BELLAGIO FIVE-DIAMOND CLASSIC (TUESDAY)

Day two was short and not very sweet. Mark Mache was the big stack at the table with close to $90k. There was another big stack, then a slew of people right around $45k, including me. There were only two short stacks. Eugene Katchalov was to my right, and when he raised in late position, I called on the button with A6, intending to take it down if he missed the flop, which he did. This brought me up to around $45k and it was time to tighten up.

My next play was arguably the worst of my poker career. I hate to even divulge it, but in the interest of full disclosure, I will describe what thoughts were going through my head. I was in seat 1; in seat eight, there was an old, Asian lady wearing a WPT jacket on a stack smaller than mine. Facing an $800 call with $2200 in the pot to begin, she bumped it up from early position to $5500. I thought this was a ridiculous bet if she had a hand that wanted action. I looked down at KQ, which should have been an automatic fold. But I had position on her, and her bet made me think she was holding a middle pair, possibly AK. I decided to take a flop to see if she would give up rather than risk going broke. Mind you, this is an old, Asian lady wearing a jacket that she bought in the foyer. Asians in general, to stereotype (which helps), have a lot of gamble in them. I could see her making a huge play with a pair of eights, figuring to steal the blinds from early position. The fact that she was wearing the logo jacket suggested to me that she was just happy to be here, probably playing in her first major event. The fact that she had fewer chips than me suggested that she is playing to survive, avoiding big pots. Lastly, the fact that she is older, suggested that despite the Asian gamble in her, there is likely a conservativeness that would keep her from gambling off all her chips to a bigger stack.

So all that is going through my mind as I flat call the huge raise. The flop came 542 with two hearts. She lead out $3k, which was a weak bet. I could have tried to make a move at the pot there, but holding a heart, I was willing to see if a K, Q, or heart came on the turn to help me out. The turn was the 4d. This time she checked to me. Another tough decision. I could have taken the free card and maybe hit one of my cards to beat her middle pair, but I decided to show strength, which was in line with how I had played the hand up to then. It was safe to assume that I had a pair of jacks or so, so I fired $10k at the pot, hoping she would abandon her hand in the case it was unpaired. She came back all-in, which caught me by surprise. It was only another $9k. I could have called for the pot odds, but since she knew that, she must really be sure she was on a winner. I did not want to donate $9k additional, so I gave up. I still think she had a middle pair, but with that crummy low board, she couldn't see that her 88 or 99 was possibly no good. On the one hand, I am not happy having lost half my stack on KQ, but on the other, I feel that to win a tournament, I have to get chips, and when the cards don't cooperate, then I must make plays during the course of the event. I tried my best here, but it didn't work out. A different board would have made it much easier for me to get her off her hand, so I was unlucky that the common cards didn't co-conspire on my bluff. I was down under $25k now, which was nearing the red zone.

Paying $2200 a round with blinds going nowhere but up, I determined I would play small stack strategy and look for a good hand to possibly double up with. I got AKd under the gun, and limped in with the intention of reraising a raiser all-in. Any raiser is going to have a pair, so I just have to hope it is not aces or kings. I got the raise, and I moved in. He was a big stack, so he called with his QQ and it held up to knock me out. Sure, I could have lasted longer, but I'm not dissatisfied with going out that way. Needing to double up, I got all my money in on a coin flip with some added fold equity, since I was the aggressor. It sure beats having the money in with KK v AA. I am more upset with the hand before, in which I needlessly became a short stack. I could have just quietly folded and gone about my business with a lot of day left to play.

Oh well, Sklansky says to push the small advantages when you don't feel you are the most skilled player in the tournament. There is no hope for me in a WPT event as a small stack, so I feel it is worth going broke on a coin flip, trying to get my stack up to average-sized. I just wish the old Asian ladies would stick to the stereotype and play accordingly.

I can't even describe the feeling of disappointment getting knocked out of an event like this. I am hoping that I will ultimately play so many of them, that it will be easier to take. I did make sure I won and lost like a gentleman. I did not celebrate when the fourth club knocked Tobey out of the tournament yesterday. I shook his hand and told him just to think of it as the better hand holding up so it wouldn't sting as bad. When I was knocked out, I shook the gentleman's hand and wished him luck. Phil Laak was looking on, and I wondered what he thought of my play other than he wished he was getting the chips. If my primary goal was survival, then it was not a good play; but as I've admitted, my primary goal was doubling up, and I can't wait all day for aces that may not come, so all things considered, I gave myself a decent shot at doubling there and it just didn't work out. I moved on to the cash game and recouped $300.