tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89974361087252754762024-02-19T12:17:46.189-06:00Face's Poker RoomUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-84073178129872884312011-04-12T13:06:00.002-05:002011-04-18T13:08:42.158-05:00Chicago Money is Good For the GameI think that the break I took from poker was exactly what I needed. Having good recall about poker hands is usually considered a good thing, but sometimes I think that it can go the other way as well. You have to be able to forget when you get beat in a pot, too, so that you don't focus on it when you get back to playing. You just have to let time do it's thing when you take a beat down in poker, and although I hadn't completely forgotten the beat I took, enough time had gone by that it wasn't the FIRST thing I thought of when someone mentioned poker to me.<br />
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The Brewers were playing the Cubs this past weekend, and lots of Cubs fans make the trek to Miller Park to take in the game. They also stop at the poker room before and after the game, so there's usually a lot of extra action in the room. I thought it would be a good time to try and take advantage of that. Friday night's session went OK for me, and I was able to cash out on the plus side. I never had to rebuy during the session, and had no hands where my entire stack was at risk. The only bad thing about Friday's session was the fact that the Brewers lost, so I had to put up with Cubs fans being a little more obnoxious than they usually are.<br />
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It was the Saturday session that had some fun hands to talk about here. I arrived a little bit before the Brewers game, as I figured there would be some Chicago fans hitting the poker room before the game. They had five No-Limit tables going, and I was told to grab a seat at Table 9. Sometimes, just getting the right table makes all the difference in the world, and boy, did it ever on Saturday! I took my seat in Seat 3 and bought in for my usual $400, and as soon as I sat down, I found out who the current table 'captain' was. The player in Seat 7 was raising just about every hand by grabbing a handful of chips and stating, "I raise this much". Well, 'this much' was somewhere between $45-$65 and often times he would pick up the chips of the players who only called the $5. Occasionally, he would get one or two callers, and then he'd try and take down the pot at the flop. It seemed to be working for him for the most part. It wasn't hard to pick up on this pattern of play, and after about one orbit of play I decided I was going to try and shut down this style since it was causing me to not see any flops.<br />
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I was waiting for the right situation, and found myself in what I thought was the right situation when the player in Seat 1 limped, I limped with pocket 5s, the player in Seat 5 limped, Seat 7 made his raise (to $55 this time), and then Seat 1 folded. Had Seat 1 called the $55 I don't think I would have been able to pull off what I wanted to do. Since I only had Seat 5 and Seat 7 to act, I decided to repop Seat 7. Finding the right amount was the trick. I had already seen him call someone's all in reraise of $210, and I'll be honest, I wasn't looking for a call here since I'm probably in a coin flip against most of his range. Well, I decided to raise it to $350. This also left me with only about $40 behind, but it was sending the message. Well, Seat 5 thought about it for a while, but he let his hand go, and when it got to our table captain/bully, he thought about it for a long while before folding. I decided to show it, and announced to him "It was good". He then decided to get in to it a little bit with me about how could I raise to $350 with just a pair of 5s, and I told him that I would've done it with "7-2 offsuit. It didn't matter, since I wasn't playing my hand". I had two objectives by doing this: 1) get him to not raise it up EVERY SINGLE time. If someone plays back at him he's gotta adjust, right? and 2) set him up for when I actually get a big hand.<br />
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Well, that hand had no effect on his playing tactics. He still raised almost every hand, and so it just became a fold fest for me. I finally picked up a pair of Queens and decided to limp. He raised to $65, and I came back over the top to $300. He went all in almost immediately, and I called for my remaining $140 or so. I asked if he wanted to show, and I tabled my Queens, and he showed a pair of 8s. The board ran out and he didn't catch his 8, and I was able to double up. It wasn't too long after that hand that he ended up going broke against a player that flopped top set and had him covered. In talking to that player, who was seated on my immediate left, I found out that the player in Seat 7 bought in for the maximum of $600 at least 7 times. He was seated there before the player on my left had arrived, and he didn't know if he had bought in any more before he showed up, but if you include his initial buy in (I'm assuming for $600) that totals $4800! It was a shame he left, but it was nice of him to leave it at Table 9!!<br />
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The player who replaced him was a relatively decent player, but he found himself on the wrong end of it against me later into the session. The player had about $850 in front of him, and I was sitting at about $900, maybe $950, when the hand came up. He had raised preflop to $20, and I was holding pocket Tens, so calling that $20 is a no-brainer for me. Two other players came along to see the flop, and it was: K-T-9, giving me middle set. The player in Seat 7 had to act first and led out for $75, which was about a pot-sized bet. The other players folded, and I popped it to $225. I wanted to see how strong his hand really was, and the raise was enough that he would fold anything that was borderline here. He called. This told me he had something pretty decent. I was hoping it wasn't Queen-Jack since that would be a straight. Well, the next card looked pretty good to me. The turn was a King, giving me a full house, Tens full of Kings. Now, I hoped he had the straight, or even Ace-King. Since he called the $225, I figured maybe he'd call around that same amount again, so I bet $250. He went all in almost immediately, and I called just about as quickly. If he had KK, KT, or K9, more power to him. The King-Ten and King-9 seemed a little unlikely since he raised preflop, and KK is just REAL unlikely since the chances of making quads is pretty remote. He announced, "I have a full house, sir, 9s full of Kings", and he turned over pocket 9s. I turned over my hand and replied, "I have Tens full of Kings". This guy was standing as he threw his cards across the table, and his jaw nearly hit the table when he saw my hand. I can't say I did anything special in this hand. When you have two hands like that (set over set), a lot of chips are going to get in to the middle. I was just fortunate to have the higher set here. He didn't hit his 9 on the river, and the player left and chose not to rebuy.<br />
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The Brewers won that game against the Cubs, too, so my Saturday session was pretty good. It was a pretty nice way to start things off after my break.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-89454581977382992342011-03-08T14:27:00.003-06:002011-04-13T11:36:27.800-05:00The Worst...Beat...Ever......or at least that's how I'm describing it. It wasn't so much the cards that ran out on the board to beat me that makes it bad (although that's a BIG part), it's all the betting and the calling that contributed to making it the worst beat I've taken.<br />
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I was invited to play cards with a group of friends over on the north side on a Saturday evening, and I had a good time playing cards there, losing a few bucks, but it was a fun night, and I hadn't gotten together with these friends in a while, so it was good to see them. I had decided that I was going to hit Potowatomi's poker room on the way home since I was practically passing the place anyway, and I knew that the poker room would be busy late on Saturday, so the action should be pretty decent.<br />
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I found myself down early when my two pair got hammered by someone who made their straight draw in a decent-sized pot. I was working my way back to even, and had $685 in front of me when the following hand came up. I'm going to try and give you as much detail as I can, and as I told someone as I retold this story, "You may want to draw a diagram". I'll give you the stack sizes of each relevant player as I mention them below. <br />
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I was in Seat 8 of the 9 seats at the table. There was currently no one in seat 9, and in seat 1 ($690), Seat 2, Seat 3 ($127), and Seat 4 ($94) were four players of Asian descent. They were all straddling, which means that they were putting out a bet of double the big blind when they would have been the first person to act. By straddling they also retained the option to raise, so it's like adding a third blind to the game. Also, when players would limp for the $10 (it was a $3-$5 game, so to limp in a straddle it would be $10) one of those players would almost always raise to try and steal the limper's bets. Since they were doing this I had made the determination that I was going to limp with the hands I'd normally play, knowing that I'd have to fold some of them, but I was also going to limp with the big hands so that I'd be able to then reraise when they were trying to resteal my limp bet. If I had tightened up so much that I only played the big hands, they may pick up on that and decide to not raise when I entered a pot, and I couldn't have that, so I was willing to sacrifice the $10 here and there to set this up. The other players in seats 5, 6(~$400), and 7 were players that seemed to be playing fairly tight and very straight-forward (bet with a hand, check with nothing).<br />
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Well, in this hand Seat 1 was the big blind, and seat 4 was the straddle. Seat 5 folded, Seat 6 called for the $10, Seat 7 folded, and I looked down and found pocket Queens (Qs Qh). I limped, anticpating the raise to come from one of the players in seats 1 through 4. Seat 1 also limped. Seat 2 limped, and Seat 3 made it $30 to go. Seat 4 moved all in for $94. It got back to Seat 6, who called the $94. Now, my plan was to originally just call the $94, or maybe reraise to $160 to put the player in Seat 3 all in, but with the player in Seat 6 calling the $94, he would have for sure called the additional bet, and I wanted to shut him out of the pot. To do that I was going to have to reraise to about $250. Since the player in Seat 6 had about $400, if he's calling the $250 he's putting the rest in, and I wouldn't have folded if he put the rest in, so rather than make it $250 or so, I decided to make sure that he'd have an all in decision, so I moved all in for my $685 to isolate the betting. What happened next was very unexpected. The player in seat 1, who had about the same as me (it turned out he had $5 more than me) thought for about 10 seconds and said that he was all in! Well, the player in Seat 3 moved all in, and when it got back around to the player in Seat 6 he still had an option, and he elected to not call for his whole stack there. Follow all that?<br />
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Now, because everyone has different amounts of chips it created multiple pots. A player can only win from another player an amount equal to what they have in front of them. So three pots got created. The first pot, the main pot, could be won be all four of us in the hand (myself, Seat 1, Seat 3, and Seat 4). That pot totalled $470 ($94 from each of the four of us, and $94 from Seat 6, who had originally called that $94, but then folded when it was reraised). The first side pot, which could only be won by myself, Seat 1, and Seat 3 totalled $99 (Seat 3 had $127, $94 was contributed to the main pot, which left him with $33, which Seat 1 and I had to match). The second side pot, which only myself and Seat 1 could win, was for $1116! I had gone all in and had contributed a total of $127 to the main and first side pot, which left me with $558, which was matched by Seat 1. This creates an unusual scenario. You can have multiple winners in the hand. Also, I could lose to Seat 3 or Seat 4 (or both), but still make money by beating Seat 1 since the second side pot was $1116.<br />
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It was time to show some cards. I asked if they wanted to show, since it's not required in a cash game, and I tabled my two Queens. Seat 1 was initially not showing, and I said to him, "If you're slow rolling me with Kings or Aces I'm going to be pretty pissed." I was trying to guess what he would call for $670, especially since he only had $10 invested at that point. At that point Seat 1 showed me one card, a King, and was telling me that I was "good". That did little to comfort me. At that point Seat 3 showed his hand, a pair of Kings. Now, after seeing that, I realized that I had very little chance to win all of the pots, since Seat 3 was crushing me and was eligible to win two of the three pots, but I could still win the big side pot. The other player said nothing and showed nothing, and the dealer went to work. He put out the following board:<br />
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2s As 6c - flop<br />
Ts - turn<br />
8s - river<br />
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I looked, and had made a Queen-high flush with the four spades, but the player in Seat 1 was showing the King of Spades, and had made a higher flush. It turned out he had Ks Qc. The player in Seat 4 mucked his cards, but he told us that he also had a King. So, all the Kings were out. I only had to dodge the player making a straight or flush with his King-Queen and I would've won at least the side pot. I couldn't believe he called $670 with King-Queen offsuit, especially with only $10 invested. I couldn't believe that board. Any red card on the turn or river and I rake the $1116 pot. Also, if the player in Seat 1 had folded, there would have been no third pot, and I only would have $127 invested, but in that scenario I scoop both the main pot and the other side pot, totalling $569, because I make my Queen-high flush and crack the Kings (the board wouldn't have changed regardless of the betting). Either way, when all four Kings are out and a guy's showing you a King I had to feel pretty good about winning the side pot. I was able to use a program called PokerStove to evaluate the %'s of my hand winning, and with all the Kings out PokerStove ran 1.2 million hands, and in those I won 91.6% of the time versus the 8.0% for the King-Queen offsuit (0.29% of the time we tie), and believe it or not, after the flop my % chance of winning IMPROVES to 94% (red card after that please?). Unfortunately, poker isn't played in a simulator. It was an ugly, ugly beat, and I promptly left, and decided that maybe it was time to take a little break from poker.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-889819619247269422010-06-28T17:00:00.002-05:002010-07-06T08:34:57.729-05:00Aces Gets Everything...With one last full day to play poker in Vegas Dan and I decided to play in the Bellagio's poker room. I got seated in a $5/$10 No Limit game and bought in for $775. I know it's an odd amount, but that was because of some odd chips I had in my pocket at that moment. I'd like to tell you that I had some great hands, or that I ran some awesome bluffs, but this session had to be one of the most uneventful sessions that I can recall having. I did have $1508 to cash out when it was done, so I made $733, but I only had one showdown the whole session, and that was one where the small blind tried to steal my big blind and I called. We ended up checking it down and I collected that $100 pot. That was the only showdown I had the whole session, and I still managed to win that amount. I did pick up AA twice during the session. Overall, I probably saw pocket Aces about 15 times over the weekend. This led Dan to calling me an "Aces magnet". It didn't help that Dan had only seen AA once all weekend, and that was in the WSOP event where Dan had them cracked by someone else's Queen-9 where the guy open shoved with that hand. Dan had called, then watched the board come J-J-8-8-T to give the guy a straight.<br />
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Dan was seated at a $2/$5 game, and was trying to get back some of his money from earlier events in the trip. After cashing out I stopped by Dan's table to let him know I was going back up to the room for a little bit. Dan tried to give me a peek at his cards once he knew I was there, but I happened to not be looking when that happened. Dan raised to $20, and 4 players called that bet. At that point I asked Dan to give me the "hole card cam", but as soon as I asked, everyone else in the hand looked right at me, so before he showed me I told him to forget it as I didn't want to inadvertently give anything away.<br />
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The flop was: Qx - 5s - 2s. Dan had about $500 in front of him, and had three people in front of him to act and one behind. Of those players, one player in front had about $250, another had Dan covered, and the player behind Dan had almost the same amount as Dan. Well, the short stack in front of Dan led out for $50. The next guy to act, who had Dan covered, called the $50. The next guy folded, and Dan raised it to $200. The guy behind him called the $200. The action was now back on the first $50 bettor, who moved all in for a total of $255. The next guy called that all in bet. Dan tried to reraise all in, but because the all in raise was only for $55 it wasn't a full raise and the betting couldn't be reopened. So Dan made the call as did the player behind him. We had a huge pot brewing at this point already. The turn card was the 9d. The guy who had Dan covered was first to act and checked. Dan moved all in, and the guy behind him called that, although he had slightly less than Dan. At this point, the guy who had Dan covered went in to the think tank. He had already said at one point that he had a "monster" draw, so I was guessing he had 3s 4s, since that was the only monster draw that could be in play. Well, while this guy is tanking, on of the guys who was all in was showing his cards to half the table, including the short stack who was all in already. This is a no-no at the table. I normally wouldn't care, but I figured one of these two already had a set, and I wanted to Dan to win, so I mentioned to Dan that he should get a floor supervisor over here. Depending on his ruling, the guy who showed his hand might have his hand killed, or mucked. I thought that pot was large enough to fight for it like this. Dan got the floor over to the table, and although he agreed that the cards shouldn't have been displayed, he gave a warning and said that next time he'd kill the hand.<br />
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Well, eventually, the guy who was tanking finally decided to call. The river was the 3c. Everyone opened their hands. Dan had Aces, which was one of the three hands I thought he had (KK or QQ were the other two). The short stack all in had Ks 8s for a missed flush draw. The guy who was showing his cards to everyone and was all in showed 9s 6s for a missed flush draw along with having missed his two-pair or trips. The last guy, who had everyone covered in the hand, showed KQoffsuit, for top pair, but also missed his two pair or trip draw (Apparently his idea of a monster draw was much different than mine). Dan's Aces got everything!! It was a huge pot. I stuck around for the 5 minutes it took him to stack everything, but it was just over $1900 when it was all said and done. This had to be one of the more exciting hands I witnessed all weekend. Dan was laughing because he thought it was hilarious that I was such an Ace magnet that I could just walk by his table and he picked up Aces, especially considering it was only the second time he got them the whole trip. It was crazy, and I was glad to see Dan win. He needed that one.<br />
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Dan also took a break shortly after that. We both ended up back at the $2/$5 game around 3am. In that three hour session, I picked up about $280, which was highlighted by my picking up a decent pot while I was on my second buy in. I had 8d 7d, and on an 8h 5d 2d flop, another player and I got it all in for about a $900 pot. He had top pair with a Ten kicker, but the 7 that hit on the turn ended up giving me two pair and the pot. Dan was also doing well at the table, as he he put in a near $1000 profit in this session to follow up that huge session he had prior. Although we didn't cash in the tournaments we played, the cash games on the trip were very nice for us. All in all it was a pretty good trip.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-2578709867395939012010-06-27T17:00:00.014-05:002010-07-04T01:47:33.945-05:00Veni, Vidi, Vici, Venetian!Sunday was going to be another tournament day for me and Dan. The Bellagio was running their Bellagio Cup VI, and they had scheduled a $1000+$80 event scheduled for that day at 2pm. The Venetian was also running their Deep Stack Extravaganza, and Sunday's event was a $560 tournament that started at noon. Since I had rebounded very nicely during my last session I thought I would play a satellite for the $1k event at the Bellagio. If I won my seat there I'd play that; if not, I would go over to the Venetian and play the $560 tournament there. Dan had decided to go over to the Venetian.<br />
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I went down about 9am or so to the Fontana Room at the Bellagio to get in to the satellite, but they didn't have enough entries to run one yet. They only had 5 players signed up for a satellite. The satellite cost $240 and it's played as a one-table tournament with 10 players. The final two finishers would each receive a seat into the $1k event along with a small amount of cash. Since they were short on entries yet and I didn't want to pony up for a satellite that might not happen I decided to keep an eye on the Fontana room from the craps tables. I watched for a little over a half hour, but there was almost no activity over at the Fontana room. I cashed out from craps (down a couple bucks), and went back, but they were only up to 6 entries. I explained what I was doing, and they offered to take my cell phone number and call me if they got close to filling the satellite. I went up to the room and confirmed Dan's plans. The poker room manager called at about 10:45 and told me they were close so I headed back down. Satellites usually last about an hour, so if I didn't win my seat I thought I'd still have time to get to the Venetian by noon.<br />
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In the satellite, I had a prior WSOP bracelet winner seated on my immediate left. He won a bracelet in Pot-Limit Omaha in 2007. His name was Alan Smurfit, and he was using his bracelet as a card protector. He was a real nice guy. Unfortunately, my opportunity to chat with him was cut short during the satellite. After chipping up a little bit I was knocked down a lot when my K-K went up against someone's A-9 (and all in) after a Q-Q-9 flop. Dan arrived just in time to see an Ace show up on the turn and have a chunk removed from my stack. Since I wasn't out yet and Dan didn't want to be late to the Venetian he headed out. I managed to get my stack all in with AQ and dominated by AK. The board didn't bail me out, and I was down to a single chip. I quadrupled up on the next hand when my QJ got lucky against AA (sure, I can't have a big stack when THAT happens), but went out right after that when my A9 of clubs went up against 8-8, and I made two pair when the 8s made a flush. It was almost noon, and even though I knew I'd be late for the Deep Stack, it was time to get over to the Venetian.<br />
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I showed up at the Venetian shortly after noon. They were offering late registration so I went and got a player's club card and got registered. I could bore you with all sorts of hand stories from the tournament, but after getting a set of 6s cracked by someone and getting AA twice and KK once in the span of 15 minutes to get some chips back, I ultimately ended up in a race with AQ v. TT. I didn't win the race and I was out of the tournament.<br />
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Since Dan was still playing in the tournament I decided to get seated in the $2/$5 No Limit games. They had a huge room of cash games going so I was seated pretty quickly. The game I got in to had plenty of action. There was one gentleman at the table who was from Witchita that was a blast to play cards with. We even got some Rock-Scissors-Paper going at the table. He was talking about playing a hand he called "Witchita Slick". Apparently, it's 7-4. Obviously, it's not in the top 10% of hands, heck, it's not even in the top half, but our table sure had some fun with it. When he brought it up initially someone got dealt it, and they played it like Aces. Then, every now and then a board would show up where Witchita Slick would have hit it. Well, the topic would come up, and someone else would get dealt it and play it. Heck, even I got it once and reraised preflop with it, got called, and then bet the flop to take down a pot. It sure made the game lively!<br />
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I worked my $400 buy in up to about $700 over a couple hours, and got caught bluffing once to have my stack dip back down a lot. The big hand in the session came when my stack was at $455. I was in middle position and was dealt Tens. Mr. Witchita Slick had raised to $20 and the player to my right had called that, so I called with Tens. The player on my left also called, and the next player reraised to $125. When the action got back to Mr. Witchita he called; the player between he and I folded, but I decided to make the call. The last player to act folded and off to the flop we went. The other two players in the hand both had me covered in chips, so I figured that if I hit my Ten I'd be able to double up my stack. Well the flop was very kind to me. It came T-8-3, giving me top set. Both Mr. Witchita and I checked to the preflop raiser who bet $275. After some thought Mr. Witchita called, and I moved all in for $330, knowing that both players would have to call that, which they did. They both checked the turn and the river, which came 5 and Jack, respectively. I turned over my pair of Tens to show my set. Neither player decided to show what they had, and I had just tripled up! My session lasted a little while longer. I left when Dan found me after busting when his JJ was cracked by someone else's 8-6 (all action preflop). I had just over $1600 at that point so even though I hadn't cashed in the tournaments I played in earlier I still had a profitable day. I came, I saw, I conquered!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-8830102732664858562010-06-26T23:10:00.001-05:002010-07-01T16:43:54.704-05:00Playing for Some Larger StakesWell, I was hoping that I got all my "bad" poker out of my system on Friday, after having not cashed in the WSOP event and then going "on tilt" to a certain extent in my cash game session afterwords. Dan and I got up early to hit the Bellagio's breakfast buffet and made our way over to the sports book to watch the USA play Ghana in its World Cup match. What a disappointment that was! It was a shame since we had a really good atmosphere in the sports book. Every seat was taken in the room, and the people had lined up about 5 people deep just watching the game on the giant screens. The game itself was exciting, it was just a very disappointing outcome.<br />
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I had brought a larger bankroll to Vegas for playing in cash games and tournaments this time thanks to how well I was doing back home. It was now time to put some of that to the test so I decided to sit down in the Bellagio's $5/$10 No-Limit Hold 'em game. Aside from the blinds being higher than at the $2/$5 game, the rake is done differently. At every dealer change, which occurs every half hour, the dealer collects $6 from each player and that's what the house gets instead of raking a percentage of the pot. I like this format since every player is then equally paying the rake, and not just the person winning each hand. The range of buy-in amount is slightly different for this game, too, having a range of $400 - $1500 for the initial buy in. The $2/$5 game has a range of $100 - $500. I decided to buy in for $700, and I was seated. They actually had a good number of tables that were running $5/$10. They also use orange $10 chips at the $5/$10 game, so the stacks don't look too much different in size from the ones at the $2/$5 tables, but those stacks add up pretty quick!<br />
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The action started slow for me, since I really wanted to have a good feel for the table before getting too many chips involved in a large pot. Once I had won a couple hands and dragged a couple smaller pots I started to feel in my comfort zone. It was around this time that I picke up 8-8 and raised it up to $40 preflop. I was called by three other players, which is almost never good when you're holding a middle pair like 8s. The flop helped me out tremendously: 6-7-8. I decided to lead out at this board since it was a pretty coordinated board and even though I had top set I was vulnerable to a couple of draws. After I bet $90, the short stack at the table called, and another player reraised it to $240. Once the action was back on me I decided to reraise it to $560. Even if I'm behind (and I'm only behind to T-9, 5-4, and 9-5) I still have outs to catch the full house, and this is the type of hand that I'll play strong because of its combined strength and drawing potential. Well, the all in called for his remaining $200, and after some serious thought, the guy who raised to $240 folded. I never found out what either player had, but the all in lost, and the other guy said he would have lost, so I dragged a very nice pot there.<br />
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It wasn't too much later that I picked up the 8c-6c and decided to raise it to $40 from late position. The player in the small blind called, and the big blind folded, so it was heads up to the flop, which came: J-6-4. Now I wasn't crazy about getting called preflop, but now that I've hit a piece of the flop I decided it's worth a bet so I bet $50. I was called immediately, and I already had it in my mind to be done with the hand. The turn card changed all that as the dealer put a 6 out for me on the turn. It was checked to me, and I was now hoping that my opponent had a hand with a Jack so I could squeeze a few more dollars out of him. I bet $110, and he raised it to $260. I put on a little show to think about it, plus I was trying to figure out an amount that I thought he might call, and decided to raise it to $510. He moved all in for a total of about $820, and I called that. I turned out he had pocket Aces and was slow playing them. Well, there was no Ace to save him on the river, and now I had dragged another really nice pot.<br />
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Shortly after this, I picked up pocket Kings. A player in early position raised to $30 and there was a caller, so I repopped the bet to $110. When it got back to the first raiser he thought for a minute before reraising it to $220, which was almost a minimum raise. This caused me to go in to the tank. He only had about $700 when the hand started. If I raised to $450 here, which would be normal (3x the bet), there's almost no way I can fold for the remaining $250 so it would make sense to put him all in. But if I put him all in and he snap calls I know he has Aces and I'm dead. Now, I don't think I'm going to fold Kings here no matter what, but I wanted to make sure I had that option in case he put in a 5th raise. I ultimately decided to raise it to $330. That way if he went all in I would still have the option to save the $370 it would take to call that. I might still call anyways, but I wanted to give myself the option. Moving all in takes that option away. Well, he thought for a minute before folding and I was now dragging another very nice pot; this time without any board being put out. This might be one of the few hands where I've ever even considered folding Kings preflop. I still don't know if I'd have done it, but I certainly would have put some thought in to it, that's for sure.<br />
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There was one more significant hand that I got this session, and that was pocket Aces shortly after those Kings. The guy whose Aces I cracked earlier had raised to $40 from early position. There were two callers before it got to me, and when I saw I had AA, I pushed it to $150. The original raiser thought for a moment or two, and pushed it to $400. The other players folded, and I went in to the tank again. I wasn't sure if he had a hand or was making a play because I had gotten him earlier, but he had just put in about half his stack, so I set him all in. He chucked his hand at that point, but that was still another healthy pot to drag in to my stack.<br />
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After it was all said and done, I had $3208 in front of me, for a nice little profit of just over $2500 for the session. It wasn't bad for the 5 hours I put in there. I was really looking forward to some more action on Sunday over at the Venetian.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-20207977894910522182010-06-25T22:00:00.003-05:002010-07-01T15:32:43.966-05:00Nut Low!Playing poker while your irritated is something you shouldn't do, and one of these days I'll learn that lesson. After being eliminated from the World Series of Poker Event #45 I decided that I'd sit down at one of the cash games in the Rio's spacious room. I signed up for the $2/$5 No-Limit game, and it took about 15 minutes for me to get a seat.<br />
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My cash game session turned in to a quick nightmare for me as in the first three hands I was dealt two pocket pairs that turned in to sets (three of a kind) and an Ace-Ten hand that made two pair with the board. The net result of those first three hands: -$650. Yikes! I spent the next hour trying to recover some of that and was doind a decent job of that when the following hand was dealt. I looked down and saw the 5d 3d. I often times will play suited connectors like this as they play very well against big hands of players that don't look for these types of hands to be played. Well, when I limped and three others limped I thought I was going to see the flop cheaply, but the player on the button had other ideas. He raised it to $25. I knew that at least one of the other three players was calling so I got my $20 in to the pot. The flop hit: K - 4 - 7, with two diamonds. Now I didn't have anything, but I was drawing to a flush with my diamonds and a gutshot straight draw, needing a 6 to complete the straight. I checked, with the plan of check-raising the preflop raiser. The next opponent checked, and the preflop raiser bet $60. I moved all in for $325, and the player squeezed between those two bets called the all in. This got the original raiser out of the hand and showed his QQ as he folded. The turn was a 9, and the river was a 2. Neither was a diamond. My opponent looked at me and said, "You're good. Your hand is way good." He was also waiting for me to turn over my hand. My only response was, "I don't think so. I've got the nut low." In poker, the best possible hand in combination with the board is referred to as the nuts and the worst possible hand is referred to often as the "nut low". Well, I had the nut low, so the +$700 pot went to the guy holding 6-high!! Ironically enough, that was the 3rd nut low for that board. The original raiser just commented on how "sick" the two of us must be to be playing the way we were.<br />
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My session didn't have much rebound to it, and before the session was over I found myelf down $1061. The trip was taking a turn for the worse, but it would be the last time I would leave a cash game down for the remainder of the trip.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-80693879857927394242010-06-25T16:00:00.007-05:002010-07-01T15:07:31.176-05:00WSOP Event #45Dan and I arrived at the Rio early enough to get breakfast, and we were both very pumped up about the event we were playing. I had never started a World Series event with as many chips as I was going to be starting with today. The way the events are set up you get 3x your buy-in in chips, so for our event each player would receive 4500 chips. Blind levels last an hour each, and our event started with the blinds at 25/50. In 2006, the year that Dan and I both managed to cash, we actually started our $1500 event with 1500 chips. In 2007 they changed it so that you received double your buy-in in chips, and starting last year they changed it again to triple the buy-in as it is now (last year Dan and I got in a $1000 event). <br />
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I found myself seated at Table 132, seat 9 for the start of the tournament. There were no recognizable pros at my table, and things started slowly for me. We did have two empty seats at the start of the tournament, with one of them being not sold yet, and another seat just being a player who was late. It was when this late player arrived that I got in to some trouble. Early in a tournament I'm usually going to try and only play premium hands for raises and play smaller hands for limps and hope to make monsters. Well, I was dealt pocket 8s on the hand when the player in seat 2 arrived and I called a raise of 150 from a player in the 6 seat. The player in seat 2 raised it to 425, which wasn't even 3x the first raise, but seat 6 folded. Since this was the guy's first hand I didn't want to just let him run over the table, and I just didn't believe he had sat down in to a big hand. Not that it can't happen, but it's unlikely, so I called. The flop was: K-9-7 of three different suits. He had to act first and he led out for 625. I thought about it for about 30-45 seconds, but I decided I thought he didn't have anything and raised to 1825. I left myself with about 1850 chips. He thought about it for about 2 minutes. I was just getting ready to call a clock on him when he moved all in. You can call a clock on your opponent at which point he has 60 seconds to make a decision. If no decision is made the player's hand is then folded. Well, he was now putting me to a decision for all my chips, and I didn't want to go broke with a pair of 8s while looking at that board so I folded. I then watched him raise and/or reraise the next 7 hands he played. I know that he couldn't have gotten good hands on all of them, so I really don't know if I made a good fold or not, but I figured I'd have opportunities later on to double up and get right back in it. <br />
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Over the next hour plus I ended up being all in four times. I only got called once, and it was when I had Ace-King. The player calling was the same player from the hand described above and he had Ace-Queen. My hand held up, and now I was back up to 3750 in chips. It was about one orbit after this when I was two seats to the right of the button and was dealt the 5h 4h. Because the aggressive player (seat 2) was in the big blind I decided to limp and then reevaluate if he decided to raise. Well, the small blind in seat 1 limped and seat 2 decided to check and see the flop. The flop was: Ac 2h 3c. Combined with my hand this was a straight. It was also the best possible flop I could have seen. Both of the blinds checked to me, and I bet 400 chips into the 450 chip pot. If you're wondering why I bet here it's because I often find that it's very difficult to improve a straight, and often times when you hit a straight your opponents may have hit the board since none of those cards will be in your hand when you flop the straight. Also, in this case, I knew that seat 2's aggressiveness might pay off for me if he decided to try and take it away from me by raising. Well, seat 2 never got that chance as seat 1 moved all in. Seat 2 folded, and I snap called the all in. Seat 1 was holding As 2c for two pair. With the board as it was I was a 77% favorite to win. The Ah on the turn changed all that, giving my opponent a full house. I wasn't drawing completely dead though as I could still catch the 3h to make a straight flush. Alas, my card didn't get there. I had my opponent covered, and it left me with 525 chips while the blinds were at 75/150. I then went out very shortly after that as the blinds hit me, with me being unable to improve the QT that I was dealt in the big blind against my opponents Jacks. I found this to be very reminiscent of my 2008 WSOP, when <a href="http://facespokerroom.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-safe-to-say-its-not-favorite.html">I took a beat that was pretty bad very early in the event</a>. After discussing it with Dan, we did determine that this beat was slightly worse, although I certainly couldn't fault the other player for thinking that his two pair was good in that situation. So another World Series was done, but once the World Series is done it's now time to focus on the cash games, of which I did <b>plenty</b>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-40861805115727569062010-06-24T23:59:00.001-05:002010-07-01T12:05:04.894-05:00A Fine Arrival in VegasWe arrived in Las Vegas late in the afternoon on Thursday. We caught our shuttle to the Bellagio where we checked in and dropped off our luggage. We then headed over to the Rio so that we could register for Friday's $1500 No Limit Texas Hold 'em event. Amazingly there were no lines during any of this process. Usually the check in lines at the hotels in Las Vegas are notoriously long, but we got very lucky. We spent a little bit of time walking around the Rio's Convention Center, visiting the Amazon Room, the large room that was now being used as the room that the events move to after their initial starting location, the Pavilion Room. When we got to the Pavilion Room I just couldn't believe how large the room was. It had over 300 tables in the room, and there was still plenty of walking space and the tables didn't seem to be too crowded amongst each other, either.<br />
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After getting familiar with the new setup of the convention center we registered for the event and got our names on the cash game list. I was called first, and was seated on the far side from where the board was that contained the lists. After sitting at this table for just a couple minutes I could tell that this was a good table at which to be. I played a few hands and then my friend Dan got seated at the same table. Figures. I travel 2000+ miles to play poker, there's 20 tables running the cash game we both want to play, and he gets called to my table. Table change requests can be made, but I had already witnessed too much awful play to consider leaving so I just decided to deal with it. <br />
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Well, this ended up working out very well for me. Before the end of the night I was up $850. I got dealt some good hands, having gotten dealt AA two or three times and also was dealt KK twice. One of the times I got pocket Aces I was against the "perfect" player for the hand. He was a player who would call a lot of hands preflop, but never raised. His girlfriend/wife was sitting behind him and watching the action, too. Well, after he called my preflop raise and then he bet in to me on the flop I knew that I was going to have a chance at a big pot. We got it all in on the flop, and I never even got to see what he had because after the board paired the turn and an Ace hit on the river I turned over my AA to show the full house I now had.<br />
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I picked up another decent-sized pot when I reraised a pot preflop with AK suited. One of the players on my right called my reraise, and the flop came: 5-5-5. Once again, even though I was the preflop raiser the other player bet in to me. Usually when this happens it's because the player is trying to "feel" out where they are at in the hand, so I sent a message by reraising enough to put him all in. He called, so now I figured he had a pair and I'd need an Ace or King to get there. What I didn't count on was the 5 that came on the turn. This actually gave me the nuts! It turned out he had 6-6, so I now had him outkicked with our quads.<br />
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There was one other pot that was sort of fun, and that was one where I had 6-4 offsuit. I picked up a pair on the flop, where I called a player's bet, and then picked up a double-gutshot straight draw card on the turn, so I raised the player to steal it but got called. The river got there so when I bet it she really didn't see the straight. In fact, after she called and I turned my hand over, she had to look long and eventually I had to point out that the 4 in my hand gave me a straight, which disgusted her to no end and she left.<br />
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All of these hands got the trip started off on the right note as I finished that session up $850. We called it quits sort of early knowing that we'd be starting our event at noon the next day.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-52544395179454265062010-06-23T20:28:00.004-05:002010-06-24T06:17:31.739-05:00My World Series Trip Begins Tomorrow!<span style="font-size: 85%;"></span><br />
I always get excited at this time of year. I think part of it is because whenever I head out to Vegas for the World Series of Poker I'm brimming with confidence, ready to take on whatever gets thrown at me. I think part of it is being out there with so many other people that all have the same dream while they're out there: to win a WSOP bracelet. I think part of it is getting to see some of the best poker players in the world playing in the highest stakes series of tournaments for that year. I think part of it is knowing that I've got a chance; it may not be as much of a chance as a player like Phil Ivey might have, but I'll be sitting at that table with the best of them, and as long as I am, I'll still have a chance.<br><br><br />
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Anyway, we head out tomorrow, and I'm real excited to be getting out there. World Series, here I come!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-79004085397784601392010-06-09T12:01:00.002-05:002010-06-23T12:02:55.171-05:00One Last Really Good Run at PotoWhen I went to Potowatomi on Friday I went down full of confidence, but I was telling myself to not play too reckless just because I was running well. I decided that I would just enjoy watching the Brewers game on the monitors, and was planning on leaving shortly after that. Well, the table I got seated at appeared to have much of the same idea. Not a lot of players were getting involved in large pots, and I spent most of the first three hours that I was there in a range between being down $120 and up $180.<br /><br />As the game ended I noticed a couple players getting ready to rack up and leave, and that a couple players that were waiting for a table were regulars that I feel play loose. Well, two of those players got seated at our table so I decided to hang around for a while, and I was glad I did. The first big hand that came up after that point was one where I was dealt Q – J in one of the blinds. There was a raise to $25, one of the loose players called, and I decided to make the call. One of the things to note about the loose player that called in this hand is that he likes to make a move where he calls a bet on the flop, and then will try to raise big on the turn to take down a decent-sized pot. I recalled this when the flop came Q – 5 – 2. The preflop raiser bet $55, and the loose player called. Now, I could be beat there, but I looked at it like this: if the preflop raiser is continuation betting and the loose player is setting up his move I very easily could have the best hand. With the bets that were in there the pot was $190 and it was $55 to call, so I thought it’s an easy call here, and I can reevaluate on the turn. Well, the turn was a great card for me. It was a Jack, giving me top two pair. I checked, the preflop raiser now checked (confirming the continuation bet theory), and now the loose player bet $200. I check-raised for the remainder of my stack, which was about $415, and after some thought, the loose player made the call of the remaining $215. He stated that he was on a draw, but it didn’t get there because the river was a Jack, giving me a full house. I raked in a nice pot there.<br /><br />I had a hand that came up that I have to talk about just because it was such a rarity. I was dealt the 3s – 4s in the small blind. Two players limped (the two loose ones), so I limped as well. The flop was: 7s – 6s – 5s. This gave me a straight flush! Now I’ve <a href="http://facespokerroom.blogspot.com/2010/02/sometimes-it-just-all-works-out.html">made a straight flush before</a>, but I’ve never gotten one with just the flop. I didn’t get much action on the hand, and I only got paid a little on the river because one of the players had the Qs and the turn card for that hand was the Ts. It was still pretty neat to see.<br /><br />I wasn’t done raking pots, though. I picked up the Ah – 2h in a hand where the preflop betting was all limps. The flop there was: Th – 9h – 7h. I had flopped the nut flush. The betting after that was very weird. The early position player bet $15, the next player called that, the next player made a minimum raise to $30, the next player called that, and finally the action was on me. Usually there won’t be four players that would all want to put bets in to a one suit flop, especially since none of them could have the Ah with another heart! Normally, I would have slow played this, but given all the action I figured a raise was appropriate to try and get this hand to at least heads-up play, so I raised to $120. This drove out the first three bettors, but the last player was still thinking about it. I told him “If you’re thinking about it you better have the 8h” (for the straight flush draw). He actually turned over 8 – 8 with one of them being the heart. He decided to fold, and I showed the flush, which I don’t think surprised anyone.<br /><br />I had one last hand in this session that I can go over. I was dealt 6 – 5 and decided to raise because I was in late position and thought I could steal the blinds and limps. I bumped it to $25 preflop and got two callers. This is not what you want when you’re raising with garbage so now I needed to hit something. Well, the flop was nice enough to oblige me by putting out 9 – 8 – 5, giving me bottom pair with a gutter-ball-straight draw. I didn’t say it hit me a lot, but it did hit me. This was good enough in my opinion to follow up with a continuation bet, which I made for $55. Both players called, so I decided to be done with the hand, but everyone checked on the turn when a 2 popped off. Well, the river was very kind to me, and brought me a 7 to complete my straight, but one of the tighter players at the table led out for $90. I actually took some time to contemplate this, especially because of the player who made the bet. He never really bet the river without having the nuts, or near nuts. Now, Jack-Ten actually fit the betting for everything in the hand, and although I don’t play “afraid of the nuts” all the time, I didn’t like the river bet. If I raise and he has me beat, he’s going to reraise since J – T is the stone cold nuts here, and I’ll have lost the extra raise chips. I decided calling was best. Folding really wasn’t an option. It was either call or raise. Well, unexpectedly, the player behind me also called. It turns out the first player had a set of 8s that were no longer good, and the other player had two pair (which makes sense why he also called), so my straight was good and I picked up a healthy pot! It doesn’t seem like there was a lot of betting there, but because it was a 3-way pot the pot ended being over $500! It was a nice way to wrap up the session.<br /><br />My confidence was still riding high, and I felt ready to take on Vegas. Time to bring on the World Series of Poker!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-81346086724747376552010-06-05T14:49:00.007-05:002010-06-23T12:05:11.641-05:00I Can Dodge Bullets, Baby!<span style="font-size:100%;">I have some greater detail about the last two sessions at Potowatomi. I decided to jot some notes down to put some hands in the blog. My run these last couple of weeks has been incredible. I ran off at least 10 consecutive sessions without reporting a loss. Not all of the sessions were huge, but to have that many consecutive sessions without losing was pretty nice. No matter how hot you’re running, you expect that at some point you’re going to take a loss. I kept waiting for that shoe to drop.<br /><br />I was able to get off to a quick start when I was able to double my $400 buy in when I was dealt Aces and took it up against a player who’s very aggressive and plays drawing hands very strongly on a regular basis. Things slowed down for me a little, and even took an unexpected turn for the worse when I made a set. Here was the scenario: I was dealt 3-3 and limped before the flop. The player on my immediate left made it $25, and at least 3 other players had called that bet so when the action was back on me I decided to call. The river was a complete brick for me (K-J-7). The action was checked to the preflop raiser, who now bet $30! This was a very small bet in relation to the size of the pot (the pot had $150 in it). Everyone folded around to the player on my right, and he called. After some brief thought I also called that bet. You might be wondering why I did that. Well, after the bets that were out on the table the pot was now $210. It was going to cost me $30 to win that, and if I hit I’m likely to get paid a lot more than that. So the 7 to 1 that the pot was laying me in addition to any other money that I could get would make the call worth it, and if I don’t hit it’s a pretty easy hand to throw away if I don’t hit. Well, the turn was a 3, giving me bottom set. The player on my right and I both checked to the preflop raiser, and he checked as well. The river was a heart, putting three hearts on the board. The player on my right now bet $75. I decided to raise with my set to $150. He then thought about it for a while and raised it back to me another $150. I thought about reraising, but after going through several scenarios I thought it was better to call. The scenarios I thought about were: Scenario #1: He also flopped a big hand, possibly a set, and was slowplaying the flop and turn. The way the betting went that made sense. Scenario #2: He has two pair, and thinks it’s good. I can beat that. Scenario #3: He somehow made a flush. The betting fits the story, but the cards don’t seem to fit that story. Well, my hand was too good to fold, but I didn’t think it was strong enough to raise here. I was right, but it still cost me. He had a heart flush. It turned out he had the Kh Qh, so he flopped top pair, and the 3h on the turn picked up the flush draw. He and I had similar stacks, so looking back on it it was probably good I checked the turn because he wasn’t going to fold there, and I would have just lost more money at the river.<br /><br />Things continued the downward trend when I was dealt the Ah Kh a little while later. We had a new arrival at the table who had about $2100 in chips and had everyone covered. He was also raising and reraising almost every hand, so when I was dealt big slick (AK) I decided to limp and wait for him to raise. He obliged by raising to $30, and then I repopped it to $105. He called. Once he called there I knew he had a legitimate hand so I felt I needed to hit the flop. The flop was K-6-4. I bet $185, leaving myself $200 and was prepared to get the rest in if he raised. He called, and before the turn card was dealt I put my remaining chips in “blind”. He also called that. It turns out he had picked up a big hand, pocket Kings, and after the 6 on the turn gave him a full house I was now drawing dead going to the river.<br /><br />I bought in again for $400, and since it was getting late in the poker room I started to get a little more aggressive. I limped with 2d 6d from under the gun, and as the action went around the table the tightest guy at the table raised it to $25. This guy was soooo tight. He hadn’t raised all night. Another player was already calling, so I threw my $20 in there, too. The flop was pretty good considering the trash I was holding: 2x – 8d – Jd, giving me bottom pair and a flush draw. I checked, and when he bet $75 at the flop I shoved all in for $350. He thought about it for a while, and I was almost certain he had Aces, so I said to him, “I had you on Aces or Kings.” He continued to think, and so I asked him if he’d like to see a card. He didn’t turn me down, so I reached down and turned over the 2d, which I knew was on top. I actually would have had no problem if he called, since with my flush draw I also had a two pair draw and a trips draw, for a total of 14 outs, making the situation about a coin flip (49.8% to 50.2% to be exact). He showed Aces and folded. I then showed the 6d just to rub it in a little. He said he thought I had a set of 2s.<br /><br />Well, that got me some chips, but I still had a ways to go. I picked up 5-4 offsuit shortly after that, and after a 6-5-3 flop, got all my chips in against another player. He called, and he tabled 6-5 for top two pair. I spiked my 2 by the river and made my straight to double up. It was shortly after this where I absolutely got away with one that I shouldn’t have gotten away with at all. I was dealt T-T and limped before the flop, as did 3 other players. After the flop was 9 – 8 – 3 I was pretty sure my overpair of Tens was good. The early player, who was also the guy who folded the Aces earlier bet $15 in to the $20 pot. The next player called the $15, and I bumped it to $75. It got back to the $15 “bettor”, and he made a comment about how “sick” I was. I think he thought I had two pair or a set of something. He only had $175 left, and I would have called if he put the rest in the pot. Well, he shows the player on his right his hand before he folds, and I noticed that the player to whom he showed his cards nearly had his eyes bug out of his head. The last player folded, and then I was told that he had Aces…again!! I almost couldn’t believe it. I never put him on it because he limped with them preflop, and since I had the overpair I thought I was good. Usually if you limp with Aces preflop you’re trying to trap somebody. Well, the guy did everything he was supposed to…except put the rest of his stack in the middle. It was unreal. I was thankful to have him at the table, since he obviously thought the nuts was always in play.<br /><br />I quit shortly after that, very thankful to be on the positive side of the ledger for the evening. Apparently, to quote Phil Hellmuth, "I can dodge bullets, baby!"</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-31469955267979040232010-05-26T11:32:00.005-05:002010-06-22T15:38:44.116-05:00Time to Build a Bankroll<span style="font-size:85%;"><o:smarttagtype style="font-family: arial;" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype style="font-family: arial;" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">As I get ready for the 2010 World Series of Poker I’ve been playing some poker at the local casino, Potowatomi Casino, which is located near downtown <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Milwaukee</st1:place></st1:city>.<span style=""> </span>The No Limit Hold ‘em game that they spread there is primarily a $3-$5 game, meaning that the small blind is $3 and the big blind is $5.<span style=""> </span>When a player buys in to the game they can buy in anywhere from $200 - $600, but no more than $600.<span style=""> </span>When I buy in to the game I buy in for $400, so I’m right in the middle of that range.<span style=""> </span>I was trying to keep a “regular” schedule of playing on Tuesdays and Fridays.<span style=""> </span>On Tuesdays they run a poker promotion that usually drew a decent number of players to the room, and Fridays tend to be the busiest night in the poker room.<span style=""> </span>I had a very fortunate run at the casino that ran from about the middle of April to the beginning of June.<span style=""> </span>This, of course, worked out very well for me since I was trying to build my bankroll for going to <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Las Vegas</st1:place></st1:city> near the end of June.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I don’t have details from every session, but I can give you some of the highlights of some of the larger hands.<span style=""> </span>I had a session that wasn’t going particularly well for me one night.<span style=""> </span>I was in to my second buy in and only had that $400 in front of me, so I was down about $400.<span style=""> </span>I was in seat 6, and the player in seat 2 was playing at me aggressively because I had shown him a bluff earlier and I think he was trying to “even the score”.<span style=""> </span>In this hand I was dealt 8-8.<span style=""> </span>I had limped, and was able to see the flop cheaply along with 5 other players, including seat 2.<span style=""> </span>The flop came 8-7-4, giving me top set.<span style=""> </span>Normally in this situation I would check the flop and hope for someone to bet, but since seat 2 was in the hand and was raising me almost every time I bet the flop since the “bluff” hand I decided that betting here would also prompt that same response.<span style=""> </span>I led out for $65, and when he repopped it to $155, I moved all in for the remainder of my chips.<span style=""> </span>Seat 2 had me covered (he had approximately $1300 in his own stack).<span style=""> </span>He called almost instantly, which actually startled me momentarily in to thinking that maybe I got unlucky and he was holding 5-6 (which would be a straight), but he was holding 9-6 for an open-ended straight draw.<span style=""> </span>The draw didn’t get there, and I dragged home that pot.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Winning that pot got me just back to the “plus” side, even though I had just over $800 in front of me.<span style=""> </span>I got involved in a very large pot almost immediately after that.<span style=""> </span>In fact, it was only two hands after the hand I just described, which is partially why it’s so shocking.<span style=""> </span>In this hand I was dealt 5-5 and was in early position.<span style=""> </span>I had limped with the hand, and the player in seat 9 made it $20 to go.<span style=""> </span>Seat 9 had been playing <i style="">very</i> tight.<span style=""> </span>I suspected he might have a large hand, but since it was only another $15 and other players were also calling I also called when it got to me.<span style=""> </span>There ended up being 5 players who saw the flop, including seat 2.<span style=""> </span>The flop came 6-5-2 with two hearts.<span style=""> </span>I had once again flopped a set.<span style=""> </span>This time I decided to check it, figuring that seat 9 would bet and it would give me an opportunity to check-raise him.<span style=""> </span>He only had about $300 in front of him, and since the pot was about $100 already, almost any bet he put out there would pot-commit his stack if he had a big hand like A-A or K-K.<span style=""> </span>Well, the player in seat 8 bet before seat 9 got the opportunity.<span style=""> </span>I had played with seat 8 before.<span style=""> </span>In fact, he was on the losing end of the <a href="http://facespokerroom.blogspot.com/2010/02/sometimes-it-just-all-works-out.html">largest pot I ever won</a>, which I talked about in a prior <a href="http://facespokerroom.blogspot.com/2010/02/sometimes-it-just-all-works-out.html">post</a>.<span style=""> </span>He bet $35.<span style=""> </span>I knew he was just fishing for information with that bet.<span style=""> </span>Well, he got his answers very quickly.<span style=""> </span>Seat 9 raised, making it $125.<span style=""> </span>This is pretty much what I expected, and I suspected he had Aces.<span style=""> </span>I didn’t expect what happened next.<span style=""> </span>Seat 2 reraised, moving all in for approximately $900!!<span style=""> </span>The player between seat 2 and I folded and I looked back to make sure I had the set of 5s I thought I had.<span style=""> </span>I didn’t think long, but I figured if he actually had 3-4 (for the straight), or 6-6 (for a better set) that he wouldn’t have played it like that.<span style=""> </span>I said, “Well, I call.” and moved my $782 in to the middle of the table. <span style=""> </span>Seat 8 folded, and seat 9 was thinking about it for a while, but while he was thinking about it I could hear seat 2 mumbling/whispering, “Oh, wow, he busted me.”<span style=""> </span>I’ll be honest, I was glad to hear that.<span style=""> </span>Seat 9 eventually gave up the hand, stating that he had Aces.<span style=""> </span>Seat 2 turned over the Ah Qh, for a flush draw, so I still had to fade some cards.<span style=""> </span>No heart got there, and now I was raking in a +$1700 pot!<span style=""> </span>I understood what seat 2 was trying to do, but I think he forgot to account for the other players and their stacks when making his move.<span style=""> </span>I think he figured his “all in” declaration was only putting about $300 in play (which would have covered either seat 8 or seat 9).<span style=""> </span>He could have reraised to $300, at which point I would have still moved all in, but he might have been able to throw it away and save almost another $500.<span style=""> </span>He still might have called with his flush draw, but by moving all in he gave himself no option to do that, and as it turned out, I was just fine with that.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-7914292577477791392010-05-01T10:59:00.000-05:002010-06-22T11:29:53.032-05:002010 WSOP just around the corner<span style="font-family:arial;">If you follow the blog you've noticed that I haven't been posting a lot. Well, now that the 2010 World Series of Poker is about to begin that's going to change. I've been working on building the bankroll for the trip, and most of that has come through playing at Milwaukee's own Potowatomi Poker Room, which I refer to as Poto for short. In my last </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://facespokerroom.blogspot.com/2010/02/sometimes-it-just-all-works-out.html">post</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> I discussed a huge hand with which I got involved. Shortly after that hand occurred, I went up to the Wisconsin State Bowling Tournament and tore the MCL in my right knee in an "accident" that occurred while up in the Fox Valley area. Due to the brace that I had to wear and the pain I had in the knee, I took some time off from playing at Poto. I've been out of the brace for about a month now so I've been trying to keep a regular schedule of playing there, and it's been working out for me so far.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I'm almost afraid to discuss it in too much detail, because I've just been on an incredible "heater" down at the poker room and I don't want to jinx it. The bankroll for the WSOP trip is shaping up nicely, and I'm really looking forward to this year's World Series of Poker. This will be the 5th consecutive year that Dan and I have made the trek to Vegas for this poker extravaganza. In our prior trips, we have typically gone out to Vegas for the opening of the World Series. This year due to some scheduling conflicts that wasn't possible so we are heading out near the end of June. I've been looking at the <a href="http://www.wsop.com/tourney/tourneydetails.asp?groupID=764">schedule of events</a>, and it looks like we will be out there for all of the following events:</span><br /><br /><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="765px"><tbody><tr><td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc" height="50" width="120px"><b>Fri, Jun 25th</b><br /><b>12:00 PM</b><br />3-Day Event </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" width="2px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" width="2px" /> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 10px;" width="593px"> <strong> Event #45: No-Limit Hold’em<br /> </strong> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10866-structure.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Structure Sheet</a> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10866-prereg.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(186, 36, 22);"> Pre-Register Now</a> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="65"> <br /></td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="90"> $1,500 </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="50px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" height="1px" width="48px" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc" height="50" width="120px"> <b>Fri, Jun 25th</b><br /><b>5:00 PM</b><br />3-Day Event </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" width="2px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" width="2px" /> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 10px;" width="593px"> <strong> Event #46: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better<br /> </strong> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10867-structure.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Structure Sheet</a> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10867-prereg.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(186, 36, 22);"> Pre-Register Now</a> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="65"> <br /></td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="90"> $5,000 </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="50px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" height="1px" width="48px" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc" height="50" width="120px"> <b>Sat, Jun 26th</b><br /><b>12:00 PM</b><br />4-Day Event </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" width="2px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" width="2px" /> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 10px;" width="593px"> <strong> Event #47: No-Limit Hold’em<br /> </strong> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10868-structure.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Structure Sheet</a> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10868-prereg.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(186, 36, 22);"> Pre-Register Now</a> <br /><br /> <small><i>This event may take 4 playing days & 5 calendar days to complete depending on field size.</i></small> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="65"> <br /></td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="90"> $1,000 </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="50px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" height="1px" width="48px" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc" height="50" width="120px"> <b>Sat, Jun 26th</b><br /><b>5:00 PM</b><br />3-Day Event </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" width="2px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" width="2px" /> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 10px;" width="593px"> <strong> Event #48: Mixed Event<br /> </strong> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10869-structure.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Structure Sheet</a> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10869-prereg.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(186, 36, 22);"> Pre-Register Now</a> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="65"> <br /></td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="90"> $2,500 </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="50px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" height="1px" width="48px" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc" height="50" width="120px"> <b>Sun, Jun 27th</b><br /><b>12:00 PM</b><br />8-Day Event </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" width="2px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" width="2px" /> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 10px;" width="593px"> <strong> WSOP Tournament of Champions<br /> </strong> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10967-structure.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Structure Sheet</a> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="65"> <br /></td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="90"> freeroll </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="50px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" height="1px" width="48px" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc" height="50" width="120px"> <b>Mon, Jun 28th</b><br /><b>12:00 PM</b><br />3-Day Event </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" width="2px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" width="2px" /> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 10px;" width="593px"> <strong> Event #49: No-Limit Hold'em<br /> </strong> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10870-structure.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Structure Sheet</a> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10870-prereg.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(186, 36, 22);"> Pre-Register Now</a> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="65"> <br /></td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="90"> $1,500 </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="50px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" height="1px" width="48px" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc" height="50" width="120px"> <b>Mon, Jun 28th</b><br /><b>5:00 PM</b><br />3-Day Event </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" width="2px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" width="2px" /> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 10px;" width="593px"> <strong> Event #50: Pot-Limit Omaha<br /> </strong> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10871-structure.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Structure Sheet</a> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10871-prereg.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(186, 36, 22);"> Pre-Register Now</a> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="65"> <br /></td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="90"> $5,000 </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="50px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" height="1px" width="48px" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 10px;" align="center" bgcolor="#cccccc" height="50" width="120px"> <b>Tue, Jun 29th</b><br /><b>12:00 PM</b><br />3-Day Event </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" width="2px"> <img src="http://www.wsop.com/images/spacer.gif" width="2px" /> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 10px;" width="593px"> <strong> Event #51: Triple Chance No-Limit Hold’em<br /> </strong> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10872-structure.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Structure Sheet</a> <a href="http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/2010/10872-prereg.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(186, 36, 22);"> Pre-Register Now</a> </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="65"> <br /></td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="90"> $3,000 </td> <td style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(153, 153, 153);" align="center" width="50px"> <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Now, our flights are scheduled to return home on the 29th, so I would only get in to an event that started on the 28th or 29th if I had a significant cash in a tournament prior to that, or if I won A LOT in the cash games, but it would have to be A LOT. As it stands right now, I plan to enter Event #45. As the trip nears, I'll talk a little more about the winning streak I've been on which will explain where I'm sitting at on the bankroll situation. All I can say right now is I'm REALLY excited about this year's WSOP! Shuffle up and deal already!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-77803516037471144392010-02-17T15:32:00.007-06:002010-02-18T18:31:37.813-06:00Sometimes, It Just All Works OutI know that some of you may have noticed that I haven't been posting as much lately. Sorry about that. I haven't been playing online as much, so I'm not getting nearly as many hands and stories to talk about. I've been enjoying the game down at Potowatomi Casino. They started offering a decent promotion during the football season that enticed me (and lots of poker players) down to the poker room on Monday evenings, and the action was pretty good so I decided to apply my poker bankroll toward playing some more live poker.<br /><br />I had a very interesting session recently, and it involved one of the largest pots I've ever played in a cash game. The session started pretty quickly for me, with me going from my $400 buy-in up to $900 in the first 15 minutes I was at the table. The "big" hand being a hand where a player had straddled. To straddle means that the player that would normally be in the position to act first puts a bet of double the big blind out on the table. In order to play the other players need to call or raise that bet, but the player who straddled gets a chance to raise as well, so it's almost like having three blinds. Also, it's important to note that often times when a player straddles, if no one raises, the straddle will often raise regardless of the cards that he/she is holding. I had observed this particular player do just that the first time he had the opportunity to straddle. This was his second opportunity to straddle, and I had limped holding the Ac 7c. He raised his straddle from $10 to $50, and I elected to call with my moderate hand. Three other players also called, and five of us got to see the flop. It was: Jd 7d 2s. Now, because of the straddle's early position he often times will have to act first. This player immediately bet $75 in to the pot, and quite frankly, I didn't believe that he had anything. I didn't have much myself, but I had already seen two players already pick up their cards and were just waiting to fold, so I decided that a raise would probably take the hand down right then and there. I raised to $250, which was pretty much committing my stack. Everyone else folded except the straddle, who moved all in. He had me covered, and it was only going to cost me my remaining $100 to see the $800 pot so I called. It turned out he had nothing but a couple diamonds and was chasing the flush. He missed, and my measely pair of 7s took down the $900 pot.<br /><br />Shortly after that I was moved to the main game, and that's when the fireworks really started. There were three players at the table that would raise almost every pot to anywhere from $30-$60 preflop. Now, no one can get that many good hands to be able to raise so often, so it was pretty clear that they were just trying to pick up the pots with pure aggression. We had a stretch of hands over a 45-minute period where no pot was under $500. I managed to avoid the "landmines" and worked my stack up to just under $1200 when the hand of the evening came up.<br /><br />I was holding the Qc Jc. I just called the $5, but one of the three aggressive players was on my immediate left, and he raised it up to $40. I will just call him the villain for the purposes of this. He was actually a very nice guy, and I had enjoyed talking with him over the course of the evening so far. He also had around $2200 when the hand started. Everyone else folded, which was unusual, and since I felt his raising range of hands was very wide I decided to call with my hand. The flop was very uneventful: Kc Kh 9d. I really had no piece of this board. Since I missed I checked, fully expecting the villain to bet at which point I would fold and let him have the hand. Well, he checked behind me. The dealer put out the turn card: 9c. Once again, this didn't really help me, but because of the villain's check I didn't think he had much here and I had decided that I would call a smallish bet in an effort to chase down the flush. I checked, and once again the villain checked. The river changed everything. It was the 10c. Combined with my hand I now had a straight flush (9c 10c Jc Qc Kc)!! Unfortunately, the pot was SOOO small and I didn't think the villain had anything. I can't just check there since I have to act first so I fired a bet of $40, just praying that I would get called. Well, the villain thinks for a second then asks me, "So, you flopped the King, did ya?", to which I answered (truthfully), "Honestly, I didn't flop the King." He then paused for another couple seconds before asking, "Well, can I steal it from you?", to which I answered (truthfully again, mind you) "No, you can't steal it from me." You might be wondering why I told the truth. Most people don't ask a direct question about your hand, they'll ask questions similar in meaning like this. I find that telling the truth at a poker table works very well in these situations. No one ever believes what anyone tells at a poker table anyway, right? If he had asked me if I had quads or a straight flush I would have just said nothing, but when someone asks indirect questions like this about my hand I will just always tell the truth (OK...not ALWAYS, but I can't recall the last time I lied in that situation). <br /><br />He paused, and then said "$120". This meant he was raising it to that amount. I now sat back in my chair. At this point I wasn't sure what he had. I knew I was winning, but I had to hope he had a King here. A King would be something that he almost certainly couldn't fold. I can tell you that I thought he was just trying to steal it, and that when I put out the next raise the hand would be over. I even went back to double check my cards to be sure I had the straight flush. After pausing for about a minute I said "$300". Before I finished getting that out he said "All In.", and just as he finished saying that I said, "I Call!" and immediately turned over the straight flush. My opponent had King-Ten for the best possible full house, but that wasn't going to win the hand. I had just won a pot of just under $2400!! Everyone at the table was going nuts talking about it.<br /><br />I played for about another hour, I made a couple more bucks, and it ended up being a very nice session for me. That hand was the single largest hand of poker I ever won. Even I was shaking a little bit after playing a hand like that, and I've played plenty of poker, but....WOW...Sometimes, it just all works out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-20492134537770483212009-12-23T15:24:00.000-06:002009-12-23T15:24:37.032-06:00'Twas the Night Before...<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >I wrote and posted this one year ago and it seemed to get great reviews (and I like it, too), and it's that time of year again, so here is</span> "'Twas the Night Before the Tourney" <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >again:</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >'</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >T</span>was the night before the tourney, when all through the card room<br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Not a rounder was stirring, except at table two<br />The chips were being riffled as each bet was in place,<br />Each player was wondering "Did he have an Ace?"<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >T</span>he players were day-dreaming and trying to get a good read,<br />while they had visions of trapping while having the lead;<br />The dealer was nervous, as was the pit boss,<br />They knew that in this pot lots of chips would be lost;<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >W</span>hen suddenly at the table there arose such a clatter,<br />All the other players ran to see what was the matter;<br />The crowd 'round that table seemed to swell so fast,<br />I knew a monster pot was brewing, someone's stack wasn't going to last.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >O</span>ne player had bet, and another had popped it up<br />The action was to me, and I took a drink from my cup;<br />When I finally peeked at my hole cards, to my wondering eyes should appear,<br />Sure enough, they were Aces, and I took another drink of beer;<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >S</span>o casual and cool, I tried to look,<br />I wanted their stacks, not let my fish off the hook;<br />I made sure not to alarm, I announced "I call"<br />and now it was time to be like a stone wall<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >T</span>he action was back to the original bettor<br />I was hoping his cards were paired with a different letter<br />as I'm sure he'd decide to put in his whole stack<br />and then we'd see if my Aces could be cracked;<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A</span></span>nd he whistled, and spoke, and announced ranks by name;<br />"Do you have Queens, or Kings, or maybe the same?<br />This hand's not that bad, I don't see how I fold!"<br />I guessed he had Jacks, from what he had told;<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >A</span>nd then it got quiet, not a player seemed to move<br />He thought he was slick, he thought he was smooth<br />when he shoved his chips to middle and announced "I'm all in"<br />the other guy folded and I was looking for a nice win.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >I</span> called and tabled Aces, and he his Jacks<br />I now was looking at all those chips and all those big stacks,<br />The dealer put out the flop, it had some paint,<br />One Ten, one Queen, and a Jack, Ugh! I thought I would faint;<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >T</span>hen I noticed something, my only saving grace<br />their suits all were spades, as was my Ace<br />I prayed and prayed as the dealer did burn,<br />and another Jack did he put on the turn.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Q</span>uad Jacks, that's no good, I'm down to one out<br />"C'mon King of Spades! One time!" I gave a shout;<br />The dealer burned a card, the river was comin'<br />If it's not that King, I'm gonna be grumblin'<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >T</span>he dealer spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,<br />and put out that river card, and then jumped with a jerk,<br />as a spade it was, and also a King<br />The unbeatable Royal Flush the river did bring<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >I</span> raked in the pot, it seemed so surreal<br />my opponent seemed upset, it was hard to conceal<br />It was time for me to leave with my new-found stash,<br />so I went to the window with my chips to cash<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >A</span>nd as I left I looked at that table<br />No one could believe it, "Lucky" was my new label<br />And then I said to them, before I ducked out of sight,<br />"Better luck to you all, Merry Christmas, and good night!"<br /></div><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >A little cheeky, perhaps, but it was still lots of fun writing this one. I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-66647625959219172292009-11-18T13:07:00.011-06:002010-01-10T18:37:36.394-06:00Final Table at the Bellagio<p>I found myself at the final table of the Bellagio’s daily tournament somewhere in the middle of the pack with chips. There was one clear chip leader, and he was seated to my immediate left. I was in Seat 9, and he was in Seat 1. I was hoping that he was a tight player so that I would be able to raise most of the table to pick up chips without much resistance. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find that out right away because the player in Seat 3, who appeared to be 2nd overall in chips, was getting involved in a lot of pots early. The short stack was eliminated fairly quickly, but when we got to eight players, no one was so short that they were going to be forced all in immediately.</p><p><br />I started picking up some hands and was able to start raising, but if the big stack was in one of the blinds he would call me every time. Over the course of the entire final table I believe he only folded to me if he was in the blinds once. I managed to eliminate the player finishing in 8th place when his J-J ran in to my Q-Q. I picked up some blinds from people other than the big stack, then I would get involved in a hand with the big stack and I’d lose what I had won earlier to him. This cycle seemed to continue for a while. I was getting hands that I think most people would raise with when going up against the blinds. One time I had Ace-Ten when he called me with King-4. I would miss the flop and we’d end up checking it down, but he managed to hit the ‘4’ for the win. I wasn’t about to get too involved with the big stack since he could afford to take a shot to eliminate me if he so chose, but I wasn’t going to stop raising with good hands. I managed to lose to him in blind battles with Ace-Queen, King-Queen, Ace-Ten, and pocket 9s (the board flopped all over cards). I know I lost some more in there, but I remember those because I would keep showing them to prove I wasn’t trying to bluff the big stack. I do think that it gave me some credibility as I picked up the other player’s blinds.</p><p><br />I thought I was going to win a big pot when we got down to 7-handed play when a player limped from early position. I looked down and saw 8-8 and also decided to limp. I had just raised the last two hands and I didn’t want someone to come over the top of me “just because” they didn’t believe me since 8-8 is only a mediocre hand. The guy on the button called, and the blinds limped. The flop came:</p><p><br />Q-J-8<br /><br />giving me a set of 8s! With the two over cards I thought for sure that someone would have hit that so I led out with a bet of 8k. The guy on the button thought for about 2 minutes before folding. Everyone else folded! I couldn’t believe that everyone had missed that board! I took out the next player with A-Q v A-J. Then we were down to the bubble. There were two short stacks, three medium stacks of which I was one, and then there was the one BIG stack. Well one of the short stacks moved all in for about 35k when I looked down and saw A-A. I called immediately, got no action from anyone else, and he sheepishly turned over his K-5 hoping that he had live cards. Unfortunately, his timing was bad. He went out on the bubble and now we were all in the money. The next short stack went out a couple hands after that and took home $830.<br /><br />I managed to double up the next shortest stack when my A-K couldn’t improve against an opponent’s small pocket pair. This actually put me on the short stack with about 40k in chips. Two hands later I was on the button with 9-7. It’s not a great hand, but if I get called here I’m pretty sure my cards would be live so I decided to shove all in to steal the blinds. Well, I was called by the big blind and, for the first time in the tournament, I was now all in and at risk. My opponent showed K-J, so as I guessed my cards were live. The flop was:<br /><br />K-9-5<br /><br />hitting both of us for a pair. The turn was:<br /><br />8 </p><p><br />and the river was:<br /><br />6!!! </p><p><br />giving me a straight and doubling me up!!! The guy who lost that hand was now crippled and went out within the next four hands to the big stack and received about $1600 for his efforts, and with play now three-handed these were the chip counts: </p><p><br />Big Stack 330k<br />Other player 136k<br />Me 110k<br /><br />I proposed the idea of a chop where we would split up the $14k in the prize pool based off of chip counts. The big stack was in favor of the idea. The other player didn’t understand the idea of a chop so he didn’t want to do that, even though his buddies were trying to encourage him to take the chop. On the next hand he lost 35k to the big stack when the big stack moved all in on his raise. The shorter stack folded Ace-Queen there! I offered the chop one more time, since I figured that the other short stack and I would both get about the same as 2nd place money was supposed to be. We all agreed, and since I was now in front of the other stack I ended up taking 2nd place in the tournament. The approximate payouts for those last three spots were:<br /><br />1st place - $6700<br />2nd place - $3730 (me)<br />3rd place - $3600<br /><br />Third place was originally supposed to be $2480 and second place was supposed to be $4100 so I thought I came out OK. Given our positions at the table with the big stack on my left, and the short stack playing as tight as he was I thought the chop worked out well. I would have been fine with playing it out, too, but I thought at that point that the other short stack was waiting for me to raise the big stack at the wrong time or to get unlucky against the big stack. </p><p><br />I gave the dealers a $150 tip out of my earnings, so my net for the day was up about $3200. The tournament chopped at 11pm, so we were playing for 9 hours, and although I was fine all throughout the tournament, as soon as it was over my brain went in to shut down mode. It was a nice way to end the trip. I was leaving to return home the next afternoon so there was no way I was going to screw up and lose that payday before I headed out. I played some dice and lost, and picked some of it back up playing at the $5/$10 table Tuesday. All in all a very fun trip!!</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-53355180961606490582009-11-16T16:16:00.002-06:002009-11-16T16:19:53.836-06:00A Satellite Shot and Bellagio's Daily Tournament<span style="font-size:85%;"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >When I woke up on Monday morning I was excited because I knew I was going to get some tournament play in today.<span style=""> </span>I was up a couple hundred for the trip, and was hoping to play in the Bellagio’s daily deep stack tournament.<span style=""> </span>During the week they offer a $330 tournament that starts at 2pm.<span style=""> </span>Starting at 9am they offer satellite tournaments, and the satellite for the $330 tourney cost $90.<span style=""> </span>Each satellite is a 10-person tournament, with the top two finishers receiving a tournament entry and $40 cash.<span style=""> </span>Adam and I got some breakfast, then we made our way over to the poker room to get in a satellite.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >The satellite structures aren’t too bad.<span style=""> </span>You start with 2500 chips.<span style=""> </span>Levels are 15 minutes and the blinds start at 25/50.<span style=""> </span>Unless you try to play every hand you should have some chips with which to maneuver for a while.<span style=""> </span>Our table put that to the ultimate test.<span style=""> </span>We started our satellite around 12:30pm, and at 1:30 we still hadn’t eliminated a single player.<span style=""> </span>This was getting the poker room tournament director concerned since the tournament for which we were trying to win seats began in 30 minutes.<span style=""> </span>Well, blinds being what they were players started dropping like flies about 15 minutes to start time of the daily tournament.<span style=""> </span>I went out in 5<sup>th</sup>, and I went to the window and bought my way in to the tournament for the full $330.<span style=""> </span>Adam managed to hang on for 2<sup>nd</sup> and received a satellite seat.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >For the daily tournament, you start with 10k in chips.<span style=""> </span>Levels are 35 minutes, and the blinds start at 25/50, so you’ve got plenty of room even take a bad beat if it happens early enough.<span style=""> </span>I decided to put this to the test three hands in to the tournament.<span style=""> </span>It wasn’t done intentionally, but here’s how it went down.<span style=""> </span>There were a couple people that limped in to the pot, but an older gentleman in the cutoff position raised it up to 275.<span style=""> </span>When it got to me in the small blind I looked down and saw K-K.<span style=""> </span>Now, knowing that I am going to have to play the rest of the hand out of position I decided that I wanted to win this hand right here right now so I put in a reraise to 825 chips.<span style=""> </span>The big blind and all the limpers folded, and now the action was on the initial raiser.<span style=""> </span>He calls almost immediately.<span style=""> </span>The board flopped:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >J-J-8</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Obviously I don’t like the Jack, but I’m not putting my opponent on a hand like Ace-Jack or King-Jack here, so I decided to lead out with a bet for 1300 chips.<span style=""> </span>My opponent calls.<span style=""> </span>The turn card was an Ace.<span style=""> </span>So now I really don’t like the board, but once again I just wasn’t putting my opponent on Ace-King or Ace-Queen either since he called the flop.<span style=""> </span>This time I wanted to exercise some pot control and decided to check.<span style=""> </span>My opponent bet 1500 back at me.<span style=""> </span>I thought about it, but since I wasn’t putting him on the hands I’ve mentioned I thought he might be trying to take advantage of my “sign of weakness” when I checked so I decided to call.<span style=""> </span>I didn’t put him on pocket Aces either because I didn’t think anyone would bet the big full house there.<span style=""> </span>The river was a “4”.<span style=""> </span>I knew that this couldn’t possibly have helped my opponent, but I was also content with trying to check this down at this point so I checked to him.<span style=""> </span>He bets 3300.<span style=""> </span>I still wasn’t putting him on any hands that I thought would have called me preflop or called on the flop (AA, AK, AQ, AJ, KJ).<span style=""> </span>I called and was shown Queen-Jack.<span style=""> </span>Ugh…ay ay ay…Now I’m down to 3075 chips three hands in to this tournament.<span style=""> </span>Oh goody.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Well, losing 70% of my stack wasn’t part of the plan, but now that I’m there I ain’t gonna just mail it in.<span style=""> </span>The blinds were still 25/50, so I still had plenty of chips to afford blinds.<span style=""> </span>In the next level the blinds went to 50/100, but I still had enough chips to play without feeling as though I had to push.<span style=""> </span>I picked up 5h-3h on the button in a pot where 5 people limped in front of me so I called.<span style=""> </span>The player to act immediately after me, the small blind, made it 350 to go, and almost all the limpers called so I did, too.<span style=""> </span>The flop was:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >6-2-3</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >giving me the bottom pair and a gutshot to the straight.<span style=""> </span>It’s not a bad flop for me.<span style=""> </span>It’s not one I’m SUPER excited about, but when the preflop raiser bet only 500 and everyone else folded, I liked my hand a whole lot more.<span style=""> </span>After all, if the preflop raiser missed, I'm good. If I'm not good, I've got the 3's for trips, the 5's for two-pair, or the 4 for the straight to nab the lead in the hand. I decided to call and the turn was a great card for me:<span style=""> </span>the “4” giving me the straight.<span style=""> </span>My opponent bet 2000, and since I only had 2075 I moved all in and was called immediately.<span style=""> </span>I showed my hand, and my opponent mucked even before the river was dealt.<span style=""> </span>I’m guessing he had an overpair and was drawing to the chop.<span style=""> </span>Since he mucked I asked the dealer to not deal the river card because I didn’t want to get “unlucky” and have the straight get put on the board and then have to call the floor person over to determine if I should get the whole pot.<span style=""> </span>In case you are unaware, to win at a showdown in a Hold ‘em game in MOST (and when I say most I mean every casino I’ve ever played in) casinos you must show both your hole cards, regardless of them being used or not in your hand.<span style=""> </span>Since he mucked, the hand was over.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >So, now I more than doubled up and was sitting at about 7100 chips.<span style=""> </span>With the blinds as they were it was no problem to start mixing it up again.<span style=""> </span>Over the next two hours I managed to work my stack to about 20k in chips, which at that time was about 5k over the average.<span style=""> </span>I was able to do all this without ever being all in and at risk (when I was all in earlier I wasn’t really at risk because I had the straight so I don’t count that).<span style=""> </span>To give you an idea of how deep-stacked this tournament is in the first 3½ hours of play we only lost 16 of the 57 players in the tournament.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >It was at this point in the tournament that players seemed to start dropping pretty quickly.<span style=""> </span>I managed to stay out of most of the action, and was able to pick up a couple of decent pots with some preflop reraises.<span style=""> </span>By the time we hit the next break I was at just over 40k in chips.<span style=""> </span>It was at this point that I started picking up some real good hands.<span style=""> </span>I kept getting dealt Q-Q.<span style=""> </span>By no means do I consider Q-Q uncrackable, but when you get it dealt to you five times in an hour and a half you are usually going to pick up a lot of chips.<span style=""> </span>As we closed in on the Final Table I found myself to the immediate right of the player who had crippled me early in the tournament.<span style=""> </span>I was able to exact my revenge when I took my Q-J and was able to limp preflop with several other players.<span style=""> </span>The Jack-8-2 flop provided no real concern to me so I bet, and when this player on my left went all in I was able to call (his stack wasn’t that large anymore, go figure).<span style=""> </span>He turned over King-8 for second pair and the board bricked out for him so I was able to eliminate my early tournament tormentor.<span style=""> </span></span>:)</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Shortly after that, I managed to lose about 15k in chips when I raised from late position in an attempt to pick up the blinds while holding King-Ten.<span style=""> </span>I had been very successful in picking up blinds because of my stack size, but this time one of the blinds reraised all in.<span style=""> </span>Unfortunately, the call was a no-brainer, and the guy even asked me “Do you have <st1:place st="on">Queens</st1:place> again?” because I had been showing my strong hands.<span style=""> </span>He turned over J-J and I had a chance to catch a King to knock him out, but it didn’t happen.<span style=""> </span>We found out almost right after this that we were down to our Final Table of ten players and I went there with about 70k in chips.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-85922821260692543652009-11-13T16:23:00.003-06:002009-11-13T16:28:38.465-06:00Academy Wrap Up and More Cash Games<span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">After finishing up the cash games on Saturday evening I was close to even and was actually glad to not be going right back to the cash games on Sunday.<span style=""> </span>There was the one day left of the poker academy and we had a dinner afterwards so it wouldn’t be until almost 10pm that I made my way back to the cash games.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Just as a wrap-up about the academy, it was really neat hearing ideas from people who were VERY successful at poker.<span style=""> </span>They were all very approachable and friendly.<span style=""> </span>There also were many participants that I got to know as well.<span style=""> </span>One guy was at the academy because he won a poker tournament on a cruise that got him on to another cruise and in to a “champions” tournament with a pool of $100k, and he thought this would be a great help to that cause.<span style=""> </span>People had come from all over.<span style=""> </span>We had the 2008 Oklahoma Women’s Bowling Champion here, and plenty of people from both coasts and everywhere between.<span style=""> </span>When we would break out in to groups for the live hand analysis portion of the academy we always had the same participants at each table, and at my table I had someone from <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Los Angeles</st1:city></st1:place> that I was having a good time with while at the Academy.<span style=""> </span>Her name is Renee, and she was kind enough to forward me some of her pics from the academy she had gotten for me to include in the blog.<span style=""> </span>I’ve put together a small slideshow of my pics and some of Renee’s.<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fjfarkas2214%2Falbumid%2F5403705975971142865%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="267" width="400"></embed></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Once the academy wrapped up with the dinner Sunday evening, Adam and I made our way over to the Bellagio to get in the cash games.<span style=""> </span>It was too late to get in to any of the tournaments we were interested in playing, and it was already 10pm.<span style=""> </span>Once again, I bought in to the $2/$5 game at the Bellagio, and I found myself in the right seat to play for the evening.<span style=""> </span>I had worked my way up from my $300 buy-in to about $450 without a showdown when I was able to get my whole stack in the middle with another player when I picked up pocket Kings and he picked up pocket 9s on an 8-high flop.<span style=""> </span>That took me up to about $900.<span style=""> </span>I then proceeded to work that stack all the way back down to about $175 when my pocket Aces got cracked by pocket 9s in a 5-way preflop pot that flopped the 9.<span style=""> </span>Once again I worked my stack back up, eventually getting up to about $600 when the critical hand of the evening occurred.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">I was in the small blind With QQ, and 5 players limped to me.<span style=""> </span>Knowing that I had to thin out the field a little bit I put in a raise of $40.<span style=""> </span>This proceeded to get me 4 callers, which was about 3 more than I was expecting.<span style=""> </span>I was initially concerned, and the flop came:</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Q-J-8 (two clubs)</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Giving me top set.<span style=""> </span>I also have to act first.<span style=""> </span>I’ll admit it feels real good to hit that Queen, but the board was awfully draw heavy for a 5-player pot, so I decided to put out a bet of $125.<span style=""> </span>I also guessed that no one would put me on QQ since often times top set might check a flop like that.<span style=""> </span>I figured a board like this would have hit another player, and since I’m the preflop raiser I might get someone to put in a raise behind me if they hit this.<span style=""> </span>Lucky for me, that player was the next person to act in the hand, who makes it $275 to go.<span style=""> </span>Everyone else folds, and it’s back to me.<span style=""> </span>Now, the guy in this seat has been riding a roller coaster with his stack (much like I have been), and he didn’t always have a hand, but he’s also the type of player that could have been playing T-9 here, too.<span style=""> </span>Well, if I call, there’s almost no reason for me to not get the rest of my money in now, so without much hesitation I moved all in.<span style=""> </span>This guy snap calls me, and I feared the worst.<span style=""> </span>I showed the <st1:place st="on">Queens</st1:place>, and he turned over and showed:</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">J-8<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-size:85%;" ><span style="">For bottom two pair!!</span><span style=""> </span><span style="">He was drawing dead to runner runner for quads or runner runner to a chop.</span><span style=""> </span><span style="">The turn was actually a nine, giving him outs to the chop/split but the river blanked and I raked in one heck of a pot.</span>Once I got a stack like that I started playing very tight, and when I ended the session I was now up for the whole trip.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I was up enough that I was looking forward to finally playing in a tournament and using some of the stuff I had learned over the past couple of days.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-89917099284064739492009-11-13T15:20:00.003-06:002009-11-13T15:24:23.618-06:00They Have Cash Games in Vegas, too<span style="font-size:85%;"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >If you’ve read the last couple of postings you might be thinking that I didn’t do anything else while out in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Las Vegas</st1:place></st1:city> except participate in the World Series of Poker Academy or watch the Main Event.<span style=""> </span>Well, that just ain’t the case.<span style=""> </span>The poker academy did make up a good portion of 2-2 ½ days while there, but I had about 4 ½ days out in Vegas so that left me with what I figured to be about two full days to do other things, so I didn’t waste a whole lot of that time sleeping unless I felt I had to get some sleep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >When we arrived Thursday night Adam and I decided to head over to the Wynn and get involved in the cash games there.<span style=""> </span>I’ve usually done well at the Wynn so I thought this would be a good idea.<span style=""> </span>Well, I was wrong this time about that.<span style=""> </span>I sat down at the $1/$3 game at the Wynn and over the 5+ hours I played there I managed to lose about $500.<span style=""> </span>It’s not the worst loss I’ve had, but it was the manner in how it happened.<span style=""> </span>I never lost a huge pot.<span style=""> </span>I just got whittled away, $35 here, $50 there, and so on and so on.<span style=""> </span>I won my share of pots, but nothing big, and I was losing a lot more than I was winning.<span style=""> </span>In fact I was so glad when we decided to leave that I couldn’t wait for the academy to start because I knew I couldn’t lose any more money until that next evening!!<span style=""> </span>I never feel like that when I walk away from a poker game.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >The schedule of the academy had us starting at 9am, and because we had the academy tournament that evening (which I’ve posted about already), I actually didn’t get my next opportunity to sit down at a cash game until about 11pm Friday evening.<span style=""> </span>The poker academy tournament was being held in the Caesar’s Palace poker room so when I busted out of that I went to talk to Adam to see what he wanted to do.<span style=""> </span>He had already busted out and was sitting down in a cash game.<span style=""> </span>I told him I’d leave whenever he wanted to and he wanted to play a little more so I got on the short list for the poker game and got a seat about 15 minutes later.<span style=""> </span>I then proceeded to play what was for me the shortest session of poker that I can recall playing in a live game.<span style=""> </span>This happened because about 10 hands into the session Adam found me and said he was done with his cash game for the night.<span style=""> </span>I told him I’d play back around to my big blind (I actually played one additional orbit), but I managed to pick up about $100 in the 18 or so hands I played.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >The next poker session I played was after we had left the WSOP Main Event at the <st1:place st="on">Rio</st1:place>.<span style=""> </span>We had watched about the first two hours of play of the Final Table of the Main Event, but it wasn’t real exciting.<span style=""> </span>Without hole card cams, which cannot be shown to the live audience for obvious reasons, poker isn’t really a great spectator sport.<span style=""> </span>Adam and I tried to make the best of it, using notepads to try and jot down notes and see if we could “read” any of the players during the action.<span style=""> </span>We thought that we might get to verify our reads when we got back home and compared our notes to the ESPN coverage if any of the hands we watched were part of the coverage.<span style=""> </span>In those two hours of play we saw 29 hands, of which there were only 3 or 4 flops, and there was only one showdown at all.<span style=""> </span>No one was knocked out, and with the blind structure what it was we both felt it could be a while before we saw any significant action, so we left about 2:30 or so.<span style=""> </span>Adam had decided to get in to the 2 o’clock Daily Tournament at the Bellagio.<span style=""> </span>The nice thing with this tournament is because it is such a deep-stack structure (10k starting chips, 35 minute levels, 25/50 starting blinds) no one usually gets eliminated right away.<span style=""> </span>The Bellagio even allows late entries through the first four levels of play.<span style=""> </span>Because of this Adam was still able to enter the tournament when we arrived.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >I, on the other hand, decided to sit down at the cash games again.<span style=""> </span>I sat down with my $300 in the first available seat, which happened to be seat #1 to the immediate left of the dealer.<span style=""> </span>I really don’t care for that seat or the seat on the immediate right of the dealer either so as soon as another seat opened up I requested to move, and I got to move to seat #2.<span style=""> </span>One of the other things I look for when trying to find a seat at the table is having a big stack, preferably a loose big stack, on my right.<span style=""> </span>That wasn’t the case with my new seat (the table big stack was in seat #3), so when seat #4 opened up I moved there.<span style=""> </span>I then proceeded to watch in the next half hour as seat #2 picked up pocket Kings and a middle pair that turned in to a set on a flop.<span style=""> </span>Ay ay ay!<span style=""> </span>Timing is everything.<span style=""> </span>Well, as it turned out seat #3, although he was a big stack, he was tighter than a fat guy in spandex.<span style=""> </span>So I moved again, this time to seat #8.<span style=""> </span>Once again I watched the new player in my old seat pick up a lot of chips, this time when he had QQ v TT and another hand where he made the nut flush with AKsuited.<span style=""> </span>In the meantime, my stack was dwindling.<span style=""> </span>In fact, in one hour at this table I was down $500.<span style=""> </span>So I pulled out my last buy-in I had planned for poker gambling.<span style=""> </span>It was at this point where I finally turned things around.<span style=""> </span>I was getting what I wanted with the seat change, too.<span style=""> </span>The player in seat #6 was playing very loose, and I found him betting in to me, often times with no hand.<span style=""> </span>I ended up picking up the $500 I was down, and also picked up an additional $300 or so.<span style=""> </span>I was now back in sight of the even line, which considering how things were going I wasn’t sure if I would see that again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-3228329441545047252009-11-12T11:36:00.003-06:002009-11-12T16:15:36.193-06:0011 Bracelets...Really Phil...With Plays Like That?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >I don’t think I mentioned it in the last post, but I didn’t win the tournament where I hit the straight against Greg Raymer.<span style=""> </span>In fact, I was eliminated from the tournament by one of the other pros, Ali Nejad.<span style=""> </span>In that hand I was dealt a pair of 5s.<span style=""> </span>Ali had a big stack, and I had about 18000 in chips.<span style=""> </span>The blinds were about 600/1200.<span style=""> </span>Ali had raised preflop from somewhat early position, and since I had about 15 big blinds in my stack I shoved when it got to me.<span style=""> </span>Unfortunately, the player right behind me called immediately and that’s what killed me.<span style=""> </span>Ali was debating folding, and once he realized the price he was getting to call he made the call.<span style=""> </span>The player behind me had Ace-Jack and Ali had pocket 8s.<span style=""> </span>My shove was designed to get possibly a middle pair (like 8s) or maybe even get two over cards (like QJ, QT, KJ, etc) to fold.<span style=""> </span>Ali actually told me he would have folded if the other player hadn’t called.<span style=""> </span>As it turned out the pair of 8s held up and Ali knocked out me and the other player in the same hand.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >Phil Hellmuth showed up for the second day of the poker academy, and he brought some really neat insight to it as well.<span style=""> </span>Some of you may know that he was hired as Jeff Shulman’s coach for the 2009 Main Event Final Table.<span style=""> </span>Jeff Shulman runs CardPlayer magazine and has been to the Main Event Final Table before.<span style=""> </span>Phil actually went over with us some of the strategy that he and his team had worked with Jeff Shulman.<span style=""> </span>It was actually some very interesting discussion.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >When we broke out for our next “live” hand analysis Phil would go from table to table and play a few hands at each table.<span style=""> </span>In this particular “live” scenario we were to act as though we were at the final table of a deep stack tournament.<span style=""> </span>I was assigned a medium stack of chips and had already lost some chips because my A-J lost to someone else’s A-8 when he was raising from the cutoff (one away from the button) to try and pick up the blinds when the following hand came up at our table.<span style=""> </span>Phil was in early position and raised to about three times the blind.<span style=""> </span>The next player folded, and it was my turn to act.<span style=""> </span>I looked down and found K-K!<span style=""> </span>I paused for a moment, and since my stack was a medium /<span style=""> </span>medium-short stack I just shoved, knowing that Phil would have the right “price” to call.<span style=""> </span>Everyone folded and Phil called, tabling Ace-Ten.<span style=""> </span>He actually stated that he was going to call, but “wasn’t happy about it”.<span style=""> </span>I think he knew that from my position at the table I wouldn’t be reraising without having a hand that would be crushing his.<span style=""> </span>Mike Gracz was the dealer and pro doing the analysis at our table at the time, and he ran the board and my Kings held up, so I didn’t have to “go Phil” on Phil…that might have been fun! If you aren’t familiar with Phil Hellmuth he is nicknamed “Poker Brat” for his tirades that occur when a bad beat is delivered upon him.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >I hope if you’ve read these last two posts in particular that you realize I am kidding when I poke fun at Phil Hellmuth or Greg Raymer.<span style=""> </span>I respect both of their poker games and am glad to have gotten some good analysis from them about various hands.<span style=""> </span>I’m not a fan of Phil’s tirades, but he really is a nice person when you meet him and seems very genuine when you talk to him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-69401670277073888302009-11-11T15:46:00.005-06:002009-11-12T23:16:04.728-06:00Poker School!!<span style="font-size:85%;"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:smarttagtype name="PlaceType" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="PlaceName" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="City" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype></span><object id="ieooui" classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D"></object><style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style><br /><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">So this past week I had the opportunity to go to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Las Vegas</st1:place></st1:city> and attend the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Academy – November Nine edition.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">WSOP</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Academy</st1:placetype></st1:place> is a two, sometimes three, day seminar where you meet and work with professional poker players and try to improve your poker game.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">They give you their insights as to how to play situations.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">This particular academy focused on how to play deep-stack tournaments, and more specifically, late in those types of tournaments.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The Main Event of the WSOP was also going to be wrapping up on that Saturday and Monday, and as part of the academy we were given tickets to attend both sessions at the <st1:place st="on">Rio</st1:place>’s Penn & Teller Theater.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The poker players that were at the academy were 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer, WSOP bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion Michael Gracz, cash-game player and announcer for “Poker After Dark” and the “NBC Head-Up Championship” Ali Nejad, online specialist Mark “PokerHo” Kroon, former model and pro volleyball player turned poker pro Erica Schoenberg, and runner up in a televised 2004 WSOP event and poker pro with over $700,000 in earnings Shawn Rice.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The 1989 WSOP Main Event Champion and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth also was at the academy for one of the days as well.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">We definitely had a talented group of individuals to listen to about poker!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Each of the day’s ran something like this:</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Beginning of the day there would be a seminar/lecture followed by some live analysis of hands.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Then we’d break for lunch, and go through the same routine in the afternoon as well.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I thought the live-hand analysis sections were great.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">There were about 45 of us so we would break in to assigned groups of nine and go to our poker tables.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">A poker pro would also go to each table and act as the dealer along with providing the analysis.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">We’d be given a scenario to act under.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">For example, in one session each player had varying amounts of chips and we were to play as if we were on the bubble of the tournament.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">In another scenario we acted as if we were in the early stages, and in another as if we were at the Final Table.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">You get the idea.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Each hand would be played out, then afterwords the pro would replay the hand and go over why each player did what they did with whatever decision there was to be made and give their own thoughts of how they thought the play should go.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The pros would rotate each session, so each table got a different poker pro for each of the four sessions.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The seminars were interesting at times, too.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">It reinforced some ideas that I had for how to play, and I was able to pick up some things as well, so I thought the whole thing was great!</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">We also had a free tournament that all the academy participants got to play in where the winner would receive a prize package valued over $4000.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I didn’t win that tournament unfortunately, but the poker pros were in that tournament and there was a bounty on each of them.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">If you knocked out a pro you received a pair of Oakley sunglasses.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">An Oakley promoter was there and there were also some other Oakley giveaways for certain things (e.g. at one table they were playing the “7-2 game” where if you won a hand with 7-2 you’d win a pair of Oakleys).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I got involved in a big pot with Greg Raymer during the tournament.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">If you have followed the blog in the past you already know that I have <a href="http://facespokerroom.blogspot.com/2006/06/table-154-battle-with-world-champion.html">some history</a> with Mr. Raymer, and I was looking to exact some revenge </span><span style="font-size:85%;">(that’s said tongue-in-cheek).</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The poker pros were rotating the tables that they were playing at during the tournament so everyone got to play with all of them, and Greg had just arrived at the table a couple hands ago and was in the seat to my immediate right when the following hand played out.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">We had started with 10k in chips.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The blinds were in the third level and we were at 75-150 on the blinds.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I had about 12k in chips and Raymer had approximately 7k in chips.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I was dealt 5-3 suited in early position.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Greg was first to act and had limped, so I did as well hoping to catch something with the flop.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">One other player limped, the blinds called and checked, and the flop was:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">K-6-2</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The blinds both checked, and Greg bet about 500 chips.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Now, I felt that Greg might be betting that flop with just about anything since it was a limped pot and two players had already checked the flop.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I know I didn’t have anything, but I thought I could take the hand down right now if I raised, and if I was called I had the gutshot draw to the straight which, if it hit, would be VERY disguised.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> I raised to 1300, and as</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> I thought the other preflop limper folded and the blinds both folded.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Greg thought for a moment and called.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Now I was getting the “Fossilman” stare from behind those glasses.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The turn card was a miracle for me:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">4</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">The four also matched the suit of one of the other cards on the board so there was now a flush draw in play, but I wasn’t that worried about it.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">With the pot as it was already having about 3500 in it and me having the nuts I decided to under bet the turn.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I put out a bet of 1500.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Greg once again stared me down for a minute and then called.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The river was an 8, and it didn’t put the flush draw on the board, so I now knew I had the nuts for the hand.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">This time Greg fired out 2500 at the river, leaving himself only about 1500 in chips behind.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">“I am making it look like I am pondering a call but all I am really thinking about is Vegas and the fucking Mirage” (thank you <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Rounders</span>)</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">then I moved all in.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I thought Greg would call for sure and I’d be up one set of Oakleys.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Well, he goes in to to the think tank.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">He’s also analyzing the hand out loud (since this is an academy).</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">At one point he said “Well, I think you played one of these streets like a fucking idiot”.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">He eventually folded, and since he was doing the analysis I decided to show the straight and told him that he made a good laydown.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Play continued, but over the next 10 minutes he analyzed that hand quite a bit.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">He really thought my play at the flop was very questionable (and I’m being nice when I say that).</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">He thought that in a five-player pot that I should realize that if he’s betting then he’s got something, and that my bet is in reality not just bluffing him, but also bluffing three others.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I guess I saw it a little different with the blinds having already checked after the flop.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I knew that I was bluffing, but I thought I only had to get by the player behind me and Greg.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">He wasn’t seeing it that way, though.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">It was great to get his analysis there, though.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Well, that was just one hand and a little bit about the academy.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I’ve got some pictures to post and I’ve got some more about the academy and that trip, and I’ll try to include that in my next post!</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-42403415535934700432009-07-05T15:40:00.000-05:002009-11-09T12:13:42.607-06:00Why is there a Crowd Around my Table?<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Table 42 Blue</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">As I approached my table I could see that there were an unusually large number of people gathered in that area of the Amazon Room.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">It turns out that my table was about 15 feet away from where one of the two final tables of the <a href="http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/tournament-results.asp?tid=7227&grid=607">$40K No-Limit Hold ‘em Event #2</a> was taking place.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I fought my way through the people, and I took my seat in Seat #2 at Table 42 Blue.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">In very sharp contrast to Table 90 Orange, this table was almost as far from any exit as I could possibly be.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">I text Dan to let him know I got moved, and I settled in to get to work.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I was working with about 8500 chips, so I was still a little below the average chip stack, but I still had over 20 big blinds in my stack.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I was able to notice very quickly that the player on my left (seat 3) liked to mix it up with almost any two cards and was very aggressive when doing so.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">This came to benefit me early while I was at the table when I picked up pocket Queens, was able to raise preflop, and get him as one of my callers.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The board came: 8-5-5.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I led out and he decided to raise.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I wasn’t 100% certain that he didn’t have a 5 in his hand, but when the action folded to me I decided that he wouldn’t have raised me there with a 5 since he probably could extract more by just smooth calling me there.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">That and the numbers would indicate that it is unlikely for someone to have a third 5 there.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">Those two things led me to repop it one more time and move all in.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">He thought for a while, and as soon as I didn’t hear the snap, “I call!” I knew that my Queens were good.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">He folded, and I raked in a nice pot.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">I was able to pick one more pot off of this guy when I check-raised him off his hand with a straight draw and a flush draw, but I didn’t get a whole lot of hands at this table.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The player in seat 9 was starting to get ultra-aggressive as the blinds moved up, but anytime I thought about reraising him, I would either get no hand, or someone else was getting in there and my hand was not good enough to stand up to two raises.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">It was at this table that I met my <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Waterloo</st1:city></st1:place>.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">My chip stack was about 13400.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">There were 44 minutes in the last level that we were playing today.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The blinds were 800/400/100ante, so I had about 6 times ‘round the table worth of blinds.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I was dealt Ace-King offsuit in the under-the-gun (UTG) position.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">In the last ten minutes several people were just shoving all in and taking the blinds down, and I was hoping to do just that here.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I figured if I won this round of blinds I could easily afford to play no more hands the rest of the day, which I thought would be about three orbits at the pace we were currently playing.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I decided to move all in with AK.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">The first three people folded, but a player who had been playing relatively tight called all in and then everyone else folded.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I was hoping that he would show me a worse Ace (Ace-Queen, Ace-Jack, etc) or a pocket pair of <st1:place st="on">Queens</st1:place> or less (although that would still mean I had to hit my hand to win).</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">He turned over pocket Kings, which left me drawing basically to just one of the three remaining Aces.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I missed, but I had my opponent covered by 1100 chips.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">I was in the big blind the next hand, but my 9-2offsuit was no match for the small blind’s 8-7 as I made a pair of 9s only to watch that turn in to a straight for the small blind.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">As I thought a little more about the Ace-King hand and discussed it with some others, I ultimately still felt I played it fine there.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">You might be asking, “Why move all in right away?” (at least that’s the obvious question there), but even if I had just raised to let’s say 2500, or about 3x the big blind, when my opponent moves all in with his pocket Kings I don’t know if I would have folded Ace-King there anyway, since the only two hands I really have to be concerned with are AA or KK, and there was no way for me to know he had one of those two hands.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">My 2009 World Series had come to a close.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">At least it wasn’t as fast as last year, but the net result was still the same.</span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">It was time to shut the door on the WSOP and get concerned with the cash games, especially since a lot of my fellow poker players who were also eliminated were going to be sitting in those cash games as well.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-87192068843450569572009-07-02T16:00:00.000-05:002009-10-01T16:05:41.199-05:00There's a Captain at the Table!After being in the middle of the Amazon Room all day, I was relieved to find that my next table was near one of the exits, table 90 Orange. This would make leaving the table for a minute to take a break a little easier. I recognized one of the players as a poker pro, but if it wasn’t for his hat I probably wouldn’t have known his name. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKCuwuESJ473Yp3WcW6RGZN6-JZNm8OspMHYY4bbTpqb1tgu7oR1A1w4-CT4Cv3HU26aURPX3wDZbcucix9a3FvufCvS6N21lPx5BMAkuWiVQd2HO-CZCcJF2zpUbxhevGte3N5WJpq8Q/s1600-h/CaptTom.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 99px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKCuwuESJ473Yp3WcW6RGZN6-JZNm8OspMHYY4bbTpqb1tgu7oR1A1w4-CT4Cv3HU26aURPX3wDZbcucix9a3FvufCvS6N21lPx5BMAkuWiVQd2HO-CZCcJF2zpUbxhevGte3N5WJpq8Q/s200/CaptTom.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387739905310499698" border="0" /></a> Luckily, Captain Tom Franklin likes to wear a cowboy-style hat that states “Captain Tom” on it. Tom Franklin has one World Series of Poker bracelet, so I knew that he’d be no pushover at the table. He was in Seat 9. I took my seat in Seat 5. There were two elderly gentlemen in Seats 7 & 8, and these two guys were hilarious. Any time the pot was unraised they would call and play, and they would almost always call all the way to the river, regardless of what they had. Because of the positions at the table, Captain Tom was playing a lot of hands and was managing to pick up lots of chips from these two. Occasionally though, one of those two guys would hit a hand and make a load of chips from somebody because of their lack of aggression.<br /><br />I didn’t get a whole lot of hands to play while I was here, but I did manage to mix it up in one hand with Captain Tom that was sort of fun. Captain Tom raised, and as it got around to me I called with my pocket 6s. When the flop was J-4-7, I wasn’t too excited, but I wasn’t quite ready to fold to Captain Tom when he led out. I called, and the turn card that hit was probably the second best card that could’ve hit the board for me, a 5 (the best card would’ve been a 6 for a set). Captain Tom checked, and now I was pretty certain that his bet on the flop was a continuation bet based off of his preflop raise. I led out, and after Captain Tom gave it some very brief thought he folded, making the comment that he was pretty sure that I could beat 9-high.<br /><br />We hit the dinner break while I was at this table. I had 6600 chips at the dinner break, and without seeing any official numbers I guessed that I was near the average at this point in the tournament. I went over to meet Dan, who was watching the Brewers and the NHL playoffs over in the sports book. I used the food voucher provided to grab a sandwich, filled Dan in with all the details, and then made my way back to the Amazon Room to try and push through the rest of the evening. I knew we’d be playing until about 1am, so I still had about 4 ½ hours of poker yet to go.<br /><br />When I got back to table Orange 90 I was continuing to go through my dry spell of hands. I only picked up one more significant hand before our table broke. Lucky for me that hand was pocket Aces. A player in early position raised, and I reraised it about three times his bet. The action folded around to the initial raiser, and he called the bet. The flop was a pretty darn good flop for me: Ace-9-2, giving me top set. My opponent checked, and I checked, hoping that my opponent might fire at this on the turn if he thought I missed. The turn put out an 8, and it also put out a second card of a suit already on the board. My opponent checked, and I decided to lead out and bet a little less than half the pot. I would have considered checking if it hadn’t put out a card that put a potential straight and flush draw in play, but because both were now in play I bet. My opponent folded, and I won a decent pot, although it wasn’t nearly as large as I had hoped.<br /><br />Captain Tom was running very well at our table, and he managed to work his stack up to about 42,000 chips. When we broke, I had about 8500 in chips, and I was off to find table 42 Blue.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-48477005598442269032009-07-01T14:20:00.000-05:002009-09-30T14:41:18.481-05:00Table 126 Red, Part Deux<div style="text-align: left;"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--></div><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; 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font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In an effort to try and be able to recall things so that I could post accurate blogs, I attempted to keep audio notes using my cell phone on the breaks.<span style=""> </span>Unfortunately, I really didn’t think of this idea until later in the day.<span style=""> </span>My buddy Dan got eliminated from the event prior to the dinner break, and prior to his being eliminated, we’d meet up on the breaks and discuss our current status, so it wasn’t until he was eliminated and we didn’t meet up on a break that I got this bright idea.<span style=""> </span>Because of this I actually have quite a good set of notes about that first table I was at.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p style="text-align: left;" class="MsoNormal">I left off the last post about an hour in to play.<span style=""> </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhz_pJuoQLjOssC-3v1WzbneD1pwF6T3UpHax4lL5z9yiQUcVrSmqDcBR1rwKDrgFXhIGFXTdFabB3kvoMx8AhKCRX7bPOvPiQRIXCfkfKldAOiKI592g1_wJnIAiPPdgTnSlqks_Mls/s1600-h/Seat10FirstKnockout.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 182px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhz_pJuoQLjOssC-3v1WzbneD1pwF6T3UpHax4lL5z9yiQUcVrSmqDcBR1rwKDrgFXhIGFXTdFabB3kvoMx8AhKCRX7bPOvPiQRIXCfkfKldAOiKI592g1_wJnIAiPPdgTnSlqks_Mls/s200/Seat10FirstKnockout.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387344605363326546" border="0" /></a>I had worked my stack from the original 3K to approximately 5100 without meeting much resistance.<span style=""> </span>I had been dealt Ace-King in a hand that had been raised so I reraised, everyone folded to the initial raiser who called my bet.<span style=""> </span>After a Jack-high flop he checked and I led out with a bet to take down that pot.<span style=""> </span>I was dealt pocket Kings immediately following that hand and when I raised no one called.<span style=""> </span>In fact, I was dealt Kings twice during the entire day, and never saw a flop with it either time (which I guess I was perfectly fine with considering <a href="http://facespokerroom.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-safe-to-say-its-not-favorite.html">what happened to me with Aces last year</a>).<span style=""> </span>Creepy Neck Guy had also built up a stack after eliminating the player in Seat 10 (pictured here).<span style=""> </span>I mentioned that Creepy Neck Guy was playing quite loose, playing many hands more than most players at the table.<span style=""> </span>It was at about this time I got involved in my first significant pot of the day.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The hand began with me in the small blind.<span style=""> </span>Everyone folded to a player in mid to late position.<span style=""> </span>He had been playing somewhat tight and appeared to be selective with his hands.<span style=""> </span>He raised to about 3x the big blind.<span style=""> </span>Another player called, and when I looked down at my cards in the small blind I saw As-8s.<span style=""> </span>Considering the raise and the possibilities I decided to call.<span style=""> </span>The big blind also called.<span style=""> </span>The flop that hit the board was a Queen-high flop with two spades, giving me a flush draw.<span style=""> </span>I checked, expecting to check raise the initial raiser, but to my surprise the big blind led out with a bet.<span style=""> </span>The initial raiser then called the bet, and it was folded to me.<span style=""> </span>I was one of the larger chip stacks at this table, so I decided to put the “squeeze” play on the players.<span style=""> </span>The squeeze play is when you raise two players where player 1 bets and player 2 calls (such as the scenario here).<span style=""> </span>What the squeeze play does is put a significant amount of pressure on the 1<sup>st</sup> player who bet since he doesn’t know player 2 is going to do, and it may force him to fold any marginal hand.<span style=""> </span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Bd7ke908PAPDtZ5laBxsQ49VlxS-pdGdaHKs6u9wH3PI0UVGT7Z3aSnb1WHySDBQLRR-5-3CPlDJU5bfSOFvQ8Fw8c88RkNvSVsNxR5mYFw8oEUtupQbnfOHVmtjoCk1GGMUzW9XhV4/s1600-h/CheckRaiseGuy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 159px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Bd7ke908PAPDtZ5laBxsQ49VlxS-pdGdaHKs6u9wH3PI0UVGT7Z3aSnb1WHySDBQLRR-5-3CPlDJU5bfSOFvQ8Fw8c88RkNvSVsNxR5mYFw8oEUtupQbnfOHVmtjoCk1GGMUzW9XhV4/s200/CheckRaiseGuy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387345633172640242" border="0" /></a>I didn’t think the big blind had much since if he did, he probably would have checked it to the initial raiser.<span style=""> </span>Often times a player just calling will be holding a marginal hand, so the squeeze raise might chase that second player out of the hand.<span style=""> </span>Well, the first part of my plan worked perfectly.<span style=""> </span>The big blind folded his hand.<span style=""> </span>The initial raiser (pictured) had other ideas, though.<span style=""> </span>He pulled the trigger and moved all in at this point.<span style=""> </span>This pretty much pointed to a big hand (set/3-of-a-kind, two pair).<span style=""> </span>His stack size was close enough to my stack size that if I decided to call I was pretty sure I’d either be out or very close to out, and I wasn’t prepared to put all my chips in on a draw just quite yet so I folded, leaving me with 1800 chips.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">While I sat brooding about losing a lot of chips, I thought a little more about pulling that trigger.<span style=""> </span>The player who won the pot had a couple things that all should have screamed “Danger!” at me:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">He had been playing tight and showing good hands to this point</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Being the initial raiser, his “just call” of the lead out bet on the flop should have told me, in combination with item 1, that he probably hit this board HARD</li></ol><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6UU6IeIAwFt_U67-qzY3Uat-r3W2Xi6_GruWHcCD3DJfbTCYeIbpMeTac5blZtlu_8uG0BRlq9wepcLohZMW06VPtWhsWYpRBH_fnSWJA8YfoLbhhEbGREnsTQtr8-pLCAbLslxt3lg/s1600-h/OnMyLeft.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 159px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu6UU6IeIAwFt_U67-qzY3Uat-r3W2Xi6_GruWHcCD3DJfbTCYeIbpMeTac5blZtlu_8uG0BRlq9wepcLohZMW06VPtWhsWYpRBH_fnSWJA8YfoLbhhEbGREnsTQtr8-pLCAbLslxt3lg/s200/OnMyLeft.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387346002995659362" border="0" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal">Well, now I was stuck down about half of my original amount, and I was in need of a double up.<span style=""> </span>Fortunately for me, about half an hour later I was dealt pocket Aces in late position.<span style=""> </span>I raised, was reraised by the player on my immediate left (pictured), and when I moved all in, he thought for a long time but folded Ace-Queen face up.<span style=""> </span>I was surprised he folded since he only needed about 600 more chips to call after his reraise, but he was running a little low, and I guess that those 600 chips he felt could be used better elsewhere.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8eUNOx9MwkOuha5fnnet8FyXaDsLE1kEhY6TD16obgPDYU0nkjhTAmnmQXc81x9pRUKmf6hqE2YGUxlFdOniv_v7y54kUx7jDFdaUmRzvRGfWNTzMoHxFF1e_r5k2nSksE9TIeMBaEgg/s1600-h/Seat2AJDouble.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 186px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8eUNOx9MwkOuha5fnnet8FyXaDsLE1kEhY6TD16obgPDYU0nkjhTAmnmQXc81x9pRUKmf6hqE2YGUxlFdOniv_v7y54kUx7jDFdaUmRzvRGfWNTzMoHxFF1e_r5k2nSksE9TIeMBaEgg/s200/Seat2AJDouble.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387346733391776530" border="0" /></a> <p class="MsoNormal">So after nearly doubling up there I was able to win a decent pot with King-Ten against a player (pictured) who showed he was absolutely incapable of folding if he hit any piece of a board.<span style=""> </span>In the hand where I eliminated him, I had King-Ten in the big blind.<span style=""> </span>He made a minimum raise, so I’m pretty much guaranteed to call with any two cards that are Ten or higher (also known as a “Twenty” hand, e.g. KT, QJ, QT, etc.).<span style=""> </span>The board came:<span style=""> </span>King-Jack-x.<span style=""> </span>I led out, knowing he’d call with any piece, and he was playing too many hands to have a good one all the time.<span style=""> </span>He moved all in and, after some deliberation, I decided to call with top pair, Ten kicker.<span style=""> </span>He table Ace-Jack for second pair, and soon went to the rail when the turn and river provided no help to him.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I got involved two more pots that I had notes on at this table.<span style=""> </span>I was dealt Ace-Ten on the button, and with three other players just limping to the big blind I limped along and was fortunate enough to see this flop:<span style=""> </span>King-Queen-Jack.<span style=""> </span>This gave me the nut straight.<span style=""> </span>The other thing about a board like this is it’s the type of board that would hit other players as well, so when everyone checked to me on the button, I led out with a bet of about half the pot, hoping that someone with a piece of that board would also play.<span style=""> </span>As it went back around everyone folded!<span style=""> </span>I couldn’t believe that no one had a piece of that at all, but it was another pot moving my way, so I couldn’t complain too much.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The last pot I remember was sort of humorous.<span style=""> </span>I had 2-4suited in mid to late position.<span style=""> </span>Once again several players limped, so I decided to call hoping to flop something big.<span style=""> </span>I completely missed the flop, and when everyone checked to me I checked, too.<span style=""> </span>The turn also missed me, and once again everyone checked to me.<span style=""> </span>This time I decided to fire a pot-sized bet to take the pot down.<span style=""> </span>Creepy Neck Guy kind of looked at me funny and folded, and then the guy who raised me big earlier did it again.<span style=""> </span>This time my fold was pretty easy, and as soon as I did Creepy Neck Guy said to me, “I’m glad you did that (bet out) because I was gonna do that if you didn’t”.<span style=""> </span>I kind of got chuckled at that.<span style=""> </span>At least he and I were on the same wavelength.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shortly after this, our table broke.<span style=""> </span>I was so happy to hear this since as other tables broke down, cash games were starting, and the speaker system in our section was turned on for calling players to the table.<span style=""> </span>We were directly under one of those speakers, and it was starting to get quite annoying and difficult to hear player actions at the table.<span style=""> </span>Unfortunately, I got moved to….Table 129 RED, so I was still in that section.<span style=""> </span>That table broke about 10 minutes later, and I got moved to my next table, 90 <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Orange</st1:place></st1:city>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8997436108725275476.post-40556188625551247432009-07-01T12:00:00.000-05:002009-09-30T14:41:38.787-05:00Setting the Stage for Event #4<div><div>Table 126 Red, Part 1<br /><br />There’s something about being in the Amazon Room prior to the 1st event that’s truly open to players of all skill levels at the Rio that just gets the blood flowing for me. There is all this positive energy in the room…everyone believing that their dream is going to come true and they’re going to be the one to capture that World Series of Poker bracelet. For one person it’s going to happen, and in the case of Day 1A of the Stimulus Event there are going to be over 2600 people whose dream will be shattered before the day is over. Day 1A started with a field of approximately 3015 people. The plan was to play 10 levels today.<br /><br />My day started at Table 126 Red. The Amazon Room is broken in to four quadrants, each quadrant having its own color. The Red quadrant is usually where the cash games are played so I knew that this quadrant was going to be one of the first quadrants to break down to make room for cash games later in the day.<br /><br />Because we started with so many players, I planned on playing fairly tight early in the tournament (as I usually do in large tournaments). We started with 3000 chips, and it wouldn’t be until we were down to 1500 players that the average stack would double to 6000 chips, so I guessed that I could be patient and wait for spots.<br /><br />As it turned out, our section was first to break down, but our table was one of the last in that section to break down. Consequently, I was able to play poker with this table for a little over 2 ½ hours. I got to know several of my table mates and their poker playing styles well during that time. The player in Seat 1 was the one who stood out the most during my time at this table. Not only did he play nearly every hand during the first hour, but he also had a creepy style of staring down the players on my side of the table. He was in Seat 1, immediately to the left of the dealer, and I was in Seat 8, which was basically on the end of the oval to the right of the dealer. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZiOrTIOeAw_1Dpybpz81u6hyphenhyphenlCWJAyXstZAd6DMpnN_jfcOIi9fCKIJS7hcvUCOeoeWXX1e2IISwCyQebFgbTYxOArzcNEabyBLzDXD44aBn3QlxcoBMG4aliujLv538tRQKDh-tjFEs/s1600-h/CreepyNeckGuy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 159px; float: left; height: 200px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387110855514067874" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZiOrTIOeAw_1Dpybpz81u6hyphenhyphenlCWJAyXstZAd6DMpnN_jfcOIi9fCKIJS7hcvUCOeoeWXX1e2IISwCyQebFgbTYxOArzcNEabyBLzDXD44aBn3QlxcoBMG4aliujLv538tRQKDh-tjFEs/s200/CreepyNeckGuy.jpg" border="0" /></a>Since the dealer was in the way when he wanted to look down to our side of the table, he had to stick his head out around the dealer in this particularly E.T.-like style, hence I nicknamed him “Creepy Neck Staredown Guy” (pictured here).<br /><br />During the first hour if I wasn’t raising and taking down a pot Creepy Neck Staredown Guy was in almost every other pot. He won most of the pots he was in, but eventually, after getting caught in a showdown with King-Six, people started calling him to the river. I think he realized that the table caught on to his game when he got called down by Ace high twice in five minutes (he also lost both those hands). He did adjust, though, and overall I thought his game was pretty decent. It wasn’t exactly my preferred style of play, but he seemed to make it work, and he knew who to play that way against.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrtuqffaN7ujbNQBiP75yMZRgdOHD2lTvek1-Iw7i_IKK1tPzrbt8yaTggoXyFn_LhGHnFm_L-uX5WoM3nRvyymkJyuKhX0-eKMOLQmIhzA0G5cYkz27dGE32jnYICMNsyvhZSa91SerQ/s1600-h/CreepyNeckGuy.jpg"></a></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0