Please Send Money!!!

I played in the 2k No Limit event on Thursday. I played well and had a good time, but it was always a struggle to keep chips in this tourney.

These WSOP preliminary events are tough because they don't really give you many chips. You have to chip up early in order to be able to play poker with any kind of sophistication. Without chips, you have to play pretty tight and wait on a few good hands to get you going. We started with 6k in chips and I got up over the 10k mark only one time, but I only stayed there for a few minutes.

I was down to around 5k in chips when the blinds were 100/200. The first player raises to 575 and gets called by about 3 other players. This is a really good spot to shove allin and pick up a quick 2500 chips, so I was hoping for a decent hand. I look down in the small blind and see KK (a hand that I have been losing with a lot lately). I shove all in thinking that someone should call me pretty light because it looks like I'm just trying to pick up all of those chips by "squeezing" everyone else out with a big bet. As I had hoped, one of the big stacks makes a hero call and flips over 77. Whew, I'm an 82% favorite to get in the game! Flop is 789 - boooo!!! So, again I am going to lose with the best hand. I always stay seated and quiet when in these "all in" situations - I don't want to disturb lady luck. Turn was a blank, and then BOOM K on the river. OMG! I just "sucked out" on someone. Wait, I was ahead first, so does it really qualify as a giving him a bad beat? Either way, I was thrilled to experience the joy of a river card. I was now up over 12k and ready to play some poker.

A few hands later, I call a 550 raise with AQo from a player that had about 6,500 in chips. The flop came QT6 and the original raiser checked. Because a player had called the raise behind me, I bet 1,200. The guy behind me folded and the original raiser called. The turn card was a J which is a bad card for me because it makes AK a straight. I decide that I still have to bet after the opponent checks to me. I bet 1,500 feeling I am either way ahead or way behind. I was surprised when my opponent just calls - I now have no idea what he has because he would have already shoved a Queen and any 2 pair/3 of a kind hands. The river brings the Ace - another terrible card and my opponent goes allin for his last 2250 after some thinking. I say "you would have to play terrible to have me beat, here"; "I think you are too good to have only one king here, so I call." The size of the pot also made the call pretty easy. Obviously, he had KT to make a runner runner straight on me. Sigh..... Sometimes, it's just meant to be for someone else.

I played tough for a couple more hours and then finally got all of my chips in the middle thinking that I had 11 outs to make a big stack. Turned out, I had only 5 outs just to get 1/2 the pot through a tie. At least I went out because of my bad play, not because of bad luck. The bad luck thing starts to wear on me. Playing bad I can take responsibility for.

I am headed back to DFW ready to coach some 7 on 7 football on Saturday. I'll be back in Vegas the week of the 15th, so keep an eye out for my blog that week. C ya....