31
Level 1 with Erik Seidel
Today started the fourth day of the opening rounds of the Main Event. The days have tended to move very slowly. At most tables, you can watch for long periods of time and witness any number of hands where a few hundred or a couple of thousand chips change hands. Eventually, though, a big hand goes down. One person’s stack is severed; another’s grows.
To get a feel for the Level 1 experience, I spent the first two hours of today’s play sweating Erik Seidel. The play at Erik’s table was, for the most part, unexceptional. While there were no other notable pros sitting with Erik, this was not the easiest table assembled at this year’s WSOP.
Most players seemed to size their bets according to the size of the pot. And in a few hands, players showed down hands where others would have gone broke. One player mucked two-pair face up after betting on a flop of K-Q-J and facing a large re-raise. He concluded his top two pair was no good. In another hand, a player managed to show down a set of 5s cheaply, as he correctly decided that his opponent had rivered a backdoor flush.
This is not to say that the play was perfect. One player opened in middle position to 600 (with blinds of 25-50). The big blind then re-raised to 1550. The middle position player called and then called again when the big blind bet 3k on the flop. The turn was a King and that killed the action. The big blind showed down JJ and middle position showed QQ.
It’s the sort of hand where the player with Jacks probably lost more than he needed to. It’s the kind of mistake a player like Seidel avoids.
Case in point:
About an hour into the level, Erik open-raised from the cutoff to 150. The button, who had been reasonably tight and seemed to know what he was doing, called. The flop came 9 -8s-Js. Erik checked, the button bet 250 and Erik called. The turn brought the As and Erik bet 500 and was called. Erik followed up the the river, the 2d, betting 800.
Erik tabled Aces-up. His opponent had flopped a straight with Q-T.
That was Erik’s big hand of the Level 1, and after seeing it, one of the ESPN crew asked me, “How much did he lose in that big pot.” Not much, it turned out. By betting strategically, Erik had managed to keep the majority of his stack intact. He still had about 8k.
Erik was whittled down to to 7k after limping a few hands and calling raises and seeing flops. In all but one of these hands he surrendered on the flop as soon as someone bet.
Erik picked up some chips after there was an early position raise and three callers. From the big blind, Erik re-raised to 900. Everyone folded.
Shortly thereafter he stole the blinds a couple of times and limped once more. He ended Level 1 with just under 9k.
[Note: Erik busted a few minutes into level 2. He got all-in with pocket Aces but lost to pocket Queens.]
