Event #51 3k Triple Chance NL

I had very few playable hands today, yet was able to get hold of a decent stack early on. I got moved to a new table and, still devoid of cards, pushed a move too far when I turned an open-end straight draw to go with my ace. The guy thought long and hard about folding, but ultimately made the call with a pair and the same straight draw and I whiffed the river. All in all it was a fairly bad bluff due to the board texture and lack of information about my opponent.

I am pretty disappointed in myself for making that play. I could have rode it out and looked for a better spot in this reasonably well-structured tournament.

Event #49 1.5k NL

I got off to a nice start in this one, then explored different ways to lose my stack. There were myriad opens that ran into hands, a failed bluff, whiffed setmines, missed draws, a bad beat, and a desperation shove.

Tomorrow is the 3k Triple Chance. There are a lot of desperate gamblers out here looking to make a score. Time is running out.

Event #47 1k NL

This tournament sucked. I won like six pots in five hours, busted out, then played three hopeless games of Catan.

Wise Words From Blondie

No I don't believe in luck
No I don't believe in circumstance no more
Accidents never happen in a perfect world
So I won't believe in luck
___

Congrats to Dean Hamrick on winning his first bracelet in a $1500 NL after getting down to less than one big blind late on the second night of the tournament.

Wise Words From GnightMoon

"It's only money."

Friend: "It's not just that. It's our livelihood."

"It doesn't have to be."

Event #45 1.5k NL

They are starting to blur.

Event #44 2.5k Mixed Hold'em

I had an opportunity to go from 1700 in chips to 11,000 in two hands, but Andrew Black flopped a set on my kings for the second time and turned quads.

twitter.com/gnightmoon

Event #42 1.5k NL

I found myself at a stunningly aggressive table and retreated into the shell. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pick up many hands, won one pot of consequence on the day, and busted shortly after the dinner break.

I was satisfied with my hand-reading, composure, patience, and decisionmaking.

1k NL Day Two

I didn't play my A-game today, but found myself playing deep into the night as the stacks condensed and the tension mounted. I was eventually eliminated in 48th place for $7500. I have a somewhat absurd notion of "deserving" success in poker. When I do break through, I want to feel like I earned it with flawless play.

Event #39 1.5k NL Shootout

I believe this was the fastest I have ever busted a WSOP tournament, flopping a flush against a higher flush half an hour into play.

That allowed me to focus on day two of the $1k NL.

Event #36 1k NL

As the night wore on I tried to get a big stack or bust this one as my favorite and highest EV event - the $1500 shootout - is tomorrow at noon. I didn't do either and finished the day with 14k in chips at 300-600-75 not too far from the money. I decided I am going to play the shootout anyways. Tomorrow could be an adventure.

Event #36 GTL

This was, without question, my finest performance of the Series thus far. I came out focused and determined knowing that a strong result would be paramount to my mindset for the rest of the WSOP. The key to this one was forwarding the L to the front of the queue, freeing up the bulk of Saturday for the G and T. I also managed to sneak a quick chest & tris G into Friday and then backed it up with a back & bis on Saturday. I followed that formidable combination with a protein shake both times, which crushed everything in sight.

The T was my first of the month, and I was a bit rusty. I considered sunscreen, but ultimately decided to just lie there for a bit before jumping in the pool. The water was surprisingly comfortable despite a rather stiff breeze whipping across the Estate of Masters. Bailey took his first ever swim, hated it, and bailed out as quickly as possible. After the swim I lay prone in the late afternoon sun and squeaked out a little low-risk T.

At night I went to Tao with some Colorado friends and just sort of put it into cruise control. It's hard to maintain your A-game all day.

Event #35 10k Heads-Up NL Championship

I had been looking forward to this event for months, but when push came to shove I chickened out and never registered for it. I was somewhat down today, disappointment still lingering from the 5k 6-max. I was lethargic having gotten up at 6:30 to watch the USA game against Slovenia. I was uncomfortable throwing 10k at a tournament sure to have a tough field and marginal structure.

Excuses, excuses. When I went down to the Rio to watch a couple friends play, I immediately wished I had sacked up and played. I would have had solid EV in the tournament. I still believe I am one of the best heads up tournament players, and this would have been a nice opportunity to make some noise.

Event #32 5k NL 6-handed

Coming into this tournament I was dealing with confidence issues regarding my game. The two previous six-handed tournaments here at the WSOP were hard on my ego. The $1500 was embarrassing as I found no ways to win pots other than shoving in my stack before the flop. I felt I made mistakes in the $2500 and played poorly after changing tables. I was somewhat scared to enter the $5000 six-max, knowing another weak performance would sideline me from the big buy-ins indefinitely.

But I played wonderfully. I was as focused and powerful as I have ever been playing live poker. I seized control of the table and dominated play all day long. I built a stack utilizing all of the moves (and plenty of luck, of course) I have seen better players use throughout the year. I threw in some originals of my own. I felt really, really good about where this one was going.

And then I got really unlucky, and then got unlucky again, and then got unlucky once again and couldn't quite get away from a hand my gut told me to, and it was all over. I am deeply disappointed, yet I feel much better about poker than I did 24 hours ago.

Event #30 1.5k NL

Blah. Didn't make any mistakes.

1.5k Stud 8 Day Two

I remembered limit poker sucks when you don't get dealt good hands.

Event #27 1.5k Seven Card Stud Hi-Low

This was an interesting experience. I started out at a laughable table with some incredibly horrendous players. I played good hands, I made good hands, and I chipped up to what may have been the biggest stack in the tournament. The last three hours everything changed, as I swam cold in waters that had suddenly become infested with some of the nastiest sharks in the game. I finished the day with 9,500 chips. Average is around 14k.

My entire outlook on poker has drastically changed over the last two weeks. More on this after the Series.

Event #26 2.5k NL 6-handed

Here were some hands:

1. Old guy limps UTG for 50, I make it 200 with QJ, old fish in BB calls, UTG calls. Flop J86 two hearts. Old fish bets 200, other old guy calls, I make it 850, old fish calls, other old guy folds. Turn J. Old fish checks, I bet 1000, old fish calls. River Q. Old fish checks, I bet 3000, old fish calls with KK.

2. I raise AdKh UTG, button calls, Paul Wasicka calls in BB. Flop QJ5 two diamonds. Paul bets 250, I make it 750, button folds, Paul calls. Turn K. Check/check. River 6. Paul checks, I bet 1300, Paul folds.

3. Guy raises to 275, I call with 44, Shannon Shorr makes it 1025 in the SB, first guy folds, I call. Flop AT5 two hearts he checks, I check. Turn 6h he checks I check. River J he checks I check he shows KK and wins.

4. Eurolag raises to 300 at 50-100 UTG. I ask for a count stack (about 5k total) and make it 800 with AdQs. He calls. Flop AKx two spades he checks I check. Turn Q he checks I bet 1100 he calls. River Ts he checks I check he has QdJd.

5. I raise AQ UTG, Shannon calls. Flop AK7 rainbow. I bet 400, he makes it 1200. I deliberate for a while and call. Turn 3c second club. I check, he bets 2500. I have 5700 total. I tank forever and fold.

6. I raise AJ in second position to 250, third position calls, Shannon makes it 1025 on the button. I have 5k behind. I think and fold.

7. Cutoff makes it 250, SB calls, I call in BB with Kd3d. Flop Qd3s2d SB checks I bet 400 cutoff calls SB folds. Turn Ks I bet 700 cutoff calls. River offsuit 6 I bet 2000 with 2000 behind cutoff thinks a long time and folds.

8. I raise Tc9c to 400, BB calls. BB is kid from hand #7. Flop is AJ5 rainbow. He checks, I bet 400, he calls. Turn 4s second spade he checks, I bet 1100, he calls. River offsuit 3 he checks, I think and shove for about 4200, he thinks for 30 seconds and calls. I muck and go home.

Event #24 1k NL

I was physically and mentally prepared to play, and I managed a flawless session. The tournament did not work out, but I believe if I can prepare like I did today I will be able to play my best for the rest of the Series.

House of Masters World Cup Pool

Snake draft

Scoring:

3 points for a first round win
1 point for a tie
2 point bonus for finishing second in a group (advancing)
3 point bonus for winning group
4 points for a round of 16 win
4 points for a quarterfinal win
5 points for a semifinal win
5 points for a championship


Grtwhitehoop

1. Spain
2. France
3. Portugal
4. Chile
5. Paraguay
6. Switzerland
7. Korea Republic
8. North Korea


SamENole

1. Brazil
2. Germany
3. Serbia
4. Ivory Coast
5. Mexico
6. Slovakia
7. Australia
8. New Zealand


PiMaster

1. England
2. Argentina
3. USA
4. Nigeria
5. Uruguay
6. Denmark
7. Slovenia
8. Honduras


Moon

1. Italy
2. Netherlands
3. Greece
4. Cameroon
5. South Africa
6. Ghana
7. Algeria
8. Japan

Mastery

I can't really believe it but of course I can, because I have known for a long time that Jason "TheMasterJ33" DeWitt is one of the best no limit hold em tournament players out there. Early Friday morning he won the WSOP $5k for a chunky $818k plus the gold bracelet, and cemented his status as One of the Best.

May Top 15

15. White Zombie - Supercharger Heaven
14. Vampire Weekend - Taxi Cab
13. Foxboro Hot Tubs - Ruby Room
12. Tift Merritt - Diamond Shoes
11. Mike Doughty - 27 Jennifers

10. Blue Oyster Cult - Burnin' For You
9. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - We're All In Love
8. Stealers Wheel - Stuck In The Middle With You
7. Rihanna - Shut Up and Drive
6. Stevie Wonder - Superstition

5. Lady Gaga - Alejandro
4. Tift Merritt - Neighborhood
3. The White Stripes - Jolene (live)
2. 2pac feat. Dr. Dre - California Love

Song of the Month: The Alarm - Rain In The Summertime

Event #17 5k NL

This was quite the change of pace from the donkaments I have been playing the last week and a half. My tournament basically boiled down to one hand, losing a huge pot with AsTs against the Grinder's Ks8s on a 654 flop with two spades. Other than that I was mostly folding and watching the fireworks. I felt like I had a good idea of what was going on, even if I wasn't participating.

Event #16 1.5k NL 6-Handed

This was a depressing tournament. I three-bet twelve times on the day. I won every one of those pots, and almost no others. Although I ran hot in all-ins, I just could never really get the ball rolling and went broke shortly before dinner.

Event #13 1k NL

These tournaments are all about profiling. In my opinion, a good tournament player should throw out most of the fundamentals and focus on the players. Starting hands lose importance (though you will need to make some hands to do well in such a shallow structure). Many players in these 1ks will make absurd folds because they are so scared of busting, and others will make absurd calls because they have no hand-reading abilities. The players play so badly that ABC poker will get it done if you get some hands. But if you really want to crush these things, I believe you need to quickly profile people and put the heat on those that don't want to go broke.

Today I got off to a great start before a table change. I then bluffed off most of my stack to a player I had wrongly profiled as a guy who would be scared to call it off with one pair. From there on out I could never quite get to a comfortable position and after another change went broke four-betting AJo from the big blind in a spot where I thought a young player named kingdan was making a light reraise of an original open.
___

Congratulations to Matt Matros, winner of the $1500 limit hold em!

Event #14 1.5k 2-7 Draw Lowball NL

This might just be the most interesting and enjoyable tournament poker game there is. Some friends encouraged me to play it. I thought about it, thought about how it has been won multiple times by people who have never played it before, and practiced a little this morning online with PiMaster. I busted the $1.5k NL just in time for a primer with some more experienced Deuce players, absorbed as much as I could as quickly as I could, and jumped in.

Although I made some embarrassing mistakes and busted out before the money, I am glad I played. It was one of the most delightful experiences I have had playing poker in a long time. The game is fascinating, and I would encourage all NLHE tournament specialists to give it a shot. Playing the Deuce in a tournament setting incorporates many of the concepts ingrained in NLHE tournaments, but the hand matchups and reads are more complex. This is a great game.

1.5k NL Day Two

I cashed another $1500 NL, lost a couple races, and then registered for the evening event.

Event #11 1.5k NL

I am on to another day two of a WSOP $1500. I have 19,600 chips going to 600-1200-100. 300 players remain and 270 will be paid. Play resumes at 2:30 PST.

twitter.com/gnightmoon

Event #9 1.5k PLHE

I knew coming into this one the challenge was going to be staying patient, and I couldn't do it. I played tight for the first three hours and then did this:

Blinds 75-150

I opened to 400 from the hijack with J6s. The small blind raised the pot to 1350. I called. The flop was Q63 with one of my suit. He went all-in for a pot bet and I called.

This was the silliest hand I've played in quite a while. Based on tells I was basically certain my opponent did not have a big hand, but calling with J6s preflop was still an outlandish mistake. His money is going in on the flop and I am not going to be able to call the flop shove enough of the time to make the preflop call reasonable, even if I know for certain he is weak.

So why in the world did I do this?

1. I got overexcited making such a concrete physical read. It's rare that you can make a preflop read with that level of certainty, where you basically rule out big hands. I was so excited by this read that I forgot what a piece of crap I had myself.

2. I hate letting these online tournament pros reraise me. I have it out for young internet pros. I take special relish in beating them. I really wanted to stick it to this player, in particular, as he made a point of letting the whole table know that he was an online tournament pro.

3. I knew if this hand got shown down no one would mess with me without a big hand the rest of the day. This was shortsighted, however, as our table was breaking soon.

4. I had probably grown bored and frustrated, perhaps subconsciously, at being crammed in ten-handed at a table of mostly young online pros playing in a situation where it was most profitable to fold most hands.

5. I was never too psyched up to play this event. I don't think the WSOP should have a $1500 pot limit hold em. I would be fine with a higher buy-in, but the "advantages" of pot-limit are basically nullified without deeper stacks. With one-third the prizepool of the no-limit events, coming in the midst of a string of low buy-in no-limits, I really wasn't excited.

Of course this is pretty silly, as any $1500 poker tournament should still get me excited to play. It's not like I'm such a high-roller that $1500 is a small buy-in.

So my opponent had pocket sevens, I turned a flush draw but lost, then ran my 550 stack up to 6600 before busting, then went and had a nice picnic with Bailey and some friends for the second straight night.

It probably shouldn't be a challenge for me to play my A-game in these $1500 tournaments, but sometimes it is. Today I wasn't up to the challenge, but there's another $1500 event tomorrow.

Event #8 1.5k NL

Busted this one five hours in with tens against aces. I maybe could have/should have played it a bit differently but it wasn't terrible because I was confident my opponent did not have jacks, queens or kings.

I am feeling comfortable in Vegas, getting used to the routine, and regaining ingenuity and confidence.

1.5k NL Day Two

Not too much happened today. The structure got a bit out of control because a) it was a $1500 event and b) they started hand-for-hand too early and let the clock run the whole time. Anyways, I lost a pot in the third level of the day and then made a standard (but not for me) shove with pocket sevens and ran into jacks.

PiMaster finished 14th in the $1500 O8; SamENole finished deep last night in the $1k NL; Toph shockingly won his first table of the $5k shootout and plays #2 for the final table tomorrow; Ethan Foulkes aka Remmy is very deep in the $1500 NL as I write this.

It's an exciting time. A lot of money is changing hands.

I'll be playing donkaments for the next week, nothing more than $1500 buyin.

Event #5 1.5k NL

I have 70k chips going into day two of this $1500 NL. Average is around 40k. Play restarts at 2:30 PST Tuesday. There are 243 players left and 216 will be paid.

Last year at the WSOP I cashed four times, all in $1500 events. Because of these runs, I missed several of the bigger buy-in events I had planned to play. Tomorrow is the $5k shootout. This will be the third straight year I will miss it.

I don't mind missing the bigger tournaments for the $1500s. I love WSOP $1500s. I am very good at these donkaments, probably because I have a round understanding of the different types of players you might encounter in a WSOP $1500. I am not an outstanding online tournament player, but I might be better than most of them in these WSOP $1500s. I know how a lot of the recreational players think.

I generally have a pleasant time playing the $1500s. I am usually pretty social with the other pros as well as the recreational players. A lot of the n00bs are actually pretty interesting people with real jobs, and it's nice to meet other pros I may not have known before as well.

The $1500s are relatively low-stress tournaments. You don't have to make too many difficult, high-equity decisions. But lurking deep in every WSOP $1500 is big money. My best finishes in WSOP $1500s came in 2008, a 22nd place in a 4000 player pme immediately followed by a 12th in a 1200 player 6-max. In other words, I have never made a big score in a WSOP $1500. I am hoping that changes soon.