My World Series of Poker Odyssey

If any of you read my day 1 blog account of my first World Series main event at CardPlayer.com, you might have thought it was like Christmas, except it was the middle of a 40-degree summer and the old guy giving me presents wasn’t wearing red.
What my second day compared to was like Vegas itself, like the rollercoaster in New York New York, there was highs and lows then more highs and lows and just when I was beginning to enjoy it, it all came to an abrupt stop. Or like the shark reef in Mandalay Bay, where the little fish are predators in their own waters but if you put them in the shark tanks they would be quickly eaten up. I felt like the little fish accidently put in the shark tank. If I seem a little over dramatic it is probably because I’m still just gathering my thoughts after being knocked out a little over two hours ago.
I get to day 2 with a healthy chip stack but at this new table these guys played hard and they played fast. I literally have never played a live tournament with such aggression. I was forced into three-bets and four-bets I never knew were in my range just to stay alive. While to some or many who read this it my might be the norm but remember I’ve never claimed to be a good or great poker player – this is just an account of the event as I saw it.
So I’ll take you through the day, not blow by blow, but under three headings the good, the bad and the whingy. Oh… and I’ll be starting with The Whingy (The Good and The Bad will follow next month) cause no matter what level you play players love to give out about bad beats, coolers, and bad spots and I’m no different.
The Whingy.
So we are four hands in and aggressive player, who bluffed off a lot of his stack two hands previous were the guy tanked then called with second set because he was afraid of top set, opens the pot. I call on the button with 7-7 and we pick up the tanker. The flop comes 5-4-2, it gets checked to me and I bet half-pot. The tanker folds and the other guy pushes all in. It’s just over a pot-sized raise but after a minutes thought I call and he shows A-K and he hits a three on the river which took me down to about 75k.
Much later in the tournament after going through some major swings (like in the first level alone I started with 108,000 had a low of 49,000 and finished it on 95,000). We have a new guy come in to my small blind and very first hand it gets checked to him he raises to 2,000 and I fold my big blind. Two rounds later it happened again except this time he raises to 2,000 I insta raise to 6,000 he makes it 15,000 quite quickly and before he has the chips put out I’ve pushed all in on him. We started the hand with 40,000 effective stacks I had him covered. I show A-Q and he shows A-K. My only solace in dumping in 50 big blinds was the flop brought an ace so he was getting my money anyways.
A level later I’m in the big blind again, the button raises to 3,000 blinds are 500-1000. My friend, the small blind, who I know is at least slightly aggressive, makes it 9,000 to play.
I look down at my favourite hand, A-Q, and as I four bet to 19, I’m thinking easy game.
That is until the button pushes for 20,000 more and I call it as the pot is 70,000 plus. He shows — you guessed it A-K — and the flop brings an ace yet again so just in case there was a way this hand got to a flop I was still getting all in.
Oh… I almost forgot the two most aggressive players who were also big stacked were just on my left, if I could describe my day with an analogy it was like trying to navigate a mine field driving a snow plough made of fire lighters drunk and I was averagely card dead.
I warned you this would be whingey and while I still have one or two more I’ll try come up with something’s that at least I think I did good. ♠

Niall Smyth is the 2011 Irish Open champion and Sole Survivor winner. He took down €550,000 for the former and €100,000 for the latter and has taken a year’s leave from his job to concentrate on poker.