The Day 2 restart for the $2000 Sunday Million (you can find Day 1 hands here) started at 11:30, so my plan was to sleep in, make breakfast, take a walk, pick up something for lunch, and then late register the morning tournaments when I was ready to start playing Day 2. For some reason late registration for the $1000 Triple Stack closed earlier than it was supposed to, so I ended up one-tabling the $2K. That may have been for the better, though, as I only lasted about an hour, and the weather was beautiful outside. More on that in a moment. I was eager to redraw tables, and overall my new table was softer than the one at which I spent the majority of Day 1, but not only was Dong Kim still at my table, but he was now on my immediate left! As it happened, though, I doubled through him pretty quickly:
PokerStars – $2000+$100|1500/3000 Ante 375 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
Hero (MP+2): 21.83 BB
CO: 67.09 BB (VPIP: 27.79, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 10.73, Hands: 403)
BTN: 157.16 BB (VPIP: 10.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
SB: 15.14 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 10)
BB: 45.85 BB (VPIP: 18.79, PFR: 12.73, 3Bet Preflop: 4.00, Hands: 166)
UTG: 36.72 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG+1: 65.67 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 12)
MP: 23.49 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 20.66, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 123)
MP+1: 14.18 BB (VPIP: 23.08, PFR: 22.58, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 65)
9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Kh Jh
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.22 BB, CO raises to 5 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 2.78 BB
Flop : (12.63 BB, 2 players) 5h 9s Qs
Hero checks, CO checks
Turn : (12.63 BB, 2 players) Tc
Hero checks, CO checks
River : (12.63 BB, 2 players) 6d
Hero bets 16.71 BB and is all-in, CO calls 16.71 BB
Hero shows Kh Jh (Straight, King High)
(Pre 36%, Flop 30%, Turn 97%)
CO shows Jc Js (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 64%, Flop 70%, Turn 3%)
Hero wins 46.04 BB
I saw Kim do a lot of pot control and delayed continuation betting yesterday, so I was ready to check-raise the flop (in part because his betting range is probably more polarized than some people’s) and also the turn. When neither of those things happen, I think he’ll feel obliged to call an overbet with some hands, and because his range is likely capped, it’s a situation where I can and should shove the nuts and some air. I was a bit lucky not just to drill the gutshot but also that he had such a good bluff-catcher.
The next orbit, he did actually catch me in a bluff:
PokerStars – $2000+$100|1500/3000 Ante 375 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
Hero (BB): 45.54 BB
UTG: 44.76 BB (VPIP: 27.70, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 11.17, Hands: 408)
UTG+1: 154.25 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: 34.93 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 15)
MP+1: 43.73 BB (VPIP: 18.24, PFR: 12.35, 3Bet Preflop: 3.90, Hands: 171)
MP+2: 21.2 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
CO: 63.54 BB (VPIP: 35.29, PFR: 23.53, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 17)
BTN: 23.99 BB (VPIP: 26.98, PFR: 20.63, 3Bet Preflop: 7.27, Hands: 128)
SB: 15.18 BB (VPIP: 22.86, PFR: 22.73, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 70)
9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Jd As
UTG raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB
Flop : (6.03 BB, 2 players) 5h Td 5d
Hero checks, UTG bets 1.83 BB, Hero calls 1.83 BB
Turn : (9.69 BB, 2 players) Kd
Hero checks, UTG checks
River : (9.69 BB, 2 players) 9c
Hero bets 6.3 BB, UTG calls 6.3 BB
Hero shows Jd As (One Pair, Fives)
(Pre 28%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)
UTG shows Qd Qc (Two Pair, Queens and Fives)
(Pre 72%, Flop 88%, Turn 95%)
UTG wins 22.28 BB
There may be some runouts where I can just check and try to show my hand down unimproved, but this isn’t one of them. Between the King coming on the turn and his passing up a decent bluffing card, there’s little chance that AJ is good. The flush getting there makes this just about the bottom of my range, and he’s got plenty of underpairs and maybe AQ that will be hard-pressed to call, so I think a bluff is clearly correct. QQ isn’t a hand I’d expect him to fold, especially after he saw me value bet a relatively weak hand in a spot like this yesterday.
I picked up some more chips busting a short stack AK > AJ, then lost JJ < QQ versus another short stack. The only other interesting one that went to the flop was this:
PokerStars – $2000+$100|2000/4000 Ante 500 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com
MP+1: 25.39 BB (VPIP: 43.70, PFR: 36.44, 3Bet Preflop: 21.43, Hands: 123)
MP+2: 51.78 BB (VPIP: 26.54, PFR: 12.96, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 162)
CO: 25.98 BB (VPIP: 20.68, PFR: 13.62, 3Bet Preflop: 12.26, Hands: 238)
BTN: 169.98 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 15)
SB: 75.43 BB (VPIP: 27.63, PFR: 22.37, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 78)
BB: 24.22 BB (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 9.38, 3Bet Preflop: 4.00, Hands: 64)
Hero (UTG): 23.35 BB
UTG+1: 29.85 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: 17.51 BB (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Kd Ad
Hero raises to 2.22 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.22 BB
Flop : (6.07 BB, 2 players) 8d 3h 7c
BB checks, Hero checks
Turn : (6.07 BB, 2 players) Js
BB checks, Hero checks
River : (6.07 BB, 2 players) 3d
BB bets 2.81 BB, fold
BB wins 6.07 BB
Villain’s stack size makes betting the flop awkward. Especially as he could shove semi-bluffs, bet-folding causes me to forfeit a lot of equity, but I don’t really want to bet-call either. I tanked a while before folding the river. Yes, he could easily be bluffing, but my entire range can beat a bluff, so I don’t need to call with all of it. I can have some 7s, maybe even some 8s or Js, and 66 and 55 make particularly good bluff-catchers as they block a few of his 7x and 8x combinations. Folding all of my non-pairs might still be a bit exploitable, but especially in a tournament I’m OK with that.
As it happened, Randal Flowers, who eliminated me from the previous 2K event and nearly busted me on the bubble of this one, ended up taking the last of my chips when his AK beat my KK.
The upside was that I got to spend some time outside and take a long walk. I’d planned on having today as a day off, and it felt that way even though it technically wasn’t. Here are some pics from my walk around Stanley Park:
Thanks to everyone who wished me well today or showed up to rail. I start tomorrow at 11AM Pacific playing all three Super Tuesday tournaments, though I’ll probably late register the Low and Medium PLO events at that time as well. I’ll post the new podcast tomorrow morning, but wanted to get this up first as I didn’t want to leave you hanging concerning results.
Congrats on the cash and thanks for the photos.