WSOPE Event 1 - Day 1 - Ian Frazer
WSOPE Event 1 £1000 Freeze out - Day 1a Ian Frazer
This is the first tourney in the series and it’s the £1000 buy in for 3000 chips. I arrive with not the greatest of preparations as I went to the pre-party the night before and bumped into some pals of mine and then cracked on in London till about 3 or 4am. Any way sitting outside in Leicester square with 3 cups of tea,2 lemonades and some tablets from Nathan Lee I was bang up for it.
I hear lots of players saying you must gamble early because of the starting chips but I totally disagree, I anticipated one third being eliminated between 3rd and 4th level and I was spot on, so there is no panic plus they have put a 25/25 level in.
I am so pleased I have been drawn on the stage which means the table will not get broken, the game is set. I play like 3 or 4 hands in the first 2 levels and have 4000 chips and feeling very good about my table. A new player joins the game in seat 4 it’s Stellios and he immediately raises from UTG to 150, seat 9 Alex Martin calls and I have 5h6h in seat 10 and flat it too. Flop 3h4h7s Wallop! Stellios continues and Alex pops it up, I now wanna jump on the table and do the “Irish jig” but contain myself to just raise it 2.5X ha-ha. Stellios passes and Alex pushes with his QQ so I win a lovely pot and everything is going to plan. (so glad the QQ didn’t raise pre-flop).
I am now double average and lock up, I am not interested in bullying or taking any chances I want to consolidate what I have, so I go through the motions for a couple of levels hoping to pick up on some more info about my opposition.
The level before dinner was very exciting with lots of big pots going on. I have AK in early position and raise 2.75X seat 6 a young guy who has just won a couple of pots and now has a big stack 3X me. I consider my chips, timing of the tourney and the fact this guy is on a high from previous pots and decide to move all in for the first time of the day. He tanks for ages I am now thinking he must have qq or same hand as me, the whole table is getting fidgety and I am thinking someone is gonna call clock, when this young guy says call, I cant believe he tables AQ and I double up.
Double Wallop! It is now dinner break and I am chip leader with 26000.
After dinner it’s much of the same and my game plan hasn’t changed, I trickle along nicely. We get a few more new players and a couple of big stacks emerge one guy in particular is very aggressive but his game was very transparent, I saw him as a good opportunity and waited. The first hand I get involved with him he makes a good call on the end and takes 6500 from me. After that hand he raised every single pot to 1500 from any position he was seat 7. I heard we were going to stop at 40 players and we were on 44 so I wanted this guy bad as my stack was now 14k and he had like 40k.
My next BB he raised and I called with Q5 off and called his flop bet with nought contemplating the bluff but there was no need as I rivered a Q high flush which i bet and he called. I knew he didn’t like that at all so I played the next pot with him too, with KQ check calling and raising to a fold on the river. I now had 21k chips back and felt better. Sure enough he raises again the very next pot and I make it 2.75X with KK, (I just know he is going to re-raise) he does and I move all in he calls and shows Jd8d and I double through. It is now declared the end of play as I am stacking my chips and I think what great timing.
A day off then back Sunday.
Mr. Frazer , it was a pleasure meeting you and playing against you . Unfortunately i was unlucky . While i lasted longer than i thought i would of , my overall game was pretty good i’d say . I did take the advice of a friend of mine ( Queen of Hearts ) and fold my JJ pre-flop to a raise and a re-raise .. I wish you good luck in your continuation of the tournament .. Cheers Georgio ( Scotland ) ..