Tuesday, July 12, 2011

WSOP 2011 main event aftermath

It's the day after my main event bust at the end of day 2a and I'm sitting here again in the Starbucks cafe at the Rio in contemplation of what could have been. On the bright side I managed to have a nice chat with WSOP senior tournament director Jack Effel - please bring some WSOP events to Aus Jack!

In my previous blog I was posing myself the question of whether I would do better at this WSOP and in particular the main event compared to last year...
Now that my 2011 WSOP campaign has come to an end the answer is 'yes and no'. 'Yes' in that I felt more in control of good overall decisions with respect to the specific tournament situations laid out before me. But a 'no' if you take a results oriented view compared to last year (which is not always the right way to look at things).

Last year I cashed in 2/5 bracelet events, cashed in a deep stack event and then went deep into day 3 in the main event. This year I cashed in 1/3 bracelet events and failed right at the end of day 2 in the main event. On paper 2010 was definitely a better series for me but I feel that this year I was a more complete overall tournament player.

So what went wrong in the main this year? Possibly a number of small factors that in the end all added up. As my girlfriend pointed out possibly choosing day 1c was not the best as that is generally the most popular day all the professionals prefer to start. In fact on day 1c I didn't find many soft spots on the tables that I could expose consistently and with the very strong John Tabatabai on his game seated a few spots to my left it was a difficult day for me to get going.

By the time our table was broken on day 1c I saw my starting stack of 30K dwindle down to 16K as all my continuation bets were being picked off and when I 're-adjusted' I lost the initiative in a lot of hands - basically had almost no spots all day where I could value bet. After a few words of encouragement from Dara O'Kearney I managed to hold tight and survive day 1 with a stack of just under 21K.

Start of day 2a the blinds are at 250/500/50 and I am looking for good spots to re-shove squeeze if the pot offers me enough to shoot for. After the first hour of play my open raises are consistently three bet by what I could only describe as a couple of young internet pros to my immediate left with huge stacks - I fold and wait for a spot. Eventually just after the first hour of play with 17K in chips I open raise AdQd from early position and I am three bet a 5th time in a row by one of the young guns - feeling I am way ahead of his range I re-shove my stack over the top and he snap calls with AKo!!! You know that sinking feeling when you think its all over? I had that feeling for a about 15 seconds but to my relief I flop a Queen and hold.

Back to about 35K in chips and I decide to be patient for a while as I can see the young guns not to happy about my suck out and a big target on my forehead. This was probably the worse thing I could have done as soon after I get too cute and slow play trips which cost me 5K instead of picking up 10K - then I overplay AA trying to have an old dude who three bet another open raiser. I won the 6K in the middle preflop but should have been able to get a lot more value in this micro session to where I feel I could have got to 50K. This is really where technically the tournament started going bad in terms of bet sizing and tournament value for me.

Along the way I play next to Andy Bloch (he was part of the original MIT blackjack team 'documented' in the movie '21' and a Full Tilt sponsored red pro) for the first time and we talk about the 'Team 1%' cancer prevention charity he is associated with but I refrained from asking about where all my Full Tilt money deposits have now gone...anyways back to the tournament...

For the following 2 sessions I go completely card dead and get down to 21K at the dinner break...which is where I started the day - oh the irony after trying so hard!!!

I spent the dinner break with Dara O'Kearney his son Paddy and Nick Newport just relaxing before the cut throat shoving begins for me after the dinner break. All the lads and I had been out ten pin bowling the night before with a small wager on the result - despite having the best bowling action I was no match for Dara's slow and steady 'finger-pinch' technique or Nick's 'my power will crush anything' bludgeoning style. For the record Nick won the wager...

After the dinner break at the start of level 4 for the day my table is immediately broken saving me any uncomfortable Full Tilt poker discussions with Mr MIT and amazingly I get moved to Nick Newport table where Nick had an OK stack of around 60K. After a few all ins that were rudely 'ignored' by everyone I eventually still managed to chip down to 16K after seeing rag after rag being dealt to me (92 suited was looking good at one point - you get the picture). I eventually find my best spot and re-shove on the button over a late

I was left surprised though when the open raiser didn't call but the caller called my shove and he turned over KQo and I was a 60/40 favourite - Nick sportingly wished me luck. The rest is now history as the villain flopped a Q  to go ahead and I flopped the nut flush draw for a good sweat which just blanked out on the turn and river - good game I have no complaints here with this result - that's poker.

It was another eventful experience at the WSOP and with my second main event under my belt and I feel I will only get better results here after my fourth straight WSOP. There are definite technical areas of improvement I need to make as well as certain mindset adjustments. I may need to reconsider playing on day 1c in future as well as look at options around trying harder to satellite in to make the burden of the $10K entry fee have the minimum impact on my decisions at the table. I am someone who doesn't lend money or ask for money and although that is a good life policy it can be a limiting one in the poker
world.

Where to now? First things first - I have a few days left in Vegas to try and have a bit of a holiday and then I'm back off to Sydney where I am dying to see my family, friends and especially my girlfriend Fi.

Many thanks to Fi, Costa, Dara, Feargal and all my friends back home for you support during this WSOP.

After I have a week off when I get back home I will start to set up a schedule for balancing IT work, life and poker and set some bankroll building goals. And that's probably where my next set of blogs will continue...

No comments:

Post a Comment