Vegas November 2017

Day 3 - Quad aces, make a move, deep run

Last Updated: 2017-11-06 11:24:32

Sometimes in poker you have to find opportunities to make aggressive moves if you want to win tournaments. Sometimes those moves will work out, sometimes they won't. You have to accept that sometimes they won't work out.

Just because it didn't work out doesn't make it wrong...

Typed up my BLOG for Saturday, showered, walked to Aria and entered the sports book just in time for kickoff of the Eagles game.

When the score hit 17-3 I pretty much figured the game was going to go the Eagles way so I went over to buy in to the 11am tournament.

I was planning to stream the game on my iPod Touch through the Sunday Ticket app but I was thwarted! The game was on the local CBS and in that case you're not allowed to watch it on Sunday ticket, you have to watch the local broadcast.

I get my seat assignment, sit down at my table and right in front of me is the Eagles broadcast! I let the tournament director know that I care about the game and please don't change it. She tells me I'm here first, if someone changes it find her and she'll change it back.

In the first hour and a half I was very card dead. I had QQ very early on, someone min-raised the 100/100/100 blinds/ante to 200, got a caller, I repopped it to 800. Original raiser calls.

Flop A-K-X. Ugh. I'm done with the hand...

Later I called a raise with A-J suited. Flopped a king and a ten, checked around, turn a blank, checked around again, river a Q. Someone leads out for 500, I pop it to 1500, one guy agonizes a little and folds, guy who bet 500 calls and I get a little payment for my nut straight.

20,400 at the first break from my 20K start. On a positive note Eagles by this time are blowing out the Broncos and will remain the best team in football. I'll give the Sunday ticket folks a little credit. When local affiliates change games because of blowouts they quickly make the original game available on streaming so I did get to watch the rest of it.

Not long after first break I look down at AK suited. I raise out probably to 800, someone goes over top for 2200-2500, not sure. I call. Flop brings an ace, I check-raise his bet of 2800 to 7 or 8k. He folds. Nice pot for me finally!

About 10 minutes after that hand a loose player who was aggressively playing a lot of pots opens for 1200 with big blind either 300 or 400. Call ahead of me, I decide to call with A-J suited in hearts. Against a tight player I probably fold that hand, but not this guy.

Flop comes 3h-Ac-4h. I've flopped top pair, decent kicker with a nut flush draw against an aggressive player.

He checks, other guy checks, I make it something like 2200 to go. Folds back to him, he check-raises to 5500 or so. Guy between us quickly gets out of the way.

There's no chance I'm folding. It comes down to whether I want to call off 20-25% of my stack or make a move. We both started the hand around 23-25K I think. Against this guy I could have the best hand. I have fold equity because our stacks are pretty close, he's calling off his tournament life. I'm at worst a flip if he has AK or AQ and calls I think to myself. He probably would have open limped with 33 or 44 instead of raising preflop and I have an ace so AA is pretty unlikely. And worst case I have a nut flush draw.

I'm all-in.

So much for fold equity. I thought I had some, I didn't. He didn't beat me into the pot with the call, but he didn't exactly ponder the decision either.

He rolls over A-K with the king of hearts.

I later ran the numbers. If he has a non-heart king or queen it's about 52-46 with a 2% chance of a chop with running straight or full house cards possible. Right about what AK vs a pair preflop is. Because he had the Kh it gave him another 3% equity, but still. Given the size of the pot and the possibility that he might fold the best hand some of the time it was a profitable move on my part.

Unfortunately I got no help on the turn or river. Done.

I will say this, the more I consider the situation I think calling in that spot is the worst decision I could have made. If I call and a heart comes on the turn I'm usually not going to get paid, I can't count on the other person happening to have Kh even tho it turned out he did.

And if I call and miss the turn, then I'm in a really bad spot because if he makes a turn bet of any size with now only one card to come I'm probably making a bad mathematical call to see the river, but I will have invested 1/3 of my stack. And I don't see him giving me a free river. So IMHO the worst thing I could have done is just called. And top pair, decent kicker, nut flush draw against an aggressive player should never be a fold.

At the time I was thinking I made an aggressive move that didn't work out. But the more I think about it as I'm writing this up, the more I'm convinced going all in isn't so much an aggressive attempt to take down the pot as it's just the right thing to do in that circumstance. I just don't see how I can feel good about folding or calling. Get it in, see both cards.

Sometimes you do the right thing it just doesn't work out.

Hit Tom's Urban to watch the late football games and have some lunch. Prime Rib sliders and a black and tan or two...or three... I blew my daily meal budget for the day on that one meal. Looks like In-N-Out and Chipotle for me for lunch the rest of the trip...

Back to the room to type up what I've got here so far and watch some of SNF, and then on to the 7pm.

Card dead is an understatement. Outside of one flat out monster I had very little to work with the entire tournament.

Didn't win my first pot until over an hour into the tournament. Of course I had almost no playable cards so I hadn't lost too much of my stack. But did win a couple more in that 3rd level and went into the break at 13075.

Just a few hands after the break I picked up pocket aces. Blinds 200/400 with a 50 ante, two limpers so I made it 1800 to go. Got one customer.

Flop comes A-A-Q.

He checks, I check.

Turn was a small card, he bet 1000. I call.

River was a J. He checks, I bet 1500, he calls.

Probably got about as much out of my quads as I could. He said he had a Q.

Next hand same guy cracks someone else's AA with QT off.

Hand after that I get a few callers preflop with AK, flop an ace. I lead out, someone goes over top of me, I go back over top, they fold. I'm over 20k.

That unfortunately was the high water mark for me. Back to being card dead, barely won a pot for a long time after that. At the next break I was at 17k, there were 27 left from a starting field of 71 paying 8 places.

Blinds are up to 600/1200/100 so I'm under 15 bigs. I go all in with the first ace I see, A-9 suited, and a guy with only about 6k quickly calls with AQ.

9 on the flop!!!

Q on the river. I'm under 10BB.

I get moved and I at least have a few hands before I'm in the big blind again. UTG I look down at suited connectors, go all-in figuring it's not going to get much better, run into AK, he flops 2 pair and I'm done. Busted out 21st out of 71 players, not a bad showing considering the cards I had.

So not a great day Sunday. Hopefully Monday will be better!!

Monday is back at 1:00 instead of 11:00am, so I have time to kill this morning. Plenty of time to hit In-N-Out for lunch today!