Vegas November 2019

Day 2 - WSOPC Seniors, close in 7pm

Last Updated: 2019-11-23 13:12:54

Senior's tournaments always start early so us old guys don't have to stay up too late so I only had time for Starbucks in the morning. I did get a 2 for 1 breakfast there ... sort of ...

I'm not a coffee guy, I drink hot tea. Since they're using their straight super-hot water to make the tea it takes about 40-45 minutes for it to cool off enough for me to drink it. Yeah, yeah I could put an ice cube in it, but usually I'm not in that much of a hurry. I want to catch up on news, I'm writing these entries, etc. But since I can't drink the tea for a while the last thing I want them to do is heat up whatever I'm getting to eat with it. By the time I'm ready to eat and drink my tea it's not only not warm any more, but the food gets dried, crusty, whatever from being heated and cooling off.

So they give me my tea only, I ask for my coffee cake and she says they're going to give it to me at the end of the counter after they heat it up. I tell her I don't want it heated up so she walks over, sticks one in a bag and hands it to me.

I go over to put some sugar in my tea and while I'm doing that I hear behind me "coffee cake for pete! coffee cake for pete!"

Now that they've heated up the coffee cake, if I go over and say I already got one it's going in the garbage. Can't set it aside until someone else orders one. So my options are let them throw it away or take it and eat it. Guess which way this one went...

On to Planet Hollywood.

Second hand in I had pocket 8s and won a smallish pot. That would be the only pot I'd win for quite a while. No cards, missed every flop on the hands I did play, couldn't steal anything.

It was so bad I had to fold two pair on the river. I only played 10-4 off because I was in the big blind and there was just a min-raise ahead of me with a couple of callers.

Flop 10-7-3, with a club and two spades. I lead out, one caller (maybe two? but I think one). Turn a 4 but also a second club. I make a 2/3 size pot bet, one caller. River a 6 of spades and he immediately leads out into me. Flush draw from the flop comes in, all kinds of straight draws come in...easy fold.

But it was the best hand I had going into the break, I'm sitting on 7100 from a 10k start.

Shortly after we get back again I'm big blind and call a small raise with A-7 suited 4 handed. Flop comes 6-A-A. Not bad!

I check, it checks around. Grrr.

Turn an ace. Hello! I check again, someone bets out half pot, I call. River another 6. She bets again, I raise a little over the minimum...and she folds a 6 face up. Grrr! She got counterfeited. Still, tho, I got something out of them.

Back around the table and now I'm on the button and call a raise with K-J of diamonds. Blinds I think were 200/300/300 and the raise was probably to 800.

Flop comes 10-3-8 two diamonds. Someone leads out for 1300, one caller ahead of me. I seriously think about getting it in right there with my flush draw and two overs but decide to just call.

Turn is an offsuit Queen. Same guy leads out for about 2000. Folds to me.

Flush draw, open ended straight draw, two overs assuming he paired the flop and not the queen. I'm all in. He calls.

As it turned out had I shoved the flop he was almost certainly calling. He had 9-8 of diamonds so middle pair and a flush draw and based on what I saw of him playing that would have been good enough for him.

Jack on the river gave me a better pair but gave him a straight. I'm crippled down to 900 chips.

FWIW the math was right, at that point I'm getting well better than 2-1 on my money and I was almost exactly a 2-1 dog. But there were a lot of hands in his range I would have been flipping against, he just happened to have one that took away several of my outs. I don't see how I can get away from my hand in that spot.

Quick bite for lunch, some catching up on things in the room (since I had about 6 hrs to kill) and on to the 7pm.

Biggest mistake of the day: I get to the poker room about 10 minutes before the tournament started. Instead of just buying in I decide to wander around Aria for 10 minutes. I find some more cool xmas decorations to send Joann a picture of, check out the Gelato case in case I'm hungry on a break and head over to buy in. 40 seconds before tournament starts, perfect right?

I'm alternate number 9. Usually they have 5 tables, tonight they only have four. I have to wait for 9 people to bust out at 4 tables...ugh.

Took about 90 minutes. Two people must have given up and gotten refunds because I was the 7th seated.

20K chips, 20 minute levels, first break is at the end of level 6 and I sit down early in level 5. In my first half hour I have two playable hands (if you consider K-8 suited playable because that was the second best one...but it was on the button so I stole some blinds) and go into the break at 18,600.

Only three rounds to the next break, in that hour tho I finally have a little run of cards.

People were raising big pre-flop at this table even at the larger blind numbers. We're at 400/800 and people are making it 3200+ to go, very unusual for out here. I get it for first couple to act but even in very late position there are a lot of big opens.

Early to act I look down at QQ and decide on 3000 to go and get 3-4 callers including a blind. The nice thing about these big opens is that when you actually have a good hand you don't look out of line getting a lot of chips in the pot.

Flop comes T-9-rag, blind quickly moves all in (shorter stack than me but not by a lot) and I can't get over the top fast enough with the rest of my stack.

He has J-T, QQ holds up! Win a couple more pots in short order and I'm up close to 40,000.

33,400 going into the break. Make that 33,000 because I can't even win a chip race with four black 100 value chips.

Two things apparently happened not long after I got seated. They emptied a cash table (while I was waiting I'm pretty sure they made a table a "must move" table because they had quite a waiting list for cash games but weren't backfilling that one) and the 11am tournament ended freeing up another table. They managed to get 67 entries (I was #43 with only 30 mins left in buyin period) paying 7 places and at this point I believe there were 31 players left.

A level and a half after the break the guy seated immediately to my right is under the gun and had gotten crippled down to 6500 a hand or two prior so he just sticks it all in while the dealer is dealing the hand. Smart given the big blind ante format, if you're going to shove with any two you want to do it before you have to pay the big blind and the ante to maximize your win if you win.

I look down at A-K off and go over the top for all of it. Action folds around to the big blind who is a really big stack and he doesn't take too much time to call. He only has K-Q, flop comes king high so even without the preflop shoves it was all going in anyway most likely, and A-K holds up!

20 left after that, I get to the next break at 65,000 after getting away with a couple of all-ins to steal blinds and preflop raises with two broadway card hands but also only get blinds and a small raise when I have AK and don't get any action there either.

In spite of the couple of double-ups I don't think I've ever been more than 2/3 of an average stack at any point since I sat down. I think average was around 100K with me sitting at 65K here for example. My last double up had gotten me to 56K, blinds knocked me down to about 40, then those three all ins got me back up above 65K.

And blinds are now 2000/4000/4000.

Less than half hour after the break we're down to 6 from the money, which means 13 players. Our table is the one with only 6. Blinds are coming around fast.

No action on an all-in with A-J.

Other table loses a player. Then another. 4 from the money.

We lose a player. 3 from the money but only 5 handed. I'm giving up 10K every 5 hands, I can only wait so long...

I pay blinds when people raise out and I don't see a card over 7 in the big or the small.

So I'm on the button. The two guys in the blinds are bigger stacks than me, but if either doubles me up they're suddenly the short stack. The two other guys not in blinds are very big stacks and have shown a clear pattern that they like to see flops, if they raise they're probably calling a shove and if they limp they're almost certainly folding to one.

First guy folds, second guy limps. I've got 8 big blinds left (~40k at 3000/5000/5000) and I go all in with 10-2. Gotta take a shot with a little dead money in the pot and hope I can get through the blinds...

Small blind wakes up with A-Q suited, goes over the top, I get no help, done 3 from the money.

Oh well.

It'll be the Aria 11am on Saturday.