Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Day 53

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

It’s really incredible just how popular the $1,500 NLH events at the WSOP are. The one going off today, which happens to fall on a Saturday, has in fact sold out with 2,720 players. Whenever people talk about poker’s popularity leveling off, or fear of games drying up, or any pessimistic shit like that, all you have to do is point at a WSOP $1,500 event as a counter argument. Certainly the games have gotten tougher and some of the highest stake action has dried up, but tournaments are about as popular as they’ve ever been and those of us who take the time to learn them won’t have to go back to work any time soon.

My starting table is, of course, full of nothing but unknown players. There’s one guy in the 4 seat who’s very talkative and introduces himself as Tim Vance to anyone and everyone that will listen. Tim is famous for winning the EPT Copenhagen this year (having got there from a FPP satellite) and for being a colorful character in general.

As always, the early levels are fairly uneventful for me. Luckily, Tim is easily enough entertainment to keep me from getting bored and the more we talk, the more I try to keep him talking. He tells me about how many times he’s been arrested for battery, then about "That time I got shot."

"How’d that go down Tim?"

"Actually they weren’t even aiming for me. We were having a party in my garage and I was inside just chilling out. As I came outside to tell them to quiet it down, the guys drove by trying to hit someone at the party and ended up shooting me instead, nailed me with that buckshot. We were running around with some girls from a town over and it was their boyfriends."

"Shotgun huh?"

"Yep."

"What gauge was it?"

"I don’t know, I never thought to ask."

"So what’d you do to the guys who shot you?"

"I caught up to one of em with a shovel, beat the shit out of him!"

"What about the others?"

"Well you know, I went to go talk to em. They said they weren’t aiming for me, and so we just kinda called it square. I mean, what the fuck can you do right?"

"Heh yea, I just talked it out with everyone who shot me too."

Between exchanging stories I’m able to steadily increase my stack without playing any pot that’s close to significant. The table is playing very tight and weak, and we’re all making jokes about how our table is going so many levels without busting a single player out. It’s not until the 100/200 25 level that we finally bust a player from our starting 10. It’s also at this level that I play my first important hand:

My stack: ~4,200, MP2: ~3,700, blinds 100/200 with 25 ante. I hold J-J on the CO.

Pre-flop: Folds to UTG+1, UTG+1 raises to 700, folds to me on the HJ, I go all-in, folds back to UTG+1, UTG+1 thinks briefly and calls. UTG+1 shows A-Ko and we’re off to the races.

Flop: A-Q-8

Turn: 7

River: K

After UTG+1 counts down his stack I find myself left with 550 chips. Well I came back from 225 in the last $1,500, so 550 seems like a ton of chips.

The very next hand a short stacked player on my right goes all-in for 1,800. I look down at 4-4 and go all-in as well. Everyone else folds and the all-in player tables A-Ko. I flop a 4 and am back to a playable stack.

An orbit or so later, it folds to a fairly aggressive player on the button. He raises to 700 and with 1,800 in the SB, I cram K-Jo. The BB folds and the button calls with Kd-Td. I flop a J and double up to a playable stack.

Players begin busting out at a pretty rapid pace and, unfortunately, Tim is among those. In his bust-out hand he open shoves about 10 BBs in early position and the BB thinks and calls, then tables 9-9. Tim leaps out of his seat, waving his fedora around in the air while doing some kind of strange jig and yelling "GOD DAAAAAAMN IT!!!" then tables 8-8 when he sits back down. The 9-9 holds and the table suddenly becomes quiet. It’s around that time I play my next interesting hand:

My stack: ~3,600, BB: ~5,000, blinds 100/200 with 25 ante. I hold Kh-3h on the button. The SB is a massively nitty player, and the BB is a middle-aged guy who, last time I raised the button, donked out on the flop and I gave up. I also witnessed him donk into another player and give up when he got raised.

Pre-flop: Folds to me, I raise to 525, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: Qd-5h-8d

BB thinks briefly then bets 700, I quickly announce all-in. BB thinks it over, stares at me suspiciously, then folds. I don’t buy that donk shit from live players for one second.

The blinds go up to 150/300 with a 25 ante and every time it folds to me in the SB, I shove on the player in the BB. On the fourth time this happens I peek down at Q-Q and debate limping, but decide to shove into his 2,500 chip stack instead just in case he feels like spite calling. Instead he makes a standard call with 8-8.

Flop: Q-J-3 rainbow

Turn: T

River: A

With that my stack has gone from 550 to over 7,000 in under two levels. Not long after that hand, our table is broken and I’m moved to a new seat on a table that has a ton of chips.

After the move, I go card dead for a very long time. I spend most of the 200/400 level folding and do a little bit of re-stealing at the 300/600 level to get my stack around 10,000. At the 400/800 level I’m still incredibly card dead and find myself open folding hand after hand. It’s not until the 500/1,000 level approaching the bubble that I actually get involved again:

My stack: 10,800, SB: ~45,000, blinds 500/1,000 with 100 ante. I hold 6-6 UTG.

Pre-flop: I go all-in, folds around to the SB, SB re-raises to 22,000, BB folds. SB is in fact the same player who crippled me in the J-J vs. A-K hand and we’re racing yet again.

Flop: J-8-J

Turn: 6

River: 3

During the next orbit we get within 10 from the money and I start amping up the aggression. My stack reaches about 28,000 and I’m getting ready to begin really pummeling my table when the next interesting hand comes up:

My stack: ~28,000, MP1: 14,100, MP2: ~30,000, blinds 600/1,200 with 100 ante. I hold T-T in the BB. We are eight from the money. The player in the MP1 seat is a guy in his mid 30s who is almost certainly a recreational player, but also not totally clueless. In the last 45 minutes he has open shoved a roughly 12 BB stack twice in mid position and, while he hasn’t said anything out loud like "Oh man I really hope I don’t bubble" like so many people at the table have, he also doesn’t seem eager to gamble.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP1. MP1 is going to his chips and appears to be about to make a standard size raise when MP2 throws out 3,000 in chips and says raise. The floor is called over and explains that first the MP2 player needs to pull back his chips. After that the action is back on MP1. If MP1 decides to fold or call then MP2 must still raise to 3,000, but if MP1 raises, then MP2s raise does not stand. MP1 thinks this over then announces all-in. MP2 decides to fold and it folds back to me. Whoa this is a weird spot. If MP1 had a big hand he could simply limp then shove and take down the free chips right? So he must have a more medium strength hand… right? I decide to call and MP1 tables J-J. Fuck.

Flop: 2-6-6

Turn: 8

River: 6

I slide over half my stack and suddenly find myself in a position capable of bubbling.

Two hands later, I find 8-8 on the button and shove over an aggressive player who raises in MP3. He flips up A-Jo and folds. The very next hand, now just two from the money, I look down at 8-8 again and get involved:

My stack: ~18,500, BB: ~30,000, blinds 600/1,200 with 100 ante. I hold 8c-8d on the CO.

Pre-flop: Folds to me on the CO, I raise to 3,000, folds to the BB, BB calls.

Flop: 3c-Qc-3d

BB checks, I bet 4,200, BB calls.

Turn: 9c

BB checks, I check behind.

River: 4s

BB fires out 5,000 for what is the most obvious value bet of all time. I fold and the BB peeks at his cards then shows me the Ac.

Just a couple of hands later, the bubble breaks, which is surprisingly fast for a $1,500 tournament. We play out the rest of the night and I lie in wait hoping to find a spot to pick up some chips going into tomorrow. My next interesting hand doesn’t come up until there’s about one minute left in the day:

My stack: ~16K, SB: ~28K, blinds 600/1,200 with 200 ante. I hold 9-2o in the BB.

Pre-flop: Folds to the SB, SB completes. The SB is an older and straight-forward player who limped the SB last round. That time I checked with 4-2o in the BB and fired a J-9-3 flop when he checked and he folded. I decide with a minute left there’s basically no chance he has a hand he’s willing to call with that he would complete here, so I announce all-in. The SB instantly calls and tables A-Ko. Wow, I am a total retard.

Flop: 2-Q-7

Turn: 8

River: J

"Very nicely played, you trapped me perfectly there" I tell him as I count out my chips and he slides them over. He takes the beat like a gentleman and chats to me politely for the remainder of the tournament and wishes me good luck tomorrow. When it’s all said and done, I’m going into the next day with 34,200, having cashed for my fourth time in this years WSOP.

Strangely tomorrow has a mixed game event at noon and a mixed hold ‘em event at 5PM, the first time I have ever seen a hold ‘em event as the 5PM event during the WSOP. That means if I happen to bust before 5PM from the $1,500 NLH, I can keep going and grind the whole way through, though the thought of playing half a tournament of Limit Hold ‘em is pretty terrifying.

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