Running Good at Wheeler

Man, was I ever running good last night at Wheeler.  Dealing table 2, chipped up nicely until running into the short stack twice.  The first time, he got it all in with 2/2 in a multi-way pot.  With a K/Q suited I called a small raise from his shove to form a nice sized side pot.  The king high flop moved me all-in with the other players folding.  I took the side pot which was close to the size of the main pot.  A turn king was great except that there was a 2 on the flop.  When I failed to pair anything else, he quadrupled up with his full house.  Still pretty short he raised with only me calling with my old friend K/Q.  A king high flop again, we get all our chips in, and he has AK.  Damn!  He now has a lot of chips, I am now short.

A turn around began with my big blind vs. small blind.  I had 8/9, the small blind shoves after a flop that is 9 high.  I call, fearing 2 random pair or a bigger kicker.  Not a problem as he has 6/9.  The turn is a scare card for me despite improving me, an 8 which now gives him an open-ender.  He misses, and I more than double up and now have a viable stack.

Making the final table with a good stack (around 3-4000), I draw seat 2 between an aggressive cash game player and our resident pro, Ray Zee.  The final table was very good to me, with no bad beats given or taken.  My first double up came against the cash game guy.  He had entered the final table as one of the chip leaders and had played very loose and fast, raising with A/5 then calling a big shove from 8/8, busting him with an ace on the flop.  So, after seeing a couple of other similar hands, when he raised UTG I shoved with J/J.  He called, turning over 5/5 and saying, "I hoped you had AK".  He did not catch his 2 outer and I doubled up big.

My next double up was against Ray.  In the big blind with A/5 of clubs, he limped in UTG with KJ of clubs.  The flop came with a queen high flush draw and I bet maybe 1200 into the pot.  He immediately declared all-in with his worse flush draw.  Barely having him covered, I called (gambling this time) and he said something like, "You probably have me now, but I have a big draw".  When he saw my cards, he decided he was drawing almost dead.  The club came on the turn and he was drawing dead.  Player down. 

Now chip leader at the table, Robert raised big from early position with J/J.  I looked at my A/A and called for the all-in button.  Robert called and saw the bad news.  With my history with him was fully expecting a rivered jack, but was pleasantly surprised to have them hold up.  Now, with 6 players left, I had approximately 80% of all chips in play.  Nice!!!  Two of them went all-in, and were both eliminated by Scott.  Paying 5 places, Bob T. cashed, while the cash game guy went home empty handed.  Scott looked at the chip stacks and suggested that I get 1st, he take 2nd, and with Melvin and Gale sitting with only 2 big blinds each that they chop 3rd and 4th place.  We all agreed and the game was over.  My winnings were $430, less buy in and tip, for a net of $350 plus $27 for dealing table 2.  A great night of poker.  

Tough Decisions = Tough Day

On Day 2 of my Vegas trip I had several very tough and costly decisions to make.  As I mentioned in my last post, had forgotten my gamble back in the hotel room.  Must. Take. Gamble. When. Gambling.

So, the first tough decision came during the 11:00 Mirage tournament.  With 10K starting chips, blinds @ 50/100 (first level), I limped in 2 UTG with 7/7 after the player to my right, who I will now refer to as "the obnoxious prick", or TOP.  The button, an aggressive golf attired 30 something made it $650 to play.  Both blinds folded and TOP called as did I.  The flop was awesome for me, 7/6/4 with 2 diamonds.  As this was a very "wet" board heavy with draws, when checked to me I made it $3000 to go, which in retrospect was way too much.  I like pot size bets as they really do define hands and will get all-in action from real hands while giving draws terrible odds.  So, not surprisingly the original raiser folded and the TOP called.  He then began earning his nickname by spouting off things like "did you expect me to fold with your huge bet?"  Well, yes, or re-raise if you thought I was out of line.  So, the turn brings a bad card, an 8, but not a diamond.  So, now a 5 makes the straight, and when it is checked to me, I check back.  (Bad idea? At this point a five beats me, as well as 9/10. I imagine A/5 of diamonds calling both the preflop raise and my big bet.  Also possibly in his range, 5/5, 6/6, 8/8, etc. on up to aces.)  The river is a 9, but no diamond.  This increases the hands that would likely call a big bet to 9/9, 10/10, and even 10/J suited.  Also some suited connectors that I have beaten like 6/7, 7/8, 8/9.  So, now the 1st action is on TOP.  He quietly announces all-in.  The pot is around 7,000, and I have 5-6000 behind.  It is so early in the tournament and he is such a jerk, I decide to fold and lose the battle to fight another day.  Bad decisions?  Bottom line it put me slightly on tilt and also slowed my game down, folding hands I would have played had I won that pot.  I made it down to around 14 players and noted with satisfaction that TOP did not cash.

Enough of that, moving to the 1/3 cash game I continue my non-gambling ways which ends up costing me a small buy-in ultimately.  A couple of the memorable hands were these:

Raising to $12 with KK, a very loose lady who I had noticed favored any two suited cards calls.  The flop is Q/x/x, all spades.  I have red kings.  She bets $20 into me, I fold my kings face up and she shows Q/7 of diamonds.  I had lost an earlier hand to her with her big/little suited vs. my AK when she rivered her kicker on a king high board.

The next big hand had a lot of discussion amongst 3 of us.  I checked from the big blind holding AJ of clubs with several limpers.  The flop came down J/9/x with 2 diamonds.  The small blind bet $6 into the $12 pot and I raised it up to $20.  The button, a young good playing aggressive kid with $300 behind re-raised me to $40.  The small blind folded, and I folded my AJ.  Later he said he had the 8/10 of diamonds, while the other guy said he had K/Q of diamonds.  I did the odds calculation and discovered that the KQ was a big favorite with the 8/10 the dog and me the monkey in the middle with the best current hand.

Here are the odds:

AJ   32.4%
KQ  43%
8/10  24.6%

I really thought the combo draw was ahead, but losing his flush draw makes a huge difference.  With only 2 of us (the kid and me) in the pot, here are the odds:

AJ  43%
8/10  57%

If I had gone heads up with KQ it was even worse:

AJ   39%
KQ  61%

There was no scenario that the kid was folding, he was definitely prepared to call a shove, so good fold on my part with top/top, and good play on his part forcing out the better draw.  Like I said, a day for tough decisions.

Vegas Recap

Have not blogged for a while, but never fear, I have lots to write about.  The Vegas trip was almost a free one.  Southwest Airlines frequent flier mileage, check.  Free (well, not counting the $5. government TSA fee).  Hardrock Hotel free room with my brother, check.  Several meals on his business credit card or with his suppliers or comped from the poker room, check.  Company bus or uber with my brother, free, check.  My only transportation costs were the cab from the airport and two monorail tickets ($5. each).  So, that just left poker expenses.  Here is my profit/loss statement:

Day One, Wednesday
3/6 cash game waiting for tournament at Mirage:  Buy in $100, cash out $81
Tournament:  Buy in $65, cash out $80 (bubble boy....they chopped $300 each moments later)
3/6 cash game:  buy in $100, cash out $106
1/2 no limit game:  buy in $206, cash out $315
Day Two, Thursday
Tournament:  Buy in $65, cash out $0
1/2 cash:  Buy in $300, cash out $125
Day Three, Friday
1/2 cash:  Buy in $160, cash out $163

So, not a profitable trip, but not a big loser either.  My next post will recap some hands that I was either in or watched.  Overall I played pretty well but was very rusty in my cash game skills.  I could have done better the 2nd day had I not left my gamble in the hotel room.  My bad.  I had planned to play a deepstack at the Rio, but was disheartened to hear the 2:00 p.m. one lasted until 5 a.m.  Just couldn't pull together the enthusiasm to play all night, besides wanting to spend some time with the bro. Unusual for me not to even go to the WSOP, but have seen it all before and really comfortable playing at the Mirage which now pays $2/hr. comps.  Accumulated around $40 worth during my stay, enough for a great buffet and a dinner at the deli.

Best Finish This Year (at Legion)

We had 4 tables of players on Friday.  I agreed to deal table 3 since two regular dealers, Mike and Gail were in Las Vegas for the WSOP tournament and I figured we needed some help.  Cards were kind to me, chipping up early on a monster bluff against one of the best players (they are the only ones you can bluff :) ).  Also, getting very lucky with my shove against a big raise.  My QQ was a huge dog vs. his AA, but managed to catch a queen on the flop and dodge a 4th spade as he had the ace.

Making the final table for a change felt great and just hung in there, losing a big pot near the end when a player flopped trip jacks.  He later lost them all to the eventual winner, as did another big stack, the dealer, who lost with his AQ vs. AJ.  We got down to 3 players, the dealer and I having about the same count and the leader outchipping us 7 to 1 combined.  We agreed to chop the 2nd and 3rd place for $219 each.  My dealer tip exactly covered the tip I gave, so netted $179.  It felt good to finish near the top as have been running very bad at the Legion.

I leave tomorrow for Las Vegas.  At Safeway today ran into Saraj, who deals the WSOP.  She is also leaving soon and we chatted briefly about the best tournaments to play.  She likes the Rio deepstack as the "juice" is much less than most Vegas tournaments.  Planning to sign up for the 2:00 DS on Wednesday.  

To Deal or Not to Deal. That is the question.

I had sworn off dealing after an early ugly departure a few weeks ago.  I just wanted to take a break from the dealing grind and see if my playing results improved.  They did.  After cashing in 3 straight tournaments then not cashing in one, decided to get back on the horse.  So, Friday night I volunteered for table 2, my favorite, since it pays pretty good with 40 players and you don't have to stay until the bitter end.  Things did not go well for me there.  After a couple of beats, down to a few hundred in chips.  Managing to shove twice with callers was back up past starting chip stack when my last hand happened.  Ray was running over the table and picking up aggression.  I strongly defended his button raise from the big blind with all my chips and he folded.  Just as suspected, he was raising from chip strength and position.  So, when Robert, very short, shoved with around 600, and Ray re-raised from the button, I called with my 7/7.  The flop came down 8 high and as first action, I went all in.  Ray hesitated slightly (he knows from experience that I would not have called his re-raise without a made hand), but then called me.  Robert revealed a weak ace, Ray 10/10 and I was drawing thin.  His 10's held up and Robert and I were both eliminated.  Given the information on hand, don't see how that could have gone much different.  If I had checked, he definitely would have protected his hand from overcards and I could have folded, but would have been really short again.  Given the pot size, my best option was to bet and hope to see his AK.

There were many bad beats dealt at my table, hey guys, don't shoot the messenger!  Here are some examples:

"nut flush" (ace high), beaten on the river by 7/9 suited on a board of 8/10/J of diamonds.  This straight flush knocked off the high hand (worth $80), which was quad 7's (a bad beat in its own right when the pocket aces flopped a set vs. pocket 7's flopped set on the first hand of the tournament).

Two rivered four flushes to knock off better hands with their lone card of the suit.  Both players who were way ahead were knocked out....This also happened once but the player had enough chips to survive it.

K/4 turned full house (4/4/K/x board) chopped with player holding only a king.  Well, that sucked! He is a tight player who got lucky in the unraised big blind only to chop.

One player ( good friend) complained that I had dealt him 3 bad beats.  He recovered enough to make the final table, so quit your bitchin'.