Get It Quietly

Football, bollocks and a bit of poker if you're lucky.

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Location: Enfield, London, United Kingdom

Friday, July 08, 2005

Burning The Midnight Oil

WSOP day one kicked off at 11am for most people (I'll come on to this later) ... the lucky third of the field who made it to the end of the day bagged up their chips at about 2-30am. Lucky indeed, for they have two days rest before starting all over again. That's a 15 hour day of intense poker, interspersed with the odd bout of walking miles and miles to find something to eat, laughably dubbed a "break".

I cannot believe it is anything other than a huge disadvantage to be drawn on Day 3, unless you are some kind of genetic mutant who can perform at this level on a daily basis with no ill-effects. One would hope that the later days won't last 15 hours but by then the damage may well be done. It does seem grossly unfair to me not to have a rest day after the first three, but nonetheless here we are.

If you have been drawn on Day 3, you'll have to lump it. If they won't let Layne Flack change days when he is running a temperature of 106, then I think you're stuck with your draw. If you are playing Day 3 then IMO it is an absolute necessity to play as much poker as you can while you're still on a level playing field with your opponents. Play some hands. Gamble. Try to build a big stack because you are surely going to need it the next day. Sitting on 8,000 thinking "I'll come back tomorrow" must be WRONG. Tomorrow, two-thirds of the field will be well rested and raring to go, while you'll be propping your eyelids open with matchsticks (I like that one you can tell).

Furthermore to that, do all these "I regard myself as a poker player, I'll outplay them later" types not realise how draining 7 days of poker at this level is going to be ? Especially if you're not used to it. Any edge that you really do have is going to melt away once you're left with mostly tough professionals who are used to playing at this level day in, day out.

If I ever do find myself in a tournament like this I resolve to gamble it up and play marginal EV / high variance plays absolutely whenever I can. After all it will be a holiday - who wants to spend it grinding away with a low stack for five days ? Get some chips or get to the bar that's what I reckon. Kudos to Gutshot's Tiffany who is going for it by all accounts. We shall see if anyone else can seize the day.

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