WSOP review (continued)

Here are the final few tournament summaries from my first trip to Vegas...

• Venetian $600 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo-For once I actually had a really good table draw.  There were only 2 good players at my starting table.  The rest were a mix of really splashy fish and super tight old guys.  I ran my initial 12k stack to 25k with very little resistance in the first 3 or 4 levels.  I actually reached a high of ~45k then lost a pretty large pot to the table fish with ATT2 with A2s.  Flop was QT7, turn was 4 putting 2 spades out.  We put I think 4 bets in on this turn card and I pretty well had him on QQxx.  River was obviously a 7 and I check called to see what I thought he had.  That hand really took the wind out of my sails.  I grinded for another 2 hours or so before busting with AKQ4dd on Kxxdd flop.  Moral to the story-have to run well deep in limit tournaments-Period.
• Venetian $400 NLHE-Made another quick trip back to the V for a NLHE event.  Made quads early against a full house and ran from 12k up to 17k in first level.  Bust in 4th level discovered a standard spot for this trip.  UTG raised to 1100 at 200/400/50a.  UTG +1 was playing a ton of hands and 3b to 2400 (these guys are playing a lot of hands and have 20k and 30k respectively).  I wake up with KK on the button and 4b to 4400 (I start hand with 13kish).  Somehow they both flat call and I know how this movie is going to end already.  Flop T86hh.  I shove and both call.  They get it in on J turn and I am drawing dead to 88 and AQhh.  Out yet again in a stupid spot.
• Venetian $600 PLO-I was really looking forward to this event as I had missed the WSOP PLO event.  Well this one was torture.  Never had any chips and basically hovered between 7500 and 13k for about 6 hours.  Finally at 600/1200 blinds I went with AQJ9 (Q9cc) and ran into 4557 and AAxx.  I started the hand with 11k and given the action I can probably find a fold but whatever, I didn't.

So other than the rungood at Binions I ran really, really bad in tournaments.  Pretty frustrating as I kept getting in spots to pick up a lot of chips only to be outdrawn or brick huge draws.

Hopefully that will end as I return on July 5.  The plan is to play the following events:

• 7/5 Caesar's $240 Big O
• 7/6 Either $560 WSOP Bracelet Bounty or $1100 Venetian
• 7/7 $600 Venetian NLHE
• 7/8 $600 Venetian NLHE
• 7/9 $1080 Bellagio NLHE
• 7/10 $400 Venetian NLHE

Of course I will try to slip a satellite or two in for the WSOP ME but we'll see about that.  With a little bit less bad luck I really feel like a deep run is coming.

WSOP Part 1 Review

I was in Vegas beginning June 1 for a week of events.  I was scheduled to play a combination of WSOP and Venetian events ranging from $600-$1500 buy-ins.  Within about 48 hours (actually more like 36 hours), however, I had busted my first $1500 WSOP event, bricked 2 $275 satellites and ran horrendously bad in PLO cash games. All in all I found myself stuck nearly $5k and quickly changed my course of action by deciding to focus on the smaller buy-in events to limit my exposure while playing against much softer competition.  This proved to be a good decision as I dug out of the hole for a virtually break even trip.  Anyway, here is a quick synopsis of the events I played.

• WSOP Event 9-$1,500 Limit Omaha Hi-Low-Not much to say here.  Lost a massive pot right before dinner.  I had A22K with A2 hearts and K2 spades.  Flop was Q67 with 2 hearts and 1 spade.  Turn was T spades.  Needless to say a lot of chips went in on both flop and turn with my nut flush draw, nut low draw and K high flush draw.  River paired the board and I had to fold to 1 bet.  I also went from a pretty massive scoop to half of a pot with AQQ2 with Q787 board.  Put ton of bets in on this turn.  River was A and he gets half with A2Q4...FML.  Pretty frustrating though I had a pretty bad table as these things go with 2 former bracelet winners, a high stakes Borgata player, 2 online tournament wizards and another pretty solid older player.  Bottom line-can't go deep in these tournaments with repeated river bricks and I busted an hour or so before the end of Day 1 with about 300 remaining.
• Venetian Deep Stack-$600 NLHE Only made it to level 4 here and this is where I started to enter the Twilight Zone.  It was shortly after the first break a fairly splashy but seemingly ok-ish older dude opens the pot to 1300 at 150/300 and gets 1 call.  I 3 bet to 4500 with AhAs on the button (with 18k stack).  Only he calls.  Flop comes 9TJ all hearts.  Not the greatest flop ever but I have Ah so I am going with it.  He checks I bet 6k and he calls.  Turn is another 9.  He jams and I call my remaining 7,500.  He shows QQ (I don't recall if he had the Qh).  Obviously the river is an offsuit K and I am out losing to his straight.  
• Played the $235 Rio Daily Deepstack on Saturday and Sunday June 2 and 3.  Literally watched people light their cash on fire in this event as the play was just god awful.  Nothing interesting in these events as I never got decent sized stacks and ultimately lost in dumb spots.  Flopped first set of trip, got it in and was drawing stone dead.  Me 22 flop 872 with 87 of clubs.  Get it in vs. 77 and 23cc and out.  Next day grind my balls of for 6 or 7 hours only to shove 12 BB JJ into AA and out.  Such is tournament poker.
• On Monday 4th I skipped the $1,500 PLO (the whole point of going that week was to play that event and the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low) due to a bad frame of mind.  Decided to go downtown to play.  Ended up in the Binion's $210 6 max NLHE.  I managed to grab a ton of chips early and then basically ran the table over.  For once, I ran well too and actually just kept pouring on the agression opening a lot of pots and 3 betting 2 players in particular mercilessly.  Played a really good hand against an aggro spew with 10 left.  He had been moved to the table and had been gifted a lot of chips.  Now he was playing like a maniac on the bubble.  We also had a bit of history in a spot where I called his river raise and he wanted to muck.  I had 2 pair and waited to see his cards since I called him.  He mucked then demanded to see my hand, blah, blah, blah...he was a douche.  Anyway in this hand...he opened UTG to 6k at 1,000/2,000/400a.  I 3 bet him to 15k with KK from the BB (I start with 150k and he covers me).  Flop was Q92 and I bet 16k.  He calls pretty quickly.  Turn is a 6.  My goal now is to get stacks in so I want to bet weakly to hopefully induce him to shove.  I finally decide on a 21k bet into the ~65k pot.  This looks weak and also makes it look to him like I might fold my remaining 100k if he shoves.  He tanked for like 6 mins and I just sat trying to look as uncomfortable as possible.  Finally he announced all-in, I snapped and he was drawing dead with total air.  That put me up over 300k and I cruised to the final table.  Once there I felt very confident that I was the best player left and had the best short stack game.  4 or 5 hours later I called a short stack's 12BB shove with QJs and beat his A4o to get all of the chips.  Wasn't a big tournament but a win is a win and got my head screwed on tighter for sure.

I'll follow with the last few tournaments in a second post.

I am currently in heavy negotiations with the wife about a return trip on July 5th for 5 or 6 days....lol.  Actually my wife is the best so just need to work out a few things and pretty sure I will be returning then for a few more events and possibly satellite into the WSOP ME.