Coal In The Stocking

2:20 $300 - I walk into the Peppermill Poker Room on Christmas Day, and got seated at one of the two $1/$2 NL tables.

In my first orbit, I was dealt Ah As in the Hyjack. There was a couple of limpers, so I raised to $10. Only UTG (80's guy) and Mid (lady I've never seen) called. The three of us saw a Flop of Ac 8h 6s. They both checked. That's a relatively dry Flop, so I checked. Turn [Ac 8h 6s] 9h. Once again, they both checked. I bet $21, UTG folded, and Mid called. River [Ac 8h 6s 9h] 7h. Wonderful. The Dealer just put up the Joker, as there is now a 4-Card Straight and 3-Card Flush out there. She checked. I thought for a moment, and made a $21 value bet. She could easily have Two Pair on this board, and I'd make an easy fold if she raised. But she just called, said "Straight," and showed 9h 5c. I mucked my hand without showing it or making any comments.

Next hand, it folded to me. I raised to $7 with Ac Th, and the Button and BB call. I completely airballed the Flop, so I checked the Flop and folded on the Turn.

Next hand, both UTG and UTG+1 limped in. I'm next with As Qd, so raise to $9. The Button, and both limpers called. Flop 6c 5d 3s. It checked to me, and I decide to make a $20 C-Bet. Only UTG+1 called, and she's the 95 lady from before. Turn [6c 5d 3s] 7c. She checked, and so did I. River [6c 5d 3s 7c] 6s. She quickly grabs some chips to bet, and I muck even faster.

A few hands later, I limped in the SB with Q4o, and six players saw a Flop of Q 6 4. I lead out for $6, and only the BB called. The Turn was [Q64] 2. I bet $10, and the BB folded.

A few hands later, a couple of players limped in. I'm the Hyjack with Ad Ah, and raised again to $10. Only one of the limpers called. Flop Ks 8d 5d. He looked back at his cards, and bet $10. I decided to raise to $25 for value, and to get some more info. He looked back at his cards a few times, and finally called after about 30 seconds. Turn [Ks 8d 5d] 4c. He checked, and I bet $35. He looked back at his cards a couple of more times, and check-raised All-In for about $40 more. I'm not happy about it, but I called. River [Ks 8d 5d 4c] Kh, and he won the pot with KJd.

After 14 hands (about 20 minutes), I grabbed my remaining chips, cashed them out for $111, and left the Peppermill.

I have no idea how to win at this game anymore, and I have no clue what to do about it. I'm a broken man.

I Need To Vent

I mentioned in my previous post that I did good last weekend, and I was hoping that this meant things had finally started to turn around for me. Well, that didn't happen. In fact, I had lost all that I won last weekend, and some more on top of that.

It started on Saturday, when I played in the Peppermill's 6:30pm $120 tournament. It had 21 players, and I made a deep run. The problem was when we got down to six players, the play dragged to a halt as nobody would get knocked out. This caused everyone to become rather shortstacked, so everyone was just waiting for big hands to get their chips in the middle.

When we got down to five players, I decided to "step on the gas", and started shoving my shortstack in whenever it seemed appropriate. After all, nobody was trying to win this, so I might as well. Overall, things went well, as I was able to build my stack steadily. But I did have to make some annoying laydowns, which kept me from getting the big stack.

Eventually, I was knocked out in 4th place when I lost a race with my KTo losing to the BB's 44. He had me covered by a little bit, and I was the Bubble Boy again. Before I even got out of my seat, they started discussing a deal. I'm sure they didn't play another hand.

And when I said "Bubble Boy again", I meant it. In the last six tournaments, I have finished as the Bubble Boy or Bubble+1 in five of them. And those include a $240 tourney, a $230 one, and this $120 tourney.

On Sunday, I went back to the Peppermill to grind some $1/$2 NL. I ended up grinding for 4.25 hours, and lost the $300 buy-in and $200 add-on. It was a lot of terrible cards, and losing annoying small and medium pots. The biggest loss was me making a $120 call with a Set of 8, and ran into a Flush. It was just one of those session that I wasn't gonna win, no matter what I did.

But the cherry on top of the sundae was tonight. Surprisingly, I got off work earlier than I expected, especially for Christmas week. So I decided to go grind some $1/$2 NL, and went to the Grand Sierra. I'm not sure why I went there, because I can't win there. Since I've moved here last year, here are my numbers before tonight (-$1425, 29 sessions, 82 hours), and these are the worst numbers by far for $1/$2 in any of the Reno rooms. I honestly have no clue why I can't win at the Grand Sierra. The only difference between this room and the other room is that it's a rock garden. This room has more Super-Nits per table than any other room in Reno. But it should be easier to play against them, because they usually play their cards face up.

I sat down with the full $300, and things started off like they normally do at Grand Sierra. The biggest loss was when I hit Two Pair on the River, and someone else hit a bigger Two Pair (JT vs KT). There was also various other hands involving annoying situations, and frustrating laydowns.

My stack had bled down to around $120, when I was dealt 9s 9c in the UTG+1. I raised to $5, which is what I've been raising all night. Five players saw a Flop of 9d 6d 4h. The BB lead out for $16. I've played with him before, and he's the only Action Guy at the table. I considered just calling to keep the Action Guy in the pot. But I quickly realized that the Flop was too draw-heavy, and slowplaying would be suicidal. I raised to $40.

It folded around to the SB, who's one of the Super-Nits at the table. He grabbed some chips, put them back in his stack, and then said "All-In" for over $250. The BB couldn't fold fast enough, and I couldn't call fast enough. I knew the SB had either Set with 66 or 44, as he would never go All-In with hands like 96 or even 87d. Even the Dealer quietly said "Set over Set" right after I insta-called.

I turned my hand over, and the SB said, "Crap, you got me," but didn't show his hand. The Dealer dealt the Turn [9d 6d 4h] 6s. "Oh!" said the SB, as he quickly showed his 66 for Quads. I have no idea what the River card was, as I grabbed my bottle of Mountain Dew and stormed away from the table. I guess it could have been the last 9 in the deck.

Yeah, like that would ever happen to me.

#WhenWillItEnd

Sunshine And Rainbows ?

Here's a recap of my poker from last weekend.

On Saturday, Grand Sierra had the Main Event for their Winter Pot of Gold tourney series. So I headed up there after work, and got seated at a new $1/$2 table a little after 7pm.

I got off to a lousy start as I lost a couple of decent sized pots to a tournament Super-Nit. It took me almost an hour to win my first pot. I did manage to double up when I had 98s on the Button. I flopped Two Pair and turned a Boat against the one Action Guy at the table. But I was so low on chips, it didn't even get me back to my buy-in of $300.

Things kept going lousy. A little after 9pm, I was debating whether to add-on an extra $200, or just cut my losses. The Poker Room brought in some food, so I decided to stick around, and bought the extra $200.

As it turned out, I made the right decision. About 11pm, I left the Poker Room up $415. The biggest reason was that I flopped a Straight Flush with 54s for a High Hand Bonus of $267, plus the pot. I won a few other nice pots from either the Action Guy or another player who was running worse than I was.

On Sunday morning, I played in the Atlantis 11am $80 Bounty donkament, which had 18 players. Once again, I got off to a lousy start, which I've already mentioned. It looked like I wasn't even going to make it to the Final Table when I shoved with A9o, and got quickly called by TT. But I flopped an Ace to double up, and survive to the Final Table.

Things weren't going well at the Final Table, as I didn't have many opportunities to get chips or Bounties. With six players left, I finally 3-Bet All-In with ATo, and the initial raiser called with AJc. I hit my Ten on the Turn, and doubled up.

This started a good run for me, as I quickly became one of the chip leaders when we got to the four-handed Bubble. Naturally, all the players wanted to do a Bubble Save, but I quickly said No. I am no longer saying Yes to the Bubble Saves, even though I finished on the Bubble or Bubble+1 in my last three tournaments. This caused the other players to get pissed at me, as they are all local tourney regulars, but I didn't care.

Play continued, and I eventually popped the Bubble by knocking out a player who had almost as many chips as I did. This gave me the Tower Of Power with the dominate chips stack. The other two players started talking about making a deal. While I don't do Bubble Saves, I am willing to make a deal to lock up my equity as the Chip Leader. I got a little less than 1st Place money, the other two chopped the rest, and we kept our Bounties. I walked out of the Atlantis up $300.

I went home to chill for a while, and then headed over to the Peppermill. They had two tables of $1/$2 with an open seat. The first one had a Kid that I've never seen before on the Left of the open seat, and the second one had some older regulars around the open seat. Naturally, I choose the second table.

We don't have to post at the Peppermill, so my first hand was UTG. I got 99, so I limped in. I flopped a Set, and turned Quads for a $75 High Hand Bonus. Things continued to well at this table, but I wasn't at it for long as I got called to another game. I left the table up $102 plus the High Hand Bonus.

The game that I was called to was the $5/$10 Limit Crazy Pineapple H/L game that was starting. (Yes, I know what you're thinking.) I'm not going into to much detail here about the game, as I will make a separate post about it after I've played a few sessions.

This was only the second time I've played the game, and it didn't go well. My first time was the previous week, and I had a good session as there were a few players giving away money. This line-up was less generous, and I just could get any good scooped pots. After 4.25 hours, I walked away from the table down $94.

Overall, I was up $778 for the weekend, which included a $20 football parley that I lost. So is it sunshine and rainbows now? Are happy days here again?

I wouldn't say so yet, but it was certainly a good start. My pile of cash was getting low enough that a trip to the ATM was an option. This weekend certainly gave me some room on that. Now if I can string together some winning weekends, even if they aren't as large as this one, then I can say I'm on the road to recovery.

Hand Of The Day #88

Atlantis $80 Bounty Tournament ~ Level 4 (200/400/50) ~ 12.11.11

We are eight handed. UTG+1 limps. I'm the Cutoff, and also limp with 7d 7s. Both blinds climb on board, and the Flop is 7c 4c 2h. It checks around to me, and I also checked. It's a bit of a gamble by me, as this board is very draw heavy, especially for a limped pot. But things have not gone well in this donkament so far, so I want the chance to win a big pot. The players at this table are very basic, so I won't lose much if a draw hits the Turn.

Turn [7c 4c 2h] 4d - Well, I don't have to worry about the draws, as the I now have a Full House. The SB leads out for 600. He's a 70's gentleman who's a semi-regular in the donkaments around Reno, and he seems to be playing like a 70's gentleman. I instantly put him on 4. The other two players fold. If they would have called, then I would have raised. But since it's just me and the SB now, I just call so I don't scare him off. I am planning on raising his River bet. Hopefully, he will hit his kicker, or another 2 will come.

River [7c 4c 2h 4d] 4h - Or another 4 could come. The SB quickly tosses out two Yellow 1k chips for a bet of 2000. I get visibly annoyed, and say, "I don't believe this. I have the 2nd Nuts, and I'm considering folding."

I still think he has the last 4 in his hand, but what other hands could he have. Remember, it's a 70's gentleman who limped in the SB preflop, checked the Flop, made a small bet on the Turn, and made a near pot-sized bet on the River.

If he had an Overpair, like 88 or 99, then I'm assuming that he would have bet the Flop, and I doubt he would bet as big on the River. If he had the last 7, then why bet so big on the Flop? If he had 22, then why bomb the River when is had got counterfeited? If he missed a draw, even a big monster like 65c, then he wouldn't bet the Turn or River because old geezers don't bet their draws, nor bluff when they missed.

It only took me about 20 seconds to make the easy decision, and I folded my 77 face up. Tight players love to show their big hands, so the SB showed his hand, 43s. Sometimes the 3% gets there. (Yes, Live Poker is rigged.)

Naturally. the table was shocked to see this. I look at it the same way I look at folding KK preflop. I've done it four or five times in my poker life, and they've all been this easy.

Welcome to my last few months.

December News & Notes

- I'm sure you loyal readers have noticed that the blog entries are becoming fewer and fewer. I've been losing my motivation for this blog for awhile now. Part of it is because of my mixed results over the last few months, and part of it is because I just don't feel like sitting in front of the computer grind out a post. It took me almost a week to get this one typed up.

No, I'm not going to shut down this blog, as I have too much good information in these pages. There will be stretches of time when the posts will be few and far between, and there will be some spurts where I'll be more motivated to do some blogging.

- I forgot to mention this before, but if you're a tournament player, then you need to check out a WSOP Circuit Event. The tournament structures are among the best I've ever played. The levels start at 30 minutes long, but extend to 40 minutes after the Dinner Break, and 45 minutes on Day 2.

As for the actually levels, have you ever played a 50/75 level, or a 700/1400/200? The 1k/2k/300 level, which every tournament has, is on Level 17. How many tournament structures even have 17 levels?

- Last month, I mentioned the Heads Up machines that arrived at the Peppermill, and I was playing them and learning how to play against the machine. That little experiment is now over.

I was learning how the machine played, and I was about even when I went to Lake Tahoe for the WSOP-C. When I got back, I noticed that something was different about the machine.

I lost six straight session of $100, and I never had a chance in any of those sessions. I noticed that the pots the machine was winning were consistently larger than the pots that I was winning. It seemed that it had been switched to "God" mode, as it hit the one card it needed to hit, or it bluffed in a strange spot when I didn't have anything, or folded in a spot where you think it would normally call.

I have no delusions that I'm a great Heads-Up Limit player, or that I was planning on quitting my job so I could make a living off of this machine. I just wanted to grind out a little profit, and earn some comps.

I also understand that variance means that the machine will have some good days, but I will also have the occasional good day. As a player, all I wanted was a fair fight. But that wasn't happening, and that's why I'm no longer playing those machines.

Remember When I Was A Winning Player...

First of all, I want to say that I have never considered myself a "Good" player. I don't mean that in the way that most people say, "He's a good player" or "That dude sucks." I use the terms "Good", "Above Average", and "Average" as an official, objective ranking. While I would consider myself a "Good" tournament player, I'm only an "Average" Limit Holdem player.

However, this post is about NL Cash, specifically $1/$2 and $2/$3. While I've consider myself an "Above Average, approaching Good" player, I have always been a winning player. I have kept records in a database for the past five years, along with over 300 blog entries, that show I have been a winning player over the long run.

However, I can no longer say that. Here are the numbers since I moved out to Reno back in October '10.

$1/$2 NL: -$1207 ~ 87 Sessions (-$13.87/Session) ~ 233.50 hrs (-$5.17/hr)
$2/$3 NL: -$490   ~ 40 Sessions (-$12.25/Session) ~ 120.25 hrs (-$4.07/hr)
Last 20 Sessions (combined): -$1586  ~  7-13  ~  54.25 hrs  

These numbers aren't catastrophic, and aren't telling me to quit poker and take up pottery. However, the sample size is large enough to tell me that something is very wrong. Here are three things that I believe are affecting my winrate.

1) Fancy Play Syndrome - A while back, one of the things that I wanted to improve in order to become a "Good" NL player was to win without cards. You know, running without the ball, making something from nothing, reading situations and taking advantage of them, getting maximum value from 6-high...

Overall, I have gotten better at this, as documented through various Hands Of The Day and Running Logs. It's a good tool to use once or twice a session to help increase my winrate.

The problem is that there are sessions which I'm doing it once or twice an hour, or even per orbit. I ended up burning through chips by calling to float on the Flop and/or Turn, and then having to fold on the River. Other times, I put out a big raise, and run into a monster.

There's no doubt that I'm often the best player at the table. But I'm not good enough to play so reckless, just to prove that I'm smarter than the other players.

2) Patience - Before I moved to Reno, I was known as patient player, in both cash games and tournaments. However, those days are long gone.

Why?

Well, as for cash games, if you look closely at the numbers above, you'll see that I'm averaging only 2.75 hours per session. With my work schedule of six long days per week, it's rare that I play a session of six hours or longer, with many sessions being two hours or less. In shorter sessions, you need to catch some cards in order to win. If I'm not catching the cards, sometimes I try to make things happen, which is what I just talked about.

In tournaments, I played mostly home tournaments back in Cleveland, and those tourneys had pretty good structures. In Reno, it's been mostly Daily Donkaments, and you need a different mindset for those. When I have played in the occasional bigger tourney, I have still gone in with the donkament mindset, and have gotten into some trouble with it. 

3) Luck/Variance - As I've mentioned before, I don't like the term "Running Bad", mostly because I think that many players use it as an excuse. But maybe ignoring the "Luck Factor" of poker is just as bad as using it as a crutch.

Last winter, I went on a heater, and was piling up the money. But since the spring, it's been going downhill. There has been a few spikes up, but things haven't been going good for a while now.

Last weekend, I was gonna play every day from Wednesday through Sunday, due to the holiday weekend. I had Thursday off from work, and my Friday night bowling league was off due to the holiday. I set a goal of making $1000 in the $1/$2 games, to see if I could focus on playing good, and making money. Here are the results.

Wed 11.23 (Atlantis) -$81 ~ 5.25 hrs
Thur 11.24 (Grand Sierra) +$209 ~ 3.25 hrs
Thur 11.24 (Peppermill) -$300 ~ 1.50 hrs
Fri 11.25 (Atlantis) -$289 ~ 1.75 hrs

I quit after this, as it looked like I was more likely to lose $1000 instead of winning it. I didn't even play on Saturday night. On Sunday, I did the Double Daily Donkament thing, and airballed both of them.

I'm taking this entire week off to clear my head, and I won't be stepping foot in a casino until Sunday. Hopefully, I can improve on #1 and #2, but #3 is something that I just have to deal with.

And Now The Rest Of The Story (WSOP-C Edition)

On Tuesday 11/15, I played in the $345 6-Max Event, which had 199 players. I played much faster and looser than I did in the previous tournament. After all, it was a 6-max. Some of it went wonderfully, and some of it was a dismal failure. I tried two big bluffs. The first was me 3-betting on the Button with QJs. The other player called my 3-bet, and lead out on a 9-high Flop. I again raised, and he folded. The other bluff was making a large value bet on the River with a 4-Flush board that was also paired. The other player thought for almost two minutes before calling with the 2nd Nut Flush.

Just like the previous tournament, 21 players got paid, and I busted out in 28th. So close.

On Wednesday 11/16, I played in the $345 NL Event, which had 202 players. However, I wasn't feeling good on that day. I had a mild headache, along with a touch of being dizzy and lightheaded. I have no clue why it happened. I tried to ignore it at the start of the tourney, but it just wouldn't go away. The first break was at 2:00, and was 20 minutes long. It was only the 50/100 level, so I left the table 10 minutes before the break, went to the Gift Shop to get some drugs, and went back to my room to lay down. I woke up just after 3:00, but didn't feel much better. I went back down to the tourney, and grinded away. I tried to play A-B-C poker, and keep my decisions simple. Eventually, I ran out of chips, and finished around 95th place.

After I grabbed a quick dinner, I still wasn't feeling 100%, so I went up to my hotel room to chill. Eventually, I realized that if I'm gonna stay in the room all night, then I should just go home. So I headed down to the poker room, and sat down in the $3/$6 game, so I could play some poker that didn't require much thought.

And that was certainly what I encountered. It had the usual mix of Super Nits and 7-Card Bingo players. There was also a couple of players who liked to raise preflop. One of them called all 5-Bets preflop with K9o, and of course he won the pot with a Straight. I saw numerous other mistakes, whether it's by making calls that could never be any good, or checking on the River when they obviously had the best hand. All this meant that I never had a chance at this table. It took 3.5 hours, but I finally dusted off my $100 buy-in.

On Thursday 11/17, it was time to go home. I checked out of my hotel room, grabbed some breakfast, and went to the poker room to play some $1/$3 NL. The only table was the overnight table, so I was allowed to buy-in for more than the $300 max. I sat down with $600, which was less than half of the largest stack. Even though I was the oldest player at the table, the play was rather calm. It was obvious that everyone was tired, and many were debating whether to get a quick nap before the noon tourney, or just stay up and go for it.

Things got off to a good start, as I got good cards, and even pulled off a nice semi-bluff. But the table dynamics started to change, as the Kids slowly went to bed, and the older players who were starting their day filled their seat. Normally, this would have been good for me, except Lady Luck decided to have some fun with me. I kept hitting hands, and running into bigger hands on the Flop. First was a Set of Jacks vs Q-high Flush that cost me about $100. Next was KJ vs 88 on a KK8 Flop. I called his Flop and Turn bets, but folded to his $100 River bet.

Later, against the 88 player, he raised preflop from UTG, and I 3-bet from the Button with QQ. He just called, and then shoved All-In for about $200 on a Flop of Tc 7h 4h. This really confused me, as I was concerned that he had KK and waited to not see an Ace on the Flop. I made the call, and he had KTh for Top Pair and Flush Draw. He hit his Flush on the Turn, and then hit a King on the River to also get Two Pair. It's good to know that I never had a chance in this hand.

The Final Straw for me was my K9o vs 93o (BB) on a 993 T Board. He check-raised his shortstack on the Turn, and I missed my Boat Draw. I was planning on playing at least six hours, but I got up after this hand. I played just 4.5 hours, and lost $445. I walked back to my car, and made the journey home.

Since I left Tahoe earlier than I planned, I headed to the Peppermill in the evening for the $95 Cash Me Out tourney. (They have the CMO on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday evenings). However, there was only 12 players at Shuffle Up & Deal. Why was there such a low turnout? Because all the tourney grinders were in Tahoe for the WSOP-C. The TD decided to convert this to a standard $65 tourney, and we ended up with 20 players after the late stragglers finally showed up.

Things went well for me, as I got to Heads-Up against a 70's guy in a wheelchair. He wanted to chop, but I said, "Let's play for a bit. I never get to play Heads-Up." Yeah, that's a lie, but I certainly have an advantage over him. We played for about 15 minutes, with some ups and downs.

Finally, he shoved All-In from the SB, and I looked down at 77. I thought we were close in chips, so I asked for an exact count. As it turned out, we were less than a BB apart. I'm sure he's not shoving light, so this is a tough decision. I asked the TD how much was in the prizepool, and it was $770. So I offered a deal: $350 each, and the winner of this hand gets the rest. The other player agreed, and turned over 88.

Doh!

I did Flop a Gutshot (6 4 3), but I missed everything. I left the Peppermill in 2nd place with $340 after the Dealer Tip.

Hand Of The Day #87

Harvey's Lake Tahoe - 11.13.11 - $355 WSOP-C #5 Level 4 (50/100)

UTG raised to 400. He's a 30's guy who's been one of the tightest players (or least active so far) at this table. It folded around to me in the BB, and I make the call with J9d.

Flop Js Th 9s. Interesting as I hit Two Pair on a very wet Flop. I check to the preflop raiser, and he bet 1000. I decided to check-raise to 2500. He quickly ships his stack All-In. I have 5800 behind, and he has me covered.

Since this is such a wet board, and he's been fairly tight so far, I didn't insta-call. Instead, I went into deep thought, and try to put him on a hand.

He raised big preflop, bet 'pot' on the Flop, and insta-shipped after I check-raised.

Would he do this with an Overpair? Maybe, but since he's been quiet at this table, I don't know how good he is. Some players with an Overpair would be scared of this Flop. Others would think, "I have AA and I ship." Either way, I'm roughly 70/30 against AA, but only 51/49 against QQ because of the Straight Draw.

How about AK or AQ? With out Spades, it's highly doubtful that he would have even called my check-raise, let alone shoving it in. But AKs or AQs is definitely a possibility. I'm 55/45 against AKs, but 48/52 against AQs because of the extra four Straight outs.

Two Pair is doubtful, as I don't see him raising from UTG with JT or T9.

A Set is certainly a possibility. I doubt he would raise UTG with 99. I don't know if he would have raised with TT, but I only have two outs (11/89) against TT. A Set of Jacks would mean a one-outer hit the Flop, but that does happen. I'm essentially drawing dead against JJ (3/97)

As for a Straight, 87 or Q8 are not hands he would raise preflop with. But KQ is high on the list, and I only have four outs (18/82) against a Straight. But if he had KQs, wouldn't he slowplay it a little?

I thought for almost two minutes. I realized that I'm crushing some hands, flipping against some hands, and drawing very thin against other hands. If I fold, I still have 58BB in a tournament that seems to have a very slow structure.

I ended up folding my hand face up, hoping that he would show his hand. He didn't, and I never did find out what he had.

Since I didn't call the All-In, then should I have check-raised? Probably not. But there are so many cards that could come on the Turn (K, Q, T, 8, or any Spade) that would either kill my action or kill my hand.

Either way, yuck!

I did go on to 5th place in this tourney, so you could say that I made a good fold. But that's looking at results, and that's a bad way to evaluate poker decisions.

WSOP-C #5 (Day 2) - End of Level 26 (8k/16k/3k)

Lv 26 (8k/16k/3k). Well, here's the only hand that matters. UTG raised to 36k. Folded to me in the BB. I look at KTo. Folding just seems to nitty, so I called. Flop 986. I checked, and so did he. Turn [986] 7. Wow, I just hit my Gutshot. I checked again, assuming he would stab at it. He bet around 45k, and I just called. River [986 7] 4. I lead out for 75k. He tanks for a while, and asks me if I have a Pair yet. He thought some more, and said All-In. I called, and he showed JTh for the J-high Straight. And I'm out in 5th place, $3355 after the $40 Dealer Tip.

I'm not surprised that he had that hand, especially after that little question he asked me about having a Pair. But we are 5-handed, and the Blinds are getting up there, so what else could I do? That was the first bad luck I had had in a long time at this tourney.

It's hard to call 5th place a big accomplishment, but this was my biggest casino cash ever. Plus, this was the most patient tournament I've played since I moved to Reno, so that has to mean something.

At least I picked the right tourney to Live Blog.

WSOP-C #5 (Day 2) - End Of Level 25 (6k/12k/2k)

Lv 24 (5k/10k/2k) The play has been fairly straight forward. A raise preflop usually wins it. Some times there is a 3-bet or a Flop, but nothing huge. I was hovering between 125k and 210k.

Until this hand. UTG raised to 26k. Button called. I was the BB with AKs, and 3-bet to 85k. UTG gets that annoyed look, and folded. Button thinks for a bit, and says, " I call the All-In.". The Floor was called over, and ruled it a call. As the Dealer gathers the pot, I said All-In in the dark for 142k. Flop was Kc 9h 7h. The Button called with TT. He missed his two outer, and I'm the Chip Leader with well over 400k.

Lv 25 (6k/12k/2k) This tourney has ground to a halt. Players seem to be waiting for Big Hands. I want to steal more, but the player in Seat 2 has good chips, and likes to see Flops.

The only significant pots were not good ones for me. It folded to the Button, who raised to 32k. I was the SB, and 3-bet to 90k. He insta-shipped it, and I had to fold.

The other hand was the same guy raising to 32k in the Cutoff. He's been raising from that spot a few times, so I just called with 22. Flop 9 5 3. He bet 50k, and I called as somewhat of a float. Turn was 8, and he pushed All-In. I had to fold.

We are 5-handed, and I have 337k. I'm either 2nd or 3rd right now. I guess I'm not gonna make it to the 5pm $235 O-8 tourney.