WSOP 1.5K Trip Report Event 22

[Prime Time]

WSOP 1.5K NLHE Event 22 June 22, 2005

Started the morning off w/ breakfast w/ fellow 2 plus two poster MBE. We chatted a while about past hands we have played against each other on-line in the past.

Tournament started a 12pm, T1500 chips, 1 hour levels, at 25 25 blinds.

Got AK 3 times, and was 3 for three w/ them.

I raise w/ 5s 6s from CO. BB and 1 limper called. Flop is 5 5 10. Checked to me, I bet half the pot, but no one calls.

I raise w/ JJ in MP. 1 caller from LP. Flop J 7 4 . I lead out half pot, LP pushes w/ KK.
Call and MHIG.

Next orbit I call UG raise w/ JJ from Button. Flop is J 9 6. UG pushes w/ KK. I call and bust him. JJ being good to me.

Up and down next couple of hours, LAG in seat 7 looks about 14, raises UG to 500 w/ blinds 100-200. I make it 1500 to go w/ AsKs from MP, all fold to UG who calls.
Flop Qd Jd 4h. UG checks w/ 2100 behind. I do not want him drawing for free and push. He goes into the tank and finally calls w/ AA.
Down to T1300 now. Talked to MBE later about this hand, and he felt that there was nothing else I could do. Perhaps I could have checked, checked.

Phil Gordon is balanced on to our table. I manage to avoid him, and chitchat with him telling him that I have not seen to many posts from him lately on the forum. He says “the signal to noise ratio is too high”. I tell him I understood and we chuckle.

I steal a few blinds, and then I push w/ AhJh from LP, a blind calls w/ 88 and I double up when an A hits the flop.

The next play is the most spectacular hand witnessed of the tourney. Phil Gordon raises 3X BB from CO. BB (LAG 14 year old) calls. These are the two biggest stacks at our table w/ LAG having Phil covered. Flop is 7 4 3. BB checks, Phil makes a pot sized bet. LAG min raises. Phil thinks 20 seconds and pushes. LAG tanks for a couple of minutes and calls w/ JJ. The ESPN crew has rushed over and filmed all this action. Gordon’s 5 5 does not improve, and off he goes into the sunset.

Our table soon gets broken.
New table for me, UG+1 raises to 700. I push w/KK and get called an additional 1800 by KJ and I double up.

I get rebalanced to another table up and down and finally down, I push w/ 66 from LP. Button has me barely covered calls w/ AK. Cards are turned up and flop is A K 2.
Turn is 7 and river is 5. As I am getting up, Dealer tells me to sit down, because I flushed.

Level 6 gets completed in a few orbits and I have T4400.
Dinner break arrives, compare notes w/ Fossilman and we have about the same.

Level 7 starts w/blinds at 200-400 and ante 50.

1st orbit
Bill Gazes been entering pots w/ as low as Q 6 suited raises from MP T1100, I push w/ AcKc. All fold to Gazes, who tanks and needs T2600 more to call. Finally he makes the call w/ As8s and wins when an 8 hits flop and no K for me. He could tell I was disgusted and said GG. I shook his hand and wished him the best.
He ended up taking 3rd and 203K.
Congrats to Bill.

[Shorty35]

Nice report; and good showing. Sounds like one of those tourneys where you play well, get decent cards and some ok luck, but they dont all coalesce at the pivotal "big pot" moments.

The AK push against the lag is an interesting hand, prolly deserves a separate thread.

[Tyler Durden]

Good report and nice play Pete.

The AKs hand vs. the 14 year old, I think I like to coldcall preflop b/c he raised it UTG. Altho if he was really LAGgy, then I can see why you reraised. Just something to think about.

[Shorty35]

Based upon your description he sounds more careful than a true LAG when it comes to postflop play, true? Had he shown the ability to lay down a big hand?

[Prime Time]

[ QUOTE ]
Good report and nice play Pete.

The AKs hand vs. the 14 year old, I think I like to coldcall preflop b/c he raised it UTG. Altho if he was really LAGgy, then I can see why you reraised. Just something to think about.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear you.
Just that a valuable lesson from my Bahama bustout hand was to punish these guys b4 the flop.
Just worked out that he had a real hand.
Glad I had him covered.

[Prime Time]

Oh yes forgot to mention, that the field was around 2100, the 3rd largest WSOP field in history.

I made it to around 350, about 130 from the money.

[Prime Time]

saw him make excellent pot odds calls w/ garbage.

[vindikation]

Here's my report from the same event (crossposted from a non-poker forum):

Wow that was an interesting experience. Good, Bad and Ugly all at the same time. One thing for sure I have a HELL of a lot more respect for people that make a living playing live tournament poker.

I woke up at 4:00am and took a shower and packed up some stuff. I called into work sick at 5:00am and left for Vegas at 5:30am. I got to Vegas and registered at the Rio hotel at 10:00am. At the time I registered there were 1600 already registered for the event. By the time the event started at 12:00 noon, there were over 2000 in the hall registered for the event and people coming in to fill in seats as people busted out. There might have been 2200 total I think. They announced that the event was going to be 3 days because of the large number of people. Immediately I felt sick to my stomach because I knew that if I made it to the second day, I wouldn't be in the money, but I would still need to call in sick for work, and pay for a hotel, etc.

Almost everyone who is anyone in the poker world was there: Phil Hellmuth Jr (who walked in about an hour late, lol), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Jennifer Harmon, Mike Matusaw, Mike Sexton, Phil Gordon, Mike Deagustino, Cindy Violette, X22 guy (Paul Magriel), Ted Forrest, David Williams, etc. I even saw Tobey Maguire as I was walking out of the men's restroom and that tall guy from "Everybody Loves Raymond".

Anyway things started off slow for 45 minutes only playing 1 hand. Then I got lucky and flopped a full house twice (second time ended up with quad 8). So I had a pretty good table image for playing good cards. I then went card dead for an hour or so and ended the first 2 hour break at $1600 chips (after starting with $1500).

I then got moved to another table where I was the second smallest stack. I survived by stealing the blinds twice and by the 4th hour blinds were at $200/$100 and I had $1400 in total chips. Not horrible, but with this stack ratio and being the second smallest stack at the table I needed to do something. I was in the big blind and I had 2 limpers for $200 and the small blind completed for $200 as well. So I look down and see AK. I have 3 limpers into the pot and I figure, great I'll push all in and there's a very good chance all of them will fold to my $1200 raise. Well everyone folded except a woman who called with "77" WTF? Oh well, I think cool at least I'm basically 50/50.

Flop 474 Turn K River 9

I make 2 pair and she hits a Full House and knocks me out at around 1500th place. It is 3:45pm and decided it's time to grab a bite to eat, then drive home. I leave Vegas at 5:00pm and get back to Los Angeles at 9:00pm.

A long day, but in the end it was worth it and an interesting experience. It was great playing with some world class players (some really good Russian guy at one of my tables) but in the end I realize I'm not cut out for the big tournament stuff. It takes a big bankroll, a lot of patience, concentration, skill and balls. I think that I'll stick to my online Sit and Go games. Hey at least I can say I played in the World Series of Poker lol. My official bankroll has dropped from $2000 to $500 yikes!!! Time to build it back up again. At least I'm still up $500 this year.

[woodguy]

Nice Work Pete!

Regards,
Woodguy

[Prime Time]

Hope you enjoyed it.
It's good that you recognize that you were just taking a shot and not properly funded for these.