I haven’t played poker in a while (other than online for play money), and I had some free time, so I headed to the Venetian. I got there late but started winning hands and building my stack from the start. Then this happened.
I got dealt pocket 10s. The blinds were $500. I raised to $1500. Player 2 called. Player 3 raised to $6,000. This was a deep stack tournament, and I had built my stack up to about $35K, so I called. Player 2 called. The flop was 10 J4 rainbow. Good for me! I had the second nuts.
Player 3 bet $6,000. Great! I figured I’d keep this guy in the pot as long as I could, so I called. Player 2 called. Even better!
The turn was A. I didn’t like that. Player 3 bet another $6,000. Could he have pocket As? I doubted it, so I shoved, not wanting him to see another card. To my surprise, Player 2 shoved. Then player 3 shoved. Player 3 had AJ for two pair. Player 2 had KQ for a straight! Worse yet, if an A or J came up, giving me a full house, Player 3 would have a bigger full house. Only a 10 or a 4 would save me.
I got neither and went home. I had played for about ½ hour.
I have been there each year for at least the last 6 years when the WSOP has been going on. I have not yet to have played any event though. I’m not really a tournament player. It’s a lot for one buy for me since I have to commit to other things being comped out there. I feel like any tournament is a bit of a crapshoot no matter how well you do or how good you play. But I am still thinking about event #20 and/or #36. #20 is a real crap shoot. I am imagine it will get ten’s of thousands of entrants so…. #36 is a little high for me on one tournament not being a tournament player. The buy in is $800 but that one got like 3600 ppl last year and paid almost 600 ppl. Thats seems more doable. I’m going to see how I feel, I would only have one bullet if I decide to. I will be there 6/6-6/15. Good Luck out there. I’ve been busy with work myself and have to be careful with budget. I’ll be cutting a lot of checks till my house is finished. I’ll be paying attention either way and definitely rooting for you.
Wow! Rough way to go out! Good luck in the WSOP events. I assume you will be in some.