Gutshot Maniac

One of yesterday’s events at the WSOP included a $2,500 buy-in Razz event.  Some of my fellow employees Mickey, Dave (F-Train), and Marc, along with with my boss Garry, all entered.  Tim and I dabbled in a last-longer bet where we each chose one of the four.  Mat and I did the same as well.  I had Mickey in both, but in reality I didn’t care if I won or not.  I was really just pulling for any of these four (preferably all of them) to go deep and make a nice splash.  Earlier in the Series, another coworker, Anthony, went deep in one of the NLHE donkaments.  He earned himself $5,028 for his finish, but it turned out he was actually freerolling in the event.

Anthony Yeh

Towards the end of the first day of his event, Anthony busted a player who then offered to buy 10% of him for $1,400.  Anthony accepted the offer, pocketing the $1,400.  What’s even better is that Anthony was ale to satellite himself into the event, so he actually made money on the $1,400 the guy gave him.  That, plus the money he earned for his finish, netted him a nice payday.  Of course, it was the glory he was looking for, but it was still a solid showing.

Anthony played another $1,500 crankament a week or so later and bombed out in the 100-200 level after building his stack to about 34,000 chips.  Another deep run would have to wait for later.

Back to the Razz event, F-Train was the first eliminated from the tournament.  He just couldn’t get anything going all day and seemed both upset and bothered by the fact that his good hands always bricked out or that people always caught better.  Sometimes those are the break and that’s tournament poker.  Unlucky mate.

Marc Hodge

Marc and Garry were the next ones to go.  I didn’t hear much of Marc, except that he held a lot of bad starting hands and also bricked out a bunch of times.  Garry on the other hand began the day with the worst table draw of everyone.  He was sandwiched between Chad Brown on his left and Justin “BoostedJ” Smith on his right.  I consider Smith one of the best all-around players in the game today, but wouldn’t exactly say Brown is a slouch either.  Through talking with Garry, I learned that Brown actually knows a lot more than I figured he’d know in Razz and it impressed me.  The guy does have a ton of experience playing tournaments as well, which will help him out.

Garry was actually the chip leader at one point of the tournament, I believe level three.  He amassed a nice stack going into dinner break, but coming out wasn’t as pleasant.  He began bricking out in key pots and running horrible when it came to making hands and having them hold up.  It’s unfortunate that he couldn’t make it to day two with a solid stack.  Instead, he saw it all disappear before the night’s end.

Mickey Doft

Mickey on the other hand grinded away.  He was eventually moved to a table that included Daniel Negreanu and Thomas Bihl towards the end of the night.  Mickey was able to hold his own though and make it through to the second day.  He began day two seated with John Juanda and Mike Sexton.  He also had less than ten big bets in his stack, but he’d be fine if some things worked out for him early.

The hours went by and I was busy working with another event in a different room.  A few hours after I last saw him, Mickey and I locked eyes only for him to slice his hand across his throat to symbol “I’m out.”  He mentioned that he just couldn’t get much going, but did his best.  Mickey is a solid player and regularly plays a lot of the mixed games online.  This is one reason why I picked him in the last-longer bet.  Not to mention, he’s been running extremely well as of late and figured to me to be the best shot.  I hope someone from PokerNews breaks the streak and nails something huge at the WSOP sooner than later.

After we returned home late last night, it was on for some Chinese poker.  Eric, Anthony, Mat, Tim, and myself all engaged in a nice, friendly game for $1 a point.  Of course, there were some bonuses thrown into play.  Some of which allotted us up to $4 from each player on a hand.  I ran pretty well, hit two scoop bonuses, and went on my way to winning for the night.  One of the big hands was when I landed myself three flushes; One in the front, one in the middle, and one in the back.  This allowed me to scoop from everyone.  Eric was especially upset because he had a straight flush in the back and was eagerly awaiting the showdown so he could collect his bonus.  Sorry, I scoop, move on.

We played until about five or six in the morning before I went off to bed.  I needed to try and get at least six hours of sleep before working the next day because I’ve been sick.  Nevertheless, Chinese poker action is off and running, let’s get it on.