Before I get into that final table, I do finally have some golf to report on. Monday was the qualifier for the MD Am and MD Open. I had been fortunate to have been exempt from qualifying for a bunch of years beginning in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, I was not exempt for 2009 and went to an absolute dog track to qualify and played like turds and missed. SO not wanting to do that again I chose to qualify at Rolling Road CC where I played HS golf. I have played there a million times and although not a great golf course I know it well and usually in good condition. Rewind to Monday, I drop my daughter off at school at 7:45 and begin my ~25-30 minute drive to RRCC which should get me there in plenty of time for my 9 a.m. tee time. Well at 8:45 I was still 10 minutes out and I had to make an emergency trip to the potty. Fortunately, tee times were about 5 mins behind schedule so I was able to do my business, hit one or two putts and get to the tee in time.
First hole I stuffed a 9 Iron to 4 feet and made that, then parred the difficult 2nd and pretty much cruised to an easy 71 getting me in with shots to spare. So June I will play the MD Am at Congressional CC and July will be the MD Open at Manor CC. So that is good because when you fail to qualify for these events it really feels like a wasted summer golf wise.
Now back to the Borgata. The day before I had busted rather disappointingly in the ME and considered getting out of town. But a buddy of mine convinced me to stay and play the Tuesday $400 tournament. So I signed up on time for once and found my seat with muffin, caffeinated soda (tough getting to your seat by Noon), I phone, earphones and hoody in hand. I drew seat 9 at one of the outer tables and sat down to recognize no one. I could immediately tell that this group was much softer than yesterday's field. Here is a rundown of the collection I faced:
Seat 1...Some kind of farmer or something. He was quiet but filthy. Also played really bad playing virtually every hand raised or unraised. I will stack this donk later.
Seat 2...Some kind of foreign dude from parts unknown. He seemed to have trouble with his teeth. Trouble being he didn't have very many. He seemed to be in a big hurry to get all of his chips in with 1 pair.
Seats 3-7...Collection of older and younger weak tight players with out any apparent clue. Really nothing in this group to be concerned about.
Seat 8...Middle aged dude with hideous breath. Kept breathing all over me and played a lot of pots with trouble hands like KJ, AT, QJ, etc. Not a bad player but maybe a bit loose with these hands that can get you in trouble.
Seat 9...Yours truly
Seat 10...Younger, competent player I have seen around before. Knows the game and likes to tell people what they have but not in an obnoxious way. Not really wanting to play a huge pot with him out of position.
So I ran really well in the first level picking up AK, AQ, JJ, 99 and 66 (flopping a set) when a really good one comes up. Seat 1 has been playing every single pot when I open AA UTG to 150 at 25/50 blinds. He 3 bets me to 450 and folds back to me. Against a better player I may flat call some non-zero percentage of the time but not against this cat. I 4 bet to 1600 (larger than normal as I want to try and get him all in on the flop or turn). He calls and his hand is basically face up as TT, JJ or QQ with the occasional AK thrown in for good measure (I guess he may show up with 88 or 99 at times too). KK gets it in pre-flop and low pairs probably don't 3 bet call. So pretty much his hand is heavily weighted to JJ or QQ. To be fair my hand is completely face up to any thinking player as KK or AA. I am never putting this many chips in at 25/50 with less. Flop comes 456 with 2 hearts and I bet 2200. He insta-snap shoves and I call to see QQ and I hold putting me up over 22k. I hung around there chipping up to ~25k just making hands. No particularly great play on my part just making good hands.
Then Dwyte Pilgrim got moved to my table in seat 1. He is a 3 time WSOP Circuit ring winner with multiple other final tables and big cashes. I have no direct experience with him but my expectation based on some of the reports I have read about him is that he will be highly aggressive and think he can outplay everyone at the table. So when I raise AA to 600 at 100/200 and he calls the button I suspect this may be a big pot (BB calls as well). Flop comes A45 with 2 clubs and I c-bet 1200 and only Dwyte calls. Turn is pretty good 5c boating me up. I think for a while and bet 3100 into the 4k+ pot. He calls rather quickly which is really weak generally like he wants to steal the river. River is really good for me 7 clubs. HE only had abt 10k in his stack so I was trying to figure out the best way to get a lot of those chips in. Finally decided to check. Hopefully he has like AQ with the Q clubs or just sense that I was scared of the 4 clubs on the board. He then pounces as I expected and bets 6k. I put on a few minute act then ship it all in and he just sits there motionless. Finally he folds and I guess he was completely full of it. So that gets the stack up over 35k.
I then got moved to a new table still with my ~35k stack. First hand I played I raised QQ UTG for 1100 at 200/400/50a. Folds to BB who tanks for a while and finally raises big to 4100 which is half of his stack. He appears to be a competent player who realizes that I am raising UTG and not trying to steal from late position. I can't call and shipping seems LOL bad since his play looks super strong. What I mean by that is I am only getting called by AA, KK or AK (maybe JJ if he is really bad but I don't think he is). So shoving is just not good IMO. So I opted for the safe route and folded face up and the table was flabbergasted. He shows me KK and I feel good about that.
Get moved again to Table 1 meaning I would be there until the redraw at 18 players. One of the first hands there at 300/600/75 a short stack shoves abt 5500 and I call in BB with 44 and hold against his J9s. I continue to run over the table a bit raising and 3 betting a bit more than normal and am up to over 50k when a young aggro internet kid gets moved 3 to my left. He immediately starts opening a ton of pots and trying to become table captain. Finally, he opens a pot in early position and I 3 bet in the BB with JJ. Blinds were 300/600/75s and he opened to 1600. I 3 bet bigger than normal to 5200 and he calls. Flop comes AA7 with 2 clubs. Now at first blush this may look like a bad flop for me but I think he almost never has an A here. Internet players don't play 3 bet pots with AJ, AT type hands and love to 4 or 5 bet with AK. SO unless he has AQ or tried to get tricky with AK he never has an A here. I decided to lead which may or may not have been a mistake and lead for 6500. He insta raises me to 15k and I start thinking. The only hand I really am worried about is 77 but why would he raise me if he has that hand? Why not let me bluff off with AK or AQ if I am that strong. So I really am pretty confident I am good here. Problem is if I call here he is I have to be willing to go all the way as he is not going to give up. So after a good bit of thinking I decided to take the wimpy route and fold. He shows 75s but I don't really get too upset about it. It is what it is. I read the situation right and just couldn't pull the trigger. I probably should have played that flop a bit slower and kept the pot smaller against an aggro maniac.
Played one more hand before dinner break at 400/800/100. Guy 2 to my right makes it 2400 and I call button with AQ. Flop comes AT7 rainbow, he bets 3000 and I call. Turn was a blank (2 I think) and action goes check-check. River is an A and he insta bets 10k and I beat him into the pot. This is a retard bet and makes zero sense given the action. He insta mucks and I drag a nice one.
At dinner I have a bit over 60k.
Back from dinner and I really just chipped up rather easily until I had about 80k. Called a few all ins and won some flips and was up over 100k when I made a real bonehead play. Blinds were 1000/2000/200a and a different kid was opening a ton of pots but really big opens. So he opens to 9000 and I wake up with JJ and 3 bet to 22k. HE ships 60k and I have to call to see AA. I am pissed because this is really a bad 3 bet spot. I am stuck calling if he shoves and if he shoves I am basically only ahead of AK. Plus I was picking up chips so easily it just wasn't necessary to play a pot for 60k with JJ. Dumb, dumb, dumb. If I flat call, the flop comes KQQ and I can comfortably fold to his continuation bet with minimal loss.
I then got stuck calling some small all in shoves. First I opened AQ to 5500 and guy shoves 15k and I call to see AK. Then I open TT and get shoved over for a very small amount and find AQ and lose the coin-flip. All of the sudden I am down to 7500 and wondering wtf happened.
I shoved 78cc at 1500/3000/300 and somehow the BB folded...lol. Next hand I shoved 9Tdd and BB thought for a minute and called with A7. Flop A4T, turn 6, river T..BOOOOOM! Gets me up around 30k. Shoved next hand with total air and scooped. 2 hands later I shove AJs in late position and get snap called by BB with AK. Flop AT8, turn 7, river J...BOOOOOM again!! Now I have 65k ish and can play again. Chip back up to around 80k. We are on the bubble and I am playing like a maniac opening pots, 3 betting, jamming over players. Basically run my stack from 80k to about 120k while on the bubble. The guy on my immediate right bore the brunt of it as I raised or reraised him over and over again.
Finally, the money bubble bursts and we redraw. I get moved to a new table and within an orbit bust 2 players. First guy shoves about 40k at 2000/4000/500a and I call from button with AK and hold against A9. Few hands later a young kid shoves 38k or so and I call from BB with AA. He has 55 and flop comes A9T, turn A...EZ GAME! Now up over 200k and rolling. We are down to 12 and people are tightening up again so I open up and pick up abt 30k in chips on the final table bubble.
Finally that bubble gets burst and we combine to the final table. Sadly I go completely and utterly card dead for the next 90 minutes or so. It was embarrassing how much I had to fold. 10th and 9th busted fairly quickly and we were playing 8 handed. 1 player was running the table over with 400k in chips or so and I was looking for any suited connected hand to bomb over him and slow him down. But it never materialized. Finally I was down to 120k when I found a real hand. UTG opened at 5000/10k/1ka to 35k. I woke up with 99 in the SB and this is really the dividing line for me. 88 I think I can fold fairly easily and TT+ is an easy ship with 12BB left. But 99 it is basically a flip. I decided to shove and he called. AK I see and am pleased. Flop comes about as bad as possible QQJ with 2 spades. He has Ks. Any A, K, J or T and I am in deep doo-doo. Turn is 6s now giving him spades. So any A, K, J, T or spade (other than 9) and I am toast. River is just brutal-3 spades. Out in 8th for a miserable 2k cash. Top 3 were all 8k+ with first at 21k. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
But if I hold that hand I have 250kish stack and can actually play some final table poker where I really feel I would have had a great chance to win. Oh well. 3 final tables in 6 months isn't bad for the Big Fella.
Back up for the May Deep Stack event on May 17-19 and then probably won't play live again until WSOP in mid June.
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