 Vegas November 2009 (Deep Stack) |
| Day Two part 1 |
| Last Updated: 2009-11-08 16:50:53 |
| I have some time to kill before my tournament starts so I thought I'd blog a little...
|
| First my day so far has been boring, really. I can't do much knowing that I'm playing at 4pm. I did walk to Rio for the brunch buffet and I have to say it wasn't that great. Food was just OK today, deserts were nothing special. The gelato was a little icy (obviously thawed and refroze at some point) and the cheesecake was a little under cooked and was almost like a gelatin cheesecake instead of a baked cheesecake. I'm intentionally staying away from craps because I don't want anything bringing me down.
|
| I did not get enough sleep, although I'm feeling pretty alert right now so I should be fine.
|
| My plan for the early part of this tournament is to quickly double-up or bust out trying. I'm sure I could probably fold my way to another $400 but if I wanted to do that I'd just not bother to show up. No, I truly believe that if I'm lucky enough to double up once I can play poker, if I double up a second time I believe I will at a minimum make it to final table and have a chance at some serious money. I have no intention of trying to grind my way up a couple of meaningless spots in the bust-out column.
|
| So first let me recap a few things from Saturday that I left out of yesterday's blog due to length.
|
| The first was a great read I made at my first table. Loose-aggressive player comes to the table and is playing way too many pots and betting people off way too many hands for my taste. I wake up w/ pocket 10s early to act and I raise. Mr loose-aggressive calls from the small blind and I think we get one other player. Flop comes Q-2-4 rainbow, a very good flop for my hand. Check-check to me, I make a bet of probably 2/3 of the pot. L-A calls, 3rd player folds. I've seen this script many times from L-A, I'm convinced he's floating the post-flop bet to see if I check again on the turn and then bet out on almost any river.
|
| Turn brings an ace. Check-check. I believe this is the one spot I may have misplayed the hand. L-A is surely betting an ace if he has one, and I have a chance to represent an ace here. I had made continuation bets most of the time to this point, it's very possible he puts me on some kind of ace after betting the flop and by checking I'm announcing that I don't have an ace (of course his check pretty much announces that he doesn't have one either). Turn was a rag, 9 or 7 I think. L-A follows the script and bets and I insta-call with pocket 10s convinced I have the best hand. He turns over pocket 8s.
|
| I'll say this, he had a better hand than I gave him credit for, and to his credit he probably thought he was bluffing with the best hand in that spot. He didn't make a huge bet, and I'm not sure I would have trusted my read had he made a pot-sized bet.
|
| In the "you know you're playing well when..." department, one thing that I was very proud of yesterday was my ability to create a table image, maintain that image and use it to my advantage.
|
| I had at least two tables I played at convinced I was the tightest player on the planet, on the other hand one of the last tables I played at was convinced I was loose but not crazy. On the tables where they thought I was tight, I knew that my raises were being respected so I did some stealing. On the table that thought I was loose, I was able to adjust my bet sizing to get people to pay me on my monsters. Although there was one hand I do regret possibly over-playing.
|
| I'm in the cutoff, and a Chris Ferguson wannabe sitting under the gun or UTG+1 (I forget which) raises out. I have KdQd and I make the call, the blinds come along for the ride. Flop 10-Q-Q two clubs. Wow. So wannabe (and really, folks, you had to see this guys act, it was priceless) bets out about 25K after his 30K preflop raise. I min-raise thinking that surely he will pay me off. The blinds fold immediately and he goes into the tank. Eventually he folds and later claims aces.
|
| Chances are this hand wouldn't have played out any differently had I just called, he was probably going to check-fold to any cards that came later unless I let him draw out on me. But still I can't help thinking I could have gotten one more bet out of him had I just called...
|
| Oh well, I need to get going. Wish me luck! |
| Post a comment |