WPT Championship Day # 3

I am ready for day 3 of the WPT Championship, but boy yesterday was rocky. I began the day at a pretty good table with Raymond Davis, David the Dragon, Dan Shack, Mike Sexton, Eric Lindgren, and an anesthesiologist from NJ Skip Kim, who is a reader of this blog. David and Raymond where pretty short stacked and were unable to get anything going, eventually going bust. The Table broke at the beginning of the second level and my next table was really tough. Lee Markholt, Jonathan Murphy, Josh Arieh, Jeff Shulman, Bill Gazes, Andrew Robl, Eddie Ting, and Dario Minieri were the notables. I was in good position with Dario and Lee on my immediate left. This was my second time playing with Dario, the first being the WSOP main event, and he is the most active player I have ever seen. He opened virtually every pot which came to him unopened. Unfortunately, I was completely card dead and rarely had the opportunity to play back at him. On one occasion after Murphy opened for 3 BB's, Dario re-raised and I looked down at 2 jacks. I smooth called him and an ace came on the flop. I played the hand terribly, losing half of my chips. My luck started to turn, and each time it was against Lee Markholt. Twice when he raised I re-raised and had pocket kings both times, he folded preflop. Then right after I lost that big pot to Dario, I had pocket queens. Murphy had opened the pot UTG + 2 with a 3 BB raise, Lee raised again, and I moved in for an additional 50,000 chips. Murphy folded, Lee went into the tank for several minutes, and I knew I was ahead; he would have obviously snap called me with AA, KK, or even AK. He eventually called with JJ. I flopped a queen and he rivered a jack, and I doubled up. Not long after I had pocket tens to Lee's eights and busted him out. It's kind of funny, I really like and respect Lee, and although I wanted all of his chips, I felt genuinely sorry busting him out. I was able to chip up slowly after that and ended the day at 144,000 right about average. I am hopeful about today.

The Oracle

For more information on Roy Winston, you can visit his website: www.oraclepoker.net or send him an email: [email protected]