Hooks in the Water

The halls of the Rio convention center are eerily quiet when I arrive today at 10:30am on a Wednesday. Gone are the throngs of hopefuls that were here through the weekend for The Reunion's guaranteed $5M prize pool. And the Millionaire Maker is still a couple days away, when thousands of people will be back in hopes of claiming the guaranteed $1M first place prize.

Today’s event has a slightly steeper entree fee than those marquee events — $3k. And it's a freezout, which means there's no possibility to rebuy if you're eliminated. I expect to see more pros and grinders than the recreational players that filled out my previous tables.

Sure enough, as I enter the Brazilia room I see a lot of successful pros scattered around the room. I get my first lucky break of the day, however, and don't recognize anyone at my starting table.

I win a big pot in one of the first few hands, and continue to chip up from there. By our first break I have double a starting stack, in great position to attack the weaker players at the table.

And then our table breaks, and I'm moved to a new one across the room.

I'd recognize Stephen Chidwick's slender frame, distinctive profile and steely gaze from a mile away. Unfortunately, he’s much closer than that — seated two to my right at my new table, in perfect position for him to steal my big blind at will.

I'm sure the only reason Chidwick is slumming it in a lowly $3k tournament is because he’s chasing a second WSOP bracelet. He's a fixture on the high roller circuit, participating in events such as the $300k Super High Roller Bowl event a week ago. He's also 7th on the all-time money list, with over $36M in tournament poker winnings.

To Chidwick’s right is Julien Martini, a French pro with almost $5M in tournament earnings. And before long, seated to my right is David Coleman, a more recent fixture on the high roller scene. Later, someone observing the action will acclaim that this was the "sickest" table in the room.

I settle in. For the most part, I avoid Chidwick in any meaningful pots. But Martini is opening a lot of hands, and I can't help but tangle with him in a few big pots. I flop a straight against him in one, and hit a full house on the river in another.

I make it to the dinner break with stack slightly above average. Late registration is over and payouts are posted — there were 720 total entries. 108 people will get paid, with about $370k going to first place.

With a few minutes left to kill on our break, I pop my AirPods in, noise cancellation on. My focus sharpens, and I'm fully present in the moment. With 3 minutes left on the clock, the remaining 300 or so players trickle into the Brazilia room and head to their seats. Here we go.

Coleman's down to only about 10bbs¹ and limps from the cutoff. I'm on the button, and look down at two aces — the first time I've seen the hand in two days. It's a tough spot. He really shouldn't have a limping range here, so I figure he’s polar — either really strong or really weak, with nothing in between. I don’t want to risk him folding if I raise, so I decide to limp also, hoping one of the blinds raises over the top of us.

The small blind folds and the big blind just checks so I don't get my wish to build a big pot before the flop. But the flop comes AQ5, enshrining my lead. The big blind checks, and Coleman bets the minimum, 2k. I pause for a moment even though I was sure about my move the instant the chips hit the felt. I just call, hoping to trap either player into putting more money in the pot.

The big blind folds and the turn comes another queen, giving me a full house. I could lose to pocket queens, but the odds of that extremely low. Coleman checks to me and I set the final springs on my trap, checking behind.

The river is a seven and he quickly moves his stack into the middle, save a single small denomination chip. I throw two 25k chips in, indicating a raise. He groans and flashes a complete bluff before throwing his cards into the muck.

I go on a tear and win a few more big pots, and by level 15 we’ve lost all the big name pros and I claim the mantle of table chip leader.

Briefly.

I'm plagued with hands that are good, but not great. This puts me in a lot of tough spots where I end up having to fold in pots with non-made hands when someone shows enough aggression. Or worse, we go to showdown with me having a hand that's good enough to call my opponent's bet, but not good enough to win.

We have a short break a little before midnight, and by then I'm back down to a small stack — just 14 big blinds. There are only 124 players left, so I have to survive 16 of them to get paid.

Not long after break, a player in middle position opens and it folds to me in the small blind. I see pocket jacks. So close to the money bubble, I could fold. But it's a risk — there's no guarantee that I'd be able to fold my way to the money without getting chipped away to nothing. And pocket jacks are way ahead of most of what he'd be raising in that spot.

I jam, and he calls with AQo. It's a classic "coin flip" situation, but I'm happy to be ahead. The flop is good news for me, but I feel a sharp pain in my chest when the queen hits the turn. The jack I silently call for doesn't appear on the river, and I'm out in 118th place without a payout.

It's about half past midnight, as I walk down the empty hallway to an exit. In about ten hours, I'll be back here at the Rio to try again.

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Times I won a staring contest against Chidwick: 0

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