I arrived in Vegas yesterday and there was some great live action at the Bellagio. I wend downstairs at about 2AM and started playing 500/500 with a 500 ante 1/2 NLH 1/2 PLO in a very tough shorthanded game. This game was a must move game for the 300/600 PLO main game which later was bumped up to 500/1000. I have been very fortunate that most of the action thus far this series has been NLH and PLO. There has been some limit O8 and triple draw, which are two games I am learning to play now.

The first large pot I played was very standard against a well known player. I reraised his button open with aces and we got it in on a T97 flop. He had the nut flush draw and we ran it four times with me winning three of them.

The next large pot I played did not go so well for me. It was against the same player, who was playing very aggressivly and reraising alot preflop. In a three handed game I opened to 2k from the button with AT of clubs, the small blind flat called and he reraised to 9k from the big blind. I called and the small blind folded. The flop came 259 with one club and he bet 9k or so. I called and the turn was an ace not bringing any flush draws. He bet 23k and I called again. The river was a 6 and he fired his final 52k. I called and was shown 56o. Obvously it sucks to be shown that hand, but I like the way I played the hand. I think the two most marginal decisions are on the flop and river.

My opponent is very good and aggressive so when I flat call a 259r flop he will put me on alot of very marginal hands, like small pairs and ace highs that I did have. In turn with will cause him to barrel alot of turns causing me to fold my hand. To balance that though anytime I turn a pair he will continue betting with his entire range.

I don't really see any other play than calling the turn, raising seems horrible to me. The river I could fold against some people, but this player is good and will value bet thin and I am actually ahead of some of his value bets. I think he would try to value bet JJ-KK, and any worse ace on the river. That said there are alot of better hands in his range which he is value betting, but I think him having 56o illistrates how wide his preflop rerasing range is.

So that had me stuck about 50k or so. I then went on to win many hands without a showdown, by running some medium sized bluffs and winning pots without a showdown. I also won a few smaller pots vs aggressive shorter stacks when things like my KKxx held up. This resulted in me winning 90k on the day in about eight hours of play. I am off to the gym now and going to head back down tonight for some more action.

Log in with your TwoRags.com account. Click here to register. Email: Password: Remember log-in information