Friday at Graton was going pretty well. I’d satellited into Flight A of the $1700 WSOPC Graton Main Event for $300 and I’d run up a decent stack when I picked up Jh10d UTG at 300/500/500. Normally that’s a fold for me but I had close to double the starting stack (80,000) and was chip leader at my table. I raised to 1,200 and Cuba Levenberry raised to 3,000 on the button with about a 40,000 stack. Now, Cuba had been 3-betting a decent amount of the time and I felt that this was potentially a light 3-bet. So – for the first time in a big event – I put in a light 4-bet to 8,000.
Cuba called and the flop came down Q7Xhhh. I bet 7,000 into 16,300 and Cuba called. The turn was a great card for me: a black 10. Now I had 2nd pair and a J high flush draw. The pot was 30,300 which was around Cuba’s stack. Obviously I didn’t have a great hand but I had 4-bet so I could certainly represent one. And I did have a decent hand. So I shoved All-In, Cuba insta-mucked and I scooped the pot bringing my stack to nearly 100,000.
Unfortunately that was the high point for me and it was all downhill after that. On the hand before the dinner break, Cuba raised to 3,000 from early position at 1000/1500/1500 and I called on the button with A7ss with about 40,000 chips. By this point our fortunes had reversed and Cuba had a monster stack while I was back to starting. The flop came down Q7Xssx and Cuba checked to me. I bet 4,500 into 10,000, he check raised to 20,000, I shoved and he called with QJcc. Unfortunately I did not improve and I was out.