It’s been a busy couple of days. I just got back to Seattle from the Indy 500 on Sunday, and then flew out to Vegas on Tuesday to my first wsop event of the year today. May ended up with me losing $27k which is not so bad. I really just like to think of it as I made $5k in April and $5k in May which is the equivalent. I have some pics and videos of the Indy 500 which I’ll try to get up here eventually but it’s almost midnight here and I’m playing the event tomorrow so I’ll try to write up the hands from the event today quick before I go to bed.
Anyways, I roll into the Rio around 11am to check out what’s changed this year. They opened up the pavilion room to play poker in and it’s much bigger and roomier than the amazon room which I’m happy about. I saw a couple poker buddies princessdonk, puddlepirate who were playing the event as well which was cool. I also saw a slew of the poker celebs like Barry Greenstein and Greg Raymer but I’m kind of over being in awe of any poker players (with a few exceptions like Ivey) so it’s not really a big deal anymore.
I take my seat in the 2 seat and say hi to the people sitting next to me. Everyone is very quiet for much of the play today. After about 5 mins of waiting to get started Taylor Caby sits down in the 8 seat. Weee, my table draw was not very good and people were playing pretty tight and weren’t even talkative to make it entertaining. Pretty bad table overall. Blinds started at 25/50 with 4500 chips and the first eventful hand I am in the sb. Btn opens to 150, I look down at AdJd and make it 450 to go. I flat here sometimes, but I think early on it’s not a bad idea to 3 bet someone from the blinds to discourage them from stealing light on you in the future. Anyways, he calls, flop is A52 rainbow, I cbet 600 and take it down.
A couple rounds later in 50/100 it folds to me in the cutoff and I open 5h7h for 250 and am called by the btn. Flop is gin for me, AhKh5c. I decide to go for a check/raise as the preflop raiser. Villain does not oblige and checks it back. Turn is another 5 giving me trips, I bet 400, he calls, river is a blank, I bet 900 he snap calls and flashes an ace which is no good.
I play a few other very small pots in the first hour but nothing eventful. In level 2 the most interesting hand was utg+1 opens to 250 at 50/100 and I flat with AhQh utg+3. Everyone else folds. Flop is Ac4c4s, he cbets 400 into the 650 pot and I flat call. Turn is the 3h and he checks. In a cash game I just about always bet here since I’m beat by so few combos of hands, but I’m proud of my check behind here as it’s a nightmare when I do get check/raised and while it’s not happening very often this is a good example of exercising good pot control in a tournament and how your play should vary when playing tournaments as opposed to cash. The river is a 6s so any 2 makes a straight, but once he checks to me I’m 90% sure that I both have the best hand and that he doesn’t have an ace so it’s just a matter of figuring out the max he will call with a pair of Jacks or something. I decide 600 into the 1450 pot is the right amount and he does too apparently after tanking for 2 minutes and reluctantly calling.
After quick break I’m moved to a new table with around 7500 in chips and feeling pretty good. Blinds are 75/150 still with no ante and I play tight and fold for awhile until the following hand. I’m in the BB and it folds around to the sb who is some old irish guy who loves to look at his cards preflop, move around some chips like he’s going to make a preflop raise carefully counting out 3 big blinds and then deciding better of it and mucking. He does this a lot and it gets annoying. Anyways in this hand he has ~3200 in chips and he makes it 450 to go. I look down at AQo and am pretty ecstatic to ship on him. He snap calls and I’m pretty demoralized to see him flip AKo. I don’t suck out and I’m down to less than my starting stack of 4500.
I open a few hands, completely miss the flop and check/fold. Finally, I pick up two red Jacks on the button and open them with about 3600 at 75/150 and the big blind ships A6o on me. I snap call, hold up and double up to about 7k again. I slowly bleed away again back to 5k when my bust out hand arrived at the very end of level 4 of 100/200 no ante.
I open the cutoff with Ad6d and this loose Russian guy defends his big blind. Flop is gin for me, AhKh6s, he check ships over my cbet of 575, I call obviously and he flips Jh6h. I pokerstoved it and I’m 65% here. Turn is a blank, river is a Qh and I’m out. Not much I can do, pretty happy with the way I played today. Wish me luck in the pot limit event tomorrow.
If anyone is here in Vegas and would like to meet up just leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail.