Since 1972 the WSOP Main Event has had a $10,000 buy-in. But $10,000 in 1972 was the equivalent of over $55,000 today. Some have complained that the Main Event has lost its prestige because the buy-in is more affordable and the event is accessible to more players. That’s why the WSOP introduced the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, which became the new “most prestigious event.”

That’s a good solution. Increasing the buy-in of the Main Event would have been disastrous. The tournament is so enormously popular, and there’s no reason to make it inaccessible to the public. But this created a new problem. The most prestigious event was no longer a No Limit event! That’s fine and dandy for all the old school pros, but it’s a bit unfair to leave the new NL players without a high stakes event.

This is why I was extremely excited when I heard about the 40th Anniversary $40,000 buy-in NL event. Of course you can never prove who the best player is with a single tournament, but this would be a great event with some of the toughest No Limit players on the planet. There was no way in the world I would have missed this event.

There were theories floating around that this would be the toughest No Limit event ever. The economy is doing poorly and only the best of the best can afford to play it, right? Not really. Although there were a lot of tough players, there were also a ton of amateurs with loads of money that wanted a chance to play this prestigious event with the best players in the world.

Fortunately enough, my starting table had quite a few of those amateurs. I won a huge pot early on when I raised deuces and an amateur reraised me. I put him on a huge hand, so of course I called hoping to hit my set. Sure enough, the flop came 10-9-2 and he led out. I raised, bet the turn, and set him all in on the river, and fortunately for me he couldn’t fold his aces.

The rest of day one was just as smooth. Antonio Esfandiari was at my table, but he was to my right. He’s a tough player, but if you play No Limit well, you never have to be worried about anyone on your right. I made a couple of hands against him, along with a few welltimed bluffs. Even though I got the best of him, he kept chipping up. For most of Day 1 we were both in the top five in chips. We definitely had an action table.

Day 2 really was just more of the same. I started it with 780,000 which was good for third in chips. I had one big hand early on where a good player I knew raised with A-Q. I three-bet him with K-K and happily called his shove. I was at 1.15 million after my hand held up. For the most part I just played small and medium-sized pots, and really didn’t lose a hand.

I did have one really interesting hand against Brian Townsend. He started the hand with 1 million in chips, and I covered with about 1.3 million. It folded to him in the small blind, and he made it 46k at 8k/16k. I had 8-6 off-suit and called in the big blind. The fl op came 10d 7d 4c. He c-bet 63k, and I called with my double gutter. The turn was an offsuit 3. He checked, and I decided to check behind. He�fd let me know if he had a ten, and if he didn�ft I could bluff the river representing a ten or a seven for value. I�fd play a flush draw like that for similar reasons, so I can also try and represent a fl ush if a diamond hits the river. Betting the turn is kind of ugly if he decides to check raise, so I actually check back the vast majority of my range there. The river was the Jd, the perfect card for me to represent. It completed the flush, the straight, and gave me a lot of two pair combinations as well. He bet 133,000 which was just around half pot. I raised to 450,000 and after a few minutes of deliberation, he let the hand go.

For the most part, the first two days were just really easy poker. My big hands held up, I never had any tough decisions, and I didn’t have many all-ins. Most of my hands just played themselves. For example the few acekings that I had flopped a pair, and I just kept betting. I made a few medium-sized bluffs, and was lucky that they all worked. Everything just went really smoothly.

Day 3 was different. I played the loosest I played all tournament at my first table. Greg Raymer and Ted Forrest both had big stacks, and I played some big pots against them. They all went in my favor, and I was up to 4 million before I knew it. At my next table, there were really no big stacks I could play big pots against, and I kept finding myself all in versus the short stacks. I lost every single one of the all-ins, despite having decent equity in them.

Towards the end of the day I had Lex Veldhuis to my left. He is a smart, aggressive player, and he had a ton of chips, so it handcuffed me a bit. I mostly just played tight and solid after that, and when we were down to nine players, I was down to 1.7 million chips which was a bit below average.

Everyone kept asking me how excited I was to be going into the final table. I should have been stoked I guess, but I just played poker for an entire day, starting with the chiplead, and ending the day with fewer chips than I started with. Because of where the chip stacks were at the fi nal table, I decided a tight straightforward strategy was best, and I hate that. Basically I was leaving my result up to fate.

Fortunately I caught a break really early on. Raymer raised the button to 150,000 at 30/60, and I moved all-in from the SB for 1.5 million with A-J. He gave a speech about how he thought I was moving in with any two cards as he called with A-8. Fortunately my hand held up, and I was up to 3 million chips early on.

There were a couple of unfortunate hands after that. In one, Raymer raised and I read him for weakness, so I made a light three-bet. Unfortunately Vitaly Lunkin woke up with a hand and four-bet for almost half of his stack and I had no choice but to fold.

The final hand came with fve players left. I raised J-J under the gun to 250,000 at 50/100 blinds. Ike (Isaac Haxton) called in the small blind, and Greg Raymer called in the big blind. The fl op came 10-9-3 two tone. Ike led out for 400,000. Greg folded, and I moved all-in for about 2.7 million. The board was too draw heavy to let him see a cheap turn, and I had a huge part of his range (draws and one pair hands) in bad shape. I don’t really think it was a debatable decision. Unfortunately Ike had the hand he always has against me: two aces. I was eliminated in fifth place for $413,166.

Despite not winning a bracelet, I’m pretty happy. This was my biggest cash ever, and I have a history of getting unlucky in bigger buy-in events that I play, so having a big cash in a high stakes event was nice. Also, getting TV time is pretty crucial when there are only two open televised WSOP events this year (the $40k and the Main Event).

All in all, I have to say the $40k was a great event. The structure was awesome. There were four solid days of play for a small field of 200 players, and there were no huge blind jumps that made the event an all-in frenzy out of nowhere. I can’t remember the last time I played a tournament with a 9,000/18,000 blind level. My only complaint is that this is slated to be a onetime event for the 40th anniversary. If anyone with any say is reading this, please bring back the $40,000 buy-in NL event for next year! There’s a lot of hype and prestige for it, and I think it’s a great event for poker.