During round 3 a new, tough player joined the table on my left. I can’t put my finger on who he was but he was definitely familiar to me and played well until he tilted (to someone else, unfortuntaley). He rivered (and value bet) me to take one big pot, then I tried to take A-high to showdown when I should have turned it into a bluff and ended up having to fold the river to him. Was down around 40K at second break.

I didn’t do much during rounds 5 and 6. Table got tougher with the addition of Jon “FatalError” Aguiar and Adam Junglen, thankfully on my right. I lost one sizable pot going for a thin value bet with 88 on a KK433 board and folding to a shove that MIGHT have been a bluff (but probably not).

Rounds 7 and 8 I was just card dead as the table got tougher and more active. Winning pots without a hand was nearly impossible, and I wasn’t even getting cards good enough to bluff with. Despite the fact that I opened hardly any pots, I still got 3-bet like 2/3 of the time. Just got ground down like that and finished the day with 30,800, just 800 chips more than I had at the start of the day.

We lost about the field, so average stack is probably about 60,000. Here’s to a better tomorrow!

Flop Js Td 9s. Checks to me, I bet 300, SB calls. I think he can have any pair and even a few draws that I’m beating.

Turn 2d. He checks, I bet 900 expecting him to fold anything worse than a pair of Jacks that doesn’t also have a draw.

River 6h. He checks, I bet 1400 expecting him to fold most of his one pair hands. He calls with J9, which is fine.

75/150, I have been very tight but choose to raise to 450 with Jc9c in MP. Jon calls on my left, bad player calls on the CO, spazzy guy calls on the Button, blinds fold.

Flop Js Td 8s. Checks around to button, who bets 600. I call, the others fold.

Turn 6c, we both check.

River Qc, I check and instantly regret it. He’s probably never value betting worse and doesn’t need to bluff all that often. However, he probably calls a bet with lots of stuff, including any two pair and probably any Jack or better if I don’t bet too big.

75/150, I raise Qc 8d to 400 in MP3, Jon calls in the CO, everyone else folds.

Flop Kd Jd 5h. I bet 700, he calls.

Turn 9d, I bet 1700, he tells me he’d call if he had the Qd and folds what was probably QJ.

200/400, spazz open limps in MP, tightish player limps the Button, folds around to me, I check 76o on my BB.

Flop AA9 with no draws. I bet 800 and take it down.

200/400/50, I’ve been kind of active this orbit and raise to 1100 in MP with TT. Amnon calls in the CO, everyone else folds.

Flop Qd 2d 2h, I bet 1700, he calls.

Turn 2c. I bet 3600, he calls.

River 6h. We both check, and my hand is good.

200/400/50, tight-bad Asian kid raises to 1050 in MP, I call 33 on my Button, and the BB calls.

Flop Kd 9h 4h. Checks to me, I bet 800, Asian kid calls.

Turn Th. He checks, I look at his stack. He has around 9000. I think my hand is rarely good but he never has a flush. I bet 2000, he folds.

300/600/75, Dennis Phillips raises to 1650 UTG+1. I’m in MP1 with KcKd and about 24K chips. I consider flat-calling, but I don’t think DP is going to fold as often as he should to a 3-bet, and I also don’t think I’m going to induce a squeeze behind me, so I 3-bet to 4500. Folds to DP who calls.

Flop 9s 4c 3s. He checks, I think for a long time and bet 4000. He calls. Turn 4s. He checks, I think a bit and shove about 15K, he folds quickly. If I have the Ks, I think I check there.

Against a better player, I like the small flop bet. After calling pre-flop, most people aren’t going to fold an overpair, and I think they’ll usually check-shove if they don’t check-fold. They may do the same with something like AK/AQ. DP, on the other hand, is quite capable of calling once and folding the turn, so I probably should have tried to get a bigger flop bet out of him.

Early on, I raised 55 on my CO and called a 3-bet from a fishy player in the BB. I made a questionable call on a 932 flop, then turned a 5 to stack his KK.

The table kept getting tougher, with Amnon Fillippi and a few other solid players (but also Dennis Phillips) filling empty seats. A tight-bad player open limped for 300, I made it 1300 with QQ, Jon called, and Amnon shoved 15K from the Button. I reshoved without much thought but ran into AA.

I’d been playing pretty tightly, but at 300/600/75 I opened to 1600 with K9o in MP3. Jon called in the CO, and Amnon called in the BB. Flop came Kh Kd 6d. I bet slightly over half pot, Jon folded, and Amnon called. Turn 8h, he checks, I bet slightly over half pot again, 6400. He tanks and shoves about 20K, I call, he has Jd 5d. River Qd, and he doubles through me and leaves me at 24K.

I work my way up to about 28K when an aggressive younger guy opens to 2100 in the CO (blinds 400/800/100). Dennis Phillips calls on the Button, and I pick up AA in the SB. I make it 6900, kid 4-bets, Dennis folds what he later claimed was JJ, and I more than double up to about 60K.

A few hands later, I open to 2400 with JJ UTG+1. Dennis re-raises to 6500 with about 21K behind. I reluctantly fold.

Overall I had a tough seat at a tough table and what I’d consider below average luck, but I managed to come out of it with 51,400 chips. We started with 872 runners, and there are 510 left, so my stack is almost exactly average, which would be 51,294.

Sorry the Twitter updates were sporadic, my e-mail-to-Twitter thing isn’t working quite right.

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