{"id":3922,"date":"2016-07-19T13:58:48","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T20:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamblingwithanedge.com\/?p=3922"},"modified":"2023-06-21T10:57:25","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T17:57:25","slug":"story-wsop-demise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/story-wsop-demise\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of my WSOP Demise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t get a day off between Days 2 and 3, like the first two sessions do.<\/p>\n

What a lot of people don\u2019t 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\u2014they 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.<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t find a fold, and called. He showed KQ offsuit. Turns out it was a good card! I went to dinner with 346k.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m 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.”<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve always had the strategy that I can\u2019t let a bully to my left get in my way and take me off my game. Bullies don\u2019t like to be hit back, and I felt if I could smack him good he\u2019d leave me alone. I\u2019d 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

The flop came 8d-7c-2d. I checked and he bet 25k. There\u2019s 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\u2019d be in a very bad spot. I decided to flat call. The river came the 7h. He bet 140k. There\u2019s 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\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019d come in he\u2019d 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\u2019t flop a set with what was almost surely 99-JJ, I\u2019d have been at worst over 300k, and more if he paid off some bets.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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.
\nThe ME was a microcosm of my whole WSOP. I\u2019d 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\u2019t 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\u2019t my mindset and I think fatigue played a part in my not thinking clearly about that.<\/p>\n

The day you get knocked out of the ME is always a horrible day. This year particularly so. It\u2019s going to take a while to get over this one. Poker tournaments are a tough sport!<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2,1,15,685],"tags":[752,751,765,762,286,764,771,767,772,768,763,272,766,757,245,770,656,758,769,760,748,761,175,745,756,186,747,200,210],"yoast_head":"\nThe Story of my WSOP Demise - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/story-wsop-demise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Story of my WSOP Demise - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I went into Day 3 with 167,300, a little above average. 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