By Brian Simon
Wasted Aces Poker
I never thought I’d have the opportunity so early in my playing career to participate in the biggest, most prestigious and most recognized poker tournament in the world — the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. I always told myself that I would play it at least once in my lifetime. I would work hard, save up and buy myself into the $10,000 world championships tourney. That once in a lifetime came June 9.
The journey to get to the Amazon Room at Rio began in April. I was having a rather ordinary day when I received a very surprising text message from my good buddy and teammate Chad Harberts saying that I had been one of the lucky ten tickets drawn for the super satellite at the casino I frequent. I knew the other nine players whom were drawn. This was gonna be a difficult test for me. There were some heavy hitters on that list.
In the super satellite I didn’t take many flops early. I was playing tightly and letting the other players battle it out while the levels were still low. Occasionally I would steal in position in order to maintain my stack. Once the original field of 10 was cut in half I kicked into a different gear. Eventually I garnered the chip lead after making some solid plays and getting a little lucky. I was getting my chips in the pots with the best hands, and the hands were holding up.
I ended up heads up with my friend Luis. The first hand of heads up play was a wild one, and the last one. With blinds at 500/1000, I was dealt A-6 off. In heads up play any ace is strong so I decided to test Luis. I had him covered in chips so I went all in. He took about three minutes before deciding to call. He showed J10 off. The best hand held up, and I had secured a spot at the June 9 final table satellite.
For the next month I kept telling myself how wonderful it would be if I could win the final table and claim the $10,000 seat to the World Series of Poker. The list of ten players was again daunting. I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy at all, and I would have to bring my A+ game. The list consisted of some very loose yet aggressive players, and my teammate Ben Devlin.
Just as in April, I decided to start out slow. We began with 10,000 chips, 25/50 blinds and I needed to feel out last year’s final table winner and WSOP Main Event Casher Dwyen Ringbauer. He was the only player at the table I had never played against so I decided to study his play. Being familiar with everyone else’s game I wanted to see if they were going to play it the same as always or change gears. All of them but one changed their game. I’ve never seen them play so tight. This was a table of low limit hold’em players that loved to chase every hand to the river. Now they were as nervous as someone playing for the first time.
After about 20 hands of not playing I decided to be an aggressor. I started picking on the players blinds with large bets to steal pots. I never had a premium hand but with my table image being tight I knew it would work. I managed to maintain my starting stack and added just a few thousand to it when I finally woke up with a monster while I was the big blind. Everyone folded to Dwyen on the button, who limped in for 100. I looked down at K-K and raised to 800 from the BB. He called. The flop came out 9h-7s-4c, a perfect rainbow flop for my big pocket pair. I bet 1,000 on the flop and he quickly reraised to 2000. I wanted him to think I was stealing, so when he raised I moved my entire stack in instantly. Dwyen went in the tank for about two minutes, but decided to call my all-in with Q-Q. After the turn and river bricked, I scooped a huge pot.
With the chip lead I decided to be the captain of the table. Although I wasn’t being dealt particularly strong hands the players were so tight I was pounding on them with alot of advanced plays, check raises and three-betting. Eventually found myself an almost 4-1 chip lead.
When heads up play started I was supremely confident this tournament was mine. My opponent Russ, however, was a solid player who seldom made mistakes. He wasn’t going to just hand me the tourney. I quickly tested Russ three times for all his chips trying to take the title, and I lost all three. He had rebuilt his stack to virtually even. He had not outplayed me, but he had outflopped me. The first all-in was my A-J versus his all-in big blind of 4,000. He turned over 8-8 and won the race. After he got almost even with me, I started to tilt. Luckily after playing about two or three levels of heads up without any more momentum swings, we finally got a five-minute break.
I jetted out of the poker room so quick to regroup myself and to remember my goals and why I was playing — my dream of the $10k WSOP seat. Even the second-place money of $1,000 cash wasn’t going to be good enough. After talking to a close friend and his mom who came down to root me on, I was back to normal. I was ready to crush this one out of the ballpark. I returned to my seat like a fighter walking into the cage. For a small poker room we had quite a crowd watching us — 40 or so people and poker room personnel. All the cheers and people’s eyes fixed on us didn’t faze me at all. I was completely in the zone with my shades on and music blaring.
Russ was folding a lot of blinds to me and it seemed like he was tightening up. I decided to make a crazy play at him to see if I could get him off his game. He raised from the small blind, doubling it up. I looked down at 2-3 off. This was the time for me to make a play. I called his bet. With his raise I put him on tens or jacks. The flop came queen high and didn’t connect. Russ led out with a bet, and I called. The turn was a brick, but it did put three cards to a straight on the board. Russ led out again, doubling his flop bet. I paused for about thirty seconds before announcing a reraise. I didn’t want to shove my whole stack in cause of fear that my read was off but at the same time I want him to think that I have a made hand, so I doubled his bet. Russ pondered for quiet some time. I’m thinking he might three bet, but he tapped the table, said, “nice hand” and mucked. What I did next some might question or even think that I may have been out of line, but I wanted him to tilt a little by seeing that I was playing loose. I turned over my 2-3 off and proceeded to rake in the pot. The look on his face said it all. I could tell he was disgusted with that hand, and I knew I had him right where I wanted him.
We played a few more hands and he was surrendering some of the blinds to smaller raises. He had about 19k left to my 81k. On the last hand of heads up, Russ min raised from the small blind, I had a suited J-9. I was gonna push all in, but I knew he was in too deep to fold preflop. I decided to just call and try to hit the flop. On a 9-6-3 rainbow flop I checked and Russ pushed all in. I snap called and took down the tournament. I was going to the Main Event.
A once in a life opportunity for myself and also a dream come true!
I have won two very tough satellite tournaments to get to the Main Event. I hope to see you all July 7 at the Rio as I rep Wasted Aces Poker and Club Fortune Casino at the World Series of Poker!
Brian Simon is a team member of Wasted Aces Poker. You can follow him on Twitter @BrianSimon1984.
