W S O P Main Event - Day 1 Report

[monix 0]

This report was also written for friends and family who are following my progress at this year's WSOP.If you missed the Week 1 Report, you can find it here:http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-foru...p;#entry2659796If you missed the Week 2 Report, you can find it here:http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-foru...howtopic=124895Thursday July 3, 2008I arrive at the Rio a little early after dropping the family at the airport. We had a terrific mini-vacation, and I had a much needed break from poker.With the start of the Main Event, the Gaming Expo is opened, and everyone is forced to walk through the exposition area. It contains a number of schlocky booths with the mandatory “booth babes”, and is generally uninteresting.I head towards the main tournament area to meet Mark Garner and his wife, Karen. Mark sat next to me at the Tunica Main Event table, and when he busted out he stayed to sweat me and keep my wife company. Mark is an accomplished player, having also placed 25th is the 2006 WSOP Main Event, and they are truly nice people.We are jammed into one small lobby as they are forcing everyone to enter through only two doors at the south end of the room. The anticipation is heightened as the doors do not open at the expected time of 11:45. I bump into Justin Pechie, who tells me the same thing happened last year, and they did not delay the start of the tournament resulting in him missing a few hands. Justin also tells me this is the softest big buy-in tournament of the year, and if we have not doubled up by the end of Level Three we have “had a bad beat”. The crowd gets increasingly pushy, and the doors finally open at 12:05 and we take our seats. The tournament starts after a cheesy Wayne Newton entrance and a visit from the UNLV marching band.We all know that winning a tournament requires a lot of luck. One of the things that is rarely talked about is the luck of table draw, and as soon as I sit down I realize I am in for a tough afternoon – already sitting at the table is Darrel “Gigabet” Dicken, generally regarded as one of the best players in the world, and to make matters worse he has position on me being two to my left. As play progresses I ascertain the table has three other pros, two solid amateurs and two weaker players, one on each side of me. I check to see when our table will break, and it looks like it will not be for a long time. Not a good start and I am now feeling very dubious about Justin’s prediction.Level 1 (blinds 50/100)

• Early in the level the butterflies quickly subside and I raise 77 in the cut-off to 300; the big blind (BB) calls. The flop is T 8 2 (2 clubs). The bb checks; I bet 300 and he folds…nice start.
• After a raise to 300 from under-the-gun (UTG), I call in UTG+1 with AKo. I fold after missing the flop.
• After a raise to 300 from middle position (MP), I call with AKs in the cut-off (CO) and the button and the BB call. The flop is K T 3 (all hearts). After 2 checks I bet 500 and they fold.
• I raise to 300 with AQo in MP and the BB calls. After a flop of A A K the BB checks, I bet 350 and he calls. Wow…what can he have? The turn is another A; he checks and I bet 700; he calls. He must have a K and does not think I have an A. The river is a 4; he checks and I think for a while – “How big a bet will he call?” I think to myself. A poor player will call a big bet thinking I am bluffing, but the BB is one of the pros and we are very deep still. I decide to bet 1,500 (pot is 2,850), and he thinks for a minute before calling. I probably could had bet a little bigger on the turn and river, so I lost some value. I’ve played four hands and won three of them…now this is how it is supposed to be!
• I call an UTG+1 raise to 400 with JJ in UTG+2. The flop is K 8 4; he bets 800 and I call. The turn is a 7; he checks and I check. The river is a 9; he checks, I bet 1,000 and he folds.
• The levels are two hours; we played 67 hands. I win 4 of the 9 hands I played and finish with 23,100
• I meet Mark and Karen at the break, and he is off to a good start with ~38K (set over set the big contributor).

Level 2 (blinds 100/200)

• The player two to my right was tight seemed and very good. He had more than doubled up by winning two big pots from the bad player between us and was the table chip leader. He raises in early position (EP) to 700; I call with 66 and the BB calls. The flop is 6 2 3 (2 diamonds and I have the 6 of diamonds). The blind and raiser check; with both straight and flush draws out there, I decide to bet 2,500 into a pot of 2,200. The blind folds but the raiser check-raises me to 7,000!! A very strange play, and I thought for a long time about what he could have; 22 or 33 were unlikely as he was only raising with big pairs and big cards. I figured he either had A A (one being the A of diamonds), maybe K K (again with the K of diamonds) or perhaps AK (both diamonds) and decided to call and see what happened on the turn. The turn was the 9d, and we both checked - I was not going to bet and get blown off my full house draw. The river was a crushing J of diamonds; he thinks for several moments before betting 11,000 and I fold. He flashes A A (with the A of diamonds) before mucking. “F*CK” I yell inwardly.
• It is folded to the SB who completes, and I check K 9 (two spades) in the BB. The flop is x x x (2 spades). We both check the flop, and a blank turn. The river is a K; he bets 400 and I call. He turns over KT.
• After a limp, the button raises to 700, and I re-raise to 1,600 with QQ in the BB; they both fold.
• After a MP raise to 800, I call with QQ in the BB. The flop is K x x (all diamonds – I have the Q diamonds); I check, he bets 1,000 and I call. The turn is a K; we both check. The river is a blank. I check and he bets 1,200; I call and he turns over AA. Rats.
• I over-limp with Tc 9c in the CO; the weak-passive button on my left raises to 600 and we both call. The flop is A J 8; we check and the button bets 1,500. I fold – probably a weak play, but after the beating I had taken on this level, I could not carry on.
• We played 63 hands I lost all 6 of the hands I played and am down to 10,200. I am disappointed, but I could have easily gone broke this level.
• I meet Mark and Karen, and he is up to $70K (set over set against another big stack).

Level 3 (blinds 150/300)

• I raise AKo UTG to 900and everyone folds
• I raise JJ UTG to 900 and everyone folds
• I raise KK UTG to 900; everyone folds to the BB (bad player on my right). The flop is Q 8 5 (2 spades). He checks and I bet 2,000, and he pushes (and has me covered). I go into the tank; based upon his previous play I decide he is on some kind of semi-bluff and call. He turns over 87o, misses his outs and I double up.
• After a limper in EP, I raise T T in the SB to 1,200; big blind and limper fold.
• It is folded to me on the button (OTB), and I raise Ad Td to 1,200 and the blinds both call. The flop is three diamonds, and we all check. The turn is Qc, and after the blinds check I bet 2,000 and they fold.
• We play 67 hands: I win 5 of the 7 I play and finish with 20,550. So much for doubling up by the end of this level.
• During this level the bad player on my right and another amateur at the table are replaced by middle-ages pros from England and the table gets even tougher, as we will see the effect of this in the next two levels.
• Karen has gone ahead of the rush to get us a table at the buffet; when I meet her and Mark I learn he has increased his stack to 90,000.

Level 4 (blinds and antes 150/300/25)

• The English pro on my right raises to 900, and I re-raise him to 2,200 with KK. It is folded back to him, and he calls after thinking for a minute or two. The flop is 8 5 3 (2 diamonds). After he checks I bet 3,000, and he folds after considering his action.
• I raise 33 in the hi-jack to 1,100, and the very tight (but bad) player on my left pushes for ~9,000 more. I fold and he tells me he had AA when the table breaks.
• I raise in MP to 900 with AQo, and it is folded to one of the other English pros in the BB (he has a stack of ~60,000). On a flop of 9 9 8 he checks, I bet 1,100 and he calls. The turn is a Q; he checks and I check hoping he bets the river. The river is a 6; he bets 2,500 and I call. He turns over A40 and my hand is good.
• We play only 53 hands as the pace has slowed with lots of check-raising, bluffing and some huge pots. The pros are really going at it with each other. I play only 3 hands, win them all and finish with 23,050.
• I meet Mark and Karen and he is up to 130,000 and is the likely chip leader.

Level 5 (blinds and antes 200/400/50)

• Although I am only a little above my starting stack size after 8 hours of play I don’t feel pressured. I avoided elimination in Level 2, and I have a reasonable amount of chips relative to the blinds and antes. The bigger problem is the toughness of my table, and they all have more chips than me (the only stack shorter than me is the bad player on my left, which is not good as he is looking to get it in with all kinds of hands).
• I raise AQo in MP to 1,200, and everyone folds to the same English pro in the BB who calls (this is not déjà vu; same hand, positions and players as the third hand in Level 4!). The flop is Q J 3; he checks, I bet 1,600 and he folds.
• It is folded to me in the SB and I push with 99; the short stack in the BB calls for only 3,200 and turns over JJ. Bad timing – the odds of him having a pocket pair higher than mine are about 44 to 1.
• Next hand I raise AQo on the button, and the blinds fold.
• After two limpers I check Qs 9s in the BB. The flop is K J 9 (2 spades); with bottom pair, a flush draw and a gut shot straight draw I considered leading out but with the aggressiveness of the table I elected to check. I called a late position bet of 1,100 and the other limper called. We all checked a 5 on the turn. I checked a river A; the middle position player bet, was called and I folded. The bettor turned over AT.
• My last hand at this table was an extreme but good example of the kinds of hands being played; Gigabet raises in middle/late position (as he always did) and is called by one of the English pros in the blinds. The flop is K 6 4; Gigabet bets and is called. The turn is another K; Gigabet bets and is called again. The river is a 5; after a check Gigabet casually bets 50,000 into a pot of ~30,000 putting the English pro all-in. The pro goes into the tank, and after about 6 or 7 minutes another player calls the clock; he folds flashing a K.
• Finally, after 9 hours and 15 minutes of agony, a table break! The bad news is I am moved into the very next table to break and play only three hands there (including the big blind).
• I get moved to a table where the only person I recognize is Ray Romano (an actor/comedian known for Everyone Loves Raymond; a very nice guy).
• My first hand at the new table is in the Big Blind (again); I check 2c 3c after the button limps. The flop is Kc Kh 9c; I bet 525 and the button calls. The turn is a terrible K; I check fold.
• I raise KJo on the button and everyone folds.
• Between the three tables we have 58 hands. I play 6 hands, winning only three and finish the level at 15,925.
• When I return to the hotel I check the day-ending chip counts and see that Mark finished at 195,000 and is the chip leader.

I have very mixed feelings about the day. I survive a very tough table and avoid potential elimination in the second level. I have several big hands that do not get paid off (and I actually lose one) and a few big draws that do not come through. I finish with 15,925 chips when the average chip stack is ~41,000. Of the 1,297 people who started the day, only 636 remain and I am in 553rd place.Luckily I am comfortable playing a short stack - I start Day 2 on Tuesday with an M of just over 13; on Day Two of the Tunica Main Event I was down to an M of 3 and went on to win! (M is a measure how many rounds of blinds and antes I could afford to play before going broke). The cost per round (CPR - the blinds and antes I have to play for each orbit of hands) has a small increase from 1,050 to 1,200 in the next round, and from there to only 1,575 in Level 7. That being said I am going to have to double up twice to just get above average, so I’ll have pick my spots and play aggressively to chip up as the CPR really increases in the 8th and 10th levels.While I need some cards, what I really need is a good table with good position so I can play the short stack ninja – I deserve it after the almost 9 hours of hell I had On Day 1.

[BlkJakShelak 0]

Good Luck

[JustLikeNegs 1]

nice read, good luck, keep up the grind, look forward to more updates.

[gatortom64 1]

Great report. You can make the comeback. GL Bart.

[fatman 1]

nice read, good luck, keep up the grind, look forward to more updates.

QFT

[cubsfan44 0]

Great read as usual, Good luck on Day 2 Bart

[MJINK3 0]

Good trip report Bart. Grind it out and the big hand will come.

[Snamuh 0]

Good luck sir.

[Vtlaxer09 4]

GOGOGOGOGGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO!!!!

[Pokerkid555 0]

Great trip report and I actually get a pleasure reading these. I look forward to your next one and hopefully it involves you making ti to day 3. GL

[Suited_Up 2]

Hopefully you make it until day 125 or whatever it is.

[Mr. Sparco 2]

Good read. Good luck on day 2, sir!Just curious, since my own poker memory sucks: did you write up all the hands from memory, or did you take notes during play or in the breaks?

[Paul Brevard 0]

Good luck! Great read!

[bleacherbum3 9]

Great read as usual, Good luck on Day 2 Bart

[nutzbuster 7]

gl Bart

[Merby 3]

You've posted a good trilogy of trip reports so far, Bart. Good luck on day two!

[FCP Bob 1,312]

When we have the FCP Fantasy Camp with the Featured Members as instructors Bart will give the class on writing trip reports.

[EStormOk 0]

Great read. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Get some rest and may your ninja skills be sharp!

[monix 0]

Good read. Good luck on day 2, sir!Just curious, since my own poker memory sucks: did you write up all the hands from memory, or did you take notes during play or in the breaks?

Thanks.After each interesting hand I take a few notes on the details. Even though I only played 31 hands in the ten hours of Day 1, I would not be able to remember the specifics. It does not take long; I am usually finihsed before the next hand is dealt.

[ilovejulie 0]

Bart,As always, great detail, insightful and helpful observations, and an overall reading delight! My highlights of this post: when you pushed a sizeable stack with 99. I thought that to be very brave, and proves why you will be a short-stack Ninja. And, "two middle-ages English pros"... Gawain and Galahad, perhaps? Keep up the good work!David in Atlanta

[AndyZ28 0]

Excellent read. Good luck!!

[TwstdWrstr 10]

Great report, thanks monix! Gl on your Day 2.

[chrozzo 19]

GOOD LUCK!!!monix is good people(and he buys wine for everyone at dinnertime)lol

[mase_gotsem 0]

well written report . gl on day 2 lotta play left, have fun and get er dun