WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 5

Almost halfway through the season.

Game 5 was interesting.  I thought I played pretty well, but the more I think about, the more angry I am with the end result.

I didn't get very many good cards this game.  I was mostly content to let everyone else fight amongst themselves while I jumped in to very few pots.   When I did get premium hands, I was fortunate enough to have people bet into me big.   I had pocket kings a couple of times and had people raise and reraise before it even got to me, which worked out well.  

I also won a huge pot towards the mid to late stages of the game when everyone limped in preflop with me and my K3o in the small blind.   The flop was 332 with two hearts.  I made a small bet, hoping to build the pot and not wanting people to draw to a flush for free.  Cookie raises me to  a half pot sized bet.  There are a bunch of folds and the Noah re-raises about 3x pot.  I went all in, and after much deliberation Noah folds, giving me the chip lead and crippling him.  He was trying to push Cookie out of the pot, and didn't expect me to be involved at all.

I more or less have the chip lead from that point on.  I'm able to bully some of the other players, for a while, and finally when Cookie gets tired of it and fires back, I manage to flop a set to knock him out. 

At that point there are four of us left, myself with aver 7K in chips, Aaron with between 2k and 3k, Shane with under 1K and Smack with just over 2K.  At that point I'm assuming it is only a matter of time for Shane.  I think Smack is probably the best player in our group, and also the only one left that has more points than me, so I'm hoping to bust him. 

Alas it is not to be.  I went against my better judgement and call a pre-flop all-in from him with KQs.  I was hoping he was getting desperate and pushing with any face card and maybe I could catch him.  Unfortunately, he has AQ and doubles up.  I'm still in the lead, but I do the same thing with Shane a few hands later.   Then Aaron starts calling and raising my bets and suddenly I'm on the defensive.

I should make a note here that my daughter is not even two weeks old, and sometime after I crippled Noah and before I knocked out Cookie, she had a meltdown, and so did my wife who was hoping to take a nap during this time.  So I had to step in rescue them.  In an effort to keep my daughter from crying I'm bouncing and rocking in the chair, or pacing back and forth two feet in front of my computer, because that's all the slack I have on my headphones.  Its also really hard to do anything other than call or make a standard raise, because to get to the number pad on my keyboard I have to shift her in my hands, which wakes her up and restarts the screaming at the top of the lungs process.

Not that I'm making excuses, because I made some dumb plays that I knew I shouldn't have and Aaron was playing well to take most of my chips.  That being said, there were a number of bets I made because they were easier than making the bet I would normally have made.  For example I managed to draw to a straight against Smack when neither of us really seemed to want the pot.  He made a small bet on the river and rather than raising I just called and one a smaller pot than I could have had.  It was possible that he hit a runner-runner flush which is what I used to justify my laziness at the time, but I could have done better.

I also think I played more hands than I normally would have at the end because she was starting to fuss and I knew she wouldn't hold out much longer no matter what I did.

As I said before, the longer I think about it, the angrier I am that I didn't win this one. I went out in fourth. There's no way I should have let Shane or Smack beat me as bad of shape as they were in.  And I think I can bear Aaron heads up 9 out of 10 games.   Instead Aaron took first and Smack second.  Aaron has now won two in a row and both he and Smack are ahead of me. 

Here's the results so far.

Game 5:

1. Aaron
2. Smack
3. Shane
4. Me
5. Cookie
6. Archie
7. Rich
8. Jason
9. Noah

Totals

1. Cookie (43 Points)
2. Smack (42 Points)
3. Aaron (38 Points)
4.  Me (36 Points)
5. Shane (29 Points)
6. Archie (28 Points)
7. Rich (22 Points)
8. Jason (17 Points)
9. Noah (17 Points)

Totals after removing our worst two games

1. Cookie (34 Points)
2. Smack (34 Points)
3. Aaron (33 Points)
4. Shane (27 Points)
5. Me (26 Points)
6. Archie (22 Points)
7. Rich (17 Points)
8. Jason (16 Points)
9. Noah (16 Points)

Its a three way race at this point.  Shane and I can easily get back into it with a good performance next week, and I wouldn't count Archie out either.  The other three are going to need to win soon before they get too much further behind.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com