Chaos turns to Mayhem

Today was Event #3 for the WSOP $1500 No-Limit Holdem. I got up pretty early and went down to the gym to get a work out before I got ready for the day. After a 40-minute ride on the bike I got ready and headed over to the Rio to have breakfast prior to the event starting. After a big bowl of oatmeal and coffee I headed down to the tournament area. It was insane; wall to wall players, spectators, dealers and event staff. Thousands and thousands of people, and I headed to find out where my table was located.

I come to find out that there was an additional 50 tables above and beyond the 250 that are in the main area in big outdoor tents behind the conference center. When I went in I didn’t think it looked that bad, and only the second time I was looking at my cards with natural sunlight, the other was the final table last year in Aruba. As I sat down ready to play with a noon start I looked around the table and realized that I only recognized one player. And that is due to the tournament size; this year they are setting records. As we were getting ready to get the cards in the air the tournament director got on the microphone and stated that we would be starting an hour late due to the large line of people still trying to register for the days event.

The tournament was sold out with over 3000 players and 1500 alternates, these players are not seated until someone is knocked out and they take that players seat. We did finally get started around 1:00 and played for about 2 hours and they still had about 500 alternates that needed to be seated. I had not played a lot of hands in the first 2 rounds as most every pot was being raised pre-flop and I just wasn’t catching any cards. And every time I did someone would have something better. Just to explain this accurately, in the first 4 rounds of play I had pocked Queens 6 times and lost 5 of them. I just was getting very unlucky. But the good thing is most players would have been busted out of the tournament by the second time but I lost the minimum I could on each pot.

Due to the lack of quality hands I had to make a few moves just so I could survive through round 5. When this crazy hand came up. The blinds were 150/300 with antes of 50 and I was in the big blind, it was folded around to the cut off position and he bet just 600. This was kind of a small bet so I thought he may be limping in with AQ or AK as he would have made a bigger raise with a small pair or he could have a hand like QJ suited. The small blind called and as I was in the big blind I looked down and had 67 of diamonds, and since I was already committed to my blind of 300 I called the additional 300. The pot was laying almost 6 to 1 so it was a easy call and this is the type of hand if I hit could take down a large pot.
The flop came 258 with 2 diamonds and the small blind checked, now I have a open ended straight draw, flush draw and I have put the raiser on two high cards I have to be a favorite so I bet 900 which is a pretty small bet into that big of a pot hoping I just get a call but even better if he pushes all in. he goes into the tank for about 2 minutes and then moves all in, the small blind folds and I have only 2100 left so I call. He turns over to my surprise K2 with no diamonds so I have 19 outs, which is a 72%, favorite even though he has 1 pair. Well the 9 comes on the turn and I hit the straight and more then double up.
I am now sitting with 7800 and feeling pretty good, but 2 hands later this comes up and I lose a big amount of my stack. I am one behind the button and with one raise before me up to 900 I call with AK of clubs. There is only 2 of us in the hand and the flop comes KJ4 he bets out 2100 and I raise to 5500 to put him all in. He thinks for a long time and then calls and turns over A4 I am a huge favorite as he only had 2 outs (only 2 cards that can beat me) The turn comes an Ace which is a great card as he has less than a 5% chance to win the hand but hits the 4 on the river and I lose 6400 out of my 7800 chips. What a bad beat, so I am now down to 1400 in chips. The hand I was knocked out was anything that crazy but I had JJ and moved all in and was called by a person with AQ and he caught a Q and I was out of the tournament 20 minutes before the dinner break.
It was frustrating to lose that key hand as if I would have won that hand I would have had over 15000 in chips and near the chip leader at that time and in great position to make a run. But it wasn’t meant to be this time. That is why there are 55 events; we have many more to take down, just for you that care first prize in this small event would have been over 780K.

All is not lost though after I busted out I went and had dinner and headed back to my hotel. They were having a small tournament in the card room at Harrah’s and I played in it. There were only around 40 players but I took 4th and it was a 300% return on our investment so that works as a good practice even though it was only a $100 buy-in and last night played in the same tourney and took 3rd but was only a profit of 270%. But good practice for short-handed play.

Will be playing in the Venetian Double stack tournament tomorrow, great value. It is $1090.00 buy-in and you get 10,000 in chips so hope to win us some money tomorrow.

Until next time.