FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#191 – WSOP #40 – The Beginning of the End

Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized

The BIG NEWS at the Series today (Saturday, June 30) is that they announced that they are extending the opening “day” of the Main Event to cover FOUR sessions instead of three. Even though they set up the Amazon Room and the Menopause Pavilion and some tables in the hallway at the edge of the casino to accommodate 3,000 per day, they decided three days wasn’t enough for the start of the Series. They will also split “day 2″ into two sessions.

I don’t think this automatically means that the Main Event will exceed last year’s total of 8,773 entries. But it means the Main Event will be HUGE.

So maybe poker’s not dead after all, huh?

This has been obvious to anyone who spent time near the Amazon Room this year, and soon the rest of the world will know it as well. The reports of poker’s demise were premature.

After I got back into town late Thursday night, I decided NOT to play the Friday $2,000 NLHE. For once, I decided to skip an opportunity to play, especially because I was somewhat interested in playing the Saturday event ($1500 NLHE), the late Sunday event ($1000 SHOE), the Monday event ($1000-rebuy NLHE), and the Tuesday event ($1500 LHE shootout).

But my resolve to stand on the sidelines didn’t last long. I decided to play the $1,060 Mega-Satellite for the Main Event at 9 PM.

Oh my god, this was the softest game I’ve ever seen. If the World Series went on year round, I’d consider leaving my wife and kids and just playing in this Mega-Satellite every moment of my life. Naturally, I came nowhere close to winning a seat.

Every silly play that beginners consider “tricky” online was on display there: min-reraising with aces, limping and moving all-in or calling all-in with a medium pair. Min-betting on the flop if the raiser hits his hand big.

On the very first round, I lost a big pot with A-A against 8-5. Then I lost a set of sixes to a set of tens. Within a half hour, I was down to 475 chips (out of 5,000 starting chips). I rebuilt, eventually getting above 4,000 but I pushed in with As-Ts during the 200-400/50 ante level and ran into aces.

They had 102 players and gave away 9 seats. I made it into the top half of the field but just barely.

A problem with this tournament is that it seems they roamed far and wide to find dealers. There were some good dealers but also some really mediocre ones – timid, slow, uncommunicative with players or (more important) the floor. The quality of dealers at the Series has been really good this year. Not all the dealers I saw in the Mega were bad, but a couple reminded me of last year’s crew.

On the way out, I wandered through the Amazon Room for awhile, watching the $2000 NLHE get near the money, as well as watching the Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw event. It was $1000 with rebuys, though it was a limit event. They got a very interesting crowd of players. When they were down to 25 tables (it’s played 6-handed because of all the draws), I counted at least two people I knew at half the tables. Juanda/Corkins/Judah. RWIII/Gavin Griffin/Sklansky. Greenstein/Tomko/Wattel. Raymer/Todd Brunson. But then there were a bunch of tables where I couldn’t pick anyone out of a police lineup … or maybe that’s exactly where I recognized them from.

Andy Bloch – who has played a lot of events, and well, and late into the night, but has not cashed yet – told me that I’m the second player he’s tutored who recently made a final table. The other player, who made the final table of the $2,000 limit hold ‘em, also finished seventh. “You haven’t taught us how to finish!” I told him. (Incidentally, I’m predicting it here in print: Andy Bloch goes very deep in the Main Event.)

I also had a funny little conversation with Barry Greenstein, which is usually the kind of conversation I have with him.

Barry: I saw you made the final table of an event last week. Where did you finish?

Me: Seventh.

Barry: Really, because it seemed like you had a lot of chips.

Me: Not at the end.

Barry: How many events have you played?

The thing I can’t figure out is whether Barry Greenstein is socially awkward or his goal is to make others socially awkward.

Today, I entered the $1500 NLHE, which ended up being the third largest live tournament in history, and the largest ever with one-day seating. 3,151 players, a prize pool over $4.3 million, 324 paid.

But not me. I got short stacked and was all-in eight times between 2:50 and 3:50. On the first all-in, I had K-Jo against A-K and made a flush. I’m freerolling after that so I can’t really complain, but someone reraised me with, I thought, nothing and I called them down with A-3. They had 7-6 and drew out. And the hand I went out on started with a min.-raise and 4 calls. I had A-Ks in the big blind and pushed in. I was called by the original raiser, who had A-Q, and hit a queen.

I’m considering trying one more Mega, even though one was supposed to be my limit. I played the last one because I was hot. One day later, I’m thinking of playing because I’m DUE.

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