DAY FIVE - 5/27
Listen, here's the thing. Poker is an easy game. You just run really good and win.
After another intense HU battle with the Harrah's shower aka the bathroom flood machine, I walked to Venetian around 10 AM to buy my ticket and get breakfast, which turned out to be an egg sandwich at Fatburger in the Venetian food court. The food wasn't notably bad or good, but the price gouge was real. After the tip, nearly $20 for a meager egg sandwich and two wedges of deep-fried potatoes. Is this a bad omen? The tournament hasn't even started yet and I'm already value-owning myself.
The tournament eventually starts and I'm relieved not to recognize anyone at my table. I see a few of the killers sprinkled around the room, but my table is unknowns (for now). The early table draw rungood is mirrored by actual poker rungood when I make middle set with 88 vs. two pair A6 to double up within the first hour of the event. I'm feeling confident, maybe
too confident, because I soon make a classic poker mistake: I try to bluff an old guy.
I open AhKd UTG. He 3-bets. Uh-oh. If stereotypes are to be believed, old guys don't bluff, and they especially don't 3-bet bluff a UTG open. Still, my hand is too strong to fold. With alarm bells ringing in my head, I opt to flat. Flop is a paired rag board with two hearts, we'll say 966. Not great, but having the Ah is relevant here, as it opens some backdoor possibilities. I check. Villain bets. Maybe this is just a pure fold, but that Ah is working for us and I want to see what he does on the turn just in case he also has AK, AQ, KQ, AJ, etc. I call. Turn brings the 8h. A good card for us. I check to him. He bets again. At this point, I'm about 99% sure he has an overpair, as most players of this type are not going to double-barrel without the goods, especially when the flush draw gets there. I should be folding my hand. Instead I find myself reaching for chips, grabbing more than enough to call, cutting out a chunky raise to apply max pressure. He can't be thrilled that the flush got there, and if he does find the call, there are still lots of good rivers for us. It takes him a while to make a decision. I'm something of a nervous wreck while I wait, which probably doesn't help me tell my having-it story. The longer I wait, the more jittery I become. After a minute or two, he finds the call. River is a brick. Damn. I wave the white flag and check. He checks back and shows QQ to drag a big one.
Although I'm still above starting stack after the bluff-gone-bad, I dumped about 40% of my chips in the hand. It wasn't the worst idea ever, but I didn't need to take that spot. I could've folded turn or maybe just gone for the pure call to try to hit. However, it seems like my reckless aggression has impressed the poker gods, because they swiftly reward me with an incredible rush of cards. Suddenly I'm picking up huge hands left and right. I'm getting all the big pocket pairs. I'm hitting sets. I'm flopping a wheel against an overpair. I'm trapping with KK and getting the perfect flop to stack my unsuspecting opponent. Before you know it, I'm sitting on 100k chips from 25k starting, probably one of the early chip leaders in the room. I know that if I can play okay and not get unlucky, I now have an excellent chance to bag.
The middle stretch of the day is less eventful, as I mostly hover around that 100k mark. My early table draw rungood fades and eventually I find myself surrounded by poker-famous faces. At one point my 9-handed table features Ryan Laplante, Kenny Hallaert, and Cherish Andrews. Not ideal, but this is what we signed up for. When you play a $1k in Vegas, you will eventually come up against some pro types. At this point I'm just trying to focus on fundamentals, play ABC poker, and not give my chips away.
A notable hand develops. I open AJo. Ryan, who has been active, raises. In my head I'm thinking this is a good 4-bet spot. He has been aggressive today with some dusty holdings while I've been blown off a couple hands already. He's probably light here. However, before I can do anything, a player behind both of us shoves. Now I have a clear fold with AJ, which turns out to be a stroke of luck, because Ryan snaps it off with KK and is up against...AJ. The poor sap had the same idea as me and paid for it by shipping a full double. His sacrifice will not be forgotten. I mention this spot because it's an example of how luck factors into these tournaments. This guy getting out of line with AJo saved me from doing the same, which was a huge relief.
I get another huge relief when our table is broken and I'm moved to what seems like a calmer, gentler table. The bubble is maybe 2-3 hours on the horizon when the spot of the night comes up for me. Young UTG player opens standard 2x. I make it about 5x with KK, perhaps going a little too small on my 3-bet sizing. He calls. Flop brings Qd9d and an irrelevant brick. Not a terrible flop. I lead for maybe 40% pot. Too small on a wet board? Maybe. He calls. Turn is the Ah, which isn't exactly a card that I wanted to see. I check. He checks behind. River is another irrelevant brick. I suppose I could lead this river, but what worse hands are calling us? KQ? QJ? It's a pretty thin value spot on this board and the pot is already large, so I opt to check. My opponent slides in a big bet, roughly in the neighborhood of full pot. What does he have? It's hard to say. He can have AQ and take this line. 99 is a possibility. Maybe he floated with AK or AJ and got lucky on the turn. AdXd is out there. Lots of stuff beats KK on this board. However, lots of stuff still loses to KK. Since my 3-bet was on the small side, it's not impossible that he called it with something like 77, 88, QJ. I've checked two streets, so it's obvious that I'm not super strong here. If he's an aggressive player, that's going to invite bluffs. After a semi-long tank, I decided to make the reluctant call with KK, thinking the price is still just too good vs. estimated range. He shows KJ for a busted gutter and nothing else. I drag a huge one.
Usually tournament runs hinge on just a few big hands, and that was the key hand of the night. Had I lost, I would've been crippled. Instead I had a strong stack to navigate the bubble. I wasn't deep enough to play the role of table captain towards the end of the night, but I was never in the danger zone. In the final hour or two, I was able to win uncontested pots with AA, KK, and JJ to stay healthy while others were eliminated. After a very brief hand-for-hand period, an unfortunate soul busted in 36th and the remaining 35 of us bagged up our chips for the night. I'll return to day 2 with a playable stack, though nowhere near the top.
I was already happy from cashing the Wynn event. Making it back-to-back cashes by bagging this Venetian event puts me somewhere between cloud nine and cloud nine thousand. I've locked up another decent payday, but it's also important not to become complacent. There's a tendency to be relieved when you've survived the bubble, like the hard part is done. However, the real money in these things is at the top, so I'll try to live in the moment and play my best game on day 2 until they finally kill me. Then I'll celebrate a little.
On that note, we now have an interesting game of flight chicken unfolding. Day 2 starts at 11 AM. My flight is set to leave after 7 PM. Do I reschedule my flight and extend my stay, or do I just wait and see? Luckily Southwest is very user-friendly when it comes to rescheduling and canceling, so I think I'm going to live dangerously and see what happens. I'll either be on an airplane this evening or bathing in a bath tub full of money, which is preferable to a Harrah's shower.
Last edited by DogFace; 05-28-2024 at 11:39 AM.