Vegas June 2023 (WSOP)

Days 12-13 - WSOP 8/b Mix

Last Updated: 2023-06-23 16:49:25

EDIT: Forgot I took Father's day off Sunday! Didn't to a whole lot other than hang out with Peter and Grace much of the day

Another short one, this was a rough day. One of those days where you're just so card dead there's nothing you can do...

Usual morning, aside from the fact that we spent some time taking pictures of the newly engaged Peter and Grace at the conservatory at Bellagio.

Joann and I decided to have lunch at Tom's Watch Bar (apparently the last Tom's Urban to be so renamed due to contractual requirements with MGM Resorts) and it was on to Paris for what I now expect to be my last attempt at a WSOP bracelet for this trip.

Bought in around 3:00, it wasn't until around 3:45 that I even got a playable starting hand. An all-high hand, AAKT8 playing BigO and I'm double suited in I think diamonds and clubs. I called a raise preflop and we took a 4-handed flop.

3AK ... all hearts. Ugh. Someone makes a pot sized bet, I don't have hearts, done with the hand. I played for an hour until we went to break, I didn't drag a single pot, 17,400 from a 25k starting stack at the break.

Didn't get a whole lot better, but sometimes it's the hands you don't play tho. Remember how we've sort of had a theme this summer about me playing shitty hands in the big blind just because I'm getting great odds and great things suddenly happen?

I fold out 257Q with clubs in the big blind for a single raise. Had I played the hand, I would have bet pot on a straight and flush draw I would have hit on the flop of 346 with two clubs. As it turned out, one guy had a nut low and the other guy in the hand flopped two pair, turned three pair and rivered a full house ... and there were pot sized bets on every street, neither guy was going away ... and I might have ended my day on that hand had I played it!

It wasn't until about 4:45PM, which was an hour and a half of playing time since I sat down (not including the break), that I finally dragged my first pot of the day.

I'm playing 2-4-8-8 with hearts and spades in Limit 8b and we flop 3-8-9 all clubs. I didn't say it was a big pot ... the flop checks around, board runs out a small club and then a face card, I call a river bet as does the other person in the hand and my set of 8s is good for the high in spite of an obvious flush on the board.

Next hand I finally win my first decent pot!

Still Limit 8b, a real hand A268 with A8 of clubs four handed, someone raised and the rest of us just called. Flop comes 359 with a club, I've got nut low draw with a gutshot and a backdoor flush for high. I check-call a flop bet as does everyone else.

Turn is Qc and it checks around.

River is the gin card, Jack of clubs. I have the nuts!

I lead out, there's a call, then a raise(!!!), I of course reraise, middle guy folds, raiser has a look of disgust on his face and tosses out a 1k chip to call with the second nut flush...

Couple hands later I get A23K double suited, a great starting hand, and I raise out ... to see a flop of Q3Q and I'm done with the hand.

Things went OK for a little while, I chopped the odd pot here and there so my stack was going in the right direction but nothing particularly notable.

But then I get quartered in a massive BigO pot. Three-way all in by the river, and basically what happened is I've got A22XX, another guy in the hand has AAA2X, so we're both thinking the same thing - there's no way anyone else has the nut low because we have blockers - except us two did and the guy that was going for a high hand caught a full house (I also had flopped nut flush potential but it never came in, another part of the reason all the chips were going in from my perspective with made nut low, blockers and a draw by the turn).

I go from being in decent shape to down around 19,500 at the break ... which wasn't terrible, just wasn't as good as being above starting stack of 25k ...

That said, everything pretty much went to shit after that. I chopped some small pots here and there, but I had almost no playable starting hands and the few hands I did play went as well as my "I have aces and a 2, raise out and get a monotone flop not of my suits and get a hefty bet into me" hand above.

Then I have one of those "hate when I make a good decision" hands.

I've got 235T in a blind, don't remember whether it was limit or pot limit. Flop comes 45J and there is a bet and a raise into me. I'm all set to just get some chips in and hope for the straight ... but I decide that they must both have A2 and a made nut low and that aces are dead and do I really want to go crazy with the worst possible straight if I catch a 6? I go away.

Ace on the turn. 6 on the river to twist the knife. They both turn over A2 and the same two pair and chop it up.

ARGH!!!

But ... I read the situation correctly and made the right decision. Sigh ...

I'm down to 7800 in the big blind, so I pay a 400 ante and I'm down to 7400. There is a raise to 1400 and two callers so I get to make it 7000 to go with A223T in BigO and one of the other three backs out.

Person first to act checks dark to let me get my last 400 in if I want preflop. I do.

By the turn the board reads 6-8-face-face with two clubs and I have 2-3 of clubs which, as it turns out, was the only flush draw among the three of us and both of them only had A-4 for low ... so ... any small card that doesn't pair the board gets me half the pot, any club big or small is a scoop! What more could I ask for in a chance to possibly triple up?

River is a second 8, done.

Back to the room with some takeout in hand to drink some whisky and watch some streaming with Joann and that was my day.

For Tuesday I think I'm calling my last audible of the trip.

The plan was Seniors Event at MGM Grand at 10am. But I don't really want to play at 10am, MGM isn't as well run as other places and don't get the crowds.

My alternate was going to be PLO at Aria ... but I think I'm going to skip that in favor of a Triple Draw Mix at Orleans at 4pm. It's a last opportunity for me to play that kind of mix and I really love playing those triple draw games.

My only concern is the size of the crowd. If I get over there and there are only like 20 people bought in I may just pass and not play at all Tuesday. Hopefully that won't be the case tho.