Good Spots, Lucky Flops, and Winning Pots at WPT Bellagio (Part I)

Posted on January 26, 2010 
Filed Under General

In December I was fortunate enough to have a final table finish at the $550 WPT Bellagio event, but the road to get there was full of ups and downs. There were moments in the tournament where I felt unstoppable, and then that was quickly washed away by a defeating blow to my chip stack where I would have to rebuild. When I got to the money I was chip leader for the tournament, and I was feeling pretty good about my chances of taking it down. Overall, I made some great plays, some bad plays, and got lucky when I needed to. In the end, the only thing standing in my way was nine other players including Allen Cunningham.

The day began with six hours of sleep, McDonalds breakfast, and lots of coffee. Two of my other poker buddies had convinced me to skip the review for my final exam and play the tournament instead. I’m sure they knew it wouldn’t be hard for me to turn down school for poker. When the tournament began, the room was filled and pros were scattered everywhere. I hit an early rush of cards and was playing really aggressively in the first few rounds. One of the young guys at my table was convinced that I was bluffing every time which allowed me to eventually trap him when I got pocket aces. I continued my aggressive style until other players started to play back at me. At this point it was time for me to switch gears.

In the first few levels of the antes I slowed down my play significantly. This was probably a mistake since this is a crucial time to pick up extra chips with the antes while still having a fair amount of fish on the table. However, I wasn’t getting cards and a few of the players were determined not to let me run them over anymore. Little by little I dwindled down until I started catching cards again.

When I started getting some breathing room with tightening my play and getting decent starting hands, this was about the time where the short stacks were making moves every chance they got. I lost a huge portion of my chip stack when I put a short stack in with my AK vs. AQ. Same guy doubled off of me again when he cracked my KK with his QQ. Then I tried to put pressure on the blinds (both short stacks) from the button by putting them both all in. The small blind called and the big blind folded. I turned over Js 7d thinking I was completely dominated. He showed 7c 3c. The runner runner clubs gave him the win he needed to double up.

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