Today sucked. I can honestly say that I think the $1500 event was the one I was supposed to win the other day. That has been the only tournament this whole trip where I actually ran good (Aside from running AK into KK on the bubble and AKcc vs AA — but I blew that hand.) I hate talking about running good and running bad and getting unlucky, I absolutely hate it. I feel like every day, every hand, is a new moment and I don’t ever want to feel like I am in a bad “run” or something that can last for months on end. So anyways, that $1500 tournament I was winning races, making good calls, winning pots and my hands were holding (aka running good lol.) Hopefully I can have another tournament where I run “good” and can get deeper and have a better finish.

In the 1k rebuy today I shoved a couple hands during the first 2 hours of rebuy period and didn’t get any action. I won some small pots here and there and at the end of the break I had 4650 chips and opted to do the double addon for $2k more so my stack went up to 8650 chips while being in for $4k, which is about the minimum in this tournament if you double rebuy and double addon. There were really no interesting hands before the rebuy, but I did pick up some stuff on the opponents at my table and I liked my chances after the rebuy period. I had Chris McCormack two to my left, Jon “pokertrip” Freidberg directly to my right, and Thomas Wahlroos across from me. The other players were randoms or people I never played with before. I recognized one more player but have no clue what his name was.

About 5 hands after the rebuy period ended this familiar player raised for his third time in about four hands and Freidberg called from the small blind and I called from the big blind with 9Thh. (Blinds 100-200, Raiser made it 500) I had about 8.5k to start the hand, Jon had a little under 8, and the other player had about 12k or so I believe, maybe 14k. The flop came A64s rainbow and we both checked to the raiser. He fired 1200 and Jon raised to 3200. Now I didn’t believe the raiser had an ace either, and I was thinking about stabbing here, but his 1200 bet is pretty strong so I figured he had to have some piece of the flop. I figured Jon had to have a piece too but Jon raised to 3200 leaving himself 3050. Its a pretty big raise and it looks like hes committing himself, but I thought he was doing this on a bluff after I thought about it. I felt like shoving in here with air, but I gave the other player the credit for having a piece and folded. The other player called 2k and the turn came the 2s. Jon shoved all in for his last 3050 and the player called with AQdd. Jon turned a flush draw along with his gutter on the flop (He had 78ss) and the river came the 5h and Jon rivered his straight. After the hand Jon said exactly what I was thinking. “You raised like three hands after break already, I couldn’t put you on an ace. I was folding if you moved in on the flop or I was check folding the turn if I didn’t hit a pair or anything to improve my draw.” The other player said “You were going to fold the flop or turn after you put in half your stack? That’s good poker.” He said sarcastically. It was a pretty weird hand and I wish I had a piece to shove on Jon there, because I didn’t think he was too strong on the flop. And I think the other player should just put him in on the flop unless he 1) Wants to have Jon bluff off the turn or 2) If he thinks he has the best hand whats the point of just calling the flop and calling the turn all in if you think you are beat in the first place? The only purpose of just calling the flop is for Jon to bluff all in on the turn. If you are behind on the flop why even call? Either way, Jon got lucky and doubled up.

The very next hand Thomas Wahlroos opens for 600 (he had been in a lot of hands) and Jon Freidberg reraised to 1800 on the button. Since Jon just got a lot of chips through the double up I figured he could be reraising here using his new found chips and position. I looked down at QQ and was forced to make a decision. Freidberg hadn’t done anything too crazy during the rebuy period, but I thought about him just getting chips, and thought he would reraise Wahlroos who was active with 99-AA and AQ and some other hands in the range. I looked at Jon he didn’t seem overly confident in his hand, as he was just waiting for me to make my decision, and with about 8300 total I decided to reraise all in for 6350 more, on top of the 1800 raise, for 8150 total. He got a count and called pretty quickly, and flipped up AKcc. Damn. I mean, that’s good for me, but I was hoping he had Jacks or something. The board ran out 34cc9h8h so I was safe going into the river, just needed to dodge an Ace, king or club. The river came the 9 of clubs and Jon rivered his flush to knock me out and win a ~17k pot. I’m only ever shoving QQ, KK, AA, and probably AK there. So I don’t know how much I like his call, but I guess nobody who plays online folds AK, so it kind of makes me think back to the Bellagio 2k when I mucked AK. I wish I was just like every other Internet player and never folded AK. Oh well. When I fold AK I win, and when I jam it in like a moron (like in the $1500) I run into AA and KK, lol, fair game. Oh well, nothing you can do. I was going to play really tight after the rebuy period because normally people play huge pots after the rebuy breaks so I stuck to my strategy although I got it in as a coin flip.

That’s all I have to say about that. Don’t know what else to say. Tomorrow is another event and I will be playing it whatever it is, so maybe tomorrow will go better. Time is running out. I need to get that big score soon, before I leave Vegas.