My $61K Poker Payday

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

(CBS) 
The tournament resumed the next day at 4:00. For the first three hours I was not dealt a single premium hand. Meanwhile it cost each player more than $150,000 in chips just to pay the blinds and antes. I played 20 hands during that time, raising or re-raising and either winning the pot uncontested, or being forced to fold in the face of a big re-raise by another player. I only showed down one hand in the first three hours.

A little while later I made one of my best plays of the tournament. I raised in middle position with ace-jack and was called by a fairly loose player who had less than half as many chips as me. The flop came two-two-two and we both checked. When a six came on the turn, I thought it was highly unlikely he had called my raise before the flop with either a two or six. I wasn’t sure whether I had the best hand or not, but I was in a position to represent a strong hand (specifically a pocket pair, for a full house) as I had raised before the flop. So I made a pot-sized bet of $48,000 and he folded.

He turned over his cards and showed that he was folding ace-jack. He asked me whether he had folded the best hand. Ordinarily I do not give out any information about folded hands. But he was an emotional player and I thought it might put him on tilt if I showed him my cards, so I turned over my ace-jack.

My other reason for doing that was to send a message to the other players at the table, that I was capable of representing a hand and making a sizeable bet whether or not I actually had the cards to back it up. I was hoping that it might induce someone to call a big bet later when I actually did have the goods.

Soon we were down to 10 players – I had made the final table and was still in second chip position, even though I had not been dealt a single premium hand. Finally, I was dealt a pair of aces in the small blind. A short stacked player moved all in for his last $32,000 with ace-king. I called, and knocked him out. Soon after, I knocked out two other players.

Later I was dealt queen-jack in late position. A short-stacked player moved all in with ace-three and I called. I got lucky and made a straight to eliminate him, leaving only four of us remaining. The chips were fairly evenly divided, though I had the most with about $590,000.

By this time the blinds were up to $10,000/$20,000 plus a $3,000 ante. That meant there was $42,000 in the pot before each hand was dealt. Stealing the blinds and antes became essential to survival.

After some more good plays, I soon had over $1 million in chips; the other three players had less than $900,000 among them.

Not long after, I made what turned out to be a fateful miscalculation. The player with the shortest stack, Mike, moved all in before the flop for $52,000. The player on my right, Kyle, folded. I was in the small blind with jack-seven of hearts, and it would have cost me $42,000 to call. The player in the big blind, Ylon, was in a similar position – it would only cost him $32,000 to call.