On to Day 3 … Bubble Day!
6358 entered this year and 631 were going to get paid. We started this third day with around 800 people so we knew it wouldn’t be too long until we reached the bubble. My table draw was a good one. No one had a huge chip stack. It was a friendly table without a lot of bullying. I was pretty card dead early. A killer hand for me again was JJ. I got this under the gun twice on this trip and it hurt me each time. Last time, at least, I had a horrible flop and easily got away from it. This time, I raised the usual amount only to have one of the blinds reraise me. I should learn to fold this damn hand then if I suspect I’m up against a bigger pair. I did suspect this. And when the flop came 9 7 3, I mucked right away when he led out with a sizable bet. So at least I made a good laydown. (He stated later that he had had Kings - Whew!).
I was stung though and found my chips dwindling into dangerous territory. I had about 55,000 when we neared the bubble. The way they did the bubble this year was pathetic. Last year, when we got close, they played one orbit at every table then waited until every table finished those nine hands. This year, they literally played it one hand at a time. This took FOREVER. We started this when about 650 people were still left. Hand for hand lasted for over two hours (and we played only about 15 hands). Yes, two hours! There were like 10 minutes per hand, just waiting and waiting. I’m sure they did this for TV reasons, as ESPN was running cameras and microphones all over the room to catch each bust-out chance. So it was boring and tedious to be there, but will likely make for some entertaining television. I believe one guy busted out on the bubble with AA against AQ. QQ flop, I think. Since my stack was so short, I decided it wouldn’t be worth risking a whole lot of chips this close to the money. I really didn’t have much in the way of hands, but I might have played things differently under more normal conditions. We finally broke the bubble at around 5:00 pm which guaranteed those left a payout of over $20,000. However, I was terribly short now at 36,000.
Fortunately, I got AK suited shortly thereafter and went all-in. I got called by KJ (a bad call, but I appreciated the courtesy double-up). Then I went on a tear. I was able to build up my stack to about 90K. I lost some later when I raised my TT only to see an A K Q flop – not good for pocket tens. I made some more chips when it was folded to me in the SB. I looked down at A Q suited. The BB (who incidentally finished 2nd to Stu Ungar in this event many years ago) called my 3 times raise to 12,000. The flop came T T 3. I checked. He bet 20,000 chips. It must have been instincts – 'cause I didn’t really plan this out – but I quickly blurted “I’m all-in” check raising him. He immediately mucked his hand. That got me to a more healthy stack of 127,000 – still far below average.
With the blinds up to 2500/5000 and antes of 500, the pot before any action had 12,000. I had dripped down to about 75,000 and knew I’d have to make a move soon. A new guy had recently come to our table and made many raises, taking down several pots. He made yet another raise from early position. The guy next to him pondered, then just called. It came around to me on the button. I thought this would be a good spot to make an all-in squeeze play. I figured I still had enough chips to get some fold-equity. Plus, if this loose raiser was worried about the guy behind him (or had a sub-optimal raising hand), he might not be willing to play on. I decided that if I had anything decent, I would push in. I looked to see QT suited. That was good enough, so I made the move. Unfortunately, the “loose” raiser had Kings this time. He pushed in and the two of us hit the flop. I got a great flop of 3 9 J giving me an open-ender. The ten on the turn didn’t really help much. I had only 9 outs on the river and didn’t get lucky this time. In looking back at the hand, I think it was a valiant attempt at the squeeze, and I’d do it again. If the loose raiser had Ax or a small to medium pair, my move works great. Not so good against Kings!!!
So that’s how it ended. A good run, and like last year, a blast! Final position was 455th place - good for $29,883. That should pay for the next two years!! And if I keep improving my position by 100 places or so, it won’t be long ‘til I’m at the final table.
Hope this gives you a feel for what it’s like at this great event and that you enjoyed the lengthy histories.
Jeff
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