$1500 WSOP NLHE Event 2 Day 2

Alrighty now. Goal 5 is met, Day 2 has arrived. After a few hours sleep, I get up prepared for battle. BKE and Crazy Tom arise about the same time and we discuss my strategy for the day. We do not talk long as Crazy Tom heads to the single table satellites attempting to win his seat in the PLHE event today. The trip is a success from this point forward even if I get knocked out immediately. It will now be a profitable trip because (1) I cashed and (2) I did not put up $1500 for the PL. AND, I felt I was playing well, so that boded well for my confidence.

I wander down to the poker room around 12:30 (we start at 2) and watch Gyndok, JM and Crazy Tom battle in the PLHE event. JM gets a bad beat with a flopped set, so he is out by the first break. I do not notice when Crazy Tom goes out, but it was somewhere around the first break.

Weirdly enough, I am not nervous. I like our table, my stack and my position from Scott Fischman. If our table does not break, I like my chances of getting very deep in the event. My goal was the final three tables from the beggining of the day, and that goal remained constant.

Level XII 600-1200 200 ante

I start day 2 UTG. I decide that I am going to play very strong early to try and get chips up to Scott Fischman's stack size, if not larger given the opportunity. First hand I see, KK. That is what I like to see. I make it 3,500 and no one calls. Okay, no big deal. Three hands later, a player busts out of my table and they break us. I get moved to the back corner table with none other than Phil Hellmuth, oh and Kevin Bott and An Tran were there also.

A little history about Hellmuth and I. In 2000, I played in my first WPO multi-table, the $1,000 NLHE. Long story short, he knocked me out in the middle of the second level and I had nicknamed him the antichrist ever since. I had been waiting for the opportunity to bust his ass, and now I had the opportunity and the chips to do it, I had him covered x3. Unfortunately he sat across the table from me and I never had the chance to go against him.

I ended the level with 46,000 and we had around 90 players left.

Level XIII 1000-2000 300 ante

The crowd around the remaining tables was five deep. And was at least seven deep around our table as Phil H. was running well and getting deeper from his initial severely short stack. It is amazing how such a loud mouth blow hard can gather so much fan support. Interesting dynamic. The most interesting thing about this table was that the light above the table went out and we played in the dark for at least twenty minutes.

I lost 8,000 of my chips on a stupid button steal against another nice stack in the BB with 65s. He shoved in pre flop and I had to muck. This was the second mistake I noted for the event in my notebook and it really pissed me off that I made such an obvious steal move, something I never do. Anyway, our table breaks due to the lighting issue and I get moved to.....

Mike Matusow's table. Mike is very loud, just as much in person as on TV. He is one of the chip leaders with around 140,000. He is two to my right, and Can Kim Hua is sitting directly to my left with around 120,000. This is nice, Grip. Just get comfortable and pick your spots very carefully.

I end the level with 40,500 and around 65 players remaining.

Level XIV 1500-3000 400 ante - The End is Near

I had been at this table for about an hour, folding, stealing once, and pretty much watching the Mike Matusow show. CK Hua is just focused directly on Matusow, clearly looking for a way to relieve Mike from his chips. Then two very interesting hands come up.

First, a player that I had played a few hours with the night before is UTG and opens for 7,500. He had played relatively solid from what I had seen, so I gave him some credit with the open raise. I look down at AKo. I know that I had two options. Raise all in or fold. I think for over a minute and decide that he must have a monster and muck not wanting to go broke with AK. It folds around to the SB who had reraised all in twice already while I was there, reraised again. UTG thinks for 30 seconds and mucks KJs face up. I am shocked. I honestly think the SB was moving and would not have called my reraise preflop. Oh well, bad read, but one I trusted at the time. I fold my UTG and BB, then THE HAND......

For those of you that have heard about it more than once, here it is for the last time in all its glory. I have 34,500 behind my SB of 1500. CK Hua is in the BB, Mike Matusow is in the CO. It folds to Mike in the CO, who makes it 12,000 to go. Button folds. I look down and see the holy grail, the promised land, american airlines, rockets: AA. Woo hoo, lets double up right now. I think for a minute, count out my 12,000 to call, look at my remaining stack and then shove it all in for 36,000 total. Can Kim Hua mucks and Mike instacalls. I say, "rockets." He says "man ain't I running good" and shows QQ. Okay, lets go to the flop....

4Q8. Sigh. Dejection. Dispair. But undeterred and undaunted, I stand up and pack up the Ipod into the backpack.

Turn 7. I give a real smile and acknowledge a player's statement "Its not over." However, I know it is though.

River 10. And I am out.

Mike thrusts his hands in the air and then graciously comes over and shakes my hand. If he had been a jerk, I think that I would have punched him right in the snout. Lucky for him, he really was cool about it.

I was that close to 80,000 in chips and probably one of the top 10 chip leaders, while weakening Mike's ego and stack. I go get my slip from Johnny Grooms and cash out for $6,360 in my first WSOP event. Nothing to shake a stick at or to be ashamed of. I pay my saves to JM and Rachet and go to the 2-5 nl cash game to calm down with Crazy Tom and JM. I make a quick $2,000 having fun with the guys and catching two very big rivers, one a flush and one making a set of 3s against Crazy Tom's TPTK.

BKE and I go over to the Wynn for dinner and drinks. we have a few beers at a few different bars at the Wynn, an amazing resort, and then head back to the Rio. Drink some more. Have some fun. But I cannot get my mind off my chance that was left on the felt.

All in all it was a very successful trip in every sense and I am happy I put the trip together. (1) I brought more money than I took. (2) Having the time of my life and spending some time with BKE. (3) Seeing that my game is in good shape and just getting better.

Next post talks about the middle part of June, including a $200 multi table in Biloxi with a nice finish. Until then...

Good Luck and See You at the Felt.