ITH Poker Forum

[jfletcher]

Sunday, 6/19, Event 34 ($1K NLHE)

The theme for this tourney is "Dodging old men." My best plays were folds I made that would have normally been bust-out hands, but I was able to get away because of the common notion that most old men who get aggressive have big hands. They aren't bluffing. (As an aside, many hours later, while playing 1-3 cash, the guy to my left says: "I never play back at a woman or a person older than 62." To which I replied: "Yeah, those 61-year-olds can be tricky.")

Anyway, level 1, in the Amazon room again. Almost the same table as I started at the day before. One very loose guy who likes to raise a lot and call a lot and then fold. We liked him, but he didn't last long. Also Old Man, a big jolly fat old man sitting in seat 4 when I'm in 1. I had chipped up a little bit on a nice float/steal from LAG/Fold Man, when I got QQ in EP. I raise to 75 and get called by Old Man and L/F. Flop comes little cards, coordinated, 865, two hearts. Something like that. I bet half the pot on the flop and Old Man raises and the L/F calls. I folded right there. I figure one of them has me already, and at best I'm dodging who knows how many outs from the two of them and I'll be OOP to both. Turns out Old Man had AA. Whew No. 1.

A little later, into level 2, I have QQ again and raise and this time Old Man 3 bets me PF. I call and we're heads up going to flop of TTx. I check. He bets half the pot. I call, just to see if he's just c-betting me and maybe he'll shut down on the turn. The turn is another blank and he bets again, about half the pot again. At this point I think I have 2500 and he bets 600. I tank pretty good here. He could definitely have AA or KK. I didn't think he'd have a T, but I didn't rule it out, not so much because of the PF play, but the flop and turn plays. I also thought: "I have no idea if I'm ahead or behind, and there's really nothing that's going to happen here or on the river that's goign to help me figure it out. If I call this bet, I have to call again on the river, and that bet could be my whole stack. And I'm out of position." I folded my QQ face up, which I wouldn't normally do, but I knew our table would be breaking soon and I was hoping that he'd show after I showed. He just smiled said "nice hand. I'll tell you later." At the first break, he told me he had AT. He could have been lying to make me feel better, but I believe him. Old men don't lie!

Oddly enough, if you recall from the previous tourney, I laid down QQ to a tough OOP spot on the turn in Level 2, and a few hands later I got AA and doubled up. Well, the exact same thing happened this time. A few hands later, AA. I raise, villain 3-bets, I push. He calls with 99. Woot. Up to 5K.

Funny story, when we came back from the break, I went to my "table" and saw no one was there, just a few chip stacks with seat cards. Oh, they're moving us. I pick up my chips off Seat 1 and ask where to go to my new table. But there's a water bottle there. I wasn't drinking water? Who's water is that? Then I look over at the table to my right and see the guys I was playing with! This isn't my table! I almost stole some guy's chips.

Related funny story: Twice in this tourney players couldn't find their tables after the break, so they had to come up to the stage and the TD announced: "If you were playing with this gentleman, please raise your hand so he can find his table." Twice it happened! Guess those guys aren't picking up too many tendencies at the table if they can't even remember where they were sitting.

OK, level 3 I'm at my new table in the yellow section. That's the sat area, so I know that will be breaking pretty quickly too. Lots of old, normal, non-threatening folks at this table. One guy seemed to be aggressive, but I had position on him and he had a short stack, so not a problem. A little later a new young aggressive came just to my left. I didn't like that.

My biggest win at this table came on a BB special. I had T3o and saw a free flop. Txx. I checked and a woman in UTG+1 bet. I called. I didn't want to play this fast since I obviously have a pretty weak hand. Turn is another T. Now my hand is better, but I'm still going to let her keep betting. She bets and I call. River blank. Check check. I show, she mucks. A nice little pot gets me up over 6K.

A little later an Old Guy in Seat 3 raises. I think this was the first time he'd raised. He'd been playing typical Old Guy Poker. I had AQo in Seat 5. With a tight old man raising in EP, and players left to act behind me, I decided to muck my AQo preflop. Button calls. Flop comes A high. Fireworks ensue. Turns out Old Guy has AQ and button (another old guy) has AK. AQ Old Guy felted.

Meanwhile, I didn't win much for a while, and I got a couple raises preflop foiled by 3-bets from Aggro Guy to my left. Once when I raised OTB and he 3-bet from the SB, I actually called him just to see, since I'd have position postflop. (I think I only had 64s or something.) I was hoping that either I'd hit the flop or his bet on the flop would leave me enough room to take the pot away. Sadly, I missed and he bet big enough that I didn't think I could make him fold, so I had to fold.

Also, this was in level 4, and we had a problem at our table becasue players kept busting and the floor people couldn't find enough 10-player tables to relocate players to the short tables. When we were down to 7, we had to just wait. We lost at least 5-6 minutes sitting there. I think they have a bad system for breaking tables if it doesn't allow them to just disperse all 7 players from a shorthanded table, rather than trying to pick a player here to there to keep all the tables at 8 or more.

At end of level 4, second break, I had only 3625, with blinds coming back at 100-200 in level 5. I needed a re-shove spot, and I never really found one, which was complicated by the fact that we didn't get to play that many hands.

Late in level 5 I'm finally moved. One of the first hands at my new table there's an MP raise from a guy who came with me from my old table, so I knew he was pretty loose. It's called by the button and then I have QQ in the SB. I insta-shove. Raiser folds and then the button tanks a bit before folding JJ face up. That hurts. Can't go anywhere in a tourney if you don't double up in a spot like that.

Two hands later, we've gone up to level 6 (100-200-25). It's folded to me in the CO and I have AKs. Even though I have 20 BBs, I just shove. BB calls with 88. Off to the races ... and I lose.

Out.

I think I played pretty well except for that button steal when I called the 3-bet. I should have just re-shoved if I really believed he was 3-betting light, or just folded and accepted that he wasn't buying my raise. The call was bad.

Anyway, it was just about 6 pm when I busted, so I debated playing the 6 pm deepstack at the Rio or going over ot the Venetian to play the 7 pm tourney. I figured if I went over there I could have 1-2 cash as a fallback after I busted, rather than 1-3 at the Rio, and also I wouldn't miss the first level. Finally I decided, what the hell, just to stay at the Rio and sign up for the deepstack right away. It was only about 6:15, so I only missed half a level.

I jumped right into that $185 buyin tourney.

Stay tuned to see how that went...

[jfletcher]

OK, let's finish this baby up...

So on Sunday night just after busting out of the $1K, I jumped into the 6 pm deepstack, $185 buyin. I decided going in that I was going to play pretty aggressively, to try to build a big stack or move on to something else.

I doubled my stack in the first orbit.

Gotta like that. I had been raising just about every hand the fist time around the table, so they obviously were pretty suspicious of me. Then I get QT and raise. Flop comes KJx. I bet. Villain calls. Turn is a blank. I bet again and villain calls. River is an A, so I go all-in. It's a huge overbet, but I figure "what the hell, maybe I'll get called." Guy tanks and then calls me with AK. Aww, too bad. Thanks bud.

A little later I tangle with a goofy looking Euro guy with a pink mohawk. I keep firing bluffs on all three streets, including a big river bet. This time I got called and villain had two pair. Easy come easy go.

Then I get into it with him again, but this time I flop top set in a 3-way pot. I'm firing away, but unfortunately I lost one of my customers on the flop and the other on the turn.

When my table gets broken, I have about 30K (10K starting stack). Average is probably 15K. I'm still doing great, playing super aggro, but then I ran into a couple bad spots. I had KK vs AA against a shorty that cost me about one-third of my chips. And then I had 99 against AA against another shorty.

So now, we're in level 9 and there are about 90 players left out of 290 starters, and I only have 10 BBs left. I get QQ and 3-bet shove, and get called by 88, so that's a nice double. A few hands later I get AK and 3-bet shove again, this time called by JJ.

No help. Out. Fun little tourney, though.

So now I'm debating jumping into one of those juicy one-table sats I'd heard so much about or playing 1-3 cash. I go back and forth in my head and also think about just calling it a night because I'll have to wait for either. Suddenly, my name jumps up on the 1-3 list because a bunch of people left, so that makes my decision for me.

This 1-3 game was not that great.

The most memorable hand was this one: I had QJ and called a raise from the button. Flop comes KQT. I think it goes check check. Turn is another T. Villain bets and I call. River is the A. Villain bets $25 and I think for a bit, trying to decide if I should raise or just call. I don't have the nuts, obviously. Finally I decide to raise to $75. Villain then tanks. But during his deliberation he's saying "I have a full house, but I think you have a better one." Finally he calls, and I show him I only have a straight. And he has QT. Then I sort of chided him for the slowroll. I told him I could understand his tanking if I'd bet $300 or something, but it was only another $50. You can't fold a boat for another $50!

Coincidentally, a little later I had QT against a guy with KQ on a board that came KQTTx, so I won a nice pot there.

Overall, I had a pretty solid, tight image at this table, which I eventually used to bluff my way to a $130 pot when I representing hitting my flush draw on the turn.

In the end I won $174 during the session, which almost paid for my deepstack entry.

I left the table around 3 am, and set my alarm for 5:30 the next morning so I could get to the airport to fly home. I had lunch with my kids.

Overall, a pretty good 48-hour trip.

[chrisjp]

Nice report fletch. Elmo commented that the 7pm at Venetian is one of the juiciest MTTs he's ever seen. Got to avoid those 4 outers though, and worse.