Part 2 of a 3-part series about my first trip to the World Series of Poker

After borrowing Ali’s rope-a-dope strategy to send Poker Stars boy stomping out of the poker room after the single table satellite, it was time to turn my attention to Friday’s main focus - the $155 NL holdem event that pays like you spent $2,500.

There was lots of chatter before the event as everyone was trying to predict how many entrants would make up the field. Almost 1056 people ponied up pieces of their bankroll to make the prize pool over $2,400,000. <READMORE> Starting with 2500 chips, the day would be split into eleven one hour levels to accomplish my three primary goals: 1) double up before one-third of the field is eliminated to get me out in front of the average stack 2) make it to the 26,400 chip count necessary to accomplish my goal of cashing in a 2005 WSOP event, and 3) make it up to 264,000 in chips to make the final table with an average stack. Setting my goals in this fashion allows me to focus on playing methodically with a goal-oriented approach as opposed to stressing over the monumental task of taking every single chip from 1055 other players.

With over 1000 players signed up, I was hopeful for an easy first table. Much to my liking, it turned out to be an amazingly unspectacular sea of faces. The only player that I recognized was Ram Vaswani. However, this is the WSOP, so I made sure not to underestimate anyone.

As with any table, the first couple of orbits yield lots of good guesses about people and their games. I also really work hard at trying to categorize people based on their clothing, their posture, their chip stacking approaches, and other mannerisms. The guy to my immediate right wore a black leather Harrah’s WSOP jacket with kind of retro-styled shades and that old Don Johnson looking beard thing. He was a thin guy with well-kept nails – yes, I checked out his hands, and no I’m not gay. It’s obvious that at least he thinks he is a good player. I later find out that this guy is Gigabet from the online world – a well-respected cyber pro. Around the table a bit is Ram. He is a solemn, yet good looking guy – again, I am not gay. The only other guy that really caught my attention was a guy with a Cincinnati Reds hat on. All I could think of is “who the hell wears a Cincinnati Reds hat out in public. I’ll have to bring up Ken Griffey, Jr. later to put him on tilt.” Later, I come to realize that this guy is HATJR. As for my image, at least my hands don’t shake like they used to at big-time poker events.

Goal #1 was accomplished in the first two hours as my good run of cards from the morning continued. A couple of good pocket pairs and big cards that hit the flop got me going. Later, a couple of continuation bluffs worked like a charm. A little further in, two hands stood out both involving Gigabet. One hand I pick up 88 in the 4th seat when the blinds were 25/25. Gigabet opens with a raise to 75, I smooth call, everyone else folds. The board was an unspectacular flop except for the one gorgeous snowman in the middle. Gigabet makes a bet of about ¾ of the pot which I smooth-call with average pace because there are no real draws on the board. The Q on the turn doesn’t slow Gigabet down and again I smooth call a ¾ of the pot bet as there are still no dangerous combinations on the board. After an innocuous river card, Gigabet scales back his bet to only ½ the pot. The only real hand that I have to worry about is QQ and he has about ½ of his chips in the pot, so I push all-in with a high probability of having the best hand. I thought about a smaller bet trying to milk him a little further, but I wanted to give the impression that I didn’t want him to call. To my surprise, he folds. I am now up over 4200 in chips and feeling pretty good. Just a very few hands later, almost the exact same scenario plays out with the blinds at 25/50. Again, Gigabet staves off elimination with a fold on the river to my set of 9’s. Less than 2 hours in, I’ve more than doubled up.

Scotty Nguyen was later moved to our table. Two things struck me about Scotty. The first was his “girlfriend or wife” - she was young and smoking hot. I know Scotty is loaded, but damn can money really buy everything? Second, he took a beat early on that only left him with about 1200 chips. If that happened to me, it would not be possible for me to miss a hand for almost any reason. He was so relaxed and easy-going. He missed two dozen hands because he got up and walked around, left for a while; went over kissed on his girl, and went and check on his buddies. He either felt no pressure from losing half his stack or he had a last longer bet with his buddies that he was determined to win. I stayed at my first table for probably 3-1/2 levels before musical tables began. When our table broke I was up to about 7,000 in chips.

In the last two hours before the dinner break, the field really narrowed fast as the blinds grew and people forgot that they promised themselves to play good solid poker. Every time a big name pro like Seidel would bust out and get up and leave, all of us fishies would slap fins and add another “lasted longer than such and such big name poker stud” to our record book. During these two levels, I was moved to four different tables. Of course, two of those times I was moved from the cutoff or the button right into the big blind of the new table. Why does poker always seem to work that way? Each of those tables didn’t stay together long, but the sea of nameless faces continued. Considering the situation, I just had to play good basic poker-by-numbers as there was not enough information to form accurate table images. Without any spectacular hands, I managed to grow my 7,000 in chips up to 13,000. I probably only played 4 real hands in those two hours, but I relied upon one of my favorite moves about 4 or 5 times to steal significant chips without cards: rsetreaailse fbruotmttohne – (decoder ring available for only $19.95)

It was now dinner break and time to return the messages on my cell phone and let people in on the good news. There were about 210 people left and I had a slightly above average chip stack of 13,000 which translates into about 90-100th place. I call my wife and put her through the old song and dance about how’s the kids, how’s the new floors coming, no I don’t have a dancer in my room, etc., etc., yada, yada. When all I wanted to say was “honey, look at me! I’m hanging with the big dogs! Who’s your daddy?” She was probably just as anxious but scared to ask the question about how I was doing afraid I would bust into tears after I finally realized that I couldn’t beat Jackie Chan at poker, much less Johnny Chan. Mustering her best disinterested voice, she asked “and how much do they pay for first?” Like a good poker player, I told her a little more than $300,000. Damn straight, I’m hiding the other $300,000 from her – what she doesn’t know, doesn’t get spent. Brings me to the thought about how to get that other $300,000 in cash on the plane inconspicuously. I could stuff it all down the front of my pants and make the girls go wild. Nah, probably a bag full of cash would be cool enough. Knowing my luck, the overhead bins would be full and I’d have to check the bag and it would get sent to BFE. Can you get luggage insurance for cash? I digress, back to reality.

After the dinner break, the blinds became an even more significant factor in the tournament. Unfortunately, the stream of good cards just completely dried up. The flow had slowed down considerably the level before the break. But this was so bad that I was hoping to get J8s in the cutoff just to steal some blinds. Unfortunately, there was not a positive hand to write about the rest of the way in this tourney. One of my worst poker habits did rear its ugly head toward the end of the tournament. I bluff out of desperation when I am card dead and headed toward being short-stacked. I despise being short-stacked because you can’t put any pressure on anybody. I hardly ever get down below 6x BB because I’m gonna take a stab at getting some chips long before that point. I’ve never tested that whole “chip and a chair” theory.

As I am playing along and the player count keeps going down, I find myself getting really anxious. I want to cash, but I’m not the kind of player who worries about making it in the money. I want a mountain of chips that I can wield as a deadly weapon. I’m torn between cashing in my first WSOP event and really making a run at trying to get some chips. I decide to take care of cashing first and then after that I can start moving my chips. The problem is that the cards are not cooperating. I manage to play situational poker and keep my stack about the same, while waiting on the nuts. I finally can’t stand to look at 10 2 any longer, no offense Doyle, and I get the hand that cripples me. I picked up K10o three seats from the button. I decide to steal the blinds and antes and make a bet to 1200 that was called by the BB. The flop was all small cards and I bet 2000 after the BB checked. Another harmless card on the turn and another check from the BB leads me to the “I’m sure I can make him lay down his pair of sevens” bluff of $4,000. He didn’t lay down his pair, and I didn’t have the courage to shove all-in on the river. After this hand, I had about 6,500 in chips remaining, but more painfully, the blinds went up to 300/600.

Now I am faced with a true dilemma. I can blind down and possibly sneak in the money. We are down to about 120 people left with only 100 people getting paid. Most stacks are reasonably healthy, so I’m definitely in the bottom 20. I could probably play 45 more hands with the chips that I have. I decide that I didn’t come here to get 100th place and the $2600 is not significant to me. I’m going to try to resurrect my hopes of going all the way. After about 10 or 12 more hands, I find 66 in middle position and shove in my last 5,100 chips. I was called by the big stacked button who had AQ. The board came AQAQA, or something like that, to end my night.

My first ever WSOP event is now over. I am essentially a bubble boy, as I finish somewhere between 110 and 120. I played very well with pretty good cards early. I probably lost a little of my patience toward the end. I actually feel disappointed because I feel like I let it slip away. I really feel like there’s no way that the opportunity will be as good tomorrow as it was today. These WSOP players just don’t make enough mistakes for me to expect to finish in the top 10% tomorrow after finishing in the top 12% today. We’ll find out in Part III…….

What I learned in my first WSOP tournament:
- These players are good, but cards control at least half of the outcome.
- Money and gold chains can buy an old man a really hot chick.
- Several top pros see lots of flops early in a tourney to try and catch the nuts to double up.
- I’m not an altogether bad poker player, but I need to remember that 13k with 600 blinds is still a very manageable situation. I need to learn the patience of HATJR, Gigabet, and Scotty Nguyen baby!
- It’s tough sitting on your butt and playing poker for 9 hours. Some of these pros have got to have hemmoroids as big as my beagel.
</READMORE>