In this volume, you’ll find essays covering the following topics:

Navigating the Early Stages of a Tournament
Balance
Playing Your Image
Catching Bluffs
(Not) Talking at the Table
The Tournament Mindset

You can buy The Thinking Poker Diaries Volume 5 at www.nitcast.com (you’ll get Kindle, PDF, or EPUB versions) or in Kindle form on Amazon.

You certainly don’t need to have read the earlier volumes to make sense of this one, but if you need to get caught up, the first four books are available as a bundle at a discounted rate!

There is always a modest amount of disappointment when it’s all over, but of course all in all I’m quite pleased with the result. I’m also very happy that for the first time ever I feel like I played through this whole tournament without making any big mistakes and with only a few small ones. That doesn’t mean that everything always went my way, but as they say you play the cards you’re dealt, and I believe that I would play most of them the same way if I had it to do all over again.

I was on the secondary feature table for the first few hours today, meaning both that I managed to secure an endorsement deal that brought me a little extra money and also that I’ll likely make an appearance on the ESPN broadcast of this tournament. One hand in particular is quite likely to be on there:

Gualtar Sallas raised in early position, David Baker called, I called with Ac Jc on the button, and the BB called. The flop brought Js 8c 6c, giving me top pair and the nut flush draw. The pre-flop raiser bet, Baker raised, and I moved all-in. Sallas folded after some thought, and it was about 600K more to Baker. It was also a very large pot, and he made a tough but probably correct call with QQ.

As the cameras swarmed, Sallas announced that he’d folded Kc Qc. Awesome. The turn was no help, but I binked the 5c on the river to win a 2.7 million chip pot.

This hand was actually misreported on the ESPN blog, where they write that, “Baker was able to get his opponent’s chips in the middle holding Q-Q to his opponent’s A-J on a jack-high board” but that “the turn and river would give Andrew Brokos the lucky runner-runner flush”. As I said, I actually had top pair and the nut flush draw on the flop, and absent the information that Sallas had folded the Kc Qc, I was in fact the (very slight) favorite.

I understand that there are a lot of hands to report and that mistakes will be made, but there have been complaints before that such mistakes are almost always made in favor of the more well-known player. In this example, the hand is reported in a way that makes it seem as though David Baker had somehow outplayed me (he “managed” to get my chips in) and that I got much luckier than I did to win the pot. This is a hand that was played at an ESPN feature table, was recorded by their cameras, and was witnessed by 9 players, several floorpeople, and multiple ESPN employees. It was a huge pot that took several minutes to play out on camera, and I have difficulty believing that any of them, if asked, would have misremembered such an important detail as whether I had a flush draw on the flop.

To be clear, I am not suggesting a deliberate misrepresentation of facts. I am suggesting sloppy reporting and an unconscious bias towards reconstructing details in favor of a more well-known player.

But never mind all that; I don’t want to end on a sour note. Today was an extremely difficult day at a table absolutely packed with very very strong players: Adam Levy, Eric Baldwin, David Baker, Peter Brian Jensen, Scott Clements, and a few others who I didn’t know by name but who weren’t making a lot of mistakes. To a man they were all consummate professionals, and no matter which way the pots went there was never any belly-aching, berating, cheering, or jeering. We all recognized how tough the table was, but we were always polite and friendly. I did have the good fortune to get moved away from that table eventually (leaving behind 2 million chips that had once been mine), and I meant what I said as I departed: “I am very glad not to be playing with any of you any more, and I wish you all the best.” I am certain that at least one if not more of the gentlemen I played with today will be among the November 9.

I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I’m both very flattered and very grateful for the number of people, some of whom have no idea who I am, who have followed along and offered encouragement. Even when the other players at the table are friendly, it’s ultimately very lonely out there on the felt, and it’s great getting e-mails, comments, and text messages and just knowing that so many people are thinking of me. So thanks to all of you, and here’s to more stories to tell next year!

Sincerely,
Andrew

PS Also, here’s to Tony Dunst, who started the day with less than 400K and just finished with roughly 1.6 million. He actually inherited my seat at the Table of Death, and I’m glad to see that he survived it. Best of luck tomorrow, buddy!