Jeff Goes To Vegas Part 2

I had been in town for only two days but was at a loose end. I hadn't anticipated doing anything other than winning the three-day WSOP event I entered on my first full day of my trip (see Part 1 of this blog for the ugly details).

There was no WSOP event starting on the Tuesday that I fancied so I just bumbled around the old place, playing a little here, a little there, though my heart was barely in it. I managed to get fabulously drunk that evening and remind myself just why pit games such as roulette and blackjack aren't the best options when you're in that kind of state.

Waking up on Wednesday morning, I took a good 10 seconds before realising why I had a gaping hole in my bankroll. Determined to get things on track, I ventured down to the sumptuous poker room at the Venetian to play in their $550 'Deep Stack' tournament.

Smooth Progress

With 550 runners, 10,000 starting chips and blinds at just 25/50 with a 40-minute clock, this competition was hard not to like. In fact, save for the levels, it is similar to the WSOP Main Event of only five years ago, although the $82,000 first prize was slightly smaller (though certainly worth winning).

Early progress was quite serene despite seeing no playable hands for the first two hours. A number of well-timed steals took my stack up to around 15k and I even had the pleasure of overhearing one of my competitors observe to another that I’d not yet shown a hand down. That soon changed, however, when I took my AK up against a short stack’s AQ and another’s 77. The K on the flop saw me eliminate them both and swell my stack to close to 30k.

Players dropped regularly and I reached the dinner break as one of around 110 remaining contestants, in healthy shape with about 60k. I felt I was playing as well as I could and had not yet made a mistake.

Predictably things started to liven up after the break and a very aggressive player who sat down to my right contrived to double me up in a blind versus blind confrontation. I doubted he had the goods so re-raised him with a mediocre A9. He immediately put me all-in. I went with my initial instinct and was rewarded when he revealed K5. Although I was still in serious jeopardy the board was kind and missed us both, leaving me with about 100k.

Big starting hands continued to elude me but I built up to 200k, way above the average of 80k. By this point there were about 60 players left. My chip stack was boosted after doing battle holding A-Q against a player with K-Q on a Queen-high flop. I had taken down a number of small pots too.

The blinds increased to 1,500/3,000 and I opened for 18,000 with 8-8. The button, sitting on about 100k, called. The flop of 4-6-7 seemed friendly enough but when the dust cleared his JJ held up, reversing our chip positions.

Great Shape

Still relatively healthy, I clawed my way back up to 180k when the bubble burst and the final 36 made the money. It was only at this point, as the boys turned up to lend their support, that a few premium hands came my way. In a single orbit I found QQ twice and JJ once and with blinds at 3,000/6,000 with a 500 ante there was 14,000 in each pot - well worth stealing. A pre-flop raise with AQ missed the flop after attracting a single caller. I followed through for 50k and after he passed I was sitting on around 300k with 30 players left. I knew that 550k would be average for the final table so I was in great shape at the business end of the tournament.

Having been playing for close to 14 hours we entered the final level of the day with just 18 of us left, spread over two tables. I still had about 300k but this was now little better than average.

On the very first hand I saw KK and the player in early position to my right made it 35k to go (blinds were now 8,000/16,000 with 1,000 ante). I immediately raised by 100k to make a total of 135k and the button called all-in for 90k. The initial raiser folded and 250k chips were on the line. My opponent flipped up AT. The flop and turn were benign, offering no straight or flush possibilities - so the Ace on the river was particularly brutal. Rather than having 450k I was back around the 200k mark and with the blinds and antes costing 33k a round, for the first time in the tournament I began to feel under a little pressure.

I was determined to put that setback behind me but was continually frustrated as I was unable to take a stab at any pots before they had been already raised. I had around 160k chips when the tournament director announced the final hand of the day.

When he made his announcement there was a palpable sense of relief and achievement among the 13 of us left - I immediately felt this was an opportunity to steal a valuable pot. Under the gun, I looked down at Kh9h and opened for the standard raise of 48k, hoping to exude strength. It was folded quickly round to the button and as players began to congratulate themselves and each other, my opponent, sitting behind some 700k chips, began to ponder.

Maximum Pressure

It was at this point that I realised my mistake and knew I should have pushed in the whole lot to exert maximum pressure on anyone considering a call without a premium pair.

He declared that he was all-in. It was clear to me from the way he had genuinely agonised over his decision that he had some kind of marginal hand such as AQ. Knowing that the blinds were going up to 10,000/20,000 the very next hand and me being big blind I knew the fact that the next hand would not be played until the following afternoon should have no bearing on my decision. If I folded I would have 120k, with 20k of it going in the next hand. If I called and won I would have something in the region of 400k. I decided in spite of my original error a call was the right move.

My hopes were intact as he showed an AJo although the hole cards he revealed simply made me more confident that had I pushed he would not have made the call, especially since it was the last hand of the night. The first two cards out were 4h 8h making me a slight favourite. The Ace that followed, however, meant barring miracles I needed to make my flush. The 9 on the turn gave me some more outs but the river bricked out in the form of a black 4 and I was gone in 13th for a little over $3,000.

I knew it was a decent performance and that I had played pretty much as well as I could up until the final hand. Even then the idea of stealing the last hand of the night was probably a sound one that I poorly executed. Having made the initial mistake I at least made the correct call given the chip situation I had left myself in. Nonetheless, I could not shake off the feeling that for a keen amateur like myself it is not often I would get a chance to go really deep in a Vegas tournament and that I had ultimately fallen short.

Still, I was determined to take the positives from my performance and put them to use during the remainder of my time in Vegas. I still had time left and was determined to make that big score.

Read Part 1 of Jeff Israel's Vegas blog


READ ALSO:

David Gross' Vegas Diary Part 1

David Gross' Vegas Diary Part 2