News / John Tabatabai / 07 July 2009 /

The most anticipated poker series of the year, what people wait their whole lives to participate in, practice for, dream of and before you know it, with the blink of an eye it has come and gone.

So sad but unfortunately the cliche wasn't made famous by not being true. Just like life, before you even realise, take a step back to think about it; you are old, past your prime!

I can't believe that frequently in poker groups I am one of the oldest players and I am barely 24 years old. I always use to be the youngest, no longer the case. The WSOP 2009 is flooded with young internet whiz kid professionals, plenty of which had just turned 21 and some of who were even playing under age in the cash games. Truly unbelievable!!

This World Series I took a different approach to last year. In 2008 I tried to conquer the world and played poker every day, averaging probably 18 hours a day. Unfortunately playing so much poker when I was personally running bad was never going to be a good idea. Couple this with the fact that I was staking a bunch of promising and talented players who were also losing, then you can begin to see the sheer frustration and semi life tilt I went through last year. So, in order to bypass such feelings of despair and depression I thought it would be wise to play selected events this year and socialise more. As tends to be the case with me I ended up skewing more towards the socialising rather than the working. I only managed to play 4 WSOP events which was not ideal!

The $10,000 HU was the event I was most looking forward to and in the first round I drew a very tough opponent, Peter "apathy" Jetten but this didn't stop me from what I thought was going to be my first bracelet. Sometimes I let my imagination go wild, it helps at times to visualise what it is you are aiming for and realising it is achievable. However, the case was not to be as I got the same result as last year, beat a very tough opponent in the first round and in the 2nd round get absolutely card dead and screwed. This year it was worse however as the dealer we were assigned thought it was appropriate to be the worlds slowest dealer in a HU tournament where the blinds are only 20min level. He took at least 2 mins every hand to deal. Then my opponent, who seemed to be some internet kid playing his first live event equally decided it would be appropriate to take 30 seconds before every single decision argghh!! Marvellous, before I knew it blinds had sky rocketed and my card dead disease which I had contracted had now overtaken my whole body and sent me packing to the rail.

Main Event

I played a few smaller events including the $5k 6 handed and nothing really notable happened, just bad timing running big pairs into bigger pairs etc. Then ladies and gentleman, we have the main event. What a treat. $9M for the winner, life changing money. I decided to prepare by getting an early night sleep, waking up early, going to the gym (first time in 3 years), having a healthy breakfast etc. The plan was not to bust like last year in 3 hours (AA v AK all in preflop...yada yada yada). This year instead, god gave me the gift of delayed but forceful punishment. I got dealt KK twice and about 17 PP under 9s. I won one of those hands. Lovely.

The whole day I struggled with my measly stack of 10k, although still plenty compared to the blinds of 150-300 but I wanted to get involved with the weaker players on the table. I finally got my chance when I got dealt A2o in the CO with a 15k stack I opened to 800 on a tight player's big blind. Everyone folded round to the gentleman who elected to call. The flop came A-10-4 rainbow. I instantly knew I was in trouble because it was the first time I flopped anything in about 8 hours. There was no way in hell I was ever allowed to win a hand by showdown, only bluffing sir! Anyway, the BB bet out 1,100 and the way he had been playing it was clear that he had an Ace. I assumed AJ A9 A8 etc. I should have folded at this stage as obviously my A2 is behind but for reasons I cannot explain nor make up I called. The turn of course came a 2, I couldn't believe it, finally some luck and I was going to get some decent chips back and be able to play poker and punish the folks around the table, or so I thought. My opponent bet again for around 2k or so, I don't remember the exact numbers but I do remember raising to around 7k so that I was left with one yellow $5k chip. He called without much hesitation. The river brought a 9, now he stared at the board for a while then bet out a 5k chip. I instantly knew he had A9, I knew I had been muffed, but again, for life tilting reasons and frustration let alone the fact that there was 25k in the pot I decided to call like a complete idiot.

It is so annoying when you play these big tournaments which don't come round that often and you waste such great opportunities. It truly is a shame. It might be worth my time investing in a mind set coach / life coach type person. I don't understand why sometimes I get frustrated for no reason and blow off my chips. In this spot, yes it is annoying to put in 66% of my stack and fold on the river but what other options are there? Lets take a look, a) call and be out of the tournament. B) fold and stay in the tournament.

When you have pretty solid reads it is pathetic to waste chips against yourself. In this spot, there is 0% he would have played AK or AQ in this manner. Once you eliminate those hands, there are no other hands I can dream of that I beat. Therefore, my call is horrendous on the end. I called and of course he had the only hand he could have, A9.

Yes I ran bad a lot, but there were hands like the last one where it is not only feasible but obvious to make the laydown. I think hanging out with too many American internet kids the last few weeks has screwed with my head, all they talk about is pot odds. The truth of the matter is, in my humble opinion ladies and gentlemen, there is no such things as pot odds in tournaments. So what im getting 5-1 on my money and I win more than x% of the time...if you believe and know you are beat you fold. It's a god damn tournament not a cash game!! Preserve your chips!

ARgggghhh, as you can tell I've just busted and written this now. Probably better as at least this way you'll get some raw truthful emtotions.

So disappointed with myself, but hey ho, live and learn.

Card Stacker

On the plus side fellow Betfair sponsored pro Peter Jepsen and I went to congratulate Brian Berg who built an entire replica of London City skyline out of decks of cards on his fine achievement which took him 5 days; during this scheduled interview Betfair decided in all their wisdom to get Peter to push me into the house of cards which I wasn't aware of. Of course Peter "Mr Gym" Jepsen launched me so hard that I even bounced back off the wall!!! I mean come on!!! .

Well, at least now I have time to go back to the cash tables and make some pocket money J

Good luck all,

John

Catch John at the Betfair Cash Tables

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