World Poker Tour in Paris - Part II

If you read Part I of this trilogy, you'd know that I ended up with $8,550 after the first day of action. Since we started the tournament with $10,000, I was obviously a little disappointed with my day one results. I was, however, extremely happy with my level of focus and intensity. With the exception of one difficult hand during the day, I thought I played as well as I'm capable of playing.

So, with the knowledge that I was playing well, coupled with the small starting blinds for day two, I was extremely confident that I would make a comeback. Over the last few years, some of my best results in tournaments have come when I was in dire straits early. In the 2001 World Series of Poker championship event, I was down to just $1,900 after the first break. By the end of day two, I was one of the chip leaders, finally finishing 11th. At the Tournament of Champions a few years back, I was all in very early in the tournament, and ended the day with the second-highest chip total. Even at this year's WSOP, I was able to finish second in the $3,000 no-limit hold'em event to Phil Hellmuth, despite coming to the final table as the short stack. So, needless to say, I'm no quitter when I'm down on chips and feel very comfortable playing a short stack.

Of course, there are very specific strategy adjustments that I think are important as a short stack. Normally, I'm not big on moving all of my chips in before the flop, but when my stack dwindles too far below the average, I'll use the all-in weapon until I either make a recovery or make an exit.

So, that's just what I did at the start of day two – patiently wait for strong hands, and get my chips in the center to protect them. During the first three hours, though, I didn't see any of those strong hands I was hoping for. My stack was down to $3,900, with the blinds at $300-$600. I looked down and saw 8-8 in early position. This has to be my least favorite hand of all. If there is a way to misplay it, I usually find it! This one was a no-brainer, though, so I shoved my measly little $3,900 stack toward the center.

Fred Berger, a strong player who's had a good amount of success on the tournament circuit, moved all in behind me. "Uh-oh," I thought. "Please have A-K." He didn't; he flipped up pocket tens. In my warm-up tournament for the WPT in Paris, I played in the $5,000 buy-in main event at Bellagio and was eliminated by – you guessed it – Fred Berger. Even more amazing was that he knocked me out of that tournament with those same two tens!

T.J. Cloutier will often say he can feel a card coming off the deck. When he was the runner-up to Chris Ferguson in the WSOP main event, he said, "I knew it was a 9, I could feel it coming off the deck before it did." Well, I don't put too much stock in this Kreskin-like belief, but I'll be damned if I didn't feel like I would flop an 8!

In Paris, some of the dealers deal the flop one card at a time. The first card off the deck was a beautiful 8, oh so beautiful. Now, of course, I had to sweat four more cards for no 10! No 10 hit, and I was back in business.

From there, things started to really click for me. I started picking up hands, hitting some flops, and applying some pressure. By the time we were down to two tables, I was the chip leader by a small margin. Having the chip lead frees you up to use all of the weapons in your arsenal. The following hand here is an example of one of those weapons that was available to me because of my chip position:

I was in early position with two black sixes, and I came in for a raise to $2,000. This was a small raise, as the blinds were just $400-$800 with a $50 ante. The small blind, a tricky French player by the name of Paul Testud, called the raise. Many will argue that my raise was too small here, but it's consistent with my style of play and I'm happy with it.

Anyway, the flop came down K 10 9. Paul had about $18,000 in chips at this point, which was subpar. I wanted to make an assertive bet – one that might get him off a hand like A-Q, or even a pair better than mine. Of course, if he check-raised me, I'd most likely have to fold my hand. True, it's an ugly flop for me, but he doesn't know that! So, I went ahead and bet the pot, $5,000. Paul called my bet quickly.

At this point, I figured I was done with the hand. That was my plan, anyway, until the turn card was the J. Now, Paul once again checked. Hmm … I looked down and noticed that I had the 6. So, here was my dilemma: take the free card and try to outdraw him, or bluff at it and move him off his hand.

Based on previous encounters with Paul, I believed he would fold a hand as good as two pair there, so I went ahead and bet $8,000 of his $13,000. If he were to check-raise me, I'd be in a quandary, but I probably would have been forced to fold my hand. Paul looked disgusted by the turn card, and showed me two black eights. I had precisely two outs to win the pot and three outs to tie!

After the hand, I told Paul that I had A-Q for the straight, but no spade. He nodded, as if to say, "I knew I had you till that card came."

After that hand, I was just cruising with about $85,000 in chips when along came the dream hand in the dream situation:

With the blinds now $600-$1,200 with a $100 ante, I raised it to $3,000 from first position once again with 6-6. I was called by an unknown "Internet player," as well as by Dan Alspach out of the small blind. The flop came down Q 7 4. Dan checked, and I decided to show some aggression and try to take the pot right here. I bet $6,000. Obviously, I was hoping that someone with 8-8 or 9-9 would fold, or that my 6-6 was still the best hand. I was pretty sure that if I was up against a pair of queens or better, though, I'd get called.

To my surprise, I was called in both spots! So, here I was in familiar territory, shutting down on the turn, completely done with the hand. Then, gin! The 6 rolled off on the turn! Now, Dan fired out a bet of $6,000. This was no time to get cute, I thought, not with two flush draws on board. As much as I wanted to keep the Internet player (whom we'll call Paul from this point on) in with a weak hand, winning what was in the middle of the table was my main concern. I raised it, making it $18,000 to go. Paul beat me into the pot! I thought to myself, "What the … ? I must be up against a big draw, I guess." Dan also called, making this the biggest pot of the tournament thus far.

The river brought the Q, giving me a full house, sixes full of queens. Before I could even savor the moment, Dan pushed all of his $16,400 into the center. "No, he couldn't possibly have queens full," I thought. Dan does play his fair share of hands, but would he really have called a raise with Q-4, Q-6, or Q-7? No way. But wait, what about 7-7? Hmm … no, why would he not push all in on the turn? I decided that I definitely had Dan beat, and wasn't about to throw my hand away. The only question now was: Should I call or reraise all in?

Paul the Internet player (I call him that only because this was the first time he'd ever played in a live tournament) still had about $36,000 in chips. If I just called Dan's bet, Paul may overcall, but if I raised, he may fold. This was my thinking at the time. The whole moment was surreal. I felt like Mike McDermott in the movie Rounders when he said, "I want him to think I'm pondering a call, but all I'm really thinking about is Vegas and the Mirage." That was me. All I was thinking about was maximizing my earn on this hand. In all honesty, though, my mind was cluttered by the overabundance of adrenaline racing to my brain. I mean, Paul can't call anyway, I thought, so I might as well just go ahead and call the bet and get it over with – but then Paul did call the river bet!

Now, it hit me, just like it hit Mike McDermott when KGB turned over aces full of nines to his nines full of aces … what if Paul had 7-7? Gulp. Luckily for me, though, Paul didn't have the set of sevens that would have beaten me, or an unlikely queens-full hand. Paul had flopped a set of fours. Had I really thought my river play through, I would have gone ahead and moved all in. If Paul had been on a draw, he couldn't possibly call, but if he had precisely what he had … well, then he may have called for all of his chips.

Dan had the K Q. That 6 on the turn was not only a magic card for me, it gave Dan top pair with a flush draw. This was the hand that gave me a big lead on the rest of the field. Going into day three with 18 players remaining, I had $170,700 in chips, while my nearest competitor had $107,800.

Don't miss the next issue, where I'll go into great detail in analyzing an interesting hand that developed on day three.

Daniel can be reached through his website: www.fullcontactpoker.com.