Big News!

Well if you look down a couple posts, you will see the screenshot from the Bellagio Prelim SnG that I won, putting me into the final on April 9th.

So I played the final on the 9th. 133 people entered, only first place wins. Winner gets a seat in the WPT Championship at the Bellagio. $25,000 entry and airfare and hotel. Not to mention a strategy session with Daniel Negreanu and TJ Cloutier. Two of the best players in the world.

Guess who won? I DID! Insanity!! How did I manage to beat 132 other people, exactly when I wanted to, and somehow won the biggest tournament I've ever been in.

Well, I went in knowing that only 1 person wins. So it was a necessity to get the chips early and often. There was no room to sit back and watch people jump ahead of me. I wanted a lead, and I wanted to keep it. Of course my cards were going to help or hurt that plan.

I managed to move my way slowly up, never had any big hands where I doubled or tripled up early... that would have been to easy. But I just kept plugging away and making my way up the leaderboard. Then halfway through the 133 people, I finally took the chiplead. Wasn't going to last long though. There were about 4 of us who were very close in chips, so we were just bouncing in and out of 1st-4th.

Then this happened:

I'm in the SB with about 12k in chips. (still top 4) I get dealt 10-10 and the whole table folds to the button. Then the button goes All-in for about 7.5k!!
Well geez... that seems like a gross overbet in my mind... Why would you go all-in against the blinds, with a real good hand? Well I called only to see his 2 Queens!

UGH! Why did he play them like that? Well now I have 4.5k and I'm back down at the bottom of the list. It was brutal. Very discouraging, and really made things difficult as the blinds were at 200/400 at this point.

Then the worst thing starts happening. PokerMountain keeps freezing up on me. First it happens at random times... and I quickly log off and come back, but I usually lose about 2 hands before I can get back, so it's making me pay blinds even quicker than normal with my short stack. THEN! I get AKo... Raise it up pre-flop, and get one caller. Flop comes Axx and I am pretty sure I have this hand. Well it froze again! AHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT THE HELL! Now this cost me a ton of chips, because the pot was already quite big after my preflop raise, and could have been huge if they had a worse ace. I was pretty upset. I emailed support while we were playing and was getting pretty frustrated... it had done it like 5 times in the past 10 minutes or so. Right at a crucial time, because my stack was shrinking fast and blinds were getting big.

At this point, the blinds are 250/500 and I have 2,500 left. That's 5/BB! Desperation time with a stack like that. So now I'm just waiting for something halfways decent to push with. I get UTG and pick up J9s and decide that they're probably live and suited, so it's a good spot. I push all-in and get called by AKo! Ugh.. not a good spot, but I managed to hit my 9 and double up, plus pick up the blinds. Now I'm up to like 6,500 or so, and have at least a little room to breathe.... But not much.

Now I go on a tear. If I pick up a hand worth playing, I am not giving the pot up. I raise preflop and steal plenty of blinds, and get up in the 7-8k range. Then I pick up J10s. I raise trying to steal but I get a caller anyway... uh oh. But it's still a decent hand. Well the flop is QKK... well that doesn't help me right away does it? I do have a nice draw, but that's a scary flop. Well they check and I decide to check behind looking for my straight. Turn is a blank though, and this time they bet at me. But they bet pretty weak, so I call, still looking for the right card. River blanks again though... But this time they check it. Uh oh... now I know they aren't that strong. My call had them worried. Well the pot is huge at this point, maybe 4k+ and I can't afford to lose it. So I push all-in! They pause a second, and type in the chatbox... "I know you don't have it, but good bet" and then fold. Ha! Thank you... Just what I was hoping for.

Well now... somehow.. I'm back up to like 12k... Right back where I was before I lost with those 10's. Blinds are 300/600 and I have 20/BB and feel much more comfortable now. During that previous stretch I didn't lose one pot... I either stole the blinds, or took the pot away post flop, it was amazing nobody took me out. Now I feel like I can wait for some better hands. So I do.. I think we're down to the last 15 now, and I am in the top 10 in chips. More like 7 or 8 probably. So when I get a good hand, I push hard, and wind up stealing plenty of blinds, and since they're so big it's great. Final table is just around the corner.

I managed to come into the final table in the top 4 or 5 in chips. But the chipleaders have over 60k. I still have around 15k. That's a lot of work I am gonna have to do. Honestly, I don't remember a whole lot from the final table, I was just focused on getting chips without having to risk all of mine. Stealing some blinds along the way, because nobody else wanted to bust either, so it was pretty easy. The two guys with over 60k were splashing around like a couple of moron's and losing chips all over the place. Calling with plenty of mediocre hands and I knew that if I got some chips they had no chance playing that way. Well I had a few big hands and ended up busting one player with 2 separate hands. Took most of his chips in the first, then busted him a couple hands later. I managed to move into 3rd, but a more comfortable 3rd. Probably about 25k in chips. Then one of the chipleaders goes all in against the other with a complete junk hand and loses almost all his chips, so now there's only one big stack really... which is fine with me.

After everyone busts out... bigstacks included, we finally get to heads up play. Ended up against someone who I took a big chunk off of earlier, but he got the majority from the bigstacks. Everyone else was short and busted pretty easily. Well, right from the start I knew I could handle this guy heads up. He had the lead, but I managed to take it shortly afterwards. But we bounced back and forth for quite awhile. Lead kept changing and we were close to even most of the time. But I think he was getting frustrated with me.. because I was taking every spare pot he didn't bet at. I got all the scraps and he was only winning when he had a hand. He even called a big re-raise all in from me with K2. Gave me a good amount of chips at that point. Then I picked up 83o. Managed to flop 2 pair, but I didn't even realize it. I bet on the flop and he called. But at that point I only saw one pair! Then as the turn was coming I noticed I had 2, lol. Oops. So then I decided to check on the turn to make it look like I was bluffing. He bet pretty big and I re-raised him all-in (Had him covered)... He hesitated for a second, but then he called with his middle pair on the flop. My 2 pair held up and I won the tournament!

Now I make it sound like no big deal, but trust me, I was in complete shock. When we got to the final table they had announced that 4th-10th would get $100... 3rd-$200 and 2nd-400. Well I was pretty excited just to hear that... because with those big stacks it looked like I wasn't gonna be able to pull this off. But I somehow stuck around awhile. Then after watching awhile, I said... I just need to double up or get some chips, and then get heads up. I knew I could beat anyone there heads up, so I just needed the chips to get me there, and then I was confident I could do it. But still.... When I did, I couldn't believe it. I am going to vegas? I'm playing in arguably the biggest tournament in the world? WOW! Seriously unreal! WPT and Bellagio, here I come.

Well... I leave saturday. Having dinner with Daniel and TJ on saturday night, and hopefully I will be able to add another good story to this very soon.