Vegas - Wynn $125 Tournament

Finally some tournament form as I chopped this one 3 ways for $825 after tip. There were only 21 runners, but the event was well structured and lasted about 6 hours, and there was a lot of play left when we did our deal when evenly matched in chips.

We started off 5 handed and I played most pots early on quickly moving my 7.5k starting stack up to 10k, mostly with poor hands played from the cutoff and button against a good Russian player who I would play a large pot later on.

Key hands after that when we are now 9 handed:

Hand 1:
I raise a bunch of limpers in level 2 with AJ from the button to $700 get 4 callers.

Flop is 8, T, 4

I bet $1100 and everyone calls :(

Turn is a Jack :)

I bet $1600 and old guy calls from BB (more on him later - a legend)

River is a 9 which seems a pretty bad card and old guy leads for 2k. I know I am toast and should obviously fold but I call and he has 67 for rivered gutshot.

Hand 2:
Russian guy raises to 350 and gets 3 callers before I make it 1400 from the BB with AA.

All fold except my old man nemesis.

Flop is T, 9, 8. Marvellous.

He leads 2k so I am clearly toast again but I know I can re-enter to put my 5k stack in and he wins with a set of tens. Rebuy.

The old guy is a classic. I think he was a stud player as he didn't know how the blinds worked, and was constantly asking the dealer what was going on.

At one point he limped UTG and then when the BB checked he asked the dealer "is it over?" :)

At another juncture he limps after a raise and then says "what's going on?" genuinely confused when the dealer says he can't do that. He also folds his BB twice in limped pots without seeing the flop and asks me mid hand if he should "go all in with AK" before doing so. Really nice guy though - I played with him the full 6 hours.

My rebuy stack is down to 4k two hours later when I get a streak of luck.

Hand 3: I shove my stack after a limper with Q5 and get called behind by AK and river a 5 to get to 8k.

Hand 4: I squeeze shove a late position raiser and button caller with 45 and all fold to get to 12k.

Hand 5: Blinds now 400-800 with a 100 ante and I shove from the SB with 55 and russian guy thinks for ages and then says he feels like gambling and calls with JQ and I win the race to bust him and get to 18k

We are now at final table and the blinds are soon a spicy 600-1200 with a 200 ante. It becomes a real crapshoot for a while now but I get to 30k quickly by shoving when the opportunity arises.

Hand6: I call out of BB for 3.5k with KQ from a 30k stack when there are 3 players in the pot and win a sizable pot on a King high board getting an 8k bet in on the turn but having to shut down on the river when the flush comes.

5 players remain.

Hand 7: Old guy shoves from button and I reshove with A9 and beat his 55.

Hand 8: I raise button with AK and call BB shove with QQ and win the race.

We are now 3 handed and in the money, but stacks are about 50k for me, 80k for young guy who was best player in tournament and 110k for older guy who was very solid. There is now a lot of play again and we play 3 handed for about 40 minutes.

Hand 9: I raise AK and call BB shove with AT. Flop is JQT for my straight. Turn is T. Alarm bells! River is K for a chop.

Blinds now 1.5k-3k with a 500 ante

Hand 10: I raise to 9k with JJ and BB calls.

Flop is J82 with 2 diamonds

Check/Check

Turn is a diamond.

Check, young guy bets and I shove and he calls with Kdx for the flush draw

Everyone is focused on there not being a diamond and I groan as the diamond rolls off, but then we realise that the 2 has paired the board and I win with the full house.

We are about level in chips, so we decide to chop it up and all get paid more than second place.

I'm going to play a couple of turbos today and perhaps some cash at planet hollywood, before a trip to The Cut tonight at the Palazzo.

Bellagio $540 is tomorrow.