The Dreaded TV Bubble [12.21.2006]
Aaaarrrggghhhh!!! Soooo close!!!
If you had told me two weeks ago, I was going to make four final tables at the Five Diamond, I wouldn�t have believed it, but if I did, I would have been ecstatic about it.
The way things actually went down is a bit more frustrating, as all tournaments are when you don�t win.
When I made the final ten of the main event, I was ready to take things down. The final table looked tough, with players like Negreanu and Hachem, but the truth is it was actually a final table. The player I was actually most worried about was Steve Sung (more on this kid later). I normally would also be worried about Negreanu, but I had great position on both of these players, so I was in great shape.
Let�s back up a bit. I started the day with around 1 million chips. My cards for the most part were pretty cold, so most of the pots I won were just small pots without show downs. I did have a couple of big pots, including two with aces at opportune times. The structure of the tournament had been great, but when it gets this deep, the blinds start to go up very fast, and confrontations become unavoidable.
Michael Binger was raising a lot of pots, so I decided to reraise him one hand with 43s. He folded preflop, and I took down the pot. A couple orbits later, he raised again from Early position. I reraised again, but by now, Michael was very suspicious of me. He had a huge hand with queens, so he decided to move all-in against me. I had aces and doubled up in that hand. That was only the second time the entire tournament I had been all-in for all my chips, and the first time was on the river with no more cards to come, so that doesn�t even really count, right?
Like I said, the blinds were starting to get huge. I was at around 1.5 million in chips when we moved to the final table.
Negreanu was to my right, and I had the good fortune of reading his blog a couple nights ago when he outlined the style he would be playing in some detail. Apparently he is going away from his aggressive style that he played in 2005, and is going back to a more passive style of play focusing on postflop play that he used in 2004. He was rarely bluffing, and almost never reraising preflop. Knowing this, and sitting to his left, made him extremely easy to play against.
I didn�t get a chance to play many pots against him. Actually, I reraised him preflop with nines, and he folded AQo (he didn�t show his cards, but my friend Steve Sung in the 10 seat saw his cards as he folded), and I think that was the only pot we really played together at the final table.
The blinds were getting so big, that most of the play was straightforward sit-n-go style play. Fortunately this is my specialty. Unfortunately, it leaves a lot up to luck.
The first big pot I played was during 30,000/60,000 blinds. Joe Hachem raised utg to 180k, and Mads Andersen moved all-in for around 600k in the CO. Daniel was on the button, and he pondered the decision for a few minutes. The audience was in silence as he deliberated his action. He folded, and the audience let out a huge sigh.
I was in the small blind, and as soon as his cards hit the muck, I loudly announced, �I reraise all-in�. The audience let out a collective gasp. Joe folded, meaning it was time for me to get lucky.
I flipped over pocket Jacks, and was somewhat happy to see Mads Andersen flip over AT. I was a 70/30 favorite, and would have over 2.5 million chips and be in great shape after winning this flop. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side, and the door card was an ace. No jack came, so I was down to around 600k.
When the blinds hit 40,000/80,000 the antes also increased to 10k. With 8 players left, this meant there would be 200,000 in chips in the middle of every pot. Considering the average stack was under 3 million, this meant that there was absolutely no way to avoid confrontations. After two more blind steals than my fair share, I was back up to a million chips.
After a �controversial� Q4s hand that I was not involved in, we were down to 7 players. Six of us would be on TV the next day, while one of us would go home without any glory.
Mads Andersen raised to 240,000 in late position, and I reraised all-in again from the small blind for a million. He instantly made the call. I flipped over AQs, and he had 77. As I�m sure you all know, luck was on Mads� side, not mine that day, and I finished in 7th place � the dreaded TV bubble.
I know I had just won $150,000, but there�s no way to feel good about something like that. I was so close to making the TV final table, and after getting so far, it had narrowly escaped me.
I know there were a lot of people rooting for me, and I thank you all for the support. I�m sorry I let you down, but there will be plenty of more final tables in the future for me.
-Thanks for the support
� Justin Bonomo
