WSOP Event #49 Final Table

I went to the final table with 694,000 which was 6th place out of the 9 remaining players. The final table was to be filmed with hole cards shown and be broadcast online with a 1-hour delay. I was allowed to bring two friends into the secluded area so I had Sutti and Olli in there with me. After getting miked up and told the basics about showing the hole cards to the camera it all finally started.

Me at the final table

Because of my stack size I was left with limited options as to pre- and postflop play. I had plenty of first-in preflop fold equity and minimal reraise preflop fold equity so I was kind of in an awkward spot.

If I remember correctly, the first time I went all-in was after a raise from Ray Spencer in EP. He had been playing pretty poorly on Day 2 and had been playing way too loose at the final table as well if you ask me. Back to the hand: He raised in EP to 100k with blinds of 20k/40k, I shoved on the button (520,00) with 77 and he folded with little hesitation. It turns out he had A6o.

A short while later I had KTo in MP and raised it to 120k. The SB (Leandro Pimentel) shoved from the SB for 550k. Although I was getting good odds, I elected to fold the hand after a lot of consideration. A couple hands before that Pimentel folded AQs to a reraise all-in and showed the table his hand. I knew he was playing somewhat tight and was not going to risk his life on some bogus hand, but apparently this hand I was wrong. As I would later find out in the internet broadcast, he had A5o. He used his image very well.

A few rounds later I had around 700k in the SB and the action was folded to me, I looked down at 89s. Greg Mueller was in the BB and I knew how super-aggressive he was. My plan was to limp reraise all-in because I knew he would raise 60-70% of his hands if I limped in. Unfortunately he checked behind and we saw a flop of A93. I bet 100k, he called quickly. Turn was another A. I checked, he bet 135k. Folding was not an option for me, it was either call or shove. I elected to call and give him another bluffing chance on the river. The came down a J and I checked again. He bet something like 135k again which looked super-suspicious like a value bet. I was now pretty confused, but had to call based simply on the odds. He showed J6o. Wow, what a sick catch.

From that moment on I was extremely crippled. Over the course of the next couple hours I was all-in 4 or 5 more times with hands ranging from JJ to K3o. Each time I took down the blinds + antes which allowed me to maintain my stack and keep it in the ballpark range of 600-800k. Meanwhile 3 people had busted and there were 6 of us left.

I was in the BB with A7o and it was folded around to John Hunt in the SB. He raised to 220k with blinds of 40/80k. I thought for a couple moments and came over the top for 700k. A7o is not a great hand but is certainly strong blind-on-blind. He called with 99 and I didn't get any help on the board, so I took 6th place for $96,775. I was definitely happy with the result, especially if you consider how shortstacked I was during several spots in the tourney.

I'm not the kind of guy who complains about being carddead, but I did feel that I played well with the few nice cards I got at the final table and made the most out of what I had. Overall I had a really good time, played a great tourney in my opinion and got lucky at the right times for a nice payday. A couple other guys exchanged a few shares with me so they profited nicely as well :) Thanks to everyone for their support during the event!