Vegas: June 2010
We had a great time in Vegas once again playing in the 2010 WSOP. We played in $1500 event #45.Kabir Singh (ID: Kabeezy) winner of TheSimoneTeam Poker Promo #6 was there. Francisco Garcia (ID: JohnEMidnight) was also there.
Also joining us was Eoin O'Sullivan (ID: Meisce) who won his entry through a year-long satellite that some of us were playing in.
This was the largest field that has ever been assembled for a $1500 WSOP event. There were 3097 players going after a prize pool of over $4,100,000! You can see the official WSOP website for details here. First place was paying out an impressive $721,373 and the coveted gold bracelet.It was paying the top 325 finishers.
Kabir started out hot, building his starting stack of $4500 up to ~$12000 within the first hour or so. He was playing very aggressively, stealing a lot, and running over his table. There was only one other guy at the table that had a stack that was close in size to his. On one hand early in the second round Kabir looks down at KK. There's a bit of raising going on before the flop and he ends up head's
up against the other big stack. The flop came something like Q,x,x. Not a bad flop for Kabir. There's some raising and re-raising going on at this point. Kabir ends up getting the other guy all-in. Unfortunately, Kabir wasn't given enough advance warning about the dreaded queens... His opponent turned over QQ for top set and it crippled Kabir. He ended up getting knocked out shortly after. Tough
break for sure.
Francisco had a great time. He ran into Chris Fergusen and they chatted for a while. In the tourney,he was doing well playing a fairly conservative game. He had built up his $4500 stack to about $8300. On the final hand before the end of round 2 he limps into a pot with pocket 2s. There were two other callers. The flop came 2, 8, 10 rainbow. Just the kind of flop he was hoping for! There was a bet, a raise, a re-raise...and then the other person went all-in. Francisco thought about it for a second, but then did what I think any of us would have done and made the call. Unfortunately for him, one of the other players had flopped a set of 8s and Francisco was sent to the rail.
Eoin had the first bad beat of the trip...when he got there the night before the event started to register he found out that his driver's license had expired and they wouldn't let him register! Ugh! He was able to straighten things out the next morning with the tournament director and was allowed to play. Eoin watches/reads a LOT about poker and was able to identify 4 pros at his table! These 4 pros seemed to be playing in the tournament all by themselves because they continued to raise, re-raise each other and seemed to be more interested in their egos than playing poker. Eoin managed to keep out of trouble and build his stack slightly, making some excellent reads/laydowns that turned out to be
the correct play. He managed to double up about 4 hours into the tourney when his all-in preflop JJ held up against an AK. Breathing room... He managed to play very tight over the next 4 hours but the blinds/antes were starting to eat away at his stack. He spent the next ~hour looking for a decent place to shove his stack all-in and near the end of level 9 he found his opportunity with A7. He was called by another short stack holding an A3. Unfortunately, a 3 hit on the river and Eoin was
out at around 500th. Out of ~3100 players that was an excellent run!
For me, I felt like I had been running pretty hot and playing well leading up to this event. Maybe this would be the year for a deep run... My tournament experience this time felt 'different' for some reason. I had told myself that I was going to REALLY tighten up and play conservative and that's exactly what I did. On top of that, I received a string of mostly horrific cards for the entire tournament (...which made
it EASY for me to fold, fold, fold, fold...)! It seemed like there would be an hour going by without seeing a card higher than a 10 and no suited connectors (...I like to play those). Every ace that I did get seemed to be pair with an off-suit rag and I threw away EVERY single one of them (...probably keeping me out
of trouble). I was spending a lot of energy studying the players and paying attention to every piece of action so that I could get the best possible read on the table. My first move came about 3 hours into the event. I was probably at about $3800 in chips and the blinds were $75-$150. There was a player
that tried to re-raise all-in (bully) a very loose player. This all-in bet was for about $3500 in chips after the loose player had raised to about $700. I really thought this all-in re-raiser was putting a move on the loose player and I put him on likely a small to medium pocket pair. I looked down and had JJ. Had I not been taking in all the clues/etc during the last 3 hours I might have thought long and hard and laid down those jacks (it was for my tourney life and I usually don't like to be the 'caller' in this situation, I want to be the 'raiser', and I am never interested in calling if I think it's a coin flip). I made the call and the loose player folds. I'm head's up with the other player and we are both all-in. He turns over AQo. My read was a little off, but I'm still about 50/50 in this spot. My Jacks held up and I doubled up to about $9000. For the next FOUR hours, I played extremely tight and the horrific cards just kept coming. I had drifted down to about $5000 in chips in level 7 where the blinds were $200/$400 with a $50 ante. In middle position I look down at 10,10. It is folded to me and I go all-in for $5000. I would have been
happy just stealing the blinds/antes but I did get one caller with an AJ offsuit. Another coin flip....and once again this one went in my favor. Phew... At that point I was up to ~$12000. For the next two hours I tried to hold my own and build my stack but never managed to get above ~$13k. By the middle of level 9 (nine hours into the tournament) where the blinds were $400/$800 with a $100 ante I was back down to about $6500 in chips. There were about 450 players left in the tourney out of 3100 and I needed to make it to 325. I was patiently looking for a place to get all my chips into the pot and that came at the very end of the 9th level. In early position I look down at an A6 suited. I shove all-in
and get called by a monster stack at my table who shows 10,10. This is where I really needed a little luck to come from behind, but it wasn't meant to be. I was knocked out somewhere around 440-450 players left. I was pleased to have lasted that long. Interesting note: The guy that knocked me out went on to win the entire event!
It was a great trip all-in-all. I played in another tourney at the Venetian with 670 players and after 9 hours got knocked out in ~140th. I'm getting closer...!