WSOPE £1000 NLH

After initially putting this event on my calendar, then thinking I would give it a miss (various reasons including a fairly unanimous view among players that it is bad "value" as a tournament), I flip-flopped back to the "yes" camp.

Diary-wise, it fitted in somewhat nicely with the birthday celebrations at The International the night before. Karen & I stayed at a hotel on Friday night and I was booked in for Saturday night as well.

The Friday night was good fun at the club. In the random tag teams event, I was paired with JJ. The tag structure had the effect of tightening up my play (even though I hardly had to worry about JJ being unused to the loose approach). JJ presumably did not react in the same way as his early position push with A7 was snapped off by Andy Achillea's AQ.

I took a fairly early retreat from the cash games (lively: some highlights included me calling India's all-in check raise on a Jack high flop with my J-9o. I had 4-bet the pot pre-flop. My top pair was good. I imagine India had a hand like 88. Lowlights: check-raising all-in on Axx flop with 63o and failing to get A-8 to fold).

The Empire was busy, no question. The poor structure had obviously not been enough to counteract the positive halo effect of a WSOP bracelet on offer. About 300 (capacity, basically) had played on day 1A with the same number again there for 1B.

Plenty of faces on show. I did not recognise anyone at my own table, although they all struck me as pretty experienced players. At the next two tables, I spotted Chris Ferguson, sitting next to John Juanda and Barney Boatman (who lasted about 20 minutes). There were some other faces that looked vaguely familiar.

Although 3,000 chips was plainly far too few, the blinds did start at a helpful 25/25 (maybe they changed this under protest from the players because the posted schedule certainly said 25/50) and the 1 hour clock was respectable.

After winning and losing a few very small pots, I found myself in a difficult place after getting too committed with top pair and the nut flush draw, losing out to a full house (did not see that coming at all).

Tournaments are often about "what if" so in this case, I can wonder "what if" I had not limped with Aces in level 1. Actually not that much would have changed, probably. As it turned out I lost a small pot when 4 diamonds came (I had none) and I paid off a small bet on the river.

Having lost some chips, I thought my way back may have come in the shape of pocket Kings.

Two callers pre flop, and then they both called on the Ace high flop. The pot was now checked to the river where I lost to A3. So, what if I bet bigger pre-flop? Or bigger on the flop, or if I fire the turn or river as well ? My feeling was that I did not have enough chips to shake off the flopped Ace.

In any case, the result was that I had no real room to move until in the 3rd level my stack had reduced to 15BB. Obviously now I was waiting for a good re-shove opportunity. It came soon. The button, who had just won a big pot, opened to 300 at 50/100 and with AQ on the big blind and 1,550 chips it was an automatic all-in.

The player seemed hesitant about calling despite his decent 9k stack. This seemed a good sign. "Ace-Ten" someone volunteered, having apparently played with the raiser earlier. "Yes please" I thought, but it was pocket Tens.

Still, I was happy to take a race. Unfortunately a Ten on the flop cut short my hopes. They were briefly rekindled by a King on the turn, but there was no miracle Jack on the river.

So, a rather brief stint - a little less than 3 hours - although about 100 players had already exited in this short period. The rapid elimination of players did mean that those who did survive the first few levels quickly went deep into the tournament. In fact, they had to stop play early on day1a to prevent the money bubble bursting on day 1 !

Next time ..... although I am not sure I will play any more live tournaments this year.