Day 4 lay ahead as I sat and pondered my upcoming entry to the one and only Colossus event at the 2021 World Series of Poker!
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| Best place to ponder in the morning in the Rio! |
Of all the WSOP bracelet events, the Colossus has been the most good to me. This was my fifth time (including the very first Colossus ever held a number of years ago) and I had cashed twice previously. They weren't big cashes, but a cash is a cash in a massive event.
Speaking of a massive event - for the first time in this tournaments history, this was not going to have a five figure attendance. I believe the final tally was just over 9,000 players, which sounds impressive until you realize that previously it was upwards of 15K. 22K when I first played it.
But it still felt big as cards finally flew. Treaded water for an hour or so, then dusted off about 13K with a pretty credible 8K river bluff. Villain beat me into the pot with a mere top pair and mediocre kicker. Meh. I know I give off a 'rec' vibe, but not enough of this vibe for good players to make an exploitive fold. And sadly, most players these days in a $400 tournament are good or at least competent.
I chipped back up when this happened -
That felt a bit better.
Tournament poker is always exciting - a big reason I love it so much. But the reason it is exciting is that there are always ups and downs, and both are often strenuous.
The grind continued...
And this was all before the 1st break! I made it with well over 100 big blinds, and was feeling pretty great. But I knew blinds were going to crank up and I needed to keep accumulating to keep my stack viable.
The next two hours were fairly uneventful but I had managed to chip up a little bit and was looking to maintain a nice above average stack (though now at just over 50 bigs) through the 2nd break. Then this hand happened right as the clock ran out.
I flat called a very active villain who opened UTG. I was on the Button with 10c8c.
My opponent c-bet a 7hQd9h flop for about half pot. I flat called, open ended - and I binked the 6s turn. I had a bit more than a pot sized bet behind and when the villain checked I simply jammed, knowing he would call with top pair, two pair or flush draw.
Indeed he snap called - with QhTd. He was drawing dead to a chop and didn't hit. He had me well covered so now I would be coming back from break with double the average stack and over a hundred big blinds!
I had observed this guy, and tangled with him a couple of times, over 4 hours. He was pretty terrible, so I felt so lucky to get into a big hand with him and benefit from his way too loose and fishy play. Plus he still had quite a few chips left over that hopefully I would be able to wrest away from him...
Unfortunately fate had other plans. Our table broke when we returned from break and we were moved from the Amazon room into the darker less fun confines of the Brasilia room.
This is where I would be for the rest of the day and into the evening. Our table would not be breaking either, so this was it. And it wasn't the greatest. I had a couple of seasoned regulars to my left. The one maniac-ish player though was three seats to my right, so that was good. He also had a massive stack, which got me a little excited... in a good wholesome poker sort of way.
It wasn't too long before we clashed, and clashed again...
Fortunately I was on the better side of these collisions, three times... this was the third encounter.
I didn't tweet the hand, but I do have notes... basically it all got down to me firing three barrels on a board where every out I had completely missed on the river. He folded bottom two pair, that he had flopped, face up.
I felt very relieved to be in the only hands I ever saw with him folding to big bets. He had snapped off another player earlier with just Ace high. I guess I was giving off a 'recreational' vibe after all.
And with that, it was dinner time. A 75 minute break to chow down and rest up. Once again, I went for the $12 hot dog. Adequate and filling, but the price (along with a $7 drink) really bothered me, which is silly because myself and most other poker players think NOTHING of plunking down a grand or more for a high variance poker tournament, or pushing 1K of chips into the middle with a combo draw that only makes us a tiny favorite with two streets to come.
Ah poker. You are a silly beeatch.
Of course when I got back I promptly went stone card dead - but I wasn't going to let it get me down! I had a couple of fun things happen... my first 25K chip showed up...
And then I had my favorite bluff of my entire WSOP. It wasn't the biggest, but it was for some reason the most thrilling...
Sometimes, you HAVE to bluff. You absolutely have to. You can't check it back, you can't surrender - you MUST fight. And here in this hand, after several hours of card deadness, I had to. I know the Villain had turned a pair or some such. I was going to put him to the test regardless.
It felt great to drag the small-ish but not insignificant pot. And I immediately cheered up as I realized that I had over 250K, which was above average and just under 40 big blinds. I had been feeling a bit down because not much had happened for awhile, but now the money was approaching! We were suddenly less than 100 players from the money!
I had been here before. The Colossus is strange this way, and one of only a handful of multi-day events in the WSOP that is designed for players to hit the money on day 1. (The Crazy 888s is the only other one that springs to mind that is built this way).
But I wasn't going to go on Lock Down with the chips. Yes, it was important to make the money, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I 4 bet shoved with QQ against these capable players and ran into KK. I would take my lumps if I had to.
Turns out, I had to.
I took a massive hit for most of my chips when I found myself triple barreling again, jamming the river for a massive amount with air after all the draws got there but I only had a single pair. I effectively turned my hand into a bluff, even though I had JJ to start the hand. This time, a different villain, called off for his tournament life with top and bottom pair. A7 had flopped an ace and rivered the seven. He didn't even take that long to think about it, despite being about 30 players or so from the money.
It didn't help that he had rivered his unlikely two pair, it always seems that it's tougher to let go when you improve, I know that myself from my own light calls on fifth street. Sometimes it works out. Usually it's a bad result. This time it was good - for my opponent.
I was a bit bummed, but not despondent. Not by a long shot.
Within a half hour I had won a few small pots and things looked a lot brighter, because we were entering hand-for-hand play.
I had been here before, and in the past both of my hand-for-hand experiences were brief.
Not this time. It was almost 90 minutes, and many hands - agonizingly slow in between the hands - before the money bubble burst and I was guaranteed $640.
Shortly after this relief, I doubled up - winning a flip with my KQ vs 77. Paint on the river! Send it!
Yes, you read that right, after the money bubble broke we kept playing! In all we played seventeen 40 minute levels! Plus we had started the day late due to a dealer shortage when the Seniors day 2 began at 10am. We had to push our start to noon. Boo!
It was coming up on 2am when we finally got to bag and tag.
As I dragged my sorry ass upstairs and into bed, I was rather elated. Although I had min-cashed twice in this thing before - it still felt great to be up a little bit.
The best news of all though was that my wife had arrived! She was already asleep when I retired to the room. Earlier she had come down to say hi to me when I was in the Amazon room. I didn't realize until that moment that she had never actually been to the WSOP. I'd just assumed she had - with me playing at the Rio for the past ten years. Turns out, it was all new to her!
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| Hi honey! Thanks for railing me! |
It was great to share it with her, and I was looking forward to just walking around the convention center with her when I wasn't playing.
These days I always wake up early anyways, but I felt pretty good even on only 5 hours of sleep. The wife and I had breakfast at the pretty balling "Hash House A-Go-Go" downstairs at the Rio. Thank god for my Diamond rewards card - as otherwise we would've been stuck in a line of about a hundred people! We sat right down and had a very nice meal!
That day wifey was planning to do the tourist thing with her mom, who lives in Vegas. I was hoping to just play cards and stay in the groove. The wife was nice enough to oblige and give me a ride to the brand spankin' new Resorts World Casino, which had a NEW poker room that had just recently started spreading tournaments.
I have to say, it's a great relief that with so many poker rooms closing in Vegas (including 10 rooms because of the pandemic) there are still a couple of new ones opening. The new Sahara also has a new poker room and it's also doing well.
I won't go into crazy detail about how my $160 Resorts World poker tournament went - I'll just say a couple of things.
First, their chips are gorgeous...
And second, I played for about 5 hours and didn't really get that close to the money. Busted in 35th place out of 94. I played exceptionally well, but my AA were cracked by KK all-in pre-flop. About as standard as it gets.
I went to the food court after, as I was starving, and found the cheapest menu item which was actually delicious - a massive $13 bowl of Pho. Yummy!
Before I knew it, I had ubered back to the Rio and was strolling around with the wife. At one point she was face timing a poker friend back in Burbank, taking her around the poker rooms and showing her the sights and picking out some merchandise for her. Good times!
The next day was to be my last day playing poker, assuming I didn't make day 3. After that was the weekend, my birthday weekend, and the wife would have me all to herself! Truthfully, I was looking forward to it as well.
But I got to bed early, and I was planning to bust out of the gate with my 12 big blinds and spin it up!
Unfortunately it was not to be. Less than an hour in I happily 3 bet jammed with AK and got snapped off by a stack not a whole lot bigger than mine. Villain had 55, which held, and I was out.
It was a drag, but it was also about as painless as it possibly could've been. Completely standard in a tournament, especially one with as many runners left as this one. Thank goodness they were paying 15%! I would've missed out if it was still just 10% of the field that got monies.
Alas, the wife had already left for the day to hang with her mom - and it was still early! Daily deep stack here I come!
I'll cut to the chase - I did not cash. And therefore I left the WSOP down several hundred dollars. But much richer spiritually for the whole experience. Truthfully, I felt great. Six tournaments, three cashes - I could've easily have been 0 for 6 (probably about as easily as I could've been 6 for 6 including a deep run, but that's the glass half empty part of me yammering).
The last Deepstack tournament had highs and lows (including a miracle 2 outer spiking the river to help me triple up) but overall I'd say I played my best poker of the entire trip. I was constantly active, constantly putting my chips to work. Never limping first in, never taking the passive route.
I busted on a hand that I'm pretty proud of. Proud for how I played and proud for how I carried myself when my bluff got looked up.
It took the villain about 3 actual minutes, an eternity at the poker table, to dig deep and find a call with top pair queen kicker. But I knew there was a decent chance he would make the right decision, as he was likely the best player at the table.
When he called my heart sank, but I stood and remained upbeat - because I truly felt ok about it. I gently slid my chips over to him, wished everyone the best of luck and made my way back to the room.
The wife showed up later and after a lovely evening, the next day a great full birthday weekend began!
First we splurged a bit at the Hash House, after a couple of days of more sensible breakfasts!
Then we hit the movies, first playing some slots at the fabulous Orleans...
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| Didn't hit at the slots but still had a blast... |
...and then heading upstairs to their theater where you can take your mask off because it's dark and no one gives a shit.
We saw James Bond in Die Another Day - which was good, but that ending tho!
And then finally we went to the amazing golf range / amusement entertainment center Vegas extravaganza known as Top Golf driving range.
I'm not much of a golfer, but it was a HELL of a lot of fun!
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| Fatty likes the Driver |
All in all a great weekend - and then it kept going when we got back to Burbank. We went out to dinner at the Castaways restaurant, the same location where we had been married almost 20 years ago!
I am one lucky dude!
Until next time, thanks for reading this far!
In a week I go back to Vegas to play for the first time at the Golden Nugget in the annual Moose International Poker Tournament. This event was of course canceled last year, so it will be great to be playing with a lot of my Moose bothers and sisters in an event that I've never been able to make before.
Can't wait!
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