WSOP main event report: Levels 1 to 4

[M.B.E.]

Level 1, 25/50, stack: 10,000

I fold the first three hands, so on hand #4, to alleviate my boredom, I open-raise to 175 in LP with 8-4 offsuit. BB calls. Flop comes K-K-K. Opponent checks and I check my full house draw. Turn is a 3 (missing me entirely), my opponent bets 100, and I fold.

The first real pot I get involved in, it is folded to the cutoff in seat 8, a guy in a Betfair shirt who turned out to be very tight although I didn't know it at this time. He raises to 150. I am on the button (seat 9) and reraise to 525 with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. Seat 10 (the small blind) hasn't shown up yet. The BB calls and the original raiser folds. Flop comes J-4-3 rainbow, BB checks, and I bet 625 into the 1225 pot. Opponent folds and pot is shipped to me, bringing my stack to 10,475.

Seat 10 shows up at 11:40, surprised we had already started, since all the other tournaments started at noon. Next time, read your ticket. Turns out this guy has played the main event every year since 1993, and never cashed. I don't want to give anything away so early in my report, but let's just say that his streak is still in place. In one hand against him, I raise to 150 in the cutoff with 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]4[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. He calls on the button and the blinds fold. Flop comes J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. I bet 200, he raises to 400, I call. Pot 1175. Turn is the 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], giving me trips. I check, he bets 300, I raise to 1200, he thinks and folds.

In seat 7 is a young guy with headphones who is playing hyperaggressively. When he's sitting down, he raises about 30% of his hands preflop. However, he frequently gets up and leaves the table for twenty minutes at a time (to cool off?). As far as I can tell at this point he seems to be playing reasonably well post-flop. On one hand I raise to 150 in EP with AKo. The hyperaggressive guy calls in the BB and we are heads up. The flop is ace high, all spades. I don't have the K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. He checks, I bet 200, he calls. Pot is 725. Turn is the ugly 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. He checks, I bet 500, he calls. River is the 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and we both check. Opponent wins with T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], a flopped flush. With the 850 chips I lost on that hand, I drop below 10K to end the level.

Level 2, 50/100, stack: 9775

My notes on this level aren't very good. Apparently I lost a bunch of chips on two separate hands with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], which took my stack down to 6600 or so. Soon after that, I caught QQ twice in a row, in my blinds. Both times the hyperaggressive player raised and I reraised to 1450 or so (which left me with about 5000) and everyone folded. The hand after that, on my button, I won with KQo when I called a raise and successfully bluffed at a 9-high flop.

Level 3, 100/200, stack: 10,025

I openraise in EP to 600 with A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Two players (both in PartyPoker shirts) call behind me. Blinds fold, 2100 in pot. Flop is 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. For some reason I check, and the first PartyPoker shirt bets 1000 (leaving him 4300 in his stack). The second PartyPoker shirt folds, and I raise all-in. My opponent thinks and thinks, studies me for a tell, and thinks some more until someone calls for a clock on him. Finally he folds. A couple of minutes later he asks whether I had him beat. "What did you have?" I ask. "Tens." "Oh yeah," I say, "I had that beat." All-in-all I don't like my play on this hand; from that position it's probably correct to fold A7s preflop, or perhaps limp. But my opponent (assuming he really did have TT) played much worse. Since he only had 5900 to start the hand, he should have reraised all-in preflop.

Level 4, 100/200 a25, stack: 14,550

The hyperaggressive player two to my right raises to 800 in EP; I repop it to 2200 with A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. We are heads up and the flop comes Q-J-6. We both check. Turn is a K; he bets and I fold. The play seemed reasonable at the time, because when he initially raised preflop chances were he could not beat A3, but then when he called my reraise and big cards hit the board, he was almost certainly ahead of me and I didn't think I'd be able to push him off the hand.

A bit later, I play A3s again against the same hyperaggressive player. He raises to 600 in the cutoff and I call in the SB with A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. BB folds. Flop misses me; we both check. Turn is a blank, I bet, he raises, I fold.

Up to now my read on that player has been that he is hyperaggressive preflop but plays well afterward, and knows when to keep the pressure on and when to release his hand. But that turns out to be totally wrong! He has built his stack up to 25,000 or so, then loses almost all of it in three different hands (unfortunately none of those chips come my way). On one hand, he raises preflop and the tightest player at the table (sitting on his immediate left, my immediate right) reraises. The flop comes 7-high, and he bets, the tight player raises, he goes all-in and the tight player calls with QQ to double through. Mr. Hyperaggressive showed T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].

Another player at the table is wearing both a PartyPoker shirt and a gold bracelet, which I later found out he won in a $1000 NL event at the World Poker Open in Tunica this year. He had lost a lot of his chips early on, and now is not playing a correct short-stack strategy. Eventually I bust him when I limp in EP with 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], several limpers follow behind me, and he checks in the BB. Flop is K66, he checks, I bet 700, everyone else folds and he calls. That leaves him with only about 1600. Pot is 2650. The turn is an 8 or something; he checks and I am quite worried that he will fold if I bet (even though he ought to be pot-committed). So I check behind. River is a 9 and he pushes. I call and show my trip sixes; he mucks his cards and leaves the table.

At the end of the level I have 11,225.

[To be continued.]

[woodguy]

[ QUOTE ]
I check my full house draw

[/ QUOTE ]

nh.

I'd ask some questions about the hands, but you're not leaving any questions unanswered.

Can't wait for the rest.....

Regards,
Woodguy

[AA suited]

how do you remember all this. Are you allowed to have paper/pen at the table and keep notes?

[PrayingMantis]

Very nice report so far. A pleasure to read.

[M.B.E.]

Yes, note-taking at the table is permitted. I did some of that, but mostly jotted down my notes at the break.

[cferejohn]

[ QUOTE ]
how do you remember all this. Are you allowed to have paper/pen at the table and keep notes?

[/ QUOTE ]

Why wouldn't you be? Have you ever been told that you *can't* do this?

Nice report MBE. Looking forward to the rest...

[Degen]

its almost as if this is a joke...

is there a reason you play so LAG? is that the way to go with deep stacks or what?

[AA suited]

[ QUOTE ]
Yes, note-taking at the table is permitted. I did some of that, but mostly jotted down my notes at the break.

[/ QUOTE ]

so you can also keep notes on your opponents? or is that bad etiquette?