Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Raw Deal-- Venetian $1600

It continues to amaze me how similar my annual Vegas trip has become. I look forward to it for weeks. Get so stoked. Then I put up with days of dreams getting crushed, money being lost, and overall misery. Why do I do this?

Today was no different. Just like the last, oh, 3-4 years, after failure at the WSOP I go to the seemingly softer fields at the Venetian. Today I guess I run better. I chip up some and find myself in position on a raised 7-5-2d flop with AKdd. Young internet guy leads smallish, I shove, he calls with QQ and I catch an Ace. Woot. Today's my day.

I bust Kevin Saul when I raise KK 3x and he overshoves with AK. Nice.

I witness a super sick hand where a guy calls a raise oop with 53s. Board goes Q-9-5-4-9 and the oop player calls 3 barrels of increasing size from the raiser. Bottom pair is good vs the bluffer's JT.

After dinner I get moved to this fantastic table where I can 3bet and 4bet often and its juicy. Unfortunately it doesn't last and the next table is internet- scandi row, many of them with huge stacks. My stack remains around average the whole time--which was somewhere between 50 and 60 big blinds. I find some good spots and generally chip up.

Another maniac I meet gets in a raising war with a solid player. They make it 4 or 5 bets preflop and see 4-4-5. More money goes in on the flop and all of it gets in on the 5 on the turn. Good player has KK, maniac somehow got to the flop with A4. Amazing.

The eventual villain of this story has been running in god-mode. Early on he found himself 5-betting one of the internet kids and his QT binked vs AK. He gets AKs vs super tight girl's AKs and flushes her. So obviously his rungood is on. I find myself one of the shorter stacks at my table. There are about 50 players left, 40 minutes left in the night. We are at 800-1600/200. I have about 85-90,000 chips-- villain has a mountain. He's been splashy.

So I find 22 in LP and raise to 4000. He 3bets from the BB to 11k. I ponder and call. I'm gonna flop a set and double through this guy. Then I'll have a big ole stack when it comes time to abuse the impending bubble. Fun fun fun. Here's the flop- 3 in the door- next card is an Ace and BAM there's the prettiest deuce I've ever seen. OK, sure, he could have 45 but I doubt it. Let's figure out how to get this in. He bets, I raise, he calls. Turn: Ace. OK. A-2-3-A. Well it looks like he has an ace in his hand. So this is pretty awesome. He checks. Cool. I bet a bunch. I have to bet a bunch so that I can ship the right amount on the river. He might fold though. Oh well, its a big pot already. He calls. Hmmm. Well shit, maybe he's got the sneaky A2 that knocked me out yesterday. Or A3?? He could have 33 I suppose also. These would all be a big drag. AK seems the most likely culprit, but now I'm starting to wonder what he's thinks I have. Sure looks like my hand is faceup. I went a-mining and struck something. A 4 rolls off on the river and this changes nothing. If a King or Queen popped up I'd be scared. He checks. Ugh. Now the sirens start to go off. I even thought to myself as he 3bet me "Do I really want to play a hand with this guy who is running so good?" Well I did and here I am. So I can check behind and leave myself a playable 20 bb stack, or I can ship it which was my plan all along. Stick with the plan. Ship. Snapcall. Two red Aces. omg. I am not a happy camper. Again.

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