WPT Bellagio Day 1C and a BBQ
Juli 13, 2007
Finally, I could not resist. When I heard that the WPT Bellagio $10,000 buyin event added a third starting day I thougt about playing there. Play started at 12:00 and at 11:30 I finally decided to play. So I went over to the Bellagio, bought myself in and arrived on my table just on time. In position after me: 3 young scandinavians, one one of them to my direct left known to be the most fearless and most aggressive player type, Henning the speed poker world champion and one more of this type. Between them: skillfull, aggressive Irish player. Behind them: agressive asian player I know from cash games. Oh well.
Overall there showed about 180 players up that day, bringing the total amount of players in this event to 535 with a pricepool of over 5 million and a first price of 1,3 million. Looking around, I saw a lot of good and well-known players, a tough field altoghter. These are players I remember and knewed: Erica Schoenberg, Steve Danneman, Patrik Antonious, Clonie Gowen, Anna Wroblinski, Johan Storakers, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmth, Layne Flack, Allan Kessler, David Pham, Phil Laak, John Pham, Bill Gazes, Nam Le, Michael Binger, tex Barch, David Benjamine, David Chiu, Thomas Keller, Jamie Gold, Keena James, Ralph Perry, Ross Boatman, Amir Vahedi, David Williams, Nick Shulman, Marcel Luske, Marco Traniello, George Danzer, Florian Langmann, Paul Testud, Bob Stupack, Erik seidel, Ralph Perry, John Hennigan, Joe Seebook.
This list does not include all those unknown (to me) high stakes cash games players from the Bellagio, a lot of european players and some more. Considering my personal experience on each nine handed table have been one weak spot (on my table that would have been probably me have there not been one total monkey). I started playing tight. Only 10 minutes into the tounament the young guy to me left was already all-in (20k start chips, blinds at 50/100) – on a bluff of course. One of the other scandis called him with an overpair on a super dangerous looking board, won, shrugged, explained that he would only call this special player and doubled up early. The scandi was quickly replaced by a abc playing guy who was defitily more easy to play with. After the first break I still had 20k in chips and the expanded our table to 10 handed – the new seat not being played. I knew it right away, it had to be Phil Hellmuth (only other guy still missing was Phil Ivey). Phil arrived after about 3,5 hours in a golden race driver suit that looked so fking bad that I had to really laugh over it. This was the only to smile as I had just lost :As:Ac vs. :Ah:7h in a big pot for 14k total. I had no conversation with Phil and played no hand against him, he overall played only like 90 minutes before busting out.
One word about the WPT Bellagio management: this is the way to run poker tournaments. Besides the beautyful fontana room, the big tables, comfortable chairs, perfect dealers and floor persons they treat you right. Example? In the afternoon I got hungry and ordered some food (yes, at the table, from a menu that is a mile long and includes about everything the hotel room service has to offer). Food came quick, the waitress searched and found a chair for me to put the food on and when I asked how much I need to pay she explained: "Oh no, that’s complementary". What?? I was stunned. The food was also very very delicious and this is just an example of how good it is over there compared to Harrah’s with their rip-off policy. Not to mention, everybody playing the tournament was invited to visit the famous Bellagio buffet after the tournament – with a guest, for free.
Ok back to play. The structure for the day was play 5 levels, 90 minutes each, with 15 minutes breaks in between. No dinner break but being finished at about 8:30 p.m., also a very good thing, gives you some time on the day. I was already short as explained after losing AA and doubbled up with :Ax:Kx vs :Ax:Qx in level 3 and had like 16,000 chips then. The things got rough: I had pocket :5c:5d with a :5h on the board – and folded on the turn! How right I was I saw when when the other two guys had a better set and a straight flush draw (the set won). Shortyl later I lost another pot when I had :Js:2s in the big blind, saw a free flop with :As:Jh:3d, it was checked 5-way and the turn brought the :Jd. I made good sized bet, all folded except the asian guy who was playing solid poker. The river blanked and I betted like 4,000 with 8,000 left behind. Now, he raised me by 5,000. Oh that sucks. After some deliberation I folded, showing the J. One guy from Kuba could not believe it. The asian guy nodded to me. I was down to like 8,000 and right after I posted the small blind in the next hand our table broke and I was moved to a new table, diretly into the big blind (400m 50 ante) again. Argghh. George Danzer was on my table as well as Joe Seebook. In my very first hand George raised, I pushed from the BB with pocket :7x:7x and George folded. Soon after I raised in MP with :Jh:Jd and George pushed all-in from the BB with :Tx:Tx, being shortstacked also. I called and won. Now I was back to like 20,000.
I extended this to like 36,000 (average) until 15 minutes before the day was about to end. I lost aces twice and A-K vs. A-A on an A high board during those last 15 minutes and was down to 2,800 chips. I pushed all-in blind 3 times and nobody called, so I finished the day with 5,500 in chips – average is about 50,000! Some work to do I would say….
I was in bad mood for like 30 minutes but then we went over to the house of the hochgepokert team and had a nice BBQ along with good "pool action" there. Thanks very much buddies!
WSOP 2007: Over
Juli 9, 2007
The WSOP 2007 is over – for us. Both Katja and I have been eleminated from the $10,000 buyin Wolrd Championship No Limit Holdem tournamen, better known as the main event. We played day 1C with about 1,700 other players. Katja and I have been sitting near to each other, on tables 53 and 50.
The event started good for me, I increased my stack to about 26,000 from the initial 20k without any showdown. I had not any good or known player on my table except young Jonas Molander from Sweden. I knew Jonas from the EPT tour and watched his style. He is a very good player, not as agressive as other scandinavians but also not afraid to put in big bluffs. Anyway, Jonas and I saw not one single turn card together during the 10+ hours we have been sitting togehter and I guess it is fair to say that we avoided each other, well, maybe it was only me avoiding him and him not catching any cards when I was in the hand. At the end of the first level (levels are two hours) when half the players have already stood up to leave for the break I received :As:Ac in late position and was called by the player in the big blind. Of course, I lost the hand and a huge pot because he did not believe me anything, called all my bets on the :Js:Qc:3h :2c :7d board and raised me on the river. I made a crying call into the gigantic pot and got shown :7x:7x. Uff, Now I was short with like 14k or so and that changed my tournament play dramaticlly. I was thankfull for the break as I was really on tilt after this hand. That not even changed during the next 1-2 hours in the next level when visions of "revenge" and "outplaying this guy" bothered my mind. Actually I did nothing like that but I took the beat not as well as I could have or should have.
Very carefully I rebuild my stack to like 22,000 when I received :Qh:Qd UTG, made a raise to 1,400 on 200/400 blinds, no ante, and got reraised by a tight lady in the big blind, but only by 1,000. The raise was strange and I even thought about her throwing in the wrong chips. After looking at her I put her on AK or AQ and made a re-raise to 5,000 total, ready to give it up if she re-reraises. She only called, but quick, confiming my thought she had a hand like A-K. Now, the lady had like 45,000 chips as she had busted another player shortly before, so she got me covered by far. The flop comes :Kd:Th:4h and she checks. Without any hesitation I made a bet of 5,500.
This is the hand where I had pocket queens
The lady asked me how much exactly I have left and anocuned "I am all-in". Wow. This could only mean two things now: either she is outplaying me, acknowleding the fact that I made a bet that leaves me enough chips if I fold or she has a hand. Like :Ax:Kx. When thinking about the situation (and I did think long, like 3-4 minutes) suddenly the thought of her having :Ax:Ax flashed my mind. Nothing against ladies in poker (lol Katja) but many of them have a, let’s say diferent, playing style. Now I saw that min-reraising preflop in a different light. When looking at her she showed no sign of being nervous. Finally I thought the chance of her having me beat is too high and the value of surving is too big, so I folded, under pain.
There I was, down to 10k in chips after about 3 hours into the tournament. Now, from about 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. that did not change. I was absolutly card dead and could only manage to keep my chip stack by well placed raises or re-raises which have been bluffs in 100% of the cases. There have not even been semi-bluffs with hands like suited 89. My best hand in this time was :4c:4s on the button which I raised, got called by the BB (yes, the player who had beaten my AA earlier on) and on a checked through board I managed to beat his :As:Js. Katja stopped by from time to time reporting about her rollercoaster ride from "all the chips" to "almost no chips" several times (she lost two brutal hands in one level, both times with pocket QQ when the money went in she was a huge favorite).
Inbetween we went to the dinner break with Andreas Krause, Michael Dombrowsky from our news team and a guy from texas with is wife. We had lots of fun there.
At 11 p.m. I was picked up as the player in the BB and got moved to a different table, right next to my old table. Now I was starting all over, knowing nothing about my opponents, which all had me covered by far. I had 12,000 chips at this time. Right in the first hand I got :Ad:7c and the player in the cutoff raised to 2,000 which I called. Flop was :Ax:Tx:8x and I bet out 3,000. The guy raised me to 6,000. Hmmmm. I looked at him, he looked like not feeling comfortable so followed my instincts and called. The turn brought the :9x and with my top pair and OESD I went all-in right away for about 8,000. Imagine my horror when the guy insta-called me – I was sure to be shown a hand such as AQ now and be way behind. To my delight he showed :Qc:Th for middle pair and a gutshot. The river blanked and I doubled up to over 25,000 in chips! Right after that I manged to steal a few blinds and was at almost 30,000 suddenly with the average being at like 38,000.
Finally, I made my "bustout" mistake. I flat called a raise to 2,200 from the player UTG who had shown some marginals hands already with me holding :9d:9h. The flop was :4d:5d:6h and he bet like 4,000 which I raised to 10,000 with my overpair. He thougt for a little while and then pushed all-in having me covered by far (with over 100k in chips). Somehow the fact that he had so many chips made me suspicious and I thought about an overly agressive push with just overcards (well, good example of wishful thinking). I called for all my chips, got shown :Ah:Ad, received no help on the turn and river and was out at exactly midnight.
I went to Katja, told her that I was out and about to go back into the hotel. She said I should wait, she is about to push also with just 11,000 chips left. I strolled around for like 5 minutes but then thought that this is bad policy, wait for your wife to bustout of the tournament, went back to her and told I will leave which I did. Being back in the hotel room about 10 minutes later first thing I saw on the internet: Katja Thater eleminated. Before even able to scroll down and read about the details I heard her opening the hotel room door. The busted out 2 hands after I left her with :Jx:Tx on the button but the small blind found :Ax:Jx and won.
What now? Katja has media work to do and our kids will arrive today here in Vegas so we will probably to a week of vacations now. And should we be hot for some tournament action, there is a 10k buyin WPT event starting in the Bellagio by tomorrow ;)