Let me just tell you guys, this was the time of my life. I can't even imagine what it must be like to cash in the Main Event. But this was a WSOP Event, for a bracelet.... and I finished 6th.
6th!
Random stuff:
I played spectacular poker for 2 days, if I do say so myself. I filled a notebook with specific hands that I will post about, including a few I'd love to get some input on.
My reads were spot on for the entire tournament. I was focused, and it felt "easy" to me, if that makes any sense. I'm not going to tell you I could see into their souls or that it was like they were playing with their cards face up, but I am telling you I was "on."
Not counting the very end when I was short stacked and had no choice, I literally put my money in with the worst hand exactly once the entire tourney (calling an all in reraise from a guy I had covered). And when I did, it was the right decision because of the odds the pot was laying me and the range of hands I put him on. More on that specific hand (and many more) later.
I put 0 bad beats on anyone over the full 2 days.... Not a single suckout.
I (all but) always had the best hand when the money went in, and most of the time, my hands held up. I was fortunate and didn't take any sick beats, although I did see a few.
Did I get lucky? In the sense of putting bad beats on people, no, not at all.... but in the sense of not taking bad beats, yes, probably. I think my overpairs that should have held up 80% of the time held up 100% of the time. When I had someone dominated (AK vs AT for example), I won 100% of those. these numbers are higher than expectations, so in that sense, I had a bit of luck.
Now let's talk about my cards. I had exactly 1 flush the entire tournament (very early on), 0 straights, and 0 full houses. I kid you not. I didn't flop a single set! I had AA exactly once. One guy who was still alive when I got knocked out had them six times yesterday alone. I should know, because I saw at least 3 or 4 of them. My point here - my cards weren't spectacular, but I made due with what I had.
77 was my enemy this entire tourney. As I said, I'll go into the details later, but the one time I called an all in reraise with the worst hand, I had 77 and he had TT. I stand by my decision that it was the correct play though, which I will explain later. With about 15 players left, I raised from the button with 77. The BB (good player, but aggressive and likes to defend his BB) reraised me all in. Because of how long he took to act and how he acted (it's hard to explain), I was certain he didn't have a bigger pair than me. I figured it was a race, and even though I had been trying to avoid playing big pots, I decided to go for it, figuring if I won that hand, I'd have a monster stack at the final table. I called (for better than 2:1 pot odds) and he turned over Q9o. He hit a queen, and I lost a 96,000 chip pot.
The final table was crazy. I had around $17,000 chips when we got there. The chip leader had something like $350,000. The average stack was about $110,000. One guy was so short stacked, I HAD to wait for him to get knocked out, and I did. Hello $9000 increase in the payouts - 9720 for 10th (we played the final table 10 handed - most of ITM was 9 handed) and $17,670 for 9th - the "official" final table.
We were down to 9 when we went to dinner. I told my buddies I needed to make a move and wsn't going to just sit there and get blinded off, since I had literally less than 1 round of blinds/antees left. One of them said something about "any face card," and I said, "No way. I'm looking for a nice little suited connector hand, like 67." 2 hands into the final table, when I looked down and saw 6d7d, I knew it was time to go for it. I pushed in (from UTG!), even though the chip leader was on the BB. Everyone folded and he called with KTo. I hit a 6 and BAM, right back in it. Not 15 or 20 minutes later, I'm sitting with over $80,000 chips (and no, I wasn't playing recklessly), and TWO more players are gone! Hello $26,510. Hello, $35,345. I've never been in a situation like this in my life. Someone gets knocked out by another player, and $9000 falls into my pocket. Are you kidding me???
Eventually, the blinds ate away my stack, and I made a few questionable lay downs. My final hand was 9dTd in MP. I pushed in, and got called by the button and the BB. I was hoping to triple up when the flop came 55J with 2 diamonds. Both players checked. When a black 7 hit the turn, the BB checked and the button actually bet at it. The BB said "Well, I hope you've got him" and threw his hand away. The button turned over his A5, giving me 12 outs with my gutshot and flush draw. The river was a black 6, and I was eliminated. I shook a few hands and the crowd (no cameras, but we did have a small crowd) applauded. I think I was the fan favorite
$44,160. I tipped $560 (they told me between 1 and 2% was standard), leaving me with $43,600. They paid me in chips. $600 of those turned into $100 bills and the rest is being wired to my bank right now.
I did have a backer for these two events (for the first time ever, ironically), so he's getting his $2500 back and then half of what's left after that... Figure that leaves me with around 20 grand or so before taxes... Do I regret being backed and having to pay out half of this prize money? Absolutely not! Basically, I was on a freeroll for half of the announced prize pool, which was cool with me. And I'm thrilled that I turned my guy's $2500 into almost 10 times that amount for him! He originally told me this was a "one time thing," but now that this investment paid off, maybe he'll reconsider.
So, there you have it. Pretty sweet, huh?
It's a wicked shame this final table wasn't televised. I'd love for you guys to be able to see it, and I wouldn't mind seeing some of the other guys hole cards either.