WPT North American Championship - 25th place - $48,633

I was eliminated in 25th place out of 504 entrants in this year's WPT NAPC. I did a CardPlayer TV interview at the end of Day 2, you can watch it here: http://www.cardplayer.com/tv/29164

I was so close to the making the final table again, I could smell it! Day 2 was pretty uneventful and I ended the day with just over $180,000 in chips. On Day 3 I started around the middle of the pack. My table looked pretty good, I had a massive fish one spot to my left, and Jean-Robert Bellande, who you might remember from 'Survivor: China', one spot to his left. Joe Cassidy was on my right, along with a couple of online players.

In his first hand at the table, Cassidy lost a monster pot against the fish. They were the 2 chip leaders at the time, and Cassidy was knocked out of the tournament. It was an interesting hand and I'm sure Joe wishes he had played it differently. This gave the fish a ridiculous $900,000 stack with the blinds at $1500/$3000. A few hands later, he calls a $160,000 push pre-flop with AT off. His comment right before calling was classic, "Easy come, easy go". I looked over at Jean-Robert and one of the other strong players at the table and we basically said with our eyes, "omg, save some chips for us!".

Then an interesting hand came up against Jean-Robert. I had around $220,000 with the blinds at $1500/$3000. I raised it up to $10,000 in the hijack with T9hh. JR re-raises on the button to $25,000. It folds around to me, I call $15,000 more. The flop comes J94 with one heart. I check, and he checks behind. I'm now pretty sure he has AK or AQ, and I plan on firing on the turn as long as its not an A, K or Q. The turn is a 6, but it put two hearts on the board, giving me a flush draw to go with my pair. Now I'm a huge favourite to win the hand, and I don't really want to push him away anymore. Also, if he somehow slow played a big hand and I get raised big here, I would be in a sick spot, and I hate calling big bets on the turn with a draw. So I checked, and as I expected, he checked behind again. He thinks his AK is still good at this point. The river is another 9, giving me trips. Now I try to figure out how to get paid off here. There is around $60,000 in the pot, and I decided to bet $65,000. He knows I know he has AK, he even says it out loud. Then he says, "That's too big of a bet with a Jack, and why would you check a 9 twice, that doesn't make any sense." In my head, I replied, "Because I turned a flush draw to go with it". After 5 minutes of thought, he said "Ugh this makes no sense, maybe you have AA. Nice bluff.", and reluctantly folded his hand. He made a great fold, but I could tell it was really eating him up to know what I had.

Next orbit, I raise to $10,000 and he re-raised me again, to $30,000 this time. I had 85 offsuit, so I folded, and he tried to needle me by giving me the thumbs up and saying I made a great fold. A few hands later, I raise again, but this time I have AA. I make it $10,000 and JR re-raises it to $30,000. If there is any feeling in poker that is better than raising with AA and getting re-raised, I'm not aware of it. It comes back to me, and I mull it over for about 15 seconds. I then ask, "How much do you have behind?" He counts it out and it's another $120,000 after his raise. I think for around a minute, and I announce, "I'm all in". He gets out of his chair and starts to ask what I have. "Do you have Ace King?" I sit emotionless, and just pray he calls me. I'm careful not to give off any tells, even fake tells, because he seems to be very good at picking up on them. I acted a bit nervous on the previous hand after my bet on the river, and I think he picked up on it a bit and factored it into his decision. So this time I was still as a statue. He finally says, "I folded the best hand once, I'm not going to fold the best hand again". He says "Ok, I call." He turns up pocket Queens and I show my Aces. He doesn't hit a Queen and my hand holds up to eliminate him from the tournament.

I then pull another big semi-bluff against the fish to boost me up to $660,000. Then came an interesting hand against this young player named Scott "SCTrojans" Freeman. Apparently he's played in 3 million online tournaments this year or something like that. Anyways, he plays like the typical online player, aggressive. We are 7 handed, and he opens UTG for $16,000 at $3000/$6000 blinds. It folds to me in the BB and I look down at Ad8d. I look over at his stack and I can see he has under $100,000. Also, the most important factor is that we are ONE player away from moving up another $15,000 in prize money. There are 37 players left, and 37th place pays $19,453. 36th place pays $34,043. So, in theory, this guy needs a monster hand to call me. I re-raise him to $55,000 and he moves all in. I ask how much he has and it's like $85,000 total or something like that, so around $30,000 more into a $150,000 pot. I call, and he shows KK, so I have 3 outs. I flop a flush draw which now gives me 12 outs to win, and I hit my flush on the turn to knock him out of the tournament.

After dinner break, I had $760,000 which put me in 2nd or 3rd place at the time. I was feeling really good about my chances to make the final table again. We had new tables after dinner, and my new table had Barry Greenstein on it. I was hoping to get another signed copy of his book, but it was not to be. I played in a couple of pots and missed the board every time, and I was down to around $600,000 when our table broke. The new table was suicide, it had Bill Gazes, Scott Clements, Jonathon Little, and a couple of other players I don't remember. The point is, we had like 50% of the chips in play at our table. The blinds were $4000/$8000. I raised twice to $25,000, once with AK, and once with AQ, and I missed both times. I lost some blinds and antes, and all of a sudden I was down to $500,000.

Then came another big hand, which essentially crippled me. It folds to Scott Clements, who has been opening a lot of pots, and he raises to $25,000 in the cut-off. Little folds, and I look down at AhQh in the small blind. I'm like 95% sure my hand is better than Clements', and I bump it up to $100,000. To my dismay, the supertight big blind immediately moves all in for ~$500,000. Clements insta folds, and I quickly throw my cards face up into the muck. He flashes two red Kings to the table, no surprise. Now I'm down to around $400,000 but I'm still alive.

The very next orbit, I'm dealt JJ in the big blind. It folds around to the cut-off, who opens for $24,000. Scott Clements flat calls on the button. Jonathon Little peeks at his hole cards and instantly raises to $130,000. From his quick raise and big overbet, without even glancing at the other players' stacks, it led me to believe he had 2 possible holdings. AK or complete air. Both of which you would hate to take a flop out of position with. AA, KK, and QQ, you would look at the other players' stacks to try and get maximum extraction out of the hand, not just try and take down a pretty decent pot pre-flop. Also, it would be a good time to pull a squeeze play here, with the cut-off raising with a wide range of hands, and Clements calling on the button with an even wider range. As soon as I saw how big Little's re-raise was, I instantly moved all-in for $410,000. The only player I was slightly afraid of having a better hand with the cut-off. I already knew what Little was holding, and if the cut-off or Clements have QQ, they pretty much have to fold here. The cut-off folded quickly, as did Freeman. Little thinks for a few seconds, and asks for a count. He sees that its around $400,000, and he says "I have to call". He shows AK. The door card is the King of hearts, and just like that it was all over. The same King of hearts that crushed my hopes for a championship on the river in Monte Carlo a few months ago.

Right now I want to buy 1000 decks of cards, take out the King of hearts from each deck, crumple them up and rip them into hundreds of little pieces. Then take those little pieces and burn them.

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