Vegas June 2017 (WSOP)

Day 4 - WSOP Day 2, Aria

Last Updated: 2017-06-18 16:51:42

Well my WSOP Day 2 lasted all of an hour. Looks like I busted somewhere around 200-220th.

Didn't have a lot of playable hands. Playing limit with 500/1000 blinds and already blinded down to about 11k I picked up AA38 with two suits in the big blind. This is a fairly strong hand in this game, you like the suits but you would like a 2 in place of the 3 or even better in place of the 8 because AA23 double-suited is the best starting hand in the game.

Guy on the button raises into me, I reraise. Flop comes K-5-J, I have to call one bet based on pot size but go away on a King turn. Half my stack gone.

Blinds then take me down to 5100 chips from my 13,100 starting stack. This is not the start I was hoping to get off to today...

I do quarter someone on a hand where we actually made the same two-pair for high but I had the better low. Then I pick up AAXX a couple more times but only get blinds. One of the aces wasn't great but it folded around to me so I took a shot. But the other aces were AA2J with a suit, very strong, but again I can't get any action.

Then I get crippled when I double up a short stack with second best low and second best high. I believe I had A-2-4-X, but a 2 came and he had A-3 for the low and a better two pair for high. That hurt a lot. Soon after that I get all in with AQ34 against AQ67 and the board runs out something like 10-6-5-Q-9. What more can I ask for than flopping am open ended straight draw and the best low draw when critically short? Just wasn't my day today at Rio.

I wasn't unhappy with any of my decisions, it was just one of those days where nothing worked out. I can take busting out short of the money, but it is incredibly frustrating to have only a few good hands and have pretty much none of them work out in my favor. Winning only blinds with AA2J is better than busting out, but if you're going to win tournaments you have to get paid for those kinds of hands and I couldn't get paid or the board ran out horribly every time I had a hand.

Oh well. On to the 7pm at Aria...

Seems to me that if I went back and looked at all the BLOGS that have to do with my 7pm tournaments that I was successful in, at least for the last several trips, they would follow a fairly similar pattern. This one followed the pattern I have in my head for such nights...

Card dead for the first hour-plus. 90 minutes in I was down to 10K from my 15K starting stack into the first break. Dropped as low as 8K soon after the break, but then managed to "half-up" back to 12K when I picked up pocket kings and got paid.

At some point between the first and second break we got a young dealer who apparently was very math challenged. If you've ever sat at a poker table you know that whenever a dealer is having a tough time the players will often get frustrated very quickly (too quickly most of the time IMHO) and make matters worse rather than better by raising voices, having several people talking about what to do at the same time etc. This time that didn't happen, folks were fairly pleasant trying to help this guy out and that was nice to see.

Still, he was a bit of a knucklehead and spent a lot of time trying to figure things out himself even when people were telling him exactly what he needed to do. In one instance he couldn't figure out how many chips to put in a side pot. I had done the math and told him, people were repeating it to him again and again and he just kept staring at the chips...eventually he listened, said something about how difficult math was and we got to move on. He was wasting a lot of time and we all know the clock never stops...

I didn't have any particularly notable hands, but rounds 7-9 were good to me. I finally got a decent run of cards, picked good spots to steal some chips now and then and built my way up to 35K at the third break. At that point we were down to 77 players from a start of something like 240-260 and 27 players were going to get paid.

Nobody ever won a tournament, or even got into the money in a tournament, without getting lucky at least once or twice. Yes poker is a game of skill and luck evens out over time. The better players are the ones who make the most out of their good fortune and limit the damage better when luck doesn't go their way. You need to win a hand you shouldn't now and then and you need to be on the better end of your coin flips...

My first bit of good fortune came when I started to get a little short on chips relative to the blinds, shoved with the first King I saw (K-3 off), got called by A-10.

It gets worse, 10 on the flop, turn gives A-10 a flush draw and takes away one of my Kings...but I hit my 2-outer on the river to double up! I get up to 50K in chips.

Win a few more pots, take out a short stack and before I know it I'm just below average stack at 86K. Minutes later I get all in with QQ and get called by A-K and I win the flip to double up to around 180K. And we're 10 from the money...

I start texting the countdown to Joann. Takes about 30 minutes to get down to 4 from the money, I go into a break still at 180K or so. It's almost 2am, and I notice that the 11am tournament I didn't play in (because I had my day 2...) is also still playing 15 hours later. They're 3-handed.

Half hour later we go hand-for hand, it's bubble time!

Another half hour to bust out one player. My stack was pretty static during that time, still at 180K with an average around 130K. Average is usually the dividing line between the top 1/3 and the bottom 2/3 of all stacks, so being a nice amount above average means you're among the chip leaders.

15 minutes after the bubble bursts I win a flip with a smallish pair against A-8 (I'm thinking pocket 6's) and I'm up to 277K.

10 minutes later I double a short stack and give those chips back and I'm at 190K.

Get all in with JJ vs 88, take out a short stack, back up to 290k. Average is 191K.

Places 19-27 all paid the same, it's about 40 minutes from getting into the money to where we're down to two tables and the money goes up a little. I'm guaranteed to double what I paid to get into the tournament.

Then came one of the most important hands of the tournament. Again, since I'm well above average I'm not just a bigger stack, I'm easily one of the chip leaders in the tournament.

A half hour after dropping to two tables blinds are 5000/10000 with probably a 1000 ante. Prizes now go up every 3rd elimination until final table. We're on the last hand before another break. Remember I said luck evens out?

Action folds around to the cutoff who decides to limp in. I look down at K-T offsuit on the button and call the limp. Small blind, who has roughly the same stack as I do and we are surely the two biggest stacks at our table, calls and the big blind knuckles to see a flop.

Flop comes Q-9-J with two hearts. I have the stone-cold nuts, a King high straight.

Action checks around to me, I throw out 30K. Small blind looks at my stack and raises to probably 100K. BB folds, cutoff folds, I go all in and he instantly calls...with 10-8. He has the bad end of the straight. I'm going to double up and have 1/4-1/3 of the chips in play with about 16 players left.

King on the river. Chop it up. I head into break at 285K.

I might have said a bad word...

Card dead for a while, stack starts shrinking and blinds keep going up. I'm looking for a good spot to get all in, I get dealt A-J and I'm waiting for action to get to me...when a short stack shoves and another short-ish stack goes all in also. I really want to get my chips in, best hand I'd seen in a while... but with two all-ins ahead of me I decide to let it go. Hands tabled are A-10 (first all in) and Q-J. I would have been well ahead in a 3-way pot. Ace hits, short stack doubles, I could have taken out two. Ugh.

But I then get a good run of cards finally. The guy who chopped the straight with me paid me off nicely when I flopped trip 9's, I check-called flop and turn, check-raised river, he called and hated when he saw my hand. I'm back up to 420K and we move to the final table 10-handed. My stack is just above average. And luck flips back to my side...

We eliminate 3 players and we're down to 7. I woman who was a very good loose, aggressive player and who was at my original table is also at the final table. She raises out to 60K. Another decent player just called and I look down at pocket 9s. I decide a squeeze play is in order and go all-in. But the next person to act then also goes all in. Him I have covered, the other two fold. Because of those raises, plus the blinds, plus the antes this is now a sizeable pot.

Other guy rolls over Q-Q. Ouch.

Flop comes J-9-X. I about triple up to 870K. Back to being up with the chip leaders.

We get down to 5-handed and the idea of a chop is brought up. Chip counts are taken, math is done...the shortest stack won't chop. People are frustrated but I understand...he's not even getting 4th place money based on chip counts. He has no incentive to chop at that point. We play on.

I fall down around 600K, but then get all in with 55 and get called by A-J from the monster stack. Our stacks flip, I'm at 1.2 million, the big stack at the table with 1/3 of the chips in play.

Lasts for all of 5 minutes. I call a raise with A-J from a guy who was constantly trying to steal my blinds. Flop comes A-high, he bets, I go over the top all-in.

He HATES this. He does not want to bust out with two much shorter stacks at the other end of the table. He tanks for a while, but eventually calls with A-Q. Now he's at 1.2 mil, I'm back to 600K.

It gets to the point where the three bigger stacks (myself included) are just pushing chips around. Eventually, after about an hour of 5-handed play, both short stacks double up within 3-4 hands. We're all fairly close in chips and now the holdout wants to run the numbers again for a chip chop.

Out of 3.5 million chips in play I'm second in chips by one 5000 chip. The shortest stack tho has now earned himself a couple more grand by holding out, the biggest stack at that time is now 3rd in chips but he's happy with the number.

Some time a little after 7am we're done. I take theoretical second place, my payout is much closer to the original second place payout than third place. At 5 handed I'll take that any time.

Joann happens to text me around that time, she's going to pick up some starbucks for both of us!

Back up to the room at 8:30 or so, I take a nap while Joann goes to the pool...and I'm NOT playing in the 11am today. I'm going to wait for the 7pm and try and do it all over again...

Happy Fathers Day to me!!!