Leaving Las Vegas
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - Tiffany M
With family coming into town for the holidays, a magazine cover to shoot and
a COMPLETELY thrashed voice (from a combination of being sick, smokey Vegas
casino air and staying out way to late/early… as you do in Vegas) I had to
cut my Vegas trip short and come home to LA a little earlier than expected.
Which means that I didn’t have the chance to play the WPT Five Diamond Main
Event although for a second there it looked like I might…
The night before Day 1b of the Main (also the day I planned to leave) I
decided to play the 10pm, $1500 Super Satellite. I figured if I won my $15k
seat it would be worth it to adjust a thing or two back here in LA and
postpone my return. We started with $4500 chips and 40min levels which
isn’t bad but not the greatest structure since the blinds almost double
every level. I was a little bit tired but had a REALLY good feeling about
this tournament. I find that sometimes when I’m very chill and not too
eager to play… I play my best. I play a much more patient, paced and
thoughtful game. I’m more focused on the hands and players and less likely
to get reckless.
Six hours into the event I was down to the last three and a half tables (11
players got seats, the 12th got their money back). The confidence I had
started to diminish as I kept glancing at the clock realizing that the
blinds were creeping up on us. When you don’t have a great structure the
last few levels in a tournament just become a ‘shove fest’ and I felt uneasy
knowing this would most likely be the case since even the chip average was
now TWENTY big blinds at this point. It was a roller coaster at the end. I
lost AQ v. KQ when the button (who was getting short) pushed on my big
blind, hit his king and took about a third of my chips. Then I lost AK v.
44 – even though I hit my four to a flush the 4’s, OF COURSE rivered a boat.
This knocked me down to 1900 when the blinds were 800/1600. If anybody can
be optimistic about a big comeback it’s ME! I’ve seen it happen. In fact,
on Day 2 of the WSOP Main event was down to 6k when the blinds were
400/800… and we all know how that turned out.
It was kind of comical when I somehow managed to turn the 1900 into 15,000
(still less than ten bigs). Next thing you know we’re seating the final two
tables and are down to 18 players. I couldn’t help but laugh at the poker
gods taunting me as we were just SEVEN players away from a $15k seat.
Blinds bumped up to 1k/2k as I sat on an 11k stack. I look down at K-10 in
the big blind and am fairly certain this will be my hand. As everyone
folded around I planned on pushing to a small blind call. The player in the
SB looks at his hand and says something like, “Alright, lets go.” I tease
him by moving my entire stack close to the line but he hadn’t yet put his
chips in the pot to call the BB. He looks at me and then changes his mind
about the call and says he’s “all in”. It was a weird sequence of events
but I strongly got the feeling that he was just trying to scare me
especially since a minute prior his hand was only good enough to call. I
follow my read and call, putting myself all in. He show Q7 of clubs and
announced that he felt lucky and felt a suck out coming… GREAT! He flops,
turns and rivers his clubs… OF COURSE. Ahhh the torture of tournaments
and getting so close. But I can’t complain, I felt great about how I played
and am well aware that that is just the nature of this brutal game of poker
we play. It does remind me and give me hope however that when your good
hands DO hold up… those are the days you’ll cash, go deep and win
tournaments.
Happiest Holidays to all of you! I’ll leave you with some pictures from the
Jingle at the Hard Rock Charity Tournament I played on this trip which
raised money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It was a beautiful event
where the Christmas spirit was very present and life of Mindy Trinidad (a
poker fanatic who recently lost her battle to the disease) was remembered.
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Tags: Tiffany "Tiffany M" Michelle, WPT
