[Bond18]

A couple hands after this fiasco are table is set to break. As we’re getting up to move the old man taps me on the shoulder and says “Thanks a lot for speaking up!” Didn’t see that coming.

I settle in to my new table, with a roughly 12k stack at 300/600/75. A round in the following hand comes up, which I will post in HSMTT as people seem quite on the fence in regards to it:

I am HJ with Ad 4d. My stack is 12k, the SB in question has 6.6k.
Preflop: Folds to hero, hero raises to 1800, folds to SB, SB shoves, BB folds. I ask for a chip count and start doing the mental math. Looks like with BB/antes/money in pot I’m getting almost an exact 2 to 1 and make the call. The SB shows TT and rolls his eyes when he sees my hand. The TT holds and I’m knocked down to 5400. A round later we go to dinner break, and I leave utg with about 5000 in chips. I go to dinner with Grafyx, Sirio, MrTimCaum, Sirwatts, and TwistedEcho and we exchange stories back and forth of people making hilarious folds. At this point, selecting a ‘hilarious hand of the day’ has become difficult, as there are WAY too many candidates.

Arriving back from dinner I post my BB and look down at J8o. The action goes as follows:

Preflop: 2 folds, MP1 (old man) calls 600, folds to button, button calls, SB folds, hero checks (I don’t think I had enough to make them both fold.)
Flop: J 7 3 rainbow
Hero checks, MP1 checks, button bets 1500, hero shoves, MP1 folds, button folds.

So basically I double up without showdown on the first hand back. I really start to roll after this. I pick up some hands, shove into tight blinds, resteal on the old guy on my right with 75hh for 4X his raise successfully, everything is going my way. I get some quality hands and pick up the blinds, then reraise QQ over a raise and he folds. At around 20k with 600/1200 blinds a short stack shoves for ~8k and I rejam AJ and beat his JT. Now I’m sitting on almost 30k, and we’re approaching the bubble, [censored] is about to get hot.

Outside the WSOP ME, there is no tournament in the world that you can destroy and run over like a WSOP $1500 during the bubble. What comes next is really the fun part.

First I begin open raising a lot of hands and never get played back at. There’s only one other player on the table who doesn’t seem very concerned with cashing, and he’s 3 on my right. He also has a big stack. At 600/1200 with 100 ante the following hand developed vs him.
Hero: ~30k
Villain: ~55k
Hero holds 66 in MP1 9 handed.

Preflop: Folds to hero, Hero raises to 3200 (you can raise a lot smaller on the bubble), folds to BB, BB calls.
Flop: A A 5
BB checks. Hmm, this guy is pretty clever and aggro. I think if I bet here, he might CR me with a wide range and put me in a gross spot. I’m also pretty sure if I check back he may fire and we’ll keep the pot smaller. I check.
Turn: 8
BB bets 5000, I call fairly quickly.
River: 5
BB checks, I check and he mucks.

I also find some real hands during this period, and one player elects to keep calling me with mid pairs instead of 3 betting and folding when flops keep coming A high. Sometimes I have A and sometimes I don’t, but he never bothers to call and find out. I also show him an A sometimes, as having an honest image here is nice just for extra discouragement.

At one point after my beating him out of a number of pots, including just 3 betting him pre on a very wide range to make his life hard, the aforementioned player decides to start open limping instead of raising to save himself trouble. The following hand develops.
Hero: ~40k
Villain: ~30k
Blinds 600/1200 100 ante. Hero holds Q3o in BB.

Preflop: Folds to MP2, MP2 calls, HJ (old guy who is loose/bad) calls, folds to SB who completes, Hero checks.

Flop: 9 9 T rainbow
SB checks, hero checks, MP2 bets 3500, HJ folds, SB folds. Hmm to make this look legitimate I think I only need to raise him a little, like a 9 would. I think he’s going to be super overly cautious here, so it shouldn’t take much to find out if he’s TP weakish or huge. Hero raises to 8500. MP2 goes “Aaaaagh. Oh really?? *Sigh* alright I believe you” and folds showing me a T.

A few hands later the aforementioned only good player remaining raises to 3000 (his standard) UTG+2 and it folds to me in LP where I make it 9000 with K8o. He was opening a lot of pots and we were both well deep enough that I could fold to a 4 bet, which I really doubted he was capable of without a big hand even if he was a much better player than the rest.

The hand after they announce we’re at 271 with 270 paying it folds to the button who’s a young guy that has let the table know he really wants to cash. He raises to 800/1600 blinds to like 4k, the SB folds, and I move in, having about 3-4X his stack. (was going to with any 2, but actually found QJo.) He throws his hands up in the air in exasperation. “Damn it! Don’t you know I have a huge hand to be raising at this point?”
”Sure, but I don’t care.” Paging Tommy Lee Jones.
”Gaaaah, why would you do this!? AAAAGH! I have such a big hand. *Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* Fine, I don’t care, I just want to cash, I fold.” The button then flips AK face up. Boo yah.

Before we enter the money I steal the blinds a couple more times, but eventually we finally end the party and break into the money. Its 12:30 and I have 62k in chips, at 9pm I had 5000.

Our table is immediately broken up after we enter the money and I am moved to table 1. The table is full of laughter and good spirits as everyone held on. I decide to get in on the act and start joking around and playing with people. One of the guy’s who has waited his way all the way to 1300 chips moves in when I’m in the BB for 1600. It folds to me and I flip up 92o vs his A4o. I flip up my 92 and start laughing, a guy across the table says jokingly “you sure seem invested in this pot huh?” I laugh at his joke, which gives me an idea.

Flop: T 8 3
Turn: 3
River 6
When the river hits I explode out of my chair “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” The table bursts into laughter. “WHAT AN AWFUL BEAT!!” People from other tables are looking over trying to figure out what I could possibly be mad about and see the tiny 4000 or so in the middle. Everyone at my table seems to enjoy the humor and like me, which I feel is really great when wanting to get away with aggressive moves. One guy even says to me “I gotta tell ya, as a very heterosexual man I can safely say you are one very good lookin’ guy. I think it’s the suit.” Yep, I definitely have this table on my side, and suits pwn.

I sit back for a while and let the short stacks explode into each other while making chat with the table. I manage to stack a short stack who jams in the SB for about 7 BB’s and I call in the BB with A8o and hold vs his JTo. When the dust settles and we have about 45 minutes to go on the night I start raising a lot of hands, and with everyone so tired and being buddy, nobody plays back, not ONCE. When we finally bag up for the night I have my stack at $74,700, almost double the average.

The next morning I settle in to my table hoping this time I can really go on a run and make enough money that Timex will stop making threats on my family. The first few rounds I do nothing but fold minus raising KJ once and taking the blinds. One of the more LAG players on the table is two on my right, but he’s not a good pro LAG, more of a sloppy LAG, as he has admitted its his first time at the series and he’s a good 35 years old. Having sat back for so long I decide to find a spot to hit him when the following came up at 1k/2k with 300 antes:
Hero is button with Q3o, villain HJ. Both are about 70k deep.

Preflop: Folds to villain on HJ, villain makes it 5k. His standard raise at this point had been to 4500 and when I looked over (I was seat 1, him 9, sorta obstructed view) that’s what I thought it was again. Hero reraises to 14,500 (which is a bit small given what his raise actually was), blinds fold, HJ tanks for a bit, doesn’t seem sure of himself, then calls.

Flop: 9 X X (sorry, don’t remember)
HJ checks, hero bets 16000, HJ thinks it over, counts his chips, and folds.

After this I didn’t get to play any hands for a few rounds, after which the floor comes over and says we’ll be breaking. I look around the room and see a lot of tough tables, except one, table 66, with a line up of Imper1um, PBdrunks, Alex Jacob, and 2 other under 24 players I don’t recognize all in a row. The floor man throws me a seat card, Table 66, seat 4. Lame. I sit down and while all the young guys are on my left, I have gray haired 50ish guy on my right and the guy on his right is about 40 and looks like a trucker.

I fold for my first round on the table with the blinds now at 1500/3000 with 400 ante. While on the button, the following comes up between the middle aged guy on my right and me: CO has about 100k, hero ~80k. Hero holds AhKs on the button.

Preflop: Folds to CO, CO calls 3000 (I’ve only been at the table 1 round, I don’t know what this means.) Hero raises to 12k. Blinds fold. Now the strangest thing happens. The CO tanks hardcore. He starts smashing his chips into the felt while considering his options, staring at me really hard, smashing his chips into each other some more, and gripping them super tight in a really intense, stressed out way. He also begins audibly like, ‘grunting’ I guess is the best word. This goes on for like 2 or 3 minutes, him constantly smashing chips and grunting. Finally I pick up my water from the floor and calmly say “sir, you seem a bit agitated, care for some water?” He smashes his chips on to the table and announces “you seem very nervous!” He considers a few more seconds, then announces call. What. The. [censored].
Flop: 9h 6d 3h
CO thinks only very briefly then checks. I announce “twenty thousand” and slide two stacks of 500’s into the middle. AGAIN he enters into the routine of smashing chips, breathing loud, then grunting. After another 60-90 seconds of this he says “ALL IN!” and waves his chips into the middle. The dealer begins counting them out, I tell him not to bother, pull down my sunglasses, roll my eyes at the pbdrunks and fold.
“Fives! I had fives, pocket fives! It was pocket fives I had!” The old man is giddy. Bull [censored] [censored]. Nice job Mr. stupid [censored] slow player with KK/AA, raise those pre flop and you stack my ass.

Lucky for me this table was 2nd up in the break order and I was moved after folding another round or two with no cards. I get moved to the immediate right of Anna Wroblewski, who upon my sitting down introduces herself and begins her non stop talk to me and the table. That’s not to say I minded, she’s very nice and I like talkative players at the table, but that woman is there to play and have a good time. I tell her I saw her getting wasted with Scott (2p2 Mastr) at the Bellagio mid tournament, and ask her where her beer is today. She ups the ante with “oh yea? Who’s a drinker? Lets do shots!” I tell her she ought to keep it to beer for now, and go for shots if she busto’s. I look around the table at everyone’s stack as I always do, then looking over at Anna’s realize its just a huge stack of chips in a mess of piles.
“How much do you have there Anna? I’m used to having to having the numbers in front of me, but your stacks a mess.”
”I don’t know, I never count.”
”Aren’t you at all curious?”
”Hmm, your right, maybe I should.”
”Are we prop betting this?”
”Hell ya, k, I’ll guess I have $92,700.”
I glance at her stack, it’s gotta be way more.
“How much are we betting? $100?”
“Just $10.”
”Alrite your on.”
She counts out her stack and at 90k and stops, realizing she has at least 20k more to count. Ship the $10.

For most of my time at the table I didn’t have any hands to play (again) but did resteal all in with K7ss at about 14 BB’s when the SB raised it up 3X. He folded. My table is soon broken again and I am moved to the other side of the room which should be what will become the final table, so hopefully no more breaks and I can actually get a read.

At my new table it’s the same story, I am ridiculously card dead, there is always a raise in front of me, and the only times I’m in a good spot to resteal the original raiser will make some [censored] absurd 5X raise to 20k at 2k/4k and my 52k stack no longer has FE.

I fold down to around 44k and shove 62o on the button when its finally folded to me at 2k/4k 500 ante and the BB flashes me A8o and folds.

A round later I peer down in my SB and finally find a real hand, AQ. I begin making plans for how I’m going to profit on this hand when a weak/bad player opens UTG, followed by a shove in MP, followed by a call on the CO. I turn to the dealer and jokingly ask him “Why do you even tease me like this?” peel my cards for him to see, and muck.

A round after the hand I folded AQo we are up to 3k/6k with a 500 ante. It folds to me on the button with 42k and I jam 98o into a nitty BB. Unfortunately for me the SB wakes up with KK and rejams. The flop comes K high and ends my day, out 72nd for $8,722.

Although today’s tournament ended anticlimactically, things are certainly looking up. I’ve cashed two of my last two tournaments and run a hell of a lot better. Also, there’s not at tournament worth playing at the WSOP until Thursday (The $5000 6 max, BOO YAH!) so that means I get to play the incredibly awesome events at the gorgeous Bellagio hotel every day until then. Boo yah!