Another WSOP attempt

On Sunday I tried to qualify again for the WSOP main event. I won my way in with a $55 satellite. The first satellite was pretty boring except for one hand.

There were 23 spots available and there were 24 players left. Blinds were 400-800 with 25 ante. I had 8500 in chips. There was one player at another table with 300 in chips and about 4 hands to go until he hits the blinds.

I was dealt pocket Aces in the big blind. It was folded to the small blind, who raised me. He had about 16k in chips. He could fold his way in easily, but he was fucking around.

I hemmed and hawed for a while and then called. Mathematically this is an easy fold. I knew that, but for some reason I still felt uncomfortable with my chip stack because the next closest to elimination after the mini stack was around 4000 in chips. I felt like if I called, he probably would not bet again. If he did, I would base my decision on the texture of the flop.

The flop was 3-4-5 with 2 suits. The small blind pushed in and I called. The small blind had 8-7 and my hand was good. I have no idea why he would push in there? That's almost as bad as my decision preflop. I guess he had chips and could afford it.

After that little scare, I coasted in and sat down for dinner. The next tournament started at 6:00 PM. I will run through the hands I played and see if I could have played them any better.

1. 3260 in chips. I am dealt 6s 5s in middle position. One limper in front. I limp for 60. 2 other callers.
The flop is 3d, 2h, 6d. It's checked to me and I bet 150. Everyone folds.

2. 3380 in chips. I am dealt Ac, Ah in the cutoff. It's folded to me and I raise 3x the blind to 180. Button folds and both blinds call.
The flop is a beautiful Ks Kc Ad. The blinds both check and I check it through setting the trap. The turn is a 9s. This time the Big Blind bets 450 into the 540 pot. I smooth call and the small blind folds. The river is a 2c. Now the Big Blind bets 2595 which basically puts me all in. I raise my last 155. He calls and flips over Kh 2h for Kings full of 2's. My Aces full is a winner and I double up.

3. 6730 in chips. Blinds are 50-100. I am dealt 6s, Js. 5 folds to me and I decide to try and steal the blinds by raising to 300. Button folds, but both blinds call. Ugh.
Flop is 4d, 7d, 8d. The small blind bets 375 and BB calls. I fold.

4. 6430 in chips. Blinds are 50-100. I am in the big blind with Ac, 5s. It's folded to the button who min raises to 200. I call. The flop is 5c, 8c, 5h. I check and the button bets 360 into the 450 pot. I try to do some math to figure out how much I should raise to charge him a high price on a flush draw. I raise to 1400. The button reraises all in. It's 1847 more to call so I do. Button turns over Qs, Ah and my hand is good. My stack is up to 9927.

5. 10,827 in chips. Blinds are 100-200. I am in late middle position with Ad, Js. It's 4 folds to me and I open for 600. Everyone folds except the big blind who calls. The flop is 2h, Ks, 3s. I continuation bet for 700. He folds.

6. 11,027 in chips. Blinds 100-200. I am dealt Ac, Kc in the big blind. Middle position (emigo) calls. Cutoff (H2Oman23) raises to 625. I just call. Emigo had 3179 chips at start and H20man23 had 5833. Should I have raised? This looks like a decent push. I am not in good position and it would be nice to take it down here. The other side of the coin is that I have a big chip lead at the table and why risk it on a possible coin flip?
The flop is 4h, 6h, 8c. I check, emigo bets 200. H20 man raises to 825. I fold. Emigo called the raise. The turn was Ah. That puts up a possible flush. Emigo min bets 200 again. This time H20 folds. I'd love to know what Emigo had there. The min bet on the flop looks like a flush draw blocking bet, but who knows?

7. 10,202 in chips. Blinds 150-300. I have Kh, 7h on the button. It's folded to me and I try to steal and raise to 900. The small blind raises all in to 4622. The big blind folds and I fold. The small blind(titlegambler) has been a bit crazy.

8. 9302 in chips. Dealt 7h, 7c in middle. I raise and win the blinds.

9. 9752 in chips. Blinds are 200-400. I have As, Kh in the small blind. UTG raises all in to 716. It's folded to me. I reraise all in. Titlegambler in big blind folds.

Is this right? Should I just call or put in a smaller raise? If I raise smaller, maybe it entices the crazy big blind to play a weaker hand.

My hand does not improve and the UTG pair of 7's wins the race.

10. 9036 in chips. I have Kd, Js in the cut off. The blinds are 200-400. The big blind is all in for 320. It's folded to me and I raise to 800. Everyone folds and it's another race. I pair my Jack on the turn and win a small pot.

11. 9556 in chips. I have 9s, 9h utg. The blinds are 200-400. I raise to 1000. One fold, then a call. Wedgewood who has me covered 2-1, raises to 5200. I fold and the other caller folds.
The big blind was all in so I get to see Wedgewood's pocket Kings. Nice escape I must say.

12. Down to 7756 in chips. Blinds are still 200-400. I have 6d, 6c in the small blind. Folded to the button who raises to 1300. I reraise all in. The BB folds and the button folds. This is a nice steal reraise. I may need to learn how to do this more often with a wider range of hands.

13. 8556 in chips. Blinds are 300-600. I am dealt Jh, Ks two off the button. There is an UTG (Bestdeal2222) min raise to 1200. Bestdeal has 22383 in chips. I just call. This is probably a mistake. I have some protection in that there are probably not a lot of people looking to play a pot with the 2nd biggest chip stack at the table. But I still have 4 players left to act behind me. I think now that this is a raise or fold situation. Sure enough, the big blind calls.

The flop is 7d, 9h, 2d. The pot is 4200. The BB checks and bestdeal min bets 600. I just call hoping to take it away on the turn. This is screaming for a big raise here.

The turn is 6s. Bestdeal bets the minimum again and I fold. Very vaginal.

14. 6756 in chips and blinds are 300-600. I am dealt pocket 9's in middle position. There are 3 folds in front of me and I raise to 2000. There are two folds and then Braves77 raises all in for 6343. I call praying for Braves to turn over big unpaired cards. No such luck as I see pocket Aces. I was left with less than the big blind after that and played a few more hands before getting knocked out by 4 Kings.

I finished 42nd out of 187.

Overall, I started out very fast and was getting some great hands. When things slow down and I go card dead for awhile, I need to learn how to maintain or continue to build up my stack. I was looking for open steal attempts, but one thing I have never really done is resteal.

I definitely think that I need to resteal every once in a while to build up my chips. Look at the math. If I open steal, then I only win 1.5 bets. If I resteal, then I win the initial raise of 3-4 bets plus the blinds. That's 4.5 to 5.5 bets. If I am at 15-20 BB in my stack, then that is a great increase. I would only have to do this move once every 3 rounds to be the same effectiveness as open stealing.

I also did some more digging at 2+2 in the MTT Anthology section. I looked at the hand histories of some of the winning tournaments. One move I noticed a lot was check raising a paired board on the flop. I think this is a pretty successful bluff, especially if it's heads up or 3 handed. There are not a lot of hands that decent players are willing to call with on these boards if someone shows aggression and represents the three of a kind. I'll just keep working to get better.