WSOP Event #49 Day 2

I began the day with just 18,200 chips and blinds of 1k/2k/300. I folded away my big and small blinds and was left with ~13k on my button. If the hand was folded to me, I was pushing any two cards for sure. I knew that and unfortunately my opponents knew that as well, but I was pleasantly surprised to look down at QQ right before I shoved. The BB called with ATs, my hand held and I doubled up.

Still incredibly shortstacked I was moved to a new table. At blinds 1.5k/3k/400 I went all-in for ~30k from LP after it was folded to me and I found KJo. The BB thought and thought and eventually called me with 77. A jack on the flop quickly gave me relief and my stack was beginning to take shape.

I was moved again and had ~80k when the following hand came up. Blinds 2k/4k/500 and a player to my right in EP makes it 13k. I look down at AA and consider my options. Reraising all-in gets him to fold too many hands here, reraising small is too suspicious IMO, so I elect to call and disguise my hand. The BB calls as well and we see a flop of AT6 rainbow. Check check check. Turn is a blank. BB bets 20k, EP raises to 70k, I am all-in for just under 70k, BB folds. EP player shows ATs for top two but it drawing dead.

After this hand I began raising a lot of hands and was getting a good amount of respect at the table. I took down blinds and antes several times, which netted me 12.5k each time. I also eliminated Bradley Berman after I raised on the button with KQo to 18k and he shoved his BB for ~100k. I tanked it, made the call and my hand held against his Q8o. After this I was moved to a new table yet again.

At my new table I had ~300k when the following hand came up. UTG (has me slightly covered) raises to 40k with blinds of 4k/8k/1k. I look down at TdTs in the cutoff and elect to call. The flop comes down Jd8d7d. He checks and I bet out 50k. He checkraises it to 130k total. I go in the tank for several minutes. On the one hand, I could already be drawing close to dead. One the other, I had a feeling... a feeling that he was full of shit. He could easily interpret my small flop bet as a sign of total weakness and just be trying to push me off my hand. The problem is that I had little to no fold equity, as he only had about 130k to call if I pushed. The only hands he could fold would be the total bluffing trash hands or a hand without a diamond. After 3-4 minutes I finally stuck my money in and he went into the tank. Not getting an instacall is a great sign for me there and indeed he did muck his hand, probably hating me with a passion. This was a super tricky hand but was really key for my tournament life.

A few hands later I was UTG and found KK. I raised it to 24k and was called by the button player Thomas Middelthon, chipleader at the time and playing super-aggressive. The flop came down Q85 with two clubs. I lead for 50k, he makes it 150k instantly. I ponder for a few moments before announcing that I'm all-in. He folded before I could even close my mouth. That left me with ~600k which was good enough for 2nd in chips with just over 30 players remaining.

I really couldn't believe it when they came over to me and once again moved to a new table shortly thereafter. We were now down to just over 20 players. I only played a couple hands before our table broke and we re-drew with 18 players. At the point my stack still around 600k, which was slightly more than average. I didn't really do much work because the situations were not right for me, so my stack dwindled down to around 500k. With 12 players to go, the tightest player at the table (Marc Phan) shoved all-in in LP for 200k and I was sitting to his immediate left. Although he hadn't played a hand yet, this could easily be a frustration move by him so I came over the top and went all-in myself to isolate. He showed 22 and the board came down T4Jk4.

Within a couple minutes two other players were eliminated and we had the final table of 9 players set, myself included. I was going to go into the final table the next day with 694,000 chips and blinds of 15k/30k/4k, which was going to leave me shortstacked but with a little breathing room.