Day 5 of my WSOP week. Event #12, 1500$ Limit Hold’em

Posted by bellatrix

June 19, 2008

Finally, some sleep. It is 11:30am and I am just waking up. The TV is blabbing idiocies about Hillary Clinton and her endorsing Barack Obama. But I just have to watch. I make my way down to the coffee shop. I am so hungry, I say to myself “screw the comps” and just go in and pay for a nice hearty Omelette breakfast. God, it is taking me so long to get going. I don’t know if it’s the 1k I lost the night before or just laziness on my part. I do not feel excited at all. As I sit in front of the Video Poker machine to get my mailings activated, boredom settles in. Man, you can lose so much time in Vegas and survive.

Anyway, I finally get going and decide to visit a friend of mine on the way to the Rio. He just works a couple of blocks north of the Rio, but big mistake, when I find out there’s a big accident on Valley View, which makes the drive down there take like an hour or so. All in beautiful Las Vegas heat and I don’t have A/C. I only get to talk to him for a few minutes, before I get going, damn it. Back in Valley View, I see the “Rio” sign and drive in and… I’m lost. I do have orientation, where the convention center is, but there’s no effing way to get there. I would have to drive out again, go on Flamingo and drive in again, or use a taxi lane, or… ah, let’s just park here.

I know, I have to make my way through the whole casino now, so I Rio is smart like that, because I stop by the sports book and make a bet on Germany against Poland, moneyline -180. I think it’s a good price, should be around -250 IMO, but I’m biased like that. I make it into the Amazon Room, finally, it’s 4:20 (heh), still plenty of time. Just around that time, Aaron W from 2+2 comes and meets me and we make our way to the coffee shop to grab something to eat. He will be participating in the event, too. We talk about all kinds of stuff, getting to know each other, the guys next to us are also going to the event. It seems the whole world around us is talking poker, you start to wonder, if there really are that many more people way more obsessed than me with poker. Wow!

4:55pm. Seating begins. On the way back, we met up with tyler_cracker, also from 2+2 and he’ll be sweating us from the sidelines. I sit down and I’m still not nervous. Wasn’t this supposed to be this big event? Isn’t 1500$ a big chunk of cash to me (nah, not in gambling money)? Am I not nervous that Barry Greenstein is right behind me? Anyway, I get my chips, drinks (yuck, don’t even try that s*** All-In Enegy drink…. gah) and soon enough play begins.

Fold, fold, fold. Everybody exchanges pleasantries. Finally I get KJhh in MP and want to open raise. I throw out a 100$ chip, with blinds at 25$/50$, but I forget to say “raise” so it’s only a call. This will be my first and only mistake in the tourney. The two guys to my right knew my intentions and get out, but the rest of the field calls and we are 4 to the flop. I chase my flush draw, which doesn’t come and quickly I’m down. Chit.

The rest is up and down, up and down. I get TT and improve to set (up), I get AK and don’t improve (down). I get TT again, but it gets capped and have to lay it down on a Ahigh board (down), I complet my SB with K6 and chase a gutter with top pair and hit (up)… 2 hours are gone, break! 2300 chips out of 3000. I’m not happy. On the break, I get to meet the deucescracked LIMIT guys, which is just cool. They go over their tables and it seems I’ve got a fairly easy table, with only 3-4 people really knowing what they are doing, 2-3 people playing just too tight and 2… aem, swimming creatures. Break is over so quickly and we get playing again.

I don’t remember so many hands. I just remember I had T8s in the SB at the end of the 4th hour and it’s like a 4 limped pot to me, so I complete. Flop: 5T8. (Bingo!). Turn J. River A. Get beat by A5. Lol, everybody berates A5 for staying in the pot. He even mentions “Play bad, get there!” By that time the limits are way up though and that pot really hurt me. I go into the second break with only 1200 left. 3BB on next level. Nooooo! Aaron W is out of the tournament by that time. About 600 runners remain out of 880. I feel sick, I’m gonna have to gamble and I’ll go out soon if a miracle doesn’t happen.

I’m in the SB 800 left. 2 limps to me. A7ss….. Ah, raise it! I’m left with 400 chips. KT8 (one spade). I’m not even going to c-bet here, what for? Pray for runner runner spades or an Ace. Check, check, check, check. sigh. Turn 6. Check, check, A5 guy bets, fold. I fold. He has a king always and I was right. He LIMPED the CO with KJo. Wonderful. I’m sitting there with 400 in chips, blinds 100/200. Goodbye event, I guess, I look up the clock. 540 runners left. They are dropping left and right. Barry Greenstein is gone, I saw Phil Hellmuth leaving mumbling a few hours ago, Death Donkey left, that internet kid, sitting on the table next to me has left. Everybody I know… gone.

So I pick up pocket Aces in the CO. Oh, Event #12, stop teasing me… I go all-in. Good player in SB 3-bets and BB folds. He has A8. Flop K28. Player in BB immediately goes on a tear: “I would’ve called you if he didn’t 3-bet. I had K2, you’re lucky”, bla bla. Turn and River xx. I’m sitting on 1000 chips. I sit a few more hands, action is slow. Players are POURING out of the room, the second wave of eliminations is happening. I look up 480 runners. Wow, 80 runners lost in like 10 minutes.

Tight lady raises from UTG. I reraise to 600 from UTG+2 with AKs. “Decent” Commerce 40/80 regular (who has somehow recognized me from me playing there ONCE) looks long and hard at me and 4-bets (5-bet cap). Lady calls, I go all-in, they call. Lady keeps calling down his JJ with 88. Unfortunately the race did not end well for me as neither the K or Ace paired and I’m out. Very happy to be out in such a fashion., a 50/50 chance to triple up.

I’m exhausted! Call my husband, tell him why I had to gamble being so short and then realize I sound like all the other people walking by me in the corridor: “No, you don’t understand, he called me with 5 outs…” Aaron and Tyler are there now and we talk about random poker stuff. Joe Tall appears and Tyler’s boss, who just scored 40K in some NL donkament asks us all, if we want to go flying. “I don’t do drugs”, is the first thing that comes to my mind, but he really just wants to go flying on an airplane, over the Grand Canyon. Funny what a big score does to your outlook in life.

We end up in a cafe with Tyler and Aaron, talking about random life stuff. It gets very late, but the food is yummy and the conversation is good. Tomorrow: Hike Mt. Charleston!

Oh wait, I couldn’t go to bed… I end up playing some blackjack all over downtown and end the night up 260$, yay. Ok, now I can go to bed… 4am, sigh. Interesting day….