First WSOP Final Table Thoughts

When I ran track in high school, there was a feeling before every race that can only be described if you have it. I'm assuming anyone who has competed in some sort of sport or game knows the feeling. That's basically what how I've felt for the last two full days. Going for the ultimate goal in poker, a WSOP bracelet, was every bit of what I hoped for. Falling two players short actually makes me understand how precious that title is to so many people.

After finally getting a chance to settle down emotionally and read through some of the hands on the live updates, I'm very pleased with my performance. I would say the key hand of the tournament came with two tables to go. I was in the middle of the pack with around 220,000 in chips and had Ad Ks Ts 2s. The SB raised to 18k at 3k/6k blinds and I called. The flop came Ah Kd 7d. He checked and I bet 25k which he quickly called. The turn was a 5h. He immediately bets the pot for 86k. Now at this point, I had a little over 100k in addition to that bet. It didn't really look to me like he could fold many hands when he makes this size of a bet. Then I ran through the options. He can't have the nut flush draw for obvious reasons because I have the Ad. I am most worried about some sort of set, but nothing like that made sense. AA or KK or 77 pretty much needs to try to protect that board with either a check raise on the flop or a pot bet on the flop. AK would probably bet as well. I just basically decided to go all in after thinking for about 2 minutes, and then he thought for about 3 minutes and folded. That gave my stack a nice boost and I was able to play lots of hands and put pressure on the table before the final table.


The final table was exciting. As everyone who knows me knows, I love competition and this is the closest I've been to both the coveted prize and 230k. I'm happy with my final table play and would actually say I was a little card dead and less aggressive than I'd hope to be early on, but I wanted to feel out the table. I had only played against two of the players at the final table for a good period of time, so I wanted to feel it out a little. I basically maintained a decent stack with a couple of rivered full houses and good value bets as well as the occasional bluff. After I knocked out a player in 7th, the eventual champion Jason went on a huge rush. He busted out several players and had a big stack get all his money in against him with 2 outs, which is rare to do in PL Omaha. Then we got to 3 handed and I found myself in 3rd place with around 700-750k I believe with the other two stacks somewhere close to 1.7 mill and 1.2 mill. The momentum wasn't on my side at the time and I think a short stack has a huge disadvantage in PL Omaha, so I made a move on a decent flop with KKJ3 thinking that I get a fold a good amount of the time and even against top set, I'm still 30%. Of course, he had top set and won. The cash is my biggest live tournament cash and gives me lots of room to play events I want in this WSOP.


I was excited and exhausted about it all, but am ready to get back to another final table. The next event will be a $2500 NL Hold 'em event on Friday. I'll keep doing the Twitter updates from my icekevin name. I can't say enough about all the people that supported me throughout this. The text inbox was full and getting home and reading the people following really meant a lot. I'm sure there will be more to follow at some point.

In the money, Day 2 tomorrow

I'm exhausted, so I'm not going to say much more than I've logged my first WSOP cash this year and have 78,600 in chips going into Day 2 tomorrow. It should be a lot of fun. The winner of this tournament will get 230,000.


Again, I'm updating everything at this Twitter site and you can follow along there. It also feeds into Facebook as well.