It's that time of year again, WSOP time! The series so far this year, viewed from the comfortable surroundings of Burbank California, has been pretty freaking fantastic.
I know I am fairly well known as a guy who doesn't care for deep structures when the player pool is tough - but it's hard to come out against this years events; because apparently even the 'low' buy-in events are now offering exponentially more chips and deeper structures.
The WSOP has definitely established itself this year as being THE player-friendliest event in town, by a lot. Before we've had the Venetian Deep Stacks, the Planet Hollywood Phamous and the Wynn Classic who could all arguably say they offered a better value. For the first time though, it's the WSOP that can for sure say they come out ahead - deeper structures all around AND a bracelet? Sorry, it's not even close.
So it is with great excitement, and I confess a little trepidation, that I plan my annual WSOP adventure. This year the fam has nothing planned for summer time, we're saving up for a bigger international trip next summer, so I've taken it upon myself (for the second year in a row now) to take off a full week from work so I can take advantage of the poker goodness.
While last year it was all about the almighty MAIN, this year I'm taking a shot at multiple bracelet events for the very first time.
I fly out of Burbank on a Sunday morning, June 23rd and I will arrive in plenty of time to register (even if I late reg a bit) for
event #53, the $800 Eight Handed NL Deep Stack. I will only have one bullet for this single re-entry event.
Then my plan on Monday (assuming I'm busted out of 53) was to do the
Tag-Team! Event #57 promises to be amazing - you can play with all your buddies! Unfortunately my one poker compatriot had to bail, so I will be missing out this year. (Unless of course, someone here reading gets inspired and wants to join forces and take down the bracelet!)
There is a $1500 Super Turbo Bounty in the morning, but I'm not really rolled for such a cavalier shot.
So Monday may be a bit of a wash on the schedule - which is fine. There will likely be plenty of Daily Deep Stacks that I can get into trouble with.
Tuesday has an amazing looking 3 day event, 11am
Event #59 the NLHE Deepstack Championship. I will be playing this for sure, and bringing two bullets to the game. This is a single re-entry which is nice because it means I will be on equal footing with everyone else in terms of reloading.
If I bust out of this, then Wednesday I will be throwing down bullet number one for
Event #61, The Colossus. I'm especially excited for this one as the structure is supposed to be a vast improvement, though as you know, I don't mind a good turbo, gotta get lucky against the stone cold killers!
If I don't cash in either Wednesday or Thursday's flight, and haven't cashed all week - the plan is to head home, tail between my legs.
Actually, it won't be the end of the world - tournaments are a very tough nut to crack consistently, so as long as I bring my A-Game and am focused, I'm not going to let results bring me down too much. Poker is poker and tournament poker can be especially brutal when it comes to results.
If the stars and planets align and I find myself with some good fortune, i.e. money, I will likely stick around for the weekend and throw down in
Event #64 - Crazy 888s likely for one bullet only (but if I've cashed medium to high four figures then I will likely bring two bullets).
And when/if I bust from that one I will be truly done. If my results approach 10K then I will for sure pony up for a mega-satty for the MAIN which is the following week. Work expects me back the Friday after July the 4th - so I do have room to make it happen, if the poker gods smile.
We shall see!
Regardless of what happens, I am super excited and pumped to be grinding for a week of teh pokerz at the greatest place on the planet for it.
It's worth mentioning that up until this last Sunday, I have been on a down swing in my tournament results. My old record for consecutive non-cashes was 11 in a row.
On May 11th I took down first place in my monthly Moose Lodge event for $800. After that I averaged playing once or twice a week per usual, almost all tournaments, and didn't cash for 10 tournaments in a row.
This last Sunday would've been my 11th non-cash, except I cashed. Dragged my lazy butt down to the Commerce for their turbo-ish $65 1pm with $50 add-on.
October 10th 2018 was the last time I was in a California card room - so I was mentally prepared to be rusty against a bunch of grinders who play every day.
As it turned out, sure there were likely a handful of fellows here and there who were better than me on any given day, but most were not. Most were lousy. And even the better ones weren't that great.
I was at table 6 of 10 and got off to a rather slow start, dragging my first pot after almost a full hour of play. I was rather card dead and the table was certainly more aggressive than the average Moose table, and even looser as well which is saying something.
There was a young woman down at one end who was catching cards like crazy, and she was aggressive and getting paid. I pegged her initially as someone who knew what she was doing, but later came to realize, she was just hitting a lot and actually not getting too out of line. Early on she was a calling station for seeing flops. Later in the day at the final table (spoiler alert) she played much tighter as the pay jumps commenced.
Didn't flop any sets that I can remember (if I did I didn't get action) - premiums were rare. No AA, had QQ a few times. Overall ran pretty average or a bit below for long stretches. Yet somehow our table broke and I was ok with chips, then chipped up a bit at the next table - then our table broke again and I was at table 1 which I knew eventually would be the final table so my neighbors were going to stay for awhile.
Early on at that table (with 4 tables remaining and 12 getting paid) I got tangled up with a player to my right who was young and very fluid with his chips and mannerisms. His body language and demeanor screamed "good player" so I had been avoiding him, but when he opened on my big blind I defended with a sooted 108. Flop was 10xx and I check called the flop, turn and river. He had aces and I paid him off on that final bet and I shouldn't have - at least one of the next cards was an over card. I should've released on the turn or at the very least the river.
So that was the biggest mistake I can recall, and it knocked me down to about 11 big blinds. I busted out the snap-shove (in my head) and put it to good use and chipped up a bit until this hand.
A woman earlier sat down with a big ass stack. She opened a pot and got into it a bit with another dude to my left - at showdown she showed AK for top two pair and dragged the chips.
Awhile later she opened on my big blind and I had, of all things, AQ. She had opened maybe 3 hands in 90 minutes. Her range was narrow and uncapped. I flat called.
The flop was all low cards, I check called her C-bet. The turn was a blank, check check. A 10 rolled off on the river, I led out for a third of the pot and she instal-folded. No doubt with AK.
It was a nice boost, both for the stack and for the ego - I had completely outplayed her from out of position with a hand that was very likely dominated. I realized that there was no skill-edge at this table, at least the kind of edge that I worried about - the edge was the other way, with just about everyone.
I began to open and c-bet here and there. My stack climbed and for the most part, it worked beautifully. No one had seen me getting out of line as none of my hands went to showdown. I especially picked on the woman's big stack, she was folding way too often out of her big blind.
I also targeted the players to her right and left. They had medium/small stacks that were ripe for picking on and I was able to do so on a fairly regular basis. I avoided tangling with my aces nemesis for the most part.
I did get into a hand with him before the break. Once again I was on the big blind and he opened from the cutoff. I defended with Jc8c. Flop was 753 rainbow, much better for my range than his and he released quickly when I check raised him 3.5x.
That was one of two pretty bad ass 'moves' that I managed to pull.
The other one was after we had redrawn for the final table and the money bubble had already burst. I was hunkering down in the small blind with about 22 bigs or so - a tall and silent type with the Dr. Dre headphones opened and I looked down at JcKc, a great spot for me to three bet regardless of my holdings, I knew he was itching to accumulate - the problem was, none of us except for the 3 & 4 seats (I was on the 10) were deep.
Still, I carved out about a third of my chips and slid them out, 4x ing his open. The plan was to bet fold here, and to shove any flop that I hit, otherwise check fold. Fortunately I didn't have to go to the flop, he tanked for a solid minute and then folded. It was a big addition to my stack, including the one limper earlier as well as the big blind ante and villain's initial raise.
I remember being 8 handed for a long time, and I managed to tread water pretty effectively as other smaller stacks diminished. No giant hands leap out at me from my memory, but I do remember a massive 3 way hand double knock out that I wasn't in - that brought us to four handed and I was second in chips.
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| Commerce recently upgraded their higher denom chips - gorgeous! |
The chip leader had maybe a 2 to 1 advantage over me and substantially more against the others. One of those others proposed looking at the numbers, I soothed the concerned chip leader telling him "absolutely no pressure on you, if you're not happy we keep playing, no big deal". He nodded with a slight smile.
The numbers came in just a tad below what he mentioned he wanted. I happily threw him a hundred and he agreed - I would end up getting 1875, he came in at 2500 and the others had quite a bit less.
Yay.
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| Too bad I blew it all on Black-Jack. |
So mission accomplished - not only did I avoid breaking my non-cash streak, I also dodged a min-cash and scooped up a nice score. Not to shabby for $105 entry!
So now with monies in hand, I'm planning to attack the WSOP. I plan to study a bit this week, relax, play a small tournament in my garage on Friday night just for social fun (and not worry if I bust) - then head on out to the mother EFFING WtotheStotheOtotheP. Boyeee!!
Stay tuned for the report!
