Now, I am the not the best tournament player, but I feel like my tournament game is strong and that I understand the flow of an MTT and how I should play in and out of each level, especially when I have a good chip stack. With that said, today I fucked up.
Lately I have been playing a ton of live cash and one thing I have learned is that removing my ego from the table has been a good thing overall. I am putting myself in much better spots against worse players and not trying to prove myself to better players by 3 betting them of trying weird lines and leveling myself... bla bla. Anyhow today I played the 1st of many Venetian Deepstacks that run throughout the first half of the wsop. It's a $340 buyin and had a whopping 1200 players, trust me for this series, that's a ton. First would prolly be 80k or something ridiculous.
I chipped up from the starting 12k stack and had 34k at 150/300/25 when another player with a big stack came and sat two to my right. He was a younger kid, stylish hair, an arrogance about him, and overall just the look of a classic internettish punk. My juices started flowing because I am not one to shy away from coming after a stack like that. Instead of letting him control everything, which it looked like he wanted to do after his first hand, I for some reason felt the need to come after him asap.
His first hand at the table he won from the sb after calling a raise and rivering a straight with 45o. This told me he was a bit on the crazy side and ready to gamble, but not necessarily spewy or anything. The next hand it folds around to him otb and he makes it 700. I already felt like nothing was going to stop me from 3 betting him here to set the tone. I look down at 98o and make it 2200. He has me covered (two big stacks if you didn't read it right). He calls. Flop is 1093r and I c-bet 2.5k. He takes about 10 seconds and shoves. Before I get into anything else I will tell you what happened. I almost beat his chips into the pot snap calling and saying at the same time... you have QJ here 100%. He has QJ. Turn J. I leave.
Now, sure, I had 54% equity and I made a good read and I could have won a ~70k stack at 150/300... but I mean... who cares. As I walk away from the Venetian I realize there was no need to be out of the tournament. There was no need for me to try and prove myself, I know my skill set, I know that patience and solid play would get me much further. I don't even hate the 3bet but there is no reason to call off a shove even if he does have QJo every time. You are leaving your tournament up to a coin flip after you had done well constructing yourself a great stack, and now it's gone because ego got in the way. If I fold I have 30k at 150/300 (100bbs!) and am still in amazing shape to play skilled poker, chip up, cash, then win all the monies...
I am not too disappointed but am glad I can look at this objectively. As the WSOP approaches, think about this guys, think about how you have such a skill edge over most people and that even if one or two players around you know what they are doing, playing solid poker with good reads will get you further than letting your ego get in the way.
Good luck to everyone here in Vegas this year, I feel good coming into the series... do you?
