So I left off talking (last post) about how I was lucky enough to turn four step 4′s into a step 6.  I actually went ahead and decided to play my only step 6 on Sunday afternoon.  Well to make a long story short, I won my seat to the WSOP!  It is a package that is worth 12 thousand dollars!

I am so excited, even 24 hours later, I don’t know where to begin.

As I was browsing the lobby at PokerStars, I saw a step 6 had 10 of the needed 12 players signed up.  The field was tough as what would be expected in a step 6, but I didn’t care.  Something inside told me that this was the one to play.  So I listened to my gut and signed up.

The game moved along incredibly slowly since we started with pretty deep stacks and the blinds were not escalating as they would in a turbo.  There was definitely plenty of play.  Some players obviously knew this as I noticed alot of deep-stack-type plays such as “floating.”  I had to adjust pretty quickly.

It was nearly an hour later and only 1 of the 12 starting players had been knocked out, and you could sense other players making moves to try and chip up.  When the following hand came up:

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Depending on how you look at it, AK is really a tough decision here.  I could easily make a case for folding.  However, I really thought that the button (M555SSM) was making a move.  Up to this point he had shown he is not afraid to reraise pre.  I thought he was just making a squeeze play here, and well Wes was cold calling all day.  I also felt that the SB who pushed all in knew this as well.  So I thought his range of hands here could easily be behind my AK.

I took up quite a bit of time as I finally made the decision to call.  Unfortunately it didn’t work out, but I am still happy with my call.  So it looked like this tournament was not mine to win as I was left with 7 big blinds as the blinds moved up to 75/150 the next hand.  I was really in dismay thinking that it was over.  But I never gave up!

I slowly worked my stack back up to find myself in the final 3.  It was then that I was confident that the seat was mine.  I knew it was just a matter of time.  A little while longer, the other two stacks played a huge hand in which one player got lucky to win.  It was a hand that I was shocked to see played out the way it was, but I was elated as the player that won had more chips than the other; meaning we were down to 2 players.  The game was over.  I won a seat (two were up for grabs).

I was jumping up and down like a school girl at field day.  I took a desktop pic of the lobby after I won to just make it official as I was still pinching myself.

So now I am 12 thousand dollars richer!  I have since decided to take the cash and opt out of playing in the the WSOP.  I might however attempt to win another seat.  If I do win another, I will definitely play the main event then.

I also want to note that a poker goal of mine that I set in October of ’07 has FINALLY been reached.  It was my 100 to 10k goal.  I was up to 5k within 6 months and nearly lost it all and then I basically had to start over.  I was starting to question if I would ever make it.  Now, I am looking forward to my next goal 10k to 100k.  Wish me luck! 

Oh….if you wanted to see the full hand history of the step 6:

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