It Ain't White Boy Day, Is It?
I've cashed one of the two annual $1k w/ rebuys events on each of the last three years here, but it wasn't meant to be in 2008.
Last year, I took 5th in the early rebuy. In 2006, I wound up being busted by Phil Hellmuth on his way to one of his bracelet wins, I in 17th place. In 2005, I made a run to 5th place that was retold by Peter Alson in his book Take Me To The River. (Peter also recently sent me a link to the this article he wrote about coaching Natalie Portman for her role as a poker player in an upcoming movie).
Anyway, after an ignominious showing in the early rebuy event a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to redemption in today's. I returned to Vegas from another 24-hour respite in Santa Monica feeling energized and motivated for the last week of the Series before the Main Event, but my showing in the late rebuy didn't correspond to my mood. After starting off the day "in for the mininum" ($2,000) and building my 4K chips into almost 11K, everything unraveled in a variety of ways. I wound up in a reverse rhythm, ultimately buying in for $12,000 in real dollars and having the minimum in chips at the end of the rebuy period, 8K.
Such are the vicissitudes of the game, and there is no point letting that overwhelm me. I took my friend to Wendy's during the break, cleared my head, and I was back at my table for the first hand after break while several players were still dawdling towards their seats. It must have been less than six hands later that I was making the long walk out of the Rio convention center, across the gigantic sizzling frying pan that is the Rio parking lot, back to the car.
I limped behind three limpers with a pair of black sixes on the button. The flop came 8-6-3 with two clubs. It was checked to me, I bet 700 into a ~1K pot, and everyone folded except the third limper, Mark Seif, who called. The turn was an offsuit ten. Mark checked, I bet 1200, he check-raised me allin for my remaining 6K chips and, even though I knew 97 and 88 were possible holdings, I also figured many other hands were too, and I called. He had 97-of-hearts, the nuts, and the river did not pair the board.
***
Prior to my last blog entry, I had found myself "in the hunt" in another small-buyin WSOP event, this time the $2K Pot Limit Hold 'Em event, which paid nearly $250,000 to the winner. I enjoyed the event for the most part and also thought I played pretty well, but things ended abruptly for me on day two, and I wound up finishing 33rd place.
The eventual winner, a player from Belgium named David Kitai, started at my same table on day two and had one of the worst imaginable beginnings to a day two. He entered a handful of pots and lost them all, constantly draining chips. There was a limped pot where I almost wound up setting him allin from the SB with second-pair, and he told me he'd let me know after the tournament what he had (he hasn't yet). As he dragged the pot, he looked visibly shaken and distressed as he acknowledged the fact that it was the first pot he had won.
Regarding my own fate in the tournament, it becomes harder to retell as the memory of the event begins to fade and feel less vital to the overall story of my WSOP 2008. I'm not going to recount the minor conflict I was engaged in, late on day one, with the habitual line stepper known as Davood Mehrmand and the insanely annoying Peter Tran. I'll also leave for another time the description of the comical interaction between David Levi and Chad Batista at my starting table. Their divergent personalities made for some interesting table banter.
If I had to summarize the event, it'd be like this: I lost about 2/3rds of my starting chips early in the tournament, grinded my stack back patiently, and was sitting on average chips (35-40K) near the end of day one. On one of the final hands of the night, I doubled up through Roy Winston with QQ vs AK-suited, which set me up nicely for chips going into day two.
To begin day two, I was seated with Michael Binger, who had the chiplead going into the day, but we both managed to quickly build up our stacks without playing a hand against each other. In short time, he had 250K and I had 150K. Around then we went on break, and I did this interview with Pokernews' Tiffany Michelle, while I was second in chips (the video tag incorrectly states "5th in chips"):
After the break, I lost a few hands and was down around 100K when I got moved to a new table. Changing tables is known to be a sometimes precarious occurrence, as you are now surrounded by all new and unfamiliar faces, and your rhythm can veer off center.
I busted a young player named Derick Dempsey in 37th place to regain some chips. Then they broke our table, and I was moved again, now to a table with Keith Lehr, who has a handful of results in PL tournaments, on my direct right. On my left was a good, young internet player known as "TheStein" in cyberspace, who had doubled up through me twice as a tiny stack the night before on the bubble and now had around 50K.
Within the course of two orbits, I went from near the top of the pack in chips to busted. First, I doubled up Keith Lehr with TT vs JJ when he was on the button and I was in the small blind. Then, somewhat dazed from the hand against Lehr, I chose to gamble off 20 bets with AJ vs TheStein, who had QQ. The flop--AJK--gave me a winner, but he made his straight on the river and I was left with about 15K, five bets. My last stand with KJ was met by Chris Bell, whom I first played with in a Foxwoods tournament in April of 2005. He woke up with a pair of jacks and sent me packing.
It's a classic example of never being more than two hands away from going broke in a Big Bet tournament no matter how nice your stack appears. This is also one of the reasons why I don't like stopping to discuss, analyze or celebrate my chip stack during the breaks in the game, as I wrote about after Event #2 this year. A poker tournament is not a static entity until it's over, and a stack of chips is sometimes too fragile a commodity--too precious and rare and still unrealized--to willingly share with others.
***
This is the first Series in which I've cashed more than one event, but I think I've played more events this year, too, so that statistic is rather insignificant.
The $5K Shorthanded event takes place tomorrow.
Last year, I took 5th in the early rebuy. In 2006, I wound up being busted by Phil Hellmuth on his way to one of his bracelet wins, I in 17th place. In 2005, I made a run to 5th place that was retold by Peter Alson in his book Take Me To The River. (Peter also recently sent me a link to the this article he wrote about coaching Natalie Portman for her role as a poker player in an upcoming movie).
Anyway, after an ignominious showing in the early rebuy event a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to redemption in today's. I returned to Vegas from another 24-hour respite in Santa Monica feeling energized and motivated for the last week of the Series before the Main Event, but my showing in the late rebuy didn't correspond to my mood. After starting off the day "in for the mininum" ($2,000) and building my 4K chips into almost 11K, everything unraveled in a variety of ways. I wound up in a reverse rhythm, ultimately buying in for $12,000 in real dollars and having the minimum in chips at the end of the rebuy period, 8K.
Such are the vicissitudes of the game, and there is no point letting that overwhelm me. I took my friend to Wendy's during the break, cleared my head, and I was back at my table for the first hand after break while several players were still dawdling towards their seats. It must have been less than six hands later that I was making the long walk out of the Rio convention center, across the gigantic sizzling frying pan that is the Rio parking lot, back to the car.
I limped behind three limpers with a pair of black sixes on the button. The flop came 8-6-3 with two clubs. It was checked to me, I bet 700 into a ~1K pot, and everyone folded except the third limper, Mark Seif, who called. The turn was an offsuit ten. Mark checked, I bet 1200, he check-raised me allin for my remaining 6K chips and, even though I knew 97 and 88 were possible holdings, I also figured many other hands were too, and I called. He had 97-of-hearts, the nuts, and the river did not pair the board.
***
Prior to my last blog entry, I had found myself "in the hunt" in another small-buyin WSOP event, this time the $2K Pot Limit Hold 'Em event, which paid nearly $250,000 to the winner. I enjoyed the event for the most part and also thought I played pretty well, but things ended abruptly for me on day two, and I wound up finishing 33rd place.
The eventual winner, a player from Belgium named David Kitai, started at my same table on day two and had one of the worst imaginable beginnings to a day two. He entered a handful of pots and lost them all, constantly draining chips. There was a limped pot where I almost wound up setting him allin from the SB with second-pair, and he told me he'd let me know after the tournament what he had (he hasn't yet). As he dragged the pot, he looked visibly shaken and distressed as he acknowledged the fact that it was the first pot he had won.
Regarding my own fate in the tournament, it becomes harder to retell as the memory of the event begins to fade and feel less vital to the overall story of my WSOP 2008. I'm not going to recount the minor conflict I was engaged in, late on day one, with the habitual line stepper known as Davood Mehrmand and the insanely annoying Peter Tran. I'll also leave for another time the description of the comical interaction between David Levi and Chad Batista at my starting table. Their divergent personalities made for some interesting table banter.
If I had to summarize the event, it'd be like this: I lost about 2/3rds of my starting chips early in the tournament, grinded my stack back patiently, and was sitting on average chips (35-40K) near the end of day one. On one of the final hands of the night, I doubled up through Roy Winston with QQ vs AK-suited, which set me up nicely for chips going into day two.
To begin day two, I was seated with Michael Binger, who had the chiplead going into the day, but we both managed to quickly build up our stacks without playing a hand against each other. In short time, he had 250K and I had 150K. Around then we went on break, and I did this interview with Pokernews' Tiffany Michelle, while I was second in chips (the video tag incorrectly states "5th in chips"):
After the break, I lost a few hands and was down around 100K when I got moved to a new table. Changing tables is known to be a sometimes precarious occurrence, as you are now surrounded by all new and unfamiliar faces, and your rhythm can veer off center.
I busted a young player named Derick Dempsey in 37th place to regain some chips. Then they broke our table, and I was moved again, now to a table with Keith Lehr, who has a handful of results in PL tournaments, on my direct right. On my left was a good, young internet player known as "TheStein" in cyberspace, who had doubled up through me twice as a tiny stack the night before on the bubble and now had around 50K.
Within the course of two orbits, I went from near the top of the pack in chips to busted. First, I doubled up Keith Lehr with TT vs JJ when he was on the button and I was in the small blind. Then, somewhat dazed from the hand against Lehr, I chose to gamble off 20 bets with AJ vs TheStein, who had QQ. The flop--AJK--gave me a winner, but he made his straight on the river and I was left with about 15K, five bets. My last stand with KJ was met by Chris Bell, whom I first played with in a Foxwoods tournament in April of 2005. He woke up with a pair of jacks and sent me packing.
It's a classic example of never being more than two hands away from going broke in a Big Bet tournament no matter how nice your stack appears. This is also one of the reasons why I don't like stopping to discuss, analyze or celebrate my chip stack during the breaks in the game, as I wrote about after Event #2 this year. A poker tournament is not a static entity until it's over, and a stack of chips is sometimes too fragile a commodity--too precious and rare and still unrealized--to willingly share with others.
***
This is the first Series in which I've cashed more than one event, but I think I've played more events this year, too, so that statistic is rather insignificant.
The $5K Shorthanded event takes place tomorrow.
posted by Shane Schleger at 3:19 PM
5 Comments:
forget about soul-reading, shane... just stick with the pantomime... they beat lie detectors all to hell
Thanks for the plug, Shaniac. Keep on keepin' on!
p.s. loved your musical excursion. I know you were onto Lily Allen a while back but have you ever listened to the Kooks, whose song Naive she covered? They don't get a whole lot of play stateside (sort of like The Frames before Once came out), but they should.
the kooks suck imo
but the lead singer looks like a 'seperated at birth' young dylan though.
Hey blog owner!
If you would like to earn a months link on a PR 2 poker site for relatively little effort. Just write a short post about http://www.pokerisrigged.com upcoming poker league with free prizes starting on the 6th of July! For any questions please contact me on the email provided, or talk to me (James) at pokerisrigged.com. If you enjoy playing poker then by placing on the league, you will also get a front page link.
Look forward to hearing from you,
James.
hey
I had AA on the hand you're talking about ...
Davidi Kitai
my first name is Davidi no David
+++
Post a Comment
<< Home