Back in Baltimore

As of Friday I am back here in Baltimore. Good to get away from all that craziness for the next week before the ME.

I did play the $1500 NLHE on Wednesday. It really is pretty short stacked event with only 4500 in chips. One of the first hands I played I had TT and raised to 300. Got reraised on the button by a Euro to 800. I called and the flop came K22. I checked and the Euro checked behind which was really weird. So he either has QQ or KK and flopped Kings full pretty much every time. Anyway I check folded some random turn card and was quickly down to ~3600. This type of spot popped up a few more times in the early levels with me unable to make a hand really and having to basically give up post flop. But I grinded my stack for several hours until finally at 150/300/25a I got them in. Pretty active player opened to 800 in late position directly on my right and I woke up with KQdd. With a stack of ~4k I can't really flat call and since I have been pretty quiet and he hasn't I figure this was as good a spot as any and jammed. He tank called with 77 and I missed all the way and was out in the 5th or 6th hour.

Thursday I went over to the Venetian for their $560 Deep Stack. With a great structure and lots of chips these are a great value. Anyway first hand I played it happened again. I raised to 300 at 50/100 with A8hh on the button. Got reraised 800 by the BB. Since we are so deep here I call and see a flop of Axx with 2 hearts. Here we go again. He leads for 1k and I call. Turn is a blank and I call a bet of 1500. River is another blank and he bets 3500. I can't imagine that A8 is good here very often. I guess with some super read I could jam and possibly fold out AJ or AQ like I am representing a flopped set. But first hand I have no reads like that. Anyway I was all the way down to 8k and thinking this is getting really old day after day having to grind my ass off. But I did just that and got the stack up to 17kish when I finally got my stack in as a big favorite. Aggressive internety kid made it 550 at 100/200. I wake up with AA on the button and reraise to 1600. He tanks for a bit and makes it 5k to go. I obviously jam and he calls with AK. I am 90/10 for a change and hold up to over 35k. Grind that stack to like 50k winning smallish pots when I just go so card dead I can't stand it. The table is rather aggressive and the only way to combat that is to become more aggressive or tighten up and punish them with big hands. I chose the latter. ANyway it really got goofy as my cards were just hideous. FInally the money bubble burst and with 45k at 2000/4000/500 I am looking for a spot to pick up some chips for a chance to go deep. Well that seems to happen when guy to my right opens for 10k. I jam with A9ss. He calls rather quickly with.....22...sigh I don't win many coinflips so this will not end well. Obv I miss and am out for yet another min-cash of ~1100.

Oh well maybe I saving my coinflip wins for the ME. I head back on July 6th to try and win my seat. There are satellites running basically around the clock so I shouldn't have too much trouble getting into a bunch of them.