WPT Championship Day 4 Recap

The start of day 4 was interesting. I arrived at 12:15 for the noon start because of some circumstances that had me unavoidably detained. Luckily, the tournament started a bit late and I missed exactly 3 hands only. My seat drew the cutoff position to start, so it turns out that the situation might have been a blessing in disguise. I very likely would've had a shove spot in those first couple hands had I been in my seat, so it could have been a $410,000 real money swing. lol @ butterfly effect. So, when I did arrive I blinded off for an orbit or so before finding K2ss in the cutoff and shoving 92000 or something at 5/10k (1k). Javed Abrahams folded the button and then Mike Matusow went into the tank for atleast two minutes before thankfully folding with his 225000 chip stack. Matt Hyman folded in the BB, and Mike sort of shocked me when he claimed to have folded ATo. I shoved once more and picked up the blinds before shoving 148000 from the HJ with A9hh. Sadly, Abrahams called this time and I was in need of some help when he tabled two black queens. I was fortunate to spike for all my chips though when the board produced K53TA. I won another pot or two in that first level with 404000. 54 of us remained as we took a break with 1 minute left in the level since the structure dictated a redraw at 54. When we came back I found a table that I liked. Nick Binger in the 1, me in the 2, Freddy Bonyadi in the 3, Steven Fung in the 4, unknown in the 5, Mark Seif in the 6, unknown in the 7, unknown in the 8, and Cody Slaubaugh in the 9. When we got back we played the 1 hand we had remaining at 5/10k (1k). It was folded to Nick Binger in the cutoff and he raised to 28000. I found TT on the button. I just don't see myself taking any other line but 3bet/call all-in for my 40 blinds. Nick and I have played together a lot though and I feel like in general we avoid each other, so maybe I CAN make a case for just calling the button since Nick might not ship a pair less than two tens against me there. He did have around 1.3 million to start the hand though. Anyway, I made it 88000 and then puked when Nick moved in on me. I'd already made up my mind to 3bet/call all-in, so I called quickly and Nick cringed a little but was happy to see he was ahead with two jacks. The reality is we were at the Bellagio, and I run so hot there that I knew I could stick it in really bad and get there. I did so on a board of x x x x T. I really started to heat up after that. I was fortunate and unfortunate to chop two pots just outside the money. The first I was behind with a chance to bust Freddy Bonyadi's AKo with my A5o, and the board came a pretty 4422x. Later, I had a chance to bust a guy with 52 left with my red QQ vs his AcTh. The As came in the door, followed by the Qs and 9s. The turn was the Ks and the river was the 5s. Fun board to chop. I won a large pot off of Mark Seif within the level on the bubble (I think) as well. Mark raised up front to 35000 and I decided to call in the cutoff with 65cc. Flop gorgeous Jc4c3s. Mark checked, and I bet 52000. Mark called. Turn 8c giving me a flush. Mark checked, and I bet 114000. Mark called. River offsuit Ace. Mark checked, and I decided to go with 265000. Mark tanked a long time and folded. I won one more pot on the bubble where the unknown raised from the HJ and I called in the SB with 77. The flop was AJ7r. I checked and the dude bet like 80% of the pot, 66k. He had about 500k behind, and I finally decided to checkraise to 216k. He instantly folded adfsjhkadsjfhakjdf. We finally made the money, and I ended the 6/12k level with 1.33 million or so with the average around 720k and 47 left. After break we returned to play 8/16k. I lost one pot to Mark where he raised from MP and I decided to just call with two queens in the SB. Bonyadi folded in the BB. Flop Kxx. I checkcalled. Turn x, and I checkfolded. Later, same unknown moved in from MP for 186k and I found two kings on the button and called. Bonyadi folded, then to my delight Steven Fung pushed out 415,000 worth of small denomination chips, saving himself 400k. I quickly backraised him all-in and he folded without showing. The unknown showed 98cc. The board came K7652. I turned a tiny bit of profit but saw 600k chips go the other way. Half an hour later we reached 45 players and redrew. I drew a table of Matt Hyman in the 1, me in the 2, Yevginey Timoshenko in the 3, unknown in the 4, Jen Harman in the 5, Steve Billirakis in the 6, Jimmy Tran in the 7, Eric Liu in the 8, and Barney Boatman in the 9. Not much happened at this table, as we very quickly reached 36 players. I had 1.187 million at this point. We redrew again and I found a nightmare table of Eric Liu in the 1, Chris Ferguson in the 2, Jen Harman in the 3, Ran Azor in the 4, Me in the 5, Brian Rast in the 6, Blake Cahail in the 7, Steve Sung in the 8, and Nenad Medic in the 9. I mostly nitted it up at this table before raising 83cc from the cutoff to 52k at 10/20k into Steve Sung's big blind and ~215k in chips. Steve interestingly just called, and we saw a 993 flop. Steve checked and I had to shove, I guess. Steve started to think and I figured I had to be good. He said,"Hmm I have to dodge 9 outs," and I started doing cartwheels in my head knowing he had 22 and hoping for a call. He did so, I said "I have a 3," and he dropped his head. Turn 9 river X. To my delight I got moved off of this table to balance. I found a table with Eugene Katchalov to my direct left, and as I sat down I was dealt a hand. I found AhJd and raised to 53k. Eugene called right behind me and Owen Crowe called in the BB. Flop 963 two diamonds. Owen checked, I bet 110k, Eugene called and Owen folded. Turn 5d. I decided to semi-bluff 225k into Eugene and unfortunately Eugene called. River offsuit 8. I gave up, checked, and the 29 year old Russian-American NYU graduate bet 300k. I quickly folded and was back down to just over 1 million in chips. I'll add that Eugene is one of the toughest NLHE players I've ever played. We got down to 27, redrew once again, and I kind of just putting my nitting shoes on. I did win one or two pots and climbed back to exactly 1,200,000 with the average 1,404,000 to end the night with 24 players left. I would enter day 5 in 13th chip position of the remaining 24. SS