Venetian Satellite Friday Morning

Never one to break up a good routine, I immediately went $8 in the hole for the day but up one large mocha with light whip and headed to the satellite table.  We started a $300 satellite with two winners, and eventually we were down to the final three.  I was in third place in chips, the player on my right had a lot of chips, and the player on my left was in 2nd when this hand came up:

With the blinds 300/600 the player on my left raised to 1600. The small blind folded and I looked at 77 in the big blind.  Here is where "two winner" strategy comes into play.  If their was only one winner, meaning you have to get all the chips on the table to win, I would have re-raised and gotten my stack in and hoped to win the pot as 77 is a VERY strong hand three handed.  However, remember that we only have to have one chip in front of us when the third person is eliminated to win one of the two prizes.  Another huge factor in this hand is the raiser was a very straight forward simple player.  Even though I would be out of position with a very vulnerable hand once the flop came out I would be able to know where I stood in the hand and I could play it correctly.  If the raiser was a very strong aggressive player that could out play me I would have just got the chips in the middle pre-flop as well.  Given the two main factors stated I called.  The flop came KJJ.  I checked and he checked.  The turn was a 9.  I checked again and he fired 2000.  My hand could very well be best here so I called.  My call has to look very scary to him as I am representing KQ, KT.  I know he is not capable of making a lot of plays so if he bets the river I will fold.  The river was a 6 and when I checked he immediately checked back.  I showed my hand and he said he had a smaller two pair (55,44,etc.)   Note that had I pushed all in pre-flop this player probably folds those smaller pairs where a stronger player would be more likely to call as he would know my hand is usually two high cards and he wouldn't be afraid to race with me.

This was a huge pot and it put me in second and him in third and he busted a short time later.  I took the satellite win and went off to sign up for the Venetian $1100 Deep Stack tourney at noon.

I will pause here as I am leaving my room at the Venetian now to go play the Main Event with Gregg and Derrick.  We all start today and I am wishing my friends the best of luck.  (and me too!)  I will be back tomorrow to write about Friday's DS tourney as well as my satellite tournament yesterday.  My goals for today:

• count the pot on EVERY hand.
• pay attention to how often players are opening hands from each position and take advantage of any patterns I notice. 
• play in position whenever possible!
• play solid poker early on.  You start with 30,000 chips and the levels are two hours long so it's easy to get excited and start playing pots.  I will wait for great opportunities.
• Play to win!!!

JWB