FeliciaLee's playing at the WSOP tonight

[whiskeytown]

some of you may remember Felicia Lee - she still pops in here from time to time, and posts in her poker blog at www.felicialee.net (http://www.felicialee.net) -

anyways, her husband was playing at the Bellagio in the WPT supersatellite, and she won a couple lamers for WSOP tourneys - she signed up for the Limit Stud tourney that's starting today -

guess she figured that with it right after the WPT, and it not being an event a lot of amateurs are gonna play, and most pros are gonna take a breather after the WPT, that she had a good chance at doing well at it - also, Stud is one of her better games...I know she's won a Stud/8 tourney or two in the last couple weeks -

I won't be getting updates from her, but it's worth a check tomorrow to see who's at the final table and if she made it -

RB

[FeliciaLee]

Thanks, Russ! I made it through the first eight hours. The field was 258, surpassing last year's field of 177. First prize is 114k.

I was very lucky in the fact that the only WCP at my table, to start with, was Ted Forrest.

Boy was I wrong about the WCP staying home. I guess once they busted out of the WPT, they hightailed it right over to Binion's to start the series. The ones who were already out of the 2k NLHE event signed up for the Stud event. I was WAY outclassed.

Like I said, though, I got lucky because I wasn't whipsawed between several WCP at my first table. Ted was the only player I couldn't hold my own against, or even outplay. Several players at my table were very bad. I don't know if they won satellites to get in, and figured it was a freeroll, so gave it a try, or what. I have played against better 1-5 players than some of these guys.

Ted and I took right off to an early lead. The guys at our table slowly got eliminated, but were always replaced with better players, not worse. So things got tougher.

I held on with a medium stack until one river beat, which left me short. I never fully recovered and was short thereafter, regaining to about 3800 in chips, but not more (we started with 1500).

Ted and I built a bit of a rapport during the tournament, as more and more of our original table was eliminated. He held on with a medium stack for hours, until one key hand, which either would have crippled him, or gave him a lead over our table. He won it, and never looked back. He changed his play after that to include many more steals and play a few speculative hands.

In the meantime, we went from 258 to 150 in short order. Lots of the WCP were complaining that the structure had been sped up. They didn't like the new structure. Since I had no experience with the old one, I wasn't sure just how much worse it was. It did seem to add a bit of a crapshoot element into the tourney, as most of the participants could only lose one very big hand in order to be short.

Barry Greenstein got moved to our table and had a medium stack. He tried to be the most aggressive player there, and was having good success until he ran up against me.

He was the bring-in. One thing I noticed about most of the players, even the more experienced, is that they never checked their hole cards when they were the bring-in. They just chucked the lowest amount into the pot. Barry was no exception.

I had a jack doorcard. I completed the bet. Barry decided to check his hole cards when the action got back to him, and found kings in the hole. Not that I knew this at the time, but there ya go. He raised me.

Barry was the type who would raise about 50% of the people who completed when he was the bring-in. So I reraised and he instantly capped. Now my radar went up, because I didn't think Barry would cap it without the goods.

If I folded, it would have left me crippled, so I figured that even if I was beat, I had to take a chance to draw out on him. I wasn't going to just get anted out of the tourney.

I caught a third jack immediately on fourth, and bet until I was all-in. Barry didn't improve. This left him a bit short, and he never won a hand again. He was out in about 45 minutes.

Not long after we came back from dinner, the field went from 73 to about 50 in record time. Even the medium stacks didn't have more than one or two hands that could be played (with raises) all the way through. Only the largest stacks were relatively safe. I had 3800, Ted had about 10k. They filled our table with more WCP, including Men Nguyen.

The antes were up to 50, and I got nothing for about an hour. Every pot was completed and raised before it even got to me. Play had become very aggressive, players taking chances with three high cards, three suited, three straights, any pair. Most of them were only one or two hands from elimination, so they took shots and were either eliminated, or more than doubled through. I was caught in the middle of all of this, and just folded for almost an hour.

I kept looking at the clock, and knew I was going to have to go with a hand soon. My kings finally came and I completed with K3/K. Ted was behind me, and raised with an ace. Ted didn't need a pair of aces to make it three, but was a pretty tight player, overall, and knew how tight I was, so we had mainly stayed out of each other's way. I knew he probably had me, but figured I was in deep enough to call one more bet, then if I absolutely blanked out, I could either fold on fourth, or commit myself with the hand if I felt I was too short to survive much longer. It was very close, either way.

I caught a 3 on fourth, giving me king's up immediately. Ted blanked. I bet the whole way. Ted caught a second pair on sixth, and I knew I was dead, but I was in by that time, with no escape. He had exactly what I thought he had, aces to start.

I got up to leave, and Ted told me, "You are a tough player! You played great!" I thanked him and told him it was great playing against him.

After we got home, I noticed Ted's lead kept growing and he is now the 2nd chip lead of the tourney. They play the final table today at 2pm. Go Ted!!!

They hadn't updated the clock in about 45 minutes, so I just stood and counted the remaining players. I was out at 49th.

I had a great time, and plan to play in the Stud 8 event on May 5th if I can win some more lammers.

Someone snapped this candid pic of me and posted it on his website. I am in the one seat, Ted is in the six seat with the tan shirt on and long hair.

http://nolimitpokerclub.com/felicialee.JPG

Hope you enjoyed the story!

Felicia /images/graemlins/smile.gif
www.felicialee.net (http://www.felicialee.net)

[sdplayerb]

Great report Felicia.
Sounds like you had a great time.

SD

[jasonHoldEm]

Thanks for the report fel, great job, and good luck in stud/8.

/images/graemlins/heart.gif
Jason

[FeliciaLee]

Ted Forrest just won the Stud event! 114k

Yippee! You're awesome, Ted! Good way to put my chips to use, lol /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[DrPhysic]

Great report Felicia.

Win some $ at stud8!

Doc