Jeremy Ausmus is a six-time WSOP bracelet winner, has over $28 million in live tournament winnings, and is a member of the PokerOrg Player Advisory Board. In more than two decades as a poker pro, he's seen it all and shares his unique view of the game in this regular column. Join him for your access-all-areas pass to the high-stakes tournament world.
We are headed to Aria for the PGT Championship. We barely qualified – we're in 39th place – but we're in there, and I'm looking to repeat my win from last year. No one's ever done that. It will be a challenge because where you finish in the leaderboard dictates how many chips you start with. So first place, Alex Foxen, starts with about 350,000 in chips. I'm going to start with 125,000. The odds are against us a bit, but the top six get paid, first is $500,000, and I’m looking to do it again. I got in a little workout this morning, a little family time, and some good food. It’s a nice day in Vegas, and I’m feeling good. So let's do it.
Out of the gate
- Level 1
- Blinds: 500/1K
- Haxton: 231K (small blind)
- Ausmus: 118K (big blind) –
Right off the bat, we see Isaac Haxton limp out of the small blind. I look down at and check in the big blind.
- Flop:
Ike takes a small stab here. It's only 1,000 – a third of the pot. I think I have a pretty mandatory continue here given that he'll be stabbing a lot of flops blind versus blind.
- Turn:
The turn is an ace, and he checks. I'm quite tempted to take a little stab and try to get him off maybe jack-high, queen-high or king-high – things like that. I decide to check instead.
- River:
The three pairs bottom pair, and he bets about a third pot (1,500). This hand feels like it's right in the middle. I could maybe call and have the best hand with ten-high, but I could just fold. Another interesting option is to raise and try to get him off some hands he might be betting for value, like a queen or a king. He would have aces and threes with a king – that's probably worth betting a third pot. I decide to make it 9K – he gives it some thought and lets it go, and we get a bluff through against Haxton right off the bat.
Battling the Dream Seat winner
- Level 2
- Blinds: 1K/1.5K
- Van Dyke: 125.5K (hijack)
- Ausmus: 188K (button) –
Stephen Chidwick raises the lojack, and the Dream Seat winner – his name is Daniel Van Dyke – three-bets in the next spot. It's hard to know exactly how someone like this will play. Maybe he wants to come in and prove himself. It's not like he put up the money to be here. That said, he's playing against a lot of top players, and many people would go into their shell in a spot like this and wait for good hands. I have seen him three-bet some hands and play quite a few hands. He seems like he's not on the tight side by any means.
After he three-bets, it folds around to me on the button, and I look down at . I believe that I want to put in a four-bet here. Daniel has about 130,000, and the big blind is 1.5K, so he has just under 90 big blinds. I'm comfortable four-betting here and seeing what happens. Chidwick folds, and when it gets back to Daniel, he just calls, which I'm relieved to see.
- Flop:
He checks and I’m definitely going to continue with a bet here. I bet 15,000 and he makes the call. At this point, I think he probably has something like tens or jacks.
- Turn:
He checks again, and there's no reason for me to slow-play here. He could have overcards. He could have a flush draw. I'm just going to bet and try to stack jacks and tens. I bet 38K and he moves all in for 85K.
He says, "If you got it, you got it." I don't know what to think about that exactly. It might be a truthful statement, it might not be, but it kind of doesn't matter at this point with the strength of my hand. I think he can just have jacks. Of course, sometimes I'll run into aces or a set, but I think it's good enough to go with after I put in 38K. I call, he reveals pocket kings, and the river is the 
, so Daniel wins a nice pot, and I'm left with about 72,000.
Flipping for my tournament life with Chidwick
- Level 6
- Blinds: 2K/4K
- Chidwick: 125.5K (cutoff)
- Ausmus: 50K (big blind) –
Stephen Chidwick raises to 8,000 in the cutoff. It's folded around to me in the big blind. I have around 50,000 left. I look down at a pocket pair – not a big one, but there are smaller ones out there. Pocket fours isn't too bad. I think this is a pretty mandatory shove in this spot. So, I go all in. He calls right away, and he's got 
.
- Board:
The flop is ace-high, which is not good for me. The turn is not a four, so I have two outs going into the river. I do not hit, and I have been eliminated from the PGT Championship.
I made it into the freeroll, but I did not do well in it. That's alright. I started with one of the lowest stacks, and then I had the queens and ran into the kings and lost most of my chips there. We caught a couple of double-ups but finally busted to Stephen Chidwick.
The good news is that another season has kicked off, and this year hopefully I can get hot right out of the gate and not be fighting my way into the leaderboard all season long. Also, I just got a little consolation prize in honor of my 100th PGT cash. That’s pretty cool. I’m an avid PGT supporter. I play all their events, and it's cool that they recognize things like this.
Chad Eveslage went on to win the $1M PGT Championship freeroll, beating Andrew Lichtenberger heads-up. Watch the full vlog from Jeremy Ausmus at the top of this article, and find lots more poker content on his YouTube channel.
