Long Overdue Vegas Report (Of Sorts!)

Well I am back (sort of!). It has been 10 months since my last blog post, and while I always knew the frequency of my blogs would reduce over time I didn't think I would go this long in-between entries. There are a couple of main reasons for this; first of all, I don't want to write posts if I think they are either going to be boring or repetitive. The past year or more has been terrible for me poker wise, certainly 2013 was the worst poker year I have had in several years, yes I had a few decent results but generally poor luck and some poor play cost me a lot in 2013. However the poor results on the felt have been more than compensated by events in my personal life, where Eleanor moved to Leicester to live with me, and more recently we have bought a house together. Clearly all of these events always had an impact on the amount of poker I have been playing and also my lack of time to commit to write any blogs.

I visited Vegas last summer and on my return I had drafted out some details for a trip report but I never got around to completing it. However I did have some details on the first few tournaments I played, so I have decided to post the notes I did make, although they aren't as comprehensive as I would like they may still make some interesting reading for some of you, while helping me get back into blogging!

For my trip to Vegas in 2013, I had no plans to play any World Series events due to an online downswing and life commitment I didn’t feel like stumping up $1k+ for a high variance event. The Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza (DSE) events have lower buy-ins and offer pretty good structures while still having a decent prize-pool.

The first event I played was a $400 DSE event, starting with 12,000 chips and 40 minute blinds, this was a 2 day event, I started off playing tight while I got settled and analysed the players. I got some value with a few hands and picked good spots to bluff and won a couple of big pots with big hands to put me up to 120,000 chips and in a commanding position. After that everything went wrong, I lost an 80k pot with AQs in the SB against the big blind’s AK shortly followed by losing a 90k flip with JJ v AQ, I managed to chip up a little with some squeeze shoves to get back to about 35bb if I recall correctly. 2 hands before the end of day 1 a loose big stack opens and I am in the SB with JJ, I 3 bet to induce a shove from him, he does shove and I snap but he has AK and I lose the race to bust out after 10 hours of play without cashing. I was happy with my play though and it gave me confidence for the rest of the holiday.

The next day was a $600 DSE event, this time with 15,000 chips. My starting table was soft and I was getting maximum value from marginal hands and won a big pot when a short stack shove then an older guy made a huge isolation shove, I looked down at QQ and re-shoved and held against rags and the old guy’s AJ. I amassed a stack of 70,000 after a few levels of play which was still over 100bb and I was confident of another deep run. Our table then broke and with the blinds at 400/800/a50 I get dealt AK, which is a very problematic hand for me in recent months, I have a very poor record winning with it or beating it. However, this doesn’t mean that I shy away from it when I believe it is in good shape, in this hand I get 40k in the middle against a young player and brick against his JJ. A short while later I run 99 into a short stacks TT and lose, finding myself back to the starting stack, which is now just 15bb.

AK has caused me a lot of pain in 2013!

I find TT UTG and shove, UTG + 1 3 bets, UTG + 3 4 bet shoves and the button then 5 bet shoves, UTG + 1 tanks and eventually folds and shows KK (as action had been completed). By this time I know my TT is crushed but if I can win the hand I would be well chipped up, the cards go on their backs and I am up against QQ and AA, somehow I hit my ten and get back to 42k. Pretty sick live hand to see AA, KK, QQ and TT all dealt, made even more so when I spiked my set, I was grateful for the reprieve and went to work building my stack up to 100k without showdowns. At this stage this was about 33bb and there were 47 of us left (36 paid). I was stuck between some big stacks who were playing well and I was unable to win any big pots, any steal attempts I tried failed. I decided the best approach was just to play hands for value until the bubble burst  and when we made it into the money I had 18bb. About half an hour later I open shoved A6o on the button and got called by the big blind who had pocket 3s, I lost the flip and was left with just 1,500 chips, at this point the blinds were 2,500/5,000/a500 so I had less than a SB or just 3 antes. Next hand I was all in blind and had AQ which won versus 99 and I then pushed K2h and beat AJ and before I knew it I had 100k again. We got to the last hand of the night and I had 80k ish at 3,000/6,000/a500, but this would only be 10bb going into tomorrow. UTG + 1 min opened to 12k and the cut-off and button called, they all had medium size stacks and I looked down at T9d and decided it was a great spot to squeeze shove as there was a good chance the players wouldn’t want a big dent to their stacks on the last hand. The initial raiser folded but the cut-off called, the button folded and the cut-off flipped JQh. I flopped the 9 and won the hand, the initial raiser moaned he had folded a good ace and would have won the hand (there was an ace on the flop) and the QJh guy complained about his bad luck, but I think his call was a very poor one with his stack size and one player left to act. The result was I had 194,000 chips to go into day 2 with 23 players left and $42k for the winner.

My table for day 2 began remarkably soft considering how deep we were in the tourney, the big stack was on my right but he soon got moved to another table and I chipped up to 250k without showing my cards. I then look down at AKc and min raise UTG to 16k (my standard) it folds to the SB who shoves 220k in, the BB folds and I snap call. He flips over KQhh. The flop comes A73 with one heart so I just need to fade runner runners, the turn brings the 9h and the river is the Jh and he scoops the half a million pot and takes the chip lead and I am left with just 4bb and feeling pretty crushed. I spin the 4bb up to 15bb then lose TT v AQ and bust in 17^th for just short of $2k.

I had definitely had a roller coaster ride during the tournament and could easily have busted earlier than I did on a few occasions, but also lost a couple of big pots with AK. If I had won that half million pot that I am pretty sure I would have made the final table with a good chip stack and with $42,000 for the winner who knows what might have happened, I also could have busted before we reached the money and won exactly zero!. That is the way of MTTs, they are usually a case of fine lines and ifs and maybes.

I avoid roller-coasters at theme parks but can't avoid them at the poker tables!

I was extremely pleased with my play and was happy to bag my first cash of the trip and was eager to hit the felt again and after hour or so for some food I jumped into a $250 bounty event, which was a much faster 1 day event with $25 bounties, I busted before the money but managed to recover some of my buyin after busting a few players.

The next day I played a $500 event which had the same structure as the $600, my starting table was quite tight and I was chipping up slowly up to about 21.5k without any big pots of note. I did witness a bizzare hand where an old guy and a young kid where HU with a 3k pot by the river, the kid bet 7,500 on the river and the old guy shoved for 100 more and the kid snap folded leaving himself 200 chips! Following that I got dealt JJ and opened and got 3 bet by a middle aged guy in the blinds who had seemed fairly tight, I didn’t fancy 4 betting here as I felt he wasn’t 3 betting that wide and was unlikely to fold, but I had the odds to setmine so I called. The flop came down TT2 and the guy bet out pretty big and it felt like he had a bigger pair than mine, so I folded and he showed QQ. I don’t understand why tight players show their hands, surely if you are playing tight you need to get paid so showing that you are not bluffing is counterproductive as people will believe you. Showing would only make sense if you were planning to bluff later on. I then win with Aces v Queens to give me some room to play, I then 3 bet a guy with JJ, I had been raising him quite a lot and I guess he decided he had had enough of me raising him and he 4 bet shoved A2o, I called and held and went up to 60k and then struggled when a couple of aggro players moved to the table and went to the dinner break with 50k. After some food I pick up QQ and get one caller from the BB, the flop is J92 and he bets I raise and he calls, the turn brings a 4 and he shoves, I call to find out he has 94 and he holds which left me with 30k (~20bb). I manage to get a cold 4 bet shove through with T8s, with the original raiser claiming to have folded AK. We get down to about 65 left with 54 paid and I have just over 11bb and find 65h on the cutoff which I open shove into Aces, the flop is 4h5s7h giving me a lot of outs but I brick and bust after 11 hours with no return.

The rest of the trip wasn't too fruitful for me, I managed 10th in a $240 6 max at Caeser's for about $700 (shoving A7 and losing to JTo) but after that I didn't make any impression on any tournaments, but of course enjoyed myself in Vegas!

Well I hope that wasn't too painful to digest, I spent a long time debating whether to post this or not before finally deciding to. Until next time, I hope you all have good fortune on and off the felt!