Vegas June 2013 (WSOP)

Day 2 - Nugget, Aria

Last Updated: 2013-06-02 12:19:47

Not a lot of poker to talk about, but a good dinner buffet!

Since we weren't up late the night before we didn't sleep in and had way too much time to kill in the morning. I was worried that with it being day one of the Golden Nugget tournament series they would be packed so I wanted to get there a little extra early...and of course no such crowds and so more time to kill.

Tournament didn't go so great. 40 minute rounds, break every 3 rounds, Stud 8/b and Omaha 8/b changing games every 8 hands. I was up some at the first break playing very few hands but winning most of the ones I played.

2 of the other 7 players at the table were decent players, 3 were atrocious and two were just not very good. And now that I think about it, hands I can take in stride, but sitting at a table full of awful players and never getting cards is probably the time I get the most frustrated. I might have been a little on tilt over it, I'll have to ponder that...

So I'm in the 1 seat. 2 and 3 have a clue. 4 seat and 8 seat (we're 8 handed) both had a severe flaw - when either one of them had half the pot absolutely guaranteed but didn't have a decent hand on the other half they would check 100% of the time.

Here's a perfect example. In one hand when these two knuckleheads were in a pot together, the 8 seat had (it turned out) both a made low and a gutshot straight draw on 6th street. The 3 seat was checking with 3 face cards showing.

So think about that. There is absolutely no chance that any bet the 8 seat makes won't be coming right back to him, and he has a chance to make a straight and possibly take the whole pot. And, faced with a bet maybe, just maybe, had the 8 seat bet perhaps the 3 seat realizes the other person is free-rolling her and is going to have to pay two bets which can only result in her losing the whole pot or at best getting nothing more than her own chips back and folds. AWFUL!!!

So what happens? They check the last two cards down and end up chopping the pot when the 3 seat has nothing more than ONE PAIR and the 8 seat had all low cards and either one small pair or no pair.

Then there's the 5 seat. OMFG. Older gentleman, and once he was in a hand he never bet, almost never folded. The absolute worst kind of player. Had he outlasted me I would have had to reconsider playing poker. I don't think he raised more than twice in 5 hours of poker. Like the other two geniuses if he had half locked up but little or no chance at the other half he would just check it down. And he would just call you down with literally any pair or any low even a bad one. Only time he would fold was when he couldn't beat the board.

But, apparently, I was the only person at the table who understood what was going on and other people would incessantly try and represent hands they didn't actually have. And guess what would happen...old dude would call them down and get at least half every time. Even the two guys that otherwise had a clue about how to play the games.

After the first break tho it went downhill for me. I got quartered twice when the idiots that got quartered with me each made mind bogglingly dumb bets that resulted in the "quartering" being worse than it should have been.

Here's tip...whenever there are three or more people in a pot in a split pot game; the best you can possibly do is win the low half of the pot; and everyone else in the hand has shown no sign they're gonna fold to a bet...DO NOT BET.

Sigh.

After that I started to get impatient, played a couple of hands I would normally just get rid of and they both cost me. The worst was second nut straight, second nut low, lost both ends to the nut straight and the nut low. Then card dead for a while, got all in twice with monsters at one end and decent hands at the other end but still chopped them both and eventually had to take a stand and busted when it didn't work out.

I'm happy with 98% of my play, I think I played mostly perfect poker except when I got a little impatient. I cannot let that happen on Sunday!

So then it was on to the "rebuilt" Aria Buffet. They had closed down for at least a couple of months to remodel and had a grand reopening.

I dunno, it looked oddly the same to me. A few minor changes to the layout and mostly the same food. Can't understand why they had to close for more than a week.

But having said that, very good buffet. I got a definite treat, they had an excellent Manhattan clam chowder. Hardly anyone makes manhattan style and I don't do anything "cream of". The food was very good, had better be for the price. I would definitely eat there again.

Probably the most variety at the meat carving stations I've ever seen. Two kinds of lamb, prime rib, turkey, 3-4 kinds of BBQ and I think at one more I'm forgetting. Salad area is set up in a buffet style, but someone is stationed there to make it and toss it for you.

So then on to the Aria 7:00 tournament and I thought I was going to make it. Only one hand really stands out, pocket 10s, I raise out, get two very loose callers. Flop A-9-6 rainbow, we check around. Turn an 8 so I have a gutshot and still 2nd pair. Check, check, one loose guy makes a sizeable bet, other one folds, I decide my tens are probably good and I've now got a gutshot. River another A, I check again, he bets, I call, he has no pair and mucks. I don't have to, but I show him the 10s to let him know I'm willing to make those calls.

Well that turned out to be brilliant, several hands later he and I got into it preflop again with me having only a pair of 3s. This time, tho, he checked it all the way down post-flop and my 3s held up. Anyone else at the table he would have been stealing but not me. I love it when a plan comes together.

Well just to wrap this up, I ended up getting up to about 23K in chips from a 10K start, but then went card dead, lost a chunk on a bluff, card dead again, ended up shoving my last 10K with pocket 8s and blinds about to be 1600/800 w/ a 200 ante and ran into pocket 10s (and he flopped top set). Busted out 39 or 40 out of 141 with 15 paying. Close but no cigar.

Oh well.

So Sunday I will be at Amazon Orange table 377 seat 1 at 5:00PM local time. Unfortunately I couldn't get much farther from the rail so Joann won't be able to be anywhere near me, and with it being a mostly limit tournament it's pretty unlikely that my table will get broken up at any point in day 1. But you never know!