The Day before the WSOP ME

Save for Later

So I’m writing this up on the plane to play in the WSOP ME. Today is day 1c, and I’m going to play day 1d. I live in New York, so we’re on the 6 hour flight and there’s about an hour left. My laptop battery has just enough left to write up a blog as I’ve been loading up on TPE vids to prep myself for the long grind.

I tried to sleep but couldn’t really get comfortable. I originally registered for 1D, but then starting thinking that I would play 1c if I could catch at least 3 hours of sleep on this flight, but that didn’t happen. I usually sleep like a baby on planes. I picked a seat that didn’t recline so it was pretty uncomfortable.

Playing 1c would have been better because 1c plays on day 2a which is friday. Saturday is my wife’s birthday so given that only 30% of the field makes it past day 2 I would be able to be home in the unfortunate event that I bust out by then. It also would have let me play a 2 day venetian tourney if i busted on day 1.

Not being negative there because I feel really good about my play and my chances of running deep this tourney but just maximizing my value from this trip and I thought that would be the best way.

But since I didn’t get to sleep I’ll just stick with my original plan to get to Vegas, settle in and go find a small tournament to warmup up. I checked the schedules and there seems to be a $225 at Binions so I’ll probably hit that. It’s also kinda fun to soak up the WSOP atmosphere by walking around the Amazon room and checking out the featured table for a little while. Really pumps you up and puts the game you grind online in a completely different perspective.

After that, depending on who’s deep in what we are going to try to get together a TPE team dinner. Organizing dinners with poker players is nearly impossible. Since we are always playing, someone is usually deep in something and we can never get a full group together. Regardless, with the group of guys we have I’m sure it’ll be a blast/trouble.

As far as the ME goes, I just can’t wait. I have been in a horrific downswing online which has started to turn around. I’ve had top 20 finishes in 6 of my last 7 sessions – all big fields too. I haven’t been able to top 3 anything but I know i’m playing well. I definitely picked up some leaks that I was able to find by reviewing some HHs and watching videos. I feel my confidence coming back and that’s so important for the ME. It also helps that my last live tourney was the NAPT Mohegan Sun that I cashed in and played well.

I didn’t win a seat to the ME this year (I bubbled 3 times, sigh) so I sold off a decent % of myself. Between that and my confidence coming back, I feel very calm about the tourney and being able to execute my strategies – while not being too tight because it’s such a huge buyin. My fear is getting coolered, but even if that happens I just feel strangely at peace with all possibilities.

We start off really deep stacked so there’s no reason to get to nuts. 30k at 50/100. 70% of the field has been getting through day 1. I obviously won’t be passing up +EV spots, and as we get to the last levels I think more standard tourney spots will arise, but the game plan is to play smart and not rush things. My biggest live leak is that I play at online speed. That’s how I got crippled last year.

I had 50k at first dinner break and didn’t make it past day 1. I was running over my table with opens and 3 bets and they started playing back. I was dinged a little bit down to 42k when the crucial hand happened. A super tight 50ish player limped the button at 150/300 25. I had AKs in the BB and I made it 1200. He instantly made it 3.6k. I asked how many chips he had left. When he said 17k I said shove.

He had AA. A lot of people told me that they thought it was just a cooler but I think if you put all the pieces together I should have just called and seen a flop. The guy barely played 6 hands through 3 levels. He limp raises me. He does it instantly and shows no fear. All of these things added up to not shoving.

I shoved because in my mind I thought that with the image I had AKs is so strong to my expected range there to be raising. However, if I had stopped and thought for 10 seconds, I would have put together everything I just said in the last paragraph.

So that’s my lesson learned from last year and I’m going to make sure I slow the game down.