More hands from the $2/$5 No Limit at MGM Grand ...
_ _
10x-9x, Stack $320
"Barney" raises to $25 UTG. I don't know why I call him that ... although with his build and blond hair there could be a Barney Rubble thing going on there. Apparently he and Greeny are from the same home casino in Canada, and play together often but are NOT friends. More like familiar acquaintances that kid each other a lot ... or so Barney informed me. Anyway, two people call including Greeny in the small blind, and I call as well in the big. The flop is 10-8-5 all different suits. Small blind checks, I check, Barney (yet another young gun LAG at this table) cbets $45. One fold, the Greeny calls, and I check-raise to $190. Barney makes an exasperated fold, and Greeny flashes a 10 and then folds. Hmm, maybe I wasn't good there, lol. Oops. Barney claims pocket 9's ... I don't show, but drag the pot. Stack up to $485 ... rolling along now.
Ad-Kd, Stack $660
Have won some nice pots without showdowns. Similar in action to this hand, sort of. On the hand immediately prior, I had raised preflop, then cbet $100 on an ace-high flop with pocket Jacks to take it down. On this hand, after Barney and Greeny both limp, I raise to $40 in the big blind. They both call. The flop is A-4-3 rainbow. I say aloud "Same bet," meaning the same continuation bet as in the previous hand of $100. But the dealer doesn't take it that way. He says "Forty dollars," and Barney immediately sets out $40 to call. When I explain that I meant $100, they call the floor over because they think Same Bet should mean the same as the previous street. Fair enough. The floorman sides with the dealer and my opponents, and they both call the $40 bet. The turn is a Jack. I bet out $150 and they both fold. They comment that had I bet $100 on the flop, they would not have called ... so the mistake earned me $80 extra. Woohoo!
9x-9x, Stack $900
By now, Fedora is long gone, and his absence has probably played a role in my chipping up so nicely. Fewer good players to contest my pots. But there has been another stack of $2,000 sitting at my table and not seeing much action. It belongs to a young local pro who has been in and out of the game (mostly out) since I sat down. He wasn't involved in the current hand so much as he was in the post mortem analysis.
There are two limpers, I raise to $40 on the button, and only one of the limpers calls -- Skinny. The flop is 10c-10s-6c. Check-check. The turn is the 4d. Check-check. The river is the 9h. Skinny bets out $45, and I pretend to tank before raising to $145. He folds instantly. The pro asked what I had, and I answer him truthfully. He frowns, and then asks why I didn't bet the flop. While it's normally not my policy to discuss strategy with my more dangerous opponents, I guess being up $500 is making me feel a little cocky. I explain to him reasoning. I don't see too many hands that call my flop bet, other than maybe a worse pocket pair or a club draw. But still, on that flop, I run the risk of getting check-raised out of the pot by a weaker hand. I have a pretty good idea of where I'm at, so why not wait to see if bad cards come, or wait until he tries to take a stab at it. If bad cards come, I can call down if my read says I still might be good. And if good cards come, I can raise his bluff and maybe make more money. It's both playing it small in case I get beat, and inducing bluffs for when my hand holds up. Do you all, my readers, agree? Discuss.
Ah-Jc, Stack $1,100
Skinny raises to $25 in the hijack. Greeny folds, and I decide I am going to try and use my rock solid tight image and make a move here. I re-raise him to $80. It is folded around to him, and he calls pretty quickly. The flop is 6-6-4. We both check. The turn is an 8. We check. River King, and we also check. He shows me A-J of spades! He smiles when he sees we are chopping, and says "I just wanted to beat you with A-J of spades like you did to me earlier." (On an earlier hand, we had gotten the money in on the flop, me having a flush draw. I hit the nut flush on the turn ... and he never showed what he had on that one.)
This hand really had me thinking, though. I couldn't figure out if Skinny somehow thought his hand was good preflop, if he really just wanted to beat me with A-J, or what. I did not consider A-J to be in my re-raising range. In fact, the only other time I had re-popped preflop was with the pocket 2's very early on in the session. He might have been remembering that hand, but I had really really tightened up since that crazy beginning where I was all in every two seconds, it seemed. Maybe he hadn't noticed that tightening up. And maybe since I had won a few pots without a showdown, he just decided to play with me. I don't know ... I just can't figure out what he thought A-J would be able to beat, out of position after the flop. To a rare three-bet. Couldn't figure out his reasoning ... he was either just a bad player (he did call down with J-10 earlier) or had a great read on me. Don't know which.
_ _
Anyway, I finished that session +$850 after about five hours of play. It was pretty sweet to swim with the sharks and not get hurt! Can't wait to go back ...
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Cash Game Report, Part I
So, how did I do in the cash games??? Did I make my money back?
The answer is, most of it. I went on a +$1,600 cash game tear to start off, then backslid a bit. This was annoying, as it was such a great feeling to have covered my tournament buy-in. Oh well. But I made most of it back, to end the trip +$1,250 in the cash games. This was my biggest cash game success in Vegas ever, and definitely a solid three-day run. Paired with the +$500 or so that I made on my honeymoon (my previous Vegas record), I am starting to feel pretty confident about poker there, provided I have an adequate bankroll.
Anyway, I don't want to get into too many of the overall ups and downs. I thought I would rather just tear into some hand analyses ... I took really solid notes on the plane home. Playing at Planet Hollywood was pretty easy -- I could run over the tables there no problem. But when I decided to play the $2/$5 No Limit at MGM Grand, I wandered into Young Gun city. Hoodies and iPods everywhere, and hardly a tourist in sight. So these hands were against more aggressive players, and required more trickeration. I hope that makes them more enjoyable to read.
_ _
9s-8s, Stack $500
I just sit down at the table, and buy-in for the max. I was on a downswing at the $1/$2 tables, and I was leaving first thing in the morning. So I moved up in stakes to take one last shot to make my money back. I don't have any reads on the table so far. There are two limps, I raise on the button to $30. The blinds fold, and one limper ("Skinny Guy") calls. Flop is K-x-x all different suits. He checks, I continuation bet $55, and he calls. The turn is a Q, making the board a badugi. We both check, and I am pretty sure he has nothing, but that his nothing has to be better than my nothing. I am planning to bluff the river as it is my only chance to win the pot, but when it comes a 9, Skinny beats me to it. He bets out $100, and I snap-call expecting my pair to be good. But he rolls over J-10 for the stone-cold nuts. I was right that he floated me out of position on the flop. But he got there. I guess I saved money by not betting the turn ... he would have called with an open-ender if he called with jack-high. I guess I could have folded the river ... but this was one of the few times in a hold'em game that I was surprised to see my opponents cards. Just wow. How could he have J-10? Oh well, down to $315.
Kd-7d, Stack $315
A few hands later, I am in the big blind. There are four limpers to me including the small blind, and I check. The flop is the 10d-7c-4d. Pair and a flush draw, I am figuring out how to get my stack in. But the small blind ("Greeny" for his green shirt) makes the decision a little easier by open-shoving for $170. I am trying to decide between calling and re-shoving. Do I want more people in to get better odds on the flush draw, or do I push them out and hope that my pair of 7s might be good against the small blind, who could be on a draw himself (5-6, 8-9, another flush draw)? I still am not sure about this, and am open to suggestions. There is a good chance the others are folding anyway, for that large a bet. Anyway, I decide to shove, but Greeny's Qx-10x holds up. Down to $145 now, and my comeback is not looking too strong right now. At this loose-aggressive of a table, $145 is nothing.
2d-2c, Stack $143
I am in the cutoff, a few hands later. A guy in a fedora raises from early-mid position to $40, and gets two calls from guys who are loose-passive preflop, then tight-aggressive post. (Fedora is a really good player, sitting on a stack of over $2,000. He is one of few players I have sat down with that I will admit is better than me at cash no limit hold'em. I've been told by another player at the table that Fedora is connected to the German mob. I didn't even know there was a German mob, but the two sleeveless goons sweating Fedora's action make me a believer real quick. Fedora seems like a pretty nice guy though [more on that in a minute].)
I am thinking this might be a decent spot for a squeeze play. I know the two cold-callers are weak. And Fedora might not want to play out of position, but even if he calls, my deuces might have a race against him with some nice dead money in the pot. I ship my stack, and it's folded back around to Fedora, who pushes over the top of me. Uh-oh. The two callers fold as predicted, and Fedora rolls over pocket Jacks. Damn it. The flop comes all diamonds however, and since Fedora doesn't have a diamond, I actually have some life. I make the flush on the turn, woohoo! But the river comes ... the trey of diamonds!! The five diamonds on the board cover my deuce of diamonds, so we chop the pot. Fedora takes it really well for a nearly $200 swing. For me, I'm a bit bummed at the way the cards fell, giving me hope, then taking it away. What a roller-coaster. But I also feel pretty lucky to have even chopped. Stack at $186.
Kx-9x, Stack $130
Again in the cutoff, a couple rounds later. I have lost chips in small pots by calling small raises preflop and missing. Here, Fedora limps in early position, and it is folded to me. I raise to $20, and only Fedora calls. The flop is A-9-x. Fedora checks. I don't believe he has an ace in his hand, but with my short stack, I'm going to play this as cautiously as possible until I have more information. Then turn is an 8. Fedora bets out $35, and I go into the tank. Maybe he does have a weak ace. Can he be pushed off, if so? Is he trapping here? I don't think so ... maybe I should just go for it. Fedora sees how intently I'm studying him, and he makes it easy for me. He cuts out a stack of chips to cover my potential shove and gives me a look that says "Save your money. I am calling whatever you bet." I believe him. I muck my hand, and he flashes me pocket rockets. The nuts. Wow, he played that tricky ... no way I could have put him on that. He very likely could have had the last of my chips, but decided to let me get away from it. Not a friend of his or anything, and we may never see one another again. Like I said, really nice guy.
5x-5x, Stack $105
Good thing that guy left me with some chips. After four limps, I limp in the small blind. Big blind checks. The flop comes 8-7-7 with a heart flush draw, and shit gets crazy. I lead out for $20, then the big blind (a big time LAG) raises to $60. A middle position player admits to the table they are on a straight draw, and shoves for $140. I tank for a minute, then pray they are both on draws and put my stack in. The big blind calls, and I was right. The BB is on a heart draw and the other dude has 6-9. Sweet, I got two of his outs. The turn is a miss, but the river is a heart! I cringe for a second, until I realize that it's the 5 of hearts, giving me a full boat! I drag a pot of $330 and finally I can play poker again.
The answer is, most of it. I went on a +$1,600 cash game tear to start off, then backslid a bit. This was annoying, as it was such a great feeling to have covered my tournament buy-in. Oh well. But I made most of it back, to end the trip +$1,250 in the cash games. This was my biggest cash game success in Vegas ever, and definitely a solid three-day run. Paired with the +$500 or so that I made on my honeymoon (my previous Vegas record), I am starting to feel pretty confident about poker there, provided I have an adequate bankroll.
Anyway, I don't want to get into too many of the overall ups and downs. I thought I would rather just tear into some hand analyses ... I took really solid notes on the plane home. Playing at Planet Hollywood was pretty easy -- I could run over the tables there no problem. But when I decided to play the $2/$5 No Limit at MGM Grand, I wandered into Young Gun city. Hoodies and iPods everywhere, and hardly a tourist in sight. So these hands were against more aggressive players, and required more trickeration. I hope that makes them more enjoyable to read.
_ _
9s-8s, Stack $500
I just sit down at the table, and buy-in for the max. I was on a downswing at the $1/$2 tables, and I was leaving first thing in the morning. So I moved up in stakes to take one last shot to make my money back. I don't have any reads on the table so far. There are two limps, I raise on the button to $30. The blinds fold, and one limper ("Skinny Guy") calls. Flop is K-x-x all different suits. He checks, I continuation bet $55, and he calls. The turn is a Q, making the board a badugi. We both check, and I am pretty sure he has nothing, but that his nothing has to be better than my nothing. I am planning to bluff the river as it is my only chance to win the pot, but when it comes a 9, Skinny beats me to it. He bets out $100, and I snap-call expecting my pair to be good. But he rolls over J-10 for the stone-cold nuts. I was right that he floated me out of position on the flop. But he got there. I guess I saved money by not betting the turn ... he would have called with an open-ender if he called with jack-high. I guess I could have folded the river ... but this was one of the few times in a hold'em game that I was surprised to see my opponents cards. Just wow. How could he have J-10? Oh well, down to $315.
Kd-7d, Stack $315
A few hands later, I am in the big blind. There are four limpers to me including the small blind, and I check. The flop is the 10d-7c-4d. Pair and a flush draw, I am figuring out how to get my stack in. But the small blind ("Greeny" for his green shirt) makes the decision a little easier by open-shoving for $170. I am trying to decide between calling and re-shoving. Do I want more people in to get better odds on the flush draw, or do I push them out and hope that my pair of 7s might be good against the small blind, who could be on a draw himself (5-6, 8-9, another flush draw)? I still am not sure about this, and am open to suggestions. There is a good chance the others are folding anyway, for that large a bet. Anyway, I decide to shove, but Greeny's Qx-10x holds up. Down to $145 now, and my comeback is not looking too strong right now. At this loose-aggressive of a table, $145 is nothing.
2d-2c, Stack $143
I am in the cutoff, a few hands later. A guy in a fedora raises from early-mid position to $40, and gets two calls from guys who are loose-passive preflop, then tight-aggressive post. (Fedora is a really good player, sitting on a stack of over $2,000. He is one of few players I have sat down with that I will admit is better than me at cash no limit hold'em. I've been told by another player at the table that Fedora is connected to the German mob. I didn't even know there was a German mob, but the two sleeveless goons sweating Fedora's action make me a believer real quick. Fedora seems like a pretty nice guy though [more on that in a minute].)
I am thinking this might be a decent spot for a squeeze play. I know the two cold-callers are weak. And Fedora might not want to play out of position, but even if he calls, my deuces might have a race against him with some nice dead money in the pot. I ship my stack, and it's folded back around to Fedora, who pushes over the top of me. Uh-oh. The two callers fold as predicted, and Fedora rolls over pocket Jacks. Damn it. The flop comes all diamonds however, and since Fedora doesn't have a diamond, I actually have some life. I make the flush on the turn, woohoo! But the river comes ... the trey of diamonds!! The five diamonds on the board cover my deuce of diamonds, so we chop the pot. Fedora takes it really well for a nearly $200 swing. For me, I'm a bit bummed at the way the cards fell, giving me hope, then taking it away. What a roller-coaster. But I also feel pretty lucky to have even chopped. Stack at $186.
Kx-9x, Stack $130
Again in the cutoff, a couple rounds later. I have lost chips in small pots by calling small raises preflop and missing. Here, Fedora limps in early position, and it is folded to me. I raise to $20, and only Fedora calls. The flop is A-9-x. Fedora checks. I don't believe he has an ace in his hand, but with my short stack, I'm going to play this as cautiously as possible until I have more information. Then turn is an 8. Fedora bets out $35, and I go into the tank. Maybe he does have a weak ace. Can he be pushed off, if so? Is he trapping here? I don't think so ... maybe I should just go for it. Fedora sees how intently I'm studying him, and he makes it easy for me. He cuts out a stack of chips to cover my potential shove and gives me a look that says "Save your money. I am calling whatever you bet." I believe him. I muck my hand, and he flashes me pocket rockets. The nuts. Wow, he played that tricky ... no way I could have put him on that. He very likely could have had the last of my chips, but decided to let me get away from it. Not a friend of his or anything, and we may never see one another again. Like I said, really nice guy.
5x-5x, Stack $105
Good thing that guy left me with some chips. After four limps, I limp in the small blind. Big blind checks. The flop comes 8-7-7 with a heart flush draw, and shit gets crazy. I lead out for $20, then the big blind (a big time LAG) raises to $60. A middle position player admits to the table they are on a straight draw, and shoves for $140. I tank for a minute, then pray they are both on draws and put my stack in. The big blind calls, and I was right. The BB is on a heart draw and the other dude has 6-9. Sweet, I got two of his outs. The turn is a miss, but the river is a heart! I cringe for a second, until I realize that it's the 5 of hearts, giving me a full boat! I drag a pot of $330 and finally I can play poker again.
Fantasy Update
My, how things have turned! Billy got off to an insanely hot start with Phil Ivey winning two bracelets and Daniel making two final tables as well. He was running away with it early on, as all I had to show for my team were a bunch of near-misses and heartbreaks. If we had bet instead on cashes without final tabling, I would already have won handily.
But I made a YOOGE comeback. After being down some 40-odd points, I have roared back to open up a nine-point advantage, thanks to Erik Seidel, Roland de Wolfe (who won his first bracelet and completed the so-called 'Triple Crown of Poker"), and Barry Greenstein all making two final tables each. J.C. Tran ran over his final table on his way to a bracelet as well, and David Williams, Max Pescatori, and Matt Glantz all chipped in.
Now I just have to fade the Main Event and I'm home free. But even though the Main Event is such a ridiculous beast that it's conceivable that no name pro will ever win it again, with the way I run in prop bets against Billy, I won't feel safe until he is drawing completely dead.
(I did allow myself a bit of a gloat, however: I offered to accept $19.50 to let him out of our $20.00 bet early. He politely declined.)
Bad beats:
-Andy Bloch is dead to me. As are ElkY (Grospellier) and Hellmuth, my top two picks.
-How did neither of us pick John Juanda?? He has gone deep in more than his fair share of tourneys this year.
-Where the hell did Jeff Lisandro come from????? Three bracelets, in three different Stud variants? Are you kidding me?? (He actually won the tourney I played in ...)
-Billy made a terrible move by suggesting we change the league from 10 players to 15. David Williams, Roland de Wolfe, and Matt Glantz are the only reasons I'm alive in this thing ... all he's gotten out of it are a few sparing points from Shannon Shorr and that single Ted Forrest point. Ouch.
But I made a YOOGE comeback. After being down some 40-odd points, I have roared back to open up a nine-point advantage, thanks to Erik Seidel, Roland de Wolfe (who won his first bracelet and completed the so-called 'Triple Crown of Poker"), and Barry Greenstein all making two final tables each. J.C. Tran ran over his final table on his way to a bracelet as well, and David Williams, Max Pescatori, and Matt Glantz all chipped in.
Now I just have to fade the Main Event and I'm home free. But even though the Main Event is such a ridiculous beast that it's conceivable that no name pro will ever win it again, with the way I run in prop bets against Billy, I won't feel safe until he is drawing completely dead.
(I did allow myself a bit of a gloat, however: I offered to accept $19.50 to let him out of our $20.00 bet early. He politely declined.)
Bad beats:
-Andy Bloch is dead to me. As are ElkY (Grospellier) and Hellmuth, my top two picks.
-How did neither of us pick John Juanda?? He has gone deep in more than his fair share of tourneys this year.
-Where the hell did Jeff Lisandro come from????? Three bracelets, in three different Stud variants? Are you kidding me?? (He actually won the tourney I played in ...)
-Billy made a terrible move by suggesting we change the league from 10 players to 15. David Williams, Roland de Wolfe, and Matt Glantz are the only reasons I'm alive in this thing ... all he's gotten out of it are a few sparing points from Shannon Shorr and that single Ted Forrest point. Ouch.
Lessons from the WSOP
This post is kind of a carry-over from the last one, but with less narrative and more big picture stuff.
First, a little generality I have found to be true about Stud players. In my experience, you can always tell the great Stud players because it seems like they are always making full houses, and it always seems like their weaker two pair hands are still good. That's because these players have really great memories and awareness of the cards that are out. They seem to show down more boats because they only draw to live hands. For instance, if they make a 'surprise' pair on 5th street, they know whether to play it aggressively or passively based on the cards other players have previously folded. They remember, and so they have a better sense than the average player of how likely they are to fill up.
The reason they win with hands like 7's and 5's is along similar lines. They can tell how likely their opponents are to have better hands than them based on the cards that are out. So not only are the great players on the lookout for cards that can help their hands, they are also evaluating how likely their opponents are to have improve their hands as well. Quite the feat.
Well, one of the super-memory guys was the new player on my left. I recognize his face from previous WSOP footage, but I have no idea what his name is. Same goes for a few other people at my table. Can't quite place them.
As I had hoped when I first considered playing this tourney, there were several players who obviously were good overall poker players, but who were not all that experienced in Stud hi-only. There were definitely some dabblers at my table. I used that to my advantage in the early going, as it became clear that these players probably wouldn't last as long, and as the tournament wore on, this dead money would become scarcer and scarcer (just like any tournament).
Like I said in a previous post, one of the things that struck me the most was being one of the better players to start. I had not expected to be in that position at all. I had expected to play tight, wait for good cards and hope that they help up in the shark tank. But when I saw one older gent who is completely clueless, one guy who is the ultimate calling station, another guy constantly drawing to dead hands ... instincts just take over. When the table is playing so passively, I can't help but to attack more often. So that's what I did.
Having said all that, you still have to run well to go far in a tournament. I learned that I am good enough to play in the game, by virtue of lasting as long as I did. I wasn't completely dead money -- were it not for a bad beat (Kings Up improving to beat my Aces Up) I would have been one of the chip leaders. I busted in the middle of the tourney, after all. But at the end of the day, I still lost my $1,500 just like the guy who busted out first. No last longer bets going. It just meant a stay of execution for me. As I walked out, I couldn't help thinking about what if I had put the money towards cash games.
I think I chose the event wisely. There were not as many experts in this game as in, say, a no limit hold'em donkament, just as I had hoped. Also, I was right about the scheduling. With the big names over in the Amazon Room playing more prestigious events, I probably had a better shot at making the money in a WSOP tourney.
There are no events left to play this year. But I will be back for sure next year. And I will make sure that next time, a single tourney isn't such a large hit to my bankroll. Mark my words.
First, a little generality I have found to be true about Stud players. In my experience, you can always tell the great Stud players because it seems like they are always making full houses, and it always seems like their weaker two pair hands are still good. That's because these players have really great memories and awareness of the cards that are out. They seem to show down more boats because they only draw to live hands. For instance, if they make a 'surprise' pair on 5th street, they know whether to play it aggressively or passively based on the cards other players have previously folded. They remember, and so they have a better sense than the average player of how likely they are to fill up.
The reason they win with hands like 7's and 5's is along similar lines. They can tell how likely their opponents are to have better hands than them based on the cards that are out. So not only are the great players on the lookout for cards that can help their hands, they are also evaluating how likely their opponents are to have improve their hands as well. Quite the feat.
Well, one of the super-memory guys was the new player on my left. I recognize his face from previous WSOP footage, but I have no idea what his name is. Same goes for a few other people at my table. Can't quite place them.
As I had hoped when I first considered playing this tourney, there were several players who obviously were good overall poker players, but who were not all that experienced in Stud hi-only. There were definitely some dabblers at my table. I used that to my advantage in the early going, as it became clear that these players probably wouldn't last as long, and as the tournament wore on, this dead money would become scarcer and scarcer (just like any tournament).
Like I said in a previous post, one of the things that struck me the most was being one of the better players to start. I had not expected to be in that position at all. I had expected to play tight, wait for good cards and hope that they help up in the shark tank. But when I saw one older gent who is completely clueless, one guy who is the ultimate calling station, another guy constantly drawing to dead hands ... instincts just take over. When the table is playing so passively, I can't help but to attack more often. So that's what I did.
Having said all that, you still have to run well to go far in a tournament. I learned that I am good enough to play in the game, by virtue of lasting as long as I did. I wasn't completely dead money -- were it not for a bad beat (Kings Up improving to beat my Aces Up) I would have been one of the chip leaders. I busted in the middle of the tourney, after all. But at the end of the day, I still lost my $1,500 just like the guy who busted out first. No last longer bets going. It just meant a stay of execution for me. As I walked out, I couldn't help thinking about what if I had put the money towards cash games.
I think I chose the event wisely. There were not as many experts in this game as in, say, a no limit hold'em donkament, just as I had hoped. Also, I was right about the scheduling. With the big names over in the Amazon Room playing more prestigious events, I probably had a better shot at making the money in a WSOP tourney.
There are no events left to play this year. But I will be back for sure next year. And I will make sure that next time, a single tourney isn't such a large hit to my bankroll. Mark my words.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Where you been, J?
Wow, so much to report, and I haven't gotten around to it until now. It's pretty sad really. I am a poker blogger, I decide to play in the World Series of Poker for the first time ever, and it takes me nearly a month to write about the experience! Pathetic!
Well, where to begin? The flight into McCarran was choppy as usual, but, other than that, uneventful. I played just over an hour of $1/$2 No Limit at Planet Hollywood before hopping over to the Rio to register for the tournament. +$285. I pretty much decided then and there that I wasn't going to play any satellites. I would just buy into the event, and play cash games to earn as much of my buy-in back as possible.
At about 10:30 The Wife and I took the free shuttle to the Rio. I noticed that the tokes to the shuttle driver were not as forthcoming as they had been in the 2008 WSOP. People just sailed on by. Sign of the economic times, I suppose, but I made sure to take care of them on each trip. A buck for shuttle service across the freeway isn't too unreasonable, in my book.
It turns out that you have to get a (free) Harrah's playing card before you can register for any tourney, but that actually turned out to be not bad at all. Because the buy-in was so large, it meant I got hooked up with some nice meal comps and such at Harrah's-owned establishments like Paris and Bally's. Pretty cool. Once that was done, it was on to the tournament cashier's kiosk to make the buy-in. It was anti-climactic, really. I had thought that plunking down fifteen $100 bills to gamble would feel more ominous than it did, but it was more-or-less like any other tournament I've ever played. You pay the money, you get a seat card and a meal comp, end of story. Still, as I walked away, I couldn't help feeling a little giddy. It was official, and there was no turning back now. In a few short hours, I would be playing in the one and only World Series of Poker.
As we made our way back to the strip, however, I could feel that airy giddiness turning into a major headache. The Wife and I grabbed lunch at Paris, where a smoking-hot hostess gave us a really great seat and was generally very nice to us. Of course, as a result, I had to fade all kinds of annoying accusations of checking out said hostess, which did not help my budding headache one bit. But the food was good, and I decided a nap would be a great final preparation for my first step onto the big stage.
When I woke up around 4, the headache was REALLY POUNDING. I was also ridiculously dehydrated. I popped 800mg of ibuprofen and gulped down a liter of water on my way back to the Rio. By the time I got to my seat in the Brasilia Room at 4:30, I felt fantastic. I was alert, but calm. No pain anywhere in my body, I was rarin' to go.
But it was early. I didn't even have anyone at my table to talk to yet. I decided to wander over to the Amazon Room to see what big names were playing. It turned out that Huck Seed and Todd Brunson were final tabling a mixed event, while Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu were seated close to one another and going deep into a limit hold'em event. The $5K pot limit Omaha event nearby was also chock full of big names ... a quick sweep showed me Victor Ramdin, David Pham, Humberto Brenes ... the list goes on. I happened to stand next to Michael DeMichele briefly, and I let him know that he was on my fantasy team and that I was rooting for him to do well this year. He seemed to be flattered, but I don't think my words really helped him much. After seeing him make strong showings in early events (cashing if not final tabling), he has been M.I.A. in the latter half of the WSOP. Was my speech too much pressure? Or was he just low on funds after buying into the $40K event? Quien sabe?
5 o'clock eventually rolled around, and it was a quick dash back to the Brasilia Room, Table 247. I honestly don't remember too much about specific hands, at least not in great detail. It is more or less a blur, but I do have these general impressions to share:
- The game played very much like my books describe Stud cash games. Specifically, the players were generally much tighter than I am used to seeing. Makes sense, as most of the examples in the books are $15/$30 bet limits at the minimum. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the books prepared me very well for this tournament, even more so than they had for the Stud cash games I have played in my career. For instance, certain isolation plays and bluffs that simply don't work at the $4/$8 tables at Commerce were a gold mine here;
- I was one of the two strongest players at my starting table of eight. The rest were competent, save for one total idiot. But these competent players all had very exploitable tendencies that I picked up on pretty quickly. For such a high buy-in, this was not a shark tank by any stretch of the imagination. Had it been a higher-stakes cash game, I would have made a boatload in short order;
- Much like tournament hold'em, the value in playing draws drops off significantly. You don't see nearly as many straights and flushes shown down as you might in loose cash games; there were a lot more hands that were won by a single pair or two pair;
- The one-hour levels and the deep stacks made for a lot of play, and as such there was no real need to gamble early on. It also provided a great feeling-out period for the table. I had never played in a tournament with levels so lengthy before, so I was more used to just having to play my cards because the blinds go up so quickly.
Early on, I played really aggressively and I read every situation perfectly. Nevertheless, I got dangerously short-stacked very early when my strong starting hands got drawn out on. But the structure allowed me to survive those hits and make a huge comeback to become chip leader at my table. I kept with the good reads, and had a good run of cards to be solidly above the average by the dinner break. I even had the satisfaction of knocking out a couple players. :)
After dinner, however, things did not go so well. We got two new players, who were both as aggressive as I am -- one on my left and one on my right. The new guy on my right was constantly stealing pots before I could do so (disrupting my earlier mojo). And the new guy on my left was more difficult to steal from than his predecessor had been. So it was much tougher for me to put pressure on the table like I had been doing throughout most of the tourney.
One of them was actually more aggressive than me, as hard as that may be to believe. It took me a few hands to figure it out, but he was four-betting me with nothing on several occasions. This was a shock to me, as I am not at all used to players trying to run over me ... it's typically the other way around. On one hand in particular, he four-bet me on 3rd street, four-bet me on 4th, then called every single bet on every street including the river. When he called me at the end, I shrugged a little because I thought there was no way my unimproved split kings were good. When he didn't turn his cards over, I eventually showed my single pair, and he mucked angrily. He thought it was a slowroll! We had a bit of a heated discussion after that, as I tried to calmly explain to him why I thought my hand could not possibly be good once he called down after being so aggressive early on and I was representing a pair of kings the whole way. He just kept repeating that if I shrug like that, it means I don't have anything. Argh, whatever. Ship the chips.
The long and short of it was that I lasted my way into the sixth level, where I was sadly shown the exit. I made Aces and 8's on 4th street (how fitting), and got into a betting and raising war with the new, aggressive player on my left. He ending up making Kings full on that hand after starting with Kings up on 4th. Bad beat. That hand crippled me, and on the next I got it all in with three diamonds on 3rd street. I eventually made Jacks up, but my foe made a straight to knock me out. 209th out of 359 runners. D'oh.
More to come.
Well, where to begin? The flight into McCarran was choppy as usual, but, other than that, uneventful. I played just over an hour of $1/$2 No Limit at Planet Hollywood before hopping over to the Rio to register for the tournament. +$285. I pretty much decided then and there that I wasn't going to play any satellites. I would just buy into the event, and play cash games to earn as much of my buy-in back as possible.
At about 10:30 The Wife and I took the free shuttle to the Rio. I noticed that the tokes to the shuttle driver were not as forthcoming as they had been in the 2008 WSOP. People just sailed on by. Sign of the economic times, I suppose, but I made sure to take care of them on each trip. A buck for shuttle service across the freeway isn't too unreasonable, in my book.
It turns out that you have to get a (free) Harrah's playing card before you can register for any tourney, but that actually turned out to be not bad at all. Because the buy-in was so large, it meant I got hooked up with some nice meal comps and such at Harrah's-owned establishments like Paris and Bally's. Pretty cool. Once that was done, it was on to the tournament cashier's kiosk to make the buy-in. It was anti-climactic, really. I had thought that plunking down fifteen $100 bills to gamble would feel more ominous than it did, but it was more-or-less like any other tournament I've ever played. You pay the money, you get a seat card and a meal comp, end of story. Still, as I walked away, I couldn't help feeling a little giddy. It was official, and there was no turning back now. In a few short hours, I would be playing in the one and only World Series of Poker.
As we made our way back to the strip, however, I could feel that airy giddiness turning into a major headache. The Wife and I grabbed lunch at Paris, where a smoking-hot hostess gave us a really great seat and was generally very nice to us. Of course, as a result, I had to fade all kinds of annoying accusations of checking out said hostess, which did not help my budding headache one bit. But the food was good, and I decided a nap would be a great final preparation for my first step onto the big stage.
When I woke up around 4, the headache was REALLY POUNDING. I was also ridiculously dehydrated. I popped 800mg of ibuprofen and gulped down a liter of water on my way back to the Rio. By the time I got to my seat in the Brasilia Room at 4:30, I felt fantastic. I was alert, but calm. No pain anywhere in my body, I was rarin' to go.
But it was early. I didn't even have anyone at my table to talk to yet. I decided to wander over to the Amazon Room to see what big names were playing. It turned out that Huck Seed and Todd Brunson were final tabling a mixed event, while Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu were seated close to one another and going deep into a limit hold'em event. The $5K pot limit Omaha event nearby was also chock full of big names ... a quick sweep showed me Victor Ramdin, David Pham, Humberto Brenes ... the list goes on. I happened to stand next to Michael DeMichele briefly, and I let him know that he was on my fantasy team and that I was rooting for him to do well this year. He seemed to be flattered, but I don't think my words really helped him much. After seeing him make strong showings in early events (cashing if not final tabling), he has been M.I.A. in the latter half of the WSOP. Was my speech too much pressure? Or was he just low on funds after buying into the $40K event? Quien sabe?
5 o'clock eventually rolled around, and it was a quick dash back to the Brasilia Room, Table 247. I honestly don't remember too much about specific hands, at least not in great detail. It is more or less a blur, but I do have these general impressions to share:
- The game played very much like my books describe Stud cash games. Specifically, the players were generally much tighter than I am used to seeing. Makes sense, as most of the examples in the books are $15/$30 bet limits at the minimum. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the books prepared me very well for this tournament, even more so than they had for the Stud cash games I have played in my career. For instance, certain isolation plays and bluffs that simply don't work at the $4/$8 tables at Commerce were a gold mine here;
- I was one of the two strongest players at my starting table of eight. The rest were competent, save for one total idiot. But these competent players all had very exploitable tendencies that I picked up on pretty quickly. For such a high buy-in, this was not a shark tank by any stretch of the imagination. Had it been a higher-stakes cash game, I would have made a boatload in short order;
- Much like tournament hold'em, the value in playing draws drops off significantly. You don't see nearly as many straights and flushes shown down as you might in loose cash games; there were a lot more hands that were won by a single pair or two pair;
- The one-hour levels and the deep stacks made for a lot of play, and as such there was no real need to gamble early on. It also provided a great feeling-out period for the table. I had never played in a tournament with levels so lengthy before, so I was more used to just having to play my cards because the blinds go up so quickly.
Early on, I played really aggressively and I read every situation perfectly. Nevertheless, I got dangerously short-stacked very early when my strong starting hands got drawn out on. But the structure allowed me to survive those hits and make a huge comeback to become chip leader at my table. I kept with the good reads, and had a good run of cards to be solidly above the average by the dinner break. I even had the satisfaction of knocking out a couple players. :)
After dinner, however, things did not go so well. We got two new players, who were both as aggressive as I am -- one on my left and one on my right. The new guy on my right was constantly stealing pots before I could do so (disrupting my earlier mojo). And the new guy on my left was more difficult to steal from than his predecessor had been. So it was much tougher for me to put pressure on the table like I had been doing throughout most of the tourney.
One of them was actually more aggressive than me, as hard as that may be to believe. It took me a few hands to figure it out, but he was four-betting me with nothing on several occasions. This was a shock to me, as I am not at all used to players trying to run over me ... it's typically the other way around. On one hand in particular, he four-bet me on 3rd street, four-bet me on 4th, then called every single bet on every street including the river. When he called me at the end, I shrugged a little because I thought there was no way my unimproved split kings were good. When he didn't turn his cards over, I eventually showed my single pair, and he mucked angrily. He thought it was a slowroll! We had a bit of a heated discussion after that, as I tried to calmly explain to him why I thought my hand could not possibly be good once he called down after being so aggressive early on and I was representing a pair of kings the whole way. He just kept repeating that if I shrug like that, it means I don't have anything. Argh, whatever. Ship the chips.
The long and short of it was that I lasted my way into the sixth level, where I was sadly shown the exit. I made Aces and 8's on 4th street (how fitting), and got into a betting and raising war with the new, aggressive player on my left. He ending up making Kings full on that hand after starting with Kings up on 4th. Bad beat. That hand crippled me, and on the next I got it all in with three diamonds on 3rd street. I eventually made Jacks up, but my foe made a straight to knock me out. 209th out of 359 runners. D'oh.
More to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
