i wasn’t successful in defending my title at the east coast poker championships main event saturday. i played over 12 hours, short-stacked nearly the whole time. i got lucky several times to survive, but came up just short of the money on a pretty sick beat.

my opening table was very tough for the second day in a row, with robbie perry, kush patel, john donnelly, and a couple other guys who i know to be solid aggressive players as well. in all, there were 181 starters, making for a good sized prize pool with $56K allocated for the first place finisher. we started with 5000 chips and 60 minute levels, giving this tournament a different character than the earlier events.

with this tough crowd i didn’t want to get into too much trouble and played a little tighter than usual preflop for the first couple levels. i caught pocket jacks 4 times during that period. i folded them once (correctly) pre-flop, and on another JJ hand won a decent-sized pot when i check-raised robbie on a 6-high flop. i think he laid down tens there; if so, good laydown!

a ways into level 3 i got moved to a much easier table with my 4700 in chips. there was a fun-loving and clueless older guy on my right, and a fun-loving and sleep-deprived girl on my left, and only a couple strong players. however here i didn’t catch any breaks and got down to around 1600 in chips. the blinds were still 100/200 but i was feeling the pressure. i pick my spots and move in a couple times preflop with no callers (holding AK, 66, and AT) and get back over 3500. i play a fun hand with jake (a strong young player they call “snake”) where i get all in with AQ against his AQ but i make a flush to take the whole pot. (sorry dude). a while later i limp with QcJc and flop Qs3s3c. i bet 400 and jake calls from BB. turn is an A and snake bets out for 600. i don’t think he would have called my flop bet with just 2 overs; i think he’s betting the scare card with a flush draw or middle pair. i call. the river is a rag and he bets out for 1400. if that’s a continuation bluff, it’s a good one. i don’t know what he has but i can’t beat anything but a bluff. i muck. he tells me later he had AsXs which makes sense. i should have given him that on the turn, and given up.

my table breaks, and i arrive at my new table critically short with the BB coming up in 2 hands. on the first hand i see KT. i move in, and to my surprise everyone folds. OK! the very next hand i find QQ under the gun and move in again, and amazingly even though i’m still very short and this table has seen me move in 100% of my hands, nobody calls this time either. i show the queens. a short while later i get moved to another table. at the 300/600/75 level i find aces under the gun and open for 2000. i get all in against AQ and my stack is suddenly at 12,000, the high water mark for the day. the chip average at this point is about 19,000, but i’m happy to be out of intensive care. a few minutes later a strong player with about 18,000 in his stack opens in late position for 1500. i find JJ in the small blind. i hate playing jacks out of position, so i reraise to 4000 to try to end it. he comes back over the top putting me all in. i immediately feel i’m probably beat, but i’m getting over 2:1 to call. tough to get away from jacks here, but i really think i’m in bad shape and i fold. a while later i raise KT in late position to 2000 and snake (who at this point has a pretty good stack) repops me for all my chips (about 5000 more). i’m getting really good odds on this call also, but again i lay it down. i feel really good about my laydown with the jacks, but i don’t feel good about this one at all. he tells me later he had 88.

i think that was my worst mistake of the tournament. i really should have made that call even though i knew i had the worst hand. he knew i was a little desperate and didn’t have enough to hurt him, so he could have made that move with hands like AJ or A9 where i’m less than 2:1 dog, or 88 (which is what he really had) where i’m almost even money. even against JJ or QQ i’ve got a fighting chance. after folding, i only had 5000 left and was back in trouble again.

i find 66 in early position and my only choices are push or fold. the table is full at this point and i elect to muck it, but immediately regret it because the blinds are coming up and they’re going to take a pretty big bite. no problem,the very next hand i see 66 again! i take the hint and shove my chips in. i get called by QJ on the button but my sixes hold up and i double up.

at this point i’ve been playing nearly 12 hours and i’ve been short-stacked just about the whole time. what a grind! there are about 35 players left and i’m starting to feel like one more double-up will let me sneak into the money. officially, they’re paying 15 spots, but there’s talk about making a small deal to pay something for 16th to 20th so everyone can go home for the night and come back tomorrow to 2 full tables. i usually hate multi-way deals but this one i’d probably be willing to take! but that’s still an hour or 2 off.

i sit through another round or 2 of blinds and antes and i’m back down to 6500 chips with blinds at 400/800/100. once again i find AcAs in early position. with my stack i can just barely afford to make a standard-sized raise without looking too suspicious, so i make it 2500 to go. a guy that’s new to our table with about 9,000 in his stack calls from the big blind. i don’t know him well but i already have him pegged as the weakest player at the table. the flop is 8c7c7s. he moves in. i quickly call. if he has a 7 or 88, so be it. he doesn’t. he has Qc9c for a flush draw and backdoor straight draw (i’m sure in his mind his weak overcards were “outs” too, completely discounting my early-position raise for 40% of my stack!). wow nice play. turn blank, river is a club. after so many hours of winning races and avoiding beats to survive, i go out like that? ugh! so, i finish 29th after over 12 hours of play.

as expected they made a deal with 20 players left. kush and recent WSOP final-tablist maros lechman made the day one cut in the money, as did local player and all-around nice guy doug bartlett and sometime reader of this blog james mcgee, who also made the final table in this event last year. nice job james!

here are the final results