On Monday night I got a facebook message from one of my old E-Division buddies, Art Hinahon, from the submarine. He and his family had just checked into the Rio! We decided to meet up for coffee on Tuesday morning at 9:30. It was great to see him again and we had a good time hanging out and I showed him the Pavilion, the Amazon Room, and the WSOP store also. I ended up buying myself a sweatshirt that has ear buds on the ties and an I-Pod connection in the pocket. It's pretty sweet!
After hanging out with Art for a bit, I drove to the Orleans to meet up with Paul and Amy. Amy went to the spa while Paul and I played the $75 Hold 'em tournament at noon. The tournament drew 48 players and five would make the money. The Orleans allows re-entries for the first two levels and one guy at my table re-entered after the first hand. Seeing as everyone starts with 7,500 chips, I don't know how anyone goes bust on the first hand, but this guy got all his chips in on the river with 7♦ 5♦ against A♦ 9♦ on a K♣ 10♦ 8♠ 3♦ 2♦ board.
My tournament started well. At the 50/100 level I had A♥ 10♠ in the SB and it folded to me. I raised to 250 and the BB called. The flop came Q♠ 4♥ 2♣; I bet 300 and the BB folded. The next revolution, I had A♦ 5♣ on the button and raised to 250 again. The SB called and we saw a flop of 4♣ 4♦ 2♥. He checked and I checked behind. He checked again when the 9♠ hit the turn, I bet 350, and he folded.
On the last hand of the 50/100 level I had K♥ K♣ UTG+1 and the UTG player raised to 350. I raised to 1,200 and only the UTG player called. The flop came 10♠ 8♦ 4♣, and my opponent checked. I bet 2,100 and he folded. I showed him the kings and he told me he had folded A-K.
With the blinds at 75/150 later I had 3♠ 3♣ in middle position facing a raise to 350. I called to try to flop a set and two more players called as well. The flop came Q♥ 7♥ 4♦ and two players went to war over the pot. They had A-Q and K-Q which eliminated the second player. This was the only hand that I played for quite a while.
Late in the 100/200 blind level I was dealt A♥ A♣ UTG. I raised to 600 and was called by an older man in the cutoff seat. The flop came 10♦ 7♣ 7♦ and I bet 1,100. I was willing to go broke with my hand I think, but my opponent folded. This brought my chip stack to 9,125 at the first break. Paul was down a bit at the break, at 5,500 or so, but he felt good about the way he was playing, so we were both pretty upbeat.
Soon after the break I was dealt A♠ K♦ in middle position. The blinds were 150/300 with a 25 ante and an early position player raised to 800. I decided to 3-bet to 2,200. He seemed close to folding, but ended up calling my raise. The flop came 9♥ 5♥ 4♣ and he checked. It scared the hell out of me, but I decided to bet 3,000. Not betting here is like waving a white flag, letting my opponent take the pot away from me. I was worried that he had a small to medium pocket pair and would move all-in, hoping that I have A-K or a similar hand. Much to my relief, my opponent folded. I was moved to another table right afterwards and I didn't see Paul or his chips at his table when I got up. Turns out he got in a battle of the blinds with the maniac from the first hand that re-entered the tournament and was now at Paul's table. Paul had A-J on a flop of J-8-x and the maniac raised him all-in. Paul thought he was on a draw and called. He was right; the maniac flipped over 10-9, meaning that Paul was around 67% to win and double-up. Unfortunately, a 7 hit the turn and Paul lost to the maniac's straight and was eliminated.
I was extremely card dead at my new table. I did raise UTG holding 6♥ 6♣ to steal the blinds, but I did nothing but fold other than that for over an hour. There was a middle aged man at the table that did not like seeing flops and just pushed all-in any time that he liked his hand (or thought he found a good spot). I will push all-in liberally when I get short stacked, but this guy was shoving 7,000 chips into the pot when the BB was only 300 chips!
At the 200/400/50 level I had 9♥ 9♦, and the bozo shoved all-in for 8,500 chips. I had about 10,000 and I thought about it for quite a while. The thought occurred to me that if I called and lost I could hang out with Paul and Amy, but then I thought "Screw that! This is a poker decision and I shouldn't let any outside parameters influence my decision." I finally decided that I was in a decent position in the tournament and that I did not need to gamble in this spot, so I grudgingly folded.
At the 300/600/75 level I was dealt 10♦ 9♥ in the BB. A player limped from early position and the SB completed. I happily checked to see a free flop with my dangerous hand. The flop came A♠ J♣ 9♠ and we all checked. The turn was the 7♣ and the SB checked again. I thought there was a very good chance that I was best, so I bet 1,100. The limper folded, but to my surprise the SB called. The river was the K♠ and the SB checked again. Betting would be pretty pointless since I'm not making a better hand fold and a worse hand would almost never call, so I checked as well. The SB showed A♣ 8♦ to win the pot.
A few hands later I had J♠ J♦ in middle position and an early position player moved all-in for 4,900. With roughly 7,500 chips, my decision was easy. I raised all-in. Nobody called and the all-in player showed K♣ 10♥. The board came A♥ 9♠ 4♣ 6♣ Q♥ and I knocked a player out of the tournament and raised my stack to 13,200 at the break in the process!
At the 400/800/100 level I had 5♦ 5♣ in the SB. The player UTG min-raised to 1,600 and UTG+1 called. I decided to call, hoping to flop a 5 and win a big pot. The flop came Q♣ 4♣ 2♦ and I checked. UTG bet 2,100, UTG+1 raised all-in and UTG folded. A few hands later I was dealt K♥ Q♠ on the button and the UTG player raised to 2,500. I seriously considered raising all-in, but I decided to fold and he showed the table A♠ K♦. Glad I folded!
Finally our table broke as the tournament moved to the final two tables. I stole the blinds w/ Q-9 once and shoved my remaining 8,500 with 8-8 after a player limped in to steal his limp. After the blinds went up to 600/1200/200 I looked down at Q♥ Q♦ UTG and I raised to 2,500. The player to my left, who was on my first table as well, 3-bet to 6,000. I moved all-in for 10,800 total and he called with A♣ J♠. The board came 6♥ 5♥ 4♠ 2♥ 7♥ and I more than doubled my stack to 24,600! My opponent was left with only about 4,000 and went out on the next hand.
A few hands after that I had 7♦ 6♦ in middle position and decided to try and steal the blinds. I raised to 3,000, but the SB moved all-in for 9,200 total. There was 12,000 in the pot and I had to call 6,200 which is pretty close to 2-to-1 pot odds. I only need to win 33% of the time to make calling correct so I called, hoping he would show A-K or 4-4, both of which I would be only a slight underdog against. He actually had 8♥ 8♦ which had me in big trouble. But the dealer rolled out Q♣ 5♥ 4♣ 3♠ A♣ and I sucked out with a straight to knock him out of the tournament and increase my stack to 38,000! There were a couple of guys shaking their heads so when I stole the blinds a few hands later I showed my A♥ Q♣ and said, "Figured I'd show you guys a legitimate hand this time." We got a decent laugh out of it.
I picked up J♥ 10♥ on the button a couple revolutions later and raised to 3,000. The BB called and pushed all-in on a flop of A♠ J♠ 2♦ for 5,200 more. We had played together for quite a while and he was even tighter than me. He had to have an ace. I folded my middle pair and he showed the ace. I told him that I'd folded a jack, which I'm sure surprised everyone that saw my call with 7-6 earlier.
At the 800/1600/300 level I picked up K♦ 10♥ UTG and raised to 4,000. The table was six handed so my raise wasn't too loose. The BB called and shoved all-in on a flop of A♥ Q♠ Q♣, which was a pretty easy fold for me. I limped two hands later with 6♣ 5♣ from the SB after a late position player had already limped. The flop came J♦ 8♥ 3♥, which gave me an easy check-fold. The next hand I raised K♠ J♣ from the button and the blinds folded. After we played one more hand 11th place was eliminated and we combined the ten remaining players onto the final table.
On the final table, the maniac from Paul's table earlier was the overwhelming chip leader while I was in about sixth chip position. I had to fold 6♣ 6♦ to an early position 9,000 chip all-in because calling and losing would be much more detrimental than calling and winning would be beneficial. Later I was on the button, holding J♥ J♦. I had to raise the chip leader's big blind and I would have moved in for my tournament life, but it was pretty scary. He folded and we went to break with nine players remaining. I had 36,500 chips, still good for around sixth place.
Upon returning from break the blinds were 1000/2000/500. The table was playing squeaky tight because nobody wanted to miss the money. We were discussing possible deals, but the chip leader wanted to eliminate a few more people first. Ninth place went out when he ran A-K into A-A. Unfortunately the winner was the other short stack, which left no painfully short stacks left. Lucky for me, I was walked on both of my big blinds so my stack wasn't dropping as I folded. The other shortish stacks were dropping and finally another one bit the dust to leave us with seven. I asked the chip leader if he would consider a deal now and he said that he was down for his trip and needed $700 to break even. I asked if he would chop if we got him $700 and he said sure. I asked the tournament director to run the numbers and he said that if one player got $700 and the other six split, we would each get $405. Everyone was quick to agree and we had a deal! Finally a meaningful cash on this trip!
Looking back on it, I can't believe the chip leader chopped. Second place would have paid $780 and first $1,220. I think I would have asked for at least $800, if not $900. I think we wore him down. It was an easy decision for me since I was still in sixth chip position and only five players were slated to get paid. $405 was pretty close to third place money so everyone left happy. Not to mention playing for six hours with nothing to show for it would have sucked.
Afterwards I left with Paul and Amy and we went to dinner at Wolfgang Puck's in Crystals, next to the Aria Casino. The food was excellent, the company was better, and overall we had an awesome time. Later Paul and I dropped Amy off at their hotel and we went to Bill's Gamblin' Hall to play in the $0.50/$1 cash game. Yeah, we're high rollers. We played until around midnight and called it a night.
Speaking of calling it a night, I think I will do the same. I will try to catch up tomorrow on my last couple of days dealing tournaments. If you actually made it this far, thanks for reading!
Thanks for being such a great poker table host through Vegas. We had a blast, man!
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