Well, as you all may have read in my previous entry, I had a ton of drama this past month. I had a planned trip to WPT South Africa that got canceled at the absolute last minute, which led to my ending up at the Hammond WSOP Circuit Series. Read about all the drama in my previous post, "Didn't See Lions. But LOOK .. it's a RANTelope!!"
It was an insane experience deal with all that craziness with Mr Lentin of ShuffleUpPoker.com. After that roller coaster ride, and after some motivation from those closest to me... I decided to, last-minute, trek out to Hammond(right outside of Chicago) for the circuit series.
My roomie said to me, "Dude, fuck that dude Gary. Go out and win a ring in Hammond and turn this into a dream story!" That instantly struck a note with me and I found the motivation and desire to find my way to a victory. With little to no sleep, a car packed with summer clothes intended for South African temperatures, and a head-cold, I headed out to 'The Windy City,' Robitussin-stocked, with a dream of shipping a ring with uncanny timing ;)
I had missed more than half the schedule for the Hammond series, and drove 13 hours with the intention of playing 5 tournaments(not the best odds of doing well given circumstances and amount of tourneys for my schedule).
I played 2 bullets in the re-entry Main Event there... nothing big happened there. I was feeling so sick and exhausted by putting myself through this trip last-minute with a cold.... that I almost left that night after busting the Main for the final time. Again, those closest to me convinced me to stay and play the post-lim events to strive to get that ring!
I ended up playing the post-lim event that following day. It was event #11, a $580 NLHE event, which brought in 250 runners(a considerably good turnout for a postlim). I went on some sick runs in this tourney... ran well and played great. Got pretty unlucky at the end of day1 when I induced a spaz to try to punt a gajillion chips to me with TT vs my AA but he flopped a set to cripple my stack. Luckily I ran it back up a quite a bit before the end of the day, and came into day2 as 4th in chips with 13 players left.
I didn't have to do much but wait for some players to bust, playing mostly patient poker. Once we were short-handed, I pumped up the aggression and put pressure on all the more passive, shorter-stacked players at the table. I had chipped up a bunch by stealing pots, and the more passive players were beginning to dwindle. Eventually I got into flip situations with a bunch of the short-stacks, of which I won most of :)
Craziest part is that I got heads-up with another female player. Once heads-up, I held about a 2:1 chip lead. Heads-up play lasted all of about 10 hands, all of which I won(pretty certain). The final hand, she raises her button, I 3bet with AKo, and she shoves with 66. We bink the king on the turn and hold up to ship my very first piece of WSOP jewelry!!!!!
YAYYYYY!!!!!!!
So fckn happy about this! As my one year anniversary of grinding with the WSOP Circuit approaches this December, I finally ship a ring.. just in time! Been working hard and fading it for a year.... and now to do it after the South Africa thing, and right before my 1-year anniversary with WSOPC.... just amazing! Couldn't be happier... at all!
Not only did the win bring me a ring, but it also gave me some much needed points on the WSOPC leaderboard. This is the leaderboard that I must compete on in order to try to win a seat back into the WSOP National Championship for 2013. Hopefully I can keep running those up as the year goes on. Keep posted!!!
Also, a HUGEEEEEEE thanks to everybody, friends, family, and followers for all the support and amazing messages! I'm so thankful that I have all you guys n gals behind me routing me on! It means the world to me... and you guys are the best!!!
<3 Much love<3
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