Subject: Jim Geary's 2003 10k WSOP Account -- long version From: "Jim Geary" Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 12:42:36 -0700 Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Starting table 67: Garth Nevers Lancero Alvarez John Naridny Robert Williamson III Reginald Simmons Allen Cunningham James Courtney Aidan Bennett Jim Geary level 1 25-50 blinds I muck the first 25 hands or so. Then pick up KK. I make it 300 to go utg. Naridny calls. Flop is QJT. I check, he bets 400, I call. Turn Q. I check, he bets 500, I make it 1000. He folds. 11525. Fold a bunch more. Open raise with 22. RW3 reraises from the small blind. Flop JT2. He bets, I raise. He calls. Turn is an ace. Check, I bet, he raises, I call. River pairs the ten. Check Check. He shows a pair of queens. 16275. Bunch of limpers and I come in on the button with 96h. Flop is 853 with two hearts. Big blind bets out clearing the field, I call. Turn is the 5 of hearts. He checks, I bet, he raises. I fold. 15150. Notes say "67o 14400" Think I took a shot at the pot with second pair and folded to heat. Open raise with KJo, get called by blind (seat 3?) and fold when he bets a flop I missed. 14100. Soon it is the first break, and I have 14075. I don't know how this is possible unless the big blind jumped me, which is usually mostlikely to happen from the 9 or 4 seat as the buttons swings around the corner. I don't know. Level 2, blinds 50-100. Limped pot, I pick up on the flop with KQo. 14325 Bunch of limpers, I come in on the buttons with A8o. Flop comes ace high and I pick it up with a small bet after it is checked to me. 14575. Approximately 4pm, Robert Williamson is out. Guy with goatee and blue chaps shirt in. I open raise with A7o in late position. Flop JT8. Check check. Turn a king, check and I pick it up with 500 bet. 14425. Bunch of limpers and I see the flop with 82o in the big blind. Flop is 983. I bet out, seat 3 alone calls. Turn is a 7. I check, he bets 1000. I think and call. River is a 6. I check he bets 3000. I think for a long time and call. He shows me K6s. 18475. Next hand I'm in the small blind with my road hand, T8s. Limp and a raise to 200, blinds call, 4 way pot. Flop is 872, all hearts. Checked around. Turn is an 8. Ck, seat 1 bets, fold, fold, I call. River blank. Check, he makes a largish bet. I think for a long time and call. He shows the KQh. A bad call on my part. Mistake #1. 13425. Second break. Level 3, 100-200 blinds. A bunch of limpers and I complete from small blind with 75o. Flop is 772. Check around to seat 5 who bets. I raise. He calls. Turn is a 5. Check check. River a 9. I bet he folds. 16125. A bunch of limpers and I before looking at my hand, I say to myself, if it's anything I might limp with, I'm going to pop it. I pick up 86c and make it 900. Everyone folds to last limper(seat 7) who calls. He hasn't been getting many hands, so I suspect that he is not holding anything too great. If I catch any piece of the flop, I'll bet it healthily and cut loose in the face of heat. Flop is JT4 with two hearts. I don't know if that hit him, but it's a pretty bad flop. Check check. Turn puts out a second club. Now I at least have a reasonable hand with which to steal. I bet 1000. He calls. River is a miss. Check and I bet 1000 again. He calls and as he throws his chips in shows me the ATc. A dumb bet there. Mistake #2. 14025. I should've thought longer before spewing the 1000 on the river. After the hand, I idly mused on whether not I would've doubled him up if the club hit. Probably. He wasn't that deep. What if he had me covered? I don't know. Hopefully, club flush over club flush won't come up right when I take a fly with a jizz hand. I mean, what are the odds?! At 707, seat 8 is out. Replaced at 715 by "fred" tall thin grey guy who plays in LV and bets sports. Seems like a decent enough player. Dinner break. I have 14025. I go with Mike McClain to subway and we talk about our day's hands. His table apparently is raise, no flop. Raise no flop. Raise, reraise, no flop. The exact opposite of our table. I think how happy I am to be at a table where I can play hands and try to outplay my opponents postflop. Of course, if I end up getting outplayed, I'll feel differently, but I don't mind the spot. Level 4 is still 100-200, but with 25 antes. At 930 seat 3, who was the most interesting player at the table is out. All the money went in preflop with 99 v AK. Board came AAKxx. Just to be different, limp with AQo. A couple other limpers. Flop QJ3. I bet 800 no calls. 13300. Seat 3 is replaced by a guy with a pokerstars shirt and purple shades. Bunch of limpers, I am in the big blind with 76o and opt not to raise. Flop is 972. I bet 600. Seat 3 calls. Turn is a 7. I check, he bets 1000, I check raise to 5000. He folds. 15200. Under the gun, I raise to 900 with AQs. Seat 4 raises to 3000. I fold. Maybe the second time this happened all day at our table, whereas it would've been #217 at MikeM's. Seat 4 raises to 800. I call on the button with 88. Flop is KT2. He bets 7000(!). I fold, albeit with some hesitation. I have ATo in mid position and open raise for 700. Seat 3 cold calls. Flop is QQ8. I check. He bets 1000, I raise to 3000. He folds. 15675. At the 10oclock hour break, I have 15050. Big limit jump. We are playing 150-300 with 50 antes. Costs 3-4000 an hour to fold. At 11pm, seat 3 is out. New seat 3 is older big fit guy with Brimley moustache and two-tone hair. Sits down with 12k. At 1130, seat 7 who had been struggling short all day is finally out. He is replaced by Jim Bechtel who has 20k or so. The first player I actually have played with before, not that that's a great help in this case. I fold for about 3 rounds. All day I was getting 63o and 72o. At least 7 times each. Pairs and big hands I had in 9+ hours: KK(as described above). JJ(picked up the blinds and an Allen limp). 88(as above). 44(limped and missed). 22(as above). no AK's. One AQo and one AQs. Everything else was attempting to spin silk purses out of sows ears. Last spring, while playing at the Commerce, I went with Mike McClain and TonyN to some place in LA where none of the street signs are in English letters. His host ordered for us and we got a big bowl of soup with all sorts of colored side things for dumping in. The coolest looking ones were these pink and red diamonds which went quite well in the soup, if a little crunchy. After eating it, I inquired and learned that it was in fact a sow's ear, sliced really thin. I really don't see how you can make a silk purse out of one, but they'd be good on a club sandwich. First hand I play in level 5 after over an hour of folding. 76c in the small blind. Seat 5 open raises the minimum to 600. Not a great hand to play, but the antes force the action a little. I'm getting 1500 to 450 to take a look, and I certainly haven't been unhappy to play with them after the flops today. Big blind calls as well. Pot is 2250. Flop is Q93 with two clubs. Checked around. Turn is four of clubs. I bet 1500. BB folds. Raiser makes it 4500. Now I think for several minutes, as accurately transcribed as possible below: "What could his hand be? AK of clubs? I'd be surprised if he'd raise the bare minimum preflop and then check the flop as well. AQ of clubs? No, the Queen is out there. AJ of clubs? Kinda the same surprise but a little less so. AT of clubs? Maybe. A9 of clubs? Surely middle pair and nut flush would be worth a stab with all that money out there. They're antes for Christ's sake. A8 of clubs? I think we're starting to get to hands he might not even play. But if he's that tight, maybe he's more likely to have played the AKc or AJc meekly. A7 of clubs? A6 of clubs? Can't be, I got those. (lucky me!) A5 of clubs? A2 of clubs? No. He mucks that. KQ of clubs? No, the Queen is out there. KJ of clubs? Eh, maybe. But if you're gonna pop it preflop, are you gonna check the Q93 flop with two clubs? Maybe he only wants to get his money in with the made hand. It wouldn't be that inconsistent, but still... KT of clubs? Now, we're getting to a range of hands I think he'd fold befoer the flop. JT of clubs? I guess he might check that flop, but that sure is meek. Any lower combination of clubs like T2? Impossible. AA? Kind of late to be waking up with those postflop. KK? Ditto. QQ? Hmmm. Seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't be giving off free cards and then aggressing when the scare card hits. JJ? He'd probably be gone already. TT? Ditto. 99? Hmm. Would he be more likely to check middle set on the flop then top set? I doubt it. Possibly he just wants to test the water now. If I signal the flush and give him a bad price, this one is over. He's got more than me, so he's not potcommitted. 88 - 55? No this is too much aggression from his with those cheeseballs, plus he's probably a dog to even take the flop. 33? Kinda like 99, but I think he'd be more inclined to bet the flop with bottom set. 44? Hmmmmm. Now we're getting somewhere. Small raise preflop. yeah. Missed the flop, so he checks. yeah. Wakes up when the 4 hits. This is the only hand I have enumerated that is consistent with the action on every street. This is it. What to do? If I just call, will I call a bet if the board pairs on the river? I guess not. What if a fourth club hits? That'll be a scary spot. I imagine he'd check sets there and bet the high clubs. But what hand would contain a single high club? AKo with the ace or king of clubs. Yeah, he could be testing the water here and if I call will, just check it when the flush fails to hit. I think. Would I call a bet if no fourth club hits on the river? Yeah, I think if I call here, I'd have to. So why give him a free shot with his naked Ace of clubs? Yeah, same thing with his sets. To be honest, this is as self-actualized as my hand is gonna get. If all I'm hoping for on the river is a blank, there's not much point in delaying when the money goes in." "All in." He calls instantly. Ace-jack of clubs. IGHN. As I was walking out the hall in a daze, I pass Mike Wattel who was sneaking a quick smoke. "you out, jim?" "flush over flush" a sympathetic "what can you do?" But by the time I get to the valet, I know what I could've done. Mistake #3. There were only 2.5 hands he could have (.5 being maybe the KJ of clubs) at that point and none of them were good for me. Fuzzy thinking in a nutshell. There was no way he was checking the flop and then probing on the turn. Sometimes that is what is happening, but not him, not there. I was beat. Twenty years of poker provided me with all the information I needed to play that hand correctly. I just made a mistake. Despite considerable field experience making mistakes, I still find myself making them. Imagine that. How to avoid them next year? I don't doubt that the blunder occurring during the last hour of a long day was a contributory factor. Next year, I'll try to be fitter and more rested. And try to think more clearly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Geary | You, however, have demonstrated www.jimgeary.com | exceptional financial responsibility. something to bore everybody | -- American Express solicitation -------------------------------------------------------------------------