WSOP #3 - Minor Cold Streak, 1.5k NL Commentary and 50k Horse [06.22.2007]
I can�t believe how fast the WSOP has gone by so far. I�ve played 18 events and still only have one cash. It was a nice payday I guess, but I�m really disappointed with my performance so far. I think I�ve been playing well, but the cards just haven�t been going my way.
I�ve started off really well in a few events. I had a bunch of chips in the 5k limit holdem, but lost with kings twice in like 20 minutes when the blinds were killer on day two and that was all she wrote.
Three things had to go wrong for me to lose the shootout. I got KK all-in against TT which obviously did not hold up. Then I got coolered with a king high flush all-in against an ace high flush on the unpaired three heart board. I still had chips after that, but lost them when I got AQ all-in against 77. GG.
I started off really nicely in the 5k at the Bellagio. Overall the field was really tough. I knew almost everyone in it, and there were only about 70 players. About forty-five minutes in, this one guy that bought in late sat down at my table. He was under the gun the first hand. He checked.
In case you didn�t catch that, he was under the gun. He tapped the table trying to check. That�s right, the ol� UTG check. After the dealer publicly embarrassed him, he folded his cards.
The very next hand this guy was in the big blind and I was under the gun. I decided I was going to limp any two cards just to try to play a pot with him. I limped A6o for 50 chips and was in complete shock when it folded all the way around to the small blind. Did no one else see what I saw? The small blind checked, and the big blind raised 100 more. We both called.
The flop came 864 rainbow. The small blind checked, the big blind bet 200, and again we both called.
The turn was an ace giving me two pair. The SB checked, the BB led out for LOL � 100 chips into the pot of 1050. I knew this guy was a super donk, so I made a huge overbet and just made it 2k. The SB folded and the BB called.
The river was a 6 filling me up. The BB led into me for 1,000. I raised it to 5,000 and he called pretty quickly. My full house was good.
The entire table was mad at me for leaving the uber donk with less than 3k chips after his very first hand at the table. He didn�t last long.
Despite that wonderful hand, I never really got anything going later on in the tournament.
I started off really with in the $2500 6 max. I doubled my stack pretty early on, but then lost a huge pot when I got top pair top kicker all-in against bottom pair and a gut shot. I was short stacked after that, and then lost a coinflip or something. I don�t even remember the final hand.
Huge congrats go out to Alan Sass for finishing 4th in that event. I�ve said it before and I�ll say it again: Alan is one of the best tournament players on the planet right now. He�s EASILY top 10 in the world. Expect a lot from that kid. He was in great shape to win this final table, especially given how bad the chip leader, Hoyt Corkins, was playing. On Alan�s final hand, he made a standard preflop raise with AKo and Hoyt made a huge over shove with ATo for almost 30 big blinds. Alan obviously called and obviously lost.
In the $5,000 heads up event I took a bad beat before it even started. They originally capped it at 256 players, but decided to let more register. Obviously they didn�t get the full 512, so they had to give some byes.
The tournament was scheduled to start at noon, but they kept entries open til almost 1:00. At 1:30 they started reading off seat numbers out loud to a crowd of hundreds of people at a ridiculously slow pace.
They had only announced like four names when they announced mine. �Justin Bon � Bo-na-ma� has a bye.�
Yay! I got a bye! 3 seconds later� �I�m sorry, that was a mistake.�
Crap, no bye. 3 seconds later� �Table 204 seat 1 � Brian Townsend�
So I went from thinking I had a bye, to 3 seconds later thinking I was playing the current most successful online player. For those of you that know nothing about poker, Brian Townsend CRUSHES the highest stakes games on Full Tilt under the name SBRugby. I don�t think anyone questions that right now he is the best NL cash game player in the world.
After a few more names were read off, I realized they were only announcing the one seats first, so I wasn�t playing Brain after all. I got a much better pairing against Annie Duke, but she beat me during the second blind level.
I lost one crucial pot when blinds were 75/150. I raised the button to 400 with 72. She called and the flop came A72. She checked, I made my standard continuation bet of 550, and she check raised to 1350. I decided to call and move in on the turn. If I reraise right there she will probably fold, but if I just call, I will almost certainly get one more bet out of her. Unfortunately, the turn was an ace counterfeiting my two pair, and I had to fold to her bet of 2300.
She actually played pretty well against me. On the final hand, I decided it was about time I made my first 3 barrel bluff. I hadn�t made a single multi-street bluff yet, so I figured she would give me credit. My river bet was all-in and she went in to the tank for almost 5 minutes before making a nice call and knocking me out round one.
I started off well in the $5,000 Omaha Eight or Better tournament as well. The play at my first table was super terrible. Jennifer Harmon was at the table playing very well (obviously), but so were Jeff Madsen and Chris Biggler. After seeing some of the hands they showed down, it became obvious O8B is not their strongest game. There were so many five or six way raised pots, and there were some nice showdowns where spicy hands like QT86 single suited took down huge pots after calling three bets cold preflop. After seeing how bad this play was, I REALLY wanted to play the 50k horse (more on this below), especially considering that half the bad play was from players that will be playing that event.
I went into day two today roughly average in chips, but was at a really tough table. When I got moved to the table, it featured Howard Lederer, Patrik Antonius, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Alaei, and I swear there was one other big name player, but I can�t remember who. Despite being sandwiched between Barry and Patrik, I started off well today, but lost several huge pots on the river, two of which were to Patrik. I guess I should clarify that he was playing really well so people don�t think I�m calling him a fish or anything (He�s really, really good - easily one of the best all around players in the world).
Tomorrow will be an exciting day. I�m going to be commentating for the final table of Event #35, the $1500 NL. The Charlotte Hornets announcer Scott Lauer is going to be the professional commentator in the booth with me. Go to www.WorldSeriesofPoker.com to watch the final table live. I�ll try to make it insightful and entertaining.
Sunday is the big $50,000 HORSE event � arguably even more prestigious than the main event itself, and I�m very excited to say that I will be playing it. I sold a lot of my action to some friends since I�m not exactly bankrolled for it. After looking at last year�s lineup, I�m very confident that I will have an edge against this competition. Many of the players are successful No Limit tournament players that honestly just don�t really have any business playing in a HORSE championship. Granted, all the best HORSE players in the world will all be playing this, but I think there will be more than enough weak players in the field to give me a significant edge.
Hopefully my cold streak will come to an end before Sunday, because I can�t imagine many things that would make me happier than winning this bracelet.
-GL to me!
� Justin Bonomo
