Over to the Rio for another attempt at a $1500 NLHE my opening table is not as tough as the last one, with some soft spots:

Seat 1: Fairly loose young Dutch guy
Seat 2: Very loose youngish African-American guy
Seat 3: Fairly loose youngish Asian-English guy
Seat 4: Me
Seat 5: Middle-aged Asian-American
Seat 6: Can’t remember
Seat 7: 30-ish loose American card-rack guy from Tourney #1
Seat 8: Fairly loose young English guy
Seat 9: Can’t remember
Seat 10: 40-ish conservative-looking American

We start with 4500 chips at 25/50 with one-hour levels. The table is very loose and there are a lot of preflop 3-bet pots. For most of the first level I just splash around in a few small pots, winning a few and losing a few, but nothing major and I end the level just under my start bank. First remarkable hand comes up in Level 2:

My Stack ~4200, Seat 10 ~4500, Blinds 50/100, I hold AKo OTB

Seat 1 opens from MP for 275 and I 3-bet to 800 in order to either take-down the pot or isolate him in-position without letting the blinds in cheap with random hands. He pauses for a while and looks like he’s going to make the call, which I don’t mind, but at the last moment he adds a 1k chip and makes it 1800 to go. That seemed pretty strong. I figure he has to have QQ+/AK to make this 4-bet and I let the hand go. He shows me QQ like he thinks it’s the Nuts. Personally I don’t like his 4-bet there with QQ, but whatever, he won the hand, so I calm myself down and try to focus. Just before the first break:

My Stack ~3k, Seat 7 ~3.5k, Blinds 50/100, I hold KK in SB

Seat 10 limps, 3 more limpers and I’m holding a conversation with Seats 1 and 5 about something. When I peek at my cards, I make a deliberate decision to just naturally continue the conversation. If a player is talking and then suddenly stops when they see their cards this is a huge tell that they have a big hand, so I didn’t want to give the game away. I finished what I was saying with a smile and looked at the action in the pot. There was already 550 in there, so I made it 525 to go. BB folded, Seat 7 jammed all-in, others fold and I manage to hold versus pocket fives to more than double-up going into the first break.

Key hand of the tournament happened in Level 3:

My Stack ~6k, Seat 2 4350, Blinds 75/150, I hold Th9h in the CO

Seat 2 has played very fast and loose and his stack has roller-coasted up and down. He recently tripled-up from a short-stack and has continued to splash around in pots. He’s certainly capable of bluffing-off his whole stack. He opens for 300 and I make somewhat speculative call. There is perhaps not enough value to cold-call with my hand versus his stack, but I’m quite confident that my call also prices-in at least the BB to come along for the ride, which it duly does.

Pot 975
Flop 9d3d3h

Checks to me and I make it 750, BB folds and Seat 2 insta-jams all-in. I calmly ask the dealer to pull in my bet and give me a count: 3300 to call for ~5800 in the pot. I deliberately take my time on this tough decision. If I call and lose, I’ll be left with only ~1500. I look at Seat 2 to try to get a live tell, but he’s one of those cool-as-a-cucumber African-Americans in shades, cap and hoodie and there’s really no information there at all. I ask him if he wants a call. No response. I ask him want he wants me to do. No response. I wait a little to observe his breathing: a little heavy. I do remember him shifting position during this interrogation and putting his hand over his mouth. I know this is sometimes a tell that he is bluffing, but I can’t be sure. Maybe there is an overall slight inclination from his body-language that he is bluffing, but I don’t feel it is strong enough to influence my decision too heavily, so I then consider what kind of hands he might be bluffing with: almost certainly two overcards to my top-pair and sometimes with a diamond draw. I then consider what shape I’m in if he already has me beat: pretty bad with not much chance of sucking out. Overall I feel that I have to put him on a bluff most of the time in order to make this call (analysing it later, it is actually more like 40% of the time, but that is for breakeven equity and I want to have a big enough edge to make the call). I reluctantly make the laydown and he tables the QTo bluff.

Replaying the situation afterwards in my head, the tells were stronger than I’d given them credit for. By not responding he showed weakness. By shifting position and covering his mouth he showed weakness. By not being impatient with me he showed weakness (i.e. if he had been impatient and/or called the clock, it’s more of a sign that he wants a call). I was a little annoyed with myself for not picking-up on these tells better than I did, as this is usually a strength of mine, but I think it was the pressure of the situation, given that I’d be close to crippled if I called and lost. In hindsight I probably should have the balls to make the call, but sometimes when you’re running bad it’s hard to make hero calls with cards to come. My hand was easily dominated and easily beaten by bad turn and river cards. You could say it’s a kind of Hellmuth-like laydown, but I don’t generally like his –EV laydowns and I should be making these calls when I’m on my A-game. Lesson learned.
Shortly after, I find myself in this spot:

My Stack 4500, Seat 1 ~6k, Seat 2 ~6k, Seat 8 4100, Blinds 75/150, I hold AKs in the CO

Seat 1 opens for 400 and Seat 2 calls. Seat 1 has been fairly loose and opened quite a few pots from MP and Seat 2 is pretty loose and calls here with a fairly wide-range. So with my stack I’m happy to gamble that my AKs is good here versus these two players. Considering the stack-sizes and the pot, I’m committing myself with a raise here and obviously an all-in move is fine, but I think that such a move is too revealing of my hand. Basically, I wouldn’t move-in here with AA-QQ, so why would I do that with AKs and turn my hand face-up to a thinking opponent, who might then call me with any pocket pair. So I make it 2k resolving to get the rest of my chips in the pot in any situation. Just my luck as Seat 8 jams his 4k from the BB and I know he has a monster. Seats 1 and 2 quickly fold and I reluctantly call. The pot is just too juicy as I can only correctly fold to exactly AA here and with his stack and somewhat loose image, his range has to be wider than that. Unfortunately he does have AA and I can’t suckout even after sweating a K-high flop.

I soon lose my last 400 chips and I head over to the Bellagio for a double dip. I did this once last year after busting early from a $1500 at the Rio and ended-up final tabling the Bellagio’s $1k daily. I get in at the Third Level (100/200) with the full 10k starting bank and there’s currently 70 runners (finally grows to 88 runners with $28k for First).

My table was super-soft with the usual crew of recreational players, a couple of competent online kids and, drum-roll, the one and only Mr Dennis Philips of November Nine fame.

As an example of the play there was a hand where the kid in Seat 5, older guy in Seat 6 and Dennis Philips in Seat 7 saw an all-heart T82 flop and all three built a big pot to see the Jd turn. Seat 5 checked, Seat 6 bet, Dennis called, Seat 5 jammed, Seat 6 jammed and Dennis tank-folded Qh9d for like 5k into a 15k pot with over 10k behind after he’d covered the other two guys. Seat 5 showed 22 and Seat 6 showed AhTd. Dennis was like “oh no, I folded the best hand, I thought it was something like that.” The dealer peeled-off the Ts on the river and Seat 6 is like “Yes!!!!!” (lol). Seat 5 calmly told him that his full-house beat trip-tens and he was like “ok…..no…..wait a minute, I have tens and twos, I have you beat” (more lol). Finally he accepted his fate, but managed to run his remaining short-stack back-up before losing AA to the other online kids KK (definitely not where I wanted the chips to go, as these recreational guys are such dead-money in these tourneys).

My 10k went from 8-12k without any big pots or notable hands (biggest pot won was with AA taking down a 3-bet pot on the flop for ~3k). After two more levels, I found myself in this spot:

My Stack ~8k, Seat 10 ~4k, Seat 1 ~10k, Blinds 200/400/25, I hold AA UTG+1

I open for 1025 and Seat 10 cold-calls. I knew he was short-stacked and I’m thinking WTF is that cold-call all about, don’t tell me he’s trying to flop a set on me with no odds like the retard from the Rio a few days ago. Seat 10 has just sat down as a very late registrant with 25BBs and is a young Scandi. He also calls and I absolutely detest the 875dd flop. Scandi checks and even though this seems like the perfect flop for a Scandi’s calling range he doesn’t look too interested in the pot, so I take a stab at it for 2500 into ~3500. Seat 10 insta-jams, Scandi folds and obviously I call the last 500 knowing that he has me beat. He shows me 85s. OMFG! He cold-called for ¼ stack pre-flop hoping to hit with that piece of cheese. I’m getting a bit tired of these stack-size unaware retards as I naturally brick out, but I guess we want these game-theoretically blind players to keep giving us Sklansky dollars with their calls. Shame we can’t spend them though.

I get my last 10BBs in with 66 < K7 and figure that my run-good has got to come soon. It’s coming. I can feel it all storing up for me and I’m remaining positive about my game as we get closer to the Main Event.

Back to Caesar's Palace for Tourney #8. 259 runners today @ $340 / 15,000 chips, which made for a more attractive prize pool. My friend Hugh had made Day 2 of from the previous Day with 17 left and decided to multi-table this one too given that his Day 2 started in 2 hrs and he was short-stacked in that. Coincidentally, he got sat on my direct left. Altogother it was a fun table:

Seat 1: Young Swiss player in shades: very loose-passive preflop and LAG post-flop
Seat 2: Middle-aged American competent player neither too tight or too loose
Seat 3: Youngish guy played ultra-tight then liked to overbet when he had it
Seat 4: Me
Seat 5: Hugh: reasonably competent player when on his A-game, but can sometimes succumb to his Z-game (as can we all)
Seat 6: 30-ish American LAG
Seat 7: Old nit
Seat 8: Young English guy, reasonably aggressive
Seat 9: Can't remember the original incumbent but busted early and replaced by young Asian-American LAG player
Seat 10: Old German nit who spoke no English and seemed to be a complete novice

With the deep-stacks, I started out, as usual, playing a lot of pots with speculative hands in order to try to hit big hands. It also allows me to evaluate my opponents whille the pots are small relative to the stacks. I soon noticed that Seats 1,2,6 and 8 were in a lot of pots with me, with most of the pots going to Seat 1. He was winning by aggressively attacking pots after the flop without showdowns and soon chipped-up. He'd actually lost 1/3 of his start stack by an interesting live misclick:

My Stack ~15k, Seat 1 ~17k, Seat 2 ~15k, Blinds 25/50, I hold 97o in BB

Five-way limped pot and we see a flop of 983dd. I decide to try to take a stab at the 250 pot with a bet of 150 (1x100 chip + 2x25 chips) and Seat 1 picks up three similar chips and throws them in the middle. Only then does he realise that the third chip he picked up with the 2x25 chips was his one 5000 chip rather than a 100 chip. He tries to take it back, but the dealer says he can't and then Seat 2 announces all-in. I quickly fold and Seat 1 reluctantly folds, but smiles and says "No problem, I'll win them back"

Interestingly he does just that by continuing to play 50% of hands and taking down so many pots after the flop. I give him a nickname, Tricky Dickie, and he says he doesn't mind that name. Meanwhile I have not managed to hit any of my hands and bled off a little. Here's a lol moment:

My Stack ~14k, Seat 3 ~10k, Blinds 50/100, I hold QQ in MP

Seat 3 limps and I make it 400 to go. Folds back to him and he calls. Pot 950, Flop A54hh and he insta-shoves all-in. I'm thinking WTF and LOL as I fold my QQ saying "nice bet, sir". He then proceeds to show me AQ like its the Nuts. More LOL.

Here is a good example of Tricky's style:

My Stack ~14k, Tricky ~20k, Blinds 75/150, I hold AThh UTG.

I open for 375. Folds to Tricky's button and he calls. Blinds fold. Flop 975 rainbow. I c-bet 725 and he calls. Turn blank. I feel like he was floating the flop so I think I need to 2-barrel here to represent that I led with a big pair from UTG. I bet 1525 and he makes it 4100. I reluctantly fold. Of course he could have just hit a set, straight or 2 pair here, but as we never see his cards it's hard to escape the feeling the he's just making moves the whole time.

That dropped me down to ~12k, but we're still deep, when my next big hand comes up:

My Stack ~12k, Seat 9 ~25k, Blinds 100/200/25, I hold Q9o in BB. Six-way limped pot and we see a flop of Q86ss. Checks to Seat 9 and he makes it 1050 into the 1450 pot. He is a young laggy player and had come to the table with a bigger stack, only to have lost ~10k to a SB vs BB A-rag vs AK badbeat. Folds back to me and I feel that he has a draw or a weak Queen, so I C/R to 3350, leaving myself ~8.5k behind. He tank-jams and I can't fold top-pair getting close to 2-1, so I call and he shows me KQ. I say "I can always get lucky" as the dealer turns another Q, giving me some extra outs to the chop. I then river a 9 to take the whole pot and the kid is steaming, but it's all good fun and I'm back in the game. It's my first big suckout of the trip and feels good to finally get some luck. I'd say that 80% of showdowns on this table to this point went to the worst hand, so it feels just like online.

A few hands later:

My Stack ~25k, Seat 6 ~45k, Blinds 100/200/25, I hold 77 OTB.

Two limps and I consider raising in this spot, but feel that turns my hand into a bluff and I have a chance to flop a set in position for cheap so I just call. The LAG guy in the BB, makes it 1200. He has squeezed his BB before and has also played a lot of 3-bet pots and aggressively after the flop. It folds back to me and I figure I have just about enough implied odds to call for set-value, but there's also the thought that I may have the best hand here and I have position, so I could even win the pot without flopping a set.

Pot: 3150
Flop: 962dd

He leads for 1525 and I immediately feel that was weak. I pause for a while and consider my option and decide to call

Pot: 6200
Turn: Jd

I'm not too worried about the flush getting there because it seems unlikely that he had a flush draw. Similarly it doesnt feel like he has a Jack either, so most likely he still has two unpaired over cards to my 77. He quickly checks and I check behind. Obviously my flop call looks like I might have a flush draw and I could bet here to represent it, but I'm happy to keep the pot small. River blanks something like an offsuit 5. He thinks for a while. It just seems so weak and I just know he's going to fire something at the river. I'm ready to snap-call whatever he fires. He finally puts a single 5k chip into the pot and I insta-snap him off. He insta-mucks and I show him my 77. He's quite gobsmacked and he's like "snap call, dude, wow".

After losing a lot of pots early, then getting it in bad and sucking-out, this hand not only gave me a lot of confidence, but also gained me back some table respect. I used this to good effect to open up my game after this point and took down quite a few uncontested pots at the 200/400/50 level with 1025 bets into the 1100 pot. I also started to exploit my opponents tendencies:

My Stack ~33k, Seat 2 ~45k, Blinds 200/400/50, I hold Q6hh in BB

Folds to Seat 2 OTB and he opens for 1100. He has opened quite a few pots from LP and seems to be fairly competent. I also feel he respects my game. As such, I feel this is a good spot to 3-bet, so I make it 3250 and he calls. I'm not so surprised by his call because he has tended to not want to let a hand go preflop, but has done after the flop.

Pot: 7100
Flop AKThh

I observe Seat 2 while the dealer lays out the flop. He doesn't look like he likes it and I take a quick peek. To be honest I barely noticed that I had a flush draw and a straight draw because all I wanted to see was the Ace so that I could represent it. I paused for a while riffling my chips then confidently put out 5025. He quickly folded, but even if he raises here I probably have to gamble with my hand.

Around this timeframe Seat 1 had donked off most of his chips to Seat 2, but although I had rated Seat 2 as a competent player, he then said something that made me re-consider. He had 3-bet a pot versus Seat 6, who called and led the flop, taking it down. After that hand, he said "That was an easy fold. If you had gone all-in preflop I probably would have folded Aces". I was thinking "wtf" but decided not to say too much as I didn't want to appear to be tapping the glass, but my friend Hugh (who by now had finished 7th in the other event) decided to tap and they had a discussion whereby Seat 2 explained that both he and Seat 6 had big stacks and there was no need for him to risk losing all that in an all-in showdown, even with AA. This was ludicrous as there were still 180 players left and they both only had 40-50k stacks at this point.

I then proceed to lose two decent sized pots to all-in short-stacks and find myself in this spot:

My Stack ~25k, Seat 9 ~35k, Blinds 400/800/100, I hold T7dd in HJ.

I open for 2100 and Seat 9 looks at his cards. I can already feel that he is thinking about making a move here. He has successfully 3-bet me before and he told me "don't open my big blind light". While he is thinking I consider the stack sizes and it's clear that I had 4-bet fold equity here. I can smell his weakness as he counts out his 3-bet and finally makes it 7100. That's fine and I insta-shove 4-bet semi-bluff. He tanks.

Let's consider the situation. I have opened light before and folded to his 3-bet. I have sucked-out on him for my tourny life. I have a somewhat aggressive image, but not overly so. The pot is 33.5k and it is 18k for him to call. He needs 35% to call, but perhaps more important than that is that if he calls and loses he is down to 10k. I know he is weak. He does not have a premium hand and I figure it is tough for him to call off that much of his stack with a weak hand, even though the pot odds are juicy. He has to put me on only Top10% of hands to correctly fold here, but in live tourney situations I generally have found more fold equity than online (although not apparently this year, as yesterday's 67o call demonstrated). He eventually makes a hero call with A6o and fist pumps "yes" as he sees my cards. I'm not sure what that's about, I guess the this particular Asian kid is not a math major because he's actually not in good shape: only 54% and I'm pretty happy when I see his cards.

Can I win a big flip one time? I guess not as he flops an Ace. Nevermind, I'm actually very happy with the way I played today and do not regret my 4-bet semi-bluff at all. If I win that flip I'm in great shape to be table captain able to exploit my stack.

Another try at WSOP with a $2000 NLHE event. My opening table was actually pretty tough with mostly competent players. Notables:

Seat 1: Paul Darden
Seat 2: me
Seat 3: Aggressive Aussie friend of Bond18
Seat 7: Not 100% sure, but looked a lot like Mark Seif
Seat 9: Another bloody BlackBeltPoker guy (these English guys are under Neil Channing's new staking/sponsorship venture and all play like him and generally pwn my soul and/or get lucky versus me)

I soon got into action:

My Stack ~6k, Seat 7 ~6k, Blinds 25/50, I hold Td8d OTB.

Seat 7 opens for 150 from UTG+1, I call and we're heads-up to the flop.

Pot 375
Flop QT8 rainbow

I think Seat 7 is Mark Seif. He looks weak and checks the flop. I figure I have to go for value here and bet 325. He quickly calls.

Pot 1025
Turn K

Very quick check and I'm not thrilled either by the card or the quick check. It feels like a lot of hands just got there, so I check behind for pot control. River blanks and Seif quickly fires 1k into the pot. I make a crying call and he shows me AJ.

Soon after I'm involved again:

My Stack ~4500, Seat 4 ~5k, Blinds 25/50, I hold KQo in HJ

Seif opens the pot for 150, one call and I think for a while and decide to call. I actually thought about folding because KQo can get you into a lot of trouble in multi-way pots due to high reverse implied odds. OTB and BB call and 5 players see the flop.

Pot 775
Flop KJJ rainbow

Checks to me. I can take a stab at this here some of the time, but 5-ways I figure there's a good chance someone has checked a Jack and I want better than my hand to risk too much so I just check to see if OTB will try to take it down and/or re-evaluate the turn. He fires 300 into the pot - quite an underbet. Folds back to me and again I can sometimes just fold here because there's nothing but trouble ahead in this hand. The following play (by me) is bad. I know it is bad and I regret it, but I guess I wasn't on my A-game at this time. I make a "let's see where I'm at" min-raise. I never do this online. I guess in my mind I was thinking I might pick up a live tell from making such a play and the truth is that I did, but I didn't react to it in the right way. He quickly called and I just knew he had to have a Jack at that point. Turn 6s putting two spades out there and we both checked. River offsuit Ten and I check again. I might sometimes make a blocking bet here of 500 or so, but as I said I wasn't thinking so well in this hand at the time. He confidently bet 1000 and I immediately said "I know you've got a Jack". And the truth is that I did know that, but for some strange reason an alien being took hold of my hand and picked up a 1k chip and called. He showed me J9.

I was so angry at myself for calling there. I knew he had it. He always has it. I can save 1000 and leave myself with 4k instead of being down to 3k, Damn! I took a few deep breaths and mentally told myself off and to start playing better. I'm not sure whether it worked:

My Stack ~3k, Seat 9 ~4k, Blinds 50/100, I hold AKo UTG.

I open for 275 and it folds to Seat 9 who defends his BB. Flop JT7cc. He checks, I bet 575 and he quickly calls. Again I feel like I've misplayed the hand. Medium cards like Jacks and Tens are right in the wheelhouse of callers and I generally don't c-bet flops with this texture, but it's almost like I did this automatically here. Turn blanks and we both check. River blanks. No draws got there on either turn or river. He fires 1150 into the pot. I could make a hero call versus a missed draw here sometimes, but not with my stack and what it would cost me to lose those chips. In any case he can easily have some random small-medium pair or have paired any of the five low-medium strength board cards. I reluctantly fold and feel that I wasted another 575 chips.

Now down to ~2k, I manage to reshove a couple of times and get up to 2800, but then lose a little and find myself down at 2200 as we approach the first break. I pick up A9dd UTG and figure wirh my stack I have to play it. I make it 275. Seat 9 once again defends his blind and this time I decide that I'm shipping pretty much any flop. Flop is K45 rainbow, he checks and I ship it in. He tanks forever as the clocks counts down just a few minutes to the break. I feel that he is thinking of calling with a medium pair and I'll at least have a shot of 6 outs if he calls to get back to reasonable stack for the break. He finally calls and I'm gobsmacked to see him show me 67o. Fucking Neil Channing spewtards defend their BB versus shortstacks with shit like that. I know that's how Channing plays and it probably works for him in deepstacked cash games and I guess he has taught his disciples to play hands like these, but here it is just retarded. Moreover this call is beyond retarded given the pot odds.

I say "C'mon dealer give me a break!" as he peels off the 8 on the turn. One break coming up, but not the one that I wanted, as I managed to bustout before even making the first break.

Played some breakeven 2-5 cash for a few hours and railed my friend Hugh in the Caesar's Megastack for a while (he's made Day 2 on his first day out here, mbn).

I decided to relax a little today and just play the $340 Caesars Palace Megastack tourny with 15,000 starting chips. 135 runners, soft table as usual, but just couldn't get anything going. Nice to get AA three times in the first level, but not much action and then just stay close to my start stack for the first four levels without any notable hands to report.

I thought that something might start happening when I managed to take down 2 or 3 pots during Level 5 when my stack reached the towering height of 20k, but it was a false dawn and I soon bled-off down to 15k again by getting 3-bet when I was opening light or missing flops when I was calling.

The basic pattern to my hands was that every time I opened a pot with a good hand, everyone folded, and everytime I was trying to steal the blinds, I got 3-bet and had to fold. As we entered the 300/600/75 level, my stack started to rapidly diminish and soon I had 12.5k and was looking for a resteal spot.

Not really much to discuss, but a short-stack opened MP for 1800 with 8k behind, got cold-called by an aggressive guy OTB and I looked at 99 in the BB. After so long without a decent hand, these looked like Aces and I figured I had to get it in here versus the opener's range. I shoved. He tank called, OTB folded and he fist pumped as he saw my hand and showed his TT. I did not suck-out and put my remaining 4BBs into the next pot with T9s but couldn't beat Ax.

On to another try at WSOP tomorrow...

Another try at the WSOP with the $1500 NLHE, 2095 runners, 4500 chips and my starting table is, as I expected, pretty weak. We start with 8 players until they sell the 5 and 10 seats to late arrivals. It is a mixture of 5 middle-aged recreational players and 2 younger players. Notables:

Seat 1: Younger guy who was just terribad aggressive the whole day. Kept 3-betting without a plan or stack-size awareness and, as a result, frequently found himself in tough spots with marginal hands, but managed to suck-out 30/70s for massive pots three times.
Seat 2: Middle-Aged spewtard
Seat 4: Competent young player, fairly tight-aggressive, but not overly so
Seat 9: Me

I was happy with my table, then after around 15 minutes Seat 5 is filled with the skilfully loose-aggressive online pro tEh_R3aLde4L (named "w33ktight" on 2+2, which is the polar opposite of Wesley's game). During the first orbit I'm involved in action, just as he sits down:

My Stack 4500, Seat 2 4500, Blinds 25/50, I hold 88 in BB

Seat 2 limps, 1 more limper, SB completes and I check my option. Flop A84ddd. SB checks and due to the monotone flop, I think leading my set here is always the right play versus a bunch of limpers because I want to thin the field and not let too many draws get there or at least make them pay to do so. I lead for 125, which is perhaps a little small and I should maybe make it 150-200, but I only get a call from Seat 2.

Pot 450
Turn Ah

I'm pretty happy to see that card and figure I now get good value from trip Aces, flopped flushes and maybe even flush draws, so I make another lead bet of 325. Again maybe I could bet more and get the same frequency of calls, but I didn't want to lose my customer by betting too strong. He thinks for a while and calls.

Pot 1200
River Jh

Naturally there is a chance that I'm beaten boat-over-boat by a number of hands, but this early in a tourney versus an unknown apparently recreational player I'm prepared to go to the felt with my hand here because he can easily get it all-in with a flush or trips. So I lead for value for the third street and make it 725. He ponders for a while and just calls. I immediately show him the bad news and he shows me Td9d.

In hindsight I sized my bets a little on the small side and perhaps could have won a few hundred more chips, but with a 90BB stack it's hard to get full value out of a flopped set this early in the tourney.

After that I managed to pick up a few small pots, including uncontested AA and KK (sigh), while I watch as Wesley puts on a clinic as to how extract chips from weak-tight players with a loose-aggressive style. Into the second level:

My Stack ~5k, Wesley ~7k, Blinds 50/100, I hold KdQd in SB

Wesley opens for 275. He is opening a lot of pots and has insta-folded on the rare occassions that he has been 3-bet. I feel that a 3-bet here is the right play given his opening range and if he pulls a 4-bet on me I can get away from my hand. So I make it 800 and he thinks for a while and just calls.

Pot 1700
Flop T97dd

I'm a little worried by the board texture as it gives him a lot of semi-bluffing opportunities, but I have to follow through with representing the stength of my hand and make a confident bet of 1200. He thinks for a while and folds AQ face-up. Versus this type of player, I think there's a lot of future value in advertising a successful bluff, so I show him my hand and he congratulates me on my play.

At the break, I ask him if he knows me (because I thought that he might - we have chatted online in forums and tourneys before). He says no, but even though perhaps there might be some value in keeping my identity from him, it would be quite douchy to ask such a question and then not tell him, so we shake hands and wish each other good luck. After that he generally stays out of my way at the table.

Also, just before the first break we are joined by two interesting characters:

Seat 7 has busted and is replaced by the attractive young English astro-physicist heavy rocker, Liv Boeree. She plays a pretty standard tight ABC game and unfortunately busts after a couple of hours, but in the meantime we are treated to some of her air guitar while she rocks out to some stomping heavy metal on her ipod.

http://www.livboeree.com/

Seat 10 has been vacant until it is filled by the very late arrival of Jean-Robert Bellande (who everyone calls Bobby). He plays a little looser and more aggressive than the average player, but nothing too out of line and is constantly bemoaning his lack of cards. Not a douche though and pleasant to everyone at the table and passers by.

Incidentally the legend, Allen Chainsaw Kessler, is one table over from me and banters a little with Bobby.

Not much happens for me in Levels 3 and 4 and my stack hovers at around 5-6k with just picking up the blinds once an orbit or so until this hand near to the end of the level:

My Stack ~6k, Bobby ~4k, Blinds 100/200

Folds to my SB and I complete with Qs4s. I expect him to raise in this spot a lot of the time and I'm not really worried about calling and playing him OOP because I can soon discover the strength of my hand on the flop. me makes it 525 and I call.

Pot 1050
Flop QT9 rainbow

I know he will c-bet here most of the time and this might commit his stack with any kind of straight draw or even just second pair, so a C/R for value seems likes a good play. He makes it 475 with 3k behind, I move in and he snaps me with KJ, sigh.

That leaves me short, but I manage to open shove a couple of times to take the blinds, then I successfully 3-bet Wesley's open to 475 without a showdown (I had KQ) and the same thing versus Seat 6 the very next hand with AQ and then take another pot with KQ with an opening bet of 525, BB defended and check-folded to my c-bet and all of a sudden I find myself with a reasonable stack again.

I keep accumulating without showdowns through the 150/300/25 and I make my first WSOP Side Event dinner break with 6.3k. Still way below the average, but workable as we enter the 200/400/50 level. I pick-up a couple more pots with open shoves (AQ/AK) and one 3-bet all-in (AK) then find this hand:

My Stack ~7.5k, Seat 1 ~20k, Blinds 200/400/50, I hold AJo UTG+1

With my stack size, this is a hand I have to go with. You could argue for a simple open-shove here, but I think my stack is too big for that, so I make a standard open raise to 1025. Seat 1 decides to flat-call, which appears a little weird, but he has played so bad that I assume he is not aware of the constraints that my stack-size should put on his cold-calling range and therefore he can have any kind of medium strength hand here (he would 3-bet a strong hand).

Pot: 3150
Flop T84dd

With 6.5k behind and 3150 in the pot, I feel that I have to try to immediately take this down. I know that most live nits would just check-fold their miss and keep grinding a short-stack, but imo you have to try to aggressively accumulate chips once the blinds reach this level. That flop misses a lot of his range and I can get folds out of a lot of hands that beat me such as A8, A4, 89, 78, 45, 22, 33, 55, 66, 77 and maybe even get him of some weaks Tens like T9.

There's no way I am bet-folding here with my stack, so I think the play with the most fold equity is to shove it all in. Unfortunately he snaps me with 44 and I'm virtually drawing dead. The sicko dealer gives me JJ just to run it in. I was pretty annoyed about his retarded cold call preflop with 44 there, but I guess we want bad players like that in these touneys.

At least I made it past my first dinner break and got that monkey off my back, but no cigar.