World Poker Tour Championship

I tried something new on day one of the $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour Championship event at Bellagio in Las Vegas. Rather than sleep in, I went to the MGM Grand at 11 a.m. to film the finale of Bravo's Top Chef. For a few hours, I was an official judge, and with three chefs left vying for the title, we had three different platters of tasty food. Afterward, I went to the gym, and in due course made my customarily tardy entrance to the championship event - a near-record three hours after it started!

In this tournament, we each started with $50,000 in chips, and because the blinds were raised very slowly, I still had more than $47,000 in chips when I sat down. The trade-off for the $3,000 chip sacrifice was that I was feeling refreshed, and, of course, I had enjoyed some delicious food. Having been distracted in this fashion seemed to suit me well, and I started off on a winning note. Before long, I had accumulated $77,000 in chips.

I would prefer reporting that it was smooth sailing the rest of the day - we played until 9 p.m. - but the following two hands tell a different story. At around 7:30 p.m., I picked up pocket aces and decided to engineer a big pot. Too often lately, I've been playing small pots when I held pocket aces or pocket kings, and it's been hurting my chances of winning. In no-limit hold'em tournaments, it's important to play some big pots, at least a few of them per day. With the blinds at $300-$600 and an ante of $75 a player, Player A made it $2,100 to go. I decided to make my move, and reraised to $7,000 to go, tossing my chips into the pot with the same mannerisms that I had used the last time I was caught bluffing. I was sending Player A a "false tell" of weakness, even though I had the strongest possible hand.

Player A called the $7,000 bet, and the flop came down J-10-3. Player A checked, and I bet $10,000. This was my biggest bet of the day. After a full minute, Player A raised $10,000, and I, knowing full well that he had about $45,000 left, moved all in. Player A called instantly, which is always a bad sign, and showed me pocket tens. He had flopped a set of tens! I had finally decided to play a huge pot - with pocket aces, no less - and Player A showed me a set. Ouch! The turn card was a king, and the river card a 9. If I had slow-played my hand, and just called his raise before the flop, I would have saved a lot of money (because the final board had four cards to a straight, J-10-3-K-9). Do I regret my play here? No. I was trying to coax a big pot with my pocket aces, and it was tough luck that I ran into a lone opponent who flopped a set of tens.

Hand number two transpired about 10 minutes later. One of the players opened for $2,000, I called with 10-10, and Roy Thung called from the small blind. The flop came 6-3-2, Thung checked, the original raiser checked, and I bet $4,000. Thung then raised, making it $6,000 more to call, and the original raiser folded. Should I fold, should I call $6,000 more, or should I move all in for $25,000 total?

I began to study Thung and felt that he wasn't holding pocket jacks or pocket queens. I also thought that if he had pocket kings or pocket aces, he would have reraised before the flop. Thus, he had flopped a set or was holding a pocket pair I could beat. It also crossed my mind that he might be bluffing, or was holding, say, A-6.

Finally, I moved all in, and Thung called me instantly. Another instant call, another "uh-oh" moment, and Thung did indeed have me beat; he showed me his pocket deuces, for a set. I had made a bad read, thinking Thung was weak when he was actually extremely strong. And now I was in a world of hurt. I couldn't hit two flush cards or two straight cards to win this pot. I needed a 10, and unbeknownst to me, the original raiser had folded a 10; he had A-10. So, how did this one play out? Luckily for me, the turn card was the last miracle 10! I figure I was more than a 20-to-1 shot to hit that 10 (44-to-1 plus 43-to-1). I had won the hand, and ended day one with $82,000 in chips.