2024 WSOP buildup: Early February 2024 (yet another day later) (Part 3 of 3)
Hello Final Table, Q-5 is repeatedly the nuts, the blinds are insane, turning down a chop, battling ZZ Top for heaps of chips with everything on the line
… The Final Table.
Where is the confetti? OK, calm down. Still a lot of work to be done. Rise to the occasion I admonish myself. Blinds go up to 15,000/30,000. The blinds are absolutely insane compared to everyone’s chip stack. I get dealt K-K in the small blind, I raise and I get no action. I have 260,000 chips. I get dealt A-K, I min raise, and I get no action. I have 310,000 chips. The average is 248,000.
We are now seven-handed.
I am dealt A-Q in the small blind, I min raise and get no action. I have 305,000 chips.
The blinds now increase to 20,000/40,000. Have I mentioned that the blinds are insane?
We get to six-handed. I have 245,000 chips. I go card dead for a while, and the blinds are eating away at me. I realize I have to get it in very soon because the blinds will pretty much decimate me the next time I have to post them, which is two hands away. I look down at Qh-5h, which will have to be good enough, and I go all-in. It folds to the big stack in the big blind. He thinks about it. Thinks about it some more. He’s really tanking. I hope he can’t see me thinking “please, please, please fold.” He factors in how short I am, and he calls. He turns over 10-7 offsuit.
I’m … ahead? Somehow, I’m ahead!
The flop comes Q-10-2 with one heart. My flopped top pair is better than his middle pair, and I’m still ahead. The turn and river are two more hearts and now my top pair (good enough to win the hand on its own) has improved to a flush. Talk about overkill akin to using a hammer to kill an ant. I’m still alive. Apparently, Q-5 suited is the nuts. I have 190,000 chips.
I now go on something of a rush. The rest of the way my notes go somewhat kablooie as we are short-handed, I struggle to frequently post my blinds (the biggest chips are only 5,000 so it takes a bunch of chips the rest of the way), I am constantly stacking chips, decisions have to be made, and I am trying to take notes for this trip report. I experience mental overload, and my note taking suffers. I need an assistant. I go all-in a couple of times and take the blinds. I get in a big blind special where I don’t have to put any more chips in the pot to see a flop. I have J-9. The flop is Q-6-5 rainbow, I raise with nothing more than imagination and I take it.
We get down to five-handed.
We get down to four-handed.
The blinds move to 30,000/60,000. I am up to 500,000 chips. Have I mentioned that the blinds are insane?
I lose a couple of hands when I am in the blinds, I can’t keep up with my notes, I am fumbling to count enough chips for the blinds (a couple of times when I am stacking chips the dealer mercifully posted my blind for me), I am a multitasking mess, and I am now down to 370,000 chips.
I am dealt A-5 suited, I go all in and it gets through.
The blinds go up to 40,000/80,000. Have I mentioned that the blinds are insane? I believe there were 1,970,000 chips in play total. That means all of the chips in play for the entire tournament only amount to just a bit over 24 big blinds at this level. That’s crazy. I go very card dead for a bit, and I am down to 150,000 chips. Once again, the blinds are about to obliterate me, so I go all-in with Q-5. The big stack calls me with J-9.
I’m … ahead? Somehow, I’m ahead!
My hand holds up, and I continue. I don’t realize it at the time, but, as I type this up, it hits me that Q-5 has delivered twice for me down the stretch. Q-5 really is the nuts!!!!
I am dealt A-4. I go all-in. It gets through. I have 400,000 chips.
We are now three-handed.
The dealer asks if we want to hear what an ICM chop would be. The big stack says he has been told not to chop (not sure by whom). Throughout the final table, he has said no to any talk of an ICM chop when raised by other players. I am glad, because I also would have said no, since I want the experience of playing at a final table. I think if you chop every time you make a final table in a casino, you will be unprepared if you ever make a final table at a big event like the WSOP (however unlikely that is). Plus, I believe that chopping angers the Poker Gods (not kidding, I really do believe this). When the big stack again says no to a chop, the ever-helpful dealer (Mr. long COVID from earlier) says that an alternate option is to guarantee the big stack first place money, and then the other two players can chop the rest. The big stack says, “That hardly seems fair.” The middle stack is ZZ Top, and he starts to ask a question, but, before he can finish, I say, “Let’s just play for it.” Conversation over. Cards get dealt.
The very first hand, I am dealt 7-7. I go all-in. ZZ Top calls with A-J offsuit. It’s a coin flip, and, hey, I have won one coin flip earlier this tournament. Maybe I’m about to go on a coin flip heater after running bad at them in the early stages of my poker playing days. If I win this flip, I think I may be chip leader (or at least very close). A poker cliche runs through my head as I wait for the dealer to turn over cards – “You have to win flips to win tournaments.”
The flop comes with … an ace in the window. I’m in big trouble, a world of hurt. I don’t hit a miracle two-outer, and I am out in third place.
And there was much sadness (not that much, though, as I am pretty thrilled with the overall outcome).
After 6-7 hours of play, I have won $2,283 for third place in a tournament that had approximately 200 players. A casino staffer guides me to the payout window where I sign some paperwork, and then I get paid. It’s a bit of a whirlwind, and I didn’t actually read what I signed. Hopefully I didn’t just sign away my house. I put the cash I’m given into my wallet, which now bulges at the seams. In the business world, this score would be no big deal to me. Business as usual. In the poker world, it’s an immensely proud, towering achievement for me. My beloved Michigan Wolverines just won the football national championship with me at the game, and now this poker result. Maybe this really is the year of rppoker. I’m starting to think I am on a life heater. With third-place cash in my possession, I walk by the final table and see that ZZ Top just won the tournament. I fist bump him and offer congratulations.
If only I had won that last coin flip …