 Vegas July 2014 - Main Event satellite |
| Day 7 - WSOP deepstack again |
| Last Updated: 2014-07-10 14:03:33 |
| Joann and I went back to the Movado store to get a battery for my watch that I haven't been able to wear in months...and left the store with not one...not two...but three new watches. How does that happen?
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| Well...in our defense they were running a special where the more you buy the better the discount and it was actually less money to buy the three at 50% off than it was too buy two at 40% off.
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| It went sorta like this. When we went to the outlets the first time I forgot my dead watch. We walked in just to ask if they replaced batteries and naturally I looked through the cases as we walked in and one or two caught my eye.
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| This time we had the watch, but apparently only one person working there was competent to change batteries and he was helping someone so we had to wait a few minutes. So what the heck, lemme see that watch that caught my eye...
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| It took me a while to figure out why the sales lady was pushing us hard to buy cheap watches when I was looking at a somewhat pricey one. Finally I realized that she was trying to tell me that these other women being helped by "battery guy" paid less for three watches than they were going to pay for one, I assume, very pricey one because of the discounts. The discounts were on total purchase no matter what disparity in price among the items and topped out at 50% if you bought at least three.
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| As much as I love Movado watches, most of them are like an expensive suit or a nice dress. Look great but not meant to be worn every day. Most of them aren't terribly water resistant, which isn't helpful when you're walking around on a hot day. This one that caught my eye is good in water to a depth I don't remember but it's definitely at least a foot more than "don't even sweat on me".
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| So once the decision was made to buy one and we figured out the discount thing there was a lot of time spent doing math. We could have done the same thing as those other ladies and gotten Joann two lower price watches and paid less than we were going to pay for my one watch. And they sold other brands, including Coach. Joann never wears watches...but a watch that matches her purses? Uh oh...
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| However, Joann hasn't worn a watch in like 20 years and doesn't want to get two just 'cause they're free in case she doesn't like wearing them.
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| A quick backstory. Several years ago I wanted to get myself a blue faced Movado for myself for Xmas. I decided to get one the year they stopped making them, of course. And our favorite jeweler, who wasn't a fan of Movado to begin with, really didn't like those anyway for reasons I don't remember...resale maybe? So I settled for a watch I liked a lot, don't get me wrong, but the one I really wanted didn't exist any more.
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| Well guess what. They started making them again. And they had a few. And Joann reminded me I/we were sitting on a bunch of gift money we hadn't spent and didn't know what I/we were going to spend it on. And if we bought three it was going to be half off.
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| Sold!
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| All said and done, like Joann the day before at Coach, we ended up spending much less total for all three than the full retail of the most expensive watch I bought, and a little less than the full outlet price that I'm assuming is close to a wholesale price. And they threw in the battery for the old watch.
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| Thanks mom and dad! You mostly bought us three watches, two purses and two wallets. Happy birthday (or christmas?) to me and happy anniversary to us! I'll text you more pics later.
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| On to the Rio buffet followed by some poker.
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| Bought into the tournament late, and continued my pattern of early cards followed by a whole lot of nothing. The big early hand was when I flopped a set of queens and got paid, that got me around 22k at the time.
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| But like I said, a whole lot of nothing after that. Into the first break just over starting stack. Maintained that for a while with very few playable hands, then not long before the second break it happened again...
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| Loose player limps, I look down at AA, I raise, caller to my immediate left plus the limper both call. Flop 8-2-7 with two diamonds. I bet out 1/2 of my stack, guy to my left goes over the top all-in, limper folds, I call and he has 5-6 of clubs. No, he didn't hit the straight...that would have been merciful. Instead it went 6 on the turn and 5 on the river. Unreal.
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| Did he think I was betting half my stack on a bluff, or that I might fold? This would have been about half his stack, it made no sense. I could even see if he had a straight draw and one or two over cards, maybe, but he had a straight draw and two under cards. There is absolutely zero chance I'm folding and he has to be way behind.
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| Sigh. #ontothenextone.
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| It's a little after 7:00, way too early to call it a night but no 7PM tournament at Aria because of the final day of their WPT event. I guess that leaves me with the 6:00 here at Rio that I can still buy in to.
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| Aside from my brutal exits there's been another persistent pattern as I've played at the WSOP deepstacks. I've been utterly card dead for the second two hours, levels 5-8, in every single one. Well clearly buying in an hour late messed up the pattern.
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| Once again that "almost never fails" tell came into play. I'm sitting at the table for no more than 15 minutes when I get pocket 9s and raise out, the blinds both call. Flop comes 4-3-4 and the small blind, who was down to about 2/3 of a starting stack, goes all while the dealer only has the second four half uncovered. BB immediately folds and I toss in a 25 chip to indicate a call while he was still mucking his cards.
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| Nobody at my end of the table could believe I instantly called with just 99. Neither could the guy who went all in as he turned over his two 8s. Honestly I didn't think he'd show up even that strong.
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| Poker friends, word of advice. In home games you can get away with the instant shove. It'll intimidate players at that level. But when you're up against players who are a little more serious about it, don't do it. Granted this guy had only 10-15 minutes of playing with me, but if you're in Vegas playing in any tournaments there is always a mix of pros and serious amateurs mixed in with people who are having some fun outside of their normal home game. First, you need to know who you're betting into. But there's also something instinctive about it and you need to resist that instinct and at least make it look like you thought about what to do before bluffing. Read any book on tells, there's always a section about betting too fast into a pot.
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| I have to admit, when I don't play in a casino for a while I've been guilty myself on occasion. And I beat myself up about it every time.
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| Just like that I've got nearly double a starting stack. I head into break a little under 20K. And, for a change, I don't return from break card dead for the next two hours. I actually won a few pots and take out another short stack.
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| A monster stack comes to our table and I could tell very quickly he planned to be aggressive. I look down at A-Q suited and raise out, it folds around to monster stack, he looks at my pile of chips and quickly goes all in.
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| Dammit. There's that tell again. But this guy can easily take me out, and it's not like I'm suffering for chips, I have a decent stack.
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| I'm in the tank. I'm convinced I'm ahead, but even if I'm right I can't possibly be that far ahead that I can make this call. Then he calls my hand: "Tough to fold ace-queen, eh?" he says. People start half-joking about calling clock on me. Ultimately I did the right thing, I folded and he strongly implied he had kings. In hindsight I think he probably did.
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| So I'm stuck in the 15-20K range for a while after that, wasn't totally card dead but it wasn't great either. And it was in roughly that same time frame...
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| But the other part of the pattern is that in the 3rd two-hour segment of every tournament I've gotten a rush of cards. And wow what a rush this was.
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| In a blind, I'm probably a little under 20K, a loose player min-raises as was his norm and I look down at 2-2. I call.
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| Flop comes 4-2-4.
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| I check, he bets, I call. Turn a King. "Please have a king" I'm thinking to myself. Check, bet, call. This is going well.
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| River was a 6? Don't remember, didn't matter. I check one more time, he bets out more than half his remaining stack...so now he's got 2/3 or more of his original stack invested in this pot...I go all in, he folds, and I nearly double up to 34K.
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| Two hands later I forget whether my buddy with the big stack raised out or limped, but it folds around to me now either button or cutoff and I look down at 2-2 again. I call. Big blind is very short stack, he goes all in for less than a full reraise I think, monster stack calls, I call.
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| Flop comes A-2-face (K or J, not sure). Wow. You can't make this up...
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| Monster checks, I lead out for 2500 I think, he calls.
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| Turn is a 9. He checks, I bet a little over 5000, snap-all-in from monster stack, snap call from me. He turns over A-9. Original all-in turns over A-K.
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| River was whatever the face card wasn't on the flop. I more than double to 72K.
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| I take out another person when A-Q holds up vs K-J and I'm over 90K. My biggest stack of any tournament I've played in this trip.
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| Now we start counting down to the money. Started with 249, paying 27 and we're about 40 from the money. And I go pretty card dead from that point on.
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| Then I see a couple of fairly surreal things. Mr monster stack had mostly blown his chips, was very short, but then had a series of double-ups and was back over 150K. A guy with about the same size stack comes to our table. First this new big stack takes out a woman who had been there playing 5 hrs of poker very well calls new big stack's all in with nothing but a gutshot and busts out something like 5-6 from the money. Seriously???
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| Then something slightly more unbelievable. Down 3-4 from money new monster stack raises out, it folds around to the other monster stack who's in the small blind.
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| He doesn't realize the first guy is in the pot and goes all-in to steal the big blind. Big blind folds, he starts to toss his cards away and everyone stops him and shows him that monster #1 had raised. Uh-oh.
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| Monster #1 knows what he was trying to do...he asks for a count and like I said above he's around 200K vs 150K. He knows 150K was just on a steal. After a lot of thought, he takes the risk and calls, turns over A-K.
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| That's a tough call in that spot with A-K. But he was right, other guy has just A-7. A-K holds up, my buddy from that early hand is out just 2-3 from money and guy betting into me has just a massive stack.
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| And he does exactly what he's supposed to do in that spot. From that point until the bubble burst he went all-in every hand and stole everyone's blinds for an entire orbit-plus.
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| The guy to his right wasn't amused and seriously thought about calling him once but didn't. Dude, that's exactly what a monster stack is supposed to do in that spot...
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| Well the bubble burst, I got into the money, people started dropping like flies and I ended up 21st, two money bumps up from bottom money so more than double the buyin.
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| Finally I get paid!
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| So Thursday I'll finally play poker at Aria. Hopefully the deep runs will continue! |
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