I have only played a few poker tournaments in my career. One final table and no cashes.
That is, until yesterday.
On the entire drive to the event, I told myself I was going to win this one. Like Little Boy Blue, I needed the money.
From the first hand, I was getting frustrated with the bad play at my table. These guys were over-betting with K-3 off in early position. I just wanted to play competitive poker, not bingo.
So, I walk up to the Tournament Director and ask if there are any unsold stacks at one of the other tables. To my delight, there was.
“Ok, I am going to put it in dark on the next hand. Just get me off this table,” I tell him.
I rarely get tilty, but I was running on a few hours sleep and got frustrated. I just knew that I was going to end up putting my money in good and somebody was going to knock me out with a trash hand because they are there for fun.
I am there to compete and win.
With the Tournament Director standing behind me with my buy-in money and my new seat card, I push the entire stack in.
I lose the hand, but have $75 of the $8000 left.
“Ok, next hand,” I say.
I put it in dark. And win.
This goes on for several hands. Me trying to knock myself out dark.
Several hands later, I have $10,000 or so in chips.
“Guess you don’t need the rebuy,” the Director tells me. “You got what you wanted. I need you to move to a short-handed table.”
Sweet.
The new table had very solid players. I got in the zone.
In my head, I hear “If you want to win, then start playing like a winner.” My conscience was right. I had a fresh start.
And then I went on an incredible run.
With $300,000 chips in play, I went from $75 in chips to over $200,000 making me the dominant chip leader.
I had about 2/3 of the chips in play when the top four cashed at the final table.
To put this in perspective, I went from 0.025% of the chips in play as the short stack to about 67%.
That is a 2680X comeback.
How did I do it?
Simple: I caught cards when I needed them and outplayed my opponents after the flop.
My first cash resulted in a first place.
I was so happy!!
I shared the good news with my friend Barry who also played the tournament. He gave me a big hug and congratulated me. Barry was genuinely happy I won, especially under the short-stack circumstances.
From the moment I changed tables to the end, I simply outplayed the table - some of my best poker play ever.
There was no bracelet, but my 7 year old son is commemorating the victory by wearing his “My Dad is the Man” T-shirt to school today.
My first cash. And my first win.
My table games payout form sums it up nicely. It simply says “1st”.
