Vegas June 2016 (WSOP Seniors, Solstice)

Day 6 - WSOP Summer Solstice

Last Updated: 2016-06-21 12:15:44

Had a great 6 hours of poker. Unfortunately 6 hours wasn't long enough.

7500 chips to start, 90 minute levels, 15 minute breaks at the end of every level with an hour and a half dinner break after 4 levels.

Not a lot going on in the first level, I ended up around starting stack. Don't think I ever got above 8500, don't think I ever went below 6500.

Second level saw me win a few decent pots, the big one came when I flopped a set of 8s and got someone to pay me off. I raised out with 88, one loose but not overly aggressive player called. Flop came 8-2-X, two spades. I bet, he calls. Not sure of amounts. Turn was Ace of Spades, so three to a flush on board. I bet something like 1200-1600, he min-raises me 1/3 of his stack. I go over the top all-in. He thinks for a while, tells me I don't have a flush and folds. In hindsight this hand becomes a little ironic later...

Up to about 12.5K at break number two. Got paid on a full house just before that break. Stayed on plan in the third level, built my stack up over 16K in spite of losing 3K early in the round when someone hit a gutshot on me. I would get that guy back tho...

In the fourth level (so we're 4.5 hours of playing time and 45 minutes of break in at this point) I got up to 22-23,000 chips on a lucky break.

The guy who had hit the gutshot on me was trying to draw out on people all night. He limps, get another limper and I raise out to 700 with blinds at 100/200 with A-K. He calls and probably one other. Flop comes 5-2-K.

He checks, I bet out probably 1800 or so, he thinks and calls. If anyone else was still in the hand they got out at this point.

The pot now is about his stack. A Jack comes on the turn. He checks, I go all in and he thinks about it openly wondering if I caught a set. He calls and rolls over K-J offsuit. "Un fucking believable I mutter" I say.

Ace on the river. Oops.

He was mad. He took a picture of the hand, not sure why. Wasn't the worst beat ever. He hit a three outer on the turn, I hit a three outer on the river. That's poker, dude.

That was my high point for the night. By dinner break I blew about half that stack and was back down to 12.5K or so. Basically what happened was that we started eliminating players, and they got replaced by very aggressive late entrants. One of whom I was betting directly into. For the rest of the night he either called or re-raised 100% of the time I raised out. I was in the one-seat he was in two, and the guy in the three seat had been there from the start but he was clearly a big-time professional (more about that later) that I just didn't know and when the two seat would just call he would try and raise to squeeze about 1/3 of the time.

This new reality made it extremely difficult for me to do much of anything. And the big hit came when I called down and doubled up the three seat. With all the aggression at some point I was going to have to take a stand...naturally I did so with a big pair and he turned two-pair. Argh.

It seemed like the perfect situation. The three seat was the big stack at the table when the two seat sat down. He basically doubled and re-doubled the two seat in a space of 7-8 hands. He seemed tilted, he was being aggressive with me, the hand should have been the perfect time for me to call him down and take chips from him. Oh well.

On to dinner break, Joann and I went back to Noodle Asia at the Venetian since we had an hour and a half to kill.

Back from the dinner break and who's sitting with a late registration stack in the 6 seat but Jason Koon. If you watch WPT, it's the guy who actually threw up in his mouth a little at a WPT TV event, they show when that happened in the opening montage. He plays $100K buyin tournaments, but I guess he wanted to slum it with us :-)

He's all chatty with the three seat. He lasts all of 15 minutes. Gave half his chips to the three seat and the other half to a woman at the other end of the table. And he gets replaced by another rather aggressive player.

So bottom line, this table went from bring a great table for me to a brutal one. In half a round before dinner the guy in the two seat had gone from a starting stack (late registration) to probably 30-40K, and kept going after dinner. And the table went from a mix of players to a very aggressive table.

I was up and down between 12K and 16K, but was at the lower end of that range late round 5 (blinds 150/300 with 50 ante).

Aggressive guy that replaced Koon raised out, maybe one called around the table to me and I decide to see a flop with 7-5 suited in diamonds.

Flop comes 3-4-7 with two spades. Other guy bets, I call my top pair/gutshot, anyone else folds. Turn is a 5 of spades. He leads out again, I figure I have him with two pair and get all in (at this point based on the size of the pot a re-raise was over half my stack anyway), he calls and rolls over Q-2 of spades. No help on the river and I'm done.

Crud.

It's frustrating for me because I was playing very well against a solid group of players. The issue isn't that I couldn't deal with the change in dynamics of the table - I just picked the wrong times. It went from a solid group that I was able to outplay to a group that wanted to gamble and pound. I had little choice but to pick hands to go with and accept the results and I just happened to pick the hands when they actually had better hands. The bottom line is, the hands I decided to take stands with were the hands I should have taken stands with, and I could have easily built my stack up instead of getting cut down. I had an opportunity to build a stack and it just didn't work out.

Tuesday we'll be back at the WSOP Daily Deep Stack.