Out of Event #13 + Recap of Event #7 + Happy Birthday Me

Jared "WacoKidd" Hamby was moved to my table and ended up getting my last chips. I'd won one pot and was up to 3500 when Waco opened from MP to 525. I found JJ in the SB and had a standard shove. Jared had a standard call with AK, and I was eliminated on a board of 3229A.

Now, I'm going to detail day 2 and day 3 of Event #7 which I finished 2nd in. This will be very long.

Day 2:

I arrived at a starting table that I kind of liked. I knew only two time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Bjorin, although a couple of the random guys played pretty decent. Early on I took down the blinds a couple of times and then reraised Chris early in the day with 54o and was happy to see him fold. That got me started and then this dude open shoved about 13BBs with red nines into my Aces on the button, and I was fortunate to have them hold. I forget how, but I dribbled back down to a little below average with like 90 left. I then lost a race AIPF with AJ vs this dude's red 88 on a board of Js9s8sAsX.

I was pretty crippled to like 13BB at this point but I then won a race AIPF with AQo vs a Euro's TT for all of my chips when it came Qxxxx. Then, I really started to rally. Soon after doubling through the Euro I raised his BB with J7cc from EP and he thought and defended. Flop 876 with two diamonds or something. He led out all-in for 1.75 times the pot. I thought for two full minutes and pressed call. It wasn't really a matter of me feeling I was behind, but more whether I wanted to gamble against his almost certain draw at this stage of the tournament. I settled on gambling, and I was delighted to see he had JThh and only 7 outs. I doubled through to above average when I faded his outs.

Later there was a funny hand where I eliminated this dude when he was AIPF for like 3 BBs UTG, and I had an automatic call in the BB, and did so without looking. I squeezed out 54o and he had A8o. The doorcard was an 8, but it followed with a 7 and a 6 to give me a flopped straight. It's not very often you when with 54o vs A8 when the door is the 8. Then, I ran a really fun bluff. Eventual third place finisher Carter Gill minraised to 8000 and a guy cold called 8000 in the cutoff. Carter looked really weak to me, so I raised to 29000 total with 84o on the button. Carter quickly folded but then the other dude tanked for like 45 seconds and then called 21000 more out of position. Shit. Flop 533. He checked and I decided to gamble and moved him all-in for his last 50000 with my no hand no draw, which amounted to like 85 percent of my stack. He thought for a bit and flashed to me what I'm almost positive was AK. I was a top 7 or so stack with 200 thousandish and average 130. Then, right before dinner I lost a big flip to Phil "USCPhildo" Collins. I raised tens on the button to 10500 and was somewhat delighted when the 23 year old South Carolinian announced all-in for 81000. I called and he showed AQ. Flop 863. Turn Q. River X. This one sucked because I hated the prospect of having a great player to my left and hated more that I'd've been chipleader if I won.

We went to dinner and I had like 95000 with blinds 3/6000 coming up. With like 50 left, this guy who'd just gotten moved to the table raised from MP to like 16000, and I found QJo and decided to jam 90000ish from the BB. He tanked for a while and eventually made a very nice call with KQhh, so again my tournament was at stake. The board came 833TJ. Oh hi there. Guy was really tilted and let out an F bomb or five.

Then, the biggest pot of the tournament to that point came up between me and Phil Collins. Phil raised up front to 15000 into my BB, and I found KTcc and defended. Flop 532 two clubs. The stacks dictated a bet/3bet all-in, and that is what I did when Phil raised my 21000 leadout to 62500. He snapcalled me with 33, oops, for his 195000 total. I believe I had him covered by like 20000. Turn Qc though, no problem, and the river was a brick.

I was trying to think if there is any other way to play this hand. You could make a case for outright folding to Phil's raise, I think, since he might not even raise me with a hand like 88 or 99 on that flop, meaning there's a good chance I'm dead 12 outs or less and not the full 15. Him having a set was obviously one of the worst case scenarios.

I was now monster chipleader with over 400 thousand and quickly climbed up to half a million in chips before our table finally broke with 27 left. We redrew and I drew a pretty poor seat with Alex Bolotin to my direct left, a seemingly good online player to his left, and Dustin "neverwin" Woolf, Chris Bjorin and John Phan also at the table. I beat neverwin out of one pot where he raised up front and I called KQo in the cutoff. Flop K22. He led out 31000 and I raised to 81000. He quickly folded TT faceup. Then I climbed all the way to 800000 when I raised QQ on the button and the online player moved in on me for about 20BBs. I called and he showed me 76dd. Board KT8xx.

We got down to 18 players and we redrew again. This time I found a table with Keith Carter to my direct left, Bolotin to his left, neverwin to his left, Bjorin to his left, Carter Gill to his left, and Theo Tran to my direct right. I played some fun hands at this table including one against Theo that was neat.

In said hand Theo was overall chipleader and I was second in chips. He raised to like 22000 and I had a trivial call with 76hh. The rest folded and Theo and I saw K65 rainbow. He checked, I bet 39000 and he called. Turn 2, putting two to a suit now. He checked, and I bet like 77000. He called. River offsuit 9. Theo checked, and I thought for 30 seconds and then bluffed 181000. Theo thought for 5 long minutes and folded what he later told me was KQ. Phew!

Just kidding Theo I actually had a set of sixes in the above hand :)

I was up to just shy of a million but then gave 275000 back to Theo when he checkraised me on the end when I played AJ really backwards on a board of AcQhXdXcXc. I braved a call with my one pair of Aces obviously knowing I can only beat a bluff. It just felt like a great spot for Theo to checkraise bluff, and obviously he's very capable of that. He showed me QJcc. I actually slipped below avg for a second but then knocked a dude out with my AsJh holding against his, like, 65ss AIPF on a scary board of AhJs9sXX. We got down to the final table of 10 and a fun one came up. Theo raised the button to 32000 and I reraised A9o from the SB to 95000. The kid Gill in the BB quickly made it 225000 total with like 475000 behind. Theo folded and for whatever reason I couldn't pull the trigger, knowing it was almost certainly a bluff. I folded and asked the internet-trained Gill to show the bluff and he obliged and turned over 85o. I ended the night with 627000 and the average at 710000.

Day 3:

I woke up yesterday morning and went to the gym. I then went to the airport to pick up my Mom. I'm positive that I was told by either a floorman or member of the media that play would resume at 3 p.m. the next day. I was extremely lucky and was checking chipcounts online or something at 1:30 p.m. yesterday morning and saw that play actually started at 2, so I quickly got ready and we headed out to Rio. I figured they were just gonna throw us on the side table or something and let the 10000 dollar mixed event play in the arena area. I was wrong though as our table was actually in the arena area and it was broadcasted on the internet at espn360.com, unbeknownst to me until I got there.

We actually didn't end up starting until 2:50 p.m. The final table started pretty badly. I reraised Theo early on with A3o and he 4bet me all in. I folded. Then I lost a tough pot to Theo. I raised red Jacks UTG and Theo defended in the BB. Flop KT3 two diamonds. Check-Check. Turn 9s. Check-Check. River Kh. Theo led out almost full pot of 100000. Sigh. Theo is a great player and is easily capable of valuebetting a T here. It definitely didn't feel like a bluff though. I pressed call and he showed me K8ss. I then dribbled down to 240000 playing 8/16000 blinds. This Romanian player named Mihai Manole opened up front for 45000, Matt Keikoan called on the button and I shipped it all in with two Kings in the BB. Manole tanked for a while and called with 77. King in the door, but I still had to sweat running 7s or running spades when it came K94 two spades. He was drawing dead on the turn.

The VERY next hand JC Tran opened 40000 of his 222000 from the HJ, and I found 65o in the SB. I felt like JC was weak and everything felt perfect for a 3bet here. I raised to 143000. Gill folded the BB and JC thought and went with his hand. dfkjadfjdad. I had to call 80000 more. JC showed me KQo. Board 9492x. and I was back down to like 290000. 6 handed Theo raised UTG and I found red fives right behind him and moved in for 15 blinds or so. He thought for 3 long minutes, and I was really hoping he folded. I think he might have tossed a hand like two sevens or two eights. I really grinded the shortstack and was between like 300000 and 500000 for a long while.

We eventually lost Manole, Chris Bjorin and JC Tran, and I was in bad, bad shape 4 handed with only 450000 of the 6400000 in play.

Things really turned around for me 4 handed though. I came back from break and decided I was going to play very aggressively. I did so in reraising a couple times. I won 4 out of the first 5 pots when we got back, and I got my stack all the way up to around 1.2 million. Then, a hand I'll remember for the rest of my life came up against Theo Tran. Gill was out of his seat in the SB in the bathroom or something, which totally changed the dynamic of this hand. Theo raised from the cutoff to like 70000 and I found 77 on the button. It was a weird spot, but I was pretty sure if I reraised Theo was either going to fold or jam it all-in on me, and I didn't wanna call off a million in chips with two sevens. Keikoan folded the BB. Flop K74 rainbow. Theo checked, and I decided to check. Turn 3 spades for the second spade now. Theo led out 110000, and I raised to 275000. Theo looked really puzzled and called. River Jc. Theo checked, and I thought for 30 seconds and then decided to overbet all-in what I thought was 820000 into the 725000 pot or something. It turned out I actually had 920000. Theo thought for ten minutes, studied me, got up out of his seat and then said "I call." I immediately said "set".

Theo was down to a million and eventually busted to Gill to finish 4th. Gill then got crippled by Keikoan and we eventually finished him off in third when his 86hh was no good against Matt's AKo on a board of KhQhxxx.

Gill played pretty well for the two days I played with him but definitely has a lot to learn about etiquette. A direct quote from him was "I'll take any angle I can get. There's no moral code in poker." I laughed. Two quick examples. USCPhildo doubled through me on day 2 with his AQ. Turn Q and Gill does a fistpump for whatever reason and says nice hand before the river card, lawl. When he moved in for 6BB or whatever he announces to his friends in the crowd that he hasn't looked at the cards with Matt and I still left to act. Very out of line. He also was educating players (although without really berating them for the most part) which is extremely, extremely bad business. Since you'll read this Carter, I do think you're a good person and enjoyed playing with you and there's no hard feelings.

I got heads up with Matt Keikoan and was at about a 3:2 chip disadvantage. I wasn't really looking forward to it because Matt played spectacularly for two days. I don't recall seeing him make a mistake. He played a brilliant style and picked his spots really, really well. For the first 20 hands or so we broke about even, but then Matt really started to pull away. Without taking anything away from him, I do think he severely outdecked me. He also severely outplayed me. I was almost embarrased at how he would limp every button just to play flops with me. It just wasn't my day heads up. I lost two decent sized reraised pots once with A5cc and once with KJo on a board of Q66 when he RRd me, checked to me, I fired, and he called. I think I could've played a couple of hands differently. I tried a lot of different things and strange bet amounts to try to get something going but none of them worked. I also made a flush once on the turn and he folded to my turn bet. I picked up black Aces once, raised his limp, and hoped to double through when he called and we saw like J63 rainbow, but he automucked to my flop bet. aa;kjdhfa;kjsfdshkajsfkjasdsfjhas. I didn't talk to Matt much, but I really appreciated how he conducted himself and how he was a complete gentleman. Congratulations man.

The 350 thousand dollars feels really good. Obviously I'd like to win the bracelet, as I know how hard it is to navigate through these huge NLHE fields. There's a chance I won't get this close to a bracelet for the next like 5 years, but I don't think that's gonna be the case.

Ok this entry took 90 minutes. Tomorrow we'll play online tournaments and Monday I'll play the 1500 dollar NLHE shootout.

Also, today is my 23rd Birthday which officially makes me a fossil in the poker world but I guess relatively still young in real life.

Might go out to Tao tonight.

SS