Vegas November 2018

Day 3 - You flop trips and fold them???

Last Updated: 2018-11-18 12:40:05

When was the last time you flopped trips and folded without putting another chip in the pot? I've done it fairly recently, in fact...

Got in a good long walk after breakfast to start my day, I walked all the way from New York New York to the far side of Encore, which looks on google maps to be a roughly 5-mile round trip. Then it was a shower and off to Aria.

Not much to talk about until just before the first break. Flopped a set of 3s and didn't stack anyone but did get some chips out of it. Then took out a short stack but cost myself some additional chips, unfortunately.

Several limpers into me and I look down at pocket queens. It was 100/200/200 but with limpers I decided to make it 1000 to go. Short stack to my left immediately goes all in.

Folds around to the original limper, he thinks a while and folds, next limper folds, I push out all my chips (I had him covered) and flip over my queens.

Wait a minute! I couldn't see the cards of the next guy after the two limpers, it wasn't on me yet! He was going to call the all in (which was roughly 5000) with his pocket 8s, but since he saw my queens he mucked them. ARGH!!!

No way he would have called my 22K all in had I let him act, but I definitely cost myself another 5k there.

DAMMIT!

Short stack had 99, QQ holds up, no 9 or 8 on the board.

30,900 at the break, happy with that even tho it should have been more.

Catch a full house soon after the break and chip up some more. Life was good!

But then I don't win another pot for about an hour. You know how it goes: Not a lot of playable hands, 3-5 callers every raise when I do have something, miss every flop, always at least one person calling the c-bet. It was rough for a while.

To make matters worse, a guy Dave and I had seen and played against over the summer sat down at my table as a very late register. Guy just can't wait to give away chips, all you have to do it catch a hand and keep betting and he will pay you off. And I can't make a hand to save my life. I watch the guy bust, rebuy, bust, rebuy and bust again all in the space of an hour before he gave up.

Of course, against me he actually has hands. I raise out with 10-10, probably made it 1000-1200. He makes it 3300 to go, someone else goes over the top all in. I have to fold, crazy guy calls. Shover has A-J, crazy guy just K-Q suited. He catches his Q.

Later similar scenario, I raise out with just a suited king hoping to steal in the cutoff. He makes it 3000 or so again, big blind goes all in, I go away again, crazy guy calls. He actually has AK...and runs into aces. Ouch.

I end up going into the next break just above starting stack at 20,200. I could have waited until the end of registration and done something else for those three hours! :-)

Hung around 20K for a while. I did see a 3-way all in, not me involved, where it was KJ (original short stack all in) vs AT (big stack calling off), middle stack AQ (reshoved, AT had to call).

Board ran out 2-6-6-6-2. Chop it up.

Pick up AA for the first time in the trip! Just get blinds and a limp. Lose some chips with 99, get them back with AK, still stuck around 20k an hour (and two rounds of blind increases) later. Not good.

So we get down to 27 players out of 86 buyins, paying 9 places. I steal enough blinds now and then by shoving to maintain my stack in the 18-22K range, but blinds now 600/1200 and getting ready to go up to 1000/1500.

Someone, fairly loose, raises out in my blind and I look down at A-T of diamonds. Call.

Flop 9-9-8 two diamonds. Check around. Turn queen of diamonds. GIN!

I bet, he puts me all in...he has 88 for a boat. I do have one out, but no Jd to save me and I'm done I think 25th of 86.

#OnToTheNextOne

Dinner at Broadway Burgers at NYNY. I always get a little melancholy when I go by the place (which is repeatedly every day whenever I stay here) because it's the last place I saw Roy Hartwell before he passed away. Dunno if any of my readers from the Colorado Springs game remember him, but he was a great guy. Hadn't eaten there since, but I did on this day.

I was late enough that all the seats were sold and I was first alternate. Took about 15 mins for someone to bust and get me a seat.

Not even 5 minutes after sitting down I'm in the small blind (100/200/0), I think someone min-raised but there were definitely several people in the pot by the time it got to me and I look down at 10-4 suited. What the heck, pot odds. And they're suited, right?

Flop 10-10-8.

I decide I'm going to go for a check-raise, it folds to a guy who makes a huge overbet (I think it was like 5000 into a pot that wasn't even 3k), there's a fold and next to act immediately goes all in.

Folds to me...and I can't believe I'm folding trip 10s. It took me a while to release them not because I was hollywooding and not because I was really thinking about calling ... I just couldn't bring myself to pitch them!

But I did. And I was right. Overbet has to call, he has 99, over the top had 10-K. And no help would have come for me on turn and river. Into the first break at 23,800 from 20K start.

Not long after the first break I'm under the gun with pocket 7's. If you read my Friday BLOG I've already talked about my limp/call strategy with smaller pocket pairs when very early to act (at a tight table 7s are big enough I'd lean towards a raise, but few of those in this tournament), so I limp. Second to act calls but then it folds around to the big blind who is down around 5-6000 chips. He goes all-in, I go over the top to isolate, other guy folds.

He was trying to buy the pot with 6-2 suited. Didn't work out for him too well :-)

I can respect it tho, I may have tried to steal in similar spots myself once or twice...

Again this is their 20-minute round format and blinds go up pretty fast. We're at 400/800/800 so he's already well under 10 bigs and having to put in that 800 ante on top is painful. With two limpers an "any two cards" shove will get through a lot of the time and you have two live cards most of the time you get called.

Gave back some chips with pocket 10s, flopped two overs and had to go away, but got paid when I flopped trip aces. Then won a nice pot in a blind vs blind spot when it folded around to the small blind, he raised out (had just filled the seat from the guy I busted) and I woke up with A-K suited. I reraised to 9500, he called, I shoved the 9-high flop and he went away. Given he called I assume he had something so if the flop came broadway cards that I didn't have I probably wouldn't have made that move.

At that point life was good! I was at 42,000 or so, average was 44,000 which meant I was around the upper 1/3 of chip stacks. I go into the next break at 39K.

I'm double starting stack, but it's only good for about 26 big blinds at 1000/1500/1500. I pay the blinds, my table breaks, and I get moved to a spot where I'm paying the blinds again in two hands. 8000 out of my stack in 5 hands. And then the blinds go up again, now I'm only 16 big blinds.

Wake up with pocket 10s, run into Kings, no help, done. Right around 25th again out of 70-something players.

So I'm putting myself in position for deep runs, I just can't seem to get that "one more" double-up when I need it. Hopefully it will come on Sunday!

Usually I'd have half an eye on football on my Sundays out here in the fall, but maybe not today. Short of an amazing run to finish the season I think my Packers' season ended with yet another disappointing loss in Seattle Thursday night (they've been in a position to win several huge games on the road and given them all away in very poor fashion) and I fear the Eagles season is going to end in New Orleans on Sunday afternoon. I'll be checking on it, but I'll be focused on poker.