A month of January that started off miserably just took a very welcome turn for the better as I finished 4th at WPT Texas Hold'em poker Main Event in Biloxi last week for $145,000.
Since I last posted I spent 9 days in Nassau, Bahamas for the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure poker tournaments and then 9 more days in Biloxi. The Bahamas was an altogether miserable experience, if you can believe that. It might sound insane, but there's very little I look forward to about that trip down to the Atlantis resort every January.
My friends and I talked about it and they mostly agreed, so I guess I'm not totally crazy. The weather wasn't great and the service from the staff was predictably awful. I also don't like to get caught up in the conversations and ego that goes along with 5000 poker players being in one place. I'll stop complaining though. I played 8 tournaments including the $25,000 buy-in and bricked all but one of them as I finished 9th for peanuts in some $1500 nlhe event. I might've been the happiest man ever to leave that island. I roomed with my boys Jon Little and Adam Geyer and really enjoyed their company though.
I came home for a couple days to relax and then headed down to Biloxi. I stopped off to watch Bama beat then #12 Kentucky in basketball in what was probably the most exciting Bama hoops game I'm ever attended. I got down to Biloxi and quickly bricked 3 prelim events and was down $65,000 in 2011 before I knew what hit me. I told my dad I was going to win the main event though, a prediction I almost never verbally make. I came close.
I started day 1 at what must've been one of the toughest tables in the room at a WPT event that could've been the softest of the 36 I've played in my career. I kind of hung around the starting stack of 30,000 chips until I 3bet Frank Kassella in a pot with AKo. Yuval Brohnstein called cold and Kassella called. Flop KKTr. Check, I bet small, fold, and Kassella checkraised my 1800 to 4800. I actually really hated my life at that point. I decided to call.
Turn 6 or something stupid and Kassella moved in for 14000 or something and I called and was shown TT. I just don't think he's ever going to bluff his tournament away there, but he might show me KQs or KJs. I was down to 12000 but quickly rallied back to the starting stack after winning a bunch of small pots. With a few hands left in the night, I opened 75dd upfront and a loose older gentleman predictably defended. Flop 9d4h2h. He led 1200 as he'd done often and I decided to float. Turn 3h. He led 3500 and for no particular reason I decided to raise to 8500. He thought 3 minutes and asked "do you have a flush?" and then called.
River Jc. He checked and just when I was about to give up and check behind I instead reached for 13400 in chips and bet. He thought 5 long minutes this time and then said "I give up" and folded. I took 50k to day 2 with average around 43.
On day 2 I danced around to 4 different tables in total. At the third table, I was at around 55000 with average 70k. A kid opened the cutoff and I 3bet QQ on the button to 3800. Chad Brown 3bet to like 9800 from the SB. This really is probably a fold, but I'd been incredibly active and decided to go with it.
Chad had two Aces but a magic Queen came right in the window to keep me alive. I really appreciated how Chad handled the beat. He is a complete gentleman and is always a class act. Later I showed up with AK in a pot where I shouldn't have AK on a board of QT8J and busted a kid who had two 9s. I ended the day with 146k and average around 93.
On day 3 I got off to a good start and was quickly up to around 260,000. I slipped a little to around 200 and then ran a big semi-bluff against this character named Shawn Cunix. He opened the HJ to 3500 at 6/12 and I made it 9900 with T8ss on the button. He called. Flop Js9h4d. He checkraised my 12100 to 30000. I pushed for his 145k and he thought 2 minutes before folding what he said was two kings. I got moved to a new table with 54 players left (and 27 paying) and kind of held steady until we got down to 36 and redrew.
I found myself at a table with the eventual winner an unknown Russian named Alex Kuzmin who had a lot of chips to my immediate left. The word on the guy around the tournament was that he was a huge bluffbot, so I fully intended on having to make a huge call against him as the bubble loomed. With 35 left I opened red AJo and he 3bet the button. Flop QcJc4x went check-check. Turn 8x. I checked and he bet 25000 into 40k which I called. River 2. I checked and he blasted it for 80,000 of my final 180,000.
I had fully intended on calling him down but now I was sick. I made what I think is actually a bad call given the board texture, but I talked myself into the fact that he could bet KJ or JT. I was shown a turned set of 8s. Later, after slipping some more with 30 left I found a double with AK vs Todd Keikoan's 99 all in pre. Later on the exact bubble I found a double to 240k against a guy who was very tired of me moving in over his limps and raises.
He limped with SB and I cautiously checked 98dd and we saw Ts4d2d. Check, I bet 5000, and he checkraised to 20000. I called. Turn 5d. He checked and I decided he was so fed up with me saying "all-in" that I should just move it all-in. He quickcalled the 99000 in the pot of 50k but was drawing absolutely dead with two black queens. Once we reached the money, players really started to fall off. I busted 4-time FTOPS winner Yuval Brohnstein in a pretty big pot to finish the night in 3rd of 19 in chips.
...continued tomorrow
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