Having had a more than decent
World Series of Poker already (with three cashes in 18 events), I was eager to close things successfully in the main event. The draw favored me. My table had mostly loose and predictable players, with two tight-passive players to my left - a rather ideal lineup. With $20,000 in chips, starting blinds of $50-$100, and two-hour levels, this was by far the "best" tournament I had ever played.
In the second level, with blinds of $100-$200, I made it $1,025 from the cutoff with K-K after two players limped in. The small blind then instantly reraised to $3,100. Everyone folded, and with $22,000 behind, I went into the tank. This player had made three reraises up to this point - and all three times, he had shown aces! And even though I was quite unwilling to give him credit for aces yet again, I knew it was the only hand that would make sense. After all, he took almost no time to think when he knew I had a real hand, and on top of that, the relatively small size of his raise (considering that he was out of position) suggested a premium pocket pair more than anything else. Of course, even if he had A-A, I could still flop a king - and in that case he undoubtedly would go for his entire stack. So, I called the reraise. When the flop came 8-4-2 rainbow, a seemingly excellent flop for pocket kings, I surrendered against his one-third-of-the-pot bet - folding my kings faceup! My opponent respected this play so much (saying, "You were supposed to go broke on that hand!") that for the remainder of the session, he would not get in my way even once.
I got back into contention when I flat-called a raise with 10-10 and flopped middle set on a board of Q-10-5 rainbow. I got excessive action from someone with an unimproved A-K to build my stack to almost $30,000. Not much later, I won a big multiway pot with my favorite type of hand in deep-money play, the 7
6
, when I successfully semibluffed on the turn. Also, I made an absolute grandstand play with Q-Q, betting big on a flop of 10-10-5, checking back on the turn, and then making a huge value-bet on the river to mimic a bluff. My opponent, who clearly didn't have a 10 (because he checked the river after I had checked back the turn), fell for it and paid me off. A couple of hands later, I again got involved with him. This time from the big blind, I had chosen to bluff-bet with just the 3
2
on a flop with three diamonds. On the river, I had the lowest possible hand - 3 high, no pair - and chose to bet in the exact same manner as the previous hand. This time, my opponent threw away his cards, meaning that he had called me when he should have folded, and folded when he should have called. Excellent!
I was on top of my game now, and everything worked. I made an extremely risky play, check-raising on the turn with just a bare nut-flush draw against two players who both had more than 30 percent of their stacks in, but whom I read for having rather mediocre holdings - and indeed, they both folded. I made another successful bluff with the A
8
in a reraised pot, betting my opponent off his unimproved A-K after a flop with low cards. Having played the best poker of my life, I ended day one with $76,100 - which was way above average.
Day Two
Two superbly played hands got me through to day three. At my new table, I had two players to my immediate left who for whatever reason didn't respect my bets and raises much. I took advantage of this by inducing one player to make a big bluff on the river after lots of betting and raising on the turn. Holding a K-8 on a final board of A-8-2-A-K against my A
Q
, he bet $45,000 all in on the river because, as he later told me, he didn't believe I had an ace. I had induced this move through strange mini-bets and a mini-raise on the turn, knowing that (as he had shown before) he would not believe them. Against my other neighbor to my left, I chose to do the opposite. Facing this player's trademark play, the small reraise from out of position, I made an absolutely massive reraise with Q-Q, to mimic the reraises with nothing that he knew I was capable of making. He fell for it, going all in with pocket jacks and losing a $215,000 pot when the average stack in the tournament was just $85,000.
After losing a big pot when I reraised with kings, only to run into aces, and playing "consolidation poker" the remainder of the day, I ended the day slightly above average.
Day Three
In contrast to my usual "go for first place" tournament approach, the flat payout structure made me take my foot off the gas a little. Playing rather tight, and small pots only, until I had reached the money, I hoped that at my yet again new table, I could profit from my tight image during the second half of the day. But when, after a couple of hours, I decided it was time to change gears, things went wrong. I made the mistake of giving the maniac on my right too much action with the 9
8
when I knew that this time he had a real hand, and then lost a huge pot when I reraised big with the A
K
but failed to improve against my opponent's pocket nines. I had lost my first race of this tournament, and it was a crucial one. Down to just 12 big blinds now, in a situation in which the antes had kicked in, I moved all in from late-middle position with the 5
3
, only to see the button wake up with 10-10 to eliminate me.
That was that - my first
World Series main event was over. Having played some strong small-ball poker early on, and later shifting to a huge-overbet power strategy in a few key hands in which I knew I had the best hand, I had made an excellent showing, and was rewarded with my fourth cash - in what happened to be the biggest tournament series in the world. Having cashed for $20,320 in a tournament that I had played for free, I of course had lots of reasons to be happy and proud. Yet, when I left the table, I felt mostly disappointed and sad - knowing that I had come close, but not as close as I had wanted.
Rolf has been a professional cash-game player since 1998. He is the author of the successful Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha, and the co-author of Hold'em on the Come. He is the creator and presenter of the hold'em four-DVD set Rolf Slotboom's Winning Plays. He is the first-ever Dutch Champion, and maintains his own site at www.rolfslotboom.com.
