Saturday, July 14, 2007

My last hand in the Main Event

I fought very hard on day 2 with my short stack, and was getting away with it since I had a very good table. I made some good plays without too much of a hand to keep my stack with a size that allowed me to go all in (with a raise or reraise) and still be a threat to the other players. Then the following hand came:

The table has been limpimg a lot, which was very good for me and my stack, this time it was no different, 4 limpers, including Chuck Kelley in the button with a +200k stack; by the way, his game had not impressed me so far, since I saw him making some obvious mistakes and since I had position over him, he was at seat 1, I was on seat 3, I was hoping those chips came my way, but of course I needed to be lucky first and double up, the opportunity came in this hand, after he limped, I found AK in the SB, blinds were 600-1200-200 at the time, so 3600 to start, and with 4 limpers, 4800 more, perfect situation for my 22k stack, of course I went all in, waiting to take the 8400 unless somebody had a real hand, since calling 20k more it would be difficult for all of them but Chuck, and even if he called, I didn't mind to race with AK, but I was not expecting him to call anyway, since he didn't raise the limpers, but maybe he had a small pair and decided I was making too many "moves". Well, he called the 20k more and now the pot had near 50k, I was expecting to see something like 22-66 and race for the chips, but no, the donkey had KTo !!!; I couldn't believe it, but of course I was really happy, couldn't expect a better situation to put all my chips in the center, I was already thinking about my new stack and how to control the table. Well, this is until a ten hit the turn, no help in the river and that was my main event; table feeling sad for me with the usual good game and you played that short stack pretty well, I just smiled, wish everybody luck and exited, beginning the wait for 2008. Incredible, this was my only all in all the tourney, that is, the only one that was called. The round before I was almost called, when again some limpers, I completed in the SB with 53o, flop came 743, I checked and it was checked around (such a nice table), 7 in the turn and I was going to bet some but I better went all in, a guy with a 100k or something stack, thought for a while while asking me if I had the 7 before folding his pair, I wonder which pair it was, 66?, maybe A4?, but of course I was glad he folded. Maybe Chuck saw this and decided to teach me a lesson with his powerful KT, but that's poker and you need to win these "flips" in order to advance. For example, one of the most important hands I had in the $1500 event was a sick call I made with AQ when I had like 90k versus a bully who went AI (after my reraise) with QJ and his 170k stack (and blinds were like 1k-2k !!), but of course that time I won and could use my stack to almost make the final table. Exiting the Main Event is always a sad day, I just can't help it, it's such an experience to us poker players to play in it. I'm pretty sure I'll be there once again in 2008.

No comments: