WSOP 2019 10k limit + main event

I was born in 1979. I started playing fantasy baseball at the age of 7 when I would get with my best friend each Sunday and we would hand calculate updates to see who was winning. There was no internet, and the stats only came out on Sunday. I’ve always loved numbers, they’ve always made sense to me.

I’m definitely not the best poker player in the world. There are times when I’m studying, or getting coaching from other players, where I legitimately leave that session feeling like a 1/10 in poker. That’s the great thing about poker, something that I do think I understand better than the average player, is how much more there is always out there to learn. If I look back at the last year and haven’t seen some growth, there’s a big problem. I’ve been playing poker for a living since 2005, so there’s been a lot of growth.

It took me almost a year to write about the 2018 WSOP main event. I meant to do it earlier, just really didn’t want to rehash the whole thing. The 2018 post got such good feedback (mostly thanks to the Reddit community) that I promised myself I’d write one much sooner after this years WSOP.

I had decided a month before that I’d be playing the 10k limit event before the Main. I flew out early on July 1st and met up with a few poker friends the night before. Guys that I’ve known from online play for a few years now, but just now getting to meet in person. Both great guys. We enjoyed a cigar (their first) and I made it an early night.

Tuesday morning came and I went through my morning routine. Large breakfast, cleaning out my pipes, and heading down to the Amazon room to get to my seat about 5–7 minutes early. I sit down in the seat directly to the right of the one where I busted the main event last year. I’m not superstitious, but those are some pretty low odds. Looking around I see Negreanu is at the table behind me. I recognize a lot of the “big name pros” scattered throughout the tournament. There are only 55 people registered to start the tournament so there are only 7 or so tables. Mine is 4 handed.

I said I’m not the best poker player in the world, or even close to it. However, my first 10 years playing professionally were playing limit holdem. I REALLY like my spot in this tournament. A lot of these “tv pros” might be better at poker, but they aren’t better at limit holdem. I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but it’s facts. While these guys played nosebleed NL games and crushed tournaments (and endorsements) for years, I did the same on the limit side.

Four-handed and I don’t know anyone at my table. I’m opening and taking down a lot of the pots. We start at 60k, I run up to 75k in 10 minutes. Limit plays fast. It’s fixed so there are no tough decisions on the river to make people think for minutes. I bet a fixed amount, the pot is large, player calls, and we move on. After about 10 minutes, Todd Witteles sits to my left. This is a bad break. He’s a monster in the LHE community. I know him from online from years ago. He has a bracelet in a 3k limit event from years ago. We exchange pleasantries and share a few memories. It’s funny. Daniel Negreanu is 3 feet away from me, but I’m much more impressed with having Todd Witteles at my table. I’ve played with Negreanu before. Say what you will about him, he couldn’t be any nicer. He stops to sign every autograph and take pictures with fans between hands- and this happens A LOT.

The play is soft. The 9 seat is cold calling 2 and 3 bets cold on the reg. We call that “taking 3 to the face.” The game was good. The first level I run hot making two sets and running my stack up to close to 100k and the chip lead. Within the first hour, we go from 55 to 80 entries. More of the TV pro’s trying to catch an easy bracelet in a game that they are for sure -ev in. Level two isn’t as kind to me. People are moving in and out of my game. Witteles leaves and a younger guy maybe mid 30’s takes his seat. He’s 3 betting me relentlessly and has taken my spot as the table captain. The table is quiet when someone says “we don’t have anyone famous at the table.” Seat 1 who is new to the table says “we have Dr. Olsen & Stretchmcgee.” This doesn’t mean anything to the rest of them, but immediately I know the guy to my right is Dr. Olsen and I’ve been outed by seat 1 as being stretchmcgee to Dr. Olsen. Dr Olsen was a high stakes crusher back in the online glory days. The other new players are also playing more aggressively. I grind this table for several hours before getting moved over to Shaun Deeb's table. I was at the table when Deeb got busted last year in the main (I think he finished 55?). I could go over the limit hands, but I think the average reader would be far less interested in it, so I’ll save that for the main. I bag 41.5k at the end of day 1. 108 people entered and the blinds were 2/4k. I’m already really short.

Day two we have 90-minute levels but I have just over 10 blinds. I get to my table and look around. Two to my left Juha Helppi, to his left Eli Elezra, to his left Shaun Deeb to his left Jesus Ferguson, two to my right Eric Wasserson, immediately to my right Josh Arieh.

This was like being thrown in the middle of a high stakes poker episode from 2007. As star-studded as this table looked, the play was quite soft. Lots of open limping and cold calling. All that said, I didn’t make any hands and eventually Shaun Deeb busted me. 10 people late registered for this event giving them a starting stack of 15 blinds. I finished right around 50 and 19 people got into the money. One tournament down in the books- net result thus far -10k.

I scheduled day 1c for the main which was shaping up to be a massive field so I had 1.5 days off before the start. I spent that time relaxing, studying and meeting with poker friends. I was feeling pretty good going into the main.

Friday came for day 1c and I got to my seat 5 minutes early and was pleased to see that I didn’t recognize anyone from my table. This isn’t uncommon as the day 1c field set a record of somewhere around 4700 entrants.

The first hand of the main event folded around to the button. The small blind and big blind were missing from the table, their chips were put in as blinds (100/200) with a big blind ante of 200. Their cards were dealt and already mucked by the dealer. The button proceeds to open limp. I’m not going to explain this hand in any more detail. This is stuff that you actually see in the main event.

My oldest child’s paediatrician calls me 2 days before I leave to Vegas. He says “I know you’ve had a lot of success in this tournament and I’m going to be playing it this year, do you have any advice?” I’ve known him for close to 20 years, so I’m happy to help. We talk for 45 minutes and are texting throughout this event. 30 minutes in he sends me this text.

“Guy in the room says ‘I’m all in’, pulls his pants and underpants down. Shows his penis. Throws his shoes at the table, wins the pot and is NOT kicked out of the tournament.”

I read this text to my table and we have a full-blown conversation about what this looks like. Minutes later the video hits twitter and the whole table is witnessing the #nakedbandit. If you haven’t seen it you can see it on my twitter feed (@pynebox). Apparently, the tournament director DID throw him out, it just took a few minutes. Side note, the player went all in blind and it folded to the big blind. Before he pulled his pants down he made a scene to let everyone know he had indeed gone all in blind- and even flipped over his cards (Q3o). The big blind is a pro and looks down at pocket 5’s. He knows he’s a 70/30 favorite and after tanking for a minute, makes the call. I’m not sure the exact runout but I know the Q3 won. The tournament official promptly removed the winning player's chips from the tournament and escorted him off of the premises. He was trespassed from all Cesar’s facilities. Our table then went into a lengthy discussion on whether or not the player who was eliminated had a legit complaint that he wasn’t eliminated BEFORE the hand. We came to the conclusion that this was a freeroll for the losing player as he’d only bring this up when he loses, and that it was the correct ruling.

About 20–30 minutes later a few tables over we hear a commotion, followed by the floor escorting a player who is so intoxicated he can barely walk out of the poker room. Apparently, he scooped a small pot and reached into his neighbors stack and took several chips out of his stack. The whole table saw it and called the floor. The floor decided he did indeed steal chips and was promptly removed from the tournament. Two DQ’s in the first level.

Back to actual poker. This year we started at 100/200 blinds with a 200 big blind ante. This is the first time the main event has ever had the BBA, and it’s a great thing for the game as it speeds up the game by quite a big. All that said last year was 50/100 with 50k chips. This year was 100/200 with ante and 60k chips. Less play but still a great structure. My table was actually amazing. There was one really good player and I had direct position on him. Texts I was sending out to several other friends were playing said the exact same thing.

Here are a few hands that I made notes of. Level 1 100/200 blinds. I raise EP with QQ to 500. MP calls SB (good player) 3b to 2700 two calls. Flop 224 rainbow. SB cheks I bet 2.7k (pot 8k). MP calls SB folds. Turn Ace. I make a defensive bet of 3.3k into 13.2k MP calls. River 5 check check MP tables a9o. Hello main event.

Level one, two limpers, good player raises to 700 I’m OTB with KQdd and elect to play a small pot with the one guy I’d like to avoid playing hands with. Both blinds call as do the limpers we are 6 way to the flop with close to 5k in preflop. Flop Ad Ks 5d. Checks to cutoff who bets 2k. This is a raise for me all day in a cash game as I have tons of equity with the pair + FD, but in the main against this player, I elect to call. All 4 other players fold. Turn 10s giving me added equity with the gutshot. He bets 4k into 9k and again I call. river 3 of clubs. He bets half pot and I quickly fold. I’m open to criticism on this hand.

Hand 3- Level 1. MP raises to 700 (he’s weak generally). 3 callers SB (the only good player) 3bets to 3200 40k effective I have AKdd in the bb and 4 bet to 8900 MP calls all other fold. Flop 245 two clubs one diamond, check check, turn jack of clubs check check river 7 of clubs, I check he bets 8k I fold he shows AA with the Ace of clubs. Okay main event.

Hand 4. 200/400 I open raise MP to 900 with 66 pick up 3 callers including the fish who checked aces down. Flop K63 two diamonds. 4500 in the pot checks to me I bet 1700 folds to bb who calls. Turn 5 of hearts he check calls my bet of 5k, river 4 no flush comes in he check calls 7.8k, I scoop a big pot.

Hand 5- same villain here. To recap we know he doesn’t 5 bet aces and also open limps OTB with dead blinds. Level 250/500, utg (good player) opens to 1300 I 3b KK with the king of clubs to 3900. Fish calls good player folds roughly 9.5k in the pot. Flop Ac Qs 5h he check calls 3.2k roughly 16k in the pot. Turn 7 of clubs, check check. River 10 of clubs. He quickly bets out 10k. I look at his stack and see he has 32k behind him. I decide this is a perfect spot to put him to the test for his tournament life. I block straights and nut clubs. I put him all in and he snaps. Shit. Bad timing I think. He flips over A9o for top pair. So this is beyond bad by him, but also probably bad by me. I put a lot of thought into this hand and decided he couldn’t call off his 10k buyin with a hand like this. He, on the other hand, looked at his hand and said: “I have top pair, I call.” Lesson learned (I think).

Hand 6. This is about 10 minutes before the end of day one. I’m cruising and sitting around 100k and the blinds are 300/600. I open cutoff with A7hh to 1300 button calls big blind calls 4.5k in the pot. Flop comes 24J with one heart. I continue bet 1500, the button insta makes it 5k and the big blind folds. I was going to muck but started thinking through that he wouldn’t have a lot of value raises here and after tanking for a few minutes raised to 15k. He folded instantly and I flipped over the 7 of hearts. My note on my phone after I typed this out literally said: “they won’t fold to you again.” It didn’t matter, the day was almost over as they announced that we’d play 6 more hands.

Hand 7- 300/600 with 3 hands left to go. EP (the guy I’m trying to avoid) raises to 1300, I 3b to 3900 with KK. Folds around to him and he makes this sick 4 bet to 8.2k. He started the hand with about 60k and I had 115k or so. (I finished day 1 last year with 101k so I knew I was in a good spot). This is one of those moments where you kindof feel like you’re up against Aces, but then you know your image and what you’ve just shown so I’m having this inner dialogue with myself. “He’s gonna show you aces, nah- you have kings and he’s making a play at you since you’ve been so aggressive today. Ricky- you know he’s gonna show you aces. I opt for a 5 bet to around 30k, he ships in his last 30 over the top (now I know it’s aces) and I call. He flips over aces and me kings and gets a full double. It probably didn’t make a difference as the flop came 245, so I wasn’t getting away from it anyway. Such is life.

Hand 8- Last hand of the night. I get QQ EP and raise to 1300 (56k stack). Folds to the fish from above who raises to 51,000. 51k. Thirteen hundred, please meat fifty-one thousand. I’m just looking at him. He says “not losing with this hand on the last hand of the night.” I slide my queens in the muck and he shows AA. Only in the main event and local penny games do you see this nonsense.

Day 1 bag 55k starting day 2 with somewhere around 70bb- PLENTY of play and I’m feeling just fine. All my other friends and horses are still in, and Phil Ivey and Negreanu are busto. I must be better than Negreanu as I outlasted him twice in a week in 10k buyins. (I kid I kid).

Side note- I was part of two earthquakes, and the second one was on day 1 and I took some video of it on my twitter (Pynebox) and Instagram (pyneboxpoker). Glasses fell from the ceiling and it was something I’ve never experienced in my life as I’m from the east coast. It rattled the whole room and we had to go on dinner earlier than expected. I was disoriented and woozy for about 2 hours after it happened. Having been through hurricanes and seen one tornado, here’s how I’d rank what I’d most want to have happened.

1. Hurricane- you get plenty of notice
2. Earthquake. It sucked, but I wasn’t in fear for my life (maybe I should have been)
3. tornado. F those things.

Day 2 starts, I look over Hendon mob and find a very pleasing table unlike day 2 in 2018. One guy with 1m and 6 guys that total like 4k. This isn’t the BEST indicator, but it is the ONLY indicator going in blind. I get to my seat and directly to my left is none other than the aforementioned fish from day 1. “What’d you have in that last hand when I had aces?” “Queens” I reply. “No you didn’t, what’d you really have?” “10J suited.” That seemed to make this conversation end, which was fine by me.

Day two hand 1. Raise with AJs, flop a flush draw, bet. Turn a flush, bet, river still have the nuts, bet. I’m up to 70k. Perfect.

Day two hand two. Aces. I raise to $2,000, middle position raises to $6,200, I tank for a bit, raise to $19,500. He tanks for a minute and goes all in (putting me all in). FINALLY- I’m on the right side of Aces vs Kings I think. I snap and flip over the bad news for him and I’m thinking how I’ll have 200+ Bigs and am going to cruise through day two. He flips over aces. SHIT, I’m thinking. Sucks I won’t get to double but I’m still in great shape. Flop comes out 3 of hearts jack of hearts 3 of diamonds. I know I have one red ace. I look down it’s the ace of diamonds. Turn 7 of hearts. The table starts making some noise. River 4 of hearts. GG, I was dealt a game over on the second hand of day two.

That’s it. That’s the end of the story. This tournament provides such great value, and as I said in my last blog, it’s for sure +EV, but sometimes (1% in this exact hand) this is the way it runs out. Last year I was one outed with 45 left, this year I lose aces vs aces. It’s poker.

Thanks for all the support this year. I’ll make sure to blog again next year