Two Plus Two Newer Archives - WSOP Trip Report part 23, End of Days, WSOP ME Day 3

WSOP Trip Report part 23, End of Days, WSOP ME Day 3
I convince Sirwatts to spend an entire day out Wednesday wasting time and eating food so I’ll be appropriately tired that night. The plan works and when I hit my pillow around 3:30 I fall straight out. When I awake at 11:30 to play, I feel much better than on day 2. If I can get a good soft table full of guys concerned with making the money, I’ll have myself another massacre.

I get to my table and find a totally different scenario. For starters, on my immediate right with 400k is Imper1um. In seat 8 is Stevebets, and most of the table seems competent and not to worried about making the money. Imper1um and I have played at the Bellagio and he’s at least fairly familiar with my aggressive game, luckily having him on my immediate right negates his ability to run over me with three bets. I start the day with $292,500 and with the table playing aggressively, I keep most of my aggressive plays to late position.

Early hands of minimal interest includes 3 betting Imper1um with JJ and him folding. In another hand the button a very old and sloppy aggressive Spanish player who DOES NOT FOLD raises and I call with 22 in the BB. The flop is T8T and we both check. Turn is a Q I check and he bets only 10k. I know he’s pretty spewy aggressive so I decide to give him one call. River is a 4 and we both check, I expect to be good but he shows me JJ. Owned? He certainly had a hand I never saw coming.

I raise 99 utg and get cold called by a guy with about 80k. The flop comes T64 two clubs, I bet and he shoves. I’m pretty sure he’s not cold calling my utg raise without a pair or shoving here without at least 15 outs, but most always an over pair, so I deliberate and fold.

For a while after the 99 hand I play very tight, as my stack has slipped to about 270k. After folding a round or two I decide to make an UTG steal with just about any 2 cards, as I’m pretty sure Imper1um will respect it in his BB. I peek down at 95o utg 8 handed and the following hand develops:
Blinds 1500/3000 with 400 ante.
My stack: ~270k
MP1: ~330k

Preflop: I raise to 9500, folds to MP1, MP1 calls, all others fold.

Flop: 8 7 6 two diamonds.
MP1 in this hand is a younger Asian guy who works for Pokerstars in Costa Rica. He knows I’m a smart and aggressive player and we’ve been chatting and friendly. I lead out for 13k, he calls pretty quick.
Turn: 2s
Awesome card. I think about my bet size, then lead out a large 40k, hoping that if he raises it’ll force him to commit for my stack. He grabs a full stack of orange 5000’s and raises to 100k. I go into the tank for about 5-10 seconds, then move all in. MP1 asks for a count. He tanks, counts up his chips, stares at me, tanks some more. He stands out of his seat, sighs out loud, can’t seem to figure out what to do. I figure he absolutely must have an over pair and that he worries I have a set, so I’ve got to be WAAAAAAAY good here, like him drawing dead good. He counts out the 134,800 more to call, announces “lets gamble, you got a straight?” and slides it into the middle.
“Yea, straight” I reply.
Unfortunately for me MP1 is by no means drawing dead and flips up 88. I can’t even believe he thought about it, if I was in his shoes I would’ve smashed my chips into the middle Phil Hellmuth style. There’s almost 600k in the middle which I think would be good for the chip lead at this point, and I just got to dodge 10 outs on one card.
River: 7
I don’t even react. No yell, no scream, no slapping, just staring at the card. I look over at MP1 and say calmly “Well, that’s unfortunate.” I shake his and Imper1um’s hands, wish them and the table luck, and walk off.

Why didn’t I react? Why wasn’t I angry? I don’t know, I mean, what did I really expect? It’s been like this for 6 weeks now, and every time I need to win that one key hand to put me in a truly excellent position to do something great, I will inevitably have it blow up in my face. I’m sure if I looked back on the trip reports it’d seem all totally unfair, but what’s the point in getting worked up? Six weeks of live is the rough equivalent of 3 days of online play, and who really cares if you run bad for 3 days?

Most of what I feel is just exhaustion. I’m tired of all this; of Vegas, of casinos, of hotels, and most of all of failing. The failing is more depressing and discouraging than it is infuriating. This will be the last trip report for some time, I’m going home. I’m not sure when the next time I’ll play serious live poker is, knowing me I’ll be annoyed with the situation and then a week later I’ll snap back to live and want to get back in there. Australia has a Victorian poker championship coming up with a $15,000 AU buy in event not to mention numerous others, so maybe I’ll take a shot. I don’t know, it’s all too much to think about right now. I’m out.

Vegas Trip Summation:
Tournaments played: Like 25-30ish.
Cashes: 4
Final tables: 1
Total value of all cashes: ~20,000
Total cost of all buy ins: Oh god, to take a shot in the dark here, ~80,000? Did I really lose Timex/Steve 60k? That’s gross. Sorry guys.