In the green so far for summer, played one 6 hour session 1-2nlh at Southpoint, 3 hours 15-30 lmo8 half kill at Orleans, and 2.5 hrs Venetian 1-2 nlh since Sunday. Up a modest +$255. Unfortunately the games are very slow/weak right now...pretty indicative of this time as things lag for a few weeks heading into series.
***Gonna spew up one of my favorite tournament hands I’ve played here for a little fun: I could dig it up from history but I remember all the relevant dynamics/dialogue so should be very close to original hand but minus some details like blinds and exact suits.
...WSOP $1500 event, I want to say we were coming up on the 3rd break. I had slightly above average chips, antes are in play.
The seat to my right is K.O. and Antonio Esfandiari rolls up as a late reg. The expected fan fare ensues as some players at the table exchange pleasantries. He proceeds to bully the table for a few hands chipping up.
Not long after he’s sat in and the last hand going into break it folds around and he opens 3x into me from SB into my BB. I look down at 5-2(ish) os but decide to take off flop since this should be quite easy to play in position post flop. Don’t get me wrong I have 0 doubt he is a far more adept tournament player than myself, however the power of position is often underrated in practice; it really can marginalize a skill disparity significantly.
Flop 5-7-3 rainbow or close to. Antonio leads/cbet and I flat...pretty standard action both spots.
Turn J...Antonio checks I bet 1/2 pot or so...I think it’s fine to just check behind and flat a fair number of rivers with the way he has been playing but I decide to bet 1/2 pot bc fairly confident I have the best hand and he might pay with a picked up FD, some gutter and over combos etc...in retrospect I don’t like the bet I’d rather just flat and let him decide if he wants to fire on river again . But now he check raises me so I tank...
On the surface this looks polarizing but the play makes very little sense from him, just flatting pre and on the flop the most likely play from me ott is just a check behind. For this reason if he has a hand with enough value to check raise he should virtually always be leading the turn as well...the check raise nutted type hands in these spots are more the domain of OMCs who think they are tricky.
For those reasons and bc I really don’t want to lay down here I decide a raise > flat for 2 reasons. 1) just flatting puts me in an awkward spot on a lot of rivers with my weak hand (think A/K/a 3rd club things that can hit his bluff/semi bluff range) and 2) if he flats the my 3bet here and checks brickish rivers or river brings the flush and he checks, I can legitimately represent a very strong hand and bet him off most value hands.
Unfortunately he just 4bet jams. I have a little unique info that could be useful here...the $1500 and thus the prospect of busting out mean nothing to him. He late regd and immediately started pushing action. He would most likely like to just run up a big stack quickly or fail in a small event like this.
For these reasons added to my origin inclination on the turn I call it off, moderately concerned I’ll look like a dumbass and make a quick head down exit from the mtt.
Antonio:”set of 7s?”
Me: “laughs;naw, I have a pair of 5s sir”
Antonio: “3 5s?”
Me: “no I have one pair of 5s”
Antonio: rolls over KQ and bricks river “fk me, (looks at dealer) this is supposed to be a $1500 right?” Laughs
So I bust him and by this point we are into the break, he gets up and gets a funny unintentional needle when a fan runs up and asks for a photo not knowing he just busted out. Hands me his phone to take the pic of them 🤣🤣🤣
Anyways, I don’t even end up cashing the tournament but def one of my favorite cheesey poker memories.
Here’s an unrelated pic of close to the most chips I’ve had in an event
Pretty much only playing $150-600 events around town this summer to keep things casual. If I go outside of that it’s going to be something like the mega deep/longer level stuff that I perform well in and/or satty shots at main event.
There is a good chance I’ll fire off at larger 40-80+ Omaha8 cash games if they run since it’s a game I’m extremely comfortable in and see how that plays out.
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