6th place

I finished to me a disappointing 6th place. I came into the day with 90k and 5th in chips with a pretty good feeling. I really can't say much about this tournament in terms of hands because I didn't have very many. I made some savvy steals and a couple squeezes in day 1 when I was short to keep me alive until my big hands. I only had 3 big hands all day after hour 1. Today, it was more of the same and a tough decision on hand 1. Hand 1 the chip leader Roy Winston raises UTG to 12k with 2/4k blinds 500 ante. I have 90k and look at AQ on the button. It was to me a decision that is really the toughest in poker when a solid player like Roy raises UTG on the very first hand of a major final table and I have 22 big blinds. What to do? My options are 3. Flat calling and playing post flop is an option, but I figure the chip leader is going to fire at every pot. Move all in. I won't get called by any hands I'm beating. At best I can be racing against the pairs he's raising with. I figure Roy to be a solid player and have seen him play solid almost every moment. He doesn't do too much out of line especially under the gun. I just decided to fold and he showed 88 and I have been thinking through the hand for a while now. If I shove, I'm not sure if he folds. He has 250k prior to the hand and raising to 12k would put 12+4.5+6 into the pot at 32k When I shove to 90k total he's going to have 122k with 78k to call. It's a tough decision for him even with 88, but I consider that hand to really be at the bottom half of his range here. I decided to fold. After that I couldn't pick up a hand the rest of the tournament. I watched a few players go out and made one steal. Then with 6 players I picked up Q10 off on the cut off and raised it to 16k with 3k/6k blinds 1000 ante. I have 77k in my stack at this point. I'm pretty sure no one will play back at me unless I'm destroyed and I can have 60k an easy 10 BB shoving stack if someone does that. The only kicker is that a real tight player has 32k behind, but I'm not that worried about that as he is on the button. He flat calls the 16k! Flop comes K J 2. I put the 16k to set him in. He calls with KJ and I miss my straight. Now I'm down to 45k. I should really be looking to push anything, but I wasn't able to open a pot at all and a few rounds around I shoved a 3 7 suited and everyone folded. I was looking for anything really but the same thing Q5, 2 5, 6 8, 2 7, Q3, and then I finally shoved with 5 8 off suit on the button with 32k total and was called by KQ. I lost that even though I'm owed one of those from 3 years back where on Paradise I lost a big hand in the same manner with the KQ. Either way, I'm pretty disappointed as I really wasn't given a shot to even play or use any of the abilities I have. I was short stacked the entire tournament and so card dead except for 3 pairs that I got paid on 99, QQ, AA. I don't think I had AK once outside the first level. I know that cards don't determine a champion, but short stacked and up against good players, you just need something to have a shot. Either way 18k isn't too bad at all and brings me into the black for the year in live tournaments. Not sure what I'm doing next in poker.

On to the Bellagio 2500 Final Table

I just got home at around 3am after a long day that started at 12pm. I am at my second WPT preliminary event final table and it is probably as strong a final table as you'll find in one of these things. Roy "The Oracle" Winston, J.C. Tran, Darrel "Gigabet" Dicken all have around or over 200k in chips. I'm sitting in probably 7th with about 90k in chips. Blinds start at 3k/6k with a 500 ante. I'm real excited for tomorrow and am writing so all the people I didn't get in touch with today have a clue about tomorrow. I'll be sleeping in as the final table starts at 3pm, so wish me luck (something that has been ambivalently surrounding me in this tournament). By that statement, I mean I've been so card dead for long stretches and then I finally get a huge hand that runs into other big hands and I've been lucky enough to hold on. Today I had QQ vs 77 after a AQ7 flop and then with 10 players left an AA when I was down to about 30k run into 10 10 and 9 9 ( I woke up on the BB with the hand). I have some super loose and aggressive good players to deal with tomorrow, but I can say that I'm completely confident and ready for the challenge. The winner gets around $223,000 with 9th place getting around $8,000. Let's hope I'm near the upper end of that scale.