Day 6 success! · 5:22pm Jun 18th, 2016
For my last full day in Las Vegas, I sat down for a single playing session... that lasted nearly eleven hours. I played in the $375 deepstack at the new Aria casino resort about a mile south of Harrah's. How did I do? Here's the tournament board when I went out:
I MADE THE MONEY!!!! Finished 18th out 170, which was good for an $835 payout. I was oh-so-close to more, though, if I'd just won that last hand. Top prize in that tournament was $16,000, and I didn't miss it by much. Take that final hand, and watch out. I could heading home thousands of dollars richer.
Still, it was a hell of a tournament for several reasons, not the least of which was the comeback I pulled off. I was doing poorly at first, just as had happened in every tournament I'd played here since winning the first one. My luck was bad, hands were simply not coming or hitting, and out of my starting stack of 20,000 chips:
...I found myself down to 2500 just an hour in. In fact, when I lost the hand that knocked me down to that--I lost holding A-Q against pocket jacks--I got up to leave, thinking I'd been knocked out. Turned out I had a few chips left.
There's an old saying in poker, "A chip and a chair". It comes from the 1982 World Series of Poker Main $10,000 Main Event, when a professional player named Jack Straus shoved his chips into the pot early on the second day of the tournament, lost, and got up to leave only to realize he'd missed a chip--there was a $500 chip hidden under a napkin. He never declared himself 'all-in', so he was allowed to keep his seat at the table and keep playing with his one chip. Now, at that point in time you started with $10,000 in chips for the main event, so $500 is nothing. But, he took that one chip, and came all the way back to win the Main Event.
It wasn't quite that dramatic here, but down as far as I was, a comeback was very unlikely. Nevertheless, I didn't give up, waiting for a hand. I made my potential last stand by going all-in on J-10 suited. Got a single caller out of the big blind, who held K-7. My jack hit but his king didn't, so I won with a pair of jacks, doubling me up to 5,000 chips and some change. It wasn't much later when I found myself with A-K and shoved my chips into the pot again, looking to get at most one caller so I could be heads-up where my A-K would either be dominant or at worst, a coin flip against a smaller pair. At that point in time, a raise to 5,000 was pretty substantial, so it seemed like the right move.
No such luck. I got a call, then an all-in reraise, then a call of that all-in. I'm thinking at this point I'm dead--someone has a big pair, maybe even aces or kings. But no, he shows pocket 5s, and the other guy has pocket 8s. What this means for me is, I've got a fighting chance to quadruple up.
Especially when the flop comes 10-Q-Q. I didn't pair up, so the 8s and 5s are still ahead of me, but that's actually a very good flop for me. I can still win with an Ace or a King to give me a higher pair, a Jack will give me a straight, and I can also win with another 10. Why? Because two pair on the board will 'counterfeit' any lower pair, meaning it doesn't play. If no player holds a 10 or a Queen in that scenario, then all players have two pair, tens and queens, and it's their 'kicker', or 5th card, which will decide the pot. My kicker would be an Ace, while theirs would be a five or an eight, so I would win. Count the outs, and there are thirteen cards in the deck that can give me the win, with two cards to come. So I have a quarter of the 52-card deck as an out, and pretty much a 50% chance of hitting it on either the turn or river card.
The jack fell on the river, giving me the win and pulling me back to 20,000 chips, meaning I'm back to where I started the tournament. After that I went card-dead for a long time. Trying to be patient, I bided my time, making a couple steals here and there when I thought I could get away with it, raising the blinds to make them fold.
And then after several hours of play, I finally got on a bit of rush, doubling up twice. I don't remember the particulars, unfortunately, but suffice it to say that by the time we neared the money, I was holding 211,000 in chips--at that point, only a slightly-above-average stack. The money was reached at around 8pm (after an 11am start!), when we were left with 21 players out of the 170 who started. Here's what 211,000 in chips looks like:
The final hand I played was a weird one. There was this guy at our table who was playing very loose and hitting just about everything. He'd knocked one guy out by calling down his pocket tens with J-8 suited, and hitting a flush with it, which is a bit ridiculous. He also said he'd already won an earlier Aria tournament and pocketed $10,000 for it, and was looking to do it again. The way his luck was going, he might well have. I sparred with him a couple times, and despite him thinking he was the better player, I actually got the best of him most of the way, bluffing him off his hand twice. Then came the final hand, just after we consolidated to two tables of nine players.
I was in early position and looked down at pocket 8s. A good hand for this stage of the tournament; people are trying climb higher in the money brackets and will be playing much more tight then they would early. So I raise hard from 10,000 to 30,000, holding 210,000 in chips. My new friend is in the big blind. He's been calling a lot, and he does here as well. But that's fine since I've got a good feel for him and already gotten a fair number of chips off him. Flop comes K-10-8, all clubs. Ooo... I've flopped a 'set' (meaning three of a kind--three 8s in this case), which is normally a very powerful hand, except for the presence of the three clubs, meaning if he holds a club, he just needs one more in the last two cards to make a flush. But I've got outs too. If the board pairs, meaning another K, 10, or 8 comes out, I'll win with a full house or four of a kind regardless of a flush. Still, no guarantee for either of us, but I can be pretty damn certain I'm ahead at that point, so I don't hesitate to go all-in.
He hems, haws, and finally calls with a J-9 and a single club. Though I think it's ridiculous he called with that preflop, I understand his call here on the flop. He had an open-ended straight draw (Q or 7 gives him the straight), and with the jack of clubs, he's also got plenty of additional outs for a flush. Count fifteen outs total, making it not quite a coin-flip between us to the river--I'm only a 58% favorite on the hand at that point, and like I told him at the time, winning this gives either of us a very good chance at winning the whole thing. He's rightfully willing to risk most of his stack for that fact, so he puts his chips in as well.
The turn is a 'blank'--a card that was no help to either player. The river... a queen. He hits his straight and I'm done. 
But, I wasn't upset. A little disappointed, but not upset. I pulled off one hell of a comeback, and made the money in a marathon playing session, leaving the table with an $835 payout for my $375 entry. It could have been so much more though if I'd won that hand and gained a big stack--thousands more, potentially--but I can't complain. I don't believe I played it wrong, and I did well to get that far, having plenty of good luck of my own getting there. After pulling that off, I honestly hope the guy won the tournament. The way he was winning, chances were good he did.
While sitting in that last table, and especially in that hand, I was entertaining visions of taking down my first major tournament win and walking away $16,000 richer. Even if I'd just finished 4th or 5th or something I'd've made several thousand dollars, and if that had been the case, I was going to extend my stay. But now... no. I've done well here, but not well enough I can contemplate staying. It's time to return home. I find I'm not quite ready to leave yet, and since my flight doesn't leave until 4pm, I can sit for a couple hours in a cash game, risking another $100 or so. By actual count, with the win last night, I'm up $1654 on my bankroll, and I will leave Las Vegas with at least $1500, allowing myself to risk $154. Keep in mind that is NOT enough to say I made money on the trip, when you count all the expenses, but it does cover the airfare, six-night hotel stay, and rental car. What doesn't it cover? Food and shows, which at a rough guess comes out to about $600 for the stay.
So when all's said and done, I'll have spent just $600 for six nights in Vegas. A very cheap and entertaining vacation, and one I'm sorry to end now. If only that last card had been different... but you know, that's the usual Vegas lament. Even without that, this was easily my most profitable trip, and certainly my most fun, primarily because I did NOT limit myself to poker or the WSOP at the Rio. I played throughout the strip and took in a couple shows; even got to show a friend around. Whelp, I'll be back home tonight, and online again tomorrow. Hope folks have enjoyed these status updates, and I'll be writing again soon enough.
For those who are curious, the final chapter of the Fell Flight arc in Rise of Firefly is up next, followed by the final two Turnabout of the Heart trial chapters of TLaTU.
Hmmm... you know, I guess James CyberLink was right. I did have a pretty major turnabout here!
That's a heck of a discount on your vacation.
Turnabout Vegas!
Nice work! You almost paid for your vacation right there.
I bloody told you so! You pulled that win in the Nick of time!
That's like the entire Wright Anything Agency went out to play poker.
...We should have card playing scenes in RoF and TLaTU.
Hey, what if we tied both those stories together by having an after-ending bonus chapter with everyone sitting down in the Summerlands to play poker, then Mia Fey shows up and asks if she can join in. Or something. I dunno.
I just get the feeling we need some card playing scenes. How much do you know about cards? Probably more than me, I'd say.
Next time, your taking a mlp mini vinyl figure to guard dem chips