Hit the Wall

Day 1 of the WSOP Hammond Omaha-8 Event was a fun rollercoaster ride yesterday. I came out hammering and by the first break I built up from 10K to 13,375 in chips. I was scooping and chopping so many pots that I almost put one guy on tilt. Sadly, things then went in the other direction and the stacks of my black and green chips disappeared. I had to dig into my purple and yellow chips to mount a comeback.

I decided that I was playing too fast and aggressive and tightened up. With a more steady approach I rebuilt my stacks which went down to about 6000 back up to 16000 by the second break. At this point, my brain was fried. I had been sending texts of updates to my wife and poker buddy and I literally had to count and re-count my chips about eight times before I was able to walk away and remember the number to put in the update! OMG, my crazy schedule/logistics of the last couple of days was getting to me. I felt alert but in a kind of out-of-body type of way, if that makes any sense to anybody! Nearing the second break I was having to REALLY focus on the board to make sure I was reading everything right and weighing the right odds and scenarios in my head.

After the second break I continued to grind my way higher in the chip count to 24200 by the next break. By then there were now 112 players out of the original 176 remaining. I was still a little dazed but playing well. We were having a generally good time at the table as we all got some comical breaks, compliments of the casino staff. This player from Cincinnatti had been ordering Bud LIght and Jaegar Bombs (spelling correct?) all night. Somehow, the casino area that we were in ran out of Bud Light so the waitresses would have to go to a lower casino area (where the price was different than the upstairs portion...yeah, ok). Half the waitresses also gave him this real puzzled look when he ordered Jaegar Bombs because they had no idea what that was and a couple of times they came back basically saying, "HUH?" And to top it all off - he was charged different prices on about 7 different occasions! We were all cracking up at the absurdity of the situation.

On the non-jovial side, we had Mr. Yankee Hat Wearing Prick of Poker. This guy didn't realize how much of an a-hole his behavior was (which I'm not going to get into but I'd say the table consensus was...Level 8 A-Hole). He was an aggressive player that came in raising about 85% of his pots and came in a lot...and kept getting hit witth the deck. Both Cincinnati and I kept challenging this guy and I did pretty well but Cincinnati kept getting owned. So Yankee Boy was a good player AND was getting hit with the deck so that naturally meant that he was chip leader at our table and ultimately when it came down to fewer than 60 players remaining, only he and I were left from our original table.

Towards the end of the day I was stuck between 22K - 32K in chips. I then managed to win some sick hands where I scooped by making nut lows and nut straights with hands such as Ah 4h 7s 9s and another where I held 10s 7s Qx 9x and flopped 10h 8x 5x top pair with a gutshot straight draw. I figured that my opponent held something like A A x x and I could hit a second pair to beat him as well. So he bet and I raised and he called. The turn came a 7 of spades, giving me two pair plus a Queen high flush draw. I figured that I was ahead and got some more money in. The river was a small spade so there was a possible low but I had now improved to a flush. I was pretty sure he didn't have the flush, he bet and I raised. He then really went into the tank for a while. The pot was huge and he had to call one more bet. Pot odds pretty much dictate that you have to make tha call (so says the book, right?) but, for this situation, he made the lay down of what he later said were Kings.

So up to 65,000 plus chips with a round and a half to go and I'm feeling great! I think I'm in contention again. But, I start to bleed chips when a new player is moved to our table and the table dynamics change where pots start to get capped on multiple betting rounds. I was on the wrong end of some of those pots and found myself with about 22,000 chips and 7 minutes left before the end of Day 1. Now, I didn't want to go through my logistical travel ordeal to come in and get busted out early on Day 2 so I was looking for any decent spot to get my chips in and double up or more. With about 51 players remaining, in late position I get Qs Qc Js Kc. Pretty nice hand so myself, the new guy, and Yankee Boy are in the pot. YB raises and I 3-bet it to 9000, the blinds are 1500 - 3000 with the betting in the later rounds at 3000 - 6000. My raise is called by the New Guy and YB so the pot is over 27,000...this is going to be the type of sized pot that I need! The flop comes 2 2 2! Yikes, immediately you have to consider that someone came in with A 2 X X or A A X X or K K X X. Those are the only hands that I'm worried about as with my Q Q X X, I have the 4th possible nuts. It gets checked around on the flop and the turn comes a 7. YB bets and I decide to go ahead and get the money in, RAISE. Call! Call! River 5. Bet, RAISE, call, RAISE, All-In or something to that effect...LOL it was almost 3 AM and I was beat - in more ways than one cause YB pretty much slow rolled me as I flipped my queens over and he then shows the last freaking 2 in the deck!