WSOP 2006: Bellagio $1k

Again continuing with the WSOP 2006 story. We're now on Thursday of the ~2 week long trip. So far I've played in the $1500 NL WSOP Event #37, and a Caesars $220 daily tournament with no cash in either, lasting roughly 5 hours in each tournament. My start day for the Main Event is getting closer, just now 3 days away. It's still just me and Emily in Vegas at this point, with BG and Rebecca arriving that night.

Bellagio was running daily $1000 tournaments, so I wanted to try and satellite into this on Thursday. They were continually running single-table satellites for $240, with top 2 winning a seat into the $1000. I headed over there around 10am and took a shot at one of these, as Emily slept in and watched some episodes of Grey's on my computer.

Early on in the satellite, I picked up QQ but took it down on the flop for a small pot. I basically hovered through the first several levels, stealing blinds but not getting much else going on. The table was pretty soft though, not too much aggression and too much calling.

However, one guy was absolutely running over the entire table. The guy directly to my right. He doubled up through one guy with KK against 22 (yeah). Then just kept rolling after that, and eventually he had over half of the entire amount of chips on the table, with 5 players left. At this point it was a virtual certainty that HE was going to get a seat. But the remaining 4 of us had to fight it out with our small stacks at this point.

To make a long story short, I had to bust each of the remaining opponents out myself; I did not get ANY help from the super-stack in this matter :-P The blinds were big enough that it was push-or-fold mode at this point, and I had AT hold against A9, A9 hold against KJo (pretty bad and unnecessary call at that point IMO), and 55 hold against A3o (blinds had gotten even bigger that he HAD to call with that) to bust out 3 players and take one of the top 2 spots.

So WOOHOO I got my seat into the $1k tournament starting at 2pm. I called Emily to give her the good news, and she said she was on her way to play some 2/4 at Bally's or somewhere, and she would swing by the Bellagio if I made it deep.

There were 432 players in this tournament with top 50 getting paid, and a 1st prize of about $126,000. I was so incredibly jacked up for this tournament, I REALLY wanted to cash. Maybe even moreso in this tournament than in the Main Event; I wanted to try and get some momentum going into the weekend.

My first table was medium-tough. There was an old guy who was playing loose-aggressive pre-flop but then weak-tight post-flop. There was a guy wearing a WSOP bracelet (that was real, and not bought from the pawn shop). There were a few young guys who seemed to be playing fairly standard tight-aggressive. I couldn't take control of the table, so I sat back for a bit.

Starting stack was 5000, and level 1 blinds were 25/50 with 40 minute levels. Good, good tournament.

Somewhere around level 3, I had 99 in the big blind. Old guy raised pre-flop, small blind called, I called and we went 3-way to the flop. Flop came king-high with no obvious draws, I wasn't ready to put either of them on a king so I didn't think I was folding yet. I intended to check-raise the old guy if he bet and the SB did not call, but unfortunately, he checked behind after the two of us checked. I actually hadn't read him as weak-tight post-flop yet, so I was actually quite surprised that he didn't make the standard continuation bet. Turn came a blank, and now the SB bet. I insta-raised. In retrospect, I'm not sure that I like this because I didn't have that good of a read on him yet. I was just thinking that it was likely that I had the best hand still, even with the K on board. Anyways, the old guy folded, the SB tanked for like 2 minutes, finally folded and said he was laying down Jacks. Well, that worked out. :)

In another big hand, I had pocket 4s and we went 5-way to the flop in an unraised pot. I was in last position. Flop came with 2 spades, all low but no 4. It checked to me, I bet and got 1 caller. Turn came a 4!! ...but of SPADES. My opponent instantly moved in, for about 3 times the size of the pot. ummmm... NOW WHAT?? Well I tanked, thought about his range, thinking pair with A of spades was quite likely. And if he did just hit the flush already, well that's a weird bet. And I have a lot of outs even if so. So, I called. He turns over 67s so he actually had flopped a straight draw as well, damn he could've played that a bit stronger on the flop. Anyways, I start picking up my things, and then... BOOM the river comes 4!! w00t!!

Lucky me. I'm sitting at about 10k in chips now, as I hadn't really gotten too much going before that double-up. Then around level 5 or so, I got moved to another table. THIS one was MUCH softer than my 1st one. Less aggression and more mistakes. We're down to under 200 at this point.

I worked my stack all the way up to about 25k at this new table. Just got some bad calls from my opponents and had my hands hold up. I had AA to bust a guy who flopped 1 pair with T7o and committed his stack to that. And some other stuff too.

Then right before the 2nd break, I got AQo in late position. The guy to my right limps in. He had literally been playing any two cards, and his stack was on a wild roller coaster. At this point it was a bit on the low side. I raised, he called with not much left behind. I put him all-in on the flop, he called with Q7c and actually had flopped a pair of 7s AND club draw so I was way behind. No help came, and he doubled up through me.

Emily had just arrived around now and had to calm me down as I steamed a bit from this. Not exactly the way I wanted to go into the break. But I still had a healthy stack, just around average now instead of being a bit above.

Unfortunately, things didn't get much better. Blinds were still getting higher, so more drastic measures were now necessary. In a subsequent hand, the same guy playing any two cards raises from the button. I had AQo in the small-blind, and I thought at the time that this was an obvious all-in, which is what I did.

In retrospect, I'm uncertain. Button raises are often steals, but this guy, despite playing any two cards, actually hadn't been RAISING a whole lot. I get the two blended together sometimes; it's tough, when you see someone playing every hand, it's easy to think that their raising range might be quite wide as well. And this is probably true more often than not, but I think it's still important to pay attention and make sure that it is. With this guy, he really had not been raising often at all. Just limping with everything.

So, now he raised. I moved all-in. He calls, with KK. bah. No ace comes, and I'm now running on life-support as I did have him covered, but barely. I double up once, as pocket 6s holds against KJ or something, but it's not enough. I still only have like 4 big blinds, so I move in again with like K8 or something, get called twice, augh, and I'm out the door in 128th.

So once again I lasted about 5 hours and no cash. It was good practice, but I was feeling extremely frustrated after this one. I got some bad luck, and I could've played some spots better too.

Emily and I headed back to the MGM, intending to hit the gym so that I could blow off some steam. But the gym was closed!! :( So instead we went for a run.

BG and Bec came in later that night. When BG got in, we went to Bally's with him to get him playing some 2/4, which I believe was his first poker experience ever. He did ok, a little slow but not too bad :) Bec actually got in really late; her flight was delayed out of NYC due to some storms I think. She arrived around midnight, and BG took a cab from Bally's to McCarran to go and get her. aww. Emily and I stuck there a bit longer, and then eventually headed down to MGM where we met up with them again.

This was to be my last night of drinking before the tournament, as I wanted to put myself on 48-hour detox. But so I had to go out with a bang :) So yeah my memory is a little fuzzy, but I remember playing 3/6 at MGM and ordering a lot of drinks. Bec and BG were around, and actually Bec saw a guy from her flight in the poker room, who apparently was here for the WSOP as well. We started talking about that for a bit, and then so now my table knows I'm playing in the WSOP, but also currently playing like a drunken donkey. haha. There was one hand where I hit a full house with 62o, and the whole table just laughed as I raked in the pot. It was a happy, friendly table and I don't think I was even the most drunk one :)

Then eventually we ended up in one of the MGM's restaurant for a late-night/early-morning meal. I almost went pukey in the bathroom right before this meal, but nothing came out, for better or worse. I was able to take food down ok though. And when we were done, BG picked up the tab! ahh baller.

It's now like 6am and I'm about ready to call it a night. BG and Bec wanted to go to the pool though, so they hung out downstairs a bit longer until it opened, as Emily and I went to bed. They eventually joined us back at the room at whatever hour, I don't even know.

Friday was pretty uneventful, other than a whole bunch of my crew arriving that day, and switching hotels from MGM to the Rio so we could be at the heart of the action during the Main Event, and in a bigger room too as the Rio rooms are pretty amazing.

Next post will start somewhere in there.