One Last Vegas post

I did really well in my first Vegas tournament. I was generally very happy with my performance. What was I thinking about for the next three hours? The one big mistake I made. The more I thought about it, the more irritated with myself I was.

I got impatient. I should have just pushed him around and let him fold unless he re-raised me. It would have taken longer, but he would have had to work a lot harder. And since he was about 80, he HAD to have been slowing down.

The one thing that I really came away with is that concentration is everything. It's not just paying attention to other players, their betting habits, etc, etc. It's about all the other things too. You make one mistake, and it can kill you.

Since Squeaky can't respond to email and has yet to comment, I'll post his two blunders here. Understand, (he says, tongue planted firmly in cheek) that my one success in Vegas makes me an expert.

Situation: It's about 2:30 into the Saturday tournament. Blinds were 300/600. Squeaky had ~7,000 in chips. The tourney started with 11 tables, and they were down to 7. Essentially, everyone rebought. So that meant that starting stack size was 3,500.

This hand comes up. A short stack goes all in. I'm not sure how he'd been playing, but he was being forced in, so I think it's safe to say that he would have done this with any A or any two in the paint. Goofy-ass goggle boy, who had been aggressive and somewhat loose re-raised all in. Folds around to Squeaky.

He looked at JJ, and called after thinking a little. SS had Ax, Goggle boy had KK. Squeaky was out.

What was his logic? Squeaky felt that he had to make move soon, since he was short stacked. He also thought that goggle boy's move was an attempt to isolate the SS with only a moderately strong hand.

I think he made several mistakes here. First, his 7,000 was above par for his place in the tournament. That is, he had more than an average stack. Even though he may have only had 12x BB, he still could have picked a different spot.

Goggle boy didn't have much more than Squeaky. Maybe had him covered by 3,000. He's not gonna risk his tournament on anything less than AA, KK, QQ, AK, or AQ. He had more people to act behind him, so risking his whole stack doesn't make any sense unless he has a hand.

Even if Goggle boy had something odd like KQ or AJ, the best Squeaky could hope for was a race type situation.

I don't think this was an easy fold, but I think it's a definite fold. So he played for 2:30, made one mistake and was out. That's how it goes.