Poker Words - A Poker Blog: WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 6

I don't think game 6 could have gone any better if I had stacked the deck before hand. Everything seemed to fall into place in the exact perfect outcome that I needed.

To start things off, two of the point leaders, Aaron and Smack get crippled by losing big hands. I didn't see what happened to Smack, I think he got wired queens cracked. Aaron lost on a board showing three jacks. He mucked his cards when Rich turned over a pair of tens. I'm thinking Aaron had an ace and was hoping high card would be good, or maybe he paired something on the board. Regardless he now has only a couple hundred chips and we aren't even out of the first blind level yet. Despite winning the previous two games, he is not invincible.

Smack goes out first which is perfect for me. He's the player I fear most at the table, and he was a top contender for points.    Aaron goes in to super tight fold or all in mode. I think the only cards he's even willing to push with are AK, or high pairs. He's obviously trying to hold on as long as he can in hopes of picking up a couple extra points.    Since he's also in contention for the points lead, I feel like I have to beat him this game, especially since he in so much trouble all ready. Not that my cards helped at all, but I find myself tightening up considerably, not willing to take any unnecessary risks as long as Aaron is still around

My cards are pretty bad for most of this tournament. The only decent hand I get in the first have is a pair queens, which get cracked when I push Shane all in. He manages to hit a flush with his KJo.

Noah has been having a terrible season so far. I would have normally put him as one of the favorites to finish in the lead, but he hasn't done anything. tonight wasn't really his fault though. He ends up going all in against Cookie after a flop of KKA, and rags on the turn and river. Noah had KJ, and was feeling pretty confident up until Cookie's cards were revealed and he shows AK, leaving Noah with 23 chips left to try to cover the $T50 big blind.

Aaron is still hanging around though. He hasn't played a hand in four or five orbits when suddenly he wakes up with cards. AK lets him double up when Jason calls. He doubles up again shortly after that and before you know it he has a decent chip stack again.

Unfortunately for him, his switch to a more aggressive style gets him into trouble almost immediately after he starts bragging about his comeback. He decides to raise,and call a reraise with KJo and runs into AK. So after all that work he still goes out third.

My cards are still terrible. I'm folding a ton, not really feeling confident, just hoping to stay alive. I keep stealing Jason's big blind, until he says that one of these times he'll have hand. I retort that one of these times I'll have a hand too.   Originally I'm thinking I'll put him on tilt by insinuating that I've been bluffing every time, but then I start over thinking it and now I'm afraid to bet because I think he'll think I'm bluffing and he'll be more likely to push back. So I kind of screwed myself.

I end up getting quite a bit lucky, using Cookie's tricks against him. I have T2 and try to steal his blinds. The flop is J27 and I push all in thinking he just called my pre-flop raise because he's stubborn. Even if he ha a hand, he probably didn't have a jack right? Wrong. He has JT and I'm down to two outs. Which I hit on the river.

And then, my cards start getting a lot better. AK and KK in sequential hands move me from the short stack to a comfortable size. I then double up through Rich on a hand I don't think I played very well I had J5 in a family pot with the four remaining players. The flop is J5X all hearts. I push all in here, for about 3x pot. My thinking is that chances are someone has a heart, and I don't want them even thinking about chasing the flush. I'm not sure if this was the right play or not. If someone already had a flush then I just knocked myself out. Although I don't know how I can both bet enough to figure out if someone has the flush while pushing out the chasers, without committing all of my chips. It worked out okay though because Rich called with a Q5. I think the queen was a heart but I don't recall for certain. He missed the straight either way.

Shortly after that I have pocket queens again. Pocket queens have gotten cracked at least twice today so I'm a little nervous. Its Jason's big blind though, so perhaps the talk of stealing earlier will pay off. I make my standard pre-flop raise and he calls. The flop is XQQ. One of the areas I think I need to work on is value betting, and maximizing my winnings when I know I'm ahead. I'm often content to bet big and take the pot right away rather than let someone draw out on me. I probably save myself some bad beats by doing this, but I also leave chips on the table. I have the absolute nuts here so I need to slow down.

Jason plays right into my hands by raising my small bet, then calling my increasingly large bets on the turn and river. He grudgingly calls on the river saying that he doesn't think I have the queen. Too bad for him, I have two.

I got lucky against Cookie again. I managed to forget the exact hand, but it involved me catching a flush on the river to come from way behind. I think I tried to steal his blind originally and he reraised all-in, giving me pot odds to call.

I'm glad Cookie went out before Rich because Cookie was in the points lead, but I'm not thrilled to be playing Rich heads up. He still plays regularly online, and he plays heads up cash games, so this should be his strength. And maybe it would have been if I didn't get get crazy good cards. Not that my hands started out all that great, but both of bet about 3x BB no matter what pre-flop. I had the chip lead so I called his bet every time, and he was forced to fold some on occasion. The flops were fantastic for me. I couldn't miss.   I think two pair was the worst hand I had by the time we showed down, or he folded.

Ultimately I got him all in with 69s and rivered a flush. He was not happy, but he had so few chips I would have called with almost anything.   Sometimes you need a little luck to help you out.

Here are the standings so far:

Week 6: