Wsop O8b Trip Report

[Chamonyx 0]

I had decided a while ago that I wanted to play some of the WSOP O8b events and the 5K was the best one for my schedule, so I got out here on 4th, picked up my FCP gear as part of the "Daniel's Action" promotion, spent Wednesday getting to know the Rio and with some live action at the Wynn (very comfortable room btw) before hitting the event on Thursday.I knew I was going to play so I bought in when I got there in the morning, and then decided to play a SNG to get into the swing: went OK and down to final 3 with me having about 12/20K in play and offering the other 2 a 30/20 split, which they declined. A round or so later and I was on the other end with about 7k and accepted 1250 as it was getting close to 2pm which was the event start time.Before I get into the (for me) Main Event, I just have to say that if you are remotely into telvised poker, you should definitely find an excuse to get out to Vegas: everyone you have ever heard of is here, just wandering around and playing.....in addition to which, the atmosphere and buzz is terrific, even in the cavern that is the poker room within the Rio confernece center.OK, onto the event. At my first table I had the pleasure of sitting to the right of Harry Demetriou who was a lot of fun. Also on the table were Eric Lindgren and Scott Buller (Party Million 3rd place I think)......and Mark Gregorich. Also one big unknown donkey.We started with 5000 in chips and (presumably because there were 260ish players and they needed to get down to 27 in day 1) the decision was taken to skip the 25/25 level and go straight into 25/50- but there was till plenty of room for play. In the first round I maybe played 2 hands and finshed the level with about 5800; Harry must have played all BUT 2 hands ;-).Next level (50/100) got more interesting and I finished up at about 7200. It was pretty clear at the table who knew what they were doing at the game, as opposed to being more at home with Hold'em. Level 4 (3rd one of play) was where people started to drop: I bust out the donkey in seat 4 and shortly thereafter Harry D, finishing with 12600 chips (and was about 3rd based on the (very poor) Cardplayer stats. Seat 4 was filled by John Phan who had a nice pile of chips, but probably fits into the category I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Here's one hand I played against Phan at the 200/400 level:I had Ac 2h 5h 8h in CO and open raised, Phan defended his blinds.Flop: K34 (one heart) gets capped (5 bets)Turn: Qh he bets I callRiver: 2 he checks, I bet and he goes into the tank (he has put on his intimidator glasses following some earlier wrangling) and stares me down, I try to look worried and someone calls the clock on him. Eventually he folds showing 33.I finish level 5 with about 15000 and shortly into the next level get moved. It was very interesting playing at the same table as Mark Gregorich: He seemed completely aware of every detail that was happening and was digging into every hand that was shown down. I don't think he made one mistake the whole time I was playing with him ( I made 2 but at this level they were not too costly).So I move to the next table with a nice stack and find Amir Vahedi and Huck Seed to my right and Tony G, Chau Giang and the Foxwoods WPT winner to my left. Tony G makes some glib remark of welcome, but then Chau points out my yellow 1000 chips (we had recently raced off the 25's) and Tony shuts up (well sort of ;-) ). Amir comments on my FCP apparel and asks if I won the seat on-line, I tell him "no" and the implications sink in. He then asks me if I own the site and Huck chimes in with "do you think he looks like Daniel Negreanu?". This was to be my table pretty much till the end 7 or 8 hours later. When I arrived Tony G had about 15K an Amir abut 12, the others were about average.Seed was playing very tight, but just wasn't finding anything and he bust out a level or 2 after I arrived, replaced by Mel Juddah who quickly bust just before dinner, when Joe Hachem arrived. In spite of getting quartered in a 3-way pot, I hit the dinner break with just under 24K and was in good shape (about 12-15th according to CP): I was getting respect from the table, although Amir was open raising many hands ahead of me.Shortly after dinner, Hachem busts out and is replaced by Andy Bloch, with a pretty short stack. After dinner (400/800 blinds) I hit a really dry spell and was just not getting anything good to call Amir's raises with. I lost a few key pots and failed to hit when I was defending my blinds and was down to under 16K going into the 500/1k level. My streak continued and I was down to under 10k, when this hand came up against Tony G:I open raised from MP with A48Js. Tony G called on the button as did Bloch in BB. Flop comes A 8 Ks I bet, Tony raises Andy folds and I call.Turn 2s check, callRiver Js I bet, Tony calls and I am up to 16K or so and he is crippled.However the blinds took care of most of my gains and whe the table broke shortly afterwards I moved with about 10K in chips and was in real trouble at the 1k/1.5 blind level). My new table had me now on Tony G's left and with Farhah, Ivey and Gavin Smith on my left, all with very large stacks.2nd hand at this table and I am in the BB with A227 ss. I call after a raise from Frahah is called by Smith. Flop comes A 7 K or something like that. I bet out and get called, low comes on the Turn with 2 hearts. I check and fold to someone's bet and Farhah and Smith split with Flush and Nut Low. I have about 2500 left. In my SB I get absolute cr@p and it is raised and called ahead of me and I fold (maybe a mistake, although I would have lost anyway). I am down to one yellow (1K) chip. 2 hands later I get AAJ7 ss and chuck it in against the blinds who checki to down. I end up with the high and have 1500 - woohoo. 2 hands later I have a reasonable low hand but no low comes and I am out in about 40th (27 pay) after 12 and a half hours, leaving Gavin Smith with about 160K in chips!Reflections: It was great fun and I will definitely play again.Live Tournaments can be pretty gruelling.The critical levels are those where the blinds are 500/1000 and 1000/1500, because of the proportional jump in the middle: you have got to have your stack in good shape to weather this period and capitalise on people busting out.Of all the big name HE players I played with, the one whose play most impressed me was Tony G. He does have a real grasp for Omaha 8b, and it was actually a great pleasure to be at his table.

[navybuttons 15]

awesome, a great read.gonna stick for the 3000?

[greatwhite 0]

It sounds like a lot of fun. How many players did you see that just had no clue how to play the game? From what DN said about the $2000 event it was a total donk fest with players playing hands like JJT4 and all kinds of garbage.

[jjgoldy5 0]

It sounds like a lot of fun. How many players did you see that just had no clue how to play the game? From what DN said about the $2000 event it was a total donk fest with players playing hands like JJT4 and all kinds of garbage.

I would guess that the competition would be a little stiffer in the 5000

[mrdannyg 274]

I would guess that the competition would be a little stiffer in the 5000

also, it was taking place with an NL tournament, so some donkeys would've been there instead.great read chamonyx.

[dreamcrusher28 0]

Great read. Too bad you didn't cash. At least you know you can mix it up with the big dogs.

[gobears 0]

Great Post - sounds like you just needed a little more luck and you would have been in the money.GL in the future Omaha events

[Chamonyx 0]

Thanks for the comments.I may well be back out for the 3K.There were not many complete donks, probably for the reasons that were cited (5K and HE tourney), so most people could play a bit.....they were just not neccessarily that good. The reason I cited Tony G as a good player was because he was the only player I came across who was demonstrating consistently strong skills in an O8 context (hand selection, range of actions, use of position etc). It is quite possible that some of the other name players had just as good a game but I was not able to observe it because they bust out quickly or were on a consistent short stack.

[navybuttons 15]

i don't think i'll be able to make it for the 3k. i was really planning on it but stuff comes up. do a write up if you go.

[JacKingOff_suit 0]

Good read, not a bad finish and better luck next time.Don't know how did the other online players fare in the event, like WM?How many O8 events in the WSOP?I will try to play one or two next summer. I just can't do it this time, just have to stay with my family.

[mk 11]

gjgj nice report. when are they going to add a PLO8 event? i considered heading out for the 3k O8 but i think the money would be better spent on one of the NLH donkfests.

[Rocketwadster 0]

Awesome playing, too bad about finishing just out of the money (you were going for first though right???) I would love to hear about how ANY forum members fare in any of the WSOP events. I think there should be a new forum section for just this sort of thing...anyone?

[gobears 0]

Awesome playing, too bad about finishing just out of the money (you were going for first though right???) I would love to hear about how ANY forum members fare in any of the WSOP events. I think there should be a new forum section for just this sort of thing...anyone?

Looshle just won over $200K in the $2500 NLHE tourney (finished 3rd) - another guy final tabled (his ID is NoSup4U or something) in the first event I think.You're going to have to venture into General at least during the WSOP

[Rocketwadster 0]

Looshle just won over $200K in the $2500 NLHE tourney (finished 3rd) - another guy final tabled (his ID is NoSup4U or something) in the first event I think.You're going to have to venture into General at least during the WSOP

Screw that. I lost enough brain cells this past wekeend thanks.Why can't one of the forum mods create a temporary folder for these things. It's a brilliant idea (one of many i've had)...

[Wintermute 0]

Chamonyx,Can you say anything about the cash games? I heard a $1k-min PLO8 has been going from time to time. Hoping the blinds are 25/50 but wanted to hear from you... Congrats on a good showing in the tourneyWM

[Chamonyx 0]

O8 events: there are 3: 2K, 5K and 3K this w/eUnfortunately I can't make the 3K as I need to be home on Monday and so would have to be blinded away at the final table ;-)Live Games: There was a PLO8 being spread on Tuesday afternoon when I arrived at the Rio, with a min buy in of $1000, can't remember the blinds. Unfortuantley I couldn't play because my cunning plan of transferring my roll to my Wells Fargo account and cashing a check backfired when I arrived on the 4th - lazy bastards. I played live there on Wednesday and Thursday mornings (9-10 ish) and there were only limit O8 games going. I played 100/200, 75/150 and 20/40. All had a high degree of variance in play quality so I would advise to play as high as you can. You should have no difficulty getting a live PLO8 game imo, as they have even been spreading Badugi.Away from the Rio, you may well get them to start a game for your stakes at the Wynn if you are seeding half the board. I would forget Caesars for your limits, although I did have fun in a 3/6 mix game one night playing Crazy Pineapple, Double Flop HE, Omaha hi, O8, Badugi. By far the best game I found was the 60/120 mix at Bellagio (O8, HiLo Regular, 2-7). I don't know if they would spread PLO8, so your best bet will be the Rio, getting your gang to set up the list if there isn't a game going. Just remember that the average standard of dealers and floor at the Rio is very poor. The one other room worth considering that I didn't check out is the Venetian, where many of the hi limit Bellagio players have defected to.Good luck, WM, and don't make us wait for your report!