The $5k short handed never really got off the ground. I picked up a few pots early, lifting my stack to close to 13,000, but we are talking realllly early. On about hand 10, I looked down at K
K
. A weak older player had limped, and I overbet the pot to 250. The small blind overbet the pot as well, putting in his raise, and I wanted to try to disguise my hand without just calling, so I re-overbet the pot. When he thought for a while and eventually moved all-in, I wanted to die. I put on a little rant, obviously mad about running my kings into aces for the 100th time this year, but getting over 2.5:1 on my call, I had to make it and just hope against hope that either he didn’t have AA, or for the first time ever I could win with kings vs aces.
Neither happened. He had the aces. The board came good, with QJT, but I didn’t get there. I ended up raising it up with A
10 under the gun, getting a call from the big blind who I have played with quite a bit. He plays very strange and often quite poor, but he knows that I know that he knows etc and so on. The flop came Q42, and I put out a continuation bet, which he called. He would put me in here with a real hand unless he flopped the nuts, but when he checked the 5 turn, was pretty clear he didn’t have much, and I fired another bullet. He called, and checked the 8 river. Now he pretty much has to fold when I fire 1000 of my 1600 chips into the pot, but no, he calls with A2o. Didn’t think he was poor enough to call my UTG raise with that preflop, or make any of those calls. My bad I guess.
From 600 chips I stole a few times, pushing allin. The AA guy raised UTG to 150, another guy called, A2o guy made it 650 from the button, and I went allin with just ATo, smelling weakness, for like 900 total. He obviously called and showed his wonderful K4o. The flop came KK
J, but there was justice in the Q on the river. I then doubled again, calling a raise preflop with KJ behind a caller, and moving in for 2x the pot on the K953 rainbow board, getting a call from K6. I then doubled again when I flopped a flush in a 4-way pot, betting and receiving 1 caller. I bet again on the turn, got raised, insta-shoved, and got insta-called by a 7 high flush.
Unfortunately, with between 5000 and 6000 chips, I went with the three-barrel bluff play on Aaron Been, raising with KQ, and continuing on the AJ5 flop. He called, and I fired after he checked the J on the turn. He just called, and when he checked the river spade, I moved allin for essentially a pot-sized bet. I was pretty certain where he was at, and he had to have a decent hand that couldn’t be that strong considering the action, likely AQ, which I didn’t think he could call me with. We had some history, playing in the top 4 of the headsup championship at the Mirage, and I think he knows the way I play, so I went with something abnormal. He went into the tank, with another player eventually calling a clock. With time ticking down, he announced he was calling since he had the Qs, and his AQ was good.
