Phil Helmuth tweeted this week: “SO UPSET!! Even my tablemates felt bad for me! Took indescribable bad beats”. I used to think he was a bit of an idiot for talking like that…now I’m beginning to empathise.
The $5k shootout was a tournament I was really looking forward to, 15,000 starting chips and generally a load of people who don’t know how to win sit n go’s.
Two hands in, it went raise to 200 UTG, next to speak calls 200, mid position….allin for 15k. I liked my table! We had one guy who must have three bet 50% of the hands we’d played in levels one and two, a ridiculous amount.
When someone played back with a four bet he five bet shoved A5 off and got three against AK. At the break I asked Chris Moorman about him.
If Moorman says he’s super aggro, compared to his standards, it’s serious
Fortunately despite the double up he still managed to be first out early in level three.
I was quietly chipping up, having played just two hands before the first break. I cold four bet queens out of the sb when the usual raiser had raised and a young American kid playing too many hands reraised the button.
During the next lap he saw my G Casino badge and told me how he’d enjoyed playing at the G in Manchester earlier this year.
Next sb the same opener opened, the same kid three bet, and I cold four bet the sb again, this time with AQ. I could see he was getting itchy and he four bet after a long think. I five bet shoved and he insta mucked.
I was up to close to 30k without seeing a flop yet….then the wheels came off
I lost a chunk, though it could have been far worse, through a dealer mistake.
Having flipped my first card, I got the burn card, the six of hearts, which matched with my other card, the six of diamonds, far better than the offsuit eight I was supposed to get. Rather than passing 86 off, I found myself raising with two sixes, receiving a call from the big blind.
The flop came A73 with two spades, and the bb check-raised my 1000 c-bet to 2800. I could have moved in here, but felt a flush draw was a huge part of his range and in position I could peel one.
The turn brought the flush and two checks, and the blank river saw him bet, me call and muck when shown A5 of spades.
From plain sailing around average I was back struggling, and as two people busted in quick succession, the blinds started to bite.
With four players left at 300 600, I started to play aggressively with only 10k in chips, and must have shoved seven out of 10 hands to get back to close to 15k uncontested.
As the dinner break was about to begin, I moved in again UTG with A7. The small blind dwelled and asked the dealer for a count. The dealer counted down 14,700 and the sb had a good think.
Eventually he decided it was too much out of his 30k stack and folded and the action was on the big blind
“Awwww shiiiiit!” he said without looking at his cards, having evidently already looked before the action was on him. “How much was it dealer?” This guy was the chip leader with over 50k, and the longer he thought, the more I thought I might want this call, the only hands I feared really were A8 and A9, all the others that beat me are pretty standard calls, including the pairs I dominate.
He counted out his big chips and well over a minute later said, “I guess I have to call, I’ll call go on.” I flipped my A7, he flipped…POCKET KINGS!
I couldn’t believe the ridiculous slow-roll, and was too busy asking him why he would behave like that to even see the ace high flop, which was just as well as any excitement I would have got wouldn’t have lasted long, a king on the turn had me drawing dead.
I felt I’d played pretty perfectly
Next day I played the $500 PLO at the Venetian and played absolutely perfectly….and still got the early bath.
The re-entry structure had people gambling like they were double parked, and I doubled up twice early on from the starting stack of 15k to around 50k. I even got the pleasure of knocking out the same guy twice after he reentered and got moved from a broken table back to his old seat.
Both times he thought he’d won too. Both times I had to point out I’d flopped it and he was dead. I liked him.
My table broke and I had three times average when I got in a massive pot on my new table.
An old guy who had broken tables with me limped, I limped behind with KJT8 double suited, and we both called again when the button potted it.
The flop was Q98 rainbow, giving me the nuts with a redraw to a higher straight.
The old guy bet out, probably with the nuts, but he had a short stack and I wanted to trap the pre-flop aggressor, so I just called. Sure enough the button potted it and the old guy moved in.
Back on me, I moved all-in and the button thought for a while before deciding he had to call with his set of queens. I’m not sure he did have to call, given the size of the pot perhaps he did, but before I could do the maths, the turn paired and I was drawing dead and out.
The $3k PLO back at the Rio didn’t really get going for me, though my early exit did allow me to join the rail for Chris Moorman’s 6max final table. It was like being at a football match back in the day, before the prawn sandwich gang from Sky killed all atmospheres, and was great fun.
Chris took a pretty brutal beat three handed, getting rivered after trapping his opponent into putting it in with K9 v his KJ preflop. Mind you, the same guy had already three-outered Chris twice before, and one outered another guy, getting it in with an underset on the turn and quadding up the river.
Rather than go on a Hellmuth rant, Moorman went on a George Best drinking session
The details of which I’m banned from revealing under the ‘what goes in Vegas stays in Vegas’ ruling.
But rather than complain about the idiots and suckouts a la Hellmuth, I’ve decided to be positive and try and run like the man from the Ukraine, who not only proved he was more golden than Chris ‘golden balls’ Moorman, but scopped nearly $700k and a bracelet. Let’s do it.
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