Ok, maybe people would not count going to the world series of poker as a sporting event. But, hey, they do play it on ESPN and I thoroughly enjoyed the event, so I figured I’d add this in. I’m actually a couple months behind in writing about this and I did more than just go watch a WSOP event. I played in it. Again, I have to put another disclaimer out, it wasn’t the main event, but one of the events leading up to the main event.
I played in event #7, No-Limit Hold’em.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008 to Friday, June 06, 2008
Buy-in: $2,000 Prizepool: $2,899,260 Entries: 1,593
You can find the more info and the results on the world series of poker website here.
What was it like? Awesome! Especially the first moment you walk into the Rio conference center, turned into a huge poker room. There were thousands of players all playing in the main room and as I walked in, you could hear this background sound that sounded a bit like rain. It was constant and as I focused in on it for a sec, you realized it was the sound of thousands of poker players all playing with their chips. If you’ve played much poker before, that sound alone is enough reason to go experience the WSOP.
Okay, backing up a bit, I’ve been playing online poker and some small tournaments here and there for 4 or 5 years now. Not all that serious, but enough to have felt like I wanted to test myself a bit more and me and one buddy (also my boss) have talked about playing in the WSOP for awhile now. This year we decided to stop talking and actually head out to Vegas and play. We wanted to hit one of the lower buy-in’s, not quite ready for the $10k main event and the $2k no-limit tournament fit pretty well into our schedules.
We stayed at the Rio and flew in the day before our event started. We spent the first couple of hours just being in awe of the event, checking out all the pro’s (name a pro poker player you’ve seen on TV and he/she was there), and then figuring out how to register for our event. Eventually we decided to go play one of the sit and go tournaments they had running pretty much non-stop. 10 people at a table, winner takes all. We picked a table that was $125 buy-in and agreed that if either of us won it, we’d split the winnings with each other. Table seemed to be full of average people or one’s that didn’t care a whole lot and I think my confidence ended up getting raised up way too high. I felt like I played well, but it was too easy. I quickly knocked most people out and Jeff and I ended up 1st and 2nd. Welcome to the WSOP, so far so easy!!
We went to sleep after that, knowing we wanted to rest well and get some breakfast before our tournament started the next day.
Event #7, Day 1, blinds level 1.
I headed to my table, blue #22 and sat down about 10 minutes before the tournament was scheduled to start. I felt pretty relaxed, not really worrying about much or even thinking about poker in general. Some people at my table are chatting away, but I stay out of conversation just observing and waiting for things to start. My high point of the tournament comes when the first cards are dealt. Yeah, that’s probably not a good sign if that’s your high point. But, that was a great moment. Right then, you felt like you could win, and there was the high of actually sitting down at a live table of the WSOP. Wow!
Not a whole lot of action over the first hour, pots were all pretty low. Regardless of the pots being low, I still played too many hands. Every tournament I’ve played in up to this point, I’ve always been much more conservative, especially in the beginning. But for some unknown reason, I couldn’t control myself. I wanted to play hands. Ack! Let me tell you, the WSOP is not the place you should be if you just want to play some hands. At this point, people don’t know me all that well and I’m able to win some and luckily get out of any pots that are too big and I have nothing.
After 1 hour, I’m right about even in chips, which should be considered a great place to be in, looking back at how poorly I was playing.
Event #7, Day 1, blinds level 2.
“Looking back at how poorly I was playing”. I wish this could have been recognized right at the start of level 2. However, this insight is coming 2 months later. I was still playing the same. I even was getting a little cocky because I had won some pots I bluffed at. And then the hand hits me where everything falls apart. I call it the good player read, the horrible poker skill hand.
I had KQ off and ended up seeing the flop. I don’t remember what position I was in, what I paid to see the flop or anything else. But I know after the flop came out with all low cards it was me and one other guy betting. He checks, I bet, he calls. Turn card comes and it’s another low card and this time he bets out. At this point, I feel he doesn’t have anything. I’m putting him on ace high, probably AJ, AT. Here’s where my first horrible poker skill showed up, after he bet, I raised. But, I only raised a fraction of what he bet and after thinking for a sec, he calls me. Right then, if I had bet an appropriate amount, I’m pretty sure he would have folded. The river comes out with a 2 or 3, he checks and I bet 1000. (You start with 4000 in chips). He quickly calls and shows AT and that he hit a A-5 straight with that river card that I had totally ignored. I never even saw there was a potential straight and I had put him on an Ace! Wow, good read of his cards, horrible poker skill in my betting and lack of looking at the board.
I stay alive awhile longer until the very last hand of level 2. I have pocket jacks and go all in with about 700 in chips. A guy who had probably 6 or 7k in chips calls me with A 8. I hit a J on the flop and it’s looking good, but the turn and river give him an 8 - Q straight and I’m out.
The break starts and I meet up with Jeff. He mentions he’s not doing that well, around 2500 chips left. I tell him I’m out and he immediately knows I played wild and aggressive and wonders what the heck is wrong with me. I have no defense, I just played bad. After chatting for a few minutes, I go back to the hotel room to get away from the poker madness. I lie down, call a few friends and family and then have a good cry. Ha, okay, it’s not a total breakdown, but I’m pretty sure I did shed a tear. Not that I lost or played bad, but that it was over. I was no longer playing in the WSOP. Sigh. Eventually I headed back down and watched Jeff play for awhile. He was making a decent comeback. I won’t cover his whole story, but he ends up alive through all of day 1, making the money and ended up in 109th place. You can see his name on the ranking list I displayed above. And you know the coolest part? He now has a player profile page on the wsop website!
http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/players/playerprofile.asp?playerID=45182
How jealous am I? (A lot!)
Other highlights of the trip include:
- Watching the final table of event # 4, where I sat in the stands of the ESPN booth and watched pros like Howard Lederer and Erick Lindgren.
- Chilling and having margarita’s in the Rio’s Voodoo lounge.
- Getting a call that a friend in vegas on a work trip is delivering her baby nearly 2 months early and actually getting to go to the hospital and visit her.
- Buying a number of ridiculous things in the WSOP gift shop… and then having Jeff purchase even more stuff once he cashed in for his winnings!
- Making the decision that I am going to play again next year!
All in all, an awesome (sporting) event that I can’t wait to attend again!
