Vegas March 2014

Day 3 - Aria only once

Last Updated: 2014-03-14 02:48:44

Minor correction from yesterday. I said something about Aria doing 20 minute rounds so an hour of poker break to break. Make that 30 minute rounds, 90 minutes between breaks. 1:00 and 7:00 tournaments both.

Regular readers of this BLOG probably know by now that when I say I only played one poker tournament at Aria in a day rather than two there's a good chance it's information one might consider a bit of a spoiler...

Lunch at the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar's. Joann's favorite buffet now and I have to admit that I'm not too far behind her in that. On one hand, it is very pricey. But OTOH the food absolutely rivals Bellagio in terms of quality. And while don't know that it's possible for me to find a dessert that overtakes the soft serve ice cream at Bellagio, they do have one here that is a really, really close second.

If you've ever had chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven, you know it's one of the most delicious things known to man. Well...take that cookie dough, put it in a paper form with enough dough to leave you with a 3/4 to 1 inch thick cookie, bake it up and get one (or two...) straight out of the oven and start munching.

I was fairly full when I went for dessert, but if I could have gotten my hands on the entire cookie sheet of these little things she was plating up I would have walked off with it.

So on to Aria for the 1:00.

You would think 8-9 hours of poker would give me lots of material...not so much.

Card dead was an understatement.

Through 6 rounds I had exactly 3 pairs. Next best hand was A-J once. Suited connectors? What's a suited connector? I had nothing. I was at 8K after three rounds (from 10 to start), still at 8K after six rounds thanks to a double up with the 3rd of my three pairs (JJ I think). From this point on I'm fairly certain I never had more than 15 big blinds, probably never less than 8.

Late in level 9 I finally got the break I was patiently waiting for. UTG w/ QQ I limp in hoping for an over-the top, someone bites and raises out then has to call my all-in with A-K. I flop a Q and double up and go into the next break around 17K but blinds going up to 1000/2000/300. I was over 10BB for like 10 minutes for the first time in "forever" but the clock fixed that for me...

Then I got very lucky. I look down at A-J and raise out but not all-in. I get one caller. Flop A-Q-10 giving me top pair and a gutshot. All the chips go in and the caller had K-J...so I'm dead to 3 outs to chop and runners to win.

10 on the turn.

10 on the river.

FWIW I did have 4 outs to win and 3 to chop on the river so it's not the worst beat I ever put on anyone...but that did cripple them and again put me up over 10BB for a while and we were close to the money at that point (down to 20 paying 12).

I scored a short stack takeout with a better ace, we got to the money and I was still limping along when I finally got my biggest stack relative to blinds since very early in the tournament when I doubled with A-Q vs a pair (JJ I think).

Bottom line, I never really played a lot of poker. My only move most of the day was all-in, but I managed to pick my spots incredibly well and ended up taking 5th place, too late to buy into the 7:00. So after three tournaments, I'm probably one cash, even a small one, from being assured of no worse than a break-even trip and I've only played in three.

And two deep runs in three tries!

So tomorrow we're meeting one of our Boeing friends who years ago retired and moved out here at the sports bar-slash-restaurant that used to be ESPN zone here at NYNY and then it will be the 1:00 at Aria once again.