When Table-3 broke up, Marcel Luske and I were both reassigned to the same table again. Marcel came half-stacked, as he and I had tangled together a few times and he repeatedly came out on the short end of the transaction. Marcel sat in Seat-2, and I sat in Seat-8. Looking around the table, Jesse Jones was immediately to my right in Seat-7, and John Juanda was immediately to my left in Seat-9.
It was an honor to play at this table with John Juanda because he and I have played together many times during the early days of Full Tilt, and he remembered me well. A year ago when I asked for his autograph at Bay-101, he asked if I was playing in the event. I had to tell him that it was far beyond my bankroll to play it, but I wished him luck. Now I was playing in the WSOP; and playing my best game against the man that I admire.
Table-4
For some reason, Marcel Luske just didn’t give me any respect. At one point, I caught him muttering that he needed to take care of some dead money at the table, and when I looked up – he was staring right at me. I’ll never know if he was talking about me or not. But if he was, then it was his own hubris and lack of recollection of our previous hands that caused him to underestimate my abilities. Thus, Marcel and I continued to “rock-the-world” in multiple hands together. He still tried to push me off of my hands by check-raising me on the turn. But it was Marcel who would get crippled by this maneuver. I scooped two back-to-back hands against Marcel and took 90% of all of his chips. Two hands later, he was out of the tournament. In the end, Marcel and I played at least 8 MAJOR hands together. I scooped 4; he scooped 1; and we split 3. So let the results be the judge of how Marcel played me, and whether or not I was “dead money” – as he put it.
This is the table where some people started to take notice and respect my play. Unfortunately for Marcel, he wasn’t one of them. Whenever I was in a pot, chips seemed to come in my direction after the hand was over. My table image was tight, solid, and dangerous. If Jesse would raise and I would call, he would play very cautiously; and Juanda became even more cautious. On one hand where Jessie raised and I smooth called, Juanda looked at his hand and shook his head. He said: “man, I have a very good hand here, but I have no idea what kind of flop I’m looking for.” With that statement, John was actually commenting on my play. I’m guessing that he had multiple second-nut draws (2nd nut low, 2nd nut flush, etc.); but he noticed that I only played complete nut hands myself, and thus he made the comment. After thinking about it for a while, John folded his hand – which ended up being a good move for him.
I misplayed one hand during this table – the only hand I consider that I misplayed the entire tournament. The UTG player raised, and the action folded to me on the button. I had AA3x single suited, so naturally I re-raised. The flop came all high cards, but more importantly, the flop contained two kings. My opponent had raised from early position with a hand I might have even folded: AK74 rainbow. When he check-raised me on the turn, I had a feeling I was beat, but I still decided to pay the river just to see what he had played and how he played it. This left me dangerously short stacked (down under 10000 chips) when I didn’t think I could afford it.
A few hands later, I managed to get all of my chips back by scooping a huge pot against a nice young lady at my table. I was dealt A268 double suited, and she was also dealt A2xx. By the time of the river, the board was A842A – giving me the nut full house, and an A2468 low. She raised me on the river, and when I re-raised her I was all-but all-in (only one or two chips left). She called and saw the bad news: my full house beat hers, and she didn’t have any other low and I did. That was a HUGE scoop and put me back up over 20000 chips.
Even though I lost a lot of chips on my hand of aces, I made an equally tough call into a big pot. I had raised with an A23x hand, where the 2-3 were suited hearts. The flop came two low cards, and the turn and river were all high. My opponent check-raised me on the turn, then immediately bet the river. I had to go into the tank and figure out if there was any way I could win this hand. First I notice three hearts on the board; but I had forgotten about the two in my hand. I did remember I had two red cards, but didn’t remember what they were. I looked, and to my surprise, they were hearts – for a baby flush. I made the crying call with the baby flush, and before I turned over my cards my opponent exclaimed: “good call” and he mucked his hand without showing. I showed my baby flush, and took down the nice sized pot.
By now, we're getting real close to the $-Money-$. I seem to have enough chips to get there, but will I survive? Will I tighten up and get blinded out; or will I play my cards exactly how they were dealt?