WSOP Day 11 - Jon Kalmar

WSOP Day 11 - Jon Kalmar

13th June 2009

There is running bad and running bad. Sometimes nothing goes right.

Me and Strum decide to play the $500 ā€œDeepstackā€ (lol) at the Venetian. If we get knocked out we will stay here all day and play cash. Obviously Strummer insisted we eat first therefore we joined the tournament about an hour after the start during level 2. Now I paid first and heā€™s directly behind me. Itā€™s reasonable to say that the other way round heā€™d have my seat and me his. He gets to sit next to Lucy Liuā€™s good looking super model sister and I get the Yetiā€™s ugly fat brother. No kidding, I am no slim line chappy myself and sometimes I forget to shave, but this guy was what I could only describe as the love child of Chewbacca and Jabba the Hut. To make things worse, I have about 6 inches of space to squeeze into between him and the next guy.

Card dead again - but I stay patient and I am thrilled when the table eventually breaksā€¦ for more than one reason. Itā€™s very easy to be patient when you quite literally pick up nothing to get involved with. With the blinds at 200//400 I am down to 11k and am excited to pick up pocket aces. Under the gun raises to 1200 and I am greedy to double up so flat call hoping for a squeeze behind. No problem, the guy 2 seats down makes it 4k. Folded back to me I push all in and he makes the call with pocket queens. For once, the queen didnā€™t come on the river. In fact, I need not have waited that long - it was straight out on the flop and the one hand I had, and in fact the only hand I played, was my last.

*******Warning poker content*******Warning poker content *******Warning poker content *******

I moved to the cash table and sat on the 5/10 NL game with $3k. One guy had a pile of cash with what must have been close to $40k. (At the Venetian any game of 5/10 or above has no max buy in). Normally anyone sitting in with this much money tries to push everyone about. Keeping pressure on, hoping to get lucky once, and get the lot. (Surprisingly, this guy was not Scandinavian although normally he would be) In fact, he seemed to be playing quite steady. However it didnā€™t stop him scaring everyone else who joined the table into leaving so evenetually I asked for a move.

My new table was much better but I struggled to catch a hand and even worse, respect! Eventually I raise with AQ and get 2 callers. The flop of QQT was lovely. I bet out hoping for someone to get jiggy and I wasnā€™t to be let down. The 1st guy looked at his cards and considered a pass before calling. I checked the turn and he bet $120. Now I am sure he was on nothing and simply didnā€™t believe me. If all I do is flat call he will no doubt bluff the river. With this in mind, I raise to $300 and he runs for the hills. The problem with running bad is you get scared. You are so sure you will get out drawn and it affects your play and your reads. This was a perfect example of how you do the wrong thing.

With KJ diamonds I raise to $40 and get 4 callers. When the flop comes A Q 5 rainbow I was first to act and check. The guy to my left makes it 120 and 2 others make the call. I decided to call knowing if the 10 comes I can check and am guaranteed action. The turn was the 10 of diamonds meaning I have the nut straight and the nut flush draw. I check and the better makes it 200 to go. To my disappointment the others get out of the way. Knowing my hand is disguised I make it 600 and try to give the impression I am making a move. However, my opponent had been racking his chips ready to leave prior to the start of the hand and was in no mood to gamble and passed. Oh well, I was now a few hundred bucks up but more importantly I had won a tasty hand and I was feeling confident.

I raise straight after with A 4 of spades and the flop is A K 4. My only caller is a clown at the other end of the table desperate to outplay me. Knowing this, I bet out $80 and as expected, he calls. The turn is the 3 of spades giving me the nut flush draw too. Again I bet out and straight away he re-raises to 600. I move all-in and itā€™s about 600 more for him to call, which he does. The river missed my flush and I announce 2 pair hoping itā€™s still enough, it was. I can only assume he decided to trap with AQ or had made a draw on the turn himself. Maybe KQ of spades?

I have taken down the biggest cash pot of my trip thus far. Sheeeeeeshhhhhh. Momentum flowing, I soon raise with 10 j clubs. The 2 to my right both call and the next guy re-raises to 170. I ask what he has and he said 1300 more. This guy was aggressive pre-flop but often lost his bottle there after so I call but to my disappointment so do the others. The flop comes 9 high with 2 hearts. I think about representing a mid pair, maybe 10ā€™s or jacks but I know that both of these hands may check the flop so I check hoping they check behind, they do. The turn brings a third heart I realise the only way to take it down is a bet. I push out 300 representing the mid pair or made flush and they all quickly foldā€¦lovely.

Itā€™s amazing at times but when I have momentum and confidence I seem to be able to bully almost any table. People who have been sticking it to me all day seem to lie down at times and leave me too it. This was one of those times. No one seemed to want to play a pot against me until a kid sat to my right with around $7k. (At this time I was sat on about $6k).

I had straddled to $20 and everyone passed to him in the big blinds. With 97 spades I make it 90 to go and he calls. When the flop comes 8 4 3 (2 clubs) he checks to me. I bet 120 and he re-raises to 330. Now I am sure he is at it. This is not a flop for a raising hand and he knows it. Considering he is deep stacked, a $330 raise here is hardly committing. Confident he doesnā€™t want to get too jiggy with me I re-re-raise to $800 and he immediately passes saying nice hand. I show him only to make it known I mean business and he should think twice before bluffing me again. The clown moves a seat to my left, immediately one becomes available, clever little sod.

Now in 11 days, I have, to my recollection not flopped a set. This must be close to a mathematical impossibility but there you are. I finally get one when I raise with AA, unfortunately my opponent had a mid pair and the ace was enough to scare him away regardless. (grrrrrrr).

At one point I was $4k up but a few coolers (the deepstacked kid now to my left slow played KK and rivered the set when I had 2 pair, sigh) and I was happy with $2.5k profit. Easily my best cash session of the trip. My very last hand I get AA and say ā€œOK, may as well raise it last hand and all thatā€. Now with the action I had been giving I was certain of at least 2 callers, but alas they all folded to me. Better than getting em cracked I suppose!