The Game of My Life in Vegas Part 2

When the final table started, I was in late position and to Jinny’s left. There were only 2 players at the table I worried about, Jinny and another really solid younger player who plays this tourney every day who had position on me (2 to my left). I knew he was going to make things very difficult for me.

To test the waters, I raised the first 2 hands at the final table to 9500 in late position with nothing and stole the blinds. I kind of just decided that I was never getting cards and I needed to keep putting the pressure on.

The next hand I look down at a miracle. I get dealt JJ and I just raised 2 hands in a row. Talking to Jinny after he said he was certain I was huge after raising a third consecutive hand. I made it 9500 to go and the good player to my left did something strange. He re-raised me to 15k total (a min raise). At this point I had around 130k and he had about the same. There were 3-4 players with fewer than 40k at the table and it made no sense to me to overplay this hand. This was so tough for me to discipline myself because online JJ is a monster in this spot. You would never fold it pre-flop and you would try to get all your chips in here. Also I had not seen a big pocket pair all day and I had been playing for almost 7 hours so the there is so much risk that I go broke here needlessly.

What I had to decide firstly was what to make of this min-raise. I firmly believe good players do not min-re-raise with AA. It’s not a strong play for a bunch of reasons. I decided that he was trying to outplay me with position with a marginal holding and I knew for sure he was folding if I 4 bet him. I decided to flat call and see a flop and go from there however I knew he wanted me to think that he had AA or KK. I tried to act scared but I am not sure if it worked because I do not think he expected me to call the raise. The flop could not have been better: Jc7s4d (poker is so easy when you flop the nuts). I instantly checked to him and he checked quickly. I knew for sure at that point my read was correct and he had nothing. The turn was a 6c. This was too scary a turn card for me to check again. I wanted to bet an amount that made sure he could not call with nothing and also was hoping he might re-raise which is a tricky amount. I settled on 22k (there was about 37k in the pot). He insta-called which worried me. I figured I was right and he had something like suited connectors, 8c9c or 9cTc were the 2 hands I thought of right away. The river was very pretty: 4s giving me the 2nd nuts. I looked at the board for a good 30 seconds trying to figure out some kind of weird looking bet but I was so certain he was never call anyway. I bet 30k into 81k and he instantly mucked and said “show me your boat”. I obliged and showed it as I knew I would really be raising a lot now.

This hand brought my stack around 200k and I figured I was would be sitting well for the stretch run as we were 10 handed. As always play was very tight and the blinds kept moving. Blinds now 4000/8000/500 there were some real short stacks going. I busted a player who only had 14k, who pushed from the button with A2, I re-raised from the SB with 33 and busted the guy in 10th.

3 more players busted and to be honest I was not involved in the hands so I do not remember exactly how they busted. When we got to 6 handed Jinny was directly to my right and he was one of 3 players who were very short. Jinny only had around 60k left; I was around 160k as blinds were killer at this point. Jinny raised to 18k in the cutoff and I was on the button with AT. I shoved over top and nearly lost my breath when the BB who had me covered tanked it and folded TT. Jinny also folded and I felt terrible for coming over the top but Jinny and agreed we would play against each other if we needed to so I just felt like I was ahead there and the blinds would need to be huge to call. There were also 2 players with around 25k each. The weird part about this tourney is that 7th paid $600 and 4th paid $900. It seemed like there was almost no money jump in those mid spot.

A few hands later I was in the bb with 8k already in. The button shoved for 28k total. I had JTo which is such a marginal calling hand in my opinion. However I kind of looked at it this way: it was 20k to call into a pot of 43k so I was getting the right price. This guy also had shoved earlier with really weak hands as he was so short, he could be shoving there with any 2. He also was not a very strong player and I was not that worried about doubling him up. I finally made the call for two reasons, I honestly thought there could be a chance I was ahead with J high and I also wanted to move Jinny up another spot if I could. He showed Q6o and he held.

The entire final table I did not try to steal from the button once. Then I raised from the button with 68o and the SB flat called me. The flop came 4h4d7h. He checked to me and I really wanted to bet but I just felt like he wanted to check raise me (he was not an experienced player). The turn was a 9d which to me seemed like a great card for me especially when he checked the turn. I fired out 20k and the SB instantly went all-in. Oops… my original read was good but I figured it was such a scary turn card no one could check it. After a little thought (not so much thought but more pretend thoughts about calling) I folded.

A few minutes later Jinny pushed into a raise and got called. Jinny had 66 and the other guy who I had just doubled up had AQ. Jinny lost the race even with me cheering for him (I never cheer for the short stacks at a final table) and he was out in 6th. GG Jinny.

We got to 4 handed pretty quickly when the only solid player left ran into a set with top pair and he lost most of his stack and was forced to push every hand until he busted.

The blinds then skipped the 5/10 level and jumped right to 6000/12000/1000. Playing 4 handed with blinds this big was significant. It basically meant you had to win one hand per orbit to maintain your stack but raising and folding was tough to do. My stack was around 180k.

By this time Marco and Foggy have shown up to watch the end of this. This really gave me the boost I needed to try to win this thing. Marco has always been around to give me solid advice when I get deep in the tournaments and all of the jackseven guys were sitting behind me. The payouts were very strange in that 4th paid $969, 3rd $1790, 2nd $2650 and 1st $4070.

I then had the most significant hand of the tourney to this point come up. Keep in mind we are 4 handed and I am playing with less than solid players, 2 of which rarely played any MTTs. UTG raised to 40k, and the button flat called and left himself with around 70k. This seems rather alarming but the raiser had almost 20k and if he shoved there the raiser cannot really fold unless he has garbage. I figured if the button was really that big he would have shoved but that he probably called with AJ, AT or KQ. Something he was trying to hit a flop with. I looked down at hand and saw 7d8d. In the 2 mille-seconds before I shoved all-in all I could think about was the 100k in the middle. I could basically add 50% to my stack right there if my read was right. I felt like if I was wrong, I still had an ok gambling hand if I don’t run into a pair. Well I ran into a pair alright. UTG thought forever and he was the one I was actually worried about and he folded. The button still thought about it but eventually called with KK. I actually hit 2 pair but so did he. NH, I am down to 60k.

Well here I am short; I had not been at 60k in 2 hours. Basically the next 10-15 minutes I pushed about 9 times in 12 hands. Marco had to get up from the table he was laughing so hard and how much these guys folded. I think my best hand of the 9 was K5. The players were so inexperienced, they looked at their cards before I did and it was obvious when they were big.

Even with all the pushing I did not get my stack over 95k and I will still short. During this time I was really try to get these guys to talk chop. The difference between 3rd and 4th was so big and it was basically going to pay for my trip. I was not getting any cards and I was ready to chop if I could get around 3rd place money. The other 3 guys were wishy washy about it and the TD would not stop the tourney so we could talk. Also 2 of the guys did not really even understand what a chop was.

I then picked up 2d4d in the SB and shoved into the big stack BB. He was a big stack but really he only had around 220k so I knew he could not call without a hand. Blinds at this point were 8000/16000/2000 so I needed every chip I could get. The BB I guess got frustrated and looked at his hand and I said “I like this hand, I think I will call”. He called with Jd9d. I almost fell off my chair. Not because he called or whatever but I had shoved about 10 hands before this and you figure along the way someone folded an ace or a king high. The flop came 368 and Marco said out loud “that’s a great flop”. Turn 5, river 3 and just like that I am over 200k. Ship the cookies. We then went on break.

During the break Marco and I went for a walk alone and he gave me 2 pieces of advice: 1) Don’t make any more moves; he did not feel it was necessary against players that are this simple and 2) try blind stealing with min-raises. I got back from break and felt like I was going to win this.

I raised about every 2nd hand and got my stack over 230k. One of the players had gone into shove mode and shoved into my BB from the button. I looked down at AQ and said call very quickly with absolutely no thought. He turned over QJ and I held and the 4 person bubble was over.

Now we were 3 handed and the other 2 players wanted to chop 3 ways. Foggy was yelling from far away “no chop, no chop”. I told them I would not chop anymore unless we were heads up. Within 2 hands the other 2 players got it all-in with A7 vs. Q9 and I just sat there and watched as I knew it meant one of them would be really short. It turned out the Q9 hit and the A7 guy who was the same guy who called who called me with J9 had only 3 bbs left. He shoved the next hand from the SB with JT and the BB called with A4 and held.

We were now heads up. I had 360k and he had around 390k. I convinced the guy to even chop. I am not a big believer in chopping when you feel you have an edge however I feel like heads up is a bit different. What I always look at is the payout difference between 1st and 2nd. In this case it was around $1500 which meant I was taking $750 and playing heads up with it. To be honest I wouldn’t play someone who has never played poker before heads up for $750 so I just do not feel comfortable putting that kind of money on the line just to win another $750. Normally if the difference is just a few hundred I will play the heads up. I also had 5 hungry jackseven guys waiting to go to dinner and it was almost 9pm. I was very happy to walk out with $3300 and to buy these guys dinner,

As a finish this blog, I still cannot believe the cards I did not get in this tourney. Usually they say to win a tourney you have not get unlucky and you to get lucky. Basically my biggest suck-out was a 40/60 with 24o. I never did get sucked out on both which is also important and I think not getting many hands or hitting any flops helps that. When you hold Q9 and the board is A26J and you fire a bet on the turn, it makes decisions pretty easy if your opponent plays back at you.'

This turned out to my biggest blog ever, I wrote so much detail to remind myself of all the details of my biggest win ever. I can honestly say this was my best feeling ever in poker.