Aiming For the Satellites

The Encore Club ran the first World Series of Poker-sanctioned satellite in Portland last weekend, with three more scheduled for the next three Saturday afternoons in May. The first was a $100 buy-in (T15K), with a live re-buy (meaning you could purchase it at any time before the first break, regardless of chip stack), and a $50 add-on (T10K) at break (the next three are $120 for the buy-ins and $60 for the add-on). The prize pool is guaranteed at $30K, with the first-place winner getting most of their prize in the form of a WSOP Main Event seat (worth $10K). Two players got $1,500 entries into the Monster Stack event (and cash), and four players received $565 entries to the new Colossus event along with some traveling money.

I got out of the habit of taking hand-by-hand on my live games a long time ago. I was using a neat little app called MomentDiary, which time-stamped each entry, but found that it took too much attention away from action at the table. This game, however, I resurrected my practice, using a small note pad and one of my favorite pens, a hexagonal Rotring ballpoint that I fell involve with years ago. It’s a great pen at the desk, not so practical when you want to put it away in-between each hand. This tournament didn’t go well for me (and was just the first of four tournament Saturday night that I bricked out of), but here it is.

Encore Club $30K WSOP Satellite

Hand 4 [qs 9s] CO T15K 100/100
We’ve stared off eight-handed and I call a min-raise, then fold after a 3-bet from BTN and a 4-bet from the original raiser.

Hand 10 [qh 5s] BB T14.8K 100/100
Called a min-raise with two callers, then folded after the flop.

Hand 14 [4s 5s] HJ T14.5K 100/100
Speculated to call 1.2K, then folded.

Hand 15 [9c tc] UTG T13.3K 100/100
One of my go-to hands, but after this, I’m down another couple thousand.

Hand 20 [2s 5s] SB T10.9K 100/200
I limp into a five-way pot and inexplicably win with a pair of fives after everyone checks through to the river.

Hand 24 [Kc 4c] UTG4 T11.7K 100/200
I raise to 600 and get a couple of callers, then c-bet a [ac 2s 3c] flop to take the pot.

Hand 29 [8h 9c] BB T13.2K 100/200
Outside my range, but I call 700 and lose.

Hand 31 [kc 4c] BTN T12.6K 200/400
This hand doesn’t work out so well for me the second time. I call a raise to 800 and fold on the flop.

Hand 36 [7d 7c] UTG2 T12K 200/400
I raise to 1,600 and win.

Hand 39 [ad 4h] BB T12.8K 200/400
UTG min-raises, everyone folds, I call, then fold to a c-bet.

Hand 40 [th 8h] SB T12K 200/400
We’re getting close to break and I take a flier on this hand, calling a 3-bet to 1,200, then folding on the flop.

Hand 41 [jh tc] BTN T10.8K 200/400
I raise to 1.2K, get 2 callers, then have to fold on the flop to a bet.

Hand 42 [ad 3s] CO T9.6K 200/400
Last hand before break 1. I limped in and folded on the flop, then put my money on the table for an add-on. And I got the re-buy.

Hand 47 [ad 9d] BB T34.2K 300/600/100
Raised to 1.8K. Folded on the flop.

Hand 51 [as js] HJ T32.4K 300/600/100
Got myself in deep here with the Mutant Jack. Bet 2.5K and got 3-bet to 6K, then had to fold on the flop to an all-in.

Hand 56 [7s 8c] SB T25.9K 300/600/100
Raised to 2K and took the BB and antes,

Hand 57 [kd 9s] BTN T27.3K 300/600/100
Called a pre-flop raise, got a king-high flop and won.

Hand 59 [kc jh] HJ T30.2K 300/600/100
I opened to 1.8K and got two callers. There was an ace on the flop, but a c-bet of 2K won the pot.

Hand 62 [ac qc] UTG1 T34.6K 400/800/100
First hand of a new level. I have 43BB and I’m still short of the number of of chips I bought. I raise my semi-premium hand, get shoved on, and we’re off to the races, with me behind a pair of nines. The nines hold and I’m out of this satellite. The last five places were still playing it out well after midnight.

30% VPIP with 14.5% of hands raised pre-flop. Lost my only showdown.

62 hands. Two hours and twenty-five minutes. 142nd of 164 entries. -100% ROI.

Encore WSOP Sat 1