 Vegas April 2012 |
| Day 3 - Aria, Caesars late night |
| Last Updated: 2012-04-26 08:32:01 |
| First I'll report on everyone else...
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| Myself, Leon, Paul and Mike all bought into the 1pm at Aria. Poto went for the MGM tournament (double stack turbo or something like that). Paul and Leon had tough tournaments, I don't think they ever had a lot of traction. Mike built up a very big chip stack but picked the wrong time for a bad misread and ended up busting out just before we broke down to two tables I believe paying 12.
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| Poto didn't do much better at MGM, and he joined Paul and Leon buying into the 7:00. More later on why Pete didn't buy in. About an hour into the tournament, Nick walked by me on his way to his table.
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| I never heard from Nick or Poto, but I can tell you all that Paul didn't last too long and Leon had a very deep run but busted out short of the money in a pair vs pair situation. I don't know any more details than that.
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| Back when I played a lot of online poker and before I became the, ahem, unemotional poker player I am today (I'm always telling people that nothing ever bothers me any more, I've seen it all too many times) I used to occasionally slam my hand down on the wooden basket cover I put my laptop on when I play to make sure the fan properly ventilates the laptop. There was a time I played A LOT of online poker (for me anyway) and went through a fair amount of frustration...to the point where I think I might have done a little nerve damage in my hand. If I bang it hard enough it tends to tingle for a while...but, you know, I'm unemotional at the poker table now so that doesn't happen any more...right? I'm past all that now...
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| So early in the tournament I had a big blind special playing Brunson out of the BB and I flopped two pair. I checked surely thinking someone would bet out and sure enough someone did. Folded back around to me and I pounced with a check-raise. The guy just hated to fold his hand, whatever it was. He was not happy.
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| So a little bit later, same guy raises out preflop and I'm late to act and look down at A-Q (I must have been button or cutoff). I call.
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| Flop comes A-Q-rag, rainbow. He bets into me, I smooth call. I already irritated him once, I want all his chips. Right at that moment I'm thinking he has to have A-K or A-Q so either I have him crushed or we're splitting the pot. And I decide that if I go over the top now he's not pot committed and he can probably get away from the hand. I want him to bet again.
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| Turn is a very safe looking J. A dream card if I'm a little off and he has A-J but I'm still thinking A-K or A-Q are most likely. If the guy has a set at this point he's getting all of MY chips. He dutifully bets out about 1/4-1/3 of his stack. I know he's pot committed now, I go over the top all in.
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| He's seething. He can't believe his hand isn't good. He thinks and thinks and thinks, I'm sure the previous check-raise was still on his mind. He calls and flips over A-K. Got him!
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| 10 on the river.
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| I slammed my hand on the table, pretty hard. It's been a long time since I did that. It's about 13 hrs later I would guess and my hand is still tingling a little. So to this point playing at Aria I have been busted out by, in order, 4 outs once, 3 outs twice and 7 outs once (3 Ks and 4 10s).
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| I stormed over to the cage, bought back in and sat down at my new table. The thought that I might be on tilt did creep into my mind a little bit, but I was determined to play my game and I did settle down once I was in my seat with cards in my hands.
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| After that, it's all pretty much a blur. I finally caught some big hands and they held up. The two biggest hands of course gave me big sweats, I flopped a nut straight and made a small bet and had someone shove over the top w/ just top pair/no kicker but of course he caught a diamond draw on the turn, then later I had either trips or a set against top pair and again the guy caught a diamond draw on the turn. But I survived both of them.
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| Looking at my texts to Joann, we got down to 3 tables around 5 pm (that's when I got moved to Mike's table) and it didn't take long for six bustouts down to 24. They were paying 12 places. Under an hour later we were down to 18, 20 mins later we were two from the money. But then things slowed way down.
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| My table had two guys that were doing a lot of raising preflop at opposite sides of the table, so it was really hard to get into pots. But one of them raised out on my blind and I looked down at aces. Once again I fully intend to make this guy pay me off, and he did. Flop 9-9-5, he bet out and I shoved. This was tough for him, it was going to hurt if he lost to me. He thought a long time and finally made the call with 6-6. Aces held up, and I was in great shape. But we went hand-for-hand to get to the money and it took an hour and 20 minutes I would guess to finally eliminate the last two and burst the money bubble.
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| I ended up busting out 9th place, almost enough to cover my two buyins. I'm still trying to decide whether I should have made the call that crippled me. A-J suited, one of the three shortest stacks at the table and one of the other short stacks shoves. I could have gotten away, but i really thought it was correct to make the call given that I was going to lose 1/4 of my stack in blinds in two hands so I just don't see getting away from a big suited ace even with a raise in front of me. Well he had A-K and it held up.
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| So as I was getting out of my chair Paul appeared and we talked about what next. We talked about the 10pm at Caesars, Paul said he was probably going to call it a night but you never know. I was starving (all I had eaten was a coffee cake for breakfast and a small-ish panini sandwich at the Earl of Sandwich shop in Planet Hollywood) so I went to the 24 hr cafe in PH. Decided to go check out how big the crowd was at Caesar's, walk in the door and there's Paul already bought in. Should have known.
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| Well I won't drag this one out nearly as long. I caught some hands and had a good sized stack for most of the tournament while Paul was grinding away. At some point we had a hand where three of us (Paul, myself and another guy) saw a flop of 10h-5h-10c w/ me holding 10d, Ah. Monster, right?
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| Paul shoves. Other guy re-shoves! No chance I'm folding trip 10s.
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| Paul has Qh-Jh (flush draw), other guy has pocket Ks. Paul catches his flush and draws out. All my work pretty well shot at that point. I still have a stack I can work with, but I should have had more.
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| So that was not long before final table but only 27 buyins so only paying three places. Down to 5 or 6 players, I give Paul a little crap about raising out on my big blind. Then this hand comes up:
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| Folds around to Paul in SB, I'm in BB. Paul tells me that anyone else but me he's going to raise, I look down at J-5 off and check my option. Flop J-rag-rag and Paul bets out. I decide he's stealing and shove over the top. Paul flips over Q-J. OOOPS!
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| 5 on the turn. Paul was livid. I gleefully said "Justice!" That was wrong, felt a little bad about it...but he did suck out on me earlier. I apologized but Paul wasn't too thrilled with me at that moment...
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| Well to wrap this up I ended up busting out 3rd place, which was about 3.5 times my buyin. Back-to-Back cashes feels real good!
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| So tomorrow (later today?) if I get enough sleep it will be noon at Wynn followed by the 5pm HORSE tournament at MGM. I really don't want to miss HORSE, but 5pm is a long time to kill...I'm hoping Wynn will be a safe choice to allow me to finish up and get down to MGM in time. |
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