Event 59 in the books

I woke up this morning at 9am and was actually on time in picking Cy up from the airport at 9:45am. I believe I was there a couple minutes early in fact! 9:45 in Las Vegas is like waking up to go fishing at 4am or trying to make a 5:30am T-time on the links. Good thing I got in bed early last night. Anyhow, Cy dropped me off at the gym and then went to run errands. I dominated the gym as best I could in 1 hour and then headed back to the Rio to get ready for today's event.

Table draw, table draw, table draw. Today's table draw was amazing. After 30 minutes at the table it was clear that there wasn't one player capable of applying pressure without a real hand and they played the hands poorly as well. With this in mind, I adjusted my strategy to active and aggressive. This is also a good strategy since the starting stacks are low and the goal is to gather chips so that you're not sitting on a shortstack all day long. Although a shorter stack doesn't give a lot of room to maneuver, with the quality of play I figured that I could make strong reads on whether to proceed or get out of the way if any scenario got sticky.

Early on my stack rose to 4000 and then dropped to 2200. I had open-raised quite a few hands and even 3 bet and folded to an allin early, so my image was probably looking like a loose aggressive player. It's always important to pay attention to the image that your opponents likely assume you have. This way you know what they'll be thinking when you make plays and you can use this knowledge to get in their head. Since my image was loose, it makes sense to play all of your big hands very strong since you're unlikely to get any credit. With 2200, an early position raiser opened to 75 at the 25/25 level. A player who I labeled as poor reraised the pot to 175. I was on the button and looked down at KK. This is a great spot. I have a loose image, I am sitting in a steal position, and I have a monster hand.  My goal here is to encourage action and not discourage it. I have position, so I have no problem playing the hand from the button. Instead of blowing these guys out of the water, I reraise to only 375. This raise size appears as if I can be making a play, and it also appears that I have room to fold the hand to further action. The original raiser thinks for awhile and shoves allin for 1750 total. The guy who reraised to 175 folds his hand, and I called right away. This guy had QQ so I had a big edge in the hand which is a cooler for him. In a short stacked tournament QQ will not be laid down very often before the flop. The KK holds up and the other player is eliminated from the event. In all, I 4 bet after two different raises, so in reality my hand will be very strong here or a complete bluff. I would never make this play in poisition with JJ or or TT and the original raiser still to act, so I think a QQ shove is an error by him, but I think my image has a lot to do with the play, and QQ is a really hard hand to laydown any day of the week. We were lucky here to receive the setup hand.

As the first few levels progressed I was able to maintain a stack over the starting 3k. A key hand came up in level 3. The blinds at 50/100, I look down at AcKc. I raise from mid-late position to 250 and everyone folded to the smallblind. He called 250 and so did the big blind. The pot was now 750 and the flop fell As9d8s. Both players checked to me and I bet 250. This is a good flop and I want to encourage action while I have position. The small blind check-raised to 700 and has 1750 left behind. The bb folds and the action is back on me. Adding up the sb's raise size, what he put in preflop and what he has left, he started the hand with about 27 bb's. He appears like a very capable young player, so I'll assume he knows what he is doing until he proves otherwise. With this in mind and his preflop stack size, I have to assign a preflop flat-calling range to him from the small blind. I think he is reraising me often with AK and AQ here so I don't weigh his range in that direction much. I think he flatcalls with middle pairs and broadway cards like KQ, QJ, and maybe JT suited. With this being said, I believe that his range here is going to be 99, TT, QsJs, QJo, and maybe sometimes AJ, AT, or A9, but I'm making an assumption that he wouldn't flat call out of position with weak aces in his hand, so I again won't weigh his hand range much towards holding an A. I think he has a strong hand but it could be a draw. My bet of only 250 looks somewhat weak when in fact I'm strong, so I think there is merit in a call here. If I raise I'm giving up my positional advantage in the hand and allowing him to make the final decision whether to put his chips in or not. I just call the raise creating a pot of 2150 with 1750 left to bet. The turn is the Ks giving me top two pair. This guy shoves allin for 1750. I have to call 1750 to win 3800, pretty good odds for top two pair. But, I have to remain disciplined and think about this. I decided on the flop that his range was heavily weighted towards three 9's, three 10's, QJo, and QsJs. All of these hands beat me now with that turn card. If I call, I can only beat AJ, AQ, and AT or A9, but we decided he doesn't have these often. My hand now looks a bit stronger since I was able to bet and then call a checkraise on the flop. All this adds up to me deciding he is not bluffing. If the turn was not a spade I think I have to call here, but it was, and the K of spades to boot. So.... I decide this is the appropriate time to make a disciplined laydown. I fold top two pair and preserve the 1750 in chips leaving my stack at around 3500. I'm very glad I saved these chips as in the 3rd and 4th levels I hit somewhat of a rush and was able to build a big stack using the chips I saved on the AK hand, which I wouldn't have had if I called and lost that pot.

A player raised to 250, 1 late position player called, the sb called, and I had to call 150 more in the bb with 78o. This is a weak hand, but I'm getting a great price with connected cards, I close the action so I can not get shut out of the hand, and it's a 4 way pot. I call. the pot is 1000 and the flop falls 778! Kaboom! The small blind checks. I can check or bet. The standard play everyone would make is to check with the intention to slowplay and trap. Since I have a loose image and these players are weak, I think that if I bet they are less likely to believe me. So, I bet out 300. The original raiser calls, the last player calls, and to my surprise, the sb player check raises to 1550 total. After the 1550 I'll have about 1700 left. I'm sure the sb has a 7 in his hand. I want to give the other 2 players a chance to make a big mistake here if they want to so I flat call the 1550 in hopes that one of them may overcall here with a big pair or a straight draw. They both fold and I am headsup with the sb. The turn is a 2 and he puts me allin. I call, he shows Th7h. I am way ahead and can only lose the pot if one of the 3 T's in the deck falls. The river is a K and we win the big pot. The flop lead out not only trapped the other 2 players for 300 each, but it stuck the sb in for everything. It's somewhat of a setup and I'm going to get chips from him regardless, but if we had both checked the flop and he checkraised one of the other players and I was able to call his checkraise, the warning lights may have gone up.  Also, you want to start building a pot when you have a big hand. Many players make the mistake of trying to trap only to find out by the river that they barely won anything. It's okay to balance your flop bets from the blinds with strong hands. This opens the door for you to lead with weaker hands and drawing hands as well. Taking control of the pot with a wide range is good sometimes, and if it's balanced with some monsters, players will be less likely to raise you unless they have a very strong hand. This was a fun pot and we were fortunate to flop a big hand for a cheap price.

Later a weak player who limped in and called raises out of position with poor hands limped in. I looked down at 3s4s. This isn't a good hand, but it can be a sneaky hand. As I'm accustomed to doing, I look to my left to see if any of the players who are still to act look interested in playing the pot. They don't so I raise to 475 at the 75/150 level. The remaining players fold and the limper calls the bet as I expected. He will miss the flop often and be forced to give up. Here I know I don't have the best hand with 4 high, but I have position, initiative, and skill over this player. The flop is 9s3c2s. This is a monster flop for my hand. I've flopped middle pair with a flush draw. I couldn't ask for much else. This player bets into me 900. I've watched him do this often after limping and calling and it typically constitutes a weak made hand. Earlier in the day he was in the sb and called my raise when he held J2, the flop came J high and I folded to his flop bet, and he ended up losing to J7. With this in mind, I'm certain here that he has a 9 in his hand with a horrible kicker. After he bets 900 he has 3500 behind and I have enough in my stack to cover him. My call of the 900 brings the pot total to 2900. With 3500 left to bet, that gives me a lot of fold equity, there isn't an amount that I can raise to where he'd call and I'd still have fold equity on the turn if I missed and he checks to me. Say I raise even the minimum to 1800 here and he calls. I've created a pot of 4700, there is 2600 to bet. So if I miss the turn and he checks to me and I shove allin for 2600, he'd be getting a great price to call. 2600 to win 7300 and hee has top pair. I think that's a bad play. Since on the flop, I have a little over a pot sized allin, I thought the best play was to apply max pressure right then and there. If I lost the pot I'd still have about 3500 in chips and could come back in the event. I decided to put him to the decision for his tournament life. I went allin. He thought and called off the rest of his chips with 6d9d. He indeed had exactly what I thought he had. I don't mind the call because with 9 spades and 5 other cards to give me trips or 2 pair in the deck, I am a statistical favorite to win the hand, similar to the KQ vs Ah5h hand which I busted to in the last event. The turn card was a 3 and the river a 2. I made my fullhouse and busted this player from the event. This brought my stack up to nearly 12k. I also had to keep in mind that showing down 34 further improved the image I was trying to build as a reckless player. At a table full of great players I don't necessarily want this image because the great players would start applying a lot of pressure back on to me and I'd have to sit tight. But at a table with less threat, this image is preferred because of the fact that you can manipulate players into playing poorly against you when you have big hands.

The hand before the breaks is typically the hand where people look at their cards early and are disinterested unless they have a monster, mainly because they have to use the restroom so bad after sitting at the table for 2 hours straight. Good players know this and look at it as an opportunity to pick up the blinds without a fight. The hand before the break, a good player open raised from early position to 300. His stack was about 3400. So he had just over 20bb's. If I think this guy knows the bathroom break trick, this is a perfect spot to 3 bet lightly because he'll have to consider commitment to the pot. Everyone folded between him and I and I looked down at Kc2s. After looking to the left and seeing half of the people out of their chairs or having cards in hand ready to muck, I reraise to 700. Everyone mucked including the original opener. It's always important to pay attention to every unique scenario and look to the left to gather as much info as you possibly can. Here, it helped me accumulate another 525 chips with minimal risk.

After the second break, we sat to blinds of 100/200. My 13k stack was very healthy for this blind stage. I invested a little money in small 3 bets and had to fold 2x to 4 bets or allin moves. This again is furthering the image that I raise loose as I'm 3 betting showing strength and then folding. When the antes kicked in during the 6th level, I had about 12k. I decided my opening raise was going to be to 425 at 100/200/25 ante. Back from break I opened a pot to 425 and had to fold to a 3 bet by an old man who definitely had a hand. Then the next hand I looked down at JJ. I was early position and raised to 425. The man on the button pretended to think for awhile and then moved allin for 2300 from the button. The blinds folded and I called right away. He said,"Wow, you actually have something this time. You've been opening every pot," as he shows his Ks7s. This is exactly the type of action that I was trying to induce by building this image at this specific table. The JJ held up and my stack moved to 14k plus. Shortly after another bustout, a player was moved to my left who had a lot of chips, about 18k. Also, the player 2 to my left had won a few pots and his stack moved to about 24k. This meant I'd have to be careful. These 2 guys didn't play very well but they had a lot of chips and although I also had a healthy stack, either of them could take me out of the event. My stack shortened to about 12k when this hand arose. The player who went on a heater(2 to my left, with a lot of chips), open raised to 525. All folded around to the small blind who called. The small blind has about 6k in chips behind him after the call, and of course the original raiser has a lot and covers me. I look down to AdKd. The question isn't whether to play or fold but whether to raise or call, and how much. I'm not a fan of playing AK sandwiched in between 2 players because the only way I can win is to hit the flop. Also, my stack and the original raiser's stack are deep and I'll be out of position with a slim definition of what his hand is. If I call, the pot will be 1825 with the raise, calls, and antes. My stack to pot ratio is not good being about 6 and in between 2 guys. Also, I have a looser image, so AK is gold here since I likely won't be believed. The bb position after a raise and a call is a good squeeze spot since the original raiser will be sandwiched between a reraise and a caller. This further will reduce my credibility. All of this adds up to me raising the pot. Now how much? I'm assuming that if I reraise the sb will not be able to stand the heat, so the original raiser will be the likely caller here. I want an SPR somewhere around 3 which will work well for my hand in the event I hit the flop. It will be easy for me to commit if I hit an A or K and I also will have room to apply pressure with a continuation bet and not commit myself to the pot. If I reraise to 1650 and he calls, the pot will be roughly 4075, I will have about 10400 left and the SPR is about 2.5, as close as I can get to 3 without inviting the sb to call as well. So, I raise to 1650. The original raiser thinks for a short period of time and grabs chips. He reraises to 4650. The small blind folds. Now I have a decision. If I flat call the 4650, the pot will be 10,075, I'll have 7350 behind. This would be playing hit to win poker since I have to hit here to continue, I'll have already put about 40% of my stack in the middle. A call here is a huge error. Since I can not call, I have to either fold or move allin for 12k total. The only reason I'd ever fold here would be if I thought this player were incapable of 4 betting with less than KK or AA. So I have to decide if he can have these hands in this spot. This player has a sh^t load of chips so he is going to be prone to using them. His reraise size "feels" to me like he is trying to discourage action. The 4650 is designed to show commitment to the pot which means he is trying to give off the image that I have to play for the rest of my chips here if I continue. Sometimes this is a true image and sometimes it is an illusion. I really think that this is his last ditch effort to resteal the pot because I believe that he would flatcall the reraise here with JJ, even QQ because he has position and wouldn't want to put in so many chips til he saw a safe flop. Other factors to take into consideration were the image that I built up of being very loose and aggressive. I surely could not continue past his 4650 reraise if I had reraised as a bluff myself. He had seen me 3 bet and fold earlier in the day. After considering all of this in about 20 seconds, I decided that he had a weak hand for the scenario and I moved allin for 12,000 total. He thought for about 30 seconds, which is a great thing. It means I was right and he didn't have AA or KK. After his thoughts, he made a crying call with KcQc. This is a monster spot for me. I am a 71% favorite to win this pot outright, he has a 28% chance, and we chop about 1% of the time. We're not out of the water yet, but all of the days hard work accumulates to this: Establishing an image of recklessness in the small pots so that you can manipulate players into playing very poorly in the big pots. This player put in 60bb's preflop with K high which is never ever the best hand given the scenario. The only better spot I could ask for preflop would be to have a pocket pair vs a lower pocket pair in which case I'd be roughly an 82% favorite. Anyhow, the flop falls Qd9d9c. This absolutely sucks. He hit one of the 3 Q's in the deck to draw out on me. But, we still have life. The flop has 2 diamonds on board, so I can still win the pot with any one of the 9 diamonds left in the deck or an A. This is 12 cards total, so I can still draw out and win the pot almost 50% of the time here. The turn is the 8h and the river is the Qh giving the other player a fullhouse and me 2 pair with A high. This is very unfortunate, not only did he draw out when he had a slim chance, but we didn't catch up when we had a great chance too. This is a standard bad beat, and it happens all of the time, AQ beats AK allin. AK beats KK allin preflop. It just happens. What makes this beat worse is the fashion in which it played out. I had a large stack well above the average stack when this hand played out. Typically in the 20-25bb range, these beats happen because there is a raise and a 3 bet allin. There is never enough chips in action to decide if you have the best hand or not so typically the chips get put in the middle and someone wins or loses the pot. This situation is at the 60bb level. So it hurt quite a bit at the time. In poker we take the bad with the good and this was very unfortunate. Very often in this life we win the hand but lose the pot. All you can do is make the very best decision that you know how to make and then let randomness take care of the rest.

That is it for my set tournament schedule. I completed the schedule of 12 events. 10 major WSOP events. I cashed in 3 of those 10 events which is great. These events pay out the top 10% of the field, so it'd be logical to say that an average player will cash on average, in 1 of 10 events. I think a good solid pro likely cashes in 1 out of 6 or 7 events, so I was definitely fortunate to cash 3 of 10. I don't think I was particularly lucky or unlucky, but it can feel unlucky when you lose key hands, in big pots, deep in events like the AA vs QQ last week, or the AK vs KQ today. I think the total of my 3 cashes was 24,900ish from 17,900 of buyins so far, so I came out on top. I've already played a 550 mega and didn't get a main event seat. This thursday I'm scheduled to play another 550 mega-satellite, where 1 of 20 players get a seat, and then a 1060 mega on friday night, where 1 of 10 players get a seat, to the 10k buyin Main Event which starts on Saturday. I'm playing great poker and I have a chance to win a seat and I hope it works out. If I get into this tournament I'll be dangerous. I truly believe that I am built to play this event. It is a 9+ day grind of 10 hours a day. I don't think there are many more players out there with the physical and mental stamina needed to perform at a high level for this long a period of time, especially after having already played for the last 5 weeks straight. If I get in, I'll be prepared to play great and give it a deep run. I'll let everyone know the results of my satellites. Wish me luck! All the thanks to all of you!

"So often we dwell on the things that seem impossible rather than on the things that are possible. So often we are depressed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done."- Marian Wright Edelman