6/27/06 $1,500 No limit

Many people played in this event, the opening event. I was alternate 250 or there abouts. Entering a tournament in level three is never much fun, but I tried to make the most of it. No interesting hands, then Chris Ferguson raises to 250 in late position, and I look down at a KTo in the cutoff right behind him. I immediately thought he was weak, as most of his raises were 3x the big blind (blinds at 50/100), but instead of sticking with my game plan of coming over the top of weak hands, I decided to take a flop in position, and called. Flop came A, 8, x. He checks, I bet 300, thinking he probably had nothing or a suited connector that missed and didn’t want to invest any more chips into this pot. After a little think he calls. Turn was a brick and he checks fairly quickly, at this point I need this pot, and he convinced me he didn’t have much, so I move in for 900 or so and he immediately calls with top two pair, and I’m drawing dead and looking like the biggest fool of the tournament. A very humbling experience, nobody has me look that foolish in a very long time, and I had to congratulate him on a hand well played before exiting. Very nice guy, and a pleasure to play with – I wish him luck in the rest of the WSOP. I told myself I would take something away from every tournament this year, and this time it was a little humility. I also learned a lot about how top notch players like to play against people they don’t know and plan on using this knowledge in the future.