AC Trip Report

Here's a copy of my e-mail report to the guys from this weekend in AC:
OK, I played in the Saturday $200 event @ 10:15.

Start T5000 opening blinds 25/50 and 20 min. levels. 140 entries or so.

I run up my stack to about $7500.00 during the first 2 levels basically on 2 big hands. The first big hand was an open raise up front by me with AQh. I think it was re-raised behind or maybe there were multiple callers of the raise, but anyway the pot got big fast. I flop Ablankblank with 2 hearts. So I fire again on the semi-bluff and get one caller. Turn is my $$$ card with another heart. I check but villian would not make a move and did not call my bet on the end. I show the nuts for some respect and move on.

Shortly thereafter, I get involved in a pot with Lou. He was on my immediate left believe it or not. I'm SB he's BB and folded all the way around. I have Q9o and raise to take his small blind and avoid a confrontation but he called my raise and the flop comes 399. I bet out big maybe T500 and he calls. Then I soft play him the turn and river and show my set for my second nice pot.

A while later a BIG stack at the time comes in next to Lou so he will always be in the BB when I have the button which I like. Lou catches 99 in the whole an raised it up. BIG stack re-raised him and he called. Flop was all low rainbow and Lou bet again maybe 1/2 pot. BIG calls. Turn is a blank, Lou moves in and BIG shows AJs. BIG catches a J on the end to knock Lou out. (Lou misplayed because should have moved in on the flop, BIG tried to explain that he was priced in getting 2 to 1 but by my count it was stil a loose call).

Then I pick up JJ in the CO. HUGE FAT GUY next to me (very nice guy by the way but he was well over 400 lbs.) he raised. I re-raise w/ the JJ and BB moves in. BB was short stacked at a little over 2K. I'm already in for 600. FAT DUDE folds what he later said was 1010. I think for 10 seconds and say "hope you got AK" and call. He had AQ and flopped the A to put a damper on my stack. I still like the call, and had a little over 5K when all was said and done.

Next level passes with me playing no hands which was a problem because the antes were kicking in. Couldn't get but one or 2 free looks and the cards were cold for the moment so my stack was slowly going down. Next level blinds 150/300, 50 ante I'm down to T3500 or so. Early position on short stack moves AI. I'm sitting on BUTTON with AA and come over the top didn't want blinds to join the party and didn't want BIG STACK to get "priced in" again. Anyway, I lost. Q7 ran a str8 to put another dent in my stack. Now I'm on T1500 or so and got to make a move.

Very next hand I pick up 1010. Get a limper or two and I move in (now or never!). Well BB wakes up with JJ and I get no help to end my tournament. Basically, I was 0 for 3 on all the hands that mattered.

Moved on to cash games. Played 1/2 NL at a very weak table. These guys were limping and biggest raise was $10 which was unusual for those games in my experience. Basically, the players were predictable and $10 raise meant good cards. I picked up AA and made next to nothing on it. I got involved in another big pot and got moved off my hand by an AI bet, board was paired and flush draw was out there and I had TPTK. Won a nice pot with AK and made one mistake the whole session I had AQ and rivered 2 pair. Unfortunately for me I re-raised on the end and did not notice the river completed a flush draw. Opponent called my re-raise and showed a weak flush. Turns out my raise was not all bad, if he had any sense he could have easily put me on a better flush the way the hand played out, but I misread the board. End up down $100.

That night I play at the Sands could not get a table in Taj without a huge wait. Sands is 1/2 NL $50 min buy-in/ $150 max. Cards finally start falling my way and I bust out 2 guys after flopping sets with JJ and KK respectively. Run my chips up over $400. Then luck catches up with me again. I flop another set with 22 no flush draw, no str8 draw all low board. 4 players in the action. One guy is already AI for $100. Drunk next to me hiccupping at the table calls and I move in. Drunk calls with 99 (overpair). He was priced in and probably thought his hand was good. Staring at a $300 pot with a lock on the hand I was in good spirits until DRUNK rivered a fucking 9 so I lost set over set. My stack was still healthy at over $300 but that was a huge turn in momentum. Had I won that pot I would have had a HUGE stack relative to the table and could really start splashing around.

Another hour goes by and my cards were dead and I did not want to mess with DRUNK unless I had a hand to trap him. Nothing came of it and I had to walk back to hotel so I left up a little over $100.

Overall, a losing weekend. BUT looking back at my play, I made only one mistake on that river bet by not noticing the flush had arrived. I am losing faith in poker after watching the DRUNK accummulate a HUGE stack by making bad calls.

Soon after the set over set there was another huge pot. Tight guy moves in over 100. FAT guy (this was another one not the one from the tourny) moves in with over $100 on board of 9K2 all spades. DRUNK moves AI had both covered. DRUNK had K2 no spade and rivered a 2 for the Full House.

I wanted to lay in wait and bust out the drunk but it was getting late, I had to walk 1/2 mile, I was getting tired and cards were cold. It turns out that DRUNK did piss away the whole stack and $200 more. Maybe I should have stayed?