Tag Archives: WSOP

Poker

My Three WSOP Trips

I’ve made three trips to Las Vegas over the last few years, each with the intent of playing in the World Series Poker. Before I delve into each trip, just a few notes about just how awesome the World Series of Poker is.

Being able to play in the World Series of Poker is a lot of fun and definitely a must for anyone who plays poker. While its expensive, there are ways to get into events without paying full price. And attendance is few anyway if you just want to be a fan. But playing in the World Series of Poker lets you play among the true greats in the game. I can’t go to a NBA game and play against LeBron James. I can’t go to a NFL game and play against Tom Brady. But I can sit at a WSOP poker table and potentially play against Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu. I can also have a ringside seat…again for free…and watch final tables (or not even) of WSOP bracelet events. It’s pretty cool standing there, watching the 10K HORSE event with about 12 tables in place, watching all the great players I’ve watched on TV over the years play.

And of course there’s always the chance, slim as it may be, of winning that WSOP bracelet for myself. Over the years a lot of people have said that winning a WSOP bracelet doesn’t have the prestige it once was. Two reasons why: there are many other big poker tournament series all over the world now and there are 60+ bracelet events a year, plus another 10 or so in Asia or Europe (quick point on the 2nd point, I kinda disagree with this as there are way more poker players overall. So there are double the bracelet events than 12 years ago. The player pool has probably increased 5 or 6 fold in some events). But I don’t care. Each year I hope I can get lucky enough to win the event I plan on playing.

So, here are short stories about my three Vegas WSOP trips.

2013

I didn’t really think about the 2013 WSOP until March of that year actually. I was in the first year of my professional job. I had a weekend off and decided to travel to Foxwoods to play the Omaha 8 WSOP Circuit event. It was only my 3rd live tournament (still sadly mourning the days of Pokerstars and Full Tilt, although I never played big stakes there anyway) and while I was still playing with basically scared money I had played my way to the Final Table. Unfortunately, the $12,000 1st place prize eluded me as I continued to play afraid and basically got blinded out with a bad call along the way. Still, a live Final Table, 8th place, $1,300 and a chance to play with a professional (Ylon Schwartz) did give me some confidence after some reflection. I decided to target the $1,500 HORSE event (I always liked the limit games, and I couldn’t go broke in one hand which would have devastated me) at the WSOP that year. I thought there was some cool coincidences along the way as Schwartz actually won the $1,500 HORSE in 2012. A bigger coincidence would come up in Vegas actually.

It should be noted that I’ve never flown before and I was quite nervous about that. Once I got through that (I still hate flying) I’ll never forget just how hot it was when I went outside. Despite that I hate the heat, the dry heat didn’t bother me that much. I rode in a cab and was amazed at the big lights for all the big casinos that I’ve only heard of before. I was amazed that I was amazed actually, since living in New York means I go to Times Square pretty much all the time. Well, now I understood how those who’ve visited Times Square for the first time felt. Even though I got there at night I decided to walk to the Rio from my hotel (the Clarion, it was a bit of a walk but I did not care. I was excited). I’ll never forget walking into the Rio Convention Center. I felt like I was home. Tables everywhere. All I heard were the sounds of chips clashing against one another. I walked around some more and saw some tournaments going on. I knew I had to get some sleep since the HORSE was the next day. But I was excited.

The $1,500 HORSE event didn’t go well for me. I was quite card dead and ultimately lost a Stud hand where I had 10h, 9h, 8h, 7h in my first five cards. I finished somewhere in the middle of the field. I was disappointed (and at first, quite bothered as that was the biggest poker tournament I had ever played up until that point) but I didn’t feel outclassed or anything. That night though I decided to sit in the stands and watch Mike Matusow win his 4th gold bracelet. Mike’s one of my favorite poker players of all time, so that was a cool experience for me. If you watch his Pokernews interview with Kristy Arnett, you can kinda see me in the background with a green basketball jersey on.

Throughout the day I was still in astonishment. I remember the first top level pro I walked by (Michael Mizrachi) and was just another fan as I saw all these guys all over the Rio. Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth etc.

Anyway, I was off to the Binion’s Poker Classic the next day and…to the surprise of myself for sure, decided to walk it. I don’t understand how I was able to walk three miles in 110 degree heat. I had a lot of later and don’t find dry heat that bad I guess. Anyway, 80 people put up $200 to play Omaha 8. I was pretty card dead and played way too tight (not out of fear though, I just thought that made sense and this strategy did get me to the Final Table in March). I also made a really bad mistake in misreading my hand once, and also lost a half of a big pot on a two outer. I was down to a half a bet at dinner. I got pretty lucky to get back to about 3.5 bets (A-3-8-8 over A-2-10-J), was able to double up a couple of more times and then suddenly loosened up (any fear that I may have had went away when I was down to a half a bet). I remember playing really well when we were down to 20; making good re-raises and bluffs. I was among the chipleaders as we got to the Final Table. A few things I remember. There was a player at the table who had a big stack for what seemed like forever that tried to run over everyone. I got in a good trap on him to get a lot of my chips. Later I found out that this player had a 2nd place in a WSOP PLO 8 event a few years prior. Another player was a tigher, older man who had hit the two outer on me a lot earlier. He was tough to get chips from. Also at the table was that big coincidence I wrote of earlier: Brian Scholl. Scholl has also been at the Final Table back at Foxwoods and I thought it was a crazy coincidence that we were both in this tournament. He had won the event at Foxwoods. I won a huge pot against him at the Final Table (my A-3-4-5 against his A-2-3-4 on A-6-K board). The hand is significant as I was able to get past the mistakes I made at Foxwoods (being too conservative). I had the chiplead after this and eventually went heads up with Brian, where I caught better overall and won the event. Scholl was a great sport too, taking my victory picture and congratulating me. First was also $4,300, so I was pretty pumped that my first trip through Vegas meant I was coming up with a profit. It also meant a lot to me that I won an event in the same building where legends like Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan had won tournaments. It was also 17 hours long.

I played a little cash the next day to try that out (lost $100). I watched the Final Table of the event I came to play in the first place (another favorite of mine, Tom Schneider won). I went home counting the days till I could come back.

2014

I didn’t cash in anything else from the Omaha 8 event at Binion’s until my 2014 trip. I had played when I could and trying to get better. Unfortunately, I had an air of over-confidence. I played a few smaller events before the $1,500 HORSE this year. Two at the Golden Nugget (I think it was an Omaha 8/Stud 8 split and a HORSE) and I think another Omaha 8 at Binion’s. The only things I remember there was that the Binion’s poker room wasn’t used for poker anymore and we played downstairs, and that I ended up at the same table as someone twice. Also, Gavin Smith was playing at Binion’s which was pretty cool too. I struck out in all three events and really wasn’t focused on them. For some reason I thought it come to me. My focus did return for the $1,500 HORSE event though.

There’s a lot of things I’ll never forget about the $1,500 HORSE event on Day 1. For one, I was a table away from both Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey and even Phil Ivey’s stare can be intimidating from there. Jesse Sylvia, a runner-up of the WSOP Main Event, complimented my Nintendo hat and was pretty cool to talk to. I played some Stud hands with former WSOP World Champion Tom McEvoy. Two players were criticizing a Stud 8 play of mine when I got them both to put bets in when I had the high and the low (and I was confident I played it correctly, which only gave me confidence). I re-raised Jan Fisher when I had nothing to win a hand in Omaha 8. I had a pretty good run of cards overall. And I had a Top 5 chipstack (or close. Top 10 for sure) about 7 hours in. Unfortunately, I got tired as well, spewed many chips and barely made Day 2. I was excited to make Day 2, but with a small stack I didn’t get far. Cashing was top 80 and I finished approximately 144th. I was pretty disappointed overall with how I played.

2015

I had actually started watching Jason Somerville in early 2014 and I slowly was working on my NLH game. I had Final Tabled a small tournament at the Borgata in late 2014. In 2015 I decided I would play the $1,500 Stud 8 as scheduling only permit me to go to the WSOP during that week. I thought about going to play a NLH, but still wasn’t sure about how I’d feel playing a No Limit tournament with huge buy-ins. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I played two small events at the Borgata a couple weeks prior. I played really well in both. I just got knocked out of the money in the first event as a four to one favorite of being close to the chiplead, and I cashed the 2nd and got KOed on my AK vs. J9. But overall I thought I played great in both events. It gave me to confidence to try playing a couple of 1K No Limits at the WSOP. I played a $1,000 NLH, the $1,111 Little One For One Drop and the $1,500 Stud 8. I played some smaller events as well.

I do regret playing the $1Ks though. I clearly wasn’t ready for them and busting out early in the first 1K…which was my first day in Vegas, put me in a mindset that wasn’t good. I didn’t play anything well until the very last event. I blew a good position in a small Omaha Hi tournament at Planet Hollywood. I busted out early in the Little One. I played poorly in the HORSE at Binions. I felt defeated right after Day 1 for some reason. I remember playing the Stud 8 and playing terribly the whole time.

I finally did get into gear in the last event on my schedule: a $400, 200K GTD at Planet Hollywood. I was able to cash in the event, although I recognize mistakes I made along the way. Still, I felt like I could play better and there were definitely paths to winning these events.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the 2016 WSOP but I am confident. Since the 2015 WSOP I’ve made two Final Tables in small events. I’m happier in my personal life than I’ve been in a while and I think that’s going to lead me into playing great. I finally get to play the $1,500 WSOP Omaha 8 event as well. Maybe this will be my year?

 

Poker

Five Great Poker Hands

No rhyme or reason to this one. These are just ten televised poker hands I find quite interesting for one reason or another. I’ll write a bit about each.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fasssBgF0kw

Doyle Brunson Makes a Big Fold Against Chip Reese – 2006 WSOP 50K HORSE Final Table

This blew my mind at the time, and still kinda does actually. Stacks are unknown, but both had to be fairly deep (I think Chip was a big chip leader) for this to play out like it did. Obviously they are playing No Limit Hold’em here.

Both are in mid position. Doyle Brunson makes it $70,000 to go, which is 3.5x the big blind (huge by today’s standards) with two queens. Chip Reese smooth calls with Kings, tricky, tricky. Norman Chad here makes a comment that Doyle should know Chip has Kings here, albeit sarcastically. David Singer as the button also calls with two sixes.

Flop comes 2-3-7 rainbow. Doyle makes it $220,000 (about a pot sized bet, again big by today’s standards, but this was the norm of the old guard). Chip min-raises to $440,000. Singer folds. Facing about 4 to 1 (he has to call $220,000 to win $924,000) folds! Again it was insane to see this at the time. No one at the table believe Doyle had queens.

This hand to me showed how important it is to know your opponent. When you’ve been playing someone for thirty years, I guess you pick up on things like this. Still insane to see someone fold Queens in that spot though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzm_krm_njc

Johnny Chan Perfectly Reads Huck Seed – Poker After Dark

I’m not sure which Poker After Dark it is (although I assume it’s a WSOP Main Event Champions episode, seeing as all five players here have accomplished that feat).

It’s five handed and Johnny Chan raises three times the big blind in second position with AA. Joe Hachem calls from the small blind with KQ and Seed from the big blind with 66. All reasonable so far. Seed flops gin: Jacks Full of Sixes. It gets checked around, which isn’t too crazy I guess. Hachem has nothing, Seed is trying to trap Chan (in hopes that Chan has a big pair or a Jack, he did raise pre afterall) and Chan could be slowplaying his Aces, risky as that sounds (hard to connect with 6JJ board afterall).

Turn is a three and now the hand gets a little weird. Hachem checks and Seed checks again, but Chan checks a second time as well. The river is a deuce and Seed makes a pot sized bet…to which Chan (and Hachem obviously) fold instantly. How the heck did Chan check-check-fold AA correctly on this board? I have guesses (probably incorrect because what the heck do I know about the playing tendencies of Huck Seed and Johnny Chan?!) but it’s probably down to some kind of live tell Chan picked up on Seed.

I learned here too to never get too attached to your cards. Johnny Chan picks up the moneymaker, AA, and loses the bare minimum!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooQVTXZJWpo

‘Phil Hellmuth Makes a Great Call Against Hoyt Corkins – 2005 WSOP Tournament of Champions

Not a lot of information here, but in the blinds Phil Hellmuth called the small blind with KT, and Hoyt Corkins made it $40,000 with QJ (not sure how big of a raise that is, my guess is that it was 5x, and he made it $40,000 more). It’s safe to assume about $112,000 is in the pot, based off of the pot size given on the river.

Flop comes 9-8-9 and Hellmuth checks in the dark. Hoyt checks back. I don’t think this check back is good particularly, which I’ll get into afterwards. The turn comes a 7 and Hellmuth bets $45,000 with his new straight draw. Corkins calls it and an 8 hits the river. Hellmuth checks and Corkins fires $60,000, making the pot $268,000 (according to the video). Hellmuth only has to be right a small percentage of the time here ($60,000 to win $268,000!), and he calls correctly. Hoyt says he thought he represented an ace the whole way. I don’t know if he would have checked the flop if that was the case, especially considering his aggressive nature overall.

There’s history here. Hellmuth lost to Corkins back at Foxwoods in 2003, complaining that Corkins was”Mr. Move All-In”. Corkins was similarly aggressive at this table as well, and I think that tipped Hellmuth off to what was going on here as well. Obviously not great analysis, but the best I can make given the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgti435OzUE

Gus Hansen calls all-in…with 10 high?! – WPT Season 1 Bad Boys of Poker (2003)

Even though poker may have passed Gus Hansen by (he’s been described as a very good player constantly taking on the great players), there is no doubt he provided a totally different strategy in regards to winning poker tournaments. Hansen’s success from 2002 through 2007 was ridiculous, with four major No Limit Hold’em Titles (three WPTs, the 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event). It also led to him trying out different things, as this hand shows.

With four players left Antonio Esfandiari makes it $29,000 (blinds are $6,000-$12,000) in second position. Hansen makes it $100,000 to go in the small blind.  The Magician (Esfandiari for anyone who doesn’t know) moves in for $434,000. So, Hansen has to call $334,000 to win $559,000. Not good odds at all.

The crazy thing is Gus did call, obviously putting Antonio on the small pair he had or some A-x (10-8 suited isn’t that bad against, say, A-6). Of course, he would have to be right about Antonio’s range 100% of the time to make this play acceptable, and even then it’s questionable. What if the A-x was A-8? What if it was A-J? My guess here is Hansen made the original raise to $100,000 because he though Antonio was on a steal (which is fine), but when he saw Antonio think and think and then shove, he figured it wasn’t a monster hand at that point. Add into this that Gus knows that Antonio knows that Gus in 2003 was a lunatic, and that $100,000 raise didn’t mean anything (for example, he has 10-8 here!). But the call is still pretty crazy.

Of course Gus flopped an 8 and ended up winning the whole thing. Never be afraid to try things out is what i learned here. If you think it’s right, then go with it. Either you’ll learn you are wrong or you’ll discover something other players are lacking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZapeVYeUFo

Cory Zeidman gets lucky against Jennifer Harman – 2005 WSOP Main Event

Once again we are missing  a lot of information, but I assume here the blinds are 25-50, it’s Day 1 of the main event for sure. Harman makes it 200 with QQ. Zeidman calls with 98dd. Brady Davis calls as well with A6 off, but he’s irrelevant to the hand really.

It comes TJQ rainbow, which for the most part seems great for both Harman and Zeidman. Both hands are vulnerable though, but still. Harman bets 500 into about 600, and Zeidman quickly makes it 2,000. Harman looks pained as she makes the call. She probably has a clue at this point she could be up against a monster hand (or is acting, either one). The turn is the 10 of diamonds, giving Zeidman a gutshot straight flush draw to go along with this straight…but little does Zeidman know he’s up against Queens Full.

Jen checks and Zeidman bets a small $1,000 (a defensive bet if I ever saw one. He made it $2,000 to go last round!). Harman makes it $3,000 to go, prompting Zeidman to actually say “I think you might have Ace-King”. This right here tells Harman exactly what Zeidman has here (well almost, it’s either K-9 or 9-8). Remember, Zeidman showed a lot of strength on the flop too. He obviously wouldn’t be scared of AK if he had JJ or TT here.

The river is the 7 of diamonds, giving Zeidman the unlikely straight flush. Now perhaps it is impossible that Harman can check fold here, but is there really anything else Zeidman can have here? Just look at his demeanor change when that card hits. When Zeidman calls the all-in bet (after some unnecessary talk), Harman says she knew he had that hand. Honestly, I bet she did too.

It’s an interesting hand because if this was a deeper stack tournament, I think Harman can actually get away from this. It’s amazing that a player such as Zeidman, who would later win a WSOP Bracelet, exhibits so many tells regarding one hand.

Anyway, those are my random thoughts on some hands. I’ll perhaps do this again at some point.