Harold C @ The 2006 WSOP

Poker Dome

On the set of the Poker Dome Pro-Am. Airing July 12th on FSN. Check local listings. Met Tim Lavalli, who has a cool piece on the shoot on PokerNews.

Ridonkulous

Warning: Whining hand history post ahead. I decided to play the Paris 9:30 tourney ($70) before heading over to the MGM for their 11am. Since I'm double-tourney-booked, I decide to "play fast" and open the first hand if no-one has opened ahead of me, regardless of my hand. I'm in the 7 seat, the button is the 10 seat, and sure enough, everyone folds to me. We all have $2000 and the blinds are 25/50. I make it 175. It folds around to the small blind, who calls. The 3 seat -- who had actually limped (I didn't notice that, apparently) -- he calls. I count the pot, 575, and look at my cards. AA. Hmmmmm. Okay. Flop is KJT rainbow, which is probably one of the worst possible flops for my hand. I mentally note that I'm very likely beat at this point. Small blind checks. 3 seat bets 300. I raise to 800. He goes all in. I call, knowing I'm beat. I was just pissed that my aces got cracked and I lost half my stack in the first hand. Donation. Who knows, maybe I have some outs. He turns over AQ. Nope, no outs. At least I can now say I got all my money in with aces on the first hand, drawing dead to a chop.

Update: After boring John Caldwell with this sad tale, he corrected me and let me know that I was, in fact, drawing live on the flop. I needed runner-runner for the full house. The chances: a little over 1%.

I won!

A ten-handed sit-and-go at the Venetian Poker Room....

Filling in the blanks

I'm back at my hotel now, checking the tv for a France-Brazil replay. I'll try to fill in some hand histories and color from the tournament over the next day or so. I may backdate stuff so it fits chronologically, so read through the posts if you're interested and you will find additional details. The recognizable faces at my table were Alex Jacob and Nick Schulman. I avoided them. There was another young PokerStars hotshot, pals with Jacob, but I didn't know his face. I'm sure I'll figure it out sometime. To my right was Eric Firestone, who won the 1k Bellagio tournament last night for a $55k score. He got pretty unlucky and never got rolling. I put a bad beat on him early. Anyway, like I said, I'll try to fill in the blanks over the next 24 or 48 hours. Plus maybe some citizen journalism along the way...

Out in level 5

The antes started. I had 2075 at the start of the level, which had $25 antes and $100/$200 blinds. I found nothing to play UTG and in the BB. In the small blind, I have $100 in, $25 in the antes, and $1600 behind. Alex Jacob, who took second at a recent Foxwoods event, has about $2000. He's under the gun and comes in for $800. A big stack ($6000+) right next to him makes it $2400. Everyone folds around to me. I squeeze and see the Kh. I'm praying for another king, but I find my third choice, ace of spades. I put all my chips in.

Alex Jacob thinks for a minute and decides that $1200 to win $6000+ is worth the gamble, especially since he was facing the blinds. He turns over Ace-Three offsuit.

The second raiser (who I'd dubbed Mini Mizrachi) turns over a pair of 4s.

Flop: Qs Ts 5h

Turn: Qd

I need an ace, a king, or a jack to win; a ten or a five to chop with a nice profit.

River: 3s

IGHN

It was fun.

End of Level 4

I have 2075 in chips.

Towards the end of this level, I found pocket aces on the button. One player in middle position had limped. There was 500 in the pot and I had 1875. I decided to raise to 900, overbetting the pot in hopes that people would think I was stealing. Everyone folded. In hindsight, that probably wasn't a good strategy. With that strong a hand, I needed to play that pot and see a flop. If I get outflopped, so be it. I should have raised to 500, 600, or 650.

Next level: $100/$200 w/ $25 antes

There are apparently about 850 or so of us left.

First Place

When the numbers come in, we hear that first place will pay $800,000 and change.

End of level 3

I have 2275 in chips.

Near the end of this level, Nick Schulman just sat down across the table. He's in the 1 seat with about 4,000 or so in chips.

End of Level 2

I have 3075 in chips. Level 3: Blinds 50/100.

Photo by Steve Hall

End of level 1

I have 3275 in chips.

Level 2: Blinds are 25/50.

Here We Go

We each start with $2000 in chips. (All 1919 of us.) Blinds in Level 1 are 25/25 with no antes.

My Table

Got My Seat

Well, I decided to take advantage of the 24/7 nature of Las Vegas last night and retrieve my seat card before the morning rush. It was a good decision, I think. I gave up a couple hours of sleep, but this morning, I get to relax and feel secure that I know where I'm going. I'd rather be here at Paris (the hotel), watching England v. Portugal (I'm rooting for Portugal). I'm at Table 147, seat 6, which is right near the rail, right near the doors. Seems like a decent location to me, although I guess I'll have to see if the spectators will be distracting. I'm going to head over to the Rio right around 11:45.

At Paris

I finally made it to the hotel. My flight was two hours late. Dead tired and a little grumpy. Oh well...

Airport

In the departure lounge. Everyone has Treos and smartphones.

Heading Out

I'm flying to Las Vegas tonight to play in WSOP Event #6 and some side games. Bookmark this site for updates. The cards are in the air on Saturday, July 1st, at Noon PST.  The event is scheduled to last 3 days. I predict that I'll be out in about 4 hours. Maybe 5. We'll see what happens. I'll be texting updates to this blog from the table. Probably during breaks, but maybe more often if I can.