Well, my weekend at the WSOP was a moderate success... no, I didn't make the money, but covered my expenses including the $2.5k buyin thanks to some table wins.

First, the good: as I mentioned earlier, the Rio is a huge step up from Binion's in terms of the presentability of poker to the masses. The "pokerdome" (to use Dan's perfect phrase) is not really a media circus yet, but should be able to accomodate the final event's circus better than Binion's did. They don't have the same problem with chokepoints to enter and exit the main arena, and it's just plain nicer and better ventilated. Also, they make use of the QueueOS software for tracking the poker waiting list, which works so much better than paper.

The WSOP has also abandoned the "$X+Y" format of buyin, instead taking everything off the top; so where previously you may have paid $2600 ("$2500+100") to enter a $2.5k event, now it's just $2.5k. While the earlier system had more transparency as to what the basic rake was, this approach is cleaner and friendlier for new players.

Not so good: there is absolutely no visibility of the tournament screens while the events are in progress for most tournament players, due to the placement and poor quality of the projection screens. The Rio really needs a good set of tournament clock screens along the far end of the hall, so players can see what is going on. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, since a constantly visible clock could encourage stalling, but a fair amount of players had to either call out to get clock counts, or run over to see the projections.

Also, unlike Binion's, there is no such thing as a free dinner at the WSOP. Players get $10 off the buffet, which brings it to a very worth-it $15 or so, but there's something to be said for getting a $25 meal comped after shelling out upwards of $1500 for a tournament entry. Of course, the food at the Rio buffet is MUCH better than the sandwiches-n-chips fare of Binion's, but most players I spoke to found it mildly annoying. I guess also if you're a Moneymaker-type who parlayed $40 into a big-money entry, having to pay an additional $15 for food decreases your ROI enormously! :)

Onto the tournament itself... this is Saturday's $2500 PLH event I'm talking about. Apologies in advance for inaccuracies or poor detail as I did not take detailed notes this year. My tournament started off fairly slowly. I was seated at a table with Toto Leonidas and a bunch of relative unknowns. Toto is off to a great start in the events this year, having already cleared almost $250k in five money finishes.

I did pretty standard blind-stealing raises for the first couple of hours, and never really got involved in a hand. Right at the end of my second hour I re-raised a smaller stack all-in when I held AKo and he had the same hand; we split the pot.

For the next couple hours I played WSOP musical chairs; it seemed like I never played at a table for more than 20 minutes before getting re-seated to right at the end of the queue. I went through a good stack of well-knowns during this run, and only played a few hands, none of which turned out to be big with the exception of one.

I was on the button. Johnny Chan was in middle position and brought it in for the max raise. At this point blinds were 100-200 and he and I were both not doing great stack-wise. He had about 3500 and I had about 4000. It was quickly folded to me, and I looked down to see AK of spades. I re-raised to 2400 and gave Chan my standard poker staredown, which was forged in the fires of my first WSOP experience five years ago. I was so unsure of what to do when players looked at me during that event ($2k LH) that I took to just staring them in the eyes. Since then it's become my standard poker face when in a hand, I just stare right back at them and don't flinch at any attempt at questions or humor. It has served me well, and it was good to practice against one of the best poker faces out there. Chan looked at me for a bit, then shrugged and moved all-in. I called for his remaining $1k or so, and he flipped up AKo. I had a chance to bust him with a flush, but it didn't come and we chopped the pot. (He went on to win the event.)

After being moved from that table to a table with Mike Sexton and Jeff Shulman, I got seated at Howard Lederer's table. Howard had a TON of stuff going on at the WSOP this year with all the Full Tilt Poker promotions and deals, and I heard more than a few people comment that he was distracted. His play when he busted out seemed to confirm this.

He brought it in for a raise in middle position and was called by the big blind. The flop came A-8-8. The BB checked, Lederer bet the max, and the the big blind raised the max. At this point, Lederer went into the vault, gave the guy a big staredown, and spent a lot of time thinking and counting his chips. Calling would cost him about 2/3 of his stack. He thought for a good two minutes and then just flat called. Next card two-spaded the board and the BB fired out; Lederer called quickly with his remaining chips and flipped over A3 of spades, the BB turned over an 8 which held up against Lederer's flush draw. I guess what surprised the table so much was seeing Lederer call the flop raise when the only hand he can beat is basically a bluff, and a call on the flop pot-commits him. I know I've done it before, and I've done it before where my hand is good, but I'm not Howard Lederer with every guy and his donkey commentating every minute of my play :)

I shuffled around a little more, and finally got seated deep in the lineup and able to settle down a bit. By this time it was about 4:30pm and I was struggling. I had been moving my chips a little, but had had no big opportunities. One hand I turned trips and made a decent pot, but largely was kept quiet. Up until the dinner break, this streak continued, but I managed to maintain my stack without getting too heavily blinded. Nonetheless, by dinner break I was at a fairly meager $4000 in chips with over 3/4 of the field eliminated -- down to 99 of 425 players remaining.

Over dinner, I went over and gave props to Pauly and Dan and the rest of the bloggers and media types, and then hit dinner. The Rio buffet line was an absolute zoo, but they had a player's entrance. Me and another lone player were waiting for a table, and they asked to seat us together. He had no visible weapons or diseases so I agreed.

I didn't recognize him, but he turned out to be Michael Keiner, German professional player. Michael has had a bunch of WSOP money finishes and introduced himself as "one of only four German travelling pros". We had the most interesting dinner conversation of any WSOP I've been in. Keiner is a plastic surgeon by trade, but decided to go pro in 1997 and has been at it ever since. He still does plastic surgery on the side for friends when he is back in Germany. We talked a lot about other players, some of which he had a lot of praise for, some of which he was not a huge fan of. He was a super nice guy, though, and really enjoyed talking about poker and his experiences. He plays in a lot of big-money cash games as well as tournaments, and we talked about the biggest games he hasn't yet played in. Top of the list was a $500,000 buy-in game in the middle east apparently populated by clueless locals that he's been trying to get an invite to but hasn't gotten it yet.

We also talked about his bankroll; he said he's been fortunate and has not gone broke yet but came really close in 2002 (within $30k). It was totally apparent to me that Michael's combination of education level, intelligence and enthusiasm for poker, and life in general, outstripped any other pro I've ever spoken with. He was a great guy and at the time was nearly the chip leader in the tournament. I wished him all the best and hope to speak with him again some time. He ended up finishing 17th.

After the dinner break, it took exactly four hands to break the seemingly endless stream of unplayable hands I had had. At this point my table had almost all huge stacks, probably the heaviest median of any table. I was somewhat on the ropes and needed to move my chips, which was helped a lot by the hands I got. I had about $4k and the blinds were at 200-400. I was dealt AJo in early position and brought it in for 1400. Huge stack on the button raised me the max, and at this point I was committed enough that I decided to call. He flipped up K-K, doh! But a king spiked on the river and I doubled through. He got really pissy at me and was obviously not happy.

The next hand I was UTG and looked down to find QQ. I brought it in for the max again, and this time a mid-position short-stack raised all-in. Folded around to me, a call cost me all but about $2k of my stack. I called and he flipped AA. I have never folded QQ in a major tournament and this was another case where I didn't really feel the justification to fold it. His hand held up and I was more crippled than I was before.

The next hand I was the BB, and one off the button brought it in for a max raise. I re-raised all-in when I saw 77, and he called with KTo. I was feeling great until the river brought a king, and I was out of the tournament.

So that was my fairly uneventful tournament this year. I played the rest of Saturday night at $15-30 at the Bellagio. Sunday I played some $2-5 NLH over at the Wynn, which was a good experience. The Wynn is a nice casino, but I was a bit underwhelmed by how little differentiation it has from the Bellagio. I love the fact that the chip runners deliver food to the poker tables -- I had a great burger while doing some healthy trash-talking, including naming a player "Neo" after his resemblance to Keanu Reeves. I love naming players, it can be a one-way ticket to tiltland if you pick your spots right.

After getting the table right where I wanted them (i.e. re-raising me almost every time I raised), I got a miracle when I flopped 7-7-5 after checking 7-5 from the BB in a 7-way pot. The button bet out $35, I pushed in a large stack of reds (about $120), she instantly moved in for $500, and I called and flipped over my boat. She flipped up 7-6, and then turned a 6. Ouch. Only three hours to my plane back to Austin, I decided trying to shrug off tilt was harder than hitting the craps table for an hour so I did that, and managed to go on a nice 6-point run and leave the Wynn with a small wynn. With that, I made my way to the airport, sat through yet another ridiculous delay on America West's Mesa red-eye to Austin (why do I take those?), and made it back safely.

Another trip hits the books. Good luck all those players making their way out there for the big one.

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After the dinner break, it took exactly four hands to break the seemingly endless stream of unplayable hands I had had. At this point my table had almost all huge stacks, probably the heaviest median of any table. I was somewhat on the ropes and needed to move my chips, which was helped a lot by the hands I got. I had about $4k and the blinds were at 200-400. I was dealt AJo in early position and brought it in for 1400. Huge stack on the button raised me the max, and at this point I was committed enough that I decided to call. He flipped up K-K, doh! But a king spiked on the river and I doubled through. He got really pissy at me and was obviously not happy
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Okay, I'm stumped. Just how did you beat three kings with that lovely offsuit A-J?

Posted by: Bruce I. on July 4, 2005 03:20 PM

Ah, thanks for the correction -- an ace spiked on the river.

Posted by: jeremy on July 12, 2005 01:32 AM

I assume T Q hit the board before the river K?

Posted by: sahala on July 16, 2005 06:14 AM

I assume T Q hit the board before the river K?

Posted by: sahala on July 16, 2005 06:14 AM

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Posted by: pill on October 4, 2005 02:30 AM

so long. :(

Posted by: Joseph on November 14, 2005 01:23 AM

Just love your blog!

Posted by: Marc on January 24, 2006 03:15 PM