The poker devil meets Sin City

Event #19 $2,500 No Limit Holdem - 08 June

Sooo.... I am having problems locating my previous blog entries, to find out where I am up to with my Blog, but i think i can safely kick off with the start of Event 19 and pick up from there... So Event 19, $2500 6 handed, my second WSOP event this year went very well. The first table I was on was really easy, very passive and weak, and I dominated the table for a few hours until another very good online pro sat at the table. From the get go he was clearly a force to be reckoned with, and I was advised by a good friend at the rail that I should watch out for him.. Anyway, I yoyo'd form 7.5k to 25k to 12k to 18k to 14k etc... standard James666 aggro results! Either way just before the table was broken, I got it in with AJ vs K4 for a 20k pot at 200/400/50 blinds, and lost, which left me with about 14k.

When moved to the new table, I played a little dumb, and started pounding the players as with my first table, only I'd not taken the time to work out my opponents. Three players on the table were fantastic players, one was on a little bit of tilt, and the other two were definately not taking my crap, so after a bluff and some 3-bet raises I was down to 5k (12xBB)..sigh... Dinner Break.

After a hearty steak I was back on track, and my options at the time were just to reshove any suited connectors, Ax/paint cards or PP's to double up, but when I sat back at the table, I noticed a few players who were extremely weak and tight, who the other agggressive guys at the table had been running over, so I picked my moments to just jam all-in on their blinds.

After a few rounds of maintaining my stack, I managed to hit a run of cards (must be nice) - AJ vs AT, AK vs AT on AQ4 board and Q9 suited vs a semi bluffed 45 on 4QQ board. After this little heater I was up to 40k and had busted one of the good aggressive guys at the table (he asked me afterwards not to tell anyone about how badly he played the hand or tell his name!). Next hand to come was from a guy who sat down at the table and instantly decided to be the fish...

I think the blinds were 4000/800/100 at this point, and the following hand occurs. On his button (first hand at the table) he raises to 2400, I make it 7K with KK from the big blind. He makes it 16K to play and I ship all-in for a total of 43K. He dwells, sighs, and says "well I have to call", to which myself and Roman (other very good player at the table) figured and looked at each other as if to say, he must have QQ or an unhappy AK.... no he flips AJ offsuit! I hold and double up. Very sick!

Next major hand of note to propel me up the chip count before the end of Day 1 was a hand that knocked Roman out. We had been talking outside during a break about how we were both going for first, no pussyfooting around, going for the kill. More so about how annoying it was gunning for each other when we constantly 3-bet and played back at each other, when one of us was bullying the short stacks. The following situation, which I class as a standard cooler, happened next.

About four hands in after the break, I get AQ in the cutoff, with blinds at 600/1200/100. I make it 2700 to play, Roman makes it 7600 which he will be doing with such a wide range of hands. He has 27k behind so i decide to make it 20k to play which commits me to his allin, and gets him to fold any mediocre hand like 77/88/99/TT/AQ/AJ/JQs etc. Anyway he ships all-in, I have odds to call and he flips over AK. I magically bink a Queen which propels me to 130k or so!. Everything was going well, I had an easy table after busting my main competitor, so I start pounding table again - until Layne Flack joined the table on my left! I had to slow down, which I did and made Day 2 with about 135k in chips.

Going back with a very decent stack for Day 2 was great. I won't run through all the hands, as I've just realised the last section was a lengthy read!!! Either way, a few hands I got lucky in, a few hands i got unlucky in - standard stuff. The only difference between running bad or hot that day was the way I played non-showdown pots...I was owning!

DiscoMonkey and Tigerwing were at the rail, and they told me how the two 'table captains' at my new table were being driven nuts by my plays. Cold 4-betting three times in one round as i joined the table, constantly attacking and making very sick call downs vs heavy heavy sized bets! They didn't want to be in a pot with me, allowed me to take down a lot of pots uncontested, taking my stack to 600k. Things then started to go wrong. I lost a few all-ins when I was ahead, and a few plays and bluffs got looked up or outplayed and I was finally coming back for Day 3 with only 265k (shortest stack).

Day 3 began with 11 players left. No real dramas but I went card dead, could not pick up a hand. I then decided to take a flip after the chip leader raised my SB. I shoved with 33 and his A5 called and outraced me. No biggie, I could have folded 33 as there was zero fold equity, and waited for a pushing spot, but I never just wanted to make the next cash spot, always 1st or nothing, and I needed a double-up to play poker. Anyways, I ended up with $55,000 for 7th place - not too shabby.

Event 32 $2,000 No Limit Holdem - 15 June

My next event was a $2k NLHE, where I played great (I've genuinely been playing fantastic tournament poker out here, I am by far playing the best I have played offline, which feels great). Built up a nice stack, despite being really drunk! Last hand of Day 1 I made a sick call down with 55 to a river bet for a 45k pot at 500/1000/100 on a 894TQ board. It was good, as he instantly mucked his hand.

Day 2 and on the first hand of the day I lost AK vs A9 all-in pre, then procceeded to lose every single all-in pre, and generally ran terribly. Maintaining a stack solely through non-showdown pots, I managed to stay alive, but onnot for long. Not being able to win any all-ins saw me bust out in 129th for $4k. Not quite $500k for 1st, but still a nice result which keeps my WSOP results for this year at played three, cashed in two. Not so bad, and when adding the one from two Venetian Deepstack event cashes, its a pretty good strike rate.

Off the table

One of my best friends, Alice came out to visit me for 10 days, so I had not been playing much poker at all, as I wanted to spend time with her. She has now left (just dropped her at the airport, after a very heavy night - one that featured Jonas AKA TheMightySwe, pints of Long Island Iced Tea, his random disapearance, and myself catching all sorts from a girl in a bar (long story!). And of course Andrew 'golfpro699' Teng's birthday bash at Sushi Roku, with lots of other name internet pros and bottle of blueberry sparkling saki! Luckily I run good enough to miss out on paying for the food and drink via Credit Card Roulette!

I'm thinking of taking a little trip to California with Nick and some of the other Vegas housemates, as he has friends (very pretty female ones) out there who we can hook up with, while the WSOP holds no NLHE tournaments this week. Either way I shall keep everyone updated on my antics. GL at the felt... and I cannot wait to meet everyone at the Palms Playboy Party!

James 'James666' Sudworth