Event 52 Part 2

It is now well past midnight and the field has been narrowed down to 140 players. We are nearing hand for hand play. Blinds are at 600 & 1200 with antes at 100. I'm dealt two cards in the big blind (can't tell you every hand that I have) and E-Dog Eric Lindgren limps in and the Mad Russian limps in as well. I re pop the pot to make it 3500 to go and get the double take from E-Dog. E-Dog smirks and I look at him with a blank expression. He looks at the Russian and folds. The Russian looks at his cards and contemplates for a second. Is he going to reraise or is he going to fold? Just as I am ready for his raise, he folds and my chip stack has now crossed the 41,000 mark. A dark horse in the tournament is now gaining momentum in the tournament, me. A few more hands are played after this pot and the table is broken up. Darn it, just as I am warming up to the table and getting comfortable with the crowd, they break us up. I am now moved to a new table and am seated next to the ultra aggressive Mark Seif. This table would prove to be no less difficult than the previous table. Mark Seif, Jordan Moran are some of the featured pros at this table and also two others as well.

It is now past 1AM and I feel fine. The pace of the tournament has slowed to a crawl and every so often I take a glance at the leader board to see how many players are remaining before we are in the money. We are now down to 130 players. There are definitely short stacks in the tournament that are shorter than my stack. Blinds are now at 800-1600 with a ante of 200 and my stack is at 35,000. In my time at this new table, pots have been raised and re-raised. Two orbits/nearly 20 hands have passed and the rapid succession of raise, re-raise continues. Everytime that I try to make a move or even think of making a move, it is reraised. Chip stack down to 29,000. In the big blind, I'm dealt 2,4 offsuit and check after a call by the Under the Gun player and Mark Seif in the dealer position. The flop is 347 rainbow. I go all-in for my remaining 24,100 and the UTG player folds. Seif debates and after a minute decides to call and flips over K7 suited for top pair against my middle pair. I'm going to need to improve on my hand to stay alive in this tournament. Seif has me covered by 100 in chips.

Where's my personal ATM when I need it. Earlier in the tournament around 11PM that night; we were sent to break and was told that we were on a 15 minute break. The Russian asks E-Dog how long is the break and he said chip race off plus 15 minutes, which is roughly 30 minutes. Funny thing is that most of the players at our table decided to stick around the tournament area during the break counting every ones else's chip stacks. 15 minutes passed and the Tournament Director announces "breaks over!". E-Dog frantically glances around looking for the Russian because we told him 30 minute break. It had been standard procedure for this series that during the later rounds of a tournament, the break would be 30 minutes long bu things are never what they appear to be.Here we are sitting at the table and creating a small fib for the Russian to cover up our tracks. My side of the table (E-Dog, me and a few other players) all nod in unison that we will tell the Russian when he gets back that only two hands have been played. Should have had E-Dog prop bet me on this one! Finally the Russian is back at the table and asks me how many hands have we played? I sit there and stare around the table and the entire table is mum. Great, guess I will be the bluffer/story creator of this question. I look at him with a very nonchalant face and state "two hands". E-Dog and the rest of my side of the table quickly fold. One by one, the players walk away from the table to keep their smiles and laughs from showing as I have lied to the Russian- big time. We have been playing for over 30 minutes and it just happened that the button position was one spot to my left and made it look like that we just resumed playing. I'm not sure if the Russian figured it out but I will never forget this moment. Maybe that why he decided to call me down when I had Pocket Kings. As Scotty Nguyen said "It's going to be all over, baby- If you call!".

Back to the Mark Seif hand, the turn and river was a 9,10 and I was bounced from the tournament in 126th place, just 26 spots shy from this event's payday. Bummer, I was not a happy camper and was seen talking to myself as I walked away from the table. I just wanted to run away and hide as I donked my chips off to Seif and later discovered that Mark Seif did not event finish in the money. On my way back up to my room, a group of 4-5 new fans that I had walked by me and asked "Are you Out?". I replied "I am" and they went on to say "You played awesome! and will check out your website and look for you at the main event". My new found fans comments were genuine and provided a small measure of relief. Still feeling dejected, Jay and I went to the room and talked about my last hand in depth to well past 4 in the morning. It's time to change gears now. Time to get ready for our booth at the Big Show and to market this great site to the rest of the live poker world. My tune up for the Big Show is winding down. Only 36 hours before the big show! No cashes yet for this series but is the Big Show where my streak ends. Will this unknown out of Denver be the next big name? The saga continues in 36 hours at the 2007 WSOP-10,000 Main Event, Table 52, Seat 2.

Players, please be seated!
Chewey