$2,500 PLHA WSOP Event

Well, I will start by saying that PLHA is half Pot Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha. This is a new event at the World Series and it drew 457 entrants. I think they could have got a lot more players but the organizers ran it on the same day as a $2k NL Hold'em event. I didn't plan on playing this event, especially since things haven't been going all that well of late. However, I really enjoy Pot Limit games and felt I could certainly hold my own. The field was loaded with big name professionals. From my seat alone I could see, John Juanda, Joe Hachem, Eric Seidel, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and more.

My table started off a lot looser than I expected. I made a nice pot quickly with not much of a hand. Early position raises to 300ish. I call with AJo. The flop comes AKQ rainbow and he checks the action to me. I bet 400 and he calls. The turn is a 4 bringing in a heart draw and he checks to me again. At this point I don't know much about the player but do not want to release control of the hand and I bet 700. Again, he just calls so I now feel he has AJ or AT or possibly playing KQ with a flopped two pair. The river is a blank 2 and he checks the action to me again. I think about checking but really think I am ahead or tied so I bet 1500, get called and win the hand. He mucks so he must have had something like at or a9.

A few hands later this kid who seems to be playing quite aggressive makes a 1500 chip river call with AK on a board of T9865 with three clubs and wins the hand showing down AK. I am dumbfounded by the call and immediately think this kid is nuts. I build my chips up to 8k when I get involved in this hand with him. I raise AhKhKd3d to 300 preflop and everyone folds to him in the bb and he calls. The flop flop comes Th8h5d and he pots into me. I have 2nd nut flush draw and a pair of K's so I call. The turn is a 2c giving a me an added gutshot and he once again fires pot into me and I decide to call thinking I may be ahead of a fastplayed straightdraw and have a live flush draw. The river is Js and he checks to me and I check it down not ever wanting to bluff this guy with nothing. He rolls over AA with the naked Ace of hearts and takes down the pot with a pair of aces.

A couple of hands later I have AKJ6 with a flop of QT2. I turn 2nd nut flush draw and miss everything. Fortunately I miss my flush draw as the other player in the hand had the nut draw.

At the first break I was pretty disappointed to have built up to 8k and then bled back to 4k after we started with 5k in chips. But, I was resolved to play well and grind it out. The table got super super tight. We played an entire half hour level of PL holdem without seeing a single river. The next half hour of PLO8 was quite tight as well. The two players to my right were obviously starting to get a bit bored and wanted to crank up the action a bit.

I get the perfect setup with the player two to my right raising to 500 under the gun, the next player reraises to 2200 and I look down a find red aces. I just push all in for 3500 chips and he knows he is beat but feels pot committed and makes the call with JJ. Jack high flop and I don't catch up and am done just like that. Thanks again AA, really working wonders for me this trip.

I left quietly and pretty dejected. I just feel I am playing such good cards and all my key hands are going bad. I only seem to be picking up uncontested money and am losing all my all-in situations regardless of how good I get my money in during the hand.

I sold 60% of my action is this tournament though so personally I eat a $1,000 loss which I guess is a lot better than a $2,500 loss but I wanted to make money for them and myself and give us something to party about when they get down here in a week. Thanks for the support Trav and John, you guys need to learn to pick better horses. Not ones that have a broken leg.

I am going to put in a healthy on-line session tonight. So far it has started off quite well and I am up about $800 but that will undoubtedly change one way or another.

I am getting a little drained by these tournament sessions, just mentally drained by not having the results I feel I deserve. I guess that is the way most tournament players will feel a lot of the time. I am just so used to playing multiple tournaments at once on-line that when I go 10 or so tournaments without good results it is just one bad day. When that happens live it is a whole week of feeling like you are accomplishing nothing. I am not sure what is on tap next. I'll check out the schedules and probably stick to some $200-$500 buy in events.