Round Four

So,  for once,  not a lot happened with me early.  But there was a ton of action. 

Seat five is new in the last round or two and has taken over betting every hand from seat six. 

Well he and seat six got into it preflop...  raise,  three bet,  four bet,  all in,  call.  Kings and aces of course.  Seat six is now gone and the new seat five,  that likes to bully the table,  now has almost 300,000 in chips.

Shortly thereafter,  seat seven to my right knocked out seat one.  We now have four new people at the table and i don't know how they play. 

And then i got into it...

Seat five raises,  new seat six calls,  and I'm on the button with pocket tens. I thought about raising,  but with an initial raiser and a caller,  i didn't feel confident in the tens, i wanted to see a flop.

So the flop comes 4 5 Q and seat 5 bets 6,200 and new seat six calls.  I figure seat five for a continuation bet and am not terribly scared of the queen,  so i call.  The turn is a Jack. 

Seat five checks and seat six bets 13,000. Ugh. So i decide to put on a Jay Cutler machismo show.

And then thought better of it and folded.  It cost me 10,000 in chips,  but he showed QJ, so i guess i got out cheap?

A little while later i called a raise from seat seven,  the guy to my right,  with A10 off.  Flop came 10 8 4 and i bet it and took it down. 

And that was the first hour...  i was at about 85,000 one hour in.

With about forty minutes to go,  the resurgent seat two raised and seat six (the new one,  who is quite the aggressive player in his own right) three bet him.  I was in the small blind with aces.

I thought about calling to hide my hand and price seat two in,  but i didn't want another player...  aces are hard enough to win one on one I've always thought. 

So i raise to 7,500 and four bet seat six.  Seat two folds as expected and seat six calls.  The flop is a benign J 5 4 rainbow,  but he didn't call my continuation bet and i wasn't going to let him draw cards for free when i had pocket aces on a hand with almost 20K in the pot.

I had A9 off in a late position and raised trying to steal antes and blinds,  but seat two defended his big blind with a call.  The flop was K 10 9, so i hit bottom pair!  He checked to me,  i offered a continuation bet,  seat two predictably folded.  That brought me up just over a hundred thousand before the antes brought me down below again a couple hands later. 

Seat five raised my small blind and seat six called.  I had AQ suited so i three bet him to 6,500... to which he raised me to 18,000 and seat six folded.  Ugh,  why didn't i just call and see a flop?

On the one hand,  i can't fold AQ suited with almost 7,000 in the pot. On the other hand,  if i call,  i am out of position and if neither the queen nor the ace hit on the flop,  or i don't get three clubs,  this guy is going to dump on me and I'm going to have to fold or spend a very large portion of my chip stack chasing or bluffing this hand.

Ugh. 

Inner Jay Cutler is screaming for a call.

So i mucked it.  Ugh. I hated doing it,  but i think it may have been the right play...  that guy has almost 300,000 in chips,  position,  and just four bet me... i was going to be behind in that hand in just about every conceivable way if i didn't hit that flop... and maybe even if i did.

Russo will tell me what i should have done in the morning I'm sure... thanks Russo! 

So that hurt,  but i can handle 7,000 i suppose... 18k would have been a lot more concerning. 

We lost seat two with about fifteen minutes left in the round,  which was unfortunate because he was fairly predictable and easy to read.  But kudos to him,  he started the day with 18k and made it until now. 

And,  actually,  now it will be four new people and four i started with.  When i counted earlier,  i thought the guy to my right was new...  but as it turns out,  he's been here the whole time!  I'm not going to lie,  it was a little bit of an uncomfortable conversation as i insisted he didn't start at the table and he explained that he has been sitting next to me,  right next to me,  for the past ten and a half hours.

Huh. Well what do you know?

The new seat one is a Russian kid telling everyone how they should play.  Seat 3 is from Kentucky,  northeastern Kentucky,  "in the sticks" he says,  and has not taken kindly to the Russian kid critiquing his play. If you know anyone from Kentucky,  you know what I mean.  Anyway,  they continue to jaw at each other on the other side of the table as i patiently wait to drop an Ivan Drago joke and be the funniest guy here. 

With less than five minutes to go,  i got A10 suited in a middle position and raised.  The fairly conservative seat nine three bet me to 6,000 and everyone else folded.  I was out of position so i mucked it...  and he showed AK suited.  Phew. 

85,600 at the last break of the night with one round to go.  M Ratio of 23.7 heading into this round's blinds...  antes just doubled and i went from 2,400 around the table to 3,600 which caused my M Ratio to plummet ... yikes!

I was here last year,  made it an hour and forty minutes into the last round of day two before that kid caught a two outer on the turn and ended my dream run.  Better luck this year i hope!