37th

I got cracked during Level 3 today in 37th place. It is obviously super disappointing to go this deep in the main event only to come up short, but I have to admit, I had a lot of fun while the run lasted.

Z and I have to catch an 11:30 flight back to ctown, so I have to keep this super short, but I just wanted to quickly thank everyone who was rooting for me and sweating my chip stack online.

Quick update of today's action: I was on the feature table for the first two levels, because Phil Hellmuth was at my table. Overall, I played pretty well at the feature table (despite being super uncomfortable at first), but I did get lucky with 77 (rivering a 1-outer, but then getting max value) against 99, after I called a cb on a 6-high flop. I also bluffed off almost a million chips with AdQd on a 10 high board, but I really thought the guy had a small pair, and I am happy living and dying with my reads. I also cracked a guy (for about 1.5 million chips) when I trapped him with AA and he flopped an open-ended straight draw. We got it all-in on the flop and the bullets held up. The last big hand I played at the feature table was probably the highlight of the day, despite it being a very straight-forward hand. Phil open raised all-in for 400k under the gun and I called him with JJ. He flipped up AQ and we were off to the races. He picked up a flush draw and a gut shot straight draw on the turn, giving him 17 outs total on the river, but the river was a black rag and the jacks held up. I didn't get a classic Hellmuth speech or anything, and he was actually pretty classy about it, but it was definitely a lot of fun to play with the guy (and to knock him out).

On my bust hand, I reraised a hijack raise to 140k (from a strong/agressive player) to 440k with AdJc from the small blind. I was hoping to take it down preflop obviously, but the raiser called and I thought that he most likely had a fairly big ace or a mid pair, but not a truly premium hand. The flop came down Jh,10h,9h and I was honestly not sure how to proceed in the hand. I had about 2.2 million more chips, and with 900k in the pot, it was a very tough spot. If I led for 700k I would be giving him the fold equity to jam with the Ace or King of hearts with a pair or straight draw. I felt like check folding was way too weak, because I did not give him a big pair. I decided the best option was to jam all-in to protect my hand. Unfortunately, I got insta-called by AhQh and was drawing close to dead. I turned two pair with a 9, and actually had a few outs on the river, but the river was a 2 and I was out. Certainly not my best played hand of the tournament, but you have to stay aggressive in tournaments, and I am not that unhappy about the way I played the hand. Getting 37th was definitely annoying, as the pay scale increased by 40k at 36th place, but with 9 million on the line, it only makes sense to play to win.

Probably going to take it easy on the poker front for the rest of the summer and just relax and enjoy before school starts. Thanks to everyone who has been keeping tabs on me and reading the blog.