sawil
01-26-2004, 07:51 PM
Poker* did an excellent job (as expected) with the poker room, tourney, etc. Had a nice cabin with balcony and lots of poker stars goodies, shirts, hats, watch, etc. I had Alex, the captain of South Africa's HU team in one cabin next to me and Danny, the captian of Costa Rica's team in the other side. These teams met in the finals with Costa Rica winning the HU world championship.
The first day, they had the World Cup HU matches starting and several ring games and SnG tourneys, with a couple of sat. to the main event going on. I watched the 200/400 mixed game for about 45 min. with the likes of Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch(sp), etc. Ivey was tearing them up. I played 1 $30 SnG and 2 $100 SnG, cashing in all of them.
They had 28 tables in a conference room with food and drink. They were usually open until about 3 or 4 AM.
First day of WPT tourney
We all started with T7500 and blinds of 50/100 and 75 min rounds. No familiar faces at my table, more of a deer staring in headlights look from most of the players. I was in seat 1 and decided to play extra tight at first to get a feel for my table. Play seemed somewhat typical ... seat 2 was LAG, seat 3 and 4, weak passive. Rest had solid play so far. I got a free look at the flop from BB with J9off. Board came 7 8 10 with 2 clubs. I bet 200 into a 350 pot and everyone folds ... I get AhKh in BB and min reraise a MP player who folds. I got quite a few small to medium PP but never could hit a flop with them. Was able to steal a couple of times. I think my early tight play set this up nicely. I only played about 12 -15 hands the first 1.5 hours. I then got QdQh in EP. I raise 5xBB and get 3 callers including both blinds. Flop A J 10 with 2 spades and fold to a bet and reraise. Right before dinner break, I try to mix it up a bit. (i've been playing quite tight thus far). I play 7 8 suited and make 2 pair on turn only to lose to a rivered strait. Dinner break comes and I have T6800.
Right after dinner, our table breaks, and I get moved to table 6 with the likes of 55Lucky55, Howard Lederer, Jeff Rothstien and a couple more seasoned looking tourney players. Top stack at table was an older guy with T20K, everyone else at T10K or less. Not many flops seen at this table with healthy PF raising and eveybody folding. Interestingly, if there was a caller, the play from the flop on seemed VERY weak and passive. Sometimes they would check down to the showdown. If someone did make a play after the flop it was very agressive. 55Lucky55 called a short stacked all-in with QdJd and rivered a flush beating the guys KK. After this, he got very agressive preflop raising quite a few times (I'd say 1 in 3 hands). With blinds 150/300 and 25 ante, he raises T1000. I hold AKo in BB and move all in, he quickly folds. The very next hand I call a T800 raise from SB with AsJh. Flop is K J 7 all spades!! I wanted to bet here but decided to check hoping for a free look at the turn. My opponent moves in for about T7k after looking quite disgusted at the board. I fold my mid pair nut flush draw, but it was quite hard. Later this guy told me he had 77 for bottom set. A conversation starts about some of th wild and crazy play people have been experiencing at other tables. Howard is quite vocal about some of the beats he has seen. Not really mad, just quite talkitive. I share the story of the guy with quads aces worried about his 2 kicker and that starts him off on several similar high stakes stories. Quite entertaining. Then I wondered ... is he trying to relax everyone here and mesmerize us with his stories for some type of advantage? Twice I see him make a hefty reraise PF only to lay it down to an all in. One instance ...
A LP short stack of about T 6k raises T800 and HL in BB reaises 2k to T2800. Short stack moves all-in and HL folds? Resteal attempt I guess?!? What could he have had to raise that much and then fold? The last round I was dealt AA three times!! Always in EP to MP. I would make a moderate raise only to have everyone fold. Just could'nt get any action with my bullets. I almost limped once but was scared to death the BB would flop 2 pair or something. Couldnt get any value for my premium hands. Although I was up to about T12k, by the end of the first day, I had T9500. We lost about 100 players the first day and some big names were gone (Chris$maker, Phil Ivey) and some big names in the lead (Chris Ferguson, Daniel N, Andy Bloch). I feel I let some opportunities slip by playing too tight. There were several times I would have made a strong hand and taken a sizable pot if I would have loosened up a bit. I think in order to be sucessful in these tourneys, you have to willing to gamble it up and go broke in order to live longer and not play with such a desperate stack.
I was a bit below average stack and decided I would need to take some chances early on the next day. Gotta go right now, I'll type more later. I'm a slow typer and my fingers are going to fall off. CYA
The first day, they had the World Cup HU matches starting and several ring games and SnG tourneys, with a couple of sat. to the main event going on. I watched the 200/400 mixed game for about 45 min. with the likes of Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch(sp), etc. Ivey was tearing them up. I played 1 $30 SnG and 2 $100 SnG, cashing in all of them.
They had 28 tables in a conference room with food and drink. They were usually open until about 3 or 4 AM.
First day of WPT tourney
We all started with T7500 and blinds of 50/100 and 75 min rounds. No familiar faces at my table, more of a deer staring in headlights look from most of the players. I was in seat 1 and decided to play extra tight at first to get a feel for my table. Play seemed somewhat typical ... seat 2 was LAG, seat 3 and 4, weak passive. Rest had solid play so far. I got a free look at the flop from BB with J9off. Board came 7 8 10 with 2 clubs. I bet 200 into a 350 pot and everyone folds ... I get AhKh in BB and min reraise a MP player who folds. I got quite a few small to medium PP but never could hit a flop with them. Was able to steal a couple of times. I think my early tight play set this up nicely. I only played about 12 -15 hands the first 1.5 hours. I then got QdQh in EP. I raise 5xBB and get 3 callers including both blinds. Flop A J 10 with 2 spades and fold to a bet and reraise. Right before dinner break, I try to mix it up a bit. (i've been playing quite tight thus far). I play 7 8 suited and make 2 pair on turn only to lose to a rivered strait. Dinner break comes and I have T6800.
Right after dinner, our table breaks, and I get moved to table 6 with the likes of 55Lucky55, Howard Lederer, Jeff Rothstien and a couple more seasoned looking tourney players. Top stack at table was an older guy with T20K, everyone else at T10K or less. Not many flops seen at this table with healthy PF raising and eveybody folding. Interestingly, if there was a caller, the play from the flop on seemed VERY weak and passive. Sometimes they would check down to the showdown. If someone did make a play after the flop it was very agressive. 55Lucky55 called a short stacked all-in with QdJd and rivered a flush beating the guys KK. After this, he got very agressive preflop raising quite a few times (I'd say 1 in 3 hands). With blinds 150/300 and 25 ante, he raises T1000. I hold AKo in BB and move all in, he quickly folds. The very next hand I call a T800 raise from SB with AsJh. Flop is K J 7 all spades!! I wanted to bet here but decided to check hoping for a free look at the turn. My opponent moves in for about T7k after looking quite disgusted at the board. I fold my mid pair nut flush draw, but it was quite hard. Later this guy told me he had 77 for bottom set. A conversation starts about some of th wild and crazy play people have been experiencing at other tables. Howard is quite vocal about some of the beats he has seen. Not really mad, just quite talkitive. I share the story of the guy with quads aces worried about his 2 kicker and that starts him off on several similar high stakes stories. Quite entertaining. Then I wondered ... is he trying to relax everyone here and mesmerize us with his stories for some type of advantage? Twice I see him make a hefty reraise PF only to lay it down to an all in. One instance ...
A LP short stack of about T 6k raises T800 and HL in BB reaises 2k to T2800. Short stack moves all-in and HL folds? Resteal attempt I guess?!? What could he have had to raise that much and then fold? The last round I was dealt AA three times!! Always in EP to MP. I would make a moderate raise only to have everyone fold. Just could'nt get any action with my bullets. I almost limped once but was scared to death the BB would flop 2 pair or something. Couldnt get any value for my premium hands. Although I was up to about T12k, by the end of the first day, I had T9500. We lost about 100 players the first day and some big names were gone (Chris$maker, Phil Ivey) and some big names in the lead (Chris Ferguson, Daniel N, Andy Bloch). I feel I let some opportunities slip by playing too tight. There were several times I would have made a strong hand and taken a sizable pot if I would have loosened up a bit. I think in order to be sucessful in these tourneys, you have to willing to gamble it up and go broke in order to live longer and not play with such a desperate stack.
I was a bit below average stack and decided I would need to take some chances early on the next day. Gotta go right now, I'll type more later. I'm a slow typer and my fingers are going to fall off. CYA