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