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...