POKERadical
Jason's Poker Blog
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2009-02-24 04:44:12
February 2009 Vegas Deep Stack Extravaganza Recap
I was hoping I'd be able to write a long post about how this last trip to the Venetian was another success, but that's not going to happen. In fact, being in Seattle, then getting sick, then going to Vegas has left me with way too much stuff to do, so I'm not going to go too much in depth here.
Tournaments
Day 1
The first day ($340 entry) I went out in 200th place out of 430 players. I didn't actually get a hand better than
or 
until we were 4 hours in. I had just made a failed steal attempt when the blinds were at 300/600 with 50 antes and the blinds increased to 400/800 with 75 (that's 2k in the pot). I picked up 
and rejoiced inside. I set the new standard raise a bit high at 2600 and the big blind defended. With about 15k to start the hand, when the blind checked to me on the 
board, I bet out 3300. The blind then raised 15k on top, which put me all in, so I called. He had 
and the turn was the 
. I didn't bother staying to see the river :) Adrian lasted a bit longer.Day 2
The second day ($340 entry) I actually made a run for it. There were 534 entrants, and I picked up
a few times in the early rounds to build enough of a stack to keep things going when I went card dead. I failed to pick up another hand for the next 3 hours. I was waiting for an opportunity to build a bit so I wouldn't be blinded out, and something interesting finally happened. One of the most aggressive (and large-stacked) players on the table made a fairly large steal raise from the button to open the pot, and I decided to make it 3.5 times more his raise to go from the big blind with my . He thought for a bit, and to my surprise he went all in. I thought he was a lot weaker than that... So I called and he had 
. The flop came out 
, so I called for a diamond on the turn. Oops, it was the 
. So I called for a diamond on the river: ! Yay.A few hands later, I received
. I raised, somebody shoved, so after some deliberation I called. They had 
and I didn't get unlucky. Evidently, I offended my opponent by thinking about it for a couple minutes. Whatever. The very next hand I was dealt 
and made the same raise. My opponent on my left, who had been respecting me a lot, smooth-called (damn) and the small blind (who had re-raised me twice already) shoved. Awesome! I reshoved, 
on my left folded so the 
in the blinds was isolated, missed the flop, and was out. It turns out would have been the best hand ;) Woo woo! I was up to 120k with the blinds at at 600/1200.Adrian busted out a bit ago and met up for dinner with Chad, Jeff, Stephen, and a few of their friends (Dan, Meagan, Laurel). I took my 10-minute break opportunity to eat some stuff off of their plates and get a few pieces of advice. Unfortunately, when play resumed, I folded away about 20k. Then the maniac who doubled me up with his
built back up with a few lucky and good hands. He made another button raise against my blind, and I smooth-called with 
. Long-story short, he flopped a set of sevens and I hit my ace on the turn, so he took me for a good 50-60k.Jeff and Stephen stuck around with Adrian and Dan to watch me eat dinner. We talked about every possible hypothetical situation with my 5-M stack that had me starting on the big blind. I felt pretty confident I could make it work... So I went back, ready to shove. Everybody folded to my big blinds - great start! I shoved two more times and didn't get called and then switched tables :D
I shoved again with
and doubled up against LOL. But then I had to fold a fifth of my stack away with crap hands when people raised (and re-raised) in front of me. I went out open-shoving with 
against . Oh well.80th/534 players. Meh.
Day 3
This one is short and sweet. It was the $560 tournament with 340 players (more than expected). There were a few bad players and a few great players on my table and we never moved. Eventually the bad players gave the money to the good players. I ended up losing with
on an ace-high flop when the guy called my turn bet for 600 with 
because it was six-hundred and he had sixes... He busted out pretty quickly.I folded everything but about 10 hands for about 5 hours. No jokes. I ended up getting crippled when I raised an aggressive pre-flop raiser with my
from the button but had the big blind come over the top with 
. Ugh. I went out shortly after that with a 
open-shove into . 220th place.Thoughts
I felt pretty good at the tables. There were some really good players, and a lot of mediocre players. I seemed to pick them out pretty well. I did make noticeable mistakes in both tournaments, which motivates me to keep trying. I would rather look back and see what I did wrong than just think I was getting unlucky. However, I was seriously card dead for hours at a time in all three tournaments. I think I had JJ-AA about 10 times in 15 hours of play. I should do the math and see if that's normal.
One thing I know I need to work on is accumulating chips when I don't have hands. I need to figure out when to re-steal. I have no problem raising with mediocre hands in position and stealing on the flop (or doubling up when I accidentally hit it). Maybe it's not necessary to re-raise with junk, but it seems like I need to do something else to help build when the hands aren't coming or connecting.
1/2 NL at the Venetian
The first night was great - I made about $650 in 2 hours with Chad. I flopped three-of-a-kind a few times and got full value. The rest of the nights were so-so. Some wins, one big loss. It's definitely amazing to play late nights on Friday and Saturday. Wow. People are just drunk, tired, stupid, or all 3. Or they are pros, capitalizing on those traits :)
The most disappointing pot was when I 3-bet this dude on the turn to build an $800 pot. I had ace-high on a flush draw board and I just couldn't believe he had me beat. Unfortunately, he didn't, but he called with his flush draw anyway (and hit). Boo! I reconsidered the situation and decided I should have flat-called his turn raise and went all in on the river if I still felt the same way. Maybe, maybe not.
Fun
Although we came out behind, this was definitely one of the better trips. Staying at the Venetian made everything so much easier. I ate at the Grand Lux cafe at least 7 times. I think I played 40 hours of poker in 4 days. I saw my grandpa and grandma from WI and other friends from way back in the day. "ROK" at NYNY was pretty good for a Wednesday, and had cheap bottle service ($240 with tip for 4 guys when regular entry would have been $120). Tao lived up to the reputation. And finally, my flight back was only delayed one hour. That's a new record for being home on time!
I'm sorry I didn't keep people posted in a more live manner. I did not have any down time. Every day was eat, poker, drink, poker, sleep. Repeat. Yay.
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