Hunting Season
I fall asleep quickly, but am wide awake after a few hours and can’t get back to sleep. I wrestle with this form of insomnia at home, but it’s even worse here. My body doesn’t know what time it is, stuck inside windowless casinos all day. My mind races — too many hand histories to review, to many final table fantasies to indulge.
After breakfast I'm back at the Rio for Day 2 of The Reunion event. There were 12,975 total entries across three flights, building a $5.5M prize pool. 619 players are left today, hoping to ladder up from a $1,500 min-cash to snag the $514k prize for first place.
Once cards are in the air, players start dropping so fast that the tournament has to be paused to process everyone.
I join the slaughtered shortly. Five hands in, I’m in the BB1 with 66 and shove my 15bbs into the HJ opener. He flips up QJo and I’m ahead until a 9 completes a straight for him on the river. I'm out in 591st place, and receive my first WSOP payout card.
I quickly register for a new tournament, the $600 deepstack, and get to my table right as it starts. I’m in a lot of pots, playing aggressively as I chip up to 4x a starting stack over the next several hours. I’ve picked up strong tells on a handful of people at my table, and am ready to make another deep run.
Then our table breaks. At my new table, with all new opponents, I raise preflop four out of the first five hands that I’m dealt. It never goes to showdown, so nobody's sure what I had, but I’m sure they all think I’m a maniac. Good.
Before long, I 3-bet from the BTN holding two red queens. The HJ opener is visibly pained, and takes a long time to make a decision. He finally shoves the rest of his stack into the middle and I call without hesitation to see his A8o. I’m 72% to win, but he hits his ace and I double him up.
The very next hand I open from the CO with A2s and the SB and BB call. The flop is 543 rainbow, giving me a straight. They check to me and I bet small. The SB raises me, the BB folds, and I think about it for a moment before I call. I know without a doubt that I’m way ahead, but I’m trying to figure out how to get maximum value.
The turn brings a ten and my opponent leads out. I raise all in, he calls, and is shocked to see my hand as he turns over a pair of sevens. I’m 91% to win — there are only four cards in the deck that can beat me. The dealer peels off one of them, the six of diamonds, to give him a better straight.
Ironically, my opponent seems gutshot to win the hand and send me packing. My smile is genuine as I shrug, “that’s poker”.
We’re in the last level before late registration closes so I hurry to rebuy and get another seat. The blinds are so high that with a starting stack my decisions are pretty limited — push or fold. My moment comes when the BTN opens into my SB and I shove with another A2. He calls with KQo and I’m 58% to win, but I lose when he flops a king, and the turn and river are no help.
I’m only allowed one rebuy in this event, and it’s too late to register for any of the tournaments at the Wynn or Venetian. It looks like I'm done with poker for the day. I feels odd heading back when there’s still a sliver of daylight in the Nevada sky.
I couldn’t have felt better about my play and the decisions I made today. I got my opponents to put all the chips in the middle when I was far ahead. I’d happily replay those scenarios a thousand times, no matter the outcome.
Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.2
Times a woman catcalled me and I didn’t realize she was looking at the man behind me: 1
Scroll down toward the bottom of the about page if none of these abbreviations make sense.
h/t Dr. Seuss