WSOP 08 Trip Report: Day 5

Intro | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

Though it ultimately went very well, Day 5 was by far my toughest session of the 2008 WSOP. I’m sure mine was among the toughest tables. The star was Alexander Kostitsyn, a 21-year old Russian who had already made a name for himself by winning the $10,000 buy-in Aussie Millions tournament. He was smart, creative, and ferociously aggressive. I was at least relatively fortunate to have him on my right rather than my left.

Which isn’t to say there were any soft spots over there. To my immediate left was well-known internet player and 2+2’er “Roothlus”, and to his left was “Gbecks”, also a successful internet tournament player. Neither of them had the chips or the inclination to mess with me in particular, but they weren’t going to be making many mistakes, either.

Level 20 Blinds 6,000/12,000 with a 2000 ante, I have 685,000
Thus far, my game plan had been to open a lot of pots with small raises, especially from late position. Sometimes I stole the blinds and antes right away, other times I got to outplay my opponents after the flop. But Alex was on my right employing a more aggressive version of that same strategy, so there were precious few opportunities for me to steal. Instead, I was forced to tighten up considerably and look for opportunities to play back at him.

After a few rounds of losing blinds and antes, my stack was starting to get a little short. I was in the big blind, and the action folded all the way around to Alex in the small. He made a very small raise to 30,000, giving me enticing odds to call. Unfortunately, I was holding Q2, a hand that would be very difficult to play after the flop. But I had a tight image, and I felt like Alex would make this raise with absolutely anything.

My hand wasn’t good enough to call, so I raised, making it 100,000 total. I had only a little over 300,000 left, which was enough room to fold if Alex moved all in. But he was kind enough to fold, and I won enough to keep afloat for a few more orbits. Then I went back to folding.

Since I was playing so few pots, I had to fight hard for the ones I did get involved in. One of the first times that I got to open a pot with a raise, a very tight player called me. The flop came A-6-2, which wasn’t ideal for the pair of 8’s I was holding. Still, I bet 50,000 just to see what my opponent would do. He called. At this point, there was very little chance my 8’s were good for anything but a bluff. But when a King came on the turn, I decided to try to win this pot the only way I still could. I bet 125,000, thinking that this tight player would fold anything worse than two pair. Unfortunately, he raised the minimum, to 250,000. I threw away the 8’s and sighed at my dwindling stack.

Level 21 Blinds 8,000/16,000 with a 2000 ante, I have 700K
The next time the action folded to Alex in the small blind, I once again had Q2. Perhaps influenced by my re-raise last time, he just called my blind. Even with position, my hand wasn’t good enough to build a pot, so I checked and we saw a lovely 22J flop, which gave me trips.

Alex bet 16,000, which he could do with any two cards. Odds are that I got no piece of this flop, so it’s a great time for him to attempt a cheap steal. Knowing that Alex was very likely to have nothing, this would be a good time for me to raise him with nothing. Now with trip deuces, I was probably a lock to win at showdown, so I could arguably just call the bet and hope that he would keep bluffing. But by calling, I am announcing that I have something: maybe a Jack, maybe a 2, maybe just a flush draw (there were two clubs on the flop), but something. That could actually discourage Alex from bluffing. So, I raised, hoping that Alex would realize this would be a good time for me to bluff and make a loose call or re-raise as a result. He did indeed call.

The turn brought a K, and he checked. I bet, hoping he would check-raise me with a flush draw or something, but he just folded. Oh well, still a nice pot. Apparently Q2 is a better hand than I thought!

Level 22 Blinds 10K/20K with a 3K ante, I have 750K
Once again, Alex and I tangled out of the blinds. He called from the small, and this time I had 7-3 in the big. Having already checked once, I elected to raise and hopefully avoid seeing a flop with this garbage. I made it 60K, and he quickly called. I kind of saw that coming.

The flop came K-6-2, and Alex checked to me. Most players will automatically bluff at this flop if they have nothing. But I suspected that Alex knew that, so I opted to check, hoping that would actually show more strength than betting. In other words, by passing up a great opportunity to bluff, I hoped to convince him that I had a hand that didn’t need to bluff. The turn brought an Ace, he checked again, and now I bet at the pot. Between my “strong” flop check and this scary turn card, I felt I had a very good chance of picking up the pot, which I did. Brokos 3, Kostitsyn 0.

A few hands later, another player raised to 60K in late position and Alex called. I had AQ on the button and raised to 250K. With only 550K behind, I was going to have to (unhappily) call an all in. Thankfully, both players folded, though Alex looked a little peeved. I’d actually reraised him a few other times, once with A-K and once with A-A, though he didn’t see my cards either time. So really now it was Brokos 6, Kostitsyn 0, and my image was pretty bad. Even though I’d had strong hands most of the times that I’d played back at him, he didn’t know that.

I picked up a few more small pots and crossed the one million mark for the first time all tournament. Not long after, I found myself holding Ace-Ten against a 50K early position raise from Alex. Against a lot of people, I would fold A-T to an early position raise. But Alex was raising a ton, so I decided to re-raise instead, making it 150K. He asked how much I had behind, and seeing about 900K, opted to call.

The flop was K-9-3, all different suits, and he checked to me. I bet 200K, and he quickly raised to 400K. I had nothing, of course, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he had about the same. I knew he was sick of me raising him, and I knew that he knew this was a great flop for me to bluff at if I had nothing. Even though an all in would give him very little room to fold, I really felt like he was going to be holding air a big percentage of the time. But did I really want to risk my tournament to find out?

I folded. Alex turned over his cards, a suited 8-7, just to taunt me. I was right- he’d had nothing. Ugh, why didn’t I pull the trigger? I felt like such a coward.

“Why you raise me every hand?” he spat bitterly. “You think I am easy money?”

Just the opposite, I thought, though I said nothing. Alex was by far my toughest competition, so I was playing him aggressively pre-flop in order to avoid playing with him post-flop.

Failing to trust my instincts had cost me nearly a million chips, and now I was short-stacked again. Thankfully, I got dealt a pair of Queens the very next hand. I raised, and a tight player with a massive stack called. Having just lost a big pot, this could be my chance to double up. I was hoping my opponent would assume that I was steaming from the bluff.

The flop was 2-3-4. I still had nearly 600K chips, and my goal was to get them all into the pot on the flop. This is a board where people will often play very aggressively with a big Ace because even if they get called by a pair, they will have a lot of outs to improve to the best hand. I decided to go for a big check-raise to represent that I was making such a play. I checked, and my opponent bet 75K. After some thought, I moved all in, overbetting the pot. My opponent called with a pair of Jacks, which he probably would have done no matter how I played my hand.

For the third time all tournament, I was all in for my life against a pair of Jacks. But this time, it was no coin flip. My bigger pair made me a giant favorite with just two cards to come. Those two cards treated me well, and just like that, I was back up over a million chips.

Before long, it was time for dinner. Just one more hand to go. And once again, what did I have but a pair of Queens!? This time Alex raised in front of me, to 55K. I hadn’t re-raised him since that hand where he bluffed me, and I had a feeling that the first time I did, I was going to get a lot of credit. So even though I had a huge hand, I just called his raise, hoping to induce a bluff from someone behind us.

Someone did re-raise us, but it wasn’t the guy I would have chosen. It was one of the tightest players at the table, the one who had doubled me up with his JJ, who made it 200K. The action folded back to Alex, who called. This pot was getting big, containing nearly 500,000 chips. These guys were both showing some strength, but I had to stick with my plan. I had under-represented my hand by not re-raising Alex, I’d gotten the re-raise I wanted, and now I needed to take this pot down. I moved all-in for over a million chips.

Despite the big bet, I expected worse hands to call me. I was representing a big hand, of course, but it had to look suspicious that after re-raising Alex a ton, I’d just called him this time. I was thinking hands like TT, JJ, and maybe even AQ could call me.

The player who re-raised started thinking long and hard, and I was hoping for a call. I stared at the felt but tried to fidget a bit, adjust my posture, and otherwise display discomfort.

Finally, the other guy chose to fold. He tossed his cards into the muck face up, and I was beyond shocked to see a pair of Kings. Here I was thinking I had under-represented my hand, hoping to get called by something like a pair of Tens, and it turned out I was bluffing! Shaking my head in disbelief, I collected the chips.

Thankfully, it was time for dinner, because I really needed to calm down. My legs were rubbery and my hands were shaking. I felt like I’d just survived a car crash or something, like I didn’t deserve to still have my very valuable tournament life.

Level 23 Blinds 12K/24K with a 4K ante

A new player had joined our table, and though I didn’t recognize him at the time, I could tell he was good. I later learned he was 2+2 Forums member “J_V”, a very successful high-stakes cash player. Though I didn’t want to tangle with him, I couldn’t resist the pot odds when he raised my big blind to only 65,000. I called with Q-J.

The flop came K-T-3 with two spades, giving me an open-ended straight draw. I checked, and J_V bet 90K. A check-raise would look suspicious, since there were not many ways for me to have flopped a very strong hand here. There was a good chance J_V would put me on a flush draw, and thus no guarantee he would fold. He might even try to re-bluff me.

Then again, winning the pot immediately would be great, and even if J_V did call, there would still be some deception. Since he would probably put me on a flush draw, I could steal the pot if a spade fell and maybe even get paid off if I hit my straight with a non-spade. So I made it 300K, and he called.

The turn brought something I hadn’t considered: an off-suit Jack. I had only 750K left in my stack, barely more than the size of the pot. At this point, it was going to be tough to get away from middle pair and an open-ended straight draw.

It was also going to be tough to get my opponent off of any hand better than mine. Since I didn’t think I could fold and I didn’t think I could get him to fold better hands, my focus was on extracting the most from his worse hands. It was possible that he had a flush draw himself, or a pair of Tens. If I moved all in now, he’d probably fold those hands. So I elected to check again and see what he would do.

He bet 300K, and after some thought, I moved all in for 750K. It was far from a guarantee that I had the best hand right now. And even if I did, J_V probably had a lot of outs to beat me. In short, I was scared.

He looked worried too. He thought for a long time and seemed pretty agonized. My double check-raise was a strange play. In principle, I like that against other very good players. They know how to interpret common moves, so I like to play in strange ways and confuse them. Good things happen.

J_V eventually folded. We later talked about the hand online, and while I don’t think I should share what he told me about his reasoning, I will say that he tells me he folded a better hand. I found that really surprising, and it contributed to the unsettling feeling that I was making the right plays for the wrong reasons and narrowly skirting danger.

I finally got moved to a much softer table. The only player I recognized was Brandon Cantu, who was good for a lot of action. In the last hour of the day, I was fortunate to get dealt a lot of huge hands and to get a lot of action with them. I think I got Kings twice, Aces once, and Ace-King once and won sizable pots by playing all four aggressively pre-flop.

Then I got Ace-King again. Only this time, a tight player came in for a big raise in front of me. He made it 80K with about a million and a half still in his stack. I thought about re-raising him, but we were too deep for me to be comfortable getting all-in preflop, and I felt like mostly he would fold hands that I was crushing and give me action with his big pairs. So, I just called.

My opponent, a rotund gentleman with a southern accent, bet 125K at the Q44 flop. I expected him to do that with almost anything he would raise pre-flop, meaning that my Ace-King might still be the best hand. Even if it wasn’t, I might be able to win the pot by hitting a pair or stealing at a later opportunity.

The turn brought an Ace, which I thought was good news for me, except that my opponent bet again, 300K this time. If he still had nothing, this was a good card for him to bluff at, but I didn’t think he would betting worse hands than mine for value. I was starting to fear he held a monster like AA, AQ, or QQ. I called, a little reluctantly.

The river was something irrelevant, and he bet 500K very quickly. Even though I had a pretty big hand, I wasn’t feeling comfortable. Could he be bluffing? Most people would be too afraid to fire three barrels so deep in the WSOP main event. But most people were also too timid to bet a worse hand than mine so aggressively for value.

“Aren’t you afraid I have a 4? Did that cross your mind?” No response.

“I wish I knew more about you sir. All I know is you are from Georgia.” No response.

Ultimately, though, I just couldn’t resist the very tempting 3:1 pot odds I was getting. I called, and he tabled KQ, which he played very strangely, and frankly pretty badly. I doubt he could tell you whether he was bluffing or value betting on the river. I showed my AK, and he got angry. “How do you call the flop when I fire?”

I ignored him.

“You call with nothing on the flop?” he asked again.

“Sorry sir, but you wouldn’t answer any of my questions,” I told him as I stacked his chips.

When I bagged my chips at the end of the day, I had exactly 4,444,000. I had no idea what that came out to relative to the field, but I was certainly surprised to learn that I was in second place! I can’t tell you what a thrill it was to be doing so well in the biggest poker tournament in the world.

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