Yikes.
A couple nights a week The Orleans does not host no limit texas hold em tournaments. They host HORSE and PLO Hi Lo tournaments, and so I wont be able to play there each night. Im in no way good enough at all the different forms of poker to fair very well in them. So I will need to figure out the most profitable tournaments to play on wednesdays and thursdays. Tonight I decided to check out probably the nicest casino in town - The Aria. It's brand new, only been around a few years. The forum shops there are ridiculously nice, with the average customer needing to have spending money of at least 5 grand. They have daily tournaments at 1 and 7 that have an awesome structure: $125 buy in with plenty of time to play. Tonight there were a total of 77 entrants at the 7pm tournament. I started off hot, and was the chip leader for the first 3 hours. I had a pretty easy starting table, and it didn't take long to knock out a bunch of players to bring us down to three tables.
Once we got down to three tables, the new players at the table started to cause me some trouble. A specific guy had moved right to my left, and took advantage of his position over me, and his chip stack was similar to mine. We wasted no time going at it, getting involved in some pretty hefty pots early on. I got the best of him to start, but he soon learned that I was not looking to get into huge pots and risk my tournament on anything but the best of hands, and he began playing overly aggressive, taking away most of my moves. It frustrated me for sure, and I shut down on my aggressiveness and tightened up. I went card dead for a few hours and found myself not even close to the top chip stack anymore. With 3 tables still going, I decided to play a pot with an older lady who I had only seen playing good hands. One hand she didnt even know she had a straight and took a huge pot off the same guy to my left. With the blinds at 800/1600, her around 60,000 and me around 50,000 in chips, she made it 5100 to go from UTG. On the button I decided to call with 33. My plan was to either outplay her, since she was a pretty typical older player who only plays good cards and if they dont hit a pair they fold, or hit a 3 and try and double up through her if she had a big hand. Everyone else folded and left us to battle.
The flop brought a 9 8 2 board with two hearts. She led into it for 13,000 flat. After thinking for a while, I kinda got the feeling that she was just trying to bet so big to get me out of it because she had an uncomfortable hand like AK or AQ. I decided I would try and get a read on her... so I reached for chips to call her 12k bet. When I did, she instantly sat back in her chair and looked very nervous. In Mike Caro's book on poker tells, usually when you reach for your chips and your opponent makes a sudden movement, they are subconciously trying to do anything they can to prevent that action. If they wanted you to call, they wouldnt do anything but sit still in hopes that you would continue the action in which you are about to perform. So I called her huge bet and decided to see the turn card.
The turn was a 4, non heart. She paused for a few seconds, and then looked at me and said "Check" in a manner that was almost pleading, as if she really just wanted me to check behind and give her a free card. With only about 33k left behind me I decided that I would move all in. I really put her on a AK or AQ hand, maybe of hearts and she was looking for a heart. I thought an all in would easily get her to fold. As soon as I said all in she took a big sigh and said "time," meaning she was asking the dealer for time because she was going to take a minute. I thought for sure that I had her outplayed, that she would just give up, and maybe even fold a better hand than mine. But then she said "call" and I knew I was headed for the door. She turned over two Kings. The river brought the 5 of hearts and I was out.
The table congratulated ME on the play, saying they didnt think she had anything either. I guess that's why they say tells only increase the LIKELINESS of them being accurate, but never 100%. There are no absolutes in body language I guess. I thought I made the right move to aim for that 34,000 out there, but it didnt work. So after all the respect I had at the table, all the chips I had, the massive stack I had in front of me, all ended up being a donation to the old lady charity. She got me good, props to her. Although I really dont think she checked for deception in order to get me to move all in, it still was the best play for her to get all of my chips, and it worked, so....
Im pretty bummed about the outcome of that tournament. It was a very nice room, and I loved the tables, the chips, the service. I also checked out the sports book room, and its a good place to kill some time in maybe in the future. The only part I didnt like was how hard it was to get to the Aria, and then you have to do the whole valet thing because parking on the strip anywhere is a nightmare. Other than that I think it may be better to play those tournaments on the weekends when the player base is a little softer. A few of those guys seemed to be regulars at the cash games there. Scary. I dont like rich cash game player guys. They are usually reckless and very aggressive. Not my style.
Tomorrow I am not sure what I'll do during the day, if I'll play at all. I know for sure that I will be at the $125 buy in Orleans tournament at 7pm that I saw drew over 250 players and a first place prize of almost 7 grand. Last time I placed 64th, and that was before I made some big adjustments to my game. It was my first tournament at 21. If I can take that down or just cash at the final table, i'll be a happy camper going into Saturday. I know for sure that I will play at the Mirage again on Saturday. I should have won last Saturday but the final table brought only bad luck for me. *sigh*
Good night.
-ATR
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