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Kyle had been telling me for the past year that the live players at the WSOP tended towards a very low average skill level. For example, I played(and hosed) the $1500 no-limit holdem event today. I had initially expected the skill level to be somewhere around the level of online $530s. Or at least, $215s.

Today was about the level of online $55s or $33s.

To say the least, I was not impressed with the general level of play. Sure, I could identify a fair number of good players at each table, but rather than having 1 or 2 donks at each table on average, there had to be more like 4-5 donks a table. At least, I was seeing some plays which were completely beyond my comprehension, implying that they were either strokes of genius or complete idiocy. My money’s on the latter.

Multiple people were getting on me for shaking, thinking that it was a tell. However, as former roommates can attest, my leg tends to twitch/shake constantly anyways, so this probably doesn’t indicate anything aside from me being the spastic type.

Anyways, we started with 3k chips. 1 hour per blind level, 2 levels to a break. At the first break, I had 4.5k. Going in towards the second break, I was moved to a new table and had about 8.5k chips. One of the dudes there looked familiar. I thought I knew who he was, but didn’t say anything. As I sat down, Famous Dude butted heads with a slightly shorter stack at the table and lost, leaving himself with about 2.2k.

Blinds were 150/300, 25 antes. Famous Dude was in the big blind. I raised to 1k from mid-position with 77. People fold around to FD, who calls(?!). Flop comes JT8 rainbow. FD jams his remaining 1200 chips, I call. The rest of the table gasps. I turn over my 77. FD turns over…66. He scowls, doesn’t get any help on the turn or river, and I bust him.

As the Famous Dude leaves, people at my table are like “Wow, ballsy call there” and “Amazing call.” Someone asks me “Do you know who that was?” I feign ignorance. “Should I know who he is?”

The guy next to me says “That was Ted Forrest.” [Ed. note- Forrest is considered one of the best 7-card stud players in the world, and a formidable holdem player. He's played $100k/$200k limit holdem against Andy Beal before.] I continue to act clueless. “Is he really famous?”

The rest of the table laughs at me.

Really, this sums up the general skill level of today’s event. With 1200 behind, I was going to call Forrest no matter what came on the flop. That’s a purely mathematical decision. Even if he had 2500 chips left, I would have called, because my take on it was that Forrest would think “This kid probably knows who I am and can be intimidated into folding via a stop-and-go play.” But for 1200 more chips, I’d have to have been drunk, stoned, and running a 102 fever before considering a fold.

Unfortunately, I was getting crap cards for most of the tourney. I did see AA and JJ once, and AKo twice, but that was it over about 6.5 hours of play. I ran into a flush a bit before the third break, leaving me with 2.5k going into dinner. Shortly after dinner, I hosed.

Despite that, I’m reasonably satisfied with today. I was concentrating well the entire time, I finally grokked that live play here is definitely not at a skill level that’s beyond me, and by encountering a top pro and coming out well, Mystique and Aura take a couple more steps towards being dancers at a nightclub. I’ve busted bracelet winners online before, but this felt different.  The game is not nearly as foreign as it was this morning.