WPT Borgata Main Event...

This is gonna be loooong!

So I just recently got back from a 2 week trip to Atlantic City for the WPT at Borgata. I wasn't planning on playing the main event, just the prelims, but after getting the shit kicked out of me in the prelims ($1080, $1600, $2650) and winning my seat into the ME through satellites (got in for $240.) I really was looking forward to playing my first major. I woke up on Sunday morning and hurried over to the Borgata. When I walked in, I quickly said hi to a +1 member who is a Cardplayer tournament reporter, then went to find my seat. Wouldn't you know that the only person sitting at the table at the time was Raj Patel, WPT Foxwoods winner. I sit down (sign the WPT release form) and make conversation, and pretty soon the rest of the field has filtered in and the cards are almost ready to go in the air. I don't immediately recognize anyone else at my table until right before the first card is peeled off, when Kido Pham sits down two to my right, and a guy two to his right looks relatively familiar as well, but I don't know why.

We start the tournament with 3 empty seats at the table, but it's underway. The first 2 levels weren't too exciting, I abused the older gentleman sitting to my right because he wasn't a particularly strong player. Raj is being quiet, so is Kido, and the guy in the 3 seat is pushing most of the action, he's clearly a strong player but I still don't know why he looks familiar. On the last hand of the second level a big hand happens when I river two pair (KJspades on a JT7 4 K board) and seat 2 bets big on the river, I call and he shows AQ for the nuts. I leave for the break, and still have plenty of chips (over 40k, we started with 30.) When we get back from break is when the exciting stuff starts to happen. The empty seats are all filled now, Seat 8 (i'm in 7, Raj in 9) is a guy Champie Douglas who had a big cash at Bellagio recently, seat 10 is Shankhar Pillai who is a bracelet winner, and seat 1 is some obnoxiously slow acting guy who thinks he's on tv every hand.

Champie and I bullshit about the Celtics for a while and then a huge hand comes up. I'm in the BB with 55 and it limps to me (Raj open limped and a couple others followed.) Flop is 593 with 2 clubs. The SB folded pf so i'm first to act and I fire out a bet of about 600, Raj calls, seat 2 re-raised to about 2400, i reraise to 7k and Raj RE-re-raises to 16k, seat 2 folds and I call. Turn is a 7 and I check, Raj bets 14k and i push for my last ~10 on top he bemoans his fate and calls, sheepishly flips over QQ and I win a huge pot worth over 80k! I win another big hand off of Raj and another player (seat 4) and then Raj gets knocked out. A woman from PokerPages comes by and asks what happened to Raj, takes my picture, and tells me I'm chip leader of the tournament.. Chip leader of a tournament with an almost $5M prize pool.

Not much happens for a while, I beat up on the other stacks with some reraises and i'm near 100k when Phil Ivey is moved into Raj's empty seat. This seemed like it would be more interesting than it was. He didn't care about the tournament as much as the basketball games and went out shortly after he was moved in. It's then that i realized who the 3 seat was. It was Johnny Bax (Cliff Josephy.) Moving on, soon I get in a big pot with Champie, he has ~15k left and I raise it up under the gun with KK. He re-raises and I put him all in, he calls and flips AA. I flop a K and am now up to about 120k. After this I go into hibernation. Right before dinner Shankhar and Johnny Bax get in a huge hand where the nut flush loses to a rivered fullhouse and Shankhar hits the rail. When we come back from dinner Steve Billirakis (youngest WSOP bracelet winner) is in Shankhar's seat. He takes a lot of chips from me when I bluff the wrong card. Thankfully, then our table breaks, and shortly after, Day 1 is over.. I'm in 21st place of over 300 remaining, sitting on 100,250.

Day 2 starts, I check where my table is, go and unbag my chips and immediately see some pro's at my table. I'm in the 4 seat, Isabelle Mercier is in the 1, Bill Gazes is in the 8, and Beth Shak is in the 10. Day 2 is an up and down day with not a lot of great hands to post up. Mostly it's me talking with Isabelle all day, in between playing a few hands. I dropped down to under 70k at one point, then made a score on the guy in the 2 seat (seat 3 busted and we went down to 9 handed.) He raised in MP and I had AKhearts and re-raised. He warned me to be careful and called. The flop came A34 one heart, he checked dark, I bet about 5k he insta-called. Turn was the 8hearts he checked, i bet 10k, again, he instantly called. He checked dark and the river was a 10 and i checked behind. He had AQ and I scooped a big pot (but was pissed i missed value on the river.. his quick check calls scared me a bit.. we'll come back to that soon.)

Again nothing really exciting happened, Beth and Bill both got knocked out and their seats were filled with much more chips than they had while sitting there. Again it's basically me, the 3 seat and Isabelle just talking and not doing much when me and 3 tangle again. He was playing every hand and he limped in EP so i raised him with KJ trying to take the hand. He called and the flop comes JJQ. He checks and I bet so he won't think I have the J. He calls. Turn is 4clubs and he checks and instantly calls my bet. River is another club and he checks again. Mad at myself for the last hand I played with him I fire another shell on the river.. he talks for half a minute about me flopping a full house, then calls with T9clubs. I'm hurting again. I'm short for about an hour until I bluff a big stack with 66 on a high card board and get back near 100k. After dinner I get moved to a different table right next to a big stack who raises a lot. Right before the last break of the night (the hand before) i play another huge pot. UTG (guy with chips) raises it up, MP re-raises and Im in the BB with KK. I shove, UTG thinks, then mucks, reraiser thinks for about 3 minutes into the break and calls with AK. I hold and now have over 200k.

After the break I pick up a lot more chips on random wins and am up to 275k when on back to back hands I lose big races with AK, both times against QQ. If i win either one I am top 5 in the tourney going into day 3. Instead, i'm in thirty something place with 175,000.

Day 3-Money day. Table 4, seat 4. That's my seat for the most important poker day of my life. Table 4 seat 1-Johnny Bax, Table 4 seat 2-John Hennigan, Table 4 seat 3 Scott Blackman (doubled him up AK v. QQ in a 160k pot the night before) Table 4 seat 5-Noah Schwarts, Table 4-seat 7-Al Krux.

First hand of the day is huge. I raise to 8k in MP with AQhearts and Al Krux calls me from the CO seat. Flop is T62 2 hearts. I bet 8k and Al calls. Turn is Tclubs, I check call Al's 15k bet. River is 9hearts and i bet 17k, Al raises to 40 I think and call. He shows 99 for a sick cooler, and takes half of my stack on the first hand. I barely play anything for the next few hours, but just watch Hennigan put on a clinic. I reraise once with AA and get no callers. I'm getting short, just under 10x the BB with about 15 to go until the money. I know I can't fold to the cash, nor do I want too.. so I open shove the button with J8diamonds and get instantly called by the big blind who has AK. It's ok.. just hit a pair and I'm in good shape right.. Door card is the ugly Aclubs and i think i'm out the door. But the next two cards on the flop are both Jacks and I survive! After that I go back to barely playing until I start getting blinded down again. Hennigan raises in EP with 57 left (54 pay) and I shove with 88. He doesn't want to call but does and my 8s beat his AJspades.

Couple hands later is a pretty weird. I raise in EP with AJhearts and Nam Le (moved into the 1 seat when Johnny Bax busted) and John Hennigan call in the blinds. Flop is K79 two hearts. Nam bets, John folds I call with my flush draw. Turn is a blank and it goes check check. Then the river.. the Ace of hearts.... Now I was sure I had AJ hearts so this card scares the shit out of me. Nam checks and I immediately look down and see that I actually had AdJh! I check behind and flip my A. Nam looks at me like i'm retarded and I start explaining what happened then just laugh and rake a huge pot. We're now down to 55 and playing hand for hand when I give back a lot of chips. Hennigan was kicking our asses during bubble play, raising 7 of 10 hands, when I get AQspades in the SB and he raises from the CO. He raised to 18k and I repop to 35. He calls and the flop comes 39T. I bet 40k and he immediately shoves. I "think" about it and muck. He says he had a set, and I'm just pissed I threw away 75k to the strongest player at the table. A couple other small hands happen, I win a couple blinds as we wait for the bubble to burst. It finally does and we're all in the money.

When we come back from break they move a new player to the table who's sitting on over 700k! He raises 4 of the first 5 hands at the table. The 5th of which he was UTG. Blackman calls in MP and I have AJspades. Everything is telling me to push and take it down there, but i flat call the 24k and see a flop of A95 2 spades. Checks to me, i bet 35k, OR folds, Blackman calls. Turn is another 9, Blackman checks, I push all in and he insta-calls with 55 for the boat. I don't fill on the river and Blackman (who I had all in the day before) wins a huge pot that propels him to the final table, and a $98,154 payday, and I hafta go and collect my measely $14,754 for 53rd place. All in all it was a great experience and a whole lot of fun. It will hopefully propel me into poker as my full time job, as I am gonna start taking the game much more seriously now and do whatever I can to make myself the best player I can be.

Well yea.. if you're still reading this at this point, congrats. I rambled and told a lot of stories.. but it was the best experience of my life.
-Roddy