Number Five

I'm deep in a tournament yet again, in the $1500 NLHE. With 157 players left I am 28th in chips with 37,300 going into day two. This is my fifth cash of the World Series. There can't be more than half a dozen players who have cashed that many times at the WSOP this year, and maybe none who have done it in only seventeen events. I'm very proud of those results and felt today I played the best middle/big stack play of my life.

Hands:

50-100 blinds. A fairly short stack makes it 325 and I somehow knew he had AK. I feel like this sort of thing has happened many times in the last month. Some guy will raise a hand and I will just know what he has (especially if it's AK). I look down at TT on the button and call. I'm jettisoning the hand if an A or K hits, and if it doesn't, I'm not folding. The blinds fold and the flop comes Qd2d2c. He checks, I bet 500, he moves in for 450 more, I call, he has AK, it comes diamond-diamond, he has a diamond, I am down to 275. After this hand I was pretty upset, but also excited. It's rare to own someone so thoroughly playing short-stack poker.

50-100 blinds. A player limps UTG, another guy limps, and I decide to ship in my 275 with AJ. The small blind calls, and then UTG isolates all-in with pocket fives. A very nice spot for my short stack, and I win the race and more than triple up.

50-100 blinds. Four guys limp in and I call the extra 50 in the SB with 43o. The flop comes 852 and I bet all-in for about 800. One of the limpers moves in behind with a set of twos, and then the button calls all-in with a set of eights! The turn bricks, the river is an ace, and I more than triple again.

50-100 blinds. The very next hand an older fellow limps and I make it 375 on the button with Ad2s. He calls and I have him on a QJish hand. The flop was not what I wanted, JT7 with two spades. He checks and I fire a bet just in case he has pocket sixes or something. He doesn't, and quickly calls. I probably would have given up on it but the turn was the Ks and he checked. I quickly went all-in on an overbet and he folded.

100-200 blinds, 25 ante. I win a decent-sized race with TT against AJ.

100-200 blinds, 25 ante. A player limps from early position, another guy limps in late position, I limp in the cutoff with J8o, the SB folds, and the BB checks. The flop comes JJ7 with two diamonds and the big blind bets 500. The late limper calls and I weirdly call. I'm not sure if I have both, one, or neither of them beat and calling disguises my hand. I thought I'd find out more on the turn. I was pretending to have a flush draw myself, so I wasn't too worried about a diamond hitting. If a diamond hit I might even "bluff" it. The turn was an offsuit ten and the big blind quickly moved in for over 2000. The other guy thought for a long time and folded, and I called. The big blind turned over a ridiculous 43o and couldn't catch the zero-outer.

150-300 blinds, 50 ante. Nath Pizzolato, who has been raising a lot of hands, makes it 800. I flatcall with pocket kings and the big blind calls. The flop comes 446 and the big blind moves in for about 2000. Nath quickly moves in for about 6000, and I call. The big blind had either 55 or 56 and Nath had JJ. I fade them both and find myself at 18k.

I had 21k at the dinner break which was one of the largest in the tournament. After dinner I did not play a big pot and never once showed down a hand. It was an extremely weird day as the only solid hands I had all day were 88 (limp-folded to an AQ and KK), 99 (folded with a short stack), TT (which lost most of my stack), KK, and AJs. I didn't have AQ or AK all day long, which is very odd. Basically I only had one big starting hand all day long but my steals never ran into big hands, I never hit a cooler, I hit some flops with hands like 57s and 95s, and I played very well.

I have kind of a bad draw with Phil Laak and some other large stacks to my left, but I'm extremely excited about tomorrow. There are many strong players left but most of the world-class pros were in the Stud 8 or the Deuce. Having gone from 275 to 37,000 with only one big starting hand says a lot about how I'm playing, I'd like to think.