Key Hands from Tahoe Monster Stack

[Brad Jensen]

Heartbreaking finish but some interesting hands nonetheless.

Hand 1: we only has three players at the table and four empty stacks for almost the whole first level so I was able to chip up to about 23K against two very weak opponents. We finally got a fourth body toward the end of 25/50. I raise J8s to 150 and get through the one player to my left. Both blinds call. I’m likely never raising this in EP but as it plays this is essentially an LP raise. Flop is J26 two diamonds (I have hearts). It checks to me and I bet 275 into 450. Both call. Turn is an 8 giving me top two. They both check and I bet 575 into 1275. SB folds and BB calls. River is a 4 and I plan to barrel but BB leads 700 into 2425. Curious. He was a dude in his 80s which always puts up alarm bells. I thought his most likely hands were a jack I out ran or maybe a set but my hand was too strong to fold and I made the crying call. He turned over AA.

Hand 2: shortly thereafter same level and the old guy again. He limps UTG and I make it 200 with A6s. Player to my left folds and the BB folds. Old guy calls. Flop is A58 rainbow. He checks and I bet 225 into 450. He calls. Based on the earlier hand I don’t think it indicates anything at all about his hand strength. Turn is a 9 and I am now four flushed with top pair. He checks and I decide to check back as I may need to hit two pair or make my flush to win. River is a 4 which does not complete my flush. He again donks into me, 500 into 900. I make another crying call and he turns over KK.

This guy lasted a while but he lost AA twice and KK twice with these lines. He lost massive pots where he played sets very passively on bad boards and paid off flushes. He lasted 13 levels and did not raise pre flop once and raised post flop twice with sets to the minimum.

Hand 3: now at 100/200. The table is now full. I haven’t done much since the first level and go into the hand with 28K. I raise from MP to 550 with TT. Player next to me calls. The BB grabs her 5K chip and two quarters and puts them out making it 5,050. The 500 chip is a bluish purple and 5K is pale blue so they can be misread. This women had indicated several times that she had trouble seeing the chips laid out for bets. I was definitely watching as she grabbed it and she was not intending to raise. She had verbalized call almost 100% of the time previously but didn’t here. The dealer announced the raise and her reaction was clearly one of that she made a mistake. She started with 24K so she had 19K back. I jammed and player next to me folded. The BB did the typical thing people do when they make this live misclick and decide if they want to put in good money after bad. She’s out in 20% of her stack but she will still have 95 BB if she folds. These were the key factors for my shove. The only other option I have IMO is a fold. I think I am always ahead here, maybe occasionally behind JJ. She eventually folds and gives me a speech about taking advantage, etc. Duh.

Hand 3: I have about 35K and it’s 200/400/50 I raise MP with 99 to 1,050. The player next to me, a young girl who has been at the table the entire time and hasn’t gotten out of line makes it 3,250. She has 18K. I decide to flat the three bet out of position. Flop is 953 all spades. I believe her range is made up entirely of overpairs and big aces. I think she c bets her entire range on this board, with our without a spade, so I check with the intention of getting it in. She bets 3,850 into 7,550 and I see no other line than to jam as she has less than the pot left. I don’t see her folding based on her line. She calls with QQ no spade and I chip up to 54K.

Hand 4: this one is a lot later. In between there are a lot of standard small and medium pots. Won some and lost more. I think I have a tight image and have not showed anything out of line. We are at 300/600/75. I start the hand with 41K. It folds to me and I raise AK in the cut off to 1,500. It folds to the BB, a early thirties Filipino guy who has been very active. He makes it 4,200. I have 66 BB to start the hand. Against this player type I am willing to play for stacks. I raise to 12K which is intended to let him know that. He just calls it. Very strange play to me and a huge mistake I see way too often. I’ve set up a jam so unless he’s trapping with AA or KK, both which I can discount, this is very bad. We started with about similar stacks so he’s now put in nearly 1/3 of his stack oop. I figure him for hands like AQ, AJ, TT, JJ. I think he gets QQ in. The flop comes 776. He checks and I jam. He tanks for about three minutes and folds. I think I may have burned him off 99 or TT based on image. The big aces also pretty likely.

Hand 5: player UTG raises to 2,800 at 600/1200/200. I have 80K in the BB. One call and it gets to me in the BB. I have 96s. This is about the bottom of my completing range in this spot as UTG is an accomplished circuit reg who has 8 rings from what another at the table indicated (I knew of three so he’s been busy). Decent amount of history and I respect his game and am not looking to play Pots oop against him. Flop is A64 2 diamonds. I check and he bets 3875 into 10,800. The player in between folds. I elect to just call. I think against most players I would raise but against this player I don’t have any fold equity so I will need to improve to win every time. Semi bluffs need to win some amount of the time without improving and this was a spot I didn’t see it happening. In the middle here I think he has an A a bunch of the time.

Turn is another 6. I check and he checks. The river is a deuce that doesn’t fill my flush which I prefer. I am hoping he puts me on the busted draw and I bet 7,800 into 18,550. He takes a moment and calls. I scoop a nice pot. More importantly I take the table chip lead.

I was doing quite well and peaked at 215K at 1,500/3,000/500. I lost a huge pot all in pre with KK vs QQ. River Q crushed hopes and dreams of becoming tourney chip leader with 60 left. A few orbits later I three bet shove AK into the same player and he calls of with AJ. J on the flop and my trail of tears continues this week.

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