WSOP Stream of Consciousness

Well, I’m now finished with all of my WSOP events this year except for the big one, the main event. I played in nine tournaments and cashed twice. The first eight were $1,500 buy-ins and came in rapid succession. I was incredibly efficient. I cashed once and didn’t make any other dinner breaks. I finished in second place in the $1,500 Omaha-eight-or-better event, coming up just short of my second bracelet and another $100,000 or so. Congratulations to Herbert Tapscott, the young man who beat me heads up after a 2 hour heads-up battle that saw the chips swing back and forth several times.

Finishing second in this tournament was pretty tough for me to handle at the time. I’ve always said that the bracelet doesn’t really mean that much to me, that I play for money and that’s pretty much it. I was proven wrong when they placed that bracelet on the table between me and Herbert. I wanted that just as bad as the $260,000. I found myself staring at it on several occasions while waiting for the next hand to get dealt or if I got back from break a bit early. I was coveting that thing and I was denied. It was definitely hard to swallow. In addition, if I won the tournament, it would be the first time I was out of makeup in a few years.

For those who don’t know, let me tell you what that last sentence means. I am backed for tournament play, just like many other people who play tournaments.

This means that someone else supplies the money for me to play in tournaments. In exchange, they get 50 percent of all the money I make after they get back all of their initial investments. If I play $100,000 worth of tournaments and then cash for $200,000, my backer keeps the $100,000 they have already invested in me and we split the rest. It’s a good deal for both of us. If I’m a profitable tournament player (which I’m pretty sure I am) and the bankroll is big enough to handle the enormous swings of big buy-in live poker tournaments, my backer will make money. On my side, I get to play tournaments with less monetary pressure than usual, because I don’t put up the money, but with a different kind of pressure due to the fact that if I lose, I have to make up for it by winning more in order to get my share of any profits.

So, the implications from this tournament were pretty big so it took me a few days to “get over” finishing second for $160,000. This obviously sounds ridiculous to 99.9 percent of the people reading this, but to be so close to all of those great things happening at once and to have it slip through my fingers was tough.

On the other hand, I’m terrifically proud of myself. I cashed twice this WSOP so far in non-hold’em tournaments, my first ones on record. I’ve always considered myself to be quite good at non-hold’em games. However, due to their lack of availability anywhere other than the WSOP, I found myself mostly playing hold’em events year round. To “validate” this initial feeling of mine by doing well in an Omaha-eight-or-better tournament and in an 8-game mix tournament feels quite nice. I’m especially proud of my play in the Omaha tournament. I don’t think I was the best Omaha player to make it to day three of that tournament, but I felt that I played the best of anyone there that day. I took advantage of the interesting tournament situations that presented themselves, I made great decisions all day, I remained focused and aggressive at all times, and even when I got down to 400,000 in chips heads up the first time, I never gave up, eventually getting back to 2.7 million and the chip lead.

This was the first time I’ve ever finished second in a live tournament. Statistically, everyone should finish in every place at some point, given enough trials, so it was obviously bound to happen. If it had to happen sometime, the WSOP was the best and worst time for it to happen. The best because the WSOP always has the biggest prize pools and a second place during the summer at the Rio is worth more than a second place in a prelim anywhere else in the world. The worst because I came so very close to a second bracelet and initiation into the multiple bracelet winners club, a very exclusive one. It’s been eight years and 150 or so tournaments since I’ve won a bracelet. Admittedly, I play in pretty large field events at the WSOP, so it makes the gap in between much more tolerable. However, when people ask me “how many bracelets do you have,” and “when did you win your bracelet,” I’m always somewhat embarrassed to answer one and 2004.

My 2012 WSOP prelims have come and gone and they were quite successful. I find myself with a couple of weeks off to relax, reflect, and get back on the cash game grind before the main event at the beginning of July. I’m planning on heading back to Vegas focused and hungry, ready to add to my bracelet count in October. I’ve been playing and running well in tournaments this year and I expect to have a good run in the biggest tournament of the year. I’m working on making 2012 as good a year for the Griffin family as 2011 was a bad one. I’ll see you guys in October. ♠

Gavin Griffin was the first poker player to capture a World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour title and has amassed nearly $5 million in lifetime tournament winnings. Griffin is sponsored by HeroPoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @NHGG.