Final Round

All night I folded QJ... primarily because it was always offsuited and I was in a bad position... and it's not really a great hand... but I kicked off round 5 with QJ suited one off the button and I called a raise with it. Then I called a reraise from the conservative woman. Then the flop came 8, 9, 4 rainbow, she bet big, and I had to fold.

Now I remember why I don't play QJ.

So I'm in the Big Blind and find myself facing a raise and KQ... so I call. Flop comes K, little, little rainbow. I bet, he calls. The turn is an Ace, which scares me, so I check... as does he. I then checked whatever the river was, he bet, and I check-raised and got a call - he had K 10.

And that's why you don't play bad hands, you get out-kicked on pairs you can't fold. Anyway, it was a much needed little pick me up fairly early on.

And then not a lot of action until... it came.

AK... big slick... my baby. Pair of diamonds.

So I get a raise from my right, I raise him one off the button, and the button raises me. The initial raiser folded, I obviously had to call. Flop comes J diamonds, 10 diamonds, Q hearts.

Yep, I flopped the nut straight... and had a runner runner diamond draw to my ace.

So I bet and he raises me. He raised me. I said I flopped the nut straight, right? So there's a good 20,000 in the pot now and I think about coming back over the top and shoving... I mean, I'm not going anywhere on this hand and if I can take down 20,000 and not let him draw to a third diamond, that's a good plan.

So I call, trying to lure him into putting more chips in the pot... in essence, I gamble a little because I'm greedy - a strategy that's worked terribly well for me all day. The turn is a queen. Hmmm... I could have actually handled a diamond because then I would be drawing to the nut flush on the river... but pairing the board? Well all that does is open him up to a full house and it does nothing for me. But it would be a long shot for him to have a boat here... right?

So I decide to trap him - I check.

He bets 10,000 and I shove all-in with 20,000 and I wait the longest 3 seconds of my life. If he had the boat, that's an insta-call for him and the longest it takes him to call is three seconds... but if he takes time to think about it, he doesn't have the boat.

One, two, three - no boat!!!

So now I'm counting the chips in the pot... nevermind that there's still a river to go, or that the second queen ruined my runner runner flush draw, and ignoring that he's debating whether or not to call me, I want to know how many chips I'm going to get.

This pot has obviously already been decided, I flopped the straight and it was the best hand after the flop. I figure he's got an over pair (Aces or Kings) - if he folds, I get $50K. If he doesn't fold, then there's a chance he hits a boat on the river and I'm knocked out, but otherwise I get $60K.

I'm rooting for the $50K option when he calls.

Ok, $60K it is.

He has Ace King.

Wait.

That's my hand.

Dammit... he has my hand! We both have the straight and we split the pot. All of that for nothing - we took our money back. My ace high straight, matched by his. Ugh... at the time he called, there was $61,400 in my pot... which left me with $30,700 after we split it.

If I would have shoved $20,000 on the turn without him first betting the $10,000, he might have folded - he said he was debating because of the second queen, but that I didn't have a big enough raise to chase him off. And interestingly enough, the river was a third queen, so if he actually had the big pair like I thought, he would have hit the full house and knocked me out. So... yay split I guess.

Anyway, that was some excitement with an hour and a half to go.

And then... nothing for like an hour. Just fold after fold, chips melting away through antes and blinds.

I was actually thinking that I hadn't had Aces or Kings the entire day and that the end of the final round might be a good time for them when I got... Big Slick suited. Hey, I'll take it.

So I three bet the guy that chased runner runner for his 5 high flush and scare everyone else out, he calls and we go to the flop. A 9 3 rainbow. Normally I'd be happy about a rainbow, but this guy turned a rainbow flop into a flush, so I wasn't taking any chances and bet $4,500 into a $7,000 pot and he folded.

Then, with about 20 or 30 minutes left, I got my aces! I three bet the guy to my right, everyone else folded, then he did too. How anti-climatic for the aces I waited nine and a half hours for.

I tried to defend my big blind with 10 8 offsuit and called a decent sized raise... the most likely outcome was also the actual outcome, a fold after I didn't hit a full house on the flop. At least I gave back half of what I got from my Aces defending my second to last blind of the evening from a group of players I'll never see again. Great, great move.

With about 12 minutes left, I got AK offsuit in a middle position and three bet someone's raise. He called and I got an A A 5 flop - a set of aces! So we both checked, I bet the 7 on the turn, he folded.

With 10 minutes left, they told us to play 6 more hands and call it a night. With 2 hands left, I was the small blind and announced before the hand was dealt that I would only play aces. So one of the guys that raised all night raises and I find kings. Sweet. I think. But I have to play in a big hand with only 2 hands to go in the night?

Ugh. If I don't play any hands I can be sure to make Day Two. But it's kings, so I raise. He folds, I win a couple thousand and fold the last hand.

Anyway, I finished Day One at 38,600. So... yay! It's not the greatest chip stack by any means, but it's enough... and I'm now 4 for 4 in getting out of Day One of the Main Event.

I'll start Wednesday at noon PT with a M Ratio of  32, and if I don't gain or lose any chips, would have an M Ratio of 24 heading into the second round, and 18 into the third round. So, basically, I'm probably going to be one of the shorter stacks at the table, but I'll be ok for the morning as long as I don't lose any big hands.

Day off tomorrow!