End of the Road

I now know what people mean when they say its one of the most lowest points in poker when you bust out of the main event of the WSOP.

I finished 581st for $20617 (my 3rd biggest poker win). That pretty much doubles my profit for the year so far yet i am gutted and pissed off, what a strange game poker is on your emotions.

Exit hand was calling an allin with AKstd hoping to see AQ or AKoff only to face the coinflip of 88 and a queen high board sealed my fate. The pot was to go back to average chips with the chance to get right back into the game and go deep and i was happy to take the gamble at the time.

I had nursed a 40-60k stack after the dinner break well picking the spots for my allins and not being called once, i lost count of the number of times i moved allin uncalled.

Before dinner i had started on 81k and had tried to make a move reraising a raiser to 14k with 82off but he had a hand and went allin so my first play of the day was 14k down the drain.

I then made what was to be my best call of the tournament. At blinds of 800,1600 i made it 5000 to go from 2nd position with AKoff and the BB called. Flop was 9s10s10h and i bet 10k in position only to get check raised allin. I went into the think tank for 1-2minutes but was convinced my AK was ahead and at best this guy was on a straight or flush draw. I finally called my last 50k for him to turn over Ad7d and i was delighted , even more so when a king hit the turn to seal the 130k pot.

I proceeded to call off a few too many chips after that missing flops with 4 small pocket pairs and losing another 15-20k on a button vs my BB battle where i knew i was ahead on a flop of KJrag with A9 only for a 9 to hit the turn and give the buttons Q10 a monster hand which i paid small bets off to see.

I folded 2 key hands on the bubble time to guarantee the money, A7std in the bb when the sb had raised. Also 1010 on the button when a tight player had raised. ( no £8000ish bubble and both of these were standard all in moves) Turns out sb had A9 and prob would have called and tight raiser had 99 and prob would have folded, both interesting situations but with over 40k left i knew with my fearless allins after the bubble i could easily get back in as i proved in the end anyway.

Ive learnt a lot more about live play and cashed in another multi so its a good result overall. Hopefully i can get over the exit in the next 24 hours and try to enjoy the 5-6days left as a holiday now.