Vegas June 2016 (WSOP Seniors, Solstice)

Days 11 and 12 - Aria, really one day

Last Updated: 2016-06-28 17:14:37

As I sit and start to type this I am up to about 38 hours since I last slept. Sorry it's late (I've already gotten one complaint! :-) ) but I sorta had to drive home and I didn't have time between playing poker and departure...and if I played poker and haven't slept, one might infer that's a good thing...

The original plan was to play in the Monster Stack Saturday (day 11) and leave Monday unless I made Day 3, in which case we'd have had to find a room. But once I decided that two WSOP tournaments were enough for one trip and I cut out the Monster Stack we also cancelled our Sunday night reservation planning to leave Sunday morning (Day 12).

The new plan was the Aria 11am Omaha 8/b tournament followed by the 7pm if 8/b didn't go well.

Brunch at the Aria buffet (easiest option) and on to the 8/b tournament.

Been a while since I played a straight up 8/b tournament in a casino. Once we decided this was what I was going to do I was very excited about it. If you've been following along the BLOG for this trip, you know things haven't been going very well. And this buyin is a little higher than what I'm normally playing (tho not WSOP high).

45 minutes into the tournament I'm already in a position where I have to decide whether to go all-in or not. I had A-2-K-J with two hearts including the ace. That's a very good starting hand in Omaha 8b. I raise out, other person reraises, I'm not going away preflop with that hand.

Flop comes K-7-8 with one heart. So I have top pair, nut low draw and running heart possibilities. And the other guy immediately goes all-in (he had a little less than the pot behind). Sigh. I check what time it is, think to myself I really don't want to be going back upstairs to the room this early...tho I did actually have him covered, I would have only been crippled if I lost...and I make the absolutely correct call. Plus, if you've read my blogs you know what I think about the instant all-in. It's never strong. Ever.

He rolls over 3-5-6-7 rainbow. I will bottom line this for you. The only cards that are bad for me are the four 9s (which give him a straight and don't give me a low) and the two remaining sevens, which would give him three sevens. Any cards higher than 9 and I get the whole pot just on my pair of Kings, any 3 through 6 gives him two pair or a straight but gives me half the pot on the low and any Ace or Deuce gives me two pair and the high but giving him the low half.

Got it?

I will also point out that this is about as bad a starting hand in Omaha 8/b short of being dealt pocket trips or quads as you can get. You can only use two, so trips/quads are really bad hands. But this is a bad hand exactly because of this situation. You're almost never going to win a whole pot with this hand, it's always either going to be half or none for you because the low cards that will give you a "high hand" (say two pair or a straight) almost always give someone else a low and the cards that will give you the low will always give the other person the high (when they pair their ace and something else, you're beat high). And if big cards come you have nothing other than maybe a second best flush or second best straight. Your goal is to start with hands that flop you a chance to win the whole pot with winning half as a backup. Not play hands that will rarely win it all, instead usually either just get your chips back with half the pot or get nothing at all when you lose it all. You only want to play hands that can get you nut high and nut low hands, never mediocre as your best case.

King of hearts on the turn, he loses 7s as outs, 7h on the river to give me a flush and the whole pot as there is no low hand. I'm already almost double starting stack.

Into the first break at 34K from a start of 20K.

In the 4th or 5th round I had A-A-3-7 I think with one suit but maybe double suited. Also a very strong hand, and I'm in the blind. Bunch of limpers, I bet pot, 3 callers.

Flop comes 7-7-8. I bet pot again, one caller who is all in and all he really has is 10-9-Q-rag...so he has a straight draw but can't make a low and half of his straight outs (6s) give me a guaranteed half the pot for the low. I hit 4 to give me the low and then a 7 for quads and scoop another big pot. Just like that I'm at 55,000.

About 60,000 before the next break. I'm really feeling good about how things are going. Unfortunately everything went south after that.

For a while every hand I played missed. I was calling raises with solid starting hands but couldn't buy a flop. Dropped back down in the 40K range when it got real ugly.

I pick up A-A-2-4 double suited. That's the second best starting hand you can have (A-A-2-3 double suited would be the best). Again a few limpers, I pot it, everyone goes away except one guy.

Flop comes 8-8-7. All the chips go in, and he rolls over A-2-8-X. I'm dead to the case ace for high. I can only catch a 2 to win the low with my A-4 (there are only 2 2's left), but he would get high with 8's full of 2s in that case. Well we both hit the low when we hit a 3 on the turn, but no help for me on the high on the river. So he gets half the pot for high, I get only half of the low half of the pot (so I got "quartered"). The net result was I lose half my stack with the second best starting hand you can have in this game.

Sigh.

Well long story short, I ended up getting all in on a high-only hand in the big blind (Q-Q-J-10 with two suits) where I flopped an open ended straight draw with an over-pair and only one low card on the board, but two spades...and the guy called me down with nothing but all low cards on a mostly high card board and a spade draw...and he hit the flush. Done.

That was incredibly disappointing and frustrating at the same time.

Dinner at a Mexican place in Aria, and on to the 7pm tournament.

Within the first hour I had aces cracked and rivered two-pair only to find out the other guy rivered a straight. Somehow I lost the minimum on both hands. In the case of the aces I'm in the small blind so out of position. The big blind and the button call.

Flop all diamonds. Guess which ace I don't have. I check, big blind bets, button calls, I go away. Diamond on the turn, more action on that card...I had made a painful but wise laydown.

I text something to Joann about things being pretty miserable at that point...

But I'm still at 2/3 of a starting stack and not long after that text I take someone out and double up to about 18,500. I blow about 5K on a bluff attempt (guy actually called me with bottom pair on a big card heavy board, he would later make several bluff-catcher calls against other players) but then get aces again and actually profit from them!

Then I got lucky. Not "see the other guy turn a boat and then hit a one outer to river quads" lucky, but 25/75 lucky when I got all in against a better ace but caught on the river and suddenly I was around double a starting stack.

I was building my stack for a while after that, but not as fast as blinds were going up. Eventually I got to the point where I was hovering in the 20 big blind range and making a few all-ins with solid hands, more often over the top of raises from looser players, and getting away with it. When I did finally get called I had a better pair and doubled up, then took the same guy out a few hands later. Before I knew it I was up around 70k and in great shape with the average stack around 50.

The tournament started with 237, around 12:30am we were down to 60 players paying 27 and I was sitting on 60,000 chips which was almost dead-on average. Note that an average or more stack doesn't mean you're in the middle of the pack...it generally means you're in the top third because usually there are a small number of players with a lot of chips and a large number of players with shorter, below average stacks.

Took a couple of hits, dropped down under 50K and the blinds had gotten up to 1500/3000 so here I am again a little under 20 big blinds and I'm looking to get all in over the top of a loose player to steal. But we're also getting closer to money. Aces hold up in a 3-way all in I'm not involved in, another one out next hand and we're 14 from the money.

I got all-in so many times a good-natured guy finally started commenting on how he had never seen someone all in so many times without being called.

But the fact of the matter is this was textbook as far as I was concerned. I had a big enough stack that it would hurt anyone who called me if they lost. I specifically targeted opportunities to go all in against guys who were trying to play a lot of pots to create opportunities for themselves to steal and more often than not would be weak.

One swedish guy in particular, who I think might have been the guy who took me out the night before in the 7pm 5 from the money - he had a big stack then and he had one now - I was able to go over the top of several times and he was getting less and less amused by it.

I'm also intentionally not going all in every time it folds to me in the small blind or on the button. Those are the obvious times. But I'm not desperate, I'm well over 10 big blinds, I'm just in a position where if I make one raise and have to give up the pot I become desperate. So I can pick my spots, pass on a few of the obvious spots and that in turn gives great credibility to my hand. If I'm showing patience, they have to assume that I at least have something, not just any two. My stack is big enough to hurt if they call and lose. And if I did wake up with an actual big hand, when I go all in again it looks like just another steal...

It all feeds on itself.

So I'm in this mode of all-in, no callers, watching the field get closer and closer to the money when the guy who had commented on all of my all-ins won a massive pot and took out two more. He's playing a little loose, wins a pot and I notice the counter says we're 9 from the money. He's still stacking his chips and we're about to go on break when he's first to act (I'm small blind) and he looks at his cards, drops them and flashes a 6 at me and then just grabs a stack of about 20 500-value chips and puts them in the pot. It folds around to me and I look down at A-3 suited.

I know he's weak. 66 at best, maybe A-6, but also maybe not even that strong. I probably only have 40-45K, but he hasn't been willing to take me on either in spite of his now massive stack. I decide that it's worth the risk that he'll fold to my all-in. I go for it, big blind folds, and he immediately folds. Disgust at the other end of the table that he raised out and was making some questionable calls all night, but didn't call me getting those odds.

But I really don't think he thought much about how much he had put in (I don't think he really knew how much he put in) and he surely had a weak hand. I'm at 60K and getting really close to money heading into a break.

More of the same after the break, I'm able to go over the top of the swedish guy a couple more times and I work my way up to the 85-90K range just out of more timely all-ins. And before I know it, we're in the money!!!! I've eked out my first cash of the trip and I still have fightin' chips!

But blinds keep going up. I'm sitting on a little over 100K with blinds at either 4000/8000 or 5000/10000 (so I'm either 13 or 10 big blinds) and I look down at A-Q off and go all-in. It folds around to swedish guy, he asks for a count and quickly calls... with A-J.

A-Q holds up, we flip stacks. Perfect situation. He was fed up with me going over the top of him and A-J looked like a monster at that point to him. Just like that I'm at 200K with average being 150K and about 24 left.

Not long after that I win a flip with A-Q again this time vs 99 and I'm over 300K and we've hit the first money bump. Woo, hoo another $70 guaranteed!

Not that it matters, but I'm the first person at my table to get some purple 25K chips because I have so many yellow 1000 chips and they want to start clearing them out. Doesn't change anything, but it feels good.

More bustouts. Another pay jump and then another and I'm still in very good shape.

During this chunk of the tournament, something inexplicable happens. That guy who had built the massive stack, commented on my all-ins and didn't call me that one time? Someone makes a raise on him, he says he's tired and wants to go to bed and makes a terrible call and loses. He then pretty much calls everything at that point until he's busted out. He was easily the chip leader, but decided a $12,000 first place wasn't as important as getting to bed sooner rather than later.

Huh????

So my buddy the swedish guy had built his stack up a little when he raises out to 26,000 (blinds 6000/12000) and I look down at K-Q of spades. I call.

Flop comes J-7-4 with a spade. I know he's c-betting 100% of hands and sure enough he bets 30K or so. I call with just two overs and backdoor flush and straight draws. Good chance I have the best hand anyway. Turn is a 10, I don't think a spade. It goes check/check. I was very tempted to bet the draw but I didn't.

River is a deuce I think. Not sure, but I am sure it didn't complete a straight because I looked for that! He bets about 45K. I decide he's more likely on air than a hand and quickly call. He rolls over Q-8. I wish I had a picture of the look on his face when I rolled over my king-high bluff catcher! The guy next to me says "holy shit!!!"

Hehe.

Not long after that we combine to one table of 10 and I'm sitting on 400K with a chip average of 355K. Probably 3rd, no worse than 4th in chips. Next money bump adds a digit to the minimum prize.

Guy I had been chatting with a while back opens for 30K and I call with A-10 spades in the big blind. Flop comes 10-5-7 with two spades. I check, he bets 80K, I shove. He thinks for a while but folds A-K face up. Wish he'd called :-).

Swedish guy busts and we're 9.

I take someone out with 10-10 vs A-Q. 600K. 7 left.

We go on break.

Back from break, we play one hand where I had K-Q suited and blow off 50K calling preflop and then completely missing. Then someone proposes a deal. Couldn't they have done that before I blew off that 50K?

If we all walk away with an even split of the prize pool, there's a hair under $5000 per person. Anything over $5240 gets reported to the IRS, so it's pointed out that someone who wins $7000 is actually going to walk away with less than that. Not that ANYONE at the table would fail to report their winnings that night...

Chip leader says he doesn't care about getting his win reported, but he's willing to negotiate...

We compare stacks. I'm in a virtual three way tie for second in chips, chip leader has about 900K, three of us around 550 and everyone else under 300. If we play the next person out is getting $1600. If everyone takes the deal, the smallest stack is getting double that, the chip leader is getting a little less than 2nd place money and the three middle stacks are getting about half way between 3rd and 2nd places.

DONE!!!

Takes 45 minutes to get paid, then we had to go find a place to redistribute the money (payouts from the cage had to be different from what we agreed to) and everyone happily shakes hands and walks away with stacks of $100 bills.

After a long 0-fer, I am AHEAD for the trip. Not a lot ahead...but considering I blew through $2500 to play in the WSOP twice and was blowing through about $500 a day on other days I played...I will take any profit I can get!

I wake Joann up at 7am, she asks how I did...I show her the wrapper around most of the bills that had a big number on it and she wakes up real quick :-)

We spend a few hours packing up and loading up the car (5 cases of liquor we had brought up to the room instead of leaving in the car in a parking deck in 110 degree heat...plus all the other stuff we bought...plus, you know, our clothes and shit...) and were on the road at 10am local.

Note the word "sleep" is nowhere to be found...

Got home around 11pm. 5 hrs sleep and I was back at work Monday morning!

What an ending to the trip. And as you can imagine, it makes me feel a lot better about the return trip just over a week later to play in the tag team event with Jim and Patrick. I would not have wanted to head into that trip already stuck so badly...

As always thanks for reading. I'll be back at it on the 6th of July!