We trot gracefully and cautiously into Round 9, saddle bags bulging with 306,200 chips. It's actually cumbersome as it leaves little room in front of us for our cards. We're playing 500 1000 with 100 antes, so 2400 in the pot before cards fly.
We discard the first few hands and then come to the blinds. Everyone limps to us and we limp in the SB with 79s. BB checks. Flop comes 8JJ. We think about a prod bet, but just check hoping to see a T turn for a straight. He bets 1500 and we call. T comes 9. Not bad. We have 2 pair, so unless he has a J we're good. We check anyway and he bets 3000. We raise to 7000, which should flush out things like Q8. He calls. River comes T giving us a straight. That's great, but if he has a Q, he has a better straight and his smooth call on the turn could mean he has a J, which means he may have a full house. He's playing from the BB so if he has a J, his second card would still be random, which is good for us because so many cards near the J are on the board. We check and he bets 5000. We call and he shows J4. We take it down. That qualifies as a bad beat.
We raise to 2300 in S4 with KK and S6 calls. Flop comes 9TJ with 2 clubs. Scary. I don't recall the whole play, but there was a good amount of betting and the board turned a 6 and rivered a 7. He had 88 and made a straight on the river. We lost a good chunk of money and, again, this one qualified as a bad beat too
The next hand we raise to 2300 from S3 with A6c and get called by the Button. Flop comes A46 with 2 diamonds. We have 2 pair. We bet 2500 and he raises to 7000. Could he have a set? From the Button, he could have a broad range of hands. We just call. The turn is a 5h and we check. He checks. So much for a set. He would have bet again. River comes 8c. There's no flush, but the board has a lot of straight possibility 4568. Would he have a 7? Would he have raised the flop with a 57? We bet 8500 and he raises 33,000. Huge raise, but it's into a pot of 37,000. We call and he shows 79d. I'm pissed. 2 hands lost to straights on the river. We lost about 80,000 chips in 10 minutes. I actually throw the 33,000 down roughly like a petulant child and then sulk. I'm not sure I've ever done that before, in any context. It doesn't do much but give me time to think about how unfair that was. I'll not do that next time.
Luckily our table broke and we moved to table 434 where people were amazed by our stack of 247,000 chips. It's not what we had, but what we had is gone and it's time to refocus and build. The luck finally turned against us for a bit. Head in the game.
S8 raises to 2300 and the SB raises to 5600. We call from the BB with 55 believing that if we flop a 5 we will be able to make at least 36000ish (basic formula for deciding whether to call with a low pair). S8 calls and the flop comes 25K rainbow. Giddey-up. SB bets 12,000 and we flat call. Unless he has a set of Ks or makes a set on the turn, we should be solid. There's no straight or flush draw to push him off of. S8 folds. Turn comes 2 and SB checks. Not good. We check, hoping he gets a little better on the River or tries to bluff. River comes 8 and he checks. We bet 13,000 and he folds. Too bad. We made good money, but only about 25,000, not the 36,000 necessary to justify the risk.
We raise from S7 to 2500 with 9Tc. S9 calls and the BB raises to 7000. Not good. S7 and the BB each have over 150,000 in chips, so this is a good place to hit with suited connectors. We call and S9 calls. Flop comes 4TK rainbow and BB bets 19,000. Our T isn't enough to stay with, so we fold.
In S6 we raise to 2500 with 37d. Not sure why to be honest. Just hadn't taken a stab at the blinds recently. The Button and BB call and the flop comes an amazing 37T with 2 clubs. BB checks and we bet 3500. Button folds and BB raises to 12,000. What does he have? A set? Is he on a club flush draw? We just call. Turn comes 9s putting 2 spades, 2 clubs and a possible straight on the board. He checks, which means he probably doesn't have a set as he wouldn't give us a free card to make a straight or a flush if he did. We bet 21,000, because we don't want to give him that same free card. He calls and the River comes 3h giving us a full house! The only fear now is that he did have a set (very unlikely) and now has a bigger full house. So when he checks, we consider checking it down. Also weighing in on the decision is that if he were drawing to a straight or a flush, he missed it; so he will just fold if we bet. In that case, why risk that he raises us with a full house? However, he could have something like AT or A7 or JJ and call us down? Hard call. After a couple minutes of hurting our brain in the tank, we bet 35,000. He goes into the tank. We're terrified he'll push all in. We're praying for the call, and it comes. We show the baby boat of 3s full of 7s and he mucks. Big win! We're back over 300,000 chips!
In S7 we raise to 2500 with KJ. S8 calls and the SB raises to 7500. We call and S8 folds. The flop comes TQK giving us top pair and an open-ended straight draw. SB bets 9000 and we call. It's too possible that he has a set, 2 pair or even a straight. Turn comes 6 and SB pushes all in for 23,000. He could still have any of the aforementioned hands or he could be bluffing. The pot is about 38,000. It's just too big to walk away from. We call and he shows AK. Not bluffing. Ouch. We have 7 outs (3 aces and 4 9s give us a straight). River comes 3 and we pay him off.
Lots of ups and downs that round and lots of pain, but we end Round 9 with 297,500 in chips, losing less than 10,000 in the round. Two more hours and we're done for the day. Let's see if we can end over 300,000.
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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