For those who have played this before they have changed the way the chips are handled if you register late. No penalty at all if you are seated in the first 15 minutes. But after that you have to wait for the Big Blind. They use to “blind away” some of your chips and put then in successive pots after you arrive--that was time consuming and needed clarification all the time. This is better.
One thing I don’t like. The tables are ten handed. The tables are pretty big so I didn’t feel cramped, but still it’s not a good structure IMO.
We start at noon and are going to play until 2am or we get down to 9 players. Then those lucky souls will come back at 4pm the following afternoon.
The first three levels I am super active. I'm in Seat 7. Amazingly I never changed tables the entire tournament. We did redraw twice and I moved seats, but same old table. That is lucky.
A couple of really loose and poor players in Seats 3 and 4. I play one against Seat 3. I have AQ and he had QJ. Flop is AKT. He calls my cb. Turn is a blank. I ck behind. River is also a blank. He comes out betting and I have to call him. Ugh.
I hit a winner by calling preflop in late position with 76s. Flop: 975. He c-bets and I call. Turn is a 4. He checks and I check. River is a T. He checks. Sure looks like two overs. I bet and he disgustingly mucks his AK face up. My image must be secure...I'm a tight one. But I don't really know why because I had been pretty active. I wonder if I should have checked behind on the river. Hmmm.
I’m bouncing around between 8K and 15K. I play two hands, AhKh, against the loose player in Seat 4. I am in Seat 8. In the first one I just call his raise. The blinds also call and it’s four of us to the flop:
Flop: 8h4c3s It is checked around
Turn: 3h. It’s checked to the loose raiser who bets. All three of us call.
River: 9h. This could be juicy. Now it folds to me and I bet. SB tanks for a long time and finally folds--saying I must have hit a 9
So do the other two. I make a mental note of this one. Could I have won this pot with a bet on the river if the flush didn't come through? The OR was just stabbing at the pot on the turn, and the others were fairly weak. Any comments?The other AhKh….this time I reraise him to isolate. The board comes KxxAQ. I bet the flop and then we both didn’t have a lot of chips, so I wasn’t sure what to do on the turn. I felt it was better to bet small and he might just push, or he might call and lead the river. I took all my 50 and 100 chips and put them in the pot. He called. That left me with one $5000 chip and he had just barely more than that. On the river I tossed the chip into the pot and he folded. I wonder if I am a bit off today. Perhaps I should have just pushed the turn.
The bad player in Seat 3 is quite low. I raise with AQ and he calls in late position. I know my plan here. Flop is T9x. I’m going to check the flop and turn and get him to bluff off the rest of his chips. I check and he pushes. I call immediately and he turns over KT. Oops. Turn is an 8, not bad, and river is a Queen. Easy game.
The next one gives me an uneasy feeling. I raise and Seat 1 calls. He came to the table late and he just looks like a good player. But other than that I don’t know. I raise with AKo and he calls in the BB.
Flop: AcQh3d. I c/b and he calls.
Turn: Jc. Now he leads into me for about 1/3 of the pot. Whaa? Maybe he has like KcQc or some sort of pair and draw? I call
River is the blank. Now he leads for about 80% of the pot. I go into the tank. I mean what can I beat? Not really anything but a busted draw. I think a long time and finally call. He shows KcTc. Yikes. I really felt bad about this one. He looked like a good player, and he turned out to be good. Very bad call. But you have to shake these things off and not let them get to you. At the first break I had 11K, not the 15K that I would have had if I had folded. Oh well.
This gorgeous girl comes to our table an hour in or so. Very perky, long brown hair, Asian mix. And quite the flirt with the guys. She just busted out of Caesar’s and has made a beeline for Venetian. She’s one of these types that tries to lull the guys into thinking she’s a bad player, and talks it up to get a line on their play. Very personable. But she’s also one of those types that can’t help but let you know that she is a better player than you. That is undoubtedly true for some, but not for all.
Finally she gets shorter and raises from HJ. There are three callers. Flop is T74 two suited. She cbets and gets a caller. Turn is a 5. She bets, villain crai, and she calls quickly with T7o. Villain, in the SB, shows 86. Yada yada. She kind of puts a dig into him as she leaves by pleasantly referring to the gut shot he just hit. Both SB and BB remark that he didn’t hit a gut shot…he had a double belly buster….. Ohh. Off she goes.
Now the next 2 hours are completely different than the first two. Fold/fold/fold. I only play two hands.
Hand1: Folds to me in the SB. I look down at TT. I raise. The guy in the BB looks like Joe Montagna of Criminal Minds. And kind of acts like that character. He's pleasant but constantly tells you how he's cashed at Full Tilt a lot and won some tournament there like 5 years ago. He's explaining the whole US crackdown and how, since he's from Toronto, he gets to keep playing. Enough of this!
Mr Know It All reraises. I have the perfect 4bet push stack. I push. He thinks and folds. I needed those chips.
Hand 2: A young player has moved to the table. He plays a couple of orbits. He seems pretty good but he’s too stubborn and too impatient. I get my first premium pair of the day, KK. I raise and he calls in the BB.
Flop: J9x two suited. He checks to me. There is 2500 in the pot and I have 7700 behind. I figure if he hit any of this, or maybe if he has a draw, he will call a big bet. A push here by me looks so bluffy. So that’s what I do. I push and he calls pretty quickly. I’m risking my life but feel really good when I see him table QJo--these types of hands where you correctly gauge the situation give you so much confidence. I still have to win it though. Turn and river are no help to him and I double up!
We go on break and I have about 17K, a little below average.
Back for two more levels until the colorup....then we will remove the $25 chips. After that two more levels and about 8pm we will be on dinner break.
Time marches on and I'm blinding away. This is a deepstack early but not really once you get several levels in. Typical. Now I’m well below average at this point and usually have an M between 5 and 12. My 3bet all ins are working beautifully, especially against Seat 1, the good player with the big stack. I 3bet all in with A8s, QJ, JT and a couple of others. Never a call. Just maintaining.
I play an interesting hand against Seat 7 to my right. I've been raising more UTG than in the past on recommendation of yankees, and it has been successful. I raise UTG with A8s and it folds to him in the BB. He kind of reluctantly calls but he wasn’t afraid to call with fairly weak holdings.
Flop: QQx. I cb and he goes into this hesitation sighing call. It’s a Mike Caro Classic. This guy has a monster! Turn is a J giving me a flush draw. He checks, I check. River is a blank. He makes a small bet and I fold of course. If the flush came in I would have had to pay him off—I think. It pays to be nice to your neighbors. He shows me QJ.
I need chips. It’s about an hour from dinner. Seat 1, the good player, raises. A poor player who calls a lot of raises…well he calls. Folds to me OTB and I look down at 88. Here goes. I push and Seat 1 quickly folds. The other guy contemplates briefly and then calls. I flip my hand and he has a very sick look on his face. He tables 77. I double up plus!
Shortly thereafter we are at it again. He limps in late position and I check in the BB with K4cc
Flop: 8s7d5d
I check he checks. Can't see this guy checking with a set or an overpair. The flop is too dangerous and he doesn't play this way anyway. If he had an overpair he would have raised preflop anyway.
Turn: 6s
I ck and he bets. Now I’m thinking that he is so loose I don’t really want to call two streets because it’s going to get expensive and I don’t have that big a stack. I don’t really know but I decided to c/r the min here to see what he does. If he calls I know I am ahead although he likely has outs. So I raised, just over min raise, and then he pretty quickly pushes. Ugh. What can I beat? From this guy I don’t think anything although you never know. I folded. He never told me what he had. He could have had a set, obviously I don’t think so, but I’ll never know. If he has a set it almost has to be sixes. Maybe I should have just ck called twice. Don’t really know. Comments?
Seat 7 and I tangle again. He raises UTG and I call with QQ. Flop is AA7. He bets, but I felt he was scared, and I call. Turn is a blank. He checks, now I know he doesn’t have an Ace, and I check. River is a blank. He checks and I check. He shows KK. I felt good about this one. He was a straightorward player so his ep raise is pretty narrow. What can he have? Pretty much KK-TT. If he has JJ or TT then he'll likely fold if I bet. Just keep the pot small and hope he doesn't have KK. Many would have busted out on this one, including those who 3-bet preflop.
We play a while longer and break for dinner with 34 players remaining. My M=6 and the average M=15. I need chips! They are paying 18 places so we are still a long way from the money. I eat at the Food Court at Venetian, pasta and veggies with my coupon. I talk to Yankees for a bit and then at 9pm it’s back to the wars.
We get down to 3 tables and this real good, real aggro kid, sits down in Seat 6. This is terrible! Since I’m in 8…whenever I’m in late position or the blinds and it folds to him, which happened often, he always bet. 100% of the time. He had a huge stack. Just awful. I never ever got a hand when I was in the blinds to 3-bet him with. Just sucked.
I get the rockets! The kid raises ep and player to his left calls. Now it’s on me. If I raise like 3x it is slightly over 1/3 of my stack. Not sure what I should do here. Finally I decide to just push, but still don’t know. I push and they both fold. Still nice, but was it correct?
Finally Seat 5 raised, Seat 7 called, and I push my QQ. Nice hand Chris. Seat 4 quickly folds and Seat 7 reluctantly calls. He shows TT. My hand holds again. Seat 7 mumbles to the kid in Seat 6 about how this “Rock” in Seat 7 never plays a hand. He’s berating himself for calling me with TT.
We finally redraw with 20 left. We are two from the money. The “kid” still remains in Seat 6 but I move over to Seat 10. That’s a bit better, in fact much better, because Seats 1 and 2 are your typical tight older guys. The kid is stealing every hand now. There is talk of having everyone give $20 to each of the poor losers that finish 19th and 20th. The kid will have none of it. It’s obvious why. The money’s not the issue, it’s the bubble exploitation that he can’t afford to give up. We finally lose one player, then another, and we are ITM baby!
And then the other table loses two players and we have to move a player to the other table to balance. And the kid is in the BB. Cya! This is great. All the good players and the stacks are at the other table. How lucky can I be.
But I’m still short. Over a period of 40 minutes three similar hands come along. It folds to me in the SB and I 3x raise with 42o. BB folds.
It folds to me in the SB and I min raise with J9o. BB folds. I mean why risk extra chips?
It folds to me in the SB and I min raise with Q6s. BB says, “This is the third time you’re doing this to me.” And folds. These were huge for me and my M=5. Now online you are pushing all of these three, maybe folding 42o. But live is completely different. Viva "live"!
Shortly after this, and we were down to 14 I believe, I push with 88 from UTG. It folds to CO and he tanks. He’s got double my stack and I can’t figure out whether he’s trying to isolate or just call. I figure I’m flipping at best. Finally he just calls. The others fold and he flips up 22. Whaaa? The board bricks and it’s tyvm Sir. M=10 yes, finally getting close to average!
I’m still really card dead. Yes, I know I had some premiums, but it’s amazing how many cards I’m just mucking.
Finally there are ten left. It’s like 12:45am. But they are going to play on, by god, until we get to 9-handed or 2am. And I get a terrible table draw. The kid is in Seat 5 and I am in Seat 6. All the weak tight old guys are to my left in Seats 7-10 which is great. But it means that the kid is raising frequently and I’m out of position v. all the other players. Just terrible.
I have an M=6 and Kid opens UTG. I look down at 99. I know this is right on the edge on sheets tables whether to play or not. I am hj+4 but there has already been a raise, albeit by a player with a super wide range. I just felt that 99 was too risky here, especially given ICM implications. However, it would be nice to try to iso the laggy guy. But he is a good lag so he won’t give me a lot of chips. So I folded. Ugh. Don’t like it. I’m thinking maybe I should min raise him. If someone comes OTT then I can decide what to do at that time.
I don’t like the fold! But I don’t know. Kid ended up winning a pot when 77>KJo. Help me guys! I don’t think a push is right, but I’m leaning to a 3 bet…
This last hour is a nightmare. I get absolutely nothing. There are about 4 or 5 confrontations where someone is all in for his life, but the shortie always doubled. We are getting toward the end of 3K/6Ka500 and going to 4K/8Ka1000. The director decides to color up before the end of the level. what?? And he's trying to have one player buy all the 500chips. I mean there are mountains of them. This is nuts. Just have the players put their 500s in a rack and give them two 25K chips for the 50K. But noooo. It is so chaotic. The level runs out when we are doing this stupid colorup...and now it's after 2am. There is confusion in the bagging. I have an odd 500chip as does about half the table. Finally we race...I get dealt As. My only winner in the last hour. My 500 becomes 1000...not much solace.
I am tired and irritated by the incompetency at the end. Oh well...that's also part of Live Poker.
It’s Day2 and here we go. I didn’t get home until around 3am from the ridiculous “bag up” at the end of Day 1. And then we had painters and such over at our house early that morning. Not good timing. But I took a necessary nap in the middle of the day. It was nice that Day 2 didn’t start until 4pm. I needed those afternoon hours off.
I got down to the Venetian about 3:45pm and most of the finalists were already there. It was easy to stack my meager stack of 53K.
There was a sheet listing the players names and the chip counts. The Table was set up as follows:
Seat 1: 470K old guy
Seat 2: 386K 40ish
Seat 3: 104K the bad player who called my all in with 22
Seat 4: 250K old guy
Seat 5: 297K The “kid”, excellent player
Seat 6: Me 51K
Seat 7: Shortie and tight player: 31K
Seat 8: 123K old guy
Seat 9: 128K old guy
Seat 10: 241K old guy
They had let the last 7 minutes of the previous level just “disappear” with the colorup at the end last night. I could have made a stink about it, especially being so short. But it just wasn’t worth it. We lost like 3-4 hands at 3K/6Ka500. Now we are playing 4K/8Ka1K. The button continues from last night. It is in Seat 7…that’s good. And it is likely only there because before I left the night before I asked the director if he had put the button in Seat 7’s bag. Of course he hadn’t . He had to break open that bag, put it in, and then reseal it.
This director is a nice guy and asks if anyone is not American. Seat 3 says he is Australian and the Director gives him the bad news. The US had a tax treaty last year with Australia, but not anymore. If he wins more than $5K, which is finishing 4th or better, then there will be 30% withholding. This guy was about 30yo and very nice, but he seemed kind of out of it. I don’t think he really understood what the Director said.
The "kid" is Justin Shelton. I looked up Justin Shelton just now and there is a successful online player from Australia with that name, but the picture didn’t match. And this kid was definitely American with a slight southern accent. Investigation at a dead end. He did talk about how he played a ton online. He is planning to move to another country. Easier said than done. He is out here to get Live Experience. He probably would have played this tournament regardless, but he might have skipped it and played online instead.
OK at 22K per orbit my M is now <3. Time to get lucky.
Hand 1: Folds to the Kid in the HJ. I know he is going to raise but he shocks me and folds. OK, he doesn’t raise 100% from HJ, but well over 50% for sure v. these stacks. I’m doubly disappointed he didn’t raise or push because I look down at AQdd. “I’m all in.” Button and the blinds fold like a shot. That’s nice, get an M boost.
Hand 2. Folds to the kid in HJ+1. He raises to 18K. The shortie OTB quickly pushes his 29K. Folds back to Kid who sheepishly calls, well he has to.
Shortie: TT
Kid: 87o
Kid picks up a OESD on the turn after the Shortie flops a set, but river is a blank and Shortie has doubled to almost 80K, more than me.
The next few hands are uneventful.
Hand 8 and I’m in the BB. It folds to Kid in the SB and I know he’s raising Any2. He pushes and I look down at 85o. Great hand Chris. I fold. He shows the Ad....wow does he really think I don't know what is going on? Maybe. Doesn't hurt to show though.
Hand 9. Folds to the Kid OTB and he pushes against us shorties again. Well maybe he’s only pushing 90% of his hands now. I doubt it. This time T2o for me. Great. Kid wins again.
Hand 10. Folds to Kid in the CO and he asks how many chips the BB has. He has about 110K. So he’s got three shorties behind him. But he folds. I look down and see A7o. Why has the Kid folded the two times I have a hand? Like he has xray vision or something. Anyway I have an easy push.
Now SB goes into the tank. Agonizing. I think, “ok he’s going to fold but if he calls I’ll be ahead. This is good.” Finally he calls saying, “I hate to do it but I think I’m probably ahead. He shows A8o. Aaargh! So I tell the dealer to put some high cards out there. He responds by dealing K65. Wonderful. Turn 2. River 9. “Good luck guys!” The accounting is taken care of quickly. They give me $1216 in chips and I have to walk over to the poker cashier to get the cash. My day is done. The only good thing to come of it is the Dodgers have blown a game against the Cubs. I’m surprisingly deflated. I guess that is good in a certain sense. I was clearly the second best player at the table, was close to the Kid in ability, and except for Seat 2 who might be decent…the other 7 were very mediocre at best.
Two live tournaments since the gov't kicked me off of Stars and Tilt. And two cashes. Lucky me. Searching around for more to play. Unless I play some smaller ones the next one up is May 8. Bellagio Seniors. $1080 buy in. Gogogo.
Chris
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