Player Interview: Ben Jacobs
Ben Jacobs, or "Honolulu Ben" as his friends know him, is visiting the desert from Kaui, Hawaii. He started Day 3 sitting with a stack of about 200,000 chips and now boasts a top-five stack of 850,000. Jacobs is trying to savor every moment of his very first Main Event, knowing this is a special time.
There are no casinos in Hawaii, so Jacobs plays in home games a few times a week. He's played smaller events at the WSOP in past years and decided to freeroll himself into the tournament after running well in blackjack to the tune of $30,000 earlier this year.
PokerNews met up with Jacobs to get the details on how he accumulated his chips and to find out what he's going to do with them now that he's got them.
Jacobs: I had the third-largest stack at the table, and there were a couple of aggressive Europeans, a Russian, and an Israeli. I could have had a better table.
On the second hand, the Russian raised, and I smooth-called with 
. The flop came 
, and the Russian led out, and I smooth-called him.
The turn was a blank. He checked, and I bet. He raised me to 85,000, and I tanked for a bit. It's about half my stack, so I wasn't entirely thrilled, but I decided to call.
The river was another deuce. It's a pretty hidden hand — the good old ten-deuce. He shoved all in, and I insta-called. That's the hand that doubled me to about 400,000.
The next big hand involved the Israeli, who was second in chips at the table. I had 
in late position, and I just called his preflop raise. The flop came 
. I bet, and he shoved all in for about 350k. He bombed it for no reason. It's the most ridiculous thing, but I can't get out of that.
I snap-called, and he had 
for the nut flush draw. But my hand held up, and that gets me to about 680,000. Since then, I've just been chipping up.
PokerNews: How tough are the home games you play in? Have they prepared you for the WSOP?
Jacobs: The players in Hawaii are really tough. People are always surprised by how I play, but I play against some really good players. It's definitely a challenge to play at home, so I think I can hold my own here.
PokerNews: How are you using your chip stack to your advantage?
Jacobs: It's a pretty standard table. As the big stack, the other players have to fit into their roles. There's not a lot they can do about it. I'm just trying to play my position and play smart.
I'm going to keep playing my game. I'm getting cards, and the deck is hitting me hard which helps. My plan is to keep riding this lucky wave.