Jam Stack

I'm back for day 2 of the $1k Double Stack, one of the 1,068 players that remain from both starting flights. I have the second most chips at my starting table, in good position to run it up for a deep run.

My table is unusually chatty. Especially considering the 10am start, and that nobody is drinking. Players are sharing stories, teasing, laughing at each other's jokes.

I'm stuck between a French pro to my left and a Lithuanian pro to my right, neither of whom say a word. After a while, we finally get the Lithuanian to loosen up. Maybe a little too much — he shares some stories about his adventures in Thailand, none of which I feel comfortable repeating.

The one-seat, two to my left, is talkative also, but not especially friendly with me. I'm frequently raising his big blind, calling his 3-bets, or betting out at flops. At one point, as he folds to my flop bet, he glares at me and says, "you can't always have it, can you?"

I assure him I had a good hand. Another player guesses my cards, and I smile and shrug in a way that indicates he was correct. He was way off. I don't really want them to know I was bluffing.

A few orbits later, I open from middle position with pocket tens. The one-seat raises, a tight player from the cutoff calls, and I call also. The flop comes 962 with two clubs, and I check. The one-seat continuation bets about 1/3 of the pot. The cutoff folds, and I decide to call. The ace of clubs hits the turn, and I check right before my opponent shoves his stack all-in.

I pause for a few moments. I have the ten of clubs, giving me a flush draw. I'm ahead of some of the hands he has here, but the ace is a really bad card for me. I'm behind any Ax hand, and over half the pocket pairs he could have. I fold.

He triumphantly turns over KJ, with no club, for a complete bluff. He gloats as he rakes in a big portion of my stack.

I shake it off, but lose another big pot when I call a short stack's all-in with AJ versus his AQ on a QJx board. I'm now about half of my high-water mark as we approach the precarious money bubble.

I dodge a potential bust out when a miracle queen gives me two pair on the river. That gives me enough momentum to glide into the money — there are 599 of us that get paid.

Once again, I raise from the button to attack the one-seat's big blind. Once again, he defends. He's down to a short stack himself, having doubled up a few other players at the table once the bubble burst.

He checks to me, and I make a small bet. He quickly check-raises all in, and I make the call. I have top pair with J9o, and he turns over J6s for the same pair, but a worse kicker.

I try not to hold grudges at the poker table, but I get some satisfaction from being the person who busted him.

I'm card dead the next few levels. And as we lose our short stacks, new players are brought to our table with massive ones. By level 19 I'm down to the shortest stack at the table, and the blinds are getting high.

When the ratio of your stack to the blinds gets too low, around 10x the big blind or less, you lose a lot of maneuverability. Making a standard opening raise isn’t a great move — you commit at least 20% of your stack and risk having to fold if someone re-raises you. There’s some nuance, but the best strategy at this point is to move all-in with any hand that’s strong enough to play.

That’s the only power you have to pressure the large stacks — your shove threatens to leave a large dent, and limits the options they have to respond. They’ll often fold, and picking up the blinds and antes increases your stack by 25%, giving you a little more oxygen to survive.

It takes me a while to find a jamming hand, until I pick up AQo in the small blind. I'm called by the same pro who busted me at the Wynn on the bubble with 42o. He continues the streak by calling me with A9s and hitting a nine on the flop.

I'm out in 258th place, for a $2,463 cash.

There's another tournament going on at the Rio, so I register a few minutes before late-registration closes. I need to pick up some good hands to build up a stack in this tournament.

The poker gods deliver, and I see better hands than I had in the last couple levels of the Double Stack. AJo, KQo, pocket sevens, A6s. I move my stack to the middle four times, but don't get any callers. I’m glad to pick up the blinds, but it’s a fast structure — I have to pay the blinds back almost as soon as I stack them.

I finally get my first caller and am the 53% favorite with pocket fours versus a reluctant KQo. But I lose the flip, and am done for the day.

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Number of EDC outfits that had me clutching my pearls: 9