At the end of my last blog post I mentioned that Bellagio had set up all the tables for day two as seven- and eight-handed.
Apparently they did it just so that I'd research my table draw the night before and they could break the table before play began on day two!
I was only at the other table for a couple orbits so it's not worth giving the lineup, but I did manage to lose about half of my stack on the first hand.
Fortunately I managed to fold Q♠ Q♦ on the river and save my last 30k when Scotty had flopped a set of fours and put me all in.
I was pretty close to shoving on the turn and to making the call once I did get to the river, so I sort of feel like the tournament is a freeroll now.
I managed to chip back up to around 50k before the table broke a couple orbits later, the majority of it coming from a multi-way raised pot where Rene Angelil bet full pot for about half of my stack and folded to my min-raise all in on a 7♠ J♠ 7♦ when I had K♠ J♣.
Once that table broke I ended up at the following one which I stayed at for most of the day.
unknown Arturo Diaz/Daniel Alaei Kenna James unknown Soheil Shamseddin Me James "mig.com" Mackey Carlos Mortenson Michael WooAs those who read my Foxwoods blog posts or saw the updates from the final table know, Soheil got there as a huge dog against me in a couple of key pots at the WPT final table there. Needless to say, this seemed like a good opportunity to start getting some payback on my buddy!
I managed to double through him early in the session, but it was pretty much a cooler. I kickered him on flopped trip kings holding K♦ Q♣ against his K♠ J♣ and doubled to about 135k there.
The next pot we played, however, was slightly less standard. I (130k) raised UTG to 2500 @ 500/1000 with 7♥ 7♠, and got called by James Mackey and Carlos Mortenson who were UTG and UTG+1. Soheil came along from the big blind, and instantly jammed for over 36k (~3x pot) on a 2♣ 5♥ 6♥ flop!
Against a lot of people this would be a fold, but Soheil has a lotttttttt of gamble in him. I'm pretty sure that Soheil would check-shove with most hands better than mine.
I also thought that just calling might also get one of the two behind me off a slightly bigger pair because it looks pretty strong, and makes for a pretty easy fold if either moves in.
I called, and the others quickly folded. Soheil showed 2♠ 3♣ and binked a three on the turn that held to win him the pot. I'm now batting .250 against Soheil in all in pots....with the only win being when I got it all in with the best hand on the river and couldn't be beat.
At least it's going to a good guy who's fun to play with though...
I chipped up quietly for the next couple of levels and got back up to ~160k at 800/1600. We were about a level and half from the completion of day two when our table broke.
Little did I know I was about to draw the table that had been dubbed "The Toughest Table in History" by members of the media. I don't know if it was quite that, but it was pretty sick.
Seat 1 - Dutch Boyd
Seat 2 - Eric Baldwin
Seat 3 - Me
Seat 4 - Todd Terry
Seat 5 - David Chiu
Seat 6 - Hasan Habib
Seat 7 - John Juanda
Seat 8 - Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Seat 9 - Tom "Durrr" Dwan
Apparently I had softened up the table though, since the player who was in Seat 3 before I arrived was Phil Ivey. Well, he wasn't really there, but the floor put out a stack for him after the third level of day two (the end of late registration, Bellagio style).
I suppose he's on a very short list of people who are allowed to change their mind, since the floor came by 40 minutes later to remove the stack from play!!!
I definitely wasn't happy to see the table draw when I showed up. Little did I know it was heater time!!!
I won a ~140k pot from Tom Dwan when I had A♥ Q♥ against him on a A♣ A♦ K♣ 5♣ 6♣ board. I flatted his UTG raise from middle position and his continuation, and bet the turn and river.
He tanked for several minutes before calling the river bet, and I'm still wondering if he had the case Ace or if he made a big hero call on the river.
The last big pot I played before the end of the night came when I opened to 5500 from early-middle positon at 1000/2000 and David Chiu moved in for a little less than 50k. I made the call with 9♠ 9♣ and he showed me some great news when he turned over 5♥ 5♦.
My hand held, and I finished the day with just over 300k going to 1200/2400 with 131 of the 329 entrants remaining. 27 places pay and first place is over $1.4 million.
Matt Stout
More Matt Stout WPT Five Diamond Recaps
Day 1Day 3
Visit www.pokerlistings.com