[Qcity]

Part 2

We have been about 5 hours into the tourney and I have 30,000 chips with the blinds at 400/200 and 50 antes if I remember correctly. I am moved to a to very tough table with a lot of big stacks. Just as I sat down David "the Dragon" Pham also sits down at my table with a monster stack of 25-30k. A couple of other guys have around 15k and the average at this point is only 7,000.

At this stage of the tourney, I was unable to increase my chip stack. I fluctuated between 15,000 and 35,000 the rest of the day. Every time I was just about to break out past 35,000 I lost a big hand. Here are some key hands in chronological order.

- After losing a couple of small pots and my stack down to 25,000 right before the 15 minute break, I get JJ. An old guy who I saw raised with bad hands like QJ before, raised it up 2,000, so I reraised to 6,000. He called and I put him on AK. Flop came Q and rags, he checks and I bet out huge bet of 8,000 trying to take blinds. He surprisingly calls me and no I'm scared he has AQ, although he is the type of player to always bet that out. Turn comes a 10 which would give him a gut shot plus two overs if he has AK. He checks and I check and we both check on river. He had AK and I had JJ and won a large pot.

I knew I had the best hand and I won a huge pot regardless, but I had a chance to knock this guy out, or atleast cripple someone who would be a thorn in my side the rest of the tourney and ended up knocking me out on a bad beat. I got scared he had AQ and didn't want to risk more chips, but checking was a mistake when I had a good read that he had AK, which he did.

- I look down at AA, the only time in the whole tourney I would see that hand. I raise triple blind and everyone folds except big blind who is shortstacked with no chips, just enough for blind. He flips over 26 suited and wins the nothing pot. Sometimes you just have bad timing with that hand.

- This was my best play of the tourney. I have AK and am one off the button and everyone folds up to me. Blinds are now 300-600 and I raise 1500. Two medium stacks of around 5-6k chips call me, one on the button and one on big blind. Flop comes 7 high rags. Big blind checks and I check and button goes all-in for about 5,000 more. I am pretty sure this guy has just two face cards like KQ or A10 in which case I have by far the best hand. Here were my reasons he was on a bluff trying to buy the pot:
1.) I didn't think he had a pair, since if he had a high pair above 8/8 he probably would have reraised me preflop as I could have easily been on a blind steal. Most players reraise with medium pairs in this position because they don't want to see a flop with 10/10 and have two overpairs. A small pair he would likely just muck in this situation in which he needs to conserve chips.
2.) Most players reraise with pairs and smooth call with high cards like KQ hoping to catch on the flop.
3.) The flop came three rags which increases the probability that all he had high cards and not a pair like 9/9
4.) I've seen this all in move to try to buy a pot a million times and was pretty sure it was a bluff just based on this. Basically when the strength of a bet is completely opposite the weakness of the other playesr in the pot, it is usually a bluff or semi-bluff attempt. In this situation we were both very weak since we checked and he bets all in, a very strong bet. That is usually a bluff.
5.) The last thing was that he was oozing with nervousness. I am an inexperienced player and don't try to read players much. But sometimes its so obvious, or you catch something that your instinct tells you isn't right.
6.) Even if he had a pair, which I considered very unlikely, I still had two overcards with 1/2 pot odds. So everything pointed to a call here.

I called and he had AJ of hearts, exaclty as I read him. My AK held up and I took down a considerable pot.

If he had just bet like 2,500, it could have been a successful bluff. But his all-in move threw up to many red flags, and I as I analyzed the situation, I was sure I had the best hand.

- This was my worst hand of the day, in both terms of results and the way I played. I had just won those two big hands and had around 40,000 chips, the highest I would every have and still near the chip leaders at this point. I was riding high and feeling nearly invincible with the way I was playing.

An older guy who was playing very tight limps in and another guy limps in. I make a huge error by raising to 8,000 with AK of clubs (blinds were 400/800 I think). I like to play AK strong preflop, but this was far too strong of a bet and I failed to take into account how tightly the limper under the gun had been playing. His limp had AA written all over it. If I had just thought about it for a moment, I would have raised 2,400 or just called, but I went out firing without really thinking. I can't stress the importance of taking a second to analyze each and every hand you play in instead making moves without thinking. Every time I make a major mistake it is because of acting too hastily, when only thinking about it for 20 seconds would have saved me from possible disaster.

So he reraises me all-in another 8,000 chips. My overbet has foolishly pot commited me in a dead-end situation. I had to call and hope he had either KK or even QQ (I've seen players make this move with QQ), but clearly he had AA which he did. He wins the pot and takes me down to about 25,000 and knocking the wind out of my sales as well as leveling the playing field. Now about 5 guys at our table had in the neighborhood of 25,000 in chips.

- After dinner break not much happens for a couple of hours, I win a few small pots and have around 30,000 chips. Huck Seed gets moved to my table with a huge stack of around 60,000 chips and there is only about 200 players left in tourney of over 1,000. Then comes another hand that knocked me down hard.

I have QJ of diamonds and raise trying to steal the blinds and antes, which are hefty now. A young Asian kid, who kept playing back at me every time I went after his blind, called my raise. Flop came 10/9/4 with two diamonds. So I had a flush draw, outside straight draw and two overs, an awesome flop. Just with the flush and straight draw, I am a slight favorite over a set of tens, against a pair of tens a huge favorite. He checks and something in my gut tells me he is going to check raise and I bet 4,000. He check raises me to 10,000. He only has about 3,000 chips more so I tell him that I'll put him all-in. He flips over 10/9 for top two pair, my worst case scenario.

River comes a King and I now have a straight. I had a brief moment of ecstacy as I thought I would win a big pot, and the kid is in despair as he is about to be busted out of the tourney. Then a 10 comes on river giving him a full hourse. What roller coaster.

Now I am down to a medium stack for first time in tourney, only 15,000 in chips. At my table, where there are a lot more chips, I am shortstacked and the blinds and antes are coming around for about 3,000 in chips. I am going to have to open my game up, which had been fairly tight, and make some moves if I am going to come back in this thing.

I knew that I had to attack the really good players at my table, David Pham and Huck Seed. Several of the older guys were calling stations and my fold equity was significantly reduced against them. The two young kids were too loose. But the world class players knew how to lay hands down, and that is exactly what I needed because I wanted to avoid showdowns and coinflip situations. Earlier, David Pham had in fact folded to a 2,000 additional reraise, all-in, when there was already 20,000 in the pot on the turn. He wouldn't even call 2,000 more to win 20,000, because he was sure he was drawing dead against a set.

- First opportunity comes with AJ. Huck Seed raises triple big blind and I reraise all-in. He thinks about it for a minute then folds. I win a sizeable pot and increase my chips from 15,000 to 20,000.

- Next time I have A9. David Pham raises again, two spots from button, trying to steal my big blind. This is about the 5th time in a row he had tried to steal my blind. A9 isn't very good but it will work in this situation. I reraise all in and he folds KJ. I now have about 25,000 in chips.

- Again David Pham attacks my big blind, and I have A8 suited again. He could have a calling hand this time so I elect to call and outplay him on flop. Flop comes 8KK, so I check. He makes weak looking continuation bet and I reraise all-in. He immediatly folds. He said he had 6/6 that time and he would of called me preflop. I made the right move there.

- And that was it for the next few hours. The blinds were grinding me down to 20,000 and I was card-dead. My opportunities to get chips were few and far between and the whole table was at a stalemate going nowhere. There was a lot of real tight and solid play going on and no one could really acquire chips.

At around 1:00 AM, after 13 hours of continuous play I started trying to raise and steal the blinds out of position with hands like A10 and KJ. It worked three times in a row and I got back up to 30,000. Then I did it with 2/2 and short stack reraises all-in with KK. I-m pot comitted and kings hold up. Then last hand before the end of the day I try again with 5/6 of spades. I tried to pick up the blinds and another short stack raises me all in. I have to call with so many chips at risk, but a fold might have been wiser as I still would have escaped with 16,000 chips for day two. But if I won the pot I'd have nearly 30,000 again.

I elect to call and he shows A9 and wins the pot. I'm down to 10,000 in chips, lowest I've been since the third hour, and walk back to my hotel room at 2:00 AM. I don't know what went wrong that started day two, nothing more than a bad run of cards for hours on end and a very tough table.

So we start the second day of the tourney at 2:00 PM and with only 65 players left (top 100 is in the money). I am super-shortstacked 4th from the bottom. I am determined to go all-in before blind hits me. Very first hand I have 6/6 and go all-in, everyone folds and I increase to 15,000.

Then I have AK on my second hand. Guy to my left raises and I reraise him all-in. He calls only a few thousand more with AJ and my AK holds up, I now have 35,000 again, yes!

About 5 hands later I'm on the button and look down at JJ. A guy two seasts to my left goes all-in. This is the same guy that I beat with my JJ earlier against AK and he had been surviving all tourney with just one move, all tourney, huge overbet or all-in preflop. However, this time I was sure he had nothing so strong as AK because he got called he showed down some very weak hands earlier. I call for almost all of my chips and he has A8 suited.

No ace comes on the flop and I'm elated as I'll now have around 60,000 chips and can maybe cruise to the final table. Turn comes and 8. River comes and 8. A few hands later with no chips left I got busted out.

I finished 44th place and won $7,000. I wasn't mad or bitter about the bad beat at the end. I made a horrible beat on two players early in the tourney, its just a part of the game. I had made several comebacks in the tourney got myself in position to advance really far with that JJ at the end, the best hand I had seen in hours of play. I had also made several blunders in the tourney, that prevented me from ever pushing beyond 35-40k in chips. I was very satisfied for my WSOP cashing as I collected my check.

Later that day I went to play in $1,000 WSOP qualifier satellite, and would continue to be haunted by eights as my Aces full of Tens full hours was beaten by quad eights.

Later that night at the Palms, I won second in the $200 buy-in tourney good for $7,000. $14k in one day, my most successful day to date.