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