My Key Hand in the World Series of Poker Main Event

Despite the fact that there were a gazillion players in this year's main event of the World Series of Poker, I actually found myself in the tournament with a legitimate chance to win. In fact, I was in sixth place after the second day of play with $331,000 in chips. By that point, the field of close to 9,000 players had been whittled down to about 1,000.



Up until that point, I was amassing chips by playing virtually every hand. Not only was I playing every hand, I was raising every hand. For most of the tournament, I was raising anywhere from 75 percent to 90 percent of the hands dealt, because the tables I was at were very weak. There were no professionals in sight, and there were none of the hotshot online stars at my tables, either. I just came at them with brute force, figuring that I would be able to outplay them after the flop with virtually any two cards.



On day three, though, I was forced to change my strategy. For the first time in the tournament, I ran into some legitimate poker players – a couple of Swedes, Mikael Thuritz and another whose name escapes me.



The "other Swede" was the one who was really taking it to me. He was seated two to my left and understood how to play the game properly. He was smooth-calling a lot of my raises and playing flops with me in position. And, it didn't help that he almost always had, or ended up with, the best hand! It handcuffed me in a big way, and my stack dwindled down below $200,000.



Luckily, my table broke and I was moved to another table that was chock-full of amateur players. I started off poorly there, too, running into the nuts about seven hands in a row. After bluffing off an additional $50,000 when my opponent rivered the nuts, I found myself short-stacked with just $19,000 left.



Obviously, I wouldn't be raising every hand anymore, but I wasn't quitting just yet. I've been in worse spots before and have come back. I was confident that I'd be able to maneuver my way back into the tournament by picking my spots and waiting for hands. And, I did. In fact, by the end of day three, I was up to $93,000. Early on day four, I chopped away at some small pots and was able to get my stack all the way back up to $185,000, which was below average, but not by a lot.



Then came my chance to really get back in the game. With the blinds at $3,000-$6,000 with a $1,000 ante, a very aggressive player by the name of Daniel Woo came in raising to $25,000. He had about a million in chips and was being very active before the flop.

Everyone folded to me in the big blind, and I looked down at Q-Q. I literally thought about playing this hand three different ways: (a) move all in, (b) smooth-call and look to trap him, or © reraise him a solid amount to try to get full value for my hand.



Option (a) was the safest play here, for sure. If he had nothing, I'd pick up $25,000 plus the blinds and antes, and be over the $200,000 mark.



Option (b) was a little too risky, I thought, because it would be difficult to put him on a range of hands after the flop.



Option © felt like the move that would give me the best chance to get back above the average chip stack so that I could start playing some hands again.



I chose © and reraised him another $50,000. That was a big enough raise that he couldn't call without a legitimate hand, I thought. Besides, with just about $110,000 left, I'd likely be moving all in on virtually any flop.



Woo called the raise and the flop came A J 7. I hated that flop. Anything but an ace on the flop and I'd be going all in for sure. I decided to check and see how Daniel reacted to the flop.



He went all in immediately. Based on his reaction, I was absolutely certain that he'd hit the flop. I just didn't know exactly what he had hit.



Since I had so much confidence in my ability to come back with just $110,000, though, I decided that it would be far too risky to put my tournament life on the line in a situation in which, at best, I was up against a draw, or, at worst, I had only two outs.



I folded, and Woo turned the K 3 faceup! Oh, man; he called my $50,000 reraise with the K 3. Not only that, he hit a flop with which he was able to move me off my pair. That was a pretty unlucky parlay, to say the least.



Looking back at the hand, I almost could have bet the flop in the dark, since there was so much money in the pot, but that's just not my style. I have a lot of confidence in my ability to read strength in my opponents, and although Woo didn't have the ace, I was absolutely right that he'd hit the flop.



If I'd made the call against his hand, I'd still go broke in that situation close to half the time, since he had 12 outs twice. It wasn't the worst mistake I've ever made, but it was one that is going to haunt me for quite a while.



Woo later knocked me out in 229th place when he called my $42,000 all-in bet with the K J. I had the Q 10 and couldn't make it happen. Oh well, there is always next year!