WPBT WSOP Qualifier.

I just got knocked out of the WPBT tournament on Noble Poker. What an uneventful tournament for me. I only saw the turn four times in the entire thing, and in all four cases I was either all-in or calling an all-in pre-flop. But, I took notes to do a tourney play-by-play and dammit that’s what I’m going to do. Boring or not.

We had 81 players register. Not a great number, most likely due to the fact that it’s at a new site. The tournament had 15 minute blinds, which was nice, and we started with T$1500.

Round 1. 10/20 Blinds. T$1500.

In the second hand I get QQ and raise to T$60. Everyone folds. That makes just about the most action I get all night.

Later in the round I limp with 96o from the small blind and see a flop of 627. I bet the pot (T$60) and the big blind raises to T$180. I don’t feel like risking a lot of chips with middle pair and a crap kicker, so I lay it down. He turns over 72o. I was almost brutally hammered. Thank god I didn’t push.

Round 2 20/40 Blinds. T$IDontRemember.

I steal a few blinds but that’s about it. Exciting, I know.

The consensus at the table is that the software sucks. I don’t think it’s that bad. There are two modes, a standard top-down mode and a first person 3-D mode. I think it was the people using the 3-D mode that were having problems.

Round 3 30/60 Blinds. T$1650.

I don’t think I played a hand this round. Is this intense or what? This has to be the most thrilling report you’ve ever read. Just wait it gets better. And by better I mean more of the same.

Round 4 40/80 Blinds. $T1560.

I actually play some hands this round. I steal some blinds with KQs.

I see a flop holding AQo when the BB calls my raise. I fold when he bets on a flop that completely misses me.

I have TT in the small blind. I plan on raising, but as I am taking notes on the previous hand, someone else bets. Before I realize he bet I raise. The big blind and original bettor call. Doh. Stupid notes. There’s an ace on the flop and I don’t have balls to try to claim it, so I fold when the big blind makes a pot sized bet.

1st Break. I have $1240 and am in 39th place. There are 55 players remaining.

Round 5 50/100 $1240

One of the players has no idea what this tournament is. He didn’t understand why the top two finishers both got $1500. He just saw WSOP qualifier on the tourney description and signed up. It wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t have five times as many chips as I do.

I’m dealt AJs in first position and raise to 200. The BB calls, and we see a flop of TTT. He checks folds to my bet.

CoolDog1029 (sorry I don’t known the corresponding blog) reraises a T$400 bet all-in pre-flop for $T1100 with a soooted hammer. He then hits a flush. And people claim 72 is a bad starting hand.

Round 6 100/200 $T1340.

I try to steal some blinds with K7o from the cutoff. The small blind reraises, and I have to fold. That sucked.

Shortly thereafter I get KJs and go all in for $940. After your avatar declares all in there is this chip noise that happens, similar to Party’s calling noise. It sounds like your all-in just got insta-called, and causes an unnecessary level of anxiety when you don't really want to get called. Of coarse the player immediately to my left does end up calling and he has KQ. I manage to hit a jack on the flop and I’m still alive.

I call someone’s pre-flop all in for $T640 and watch my AJ lose to his AQ when neither of us improve.

Later I call an all in for $T550 with KJ. He had just taken a bad beat so I figured he was on tilt. He had A5 the board helped neither of us. Now I’m down to T$605. Not my best performance.

Round 7 150/300 $T605.

I’m happy to see a number of other players go all-in and get eliminated, moving me up in the standings. It seems to be go-all-in-or-fold time. Not that I have much choice.

I make my final stand with JQs and get called by the big blind. I think if I had any sort of stack he would have folded, but he turns over his K4, and then proceeds to hit a 4 on the flop while I fail to improve.


So I finished 35th place. Yay.