Siegel Eric

This past weekend I played in a great event run by the Borgata. The Ultimate Satellite Package Tournament. They have been doing this for a few years now and I feel that with some new changes , they really perfected the prize package. Here is how it works -- you put up 1k , and 1 in 30 players win a 10k seat into the Borgata main event in Sept. (prize pool is generally over 5million!) the package winners also receive 20k in cash along with the seat.

I'm cruising along in the tou rnament, they are paying out 12 packages plus some left over cash due to the 375 player field. When we get down to 30 players, I realize that we have been playing almost 12 hours and the structure is really affecting play, forcing alot of action . I'm friendly with the Borgata staff and ask them if they would be willing to give us a few minutes during the break for me to discuss some sort of a chop with the 30 players. No one wants to go home empty handed at this point so everyone is willing to listen. What I come up with is that 26 players will receive 4k while the other 4 will get 6k (they had larger stacks). We will then continue to play for the 12 seats and remaining cash to be divided equally by the package winners. Everyone agrees and we move on .Once we got down to the remaining 14 players we restructured the deal again . I was fortunate to walk away with the Borgata seat and 14k. This was a great deal for everyone involved . On a 1k investment I was basically able to bankroll my entire fall poker tournament schedule , including the main event. My friends Coldstone and Jeff R. both won packages too.

Im not one for making a deep run and cashing in a big buy in event and still walk away miserable , but this one really stings. I have no one to blame but myself . No excuses like someone else's bad play, the structure got out of control, or that I was so short stacked and had no other options. Ive played in 4 of the Foxwoods 2k Deep Stacks over the last year, and I have cashed in all 4 of them, including one 1st place win. The structure is a poker players dream. We start with 40k stack, 1 hour levels and they've added levels to fill in the gaps that other deep stack events leave out. I finished day 1 with about 84k which was a bit below average but left with me with plenty of play to make a run for the final table day 2.We came back with 34 players left , 15 getting paid. I was able to build my stack to a hefty 340k within the 1st 3 levels without much confrontation. I generally closed out all hands I entered preflop or after a continuation bet on a flop. We hit the money bubble and I found myself with the chip lead of about 640k with 14 players remaining. There were 2 others at my table with about the same stack but I had them both covered. One of them was to my right, with 580k and although he showed some gamble early , he was pretty much in lock down mode and actually discussing how this could be chopped at the final table. He was a cash game player and seemed to be relatively new to tournaments. I found myself in a position to increase my stack in preparation for the final table. The payouts where similar from 15th down to 9th . I was in the BB with the blinds 10k/20k , a well known Foxwoods pro was in the cutoff and playing very erratic, opening with a wide range and bluffing quite a bit . The action folded around to him, and he limped from the cutoff with about a 220k stack. My initial reaction was that he was hoping I would shove on his short stack . The sb with 580k completed and I checked my K10 off . The flop came K-Q-J rainbow and I felt that I would have the opportunity to check raise the cutoff all in , after he would likely bet out that flop. The sb checks, as did I, and the cutoff leads out for 100k. I dismissed the sb was even in the hand until he starts cutting his chips and throws out a minraise . This has me thinking what hands can he be check raising with given all the variables of the hand. I narrow it down to 3 possible hands, bottom 2 , a pair with the draw, or 9-10 for the bottom end of the straight. From his play , Im confident he will fold the 1st two hands if I shove. If he has the straight , im drawing to a chop and the nuts as back up. However, I truly couldnt seeing him check raising with the bottom end of it with that board. Well I was right , he didnt have 9-10 , and from our conversation after the hand , indeed he would have folded two pair or a draw. Indeed , I did move all-in and was met with the unpleasant surprise of the player calling and excitingly show me A-10 for the NUTS! After analyzing my play , and discussing it with fellow "poker heads" there was just no logic to my approach to this hand. The player wasnt experienced enough to check raise without a hand he was going to fold, and he would have surely lead out if he wasnt sure if he was good. I di dnt need to put such a solid stack at risk in that situation. Chalk it up as experience , and move on to the next grind.

See you at the BORGATA WINTER OPEN!