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.