WSOP Day 7 - Jon Kalmar

WSOP Day 7 - Jon Kalmar

9th June 2009

Two major events today. It’s both my first WSOP event and secondly I check out of the Rio. I don’t know which I am looking forward to the most.

I got up early and left my bags with the bell boy. Richard “Strummer9� Herbert arrives today and we are sharing a suite at the Palazzo, the Venetian’s sister hotel. He blagged them for a top notch room quoting me as a huge gambler in order to get an upgrade. Boy will they be disappointed.

I sat down for the $1500 pot limit in the Amazon room and was joined by Lee Childs, a fellow final tablist of the WSOP Main event back in 2007. (Did I mention I once made the final table of the WSOP main event, seems like a long long time ago now).

Things start ok, and I have got my stack to over 6k from 4.5k. Towards the end of level 1 with the blinds at 25/50 there is a raise to 125. Three people call so I join in with 79 in the blinds. The flop was a delightful Q 7 9 with 2 clubs. I bet out and the initial raiser re-raised to 600. The button decided to push in for as much as he can (its pot limit remember) and I figure he has a flush draw The initial raiser maybe has an over pair or AQ so I re-raise trying to isolate. The button did indeed have a flush draw however the other guy had pocket queens and I was basically drawing dead. DOH!

Short stacked, I passed my way round till the big blind. Lee Childs (the former WSOP finalist, did I mention I once made the WSOP final……………….) raises to 150. I look down and see AK of diamonds. I re-raise and he sets me in. He wasn’t passing pocket queens to me and they held up knocking me out.

I move to the Venetian to play some cash and wait for Strummer. He was sharing a taxi with John “Kunkuwap� Tabatabai and the driver had given them the complete Vegas tour much to the frustration of John. When we checked in and were told we were in fact stopping at the Venetian and not the Palazzo but we could still check in there. Strummer disgruntled at this insisted we got a room at the Palazzo despite the assurance from the girl the rooms were identical. Eventually she found us a room on the 9th floor.

This hotel was busy and the queue for an elevator was immense, about 20 people got in our lift rather than wait for the next. As we were on one of the early floors I couldn’t resist pressing floor buttons accidentally on purpose with my elbow for the people left in. Hey! Made me giggle anyway. I must admit the rooms here are spectacular and probably on a par with the Wynn. And Strummer’s insistence on a room was rewarded with a spectacular view of the Vegas convention centre roof. It looked just like a factory.

I went back to the Venetian to finish off my cash game. Things improved and I ended up only losing 100 bucks, result! A series of runner runner hands and set ups were taking their toll. I then get lucking on a hand.

A guy raises my big blind to 30. No one else is in the pot and I look down at 7 9 of hearts. I decide to get jiggy and re-raise to 90. He thinks and re-re-raises to 210. He has around 1800 so I call and hope to hit a juicy flop. No chance, the flop comes King high. I decide to bet out 400 in the hope he has queens and he puts me on AK. Well if he had me on AK then queens was a bad call which is what he did. The turn is a 7, I check hoping he checks behind which he does. I pray for a 7 or 9 but instead the river pairs the King. I push and he reluctantly passes murmuring something about aces. Phew!

Tomorrow is the $1500 shootout and I am looking forward to it, hopefully I will play better than I did today.