Thursday, June 4, 2009

Event #11 $2K NL

1646 runners, 6000 starting chips, 1 hour levels. Court Harrington is at my table and he's the only person I recognize. Table plays pretty tight, and I'm able to maintain my stack by the occasional 3-bet that gets respected. At one point I raise UTG with JJ to 300 and Court makes it 750. I call and we see a Q-8-5 flop. Check-check and he folds to me bet on the turn. I try to setmine and make things happen but my stack fluctuates from 5000-7000 for the first 3+ levels. At the end of level 4 with 5000 left I pick up AA and get all the chips of a guy with KK. I get to about 9K which is the high water mark. After the break I pick up JJ in MP and a girl to my right opens to 700- I make it 2000 and then this guy with a big stack shoves. F-word. Girl mucks, I muck, and just like that I go to having a stack around 25 big blinds. I pick up AQ the next hand, raise and fold and I must be getting a little tilty. So with about 6000 left at 100-200/25 I make this fantastic play: Asian kid raises to 650 and I call in position with 66. Flop comes T-9-4. He c-bets, and I call. I've decided that there is a very good chance he'll check the turn and I'm just floating the flop to take the pot. Good plan so far. Besides, I'm ahead a lot of the time here anyway. Turn is an Ace and he checks according to plan. Now I make the error. I only have about 4600 left. He has probably double that. My choices here are to shove now, or pick some bet that gives me a last barrel on the river if I need it. I also think that when you're this short, shoving often looks weaker than betting half your stack- so that's what I do. And it looks like he doesn't like the ace at all. He tanks a long time, then throws his 2K in. Damn. Now I'm fucked. The river is some kind of card that isn't a 6 and he checks again. I see no way I can win a showdown, and my only hope is that he can somehow decide he is beat and save the 2600 I toss in the pot. He doesn't put me on an ace though, and his pocket jacks are good and I'm done.

Except I'm not really done. I go to the Venetian to play 2-5 and run good and people throw their money at me and I'm up close to $1800 pretty quickly. I give most of it back in two hands: First one I raise to $25 with QJs. I get called by a youngster in position. Flop comes Q-J-T, two spades and I fire $60. He calls. Turn is a 7 and I bet out $120 or so. He raises me $250 more. Hmmm. I call. River is a 6 and I bet $400. He tanks a very long time, finally calls and says "I got very lucky" and shows me pocket 6's??? WTF? Guy is some kind of witch I guess. Either that or he doesn't like money. Table lets out a collective groan. Then, I call a raise in the SB with 56o and flop 5-5-6. Now, I'm supposed to win this hand everytime. I check, MP bets $45, LP who raised pre-flop calls, and I call. Turn is nothing and it get checked around. River is a Jack and I bet $80 for value. MP folds, but the LP player raises to $600. Again, I ask- WTF?? I just look at him and point out that I only bet $80. So now I have to figure out what percentage of the time he has pocket Jacks and how often this is some insane donkey play to get the pot, especially since I've been playing like a lagtard and have a big stack. Somehow I decide its the second, I'm wrong, and that's the last hand I play tonight. I end up even and grumpy.

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