For some reason, Foxwoods decided it would be a good idea to have a $3000 deep stack tournament on a random Thursday. Todd invited me down to play satellites on Wednesday, and I took him up on it. I’m a time nit, so we left way earlier than we needed to and got there like an hour early. After registering, we got some Panera breakfast. He commented that he might not play the evening satellite, which was fine by me, cuz I have a ton of work I should be doing anyway, but I told him that if I qualified and he didn’t, I’d spring for the hotel room.
The first real pot I played, blinds 50/100, I called an EP raise with 7’s. The BB came along also, and the flop was like A74 with a flush draw. The raiser bet 350, I made it 1000, and he folded. I would put the odds of him having folded any Ace at <10%.
Next orbit, I overcalled an UTG raise with Ad 5d on the button. We ended up going five-handed to the flop, which was Qd Td 6s. The raiser bet 500 into a 1550 pot, UTG+1 called, and then a guy in MP made it 2000. Effective stacks were like 10K, still 100 BB, and while I contemplated a shove, I ultimately folded. The EV of that play really comes down to whether I can get a fold from AQ, and I’m just not sure I can. Maybe a little weak tight.
After folding for ages, I raised As Qd and got called by the BB. He checked a K-high all-spade flop, and I bet 3500 into a 4500 pot with like 5000 behind. The BB mucked pretty quick.
Before long, the rapidly increasing blinds had me in push/fold mode. Unfortunately, it was tough to be first into the pot, there was so much limping and min-raising and [censored]. It would have been great to pick up a shove-worthy hand against one of those clowns, but it didn’t happen. When I finally got folds to me in the CO with 8x, I was ready to shove any two, but finally found something decent in ATs. Folds!
Next orbit, blinds were up again. I had some old nits to my left and was looking forward to shoving their BB’s, but they kept busting before I got the chance. Finally, with like 7.5x, I shoved K5s into a tight player from MP1 and picked up the pot. That was enough to give me 11 BB, and the next hand, I contemplated shoving KJo UTG+1 but ultimately folded. In retrospect, I think that was a mistake; I suck at compensating for big antes.
There was one monkey in particular who kept limping when blinds were enormous. The only other guy at the table who seemed like he could be decent got caught shoving 82o against this guy’s limp when the BB woke up with AA. Flop 824 BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Unfortunately, this made it a little tougher for me to make the same move on the limper a few orbits later. Blinds 800/1600, this guy limps in, I shove Q9s for 10K. He tanks, deliberates, and ultimately calls with AJ to bust me. Oh well, he’d been limping much worse, and if he’s thinking about folding AJ, I’ve already won.
After lunch, it’s time for cash! I get on the 1-2, 2-5, and 5-10 NL lists. The 1-2 opens up first, and as I’m unracking, I see a re-raised pot with a 456cc flop. The pre-flop raiser bets, caller check-raises all in, gets called, they both show AK. Niiiiiiice.
I can’t wait three hands, so I post in MP2 and find AQ. That’s work. I open for $8, but whoops, it was a straddled pot. Oh well. The guy who re-raised AK last hand calls, CO calls, straddle calls. Flop QT7, I bet 25, AK guy makes it 75, I call. Turn blank, I check, he bets 100, I shove 125 more, he calls. River A BOOM BOOM BOOM T7o no good sir. He’s upset, and doubly so when I leave two hands later to go play 2/5 NL.
As I’m sitting down, a very friendly guy with an accent I couldn’t identify sitting to my left shows me that he’s holding a straight. He bets big on the river and warns his opponent he has a straight, but the guy won’t listen. I post from the CO next hand, a guy in LP open limps, I pop it to 25 with QTo, the friendly button guy calls, the limper calls, and the BB calls. Flop T87, I bet 75, button quickly calls, the others fold. Turn 8, I check, he shoves 295, I think and fold, he shows me an 8.
Next hand, same guy open limps, I make it 25 with T8o, friendly CO calls, BB calls, limper calls. I got to stop raising this trash. Flop J98, I reach for chips and CO says, “Don’t do it, I have a Jack.” I bet $40, he calls, the others fold. Turn J, we check it through. River 7, I bet $75, he calls with K8. Hyachah!
The friendly foreigner was generally pretty loose, but I think maybe this tilted him. A few hands later he overcalls a bet on a QT8 flop. SB check-raises all in, UTG+1 cold calls, the better and first caller fold, and my buddy calls. Turn blank, UTG+1 shoves 300, foreigner calls with AT (!!!), and obviously he gets shown J9 for the nuts.
Dude rebuys for 200, and a few hands later tosses in a green $25 chip UTG. He says he meant to raise, but the dealer rules it a call, which he seems fine with. A tight old guy raises to $40, some guy who claimed to be a pro but wasn’t that good calls, and UTG shoves for like $140. Call call. Flop 955, shove call. UTG shows me his AA, but he’s up against QQ and 99, and the “pro” wins a big one. Foreign monkey leaves in a huff.
Once he left, the game got real bad. A rather young woman who seemed to be a regular took a seat to my right and started complaining about how slow the game was. Soon she was raising limpers like 50% of the time she was in late position. I resolved to pop her the next time she did it (she had commented how no one ever re-raises with KK+), but found Qc Tc and decided to take a multi-way pot in position. Four to the flop, $100 in pot, flop K74cc. She bets $75, I call, others fold. Turn 4d, he best $125, I shove for $270, she groans. “Set of 7’s? Did you hit the 4?” She turns over a K. I’m staring hard at the felt. “I have AK.” I try not to look panicked. Finally she folds, saying, “I guess I’m not beating much. I actually had KJ.”
“Yeah, I didn’t expect you to fold AK.”
“So you had me?”
I smiled. “I didn’t expect you to fold AK.” Pretty bad move by me really, but I had just decided she was pushing too hard and went with that.
A few hands later, I opened for 20 from LP with 64s. A pretty straight-forward player called in the BB. Flop AKJr perfect. He checks and calls $40. Please. Turn 6, he checks and fold quickly for $120 (effective stacks were like $750). Yeah, I didn’t think so.
It was like 5:30 at this point, and I needed to go check whether Todd wanted to stick around for the 6PM satellite. He said he did, so I came back and posted from the CO. The entire table limped around, and I checked Kd 4d. Flop 6d 4c 2d. Checks to me, I bet $35, button makes it $100, I shove for $235 more, he snap calls with 66. Yeah, I had a bad feeling about that. Turn Qd HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA SHIP IT!!! He keeps shooting dirty looks at me, and five minutes later I leave the table HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.
Time to play the 6PM satellite.