Bad Play, Good Play, Better Attitude

I played the 1.5k no limit today and I had a very good table draw. I won a couple of hands and chipped up to 5,200 from a starting stack of 3k. Phil Hellmuth then came to the table about an hour late. Then I raise a couple of times with AK and miss the flop and wind up folding. Next, I think I must have been momentarily possessed by demons. I am still slightly above average stack when UTG raises 3 big blinds and it's mucked around to me in the big blind and I have A K. I re-raise a full pot and he looks like he wants to fold but ends up calling. The flop comes Q 8 3, and I bet almost the pot and he calls. When a 7 comes on the turn I move in and he insta-calls with top set of queens. I don't know how I could play so badly. Perhaps I was trying to show off in front of Hellmuth or like I said I was possessed, but in any case, it was not good. I would also like to say that I think I have been doing too much complaining about how the WSOP has been going, but I guess I'm disappointed and let it show. In any case, I apologize to my readers and will re-double my effort to provide better content, which means no more whining.

So my friend Jay Berger busted out about the same time as me and we decided to play the Bellagio daily tournament. It was a $1,080 with 102 players, 10k in starting chips and 40 minute levels. All in all a pretty good structure, although the field wasn't particularly soft having quite a few good players who also busted early from today's WSOP event. All was going well and I was chipping up steadily. I made a couple of good moves and got a few good situations early, then with about 65 players left and 1.5 X average chips I lost a race with AK vs. 99. I stayed cool and focused and was able to continue chipping up. Then I went card dead for an entire two levels until there were two all-ins in front of me, with similar sized chip stacks, and I woke up with queens. They show A 9 and A J and the queens hold up. Now I am second in chips where I stayed until we were 4 handed. I then chipped up and took the lead, and when we got to heads up we chopped it. I was heads up with Matthew Milliken, who I have played cash games and tournaments with over the past couple of years and is a very solid player. Interestingly enough earlier in the event Matthew and I were playing next to each other and when our table broke, we said good luck to each other and we kidded about meeting again at the end and playing heads up.

It may not have been a WSOP event, but it felt pretty good and as Austin Powers said I got my mojo back baby. I will play the PLO re-buy event later today with renewed optimism.

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