Yesterday I played in Binion's first NL Hold 'em event. My plan was to play tight, patient poker. Unfortunately, the deck did not get the memo and gave me every unsuited combination with 2 one can imagine. 99% of the time out of position. The only real exciting hand I had was when I went all in with A 2 of spades, got 1 caller and another all in behind. The caller had A 10 off and the 2nd all in had pocket aces. I flopped the nut flush draw but made a straight on the turn to take down the pot. Crippled the caller and put him in steam mode. Everything else was pretty much ABC poker. It paid 14 places and I went out in 26th.

Today I decided I would adjust my strategy a little bit and play a little more aggressively in position if I had decent hole cards (any pocket pair, suited connectors, any suited 1, 2, 3 or 4 gappers). It seemed to be mostly working for me and my confidence was building. Then just as the blind levels were going up to 50/400/800, we got 2 new players at the table. One in seat 1 and the other directly to my left in seat 7. The guy in seat 7 sits down in the big blind. Cards get dealt and I'm in the small blind. There are 2 limpers around to the button who makes 1800 to go. I look down at aces and think to myself "I wanna see what bb guy is going to do" so I just call. My first mistake. Guy in the BB doubles the raise. Limpers fold. Button calls. I call. My second mistake. Flop comes 2 4 Q with 2 hearts (my aces are black). I check. Third mistake. BB checks behind. Button bets 5500. I go all-in, which at this point is was only another 5750 on top of the button's bet. BB tanks for a minute and folds. Button says "I gotta call." We flip our cards over and he's got Q 9 of hearts. He makes trip Q's on the turn and the river is blank. I know I could have played that hand differently but I still just want to scream.

Tomorrow I'll be playing the 2pm daily DS at the WSOP. I'll probably do the same strategy as today but hopefully won't make any mistakes. So far, I'm down $320 in tournaments and $10 in video poker. :sigh:

_________________
Jess

Jess, please post info about the 2 daily Rio. I will be there in 3 weeks and was eyeballing that one. Info such as field size and skill level would be appreciated. Thanks,

Tough break. You got a little too fancy with the AA, but why play all of those X2 offsuit hands out of position. Are the Binions events a one day affair this year?

Clem, not sure what you mean. I wasn't playing anything out of position. Unless you're referring to the first tourney I played in. I didn't play any of those out of position. Which was a big part of why I went out at 26th. If I had gotten anything decent in position, I probably would have played it. Yes, all the Binions events are one day. I've never heard of them being otherwise.

_________________
Jess

Yes I was referring to the first tournament. The way you wrote the post it gave the impression you were going to play tight until you got all of these unsuited 2 hands. Then the hand you get it in is with A2o. I guess you were expecting the dealer to take care of you while you were playing tight.

Maybe it has been the Nuggett events that have been 2 days at one point.

Played the 2pm $235 Daily Deepstack at the Rio yesterday. Only lasted 4.5 hours. What are the odds of the guy from my KQ suited story would again get seated at my table? I got involved in another big pot with him. I had jacks, he had aces (which he didn't show until I folded). Oh well. Played the same strategy as the day before. It probably would have worked better if I hadn't gotten involved in that one pot. There were 384 players, paying 10% of the field with first place being over $17,000. It would have been nice to win that one. I likely will try that tourney again. Skill level overall was pretty good and a mixture of styles. I got moved 4 times so it was really hard to get any kind of game going. The first table I was seated at probably would have been the most profitable. No real hands of note.

_________________
Jess

Never could get any traction in any of the tournaments I played in this year. The cards just weren't cooperating. Did play some cash on my last day in Vegas. I managed to lose a big pot with a set over set situation. I moved tables and made it all back plus a little profit. Overall, this was a losing year, in more than one way. If I go back next year, it likely will be by myself or with my husband so I can concentrate more on the poker. It's too difficult when one is dealing with a tempermental other person.

_________________
Jess

Jess,

Sorry to hear it wasn't your year. Hope the trip was still fun, especially after the rough run beforehand. Keep on healing and remember my home town sports teams rallying cry "There's always next year!"

Dave

_________________
The opinions in this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Poker Atlas, AVP or PokerTrip Enterprises.

Dave,

The trip was okay. Someone made things a bit more challenging than I would have liked, which is why I'm thinking I might just go by myself next year. Highlight of my trip was meeting Mike Sexton, Dennis Phillips, Humberto Brenes and Barry Schulman. Just too bad their signatures didn't bring me any luck. I really had none in tourneys this year. Should have played more cash as that likely would have been more profitable for me. Oh well.

Jess

_________________
Jess

I figured the highlight of your trip was meeting me.

_________________
Vegas is my Graceland.


http://twitter.com/chadwilliams71