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!