The ending of the Deep Stack event left a sour taste in my mouth. I came into the day with a great feeling about my stack, which was at 176k and the average was 125k. It wouldn’t take too long for the bubble to break and the pressure was somewhat off.
We made the money and got redrawn for seats and I got the fortune of sitting on the “featured table” with some great players. There weren’t many soft spots in the field this late in the game, so I’d have to play my “A” game.
Once we settled into the new seating I took stock of the stack sizes and realized that the biggest stack was to my left. This meant that I would have to play a little tighter than usual cause I didn’t want to put myself in the position of playing for a big pot against a player who could afford it.
Not many hands were big enough to mention early in the game until I finally got involved in a pot with a blonde lady in the 8 seat. We got tangled up in a hand that would reveal a flop with a K and she was putting me to the test. I had K-Q, but put her on the A-Q, which would have me, all but dead. Unfortunately, it would cost me ¾’s of my stack before I could really put her on that hand.
So, with 20 BB’s, I was now forced to pick a spot and possibly play for my tournament life. The eventual hand that would knock me out came when I picked up pocket 7’s in the BB and saw a raise from John Strzemp in seat 6. I called and saw a 9-5-3 flop. Now, I had seen him play tight, but thought he might be trying to steal with K-Q, or A-J. So I checked to him and let him make the continuation bet and I moved all-in. To my surprise he insta-called with A-9. Nothing would produce for me and that was that! Out in 24th with a min. cash of $2,125.
I really had no time to spare if I wanted to get in the $540 Mega that started at 7 p.m. I managed to make some small pots here and there in the first 2 levels, but no big stack yet.
Soon, I found myself playing in some strange pots with a gentleman in seat 7 who would was making some rather rash plays for the early stages of the tournament. In one, he called an all-in for most of his stack with pocket 9’s against the A-Q of another player and got lucky to see a 10 hi board.
This guy was all over the place in hand range. Twice he’d put me to the test when I made an early position raise that would have forced me to go all-in. After the second time, he turned to seat 6 and muttered, “all I got do is raise her and she’ll fold.” REALLY? So, this guy prides himself on being able to knock me off a hand by sticking his entire stack in? I can’t call an all-in from a guy that’s shown down total garbage before.
The good news was that he wasn’t the one to take me out. The bad news was that it came from grandpa cowboy in seat 9. It was blind versus blind and he limped in. I looked down at pocket 8’s and pushed the stack past the yellow line. He made the quick call and I was racing against A-Q. Wasn’t much of a race as the flop peeled off 5-7-A. The turn was hopeful when the 9 came giving me a small glimmer of hope. The river was a 3 and I was busto.
I would take a small breather at the noodle place adjacent to the poker room and collect my thoughts. I finally decided to play the $540 sit-n-go. I knew a few of the players at the table who were from the Florida area, which was a small advantage. I also got sat with Will Failla who is always amusing to say the least. We would get down to 5 handed and I would be knocked out!
So, today I am making the trek over to The Wynn to see how their new tournaments are. They are now doing a $225 noon and 8 p.m. tournament. The starting stack is 20k and the blinds start at 50-100. They just kicked it off today and seems to be a good tournament to make a little extra change in. Wish me luck!
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