Maybe not the best use of my last full day in Vegas for this time, but I headed out here this morning with plans to not play a single cash game hand:
The South Point logo is visible on the door, and I went here to try their 10:05am $60 tournament! It has 20 minute levels, and 15k chips, and not a completely awful structure.
My first buy-in basically went to pieces. I first lost against a short-ish stack with my
AKdd vs QQ (preflop), then was card-dead for a long time, got very short, found
AKo, jammed it in there, and lost to A8cc. Standard.
I bought in again, and the second bullet fared much better. I raise up
AJo on 4-800-800 to 2000, and BB jams for around 12k. Felt borderline, but I had already seen this guy push all-in twice before, so he seemed to not just nit it up. So I made the call, and
held up against his KQdd on a low board.
That table then broke, and I get moved to a nearby one. I sit down and see a limp for 800 and a raise to 3000 from a guy who:
1) Has huge earbuds and sunglasses.
2) Looks completely stone faced and like a real douchebag grinder.
(apologies if I offend someone with this description, but the entire look was just so overdone that it just looked miserable).
So I 3-bet
AThh to 10k, fully knowing I am commiting myself against this guy. And sure enough, he jams. I call, and he shows up with
TT. Ok, so he actually had a real hand, but no sweat, I am still 30% and will still have over 10k back if I lose.
I do not lose as the board comes
4-Q-5-K-J. A very lucky suckout, and the guy leaves in a huff. We now have over 40k in our stack, which is a great start. Don't remember when this picture was taken, probably somewhere after that hand:
I win a few more small pots and feel in total control of the table. Then we get
AKo from UTG and raise to 2600 at 600-1200-1200. An OMC from EP1 3-bets to 6500, before OMC in seat 2 jams for 22k. Pretty insane action, but we are not talking about a lot of big blinds, and I cover the 3-better pretty decently. So I jam all-in, and he is being a nit and folds AKo.
The OMC that jammed does however have
QQ, which holds up. So just like that I lose around 35% of my stack.
Just a few hands later, it folds to SB who jams for only 9000. I look down at
A2o in the BB. Feels borderline given his look, but it's just 7.5 bb and he might just try to gamble it up right before the re-entry period ends. So I call, but end up
losing to KQ suited.
The great start has been descimated and I am down to 20000 chips after break, with blinds moving to 1000-1500-1500. This was the situation just before re-entry ended:
I come back and do a good job staying afloat, winning some pots here and there while the field size drops quickly. Just in one level after break we lost over 20 players, and it continued in that vein. The structure was obviously very shallow now, but I somehow made it down to a redraw of 27 players, with top 21 getting paid. The lowest payouts were only $97 USD however, so my plan was certainly not to nit it up to min-cash.
Even though I had stayed alive through many levels now, I was never called when all-in, so I never had any big confrontations. That left with me 45k at 2000-4000-4000, with blinds moving to 3000-6000-6000 in less than 2 minutes. We are 25 players left, and I find
33 from third position. That will have to do, and I just checked in SnapShove that 33+ is the pairs you push from this position.
An OMC in SB calls with
AJo, so we have a flip.
Q-9-4-6.... J. Of course a Jack on the river, and I am completely descimated with 7000 chips left.
I fold my two hands from early position (utter trash), and I am forced all-in from BB. I get moved table for this hand, and there is a raise upfront from MP + a call from SB. I look down at my hand and see
83cc, and the flop comes
9-8-7 one club. Not too terrible, SB checks, MP moves all-in, and SB folds. He shows
A9o, so we have 5 outs, but they do not come to fruition.
24th place and $120 USD lost. Utterly frustrating, because even though it's a small buy-in the field size alone makes it fairly attractive, and if I had gotten that double up I would have liked my chances to reach FT. But apart from that AT-hand earlier I was really not running well in all-ins.
Back at NYNY now, on a rainy Vegas day. Will head out and find a (hopefully good) cash game now. Stats-update can wait for tonight.