April 28, 2009

  • Rest of Vegas Trip Update

     

     

    Wednesday, April 22, 2009 -  It was Super Satellite day for seats to the $2500 Main Event of the Venetian Deepstack.  The Super Satellites where $280 buy-in and gives away seats to 10% of the field, for example 100 players enter the satellite then 10 seats would be awarded to the ME.  They were running three of these satellites today at 12PM, 4PM, and 8PM.  I was planning on playing all three of them had I gone busto early enough to register for the next one.  I ended up doing really well in the first one at 12PM building my stack really early and being among one of the chipleaders for most of the tournament.  Eventually the blinds got so high that everyones stack was under 25BB's and was on the brink of turning into a crapshoot.  There were 161 players that entered the satellite which meant 16 players would get a seat and I got busted in 21st place, just short of winning my seat.  Two short stacks doubled up off me when my AJ ran into AA and my 99 didn't hold up in a race vs. A10o blind vs blind situation.  This got my stack really short and forced me to make moves in order to win my seat but wasn't fortunate enough to make a comeback.  I missed the 4PM tournament and was on semi-tilt getting busted so close to winning my seat that I didn't think it was a good idea for me to enter the 8PM tournament.  I took the rest of the night off of poker to hang out with friends and play in the pit (aka - table games)


    Thursday, April 23, 2009 -  Despite not winning my seat to the Main Event, I decided I was determined to play it anyway so that I would get some good practice in for the WSOP.  So I ended up buying in direct for the full $2500.  Day 1 started today starting with $20k in chips with 90 minute levels and blinds starting at 25/50.  As you can see the structure favors for a lot of play and post-flop action.  My first table started with two or three online pros which I didn't bother asking them for their online names but knew they were pros and a guy named Steve Dannenman who was runner up against Joe Hachem in the WSOP Main Event a few years back for $4.2M.  I played my A-game as usual in the first few levels picking up every small pot possible and getting in pots with speculative hands trying to hit big flops.  One hand that I played stood out in everyones head that earned me a lot of respect even from all the pros at my table.  It went like this:

    Situation - The player in seat 5 was busted and was soon replaced by a big buff black guy who still had just about starting stack.  My first impression on this player just judging from appearance was that he was a meat-head as he took his jacket off shortly after arriving to the table and getting a few sarcastic comments from other players including Dannenman about how big his muscles were.  He was also a pretty flashy guy with two cellphones holstered and lots of silver jewelry, almost like he was a famous rapper, who knows maybe he was I just wasn't up to date.  Anyway, my usual assumption about these type of players is that since he was a meat-head I knew he was very prideful and egotistical, so I knew he would pull crazy two barrel and three barrel bluffs trying to steal tons of pots.  Typically, these players never like to show weakness or let alone they hate losing, they're fighters that are too prideful to lay hands down.  After a few orbits of play my physical assumption matched perfectly to the way he played as he 3-barreled three hands to the river only to muck his hand on the showdown when his opponent showed any type of pair.  Knowing all this I played this hand vs. him.

    I'm UTG w/ KsQs with blinds at 100/200 w/ 25 ante - Stack Size around 25k

    I raise to 500

    Seat 5 (player described above) smooth calls, Dealer Calls, and BB calls, making a four player multi-way pot to the flop.

    {Pot = 2400}  Flop - As 9d 8c

    I check, Seat 5 postures and bets 1k, Dealer folds, BB folds

    At this point Seat 5 could have hit any of that but he only bet 1k giving me 3.5-1 with infinite implied odds to chase my runner runner nut flush or catch a K or Q and still be good to win the pot.  I call the 1k bet and it is now heads-up

    {Pot = 4400}  Turn - As 9d 8c (Ad)

    I check, Seat 5 postures again and bets 1500

    I have now missed any possible way to go runner runner flush and am now thinking about shutting down with my K high, but then I remember the past hands when he 3 barreled bluff only to muck on showdown.  Now I'm thinking he could either have a monster or a semi-bluff with J10s or 76 and my K high may just be good.  I'm thinking the Ace actually might of helped my hand, his small 1/3 pot bet is kind of fishy, and I could just flat call and re-evaluate on a safe river.  I make the call.

    {Pot = 7400}  River - As 9d 8c Ad (3c)

    I check, Seat 5 quickly bets 3k

    A perfect river card peels off not completing any draws of any type.  Before I checked, I prematurely analyzed the hand.  If he had any type of pocket pair he would give up and check behind.  He was a meat-head but he wasn't dumb and a complete donk, so I would think if he had A rag suited, there was a good chance he would even check behind after me check/calling him on the flop and turn thinking I had an Ace with a bigger kicker.  A lot of my analysis was thinking if he bets a decent amount on the river it meant a last attempt to pick up the nice pot with a bluff.  There was 10,400 chips in the pot after his 3k bet laying me over 3-1 on my call, the only problem was all I had was K high.  This is a situation I know only a small percent of poker players would get themselves into, majority of the players would most likely give up on the flop, if not the turn.  A lot of players wouldn't risk a quarter of their stack with K high this early in the tournament even if they did have a read.  I end up making the call and he puts his hole cards between his pointer and middle finger and cocks it back as if he's ready to fold.  He realizes I called his river bet so he has to show first, he projects his cards face down into the muck and I show my KQ high.  The table breaks out in "Wows!" and "What the hecks!?", the player in Seat 1 even says to me "I hope you win this tourney, making amazing calls like that".  After this I felt like I had the tables respect and I could unleash a lot of my weapons with them folding small pots to me and playing with caution vs. me.

    There were two key hands that I played absolutely bad before the 3rd break that pretty much caused my demise.  One, I folded AKo in the CO to a HJ steal-raiser when he opened, I 3-bet, and he 4-bet a third of his stack.  It was either 5-bet shove or fold at this point and I went with the latter just cause I wouldn't think he would 4-bet me light after he knew what I was capable of.  But kudos to him because I folded AK face up and he folded A7s face up.  On the very next hand he opened again in LP and I picked up JJ in the HJ.  I decided to 3-bet him again hoping he would think I was doing it light this time around.  He smooth called my 3-bet and the flop came 8-7-3.  He checked, I checked for pot control planning to bet the turn.  Turn came pairing the board with an 8.  At first thought, the eight helped my hand but it threw me off when he led into me for 1500.   I was a little confused after he led out into me and without thinking much about it I just flat called.  The river came a 9 and he immediately fired 6k into a pot of 5k.  I was a little flustered by his bet thinking half the time I just let him back into a winning hand and half the time he was over-bet bluffing the pot as a last attempt to pick up the pot not putting me on much of a hand.  I end up making the call not happy about it and he shows J10s for the nut-straight.  Using pot control to keep the pot small and playing passively caused me to lose the hand.  I was very disappointed in how I played the hand.  I have to admit I was on tilt after I got back from the break.  They moved me to a new table and made some bad plays getting me down to 25BB at the 200/400 with 50 ante level and I shoved from the SB to a loose HJ opener who woke up with AK.  Busto!  This is the same level I busted from the Venetian ME back in Nov., right before the dinner break.  Next time I'll try and make it deeper.

     

    Friday - Monday, April 24-27th, 2009 -  A few buddies came into town to stay with me and gamble.  So I took the rest of the trip off from poker to play in the pit and party.  Definately was good times, but lost a good amount of money playing table games.  At least I got it all out of my system before WSOP.  I promised myself when I move out here next month I won't play in the pit at all unless I win a significant amount of money in one of my events, maximizing my spending money on tournament buy-ins and cost of living.  I'm flying back home tomorrow night getting back to reality.  From now until the WSOP at the end of May, I'll be focusing on FTOPS and winning the rest of the funds needed for WSOP.  At the same time, fine tuning my game so that I play my absolute best come WSOP.  See you guys all back at the virtual felts!