The Steinhorn Stare

This is a continuation of the thread about Jason Heidema, my good friend who is getting ready to start Day 3 of the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event. Here’s how things currently stand (based on my calculations, so take it for what it’s worth):

• After completion of Day 2 for all players, there are currently 797 players remaining in the tournament
• The average chip stack for the remaining players is about $160,000, median stack is about $134,000, and the chip leader is Gus Hansen, with just over $620,000 in chips
• With $212,000 in chips, Jason is 199th out of the 797 remaining players, putting him right about the 25% mark
• 621 players will make the money today, and I estimate we’ll hit that milestone around 4pm, give or take
• The minimum payout for 621st place is $20,320, with a top prize of $8.5M

Play starts at noon today, and I’ll be updating this thread throughout the day with any new information or status. Feel free to check back periodically to see how Jason is doing…

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Update (12:15pm): Cards are in the air. Day 2 ended with 37 minutes left in Level 11, with blinds at $1200/2400/300. Play will continue for the next 37 minutes before blinds and antes increase again for Level 12.

Update (12:55pm): End of Level 11. Jason was able to increase his chip count to $240,000 in the first half hour. Level 12 has blinds of $1500/3000/400.

Update (2:28pm): I haven’t heard from Jason since the beginning of Level 12, but with about 30 minutes left in this level, the field is down to about 675 players. Again, the top 621 make the money.

Update (2:50pm): Tournament is about to enter “hand-for-hand play.” This is the point where they are within a few players of making the money, and they want each of the remaining 65 tables to play at the same speed to keep players from trying to stall their way into the money. There are only a few minutes left in Level 12, so I expect that they won’t hit the money until after the 20 minutes break and the beginning of Level 13.

Update (3:00pm): End of Level 12, and players are on a 20 minute break. Still hand-for-hand, with 14 players needing to get knocked out to make the money. Just spoke with Jason, and he is at $203,500 in chips. Apparently, he had gotten up to $280,000 earlier in the round; he then got heads-up with pocket Queens against a pre-flop raiser. He re-raised, got called, and the flop came JT4. He got check-raised on the flop, and laid the hand down (reasonably easy laydown, as pre-flop you put your opponent on AK, KK, JJ, or TT, and therefore can now only beat a bluff). His opponent claimed to have pocket Kings, so it was a good read on Jason’s part, but he did lose some chips. Level 13 starts at 3:10pm, and will continue hand-for-hand until they make the money.

Update (4:35pm): 48 minutes into hand-for-hand, and they’ve only played 6 hands! Jason hasn’t played a hand in this time, and says everyone is tightening up tremendously trying to make the money (he says short-stack UTG just folded TT pre-flop ). Seven players left to go before the money, and Jason believes that at this rate, it will likely be another 60-80 minutes until we get there. I had estimated hitting the money at 4pm, but that was before I realized that hand-for-hand would likely take about two hours. On the bright side, once we get into the money, I expect we’ll see a lot of short-stacks busting very quickly.

Update (5:35pm): We’re in the money!!! Congrats Heidi! It took a couple hours, but we’re down to 621 players, and everyone remaining is guaranteed at least $20K. Jason is down to $177,000 in chips after raising with 77 in early position, getting re-raised and having to lay it down. To give an example of how bad some players can play during hand-for-hand (for fear of not making the money), here’s an example of a hand Jason witnessed at his table a few minutes ago: cut-off raises, button calls, and big-blind (the big stack at the table) re-raises the pot. The cut-off and button both lay down, and the cut-off says that he folded pocket Kings! Unbelievable how anyone could fold that hand in that spot…but I guess when it’s the difference between making $20K and potentially not, people do stupid things.

Update (5:45pm): They’ve decided to extend Level 13 by another hour (to make up for the two hours of hand-for-hand play), and the players are on a 20-minute break. Jason is still at $177,000 in chips, and blinds are still at $2000/4000/500 for another hour once play continues. After this level (in an hour), players will be on dinner break.

Update (7:20pm): End of Level 13, and players are on a dinner break. Jason is at $174,000, after dropping to $110,000 (after making a poor play from the small blind, in my opinion) and then building back up. Then there was this little hand that made the World Series of Poker official blog:

   Willie Tann and the Hammer Bet
Over on Willie Tann’s table, all nine players went in on a prop bet, where they would pay $25 each to the first person to move all in with 2-7 offsuit (a.k.a. “The Hammer”). After Jason Heidema opened the pot for 12,000, Willie Tran moved in for 42,000, inducing Heidema to fold. Tann proudly showed his 2-7 . “$25 each, boys!” said Tann with a laugh.

Turns out Heidi had QTo, and thought there was a good chance Tann was on a bluff; unfortunately, he wasn’t so sure that he was willing to come over the top with this hand (good decision, Jason). Jason is now at dinner (until 8:45pm), enjoying a mango margarita before returning for Level 14, and blinds of $2500/5000/500. Oh, and there are now about 540 players remaining, with each player guaranteed at least $25,101.

Update (9:50pm): Just got a call from Jason during a quick break — apparently they’re losing players so quickly they can’t keep up with all the tables they need to break. Jason tried making a move early in this round, made a good read and raised his opponent who he read for a weak hand before the flop. His opponent was weak, but unfortunately defended his original bet, and then refused to go away after hitting a small part of the flop (top pair, weak kicker). Jason wasn’t able to get the guy off top pair, weak kicker, and had to lay down when the guy got aggressive later in the hand. Jason is down to about $50,000 in chips, but hasn’t given up yet.

Update (10:00pm): By the way, we’re down to 458 players, and each player is now guaranteed a minimum payday of $29,883.

Update (10:40pm): Jason is up to $90,000 in chips, and payouts are up to $34,664 (410 players remaining). For those who are interested, here is the payout schedule.

Update (11:25pm): Players are on a break after Level 14. Just got off the phone with Jason, and after a roller-coaster round, he is back up to $236,000. By my calculations, the chip average is probably around $310-320K, so he still has some work to do to get above average (then again, he’s been struggling to get above average his whole life, so what’s new ). In this round, he horribly misplayed a big blind hand against the small blind (didn’t have the balls to put in a big bet and take the pot when a four-flush hit the river); he maximized his value when flopping a small set against two players; and he took down a decent sized pot with pocket Queens at a pivitol time when his chips were dwindling. If nothing else, Jason is coming out of this event with a lot of interesting hands to discuss.

Update (11:31pm): Btw, there are 399 players remaining, and there is only one more round (2 more hours) scheduled for tonight. Level 15 play will begin any minute now, and I believe blinds will be $3000/6000/1000.

Update (1:00am): Well, I thought they were going to play the entire Level 15 this evening, but apparently players were getting knocked out faster than the television schedule allowed, so they cut the night short halfway through this round. In other words, it’s over for tonight. Jason had a boring half-round (no good stories that he told me), and is at $205,000 in chips at the end of the day. The remaining 337 players will return tomorrow for a noon start time (as will I with my blogging). All remaining players are now guaranteed at least $39,445.

GOOD NIGHT…

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 9:22 am and is filed under Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.