Vegas June 2010 (WSOP)

Day 4 - Deep Stack 1

Last Updated: 2010-06-14 03:57:57

Today ended up being a very frustrating day for me.

First, we had brunch at Bellagio. When we walked up, there was a 30-40 minute line I would guess, but the bartender came out and was looking for people to skip the line and sit at the bar. I couldn't believe people actually turned him down but we didn't! The bar is not exactly huge, when you sit there you have about 12 people being taken care of by two bartenders. And, particularly at breakfast, they don't exactly have a lot to do other than take care of the people sitting around the bar. So not only did we never have to wait for someone to get us a drink, our glasses never got more than 1/3 empty. Especially Joann's champagne glass...

Fantastic as always. Joann tried the ice cream with caramel sauce. Now she knows why I can't enjoy soft serve ice cream anywhere else any more...

Then on to the deep stack. And if anyone was following along on Facebook or saw my little BLOG updates you already know how it went to a point. But basically it went like this:

Only played a few hands until just before the first break. On one of the few hands I did play, I reraised preflop with pocket jacks and got one caller, flop K-J-K, couldn't get anything for them. After the first break I went on quite a tear. Flopped two more sets (one turned into a boat) and got paid but not paid huge. Somehow a guy who was a very loose player DIDN'T give me all or most of his chips on this hand:

I have pocket queens, guy raises into me, I reraise, he calls. Flop A-Q-X. Check-check. Turn K, I bet a couple thousand, he calls. River a blank, I bet a couple thousand again and he calls and turns over slick.

How this guy managed to only lose what he did with top two I'll never understand.

Had pocket jacks and queens a few more times, every time I got one or two callers and flopped all under cards but couldn't get anything else. By the second break I was about doubled up and in great shape. But right after the second break, a bit of a disaster.

Loose player above of the A-K vs QQ hand calls preflop. Another loose player on the button raises. I'm in the small blind and have A-Q. Normally I will often fold that hand out of position to a raise. I just don't like to play it first to act after the flop. But these are two loose players who will raise a lot of hands I dominate so I make the call. Flop 8-10-Q w/ two hearts. I bet 2000, first loose guy calls, second loose guy shoves for a little under 6000. I have to make the call, then first loose guy goes in the tank and decides to go over the top again for another 6000 and obviously at this point I have to call with top pair top kicker (we're talking about 6-ish to one on my money I think). Short stack shows AA so OK, I'm crushed there. But on the side pot other loose guy only has two hearts and is shoving on a flush draw. And he hits!

What really sucks about that is that if I win the side pot I'm about where I was before the hand started and all is good.

So just like that I go from sitting pretty to back to my starting stack.

A few hands later I again have pocket jacks and flop jacks full but again only get paid a little. Then I go completely card dead for two rounds.

So there's some turnover at the table and now I have a guy two seats before I act who is a major blind stealer and a guy between us who calls the blind stealer 50% or more of the time when this hand comes up:

I'm down to 15,000 or so with blinds 600/1200 and I'm in the big blind. It folds around to blind stealer who makes it 3500 to go. Guy between us dutifully calls. I look down at A-J suited. I thought about calling but decide these two are stealing left and right and I don't want to be out of position after the flop if it doesn't go well so I shove. Stealer folds quickly but caller goes into the tank. He really didn't want to risk 1/2 to 2/3 of his stack but he makes the call and turns over pocket jacks. I flop an ace...and he catches the case jack on the river. ARGH.

So I busted out just in time to run over to Caesar's for the 7pm $160 buyin.

Believe it or not, it was more frustrating.

Joann got a big chip up early on when she got all in w/ Kings and ran into Jacks and Aces but caught her king to get to about 30,000 (10K starting stack). But unfortunately things didn't go her way much after that and she ended up busting out 45-48 out of 156.

Meanwhile, I had a hand not long before that that went like this:

Very loose player (defended his blind 100% of the time for any raise, he played a LOT of hands) raised out to 450 with blinds 75/150. Another player who had a tendancy to re-raise a little too much made it 1200. I look down at pocket jacks and make the call. First guy shoves, second guy shoves. I can't possibly call with just jacks, right? First guy had aces, second guy had kings...jack on the flop. ARGH!

After that I was basically up and down for the next 5 hours. Started with 10k, never got much above 20K but generally stayed above 10K. Grinding, grinding, grinding. Finally with 18 getting paid, as Joann was busting out in the upper 40s I finally started to build up a chip stack and got up to 30K. I was able to maintain the stack for a couple of rounds. Eventually we're down to 33-35 people with blinds at 1000/2000 with a 300 ante when this happens:

Short stack shoves. Big stack just calls. I'm in big blind and look down at slick suited. This situation has for a while now been one where whatever I decide to do it ends up not working out for me. And here we go again...

Calling is not an option. Since the big stack didn't go over the top to isolate I can't figure him to be that strong. I could fold and move on or shove and try and finally get a good sized stack. I decide to shove. Original all-in just had K-J so I had him crushed but the big stack had QQ and they ended up holding up.

So probably 33 out of 156 people, really with not a lot of cards and grinding out a short stack all night. I guess I could have laid down slick suited, and had the big stack gone over the top instead of just calling I very well might have. But given the price I was getting I knew I was making the right play mathematically...but it is frustrating.

Oh well.

After that we walked down to Venetian to buy me in for tomorrow for more torture, then a late-night dinner at the cafe in Paris and on to BLOG and go to bed.