WSOP Main Event, Day 2
Follow-up on Jason Heidema, a good friend of mine playing in the $10,000 WSOP Main Event…
Jason started Day 2a (there are two second days — Day 2a and Day 2b) with around $72,000 in chips. Much like the first day, the second day turned out to be quite a roller coaster. Here’s a brief overview of the round-by-round action (each round lasts 2 hours), as I got it from Jason throughout the day…
The tournament officials announced early in the day that they’d be playing a total of 5 rounds, or until the Day 2a field was down to 350 players. This means play would likely end between midnight and 2:00am.
Round 1: Early in the first round, Jason dropped down to $40,000 at one point, but rallied and finished the first round at $82,000, stronger than the start of the day. It was a tough round, as apparently the competition wasn’t very strong, and it was obvious Jason was a bit frustrated that he couldn’t put together a strong run of hands.
Round 2: The second round was a bit less stressful; at one point, Jason had built his stack up to $140,000, but ended the round at about $90,000 (he’s still not quite sure where $35K of those chips went 
).
Round 3: The third round, Jason ran into two big hands against the same player. The first, he was outplayed by his opponent’s weird play with AA, and the second Jason took a bad beat when his opponent hit a 4 outer on the river. He ended Round 3 with about $58,000 in chips, and had to spend the 90 minute dinner break stressing over his short chip stack going into Round 4 (where the blinds were $1000/2000/300).
Round 4: Happy to report that after dinner Jason went on a nice run, at one point taking his chip-count up to $150,000 and finishing the fourth round with a respectable $143,000. Not many details on this round, but I did get the impression that there were a number of big stacks at Jason’s table during the evening, and for-the-most-part, play was relatively tight.
Round 5: The fifth round started with 384 players, only 34 from the end of Day 2a play. Based on what I got from Jason, a single hand defined this round. Under-the-gun limps, and folded around to Jason in cutoff with 64s. Jason calls, as do the blinds. The flop comes K64, under-the-gun bets, Jason raises big and gets called by UTG. UTG bets out on the turn when the Jack hits, Jason calls. 9 on the river (board of KJ964), UTG checks, Jason bets, and UTG calls. Jason shows his two pair, and UTG mucks, indicating that he had AA.
In summary, at the end of Day 2, Jason is doing very well with $212,000 in chips.
The top 621 players will make the money in this event, and assuming Day 2b plays down to 350 players like Day 2a did, Day 3 will start with 700 players (and likely average chip stack of about $190,000). I imagine they’ll be down to the money within a couple hours of the start of Day 3.
Day 3 is on Thursday…I’ll have another update at some point during or after that…
July 11th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Thanks for the update, this is very impressive. Can you explain why Jason didnt assume the guy had a set?
July 11th, 2007 at 10:32 am
I assume you’re talking about the 64s hand?
When his opponent limped before the flop, it likely meant Aces, Suited Connectors, or Medium Pair. With the K64 flop, it’s unlikely the guy had a set of sixes or fours (because Jason had one of each), and while it’s possible that the guy had a set of kings, he likely would have reraised on the flop (though not necessarily). Another good indication that he didn’t have a set of kings is his lack of pre-flop raise. Normally, you raise KK pre-flop not just for value, but also because you don’t want a weak Ace (like AT, A9, etc) to limp in behind you and take you off your hand if an Ace flops.
A Jack hit the turn. But, Jason’s opponent had called a substantial raise on the flop, and it’s unlikely he would have done so with JJ (and it’s more unlikely that he would have just limped in pre-flop with JJ instead of raising). So, I wouldn’t put him on a set of Jacks.
I guess you can still worry about a set of kings on the turn, but when the guy only bet $15K into a $60K pot (I guess I left that detail out of my summary), it looks more like a defensive bet than a value bet, so I’d definitely rule out the set of kings. In fact, at this point, it’s looking likely that his opponent has AK (not well played) or KQ (played as best it could be).
I personally would have raised the turn for value. There are a couple reasons for this: First, you get more money in the pot; second, a scare card might come on the river which shuts down the action and precludes Jason from getting any more chips; and third, if you do get raised, you can likely get away from the hand without losing all your chips.
When the 9 hits the river, it’s unlikely that helps his opponent (his opponent would have to have K9, QT, or 99 — all of which are unlikely at this point), so the bet was a good one. I can see checking here, but then again, I’m a wimp…
Turns out the guy had AA, and didn’t play it very well…of course, that’s why you shouldn’t limp with Aces pre-flop…it can be very difficult to play…
July 12th, 2007 at 9:36 am
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July 13th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Thanks for the explanation, I’m always trying to get better thought you explaining this might help.
Man you gotta be pumped for Jason, what a rush.