TheAshman, Ansky, and Mike Watson aka MadDog. If you see any of us running around the WSOP barking for some reason, it’s almost certainly directed at the usually calm and serene MadDog. Dan ordered him a jagerbomb while playing the other day, and had the waiter announce to the table “Is there a MadDog at this table? I’ve got a jagerbomb for him.” The house gets trashed every 24-48 hours, and we’ve all decided to engage in the game known as “icing”. The idea goes like this; at some point you can hide a Smirnoff Ice in a creative way in a place where a person is likely to find it. When that person happens upon it they must get down on one knee and chug it in front of everyone. However, if the potential victim happens to be carrying a Smirnoff Ice when they discover the original one laid as a trap for them, then the person who set it there has been “ice blocked”, and must drink both. I ran off to the gym before day two of my $1500 event on Saturday and returned home to find a Smirnoff Ice waiting for me in my shower. I brought it into the living room, yelled “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” with my arms out like Darth Vader, then got down on one knee and drank it. Dan believes it was likely the first time anyone has ever been iced while wearing a suit.
Everyone in the house generally gets along, but for some reason Ashman and Aejones have a particular talent for setting each other off. The other day Ash snuck up behind Aaron and sort of tackled him from behind, causing an enraged Aaron to start yelling about his previous back problems and then slammAsh into a wall. There is now a fresh hole in the wall of Chewy’s house. In a prior engagement Aaron had loaded and cocked the small crossbow that sits around our house and aimed it at Ash then started a debate as to the price for being allowed to fire one shot at him. Ash said he’d give him a shot from around 20 feet away if they could have a wrestling match after. No match so far.