I came into day two at Foxwoods on a real high after doubling up with A-A on the very last hand of the night on day one. I was still below the average in chip count, but my stack was still in good shape in comparison to the blinds. I think people often put too much emphasis onbeing at or above the average stack size, but what's far more important to concentrate on is your stack size in relation to the blinds and antes. If a standard raise costs you less than 10 percent of your stack, you are in fine shape regardless of how far below the average you might be.
During this tournament, I lived below the average but my confidence never waned. I started the day with $67,500 and early on was able o win a few small pots by chopping away, and was able to get myself up to $100,000 before the following hand:
The blinds were $1,000-$2,000 and a player in early position limped into the pot. No one else called or raised, so I called from the cutoff eat with the 6
3
. The small blind folded, so three of us took the flop.
The flop was what I like to call a gin flop. If you play a hand like the 6
3
, seeing the 4
and 5
come off as the first two cards is what 'd call a good flop. The flop was Q
5
4
.
Now, the big blind, a player who had been playing pretty tightly on the previous day, led out with a bet of $7,000. The player who limped in rom under the gun called, and it was up to me. Before I made a decision, I needed to figure out what my opponents' most likely hands were. I feared that the big blind may have flopped queens up with a hand like Q-5 or Q-4, and I was slightly worried that the first limper may have lopped a better flush draw than mine. Based on the way they put their chips into the pot, I didn't think either player had flopped a set.
The next step before making a decision was to figure out how much this was going to cost me if I played a big pot on the flop. I noticed hat even if I lost this pot, with my opponents having only about $60,000 apiece, I'd still be left with about $40,000 in chips.
Obviously, folding this hand for $7,000 was out of the question, so the only real dilemma I had was whether or not I should raise. Finally, decided that there was a decent enough chance that the big blind may have just a queen and decide to lay it down to a raise. I raised $20,000 more.
While the main reason I made the raise was to win the pot on the flop, the other key consideration was that if I raised and the big blindreraised all in, it could potentially push a better flush draw out of the pot, thus giving me more live outs.
Well, the big blind thought long and hard before going all in, raising an additional $32,900. The first limper studied, and studied, andfinally mucked his hand, claiming to have had the nut-flush draw. I called, obviously, expecting to see two pair. I was rather shocked to see my opponent's A-Q. Frankly, I think he made a poor play with the hand. Not only did he have to worry about me having a set which essentiallywould have him drawing dead, he also had to worry about the other player. On top of that, his best-case scenario was that he was up againstsome kind of monster draw, which would make him the underdog no matter which way you sliced it.
Of course, the first limper mucking two diamonds hurt my chances a little bit, but I was still in a good spot to win this pot and become a major contender in the tournament. The turn was a 6, giving me additional outs, as I now could also win with a 3 or a 6. The river was a king, and I was back on the short stack again.
Winning hands like these is a must if you are going to win a big tournament. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have changed one thing.
From there, I nursed my stack for hours, just waiting for good opportunities to stay afloat. I pride myself on never giving up and neverfeeling defeated until my last chip is gone. It's that attitude that's helped me win as often as I have.
I hung tough and was rewarded, making it through the day with $261,500 in chips. Once again, I was still below the average, but with 30 players left, I didn't think anything could stop me. In the next issue, you'll find out if somebody did.
You can read Daniel's blog or play poker with him at www.fullcontactpoker.com.
