World Series of Poker $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Tournament

In a recent column called "Look Within Yourself for Answers," I shared with you the fact that I hadn't been pleased with my recent results in the big no-limit hold'em events. Well, I took my own advice and started to re-evaluate my play in those events, and tried to patch up any holes I could find. The bad news is, I found several. The good news is, they were easy to fix. All that I thought was really necessary was a few minor adjustments, coupled with some better decision-making in crunch time.

So, here I found myself back at a no-limit hold'em final table after a long absence, but I arrived in unfamiliar territory. Normally, when I've done well enough to make a final table, I come in as one of the chip leaders; either that or I finish somewhere around 12th. That's just the way I approach tournament poker, and I have no plans to change my philosophy as to what the correct financial strategy is.

Well, at this final table, I came in as the short stack with $49,500 in chips. I didn't really feel like I was in a desperate situation, but with the two chip leaders being Phil Hellmuth and Erik Seidel, a third-place finish would feel like a great result. Phil led the way with $385,000, while Erik was a distant second with $167,500.

Considering how much more play there was to the 2003 version of the World Series of Poker, my puny stack wasn't so puny after all. Sure, I was the short stack at the table, but with the blinds at $1,500-$3,000 and a $500 ante, there was no need to panic. I had plenty of time to look for the right situation to arise. Luckily, that situation came early rather than late, and I was able to double up in the first round of play.

From there, I continued to avoid any real trouble, and steadily increased my stack and moved up the pay scale. Phil and Erik seemed to be playing big pot after big pot against each other, which I found a little surprising considering the situation.

Before I knew it, we were down to threehanded. Not only that, I'd actually moved into second place behind Erik and just ahead of Phil. When threehanded play began, the chip counts were approximately:

Erik Seidel – $624,000

Daniel Negreanu – $300,000

Phil Hellmuth – $140,000

Very early on, Phil and Erik got involved in yet another big pot. With Phil all in, Erik called and needed a little help on either the turn or the river. I consider Phil a friend, of course, but I have to be completely honest: I was rooting heavily against him on this hand! After all, if Phil were to lose this hand, I would automatically win a little more than $100,000 extra. I'm all about winning the bracelet, of course, but $100,000 is nothing to sneeze at. Phil was lucky enough to avoid elimination here (phooey), which meant things were pretty even now.

Of course, when the final table started, I would have been more than happy to finish in third place and earn the $105,000 that went with it. Now that I was down to threehanded, though, a third-place finish would somehow feel like a disappointing result.

I decided that if I was going to finish third, I was going to go down with a big hand. Basically, my goal still was to win the tournament, of course, but I didn't want to do anything stupid to jeopardize my chances of moving up one more spot. That mindset had a lot to do with what I'd seen from my two opponents up to that point at the final table. They were routinely playing big pots against each other. If I could avoid any real trouble, I thought that eventually they would play another big pot against each other and allow me to sneak into second place. Who won or lost the pot I was hoping they'd eventually play was immaterial to me. My goal was to maintain my stack, get heads up, and take it from there.

Considering the caliber of players I was facing here, I thought it would be wise to devise a strategy that would help make things easier for me to reach my stated goals. With the blinds still relatively small, I decided to do a lot of limping in with premium hands, basically looking to set traps, for the most part. I'd often limp in from the small blind against Erik, hoping he would raise with a marginal hand so that I could then come back over the top of him. That strategy seemed to be working well, until I lost a big pot to him with A-Q against J-J. It wasn't the end of the world, though, as my stack was still in fine shape.

My strategy against Phil didn't require much fine-tuning. I have a healthy respect for Phil's no-limit hold'em skills, so I do my best to play relatively straightforward against him. In return, Phil usually follows suit. It's somewhat of an unwritten rule between us. We both enjoy post-flop play, which meant there would be little raising and reraising before the flop. Many of the onlookers were extremely surprised to see so much limping on the button, and so few preflop raises in general. It was a different brand of poker, to be sure, one I thoroughly enjoyed playing.

Anyway, just as I'd hoped, Erik and Phil played several key pots against each other, which Phil got the best of. After losing several tough hands, Erik's pocket nines were outdrawn by Phil's A-6, and Phil and I were now heads up.

I'd already done better than I'd expected to do at the final table, but I wouldn't say I was satisfied just yet. There was still work to be done. I was able to maintain the $300,000 with which I'd started the threehanded match, while Phil had amassed close to $900,000.

With the blinds at just $4,000-$8,000, I expected a long, drawn out match, considering our respective styles of play. Just six hands into the heads-up match, however, we played a monster pot: Phil limped in on the button and I checked from the big blind with Q-8 offsuit. The flop came Q 8 2. In other words, I flopped gin. Hoping that Phil would bluff at it, I checked, but he checked behind me.

The turn brought the 5, putting three hearts on board. I decided to try for the check-raise once more, hoping Phil might see my double check on the flop and the turn as weakness. Phil bit this time, betting $30,000. With three hearts on board and several straight draws out there, I decided not to get cute with the hand, so I made a substantial raise to $130,000.

Phil didn't seem shaken however. He didn't seem to mind very much that I'd just raised him. "Uh-oh," I thought. "Phil just might have the flush." Phil's check on the flop didn't rule out that possibility to me at all, as he is more than capable of checking the flush draw on the flop behind me.

I was getting that sinking feeling in my stomach … I was trapping Phil here, but it looked like I might be the one getting trapped. Yep, Phil reraised me my last $117,000. As much as I hated to call, I really didn't feel like I had much choice. Sure, I was probably beat, but there were several hands Phil could have that didn't beat mine, and the pot was laying me too big a price to fold. He could have A-Q with a heart, a worse two pair, or even just top pair with a flush draw. I called.

Phil turned over the 4 3 and I wasn't able to snag a miracle queen or 8 on the river. Oh well, I've had worse days, I guess.

I've gone over that hand in my head several times, and I realize there were alternate ways to play it, but I'm not disappointed with the choice I made. Sure, I could have just called on the turn and then check-called the river and saved some chips. Sure, I could have listened to that old saying, "You can never be too careful," but the truth is, living by that statement while playing tournament poker will keep you on the outside looking in. There comes a point in every tournament when it's imperative to take some risks. This seemed like one of them.

I'm rarely, if ever satisfied with a second-place finish, but considering the fact that my final two opponents are two of the truly great no-limit hold'em players of our time, I can honestly say it was a happy second, and I consider that finish one of my more memorable achievements. Congrats, Page 26, you played fantastic poker and certainly deserved the win.