WSOP Update

Last night was a good night for me - I had my highest finish in the year and a half that I've been playing in my monthly WSOP tourney - 3rd place. This wouldn't be so remarkable if it wasn't for how I actually ended up there. It was a rough night to start off with - I wasn't getting any cards and the couple of hands I got involved with, I ended up way behind and had to get out of the hand. Then, shortly before we combined to the final table, I picked up a really nice sized pot. After that, my cards went very cold and I wasn't able to do anything except give my chips away. I managed to pick up a small pot here or there along the way, but before I knew it, I had lost virtually everything and was down to $100 with 5 players left and the blinds at $150/$300. This is where things got wild. Every time I put my tournament life on the line, I won. Suddenly, the blinds are going up and I'm doubling up every time I pick my spot to play. Trust me when I tell you that there was very little skill involved in this comeback other than picking and choosing which starting hand to play - Lady Luck was smiling brightly upon me! So, there I am sitting in 3rd place and I'm still winning hands when I get tangled up in a hand with GB for the second month in a row. I had 9 10 suited in the big blind ($400/$800). GB limps in to see the flop - 7, 10, 6. I have the pair and a straight draw with quite a few number of outs. I raise $1000 which in retrospect was a bit too low of a raise. This causes GB to think about what he's going to do. He raises me $2,200 which amazingly enough, I actually have enough chips to cover his bet and still have enough chips to make it through a small blind if I lose. I can't put down the straight draw with two cards left - I have him pegged for a small pair and he's simply trying to get me out of it. I call and we roll them - He has pocket Aces and I'm in trouble. The turn is a Queen and the river is a harmless 2. Although I bust out a few hands later, I thought I played well overall for the night and didn't panic when I was running low on chips. I earned 23 points on the night and I think I made up some ground on the overall leaders.

In other WSOP news, there is talk about changing the prizes since we've lost a number of players this year. The talk has been about instead of sending one person to the Main Event, perhaps sending 2 or 3 to one of the smaller WSOP tournaments. There was also the idea of making the tournament a straight cash payout tournament with monthly payouts. This is something that we're going to have to vote on next month, but I'm open to either idea. I think it would make it more interesting for more people towards the end.