Hey everyone...
Well, here I am. I'm not even sure what to say. I played awesome(r) poker - and I really mean that. At times, it as like I could see people's cards. I mean, I just KNEW what they had - hands I was involved in, hands I wasn't in, etc. It's quite amazing how easy poker can be when you can "see" your opponents hole cards. It wasn't like that all day, of course, but there were a number of times when I could see people setting traps and see their opponents falling in, or when I could call out someone's hand after the action and so on. I was just ON.
Anyway, as you know, I started off as THE short stack with 40 players left. I got "lucky" (by my terms) on the very first hand when my ATs doubled though Q4o. Yes, Q4o. I doubled up again a bit later with QQ vs. KTo or some crap like that. And then I just played poker. I played mosty tight, and mixed in moves/plays at all the right times (until much later - more on this to follow). I built my stack slowly but surely, until I doubled through KK with my AA - that was a BIG pot. The other BIG hand I was in when I got "lucky" was when I got all in on the flop with QQ on a board of T87 with 2 spades. My opponent had AsJs, making him a slight favorite when the money went it. My hand held up though....
BTW - Total Number of Suckouts by me for the entire tourney: 0.
Fabrice actually got all in VERY early on with J7s vs AK and doubled up. He built himself a monster stack in no time... In a tourney like this, there are a number of key hands that HAVE to go yor way in order for you to win... this was his. When Jim (KrazyKanuck) got knocked out, for example, he played AA beautifully (and I knew EXACTLY what he had the whole time), only to get his opponent all in with KT on a T high flop. The river was a K though and Jim went home. The other sick sick sick beat I saw was when ANOTHER guy played AA perfectly (again, I knew what he had) and 23o (!!!!!!) pushed in preflop (apparently he DIDN'T know), only to make 2 pair. That's just wrong.
I didn't take any beats like that, fortunately. When we got down to the final table, there were a couple of key hands that I lost. One was a SB/BB steal that went wrong and cost me a lot of chips, and the other was a BIG hand against Men the Master's student. Men was watching and I talked to him later about the hand. He told me what his student had and couldn't BELIEVE it when I told him what I had. It was a play I don't typically make.... I'll likely post a new thread about that hand.
With HUGE blinds and me folding a lot, my stack was dwindling. I had made a NUMBER of laydowns that I KNOW got me a lot of respect (like folding AK preflop to a single reraise and announcing that I KNEW my opponent had JJ (he showed JJ after I folded my AK face up), and so on... Anyway, I was hoping this image would get me some respect, and it did, but you also need good timing to pull off a big play.... So on my final hand, Fabrice raised preflop and I had JJ in the BB. I had folded to him a couple of times when he came over the top of me all in from the BB (99, AK, junk), so I thought I'd make the same play on him (I had maybe 100k chips and his raise was 24kish). Sure enough he instacalls and shows me AA. Just bad timing more than anything. I picked up a straight draw after he flopped top set, but it didn't get there and that was that. End of tourney. 7th place.
I know back to back Final Tables in this event is really good and all, but I was HUGELY disappointed when I got knocked out - far more than I expected to be. It seems Fabrice went on to finish 4th for 50k, so he owes me $1000. That's a nice consolation prize I guess, but dammit, I could have won this tourney (for another
$200,000!!!). To finish SO CLOSE (again - and this time I had a monster stack going into the FT).... it's just really disappointing. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy, and really proud of my play, but still............ it's just natural for anyone but the winner to be disappointed.
The good news is I had a really good time after my bustorama. Rather than sit around waiting to be paid for an hour and a half, I decided to come back for my money tomorrow and to go out for drinks instead.
And now I'm back here in my hotel room, ready to get some Zs.
All in all.... this was a good day. Check me out with 2 WSOP Final Tables now!
