Vegas June/July 2022 (WSOP)

Day 7 - Orleans twice

Last Updated: 2022-06-29 14:44:54

I have to admit, it's days like these that make me wonder sometimes...

Starbucks, pool, on to Orleans for some poker.

I decided to buy into the 11am No-Limit Hold'Em instead of waiting for PLO8b at 2pm. I brought enough money for both tho...

3rd hand in I pick up pocket 8s on the button, call a min-raise as does the big blind. Flop Q-2-4, it checks around. Turn is an 8. Check to the original raiser, he leads out for 2500, I smooth call, big blind also calls. River is a king of hearts completing a flush draw, check to me, I lead out, the king killed my action and everyone folds.

Nice start tho!

Matt G texts me that he had made Day 2 of the $600 Deepstack bracelet event the day before and was chip leader at his table!! Good for him!

Again I call a raise preflop with 88 and as do a few others and the flop comes 3-A-8. Sweet!

It checks around, I'm of course checking hoping for a continuation bet but it doesn't come. Two clubs and a heart, the turn is a 2 of hearts creating two flush draws. I don't plan on waiting any longer, but I get some help! Early to act leads out for 4000. I make it 10k and get two callers!

I'm not at all fond of the river 4 of hearts, it's a bad card for me either way because it completes all the draws and therefore either beats me or kills my action.

But I'm already in for half my stack, I push, they fold. Still, a very nice pot for me!

53,300 at the first break from a 20k start.

I text Joann that it looks like I won't be playing PLO8 today :-)

Drop to 40k when 8's don't work out for me, on a board of J-7-5-4 after the turn I lead out for 3500 thinking 8s are probably good, a short stack goes all in and I have to call off. He has 77, no 6 or 8 to save me on the river and I'm down to 40k.

Go a little card dead, 33,200 at the second break.

Still card dead, finally pick up A-J suited ... and there's a raise to 3k and a reraise to 12k ahead of me. Good thing I was late to act, sucks I can't play my first decent hand in a while.

But shortly after that I pick up pocket queens!

I make it 3000 to go at 500/1000/1000. Two callers including the big blind. Flop comes 2-2-7. Checks to me, I lead out for 10k I think, first person folds, big blind goes all in, I call. He rolls over 7-2 off.

No queen on the turn or river, done.

PLO8 it is...

I do go for a little bit of a walk before I buy in just to calm down and make sure I'm not on tilt. I wouldn't buy in if I'm not in a good frame of mind to keep grinding on.

The poker room is completely full, they don't have enough tables and are forming new PLO8 tables as they break up NLH tables. I was alternate 39 and they were already in the 30s and were about half an hour into the tournament, not bad.

Probably 10-15 minutes was all it took to open up a table for me to sit at with 9 others, just under an hour after the tournament started. No big blind antes here for Pot-Limit tournaments.

First hand after we sit down plays 7 handed. Not including me. In this game you should generally fold any hand preflop that doesn't contain an ace. Last I checked there are still only four in the deck ... and away we go ...

Second hand after we sit down has our first all-in and call. But, actually, it wasn't too bad. The two players each had two aces with at least one suited and with two other low cards. The guy with A-A-3-5 was totally correct to get all in preflop. The guy with A-A-6-7 should have just called before it all got in ... but board ran out clean, nobody hit anything, aces are good, no low, take your chips back ...

In walks Greg "Fossilman" Raymer! Slumming it at Orleans! I've heard he's a regular in lower buyin tournaments and a nice guy, I did not get the opportunity to find out for myself tho.

Takes a while for me to get my first A-2-something-something hand, I don't remember the other two cards but I do remember the flop contained and ace and I was pretty well done with it having nothing good to go with the pair of aces and my low counterfeited.

A-3-5-7 with a suit, raise out preflop ... J-J-9 flop, done again.

A-2-J-7 with a suited ace and I raise out, two callers, board runs out 5-T-J-T-5. Argh.

14200 from my 20k starting stack. Nothing working...

A-2-Q-T with a suited ace (maybe double suited?) flop is Q-8-9, checks around, turn is another 9, done with that one too. If you call bets on these kinds of boards in Omaha with nothing more than top pair, top kicker you are literally lighting chips on fire in the long run.

Finally tho...

Bunch of limpers and I look down at J-J-T-8 with a suit. This is really a better PLO hand than a PLO8 hand, and you certainly wouldn't want to put in a lot of chips preflop.

But when you have lots of limpers, you can get in cheap there's nothing wrong with hoping for a high-only flop hoping to get a lot in post-flop with a very strong hand ...

Flop comes Q-9-4. SWEET! I have a wrap! Any king, jack, ten or eight gives me a straight with most of them giving me the nuts. A seven on the turn gives me four more cards to hit a straight (sixes) on the river.

All the chips go in, I'm up against Q-J-J-small. With so many straight outs, without checking an odds calculator I'm pretty sure I'm ahead by a decent amount even against a made set.

Ten on the turn, no board pair on the river, ship it!

Up to 26,200, first time above starting stack.

On the button with A-4-8-8 with a suited ace. This is what we call a "trouble hand". It's so easy to get into situations where you end up with the second best hand, if you're going to play it you MUST have the discipline to be able to fold it later in the hand if you don't have the nuts and a lot of chips are going in the pot.

I can't tell you how many people I see get crushed with hands like that making second best high and/or low hands.

But ... when the flop comes 8-2-2 you can't wait to get your chips in :-)

Big blind leads out on the flop for 3000. There is a fold and then a call. I badly want to slow play, but I'm not letting some A-3 get half of what's already a sizeable pot for free so I pot it and they both fold. You really want that A-3 drawing dead for the high half to call there and hope you don't get drawn out on for the low, but I'll gladly add 11k to my stack there without risking half of it.

34,900 at the break.

I defend my big blind with an awful 8-8-6-3, I've heard you should defend the big with almost any four cards just because of the odds you're getting. We see a flop 3-handed.

Flop comes 8-3-T, so I basically have no shot at a low and I check-call a 2200 bet and we're still three handed. I check-call a 3600 bet when a face card (queen?) comes on the turn.

River is an 8. Sometimes the slow-play works out!

I check the river hoping for one more bet, but they both quickly check saying they had one-pair/draw hands after I showed my quads so I wasn't getting anything out of them even if I led out.

Three hands later I look down at A-A-4-6. Someone made it 2000 to go, I potted to 7200, they called off a little less than half their stack I think. Flop came 2-4-J, he shoves, I snap call, he has A-J-3-T. 2 on the turn thankfully takes away his 2-pair outs because a ten hit on the river. A-A-2-2 beats J-J-T-T, no low possible, a scoop!

60,900 and my table breaks up.

Lose a chunk with an A-3-K-something that was double suited and I catch my flush, but on a paired board and they had flopped a full house. Ugh. Still sitting around 50k tho.

A-A-3-5 double suited, just two limpers ahead of me. I pot it, everyone folds, I get the minimum out of very strong aces.

Unfortunately there was a health emergency at another table. Security, oxygen tanks, tournament paused for I would guess 15-20 minutes. Last I saw tho they had the guy sitting up so hopefully he was OK.

Was a little card dead, a guy who was pissed he just lost a hand and was short stacked raised out to 3200 at 600/1200 blinds. One caller middle position and I defend with 2-4-5-6 with one suit but we'll call that an "emergency flush", not one I'm hoping for.

What I'm really hoping for in this spot is to flop an ace to give me a good low counterfeiting their aces or some kind of straight I can hope to freeroll someone with.

Instead what I get is a flop of 4-4-8. Trip fours!

I check, unhappy guy tosses in the rest of his chips (not much relative to the pot) and other guy (who has me covered) calls. I pot it, all the chips go in...

Short stack has A-2-K-9, actually as good a hand as he could have hoped for in his position. Other guy has a four and three face cards. Awful hand, no business calling a raise preflop.

Between the two of them they had four face cards and a 9, a good deck for me.

All I need is any card 7 or under for either half the pot or a scoop. Any 2, 5 or 6 gives me a full house, any ace gives me the best low, any 3 or 7 gives me at least the low for the very large side pot.

Jack on the turn, queen on the river. Done.

Two bustouts to awful hands that shouldn't have been in the pot to begin with in two tournaments. Another coin flip to have a huge stack and propel myself in a tournament that didn't go my way.

Frustrating.

But I did bust out in time to join Peter and Joann to see Mad Apple, the new Cirque du Soleil show at New York, New York that replaced the now defunct "Zumanity". Joann got in line at the box office and got me a seat in the row behind them and just a few seats over (and more centered).

We thoroughly enjoyed it, but I will say it's really only 50% "acts" and 50% comedians. The comedians were excellent, I would definitely recommend the show, but if you're looking for a show that's all about the traditional Cirque acts it might not be for you. And expect a fair amount of raunchy humor...

Pizza and beer for dinner for me since I only had to walk about 100 yards, Peter and Joann ate before the show.

Wednesday is now 100% a day off. It's Peter's birthday, we are taking him to Smith and Wollensky for dinner and then Blue Man Group afterwards.

And I could really use a day off...

So no BLOG Thursday, right now I'm planning on playing in the Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack bracelet event on Thursday while Peter and Joann go shooting automatic weapons for an afternoon.

Oh and meanwhile Matt is killing it!!!

He had told me he had tripled up with only 100 left, probably to a top 20 chip stack at the time!

He is going to start Day 3 of the $600 Deepstack 46th in chips out of 60 remaining from 4900+ buyins. He's guaranteed at least a prize a little over $5000!!!

Also in that mix is John "Apestyles" Van Fleet. If you've ever heard me talk about a series of three excellent books I think everyone should read by three authors who each give their own perspective on how example hands should be played, he's one of the guys! I told Matt I'm doubly jealous if he gets a chance to sit at the table with that guy! Unfortunately he will not be at the table Matt will start at today.