My WSOP Experience # 3

Hi Raillers,

I know i left you guys in a hurry on my last blog, the reason is that talking abt that buble still upsets me but i think writting these blogs are theraputic and they help me swallow the pill, tx to all of you for your comments and words of incouragement.

After bubling Event 17, David, Smiley Chicky, Jane and bbmart60 where all there to cheer me up, i was quite hungry and Chicky offered to invite me to diner so we all headed out to the American Grill at the Rio. bbmart60 and Jane only stayed for a drink because they had stuff to do so David, Chicky and I stayed for a good steak and chatters. I was enjoying my juicy steak and mashed tatos when i take a bite of those tato's and feel something bizzare in that chew lol, i pull out a piece of cartboard thats at least 1 1/2 inch out of my mouth, ewwwwww! lol. I call up the manager to make him aware of my discovery and both him and the chef came out with appology's and comped my whole meal with a coffee and raseberry cheese cake extra, hey Chicky, i told you i was a cheap date lol. We dint let that ruin our evening and headed back to the tuscany to get a bit drunk, back at the tuscany we played a bit of 3/6 limit and it dint take me long to dunk off my buy in lol, i just felt like hanging with the guys and gales so i retreated from the table and asked a man that was playing if i could try out his scooter, i always wanted to try one of those, after giving me a lecture on how to be carefull he let me go around the poker room on it, it was so funny, that cheered me up a bit and gave a good laugh to the whole poker room staff and security with who i became quite friendly. After a few more drinks, David , chicky and I went to sit by the pool and talked for a while, it was getting late or should i say early and we parted ways.

Chicky left the next day and I slept for a bit, after that, Jane came to pick me up and we headed out to Harra's, see....Jane gets alot of comped rooms at Harra's and she loves to check into them to steal all of the toiletry's lmao! I decided i would be her partner in crime that day lol We then headed to the Flamigo to go say hi to David who whas gonna play a tourney there, David was leaving the next day so i wanted to say by to him. Jane and I then headed to the movies to check out You Dont Mess with the Zohan and because we are both Jews, we had a good laugh during the movie, it was refreshing. Jane brought me back to the Tuscany so i could have a good nite sleep, tomorrow i had my biggest tourney yet, Event 21 the 5,000$ no limit holdem.

Strangely enough, I wasnt nervous, dint know if it was because i knew i was gonna be up against the best players of the game and i only could try to do my best or if it was because i was starting to get the feel of Vegas.

As i suspected, i had some of the best players in the world at my table, Bill gazes was on my immediate left, Nick Binger, Jason Glass, Adam "Roothlus" Levy, CK Hua and some internet Kids including a Card Runner pro, you will here of my feelings on the Runner pro lol.

We star off the tourney with 10K in chips so theres no worry abt going anywhere soon, everyone is quite chatty so it is nice to hear what they have to say, i just there enjoying the chatters and keeping to myself trying to figure out how i would play this table, I decide i will play it tight agressive as i see the trend to be small ball poker, small raises preflops (2 1/2 bb), i dont want to immitate these guys and force them to play bigger pots wich i feel them not to be to comfortable with (preflop raises between 3 and 3 1/2 bb) When i have i hand i reraise 3 to 4 times their bets, I want to pick up the pots quick and dont have to mess around. My plan works and I get my stack up to abt 14K without any real confrontations.

Bill and I talk a bit and he gets up to grab another chair so he can stack it up on his chair, you see, bill is abt 6'5" and felt like he was sitting on the floor, so i tell him that he would need a barber's chair and we get a laugh abt that, then everytime i was in a hand with him he called me "the barber". Ill play with the barber he says or nh barber lol, unfortunatly for him, i played a few pots with him and won them all. Bill and Nick are the first ones out of tourney from our table.

Then they sit Jason Glass to my left, hes the dude i took out in the Shootout when we where 3 handed and i called his push with K8, Jason is a cool kid, we talked and he asked me if i won the shootout, he was suprised when i told him i bubbled it and told me i played great and he was sure that i would of won it, that boosted my confidence and was really nice to hear. Just an Update, both Jason and Adam finished in the top 50 or so in the 10K main Event this year, these guys have game.

My first real big pot came when I had UTG, i decide to limp with them because I know that CK is quite agressive and will raise on the Button, as I suspected he did raise it up and the sb called, i then reraise 2 1/2 times CK's bet, they both call, Flop comes I bet half the pot and CK's hesitates a bit and pushes all in for another 6K, sb folds and i go into the tank to think abt it, after he called my reraise on the flop i was pretty sure he had AK, now i was trying to figure out if he just had 1 or 2 hearts, i came to the conclusion that he only had 1 because he would of just called my bet to try and extract more, I could also see him breathing deeply when i counted my chips and really had him on a draw, i counted my odds, their was already 14K in the pot and costed me 6K on a 50/50 odds, if i lost i would sitll have ruffly 3,2K left, enough to come back so i grab my chips and call. He shows , the turn comes and now im drawing dead. I lost a big pot but kept cool and was confident i could built my stack up. My stack goes down to ruffly 2200 and then i built if back up to 7500. Jason tells me not to give up and that im doing a good job at builting it back up from 2.2K, the guy is cool, i like him and am sure I will meet him again on the felt. Blinds go by and i keep folding bad cards, Im back down to abt 5200, its folded to the cut off (card runner guy lol) and he raises 2 1/2 the BB to 750, its folded to me in the BB and i look down at , i want to pick up the pot and pushes all in, its ruffly 4500 more to CR guy to call a pot worth 6600, thats abt 75% of the pot and 40% of his stack, he opts to call with I dint catch anything and get busted out. I was a bit amazed at his call, he clearly dint have the odds to call me and thats why i made that bet, he was at best 50/50 and at worst 80/20, so my opinion of Card Runners aint to good lol. Jason looks at me with discuss in his eyes, as we dint like that guy to much at the table lol. Oh Well! thats poker and today my coin flips dint go in my favor, I wish good luck to the table, pick up my stuff and leave.

Im still very happy at my play during this tourney, I was busted out in abt 430th on a field of almost 900 of the best in the world and could hold my own. This is the tourney that made me realize that with a bit more fine tunning i can be right up there with these guys and give them a fight for their money, I left the Rio that day with my head held up high and a little pinch in my heart, that pinch will stay untill next year and it will help me be a better player.

All i could say in my head was "I'll be back guys, Ill be back......"

TC Birds,

Manny