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.
There’s a special kind of intensity when you sit down to play a $100K tournament, like the Super High Roller Bowl – a freezeout structure against many of the best poker players in the world. One mistake and it’s over. I’m taking you inside the ropes.
Out of the gate
- Level 1
- Blinds: 500/1K
- Ausmus: 300K (button) –
- Simao: 300K (small blind)
In the early going in Level 1, I look down at on the button – plenty good to put in a bet (2.5K). I get a flat call from Joao Simao out of the small blind. Stephen Chidwick folds his big blind. So me and Simao go heads-up to the flop.
- Flop:
He checks it over to me. I make a continuation bet here with top pair (2K) and he makes it 8K. I have a pretty strong hand here – top pair, good kicker. We are very deep at 300 big blinds, so I think the best course of action here is to call.
Outside of the obvious hands that have us crushed like sets, we're doing pretty good against a check-raising range. He might have flush draws. He might have some backdoor flush draws with overcards, and maybe some gutshots – maybe a nine with a worse kicker isn't impossible. So, I feel pretty good about putting in a call here.
- Turn:
There are two flush draws now. If he did raise the flop with a backdoor flush draw as a bluff, he would probably continue now, and he bets pot (25K). I’m definitely not ready to fold this one, it’s just too good of a hand. We're ahead of enough hands here that we want to keep going. The only play here is to call.
- River:
He bets a third time into me (60K). This sizing makes me think that it's not impossible he just has, like 
, maybe the same hand, maybe some overpairs like tens and jacks. He doesn't have to be three-betting jacks every single time 300 big blinds deep this early in this tournament.
Those are definitely hands I lose to. But I think there are enough draws that missed, and I think he's got pretty good bluffs with a fair number of his backdoor flush draws that he turned. So I think he might continue with those.
I do have the which interferes with some of those. But I think our hand is plenty good here to stick in the call. I call, and I'm shown the bad news. He's got 
and we lose a medium-sized pot early on.
Fun amid the intensity
While $100K tournaments are intense, the mood is pretty light at the table. When the hands go down it’s usually pretty serious, but between hands people are fairly laid back, even at these high stakes, which is fun.
Sam Soverel told a story that just kills me – it’s so damn funny. Watch the clip below to hear it.
The endgame
- Level 5
- Blinds: 2K/4K
- Ausmus: 353,500 (small blind) –
- Boivin: 512,500 (lojack)
Thomas Boivin raises in the lojack with the big stack. I’m in the small blind with two fives and flick in the call. I have about 85-90 big blinds, so a pretty good stack, and he has me covered.
- Flop:
I flop the full house, fives full of threes – what a beautiful sight. I check, he makes a continuation bet, and I decide to fast play this one. To my delight, I see him reaching for more chips, and he makes it 80K from my 27K.
My course of action could be to put in another very small raise, trying to stack overpairs, or hoping some of his bluffs might want to click some more. But I decide the best course of action here is probably to call, and that would be pretty consistent with hands like eights through deuces that I might raise on this flop, maybe just a five. So I call.
When he puts in this three-bet on the flop, there are only two combos of A3s he can have, and I beat everything else. So more likely he has an overpair for value. His bluffs might be something like A4s, maybe hands like two overcards with a backdoor flush draw like 
once in a while. I keep all that in mind while we go to the turn.
- Turn:
I pretty much have the nuts here. I’m not going to lead, though. I check to him, hoping he keeps bluffing with his bluffs and a lot of his value bets will just keep barreling for value. He bets again on the turn (80K) and I call.
- River:
I do note the king because a hand he might play like this that now has me beat is pocket kings, so that’s going through my head here. So there are pocket kings that beat me and one combination of A3s.
I make the check, he puts me all-in, and it’s about half pot. I don’t think very long... this is pretty much a snap-call, and I get shown the bad news – the 
, the one combo of A3.
He’s got quads, I have fives full, which is pretty unfortunate, especially in a buy-in of this size – and also it’s unfortunate because he is the only guy at the table that had me covered. What a great situation on the flop, the turn just did not agree with me. He was down to 5% and hit it, and that happens.
I was out of the door – the Super High Roller Bowl was over for me.
That’s the reality of tournament poker. We can play focused for many hours, make the right reads, battle with the best, then make a full house and run into quads. It stings, but let’s not forget how fun it is to be on the other side of those coolers.
If this were easy, a lot more people would be doing it for a living, and honestly, I’m already excited about my next tournament.
Watch the whole two-parter from the Super High Roller Bowl below.
Part 1: I Gambled $100,000 in a Poker Tournament in Vegas!
Part 2: I Took the Worst Beat of My Career
Get the very latest vlogs from Jeremy Ausmus on his YouTube channel.
