Here’s my 2nd installment of my WSOP Main Event tournament report. It’s pretty long but an interesting read for any avid poker players.
Seems like the first installment was well received so I’m looking forward to doing the rest of it. This week I decided to get a bit more specific with my table draws. So without further ado…
Day 2 – Start of Day 2A Hour Left in 200/400 50 blinds. 54,425 chips
Melvin Martinez 39,725 AMAZON / 310 / 1
Farhad Saadat 71,250 AMAZON / 310 / 2
Marco Mills 34,400 AMAZON / 310 / 3
Marian Kubis 2,325 AMAZON / 310 / 4
David Ventura 45,125 AMAZON / 310 / 5
Adam Levy 54,425 AMAZON / 310 / 6
Rory Cox 19,050 AMAZON / 310 / 7
Alexey Yuzikov 19,825 AMAZON / 310 / 8
Gregory Brooks 66,975 AMAZON / 310 / 9
My table draw was pretty good. I didn’t know anyone at first glance but later found out that Rory Cox was Moosedebator online. Gregory Brooks was a good online cash game player who refused to tell me who he was. I always think it’s hilarious when young kids do this for many reasons. First off, I have the table draws, your name, and a little website called Google. Also, playing with someone live for an hour will tell me so much more about someone than playing online tournaments with someone here and there for a month. Alexey was a good solid Russian player. Melvin Martinez was a guy who played in a home game with 9 other friends. Every week for 10 weeks they put up $100 each until they have enough for 1 WSOP Main Event seat. He was the winner of the league and got into the tourney for $100. Pretty cool story. Farhad Saadat appeared to be a rich guy from Los Angeles who loved to throw chips around. David Ventura was a really tight, friendly guy. Everyone else at my table I didn’t get to know that well. So on to the poker!
Early on in the day I saw Farhaad Saadat was opening a fair amount of hands. He raised to 800 and David Ventura flatted. I decided to reraise with KJo to 3050. it folds around to Farhaad and he flats. David folds. The flop comes QQJ rainbow. It checks to me and I check back. Turn is a 7 bringing a 2nd spade. Farhaad bets 6k into about 7500. Deep down I felt like I should fold but the logical part of me told me to call considering it seemed like he’s been throwing chips around already. Also, it’s not very likely he has another queen. So I call but didn’t like it. The river comes an offsuit 4. He bets 15k instantaneously. Once again, my gut told me to fold but I had to think about it for a little bit. Ultimately, I decided to fold and felt good about it although I was annoyed I didn’t just fold the turn. Later in the day I realized my fold was correct. He was throwing around a lot of chips and raising a lot of pots but he would bet pot or more when he had a huge hand.
Moving forward, by 250/500 I was down to 35k. It was shaping up to be a tough early part of the day. Early on in this level, I raised up J10hh from UTG+2 to 1250 and got flatted by Melvin Martinez in the hijack with about 20k. The flop came Q92hh, I bet 1800 and he called. The turn brought an offsuit 3. The way Melvin had been playing I had seen him call 2 barrels with midpair in and out of position but whenever he bet, he would bet well no more than half pot. Factoring all this in with his stack, I decided checking was the best option with plans of calling most bets on the turn. So I check and he bets 2900 which was exactly around what I expected. I call and the river is another offsuit brick. I check, he checks, and flips over KQo. I was very happy with my assessment of the hand and was happy to preserve my stack even if it had dwindled to around 25k. I chipped back up to 30k when I had a huge turning point. The last hand before the break, I raised A10o in the cutoff to 1250 and the big blind, Greg Brooks called. He had been defending his big blind a lot and it also seemed like he was going out of his way to play pots with me. I’m not sure why he would when there were tons of other soft spots at the table. Regardless, he defends and the flop comes A73 rainbow. I bet 1800 and he calls. The turn was a Js. He checks, I check and the river brought a non-spade 4. Greg thinks a few seconds and he fires out 10k into about 7k on the A73J4 board. A rather perplexing bet. I initially was calling any bet but this made me think twice. So what does he have? He had already overbet the pot a few times against me but I never had anything to call. There was no way he had it every time. Yes, he could have AJ as well as AQ. But AQ didn’t seem too likely because I figured he would 3 bet it a fair amount. It could’ve been a weak Ace, A8 and A9. I wouldn’t put it past him to be making an oop(out of position) float to try to take the pot from me on the river. After much deliberation, I called because it just felt like my hand was under repped and he seemed a bit unpredictable. He flipped over A9o and my kicker played! After this hand I was back to 45k and he said sarcastically in disgust “What a slowroll.” What??? You merged your bluffing and value range but I was never calling with much worse than what I had so you trying to valuetown for that size is a bit greedy. Anyways, after that my confidence was restored and so was my day.
I didn’t do much at 300/600 75 but a funny thing happened. Greg played a pot against Farhaad where Greg called Farhaad’s utg raise in the small blind. The flop came 834dd and before Greg even checks, Farhaad shoves all in for 80k. Another what!?!?!? But this time, it deserved exclamation points. That’s just crazy. So it’s ruled that Greg still gets to act and he checks. Farhaad is bound to shoving and he is perfectly fine with shoving 80k into a 5k pot. Greg folds but we all thought it was pretty hilarious.
400/800 100 is when things really started going my way. I still had around 45k at this point. I open for 2200 from the hijack with QQ. It folds around to Melvin in the big blind and he just sticks his pile in for 32k (40 big blinds). Earlier he had shoved for a similar amount and I just mucked my hand. I honestly didn’t think he was light but I also didn’t think he had Aces or Kings. Hard to find a reason to fold the 3rd best hand so I call and he flips over Q10o. Another whaaaaaaaat?!!!? He was drawing dead on the turn and I was up to around 80k. For someone who had actually played decent and had been pretty patient all day, he decided to spaz out at the wrong time.
The last level of the day was 500/1000 100. Halfway through the level, another funny coincidence happened. My good friend and only person I swapped 1% got moved to my table to replace Melvin. Like what are the odds??? It’s crazy how often it happens too. There was a period where anyone I was either rooming with or lived with would randomly be at my table in massive field live tournaments and this was like no other. Just so weird. At least it was great chats though. Always is when you have friends at the table. Once I got some chips I started opening quite a few pots and it seemed like people didn’t really want to play with me until I picked up QQ again. David Ventura who had been up and down all day raised on the button to 2700 with about 30k. I reraise to 8200 and Rory, shoves within 5 seconds for close to 30k. David folds and Rory shipped it in for around 30k. Now, Rory had been BY FAR the tightest player at the table the entire day so this wasn’t a snap call. He kept recalling how he used to play loose but now he’s a nit. He really was soooo tight. He grinded a 15k stack all day then won a flip when he was at 10k and won another flip when he was at 15k. He was really friendly so I was rooting for him but in this situation and the timing of his shove I had to call. He flipped over Ace King and the board was all bricks. All of a sudden I had 110k and won a few more pots to finish the day with 130,600. What a great turn-around from early on in the day.
End of Day 2A Hour Left in 500/1000 100 blinds. 130,600 chips
Next week, I’m going to do day 3 and 4 to coincide with the rest of the WSOP telecast.
