My PCA Main Event: Count his stack first

There were only a handful of tables left within the $10K PCA Main Event, the top buy-in tournament I'd ever played.

"Why don't we both look away and work out who wins by the table's reaction?" Vanessa Selbst suggested. I USED TO BE all-in against Vanessa's pocket sevens with K♣T♣ on a board 3♠Q♣J♦8♣. After the river peeled, the table was mostly stoic, but I had a sense I USED TO BEn't getting up; I was correct, way to the 7♣. Soon after, I took the remainder of Vanessa's chips with A-Q over tens all-in preflop. This turned out to be win/win, since immediately after busting, she entered the $25K High Roller, occurring to take third for $607,580.

A couple weeks before PCA, I wasn't even meaning to play the principle. I BELIEVED I'd take care of Open Face, Turbos, and the preferred side events, waterslides and fruity drinks. Then I reconsidered the highly-priced sides in my schedule. I SPOTTED it made more sense to play a first-rate with a lot of satellite qualifiers, especially at negative rake (way to the Refer a pal promotion).

I quickly went through two bullets in my first PCA event, which was the Open Face tournament. For $4,400 and 4 hours of brain squeezing, I got a wink from Nacho Barbero that my bustout hand was well played and a few questionable advice from eventual winner Shaun Deeb: "DO NOT BE too intimidated to play me in Pineapple!"

The Main got exciting for me on Day 2, once I knocked out the player to my left, who was replaced by Jason Mercier with a mountain of chips. On break, I MENTIONED with my friend, Ben Yu, strategy versus imminent three-bets. With around 70,000 chips and blinds at 800/1,600/200, I barely had enough chips to four-bet /fold. I opened A-4 suited for 3,500 at the button and got three-bet by Jason to 8,600 within the small blind. I four-bet to 18,000. He flatted my four-bet, and we got stacks in at the 2♦A♥3♦ flop, with him holding the As-9s. I hit the four at the river, which was a part of my plan with the unique four-bet. My poker coach later told me, "I'm pretty impressed that you simply sucked out on Jason Mercier."

Photo courtesy of PokerNews

As the dealer started to push chips my way, Jason inadvertently said, "Count his stack first." I smiled inside, that I USED TO BE just another poker player at that moment. But then I felt ashamed to be flattered by that when. all, I wrote a book called "Play Like a woman" to encourage younger women to be aggressive chess champions.

I ran out of a dinner fuming when a poker friend told me that girls did not have the testosterone to be elite tournament players. Many of the female players who traveled to the PCA, from Amanda Musumeci to Ebony Kenney, weren't players I'd want at my table. Within the Main, Vanessa Selbst, Maria Ho, Loni Harwood and Liv Boeree all went deep within the money. On breaks, I heard such things as Vanessa describing to Maria a present near the bubble, the only where her opponent five-bet called K-Q into aces. The confident WSOP Champ Loni Harwood told me, "WE HAVE NOW such a lot common", as she described learning backgammon and chess from her dad.

After my fortune against Mercier, I won several more big pots and continued to run well. I knocked out the beautiful Brazilian race-car driver Thiago Camilo in an inevitable collision of tens versus sixes. "Who would have thought," Brian "byoonz" Yoon teased Jason Mercier, "that there can be a player here with more twitter followers than you?" (91K for Thiago and 83K for Jason)

Going into my Day 3 table, I USED TO BE at the direct left of the one player with more chips and built substantially at the bubble. I STOPPED the day with a healthy stack and only 71 players remaining. "I'm still on this thing" buzzed through me as I got ready for the most important poker day of my life thus far.

Day 4 began terribly. I flatted kings from UTG+1 versus a shallow UTG raiser and ended up losing half my stack to a different flatter within the field. It was standard, but I still asked myself unhelpfully, "Could I'VE three-bet those kings to cut back variance?" Vanessa Selbst moved to our table, and that i needed to pull myself together. Soon after came the Kc-Tc squeeze spot.

Ultimately, I ran pocket jacks into kings to complete in 31st place for a $43,300 cash. Though there have been hands that nagged me, there has been also play I USED TO BE pleased with. And as I came back to chilly Philadelphia the similar exact shade that I left, I USED TO BE a more confident player. The following time I enter a 1000-player poker tournament, I won't ponder whether I need to be at the waterslides.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: PokerStars Caribbean Adventure]