Subject: My WSOP story From: "Gregory Raymer" Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Mon, May 27, 2002 7:18 AM Message-ID: Here we go. I've forgotten most of it, but I'll write down a few key hands. Day 1 - I start at table 31, seat 2, downstairs where they play the super-satellites. To my immediate right is Barney Boatman of the Hendon Mob. He plays well and pretty tight, much tighter than I had expected. Seat 5 is Randy Hudson (an rgp-er), 7 is Susie Isaacs, 8 is Nani Dollison, and 9 is Ken Flaton. I remember almost no hands from this table. I got to 11,050 chips in the first level, 10,900 in the second, and 12,675 in the third. During the 4th level they move us upstairs, and soon after that they break us. I go to table 53, seat 4 for the rest of the night. Nobody who's name or face I know here except for Gus Echevarria in seat 1, who was kind enough to buy some fossils the other day. The only memorable hand here is almost the last one of the night. Gus has over 30K, and has told the table that he doesn't want to play and lose any big pots, because he has a big stack and wants to go to bed happy. So, when he raises to 1000 to go in early position, I reraise to 3000, expecting him to fold anything but AA or KK. He calls, so I know he has KK. The flop fortunately brings an A for me, and Gus checks. I bet and he folds. I knew he would fold, but decided to bet anyway. I figured with the A out there, he wasn't going to put any more money in the pot unless a K hit the board, so there was no point in giving him a free card. Even if I check twice and he thinks I've got an underpair, he still isn't going to bet, IMO. I make a quick 3K+ on that hand, and go to bed with T14,150. Day 2 I get table 52, seat 2. In order (and skipping my seat), the other players are Donald Stoner, Thomas McKeone, James McManus, Rafael Perry (the same Ralph Perry who made the final table), Asher Derei, Minh Nguyen, Donald Burchell, and Rameen Sai. I've never played with any of these guys before, but most seem either above average or even very good. Very early in the day I play a hand where I reraise an opening raise by Donald Stoner, and he raises again to put me all-in. I call with KK, and beat his AQs to double up. He goes out this hand, as he and I started the day with exactly identical chip counts. He is replaced with Howard Lederer and ~T19,000. Table breaks during the first level, and I'm moved to table 42, seat 5. At the end of the level I have T44,525. During the next level I make a big move to T80,775, but cannot recall any hands, nor any names at my new table. I do remember that for the most part I didn't know anybody. The next level is a disaster. We are losing players, and some of the new ones who come in include Marcus Golser in seat 4 (the bubble boy), John Shipley in seat 8, Humberto Brenes in seat 7 (who arrives short-stacked and later busts out), and Phil Hellmuth in seat 2. On one hand Phil made two very good calls against me. In an unraised pot I limped in late position. Everybody checks the flop of small cards with 2 hearts. I bet the turn and Phil calls. I bet the river and Phil calls. I say "good call, you probably win", and he shows A7o. His A high is good, so I muck my hand. He then jumps up from the table and claps his hands together, saying something like "Yeah baby, I just won $15,000 with A high. Who's the best?" A couple of hands later he apologizes for his outburst, saying that he was just happy with himself, and was not trying to insult me or anything. I didn't take it personally at the time, and thanked him for apologizing. I blew off a wasted 25K against Marcus one hand where he raised preflop, and I reraised. There was about 8-9K in the pot preflop, and he went all-in for 25K on the flop of QJJ. I put him on a delayed steal. What I mean is, I felt that he had a pretty weak hand, but instead of raising again preflop, he decided to bet the flop no matter what, knowing that if I missed the flop I couldn't call. So, I called. He had AJo, and I did not catch a lucky T. I finish the level with only T24,100. I pick up some chips in the last level of the day, and finish with a decent and almost average stack of T45,600. Day 3 I get table 78, seat 5. I hate sitting in the middle like this. The other seats are Jeffery Yoak, Jack Fox (an attorney and great player from Reno), Minh Thoaily (the Minh Ly from the final table), Farzad (Freddy) Bonyadi (a great player by reputation, but I had never seen him before), Sokrat Bega, Julius Manno, Crews Johnston, and seat 9 was empty. On about the 3rd or 4th hand, I raise to T3500 first in from the cutoff seat with 9c8c, and get called by the button only. I'm ready to shut down now, as I know nothing about this guy at all. Instead, the flop comes 7TJ with one club, and I'm ready to play. I check, and he bets T8K. I check-raise to T20K, and he calls. I bet the rest of my stack on the turn, and he calls. He has AJ and I double up right away. I finish the level at T125,400, my absolute highest point for the tourney. I make a mistake the next level. Blinds are 800, 1600 with a 300 ante. Jack Fox limps in early position, and I limp in with QT. Blinds call. Flop is KJ8, and about 9K in pot. Jack bets 15K and has about 45-50K left. I do not put him on a big hand with such a big bet and a limp preflop. KQ is my best guess. As such, I'm pretty sure he'll throw it away if I raise, so I go all-in. The blinds quickly fold and Jack just as quickly calls. He has a set of Jacks, and I don't catch my open-ender. My stack is cut in half just like that. They break our table, and I'm moved to seat 2 at the table behind us. Tony D is in seat 4. I play a few hands at this table, and then the following. I raise in late position with AsKs. This is the 4th hadn in a row that I've raised preflop. I successfully stole the blinds the last three times. I wasn't going to raise a 4th time without a big hand, but they don't know that. I'm gaining T5100 with each raise, and raising to only T5000 to do so. The player behind me folds, but the button in seat 3 reraises to T10,000. I'm ready to come over the top all-in, but a wrench gets thrown in. Tony D in the small blind re-reraises to 25K. I think now for about 2 minutes, and then fold. The button quickly folds. I say to Tony "nice pickup there with nothing". He gives me a quick grin. Even before I said anything, I was pretty sure he was restealing with nothing, but had chosen to fold rather than take the risk. I'm pretty sure he now pegs me as a big thief who plays weak-tight whenever somebody plays back at me. Just a few hands later and I'm the big blind. Tony D makes a baby raise to T4000. I think for a minute or 2 and add 11,000 to my blind, a total of T12,600 to go. Tony instantly says "All-in!" I think for a few minutes again, and am better than 90% sure that Tony is full of shit with this bet. I just know it's a bluff. Finally, I say "I call, I just can't lay down the best hand", and table my AhQh. Tony flips over T4o. So, unlike Andy Glazer reported, Tony D did not call with T4, he raised with it, which means it is not necessarily a mistake on his part, as he had a chance to win without a showdown. However, since I called it was a mistake that turned to gold for him. The flop was: J98 With a Q on the turn to seal my fate, as the river was a harmless 6 (a T was my only out, and that for a split pot). It was fun, but I sure wish it hadn't ended so ugly, nor so early. I want to thank everybody who gave me support, especially Vince Lepore, who had nothing but nice things to say both before and after I busted out. Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan) Subject: Re: My WSOP story From: Randy Hudson Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Mon, May 27, 2002 4:10 PM Message-ID: In article , Gregory Raymer wrote: > Day 1 - I start at table 31, seat 2, downstairs where they play the > super-satellites. To my immediate right is Barney Boatman of the Hendon Mob. > He plays well and pretty tight, much tighter than I had expected. Seat 5 is > Randy Hudson (an rgp-er), 7 is Susie Isaacs, 8 is Nani Dollison, and 9 is > Ken Flaton. Seat 3 was George Geros, seat 4 was Faroe Islander Jogvan Glervoss, seat 6 was a solid cigar-muncher I know as "Paul" but who was listed as William McKinney. > I remember almost no hands from this table. I got to 11,050 chips in the > first level, 10,900 in the second, and 12,675 in the third. Greg was the most active player at this table, and I was second most active. Over half the pots had one of the two of us involved. Because I had position on him most of the time, I did better than he from this situation. A couple key hands for me: Early, holding AdKd, I flat called on the button when Jogvan opened for the standard amount (150, 3 big blinds). The flop came JT6, three suits. Jogvan bet 500, and I flat called again. The turn was a dream, a Q, putting two hearts on the board. Jogvan bet 2000, and this early in the tournament (7th hand?) I flat called rather than raising, hoping to trap Jogvan for all his chips. But the river was a 6h, both pairing the board and putting a third heart there, and when Jogvan checked, I could only check bhind him and take the pot. A few other hands were heads-up between Jogvan and me, with me taking two and him one with no showdowns. Then, late in the level, I was dealt Aces in the big blind. The hand was folded around to Jogvan in the small blind, who raised, presumably the standard 150. I reraised to 1025 total, a raise of over double the pot; if he wanted to flop a small set to double through me, he'd pay for it up front. I was somewhat surprised (and apprehensive) when he called this. The flop was 8-8-8. He contemplated that for a few seconds, couldn't decide how much to bet, then pushed all-in, about 3x the pot. I rechecked my cards, found that I had the ace suited to the missing 8 (thus, he couldn't have A8 suited), and called. He had JJ, the turn and river were harmless, and I had over $20K and the table was 8-handed. Just a few hands later, I held JJ on the button and Susie Isaacs called my opening from the big blind. The flop was QQ4, two diamonds. Susie bet 500, I raised to 2000, she re-raised to 4000. I had a strong read that she didn't have a Queen (partly based on a reaction to the flop from seat 3, I think it was; either he'd folded 44 or a Q), so I called. She checked the small third-suit turn card to me, and I lacked courage in my read and checked behind her. Fortunately the free card I'd given was harmless, we both checked the river, and she showed AdKd, 14 outs twice. I'd misplayed it and gotten lucky. I ended the level with 26,775. The next level was relatively uneventful; I don't recall any showdowns, but I was pushing my chips a bit, stealing blinds and picking up pots. Because Greg was frequently involved, several of those pots were at his expense, but because of his hyperactivity, his stack was nonetheless growing. My own stack ended the level at 28,400. My next critical hand was at the third level. The 3 seat, George Geros, was becoming frustrated as his stack slowly declined to about 5000. He opened for 600 (3rd level blinds were 100-200), and I flat called from the button with Jd9d. The flop came 9-high, two-suited (no diamonds), and he huddled a bit, then pushed all-in. I ruled out AA, KK, and a set, as I expected with his level of frustration he would try to double through with those hands by playing slower. I read him as most likely an underpair who wanted to pick up the pot before I could catch one of my overcards (I was playing enough hands he couldn't assume I was on an overpair). He could have had QQ, JJ, TT, or two small pair; I was willing to take that risk given his small stack. He had A3 suited, a near-pure steal (only one wheel card on board), and when no ace came on the turn or river, I had another knockout. Nani said something like "he's dangerous" to Susie, which I took to mean I would call with garbage. Recognizing this table image, I became slightly more aggressive in stealing, but more willing to lay down when played back into. I stole some blinds and pots, and ended the level with 43,100. > During the 4th level they move us upstairs, and soon after that they break > us. I hated it when the table was broken. Instead of having triple the chips of anyone else at the table, knowing my own table image, and knowing the other players at the table, I was moved to a table where I was the second-biggest stack, only a little bigger than the third- and fourth-biggest. This table was also more aggressive; I gave up two small pots that I'd opened and been flat-called by one blind, who then bet more than the pot on the flop. I won less than I should have on another pot, and had about 42,000 with 5 minutes left in the day when the following hand came up: I opened in late position with KcTc; the 45K big stack called from the big blind. The flop came K-T-baby, two diamonds. He checked, I bet only 1000 (less than half the pot). He called. The turn came Qd, which I hated (AJ, J9, and KQ, as well as any two diamonds, just moved ahead of me). He checked. I figured, if I'm behind, I've only four outs at most, while if he's behind, he almost certainly has more; so I bet 3000 at the 4400 pot. He check-raises me, 10,000 more. Up to this point I think I've played OK, but I should lay it down here. But somehow I convince myself he's playing AK or AQ, with the ace of diamonds, and semi-bluffing. I call. The river is a black queen. He checks. I have the opportunity for a brilliancy, an all-in bluff, feigning a full house. But all I can see is that my great flop has turned to dust, and I'm losing to almost any hand I can imagine. I check behind him, and am shown Ad9d, the nut flush. I finish the day with 24,775, and am grateful for the break to help me avoid tilt. > During the next level I make a big move to T80,775, but cannot recall any > hands, nor any names at my new table. I don't know his name, but you nearly doubled through the two seat, the big stack at the table. There was no showdown, but I read you as KK or AA, or a small set; the two seat probably had the Qd and a nearby diamond, as he raised your flop bet and called your re-raise when the flop came Q45, with both small cards diamonds, but then couldn't call your half-pot all-in on the (innocent-looking) turn. > I do remember that for the most part I didn't know anybody. The next level > is a disaster. We are losing players, and some of the new ones who come in > include Marcus Golser in seat 4 (the bubble boy), John Shipley in seat 8, > Humberto Brenes in seat 7 (who arrives short-stacked and later busts out), Before Humberto, I occupied the 7 seat for a while. I wasn't getting any cards, and when I did try to move, the 80K big stack in the 8 seat (whom I have in my notes as Michael Feter; perhaps Shipley was later?) came over the top of me. I did get a brief reprieve when my KK knocked out the 2 seat, who had been taken almost to the felt by Greg and others. But Phil Hellmuth replaced him, and my last hurrah was with AJ vs 99, all-in for 10K preflop against the 9 seat. The 99 flopped a set, and while I had 8 outs twice with my Ad on the all-diamond flop, it came to naught and I was gone at the 7th level. -- Randy Hudson