 Vegas October 2021 (WSOP) |
| Days 16 & 17 - 8/b at Aria, football |
| Last Updated: 2021-10-25 00:35:11 |
| What a rollercoaster of a day for me...
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| And I apologize in advance for the length ... but, wow...
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| Quick tea at Starbucks, then Patrick and Dyan made a reservation at "Nacho Daddy" for a full breakfast. There is more than one restaurant in town on Google maps so I'm assuming it's a local chain. I got my usual eggs over easy, which is pretty much what I get at almost every sit down restaurant for breakfast so I'm not the best person to ask how breakfast was. My eggs were properly cooked, the bacon was on the crispy side (which I prefer), the bread they used for my white toast was particularly soft. And the waitress was properly attentive to the table. Sorry, that's all I got...
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| It occurred to me after I sat down for the tournament at Aria that I was basically trying to "bookend" the trip. Started out playing Omaha 8/b in the first tournament I played in and had a nice cash. Omaha 8/b was also going to be my last tournament of the trip!
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| Could not have started out much better. First two hours (four levels) I won almost every pot I put significant chips in.
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| Blinds 200/300 with no ante for the first two levels. 300/600 limits. This is a "limit" tournament, you have no choice how much to bet or raise.
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| First hand I decide to play I've got 3345, which is one of those hands that can get you in trouble. Yes 4 wheel cards always look pretty, but you're often going to make lows that lose to better low hands.
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| For those that don't know, in "lowball" and "split pot" games the best possible low is "the wheel". Most of the time it refers to "A2345" where ace is usually the lowest card for low hands and straights don't count against you (Omaha 8/b, Stud 8/b, Razz, etc). In some games where straights do count as straights (and therefore are "bad" for being "low hand") 2-3-4-5-7 is "the wheel". Any card that is part of "the wheel" in your hand is therefore "a wheel card". For today A2345 are all "wheel cards".
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| Sometimes I can't help myself and I decide to call some limps preflop with that enticing but not really that great hand. Flop K-2-5 rainbow. Someone leads out for 300 and I call, everyone else folds. Turn is an ace. He bets, I raise, he calls. River is a 6, I have "nut/nut" (A2345 is the wheel, 23456 is the best possible high hand on that board, both using a 3 and the 4 from my hand), he checks, I bet, he calls. Scoop!
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| Most of the folks who read my BLOG know I watch a lot of poker streaming. It's a great way to listen to pros and learn a lot. One thing that stuck with me from a stream of a mixed tournament was that one pro was explaining that specifically in Limit Omaha 8/b, as opposed to pot-limit, just as in No-Limit Hold'Em you should be defending your big blinds with pretty much any hand that isn't complete trash because of the odds you're getting. So...
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| Shortly after that last hand I'm in the big blind I have 3-4-4-Q with the 3-4 of hearts. This is right on the edge of being total trash ... but what the hell I have a couple suited wheel cards. Under The Gun raises out, small blind calls, I call with my junky hand with a couple wheel cards...
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| Flop comes K-A-2 with A-2 of hearts. Flop a nut low draw and the worst possible flush draw ... and ...
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| I check, UTG bets, don't remember if small blind calls but I definitely call.
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| The turn is the 5 of hearts. That's called a steel wheel. I have a straight flush for high (which kinda wins most of the time, in this case there can't be a better one) and the nut low.
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| I bet, she folds, I show off my 3-4 of hearts. Couldn't help myself. But couldn't get paid...
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| Next hand I don't remember exactly the cards but I had two jacks and two low cards double suited. No ace so really a junky kind of hand also ... but in the small blind I call preflop and flop a flush draw and it checks around on the flop and a blank turn. River brings my flush, I lead out, he raises me(!), I make what I think is a crying call only to see him roll over two pair. Dunno what he was thinking there. No low for either of us, scoop again!
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| Keep winning half or all of a bunch of small-ish pots as my stack continues to grow. For example I catch trip kings only to lose the high to aces full ... but since there was an ace on the board their low was counterfeited and 2-5 in my hand was enough to take half.
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| Can win with junk, can't win with real hands. Raise out with A-3-6-K with a suited ace. I've learned that A-3 with the ace suited is definitely an opening raise hand, you can't just wait for aces or A-2 hands. Having a king to go with it is also a bonus, not super thrilled with the 6. Now ... if there are a bunch of limpers ahead of you or there's already a raise it's only a calling hand. In that case you have to worry about one or more A-2 hands already out there. But if you're first in, it's a raise 100%. Later to act with no action A-3 off is a raise too.
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| Anyway...
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| Flop comes 4-4-T, can't imagine a worse flop. It checks around, I go away when someone leads out on the 3 turn.
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| More junk. Flop top two with 9-T-J-2 in the big blind 3-handed, there is betting on every street and I'm just calling while the board runs out all low. At the end no straight, no flushes possible, my two pair good for high, they chop the low. Nice pot for me.
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| Next hand in the small blind flop broadway calling preflop with 2-T-J-K and hitting an A-J-Q rainbow flop. At the river no flush but the board does pair ... lucky me, no full houses show up and I scoop another one!
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| I message Joann that I'm only playing junk hands the rest of the way! :-)
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| Then the start of a crazy 45 minute run for me! Especially the last 10-15 minutes of it, which were just insane...
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| Just call with several limpers and I look down at an A-3-4-7 double suited. Because of the limpers I limp. Small blind calls, big blind makes it 800 to go (200/400 now, and BTW no ante) and everyone calls.
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| Flop comes 6-8-K rainbow, need to be careful because I only have a non-nut low draw and a non-nut gutshot straight draw. These are the kinds of hands that can drain your stack if you aren't careful, but there is now so much in the pot you're committed.
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| Big blind bets the flop, only UTG and I call.
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| Turn is a 9, I'm stuck now, BB bets, we both call.
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| River is an ace. Hmmmm. It checks around...
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| My ace with only a 7 kicker is the only ace in the hand. BB had raised out in a multi-way pot with just 2-3-something-something. Awful hand to raise out with. I take the high, BB takes the low, UTG is sad his 2-4 wasn't good for low (I was sad my 3-4 wasn't good for low, you expect in that spot the other two guys to show up with counterfeited A2/A3 hands like me but that my 3-4 would take it!).
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| You like those A-3 double suited type hands, but that's not how you expect to get half!
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| Then I get a little frisky. A-4-A-A. Yeah, you read that right. This isn't a good hand by any stretch. But, I've got a suited ace, if I have three of them it's hard for anyone else to have one and in theory you shouldn't be playing a hand in this game that doesn't contain an ace. UTG+2 calls, it folds to me so I pop it to 800. Naturally. What else to do with this hand...
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| Big blind calls, UTG+2 calls. Was hoping to get heads up :-)
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| Flop T-3-T. Checks to me, I lead out to see if anyone has a ten. Big blind folds, UTG+2 calls. Board runs out 5 turn and 7 river, I think we checked it down at that point. He actually caught runner runner straight with a really junky 3-4-6-7 hand while my A-4 was good for low. As if I should talk about playing junky hands :-) But seriously, the hand he played is a recipe for disaster type hand while mine at least had some logic behind playing it in the moment. :-)
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| Two aces, especially suited and especially with a couple low cards are much, much better than three aces.
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| A-A-6-7 two clubs and two spades on the button. I raise out and get two callers. Flop 3-A-7 no suits. I bet and get called by both on every street as the board runs out King-King for a full house. Amazingly nobody has a low, I scoop a nice pot!
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| Next hand I have J-3-4-5 with two hearts in the big blind. Flop 2-4-6 with two hearts. Flop the nuts again! I bet and get two callers on the flop, bet and one caller on a 2 turn, not a perfect card, but bet again on a 9 river with no raise into me and he calls again. 2-3-4-5-6 straight good for high, nobody caught a full house, and also good for low! Another scoop!!!
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| NEXT HAND!
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| I'm slightly distracted taking notes on the last hand in the small blind. I look around and see that there are two 1K chips out and assume they're just calls of the still 400 big blind so I call for another 200 with a lousy Q-T-8-5 with clubs and spades. But apparently the first 1k chip was a raise and the second one was a call so I'm in for another 400. Big blind calls.
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| Flop comes 9-Q-Q. Can't make it up. I bet the blank turn, I don't bet the blank river that doesn't give me a full house (will only get called if I'm beat kinda situation) and my trip queens are good for another scoop!
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| The original raiser had A-A-2-X. What a shitty runout for him!
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| I take my button off, in the cutoff seat with 8-T-J-Q hoping for a high only board I call a raise and we take a flop 5-handed. Flop 6-Q-T rainbow. I bet out, get three callers, 10 on the turn. Damn! I bet, I get THREE callers. River a 10. I bet, one caller, quads are good...
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| NEXT HAND!
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| In the hijack seat now. I raise out with a real hand, A-2-J-J with one suit, I think a few callers. Flop 3-5-J. Again, can't make it up. I lead out, two callers. Turn is a 2, not the card I wanted to see but I'm still going to pound at the pot. I bet, they fold.
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| NEXT HAND!!
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| Table was short players so I'm back in the big blind again. Either that or my notes are a hair off and I skipped two hands instead of just the button earlier. Regardless...
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| Just limpers so I get to see a flop with 3-9-9-J and two spades. Any raise at all and I'm out preflop.
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| Flop comes 4-7-J all spades. Checks around, I assume my flush is good on the ten turn and lead out, both call. River a 9, checks around, flush good for yet another scoop!
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| Finally take off two hands, then one more hand where I don't remember the details other than I flopped a nut low 3-handed, bet every street and got called every street and my nut low was good for half a pot. I go into the break with 65600 from my 25k starting stack.
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| What a run!!
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| About 15 minutes into the 5th round, first after the break, I finally lose a pot I put significant chips into. Someone raises and I reraise to 1800 with AA27 with clubs. Flop is Q-A-2 with two diamonds, I bet, get called, 3d on turn and Kd on the river and I pay off the crappy flush with no low.
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| The next two half hour levels were not nearly as kind to me. I had very few playable hands, the ones I had didn't work out.
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| Chopped a pot when I was check/calling a woman down as she was betting every street. Started with A-Q-T-6 with clubs, flop was A-K-T (so two pair and a gutshot), turn a 3, river another 10 ... but she had A-2-4-T with clubs. So she had the flush freeroll and a low to quarter me freeroll, I had the gutshot straight freeroll. But neither hit, same full house, chop it up.
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| I had dropped down around 53k. But in the last half hour level before the next break...
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| Blinds now up to 500/1000 with 1000/2000 limits.
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| I'm in a limped pot 4- or 5-handed with just A-5-9-K with clubs and spades. Flop comes 2-3-T with two clubs. Someone leads out, I call, one more caller, everyone else folds. Turn is a jack of clubs(!!!). Same guy leads out for 2000, I make it 4000, everyone folds.
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| About 10 minutes later I've got A-3-7-7 in, again, a 4- or 5-handed pot of limpers. Flop comes 2-4-6 so I have nut low and a gutshot straight draw. I bet every street, one guy calls me on every street ... and all he has is the same low, no pair at all, 77 good for high and I quarter him.
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| Quartering is a split-pot "thing" where one person wins all of one half the pot and then the two of them split the other half. One person has the high hand, they both have the same low hand or vice versa. In this case I get 3/4 of the pot, they only get 1/4 of the pot. The person who gets quartered loses chips in the hand, just not all the chips they bet. In heads up, the person effectively loses 1/2 of what they put in the pot. That would be mitigated a little by a 3rd (or more) person in the hand and the blinds, but again they only win 1/4 of what other people put in while in this case I wins 3/4 of it.
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| Few hands later A-3-4-9, one person raises, I call, big blind calls, see a flop of 3-A-Q. Checks to me, I bet, BB folds, original raiser calls. Turn another 3, full house, I bet, he folds. Easy game...
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| In the big blind I call a raise with 3-4-8-Q rainbow. Flop comes A-7-9. Original raiser bets, I call for one bet with 3rd nut low draw, other guy calls. Turn is a 2 giving me the nut low and a wheel draw. I lead out, they call. River is another 2, I lead, other guy calls, original raiser raises, I call, call. Nut low good, original raiser had 99 and two broadway cards. I don't see raising out with a "high only" hand preflop that doesn't have an ace, and I was freerolling big-time because if a 5 comes on the river I scoop a huge pot!
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| Still, tho, 84,500 at the break!
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| A-3-4-5 with spades and clubs so of course I raise out, get a flop of 2-8-9 with two spades! But the turn is a king, river is a 9, no more spades, miss everything. Argh!
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| Get that back tho with A-2-3-Q with two hearts, again 3-handed, flop J-8-K two hearts. I lead out with my draw, two callers, King of hearts on the turn! I get one caller on the turn, King of spades on the river and they fold to my river bet. 88500!!!
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| Unfortunately as high as I was feeling at that moment everything turned to crap after that last hand for a long time.
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| Flop an open ended straight draw and a flush draw on an all high board, miss everything.
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| Flop two pair, turn three pair ... river brings a low and a straight and I have neither. 56k.
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| Pay blinds, call a raise in a blind, nothing. 48,500.
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| I pick up A-3-4-5 three handed including a very short stack. Flop 2-3-J, I've got a full wheel "wrap". In NLH your straight draws are either 4 outs (gutshot) or 8 outs (open ended/double-gutshot). In Omaha games you can have as many as 20 outs to make a straight. These are called "wraps". In this case, any ace, 4, 5 or 6 all make me a straight for 13 outs, which isn't possible in Hold'Em. Plus I have the nut low if any of those cards or a 7 or 8 show up.
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| Short stack only has 1000 left, he bets it, I raise to get the 3rd person out of the hand and he obliges by folding.
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| Short stack has a jack and A-4 for low ... but the board runs out all high and he scoops. Ugh. 41,500.
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| Things turn around a little. In the big blind someone raises and I look down at A-2-5-9 (blinds now 1500/2500) with two diamonds. I probably should have raised, but I just called and a limper called the raise. Flop comes all diamonds, I bet, take it down.
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| Next hand in the small blind with A-A-4-6 with spades and clubs (seems to me I've said specifically "spades and clubs" a lot...) UTG+1 limps, I raise, big blind calls, UTG+1 calls. Flop J-4-9. I bet, big blind calls, turn and river are blanks and I think we checked it down ... my AA beats his pair of jacks. Back up to 60k.
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| Call a preflop raise with A-K-K-8 with A-K of spades. Flop 9-T-Q all spades, I bet, everyone folds. Literally only hand ahead of me was specifically J-8 of spades...
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| I chop a pot with A-Q-J-4 with clubs on a board of 7-8-9-T-K. Both had Q-J, I had a better low draw had a 2, 3, 5 or 6 come on the river.
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| But ... now 1500/3000 blinds 3000/6000 limits, with A-2-3-8 but no suits I call a preflop raise. After a 6-8-J flop the board runs out king, king, I miss my low. 55k.
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| 50k at the third break after losing blinds.
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| Sometimes it's the hands you don't play. Back to back hands I fold preflop with two queens and two "low but not great low" cards. In both cases I flop a queen, but on the first hand there was an all-heart flop and a bet and a raise (obvious flush) and on the second one I would have had a good second set, but the board ran out to give someone a straight and they were also low-drawing so they never would have folded to any bet. I avoided two hands that could have, probably would have, busted me.
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| Raise out with A-2-4-7 with spades, get called by one person. Naturally flop comes 2-T-J, about the worst possible flop for me. I inexplicably call a flop bet, turn gets checked around on a blank, river ace gets checked around but I'm out kicked by a better ace.
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| 30,000. Blinds 2000/4000 so not even 10 bigs.
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| Pick up A-2-8-10, I raise pre, get all my chips in eventually ... and get quartered on a board of 6-7-8-T-7 tied for nut low and someone had a straight, top 2-pair no good for me.
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| 26k. Not good.
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| Next hand I'm in the big blind, not helpful, I call a raise with A-K-Q-8. Not great but I'm desperate, need an all-high flop. Naturally the flop is all low but it included a 2 ... and my A-8 is good for low!! Chop it up, I get 1000 out of it, 27k.
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| Next hand a crappy 5-T-T-J in the small blind, folds to me, I call, big blind checks. Flop a flush, I bet, he folds.
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| 32k. It's something...
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| Button goes around the table and I'm in the big blind again and look down at A-2-8-8. I'm certainly committing to this hand, we're 4-handed.
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| Flop is K-8-5 with two hearts. Can't ask for a better flop, all my chips are going in one way or another...
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| Small blind bets the flop, UTG and I both call. I turn a full house with another 5, small blind leads again for 10k, I make it 20k with two behind. Small blind calls, other guy makes it 3 bets to put me all in. River a 6, I scoop the main pot. 53k (I had called a bet and folded after getting up to 32k).
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| At this point we are 19 players from money.
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| Defend my big blind with 3345 to a raise, whiff the flop, give up. 38k.
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| Now 13 from money...
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| A-3-6-T I raise out, one caller. Flop 2-J-Q. I call a flop bet with just a gutshot and runner-runner low, turn is a J, I give up. Now just 17k. Not good...
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| UTG makes it 12,000 to go at 3000/6000 blinds, I go all in for 17k with A-6-6-9 with diamonds and clubs. UTG had AAA5, I flop a straight, turn a flush and scoop the pot!!! 43K!
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| 11 from the money!
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| 10!
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| I'm about to be in the big blind when my table breaks because we're 10 from money. 27 left, 17 get paid, 9 players at a table. And I get moved to right behind the button so I get almost a full orbit free!
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| Someone at my new table busts, 9 from money...
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| I'm in the big blind with A-J-10-10. UTG and UTG+1 limp.
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| Flop comes A-Q-K with two diamonds. I flop the nuts 3-handed while on life support. YES!!!
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| I lead out, both call.
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| Turn a 2 of spades, I put my last 11k in the pot. Both call.
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| Jack of diamonds on the river. UTG has A-2-3-4 with A-2 of diamonds. Had nothing but a flush draw and called flop and turn bets. UTG+1 had just A-Q for not even top two pair.
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| Done. 9 from the money.
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| Brutal...
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| I probably said a bad word...
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| As I'm typing this up I'm over it. In fact, we went and had dinner and a couple of drinks and gelato right after I busted and I was over it. But at the time ... and while we were walking to get dinner ... fucking brutal.
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| I had such a good run for the first 4 hours, when things went bad I scratched and crawled my way to where I had a triple-up in my grasp that would have certainly propelled me into the money ... ripped away.
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| That's poker, folks.
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| For Sunday there was no poker planned. I'm typing this up having spent about 5.5 hours at Tom's Urban with Joann, Glenn and Heather watching the Packers win and cover the spread for us so we broke even when the shitty Dolphins couldn't stop the Falcons at the end to win us a parlay. Oh and we watched the Eagles lose, which was part of the parlay (I'm an Eagles fan through and through ... but when money is on the line I know a "lock" when I see one and the Raiders over the Eagles at home was a "lock"). Actually gave up on the Eagles late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter and called it a day.
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| Folks I try really hard not to get into things like this is my BLOG, but I did want to relate one final story.
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| We know from past experience that Tom's Urban pools tips. Once before we got exceptional, well "above and beyond" service from one person on a day we had otherwise shitty, terrible, awful, etc service (see June trip BLOG). So we made a point of slipping that person a few extra bucks on top of what we put on the check for the pool.
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| On this particular day we had absolutely exceptional service from a fun waitress who went out of her way to handle any minor issue we might have had. We were there from 9:45 until probably 3pm as I think about it, taking up a table but definitely ordering food and drink the whole time.
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| So I want to slip her a few extra bucks, and when she comes over and we talk about splitting the checks (which meant on really long checks ... 5 hours, people!) I signal I want to talk to her so she leans over and I say something like:
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| "Look, I know you pool tips here. I'm going to add in a tip, but I'm also going to put a little cash under the check when I give it to you, and I'm going to make sure I hand it to you. You can do whatever you want with that."
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| Her response was: "I know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna buy food with it".
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| It's pretty rare that something touches my heart, but that did. And I have little doubt it was an absolutely genuine statement just because of how naturally it came out of her mouth. I doubled what I was going to stick under the check, and after telling Glenn about what she had said to me I later found out he threw some money underneath his check too.
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| Sunday isn't over, but I'm done blogging for this trip. Joann is taking her post-bottomless-mimosa nap (just woke up as I'm writing this paragraph) and we had talked about maybe one last late run to the outlets. You'll have to live with that mystery :-)
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| We have a notional plan for next June at the WSOP. I will be playing two days of poker out here in January (assuming Aria is running their dailies) when I come out here for a TOOL concert, but I don't know if I'll do a short BLOG about that or not.
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| I've spent a ton of money on rare whisky, I had a really deep run in a WSOP event. I put myself in a position to cash several times, just didn't work out the rest of them. This last one was a particularly tough exit but all you can do is put yourself in position and hope it works out. Next time hopefully it will!
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| Thanks as always for reading! See you in June for sure, maybe in January. |
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