Sundays Are Fun…For Everyone
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 - Roothlus
I had a brief but relaxing Thanksgiving break back home in Fort Lauderdale with my family. It was a lot of fun even though I can’t stand south Florida anymore. After 15 years living in the state of Florida, it’s time to get the heck out! So I’m moving to LA after the World Series this year. Now that I’m back in Orlando I’m going to grind for a few days and then make my way out to Las Vegas for the Bellagio Five-Diamond WPT.
Sunday did not go so well for me. I started at 4:00PM because my step-dad was having a surprise brunch for his 60th birthday. So at least I was well-fed . When I was explaining how big Sundays are to everyone at the brunch, I came up with a good analogy for it. In the past, I’ve been lost with a way to compare it to anything but not today my friend. I said picture April 15th for an accountant and having that every Sunday. It’s that much more important than any other day. If you are a tournament poker player and play less than 80% of Sundays a year, what’s the point in playing tournaments?
I played a pretty thick schedule full of about $7000 worth of buyins after I went crazy in a few rebuy periods along the way. Somehow I managed to spend more with a 4:00PM start time than I would normally with a 12:45PM start time. Woops. My Sunday was filled with misery, coolers, bad beats, and tons of despair. Pretty much a normal Sunday. But all tournament players play for ‘that Sunday’ where you win some huge tourney, final table 2 other tourneys and cash 4 others. It only happens 3 or 4 times a year but boy, is it magical. My last Sunday like that was a little disappointing for me. I managed to get 40thh in the Sunday Warmup and 52nd in the Million. In any other tourneys you would be like, “Big woop wanna fight about it?!” (quote bonus points for whoever knows this). But when the tourneys have 3,500 and 7,500 people in it each week, respectively, it’s a decent feat. Unfortunately I think I might’ve blown the Million after grinding out a really short stack for a long long time. I think it was about 2 hours which is super long for an online tournament. I skyrocketed to 3rd with 2.5million chips with 75 left and was very hopeful. I had a spot where I pretty much knew I was beat but convinced myself he could be bluffing when really he is ALMOST NEVER bluffing in this spot. Just by the way the hand played and because he knows me and I know him, he generally has to assume I have an Ace in the spot. You be the judge:
So I raise A10o to in the cutoff to 155k at 30k 60k with 2.1million behind. The RookieQQ9 (a very good player) calls in the small blind with about 3million behind. I’m curious as to what he has here. I felt he would repop AQ,AK and most other big hands. Maybe slowplay Aces or Kings. I wasn’t sure if he would repop AJo here but I was leaning towards yes. The unknown big blind with about 1.5million calls as well. The flop comes A67 rainbow. It checks to me and I deliberate for a little before checking behind. I don’t like the spot either way. If I bet the flop and get raised I almost always have to fold and not many hands are calling me that I’m beating because it’s such a dry board except for maybe 78 or if the bb defended with a weak Ace. So I opt for the check so maybe I can catch a bluff or get some value from worse hands. The turn is the 8 of diamonds bringing a flush draw now. The Rookie IMMEDIATELY bets 280k into the pot of about 500k and the big blind folds. Honestly at this point I don’t even feel comfortable calling the turn bet but I know I have to. River is a brick 2. So the board is A6782. Now he thinks for about 10 seconds before betting about 550k. This spot sucks. If I had just bet the flop the whole hand plays out differently but we can’t be results oriented can we? So I think for a little bit, and convince myself that maybe he’s bluffing because of the flush draw missing. What I’ve noticed over the years is generally when I start convincing myself of something in a hand that means I’m beat. Sometimes I fold, sometimes I don’t. Today was one of those days where I didn’t. He had AJo and I shipped him about 1million in that one pot. It was very frustrating to get into a spot like this deep in the tourney but it is what it is. I should’ve, as usual, gone with my gut. It’s always right. So sick. This didn’t end my tourney but I was kind of frustrated from that hand and made a hasty decision to reshove on a minraise by a big stack with A2cc into his Queens. Oh well. There’s no going back now and ultimately the A10o hand was still kind of a cooler.
Getting back to Sunday the day isn’t really worth rehashing my lack of luck during the entire day. But I did manage to cash the 100 rebuy and 200 rebuy on Poker Stars to make up for about $4k of my losses on the day. I did cash the UB $200k, which might I add met it’s guarantee by 75 players (woohoo!), for like the 4th week in a row or something. Apparently I’m really good at mincashing that tournament. Overall, I was satisfied with my play and that’s really all that matters. Hopefully, my stellar play will turn into stellar dividends in the near future. That’s all for now. Peace.
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Tags: Adam "Roothlus" Levy
