My $10K mistake

I made a huge mistake last night. Quite possibly a $10,000 mistake.

Let’s back up for a minute or this won’t make any sense.

I’m a serious recreational poker player. As we speak, the World Series of Poker has begun in Las Vegas. It’s an annual six week series of poker tournaments at different costs and with different card games. The cheapest event is $365, and the most expensive is one million dollars. For real, a one million dollar poker game. It’s bonkers.

If you’re a serious card player, there is one tournament that is on your bucket list: The Main Event. Beginning on July 2, around 4,000 – 5,000 people from around the world will put down $10,000 in cash for their chance to become the 2018 World Champion. The winner will get around $8-$10 million and a WSOP Bracelet. Side note: back in the day when they started, baseball and football both had rings, so they thought they’d be different and they went with bracelets.

So back to my mistake. A local card room was running its own series of tournaments this month. The grand prize was a $10,000 entry to the Main Event. It’s called a satellite. The room ran 18 tournaments at $100 a head. The top 3 in each of these “satellited” into their big tourney last night. On Saturday, I won my seat into the $10k satellite. It took me two chances, but I was in.

So on Sunday, I had a 1 in 56 chance at turning my $200 into $10,000. Not bad odds, especially if you have a skill advantage.

Things got going at noon, and I was playing really well. Actually I was in the zone. It was smooth sailing for the first six hours. I just had a feeling that the $10K was mine for the taking. When we reached the final table by about 7pm, I was the chip leader as the final nine players settled in. Mathematically, I was the favorite to win. I was also one of the best players at the table.

After explaining how the payouts would work, the tournament director said, “Shuffle up and deal.”

The first hand at the final table I was dealt Queen of hearts Ten of hearts. A solid starting hand. I raised to 13,000 chips. A woman on the button called and we were heads up with 35,000 chips in the middle.

The dealer put down the first three community cards: 3 of clubs, 6 of clubs, and the Jack of hearts. I got nothing, but most likely, she has nothing too. I check, and she bets 20,000 chips. Totally standard move. Now I could fold right here, actually I should fold right here. But I had not played with this person, and I just didn’t believe her. My ego was a bit inflated, and I thought I could do no wrong.

That’s the kind of day I was having.

So here’s where I made my big mistake, instead of folding, I raised to 60,000, and she snap shoved all her chips in. I massively misjudged how strong she was. I had to fold. First hand at the final table and I lost almost half my chips.

It was downhill from there, and I went from chip leader to being out in 8th place in about a half an hour. It was my one big mistake in almost 8 hours of play and it cost me big time.

The woman from that hand went on to win the $10,000. I won $438. I hope she wins big in the Main Event in July.

And my main event dreams will have to wait another year.