JeffreyLipsey.com

Man, its been so long of a tournament I don’t really know where to begin. This tournament was the $550 at the Venetian, blinds start at 25/50 and 40 minute levels with 15,000 starting chips.


The first hand of consequence that I remember was in the 100/200 blind levels, I had roughly 18,000 chips and my two opponents both had 12,000 or so. I pick up QQ on the button and I’m facing an Early-Middle Position raise. Given that these guys rarely 4-bet this deep with AK but will call a reraise even out of position, I could reraise for value and still get away if I have to if they shove on me (although I’d hate it).


So the guy in EP (my read was he was fairly tight) makes it t600 and I reraise him back to t2000. There is a nice (looking) girl to my left who wasn’t exactly the greatest at poker but was OK, she COLD CALLS my t2000 raise and the original raiser did too. I put her range on AQ, AK, JJ+ Both of these players have roughly t10,000 behind and the pot is now t6000, so any bet I make on the flop will commit me as long as there isn’t an Ace or King on the flop. The flop comes JT9 rainbow, a double edged sword. I say this because I may get action from AQo but that is unlikely at this point, so if anyone goes all in they’re going to have a set/overpair here so often that I hate the situation. I hate the situation even more because I am pot committed no matter happens, given I have so much equity in the hand (~40% or so depending on what they have). So I’m thinking this while I’m playing but my choice is to just bet and hope for the best, so I lead t5000 into the pot and the girl does in fact goes all in, while the other guy folds (I later find out he had AK). I call the all in and she shows me JJ for top set. The turn and river brick all of my outs and now I’m down to t6000 chips and the blinds are going up to 100/200/25.


It’s beer time! Chardrian and I, once we get down to a short stack, realize that it is so mechanical and bot-like that we need to start drinking. Mainly because when you’re short stack there is a much greater chance that you’re going to bust because you’re looking for a double up, and you’ll do so with a wide range, at least wider than if we had more chips. So I start the revolving door on the Coronas (while the drinks are still cheap because once you bust you have to pay for them), as within two hours I’ll be down to 10 BB if I don’t double up or bust.


I don’t remember how it happened, but I think I took down a couple limped pots in the blinds for a few thousand chips each. One was I had KQo 4 way limped on a KT8 rainbow flop. I lead 600 into the 1000 pot and get one caller, who limped UTG. I don’t know this player’s limped UTG range but I’m thinking he’s pretty weak and I have him outkicked at worst. The turn brings an offsuit 9, completing his OESD if he has QJ (a worry of mine). If I lead here it would definitely pot commit me given my chips and he might be retarded or something so I decide to check. He leads 1200 into the t2000 chip pot and I thought about folding, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I had TPGK and a gutshot draw if I was behind to two pair so I think giving up this quickly was weak. The river brings a brick and we check it down and he shows QQ?? I dont hate his flop call but betting the turn isn’t all that great, either way that gives me more chips and I think I’m closer to t12,000 now, blinds 300/600/50.


Again, this is so long ago I have a hard time remembering how I got my chips, although most of my chip building came from short stack play. During this time I’ve continued to have the beers keep on coming as at any given time I’m 2 hours away from a 10 BB stack (which really isn’t a lot of hands). Seriously, I remember having 36,000 chips at the 1500/3000/500 blind level, 12 BB and only like 4m at best. I was able to get those 36,000 chips all the way up to 100,000 chips by the time blinds where 3000/6000/1000 without having to see a showdown once. Players kept limping and I just kept shoving to pick up blinds, they just didn’t get it. Sure some people get pissed off because they can’t see a flop but give me a break: no open limping once blinds get big.


We go on dinner break and since I’ve been drinking for the past 6 hours I’m a little tipsy. I head to dinner with my backer Jim (while holding my Corona) and by the time we’re done I’ve gone and sobered up now. With my belly full of food I’m ready to go back and take a nap, and I’m sure the beer had something to do with it.


Anyway, I find myself down to 85,000 chips with 4000/8000/1000 blinds (still short stack ninja) with 60 players left and top 45 get paid and I get AJo in MP; I insta-shove. Playing shortstack takes no brain power I know exactly what hand I need and this one is standard. Another short stack he-haws for a bit (who has me covered) and calls with AQo. Yikes! It looks like I may be going home, and with so close to the money it’d be a frustrating finish. The board comes AK92 and I’m thinking I have a ton of outs, any 9 or 2 and we split and the Jack gives me the double up; the river was a Jack! So Gross! So now I’m at 160,000 chips and up to 20 BB, and I can fold to ITM if I had to.


Not 3 hands later a guy in MP opens it to 3x the BB and there is a cold caller, I pick up AK in the blinds and I insta-shove again. After my previous shove with AJ the players couldn’t get their chips in any faster, and when they showed AQ I double-fist pumped. I hold up and now I’m up to nearly 300,000 chips!!! All that work just to wait for two hands and BOOM, I’m on the leader board in chips.


Next hand I pick up AQs and I 3-bet the other big (donkey) chip stack at the table; I hadn’t decided yet if I wanted to call the allin with it but I think I would have to given the chips and what not. That said, he folds and now I’m up to 340,000 chips.


The players are dropping super fast right now and before I know it there is only 1 person left to go until we get ITM. A shortstack with 20 BB opens in MP and I look down to see AJo and that’s one of the easiest reraise decisions I’ve seen all day. So I make it enough that if he shoves I’m committed and I don’t think he wants to be the bubble bitch (and I’m right) so he just folds his hand. Now I’m up to 380,000 chips and we head to break, I’m top 4 in chips from my calculations.


After we get back from the break and the money bubble burst (it took one hand) we get new seats, which sucks because I really liked the table I was on. I get moved to a table filled with big stacks to my right, with my backer to my left.


The first hand at this table I get dealt QQ and the Danish guy (who was pretty $%^#ing annoying) to my right makes it like 3.5x to go, I reraise him 3x and he folds and shows me AQo. A couple hands later I’m in the BB and I get QQ again, only this time my backer raises (he has shortstack) and I go ahead and put him all in. He folds (he later said he had 33) and my chips are now up to $450,000, this is as high as they would go for quite some time.


Blinds meanwhile are now pretty high at 8000/16000/2000 and I go completely situation dead for 2 hours. Everytime I had a chance to open raise I either got pushed off my hand and had to fold or it got raised/reraised in front of me. My table was pretty aggressive at this time of night so the only thing I could do was blind off and wait. By the time we ended the night I had only 340,000 chips and when we come back the next day I’ll be at 17 BB.


Meanwhile, the rest of the players want to play down to the final table and I completely disagree. It is now 2 am and I’m tired as fuck, we’ve been playing for 14 hours and I haven’t played that long in over 2 years, even then I doubt it. They try to bully me and this other guy but basically they need our support to keep playing and its just not going to happen; I’m so braindead that I can barely talk to my friends as they walk by to congratulate me. Anyway, we break on the day with 16 left (I’m probably 10-11th in chips), and we plan on coming back at 4 pm the next day.