WSOP Snippets

I'm on a bit of a poker vacation. I haven't touched cards since July 3, and I don't plan to do so for at least a couple of weeks.

But before I forget, I wanted to post a couple more thoughts from my WSOP / summer tournaments.

1. The biggest lesson that I learned is to remain patient. While not optimal, the WSOP structures allow for a bit more play than your garden-variety tournament. If you followed my action on Twitter, you might have noticed some significant lulls in activity. In the types of WSOP tournaments that I tend to play (mostly split-pot and all limit), a lot more patience is required. You can't just blow somebody off a hand. You can't just play for half the pot. That requires more careful hand selection and finely tuned betting lines. In limit, it's all about making that extra big bet or saving that extra big bet.

During the OE event, I was happy to have a 20-minute break after the first Michael Craig debacle. My stack was in pretty miserable shape at that point, and I knew that clearing my head was my first priority. I tried to get myself into a relaxed mode and just buckled down the rest of the way. My patience was tested again during the OE money bubble. I was incredibly short and had to sweat a couple of bust-outs. But just as I've found calm being in short-stack ninja mode in NLHE tournaments, I've also found calm being in short-stack ninja mode in limit split-pot tournaments. I scraped my way into a cash in the WSOP OE event and went from 1.5 big bets at the money bubble to final table in the Binion's O-8 event.

Of course, I didn't always remember to remain patient. Looking back on Day 2 of the WSOP O-8 event, I probably could have played a couple of hands differently. I started the day with slightly less than the average stack, but I basically frittered myself into elimination without ever scooping a pot. I know now that I wasn't in the right mindset to be playing and that I wasted an opportunity to get my second cash in this year's WSOP. Lesson learned (in theory).

2. I now have a better sense of what it takes to win an O-8 tournament. Prior to this year's WSOP, I hadn't played a significant number of O-8 tournaments. Sure, I've logged countless hours playing O-8 cash, but tournaments (as you know) are a different beast. This summer, I played 5 tournaments that were either straight O-8 (WSOP, Venetian, Golden Nugget and Binion's) or combo O-8 / stud-8 (WSOP). Other than the Venetian debacle, I went fairly deep in all of them. I am developing a better sense of where / when to make moves, where / when to open hand ranges and how to keep accumulating chips in a game that can be very unforgiving. (Six ways to win, a thousand ways to lose.) I might start dabbling in some of the regular online O-8 tournaments when I come back from my poker hiatus . . .

3. One of the funnier moments from the summer took place at my WSOP Stud-8 table. Sam Grizzle kept asking me if I was going to take him to dinner. I kept saying no. Then he described me as "the woman who won't take guys to dinner." My response: "Sam, I never said that I wouldn't take guys to dinner. I said that I wouldn't take Sam Grizzle to dinner." That got a laugh out of most of the table, Sam included.

4. Conversely, the most miserable moment from the summer took place at that same WSOP Stud-8 table. The guy in Seat 1 was a miserable, self-absorbed douchebag of the highest variety. I was involved in a 3-way hand with Jacobo Fernandez and him. All three of us had full houses by 7th. Fernandez scooped the pot. That caused the douchebag to launch into a huge tirade about how horrible my play was (I was relatively short-stacked at the time and decided that my chips were going in). He kept asking, "Is this the World Series of Poker or an $11 tournament on PokerStars?" Knowing full well that saying anything would lead to more hysterics from the douchebag, I kept my mouth shut. (And for those of you who know me, that's a pretty difficult thing for me to do.) I finally lost all patience when I was all-in pre-4th heads up against the douchebag right before the dinner break. As is standard in an all-in situation in stud, the players' two hole cards are flipped over, 4th, 5th and 6th are dealt face up, and then 7th is dealt face-down. By 6th, douchebag was showing 2-pair to my 1-pair. I was basically dead to a queen. I didn't even squeeze my 7th card. I just flipped it over and tapped the table. Then I realized that I hit my miracle queen on 7th. Douchebag then proceeds to flip out because "I slow-rolled him." That's when I started to go off. If I wanted to slow-roll him, I would have squeezed my 7th card to see if I made anything before flipping it over. We exchanged some choice words before the dinner break, and he didn't utter a single word to me after the dinner break. The funny thing is that the only thing he wanted to talk about the entire time we were at the table is how some chick rolled him for $30k. Nobody paid any attention. Serves him right.

5. Thanks again to the folks who bought shares from me. I'm sorry that I didn't make us any money :-( I'll try to be a better horsie in the future.

6. Congrats to all of my blogger friends who cashed in the various Vegas summer tournament series: LJ, Cardgrrl, F-Train, Drizz, Hoy, Sprstoner and Alceste.

7. It was great to put faces with the names of some more folks in the blogger world: JamyHawk (and his very hot and totally awesome wife), Katie, Lightning36, Memphis MOJO, Shabazz Jenkins and Trevor. Unfortunately, I missed out on meeting up with 1QueensUp1, APOSEC72, CEMfromMD and NYRambler.

8. I am disappointed that I didn't play as much poker as I would have liked. A confluence of events led to a lot less free time / free energy to be spending in a poker room. Even with the relatively reduced hours, I am completely pokered out right now. Playing big tournaments is more mentally and physically exhausting than you might think. When I used to crack out at the Borgata for 36+ hours at a time, I never felt as exhausted as I did at the end of a tournament day. I don't know how some of the pros manage to keep the pace that they do. I am also disappointed that I didn't get to spend as much time with folks as I would have liked. I completely missed Cali Jen's birthday bash and TJ's blogger meet-up, along with countless other goings-on. There are only so many hours in a day, and my job takes away a fair number of them.

9. You might not see me around these parts for a couple of days. I'm taking some time away to relax and rejuvenate. I'll likely be spending more time on my golf game. I've seen some improvements in my last couple of rounds, and I'd like to develop some more consistency in my iron shots and rejigger what has apparently become a major issue with my putting.