How I (Accidentally) Got Through 2,684 People to a Final Table - Part III

I reached the final table of event No. 52 at the 2008 World Series of Poker - a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament - in second chip position, but the four chip leaders were clustered close together. Here's how things stood at the end of day two:

Corwin Cole: 1,668,000
Matt Matros: 1,472,000
Jeff Courtney: 1,443,000
David Daneshgar: 1,178,000
Voitto Rintala: 553,000
Dan Heimiller: 544,000
Andrey Zaichenko: 521,000
Scott Sitron: 504,000
Farzad Rouhani: 212,000

We'd played until 3:30 in the morning on day two - and readers of Part I and Part II of this column will recall that I had played until midnight or later on each of the three previous days. Going into the 2 p.m. final table, I willed myself to be as awake as I could, drinking caffeine and eating granola bars, knowing I would need to focus harder than I had at any point during the five weeks that I'd already spent in Vegas.

I hadn't checked my table draw before I got to the Rio, and was very pleasantly surprised when I did. Dan Heimiller, a very tricky player whom I'd gone against a million times both online and in real life, was on my immediate right. I'd met Corwin Cole only the day before, but it was obvious right away that he was a very good player, and he was the only player at the table who had me covered. He was seated two to my right. Having position on both of these guys was a gift from above.

We had to be outfitted with microphones so that the final table could be broadcast live on ESPN360.com. Some of the guys were excited by this, and asked a bunch of questions about how everything worked. I didn't care at all. I'd been on TV before, and I'd learned a lesson from that experience: It's best to focus just on the poker and shut everything else out.

When the cards finally got in the air, I was dealt K-Q and won the blinds and antes with an under-the-gun raise. This became a popular theme. I open-raised 10 times out of the 64 hands I was dealt at this final table, and nine times, I won the blinds and antes. Granted, a bunch of those came toward the end when I was pushing all in, but I was still pleased with the success ratio. My plan was to open just enough hands to play slightly looser than my normal style without getting caught, and it seemed to be working.

My first major confrontation came on hand No. 43. With the blinds at 20,000-40,000 with a 5,000 ante, Corwin opened from the cutoff for 100,000. Dan folded his button, and I looked down at the Q J in the small blind. I asked Corwin how much he had behind, and he said about 900,000 (he had lost a few pots earlier). I thought about reraising, but if I made a standard reraise to 300,000, I would've been in a very awkward position if Corwin decided to move all in. I could've chosen to move Corwin all in immediately, but that seemed like a bit of an overbet - risking a million to win about 200,000. I decided to flat-call, planning to check-raise if I liked the flop.

It happened that I liked the flop very much: A K 6. I checked, and Corwin made a standard continuation-bet of 135,000. Following through with my plan, I check-raised to 400,000. Unfortunately, Corwin, after a few seconds, announced, "All in." But there was no backing out at that point with my flush draw and gutshot-straight draw, so I quickly called the additional 500,000. Corwin, it turned out, liked the flop even more than I did, as he revealed two sixes for bottom set. After the ace on the turn, I was drawing dead, and down to fewer than 10 big blinds for the first time in the entire event.

I was able to move all in a few times with my short stack, stealing the blinds and antes and slowly working my way back into contention. On hand No. 64, I had my second and final confrontation with Corwin. We were six-handed by then, having lost Voitto, Jeff, and Andrey (in that order) already. Corwin was first to act, and with blinds of 25,000-50,000 and a 5,000 ante, he opened for 125,000. Dan folded, and I looked down at A-Q offsuit. Given my 690,000 stack size, I obviously had only one play: move all in. It was folded around to Corwin, who called quickly and tabled the A 9. I heard some criticism of Corwin's call, but I thought it was pretty reasonable. There was 920,000 in the pot (690,000 + 125,000 + 50,000 + 25,000 + 30,000), and he had to call 565,000 more, so he was getting 1.63-1. This meant that he had to win the showdown 38 percent of the time to show a profit. Let's say he thought my range was A-8+, K-J+, or any pair (I'm not saying that was actually my range, just that it would've been a reasonable read for him to make, since he knew I was an aggressive player and was holding a short stack). His A-9 suited wins 43.8 percent of the time against that range, clearly enough for a call. I can tell you that my actual range was certainly tighter than the one outlined above, but I think that 38 percent was at least in the ballpark of his showdown equity against my true range.

The flop was devastating for me, as it brought a 9 and two hearts. The third heart on the turn sealed the deal, and I got up to shake everyone's hand. My opponents were very gracious, wishing me the best as I headed for the interview room. Unlike my previous final table with TV cameras, I felt focused, relaxed, and confident throughout this one, which to me was my biggest accomplishment of this year's WSOP.

Two days earlier, I'd been annoyed that I'd signed up for a tournament that I didn't even mean to play - and now I was walking away $148,875 richer. I thought I'd played well and done a good job of finding as many positive-EV spots for my chips as I could. And, of course, I ran exceptionally good, especially on day two, but I'll take that every time!

Matt Matros is the author of The Making of a Poker Player, which is available online at www.CardPlayer.com. He is also a featured coach for stoxpoker.com.