Vegas June 2021

Day 10 - Aria part 2

Last Updated: 2021-06-20 11:40:19

Dunno what's worse, spending long amounts of time card dead and having to scratch my way to a shot at money or having some cards not too many of them work out...

Starbucks, pool, lunch at Eataly again and into the 1:00 daily at Aria. Bought in right around 1:30 again, this time instead of alternate 35 that was really alternate 20 I was alternate 5 who was really alternate 1 as they had already seated the first four.

But it still took a few minutes, sat down just before 2pm. First hand out of the gate a middle position player had raised out to about 1000 at 200/300/300 blinds and I call in late position with A-J offsuit. Big blind also called.

Flop comes Jack high, he leads out for 2000, I call, big blind goes away.

Turn is an ace. Guy leads into me again for 5000 now, I call with my two pair. River is a 7. I don't recall the whole board but there may have been a possibility of a straight. He leads out for 5000 again, I go all in, he snap calls and isn't thrilled to see my two pair. He had A-7 for a worse two pair.

First hand out of the gate a double-up!

Highlight of my tournament, unfortunately.

Give the same guy 7k right back when I start with A-8 offsuit, flop comes 8-high with two hearts. He immediately goes all-in, I snap call and he has just King Queen off. Running hearts gives him a flush. Of course...

Several hands later I'm in late position and raise out with A-10 suited, only the big blind calls. Flop comes A-4-5, he checks, I bet 2200, he check-raises me to 6100. I call the raise, turn is a jack, he goes all-in and I have to fold.

Nothing else worked out in those first 6 levels and I'm back down to 20,900 at the break.

Under 20k a little bit after the break, I'll have to check the push/fold chart on this one, an early to act player raises out with blinds now 400/800/800 and I'm just over 20 big blinds. I think 88 is right on the edge of an over-the-top all in and a fold in that spot, I opted to fold.

He gets one caller, eventually I get to see the hands when they chop the pot with just Q-J off after a jack-high flop. I would have gotten away with the shove, I doubt either one calls with just QJ off, but we are not results oriented so I just want to know if I was right or not to fold. I'm sure it's not a call with my stack at the time, and that definitely wouldn't have gone well for me anyway.

OK I did have one more highlight and it gave me a chance to do something I've been trying hard to be more conscious of. I look down at pocket queens, and if I get a flop I can work with I want to set up my bets to be able to make a callable all-in at the end and make sure I get a full double-up out of them.

Also, because I did not go all-in with those 8s when I now make a bet that isn't all-in it won't look suspicious.

Blinds still 400/800/800 I make it 2100 to go preflop and pick up one caller. I think the big blind.

Flop comes J-6-3, he checks, I bet 3500, call. Turn a 7, check, bet 6000, call. River a 5, not my favorite card but I'm not putting this guy on a 4 so my last 8300 goes in after he checks, he calls. I show my queens, he dejectedly shows me 10-10.

If I had made smaller bets to keep him around and had say 12k on the river he could have gotten away. But by sizing myself with reasonable bets on every street that 10s or some hand like A-J down to J-10 can easily call on every street and only leaving myself 8300 with about 25k already in the pot the guy was committed to calling me.

I was up to a little under 40k and a 50 big blind stack again, which was great. But I don't think I won another pot of any size for the rest of my tournament.

Couple orbits without being able to get into a pot, lose a chunk with A-10 suited when I flop all undercards and get check-raised on my c-bet and I'm a little under 30k now.

Raise out with Q-J suited late to act, big blind shoves, I fold plus the blinds I had recently paid takes me further down to 22k. We're at 500/1000/1000 and about to go up to 600/1200/1200. Not great.

All-in with A-10 off, steal blinds to earn another orbit at least.

In the small blind two people ahead of me limp and I call with K-6 offsuit. Big blind checks. Flop comes ace high monotone, all hearts. Heart check, yup, king of hearts.

I check, original limper makes it 4000. First limper folds, I can see the big blind is planning to fold so I think for a few seconds and go all-in with my nut flush draw. Original limper thinks and folds.

Power poker! That helped :-)

But, still, I'm only at 31,500 going into another break and blinds will be 1000/1500/1500 in my big blind when we restart.

We ended up with 93 players, one short of the Friday total, paying the same 13 places. 30 left after the break so 17 from the money.

Someone goes all in ahead of me and I look down at 99, I reluctantly fold, someone else calls him with 33. All-in has K-J and flops a king so I would have been crippled had I played.

Not long after that though I get all-in with K-Q, the guy who had doubled me up on the first hand (had later busted, rebought, sat at different table, got moved back to my table) woke up with A-Q. I did get a 9-9-10 flop for a gutshot for some more outs but no help and I was out in 30th.

We decide on Chinese food at Chin-Chin's at New York, New York for dinner. I look at OpenTable, lots of reservation slots available (including in about 5 minutes but we don't want to run) so we just walk over assuming we'll quickly get seated.

We get there at 5:55.

I ask for a table for 2.

"Do you have a reservation?"
"No"
"Well I'm sorry, but the earliest reservation I have is 9:00. We have about a 20 minute wait to sit at the bar"
"I just looked at OpenTable, it says you have lots of reservations available"
"Sorry, that's all I have"

Joann notes that there are 4-6 empty seats at the bar we'd have to wait 20 minutes for. We step away from the podium, I tell Joann to hold on a second. It's 5:58.

Bring up OpenTable, 6:15 (along with several spots between then and 9:00) is available for a reservation.

I tap the 6:15 button, tap confirm, I have a 6:15 reservation. Walk back up to the podium. She recognizes me...

"OK I have a reservation now"
"Name?"
"Clark"

Look of confusion on her face. Finds my reservation.

"OK, but you will have to wait to closer to your reservation time to be seated".

Stand around for 5-10 minutes, get seated, have dinner.

Moral of the story - it never hurts to check OpenTable when a hostess says there is nothing available :-)

I hadn't had Chin Chin's in a while, so long ago the place has been completely remodeled and rearranged since I was last there. But the food was as good as I remember, Joann hadn't had it before and now that she has it might be our go-to Chinese food after we weren't super impressed with LaLa noodle (and it was cheap!).

My Father's Day should be spent sitting at Aria for another daily tournament so there should be a BLOG tomorrow. Then I'm taking Monday off so Joann and I can go to the Mob Museum and Distillery tour with Heather and Glenn. Tuesday should be one last poker tournament before we head home on Wednesday but if it goes well I might not get to write up that last tournament until after we're home since we will leave fairly early Wednesday morning. We'll see.