Tourney: Venetian March 24th $150 12 PM daily recap

I decided to change things up a little today and I woke up earlier than usual to play in a tournament at noon at the Venetian. This tournament actually only gave you 7500 in chips as opposed to the 10000 that I previously listed but the blinds were 30 minute long (as opposed to the 20 min long levels of the 7 PM). Other than that, the structure was the same. Todays tournament had 96 players and 1st prize was a little less than 4k. The tournament started off weird as we were only playing 4 handed but all of the stacks were in play.

First hand I found AJo and raised to 150 into 2 sitting out blinds and the one guy behind me raised me to 500. I folded and he showed QQ for the sick first hand avoidance. After a few people finally sat down, I limped behind a couple of limpers with A5ss. The flop came A52 and one of the limpers bet out 200. I raised to 550 and he folded. I was at around 7800 when this LAGtard limped in EP and I limped behind with T9o. The flop came 943 and the blinds checked, the LAGtard bet out 200 and I called. The turn came a 3 and he bet out 500. I figured him for either a draw like 65 or a lower 9 like 98 or 97. I called and the river came a 2. He checked and after some deliberation, I checked behind as Im not going to get called for value with any hand. He showed 44 for 4s full and I was down to 6500.

Around this time, the table finally got 10 handed. I called a raise to 300 vs 2 other people. The flop came 554 and the caller (not the raiser) bet out 1000. I folded and he showed JJ. I just couldn’t get anything going in the right direction as I raised to 250 (at 50-100) in late position twice only to get reraised both times. I was down to 5300 when I found 88 in the BB with one limper + SB. I raised to 250 and got called in both spots. The flop came KK6 and the SB checked, I checked, and the other caller checked. The turn came a K and I bet out 550. The MP caller folded but the SB called. The river came a 3 and he checked to me. I thought about checking but I feel like I have to try to value bet here when I know that I will get paid with a 6 so I bet 800. He thought and raised to 1900. He was a pretty good player and I thought he was probably capable of making a play here with a busted Fl draw. I called and he showed me K5. I should have known that this is a king like 99% of the time but I just didn’t think it through properly. Even if he didn’t have a king, I should know that Im behind because his range that would call the turn and c/r the river. I was down to 2600 after this hand and hurting.

After this the blinds went to 100-200 and I was pretty short stacked. I found AKo in late position with no one in the pot and decided to change it up a little bit by limping. It folded to the blinds and they didn’t bite and the flop came JT2. The SB checked and the BB bet out 600. I decided to call to see one card and because it would be a similar amount to what Id put in for a preflop raise. The turn came a Q giving me the stone cold nuts. He bet out 1200 and I decided just to call and leave myself with 1250 behind. The river came a 9 and he put me all in and I called and he showed J9 and AK was good for a double up to 6500 or so. I lost some smaller pots when I raised with KJhh and missed the flop and called PF with 44 and 66 and missed. I was at 5625 at the first break and my table broke during the first break.

I moved to a new table and didn’t do much for the first 15 minutes or so. We were at level 4 (100-200 25) and there was one limper to me on the button. I finally was able to look down and see a big pair with KK. I made it 600 and both blinds called and so did the limper. The flop came down 6s3x2s and the BB bet out 800. This guy has played a lot of hands, played them straight up, and didn’t fold much (he looked like he would be a welder if I had to peg his job type). I could immediately eliminate a FL draw from his range because while he would play a FL draw, he wouldn’t lead out with one. I am obviously hoping that he has a PP higher than the board here and pays me off. The limper folded and I made it 2200 from the button. The SB folded and he called. The turn came a 9s which worried me a little but really not that much. He checked and I went all in for 2250 and he called and showed 77 with no spade and he was drawing to 2 outs. He missed and I doubled to 11500 or so.

We went to level 5 (200-400 25) and I lost some chips when I called a larger than usual opening raise in a multi way pot with 66 and missed the flop but then I won some chips when I called a raise with K10dd from the SB with 3 other players and the flop came 10 high, I bet out and won the pot. I then was able to win another medium pot when I raised to 1050 in LP with AKo. The blinds both called and the flop came JJ8. It checked to me and I decided to check behind. The turn came a Q and it checked to me again. I thought that this would be a good bluff card for me so I bet out 1650, hoping to get a fold from lower PPs that I wouldn’t showdown against. They both folded and I won the pot.

The blinds went up to level 6 (300-600 50) and a short stack moved in for about 3600. It folded to me in the SB and I found QQ. I just moved all in because the BB only had about 7k in chips (if he has more I try to trap here) and the short stack shows AKss. I am lucky enough to win another coinflip against a short stack on a sick sweat flop of Js10s5x. After this hand, I was up to a comfortable 18000 or so. However, 2 hands after this SB, I raised to 1550 in the cutoff with A8o. The welder guy called from the BB and the flop came KJ7. He bet out all in for about 10k and I folded. The next hand I found A10ss and raised in the hijack to 1550 and the welder guy raised the button to 5k. I folded and am certain that I had the worst hand on both pots because of how straight up that this guy played but with these 2 pots, I basically wasted all the money I won on the coinflip.

At the end of the 2nd break, I was at 14350 and ironically, my table broke again. I was moved to a pretty poor position as the 3 guys on my left all had stacks of like 4k-6k and I just hand to be extremely selective about raising pots because if I raise at 400-800 75, I am basically going to be calling any push from those stacks so im essentially putting that much of my stack in whenever I raise. Unluckily, I was unable to pick up any raising spot at all during level 7. I found 22 twice and 44 once but there was already a raise in front of me (I now with I would have just said screw it and pushed especially with 44 because the raiser got reraised and then called the reraise and a 4 came on the flop. At least with a raise, a reraise and a call I know that if I push 44 there im a 4-1 dog like 95% of the time probably).

I was dwindled to 10500 after this level and still had more than enough chips for the next level of 600-1200 100 and we were down to 3 tables (with 9 spots paying). A really crazy thing happened during this level too. Some kid picked up a TON of chips probably about 70k GIANT pots of 77 vs AJ vs his QQ and JJ vs KJ vs his KK. I thought he was playing good (but I was obviously wrong) as he started to just push all his chips in every hand. What the hell. There were like 4-5 straight pots of 40k+ pots, all in preflop. It was just extremely bizarre but its hard to play here if I don’t have a hand. He lost his 70k to about 10k and then tightened up again so it seems like I missed the boat of getting some easy chips. I was down further in chips but did pick up AQo and push and not get called. I was teetering around 8k-9k when, on the last hand before level 9, I finally found a good spot to push my 8700 chips in with Q9cc in the cutoff. This was only the 2nd time I pushed since I had been at the table. The button, who was a tight player, somehow found a call and showed KJo. WTF he literally folded every hand for a long time and called my all in pretty quickly with KJo. Oh well the board came J high and I busted out in 22nd place. It was a pretty good confidence builder as I got pretty deep but there was still a long way to the money and I still didn’t get to the next level. I plan on going to bed early today and playing in this tournament tomorrow so I hope that that goes better.