With 33 players remaining in the tournament, I wasn't exactly in good shape going into day four, but I also wasn't overly worried, thanks to an excellent Bellagio structure that gave even the short stacks a chance to see some flops and play real poker. With $174,000 in chips, I was sitting in 31st place.
Luckily for me, I was able to accumulate chips in a hurry, doubling up with A-J versus A-K, and then on the very next hand, I was able to knock out a tough opponent, David Oppenheim, when my K-K bested his 2-2 all in before the flop.
All of a sudden, I had more than $500,000 in chips in a matter of just 15 minutes. That put me in the hunt and gave me some wiggle room, to say the least. When we broke down to three tables, I had Cyndy Violette seated directly to my left.
Earlier in the tournament, Cyndy was just crushing me. She either was bluffing me at will or seemed to have a monster hand every time I found myself with a strong hand. My read and instincts told me that it was the latter. Cyndy's no-limit hold'em play over the last year and a half is like night and day.
She went from being a somewhat weak hold'em player (her bread and butter being stud), depending on the deck to bail her out, to a player who was willing to seize the moment by playing more of an attacking style. Her dedication to focusing on positive energy and always trying to be on her A-game has made her arguably the most consistent female tournament player recently.
The fact that she'd beaten me in virtually every altercation we had, coupled with her positional advantage, had to have given her even more confidence, which wasn't a good thing for me at all.
The key hand of the day for me also involved another excellent young player, Scott Fischman, with whom I haven't had a lot of opportunities to play. On this day, he was playing extremely well and seemed very focused.
I was sitting on about $420,000 in chips, with the blinds at $20,000-$40,000 when the following hand came up: Fischman limped in from the button, and I completed the small blind with the 7
6
. From the big blind, Cyndy checked her option. The flop came Q
9
2
. I checked, with absolutely no intention of putting another chip in the pot. Cyndy checked, as did Scott.
The turn was a 7, and I checked again, worried that Scott may have checked a 9 or a queen on the flop. I wasn't as worried about Cyndy's hand, as I believed she would have bet the flop with a queen or a 9. Surprisingly, Cyndy bet $70,000 on the turn. Scott folded, and it was back to me.
Having only $400,000 left, $70,000 would put a pretty big dent in my stack, but I had an inkling that Cyndy might be bluffing at the pot, using a tight table image to run the hand through both Scott and me. I called the bet, hoping that the river would go check, check.
The river was a king, and I checked once again. This time, Cyndy looked over at me, seemingly uncomfortable, and then bet out $150,000. She actually meant to bet $300,000 (I found out later), but instead threw in the wrong amount. She looked a little frazzled. The look on her face was very different from the past hands we'd played. Something didn't smell right.
This was a huge decision for my tournament life, because if I was wrong, I'd be left crippled. My instincts were telling me to call her, but I made sure to go over the hand in my mind before making what could be a major mistake in judgment.
In past hands, I'd noticed that Cyndy was a lead bettor; that is, a player who bet her hands on the flop rather than check-raise with them. If she had a hand like K-10, J-10, or a queen, I figured that she would have bet the flop. When the river card was a king, if she'd bet the turn with a 9, or even a 7, I figured that card would have to scare her enough so that she wouldn't bet the river.
In fact, that king was an
excellent card for me. How so? Well, it gave Cyndy another hand to represent to force me off a hand like the one I had. If she maintained her aggression on the river, and read me correctly for having a weak pair, that river card would make it even more difficult for me to call.
All of this went through my mind as I mulled it over. Sometimes in a tournament, you need to stay committed to a read, no matter how risky, when you just feel it in your bones that you are right. I called, and she knocked the table, conceding the pot. I triumphantly turned up my lowly pair of sevens, and was now sitting on an above-average stack in the tournament.
From that point on, I put the pedal to the medal and was able to make it to the final six with a slight chip lead over Mads Andersen. Read the conclusion in the next issue.
You can play poker with Daniel and read his blog at www.fullcontactpoker.com.
