Article credits:
Ben Nash, aka 6foot3
I spent the weekend in Tunica and wanted
to give everyone an update of the events.
Generally speaking, the tournaments were
cheesy and the cash games were unbelievably
live.
I played in the $500 buy-in no limit
hold em event on Saturday. The
Grand had a "divided" room as
more people entered than their main poker
room could hold. They set up tables in their
Event Center and, unfortunately, I was sat
in the Event Center. It was cold, quiet
and reminded me of a morgue.
Regardless, I wanted to bring an A game
to the WSOP event and win the first
place prize of $161,000
My strategy was to chop away at small pots
while the blinds were small and to avoid
any big pots until I was 90% certain of
having the best hand. I played a WSOP tight
 game
as the hands that were shown down were quite
shocking. For instance, one of the first
hands to be shown down had A8o win over
A5o with three cards to the straight and
three to the flush on the board. Madness!
Give me some cards.
My strategy worked as I accumulated 3000
chips in an hour's time. That is when my
tournament defining hand hit. The A5o guy
raised under the gun 4 times the big blind.
All folded to me in the cutoff and I look
down at AK clubs. I was tickled pink to
finally pick up a solid hand against this
guy. Unfortunately his position demanded
respect so I called to take a flop.
The flop delivered K87 with one club. He
bet 350 into a 475 chip pot. I raised it
up to 1000 and he moved all in for his entire
2500. I thought for a bit and considered
that he could have tripped up, but it did
not feel as though that was the case. In
fact, I thought he had Qs, Js or 10s and
was making a play at the pot.
I called with top pair top kicker and back
door flush draw. He turned over KTo. This
was huge as I was favored approximately
85/15. I’ll save the drama of the
bad beat by saying he rivered a 10. This
left me crippled and dejected. The blinds
increased to 50/100 and all folded to the
small blind who raised to 250. I was in
the big blind and looked down at AQo. As
I had only 525 in front of me, my play was
either to push or fold. I chose to push
and the small blind declared, “this
is probably the dumbest call I’ve
ever made”. He then promptly called
and tabled 9s. The 9s held and I was out.
I left the tournament area thinking that
I needed to find a cash game to blow up.
Besides, I had to prove again that JTD’s
1 big bet per hour was under-achieving.
The smallest NL cash game the Grand was
spreading was the 2/5. Sweet! I jumped in
for $200. Within two hours my stack was
at $1,125.
I could not believe how soft the
cash games were. I found myself
wondering why I wasted time with the tournament.
Oh yeah! It’s the WSOP! With my profit
I’ll buy into tomorrow’s event.
I spent 5 hours at the cash games and left
with a profit of 200 big bets. I met up
with some friends for dinner at a steak
house and toasted to poker.
 Sunday
brought the $500 limit hold em event.
No Limit tournaments are to limit tournaments
as riding in a corvette is to riding in
a limousine. Just to give you an analogy.
I wanted to get warmed up for the limit
tournament by playing some limit cash games.
I jumped into the 10/20 that was starting
up. I sat with $200. In 1.5 hours I left
with $430. And that was limit! Again, I
had to consider why I was going to play
tournaments with cash games as soft as they
were. Regardless, off to my tournament table
I raced.
Smart play and smart hand selection
was my strategy for this tournament.
I picked a great table as I was quickly
able to read each players style of play.
There were a few older guys that were super
rocks. These are the people I would play
my connectors against. And there were a
few younger players wearing flashy jewelry
and high dollar clothes. These were the
players I was going to attack with bigger
cards.
This strategy worked great for me as I personally
busted all but one player at our starting
table. I jumped up to a huge stack (top
three if not chip leader) right away. As
the table dynamic changed, I had to adjust
my game plan. I was just getting into a
groove when I hear from two tables over
someone screaming for a doctor.
I looked over to find an older gentleman
convulsing and then fall onto their table.
No one else found humor when I asked to
know what cards he held. The great thing
about large tournaments (600 in this one)
is that there is always a doctor in the
house. The doctor was on top of him administering
CPR and the paramedics arrived within minutes.
The old guy was revived and actually talking,
but suffered a major heart attack.
While we all bring a killer instinct to
the poker table, having someone fall ill
to the stress and competitive nature of
the game provides a huge reality check.
After all, it was only a game.
The tournament broke for about 15 minutes.
After restarting the tournament, what momentum
I had built up was quickly lost. The floor
person transferred an older guy to our table
whom I befriended. He was easily into his
70s and carried a huge ZZ Top style white
beard. Needless to say, this guy worked
me over with every bare ace he could draw.
First major chip loss was my JJ versus his
A2o. He three bet me preflop with the A2o
too! It was sick. Second chip loss was to
him with A5 versus my JJ again. I hate Jacks!
This time he flopped a boat. And finally,
the hand that cracked me was his A9 versus
my KJ. He check-raised me to put me all-in
with nothing more than ace high. I had top
pair (the J). He rivered an ace to put me
out in 88th place.
Sad as it was, 88th wasn’t even good
enough to make the money. Top 45 spots paid
with first place getting $70,000.
Back to Atlanta I go for a week’s
break. Hopefully I will have better luck
when I return.
~6foot3
KAP thanks Ben Nash for the article!
Comment on this article and others in the
strategy
section of the Kick Ass Poker forum.
Ben
represents at the 2005 WSOP
More poker strategy articles located in
the poker
articles section.
2006
World Series of Poker - Poker
Stars Guide
- Tunica
Online Qualifier - WSOP
Satellites
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