2019 WSOP - Big 50 - Part 2

Near the end of the level, the young Indian player raised to 14,000 from the HJ seat.  I was in the BB w/ K♣ Q♠.  I called and we saw a flop of A♥ K♠ 5♣.  I checked, my opponent bet 15,000, and I called.  The turn was the 9♥, and I checked again.  He bet 40,000, and after a few moments, I folded.  He was a very aggressive player, but he didn't seem to be crazy.  I decided that my hand was going to be second best way too often, so I folded.  I went to the first break of the day w/ a chipstack of 195,000.

We came back from break to blinds of 4,000/8,000/8,000, and I read on PokerNews that the tournament organizers were expecting that we would make the money this level.  I decided to play pretty tight, but I really only had one playable hand anyway.  That came with only around 930 players left (915 would make the money) and I folded A♦ Q♣ after a player in early position had raised.  We actually burst the bubble about 5 minutes into the following level (Level 16), and I had been blinded down to 170,000 or so.  I was obviously thrilled to cash at the WSOP, and now with the pressure off, I could go back to playing poker!

In the meantime, the player who earlier had mistakenly raised to 76,000, had lost almost all of his chips in an all-in confrontation.  He had proceeded to double up twice as a huge underdog.  Once he doubled with A-8 against A-Q, and then he doubled up with A-K against A-A when the board came Q-Q-10-J-3.  With the blinds at 5,000/10,000/10,000, he pushed all-in a third time for 80,000 from the UTG+4 seat.  I looked down at 10♠ 10♣ in the CO seat, I called, and everyone else folded.  He showed J♥ 9♥ and I was 70% to score the knockout.  Unfortunately, the board came J♠ 5♥ 8♦ J♣ 9♦ to give my opponent a full house, and drop my chipstack to 86,000.

With only 8BBs in my stack, I needed to make a move.  The next hand, the UTG player limped in for 10,000, and I looked down at A♦ Q♠ in the UTG+3 seat.  I pushed all-in and everyone folded to boost my stack back up to 121,000.  We went to our second break of the day at this point.  Since we were returning to Level 17 with the blinds at 6,000/12,000/12,000, I was still only going to have 10BBs, and I would need to make a move soon.  After going through the blinds once, I was down to 91,000 chips and getting desperate.  I folded a lot of junk until my BB came around again.  The player in the UTG+3 seat raised to 24,000, and I looked down at A♠ 9♠.  Since I was paying the ante and the BB, my all-in was only for 79,000.  I couldn't believe my good fortune when the raiser folded, allowing me to boost my stack back up to 145,000 without a showdown!

After passing through the blinds again, my stack dropped back down to 115,000.  To make matters worse, the blinds went up again to 8,000/16,000/16,000 to reduce my stack to 7BBs.  I was desperate again, and I decided to jam all-in from UTG+4 with 9♥ 8♥.  The player in the CO called with A♦ K♦, and I was only 38% likely to continue my tournament.  Luckily for me, the board came 9♦ 5♠ 4♣ 6♠ 9♠ to score me a double up to 270,000, my tournament high to this point!

Right before the break, I received a little bit of a shock when I looked over my shoulder at the rest of the orange section (my table was at the edge of the orange section).  The section of 50 or so poker tables that was full of players when I sat down earlier that day was now almost completely populated by empty tables!  There were only about six tables left playing in the entire section!  I looked at the tournament board and saw that only around 550 players were left, guaranteeing me a cash of at least $1,130!  My stack was 230,000 as went on our last break of the day.  During the break, I spotted David Valdez standing by himself, so I walked over to introduce myself.  David is a shark at Stones Gambling Hall, where he seems to make every major final table.  I've seen him win over $30,000 for winning tournaments there on more than one occasion.  We chatted for a few minutes, and he told me that he had around 1.2 million chips.  Yikes!

We returned from the break with the blinds at 10,000/20,000/20,000, so yet again I was short and needing a double up.  The blinds passed me again as I tried to find a hand good enough to jam.  In the meantime, the young Indian guy had lost two massive pots, one to Max Steinberg, and he was almost as short stacked as me.  From the LJ seat, I looked down at A♣ 9♦, and I pushed all-in for 180,000.  The Indian guy was in the BB and he looked pained after looking at his hand.  He finally called with K♥ J♠, leaving himself only 15,000 chips behind.  I was 58% likely to double up, which left a 42% likelihood that I was be eliminated.  The board came A♦ 7♠ 5♥ 8♥ 6♠ to give me a straight and doubled me up to 390,000!  The Indian guy was eliminated the next hand, and the floor supervisor came over to break my table and give everyone a new seat assignment.

I was moved to table 476, on the rail in the purple section, seat 6.  I was surprised to see David Valdez was immediately on my left.  He and the player to his left both had easily over a million chips.  While I was at the table, I saw David win a large pot with 8-4 after raising from the SB and flopping two pair.  I also saw him bluff raise on the river for 400,000, and fold to a jam.  Dude definitely played with zero fear!  I never even ended up playing a hand at this table.  The most notable thing that happened was the tournament organizers pausing the tournament for a half hour while they tried to figure out what had happened to a player that was eliminated and had disappeared without getting a slip of paper with his tournament finishing position on it.  When players are eliminated in the money,  they are supposed to stand at the table until someone hands them the slip of paper, which they can then use to claim their payout.  Finally, they found the guy and the tournament was allowed to continue.

Shortly after that fiasco, the floor supervisor came to the table again and broke our table.  My new assignment was table 458, seat 9, which was near the middle of the purple section.  A large pot was in progress on the river, and the player in seat 10 had just moved all-in.  The board was K♦ 8♥ 4♣ 10♠ 5♥.  The player in seat 1 was thinking and finally called for his last chips with A♥ A♦.  The player in seat 10 showed 7♦ 6♦, for a rivered straight to score the knockout.  Someone commented that he hit an inside straight, and he replied that he had a double gutter (a 9 or a 5 would have given him the straight), and was never folding when it was obvious that his opponent had a big hand.  I found out shortly afterwards that he was Anthony Marquez, and he had a WSOP bracelet on his resume, which he enjoyed reminding us all about every chance that he got.  He had around two million chips as well, good for the biggest stack at our table, so I had no plans to mess with him.

We hit the last level of the night, Level 20 with blinds of 10,000/25,000/25,000, a few minutes later.  A new player was moved to the table in seat 6, and he proceeded to raise to 100,000 on the first hand he was dealt.  The player in the BB called, and the flop came A♣ K♠ Q♦.  The new player shoved all-in for his last 300,000, and the BB folded.  The winner showed 9♥ 8♥, which did not exactly endear him to the table.  A few minutes later, he raised to 50,000 UTG, and the player to his right called.  I was in the UTG+4 seat and looked down at A♠ K♣.  I pushed all-in for 300,000, and it folded to the initial raiser.  He called fairly quickly and immediately flipped over A♥ 10♣.  The table erupted, reminding him that there was still a player yet to act, and the floor was called.  The UTG+1 player looked miserable, saying "How much more (chips) do you have" to the A-10 player.  He finally folded, saying "I can't believe I'm still folding", and later admitted to having a pair larger than sixes (probably eights or nines).  The board ran out A♣ 3♦ 2♠ 4♦ 4♥, and I more than doubled up to 710,000!  The player who revealed his hand was given a one round penalty by the floor supervisor, meaning that he had to spend the next ten hands in the spectator area while his stack was blinded down.  He would be eliminated shortly after returning.

I would end up going through the blinds twice before the end of the night.  The very last hand of the night, I was dealt 2♦ 2♣ in the SB and it folded to me.  I really should have raised this hand, but I had already mentally bagged my chips for the night, and I didn't want to face a raise from Anthony, who was in the BB.  So I folded, and bagged up 590,000 chips.  It was a surreal feeling to be bagging chips again, knowing that now I was going to be planning another trip to Las Vegas to play Day 3 on the following Wednesday.  What's more, I saw the tournament board before leaving the room, and I saw that out of the 6,095 players in my flight, and 1,580 that made Day 2, only 316 of us were advancing to Day 3!  I walked out of the Amazon room at 3:45AM and caught an Uber back to the Stratosphere to get some sleep.  I was so jazzed that I couldn't get to sleep until after 5:00, and I only slept until 8:00.

Now with a free Saturday in Las Vegas I returned to the Rio to rail for my Uncle Mick, who was playing the third flight of the tournament.  He was doing pretty well for much of the day, but he ended up busting out in Level 8, shortly before the dinner break.  I ended up heading back to the Stratosphere early and going to bed, since I had a 6:00AM flight home on Sunday.  On the flight home, I ended up sitting next to another player that had played the Big 50 and busted on Day 1, so we passed the time talking poker.

I didn't like staying at the Stratosphere too much, because it was so isolated from everything, so I got a room at Harrah's on the strip for my return trip.  I also found a flight back out to Vegas for only $44, but it landed at midnight on Tuesday night.  I returned to the Rio on Wednesday morning for the 11:00AM start, and found my seat assignment, table 103. seat 3.  Unfortunately, this meant that I would be the BB on my second hand, and with the blinds at 15,000/30,000/30,000, that was no small thing.  The schedule called for 12 levels of play on Day 3.  Since the blinds to start Day 4 would be 250,000/500,000/500,000, I knew that I had to get my hands on some serious chips to make a deep run in the tournament!

The tournament ended up with 28,371 players (across all four starting flights) with a total of 1,597 advancing to Day 3, with a guaranteed payout of at least $1,600!  1st place was over $1,100,000!  I had researched the players at my table, and saw that I was the only player with no documented live poker history.  Several of the players had large tournament wins and other large cashes.  Also, for the first time, we had nine players at our table instead of the ten players of the first two days.  Anyway, I was dealt trash the first two hands at the table and I had to fold my BB to an all-in on the second hand.

My third hand at the table, the player in the LJ seat (Aaron Valencia) raised to 85,000, and I looked down at A♣ K♥ in the SB.  With only 18BBs, it is a fistpump shove, and I raised all-in.  Unfortunately for me, he called with A♠ A♦.  This left me with only a 7% chance to survive and the board ran out 10♦ 6♣ 2♣ 8♠ Q♥.  I was out in 1,566th place, with a cash of $1,600.  I was really bummed about busting so quickly after planning a second trip out, but I had no problem with my play.  If I was going to give myself a shot at a deep run, I have to take those kind of chances.  It just didn't work out that time.  Overall it was an amazing experience, and I had an absolute blast!  I can't wait until I have an opportunity to do it again!