WSOP Take III Here I Come

Congratulations to Golden Hammer for taking down the Bodonkey ToC and winning the 12k WSOP ME prize package. I don't really know anything about GH which is unfortunate, but I believe I remember reading on Smokkee's blog at some point that he was from Japan and found the bloggers via the the hoopla surrounding the Bodonkey tournament series. I sadly was the second player out of what was without a doubt the slowest, tightest two-table sng you will ever see, when I gamboolishly pushed 12 outs twice allin on a reraise vs scottmc, who instacalled me with top two. He has to call there of course, and though I still had 12 outs twice for about a 43% chance or whatever it is, he had the redraw working and unfortunately hit his kicker on the turn to leave me drawing dead at the river. Ah well such is life.

So my time in the BBT3 and the Bodog has come to a close, once again with no grand prizes to show for it. I did manage to make about $900 of profit through my time on Bodog, and about a grand of profit from the BBT3, so I can't complain about my participation in the mega challenges. But I would like to win the big one one of these days.

My bigger performance from yesterday was in the nightly 32k, the first "real" sized mtt I have played in I think since I got sick a couple of months back. I just don't quite feel up to having to run till 4am if all goes perfectly like I had been for so long. That whole notion seems kinda silly in fact right now. But I did get an early start on the night and so got in with literally just seconds to spare to the 8pm ET 32k guaranteed tournament, which had some 1200+ entrants. Four hours later, I am around 45th out of 55 runners left or so, and I reraised a late position stealer allin with KQ of hearts. I got instacalled by a guy for half his stack who held QJ of diamonds. Dam. Down to 50 left in a big mtt. Natch the Jack fell on the turn and IGH with a minor payout and that dejected feeling for my efforts. Nothing like running a lot of mtts to completely break someone's spirit.

But in reality, how can my spirit be broken today? I leave for sunny Las Vegas in less than 12 hours! And in 24 hours I will be sitting down to my third career World Series of Poker tournament.

As far as blogging, I believe I can blog tournament updates from my mobile phone during breaks, but I'm not even sure about that. Maybe I'll try to test it later today if I have the time (I won't). But I am bringing my pc to Vegas with me just like last year, so you can expect some form of updates while I am away, at least on my WSOP performance if not what else I am up to while I'm out there. I will get things up as soon as I can over the time I am gone.

As far as expectations, I think mine are pretty simple. My first year at the WSOP, I was the guinea pig. I was nervous as phuck, I did not play well and I never got into my groove, busting out at the hands of a vicious river suckout by Joe Hachem to end my first WSOP run around two hours in. Last year, I kicked it up a couple of notches by playing a full twelve hours or so on my way to finishing the shorthanded holdem tournament ITM in my second ever WSOP attempt. I had a couple of big hands early, I played them dominatorily, and I was just about at my best.

My #1 goal for this WSOP trip is to once again get at my best during this tournament. When I am playing my best, I honestly feel like there is no one in the world who can consistently outplay me. These days I'm basically into metagame right from the getgo in the tournaments I'm playing -- if I have nothing and am planning to fold to any bet, but then my opponent bets 50 into a 500 pot and I strongly feel he is trying to cheap-bet with a drawing hand, I will likely change my strategy on a dime and raise him the full size of the pot just to make him fold. I just need to get comfortable playing that game, my game, like I did last year, and I will have met goal #1 I have for my performance in this trip.

My #2 goal is to last until Day Two. I have played in probably three or four multi-day poker tournaments in my entire life, and in all three or four, I have failed to last until Day Two. Even last year when I cashed in my WSOP event, if you recall the shorthanded event -- just like this year's btw -- ran so fast through the field that we got all the way down to the bubble in just 9 hours, followed by a 3-hour-long bubble period that was the longest in WSOP history. So in 12 hours I had busted, but I was already a good 20 or 30 spots into the money in the tournament. This year, I would like to sniff what Day Two feels like at the Rio.

My third and final goal, of course, is to cash. Last year even writing that kind of a goal down would have seemed ridiculous to me, but now having lasted through last year's experience has definitely left me thirsting for more. I want to feel the anticipation of stealing preflop from under the gun again because the blinds are going up so much that I really need to recover some chips in that spot. I want to experience that excitement again of the bubble bursting and looking around the giant room at the Rio knowing that we all just reached another nice goal in our poker careers and/or in our lives. I know last year, actually cashing in the actual World Series of Poker was such a fucking thrill that I remember wanting to try to bottle that feeling I had inside me just so I could access it later at some other time when I really need it. I'd like to feel that again later this week. A deeper run than last year is what I'm really striving for, though even I realize that dreams must have some limits. Give me another run to the cash, on Day Two, where I play well throughout and I will be one happy camper when it's all over with.

One other thing I was asking some of our Vegas-living bloggers was about other tournaments going on around the same time this weekend after my WSOP event is over. I guess the Venetian Deep Stack events on Friday and Saturday are both 1k and 2k events, so a little big for most of us bloggers' tastes. But Miami Don did tell me about the $330 buyin nlh tournament at Caesar's at noon on Saturday. Apparently there are 15,000 starting stacks and a decent structure, with the only possible downside that the tournament has apparently run into Day Twos some times to deal with the larger fields during WSOP time. So I'm not sure how well that works with my own schedule, but it's something I would consider as well as a tournament at any of the other nearby casinos if the timing and buyin worked out right.

Otherwise, I am supposed to be seeing Danny Gans on Friday night and going to Prime on Saturday night for dinner with my brother, though I don't know how set in stone those plans actually are at this point. I do know that last night I made my reservation for Wednesday night at the Rio, so I can just cab straight there from the airport and then register for the WSOP and turn in for the night. Then it's off to Bellagio after my time in the WSOP is done on Thursday for three nights in a nice suite there courtesy of my degenerate brother. Hopefully I will have the chance to meet up with a number of you as well along the way.

Wish me luck! Not sure exactly when this will be, but the next time you hear from me I will be in fabulous Las Vegas and probably on my way to the money in the World Series of Poker.