Ugly Hands from the WSOP

Sitting in flight 1C of the first big tournament of the WSOP, the Colossus on Saturday morning, my time at table White 136 got off to a good start. The table next to us started the action off right.

Almost immediately after the call of "Shuffle up and deal!" the dealer next to us called "Three all in!" Moments later there was a soul screeching "Nooooooooooooooooo!" and a white-haired lady first stood up, looking dazedly at the table. Then she sat down in her chair and flopped head and shoulders down on the felt in abject disbelief.

Story is a raise and two calls preflop action. The flop came T8x. Check, check, All-in, Call, Call.

The raiser pre-and-post flop showed the pocket rockets. Another showed 88 for a set, and the last, the white haired lady, showed TT for top set.

The turn was an A.

Set over set over set with a two-outer on the turn. What a way to start, and end, the Colossus. But then the WSOP is a place where dreams are made.

And dreams are crushed.

As for me the table I was at had no big names at it. The two best players were to my right so I was in really good shape. My table was a "destination" table so we weren't forced to move and instead received a steady stream of replacements as people were knocked out.

In fact I felt I was playing well despite not getting really good cards. I won several pots simply by aggresive betting even when I hadn't made anything. I managed to fold KK when a pre-flop caller started betting aggresively when an Ace spiked on the flop. I knocked out a short stack when their A8 failed to improve against my JJ.

I new guy with what looked to be about 10k chips sat down in the empty seat. Ten minutes from the second break I was four hours in, nearing the end of level 6 and feeling happy with my play and my 16k stack.

I was in the SB and UTG did a minimum raise to 400. He had done this a lot, playing a lot of weak hands. The New Guy bumped it to 800. It folded around to me and I saw unsuited AK.

There was no doubt in my mind that I was very good on UTG, and probably good on New Guy. They both seemed to have about 10k in their stacks so I liked this position. Thinking my hand through I felt my best play was to try to isolate vs UTG. He often called with thin holdings. The real question was New Guy. He had raised actively in the few hands he had been in, not much of a smaple size, but it just seemed like he was the young aggressive type to three-bet with a middle pair or AQ. It was a good spot to double or triple up, and even if things went against me I'd have chips to keep going.

I pushed all in and started doing Jedi mind tricks to get UTG to call.

Then I saw how comfortable New Guy looked and I wasn't near as happy.

UTG agonized and finally folded, then as New Guy stated he called I suddenly realized he had more pink $500 chips than I'd thought. A bunch more. He didn't have only 10K, he had enough to completely gut my stack and maybe knock me out. Even before I saw his cards, my stomach started doing flip-flops.

And, of course, he showed AA.

If I had realized that either UTG or Young Guy had more than 10k I would have approached the hand much differently. With a raise, re-raise with equivalent stacks and me out of position I probably would have called. I would have had a chance to get away from much more damage. But I misread the stack size, and put my tournament life on the line against a reraiser I didn't know much about when I was out of position.

A long row of blanks came on the board. Then the dealer made a mashup of counting New Guy's chips but after an eternity I was covered by about 500 and just like that I crashed out of the tournament.

One silly mistake and four hours of good work was wiped away.

Which is why I prefer cash games.

Countdown to the WSOP - The Colossus?

Less than a week until the WSOP 2015 kicks off at the Rio on May 27. I am incredibly tempted to break my cherry and actually dip my toe in the tourney this year.

In past years I have been too happy just taking advantage of the incredibly juicy side games. One year I had an incredibly profitable time playing the Single Table Qualifiers for the Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza. I'd play, win a seat, then sell the seat. Play, win, sell. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Most of the pros - real or self-delusioned - are playing the tournaments, meaning most of the games at places like the Bellagio and Wynn and Venetian are a couple steps easier than normal, and more profitable.

For me there is just too much variance in tournies when compared to the reliability of cash games. Fighting through several hours of play, pressured by ever increasing betting levels, subject to the crazy variables of desperate short stacks, doesn't normally fit well with my natural poker game.

And yet the WSOP is the World Series of Poker. Moneymaker, Brunson, Negreanu, Hellmuth and all the other icons of big time poker and its history. Yeah, I toil in the minor leagues of poker, but you always have dreams.

And for me there are a couple of interesting new tournies to consider. The first is Event #5 - The Colossus. With only a $565 buy-in the risk is low. The WSOP people are really thumping it up, hoping for a record turnout. Can they parley a lower buy-in event on the first weekend to make for a bigger tourney than the 2006 Main Event (8,773 entrants) which stands at the apex of poker popularity. WSOP is hoping for 10,000 or more. It could be fun.

Should I play? Right now I am leaning to at least give The Colossus a try, depending on how I am doing in the side games before it.