1.2 Million Going Into Day 6
The starting table was about what I was expecting. There were a couple of good players, one of whom quickly lost a flip to me with AK to my JJ to get busted, and then a few quite weak players. Even more to my good fortune, a few of the weak players took sizable pots off of a few of the good players, which helped to keep the latter out of my way. In addition to the coin flip, I won two big pots that skyrocketed me over a million chips in the first half hour:
I call an early position raise with 22, and the SB calls also. Flop 7s 4c 2s. We all check- against better players I might bet here but right now I really felt like it was overwhelmingly likely these guys had nothing. Turn 3s. SB checks, other guy bets 26K, I make it 90K, SB folds, guy calls. River 3, guy bets 100K, I shove for like 300K more, he folds.
SB (TheOracleAA) open limps, and I check Q3s. Flop Q86, he checks, I bet 7K, he calls. Turn 3, he bets 16K, I make it 60K, he calls. River 3, he checks, I bet 200K, he calls and mucks.
I played another interesting pot with Oracle later in the day. He opened UTG, and I called UTG+1 with TT, everyone else folded. Flop 842, he checks, I bet 20K into 60K pot, he calls. Turn 3, he checks, I bet 75K, he calls. River 4, he checks, I bet 175K, he makes a crying call with JJ. That’s what I get for going for thin value in a tournament, but I dunno- we talked about the hand and he agreed he may well play 77 and 99 the same way. Honestly I thought even AK could be possible for him to call if he thought I was just barreling at it.
Much later in the day, the thin value betting worked out well for me in a weird way, though. Blinds 8K/16K, I opened to 42K with AKo on my button. SB folds, BB, this kid from Toronto who was acting like a huge douche, called. The flop came 3s 4s 6c. We both checked. Turn A, he checked, I bet 35K, he raised to 90K, I called. River 9s, he checked, and as I reached for chips, he told me not to go turning my hand into a bluff. I was pretty sure my hand was good and that he wasn’t putting me on a flush, since I hadn’t bet the flop, so I bet 200K. He instantly threw his hand away and started whining about how sick it was that I had gotten there and he shouldn’t have tried to get tricky on the flop, etc. That doesn’t sound like a hand that loses to AK….
So that was fun. Thanks for following along, and wish me luck tomorrow!