 Vegas November 2022 |
| Day 7 - Orleans NLH twice one last time |
| Last Updated: 2022-11-19 10:48:24 |
| Well, friends, today was "flush draw" day. Mostly not in my favor...
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| I decided I didn't want to buy in so late for a change, and I didn't sleep in so I had plenty of time ... but I still managed to lose track of time, it got later than I wanted so I decided that my Starbucks would be enough today and didn't go have a real breakfast/lunch before playing. I had snacks with me, that was going to have to be enough ...
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| Wrote up the second half of the BLOG, caught up on some online stuff, got to Orleans around 11:10, bought in and sat down.
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| Didn't get off to a great start, twice I flopped second pair and a flush draw, both times I failed to improve and both times lost at showdown (outkicked on second pair once, other person actually had top pair the other time).
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| Dropped down around 18k from my 25k starting stack when finally a hand worked out for me!
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| Second to act limps in, I make it 1400 to go at 200/400/400 blinds with Q-T of spades. Big blind, who was playing a lot of hands, calls and the limper goes away.
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| Flop comes J-3-9 with two spades. He check/calls my 1800 continuation bet and the 8 of spades comes on the turn (not a straight flush, the spades were the 9 and the 3). I've got exactly three 5000 denomination chips in my stack and the other guy leads out for exactly three 5000 denomination chips ... and I snap call with my flush.
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| He has A-J with the ace of spades. He actually only has 6 outs because the jack of spades in the deck DOES give me the straight flush. Queen of diamonds on the river, I double up!
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| 37,700 at the break.
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| Just after the break same guy raises out to I think 1500 and I look down at crabs and make the call. Everyone else folds.
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| Flop comes J-Q-9 rainbow, we both check. Turn is a sweet 3 to give me a set, he check/calls a 2100 bet but goes away on the 9 river that gave me a full house.
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| That was the high point of my tournament.
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| After that, about every time I led out or tried to buy a pot someone went over the top of me. I turned a small flush, tried to take down the pot without seeing a river, got jammed on and folded. Guy showed me his much better flush when I folded. Raise out pre-flop with a good hand, get jammed on, good but not that good, have to fold. And so on...
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| Worked my way back down below starting stack when I decided to raise out fairly late to act with A-7 suited in clubs. Guy immediately to my left, who had started to go over the top of a lot of people with jams, just called my raise and we saw a flop of Q-7-2 with two diamonds. I lead out hoping my pair of sevens is good, he immediately jams all in.
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| He's just been doing it too many times all of a sudden (after showing none of that before the break) and I just don't believe he's really that strong. He'd just call if he was strong, right?
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| I call off the rest of my stack.
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| He's got A-4 of diamonds. Just a flush draw or running 4s. I'm a 2-1 favorite!
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| Diamond on the river, done. Argh.
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| Back to the room, picked up an iced tea on the way back to hydrate, typed up to this point, trying to decide what's for dinner. I have time...
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| And I have whisky in the room, but gotta remember I gotta drive back to Orleans in 4.5 hours :-)
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| Well, I did have a little whisky and made myself a reservation for a table for one at Tom's Urban. I don't understand why I didn't do this Thursday night to watch the first half of the Packers game. I even briefly thought of it as I was walking over to Javier's and it would have been so much better of a choice.
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| It ought to be clear to my audience that variety of food is not exactly the most important thing in the world to me (much to Joann's consternation). I'm perfectly happy to keep eating things I like. I really like the pot stickers at Tom's and I've discovered these short rib tacos they make that are really good. I used to eat like 5 different things on their menu, which was HUGE before COVID, but like many places they went with a limited menu when they first opened after COVID and never expanded back to the glory days. Probably the only place I can think of that I went to regularly and didn't order exactly the same thing every time I went.
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| This time I didn't get the short rib tacos tho, I got their prime rib dip which they serve with a very good demi-glace in pace of the standard au jus. Then, much to my surprise, for dessert my only gelato stop at Eataly of the entire trip! Usually I'm like every other day...
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| Back to the room to drop off my tablet and pick up my backpack and on to Orleans for my last tournament of the trip!
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| I was disappointed when I found out that they were doing 20,000 chips instead of the usual 25k. But happy that they made up for it (and probably evened things out) by adding a couple of blind levels that didn't exist in prior tournaments. From 200/400 to 300/500 to 300/600 instead of directly 200/400 to 300/600 for example.
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| Got there only 8 minutes into the first level, pretty good for me(!), and sat down at a new table.
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| Not much playable for the first hour or so until this hand came up...
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| A very loose player opens up first or second to act for 1000 at 200/400/400. A guy who was on tilt from losing a tough hand makes it 3000 to go out of his roughly 14k stack and I look down at pocket 9s. This seems perfect, I can squeeze out loose guy and isolate tilt guy who probably isn't very strong so I make it 10k to go.
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| Folds to loose guy who immediately goes all in and tilt guy almost beats him in the pot. I'm pretty committed at this point with over half my stack in the pot.
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| Loose guy has pocket Queens, of course. Tilt guy has J-10 suited.
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| 9 in the window! Ship it!
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| I've had Aces cracked, but put a 9 in my hand this trip and I'm unstoppable! Second time this week I was specifically up against QQ with 99 and caught a 9! (last time, however, it still wasn't good enough...)
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| That got me over 45k from my 20k starting stack. But lose about 8k of it on a flush draw I'm glad I didn't hit! Checked down at showdown and I had Q-10 of diamonds and he had K-3 of diamonds (neither of us had a pair).
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| 30,800 at break from 20k. I'll take it.
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| About half an hour after the break I wanna say we were at 400/800/800 blinds and under the gun or second to act makes it 2000 to go. It folds around to me and I look down at A-K suited in clubs and make it 6500 to go.
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| He thinks a bit and calls.
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| Flop comes 2-Q-2 with two spades. He immediately checks and since my stack had been going down since the break I decide it's time to try and steal this pot. I'm all in.
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| He thinks for a very long time and finally makes the call.
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| With Jack-Four. Of spades.
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| Raised out early to act and called a 3X re-raise with Jack-four. Can't make it up. And calls the all in that would cripple him with just a flush draw.
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| Spade on the turn, spade on the river for good measure, my poker trip is done.
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| Wow.
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| Back to the room to pack and have some more of that whisky I brought with me. I was saving the Stagg Jr bottle I took for a celebration but didn't drink it after my one cash because I went for pizza and beer instead, but the end of the trip seemed like as good a reason as any so I'm sipping on it while I type up the second half of this BLOG.
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| Very frustrating that after cashing in the first tournament I played in I couldn't even get one more min-cash. Two very deep runs, one very disappointing bubble. All I can do is put myself in a position and hope it works out.
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| We've already gamed out all of our vacations for 2023. Nothing is booked aside from a concert festival in May, but assuming everything goes according to plan (and we may be booking within the next week due to a massive "Black Friday Sale" with MGM resorts) it looks like WSOP 2023 will be the middle half of June (with the 15th being roughly the middle of the trip so I can flex work time) and the 2023 fall poker trip will likely be October rather than November, also middle part of the month. That's due to the fact that the time I would normally come to Vegas in November is when Formula 1 is doing their Vegas Grand Prix and even Park MGM is $1000/night Thursday to Sunday. With November out it looks like we'll combine our now annual "football in Vegas" weekend with my trip.
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| As usual, thanks to everyone for reading! I do see all the hits on the blog even if I don't know who all of you are who are reading. Those in our poker game I do know if you're logged in who you are, for everyone else all I have is your IP address and the occasional feedback I get (and I do appreciate feedback as well!).
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| Until June... |
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