John’s Jottings

For the second year in a row I arrived in Las vegas expecting to play in a WSOP event but failed to do so.  Last year I didn’t play in my planned event because the place was such a zoo, but Harrah’s made a lot of improvements this year so that wasn’t at all the problem.  The problem was that I played a $330 megastack event at Caesar’s on Friday and played so poorly (getting it all in with top pair-top kicker with 100BB) that I decided I would be just throwing my money away at the WSOP and I didn’t want to do that.  So instead I played another $330 on Saturday and played the best I could play.  End result?  Made it to day two of the event (meaning I both cashed and bagged chips for the first time in a major tournament) and ended up busting out 22nd out of 560 or so for a $809 win.  First place was $47k and I think the minimum at the final table was $3k so I was dissapointed, but I played the best I could so I am happy with that turn-around.

Some interesting hands over the few days I was there:

Late in the $330, we are in the money with a couple of hours to play to get to the end of day one and I have about 12BB when the average was about 20.  I am on the button with AJ, folds around to a woman in the cutoff who makes a standard 3BB raise.  I read it as a blind steal from late position and so I push.  A young aggressive kid with a big stack in the Big Blind then goes in the tank and ends up pushing all-in and then even worse for me the initial raiser called.  So I’m thinking I’m going to be in real bad shape but it turns out the kid had QQ and the woman had KK so I was actually not as bad as I thought, about a 28% favorite to win.  Had there been an AA or AK out there I would have only been about 10-12%, so I was very happy to see QQ and KK and no diamonds.  Although not as happy as I was when I saw an A on the flop and then another on the turn!  This was the only time I sucked out all tournament.  14 hours of play on Saturday and 1 hour on Sunday and I never saw AA in my own hand once.

Down to 22 people in the $330 and I’m sitting on about T120,000 with blinds T8,000/T16,000 with a T2,000 ante.  So less than 8 BBs and with the huge antes an M of only 3, which is square in the red zone.  I played three orbits on day two, the first time on my button I mucked T5 when it was folded around to me (blinds were 6/12 then and I had more chips) I pushed all in on a steal with an OK hand like K5 the second time around and this was third time.  Had 35.  The blinds had stacks of about T500,000, big but not so big that I thought they would make a super loose call. So I pushed and got called by AT.  Again, not as bad as you would think, I’m still about 38% to win and other than seeing A2 it was about as good as I could have expected to be.  A 3 was on the flop but so was a Ten and I couldn’t catch up - busting in 22nd.  Felt kind of stupid busting out with 35 but I think it was the right play given the blind levels and my chip stack. 

$2/$5 no-limit at the Rio.  I sit down and buy-in for the max, $500.  On my third hand I pick up KK in late position.  After a couple of limpers I raise to $30.  Kid with a big stack on the button re-raises to $90.  I re-re-raise to $270.  Oh oh, he instapushes for the fourth raise.  That pretty much always means Aces but with over half my stack in and no read on the guy I have to call and sure enough he shows AA and I’m felted within 5 minutes.  The good news is I buy back in for another $500 and by the end of the night I am up to $1,200 so I ended up making a couple hundo.

Same $2/$5 no-limit game.  This one I wasn’t in but it was the biggest suck-out I saw.  Can’t remember the action but the same kid who cracked my kings gets it all in after the flop with a bottom set of twos but he’s up against top set of Jacks.  River comes the case duece for the 1-outer huge pot.

My last poker of the trip was the $340 nightly at the Rio Sunday night.  We start with T5,000 with blinds T25/T50 with 30 minute levels.  Not as good structure as Caesar’s but not terrible.  Should be fun.  I start UTG and fold.  I get raised off my BB and SB.  On my fourth hand of the tournament I get 89 on the button and call an early position raise to see a flop of TJQ.  Not a play I would normally make but I wanted to see some flops with drawing hands to get some early chips.  Original raiser leads out with a T300 bet, I raise to T1,500 with my flopped straight and he pushes all-in.  He could easily have a flush draw here, or a set, or two pair, and I’m happy to gamble with any of those scenarios so I call.  Of course he shows AK for the flopped broadway straight and I bust out with the idiot end.  I don’t mind my play here though.

I ended up losing a little bit overall, but nonetheless a good trip.  I am thinking seriouslly about coming next year for a few more days and playing solely in the Megastack at Caesar’s.  Also, I stayed at Imperial Palace this time because I forgot to make a reservation until the last minute and I have to say I was pretty happy with the IP - in particular it’s close proximity to Caesar’s.

Looking forward to ‘09!