We left for the San Diego Airport at 630 this morning, flew into Vegas, took a 20 minute nap with Magic and Tinkerbelle, which is really a massive effort to find space on the bed while Magic kept sniffing my shirt like he was looking for signs of our smallest bedmate, but Melissa was nowhere to be found. Got to the Rio by 1145 and broke a sweat walking from the parking lot to the casino entrance - the walk was like a dry sauna, only I'm wearing jeans.
We start Day 2 today in great position with 136,900 chips. As great as the stack is, it doesn't allow for mistakes, because a mistake could bring us right back to the middle of the field, but leave us so frustrated that we under perform from that mid-field position. We'd be far better off starting with 60,000 today than making a mistake that drops us to 70,000. That shouldn't be true, but "we're more Donkey than Machine now" (say that with OB1's sad voice).
Looking back on Day 1, we played some really good poker, with some great luck. We got into 5 "all in" situations and won all 5. Although the big note here is that we bad beat someone, even avoiding being bad beaten 4 times in a row is something to be thankful for. The only unfortunate part of this is that we had the last 4 of our opponents covered, so we doubled up when we had about 14,000 in chips, but then the next 4 events paid us 12-25,000 each instead of doubling us. That's difficult to complain about because they (and we) may have played differently with deeper stacks and, at the end of the day, being remotely upset about it would be like looking a huge gift donkey in the mouth.
Hopefully we will play great instead of good and continue to have great luck. We have about ten hours of poker lying ahead. We start playing 250 500 with 50 antes. That means there's 1200 in the pot before cards hit the table. Stealing blinds will be a huge component to the play, particularly for people with short stacks.
Seat 4 raises to 1150 and we call from the BB with 56c to see the flop AKQ with 2 spades. Scary flop for anyone who doesn't have 2 cards matching the board. We lead out with an 1100 probe. It's a small bet that won't hurt us much to lose, but to him looks like we're bleeding him (he has about 24000 in chips). He calls. Too bad. Turn comes Js. Wow, scary board is out of control with 4 high cards, a straight and a flush. We bet 2500 and he goes into the tank. We turn and ask our massuse to focus on a different area of our back. He folds. Great start! Small pot, but that's what most of today will hopefully be about.
We fold around to the next BB when S8 raises to 1200. She (the only woman at the table) has about 18000 in chips. We call with 8J. Not sure that's a good idea until the 38J flops. We check, she checks and a 5 hits the board putting 3 diamonds up. We can't let another diamond fall for free so we bet 1600 and she folds.
Next hand seat 5 bets 1200 and we call from the SB with 46c. BB folds and flop comes 578. Hmmmm, it appears we have a straight, and unless he's raising with the unusual 69, we have the best hand by far. We check and he checks. Turn comes 2. Time to build the pot. We bet 1600 and he calls. River comes 2 and we bet 4200. He raises to 11200. Hmmmm, to call or raise. He likely has a pocket pair or is bluffing. If he's bluffing, there's no difference between a call and a raise, so assume a pocket pair. A mid pair would support the preflop raise, but not the post flop check. A high pair is more likely, but a small pair that flopped a set also works. In that case, he made a full house and if we raise he can re-raise. He has about 50,000 in chips. Let's just take the mid size pot with our straight. We call and show our cards. He mucks.
Seat 7 raises to 1200 and we call from S8 with 88. Flop comes 89Q. Beautiful unless he flopped a bigger set or a straight. He bets 2400 and we raise to 5200. We need to extract value before a T or J falls. He calls and a 6 turns. Great card. We bet 7500 and he folds.
We are in one other small pot. One with QKd and four players see an AK3 flop with 2 hearts. In third position we bet half the pot and everyone folded.
S3 raises to 1500 and S8 re-raises to 4500. We call from the BB with 9Th because if we hit S8 will push all his chips in (he only has another 15000). We get to see the flop before deciding to go all in with him. Unfortunately, S3 folds. Worse, the flop comes 257 with one heart. We check, predictably S8 pushes all in, and we fold. Our first loss of the day.
S5 bets 1500 and S7 calls. S9 raises to 4500 and we're in the big blind with QKo. We would have called 1500, but today is about playing small as much as possible. We fold.
We raise from the button with K9s, a hand that I really hate, but will play here to steal the blinds. The SB folds and the BB pushes all in for 11,000. That's the big fear in betting cards that aren't solid from the start at this table. We fold.
S7 (who has 18000) raises to 1200 and we call from the BB with A3o. Flop comes 446. We check he checks. Turn comes 7. We bet 1200 and he calls. River comes 2. Hopefully he has 2 over cards, but that didn't help him. We bet 2500 and he folds.
S6 (same guy as last hand) raises to 1300. S8 raises to 3000 and we're on the button with KK. Would love to raise but hopefully S6 will push all in and do it for us trapping S8 who has about 35000. We call and S6 calls. Flop comes 77Q. S6 checks and S8 bets 6000. He's very unlikely to have a 7. QQ is possible, but we're still most likely ahead. We call hoping S6 will push, but he folds. Turn comes T. S8 checks and we bet 7500. He folds.
In S8 we raise to 1300 with AT and get calls from S9 and the BB. Flop comes 38Q. Not good. BB checks and we bet 2400 in hopes they fold. S9 raises to 5200 and the BB calls. We fold.
Our table is broken and we move to 400. As we sit we post the ante and get dealt QQ. S4 bets 1200 and we raise to 3600 from S6. Everyone folds. 5 and 6 seats behind us are huge stacks. The first one is bigger than ours.
S7 raises to 1350 and gets called by S8 (the 2 big stacks). We call from the BB with A2o because if we get crazy lucky, this could be "the hand". Flop comes 789. We check. S7 bets 3500. S8 calls. We fold. Minimize losses.
S6 limps (first limp I've seen today) and we limp in the SB with 66. Bb limps and flop comes 9TQ. Didn't hit us, but probably didn't hit them either. We bet 1200 and they fold.
From S8 we raise to 1350 with K8c, because why not try to steal the blinds? The SB calls and the flop comes A36 rainbow. He checks and we bet 1600. He likely doesn't have an A and our bet represents that we do. He folds. Great result. Picking up nickels and dimes makes me happy.
We certainly played the round small and could have won more with our straight (probably). We had some great luck, played well, played safe, and ended Round 6 with in 165,525 chips. Pretty happy with that. Hopefully more in 2 hours.
All the best,
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550
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