Upon my return home from Sin City, my PokerRoom.com account contained a robust $75. It wasn't much of a bankroll, but my confidence was running high after playing in Vegas for several days. Eager to start grinding again, I promptly returned to the $30 SnG tables (there I go risking nearly half of my bankroll on one tournament again). Fortunately, the risk paid off and 2 wins and a 2nd place gave me some much-needed breathing room. It was around this time that PokerRoom began running step tournaments ($6 > $44 > $320) to the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event. For whatever reason, I didn't really plan on playing any of these tournaments, but one day I was bored and registered for a $44 qualifier. Admittedly, I was not in the best mindset when the tournament began, as I was extremely tired and didn't anticipate making it very far. Nonetheless, I outlasted 150 runners to advance to the $320 "Main Draw" tournament that was scheduled for a week and a half later. I didn't realize it at the time, but I would soon be playing in the highest buy-in tournament of my poker career. Four WSOP Main Event packages (worth $13,500 each) were up for grabs on top of some pretty serious cash for the 5th - 7th place finishers and I was treating the tournament like it was nothing. Only the day before the tournament did I realize that I probably should have prepared more.
The next day (6/4/05), I wandered over to my friend Ben Drazil's house around 5pm in preparation for the tournament at 6. Ben's DSL internet connection was stable and much faster than the 56k dial-up I had at home and he was kind enough to let me use his computer to play the tournament. As a fan of poker himself, Ben often watched me play online and was one of the guys I occasionally played live with. I guess you could say Ben was my poker protege (for lack of a better term), but it's not like I was a professional or anything. After a few games of ping-pong to loosen up, I was ready to go and Ben pulled up a chair right beside me in full support.
212 is the final number of entrants when the first hand is dealt. We start with 2500 chips - which is 1000 chips more than PokerRoom's standard MTT's offer - with blinds at 10/20 that increase every 15 minutes. Given the deeper stacks to start, my game plan was to splash around a bit more in the early levels, a strategy that would pay off for me as early as level 2. With blinds at 15/30, I raise to 120 on the button with 6c 4c and get one caller from the blinds. On a flop of 6-J-2 rainbow, my opponent check-called my c-bet of 125. The turn brought a [6-J-2] 4, giving me two pair. This time, my opponent check-raised my bet of 250, doubling it to 500. Not to be pushed around, I 3-bet him back but to my surprise, he quickly 4-bet me All-In. I had my opponent covered, but not by much and alarms were sounding off that he could have top set with JJ or even a straight with 53. I called anyway and shot up to 5200 in chips when my two pair trumped his over pair (KK) after the river came a blank.
Looking back on the hand, it's funny to think about how differently I would have played it if I was playing the tournament in present day. Surely, I wouldn't have raised 4x the blind pre-flop (seems raising that much was the norm back then), nor would I have 3-bet my opponent's check-raise on the turn. Even if I did do those things, I would be hard-pressed to call his All-In with just middle two pair in Level 2 of such a big tournament. Oh well... the important thing is that it paid off at the time and gave me some momentum heading into the next few levels.
With 6000 chips at 75/150 blinds, I raised to 600 from the hi-jack with 5s 4s and got one caller who had limped from early position. The flop came 3-2-Q with one spade, giving me an open-ender and a backdoor flush draw. My opponent check-called 450 and the turn came a spade, giving me additional outs. Another check from my opponent prompted me to bet again, this time 650. I didn't think about the fact that my bet size made no sense, and while I still had outs to make my hand I was practically begging him to call by offering 4.5 to 1 odds, which he did. Of course, the river brought me no help, so in order to win the sizable 3625 chip pot, I'd have to bet him off of his hand. Had my opponent checked to me on the river, that may have been a more difficult task, but surprisingly he led out for 600. It was a strange bet given that I had been the aggressor throughout hand and it was small enough for me to put in a significant re-raise and still have chips behind if he called. I couldn't give up the hand. The pot was just way too big, so I re-raised him 1800 more (leaving me with 1900 behind). Thankfully, he mucked what he said was KQ in the chat box! If my opponent checks to me on the river, I probably would have bet somewhere in the 1000-1200 range and he likely would have called. To quote Phil Hellmuth, I dodged a bullet with that one.
With nearly 8000 chips, I was among the chip leaders until I lost a race (99 < AT) against a short stack who moved AIPF. That hand put me back down to 6500, but through aggressive blind stealing I was able to chip back up to 10k over the next 2 levels. At 300/600, I moved tables and raised to 2400 with 7c 6c from late position. I would have been happy to just take down the blinds, but I didn't realize the big blind was sitting on triple of what I had with 30k. Sure enough, he called and the flop came A-J-7. My opponent led out and for some reason, I called with bottom pair. The turn was a harmless [A-J-7] 5 and my opponent fired out another bet. This time, however, I raised him hoping to take the pot right there. He called and I nearly kicked myself, having invested most of my stack with bottom pair against one of the chip leaders, who could afford to call with marginal hands. Fortunately, Lady Luck bailed me out as a [A-J-7-5] 7 fell on the river, giving me trips and a double up when my opponent called my All-In with KK (?).
That hand boosted me up to 7th place for the time being until the blinds eventually caught up with me and the tournament stats indicated I was in 15th place with 17 players left. With a stack of 18k at 1k/2k blinds, every decision was critical, especially preflop. That said, don't ask me why I chose to raise from middle position with pocket twos. Maybe I was trying to pick up some blinds or something... yeah, I'll use that as my excuse. Sadly, I cannot come up with an excuse for calling a re-raise from "Sewerwater" who was on the button. He had doubled my 6000 chip bet, meaning I'd have to call 6k more and commit 2/3rds of my total stack just to see a flop... with 22... out of position, no less. Again, I'm not sure what led me to call, but I did and the flop came 2-3-7 with two spades. With bottom set, I checked to "Sewerwater" who instantly put me All-In. He had As 4s and I had to sweat spades or a 5 on the turn and river, which came [2-3-7] 9 and [2-3-7-9] 9 respectively.
With a stack around 40k in chips, I was able to hang around and made the final table in 7th chip position out of 10. I was nervous and excited all the same, as I had a real shot at winning an all-expenses paid trip to the World Series of Poker or several thousand dollars if I finished between 5th - 7th place. 8th - 10th place got nothing and I remember saying I would kill myself if I fucked it up. Fortunately, I had a great support system in place as Matt and Todd Pawloski came over to root me on and I even had people wishing me luck in the PokerRoom chat lobby! People would type "WTG Rufe" and "Go Rufe" every time I won a hand... I couldn't believe that I had my own rail! That said, I didn't want to let anyone down by running deep in the tournament without any reward.
Fortunately, the 10th - 8th place finishers got eliminated fairly quickly. "The Drone", who I had played before in the higher limit SNGs, went out 10th after his KK ran into pocket Aces. He was one of the chip leaders at the final table and just like that, he was out. "Sewerwater" was eliminated in 9th place, unable to recover from the A4 vs. my 22 hand from earlier. Finally, I eliminated "Makonnen" in 8th place when my A-7 paired and he couldn't catch up. After some thanks from the other players at the table for guaranteeing them at least $2,000 in real money, the all-important question was asked. Who wanted the money and who wanted the seat to the WSOP? I talked it over with Ben and decided that I may never get another opportunity to go to the World Series of Poker again. The other players seemed to agree and play resumed after a short five minute break.
The short stack, "alabama7", was eliminated quickly in 7th place after he lost a race holding JJ. Six-handed, however, play tightened considerably and blinds rotated for a good thirty minutes with very little action. I was 3rd in chips when "Poker-Ninja", another one of the chip leaders from the early stages in the tournament, got impatient and was knocked out as a result. With 5 players left, I can't even describe what I was feeling at the time, knowing that even if I didn't win a seat to the WSOP, I was still guaranteed at least $6500 (I don't remember the exact amount... actually, I think it was more than that). Everyone at the table was pretty even in chips and we kept exchanging the chip lead as the blinds rotated around the table. I would become chip leader - albeit, briefly - on a blind stealing hand from the button. I ended up flopping 2-pair with K8 suited, but got no action from the player who called my preflop raise. Being chip leader of the tournament was nice while it lasted (only a few hands). When the button got back to me, I raised 3x the blind with A-9 off-suit and got a call from "JDTrojan3" in the big blind. As the short stack, "JDTrojan3" was a marked man. Everyone wanted him out of the tournament and it didn't help matters that he was playing really slowly. When the flop came J-7-7, he checked and I thought for a moment before putting him All-In. He called instantly (in what was the quickest damn move he made all tournament) and I was gutted when he showed me pocket Jacks for a flopped full house. As you can imagine, running Aces never came and I instantly went from chip leader to 5th in chips with only 60k left in my stack. A few hands later, I shoved with 99 and got a much needed double-up when it held against the 77 of "kamikazegrad". As a result, "kamikazegrad" was the new short stack and soon after, he shipped it in with As 9s only to run into "kutuz-off" pocket Aces.
"I"M GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES OF POKER!" I shouted, as I tackled Ben to the floor and hi-fived Matt and Todd. With a rush of adrenaline, I bolted up the basement steps and ran outside as fast as I could to call my parents. They were out of town for the weekend and didn't pick up my call after what seemed like 500 different tries. Finally, I got a hold of my mom around 2:30am and told her the good news... that in just over a month, I'd be going back to Vegas to compete in the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event.
To be continued...
I arrive in Vegas around 10:15am PST and make it to Luxor around 11:45 after securing a rental car for the week. I can't check into my room until 3pm, so my mom (who I chose to accompany me for the trip) and I head to the Rio to register for the WSOP. I'd be at Table 69, Seat 7 for my opening table and would be playing on Day 1b (July 8th). After registration, we head over to the WSOP convention that the Rio is hosting. Bodog, Party Poker and Bluff Magazine all have pretty big exhibits and I end up filling a bag with tons of free stuff - poker magazines, card protectors, etc. After a couple hours at the convention, mom and I head back to Luxor and check into Room 5-356 in the East Tower of the resort.
