POTD #233 Winning Wednesday: Busting My First Bullet in the PSPC $250k
Pictured the result of my second bullet (Credit: Tomas Stacha)
One reason I gravitated to playing poker tournaments over cash games is because I am a creature of habit. I know when tournaments will begin, when we go on break, when registration will close, and even if I don’t know when I will stop playing, “when I run out of chips” is something I’ve preferred to “when I feel like it.” A specific bit of scheduling that I like is when multi-day tournaments close registration at the end of day 1, because I can go to bed knowing that no matter what happens, I won’t be re-entering the tournament.
The PCA and PSPC in 2023 were scheduled in such a way that forced me out of my comfort zone. Many of the tournaments started late in the day, such that VIPs could spend the day at the beach or water park with their families before heading over to the casino to do some night-time gambling. This made it hard to get in a rhythm or gain momentum. I sat down on day 1, played four hours of poker, and went to bed knowing I had four more levels to play before registration closed and the field would start getting whittled down as we progressed towards the final table.
I busted my first bullet of the tournament midway through day 2 and went back to my room to determine if I should re-enter the $250k or rest up and play the $25k that would eventually be won by Ognyan Dimov, whatever the right decision actually was. I made the right decision for myself as, in true Winning Wednesday fashion, I kept getting AA and kept winning with them, turning my second bullet a first-place finish and my biggest live cash ever, $3,276,760 (not all of which was mine, of course, but enough that it was still a happy day for me). I’ll be comparing today’s hand to POTD #85, a hand from a tournament where the top three finishers all have a larger biggest lifetime cash than me– The 2025 WSOP Main Event. Specifically, it was the biggest pot of the WSOPME, where in a three-way pot, Michael Mizrachi value bet two pair and was called by Kenny Hallaert, who had top pair and a straight blocker. I played the hand similarly to Kenny, but was my call as big a mistake? Read on to find out.
$250,000 PSPC Super High Roller
(2k/5k/5k) (SB/BB/BBA) 250k Starting Stack. Registration is open.
It folds to Eric Worre (280k) in the CO who makes it 11k, David Yan (390k) calls on the button, it folds to me (163k) in the BB who calls with Q♠️T♥️.
Flop (40k) Q♣️9♦️6♠️: I check, Eric checks, David checks.
Turn (40k) J♠️: I check, Eric checks, David bets 20k, I call, Eric folds.
River (80k) 4♣️: I check, David shoves for my final 132k, I call and lose to J♣️9♣️.
