Vegas June 2016 (WSOP Seniors, Solstice)

Day 3 - WSOP Seniors Tournament

Last Updated: 2016-06-18 09:41:44

Friday was a tough day at the poker tables.

I was, of course, very excited to play in the Seniors Event this year, but I was also realistic about the format. Even with long levels 5000 chips is not a lot of chips if you don't win pots, and I had a tough time winning pots. Hardly hit any flops, couldn't win with continuation bets, almost every time I called a raise preflop or raised out myself the flop invariably came bad for my hand. And the pots I won were generally smaller than the pots I lost.

This is not a recipe for success. I picked a bad day to be card dead.

4499 people signed up, I think they claimed it to be the largest seniors field ever (as in ever anywhere) and surely the top prize will surpass last years $600,000-plus.

At the first break I was down around 2000 chips, dipped further below that not long after the break. Oh and to make matters worse I was in the first area of table breaks, and with just 5000 starting chips the table breaks came early and often. I was on my 3rd table by the 3rd 60-minute level.

I probably bottomed out around 1600-1700 chips, then started shoving and actually caught a few cards to build back up over 4400. Only hand I might have played differently went like this:

I'm around my bottom with just under 20 big blinds, I'm a big believer that is the proper standard to consider yourself short rather than 10 BB. I'm looking for an opportunity to go over the top of a raise from a loose player and there were a few even tho it was a seniors event.

In the big blind of 100, a stack a little shorter than mine raises to 225, just over a min-raise. One caller and I look down at 88. If it was a bigger raise I would have just gone all in, but I was a little nervous that effectively min-raising with a pretty short stack looked a little fishy. Instead I call.

Flop comes J-5-6. I immediately think about going all in, this is a decent flop for my hand. But I want to see what the original raiser does so I check. If he bets small again, he's got a big hand. If he shoves, he was probably shoving with any two after the flop. Sure enough short stack goes all-in.

At this point I think he's unlikely to have a strong hand and 88 stands a very good chance of being the best hand. If he had a big hand he would try to extract chips. More likely this flop didn't help him and he was trying to scare us out with a stop-and-go move. I'm leaning heavily towards calling, but the other guy ahead of me quickly calls the all in. Argh. He almost certainly has a jack, I fold.

Original raiser turns over 77 (dammit!), caller turns over A-J. Good laydown, right?

7 on the turn. Ouch. Really good laydown.

9 on the river. UGH! So if I shove pre, which was my first instinct, I may have doubled up and then some and if other guy hadn't shown up with A-J I probably would have called the flop and doubled up. Oh well.

That was probably when my stack bottomed out, like I said I got away with some all-ins, actually caught a card or two and worked my way back up to about 4400. But that was my high-water mark. Gave some back, ended up going all in with 99 with only 12-13 big blinds and ran into JJ. Missed the flop, caught a straight draw on the turn but it just changed my two outs from the two remaining 9s to the two remaining Js and the river was no help. Done in only about 4 hrs. Biggest pair I had was 10-10 (which I had to give up after a flop of A-A-K and a lead out from a tight player), probably only 3 pairs total in those 4 hrs and A-K once. That was it. I had very little to work with.

On to Noodle Asia, our favorite Chinese restaurant on the strip at the Venetian for dinner and then back down to Aria for the 7:00 tournament.

My day didn't get any better.

Basically it was more of the same. A-Q a couple of times (missed both flops), no pairs bigger than 55 in about 4.5 hours. No A-K. Finally down to half a starting stack and about 20 BB I get a very short stack all in in front of me (he had just gotten short stacked on a bad call and was a little tilted), I look down at JJ with my 8K stack and go over the top all-in. At the other end of the table a guy with only 11K or so CALLS with just K-Q off. Really? Had I won the hand, he would have been crippled.

King on the river, done. Argh.

So like I said, tough day at the poker tables.

Couple of slices of pizza and back up to the room for the night.

Saturday I will be playing at the 2:00 WSOP daily deepstack at the Rio. Hopefully I'll at least get a few cards...