My 1st WSOP WIN! - "IN THE ZONE"
In tournaments with very large fields my mental strategy is to block out factors such as, how many players are left, how much time is left, average stack, and just time in general. If you constantly keep those factors in mind during large field tourneys it can be mentally draining and discouraging because of the uphill battle feeling. In order to get myself in the zone i disregard those, normally very important, factors and concentrate on just my table and my stack. The day of the 1500 NL at the world series of poker i did a very good job of keeping myself in the zone and before i knew it I looked around and noticed only about 80 players remaining! I had an above avg stack and felt rejuvinated when they anounced that we had reached the money.
With 64 players left, Joe Awada moves all in from under the gun with pocket 9's for approx. 14k. I look down in the big blind and find AA and my stack is about 30k, I CALL. With one card to go Joe is drawing to only two outs, a Nine or a Nine, and i am drooling at the size of the pot thinking about the being the chipleader with 63 players left! Whammo, then miracle nine hits the river and my jaw drops to the floor. I am immediatley tossed into "grinder" mode.
With 24 players left i am severely short stacked and looking for a spot to double up. Scotty Ngyuen is the chipleader at my table and he is raising 4 out of 5 hands. He makes it 4500 with blinds at 800/1600 and i look down and see AJ of hearts. MY initial instinct is to push all in, but something stopped me. I went into the think tank and finally decided i would lay it down, although the correct play 98% of the time would be to play it. It turns out that Scotty was holding A-T and another player at the table pushed all in with K-9...to my amazement the flop hit Ten-rag-rag and i would have been walking away from the table had i pushed allin with my Ace Jack suited. I dodged the bullet and two hands later in the big blind i held A-9, the small blind made a weak raise and i pushed allin, he called with A-8 and i busted him!! chipcount was now back to 35k. Very soon after the double up i picked up K-K and pushed allin on a late position raiser who quickly called me with A-Q. Whammo, back in the tournament with 70k in chips. What a feeling!! Knowing that i likely should have been eliminated from the tournament and now with an above avg stack, my emotions were running on high!!!
The remainder of day one went by without any major confrontations and we ended up with 14 players. Starting day two, i had about 150k in chips and cruised my way to the final table without playing a hand. The final table got fired up, and on the second hand i picked up A-A and Jason V moved allin with 8-8, I CALLLED!! Suddenly i surged into a big chiplead with 8 players left. A few hands later i raised with J-J and Kent pushed allin on my for over 200k. I felt like i had the best hand but with only about 350k in chips i didn't want to risk my lead and laid down the Jacks.
Once again i was in the zone and time flew by very quickly. The next thing i knew we were down to 3 players. The remaining players were, Kent Washington 730k in chips, Joe Awada 320k chips, and myself 330k in chips. I began to take control of the table and strategically ran my stack up to about 650k in chips. Joe also began to make his move, and we sent Kent on a downward spiral straight to a disappointing third place.
As the head up action began, Joe and I were almost dead even on chipcount both with over 640k. This is when i remebered that Joe was the guy that had cracked my aces with 64 players left the day before. I announced that fact to him and we had a chuckle, pretty amazing! The heads up match was quite a battle with the chips flying back and forth for a couple of hours, until this pivatol hand came about. Joe raised with 5-5 from the button, i reraised from the small blind with A-K and he called. The flop came 9-7-4 and i decided to push my remaining 400k into the pot on a semi-bluff. Joe made a questionable call in my opinion, and turned out to be in the lead when we flipped the cards up with me allin. At this point, i thought i needed only an Ace or a King to stay alive, but when the turn card paired the 9 I picked up 3 more outs. With one card to go, I now needed an Ace a King or a 7. YAHOOOOOO!!!! The river double paired the board with the 7 and Joe's fives were counterfeited leaving him with only about 50k in chips to my 1.2 million! The very next hand I raised allin with A-6 of spades and he called allin. I have no idea what his hand was, as i had never bother to look at it. The next thing i know, i was diving on the table in sheer joy and amazement. I had just won my first world series of poker bracelet at the ripe age of 23! I WAS IN THE ZONE!
- Scott Fischman
Back to Back... - "Back to Back bracelets at age 23?????"
To continue on the biggest rush of a lifetime, the day after my first world series victory i entered into the $2000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E tournament. Not only was this my first big buy in mixed games tourney but i had also never played razz in a tournament either. At the start of the day my thinking was to accumulate chips as best i could in holdem and omaha but be very cautious during razz, stud and stud h/l.
As far as i could tell my strategy was working fairly well through the first few levels of the tourney. I can remember making some big mistakes in razz and stud h/l but recovering a lot of those chips in the other games. Things weren't going all that great though for the most part. I never really had much of a chip stack the entire way. The day was a bit of a grind for me and i was quickly learning the game of razz, after plenty of mistakes! It wasn't until late night on day one that i made my move. after about ten or eleven hours of grinding and picking away i had a below avg stack but noticed that there were only 14 players left. We took a short break after the stud h/l round and i went to regroup. Being that shorthanded play is my specialty and that the next two rounds were holdem and omaha h/l i decided that this is where i was going to make my move. When i got back to the table we had 7 players on each table, and i had picked up a couple pots right away. Now we were down to 12 players with two tables 6 handed. This is where i shifted into 5th gear and used my shorthanded ability. In the next 45 mins i had exploded winning pot after pot and running over the table. I went from approximately 18k in chips all the way to 120k, what a rush!! When i picked my head up they were announcing the end of day one and final table.
While on my way out of the horseshoe i grabbed a sheet which had the chipcounts at the end of day one. To my surprise the counts were pretty out of proportion. I was the chipleader with well over 100k, 2nd place chips were about 65k, 3rd about 45k and the remaining 6 players were extremely shortstacked at 20k or less. On my way home my mind was flying a mile a minute when i realized that day two was going to start with the razz portion. I immediately figured this would be perfect for me as my game plan would be to play extremely tight and wait for a few players to drop out. Being that i had a big chiplead, i did not want to risk making any big mistakes in this section of the tourney. I also calculated that i could, if need be, play tight all the way through the stud and stud h/l rounds as well. I estimated that if i had just not played a hand at all through these three rounds we would likely only have 3 or 4 players left and i would still have an avg stack to attack when we resumed with the holdem and omaha games.
My thoughts from the previous night before bed ended to being almost exactly what happened at the final table. It seemed like everything was going my way and my plans were being unfolded perfectly. When we switched back to holdem i was still the chipleader and cruised my way into heads up play Jon Cover. Heads up play began with stud and i played a little too aggressively, trying to end it rather quickly because i wasn't to comfortable with heads up stud h/l. I let some of my chips slip away by playing too fast. When we switched to stud h/l i slowed down a lot and just tried to establish control. Things went rather smooth but i wasn't able to put a big dent into Jon until we got back to holdem.
I won a few pots right away and regained my chiplead when the final hand came down. I was dealt pocket eights. With the blinds at 5k-10k Jon still had about 80k in chips, and i was well over 200k. As soon as i saw my hand, which happens to be my favorite hand, my thoughts went to the bracelet box that i had received the day before. After my no limit win, the tournament directors put my winning cards in the box that cases the bracelet as a keepsake. When i saw the pocket eights i envisioned them in my bracelet box and called out "RAISE!" Jon reraised me right away, and i called out "RERAISE!" He then called and we saw the flop J-T-6, i checked and Jon bet, "RAISE!!" i called out. I didn't care how much i had to put in the pot at this point, i knew i was going to win the tournament on this hand! Jon then reraised me, at which point i announced that i wanted to reraise and put him all-in, he called. The cards were turned up, Jon showed A-5 off suit. When the turn and river did nothing to improve Jon's hand it was all over. I had just won back to back bracelets at the age of 23! When i had time to reflect back on that final hand it amazed me. What happened there? I mean Jon played great the whole way and it seemed like he went on tilt with the Ace rag? Why? I can only assume that things were just meant to be. I had chosen pocket eights, or pocket 8ces as i like to say, years before as my signature hand. It almost seemed like destiny and now i will have those pocket 8ces for the rest of my life!
- Scott Fischman
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27-July-05 2005 Ultimate Poker Challenge
No-Limit Hold'em Final Day 6th $27,100
05-June-05 2005 36th Annual World Series of Poker
No-Limit Hold'em Final Day 2nd $352,125
11-May-05 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit- Lake Tahoe
ESPN The WSOP Circuit Championship No-Limit Hold'em Final Day 13th $19,720
07-Feb-05 $970 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo - 2005 L.A. Poker Classic, Los Angeles 4th $7,938
03-Feb-05 $970 Omaha Hi/Lo - 2005 L.A. Poker Classic, Los Angeles 2nd $23,038
12-Jan-05 $500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo - The Sixth Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open, Tunica 2nd $22,393
09-Jan-05 $500 No Limit Hold'em - The Sixth Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open, Tunica 26th $3,579
04-Dec-04 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em - Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, Las Vegas 2nd $71,295
01-Dec-04 $1,500 Seven Card Stud - Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, Las Vegas 5th $9,603
10-Nov-04 Consolation Tournament - 2004 Monte Carlo Millions, Monte Carlo 9th $2,000
01-Nov-04 $500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo - 2004 World Poker Finals, Mashantucket 13th $1,384
31-Oct-04 $500 No Limit Hold'em - 2004 World Poker Finals, Mashantucket 16th $3,943
15-Oct-04 $2,000 No Limit Hold'em Final Day - 2004 Festa al Lago III Poker Tournament, Las Vegas 3rd $39,936
14-Aug-04 $200 No Limit Hold'em - 2004 Legends of Poker, Los Angeles 13th $2,665
11-Aug-04 $500 Omaha Hi/Lo - 2004 Legends of Poker, Los Angeles 9th $1,285
28-Jul-04 $2,000 No Limit Hold'em - 2004 Mirage Poker Showdown, Las Vegas 3rd $47,918
22-Jul-04 $100 No Limit Hold'em - 2004 Orleans Open, Las Vegas 1st $40,500
18-Jul-04 $300 No Limit Hold'em - 2004 Orleans Open, Las Vegas 2nd $26,570
Jul-04 $500 No Limit Hold'em - Bellagio Weekly Tournaments - Jul 2004 (2), Las Vegas 5th $1,627
11-Jun-04 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Final Day - California State Poker Championship, Los Angeles 7th $8,415
10-Jun-04 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em Final Day - California State Poker Championship, Los Angeles 3rd $10,575
06-May-04 $2,000 Limit Hold'em - 35th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2004, Las Vegas 19th $3,160
03-May-04 $2,000 H.O.R.S.E. - 35th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2004, Las Vegas 1st $100,200
30-Apr-04 $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em - 35th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2004, Las Vegas 1st $300,000
27-Apr-04 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em - 35th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2004, Las Vegas 14th $5,000
09-Apr-04 $2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em - 2004 Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic/WPT Championship, Las Vegas 16th $3,395
03-Apr-04 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em - 2004 Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic/WPT Championship, Las Vegas 21st $5,101
22-Mar-04 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Championship - 2004 Winnin' o' the Green, Los Angeles 15th $4,500
Jan-04 $500 No Limit Hold'em - Bellagio Weekly Tournaments - Jan 2004 (2), Las Vegas 5th $2,728
20-Jan-04 $200 No Limit Hold'em - 2004 Grand American Poker Classic, Robinsonville 4th $6,464
01-Oct-03 $200 Tag Team - Half Hold'em/Half Omaha Hi - 2003 Four Queens Poker Classic, Las Vegas 9th $142
30-Sep-03 $500 H.O.E - 2003 Four Queens Poker Classic, Las Vegas 5th $2,010
03-Jun-03 $100 Limit Hold'em - 2003 Summer Pot of Gold, Reno 3rd $2,705
02-Jun-03 $100 No Limit Hold'em - Twilight - 2003 Summer Pot of Gold, Reno 2nd $2,810
02-Apr-03 $20 Seven Card Stud - The Back 9, Los Angeles 7th $310
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