VEGAS - Julian Thew: Part 2

I was really looking forward to playing the main event & after four very disappointing attempts over previous years I felt I was finally ready to put in a good show. I opted for Day 1a & my table was as good as I could expect with a real mix of ages and ability. There was one American guy I’d played with on the European circuit & I had position on him; so far so good. We started with 30k stacks & were set play just four two hour levels.

I moved up to 40k easily enough but made a big miss-step at the beginning of Level 3 against the busiest player on the table. I called a raise with J-9s & when he led on the Kc,Jc,7 flop for 2000 it felt like a good spot to put in a re-raise for another 4000. He was stubborn & called though & I obviously felt duty bound to follow through when a blank hit on the turn. That was a 10,000 bet & when didn’t shake him off I was faced with three pretty unpleasant options on the river. With 34k in the pot & 22k in my stack (he had about 30k) I could push, fold or bet something in between. I suspect a push might have got it through but I just don’t seem to have the bottle anymore for very marginal spots like that & I opted for a pot committed looking 12k bet – alas it wasn’t enough to put him off & he called with K-J for top two.

That meant I was down to 10k & I simply never recovered.  I got it all in three times over the next three hours & each time it resulted in a chopped pot. I ended up bagging 6050 chips at the end of level 4, good for just over ten BB’s when I returned five days later for Day 2a.

The good news was that I drew the button, the bad that I played just one hand, the first one dealt. With blinds at 250/500 & a 50 ante I felt I had two, maybe three revolutions to get my chips in. I didn’t have wait that long as the cut-off opened to 1300, I looked down at K-Qs & shoved. Unfortunately the SB found A-K & didn’t hit my very limited outs.

The main event really is a unique event & I actually sicker about my performance a couple of days after that exit. If anything I’m even more fired up to try & return again over the next few years & get that elusive deep run & my first WSOP cash.

I still had a few days left before I needed to return home & played a few more events at the Venetian. There was no more run good, I think I used it all up in the first week, but I did enjoy playing some $2-5 cash over at the Mirage & even showed a modest profit. So, all-in-all, my second ever profitable trip to Vegas out of nine, my first win in almost twelve months but still some disappointment at another poor WSOP showing.