WPT Legends Trip Report (Part 1)

[theGorn]

WPT Legends Trip Report 5K NL event– DAY 1

1. RING IN THE WEEKEND
The tournament starts on Saturday August 27th. I flew in to LAX around 12:30am. No wife this time around so I can hang out and play some ring games first. Missed the paradise poker party on Friday night where seats were being given out. Woke up on Saturday around 6am (ug!) and couldn’t get back to sleep. Figured I’d better start the day early. Checked out the bicycle club and signed up for some 1-2 NL ring. While I was waiting, I met Mark G from paradise who also qualified for the tournament. We end up playing in the same ring game for awhile. Around 10am I go find my table assignment. Lo and behold Mark and I will be playing at the same table on day 1. (whoa!)
I’ve really decided to enjoy myself this time and maybe this will help me play better and not worry so much about results. I went back to the hotel after awhile to rest. (Down 30 in ring, but loosest, fishiest NL game I have ever seen).

2. MEET AND GREET
Went back to the bike a couple hours before the tourney started. I wandered back and forth around the lobby checking out the pro’s coming in. Saw Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Eric Seidel, X22, Doyle, Vince Van Patton and a host of others. Also chatted with Josh Malina from the TV Show The West Wing. He’s a very nice guy and we kept each other updated on our progress. (He was short stacked most of the day and I don’t think he made it to the end of the day).

3. IT’S JUST A GAME (Rounds 1-4)
I make my first mistake of the game. I want some water and ask the server that is standing behind me to please get me a bottle. She returns with the water and I am informed by everyone seated around me that that is not food service but the dealer! And she is going to be our dealer for the next hour! Whoops!
I didn’t take any notes this time so a lot of the following hands are after the fact. I get seated in the bottom-right corner of the room in seat 1. I don’t recognize anyone at my table. (Waah!). Seat 3 seems to be a pro and has played/friends with a lot of big names. Seat 2 is a young serious player (too serious by far). Seat 4 is an internet player and seat 5 is an aggressive tricky guy. Seat 6 won event 12 this year. (Jorge). Seat 7 is Mark G from paradise. (Very good and thinks a lot, nice guy too!). Seat 8 is a loose calling station and seat 9 seems pretty loose too. Seat 10 is weak tight. (Can’t see him, so he might as well be invisible).

Tournament Structure
================
Start with 10K, levels 90 minutes
Blinds/Antes for rounds 1-6
Round 1 25-50, no antes
Round 2 50-100 no antes
Round 3 75-150 no antes
Round 4 100-200 no antes
Round 5 100-200 50 ante
Round 6 150-300 75 antes

Notable hands from round 1 (blinds 25-50, 10K stack)
I folded every hand in the first hour. My blinds were raised every time and I had junk. It was pretty amazing. The only hand I finally played was a raise and bet on the flop against seat 8 with QTo and rags on the flop. I ended the level with around 9900.

Notables from round 2-4
I was joking around with everyone in earshot and Young Serious Player (YSP) was having none of it. He was showing premium hands and hitting well. One small confrontation is where I limped UTG with ATo UTG (Looked good from all the junk I’ve been getting and YSP raises and 2 other callers so I call). Flop comes 2,3,4. I check, YSP bets and everyone folds. I joke about perhaps holding 5,6 and he arrogantly exclaims “YOU DON”T PLAY 5,6!”. Well that ticked me off! Now I have to find that hand! (It’s a goal now, Goal 1: Find 5,6 play it. Goal 2: Win the tournament).
An hour later I finally get 56o UTG + 2. I raise and the BB calls (seat 8 with short stack). Flop is all rags and gets checked around. Turn is a 6 and I bet and he folds. I then proudly turn over 5,6 and loudly announce “SEE I DO PLAY 5,6!” YSP responds with “That didn’t prove anything”. I thought it was funny. (Mark G later remarks he had to turn away from the table to keep from laughing). As a side result, I unknowingly pissed off the BB who comments to Mark “What the heck is that guy doing, doesn’t he know this is a 5K tournament!” Come on Folks! LIGHTEN UP! It’s not as if we are playing for a million dollars or something. (Uh, I might be wrong about that) In retrospect, I was being a bit of a jerk. But I must contend, people take this game way too seriously thinking it’s some kind of holy relic when in fact it’s just a card game.

3rd round. Mark G raises UTG+2 and I am on the button and call with 10’s (I considered raising but he is fairly tight and I put in on some overcards. Flop is 774. He bets 1K. I raise 1K and he folds. I wasn’t sure if I could get more out of him. I think this is a weakness in my game in not being able to extract as much as I can from my good hands.
YSP takes a big hit by the Pro next to him when his KK gets cracked by 77 with a river 7. The pro tries to explain his betting mistakes that allowed him to see the river but YSP is angry now. He busts out about an hour later still mad.

Mark G raises to 600. I’m in the BB with 9,10o. I call. Flop comes J8x. I bet 1K to se where I am (I have the straight draw) and Mark re-raises to 2.5K. The odds look good so I call. Turn is an 8. I check, he checks. River is a 9, Checked again and he shows J10d. What did I do wrong?

Folded to me and I am 1 off the button. I raise to 700 with 86d. SB and BB both call. Flop is rags. It gets checked around on the flop. Turn is an 8. Checked to me and I bet and BB calls. River is a blank and I bet 1500. He thinks and says “You’re really putting me to the test” and I respond “I’m trying”. He makes a crying call. I immediately know I’m beat and say good hand and show my cards. He turns over J4o for Jack High! As I take the pot I am reminded of Last years WSOP where Felix Powers is telling everyone. “He called me with Jack High!” I must give the guy some credit. I was bluffing, he read me very well, but he never re-raised me. I would have disappeared in a flash!

3. SEND IN THE PROS (Rounds 5-6)
It took about 8 hours, but people finally getting busted out from my table. Now my table gets ugly. All the loose passive guys are gone and here are the replacements:
Seat 2 – Chris Bigler
Seat 3 - Unknown Pro – replaced by Ron Rose
Seat 6 – Unknown Young Guy
Seat 9 - Sam Grizzle -later replaced by Chip Reese
Seat 10 – Jason Lester
I’m trapped in the middle! I wanted some names to play with but this is overkill.
Notables from rounds 5-6:

Sam is short stacked and limps in UTG and I find QQ and raise to 1000 and he immediately folds and shows JJ. That was a great lay down especially since he is short. I believe I have had 3 QQ all day and so far no KK or AA.

I finally get KK and a couple of limpers to me and I raise to 700. Chris immediately re-raises another 1200. I am worried about AA of course but need some chips so I re-raise to 4000 and he lays it down. He says he had JJ.

The rest of the night is just folding and trying to stay ahead of the blinds. I end the night bagging 12475 after 10 hours of play. I figure the average stack is around 23K. Oh well, I survived.

To be continued…


(cardplayer was kind enough to put me in the foreground of their day 1 picture of the tournament room. There I am in all my glory in the multicolored hat.)

Cardplayer Day 1 image

[Bobby Cannoli]

WOOHOO!!!! Go GO GORN!!!!!!

[fnurt]

Great trip report. Looking forward to more.

[theGorn]

WPT Legends Trip Report 5K NL event– DAY 2/3

4. The long Intermission
Day 1 players learned that the field has been broken up into 2 days. The excess ~350 players will play on Sunday. It’s a free day for me. After the Day ended (~2:30am) it took a while to unwind. I hung out with Mark G for a while and got to bed around 4:30am. Good I get to sleep in. I really need it. When I next wake up the clock says 6:30am. WHAT! No way. I force myself to stay in bed till 7:30am then start my day. I head out for breakfast and then the Bike to see the results. Find out I am in the bottom 3rd of the standings. I run into Mark G and the rest of his crew. (Steve W, and Luong T – Chip Leader from day 1!). We head out for lunch and do some Male Bonding/Poker talk for a large part of the afternoon.

End up playing some 100 NL buy-in ring with Mark G in the afternoon. Clear about 100 when I hit a few hands. I went back to room for dinner/rest. I hook up with the gang again later in the evening. We decide to check up on the Day 2 play. Get to bed around 2:30am. I wake up around 6:00am. Ok, this is getting ridiculous. A whole 1 ½ days off
and I can’t sleep! Have another morning/afternoon to kill and end up Playing Omaha Hi/Low with Mark G with a bunch or regulars. This is not my game but I need to unwind and I do after dropping around 100 bucks.


5. Digging out of a hole (rounds 7 – 9)
We hear we are playing another 6 rounds or till the money (top 72), whichever comes first. I really need to hit some hands or I am going to be gone. My table is outside the main room with about 4 other tables. I now feel I am already out the door. I figure I can wait one round before I will be forced to play with weaker cards.

Blinds/Antes for rounds 7-13
7 200-400, 50 antes
8 300-600, 75 antes
9 400-800, 100 antes
10 600-1200 , 200 antes
11 800-1600 , 200 antes
12 1000-2000 . 300 antes
13 1500-3000 , 400 antes

Only known player at my table is Aaron Kantor who made the final table at this year’s main event. He has a healthy stack. I am in seat 2. (Finally a little away from the horrid 1 seat!). Seat 3 is a dentist (This makes me think he is weak/tight – Don’t ask me why). There are some small stacks at my table so the table is going to have some fast turnover.

First hand I play is 33 in the SB. The button raises and I already planned to raise before he did this because he has raised the last 2 out of 4 hands. He thinks for a little bit and folds and then shows 8s. Whew!

Short stack (!5K) limps in UTG and Middle position raises. I have 77 in the small blind. I know middle guys has nothing but I can’t push because I feel UTG has a BIG hand. So I call and UTG pushes all in. Middle position comes over the top all in to push me out and I still know he has nothing. I decide not to risk it and fold. UTG turns over AA and middle guys shows J7o. AA wins but I could have won the side pot. (But not much I think). I survive round 7 with around 12K.

Next level I make a few moves and am up to around 17K. The table loses a few people and gets broken up. Were moving to the main room! Its do or die time!

I finally get some hands that get paid off. I get AA and raise 2k and big stack calls and very short stack (~7 K) goes all in and I stop. I really want the big stack to call so I decide to put on a show. I count my chips, pull off my sunglasses and look back and forth at both players. After an eternity I push all in. The big stack doesn’t take the bait and folds instantly! The short stack has AQ and gets no help and is gone. The big stack laughs and says “That was the best acting job he has ever seen”! That was just the epitome of “weak is strong”. I raise 1600 in middle position with AQ and the BB (call him NR) calls. Flop is rags and I make a continuation bet and he folds. I finally have a workable stack at ~27 K and try and loosen up with it.

Later on I raise 2k three hands in a row. The first two are with weak holdings (ATo and KQo) and get called by two players. I have to give them both up when the flop doesn’t help. The third raise is with AKs. The short stack (NR) in the SB goes all in for another 12K. Uh oh! I have not seen him play any hand so I think he is pretty tight. He also might think I am on some kind of mini-tilt since I raised three times in a row. I will be crippled if I call but after much debate I make the call. NR turns over A4h and I win. I’m up to ~40k. The level bumps up to level 9 and we color up the $25 chips. Halfway through the level I am moved to another table.

6. Mr Kotter gives me a spanking (rounds 9 –12)
As I approach my seat (seat 8), Gabe Kaplan will be sitting right next to me in seat 9. Holy Moley! He must have over 100K in front of him. Player Matt Elsby is in seat 3 with a pretty big stack too. Less than 5 minutes after I sat down they are all in against each other on the flop with Trip tens for Gabe and AA for Matt. Of course the turn is an A and Gabe is left with around 45K and Matt is now around 120K. Now Mr, Kotter is ticked off. And I think I’m going to be the one that pays for it. (Gulp!)

One of the first hands I get on the button is AKs. I make a 3x raise and Gabe and BB fold. Gabe then comments “You better stop stealing”. I try and respond that I had a hand but he isn’t having any of it.

Later on it gets folded to me in the SB with 7s. I raise and of course Gabe calls. The flop comes Ace high and I make a continuation bet. Before I even get my money out there, Gabe says “raise!” and puts out a big raise. I fold and comment that “I can’t fool you” then he proceeds to show me 8To for a complete bluff! Ouch! He is a very good player and telling me he isn’t going to take any of it. Lesson noted.

I did start to hit 3 or 4 hand in a row built my stack up to ~90 K before one of the breaks. The last hand of this mini-rush was A4o on the button. It gets folded to me and I make a 5K raise. The BB goes all in for another 6K. I call and he has 9’s. I catch an Ace on the river and he is gone. Gabe then chastises me for that play saying I should know that the BB was tight and that was a weak holding against him. I respond “I was on a rush!”.

After the break I must have given at least 30K back to Gabe. I don’t remember the exact hands, but almost every hand I was in, Gabe was right there and took it away from me. He definitely had my number. Up his nose with a rubber hose!

Here are a few hands I got some of it back:

There are a couple of limpers and I limp in the SB with 89o. Gabe checks and the flop comes 5c6d7c. I check and it gets checked around. The turn is a Jd. I bet 3K and Gabe calls and everyone else folds. The river is Kd completing the flush. I bet 10K and Gabe thinks a little while and folds. I show him my cards to prove to him I had a hand and he shakes his head and mumbles “he flopped the straight”.

I limp UTG with 33. Gabe of course calls and one other caller. The flop comes 3sJc5d. I bet and Gabe calls and rest fold. The turn is a Qc. I bet again and Gabe calls. The river is a 10s. That is a scary card but I push all in! Gabe folds and then says “Trip Jacks huh?”. He’s close and once again I can’t extract the kind of money I would like. Actually, I imagine Gabe is a really nice guy but after that bad beat I saw he was mad and a fearsome to play against on my right.

7. Folding to the money (rounds 12- 13)
The table dynamic finally changes late in the day when Tim Phan shows up at the table. I believe a small truck backed up to the table and unloaded his chips. He is in seat 5 and immediately takes control of the table. I have huge respect for his play. He moves his chips exceedingly well and has a very personable table image. I liked playing with him a lot. The two chip leaders at the table are Matt Elsby and Tim Phan. The rest of the night consists basically one of them taking down the blinds and the rest of us folding. Any other action on the table would consist of one of them calling and then getting the money either on the flop or turn. Of course the whole reason for this is we were near bubble. (7.5K for 72 place!).

My friend Luong T shows up at my table and grinds along with me.
It took till 3:30am in the morning but we finally made it to the money! Both my friends Mark G and Luong T made the money too! It was a good day.
I bag up around ~58K. The average stack is around 100K. Oh look! I’m still a short stack.


To be continued….

[9cao]

Great report thus far. Very interesting.

[pindawg]

Are we gonna have to wait another 2 weeks for the rest of it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]?

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
Are we gonna have to wait another 2 weeks for the rest of it [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]?

[/ QUOTE ]

spoiler below in white:

<font color="white"> 32 Jeff McNirlon $14,595 0 </font>

[theGorn]

Sorry. I've been busy playing poker. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]