My Tourney Report on the $2,500 WSOP No Limit

[Qcity]

The day of the $2,500 No Limit Tourney, I woke up groggy, tired and burnt out on poker after 3 weeks of non-stop play. I thought it would be a bad ideal to sign up for this tourney and cut into my bankroll that was flatlining, but I decided to sign up anways. I also hadn't been playing well the past few days and doubted that I had the wherewithal to succeed in this tourney.

I won a few small pots boosting my 2500 chips to around 3500 before I won the hand that would skyrocket me to the chip leader in this tourney. 5 players limped and I found 10/10 on the small blind, my favorite hand. I raised it up to 250 (blinds are 25/50) then the limper under the gun reraises to 500. An Asian guy smooth calls and I decide to call, even though I'm positive rereaiser has AA or KK.

Rereraiser bets all-in about 700 chips more (he was shortstacked) on flop of all rags, Asian guy calls and I stupidly call. Another rag on turn and I call Asian guy's all-in for 700 more with only top pair of tens. I knew I was playing poorly all the way through this hand, knowing I was beat. Like I said early, I wasn't playing good poker and knew I wasn't playing good. I got sucked into this hand and wouldn't let myself get out even I was guaranteed to be beat. Asian guy turns over a set eights, other guy AA and I just have 10/10 with a gutshot straight draw. River comes 10 and I knock out both players winning on a horrible bad beat, winning a fairly large pot.

Now I had a considerable amount of chips of around 7,000 early on and I became determined to wake up and play my A game, and not my F game, which I had been playing on up to that point the past few days. My game is a game of extremes, either great or poor. When you suck out on two because you were a calling station, it almost feels obligatory to sharpen up and play perfect poker.

And that is exactly what I did for the next two hours, increasing my chips from 7,000 to 35,000 (which was the chip leader) in only a couple of hours. I went berserk, knocking out everyone who stood in my way and not losing a single pot until one bluff at the end of this rush. Some hands that came up:

I had QQ two from button, everyone folds to me. I triple raise, and button reraises. I decide to reraise him all-in. He thinks about it for a minute and calls, then flips up JJ. Queens hold up and +5,000 in chips.

I have AJ of hearts under the gun. I limp. Small stack goes in for about 1,200. Loose aggressive player on blind calls and I also call 1,000 more. Loose player checks in the dark as flop comes all rags. On the turn he checks again and is insisting that I check which I do. I picked up a flush draw on turn. On the River 3rd heart turns and I have the absolute nuts. So I make a small bet and the guy blows his top off that I didn't check, cursing. So he rereaises my 1,000 bet all-in 8,000 more. He flips over J10, for a pair of tens, I have nut flush. Two more players gone, +9,000.

The table couldn't believe what that guy did, basically giving me all of his chips when he had well above the average. They were saying that it was the worst play they'd ever seen.

I take down the blinds a few times. Raise with AQ suited and have short stacks reraise his remaining 2500 with 10/10. I win coin flip, +3,000 chips.

Two limpers and then guy to my left raises about 1,200 (blinds still 200). I call with KJ of spades. One limper and raiser both have decent sized stacks of around 8,000. Two spades plus a King come on the flop. I have top pair plus a flush draw. Limpers check, raiser checks, and I bet a fairly large bet. Limpers call and original raiser folds (he later said he folded KQ). Turn comes rag, limpers check and I bet hoping to win pot right there. When they both call I am really concerned since I doubt I have best hand. Pot is huge around 15,000 in chips. First limper has no chips left and is all in, second guy has about 2,000 chips left. River comes another rag, no spade. Everyone checks and both players muck as I turn over the KJ. +12,000 in chips.

What were these guys calling me down with? I just gained another massive amount of chips on seemingly bad plays. I talked to the one guy and he was chasing down the ace high flush draw. Who knows that the other guy had who got busted out of the tourney with that hand and couldn't even beat KJ.

New player to my table raises big in first position. I have KK and reraise him all in. He folds +2,000 in chips.

After a few more small hands I won, I now had about 35,000 in chips which was surely the chip leader with the blinds still only 100/200 and 25 antes. A crowd had formed around my table on the other side of the rail and I kept hearing comments like "how did he get all of those chips?".

I then bluffed about 5,000 chips with AQ to a medium stack who was just moved to my table with AJ (he only had about 6,000 in chips). He caught a J on the turn and kept calling me even though a K was on board. This was the first bluff I had done all day. -5,000.

We were about 4 or 5 hours into the tourney when I was moved to another table. After busting up that table, whom one of the only survivors was Lars Bonding who ended up in second place (he only had 4,000 or so chips at the time we left), I was moved to a very tough table.

To be continued tomorrow...