Vegas June/July 2022 (WSOP)

Day 2 - HORSE at Orleans

Last Updated: 2022-06-24 11:17:08

Hotel Starbucks for breakfast, typed up yesterday's entry sitting in bed instead of at Starbucks. If you have the Starbucks app and do the "star dashes" you can appreciate that I bought two coffee cakes on Monday that I saved for the trip to get a bunch of stars so all I had to do was buy the tea. If you go to Starbucks with any frequency and haven't signed up on their app you're missing out on a lot of free food and drink...

Javier's for lunch, which served two purposes. Our big meal for the day, and Joann's meal of choice is much cheaper at lunch time than at dinner time.

Bastards have started charging if you ask for special salsas, $5. But the roasted tomatillo salsa is "to die for" so we're gonna suck it up and keep getting it with our chips. Probably at least one more time just on this trip much less on future trips...

Then it was on to Orleans for HORSE. Joann decided to just hang in the room instead of hanging at Orleans so I was on my own.

Get to the hotel, park in front, walk into the casino ... then remember I really want to park in the parking deck that has a door literally at the poker room instead of having the car bake in the sun.

Back to the car.

Find a parking spot in the parking deck, make the short walk to the entrance. Since COVID I've gotten into the habit of using no-touch doors, after 8-game I was able to wash my hands in the room and go from Vdara, through Aria, through Park MGM and into NYNY for my pizza without ever touching a door handle! Helpful when you're eating with your hands.

Most casinos have a hand swipe sensor but some are set up where you walk through an infrared sensor and it just opens. This is one such door. I walk through the sensor ... and it's the slowest opening door you've ever seen. Eventually I'm able to slip through. Turn into the casino entrance, there's the buyin cage 20 yards in front of me ...

Fuck! I have no money! Left it in the room safe, didn't grab any before I left.

Back to the car...

Before we left home I didn't take a whole lot more out of the bank than I needed for 8-game anyway and going to a Wells Fargo was as easy as going back to Vdara so on to Wells it was to reload.

Back to Orleans again. Park in the parking deck by the poker room (same space, I think), go through the slowest no-touch door I've ever seen and finally buy into HORSE about 10 minutes into the tournament. Just like 8-game the day before they were cranking up a new table, just had to wait a few more minutes for enough people to buy in to get us to 5 and cards went in the air.

It didn't go much better than 8-game. Probably was worse. I was pretty card dead most of the day and unlike No-Limit Hold'Em opportunities to steal pots are few and far between when you're mainly playing games in which most of your cards are exposed and your opponent is almost always getting good pot odds to call with limit betting.

Much as I love playing these mixed game tournaments your game is much more dependent on actually getting hands to win.

20 minute rounds but betting only changes every other round so really 40 minute rounds at each level for the first two hours. At the end of the first two 20 minute levels I had won one pot.

Not much better the next two levels. I catch pocket kings in Hold'Em (all "limit" games) but all I get out of them was a raise into me preflop, a reraise from me that was called and then nothing after my flop bet.

Catch a decent starting hand of A-2-4-4 with the ace suited in clubs in Omaha 8/b, raise out preflop, two callers ... and flop all diamonds with two high cards. Ugh.

That was it for the second two 20-minute rounds. 3 hands in about an hour since I missed most of the first round.

Go through rounds of Razz and 7-Card Stud again without a playable hand (4 of 8 hands of Razz started with a pair), I did try and steal antes once with the best card showing late to act in Stud. The person with the bring-in called, paired his door card on 4th street and led out and I was done with my steal attempt.

At this point I'm at 15k from my 20k starting stack, which I consider to be having lost the minimum with no cards.

Finally pick up a straight draw in stud 8. I started with Q-J-9 all spades, and high-only hands are much more playable than in Omaha 8. 3-handed I catch a ten on 4th street, there's a bet from 8-K, I call, a guy obviously going low raises, we call. 5th street K-8 (and I need an 8 or a K) catches another 8, I catch nothing, other guy gets a ten and doesn't help his low. Still it goes bet, call, raise, call, call. Genius with the other high only need to stop betting.

Unfortunately he improves to 8-K-8-K showing. Now 4 of my outs gone and this guy most likely has a full house so my straight no good if I caught it anyway so I have to give up again. That guy did end up showing off a boat and the low-only guy missed his low draw so he was as dumb raising without a made hand as the first guy was betting and letting him raise until he had the monster. Oh well.

Down to 12,400 at the first break.

Didn't get any better after the break.

All I get is half a pot in a 3-way hold'em hand when I called a raise with 10-9 suited, board ran out K-9-J-6-6 and that river 6 earned me half the pot because he had Q-9 (so neither of us wanted to hit two pair) and neither kicker played.

Then I get quartered in Omaha 8/b when I start out with A-2-6-9 which isn't great but you're going to play almost any A-2 starting hand. The guy who was raising his low draw earlier bet every street as the board ran out Q-7-9-4-A, my A-9 chopped the high with a guy who had A-9-7-3 (so I was on the better low draw) and the guy who was betting every street only had 3-5-5-6 and caught the low with his crappy starting hand that he thought was worth a pre-flop raise (he did have a wrap after the turn but had no business getting that far in the first place).

Exactly 10k in my stack, half a starting stack.

I catch a full house later in that round of O8 and pick up half of a 3-way pot, but then give that back and more when I start with A-A-4-8 and my buddy who just keeps betting completely missed the flop but caught running clubs for a flush after flopping just one club. I doubled him up, he was short stack.

Down to 6k.

Win a couple small pots in Razz, up to 8600, table breaks up as people are starting to bust out.

New table started out just as card dead, gave up some antes and bring ins with nothing in a whole round of stud high but finally I get something going.

Stud 8/b I look down at two hidden kings with a 9 showing. I'm determined to find an opportunity to get all my chips in and this is it.

Guy with a low card showing completes, guy with a 6 raises and I re-raise it to 3000. Both call, one guy for less and he's already all-in. Long story short I get all my chips in by 5th street, we all reveal. Shorter stack has no made hand, but has a low draw and a flush draw, no pair. Bigger stack has no pair and only a worse low draw. As the last two cards are dealt big stack ends up with just a pair of 8s, shorter stack hits his low but misses straight and flush outs. I scoop the side pot and split the main pot with just two kings as I never improve either. Probably my biggest pot of the entire tournament! I steal antes next hand and I'm actually back up to 14,700!

But ... stud 8 giveth, stud 8 taketh away.

Start out with 2-3-4-5, call bets on every street with obviously the best low draw and a huge scoop opportunity but miss everything. Down to 5400 again. So disappointing, that was the hand that was going to really get me going in the tournament if it came through.

Actually go into break with 4000 chips when limits are now 1500/3000. Micro stack, tho the average stack was only 33K so it was really a short stack tournament at that point anyway.

I outlasted half the field tho! Clock shows 88 left of 168 to start, but probably really a few less as they only updated as they broke tables.

Joann had stayed in the room, the main reason we got a suite was so she could be comfortable when she didn't feel like sitting on my rail for hours and hours, and we started messaging about both of us being hungry. Given my stack size here was my response: "I will likely be there in ... lessee 7 left in break, 2 mins to play hand, 2 to get to car, 5 to get to Vdara ... 16 minutes"

It was more than 16 minutes, but not a lot more.

I throw in what's left of my chips in a 4-way stud 8 hand with 6-T-6, a hand I'd never play but what the hell I have a pair, how much more could I ask for? I actually run out two pair aces and tens which is good for high and a full double up, someone did have a low.

In my position I'll gladly take a chance to quadruple up with a so-so hand, double up was good enough. One more double and I wouldn't be in such bad shape...

Next hand, still Stud 8, I chop another 3-way pot when I start out with an ace and two low cards, pair the ace so I'm committed again ... end up with a flush for high but no low. Still, 11,500 chips!

Win a small pot, lose a small pot, blinds not helping...

Get all in against someone who actually has a shorter stack than me in O8 with A-2-7-8 against his A-7-7-9. Mostly high flop, I river an 8 to best his pair of 7s ... shit ... there's a ten and a jack on the board, the 8 gave him a straight to the jack. He was getting up to leave...

Crippled down to 4000 again after I pay him off, I get all my chips in again in O8 with 2-3-8-8 4-way.

Flop comes A-4-6. YES! Nut low with a straight draw!

Turn was a big card, good card for me to double up ...

River a 2. My low is counterfeited, someone had 3-5 for the straight and nut low and that was my day. Done.

Grabbed a couple of sandwiches at the 24-hour place at Vdara (which is a smaller copy of the 24-hour place at Aria, but has the things we like), brought them up to the room, poured a little whisky, watched some streaming, traded back rubs and that was our evening.

Orleans has totally changed their weekend schedules! I heard they missed a guarantee by a few hundred (out of like 250K) and that was enough to drop all the rest of their weekend multi-day tournaments and replace them all with one-day 40-50k guarantees. Suddenly I have good weekend options I didn't have before!

So for today I'm going back to Orleans for a $300 buyin $50k guarantee event playing "that two card game." Definitely taking Saturday off for a shopping day with Joann plus we have a dinner reservation, then Sunday it'll be back over to Paris for the Tag Team with Matt G.