Day 3 WSOP Recap

I looked up my table the night before and was pleased to only find one tough player. There were two others that had a handful of results, but I was very happy with the draw. The first hand I played I called a raise with 87hh from the BB. The flop was Q73 rainbow. I check called a pot sized bet against a older man from South Africa. I had absolutely no idea how he played, but he had just a few thousand less than me to start the hand. The turn was a 8c completing a rainbow. I checked and he bet 8500 (about 2/3 pot). I made it 23500 and he tanked for 20 seconds before announcing raise. He min raised it 15K more. Not having played with him before I elected the less dangerous route and just called with intentions of leading the river. I led 32K after a brick hit and he called quickly and tabled KK like it was the nuts. I showed my two pair and he went into a tirade about how his big hands always gets cracked. If I coulda heard this speech earlier I woulda put it all in and watched him beat me in the pot. After that I was the table leader, I raised about 1/3 of the time and quietly built my stack to over 300K. Mark Testler (sp??) raised UTG and I called in position with 5d4d. The flop was 1072 with two diamonds. He bet 8k into a 10k pot, and I called. The turn was a 5s. He now bet 14k into a 26K pot which seemed wierd, but I knew he was good enough to bet smaller to induce a semi bluff from me for his last 55K. So elected to call not knowing where I was. The river was a 6s. He tanked for 5 seconds and put it all in. My instinct was to call, because usually in those spots a made hand will check or put a blocker bet out there to induce a bluff from a missed draw. The only way a ship is right is if he had 89, a set or complete air. It was by far my longest tank of the series. The reasons to fold was that the field was soft enough where there was little reason to take marginal chances and in addition Mark knew fact that too. So after 5+ minutes I folded and he snap shows KQo for absolutely nothing. It was the second time that I ignored my first read and talked myself into a bad decision (KK vs AA). To make matters worse they broke our table the next hand. I moved to a table where I did not know anyone. The kid to my left was opening every pot and was quite successful, so I began to open half the time it opened to me. The kid constantly reraised me. I 4 bet with KK once and saw 3-4 flops by flatting out of position. He was definately a thorn in my side. I decided I would open from early position more given that it is tougher to 3 bet with so many behind. So I raised UTG with J4cc and a medium stack called from the button and the BB (who was literally so worried about making the money that he asked the floor if he could ask me not to collect the antes for my side of the table, because it would take an extra 5 seconds for the dealers to do it, the extra time would mean less hands.... blah blah blah.) who 3 bet to 16K. The original raise was to 6100, so it looked to me that he had a hand like AK, QQ, or JJ where he was just trying to find out where he was. So I went with my instinct and tried to tell him, I reraised to 55K. Button folded and you could tell he was sick. He had another 70K behind the 16K. He tanked forever, looking over at the clock and how many people were left. He finally announced all in and I beat him in the pot for fun. He almost threw up, until I showed my hand. Then he was genuinelly (sp??) mad at me. He stormed away from the table, even though the board didnt even give me a sweat. Going into the last level I had 200K playing 1500/3000. I was of course looking for a spot to trap the aggro kid and I got it. A decent nit opened from late and I smooth called with AQcc from the cutoff with intentions of inducing a squeeze from aggro kid. Aggro kid fell into the trap and made it 28K. First guy folded and accidently flipped his cards up (99). I was even happier seeing that, so now even if he had a small pair I had all my outs. I reraised the pot up to 93K. He quickly announced all in and I called. He tabled KK. I was so confident that I was going to win I did not even start to pack up. The flop was J107 giving me a gut shot to go with a live ace. The turn was a 9 giving me an open ender. But the dealer must have messed up because a 2 hit the river and I was out like that. Putting in 65bb with AQ seems like a marginal spot, but I dont mind it considering the kid behind me. But Eric rationalized it other way and said that I could have easily survived the next 30 minutes and got a redraw for day 4 where I most likely would have gotten a better seat. It is sound advice, and makes me hate the play now.

I will write a recap of Day 1 Bellagio Cup Main Event soon.

Justin "robert07" Young