Vegas June 2015 (WSOP)

Day 4 - More shopping than poker

Last Updated: 2015-06-10 09:11:29

This unfortunately will be a short one. (Actually now that I'm done and I'm proof-reading, not as short as I expected...)

I was able to follow through on the simple plan that I couldn't manage on Monday. No WPT tournament at Aria so they had a regular tournament. Apparently, however, Aria now wraps their own poker series around the WPT weekends so it was a $235 buyin this week instead of the usual $125.

I did think about heading back to Rio for the WSOP deepstack for a few minutes but eventually I came to my senses and realized that I didn't want to play that late if I was successful so Aria it was.

Joann and I filled up at the Aria buffet, then headed down to the poker room.

Well...I wasn't card dead. 3-4 hands in I picked up A-K. I was on the button and 3-4 people limped ahead of me. Quite often in the first round or two of a tournament I like to just call in those spots and hope to have a deceptively big hand after the flop. Or, sometimes a blind raises to steal and I can re-steal (tho I probably prefer the former scenario).

But if you're going to play it that way you have to be able to get away from it sometimes...

So I call, SB calls and BB checks. Flop comes K-9-2 rainbow. Small blind leads out for 400. Folds around to the hijack seat who calls and I make it 1150 to go. SB then 4-bets to 3200.

Crud.

I call, hijack folds. Turn is a blank and the SB leads out for 1/3-1/2 of my remaining stack. I have to give it up. He has to have 2-pr or a set. At best I'm up against another AK and I'm playing to chop. I just don't see any way he plays a worse K than mine that fast. I fold, he shows one king. No doubt in my mind he had two pair.

Arguably I could have just called the flop with the rainbow board, in hindsight I probably would have gotten to see the river for about the same as what it cost me to fold after the turn...but I think 3-handed I was much better off not letting the hijack stick around and defining the SB's hand as I did. You could also argue I should have just gotten away on the re-raise but I do think calling and seeing what happens on the turn is equally as correct as folding. Only bad decision would have been to go back over the top IMHO.

Oh well.

Not exactly devastating, I'm only down 20% of my stack.

I pick up a pot or two, and roughly 30 minutes into the tournament I look down at QQ under the gun. I make a standard raise to 250 (blinds now 50/100), I get one middle position caller and the button makes it 600 to go. I call, middle position calls.

Flop comes 6-6-4. I check, middle position checks, button continues for 600.

Small C-bet given the pot, so I'm immediately feeling good about my hand. I make it 1600. Middle position folds. Button makes it 3600.

Thoughts of aces and kings briefly come into my head, but then I think better of it. Can't buy either of those hands with such a small c-bet. And the guy already saw me raise/call/fold earlier so he probably sees me as a thief. I call planning to push any turn that doesn't have a king or an ace since he could just be one of those people who can't stop playing A-K like quads.

Turn is a Jack.

I do think for a second that he might have just hit a set, but I follow through with my plan. All in.

He asks for a count, makes the call, then isn't remotely happy when he sees my queens. He rolls over A-J off.

Got him!!!

Jack on the river...

Oh well.

My trusty poker odds calculator puts me at 88.636% to 11.364%. I can promise you that if I can get all my chips in an 8-1 favorite every time for the rest of my poker "career" I'll take it. Dammit.

So Tuesday became "shopping day". We hit the outlets and the mall and I made out pretty good. I wanted a thin hoodie for the refrigerators known as poker rooms in this town and picked up two for me and one for Joann thanks to 70% off at Gap; picked up a couple of pair of Oakley sunglasses (buy one get one half off) since I haven't had a really good pair in a long time; and stocked up on some things for the kitchen as well as a few other things.

I think this is the first time I made out better than Joann did on shopping day. Unfortunately she didn't find much at the places she likes to go, and usually even when I do get stuff for myself Joann does equally as well if not better.

But after that it was an early night. Not even a thought of playing in the 7pm, need to get a good night's sleep.

So Wednesday I'll be in the Brasilia room at table 39, seat 8. Since it's an 8-handed tournament that's the equivalent of the 10-seat in hold'em. My second least-favorite seat but I guess it's better than being in the 1-seat.

Wish me luck!