WSOP
2003 Day 1
Smoked Fish
Early
into the $500 Limit Holdem Employee event
today I realized that if I reached the
final table I wouldn't be able to play
tomorrow's first 'official event', the
$2,000 Limit Holdem, so of course my new
strategy was to bust out in 11th. place.
The employee event has a first place of
$35,000, tomorrow's event will have a
first place of more like $350,000. So
with this new found knowledge, plus some
bad plays and some bad luck, I was out
of the employee event within three hours.
The bad play was getting involved in some
multi way pots with junk, the bad luck
was having QQ vs KK (my final hand), JJ
Vs AA, and KK Vs 66 (he rivered a set).
Although at one point I did have a nice
comeback hand when my 55 (a group 1 hand)
easily crushed my opponent's KK (a group
2 hand). I didn't like the structure too
much, we only had 500 chips with a 10-15
blind, this didn't leave a lot of room
for bad beats. But for the lucky ones
who did make it through the first three
rounds there was then plenty of play,
even more than last year, I just would
have preferred to have it start a little
slower than have a fast period before
settling back down. My bust out plan would
have been a disaster anyway as for some
reason they decided to play on, and as
I type they are at the final table, I
think it should end around 4 or 5am.
I
got a couple of things wrong yesterday,
first was my prediction of 312 players
today, that was way off, there were 208,
I think having it midweek may have been
a factor, and that may also be a factor
in tomorrow's Limit Holdem, which last
year had over 600 players. Next was what
I had heard about the striking dealers
from last year, I thought not many would
be here, but almost every one of them
is back dealing this year, this is great
news as they really are the cream of the
crop.
On
the clock front, everything went great
today, they are all running fine and even
Matt has figured out how to use it, I
am considering a new slogan: "The Clock,
even Matt can use it".
I
played two satellites today, lost them
both (bad beat in one, lost to a flush
draw that got there on the river or I
would have won the whole thing, the other
one I just played too passively, didn't
get any hands but should have made my
move earlier). Even with those results
the single tables are where I should probably
spend most of my time, the fields have
been very weak in general, many players
gambling it up with weak cards, weak draws,
and bluffing like it's a compulsory rule.
I ended up buying in to tomorrow's event,
the first limit holdem event at WSOP is
just too good to miss.
The
most exciting part of my day was getting
the air conditioning fixed in my room,
I called the operator, said please could
she tell me who to call to get the a/c
checked out, she said she'd call engineering.
Five minutes later they were up in my
room fixing it, 30 minutes later they
were done. I continue to be impressed
with the level of service and friendly
staff.
OK,
lest I start getting whore shill responses
sometime in the near future, let me tell
you the bad news, SMOKE! The single table
satellites are downstairs. On one side,
across the aisle, is the cash game area,
lots of smoking going on there but it
doesn't seem to affect the satellite area.
But now they also have about 20 cash games
tables on the satellite side too, with
smoking allowed, lots of smoke, with smoking
tables right next to the nonsmoking satellite
tables. To quote one of my favorite lines
(thanks to Patti B.), it's like standing
in the no peeing section of the swimming
pool. I think the obvious solution is
to make the cash tables on the satellite
side nonsmoking, restricting smoking to
the section across the aisle.
The
cashier upstairs is now only open until
1pm, which means if you want to buy in
to an event the night before (to miss
the crowds), you have to first go down
to the West cashier cage to buy lammers,
then go back up to buy in to the event
(you can't use cash to buy in). It makes
sense though as there's not much point
having a cashier upstairs when there are
no cash games upstairs.
Last
year they had a 30 minute lunch break
(with free big sandwiches and sodas) after
the first hour of each event, thankfully
this year they've done away with that
as it was too much bother after the tournament
had just started. Instead we now get a
free (with a comp) breakfast buffet which
is pretty decent. It has fruits, salad,
pastries and donuts, cereal, coffee, tea,
etc., plus scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage,
ham, potatoes, etc. Then at 6pm (I think)
they have a free (with a comp) dinner
buffet with several choices and a very
good prime rib.
Well
as you've probably guessed, I was bluffing
about winning the bracelet today, I of
course meant I'd be winning one tomorrow.
I hope I'm not bluffing again.
Paul Westley
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