The Bracelet Still Eludes

Well, I gave it a valiant effort but came short busting out of the $1,500 WSOP event #38. I started out great chipping up from 4,500 to about 11,000 in the first two blinds levels. I took some hits during the next two levels running my pocket pairs into boards of A9x and K9x, only to c-bet and fold to a raise...both times they showed a set of 9s. I then raise AJ and one of the same guys calls me and checks back a flop of QJTx, the turn is a blank, I bet and he calls. River is a scary card and we both check..he has KQ. Next thing you know I'm back to like 7,000 and go pretty card dead.

I guess looking back, maybe I could have changed gears and gotten super aggro with trash cards but these are hour long blind levels and the beginning has no antes. I also had a very good and aggressive Costa Rican to my left so I didn't feel this strategy made a lot of sense. Unfortunately I pretty much stalled the rest of the day but was able to hover between 15-20bb. Blinds went up and I finally was at 10bb when a player opened under the gun. He was somewhat active and he's someone that has had some TV success. I know his utg range is somewhat narrow but you could tell he was starting to get frustrated being card dead as well. I look down at 99 and decide that while he certainly can have TT+, he can also have AJ, AQ, AK, 77, 88. He may also open KQs and I would think he might mix in some suited connectors every once in a while. So I shove and of course he has AA. GG me. Busted about 400 out of 2190.

So that sucked. I was certainly disappointed, but I don't regret the decisions I made. I adjusted to each table and my chip stack. Tournament poker has crazy variance and I sometimes wonder why I like it better than cash games...but I do. And winning a bracelet is still a goal of mine and something I plan on achieving. I'm going to finish out my trip with a Venetian Deep Stacked event that will hopefully make me push back my flight one day. I'm just as motivated as ever to keep improving and taking down some big tournaments.