Holy Crap Step 6

I finally did it. I decided to play in my WSOP Step 5 tourney tonight. After playing a couple of Step 2 and 3 tourneys tonight, I felt like I was playing quite well so I decided to give it a shot. And wow did I get lucky.

I was the short stack with 7 players to go. The blinds were at 100/200 and I had only 800 chips. Luckily for me, the 2 players just above me in chips went to battle in the blinds with A8 against Q2. The player with Q2 had fewer chips so I was hoping for A8 to win so that we'd be down to 6 players.

The structure of the tourney is 1st & 2nd place win a step 6 ticket, 3rd & 4th win a step 5 ticket and 5th & 6th win a step 4 ticket (7th, 8th & 9th place get nothing). If it were down to 6 players I would at least be guaranteed a step 4 ticket.

Of course the Q2 player hit a 2 on the river to win but the other player became the short stack below me. On the next hand he was in the small blind and I was in the big blind. Everyone folded until he went all-in for his last 360. The blinds had moved up to 150/300 so it was only another 60 for me to call.

I called and my Q6 dominated his 56. I won and eliminated him in 7th place. Whew - I made it to 6th place at least. I was still the short stack though. That is, until about 3 hands later I got my first decent hand with QQ.

The under-the-gun player limped (stupid play) and I shoved all-in. He called and turned over 66. I won and quickly moved up to 2nd place. I was stunned to say the least. Now I actually had a chance to win a step 6 ticket.

Since the blinds were so high, other player were pushing all-in and getting called rather quickly and we were down to 3 players. One player had about 6500 in chips and the other 2 of us had about 3000. On the first hand of 3 handed play I got AK and raised but got no callers. I was hopeful this was going to go well.

Unfortunately I didn't get anything remotely close to a playable hand after that. The big stack still had about 6500 and the other player had moved up to about 4000 while I had dropped to about 2000. It was not looking good for me.

Until...I was on the button and folded and the chip leader in the small blind raised to 900. The big blind (2nd in chips) moved all-in and the big stack called. It was QQ (the big stack) against TT and I suddenly had all my fingers and toes crossed.

The big stack's QQ held up and I backed into 2nd place and earned a step 6 ticket. I don't feel at all bad about backing into the win. I played as best as I could so I still feel I earned it.

My one observation on the last hand is that the big blind (2nd in chips) should've played a little slower and not shove all-in pre-flop. Just call the small blind raise and see what happens on the flop. If an Ace or King or maybe even a Queen came on the flop, he could at least fold to a decent size bet. Thankfully he didn't do that and the flop came down Kc 6d 4d and then the wonderful Qh came on the turn to seal it for me.

Hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight. I'm a little pumped up right now.