WSOP Main Event Recap

It’s been over a week now since my 2012 WSOP Main Event so I’ve had plenty of time to reflect.  Most of my key hands were documented in my previous blogs and I am very satisfied with how I played them.  On the hands I “screwed up” I’ve discussed them with poker friends, identified my errors and feel confident I will play them much better when those situations come up in the future.  I think there are a couple of areas that I am looking forward to improving on in future tournaments:

THE LUCK FACTOR

Poker is a game of skill, no doubt about it.  However, within the game there is certainly a factor of luck involved, and I haven’t been getting my fair share of it in the Main Events I’ve played so far!  Your table draw is one factor of luck.  The three tables I played on this ME were loaded with tremendous players.  (I played on a fourth table the beginning of Day 2 and it looked like a very promising table but we only saw about eight hands before our table broke.)  Conversely, both Gregg and Derrick had very easy tables for their Day 1 and were able to find spots to accumulate chips much easier.   Another factor of luck is getting big hands.  This makes the fourth consecutive Main Event where I have not flopped a set. Is that even possible?!  I figure I’ve played 16+16+12+18=62 hours of poker in the Main Event.  I would love to know where I stand on the normal distribution curve with respect to flopping zero sets in 62 hrs of poker!  (Note: flopping a set is not a guaranteed win; I actually folded 44 pre-flop Day 2 this year and would have flopped a set that would have lost to a flush and probably busted me, and Derrick flopped a set of nines late in Day 1, played it perfectly and lost a huge pot to a nasty river card.  But trust me, overall they are big chip-makers!).  I had great players on my Day 1 table but the reality is the players with chips made huge hands.  Seat four, for example, hit a gut shot straight on the turn vs. S5 to win a monster pot with a well hidden hand, and earlier he flopped top two pair against S2 then made a full house with a river card that gave S2 the nut flush.  Additionally, S2 had just won a huge pot with a donation from the table fish and now had the chips to pay off a substantial river bet.  Andrew Brokos, professional poker player who writes a monthly column for Card Player magazine and writes an excellent poker blog, was seated on my right all of Day 1.  Early on he flopped top two pair vs. the fish’s top pair and won a lot of chips.  He had a couple other big hands that gave him a lot of ammunition with which to battle.  You simply need these situations to occur for you during a tournament.  These luck factors are completely random and happen for and against everyone the same amount over time.  So I guess what I’m saying is that I can’t wait for it to happen for me; big things are going to happen in an upcoming Main Event – the Math major in me is sure of this!

THE SKILL FACTOR

This is the most important part of tournament poker and the part where each player should dedicate his or her focus.  Just like I preach to my golfers, I am obsessed with improving my game.  After playing with Andrew Brokos all of Day 1 I sent him an email and asked if he had any feedback or thoughts after watching me play.  Here is what he said: 

“I'm sorry that I didn't get back to you in time to be of any help during this tournament, but to be honest I didn't have a lot to say that would be immediately useful. I don't recall the specifics of any hands that you played, which probably means you didn't do (or show, anyway) anything that I thought was bad. Given that you were on my immediate left, maybe it also means that you didn't do as much to take advantage of your position as you could have. One of my goals as a poker player is for the guy on my right to say "Wow it sucks acting in front of this guy". That means really looking for opportunities to give him tough decisions and looking for excuses to get involved with him pre-flop. Then again when you're short-stacked your options are limited. Without seeing what you folded, I can't say whether you should have shoved in any spots that you didn't. As we discussed at the table I thought the times that you got your stack in were not just good but mandatory."

Reading through his commentary the words that hit home are "looking for excuses to get involved with him pre-flop".  I think I tend to look for excuses why I SHOULDN'T get involved, and this is what I'm going to work on.  This is the second year in a row I’ve been on a very tough aggressive Day 1 table and each time I’ve been on the quieter side. While it is definitely a function of the hands I’m dealt and my chip stack, I think I just have to get in there and battle harder with less than premium hands in future tournaments.  I've already discussed this with Derrick and we are formulating a plan to improve this area of my game.  I'll get a chance to practice in the upcoming Thunder Valley Deep Stack tournament and be ready to go for the Pot of Gold Main Event July 28-29.

 I want to thank everyone for their encouragement and support, and I'm looking forward to continuing to improve.  It's a great game and soon we will all be celebrating a big win together!   

JWB