Foxwoods

I ended up staying in Vegas 24 hours too long. During my last day, I managed to get sick (still recovering) and drop almost 5k (playing poorly) in the 10/20 NL game at Bellagio. Still, I had an awesome time during my extended week in Vegas (I highly recommend skydiving to all) and it was a successful trip on the poker front as well. I was up ~8k in cash games, which combined with my tourney cash made for a very nice week. In addition, the whole week reminded me how much I enjoy playing live poker and made me that much more excited for the World Series this June.

I arrived in Foxwoods yesterday afternoon after a very brief weekend in Chicago for a family wedding. I registered for the 2k tourney and immediately sat down in a 10/25 game with Kenna James, Kathy Liebert and Al Krux. The game was full of action and I felt short stacked after buying in for 4k.

After playing in the game for about an hour, I was dealt 4d,4c on the button and I smooth called a raise from late position to 125. Kenna called the raise from the big blind and Al called after limping under the gun. We took the flop 4-handed and it came down 10d,8c,4h. Kenna and Al checked and the preflop raiser led for 400. Kenna and Al were both fairly short stacked and looking to gamble so I decided to play the hand deceptively and just smooth called. Kenna then check raised all-in for ~2,100. Al quicly mucked and the preflop raiser tanked before calling. I shoved over the top confident that the preflop raiser had an overpair. The preflop raiser mucked A10 face up. We didn't flip the hands, but Kenna muttered something about probably drawing dead and Kathy said something about hearts. Turn Ah, river 9h, and Kenna turns over Kh10h for the runner runner stone cold nuts. OBVIOUSLY! I was probably 96% to win after the flop, but that is poker I guess...I grinded back to almost even before giving a little back before the end of the night and ended the session down about ~1k.

I got cracked early in the 2k tourney this morning. There were about 180 players and we started with 8k in chips and 25/50 blinds. I just never got anything going and probably only won two or three small pots the whole tourney. I lost three critical hands and that was it...First, I raised with QQ from under the gun to 300 at 50/100 blinds and got three callers. The flop came down 9c,5h,4h and I led for 875. The one solid player in the hand made it 2200 to go and I thought for a while before folding. Against a solid player early in a tourney (especially given my read that he was strong), this is a pretty standard fold as he most likely has a set or two big hearts. He told me later that he had 55 and I believe him. Next, down to about 6,500 in chips, I checked in the big blind with Js,7h and we took the flop 5-handed at 100/200 blinds. The flop came down Jd,4d,3h. The small blind (kind of a maniac) led for 650. I felt like he was weak and decided to raise small to 1,650. He smooth called and then led 1,400 when the turn came 10s. This bet seemed very very strange to me and I decided that my opponent most likely had diamonds (I also thought he may have turned two pair and just decided to play it weird). I almost raised but decided to call instead. The river came down with the 4h and my opponent checked. I checked behind and my opponent showed Kh,4s for trip 4s on the river. Well played sir! I especially liked the check on the river. In all seriousness, I misplayed the hand on the turn and should have gone with my read and raised. A crippling river nonetheless. Down to about 3,800 in chips, I trail limped with As9s from the button and we took the flop 5-handed at 100/200. The flop came down 8s,7s,3h giving me two overs and the nut flush draw. An agressive player from early position led for 700 and I made it 1,800 to go, committing myself to the hand. The original better shoved in and I called knowing I was behind. He showed 8,7 for top two. The 10d on the turn gave me six more outs, but the Qc on the river missed them all. I misplayed this hand from the start as I probably should have either folded or raised preflop. My read on the flop was poor as well, but when I am short stacked I am looking to gamble and this seemed like a good opportunity. Overall, I feel like I played ok and getting cracked early is not the worst thing (bubbling is much more painful).

My table had two solid pros and several weak players. It may have just been my table, but I was surprised given the 2k buy-in and more importantly, the 10am, Monday morning start time. Still, I expect the 3k and 5k fields to be smaller and much much tougher. Off to grab some lunch and then back to the cash games.