My WSOP experience

Sorry im just posting but my computer decided to crash while i was in vegas.

The day before the main event started Full Tilt had a luncheon for the players that qualified through their site. I was able to sit at the same table and have lunch with Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch and Clonie Gowen. This was absolutely amazing. All of them were very open and friendly. Conversation ranged from all things poker to baseball to pets. Andy Bloch was very amusing and i during the whole lunch i just couldnt believe i was dining with actual bracelet winners and the 2000 Main Event champion. After lunch they all spoke and did a Q & A session for about 2 hours. Then afterwards they signed some autographs and took some pics. (Clonie is way hotter in person by the way)

I played in the third day of the main event and was seated at Mineapolis Jim Meehan's table. Most memorable hand of that table involved Jim and a younger player. The board was :ks: :qs: :js: :ts: :4d: . The younger player had been leading the betting the whole way. On the river Jim raised his $750 bet to around $3,000. The kid thinks for a long time then folds showing the :9s: for the straight flush! As soon as he fold's another player at the table exclaims that he folded the :As: meaning Jim had nothing. Then Jim proceedes to call over a floor person and tell them the story of the hand just to embarass the younger player and put him on tilt. Jim said "in all my years of poker i've never seen anyone fold a striaght flush". It was very amusing. That table didnt last long as we were soon broken up. The next table i got moved to had 6 poker stars players at it. I had to suck out a 7 on the flop after going all in with my 77 against someones AA to stay alive and double up. Got my chip stack rolling to about $25,000 during the 3rd level and things were looking good until one hand that i played poorly. A new player to our table, his very first hand actually, raised UTG to about $700. Blinds were around $100/200. It gets folded around to me in the SB and i look down at QQ. Now having no read on this player as it was his first hand i wasnt sure if i should give him credit or re-raise here. I decided that i should re-raise and i made it about $3,800 to go. The BB who was gettin short on chips and a reckless player goes all in for around $6,3000. The original raiser calls (scary) and so do I. flop comes all unders and I'm first to act. Now i just had this suspiscion that i was beat by the original raises but just couldnt help but take a stab at the pot. There is almost $19,000 in it at this point and i bet out $8,000. The original raiser imediately goes all in to cover me and i think for a long time and fold. He turns over KK and wins the whole pot. I was down below $10,000 after this fateful hand. Soon after that table was broken and i was moved to Howard Lederer's table. The very first hand there i get involved with howard in a pot where he rivers me for two pair. Now i was down to about $7,000. I played tight for the next couple of levels and managed to increase my stack to about $13,000. on the second to last level of the day the blinds were $200/400 with a $25 ante. I knew i needed to pick up some chips. During this level i got dealt AA, KK, QQ(twice), TT and AQ suited. However i failed to get action on ANY of these hands and just picked up the blinds in each instance. After losing a hand with KQ to AQ when a Q hit the flop i was down to about $9,000 going in to the last level of the day. I told myself that i needed to double up and it was better to gamble a little then to just sit and wait and advance to day two with hardly any chips. On a flop of A-7-4 i pushed all my chips in holding AJ versus one other player. After he thinks for a long time he calls risking 1/3 of his chips with KK. As soon as our cards get flipped over another player says "i folded one of your kings". However i was unable to fade the final King and he hit his one outer on the river to send me home. It's true what they say, the day you get knocked out of the main event is the worst day of the year. Ive never been so hurt by one card in my life. I felt i played good the entire day but just couldnt get any breaks. I will be back next year hopefully with a little more luck.

On a side note the side games were profitable to me. I played at the bellagio mostly. They have an awesome poker room and around 1 am it turns into a who's who of poker superstars. All in all i ended up $1,700 despite losing two straight hands (and buy-ins) to set over set on the flop in a NL game.

Had a great time at the WSOP and i think its something that every poker player should experience atlest once in their lifetime.

nice man ...sucks you busted out on day 1 .. but sounds like you were playing pretty good but just unlucky.

Wow awesome trip report!

-'rilla

stupid king!!

thanks for posting. im jealous.

thanks for the report,
I played day 3 also. and you are correct about the day you get knocked out being the worst.

peace
wwonka

jesus christ, losing to a 1-outer on the river in the final level of the day... i just couldn't possibly handle a beat like that. you are a stronger man than i.

That's a cool story. Hopefully more folks from FTR will be able to make the trip next year!

I saw James woods at the Fhm + Knob creek party on wensday night alot of
poker stars where there. jesus, raymer, hellmuth, Spoke to matusauw for about 10 min he was wearing this huge chai.

drank way to much Knob creek.

i got to look at Jennifer tillys Bracelet and tell her I loved her in Bound.
If I can ever get to my photo's I have one of shannon Elizabeth Playing the Me.


peace
wwonka

knob creek is one of my favorite whiskys...