November Nine Countdown -- Kelly Kim SpeaksPro Poker Player Kelly Kim Tells Card Player About His WSOP Main Event Journey |
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Kelly Kim resides in Whittier, California, where he works as a professional poker player. Kim graduated from UC- San Diego and used his degree to work as a business analyst. He made the decision to play poker full time and has had several major-tournament cashes. His first came in 2003 at the Hustler Casino in a $300 buy-in event. Since then, he’s been working his way up the ranks. At the 2007 World Series of Poker, Kim cashed twice, and decided to come back in 2008 for another shot at a bracelet. He paid the $10,000 to enter the main event and now finds himself as one of the final nine remaining players who are anxiously awaiting the start of final-table play in November. Kim will enter the final table as the short stack, but he is guaranteed to earn at least $900,670 for his efforts. Here he tells Card Player about his WSOP main event journey.
"Day 1 was pretty good. I won the key pot early which wasn’t a huge pot, but I mean it’s the middle of the first level, it’s the 
difference of having 26,000 or 14,000, and I made a flush on the river [and] I had turned top pair. I made a pretty big bet and the lady folded. So, that put me on 26,000 and I never got below 20,000 after that. I finished the day with like 57,000.
I actually made a sick play at the end of the day because I was playing really tight and I wanted to get up to like the 80 range, and sometimes the table that you’re at, they take exactly how much chips you have, and generally speaking my table was very tight. So, I actually four-bet this player that I thought was going to make a move on me, because I was starting to play really aggressive, and he had aces and automatically he shipped, and you know I have to act like I have a real hand here, I have to put in the fourth raise, and he folded. So, I ended the day with 57,000, I was very happy because it was a tad above average, and so it turned out to be a pretty good day.
When I walked in to the Amazon Room, I thought it was pretty overwhelming. I didn’t play that many preliminary events. I had family obligations, so, I played like two events, but just the whole World Series atmosphere is very intense. I’m amazed at the quality of the play, and I’m amazed I even considered not playing because I’ve seen huge mistakes every day, not only at my table but at tables right by me, and these guys are playing like 100 or 200 big blind pots with marginal hands, and they’re just dumping chips. I really believe that this tournament is the biggest by far in any form of poker or any form of gambling.
On day 3, I got as low as 35,000, but somehow I chipped up to 100k by dinner break, and then I played my first all-in pot of the night to get me to 240 in like the fifth level. I had two jacks against A-K, I smooth called a raise, and some Internet kid who plays pretty solid reraised big, and I thought about pitching it but after I studied, I sensed he was really nervous. I immediately pegged him on A-K, so I flat called and the flop came J-10-7. I checked, and he bet big, and I moved in for like 48,000 more and he called. Sure enough he had A-K.
Day 5 was very strenuous because I started the day with 670,000 or 650,000, and I got as low as 300,000, so again I was down to like 15 big blinds. I chipped up to 800,000, this was actually a two-sequence pot that got me to 1.7 million and from then I went on a cruise. The blinds were 12,000 and 24,000, I raised to like 60,000 with Q-J of hearts on the button. The small blind called and the flop came like A-10-X, he checked, I bet like 60,000, and he called. The turn was the Q, he checked, I bet 100,000, and he called. The river came up blank and we check-checked. The way I played the hand is that I wanted to represent strength by my small bets, and I wanted to get a free show-down for 100,000 by betting the turn. So, that put me at exactly 800,000, and the very next hand was probably the most intense hand of the tournament.
Everyone folded to me again, I opened for 65,000 with A-J off-suit, and the small blind reraised to 200,000 straight, and the whole day I was playing really weak-tight, no I wouldn’t say weak-tight, just tight in general because of my chip stack. And I knew that he had a lot of chips, he had like 2.5 [million], and I knew that in his range, he was going to have a big range of hands, and he doesn’t necessarily massive strength, and plus I’ve been like really solid, so I know that most likely he thinks he’s going to win with a walk. He reraised it 200, I studied, I thought about moving in, but I had to be 100 percent sure that more importantly he folds, or that I had the best hand. I wasn’t too sure, so I decided to see a flop in position, and the flop came J-2-4 all hearts, and I don’t have the ace of hearts or obviously it would be real easy. He open-pushed for 2 million, and I took like five minutes, and you know, I mean it’s really hard, this is the most important moment of my tournament and there’s like maybe 70 or maybe 80 players left. I called and he had A-10 with the 10 of hearts and I held.
But when we finally got to the final table bubble, that was one of the most absolute stressful times for me because the worst spot to bust in this tournament is 10th. I mean, just because of the whole difference between 10th and ninth is huge in money and endorsements and everything else, like I get to wait three or four months ... But that time was the absolute most stressful because I had the most pressure, I’m the shortest stack, I’m like half the stack of everyone else, and everyone’s looking at me. Because they’re looking at your stack and they want to see when I’m going to make a mistake, and amazingly though there was just two horrendous plays — the first one, the bad hand sucked out, and the second one, the band hand didn’t suck out, and next thing you know I’m in, and the rest is a freeroll.
It’s truly amazing like I had to adjust strategy again when I’m really short, like from 14 players on, my whole objective at that point was the final table at all costs, everything else after that becomes another freeroll in November."
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