WCP Heat 1 Report

I'd love to see the internet feed of this so if anyone knows some way I can get it please let me know. Let me see what I can remember.

Hand 1: Call behind an EP raise from Germany with 33 in BB at 50/100 behind the SB (Iceland) call. Flop set and checkraise but I guess the guy had unpaired big cards and he folds.

Hand 2*: Fold a lot of stuff I might otherwise open because it's correct in this tournament/I'm just a huge nit anyways.

Hand 3: CO, Romania raises to 400 at 70/140. I make it 1200 with AK in the BB which is basically a clear mistake. He calls and I check/fold QJ9 flop getting shown top set.

Hand 4: Get AK a few times and cram over raises, they fold.

Hand 5: Blinds 300/600, 6 or 7 handed and me and Romania have all the chips. Romania opens UTG to 1500. I forget he has raised and throw 1500 in the pot and announce raise, with TT. Raymer tells the announcer I said raise and he announces I will be raising. I'm like wtf is going on, OH CRAP THE ROMANIAN NIT UTG RAISED AND NOW I HAVE TO RERAISE IM SO SCREWED IM ABOUT TO RUIN EVERYTHING. Somehow I manage to keep a poker face and play it off like I was deciding how much I wanted to reraise and then shove for 7500 more or something because it's really all I can do at this point. Miraculously everyone folds and and I breathe a sigh of relief, I would definitely have just folded preflop normally because given the structure/chip counts and how tight he had been there was no reason to get involved here.

Hand 6: Purtugal shoved 3600 UTG at 300/600, I shove JJ, Ireland calls with AK in the SB and 3700. QQ holds and I'm down to like 6600. Daniel thinks it's not worth gambling here and I should fold preflop but I'm pretty sure I'm just so far ahead on average and it's not a crippling % of my chips I really can't fold.

Hand 7: At some point Germany shoves 3800 UTG at 400/800 5-handed. I have A7s and basically want to call but Romania only has 2400 chips UTG+1 so I think he's stronger than usual here even though he's pushed several times before and fold.

Hand 8: Daniel calls timeout and berates me for even thinking about calling last hand because I'm so much better than everyone. I try to explain the reason I'm better is because I can recognize spots where it's correct to gamble with marginal hands but agree with his point about opening all-in more than calling all-in in general. Obviously the next hand I iso-shove KTo over Romanian's UTG push for 3xBB in the SB since I'm getting 2:1 assuming BB folds which he does. Romania has A8s and holds. Daniel was like wtf I just told you not to do that but this was for a small % of my stack and is clearly very +cEV getting those odds so I think I have to get it in here.

Hand 9: From here I think it's just pushbotting. Random comical things such as Romanian showing an ace and folding when I was shoving almost any 2 cards from the SB occured. Of course I happened to have KK that time and he'll go to his grave thinking he's a genius if he ever hears about the hand.

Hand 10: I hero fold QJs to Raymer's shove even though it's clearly +cEV because it's so much easier to just steal blinds from the guys on my left. Then I go ahead and rob them blind.

Hand 11: Call Raymer shove with A2. Clearly very +cEV and if I lose I may still have fold equity vs the nits on my left, if I bust Raymer I basically win because the other 2 are really bad at push/fold poker. I luckbox the hold against K5cc.

Hand 12: Rob more blinds, snap call shove with AK and hold vs A7 to get heads up.

Hand 13: Fold some 5-highs then beat KQ with A2 aipf when I catch the ace on the river like Barry G. Board Q77KA, weeeee.

Hand 14: Drink a lot and watch poppyoppy get us some points despite playing waaaaaay too tight.

That's about all I can remember. Was pretty fun playing in front of the cameras and really good feeling to win and get us off to a good start.

Mike