WSOPE £1500

Managed to bag myself a place in the £1500 buy in WSOPE opening event. So it was back from Spain and repack the bags and head off down to the big smoke for a few days of fun with the big boys.

I was playing in day 1b on the Saturday and having read the reports from the Friday it was clear that half of Vegas had already arrived in London and the field was packed with "T.V poker faces" .... Ivey, Hellmuth, Negreanu etc etc etc.

The clock was 60mins but only 6k in starting chips and 25/50 opening blinds meant that there was a bit of play before things got lively.

Nothing much happened for the 1st two levels, I was drawn on a table on the balcony level overlooking the main "pit" where the majority of tables were situated. I was feeling a bit crappy and found myself easily distracted by the circus behind me.



I'd drifted down to just below 5k when I got very lucky in level 3. With the blinds at 100-200 i pick up JJ in the SB facing a single early position raiser who made it 600 to go. He dwells and flat calls my re-raise to 1500. The flat call throws me a bit so I'm guessing 99-QQ maybe AK/AQ The flop comes a bag full of spanners 4c 7c 8s and he bets about 1800.

Now i've only got about 3300 behind .... no room to manoeuvre so I ship the lot. He thinks I've got more than I have and dwells again. When he finally figures out how much it is to play he shrugs and says "I guess I've got to call then" flipping QQ

Oops...I'm heading for an early bath until the turn drops a 9 and river hits middle pin Ten making my Jack high straight. I think the lack of any luck whatsoever in cash games is getting balanced out in the odd live MTT recently.


I then make steady progress through the levels when I get moved at level 5 to a new table with about 11k. The new table is in the pit area and I feel much better. Not sure if it was the move or the ensuing rush of cards that cheer me up but before long I'm motoring towards 30k with AK holding twice vs AQ and once again vs TT along with a flopped set of sixes.

We break for dinner for 2 hours with just 2 hours more to play in the day and I'm on about 28k.

The last two hours went a little slow and again I wasn't feeling on top form. In the end I took it easy and returned for day two with 26.5k in chips.

The combined day ones yielded 410 players and 88 came back for day 2 with I was placed in about 38th with 45 paid. 1st collects about £150k and 45th about £3k.

Managed a good nights sleep and felt good and was looking forward to day 2. I'd been drawn on a table of big stacks and my 26k was 6th on my table where it would have been 1st or 2nd on several of the other tables. Obviously this is good if aiming to go deep.

I pick my 1st decent pot up within 5mins when I limp the SB with 4d7d and the BB decided to show me who's boss... I call his raise and see a flop of Q 7 6 ... I check and he bets 4k into a 7k pot. It just stinks of him trying to push me around with air so I call and bet out on a 5 turn and he passes.

Two mins later I pick up KK in mid position John Kabbage opens for 2500 (blinds 500/1000) and it's re-raised to 9k before I act. Can't really flat call here so I ship it in hoping he's coming for a ride with AK or QQ but they both pass.

At this point I'm up to about 39k and manage to completely fuck up. I raise with 4c5c from mid pos and John Kabbage flat calls from the BB. I like the 2s3s4s flop but end up getting far too much involved against Johns Qs9s. This sees me down to about 20k. I'm scrambling between 15 and 20k for a while with the blinds at 600-1200 when the short stack to my right jams for about 10k. I've got pocket 9s and I'm not passing in late pos so move in. Unfortunately the SB wakes up with KK and we go three ways all in with the shortie showing AQ.

No help for me and an ace on the river sees me packing my bags and heading back north in about 65th place.

Bit gutted to be honest, I know you can't win them all but to come close to cashing in a WSOPE and falling at the final hurdle .. especially when I could have got away from the 45 hand for about 12k less than i did do. You live and learn, and it was fun to mix it up with the super stars of poker and go pretty deep.

Not sure what's next, got the Betfair live game in October in Brum but may have to try a trip to DTD before long. The December DTD Anniversary festival is definitely looking like one not to miss.

Think the live bug has got me :)

Cheers,

Jim

Ship it.....

....and ship it out again!


Here's a slightly bemused picture of me picking up the £10,000 1st prize for winning the £300 FO at the DTD August Deepstack festival.




Nice huh? 2nd DTD win within a few weeks and my last 3 visits have gone 2nd 1st 1st! Thinking of moving to Nottingham.

The only trouble was I'd sold 50% on in advance. It seemed like a good idea at the time, honestly. To be fair if I'd not sold on the % I prob would not have played as we were in York on the Friday for Ebor.. of course that was rained off so a 13 hour pub crawl replaced the racing. Then on Saturday morning I had to drive to Manchester to pick Jack up from his grandmas... then drive back to Leamington .... then grab 40min kip and drive to Nottingham still feeling slightly woolly. Hardly the greatest preparation and if I'd not had backers I'd have sacked it i think.

Anyway, 92 runners stumped up the £300 and the field was looking rather tasty with the likes of Lucy Rokach, Micky Wernick, Julian Thew and Lawrence Gosney all coming along for the ride.

The structure was good, with 10K starting chips and 45min clock. Don't think I played a hand for about 30mins then managed to double up within the last 15mins of the 1st level with a succession of decent hands getting paid off...

AsKs vs middle set that didn't bet enough on the flop and called too much on the river with a Ts 4s 2d Js board.

Someone who can't lay TT down on a QQRRR board with me holding AQ.

I mean come on!! Level one of a deepstack event with 200BB and I'm getting paid off like this!!

Things didn't slow down, although I managed to get away from Jacks and Kings pretty cheap when it was obvious I was behind. By the end of level 3 i'm on about 28k.

Levels 4 and 5 were really slow, just kept reminding myself to be patient and my patience paid off when I raised on the button with A8 and pick up a call from a mid position limper. A bingo flop of K 8 8 sees matey boy check jam and flip over KJ for a 10k pot. He was pretty disgusted and mildly insulting.... "I'd say nice hand but that's bollox" was the quote i think :)

Very next hand I'm all in vs a short stack with KK vs AJ for another 8k pot. All this keeps me around the 30k mark give or take.

I then get moved to a much tougher table. I've got bracelet winner Lawrence Gosney two to my left and on the other side of the table is a guy from Cumbria who knows Hawko and favourite trick was to re-jam any raise with any two cards. He'd already pulled off this trick successfully with Jack Rag vs AQ for a monster pot and was playing about 70% of hands. I sat quiet for a while taking it all in and dipped to about 23k in chips.

I pick up a big 3 way pot vs a short stack and Cumbria boy with QsTs on a Js 8s X board when I river the required spade. Cumbria boy passes to my bet on the end and I nearly muck my cards forgetting the side pot and the all in shortie...doh!

My mate Barry Neville is railing Gosney after busting out early.. I wave but I don't think he remembered me :o)

I pick another pot with a turned set of 8s vs top pair and finish the day at the end of level 9 on a healthy 50k with ave begin about 34k with 26 players left...9 paid.

Back for day two and in good spirits and waste no time motoring up to about 170k in chips after getting the hump with Cumbria boys rejams and finally making a call with AK that held up vs Jack Rag. I manage to eliminate him a little later with QdTd on a Qs 4d 6d flop... I bet he raises I push and he calls drawing thin to dead with Jd 9d!

I then took a couple of hits including a fairly brutal all in on the turn vs a med-short stack for a 90k pot with me holding J 9 and him J Q on a 9 T 7 .... he called my flop bet and we both shipped it on a nasty 8s turn! Not much I can do there i think.

Sat at the final table with about 120k. Rather worrying that Julian Thew was chip lead with about 200k. We were down to 8 when I made a huge call with QQ. UTG +1 raises to about 10k (blinds were about 1200-2400 I think) get another early pos caller. The next guy jams for about 85k..... I'm in late pos thinkin WTF!! UGT+1 looks none too happy and I think they are both passing. I had a good long dwell and basically can't put him on AA or KK. So AK or TT-QQ... so I've got most of his range crushed. To be honest I put him on JJ. If he did have AK the chance were high that the early raisers had 2 or 3 of his outs.... so I pushed all in.

Every one else passes and he flips AKos ... not ideal but my mood brightens a little when UTG+1 says that he also binned AK. 5 bricks later and I'm chip lead. I'm pretty good at working my way through a final table from a good position and the game plan was to try and get HU and take it from there.... managed to maintain my stack picking off one or two of the short stacks while one other guy hit some monster hands to motor into the chip lead.

I finally get heads up with him and he's got 770,000 to my 150,000. He offers a deal but I refuse :)

I figured out early doors that his HU game was poor. He overbet everything.... so he won lots of small pots and I won the big ones. Once we got about equal in chips he slowed down and I took advantage of the fear and had him down to about 90k when I let him off the hook. I jammed with A8 and he wins with AQ... next hand he makes a tough call with A2 on a Q 2 T A Q board when I jam on the end with a missed flush draw.... silly i know but there was a reason.

This sees him back up to about 370k. I have a think and go back to plan A.... before long he's back down to less than 100k and i make a standard check call to holding J4 to his all in push with KJ on a 6 4 2 flop. No King and I win my first decent sized live MTT :)

Happy Days!

I feel a holiday coming on... plan after that is maybe play the £1.5k WSOPE event.. if I don't make that then the £500 GALA POKER TOUR Liverpool leg is the same weekend with £5k added and all the names at the WSOPE it could hold some value.



On a side note i'm so fked off cash games I'm never playing another one!!!

Lose with AT on a A T T flop!!
Crazy 3 way all in flop
Crack Aces... erm nope
All in PF AA vs 33
KK on a K Q Q flop... can't lose this one...can I?
I'll name that river in one

I've got another 15 of those all within a day or two... obv by this time I'm steaming and tilt it all in with Ace high on this one.... amazingly I'm in front but...

STEAMING..FIND DOG- KICK -and repeat


Still ...Happy Days!! :)

Good Luck,

Jim