Event #2 Recap (Yuck!)

Event #2? What happened to event #1? Well event #1 was actually a $500 casino employees event so this was actually event #2. The short version is, I didn't make the money, but there isn't anything I could have done differently.

Here's the long version. We started with 208 tables that each had 11 players (it's almost always 9 or 10, but sometimes in tournaments they squeeze another player in until a few players have been eliminated and then go to 10), which is 2288 players. But there was also a list of alternates. As players get eliminated they are replaced by alternates who start with the same number of chips that everyone else started with. By the first break we already had 500 alternates in the field (meaning 500 other players had already been eliminated). I'll let you know how many they ended up with tomorrow, but they said other than the main event of last years WSOP (which had over 5600 entrants) it was largest in person field in poker history. Every Sunday I play two $215 buy-in online tournaments that usually have around 5,000 entrants so I'm used to playing against big fields, but let me tell you it's much different to see all those people in one place. It's hard enough trying to beat the players at your own table, but it seem like a monumental task to beat the thousands sitting at tables that stretch on for what seems like forever. With that said, I like my chances against the competition I've seen so far.

We started with 1500 chips and the blinds a 25/25 with the limits increasing every 60 minutes. Someone went broke on what must have been the first hand, because they were calling for alternates right out of the gate. I spent most of the first hour sitting there not doing much other than observing my opponents. I did win one pot when the most aggressive player at our table, who'd been involved in over half the pots to that point, opened for a raise to 75. I looked down at two jacks and make it 225. Everyone folded to the original raiser and he called my raise. The flop came down A 7 5 and he checked. I bet 300 and he quickly folded. Winning that pot, my first at this years WSOP, was the highlight of my tournament. Not too exciting. I stole the blinds (meaning I raised before the flop and everyone folded) 3 or 4 times and picked up another small pot after seeing a free flop from the big blind, but my stack hovered right around 1500 the whole time. About half way into round 3 with the blinds at 50/100 I picked up AA in the small blind. Everyone folded around to me and I raised to 250. A standard raise from the small blind would be 300-400 but I kept it small because I had the best possible starting hand and the fellow in the big blind was an extremely tight player (meaning he plays very few hands). I certainly didn't want to scare him away with a big raise. He called and the flop came down K Q 7. I figured this was a great flop. I wanted some action with my great cards, it was likely that he called me with big cards (like QJ, KJ, K 10, etc) and unless he had KQ or 77 I had him beat (I ruled out KK or QQ because he certainly would have reraised me preflop with those holdings). I bet out 250 and he went all in for about 1200. I quickly called and he showed me KQ. Yuck! I still had outs (cards left in the deck that would give me the best hand) as any A would give me three of a kind and any 7 would give me a higher two pair. A four on the turn gave me 3 more outs (two A's, three 7's and three 4's), but a 6 on the river gave my opponent the pot and eliminated me from the tournament. AA is an 87% favorite to win against KQ, so clearly this was a bad break. It wasn't the result I was looking for, but there wasn't anything I could have done differently so I have to be happy with the way I played.

As far as celebrity opponents go I played against a fellow who apparently finished 4th at the WPT championship event at the Bellagio in 2004 and against Eric Froehlich who was the youngest player to ever win a bracelet when he won an event last year at 21 years 4 months. This year he seems fatter, smuger and less attractive and believe me it takes A LOT to stand out in those categories when it comes to poker players. To sum up, no good today, but I'll get 'em tomorrow.