The WSOP is back on ESPN! The first episode covers the final table of the 50K mixed event, the opening event of the series and direct descendant of the 50k HORSE.
Lon and Norm are back! They immediately play up the brother vs brother storyline, with Mike and Robert Mizrachi both at the table.
"If they ever find intelligent life on Mars Lon, I believe they will be playing mixed games."
There are shiny new graphics, including a notation informing the viewer which position the player they're watching is in. The first hand has Grinder raising A10 in the HJ and going up against David Baker with 77 in the sb. Baker check calls a c-bet on an 832 flop.
"I believe the continuation bet has cost more people more money than anything other than federal income tax."
The turn is an Ace and the Grinder checks behind. Baker rivers a two-outer and leads into Mizrachi, who has no option but to call given the play of the hand.
The second hand is more typical of an ESPN televised hand, it's a coinflip! Mikael Thuritz, an L.A. based Swede raises the Cut-off to 110k with JJ on 20-40k, Juanda flats KQ off in the sb and then Alaei ships for just over 30bbs with AK out of the bb. Thuritz makes the simple call and Alaei turns the A.
The third hand sees Thuritz crippled down to an ante chip getting 40bbs in with KK vs the AA of the Russian Shchemelev, changing the chip lead.
"Like they say Lon, a chip and a chair, though I would save that chip and use it to buy a whole set of chairs, maybe with leather backs."
The fourth hand is one of those hands where everybody limps in with crap because someone is akready all-in pre-flop. Chad is apoplectic amidst all the limping.
"Boy I hope these new graphics don't explode!"
"Thuritz with a chance to sextuple up, which sounds illegal."
"I'm trying to follow that yellow next to act thing, but man I'm dizzy, I feel like I'm inside of a pinball machine."
Mizrachi flops trips with K9 on 997. He bets 50k into 275k and gets floated by Oppenheim with A8. The turn brings a 10, giving Oppenheim an open-ender, which gives him the impetus to semi-bluff the Grinder, raising his 125k turn bet to 425k. Mizrachi snaps him and they see an offsuit 3 on the river. Mizrachi checks, Oppenheim unleashes 550k, and the Grinder folds his trips, which means Thuritz does sextuple up as his J3 off rivered a pair which beats the A high of 'Opie'. Oppenheim played on the fact that Thuritz was all-in to put money into the dry side=pot and outwit the Grinder, though surely he didn't believe trips would fold? The Grinder had 1.2m left on the river, 30bbs, so calling and losing would have left him around the 15bb mark. Grinder tells his brother Robert, "I thought he had 68 for sure."
"Welcome to the big game" says Norm.
The camera flashes to Robert, Norm ponders his thoughts:
"Did I raise my kid brother this dumb?"
Thuritz gets the infamous ESPN 'We didn't have time to spare for your bust-out hand, so when we come back from an ad-break you will be shaking hands' treatment.
"Ah he was a kid with a dream" - one of the Chad trademarks.
The first backstage interview of the year, predictably goes to the Mizrachi brothers. 2010 is the World Series of Mizrachi - when people reference this year in 10 years time they'll say, "the one with the Mizrach brothers."
Hand 5 is the Wild Card hand. Juanda makes it 150k with J9 suited on 25-50k, and is called by Robert Mizrachi in the bb. Robert's hand is concealed, we see Alaei fold Q3 offsuit.
"I'm putting Alaei on Queen-trey offsuit Lon".
The flop is J98 all clubs, Juanda c-bets 250k with his 2 pair and Mizrachi calls. The turn Qs sees Mizrachi lead 375k into Juanda. Three clubs and a 1 card straight is scary, and Juanda folds his two pair. I had Robert on K10 with the K of clubs, in fact it was AJ without a club, a flopped top pair top kicker that Robert decided to kind of "probe-bluff" on the turn.
Juanda gets an interview, about finding his 'drive' again.
Number 6 sees brother vs brother, Robert opening UTG with J9, Michael calling out of the SB with KJ off (hmmm). Michael donks out (he loves the donk-bet by the way) on 954 and Robert flats, it goes check-bet-fold on the 2 turn.
"By the way Lon, correct me if I'm wring, but I believe Cain murdered Abel after tsking a bad beat in Razz."
Number 7 sees a misstep from David Baker, opening K10cc utg, he gets flatted by MM with about 25bbs and Q10 off on the button. Baker check-raises all-in on the Q 10 3 flop, and obv gets snapped and doubles up the Grinder. Chad revealed during this hand that Baker believes he will be the best all-around player in the world in 5 years, an Ian Poulter-like prediction.
Hand 8 sees Alaei open-limp KQ off utg+1, a curious move, Opie picks up Aces and makes it 225k in the hi-jack which Alaei flats. the flop is K104 and Alaei check-raises all-in abd Opie calls. Alaei turns two pair but Opie rivers a better one. Alaei had 40bbs to start the hand and it feels like a bit of a waste to lose all but 9 of those bbs with that hand in this spot, esoecually in the fashion he did.
Opie gets an interview with the usual high-stakes-cash-game-player-moaning-about tournaments-on-tv-stuff.
Hand 9 sees Alaei ship his last chips in, re-raising a Schemelev open with A6hh. Schemelev has AK, Alaei departs.
"Lon we are closer to a possible heads-up between Robert and Michael Mizrachi, that would be like Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez auditioning for the same lead role."
Number 10 sees Baker bust, shipping AJ and 30bbs over Grinder's utg+1 open. He gets the first 'whamboozling' of the year from Norm as he departs in 6th.
Chad makes a mistep in Hand 10, being obsessed about Schemelev's amateur status. Norm still doesn't understand that it's enntirely possible for a professional to play badly and an amateur to play well. There are also quite a few rich "amateurs" (such as Eli Elezra and Dan Shak) that do nothing but play poker having made a fortune in the 'real' world. Vladimir could easily be one of these characters. The Russian makes it 175k on 30-60k with 44 in the c/o. Mizrachi flats Q10dd out of the sb.
"I know it's suited, but if he plays this I'm going to send him to Queen Ten rehab centre. After two weeks there you won't play Queen Ten against a guy playing with just one card!".
Mizrachi does his favourite move and donks out with air on a 762ss. the turn is an Ace and Mizrach checks, Schemelev checks behind, then MM bluffs small on the river J. It costs Vladimir 330k to win 1.3m and if he has been paying attention to the donk-betting MM I think it's a call he has to make.
The last hand (11 of the first episode sees the chip leaders MM and Opie clash in a huge hand. mizrachi covers Opie by 1m (18bbs). This is important because that is the amount Michael has left after losing the chip lead!
Opie opens to 175k utg on 30-60k with 44. Mizrachi flats him with AQ out of the bb. The flop is the cooler-esque Q54ss. The pre-flop effective stacks were just shy of 80bbs. Grinder checks, Opie bets 235k into 455k. Mizrachi check-raises to 735k. I'm not sure I'm a fan of this move out of position, because he will either get flatted and be in limbo out of position vs a great player on the turn, or he will get worse hands to fold. If Oppenheim comes back over the top then surely AQ has to be folded given this is 1st in chips vs 2nd in chips and there are intetense money jumps coming up. Oppenheim flats which means there is 1.9m in the pot and Oppenheim has about 3.5m back. The turn is the blankish 8 of hearts, giving 76 a straight. Mizrachi bets 1m and Oppenheim ships in 2.7m more. Grinder calls, presumably putting Opie on a semi-bluff flush draw, total air or KQ. I hate the way Mizrachi played this hand given the dynamics of the Final Table.
That concludes the first episode, leaving 5 players left, Oppenheim having double the chips of Schemelev in 2nd. Oppenheim has 150bbs, Schemelev about 65, Juanda with 35, Michael 15 and Robert 12bbs. The brothers at the bottom of the totem pole.
Saturday 31 July 2010
Friday 16 July 2010
78 players remain in the WSOP Main Event for 2010 - the fabled November Nine is in sight, so it's time to discover more about our porential future world champion.
The average stack is just over 2.8m, which is roughly 70 big blinds when they return to 20k-40k blinds tonight.
I will add more bios when I get time, I'm off to see Inception tonight so Day 7 will be in full swing by the time I get home so some of the counts will have changed and some of the names will be no more, but whatever, it's fun.
Theo Jorgensen 9,259,000
The chip leader is a man with big tournament experience and this gives him a huge chance to make it to November. The Dane has $2.3m worth of tournament cashes and won the WPT Paris event only two months ago. He finished 8th in the Main Event of the first ever WSOPE, and won't crumble under the pressure. One of the biggest names remaining in the field, I give him a better than 50% shot at making the N9.
Michael Mizrachi 7,535,000
What can you say about the Grinder this series? Could it be possible that the same player wins the first and last event, and the two most prestigous at that. He has the biggest career earnings of any player left at $8.8m,including 2 WPT wins. The man's a beast.
John Racener 7,200,000
Racener is a young looking pro whi has over $1m in career tournament earnings, his highlight being a WSOP Circuit win in late '07 in AC for just under $400k. Like the Grinder he hails from Florida.
Jonathan Driscoll 6,570,000
Driscoll is from Quebec and has 4 listed cashes on the Hendon mob, with his most recent being by far the biggest: $45k in a $1500 Venetian Deep Stack event just last month. No doubt that gave him the impetus and bankroll boost to go for the ME title as well.
William Thorson 6,525,000
Thorson is a Pokerstars Pro whi has been here before. He finished 13th for $900k in the only live poker event in history with a bigger field than this one - Jamie Gold's 2006 victory. This makes his presence so deep in this one even more impressive. The Swede has just under $2.5m in career cashes.
Matthew Jarvis 6,125,000
Another Canadian in the top 10, Jarvis has 11 listed cashes dating back to 2007, with the biggest being for $20k in the 2009 BC poker championships.
Edward Ochana 5,950,000
Ochana is from Illnois and has $400k in tournament cashes, $368k of which came in a 3rd place finish in the $5k 6-max at the '08 series.
Alexander Kostritsyn 5,715,000
Kostritsyn is the biggest online cash game beast remaining, he plays the highest limits online as PostFlopAction. He won the '08 Aussie Millions beating Seidel heads-up and has cashed for $2.4m in his live tourney career. He is the Russian Durrr. This series he finished 10th in the 50k Player's Championship and made the Semi Finals of the $10k Heads-Up.
Joseph Cheong 5,555,000
Pejmanpatric Eskandar 5,540,000
Matthew Berkey 5,450,000
Filippo Candio 5,385,000
Evgeny Shnayder 4,790,000
Cuong Nguyen 4,705,000
Gabe Costner 4,635,000
Bill Melvin 4,515,000
Jonathan Duhamel 4,295,000
Duy Le 4,100,000
Bryn Kenney 3,820,000
Michal Wywrot 3,815,000
Robert Pisano 3,735,000
Matthew Bucaric 3,595,000
John Dolan 3,470,000
Matt Affleck 3,315,000
Evan Lamprea 3,300,000
John Armbrust 3,295,000
James Fennell 3,000,000
Michael Skender 2,980,000
Benjamin Statz 2,910,000
Jerry Payne 2,765,000
Meenaskshi Subramaniam 2,690,000
Corey Emery 2,640,000
David Baker 2,480,000
Ismail Erkenov 2,400,000
David Assouline 2,400,000
Brandon Steven 2,330,000
Niklas Toorell 2,300,000
Adam Levy 2,290,000
Gianni Direnzo 2,280,000
Rudy Miller 2,250,000
Michiel Sijpkens 2,160,000
Denis Pisarev 2,140,000
Scott Clements 2,100,000
Damien Luis 2,050,000
Mads Wissing 2,025,000
Pascal LeFrancois 1,950,000
Brock Bourne 1,950,000
Richard Morgan 1,940,000
Eric Baldwin 1,890,000
David Benyamine 1,750,000
Mark Meloche 1,750,000
Johnny Lodden 1,700,000
Jim McCrink 1,700,000
Josh Brikis 1,610,000
Tony Dunst 1,600,000
Marcel Cole 1,550,000
Dag Palovic 1,375,000
Jared Ingles 1,370,000
James Manning 1,265,000
Ronnie Bardah 1,250,000
Nicolas Babel 1,220,000
Eduardo Parras 1,220,000
Jakob Toestesen 1,200,000
Pierre Canali 1,200,000
Hasan Habib 1,180,000
Redmond Lee 1,175,000
Gabriel Nassif 1,125,000
Habib Khanis 1,065,000
Sergey Rybachenko 1,010,000
Christopher Bolt 970,000
Matt Harris 965,000
Jason Senti 800,000
Adam Etter 765,000
Jacobo Fernandez 705,000
Jean-Robert Bellande 700,000
Peter Jetten 675,000
Jeff Banghart 645,000
Gary Dishongh 450,000
The average stack is just over 2.8m, which is roughly 70 big blinds when they return to 20k-40k blinds tonight.
I will add more bios when I get time, I'm off to see Inception tonight so Day 7 will be in full swing by the time I get home so some of the counts will have changed and some of the names will be no more, but whatever, it's fun.
Theo Jorgensen 9,259,000
The chip leader is a man with big tournament experience and this gives him a huge chance to make it to November. The Dane has $2.3m worth of tournament cashes and won the WPT Paris event only two months ago. He finished 8th in the Main Event of the first ever WSOPE, and won't crumble under the pressure. One of the biggest names remaining in the field, I give him a better than 50% shot at making the N9.
Michael Mizrachi 7,535,000
What can you say about the Grinder this series? Could it be possible that the same player wins the first and last event, and the two most prestigous at that. He has the biggest career earnings of any player left at $8.8m,including 2 WPT wins. The man's a beast.
John Racener 7,200,000
Racener is a young looking pro whi has over $1m in career tournament earnings, his highlight being a WSOP Circuit win in late '07 in AC for just under $400k. Like the Grinder he hails from Florida.
Jonathan Driscoll 6,570,000
Driscoll is from Quebec and has 4 listed cashes on the Hendon mob, with his most recent being by far the biggest: $45k in a $1500 Venetian Deep Stack event just last month. No doubt that gave him the impetus and bankroll boost to go for the ME title as well.
William Thorson 6,525,000
Thorson is a Pokerstars Pro whi has been here before. He finished 13th for $900k in the only live poker event in history with a bigger field than this one - Jamie Gold's 2006 victory. This makes his presence so deep in this one even more impressive. The Swede has just under $2.5m in career cashes.
Matthew Jarvis 6,125,000
Another Canadian in the top 10, Jarvis has 11 listed cashes dating back to 2007, with the biggest being for $20k in the 2009 BC poker championships.
Edward Ochana 5,950,000
Ochana is from Illnois and has $400k in tournament cashes, $368k of which came in a 3rd place finish in the $5k 6-max at the '08 series.
Alexander Kostritsyn 5,715,000
Kostritsyn is the biggest online cash game beast remaining, he plays the highest limits online as PostFlopAction. He won the '08 Aussie Millions beating Seidel heads-up and has cashed for $2.4m in his live tourney career. He is the Russian Durrr. This series he finished 10th in the 50k Player's Championship and made the Semi Finals of the $10k Heads-Up.
Joseph Cheong 5,555,000
Pejmanpatric Eskandar 5,540,000
Matthew Berkey 5,450,000
Filippo Candio 5,385,000
Evgeny Shnayder 4,790,000
Cuong Nguyen 4,705,000
Gabe Costner 4,635,000
Bill Melvin 4,515,000
Jonathan Duhamel 4,295,000
Duy Le 4,100,000
Bryn Kenney 3,820,000
Michal Wywrot 3,815,000
Robert Pisano 3,735,000
Matthew Bucaric 3,595,000
John Dolan 3,470,000
Matt Affleck 3,315,000
Evan Lamprea 3,300,000
John Armbrust 3,295,000
James Fennell 3,000,000
Michael Skender 2,980,000
Benjamin Statz 2,910,000
Jerry Payne 2,765,000
Meenaskshi Subramaniam 2,690,000
Corey Emery 2,640,000
David Baker 2,480,000
Ismail Erkenov 2,400,000
David Assouline 2,400,000
Brandon Steven 2,330,000
Niklas Toorell 2,300,000
Adam Levy 2,290,000
Gianni Direnzo 2,280,000
Rudy Miller 2,250,000
Michiel Sijpkens 2,160,000
Denis Pisarev 2,140,000
Scott Clements 2,100,000
Damien Luis 2,050,000
Mads Wissing 2,025,000
Pascal LeFrancois 1,950,000
Brock Bourne 1,950,000
Richard Morgan 1,940,000
Eric Baldwin 1,890,000
David Benyamine 1,750,000
Mark Meloche 1,750,000
Johnny Lodden 1,700,000
Jim McCrink 1,700,000
Josh Brikis 1,610,000
Tony Dunst 1,600,000
Marcel Cole 1,550,000
Dag Palovic 1,375,000
Jared Ingles 1,370,000
James Manning 1,265,000
Ronnie Bardah 1,250,000
Nicolas Babel 1,220,000
Eduardo Parras 1,220,000
Jakob Toestesen 1,200,000
Pierre Canali 1,200,000
Hasan Habib 1,180,000
Redmond Lee 1,175,000
Gabriel Nassif 1,125,000
Habib Khanis 1,065,000
Sergey Rybachenko 1,010,000
Christopher Bolt 970,000
Matt Harris 965,000
Jason Senti 800,000
Adam Etter 765,000
Jacobo Fernandez 705,000
Jean-Robert Bellande 700,000
Peter Jetten 675,000
Jeff Banghart 645,000
Gary Dishongh 450,000
Monday 12 July 2010
2548 players remain going into the first universal playing session of the World Series of Poker, Day 3, and that includes my boy, Phill Huxley! 283rd place is a great place to be right now, and he's the chipleader on his table, ready to own!
Players in the top 150 to look out for:
6th - Jesper Hougard
The first player to win a bracelet in the same year on both sides of the Atlantic, and the owner of Jamie Gold on his Day 1 feature table in 2007. A top player that will be going deep.
9th - Cole South
Cash game monster from Townsend's CardRunners stable.
11th - Jim Collopy
MrBigQueso, 21 year old tournament phenom.
15th - Jon Van Fleet
Apestyles online, co-writer of one of my fave strat books, Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time.
16th -Johnny Chan
24th - Vanessa Selbst
Winner of NAPT Mohegan Sun, best female MTT player and very interesting character.
30th - Patrik Antonius
31st - Carter Phillips
EPT Barcelona winner and bracelet winner from this series.
34th - Matthew Hilger
Founder of Internet Texas Hold'em forum (http://www.internettexasholdem.com/poker-forum) and % swapper with Phill!
44th - Archie Karas
Legenday gambler
49th - Evgeniy Tymoshenko
WPT and WCOOP Main Event winner looking for a triple crown
63rd - Sammy Farha
67th - Alex Kostritsyn
PostFlopAction - Another High Stakes monster
72nd - J.J.Liu
77th - Michael Mizrachi
81st - Dan Bilzerian
102nd - Robert Mizrachi
The brother's WSOP odyssey continues.
112th - Robert Varkyoni
116th - Billy Kopp
Chasing redemption.
121st - Praz Bansi
123rd - Phil Galfond
126th - Theo Jorgensen
127th - Aaron Kanter
4th in '05
128th - Steve Jelinek
Trying to bring the Main Event bracelet to Broadway!
131st - John Kabbaj
Players in the top 150 to look out for:
6th - Jesper Hougard
The first player to win a bracelet in the same year on both sides of the Atlantic, and the owner of Jamie Gold on his Day 1 feature table in 2007. A top player that will be going deep.
9th - Cole South
Cash game monster from Townsend's CardRunners stable.
11th - Jim Collopy
MrBigQueso, 21 year old tournament phenom.
15th - Jon Van Fleet
Apestyles online, co-writer of one of my fave strat books, Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time.
16th -Johnny Chan
24th - Vanessa Selbst
Winner of NAPT Mohegan Sun, best female MTT player and very interesting character.
30th - Patrik Antonius
31st - Carter Phillips
EPT Barcelona winner and bracelet winner from this series.
34th - Matthew Hilger
Founder of Internet Texas Hold'em forum (http://www.internettexasholdem.com/poker-forum) and % swapper with Phill!
44th - Archie Karas
Legenday gambler
49th - Evgeniy Tymoshenko
WPT and WCOOP Main Event winner looking for a triple crown
63rd - Sammy Farha
67th - Alex Kostritsyn
PostFlopAction - Another High Stakes monster
72nd - J.J.Liu
77th - Michael Mizrachi
81st - Dan Bilzerian
102nd - Robert Mizrachi
The brother's WSOP odyssey continues.
112th - Robert Varkyoni
116th - Billy Kopp
Chasing redemption.
121st - Praz Bansi
123rd - Phil Galfond
126th - Theo Jorgensen
127th - Aaron Kanter
4th in '05
128th - Steve Jelinek
Trying to bring the Main Event bracelet to Broadway!
131st - John Kabbaj
Monday 5 July 2010
World Series of Poker Main Event - Day 1A
Day 1A of the 2010 Main Event is set to start in under an hour, and I'll be blogging some of the stories that the mainstream sites might have missed.
My good friend Phill Huxley who was with me at UKIPT Nottingham qualified through Full Tilt and will be playing Day 1B tomorrow.
Some things to look out for -
How will the defending champ Joe Cada and the rest of last years November Nine fare? The 2008 vintage were represented strongly the following year with top 100 finishes for Dennis Phillips and the defending champ Peter Eastgate.
What will the field size be? There was a lot of controversy last year when people were locked out of Day 1D, which was the main reason that registration numbers dipped from the previous Main Event. In 2010 Harrah's have made sure registration is spread more evenly across the Days, and I think it's reasonable to expect that this year will top 7k entrants, making it the second biggest of all time after 2006.
How will the big names do? Last year we had Ivey make it to November, and there's no doubt that big-name inclusion ups the interest significantly for everyone involved.
Will Frank Kessela win Player of the Year? The likelihood is that the double bracelet winning Kessela will take home the POTY prize.
The points model is as follows:
Cash - 5pts
27-19th - 10pts
18th-10th - 20pts
9th 25pts, each position increases by 5pts to 3rd - 55pts.
2nd - 75pts
1st 100pts
Here are the players that could still catch Kessela, along with which position they need assuming Kessela does NOT cash:
Kessela - 285
John Juanda - 225 (Needs 2nd place or above).
Vladimir Schemelev - 210(Needs 2nd to tie, 1st to win).
Dan Heimiller - 205
Michael Mizrachi - 190 (Both need 1st place).
James Dempsey - 185 (Needs 1st to tie).
As you can see, it's incredibly unlikely that Kessela won't win, but stranger things have happened.
I'll be back tomorrow with the Day 1A recap.....SHUFFLE UP, AND DEAL!
My good friend Phill Huxley who was with me at UKIPT Nottingham qualified through Full Tilt and will be playing Day 1B tomorrow.
Some things to look out for -
How will the defending champ Joe Cada and the rest of last years November Nine fare? The 2008 vintage were represented strongly the following year with top 100 finishes for Dennis Phillips and the defending champ Peter Eastgate.
What will the field size be? There was a lot of controversy last year when people were locked out of Day 1D, which was the main reason that registration numbers dipped from the previous Main Event. In 2010 Harrah's have made sure registration is spread more evenly across the Days, and I think it's reasonable to expect that this year will top 7k entrants, making it the second biggest of all time after 2006.
How will the big names do? Last year we had Ivey make it to November, and there's no doubt that big-name inclusion ups the interest significantly for everyone involved.
Will Frank Kessela win Player of the Year? The likelihood is that the double bracelet winning Kessela will take home the POTY prize.
The points model is as follows:
Cash - 5pts
27-19th - 10pts
18th-10th - 20pts
9th 25pts, each position increases by 5pts to 3rd - 55pts.
2nd - 75pts
1st 100pts
Here are the players that could still catch Kessela, along with which position they need assuming Kessela does NOT cash:
Kessela - 285
John Juanda - 225 (Needs 2nd place or above).
Vladimir Schemelev - 210(Needs 2nd to tie, 1st to win).
Dan Heimiller - 205
Michael Mizrachi - 190 (Both need 1st place).
James Dempsey - 185 (Needs 1st to tie).
As you can see, it's incredibly unlikely that Kessela won't win, but stranger things have happened.
I'll be back tomorrow with the Day 1A recap.....SHUFFLE UP, AND DEAL!
MPL Grand Final 3
On Saturday I engineered the afternoon off from work to go and play in pub poker organisation MPL's third "Grand Final". This is a big day for the denizens of this particular midlands pub poker scene, and with £4k and a GUKPT Main Event seat up for grabs I felt obliged to play.
As you might imagine, the field is super soft, with most players never having played outside of a pub before. The setting was my least favourite casino of all time, Grovesnor Walsall, whose approach to their normal events is so laissez-faire that the last time I played I was unable to find a floorperson to complain to when in a 4-handed pot two of my opponents told each other they had "a huge hand that isn't a pair." In addition, my friend Tom made the final table and was part of a 7 way deal, and in large part due to the tournament staff's insistence on not getting involved, someone managed to pilfer £300 out of the prize pool.
There were around 160 players in the tournament, and I managed to draw Table 1 seat 3, which pleased me as I hate being seated on first-to-break tables, mainly for the effect it has on getting into a position to get a decent read on your opponents but also the pure inconvenience of just gathering all your stuff and high-tailing it across the room to your next table. The kid two to my right had won the previous 'quarter final' and played around 80% of hands. He had a real go big or go home approach and was certainly decent enough to do some real damage. The rest of the table was appaling, I would say that there was 1 solid player who wasn't going to do anything really bad or really good, but apart from that it was a festival of eee-orrs.
Some notable hands (10k starting stack) - in the first level (25-50) there's 1 limper and the aggro kid raises for the 4th time in 10 hands on the button to 225 He had previously shown all 3 hands he took pots down with - J4, J8 and 10 3, none of them amounting to a pair. I 3 bet with 3 4 off to 1425 and he called. The flop came K J J and I c-betted 3100 and he made it 7k. I folded and he showed me Ace 5 off. All in all I think both of us played horiffically here, I don't know why I felt it necessary to take a stand with 3 4, as well as leaving myself open to the big bluff. He put 60% of his stack on the line with Ace high, why don't I just wait until I have the goods and then stack him.
After this hand and a few ther excursions I was down to 5.5k. On the last hand of the first level the majority of the table limped, and the kid to my right made it 500, 10bbs, which is classically a tight range of AK, AQ, JJ or 1010. I looked down at 99 and after a few moments contemplation I shipped it, he called with AK and I held to give me my starting stack back.
After this I didn't do anything except play sneaky-good, my favourite gear. I got up to 16k at the break without showing anything down, doing lots of squeezing when anyone apart from the psycho was involved. The psycho went as high as 40k in the first level, but finished up at about 25k. In the first 2 hours before the break the tournament lost 15 players, 8 of which came from our table.
After the break the blinds escalated really quickly, but I still chipped up to 30k. Again there was nothing notable; just taking advantage of the plentiful weaklings at the table. I opened UTG+1 with AJ off, got called in the bb by psycho, J73, check check, he led 2500 at the 8 on the turn and I flatted, the river was a Q and he checked. Knowing that he is capable of the old hero call I bet big on the river, 5,200 which was close to potting it, he insta-called with 66.
I was up to 30k, which was second in chips to psycho when I busted. The blinds were 600-1200 so I had 25bbs, psycho opened the cut-off to 3600 and I flattted with KQcc. I can't 3-bet fold here, and I think open folding is awful in position against this guy, so I don't mind this street. The flop came Kh, 10h, 3h and he c-betted to 4500. I have 26k back. I've thought through this hand quite a bit and have come to the conclusion that I have to get it in here. My only physical tell on him was that he had flopped something, this c-bet wasn't air. The problem (or benefit) was that given this board texture he's c-betting for value a really wide range - any K, any A hearts, any lower pair with a decent size flush draw. And with most (if not all) of this range he is getting it in with. He's good enough to know that i can come over the top with hands that K9 is beating, and his whole philosophy means that he's not missing the chance to play a big pot with a big draw. I stoved it giving him a huge range of AA, KK, 1010, 33, all his two pairs and AKings, every QQ, JJ, and 99 and 88 with a heart, all the flopped flushes which is every suited Ace and most kings, down to J7 suited and 98-97suited. He also has all QJs, every Ahearts, and a few other pair/straight draw with flush draw combos, and finally all the naked Kings that we beat. I don't think he's folding almost any of his c-betting range apart from some non-heart QJs and Q9s. The stove makes me 52% fave, I would make it 55% with the addition of some FE. So all in all I think I took the correct line with this hand, and given the fast structure I didn't mind playing one of the biggest pots of the tournament so far with him. In the end I made it 17k (just so he might think he has some tiny FE of his own) and he snap-shoved. I put the rest in knowing I was in trouble and he showed AdKd that held.
All in all it was a decent day and I thought I played well - in a slower structure I think my edge would be substantial enough to have a massive edge, but even so I think the edge I have anyway ensures I should always try and play in these.
As you might imagine, the field is super soft, with most players never having played outside of a pub before. The setting was my least favourite casino of all time, Grovesnor Walsall, whose approach to their normal events is so laissez-faire that the last time I played I was unable to find a floorperson to complain to when in a 4-handed pot two of my opponents told each other they had "a huge hand that isn't a pair." In addition, my friend Tom made the final table and was part of a 7 way deal, and in large part due to the tournament staff's insistence on not getting involved, someone managed to pilfer £300 out of the prize pool.
There were around 160 players in the tournament, and I managed to draw Table 1 seat 3, which pleased me as I hate being seated on first-to-break tables, mainly for the effect it has on getting into a position to get a decent read on your opponents but also the pure inconvenience of just gathering all your stuff and high-tailing it across the room to your next table. The kid two to my right had won the previous 'quarter final' and played around 80% of hands. He had a real go big or go home approach and was certainly decent enough to do some real damage. The rest of the table was appaling, I would say that there was 1 solid player who wasn't going to do anything really bad or really good, but apart from that it was a festival of eee-orrs.
Some notable hands (10k starting stack) - in the first level (25-50) there's 1 limper and the aggro kid raises for the 4th time in 10 hands on the button to 225 He had previously shown all 3 hands he took pots down with - J4, J8 and 10 3, none of them amounting to a pair. I 3 bet with 3 4 off to 1425 and he called. The flop came K J J and I c-betted 3100 and he made it 7k. I folded and he showed me Ace 5 off. All in all I think both of us played horiffically here, I don't know why I felt it necessary to take a stand with 3 4, as well as leaving myself open to the big bluff. He put 60% of his stack on the line with Ace high, why don't I just wait until I have the goods and then stack him.
After this hand and a few ther excursions I was down to 5.5k. On the last hand of the first level the majority of the table limped, and the kid to my right made it 500, 10bbs, which is classically a tight range of AK, AQ, JJ or 1010. I looked down at 99 and after a few moments contemplation I shipped it, he called with AK and I held to give me my starting stack back.
After this I didn't do anything except play sneaky-good, my favourite gear. I got up to 16k at the break without showing anything down, doing lots of squeezing when anyone apart from the psycho was involved. The psycho went as high as 40k in the first level, but finished up at about 25k. In the first 2 hours before the break the tournament lost 15 players, 8 of which came from our table.
After the break the blinds escalated really quickly, but I still chipped up to 30k. Again there was nothing notable; just taking advantage of the plentiful weaklings at the table. I opened UTG+1 with AJ off, got called in the bb by psycho, J73, check check, he led 2500 at the 8 on the turn and I flatted, the river was a Q and he checked. Knowing that he is capable of the old hero call I bet big on the river, 5,200 which was close to potting it, he insta-called with 66.
I was up to 30k, which was second in chips to psycho when I busted. The blinds were 600-1200 so I had 25bbs, psycho opened the cut-off to 3600 and I flattted with KQcc. I can't 3-bet fold here, and I think open folding is awful in position against this guy, so I don't mind this street. The flop came Kh, 10h, 3h and he c-betted to 4500. I have 26k back. I've thought through this hand quite a bit and have come to the conclusion that I have to get it in here. My only physical tell on him was that he had flopped something, this c-bet wasn't air. The problem (or benefit) was that given this board texture he's c-betting for value a really wide range - any K, any A hearts, any lower pair with a decent size flush draw. And with most (if not all) of this range he is getting it in with. He's good enough to know that i can come over the top with hands that K9 is beating, and his whole philosophy means that he's not missing the chance to play a big pot with a big draw. I stoved it giving him a huge range of AA, KK, 1010, 33, all his two pairs and AKings, every QQ, JJ, and 99 and 88 with a heart, all the flopped flushes which is every suited Ace and most kings, down to J7 suited and 98-97suited. He also has all QJs, every Ahearts, and a few other pair/straight draw with flush draw combos, and finally all the naked Kings that we beat. I don't think he's folding almost any of his c-betting range apart from some non-heart QJs and Q9s. The stove makes me 52% fave, I would make it 55% with the addition of some FE. So all in all I think I took the correct line with this hand, and given the fast structure I didn't mind playing one of the biggest pots of the tournament so far with him. In the end I made it 17k (just so he might think he has some tiny FE of his own) and he snap-shoved. I put the rest in knowing I was in trouble and he showed AdKd that held.
All in all it was a decent day and I thought I played well - in a slower structure I think my edge would be substantial enough to have a massive edge, but even so I think the edge I have anyway ensures I should always try and play in these.
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