Vegas June 2016 (WSOP Seniors, Solstice)

Day 7 - WSOP Deepstack, Aria

Last Updated: 2016-06-22 11:40:30

Played in two tournaments Tuesday but this will probably be a short entry.

Brunch at the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's. They've gone brunch 7 days a week instead of having a breakfast and a lunch. Very good as always. Then it was on to Rio for the Daily Deepstack.

It didn't start out great. In the first two rounds I had what I think are the first two times I've had pocket aces on the trip. The result was me going from a starting stack of 15000 to about 6000 chips. First aces didn't get much for me, second pair got cracked by 8-9 off.

But over the next two rounds I worked my way back to a starting stack and went into the break at 15,125.

There was a guy who doubled me up along the way when he called me down with 99 on a 10-high board only to run into my JJ. A hand or two later someone limped ahead of me, I looked down at 44 and called the limp. I think someone then either limped or min-raised and the tilted guy went all-in with about 5-6000. Original limper calls, so no way I can play 4s and fold. Other guy calls.

Tilter had something like A-8, original limper had 99 and caller after me had A-Q. Flop comes 4-10-Q. Argh! If it wasn't for the dude on tilt I would have won a sizeable pot.

That was pretty much all the excitement for this one.

After that I was up and down like a yo-yo stuck just over starting stack and not really able to make much happen.

Guy came to the table who was playing 90% of hands, raising 100% of the time action folded to him. The blinds started getting to where I was going to have to do something...finally had a pot where I was in the small blind and he was the only other person in the pot on his usual 100% raise so I went all-in with 10-high trying to steal the pot...naturally he had 77 and called me down and I got no love on the board. I did have a bunch of outs on the river with a board of 8-9-Q-9, however (10 pairs me, J gives me straight, 8 or Q counterfeits his 77).

At that point Joann and I talked and decided that the "one-an-done" thing isn't going to work this week. So the new but still fluid plan is that I'm going to play the Rio deepstack and second chance at the Aria 7pm the rest of the week. And if I don't have a significant cash I will probably skip the Monster Stack this weekend. I've taken two shots at WSOP already and I'm still coming back for the tag-team in July.

So on to the 7pm at Aria. And it was pretty much more of the same. Every step forward was followed by a step backwards.

There was an older woman betting into me who was sucking out left and right. I win a decent pot off someone, she takes the chips when she rivers a straight. I take another decent pot, she takes those chips when she hits runner-runner full house with bottom pair vs my top pair.

It wasn't just me. Hit a couple other gutshots against other unhappy customers.

Of course she lost some big pots too, her stack took some wild swings. And she made a shocking laydown against me. She limped, I raised out with QQ, she just called. She did a lot of limp/calling and would do it with any hand. Saw her do it with aces once...

Flop comes K-4-K. She checks, I lead out for about 2/3 of the pot at 3500. She quickly folds aces face up!

Huh? Ok. Not complaining...

A while later I'm still stuck somewhere around starting stack and blinds are going up. She does her limp thing and I decide to make it 2500 to go with K-Q off at the last hand before a break. It folds around to her and she goes all-in for less than what I have.

She had 11k so it's only 8500 to call. Fold, and when we get back from break I'm going to be down to about 14 big blinds which is manageable but on the short side. Call and I'm either in good shape or crippled.

But her shove doesn't make any sense to me. She's a limp/caller and I know that if she really had a hand she would call, not shove. She has to be weak. I tank for a while and call.

I was right, she was weak, but a little stronger than me. A-10 off. It held up.

So out to break and I come back with 4700 chips and blinds at 400/800. Not good.

A guy fairly early to act min-raises, he's been playing a lot of pots and probably isn't that strong. I see a suited A-3 of clubs, figure I'm probably ahead of him and I shove. He doesn't like it, calls me with Q-J suited also clubs. A-3 holds up.

Few hands later I'm just over 10BB, folds around to me, first card I see is an ace in middle position. I go all-in again. Folds around to a knucklehead who had just shown up at the table with a new stack and he tries to make it 2200 to go. Takes him a few seconds to understand I'm all-in, he puts in the rest of his stack. Of course he's not really all-in, he's just calling me at that point. Everyone folds.

He turns over Q-J off. My second card was a 5. I catch two pair and double up again.

All of a sudden I have chips! I'm probably around 25,000! Life is good, I can play poker again!

A few hands later I'm late to act, it folds around to me in the cutoff and I decide to try and steal blinds with Q-2 of diamonds. I make it 2000 to go, blinds still 400/800.

Fairly big stack big blind, who was a very solid player, decides to call.

Flop comes Q-10-2. Gin! He leads out into me for 5000...I can feel the double-up coming!!! I think about it for not very long and go all in.

He asks for a count, realizes it's going to hurt him badly if he loses but calls anyway. And rolls over Q-J. Third time in a row I'm all in and ahead against Q-J, this time well ahead with only two cards to fade.

Jack on the turn. Done. Unreal.

So the plan for the rest of the trip is 2pm at Rio pretty much every day and if I'm out any time before 7pm back over to Aria for a second chance. I might play at Aria 1pm once or twice to try and play in a smaller field, but it is a bigger buyin so maybe not. The way things are going smaller fields will give me a better chance at a decent cash, but if it keeps going the way it's going so far not sure I want to dent the bankroll even further.