Bluff Central!

Every year, I look forward to the most prestigious, most meaningful, and most important tournament of the year: the World Series of Poker. Here in Vegas, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, it's that time of the year! The Amazon Room at the Rio is filled with poker tables, roughly 200 of them in nice even rows, and four other rooms also are dedicated to the WSOP this year. Trust me, they need the space, because the fields in 2008 have been immense. The second tournament out of the box - $1,500 no-limit hold'em - had almost 4,000 entrants! Some people know the WSOP as one big tournament - the main event. Others know that it's actually 55 tournaments played over six weeks, each one offering a hefty sack of cash for first place and a coveted gold bracelet. Every great poker player from around the world is here, and to me, it's like a poker convention. The money is nice, and many of the players are here for that, but some of us are here more for the bracelets than the money. Although I had a slow first week (zero cashes!), I still hold the big-three WSOP records: most cashes (65), most final tables (39), and most tournaments won (11). The most important record (WSOP tournaments won) is still being hotly contested, as Johnny Chan and Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson have 10 wins apiece. And then we have Erik Seidel with eight.

In the $1,000 no-limit hold'em event (with rebuys), I had a big stack (around 40,000) late in the day when the following hand came up. With the blinds at 400-800, I opened for 2,400 from first position with the Q 8, the player in second position called, and the player in fourth position made it 7,500 to go. Everyone else having folded, I noticed that I had the same amount of chips as the fourth-position man, and I moved all in. Both of my opponents folded instantly, and I showed my hand.

Let's take a closer look at my play in this hand. First of all, I don't like my raise to 2,400 with the Q 8 from first position. I think a much better play would have been simply to fold that hand. What was I trying to make with the Q 8? My opponent in fourth position later told me that he'd held A-J; I like his 5,100 reraise, because I'd been playing a lot of hands over the previous 45 minutes. If I'd been playing more passively for those 45 minutes, and then had come out firing 2,400 from first position, I would be advocating a fold on his part with A-J. I love my 40,000 all-in move, because I was right! I took one look at my reraising opponent and decided that he was weak and could not call an all-in move. So, I pulled the trigger - moving all in - and won the pot. If I'd been wrong and my opponent had, say, K-K and went on to bust me, I'd be whistling a different tune. I would be writing about what an idiot I'd been to move all in with the Q 8 and bust myself! But that's the power of a good read and having the chips to go with it.

Unfortunately for me, I played some bad poker on day two and cost myself a shot at a 12th bracelet. In fact, going into day two, there were only 100 players remaining, 72 of whom were going to get paid. Normally, I could take my 67,000 stack, with the blinds at only 500-1,000, and sleep until we made the money. But for some reason, I couldn't seem to settle down and play the patient, steady, solid no-limit hold'em game for which I'm known. Instead, I came out firing, which is OK if you're going to follow it up with some massive bluffs. In one hand, I called a 2,600 raise with the 7 6 from the small blind (the big blind also called), and when the flop came K 9 3, I bet out 3,000. The big blind folded, and my other opponent made it 9,100 to go. As I looked him up and down, I was sure he was bluffing. I studied him for two minutes, but failed to pull the trigger this time. I was confident that a reraise would have worked, but instead I folded my hand. If you're going to play hands like the 7♦ 6♦ for a raise, you need to make some very aggressive bluffs after the flop, because most of the time you'll end up holding garbage when you start with garbage. This crazy bluffing strategy is difficult to play, and I had taken hands like the 7♦ 6♦ out of my playable-hand mix a long time ago. I simply needed to stick to my guns and play my patient strategy, collect another cash, possibly make another final table, and give myself a chance to do what I really hunger for: win another bracelet!