So far, so good…

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In two hours I return to the Bellagio to play day five of the WPT World Championships. That’s pretty exciting, eh?

I tried to get out a blog last night but it just didn’t happen. My mind has been so fried after these things that for the most part anything resembling “work” has been out of the question. It also hasn’t helped that I really haven’t had anything too interesting to write about as far as the play goes… here’s what I got so far.

Day 3: I bust Barry Greenstein in the first level (again). Now, after busting him in reno, I posted that picture of the book… cool right? Well, this other dude posted a gag picture, says “Mine looks a little different”, and it’s basically Barry cussing out the guy. Pretty hilarious and creative especially when you know Barry, and everybody including Barry got a kick out of it. Here’s what he wrote in this one (note: his punch line is the same as the forgery):

Barry’s the man… pretty funny!

After that, my one and only suckout of this tournament which was a tiny pot (he shoved for like 6bb’s early… and if you remember the Reno hand he had T8dd), I got tortured the rest of the day. I couldn’t get a single thing going, was re-raised very often, and honestly had to chill. I wasn’t able to run anything over, but I was able to continue to chip-up and stay alive. I was knocked town to 230k at one point, but rebuilt over the rest of teh day and ended day 3 in the money with 465k.

Day 4 I came out of the gates gangbusters. I was just blasting at every table I was at. I get up to 800k quickly without playing a big pot, drop back to 600 or so, and then play a hand vs the guy that quite honestly tortured me yesterday. He’s very good at sensing weakness and jumping on it. I open a hand, get re-raised by somebody, and immediately fold. Next hand I have 88, open, this guy re-raises to like 120, I ship it, he has 495k total. He tanks and tanks, finally calls with AKcc, and I win a BIG flip. Put me up on the leaderboard kids… 1.2 mil. Unfortunately, that’s where I would stagnate once more.

Couple of interesting hands: 4 tables left I believe, me in the one seat, Gus Hansen in the two, and Tommy Le in the three. I open the button with A K black to 44k. Gus folds, Tommy calls, flop T 7 7 . He checks, I bet 66k, he says why so small, I think in my head, “So I can ship it when you check-raise me…” He just calls. Turn 5 . He tanks… k… hold on a sec. Deep in these WPT’s, there is waaaay too much freaking posturing going on. There are guys that take literally a minute to make 80% of their decisions. Two minutes every time you re-raise them. It’s ridiculous really. We all know that sometimes you open with garbage. It’s okay to fold instantly. We all do it. It’s okay to admit. Really. Plus, if you think you’re a better player, you are going to get more value from playing more hands than you are from what face you save by not turbo-mucking.

So, to counter this lack of expediency on the WPT, I have countered with the opposite. Since these guys are often taking forever to make a decision, I have enough time waiting for them to decide what I am going to do depending on what they do. I mean seriously, when the guy has 500k remaining, and there’s 200k in the pot, it’s not hard to figure out options. Then, after they act, I snap respond. Reverse ruffling of feathers IMO… I know some stall just to ruffle feathers, so… watch this.

Turn 5 . He tanks. I know he’s gonna bet. If it’s anywhere standard I’m shipping it. He takes about 60 seconds and bets $150k, I take about .3 seconds and shove, and he vomits. Now, remember, I have the A and a black king. I could have the nut flush, I could just have the NFD. For all the haters out there, I’m playing the flush the same way, so there was no reason to look. He tanks, this time for literally five minutes, and finally folds 4 3 . I was sad after I saw the K :-).

One other sick hand happened a little while later… folds to my SB, I raise, Gus 3-bets, FU Gus I’m all-in 1.2 million, he thinks for about 2mins before finally calling with the AQo… I also have AQo chop it… Sigh, why do I have the bottom of my range there? Pretty sick call by him too…. 60k, 230k, 1.2mil, call w/AQ. This was early enough too that I hadn’t done anything out of line and I’m pretty sure he has no idea who I am or how I play.

Anyways, end day with 1mil, average is 1.5, there’s 17 left, I’m excited. Y’all know where to find the updates!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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