WSOP Gladiators of Poker

Today, I played in the WSOP Gladiators of Poker tournament. I started late, but I was winning more than I was losing. Then I lost a couple big pots and found myself short-stacked with about twelve big blinds. I shoved with AK. I got called by AQ. The board ran out 77KQ... 10. I actually won!

Then I won a 3-way pot with pocket deuces when the board ran 34574. I gambled that the three other players in the hand had big aces, and I was right!

Then I had A8. The board ran out A8373. On the river, the other player shoved. I figured unless he had A3, I was ahead since he had re-raised me pre-flop. He probably wouldn't have re-raised with pocket 3s or pocket 7s, and he would have re-raised me after the flop if he had pocket As. Even his having A3 was unlikely. I called, and he showed pocket 10s. In three hands, I went from short stack to table chip leader. What a crazy game is poker!

There were over 4,500 people registered in the tournament. There are 4 days to enter. This tournament will end up have over 20,000 entries.

I got K♣K♦ and raised from $2K to $5K. I got two callers. The flop was 3♠6♠8♣. A short stack shoved for $22K. I called. The third player folded. The short stack showed 8♠9♠ for top pair and a flush draw. I expected he had a flush draw. He didn't get a spade and he didn't pair the board, so he was eliminated, and I again increased my already big stack!

We were at the third break. I was down to about 20 big blinds. Not terrible, but the blinds kept going up fast, and I wasn’t getting decent cards.

Then I won a good-sized pot. I had Q♣J♥ in the small blind. Everyone folded till the button raised from $3K to $6K. I called. The player in the big blind folded. The flop was A♠J♠K♣. He bet $7K. I called. The turn card was 10♠, giving me a straight, but there were a dangerous three spades on the board, which would give the other player a winning flush if he held two spades. The other player checked quickly, so I shoved, figuring he either didn’t have two spades or he had two small spades. By snap-shoving, I might be able to get him to fold two small spades. He folded. I then had about 25 big blinds, so I was improving.

I finally got pocket As. One player with a big stack raised a lot. I reraised a lot. I was hoping he'd shove, but he folded.

I got pocket Ks under the gun. I raised, but everyone folded.

I raised under the gun with AJ. A very big stack had recently sat down at the table and was very aggressive. He shoved. I might have been ahead of him, or it might have been a 50-50 race, but I didn't want to race for my tournament life, so I folded.

I found myself with only 10 big blinds. I knew the time had come to find the right hand and shove. I needed to get lucky.

1,100 players remaining out of 4,578. I understood that 687 players would get paid.

Then we were down to 930 players, but, as usual, I was still short stacked.

I shoved with pocket 9s. As (bad) luck would have it, I ran into pocket As. I busted out at #850. So close. I’ll try again tomorrow.