1. 2009-06-13 01:11:45

   WSOP Event #13 $2500 NL Holdem - 120th place out of 1088 - 117 pay

   So as the title suggests, I played Event #13 on June 5th and 6th. I wanted to write something up on it just to show how few things have to happen to get you to the money in one of these events.

   The blinds started at 25/50 and we had 7500 in chips to start (150 BB). Which is a very nice, very deep stack to start. The blinds went up every hour and, unlike some events, there was even a 75/150 round making the 5th round the first time antes were introduced instead of the 4th like most events in the past.

   I played pretty tight as one might expect until a hand where I was under the gun in level two. I told myself if I got AK or better, I was going to limp because every pot was getting raises and callers at my table. I looked down at and did just that...limped. another limper and then a guy who had just shown himself to be a bit wild and crazy raised to 450 and everyone else folded around to me. Now I could easily have 3bet here, but I decided that playing small ball was my best chance to go far in the tournament, so I just called and the other guy did too.

   The flop came . Beautiful. I checked and the overcaller checked. The preflop raiser/crazy guy led out for a reasonable 800. I naturally check raised him to 2300. The other guy folded and he thought for less than two seconds and nonchalantly put in two thirds of his stack up to a bet of 4500. I didn't really know what to think because most people would do this holding KK or AA, but having just seen him prove himself to be a wild player, I calmly shoved all-in. Luckily he didn't call immediately and after thinking for over three minutes, finally mucked his hand. He must have had nothing at all to fold to four to one odds there.

   So now my stack was up to almost 12k, well above average at this point. From there I played selective pots and won every single showdown I was in, including 3 huge bluffs that worked. My stack reached over 17k when the average was 10k.

   From then on (about 6 hours of play) my cards were HORRIBLE. I just kept hovering around 15k to 17k until the average stack surpassed me and the blinds were getting huge. I got to a point where it started making sense to just all in or fold, so I did. I shoved maybe 12 times and never got callers. This including QQ twice, AA once, and TT once. I guess the bad card run I had made me look super tight so nobody was calling me. I also took the blinds with hands like K4s and JTs and K4o.

   Unfortunately I ended the night with only 16k and the blinds about to hit 600/1200 with 100 antes. Giving me about 6 revolutions of chips. At least I made day 2 yay! At this point there were 180 players left, 63 from the money.

   Despite my dire situation, the next day I stayed positive and patient. I stole the blinds a couple times up to over 20k and finally got in the small blind after a raise and a button call. I shoved it in and fortunately the raiser folded a medium pair and the button called me with to double me up. I was feeling good at 45k, but proceeded to go card dead from there. I dwindled back down to around 30k and there were 121 players left in the tourney, 4 from the money. Another player dropped and I started thinking about just blinding to the money because my stack was so short that I didn't have much of a chance to go further anyways. I ultimately decided against that and as I looked down at , I raised and then called when the big blind shoved (he had just doubled up from a tiny stack to just over my stack size.) He showed . The flop was giving him all kinds of new outs. The turn was and I sat down feeling good. This was only to see the hit the river :(. Sigh. I finished in 120th place and was very upset about it.

   All in all I played freaking great, but was very disappointed with the result. At least I got to go watch Stephen climb his way a decent ways into the money.

   My main point for posting this is to show that all I did was get one big hand and ship it in. Then make a few good river bluffs and calls. Then shove all in about 24 times and I was 3 from the money in a WSOP event. :) I really played very few hands overall and look how close I got. Definitely left me feeling encouraged for the next one on the 18th. I think I want to get involved in a few more hands early this time, but otherwise going to play about the same. Wish me luck! Good luck to you guys as well.

   Posted by WeezerMoo at 2009-06-13 01:11:45

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Comments on “WSOP Event #13 $2500 NL Holdem - 120th place out of 1088 - 117 pay”

1. • Posted by Jason M g 2009-06-17 06:46:22
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   • Kick some ass on Thursday Jeff!!!!!!! (You too, Stephen). BTW, my captcha was A26T (double-suited, I'm sure) = winner

2. • Posted by BayAreaBoss g 2009-06-17 03:16:59
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   • Of course, i don't think this was your first WSOP and you I'm guessing you could afford to do that so your not playing scared, afraid of being knocked out.

3. • Posted by BayAreaBoss g 2009-06-17 03:15:39
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   • You must have quite a bit of skill and confidence to be able to shove 12 times and not be called. I don't know if i'd be able to do that on my first WSOP. But hats off to the near money finish out of a 1088 field. Good luck on the 2k tourney on the 18th.

4. • Posted by WeezerMoo g 2009-06-16 05:46:36
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   • Would have been just over 4900...almost double the buyin. Stephen got to 88th for a couple pay levels up to 57xx.

5. • Posted by FREMONTkyle g 2009-06-16 03:41:07
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   • what was the first pay out if you had squeaked in?

6. • Posted by Jason M g 2009-06-15 18:51:15
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   • Great post, Jeff. I wish the sevens would have worked out for ya - you deserve to go deep in one of these. Good luck next time, and thanks for the insights. It will motivate me to stay patient and not spew my chips around early on like I did last year.

7. • Posted by Krishna (unverified) g 2009-06-13 19:43:31
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   • Good post.
     I like the way you played for the win instead of sneaking into cash.

8. • Posted by Tony Gags g 2009-06-13 16:35:32
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   • Reallly good post. Gives me some insperation for this Tues. I like the idea of getting more involved early in some spots vs weaker players since your gonna need to accumulate a ton of chips in these huge fields, especially since they start with 4500 in the 1500 buy in. It was good to hear that they actually added a few levels despite the chip increases. Good luck in the next one. Looks like you were pretty unlucky never getting called short with those big hands, and just a flip or two and you were gonna make it deep.