I previously posted about a number of rooms in Vegas mostly focusing on the 1/2 NL games and the low buy-in tournaments ($60 at Sahara and Planet Hollywood and the noon Caesars tourney) so, although I live in Vegas, I certainly never thought about buying into one of the WSOP events.

Ironically, a number of my friends are professional players here in Vegas and, a couple of days before the WSOP began, I was out playing golf with one of them. We were playing for $100 a hole and I had him stuck $600 going into 18. Before we teed off on 18 he asked if I'd like to do a double or nothing for which he would buy me into event 3 at the WSOP if I won and we would be even if I lost. Given the potential $1500 buy-in win (and the chance to play in a WSOP event) vs. a loss of only $600 if he won the hole, I agreed. When his tee shot splashed into the lake and I bombed mine within a 9-iron of the green (I actually picked up a natural birdie and...yes...patted myself on the back for some clutch golf), the stroke I was giving didn't matter and I was signed up for Event 3, the first $1,500 NLHE event of the 2007 WSOP. This event worked great because it was a Saturday/Sunday event with the final table on Monday meaning that, unless I made the final table, I wouldn't have to take time off from my M-F 9 to 5. For the record, I would have gladly taken the day off if necessary.

I had been down to the WSOP at both the Rio and Binion's to visit my friends before, but every time had been after the work day was over and the fields had thinned a little from the noon starts (this was in previous years when there were no 5:00 pm tourneys). Needless to say, the Rio was a zoo before the start of the first $1,500 event of the WSOP. I was glad I had signed up early. There were just under 3,000 players for the tourney.

I decided to keep three principles in mind for this event: 1. Keep the pots small; 2. Adjust to the other players; and 3. Make good reads. I know that seems simple, but going into the event with a fundamental plan really seemed to help as opposed to going in and playing just for fun.

The biggest surprise of my initial table and the tables I played throughout the tournament was that the players were not any better, in general, than you'd see at most low buy-in daily tournaments on the Strip. It was a standard mix of about 1/3 good players, 1/2 players who knew what they were doing but were easy to read, and the remainder were, very surprisinging, bad players. I suppose this is more common in the $1,500 events and the main event, but still, I didn't expect that many bad players. On the flip side, I played with a few pros towards the end of Day 2 and they are pros for a reason. They disguise their bets well, know how to apply pressure with the least risk to their stack and they know how to extract chips.

OK, on to my results. I double up about 40 minutes into the event when I called a 3X bb raise pre-flop with Q10 of hearts and the flop came AKJ rainbow (you know...just an OK flop for me). My opponent bet out 500 and I just called. Turn was a total blank and was actually the fourth suit so it eliminated any flush. My opponent bet out 1,000 leaving him a little more than 1,000 behind. I pushed all-in (having him slightly covered) and he called with AK. The river blanked again and I had 6,500.

The funny thing is...the guy went absolutely crazy cursing and fuming about how I could call a 150 chip pre-flop raise with only Q10 suited. I'm probably not wrong that calling 150 when my stack is 3,500 is certainly a good call if I can get away post-flop when nothing hits. That was another surprising thing was just how much poor behavior I saw. I'm pretty tolerant, but some of this behavior was absolutely inexplicable. Whatever...I simply told the guy it was bad luck and let him take his walk. I thought having his chips was satisfaction enough and didn't need a war of words with an ousted opponent to take me off my even keel.

OK...second big hand. This one I laid down AK off on a board of KQx after my opponent put in a big check raise post flop. I bet 400 chips (at 50-100 blinds) pre-flop and he called. We were heads up and he checked post-flop. I bet 600 and he re-raised me 1200 more. I tanked and then folded face up. He showed KQ for top two and would have had me drawing very thin. I was quite happy with my read of strength on his part and following through on that read with a good lay-down. That hand only cost me 1,000 of my 8,000 chips.

I doubled up twice more that day when I had the nut flush on the turn and the river put four to a flush out there and my opponent went all-in with the K high flush. Little bit of a cooler for him, but he could have anticipated my nut flush, especially with four to the flush out there. I also doubled up late with top pair, top kicker (AJ on a J high board) when my opponent had QJ. I sucked out one time that day to eliminate an opponent with 5,000 chips when I had around 27,000 chips. We got all our money in post-flop when I had a set of fours and he had top set (tens). Fortunately for me, I hit a runner-runner flush and knocked him out. I felt bad because we were down to around 290 of the original 3,000 at that point and the money bubble was approaching. I had an above-average stack of just over 40,000 as the bubble approached and I managed to do my fair share of stealing to get up to around 51,000, but got picked off when I pushed all-in with JJ against a short stack heads-up who called with AA. Whooops. Anyhow, the bubble popped and I made it to the end of the day (around 2:00 a.m.) with 47,000...I think about 30% above average. Making the money was an absolute thrill, but I didn't have to scramble at bubble time because I had a comfortable chip stack so it wasn't too scary.

Day 2 arrived and I showed up excited and ready to play. It had been a great experience and, by the way, my little $100 a hole bet on the golf course had netted me AT LEAST $3,500 (the payout for the first player to bust on Day 2) and I still had a lot of chips left to play with.

Day 2 started fast and furious with a lot of the under-average stacks playing very aggressively to either chip-up or go home. I won a huge pot early with KK vs. TT vs. AK. My kings held and I was up to around 90,000. I didn't get any cards for a couple of hours and was down to around 65,000 when my hand of the tournament came up.

I had JJ and an all-in in front of me pre-flop from a middle position player for his last 19,000. I called from the button and, unfortunately, the big blind (with around 75,000 left after his call) called behind me. Flop was K-K-J. I check and the big blind bets 10,000 into the side pot. I called. Turn was a brick and the big blind bets 20,000 into the side pot (leaving him just under 45,000 behind). I thought about just calling (which would have left me with around 16,000 to bet on the river) but instead decided to push and get it all-in right there. He called and the cards were turned over. The initial short stack who pushed all-in had 88 and was drawing dead. The big blind had AK for trips and I needed to avoid the last king or an ace on the river. River was a brick and I'm up to 150,000 chips.

I slowly chipped up to around 230,000 just before dinner and then ran a great bluff against a 400,000 stack for around 120,000 chips total that got me to 350,000 just after dinner. I went card cold again after my successful bluff and got picked off any time I made any move after dinner. The blinds insured aggression at this point and the players, while still weaker than I would have expected at this point in a tourney, were marginally better than they had been earlier. I was down to 150K when we were at 5 tables and stayed there until we were down to 4 tables. That was the biggest thrill moment of the tournament for me. Looking around and realizing that from a field of 3,000 there were just 4 tables left. The blinds were such that at that point it was costing me 1/3 of my stack to sit out one orbit around the table. So, with 4 tables left and around 125K in my stack, I called a 20,000 preflop raise with KQ off and pushed all-in when the board came Q94 rainbow. I was called by AQ and failed to improve.

I busted somewhere between 29 and 33 and picked up just over $20,000 for my effort. Not a bad parlay of a $100 per hole golf bet. All in all, a great experience. I got to play with Alex Jacob and a couple of other pros were at the table next to mine towards the end. I ended up taking Monday off because I didn't bust until after midnight and I was too wired to go to sleep until around 3:00 in the morning. Hope you enjoyed.