ThePokerResource.net: A Rounder’s blog

The first day was pretty much what I expected.
The field was enormous. We started out 11 handed and they worked in alternates for the first two levels. I don’t know the exact numbers but I think there were 2268 players and just short of 500 alternates. Pretty crazy. As I walked the very long hallway from the parking lot to the convention center area serving as the poker room for the WSOP, I saw a ton of people that I’ve played poker with. I experienced the same thing last year throughout the whole summer but I guess I sort of forgot about it. That sort of did something to me. I mean, forget about the Iveys, Hellmuths, Brunsons, and so on. In this first event, there were probably hundreds and hundreds of very solid players that I’d played with at various points in my poker career. That can be a bit overwhelming when I dwelled on my actual odds of winning one of these things. But then I thought back to what my poker and golf buddy Kelly Kim taught me about a year ago: you can’t worry about all the superstars in the same tournament and the actual odds of winning a big field event. All you can worry about is your table and accumulating chips (something in the neighborhood of 10 to 30% each level). If you can do that, evolution takes its course, almost all the superstars will bust out and you won’t even have to worry about them. I tried to keep that in mind while I took seat 5 at table 101. In seat 1 was the 2004 main event champ Greg Raymer. I always liked Raymer and thought he was great in promoting poker. This was my first time playing with him and definitely enjoyed it. He is pretty chatty, highly intelligent, and a pretty good player. The cameras definitely were at our table the whole day.

We started out with 1500 in chips and 25/25 blinds.
Starting chip stack is a bit small but understandable given that the field must be narrowed from almost 3000 to 1. Fortunately, the blinds are small enough that if you can play a short stack well, you don’t really need to panic and hopefully pick up a hand in the first few levels.

I played squeaky tight for the first level and a half. In addition to Raymer and Marco Traniello (Jen Harmon’s husband), there were two very young kids (whose hands shook when they got involved), four kitchen home game players and two fearless European kids. About the lineup I expected. If our stacks were deeper, I would try to make a concerted effort to play pots with the newbies and amateurs as I think they would make more mistakes than the average player. The European players were tricky and dangerous and I tried to stay out of their way and hoped someone would bust them soon (which did happen). But given that our stacks were so short, I pretty much decided to play ABC and steal only when the situation was very right.

I literally folded every hand but one in the first 90 minutes. I finally stole one pot after Traniello and Raymer limped and I had the button. They are aware enough that that play would work. I also won a decent pot when I limped with aces in the second round (25/50 blind). A small stack raised to 300 but only had 600 left. I flat called and checked a board of K34 rainbow. He moved in and I called. He had QQ. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a bigger stack otherwise I would’ve won a bigger pot pre-flop, I think. At my max, I had 2700 but I lost once with AK (small this time.. big blind had KK and I got off on the flop).

When I got to my last hand, I only had 1600 in chips with blinds of 50/100. Raymer had a stack of about 3000 and he had been pretty active. After four folds, he open raised for 275. It�s an amount that a lot of good players are open raising for, just under three times the big blind. Two folds and it was on me, with 77. The beauty of the 275 bet is that I don’t really know the strength of his hand. He could have a piece of cheese and get off cheap for a re-raise. But, after trying to read him for a little bit, it seemed like he could have a hand this time. I started the hand with 1600. I wanted to raise enough to get him off the hand but also not enough that I would have to auto-call a re-raise. I thought 675 was the right amount. It�s enough for him to fold a lot of hands and he had given me a lot of respect so far. If he moved in, I would be sick and have to make a tough decision. 925 is not what I wanted left, but I’d rather have that than call and see Raymer with an over pair to my sevens. He actually called which obviously told me he had a hand, most likely a big ace but not big slick. The flop came A67 with two clubs. He checked and I thought a long time before moving in for 925. I was pretty sure that he had a big ace and he did indeed, except he tabled a hand that I did not want to see. AQ of clubs. The 5 of clubs on the turn sealed my fate as the 10 of diamonds did not improve me on the river. Ouch.

I was pretty happy with my play. I wish I had picked up more hands to play with. These fields are big and going deep will certainly be a long shot, but I’m planning on trying to make good decisions at my table and hoping for the best. Throughout the summer, I think a healthy dose of perspective is definitely needed.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed my recollection of the first event. Sorry it took so long to get out to you. Tomorrow is the 1500 limit event. Limit tourneys are smaller, but the field should still be around 1000-1200. While limit events are smaller and a bit tougher because you have to catch cards, I’m much more comfortable playing limit since it�s my bread and butter. I sort of know at almost all times whether my hand is good. Hopefully, that skill will come in handy tomorrow.

-PR