WPT STAGE 2

I haven't been playing many qualifying tournaments lately, but yesterday I entered a WPT Stage 2 event with 16 runners, which offered one ticket to this Saturday's Stage 3 and some cash for second place. I haven't completely given up on the notion of playing in the December WPT event, but it has been nearly impossible to aggressively pursue it due to the kids' soccer games on Saturdays when the Stage 3 events are running.

At the final table, I kept getting the lead, then losing races, then getting the lead back, losing races, and on and on. This was prime dudeseeg and not that scrub who sometimes plays under my name. I really don't think I made one wrong move the entire tournament. I was focused, patient, and aggressive when opportune. It got to heads up and roughly even in chips, here was the killer hand:

He was raising preflop every hand, and I played 98d. The flop came QT7 with two diamonds. He bet into me the minimum $600. I am likely not in the lead, but I've got the open-ended and flush draw, so I'm willing to get all my chips in with cards to come, as I am very likely the favorite at this point. I didn't go all in, but I raised to $1800 not minding a call. He called and the turn came J giving me the butt straight. I was now only worried about AK but even then I've got the diamond draw. The only hand that he could hold that was instant death was of course the one that he did hold: AKd.

I can't really fault going all in there heads up, this was simply a cooler hand that demands I go broke. There is no way I could have played the hand without going broke, unless of course I had folded preflop, which would have been way too tight. I made some money but got no ticket.