Loading...
There has been so much going on in my head that it helps to get it all down on paper so to speak. After the bracelet win, I made a pretty good run in the Main Event.I was knocked out 444th out of 6,700 people or something ridiculous like that.
In all, I had been in Vegas for over a month, hanging out with Ray Romano, meeting Norman Chad, and being introduced to a whole new world that I was not used to.
I took my brother, who had just graduated from Oneonta State University, to Florida and California. We stayed in Cali with my best friend Bart, who just moved out there to become a lawyer. It was our first time in California and it is so much different than the East Coast, and New York in particular.
There was some poker ... two tournaments at Legends; cashed in one, met some cool people, rented a boat and went out on the ocean for a day. All in all California was great and I could definitely see myself landing there for an extended period of time at some point in my life.
One day after coming home from California, I was off to London to meet my girlfriend Jena who had just completed a three-week class at Cambridge University. We were going to trek through Europe by train and see all the sites and do things we had always dreamed of doing
More of a drinks-on-a-beach kind of guy after all.
London, Amsterdam, Munich, Venice, Florence, Rome and Paris in three weeks.
To be honest it sounds a lot more glamorous and romantic than it actually is. I had always assumed I was more of a drinks-on-a-beach kind of guy, but this definitely confirmed it.
It was so stressful running to catch trains and dealing with the language barrier, not to mention the weak dollar. I was happy to head home when it was all over, and happy that I experienced so many things, but I probably wouldn't go back anytime soon.
There was no gambling at all in Europe and I was hungry to get back in action as soon as I got back. Luckily for me the Borgata Poker Open was right around the corner, and I didn't have to wait long before I was heading to AC with my dad and my boy Scottie K.
Met up with Rock as soon as we got there and we couldn't even wait for the tournament on Wednesday; we had to go to Tropicana and play in some $100 Tuesday night tournament. Carmine's for dinner; it was a great start to the trip.
It took me until my third tournament of the series, the $1,500 buy-in, before I made a dinner break. I made Day 2 in that tournament and cashed in 40th place, which was amazing considering I played four hands the last five hours of Day 1.
Not a lot of soft tables at Borgata, but some tougher than others.
One of which was on the exact bubble - where I refuse to slow down. I raised from middle position with A-7 of spades (I had about $140,000 in chips which was probably top 10 at the time); blinds were $3/$6k with $1k antes.
So anyway, back to the hand - I make it $18k to go, button calls with about $70k behind and the big blind calls as well.
Flop comes down A
-3x-9, and I bet out $36k, at which point the button tanks before eventually moving all-in and I reluctantly have to call, saying nice hand as I throw in the $34k, figuring he must have my kicker crushed.
The button rolled over K Q! I was shocked. Sure enough, the river was the seven of hearts and I lost a $200k+ pot which would have given me a big chip lead going into Day 2.
Instead I was extremely short-stacked as we only played one more hand that day. An uneventful exit the next day but I was on the board with a cash.
I felt like I was playing really well at this point, I took a stab at a Seven-Card Stud tournament on Monday and went pretty deep for my first Stud tournament ever. I think 16 people got paid and I busted out about 23rd or so, which was OK; it was actually very relaxing.
I was pumped for the $2,500 that was coming up because I was really feeling pretty good about my game.
Well, the Borgata bloggers tagged us the table of death, and I was thrilled when I sat down to see Kathy Liebert and Ylon Schwartz to my left and Action Bob and Jared Hamby to my right ... we were in for a poker game.
I played better in the $2,500 than in the tournament I won at the World Series or in the Main Event.
Long story short, I'll fast-forward to three players from the bubble, where I played A-K suited way too fast in my opinion even though given the circumstances, almost everyone I spoke to about the hand said I did everything right. You be the judge ...
Jared Hamby: In for a poker game when you find the WacoKidd at your table.
Average stack $110k; I'm in the big blind for $4k with about $70k behind, smooth sailing into the money if that was the path I chose to take.
The problem was, there was an older gentleman that had sat at our table about a half hour before this hand happened with about $300k in chips and played half the hands, open-raising with A-5 off, J-9, Q-7 ... you get the idea.
He raised my blind to $12k, I looked down at A-K suited and I feel like I really didn't analyze the whole situation. I insta-shipped my whole stack in, only thinking how nice it will be when he calls with his A-T or K-Q.
What I failed to realize was he would definitely call me with 5-5 and then we would be racing to stay in the tournament, which I hate to do.
Well, it took him about one-tenth of a second to call with his KK, and that was it for me. One mistake and 13 hours of poker is all for naught. Lesson learned.
This Atlantic City trip didn't yield the results I was looking for, but I met a lot of cool people and got to know some people a little better that I have a feeling I'm going to be seeing a lot of on the circuit.
-- Jason Young
Editor's Note: Jason Young came out of nowhere to win a bracelet at the 2008 World Series of Poker and has taken his newfound bankroll and hit the road, following the pro circuit in hopes of building poker into a full-time career.
He'll be posting on his progress in an exclusive series of blogs for PokerListings.com over the next few months.
More blogs from Jason Young:
Comments (0)