Tao of Poker

3rd place!! Yesterday the Dog Bit Me... Today... I Bit the Pooch!

"Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes it rains. Think about that one for a minute." - Ebby Calvin 'Nuke' LaLoosh, Bull Durham

I just came in 3rd place (out of 135... $3000+ in prize pool money... $22 + $2 buy-in) and won a $325 seat in a WPT satellite tournament on Tuesday, March 30 at 9pm... live on Party Poker (if you want to download the software and watch me play in the satellite tournament) for the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship at the Bellagio. Here's what's at stake:

Prizes: As many $27,000 WPT Packages as possible. Any extra money will be paid to the next 3 places (50%, 30%, 20%). One WPT Package will be awarded for every 90 participants. (If there are less than 90 entries, the money will be paid out according to our standard Multi-table Payout Schedule.) Each WPT Package will contain a paid entry into the WPT championship tournament ($25,300 entry fee), 5 nights accommodation at Bellagio (April 18-22) and $1000 in cash, Package value = $27,000.

I just got a shot at the $27K for only... $24. What a deal! I've been jumping up and down for twenty minutes... (like my friend Molly gleefully does when she's hyper excited). Party Poker is an amazing place to play. I'm not going to blow my chance. I played in last week's qualifier to try to win a seat... and I came in 106 out of 161.

So how did I play? I'll post a more thorough report later tonight. But I won a huge pot with 5-5 (pocket 5s). I caught a lovely flop: 5-Q-3... I went all-in against pocket Kings (K-K) and knocked him out. It was early into the three plus hour tournament and I was the chip leader at my table. At the second break I was in 24th place out of 60 players. Not too bad. I caught a bluffer trying to steal a pot and took his entrie stack. That gave me a sizeable lead and I waited for solid hands.

I made the final table... 10 players left, but only 9 would win seats into the WPT satellite. Everyone played tight and the game slowed down. It took almost an hour before anyone had the courage to play a hand after someone raised. Alas, the little stack bravely went all-in 7000+ chips. I had almost 12K and called with A-A.

3:33pm EST... Pauly gets pocket aces!

I was pretty sure that someone was going to be leaving a loser. He turned over J-J and I beat the guy, knocked him out, and won a seat for the WPT satellite. It was a great moved, lucky cards, and I'll take it. I ended up 3rd... but it didn't matter since everyone at that point won a $325 seat. 135 players... $3000+ prize money at stake... 9 winners... I was one of them. Next stop... World Poker Tour and the Bellagio! I have six days to prepare! Felicia's PJK event would be a perfect place to practice (and try to make the Final Table again) against some great players. Time to celebrate.