PardoG's Annual WSOP TR (6/16-6/22)

This is awesome.

Hell, yeah, it is!

So at this point things begin to get even more interesting. Here is what the stacks look like roughly:

Guy on my direct left chip leading with 2.4M
Woman to his left with about 1.5M
Woman to my right 500K ish
We have about 650K ish.

The chip leader starts asking if we want to “look at numbers. The woman immediately looks at me and says “if you don’t want to I won’t be offended” - the reason she says this is because earlier in the tournament, when we were down to two tables someone was joking about chopping or saying something about the concept of chopping I was like “just to let everyone know, I don’t chop.”

Now, there aren’t zero circumstances where this is true, but I am much more inclined to flatten the layouts and play for the trophy or play for the excess etc than do an ICM chip chop etc.

I can go into all the reasons I don’t do this in greater detail at some point but at a high level here it’s:

1) I’m a little “old school”. I believe pure tournament poker is all about freezeouts and not chopping. Not all this ridiculous re-entry stuff that goes on today and everyone obsessed with ICM vs playing to win. It’s against the spirit of what I think makes tournament poker great.

2) and I mean this as respectfully as possible, I don’t need the money. Sure, it’s great, I can use it for many things, but I have a great job, I’m financially secure, and I’m doing this for fun, thrills, gambles, to make a score, and for the competition. I find the barb “ICM is for poor people” distasteful and disrespectful but in terms of the concept itself, I am certainly not here to just realize my equity. I’m here to win and gamble for the biggest score possible.

3) all of your profit in MTTs across your life of playing them comes from the money made in the top 3. And you all know the stats. The best MTT grinders on planet earth only realize a 20% ROI, are ITM 17-28% of the time, and so on. So when you get to this position, you have to capitalize with a top 3 finish for it to be a meaningful score over the life of your results.

4) I felt I was the best player at the table. The chip leader defiantly had game, and I respected his game very much, but I knew they were more concerned about the money than me, I had an edge , and while the structure was gambly , I felt I had enough room to maneuver. If I got chips, zero chance they could beat me.

5) Running the ICM reveals the following::

34.8K
30.2K
23.3K (my stack)
21.5K

for me, guaranteeing myself essentially 3rd place money when im third in chips just doesnt do it for me. sure i cojld go out in 4th walkjng away from the deal, it it woild xost me about 6-8K, but the chance to spin this up to go for 46 and with the belief 3rd is still a likely finish anyway leads me to one conclusion: PLAY ON - no deal and the cards are back in the air

I’m also a purist when it comes to chip chop talks.

Play on!!

Agreed. Same with paying the bubble !!

I'm on board!

A+++

Pardo: "Yeah, but I don't know what I'd do with an extra $1.5K. Deal the cards." 😀

I like and appreciate your approach. I'm more in the same boat (how do I maximize fun), without the skills you've displayed.

This is incredible ! Lmfao

So, cards are back in the air and our big blind comes around so again we have 100K out there, and 550 behind.

The following hand occurs, chip leader opens UTG to 125K , and folds around to us and omg, we wake up with the two most beautiful red Kings I’ve ever seen. A “standard 3 bet OOP in this spot would be 3.5x or in this case like 400-425K” and it’s essentially my entire stack. That said, I contemplate jamming, and I also contemplate just 3xing to 375K leaving 275K behind but I feel it looks super strong. Either way we are coming out of the big not sure it matters much. I rip it all in and he becomes visibly frustrated. He asks for a count. He’s eyeballing the sht out of me. I’m a statue giving nothing away, and he continues to deliberate. Then I make one of the dumbest mistakes a seasoned player like me can make. I decide to engage in table talk. “It’s not that much more I say”. The plan is to maybe get him to think I’m nervous, and to act strong so he thinks I’m weak. He replies “not that much huh? With a chuckle, and says sounds like you want a call then?” I start to realize maybe I’ve made a mistake and he eventually folds. He claims he had a mid range pocket pair. Even if that’s true…wow, I’m surprised he folded as chip leader. Here’s the good news though, we got our blinds and ante back, and we added 125K to the stack. We’ve got 725k. Now, there is just one thing on our mind, it’s time to find another gear and try to chip up.

I let the chip leader have a walk the next hand to get him to forget about what just occurred, and to continue to maintain my tight image which I clearly have, but the very next hand on the button we open J10 off and they both muck. +125k now 850.

Next hand, holy smokes. The weapons of mass destruction! The blades! American Airlines! It’s the pocket rockets!!! AA baby!

We open to 125, and they all fold. :(

But….+125 …..(975K)…. We are building

I get a WALK in the BB - WOW (Still 975K)

SB (950) folds to me, complete vs big stack with K8clubs.

We see an 8 high flop come out, we bet 100K and take it down.

We are over a million! Next hand we raise and take it! Wow! 1.125M. We are really chipping up- next hand - dealt AK !!!- I JAM just to try to drive them nuts lol but really because the BB is the short stack and I want to isolate her. They fold 1.3M ! I have actual chips now.

Neighbor to my right now has 250k after she goes through the BB/ante and is sitting in the SB - she jams on me and I squeeze an A9 and snap her off faster than Tom chases Jerry! She somehow has Tens?! Ugh. We lose the hand and our blinds and antes and back down to 5 and she has about the same now. Yikes. I really wanted that pot man - would be up to 1.7M but instead we are back down to 875K barf and what’s worse is she now has 500K again.

On a positive the entire time the woman sitting next to the chip leader has been getting killed by the blinds, she now as about the same as me or less.

She opens UTG my neighbor and I fold, and the chip leader makes the call! (Yes love to see these bigger stacks battle here).

Flop

K108hh she bets, big stack calls.

Turn 9x

She JAMS, CALL

She turns over JJ! , big stack has K10!

River is a brick and she is OUT.

3 left.

21K LOCKED UP! Let’s goooo!

Ha this is great - it is giving me some deja vu since I played yesterday (Sat) and ran deep. I absolutely prefer a turbo structure and since it plays so very shallow the pace of play is great. Really enjoying this write up.

It’s break time. Blinds have now gone to 50K-100K/100K

Chips:

Leader to my left in seat 7 (3.6M) - 36 BB
Woman to my right in seat 3 (500k) -5BB
Me in seat 5 (900k) -9BB

Seat 7 in the BTN, Sest 3 the SB, and Me the BB.

On the break I go to the litter box (heheh) and while I’m in there, I stare into the mirror as I’m washing my paws and I literally say “this is your tournament, I want that stupid ****ing miniature Wynn statue and my picture with it on twitter.” lol, no thought about the money I’ve locked up, no though about the 25K additional still up there. Nope. I want this win, and I want it badddd.

I come back and take a moment to capture things. I actually think this ended up being a cool picture. It was fast and impromptu but I think it captures the moment well. What do you think?

Thank you sir!

After snapping our picture we take our seat. The floor yells over to us “you guys can go unless you’re talking numbers etc”.

I ponder for a moment discussing flattening the payouts a little to something like 38K - 31K - 26K (ICM would be like 40k, 28K, 26k) but then I consider first that our guy to the left has 70% of the chips in play at this point, and I also admittedly won’t allow myself to suggest it after telling myself no chops, as well as the table lol. Ego aside, I think I just want a clean win really bad. Also my stack worth second okay money, in second in chips etc. again…can’t really find a compelling reason, more upside in the spin up (26K more) than downside protection (8k)

Anyway, in that 10 second moment of dead space, chip leader says nothing, and speak up for the table and say “nah we’re good. GL everyone”

It doesn’t take long for the fireworks to begin, chip leader folds his button. SB finds a jam immediately. Let me also clarify, she actually has less than 500k, it’s actually 400K and then her 50k SB so it’s 350k behind. Only 100k but every chip matters here. We take a deep breath and squeeze….first one is a good one….a K of hearts. The second one ins blah one a 5 of hearts. I think back to how many times I’ve been in this spot at the end of tournaments with a suited King 2-4 handed and always seem to find myself on the other end of the stick here vs. some Ace rag and early ahead against a Qx or a Jx or worse etc. I try to scrub my memory and take the emotion out of it. Think. 250K is in the middle (of which 200k is mine) . She has shoved for 400k. 300k to win 650K. It’s 300K of our remaining 700k behind. We can lose this hand and still be in and K5hh vs any Ace rag or even AJ or AQ has plenty of equity there. Also, tons of times she has nothing but two unsuited connected cards, a lower face or something like QJ, J10 etc. We put in the call and hope we are ahead.

The cards are revealed and it’s a J9o!!! We are ahead!

Flop:

J 8 4 right in the window with just one heart - not like this…

Turn 9 of hearts…..woof, but we do go from 3 outs to 9 outs!

River (I can’t help but quietly plead with the poker gods for a heart but mumbling heart one time?)

It’s a FIVE OF diamonds. Blah.

We lose 500K of our 900k stack in that hand. We are now in the SB with 25K in, and 375K behind with 3.75BB. It really hurts man. Not only because we lose the hand, but we lose a chance to knock her out securing 8K more, and get to heads up with her chips which honestly, was the most important thing. I needed her chips to go into the heads up battle with at least say 1.5-1.6 so only be in a 2 to 1 or maybe 2.5 to 1 disadvantage. Crushing.

No choice but to dust it off and refocus.

So as the blinds go up for the next hand, and as the cards are dealt I imagine in my mind a scenario where we come back from this two doubles and we are there. Let’s go! Anything can happen. We know that if we are jamming this hand we are likely getting called due to the price and the fact we’d be shoving into the chip leader so we just hope we get something connected or a high card etc. the button looks at her cards while stacking my chips and quickly folds. Here we go….

Squeeze out a …KING of hearts, and….a …JACK of hearts. Love to see it ! We quickly and admittedly confidently slide our chips right in with zero delay. How lucky we are to pick up such a strong hand three handed in a spot where essentially we know we have to be all in.

As expected, we get a call from the BB but I’m a little concerned, he moved in quickly as well and also confidently - don’t tell me….

Oh. It’s just King Jack as well. lol. But of the clubs variety. So two suited king jacks turned up. We both kind of chuckle but he looks kinda annoyed actually lol. I say “hey don’t worry, you are a favorite, you are suited lol”

Flop
Ac Qc 10c

Yep. You read that right. He not only wins the hand in a spot where we are just chopping up the blinds, but he flops a ROYAL FLUSH. If that isn’t a sign it’s his day, I don’t know what is.

“This isssss the enddddd…..hold your breathhh and count to tennnnn” - don’t know why Adele’s “ Skyfall “ popped into my head there, was probably thinking of casino royale where LeSchief 3 bets A6o OOP loses 90M dollars and dies idk.

That’s it. There will be no trophy, this time, no twitter picture either said trophy, no additional 26K. It’s all over baby. They hand me these things and a tax form and we are off to wonder what could have been.

Well, if you're going to lose, may as well lose to a royal flush. You've got a story that you will undoubtedly tell about a thousand times the rest of your life. Great run. Thanks for sharing. Happy for you (the big score, not the big bad beat at the end).

*gasp*

Thanks for the write-ups. It was fun just reading it!

Was the final table in the tourney hand or machine shuffled?

Sick run! Congrats on the great score.

Also, I strongly relate to the irrational desire to win a little Wynn. Those are the coolest trophies in town!

Congrats on a fantastic result!

That is pretty gross if you consider how cats wash themselves. 😮

Congratulations on the nice score, and thank you for taking time to put together such an enjoyable write up!

Great score and great run. If you're gonna go out...

Thanks for sharing!

Everyone - thanks for the well wishes and the congrats on the score - 3rd is a nice run and I’m cool with it, especially after putting the money in the bank lol.

So understanbly I got zero sleep and by the time I was getting my payout and tax forms and all that I get up toMy room at 4am and realize I have to leave for the airport at 730am woof. I order room service, pack in the meantime, crush my room service quick and it’s in bed for the shortest 2 hour nap (I seriously considered calling my wife when I woke up and just telling her I was coming home the following day because of how shot I was) but in the end I sucking it up and getting my ass downstairs. Regrettably I didn’t have the energy to place a huge bet on my couple of favorite numbers on the roulette wheel - as some of you know I am a little famous for smashing the 14 for 50-125 dollars straight up lol on my way out of town. It’s happened a few times now. Not this time.

We make it onto the plane and are thrilled to see actually business class seating on United Polaris vs. typical first class. It’s super comfy and I literally passed out before we even took off.

I’ll be back with final totals and final thoughts shortly.