Vegas June 2018 (WSOP)

Day 11 - Deep run at Aria

Last Updated: 2018-06-19 12:40:31

First off I heard about what happened to Patrick on Day 10. Oooof! 7 from money (about 350 entrants paying 55 so he was 62) he looks down at pocket kings. Dunno how all the chips didn't go in preflop but the flop came A-K-X, I think turn brought possible straight and all the chips finally went in...set over set. Other person had AA.

Damn!

Usual morning (Starbucks, pool) and on to the 11am at Aria.

Patrick and I both bought in, but there was an ATM in between us so we couldn't keep tabs on each other.

Best thing I can say is that I made it to break.

Raise out with JJ UTG, flop A-K-X, try a c-bet, have to go away, he showed me a king.

Raise out with AK on the button, both blinds call. Flop A-J-T. Small blind check-raises me. Maybe I'm supposed to go broke here but I don't. Unless he's turning a hand like A-8 or A-9 into a bluff or thinks I was only button raising to steal in the first place there isn't any check-raising hand I'm possibly ahead of except maybe A-Q and A LOT of hands I'm a mile behind against. Fold.

Play Q-T from one of the blinds, flop 9-J-9, try and buy it on the turn, can't, he has K-Q (my open ender vs his gutshot). Guess I probably could have tried betting my air on the river, would have worked, but out of position and a lot of hands he wouldn't fold on that board.

Pick up two black aces, button calls. Flop K-T-6 all diamonds. I lead out anyway, he calls. Turn 9h, check/check. River Jd. I check call a bet, he rolls over KQ for a straight. Down to 6000 from my 20,000 starting stack.

7400 at the break after a couple of all-ins get through.

Get all in with A-J off, other guy has 66, he wins flip. Done. Well not really, I have 200 chips left, but they're gone two hands later.

Joann and I hit the bank, then go back to the liquor store because we didn't guy enough the first trip plus we have $20 in "rewards". We pick up a few things we left out from our list last time, Joann picked up some new wines. Her and Dyan had a wine at dinner Saturday that they really liked, so she picked up a few bottles...

Dinner at the Aria buffet and on to the 7pm. I registered late so I was on the waiting list, came in late second level I think.

Just a few hands in I get a big blind special, I have K-2 suited and flop comes 2-Q-2. Get a 6k bump before my seat is even warm.

But not a lot to work with for a while after that, plus I have three very aggressive players betting into me...which is great when you're catching cards, but it pretty well handcuffs you when you aren't. Those three guys were constantly going at each other. Over time I dropped down to a little over 18K at the first break with not much to work with.

Patrick meanwhile is at the table behind me and is around 25K.

I win a flip with TT against AK and get myself up over 35K. And who sits in the empty seat? Patrick of course.

Unfortunately he's only a little over 16K and he's in all-in mode. I think blinds were 400/800/800 so he was right around 20 bigs. But except that he quickly raises on my big blind, we never get involved in a pot together.

It doesn't take him long to get them all in, KK, called by one of the three aggressive guys at the end of the table with AQ, A on the flop and Patrick is done.

Blinds go up a couple more times and before I know it a 30-35K stack goes from being a 40-50BB stack to a 20BB stack.

I've talked about it in prior trips but I'll briefly talk about it again here. In these tournaments you want to always have a big enough stack that people don't want to call your all-in without a strong hand. People used to think of 10 big blinds as the standard where you have to just go all in - but in today's poker that's too small. With the 10 big blind standard you cannot ever have fold equity when you go in over the top of a raise, which means the best you can hope for is to go all-in first and pick up blinds with that short of a stack.

What you really want, since there are so many loose-aggressive players these days, is to make sure you always have enough chips to go over the top of loose players raises and steal several big blinds in one shot. You don't want to be open-shoving all in with 20 big blinds, you can and should still make your standard raise when you get in first. But you really want to be able to go over the top of someone who raises but likely can't stand your re-raise. In that situation that's your "money" play to work on increasing your stack short of just doubling up.

You just have to accept that sometimes those guys will pick up a hand and bust you. But most of the time they will fold and you can build your stack up just by getting away with it a couple of times in one orbit.

If you get down to only 10 bigs they will always be getting the odds to call you. It's about getting them to fold, not about getting called where you will at best be ahead 60/40 but more likely you'll be flipping or behind.

If you don't believe me you should pick up one of Jonathan Little's excellent books on tournaments. I'm in process of reading a great new one on lower stakes tournaments and cash games that has pages and pages of charts on starting hands, calling hands, etc. Among them is a few charts on what the hands are you can profitably go all-in with over the top of different types of raisers when you have a stack of 25 big blinds or less. Against loose raisers it's basically "any pair", "any two broadway cards", "any suited connectors and some suited one-gappers as low as 6-5 or 5-4 suited".

Unfortunately for me the three guys betting into me decided not just to go at each other by calling each other's raises down every time but by starting to reraise each other. I had a couple of hands I would have liked to have shoved with (AJ suited for example) but had no fold equity into a raise and a reraise.

Finally I get a shot when two of them fold, 3rd one raises out and I go over the top with KQ. He thinks for a long time, eventually folds and starts talking to the other two about how I had to have A-J beat and he was either flipping or way behind.

That's what I'm talking about. If my stack is half what it was he's calling and i'm behind 40-60, instead I pick up 4-6 big blinds (blinds+antes+his raise) without a fight when I get a better hand to fold.

About 15 minutes later exact same scenario. Folds to him, he raises, I go all in with QT offsuit...and he instantly calls with 22.

Honestly that's a bad call on his part. His guaranteed best case scenario is the coin flip he got, if I have any pair he's crushed.

I flop a gutshot straight draw, turn a double gutter and a flush draw (so I have like half the deck to catch) and catch a flush on the river to double up. Suddenly I'm just below average stack and I can go back to playing poker again!

We get to just 14 from the money. About 150 players, paying 18 places, 32 left.

Raise and a reraise into me, I fold A-J offsuit, dammit would have hit trips.

I raise out with KQ off, short stack goes over top, I have to call with pot odds. He rolls over QQ. Ouch! K on the river, I'm at 127K with the average 117K.

9 from the money.

So in all this time I think I had two pairs the entire tournament and we're talking 5 hours in. I had TT and 33, I really think that's it.

Raise and a call into me, I look down at 22. Right on the border to get the correct price to call and set mine but I fold them. Missed anyway, guy next to me caught a set of 4s and doubled up.

8 from the money...7...6...5...

Blinds 1000/2000/4000. One of the three loose guys raises, other two fold. I look down at QQ. He made it 11K, I repopped it to 31K. He just calls for about 1/4 of each of our stacks.

Flop comes J-8-3. He checks, I push, he instantly calls. He has K-J and has almost as big a stack as I do. I'm about to double up and be among the chip leaders 5 from the money.

King on the river. Done. Well not really, I'm crippled, but no quadruple up for me when I get my final 11k in and then I'm really done.

Long, heavy sigh...so incredibly frustrating...

#OnToTheNextOne

Tuesday and Wednesday Aria is doing a combination of $1k buyins and satellites so Aria is out for the next two days. The plan is another run to the outlets (first summer collection comes out this week at Kate Spade) followed by the 4pm deepstack with big blind antes at the WSOP Tuesday and same tournament Wednesday.