On to the Final Table

It was quite the ride. I won some big pots and lost some big pots, but was never in grave danger of going broke until there were 10 players left. Previously, with 12 players left I didn’t play a hand for four full rounds. Typically, at a 6 handed table I’d play at least 2 hands per round. I just didn’t get any good situations and I wasn’t about to push it. It saw my stack dip to just under 200,000 for the 10 handed final table. The very first hand I played at the final table, Chad Brown made it 17,000 from late position. I was on the button with 88 and Chad was one of the shorter stacks, but I decided to see a flop first before committing to the hand. Also, I didn’t want to risk running into a monster hand if one of the blinds woke up with something big. The flop came 10c 9d 2c and Chad bet 19,000. He only had 57,000 more after that so I was faced with a pretty tough decision. I could literally consider either folding, calling, or raising. Something about his bet seemed as though he has something strong. Whether that was a draw or a hand I wasn’t sure yet. After a long pause I called the 19,000. The turn came the 3d and Chad moved in with no hesitation. I looked over at him, and he really didn’t look nervous at all. It felt to me that I walked into an over pair. I folded the hand and feel like I many have saved myself 57,000 by playing the hand this way. Either that, or I got bluffed pretty badly! The loss of that pot put me at the bottom of the totem pole with 140,000. I tried to inch my way back into contention and was able to pick up a pot and get back to about 170,000. Then, the very next hand I raised from middle position with Q-10. The binds were 4000-8000 with a 1000 ante and I decided to make it 20,000, just like I did the last hand. The big blind, a 27 year old “whiz kid” named Brandon Adams started at me intently when I raised, and defended his big blind. The flop came Qh 8d 4h. Brandon checked, and I made a “weak” bet of 20,000 in the hopes that I might get Brandon to bluff at the pot. Brandon IMMEDIATELY fired out an all in raise and so while I got him to do what I was hoping for, I was now considering folding??? I talked my way through the hand, “There are two hands that worry me… K-Q worries me. Hey, even Q-J worries me.” My whole tournament was on the line and I really couldn’t beat much. So I went back into my “hand history” that I have logged in my brain and remember that Brandon bluffed me off a pot earlier in the day with 22 on an A 8 J 5 Q board. He showed the bluff, and it totally changed my read on him. I had him pegged as a “clean cut” straight shooter. That hand let me know that he had a lot of guts, and certainly didn’t need to have a hand to make a play at me. I looked over at him and finally said, “I just don’t believe you got it man,” and called with my tournament life at stake. He had Q-7! I won that pot and was at my high point of 350,000+. A few hands later the tightest player at the table went all in under the gun for 46,000. I was in the big blind for 8000 with the Ad 5d. I had to call 38,000 more to win 68,000, or not quite 2-1 which I felt I needed to have to make the call. Finally, though, I realized that he might just be getting desperate and had to factor in the fact that he may even have king high. I called, and he turned over K-7! The flop was 10s 4d 2s, the turn was a 2, and the river was a King! The King of diamonds 🙂 I ended the day in second chip position with 410,000 and will have immediate position on the chip leader who has 480,000. Tomorrow’s final table starts at 2:00pm “Tunica time” and after the tournament I’ll be packing my bags and heading to the next stop: the Borgata in Atlantic City. *************************************************************** The guys over at FCP have decided to do a promotion relating to my results in this event. I’ll just copy and paste the promotion below. If you don’t like free money, stop reading here.
FCP Money Added Tourney to Share in Daniel’s Success We thought we would let the FCP poker players share in Daniel’s success in Tunica and also have a rooting interest in how well Daniel does so we’re going to have a $10 + $1 MTT on Sat Feb 4th in the Evening EST. We’ll decide on the exact start time in the next day or so. The twist in this tournament is that the better Daniel does the more money that FCP will be adding to the tournament. 9th $1000
8th $1250
7th $1500
6th $1750
5th $2000
4th $2250
3rd $2500
2nd $3000
1st $5000 So if Daniel wins on Friday FCP will be adding $5,000 to the prize pool. This tournament will only be able to be played through Full Contact Poker and will present a great value to all of the real money FCP players or those looking for an excuse to make their first deposit and play at FCP. ]]>