OK, guys. Like last year, here’s my update from the 2007 WSOP!
Like last year, it’s held at the Rio in their convention center. The room is huge and packed with over 200 tables. My play was on Day 1C (they had four Day Ones due to the crowds expected). This year, about 1600 or so took part on each day for a total of 6358 people. This number is down from the 8773 who played last year.
One of my goals last year was to last long enough to be dealt aces. Well, I got dealt aces three times last year. This year, I got AA on my 7th hand. I made a standard raise to 300 (blinds were 50/100) and got one caller. He folded after one bet post-flop. Didn’t make much there, but at least didn’t get ‘em cracked for a big loss. Other than that, the story of the day for me (at least early on) was the “Big Blind Special.” In that first round, I had 86 in the big blind and saw a flop of 4 5 7 with about five others. I checked and a mid position player made a bet. I called. The turn was an A and I checked again. Unfortunately he checked, too. On the river (an unimportant queen), he called my 1100 bet. Not bad. A little later (again in the big blind), I had pocket twos. The flop kind of hit me well 2 9 9!! I made a small bet, got a raise and a call of that raise. I chose to just call. The turn was a Q, I bet and got a call. The river was perhaps the worst card to come up in the deck. It was a 3rd 9 making my hand nearly worthless. We both checked – I couldn’t have called a bet anyway – and the guy won with his pocket 5s. Oh, well. I finished round 1 with 21,600 chips. We started with 20,000 this year.
The 2nd round was pretty unremarkable. I called a button raise with KQ from the BB. I check raised his continuation bet and he folded. Ended that round with 25,250.
Round 3 was pretty good to me. I got AQ suited (diamonds) in mid position. I made a raise to 1200 (blinds were 200/400). I got a late-position and a blind to call and see a Q J 4 flop with two diamonds. Big flop for me! I bet 2000, call call. The river was a diamondless 3. I checked and the late player bet 6000. The blind folded and it was to me. I could have pushed all-in there (I had the other guy covered) but just called. The river was a 5 – again no diamond. We both checked and he only had KJ. He said he was hoping I only had AK and would have folded. Anyway, good pot for me. I ended round 3 with 41,950.
In round 4, I took a little hit when I had 78 in the big blind. The flop was 6 9 K. I made a semibluff bet only to have a late postion player raise all-in. His stack was pretty small so I easily had the odds to call. He had flopped a set of sixes so I needed to hit my draw. Didn’t happen so I lost a little bit there. Ended that round with 38,100, still above average.
Our table broke and I was moved. I finally got a chance to play with a known pro – Kenna James. Not sure if you guys know him but he goes by Cowboy Kenna James. He was talkative, fun, and was drinking beer. He to my immediate left. His stack was smaller than mine. On two occasions, it was folded around to us as blinds. On the first, I had A5. I made a small raise that he called. The flop came A 2 6. I bet, he called. He folded on my turn bet. The next time it was folded to us, he was singing, “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there” – implying that good neighbors (he and I) should play friendly and not raise. I look down at A9 and decide to only complete the blind. I predicted that he would raise and he did – 2500 more. (He only had about 17,000 then). I pushed all-in covering him. This seemed to surprise him quite a bit. He stared me down (didn’t matter, I had my sunglasses on – refer to last year’s update for that story!) and kept muttering “what could you have?” He then stated correctly that I probably had an ace and that his king high was a 40:60 dog. He eventually folded. That pretty much put him on tilt, though as he busted out shortly thereafter when he went all-in over a tight raiser with AT against AK.
My good fortune, however, was short lived. I made an ill-advised steal attempt with Q7s from the button. Too bad the BB had aces. Took a little hit there. Other than that, it was blinds and antes that took their total. I wound up the day at 25,000 chips. That means I’m pretty short going into Day 2. The blinds will be 500/1000 with 100 antes. As only 2000 people or so remain, the average stack is likely just over 60,000. I’ll have to make some risky moves to try to double-up or steal some chips to improve my stack’s health. I’ll update you all further. I’m next up at High Noon on Wednesday.
Jeff
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