2009 WSOP Event #19 ($2,500 6-max NLH) Recap

Event #19 started with 1,068 players (quite the contrast compared to the 46 we got for the $2,000 event in L.A.!) each with 7,500 chips and blinds of 25/50. For me this tournament was filled with insane ups and downs. I started off at a good table. It was me, Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari (he used to be an actual professional magician), and four weak players.

My first big hand came about 20 minutes into the tournament. One player at our table was clearly very nervous. More nervous than I was my first time at the WSOP. Clearly he was being very careful. On the hand in question he was in the small blind and made a small raise to 125. I was in the big blind with 85. Clearly this is a garbage hand, but I felt confident that if my opponent didn't hit something big I'd be able to blow him off the hand in later betting rounds.

I threw in 75 more chips to call and the flop came down J 7 5. My opponent bet 200 into the 250 chip pot and I just called. The turn brought an 8 which made me two pair and almost certainly the best hand. Now my opponent bet 600. I thought for a moment and made it 1,800. When he didn't instantly fold I knew he had something and figured him for an overpair. After about 30 seconds he moved all in and I called. He showed AA which was about what I expected and meant only 8 of the remaining 43 cards in the deck would make him the best hand. Sadly the river was a jack making him two bigger pair and knocking me down under 2,000 chips.

At the first break, 2 hours into the tournament, I was up to 2,700 and on the first hand back I doubled up. I got dealt JJ, got it all in vs AT and my hand held up. That had me at 5,500, but I faded back down to 4,000 before getting my money in bad. This was the first of many times in this tournament that I was in bad shape and got bailed out. I had QJs and raised from the small blind. The big blind reraised and I called. The flop came down K T 5 and I check raised all in. My opponent who had stared the hand with 3,000 chips called with KJ, but I hit an ace on the river. It was a good play on my part, but still a spot where I needed to get lucky once the cards got turned over.

With about 7,000 chips I got moved to a new table, which also turned out to be pretty soft. No one there was terrible, but these guys were not on my level.

This leads me to time number two where I was in bad shape and got bailed out. I had 88 under the gun and came in for a raise to 600 (the blinds had just gone up to 100/200). Two players just called and the big blind moved all in for 6,000.

We call this a squeeze play. If you're the player in the big blind you see 2,100 in the pot and you can be pretty sure that the guys who called the raise don't have great hands because they didn't reraise. If you can get past the first raiser (who still has to worry a little bit about the players behind him) you're usually gold.

I figured the big blind might move in with any ace or any pair in this spot so I moved all in too. It turns out he did have a pair - it was kings! Amazingly four hearts showed up, I had the only heart, and I took down a nice pot of about 15,000 chips.

Then I procedeed to run quite a few bluffs. There was a lot of calling before the flop and goofy small raises from the players at my table. As a result I was seeing more than an average number of flops and missing them all. Some of my bluffs worked and some of them didn't.

After one of the bigger ones failed horribly, I fell all the way down to 4,500. This leads me to time number three where I got my money in bad. I tired a squeeze play of my own with A7 suited and got called by AQ. Miraculously, I flopped a 7 and survied. That put me at around 9,000 chips. Which is where I stayed. For what seemed like forever. As I folded. And folded. And folded garbage hand, after garbage hand slowly bleeding my chips away until I only had 5,000 left.

After six hours of play it was time for dinner. I came back up to my room, ate some cereal and a ham sandwitch, and watched some TV. When I got back to the poker table some crazy shit happened very fast.

When we came back the blinds were 200/400 with a 50 chip ante. A few hands in, it got folded around to me in the small blind and I made it 1,400 to go with QTs. The big blind thought for a minute and moved all in. I only had 3,700 more and there was already about twice that in the pot so I decided to go for it even though I thought I was behind. I was up against A7 and in hand number where I got bailed out (I was about 40% to win here so my call was actually correct) I flopped a queen and was up over 11,000 chips.

About 10 minutes later I got dealt KK. On the hand before there had been a raise to 1,100 and a call, and I moved all in for about 10,000 (with A2s - squeeze play again) and got no callers. Now the same player had raised to 1,100 again and gotten two callers. I breifly thought about just blowing all in to make it look like a bluff, but instead I made it 3,000 to go. The initial raiser folded, but the first caller made it 8,000! When it got to me I moved all in for about 12,000 and he called with TT. I won and was up to 25,000!

Now I was feeling good. I'd come from 5,000 up to 25,000 which was about an average stack in just under 15 minutes.

Then I got dealt JJ in the big blind. All right! It's on now bitches! The button who was a new player to our table (someone had gone broke in his seat a few minutes before) raised to 1,000. I made it 3,000 with my big pair and he moved all in for 16,000. It took all of 2 seconds for me to call and when he turned over his cards up he had A7.

When I was winning all of those hands where I was behind I kept thinking, I bet I'm going to get it in with the best of it later and lose a big pot. I was about 70% to win here, but sure enough an ace came on the flop and a 33,000 chip pot (worth $11,000 in real dollars - fuck!) got pushed to my opponent.

About 10 minutes later I went broke. On my last hand maybe I out thought myself and made things a little too complicated or maybe I played it brilliantly and got screwed.

I got dealt Q9s on the button and everyone folded to me. Like I said before there had been a lot of just calling before the flop, but I hadn't once just called when I was first in. Q9s is a great hand to see a flop with and I figured I'd give calling a shot. The small blind just called behind me and the big blind who was the chip leader at our table with over 70,000 chips made it 2,800 to go. This was too much for him to have a strong hand. He was one of these goofs who liked to make small raises and if he had a big hand (or even an OK hand) he'd make it 1,600 or 1,800 (or maybe some goofy shit like 1,475). On top of that he was a thinking player and I figured he'd think I had AA or KK if I reraised him since people will rarely limp in and then reraise with anything but a monster hand. So I tried to look like I was trying to look conflicted (now that's a professional manuever!)and moved all in for about 12,000.

He instantly called me with A2 off suit! ACK!

In retrospect maybe I should have made it 6,000. Now that would really look like AA and would still give me enough to fire a decent sized bet at the flop. I actually flopped a queen and I thought, I'd done it again, but an ace came on the river and that was it. I finished about 300th of 1068.

There are a lot of ways that last hand could have played out differently. If I raise before the flop I might get called or small reraised (which I would call) and when I flop the queen I put enough heat on that A2 can't call. Or if my opponent raises smaller I just call, flop the queen, and move all in vs his flop bet which would no doubt lead to a fold from him. Or I could have just won that pot with the f-ing jacks! Damn it!

The walk of shame down the very long, long hallway of the Rio convention area is never fun.

Tomorrow HORSE! Look for a preview in the morning or afternoon.

Event #19 Preview

Event #19 is $2,500 6 handed no limit hold'em. 6 handed no limit can be challenging. With fewer players at the table, weaker hands become more valuble and there are more confrontations. In order to win you have to do things you wouldn't do in a 9 or 10 handed game. The worst thing you can do playing short handed is be timid. I've decided ahead of time to be anything but. I'm playing this one to go deep. Balls out, lay it on the line poker. If I go broke early so be it.

I made the money in this event last year and I play short handed poker all the time so hopefully I'll have a strong showing. This is the only event going off Monday and it starts at noon. I'll put up a post about my results Monday night or Tuesday morning.

2009 WSOP Event #16 ($1,500 7-Card Stud) Recap

We started Event #16 with 359 players each with 4,500 chips playing 50/100 stakes. As I mentioned in my preview I expected this tournament to be filled with old timers and amateurs. Once the tournament got underway I confirmed that my expectations about the starting field were right on.

Looking around at the 20 other tables that I could easily see standing up behind my seat, I didn't see a single player that I was confident was younger than me (I'm 29 for those of you who might not know). More importantly I didn't see a single famous pro player. In fact the only poker personalities I saw were David Sklansky and Mike Caro both of whom are famous theorists and authors who wrote important poker books in the 70's and 80's (the still write and instruct, by their best work is behind them in my opinion). It really was like a WSOP time warp.

Once play got underway I was amazed at how weak my table was. This was the 21st event I've played at the WSOP and over the course of those tournaments I've played at something like 60-75 (or maybe even more) different tables. This was without a doubt the softest table I ever encountered at the WSOP. It felt like the $4/$8 stud games I used to play at the Oaks club when I was 22.

Good players tend to do a lot of raising. Aggressive poker is usually good poker. It can be tough to play against very aggressive players even if they are making mistakes. On the other hand, players that tend to just call and only bet or raise when they really have something are easy to beat.

In the first two hours there wasn't a single reraise (except by me) on third street (the first betting round). In the first four hours there were only two check raises (another tool used often by strong players) of any kind (except by me). It was almost too good to be true.

For the first few hours my only battle was with myself. For the most part I was getting total garbage and it was very difficult to stay patient. I knew I could out play these players and it was tempting to get in there with very suspect hands with the plan of just relentlessly firing away. Looking back that might have worked (if it was a cash game or we had deeper stacks that's probably what I would have done), but I decided a better option would be to stretch my starting requirements a little bit while not getting too out of line.

Eventually my patience started to pay off. The player just to my left was the worst player in the game and a total jerk. We got involved in a few hands with each other and they all ended the same way.

In the first I started with AA9 with one of the aces as my up card. I came in for a raise and The Jerk called. I bet fourth street and fifth street and then checked sixth street. He bet sixth street and the river. I didn't get any help and all I had was my one pair of aces, but my opponent didn't have strong up cards and the pot was more than big enough to warrant a call.

After I called my opponent angrily turned over his cards showing a missed flush draw and pushed them hard towards the dealer. As I was stacking the chips he said "I can't believe you just called there! You only had one pair! You are really terrible!" I calmly replied "I had the best hand didn't I?"

A little while later I started with a pair of jacks with one showing. The action was exactly the same. I bet fourth and fifth street, he bet sixth and the river, and I called him with an unimproved pair of jacks. This time he showed king high total garbage. After again shoving his cards at the dealer he went on for about 30 seconds about how bad I was, talking about how many thousands of dollars he wanted to bet on me not making the money and how I was 50 to 1 to make it. I calmly informed him that I would take the 50 to 1 if he was willing to book a bet, to which he said nothing.

About 15 minutes later I again started with aces, with one up and came in raising. This time there were two other players in the pot so the action was a little different. I bet 4th street and everyone called. On fifth street the jerk had 3 clubs showing, the other players got what looked like a little help and I hadn't improved so I checked. Everyone checked behind me. On sixth street the jerk caught another club and bet after I'd checked. The two other players folded and it was back to me. I was about 90% sure that if he'd had 4 clubs (or 5 clubs) on fifth street he would have bet, so even though he had 4 clubs showing on 6th street I was almost positive he didn't have a flush. Taking that into account, I called.

I checked the river after getting no help and he bet without looking at his last card. I called without hesitation hoping he didn't catch another club or make two pair on the river. He showed one pair of fives and I took down another nice pot.

Of course he had more to say. "You are so unbelievable! I can't belive how terrible you are!" My mind was blown at this point and I couldn't hold back. "I called you three times with one pair and I won every pot! How is that terrible? What do you want me to do if you keep bluffing into me?"

He replied "I had four clubs showing! What could you beat?! I mean what could you beat!" My instant retort was "tell me the exact seven cards you had and that would be a perfect example of something I could beat." It makes me wonder how this guy came up with $1,500 to get into the tournament.

Four hours into the tournament we went on dinner break. I was up to 7,300 chips, the average stack was about 5,700 and we'd lost a quarter of the starting field. At that point I was feeling good about my chances. While my primary goal was to go as deep as possible in the tournament, I really wanted to make it to day 2 so I'd have something to do Sunday since there were no tournaments on my schedule for that day.

After dinner I came back and rocketed right down the toilet. I kept getting strong starting cards and making no improvements.

The one time I did improve I got squashed. My opponent who was a fairly good player, had a lot of chips and was playing a lot of pots. On the hand in question he started with a ten up and a pair of deuces in the hole. I started with a 6 up and two jacks in the hole. He came in raising, got called by the player just to my right and I reraised. They both called, we all caught bricks on 4th street and I bet. Both players called, which put the player to my right all in. On fifth street my main opponent caught a third deuce and raised me when I bet. I check-called 6th street and checked the river without looking at my last card. My opponent who had a board of T 5 2 8 (about an innocuious and you can possibly get) bet and when I looked down at a third jack I raised. Sadly my opponent had picked up another 5 to go with his three deuces and now had a very well concealed full house. He reraised, I called and lost a huge pot.

I don't remember all the details of the other hands that led to my demise but it was a lot of start with one big pair, finish with one big pair and lose to two bullshit pair. It's not that hard to make two pair in stud, but I just wasn't getting any help. I finished about 250th of 359, 30 mintues after getting back from dinner.

Bad luck (or very bad luck) will always derail you in a poker tournament. But bad luck doesn't last. Being a successful tournament player is all about making the most of the cards you get and the situations in which you find youself. If you keep making the best decisions with the information you have and giving youself chances one of them will pan out. In my first tournament I took my 7,500 chip starting stack to over 20,000. In this one I took my 4,500 chips stack close to 9,000 at one point. I gave myself a chance in both tournaments, but they just didn't pan out.

Event #16 Preview!

Event# 16 is $1,500 7 card stud! I haven't played a ton of 7 card stud tournaments, but for the most part neither has anyone else! Stud was big in the 70's and 80's before hold'em caught on but after 5 card draw had started to fade away.

It's hard to find a stud game bigger than $30/$60 online or anywhere on the west coast. I think there is one $215 stud tournament online every week, but on a daily basis I don't remember seeing anything else with a buy in bigger than $50.
I hear they still play for bigger stakes on the east coast, but I'm not sure how old that information is.

Another piece of good news is today at noon was $5,000 no limit hold'em. That is where all the established tournament pros and Internet hot shots will be. I played that event in 2006 and it was without a shadow of a doubt the toughest field I've ever faced before or since. So instead of facing the ball busters I will be playing with the middle aged amatures and old timers!

The action starts at 5 pm and I'll put up a post tonight if I brick early or tomorrow morning/afternoon (I slept until 1 today, it was great!) if I play late or make it to day 2.

2009 WSOP Event #14 ($2,500 Limit 6-max) Recap

Like I said in my preview 6 handed limit hold'em is my specialty. As a result I went into my first event of this years WSOP feeling confident. My travel to Vegas went off without a hitch and by 2 p.m. I was checked in to the hotel, registered for the tournament (which started at 5), and eating a steak. After all who cares about a $40 lunch when you're about to play a $2,500 tournament right?

This year the WSOP has taken over even more of the Rio convention area (which is massive to say the least). In 2005 my first year at the WSOP and only the second year since the WSOP moved over from Binion's, everything was in the Amazon Room. That's where you went to play the events, register for the events, play cash games, play satellite tournaments and even play smaller buy in nightly tournaments (for the amateurs, spouses and friends who don't want to pony up the big bucks). It's a big room (think warehouse or airplane hanger - the size of a few football fields), but it was a still a little crowded.

They've gradually expanded each year and this year they have a room where you register for everything, another room that is just for satellites, and even the WSOP events have been split into multiple rooms. I'm always impressed that every year they make improvements.

Now on to what happened in the actual poker! We started with 367 players each with 7,500 chips. 36 players would make the money with 36th place paying about $4,500, 1st place being $224,000 and 35th through 2nd falling somewhere in between. Finishing 37th or worse meant you'd be losing your $2,500.

For the first four hours I was at a fairly good table. I was in seat 1 (just to the left of the dealer). In seat 2 was a player who was clearly a serious tournament pro, but who was playing too many hands and (in my expert opinion) was too aggressive. In seat 3 was a total buffoon. This was a guy who had money and that was the only reason he was playing. He blamed the dealer for his bad luck and once called a raise with 92 because he "had a feeling." I LOVE seeing this type of player at the WSOP! In seat 4 was a guy about my age who seemed like he knew what to do, but was too nervous to play well. In seat 5 was a middle aged Asian fellow with the biggest watch I've ever seen. He was an OK player, but fairly predictable.

Lastly in seat 6 was Daniel Negranu who is one of the most successful tournament poker players of the past 10 years. In 2004, he was WSOP player of the year, has 4 WSOP titles, and something like $10,000,000 in career tournament earnings (and that's not counting millions in cash game winnings). He was also one of my heroes when I first started playing poker. I always thought he was great, not just because he was a fantastic player, but because he was charming, friendly, and engaging with just about everyone he played. That is certainly something I've tried to emulate. There are a ton of pricks in the poker world and I am constantly reminded how foolish they look.

It was great fun playing against Daniel and luckily he was not giving me any trouble. First of all because short handed limit hold'em isn't his specialty and it is mine. Second of all he was dead tired and a little loopy. I found out through conversation that he has a $300,000 bet with John Juanda that spans the length of the WSOP. Whoever earns more player of the year points wins. Amazingly he also has similarly sized, but slightly smaller bets with Eric Lindgerin, Barry Greenstien, and Chris Ferguson. As a result of these bets (and because the best players measure their careers by how many WSOP titles they have) all of these guys are playing as many tournaments as they possibly can (apparently Ferguson had played 12 of the first 13 events!). Trying to win a bet like that means starting at noon just about every day, playing multiple tournaments at once (you have to periodically run back and forth usually playing the tournament that is farther along while your chips just sit there in the game you're not playing and they take your blinds and/or antes), and going until 3 am if you're doing well. And doing it day after day after day for 6 weeks!

I started off this tournament playing well and getting OK cards. After two hours of play I was up to 9,000 chips, and got my stack as high as 12,000 chips, before going back to square 1 by the end of round 4. In the mean time the two softest players had gone broke and been replaced by tough players. I was not thrilled.

After four hours of play it was time for dinner break. My favorite restaurant at the Rio is a seafood restaurant called Buzio's. They have a lobster tank outside the restaurant and when you order one they pick one out and throw it in a pot. It is amazingly good lobster. Another thing I like about this place is they have a counter like you might find in a diner except you're getting top notch seafood instead of pancakes.

So I sit down at the counter and who sits down next to me - Gap Tooth! My regular readers will know this is a guy that I decimated in a tournament on my last trip to L.A. I resisted the temptation to bust his balls by asking him what he'd do if he raised to 5,000 with QJ offsuit and someone moved all in for 30,000. He probably wouldn't say, get pissed, put in all my chips and loose to pocket kings!

After dinner I came back and instantly got moved to another table. This was good news and I liked my new table a lot more than my old one. Two of the players were missing (stuck at dinner I guess), another was terrible and I went on a major rush. With a combination of bluffs and made hands I was up to 20,000 in 20 minutes! All of a sudden I was liking my chances a whole lot more.

Then things started to turn sour. On my right at my new table was Raul Paez, who I'd never heard of, but it was clear he was sponsored by fulltiltpoker.com which means he is at least a somewhat accomplished tournament player. I knew who he was because his hat said RaulPaez.com. I looked him up and he has probably the least impressive resume of any player sponsored by fulltilt. Also I don't think he played particularly well, but he got the best of me time and time again.

Here are four hands I can think of that happened in quick succession. He raised in the small blind with QJ I reraised with A6. The flop came down T 6 4. He checked, I bet, he called. 8 on the turn and we both checked. Jack on the river, he bet I called.

4 hands later another player raised, he called with KJ, I three bet from the button with AT, the other player made it four bets and we both called. The flop was Q T 5, the other player bet and we both called. The turn was a blank, the other player bet and we both called. The river was an ace, the other player checked, Raul bet, I raised, he three bet and I called. This was a huge pot and the other player said he had 99.

5 hands later he was on the button and raised with A3. I reraised from the small blind with AT and the flop came down A 5 3. I didn't make two pair and lost another big pot.

3 hands later he raised with KT under the gun. I reraised with QQ and the flop came down KJ9 with three spades and I had the queen of spades. He bet the flop and I raised. We both checked the turn which was a jack. I missed my draws on the river, but had to call his bet.

These hands took me from 20,000 down to about 6,000. In all of them I was ahead or way ahead at some point and I think I lost the minimum or close to it every time. If we were playing no limit I would have gone broke at least twice, but I was still in it.

About the time we were finishing our 5th hour of play I got moved to a new table. I was only there for 10 minutes, but that was long enough to bust Josh Arieh. Josh finished 3rd in the 2004 main event, has two WSOP titles and $4,500,000 in career tournament earnings. And he took it like a big baby when I busted him!

I had AK in the big blind and he raised under the gun with T9. I reraised him, he raised again and I put him in for the last few chips he had. When the flop came down A K 5 he literally threw his cards five feet in the air and stormed off before the turn card even came out!

Shortly after that I was moved to a new table which was tough. To my right was Cardplayer publisher Barry Schulman (I'm not sure if he's supposed to be good or what - his play seemed a little goofy to me, but he's well known so I thought I'd mention him), and to my left was Evelyn Ng a well know pro (and a very nice and attractive woman - as rare as a straight flush at the poker table), and to her left was John "PearlJammer" Turner who is one of the premier online tournament pros. And the other two guys didn't suck!

By the time we finished level 6 I only had 5,000 chips and in level 7 we were playing 500/1,000 so I knew I'd have to take a stand with any good hand. About 10 minutes after play resumed I'd been through the blinds once which left me with 4,200 and I was back in the big blind when I looked down at AQ. Turner raised, I reraised, he looked at my sad stack and reraised, and I made it 5 bets (online 4 bets is a cap, but here it's 5 bets). The flop came down KJ3, I bet, he raised and even though I was pretty sure I was beat, I had to put in my last few chips (I knew a ten would be good and I thougt there was some chance an A or even a Q would make me a winner). When the cards got turned over I saw he had KQ, I missed and that was it. I finished 158th of 370.

The good news is I have 10 more chances to make something happen and it only takes one good one to make this trip a success!

$2,500 6 handed Limit Recap (Coming Soon)

Played late and I'm exhausted. I'm going to sleep as late as possible tomorrow, but I should have a recap up by 2 or 3 Saturday afternoon.

It's Almost Time!

I'm off to Vegas in the morning and by this time tomorrow I'll be playing my first event of the 2009 World Series of Poker. I've never been more confident heading into a WSOP. It helps that I made a stong showing in LA (as well as in my last few major series of online tournaments) and the last ten days or so have been one of the best stretches I've ever had playing cash games.

I know it sounds insane to say that I'm not sweating the money when I'm going to play $20,000 or so in tournaments in the next two weeks. But I'm not sweating the money. I've just been doing so well lately that I know there's another dollar right around the corner. I'm hoping this feeling is going to allow me to play my best (which I've also been doing lately) and take the big risks when they are warranted.

Now for an Event #14 Preview! Event #14 is $2,500 6 handed limit hold'em. This is my specialty. If I had to pick one tournament to put all of my money on this would be the one. There is also a $2,500 no limit event that day at noon, so I'm hoping that some players who bust out of that one early come take their shot.

Plenty of no limit players look down on limit players for some reason. I guess it's like the difference between a fighter pilot and a cargo pilot. But in the same way that flying those two types of planes might seem similar on the surface with major differences underneath, no limit and limit hold'em require vastly different skills to play at the highest level. Similalry playing 6 handed vs 9 or 10 handed requires different skills. As a result I expect that even players who are greatly superior to me in the grand poker scheme (and there are fewer and fewer of those these days) will have a tough time against me in this tournament.

I'll put up an update at the end of day 1! Until then, just think how great it would be if I knocked the first one out of the park!