The Main Thing Is ...

Friday, 4th July 2008.

The night before, at the Team Gutshot dinner, I drank diet Coke. Such was the extraordinary lengths I was going to in order to put in a good performance at the WSOP Main Event!

I met up with Barry for breakfast and chatted about the keys to success. I distilled the advice into “Code RED”. Read the table, Enjoy the experience, Don’t go broke.

I have played 3 or 4 of the smaller bracelet events previously– this year and in previous years – so the sights and sounds of thousands of players in the cavernous Amazon room was not over-awing in itself. However, I would still say I was nervous.

In this case, the anxiety was about putting in a good performance.

I arrived just in time – I had been concerned about Independence Day traffic but my cabbie seemed to find some sneaky route. I have him a $20 bill for the $9 ride – covering all the bases for good karma. I was also in possession of a good luck wishes from my wife and sons – variously by phone, SMS and MSN. Lastly, the lucky $1 Rio chip that Barry threw me at the mega-sat was safely lodged in my bag.

I’d give Harrah’s a solid 7 or 8 out of 10 for the “opening ceremonies”. We had the Stars & Stripes sung by someone I am probably supposed to have heard of, and a “thank you America” from 2007 champ Jerry Yang and a shout-out for US servicemen & women. Also, a multi-national flag wave. I don’t mind a bit of sentimentality myself, so I thought it was all OK.

We lastly received the famous “shuffle up and deal” and off we go. I promised Barry that if I picked up the Powerhouse on the first hand, I would push all in. Luckily I didn’t have to break my word and we proceeded to hand #2 without much incident.

I had a good safe draw, it seemed. Two to my right was a Norwegian high-stakes online NLH cash player – “Mr Chill” is his moniker apparently and if he’s playing 50/100 professionally then I guess he knows how to play. I was glad to have position on him. The player immediately on my right had cashed both of the $1500 NLH bracelet events, so was evidently solid. However, no one seemed too tricky and a couple were clearly less than solid.

I made steady, cautious progress. I advanced to around 24k chips in the first couple of 1 hour levels.

Marc Convey, reporting for Poker News now, came by and made sure they got the H-Bomb’s chip count. In fact I was one of the first names they put up so at one point early in the first orbit, I saw I was marked up as lying 4th in the Main Event !

As a few of the media people came and checked up on me, I was asked by my neighbour “they all seem to know you – are you some big-shot poker professional ?”

Perhaps, in hindsight, with such a straightforward table I should have tried to be more aggressive about building a stack. However, I was following the line that the priority was to stay in the tournament. We all know that the double-up can come up at any time.

Our table eventually was broken, and I was now moved to “Blue 50”. I didn’t like the look of it. It was all sunglasses and logos.

Very early there I picked up Aces, and re-raised an early raiser, taking down a small pot. But that was about the high point for me at this new location.

I did come to realise that the two players on my immediate left were not too problematic, but when one of those was replaced by JP Kelly, and with Thomas Fougeron on my right it was a differente proposition than my starting table.

When JP Kelly took out the player on my left and Thomas Fougeron took out another short stack on his right, they were replaced by aggressive big-stack players.

Things were tough and I was feeling distinctly out-matched.

It is often said the Main Event field is not of a high standard – which I find plausible based on my experiences in the other WSOP events – but it’s not uniformly bad of course.

I have a feeling in hindsight that I should have realised I was in a tough spot and really locked down and waited for very good spots, or a table move !

As it was, I lost a big pot out of position to a sponsored pokerstars player (not a qualifier) and although I picked up some chips from the weaker players before they bust out, I now found a tough spot against Thomas Fougeron.

With blinds 150/300, he raised to 800 in early position. I re-raised to 2,200 with pocket Queens. He called. The flop was not great – KT9. The only legitimate hands I am now beating are JJ and AQ.

He checks (as he would with almost anything) and I decide to check as well. He now bets 2,600 on the turn (a blank 3). What I often found was that playing against the big-stack strong players, it did not matter whether I had position or not ! Out of position, it was horrible. With position, they always seemed to have me under pressure.

Here, I have a hunch I may be winning but of course if he called pre-flop with a genuine hand, he is well ahead. Still, I have outs on the river. I decide to call.

On the river (another 3) he bets 2/3rds of my stack. I can’t call and am knocked back to about 12k.

I am between 10 and 13k until the dinner break.

During dinner I bump into some of the players I have met in the past week – some of whom I have given my H-Bomb cards to and we greet each other like old friends. It’s a friendly game, I find, off the table anyway and it’s funny how people remember you.

I know that on 40 big blinds, I have plenty of oxygen left. One problem is that I am short-stacked on my table but not actually a short-stack in big-blinds. This is not a situation I am very familiar with and I probably did not adjust well to it.

JP Kelly continues to be a tremendous problem. He opens nearly every pot from any position and seems to call freely at all stages of the hand. His chip mountain grows. He has called every single pre-flop raise I made, bar one.

On the plus side, if I can get him in a pot where I have a really strong hand, then I can get paid off.

Easier said than done, however, as I have position on him only twice per round, with Thomas Fougeron also opening a lot.

Looking back, I tend to think I should have been more patient but when I found 87o on the button and it was folded to me, I made a standard raise to 850 (150/300 with a 25 ante). Of course JP called.

The flop was Js6s2c and when he checked, I checked behind. The turn brought a 5 giving me 8 outs to the nut straight. JP Kelly bet 1,200 (I think he bets 100% of the time here).
I elect to raise to 3,500 and he calls. In hindsight, I guess I know he will call with any piece of this and I perhaps should have waited for a better chance. Or, perhaps I should push all in here ?

The river is a Jack. When he checks, I think he does not have much. Again, I perhaps should have teh heart to move all in with my 8,500 chips. Instead I bet 3,000 which I hope can look like a value bet (1/3rd of the pot) but with all his chips, Kelly calls with pocket 3s. Pffff. How does he know I don’t have pocket 7s, say ?

Now I am genuinely short-stacked. The good news is that it will make my decision making quite easy. I need to wait for a spot. It needs to be a spot with a decent hand, also, because the stacks at the table are not worrying about calling 5,000 chips.

The occasion arrives pretty soon, in fact. An aggressive player two to my right opens for 1,200. I have AQo. I push.

I expect to be called.
I want to be called.
I get called.

He flips AQ-suited. As we know, this is a split pot 9 times out of 10. This was not one of those times. 2 clubs on the flop and one on the river, mean the end of the road for me.

It’s always disappointing exiting a tournament – whatever the circumstances. I probably did not play to the highest possible standard today, but I tried my best. I was aware of being significantly outplayed at the second table. It also could have worked out differently if I caught a few breaks.

It was one of those days where I folded the wrong flops. For example, shortly before the 78 vs JP’s pocket 3s, I folded K8-suited pre-flop having limped on the button and folded to a raise. The board came K83. Two players who had pocket 6s and 97-suited put over 10,000 chips into this pot before the 6s won it.

It’s taking me quite a while to get over this one. I really feel I could have and should have done better – although I did turn $5 into a 9hour run in the main event. I could have done worse.

I think I will eventually recover enough to give it another try next year – that’s the main thing.