WSOP-C NOLA; Recap Part Three

Played the five o'clock mega the thursday before the Main Event..  Thought I built a good table image and chipped up pretty quickly.  Also, made some thin value bets and got calls.  So playing well.

Can't remember precisely where it came undone.  Think about two thirds of the field was gone and I made a couple of raises I had to fold to shoves. The last one like that I opened KQ o/s in the hijack seat.  Player on the button who didn't show down many hands but I believed to be tight shoved.   He was also good enough to steal.  But I thought I'd find a better spot.  Didn't.  Reshoved myself, light with QJ suited, and the initial raiser Mihail, a wide open cash game player, who actually had a hand this time with 99 and I lost the race.  He thought about folding because of my image and our history.  Good thing is I  might get some calls from his weaker hands in the future, bad thing is I was out.

No nightly tournaments and Sit 'N Go land looked a little light.  Decided to buy into the 8 pm mega on my own dime.  That went better.  Well not at first.  

On a board of 774 I shoved with 33s against an aggressive player who just won a ring.  He called with AQ (there's that hand again) and he said "I didn't put you on the pair."  The turn was a safe 7.  Actually it wasn't so safe as the river was also a 7 and his ace played and I was crippled.  Fun.  Made worse was the fact the inexperienced dealer kept trying to chop the pot thinking the board somehow played.

Nursed a short stack, forever, then spied AA in the BB.  A player shoved.  Deja Vu all over again?  I called.  He peeled over a Queen and I told myself this isn't real.  The other thankfully was another Queen.  I know AA v. AQ is way better than AA v. QQ, but if you made it through my Doestevsky-Crime-and-Punishment Update yesterday you'd know I'm snakebit with AA especially against AQ.  My hand held which was a welcome and refreshing change.  Nice double.

Two hands later I get KK unopened on the button.  The SB had been shoving on limps all day, and I didn't think this time would be any different.  Limp.  His stack practically beats my chips to the pot.  Then the big blind gets them in there too.  Wow.  Triple up (SB had KQ, BB had 1010).  From there I bullied to about the stack I'd need to get the seat.  

Lost a little focus when we got to three tables and didn't put the brakes on quick enough.  Should have been playing more snug with basically one out of two players making the money, and I lost about a third of a big stack opening and folding to shoves or reraises.  When we got to two tables and near the bubble, I was counting all that money I put out in raises that I didn't get back and realized I could have folded to a payday.  Unfortunately, I ended up with the two biggest stacks in the tournament, pro Joe Tehan, and an older gentleman on my left.  They were giving out 14 seats and 15th got $750 in money.   We had to lose four more for the seats.

There were enough short stacks that I might not have to double, but when I became second shortest at my table, I looked at Aces under the gun.  I put them in.  Tehan recognizing my range was probably only two hands insta-folded.  The other guy stared at me.  Asked how much I had.  A player had previously shown down KK at our table.  I said, "I tell you what, I don't know what I have in chips, but I know what I have here," pointing to my cards, "and what I have is better than what that guy just had."  The player nodded and then called, saying "Well, I'll do you a favor."  I said "If you wanted to do me a favor you wouldn't have called."  

I flipped AA and he 88.  Was I going to get bit by rockets again?  Gross.  Somebody said to me, "You love that call."  I said, "No, I don't want a show down.  Why would I want a call?"  Blinds and antes would have gotten me to the seat, instead my fate was in the hands of the dealer and not my own.

Flop came three diamonds, obviously I didn't have one.  Really?  I didn't look at his eights to see if he had one.  I have been four and five flushed all week, so I was sure he had it.  By the time it was over I made a set but the board made a flush.  Thankfully he didn't have an 8 of diamonds and we split a pot.

That was it for the drama.  The seats were ours before the blinds got back to me.