Wish me luck! :-)

[Dodgey]

Nothing for 5th :-( - at 1st it was 1 seat, 1 seat, 3.5k, 2.xk, 1.xk, then just ast the game started it went from 160 odd players to 180 - the exact number to make 3 seats and no cash.

[YellowRoses]

Sounds like you had a great game and played well to bad the flush didn't hold up.

[Dodgey]

Yeah - thanks. It was tough at the end. Everyone had about the same chips, so tightening right up for the cash in was not an option, certainly not with the blinds and antes. I was sure my flush was good. I was wrong . That's how it goes. Had I sat on my hands (and I've thought about it afterwards), my 240k chips would soon have gone and I'd be in the all-in or nothing position.

I learnt / reinforced some good things. The advice I've been given in the past that was the most useful was: (and ALL this advice made ALL the difference to my game)

1) If someone reraises you preflop they almost certainly have AA or KK.
2) Better to raise a good drawing hand than to call. You'll put the same or more chips in chasing it, and at least with a raise you will likely take it there and then. If not, you'll walk away with less of a loss.
3) You can come back - I went from 10k to 3.7k in 5 mins, then took the lead
4) People pushing all in preflop with plenty of chips don't have a pair. More like AK AJ AQ
5) Stacks are everything. Take note before every hand.
6) Take notes - I sharkscoped all the "troublesome" players and soon knew who was a pro and who won a seat (like me) and who was a donk
7) Don't be afraid to put it all on the line. I won 3 suckouts. without them I'd not have got so far. They were close mind you, not donk moves. AQ vs QQ, AQ vs KK, and A10 vs AQ

If my flush had held up I'd have won a seat. :-)

[Dodgey]

LMAO! - I was stoked with my new playign style, so I entered the satellite again today, again for free - 7 gold chips, and one add-on of 7 more.

You gotta love cake. Let's try for the big one again!! :-) (this is a seat for the $12k game again)

[targetguy1]

nice job again sir but could you do me a favor this sunday and win the seat this time. you are running good and i have faith in you

[KingBorgo]

Dodgey, you are my hero! I need to get my arse in some of these!

[Calmplay]

Wow man, I've never played a game for a seat to the WSOP Main Event before and you, you just did it in less than 2 weeks huh? nice job there buddy.

[KeepBlinkin]

you did a nice work.. next time your going to do better

[KeepBlinkin]

i wish the best of the luck!

[Dodgey]

Thanks guys. It was damn good fun winning the second seat. Cake rocks ! - you get about 50-60 unique players (looks like more - like about 80 or 90 but that's people busting out and rebuying in the 1st hour). You get a lot of maniacs trying anything to double up so you you just sit tight and wait till you hand is loaded and call them down. After the 1 hour mark - no more rebuys - you grab your add-on (2.5k chips) and then the game settles down, with about 40 people. 7 Seats for grabs so it's not hard work.

All this for 14 gold chips. I had 3 left so I did 3 SnGs for gold chips and got mine up to 14 - then entered again, 10 minutes after reaching 14 gold chips :-) - the Gold chips SnGs are mega easy - people don't take it seriously as it's just loyalty chips. Little do they know how much they are worth ! :-)

At the final table (10 of us) I was sat with about 24k. Everyone else had between 40k and 90k , the average being about 50-60k. So I was not in a good spot. After one failed attack I was down to 18k. The only other weak people were two chaps with 24k and 22k. The blinds were 1000/2000 with a 200 ante. Nothing to get frightened of with 18k (that's the key - don't panic).

The game was MEGA tight. Only 3 people needed to bust out for the other 7 to get a seat. As you can imagine, there was a LOT of folding, with the chip leader collecting all the blinds and antes. Not a problem. Let him have them! Just don't want them going to the other weak guys.

I knew I was in trouble. One low stack bust out and that left everyone else but me with loads of chips. I sat there and worked out that 9k would be the minumum I'd need to have in the instance I got a strong hand. I knew if I pushed I'd almost certainly get called by two people hoping to catch a panic Ax hand out - and two people calling me would mean $27k plus any limpers' chips and antes - enough to be back in the game. So I waited, and waited, and waited, down to about 12k and I landed AQ off on the BB. Someone raised ahead of me, I re-raised, another went over me. All-in. 2 callers. Perfect! - Just what I wanted. I got called with two mediocre hands (can't remember) - and spiked my ace. Now back to 42k.

The rest was easy. Two people with less than 20k so I waited for them to make a mistake and get into a fight with someone else. At one stage I gambled 10k on a steal (I needed the chips to be fair) and it worked.

Shortly afterwards I got AQ again and the flop was xQx. I check raised - held my breath as he pushed all in and bingo - was up to 111k lol. I didn't NEED to make that move but I was convinced I had the upper hand and you can't run when you are sure about something or you'll never know what to do.

I remember actually making a calculated decision to gamble 20k at one stage - I knew that my remaining 40k if I lost would be enough to blind it out, so I went ahead - and won.

A very tacticaly final table.

I can't help thinking that the same tactics 2 days ago would have won me a seat at the WSOP. Maybe. But then there were no short stacks and I was sure I'd won the hand that cost me the game. I knew I had to do something as no one was calling anything unless they had top pairs.

Hindsight.. hmm. :-)

Go to Cake. I've always sung it's praises on PKRNation.com . I'm a very average player, and I can win 2 wsop grand final seats in a week... at no cost.. says a lot :-)

p.s. The seat I won is to the final game to win a WSOP 12k seat - I haven't won the $12k WSOP seat .. yet.. thought I'd say as my previous post does not make that clear.