Sarne@WSOP

[Sarne]

Hi all,After catching up on some well needed sleep I thought i would fill you all in on my experiences yesterday. After 15 hours of solid play i have got through to day two with $25,325. Average is around $28kThe WSOP is unlike anything I have ever experienced before in my life. I can not recommend this enough to anybody who might be considering coming next year. I have been to a few large Poker events in my life, but walking in to the Rio’s Poker room and seeing over 250 tables running poker games is breath taking. The atmosphere is incredible. There is great camaraderie not only between all the Pro’s who know each other from the circuit, but also between all the internet qualifiers who feel a huge shared feeling of achievement for even being here in the first place.I must put in at this point that for any Aussies thinking of coming here next year, try and come at least 7-10days prior to the event. I had only been here 3 days prior to starting and the 17 hour time difference is playing havoc with my time clock. When you have to play 15 hours straight you need to be sharp and acclimatized to play your best game.With around 6,000 players registered, the first day of the WSOP has been split into 3 days of around 2,000 players. On the first day they played until around 2.15am so going in the second day I at least had an inkling what was in store for me.The game started at 11am. The only famous player I had from the beginning was the aptly named and dressed “Cowboy”, an extremely personable character in Cowboy hat, boots, tie etc. Fresh from his 3rd place finish at a WPT event he was the only player I knew anything about. It soon became apparent that I had a table of absolute rocks. I myself would have to be classed in the category for the first round but as the trepidation of my opponents became more apparent I started loosening up. My preflop raises were rarely called and if they were it was usually apparent if they hit the board, also the young internet qualifiers played a very predictable game, trying to only bluff in position and thus were quite easy to push of pots with reraises. To start with I thought this was great, I quite happily took charge of the table and within the first couple of levels (90mins a piece) was up to around 15k. However, with the blinds starting at 25-50 and going up incrementally every 100mins it was a very slow process and with players going out left right and centre on all the other tables it became obvious to me that I was not going to be able to build an impressive stack on this table.Much of my profit in the early rounds came from the “Cowboy”. Even though he was an extremely tight player, he has a slight weakness in letting go of a hand once he has committed to playing it. If I allowed him in cheap with A9 or above once he hit the ace he could milked with my AK/AQ. Most of the internet players, though not willing to bluff at pots I raised, could be trapped into bluffing there own preflop raised pots and thus were profitable when I hit a hand.By dinner break (7pm) I had around 22k in chips. My table would no longer even play pots with me unless they had monsters. I believe mine was the only table not to loose a player in the first 8 hours of play, it was becoming extremely frustrating.After dinner however things changed dramatically. My inexperience here made me miss out on the opportunity though. After 8 hours of almost solid play, and an hours break, the internet players just started imploding. I didn’t realise it at first and just thought they must be hitting hands, but when they started going all against each other with J10 and A5 I soon realized they were just too tired and were desperate for some action to revitalize their stacks. The blinds weren’t even that high, only 150 – 300 with 25antes. After not loosing a player for 9 hours we lost 3 in 5mins, I only managed to knock off one with pp8s against their 5’s. My easy ride was about to change dramatically now though. The first 2 players out were both directly to my left and their were filled by two pro’s with large stacks. Full tilt’s Paul Wolfe came in with around 40k and a friend of his who I don’t know with around 50k. All of a sudden, for the first time all day, I was no longer chip leader on my table, or the most aggressive, and the new ones had position on me. The blinds were starting to pinch now and when another player moved directly to my right with a stack of over 60k my game had to change gear dramatically. My cards were not helping either. I found pp8s on the button and raised, Paul Wolfe in the big blind came over the top very strong. Now (from his point of view) I had being playing really tight, I had not stolen the blinds before. The bet was very large ( I had raised to 1,5k he had made it 5k). I decided I was against a very strong pair looking to trap me into making a move with a smaller pair, I showed my 8s and folded. Paul who was amazed I had folded showed me his pocket Aces.A couple of rounds later I find ppJs in middle position, I raise to around 2k and am raised to 4k by one player and then reraised to 10k by another. I of course lay it down and KK takes on QQ knocking out the QQ. By this point my, at one point 28k stack, was now around 18k. The WSOP is all about stamina though, as a 5 day event you cant win it on day one, only loose it, and that was all I kept telling myself to try and keep calm and focused. I refused to blow my game like many of the other players in the room.I started seeing some patterns to the pros games. They were worried about getting into multi way pots with Huge pairs so would really push them hard hoping to catch a single player looking to stick all their chips in with a slightly weaker pair. Their normal size raises were usually suited connectors or the like. If they missed the flop they would check it round and then take it on the turn if they thought no one like it. I started joining them in some of these pots with medium Aces or smaller pps as if an A came on the flop I could steal (irrelevant of if I had an A or not) and my real hope was I could flop trips and trap them into bluffing hard on the turn. Unfortunately I never hit my trips but my table image allowed me to take almost all the A high flops. My position directly on the right of the pros only allowed me two spots a round to make this play though.The huge stack to my left continued taking my big blind with huge raises which I never found the cards to fight and as the smoke cleared at around 2.15am I found myself with almost 28k (the average) going into the last hand of the day. The blinds were 300/600 with 75 antes (1650 in the pot before any action) , I am in the small blind. Paul Wolfe made it 1500 to play under the gun. He did this most rounds so it meant nothing. He was called in 3 spots (now 6150 in the pot) when it gets to me. I look down and find AK. It is here my inexperience, fatique and general desperate desire to make it to day two caused me to make what was (admittedly with hindsight) a bad mistake. I just flat called. Had I raised to 7/8k I would have taken the pot right there and gone in to day 2 with 33k, but with a pro with a huge stack still to act to my left and the threat that someone might call me putting me on a bluff and leaving me out of position on the flop, I lost my nerve and flat called. The flop came 9 high and was checked around the button who pumped in 10k taking the pot and finishing the day.I have over 25k going in to day 2 with the average around 28. I am very happy with the way I have played. I have learnt a huge amount about how different types of players play this kind of tournament and I hope to capitalize on this for an even better performance tomorrow.Plans for day 2? I think the best thing I have learned so far is to go into to this event with an open mind. If you try and formulate some form of game plan, some form of chip targets per level you are going to get yourself in trouble. I am going to sit down, watch my opponents try to see their weaknesses and capitalize on them with out hopefully taking too many bad beats. Hopefully make it to day 3.Ill do my best to keep you all informed of my progress,Hope to see you all around a poker table soon,Sarne

[gaz]

Thanks for the update Sarne!Good luck and may your aces hold up!

[mattp]

Great analysis.Play solid in day 2.Well done

[Admin]

Must add to that Sarne. A very readable post with the right atmosphere. Goodluck from all at pokernetwork and keep em coming.

[Octavian30]

great report - give us would be's if we could be more!!

[yoyo]

Go get 'em Sarne!!yoyo

[parraeels]

good going sarne hope you make it to day 3 keep as informed on your play.thank you

[Red Rooster]

Great report Sarne,Maybe Joe and some of the other Aussies can let us know how their going and some pivotal hands they played?

[JK.]

Thankyou and well written sarne.Good luck.

[Poker Fan]

Good Luck Sarne - make sure you raise that AK next time! Excellent post