Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days: Days 69-70

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

As always, I spend my day off relaxing around my pool and firing up the grill, then trying my best to catch up on some writing despite all the distractions. Over two months into my trip and I can see and feel myself getting increasingly out of shape, a result of the Vegas diet of huge but occasional meals, low sleep, almost zero exercise, and doing nothing but sitting in a chair and doing math problems. When I get back to Melbourne the first thing I’ll do is hire a personal trainer and get very strict with my diet to try and repair the damage this trip has done to my health. Until then I’m just going to try and be a bit more mindful about reducing junk food and getting a little more sleep, which even living well off the strip, proves hard to do in Las Vegas. With day two starting tomorrow, I’m aiming for eight hours tonight.

In the morning, nearly the entire house sets out towards the Rio. Nath, Grafyx, LearnedfromTV, and me are all playing our Day Twos today, so I don’t have to worry about ordering a taxi. I checked my Day Two table draw last night and found two recognizable names; Howard Lederer and Jon Robert Bellande. I’ve played with Bellande a bit before during a $5,000 mixed event in 2007 where he massively donked his stack to me, but have never played with Lederer before.

At the Rio I make my way through the massive crowd to my seat in the Amazon room. I rip open my bag, stack up my chips, then survey the table. Outside Bellande and Lederer, all the players are unknown and the majority of them look more inexperienced, though there are a couple of young guys who seem to have a pretty good idea of things. Play restarts at the 250/500 level, and my 35,000 chip stack gives me almost 60 BBs. Almost immediately, I’m involved:

My stack: ~35,000, SB: ~25,000, blinds 250/500 with 50 ante. I hold Td-7d in the BB.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP2, MP2 raises to 1,400, folds to the SB, SB calls, I call (meh, but against unskilled opponents, probably fine.)

Flop: Kc-8c-2h

Everyone checks.

Turn:4c

SB checks, I bet 2,700, MP2 folds, SB thinks it over, looks at his cards (meaning he’s checking for a club) and calls. I tell myself if the river doesn’t hit a club, I’m always firing unless I pick up showdown value.

River: 8h

SB checks, I bet 5,600, SB quickly folds.

The early play is pretty tight weak, outside Bellande who plays a ton of hands with zero regard to his position. He’s opening somewhere in the area of 30% of hands and most people on the table are happy to let him get away with it. Because he’s two seats on my left, I’m unfortunately not in a position to manipulate him. I am quite aggressive in late position, which results in his almost never folding out of the blinds. It’s not long until we’re involved in a larger pot with this dynamic:

My stack: ~42,000, Bellande: ~60,000, blinds 250/500 with 50 ante. I hold Kc-6c on the button.

Pre-flop: Folds to me, I raise to 1,300, folds to Bellande in the BB, Bellande calls.

Flop: 8c-Td-Qh

Bellande checks, and given that he’s a bit of a station and that’s the worst ever board to continuation bet on, I just check behind.

Turn: 3c

Bellande checks, I fire 1,800, Bellande check-raises to 4,200, I call.

River: 2c

Bellande fires 8,000. I think over my raise size, then make it 22,000 total (yes I think it’s better than shoving in live poker.) Bellande goes into the tank, then folds.

Things are going quite well in the early goings and I spend most of my time between hands talking about current issues in poker with Lederer and Bellande. When Lederer is on TV he seems very quiet and contemplative, but on the table he actually seems quite social and talkative. We mostly spend time discussing the UB scandal and why something like that is impossible on Full Tilt (according to Lederer, who has a technical explanation I am not computer savvy enough to make sense of.) The blinds have gone up by the time I’m involved in my next interesting hand:

My stack: ~50,000, CO: ~18,000, blinds 300/600 with 75 ante. I hold K-To in the BB. The CO is an inexperienced, somewhat aggressive player who called a check-raise all-in with second pair and sucked out earlier.

Pre-flop: Folds to the CO, CO raises to 2,000, folds to me in the BB, I call.

Flop: Kd-8c-4c

I check, CO fires 5,000. I look over at his stack and see he has about 10,500 behind. I slide my stack of oranges in to put him all-in. He looks over at them, shrugs, then says “Well I guess I have to call” and puts his stack in the middle. I table my top pair and he turns over his Ac-Qs. What the hell?

Turn: Ad

Instantly, the dealer whips over the turn and I don’t so much as blink. My win at the Bellagio has completely destroyed my ability to feel frustrated by a suck out.

River: 5h

I count out the chips and slide them over to him, then take out my pen and paper and begin writing the details.

“What are you going to call him in there?” someone asks.

“Ah nothing, it’s just for taking down the details of the hand for my blog is all” I respond. Then I look down at my paper, pretend to write and shout “FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!”, which the CO finds quite funny.

I fold around for an orbit without doing much. On my SB, the guy on my right opens and everyone folds. Then he opens the next hand and everyone folds. Then he opens again and I decide to three bet him to 5,200 with J-To in position. It folds back to him and he calls. The flop comes Q-2-5 rainbow and he checks. I fire out 6,500 and he instantly crams. I slide my cards toward the muck and suddenly I’m one of the shorter stacks on the table with about 20,000.

I try to stay somewhat active, but Bellande never folds anything in the blinds and I have fairly terrible cards, so stealing becomes difficult. When the blinds go up to 400/800 my ability to get creative is pretty reduced and I’m stuck playing a somewhat tight style. It’s not long before Bellande and I are involved again:

My stack: ~20,000, Bellande: ~80,000, blinds 400/800 with 100 ante. I hold Qs-Qc on the CO.

Pre-flop: Folds to me on the CO, I raise to 2,000, button folds, Bellande calls in the SB, BB folds.

Flop: 9h-5h-2h

Bellande checks, I fire 3,300 with the intention of snap calling a shove. Bellande calls quite quickly.

Turn: As

That’s a… weird card here. Bellande checks and I check behind (meh, bet may be better here.)

River: 3h

Fuck! Bellande thinks briefly, then fires 2,000. This is a very strange spot where all three options of calling, shoving, and folding are available. We can call because Bellande has real LAGtarded moments and just might make some silly bluff here. We can fold because his bet looks like a blocking/value bet. We can shove because if he’s blocking, it means he probably doesn’t have a hand he wants to call with, unless we think he’ll bet small with huge hands trying to get value. I’m really not sure which he’s after, so I go with the easiest (and probably worst) option and call. Bellande tables Ac-8c and I muck. He starts chuckling about how sick his value bet is, and I start chuckling internally about how hilariously awful his pre-flop and flop calls are. I guess two wrongs do make a right.

I’m now quite short stacked and everything I try seems to go horribly wrong. When I raise something in late position and continuation bet a board I missed, but is good for bluffing, they call me down or raise and I’m forced to give up. I keep folding as we approach the dinner break, then start open shoving to accumulate a few chips and keep my head above water. Nobody ever calls and we go to dinner break with my having a little over 10,000.

As always, I made sure to call the Indian place in the Rio at the start of the day and make a reservation, since the place is packed today and it’ll be hard to get a table at any restaurant you don’t call ahead to. Everyone at the table is sitting a hell of a lot better than I am, but when we come back to the 500/1,000 blinds, I’ll still have a stack that can create a lot of fold equity with open shoves.

I get back to my table after dinner a few minutes before play begins. I have 10,500 left in my stack in late position, so I’m going to have to make some moves pretty quick. I get involved on the first hand:

My stack: 10,400 (after paying ante), MP2: ~60,000, blinds 500/1,000 with 100 ante. I hold 7s-7d on the HJ.

Pre-flop: Folds to MP2, MP2 raises to 3,000, I shove, folds back to MP2. MP2 asks for a count, then tosses in the chips. I table my 7-7 and he blurts “You got me crushed” and tables 4d-4c. Sweet.

Flop: Ks-8s-4s

Shit.

Turn: 2d

River: 2s

“Nice hand, good luck.”

“Huh, what? Flush! You’ve got a flush.”

“You’ve got a boat dude.”

“Oh, right! I was just looking at the spades.”

“No worries at all, good luck man.” I shake his hand and tap the table.

So ends my WSOP Main. I know many poker players who claim ‘the day you go out of the Main is the worst day of the year, but I think that’s bullshit. The Main is just another tournament, even if it is full of donks with an incredible structure. There’s plenty more chances outside this, and after having already run incredibly good this summer, I’m in no spot to complain about anything.

I don’t feel bad about busting in the slightest. At least I have some time to relax tonight and get to sleep in tomorrow. I don’t feel I did anything overly stupid (the Q-Q call vs. Bellande is pretty meh, but maybe not, weird spot) and I mostly got my money in while in front. There’s always next year. Besides, there’s still the Bellagio $15,000 in just a few days.

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