My WSOP #2 trip report

[Masquerade]

Although I didn't win a seat online I had some good results in online tournaments and decided I was long overdue a trip to Vegas as a treat to myself. As my birthday is June 2nd this coincided with the start of the WSOP and I decided to use some online winnings to play in the $1500 NL tourney.

I arrived at the Rio conference centre around 11am on the Friday and my first impression was chaos. There was a sign for "New players" and another for "Prepaid" but this led to an unmanned desk. In fact pre-paid players had to join a different queue leading to the main desk where it joined with a monster queue of players who had yet to pay. The whole setup was extremely confusing and ill-managed. People will wait in line if they're re-assured theyre in the right line but there was no information apart from a harrassed woman occasionally asking "pre-paid". Sorry guys but there's better ways of organising this.

Having established I was in the right queue I finally noticed that it led directly to one side of the processing desks and didnt snake through all the ropes as I'd feared. To be fair I only had to wait in line for about 20 minutes before getting my ID checked and signing away all legal rights whatsoever.

There were apparently 2305 entries in total - although that includes some alternates - so probably only 2200 playing at one time. That meant 200 tables of 11. Ugh. Here I should point out that my ONLY experience of live tourneys before this was playing some $40 or $60 buyins at the Aladdin [highly recommended btw]. I got nowhere at all these although with hindsight I was playing ridiculously conservatively. In a $40 rebuy I get QQ in the big blind and lay it down after a early raiser and early big re-raiser. This might be a good move in the $10,000 but a $40 rebuy?? What was I thinking?? [They both had AK and I missed the chance to treble].

Anyway back to the $1500 WSOP. I found myself in Seat 1. I hate Seat 1. It's impossible to see the players in 9 and 10 (and 11!) and you can't see when it's your blind or even your turn to act. You also live in peril of the dealer mucking your cards. I assume everyone playing in a $1500 is good but when Devilfish came over to greet an Aussie player called Jeff its gets worse. I don't want friends of Devilfish at my table!

The first level passes uneventfully. I receive precisely one playable hand: 88. I call in early position, Jeff raises in mid and I call for another 100. Flop is Kxx with two spades and I dont have the 8 spades. I check, essentially surrendering the pot to Jeff's bet but afterwards I wonder if I played this hand correctly. Especially after I observe how Jeff frequently raises in that situation with a small pair and then steals the pot on the flop. Hmm. This is going to be hard.

After the first level I am down to about 1100 from 1500 and am not happy. I have been card dead but I'm not paying $1500 to get blinded away. Finally I get a hand TT in late position after just one limper. I know this is a textbook raise situation but cant pull the trigger. Raising virtually pot commits me anyway and would probably just book a tiny win. I decide to call and we take the flop with the big blind getting a free look. The flop is interesting: 789 rainbow. Not bad for TT! However the Asian player in the big blind immediately goes allin. He's suffered a bad beat and I have him covered but only just. After some thought the middle limper folds and it's an easy call for me although I assume he's caught some part of the flop. In fact he has 87 for two pair and it's almost exactly a coinflip but I catch a J on the turn to bust my first player and climb to around $2000. Shortly after that the table breaks and I get moved to the table where I will spend the rest of the tournament.

In seat one was a youngish player who I know now is Lance Newton. As I write he's gone out in 15th for a $28K payday. Having observed him for most of two days let me say he's really good and there entirely on merit. He amusingly busted Fossilman with, for once, the worst of it [more of that later] but he was making some very good reads and laydowns all tournament. I thought his post-flop play of a single Ace was particularly strong. Unfortunately I spent my entire tournament life short-stacked so never had a chance to play post-flop. In seat 5 was some famous player who had lots of chips and was even asked to sign autographs at one point during play. I've no idea who it was I'm afraid. David something? He later took QQ up against AK and lost most of his stack but seemed to complain about it rather a lot. Like that's never happened to anyone else, right? He departed soon afterwards.

On my left initially was Jeff the Aussie from the first table but he clearly decided it was time to double up or get out and went allin on a scary looking flop with nada. An easy call for Lance and it's bing-bang-bong. That sort of play is shocking for a conservative player like myself but I can believe it might be profitable in the long run if you pick your spots.

His replacement was a gentleman with a more legitimate gripe than QQ losing to AK: He had been chip leader on his table before getting Aces cracked by Kings even though he turned a set of Aces. Yes that has got to hurt. I was involved in a hand with him early on. One limper to me in the small blind, I decide to call with T8o despite being short-stacked, big blind calls. Flop is T96 two diamonds - I have no diamonds. It looked like my flop so I went allin but got called by the big blind who had T7 diamonds. Ack. I managed to dodge the bullets and double up with an 8 kicker which gave his stack another body blow. A few hands later I bust him when it was folded round to me in the small blind and I raised with AQo. He immediately re-raised allin with 33 and it was an easy call. The flop was 226 and Im sitting there thinking "Oh that helps me" as I know that paired boards can counterfeit small pairs before I finally notice that 22 is actually smaller than 33 so this doesnt apply. We have exactly the same chip count so I'm going out on river unless an ace or queen comes - which it does.

In fact my tournament is a long series of escapes from sudden death. I am raised on my blind by 55 and manage to double with TT. I double again with TT when Lance calls me with A9 and I only have an ace to dodge. I get involved with him again when I raise again pre-flop with 99. He calls in the big blind with A7. The flop is 478 rainbow and he makes a nice probe bet of 5K. At this point I have 12K left but it's obviously a fantastic flop for 99 and I allin. He then makes the laydown despite having caught a pair but he is so sure of his read that I have tens or similar and (probably) saves himself another 7K or so.

Despite this temporary relief I just cannot get any cards or build a stack and the pace of the blinds leaves me constantly on the edge. However the seat to my immediate left seems to become the seat of death. An Indian player arrives there drops a large stack to, I think, Lance when he made a horrible bluff at a king-high flop with JJ. Now that he's short stacked I have no hesitation in raising with K5s in the small blind when it's folded round to me. He instantly calls with AJ but a 5 comes and I score another suckout. My most ridiculous one comes when I have less than 4 big blinds and plan to go allin with anything under the gun. However when it comes I have 73o and just cant pull the trigger. So now I'm in the big blind and significantly pot committed. A very aggressive Asian player Loi Phan raised from under the gun [the seat to my left was empty at the time] and I found J9 suited. Hmm. Not ideal but given that he was raising a lot with less than premium hands and I already had a chunk of my stack in there I decided to call. He had KQ but I picked up a flush draw on the flop of A9x however the turn brought a ten which cancelled my Jack outs but I very luckily caught a 9 on river to survive [I still had all the flush outs too].

A funny incident on the Saturday was when Greg Raymer came to the seat to my left and got busted in (I think) one hand! It's folded to Greg who raises. I cant remember the amounts but its a standard sized raise. Lance calls in the blind. At this point I put him on a medium to good ace because he always has an ace when anyone raises. The flop is 688. Lance checks and Raymer immediately says "Allin". He has a respectable stack left at this point when we're down to 90 players or so. Lance starts to think. He says he doesnt believe Greg has a pair. Well for once his read was wrong. It's obvious to me that Greg does because there is no way Fossilman is putting his tourney life on the line without thinking he has the best of it, and pretty much the only way he can be confident of that is if he has an overpair and puts Lance on overcards. I put Greg on JJ and Lance on AK. Greg makes some joke remark about 88 being his favourite hand as it was the final hand of last year's WSOP main event which apparently he won. After long thought, and having Greg well covered, Lance calls. TT v AQ. Well I was close. However Lance catches on river and Fossilman is back to the stone-age. He did have a nice fossil as a chip protector. I'd always asumed they were some sort of lump devil's toenail type fossil but it was a smooth-polished flat shale type.

I was pleased to see that Greg's replacement was a small Asian man - hey those tables werent big - however he brought with him a huge stack of chips and people were calling him "boss" which probably wasnt a good sign. In fact it was An Tran. He soon busted the very aggressive Asian player on his left Loi Phan who I thought was Vietnamese but might have told An Tran he was Cambodian. As they were conversing in Vietnamese at the time I could be completely wrong but I thought I caught the syllables "Cam-bod". Hey I'm sharper than I look at the table!

As a tiny tiny minnow my stack had no interest for An Tran but it was funny to watch him steal mercilessly. However in one hand he strangely limped UTG. Maybe a mistake very good players make is to under-estimate the donkeys as it was obvious he had a hand and was tired of not getting any action on his raises. I saw the flop for free with Alex in the small blind calling as well. Check, check, check, check, check, check. etc. Board shows AxQQx or something. Before An Tran turns his hand over I suggest he has Aces for the boat - well he has AQ, close enough. Note for poker deities: we might be worse than you but we're not that bad!

My own exit is comes soon afterwards. Checked to me I allin with JTs - desperation time - and am called by Lance with J5s. I narrowly avoid losing to a flush but we chop and my last chance to double goes. I have to make a final move with A9o when its checked to me a few hands later but both Lance in the small and the big blind call and I know its over when the board comes something like xKQxQ giving Lance a nice boat with KQ. So in my first proper live tournament I make 41st for a $9225 payday. Not too shabby and after the earlier suckouts I have no complaints. Next time I would like have some sort of stack though as pre-flop play on its own does become very boring.

The big eye-opener for me at the WSOP was of course being able to see numerous famous players in the flesh. Annie Duke is much more attractive than photos suggest although her penchant for pink T-shirts over brown/green long-sleeved tops is unlikely to catch on. I am on the table next to Cindy Violette on Friday and she's getting plenty of camera attention. I spot Jennifer Harmon playing in the pot limit on Saturday. She is tiny and looks like a frightened rabbit when facing a bet. Before she became famous I see how her looks alone would give her a huge +EV playing high stakes limit. Phil is there of course, headphones on, swaying his huge frame back and forth at the table. I dont think it would be fun to sit next to him. Mike Matusow makes a terrible move on Friday with only a second-best flush draw he manages to catch runner KK and then work up his stack to 100K. An amazing catch but does the whole room have to hear about it at 90 decibels? And then on Saturday, unbelievably, he is complaining endlessly about small pairs always coming over the top of him and losing coin flips. Devilfish is there, ruthlessly amassing chips, plenty of banter with Phil. At one point Phil changing tables manages to drop about 40K on chips all over the floor. James Woods is there. I'm not sure if he was in the tourney but is certainly playing some cash games later. At one point he is standing next to me on his cellphone. I think his performance in Salvador is his greatest ever but didnt think it was probably the best time to tell him.

Having criticised the registration procedures I think its only fair to criticise the playing areas too. I appreciate there were 2300 entries buth when we were down to 200 players we were crammed in even tighter! How can this be logical? When the fields are smaller how about having MORE space around the tables. You know it makes sense. The tournament tables also got a less attention from the waitresses - mainly because they couldnt easily get through we were so cramped. Water and Red Bull was available "free" - although of course you tip a dollar - and there was also a cash bar. The floormen and controllers were very competent though. One more complaint, some muppet had decided it would be a great idea to have a WSOP logo glued onto the top of the table felt. This was ridged and risked flipping over mucked cards. It also meant the dealer couldnt use the centre of the table for the flop. Nice idea guys. Maybe plain old green felt tables next year? Overall though a fantastic experience and I'm now sitting in my hotel room with about $13K cash in front of me just deciding whether to play in Sunday's Limit tourney. Viva Las Vegas!

[henrikrh]

Great write-up, nice to see a 2+2er win. You should play the limit tourny, so we can get another write up. Hell, 13k, why not play main event?

[grass]

my eyes hurt.

[NoRiverRats]

Congratulations - great report and great result. I am heading to town in a couple weeks - will play a few satellites to try and win an entry. Any comments on the satellite situation?

[Swede]

Great post and congrats!

[MicroBob]

congrats and very nice report.

i'm already in the main-event and will likely play the $3k prelim on July 1 with W$ from Stars....your accounts of the crowded conditions and drink-service, etc (as well as other reports of the bathroom situation) certainly sound pretty bad.

I can hope that they might fix some of that crap before I get there...but somehow I doubt that will happen.

[Nick-Zack]

Very nice post. I almost never read these crazy long posts but you are a pretty good writer and kept me there to the end. Congrats on the win.

[Russ McGinley]

Nice report. I'm glad someone was there to talk about Phil splattering a rack of chips everywhere. I bet that was hilarious.

[Mike Gallo]

Awesome report !!! Very well done.

[scott8]

I can't get enough of this stuff!
Great report.
I'm in Vegas tomorrow baby!!!!!!!!!!