$200 No Limit Hold 'em Shootout

Been a long time since I posted.  I actually got so sick of the bullshit going on in this world related to religion I simply stopped posting or made small comments associated with my Facebook account.  But not to let anyone down, here's reassurance that my mind is still my own:  Religion is stupid and so is everyone who believes in God.

Now, on to the poker.

My plan when coming to Las Vegas was to play poker on a $500 roll.  I intended to play $100 or less SNGs (single table tournaments) and maybe some daily tournaments (multi-table tournaments that could pay off bigger).  As is always the case when I go to Atlantic City, I got here and didn't want to risk my money.  I wanted to play, but I didn't want to spend more than the $40-$50 a tournament that I'm used to at home.

Fortunately and unfortunately, I found that Binion's, where I'm staying, is hosting a month-long tournament series.  Monday was the $200 shootout.  In this tournament, you sit at a table of 10 players and you cash ($650) only if you win your table.  Once all the tables have been decided, the winners are brought back and play out a final table.  With 110 players, this was to be a final table of 11 players, with the top 5 cashing for the rest of the prize pool (top prize was about $3,500).  The stacks were fairly deep and the blind schedule was long.  The buy-in was over 40% of my roll, but I didn't have to play for that big a buy-in after that if I didn't cash and could still play several tournaments before I ran out of money.

So, I registered and found my table.

The starting chips were 6,000.  I was surprised at the speed of the play.  Couple very quick play, less calls, and fast shuffles and we were seeing more hands per hour than at home.  With 30 minute blinds, this was a very comfortable situation.

In the first 40 minutes I was dealt (not in this order), AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 99 (flopped a set), 88 and 33 (split pot when playing the board).  Most of these were won pre-flop and helped me keep even in chips.  On the 99 hand, I put in a 4x BB raise in late position, got 3 callers who had limped in.  I flopped top set and bet when everyone had checked.  They all folded and one guy muttered, "This guy plays every hand."  That wasn't true by any stretch, but if I happened to be playing a lot of the hands he was, I guess I could see how he might think that.  Either way, he seemed annoyed.  Good to know.

By 1st break (1.50 hours in) I was up to 7,000 in chips.  I appeared to be 2nd in chips, but there were a lot of us close enough that it didn't matter.  The player to my right had a huge stack after nearly tripling with JJ and having flopped top set.  (Why couldn't my flopped top set get paid off like that?!?)

Halfway through the next level (the 4th), I had folded nearly everything, even some hands I would have raised with in the first few levels.  This was only because the guy who commented on my play was short-stacked and may be looking to raise me no matter what I did simply because he appeared to feel I played any two cards.  Well, damn, if I didn't get AA, raised 3.5x BB and have him push with JJ.  Busted him.  Shortly after that I raised 4x BB with AcKc and the guy to my left called.  The flop was Kh, 3d, 2d.  I checked and he bet over 3/4 the pot.  I moved all-in.  (Note: we had the 2nd and 3rd biggest stacks at the table at that time...still well behind the chip leader.)  He thought about his action for a long time.  I knew I had to be ahead.  Finally, he called.  K7o.  He was in deep shit.  No help on the turn or river and I won.  He was down to 150 in chips and lost that to me when I picked up the next hand with AQs (plus some more chips from others in that hand.)  I was at about 21,000 in chips at that time.  Still, I was behind the chip leader.

At 2nd break I was at 13,900 after a long 6th level of nothing to play.

The downturn continued after the break.  I found myself down under 10,000 within the first couple hands since we were at 100/400/800 by that time, 3-handed.  Once down to 5,500 and still nothing dealt to me, I pushed all-in with Q3s and was called by 33.  I flopped top pair and doubled back to over 10,000.  Then the massive chip leader was finally overthrown when his JJ pre-flop all-in lost to K6o on the turn.  He was down to 800 and was all-in on the next hand...and more than doubled up to my big blind.  And then he tripled on the next hand with 69o all-in pre-flop when he flopped a set of 6s.  Suddenly, I was the short stack again.  Once down to 4,300, I finally had to push with J9o.  I lost.

I was out in 3rd place at our table.  I can't know exactly how many people were still in the tournament, but most of the tables were either done or heads-up.  I don't believe any had more than 3 players left.  So, I can estimate that I finished about 20th of the 110, not that that's the stat I'll use in my records.  I finished 3rd of 10.  I played for 3h:15m.

I didn't play at all on Tuesday.  I had a headache all day Monday and it got worse Tuesday.  This morning, I'm still feeling it, but I think I'll play the 10am daily.