WSOP 2006 Day 2

What a Day!!

Day 2 of our 2006 WSOP trip was another success! We started our day at 9:00am when we awoke and headed over to the MGM Grand to grab some breakfast and play in the 11:00am $65 NLHE tourney. We registered for the tournament and made hit up the Studio Café. Of course, I had my usual yogurt and granola with a sesame seed bagel (Sinatra and RiverRat can insert rude comment here). After breakfast we made our way back to the poker room for what would be a very unsuccessful tourney for both Stewman and I. I went out in about 30th place (no special hands to speak of… just went card dead when the blinds reached ridiculous levels) and Stewman went out 11th.

Yes, he lasted longer than me… AGAIN.

After busting out of the tournament I went and sat down in a 1-2 NL game that had was just being seated. I bought in for the max $200 and quickly went down to under $100. I bought in for another $100 and before I knew it, I was back below $100.

I didn’t get a great night’s sleep thanks to the very uncomfortable pull-out sofa that I slept on the night before. So I decided to do something that I have never done before… I got a massage at the table! They charge $25 for 15 minutes plus tip and let me tell you… it is money WELL SPENT. I bought in for another $100 and started to go on a tear. Before I knew it, I had $500 in front of me and the respect of the whole table.

And then… THE hand. I’m in LP and the guy to my right bumps it to $10 to go. I look down and see AK. I call as does another girl. The flop comes with 3 hearts and 10 high. I have the Ace of hearts and the guy to my right bets $30. I raise to $60 and the girl moves all-in. I know I am behind but I figure I have lots of outs (any heart, any A or any K gave me 14 outs). The guy to my right calls and the turn is a blank. He reaches for chips and bets $100 into the pot. Now, I know I should fold here but I just know that if I catch any of my cards I will win it. I think about it for about 2 minutes and call. The river is a blank, he moves all-in and I fold. He shows JJ and the girl had a set of 10s.

It took me a while but I got back up to about $500. I made some well-timed steals and bet aggressively when I had big hands and before I knew it, I had well over $700 in front of me. Steman was bugging me about leaving and getting something to eat (we had been playing poker for 11 hours straight without a break), and as much as I hated to walk away from a table that juicy, I announced I would play only 1 more hand. I went to the cashier’s cage and grabbed a few racks, got back to the table and began to pack up. UTG I pick up KK and I raise it to $14 to go. The guy on my left calls and everybody folds. The flop comes out Q-8-x rainbow. I lead out for $30 and the guy moves all-in for $190. I quickly call and show my hand. He shows Q-10 os for top pair. I’m feeling very good knowing that if I win this hand, I’m cashing out for $900. Then the turn brings him his miracle 3rd Queen and he doubles through me.

I felt absolutely sick. I was 5 outs away from walking away with $900 in my pocket and instead, I walk away with only $535.

We headed over to the RIO to get some dinner (its now 10:30pm) at the All American Grille with plans to eat and then play a satellite or two. The burgers were AWESOME and after stuffing ourselves, we waddled over to the Rio Pavilion for some more poker action. When we got there, we saw the final table was still going in the TOC. Mike Sexton and Daniel Negraneau were going heads up for $1M. We sweated them for a few minutes and then lined up for the satellites.

When we got over to the satellites line, we were surprised to hear that they were no longer running the $65 or $125 satellites for that night. The lowest buy-in tourney was $175 and as soon as they announced a table was forming I jumped up and ran to get my seat.

Loooooong story short, I played extremely well, won almost every pot I entered and ended up chopping when we got down to 3. I had half the chips in play when we got down to 3 but I didn’t want to risk getting unlucky and winning nothing so I made the deal. I took $800 (1 $500 tournament chip and $300 cash) and the other two guys split the remaining $800.

An interesting hand did come up during the satellite, however. I honestly never thought I would see the day I flop quads but had to sweat the river card. Here’s how it played out:

The short stack in EP moved all in for $375 (blinds were 50/100). I have JJ in the BB and call. We turn over the cards and I see he has A9. On the flop, the window card is an ace but I almost fall out of my chair when I see the other two cards are the last 2 jacks. The guy jokingly says, “Hey I got outs… runner runner quad aces and I win!” Everyone laughed and then the turn brought him another Ace. With one to card to come, he could actually beat me after I flopped quads. The river was kind to me this time and I lived to talk about the what would have been the worst beat EVER.

So after two days, I’m up about $600 and in good shape to make a run at playing in Saturday’s $2,000 buy-in NLHE tourney.

More updates tomorrow…