After 2 hours of playing like the sissiest of sissies (or having cards like the crappiest of crap, depending on how you want to look at it), I blinded down to a pathetic 1900 chips, just barely enough to pay the blinds and still have some fold equity. Then comes the almost-worse-than-death disaster: On my big blind, an even shorter stack pushes into me. He doesn’t really have enough chips that I need to look at my cards, but with KQ in my hand I would have called a bigger bet anyway. Sadly he has AQ and I’m dominated. But then a King on the flop looks like it gives me a tiny bit of revenge for last year’s 800,000 chip catastrophe in the main event (when my AQ lost to an opponent’s KQ) but my revenge is short lived as an Ace hits on the Turn, and I’m knocked down to a sniveling, scum-sucking 1200 chips with the blinds at 150-300. You’d think that would mean all fold equity is out the window, but a few hands later I stick it in and the big blind shows his 4-2-offsuit as he folds. The blinds pass through me and I’m back to 1200. I never picked up a tolerable hand or even a situation where I could get my chips in first until I looked down at A-Q-diamonds, which looked like a goldmine until the tight player after me re-raised all-in for like a thousand times the size of my stack. OK, well maybe he’s isolating with JJ or something, though it doesn’t really seem like his style. Indeed not, he turns over AA, and I’m in the worst shape possible - he’s a 7:1 favorite to knock me out. The flop is not too bad though - two diamonds and a Queen - and the turn seals it with a third diamond, giving me an unbeatable nut flush. I double up to 3000 and I’m back to having only one foot in the grave.
I started writing this post at the table right after cracking the Aces, but sadly I am finishing it from my hotel room. Twenty minutes after the Aces, I picked up what I thought was a good re-stealing opportunity when an active player raised my big blind and I re-shoved with T-9-suited. He thought for a long time and I thought I’d pick up the pot, but in the end he called with A-Q, two Queens on the flop made him about a 95% favorite, and even Luckbox Larry has his limits.
2720 players, I’m out around 800th place after 6 hours. Zero for Four in the 2008 World Series. Barring a miracle I probably won’t play another event for a week - there’s another $1500 event next Saturday.
-huge
AG O Nee!