For the Love of the Game: WSOP Prelim Wrap Up

Before my summer package of 25 WSOP + Venetian Deep Stack tournaments started, I figured that, win or lose, I would be completely exhausted at the conclusion. However, I just caught myself googling next year’s WSOP schedule (which, obvious to everyone besides me, hasn’t even been released yet). After playing more live poker in a month than ever before, I feel more excited about poker than ever!

In WSOP Event #54, I went in as one of the shortest stacks on day two with a hair over 10k and blinds of 600/1,200/200. Having no delusions with a shove/fold stack, I made plans to late-reg the $1,500 that day if I busted within the first hour.

Instead, on the first hand, a shorter stack shoved in middle position, and I reshoved with 55 on the button. I managed to win the flip versus KJ. Soon after, one of my favorite hands of the summer occurred:

With an effective stack of 25k, I raised to 2,500 in early position with AJ. A loose recreational player on the button called, as did the small blind. The flop came AQ7, the small blind checked, and so did I. The button bet 5k, the small blind folded, and I called. The turn came another queen, and both of us checked. The river came a third queen.

Given the action (and a handful of live tells), I was very confident that the other player held an ace, meaning we would chop if checked down. So, I overbet shoved the river, hoping to avoid a chop.

My opponent tanked for about 30 seconds, then folded A8 face-up, saying they knew I had a queen. While it wasn’t exactly the same epic moment as folding quads face up in the infamous One Drop hand, avoiding the chop was a huge boost to my stack!

The moment also brought me back to my roots: my first epiphany in poker happened years ago at a $5 home game at FSU where Corona versus Guiness was a bigger debate than how to best play a hand. Despite the distinct lack of beer, this WSOP hand was actually a similar situation, in that I realized my opponent held the same hand as me on the river and my best chance to win was to bet big in an attempt to scare out my opponent.

Back in the WSOP, I continued to play my A-game, and eventually busted by shoving KT in the hijack as a short stack and being called in the big blind by A7, exiting in 27th place of 3,221 entrants. While I very much wanted to win my first bracelet, I was very happy with my finish, considering how short I was to start day two, and that I actually got down to 3.5 big blinds early on day one.

It feels great to have played my best this summer, and to give my investors a solid profit on their money. The rails alone (both live and virtual) made me love playing poker even more than I did as newbie playing in a boozey $5 home game, so thank you very much to all that have been kind enough to wish me well this summer!

Next up, the Main Event on Sunday! :)