Vegas December 2015

Day Four - Aria, Venetian

Last Updated: 2015-12-09 03:31:55

Brutal day at the 1:00 at Aria.

Monday I had a guy crack my Kings with Q-J, then double me up later when I had Kings and he had K-Q. You can read that chunk here if you missed it. Same guy now directly to my left on Tuesday.

Things going OK, no particularly notable hands but I'm up to about 12-13K when I look down at pocket aces about half way through the third level. I raise out, he's the only caller.

Flop comes K-10-X rainbow. I lead out for something like 700, he makes it 2K.

I've seen this act before. He has a king and he's willing to get it all in. K-10 is a possibility, but so are AK, KQ, KJ and K9. They're all in his range. I shove hoping it's not K-10.

He calls fairly quickly and rolls over K-Q. YES!

King on the turn...crippled.

I go all in with the first ace I get with my meager stack, run into Kings, no help. Over to rebuy.

I go into the first break with exactly a starting stack. By the time I sat down there were only a few hands and no antes, I didn't even post a blind.

Utterly card dead after that. Not counting limps when I was in blinds I played at most 5 hands the rest of the tournament. Started to get blinded down, so I'm in the big blind I can't really afford, two players who were both the limp-fold types limp in and I go all in trying to steal.

Second limper looked ready to fold out of turn, but first limper did a little math. He was risking half his stack. Can't believe he called with just A-J but he did.

I'm happy with the move. I put him in a very tough decision, arguably he had no business calling me given I had barely played a hand in an hour or so and he should have assumed he was flipping at best for half his stack. Even if I assume he's 50-50 to fold when I make the move and I'm only down 2-1 or so when called, which is what I was, it's a very profitable play on my part.

But he called, I missed and I was done.

On to Venetian for the 7pm bounty.

The short version is that I managed to outlast more than half the field with not much to work with. I had a few big pocket pairs, but I didn't get that much for them. All of the big pots I won I stole. It's possible I stole them with the best hand, but I definitely made several very big bets to take down pots in which there was almost no chance I could have been called and been ahead.

For example, I raise out with J-9 off from late position. Flop comes 9-J-A. Awesome. I continuation bet and both call. Pot now very large. Turn an ace counterfeiting my two pair and leaving me with no kicker. I shove, each guy goes in the tank and folds. I might have had the best hand...but I might not have. And no chance I get called by worse.

I did pick up one bounty so I got a 25% discount on my entry. But in the end I went to the well one time too many.

I flopped trip queens with K-Q in a limped pot, turn brought three to a flush on the board, river didn't help. I pushed. Guy went in the tank for very long time and turned over his 8-high flush. What he was doing in the pot in the first place with 8-2 suited I'll never know.

Oh well.

The bottom line is I'm still going home with more money than I came with. One cash in 7 tries isn't bad. Could have been better, the painful one will remain the kings cracked four from the money on Saturday night. I am once again extremely happy with my play overall, and all you can do is put yourself in a position to win. You can't control the cards.

Thanks as always for reading!