Johnny Poker Returns to Vegas, Part 5: Beware of the Three Jacks

So first the good news:  I made it to day two of the World Series of Poker’s Little One for One Drop event!

Out of the 4756 players who began the tournament, only 588 of us remain.  And the 495 top players will “cash out”: winning at least $1797, with the top prize of $655,000.

And now the bad news:  I am in real chip trouble.  With only 950 chips remaining, I am probably the shortest stack left in the tournament; and if not, I am pretty close to the bottom.  With blinds rising to 300/600 at the next level, I will have to go all-in very quickly, and hope that I either get a good pair of hole cards, or that my bad pair gets lucky on the board.  And most likely, even if I prevail that first time, I will have to immediately go back all-in, with the same sort of prayers needed.

I had actually reached 18,000 chips with ten minutes to go before the end of Day 1.  Several hours before, I made my first bonehead move of the week — I bluffed all-in against the guy with the nut flush, and was down to 2500.  But like last year, I went all in with a Jack/small (last year it was the Jackson Five, this year, it was the Jackson Three — Tito and Jermaine must have been fired from the group).  When no Jack appeared on the board, I stood up, thinking I was out, and was told that I had made a straight on the river. And then again, just like last year, I looked down to see a majestic pair of kings in the next hand.  I went all-in, and shot up to 8000 chips.

Damn You Three Jacks!

I played great until the very end.  I had a pair of jacks, and when the jack of spades appeared on the flop — as well as two other spades — I went all in to keep anyone from chasing a flush.  Well, one guy did, and he caught it on the turn.

Damn you Three Jacks!

So I am now left with a tiny stack, and in the need of some incredible luck to survive.

But as they say, that’s poker.  And who knows what is in store for me tomorrow?  We sit down again at 1:00 PDT (4:00 EDT), and with the need to go all-in pretty quickly, I will know my fate pretty soon.  So be sure to follow me on my Facebook Page or, better yet, on Twitter, to check in.

And if the poker gods really are smiling on me tomorrow, check in on this page for summary updates of the tournament and this page for chip counts.

Or if you could care less about me, many of the world’s biggest pros are in the tournament.  And so is my math/baseball/politics man crush, Nate Silver.  So please join us!