Restart at 11am today with a fair way to go before there's any loot in sight. My table assignment has me listed as Kevin O'Leary from India. WSOP admin at it's very finest.
My first table isn't a bad one, I'm third highest chips. We have an older Asian guy with whom I've played in the past at the Venetian. He's fun, but he just lost a huge pot all-in preflop with AA vs KK. I had raised in the hand with JJ and with typical Kevin timing I found these two others in the pot and immediately got out of the way. The KK turned a King and got lucky, so my buddy is now down to fumes. Not very poker, but I never like seeing nice guys get the shaft. He showed his class by taking it well even though it crippled him. A very pretty Brazilian girl is chip leader, and is smiley and pleasant enough. The mood is generally upbeat on our table, and currently as we approach level 2 the screen says 1800 players remain.
Pretty girl just had her stack totally decimated by aggressive older guy of indeterminate ethnicity (one just for the haters out there) when her big combo draw bricked out against his shitty two pair. I've largely avoided too much turmoil so far, but I have drifted down to 48K trying to bust one short stack and seeing several flops.
1,620 players remain and we're at 200/800/1600. Pretty girl is sadly gone... replaced by a considerably less attractive 300lb guy who looks like no stranger to McDonalds.
Bad news. My table just broke (about the worst thing that could have happened), and I get moved to a new table with HUGE stacks all around. The guy on my right must have 300K, and the guy two to his right equally as much. I guess we'll just have to see what happens. 1,260 left.
Weird table, some BIG overbets! I limped for 2k with 10 10 to see a cheap flop. By the time it got back to me there was 100k in the middle, and AA and AK went to war. I'm happy to sacrifice the 2K. Around 1170 remain as we near level 14.
From what I've seen so far, the pots are pretty bloated mainly due to stack sizes, The guy on my left just called 12k preflop with QJ offsuit (which won with an ace on board). My stack is in that weird middle zone, where I'm not desperate yet, but I can't splash about and spray chips everywhere seeing flops. Along we chug.
Level up to a biting 400/1200/2400, and around 100 players to lose before we make the money in this damn thing. I really try to ignore this as much as possible and simply play. I see a ton of people get blinded by the hope of a few dollars, and as a result end up badly misplaying hands. Whilst cashing is always good, nobody is looking to get $200 back as an investment return, and I believe that advancing in the tournament is better.
I'm certainly playing a different tournament to some of these guys. Indian kid with mirrored shades just demolished most of his 75K stack with KQ on a King high flop versus an older guy who wasn't putting AK down. As I always say, pay your money, do whatever you like in these things, but from where I'm sitting he could have lost maybe 15K in the hand, not murdered almost the entire stack. I guess these days that's how tournaments are won?
I'm on 50K, and 1,071 remain.
Unbelievable...I NEED to be the beneficiary of some of this madness! An old beard with around 200K just gave ALL OF IT to the big stack on my right. He had 63 on the button and limped (?!?!), and the guy on my left checked the blind with 52. Once the dust cleared, the board read 3486J. The 52 bet and the beard RAISED all-in for 150K more. He's now left thinking he's unlucky, and the guy on my right has a 550K stack, largely due to a massive Christmas present. Ugh.
Ding. We're in the money, after about 30 minutes of hand for hand play. I now reckon we'll lost a good 50 players in the next ten minutes or so. 1008 remain, we're 500/1500/3000 and I have 44K.
Due to some kind of admin snafu at the Rio, although we are already in the money, we still seem to be playing hand for hand, and the first hand has taken at this point about 10 minutes. The old geezer next to me is moaning incessantly. 'Why aren't we playing?/This is bullshit/Why is this taking so long?/I want to play/etc/etc". I calmly said instead of getting worked up that they aren't organising the 120 remaining tables around him, maybe he should just embrace it instead, he might feel a bit better.
Nope. He prefers to keep moaning instead. I dig out my earphones, and put on Spotify.
Old geezer next to me just got pushed off a pot when facing a 30K bet from some young spud with a backwards baseball cap. He gets shown a bluff, his head goes and he's out less than three hands later. Aforementioned kid then gives another old boy 65K by getting 88 in preflop versus the Senior's KK. Head scratching stuff. I'm on 40K or so which is well below average, but the way this table is playing there's potential for that to be 400K in 30 minutes time.
I just shoved blind on blind with A3. Got it through. He's got a ton of chips and could call me light. With 40K I guess I'm OK with that too.
Just over 800 players remain.
All sorts of scabby plays going on all around me. I've seen nothing and am now down to 20K. Time to ship and hope. 680 players left.
And... our hero finishes in 656th place for a whopping payout of $2,873. All I could do was get it in good.
I jam with A5, and get called by a big stack who has plenty of chips and 7s6s, which is worth a call to take a shot at me. Off we go.
Flop As 10s 8s. sigh. That's basically that then, unless he fancies gutshotting a straight flush just for good measure.
Last few hours were flat, and I lost the shot I needed to take. That aside, no complaints. On to the next one tomorrow back at the Rio...the $1500 NLH.