Busted yesterday in level 5. It was all about 3 key hands.
Had a steady start on a great table, grinded 30 into 36k then played key hand #1
Utg2 opens 700 @150/300. CO 3bets 2200. I'm BTN with AKo, and call. SB 4bets to 6k, with 13k back. Folds to me.
I could definitely fold here, and hour before I probably would've done, but this guy had been battered in the last hour and was getting really frustrated, mucking his cards on the river in disbelief on two occasions, and just looked like he was steaming.
I jammed and he took 10-15 seconds before calling with AQo. I hold to go to 58k. Loving life.
30 minutes later key hand #2.
Villain has been opening every hand since the start of the tournament more or less, he's up to 100k which is probably good for the chip lead in level 3. Running like god, and opening way too wide - K4o, K8o from MP. He's not been spazzing post flop but that's because he's had the nuts every time - hence the 100k stack!
So he opens MP 700, and I decide to just call with
from the sb. The bb calls too.
checks to him, he bets 1300, I call, bb calls.
I lead for 3k, bb folds, he raises to 11k. I'm actually hating life here. Who bluffs in this spot? And he's obviously not raising worse for value. And if he is going to bluff, surely he makes it like 8.5k or something? This is a straight flush isn't it? He's raising massive because my hand looks like the
and he wants to stack me, setting up a big river shove. Anyway, I call.
I check he bets 24k. I have 43k. The board pair is irrelevant in that none of us ever has a house. But to me, I think it makes him MORE likely to bluff because he's never going to try and bluff me off the
on an unpaired board, but MIGHT try and rep the house (some players do just try and rep hands they can never have), and you can never rule out the spaz factor. Vs the majority of the field I can fold here, but vs this guy I just couldn't. But I should've done. These folds separate the great from the good and I'm depressed that I couldn't make it.
I don't think generally calling too many rivers is a weakness in my game, I have other weaknesses but I'm quite disciplined about folding rivers. But why couldn't I do it on the biggest stage? It's so obvious what's going on, he just always has the straight flush. Why couldn't I fold?
If the board didn't pair I know he was gonna jam, he said afterwards he would've done - then I would've folded. That was my plan on the turn. But since he didn't jam, he bet 24k and calling left me with 19k, so over 60bbs, I decided it was still plenty to work with if I was wrong. Which of course I was -
.
The dinner break came soon after which was handy, time to regroup, and forget that I had 58k, forget about that hand and try and grind back.
Unfortunately it didn't happen, I couldn't win a pot after dinner, I went down to 11k then played out hand #3
Utg2 opens 1000 at 200/400/50. I defend bb with
.
I check, he bets 1400, I raise to 3050, he jams, I call with the speech "I didn't think I'd be calling off my stack on day 1 of the main event with Ten high but here we are!"
Queen on the turn gave me 3 extra outs, but the board paired on the river and I was out.
It wasn't as gutting as last year, because it was only day 1, never got close, but still - it's the greatest tournament in the world, and to have a hand like that happen whatever you say about the decisions made, it's still a cooler hand, was pretty gutting.
Feeling deflated now, I've got 4 days left in Vegas with no plans and no motivation. Got plenty of time off over the next 4/5 weeks to regroup and maybe make some decisions. Maybe need to move to Germany, they seem to know how to get shit done