 Vegas June 2018 (WSOP) |
| Day 4 - Aria, Aria |
| Last Updated: 2018-06-12 12:01:43 |
| Let me start with an addendum to Day 3, since I left out one interesting story.
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| I'm walking over to my seat in the 7pm and there's a guy sitting in the 6 seat and I think to myself "wow that guy looks a lot like Will Kassouf!" Well, turns out there's a good reason...because in fact it was Mr Kassouf in the six seat. If you don't know who he is you probably don't watch a lot of poker on TV. You can click on the link to see what the big deal was, but what I will say is that poker is changing because of him. He wasn't the only guy who stalled...there were many of them. But he was the guy who did it on national TV for everyone to see and got the conversation seriously going.
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| "Shot clocks" are getting more and more prevalent in poker, and he's the reason. I think Jack Effel is one of the greatest tournament directors in poker, but I agree with Matt Savage that Kassouf wasn't penalized enough for his table talk that often crossed the lines you aren't supposed to cross. That said...
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| FWIW he was a pleasure to play with for the 45 or so minutes he lasted. He was nice to everyone, played along with people quoting him etc. He did let out a brief moment where he talked about the fact that he can't set foot into a poker room without people coming up to him so I'm sure like anyone there is a part of celebrity that isn't all it's cracked up to be...but as I said he was friendly and courteous while he played with us.
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| On to Monday...
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| Dave got us into the special Sky Suites pool area again, but that might be the end of that as Joann got a little color of the kind she wasn't hoping for and needs a day off from the sun on Dave's last day. Quick shower and into the 11am Dave and I went.
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| Not great. Broken record time. Didn't get first pocket pair until 50 minutes into the tournament, 22. Raised out, got called, no set. Next hand 55, called a limp, a few limpers, no set, done with hand. A hand or two later AA.
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| 100/200/0, he makes it 500 or 600, caller or two, I repop to 1500-1700, we take a flop heads-up.
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| A-K-J two spades. Bet, raise, shove, call. He has K-J. I had been down around 16000 from my 20K starting stack, I double-up. 33500 end of level 2 (30 min levels).
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| Whole lot of nothing next two levels, into the first break at 31600. No pairs, no AK/AQ, no suited connectors/one-gappers...
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| And it didn't help that there was a guy in the 5-seat who played 100% of hands preflop, calling any raise and calling literally any c-bet on any flop. I had played with him briefly in the 7pm the night before when he had come to our table with a pretty big stack and proceeded to give it all away bitching about it all the while.
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| As long as he was around it was literally impossible to steal a pot, I could only win a pot with the best hand. And it went exactly how it always goes for a guy like that. Either they go home quickly or they win some big pots with borderline hands and build a huge stack that they inevitably blow. For him it was the latter path, I think he was gone just before or just after that first break.
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| Well over an hour of playing time since the AA hand several people limp into the pot and I look down at QQ, my first pair in all that time. Blinds now 200/400/400. I make it 2000 to go and the woman who had recently sat down in the 5-seat calls. I've played with her many times before, I know exactly how she plays. She will not fold any ace preflop...
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| Flop comes A-high, I have to check, she shoves, I'm done with the hand.
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| From that point on can't get much to work with, can't hit a flop. About every pot I won rest of tournament was a c-bet with air, my stack is going in the wrong direction. Finally I get into a pot cheap with K-7 off (not great when you don't play a lot of hands and K-7 is as good as you can do) and flop two pair on a K-J-7 board. All the chips go in, he has Q-T...9 on the turn and I'm under 10 big blinds. Later shove with K-J, run into JJ, done.
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| Last thing I'll say is this: I might be overstating a little, but only a little. I did hit a flop or two but not much more than that. But the "spidey sense" was working, every time I did catch something and make a laydown and got to see what I was up against I was right. So as frustrating as it was, I did not lose patience and make bad decisions out of that frustration. At least there's that...
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| Bad as it was for me, worse for Dave. He had to rebuy and his second table didn't go a whole lot better for him.
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| Very late lunch at the buffet at Aria, went up to the room for a little while, took an hour long nap and then met Dave to buy into the 7pm.
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| We had some time to kill so Dave went over to play a little craps. Hit not one, not two, but THREE "sucker bets" paying a combined 210 for 3 (30 for 1, 30 for 1, 150 for 1). He well more than covered his poker losses...good for him!
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| The good news is I had a a lot more playable hands in the 7pm. The bad news is not many of them worked out for me. Work my way down to 14500 after the first hour, then drop another 4K when I catch QQ and have to go away when I get check-raised on a 7-8-9 two-suit flop. Am I supposed to just go broke there?
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| Dave IMs me that there's some guy at his table who is playing 100% of hands and bitching every time he loses. I look over to the table and guess who it is...see above!
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| Not much later flop a set with JJ and get back up to starting stack. Make a really thin value bet with third pair (K-9 on a Q-J-9-rag-rag board after a 9-high flop, must have had 88 or 77 or something like that) and get paid, up to 25K...but give a few back with AK, lose 6K more when I raised out with 44, led out on a 333 board...and have to give up to an over-the-top shove (he later told me he had JJ).
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| Get to where I'm around 10BB, blinds about to go up, shove late to act with Q-8 hoping just to steal some blinds...and run into AA. Done.
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| Pizza for late meal and up to the room.
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| I've decided I don't want to play in anything Wednesday with an 11am bracelet event on my agenda on Thursday so I'm going to play the 11am at Aria Tuesday, if things don't go well then the 7pm also. Wednesday will be nothing but hanging out and shopping. Might be time for our liquor run, but don't worry Patrick we'll take you over the weekend. You won't have to twist our arms to go back!
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| I'm badly overdue for a deep run, hopefully Tuesday will be the day. |
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