Binion's tournament report

[fnurt]

Since I was forced against my will to travel to Vegas for a wedding I thought I would try out one of the Friday night tournaments at Binion's. The format was strange: $125 gets you 1500 chips, $25 gets you 500 more (who wouldn't take this?), one $50 rebuy for 1500 chips at any time before the first break.

I generally believe in taking a rebuy immediately, but since this was my first live tournament (really!) I thought I would hold off for a bit while I got comfortable.

Hand 1: Blinds 25/50. I have 85s in CO-1. Folded to me, I haven't been in any pots yet so I make it 200 to go, and get cold-called by the button and BB. Flop is A-high, I bet 500, they both fold.

Hand 2: Blinds 25/50. I have JJ in MP and open-raise to 200. LAGgy kid with long blond hair calls and everyone else folds. Flop is Kxx, he checks, I bet 400, he calls. Turn is A, check, check. River is a blank and we check again. He shows KTs (oh well).

Hand 3: Blinds 25/50. I open-raise to 200 with AKo and get called in 2 places. Flop is AQJ with 2 clubs (I have none). I bet 500, one player calls. Turn is the 9 of clubs, I check, he bets 1000. I have about 1700 left and go into the tank.

While I am thinking an interesting sideshow occurs. A player who is out of the hand starts arguing with the dealer about whether the SB has been included in the pot. The dealer responds that no, it isn't in the pot, because you motioned him to take his money back. The SB coughs up a green chip and the dealer thanks him and deals a Jd for the river card; meanwhile, I am still thinking.

TD comes over and his first concern is whether we can even identify the stub, since the dealer has dropped it on the muck. She replies that she always puts it right on top, and in the course of explaining this, she basically straightens the stub and the discards so it is now totally impossible to tell one from the other! The TD seems satisfied that the stub is on top, though, so he separates the deck roughly in half (eyeballing the size of the muck) and the Jd gets shuffled back into the deck. By this point I have decided I'm calling so I don't say a word.

I call with the intention of betting my remaining 700 on any river card (this probably made no sense). River is a 4th club, I bet, he calls and shows Ax with no club. MHIG. Even though the river card makes no difference, he seems pretty disgusted, possibly thinking I would have folded if not for all the commotion.

Hand 4: Blinds 75/150. 4 limpers to me and I check in the BB with QTo. Flop is the intriguing QJT with 2 of a suit. SB checks, I bet 600 into the 750 pot. Next player goes all in for about 400 more, player after him cold calls. Folded around to me, I consider reraising, but there are too many draws that will have pot odds or close to it, so I just call. Turns out reraising would have been a mistake because it was against the rules (the raise was too small to reopen the betting), but I didn't figure this out until later. Turn is an offsuit 5, I bet 2500, the other live player mutters "there's your protection" and folds. All-in player is drawing almost completely dead with Qx. River is a K and the player who just folded curses as he would have made a straight.

At this point there are about 10 minutes until the first break. I have increased my stack from 2000 to about 4500, I feel comfortable at the table, so I take the rebuy now. Since I am a member of the "always take the add-on" school it seems like a no-brainer to take the rebuy even though I am doing well on chips.

Hand 5: Blinds 75/150. I make it 400 to go in LMP with 44. LP reraises to 900 and everyone folds. I peek at his stack, he has me covered by a bit, and I call the extra 500. Flop is A94, I check, he bets 1000, I raise to 2500, he calls rather quickly. I start to worry he might be trapping with AA but I push the rest of my stack on the turn anyway. He calls and shows AJo. This puts me into what looks like the chip lead at the first break.

The next few levels are pretty uneventful. I keep looking for opportunities to play my big stack aggressively but there are some LAGs at my table and I'm just not finding any. I do pick up a few chips when my 55 hits a set. Meanwhile the blond kid from earlier is knocking out player after player by calling raises with crap like Ax and nailing the flop. He has moved into a fairly massive chip lead.

Hand 6: Blinds 300/600 50a. I have the monster 92o in the BB. Two limpers, including the blond kid with the chip lead, I check. Flop is AKx and it gets checked around. Turn is another blank and I take a stab at the pot for 1500. One fold and the chip leader calls. River is a J and I check, deciding to leave well enough alone. He checks and tables QJ (?!). I would have been embarassed to let him win with Q high on the river, but since he made a pair of jacks everyone probably assumes I had a low pair or something.

Hand 7: Blinds 400/800. Chip leader makes it 3000 to go, I have AKo in LP. With all the Ax hands he has been showing, I figure I rate to be ahead and I push my 13000 in. He calls quickly, saying "this will give you quite a lead if you draw out." He shows... AKs, of all things. Nothing interesting happens and I proclaim "my biggest pot of the night!" as we chop it.

Soon thereafter a rash of players are eliminated and I find myself at the final table. There were 53 entrants and only 7 places get paid (6 and 7 just get their money back) so I haven't won anything yet. I do get to see my first ever chip race when we race off the greens, I always wondered how that works. Sadly, I am a loser, making me 0 for 1 lifetime in chip races. I have about 10k in chips which puts me around 6th in chip position.

Hand 8: Blinds 600/1200 100a. The table has been playing pretty passively so far. About 5 limpers to me in the BB and I check with A3 of clubs. Flop is Axx with 2 clubs. I check with the intention of check-raising all-in. The blond kid from earlier, who is still among the chip leaders, bets 3000. Folded around to me, with one player still to act between us. I consider pushing but I feel like I could very well be drawing, I'm definitely not getting him to fold if he has me beat right now, and if I call I have a chance of getting the extra player to call for 3000 as well, so that's what I do. Sure enough, she calls. Turn is a offsuit 3 giving me 2 pair, I push my remaining 5k or so. Next player folds, I get a call from the blond kid with AJ. River is another blank and now I have a very competitive chip position.

The table continues to play passively, waiting for people to bust out. I'd like to mix it up, but I never really get the chance, and I'm a little worried about busting out when there are a couple severely short stacks at the table. Finally we get down to 7 when I raise with AKo and a short stack in the BB is forced to call with 65o.

Everyone continues to play passively and the blinds start approaching crapshoot level. Someone suggests a 7-way chop but no one seems interested, particularly when someone points out that Binion's takes out taxes for any win over $600.

Hand 9: Blinds 1k/2k 200a. BB is all-in for 1900 of the 2000 blind. A couple people limp in and I complete the SB with total trash. Flop gives me no help, one of the limpers bets 4k and I fold. He takes down the 300 side pot and shows a Q-high flush draw. Unfortunately for him, the all-in player has the K-high flush draw, and the K holds up. I thought the bet was a bad play considering the dry side pot; I'd like it better if he had A-high.

The table continues to play passively as the blinds grow. I keep kicking myself for not trying to steal some blinds, but I'm too worried about the blond kid and another player who seem like loose callers. In hindsight the blond kid had switched gears and I probably should have just played my game.

Hand 10: Blinds 2k/4k a400. We are now 6-handed, and I have a useless stack of 10k on the button with A4s. The player to my right, who has slightly less than me, limps in. I figure now is as good a time as any and I push. The blinds fold, he calls and shows AJo. What he was doing limping in with only 2xBB himself beats me. Anyway, a 4 flops, and I put him out in 6th.

Hand 11: Blinds 3k/6k 600a. A solid player has switched gears and is picking up some blinds, and I haven't found a good spot to take him on. I find K2s in the CO and push in for about 20k, solid player calls from the BB with AJs and I get no help. Out in 5th for about a $500 payday.

Lots of fun for my first-ever live tourney. There were some good players, but I was kind of surprised by the generally fishy level of play. Maybe all the good players were playing the $1k event at the Bellagio. Anyway, I hope to play stronger next time I get the chance!

[fnurt]

Bump because I deserve to be on the front page.

[durron597]

Nicely done fnurt! Too bad you were too shortstacked to make it much further. Got a question for ya:

After the Ac3c 2 pair hand you should have had like 30000 chips, and then you busted someone. Where did all those chips go? Blinds?

[fnurt]

That's a good question. I guess it was just the huge blinds and a couple uneventful hands. Like I said, there was a long period when I regret not being more aggressive, but somehow it seems harder live.

[gergery]

Congrats -- good story!

[SossMan]

Nice tourney, nice report, nice suckouts. Welcome to the "real world".

-SossMan

[AceKQJT]

A nice report, fnurt.

--Casey

[woodguy]

Great report.

I am convinced that live MTT's are much fishier than online (as a percentage of fish to total field)

Playing live is much more fun as well, as you can incorporate real reads and the conversations that you have during play.

Nice work, you'll win the next one.

Regards,
Woodguy

[fnurt]

It's funny you mention that, as it strikes me I had zero success in picking up any reads at all during the play, not that I wasn't trying.

I'm sure there's some inexperience at work here, but I played 15/30 at the Bellagio yesterday and had no trouble picking up any number of fairly obvious reads, so I'm not sure what to think.

About the only "read" I noticed was a gentleman who accompanied his all-in limp-reraise with a shrug and the statement, "Aww heck, let's go home!" I would have been shocked to see him turn over anything but AA and, naturally, I was not shocked.

[Newman]

Thanks for the report. I was planning on playing this one when I head out to Vegas later this week.