Vegas Day 6 - $5k NLHE - Hands

120 players left, 72 of us get paid. I have a couple of big stacks on my table, so I decide if I don’t get cards I am going to put the medium stacks to decisions, to call off most of their chips short of the money.

Blinds start at 800/1600 with a running ante of 200 (4.2k per round) My stack is 39k

Hand1
UTG raises to 5k. I am next to act and have pocket 9s. I decide I don’t want to flat call here as 9s don’t play well post flop. I decide to fold. Perhaps I could have pushed here, but an UTG raise generally is a strong hand, although watching this guy’s play later he could easily have had nothing here.

Hand2
Medium stack raises my BB from the button to 5k. I shove with K8 offsuit and he folds.

Hand3
Big stack raises from early position, and I shove over the top of him with AK. He passes.

General observations - Americans play weird sometimes. Even with blinds of 1k/2k and running ante of 300 (i.e. nearly 6k per orbit) a stack of 30k will open raise to 5k (i.e. only 2.5 times the big blind and not taking into account the antes). I think this comes from watching Negreanu on TV too much, but of course he knows how to play flops better than them.

Hand4
Medium stack raises my BB to 5k. I shove with KQ and he folds.

90 players remain, 72 get paid - my stack = 45k.

I now don’t play a hand for 2 orbits and go down to 33k.

Hand5
Big stack opens to 5k, medium stack flat calls. I shove with 4♥6♥. Open raiser folds, but the other guy stares at me without saying a word for ages. I stare at the felt in front of me and make sure I don’t swallow. He passes.

We are now playing hand for hand with 73 players remaining. This goes on for about 90 minutes and we play one hand every 5 minutes. Everyone is stalking the tables, looking for the short stacks. I have about 42k so not in immediate danger, but the longer hand for hand goes on, the worse position I am in when the tournament “re-starts”. During this period, the big stacks are correctly on the rampage, raising and re-raising most pots. I fold JJ and TT during this period. Whenever a short stack goes in, the always show down AA and KK.

BUBBLE BURSTS - medium stack shoves with AK and gets called by big stack with AQ. AQ gets a straight. Brutal.

The payout structure is very shallow - the prizes only begin going up significantly at 20th spot. Result = gamble time.

Hand6
First hand after bubble, I shove with J♦5♠. All fold.

Hand7
Medium stack raises to 6k and I shove with K♥Q♥ in the BB. I calls with AQ and a King on the turn sorts me out;) Up to 90k. Volcano annoys the bloke even more from the rail, by shouting “Good crack of the AQ Jimbo”.

Hand8
Blinds are now 1.5k/3k with a 500 running ante. It costs 9k a round. I have about 70k, so effectively 7 big blinds. I shove UTG with A♥10♥ and all fold.

I don’t play 2 orbits and dribble down to 60k. In the emergency ward now.

Hand9
I am in the BB and a guy who has been raising many pots raises as usual to 10k. I decide I am going to push on him no matter what I have. I look down at K♦J♦, which is useful if he has a small pair so at least I’ll be racing, rather than having to shove with 2♠5♥ or something. Anyhow, he calls and has AK and there is no miracle this time, and I am bust in 44th place. I think I was unlucky there - the amount of pots he was opening KJ is going to be stronger than his holding quite a bit there. Bad timing I guess.

My payout is $12,712 - not too shabby.

VEGAS MINI P&L (USD)
Big Ticket Events	6,165
Crapshoots	(215)
Cash Games	(800)
Total	5,050

Jimbo happiness level = +4