It’s said that one of the keys to winning a poker tournament is being in the wrong place at the right time. I think I got it backwards during this year’s WSOP event #27 ($1500 NLHE). This was three times larger than any tournament I’ve ever played in, but the time was right to get a feel for swimming in the deep end of the pool. Here’s how I drowned…

Almost seven hours into the tournament the blinds were 200/400 with a 50 chip ante. I had played tight and aggressive the whole way through, winning a couple nice pots but mostly folding my blinds away. My M was somewhere between 8-9 (~8800-9900), which put me not in a position of desperation, but certainly needing to make moves to get closer to 15-20. I had been moved five times, which is a lot from what I’ve been told. About ten hands into the new table, I’m not the short stack, but there are quite a few monster stacks around me.

I’m in the cutoff (one seat to the right of the button…good position), and the only player to enter the pot was a limper with a big stack two seats to my right. He was a friendly guy who was wearing a black baseball cap embroidered with a tribute to Cory Lidle, the Yankees pitcher who crashed into a building not too long ago…apparently one of his best friends. I look down at pocket eights. Not the greatest hand in the world, but it’ll do, pig. Normally I would limp and hope to hit a set, but the table is playing pretty tight aggressive. I figured I didn’t have the M to limp with a middle pair too many more times, only to fold to a raise or bad flop. I raised with position to 1600 (4 x BB), hoping to steal the blinds and get the limper to go away. It folds around to the limper, who calls.

At this point, I start thinking about his possible holdings: Maybe a low pair, Ace-X suited, a suited connector or two face cards. He certainly wasn’t proud of his hand pre-flop. The dealer turns out a flop of 567 rainbow…a very nice flop for me. I have an overpair to the board as well as an open-ended straight draw. Even if I’m beat now, my ten outs give me about 40% to win. I like the flop, but realize it’s not enough of a lock to add value unless it improved. There was 4300 chips in the pot.

He examines the board for a moment and throws out a feeler bet…I think it was only something like 1600 chips. I figured he was betting enough to scare me away if my AK was no good but not enough to commit if I played back at him. He had made a couple laydowns in my brief time at the table, and I didn’t have the chips to risk his catching an overcard on the turn or river, so I shoved all in. He hesitated briefly, but made the call with his pocket tens. His hand surprised me, as he would be hurt badly if I had won the hand with the obvious holdings of a set or straight. Unfortunately, help did not arrive on the turn or river.

I didn’t have the best hand when I pushed all in, but I’m not so sure about his call. Limp calling with tens preflop out of position isn’t optimal. Fortunately for him, he was in the wrong place at the right time. I wasn’t getting away from that hand after the flop, since I needed to take risks and double up at least a couple times to stay competitive. Overall, I’m happy with my play against the best of the best. I outlasted a large portion of the field and have my first taste of top-level play.