So, went into todays $330 event at Caesars with renewed confidence and expectation following the WSOP, in which I didn’t make the dinner break but was very happy with my game. I started well, playung a few hands and was never down on chips. During the first break I was pleasantly surprised to find that they sell jelly in the Caesars food court, and you can get cream from the coffee shop. A new standard snack for the poker is born.
My first table was good fun, with a lot of good guys, including Mike – I haven’t sat at his table since the WSOP Triple Draw last year. During our game the USA were playing Brazil in the final of the Confederations Cup in South Africa. USA actually went 2-0 up in the first half, (an almighty shock), at which point I stated that Brazil would win 3-2, and I was confident enough that I would go to the sports book outside the poker room and put money on it. Sadly I couldn’t do that as we were playing, but shortly after half time Brazil scored. I reminded everyone that a Brazil win was inevitable, and when they duly got the 2nd and 3rd everyone round the table was wondering what I would have won if I’d placed the bet. One guy then asked how much injury time there would be, to which I replied, “dunno, 3 minutes I would guess”, just as 3 extra minutes appeared on the clock. In an attempt to claim a hat-trick I suggested that Fabiano would get man-of-the-match, despite me not having seen the game. Later we found out that he did. Thankfully I then found out that Caesars would not have taken my 3-2 bet as they don’t take in-game bets on football. I wonder what I would have got if they had?
Anyway, back to the poker. Our table broke – Mike said to the floorman “just do me one favour, please don’t move me to a table full of douche-bags” to which the floorman replied “sir, this is a poker room”
The new table was tough, but I won a good couple of early pots and had established a great image, and had a well-above average of 30k this happened: Blinds are 300-600, and I am in the big blind looking down at AK. A fat kid with about a 20k who had just shown a big bluff calls the 600 in mid-position. A guy who I hadn’t any real info on next to him also called, (he had me well out-chipped). I duly raised it up to 1800, and they both called. The flop was 6-K-3 rainbow. Obviously I felt I should be ahead, and as I tend to do I lead out for 2100. On that board I’m half-expecting them both to fold, but the fat kid shoves. The guy next to him insta-calls. Now I was going to snap-call the fat kid, but now what? I could call, with 10k behind, or re-shove to get the other guy to put more of his stack in. Or I could fold. To be honest, I immediately knew I ought to fold. I didn’t know what the fat kid had, but the other guy surely had to be really strong didn’t he? A set of 6’s? Aces? I agonised for couple of minutes and mucked the hand, and hoped I was right. It turned out that the far kid had the aces, and the other guy only had K-10! Right fold, wrong person. I felt pretty good about the fold tho – maybe you agree, or maybe you reckon it was obvious, but I was quite happy that I took the time.
Anyway, I stayed around 30k, still well above average, when this happened: I got dealt 2 red aces UTG, with blinds at 400-800. I raised it up to 2200. A guy in the cut-off re-raised me to 6000. I re-re-raisd 11,000 more and he shoved, and I obviously called. He had 2 black queens. The dealer dealt the cards fast so I can’t remember what they were, but he dealt a 4 card spade flush to the guy on the river, so I was out. Sick. Really quite physically sick. I would have had a 60k+ stack and been well on the way to day 2, and it was a bad, bad feeling. Particularly bad as I again felt I was playing my A-game.
Still, an hour later and over it now (!).
I have 3 or 4 more opportunities to go deep and cash left on this trip, but to be honest it feels a bit doomed at the moment – AQ losing to A7 in the WSOP, and now AA losing to QQ with a flush, not good ways to go out.
That’s poker folks.