Ryan Laplante
CardsChat Pro
Silver Level
For those of you who don't know who I am: My name is Ryan Laplante, I am a 28 year old poker professional. Over the 9 years I've played professionally I've played more than 40,000 tournaments, cashed for more than $4,500,000 and have been fortunate enough to win a wsop Gold Bracelet as well have many other large live final tables.
I've decided to do a small blog series for the WSOP/Summer grind this year. Due to my ridiculously busy schedule I can't promise any regularity with this, nor do I know how many of these posts I will write, but if I have time and desire to do so will get as much of these out as I can.
I've done a few WSOP blogs in the past (2011) (2012) and also had a long running BLOG as well.
I thought it'd be nice to do another for this year's summer grind.
(Note: "Summer grind" effectively starts with the last WPT event of the year on 5/21 and runs until the last major event of the summer: 7/21)
The last few years the summer has been the best time of the year for me. 2016 I won my first bracelet, set a record for most cashes in the wsop in a summer, set record for winning record breaking field, and was leading the WSOP POY for almost 2 weeks. It was a dream come true in many ways. It was a heartbreaking year as well though, as the night I won my bracelet, the worst mass shooting in US history (at the time) occurred in a gay night club.
2017 was almost better for me. Last summer I made 4 final tables, in which I chopped 2 of them for 2nd place money, and had a 2nd place in a WSOP plo/nlhe event as well. The smallest FT I made was 1 of the most memorable as it was in the tag team event with 1 of my best friends, and was her first FT at the WSOP.
Going into this summer I don't really have true expectations. After having 2 incredible years the last few, even hoping to repeat seems a bit "greedy". That being said, I'm going to go into every tournament with the expectation that anything is possible, and that as long as I stay happy, focused, and determined that maybe I can achieve something great.
My summer grind started yesterday with the $10,000 World Poker Tour "Bobby Baldwin Classic" hosted at the Aria. It attracted a bit more than 150 entries, with many of the best players in the world in the field.
I started the day showing up 10 min early, ready to play a strong and focused game all day. Was a very friendly starting table, playing with Daniel Strelitz and Joey Weissman, and few players I didn't recogonize. We all introduced ourselves, and set the tone for a very friendly and chatty first few hours of the day.
As the day progressed the table got progressively tougher, with players like David Sands, Nick Schulman, Justin Young, Byron Kaverman, Cary Katz and a few others. Many of them busted and got shifted around, but there were generally a few well known other players at the table; To be expected in a field like this.
The most memorable hand of the day:
Big Blind 800, I have 23000 in chips and am in the big blind with AsKc.
UTG (unknown) opens to 1600, folds to Katz in MP1 who calls, then folds to my big blind.
With AKo here I have 2 reasonable options, I can 3bet to a sizing like 6-8k, or I can shove all in. As there is no ICM pressure on me, I decided the higher variance line of 3betting to 7k would be better than just jamming.
UTG calls and Katz calls.
Pot:22,300
Flop:Jc7s6c
I have only 16000 in chips and the pot size is 22000. This is a fairly wet board and either of my opponents can pretty easily have top pair, sets, straight draws or flush draws. That being said, with less than 80% pot in my stack, 2 overs and some back door draws, I believed that this was a pretty typical shove spot for me.
So, I went all in for 16,000, UTG folded, and Katz called with 23cc.
I dodged his pair and flush outs and vaulted up to 54k, after having been at a low point once of 13k!
With 2 hands left in the night, David Sands shoved 18bb from the sb, I was in bb with Ad2s, and made a very begrudging call. I held vs his JTo, and thus I bagged 78k in chips to end the night.
Day 2 is in only 3.5 hours, and it will be big blind 1200.
I hope to run well today, and continue to play my best!
Thank you all for reading and best of luck at the tables!
I've decided to do a small blog series for the WSOP/Summer grind this year. Due to my ridiculously busy schedule I can't promise any regularity with this, nor do I know how many of these posts I will write, but if I have time and desire to do so will get as much of these out as I can.
I've done a few WSOP blogs in the past (2011) (2012) and also had a long running BLOG as well.
I thought it'd be nice to do another for this year's summer grind.
(Note: "Summer grind" effectively starts with the last WPT event of the year on 5/21 and runs until the last major event of the summer: 7/21)
The last few years the summer has been the best time of the year for me. 2016 I won my first bracelet, set a record for most cashes in the wsop in a summer, set record for winning record breaking field, and was leading the WSOP POY for almost 2 weeks. It was a dream come true in many ways. It was a heartbreaking year as well though, as the night I won my bracelet, the worst mass shooting in US history (at the time) occurred in a gay night club.
2017 was almost better for me. Last summer I made 4 final tables, in which I chopped 2 of them for 2nd place money, and had a 2nd place in a WSOP plo/nlhe event as well. The smallest FT I made was 1 of the most memorable as it was in the tag team event with 1 of my best friends, and was her first FT at the WSOP.
Going into this summer I don't really have true expectations. After having 2 incredible years the last few, even hoping to repeat seems a bit "greedy". That being said, I'm going to go into every tournament with the expectation that anything is possible, and that as long as I stay happy, focused, and determined that maybe I can achieve something great.
My summer grind started yesterday with the $10,000 World Poker Tour "Bobby Baldwin Classic" hosted at the Aria. It attracted a bit more than 150 entries, with many of the best players in the world in the field.
I started the day showing up 10 min early, ready to play a strong and focused game all day. Was a very friendly starting table, playing with Daniel Strelitz and Joey Weissman, and few players I didn't recogonize. We all introduced ourselves, and set the tone for a very friendly and chatty first few hours of the day.
As the day progressed the table got progressively tougher, with players like David Sands, Nick Schulman, Justin Young, Byron Kaverman, Cary Katz and a few others. Many of them busted and got shifted around, but there were generally a few well known other players at the table; To be expected in a field like this.
The most memorable hand of the day:
Big Blind 800, I have 23000 in chips and am in the big blind with AsKc.
UTG (unknown) opens to 1600, folds to Katz in MP1 who calls, then folds to my big blind.
With AKo here I have 2 reasonable options, I can 3bet to a sizing like 6-8k, or I can shove all in. As there is no ICM pressure on me, I decided the higher variance line of 3betting to 7k would be better than just jamming.
UTG calls and Katz calls.
Pot:22,300
Flop:Jc7s6c
I have only 16000 in chips and the pot size is 22000. This is a fairly wet board and either of my opponents can pretty easily have top pair, sets, straight draws or flush draws. That being said, with less than 80% pot in my stack, 2 overs and some back door draws, I believed that this was a pretty typical shove spot for me.
So, I went all in for 16,000, UTG folded, and Katz called with 23cc.
I dodged his pair and flush outs and vaulted up to 54k, after having been at a low point once of 13k!
With 2 hands left in the night, David Sands shoved 18bb from the sb, I was in bb with Ad2s, and made a very begrudging call. I held vs his JTo, and thus I bagged 78k in chips to end the night.
Day 2 is in only 3.5 hours, and it will be big blind 1200.
I hope to run well today, and continue to play my best!
Thank you all for reading and best of luck at the tables!
