 Vegas June 2023 (WSOP) |
| Day 1 - Drive, WSOP Badugi |
| Last Updated: 2023-06-09 20:02:36 |
| What a long day.
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| Fell about an hour short of it being as long as I wanted it to be tho...
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| I was very undecided about how early to get up. I wanted to get as much sleep as I could and I hadn't gotten much sleep the previous couple of nights. Some parts of driving through Utah can induce drowsiness, and of course I wanted to be able to hopefully make it to 1 or 2am at the WSOP without being half-falling asleep.
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| OTOH, even tho I definitely wanted to buy in late to the WSOP tournament and avoid early 3-handed play with blinds whipping around, I didn't want to not get in until 6pm either. Sitting down around the first break was my sweet spot which would mean buying in around 4pm (2pm start).
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| The plan was to leave at 4:30am. We got up on time, but some pet issues and other things slowed us down a little in the morning and we didn't actually get out until 5:00.
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| The drive couldn't have been easier tho. Nothing but minor construction through Colorado and Utah, never worse than slowing down some.
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| Usual stops at Starbucks and In-N-Out, small and moving line at that major bridge reconstruction I've talked about before in AZ, flew the rest of the way. Got to Vdara around 2:30. Perfect!
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| Until we discovered the packing issue Joann mentioned on Facebook. We always carry our own stuff up to the room, but with this long of a trip we just had too many bags with no parking lot (Vdara is 100% valet parking) so we could make trips back and forth to the car. We gave all our stuff to a bell person to bring up.
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| In that process Joann's bottle of mouthwash got crushed, was leaking all over the place. It was sitting on top of my suitcase and leaked in through the zipper into some of my clothes.
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| And Joann figured out that the mouthwash did not go well with red dye. I have a t-shirt that sorta looks red tie-die now and a little bit of a fade on a pair of brown shorts, but that was it. Except several things smelled like medicine now...
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| Our room actually has a mini-washer and mini-dryer!
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| I helped Joann triage the mess, pulled everything out of my suitcase separating wet from dry and hung up the majority of my shirts (when you often stay in Vegas for 2+ weeks you learn to bring your own set of hangars...). Did what I could to help, then headed over to Paris to buy in.
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| After I left Joann got everything in order, ran across the street to Target for some detergent and cranked up a load.
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| Oh, by the way, did I mention Joann went to see Matchbox 20 the night before we left? The concert delayed for THREE YEARS by COVID? Was rescheduled 3-4 times, was finally supposed to be a year ago but was rescheduled one last time to this year.
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| Joann is working on about 3 hours sleep plus whatever little she got in the car. As you can imagine she was pretty shot at this point.
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| Not the start to the trip she was hoping for...
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| Badugi is a simple game. You get four cards face down and get to draw three times with bets on every round.
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| A "Badugi" is a hand with all four suits and no pairs. Lowest Badugi wins, Aces are the lowest card. A-2-3-4 with all four suits is the nuts.
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| A-2-3-9 Badugi loses to 4-5-7-8 Badugi because 8 is lower than 9 and the goal is lowest Badugi.
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| If nobody has all four suits and no pairs you exclude one card from each hand and winner is the one with the best 3-card hand (in which case A-2-3 with three suits is the nuts).
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| It's hard to make a Badugi! You'd be surprised how many times a 3-card hand wins! Strategically, therefore, A-2-3 is an incredibly powerful starting hand with three suits because you will always win if it comes down to three cards.
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| Make sense?
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| I generally will not talk about which suits are which cards because it doesn't matter specifically which suits they are as long as they're not the same. Just assume as I describe a hand whatever cards I'm playing are different suits.
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| I get to Paris around 3:30PM anticipating an hour-plus line to buy in based on past experience. I was stunned that there were all of 5 people ahead of me in line. Signed the release form, handed over my money, got a buy-in slip.
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| As a late-reg I was going to be assigned the seat of someone who was busted out. I went to the appropriate desk, got a seat assignment and a starting stack of chips, slowly wandered around looking for my table ...
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| And literally put my chips on the table and hung my backpack on the back of the chair as they announced the first break at 4PM. Timing-wise I could not possibly have planned this out any more to my liking!
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| First hand out of the gate I start with A-5-6-X, which is a very good drawing hand in the big blind. There is a raise early, it folds to me and I probably should be reraising here BUT he was first to act, I have no idea how he plays (in hindsight he was too loose and I know now 100% a reraise) and I'm Out Of Position (OOP) so I just called.
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| First draw I pick up a 2 that's the same suit as my 5 (hearts I think), so my hand improves from A-5-6 to A-2-6, still drawing one.
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| But I whiff on my second and third draw, he bets and I fold on the last round since I missed and he shows me that he caught an 8-low Badugi on the last draw. I even had the better draw as he admitted he was drawing to the 8, ahead on every street but the last one!
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| Joann then messages me that her room key worked in the elevator to get to our floor but wouldn't unlock the door. Just better and better for her...good thing we brought some bottles for the room! :-)
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| 40 minute levels, break every 2nd hour so I came in for Level 4. Took a full hour, mid-level 5, that I finally won my first pot! I made an 8-low Badugi on the second draw, got a couple bets called and won a decent pot. Gave it all back the very next hand when I started out three cards to a 6 and like the first hand and whiffed every street again. Ugh.
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| Not much worked for me the rest of Level 5, I got dealt a Jack Badugi which is roughly 50-50 to survive against any person drawing one card three times and in this case I lost the flip when they caught a 10 Badugi on the last draw.
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| But I had a helluva level 6!
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| One important thing about this game is that if you are folding cards everyone else would want, you know that they can't get them!
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| In theory if you had A-2-3-4 with all clubs that might seem like a lousy starting hand because you only have one card you can keep. But ... that means that 2-3-4 of clubs are not available for everyone else. While you generally don't want to be drawing more than one card or two if your other two are specifically A-2 or A-3 with two suits, there are times where you might be a little looser with your starting hand because of the cards you have eliminated from the deck. A-2-2-2 is a much better starting hand than A-2-K-J because you know deuces are dead!
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| I had quite a run of cards, and it started with such a hand.
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| I'm in the big blind with four clubs, three of them small, and call a raise just to see what can happen with my three of clubs playing 3-handed. On the first draw I improve to a solid A-3-4 and start leading the betting. Catch an 8 Badugi on the last draw and get paid!
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| A couple of hands later there are four limpers into me (we're playing 6-max even though you can play up to 8 at a table with Badugi, unlike 2-7 triple draw) and I look down at an A-4-5-X and raise. Everyone calls. I catch a Jack Badugi on the first draw, lead out and two call. I pat my hand and lead out again, one caller this time. I check down the river as I'm OOP and can only be called by a bet if I'm beat. If he missed he won't call, if he caught he almost certainly has better than a Jack Badugi. But it turned out he literally caught the one card he may have paid me off with - he caught a queen Badugi on the river. Ship it!
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| Then a monster pot.
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| In the big blind again, it's raised into me and I have a 5, a 6 of the same suit and a face card again one of the same suit. Admittedly a very iffy spot, but again I got some blockers so ...
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| I call and draw three, the other two guys draw 2. Nobody is strong.
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| I improve to a 2-5, it checks around so I get a free draw.
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| And drawing 2 cards I spike an A-2-5-6 Badugi. Small blind bets into me, I raise, he reraises and I call.
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| We both pat our hands, he leads out, I wonder if I should be raising there but I just call just in case ... and he rolls over A-4-5-6 Badugi. 2 is lower than 4, ship it!
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| I'm at 39k from my 25k starting stack! I'd take that for sure going into the first break! But then...
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| Once again a hair loose in the big blind I call a raise to play a hand 3-handed with just a 3-4.
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| I pick up an ace! I ponder leading, I ponder check raising ... ultimately I check, other person checks, third person leads, I just call. I spike a 6 on the second draw! I check-raise the person who had been leading out, player in the middle had called the first bet but he goes away at this point.
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| We both pat the last draw, I lead out and get called and my 6 Badugi is good! Same guy as the last 6 I spiked, he's unhappy.
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| 52,200 at the second break, a little more than double a starting stack! Quite a run!
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| My second two hours were pretty rough. Had a stretch of unplayable hands, the hands I did play never seemed to work out. Before I knew it I had dropped down to 32k. The worst was starting out with a 2-4 calling a raise in the big blind, catching an Ace for the second nut 3-card hand and leading out ... and whiffing both draws and losing to someone who caught a Badugi on the last draw.
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| Caught an 8-low Badugi and lost to a 7-low, missed on another big draw and went into the next break all the way down at 19,500. That really went to hell on me!
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| I start out the next level with a decent run, pick up a couple of small pots and then starting with 3-5-6 I'm betting every street when I improve to A-5-6 and then catch a 4 to make a solid Badugi and get paid! Then dealt a pat 9 Badugi and pick up a medium sized pot.
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| Just like that back up to 33,500!
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| 516 players announced paying 78 places. We're down to 348 remaining.
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| From that point on I was up and down like a yo-yo. Unfortunately started out "down".
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| I lost a huge 3-handed pot when I caught a 7 Badugi ... and my opponent caught a 6. Worst part was my 3-card was ahead the whole time. Just like that back down to 19k.
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| Dealt a pat 9, get some chips, miss another draw and fall back down.
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| Then a couple of killers. I cannot improve on A-3-5 and lose to a king badugi made on the last draw, then lose 3-card vs 3-card, my 2-4-6 losing to A-4-5. I'm crippled down to 6400 chips.
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| Double up making an 8-Badugi on a 3rd draw when all in, have an A-2-4 3-card win at the end. 20,600 at the final break.
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| Back down when A-2-5 can't improve and lose to another king Badugi (grrrr ... not just me, for this guy a king Badugi was the nuts all night).
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| There is a raise and a call into me and I look down at a pat Jack Badugi. I 3-bet it, both call. I pat and go all in, they draw 2 each. There is a bet and a call on the first draw and I think I'm done, but they each pull a card. One guy leads out and takes the side pot. He draws one again and I pat.
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| He had a 5-low 3 card and needs a club ... and gets one ... a king! Nearly gave me a heart attack. My jack is good, I triple up! I'm up around a starting stack again!
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| But ... here we go again, A-4-5 to start, can't improve, lose again to same guy who catches another king Badugi. My three card once again best the whole way.
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| Crippled one final time when I can't improve a nut 3-card and lose to a made 6 on the last draw. My bustout hand was yet another solid 3-card (I think 4-high) where I not only didn't catch, but caught 2 of the other three aces on my draws to pair my ace.
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| Brutal.
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| It doesn't really matter what the bad card is, catching a king of a suit I already have is no better or worse than pairing my ace for example ... but catching aces is just twisting the knife because that means they're not available to my opponent to catch and that exact thing (catching two more aces) happened to me 3-4 times during the course of the day while that other guy is scooping pots catching kings all night.
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| Argh!
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| Out with an hour to go before making Day 2. Only 228 remained, outlasted half the field but not enough.
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| If they ran the same tournament today I'd buy right back in and play again. I feel like I played great, was playing from ahead most of the time and just had folks get lucky against me more often than I got lucky against them. That's poker, folks.
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| I'm finishing up my Day 1 BLOG the morning of Day 3. No poker, but we slept in and we had a very busy Day 2 so I just didn't get to finishing this until now.
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| I'm not playing poker again until Day 5, there was nothing that interested me at Aria, MGM Grand or Orleans these days so likely there will just be a Day 2-4 wrap-up before the serious grind starts Sunday.
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| I will preview for my Colorado Springs peeps that I'm going to have a weird Day 2 story that will involve a name you all know but probably haven't heard in a while...
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| How's that for a tease! |
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