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In my previous article, I discussed three hands from the bubble stage of the PokerStars Guinness Book of World Records tournament. 35,000 players started, with an entry fee of $10+1. The following three hands took place in the later stages of the tournament.Hand #1
The blinds are 175/350 with a 45 ante. I started the hand with 10,205 in chips and am dealt K-8 of clubs on the button. It is folded to the small blind who limps, leaving himself with just 739 in chips. I figure I am ahead of or at least close to the range of hands that he would do this with. I raise to try and isolate the short stack limper and make it 1,050 to go. Unfortunately for me, the small blind wakes up with a hand and moves all in. Fortunately for me, however, is the fact that he is short stacked and only has 2,330 in chips. The limper calls his last 739. There is now over 5,400 in the pot and it is 1,280 for me to call. I am getting over 4:1 on my money and unless my opponent has Aces or Kings, I'm no where near that big of a dog. I know I'm behind, but the price I'm getting is too good. I call.
The short stack limper has A-6 of diamonds, so I was correct in my initial thinking. The small blind has a bad hand for me – Ace King. I'm going to need to get a little lucky if I am going to win this hand. The flop comes 10-2-2 not helping me any. The turn gives me a small sliver of hope as it is the 6 of clubs and gives me a flush draw. I don't hit a club on the river but I do get lucky and hit an 8 to take both players out. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, but my chip stack put me in a position to be able to get lucky here.
Hand #2
A problem many players make, especially new ones, is over valuing a hand. Too often, a player has patiently waited for a long time for a hand and when they finally get something that is worthy of being played they have a hard time folding it despite the action in front of them. This hand is a good illustration of having the discipline to lay down a hand despite how good it is.
The blinds were 250/500 with a 60 ante and I started the hand with 15,319 in chips. I am dealt pocket tens in the big blind. A solid player opens in early position to 1,500 and is re-raised to 4,000 by the button, another seemingly tight, solid player. The button has 7,600 left in chips after his raise so he is going to be committed to this hand no matter what the flop is. Odds are I'm likely behind so I am going to need to flop a set to win the pot, and I'm just not getting the right kind of odds to be making this kind of call, especially when it's 25% of my stack. Couple in the fact that another tight player has raised and is still left to act and it makes the hand an easy fold.
Hand #3
This last hand is my bust out hand and some people will probably debate whether I played this hand correctly. The blinds were 5,000/10,000 with a 1,250 ante and I had just over 90K in chips. I was in very early position and was dealt pocket kings. Normally in this situation, I'd just shove but 90K was just enough chips that it would get marginal hands that I didn't want to fold doing just that. My chip position was also not the best and I was willing to take a chance to accumulate some chips. If I was called, I was going to shove all in on any flop, even if an ace came. I raised to 30,000 and two players called, one player with 140K and the table big stack who had 320K.
The flop came Q-7-4 all clubs. I had the king of clubs, but as I mentioned earlier I was planning on moving all in regardless of what the flop was. The player with 140K folded but the big stack quickly called with A-8 of clubs. That's the hazard with just standard raising in this spot. If I had pushed there is a good chance he would have folded to the 90K bet, but I gave him the opportunity to see a flop in position with a suited ace. It's a bit of a loose call, and honestly it's one I wanted in that situation. Three times out of four there I am going to pick up a nice sized pot and put myself in a better position. One time out of four, my opponent is going to get lucky and eliminate me. That is what happened here. My finish was in the low 500's – not bad for a 35,000 person field, but I'm never satisfied unless I win.
Starting next week I am going to provide some reports of live play from Tunica as I play in the WSOP Circuit events there. *Editor’s Note: this article was posted after the WSOP Circuit events*
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