Phil Hellmuth Train Wreck

In the $25,000 buy-in Tour Championship event that I'm playing in this week, I feel like near perfect play will carry you for three days, regardless of the hands you pick up. Of course, picking up A-A and getting most of your money in pre-flop against someone who then hits a set; that you cannot help getting eliminated to. After playing perfect poker for three days, I woke up on day four feeling miserably tired. So what, I woke up super tired day one as well. I should have been able to push through it rather easily, but for some reason I didn't.

I had a bad feeling when I got up (probably because I was so tired), even though I was chip leader with $1,827,000 in chips. After cresting $2 million, I raised on the button with Kc-Qc, and David Levi made it $160,000 more from the small blind. I knew that Levi over plays medium pairs, but still, why get involved with this hand? Why not lay it down? I didn't, and the flop came down K-6-5, and he moved all-in for $400,000, and I called. He showed me A-K, and I had to ask myself, "Why did you get involved with K-Q? You were at a super safe $2 million in chips, winning all kinds of small pots, and now you get involved here?" So take away $600,000 from my stack!

Twenty minutes later I raised it up after only seeing only one of my hole cards; the ace of spades. One internet player called me from the small blind, the flop came down Ac-9s-4d, and the Internet guy bet $60,000. I looked at my six kicker, and called. The next card was the Ad, and now the internet player bet out $180,000. Right here, right now, I should have laid the hand down, even though I had three aces. It wasn't even a hard lay down for me to make under normal circumstances. I mean, what could he have that I could beat? He played this hand way too aggressively (he is young), and gave me an easy fold. I mean, he should have tried to win about $100,000 on the turn and another $150,000 on the river. Although his play of the hand gave me the opportunity to fold, I didn't take it.

A jack hit on the river, and now he moved all-in for $300,000 or so. Again, I should have folded, although now folding was not an easy option. I called, he showed me pocket nines, for a full house, and I was now down to less than one million in chips. Bad play on my part, pure and simple. Was I super unlucky that I had three aces this hand? Yes, but so what. This is where the great players make the big bucks, by laying down strong hands at the right time. From there, I stayed pretty aggressive, and was a bit unlucky to lose about $250,000 more.

Then it was announced that play was finished for the day, over three hours early. Probably good for me, but I'm not so sure. I had Levi pay me off in a big pot with his 8-8, and a board of Q-Q-J-5-4. I had pocket sevens. I know that the table was ready to give me way too much action, so I wanted to keep playing. I was going to get internet boy, who beat me another pot when he played the 8h-5h from first position vs. my K-Q. Internet boy believes in "Pot odds," and raising a lot of pots pre-flop. So Levi was going to pay me, and internet boy was going to pay me that much I knew, it was just a matter of time…

In any case, I can now catch a nap. Last week I found out that I have mild sleep apnea, and this explains a lot. The 12 hour sleeps that I took throughout my twenties, constantly being tired, etc…It is a good thing I discovered this mild sleep apnea now, because it is easily treatable. I haven't been to the doctor since I discovered it from my "Sleep study" results. How much could it have affected my play all of my life? Maybe it was a good thing! After all, I did have a great WSOP in 2006…And now I have "Pro Player" endurance formula to help me out!!!