Event 29 Part 2

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

WSOP Event 29: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Part 2

So on to the interesting hand I mentioned at the end of Part 1: I was sitting in the small blind and the big blind had not yet returned from break.

It folded around to the player in cut-off, who prepared six black ($100) chips and one yellow ($1k) chip. However, he didn't say raise, and had pushed the black chips forward first. He was held to a call since they call this a "string raise."

Even before looking at my cards, I was planning on three-betting any late-position raise with a wide range of hands. With the big blind sitting out, late-position players are generally willing to raise with an especially wide range.

However, their three-bet calling range remains almost unchanged ... something I can't help but exploit.

I looked down at the A T in the small blind. I was actually hoping to look down at a hand like the 5 7, where I can make my move and still have an easy decision if I get reraised.

I decided to raise anyway, to $3k total. He called pretty quickly, still looking frustrated about the string-raise ruling.

The flop came A 3 4. On this flop, I will rarely get action from a weaker hand if I bet out. He will rarely have a weaker ace, and will easily be able to fold most pocket pairs and other hands that did not connect with the flop.

Although the flop is a very dangerous one to give free cards on, I decided that the best play would be to check and hope to induce a bluff or get him to overvalue a pocket pair and pay me off on later streets.

I check. He quickly checks behind. The turn card is the Q. I lead out for the same bet as I made pre-flop - $3k - feigning weakness. He doesn't take long to move all-in for a little over $16k total.

I was trying to get him to put some chips in the pot, but once he shoved I did something I rarely do, and may need to do more often ... think it over for a minute. Then again, there's an old saying, "You think long, you think wrong."

Luckily, the old saying wasn't quite on the mark this time. I called and he showed the J T for a gut-shot and a flush draw. The river was the jack of hearts and I was up to well over $40k.

David Pham: Relentless.

A couple of hours later, David Pham had been moved to my table, and was playing his usual aggressive style. He made it $3,100 to go from middle position with the blinds at $500/$1,000 ($100).

I decided to smooth-call on the button with the K K, especially since the players in the blinds had great stacks to attempt a squeeze play.

Sadly, they quietly let their hands go and the flop came Q Q 5. David bet $3,600 and I raised to $9k total. He called fairly quickly. The turn card was the 6, and he checked.

With about $25k left and David having me covered by just a few thousand, I bet $13k. He thought for a minute and called.

Now for some reason that still isn't clear to me, I felt like David might be trapping me with a big hand and have me beat. I thought he might even have Q-J or Q-T and legitimately be concerned that he was beat, but entered check-call mode since he couldn't fold.

Either way, the river card was the 3 and he checked to me again.

With $13k left at this level, I would have a decent shot to make a comeback on the short stack if my kings were no good. I checked behind.

David said, "Two pair," and since I assumed he wouldn't have said this with AA (even though it is two pair, obviously), I just turned my hand over and he mucked. He later told me that he had pocket sevens and clearly was pot-committed and would have called.

Now I know hindsight is 20/20; it's easier to play hands backwards than forwards and that it's important to not be results-oriented. However, in retrospect I believe that he would have moved in on the turn with any hand that beat mine in almost all cases, making it a clear river shove.

That was the last big pot I played on Day 1 of the event, and we ended for the night with 81 of the original 719 entrants remaining. I had about $67k in chips, going to the $800/$1,600 ($300) level. I was about 20th in chips of the remaining players.

Rizen.

I had a pretty good table draw going to Day 2, with the only familiar faces at the table being Tony "Bond18" Dunst and Eric "Rizen" Lynch.

Although they are two of my online opponents whose game I respect highly, they are both on the more conservative side and were not going to put me to many tough decisions while I tried to chip up on the bubble.

Despite the fact that it wasn't long before we were in the money and the table was broken, I was able to accumulate about $25k chips by raising and reraising a lot of pots pre-flop, taking all of them down without showdown.

Unfortunately, this table was promptly broken when we got into the money, and my new table was not so kind to my stack. I had the overall chip leader of the tournament directly on my left, and he seemed determined to win every pot that I entered.

Whether it was reraising me pre-flop or raising my continuation bet on the flop, he was not going to let me take one pot without a struggle.

It can be extremely frustrating when this happens, and I'm not going to lie ... it really was. However, I was new to the table and was completely unfamiliar with the player's style. This made it very difficult to decide when the right time to pull the trigger on a huge bluff was.

So I didn't. I continued to play solid poker, and tightened my opening ranges and slowed down with my continuation bets to make my play less exploitable.

After losing a $25k pot to a short stack who got in with A 8 versus my A J, the table broke ... and thank God, since I could barely win a pot there.

Razor.

However, it looked as though my new table wasn't going to be much easier, with Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke, Leo "Pechorin" Wolpert, and John Phan at the felt.

For a while, the only way I was picking up chips was by moving in over the top of John Phan's raises. I picked up A Q and 9 9 a couple of times with a stack of 15-20x the big blind, and John had opened under the gun or in early position.

Then with the blinds at $2,000/$4,000 ($500), I picked up Q Q in the small blind. Wolpert raised to $10k under the gun and after a long deliberation Phan decided to just call (he seemed to be considering a reraise).

It folded around to the button, who moved in for just under $100k total. I gave a shrug and called all-in for $89,200.

I knew there was a decent chance I was beat, and I was particularly worried about Phan. But at this stage of the tournament, with a below-average stack, I decided that I had to go with it.

Wolpert folded fairly quickly and Phan took about as much time as he always does. After deliberating, he folded the J J face up.

My opponent showed the A Q and the board totally bricked out. I crippled him and was slightly over the $200k mark.

With 27 players left, they redrew seats for the remaining three tables. My new table included Matt "plattsburgh/mattyv" Vengrin, Dale Pinchot, Ryan Young and once again John Phan.

I didn't play many big pots early at this table, until Dale Pinchot moved in for $48k in early position with the blinds at $3,000/$6,000 ($500).

Since I know Dale from playing together in a ton of East Coast tournaments, I said "Good luck, Dale ..." and then remembered that I hadn't looked at my cards yet and completed the statement with, "... unless I call."

Funnily enough, I woke up with A K in the small blind and moved all-in. The board ran out T 6 3 Q 8 and they shipped a pot of over $110k to Dale, leaving me with about $130k.

After stealing the blinds once and shoving from the button with the 4 5 after Phan had made it $22k from late position, I had almost $180k with 18 left when they redrew again.

Phan: Great call with sevens.

My new table included several good players I had come across earlier in the day: Matt "Plattsburgh/mattyv" Vengrin, Tony "Bond18" Dunst, Ryan Young and of course John Phan. Much like the previous few hours, I was pretty card-dead when it mattered and had to keep trying to tread water with marginal hands.

Seven-handed, with the blinds at $5,000/$10,000 ($1,000), Phan raised to $26k from the hijack. I had 3 3 in the cut-off, with a stack of $199k. With $48k in the pot, I decided to move in since Phan probably had the widest opening range but generally hates calling off his chips.

Although I knew he was becoming frustrated with how many times I had moved in over the top of his raises, he did not have me covered by very much. If he called and lost, he would be under $60k in chips.

The average stack was over $330k, another reason that I needed to make moves like this to chip up before the final table if I really wanted that bracelet.

After his usual amount of deliberation, Phan counted out the chips to make the call. I was still sure he was just doing his usual routine and was going to muck his hand, but he eventually made a great call with the 7 7.

A flop of K 9 7 left me drawing literally as slim as I possibly could without being dead, a 989-1 dog. I didn't pick up a quads draw on the turn, and was eliminated in 13th place for $19,761.

Congratulations if you actually read my longest blog ever in its entirety, and thanks so much to all of my supporters ... sorry I didn't get the bracelet this time, but you know I'll be back.

--Matt Stout

"All In At 420"

More 2008 WSOP Blogs from Matt Stout:

• WSOP Event 29: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Part 1
• WSOP Event 27: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em
• WSOP Event 23: $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em
• WSOP Event 17: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout