WSOP Diary: Day Three

Friday night – actually Saturday morning – I stayed up until 2:00 AM writing up my experiences of the day, to the point where I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I went to bed, and slept until 8:45 AM, more than six hours!

Debbie went out to play cards at the Horseshoe, while I sat in meditation for half an hour, then finished writing Friday up. At that point it was just after 10:00 AM – time to call Andrew Prock to see if he was up for breakfast.

I rendezvoused with Andrew and with Debbie at the coffee shop of the Four Queens. Andrew made his final pitch to me about the $2000 stud/8 event, and I decided on the spot to do it. Debbie took me aside after breakfast and gave me her own pep talk, and bought a quarter of my action.

I was surprised that I could find no one at the top of the escalator by the tournament area with tournament entry lammers to sell. It was with some chagrin that I paid cash for my entry – the past two times I've played WSOP tournaments, it has been with lammers won in satellites, clearly and obviously the fruit of victory.

The only person whose name I recognized at my table when it started was John Hennegan in seat eight. Most of the others, though, clearly knew each other, part of the tournament circuit. The woman who sat in seat one, though, was wearing a bracelet she had won at the World Poker Open in Tunica. Seat three was unoccupied at the start.

The tournament had 225 players, each with a stack of $2000 in tournament chips in front of them. I got off to a slow start, playing tight and not getting anything to play with. The first level was 30-60, with ante of 5 and bring-in of 10. Antes, bring-ins, and hands surrendered on fourth street when I caught bricks all chipped away at my stack. I was surprised at the level of play; most of the other players, even the ones whom I thought were clearly experienced at stud/8, pushed their hands past fourth street after catching bricks. If this table had been a money game, I would have been thrilled.

About halfway into the first round the occupant of the empty seat arrived: Chris Ferguson. "Just the person we wanted to see here," I quipped. Debbie would be happy, I thought. To her taste, Chris is just about the best-looking man in poker.

Eventually I caught a hand that went somewhere and split a pot and took down another pot on fifth street, bringing me to more chips than I had started with. The wind never really took my sails, though. Halfway into the third round, when all the tournament action was halted so that players could watch (and put bets on) the Kentucky Derby, I had only $1900 in my stack.

(The wind never took Chris Ferguson's sails, either. He got some bad breaks, and busted out before the second break.)

As the antes and betting limits increased, as I leaked more chips over time, I had to loosen up and gamble more. Doing so got my stack up to over $3000, but by that time it was the fifth round, the 150-300 level. The bleed brought it down again, and then I took a hand to the river against the woman in seat one. My two pair and busted low draw did not hold up against her flush and low. I was left with a very short stack, with the antes eating proportionately huge chunks of it very fast. I was not hands even good enough to gamble with, though, until I had but one $100 chip more than the $50 ante.

"I wonder what's going to happen this hand?" I said to the table, holding my single chip up. "Something interesting, I think!" Obviously, I was in a situation where I would be playing any hand I was dealt. Lightning struck: I was dealt split aces with a suited five. The player to my right raised the bring-in, I called all-in, another player called, and a third one, short-stacked, reraised, getting a call from the original raiser. The other short-stack went all-in for three bets on fourth street, leaving the other two players head-up for a second side pot.

When the dust settled, the final side pot was scooped by two small pair, the all-in player took the more substantial second pot with a better two pair. My split aces had improved to aces and jacks, so I scooped the main pot, all $850.

My situation had improved from hopeless to desperate. I went all-in for three bets with two small cards with an ace against three other players; I made the best low, and doubled up.

I continued to play the desperate short-stack game, and was astonished at how well it worked. I have a decent-but-not-perfect sense of the all-in equity of stud/8 starting hands, and was able to pick my spots well. I got lucky, too, of course, but I also knew what I was doing. Amazingly, I survived to the dinner break with a stack of about $1800 (going all-in and winning half a pot in the very last hand of the sixth round).

I was really keyed up during dinner, during which I sat with Andrew (who had a more respectable stack of $8200 at that point) and Debbie. We talked about my situation, and Andrew coached me some of the fine points of short-stack play.

I didn't expect to survive the seventh round, but I did. Finally, in the eighth round, my luck ran out, when I committed my stack of $800 (at the $400-$800 level) to a pair of queens that didn't improve, to be beaten in two places by two pair, taking 62nd place out of a field of 225.

I left the tournament area feeling really proud of myself, having been able to nurse a tiny stack through three hour-long rounds of increasing antes and betting limits. I'm sure now that I have an overlay against this field of players. This isn't to say that I'm the best player around; but that I'm good enough, I believe, to have a creditable shot of making money.

I took a break after busting out, spending some time walking around the building and talking with Debbie, and then talking on the phone with Lynn Kendall. Afterwards, I came back to the cash games and got into what now seems to be my standby, the $50-$100 stud/8 game. I didn't get very far at the second must-move table, but in the first must-move table I was able to take significant advantage of some seriously weak players and make some good reads. While I was playing in the cash game, Debbie played in the late-night Second Chance tournament. I checked in with her at the first break, and then was feeling ready to cash out, up $900, when she came to me at my table, having just busted out, shortly after midnight.

The good money news is that even after the $2000 outlay for the tournament, I am cash-even for the trip so far. This bodes well for the rest of the week.