Winning is a Lot More Fun Than Losing

Many thanks to all for the congratulatory comments. Haven't even been tempted today to fire up the poker machine, not wanting to harsh the feel-good buzz.

Not sure if I'll still buy-in to Event #4 like I planned on and use the Bracelet Race seat for a second event, or just play the one event and treat it like a freeroll. I'd like to play as many events as possible but I'd be lying if I said I was totally comfortable with the idea of ponying up $1,500 to play, so there's a certain appeal to just playing one event and letting it all hang out without worrying about justifying the expense.

I'll probably take some more shots at the Full Tilt Bracelet Race satellites, too. If you're even halfway interested in playing one of the WSOP events, you should give these a shot. They guarantee two $2,000 packages and usually only get between 200-250 entries. Half the field is usually gone by the first break and you'll see all sorts of, umm, unusual play.

Most of my chips came from pretty head-scratching, overly aggressive plays from opponents, along with a few fortutitous flops. I doubled up early with KK when 99 decided to go over the top of two different preflop raises, and doubled again shortly thereafter with AA when a guy called off all his chip with an OESD.

I got lucky and flopped a boat with 66 and a 996 board, and tripled up when Villain #1 shoved all-in on the flop with KJo (?) and Villain #2 called with A10o (?). That put me well in the chip lead with 65K or so, with 2nd at 40K.

Not long after that blinds were something like 400/800 and UTG (who had 33K or so) raised to 2000, everyone folded, and I called on the button with J10d, feeling a little jiggy. Blinds folded and the flop comes Ks Jh 10s. The pot was about 5,000 and UTG quickly shoves all-in, making it 30K for me to call.

My gut impulse was to fold my bottom two pair and let him have a relatively wee pot but the more I thought about it, the less sense his overbet meant. Yeah, there are tons of hands that are crushing me, that he'd play from UTG for 2,000, such as AQ, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010 (although those last two are unlikely due to my hand and the flop), and KJs. And yeah, he might also be playing those fast because of the possible flush/straight.

But the massive overbet screamed draw to me, or AK or AJ. The more I thought about it, the more I thought he had AK or was drawing to the flush/straight. I just couldn't seem him shoving there with a hand that was was ahead of me, when he could bet the pot and see what happens. It could very well be a coinflip for me (or slightly worse) if he had both a straight and a flush draw but I still had a hard time seeing that, as far as the immediate shove on the flop.

So I managed to talk myself much closer towards calling, as my time ran down. If I called and lost, I still had 30K to work with. If I called and won, I had a pretty sizable lead on the field.

With a few seconds left to act, I finally said fuck it and called, holding my breath. What does UTG roll over? J9o. No spades. Turn was a 10, followed by another 10 on the river to give me unneccessary quads. Suddenly I'm well in first, with nearly 2.5x chips as second place.

I'm still not sure I should call there, despite it working out, but I do know that it's gotta be +EV to play with folks who will open-raise with J9o from UTG and shove all of their chips in on that flop. Not to mention the guy who ultimately went out in 4th who simply shoved all-in every third hand when it got down to four handed. He had a more than healthy stack and a M of about 40 but if he bet, he shoved. Every third hand or so. With any two cards. Until he inevitably runs into someone with a medium/big pair and that's all she wrote.

But I digress. Play them Bracelet Race satellites as they're really, really soft.