The final part of my WSOP trip report is now appearing in the November issue of 2+2 Magazine. It perhaps goes without saying that one’s bust-out day from the WSOP main event is usually a frustrating one, and mine was no exception:
“Since he did call, does that mean my play was bad? Maybe, but not necessarily, and that’s one of the things that’s so frustrating about poker. Sometimes you do everything right, get your money in good, and lose anyway to an unlucky card. Other times, you do everything right but get your money in bad anyway. Bad results don’t necessarily mean bad play, which is what makes it so difficult to realize when you are playing badly.
It might be that my opponent never raises the flop with a hand that isn’t going to call all in, in which case my re-raise was bad. Or, maybe he raises the flop with a lot of hands that will fold to an all in. In that case, my play was good and I just got unlucky that he happened to have a particularly strong one this time. I’ll never know.”
Hopefully I’ll have a better outcome at the PCA.
Hey Andrew… great report as always.
Do you feel at all that you just pushed too hard on that last day because you felt you had an edge? The 54 hand for example may have been a correct move on the flop, but was even playing it at all the real mistake? It feels to me that you’d be better off picking juicy spots rather than pushing small edges. Not meant as criticism, just curious….
Good question, blaargh, and don’t worry, no offense taken. I did try to address this in the post, but I’ll say a bit more about it now. I don’t think I regret anything except possibly shoving with the flush draw, and even that is close.
I’m sure there are a lot of people who will argue for conservative play at this stage of the tournament, particularly when I feel I have a clear edge vs. my table. In my opinion, though, a big part of this edge comes from the intimidation factor, which enables me to steal a lot of pots pre-flop or on the flop. The paradox is that to be intimidating, you usually have to be willing to put some chips at risk.
My willingness to shove here, whether or not the hand goes to showdown, makes it harder for people to play back at me, especially as we approach the bubble, which we would be doing that day. No one wants to call me pre-flop or raise me on the flop if they know I’m willing to put them all in. It’s not something I would do with the last of my chips, but I had enough that even losing the pot was not in itself a disaster to me.
To be clear, that’s just my answer to the “play conservative and wait for juicy spots” argument. I would NOT make this play if I believed it be negative chip EV. Intimidation isn’t worth that much. But with a big stack, it’s a reason I’m willing to invest a lot of chips in a small edge in this spot.
As for playing 54s in early position, I’m still happy with that decision at this table. The pre-flop pots were huge, and a small raise laid me a very good price to steal them. I wasn’t particularly worried about anyone massively outplaying me even with position. I would argue that I’m even making money when this guy calls out of the small blind (though not as much as I would make if he folds). He’s going to check-fold the majority of flops, after all.
All of that said, I’m still not certain, and I don’t think I ever could be.