IMPALED

My game is good right now. I got myself righted after my bad streak last weekend. Today, I only played two events, but they were exciting. I got an email yesterday addressed "Dear WPT Player," which I don't mind being called. The email said that if I buy into the $25,000 WPT final event at Bellagio in April before February 22, then I will also be entered into the Celebrity Invitational event at Commerce in February. Wow, a freebie! There's no chance I'm buying my way into Bellagio, but if I try real hard, maybe I can win my way in and then get the added equity of the Commerce event. It's worth a try anyways.

So, every Saturday at 3P there is a qualifying tournament at PokerRoom for the Bellagio event. The cost is $650, which is a bit steep. A ticket is guaranteed, so even if there are fewer than 42 players, there is a ticket to be won, which makes for some added equity if that is the case. When I won my ticket to EPT Monaco, there were exactly 42 entrants in the qualifying event, which meant it was winner-take-all with no prize for second place.

At 2P, I joined a single-table satellite for $70. There were ten players and the winner gets a ticket to the $650 event. That table was filled with good players, but when I'm running good, I am tough to beat. I wound up winning the satellite and got my chance to play in the 3P Qualifier.

There were 30 players in the Qualifier, which meant we were playing winner-take-all poker. I started at a tough table, but I got cards right away and got some action from the weak link, who called down my KK with AQ all the way to the river with small cards on board. My starting stack of $3000 had doubled in level one and I was looking good, though it was still early. Sure beats being short-stacked though.

There was a player named IMPALER who kept drawing out on me. One hand that disturbed me was when I called a raise that had already been called twice, holding 54. It's one of those hands that can be golden if you manage to flop to it. If you miss, it's easy to get away from it. Well, the flop came A43, not great, but not horrible. IMPALER made kind of a weak bet, since there were several opponents. I was the only one who called, obviously looking for a 54 or 2 on the turn.

I got a four. I checked, and when he bet, I came back with a meaty raise. There's no way he can put me on a four, which was my intention, so he made the call, falling right into my trap. I was going to make a smallish bet on the river that he would be forced to call with AK, which apparently was what he had. The river was an ace, which brought the jukebox to a screeching halt. Of all the rotten luck. I checked, and he bet a very small amount. I just folded rather than paying it. I couldn't imagine that he could have anything other than an ace. I'm only happy with that river card if he had two aces in the hole, because then it actually saved me chips. Well, that's the danger of playing unorthodox hands. They might be ahead at some point in the hand, but they don't always hold up through the river.

My stack began to freefall, but I got some hands just as I was turning desperate, which got me turned around. I made the final table and was playing well, with chips to work with. It got three way with relatively equal stacks, then I went card dead for a long time. I folded my junk hands and was reraised off of my medium strength hands. I got desperate and went in a couple of times to steal the blinds, which worked, but is a temporary solution. The junk hands returned and I laid them down rather than risk getting called should I push. Finally I had to push all-in with Q8, since at least it is an above-average hand. I was called by KT, which held up, crippling me, making my elimination a formality.

On the very next hand, as I was sitting on a stack of $380 in the $2000 big blind, the poker gods delivered me pocket aces. Thank you, but where were you a minute ago? I survived that hand but was eliminated on the next, finishing third and making no money for the day's effort. IMPALER played the final table great. Even though the other guy got all my chips, IMPALER had been consistantly building his stack until he had about 65% of the chips. With me gone, he went to work on the other guy and earned himself a spot on Team PokerRoom.