WipHof - Part Four (The game)

The Game

So, at 2pm, after the luncheon, 55 people sat down for the tournament. A handful of us have won our way in on satellites, but the majority has paid the entry fee of $500 – which made this the biggest buy-in tournament I’ve ever entered. So, I was pretty excited. There were a couple of well-known players, of course the 4 inductees, and then people like Chip and Karina Jett, JJ Lieu and some others that were known to many, but not to me.

Can’t remember much of early in the tournament, I remember I tried really hard not to do something stupid, and whaddayaknow, I managed to stay out of trouble.
When we got down to three tables, I was moved and was sitting at the table with Marsha Waggoner, Karina Jett and some of the ‘unknown-to-me’ well-known people. Example – I chatted with the Asian lady to my right, she was very nice and we had a great conversation about the difference between what is called ‘lemonade’ here and what ‘lemonade’ is in some other countries (for clarification – in countries like South Africa and Australia, Sprite is called lemonade). We discussed that and some other stuff and when she got knocked out and was about to leave, I asked her what her name was. After all, I liked her and that’s the polite thing to do – if I run into her again, I want to at least remember what her name is. She looked at me kinda funny, and said: ‘JJ’ . ‘JJ??”, I asked, thought I heard wrong. Probably due to the fact that the only JJ I know, is a guy and I wanted to make sure I got it right. She looked confused and politely confirmed. Only after the fact (like two days after) I realized that it was JJ Lieu and that she was more than well-known in the poker world. Sorry JJ!!

One big hand at that table – I got QQ in MP, with only one limper, I raised, everyone else folded, limper called. Flop came AQx, he bet, so I figured he had an Ace, I called. Turn is another blank, he bet, I pushed, and he called. I was amazed when he turned over Ace-rag, but at least he doubled me up and he was out.

At that table Marsha got knocked out when she got all her chips in with KK against QQ - a Q on the turn and no help on the river.
Then – before you know it, we were down to two tables. Now I was excited. Unlike my normal routine, I was NOT short-stacked at this point and had a decent amount of chips. I picked up a couple of pots and made it to the final table with a fair amount of chips.

At the final table were me and TWO other pokerchix gals – as well as Barbara Enright, Chip Jett, and a couple of others.
Memorable hands at this table – just a couple of hands after final table started, I raised on the button with Kc8c. Chip Jet, in the SB, smooth-called the raise – for about half his stack. I realized that he probably planned to push at some point before the river, there’s no way he’ll call half his stack and then fold. It scared me a little, sure looks like he was holding a big hand, or he certainly wanted me to think that. Flop came – two clubs and a J, so I have a flush draw. And that was where I wasn’t sure what to do. Do I bet - he’s probably going to push all in regardless of the bet, so do I bet big and let him make the decision? Or do I bet small for in case he’ll let me see a turn card for cheap? I decided to check – I have no clue why, this is where my own inexperience became evident to me. Of course he pushed, and now *I* had to make the decision. I decided to make the call, he had QJ (I think?), he had second pair on the board, if I remember correctly - no flush came but I caught a K on the river and knocked him out.

A while later - QQ again, I raised, two callers. Flop came Q high, I checked – everyone checked behind. The turn is a 3, so I bet, one person fold, but the woman to the right, who played her strong hands VERY aggressive, raised me – and quite a bit too. I looked at the board again, couldn’t figure out what she could have had, thought maybe she had AQ and was waiting for me to bet so she could raise. I remember her getting very attached to her hands and didn’t think she was going to fold, and I was sure I had the best hand at that point, so I pushed. She instantly called and turned over pocket 3’s for a lower set. Phew, what a relief. And now I had LOADS of chips.

I decided to lay low and see if I can outwait the short stacks before getting too creative and before long, we were down to 4 players. Alan Schulman, Barbara Enright, some guy called Lance (from Canada) and me.
Alan was slowly getting down to short-stack, and she probably smelled my fear - so about 99% of the time – whether I limped or raised from the SB, she pushed from the BB. I never had a hand I felt comfortable calling with – but I also decided that I want her to get used to me folding to her raises, maybe she’ll become reckless and I can trap her with a monster hand. Which worked out well, just a couple of hands later. I picked up KK, made my obligatory raise, and she pushed. I called, she turned over A5o, and I stood there frozen while the dealer put the flop out. I didn’t want to move, I did NOT want an Ace to hit! And it DIDN’T! She was out in 4th place.

One hand that I played totally wrong – with 4 of us left, I raised with AQ and Barbara called. Flop came Q-Q-10, I checked, she checked. Turn was something insignificant, I bet and she raised. Now there is where I made the mistake. When I replayed the hand in my hand hundreds of times after the tournament, I should have called. Instead, I decided that she is trying to get me off my hand and I wanted her to know that I’m not going to be pushed around and that I have a strong hand. Duh. Why would I want her to know that? I could have played it so many different, more sufficient ways, but I pushed, she pondered for a while and folded.
Couple of hands later, Alan asked me what I had that hand, I told her, and Barbara told me she had QJ and folded when I pushed.

Now the guy from Canada wanted to double up or get up, so he’ll either raise HUGE or push all-in when he decided to play a hand. I picked up 77 and called one of his raises. Flop came down 8-8-3, he bet, I figured it’s just a continuation bet and that he probably had only two high cards, so I pushed. He called with pocket 10’s and I’m down to short stack. Doubled up once when I hit a straight, then pushed with AJ, he called with AQ and knocked me out. I got paid $3675 for my effort, which I was extremely pleased with, seeing that it’s my biggest payout in a poker tournament so far!

What a great experience it was! It made me – once again – realize how inexperience I am and how much I have to learn. Watching Barbara play, was great – she just proved that there is no substitute for experience and I admire her tremendously.

After 11 hours of play I went home and 1am in the morning, so darn tired, but so excited about the day, I couldn’t fall asleep and probably re-played every hand thousands of times in my head before my body finally gave up and went to sleep.

What a day!