I lasted about two hours at the WSOPE. After a reasonably breezy start I limped along for a while before blowing my stack in two hands in the space of five minutes.
We start with £20k of chips. I am down to £18k when I pick up 10-6 suited on the big blind – a raise of £300 is called once and I decide to chance my arm and come in. The flop comes 10-8-7. I bet £1k – one drops and the other calls. The turn is a five – I bet £2k and get called. The river is a five. I check and he comes in with £7k. I call. He has 8-5 for a full house.
A few hands later I pick up 10-10. The bet is £350 and I raise to £1,350 – I am called once. The flop comes Q-Q-5. He checks and I go all in (£6.5k). He calls – he has a queen. No miracle ten comes and I am out.
I’m happy enough with my final hand – you pays your money and takes your choice on those and I was unlucky to run into a queen. I’m less convinced of my strategy on the earlier hand and I need to think that through for a little longer – I probably should have hit the pot a lot harder earlier. On balance I played very badly – I was nervous to start with and I never settled down.
Oh well. It’s not the end of the world – I have a mass of work to catch up on and a long backlog of emails, and it’s nice to have a little more time. I’d like to play more poker and understand the game better than I do but I don’t think I’m going to find the time for a few years yet.