While I’ve had my share of successes on the felt over the years, nothing compares to winning a World Series of Poker Bracelet. Now that the definitely-not-as-good-as-the-real-thing online WSOP season is in the rear-view mirror, I’m taking a trip down memory lane and reliving my favorite 10 hands from when I won the 2018 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’Em WSOP Bracelet.

World Series of Poker Las Vegas, NV June 9, 2018
Event #20:  $5,000 Big Blind Ante Day 2
Level 17—2,500-5,000 blinds, 5,000 big blind ante, my stack=190,000 chips

With 62 players remaining, and the focus shifting from making it into the money to trying to position myself to make my first WSOP Final Table, I found myself at an absolutely brutal table.  Among my opponents were Justin Bonomo and David Peters—two of the top five all-time money winners in the history of tournament poker.

Since I have played in plenty of WSOP events with large prize pools and most of the premier players in the world competing, I don’t really get excited about playing with/against “big name” players, although I certainly relish the challenge. I make it a point to try as hard as possible to NOT play any differently against Phil Hellmuth than I would against a player I don’t recognize; perhaps this is sometimes to my detriment, because I could have some information about the playing style of a big-name player, but I want to avoid at all costs being overly aggressive just to have a story of “beating XYZ player” or being too passive because I presume the named player must be better than I am, and I don’t want to play pots with them if I can avoid it.

Well, that philosophy went out the window on this hand. I made a play that, while I think it was strong and had a solid risk/reward ratio, I don’t know if I would have made it against “normal” opponents; I was definitely excited about the possibility of putting a huge move on 2 of the most accomplished players in the history of poker.

I picked up pocket tens utg+3 and raised to 12,500 chips. I received calls from both David Peters (on the button) and Justin Bonomo (in the big blind). The flop came A87hh—pretty close to the worst flop I could see. Bonomo checked, and the action was on me. With roughly 180,000 chips remaining and 40,000 in the pot, I tried to contemplate how I could possibly take down this pot. If I lead out with a bet, I have to fold to any raise (or go all-in over the top of the raise and be drawing to 2 outs if I get called; given the chips that would be in the pot at that time and my stack size, it’s unlikely that I’d get a fold from a hand like ace-jack). I think it’s almost impossible that I get two folds to a continuation bet there, so I’d have a similar dilemma on the turn, essentially check-folding or turning my hand into a bluff. I decided that there’s no good bet I could make, so I checked. Peters led out for 15,000, and Bonomo check-raised to 30,000.

I decided to make a play for what was now a chunky pot. I re-raised up to 85,000. With Bonomo’s raise and my re-raise, Peters essentially had to fold any hand worse than ace-king (and surely he could have nothing and be position-betting after 2 checks in front of him anyway).  Bonomo made a raise that seemed too small for a set or two-pair; it’s the kind of bet I’d expect from someone with a top pair of aces and a flush draw, but since the ace of hearts was on the board, that wasn’t possible. He could have a hand like 56hh, but again I would expect a bigger raise there. Ultimately, it seemed as though he didn’t likely have a monster, so I made a play for the pot. If I were to get re-raised all-in, I could easily fold and have a stack of almost 20 BBs, playable enough and one double-up from a very solid stack.

After asking for a count of my stack and pondering for about 30 seconds, Bonomo did indeed lay his hand down, and my chip stack was up to 260,000—a very healthy 50+ BBs.

It always feels good to make a nice play and take down an important pot, especially at that stage of the tournament; but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel especially rewarding to have done it against those two players. With a boost to both my chip stack and my confidence, that one hand positioned me well as the field whittled and the Final Table came within sight.