Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Day 33

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

Fuck contingency plans. I wake up to my door being loudly knocked at 12:42PM. What? No! How did this happen. I go over and look at the alarm - it still says alarm set for 11:05. God damn it, piece of shit. Forget it, I don’t have time for this now.

I burst out of my room.

“Holy shit, is it really 12:45?”

“Yea man, we thought you’d already left. You’re so late.”

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Can anyone drive me there?”

“Nah sorry dude, we’re playing online. You’re gonna have to call a cab.”

“Shit.”

I call a number of different cab companies. A couple tell me it’ll be an hour and the other never picks up after leaving me on hold for over five minutes. Finally I get through to a place that says they can have a car here in 20 minutes.

Ten minutes later my car is here. We race over to the Rio and by the time I’m in my seat I’ve missed over 90 minutes, almost the full first two levels. The starting stack was 3,000, I’ve got 2,325 left.

The hand after I sit down the table breaks. God only knows the fiasco that would have been if I was another five minutes late and nobody on the floor has any idea where my abandoned stack was moved to.

I’m seated at a new table of unfamiliar faces and, with the blinds at 50/100, my options are limited.

I fold for about a round before I find Q-Q. One guy limps to me and I make it 400. The SB eyes me over very suspiciously, seems to think about shoving, then folds. The limper also quickly folds. Damn it, there goes my only hand for the next hour.

The next hand I peek down at A-A, much better:

My stack: ~2,400. MP1: ~5,000. Blinds 50/100.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP1, MP1 raises to 500, folds to me on the CO, I call, button folds, blinds fold.

Flop: A-Q-J

MP1 checks. I bet 500. MP1 instantly shoves and when I call he slams over J-J like they’re the nuts. So sorry sir, those are not the nuts. I table A-A and he is floored.

“MY GOD! What are the odds? I mean, I’m a math guy and I just can’t imagine.”

“Yea, sick set-up hand.”

“I thought you had Ace King! What are the odds?!”

The board runs out blank and I’m up to almost 5,000.

A round later I find J-J and open to 400 after a limper. The short stack from the Q-Q hand who looked like he wanted to go all in now does so for 1,400. It folds back to me and I call. He tables 7-7 and I’m way in front.

Flop: J-3-A

Turn: 5

River: J

A little unnecessary. With that pot my stack climbs to around 6,500 and I’m in much better shape.

I fold for most of 100/200 outside raising pre-flop and having to fold to someone’s shove once. The table is overall playing really loose, weak, passive, and the standard of play is just awful.

The blinds go up to 100/200 and I lose some chips when I raise Ks-8s on the CO and both the button and BB call. The flop comes a harmless looking 9-3-2 and the BB checks. I decide on such a dry board to fire since everyone folds to way too many C bets and, unfortunately, the button moves all-in. Unfortunately just losing a pot like that in this tournament costs me 1/6th of my stack, which means I now have to tighten up a bit more.

I do little but fold for the rest of the level and my stack is floating around 5,000. At 100/200/25 I raise Ks-Js UTG+1 to 550 and, unfortunately, a player in MP2 shoves so I have to fold. After paying the blinds once more my stack is resting around 4,200 when I play another pot:

My stack: 4,200. MP2: ~7,000. Button: ~4,000. SB: ~5,000. Blinds 100/200 with 25 ante. I hold K-Qo in the BB.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP2, MP2 raises to 700, folds to the button, button calls, SB calls. MP2 is probably the most aggressive guy on the table and has raise/folded before. Both the button and SB are really awful calling station fish who perceive aggression as much stronger than it is. Seems like a perfect squeeze spot. I ship in my 4,200 and MP2 thinks for about five seconds before calling. The other two players fold and when MP2 tables 8-8 we’re off to the races. Surprising call for live poker.

Flop: A-9-T

Turn: 6

River: 8

Well, that’s it for my day.

I’m pretty pissed at myself for showing up so late, but I thought I had that covered. These $1,500 events are really awful in terms of starting chip stack and ability to maneuver. It doesn’t really get interesting until there are higher blinds and the average stack deepens a little due to the one hour levels. The bubble in them is a total cake walk, but otherwise, your ability to manipulative and bully the very bad opponents is restricted.

The event somehow got an enormous 3,900 players, which is 1,000 more than any other $1,500 has had in previous years. Tomorrow I’ll be meeting up with Stevepa to sort all our money issues out, then playing the $1,500 PL Hold ‘em event. I think if I bust really early for some reason I may head over to the Venetian and jump in their $500. That or hang around the Rio for a little while and play some of the ultra soft satellites that are going on. I don’t know, but there’s a lot of options for making money. I don’t have the computer with me so online is out. Besides live is considerably more interesting to write about and I could use the material.

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