I suppose every poker player has an idle fantasy about stacking a giant pot in the World Series of Poker main event, or having a day where literally everything goes your way. That happened to me on Thursday. I sat down and there was some Asian kid on my direct left wearing a fabric mask over his nose and mouth like some cheap imitation version of El Diablo. I found it purely ridiculous, but of course said nothing. The kid raised the first five hands of the day, once on a three-bet, and I decided that needed to stop, and soon. He started the day with about 60000 in chips. We were playing 300 600, so each of his pots was around 2000, so he was up to perhaps 75,000 on the sixth hand. Action folds to the button, who raises to 1800. The imitation masked man raised to 5100, and I found 9c9s in the big blind and took it up to 15K. The button mucked instantly and the kid thought for a while and called. Js 7s 4c on the flop. Kid checks, I bet 19,000 into 32700 and he tanks. Three minutes go by and I call for a clock. I'm not going to deal with idiot tanking in spots that are simply not that difficult. He sighs and mucks, and we're off to the races.
The original raiser in the hand with the kid is some guy named Lee. About an hour in, I ran a three-street bluff with Ah 7h on Qc 6c 5s 4h 2c. Lee had raised from the button and I'd three-bet from the big. He had folded to two of my three-bets against his button raises and called this one. After my three-bet, I led every street. He tanked on the river and angrily folded, and I could hear him having a conversation about how aggressive I was being with the gentleman to his left. My bluff here is a little spewy, but I had a read that he wasn't strong and I could have all kinds of big hands here.
Fast forward four hours, and I've been running insanely hot. I've won virtually every pot I've played, most of them small, and have run my initial stack of 102,600 up to about 280,000. For his part, Lee is just as hot -- he flopped a straight flush and got two streets, then turned sixes full against fours full and landed a big one. I have gotten the sense that he dislikes me mildly; our end of the table has some cheerful banter going on, and his crew at the far is largely silent. He had about 260,000 chips and was second at the table when the following went down:
Lee raises to 2500 from the hijack, which put me on the button. We're playing 500 1000. I flat Td9d in position. Everyone else folds. 7500 in the middle.
The flop comes Ac 7s 8s.
Lee's range from the hijack is pretty wide, but includes all Ax. I'd have raised with AK/AQ/AJ and some Axs, so I think this range likely hits him a little harder than it does me. To my mild surprise, he checks. I have no showdown value but a fair amount of equity, so I bet 6000 to see if I can take it down. He check-raises to 16000, representing a big A. We're playing ridiculously deep for a tournament here, and I think for about ten seconds and decide to peel one off.
The Jd hits the turn, giving me the nut straight with flush draws and bigger straight draws on the board.
Lee usually bets pretty fast, but he thinks here for almost a minute. There's 39500 in the middle. After a bit, he leads for 18000 -- about half the pot. I know instantly what I'm going to do, but I too think for about thirty seconds, and count out 64,000 in big beautiful orange $5k chips. Raise. Lee instantly says "all in" for 160,000 more. I snap call, and am dead sure I don't want to see a spade hit the river, but the look of dismay on his face is one for the ages: he shows Qs Th, for a straight draw for which I hold a blocker 9.
I fade his seven outs and I'm chipleader in a 1500-person field. WTF.
As for Kabuto, I went with a poker player friend of mine who doesn't like sushi all that much. I didn't warn him about omakase until we were in a cab and committed to the restaurant, and he was less than pleased. Finally, I agreed that he could give me any items from his omakase that he didn't like, and in exchange, he could take one from me that he found appetizing.
Kabuto is spare, very Zen, and quite pleasant. The food is delicious. I got an extra dose of monkfish liver and uni, which my friend didn't like, and he stole half of a fatty tuna hand roll that was out of this world, so I asked the chef to make another. My friend stole that one too, so I asked for a third. My friend looked at me as though he was going to steal that one too, so I just said "I'm richer than you are hungry. We can do this all night." I highly recommend the restaurant. It's pricey, and I wouldn't eat there every night, but if you like sushi at all, it's very, very good.
Apologies for a less than fully artful trip report. I'm a bit short on time. We're back at day three after 2c played yesterday; I'm fifth overall in chips with 531,000. Blinds are 1000-2000, so at 215BB I'm still ridiculously deep. I slept well and soundly and am about to head out for a morning walk. I'm in a good frame of mind. I expect today will slow way down as we approach the money bubble. I'm not interested in a mincash and will take good opportunities as I find them.
And, thanks, OOT, for your support. I like this place.