a walk in the desert
My mouth is full of sand from a long walk in Sahara during day 1 of the Main Event. Trash cards after trash cards. I won the very first hand of the tournament after flopping two pairs, but it was literally hours before I won my next hand fair and square. My stack size kept shrinking as the blinds grew, and way into level 5 I finally saw a pair of jacks, reraised the guy in the cut-off and increased my stack from 8,000 to 10,000, while the average was now at around $22,000
Around the room the action was relentless and players had chips handed to them by one stupid macho play after he other, it was all about being in the right spot at the right time, and I was never there. On the contrary my table was dominated by morons and idiots with an impressive lack of both ethics and social skills. It created an urge in me to rob them of their entire chip stock, but alas - I came way too short.
Down to $6,900 I am on the button in seat 6. The guy in seat 4 goes all-in for $4,000, and I look down on
Easy all-in, the rock in the SB gets out of the way, but Humberto Brenes (who I have to add does not belong to the category I described above, he had joined the table 20 minutes prior to this hand) who was just as desperate and shortstacked as me and seat 4 - also pushes all-in!!
Seat 4 shows
and Humberto moans when he flips over
The flop comes
and I take out seat 4 while Humberto is left with just $850.
Back in business I can finally breathe again and I am ready to take on my table and chip up. A lot of players have now left for other tables, we are down to roughyl 60 players out of the 111 starting, the average is now at $30,000. My table is playing 7-handed for a while.
Just four hands later I am UTG, the action has been quiet and I decide to put my chips to work with a small preflop raise holding
Blinds are $300-600 with a $50 ante, so the initial pot has a nice chunk of chips to be picked up. Everybody folds to my $1,800 raise until we get to the BB (observations skills prevailing, I have played close to zero hands, and the only one I showed down ws the QQ). Steven hmpson in the BB calls me, and we are ready for the flop:
Steven checks, and I get ready to take down the pot, continuing with the best hand. My stack is now at around $17,000, while Steven has around $12,000. I throw out a brown $5,000 chip, but now Steven moves all-in. Time to go in the tank. I have played Steven quite a bit, and latest in the super satellite, so I am confident that if he had a flush draw he would have moved on the flop. If he had flopped a set of jacks I think he would have reraised preflop. I am thinking he is either holding the nuts with Q 10, or more likely two pairs with probably A J. His all-in reraise was so small that he was dying to get my call, and the pot odds were definitely tempting. I end up saying goodbye way too soon to my newly acquired chips with a well-timed fold when Steven flips over
"great fold" he complemented my play, a poor consolation prize.....
Three hands later I on the button again, an it is folded to me. I am holding
Humberto is forced all-in in the BB with a meager $450 (blinds meanwhile have incresed to $400-800, $100 ante) and I am very fond of this particular hand as it sent me to the WSOP Main Event back in 2007, so I call. SB calls too, we are 3-way, "The Shark" all-in, and we also have a side pot.
Flop comes
Pretty nice! Small Blind checks, I bet $800 - he calls! Now I just hope I can get all his chips as he obviously like the flop. The turn is
Not a good card for me if he is holding face cards or 23 for that matter. SB checks again, I too check ready to act on the river. The river is
SB checks again, and I of course bet again, but he starts whining about me playing an ace, so he folds his pocket tens face up!!
I take out Humberto and win a small but nice pot.
Soon our table gets broken up and I am moved to table 3 seat 9, next to Thomas Koo in seat 8 and Karlo Lopez in seat 7. I get to raise to $2,200 preflop once with 88, only to get reraised on the button for another $6,500 by a gentleman whom I played in the Super Satellite. Solid player, easy fold. I am moved again to table 5, this one dominated by medium to big sized stacks, I am definitely the smallest with $13,000, the average is now up to more than $30,000.
I watch the action for a couple of rounds not getting anything. Miguel in seat 8 and a Venezuelan macho-loose caller go at it a couple of times, Miguel loses a chunk. In the last crucial hand of the night Miguel throws in a $2,500 bet (blinds $500-1,000, $100 ante) in mid position, loose Venezuelan dude calls on the button. I am in the BB with K8s, and I have reached the point where I can't take it anymore, I need to o something now before they run me over. I think that if Miguel folds I will take down the pot and almost double my stack, so I ove all-in to squeeze! Alas, Miguel insta-calls and I am in big doodoo when his pocket aces are revealed.
ah well, tonight it is time for the $500 event!
Around the room the action was relentless and players had chips handed to them by one stupid macho play after he other, it was all about being in the right spot at the right time, and I was never there. On the contrary my table was dominated by morons and idiots with an impressive lack of both ethics and social skills. It created an urge in me to rob them of their entire chip stock, but alas - I came way too short.
Down to $6,900 I am on the button in seat 6. The guy in seat 4 goes all-in for $4,000, and I look down on
Easy all-in, the rock in the SB gets out of the way, but Humberto Brenes (who I have to add does not belong to the category I described above, he had joined the table 20 minutes prior to this hand) who was just as desperate and shortstacked as me and seat 4 - also pushes all-in!!
Seat 4 shows
and Humberto moans when he flips over
The flop comes
and I take out seat 4 while Humberto is left with just $850.
Back in business I can finally breathe again and I am ready to take on my table and chip up. A lot of players have now left for other tables, we are down to roughyl 60 players out of the 111 starting, the average is now at $30,000. My table is playing 7-handed for a while.
Just four hands later I am UTG, the action has been quiet and I decide to put my chips to work with a small preflop raise holding
Blinds are $300-600 with a $50 ante, so the initial pot has a nice chunk of chips to be picked up. Everybody folds to my $1,800 raise until we get to the BB (observations skills prevailing, I have played close to zero hands, and the only one I showed down ws the QQ). Steven hmpson in the BB calls me, and we are ready for the flop:
Steven checks, and I get ready to take down the pot, continuing with the best hand. My stack is now at around $17,000, while Steven has around $12,000. I throw out a brown $5,000 chip, but now Steven moves all-in. Time to go in the tank. I have played Steven quite a bit, and latest in the super satellite, so I am confident that if he had a flush draw he would have moved on the flop. If he had flopped a set of jacks I think he would have reraised preflop. I am thinking he is either holding the nuts with Q 10, or more likely two pairs with probably A J. His all-in reraise was so small that he was dying to get my call, and the pot odds were definitely tempting. I end up saying goodbye way too soon to my newly acquired chips with a well-timed fold when Steven flips over
"great fold" he complemented my play, a poor consolation prize.....
Three hands later I on the button again, an it is folded to me. I am holding
Humberto is forced all-in in the BB with a meager $450 (blinds meanwhile have incresed to $400-800, $100 ante) and I am very fond of this particular hand as it sent me to the WSOP Main Event back in 2007, so I call. SB calls too, we are 3-way, "The Shark" all-in, and we also have a side pot.
Flop comes
Pretty nice! Small Blind checks, I bet $800 - he calls! Now I just hope I can get all his chips as he obviously like the flop. The turn is
Not a good card for me if he is holding face cards or 23 for that matter. SB checks again, I too check ready to act on the river. The river is
SB checks again, and I of course bet again, but he starts whining about me playing an ace, so he folds his pocket tens face up!!
I take out Humberto and win a small but nice pot.
Soon our table gets broken up and I am moved to table 3 seat 9, next to Thomas Koo in seat 8 and Karlo Lopez in seat 7. I get to raise to $2,200 preflop once with 88, only to get reraised on the button for another $6,500 by a gentleman whom I played in the Super Satellite. Solid player, easy fold. I am moved again to table 5, this one dominated by medium to big sized stacks, I am definitely the smallest with $13,000, the average is now up to more than $30,000.
I watch the action for a couple of rounds not getting anything. Miguel in seat 8 and a Venezuelan macho-loose caller go at it a couple of times, Miguel loses a chunk. In the last crucial hand of the night Miguel throws in a $2,500 bet (blinds $500-1,000, $100 ante) in mid position, loose Venezuelan dude calls on the button. I am in the BB with K8s, and I have reached the point where I can't take it anymore, I need to o something now before they run me over. I think that if Miguel folds I will take down the pot and almost double my stack, so I ove all-in to squeeze! Alas, Miguel insta-calls and I am in big doodoo when his pocket aces are revealed.
ah well, tonight it is time for the $500 event!
Comments