WSOP 2009 is over for me
I played my last WSOP tournament of the year yesterday, and unfortunately I didn’t even survive to the dinner break. I flopped a set of 9’s and my opponent flopped a straight on a J98 board. In a lot of no limit tournaments, you just have to avoid coolers like this. I failed to do so. Not a huge deal, but definitely a disappointment as event #54 was my last chance to have a shot at a bracelet for this year’s WSOP. I cashed in the opening $1k tournament, and then failed to cash in four $1500 events. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised considering the fields were 2500+, but it would have been nice to have a second cash to keep my confidence up.
Seeing as how I have not found any offers to be backed for the Main Event, I guess I’ll be going another year without playing it. There’s a handful of Venetian tournaments left, so I’ll probably be playing those as much as I can before I take a couple weeks off to visit with family and relax.
Being sick sucks
So after my last WSOP event, I got sick. I was being a good boyfriend and taking care of my sick girlfriend, so I inevitably caught the bug. What can you do? I spent all week in bed resting up for the last couple $1500 events at the series. After watching my buddy Scott Bohlman take 3rd in tonight’s final table, I’m anxious to be playing live again. This is pretty much the last week of poker for the summer for me, so I hope to have a big win before things wind up here in Vegas.
I did get to set up my new computer while resting. I got a sick deal on a little 8.9″ netbook — $180 shipped after all discounts. How could I pass it up? It’s only a pound and a half vs. my normal laptop’s 6 pounds, so my back will save 75% of the weight on weekend trips. The laptop even runs Windows XP so I can use all of the normal poker clients. And amazingly, the keyboard isn’t too small to really hinder my typing.
In other news, one of my roommates is moving out in a few days, and the rest of us are scrambling to find a new roommate. It’s weird because the four of us have been living in this house together for three years, and now the Douche Crew is being split up. Oh well, our roommate was definitely the nicest of the bunch and didn’t belong with us hooligans anyway. If anyone is looking for a room (possibly furnished) in Las Vegas, long term or short term, hit me up!
WSOP 2009 halfway point
So we just hit about the midway point for this summer’s World Series of Poker. I played my 4th WSOP event today, and unfortunately the $1,000 tournament was the only one I cashed in thus far.
The 2nd event I played was a $1,500, and I did good until just before the dinner break when I lost a coin flip with QQ vs AK. Before that, I had aces twice, kings three times, and queens one other time. Never even got a double-up.
The 3rd event I played was also a $1,500, and I made it to day 2 only to go bust just before the money bubble. I had average chips and 15 minutes into play, I raised from the cutoff with AsQs and the SB called. The flop came J32 w/two spades and my opponent checked. Seeing as how there was 10k in the pot and I had 20k back, I just shoved hoping he would lay down his pair. As it turned out, he called with JdTd, and I missed my 15 outs. That was pretty painful.
Today was yet another $1,500 where I just couldn’t get anything going. I hit a one-outer four hours in with my A7 vs. my opponent’s A6. He bet all three streets on an A656A board. I also got a lucky double-up with A6 vs AJ. Unfortunately it was all for nothing as my 99 ran into TT just before the dinner break.
Amazingly, I’m not super frustrated right now even though I haven’t cashed in any other WSOP events, nor any Venetian, Caesars Palace, or Binion’s events. I think that has to do with my good frame of mind and me pacing myself. I’ve been only playing about 4 days a week, and I just took a 3 day mini-vacation to San Diego to see some friends and some good bands. I’m not Daniel Negreanu, so I don’t want to play 100 hours/week right now. Hopefully somewhere before the end of the series I’ll have another decent cash to report. I feel like I’m playing well, though, so I just need a little bit of luck to get me there.
My first World Series of Poker tournament
OK, well it wasn’t really my first World Series of Poker tournament. When I first moved to Las Vegas in 2005, I entered the opening $1,500 event. I lasted 7 hours and busted before the dinner break. I also played a $2,000 event that I satellited into on UltimateBet. I didn’t even last 3 hours because I a player chased a flush draw. But I wasn’t at a skill level to be playing the WSOP in 2005, and so I haven’t played since.
Now it’s 2009, and I feel pretty comfortable playing tournaments, so I decided to play the opening $1000 “Stimulus” tournament. After two full days, I took 59th place out of 6,012 entrants for a $9,631 payday. It feels great to start my summer with a decent cash (my 4th biggest thus far) and a deep run. It was fun playing it, as well, since I got PokerNews to cover me and post hand updates.
In all honesty, the tournament was pretty easy for me. I didn’t have many difficult decisions that I thought I would face going into the tournament. On day 1 I took a beat pretty early on with queens against AQ for a big pot, but powered through and ended up doubling with QQ against 99 after the dinner break. On the last hand of the day, I got another double up with AJ on a AT48… I had gotten my opponent to call my all-in with only A9 due to past history and me calling the clock on him.
I came into day 2 top 5% in chips, and it didn’t take long for us to reach the money. I slowly increased my stack until right before the dinner break when I won a big pot — I had raised with 99, a tight guy had reraised me, and I pushed in knowing he could only call with aces or kings. He folded and told me he folded queens. That was the best hand I played all tournament, being very confident I had the worst hand but that he would fold.
After dinner, I busted a guy that had a lot of chips when he pushed in on a 789 flop with TT when I had JJ… pretty much a cooler. I won another big pot when a guy pushed in for waaaaaay too many chips UTG with 88 and I had queens again. Unfortunately, after that, I didn’t pick up many hands, and at the end of the night I pushed all in with 66 from the BB after a new player had raised. He had queens, called, and I didn’t hit. That was the literal first time I was all in with the worst hand in the tournament. At least two times people had sucked out on me big time, but I failed to have luck on my side that hand, and I couldn’t hit a six.
Again, I’m very pleased with how I played, and I feel really good going into the rest of the summer. I plan to play at least two more $1,500 events at the WSOP, and possibly more. In the meantime, I will be playing Venetian $300’s and $500’s, and perhaps other venues. Hopefully I will have more big cashes to blog about soon.
