Back on the Right Track - WSOP Week 2 Cont...
This summer I have been off to a slow start, failing to cash my first 6 tournaments. I haven’t been in panic mode whatsoever, but I am pretty frustrated with the way I have been running. Still, I have been very happy with my play and that is really all I should be focused on. If you are results oriented in this business it will make for a miserable existence (that kinda rhymed). The key is to stay on an even keel, and stay focused on the next hand and playing as well as you can as you move forward. This was my mindset going into yesterday’s tournament. I was looking to get to off to a fast start here…
Venetian $1600
Well…. I planned on getting off to a fast start… not so much. I start off raising the first hand of the tourney w A7ss and some young wizard on my left 3bets me in position. I call and the flop comes out with an Ace and 3 hearts. I check call him all the way down and he flips over the 97 of hearts for a flopped flush… sigh. A short time later I raise w 1010 from the cutoff, the small blind (middle aged dorky looking guy) 3 bets me and I call in position. The flop is Queen high 3 clubs with the turn and river being irrelevant non club low cards… once again he bets all 3 streets and I call all 3 streets. This hand was a lot different that the first hand I played though. The bet that he made on the river was different than his first 3 bets. Not only was the bet size way bigger than the previous streets (he bet 8k on the river into an 8k pot when his previous bets were all half pot sized), but his body language, the way he put chips into the pot, and his behavior gave me a strong tell that he didn’t want a call. After like 2 full minutes I call and he says “you’re good, AQ is good” as he flips over his hand…. He has JJ. He was bluffing with the best hand. If I didn’t pick up the tell that he didn’t want a call I wouldn’t have but he really didn’t want a call. This is the problem with playing against bad players… he turned his hand into a bluff which is terrible, and because he thought he had to bluff to win, and because I picked up on this, I made the call and lost…. SUPER SIGH..
WSOP Week 2 - Frustration at Bay
So far I am 0/6 in tournaments this series and am down $8100 plus expenses. Not very glamorous but I am not discouraged. I will continue to take beats like a professional and continue to learn, grow, and play my best everyday moving forward. I still feel good about the way I have played and look forward to my next shot. Here’s a wrap up of the last 3 tournaments I have played…
Tourney #4- Venetian 1600
This was easily the toughest field of players I have played with this summer. The reason is that the larger buy in Venetian tourneys usually draw a smaller field, which is made up of more talented players than my WSOP events are. This tourney had 300 players, 80% which were good. My WSOP events have fields of 3000 and 20% are good. That’s the distinction.
Anyways here’s what happened… I played really good, and really tight the entire day. I grinded out a 20-30 big blind stack for roughly 7 hours, making disciplined decisions the whole night. Around midnight and with 90 players left , my fate was sealed… With blinds at 500-1000, the hj raises to 2200, I go all in for 9700 all day, every one else folds and he calls. I have A7…. He has A6… the flop comes out…. 6 in the window. I played a very annoying and unrewarding 12hrs of poker. Good game.
Tourney#5- WSOP 1500
I was very happy to see my table when I sat down for this tournament.
Outside of myself, there was not another player at my table who knew anything about poker. I mean these players were terrible. Two guys on my direct right took the cake. These idiots were the guys that think they know what they are doing, talk (a lot) like they know what they’re doing, talk about strategy and past hands like they know what they’re doing…. But in reality they just plain suck. The more they talk the clearer the picture is of how their feeble minds work.
To top it off, the guy on my right is wearing rainbow socks w sandals, ski goggles, Bose headphones, and a backpack full of novelty items and snacks. He reminds me of Seth Green from the movie “Can’t hardly wait”.
Week 1 - Massey WSOP - Here's to Slow Starts!
Over the last few days I have entered, and busted, 3 WSOP bracelet events. No big deal… it’s a long summer. I have played well throughout and have made very few mistakes so I’m happy with that, but tournament poker is a bitch, so I’m just gonna have to ride it out. Here is a quick recap of what has happened on the felt.
Tourney #1 - WSOP $1000
Tourney #1 - WSOP $1000I got off to a really good start. I was up to over 10,000 from the original 3000 starting stack. I was playing very well and had already correctly folded KK on a JJ10- 2 club flop, and correctly triple barrel bluffed all in within the first hour. By the 2nd break over half the field was gone and many more were soon to follow with blinds going to 100-200 (funny I know but you only start with 3k). I am at an active table with several good young players. One of them raises utg+1 to 400, utg+2 calls, I call on the button (8c8s), and the big blind calls. Flop is 763- 2 hearts. BB checks, the original raiser tanks and bets 900 leaving 4200 behind and it folds to me.. I tank and jam for over 10k, having him covered, BB folds and he calls with AJ hearts and rivers 3h for a flush. I lose the hand and am left with roughly 22 big blinds and end up busting soon after, shipping it in and losing a race. The question here is did I play the hand wrong? Do I flat on flop? Do I fold? What am I beating? I don’t know, it’s tricky and I did have the best hand at the time but maybe I should have found a better spot.
Tourney #2- WSOP $1500 6max
I had a horrible table to start this one. I am sandwiched in between Chris DeMaci and Justin Bonomo, 2 top pros, with 2 other very good young players and 1 fish.