Welcome again to my 2008 WSOP trip report – Day 2B – July 9, 2008
Well, roughly 2300 first day survivors joined me for Day 2B of the Series. Yesterday, the Day 2A folks got down to 465 players. They’ll meet the survivors of today on Thursday. I was again in the Amazon room, Red Table #18, seat 6. I had $71,750 in chips to start the day which was good enough for third at my table. Two slightly bigger stacks (one just over $80K) were to my left – two short stacks ($11K and $14K) were to my right.
The blinds started at 250/500 with a 50 ante. Nothing too exciting this level. I had trouble getting in a groove … it seemed like most of my weaker raises (KJ or A9) were getting reraised – thus forcing a fold. I dropped to 66,750 after the first level.
I got back in the swing of things during the second level. I had a big hand with AA with a J 9 6 flop with two diamonds. The turn brought another diamond (I had the ace of diamonds). I made a big check raise and my opponent folded. I got my stack back up to 77,000.
Round 3 started my downward spiral. I had a monstrous stack three to my left. I raised his big blind with a pair of sixes. He reraised me but I decided to see the flop. The flop was all rags – like 2 4 7 – not bad for a pair of sixes. I figured he likely had a hand like AQ or AK. He continue bet and I raised him. He then went all-in after some deliberation. I had to fold. He said later that he had aces. Oops, bad timing there. Anyway, my stack dripped down to $53,700 at the dinner break.
I made a fateful error early in the next round. I was moved to another table and again had a big stack to my left. The blinds were 500/1000 with a 100 ante. I raised one off the button to 3000 with AK. The big stack was in the small blind and made it 8000 to go. Here’s where I made the blunder of the tournament. My first instinct was to reraise, perhaps even going all in. That would have been great. Instead, I chose to only call. I figured he likely had a pair and I didn’t want to risk it all on a race – I thought I was too deep in chips. The flop was an innocent 7 4 2. He checked as did I. The turn was a 5 and he bet 10,000. At this point, I really thought he had a hand like AQ or AJ and that he was trying to buy the pot. So again I just called. The river was another 5. We both checked and he turned over a measly 7 3! His pair of sevens won the pot. Obviously, if I push preflop or at least raise substantially, he’d fold. So, instead of gaining say 10,000, I lost 18,000. I never really did recover. I had a great flop of J J 2 with a pair of twos, but got no significant action. I was getting pretty short on chips and found QJ suited on the button. I raised only to get called again by that big stack to my left (are you sensing a theme yet?). Anyway, the flop was really quite good A T 9 giving me an open-ended straight draw. The big stack bet into me – maybe testing to see if I had an ace. I decided to raise all-in for two reasons: 1. I have a lot of outs with the open-ended straight draw. 2. I had raised preflop indicating a good hand like a good ace. I thought I could push him off a small ace. Anyway, he pondered for a good 4 or 5 minutes before making the call with an A 7. Yuck. I really thought he’d fold a weak ace there. But again, he was a pretty big stack and could afford to take some chances. Anyway, my straight draw did not come in and I was sent to the rail.
All-in-all, there were about 1300 people left at this point from the original 6844. So, I can’t really feel too bad. Still, it leaves a very sour taste in my mouth!
Until next year.
Jeff
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