Recap and the Month of May

I have said that I would recap some key hands in the 25K WPT Championship and the 5K Ceasars, despite being a little bitter.
After becoming a huge chip lead with 15ish to go (7M out of 32M) I decided to play a bit loose aggresive, relying on my reads to get me through the tough decisions that accompany that style.
Scotty raised up front to 2.8xBB, which generally meant he had a good hand, but not a premium one. I found Qc9c directly on his left and elected to call. The flop came down Jc9h5s, Scotty bet about half pot which was his standard C-bet. With middle pair, a backdoor flush draw, and position I called. The turn was a Qh giving me two pair. Scotty checked. Thinking I could get 2 streets of value I bet 60% pot. Scotty played with his chips and announced raise. The raise was smallish, but it pot committed him to the pot. Every bit of me wanted to fold, he played a very similar hand early in the day against one of the Hyman brothers, where he flopped a set and check raised smallish on the turn to pot committ himself. In addition, Scotty was playing extremely nitty. Day 5 was going so well for me that I convinced myself that he would play an overpair that way, despite the fact that his preflop raise and smallish c'raise did not indicate that. I shoved and he showed 99 for a set. Although it looks like a cooler, I should have folded it face up after 10 seconds of thought. Not telling if I was tilting or not I made a questionable play with AKo against a very tight player who had KK. I got lucky to knock him out, but now I was feeling that I wasn't playing well I wanted to play cautious till Day 6. I made a standard raise from the cutoff with Kh7h and both blinds called. The flop was 9c6h5h giving me a gutterball and a flush draw. Charder from the BB lead for 2/3 pot. Most times I would raise here to gain control of the pot, but fearing he had flopped a set I just called. Turn was 9d, and Charder lead for half pot. Folding should have been the play, due to the fact that I could be drawing dead or he had something like 10h9h. But I called again more from frustration of passive play on the previous street. The river was a 2c and Charder checked. I checked behind, and he showed A6o. In my mind I played the flop and turn very poorly. Even though I would not have liked it, I think a raise on the flop with intentions of mucking to a shove was the right play. I had shown the table my willingness to call in margainal spots, so Charder could not have ripped without a huge hand. Also just calling does not allow me to get paid if I do hit one of my outs. Charder is too good to go broke if I hit. I limped out of day 5 with over 4M and 4th in chips. Day 6 did not go much better. I went card dead, but more importantly I picked some bad times to open and C-bet. The only thing that worked for me was my read on Ran Azor who was on my direct right. Everytime he opened for 2.5x-2.8x he had a weak hand, and everytime he opened to 3.5x he had a monster. I 3 bet him everytime I could and folded some big hands when I thought he had it. I was never proven wrong, but it was not enough as I found myself with 11BB with 9 left. I kept myelf afloat with some steals, but with 8 remaining Brian Rast opened from early and I found 99 in the SB. Knowing his range was fairly tiny I was sure he would call my all in, but I was looking to gamble knowing there was a chance he had 88 or 77. He had the queens, and despite a cruel tease of a 9 on the flop the best hand won when a Q hit the river.
The 5K Ceasars had a couple interesting hands with a fairly weak table. I called a raise with A10ss in middle to a nitty UTG raiser. The flop came AJ4 rainbow and one spade. He lead 2/3 pot and I already hated the fact I called pre with my hand, but I called with intentions of folding to another bet. The turn was the Qh, putting a full rainbow on the board. Now he bet 20% of the pot. My insta muck turned into a bluff opportunity. Thinking he had AK and nothing else I clicked the raise button, leaving myself enough to fire pot on the river. He called, which I didnt mind, because there was no way he could call with AK on the river. The river was a blank and I ripped all in for just under pot. He tanked forever and talked about how he always made bad calls. Then called of course, I got up ready to go and showed my hand, but he quickly tabled his cards revealing A10 as well. I am unsure what he was thinking, but if nothing else I gained some lovely info. Alright this is my last hand recap, a nitty player opened from middle, a couple guys called from mid/late. It felt like a good place to squeeze so without looking I popped it. The SB called as did the original raiser, oops. I quickly looked down at 43o. The flop was J33 and I was already looking foward to the speech of how bad I play as someone left the table. They checked to me and I bet 50% pot, thinking that SB had QQ given the betting pre. He raised 3x and the other guy folded. With the stack sizes, I elected to just call giving me a perfect amount to rip if he bets the turn, plus if I reraised him on the flop I was scared he could fold QQ. The turn was a Q and I threw up a little in my mouth. He checked, and I was convinced he had it, so I checked with the intentions of just calling the river bet. River was an Ace and he bet 1/3 pot. I just snap called, and he showed AA for a rivered boat. I feel I played the hand well, just did not work out.

I am leaving to go to Virginia in the morning for my brother-in-laws graduation from VATECH, then will be attending a house boat trip with Eric, Cody, Shannon, Katz, Adam, Marco, Zack and a few others. I have seen pics of the boat online and it looks amazing. The day I get back from that Morgan and I are flying out to Pine Bluffs, WY for my nieces high school graduation. Tonite is the last time I was sleep in my bed for about 2 weeks. I am looking foward to taking a break from poker before the WSOP, but living out of a suitcase is never 100% fun.

Justin "robert07" Young