Day 1 WPT Championships

I didn't run well today. In fact, Jason Lester was at my table all day, and paid me the ultimate compliment tonight when he said, "Phil, I was just telling everyone that your still the best in the world. I cannot believe you lost all those pots, took all those beats, and still had $95,000 in chips, without ever even coming close to going all-in!" The key was that I was playing small pot poker. The only time I risked any chips today was when, after being bet out of about 7 straight pots, I finally hit a hand when my J-J flopped J-8-7. After that the player moved me in his last $35,000 with 10-10! I had about $55,000 and called him down and won. Then I was told, "They just give you the chips Phil!" To which I responded, "Not when they got away with all of those bluffs they didn't."

One hand, the man under the gun raised it up to $1,600, and I called in the two hole with Q-Q. The Jason made it $5,000 in the three hole, and I told myself, "Jason has aces, 100%" When the first player called, I called $3,400 more to try to hit my queen, but I wasn't planning on losing one more nickel in the hand. The flop was A-K-4, and I got out quickly.