2013 WSOP, Day 43: Folding Kings

Day 2c of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event wasn’t too different from Day 2a/b. More players started and ended the day, and while there were still some interesting hands here and there and a few diverting episodes, the stacks are still deep enough and money bubble far enough away that only the most unusual situations tended to generate special drama.

The WSOP’s reports are showing 1,753 players having survived two days of poker out of the 6,352 who entered. Here’s how the three flights for Days 1 and 2 went as far as how many started and how many survived each day:

Day 1a: 943 started; 584 survived

Day 1b: 1,991 started; 1,296 survived

Day 1c: 3,418 started; 2,306 survived

Day 2a: 584 started; 238 survived

Day 2b: 1,296 started; 562 survived

Day 2c: 2,306 started; 953 survived

The top 648 finishers get paid, meaning the money bubble will not burst until tomorrow’s Day 4, although the tension will certainly increase as the field gets whittled down further during today’s five two-hour levels.

Last year 6,598 played the Main Event and uncannily there were exactly 1,753 to start that Day 3 as well. Of that group 720 made it to Day 3, which if today follows suit similarly that means they will still be around 70 spots off the cash at the end of play this evening.

Probably the most interesting hand I watched yesterday came right at the end of the last level involving Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Chris Tryba, and Jackie Glazier. All had well over average stacks when the hand began (i.e., more than 100,000), and with the blinds in Level 10 still just 600/1,200 they were plenty deep, too.

Here’s the write-up of the hand, which started with a Timoshenko open from the hijack seat, a Tryba three-bet from the cutoff, then a four-bet by Glazier from the button. Timoshenko got out, Tryba raised again, Glazier raised again, then Tryba put out a big stack for yet another reraise and after a lot of thought Glazier pushed her hand face downward to the dealer.

The hand probably took six or seven minutes total. After Glazier finally folded Tryba showed his A-A and Glazier explained she’d had K-K. Tryba had had Glazier covered, which surely factored into her decision to fold. She ended up losing only about a fourth of her stack in the hand, and still would end the night with just over 100,000.

As I mentioned in the report, the table had been especially jovial throughout the day and night, with the personable Tryba in particular having lots of fun engaging others in conversation about many different topics. Thus the contrast was all the more stark when this hand began to play out thanks to the grave seriousness of the back-and-forthing between Tryba and Glazier as they silently kept reraising each other.

The fold was impressive, and made me think a little of the media tourney that started during the dinner break and in which I lasted a couple of hours before falling shy of the final 30 or so. As in the past, the tourney had a fast, turbo-like structure, and when I picked up pocket kings early on there was no question about my shoving all in over a raise and call. The hand also made me think of my K-K-vs.-A-A exit from a tourney at the Rio a couple of summers ago.

Covering the Day 2 flights I’ve already seen players calling off stacks in spots that seemed more obviously bad ones, in particular after the flop when an aggressive opponent pushing on a ragged, non-drawy board seemed likely to have a set and the caller goes down in flames with an overpair. Of course, finding those folds is always easier said than done.

Every summer we hear the cliché repeated that those making it through the big Main Event fields have to be lucky along the way to do so. But it’s also true that no one makes it to Day 7 and the final 27 or to the November Nine without having made some smart decisions along the way as well -- likely many, many times.

Back at it today for Day 3. As always, follow along over at PokerNews.