No WSOP For Me
At Least Not THIS YearIt was time for the last roundup. The train to Vegas' departure was imminent, and 265 brave souls ponied up $200 to try to get a ticket. The top four finishers would be in the WSOP Main Event, and the next three would get a fat stack of cash for their efforts ($2500, $1500, and $1000 respectively).
I was as high as sixth at one point, but I lost a significant amount of chips on one hand. Holding 10/7 with a board of 10/9/8/4, I had top pair and a open-end straight draw. I made a healthy bet on the turn, and watched my opponents — both of whom had more chips than me — BOTH go all-in. I figured top pair was no good and mucked. I was wrong: they held A/Q and A/K. However, the river was a king, so I did save myself from getting busted.
When I made my fateful move I had 5035 chips, which put me in the middle of the pack on the tournament leaderboard, but that didn't mean much. With the blinds at 200/400 plus a 50-chip ante, and the big stacks racing over 30,000 chips, I needed to double up and do it fast.
So when I found A©/K§ at the cutoff position, I knew I had to draw the line. I don't subscribe to the superstitious belief in "unlucky hands," but if I did, that A/K would have made me cringe. Not only did I lose with Big Slick in the $75 minisatellite I detailed in my last poker post, I also bought it holding A/K in a $26 mini on Saturday night (lost to A/Q of all hands), then got whacked on three consecutive hands by A/K in yet another mini to qualify for this "Last Roundup" tourney (twice I had pocket pairs and was a favorite). To top it all off, that A/K holding stole a bunch of my chips earlier, but I was lucky enough to avoid the mojo that time.
But I couldn't let superstition spook me out of this pot. I raised to 1800, hoping for action, since I was no longer content with stealing the antes and blinds to tread water. The player on my left was, at the time, ranked #3 on the tourney chip count, and reraised enough to put me all-in.
Groovy. I called.
He had Q¨/Qª.
Not good. I was a 57-43 underdog. I was really hoping he also had two big cards and was reading me for a small pair.
The flop was unhelpful: 5ª/7©/5§. My odds shrunk to 1-in-4.
The turn was J¨. Only 13% odds to survive.
Just to twist the dagger, the river was Q©. IGHN, in 58th place.
Not that this tourney wasn't completely devoid of moments that boosted my poker ego. Here's a screenshot of me having more than twice the chips of poker pro Paul Wolfe:
(click for full-size)
Of course, as you can see, plenty of players had more than twice the chips of poker pro Paul Wolfe. It's tough being a pro at FTP, since all pros have bounties on their heads. Bust one and you make your buy-in back. I never got the chance, though he did steal my big blind once. None of the three pros finished higher than 151st.
So no vacation in Vegas for me. At least not this year; but next Sunday FTP is giving away a seat to the 2006 Main Event!
P.S. I promise I'll get off this poker kick soon. I might even write and post a special 4th-of-July essay; that is, if I can get to sleep. Living two blocks from a 24-hour fireworks shop means Roman Candles 'round-the-clock.
posted by Marsh @ 5:44 AM
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