#797 – 2009 WSOP #55 – Vegas on $2,000 a Day #9 – Michael Craig Finishes Second in Razz

SOME DUDE WINS HIS THIRD BRACELET

I finished runner-up in the $2,500 Razz event at the World Series of Poker today. It was an exciting, thrilling, electrifying experience. Late Tuesday, I lost a couple big pots and, with 21 players to go, I was 19th or 20th in chips. It’s not possible to rebound from that, especially in limit poker, without breaks, but I was at the very top of my game, even thrilled when I had half the chip average with 13 to go at the end of Day 2.

I played the best poker I could play today. Good cards helped, of course, but I knew the right situations to push marginal cards and the right situations to bet for value. I did a very good job sizing up my opponents and how to play (or not play) against them. Despite the structure making us short-stacked, and having just half the chip average at the beginning of the day, I don’t think I was ever in danger of busting until I was heads-up with Jeff Lisandro. There were a few occasions when I got almost all my chips in, but it was always with an extemely good hand and/or read on my opponent’s hand.

But, wow, hats of to Jeff Lisandro. The guy had a giant stack, started the final table with more than double the next biggest stack, and just BULLDOZED. Yes, he ran great, but he took control of the action and, for the most part, put on a fantastic clinic on how to dominate with a big stack.

I don’t think I ever had a third of his stack, but I knew, from the time we started at the final table, that I was going to be me and him heads-up. And I worked hard to prepare for it, understanding how he was playing, both to stay out of his way (usually) and get the better of it when I had to duke it out with him. When we were four or five handed, there was a moment when I had more than 600,000 in chips. He had, I think, three times that much (or maybe a bit less). I just FELT I had a strong chance of pulling off the upset.

But I lost some chips in one tough hand, had a lot of bring-ins, and doubled up a short-stack in what should have been a good situation for me. Consequently, I lost more than half my chips and had to dodge and weave my way through the last couple players just to make it to heads-up. I think I had just 185,000 when we started heads-up.

It went just five or six hands. And I was running so bad in that short, short time that, even though I had less than four big bets (we  were at 25,000-50,000), I had to fold TWICE on fifth street.

I’m not saying this to make excuses. The closest I came to the bracelet was when I took a look at it on the table right before we played heads-up. It was a marvelous experience and I squeezed every bit of my skill into it, squeezed every bit of good luck, and squeezed the best possible result I could have gotten.

But in my heart of hearts … I think even with a 2:1 or 3:1 chip disadvantage, I might have had a shot at one of the all-time best World Series performers on a day when he was at the top of his game.

Congrats to Jeff.

Thanks so much to Jo Anne, my kids, my whole family, and all my friends for following along and rooting.

And thanks to Shauna for being a great friend and sitting through a RAZZ … FINAL … TABLE. (Think about that, will you?) And thanks to all the Full Tilt pros who stopped by the root me on, and to Yuvee (who I’ve been telling Full Tilt for two years that he SHOULD be a Full Tilt pro). And thanks to all the readers who followed along and offered their well wishes and congratulations.

I’ll write some more about the final table experience, though my notes are actually pretty useless. And I have a pile of other stories to catch you up on.

But first I gotta get something to eat, then get some sleep, then buy in to the Main Event.

G’night.

• No Related Post