Palm Beach Kennel Club WSOPC

I have been in Palm Beach Florida since Wednesday February 15.  The first tournament began on Thursday with three starting days, a $565 buyin, with a one million dollar guaranteed prize pool.  Day 1a (Thursday) was sold out, and I was shut out of it.  However, I did get into Day 1b and Day 1c.  There isn't too much to say about either of these days other than the play was horrific.  At these circuit stops there are always going to be recreational players who just cannot fold bottom pair because "I put you on AK"...this along with other great one liners is something I've had to endure for the past week.  I busted both of these days before the dinner break, which was a shame considering there were over 2,600 runners with $182,750 going to first place.

Event 3

I decided to skip event 2, which was a $355 buyin and chose to play event 3, a $355 HORSE tournament.  I thought these guys were bad at holdem, well they had no clue how to play HORSE(holdem, omaha hi lo, razz, stud, stud 8 or better) all being played as "limit" poker.  This is key as at the beginning of the tournament a guy could not figure out why he couldn't bet more than 100 on the river in holdem when we were playing 50/100.  He tried betting 300 a number of times and finally an older gentleman at the table stands up leans over right in his face and yells "WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THIS IS LIMIT POKER!"  That made my day and I suddenly was happy I chose to play this event.  I slowly chipped up and for not having much HORSE experience myself was happy with my play.  I made the 2nd day of the tournament, but would bust out fairly early on day 2; around 30 people shy of the money.

Event 4

This was a $355 No Limit Holdem tournament that started at 11am(Florida has really early start times and it's tilting me).  This tournament started on the same day as day 2 of the HORSE tournament so I decided to play this event until my HORSE restart began at 2pm.  Live multi-tabling can usually be done, however it is almost impossible here because I would have to run up and down two flights of stairs and through a long hallway between hands.  I sat out of this event for around an hour while I played the HORSE restart.  Event 4 had 413 runners, paying out 45 spots, with a top prize of $26,142.  It's possible I made history in this event as with a starting stack of 10,000 chips I never once had over 30,000 in chips, and would eventually end up getting 43rd place for $537!  Just to put it into perspective the average chip stack with 45 players left would have been just below 100,000 chips. 

Event 5

This was a $355 No Limit Holdem 6-max tournament.  I was very excited coming into this one because two weeks ago in Tunica I finished 2nd in the 6-max for $14,000.  I was feeling another deep run coming, and I was sitting with a 20k stack on dinner break.  Coming back from dinner break with 20 big blinds is very comfortable for me.  This tournament had 391 runners, paying 45 spots, with a top prize of $24,736.  I believe there were around 90 people left after the dinner break.  I maintained my stack, and then went card dead for a couple levels.  We were five people away from the money when a very weird hand took place.  I was in the big blind for 1,600 and once the cards were dealt I look at the kid to my left and he has 1,600 in the pot when someone says, "Did you just limp?”  His response, "Oh shit I thought I was big blind, I swear".  Action folds to the small blind and he shoves for around 20,000.  I have 12,000 behind and decide to go with 77 since there was an extra 1,600 from the kid who "thought it was his big blind".  So I call and then he snaps with QQ, didn't really matter as the shover had AK and flopped a king anyway.  I'm still not sure if he knew he had queens or if he got lucky to wake up with a hand.  Finishing five spots out of the money was not a good feeling, but hey there's always another one.

Event 6

This was another $355 No Limit Holdem tournament.  I decided to register late as I often do because there really isn't any point in playing the first few levels of these things, plus the 11am starts are still tilting.  I started out playing fairly tight trying to get a feel for my table as I do in most tournaments.  I lose a few small pots putting me down to 8,000.  All of these circuit events have to same structure and starting stacks, the 355s have a 10k starting stack, the 565s have a 12k starting stack, the 1080s have a 15k starting stacks, and the Main Events $1,600 buyin have a 20k starting stack.  I continued to grind, at one point being as low as 2,900 before winning a hand.  Then right before the dinner break I won a big flip with AK vs 99 for a 23,000 pot.  Again coming back from dinner with 20 big blinds I was happy with it.  After dinner I get moved tables.  There are a lot of chips on this table.  There are 4 stacks over 100k and one of them had over 200k, which at this point in the tournament is ridiculous.  I stay right around 20 to 30k for a few levels before shoving 10 big blinds with QK and get called by AJ, board bricks.  We were 8 from the money and for the second time in two days I basically bubble.  On to the next one.