Day One (Part II) Bellagio Championship

Well, despite Thursday being another badbeat day, I'm here writing. First the badbeat report, since I know everybody loves to hear(read) about badbeats. I played 3 tournaments Thursday, in the Stars $150, I lost A2-QTh in a blinds war, all in before the flop, this was the only one that wasn't a bad beat since I'm just about a 53% favorite. In the Party Super with 99, I raised preflop, called in 2 spots, flop came 644, I bet, some guy went all in, I didn't like it, but come on, this is not the WPT, it's just the Party Super, so I called all in since he covered me, he had AK and I lost my 76% with a K in the river. Later in the Paradise $30 Rebuys, near the money, I raised with KK in MP, big stack in LP called me, I bet the 743 flop, he raised me and I called all in, he had K7 and of course I lost to his 2 outer. So far, every day this week (month?, year ???) has been a badbeat day, last Monday in the Party Super my AK was no match to Rizen's AQ, well, maybe this was not a bad beat, since I need to take in account the Rizen's effect, Has this guy lost a pot ever? He's a very nice guy and a hell of a player and I like to watch him play sometimes; but I'm lying, he does lose pots, I remember him losing one back in January. The best one on Monday was the one that I lost in a $109 tournament in Party with 8s8c versus QcJd in a 8d5d3c flop, ohh man, I love poker, you figure out that one. To be fair lets list the suckouts of the week, here is the list:


Big list hah, but I do have a suckout last Sunday when my A8 split a pot all in preflop versus AJ; of course only to lost a little later with KK versus J2 all in preflop. Okay, okay, enough with the badbeats, despite I know the joy you have by reading my badbeats, I need to write now about the less important stuff, the important hands I played on Day One of the Bellagio 25k.

The first semi-important hand I played, went like this. Old man in seat 10 raised UTG to 300 with blinds 50-100, Japanese guy in LP called, Scotty called in the button. I was in the SB and saw AcQh, mmmmmm, problem hand, first thing I thought. so I called and the BB called as well. 5 guys to see the flop, it came Qd6d3c, destiny trying to trap me, but not today !!, I checked, BB checked, old dude, fired a 1500 bet, this is a pot bet, and he looked like he was not happy with all that action preflop; now the Japanese guy in LP called, Scotty folded, back to me, I had top pair with top kicker and the pot had like 4500, so, I folded and the BB decided to call. Here I folded for 2 reasons, old dude looked like he had an overpair betting the pot into that many people and the call by LP could be a set of 6's, 3's or a flush draw, anyways I didn't like my pair and folded. Turn came Th, BB checked, UTG bet this time just 1000 and both guys called. River was a 3s, BB checked, UTG bet again 1000, here I learned he made weakish bets with his one pair hands that he wasn't sure were best; Japanese guy folded and now BB guy raised to 5000; UTG called and BB showed 9d3d, didn't make his flush, but made trips. I learned here also that old dude was willing to call river bets with one pair. He was Mark #1 to get chips.

Mark #2 to get chips was decided in the following hand, folded to young Pier in seat 3 and the button, he made a big raise for the round to 1200; now Victor in the SB reraised to 12k !!!!!, BB folded and Pier went to the tank, and with reason, what a big raise, with all the time he took, I put Pier in QQ-KK and Victor, who knows, I already knew him, and he was kind of crazy. Pier called the 12k bet, wow, I thought. Flop came QJ3 and Victor went all in, like 40k and Pier had about 35k, Pier went to the tank once again, now I was sure he had KK, after a while he decided to fold showing the KK, and Victor being such a nice guy he is, showed JJ for a flopped set; nothing like showing your opponents how well they are playing, hey buddy what a good fold you made, keep up the good play and take my chips later, lol. Victor was Mark #2.

One more interesting (but standard) folding decision I made in the first level was the following, Scotty raised to 350 in the CO, I had QQ in the button and decided to just call. Flop came AK3, Scotty fired a 500 or so bet in the flop and I folded, he showed me an A.

My first important pot of the day was the following, middle age guy in seat 2 raised to 400 UTG, blinds 50-100, I called in LP with 33. Lets call seat 2, stallman; he always took at least 30 seconds for every decision he made, this is for all the hands he played, my neighbors in seats 8 and 9 were really annoyed as well as Scotty during the day, Scotty even went to talk to one of the tournament directors later in the day, since between him and the Italian young guy in seat 1, we were hardly playing; to be honest I was not annoyed, in fact I found it funny how the action went every time passing by seats 1 and 2, I almost laughed every time, it was comic. Back to the hand, stallman and I saw a 972 flop with one heart, he took his time and checked to me, sometimes I bet here, but I checked behind. Turn was a beautiful 3h, now he bet 800, after taking his time of course, I thought he could have something like AK, but of course I wanted to get some value, so I decided to raise to 2000, now after taking some time he reraised to 7000, yikes, now to the analysis, what hands could he have that make sense with his actions, he could have an overpair, AA-KK, maybe he was playing aggressive a flush draw with the AhKh, and of course he could have the dreaded set of 9's. The play that made the most sense to me was to call and I did that. The river was a Qc and now he bet 7000 again, I saw no value in raising here and called, he showed AA and I took a nice pot. I was worried that maybe I didn't extract full value in this hand, but in the break, I talked about the hand with Alex and Humberto Brenes and they told me they would play the hand exactly the same. This is, no value in reraising the turn or river. With this hand I was up to about 63k and feeling good about my decisions so far.

TBC ....