My Main Event Debut

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Note: The levels of play are 90 minutes each. There are some hands I don't say what I had, I'm not posting my cards online, but if we're friends ask me in person and I might fill you in. Please email me any mistakes on this page to [email protected]

Short Summary:

I finished 19th out of 211 players, with a prize of 11,900 euros.
I played with the following big-name-pros: The Devilfish, Martin DeKnijff (The Knife), Julian Gardner (2nd in the 2002 wsop main event), Anthony Lelouche, Tony G., Isabelle Mercier, Gus Hansen (briefly), Rob Hollink (batoelrob on PokerStars) - who I doubled up through, and maybe a couple more I'm forgetting.
Other players of note I played with: John Fanning - cofounder of Napster, and probably some more I haven't thought of yet.
Other people I talked to: I had dinner with Greg Raymer one night at the players buffet; the night before the tournament, a group of us went to a restaurant - me, Alex & GF, Brandon Schaeffer (2nd in MC, 1st in Deauville) & his mom, Carl Olsen (Brandon's friend & 2nd place in Deauville), Justin (ZeeJustin on PokerSars, 4th in Deauville), The Grinder's two brothers, and Danny (theBruiser on PokerStars).

Detailed Summary

Day 1: 10K starting chips.

Level 1, 25/50 blinds: I drew a horrible starting table, definately the toughest Alex or I was able to see in the room. Seat 3 was The Devilfish, seat 7 was Martin DeKnijff (The Knife), seat 8 was Julian Gardner (2nd in the 2002 WSOP main event), and I was stuck in seat 6. An especially bad seat with the very good and agressive DeKnijff right behind me.

Seat 1 is playing fairly bad, he quickly loses two large pots to Devilfish, who has almost 20K before I know it. Seat 2 is an ultratight Norwegian.

My button, folded to Devilfish, he opens for 200, I call, and we have a 2 way flop. the flop is 944, he bets 300 and I call. Turn ten, we both check. River jack, Devilfish bets 500 and I call after a little thought. Devilfish shows 7d4d and I muck. I'm down to about 9,000 chips. I'm not sure if I made a mistake (or two) in this hand.

After 42 minutes of play, I pick up AA UTG+1 and limp even though UTG limped, in hopes that I can make a large reraise. Another player or two limps in, then seat 1 makes it 200 on the button. Seat 3 calls from the big blind, and I raise to 1,000. Seats 1 and 3 both call. The flop is Kxx rainbow, I bet out 2,500. Seat 1 calls allin for 2,500, seat 3 folds. Seat 1 shows KhQh and I win the pot, busting my first player after 42 minutes. Perhaps I should have raised a little more than 1K to not give seat 3 odds for his set.

About 50 minutes in Julian gets lucky with KK putting the weak seat 5 player (with AA) allin for 8,000, but the door card is a king. At the level ends my stack has increased to a nice 13,800 chips.
Level 2, 50/100 blinds: I played fairly badly this level. No really large hands I was involved in though. I did have one memorable hand: I have 5x on the button, I think Devilfish may have limped, if not someone else probably did. I raise to 400. Gardner calls on the big blind. The flop is 555. We check the flop, the turn is an 8 and Julian bets 800, I call. The river is a king, Julian checks and folds when I bet about 3200. As I collect the pot Devilfish asks me to show my hand since he and some of the other players at the table are showing a lot and I flip over the 4th 5. I could have played this hand better in so many ways.

I end the level with about 13,000 chips.
Level 3, 75/150 blinds: Anthony Lelouche is moved into seat 5, now the table is half big-name-pros. He has a big stack (~30K?) after being at Alex's table the first few hours. Alex says he busted about 5 people, and he kept leaving his seat during the tournament and only played about 2/3 of the hands in the first 2 levels.

Nothing particularly memorable here happens to me. Devilfish doubles up DeKnijff's KK with KxJc allin on the turn (KcXcXxAc).

I finish level 3 with 21,300 after a round of solid play. Near the end of the level a PokerStars employee in the marketing department approaches me to ask if I would wear a PokerStars shirt during the next level if they made us the feature table and I say sure.
Level 4, 100/200 blinds: Having to sit with a table of pros finally pays off a little as we are made the feature table during level 4. Incidentally I'm the only American at the feature table at this point, as well as the only one in PokerStars gear.

The first hand at the feature table, someone makes a standard raise ( Lelouche?) to about 700/800 and I make a reraise to 2,000 to steal the pot. I don't show and Devilfish makes a comment about me showing off for the TV. Presumably Eurosport will show this hand in May, so I'll reveal now that I had XX(Edit: Eurosport did not show this hand, or any other hand I played in, so I wont keep my cards posted here).

Within the next several hands, I am dealt AK UTG and I make a raise to 800, Lelouche calls on the big blind. The flop comes king high, Lelouche checks and calls my bet of 2,000. The turn is a blank but I'm worried that Lelouche might have a set, so I check behind him. The river is another blank and Lelouche bets a mere 1,600. I think for a little while, and decide that he probably has KQ or KJ but I decide to just call in case I'm beat I don't want to leave myself open to a reraise. I announce with a sigh "okay, I'll just call" and beat Lelouche's KQ. I wish that I'd announced that I was letting his KQ off the hook before I called, but oh well.

The next orbit or so I'm dealt XX(Edit: again, Eurosport did not show this hand, so I wont either) UTG, and on a whim I make a steal for 600, more confident at this point in my ability to play after the flop even at this tough table (maybe my raise is a partially because of the TV-time). The Knife calls from immediately behind me and the rest of the table folds. The flop is [Kh 8d 7d] and I bet 1,000. DeKnijff calls me again, but for some reason I sense weakness, so when the turn is the ten of hearts, I fire another shot for 2,000 and he folds.

This next hand might not seem terribly impressive based upon the summary of the action, but I believe this is one of the best bets I've made in a hand of poker: I'm dealt 88 on the big blind, and it folds around to Devilfish on the button (seat 4 is temporarilly empty). Devilfish makes it 600 (he has about 10,000 total) and I just call. The board is T54X5 (X = 2 maybe?). I check the flop and call Devilfish's bet of 1,000. We both check the turn, and at this point I decide I'm pretty sure I'm winning and he either has a 4 or a 5, or he could have been bluffing (or maybe he turned a straight but I think this is very unlikely). When another 5 hits on the river I decide that I'm going to call if I were to check and he made a pot-sized bet. It seems as if it's obvious to both of us that neither of us had a strong hand on the flop, and I think that Devilfish could put me on a bluff if I bet and he'd call with a paired 4 or a low pocket pair. As I recall Devilfish's earlier 7d4d I think there is a reasonable chance he again has a 4 and could call me, (plus I have slight fold equity in case he folds 99 or a ten with a weak kicker - albiet this case is probably so slight it's insignificant) so I bet 3,000 myself. Devilfish spends a couple of minutes thinking and staring me down, and eventually calls for about 1/3 of his remaining chips. I flip over my 8s and Devilfish shows 74o and I take down the pot. The bet itself was fairly straightforward, but I had to have fairly high confidence that Devilfish had either 4x or 5x to justify it (and a reasonably good understanding of his play to determine that).

After this last pot I have about 33,000 (only about 30 minutes into the time on the feature table) - my peak for the level, which I finish with 31,375 chips. We now break for the dinner buffet and the TV crew packs up for the day.
Level 5, 150/300 blinds: With the TV crew gone we're demoted to a regular table. Devilfish busts during this level, and John Fanning (who I met in the hotel the night before), cofounder of Napster, fills his seat with a massive 50K-60K stack.

This level is fairly uneventful for me and I stay almost completely even until I make a stupid play against Lelouche to lose 3300 chips. One of my goals is to increase or stay about the same for each level and I let this take the best of me in the last couple minutes of the level: Martin makes a raise to 900 UTG and Fanning calls. Sine Martin is being his usually aggressive self, I'm hoping I have a playable hand. Even though Martin would typically call most of my reraises with position and a workable stack, I think that he probably wont with Fanning behind. I also think Fanning wouldn't be able to call a reraise since his hand isn't good enough to reraise the aggressive Martin, and he probably has to put me on at least QQ if I reraise out of position. I look down and find 24o. Perfect. I make it 3,300. Martin quickly folds, and Fanning thinks for a while, running down the clock. Fanning asks if I'll show if he folds and I think for a second and say sure. Fanning mucks and I flip over 24o. Fanning later tells me he folded JJ.

After my last minute steal, my day 1 chip count rests at 31,275.
Overall, I was very satisfied with my play on day 1. Despite an extremely tough table I managed to make some good plays and slightly surpass my day 1 goal of 30,000 chips. I was looking forward to an easier day 2 table.

Day 2: 31,275 starting chips.

Level 6, 150/300/25 blinds/ante: We redrew seats for the new day, my starting table: I'm in seat 3, Tony G is in seat 6, Markus Golser is in seat 7, Isabelle Mercier is in seat 8, seat 4 starts off empty for 2 hands, and then theBruiser is moved into it, and after a while I found out that the player in seat 2 is Predator13 on Pokerstars.

I start the day as the 2nd tallest stack at the table (3rd after Bruiser is moved in), but I mess around too much for 30 minutes and drop down to about 24,000 chips, and by the end of the level I make it back up to 28,000. Marcus Golser is messing around with me a lot, he's something of a table captain. Tony G is not his usual trash-talking self today since he has a cold.

The only hand from this level eventful enough for me to remember: it was folded to me in the small blind (with theBruiser in the big blind - we've been hanging out a little bit during the trip, I'm not expecting to play a pot with him but I have a legitimate hand and I expect him to fold to a raise), and I open for 800. Bruiser calls, and the flop is 86x (x = 4?). I bet 1K or 1200, and Bruiser calls. I forget the turn, maybe it paired the lower card on the board, maybe a ten, something I didn't find too important. I bet again, maybe 2K, and Bruiser folds. I didn't show my cards, so I wont say them here, but I will tell you that when Bruiser asked me I told him I had A6s, and he said he had 89.
Level 7, 200/400/50 blinds/ante: Sometime during this level Predator13 is moved to another table, leaving the somewhat agressive and somewhat drunk seat 1 to my right. Seat 1 has about 50K chips I think, so does Isabelle in seat 8, and Markus in seat 7 has about 60K.

Markus is still being pretty agressive and messing with me, I play back a little but maybe not enough. I notice a possible tell on Bruiser, but it happens to be completely useless from my seat unless I think he's going to try to steal my blind from under the gun. Bruiser does what I believed to be a tell 4 times, the first he gets reraised by Markus and folds, the 2nd he gets to a showdown with A5o, and the 3rd he gets reraised again by Markus and folds. The fourth time he gets reraised yet again by Markus, but now Bruiser calls. I don't remember exactly how the hand played out, but something resembling this: K68 flop, I think Markus bet and Bruiser thinks a while and calls. The turn (blank, maybe a 2 or 3) either goes check/check or Markus checks and then calls Bruiser's somewhat small bet. The river may have been an 8, Markus checks and Bruiser thinks a while and bets 6K or so. Markus thinks for a little and calls; Bruiser shows AQ unimproved and Markus wins with 67 or 65 or something like that. Obviously he knows Bruiser's game pretty well - maybe better than Bruiser.

I finish the level at about 29K.
Level 8, 300/600/50 blinds/ante: The potential tell I have on Bruiser is useless to me, so I tell it to him during the break between levels, hoping he'll be able to successfully reverse it against Markus.

Not too long into the level, seat 1 (who has been becoming both more agressive and more drunk as the day has gone on) raises on my small blind and I fold, but Bruiser calls from the big blind. The flop comes K44, Bruiser makes a checkraise to about 7K, and seat 1 very quickly grabs some stacks of yellow (1K) chips and puts Bruiser allin. Bruiser thinks for a little while, and calls with KJo. Seat 1 shows 34, and Bruiser is out of the tournament. Nothing eventfull happens to me at all (well I did flop the nuts one hand, but played it really weirdly and didn't get much more after the flop - I'd talk about the hand here but no showdown), I finish the level at about 32K.
Level 9, 400/800/100 blinds/ante: As the blinds are increasing I'm becoming concerned about my stack becoming too few big blinds worth, but I remain an above average stack for a little while. At some point Curzdog is moved into seat 4 (I don't find out his PokerStars name until after we're both out of the tournament though).

When we come back from the dinner break our table is the only one in the 2nd room, so we'll be the next to break. So far during the level I've been blinding out, plus one failed steal. On that failed steal I accidentally only raised to 2K, forgetting that the big blind was now 800 instead of 600. We are now down to 49 players (1 more 'til our table breaks), and I wake up with AA under the gun. I may try to limp/reraise from this position sometimes, but our table has been agressive all day and there has been virtually no limping for the past several hours, so I thought it would look too suspicious to get a raisor. Also I'm down to only 24,700, so I'm usually better off just raising the AA anyway. I decide to open for just 2,000 since that was all I did on my previous raise, and I needed to get some action to try to start to rebuild my shrinking stack. It folded around to the big blind in seat 1 who called. The flop was JT9 rainbow, I bet 3K and the BB calls again. The call sets of some warning bells that he's got 2 pair/a set/a straight, but when the turn is a 2 (2 diamonds out now) I bet 5K anyway. Now seat 1 quickly checkraises me allin. I think for a while, and decide that if he flopped two pair he'd have bet or checkraised on the flop to protect against the straight draws, and probably the same for a set. I don't think that he has J2 or T2 or 92, so the only hand I'm really worried about is a flopped straight. I put him on JQ or some pair/straight draw combination and call. He says good call (which at first makes me worried because he said that to someone else when he had the 2nd nuts earlier in the day in a similar situation), but when I show my AA he flips over 85o and I double up. Note that since he had 8 outs (out of 44 possible remaining cards), I had only a 81.8% chance of remaining in the tournament at this point.

After 3 more hands, our table breaks and I escape as an average stack. I'm glad to get off of this agressive table where up until that AA hand I had to work all day about as hard as I ever had before at a poker table just to stay even.

My new table has no big names or players I recognize (except maybe Curzdog was moved to this table too?). After a few minutes at my new table I realize I'm not concentrating enough. This is my first time in the tournament where I'm the only new player at a table, and I need my top observation skills to quickly get a feel for the table. Until then, I shouldn't be bluffing or getting into pots with marginal hands - unfortunately I didn't propose this advice to myself at the time.

One of my first few hands at the table, there are 2 limpers and I limp in the SB as well. The flop is QT7 rainbow, I check and the player last to act bets 2700. I call, and the big blind does as well. The turn is the ten of diamonds (two diamonds on the board). The same player bets a mere 3800, and I checkraise to 9,000. The big blind folds, but the bettor thinks for a moment and pushes allin for 23,800 and I have to fold for the extra 14,800 raise.

The next orbit, I make an utg raise to a small 2,000 (this table has a lot more limping than my last and the standard preflop raise is only 2,000). The button (same player who moved allin against me earlier) raises to 7,000 and I make an awful call. The flop is Kxx, I check, the button bets, and I fold.

Luckilly I get moved again right away, so I don't get a chance to tilt at all, but I have a mere 17K chips to work with at my new table.

For those of you who know Alex, I think he busted during this level in 50-something place.
Level 10, 500/1000/100 blinds/ante: Kevin O'Connell, the player who doubled my AA with 85o, is at my new table, as well as several very large stacks of about 80K-100K. Rob Hollink (Dutch pro, batoelrob on PokerStars, goes on to win the tournament) is across from me, but at the time I have no idea who he is.

One hand, I'm either in the BB, SB, or on the button, O'Connell opens for 3,100, and I decide that I desparately need some chips if I'm going to have any manuverability at all, and since he's been so agressive the latter half of the day, I decide that this is the best chance I'm going to have at a resteal and go allin for 17K. While I'm only raising by 14K, O'Connell has become somewhat shortstacked after I doubled, and the 14K would be about half his stack so he'd need a real hand to call me (plus if he does call it could easily be a coinflip). O'Connell folds, and I've moved up to over 22K chips.

My next big pot: Rob Hollink limps in on my big blind. It's folded to me and I check my KsTs. The flop is Qs9s7x, I check, Rob bets 2400. I contemplate a large reraise, which I would probably do in a cash game, but in a tournament I can't afford to make a single mistake or I'm gone, and I'd rather be able to get away from my hand if I miss. The turn is the most beautiful card I've seen in the whole tournament, a jack - but not a spade. Rob can't possibly put me on a gutshot, so if he has a strong hand he'll keep betting. I check and rob bets 7K. I pretend to think for a little while before pushing allin. Rob quickly calls with a set of 7s, so he has 9 outs to bust me. The river is the As, giving me the nuts (now with a flush instead of a straight), and I double up to about 44K. After my two times going allin with cards to come, I had only a 65.1% chance of surviving past this point in the tournament.

Now that I actually have some chips I'm excited about being able to use my tight image (these two hands were the only two I entered at all) to hopefully make some steals before the end of the day; however, John Fanning (remember my 24o?) is moved to our table. Fanning sees me at the table and says something like about not wanting to be on my table, asking the other players if I've been raising a ton here too. O'Connell quickly says I've been raising a ton, still a little sore about my allin earlier, but Hollink tells Fanning the only bet I've made in 2 hours was with the nuts and a redraw. Fanning is surprised by this and tells Rob that the previous day he'd been at my table and I'd taken him off JJ going allin with 24o during the first level still (it was actually the 5th, and only 1/11th of my stack). He described how he asked if I'd show if he folded and I said yes and said I was a man of my word, then he said it was the best play he'd seen in the tournament. At this point I decide I have no hopes of using my tight image and I just need to run out the remaining 45 minutes with no plays unless I pick up a hand. I point out to Rob that I've only been there under 45 minutes, hoping that stories of my agression will help me get paid off if I do pick up a hand.

I don't pick up a hand for the rest of the day, basically just blind down to 32,700 chips, leaving me in 29th of the remaining 38 players (the top 27 make the money).

Day 3: 32,700 starting chips.

Level 11, 800/1600/200 blinds/ante: 38 players remain on 5 tables, we draw for new seats to start the day. I forget most of my table, but it had Gus Hansen at it. I had already used my two best poker shirts, today's was "Others make mistakes. I make unavoidable errors." While we were sitting around waiting to get started, Gus said he made unavoidable errors too, but he also makes mistakes.

I think it was at this table, I was down to about 30K (probably at this level but possibly the next), and it folded around to my small blind. I picked up AdJd and made an opening raise to 3xBB, and after a few seconds of deliberation the big blind went allin. He had about 50K chips, so he had me covered, and I had a really strong feeling that he had a medium or small pocket pair and was pretty sure it was a coinflip. I was already in for about 20% of my stack and I was getting better than 3:2 on my money, plus if I didn't double up soon I was a sitting duck and I needed some chips to work with if I was going to make it to the final table, so I decided it was time to go in on a coinflip and hope for the best. I called and he showed 88, and fortunately the door card was a jack and he didn't hit his set so I doubled up. I had a 47.3% chance of surviving this hand, so after my 3 allins so far in the tournament, I had only a 30.8% chance of still being in - fairly lucky, but still fairly good.

When we got down to 32 players, that table broke and I was taken to a new table with my very workable stack. At the new table, Julian Gardner was to my left with about 175K chips, and two to his left was a 60K stack, other than those two the whole table was shortstacked - 30K or less each.
Level 12, 1000/2000/200 blinds/ante: I don't know how much (if any) of the previous level description was actually during this level, but the next hands definately were in this one:

At this point we're getting really close to the money. For those of you who have never been in a tournament room this late into a major event, let me describe a little to you... The crowd has swelled immensely and rails were placed up at the start of the day enclosing the tables, but the crowd has pushed them forward and gone around some spots. There are so many pictures being taken it feels like a paparazzi attack - probably at least a flash a second, almost constantly. Every time a player goes allin, the dealer calls the floor over and everyone stands up, the whole crowd pushes against the players chairs to get a better view, several TV cameras come to film the dealer, the board, the announcer, all players still in the pot, etc. The whole experience was quite exciting, but a little annoying to have going on around me.

After a few steals, I'm up to about 70K chips. I did get AA once but my under the gun raise just stole the blinds - I did show it though.

Here's one of the few hands I had a flop: Ben Grundy is a young British guy to my right - he's been ultratight and is just trying to hang on until the money. He opens for a raise to about 5500 under the gun plus one. I think his stack size is approximately 30K, perhaps closer to 40. He's been exceptionally tight, so I decide to just call from immediately behind him. The flop is Qxx, with no flush or straight possible. Grundy checks, and I fire off about 8K. Grundy thinks for a moment, looks at his cards and flips a queen face up and slides his cards into the muck - quite the shocking fold. Again, I will refrain from stating my hand, but Ben later said that he had QJ and thought that I had AQ or KQ, and asked if I was beating him and I said yes.

As the cards are dealt for this next hand, most of the table is standing up looking at a big hand on the feature table and I was craning my neck trying to see the TVs to see what was going on. Anyway, when the action is on me, I raise to 6K in mid position. Unfortunately, the under the gun player already made a raise to 4500. Since I put in less than 150% of the prior bet, the ruling is that I just called, so I'm in the pot for 4500. I really need to be paying attention 100% of the time, this type of mistake is unexusable (certainly not an unavoidable error). The big blind calls for only 2500 more at this 16K pot. The flop comes QJ2, the big blind checks, and the original raisor bets I believe 3800. This is a really small bet, and I think he's probably got an unimproved ace high, a pair below jacks, some sort of draw, or maybe a set. I decide to just call for now. The big blind also calls behind me. Now we suddenly have a 28K pot - huge for either of the other two in the hand and really nice for me too. The turn is a ten. The big blind checks fairly quickly, and the original raisor thinks a little while and checks - looking at him I'm reminded almost of a dog sitting with it's tail between its legs. I decide to fire off 14K and both players quickly fold, boosting my stack to about 94K. The big blind says a few minutes later that he had just a pair of twos, he called on the flop because he thought both the raisor and I may have AK unimproved - he only thought I might have it because I tried to raise preflop. So when the ten hit he put us both on the nuts, and figured at least one of us had it for sure. This is probably one of the more profitable mistakes I've ever made.

With my newfound 90K+ stack, I'm feeling quite overconfident by this point, barring a huge disaster I'm guarenteed to make the money, and I'm sitting in a reasonable position to make the final table. One hand is folded to my small blind, with the fairly tight, but tall-stacked, Julian Gardner in the big blind. I have a legitamite hand and Julian is a tight player, so I decide to raise despite him being the only player at the table who can bust me. I raise to a standard 6K, and Julian calls. The flop is K66 - not a great flop for my hand, but it probably doesn't help Julian either, so I bet 8K (maybe 9K or 10K, not positive), and Julian again calls. The turn is a blank, but I decide that Julian could easilly have called on the flop with a pocket pair below kings, which he would fold to another bet, so I bet 14K. Unfortunately the possibilities of Julian having A6, 56, or 67 seem improbable to me, and I don't think he'll make the fairly obvious move of reraising me and taking me off almost any hand. Julian either has one of these hands or does see how easy a move I've presented him with; in any case, he minraises me to 28K and my hand doesn't warrant a call so I fold.

I've reduced my stack to about 60K, still 3rd largest at the table, but as we approach the money I have lost much of my mobility (partially due to my agressive image), and I decide to sit back at least until the money, and preferably until the table breaks once we're down to 24 players. Shortly thereafter we reach the money as a few players quickly bust.
Level 13, 1500/3000/300 blinds/ante:

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