My Failure at the Tournament of Champions

Day No. 1 of the Tournament of Champions (TOC) went as well as I could have hoped. All day long I played great and was really lucky, to boot! I ended the day with nearly $25,000 in chips, and the chip leaders had about $30,000. In other words, I was in fantastic shape. I was brimming with confidence going into day No. 2. All I had to do was hold it together for about 11 more hours of play. I felt like great play would be enough to get me to day No. 3, period. I think most top pros would disagree with me here, as they probably felt like they had to play great and avoid a lot of bad luck. In any case, I did manage to play great poker all day long, and was never a short stack. I was never in jeopardy of being eliminated because I was never low enough on chips to go out, even if I lost two big pots in a row. I had managed to move my chips so well during the first two days that I made it to day No. 3 and the no-limit hold'em segment of the tournament quite easily – mission accomplished!

We were down to the final 27 players in the field of 402, and now the game would switch from one-third seven-card stud, one-third Omaha eight-or-better, and one-third limit hold'em to all no-limit hold'em. At the end of the day, one player would stand alone as the champion. T.J. Cloutier, Scotty Nguyen, "Miami" John Cernuto, "Syracuse" Chris Tsiprailidis, and I had to be amongst the favorites at this point in the tournament. I had played almost as well as I thought I possibly could have, and day No. 3 promised to be the payday for me; I was going to win the TOC! I visualized my name on the trophy late that night as I held it aloft for the cameras. I was clearly on top of my game, and this time no one was going to stop me from claiming the prize at hand. I had just finished fifth in the no-limit hold'em championship at the World Series of Poker, had won another no-limit hold'em event there, and had won a no-limit hold'em event in Vienna in early June. Man, I was rolling big-time in no-limit hold'em. Who could possibly stop me from winning this event? You already know the answer: Perhaps a lot of people could have stopped me, but I stopped myself!

I was feeling pretty good about my game as we became 19-handed. Soon, we would be 18-handed and would redraw down to two ninehanded tables. Not! Ninety minutes later, we were still 19-handed! There were so many all ins during that 90-minute period that it was incredible that we still had all 19 players left. After cultivating an aggressive image at my table, which was fine with me because I was forcing people to come over the top of me quite a bit (and I knew that eventually I was going to bust one of them), I played the following two hands. First, I opened for $5,000 with the K 9 and was raised $5,000 by my opponent. I immediately assumed that he had pocket aces, because he raised me so little. Personally, I hate his $5,000 raise. Why would you raise only $5,000, announcing the size of your hand, and give someone a chance to call only $5,000 more to bust you? This raise was definitely a weak play. Anyway, I decided that the $5,000 raise was an easy call for me, because I'd get his last $60,000 if I hit my hand. Also, I thought he could have pocket kings, and I could take the pot away from him if an ace hit. Anyway, the flop was J 9 4, giving me a pair and a flush draw. I checked and my opponent bet $20,000. I knew that I was almost even money against pocket aces after this flop, and that he may fold if I moved him all in at this point in the hand. I decided to raise, in case he had A-K and felt like bluffing off another $10,000 or $20,000. I moved him all in for $56,000 total, (his $20,000 and my raise of $36,000), and he quickly called me with pocket kings. Ouch! Because he had kings instead of aces, he had two of my outs. The board then came with an offsuit 4 and then a 3. I missed my draw and I had only $18,000 left. The very next hand, I was in the $1,500 big blind with J-9 and the button made it $3,500 to go, a raise of only $2,000. He had previously raised my big blind a small amount with 6 5, and this fact made an easy call even easier. The flop was 9 8 6, and I checked to him so that I could check-raise him all in when he bet. However, he checked and the 10 came off, and I checked again to him. This time he bet out $5,000 and I called him quickly, as I had an open-end straight draw and a pair of nines, which I thought was the best hand. The river brought what I thought was an excellent card, the 7, for a board of 9 8 6 10 7. With a straight on board, I knew that I could bet out my last $8,400 with my jack-high straight and hope to get called by my opponent, who would be playing the 10-high straight on the board. I moved all in for $8,400 and my opponent studied for a second before calling me. "Cool," I thought, "he studied for a moment; therefore, I must have him beat, and I'm back in the ball game." Wrong again, pal! He showed me the Q 3 for a queen-high flush, and I went into total shock. Wow, I'd lost almost $100,000 in two hands and finished 19th. I finished 19th; yikes, I really hate the sound of that! Was I extremely unlucky in these last two hands? Certainly, I was extremely unlucky in the last hand, but I knew what I was getting into with the K 9 hand. I knew that I was even money, at best, after the flop, and that's the way it goes when you are even money – you win half the time. Should I cry because my K-9 didn't beat his K-K? I think not! The fact is, I brought it upon myself by playing the K 9. I could have thrown the hand away after the flop very easily, as I have made many similar laydowns in the past. Getting married to an even-money hand brings you 50 percent of the pots, and I didn't win all of those no-limit hold'em tournaments in the past by playing a lot of even-money hands. So, as I said earlier, I busted myself. I hope the vision that I had of my name on the TOC trophy comes to pass next year, or soon thereafter, but I'll have to play better poker on the third day if I want that to happen.

I hope that you enjoyed this Hand of the Week. Good luck playing your hands this week.