World
Series of Poker T+25,26
Yesterday
was the 1.5K limit holdem, the one I was
going to win, that's not exactly what
happened. Just like in the first event
I played I again got the superstars table,
this time it was John Juanda, Humberto
Brenes and An Tran. The only fish at the
table (other than me) was Devilfish. This
was actually a good table for me, most
were playing pretty passively at the beginning,
waiting for the higher limits before making
their moves, Dave "devilfish" Ulliot was
the main action man at the table having
wide swings up and down before going out
pretty early. John and Humberto are two
of the true gentlemen of poker, An Tran
sitting very quietly, it was a great experience
to play with them, and devilfish is a
great guy, chatting away with fun stories,
singing, generally having a good time,
not one of these players displayed any
tantrums when they lost a hand. After
about an hour I all but took out John
Juanda when he raised my AK blind with
a smaller Ax, I called and trapped him
with the AQx,Q,x board. Unfortunately
I wasn't paying enough attention and left
him with a couple of chips on the river,
but he lost those a few hands later. Then
I ran out of cards. I made a few small
moves that kept my stack intact and was
in average shape when our table broke
up.
I got moved to a table of gamb00lers,
one guy was raising almost every hand
with any old junk like A5, Q8s, etc. and
when he didn't raise someone else did
so I never got to steal any blinds. My
stack dwindled down to 1100 with blinds
of 100-200, then I got AK in the small
blind, 100 in, 1000 left. The maniac raised
again and it was folded around to me,
I decided to make my stand here and reraised
to make sure we were heads up. He called,
I bet the 963 flop and he raised, I only
had 300 left so decided to go for it,
even though I was pretty sure I was beat
at this point, so threw in my last chips,
no A or K came and he won with Q9. I could
have played this hand more passively,
just limping pre-flop and folding when
I didn't hit, in retrospect that looks
like a pretty good alternative. Apart
from that hand I felt like I played pretty
well and didn't feel intimidated by the
big names, actually I'd much rather the
original table hadn't broken up, oh well,
next year...
So
then I went over to Mirage to play their
7pm $120+100 limit holdem, except they
had sold out as soon as they'd opened
up registration, so I ended up playing
in the ring games. First I was in a great
6-12 holdem, then moved to the 5-10 omaha8
where I sat next to some guy who redefined
the meaning of 'rock', I think he played
one hand while I was there, all he did
was keep mumbling something about Big
Denny and Barstow, and then Barbara Enright
came over and kissed him. On my right
was the absolutely worst player I've ever
had the pleasure of playing with. He had
no clue about Omaha, and on top of that
had so many superstitions that he couldn't
have beaten the game even if he did have
a clue. On one hand he turned the nut
high with no low possible, and didn't
bet, then in last position on the river
when he still had the nut high, he didn't
bet again, he explained that he was "fed
up with all the bad beats I keep getting
on the river", now there's logic you can't
argue with. He went broke and left, so
I moved on to the 10-20 holdem, another
of the softest games I've ever played,
I left at midnight, only because I was
so tired, up $400, so it took a little
of the sting out of the $1500 I'd spent
on the tournament.
Today
I was going to go over to Mirage again,
but Diego was at the final table of the
$1500 limit holdem so I wanted to root
for him (he went out around 8th., short
stacked and no luck), then it was announced
that he would be playing his semi-final
match play at 10pm against Johnny Chan,
so I wanted to stay for that too. Johnny
showed up early and the match started
on time...
20,000
each in chips, 100-200 blinds, one hour
rounds, there were not going to be any
complaints about lack of play for the
money, these heads up matches allow for
skill to have a chance. As with all the
non Mike Laing matches things started
slowly with no big confrontations, but
Johnny was slowly grinding away at Diego
to take the lead. Most of the time one
of them would raise to 600 and the other
would fold. Here's a few of the early
hands:
Diego calls a 600 raise and calls 1000
on the J32 flop, they both check the 9
turn, and Diego calls the 1000 bet on
the river 4. Johnny wins with J5.
Diego
raises to 600 and Johnny calls, they both
check the 382 flop and the J turn, Johnny
calls the 500 bet on the river 4 (third
flush card), Diego wins with AJ.
Diego
calls 600 and they both check the AT7
flop, Johnny calls 800 on the 4 turn,
they both check the river and Diego wins
with A5.
After
30 minutes it's fairly even, Johnny's
son arrives with a hamburger for his dad,
the final table has just ended so we move
the action over to the final table...
Johnny
calls 600 and calls 800 on the 589 (two
spades) flop. They both check the 4 (third
spade) turn, Johnny bets 800 on the K
river, Diego folds.
Diego
is quite a bit behind now (10000 to 30000)
but gains some back on these hands...
Diego
raises 600 and they both check the K52
flop, Johnny bets 1000 on the 9 turn and
Diego calls. Diego bets 2500 on the 2
river and Johnny folds.
Then
on a A76 flop they check, Diego bets 600
on the 3 turn, they check the J river
and Diego wins with K7.
Then
Diego raises 600 and Johnny makes it 2000
and Diego calls, and goes all-in on the
J95 flop, Johnny folds.
Diego
has almost got even then...
2000
before the flop. Then Diego calls 2000
on the Q72 flop, then folds on the J turn
when Johnny bets 6500.
Diego
now has 14000 to 26000.
Diego
raises to 600 and bets 800 on the 389
(two suits) flop, Johnny raises 1000 more
and Diego calls. Diego bets 3500 on the
5 turn and Johnny folds.
Diego
raises to 600 and Johnny raises 1500 more,
Diego folds, then they do the exact same
thing on the next hand, this turns out
to be the perfect set-up because on the
next hand...
Diego
raises to 600, Johnny raises 2000 more,
Diego goes all-in and Johnny calls, QQ
for Diego, 66 for Johnny, the QQ holds
up even with a scary turn card on a board
of 35A,4,5 and now Diego has 27500 to
12500.
With
almost an hour gone it's nearly all over
when Diego raises 600, Johnny raises 1500
more and Diego calls. Johnny goes all-in
on the J65 flop and Diego calls instantly
with 65. Johnny has 88, we didn't realize
he was going for the straight, which he
gets when the turn 9 and river 7 snatch
the final table away from Diego.
Blinds
go to 200-400, five minutes later it's
all over...
On
the K65 flop Johnny bets 1000 and Diego
calls. A 4 on the river, the second spade,
Diego checks, Johnny bets 3000, Diego
check raises all in and Johnny calls,
KT for Johnny, 45s in spades for Diego,
he needs a spade, 4, or 5 for the win,
a red 7 on the river and it's all over.
Of course Diego is upset, but there again
he did just cash twice in one day!
Johnny
now goes on to play Phil Hellmuth in the
final.
Super
satellite action is picking up, 7 seats
this afternoon and 8 seats this evening,
from here on in I expect at least nine
seats to be given away in each super,
I will try for one soon. Numbers were
way down today, I think it was 79 in the
5K Omaha hi-lo, down from 107. Tomorrow
is the 3K limit which I expect will have
good numbers, Steve Brecher will be playing
(I'm not implying that Steve's presence
will encourage more entries).
Binion's
has announced a tournament that ends right
at the start of the 4 Queens. It's the
"Hall of Fame Poker Classic", Aug. 31st
- Sep.20th., $500, $1000, $1500, $2500
all one day events with a 5K two day final
event, 6% taken out (it says 'of the prize
pool', I don't know if that also means
in the rebuy events).
start
obpostgovernor:
you have exceeded your word count for
the day
:end obpostgovernor
IGSN,
Paul
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