Vegas June 2013 (WSOP)

Day 8 - A short one

Last Updated: 2013-06-09 11:58:52

It's a good thing Joann is playing slots or I wouldn't have a whole lot to talk about today...

I don't know how many of my old Boeing friends still read this but for any that do we had a "small world" moment to start our day. We decide to have the Aria buffet for lunch again, we get in line and Charlie Hunter and his wife come up and get in line behind us. How weird is that? They're also here on vacation and staying at Aria.

He's still with Infinity working OCX now if anyone was wondering.

On to the 1:00 tournament and I think I can honestly say nothing interesting happened. No suckouts, didn't suck out on anyone, wish I could say I made some awesome play to win a pot but didn't really have a lot of opportunity. I did make it down into the 60`s out of 150-ish.

I guess the one positive is that I finally grew a pair and did a little light 3-betting and I was fairly successful. I'm going to have to do more of that...

So I bust out with time to have dinner before the 7:00, but as we're walking away from the poker room Joann says "let's play a $1 slot". She's only been playing quarter slots to this point and has come away with more than she started with seemingly about half the time, and she's shown a great deal of discipline in stopping when it didn't go well.

She picks a one-armed bandit and throws some money into it. These machines have gotten really complex since I last played one, even the ones that still have actual spinning wheels have four video screens of information on the various ways to win. You'd think with 500 ways to win you'd just constantly win, right? :)

Somewhere along the way Joann gets teased by three red 7s with one just off the payline and says "I don't think I've ever hit three 7s before". Several spins later she hits on the payline:

2X 7 3X

So six times the payout for three 7s...which came out to 9 times what she originally put into the machine.

Dinner at Spice Market buffet and back to the Aria poker room. Once again I lasted several hours but this was probably my shortest 7:00 of the trip.

Twice ran into aces with A-K, first time I doubled up a short stack (it still hurt at the time), the other time I lost the minimum because the guy was a pretty big stack and I was able to give them up.

I was getting pocket 9s a lot all day, in this tournament I had them 3 times. Early on the only thing I want to do with them is flop a set and stack someone so I almost always limp but raise sometimes for balance.

First time I limped, board came 8-2-8, bet out and won the pot. Second time I raised out, got 3 callers, flopped 2 overcards, had to give them up. Third time I called a raise and caught my 9 in the door but the flop actually ran out 6-8-9 with two clubs in a 4 handed pot...with that board and 3K in the pot from preflop raising I can't mess around so I make a nearly pot-sized bet and take it down right there.

In the midst of me running into aces with A-K and picking up pocket 9s a lot and having them not work out most of the time, Joann comes by and shows me more money she won at the slots. Maybe I should play slots instead of poker...

There were only two other hands of note, one I may have been bluffing with the best hand. My image at the time should have been pretty tight and if anyone was paying attention they would realize I had been trapping a little. I was in the big blind, guy under the gun raised the pot, it folded around to me and I called.

Flop came 4-7-8 rainbow, a good flop for 5s.

I check, he bets out, I call.

Turn is a Queen, I check, he wants to bet but he checks. River is a 10, I lead out, he thinks for quite a while and folds. Unlikely he's folding a really big pair there, so maybe he had A-K or A-J and I had the best of it anyway. But there are a few better hands he could have folded there.

So our table beaks up, I get moved, I'm sitting around 16K. I look down at A-K of spades and raise out, button and BB call.

Flop comes 9-2-5 with 5 of spades, I continuation bet, he ponders and calls. Turn is the deuce of spades and I'm down to my last 10K. There is well over 10K in the pot at this point, and with the flush draw and two overs even if he has a pair I think I'm getting the right price to call if he were to move all in, so I decide to take the initiative and shove and try and buy the pot.

He thinks for a very long time and then makes the call and turns over pocket 6s. He was very happy with himself, and I got no help on the river.

Since I had to know I pulled out the odds calculator and ran the numbers, as it turned out I was a 2-1 dog and I was getting well over 2-1 on my money. You add in the fold equity (i.e. I win every time he folds) that was easily a winning play in the long run, just didn't work out this time.

Well only one day left in the trip, we check out and drive home day after tomorrow. Looks like Bellagio for brunch and more poker today.