I went into Day 3 with 167,300, a little above average. I was happy with my stack, as my tables on my first two days were pretty tough, as tough as I can remember in the Main Event (ME). I was pretty tired, as I had played some very long days in the PLO 8 that finished on Saturday, so instead of playing my Day 1 session on Sunday, I had to rest for a day and play the last Day 1 session on Monday. The problem with that is the last Day 1 session players don’t get a day off between Days 2 and 3, like the first two sessions do.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that the WSOP is over six weeks long, with 67 events before the ME. By the time the ME rolls around, full-time players have been playing very long days since the beginning of June and are pretty burned out. I even hear the kids complain sometimes. Players who come to town just for the ME are easy to spot—they are bouncing off the walls with energy, while the pros are dragging ass. But, the ME is the highlight of the year for most pros, and adrenaline goes a long way.
Management had increased the starting stack in the ME this year from 30k to 50k, while only skipping one level at the beginning. That meant this was going to be a very long slog to the November Nine. It also meant they needed to add an extra hour of play, making 11 total, on days 2 and 3. It was going to be a marathon!
To start Day 3, I was in the 5 seat. A fairly loose, aggressive Asian player from LA was in the 8. He limped up front and I called on the button with As9s. Both blinds were in also. The flop came 9-5-5. He bet, I called and the blinds folded. He led the turn and I made a small raise, to see where he was and probably get a free showdown. The river blanked, we both checked and he showed two queens! His limping would come into play later.
I bounced up and down until just before the dinner break. I raised in middle position to 10k with Qd9d, and got called by the button. The flop came Kd-Th-2d, giving me a flush draw, gut shot and over card. I bet 10k, planning to re-raise if he raised, but he called. The turn was the Jd, giving me the flush. I bet 25k and he called. The river was the 3d, putting a 4-flush on board. Damn. I checked and he bet 62k! I couldn’t find a fold, and called. He showed KQ offsuit. Turns out it was a good card! I went to dinner with 346k.
The player in the 7-seat got broke and was replaced by a funny, nice Israeli kid with a pretty good stack. He was involved in tons of pots, and had managed to pick up some chips and break a few players. He was 3-betting a lot of raises and being a general pain in the ass. I had busted a few short stacks, and got a guy to lay down what I’m pretty sure was AQ when I had AT on a A-J-5 board. The 8-seat had raised, this guy called and I called from the BB with AT. The 8-seat bet the flop for 12k, the other guy called, and I decided to raise to 40k and see if my hand was good. The 8-seat folded, but the other guy quickly called. Not good, I was almost sure he had a bigger ace. But the turn was a blank and I had to put him to the test for his last 60k. Thankfully he feared I had a set or AJ and folded, which is what they speculated that I had after the hand. I had almost 500k.”
The 7-seat continued to play many pots, and 3-bet with abandon. My goal at this point was to amass a really good stack, to get to where I could be a bully near bubble time, and he was in my way. I’ve always had the strategy that I can’t let a bully to my left get in my way and take me off my game. Bullies don’t like to be hit back, and I felt if I could smack him good he’d leave me alone. I’d been whittled down to about 460k when this key hand came up: at the 2500/5000 level I made it 12k in the hijack with Ac2c. The 7-seat on the button made it 30k on cue. I could have folded and maintained my stack, but we had almost 3 hours until the bubble, and I didn’t want to have to play super-tight until then. I was looking to go really deep, not just squeak into the money, and I thought if I hit this hand hard I might win a big pot and slow him down.
The flop came 8d-7c-2d. I checked and he bet 25k. There’s now 97k in the pot, and no way I can fold a pair to that bet. I called. The turn came the Qc, giving me the nut flush draw. I checked and he bet 65k. I strongly considered raising, but I had 8 nut outs, and probably 6 other winner outs, and if he put me all in I’d be in a very bad spot. I decided to flat call. The river came the 7h. He bet 140k. There’s now 417k in the pot. A bet that big in that spot is very polarized, meaning he either has a monster or nothing. I felt there was really something wrong with the whole hand. There were many missed draws or just plain bluffs he could have, compared to the number of monster hands, and I was getting 3-1 on the call. If I called and was right I’d have about 700k, well over twice average. After long deliberation I called and he showed me T-7 offsuit. Wow! So many weird things had to happen in that hand for me to lose that much. I was left with about 200k.
I had bounced up and down for a while and was still at about 200k and we were about 30 from the money. I was in shut down mode as far as stealing, as I probably couldn’t get a bully stack, when this hand came up: The Asian in the 8-seat limped up front for 5k. The player to his left made it 15k. I looked down at QQ. The 8-seat had limped 3 times that day—twice with queens and once with AK. Every other time he’d come in he’d raised. I wanted to find out where I was and made it 45k. When they both just called I knew I had the best hand and just needed to avoid an ace or king on the flop. Sure enough, the ace came right off, the 8-seat quickly bet and the other player and I quickly folded. The 8-seat showed AK. That hand hurt bad! If he misses the flop, and the other player doesn’t flop a set with what was almost surely 99-JJ, I’d have been at worst over 300k, and more if he paid off some bets.
I got down to about 120k, was about 20 from the money and the limit was about to go to 1k/3k/6k, or 19k per round. I probably could have blinded off and squeaked into the money with few chips left, but my mindset was to go deep and get to the serious money. It was folded to me on the button and I looked at AT. I made it 12k and my buddy in the 7-seat leaned over looked at my chips and made it 27k. I felt he was trying to bully a short stack near the money, as he should, and didn’t give him credit for a hand. I was wrong, as I found out when I moved in and he quickly called and showed me JJ. I lost the race and was done.
The ME was a microcosm of my whole WSOP. I’d been very close to some nice finishes but fell frustratingly short. I spent the next few days winding down, watching the British Open and endlessly going over the hands above in my mind. And screaming bad words a lot. I feel I played very well over the entire WSOP, including the ME. I don’t have a problem with the way I played any of the hands. I do feel that I could have shut down earlier, blinded into the money and gone from there, but that wasn’t my mindset and I think fatigue played a part in my not thinking clearly about that.
The day you get knocked out of the ME is always a horrible day. This year particularly so. It’s going to take a while to get over this one. Poker tournaments are a tough sport!
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Great details on key hands, Blair. As they say – there’s always next year or next time!
I’ve been playing poker on and off at low limits, some daily low-buy in tournaments, and really appreciate the ‘art’ of NL-tournament play. Thanks for the blog/posts. I’ve even played in a deepstack (20K chips!) for a very low fee – in Laughlin (C. Belle!). For low-limit/tourney players, this is a nice experience! Actually, for most poker players, I think more starting chips generally allows you to ‘play’ poker!
Martin
“Management had increased the starting stack in the ME this year from 30k to 50k, while only skipping one level at the beginning.” So this is why the leader’s stack (Josephy) at 74,600,000 is the largest since the November Nine format was started. Apples to apples it’s more like 45K, which isn’t spectacular in comparison to previous MEs?
Nice run at the Series this year Mr. Rodman. I have to comment about that As2s hand you described. You have possibilities with that hand pre-flop but after the flop hit I think you should have folded to maintain your stack. When the Qc hits the turn is where I got a little confused because you talk about having the nut flush draw but you described club and diamond cards hitting the board up until 4th street, and your holding 2 spades. I will assume that you had 2 clubs, is that correct? You could have bluffed when the Q hit being first to act having such a draw, or check raised him 3 times his raise to all-in when he bet as you describe. Since he hit middle pair on the flop and was likely to bet having position on you I don’t think you had enough value to continue at that point in the hand. Either way I don’t think the hand should have gotten to that point. You still would have had a good amount of chips before you ran into those QQ’s later on.
Picked up those QQ’s rather.
You’re right. It should have read Ac2c. I think the flop call was automatic. It was a small bet and he certainly doesn’t have to have me beat. If the turn hadn’t been a club I would have had an easy fold. After calling the 65k on the turn I still had 340k, plenty of chips. For the reasons stated, i don’t think raising was correct. It was the river bet that didn’t make sense. I’ve made many calls in spots like that and been right, Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those times.
I don’t comprehend that the idea “I want to go deep” should make you bust out just short of the money. You make the money, you get a pretty decent payoff when compared to…nothing, which is what you get when you kamikaze your way into the bubble. With an M about to drop to 6, you should have been realistic: i.e., that an in-the-money finish was the best you could realistically hope for. I have a bunch of poker-playing friends who are always asking me for lunch money because their egos won’t let them accept small payoffs. Finishing 600th or whatever in the money is VASTLY better than busting out, out of the money. For one thing, you’ve recovered enough money to enter two or three events next year. Not trivial!
Re the A2 hand: that “hero call” was only justified if your premise was correct–that your opponent’s hand was “polarized.” But that wasn’t the case, as there were plenty of modest-strength holdings that he could have value bet on the river. The only calculation that was relevant was his bluff percentage vs. pot odds. And given your stack size and your likelihood (at that time) of making the money, I don’t think such a high-variance play as your hero call was warranted even if it WAS +EV (and i doubt that it was). Once again, the detriment to your chances of making the money was not offset by the potential increase in your chip stack. You would have been only slightly better off, in that your tournament equity would have gone up by maybe 5% had you won the pot–and it probably decreased by 50% when you lost it.
Yeah, I’ve been kicking myself constantly for not blinding into the money. It was a mistake. But, like I said above, I was very tired and sleep deprived, and fatigue makes you do funny things
As to the A2 hand, my read on the player was that he was very capable of firing 3 barrels as a bluff, but I didn’t think he’d make that river bet, which was a big bet for him too, without a big hand. He’d checked in that spot a few times earlier. Had I been right, I would have been chip leader at the table, with over twice avg chips, and with the bubble not too far away I would have been in a position to dominate the bubble. I’ve picked up a lot of chips picking off bluffs, I just happened to be wrong this time. But, I can’t imagine putting in the last 140k decreased my equity by 50%, and I think getting to 700k was worth much more than 5%
Knowing that you raised with the A2 hand and the button re-raised 6X the big blind to make it $30K I was curious to know what hands were you ranging your opponent on? It was a deceptive raise no doubt but when your opponent seen the flop, it seemed like he was betting the relative strength of his hand (middle pair) to see where you were at in the hand, betting roughly less than half the pot to coax you into a call.
I was curious to know your opponents chip stack but from what you mentioned, he must have been slightly ahead.
He had around 575-600k. He’d been incredibly active, probably being involved in 40-50% of the hands in the 60-90 minutes he’d been there. I gave him a range of all pairs, any suited ace or king, A7+, KT+, Q9+, 34s+, 46s+, 58s+, 56+. Obviously, even that range wasn’t wide enough. On that flop, I’m sure he would continuation bet with his entire range, with the exception that he might slowplay a monster like a set. If you’re going to fold to a 1/3 pot bet in that spot when you have a pair, you’re going to get run over. BTW, about 1/3 pot on the flop seems to be the standard right now.
I like check raising all in with the A2cc as a semi bluff. It is a massive overbet, but how can he call with less than an overpair