E-WSOP

The WSOP $1000 NL Texas Holdem event

Today Erik played event nr 36 in the WSOP. It’s a $1000 No Limit Texas Holdem 2 day event. Still jet lagged we woke up after only 3-4 hours of sleep. Not the best preparation for this important day but what can you do?

We got breakfast went to the gym and then it was off to Rio. I felt really nervous even though I wasn’t playing myself. We walked around in the poker room before Erik finally sat down at his table. Early on he picked up a smaller pot and managed to steal some blinds. After an hour he got moved to another table. This was when his luck turned.

After missing a couple of flops with decent hands Erik was down to 1800 in chips (starting stack 3000). The blinds were at 25/50 and Erik picked up aces in the small blind. The player under the gun limps in and a player in late position makes a raise to 350. At this point Erik has two choices, raise all in or smooth call. Considering the fact the he had a very tight image at the table Erik felt that it was too unlikely that he would be called lightly if he pushed all in. With only 1800 behind he also needed all the chips he could get. So his plan was to smooth call and then check raise all in on any flop.

I think both plays are okay, considering his tight image I would also lean towards smooth calling. If he would have had a looser image so that lower pocket pairs and AJ+ would call a push I think that would have been the best option. In this case the raise from the player in late position was also quite big, which meant that a continuation bet from that player could tie him to the pot.

The player under the gun also called, which was okay for Erik since it added an extra 300 to the pot. At this point he could take that risk considering the possible benefits.

The flop was Q73 with a diamond draw. This was a perfect flop for Erik who checked as well did the played under the gun. The pre flop raises bet 650 into a pot of 1050, Erik pushed all in but when the player under the gun quickly moved in Erik knew he was in trouble.

The pre flop raiser also considered a call but folded eventually. He must have had something like AQ. Erik showed his aces and the other played flashed his deuces for a flopped set. Neither the turn or river was an ace; Erik was out of the tournament after just a couple of hours.

Afterwards Erik was blaming himself for not pushing all in pre flop but after a while he came to the conclusion that his play probably was the best one and that it was worth risking giving the other player a chance to hit his set.

Tilted we went back to the Flamingo pool.