Rollercoaster time!

You just never know. It never ends the way it starts out - one moment it’s going well, then suddenly it slows down and it’s a little uphill, and before you know, down you go again! Just as you get used to it and enjoy it, it throws you for a loop, suddenly you’re upside down and twirling and you don’t know if you’re coming or going. That’s the rollercoaster called poker. The funny thing is, when you’re done with the ride, you head right back to the end of the line to experience the thrill again.

Last Friday I played the Headhunters tournament at Treasure Island, first mistake. That type of tournament doesn’t fit my playing style at all, which I proved a couple of months ago, when I ended up 2nd in that tournament, WITHOUT A SINGLE BOUNTY!! Evidently I’m better at staying alive than at dealing the killing blows. Friday was no different, everything went as expected, I didn’t knock anyone out, and I stayed alive. Well, for a bit. I got knocked out with AJ on a A-x-x board, when the guy with pocket 5’s hit runner-runner straight against me. Oh well.
So I tried the 10pm tournament. For some reason I played the worst poker ever and it was probably just justice when I – again, went all-in with AQ on an Ace high board, board goes runner-runner and put 4 hearts on the board, guy with K5o is holding the only heart and I’m out.

Saturday morning I tried again. The Lips tournament at Orleans, and it started out well. Really well when I got my JJ all-in against pocket 7’s. This, btw, was probably one of the worst calls I’ve seen all weekend! The girl raised about 8x the big blind from EP, which made me think she doesn’t like her hand THAT much. I got JJ in the BB, decided to call and push if the flop looks safe. Flop came 9-4-4, I pushed, she thought for quite a while, called and flipped over 77. Now I wondered – why? She can’t beat a 9 or a 4, any pair 8 or higher beats her – and did she really think I was doing it with only two high cards? And even so, the she might still lose three quarters of her stack if I hit – it was early in the tournament, I don’t think it was really worth it.
Anyway, once again the board came runner-runner spades, she’s holding the only spade and I’m out. And then she said she’s sorry – sorry for what? Sucking out? Really?? How else did you expect to win that hand??

Oh well, I was on full tilt then (the emotional state, not the site), and decided to get over it using the comforts of a Sephora shopping trip and a stuffed baked potato from The Café in Treasure Island. It worked. I felt much better and decided to go play the 2pm at TI, since Richard is still playing at Bellagio and we wanted to stay on the strip to play the Caesars tournament that night.
OK, this went much better, no suck outs (I got those out of the way), no interesting hands either and I made it to 3rd place, cashing $360.

Allrighty, I’m happy, now I could go play at Caesars, not feeling like a loser anymore. Big turnout at Caesars, 104 people to start with, WOW!
The poker gods were trying to apologize and gave me great cards early in the tournament. This is how my 2 Aces hands went down. Got a pair of Aces, raised, only one caller. Flop came all spades, I DON’T have one. Put a bet three quarters of the pot out there, he sighed, showed his 7s8s and said ‘I don’t want to call with a small flush’. I don’t know what he was hoping for when he called? Just a straight? Anyway, I got lucky and I scooped the pot before he changed his mind.
Couple of hands later, I got Aces again. Two limpers, I raised, BB called, one limper folded, and same guy re-raised me? WTF, now I’m confused. OK, so the blinds are 25/50, I raised to 150, he re-raised to 400. I don’t know what the BB was gonna do, and I want to go heads up with this guy, so I threw out another 1000. BOTH OF THEM CALLED! Flop came all low-cards, non-scary, and I pushed – if someone hit his set, I’m going to pay him off. Both folded – re-raise guy said he had AJ. Needless to say, he was out a couple of hands later.

The rush continued, I hit big hands and before long I had a decent-to-huge stack. I played really well, I think – and I made the final table with average stack. When we were down to 12 players, I decided that I made it that far; I HAD to make the money. Payout was 9 places, if I remember correctly. Anyway, I took out two guys and suddenly we were 4 left and I was second in chips. Once again, I got AA, KK, QQ and some great flops and before long, we were 3 left, one guy extremely short stack and the two of us about equal. We decided to do a chop by chip count, he had a whopping 7000 chips more than I had (less than one BB at that point), and he got around $100 more than I – my cash was $3151, which more than made up for the bad run earlier the weekend!!

And -- back to the end of the line for another ride……. my Venetian Deep Stack tourney on Wednesday, which I will write about in my next post.