Borgata Final Thoughts

I’m very happy with how I played. I was a short stack for virtually the entire tournament. I picked up aces just once the whole time and kings just once. Even though I was playing so tight it seemed like I got reraised every time I went for a steal. I just kept running into big hands. I deliberately avoided raising in late position without a hand for fear of getting bluff-reraised but I never picked up anything legitimate to raise with anyways. I went five hours the last day without seeing a pair bigger than tens. I managed to outlast 80% of the field due to one big suckout and a lot of stolen pots. The big suckout was when I moved all in over the top of an aggressive player’s raise and a loose player’s call with K9. The aggressive player had QQ but I rivered a king. After that it was just constant grinding. Each of the following moves helped keep my head above water:

· Raising a bigstacked limper huge with 94o and then making a big bet on the AKJ flop when checked to
· Checkraising a tight early position limper with 75o in the SB after an A94 flop
· Check-calling a limper’s bet with 32o in the SB after an A4J flop, then betting on the river with the antinut
· Betting with 67s on a T22 rainbow flop after calling a raise and getting checked to by the preflop raiser, who folded AK face up
· Moving all-in with Q5o in the SB after a late position raise

Eventually I decided to gamble in a huge three way pot with jack-ten of hearts. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it takes a freight train to get me to fold JTs before the flop and in this case I didn’t fold it for 13 big blinds which was half my stack. If I’d won the pot I’d have been in position to make a real run but as it was I got my money in far worse than I thought. One of my opponents had JJ which was very hard to put him on based on how he played it. The other had A8 and I went broke after the flop came QT9 and I happily called the second half of my chips.

Overall I was really pleased with the tournament structure and venue. It was the finest tournament I’ve ever been a part of. I think I gained a lot of confidence and also learned a few more moves to add to the repertoire. I also saw perhaps the most amazing hand I’ve ever seen:

With blinds at 600-1200 Steve Brecher raises to 4000 in first position. He gets three callers including the big blind. The flop comes J64 rainbow and everyone checks. The turn is the Kc (the second club), the BB checks, Brecher bets 7k, the other callers fold, and the BB thinks for a minute before calling. The river is an offsuit jack. The BB thinks for about twenty seconds and then moves in for over 20k. Brecher has 20k left. He studies for about two minutes and then calls and turns over AhTh! The big blind was indeed bluffing with 6c5c but Brecher couldn’t beat this particular bluff and was sent home. Incredible hand.

Next it’s up to NYC for about a week and then back to AC for the US Poker Championship at the Taj.