HugePoker

I had a slow & frustrating (but not terrible) start to my NAPT main event yesterday, winning a small pot here, losing one there, never getting involved in anything massive, never picking up any big hands. I actually was dealt AA in the first few hands of the tournament, but everyone folded to my raise - at least I didn’t get them cracked this time. I felt like I landed at a tough table - a couple of players seemed a little tight or timid, but no-one seemed terribly weak, and there were clearly some big-buyin tournament regulars sitting around me. From a starting stack of 30,000 I drifted down as low as 23,000 … lost a decent-sized pot making a hero-call with bottom pair when a player made a runner-runner flush against me and I was pretty sure he either hit the flush or had absolutely nothing. But I ground back up to 26,000 by taking pots with C-bets or one nice flat-call/float-the-flop/bluff-the-turn maneuver. But I mostly just never had any strong hands or great opportunities.

The first real excitement came after about 5 hours of play, when I looked down at QQ in early position and threw out a standard opening raise. The guy to my left (clearly a pro, though I didn’t know who he was - pokerstars reporters kept coming over and asking him for his chip count) called, the button called, and the tight older guy in the BB called. Great - 4-way action with QQ - not exactly what I was looking for … but when the flop came Q-J-8 with two spades, I thought I was probably in pretty good shape. With 3 opponents though, and that scary board, there’s nothing tricky to be done here - I just have to play it hard and hope no-one sucks out on me. The big blind actually led into me for 2,000 (blinds were 150-300 with 25 chip ante, and I had raised to 800, so there was 3400 in the pot after the preflop action) which seemed like a very odd play if he actually had flopped the straight (the only hand beating me) … but he was pretty conservative so I had to think he had a hand he liked and wanted to protect it against all the possible draws. My dream scenario would have him with a lower set with JJ or 88, either of which seem to be right in his range, or top-two with QJs. In any case, no time for pussyfooting around - I raise to 5500. The guy on my left thinks for a while and then shoves for 30,000, a bit more than my stack. The button thinks forever and finally folds, and the big blind folds quickly. The pro on my left had overbet-raised the pot at least 4 times before, and seemed to love making big raises to capture fold equity, twice in pretty marginal situations. I felt like there were a lot of hands he could be doing that with - obviously he might have the nuts (9-10 for the straight), but he could have a bunch of other hands, some of them big combo draws like Aks, Ajs, Ats, J9s - any of which would leave me either flipping a coin or decently ahead, or *HE* could have the lower set or top-two-pair, in which case I would be in fabulous shape. So there’s just no way I can even consider folding. I call and he has the best hand he could possibly have without having the straight - Ace-Ten-spades for the nut-flush draw and a double-gutshot straight draw. He needs any spade (other than a Jack) or a Nine or a King to beat me, but even if he sucks out on the turn, any pair on the board and I would turn the tables on him with a full house. The player on the button reports that he folded Ks-Js, good news for me since it removes one of my opponent’s flush outs. So I’m a 60:40 favorite to double up and escalate to a well-above average stack for the first time in the tournament.

Six of spades on the turn. Flush for him. Sadness for me.

But I still have hope - the case Queen, any Jack, any Eight, any Six on the river and my full house pulls me out of the fire.

Three of hearts on the river and I’m busted in the middle of day one, top set cracked to put an exclamation point on the string of Aces-cracked hands that had defined this trip until now.

I was pretty grumpy, but Rachel is here to cheer me up. I took the day off from poker today, and we’re headed for the V-bar for happy hour in a few minutes and then Bouchon for a nice dinner. Will probably return to the regular Venetian $350 tournament tomorrow and see if I can avoid having any monsters smashed. I have yet to (A) win a coin flip, or (B) put a bad beat on anyone, or (C) get anywhere near cashing in a tournament on this trip. And I have been getting my money in as substantial favorites in every tournament so far … pretty depressing, but as they say (“they” being really annoying cliché-spouting poker idiots) … “That’s POKER!”.

-SadHuge, aka Luckbox Larry MY ASS

Yes, Aces cracked again … This time in the first ten minutes of yesterday’s $350 Deep Stack event … by the mighty Eight-Five-Suited. It didn’t knock me out of the tournament, but it cost me half my stack right at the start, and I never really recovered.

Last night in the little $120 “Second Chance” tournament, I finally played a tournament in which I DIDN’T get Aces cracked (yay!), but after the blinds were pretty high and my stack was getting a bit short I got all-in preflop with AQ vs. Q9, and found not one but two nines on the flop to cripple me.

In today’s $200-rebuy satellite for the NAPT main event (270 players, the final 26 would win $5000 in tournament chips for a main event buyin), I was blessed with a surplus of premium starting hands, but with AA (twice) and KK and QQ I got no action to my raises (during the rebuy period no less - blecch) and with AK (thrice) I got more action than I wanted, missed the flop each time and had to fold. And then after the rebuy period was over AK was my betrayer again, with the blinds high and my stack short I was facing a shove from another short stack, looked down at AK and happily called - things looked OK when the other guy turned over QTs, but not so great when a Ten hit the flop and the turn and river bricked away.

So I’m running like crap, and the main event starts at Noon tomorrow. Hopefully the badness is out of the way - maybe I’ll even put a bad beat on someone else for a change. I’ll let you know.

I’ll try to post updates on my twitter page so you can follow along. I’m guessing there will be updates on the famous pros on the Pokerstars blog page, and maybe elsewhere, but I’ll worry about posting those links if I make it to day 2.

-huge

P.S. For those of you with money invested in my poker tournament forays, I’m sorry I haven’t sent you detailed account statements recently. I don’t have my investors’ email list with me here, so I’m hoping most of you will be reading this. As you know, the last few big buyin tournaments have not gone well for me, so whatever your balance was before, it’s … umm … a lot less now. My plan is to take half of the remaining pool and invest it in tomorrow’s main event, saving the remaining half for the next one (possibly the European Poker Tour event in San Remo Italy in April). Your money has not been in play for the preliminary events, which is a good thing for you, but half of it will be riding on me tomorrow, do or die.

I’ve been in Vegas for a day and a half, played in two of the Venetian “Deep Stack Extravaganza” events, both $350 buyins. The good news is that I’ve been dealt pocket Aces more than my share, which seems only appropriate given that today is my birthday. The bad news is that out of the four pairs of Aces I’ve been dealt, I’ve stolen the blinds once (always a mildly sad result with Aces) , chopped a big pot against Ace-Queen-offsuit (almost the best possible matchup I could have in all of poker) when we both rivered 5-high straights, and lost two massive pots against 66 and KQ-offsuit, in both cases with my opponent calling my large re-raise out of position and then either calling my bets on flop and turn with a gutshot (with the 66) or check raising me all-in on the flop with top pair (with the KQ) and then sucking out on me on the river. The first one was yesterday, and I recovered from that near-death blow to build up my stack again and then ran into the same guy when I flopped top-two-pair with KQ and he called me (AGAIN) on the flop and turn (with AJ this time) with a gutshot, and then (AGAIN) sucked out on me on the river. The second hand was today, my ACTUAL birthday, in which the guy raised with KQ, called my reraise out of position, and then check-raised me all-in for about 70BB on the Queen-high flop, only to catch his King on the river for two pair. I had built up my stack somewhat so I was well above average, but he had even more chips so I was out.

In about six hours of play over two tournaments I’ve been in all-in confrontations six times, I’ve been the overwhelming favorite all six times, I’ve won two, chopped one (when I was a 9:1 favorite to win) and lost the other three. I don’t think I’ve ever had this bad of a string of results with pocket Aces. Happy Borthday My ASS.

After I post this I’m changing my clothes and going out to birthday dinner at Pamplemousse with Mark and Vanessa and a few other friends, so at least I can’t have any more Aces cracked on my birthday - I don’t even want to think about what would be the non-poker dinner equivalent - maybe having the restaurant comp me to some foie gras and caviar and catching botulism.

The $5000 main event of the NAPT is Saturday … I’m just expelling all my bad luck before then, right?

-huge

After my last whiny post about all the bad beats I’ve been taking lately, I feel honor-bound to publish the following. This was in a $700 buy-in Step 5 tournament, in which the top 2 finishers get $2100 Step 6 tickets, 3rd and 4th get their $700 Step 5 tickets back, and 5th and 6th get downsized to a $215 Step 4 ticket. There were seven players when this hand came up, so if I lose the hand I walk away with nothing but a hole in my pocket where $700 used to be.

I was recording the tournament, so you’re watching and hearing it as it happened, just a few minutes ago…

Luckbox Larry eats top set for breakfast

As some of you may recall, Ace-Ten vs Queens was my fateful matchup against Dmitri Nobles in the 2006 WSOP. If the cards had fallen this way with the ESPN cameras rolling my life might be very different now … “Carry your OWN damn self out on a stretcher, you cocky little piss ant!”

Back to reality, I went on from there to capture the chip lead, but sadly lost a big coinflip with the mighty deuces against some other bastard’s Ace-Ten (how can he play that crap?) and finished fourth to break even in the tournament. I’m pretty sure IamMcLovin88 smiled smugly when he outlasted me, but he busted in 3rd on the serious bubble, and only got the same prize I did, which must have stung a bit.

It would have been nicer if my suckout had led to victory, but I’ll take a refund on my $700 over a sharp stick in the eye socket any day…