WSOP Event #8 recap

Here’s a recap of the 2010 WSOP Event #8 ($1,500 buy-in NLHE) on June 2nd. This was my first tournament at a casino (I normally focus on cash games) and was worth the cost of tuition and the chance to win $568,974 and a bracelet. The biggest mental adjustment for me heading in was reminding myself that tournament poker is about survival whereas cash games have more to do with +/- EV in the long run (pot odds + implied odds). Here are some of the key hands and observations made:

Key hand #1. 35 minutes into the tournament, blinds at 25/50. Player in MP+2 raised 3x the big blind. The button and SB called. I decide to call with J8 of diamonds in the BB. Flop comes Q,10,6 rainbow, and everyone checks. Turn card puts out a 9s, giving me a straight. Everyone checks around to the original raiser, who bets $500. With a possible flush draw (spades) out there, I raise to $1,400. Villain puts me all-in. Does he have KJ? He has been relatively quiet, yet it’s only been 35 minutes into the tournament. I think about it for awhile and thought the likelihood of him having one of the four possible sets out there was probably the most likely scenario, given that he raised preflop and checked on the flop. When I called, he uttered, “KJ” and thought he had KJ, but he showed QQ (luckily I didn’t muck!). Whew!

Key hand #2. Shortly after the first break, I had pocket 5’s in UTG. The button, who’s got me covered, raises to about 3.5x the BB. BB calls, I call and UTG+2, who has a couple thousand fewer chips than me, calls. Flop comes Ah,5h,10c. Everyone checks around until the button bets a little less than 2/3 the pot. BB folds, I call, UTG+2 calls. Turn puts out a Qd. I check, UTG+2 checks, the button bets about 2/3 of the pot. I go all-in for 3,000 more in chips. UTG+2 calls. Button thinks about it for awhile, and folds (I think he had AK). UTG+2 flips over KJ for the straight (he hit his gutshot…). I’m in bad shape as I need the board to pair. River card doesn’t help. I’m down to $1,900 in chips. Lesson learned: In tournament poker, don’t get too greedy by over-slowplaying and hoping to win a huge pot. Even though you’re ahead, some players will be on big draws. In this example, I should’ve made a big raise on the turn when the button bet. The UTG+2 holding KJ most likely would’ve folded his draw. Unfortunately, by simply calling the was giving him good odds to call there. The irony of this hand is that I made the same mistake as the player who let me catch my inside straight in Key hand #1.

Key hand #3. With only $1,900 in chips, I only have an M of only 5 (1M = cost of living for one round), I don’t really have much of a choice but to go in all-in or fold mode. Shortly after the second break, I have pocket 9’s in the big blind. The button raises to 3x the BB. I go all-in. The player on the button has $8,000 behind him…who looks like your typical online pro, who just moved from another table not too long ago, thinks about it for awhile and asks, “Do you want action?” 10 seconds later, he calls my all-in bet. He flips over AQo. Flop comes 9,9,K and I double-up. Not really a key hand I suppose, but somewhat memorable b/c I hit quads.

Key hand #4. With blinds and antes being pretty high, relative to my stack, I felt I needed to make a move soon if I wanted to have a decent chance of mounting a comeback. I’m in middle position with QJ of hearts. The button, who looks like another online pro, who has a lot of chips in front of him, makes a standard 3x bb raise. I don’t have much in front of me, about 13x the big blind. I just want to see a flop and decide on what to do. Flop comes Qc,7,c,10,d. Because I’ve been going all-in on 4 occasions already, I’m hoping the players are putting me on a very wide-range of hands, so I move all-in. The button shows AK and folds. In retrospect, I should’ve checked and let him continuation bet (although I haven’t seen him play many hands to know how frequently he c-bets). I think the earlier hand in which I let someone catch a straight on me, plus my overzealousness in winning more chips to stay alive, influenced my decision to move all-in pretty fast. I believe this was a key mistake as I likely could’ve extracted another 1,200-1,500 in chips from him if I let him cbet and I raise all-in, which would’ve gotten me out of all-in or fold mode.

Key hand #5. For most of the tournament, I was in all-in or fold mode. I must’ve gone all-in at least 10 times and got called twice. Winning once with four-of-a-kind and losing the other time, which knocked me out of the tournament, which I’ll get to later. After the dinner break, I moved to a different table with an M of 6 (you never want to have M<3). The player to my right looked familiar to me and I later learned that it’s Victor Ramdin, who is a professional poker player very active on the tournament scene. Very nice guy, btw. I go all-in at least 4 times and got no callers. I’ve been surviving by picking up blinds + antes, until my last hand, in which I was holding on AJo in the big blind. 500 players are left in the tournament (2,341 entrants). My stack had dropped to between 5-6M’s, which is probably just above the amount needed to get most people at my table to fold to my all-in bets. UTG+1 bets 3x the bb, everyone folds until it gets to me. I go all-in and he calls. He shows AK of clubs. I’m dominated and my hand doesn’t improve. I’m out.

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing and no regrets. I made at least a couple of costly mistakes that I can learn from, and feel that I did alright considering that I didn’t really get a lot of good starting hands. The best starting hand I got was pocket 10’s (which I had to fold on the turn to a big bet in an earlier hand). Never got any of the premium hands like AA, KK, QQ, JJ, or AK. Made it to around 500 out of 2,341 entrants, not too shabby for a first tourney. Until next year.