Encore Club $10K Guarantee (10,000 chips)

The club email announced this as the last of the monthly $10Ks. Once you got there you found out it was because they’re changing up their schedule after the summer and running it every week. We’ll have to see if the prize pools stay the same size; this one ran to $23,500, with a top prize of $5,675.

I got to the game halfway through the first hour, with the blinds already in the second (50/100) level, although the dead stack I bought into didn’t seem affected. Supposedly, I got one of the last two seats of the night, back in the “Batcave” among the employee bikes and personal items.

My first play was a rather tricky [kd 2d], calling 350 pre-flop.  I made bottom pair on the non-diamond flop and folded to a bet of 700. Following [ah 7h] to four hearts on the turn, I folded again to an 800 bet.

More speculation with [kc qs] cost me 500 to see the flop along with four others, three of whom folded along with me to a 400 post-flop bet. [as 6h] (was I getting frustrated?) and 200 more chips were gone once there was a 525 bet after the flop. My stack was down to 8,050 at one hour into the game.

Blinds were 150/300/25 (level 4) when I got my first premium hand—or at least [jx jx]—in CO position. I re-raised pre-flop to 2,000 and pushed all-in after the flop, inducing a fold from the one caller. That put me back up just over the starting stack, with 10,500 chips at ninety minutes (or an hour after I’d arrived).

I didn’t even have to think about tossing [kx 3x] pre-flop on the last hand before the first break, but it would have made Broadway and taken down a nice pot if I hadn’t. With the 7,000 chip add-on, I started round 2 with 16,825.

Had to give up 1,600 on [ax tx] after seeing the flop. Likewise, [jh 2h] was a loser of 1,200 when the flop showed no heart (although I did make bottom pair). Another [ax tx] on BTN paired my [ax] on the flop, with [qx] and [kx] showing up by the turn. I bet hard and fast and got a fold before the river to take the hand. Still, at 2:30 into the game I was down to 14,975.

Suited JT has become a sort of favorite lately, and in the last hand before the Batcave table broke, I won a decent pot from S—the manager of the Encore—with [jc tc].

My first win at the new table was one step down: [9h th]. I’d made a straight by the turn and hit the flush on the river. With a couple of wins I’d doubled up to 30,100 before the third hour of the game.

Payed an unsuited [jx tx] and hit top pair on the flop, with a bet taking the pot. Then I hit a set on a flop with [3x 3x] in my hand and pushed to take it down, bringing me up to 36,500 by 3:15.

There was a post-flop bet of 3,500 ahead of me with [ad qx] on BTN. I had top pair and pushed all-in. BB called with [kd qd], hitting the flush by the river. One more diamond…. That cut me in half, to 17,275.

I was saved by the Mutant Jack. I called a smaller stack’s all-in with [ad jd] and was up against [ax tx], getting a knockout and a chip infusion. Then a couple of big rounds of betting with the guy who’d hit the flush against me led to my [jd td] making Broadway. In twenty minutes I’d made up my ground and then some, with 48,225 chips.

Blinds were up to 600/1,200/200. and I speculated 6,000 to see the flop with [ks 8s]. I missed entirely. Two of the other callers went all-in and it was [6x 6x] v. [ax jx], with the pair winning with a six-high straight.

At break 2 there were 77 of the original 141 players left.

I lost big drawing to s ten-high spade straight flush from the bottom end and was down to 20,500 at 4:05.

Called with [ad td] in UTG (at 800/1,600/200) with three more in the hand behind me. I bet just 2,000 after pairing the [ax] on the flop and took the pot. Then I lost 4,800 in SB to see the flop with [kx qx].

Seriously short-stacked, I called a larger all-in from BTN with [ac 4c] hoping to have my [ax] live, at least.  Instead, I was up against [ax qx]. I managed to get a [4x] on the flop, though, and doubled up.

I had the [as qx] on the next hand and re-raised all-in from CO. The original raiser had a slightly smaller stack than me. He called and flipped [ax kx]. There were four black cards on the deck by the turn and I held my breath for a minute but only three of them were spades. That cut me down to 2,000 chips.

Back to [ax 4x]. All-in with four limps ahead of me, got called by [tx tx] and I was out.

Four-and-a-half hours. -100% ROI. 61st of 141 players.