Montel Williams and some live poker

I played in the World Poker Open this weekend in Tunica. Tunica and Biloxi aren't my favorite places in the world, but they are relatively convenient in terms of playing some live poker from Atlanta. You can fly to both, but I prefer the drive as I can just jump straight to my car after busting out.

The main event was a $5K buyin and they had 107 entrants. Clonie Gowen, Robert Williamson III, and Montel Williams were the known players in the field (Clonie is chip leader going into the final table).

I played with Montel on Day 1 as he amassed a big stack to become chip leader late on Day 1. He was hitting all kinds of hands. On one hand, with blinds of 150-300 and 25 ante, a player limped in middle position. I raise from the cutoff to 1700 with AK and Montel called on the button. I had been playing pretty tight. The limper folded.

The flop was AQ2. I bet 1600 and Montel raised to 4000. I called and the turn was one of the worst cards that could hit - a J. I checked and Montel put me all-in for another 7K or so. I lose against AQ, AJ, and 22. I win against AT or less. I learned later that Montel did call some raises quite loosely, but at that time I didn't know this. He had also put someone all-in earlier quite quickly in a similar fashion and showed a big hand. I folded. I built my stack back up to 17K after that hand (we started with 15K).

On another hand, a good player limped and I raised with KQs. The flop was Kxx, rainbow. I bet 2K into a 4K pot and he called. There were no likely straight or flush draws on the flop. The turn was a blank and we both checked. The river was a blank and he bet out 3K. Any 5 would give someone a straight. It looked like he was just begging for a call. I put him on a set as I don't think he calls me preflop with something like KJ. he might have had something like TT or 99 but I felt like he would have bet more on the river to try and get a hand like QQ to fold. So I folded that one also.

It was basically a struggle all day. I felt like I was playing good but kept hitting 2nd best hands which cost me chips. The field was down to 23 players after Day 1! Great tournament but I just couldn't get anything going.

My last hand came down to a draw where I had 87 on a flop of 754. It was a raised pot 5-handed where I got in cheap from the big blind. I check-raised all-in and found myself against JJ and didn't improve. i would have got up to 30K on that hand but to no avail.

That's the last of live poker for me this year. I've been busy the last few weekends so haven't played much online either but hope to get back into the Sunday tourneys in a couple of weeks.