Titling this blog entry “2013 WSOP” is a bit misleading, because I don’t plan to play any WSOP events this summer. I have a full schedule of about 12-14 Venetian Deepstack events. I love that series, plus it is much more with my poker bankroll.
I had originally intended to get in to Las Vegas on 6/3 and start my grind on 6/4. But I ended up coming in to town a bit early and decided to go ahead and jump right in by entering the Venetian $600 event that was starting the day after I flew in. Marc Alioto played it with me as well.
For the first 6-8 levels of the tournament my chip stack was up and down like a yo-yo. Then I went on a quick little heater and ran it up from 6K to 42K and finally I had some chips to work with. Last hand before dinner I had like 115K and would have had about 15K more going in to dinner but I lost AT to KQ knocking me down to ~100K at dinner. Still well above average though.
Then I went on a serious dry spell that was a combination of card deadness and just not winning any of the hands I played. As the bubble approached I was getting quite short. I found AKhh on the stone bubble and open shoved, getting called by JJ. Luckily there was a King in the window and I was able to double up and get in to the money. I still did not have a ton of chips though and basically just push/folding my way along as people kept getting knocked out. Eventually we reached the final table and Marc and I were both still in. Marc had a much healthier stack than I did, as I was the short stack t the final table, but there were a few other guys who were pretty short as well.
At the final table the next day, we lost one person right away as he got it in JJ vs AK and lost the flip. Unfortunately I would go out a bit later when I got it in with KJ vs A7 and could not find the required paint to double up.
Obviously I would have liked to finish higher (and win) but it’s hard to be too disappointed about starting off the summer with a final table. Creates some momentum and confidence for the rest of the series. Next event will be the Venetian $500 on Tuesday.
More updates to come!
For up to the minute updates, follow me on Twitter.