Tyler Durden's WSOP report (long, and also official)

[Tyler Durden]

I’d like to preface this report by saying that yes, I did get very lucky (but I think you have to get lucky to cash in an event with a field this large) but I also played some of the best poker of my life.

Before I knew which day I’d be starting the WSOP, I booked a flight that got me into Vegas on Thursday afternoon. About four days before I was set to leave Stars let me know that I'd be starting on Sunday, which is what I had been hoping for. This meant I could go out w/ my friends on Thursday and Friday nights and I could try to play the Orleans tourney on Friday evening for practice. Unfortunately, showing up two minutes late for that tourney got me locked out of it. Ah well.

So I went to the Horseshoe on Saturday (Stars was putting me up across the street at the Four Queens) to check out the play. The place was a madhouse. Cameras and people everywhere. I was thinking "how the hell are we supposed to play under these conditions?" It was only interesting to watch for a few minutes, then my friends and I left. I don't recall if I saw anyone really well known. I went back for the last level on Saturday night to check up on my friend Scott Marks, an excellent player (also from VA) who cashed in 187th place, I believe. He was doing well with about T16K during the last level of Day One.. I was going to use that as my benchmark. Someone pointed out Donna from That 70's Show (the redhead, but she has blonde hair now) and she looked to be doing pretty well also. Her b/f is the oldest kid from Malcolm In The Middle and I think he had a respectable stack as well. I said to a friend "hey that guy looks like Bobby Bonilla." I didn't find out that it actually was him until a few days later. I think he busted out not far from the money. Anyway, it was around 1:00 AM and time for me to go to bed, with play starting at 1:00 PM the next day, even though my ticket said Noon. Apparently they changed it w/o really telling anyone.

Day One

I went to brunch at the Carson Street Cafe in the Golden Nugget w/ two friends, one of whom is my coach. By sweettalking the old blue haired lady I was able to get us a table right away and we didn't have to wait in line. This was around 11:15, and at that point I still wasn't sure if play started at noon or 1:00. But I saw The Magician waiting in line also and I knew he hadn't played the day before so I was pretty sure it was a one o'clock kickoff. I really dislike The Magician by the way, even though I've never spoken to him.
I’m the kind of guy that likes to form opinions on people before I get to know them.

So after brunch I chilled out in the room for a while to relax and then we headed to the Horseshoe. My starting table was on the main floor, near Fremont Street. They had about 20 tables set up there. I didn't recognize anyone at my table, though someone mentioned that the 3 seat had made a WPT final table (I was in the 6 seat, for those interested). I think this table had a total of four Pokerstars qualifiers, including myself. We started blinding at 25-50, so my plan was to be patient. On my second button I picked up QQ. UTG (a nutty player) raised it to T150 and got coldcalled by someone in LMP. I made it T750, which in retrospect wasn't enough b/c I forgot to take the coldcaller into consideration. Anyway, only UTG called and we went heads up. The flop came King high rainbow. UTG moves in for about T9,200. After laughing about this in my head for 5 seconds I mucked my hand. I figured he had to have at least AK. More on that later...

I was down to about T8700 but not worried when the level ended. UTG continued his strange plays. Here's another hand that he played. A few limpers to him on the button and he raises. Then the BB reraises and they go heads up. Flop comes 7 high. BB checks, button bets and BB calls. Turn pairs the 7. BB checks, button bets, BB moves in (BB had a decent stack, button was short, I think) and after much deliberation, the button finally calls. A guy two seats to my right says "okay, turn up the aces and the jacks, let's seem them." Sure enough, the BB had AA and the button had JJ. AA held up. Then this guy who called out the hands starts with "wow I'm so smart, nobody mess with me." He was really getting on my nerves. So after that hand the button was really short.

I was trying to have fun at the table, and I think I play better that way. Example: Some women hit big on a slot machine nearby so I said to my friends who were standing on the rail, “forget this, let’s get in on that action!” and I got some old women to laugh. Then later, there was a hand where a lady checked, the guy bet T1500 (3 chips of T500) and the lady threw out T3000 (3 chips of T1000) then she started saying that she meant to just call, she didn’t mean to raise like she did. She seemed really upset about it, but of course she couldn’t take the raise back. Then the guy just put her all-in and she beat him into the pot. It was all an act on her part, apparently. The board was 8-6-2-2 and she had 88, I think he had 86. So some players said that was too underhanded and I said “what a play! What a play!” and the dealer, Hector, started cracking up at my joke so I gave him a high five, and that got more people laughing. We were having a pretty good time at my table.

During Level Two the blinds were T50/T100 and I had AA in LMP. The annoying "smart guy" two seats to my right opened for T300, I think. I reraised to T1000 and he called, we went heads up. There was T3,000 in the pot (I'm not sure of the size of the preflop raises, but there was definitely T3,000 in the pot). Flop came Q-J-4, a flop I really didn't like. He checked, I bet T2100, he thought for a long time and folded. I was so relieved. On the next hand I had AKs two off the button. I opened to T350. Then the button makes it T1,000. Folded back to me and I went into the tank. I couldn't call, though I briefly considered it. It was either fold or pop it back. I decided to make it T4,000 total, which effectively committed me to the pot. He folded, thankfully. I'm not sure if I like the way I played this, I try to stay out of marginal spots and this was one of them, plus if he had moved in I likely would have been risking my whole tourney on just a coin toss. So after this hand I had about T12K and was feeling pretty good, not nervous at all. After those two hands I looked at my friends on the rail and yelled “we’re having fun now!” which was probably a jackass thing to say but I’m a jackass so it works out pretty good.

Moving on, here's a bizarre hand that came up just before the break. I wasn't involved in it. There were about 4 limpers to me in the CO and I folded some trash hand. Then the button makes it T500. It was a 4 way flop. It came J-8-x. Checked around. Turn puts up a third club. Checked to the PFR who bets T500. Two folds, then the "smart guy" checkraises all-in for T2800 more. "Smart guy" stands up from his chair and starts staring the bettor down. The bettor thought for a long while. No clock was called. Finally he calls. The all-in smart-ass guy turns up QT for nothing but a gutshot. The PFR has the King of clubs and some other card, which gave him the second nut flush draw and an overcard. Aiii-yahh, I thought I was playing in the World Series of Poker? River bricked and the annoying guy was eliminated. My friends and I laughed about this as we walked out to Fremont Street so I could get some fresh air during my break.

I don't think I played any other hands of significance at this table. Then the table broke and I got moved into the main poker room. This new table had three other Stars players. I recognized one player as I sat down in the 5 seat. In the 1 seat was Peter Giordano (sp?), who made the final table at Foxwoods on Season One of the WPT. He was also a Stars player, and he told me his handle and I realized I had played with him many times before. He had a pretty good stack. I remember not noticing any huge stacks and that was good news for me, b/c I think I had around T10K when I got moved.

I settled into the 5 seat. The guy on my immediate left was another nutty player. I was hoping to trap him for a lot of chips. An example of his nutty play was when we were blinding at 150/300, UTG he makes it T3,000, folded to me in the BB and I said loudly “I hope I have Aces” and I got a few laughs. Sadly, I only had AT and had to muck it. But with this guy, it might have been the best hand lol.

One hand, the CO openlimped, the button folded and I completed the SB w/ JT. Flop came Ten high. Checked to the CO who bet, I raised, the BB folded and the CO folded after much deliberation.

A Stars player opened the pot in MP for about T900 when the BB was T300, and the next guy moved in for T4500 total. Folded to me in the BB w/ AQ. I thought briefly but based on my reads of these two, I knew I couldn’t get involved. The PFR called the all-in raise. All-in guy had AK, PFR had QJ. Turn was a Queen. If I played a little worse I could have added a good amount to my stack. Doh!

I think I was playing too tight at this table (actually, I’m sure that I was) b/c I let myself get all the way down to about T5,000.

After the dinner break my table got moved upstairs to the main tourney room. I was now way shortstacked and wasn’t feeling too good about my first WSOP experience. I made some successful stealraises w/ J9 and AK. Then the table broke and I got moved into a corner of the main tourney room.

I didn’t recognize anyone at my table but the lady on my immediate left and the guy two to my left both had big stacks. Not what I wanted to see when I was desperate to get some chips. The only play of note at this table was when I was UTG+2 w/ A5s and a stack of T4200. We were blinding at T200/T400 w/ a T25 ante. This was the last level of the night. I couldn’t afford to pay the blinds again—doubling up from T3600 wouldn’t do me much good. I don’t like moving in with a weak suited Ace but by this point I was already resigned to my fate (or something). Playing in the WSOP for hours on end does weird things to the human psyche (or something). So before my brain even knew what was happening I was pushing all of my chips in front of my cards. Then the dealer announced “all-in” and I perked up a little bit like “woah, look, I’m all-in!” But it was okay b/c I was pretty sleepy anyway. I got called by a player in LP. When it came time to turn our hands up I said “I like your hand.” And I did, b/c he had JJ. I had diamonds and he didn’t have one. The flop produced three cards, none of which matched either of my cards, though one was red in color and upon further inspection it was also a diamond. This is when I put my backpack on and stood up from my chair. The turn was another card, and it was also red. But it wasn’t a diamond. Then the dealer put up the river—it was a black Ace. I yelled “yes!” very loudly and you’d think I had just made the final table. But no, I doubled up to T8400—still a pathetic amount. But whatever. Time to play poker again. Thirty minutes later the JJ guy was still muttering to himself and to his neighbor. I wanted to apologize to him for the suckout but then I didn’t want to so I ended up not apologizing. It occurred to me that A5s was the first hand I had shown all day. Well whatever. Later I picked up KK UTG and stole the blinds and antes. In retrospect I should have limped b/c at that point I needed to trap someone for a lot of chips. I ended the day w/ T9300, a pretty sad amount. So during this day of play I had AA, KK, QQ, AKs, and AK a few times. I couldn’t wait to go to bed.

It took me at least two hours to fall asleep. You’d think having five friends in my hotel room w/ me would cause problems but that wasn’t the case at all. I was just nervous about the tourney.

Day Two

In the morning I went to the Horseshoe to check out my table draw. It was an excellent one. At T9300 I wasn’t even the shortest stack—and the biggest stack was only T16,800! While checking out the lists I saw Philuva so he and I and my friend Jon (who was also in the tourney) and one of my college roommates went to McDonald’s for brunch. I was so excited about my table draw and I thought I could really make some moves if I could dictate the style of play. But I was also really nervous and I couldn’t eat anything, and that kinda sucked.

My table was downstairs and not on the rail, so my friends would have to watch Vince Van Patten’s table instead. On the first hand I was dealt KQs two off the button. It was folded to me and I think the blinds were T300/T600 w/ a 50 ante. I opened for T1900 and they all folded. A few hands later I did it again w/ 99 and stole the blinds and antes. Then on the next lap I did it with AJ and TT. Nobody was putting up a fight. I was up to T14K and things were looking pretty good. As long as they were going to let me run them over, I wasn’t going to take my foot off the gas. So when the CO opened the pot later on and I had AQ in the BB, I didn’t hesitate to reraise—and he folded just like I wanted him to. I also made this play with AT.

Some of this may seem strange to most of you and it does to me also—during those three days I learned more about poker then I had since I started playing in June 2002. The most valuable thing I learned is that in NL tourneys you don’t need great cards—just pretty good ones, a stack and the right amount of aggression. And a table image. Within an hour I had the “don’t F with me, I’m the best player at this table and it’s not close” thing going on. Certainly that may not have been true but if you sit down at the WSOP without that attitude you’re likely to be a goner pretty quickly. I had played far too timidly the day before and I wasn’t going to let that happen again. After a while I had the whole table scared of me—I could just feel the aura of the table. I was in a pretty good Zen-like state. I don’t know, maybe? The old man on my left and the older man two to my left kept shaking their heads and folding and muttering to themselves when I would open a pot. Things like that just added to my confidence. It was cool—I’d open each pot to T1900 in this level, put my head down and look at the Binion’s Horseshoe logo at the center of the table and this way, if they wanted to get a read on me, all the could really see was my red Speaker City hat. But I could still see them, and it felt great to see them throw their hands away one by one.

I got reraised only once or twice when the second level of the day began. It was folded to me in the CO and the blinds were T400/T800 w/ an ante of I think T75. I made it T2500 w/ QQ. The button and SB folded. Then the BB started taking longer than usual. She was a lady named Roweena. When I was speeding through at this table she was the one that was the most irritated. And surely, I had been making my raises with a large variety of hands. The cards you hold don’t matter if opponents are playing too tight and if you can easily muck your hand to a reraise. So anyway, when she announced that she was all-in, I wasn’t too thrilled. Just b/c this was my first really tough decision of the tourney. I inspected her stack and it looked like she had me covered, just barely. So I had to make a move for all my chips if I wanted to get further involved. I thought about it for maybe 30 seconds. I decided she could do this w/ a few hands, including AQ, JJ, TT, etc. There were only three hands I didn’t want her to have. I stood up from my seat, took about two steps back and thought for a little while. Then I walked back to my chair and did a weird thing where I snapped my fingers, pointed ahead of me and said I call. There were one or two gasps and an “oh my god”—this was our biggest pot of the day. Unfortunately, I was really unhappy to see that she had one of the three hands I didn’t want her to have—AK. I wasn’t at all thrilled to play such a large pot for just a coinflip. If she had turned her hand faceup I would have folded in an instant—I could wait for a better spot. Anyway, the dealer put up the flop and the window card was an Ace. Not good. The flop also had a King and a 4. I was cooked. The turn bricked. The river was a red Queen! I was already standing and I jumped a little bit and yelled “Yes!” really loudly. Everyone in the room heard me. Since I was in the 1 seat, I almost elbowed the dealer that was about to start his down at my table. Roweena just sat there and said “that’s poker.” Apparently she had me covered so I just doubled through to 34K and now my tourney was looking pretty good!

Now I was in a great mood—and the table was even more fed up with me. And I had just shown down a real hand, so I was going to keep the aggression on. I was opening maybe two or three times per lap. Well maybe not that much, but it was pretty often. I had to fold to a reraise a few times, but I kept building my stack.

Here’s an interesting hand. There were two limpers to me and I limped on the button w/ 53spades. I think the BB was T800—I had a lot of chips at this point (~80K) so it was A-OK. Both blinds were in so it was a 5 way flop. It came J-2-2 w/ two spades. SB checked, BB (very timid player) bet out T2000. Two folds to me and I raised it to T4000, then I realized that I had just made a limit play and this was no limit. He called pretty quickly. I was pretty sure he didn’t have a deuce and this was the kind of opponent I could bluff. So I decided that he could probably fold JT and worse Jacks. Problem though, since he was the BB he could have any kind of Jack, including AJ. And I couldn’t totally rule out a deuce, I just didn’t think he’d bet out w/ one. So when a 9 hit on the turn and it put up another flush draw, I was hoping he didn’t have J9. After he checked I took about 10 seconds to decide what I wanted to do. Then I bet T12,500. It was an amount that I wouldn’t have felt bad about losing if he came over the top (b/c I likely would have had to fold if he checkraised all-in), but it was also enough to scare him. I think my bet was for a quarter to a third of his stack. If he had a Jack with a T, 8, or a worse kicker (even though the 9 was now his kicker) he’d probably fold, I thought. And he’d probably put me on a bigger Jack or a deuce, like A2s (though it’s unlikely he’d put me on a deuce) or JT and up. All in all I’m not sure these were the right plays in this hand, but I wanted to try to continue running over the table, plus I really needed (read: wanted) those chips. T12,500 sounds like a big bet, and it is, but I remember it was a slight underbet. That means I might be unsure about the size of the BB at this point (it may have been T1000). Anyway this guy was a Party qualifier and a pretty cool guy. He thought for at least three minutes, maybe four. I did my usual thing, put my head down, hand on chin and stared at the board. I was breathing normally, though, thank god. If he tried to look at my face all he could see was my red Speaker City hat. Then someone mentioned calling the clock after about four minutes and I decided to do that. I had never called a clock on someone before in my life. So I told the floor I wanted one and he explained how the clock worked and he started it. I think it was a 70 second clock but I’m not sure. He started counting 10,9,8 and when he got down to 2 seconds my opponent flashed a red Jack and threw it into the muck. After I received the pot I threw my hand in, face down of course. At this point my table domination was increasing pretty good, and it was evident in my opponents’ eyes. Great feeling btw. Later on we did the usual B.S.ing about the hand and I told him I put him on a weak Jack and he confirmed that’s what he had. He said he took so long b/c he picked up a flush draw on the turn (yikes! That hadn’t really occurred to me.) I told him I had KJ….lol.

A little later I got a floor decision that allowed me to steal a pot. I was in the SB w/ 65 diamonds. It was a hand I wanted to play, but not for a raise of course. We were blinding at T500/T1000. The older gentleman in the CO threw in a single chip of T5000. After it hit the table he said “raise.” I wasn’t sure if this was a legit raise or not but I wanted to find out, so I told the dealer that he said raise kinda late. He wasn’t sure so I got the floor and told him that the guy didn’t say raise until the chip had bounced on the felt twice. Now the dealer agreed with me, saying he saw it that way also. So it was decided that it was just a call. Wonderful! So I called T500 more from the SB and the BB checked. Three way flop. It came A-K-7 w/ one diamond. Checked around. Turn was the Ad. I bet out something like 2/3 of the pot and they both folded. Cool, I thought.

With the blinds at T500/T1000 I picked up AA in MP for the second time in the tourney and the first time of the day. The 10 seat opened the pot to T3500. I was next to act and put on a little show, then made it T12K. He folded. Bummer. T10K would have been better in retrospect.

The guy in the 10 seat was a guy I didn’t like. He was this annoying British guy. Anyway the blinds were T600/T1200 w/ some kind of ante (I think T100) and it was folded to him in the SB. He was trying to raise, chose some amount, then decided to push it all-in. It was T13,200. In the BB I had red 33, the Moneymaker. I was 99% sure I had him beat. Not by much, of course. I did the quick math and figured I was getting 15,300 to 12,000 on my call. So like one and a quarter to one. I had 100K at this point. I’d be down to 88K if I lost, up to 112K if I won this likely coinflip. I decided to call. He had 75spades. He flopped a flush draw, turned a gutshot. So on the river he needed a spade, 8, 7 or 5. Jeez how many outs does a guy need? Anyway he hit the 3 of spades on the end. So my first set of the tourney was a waste. I wasn’t upset about losing this flip, it was no big deal. So I said “nice hand” and he said something like “I don’t know how you called with 33 anyway.” Man what a dick. I wanted to throw a chair at him. Then a short stack who had just been moved to the table, a young punk (kinda like me) said something similar and I was thinking “how about you shut the F up there, short stack.” I think it’s important in these things to be on good terms w/ everyone, esp. if someone has you way covered. Apparently this guy doesn’t subscribe to that theory. Annoying British guy just doubled through to 28K (a pathetic amount at this stage) and he’s gonna talk smack? I think not.

Another hand I was in LMP and opened the pot with A9. Two coldcallers! Yikes, wtf? SB folded, BB called. Flop was something like K-T-7. Checked around. Turn paired the King, I made a bet at it. This was a poor play, a bad bet. I bet like T6K. One guy folded then another guy raised it to T25K. After I folded he showed 55. Good play on his part, I think.

I knocked a guy out first hand back from a break when I raised w/ KK, he came over the top and had AQ. I don’t remember when during the day this happened. The old guy on my immediate left kept saying "I can't get any kind of read on this kid at all" which was like the biggest compliment of my poker career.

The whole second day was lots of fun but really tiring. They finally moved us upstairs with like an hour left in the night. We had been one of three tables still left downstairs. I didn’t do anything interesting up in the main tourney room. With about 10 minutes left in the last level our table broke. I was moved to a table that didn’t look nearly as friendly, however it didn’t matter much, I was ready to go to bed. I played with John Esposito for these 10 minutes. Real nice guy. I ended Day Two with T72,600 and I felt great about the way I had played. I went back to the hotel w/ my friend and college roommate Joe (we went to James Madison U. in VA) and then we went to the strip club on Fremont Street b/c I wanted to drink some beer and relax, plus the beer might help me get to sleep. The strip club was called the Girls of Glitter Gulch. Man what a poor choice. Terrible place. We had all gone to a different place on our second night in town, Spearmint Rhino, which is a great place and this was nothing like it. Ah well, after a few beers I called it a night.

Day Three

We had to lose 52 players, I think for all of us to be $10,000 richer.

I think the blinds were going to be T1K/T2K for level one and I had T72,600. Average was T93K, I think, so I was doing pretty good. I don’t mind being below average during a tourney. Time to go to the Shoe and check out my table draw. I noticed it wasn’t nearly as good as the other day. I had Greg Raymer (you might have heard of him) at my table with T297K. Luckily he was in the 3 seat and I was in the 8 seat. On his immediate left was Matt Hilger with T110K, I think, and next to him that guy also had more than T100K. The guy on my immediate left, Eli Elezra (good player), had T190K. All the others had shorter stacks than me. So I was 5 of 9 at this table. Greg had given me lots of help on 2+2….in the past few months I’d PM him w/ questions about NL tourneys. I had never met him. But even still, I didn’t really want him to know that I was Tyler Durden. B/c then he’d know stuff about how I play and how I view his play. So I decided not to. But shortly after I sat at the table he came over and introduced himself b/c we were both Stars qualifiers. This was when I told him that I was Tyler Durden and we talked for a bit. It was very cool to meet my mentor. He’s a real nice guy—said something about how we should stay out of each other’s way and I was like, great idea man, I don’t want to mess with you and that stack. I had only one hand of note at this table. The guy UTG+2 opened to T7K and I reraised in MP w/ QQ to T22K and he folded. That was cool. I saw Greg play two hands vs. Eli and I thought both had excellent postflop skills. Here’s a big pot I saw Greg get involved in. The guy two off the button opened to T7K, then from the button Greg made it about T24K. Then Matt Hilger moved in from the SB for like T100K more (maybe a little less). Greg didn’t think long before calling. QQ for Greg, AA for Matt and Hilger doubled through. Luckily the table broke after about an hour. Greg had recovered pretty good after losing a chunk to Hilger.

Then I got moved to a table in the back of the tourney room. Soon after arriving I was told by my new opponents that I had just taken the seat recently vacated by Phil Gordon. Apparently Gordon had 33 on a 764 flop and after a guy bet, Gordon moved in. He got called though, b/c the guy had 66 and that sent Tall Phil to the rail.

I was in the 3 seat here and the 1 seat (Gordon buster) had a large stack. The 2 and 4 seats had me covered but not by much. A guy at the other end of the table also had a big stack. In the 10 seat was Jeff Freedman, who used to play in the PGA Tour. He seemed like a nice, cool guy. He busted on a rough beat. He opened in the SB, the big stacked BB reraised, Jeff moved in and the BB called. Jeff had 88. The BB, Martin Feijo, who finished 28th in this event for $80,000 had 44 and flopped a set.

The room was pretty crazy when hand for hand play started. All-ins were announced by Matt Savage and everyone would go crazy if it was called. We needed to lose one more player to all be in the money. A guy I had talked to while I sweated a table on Saturday and who I had played with on Day One was all-in at a table near mine. And he’d been called in three places. A bunch of tourney officials and some cameras rushed to the table. But this guy turned up JJ at the end and it was good, he had quadrupled through.

The screens made an error and showed that there were less than 225 players left but that was incorrect. So when a guy busted by posting all-in in his BB and Dewey Tomko busted at the featured table on the same hand, Matt announced that Harrah’s was going to award them $10,000 anyway, and that garnered a round of applause from the crowd.

The top 180 would be guaranteed $15,000, so I made that my next goal. Of course I wanted to win the whole thing, but I knew that was going to be pretty difficult. I think I was down to about T60K when Doyle Brunson got moved into the 5 seat. I remember thinking “what the hell is going on here. I’m 23 years old, I started playing poker out of boredom two summers ago on a trip to Atlantic City (a trip that occurred b/c I was frustrated that I couldn’t find a job a month after I graduated from school and so I played 2-4, 3-6, 5-10 and 10-20, not knowing what the hell I was doing) and here I am in the WSOP and Doyle Brunson just sat at my table.” That’s when it kinda dawned on me that I had cashed in the biggest poker tourney ever. It was all pretty F---ing cool.

My stack was dwindling and I reverted to a strategy from Day One, trying to trap someone for a lot of chips. So when I had AK UTG, raising didn’t feel like the right play. I limped, hoping to reraise all-in if someone raised or I’d hope to hit a flop. The guy next to me limped also, and both blinds were in. The flop came K-9-x rainbow. Checked around. Turn was a brick and the BB bet T12K. I moved in for T50K total. The others folded, he thought for a while and I was praying for a call but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get one. He said “I guess you’ve got three Kings” a few times then mucked. Either before this hand or afterwards (pretty sure it was before) I reraised all-in, once with A8 and also with QT. I was desperate for chips when I did that. They folded both times. Not long after Doyle got moved to my table I had run my stack up to something like 96K and that’s when I called rare-poster rtucker5 and told him, and I think he posted it on here. But I didn’t do a great job of protecting my recent run. I played with Senthil Kumar, who made the final table at Foxwoods during this current season of the WPT. He replaced Jeff Freedman in the 1 seat. He plays very tight and I like the way he plays. I tried a steal raise w/ A7 and when he came over the top from the BB I had to muck it.

At the dinner break I had about T50K if I remember correctly, and the blinds were going to be T2K/T4K. So my plan was that if I could double through once or twice, I’d get myself another $5,000. I tried a steal raise in LP with T9, I think I opened it to T12K. Doyle was on the button, he looked at my stack and made it T50K, which he knew put me all-in. Maybe he sensed weakness, I dunno. Folding would leave me w/ T38K. My outs were probably live. I couldn’t be taking that much the worst of it, unless he had 99 or bigger. I looked at him and I was like “what the hell, Doyle Brunson just put me all-in in the World Series.” Then I looked a little to my right and there was an ESPN camera right in my face. Very strange indeed. So anyway, I folded. I regret it though. T38K wasn’t really enough. I think on the next lap I moved in w/ 88 and when a guy moved in over the top from LP I wasn’t too disappointed b/c I wasn’t going to be unhappy about being eliminated here. He turned up QQ and I couldn’t pull a miracle.

But I felt I had played the best poker of my life and I had run out of gas (mental, physical and emotional) way before the 88 hand. I was happy enough w/ my $15,000. Later I thought about how since I busted 126th I was only 18 spots from $20,000, but oh well.

It was a grueling event, stressful and exhausting but also lots of fun. I’d love to play next year. Hopefully I can win another seat. I’m also going to try to win a seat into the main event of the WCOOP on Stars and the main event at the Borgata Poker Open in September.

Thanks very much for reading.

~ Yaser

[Tyler Durden]

There are other hands of course, however I couldn't remember all of them. I'll post an addendum in this thread if they come to mind. The whole report took so long b/c I got sick the day I busted and I've been kinda sick since then. But it's about time right?

P.S. This weekend Tyler Durden will be making his first Atlantic City appearance since last summer, for those interested. Anyone feel like letting him crash in your room for Saturday night, b/c he couldn't get one. He'll gladly chip in the $$$ and Barry can vouch for his hygiene and his overall normalcy. Thanks very much.

[J.R.]

Congrats.

[felson]

Well written, and well done!

[Sponger15SB]

great trip report tyler, just to even say you played in the WSOP is a huge accomplishment...well, in like 5 years everyone and their mother will be able to say that, but congratulations, i got chills when i read

[ QUOTE ]

I remember thinking “what the hell is going on here. I’m 23 years old, I started playing poker out of boredom two summers ago on a trip to Atlantic City (a trip that occurred b/c I was frustrated that I couldn’t find a job a month after I graduated from school and so I played 2-4, 3-6, 5-10 and 10-20, not knowing what the hell I was doing) and here I am in the WSOP and Doyle Brunson just sat at my table.” That’s when it kinda dawned on me that I had cashed in the biggest poker tourney ever. It was all pretty F---ing cool.


[/ QUOTE ]

[nolanfan34]

Awesome report, and congrats on the excellent finish. I especially liked your candidness, with quotes like this

[ QUOTE ]
I’m the kind of guy that likes to form opinions on people before I get to know them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice.

I'd say your recollection of specific hands is pretty good. Have fun in AC.

[Sloats]

good read.

[Barry]

Super story. I can't wait to hear more over the weekend. And yes Tyler is a good guy and and always seems to have recently bathed when we were together.

[eggzz]

Very enjoyable read, congratulations on your success this year.

[turnipmonster]

congratulations and great trip report!

--turnipmonster