Did My Bubble Curse Burst?

As my quest for a WSOP bracelet continues, today I played a second time in the WSOP Gladiators of Poker tournament. Toward the end, I was short stacked, but I always seemed to get good cards in the nick of time, shove, get a caller, and win to double up.

One time, there were three players in the hand. I had Q 10 and the flop was KJ9, giving me the nuts, a straight to the K. I min bet. One player folded, but the other raised really big. I “thought” for a while before shoving. He called with KJ for two pair. I had to avoid a K or a J coming up, which I did, to double up.

Later, I had about 4 big blinds and just kept waiting for a decent hand that never seemed to come. Eventually I got dealt A 10 and shoved. I got called by KJ. Neither of us improved as the cards came out, but that made me the winner with ace high. I doubled up, but was still short-stacked with only 11 big blinds.

I held on, folding hand after hand as we approached the money bubble. There was a total of 6,110 entries today, and 15% (917) would get paid. I was able to double up a couple of times, but the blinds also kept increasing, leaving me always with a stack around 10 big blinds.

Right before the dinner break, there were 941 players left. When I returned from dinner, there were only 935 players left. Six players must have been playing during the dinner break and busted out!

Well, not exactly. Some hands probably continued into the first few minutes of the dinner break, and any players busting out were recorded after I left. Also, with over 100 tables of 10 players each, it was hard for the staff to keep track of every player who was eliminated, in real time.

When we sat down and played a few hands after the dinner break, the number of remaining players started decrementing rapidly. With over 900 players at 100 tables, it only took a few bad beats or hero calls to bust out another 18 players. In fact, the bubble burst while I wasn’t even playing a hand. All 100 tables played a few hands right after dinner, and another 18 players busted during those hands. I was in the money! Had my bubble curse burst?

As the hands were played, I finally got A♠7♠, a decent shoving hand especially since I was down to 5 big blinds. So I shoved. A much bigger stack called me, as I expected, but I didn’t expect him to have such a strong hand; he had A♥K♦. I needed three spades or a 7. I didn’t get them, so I busted out at #805 out of 6,110 entries. I didn’t make a whole lot of money, especially if you calculate per hour over the 11 hours I spent at the casino. I also didn’t make it to Day 2 on Sunday because I didn’t last to the end of Day 1. But I feel pretty good about today’s tournament. First, I made it far. Second, I cashed. Third, every day I played in a WSOP tournament I did better than the previous day. So maybe my bubble curse has ended, at least for a little while, and I have a legitimate shot at a championship bracelet. Wish me luck!