Day 2 recap

I had what could be classified as a massive collapse on day 2 of event #3. We returned to the tables at 2 p.m. and when I sat down I noticed Michael Mizrachi (who is third in money won in 2006 with over $2,000,000 in earnings) one seat to my left. We started with 70 players and I knew if I made it to 63rd or better I'd pick up an additional $750 (chump change compared to what was at stake, but still $750) A few hands into the session with blinds at 1000/1500 (originally they had planned on 1000/2000 blinds at the start of day 2, but after massive lobbying from the players they agreed to a smaller blind structure) I had 19,500 chips and picked up KQ two off the buttion. This is another one of those trouble hands. If anyone reraised me I would be in a tough spot as they would almost certainly have me beat with and A or pair of some kind. After spending 12 hours at one table yesterday I was suddenly up against 8 new opponents and the last thing I wanted to do was show weakness by just calling. I raised to 4,500 and the small blind quickly moved all in for 7,500. I figured I was beat, but I was forced to call by the 4 to 1 odds the pot was offering. My opponent gingerly turned over A 10. An A showed up on the flop all but killing my chances of winning the pot and I lost a big chunk of my chips. A few more hands passed and after stealing the blinds once I found myself in the small blind with 13,000 chips. The button open raised to 5,500 chips and I looked down at KK, the second best possible starting hand. The raiser only had about another 2,500 chips left and I thought about just calling in a effort to lure Mizrachi, the big blind, into the pot. After about 15 seconds of thought I decided not to mess around and put all of my remaining chips in. Mizrachi practically beat me into the pot, quickly putting 12,500 chips (all of his chips) into the pot. Here's how pokerpages.com described it...

“The Grinder” takes a nice pot when he goes up against James Southerland and Wesley Huff. Southerland raises to $5500 pre-flop from the button and Huff pushes all in from the small blind. Mizrachi, “The Grinder” from the big blind calls. Southerland also calls and the showdown commences. Mizrachi turns over an Ac Jc , Southerland flips over pocket 7’s and Huff pulls out Kd Kc. Mizrachi seemed confidant that an Ace would hit the table, and sure enough it did when the flop came Ad Js 3s 2s 2h. Southerland’s 7’s didn’t hold up nor Huff’s K’s. Southerland is eliminated and Wesley huff is left holding only $500. Mizrachi is pleased with his take and now sits with about $37,000 in chips.


Going into the hand I was 53% to win while 77 was 19% and AJ was 28%. I would estimate that 90% of players would have folded the AJ behind a raise and a reraise, but Mizrachi is fearless and decided he wanted to go for the gusto. In fact he'd entered into event #4 at noon (from which he was quickly eliminated) knowing that at 2 p.m. he'd have to continue playing event #3. It's all or nothing for this kind of guy. His risky style didn't pay off, however, as he was eliminated in 54th place despite having all of my chips. I lost my last $500 chip when my A 10 lost to the big blind's 6 4. In the end I finished 58th and got paid $3,761 for a net profit of $2,261 which left me up $761 for the 2006 WSOP. I've had 5 days in my poker career when I've won more than $10,000 in one day and I've had at least 25 when I've won more than $2,500 so financially it wasn't earth shattering, but there's something special about succeding at the WSOP and I'm proud of my performance so far.

The last two days have taken their toll on me stress wise so I'm not sure if I need a day off or if I'm going to play event #5 (event #4 $1,500 limit hold 'em went off today) $2,500 buy-in no limit hold 'em with 6 handed tables instead of 10 handed tables. Fewer players at each table means you have to play more hands and can expect more confrontations. My specialty is 10 player single table tournaments so I play short handed all the time (even though we start with 10 we play down to 1 so I have experience playing with any number of players), but I prefer a full game in this type of environment. I'm going to make a game time decision tomorrow morning. If I don't play, my next event will be $2,000 buy-in no limit hold 'em on Saturday.

On another note I'd like to give a shout out to anyone at the census bureau who as a result of my good friend Brian Ridgeway might be reading this blog. Those crazy americans aren't going to count themselves. I'd also like to thank my sister (Jennie or Jenn with two n's) for mentioning my blog on her blog. Also I appreciate all the compliments I've been getting on my writing. I'll give give full credit to my high school english teachers (Miss Edwards, Mrs Dodson, Mrs Jackson and Mrs Queen, but not Miss Corbett who was a huge bitch) and my wife who always lets me know when I'm being an idiot.