NO TEN! NO TEN!

I won a WSOP Main Event seat on Pokerstars on Tuesday night. I qualified through a $160 Double Shootout satellite which paid just one $12,000 package.

Prior to playing the DS qualifier I had been having a rough time in the smaller satellites trying to build up my W$ bankroll. Playing the $16 DS’s to the $650 satellite I had made 4 final tables and finished 4th in one that offered 2 seats (when 3rd and 4th paid out just $72) and finished 2nd in two others when just one seat was offered, picking up the $72 both times.

The breakthrough finally came when I won two tournies to the $650 in two days. One was through a $24 6-max Double Shootout, and the other from a $27 rebuy. I unregistered I planned to play a couple of the $160’s with the W$ and play the smaller sats again when my W$ roll got low. The tournie I won the seat in was my first shot!

I felt comfortable at both of my tables, and didn’t have to wait too long after winning my first one for the final table to start. I picked up a few nice pots when we were 6 or 7 handed, and just went from there. Heads up was a little nerve racking, $12,000 for first place and just $160 (buy-in back) for second.

It was all over in a few hands. I had a 2k chip lead and found myself facing a standard raise with AKo, I re-raised, My opponent pushed and I called. He flipped TT and a K came on the flop, I got all excited and started shouting ‘NO TEN, NO TEN’ Needless to say it didn’t come!

The chat box in the tournie window went crazy and all my IM/IRC windows lit up. It felt a little unreal for a few seconds, but in sunk in pretty fast, I was off to Vegas to play in the biggest poker tournament in the world.

I expect I’ll be posting my thoughts about the WSOP and the Main Event here over the next couple of months, and I still have to figure out what I’m going to do with my left over W$. It’s possible I might play some more satellites and try to build up enough to play some prelim events. If I’m going to make the 10 hour trip to Vegas, I may as well make the most of it!