It was over a short five and a half hours in.

Some highlights:

-Playing far too many pots, I swing early up to 22k down to 19k up to 24k down to 17k. My downswings being bigger than my upswqings would normally be a cause for concern, but much of that was explained by...
-...being dealt 16 pocket pairs, winning a total of five pots with them, and flopping one set. (and about five hours in, the numbers were fourteen, three, and zero.) I won the blinds twice with KK, flopped a set with KK and won the pot on the flop, won with 99 unimproved, won with QQ with a reraise... and lost with QQ, 77x3, 66x3, 55, 44x2, and 22.
-The first QQ hand: Brendan (2+2's CardSharpCook) makes it 300 in MP; a middle aged player who was pretty loose preflop and didn't seem to care about the money called, then the button (a pretty straightforward / passive player) made it 1200 on the button. I had queens in the small blind. I don't like any of my options, so I call. The BB then cold-overcalls! Brendan and the other caller call. The flop is AJ9 and I turbomuck when the button bets 2000. The BB then makes it 5000, and everyone folds-- the button shows the other two queens, the BB shows his three jacks, and the other two claim to have folded AK. BB lost a lot of value here. (And as I would later discover, he didn't need a hand as strong as JJ to cold-overcall preflop.)
-Later, at 100/200, I limp K7s UTG (I'd been playing pretty loosely and limping a lot even in EP, so this wasn't unusual and I expected to be fine postflop), the loose player from the last hand made it 700, and I called. Flop is KJ2, check/check. Turn 7, I check because I know he's betting anything he has, he bets 1200, I make it 3400, he shoves, I call, he shows AA. And I once again run into an 85-15 as an ace hits the river. I do not dodge bullets.
-I'm at 5650 chips now coming out of the break. The big blind is not back yet, so when it folds to me I raise to 1025 (at 200/400). Folds to the small blind, who double-checks his cards, tanks, asks me how many chips I have left, tanks again, and after a minute or so says, "I probably should do it, but I can't...' and folds AKo faceup.
-Speaking of folding AK: last level UTG (tight and pretty passive preflop) opened to 500, and the loose MP I doubled up with folded and accidentally exposed AKo (yeah, you tell me why). The SB called, and the flop came AKx. Now, this could have led to a brilliant game of chicken where SB and UTG "know" the other can't have much, so they start making moves at the pot and at each other (sort of like the Yeti theorem's schizophrenic cousin), but instead they checked it down; SB showed 99 and UTG showed QQ. God, SB banging at that pot would have been sexy.
-I chip back up, winning a nice pot when I get minraised by 66 on a 743Q6 board after I lead into 4 people with Q5. Not long after, I double up when I defend my BB vs. Brendan's raise with 7d4d (basically planning to check-raise any flop that hits me). The flop is 977hh; I make it 4k with 3800 back (yeah, I know it looks stupid, but I go with whatever seems right at the moment to me) after he bets 1500. He calls, the turn is the Th (gross, can I EVER get a blank?) and I have to shove in the rest; he has JhTx and this time I dodge however many outs I had.
-Kinda drift along after that until my bustout hand. The QQ on AKx guy limps, and a guy I want to say is a Frenchman in his early-to-mid thirties, but I have no idea how accurate either of those depictions are, makes it 1500. I'd been watching him since he got to the table and expected him to do this with almost anything, and he'd been raising limpers frequently. So I decided to pop him with anything decent from the BB. I look at Th8h and make it 5100. Now the limper looks back, asks "what's the total bet?", gets the total of 5100, and eventually calls. (OK, I get some warning bell "WTF" signs in my head, but I just can't imagine what he has here.) The other guy folds.

Now, he obviously has a strong holding, but I seriously doubt he rolls like this with aces or kings. So my plan for the flop becomes "Shove any piece and hope he folds". Not well-thought-out, but I have about a pot-sized bet left; I can't give up on it that easily.

The flop comes KT5. I move all in. He calls. He has AK. The turn and river are queens and i'm out.

Yeah, my bustout hand looks stupid in hindsight, but I don't think it's too bad, and a willingness and capability to make plays like that is part of the reason I'm successful in the first place. If I was wrong this time, well, I can figure out why, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. And even so, I expect most of his calling range there to be in the JJ-99 range, meaning he's going to fold that flop a significant percentage of the time.

So that's the end of my World Series of Poker.

However: Tomorrow the Bellagio Cup begins. I have to decide if I want to enter another 10k event or not, but the allure is always there. That dream of "Oh, THIS time I will spike a big tournament score!" I just don't know-- my excitement for the game and optimism of knowing that i always have as good or better a chance than anyone in the field is tempered by my pessism of the reality of tournaments and the long time that can go between scores. They can be the proverbial cocaine in the rat feeder. Ah, variable reinforcement.

Anonymous says

too bad, Nath. Not crazy about the way you played the K7 hand. I don't see any good out of limping UTG with it and certainly not calling a raise. You did get very unlucky thought. The bust-out hand was a bit cruel. He was even money in my book of having a middle pocket pair, an A hand or a KQ type hand. So your push on that flop made good sense and you just got very unlucky. Better luck next time.

07/10/07

Anonymous says

Would have been different if you would have gotten paid with your big hands early...too bad. It sounds like you keep it exiting seeing lot's of hands. I don't hate the QQ play, I get people to lay down the best hand all the time ( of course he wasn't going anywhere) but at least you had a plan. I like your style! Keep leaning on them.

07/10/07

nath says

"Not crazy about the way you played the K7 hand. I don't see any good out of limping UTG with it and certainly not calling a raise."

I felt the table conditions were right for it and that my postflop expectation was positive enough to warrant this play, which may be a case of me overestimating my own ability. I'd been doing a lot of investing relatively cheaply in an attempt to hit a big flop and I didn't ever get a ton of money in behind until the final hand.

07/10/07

Anonymous says

On 07/07 you said:

“Just trying to stay off the strip until the Main Event, more or less. I need the rest for the mental endurance and focus needed to do well.”

And then on 07/08:

“I took down almost 24k for first. Now I'm hitting the strip. I recommend the Petrossian Paris at the Bellagio. Their mojitos are amazing.”

Did you come into the main event well rested? Were you 100% in possession of the mental endurance and focus needed to do well?

And the “attempt to start writing every day” you talked about on 07/04 lasted until the 9th. Not only that, it stopped during THE MOST INTERESTING TIME OF THE YEAR FOR POKER, a time when it would be interesting to hear the thoughts of an insightful professional poker player who maintains a blog.

You’re doing something that a lot of people find interesting at the highest level. Your rags to riches story is, you know, an interesting story. What are you going to do with it? Post bad beat stories? Brag about running a bluff on some retard? Maybe I’m being a total dick and you are busy crafting something awesome, but based on your recent track record, I’d bet against it.

07/11/07

Anonymous says

That last poster needs to work on saying what he feels.

07/14/07

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