clawing to 27
The action today: short but not sweet. With precious few pay jumps, a short stack of chips to work with, and a pack of pros ready to pounce on my slightest mistake, I wasn’t looking forward to today’s battle. Then I realized how lucky I am. I get to strap on a Full Tilt hat and play poker for a living. My job is to play cards!
But in this industry filled with statuesque European studs, bombshell former actresses and models, and a murderer’s row of talented players, you’re only as good as your last finish. I oughta know. After last year’s WSOP, I went from King of the world (ok Jack of the world) to old news faster than people could say, “one hit wonder.” Some gregarious pros parlay small successes into lucrative larger than life personas, but soft-spoken guys like me need to keep winning to stay hot.
Oh, and Daddy needs a new pair of shoes. It was time to gouge, punch, and claw my way up the leaderboard.
I began the day with $558,000 in chips.—not much Luckily for me, I’d been in situations like this before. I knew what it was like to get short, panic, and blow up. In fact, I did that at this very event last year. I’d also been short and waited for the right spot. The whole day, I kept reminding myself that when there were 27 people left at the WSOP, I was 26th in chips. I don’t have that many hands to report because I folded 95% of them but here was the action from my eyes:
4k/8k with a 1k ante:
My game basically boiled down to preflop play only because I couldn’t afford to siphon off many chips. I was obviously aware of the pay jumps but my goal was to give myself enough chips with which to actually do some damage.
I stole a few blinds (with good hands) but essentially stayed even.
5k/10k with a 1k ante:
I raised preflop with A, J and checked it down on a K high board. Another player had J, J but I didn’t lose too much here.
C.K. Hua raised under the gun to $42k. I called in the big blind with Q, Q. Not trapping, just playing it cautiously because C.K is a really tight player. The flop was K, 9, 3. I checked and he bet $80k. I called and the turn was a 8, bringing the second club. I checked and he checked. The river was an A. I checked and he checked. He showed Ac, Jc. Brutal.
6k/12k with a 2k ante:
David Oppenheim raised the hijack and I decided to slowplay A, A for the first time ever in a tournament by just calling in the big blind. Normally I don’t slowplay, especially in a deep stack tournament because you can get yourself in a lot of trouble but with my table image and the small number of chips I had, if I had raised, I would only have gotten action from K, K if that.. The flop was J, 10 x. Check Check. The turn was a blank. I bet $50k and he called. The river was another brick and I bet $100k, which he called.
8k/16k with a 2k ante:
It folded to me in the small blind and I limped with A, 8. Tim Phan checked his option and the flop was Js, J, 9s. I bet $16k and he made it $32k. I called. The turn was a Q. I checked and he bet $54k. At this point I thought he had complete garbage so I called. The river brought the queen of spades. I checked and he said, “Ok I’m done bluffing.” He turned over A, 2. I knew I had the better hand but we chopped because the board paired.
10k/20k with a 2k ante:
I raised to $60k with A, Q suited. The small blind (gigantic stack) at the table reraised me quickly. He grabbed as many chips as he could. Since I’d been playing extremely tight, I decided he had to have a premium hand because he had accumulated a ton of chips without really gambling much. I finally mucked and he showed A, K. I think a lot of people in my situation might have been talking about this one as their exit hand.
Scott Fischman raised the cutoff to $53k. I went all-n for $370 total. He called and turned over A, 8 suited. I had A, Q and flopped a queen. This put me up around $740k.
A round later, it folded to Fischman and he raised again to $53k. The small blind called and I called in the big blind with 6, 4 suited. The flop came Q, 10, x. Everyone checked. The turn was a 7 and the Jim “Krazy Kannuck” Worth checked the small blind again. I bet $80k and Fischman called. Kannuck folded. The river was a 9. I bet $150k and Fischman called, turning over 7, 3. Ouch, baby.
We had the option to play down to six yesterday but one person didn’t want to and apparently that’s all it took. Today will be a very tough day. Here’s my draw:
1. Phil Hellmuth – 738,000
2. Ben Johnson – 1,208,000
3. Grant Lang – 1,201,000
4. Mike Wattel – 1,060,000
5. C.K. Hua – 760,000
6. David Levi – 1,258,000
7. Paul Wasicka - 538,000
8. Tommy Vu – 830,000
9. Kirk Morrison – 2,980,000
Wish me luck, I’m going to need it. I’m confident in my play put it’s going to be a dogfight out there.
paul wasicka’s blog
Thursday, April 26, 2007
