ES
Good run in Venetian Tournaments
Went to Vegas 7/12 to 7/16 with my wife and another couple.
Sunday night, played some 2/4 limit at the Flamingo, but was too tired and left down 50.
Monday no cards
Tuesday, my day, so I head to the Venetian for the 12 tourny. First day back and there are 99 runners. Long story short I finished fourth for 978. I pulled a couple of moves early, otherwise I just sat back and waited for hands, and the other players never believed me.
Early on had A7 hearts from BB with 50/100 blinds, and called small raise. Flop came AXX rainbow. I check and call a small bet. Turn Spade, and I check and call a 700 bet not really knowing why other than I was fishing which went against my plan. River brought the 3rd spade, and I fired 1K immediately. guy thought and commented "You called 700 on the draw" and folded. I showed and he just dropped his head. Not much else till later, when I doubled up from 25 to 50K with KK, and again from 50K to 100K with KK again. Made the Final table, no chops, and got beat when my short stack of 90K open pushed with AJ and got called and beat by 22. Oh well happy with my play.
Wed I played Venetian noon again and won it for 3878, 97 runners.
Ran very well with cards, got all in with 1010 vs AK and won, all in with KK vs JJ and both a K and J on flop (money went in on flop), raise from button with 22, and flopped a set. I was a card rack and only lost 1 race to a short stack. Long and short only chop was agreeing to take 75 from 1st and 2nd to pay 10th. Once we got to heads up, I had over 300K and had the other guy covered. No chop mentioned so we played....... 1 hand of heads up. I got 94 off in SB and raised. He called. Flop QX9 2 hearts. he open shoved which screamed go away, so I called and he was on the flush draw and missed. 1 hand and I took it all. It wasn't a great call, but I'm a tourist and didn't care so that made me dangerous heads up :)
My only really bad hand other than the A7 above was a SB vs BB hand where I was SB. Folded to me, with J5 diamonds. I raise, and BB re-raised. I figured him for a steal so I called to see a flop. Flop brought 2 diamonds 10 high. I check, he bets and I call. Turn some black low card. I check he shoves for 40 - 45K. At this time I have over 120K left, and this is a big over push. I'm behind, but I'm sure my diamonds are good, and my Jack might be. There are about 27 people left, and I'm playing to make the final table (this is the second tourny). If I call and win, I almost guarntee a spot at the FT. If I call and loose, I have an average stack and I'm ok with that so I call. He has AA, and I spike the diamond on the river. Bad call, but I'm ok with my reasoning. thoughts?
Pretty good run over 2 days. I only lost 2 races in 2 days, and my good hands held, and I stayed out of trouble with my so so hands.
Z
Congrats on the great showings! I will be staying at the Venetian in two weeks and I think I will try at least one tourney there (I have done well at the TI tourneys that obviously have a much faster structure).
My thinking is that was way too loose of a call with the diamond draw but obviously it depends on the size of the pot before your opponent shoved. You said it was a big over push which makes it unlikely that you made the right call there. Even if you have 12 outs you have to figure that you are 12/44 or less than 30%. If you are calling 40K into a 150K pot or more then it probably isn't all that bad of a call. I don't mind taking some chances in a tourney but to me you are doing that by assuming that your jack is good. If you aren't even getting the right pot odds if your jack is good I think you have to let that go. Personally I probably don't call 40 K there unless I am really pot committed.
I'm really not the one to give advice (although tournament play is probably my best game) but I will be curious to hear others thoughts on this.
Just played the Venitian 12 tournement yesterday for the first time. Finished 6 out of 86. Really liked the structure and will definetly play again. Alot of players much better than myself but got good cards at the right time. Busted out when my AQ all in got called by the small blind who had 10 9 and he flopped a straight. Played almost 7 hours. The starting chips and blind structure allow you to play for awhile without having to shove all in early in the tournement.