WILD session in the books. Flights to Vegas were about $400 Friday compared to $180 Saturday, which is probably what made me stay... I ended up playing one of the best public games I've ever played...It started so well, I can't even remember how but I was 8k up in no time and was feeling quite cheery when I made the classic error of telling Viktorija it was going well.
Then I played two of eventually four big pots with a young Japonese chap. First one was $15k QQ vs KK, I call the 4bet and xjam over a big cbet on 966fd. Unavoidable.
Second one I open
to $100 in the cutoff, he 3bets the BTN to 300, a rec cold calls from the bb. I call.
and the rec leads for 500, I call and Japan calls.
and the rec checks. I have an interesting bet here - I can of course get called by worse in either spots, protect or get value vs draws and I can potentially bluff Japan off better on the river. I bet $1200 and only Japan calls.
River is
and I feel this is a must bluff card. I have advantage in the 66/77/88/87 region already, and now 98/99/T9 region, plus I unblock clubs that autofold. Not saying he can't ever 3bet these hands, but certainly he's more overpair heavy than me and less likely to have these types of hands. Allin for $4.6k and he tank calls 99. Unfortunate - wasn't trying to get him to fold that.
So I'm -10k and I tell Viktorija again about our recent change in fortunes. I suppose it's quite funny how after 8 years of being together and 13 years playing professional poker, I'm still so invested in every session that I'm updating her how I'm doing multiple times per day
She goes to sleep and wishes my luck turns around. I'm on my own now...
I rebuy 10 and get it up to 20 in one way or another. A hollywood film producer tried a wild bluff on me when I had top two was probably the highlight. Then the dream scenario.
The game has been kicked up to 20/40/80. Open
$200 BTN, Japan 3bets $1050 from the SB, I call. Flop
and he cbets $2400. Over pot flop cbet...kinky. I'll see it. Turn
. Uh oh. I was set over setted for $20k pot a few days ago like this where the villain turns top set after I'd flopped it. He checks and I probably made a mistake with my sizing here but went for half pot, $3k. Pot was $6k and I had $17k back, I probably want to make it two even bets accross turn and river so around 80% 80%. He calls and the river is a nice
and he checks, I shove $14k into $12k and he tanks for a verrrry long time. "I don't think I can fold this" is music to my ears, and he does indeed call and show Aces. Lovely stuff.
Then probably the wildest hand of the trip.
Every 30 mins we play a double board bomb pot where everyone puts in $100 and you get two cards each, and two flops are dealt and action starts after the button. If you reach a river showdown, half the pot is for each board. It's really hard to make good hands on both boards and it becomes a very tricky game of working out whether you want to PUSH (get people to fold so you scoop when you are only strong on one side) or PULL (have one side locked up, let's drag as many people along as possible). Sometimes you might flop a pair on both, which (unless the boards are very similar) will very rarely get scooped heads up, but can easily get scooped 3 ways. These are the trickiest spots where you check raise for example to try and get it heads up but get two callers.
Anyway like I said, very hard to have two big hands on both boards....
I have
in the hole and the boards are
1)
2)
I'm cutoff and everyone checks to me. I felt like a check was good given the high likelihood everyone before me folds to a bet when I have all the nines...people tend to bet Ax themselves if they have it also. Probably should bet though, two many gutshots can ping on the turn on board 2. Good job my man Japan on the BTN takes a $100 stab into $800. One caller and now I begin the levelling war. Big checkraise to $1200. He calls other guy folds. Turns:
1)
2)
I check again. I felt he'd bet Ax 100%. My notes on this guy are simply "Overplays massively in bomb pots". So that's handy
He bets only $600 into $3.3k. He's playing $13k ish. I have 3 options. 1) Raise to $4k and shove river for $9k. 2) Call and check shove river. 3) Allin now. I think 1 is fine, probably best theoretically. 2 is bad. Too likely he checks back river. I end up going for 3 against this specfic player because I thought he'd level himself into calling if he had Ace with a pair on the bottom board thinking that he can't be getting scooped. Make it look like I'm equity blasting him off one side. He hates folding when he thinks he can't be getting scooped. But maths wise he's calling about $13k to get half of $3.3k plus his $600 back, because he can never scoop vs any hand that I can be jamming. So $13k to get back $2.3. Very unattractive. He does call with
(thinking that he only loses to 99, A9 or QQ) and we actually have to fade outs on both, but thankfully we do and from -10, we're now +35 which is pretty much where I end up.
I play 14 hours in total and the cherry on top is I get offered a free ride to Vegas tomorrow (today) from this hilarious Asian lady who was in the game. Buzzing! What a rollercoaster this trip has been so far!
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