Even after I fell asleep late I still didn't wake up late - I woke up at the crack!
I was super excited to get going and play in my very first World Series of Poker "Seniors" event. A $1000 entry No-Limit Hold-Em event for folks aged 50 and older! This was my first year of eligibility.
Knowing this, and knowing this was also the final year for the WSOP at the Rio, were the two biggest reasons I decided that the Covid thing wasn't going to get in my way of saying yes to an opportunity to experience a once in a a lifetime occurrence.
I sat down right on time and we got underway - there would be two starting days, with a single re-entry available each day. I had budgeted just two bullets and was planning on firing the second one if I got busted early or busted late. If it was the latter, I would return on Day 1B.
We were using the classic Rio WSOP Primary chips. Over the past few years I've become a bit obsessed with poker chips - so I took a moment to savor my stack, understanding that this same chip set (the one I cashed with in the Main Event in 2018) was destined for the chip shredder at the end of November. Nevada gaming law mandates poker chip destruction if chips are no longer to be used. They will have to be replaced entirely with Bally's/Paris branded chips, or possibly casino-less WSOP chips, in their new home.
I absolutely did NOT rescue some chips from the shredder. I did not palm a couple of low denom chips and they did absolutely did not find their way into my suitcase. You will not see them on the wall in my garage.
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| Last hurrah for these lovelies. |
I was super happy to be at the table I was at. It was not a table of doom. No Heimiller or Ramer in sight. These were all, as far as I could tell, at best, regular amateurs at their local casinos. This was going to easy!
The very second hand we played, I flat called from the button with AQ and the BB defended after an old guy (yeah, they were all old guys) opened 3x from UTG. Flop was A32 with two hearts, UTG continued with 6x, I called as did BB. Turn was a ten of hearts, it checked through. River was a Jack of spades - UTG led out pot sized, BB called, I made an easy fold and they both turned over AJ. Yep.
This kind of hand had me jazzed, it had been the easiest thing in the world to navigate that hand - both players involved were nitty, and bet/called big when they had a hand. What could possibly go wrong?
If you are concerned at the healthy dollop of foreshadowing here, yes, you are on to something.
Two hours later I defended my button with 77. The board ran out with me check calling flop and turn with a double belly buster that didn't hit on the river. My opponents sizing was fairly big so the pot was bloated. I had about a pot and a half sized bet behind, and when he checked the river I bet what I would've bet had I made my straight. All of it.
My opponent snap called, as the river had given him a set. I was out.
I knew that this might happen - his range was narrow and uncapped and included what he had. But so much of what he had would be unable to continue after a river jam, I just got pretty unlucky that he binked one of two cards that would ensure that he never folded.
I was bummed but ok. It wasn't until later that night that I really unpacked the hand and concluded at the time that I didn't need to take such a high variance line, and that I should've just given up the ghost on the river.
A few weeks later, long after I had departed the WSOP, I was watching a stream of the Main Event and Stephen Chidwick (high stakes pro and tournament crusher of souls) took a very similar line in a hand that played out exactly the same way. He flopped the world with outs, and didn't get there on the river so he put his opponent to the test - and the opponent beat him into the pot because he also had rivered three of a kind.
The hand was eerily similar to my Seniors bust out hand - and it made me reassess myself again.
This was it, this is what Negraneau, and my instructors at LearnWPT and other tournament specialists that I admire and listen to talk about.
Sometimes you have to take the spot, and apply pressure where you know it's going to work almost all of the time.
This isn't really an option for long term big cashing success in tournaments. Sometimes it's the perfect storm, and the correct play means piling in chips with no show down value. You are looking for a plausible story to tell, and a cautious opponent with a narrow range of hands that you can easily put him on.
I did all of that. And in true hindsight now, with all I have worked on my game and after seeing what transpired with Mr. Chidwick - I'm at peace with the hand.
It was also good, that at the time on the day - I was also ok with what had happened. Even though I had doubts at the time, I was still philosophical and was ready to put my "goldfish memory" of 10 seconds into action... (Thanks Ted Lasso!)
My second table was not the dream boat that my first one was. This one, in the Amazon Room instead of Brasilia - was not nearly as soft and had more than a couple of capable players and one maniac who was literally playing every hand.
Thankfully I would get tangled up with Mr. Maniac early on and reap the benefits of somewhat of a cooler...
Two hours later, after getting card dead and grinded down a bit, this lovely hand happened. Same villain.
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We had started with 20K and now I was up over 30.
Then I had my most memorable bluff of the series. Different but equally bad (not as loose, but just as clueless) Villain limped UTG and I raised over him 4x with 88.
Flop 2K9 rainbow. Villain donk-led out for half pot. I flat called. Turn was another king, villain led out a tiny bit bigger. I jammed, there was lots of money in the pot at this point, and I needed to chip up and I knew it was almost 100% that he didn't have a king. He FOR SURE would've checked the turn if he'd hit trips. The math alone makes it much less likely that he had a King in the hole, but his mini-donk just reeked of thin/weak value. I was actually much more worried about him having AA, QQ, JJ, or TT.
When he didn't snap call I knew I was likely going to get a fold. But he was a pretty bad player, so I wasn't as relieved as I could have been.
He tanked for a good minute and a half, which seemed much longer, and finally let it go. He asked me what I had so I showed him. "I had you beat" he said. "I know" I said in my head. I imagine he had JJ or TT. Don't know if he would let go of QQ . I know he would've snapped with AA.
Right after we got back from break our table broke and we were back in the dim, far too dim in my view, Brasilia.
It was there that I found a true table of doom, with no less than half a dozen very experienced and very aggressive either serious amateurs or semi-pros or actual pros.
Plus, this was the night I was to have the most terrible card deadness that went beyond the standard card dead status (which is normal for tournaments) and into a horrible vortex of garbage suck cards that went on for hour after hour after hour.
I got increasingly titled and frustrated as the time passed - and by the time we hit the 75 minute dinner break, which was at 8pm, I was seriously at my wits end, experiencing the worst malaise I'd had in poker in a LONG time.
Since coming back to live poker after the pandemic, both at home and at the Moose and even at Commerce and Reno and Vegas, I had been a goofy grinning fool. Super happy to just be playing.
This night was the first night that I entered the realm of genuine misery. It was not the first time in my poker career, I've been to the land of blahs more than a few times over the years - but I was surprised to be back in the dumps on the biggest stage in the world in an event that I had been looking forward to for literally ten years of my life.
Thankfully, food in my stomach did wonders to make me feel better and more optimistic coming back. I had 17 big blinds. Things would be fine. I couldn't run like HOT GARBAGE forever!
Alas, after nearly 10 full hours of play, and 6 more to go I believe, I woke up with a suited 9T in the small blind and 3 bet jammed with 15 big blinds over a very active button's open. He snapped with AA (of course he has aces why wouldn't he?) and I failed to crack them.
I was out.
And crazy enough, after about half an hour - walking back to my room, kicking off my shoes and turning on sports - I felt WAY better and started thinking about tomorrow...
My Seniors post-mortem...
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I awoke the next morning, after actually sleeping a good 8 hours +, and felt surprisingly good and optimistic, despite having dropped 2K the day prior.
Yesterday I had enjoyed breakfast at Denny's across the street from the Rio with Mr. Jeff G. He had survived his Seniors event and would be playing day 2 tomorrow with a robust stack of 40+ big blinds I believe.
Today Jeff was taking a break, as he had played quite a few more hours than I had. So I was off to the delightful South Point off the strip for some 10am tournament action.
I grabbed a bite (bagel with egg and cheese) when I got there at the little deli tucked away by the sports book. I sat down in plenty of time for the ultra-low buy-in (ultra-high juice) donk-a-ment.
Played for about 4 hours. After dropping 2K the day before, I had zero qualms about putting my chips to work and applying pressure. I emptied the clip more than once, and every time it worked. I was ending up on rivers with very little showdown value, but my bluffs (even the ones that didn't make the most sense) were working because I was essentially in another Seniors event, this time it was the early bird $80 special, but no one wanted to bust all the same.
At the end of the 4th hour the average stack was around 15 big blinds, typical for these tournaments - I got it in pre with AK against A4, and lost. I was crippled and in the next orbit I jammed with AK and got snapped by QQ which won the race.
So I went upstairs and watched 3/4 of Dune on the big screen until it was time to come back down and play in the next tournament - which was the magnificent game of Omaha Eight or Better!
I could've played cash, but this was a tournament trip -and I wanted to pace myself as I was really looking forward to breaking the monotony with some groovy Omaha fix limit action.
I haven't played a ton of casino Omaha/8 tournaments over the years, or any tournament that isn't NLHE for that matter. Not because I don't like to play non Hold-Em games - but because they aren't spread that much and also I know that because I don't play them regularly I am at a disadvantage against more seasoned opponents who show up in the more serious events.
This however, was not a serious event. It was a weekday $80 Silly-ment where the average age was well into the 70's and the skill gap between me and the rest of the field was not only narrow, I think actually for the first time ever I was better than the vast majority.
I always forget, I've played a ton of O8 cash at home, and in others homes. Not necessarily the most ideal training grounds, but training all the same. I have a very good sense for knowing what I need to win at showdown - which is really invaluable in a low buy-in event like this, as most old people are disinclined to fold if they still have chips behind. And of course, in a fixed limit tournament, most of the time (at least in the first half of the tournament) they will indeed have chips left over even if they call down to the river.
So because I have this great comprehension of what is needed to hold up and win - I was able to put that to dramatic effect in the early but largely meaningless levels.
There was one opponent in particular who was two seats to my left. He was chatty and fun when he was dragging pots, and sullen and mostly silent when he didn't. Thankfully for me, his last few hours were mostly quiet - as his propensity to play every single hand finally caught up with him and I was one of the major beneficiaries.
Sorry I don't have any hand break-downs, but as the tweet says - my brain was a bit overloaded with so many cards to keep track of, and having to rely on my understanding of what I needed to play no-fold-em hold-em, er, Omaha/8!
As the tables broke and we were down to 27 players, a mouthy but nice enough fellow sat down to my immediate left. I was a bit sad because he seemed to not only be chatty and friendly (like the last guy) but he stayed chatty and friendly even when he lost which wasn't nearly as often as the last guy.
Yes, he knew what he was doing and was likely the best player in the tournament. But thankfully I hung in with him, and even got the better of him once or twice. Still it wasn't great having him right next to me on the wrong side.
Thankfully, this was rectified when we hit 18 players and they redrew entirely for the final two tables. This time he sat in the correct seat, immediately to my right.
It was only a few hands, but I managed to cripple the only other big stack at the table (not my mouthy neighbor).
And here's a side story - after listening to Mr. Mouthy chat for awhile, I think I had his accent pegged.
As friendly as I could, I let him know that "I think I know where you're from originally"
He laughed and said "I still live there, you'll never get it"
I paused and said "Newfoundland?"
His jaw dropped and his eyes widened...
Yes, I had nailed it. I had spent just over 3 weeks there one summer, actually just around the corner filming harp seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and our boat captain was from Newfoundland.
He had a delightful Irish lilt, and then also said "soorry and aboot" in his sentences. Easy game. I should've bet money that I could nail the accent.
Anyways, he was impressed and we laughed.
Now's the part in the story where if I was a writer I would say that we got tangled up in a massive hand and one of us outplayed the other and there was much consternation and gnashing of teeth and so on...
Nah, never happened. I was coasting along and made the money with a good healthy stack. Guaranteed $180 and it was final table time.
Things were looking great, I still had a favorable seat at the final table redraw - but then I misread my hand. One live misclick later and I went from good shape to "Oh shit"
Ugh. I was mad at myself, but I was ok. It wasn't the end of the world. Sure it was disappointing, but it wasn't 2K.
I had looked down at my cards and flopped the world, and never looked back at them and got all my chips in on the turn knowing that I had aces and a nut flush draw and the nut low draw. I turned up my cards and there were two kings and a low draw that had already been counterfeited.
Fuck.
The other guy, on my right, had the AA nut low draw, and he didn't even need to hit. I was all but drawing dead and then I was crippled.
It was kind of understandable - in a silly tournament where I was having way too much fun, I had conflated a previous hand with the one I was actually playing.
Oops.
Because I wasn't that tilted, I simply bore down and vowed to make the best decisions I could. And I did, and before long I had actually crawled back up quite a bit.
So yeah, I was feeling a lot better.
There was just over 1K on top, but everyone had been talking chop for awhile and I wasn't going to discourage them.
There were either five or six players left when we finally all agreed to look at the ICM numbers, a process which South Point is happy to do (once) - and we all agreed.
This was a fantastic return on an $80 tournament, and it could have - really should have - ended much worse for our hero after his disastrous lapse of attention.
I walked out of the South Point fairly elated to lock up a nice win. Jeff was playing a Daily Deep Stack I believe, and I was pondering late registering and joining him, but when I got back I was just a bit too drowsy - so I packed it in, and dreamt of tomorrow.
It would be the Colossus! My fifth such event, and I had cashed in two of them. Would tomorrow be another Hendon Mob WSOP badge on my name? I sure hoped so!
Stay tuned to find out...
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