Despite getting very little sleep (we played 15 hours on day one and 13 hours on day two), I felt pretty fresh and was ready to make my move toward the top of the leader board on day three. I'd spent the entire tournament below the average in chips, but if I could win a few small pots here and there, I believed I'd be in control of the table and the tournament.
After a few laps around the table, I was about even for the day, sitting at around $265,000. The blinds were getting up there, a little too fast for my liking, at $8,000-$16,000.
Now, up until this point, since I was never one of the bigger stacks, I'd reraised before the flop a grand total of five times. That's no joke. On day one, I reraised an under-the-gun player with Q-Q. The button reraised, and I folded.
On day two, the small blind raised me in the big blind, and I reraised him with J-J - and he folded. Then, late on day two, a player opened for $30,000, and I, sitting with just $130,000 total, decided to go all in with A-K. Now, the opener had raised from under the gun and I had reraised from second position, which should have been a signal to my opponent that I wasn't raising him with a couple of napkins here! Before he called, he said, "Well, I could have the best hand here, I guess," and then called me with A-J. A-J!
I politely let the gentleman know that his A-J would be the best hand precisely 0 percent of the time in this situation. Anyway, he flopped a jack, I turned a king, and then we chopped the pot after five hearts had hit the board.
Reraise No. 4 came against a button raiser. Once again, I was basically forced all in with A-K, and I doubled up. The very next hand, Clonie Gowen raised and I found A-K on the button again. Still short on chips, I moved all in once again, and she folded.
As a general rule, I'd decided that I wasn't going to be reraising before the flop regardless of my holding if I had chips to play with after the flop. I could have anything from 7-6 suited to A-A, or K-Q to 9-9. I decided to play this way throughout the whole tournament because, for the most part, my opponents made the majority of their errors after the flop, and that's a real strength in my game.
So, anyway, with 27 players left, I was seated a couple of seats to the left of the chip leader, Nenad Medic - a player I've played with before. In fact, he beat me in a heads-up tournament at the Mirage about a year before this event.
Anyway, he wasn't being overly aggressive, but he was taking stabs at the pot here and there. From second position, he raised to $45,000. In the cutoff seat, I looked down at two beautiful red aces. Now, while I'd decided that I wanted to play post-flop poker, there was already $90,000 in this pot. If I moved all in and everyone folded, I'd be up to $350,000, which was still below the average. At the time, I thought it would be extremely lucky if anyone called my all-in bet.
Also, and probably the thing that swayed me the most, the players in this particular tournament seemed to overplay their hands preflop. If any of the three players behind me picked up 8-8, A-J, or even K-Q, I believed they might see it as a good opportunity to pick up a juicy pot with lots of dead money in it. So, I called, leaving me with $220,000 to play with after the flop.
Nenad and I went to the flop: K
8
6
. It looked like an excellent flop for aces, since if Nenad had a hand like K-J, K-Q, A-K, or any king, for that matter, he'd likely be trapped in the hand, since I had only another $220,000. Things looked promising when Nenad bet out $70,000. I, of course, did the only thing I could do, and moved all in. He quickly called and showed the K
6
. Yuck.
No help came for me on the turn or the river, and I was done. Immediately, my reaction was to second-guess myself on the smooth-call with the aces. Obviously, had I reraised before the flop, Nenad would have mucked and I'd still be in with $350,000. That's hindsight, though, and you can't make decisions based on the final result.
My goal was to set a trap so that I could become a real force in the tournament. A-A is a big favorite over one opponent, and if I had been able to double up, I'd have had more than half a million in chips, which would have gotten me over the average for the first time in the tournament.
Nenad rode a rush of cards and went on to win the tournament. He's a great player, and well-deserving. As for me, I can't help but think, "I'm back." It's not like I ever left or anything, but several things clicked for me at Foxwoods. I realized how easy the game can be when you have patience and faith in a system that you know works. When I stick with my system, my approach to the game, I have good results. I have no idea why I ever decided to "try new things" when I already had a winning approach.
Despite the 27th-place finish, I was ecstatic about the tournament. I was just extremely excited and pumped about the epiphany that I had. Now, while I share a ton of information in this column with you, I'm afraid that I have to keep some of my secrets to myself. This little epiphany is one that I won't be sharing anytime soon. Sorry!
You can read Daniel's blog or play poker with him at www.fullcontactpoker.com.
