Continued from Part One...
I think it was the day before we played Day 1B of the Main Event that Adam's girlfriend, Sunena, came to join the party. She's really lovely and she and Adam look great together; he's also lucky to have someone that really understands the life of a poker player. Indeed, as we all sat down to play the Main Event, she sat in a cash game and was crushing it within the first hour or so, which was more than could be said for us.
My table wasn't great - I had eventual runner-up James Keys to my right, along with Scott Montgomery and Jeff Lisandro. I flopped a queen with A-Q on a massively draw-heavy board and ran into Keys' set to lose nearly 8,000 of my original 20,000 stack.
Before the end of the first level, I was down to 6,000. I avoided busting to Montgomery when, with blinds at 50/100, he raised in late position to 300 and I found A-A in the big blind. I reraised to 850. He checked out my stack for quite a while and I was sure he was going to shove on me, but eventually he flatted. The flop came J-J-3 and something inside me told me I was beaten. He checked; I checked behind. The turn was a 5, which put a flush draw out there. He checked again, and with draws out there I really should have protected the hand, but I checked again. The river was a 6, I think, and Montgomery bet 1,200. I snapped it and he flipped up J-J for quads. I dropped to about 4,000 in chips but was given a ray of hope knowing that it was a spot I could, and should have gone broke in.
I moved to a far juicier table at the end of Level 1. Andy Bloch was the only face I recognised, but my turning point on Day 1 came against a person I later found out to be Patrik Antonius' wife. I shoved on Andy Bloch after finding A-5 to his mid position raise in the big blind. He passed. The next hand, he raised again and I found A-T of clubs in the small blind, shoved again and he snapped with 7-7. I hit trips to build back to about 9,000.
I was desperate to get to a stack where I could start isolating a blatant donkey sat two to my right. Under the gun, I raised it up to 600 (blinds 100/200) when I found Q-T of hearts. By now, I had built up to about 13,000. Maya (Antonius' wife) min-raised (and a bit more) to 1,350. I was as certain as I could be that she had A-A or K-K. I could smell a double-up in progress when I called and the flop slapped me in the face with a beautiful Q-J-Q, two spades. I checked and she bet 1,400.
With the draw out there, and being so certain that she had aces or kings, I thought my best option here would be to shove all in. I didn't want a spade to slow down the action, and she could never put me on a queen making such a disgusting over-shove. So, I shoved it in, she snapped and I was momentarily devastated to see her flip over pocket jacks for the full house. Something inside me told me I couldn't lose this hand, so as the dealer burnt the turn, I didn't even move from my seat. It was a blank. I half stood from my chair as a ''God save our graaacious queen!” 10 of clubs slammed down on the river. Back in business, I thought, as Action Dave came and congratulated me. He'd been sitting in the bushes watching the proceedings.
I ebbed and flowed throughout the day, and on the last level, I was moved to a table to find Mel Judah and, immediately to my right, Chris Ferguson. I was down to about 10,000 with the blinds at 200/400. I shoved over the top of Ferguson with any ace high that I found if he opened the pot in late position. After a while sitting at the table, an interesting situation arose. I'm 50/50 whether this was an angle-shoot or not. UTG+1 raised to 1,200; coming back to me on the button, I find K-Q and shove all in. The kid that made the original raise didn't seem overly excited by his hand, so I felt confident he would pass. The guy to my left briefly dwelled up, then passed. Back to the original raiser, and he said 'How much is that?' I told him it was about 12,000, to which he responded with a chuckle, 'How many big blinds is that?' He wasn't seriously asking me to work that out - but he looked at the tournament clock and said, “OK… call.” I quickly flipped up my hand, to which the guy to my left immediately said, “I had the same hand!” At this point, the kid I was involved with said, 'Oh, hang on, I meant, “OK... cool,” not, “OK… call.” The floor were called over and, as expected, the ruling was that my hand was face-up and this guy now had the decision as to whether to call or not.
I was obviously not happy that it had already been revealed to him that another K-Q had already been passed. He said, “I'm so sorry dude. I have to call though, now that I can see your hand.” He flipped over A-3 of diamonds, and it looked pretty much all over when the board came 9-9-4, two diamonds. The turn bricked, but I couldn't help but let out a “Get in there!” as an off-suit queen hit the river. If it was an angle-shoot, then serve him right. It worked out well for me.
I quickly built to around 40,000 when another key hand came up. I raised in late position to 1,350 with J-T to get a call from a pretty loose player on the button. I'd seen him play a few hands; he would go fishing for gutshots and so on, and if they hit, he would waste no time in betting heavy. The flop came down T-K-7. I bet 2,400, and he called. The turn was an A, to which I checked and he checked behind. The river fell another T, much to my delight. I decided to go for the overbet - betting something like 8,500. At this point, the guy instantly picked up a huge stack of chips and launched them aggressively into the pot. It was enough to put me all in.
It wasn't as easy a decision as it might first appear, only because he instantly jammed over the top of my over-bet on the river without a second thought. I ruled out J-Q for the straight, as I was 99 percent sure he would have bet the turn. I considered he may have put me on the king, and having hit an ace (A-J, A-Q), he felt he had the best hand - or if I had hit a raggy ace on the turn, he could get me off the chop - but I felt it was far too risky a bet to make. This brought me to a conclusion I wasn't very fond of: Q-T. That would have really made sense, given the action that took place. Of course, with the ace and king on board, I could chop the pot with J-T if he was indeed holding Q-T. There was too much in the middle at this stage of the tournament, so I made the call. He slammed over A-7, having made 2 pair on the turn and been counterfeited on the river. He was a pretty loose cannon, and I don't know whether it was an angry 'tilt-shove' at being counterfeited, or whether he genuinely thought he had 'two pair, aces and sevens.’ These people exist in abundance, even in a tournament that costs $10,000 to enter. I think I finished the day with about 75,000 - I was back in the hunt, having gone from a bowl of rice to a plate of Wagyu in the last 30 minutes of the day.
On Day 2, I recognised only one person on my table: Scott Montgomery. I am pretty convinced he gave me a look of, 'What are you still doing here?!' I wasn't overly pleased to see him on the table because I knew how recklessly aggressive he was. Not to matter; said recklessness surfaced on the very first hand where he four-bet shoved his above average stack in with A-J and got snapped by A-K. He was gone.
I switched into cruise control from thereon in, seeing little shift in my stack size for most of the day. I can't remember anything significant that happened on Day 2; I finished with 107,000, I believe. I think the average was 175,000. We finished four places off the money, which I thought was unfair. Dragging everyone back for a third day when four people would go home empty-handed seemed a little bit unprofessional to me, but that's the way they wanted it.
Going into Day 3, I knew there was work to be done. I had never hit the average stack from half way through Day 1, and I think I was returning with about 30 big blinds. I got up an hour earlier, went to the gym, had a run, a swim and sat in the sauna for 10 minutes. I decided that I would try and make the money, so that if anything I would be able to repay Black Belt Poker for the opportunity. That didn't mean I was prepared to blind myself away to nothingness, but just play a little tighter than I was already playing. That done, I was going to look for the earliest opportunity to double up, even if it meant taking a big gamble.
As it happened, the bubble burst pretty quickly and the current chip leader soon occupied the seat on my right; he had about 700,000. I decided that this was the guy to do business with; he had the chips to afford to gamble, or to call me off light. Sitting with 100,000, I raised under the gun with K-Q to 10,000 with blinds at 2,000/4,000. All passed apart from the big blind, who called. The flop came 9-T-3. He checked and I jammed in for 90,000. I felt he had caught a piece of the flop, and I was 50/50 that he might call, but, in all honesty, I didn't mind the call. It was one of those moments when you 'know it's coming'. I felt that, at best, he has a pair of 10s - he can afford both to call and fold. If he had a piece, he might just check-raise me all in; I wanted to give him the option to fold. If I got called, I knew I had plenty of outs.
It took him a while to slide in the call, and he flipped over K-9 for second pair. Someone announced, “Wow, good call.” I stayed in my seat and said, “Yeah, I want the call, I'm going to win the pot.” The dealer burnt and turned running queens to double me up. I was still below average. We played some musical chairs and about two hours later, the same player came and sat down at my table. He was still chipped up. He raised my big blind and when I looked down at K-T, I jammed it for 140,000 or so. He called with A-9, and I hit trip 10s to outdraw him once again. He blew up after that, and I'm sure those two hands played a decent part in it.
We redrew for seats about an hour before the dinner break, and I was happy to find Howard Lederer to my left. No disrespect, but I felt I was going to be stealing a lot of big blinds. Unfortunately, about three hands into this new table and Lederer loses a monster pot when his king-high flush draw gets beaten by a nine-high flush draw which hits a pair on the turn. He seemed to steam after that, and turned Hulk-like in his aggression. My original plans for bullying him went down the pan. Saved by the bell, the dinner break came; I was hoping it would give Lederer some time to compose himself.
After the break, I almost got myself into trouble. The first hand back, I looked down at 3-3 in the small blind. The action had passed round to me. A shove was unnecessary, but I didn't want Lederer peeling a flop and being out of position if the miracle didn't ping. I was also under the impression that he would conservatively pass a lot of the weak aces and kings where another player might have been a hero. I said, “There's only one thing I can do with this hand,” and slowly pushed all my chips into the middle. Lederer snapped. He had A-K. The flop came J-4-6, which was looking pretty rosy until another 6 hit the turn, thus doubling his outs with the counterfeit possibility. The river was a 6 and, after a count, Lederer looked shell-shocked; he was gone, but I was still below average.
Sitting on around 300,000, a bona fide superstar sits down at the table. One of the classic young 'Internet kids' who thinks being hyper-aggressive will allow him to pick up every single pot he enters. He literally raised every hand and reraised anyone that raised in front of him. I took the opportunity to sit back and wait for a hand. It wasn't a long time coming: I picked up a pair of jacks under the gun. Blinds were 4,000/8,000 with a 1,000 ante and, sitting about 40 big blinds deep, I min-raised the Star's big blind in the hope that he would reraise and I could jam and take the pot down preflop. The action passed to him, he dwelled up and suddenly announced, “All in.” I personally hate jacks and rarely win a race with them, but I practically had my chips in the middle before the last syllable left his mouth. He looked disgusted with himself and I heard him mutter, “What am I doing? What am I doing?” The board ran dry and as I doubled to well above average. I let the dealer sort my chips as I found a random, jolly looking Asian guy on the rail who I grabbed, hugged and said “This is how we roll here!” Thankfully, he took it well.
Towards the end of the day, I found a lovely spot. With the super-aggressive pit-degen Matthew Kirk sat to my right, local Manny Rodrigues raised under the gun to 21,000 with blinds at 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante. Kirk, in the small blind, reraised to 65,000, and I looked down in the big blind to find a pair of queens. I was under no doubt whatsoever that I had the best hand, and I knew this Kirk to be a bit of a star from playing with him at the start of the day. I felt there was plenty in the middle, so I jammed instantly for over 600,000. Rodrigues mucked immediately, but it seemed like Kirk had actually woken up with a hand. He said, “I know you have me beat, but do I want to gamble?” I knew the answer to that question was, of course, yes, since I learnt he had to place second in this tournament just to break even from his pit escapades during the past week. He certainly wasn't averse to a gamble.
He called, and flipped over A-K of clubs. Barny Boatman was chatting with Adam's girlfriend on an empty table, and they both joined a group that gathered to watch the pot unfold. The flop fell 3-5-6 with one club. I felt sick when I saw the 2c ping on the turn, adding a split pot opportunity as well as a flush draw to Kirk's two overs. The river fell the Jh and I breached the million-chip mark. I let out a Michael Jackson-esque “Heee heee!” to which I heard Adam (who was currently sitting on a cash table and up to the tune of about $5,000) shout “Go on, Sam!”
I left the table to compose and Barny informed me he was keen to call in the jack of hearts when the turn fell, but he had a last-second change of 'heart'. Rodrigues busted in 19th place taking everyone's paycheck to a guaranteed $75,000 and finishing up for the day. I had bled away some chips and would come back to start Day 4 with a stack of 841,000.
Read Part Three...