ITH Poker Forum

[chrisjp]

Wow, Day 1C seems like a million years ago. I wanted to write up a TR on it before Day 2. But I thought it best to relax. Now after playing Day 2A and getting sick…well some recollections will fall through the cracks. Sorry about that.

I draw Pavilion room. It is the secondary room for the Main Event and we will be breaking into the Amazon room. I like the Pavilion better than Amazon. It is more spacious and there aren’t as many railbirds. The TV tables are all in Amazon so much more of the onlookers are over there. I’m in Seat 6. Don’t like being in the middle of the table but it’s no big deal. The important thing are the quality of opponents at my table. Four of them arrive late. That is not good. I want everyone to be there early like me…more likely to be lightweights. The table eventually fills and I like it pretty much. Some good players of course but nobody outstanding. Seat 1 might be really good. I can’t tell. Seats 4 and 5 are weak tightish. Seat 7 looks like a solid 2+2er but fairly predictable. Seat 8 owns a bar on the strip by Aria. Wow, he can’t be that good. Seat 9 is an Asian guy who looks like he might be good. Seat 10 is vacant at every table and will be filled by late registrants.

A huge crowd of onlookers is surrounding a table behind me. Wonder who is over there. I get up and take a peek. Tom Dwan....durrrr himself. Bust him you guys.

Off we go. I don’t play anything of note for a while. A big hand comes up early. Seat 7 raises UTG and Seat 9 thinks about reraising, my read, but calls. Seat 1 then 3-bets. Folds back to Seat 7 who calls. Then Seat 9 4-bets. Then Seat 1 5-bets! He doesn’t raise it as much as you would normally expect, but still this pot is getting huge. We start with 30K chips and we are playing 50-100. Seat 7 folds this time around and Seat 9 thinks and calls.

Flop: check, check
Turn: Seat 9 comes out betting 3K into a 12K pot or so. Seat 1 calls.
River: Seat 9 now bets 11K.

Seat 1 is in agony and goes into the tank. Seat 1 will have about 12K left if he calls and loses. Same as Seat 9 will have remaining. He took about 12 minutes. I know because I was staring right at the tournament talk. Seat 1 wants to “talk” to get info. I figure he is the better player and tell the dealer to tell them that they can get a penalty. During this Seat 9 makes a comment which I considered valuable. “Look I have to call you if you raise I only have 12K left.” This makes me think he is weak. The guy in Seat 1 is a nice guy and apologizes twice for taking so long. No one puts any pressure on him to make a decision. Finally he calls.

Seat 9: TT
Seat 1: KK

Later, long after Seat 9 busts, Seat 1 brings up this situation. "One of the reasons I called was that comment about only having 12K left so he would have to call." OK he's thinking like me.

Seat 9 ends up being way too loose and clueless. He is more than ready to donk off all his chips and I hope I can get some. Luckily he sucks out against Seat 2 and doubles up shortly thereafter. He calms down, but still plays terribly.

Raise from Seat 1, call from Seat 2, and I reraise from the blinds with KK. They both fold quickly. Good, I hate KK this deep even though it is obviously a great holding. I get AA twice in the first two hours and win the blinds. That’s OK. I move up to about 34K.

I have AQo in late position. Seat 9, the Asian guy, limps. Folds to Seat 3 who 3-bets. I know he can be weak and trying to isolate the Asian. Anyway I know if I 4-bet then Seat 3 will tell me whether he has the goods or not. I 4-bet. Asian folds and Seat 3, somewhat surprisingly, just calls. That looks like a pair to me, like QQ-88. Maybe AK. Flop is three small cards. He checks, I check. Turn is a blank. He checks, I check. River is an Ace. He checks, I check. I didn’t really consider betting here and think it is wrong to bet. Maybe not. If the river had been a queen I would have bet. But it’s too likely the Ace hit me and he’s not folding AK but will likely fold a pair.

He shows TT. That’s nice. He let me get there. I’ll take it.

Seat 10 arrives. He seems good, and eventually he tells us he was a double bracelet winner in 2009. One at WSOP and one in Europe. Well he’s very good, but nothing outstanding IMO.

I drift down from close to 40K to slightly under the starting stack. Then an interesting hand.
Seat 4 raises and I call with . Seat 9 calls behind.

Flop:
Seat 4 checks and I bet. Seat 9 calls and Seat 4 folds.

Turn:
Great card, what to do. I bet again. My bet is such that Seat 9s stack can be at risk on the river. A normal bet of like 2/3 of the pot. Seat 9 folds.

This was a bad play by me. I’d already seen Seat 9 take the lead and bluff when checked to. This was a perfect time to rope a dope. Check/call his likely bet. Check/call the river. Anyway lesson learned. I was kicking myself a bit. The Main Event is about Rope-a-Dope Day 1. Let them donk off to you when the stacks are so deep.

I end Level 1 with about 34K. I meet up with Hazey and Matthew and we all have about the same IIRC.

On to Level 2. 100/200 now. Still super deep. People are taking chips from Seat 9 and it’s time to get my share.

Seat 9 limps utg, there are other limpers and I limp on the button with .

Flop:

Seat 9 comes out betting and it folds to me. I call. No raising Chris, lesson learned.

Turn: .

Seat 9 has like 5100 left behind and bets 4K. OK now you can put him in. I raise and he calls of course. He shows:

He misses his 8-outer and I shake his hand. My first “kill” of the tournament. Hope it’s the first of many.

Seat 5, UTG raises. I have . I hate this situation almost 200BBs deep. I don’t want to build a pot yet, but I want to iso too. Anyway, I err on the side of caution and just call. Actually I am quite sure in this tournament that this is correct. If I were in late positon I would raise probably, but no way here. Wonderful. All these other callers and there is 6 to the flop.

Flop:

UTG checks and I bet. Seat 7 to my immediate left, calls. He’s the calculating player. What can he have? Well there’s only two hands. A flush or a set. That’s it. Everyone else folds.

Turn:

Bingo! But what to do. This pot is already pretty big. My bet looks very strong on the flop, but can I get him to do something rash by checking here? I look so nitty. I go into the tank. It’s just a Hollywood tank. Who tanks here with the nut flush? You have to bet to make him pay to draw to his set. Finally I check. He checks behind.

River:

I bet after 15 seconds of thought 5050. I remember the green chips rolling around on the table. He goes into the tank. And thinks. And thinks. And finally folds.

For the next 30 minutes he bugs me for info. He’s convinced he made a bad fold. Now he isn’t. Now he is. I don’t tell him I won’t tell him. I say nothing. “You had a set.” “You had AhTx.” “You had QJs.” Actually I think I could have played QJs this way. Certainly not AhKc. “You had a set of 2s. I know you did.”" You went into the tank....you couldn't have the nut flush." “Damn I should have called.” Finally about an hour later I say, “OK, I’m not going to tell you what I had. I never tell anyone. If you want to give me your e-mail address I’ll send it to you after the Series.” No one has ever taken me up on my offer.

Yanks and I discussed this one a bit. I should bet the turn. I’m only going to get one bet out of him so get it on the turn. I don’t have to call the river if the board pairs depending upon his bet size. I thought I could suck him in this way and get paid more, but it’s not right. My plan was to make a blocking river bet, much smaller than 5K, and only lose that much if the board paired on the river. Anyway….interesting hand nonetheless.

I’m up to 44K and loving life so far. Many have more chips than I around the room but that’s of no consequence to me at this time. I have one of the bigger stacks at my table.

More later,

Chris

[PauliF]

oh mate it makes me so sad to know that this doesnt end in a mega deep run

gonna miss these TRs...

[chrisjp]

There is a promotion during the ME by Jack Links, the beef jerky people. If you get 4 Jacks then you get a goody bag from them. Last year it was more than a goody bag. It was a huge amount of jerky. Yanks won it and then they never sent it to him. I will not be so kind and let it slide if I should be so fortunate.

Attempt #1. I am dealt in MP and raise it up. The player two to my left calls.

Flop: '
Scary flop and it's likely that if I check the villain will bet anyway, so let him bet. I check, he bets, I call.

Turn:
What a beauty! I check, call again.

River:
This is a bad card. It's not threatening my hand, but it's a cooler card. I feel I have no choice but to bet. I put in a 1/3 pot size bet, like I'm trying to make a blocking bet. The villain quickly folds. I'm not complaining.

I bounce around a bit. The first level I was quite active. Not so much this one. I make a c-bet on a hand against a player two or three to my right. I whiffed flop and turn. I check behind on the turn. He bets the river and I fold. Standard.

I am at a table that is going eventually going to break but not until after dinner. But first we have to get down to nine-handed play from ten-handed. I didn't know they had an actual system of doing this, but I realize that they do. They are making the tables nine handed in my section from high to low, meaning high table numbers to low table numbers. They pull off the table the next person to be the BB. I can see that our table is going to be "hit" soon, and I don't want to move. But that darn BB is coming my way and there's nothing I can do about it but hope it gets past me. Just hoping I sneak past..but I don't. I'm the one moving. I figure I'm moving to a table with 8 players. Nope, I move a couple of rows to Table 79. But I'm moved to a ten-handed table that has just lost a player. Yuck. Now this table will be reduced to nine in less than 30 minutes. I have to go through this again.

My new table is still decent. I'm in Seat 5 again. A big stack who looks like a good player sits in Seat 9. A young player who looks really good is in Seat 2. Middle Eastern guy, spewy looking, in Seat 1. Asian guy, very loose, in Seat 10. Two young guys to my left in Seats 6 and 8. But both end up being pretty unsophisticated. Great! Older gentleman in Seat 4. Distinguished looking and has a lot of chips. Wonder how good he is. He should be out on the Golf Course. If I bust him soon he might be able to get in Nine Holes.

Seat 1 and Seat 2 tangle. On the flop Seat 2 hits a set and Seat 1 is all in. But...Seat 1 actually has a straight flush draw, and he hits it on the river. Very nice. It turns out that while Seat 1 is erratic, he is pretty tricky too. Got to watch out for him.

I posted this comment back in the 1D thread but I'll repeat it here because it was important. The player in Seat 2 is really good. The player in Seat 3 is really bad. A very nice guy but very bad player. Our table is going to be made 9-handed soon and the button is in a precarious position. Seat 1 is in the BB. If this hand goes quickly then the button will move and Seat 3 will be gone. But if this hand takes a while then we will rid ourselves of that pain in Seat 2. Time for "The Stall". The cards are dealt and it folds to me. I am deliberating. What about? Well not my cards. Contemplating about whether to bet or not with 73o is not wise, not in middle position. But. If I can just get this hand to last a bit longer. Yes! The floorman is here and I know why. He's going to take Seat 2 away. There's only one way this cannot occur. And that is if one of our players busts out this hand. Then the Angel of Movement will pass over our table. Now I can fold. The hand actually gets played so I didn't have to worry. No one busts, and it's cya Seat 2. Good luck! This was huge +EV and more important than winning a moderate pot I'm quite sure.

I play a hand against Seat 3 and pick up some chips. This guy is really crazy. He pushes 50BBs after a raise in front of him and shows AA. Stuff like that.

I get a lot of suited connectors during the next hour or two, but they never hit. The Asian guy in Seat 9 is really loose. He's paying more attention to his baseball bets than the game. When he is in the BB you can NOT get him to fold preflop. I raise with T9s in MP and he calls in the BB. I miss and he calls my c-bet, so he has something. I check behind on the turn. He bets and I fold the river. My stack is melting. Not badly but I'm going the wrong way. Player on my left is getting pretty low. He has about 25BBs. I raise in the CO with, yes, . He's thinking. This could be real good. He reraises. Wow. The stacks are such that just flatting here is advisable. Flop is some garbage. I check, he bets, and now I put him all in with a normal size raise. He doesn't think about it at all and just mucks. Well guess I got all I could. We are now at the dinner break after the end of Level 3. We have played 6 hours. Coming back we will play one more full level, a break, and then another hour before bagging up.

I take Matthew, Hazey, and Mrs. H, over to Quiznos and we get a bit of freedom from the other players. We'll just have to put a bunch of them out of their misery after dinner. I have 34K as we head back. Time to chip up a bit, or even more.

Not much takes place at this table the next two hours. I bounced between 28K and 45K but nothing really eventful. Seat 8 raises in the CO and the Asian guy 3-bets. Seat 8 puts him in and Asian calls. Seat 8=AA Asian=KQo. No fair. Asian is gone and I didn’t get one of his chips. Another player says, “He’s not concerned. He could buy the Rio. Those baseball bets he was making. They were for $100K a piece.” No wonder he wasn’t that interested in the ME. Must be nice.

I raise in MP with 77. A new Seat 9, and he looks like a poor player, calls and so does the bad player in Seat 3.

Flop: QT9. Checked around
Turn: x Checked around
River 8. Seat 3 comes out betting, I fold, and Seat 9 raises. Seat 3 doesn’t think too long and calls.

Seat 3: AJ
Seat 9: 76s

Wow, nice river raise there by Seat 9 after he hit the gutshot. He’s a keeper.

I finally played a hand against Seat 4, the older gentlemen. We talked a bit during a previous break. We are probably the same age; he’s an attorney who represents attorneys who get in trouble. We laugh about that. He raises and I call. He c-bets and I call. He checks the turn and I bet and he folds. Just like clockwork. Do the hands even matter?

We are approaching the end of Level 4 and the tables have been breaking in our section. Only one other table will break before we do. I know what happens at the 20-minute break. Usually when we return they have "caught up" on the bustouts and there are usually two tables that immediately break. I am in the BB as the clock is ticking down toward the end of Level 4. Seat 8 raises and it folds to me. Well I'd rather have a random seat assignment than the SB the first hand back. So I sit there looking at my J2s. Only takes a couple of minutes. Break time. I contemplate 15 more seconds and then muck.

We come back from break and sure enough. We are told to bag up and we are moving into the Amazon Room for the final hour of Day 1 play. I have 35K. We will see what damage I can do in the last hour. Hate going to a new table though. Have to start over on the reads.

We get to march through the secret back connecting entrance between the Pavilion Room and the Amazon room. I see the dealer break area, and the makeshift cocktail station. As we file into the Amazon room the 18 of us are each given a card with our new table assignment on it. I’m over kind of in the corner. As I approach my table, omg, I see that the player who is going to be to my left is Hazey. Yike. There must be 150 tables remaining and I have to draw this one. I’m in Seat 5, Andy’s in Seat 6. Andy and I both have about 35K. There’s an online pro looking guy in Seat 7, but he doesn’t have a stack, only 20K. The rest of the table looks pretty rag-tag and most spots have <20K. With one exception. In Seat 8 is Lauren Kling. I’d never seen her before, or heard of her for that matter. She’s not someone you can overlook that’s for sure. One of her nicks is Supermodl and it certainly fits. Plus she has an absolute mountain of chips. Must be 150K. Not bad when playing 200-400. I have no idea whether she is any good or not, but I figure she probably is good and aggro. She’s a knockout for sure. Later I discover via Google that she is a protégé of The Maven and Ari.

She plays a hand against the hotshot in Seat 7. He raises in the SB and she calls in the BB. Flop is A73. He c-bets and Lauren calls. Turn and river are blanks and it’s checked down. Seat 7 shows JTo. Lauren shows 75o. OK, she’s not going to be pushed around. Let’s see what we can do here.

I win a hand preflop and then

Beef Jerky Attempt #2.

I raise UTG with JJ and both blinds call. They look pretty poor, especially the SB who is very loose. I have them both considerably outchipped.

Flop: AT5 with two spades. They both check and I check behind.
Turn: J

Wow, right in my wheelhouse. Still it’s a scary board. They check again and I make a bet of about 90% of the pot. They both call, and pretty quickly. Two draws? Would be nice for the board to pair up on the river. Even better would be a jack.

River: 5

Wow, that is nice. I bet and they both fold. There is some comment from the SB that he had AK. I don’t believe it for a second.

I am up to a bit over 40K. I raise in UTG+2 to 1050. I have The hotshot in Seat 7 reraises to 2350. It folds to the BB who only has about 9K remaining. He’s a Lauren Kling groupie….really sad the way he has tried to befriend her. She’s very nice about it, I’m sure she’s had to deal with his types a few times before (or a few million times), in fact she’s very nice period. I’m pleasantly surprised. She runs rings around Tiffany Michelle in the looks and the personality department.

Anyway while he is contemplating I decide that if he pushes, or even if he just calls, then I’m pushing. But eventually he folds. OK, back to me. What to do? Three possiblilies:

1) Call
2) Push
3) Reraise to like 6K or so.

I decided to take the wimpy way out and call. I think push is way too aggro. But why not 4-bet to 6K or so? That looks super strong, especially from someone with my image. Now if he pushes I can feel quite safe in folding. If he calls well I have to play poker. I can do that.

But there is like only 15 minutes remaining in the Day1. That’s not an excuse but just a fact. I don’t have to worry about him leaning on me for hours after this. I won’t have to confront him at some point. We have less than an orbit remaining. Still, this is a bad mindset. I should be putting the pressure on him. I don’t like my call at all in hindsight. Way too passive.

Flop is Jxx rainbow. I check/fold. It felt so weak and passive. Well that’s because it was. Won’t let that happen again.

One hand to go and Lauren is in the BB. Folds to me in the CO and I raise with a real hand, ATo. Hazey and the blinds fold quickly and I show them that I really had it. We are done.

Hazey and I bag up quickly and head out. We never played a hand against each other. That’s not too surprising since I was only there for 50 minutes. I end Day 1C with a bit over 38K. Average should be around 43-44K. Blinds are still 200/400 when we return for 2A, which will be the day after tomorrow. Feel good. Have a stack. Matthew ends with a huge stack, 256K. Hazey drops some at the end and finishes with 18K or so. Plenty to work with coming back. Tomorrow is a day off to rest and relax and root on Yanks and Fatshaft in 1D.

More later.

Chris

[chrisjp]

The day off on Friday was fun. Got to relax, swim, and sweat Yanks. Unfortunately we didn't know where Fatty was. Can't have everything. I felt like I played quite well Day 1 with the exception of the AK hand very late. I was ready for Day 2A. I drew a table in Pavilion. I shouldn't break until dinner time or so. That's pretty much what happened as I remained there for over 5 hours.

I got a nice nap in the morning of Day 2. Felt great two hours before "Game Time." I left for the Rio about 90 minutes before the start. I began feeling a bit punkish just before I left for the Rio so I took some cold medicine, Tylenol, and Pepto Bismol with me just in case. I'm not going to talk about getting sick any further after this paragraph until the end of my report. I was pretty good the first 4 hours. All through Day 2 I drank a ton of water and I'm sure that helped me survive. Got a fever during Hour 5 and by dinner time, which is 6 hours in, I was quite feverish. The fever broke during dinner (I had no dinner but just rested) and I felt quite a bit better as we began Hour 7. But that didn't last too long. By the end of the night, after Hour 8, I was quite sick again. Happens. Chalk it up to bad luck. Hope I learned something from it.

OK. back to the action....

Seat 8: Me

Seats 9 and Seat 1. Both were 30ish and perfect to have on my left. Quite predictable and not aggro.

Seat 2: Young kid, loose and sometimes very poor but tricky. He was a twitter wannabe with all the hotshot cute young poker players.

Seat 3: Terrance Chan, very dangerous but only had a stack about 1/3 average

Seat 4. Predictable tricky overanxious pocket fiver. Good but not great. He had posted a lot about how he played so I felt I had a very good handle on him, and I did.

Seat 5 had a good ol' boy who lost a big pot on the last hand of Day 1 when his AQ<99. He only had 1.5BBs, and that was gone the first orbit. He was replaced by Dave Colclough. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Colclough Hazey was at the table next to me. Thanks Andy for identifying him for me.

Seat 6 was a very nice guy but way too loose and had a very bad habit of showing his cards.

The most dangerous player, a nice Asian guy from California, was on my immediate right in Seat 7.

You ITHers were so helpful about getting info on my table. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Almost immediately Seats 2 and 4 tangled. Seat 2 raises UTG and Seat 4 3-bet. Seat 2 called. After the dust settled they split the pot with straights. So I got to see both hands.
Seat 2:
Seat 4:

I sat there for a while not playing anything. Then in the middle of the hour I raised in early position with . It folded to Colclough who called in the Big Blind.

Flop: He checked and I checked behind

Turn: Colclough bet 2200 and I called.

River: Colclough checks and I thought about this for a short time. I was pretty certain I had the best hand, but what can he call with that doesn't beat me? Sure I have underrepresented my hand...but still the Jack is ugly. I checked behind.

He flips up J9o and I scoop in the pot. OK, you have certainly solidified your nitty trappy image, not that it really needed it Chris. In hindsight I don't like the way I played this. I think I was playing Day1 and Day2 too passively. About right, but I needed to be more aggressive with my better hands. In the future I will put in a raise on the turn with this one. I like the check on the flop, especially with a King on the board. Had it been an Axx flop I would have bet.
I gave him a free card on the turn after he bet to hit that gut shot. I don't like it. A raise is very scary there from a guy like me. He probably would have folded right there. Anyway, perhaps I can use the image created by this hand to my benefit later.

I never got AA or KK or QQ all day. But so what. You've got to make the best of it with what you've got.

I get three times. I win all three.

#1: I raise UTG and win the pot

#2: Seat 9 raises UTG and it folds to me in the BB. I call.

Flop: Wow.... I checked intending to call a bet and then donk the turn. He checks behind. What???
Turn: I lead and he calls
River: I lead and he folds. Well, still a winner.

#3: I raise OTB and Seat 2 reraises. I call.

Flop:
Seat 2 c-bets and it's pretty big one. Almost pot size. I have him outchipped by quite a bit and shoving is just about perfect considering the effective stacks. I shove. He doesn't even think long at all and folds. TYVM!

Terrance Chan is pretty much of a jerk. A quiet jerk. I've heard good things about him so maybe he was just irritated with his short stack. He corrected the dealer a couple of times when she made change, and was very short with her. That was amusing because both times she was correct.

He was patient though and had enough big blinds that it was appropriate to be patient. He doubled up a couple of times but never had much more than 15K with all the blinds and antes eating at him. Finally he pushes about 20BBs in the SB and the BB instacalls.

Chan:
Seat 4:

The turn is a king and he is out of the room before the dealer can put the river card on the board. Nice playin' with you.

I really am not getting many hands. This is over a 5 hour period so it's not many. I reraise Colclough once when I am in the BB. He quickly folds.

Hazey gets in a race at the table next to me....and busts.

I am dealt OTB. Seat 6, the loose guy, raises in the hijack. I call.

Flop:
He c-bets and I call

Turn is a blank. He checks. OK time to take the pot. He probably has AQ or AT and I'm not going to give him a free card. I am fiddling with my chips and deciding how much to bet. I cut out 3400 and start to bet it.....and he beats me into the pot! But my awareness is not 100% and I don't react to it and still make the bet. Bad Chris. Not like you. Yes, you are sick. OK yes I'm feeling worse. I said it again. Promised not to but it was a factor. I make note of this mistake, one I would normally never make, and promise myself to slow down.

Seat 7 is building his stack slowly. He started as the chip leader and has maintained it through methodical play. I'm rooting for him a little bit because he seems to play quite like me. I hope I play like him anyway.

Seat 1 raises UTG+1 and I call in the BB with . The flop is Txx. I check and he makes a wimpy 1/3 c-bet. Wow, he has nothing. I should just raise here and take in down with any 2. But I've actually got top pair. What a waste. Well you never know. I put in a healthy raise and he instafolds.

We have played 2 hours and 58 minutes and it is ~2 minutes until our second break. Seat 1 is in the Big Blind. Seat 4 has about 28K. I have about 42K. Seat 4 raises to 1200 at 250/500. I have been pretty inactive. Some of the hands I have described took place after this, so I really haven't been playing much. I decide he is simply trying to steal the blinds from the WeakTight player in Seat 1. I'm on the button and I'm not going to let him. This is a perfect bluffing spot IMO. I decide that a reraise will look more suspicious than just a call. So I call. Oh my hand? Ugh. But I have it all figured out. Blinds will fold. Everyone will go on break. Seat 4 will c-bet. I will call. Seat 4 will check the turn. I will bet and he will fold. Yeah, that's it. First part goes smoothly. Both blinds fold. Everyone goes on break. Not a single one of them sticks around. Just Seat 4, me, and this nice older lady dealer who has dealt to me a few times in the last 6 weeks. Two Seniors against a 20-something.

Flop: Wow, that hit me hard didn't it? Two back door draws.

OK, so far so good. That's a pretty dry flop. Seat 4 c-bets 1500. I think for a bit and call. Totally in keeping with my very deliberate style.

Turn:

OK he's going to check. Wait. What? He bets an orange chip, that's a 5K chip, and says "3500.". Oops, he was suppose to check. But no need for panic. Let's see. This Q could be good for me. I think for a bit, probably a minute, and say, "Raise." I put out 7000, a min raise. This has got to look quite imposing to him. This nit is min raising the turn? I'm staring into space but can see his hands. He's not looking at me anyway. He doesn't look at his opponents ever. I think this is a mistake, but obviously he doesn't play much live I have concluded. I have really leveraged him into a corner. If he plays on he looks like he is going to be playing for his stack. It actually looks like I'm trying to get him to push.

He really doesn't think more than 30 seconds and folds. Yeah me. We both get up and I say. "Well I probably shouldn't tell you this but I had QJ and was going all the way if you pushed. Maybe you had a draw." He said, "Yeah I figured you probably had QJ." He smiled weakly and off he went. As I'm leaving the table I tell the dealer, "Whew, I had nine high there." She laughs. I feel good. Only person I told the truth to at my table the whole Series.

Finally, with about 50 minutes left to go until dinner, the table breaks. Off we go to the Amazon Room to get our seat assigments. I draw Table 312 I think. Anyway it is right on the rail for easy viewing. Yanks is around and he can rail me now. My previous table was not viewable. My friend Steve also shows up about now so they can both rail me. This table doesn't appear too bad. There's a lot more chips on the table than my previous one that's for sure. I'm in Seat 4. Seat 5 should be good, but he's really throwing chips Seat 7's way. Well Seat 7 is Cole South, cts, someone I had never heard of but is a World Class cash game player. No biggie. But there is a tight lady in Seat 6, and the rest of the table really doesn't appear to be particularly tough. I'm not too with it right now though so I have to take that into consideration. I play two hands in the next 30 minutes. I hadn't played for ten hands or so. I raise UTG with . Seat 5 calls and everyone else folds.

Flop:
Wow that's scary. But should be scary to him too. I c-bet and he instamucks. That's nice.


New hand. I have in the BB. The button raises, and he raises 3x. That looks weak to me. Anyway I have set mining odds to make this an easy call. I call.

Flop:
I check intending to fold and he checks behind. What? Why did he do that? It looks like he could have two hands. Either a set....or he could have a gut shot and he's taking a free card. That's a big mistake to take a free card there with a gut shot IMO, but it's common.

Turn: I bet and he's thinking. Finally he folds. Later yanks tells me that he exposed his cards. He held AKo. Bad play by him, chips for me. At least I figured out his holding which made me feel good. Well he could have had AT or T8 or the like. Same thing.

Cole South is absolutely destroying the table. No one will stand up to him. A thing of beauty. There's a kid in Seat 8, to his left, with about 15K. He's waiting patiently, or appears to be anyway. Cole keeps leaning on the guy to my left. Seat 5, the guy to my left, keeps raising in mid to late position, and then keeps folding to Cole's 3-bets. Just crazy. It's getting close to dinner now. We are playing the first hour of 400-800a100. All the greens have been colored up finally. I have about 56K.

More later.

Chris

[nsidestrate]

If you made the final table of the Main, it would take me four days to read the trip report.

[chrisjp]

If you made the final table of the Main, it would take me four days to read the trip report.

That's what I was hoping, or maybe 40 days.

[krazytxan]

As usual this was AWESOME!!!

[chrisjp]

We have about 20 minutes to go before the dinner break, and I know I can use it. I am OTB. Cole South, UTG, raises to 2K. As most of us know he will do that with a very very wide range. Player to his left, the kid, now pushes. I thought he had around 14K but he in fact had 15.4K. Pretty big push of close to 20BBs from UTG+1. But I know that he knows that Cole can be weak. Now the player in Seat 9 just flats. Oh boy, that's strong. This guy has like 40-45K to me. He hasn't really been out of line either. Why didn't he try to isolate? Is he trying to suck Cole in or is he just being cautious with like QQ-88. If folds to me and I look down at AKo. Wow. Is this the time to push and hope my folding equity gets me isolated on the kid? I decide that it is. My image is tight. Here we go.

I push and Cole immediately folds. It folds to Seat 9 and he kind of shrugs his shoulders and says, "I call."

The Kid: QJo
Seat 9: KK
Me: AK

oh no, this is not good. Cole says he folded a king. That's little consolation. But if true then we know that there are 4 dead cards that don't help me v. Seat 9. KQJ and x, Cole's other card.

This hand is huge, let's see if I can get lucky.

But the Board comes Jxxxx and I'm dented big time. I have about 12K left, or about 15BBs. Time for short stack play....I know how to play that. I get QTs UTG on this orbit and I fold it. I know it is marginal at best, but I figure I might get called looser than normal if they think I am blowing off steam.

Two players play to the river. Board shows xxxxT. I would have won. No biggie, but I certainly wish I had pushed.

I see Yanks and Matthew as we head for dinner. I tell them I'm going to skip it and hope with a 90 minute rest I will feel better. Matthew offers me his room but I don't want whatever bug I have entering his room. I go to my car, recline, turn the A/C on me. About 1/2 hour into dinner my fever breaks and I feel much better. By the time I return to the wars I feel weak but not too bad.

In the first orbit upon my return I push QJss in the CO. The Button calls. He shows A9cc.

Flop is three low cards with two clubs and one spade. Turn is a spade. River is a Jack. Double up! I'm up to about 20BBs. One more double and I"m back in it. We have about 1 3/4 hours of play left. Let's see if I can make it.

But my cards are really awful. I'm feeling worse. It folds to me in the SB. I think I had about 15BBs remaining. Can't really remember, but I do remember that I planned to push the top 80-90% of the hands. I look down and see 73o. I fold.

With an hour to go blinds increase to 500/1000 A100.

Finally with about 15 minutes to go before the end of the night, I get K6ss. There is a raise in MP and I have like 6-7BBs remaining. I decide to push. Maybe I did it because I was so sick. I don't really know. I do know I really was pretty sick. Worse than I probably felt I was. He calls of course and shows. AKhh. Geez, he had to have a KIng.

Flop is AQ6ss. I have a pair and a flush draw....two bricks later I am out.

Brief comment on being ill. It sucks. It affects your play more than you realize. I saw how poorly Daniel played in the ME a couple of years ago. If his ability can plummet, then anyone’s can and will. Certainly mine. I had planned to go home and miss the final two hours if I had won that big pot. Good idea. I would not have been blinded down even 10% from there and would have come back with >100BBs. That would have been wise. It’s too bad-- whatever I had was the 24 hr variety. Just the wrong twenty-four hour. My push with the AK was not terrible from a SklanskyBucks point of view. Sure it was wrong, but not that bad considering the pot odds. But it was a terrible play and I know better. I saw this play earlier in my previous tournament…the last $1K that I cashed in. In that one Alex Jacob was the flatter and DPeters made a poor push with AK. I knew it at the time, and wrote about it in my trip report. In this one I was not certain how good a player Seat 9 was, unlike the other where I knew Jacob was a super strong player so he had a very strong hand. Still, I can’t afford to be wrong here. Just fold. I think I would have folded that quickly had I been alert. We will never know.

Was a fun Series, a good learning experience, and built up my confidence quite a bit. I am more enthusiastic than ever.

Thanks all for the root!

Chris

[MacTaiga]

Really enjoyed reading the reports, this helps the rest of us learn from your experiences. Much appreciated!

[PauliF]

you da man