My arrival at table 123 began with a player almost receiving a penalty. As I sat down "Minneapolis" Jim Meehan was all in with 4-3offsuit against pocket 4s. The board came:
6-6-J-9-9 to cause a split pot, and Jim was yelling about how this guy had stolen half of the chips in a pot that Jim thought he should have won. Jim happened to have four beer cups on the table. When I got seated Jim was on my immediate left and was somewhat short-stacked. Bill Gazes was another poker pro at the table, and he was seated two to my right. I had about 4200 in chips so I was still plugging away. Jim got up and walked away from the table for a couple minutes to go catch a smoke outside, and I was made aware that Jim had done about a dozen shots along with the beers he had.
When Jim came back he was rambling on telling stories about various things to no one in particular. Whenever he'd kind of tap my arm as if he were telling me the story I'd just nod my head, but I never really looked at him too much. I was hoping he'd catch the hint. He didn't. At one point Jim and Bill got in to it a little when a player had raised Jim's big blind, and it really was enough of a raise that Jim was playing for all his chips. He went in to the think tank, and Bill finally starting pushing Jim to make a decision. Jim got really mad and started yelling at Bill, and a floor person had to be called over to calm things down. They brought Jim some coffee at that point, and they officially gave him a warning.
I had managed to work my way to about 7000 in chips. The hand where I got most of those chips came when I was dealt J-J. I hate Jacks. I think most players do. I raised about 5x the blinds and was of course called by one other player and the big blind. The board came about as bad as it can come when you hold Jacks:
A-K-Q
The blind checked, I checked, and the other player checked. The turn came 2 and the blind checked again. This time I had to bet, and when I did both players folded. Personally I think I was beat, but hey, sometimes you get rewarded for being the aggressor
It was around this time that I got dealt a blow that I thought had me finished. This next section will go to show what you can do with just a "chip and a chair".
With the blinds at 150-300 and an ante of 25, I was in the BB with Ks-9s. A player near the end raised the minimum so I decided to call to see a flop. The flop came:
8-6-6 (two clubs, one heart)
I checked and my opponent checked. The turn came:
9h
Giving me top pair. I led out and bet 1500 and was called. The river came:
Kc
I led out and bet 1500, and my opponent raised to 3000. I looked at my chips. I only had 2025 left. There was so much in the pot I didn't think I could fold, but I knew putting all my chips in couldn't be correct, so I just called. My opponent showed me the flush. Uggghhh. I was now down to 525 chips and was going to have be in the small blind the next hand and pay an ante.
This is where the fun begins. After posting my ante and small blind I had 350 chips left. A player in early position raised to 1200, and everyone started folding. I started doing my math, and with the antes (25 x 10 players), the blinds (300 & 150), and the raise, I knew I had to put my remaining chips in with Qd 4s. Thanks to the raise causing everyone else to fold I was going to see a 1750 chip pot for 350 chips. In other words I was getting 5 to 1 on my money. No matter what two cards I have I am going to play them there. The raise also meant that instead of having to play against 3, 4, or 5 opponents I'd only have to play one player. My opponent had A-3offsuit, making me a 60/40 underdog to win the hand. I spiked a Queen on the flop and nothing else hit so I won my first all in.
My second all in occurred two hands after that when I was in the cutoff position. I had Ks Qs and moved all in. Everyone had folded to me so I only needed to get the button (Jim) and blinds to fold, and they did.
My third all in was the very next hand. Once again everyone folded to me and looked down to find Ad Qc. Being short stacked I moved all in. This time the BB decided to think about it and eventually he called the 1800 with Kd 2d!! I would have been disappointed if my WSOP had ended on that call. Lucky for me neither of us hit a card to help our hands and my AQ held up.
Now I actually had some chips again. I had about 5200!! Amazing what antes do to those pots! Two hands later a shorter stack moved all in, and I looked down and saw AKoffsuit. I moved all in to isolate against him, and when we turned over our cards he had As Ts. He needed spades or a Ten. This time, an Ace hit on the board, but that didn't mean anything because we both had an Ace, and my King kicker held up!
The next hand I was dealt J-J and raised it to 1300. Everyone folded, and I picked up the blinds and antes again. In less than one orbit I had gone from 500 in chips to about 7000. All the players were telling me "nice comeback" and things of that nature. Jim even made some nice comment about seeing a comeback like that, but the slurring of what he said made it nearly impossible to understand.
Just before the dinner break I was dealt 9-9 in middle position. I raised to 1400, and the button moved all in. He had about 3000 so it was going to cost me about 1650 to call. I started adding up the pot while trying to get a read on my opponent and determined that he was playing high cards and decided to call. I was correct! He had AQ. When the dealer put out the flop a Queen was the top card. My opponent yelled "yes!", but as the dealer went to spread the flop a 9 showed up and I had made my set. My opponent could only win by hitting running cards on the turn and river, and that didn't happen so I eliminated him and went to the dinner break with 9200 in chips.
I was riding a high over dinner. I was just so happy that I had made that comeback!
We found out at dinner that there were 520 players left and the average stack was about 8000 chips. We also were made aware of the number of entrants and the fact that 270 were going to get paid. It was at this point I realized that we were going to get to the cash levels today.
When I got back from the dinner break, blinds had moved to 200-400 with a 50 chip ante. My third hand back from break I finally got AA. The best hand I had seen to this point had been JJ (I don't include AK although it's argued that AK is better than JJ). I raised with AA to 1200, got one caller, but when the flop came J-high and I bet and my opponent went away. This got me to my high mark of about 14000 chips.
After this hand I went the next two hours with almost no hand to play. Either I was getting mediocre hands with people raising in front of me, or getting no hand that was worth raising. I was getting whittled away by the blinds and antes and when I got moved over to table 154 I was at around 9100 in chips.
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