Well I’ve arrived in Vegas and played a couple of WSOP events – the $2500 6max and the $10k limit hold’em. Neither went particularly well and I went out just before dinner in the 6max event and after dinner in the limit hold’em.
I treaded water in the 6max event and never really got into a stack building situation all day. With my last 8 big blinds I got called in two spots and couldn’t get there with A8.
I’ve hardly played any limit hold’em
I decided to take a shot at the limit event. I started out playing limit hold’em and built my bankroll on it moving up the stakes with good discipline.
About 3 years ago I got into tournaments which seemed to coincide with the decline of full ring limit cash games online. Since then, I’ve hardly played any limit hold’em. Still, because I’ve clocked so many hands at it I feel pretty comfortable and actually really like playing it. There are quite a few differences between cash game limit hold’em and tournament limit hold’em, but I am a tournament player after all so I should be able to adjust.
I was card dead for the first 4 levels but won a couple small pots and went into the dinner break with about the starting stack. In the level after dinner I just got annihilated. I lost 2 pots straight away, with top pair getting beat and then missing a big draw both to JJ Liu. I didn’t win a pot off her, despite having position all day.
Then I ran into a hand with my blind steal. To bust I had 6.6k at 400/800, Erick Lindgren raised the hijack and I 3 bet from the cut-off with 1010. The big blind then 4 bet and we both called. The flop came J35r and the big blind led out. The turn came a 7 and they both checked to me. That seemed like really good news, so I bet and the big blind check raised me. I put my last few chips in and he showed AA. Oh well, thought I played pretty well with what I was dealt but limit hold’em is just a very slippery slope sometimes.
The first night’s dinner featured some amusing events
Other than that, the first night’s dinner featured some amusing events. My girlfriend and I went to the Thai restaurant in the Aria. Having spent the last couple months in Europe I was craving some spicy food. Also, I had a bit of a cold so I thought a chilli blast would do me good. With that, I ordered a Tom Yum to start. The waiter asked me how spicy out of ten I’d like it and I said “Very spicy, ten out of ten”.
Somehow, we got into an argument and she suggested I should have it “3 out of 10 spicy”. To someone that handled laksa with extra chilli for lunch from the dodgy Asian restaurant at uni every day, this seemed like a challenge – so I told her “Just make it as spicy as you can”. Oh how I’ll live to regret those words…
10 minutes later she came out with the dish and said with a cheeky grin “If you want it more spicy I’ll get the kitchen to make you a new one”. She put the dish down and it actually had more chilli in it than soup.
I took my first spoon and my eyes popped out of my head. Still, I’m very competitive to the point of stupidity often and I wasn’t going to let her ‘win’. I suffered through the entire American-sized Tom Yum and ended up with burning lips and a sweat to rival any workout. She then came to pick-up the dish and I’d like to think she was speechless.
The Socceroos were really disappointing
Other than that, the Socceroos were really disappointing. The thing that gets me is that we don’t play a striker yet still lose 4-0. If you’re going to lose 4-0, at least play a couple strikers. Hopefully, we show a big improvement in the next couple games.
I still don’t feel quite in the swing of tournaments yet, but I’m sure that will come. Part of it is that usually when I play poker events I can gear up for one big one, but with so many in a row you kind of have to be in the swing of things all the time. I’ve got the $5k 6max no-limit hold’em tomorrow so that will be a good one.
Everyone’s talking Tiger or Phil for the US Open this weekend, but I really like Ernie and will be looking for him to have a good week.
