I’m not sure how many multi-table tournaments I’ve played in a row now without a single cash, but I’m pretty sure it’s on the wrong side of twenty. On Monday I reached a new low point by busting out of a tournament at Caesars 15 minutes after it started with the 2nd nut flush vs an opponent’s nut flush. Later that day I won a single-table tournament at the Rio, so those continue to be profitable, but the multi-table front has just been a catastrophe apart from the one bright spot at the Wynn, which seems like a couple of years ago.
But I keep plugging away, which usually means a noon tournament at either Caesars or the Venetian (or the Rio when I’m playing a WSOP event), and if I bust out of that early I head over to the Wynn’s 2PM tourney. Yesterday I diligently shuttled over to the Venetian, and within a half hour I was off to a great start. I flopped four sets in the first couple of hours, and although I lost some money on one of them, I got paid off big time on two, which more than compensated. Two hours into the tournament I had well over double the average stack. Things slowed down after that, and I had a few setbacks, but I maintained a good stack and was happy with my table - two predictable players to my left and all the other seats at the table kept busting out and getting replaced by fresh meat. But then they broke that table and things started to go wrong. Early position short stack pushes all-in, I look down at Kings and flat call, hoping someone will come over the top of me. Late position obliges and shoves, I call, my opponents turn over 88 and AK. Great! I just need to dodge Aces and Eights and I’ll win a $130,000 pot and be one of the chip leaders with 100 players left out of the initial 634. Flop is no problem, turn is no problem, river is a bit of a problem - an 8, giving the short-stack 70,000 chips that should have been mine, leaving me to collect the side pot, knocking out the AK, leaving me with about the same stack I started with before the hand. Oh well, at least it wasn’t an Ace on the river, which would have crippled me.
So that sucked pretty bad even though I didn’t lose a pile of chips. I proceed to get heavily involved with two hands that I end up having to get away from - one of them I probably played badly and the other one a player made a very dangerous (bordering on maniacal) bluff to get me out of the hand. After those two hands I was in trouble, and as we got down to 60 players, with 54 getting paid, I was in serious bubble trouble. There was no way I could fold into the money even if I wanted to, and with a $408 prize for a $340 investment after 11 hours of poker that wasn’t really my goal anyway. I caught some good cards but got no callers with them, and showed my KK, AK, AQ each time. Finally I had to shove with a weak hand - 8-7-offsuit - and of course that was the time someone decided to call me - with A-J. At least I wasn’t dominated, and I got just what you hope for with live connecting cards like that - picked up a straight draw on the turn and hit my Eight on the river to double my stack back to 60,000 - still shorter than average but not in so much bubble danger.
I got no playable hands through the bubble and blinded down to 28,000 by the time we made the money, at which point we redrew for seats and I had the severe misfortune to get a new seat on the big blind, just as the blinds went up to 4000-8000 with a 1000 ante. I almost have to call with any two cards in that spot, but when there’s an all-in raise and a larger all-in reraise I decide I’m better off waiting for the next hand instead of playing Ten-Deuce against two presumably strong hands. The next hand I pick up Q-T, against only one raise from the button, at which point it’s a no-brainer call. The button turns over J-7 (really?) and I’m actually ahead, but once again the river turns the tables with a Seven and I’m out in 52nd place, for the aforementioned $408 prize, ie $68 profit for 11 hours work. God it’s glamorous being a professional poker player.
-huge
Hey,don’t knock it- it’s a start down the Yellow Brick Road!