Good report, keep it coming.

Day 3 $235 Deepstack

This does not start well for me today, I cannot seem to win a pot at all but there is a guy on my table who is smashing flops left right and centre. At the end of level 4 and the first break he is up from the starting 15k to 60k in chips.

An example of the hands I am getting... I get A8 OTB, riase to 550 at 100/200, BB calls. He calls my 650 c bet on a flop of 347r and we both check the 5 turn. I then fold to his psb OTR 3.

I get KK in MP2 and make it 550, three people call. Flop is 810J, it checks to me and I c bet 1,200 into the 2,400 pot and get called by the guy hitting everything. I c/c his 2,500 bet on the blacnk turn but then c/f to his 3,200 bet on the 2 river. I think I am beat here way too often and he has not shown down any bluffs yet, but has shown a lot of suited connectors and one gappers that have connected well with boards.

I then lose two hands with 1010 where I open pre and get three callers again in the first one and fold to a bet and a call on a KQ5 flop, the 2nd one I get one caller and again c/f the AQ6r flop to a bet. I am happy to get it in pre or shove if I get re-raised but he flats and the flop hits his range so well. I think he checks back smaller pairs.

At the end of level 4 I have 4,500 and we come back to blinds of 200/400 @50. Back to push fold poker, just a lot earlier than yesterday.

2nd hand back from break I am in the BB with 10BB and the SB makes it 1,300. I shove K8o and he folds. I then get A6 from the btn and shove again when it folds to me picking up the blinds and antes.

The next time I am in the SB I get QQ and shove over a limper in mp, he has a 4BB stack and is still open limping. The BB snap calls me but the limper folds. BB turns over 88 and despite the board coming 467r I hold to double up and a bit more. It is amazing how long you can grind a short stack using well timed shoves and 3-bets to keep your head above water.

Next I shove J7 from the CO when it folds to me and get it through. I then shove A9o from the HJ and again everyone folds. A8o OTB sees me shove again when it gets to me and at the end of those 3 levels I am up to 15,500. The next level has blinds of 800/1,600 @200.

The standard of play in these tournaments is varied. There are some good players who don't have the roll to play in higher buy in events and some who just do the weirdest things such as the guy who limp folds 4BB and who got himself down to 2.5BB by doing that. Overall these are soft but with the softness can come some variance when people appear with hands you just dont think they should ever have in those circumstances.

We have about half of the 1,380 field left and I need to double, familiar theme for today!

A little bit about the dealers, today overall they have been really good. Quick, efficient, friendly and they have known what they are doing. Yesterday was the opposite, they were slow, poor and two could not add up. As we approached the bubble yesterday there were lots of all-ins and people asking for counts. We had one dealer in particular that got every single stack count wrong. In the end we were counting each others stacks. She did not get them wrong by a little but at one point got three in a row wrong by 20K each.

However, what we have had today are Kenny & Brian. Anyone who has played at the Rio for any amount of time this summer must have come across them. Today I am in the 1 seat on my starting table, now in the 1 seat the dealer normally obscures the 10 seat and so you have to keep looking round them to see stack, action etc. Well when Kenny sat down I lost sight of not only the 10 seat but also 9,8 & 7. Man he was big! Brian was a bit smaller and when he replaced Kenny the 7 seat came back into view but god these guys are massive. Luckily Kenny had washed becaused everytime he swept the antes in my head was almost engulfed by his armpit. Oh the joys of live poker.

First hand on the next level and I am in the SB. The CO makes it 4k and I look down at QQ. I shove my 14,200 into the middle and get called by A4. The flop is am almost perfect 89J, I have the Q and so love this flop. The turn and river offer no help to the A and I am up to 34K.

Two hands later the same player shoves for 18K and I shove over with JJ. He has 109 and I make a straight on the river to move up to 51k. An orbit later I open J9 to 3,600 but fold to the big stack in the SB who makes it 7,300 to go.

The table breaks and I get moved to a table with a couple of very large stacks. I have 25bb and pick up 77 UTG. I open to 5K but get a shove from MP and a call from the CO, I fold. MP shows 88 and that holds against the CO AKo. This moves me down to 20bb. I am then OTB and have A4, it folds around to the CO who shoves for 7BB. I iso shove expecting to be doing ok against his range but find out I am up against AKo. The flop brings two but the river and turn brick and I am down to 13BB.

I am pretty card dead and am not finding any opportunities to get my stack in first. On the last hand of the level Iam in the BB and have 109. The next level is 2k/4k @500 and I will have about 8BB. A short stack with 6BB shoves in MP and the btn calls. I decide to shove with no FE, but I am looking to triple up. I cannot fold to the money as my stack is not big enough so I need to get some chips.

I am up against K2o and JJ, the JJ being the killer hand. I hit the 10 OTF but get no more help and so I am out about 40 short of the money in around 180th.

I feel I have grinded my short stack well from level 4 and feel good about the way I played. Lots of variance in tournament poker.

I saddle up and head back to the V to play some cash.

I think I'll play some of those Rio deep stacks next year.