So onto the deets (very long)

I've won an entry into the World Series of Poker Main Event. This is the biggest tournament of the year in poker. The entry fee is $10,000 and I'd guess more than 5,000 people will enter (they've capped the max # of entries at 6600). It takes place on July 7-15 - yes, in just a week and a half - so I just squeeked in just in time.

The tournament I played in was a $33 + rebuy tournament, which meant that for the first hour, if you were at the starting amount of chips or lower you could buy more chips for another $30. There were 252 people entered. First prize was the entry into the WSOP plus $1000 for travel expenses, and places 2 through 8 paid $650.

All you non-poker players can just stop reading here because now I'll get into the stuff only the poker geeks are interested in.

It was the 5th $33 tournament I had played in. I also had 3 other attempts in $650 tournaments, and a couple of $160 double shootouts. Total amount invested in WSOP qualifier was $2130.. which seems like a lot now that I total it all up. Hmmm. Anyway...

I didn't have much success with any of the other qualifiers I played in, so didn't really have high hopes for this one either but was playing a whole bunch of tournaments this afternoon just for the heck of it. This one started off pretty weirdly. I forgot to rebuy immediately as I normally do, but in the first hand I had QQ UTG. Raised and got 3 callers. Flop came J53 and I bet out, got raised, and we got all the chips in. He turns over K5, I win, and he doesn't rebuy! So long and thanks for your chips.

Things are pretty slow and uneventful until the 3rd hand. I get KK, get all the chips in preflop with AQ and win again. He also leaves the tourney! So I've knocked 2 people out of a rebuy, tripled up and became chip leader after 3 hands. Nice.

It's still in the rebuy period so I don't go crazy, just wanting to hold on to a decent stack until the rebuys are over. I probably play about 5-6 of the next 50 hands, which is ultra-tight during a rebuy, but still lose about 1/3 of my chips with hands like AQ against QQ TT and 88, and then defending my BB with KJo. Down to about 2500, it's time to start pushing and hoping to double up before the rebuys are over.
Unfortunately I don't get the chance, but on the last hand there are 3 limpers, I push with A9o and get no callers. 3000 in chips, plus 2000 for the $30 add on and I exit the rebuy period with almost 5000 in chips which is pretty much the minimum stack you could have at this point since if you had 0 chips, you could do a double rebuy (1500x2) and an add-on. Oh well.

So after the rebuys are over, the real poker starts. Build my stack to 6700, whittle it down to 3000 with the blinds 100/200. Normally I'd just go on tilt here and start pushing marginal hands hoping to double up since the only worthwhile prize is first, but for some reason this time I actually have some patience and fold things like A3.
My patience is rewarded, as the next hand I get AKs in the SB with 3 limpers, push and get no callers.

Next hand, blinds 100/200, 3 early limpers, I have 9d8d on the button and call, SB folds and BB checks. Questionable with such a small stack (17.5BB) but hey, I said I'm on semi-tilt. Flop comes 593 rainbow. First limper checks, next limper bets 800, next limper pushes, and before I can react something hits the call button. I know if I waited another 10 seconds I'd have folded there. The bettor calls and I know I'm toast here. They both have me covered. The hands are revealed... AKs and AQs. Wow. I close my eyes, wait 5 seconds, open them to see the board 5935J. I'm suddenly well back into the game with 11k in chips.

It lasts all of 2 hands, when I lose 5k with AJ vs 66 on a 69J board. I tread water for a few hands until Kuzak is moved to my table. This is a fellow who I had met at the Toronto airport when we happened to be on the same plane to the WPT in the Bahamas. He's a great tournament player and a frequent poster to 2+2. I think having him there at the table made me play a lot better.. probably because I didn't want to do something really dumb in front of someone I know. We've got about the sme chips and I resolve to last longer than he does.

I catch a pretty big break when there's one UTG limper, and I check in the BB with 34o. Flop comes 454. Check, check. Turn J. He bets 2BB, I min raise, he calls. Turn T. Bet out 2BB again, he pushes, I call. He flips TJ and I win. It's another form of luck that's not always so obvious like sucking out on someone... but to have the turn and river come with basically the only two cards that will give the other player the second best hand.

We're about 150 hands into the tournament now, and the chip leader shows up at the table with about 61k. Next biggest is 19k, and then I have 12k. It's obvious where he got the chips from, because he starts calling all-ins with mid pair and rivering people. Nice to be able to afford to do things like that.

I get down to about 6000 in chips with the blinds 600/1200.. and then 4500.. amazingly my patience holds out. I win a race with AK vs 99 and more than double up to 11k with some dead money in the pot. Still the short stack, but then I double up with AA when I get a limper, a cold caller and everyone folds to my flop bet.

I have 19.5k now, the average stack is probably 20-25k, and the blinds are 600/1200. This is where the tournament starts becoming crapshooty. Most hands are raised and taken down pre-flop, or raised and reraised and taken down preflop.

I'm down to 16k, blinds 1000/2000. A 30k stack raises to 10k. A 40k stack cold calls!? I push my 16k with TT and both just call. I'm sweating again. Flop comes 2h 8s 7h. The initial raiser pushes into a dry side pot, and I know for sure I'm toast for sure. The cold caller folds, and amazingly, the raiser flips over A3o!? What a terrible play (as the cold caller immediately informs the table) and I agree, except I win a huge pot and am near the chip lead with 52k. He could have easily saved my tournament there since there was a Q on the turn which may have hit the cold caller.

At this point I like to think it turn into the TripleQ stealing show but apparently my memory was a little wrong. I ended up raising about 50% of the hands that it was folded to me, but there weren't that many of them since there were a lot of short stack all-ins at this point.

I manage to steal my way down to 19k with the blinds 1500/3000. The SB has a huge stack of 110k, he raises my BB to 9k and I push with A6o. He calls and flips A5o. Nice. Flop comes 79T, I resign myself to a split pot but pray for a low card. My prayers are answered when the turn comes 5. Ugh. I guess I should be more specific when I ask for low cards. However, it's not over as the river comes a beautiful 6. Hey, best hand won right?

I tread water around 40k. Then double up when a mid position raiser calls off 1/2 his stack to my push. AK vs KT. KT!? He had been a very lucky player, sucking out 5 times to build a huge stack, but luckily for me not this time.

DOwn to about 10-11 people, and I float between 1st-3rd position in chips. There are a few short stacks so I never tangle with the other big stacks and we all methodically bust out the short stacks. We finally whittle down the huge luckbox who comes over the top of a early raiser.. with A8s!? He runs into 99 and is down to less than 2BB, and shortly busts out. I have a brief heart attack when I reraise with AKh, get called my AQo and flop comes Q39 2 hearts. Luckily I make the flush.

We're down to 5, with one big stack and one short stack. One of the guys has his chat turned on, apparently he had it banned before. Often PokerStars will turn off the chat of people who curse a lot or have been abusive to other players. I guess they unbanned him for this table in case he wanted to make a deal. One of the mid stacks busts out when someone calls his top pair all-in with ace high, then rivers the ace.

The short stack hangs on for quite awhile, then finally busts when the SB pushes with 36o, and he calls with 95o getting 3:1. I guess the SB figured his cards were live. We lose the 3rd place guy when he pushes in with Q8 on the 79T flop, only to run into J8 with the flopped straight. Bad beats all night and they keep on coming.

Heads up starts with me at 283k, and N1LE at 537k. I suggest a save (i.e. winner pays loser something), and he offers me $2000 for the seat. Umm... no.
Turns out I made the right decision because he's pretty passive heads up. I start out stealing with 2.5xBB raises, but eventually figure out he'll fold a lot of hands to 2xBB raises so I go with that. He also calls a lot of raises, then folds to a flop bet. It's a pretty long heads up match lasting about 50 hands. Nothing too memorable, except for this hand.

N1LE calls with the SB, and I raise with A3o. He calls. Flop comes J53 two clubs. I bet out, he min raises. Normally I've never seen him play back at me, so would fold to the raise, but for some reason my instincts tell me the min raise is weak, so I quickly push. He's getting about 3:1 to call and has me covered, but he folds! Phew.. in hindsight think if I waited another 10 seconds, I would have folded.

Next hand I think he's upset since he bluffs off 1/3 of his stack with J high to my slowplayed top pair.

3 hands later, we get all the chips in preflop with my 33 vs his A3o and he doesn't hit the ace. I don't think I can really describe how he felt, so I'll end it here with his eloquent comments:

N1LE [observer] said, "FVCK this website"
N1LE [observer] said, "FVCK lee jones"
N1LE [observer] said, "FVCK pokerstars"

And now we know why his chat was banned.