I know this because I got 103rd in the Main Event. It was a weird tournament, but as far as poker playing goes, it appears to be noteworthy.
The most incredible thing is that even the poker community, professionals (mostly live pros) and amateurs alike, put a lot of stock in the Main Event. It's weird given that people involved in poker are supposed to understand variance and be less emotional-- everyone is just crazy about the Main Event. I guess it's mostly the average person who is enamored with the amount of money involved, but it's a little bit annoying to have my entire poker 'career' be validated by making day six of the Main Event. I mean, it was fun, I just wish there wasn't such a big deal made about it. Maybe I'm just low key.
Now that I got most of the negative stuff out of the way, I will quickly recap what I can remember of the tournament.
The first day was interesting-- I had an incredible starting table, but the only two people who had a clue were on my left. That didn't wind up bothering me too much, as I kept losing pots by bluffing in questionable spots or having to give up on bad board runouts against the donks on my right. I was up over 40k from a 30k starting stack at first break, cruising and literally felt like I could not lose a pot to these guys. A bunch of things went wrong, and eventually I got below 10k, made a bunch of squeezes and reshoves with 30 bigs or so, got up to about 22k, and then doubled on the very final hand of the night where I 3-bet a crazy Asian guy with 68hh, the flop came K86, and he CR/called it off with KT and I held. I bagged 46k.
The second day was pretty eventful as well. My starting table, again, was very good. A few old guys, a Euro pro, and relatively tightish other players. That was good because I didn't get very good hands! I bluffed an old guy in this spot-- I 3-bet Q9o on the button to his CO open, he calls, it comes 554r, he checks, I bet 5300, he makes it 13500, I make it 21500 (about half of my stack), he folds what was probably 88. I get moved to a new table, things start to go bad, but then I double with TT to AJ against an aggro kid. I flop a set of twos, get paid, I flop top pair, get paid, I win some pots without showdown, and I bag 131k.
The third day was also a crazy swing-- I had position on one of the softer spots at the table who was playing pretty loose/passive (once he shows down defending J5s in the bb and J7s in the CO to an EP open, I can peg his ranges as too wide in spots and probably own him unless he's sensational postflop or tricky aggro). Things didn't go well against him though, as I 3-bet him a few times and got 4-bet twice, folded the river another time after I made second pair with Q8s, and got down to like 50k at one point, almost certainly below 25 bigs. I then double with 65k effective-- donk on my right opens to 4600 at 1-2, I make it 10600 with 65k effective with A7s (not deep enough to call, too good to fold vs this clownhoes), he calls. The flop is 962dd, he open shoves over 2x pot (!!!) but I call because I have a flush draw! He has A9o (wtf) and I get there. I towards the very end of the day I play a 5b pot with a Hungarian kid where I flat a 5b OOP (napkin, Chipotle receipt) and bet the river on K52A5 where a turned FD missed (irrelevant, no money went in on the turn). I got it in with JJ to KK and lost, and then got it in with TT to 99 and won on this day, neither time I was at risk. I bag 362k.
The fourth day was the most annoying day primarily because of the bubble. My table was pretty good again, but in a weird way. I had two guys from Maccau at my table, both were playing relatively badly. The only kid with with a clue was two to my left, but he didn't really make it too hard on me. Still, I wasn't playing crazy and mostly just got in some incredibly annoying spots postflop where I value bet TT on 932K7 and got called by JJ, and value bet 66 on 44337 and got called by 88 in spots that might have been a bit thin. I recall swinging a bit less on this day, and I don't think I got all in. The bubble lasted like 45 minutes and we played about 4 hands. I eventually got up and got back down and bagged 545k, which was 1k above average.
The fifth day got a little bit more serious, as I did not sleep for a second the night before. I started to get a tickle in my throat and wound up getting sick as I was trying to sleep. It was incredibly annoying since I'm usually so controlling about staying healthy, drinking fluids and washing my hands dozens of times a day. However with so many people playing in the poker room and so many roomates, it's really impossible to avoid it. Poker has always been exceptionally annoying when it comes to sanitizing everything, and I've missed many hands just going to wash my hands in between hands! I was miserable and vowed to play tight as people started to bust pretty quickly with only a few hundred players left. For the first time in the tournament, I started to run scorching hot. Second hand of the day someone limp re-raised me UTG/UTG1 and I held with KK to JTs. Still in the first level I had a pretty interesting spot where I had QQ on the button after a UTG all in for 15 bbs, and a UTG2 call. I ended up reshoving for almost 90 bigs to isolate and got it in for almost a 500k pot with QQ to K9s. An incredibly fortunate spot with all the dead money, and I held again. I got up to over 1.5m at one point, and was rocking some outstanding 50 high stacks where the base was 1m chips. During the last level I bluffed it off in two questionable spots where I made flush draws but not flushes, and I eventually bagged 607k, which I think was half of average going into Day 6.
The sixth day was short. I was annoyed immensely by the payout scale, which truly makes no sense. I am unforgiving when it comes to illogicalness (but apparently forgiving when it comes to fake words), and I don't understand why they would have 162nd-225th be 47k, 161st to 100th be 54k, and then have the payouts jump every 9 people after that? There doesn't seem to be any reason that they can't make it a bit more progressive, just going up by $1500 or something every 9 or 18 spots. Anyways, I started short, got a bit shorter after being card dead, then held with TT to 88 to double to ~1m. Our table was playing insanely slow, and this amateur in a Giants jersey was running incredibly hot, showing down aces 4 times in the first ~50 hands and 6-betting all in with a hand that basically had to be kings or aces. He's been active pre, so when he opens UTG1, I 3-bet AKs in MP (68k, 199k). I am not happy about calling his shove because of how incredibly strong he acted physically, but what choice do I have? So, I get it in with 30 bigs with AKs to AA, turn a flush draw, but am eliminated in 103rd place.
My final thoughts are this: people take too long to act. It's a big tournament, but these fucking morons definitely take 12 seconds to fold 47o in MP, which is 11 seconds too long. It's annoying. I felt like people were taking a long time in spots when they thought the rest of the table was tough (on Day 5 I had a relatively tough table even though I had position on everyone reasonable, I didn't really play many interesting hands). It's pretty stupid, but what can you do? I've heard of tournaments with 30 second clocks, that's reasonable, but honestly you can't really do anything about it unless people are just reasonable human beings. That's usually easier said than done.
The media is annoying. They talk during hands, delay hands further, and make the TD structure the tournament so that they can get ESPN coverage. I guess, overall, it's gotta be a good thing for poker-- the live coverage and whatnot, but it's a nightmare for the logistics of the tournament. Speaking of the live coverage, I hate the idea of showing my hand to cameras, but like I said, it's gotta be good for poker overall. It's too bad I never got a chance to be on a featured table or be a commentator or something. I'd be such a boss commentator, I should get an agent and have him get right on that.
I wish I could be more positive but I'm still pretty sick and worn down from 5.5 days of poker. I'm glad I'm 2 for my last 2 at poker tournaments, but annoyed at the equity I had at one point in them. I guess I can't complain too much, but fuck it, I'm going to anyways.
