2010 WSOP Day 2 - My Event #3 and Oh Look I Got 9-2 Again!

Today was the start of Event #3, the $1,000 NL Holdem Event. I got up and was well rested for today’s event and did most of my usual preparations. I arrived to the Rio about an hour early for the event and decided to hang out in the media tower until the start of the event. I didn’t want to be packed into a hall with potentially 3,000 other players. I headed over to the Pavilion Room about ten minutes before start time.



As stated before, the room was absolutely massive and every table was in use. More on that in a minute. Jack Effel kicked off the event with his usual introduction of welcoming everyone to the Rio. This time he did a little something different. Last year, every winner of a WSOP had an opportunity to take part in the bracelet ceremony where they would receive their bracelet followed by the playing of their national anthem. Joe Cada never was given this honor since his bracelet was the very last one to be won. So, they did a couple of things to honor him. First, they unveiled his Champion’s Banner that will be displayed along with the other WSOP Main Event Champions. Afterwards, they had the US National Anthem sung by Matt Goss with the Dirty Virgins. Yes, dirty virgins. Afterwards, Joe Cada told us to “Shuffle up and deal.”

My table was pretty much a table of nobodies. In a way this can be good, but in a way this can suck. My table was relatively congenial, but nothing spectacular to talk about. Then it started. 9-3 and fold. 10-7 and fold. K-2 to the muck About the fourth hand or so I get pocket fives. The flop was 5-Q-Q. Yahtzee! I bet. Yes, I bet here as so far every hand had been called on the flop. 100 chip bet and call. Turn comes a 2 and I bet again and my opponent folds.

That was my last good hand for quite a while. 8-4, 9-2, 8-2, 6-2, 2-6, Q-6, Q-3 and so on were my hands. For a while, I got every card in the deck with a deuce. I almost played A-2. Of course the flop came 7-8-6 so no luck there. This continued for two hours with the exception of one time getting dealt aces. I raised and everyone folded. I won the blinds. Whoppie!!

The break comes and goes and I put on my headphones. I’m listening to Sweeney Todd (There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit, and it’s filled with people who are filled with shit.) I then win a small pot. The pretty much nothing until literally the last hand before our table gets broken. I get J-10 in the big blind and four people limp in. The flop comes 10 high and the small blind bet out on the turn and river. I call along and my pair of tens is good. At this point I am sitting at about 2,500 again.

I get moved to table 1 of the Pavilion. Nobody there either. My 2nd hand I get pocket fours but the cutoff raises to 325. I make the call and flop a wheel draw. The turn gives me a double gutter. The river misses me entirely. I lose about 750 chips total on the hand. The very next hand, I get A-J offsuit. A only have 1,700 in chips and at this point blinds are 75 and 150. At 225 chips a rotation, my M is around 8. The cutoff raises yet again. Well a reraise to around 1,000 would looks silly and to be honest, I wanted to take the pot here if I could. I wouldn’t mind a call either because I didn’t put him on anything more than a medium pair. He went into the tank and I knew he didn’t have a monster. I figured that if he called her, he would have a medium pair for certain. Sure enough, he called and flipped over pocket sevens. Ok, I have two overs and am racing. Flop falls QQ10, so now I have a straight draw and could also win if a 10 hits. The turn is a deuce, so I have 13 outs to win. River 9 and I am out.

I really can’t say that I played badly because I really couldn’t play. Oh look, I just got dealt Q-2 again. While stealing and making moves is a part of poker, at some point you have to get cards. And in the early rounds, it is hard to intimidate someone with a normal raise when the blinds are 25 and 25 or 25 and 50. Hey look, 6-2 again.



I can’t remember the last time I was that card dead in a live tournament. I got 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, Aces once, A-J twice (one busted me), and A-9 on the button. Otherwise, my hands almost consistently ended with a 6 or a 2. Oh wait, I did get sixes once and flopped K-Q-10. Guess what happened there. Oh well, not my day. Try again next time.

Saw a couple of players I know while knocking around in the event. The first was Chris “The Armenian Express” Gregorian. I really like catching up with Chris. I met Chris in the first ever live tournament I played in Tunica, MS. He and Al Barbieri were at my table in a 7 Card Stud event that was held at the WSOP Circuit Event (before Harrah’s decided that non-Holdem games were not worthy of circuit rings.)

Anyway, I asked Chris how things were and his response was “Life is great. Tournaments, not so much.” That’s great to hear in a way. If life is going good, then poker is secondary. Chris also looks like he has lost a bit of weight as well. He seemed in great spirits. Hopefully he will be able to post some nice results at the WSOP. He has had some nice finishes including a couple deep runs in the WSOP Main Event. When I get the chance, I will try and get an interview with him for Poker Junkie, but today was more of just catching up with my friend.

Also ran into Matt Stout just before I moved to table one. Actually, he ran into me. I saw him playing a couple of tables up, but I don’t like bothering people while they are playing in an event. I personally don’t mind people coming up to me, but some people get into a zone when they play. Of course, Matt is so jovial at the table he probably wouldn’t care. Anyway, it didn’t stop him from coming up and saying hi. When he asked me how it went, I got ready to tell him how things were (I had 2500 at the time) but he stopped me with a “Stop. You are about to give me a whole disappointed reply. You got more chips than me dude.” At this point, the Harrah’s floor guy told me to carry my ass to my table. (He didn’t use those words, but that is what the meaning was.) I’ll run into Matt later.

There really isn’t much else going on today at the WSOP. The $50,000 Player’s Championship is into Day 2. Daniel Negreanu was recently knocked out. I would put up a photo, but all of my photos of him last night turned out crappy. We aren’t allowed to use flash inside of the Rio and the setting I had it on didn’t do very well over in the section he was sitting. No matter.

The Employee’s event will play to conclusion today. I couldn’t tell you anyone still in it. Congrats to whomever wins it. Nobody will remember them a week from now. Not being mean, but it is really the truth. Who won last year or the year before that? Can you tell me without looking it up? Nope.

Tomorrow will be Day 3 of the $50,000 Player’s Championship, Day 1B of Event #3, and also Day 3 of the $50,000 Player’s Championship. Frank Wilburn will be playing in the event and I’ll try and hunt him down in the event.

This will be my only update today due to the slow day and the fact that I just had to get away from the Rio after that poor showing. After losing an event like that, especially after you just couldn’t really get anything going, is just enough to make you sick.

Stay tuned to PokerJunkie.com for continuing blogs and coverage from the 2010 World Series of Poker.