Bad News

Well, Dave got eliminated. I didn't hear any of the story because I was at the grocery store when he called. He changed his flight to come home tonight instead of tomorrow, so he'll probably be telling you all about his trip tomorrow morning.

Update

Dave just called in on his second break. Over the last two hours he's built his stack up from $2800 to $2825. Ha! When they go back after the break they'll be playing $200/$400 so he's starting to get a little short stacked, but is still just one hand away from being comfortable. He says he hasn't had a decent hand in an hour, so if he can just get one or two good hands things should start to turn around.

Poker Pages posted the payout structure, here it is:

1st	$280,715
2nd	$177,627
3rd	$114,278
4th	$75,771
5th	$53,412
6th	$40,991
7th	$30,433
8th	$22,359
9th	$16,148
10th-12th	$11,552
13th-15th	$10,310
16th-18th	$9,068
19th-27th	$7,826
28th-36th	$6,708
37th-45th	$5,714
46th-54th	$4,844
55th-63rd	$3,975
64th-72nd	$3,292
73rd-81st	$2,795
82nd-90th	$2,360

The next break will be the dinner break, and that will be around 6:45 or 7. Hopefully we don't hear anything until then!

Event 06 - $1,500 Limit Hold'em

I just got off the phone with Dave, who is on the first break of today's event, Limit Hold 'Em, which started with 910 players. Limit moves a lot slower than No Limit, so not too much has happened so far. He started with $3000 in chips and now has about $2800. When he gets back from break the limits will be $100/$200.

Here are the live update links:

Card Player
Poker Pages

He says he likes his table a lot, and is playing with Rafe Furst, who he says is a nice guy.

Eliminated!

I just got a call from Dave saying he got eliminated. I only got the short story, which was that he lost half his chips with KK against AA, and then the rest with QQ against AA. Yuck! I'm sure he'll have more to tell you about it later.

Event 04 - $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em

Dave successfully got registered in today's event which started at noon (PST).

According to cardplayer.com there were about 900 entrants, which is a little smaller than last year. Dave just gave me a call on his first break saying they started out with 3,000 in chips and he had gotten up to around 5,000 but has since slipped back to around 3,500. All in all, he says things are going well and he'll update me again in a few hours.

Here are some sites with live updates of the action:
Card Player
Poker Pages

They usually talk about big hands between famous players and will give you some updates on how the limits are going up and about how many people are left. At some point they should post what the prize structure will be which will tell us how many people they need to play to before ending the day.

First Tournament - Cancelled

Hello, this is Jen!

Dave wanted me to put a post up to let you know that he ended up not playing in today's event. He went to the Rio yesterday to sign up and apparently the line to register was hours long and not moving at all. He decided he would rather just get this morning around 8 and sign up then. He woke up this morning feeling awake at 4 for no particular reason, so he headed back over to the Rio planning on signing up and then coming back to the MGM for a few more hours of sleep before the tournament. When he got there he found out the wait would be 3-4 hours. Wisely he decided that he would not be playing his best poker after getting so little sleep and standing in line all night long, so he is skipping today's event. He's hoping they can work out whatever bugs they're having and he's going to return this evening or early tomorrow to sign up for the next event.

WSOP Preview Extravaganza!

On Thursday May 31st I'll once again be heading back to Vegas to take a shot at a high six figure pay day in the World Series of Poker! As most of you know last years WSOP was the reason that I started this blog and was a collosal, monumental, extra large failure. I played 10 events, and while I like how I stacked up against the competition in most of them, I got hosed in one way or another in all of them.

Even in the one event in which I made the money I got jobbed. On my final hand I went broke when the player in the big blind (Michael Mizrachi AKA The Grinder supposedly one of the top 25 best players in the world) called wiht AJ after the player on the button moved all in with 77 and I moved all in over the top with KK. Even before the cards were turned over he said he knew he was behind, but was "gambling" in an attempt to win a big pot. Of course he flopped an ace and busted both me and the other guy. And then what did he do? He went broke on the very next hand! I had to stand there in line to get paid with him standing right behind me for ten minutes!

I'm getting all worked up here so before I get too carried away and start devising a plan to pie Mizrachi in the face I'll get on to this years preview and leave the past in the past. This year I'm only playing in 3 events and here's the scoop on all three.

June 2nd Event #3 $1,500 No Limit Hold 'em

Other than the main event this should be the event with the most newcomers and inexperienced players since it's got a small buy in by WSOP standards and is the first event other than the employees event and a $5,000 mixed limit/no limit event event. Last year there were 2,776 entrants and there would have been more if the room was bigger. I finished somewhere in the range of 2,100th place when I lost with AA against KQ (an 87% favorite preflop). I expect this year will have a similar turnout and hopefully better results for me. Here is a list of the top 20 finishers and their prizes.

1 Brandon Cantu (BC, Canada) $757,839
2 Phong Ly (CA, USA) $416,816
3 Drew Rubin (FL, USA) $226,597
4 Lee Padilla (CA, USA) $176,579
5 Brent Roberts (NY, USA) $151,570
6 Don Zewin (NV, USA) $126,940
7 Ron Stanley (NV, USA) $107,614
8 Mark Swartz (AZ, USA) $88,668
9 Carlos Mortensen (NV, USA) $71,617
10 Tom Nguyen (NV, USA) $56,081
11 Jennifer Harman (NV, USA) $51,155
12 Jack Rosenfeldt (CA, USA) $46,987
13 Ali Eslami (CA, USA) $43,197
14 Chad Burum (CA, USA) $39,408
15 David Baker (TX, USA) $35,619
16 Adam Smith (TX, USA) $31,830
17 Steve Hohn (KS, USA) $28,040
18 Stuart Krasney (CA, USA) $24,251
19 Jorge Walker (CA, USA) $20,462
20 Paul Smith (CA, USA) $20,462


June 3rd Event #4 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold 'em

If you were betting on which tournament I was most likely to make the money in this would be the smart one to choose since both of my past WSOP cashes have been in pot limit events. I'm not sure why that's been the case since pot limit and no limit are almost the same once you get well into the tournament and the blinds get big, but maybe it will give me a little extra confidence when I sit down to play. Last year there were 1,102 entrants in this event and I finihsed 58th. Other than the money, the highlight of this event last year was I spent the entirety of day 1 playing at the same table with former world champ and super nice guy Chris Fergeson. I don't know why people dislike pot limit and love no limit, but I'm sure this event will have half the turnout of Event #3. Here are the top 9 finishers and their prizes from last year.

1 Rafe Furst $345,984
2 Rocky Enciso $180,508
3 Eric "Rizen" Lynch $104,544
4 George Bronstein $75,212
5 Burt Boutin $60,169
6 Can Kim Hua $52,648
7 Richard Chase $45,127
8 John Juanda $37,606
9 Alan Gilbert $33,845


June 4th Event #6 $1,500 Limit Hold 'em

The best thing about limit tournaments is you can't go broke on one hand early in the tournament. The first few hours can be a little boring since the betting limits are relatively small and insignificant, but hopefully it will give me a chance to get a feel for my opponents without much on the line. Last year there were 1,068 entrants in this event and I didn't play because I was in day 2 of the pot limit event. Here are the top 9 finishers and their prizes.

1 Kianoush Abolfathi $335,289
2 Eric Buchman $174,938
3 Josh Schlein $101,318
4 Michele Lewis $72,891
5 Vipul Kothari $58,313
6 Hank Sparks $51,029
7 Patrick Maloney $43,735
8 Lars Hansen $36,446
9 Matt Welsby $32,801


All three of these events are three day events. The first day you play from noon until roughly 2 a.m. with 20 minute breaks every 2 hours and a 1 hour break for dinner in the 6:45 p.m. range. At the end of day 1 all of the remaining players will be in the money. On day 2 you start at 2 p.m. and play until only the top 9 players remain who then come back the next day for the conclusion.

Unlike last year when I needed to go very deep in at least one event or make the money in 3 or 4 consider the trip a success, this year just making the money in one event will make the trip a success. Also in contrast to last year, I'm not feeling any pressure at all. The money involved is a small fraction of what was at stake last year and as per usual when I go into a big buy in event the money has already been set aside and it won't be a big deal if none of it comes back. Wish me luck and I'll do my best to update the blog daily with results from Vegas.