I played in a PokerStars $33 plus rebuys for a seat at the main event at the WSOP last night. First paid, duh, a seat at the WSOP, 2 – 13 paid $650 and 15 paid something like $95. For the first couple of hours I maintained about an average chipstack without rebuying but then when we got down to around 30 I was really sucking wind. I was down to about $7000 with the blinds at $500/$1000 and I was thinking this was going to be it. Somehow I scooped some nice pots and I had about $25,000 putting me back in the game. That’s when Lady Luck decided to kiss me and kick me out of bed.
I’m in the CO and pick up ATo. I raise trying to steal the blinds and the SB re-raises. He was a pretty aggressive player and I had just stole the blinds from him in the previous hand so I thought he might be getting tired of being pushed around. I pushed it all in and he immediately called with AK. Crap! That’s when Lady Luck kissed me with a gentle ten on the flop and no K for my opponent. Now I was sitting pretty about 10th in chip count with $45,000.
But Lady Luck being the little hussy she is dealt me AA a few rounds later in UTG+1. I decided to get tricky so I just called in early position with my aces hoping someone would raise a big amount and I could come over the top all in. Instead I get three callers. Flop comes AKJ and I figure I’m gonna get plenty of action here so I check and sure enough someone bets out a nice healthy bet. I raise and . . . get a call from a player behind me. The original bettor folds. Maybe he’s got two pair (I hope). Turn is a blank and I fire again. He calls. River is a blank and I move all in figuring I’m not laying this hand down anyway and if he is on two pair than I want the rest of his chips. He calls and flips up QT for the flopped straight.
With $375 left it wasn’t long before my all-ins ran into a bigger hand and I busted in 21st place.
So my question is, was I simply destined to go broke on that hand? Any suggestions on how it could have been played differently?