Vegas WPT Satellite and Live No Limit

I'm sure most people that are here have read Felicia's site and, therefore, know that I won a seat to play a super satellite for the WPT event at Bellagio.

Felicia and I rolled into town on Friday night. We were provided rooms at the Monte Carlo. After checking in, we of course hit the poker room ;-) Once there, we put on names on the lists; one of which was for a NLHE game :-D Whoohoo! Walking around the room we chanced upon "Little Gene", one of the players that we knew from the Belle that also won a seat to the satellite (although he won his at the Riverside Casino). He was doing well at the 4/8 game, being about $300 up! We chatted a bit, and then I was called to the 2/4 (I put my name on all the lists). Typical game: a lot of loose calling; one semi-maniac raising. I didn't get much to play, so I didn't really get hurt. I then got called to 4/8. I got run down a bit there; for example, my reraised preflop with QQ getting cold called by K7s. Felicia got a couple good hands and covered my loss.

During our conversation w/ Gene, he tells us that we might want to check in at Bellagio. We called, and although we really didn't want to leave the hotel, we went to "check-in" and get a seat receipt. Once there, I kind of wanted to play, (of course ; ) but I could tell Felicia didn't (she doesn't really like how noisy Bellagio is), so we called it a night and headed back to Monte Carlo and bed.

In the morning we ate and headed over to Bellagio for the satellite. Man was it chaotic! Poker stars abounded. We saw several walking and playing. It was fun seeing all the faces live and in person. The only one I actually saw playing was Johnny Chan. I wanted to scope out my tournament seat, so I didn't watch for long. We found several people from the Belle there to cheer us all on; it was nice to see them. Little Gene informed me that we got WPT shirts and hats for playing the satellite.. kewl! So we went and got ours.

I scouted out my seat and was lucky to find that I didn't have any WCP to contend with (whew). One bearded guy (BG) came around and introduced himself to all the players sitting at our table; very personable. Found out seat 9, wearing shades (Shades) was from Cincinnati and has been traveling around playing. Hmm, have to watch him if he's a circuit player. Little Gene happened to be at my table. I told him to remember how tight I was, and that if I went all-in to just fold; he said fine as long as I did the same, haha. I was in seat 7, BG was seat 2 and Little Gene was in seat 4.

The start of the tournament I was a little nervous, but it wasn't too bad, being that Felicia and Little Gene were there too. Pauly showed up with his brother to watch and cheer me on and it was nice to meet him. Seemed down to earth, nice guy. (Was funny though, that Felicia told me later Pauly asked if I was mad about something when I was playing.. she had to tell him, no, that I always look like that, lol.)

Early on I got a lot of little pairs like 88 twice, 66, 55, and 44. Usually always in later position where I could get in cheap. Never got anything with them and had to give them up. Once or twice, got caught into calling a minimum raise with them (the players were being very passive in the early rounds). All these calls ate into my stack a little.

Since the players were being passive, and many times there were lots of limpers, I took the opportunity to steal the bring ins whenever I had a group 1 or AK and just went all-in. I was folded to every time but one. BG guy seemed a little upset after I went in about the 4th time. He called me with AQo; I had KK :-) He got no help and I doubled up, being that he covered me, but I left him crippled.

We started with T5000 in chips and this brought me up to a little over T10k. Ahh, feels good to double up. This was especially good, as we were into the 4th level, where they started taking antes. The structure was really good with 40-minute levels, but once they start taking antes, it really adds a little pressure to keep playing to accumulate chips to stay ahead.

During this same level I got 99 in middle position and it was passed around to me. The blinds being 200/400, I made it 1500 to go. BG was in the BB and I wanted to put him all-in should he call. I got called by Shades, who at this point had about 3x my chips (if not more). Shades had gotten one really lucky hand where, once again, a number of people limped then called a light raise, and he ended up making a flush vs. someone's top two of AK. When the guy was busted and was wondering how he could have called the guy's huge turn bet, Shades replied that he had a gut-straight and flush draw and a pair giving him what he thought was 14 outs. A bit of luck and solid play and he was by far the chip lead at the table.

Anyway, when Shades called my bet, I was clearly not happy. I figured, I know he's solid and I'm going to have to watch what happens. The flop was T8x. Putting Shades on a large ace, I fired at the pot with 2000, hoping to take the pot right there. I got called. Oh boy, I figured I was done with the hand. Then, what should come off the turn but a 9, giving me a set. I announced all-in, and Shades almost beat me putting in all his chips. What?? I couldn't put him on a straight, calling such a large preflop raise w/ QJ. No...how about TT!! My heart sank. He had top set on the flop and let me bet it for him. I got trapped w/ turning my set and was out of the satellite, victim of set-under-set after 3 hours of play. Arrrrgg.

I, of course, replayed the hand over and over and over. I couldn't believe it. I must have misplayed. I talked to Felicia about it and she was unsure if she would have played the hand at all. Hmm, not sure I really could have let it go completely. I didn't want BG an easy chance at more chips, since it was his blind. I also knew that I probably was done with the hand once Shades called. The flop, however, with no ace and no king, made me feel safe versus what I thought Shades could be holding. Felicia did agree though, that once I had my set, there was no way out; I had to have all my chips in the center. *Sigh*

I wanted to play again right away, so we headed to the poker room. It was teaming. Felicia hated the noise. My legs felt wobbly. I finally agreed to go get out of there. We ended up eating and talking more of the hand; it sucked to be out. I wanted to play out my frustration. Felicia told me that Little Gene had talked about playing a satellite at Binion's that he won and got lamers that gained him entry into a super satellite for the WSOP. She wanted to play one of the minor Stud events so we went down there to see if they had any satellites for them. I didn't care as long as I could play. I needed to get my mind over the loss.

Felicia ended up finding out that the lamers could be used for entry into any tournament, so she signed up for one of the single table NLHE shootouts, while I put my name on the 2/5 NLHE game they had going. I was able to get in pretty quickly and Felicia watched for a little while. She whispered to me that it seemed pretty tight, and I agreed. She put my name on the 1/2 blind game that actually had a few younger faces in it. I actually did OK in the game, ending about 55 up. I got AK about 4 times. Twice, actually in the BB when a few people had already limped in. I noticed that one of the older guys liked to limp in with strong hands, even group 1's, so the time in the blinds I just checked to see a free flop. Not surprisingly, it came all little; most everyone in was holding high cards or pairs. I laid them down after strong bets on the flop.

My one big hand there was another of the AK hands. Middle position limper and I had AK on the button. I raised to knock on the blinds and get HU. Took a flop of 225 and check, check. K on the turn and the middle position guy bet 20. I raised to 40 and he called. River he checked, and I bet again and he folded, claiming to be on a flush draw and had missed. That was my one big exciting hand (-grin-).

After about an hour I got called to the 1/2 blind NL game and I found a lot more action, but no hands. By the time I got blinded back to exactly 50 up, I noticed that Felicia was now HU in the satellite! I had been poking my head over every now and again. Each time seeing one or more less people at the table, and her with more and more chips, lol. Once I saw her HU, I quickly just got my stuff and headed over to sweat her. Seemed like not long before she had 3 other people at the table.

As I watched, Felicia declared all-in, and her competition, another woman, called. Felicia had AK to the woman's KQ. King one the flop, no Queen, and Felicia now had at least 95% of the chips! The woman went all in next hand with Q-high, Felicia called with J high and no help to either. Felicia declared all-in again, and the woman called w/ AQ (I think). Felicia turned over AK...again! No help to either and my baby won on her first try! Two $500 lamers plus her buy in back :-)

She was high from her win and told me all about it. She put herself back on a list for another and I got on the 6/12 list. The 1/2 had a long list. The 2/5 game had broken up and I saw most of the same cronies at the 15/30, so figured I'd take the 6/12, as I'd be next up. I managed to get some chips, just to waste them chasing a 3 straight flush, that turned into a 4 straight flush, that turned into a 24$ loss, lol. All-in-all, I was only down 4$ at the 6/12.

Felicia said suddenly she didn't like the satellite situation. She said that a number of the people for the next one wanted to pay for the satellite with lamers that they already won! Uhhh, no, maybe not. Haha. So, we ended up back at Monte Carlo. We ate and went back to the poker room. After sitting in the 2/5 game again, and again finding it tight, I was able to get transferred to a wild 4/8 game. Wild indeed! I ended up being rivered by two pair or bottom/middle pair that tripped up so many times I couldn't count. I could, however, see that my stack was severely eaten into by about $200! Ouch.

The floor man, around this time, came to our table and stated that he almost had enough names for another 2/5 NL game, and a couple of the people at my table expressed interest. Oh joy, how I wanted to get these fishes into a NL game! Eventually it started and boy what a ride. I cashed in a couple hundred more. We had some interesting hands. One guy that got dubbed "Animal" from the guy to his left, since he raised about every other hand. One hand he got called down, he showed A4o, no pair. Loved my table.

Now, I'm rather new to NL cash games. I got AA and bet 50$. I wanted to shut out Animal and some of the others that I knew liked suited connectors, so I might have over bet just a tad ("that's a joke, son"). But, what have we here? The BB, one of the fish from the my 4/8 game shoving his diminished stack of 80-odd chips all-in. I quickly called. He groaned after seeing my AA vs. his KK. He left after getting no help.

One nice hand in the SB, I found AJo, after Animal, in late position, raised once again. I called, the BB called, and we took a flop of AQx. I bet 20 (Animal's pre-flop bet), and both called. I was hoping Animal had one of his Ax again. 20 again on the turn, and they both called. I wasn't worried about Animal, but I was about the BB. I've seen these guys call big bets with any pair on the board, almost just like the 4/8 chasers. I checked the river and showed my AJ, BB mucked, and Animal showed KTs; he was calling for a gut-shot, lol.

So, I'm somewhere around 440, hoping to pick up about 60 more to end even for the night. I pick up KJs (hearts) UTG and limp. There have been a ton of pots with just limping (whenever Animal didn't see fit to raise) and I hoped to see a cheap flop with my group 3. The cost went up to 20 by a tight player (TP) to the right of Animal. He hasn't played much, so while I respected his raise, I knew that the other limpers would call as well, so, so did I. We took my dream flop of QT9, two hearts. I checked my nut-straight, 2nd nut flush draw, and was happily bet into by TP, the preflop raiser, by another 20 bet. I slide in a stack of red to make it 100. TP pushed in his remaining 2 stacks of red and I quickly followed with the rest of mine. TP flipped up TT for 2nd set on the flop, and I flipped over my nut straight, which turned into a flush on the turn. No pairing of the board and TP jumped out of his chair and stormed out.

I played my blinds and the rest of that orbit. I then cashed out at $682; covering my loss at the 4/8 and ending about $150 up for Monte Carlo that night :-) It also felt kind of nice to bust someone with a set of tens, the same hand that put me out of the satellite.

Winning in that game really felt good. I like this thing called No Limit. I think I could get into it. LOL. Seriously, after busting out of the WPT satellite, this helped me feel justified in my playing. And at least here, I can take my chips and cash them in after a double through.

Posted by Glenn