Vegas June 2009 (WSOP)

Day Six - Joann plays Craps

Last Updated: 2009-06-18 02:00:44

The day started out interesting. I went to buy into today's deep stack at Venetian and get a little breakfast along the way while Joann showered and got ready for the day. While I was walking back from Venetian having accomplished my dual mission Joann texted me that the fire alarm went off at the hotel. I texted back that maybe Jim Hughes backed his truck up to the hotel door (Jim's truck set off the fire alarms when the two of us went to Steamboat for a weekend). I get back to the hotel room and I'm in trouble.

All the men reading this right now are saying "why could you possibly be in trouble, Pete?"

All the women right now are thinking "I can't believe that bastard didn't rush back to the hotel to make sure Joann was OK."

Now all the men, at least the married ones, are nodding in sympathy for me...

So on to the deep stack and to be honest I don't have much to talk about. I had very few opportunities to make plays. And the ones I made were about 50-50.

I had Aces three times and Kings once. Of those four hands I got blinds three times but I did double up once. A little proud of that one, a ... not loose but not tight either, he was willing to raise almost any two broadway cards from almost any position but he wasn't raising every other hand like the guy next to him ... player raised from either under the gun or 2nd to act for three times the big blind (300/600 w/ 100 ante). I saw the rockets and knew I could hook him so I min-raised. He obliged by calling. Flop comes J-rag-rag with both rags diamonds. He bets out, I shove, he calls and flips over J-10 diamonds. The aces hold up in spite of his big draw (14 outs twice and no real redraws for me if he hit the flush on the turn, tho I would have redraws if he hit the 10).

Later I did make a bold move. The aforementioned "raise every other hand" guy raised and the guy between us, who was periodically reraising to try and resteal, decided to reraise and resteal when I look down at slick. So here I am again, just how I busted out of the last tournament the night before with a raise and a reraise with me having slick. But in this case it was the right time to make the move. Two thieves, better situation because both have enough chips to fold and move on so I shove and it works like a charm. Both fold immediately.

But that was a rare moment. As I said, almost none of my big hands got paid. Every time I had a pair like Js or Qs, overs would inevitably flop after I got 2-3 callers preflop and I had to give them up almost every time. Also caught a set early on and couldn't get paid for that either. It was actually a fairly frustrating tournament.

Finally when I got all my chips in on a coin flip I doubled up and I actually worked my stack of 7K (which was down from 15K to start) up to 23K, went a little card dead but then worked up to about 40k and for the first time was above average. And that was my peak. Had to give up slick preflop to an over the top all in (in hindsight, I wish I'd taken that coin flip assuming it was one); called a preflop raise to try and steal with pocket 8s if the flop was unlikely to hit anything and a good flop of 10-9-4 rainbow came but when I executed my post flop bet I ran into an over the top all in (so I'm guessing big pair or flopped a set); then got crippled in another coin flip (ended up hitting two pair with A-Q and lost to a set of 4s, ugh); and then busted out on a final coin flip (A-J suited against 10s) and that was all for pete ... I did finish about 200th out of a starting field around 700. Good but not good enough.

Have to admit, I was a little bummed after that one. Not to belabor the point, but it was a fairly loose table and that one guy was literally raising and reraising I would estimate one out of every three hands. And every time I had aces or kings I was either small blind or on the button so always late to act and yet those would be the rare hands that not one person on the stinkin' table took a shot at the pot preflop. Argh! And then all the borderline hands that I didn't play because I was under the gun or 2nd to act that turned into boats...

But after dinner, my spirits were lifted in a big way.

Joann's been itching to try craps. I've profited every time I've played on the trip, I think, except for when I played in Paris. But Joann wanted to play there so I just stood and watched. She was only down a little after the dice went around the table once and on her second go-round with the dice I couldn't resist so I plunked down a couple hundred just to bet on Joann and then walk away.

Joann hit a few things and I was up a little, so what the heck, I'll throw the dice and then walk away...

Oh was that a good decision.

Let's just say our profit was almost to the dollar about half the original bankroll we came out here with. I had one of the best, maybe the best, rolls of my life. I couldn't roll a seven if my life depended on it. Hit a hard way, press it up, hit it again. Oh it was sweet. Only thing I couldn't hit on cue was my three-way craps bets. But I'll live. I walked away with a purple chip among my stack of chips. Purple is good. If they'd let Joann and I put it together our chips to cash out there would have been more than one...

So guess what? I have money to play in tomorrow's deep stack at Venetian now!!!

This will be the last one however. They're two-day tournaments and we're leaving Saturday so I can't start one Friday. And hopefully I'll still be playing Friday from tomorrow's tournament anyway.