One of the
World Poker Tour's premier events is the
World Poker Finals championship event, held each November at Foxwoods Resort in Ledyard, Connecticut. Although it's a long trip from Las Vegas, I have gladly packed my bags for this one the past three years. With a huge field expected, I knew that this year's prize pool would be monstrous, as well.
Just over 600 players entered the main event, which was a bit unusual in that play started at the very player-unfriendly hour of 10 a.m. I had arrived several days earlier, so my biological clock had somewhat adjusted, but I recognized many traveling pros from Vegas or L.A. who had flown in the night before. I can't speak for them, but I know that I would have a tough time performing had I just blown into town. In any case, I started the tournament well-rested and optimistic.
I also came into the tournament with a clear game plan in my head. Basically, my strategy was to play solid poker for the first several hours (the pre-ante stage of the tournament). Then, once the blinds and antes became more substantial (somewhere around the $200-$400 blinds/$50 ante level), I planned on capitalizing on my solid image and capturing more than my share of the "dead money" in each pot. I intended to do this by playing a large number of small and medium-sized pots. I wanted to avoid playing one hand for all of my chips, unless it was 100 percent on my terms (meaning I had my opponent slaughtered). This strategy worked well for me, enabling me to end day one of play with a healthy stack of chips. I was all in only once the entire day, with K-K against my opponent's J-J.
Things continued to go my way on day two. I built my stack up to around $300,000, which at the time put me well above average as we reached the money positions (the final 60 players). I did this without making a lot of big hands; instead, I won a lot of small pots either by raising before the flop or by taking down the pot with a bet on the flop.
Finally, with around 40 players left, the tide began to turn against me. I lost several small pots in succession, and coupled with ever-increasing blinds and antes, I found myself with a short stack for virtually the first time in the tournament. It was at this point that my ill-fated final hand took place.
The situation was that 33 players remained, and the blinds were $6,000-$12,000 with a $1,500 ante. My stack had dwindled to about $175,000. With the cost per round at about $30,000, things were starting to get serious for me. I had recently been moved to a new table to keep the tables balanced, and recognized only one player (Mimi Tran, who ended up placing third in the event).
On my last hand, a middle-position player opened the pot for a smallish raise to $30,500. Everyone folded to me in the big blind. The raiser had more chips than I, but not by a substantial margin (he started the hand with just over $200,000, I believe). Now, even before I looked at my hand, I had some strange Hellmuthian notion that the raiser was weak. A glance at my cards revealed pocket fives, which I certainly believed to be playable.
So, the question then was how to proceed with them. In my opinion, I really had only two viable choices: smooth-calling for $18,500 more or moving all in. Here are my arguments for each:
For smooth-calling:
1. I am unlikely to go broke if I just call. I can ditch the hand if the board comes high, and wait for a better spot.
2. I stand a good chance to double up if I flop a set.
3. My overall strategy has been to play small pots, and moving all in here gets away from my game plan.
4. Being all in preflop with a small pair is not usually a very desirable situation.
For moving all in:
1. There is about $60,000 in the pot, and I stand a good chance of winning it immediately if I move all in. This is a significant increase to my stack.
2. I read my opponent as weak. Therefore, it is unlikely he has a hand with which he will call off the majority of his remaining chips. If I trust my read, I should try to win the pot immediately.
3. Although my game plan was to play small pots, my current chip position dictated at least some change in direction, as I no longer had the necessary stack to play this way as effectively.
After some deliberation, I opted to go all in. My opponent thought for a second or two, and then called me. I thought to myself, "Ugh!" I mean, nobody is ever really happy when he's all in preflop with pocket fives, unless the other guy flips up fours. That was not to be in this case, though, as my opponent turned over K-J (yes, it was suited). I was quite surprised at the call; had I known he would call me with this hand, I would have played my cards differently. I didn't want to get into a "race" type of situation for all of my chips. And these two hands provide almost a pure coin flip, as they are essentially deadlocked preflop.
Things changed in a hurry, though, as the flop came Q-10-9. Nothing bizarre happened, and I was banished to the rail. It was a very disappointing end to a good tournament run, and I questioned my decision to play a marginal hand so strongly. As I talked it over with a good friend later on, he told me, "You won't know for sure whether you did the right thing until you wake up tomorrow and see how you feel about it then."
The next day, I woke up even more convinced that I had done the right thing by pushing all in. Maybe I'm dreaming. What do you think?
