WSOP Qualifier

On Sunday, 2/22, I decided to play in one of America’s Card Room’s WSOP qualifier events. $50+$5 and they were guaranteeing 5 $12,500 packages to the WSOP Main Event. 5,000 starting chips, 15 minute blinds, rebuys allowed for the first 2 hours.

Early on I was pretty splashy as usual. However, I like that, as I get to observe how the other players will react to me. A few of them I picked up pretty reliable reads on. This leads me into my first hand of note. Sitting at 4k chips.

I raise with Q/Jd from late position and the big blind comes along. I’d seen him bully a few other players around with just top pair and knew I could outplay him. The flop is 10 high, 1 diamond. He donks out (of course) and I call. The turn is an interesting K. He checks, I check back. At this point I put him on something like A/10 for top pair on the flop. The check on the turn gave me the impression that he thinks I have a King. The river is a beautiful Ace giving me the nuts. More importantly, I think he now has 2-pair. He checks and I bet about 80% of the pot. Even if he thinks I have A/K, I think this is going to look really bluffy to him and will induce a call. It works and I win a nice early pot to take me up to 6k.

I’m able to do some grinding and surprisingly work my way up to 9k by the first break. A few good hands, but a lot of c-bets are working. #easygame

After the break I go into a bit of a slump and end up down to around 7k.

I’m starting to feel the pressure of the increasing blinds and look down at 10/Jo in late position. There’s 1 limper and I raise, he calls. The flop is 10/7/2 rainbow and I’m feeling pretty good until he check-raises me. I go into tank mode and really think it through. The top of his range would be something like A/10, K/10 or 9/9, but I really think he has something more like A/7. He’d been playing very weak so far. I opt to go all-in and he instantly calls…with 8/10. I have him dominated and easily double-up to 14k.

Hit a few more nice hands. Eliminate someone with A/A and work my way up to 19k. Of course, my one flopped set of the night was with my A/A hand when I totally didn’t need it.

So again, I’m feeling pretty good when I’m dealt Q/Q in late position. One of the shorter stacks shoves and I call. He of course shows A/A. Down to 9k.

A few hands later, I’m dealt J/J and after a short stack jams to my right, I re-jam and am called by 2(!) other players. They show: A/A, K/K, Q/Q. Yuck! Out in 296/1,000. Fun, but I definitely wasn’t done playing. That’s how it goes sometimes though…

At the end of the game, I was very happy with how I played. Definitely am not as good online as I used to be, but it’s still interesting how much of my live play experience translates to online. Gotta love the added aggression though!

This entry was posted in Play History and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *