FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#396 – Ticket to the Dance

Posted by Editor | Filed under Me in online tourneys, WSOP 2008

A few weeks ago, I bought an Ed Hardy tee shirt with a snarling tiger wearing a bowler. I hadn’t worn it yet so I decided to put it on Wednesday. Henceforth, that will be a Lucky Shirt. I lost a pen recently – a rare occurrence for me – and its replacement arrived, a Visconti Van Gogh. Henceforth, that will be a Lucky Pen. During the uncharacteristic hours of 1:30 PM-5:30 PM – which I guess will be Lucky Time for awhile at least – I won my way into the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker.

Luck was with me.

In late February, I lost a pair of hands I estimate worth about $40,000. All the chips went in before the flop, and I lost consecutive hands with JJ against A-9 and Q-Q against A-J. I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about these hands, but when I reflect on the general direction of my luck, as well as the general direction of my results, I feel like I’m on a negative streak.

The accounts have been squared.

I played well to make it to the last two tables, though only 2 players would win Main Event seats. Stuart Paterson and I were at the same table and, though we haven’t played together a lot, I knew he was a tough player, probably one of the best online tournament players in the Full Tilt universe. I got the best of it on a couple pots, once when we both had kings and a king hit on the turn. He had KQ and I had KJ and the river was a jack. A few hands later, I had Q-T in the blind after he raised with J-T and we both paired our ten. Neither were big pots but I got them both when we had similar hands.

I raised with A-Q and busted a player with A-K after an A-4-Q flop.

The luckiest hand for me was against Paterson, when we were down to 5-handed. I had raised the previous two hands and, with A-7o, raised again. Stuart moved all-in for 26,000. (Blinds were 500-1,000 and I had raised to 2,700. I had about 31,000 total.) I thought he was making a play without a hand, based on what I’d seen of his play and what I thought he’d seen of my play, so I called.

Big mistake. He had pocket nines. But I got lucky, hitting an ace (and a seven) on the flop, eliminating Stuart.

This is not to say the luck all went my way. I lost a big pot at the final table where I flopped a pair and turned two-pair but the other player hit an inside-straight draw (a 3-outer) on the turn. When we were 3-handed, I nearly busted when I called a raise with 8s-7s and flopped an open-ended straight-flush draw. The raiser checked the flop of 9s-6s-6d, so I checked. After the six of diamonds on the turn, I bet and he called. The river was the jack of spades, making me a flush. I didn’t bet, though, because any pocket pair or jack or nine would make the other player a full house. He bet about half the pot and, sickened, I called. He had ace-jack.

It was a bizarre 3-handed game. One of the players, Yoshi, decided he would hardly play at all. The other, Gomer, wanted to play every hand. He and I were waging an undeclared war throughout the final table; he’s the one who crippled me with the A-J against my flush. At one point, with blinds of 800-1,600, I had just 20,000. Gomer had 106,000 and Yoshi had 85,000.

But I didn’t give up. I played very smart with the short stack … and benefited from some timely luck. In the big blind with 2-3o, Gomer in the small blind made the minimum raise. I called and the flop was 6c-Jc-5h. I had a gutshot draw, not that I could afford to call. But Gomer checked so I checked.

I hit the straight on the turn. I bet out and Gomer called. When a king hit on the river, Gomer bet out and I moved all-in. He called and I doubled up. He had A-K, so the second lucky break on the hand was the king hitting on the river.

That got me within hailing distance of him and Yoshi and I got aggressive after that, putting Gomer back on his heels (like he had done to me quite a bit at the final table, to his credit). On the last hand, when I had twice as many chips as Yoshi and six times as many as Gomer, we all saw the flop. I had 8-4o and flopped second pair(7-8-J). Gomer, it turns out, flopped top pair with Q-J. He bet and I called. After a six on the turn, he moved in for his last 16,000, about the size of the pot. I called, figuring there was a decent chance I was behind but knowing I probably had 9 outs. And with my chip position, I could afford to call to try to end the tournament now.

I hit the five on the river to make the straight and eliminate Gomer. He fought valiantly and, though he got lucky some against me, he caught a bad break at the end.

But that’s why you won’t hear me complain about my bad luck, at least for a little while.

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