…After day 1 concluded, I sat in the sports book at MGM and ate my salad that I bought on the last break at the deli with the comp given to tournament players by the poker room. I watched some of the final four highlights that I missed while the tourney was going on. The games were on in the poker room, but I just didn’t pay much attention to them. After decompressing for a bit, I head over to the Tropicana to check out the poker room. The AVP description said they had a dealer’s choice 4-8 mixed game going on Saturdays, but when I arrived, I discovered that it has been moved to Mondays. There were only two tables going in there, neither one of them full. One of them was a 2/5 NL game with a mandatory straddle. The room was nice, but I wasn’t going to play in those games so I walked back to my car over at MGM and headed back to the Orleans.

I went to the poker room and sat in a 4-8 LHE game while I waited for a seat in the Omaha game. I played a few orbits there and never really got anything going. On one hand, my top two pair lost to a rivered set and when I finally moved, I was down to about 165 from my original 200. Once in the Omaha game, I scratched back a bit and was up and down over the next couple of hours. No real hands to speak of. A couple of split pots, a couple small losses, but no scoops. By the time I decided to go to bed, I was down about $30 for the night. Some excitement in the room though. About 30 minutes after I moved to the Omaha game, the table behind us erupted in whooping and hollering. Someone hit a jackpot! Unfortunately for me, it was in hold ‘em. I had been sitting in a hold ‘em game only a short time before. One player’s Aces full was beaten by a straight flush. The winner and loser got something like 18k and 12k (not sure exactly), the table share was around $650, and the room share was about $150. If only I had stayed in the hold ‘em game. Oh well, off to bed, day 2 the next afternoon.

On Sunday, I woke up early again for no apparent reason. I laid there for about 45 minutes, but decided to just get up and shower. I ate breakfast at the faux Starbuck’s place near the valet entrance, and drank some coffee. I headed down to the poker room to squeeze in a session before heading back to MGM for the restart. I played 4-8 O/8 again and this morning the table was very weak. It was just a bunch of old guys, calling and folding too much. One guy in particular was grumpy as hell and played horribly. He dropped a couple of racks and kept grumbling about how many mistakes he was making. It didn’t stop him from continuing to play marginal hands OOP, bet with 2nd and 3rd best hands and make crying calls to the river only to lose to better highs and lows. I didn’t have any huge hands, but managed to steadily fill up another rack, plus some, before quitting to head to the MGM. Over $100 in under 2 hours and I was very happy with that.

When I got to the MGM, the lights and final table camera set up was cool. People walking by the poker room were standing at the rail, wondering what all the fuss was about. There was a little buzz in the room. When I saw my table draw, I was surprised to see it was at the table with the camera and lights. When we finally started back up, I had the two biggest stacks at my table. I was in the 3 seat, the guy with 800 chips was in the 4 seat, and the chip leader, John Kim was in the 5 seat. Damn! The film crew said they would start the stream in a while, well before the actual final table. Within the first 1 or 2 hands, the short stack busted. I continued to be card dead, and Mr. Kim continued his battering of the table. However, this time, the table was playing back. At one point he opened something like 4 hands in a row, only to fold to a 3-bet. He was losing some chips, but still had a sizable stack to bully with.

Nothing serious happens for me and I basically folded until the following hand occurs. The blinds just went up to 1000/2000/300. I am down to around 28k and I’m in the big blind for 2k. Action folds to UTG +2, who thinks for a minute and pops it to 8K. Pot is about 12.5k with the antes. It folds back to me and I have been watching him the whole time. I REALLY think he’s trying to squeeze me and I look down and see Ac9c. I know it’s not great, but it really is the best hand I’ve seen so far at this table. I count out my stack with one eye on him. I have just over 26k. I can safely fold and find a better spot so long as a better spot comes along before I get blinded off. If I call, I can safely check and fold if I miss the flop and still have about 20k. If I re-raise, I might be able to push him off depending on how much I bet. If I min raise I don’t leave myself with much behind, but it may get him to fold. If I shove, I make it safe for him to fold, which I decide is what I would like him to do. He had me covered by less that 10k, so if he calls a shove and loses, he’s crippled. I don’t love my hand, but I don’t hate it either. I kept watching him the whole time I was deciding, which seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a minute. I still think he’s making a play on me and I can’t shake that feeling, which ultimately leads me to my decision. I finally decide to shove and not screw around. He thinks for a bit and finally calls. I turn over my hand and he tables QJ offsuit. Yay!! (sort of). I know his cards are live and my kicker is crap, so I’m still sweating because this is my tournament life. If I win, I am over 50k and I can make a real run at this thing! If I lose, I’m out!! The flop hits me, with xx9. Yay! The turn is a blank. Yay! The river is a Q!!! ugh. My day is over, out in 20th place. The tourney is paying 9. Any comments or suggestion on the play of this hand are welcomed, including the call by the villain. Please, this was a learning experience for me, so let me have it.

I wasn’t crushed. I felt okay. I definitely learned some things about myself. I know I need to be more aggressive, continue to trust my reads, and not be so intimidated by the big stacks. I did have a long run of bad cards so I don’t have too much of a problem with my folds in the blinds. But I certainly could have taken a few shots in position and take advantage of my super tight image. However, on that last table of day 1, I had the big stack bully 2 seats to my right raising a ton of pots before action got to me, so I was in shove or fold mode with a relatively small stack in those cases. My reads on important hands were pretty right on. When I wasn’t in hands, I practiced observing and putting people on hands and likely actions and I did pretty well. I was extremely happy with how that went for me. I will have to learn to act more quickly on my reads, because after thinking about it, I feel like my taking so long to shove on my last hand convinced the other player to make the call. So, take a few more risks while not going crazy. Loosen up a bit and maybe build a bigger stack to ride a bit deeper. Overall, it was a great time and I busted out just in time for the start of the AVP XV ½ NLHE / ½ NLO tournament….