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Event #2 - My Final Table Journey

NoSup4U

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NoSup4U

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Same disclaimer: Don't read it of you just want to ***** that its long :)Day 3:Final table day. I wake up at about 7:30am. Go for a run. The nosepiece on my glasses breaks off, but thankfully I brought a set of contacts. (I never wear contacts anymore) One of my friends is playing in the limit event that starts today at noon. My boys and I head over to the Rio, have breakfast. Mark Ly is there also. He and I have become friendly since we spent a good part of the day before right next to each other, and his crew spent the day railbirding with my friends. We all chatted for a while, wished each other good luck, and then went sweat Chris in the Limit tourney. We have 40 mins to kill, so we buy a deck of cards, and sit down at one of the empty tables in the room and play Hearts. Chris heads over to start his tourney He has Marco Tranello at his table. Jen Harmon is diagonally across from him at another table. Every 10 mins Marco is checking on her. It was very sweet. At 1PM I head over for my ESPN stuff. I’m ontime and they are late as I would expect…but they are all super nice to me. I tell them I hate being on TV and hate being filmed. They chuckle. I spend about 5 mins in a dark room with one huge light, a camera, and a poker table. The guy tells me to sit down and just play with my chips or something while following around the camera with my eyes. I can’t even chip shuffle (I never touch my chips at the table unless I’m betting or stacking them) so I just sit. This goes on for about 5 mins. They take shots of all different kinds of angles. I feel pretty dumb. Then I go into another room with the same setup. But sitting in the dark where I can’t even see them are 3 ESPN girls interviewing me, and Lon McCarren. Here is the scary part. Apparently they go out and google you. They knew all kinds of stuff about me. My friend Chris has a blog and there was all sorts of stuff about me they had pulled from there. Nothing crazy embarrassing, but I’m pretty private so basically anything is embarrassing to me. I organize a montly $14 poker tourney here in Phoenix. Its kind of a low stakes thing so everyone can come and bring their wives/girlfriends or whatever and get exposed to poker for basically little cost. Just an excuse to drink and goof off together with friends. They knew all about that. It was sick. Anyway, they asked me all kinds of stuff from poker, to my family, to work, etc etc. I have no idea what will show up on TV. I remember saying that I play ultra aggressively in tournaments and that I’m sure Norman Chad will comment that I played Aces like a donkey at some point, and I tell them that I’ll either be one of the first out, or one of the last two. I have a feeling that might come up when I bust out after pushing all in with KJo :)After this, I go back to check on Chris. He busted out when the donkey at his table flopped a set against his flopped two pair, and then flopped a straight flush against his flopped Ace high flush. BLEEP! That’s why poker can be so sick. I make it to the final table after having my life at risk twice with poor hands, and he flops two monsters against the same donkey and goes bust. There is a big line to get into the bleachers for the final table. ESPN has already reserved a bunch of seats for Carlos. Must be nice to be the king….I check and they let me get my friends in before the crowd. I am there with 3 other guys playing in the tourneys. I have one friend in Vegas that shows up, and another that decided that morning to fly up from Phoenix. Plus all of Mark Ly’s friends cheer for me as long as I’m not in a pot against him. So anytime I take down a pot, its pretty rowdy. That was probably the best part of the whole thing for me, having a cheering section. The Final Table: Before we start they tell us that everything is going to go super slow. For every pot, the dealer waits to deal the flop/turn/river for the producers go ahead. There aren’t a lot of rivers seen, but when there are, its sloooowwwwww….hated that. I’m a fast player. I look at my cards when they are dealt to me, and fold immediately when the action gets to me if I’m folding. So this part of the final table was taxing on me. I just wanted to play, but the action was so slow. The rounds were an hour and a half. Before the first hand was dealt, I announced to the table that I was going to raise the first hand no matter what. The first hand folded around to me, and I raised. Brandon moved all in, and I folded. But I think it set the tone for the night...I picked up a couple of hands (QQ and KK) early, moved in, and took the raised pot down. I also was stealing like mad, and by the first break I was second in chips. I have heard that Carlos is a very aggressive player, but I never saw that from him. At the final table, he didn’t get involved at all, unless it was for someone’s whole stack. He lost a race early that crippled him (he had a pair and the other guy caught his overs) and then busted out when he couldn’t hit an AQ against another guys pair. The AQ hand caught me by surprise. He was on the button facing an ep raise, and spent about 5 mins thinking about it. I was joking with Brent that he was just hollywooding for TV time since we was going to bust out soon and would surely fold here, and then he moves all in. Shows how much I know :club: But he busted out on that hand, so we lost the best player at the table. I was second in chips and feeling good. I told Brandon on a break that I had a feeling he and I would be clashing for the bracelet. He was playing great.The hands that killed me: I raised semi-stealing from middle position with JTo. Drew Rubin, who has been pretty conservative is in the sb. He thinks for a long time before calling. Flop comes Jrr, all clubs. I have the T of clubs. He checks, I bet, he moves all in. I think for a while. I’m 100% sure he has AJ here. There is no other hand possible for him other than a set which obviously is unlikely. If he doesn’t have the A of clubs then I have to call based on the pot odds, its not a close decision. I make the call, and we’re almost racing since he doesn’t have the club. I believe if I hit this hand, I win the tournament in a landslide. I would be the chip leader and it would be sick. I don’t hit and he cripples me. I drop from about 800K to 350K. I raise the next hand with air. Everyone folds. Within 2 orbits I’m back to 650K. Then disaster for me. I raise from mp with KJo. Brandon reraises from the button. I don’t know how this will play out on TV. Cardplayer talks about it like it was boom boom boom, but that isn’t the case. I take about 5 mins. I count out the call, see how much I have left after the call. I watch Brandon. He is nervous. He wants this hand to be over with. Brandon was a great player, but he never liked to race for a lot of chips. He was super patient and was always looking to get his money in with way the best of it. But this time, he looked nervous. I decided on a range of hands for him: A medium to low pair, AJ, AQ. Any other good hands, he wouldn’t be nervous, any other bad hands he would have folded/called. So based on the pot, I felt unless he had AJ/AQ, I was compelled to get it all in based on the pot odds. I hated to call here, and fold the flop. And I thought AJ/AQ more unlikely as I thought about it. I think he would have just flat called me there. So I decided on 88 for his hand. I thought he would fold to my all in, and if he didn’t, we’d be racing. It turned out to be TT for him. He spent about 5 mins agonizing about it. Finally he called with TT. I think 99 he folds there, but TT was just too high. He couldn’t believe I showed KJ and was just distraught about it. He hated my all in there. I did too when I didn’t connect. Ugh. I was physically ill when I got knocked out. I felt like I was going to throw up.All I could do was second guess myself. If I fold there, I’m still a dominant force. I am controlling the table, and probably 4th in chips after I fold. Everyone is scared to play except for Brandon and Mark Ly. So maybe I fold knowing I’m giving up equity, but giving myself a chance to outplay my opponents and get my money is a huge favorite, instead of just a 50/50 with pot equity? It eats at me constantly. I think until I win a bracelet it will consume me. Its hard being so close. Not like my table was easy, but compared to a lot of them you’ll see, it was easy. I missed an opportunity for sure.Afterwards my crew tried to cheer me up, but I was just sick. I bought dinner for everyone at Bouchon. Yum! We got a private table for ourselves in the Venetian poker room and played some low stakes NL. I got rivered twice for my whole stack… :D Right behind us at a table, some morons were playing a $1000 sit and go with Raymer and Hachem. Who decides spending $1000 on a sit and go where you know your competition includes the past two world champions is a good idea? I got to bed about 3AM and barely slept. Its hard to get over busting out of a wsop event, especially when you make it so close. But, I’m proud of how I played, and happy for the experience. And I know it will sink in soon. I’ll be back I think for the $2000 NL next week :D

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NoSup4U

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Thanks everyone. I know there are a BUNCH of much better players than me on this forum, so don't think that I think that I'm the shiznit. But I felt like I played well and never altered from my gameplan. And got lucky the two times I really needed too, and unlucky the two times the world is going to see :)Mark

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NoSup4U

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Holla.Check, cash or chips?
I so wanted to get it in cash, but my wife was a banker and told me if I ever cash big, I better get the check because if you try and deposit more than 10K in cash, the govt gets involved and it gets messy. So check was my choice :)I loved that they offered the chip option though :)Mark
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kkot

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I so wanted to get it in cash, but my wife was a banker and told me if I ever cash big, I better get the check because if you try and deposit more than 10K in cash, the govt gets involved and it gets messy. So check was my choice :)I loved that they offered the chip option though :)Mark
Very nice. I definitely enjoyed the writeups.
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Bgfoot

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Same disclaimer: Don't read it of you just want to ***** that its long :)Day 3:Final table day. I wake up at about 7:30am. Go for a run. The nosepiece on my glasses breaks off, but thankfully I brought a set of contacts. (I never wear contacts anymore) One of my friends is playing in the limit event that starts today at noon. My boys and I head over to the Rio, have breakfast. Mark Ly is there also. He and I have become friendly since we spent a good part of the day before right next to each other, and his crew spent the day railbirding with my friends. We all chatted for a while, wished each other good luck, and then went sweat Chris in the Limit tourney. We have 40 mins to kill, so we buy a deck of cards, and sit down at one of the empty tables in the room and play Hearts. Chris heads over to start his tourney He has Marco Tranello at his table. Jen Harmon is diagonally across from him at another table. Every 10 mins Marco is checking on her. It was very sweet. At 1PM I head over for my ESPN stuff. I’m ontime and they are late as I would expect…but they are all super nice to me. I tell them I hate being on TV and hate being filmed. They chuckle. I spend about 5 mins in a dark room with one huge light, a camera, and a poker table. The guy tells me to sit down and just play with my chips or something while following around the camera with my eyes. I can’t even chip shuffle (I never touch my chips at the table unless I’m betting or stacking them) so I just sit. This goes on for about 5 mins. They take shots of all different kinds of angles. I feel pretty dumb. Then I go into another room with the same setup. But sitting in the dark where I can’t even see them are 3 ESPN girls interviewing me, and Lon McCarren. Here is the scary part. Apparently they go out and google you. They knew all kinds of stuff about me. My friend Chris has a blog and there was all sorts of stuff about me they had pulled from there. Nothing crazy embarrassing, but I’m pretty private so basically anything is embarrassing to me. I organize a montly $14 poker tourney here in Phoenix. Its kind of a low stakes thing so everyone can come and bring their wives/girlfriends or whatever and get exposed to poker for basically little cost. Just an excuse to drink and goof off together with friends. They knew all about that. It was sick. Anyway, they asked me all kinds of stuff from poker, to my family, to work, etc etc. I have no idea what will show up on TV. I remember saying that I play ultra aggressively in tournaments and that I’m sure Norman Chad will comment that I played Aces like a donkey at some point, and I tell them that I’ll either be one of the first out, or one of the last two. I have a feeling that might come up when I bust out after pushing all in with KJo :)After this, I go back to check on Chris. He busted out when the donkey at his table flopped a set against his flopped two pair, and then flopped a straight flush against his flopped Ace high flush. BLEEP! That’s why poker can be so sick. I make it to the final table after having my life at risk twice with poor hands, and he flops two monsters against the same donkey and goes bust. There is a big line to get into the bleachers for the final table. ESPN has already reserved a bunch of seats for Carlos. Must be nice to be the king….I check and they let me get my friends in before the crowd. I am there with 3 other guys playing in the tourneys. I have one friend in Vegas that shows up, and another that decided that morning to fly up from Phoenix. Plus all of Mark Ly’s friends cheer for me as long as I’m not in a pot against him. So anytime I take down a pot, its pretty rowdy. That was probably the best part of the whole thing for me, having a cheering section. The Final Table: Before we start they tell us that everything is going to go super slow. For every pot, the dealer waits to deal the flop/turn/river for the producers go ahead. There aren’t a lot of rivers seen, but when there are, its sloooowwwwww….hated that. I’m a fast player. I look at my cards when they are dealt to me, and fold immediate when the action gets to me if I’m folding. So this part of the final table was taxing on me. I just wanted to play, but they action was so slow. The rounds were an hour and a half. Before the first hand was dealt, I announced to the table that I was going to raise the first hand no matter what. The first hand folded around to me, and I raised. Brandon moved all in, and I folded. But I think it set the tone for the night...I picked up a couple of hands (QQ and KK) early, moved in, and took the raised pot down. I also was stealing like mad, and by the first break I was second in chips. I have heard that Carlos is a very aggressive player, but I never saw that from him. At the final table, he didn’t get involved at all, unless it was for someone’s whole stack. He lost a race early that crippled him (he had a pair and the other guy caught his overs) and then busted out when he couldn’t hit an AQ against another guys pair. The AQ hand caught me by surprise. He was on the button facing an ep raise, and spent about 5 mins thinking about it. I was joking with Brent that he was just hollywooding for TV time since we was going to bust out soon and would surely fold here, and then he moves all in. Shows how much I know  But he busted out on that hand, so we lost the best player at the table. I was second in chips and feeling good. I told Brandon on a break that I had a feeling he and I would be clashing for the bracelet. He was playing great.The hands that killed me: I raised semi-stealing from middle position with JTo. Drew Rubin, who has been pretty conservative is in the sb. He thinks for a long time before calling. Flop comes Jrr, all clubs. I have the T of clubs. He checks, I bet, he moves all in. I think for a while. I’m 100% sure he has AJ here. There is not other hand possible for him other than a set which obviously is unlikely. If he doesn’t have the A of clubs then I have to call based on the pot odds, its not a close decision. I make the call, and we’re almost racing since he doesn’t have the club. I believe if I hit this hand, I win in a landslide. I would be the chip leader and it would be sick. I don’t hit and he cripples me. I drop from about 800K to 350K. I raise the next hand with air. Everyone folds. Within 2 orbits I’m back to 650K. Then disaster for me. I raise from mp with KJo. Brandon reraises from the button. I don’t know how this will play out on TV. Cardplayer talks about it like it was boom boom boom, but that isn’t the case. I take about 5 mins. I count out the call, see how much I have left after the call. I watch Brandon. He is nervous. He wants this hand to be overwith. Brandon was a great player, but he never liked to race for a lot of chips. He was super patient and was always looking to get his money in with way the best of it. But this time, he looked nervous. I decided on a range of hands for him: A medium to low pair, AJ, AQ. Any other good hands, he wouldn’t be nervous, any other bad hands he would have folded/called. So based on the pot, I felt unless he had AJ/AQ, I was compelled to get it all in based on the pot odds. I hated to call here, and fold the flop. And I thought AJ/AQ more unlikely as I thought about it. I think he would have just flat called me there. So I decided on 88 for his hand. I thought he would fold to my all in, and if he didn’t, we’d be racing. It turned out to be TT for him. He spent about 5 mins agonizing about it. Finally he called with TT. I think 99 he folds there, but TT was just too high. He couldn’t believe I showed KJ and was just distraught about it. He hated my all in there. I did too when I didn’t connect. Ugh. I was physically ill when I got knocked out. I felt like I was going to throw up.All I could do was second guess myself. If I fold there, I’m still a dominant force. I am controlling the table, and probably 4th in chips after I fold. Everyone is scared to play except for Brandon and Mark Ly. So maybe I fold knowing I’m giving up equity, but giving myself a chance to outplay my opponents and get my money is a huge favorite, instead of just a 50/50 with pot equity? It eats at me constantly. I think until I win a bracelet it will consume me. Its hard being so close. Not like my table was easy, but compared to a lot of them you’ll see, it was easy. I missed an opportunity for sure.Afterwards my crew tried to cheer me up, but I was just sick. I bought dinner for everyone at Bouchon. Yum! We got a private table for ourselves in the Venetian poker room and played some low stakes NL. I got rivered twice for my whole stack… :club: Right behind us at a table, some morons were playing a $1000 sit and go with Raymer and Hachem. Who decides spending $1000 on a sit and go where you know your competition includes the past two world champions is a good idea? I got to bed about 3AM and barely slept. Its hard to get over busting out of a wsop event, especially when you make it so close. But, I’m proud of how I played, and happy for the experience. And I know it will sink in soon. I’ll be back I think for the $2000 NL next week :D
I know you may feel a little sour about not finishing #1, but there are plenty of things to feel good about the tourney in hole.You came through over 2700 players. I have been at a couple of TV tapings and they are slow, and it does wear on some people. the behind the scene info was great on the green room stuff.Once again good job.
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Bgfoot

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I so wanted to get it in cash, but my wife was a banker and told me if I ever cash big, I better get the check because if you try and deposit more than 10K in cash, the govt gets involved and it gets messy. So check was my choice :)I loved that they offered the chip option though :)Mark
If you deposit more than 10k you have to fill out an IRS large currency fund form which is designed to help curb money launders. It is not that big of deal as long as that sum is on your IRS 1040 form somewhere when you file taxes. ie. gambling winnings, business income, etc. Also some banks will report you to the IRS if you make a lot of 3-$4000.00 deposits over a short period of time (like 3 or 4 times a week). they call it stacking. Read Barry Greenstien book, He got called to the carpet about stacking.Another option they offer while cashing out is wire transfer. Harrahs uses Bank of America therefore if you BofA there is no charge, if you have a different bank, it is $30.00. That way it is A U TO matic ( a little Prince song)
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DESSERTLADY

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Great read!Congratulations on making the Final Table and it sounds like you played well. I can't imagine being there let alone making a final table in the WSOP!I can't wait to see your installments for the next tournament. Good Luck and thank you for keeping us up to date.

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NoSup4U

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If you deposit more than 10k you have to fill out an IRS large currency fund form which is designed to help curb money launders. It is not that big of deal as long as that sum is on your IRS 1040 form somewhere when you file taxes. ie. gambling winnings, business income, etc. Also some banks will report you to the IRS if you make a lot of 3-$4000.00 deposits over a short period of time (like 3 or 4 times a week). they call it stacking. Read Barry Greenstien book, He got called to the carpet about stacking.Another option they offer while cashing out is wire transfer. Harrahs uses Bank of America therefore if you BofA there is no charge, if you have a different bank, it is $30.00. That way it is A U TO matic ( a little Prince song)
Ahh, lots of good info there. And I do use BofA so next time I cash I'll just do that!Thanks for the tips!Mark
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rocketpoker828

rocketpoker828 0

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Congrats man, 88K is nothing to be ashamed of. Plus you have more POY points than 99% of the forum!

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