Las Vegas 7 - Marty Smyth 0

I arrived in Vegas two weeks ago off the back of a nice holiday and full of optimism about the World Series. I’m now without a cash in seven attempts and with only one or possibly two tournaments left to play here, I’m in desperate need of a late rally to salvage some kind of respectability.

Before the start I’d have probably settled for a couple of cashes, or a nice deep run in one of them, but now I’m having to prepare for the possibility that I’ll be going home empty-handed. The good news I suppose, is that I’m not unhappy with how I’m playing and I’ve still have the main event to go.

Since my last update I’ve played two of the events that I’d been most looking forward to, the 5K and 10K PLO events. I got off to an ok start in both events, but then ran badly in the next few pots I got into and busted both times during the last level of the day.

In the 5k event I was going along nicely on 28k (from a 15k starting stack), with two hours to play. Then I lost half my stack, getting most of it in on a 994 flop holding A-A-9-2 against 9-8-6-5. He hit the front when an 8 hit the turn, but we were both pot committed by that stage with about 15k in the middle and him having only 6k behind.

Shortly after that I tried to bust Aces, calling a re-raise from the tight BB after I’d raised from the button with T-9-6-5 d/s. The 865 flop looked pretty good to me and I happily put the rest of my chips in, only to be shown A-A-7-4. Neither pot was particularly unlucky, but I don’t think I could or should have done anything differently given the stack sizes in play each time.

The 10K event was a similar story. I’d gotten to 43k which was a little over average at the time, then lost two medium pots with big draws where I had too many outs to pass. Both times I felt I was up against the nuts or at least a very big hand, so I elected to call to the river then pass rather than semi-bluff on the flop or turn.

I then lost another medium sized pot which I feel was a bit of a cooler. I bet the flop with one pair + a straight and flush draw on a K-Q-7 board and got called by 1 opponent. Rather than just hit one of my draws, the dealer opted to back-door a full house for me when the board ran out K-Q-7-9-Q, and my Q-9 wasn’t quite good enough to beat his Q-K and I was left very short.

I got a little bit lucky in a pot to get back to about 17k before my exit hand, where I got a big re-raise in pre-flop with A-A d/s and was called by two players. I was first to act on the flop and didn’t really like the K-K-4 much, but I’d flopped a nut flush draw too, so didn’t think I had any other option than to put in my remaining chips and cross my fingers. Sure enough, one of them had a King (although I got called by both players). I could have caught an ace or a spade to win, but the K on the turn left me drawing dead.

I did have one piece of good fortune with Julian Gardner managing a 6th place finish in the 5K event after we’d swapped 5 percent. I’d also won 2 percent of him on the golf course which turned out to be worth a cool $1,800… so only another 5k or so to go before I break even with him on golf.

There was a great piece of timing for me during the 5k event, when I got into a pot early on against Michael Keiner and David Benyamine. I had moved all in on the turn (with a genuine hand), after Keiner had called Benyamine’s bet. Benyamine passed quickly and Keiner thought briefly before tossing his cards in too. Just as he was throwing them in Padraig walked past and tossed $200 that he owed me onto the table without saying anything. As I pocketed the money the dealer asked what it was for and I told him Padraig had bet me $200 that I couldn’t bluff Michael Keiner. Unfortunately I don’t think Keiner heard it but it gave the dealer a little chuckle.

I’m probably going to play day 1C of the main event on Wednesday, and may give the 1K PLO re-buy in the Bellagio a go too, depending on how I feel.