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WSOP $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha - so close for Jeff Kimber
People often say second place is the worst place to come, 'first loser' - having finished runner-up to JC Tran in the $2500 PLO event at the World Series, I can see their point, but one thing's for certain, it just makes me doubly determined to go one better and secure a bracelet.
In all honesty, despite struggling on for around an hour heads up, I never got close to overturning JC's two to one chip lead and he ran out comfortable and deserved winner.
However, the experience, not to mention the $145,000 payday, was fantastic. Heads-up, looking down the felt at a genuine poker superstar, a WSOP bracelet placed on the table in between us, with cameras flashing and crowds gathering, it was like a scene from a film.
The WSOP PLO events are run as triple chances, starting with 2500 chips and two 'rebuys' for the same amount. I never got anything going in the first three hours and when the rebuys were over, I still had 7500.
My first key hand was against a Canadian pro who had introduced himself having seen my Blue Square badge as a high stakes PLO player on iPoker. He certainly had some gamble, and he managed to double up both myself and JC (yes, I shared a table with him for most of the three days) in quick succession.
I called a raise with 7-8-9-J with spades, and reraised his c-bet all-in on a 2-6-8 with spades flop. His hand played badly against mine, a bottom wrap with no flush draw, and I was up and running.
With JC chipped up and two to my left finding spots was pretty difficult, but I managed to finish the day just below average on 43,000, with 60-odd players going into day two.
Early on day two I managed another double up, raising with A-K-Q-9 with hearts, and calling Andy Bloch's check raise all in on a nine-high two heart flop. He had a straight draw which was dead when I hit my flush, and all of a sudden I was well above average.
A few hands later, I called a raise with T-T-J-J in the blinds, flopped top sets and check raised the pot against Len Ashby, and I was among the chip leaders when he passed. Moments later Bloch got it in pre with aces, lost, and the bubble burst.
My table broke, and my new seat wasn't great, seat six, with the three seats to my left occupied by Steve Sung, JC (again) and some guy called Ivey. All the chips were on this table, so I played pretty tight, when the following hand occurred.
An old guy who had limp passed for 3k a few times limped UTG, another two players limped too, so I raised the pot with A-K-Q-9. I was hoping to just pick up the pot there, but the small blind cold called my 16,500 raise, then the old guy shipped it for 27k total, and one of the limpers called. Obviously I had to call, as did the SB.
With the average stack around 80k, I'd managed to create a 100k pot preflop, but I was in position and I hit a dream flop of A-Q-T all diamonds. I only had one diamond, but it was the key one, the king, so with top two as back up I bet the blocker, 80k, and the two others had to pass (one flopped a set so he said). I was up against the old guy's bare kings, and my hand held to propel me towards the chip lead.
As we got to three tables, I again raised a serial limper, this time with Q-Q-T-T, and he called. A 6-3-3 flop looked good if I was representing aces, so I bet the pot and he eventually folded, though not before some serious dwelling and moaning. He showed his hand, come rubbish with A-4-5-6, and said he was going to raise me. I told him it was a good flop for aces and was calling….then two others said they had an ace and as the guy had one himself, if was obvious I didn't have aces at all, which seemed to irk him.
I told him I'd only said it was a good flop for aces, and never claimed that was my hand, and he seemed crosser still. I think that played a part in the next big pot I played, knocking him out and taking the chip lead with about 20 left.
After two limps I limped the button for 3k with a pair of jacks and two danglers. Some people don't like this play, but in position, and deepstacked, I don't mind trying to flop a set, and that's exactly what I did, on a J-8-3 with two spades flop. The same guy led out 15k from the small blind and I raised to 55k. He quickly called.
I was praying for a blank – no queen, ten, nine, seven or spade – and the ace of diamonds fitted the bill nicely. He moved in and I snapped his head off, he showed three eights and missed his one out and I was massive.
As the final table bubble approached I was a little nervous, not wanting to miss out on my first WSOP final table, but I was confident, with plenty of chips, and plenty of short stacks to pick on.
With 10 left we went to one table, and with a couple of short stacks and JC and Theo Jorgensen playing aggressively, I thought it was only a matter of time before we were bagging and tagging and preparing for a final. Three hours later, and having seen the shorties double up about seven times, we were still going.
I had a great rail, fellow Blue Square pro Praz Bansi, former Blue Square pros Karl Mahrenholz and JP Kelly, Nick Gibson, Sunny and Chaz Chattha and online whizzkids Paul Foltyn, Chris Moorman, Martins Adeniya to name but a few.
With Praz and JP having bracelets, and Nick having made the 10k PLO final table a couple of years back, they passed on some invaluable experience on how to play 10-handed, when to play and when to keep out of trouble, and I think I played the bubble pretty well.
Ross Boatman got a huge double up through JC, and Theo lost some chips having to call the reraise all-ins of the shorties, when I finally ended the agony, dispatching Leif Force in 10th place after finding A-A-K-J double suited after his push all-in UTG.
My first WSOP final table was a great experience. I wasn't nervous at all, and didn't look at the payouts at all. I started second in chips and knew the blinds were big enough to create some action, and sure enough, John Juada bust out pretty quickly, getting his short stack in on a flop behind and not improving.
With eight left I made my first raise of the day, called a reraise from the big blind and managed to miss my flush draw on the flop when my opponent moved all in with top set.
All of a sudden I was down to probably seventh or eighth of eight, but Ross doubled me back up when he called my shove with a gut shot and my top pair with overs and a flush draw held.
Having dusted off my stack once, I was determined not to do it again, but when I called a raise in the big blind with A-K-Q-5 with nut spades and saw a king-high two spade flop, I was definitely not passing. JC had flopped top two but had all under cards, so I was probably a slight favourite, and when the ace fell on the turn I was massive. A spade to give me the nuts was the icing, and now I had close to a million and was vying with JC for the chip lead.
JC knocked out Ross, I knocked out the Geoff Boycott of PLO, a guy called Dallas Flowers who never seemed to have more than five big blinds for the whole tourney, and we were three-handed. I didn't really want to get too involved, and the plan came to fruition when JC made a gambling move with just a flush draw and hit to get rid of Jean-Phillipe Leandri and leave us heads up.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be – I think I flopped better than one pair once, when I hit a massive flop with 9-T-J-K of K-Q-9….and managed to get a chop out of that one. Having said that, it was always going to be difficult against an experienced, aggressive and excellent opponent in JC Tran and having managed a second place finish, I'm determined to go one better in the 2009 World Series.
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