To live and DIE in LA
So I have not been playing that much poker lately as I am sure you can tell by my lack of posts. I did manage to take my trip to the LA Poker Classic last weekend. Left on Thursday to get down there for the $2500 buy-in limit tournament. I really wanted to play that one as limit is my game of choice and that is all we really have to play in Seattle. I thought I would have a reasonable chance to do well and I was excited to play in the event. I got down there about an hour before so I had plenty of time to buy in and go make the rounds downstairs in the main card room. It was just jammed. This event just gets bigger every year and is tied with my favorite event of the year with the WSOP. I like LA even better than Vegas as a city, but the tournaments are more fun at the WSOP. There were tons of guys from Seattle there. I ran into at least 6 people. Some regulars in our games in Seattle and some from Seattle that had moved down there recently. All fun stuff.
This event gave you plenty of play. We started with 5,000 in chips and blinds of 25/50 playing 50/100 and 60 minute rounds. I had Kenna James at my starting table as well as John Myung. Kenna was just hilarious. He was singing at the table, making fun of people, and even brought two pens to sign autographs(I think it was only a half joke, as they were real pens to write on pictures) He said you could take a picture of him for $5 and he would sign it for $10. That was of course a joke too I hope. He played super aggressive poker and was out fast, maybe into round three. He might have even been the first out of the tournament. If not first he was in the first 5. His style did not work for limit very well, but it worked the next day as he actually won Friday's $2,500 no-limit event. Good for him. I played tight aggressive and actually got some hands during the first two rounds. I built my stack up to about 8,000 and then nothing went right. I picked up AQ twice in three hands and lost both when an A hit the first and someone else was slow playing AK and I had my hand in the SB and called a limp out of the bind. The second I raised in EP with the hand and got called by K,9s and a 9 hit the board on the flop and I lost that as well. I then went card dead and was just treading water. At the 200/400 level just before the dinner break I had my key hand that cost me a run at the tournament. Here it is and I am still pissed at myself for the play. I had about 4,000 in chips in the BB with J,8 spades. One middle player limed for the 200 and the SB limped as well I checked my option. 600 in the pot and the flop came 10,7,4 with two spades. I checked the middle position bet and the SB raised. I had a flush draw with the gut shot and called. 1800 in pot now. The turn brought a 6, not spade. I bet out representing the straight(which might have been a bad play right there) and got raised by the middle player and then three bet by the SB. I now had a double gutter with a spade draw, at best I had 15 outs and at worst I had 6. I was getting 5.25 to one to call the 800 and was likely getting 5.75 to one to call because the middle player was going to call the raise. I reduced my outs a bit because I did not know if my flush draw was the best, and then I talked myself out of calling completely because I did not want to invest another 800 into the pot from my ever shrinking stack. I got conservative when in a tournament sometimes you need to take chances and here I was getting the right odds to take a gamble and I still talked myself out of it. Just bad play all the way around here, I sucked on that hand. Of course I would not be telling the story if an offsuit 9 did not hit the river giving me the mortal nuts and of course I was not there to collect the 5,000+ pot. That would have propelled me much further. I did manage to survive until about 40 people were left, but never made any real noise and went out w A,4 in late position. Even this hand was fun. I went all in at the 300/600 level for about 800. The SB three bet and got called by the BB. The flop completely missed me and the SB bet, the BB mucked and the SB turned over pocket KK's. Cool bring and ace and I triple up. BAM and ace hits the turn, then BAM a K hit the river, OUT. BUMMER.
I went down to play $100/$200 and did nothing all night. I continue to not get my fair share of good starting cards and just about anted myself to death that night. Lost a little not enough to write home about and went to bed to get ready to play the next day. The room stayed jammed most of the night and there were 5 $100/200 games, yes 5!
I hit it just after noon on Friday and got into a newly started $100/200 game, I think the 4th table of a must move game. I played well all day and built up my stack to recover my buy-in from the day before plus the loss from the game and a little extra. Then after 10 hours of play I made it to the main game where there was a really drunk guy going off for about $25,000 that night. Of course he is the one guy I can't beat and he proceeds to take a nice chunk out of my stack before losing it to everyone else at the table. Then I play tired and poorly for a little longer and lose all the money I had made in about two hours. How demoralizing. I decided to quit at that point and call in a day. I did not want to get any more stuck and I was tired and not playing my best anyway. O well, I had a fun time seeing my friends, playing some cards, and taking another beating. This has been the story so far this year. I think I am going to take a few weeks off and get back to cards at the end of the month. Hope you all had a better weekend than I. Good luck, and here is a picture of what could have been just to make myself feel bad. This is a shot of my stack just before the big slide. I took out my phone to take a shot of Liz Liu but could not get a clear shot without looking like a complete stalker fan so I just shot my stack. Makes me depressed just looking at it.
This event gave you plenty of play. We started with 5,000 in chips and blinds of 25/50 playing 50/100 and 60 minute rounds. I had Kenna James at my starting table as well as John Myung. Kenna was just hilarious. He was singing at the table, making fun of people, and even brought two pens to sign autographs(I think it was only a half joke, as they were real pens to write on pictures) He said you could take a picture of him for $5 and he would sign it for $10. That was of course a joke too I hope. He played super aggressive poker and was out fast, maybe into round three. He might have even been the first out of the tournament. If not first he was in the first 5. His style did not work for limit very well, but it worked the next day as he actually won Friday's $2,500 no-limit event. Good for him. I played tight aggressive and actually got some hands during the first two rounds. I built my stack up to about 8,000 and then nothing went right. I picked up AQ twice in three hands and lost both when an A hit the first and someone else was slow playing AK and I had my hand in the SB and called a limp out of the bind. The second I raised in EP with the hand and got called by K,9s and a 9 hit the board on the flop and I lost that as well. I then went card dead and was just treading water. At the 200/400 level just before the dinner break I had my key hand that cost me a run at the tournament. Here it is and I am still pissed at myself for the play. I had about 4,000 in chips in the BB with J,8 spades. One middle player limed for the 200 and the SB limped as well I checked my option. 600 in the pot and the flop came 10,7,4 with two spades. I checked the middle position bet and the SB raised. I had a flush draw with the gut shot and called. 1800 in pot now. The turn brought a 6, not spade. I bet out representing the straight(which might have been a bad play right there) and got raised by the middle player and then three bet by the SB. I now had a double gutter with a spade draw, at best I had 15 outs and at worst I had 6. I was getting 5.25 to one to call the 800 and was likely getting 5.75 to one to call because the middle player was going to call the raise. I reduced my outs a bit because I did not know if my flush draw was the best, and then I talked myself out of calling completely because I did not want to invest another 800 into the pot from my ever shrinking stack. I got conservative when in a tournament sometimes you need to take chances and here I was getting the right odds to take a gamble and I still talked myself out of it. Just bad play all the way around here, I sucked on that hand. Of course I would not be telling the story if an offsuit 9 did not hit the river giving me the mortal nuts and of course I was not there to collect the 5,000+ pot. That would have propelled me much further. I did manage to survive until about 40 people were left, but never made any real noise and went out w A,4 in late position. Even this hand was fun. I went all in at the 300/600 level for about 800. The SB three bet and got called by the BB. The flop completely missed me and the SB bet, the BB mucked and the SB turned over pocket KK's. Cool bring and ace and I triple up. BAM and ace hits the turn, then BAM a K hit the river, OUT. BUMMER.
I went down to play $100/$200 and did nothing all night. I continue to not get my fair share of good starting cards and just about anted myself to death that night. Lost a little not enough to write home about and went to bed to get ready to play the next day. The room stayed jammed most of the night and there were 5 $100/200 games, yes 5!
I hit it just after noon on Friday and got into a newly started $100/200 game, I think the 4th table of a must move game. I played well all day and built up my stack to recover my buy-in from the day before plus the loss from the game and a little extra. Then after 10 hours of play I made it to the main game where there was a really drunk guy going off for about $25,000 that night. Of course he is the one guy I can't beat and he proceeds to take a nice chunk out of my stack before losing it to everyone else at the table. Then I play tired and poorly for a little longer and lose all the money I had made in about two hours. How demoralizing. I decided to quit at that point and call in a day. I did not want to get any more stuck and I was tired and not playing my best anyway. O well, I had a fun time seeing my friends, playing some cards, and taking another beating. This has been the story so far this year. I think I am going to take a few weeks off and get back to cards at the end of the month. Hope you all had a better weekend than I. Good luck, and here is a picture of what could have been just to make myself feel bad. This is a shot of my stack just before the big slide. I took out my phone to take a shot of Liz Liu but could not get a clear shot without looking like a complete stalker fan so I just shot my stack. Makes me depressed just looking at it.
posted by Seattlejohn at 2:35 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home