My $61K Poker Payday

Ken Adams Explains How He Placed 2nd In A Field Of 1,245

(CBS) 
The one good break I caught was that I was moved to another table to fill an empty seat, so I was up against a new lineup of players who had not seen my aces get cracked. They would be less likely to come after me than the players at my previous table, who would sense that I was running bad and would tend to come after me with marginal holdings when the opportunity arose to eliminate me.

On the first hand at my new table after the dinner break I picked up the ace-king of clubs. That is a raising hand even when you are not desperate. So I pushed in my remaining $1,100 (I had spent $100 on antes in the final hand before dinner and the newly dealt hand). Another player re-raised, holding ace-queen of diamonds. Everyone else folded, and the two of us saw the flop. Neither of us improved, and I raked in the $4,400 pot.

I soon moved all in three more times with queen-jack, ace-four and a pair of nines — and I added to my stack each time. Then I realized that I was nearly back to the level I had been at when disaster had struck before dinner! I thanked the dealer, and wondered whether the curse of the dinner break had finally been broken.

An hour later, when the blinds and antes went up again, I found myself in the unexpected position of being close to finishing in the money. With 109 players left, I had $20,300 in chips – a little above average. (The top 100 players would get paid. The players eliminated in 101st through 109th place would get nothing.)

Soon, some unfortunate soul busted out in 101st place and a cheer went up as all the rest of us were “in the money.” I could hardly believe it. I had been so close to elimination at the dinner break, I was elated to have made a comeback.

At this point in a tournament, ordinarily the play changes from very tight and conservative (as people try to avoid being eliminated just out of the money) to very loose and aggressive. The payout was the same whether you finished 61st or 100th – you got $936 either way. Then the payouts increased to $1,561 for those who finished 41st through 60th, $2,185 for 31st through 40th, and so on. To get more than $10,000 you had to finish in the top 11.

But for some reason, my table continued to play fairly conservatively — and I was able to take advantage of that. During the next three hours I did not have to show down a single hand. I won 11 pots by raising before the flop or betting aggressively after the flop and not getting called. While players at other tables were being eliminated or losing ground to the increasing antes and blinds, I was building my stack nicely at almost no risk.

Ordinarily play continues until you get down to the final table of 10 remaining players. Then everyone quits for the night and the final 10 players return the next afternoon to play to the end. But because the starting field had been so big, it was getting close to 1:00 am and we were not even down to 20 players. The dealers were all working overtime and getting cranky. So the tournament director announced that we would quit for the night when we got down to two tables (20 players). It did not take much longer for that to happen, and when play ended for the night I had $206,000 in chips. Of the 20 surviving players, I was second in the chip count! Not only had I survived, I was in great position to finish in the top five, and maybe even to win it all. It was a great feeling.