Across the Seams

Day 3 -- Marty Busts Out

Coming into Day 3, the money day, I had a below-average stack of $55,400. At least I was ahead of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, who had to soldier on with $55,300.

My Day 2 was Tuesday, running into the early hours of Wednesday. It was now Friday, and in the intervening time I had been both relaxing and stressing. I had at least two bad poker dreams. In one I made a horrible play to throw away all of my chips. In the other, the wait for people to bust so I would make the money stretched for what seemed like decades, with Ferguson treating his chips like they weighed 200 pounds each.

Coverage Starts, Day 2 Report Finally

ESPN starting showing the main event Tuesday night, with two hours dedicated to Day 1 of the tournament. I didn’t see myself on television, but I did see one end of my first table in the background of one shot. So don’t strain yourself looking for me.

WSOP Day 1 Recap

I've been writing up some of my World Series experiences and hands. I had originally planned to get it all down then reorganize it, but after writing up Day 1, I realize that this will take a while. So I'm going to post up stuff fairly raw, as I finish it. Later on I'll come back and edit. Ha! Meanwhile, next week ESPN will start showing the main event, so keep an eye out.

For those who are not poker literate, I'll try to italicize the jargon-heavy passages so you can pick them out and skip them.

Minor Fame

The SF Chronicle did a piece on me today. Slow news day, I guess.

There are a few nits to pick in an otherwise accurate report.

Having never played in a live tournament, Cortinas said he started practicing like mad.

I've played live tournaments before, just never anything with such a high buy-in.

When Cortinas played again on Aug. 1, the cards started coming his way. He doubled his chip stash after beating an opponent with pocket aces. He eliminated two others with a nut straight on the turn. 

I didn't eliminate anyone with the nut straight. The hand started with four players, two folded on the turn. I went all-in on the turn, my opponent called and lost but he still had chips.

A few hours later, when the emcee announced that all remaining players made the money, the room roared with delight. Cortinas was among those who cheered the loudest.

I was quite subdued, actually. It was exciting to hear the noise in the hall, though.

Cortinas thanked the dealer and then hugged his dad, who had come  from San Francisco to watch.

I'm pretty sure I didn't thank the dealer. I did wish everyone luck. And my dad came in from Altadena, not San Francisco.

 

652nd Pays Well

My World Series came to an end Friday night. Three days of being card-dead and chip-challenged climaxed with a classic cold-decking. My pocket queens ran into pocket aces and it was over. Luckily, the money bubble had long since passed and I earned $19,050 for my efforts.

Actually getting my hands on the check was about as hard as earning the damn thing. Harrah's apparently has recruited an accounting department straight out of Dickens and put them in charge of the series payouts. No fewer than six people shuffled the paperwork that entitled me to some money, including a mouse-voiced woman wielding a clipboard overflowing with tax forms. I expected to see monocle-wearing homunculi dipping quills in inkwells behind the cage, but alas they were normal-looking modern humans.

Took the check to the bank to deposit it today. I just love teller chit-chat. An approximate log, as she is processing the check.

"Just get into town?"
"No, actually leaving. Just finished the World Series."
"Oh really? Did you do all right?"

(... I point to the check after long pause)

Alive for Day 3

I'm not dead yet. Despite another card-dead run, I've managed to scrape together a $55,400 stack, good for 327th on Day 2A. That's $200 ahead of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, or one ante at this point. The money starts at 873rd, so I'll have to survive for about 230 eliminations on Friday before I'm in the money.

Again, I played very few hands. I doubled up early when I was dealt AA under the gun and got all the chips in the middle preflop with the button, who held KK. The aces held up.

A bit later, the big stack at the table limped in and I raised behind him with AsTs. The player two to my left flat called and the big blind came along for the ride. Flop was K Q x with two spades. We checked to the guy on my left and he bet about half the pot. It was folded to me, and I called with my nut flush draw, gutshot nut straight draw and one overcard. About 12 clean outs and a few dirty ones there. The turn was the Jc, giving me the nuts (for now). I checked, my opponent bet about half the pot again and I raised all-in. He called with KQ for top two pair. No K or Q on the river and I doubled up to about 76k.

Our table broke fairly soon after that. Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott was at my new table, but he was short-stacked and soon busted out. I got no cards at this table at all, except for JJ just before a break. Player to my left raised to $3,500, I reraised to $15,000 and everyone folded. And that was about it until they called it a day.

I saw quite a few inteesting plays and events but typing like this is killing me so it wil have to wait until I get home.

Off Day at the Series

Found an Internet station that works with Typepad finally. It's amazing how far they dumb down these terminals. Here's my post that I made in the comments of a different post:

OK, still no dice on the Typepad connection here. I am 361st among the day 2 survivors, so I am at the top of page 19 in the Cardplayer.com report.

What you won't see is that I was down to 3550 chips at the beginning of level 5, with the blinds coming in two hands. Pushed all-in with QTs and got no callers. Two hands later the button raised my small blind when I held AJs. I pushed and the big blind sent a chill down my spine by saying "raise". Folded around, and he's got KK. Flop blanks and the turn brings the most beautiful ace I've ever seen. River has no king and I more than double up.

A few hands later I raise with AJs and get one caller near the button. I flop the nut flush and begin hoping he's got something, anything since he's got me covered. I check, he checks. Blank turn. Check check. River doesn't pair the board, so I have the absolute nuts. I bet about 2/3 the pot with $2,000. He raises to $5,000. I count out the amount with mty chips to make sure he sees that calling is nearly the same as an all-in (non-verbally, of course), then stack all my chips and pushh them in. He calls! Yay!

The rest I'll have to tell later.

Live in Las Vegas

So I am in Vegas sitting at an Internet station seriously regretting my switch to the Dvorak keyboard. I'll try to keep it short, as I am having a hard time finding the apostophe right now. Consider that contraction a bonus.

The Giants? Shea Hillenbrand? OK. I am a bit disturbed by the Maddux rumors that I have heard. I shouldn't (apostrophe!) be worried, though, as the Giants don't really have any more Lirianos or Nathans to trade for AARP members.

I went to the Rio to make sure that PokerBlue had sprung for my main event entry, and surprisingly it was sitting there waiting for me. If you are in town, I start Saturday at noon, table 176, seat 7.

In two days here at Binion's, I've played four multi-table tournaments and managed to finish third in two of them. So my tournament play has netted me about a $500 profit, but one brutal $4-$8 full kill session managed to eat about two-thirds of that. Poker tip: Don't flop a set sf 5s when your crazy loose opponent flops a set of aces.

I got to bust Wil Wheaton in this morning's 2 a.m. tournament. I limped utg with AA, the button raised about 3x the big blind, and Wil pushed all-in from the big blind. I had him covered and didn't want to lose the button, so I called. The button also pushed, thank you. Button had KK, Wil had QJs. The aces held up. Wil was pretty quiet while he was there. People at the table started to talk about him after he busted, but his celebrity is relatively minor. Most folks were too young to really place him, and his fairly nondescript appearance left people fumbling for descriptions. Which guy are you talking about? The one that had three Snickers bars at the table. Oh, right. This really slowed the game down unfortunately.

I finshed third in this tournament, but I'd rate my play as mediocre. I got my money in bad twice preflop and sucked out both times. Lucky.

Speaking of luck ... three left at the final table. Button goes all-in, small blind pushes too. I fold in big blind. Button has KTo. SB -- the bigger stack -- has AA, which is about an 85-15 favorite.

Flop: TTx -- Miracle! Suddenly the aces have two outs.

Turn: A -- Miracle! Now KT has one out.

River: T -- Miracle! The one-outer hits.

Poker is one messed-up game.

Deal

Been busy lately, out of town, wandering the streets, musing over how close the Giants were to getting swept for four games by the Pirates. The Pirates!

Working on some poker things, including the World Series at the end of July. In the meantime ...

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5064749

WSOP Here I Come

I've been slacking on the baseball front lately, sorry. But I did manage to win an entry into the main event of the World Series of Poker. PokerBlue is paying my entry plus $2,000 for winning its weekly tournament.

I'm Durandal:

And my new favorite  Hold'em hand is J3 of spades.

Edit: In my excitement, I got the hand slightly wrong.