First WSOP Cash

June 8, 2011

I got here to Las Vegas a week early, so we just chilled out and saw Vegas a bit. It's my first time here, so just went out a bit. Best meal I've had so far was probably the steakhouse at the MGM, Craftsteak, it was amazing. We all went after UFC, me, Jake Cody, Moorman, and a few others. UFC was great. Of course I had to have a bet. I don't bet that much sports betting, so I bet quite small really, but we all had like one guy and it came in, so we were all pretty happy.

In the 10k pot limit Hold'em, I think I played really well. It just didn't go my way at the end, I finished 11th for forty thousand. But I was really happy with how I played; I don't think I played many hands badly in the whole tournament. I was quite happy to make a deep run early on in the series, hopefully we can go ten steps better next time. It was nice to have the first cash under my belt.

We had a really tough table on the final day, coming back with 27 players. When there are only 250 runners in a bracelet event and it being a 10k as well, then you should always expect a really tough table. But there's a lot of variance involved in that, obviously. McClean Karr was on my right, and he was trying to stir me up a little bit, but I was okay. I was giving it back to him as well, so that was all right. There's a lot of people here who don't really know me, which is good for me. I don't want to be noticed or anything like that, I just like to go about my business quietly.

Here's a hand I played from the pot limit Hold'em on the final day against Nicholas Levi, a very good French player who ended up coming fourth. He opened for 27,000 with the blinds at 6k-12k, and he'd been opening a little bit. I had Q-J of clubs on the button, with like twenty-nine bigs. I three bet to 60k, pretty small, because I knew he was going to peel a lot, I know he likes to do that. The flop comes 8-5-3 with two clubs, and I check it back. And then he bets the turn and I jam over. I knew he was going to bet the turn a lot because it's pretty standard, I think. And if I bet the flop then he can check raise and I don't get the money in first. I felt like I played that hand well along with a few others, so I'm pretty happy with how the WSOP is going so far.

I'm excited about playing the $1500 six max today. The six max is one of the best events in the series, in my opinion. I think the edges get bigger when you get shorthanded, so hopefully I should have a decent edge in this one.