One Last Cash Game

So it was Saturday night in Tunica and I had just run a big Ace with my short stack into AA again and was OUT. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed to have finished up the weekend with ZERO tournament cashes. - $340 - $550 -$340 = -$1230 OUCH. Taking into account the cash game success I was still down for the weekend... -$1230 + $148 + $328 = -$754 ...but not out. Lance, a poker buddy of mine, also played in the Friday and Saturday tournaments. Unfortunately he also didn't cash and at this point we were trying to figure out a way to play some poker together. The cash games at the poker room were jammed and the waiting list was crazy long. So we decided to put our names on the list and try to get into a satellite table. We waited about 15 minutes for enough players to show up, but a bunch of poker degenerates started crowding around. The tournament director (TD) picked out 9 players for the table (which included Lance and I), but unfortunately a bunch of players stole our seats. I was pretty furious at the TD for allowing this to happen. So what do we do now? Answer: Wait.

After what seemed like forever we finally got a seat at the $1/$3 No Limit Hold'em (NLHE) table. Lance is used to playing higher stakes, but the $2/$5 table wasn't opening up and I didn't have the bankroll to play much higher. So we took our seats at the $1/$3 table and immediately started to upset the balance of the table. We tried to convince the table to have a manditory 1 or 2 orbit straddle, but they were a bunch of bumps on a log. A typical straddle is where you essentially place out a double big blind in the position just in front of the big blind. In this case it would be $6. Well in Mississippi poker rooms they allow you to straddle from any position. Since the table wouldn't straddle Lance and I decided to start taking turns posting the straddle pretty much every hand. I have to admit though that Lance probably posted more than I did. We were talking, joking and drinking with the other players at the table, but it was clear that some at the table didn't appreciate our tactics as players started rotating in and out frequently.

I had been playing and raising a lot of hands early on, and was pretty much breaking even. I was in the straddle again and a young player raised up my straddle from $6 to $20 when I looked down at KK. I quickly made it $60 to go and he just as quickly called. The flop was all small and I bet $100. He went all in over the top for less than $100 more and I had to make the call. I flipped over my kings and he held his hand tight. In cash games you don't have to show your hand. I don't mind showing mine especially if it is strong, because I don't want to slowroll a player. However, not showing is standard practice in cash games. The reason he held his hand was because he had jack shit and I collected a very nice pot.

After collecting a number of other pots I was sitting pretty as a $400 winner very early in the game. Lance on the other hand was probably stuck about $100 or $200 early on, but looked like he was having a blast. He was playing just about every pot and was raising a high percentage of those times. We were drinking, doing shots and generally just having a great time. It certainly didn't hurt that we had both pretty much stayed out of each other's way in this crazy straddling mess we had created... but the inevitable was bound to happen.

Lance raised it up to $20 preflop and I called him with KsQs. I believe there was one other caller and we took a flop. The flop came out Queen high and Lance bet again. I think he bet like $40, I called and the other player folded. The turn was another small card and Lance fired again. This time it was like $75 or $80 and he only had $100 or so left. Typically in a random spot like this I figure I'm beat and get away from the hand, but Lance was playing crazy. I said something like so we are going to play real poker now ehh? Lance did a lot of talking, joking around and laughing as I waited to make a decision. He made it pretty clear that the last $100 was going in on the river. He said he put me on QJ. Pretty damn close. LOL. Normally when a player calls out a hand like that it is because they want you to fold said hand, but as crazy as we were both playing who knows. I was about 50/50 on folding or calling with the intention of calling the river. In the end I decided not to stack off $200 hoping he was running a crazy bluff. I only had $60 in the pot so I folded my KQ face up. Lance showed me the lovely 5-2 off for a delicious pair of crappy 2's. LOL. Nice bluff Lance.

I didn't let him know, but I was a little upset at myself for folding. I could have nudged up pretty close to the $754 number I needed to break even for the weekend. Ohh well. All the talking seemed to be trying to lead me to a call. Normally this means fold your hand immediately. Well played Lance.

The rest of the night was just a steady decline in chips for me until I ended up cashing out as only a $2 winner. I had a lot of fun so I guess chalk it up to entertainment. How did it all go wrong? Nothing really special. No single big pot. Just $50 pot here $75 pot there kind of stuff. I can't remember much. One hand I tried to trap a very nitty girl with a flush on the turn, but the 4th club came on the river and my flush was only 6 high so I had to lay it down when she lead out at the river.

Toward the end of the night a guy that looked like a fat Saddam Hussein sat down on my left and proceeded to play some awful poker. He was stacking off a lot of chips light and was probably stuck $300 early, but won it back and then some. I called him down in one hand with top pair crap kicker, and he showed me top pair with medium crap kicker. UGH. I think it was like K6 against K8 and the 8 played. After that hand I just sort of locked it up. It was probably about 5 am at this point and we were all getting a little on edge. In one hand I went to call a raise out of the straddle with 6-2 off and pulled it back. I had the calling chips in my hand, started placing the chips on my straddle chips, and then pulled them back. It was clearly a violation. I was pretty drunk and tired, but I knew what I did. For some reason the dealer didn't make me keep the chips out there. Anyway, this kind of upset Saddam. I got a warning. Something later on pissed off Saddam again, but I can't remember what it was. We were playing like 5 or 6 handed maybe at this point. Saddam was upset with the dealer for something, and brought back up the hand where I pulled my chips back. I remember saying something to him like, "Just relax man we are drunk, it is late and we're having fun."

Anyway he did simmer down a little, but all his ranting and raving was a total buzz kill. Shortly after this scene we decided to call it a night. I went back to the room to crash and Lance went to play more blackjack. Surprisingly his decision ended up being the wiser of the two as he ended up winning back all his losses and then some.

WSOP Tunica Event #5

I was pretty disappointed with my finish out of the money the night before, but was so amped up for the noon event I couldn't sleep much past 8:00. It also didn't help that my Tunica trip roommate Riggs talked in his sleep. I think he was making a deal with the devil for winning rolls in craps, but I couldn't make out much. Sounded like Spanish. After a quick Awful Waffle breakfast with Riggs, Nate and Becky I was ready for some LIVE TOURNAMENT POKER!!! I really felt like I was going to play well in this tournament. I was feeling very confident and loose, and my play mirrored this. The tournament started with 905 players putting up the $340 entry fee. They ended up having to close the cash game area to accomodate the extra players. Even after doing this they still had 125 alternates waiting for enough eliminations to get in the game. Well I was not one of those alternates. I signed up for the Saturday tourament on Thursday when I arrived. I was the 5th player to sign up. LOL.

The tournament started with some familiar faces at the table. In the first event the guy on my left was a nice older gentlemen who was playing unbelievably tight. You couldn't get a greased bee-bee up his ass. He was giving my loose aggressive style some constructive criticism, but nothing all that nasty. Well low and behold the same guy was sitting on my right in this tournament. 905 players in the tournament and I'm sitting right next to the same guy from Event #3. What are the odds? Honestly this was a great thing as he played way too predictible. On my left was an old man in his 60's and he was playing a little too tight as well. There were two players at the table that I knew were going to be tough. A younger "internet" kid, and a good olde boy in overalls. They got involved in a big hand where they both had the nut straight on the turn, but the internet kid had a flush redraw and spiked it on the river. This was a huge pot at this stage of the tournament. He never slowed down either and was up to probably 35k before the 1st break. I was picking up just about every pot he wasn't and we were both clearly controlling the action at the table. It also didn't hurt that we were both sitting at the head of each end of the table.

I had about 25k when we finally collided. He had raised the last two hands when this hand came up with the blinds at 25/100/200. I watched him look down at his hand and give it a little shrug. It was almost like Jeeze I have to raise it again and he made it 600. I got the feeling that he didn't have a huge hand, but the jury was still out. I looked down at Q♥J♥ and decided to finally see a flop with this guy in position from the cutoff. Everyone else folded and the table captains were heads up. We stared eachother down as the flop came out. He tried to look like he was in a coma. I tried to do something similar. He took a peak at the flop and checked it after a little pause. I took my turn now taking a peak. J♦J♣Q♦. Holy flopped boat batman!!! I mean whatever. I decided to think about it for a second, to look like I considered stealing. Then I checked. The turn was the 8♦. He thought for awhile and put out a weakish looking bet of 1250 into the 2000 pot. I thought with my loose image this would be a good spot to pop him up quickly. I made it 3000 to go. On the internet this is so standard both players could literally have complete air. I was hoping that an advanced player like himself would pick up on it an repop it. He started trying to bore a hole through me while I stared at the middle of the pot like a zombie. The longer he thought the more I knew he wanted to re-raise it. At this point I decided talking to him would probably lose him, but a weak tell might induce the re-raise. So let's see how many books this guy has read. A frequently reliable tell on a weak player is when they are trying not to look at you, but they feel the need to take a quick peak every once in awhile. Their body is turned slightly away, but their eyes look up and then dart back away because eye contact is just too much. I put this tell on, and after about a minute (which is an eternity in holdem) he re-raised it to 12,000.

This was such a big re-raise I decided moving all in was the best play here for several reasons. The main reason was I felt like there were many hands that would call the all in on the turn, but not a big bet on the river. After a short time he called and showed 88. Wow what an absolutely brutal turn card for him. All the work and thought I put into the hand probably didn't matter. The turn card was a complete cooler for him, and that was that. I was 98% going to the river and the case 8 didn't hit the felt. I honestly did not narrow his hand range much until he called on the end. Before then we could have been just "playing the game." He asked me if I could count out my chips so he could get a feel for the size of the pot. It was right at about 50,000. He started berating himself for stacking off in a 250 big blind pot this early in the tournament. It was definitely a cooler type of hand, but I played it about as well as I could. If I flat call in any spot during this hand it is very unlikely I will get him to double me up.

After this hand it was clear who was going to be the table captain and I was ready for the role. I started playing what seemed like a lot of hands, but I was only playing cards that were playable. I knocked out a couple of short stacks on my left and right. Yes, I knocked out the uber-tight player on my right. It was a pretty sick little trap I sprung with 7's full in a blind vs. blind hand. He didn't play it bad, but I played it perfectly to get him to commit all his chips on a dead flush draw going to the river. Going to the 2nd break I had 65k in chips and expected the good time to continue heading into Level 7: 50/300/600. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Two seats were open to my right and left and they were quickly filled with two old codgers. The player on my immediate left had over 40k in chips and the one on my right had about 20k. The player on my left was a long time smoker with a hole in his throat. The old man on my right came off as a sweet old man. Well what he did to me in the next hand was anything but that.

The hand started with him raising it to 1800 from early position. I re-raised to 4000 with QQ and everyone else folded. The old man pulled back his 1800 and flipped out 4 pink chips to make the call rather quickly. I didn't put him on AA or KK here. He didn't seem the type to get tricky. The flop was a beauty Q J 4. He checked and I checked. The turn was a 9, and he quickly bet 5000. I quickly moved him all in and he quickly called. I immediately feared the straight, but those hands seemed unlikely. I thought he was going to show me a smaller set, but he rolled over AK. He called off another 10k in chips with two overs and a gutshot. Wow. It just seemed so strange. If I could avoid him spiking one of the 4 remaining tens I would have about 85k in chips. 91% of the time I would win the hand in this spot, but the dreaded 10 peeled off on the river. It was my first real beat of the tournament and this one really stung. I stared at the 10 for a solid 10 seconds before I said a word. Then I looked up and the dealer and said, "Did that just happen?" I tried to keep a smile on my face, but I gave serious consideration to leaving the table for a break. I was absolutely fuming. I still had around 40k in chips, but there are were so many more options with 85k in chips.

I tried not to let this bother me, but only a few hands later I raised from early position with K♠Q♠ to 1800 still a little steamy. I think I got like 3 callers. The flop came out T♠9♦4♠. I fired a slightly tilty bet of 5000 into the 6k pot, and it folded to a short stack with about 15k in chips who moved all in. I almost insta-called, but I pulled back the reins. I needed to call 10k more to win a pot of about 26k. The pot was laying pretty big for my flush draw with two overs and a gutshot. Even if he had a set I was getting the right odds to call. If I lost the hand I would have had less than 20k though. I felt like he could have been making a short stack play with only a single pair so I called. As I pushed the chips in the middle I said, "I think I'm a small favorite in the hand I call." He showed 66 which was the best hand, but a 2 to 1 dog to my huge draw. The turn was a red deuce, and I started complaining, "Here it comes brick, brick, brick, brick." and... WHAM the Queen of clubs one of my 18 outs reared its ugly head. Thank God! Negative reinforcement - Works every time!

That pot put me back around the 60k mark, but shortly after that hand I was moved to another table. After the first couple of orbits it was clear the new table was full of solid players. One player was the winner of Event #3 Mike Ratcliff. This was his second WSOP Circuit win. I don't care who you are that is impressive. He played very, very well at my table. Nothing real special just zero mistake poker. I on the other hand was completely card dead. Although I had an above average stack my chips started bleeding away. Finally I found a hand in early position. I raised it up with QQ. One player called and a short stack pushed in with enough to barely make it a raise. I re-raised all in to isolate, and the other player folded. The short stack showed KK. If I lost the hand I would be down to about 30k, but I spiked a Queen on the flop and collected the pot. I suppose the poker gods were evening things out. This put me at 58k heading to the dinner break.

With 290 players left the average stack was 31k. I had about twice the average stack, but the next level would cost 6k every 10 hands, and in 40 minutes it would cost 8.5k every 10 hands, and then 11k every 10 hands. Pretty similar situation to the night before. Except this time the payout structure wasn't as flat. $920 for 63rd, and $4600 for 9th. It was kind of unfortunate that they only paid the top 63 out of 905 players (typically it is about the top 10%), but there was nothing holding me back pay structure wise. As far as my cards went that was a completely different story. I had one playable hand over the next two levels and completely blinded down to 30k in chips heading into Level 13: 500/2000/4000. I was pretty much road kill at this point. 7.5 big blinds and less than 30 hands until I was broke. It was now short stack ninja time. I was forunate enough to pick up 99 in middle position, but got no callers. Then finally first to act I pushed all in with AQ, and it folded around to the big blind. He was a real nice guy with an english accent. We had built a nice little rapport playing together for the last few hours. He said, "I haven't looked man. I'll look at them one at a time for dramatic affect." He was a jokester nothing nasty here. Also, I wasn't too concerned as my hand played very well against two random cards. He started to look at the first card and I shouted, "Deuce, Deuce!" He replied, "The first card is not good for you." I said, "An Ace?" He replied, "Yes." He started to look at the second card and I said, "Ace?" Purely as a joke and he replied, "Yes." I said, "Are you kidding me?" and he said, "No sorry man" as he rolled over two beautiful mother F-ing Aces. Deja vu all over again! I was reliving my Friday evening nightmare situation again. For those who don't remember I'm about 8% to survive the hand in that spot. The flop was Jack high, and the turn was a Ten. I needed one of 4 Kings in the deck to survive, but I didn't catch it. Once again I had fallen short of the money. When I looked up at the board there were 105 players listed left. Still pretty far from the money, but a respectible top 12% finish.

This one hurt as it was my last tournament of the weekend, but I felt like I got my money's worth out of the last two tournaments. Thankfully, there was enough time left for another late night cash game...

WSOP Tunica Event #4

After picking up a nice profit in the cash games Thursday night I decided to give Event #4 a try at noon on Friday. There were 469 players that put up the $550 for the event. My style of play at the beginning of the tournament was significantly tighter than the previous tourney. Mostly because I didn't have even a remotely playable hand. No suited connectors, no small pair, nada! The tournament has a slow early structure so this wasn't really a big problem. Just before the 1st level was complete a familiar face sat down at the empty seat of my table. It was the guy who finished 6th in the tournament I finished 4th in last year. He remembered me and the race he lost to me with AJ against my 66. We remeinisced for awhile which passed the time nicely as the table was rather quiet and I was card dead. He had just come off an 11th place finish in Event #3 so it was clear he was on his game. We pretty much avoided each other at the table, but I don't think it was intentional. Anyway, the boredom finally got to me and I decided to call with Q♣9♣ from late position after a raise to 350 and 3 callers. The flop came out K65 with (2) spades. Everyone checked to me and I decided to try and steal the pot. I bet 1100 and only a small girl called from the big blind. She had literally been winning every pot so I was a little worried. The turn missed the flush draw and she checked to me. I had a feeling she was on a flush draw. I decided to check and if the river bricked and she checked I would bet 2100. The river was a non spade 7 and she checked it to me. I fired out the 2100 bet and she went into the tank. This scared the crap out of me. What could she be thinking about she has a busted flush draw right? LOL. After about about 30 seconds I realized my line was a little suspect. She called after about a minute of thinking with T♠7♠. UGH. Nice call. My plan would have worked with no T, 7 or spade on the river. That happens about 2/3 of the time. A triple barrel bluff would have probably got it done, but I would have had to commit a significant chunk on the turn and river to get it done. Ohh well I still had over 6k or so.

I was talking a lot at the table, but playing tight. I don't really know what my image was, but after that clear bluff it couldn't have been good. With the blinds still at 50/100 I raised to 400 from the 2 hole with KK. Only the big blind called and we saw a flop. It was a gross 8 A 3 flop. He checked, I checked behind. The turn was an 8. Check, Check. The river was a beautiful King. He quickly checked and I started counting out some chips. While I was doing this he started grabbing his chips looking ready to call just about any bet. I picked up on this immediately, and decided to count out some more chips. I decided to pick a ridiculous number for the 900 pot. The same bet as the bluff earlier 2100. So sexy. He pretty much insta called the 2100 and flipped over his crappy Ace with authority. I guess he thought I was bluffing. I quickly showed my Kings full and the dealer said, "Holy crap." I guess everyone thought I was bluffing. LOL.

This was the last highlight I would have for awhile as my chips started blinding off. Beginning of Level 3: 8600, Level 4: 7450, Level 5: 6850, Level 6: 5000, Level 7: 5350. Finally late in Level 7 (50/300/600) I doubled up and then some to 13,800 with QQ against AJ and had some breathing room. Shortly after this double up I got moved to another table. I immediately smelled some wicked B.O. It was the guy to my direct left. Brutal. Then I noticed the clear table captain. A tiny Asian guy that was flipping chips around like a ninja. I had position on him, and had a feeling we were going to tangle soon. Still in Level 7 I raised it from the 2 hole to 1800 with 66. Not a normal play for me, but the limping police were clearly out at this table, and the tiny Asian guy was in the big blind. The action folded quickly to him in the big blind and he flatted after some hesitation. The flop was a relatively nice 5 4 2 rainbow. He checked and I bet 5000. He thought for a long time, asked for a count from me and raised it to 10,000. It was 5k more for me to call, but that wasn't an option. I shipped my chips in and he quickly called the 3k or 4k extra I had. The hands were turned over and I had him in really bad shape as he showed AK. I'm sure he was thinking he had 4 more outs with the 3, but those were dead tough guy. I was about 75% to win here, and somehow my hand held up. LOL. Too much internet poker. After this pot I was up to about 30k and ready to go on a run.

After picking up some nice steals I won a race for about a 25k pot with my JJ holding up against a short stacks KQ. Winning races against short stacks is an absolute key to winning no limit holdem tournaments. Losing them doesn't hurt a ton, but winning them gives you a momentum that is just unexplainable. I was cranked up to about 70k when a short stack pushed for about 18k from early position. It was the last hand of the 800 and 1600 blinds with a 200 ante. It folded to me in the big blind and I made the relatively easy call with AQ. He showed 99. Time to win another race with a short stack right? Wrong! The 9's held up and my momentum was completely squashed. Instead of having 92k I was sitting at 52k. Boo!!! Man I could have really done some things with 92k!!

We went on dinner break at this point of the tournament. I had an hour to stuff my face with some crap Harrah's food and return to the tournament. While on dinner break I noticed the upcoming levels were getting brutal. Level 11: 300/1000/2000 (6000 pot) Level 12: 400/1500/3000 (8500 pot). Even though I had more than the chip average of 39k (120 players left) I still had less than 10 orbits before I was broke. I was going to have to pick up some hands or start taking some risks or I was going to get blinded off from this tournament. Taking risks seemed kind of stupid when I noticed the payout structure scrolling on the big screen. The top 45 got paid, and 45th place was $2200. 9th place was only about $3000. This was the flattest payout structure I had ever seen. It put an absolute premium on just cashing, which affected my play significantly.

The first hand off the deck from the break the action folded to me in the hijack and I looked down at 88. I made it 6k to go. The small blind raised it to 15k with about 10k left behind. Normally my chips would be in the middle so fast it would make the small blind's head spin, but my remaining 46k in chips were glued to the felt. I felt 88 played well against his range, but I didn't want to take a race at this juncture. If I lost I'd only have about 27k and be in big trouble. If I won I would have 77k and not be all that dominant. I showed him the 8's and he showed AQ. This hand was a sign of things to come.

I went completely card dead at this point. I think I only played one real hand after this. There was a raise from early position and I flatted with 99. Normally I'm all in over the top with 10 big blinds in this spot, but again the payout structure. My read on him was that he was strong, but was it AK strong or QQ? Let's call and see a flop. The big blind called and the flop came Jack high. The BB checked and he bet pretty big and I folded. I just felt he had QQ for some reason, but I may have had the best of it. I decided to play small ball and try to get a read on the flop. Probably just a stupid play in the long run. Trying to play small ball late in high ante structure no limit holdem tournaments with a short stack is a recipe for disaster. Every book says you need to press the action or fold. Well every book isn't dealing with the flattest payout structure in the history of tournament poker!!!

Somehow I survived until there were only 55 players left. Only 10 left to go until the money and a juicy 1600 profit. The blinds were at 500/2k/4k and I only had about 30k left. A player in middle position raised to 12k and shipped it all in with AK for my last 30k. The action folded to the big blind (a small Asian lady) who re-raised to like 70k. The initial raiser folded and I flipped up my AK. She looked at my hand, paused for a few seconds, stood up and slow rolled the hell outta two freaking Aces!!!!! Wow I have incredible luck. I was 8% to survive the hand. Lovely. I was dead after the turn hit the board and that was that. 10 hours of poker with nothing to show for it but a story of how bad I played at the end of the tournament. After this I vowed to never let a payout structure dictate my play again! I decided to skip the cash games for the night, and get some rest for Event #5.

Late Night Cash Game

Immediately following my poor showing in Event #3 I decided to play a little $1/$3 NLHE. I wasn't going to make the same mistake of buying in for the minimum this time. I decided to buy in for $300, and hoped to have similar results to the earlier cash game. Well unfortunately things didn't go the way I had planned initially. I never could seem to get anything cooking and my stack seemed to hover between $250 and $350 for hours and hours. I started playing at about 6 or 7 and it was going on midnight. I was determined to grind out a win, but even though I wasn't winning I was having a really great time. I felt I was really holding my own at the table and eventually I was going to win some big pots.

Well it took a bluff to get this started. A new player at the table sat down on my right in a Redskins jersey, and he was clearly a confident player. He had just missed cashing in the noon tournament, and was talking it up with anyone that would listen. The player that was in his seat before was a really cool guy that I talked with the entire time, but this new guy didn't seem as nice. I could tell he was a deep thinker, so I decided right then if a good spot came up I would try to run a bluff. The big bluffing pot came up with Mr. Redskins straddling in the first position. This is where the player places down double the big blind, and is last to act. I was the first to act and looked down at AQs and decided to make it $20 to go. One other player to my left called and Mr. Redskin called from the straddle. The flop was a total air ball for my hand and it checked around. The turn was another brick and Mr. Redskin decided to lead out for $25. I felt here if I was to raise it to $75 that he would make me for the overpair and throw his hand away. So I went ahead and pulled the trigger. The other player quickly folded. You could tell Redskin was a little frustrated, and when he folded his hand he said to me, "Bet your hand dude. You don't need to be all hollywood... just bet your hand." Well I wasn't going to do it, but after that speech I had to show him the bluff. He was pretty pissed after that. I think he was leaving the table anyway for a higher stakes table, but he left pretty quickly after that bluff.

After making that move I knew I would have to play a little tighter, but the players at the table kept rotating out. So it didn't really matter. I seemed to be the only one willing to play late. The players that were rotating in were visibly drunk, and I ended up winning a huge pot off one guy with KK. He raised from middle position, and I re-raised from the straddle. Picking up a big hand in the straddle is crazy profitable. Usually people think you are just defending your straddle. He called my re-raise and the flop came like 9 high or something. I bet big and he moved in. I got a count and it wasn't much more. I had to call, but figured he flopped a set. I was wrong. He had nothing and his cards went flying in the muck when he didn't improve on the turn and river. I said, "What did you have?" and he said, "Nothing I'm drunk." and left the table. I picked up a couple more pots off the drunk fish, and ended up clearing a $350 profit. I didn't get back to my room until 3 am, but it was worth it. I decided at that point I was playing in Event #4 the next day, errr I mean that day...

WSOP Tunica Event #3

After my quick cash game score I was absolutely stoked to play LIVE TOURNAMENT POKER!!! The tournament drew 509 players and I started with a pretty good table draw. The players there were allowing me to see a lot of flops cheap which I love to do. I was creating a very loose and aggressive table image, but my chips weren't really going anywhere as I hovered around the 10k starting stack for the first level. Then in Level 2 (50/100) building the loose image finally paid off. I raised it from the 1 hole with AJs to 350 (I told you I was playing loose), and got one caller from the SB who was also playing very loose and not particularly deep (about 5k). The flop was a beauty AJ4. He checked I bet 650 he quickly called. The turn was an 8 which turned out to be a cooler. He checked and I eyed his stack and let out a moan. He said, "Go ahead and bet your AJ, I know you have AJ." So I decided the best move would be to listen. Why because F him I've got a loose image. I bet 1150, and he moved all in for 4k total. He kept saying if you have AJ you are good, which scared the hell out of me, but I just couldn't get away from the hand. There was 7250 in the pot and only 2850 to call. I was pot stuck. If I lost the hand would have dropped to about 6 or 7k which I didn't mind. I called and he showed the dead man's hand AA884 which was crushed by my AAJJ4. I was a 95% favorite to win the hand. The river was a complete brick, and just like that I was up to about 16k.

I was pretty much stuck at that number playing loose aggressive until a crushing hand struck at Level 5 (25/150/300). After a couple of EP limpers a tall thin gentlemen with about 12k raised to to 1400. I looked down at JJ from the hijack, and decided to flat it and see a flop. I wanted to trap him into losing chips with an AK continuation bet on the flop into my loose image. This isn't a typical play for me. Usually I would make it 4k to go to prevent any other callers, but my image was so loose I didn't think it would accomplish much. I was hoping to get a heads up in position with this guy, but what happened next made the hand tough. A new player at the table with a lot of chips flatted from the Button, the BB called and the one EP limper. We were going to a 5 way flop. Crap. The flop came out 8♦ 2♦ 2. The BB checked, EP checked, and the initial raiser shoved it all in for 10250. OMG what should I do in this spot? The pot had 7400 in it before and now it had 17650. 1.72 to 1, I need 37% to call. Time to put him on a hand and make a decision. Let me tell you it took awhile. The likely hands are either AA, KK, QQ, TT, 99, AK or A♦K♦ with some total bluffs. I was thinking most likely KK, QQ or TT or A♦K♦ with a small chance he was figuring everyone missed with a small to medium pair If I called and won the pot I would have about 28k which would have given me a lot of room to work. I still had about 15k so if I lost I would still have 5k and about 17bb's. I felt like I was beat, but for some reason all my chips got pushed out into that pot. I just couldn't pass on the lure of chipping up to almost 30k. Everyone else folded and he tabled QQ. I had a 10% chance of winning the pot, and the Q's held. If he tabled AK, TT, 99 or 77 I look like a genius, but in the end I think I deserve a dunce cap. I knew he was strong, but I just couldn't couldn't fold the hand. I went against my read, against my poker sense and tried to be "that guy" that chips up early in the tournament by playing loose aggressive. Well guess what "that guy" gets bounced from tournaments just as frequently.

So I was down in the dumps, but definitely not out. I needed to find a hand and go with it as the blinds had jumped to 50/200/400 and I only had about 4100. The final hand came quickly starting with 4 limpers and I looked down at Ad5d. I didn't take long in shipping my chips into the 2700 pot. This is a pretty standard short stack move. I only have 10bb's and an M of less than 4 so it is go time. Stealing pots like these is essential unless of course you can pick up a monster to double up. The first limper thought for awhile, and eventually moved all in for only about 2k more than my total. Everyone else folded, and he tabled 66. I was in bad shape with only a 30% chance of winning. The board completely bricked out, and the 10,500 pot was shipped to the 6's. The end result was good for the 6's, but I think his decision is marginal. I think a high percentage of the time I induce everyone to fold and pick up 2700. Even if I don't then I will still probably double up 30% of the time. In the end a positive EV play, but unfortunately I was out early of my first tournament of the weekend.

(Thursday) A Quick Start and A Quick Exit

Well I decided to wake up early and get off to a quick start for Tunica so I could make the Noon tournament. I left Norcross, GA at 5:00 am EST and arrived at Harrah's at 9:45 am CST. Made the trip in just under 6 hours. Impressive. I made my way upstairs to where the tournament was the year before, and was unpleasantly surprised to see that the area was closed off and under construction. For a second I thought, "Oh my God I came on the wrong weekend." LOL. Thankfully the area had just been moved, but it was a scary couple of seconds. I quickly signed up for the Thursday's tourney, and Saturday's. I had a feeling that Saturday's tourney would be huge, and I was right.

At this point I had two hours to kill. I decided to try the buffet which had been newly remodeled. Unfortunately, they hadn't remodeled the food as it was just as horrible as last year. After a couple of trips to the bathroom I was ready for a cash game. LOL. The poker room was newly remodeled and looked really nice. They had probably 20 or 30 tables in the new poker room and the walls were decorated with large framed photos of poker greats. I definitely picked up some ideas for decorating my poker room a little better. I decided to make the min buy in at a $1/$3 table, and would immediately regret the decision. I should have bought in for the max!!! After donking off a few chips early I decided to see a flop after a UTG raise followed by 4 callers with 66. The flop was a beauty J 6 2. The UTG raiser bet again, and after a couple of folds I re-raised him and he moved me in with only AJ. Unfortuntely I didn't have enough chips!!! The hand would have of course played out differently if I had 300 in stead of 100, but I think I could have picked up a pot bigger than $250. After winning that pot I only had about 15 minutes before the start of the tourney so I decided to make a quick exit. It was time to play LIVE TOURNAMENT POKER!!!!

Some Internet Success

Well after weeks of futility and complaining I finally stopped the bleeding online with a win in a 90 player KO SNG. Not the big score I was looking for, but a win none the less. Players were just giving me their chips early on in the tournament. Some of the calls and plays were so obsurd, but I'll take it. This further reinstates my theory of niting it up early in this tournament. The play is just so bad you can wait for free chips. No need for deep thought and fancy plays on the donks. I played extremely well at the final table. Picked my spots well, and really controlled the action. The heads up match was tougher than it needed to be. My opponent was really holding the deck early on, and it wasn't looking good. Finally I had to take a stand and go with a read on a betting pattern. I made a nice play to induce a fold, and that really turned the tide as he started to laydown and wait for a hand.

I played very aggressively after the flop to get a 3 to 1 chip lead. I think he had, had enough and open shoved with a weak ace when I had 99 in the BB. He caught an ace and just like that we were even. This is all pretty standard here, but I frequently let players back into heads up matches in spots like this. An argument can be made to just keep chipping away. I got a decent chip lead again and he open shoved 90k and I had 180k. He seemed to be getting impatient. At least that was my read. Also he hadn't been open shoving his really strong hands. So I decided to call with A4. He had QJ and my hand held up. Later on I checked his stats online and he has an 11% rating. I can't believe it took me that long to beat this guy. LOL. Ohh well a win is a win.

Rounders

It is pretty clear at this point that the movie Rounders is by far the best poker movie of all time. Anyone that tries to argue the later is wasting their time. The movie Lucky You has grown on me over the last couple of years, but it is clear that Rounders is at the top of the poker movie mountain. It is there for many reasons including star power, great plot, great acting and pretty much great everything. There are very few holes in the movie. After seeing the movie on an HD television it is like watching it again for the first time. A while back I made a post on a Rounders website that was discussing the hands of the movie. After seeing the movie in HD I felt the need to post the comments. The hand in question is the final hand of the movie. Where Mike pulls the Johnny Chan rope a dope and induces bet after bet by checking the nuts all the way down. Below I attempt to put KGB on a hand.

It starts with Mike making a small raise from the small blind doubling the big blind from $100 to $200 with 9♠8♠ and KGB quickly and annoyingly calling from the button. It is important to note that they play heads up incorrectly in this movie. The button should be the small blind preflop and act first only preflop. I suppose the argument here could be that KGB sets up the game and does what he wants. Who would argue with him? LOL Anyway, KGB could have just about any hand here. His flat call doesn't suggest a medium pocket pair, but they are playing very deep stacked poker (300 BB's). As a result disquised sets against over pairs have crazy sick implied odds. These implied odds could warrant flatting, but convential hand reading makes medium pairs less likely. A very important point is that heads up play is very, very different than a full ring game. You truly are playing your opponent not the cards, and these guys have been battling for hours at this point. A whole lot of he thinks, that I think, that he thinks kind of poker is happening.

So there is $400 in the pot pre flop. The flop comes out 10-7-6 rainbow. Mike checks the nut straight and KGB completely over bets the pot with a $2,000 bet into a $400 pot. This bet sizing is completely ridiculous, but is necessary for the sake of the movie. The easiest explaination is that KGB is on tilt, but he could also be protecting a hand. The bottom line is that the bet sizing is crazy and can only be explained by KGB losing his mind or trying to take the strategy of buying every pot. The play up to this point makes 10-10 or 7-7 or 6-6 unlikely hole cards. These are raising hands heads up as they are so difficult to play after the flop, but he does have position. The most likely hand I would put him on in this spot would be 7-6 suited or a complete air ball. Mike makes the call, and says he'll gamble. Alarms should have been going off in Teddy's head. No hand is worth gambling at 1.2:1 pot odds. Unless he figures the implied odds of getting KGB’s entire stack. KGB says, "You're on a draw Mike? Go away Mike this one is not good for you." This kind of suggests he has a set meaning if the board pairs Mike's draw is a waste of time, but he could just be blowing smoke. The deuce on the turn does nothing and produces a rainbow board (no flush draw). Mike checks, and Teddy bets the pot. Now the pot is offering 2:1 to call the $4,400. Mike calls and says, "I'll call you Teddy, or else I won't respect myself in the morning." Teddy should be slowing down at this point with Mike's crying call, but he's on tilt.

The last card is an Ace which is a complete gutter ball for any draw. Mike checks again and Teddy shoves. This is an absolutely obsurd bet. The only hand that can call him has him beat. So why risk 20k or whatever KGB has behind in this spot? It doesn't make much sense unless you consider the bet looks so much like he is buying the pot, that he could get called by a weaker hand like 99 or 88.

In conclusion, this is a very difficult hand to figure out. KGB could really have anything from a powerful set to complete zippo. If I had to make a guess I would say he is hemorrhaging chips and probably has a complete air ball. He thinks Mike is weak and he can buy the pot if the board bricks out. I have seen some blog posts that say if you pause it you can see two 10's flying through the air after KGB slams the deck on the table. How these are supposed to be KGB's exact two hole cards in that commotion is beyond my comprehension. The key thing to understand here is that KGB is very rattled. He has lost over 30k back to Mike after having him on the ropes and he is on complete tilt. When someone is on tilt they can have pretty much anything, but by the end of the night they usually don't have their chips.

Return to Tunica

Well I am heading back to Tunica, MS to try and relive some of the magic I had last year in the preliminary WSOP Circuit events. I plan to play in the Thursday tournament and the Saturday tournament. The Saturday event should draw a huge crowd. The cost is cheap ($340), and with it being on the weekend the numbers should approach 1,000 players. Hopefully I will be as fortunate as last year. I can't remember taking a bad beat that entire tournament. It will also be nice to play some live poker. I haven't played much live poker since I was in Vegas last June. The ups and downs of internet poker have taken a toll on me over the last year. I just can't seem to get anything going, and haven't been able to get the big score.

Last night was pretty brutal. I played well, but things just didn't work out. I cashed only once placing 6th in a 90 player $10 deep stack Turbo KO SNG. I have had pretty good results in this tournament. The play is so horrible that you need to really nit it up until you reach the final table. I came into the FT as a slight chip leader, but got slightly coolered with TT against QQ for half my stack. I just couldn't see how I could get away from it raising from the button, and the SB pushed. TT plays well against his pushing range. After that I lost a race with AK against QQ and I was gone. Would have had the chip average if I won that race, but oh well that's poker.

I played the 21k guarantee as usual and played a pretty good tournament. Unfortunately I essentially bubbled finishing 225 of 1213. I got it in slightly good with KQ on a K high board against AJ with a diamond draw. That pot would have put me back at the chip average, but I still may not have cashed. Late in this tournament I seemed to be a serious card magnet. I got reraised or called a lot once the antes kicked in and never had a hand I could go with. My results have been horrible in this tournament lately. I think I can chalk it up to variance and bad luck for only so long. I'm starting to wonder if my small ball strategy in the early stages is the best way to go. We'll see how well it works in Tunica.

WSOP Tunica Event #11 (Jan 2008)

There are some of you that already know, but over the weekend I decided to finally put my poker skills to the test. I drove over to Tunica, Mississippi to play in the World Series of Poker Circuit Event #11 with my good friend Greg. This was a $300 buy-in No Limit Hold’em poker tournament and exactly 1,000 people entered the tournament. They actually had to turn people away as they could only handle 1,000 players. This was my first “real” poker tournament and I still can’t believe how well I played. Somehow I made my goal of cashing and exceeded it by making the Final Table and finishing 4th out of 1,000 players!!!! I have been reading and playing poker in my spare time for the last 4 or 5 years. I know I’ve got a strong grasp of the game and a lot of skill, but I never really put my money where my mouth was until now. The money I won is great, but to be honest the accomplishment means a thousand times more. I’ve finally validated what I had always hoped was true. If you would like to view the results of the tournament visit

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/event.asp?tourneyID=4707&groupID=364.

This link has a write up summary of the final table… http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/article.asp?newsID=1924.

However, it isn’t very accurate. The guy said HE was making a move NOT me, but had to call. Also I had A-8 that hand. Also I didn’t raise from the button with 6-6 it was from the big blind and he had already raised from under the gun. And the most inaccurate thing of all is that “Rami Jradeh played a very patient game at the final table, waiting for opportunities. He said he had the discipline to fold hands, explaining that his strategy was to "beat the time," because "time has no value."” This guy played like a maniac at the final table. I attached some pictures of the final table area, but unfortunately we couldn’t take any pics while the tournament was being played.

Below is a description of my run through the tournament. For those of you who don’t know poker well a lot of it is going to be difficult to understand. While it was fresh in my mind I wanted to write down the important moments of the tournament so I can look back on it later. I ended up writing quite a lot so you may want to read it another time…

I had to play flawless poker for two days to get to the Final Table, and let me tell you it wasn’t easy. Only one time did I get all in with the worst hand, and it was the final hand of the tourney. K9 vs A4. However, let’s start at the beginning. I got a really good first table draw. There weren’t too many overly aggressive players at my table, and not too many people were getting knocked out. Generally when they bet they had something. I was playing extremely tight in the early stages of the tournament, and things weren’t going very well for me. When I would pick up a big hand I would either miss the flop or get out flopped and my starting chips slowly dwindled down from 10,000 to about 7,500. I was starting to get worried as the antes were kicking in and there was 550 bucks in every pot pre flop. I got involved in a hand just before the break where I tried to steal the blinds from the button with a late position limper. I raised to 600 and was called by both the small and big blinds and the initial limper. Ohh crap! The flop came out a bunch of rags and it checked around to me. I bet 1500 into the 2300 pot and everyone folded. Thank God! That pot was huge for my confidence. I don’t remember what I had, but it was absolute garbage and was able to win a pot playing off of my tight image.

I called Michele at the break and told her it was going to be extremely tough for me to keep advancing in the tournament. I wasn’t getting much for cards and the blinds were going up to 200 and 400 with an ante of 50 making it 1100 chips every time around the table. It wasn’t desperation time just yet, but I had no room for error. I didn’t have the shortest stack at the table, but I was definitely nearing short stack territory. Thankfully I am pretty damn good at playing a short stack. This is mainly because my tight aggressive style tends to lead to a lot of short stack situations. I was absolutely determined not to get my money in bad, but had to have an extreme amount of patience as I was getting dealt crap. I wasn’t getting much for hands, but I was able to stay around the 10k chip mark with timely steals and winning a few blind vs. blind situations. Unfortunately it was getting time for an all in. I was down to about 8k in chips and the blinds were 500 and 1000 with an ante of 100, but my patience finally paid off as I picked up KK and more than tripled up to about 26k as I got 2 callers trying to knock me off. I was still short stacked, but I now had some breathing room. I went all in again with 21k in chips as a 90% favorite with QQ vs. the table bully who called with QJ. Thanks for the chips donkey! The great thing was I got to eliminate the table bully later as well with 88 vs QJ after I flopped a set. Bye, Bye table bully! My tight image was really starting to pay off now that I had some chips. I was able to pick up a lot of pots uncontested. Soon I was up to 100k with the blinds at 3k/6k with a 500 ante, and we were nearing the point where they pay the players. You had to make it into the top 72 to cash out of 1000. They originally didn’t think there would be 1000 players and they setup the payout structure for a 700 to 799 player event. Apparently they have to do this before the tournament starts.

There were about 77 players left when we went on break and the blinds were jumping to 4k and 8k with a 1k ante. I only had an M of around 5, but I was only 30k less than the chip average of 130k. I just needed to keep playing my game and I was going to reach my goal of cashing, but I was dreaming of bigger things. When we came back from break it didn’t take long for the money bubble to burst. Thankfully when that happened I got moved to another table. The table I was at previously had a table bully that was on the button when I was in the big blind, and he was pillaging my big blind. He was also on a sick run of extremely good luck. The guy was playing horrible, but was getting smacked over the head with the deck. I’ve learned from experience to just stay out of the way of players that are on runs like these.

Anyway, it was about 1 in the morning at this point and we had been playing since noon. We had 2 and a half 40 minute levels of play left before we would call it quits for the day. I was planning on playing tight to make it to the next day, but I noticed the play at the new table was extremely tight. I was picking up the blinds by only making it 20k to go. So I decided to keep raising unopened pots until somebody caught on to what I was doing. By the time they did I had over 200k in chips and was rolling. At this new table, as I did at all my other tables, I made a lot of friends by talking to the other players. I found that most of the players there were very talkative and extremely friendly. When I got to the final table I saw a lot of the faces of these players encouraging me to keep playing well at the final table, but back to the play at hand. Unfortunately I was still completely card dead and my chip stack started dropping. On the last two hands of the night I got my 12k big blind and 6k small blind stolen and was down to 142,000 chips going into the next day.

On the final hand of the night it folded to the button who raised it to 30k. I looked down at AcTc and paused to study the button. She seemed genuine when she said, “I know what you’re thinking and the answer is no.” meaning is she trying to steal my blinds, but I did NOT read her for really strong. I felt like I had the best hand and I should move in. I didn’t think she could possibly call 118k more if I moved in. Anyway, I decided to fold and she showed me pocket 3’s. It was kind of a confidence booster, because my read was correct. If I would have moved in she probably would have folded and I could have scooped up the 58k pot, but I just didn’t have the heart to throw away 14 hours of work on a read.

Going into the next day I needed to double up just to get to the chip average of 280k with 36 players remaining. The blinds were going up to 2k/8k/16k so I had about 9 big blinds, but an M of only 3.4. I was going to have to get into short stack ninja mode again. At this point it was 2:30 in the morning and I was exhausted.

I went back to the hotel and went to sleep, but unfortunately I didn’t sleep very well that night. I got about 4 or 5 hours, but was completely wired and couldn’t get back to sleep. It felt like the start of the tournament at 2:00 would never get here. I wasn’t real nervous because I knew I only had one move. It was either all in or fold. I just needed to continue to pick the right spot as I had all tournament. Thankfully all my tight play and patience had finally paid off in the greatest card run I’ve ever had. In the very first hand I was on the button when it folded to the cut off who made it 50k to go. I then looked down at AK of hearts, paused for a second and moved it all in for my tournament life. She was very conflicted in making the call. She started the hand with only 250k so she would have been crippled, but there was 232k in the pot and it was only 90 more to call so she made the call with AJ of diamonds. I just needed to avoid a Jack or some crazy flush or straight, and when the flop came out KK3 it was all but over. I doubled up to 322k in the first hand. I thought the poker gods were really smiling on me after that, but it got even better. I stole the blinds and antes twice after that and then came the biggest hand of the tournament for me. I was in the big blind and the 4th player to act moved all in for over 200k in chips. The 6th player then moved all in as well with almost 300k in chips and it folded to me. After the 4th player went all in I decided to take a quick peak at my bottom card. It was the King of hearts. After the 6th player went all in and it fold to me I slowly thumbed my top card. It was the King of clubs!!! I decided not to over think it and called as I had both players covered. The cards were turned over and the first player had 10-10 and the other player had AK. I had the advantage, but I needed to dodge 3 Aces and (2) 10’s and I’d have almost 1 million chips. I survived the flop, and the turn and when the river came a blank, I didn’t yell or scream, but I got up from my chair and slapped my hands together so hard they almost went completely numb. It was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve ever had. Absolutely incredible! In a span of 7 hands I caught lightening in a bottle and went from 142k to almost 1 million and was a chip leader. There were only 10 million chips in play in the entire tournament! I had gone from being short stacked almost the entire tournament to having 3 times the chip average.

After my incredible run they combined the players into 3 tables, and my run of cards didn’t end. I picked up KK, AK, and AA in a span of about a dozen hands. Unfortunately I didn’t get any action with these hands, but I was picking up the blinds and antes which were totaling almost 50k each time. Soon my chips were up to around 1.3 million and I was feeling unstoppable when fortunes turned for the worse. The players were combined into 2 tables and I was moved to a seat on the left of a complete maniac who had about a million chips as well. He completely took my positional advantage away from me by raising, re-raising and moving in constantly. He rarely missed an opportunity to steal the blinds from the cutoff or the button, but I was laying the foundation for a trap for all his chips. I was going to play any big hand exactly the same way from the blinds as I had when I was weak, but unfortunately when I picked up KK in the small blind he for some reason didn’t decide to raise when it folded to him on the button. The foundation was there for the perfect trap, but he just decided not to steal that time. I didn’t look at my cards until after he folded, and was very disappointed to see that opportunity had passed. The maniac quickly donked off all his chips in two hands as I suspected he would, but unfortunately it wasn’t to me. Over this stretch of bad cards and having to deal with captain maniac I dropped down to 835k as we headed to the final table with only 10 players left. I don’t really remember losing many pots I raised during this stretch. It was primarily just from posting the antes and blinds. This really illustrates the significance of the blinds and antes. I was definitely out played by this maniac, but I was headed to the final table and he was going home.

Making the final table was an absolute dream. I couldn’t imagine making the final table when I was short stacked at Level 3 of the tournament, but it just goes to show you that patience pays off. When we got to the final table they had us fill out some forms with some personal information about the players and we were to count up our chips. It was very professional, and they even had an announcer who called the action at the table which could be heard throughout the entire poker room. The average stack at the table was 1 million chips, so I was a little under the average, but I liked my chances to finish in the top 5 as I think there were 5 or 6 people below my chip count. Quite a few people filled the stands around the table to watch the action and those who came got to see probably the most memorable hand 1st hand in the history of a WSOP final table. This was one of the coldest deck deals I’ve ever seen and considering the context it makes #1 on my list. The first few players folded and a short stack with about 400k moved all in. I folded along with another player and then a guy with about 1 million moved all in. The player immediately after him moved all in as well with over 2 million chips. The action folded around and the hands were turned over. The short stack had pocket 4’s, the guy with 1.5 million had pocket Kings and the guy with 2 million had AA. Holy crap!!! The first card out on the flop was a 4, but the 2nd was an Ace and the hand was all but over. The last card was a King to add insult to injury for the guy with pocket Kings. Set, Over Set, Over Set!!!! Absolutely incredible! The announcer said to the crowd, “And you people thought it was going to be boring to watch the final table.” It was great to watch, and really helped me move up in the money as 2 players were eliminated.

After that there was one player at the table who decided he was going to run the show and he absolutely controlled the table. He was extremely difficult to play against as he was on my end of the table. It was all I could do just to maintain my stack. He stole my blind frequently as most bullies do, and wouldn’t even laydown when I played back at him. It was absolutely amazing how well he was playing. He started with only 600k in chips but was up in the 2 million range pretty quickly by just running over the table. He didn’t have to show many hands, and he was completely fearless. When we were down to 7 players I had a feeling the button was trying to steal my small blind and I moved him all in for his last 200k with A-8 offsuit (They got this wrong in the write up as well). When it folded back to him he said, “I was trying to make a move, but I’m pot committed now I call.” (They got this quote wrong in the write up) He turned over J9 off-suit, and with a flop of all clubs and me holding the Ace of clubs it was all but over for the steal gone bad. I didn’t need it, but the club on the river made a flush for me and sent the young player home. I got a lot of compliments for my move with A-8, and for a short while it got the table bully (He was a foreign guy named Rami) off my back. Not too long after that when we were 6 handed I knocked out the player on my left. He raised under the gun and it folded to me in the big blind (They got this wrong in the write up as well). I had two 6’s and had him covered so I moved all in again. He called with AJ and didn’t catch an Ace or a Jack and I picked up some more, much needed chips. I got a lot of compliments for this move as well. Even a compliment from Rami. Who I think said 3 words at the table. The 5th player was eliminated and I went to the dinner break with only 3 players standing in my way of winning the first WSOP event of my career. Unfortunately I was out chipped at the table. I didn’t have an exact count, but the remaining players had about 2 to 3 million a piece and I had only 1.4 million. However, if I could double up or start picking up the blinds and antes I would be right in the mix. As I suspected might happen the other players started defending their blinds. I had a couple steal opportunities go bad and was now under a million chips. When you are down to 4 players the starting hand requirements pretty much go out the window. Any Ace or any pair is a pretty strong hand. Even any King is a pretty strong hand.

I raised UTG with KJ of spades and was re-raised for about half my stack by the small blind. I thought for awhile if this was the spot, but had a read that the small blind was really strong in this hand. I thought it was fairly likely he had me dominated, or in a 60-40 spot. Best case scenario I figured we were racing. There just aren’t many hands I’m way ahead against. I hadn’t seen him overvalue a hand much, so I decided to lay it down and hope a better spot would come along to double up. I hadn’t put my money in bad yet, and didn’t want to start now. Unfortunately that fold dropped me to around 800k and the blinds and antes were 10k/40k/80k. I guess in hindsight I should have just moved in my 1.05 million preflop instead of making it 240k. If I wanted to play the hand I should have committed. After he re-raised the pot was laying 2 to 1 to call, but I’m not calling 400k and leaving 400k behind and he’s not folding for 400k more preflop. Plus, there is no stop and go move as I’m in position.

Anyway after this I felt like I was going to have to get lucky to win. Somehow I survived until the blinds were 10k/50k/100k, but the fatefully hand came quickly. The UTG player raised to 300, and the action folded to me in the big blind where I had K9 of hearts. I had already committed 110 thousand to the pot and only had about 600 left behind. I didn’t think the stop and go move would get him to fold on the flop where I call the 200 and then move in my last 400 on the flop no matter what. Maybe it would have worked? Anyway I didn’t think he was really strong so I decided to go all in and leave it up to the poker gods. He quickly called with A-4 off suit and for the first time in the tournament I was all-in and behind. Over the two days of the tournament I never put a bad beat on anyone, and never had my money in bad. I was really proud of that, but the streak was over. I had to come back in this hand as the percentages were about 55% for the A4 and 45% for the K9 suited. I missed the flop, but picked up 4 more outs with a straight draw thanks to a Q-10-7 flop. Then I picked up a double gutted straight draw on the turn when a 6 fell. I needed a King, 9, Jack or 8 on the river, but none of my 14 outs hit and I was going home in 4th place.

I quickly shook the remaining three player’s hands and received compliments from all of them about the way I played. I wasn’t all that disappointed at that exact moment. I felt like I played almost perfect, but looking back I see some things I can improve on. I definitely need to work on my short handed play, and playing against overly aggressive players. I don’t know what is next for me in poker. I’m probably going to play in the WSOP in Vegas, but the main event may be too pricy. So who wants to bank roll me??? HA!!!!