2012 Main Event

July 7th, 2012.  I leave a little before noon to drive to Vegas to satellite into the Main Event.  It had already been a full day for me having woken up at 530 am that morning.  I got to the Rio right about 4pm just as a $550 satellite was starting.   Field was over 700 players.  Top 33 finishers would win a $10,000 seat.   34th place got over $7k cash which might be better than 33rd if you don't already have a seat.

Raise fold blah blah blah....sometime around level 5 I was getting low.   Guy sitting to my left shares his belief that with my stack size I should be pushing with king 10 or better.  A few hands later I look down at pocket 8's.  Based on his advice I push rather than just raise in an attempt to create a king 10 image.  It works when he pushes all in right behind me.  The two blinds have yet to act.  My friend attempts to discourage them by telling anyone who will listen that he has the best hand right now.  He's not trying to intimidate me.  My money's already in there.  He's obviously trying to us both a favor and get the blinds to fold.    The small blind folds and will later tell me he had 8's beat preflop.  Not inconceivable to fold a hand like pocket 9's in a satellite when two all ins occur in front of you. Big blind folds as well and shows an ace which is great news since villain has ace 4.  My eights hold up and if I were giving a speech I'd have thanked him.


7 hours go by and with plenty of caffeine I run well enough.  Pairs beating ace king when they need to.   I was up to 50,000 chips- plenty for a seat.  The average stack would be 80 something later that night when there would be 34 players were left.  I just had to stay alive.

A very loose player with 25k behind the line raises my big blind.  In hindsight a push may have been my best play if I'm not going to fold.  Why not put him and his smaller stack to a decision?   I choose to call because I didn't want to go crazy with the specific hand I seem to lose plenty of money with.  Flop comes ace high.  He bets.  I raise.  If he has Ace King he deserves the double up.   The chips get all in and he turns over ace 2.  Wow.   I am 93% to move up to 75k.   That's a seat.   The only question is whether I should play the Main Event tomorrow (Sunday) or wait till Monday and spend Sunday playing even more satellites.   Blank on turn.  You know.  Because once you have your seat you take all the remaining 10k seats in cash.

2 on river and ace 2 takes it down.   This guy now has 50k and can relax.  I am down to 25k and on high alert.  How did we switch places here?

A few hands later another loose aggressive player sitting to my left pushes all in with his king, 7 on the button, because how else can you possibly play it when you have 60,000 chips and have been controlling the table with your small raises?

He gets insta-called by the same guy who just rivered me with ace 2.  This time ace 2 has pocket kings and is about to double up to 100k.  Amazing.

And then it starts raining clubs.  The clubs won't stop coming till the guy with the king, 7 hits a four card flush with his 7 of clubs.  Poof.  Just like that the guy with kings is gone.  I watch the dealer push his (and my) chips come back across the table to the gentleman to my left.  The guy who pushes with king 7 now has over 100,000 and will easily win a seat.    Later this same night I will see a two-year-old out after Midnight with his parents in 7-Eleven.  Life isn't fair in so many ways.   

With 46 players remaining I look down at Ace Queen suited.  Again.  Cosmically speaking I could fold.  Mathematically speaking my stack is down to 23K and it costs 10.5K per orbit so I have to push soon and this is WAY better than I could have hoped for in this spot.  Plus the best part is I know I am ahead of the aggressive player who had bet 9K from early position. He was raising too often.  If he woke up with something, good for him.

 

I push my last 23k into the middle so he only needs to call 14k to win 36.5k with the antes.


He sat there for a few moments or so, perhaps I should have talked and said something like "For 14k you can fold for the next orbit.  Why take the worse of it when you don't need to win all the chips?"

He eventually calls and turns over 7,8 off.

An amazing moment for me.  I didn't expect that.   If my hand holds up I'll have over 50k and be back on track for grabbing the seat.  Plenty of 30k and 40k stacks around.  

If it doesn't hold up I get a story to tell.  

Ace, jack, rag flop. 

Better than expected. 

What could possibly go wrong?

I am 97% favorite. 

9 on the turn.

Nah.....

10 on the river.

So this is why I am not doing this every day with my life anymore.


I hadn't checked into the hotel yet. 

I was tempted to just get into the car and drive back home.

Then I remembered I had woken up at 5:30am and decided it was better to just fold and go to sleep.


See you next year WSOP.