WSOP Day 19 - Jon Kalmar

WSOP Day 19 - Jon Kalmar

21st June 2009

I rush to the Rio to register for the $5000 shootout. I needn’t had bothered as only 240 had entered and they were delaying the start. They decided to cap it at 300 runners. The winners of each 10 seat table progress to day 2 where they will play a 6 seater. The winner of them play a final table of 5. This was indeed my best chance of a bracelet so far. If I won my table I was guaranteed close to a $17k pick up, win a 6 seater on day 2 I am guaranteed over $80k. Win just a five seater I have my bracelet, how hard can it be?

Despite the small field there were still a few names around. Obviously casualties of the $10k Pot Limit Omaha from the day before. Daniel Negreanu, Neil Channing, Sorel Mizzi and on my table Mark Teltscher. With a 15k starting stack, the early levels were skipped and the blinds started at 100/200. This gave us only 75 big blinds but with an hour clock it shouldn’t be too bad.

On the second, hand Mark limps and the big blind raises. He calls and the flop is Ks 8h 9s. It’s checked to Mark who bets out 800. The blind makes it 2500 to go. Now I could have told you what would happen next already. Mark dwells before eventually pushing all in. It is so obviously a flush draw it’s remarkable. More obvious was the other guy was holding a set (nines). And even more obvious was the spade would rescue mark and reward him after what I think is an awful play.

Not long after, the table fish raises and gets re-raised from the big blind. He calls and the flop is Q 2 2. Raiser bets out and is flat called by Mr Fishy. The turn is a jack and all the chips go in. KK for the big blind pocket queens for fishy. A late comer joins the table and limps under the gun. The flop is K 9 6 and all the money goes in. The late comer has AA the big blind 96. There was still 15 minutes left of level one and we were down 3 players. As one of the seats was a no show there were just 6 players left.

By level 4 we were 3 handed. Me, Mark and Fishy. Problem is I only had around 22k and they each had over 60k. If I could get one double up I really fancied my chances. I had studied fishy a lot, he was full of tells. If he didn’t like his hand it was obvious. Mark on the other hand was so aggressive he would be easy to trap, if I last long enough to catch him.

Mark raises and I call on the small blind with QQ. I hope for a small board knowing he will continuation bet. He never missed one. The flop is K 9 6 and sure enough he bets. I raise to around 5k and he quickly sets me in, I have to pass. We jiggle about with hands but the double up just wont come, I get up to 27k at one point but when I seem to make progress I take a step back.

Finally, I get pocket 9’s on the big blind, the blinds are 250/500. Fishy raises to 1500 and I flat call confident I can outplay him on the flop. The flop comes Q 10 5. I check and he bets 1500. He always does this when he is not comfortable. He knows he should bet, just not how much. I raise to 5k and he reluctantly calls. The turn is a blank and I push all in for another 14k, confident he will put me on a queen. He thinks for a while and although I am sure he thought he was beat he just couldn’t throw pocket jacks away. An ace on the river and I was gone. Mark must have easily won from there.

I returned to the house to watch Nick Gibson win his main event seat online. Absolutely thrilled for him. They don’t half get exciting these satellites at the end when everyone is blinding away. The average stack was 75k when the bubble finally burst. One guy scraped though with just 94 chips left. (Yes, less than 100 the ante was 1000)

Fair play to the fellow. If he goes deep this year I am sure we will hear the story. Nick convinced me to join in with Kalookee. Not played the game since I was about 13 and was rusty to say the least. Nick was determined to scrape back some of his dismal pool loses by taking advantage. It worked, and they got 180 bucks off me. JP being the main benefactor.

Nick and Cess went to bed and I agreed to give JP a few Chinese poker lessons. $1700 helped towards the easing my pain from the afternoons beatings. It’s the way you set your hands.