Table 123, the most exciting table I played

My arrival at table 123 began with a player almost receiving a penalty. As I sat down "Minneapolis" Jim Meehan was all in with 4-3offsuit against pocket 4s. The board came:

6-6-J-9-9 to cause a split pot, and Jim was yelling about how this guy had stolen half of the chips in a pot that Jim thought he should have won. Jim happened to have four beer cups on the table. When I got seated Jim was on my immediate left and was somewhat short-stacked. Bill Gazes was another poker pro at the table, and he was seated two to my right. I had about 4200 in chips so I was still plugging away. Jim got up and walked away from the table for a couple minutes to go catch a smoke outside, and I was made aware that Jim had done about a dozen shots along with the beers he had.

When Jim came back he was rambling on telling stories about various things to no one in particular. Whenever he'd kind of tap my arm as if he were telling me the story I'd just nod my head, but I never really looked at him too much. I was hoping he'd catch the hint. He didn't. At one point Jim and Bill got in to it a little when a player had raised Jim's big blind, and it really was enough of a raise that Jim was playing for all his chips. He went in to the think tank, and Bill finally starting pushing Jim to make a decision. Jim got really mad and started yelling at Bill, and a floor person had to be called over to calm things down. They brought Jim some coffee at that point, and they officially gave him a warning.

I had managed to work my way to about 7000 in chips. The hand where I got most of those chips came when I was dealt J-J. I hate Jacks. I think most players do. I raised about 5x the blinds and was of course called by one other player and the big blind. The board came about as bad as it can come when you hold Jacks:

A-K-Q

The blind checked, I checked, and the other player checked. The turn came 2 and the blind checked again. This time I had to bet, and when I did both players folded. Personally I think I was beat, but hey, sometimes you get rewarded for being the aggressor

It was around this time that I got dealt a blow that I thought had me finished. This next section will go to show what you can do with just a "chip and a chair".

With the blinds at 150-300 and an ante of 25, I was in the BB with Ks-9s. A player near the end raised the minimum so I decided to call to see a flop. The flop came:

8-6-6 (two clubs, one heart)

I checked and my opponent checked. The turn came:

9h

Giving me top pair. I led out and bet 1500 and was called. The river came:

Kc

I led out and bet 1500, and my opponent raised to 3000. I looked at my chips. I only had 2025 left. There was so much in the pot I didn't think I could fold, but I knew putting all my chips in couldn't be correct, so I just called. My opponent showed me the flush. Uggghhh. I was now down to 525 chips and was going to have be in the small blind the next hand and pay an ante.

This is where the fun begins. After posting my ante and small blind I had 350 chips left. A player in early position raised to 1200, and everyone started folding. I started doing my math, and with the antes (25 x 10 players), the blinds (300 & 150), and the raise, I knew I had to put my remaining chips in with Qd 4s. Thanks to the raise causing everyone else to fold I was going to see a 1750 chip pot for 350 chips. In other words I was getting 5 to 1 on my money. No matter what two cards I have I am going to play them there. The raise also meant that instead of having to play against 3, 4, or 5 opponents I'd only have to play one player. My opponent had A-3offsuit, making me a 60/40 underdog to win the hand. I spiked a Queen on the flop and nothing else hit so I won my first all in.

My second all in occurred two hands after that when I was in the cutoff position. I had Ks Qs and moved all in. Everyone had folded to me so I only needed to get the button (Jim) and blinds to fold, and they did.

My third all in was the very next hand. Once again everyone folded to me and looked down to find Ad Qc. Being short stacked I moved all in. This time the BB decided to think about it and eventually he called the 1800 with Kd 2d!! I would have been disappointed if my WSOP had ended on that call. Lucky for me neither of us hit a card to help our hands and my AQ held up.

Now I actually had some chips again. I had about 5200!! Amazing what antes do to those pots! Two hands later a shorter stack moved all in, and I looked down and saw AKoffsuit. I moved all in to isolate against him, and when we turned over our cards he had As Ts. He needed spades or a Ten. This time, an Ace hit on the board, but that didn't mean anything because we both had an Ace, and my King kicker held up!

The next hand I was dealt J-J and raised it to 1300. Everyone folded, and I picked up the blinds and antes again. In less than one orbit I had gone from 500 in chips to about 7000. All the players were telling me "nice comeback" and things of that nature. Jim even made some nice comment about seeing a comeback like that, but the slurring of what he said made it nearly impossible to understand.

Just before the dinner break I was dealt 9-9 in middle position. I raised to 1400, and the button moved all in. He had about 3000 so it was going to cost me about 1650 to call. I started adding up the pot while trying to get a read on my opponent and determined that he was playing high cards and decided to call. I was correct! He had AQ. When the dealer put out the flop a Queen was the top card. My opponent yelled "yes!", but as the dealer went to spread the flop a 9 showed up and I had made my set. My opponent could only win by hitting running cards on the turn and river, and that didn't happen so I eliminated him and went to the dinner break with 9200 in chips.

I was riding a high over dinner. I was just so happy that I had made that comeback!

We found out at dinner that there were 520 players left and the average stack was about 8000 chips. We also were made aware of the number of entrants and the fact that 270 were going to get paid. It was at this point I realized that we were going to get to the cash levels today.

When I got back from the dinner break, blinds had moved to 200-400 with a 50 chip ante. My third hand back from break I finally got AA. The best hand I had seen to this point had been JJ (I don't include AK although it's argued that AK is better than JJ). I raised with AA to 1200, got one caller, but when the flop came J-high and I bet and my opponent went away. This got me to my high mark of about 14000 chips.

After this hand I went the next two hours with almost no hand to play. Either I was getting mediocre hands with people raising in front of me, or getting no hand that was worth raising. I was getting whittled away by the blinds and antes and when I got moved over to table 154 I was at around 9100 in chips.

Table 185

I knew when I arrived at Table 185 that we would be breaking that table down shortly because they were breaking down the row of tables that had the table I just came from in it. The seat I inherited when I got there was none other than Scotty Nguyen's seat. The player to my left made sure he told me about 7 times that he busted him. He also made sure he had a beer in his hand almost constantly. I knew that I wouldn't have to deal with this guy long so I just let him go on rather than try and stop his constant yammering at the table. He was being obnoxious, but not enough to get a penalty.

I don't recall playing any hands of significance here, and after being seated there for about 45 minutes I got moved over to Table 123, which was by far the most exciting table I played at in this tournament

Table 181 - starting table

The day started slowly enough with the blinds at 25-25, and I managed to work my stack up to about 2200 chips in the first hour without having met much resistance. We were playing 11-handed, and Barry Shulman was seated to my immediate left, so when I have to pay my small blind he is in the big blind. Barry has been somewhat loose and aggressive with his chip stack fluctuating greatly. The first cards that I was dealt in my first WSOP event were: 8h-4c. Yes, I folded. The first hand where I put in an actual bet was pocket 8s when I was in the small blind. Barry made some comment about him just giving me his big blind, and I'm sure he was just fishing for information on my hand.

Play continued, and Barry got busted early by going in when he flopped the second pair on the board, but his opponent had flopped top pair and top kicker and Barry was gone. Barry was replaced by a WSOP bracelet winner, Todd Witteles, who won last year's $3000 Limit Hold 'em event and took 3^rd in the $1500 Limit Hold 'em event. The player to my immediate right was busted, and he was replaced by none other than Hasan Habib. Habib took 2^nd in the WPT championship two years ago, and 3^rd place in the WPT championship last year. I was dead smack between two experienced players.

These guys know the type of intimidation they bring to the table, and they were using that for all it was worth. I had a hand where Hasan had raised it to 3x the blind preflop and I decided to call with A7suited. The flop came A-J-2, and Hasan bet 250. I had about 2000 in chips. I decided to raise him and I took it to 500. He laid it down, and it was then that I finally felt in my comfort zone playing with these guys. Shortly after that I ended up in a 3-man pot with both Todd and Hasan when Hasan had limped from the button. I raised to 3x the blind, and Todd and Hasan called. I was holding Ad 6d and after a K-5-5 flop I led out and bet, and they both laid it down.

Hasan and Todd were both really nice guys. Being seated next to the both of them made it easy to start conversations with them. I was asking them questions about how many events they planned on playing, how many "big" events do they play in a year, things like that. Hasan went broke when he moved his remaining 175 chips in to a 4-player pot, but he was really very gracious and extended his hand to me when he got up to leave.

It was around this time that I had worked my way to being near the table chip lead with about 3400. We were still only in Level 2 so I had reached my "double up by Level 3" goal without having to really risk my chips. I was getting confident enough that I was even picking up blinds with medium to medium-bad hands. I only got contested really once, and that was when I was holding A-Jsuited and the flop came T-T-2. I led out and bet and was called. The turn came Ten. I checked and my opponent bet. So much for that pot.

I did win my first WSOP race at this table when I raised from the cutoff position with Kd-Qd. The blinds were at 50-100. The big blind moved all in over the top for another 700, and since he was short stacked I called hoping he was on an under pair. By calling and losing I would have been down to 1300 chips, but the pot was worth enough to call. He had T-T, and amazingly I rivered a Queen to send him to the rail.

Shortly after that I sent another player to the rail when my Qh-9h won a race against a very short stacked player who moved in with 5-5. This race wasn't nearly as exciting as the Q was the first card that came off the flop.

Our table broke down at that point and I got dealt the card that sent me over to table 185 seat number 10.

This has been Awesome!

Sorry about not posting anything until now, but I had one REALLY long day of poker yesterday. When Dan and I got back to the hotel it was almost 2:30am, and all I wanted to do was crash so I did. If you read my earlier posts you know I had a plan in mind. Well, my numbers in the plan were a little off. I thought that with the blind structure that was presented that we would play until there were about 500 players or so left. As it turned out we played until there were only 122 players left.

The tournament officially had 2776 entries. Out of those 2776 entries 270 places were being paid. I am no longer in the tournament, having busted out in 188^th place. My friend Dan is still playing. The average chip stack is approximately $34,000, and Dan has $21,700. When he resumes play today the blinds will be $1200-$2400 with a $300 ante, so he has a little more than 3 full orbits left, as each orbit would cost $6,600 in chips.

There were so many poker pros that we saw. It would probably be easier to list the names of people I didn't see instead of the people who I did see. I even had a pro come up to me to ask a question early in the day. I was wearing my Full Tilt jersey, and Andrew Black came up to me to ask me a couple questions because he thought I was with the Full Tilt crew.

I had several poker "celebrities" at the various tables I played at today. I'll give a list of who I played with at my tables and then I will go in to more details about the hands I had. I played with: Barry Shulman (publisher of Card Player magazine), Todd Witteles (WSOP bracelet winner from last year's $3000 Limit Hold 'em event), Habib Hasan, "Minneapolis" Jim Meehan, Bill Gazes, Greg Raymer, and Tuan Le.

I don't want this blog to go on forever so I am just going to post this, and I will get in to more hand details in a later blog.

Cardplayer.com has updates and they told me they would also be listing the results there, but as of this time nothing has been posted.

Blind Structure and the "Plan"

Dan and I have been looking over the blind structure, and here is a partial list of how the blinds are structured:

Level 1 – Big Blind (BB) 25 – Small Blind (SB) 25 – Ante 0

Level 2 – BB 50 – SB 25 – Ante 0

Level 3 – BB 100 – SB 50 – Ante 0

Level 4 – BB 200 – SB 100 – Ante 0

Level 5 – BB 200 – SB 100 – Ante 25

Level 6 – BB 300 – SB 150 – Ante 25

That takes us up to the dinner break. The levels are 1 hour each. This should give plenty of time to find a hand to play. The dealers will get in somewhere between 30-40 hands per hour. At a full table of 10 people that means a player will have to pay blinds 3 or 4 times an hour. You start with 1500 chips. That would mean that if you paid blinds 4 times each hour in the first two hours and never invested another chip and never won a chip you would only be down 500 after two hours. That would also mean you've had 80 hands to play. I cannot imagine that a player cannot find a decent enough hand in that amount of time to win/earn some chips.

It also means that somewhere during/before Level 3 players will have needed to at least double up. So somewhere in the first 80-120 hands I need to find something good enough to get to 3000 chips. That's my plan. After that I figure that I will need to have to do the same thing by Level 6. So my plan is to try and be at/above 6000 chips by the time we break for dinner. I think that after dinner based on the blind structure I would feel comfortable if I could get to at least 20000 chips by the end of Level 10, which is when play will conclude for the day on Tuesday.

I don't know if I'll get a chance to post in the morning, but nothing too exciting should happen between now and then anyway. If I don't post something in the morning I promise to post when I get back from the Rio. I'm hoping that post won't occur until sometime very late Tuesday evening.

Welcome to the 2006 World Series of Poker!

Dan and I are finally here. We are both registered and ready to go in tomorrow's $1500 No-Limit Hold 'em event. We had some initial problems when trying to register as no where does the Rio inform you that you need to obtain their "club" card to register. Dan and I found this out when we got to the front of the line to register for the tournament. Of course you have to go someplace else to get the "club" card. We had already waited about 20 minutes in line! We went and get our club cards and then got back in line to register for the tourney. They gave us our table and seat assignments right away. Here is what we drew:

Jason – Table 181 Seat 6

Dan – Table 175 Seat 4

After we were registered we decided to play in a satellite. The way the Rio is running their satellites is that you play a specific buy-in and receive 'x' number of $500 chips and some cash. For example, in the $65 satellite the winner receives 1 $500-value satellite chip and $60 cash. In the $175 satellite the winner receives 3 $500-value satellite chip and $120 cash. If you have already registered for an event you can try and sell your $500-value satellite chips. If you haven't registered you can then use the $500-value chips as your entry.

Dan and I played in a $175 satellite, but neither of us was able to take home the prize. Dan was busted in 6^th position, and I was busted in 4^th position. In the space of about 30 minutes I saw AA at our table 3 times. Unfortunately none of those made it to my hand.

After busting out of the satellites we decided to watch a portion of the final table from this year's Tournament of Champions. They decided to run the Tournament of Champions prior to this year's WSOP Main Event. They were supposed to start at 1:00, but Daniel Negraneau and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson were both very late and the tourney didn't start until almost 2:00. Dan and I had been waiting since about noon so we didn't stay very long after they got started. The final table had some big names, with Gus Hansen, Mike Sexton, Andrew Black (final table Main Event last year), Daniel Negraneau, Chris Ferguson, and Mike Matusow all competing for the title. It was cool to be that close. Dan and I also saw (or bumped into) Harry Demitriou and Dutch Boyd.

Ironically enough, there was another face I recognized when we got into the main room at the Rio. A couple posts ago I mentioned I was working in Lexington and I delivered a bad beat to a player when he had flopped a full house of 3's full of 10's when I had made trip 10's with my small blind hand of 9-T offsuit. I went on to catch a 9 on the turn and win the hand. The face I saw was none other than that player from the Caesar's in Indiana! Kinda cool.

Dan and I are checked in and getting ready to head out to play some poker and/or other casino games, but I thought I'd check in with you first. I'll try to put up one more post later with some blind structure details. I am SO pumped for tomorrow!

I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane

...don't know when I'll be back again. Well, that's not entirely true. Unless something miraculous happens I'll be back early Saturday morning.

Anyway, it's early Monday and I'm excited about flying out to Vegas. Dan and I have an early flight to catch so I am keeping this very brief. I'll try to put up another post much later today with some tournament details if I can get some.

I'm leaving on a jet plane...