[Fish On]

Day 4

More good news and bad news but I won’t extend the suspense. The bad news first, unfortunately I am out of the 2007 World Series of Poker main event. The good news is that I made it to another money level and made $45,422 when I busted out and I was also given an awesome going away present for my last couple of hours of play in the WSOP (see "Cool Ending" below).

Thanks for all the good luck wishes and support for my World Series run! I really appreciate it!

As everyone knows I came to day 4 with a very short stack. My M was about 6 (enough chips to survive 6 orbits around the table if I don’t play and win a hand) which means that I had to start playing very aggressively very soon. 337 players remained out of 6358 starting players. We started with 1 hour left in the previous day’s level, $3,000 and $6,000 blinds with a $1,000 ante. My day started in the cutoff seat, directly behind the dealer button which was very good for me since it meant that I would see 6 hands before I had to pay the big blind. After looking at bad cards for 2 orbits of the table I got QQ on the dealer button. Unfortunately all players had folded to me and when I raised both blinds folded. Boo. This was the only hand that I played at this table, but at least I picked up the blinds and antes.

Cool Ending: After playing almost all of the day’s next level and not seeing any opportunities to get my money in first with anything decent and not playing a hand, a player 2 to my right was knocked out in a big hand. Humberto Brenes was then moved to our table to fill the empty seat. This is the pro from Costa Rica that always has the little plastic shark on his chips and uses it to jokingly to intimidate other players. It’s really quite entertaining. If you watch any poker on TV you’ve seen this guy. He constantly addresses the audience saying things like, “Umberto have the best hand” and a very unique “ALL IN” with a big stand up and underhanded arms wave. When he raises he doesn’t say anything he just looks at the dealer and gives him a thumbs up and the dealer says “raising it up”. However in this case when Umberto’s table was broken and he drew the seat at my table vacated by the previous player Umberto did not show up. Instead the tournament director showed up with a bunch of chip racks in his hands. This is similar to what happens when it is your turn for your table to be broken and the players are given new seat assignments to fill in empty seats at other tables. But it wasn’t our turn for our table to be broken, so what is this guy doing? So I’m thinking to myself why is this guy here with chip racks and why don’t we have a player in that vacant seat yet? Then it hit me. No way! It can’t be! Before I could ask the question the tournament director started to speak and said, “dealer please stop play I’m going to explain to the players what is about to happen. Players, I’m going to ask you to all rack up your chips (took me a half a second to toss my 12 $5000 chips and 2 $1000 chips into my rack) and stay at your seat until all players are done (one player needed 6 or 7 racks for all his chips). Then I want you all to follow me together over to the ESPN feature table where we have relocated this table to join Umberto Brenes.” Holy hole cams Batman! I get moved to the spotlight table and I have $62,000 in chips and an M of less than 3. My big moment in the poker spotlight and I’m bringing a knife to a gun fight. Not only that but we are about 10 or 12 players away from the next money level which is another $6,000 in real money. Not that I needed any extra pressure, but what else can possibly happen. We finally get over to the feature table and by the time we receive the feature table instructions, get wired with microphones under our shirts, and fill out the personal information form so that Norman Chad (ESPN WSOP broadcaster) will know who we are and how to cut us down on national TV, there is only time for 1 hand before the level ends. So now I’m on a 20 minute break and I have time to call a few friends and share my trepidations about what is about to go down. Not only will my hole cards be revealed to the world through the hole cameras at each seat, but I have the added pressure of looking like a “donkey” (poker’s word for an idiot) on national TV if I screw up. Well turns out it actually wasn’t that bad and I really enjoyed the action and the experience. What a way to end my World Series of Poker! Thanks ESPN!

The feature table action: My first 6 or 7 hands or so were all rags (bad cards) and with the pressure of the next money bubble and wanting to have a good hand on TV I had not yet chosen the hand to make my move. My only move by the way at this point is “all in”. I do not have enough chips to do anything else with less than $60K and blinds at the $4,000/$8,000 with a $1,000 ante. Somewhere about the 2nd orbit or so I am on the button and the cutoff seat (seat to my right) who is also short stacked, open raises (everyone folded to him and he chose to play the hand) to $22,000. I look down at two tens. Excellent! I know the guy to my left is almost as desperate as I am and would likely raise this pot in his position with almost anything. After asking Umberto (he is 2 seats to my right) if I could borrow his shark for my big all in move (he told me he would let me use it while we were on break if he was not in the hand) and having him decide he doesn’t want to loan me any luck, I make my move “sharkless” and go “All in”! I should have borrowed his move in jest for not loaning me the shark by standing up with a big hand wave and a slow loud “All In” as he does but I just decided to “get er done” and I push my chips into the middle. Both blinds fold and the guy to my right, who must call the additional $25,000 or so because the odds for him are huge (almost 3 to 1 on his additional money), says in a foreign accent “this is very good for you” because he knows that to reraise him knowing that he must call that I must have a good hand and his hand is only marginal. We turn over our cards to reveal that I am a huge favorite with TT against his A5. The flop reveals a third ten and I instinctively give a big fist pump as I am way ahead and he must hit 2 cards to make a straight to beat me. Of course I immediately get a huge scare when the turn card is a picture card which gives him 4 outs (number of remaining cards in the deck that he can win the hand with) to a runner, runner (last 2 cards in a row) broadway straight (AKQJT). This instantly quiets the crowd and sends huge "bad beat" (being beaten on very long odds) chills up my spine which will be obvious on TV through the main camera which is pointed right in my face when the card is turned over. He needs a jack on the river to bust me and of course the dealer takes his sweet time (seemed like a hundred years) to put out the river card (last of the 5 cards). Well the river is a deuce giving me a full house and I have survived my first all in on ESPN and more than doubled up in the process! I am now up to over $100K again! Now I’m able to see a few more hands until I select the next hand that I will have to walk the gauntlet with. A few orbits later and after a couple of very exciting hands by other players where one player was knocked out and another player made a very nice all in raise and doubled up, I am under the gun (first seat to the left of the big blind and first to act preflop) and get dealt AK suited in clubs. Now this is considered by most players to be the 5th best possible starting hand in no limit hold em, directly behind AA, KK, QQ and JJ. I have just over $80,000 in chips and an M of less than 4. I have no equity in raising less than all of my chip stack because I must call any reraise. The only arguable point to not going "all in" and just raising is that it might represent more strength by signaling that I have a huge hand and that I am inviting action from another player which could make a marginal hand fold. But in this case my hand is so strong that I actually want a call. I need a call and I need to win the hand to more than double up to close to $200K. Well it folds around to you know who in the small blind and after thinking on it for about 30 seconds, you guessed it, Umberto Brenes calls my all in. The big blind folds and we reveal our cards to show that my suited AK is up against his pocket tens (pokernews.com misreported his hand as 77). This is a coin flip situation as he is a very, very slight favorite. The dealer puts our cards in the center of the table and Umberto pulls out his shark (it doubles as a flashlight with a red light shooting out of it’s mouth when he presses a button) and starts to make motions like his shark is eating my cards. Everyone is laughing but me. Moments later the dealer puts down the flop and Umberto hits a third ten. This spells doom for me and Umberto immediately erupts in celebration. There is 1 club in the flop and I have a remote draw at a runner, runner flush but the turn card (4th card) pairs the board giving Umberto a Full House and leaving me drawing dead (no way to win) on the river and my World Series of Poker is over!

Well I couldn’t have scripted a better ending short of me going on a monstrous run and taking down the whole tournament. I came in 257th place out of 6,358 players, made the next money level at $45,422, got some time at the ESPN feature table under the lights, microphones and cameras and got knocked out by a very well-known and likeable pro, Umberto Brenes. I don’t know if they’ll show either of my hands that I played on the broadcast but given who knocked me out I’d say there is a very good chance that they’ll at least show my last hand. We’ll have to wait and see.

Enjoy the show when it comes out on ESPN. ESPN will broadcast a 2 hour WSOP show every Tuesday night from July 10th through October 30th with plenty of repeats in between. The main event tournament will of course be at the end of that period with I think 16 hours of total coverage. So it the main event broadcast will likely start in early September. Believe it or not the main event final table will be broadcast this Tuesday on pay per view if you are interested. For $19.95 you can seat it live. Personally I’ll wait to see it for free.