Marty Smyth's WSOP Main Event

Unfortunately things have not got any better over here. I played the 1K PLO re-buy in the Bellagio and had a good run in it, but came unstuck with 9 players remaining when my top set was outdrawn by my opponent’s big draw.

It was a relatively small tournament with only 45 runners, but there were quite a lot of re-buys, so it was still decent prize money and the 71K first prize would have been a realistic target if my hand had held up in this pot.

My performance in the PLO at least gave me a bit of confidence going into the main event. Two hours into the tournament I had a little over 35K and was feeling really good about things. My table was pretty good overall, with two young guys who I thought were pretty good, another couple of guys who seemed good but also very tight, and a couple of older players who weren’t great. I was playing a lot of hands with the hope of catching a big hand against one of the bad players but I never got into any really good spots.

I got into a lot of small pots early on with the young guys too but always kept them small, check-calling down a couple of times to be shown bluffs, and check-calling once or twice to be shown the best hand. I had a couple of big pre-flop hands early on but they didn’t turn out to be much use to me.

I opened with K-K and got 1 bet on the flop and another on the turn, before my opponent passed for a small bet on the river. Then I was dealt A-A in mid-position and decided to just call an opening bet from the very tight player in seat 1, hoping one of the aggressive young players might squeeze out of the blinds or even better, wake up with a big hand.

If I’d re-raised pre-flop I probably would have won a little bit from the guy in seat 1 who had J-J, but instead I lost a small pot after I passed on the flop. The big blind also called and then check-raised us on a 9-7-5 flop. He was a good player and would have known it was likely that the initial seat 1 raiser had an overpair, so I didn’t think this was a bluff from him. I was pretty sure he had 2 pair or possibly a set here or at least a pair and a straight draw. He flashed a 7 after I passed, so I’m pretty happy that I lay my hand down. Even if he only had 76 or 78 it wasn’t going to be a great spot for me, and if he had 79/75/77 then I was in very bad shape.

Another consideration was that there were plenty of bad players in the tournament, so I didn’t want to play a big pot against one of the best players at the table with just 1 pair if it could be helped. There was a great hand at our table shortly after that when the two young guys who I was most worried about at the start both played a pot for all their chips. One of them moved in on the river with a complete bluff on a Q high board with 4 spades, after making big bets on the flop and turn, and was called by the 2 red Kings.

In some ways I think this was great play by both players. The bluff would have probably worked against any other player at the table, and the guy with the kings wasn’t just a bad player who couldn’t pass a hand, he figured it out and came to the conclusion that the other guy was bluffing. This was a great pot between two good players, but the guys involved were definitely both going to have a big edge over the field in this tournament. I think it was a bit unnecessary and reckless from the guy who made the bluff. In my opinion they both had the skill to play through the first day and build good stacks without taking too many risks.

I thought that was the case with me too, but now I’m not so sure. There are definitely a lot of bad players in Vegas who I’m going to have a big edge over, but some of this is definitely off-set by the really good players who have an edge over me. The turning point for me in this tournament was when a young Swedish kid sat down two to my left after being blinded off for the first couple of hours. It turned out he was internet sensation Victor ‘Isuldur’ Blom’s older brother. He wasn’t quite as aggressive as his more famous brother, but he still played a lot of pots and pretty much knocked me out single-handedly.

In the first pot I played with him I lost 7K when my flopped top 2 pair was outdrawn by his nut flush draw. Then I played a few hands where I got re-raised either pre-flop or after missing the flop, and had to pass. I was starting to feel a bit demoralised at this stage, and then this hand made things even worse. I raised pre-flop with J-J and Blom re-raised to 2K. I called and was delighted to see a J-6-4 rainbow flop. I thought I had a good chance of doubling up here, but instead he checked behind me and I couldn’t get him to put another chip in the pot. This was an hour before the dinner break and for the last hour I basically blinded myself off, lacking the confidence to play a hand.

I went back after dinner feeling a bit more optimistic and was determined to play better and not get pushed around. I didn’t last two laps of the table. Blom raised in early position and I called off the BB with 75 suited. I check-called the K-6-4 flop, and then check-raised all in when the 5 hit the turn. I’d been playing so weakly since he sat down that I figured he could easily fire a 2nd barrel bluff on the turn without a K, and if he had A-K or something and called me I still had 13 outs against him. As it happened he did have A-K this time and his hand held up. I probably didn’t play this hand well, but I’m still not really sure what the correct thing to do was.

I was extremely deflated for a few hours after this happened, not just because I was out, but because I feel I was outplayed pretty badly in some pots and it doesn’t give me much hope for future years over here. As I said on Twitter at the time, I felt I more than held my own in the PLO tournaments, but I don’t know if I’m good enough to compete with the best NLH players, especially in Deepstack tournaments.

It’s not all bad news though! There are loads of Irish left in the Main Event, so I’m very hopeful that someone can give us all a good sweat this year and run really deep in it. Good luck to all the Irish left in, especially the Boyles guys. Hopefully one of them can rescue a disappointing year for us.