David Williams' Blog

This entry isn't going to be very long; or I don't plan on it, but you never know once I get started. I haven't written a short one yet. When I last left you I was pumped about the NL Shootout coming up the next day. Well I showed up and had one of the strongest tables in the room, although it was nothing compared to table with Arieh, Lindgren, Harman, Hilger, Mercier, and Watkinson. My table: 1- Casey Kastle, 2- Pascal Perrault, 4- Allen Cunningham, 5- Ester Rossi, 6- ME, 7- Mike Laing, 9- Matt Matros, 10- Chip Jett. Seats 3 and 8 I didn't know. I was ready to play and very focused. I was able to win a lot of small pots and pick up chips while everyone else seemed to blast theirs off pretty quickly. I won a coin flip to eliminate Matros, and found AK when Cunningham moved in with QJ. I ended up 3 handed with Mike Laing and the guy I didn't know in seat 8. I had 3000 of the 15000, Mike had 7000 and the other guy had the rest. Mike raised on the button to 325 with blinds at 50/100. I looked down to see AK and made it 1025, leaving myself 2075. Mike called and we took the flop. I was praying to pair up, because I knew he would call if he had anything. First card is see is a K, the flop is K5Q. I moved in for 2075, he thought and called and showed 95!!! He is a nut job, the turn and river were safe and I was up to 6k. I chopped away for a while and got to 7500, with Mike having 6000 and the other guy 1500. Meanwhile, every time I was in the SB I limped in (regardless of my hand), only to have Mike raise. I folded almost every time, and kept limping, waiting for a hand to reraise him since his raises were too big. I was winning other pots, so this wasn't costing me much. Finally I limp again for 100, completing the 200 BB and Mike raises to 1100. I find AsTs and decide that unless he coincidently found a hand, he would have a hard time calling and he might call with worse Aces. I move him in for 4800 more. He thinks for a while and finally calls and has AJ :-(. He flops a J and I am the short stack. Two hands later and I am out. I really blew it. I don't think my play was bad; I did give him a pretty tough call for all his chips, considering I limp-folded the SB 100 times already to him. The problem is, I was chopping away at both of them, and he would call me on any flop no matter how small his hand was and how big mine was, so there was no reason for me to play a big pot with him preflop with AT. I should have just folded and kept beating them out a few 100 each round. Mike went on to lose it and that was that. Noah won his first table and cashed for the first time in this WSOP.

I was pretty bummed that I had such a good chance and took an unnecessary risk and went home and slept it off. Today was the $2500 Limit Hold'em event. I was late again, but hadn't lost much. Matt Dean was in seat 4, Shane Schleger was seat 5, Luis Santoni seat 6, my friend from years of playing Magic, William (Huey) Jensen was seat 7, and I was in seat 10. I quickly ran my chips back up above 2500, to about 3500. Then the crazy hand happened. I was under the gun and had 22. I decided to limp in, since I didn't want to get isolated out of position and figured I might start a chain reaction of limping, which is fine since I was planning on flopping a set anyways. Well, everyone but two people called and we saw the flop 8 ways!!! The first card I see is a 2! The flop was 652 rainbow. I bet out, knowing someone would raise it and we could start building my pot. It folded to Shane and he called with a stack of about 1000 left. Huey raised to 200 and when it came back to me I made it 300. Shane now made it 400 and Huey called. I was a little concerned about 66,55 and 34, but decided I got my 2 and it was not time to slow down just yet, I made it 500 and they called. The turn was a 5 and I checked. Shane bet 200 of his 300 left, and Huey just called. Now I knew he didn't have me beat and he must have flopped a straight. I raised and Shane called all-in for his last 100. Huey made a good fold and laid down his 34. Shane says "I hit my gin card on the turn" and I replied "so did I" and showed my full house. He frowned and turned over 85o. The river was a 5, and he made quads and won a pot of about 3200 in level 3. I was demoralized and my chips were worse. I stayed focused, but never got a hand or had one hold up and was out in the next level.

4pm and I was on my way home again. This is becoming a bad trend. On my way out I ran into Robert Williamson III, a good friend from back home in Dallas and a great player. He invited me for drinks and Mexican food over at the Palms and we grabbed Annie Duke and headed over. Her stepbrother showed up, as did Robert's wife Kate. We had some great food, margaritas and good conversation, but I was just too down about the poker to really enjoy myself. I headed home and slept the afternoon away again. I woke up about 11pm and headed over to the Rio to play some Magic with about 9 others who used to play, but now play poker. We just played casually and had a great time. It has been a very long time since I played, and it was nice to do something purely for fun. It was relaxing and cleared my head a little bit. It also didn't hurt that I didn't lose one match either :-). We waited for Noah to finish the day; he ended up 6th out of the remaining 20 and has to play tomorrow at 2pm. I am pulling hard for him; so far my friends have fared pretty well. Efro and Josh both won events, and now it's Noah's turn.

This was a little longer than I planned and would be longer if it wasn't 4:30am. I have two tournaments to play tomorrow. I hope I can't play the 2nd, because it means I am still in the first, $1500 PLO.