Winning at The Wynn

So I have been staying and playing at the Wynn for the past three nights and have had an interesting time. I feel like I'm playing well in live action games and have run well in a few situations which have made this trip good. My tournaments have been entirely bad. If you combine getting unlucky in a few big situations, a little bit of cold deck, and an occasional bad play on my part you have described my Wynn tournament.

To begin with, I have played 3 single table satellites for a main event seat here at The Wynn, but before I get to them I have to describe my Bay 101 main event satellite. It got down to Dan Alspach, who I like as a player and a person, (and is married to JJ, who is a great tournament player) and I get him in pre flop with his AJ against my AK and a jack falls on the river. Fast forward to my last satellite here at the Wynn and I pick up K 10 on the button in a 6 way limped pot, and raise a pot sized bet. The flop comes Q J 3 and it's checked around to me and I bet the pot again which is about 4,000. It's folded around to the last person who goes all in for 5,500. There is 13,500 in the pot, and I have only 1,500 to call, which will leave me with the 10,000 I started the satellite with, so it's an easy decision. I feel like worst case, maybe he flopped a set and I have 15 good outs if the board doesn't pair. Well to my surprise he turns over 5 5. Now I get just slightly happy, I know have 21 outs twice, and am a favorite to win the hand. The bad news is none of my outs materialize. I am not sure how this guy called me, maybe he put me on AK and I look dumb enough to bet into five players, The night before one of my closest friends and a great poker player himself, Joe McGowan came by the Wynn and we played a $330 single table satellite together. I wound up heads up with (I think his name is) Alek. He got lucky twice against another player, putting his money in really badly and sucking out both times. We were about even in chips starting heads up play and he remarked "I used to like reading your blog until you wrote something I didn't like and stopped." He then said, by the way I don't ever chop a satellite. I of course get him all in pre-flop with my A J against his A 7 and everything is going just fine until the river when you know what comes. I should be happy about players willing to play that bad, but come on, do they have to keep getting lucky? Wait a minute; I'm beginning to sound a little like Phil Hellmuth here and whine about a bad beat. So I would like to apologize right here and move on to a better topic.

Now let's turn to the good news. I have played and run well in the live action games. Two days ago on the button I picked up 6 3 in a 7 way straddled pot and called. The flop came Q 4 5. It's checked around to me and with $280 I the pot I bet $240. I get two callers, and just like magic a 2 falls on the turn. I can hardly control myself. UTG checks, the mid position guy checks, and I bet $800. UTG folds and the mid position player raises $1,500. I go into the tank for a minute and finally crying call. A 9 hits the river and like magic to my ears he says "I'm all in." Without hesitation I call and he sees the straight flush against his A J. That session continued well and I booked I good win.

That brings me to today, and after I bust out of the super and loose a single table satellite, where again I put my chips in ahead, I return to the 10-20 No Limit Holdem game. The game is short handed with only two other players and one of them has a mountain of chips. His stack looked like one of JC Tran's during the last WSOP. He had apparently started playing about 30 hours previously with only 2k and ran it up to almost $30,000. I had never played against him before, but I was told he was a solid player and had run very well up to now, but was starting to play tired. My first hand was A K and I was heads up with Mike, whom I have played against many times and is as solid as they come. I lost the tired guy when I raised Mike's $80 bet to $380, but Mike re-raised me to $1080, and I moved in. He began the hand with about $5,000 and as we were 3 handed I felt I was either ahead or a coin flip. Generally I don't like playing coin flips for big pots, but here I was. The flop came all little and when an Ace came on the turn I saw Mike's face drop and he said "Ace's or Ace King? I replied Ace King and he showed two Kings. The very next hand I looked down at A K again and raised from the button. This time the tired guy and I were heads up. I flopped a King and four to the flush which held up to win a good pot. I continued to run well and made enough to pay for my main event seat and the other buy ins of earlier. I am even on the trip as of the beginning of the main event which feels pretty good having paid about 24k in tournament and satellite buy ins.

I would like to close with two items. First, I few days ago, I criticized a few things about the Wynn poker room. Since then I have talked with Deborah Giardina who runs the joint and I have to say she impressed me as being responsive to comments and genuine, in her desire to improve an already good room. As I said earlier, the dealers and floor people were among the best anywhere.

Secondly, I am beginning a new series in Card Player magazine which I am excited about. Along with Michael Binger and a guest Pro, each issue we will discuss an interesting hand from a tournament or cash game. We will break the hand down and give an analysis from several different viewpoints.

http://www.cardplayer.com/players/results/Roy-Winston/36778

The Oracle