Jena Delk’s Blog

My day 2 of Event 54 wrapped up just after the bubble was broken.  I started the day with average chips at a comfortable table.  I never really had any hands for the first hour, so my image was really tight.  I got a pair of queens under the gun and opened the pot. The blinds were 500/1000/100. It was folded around to an active big blind who called.  Long story short, a king came on the flop.  The big blind led out with a $1k chip.  I called.  The turn brought another king, and the big blind led with another $1k and I called thinking with the second king on the board that it was unlikely he had a king.  The river is a brick and the blind bets $6k.  I spend a good deal of time evaluating the way the hand went down and what the big blind had been showing down.  I made the wrong decision and called.  The blind shows the king eight right away, so i mucked my hand without showing.

Now I am short stacked with about 8k remaining in my stack.  We are about a hundred away from the money, so I move into survival mode.  I am able to shove all in a few times that are not called.  I get AK with less than ten away from the money when I look down to see AK.  I shove my stack again and am called by jacks.  I am saved when a full house appears on the board for a chop.  The bubble breaks soon thereafter.  I went out 346/3.844 to earn $1,868.

Oh, by the way: Check out Short-Stacked Shamus’s blog Hard Boiled Poker fame who mentioned little ole me. Thanks Shamus!

I have begun preparation to play Day 2 in Event 54 at the WSOP. This is the last It take quite a bit of time and effort to get this body ready to the rigors of tournament play.  I slept until I woke up today for a total of 13 hours of sleep. I sure was exhausted after playing day 1a.

Yesterday was long for me. I got up at 4:15 am to leave the house at 4:45 Then rode for an hour to get to the Orlando airport. The next nearly 10 hours were spent dealing with planes and airports.

Arriving Las Vegas just after 11 am, my roomies picked me up and carried me to the Rio. I was packing two dozen Dunkin’ Donuts (roomies did an errand for me on the way to pick me up-thanks guys) These donuts were for my friends in Media Row.

So I’m standing in the long registration line with two boxes which start feeling very heavy. These donuts cause lots of stares and comments. Finally I am registered and head to media row to find @AlCantHang. He is no where to be found so I head to my seat and put the boxes under my chair.

I ask each media person passing by my table if they knew where he was. No luck so I leave early for the first break to find my friend. When he is still unfindable (is that a word?) I leave the donuts on Nolan Dalla’s perch with a note and my business card.

Back to the tournament; I triple up my 3,000 starting in the first two levels. I am flopping full houses and trips. I feel unstoppable. Then you know what happens, the cards go south and the drought lasts until 40 minutes before the end of play. It’s 400/800/75 and I have 3200. I shove a bunch and get lucky a few times.

Then the hand comes: pocket aces. The UTG player opens to 1050 and it’s folded to me on the button. I reraise to 3500. The small blind grabs a stack of 500 chips and reraises me. The UTG shoves for a bit more and I pause. The small blind has me covered. I shove and he calls. My aces hold and I am thrilled. The UTG player had pocket tens and the small blind had AKo.

When the day finished I bagged 23,275 for day 2. This is a nice average stack. Play resumes Saturday at 2:30pm.