Feeling Good....

There's not really any good news for Day 2 in Vegas for the World Series of Poker, but I am in good spirits and ready to take one more shot at it on Thursday. I played the 6 handed $1,500 buyin event and built up another nice stack on a really tough table. I'll cover a really interesting hand and will then tell you how I busted out.

I think it was the 3rd level with blinds at 75/150. My stack was a little on the short side at about 4,300. I was first to act with Ac8c and I raised to 425. Up to this point I thought I had a pretty tight image. I had Chino Rheem, Annon Fillipi, and Blair Hinkle sitting to my right which really limited the pots that I could get into because they were always raising. I got called by the player to my left who I had figured for a casual amateur because of the nice jacket he was wearing and the way he had played up to this point. Before he called, he visually counted down my chips which made me believe he was considering playing a somewhat speculative hand - normally you don't mess with small pairs or suited connectors unless your opponent has lots of chips. I immediately thought he had a small pair like 66. After the flop came J74, I decided that I was going to check and then shove all in if he bet. I thought the action would look really strong since I raised from first position and had a pretty good image. His 5k stack was also perfectly sized for my stack to cripple him if he lost. I checked and he bet 1,200. This was an unusually large bet considering the circumstances. The bet actually strengthened my idea that he had something like 66. I thought for maybe 15 seconds and then shoved allin for 3,800 (2,600 more for him to call). A play looks exceptionally strong when the shover doesn't really have much fold "equity" (the chance that the other guy will fold). After the guy tanked for a while, he finally said "I've got a bad feeling here" and folded AJ face up. WHOA!!!! An incredible fold to make my wayward read a successful play. Chino (great guy to play with BTW) told the guy "don't worry you were way behind." I decided to show my Ac8c trying to frustrate the casual player, but also to get some action from the other guys. Chino said "Oh wow, I had you in the wrong category."

That hand gave me a few more chips allowing me to play a few more hands. I soon ran my stack up to 22k. A couple of the big pots involved reraising Blair Hinkle's raises. He finally folded both times. Blair busted Chino in a very interesting hand and had me slightly covered when we played the last hand before a break. Blair raised on the button to 550. I look down at KK and wanted to appear weak, so I made a large reraise to 2500. Blair is a notoriously wild player. He decided to reraise me to 5,700. This reraise was so small that I thought he was trying to let me know that he really had a hand but wanted to leave himself room to fold in case I shoved all in. I felt if I went "all in" right there that he would fold. I just called his bet planning to let him put in a big bet on the flop because that's all he could really do. I thought my hand had to look like AK or AQ to him. The flop came AA4 - booooooo!!!! This hand had suddenly become difficult and my trap was looking shaky. Actually, the two Aces on the flop makes it much more unlikely that Blair had an A in his hand. I would have been much more concerned with just a single A on the flop. I continue my plan and check the flop - he checks behind. Dang it - he might have an A! I decide that I have to go all the way on this hand because I won't really be able to tell whether he has an A or something like QQ or JJ. I decide to switch gears and start to try to get value from a pair smaller than my KK. I check the turn trying to look like TT and he bets. I call. The river comes. I check. He goes all in which I felt he would do if he had A or if he had absolutely nothing. He just loves to bluff and the pot was sooooo big. I called, and, of course he had AJ. Sigh... I certainly could have played the hand differently, but I was going for the knockout blow. It didn't work this time, but I still love the play, and I am satisfied with the logic behind my play.

I'll do it all again tomorrow in the 2k No Limit. I've got a good feeling. I really feel like I am improving which is all I can hope to do on a daily basis. Thanks for keeping up!