There's always next year... (sob)

Yep.  Almost as soon as it began, my 2012 WSOP run is over.  Or maybe it should be called a walk... or a slow crawl...or stand still.  Unfortunately the cards just never came.  If I looked down at a 10-3 or J-2 once I looked down  at it a thousand times this event.  And when I tried to make a move here or there with a marginal hand, it never panned out.  Wah, wah, wah... I know.  But all things considered, I stretched out a horrible run of cards as long as I could and made it further than I should have.

I played in the WSOP and all I got was this lousy t-shirt:

Other than the gentleman to my immediate left, Alex, who coincidentally I played with many times at a private club in LA - a real tough, solid player, most of the players at my first table were...just good. Not bad by any means but not intimidating. So all in all I felt good. My first sign of bad things to come was the fact that I won the very first hand - always a bad omen in poker.  After that I didn't have a playable hand for a long time.  I did some speculating with small suited connectors and single and double gappers, but nothing ever hit on the flop.  Not even close.  And my bluffs and continuation bets were always met with resistance.  Finally, as my stack dwindled,  I woke up in the small blind with a pair of Kings and went all-in.  I got called by my old friend Alex in the big blind..  He had Ace- Jack and my Kings held up.  After that it was another long slog of 10-2's and 9-3's.  I turned a set of 7's in one hand and pulled in a decent pot - but that was really it.  By the time the dinner break came at 7pm, I was still holding around 4,500 in chips when the average stack was a bit over 10,000.  Nearly do or die time.  They broke my table and moved me to a new room and new table which I was elated about - anything to change my cards and mojo. 

As players are knocked out, they "break" tables and consolidate the field. Here I am being moved to a new room and table of new players:

I came back from dinner, to my new table, new faces and hopefully new cards.  The blinds now 150-300 with a 25 ante and knew it I was in all-in mode.  If I picked up even a semi-decent hand I would have to make a move. After a few minutes of more rags, I finally looked down and saw 8-8.  Easily the best hand I had seen in a while.  The player to my right raised to 650 and I shoved it all in.  He "snap called" (instantly calling) always a bad sign, and turned over pocket Kings... live by the Kings, die by the Kings.  The board didn't show me anything and that was it - end of my run.

The clock when I was booted from the tourney.  Level 7, 15 minutes in, 1,037 players left...

 It's a tough game, especially against a field of 2,770 players - several hundred more than last years enormous turnout.  And it sure is much more fun when the cards fall your way, but it is always exciting.  I'm disappointed that I didn't have a better run - definitely should've kept a blog last year! Anyway, thanks for tuning in and throwing me all your support.  We'll get 'em next year!

Danger!Danger!

It's the dinner break and I'm down to a measly 4,400 chips.  Less than I started with!  The term is called "card dead".  I haven't had anything to play with and the blinds are raising.  It's pretty much all-in or nothing time.  We're  heading back now - stay tuned.   I have outlasted over 1,400 players who have already busted but I will need to double up a few times in order to keep on playing..  Here we go!

Rise and Shine - and Play Poker

I'm all signed up and ready to play - got my entry ticket last night.  Event #43, $1,500 No Limit Holdem.  Keep in mind this isn't the $10,000 buy-in Main Even that you see on TV every year that pays out in the millions.  This is on of the other 60 events that leads up the Main Even  a few weeks away.  If I do well in this tournament - who knows?  Maybe I'll try my luck in the big one.

In this event, the buy-in gets every player 4,500 in chips.  The winner is the last person standing (or rather, sitting) with all of the chips.  Unlike a cash game, in tournaments the blinds (the forced antes that the two players to the left of the dealer position, or "button") are periodically increased to force the action.  The levels are 60 minutes long and the blinds are increased after each level.  Antes are introduced at level 6 - this is when the tournament kicks into a higher gear.  Now there is enough chips on the table to get people to start trying to "steal" pots.  Play becomes more aggressive and there is more raising and re-raising.  The good players are good at picking the right time to steal pots.  Whether you get good cards or not, it is crucial to steal pots here and there in order to keep your stack growing to pay for the ever increasing blinds.  Enough poker talk.

Me arriving at the Rio:

Time to prepare.  Things to bring: water, sunglasses ( I wear them sometimes depending on the mood), iPhone to listen to music to calm me after a bad beat, a banana or snack and a sweatshirt.  Last year we started at noon and played til 2am - it's a grind.  Must go into battled prepared.

Purchasing my entry ticket.  There's a very fine line between standing in line to buy a ticket to the World Series and standing in line at 7-11 to play the Lottery.

I'll try to update as much as I can via my phone - so expect more grammar and spelling errors.  Here we go!

WSOP Eve

If I were an air conditioning salesman, repairman, retailer, wholesaler -- I would hang a shingle in Vegas.  It's a whole different kind of hot here.  We rolled into town yesterday (Thursday) around 4:30 into a wall of heat measuring somewhere between 105 degrees and the surface of the sun.  Have no fear, the casinos have that all sorted out.  They keep their establishments so cool  that their clients forget everything about the outside world - which often includes their jobs, families, pets and significant others. 

We checked into our room (no problem with our over 50 lb dog), grabbed some dinner at Buzio's, the in-house restaurant, then went down to the poker room to the scene of the crime.  The 2012 WSOP is packed but there is definitely a decrease in attendance from last year.  I personally spotted only half the degenerates from 2011.  Still there are plenty of dreamers like myself hoping for a good run and a chance to own one of the coveted WSOP bracelets. After a nice dinner and a stroll around the 12 foot by 12 foot dog "relief area", a patched of yellow spotted grass nicely squeezed between a parking garage and an on-ramp outside the hotel.  Afterwards we tried to get  her some exercise by running her down the hotel hallways.  One sprint ended with me trying to film her and getting smacked in the face.  (See video)

We took it easy today - hit the gym, got a massage, had an enjoyable meal over at The Wynn hotel then back to The Rio to pay my buy-in for tomorrow's tournament.  You can buy your ticket anytime - and the majority of players wait until just a few hours and minutes before the start time - but I wanted to get it out of the way so I could enjoy the morning  - and before I spent it all on the craps tables.   Kick-off time is 12 noon tomorrow.  Event #43.  Stay tuned!

Here we go again!

It's already been a year since my wild ride at the 2011 World Series of Poker.  I decided that this year instead of just posting updates on Facebook, I would venture into the blogosphere to keep anyone who's interested updated on my progress in 2012's WSOP - which means I'll probably bust-out on the third hand and spend the rest of the weekend at the Voodoo pool at the Rio Hotel --  but either way it should be a fun.

For those who don't know, I've played every year in the WSOP since 2007.  There are over fifty different poker tournaments played throughout the month of June at the WSOP, ranging from 7-card stud to games called RAZZ and Omaha.  I always play in the popular No-Limit Hold 'em events.  That first year I was fortunate enough to "cash" by coming in 79th place in a field of a little over one-thousand players.  (In tournament poker, everyone buys-in for a set amount, which varies from event to event, the money is collected and becomes the prize pool.  Generally, the prize pool is distributed to the final 10% of players -- the lion's share going to the top 5 players.  Unlike cash games, your chips don't  represent money and you can't buy back in.  Lose all your chips, you hit the pool. )  That same year, feeling good from placing in the tournament and winning $5,126 - which was split between myself, my brother and a couple friend's who chipped in for the $1,500 buy-in fee - we decided to roll the dice and enter the Main Event! The buy-in is $10,000 and the field was over six-thousand players strong.  It was a roller coaster ride that ended on day 2 (of a a 7 day event - yes poker is tiring!).  I didn't cash, but had a great time.  I played again in '08, '09 and '10 all of which ended with me in tears in my room in the fetal position.  Then came last year...  I rolled out to the desert solo to play in Event #43, No-Limit Hold 'em $1,500 buy-in.  Somehow, by some miracle and combination of good cards, good luck, good playing, no bad luck and good vibes from all my friends and family, I found myself sitting at the final table.  In what was called one of the most raucous final tables in recent memory - a crowd of fans actually doing the wave every time their favorite, Andre Akkari, won a hand - I managed to reach chip leader with over 7 million in chips with only four players remaining.  In the end I finished in 3rd place out of over 2,000 entrants and winning nearly $300,000.  I have a feeling that would have been the right time to have a blog...

I leave LA this morning for the 5 hour (or so) drive to Las Vegas  with fiance' Sandra and dog Sasha in tow.  The plan is to arrive around 4pm-ish, check-in, convince the hotel staff that Sasha does way less than the maximum 50 pounds they allow for pets, relax by the pool in the 115 degree heat, grab some dinner then cram for the tournament on Saturday.  I have several books on poker strategy  that I like to devour before I sit down at a table filled with top-tier players.  I like to refresh my brain on calculating pot odds, figuring out my odds at hitting an inside straight on the turn, how best to play middle-pair's from early position - real fun stuff like that.

So, stay tuned and I'll keep you updated and informed during the tournament and will do my best to give you a feel of what it's like to play in the most famous poker tournament in the world!