I wrote my last blog after a 35k cash game win. I actually tripled that profit over the next 4 days before having my first losing day of ~20k. I played a couple of hands poorly last night, but overall I’ve been playing well.

I realized I haven’t been sick on months. Unfortunately the thing that made me realize that was getting sick last night. It started off as just a really bad runny nose with no other symptoms.

Within a few hours it was so bad that I had to leave the cash games. I had to get up every two hands just to blow my nose. That night I took a sleeping pill. Before it kicked in, I started feeling really congested and started sneezing a lot. I didn’t think I would fall asleep because of how often I had to blow my nose, but when I was finally laying down in bed, I was able to fall asleep.

I felt like complete shit this morning. I was super congested, sneezing a lot, and I probably had the worst runny nose I’ve ever had in my life today. The timing couldn’t have been worse as today was day 1 of the Bellagio $25,000 WPT Championship.

I went to the gift shop and bought everything that I thought might be usable – both daytime and night time versions. I also had a friend bring me some nasal spray, but it didn’t really help much. I was getting up to blow my nose and/or sneeze every couple of hands.

I showed up to my seat at a really soft table. There was only one good player (there was also a guy at my table who I’m about 80% sure was Nordberg who is probably good), a guy I’m friends with named Mike (I forget his last name… he’s friends with Jon Little). I assumed I was the empty seat until I realized that was the 8 seat and I was the 9 seat. Turns out the guy in my seat thought he was table 51, but his receipt said table 50. They moved him and his stack over to his proper table, and put me in his seat with his stack (had blinded down to 49,700). So instead of being the last seat at a super soft table, I soon found out that Tom “Durrrr” Dwan was the missing seat.

He showed up after the first level ended and didn’t take any time to start playing some huge pots. Before I get to the hands, I have to mention the hat.

Tom had lost a prop bet (as he always does) to Alan Sass a few days ago. As the loser, Tom had to wear any hat of Alan’s choosing for the whole tournament. There was a thread about this in NVG on 2+2 with some awesome suggestions including stuff like a giant oversized hot dog hat and a baseball cap with a rainbow on it with the words, “I am gay.” Check out the hat they ended up going with: http://www.pocketfiveslive.com/wp-content/gallery/wpt-championship-day-1b-gallery/Tom%20Dwan.JPG Make sure you are picturing Durrr in this hat for the rest of the blog.

At 100/200 utg raised, Tom called and 2-3 other players called. The flop came KT8 rainbow. The big blind lead out, the utg raiser reraised to somewhere around 3000-3500, and Durrr reraised to somewhere in the 8500-9000 range. After a while, they both folded. Tom tried to show me his hand, but I wasn’t sure if he was trying to or not, so I didn’t look. He then made some comment out loud about “That was a terrible raise… I played that hand bad… I don’t know what I would have done if someone reraised.”

About an orbit later I limped utg with KJ of clubs, and 3 more players limped. Durrr made a tiny raise to 650 and all 4 of us called for a 5 way pot. The flop came AJ6 with the ace and 6 of clubs. Durrr led out for 875. I called, and so did the second limper. The button reraised to 3875. Durrr reraised to a little over 12k. I had about 44k at the time, and thought for a minute about moving all-in.

I know Durrrr is a crazy player, but he’s also a really good and smart player. It was pretty obvious the button would have raised preflop with aces or jacks, but he could easily have a set of 6’s, and I don’t think he would raise in that spot with a flush draw or any other kind of bluff. Basically that meant his range was 2 pair or bottom set. Would Durrr really run a huge bluff in this spot? I thought for a while and figured he probably had aces. I know the small raise from the big blind is kind of weird, but Durrrr likes to get cute with his big hands. He already limped jacks once, and I know of another hand where he just checked with jacks in the big blind after a late position limper and a small blind completion.

So I folded after a minute or two. The second limper thought for another minute or two before folding, and then the button showed A6 as he folded.

Tom whispered to me that he had the same hand he had on the KT8 flop. I asked if he had aces, and he said no.

He said he would give me 1% of himself and 1% of a player he stakes (not sure if he would appreciate his name being mentioned in this context, so I won’t name him) if I could guess the hand. Given the action on the hands, and based on his previous comment during the KT8 hand, I guessed KT, and he said no.

I asked Tom if that comment was legit, or was meant to throw off the table, and he said, “Anything I say loud enough so that the whole table can hear can’t be taken as truth.” I demanded another guess, and he said I could have .25% of the two players if I got it right.

I asked the table what they had during the AJ6 hand, and the second limper said he had the nut flush draw. This was obviously a lie as I had the king of clubs in my hand. After he lied a little bit more, I was pretty confident that he had a small flush draw. Another player in the hand said he folded QJ with the queen of clubs. This meant that the biggest club left unaccounted for was a ten, and there was only one jack, two aces, and two 6’s (because of the guy that showed A6) remaining in the deck.

See if you can guess what hand Tom had both times now that you have all the hints.

He’s not bad enough to make these two plays with AK for value, so he basically has to be bluffing in at least one of the hands. I thought a lot about what he would make such a small raise with in the second hand from the big blind, and figured it had to be a hand he either thought was likely to have a player or two dominated with (while not having a chance of being dominated), or was a hand like a small pair he wanted to build a pot with. The former seemed more likely.

There were a few straight draws and gut shots in the first hand, but the one that made the most sense with the second hand was AJ. I threw that out as my official guess, and knew I was right when he responded, “Fuck you.” Hopefully Tom will take this down and I get to ship a free 10k.

A couple orbits later (I think at 100/200 with a 25 ante), Tom raised, and someone called. Beth Shak reraised from the big blind. Tom grabbed some chips and threw out a 4 bet. I was thinking during the hand, “Tom has to know how tight Beth’s reraising range is here. He plays so crazy, and I know he loves to 4-bet and even 5-bet light, but is he really stupid enough to do it against Beth?” Sure enough, Beth 5-bet, and was happy that Tom wasn’t being stupid when he instantly moved all-in. This obviously meant he had aces, as Beth would think she’s committed to call with her kings, which she did. Tom’s hand held up, and he was up to an early 125k.

I played a hand against Tom kind of badly. I raised pre from EP and he called from the big blind. The flop came ace high, and Tom led out. I hate playing against guys like Tom, because I always think they’re just trying to outplay me. I had nothing but raised the flop, and bet the turn and river. Once he called the river I should have realize he was leading out on the flop to try and induce a bluff from me, but I was stupid and bluffed the river too. Tom called with AK. I was down to 20k after I played that hand so terribly (at least I can blame it on being sick or something).

2 hands later a player in MP raised to 700. Nordberg called, and so did Tom on the button. I had two red queens in the small blind and reraised to 3k. Only Tom called and the flop came 986 with two clubs and one spade. I thought about check raising, but knew Tom was likely to put me on either AK, or a complete squeeze preflop, so I just led out for 5k. Tom asked to see my chips (I had about 13k more), and put me all-in. I instantly called, and Tom said something like, “oops”. He flipped up K6 of spades, and sure enough he got there with running spades.

Now I’m back in my hotel room, feeling too sick to play cash games, which really bothers me because I expect them to be really juicy for the next few days. I’m really hoping I get better soon enough to take advantage of them.