Better Results

On Tuesday i woke up and went to the Venetian for their Deep Stack $340 rather than play the WSOP $1500. Just felt like I needed a break from the Rio. So I got there and got in abt 12:15. My initial table was ok with a few weak spots in the bunch. There were 2 very aggressive internet players, however. Not much happened for me until the 50/100 level (2nd level). UTG was an aggressive young internet player and he raised to 300. I flat called the cut off with A2 of spades and we were heads up. I like to play hands like this in position particularly against an early position raiser. Typically their hands are stronger since they are raising in early position and makes it harder for them to get away from them. Anyway flop comes A2T. He leads at pot for 600. I think for a while and reraise to 1700. He then min-reraises to 3000. I flat call because his hand is pretty much face up as AK. Basically any non king or ten turn card and we are probably getting it in. Turn, of course, is the T counterfeiting my 2 pair. Action goes check-check. River was a blank and he bets 1250 and I fold face up and tell him was lucky and his AK is now good. He shows me AK.

Stack continues to drift down to abt 5000 when I 3 bet all in at new table with blinds at 1/200/25ante. Action in front was raise to 600, 2 callers and I wake up with AQ and ship it. Original raiser calls with 99 and I actually won a coin flip. Got me up to abt 11k. Little later I win another all in at 150/300/25with QQ vs. AK and all of the sudden I am pretty deep stacked with 22k or so. Table was pretty weak tight and I was raising and 3 betting a good bit preflop and got my stack up to about 26k before losing a few medium pots and drifting down to 20k. Then big hand of the tournament came up at 3/600/75a. I raise to 1800 under the gun holding AKsuited. Terrible female player shoves all in for 12.5k. Folds back to me and I call to see AJ offsuit. Flop comes JTx. Here we go again! urn is a K...bingo! River is a Q for a chopped pot. That was a gay river card 4 sho!! Instead of having over 30k in chips I am stuck at 20k +/- still. Her play is basically ell-oh-fucking-ell. Then she has the nerve to tell me "I thought you might have that". Ma'am if that is true "Why the fuck are you shoving over an UTG raiser with AJ?"

ANyway once that happens I go card dead and basically can't win shit and am getting blinded down. Finally at 4/800/100 I am down to about 14k in chips and am looking for a good reshove spot. this is a play where a late position player raises then I can shove over him with any hand basically but more likely a hand that flops well. Broadway cards, suited connecters, etc. Finally I get my spot. Button raises to 2400. I wake up with QTdd and shove over him with abt 14k. BB then tanks. Uh oh. He is a good internet player and I'm sure knows exactly what my play is. He finally reshoves for like 30k to isolate and button folds. BB has 88 and off we go the races for a big loss for Bri-Bri. Oh well. Gotta win races to win poker tournaments. So out at abt 175th of original 750ish.

With that bustout they were starting a nightly 2nd chance for $125 and I just jumped in for shits and giggles. Wow was the play bad. Totally full of weak tight donkeys who couldn't wait to get all fo their money in with one pair hands and AT preflop...lol. First hand I played I flopped a set of 5s and value towned this old man who kept commenting how he knew I only had AK on every street and that he was a soul reader...blah blah blah. Finally I shoved the river to look weak and he caled with pocket 7s on a 5TJ33 board. Good thing is that this donkey kept busting the other idiots out so he kept getting more chips to donk off to me. Little later I flopped a 9-K str8 and value towned him every street again so he could show a pair of kings. These guys were hysterically bad. That put me up over 25k in chips with abt 75 remaining. Blinds got silly and players were busting out left and right. With 5 tables left I got moved to find a new table of donks (though there were 2 solid players there). I slowly kept building chips up to abt 60k when the big hand came up. We were down to 30 players and 27 cashed or so with blinds at 1500/3000/500. I raised the button with AK suited to 8k (I had been raisng basically every other hand and they had all but surrendered). SB thought for a while and shoved all in for abt 80k, covering me. I thought for a few minutes and new he wouldn't do this with KK or AA so lets go. I call to see 55. Good aggressive play by him if I am raising as much as I am. Well I win the race and am now the chip leader with over 120k. I burst the bubble by shoving every hand all in to pick up the ~9500 in chips in the middle and finally getting called by AT. I had A6 and spiked a 6 on the turn. Stack up over 200k at this point. Once the bubble burst I tightened up again and played solid while the short stacks went all in with each other over and over again.

Big hand popped up again when I raised 77 UTG at 4/8000/1000a to 22,000. SHort stack shoved for 34k. Button then agonizes and calls 34k. Unfortunalely I can't reraise since the shove was not a complete raise. Button has to have 2 broadway cards here or medium pair. Flop comes T34. No way that hit him like ever if he is a decent player. With over 110k in the pot and with him only having 50k behind, I shove. He calls with AT...HE HAW HEEEE HAW. Calls off half his stack with AT. Very good sir. Turn is a blank but the river is a gorgeous black 7! Bust him out and have over 250k at this point. Finally a player busts and we are at the final table.

Here I decided to play a bit tighter and wait for my spot. Pay range was 500 for 10th all the way up to $7,700 for 1st. There were 2 or 3 players basically telling us that they were trying to move up the pay scale. So I chose to attack them when they were in the blinds. Unfortunately, I raised to 55k at 10000/20000/4000a with QTdd on one of their BB and he reraise all in for like 30k more. I have to call and tell him his AA is pretty money he laughs and shows AA. I hit a T on flop and brick off and am down to 120k or so. Go through the blinds and am suddenly one of the shortstacks. Basically looking for a good spot to ship and didn't get any. Unfortunately the table captain big stack was directly on my left so I couldn't raise him very light. Finally I had A5 and shoved. Smaller stack 2 to my left called blind and spiked a T for most of the pot. Down to 50k. Last hand was 15k/30k/5ka and I am in small blind. I shove blind for 55k or so and big stackcalls. I let the board play out and squeeze....23 off...lol. He has A2 and wins. Out in 6th for ~1k. So close again.

Today I woke up and had no interest in tournaments so I just played cash games all day for a ~$500 profit. Tomorrow I will be playing late in the Venetian PLO $550. Looking forward to that. then back home on Friday. Hopefully PLO will be the ticket to a deep run.