Father's Day 2008 was jam packed from start to finish. As with most years, I spent it in Wausau playing, errrrr participating, in the annual Gus Macker 3 on 3 basketball tournament. For the past 15 or so years, my dad had been forced to spend most of his day out on the blacktop, watching his sons among others sweating it out against hoopsters from around the Midwest. The skill level on Will's court was significantly higher than it was on mine, but he seemed to enjoy the action equally as much. As someone who prefers anonymity over attention, having other things to do on Father's Day suited him just fine.
Typically, we'd gather late afternoon or early evening to have a meal before hitting the road back to the twin cities. This year was different though. At 5:00 I would be playing the big online qualifier for the World Series of Poker main event. $500 buy in. One $12k package for every 24 entrants. And it was going to be a big one. They were guaranteeing 100 seats, so anticipating at least 2400 players. I had played in two smaller ones over the previous few weeks without success. This would be my last chance to win a satellite seat to play. The basement at 610 Ross was the venue of choice.
Going deep in a poker tournament is about playing well, running good and receiving the occasional dose of good fortune. I received a major dose a few hours into the tournament. Someone raised and I elected to just call with two kings (oops) and somehow, four other people called behind me. It had become a huge pot even before the flop rolled out 9 4 2 with two spades. Before I could even process it, the small blind immediately went all-in. It folded to me and I didn't think too long before moving all-in as well. Then the button called off HIS entire stack and suddenly we had an enormous pot and I was fully expecting to be way behind. The small blind had the nut flush draw and the button had 44 for a set. I was crestfallen, dead to the last two kings (I had the K of spades) in the deck. The dream would officially be dead... BUT WAIT... KING ON THE TURN!! I actually yelled, "KING!!" when it popped off, I was in a state of shock. That's the thing about poker though. You can be on top of a cliff one moment and fall all the way to the bottom the very next. But sometimes the opposite is true as well. And so, I had back to back heart attacks for totally different reasons. The river was clean and suddenly I had a monster stack and was riding a huge wave of momentum.
Satellite tournaments are a much different dynamic than regular tournaments because there is no first place. All you need to do is finish in the top X% and you claim the prize. In this tourney, they ended up giving away 125 seats.. so everyone had their eye on that 125th place, that was all that mattered. It was with that in mind, as we neared 200 people left, that I made a pretty large mistake. I might have had enough chips to coast until 125 but I decided to put the big blind for a decision to all of his chips with K8 offsuit from the small blind. I had about 150k in chips and he had about 80k with the blinds at 2k/4k. He thought forever, used up his whole time bank and ultimately decided to call for his tournament life with AJ. His hand held up and just like that I was hovering around the danger zone with the blinds going up to 3k/6k. Winning a seat was no longer a sure thing, it was legitimately in doubt.
Around this time, my cousin Ben had stopped over at the and made his way down to the basement. A poker buff himself, he was all about hanging out for the duration and sweating out every hand. And I definitely needed his positive energy at that point. I had just taken a pretty big body blow.
I was closely monitoring the standings and with 160 or so people left, it was obvious I wouldn't be able to just fold my way to a seat. I'd need to win a few more chips. So when I had dwindled down to 45k or so, I raised all-in from the cutoff with A5 offsuit, not the strongest of hands but it seemed like my best spot. The blinds were 5k/10k and I still had a little bit of fold equity. I wanted everyone to fold but the small blind decided to call. I was terrified I'd be dominated but he just had K4 and was just looking for the knockout. Still, my tournament life was at stake and my heart was beating through my chest as the community cards came out... clean... clean.. CLEAN!! I continued clutching Benny for another few seconds as we yelled at each other in celebration. I was up over 100k again in chips and wasn't planning on putting another chip in the pot unless I was forced to.
And it turned out those chips were all I needed. About 45 agonizing minutes later, someone finished in 126th place. It was over.
"That's it!! That's IIIIIITTTTTTT!!!" as we danced around the room. It was 1 AM. 8 hours later and it was in the books. I was going to Vegas. To play in the World Series.
We went to Pro Players for a late night drink. It was one of my favorite ones ever. As far as celebrating goes, it tasted pretty damn good. I had dreamt about this for six years. And now, it was here. I was dizzy, on a high I could hardly believe or imagine.
Two weeks later, I'd board a plan and head west for the desert for an all-time experience. The poker itself didn't go great, I got knocked out of the tournament late on the first day.
Here is what I wrote back in 2008:
http://seriesme.blogspot.com/2008/07/just-average-dayexcept-completely-not.html
But being there was everything I'd ever imagined and more.
Now I just needed to figure out.. was this the end of the story, or only the beginning?
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