Run Silent, Run Deep

I played in the Mini-Main tournament on Monday and made it to Day 2 yesterday. I only lasted about an hour, but left with a pretty nice cash, finishing 790th out of about 6,300 players. I then entered a small tournament, busted out, and then another 1-day tournament and had another deep run, finishing 51st out of 1,076 players.

In the last one, when it got down to about 200 players, I was moved to a table with a player having a monster stack. While the average was about 500K, his was about 5 million. He said nothing—his few words were with a heavy accent—but after he won a hand, the other players informed me that he never lost. I saw him fold hands pre-flop, but I don’t remember him losing a hand he played. And he wasn’t just bullying other players with his big stack. If he got to showdown, he showed the best hand. I’ve seen players run like that once in a while and it frustrates me. First, I don’t understand how you can consistently win without cheating, but there’s no way he could be cheating without help from multiple dealers. It’s even less likely than him winning by chance.

The second reason is that I want one of these incredible runs. I get them once in a while, but mine don’t last longer than an hour at best.

For the next hour or so, I got moved around to different tables as the field shrunk. I ended up to this same player’s right. My stack had been going up and down, and was currently a bit below average, when I got KQ. He raised and I called. The flop was K8J. Great! I bet big. He called. The turn was 6. I bet, he called. I wondered what he had. I thought that with any big pair or a set, he’d reraise me.

The river was a Q, giving me top two pair. I had bet all but about four big blinds, so I shoved. I was shocked when he snap called and slammed his cards on the table. He had A 10 for the lock, a straight to the ace.

I stared in disbelief for a moment before uttering something like, “Unbelievable.” And I meant it literally. How could that river card have given me a great hand and given him a much better one? I’m still going over it I’m my head, but I know all my chips were going in no matter what, and I’m sure his were too, no matter how I played it.

Today, I entered a small multi-day tournament. My plan is to win this one and to use the winnings to pay the entry into the Main Event this weekend. On the off chance that I don’t win this one, I’ll play the Main anyway.

Bob Zeidman is a high-stakes recreational poker player. He created Good Beat Poker, a free online poker site using patented technology for audio and video—see and hear the other players at the table if you choose.