Poker Words - A Poker Blog: WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 2

I emailed PokerStars Customer support after our table configuration issues from last week. They basically said that the tournaments were modeled after the Multi-Table Tournament format, and they will take our issues under advisement we are basically SOL.

Or plan to trick the software is as follows. Eight people register and get seated at one table. Once the first hand is dealt, the ninth person registers and gets put at the same table. Ta-da: Single table tournament. Take that PokerStars.

And we just might have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling programmers. After the first hand it moved Noah to another table all by himself. After the next hand Archie got pulled. And so on until we were back to the four/five handed two table format that we were trying to avoid.    Oh well.

Poker wise things started off this game just like they ended last game. Cookie announced that he was going to be using his iPad to remote desktop to his computer to play so that he could watch the end of the Giants/Niners playoff game. Since he wasn't paying attention he manages to turn his 86o into a set of sizes on the river to take down a decent sized pot in the first hand.

This game is much slower and more conservative than the last. There are a lot of 5 players limping into a pot type hands, and not too many raise/reraise preflop.    After a half an hour no one has been eliminated. Aaron is short stacked, all the way down to $T300 and change, but he's able to double up a couple of times then steal some pots and before you know it he's slightly above average with over $T1700

I should warn you at this point that my recollection of hands may not be 100% accurate. Apparently for play money games they don't keep a hand history so I can't go back to check exactly what happened. I can't even go back to see what happened a few hands ago, so as I'm writing notes I'm missing the specifics of many hands.

Here are some of the hand highlights that I was able to remember.

Shane, last games runner up was this weeks first victim. Of coarse it came at the hands of Cookie. There was a ragged looking all heart flop followed by non hearts on the turn and river. I don't recall exactly how the betting went, but Shane was a little short stacked going in, and was all-in by the time the hand was over. Shane had managed to get two pair, but Cookie had flopped a 9 high flush to take him down.

After building his chips stack to a respectable size Aaron was back on a downswing. He limped into a pot after Jason and I, and followed by maybe one or two other players. I have A9o. I was planning on raising, but since Jason limped ahead of me I though maybe I'd just tag along and see what happened.   The flop was 2d9h3d and I had top pair. Jason bets and at this point I figure I'm probably good with top pair top kicker. I don't like the flush draw though, especially with so many players in the pot so I raise it up big. Aaron thinks about it for a while, and pushes all in and it folds back to me. Luckily for me, and unfortunately for Aaron, he didn't have enough chips to push me out. His all in was little more than twice my bet, and I have enough chips behind that even if I lose this pot I'm in fine shape. I call and he turns over Ad5d.   I manage to dodge another diamond or four and Aaron is knocked out in 7th place.

I win another big pot shortly thereafter against Noah. I look down to see a pair of aces and am delighted when I get him to call my preflop raise. The flop is 5x5 where X is garbage. A couple of bets and raises, and the turn is a King. Too bad for me but that scares Noah away. He claims he had a pair of jacks. Still it was hug pot and I'm not comfortably near the chip lead.

At this point I remember what is was like to in a grove. I'm able to start playing almost any two cards, confident that I can push someone out of a hand if I want, or that I can fold a big pot if I need to without crippling myself.

Cookie has been largely silent. I'm thinking that he lost his remote desktop connection and just doesn't realize it yet. Much to Noah's chagrin he is in fact still playing and still hasn't used up all his luck. Noah gets all-in preflop against him, Noah's AK vs Cookies TT. Noah flops an ace. Before he can celebrate however Cookie catches a third ten on the river and suddenly we are down to three.

At this point Cookie's luck finally does run out as it is Jason's turn to some completely unexpected set. Cookie isn't used to not having the best hand, so he repeatedly pays Jason off just to see what he had. Eventually Jason prevails and now its just him and me.

Jason's seems to be a decent player, but I get the feeling he doesn't have a lot of heads up experience. He tends to call every hand preflop while I'm raising every time. He's then forced to fold to my bets on the flop, because he hasn't done much to take control of the hand. On the few cases when he does raise I know to tread lightly. Overall he's just way too conservative and I'm able to take advantage of it.

Even the hands I don't have a good feeling about go my way. There are a few where we check or min-bet to the river where I end up having just slightly better rags than him.

We both started at about $T6700 chips and I eventually to $T12500 : $T2500. He starts push all in a little more often, but I'm content to let him take those pots rather than risk a double up. I can wait him out. I don't have to wait long as shortly thereafter he preflop raises in to my pocket cowboys. I reraise and he pushes and we're all in. He has AJ so I'm looking pretty good. Especially when a King is the first card on the flop. So I take down game number two. Woot.

Here are the results from game two and the new standings:

Game 2: