WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 4/1

So I've been a pretty lazy blogger.  I haven't posted since the end of last season.  Quick recap I ended up buying Jason M's seat at the WSOP.  I lasted about 8-9 hours before busting out.  I didn't really have a whole lot work out for me. I was mostly treading water the entire time.

So back to this year.  A couple players have dropped out.  Noah because he's lame, and because his wife will be having twins midway through the season. Also Jason S dropped out as he moved to San Diego and will also be out of the country for four weeks during the season.

Returning is Rich who won season two and did not play last year.

The opening week did not go well for me.

Midway through the second round I got AhQh in early position. I raised and Archie to my left reraised.  The flop was Qd8h2d. I checked and Archie be half the pot.  I called.  Archie likes to be big when there is a flush draw on the board.  I put him on trying to chase a flush away.  The turn is 7h giving me top pair and and a flush draw.  I check and Archie bets half pot again.  Calling would leave us with 5BB left.  I went in the tank and eventually called.  I put him on AA, KK and scared of a flush.  If I didn't have the flush draw I would have folded. Raising would have been pointless, he would have called no matter what and worst case I could go with the whole chip and a chair theory  The river was 3c and we checked down.  I was right he had KK.  While that play crippled my chances in this game I'm not super upset about the play.  At least I'm pretty confident in my reads on Archie now.

I planned on doing a whole lot of folding from then on, but a few hands later I got 99 under the gun.  I went all in for my 5BB  (which was going to be 2BB after the next two hands when the blinds went up).

I got three callers who checked down to the river.  Archie ended up being the only one to connect with the board when his AT turned into a pair of tens.  Out in last place.  Not the ideal way to start.  Definitely need to tighten up next time.  Oh well.


Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 3/12

So... this week was fairly anti-climactic.  For me anyway

The league winners have already been decided.  The three Jasons were no-shows.  Archie didn't show up until he was down to 300 chips.  Then he started playing and won a few all-ins to vault into second place.  Problematic because we decided that late comers earn zero points, but never said what happens if they actually win money.

I went out if fifth.  I was up and down and my all-in preflop KK ran into Shane's TT with a T on the flop.  Shane had somehow managed to get 50% of the tables chips.  I don't know.  I may be a little drunk.

OK fine, I typed most of this out as soon as I was eliminated.  Archie went on to win despite showing up almost an hour late.  So maybe it was a little more exciting than I originally thought.  I'm not rewriting this.  Se previous paragraph where I mentioned I may be drunk.

Archie gets $150 for the win, but zero points.

The results for this week are:

1. Archie
2. Shane
3. Greg
4. Noah
5. Aaron
6. Me
7. Mark
8. Jason M (No-Show)
9. Jason K (No-Show)
10. Jason S (No-Show)

And the final standings are:

1. Mark (92/86)
2. Jason M (85/85)
3. Shane (83/81)
4. Greg (73/73)
5. Aaron (74/70)
6. Noah (63/61)
7. Me (62/60)
8. Archie (52/52)
9. Jason S (48/48)
10. Jason K (19/19)

Jason M sold his seat to me for $100.   I get 40% of the winnings.  He gets 15%.  I would have easily paid more or given up a higher percent, but he didn't have any desire to actually play in the WSOP so this is probably a win for both of us.

Hopefully we'll be back next year, but I'm not confident.  Jason K was a no show for the last third.  As was Jason S.  S at least had an excuse as he was changing jobs and moving cross country.  Also Noah and Mark indicated they are probably out. We may be able to find some people to fill their places, or maybe we just call it a good run and leave it at that.

I'll be in Vegas the last weekend in June.  Hopefully I can improve upon last year's performance and actually cash this time.



This may be the

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 03/11

This week was odd. Jasons S and K were no-shows again.

I did really well in the beginning. I doubled up early with QQ. Jason M called a flop bet, then I check raised him on the turn when I picked up a set. I went all-in on the river and he called with bottom pair. I have no idea what he was thinking.

The next hand I had 72o and bloffed Greg off of a big pot with a large bet on the river when it gave flush possibilities.

I got QQ additional times in the tourney, but each one fared worse than the hand before.

Before I get to that, I'll just say that I was tired and not really focusing on the game, so I made a bunch of plays that I probably wouldn't have normally made. Some worked, some didn't. I was never really in danger of going out until I did.

My second QQ came when I was in the big blind. Archie raised from the small blind and I reraised, causing him to fold. (side note, our group has gotten terribly passive. So much preflop limping and family pots.

My third QQ came four handed. I raised, and Shane reraised out of the big blind. The flop is all under cards, two clubs and he bets my remaining chips. I make a crying call, putting him on KK or AA. He turns over AK, both clubs. That was actually a good bet on his part. Something I didn't think him capable of. Puts a ton of pressure on me to fold plus he has a ton of outs. Which of course he hits.

Not a terrible result except that it was one of my better results this season.

Here are the results from this week, and the overall standings.

1. Shane
2. Greg
3. Mark
4. Me
5. Aaron
6. Archie
7. Noah
8. Jason M
9. Jason K (DNP)
10. Jason S (DNP)

Overall

1. Jason M (85/84)
2. Mark (88/81)
3. Shane (68/66)
4. Aaron (68/64)
5. Greg (62/62)
6. Me (57/55)
7. Noah (55/53)
8. Archie(52/50)
9. Jason S (48/48)
10. Jason K (19/19)

So unless my math is wrong Jason M and Mark have clinched the top two spots.  Technically Shane could tie mark, but Jason M said he doesn't think he can make it next week, and the other two Jason's I don't expect to show at all, so there is an almost guaranteed three points for Mark.   

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas episode 03/08 and 03/09

I didn't post an update from last week, so I'm bundling it with the results from today.  I was pretty frustrated with the results last week.  I won a big hand early and was second in chips for most of the tourney before ultimately going out in a pathetic fifth place.  My cards were terrible and I couldn't seem to catch a break but enough bitching.  I do want to review the big hand I won early on. It was vs. Greg.

Its been a week so I may be a little fuzzy on the details, but here is how it went down.  Five handed, Greg is on the button, I'm in the small blind with Q6o.  He limps and I call.  Flop is A6A, and I make a small bet. BB folds and Greg calls.  Turn as a three.  I bet again, and he raises.  I call.  River is a four.  He makes a large bet.  Its early in the tournament and if I call, the loser of the hand is going to have a hard time not going out first or second.

It seems to me like he is trying to push me out. If he has an ace then he would be trying to get me to call with a smaller bet.  If he has an pocket pair, then I still think the ace scares him and he tries to keep the pot smaller.    I call and he turns over K7s.  He's shocked that I called him with what I.  I realize I'm not providing a perfect recount of the hand, but am I missing something. Was he representing something that I just didn't see, or was he overselling his hand like I thought?  I guess I was right so that is all that matters, but I was bothered that he thought he represented a hand that I should have folded to.  Someone else at the table concurred that they thought he was slow rolling a big hand.

Anyway.  I coasted for  a while after that, then just ran into a bunch of coin flips that I kept losing.

Here are the results from last week:  Jason M continues his dominance this season and Mark pulled into second place with his win.  Also note that despite losing that big hand Greg managed to come back and outlast me.

1. Mark
2. Jason M
3. Jason S
4. Noah 
5. Greg
6. Me
7. Archie
8. Aaron
9. Shane
10. Jason K

And for week 9....


Haaaaaaalelueah hallelujah, hallelujah.

I finally won one.  Holy crap I was starting to think it wouldn't happen.  Noah also got his first cash with a second place finish, so congrats to him.

Jasons K and S were no shows, although Jason K was nice enough to register and then get blinded out.  I wish I could set the registration period to 30 min before the tourney starts so that wouldn't happen.  Jason K would have finished in fifth if he had actually shown up and just folded every hand.

My table started out four handed and I was very aggressive, nearly doubling up by the time the tables merged after the first blind limit.  I settled into a conservative rhythm after than and started bleeding chips as has been the norm.  

The hand that put me up for good was one that I had no business playing I had T2h and entered a family pot.  Flop was king high with one heart.  Jason M made a small bet.  He's been catching ridiculous cards on the river all league long, and especially today.  Nothing against me so far today, but he's had some sick suckouts against Noah.  

The turn is another heart and Jason makes a slightly larger bet.  I think to myself "what the hell"  if you can't beat 'em, join em right?  The river is the king of hearts and Jason makes a big bet.  I push all in over the top and he calls.  He had a king, and I forget the kicker, but it doesn't matter because he finally gets rivered and I double up.

From that point on I'm never in danger.  When we get down to three players I get the sense that both Mark and Noah are waiting for the other to go out, and as a result both hemorrhage chips in my direction.  Mark fall first and then the heads up match with Noah is over in a few hands as he only has 5x BB left.



Here are the results for week 9

1. Me
2. Noah
3. Mark
4. Jason M
5. Greg
6. Shane
7. Aaron
8. Archie
9. Jason S (No Show)
10. Jason K (No Show)

And the overall standings (Total/Total dropping worst 2)

1. Jason M (72/71)
2. Mark (72/65)
3. Aaron (60/56)
4. Shane (51/49)
5. Jason S (48/46)
6. Greg (47/47)
7. Me (45/43)
8. Archie(43/41)
9. Noah (37/35)
10. Jason K (19/19)

In other news, even though it doesn't look like I'm going to be finishing anywhere near the top two, Jason M looks like he's going to win and has said that he doesn't really want to play in the WSOP event.  So I think I can convince him to let me play for him.  Mark is the other guy pushing to play for Jason, and he is now in position to win a seat outright so I might not have to worry about him.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 03/07

Ug.  That's about all I can say about tonight.  I was hoping to ride last week's performance into something better this week, but it was not to be.  It was one of those nights when pretty much nothing went right.

I'm going to make my cat take most of the blame for this.  He's an asshole.  When he's hungry or for whatever reason decides that he needs attention he becomes the most obnoxious furball in the history of pets.  He walks on your keyboard, knocks anything and everything he can find off your desk, tries to head butt you, and then starts biting.  He's a complete douchbag.  And I'm a cat guy.  I love cats.

Anyway, he's going through his routine as I'm trying to play.  I would put him out of the room but then he would start scratching at the door, or try to bust into my two year old daughter's room, who just went to bed. So there are a few borderline hands that I opt not to play because I'm know I'm distracted.  I tell myself I'm make smart conservative decisions.  Its just one of those days where every hand you fold would have hit the flop huge, and every hand you play misses completely.  I'm slightly tilty from that but I'm aware of it and I think I have it under control.

Three big hands are what untimately kill me.

1.  I have 64o in one of the blinds.  I've had terrible hands all night though so this is actually one of my better starting hands.  And the flop is four handed 537 with two spades.  I bet a smallish amount. I don't want to scare people away.  I know I should because the flush is there, but I don't.  Two fold one stays.  The turn is a flush.  I check he min bets and I call.  River is nothing.  Check Check he has a weak flush and I'm in trouble. I guess I should have tried to push him out on the flop, but if I can't get a big pot off of flopping a 7 high straight then I'm not going to far anyway.

2.  I have pocket sevens and call Mark's raise.  He flop is 833.  He bets I raise, he calls.  The pot is about the size of my stack, which he bets when an ace comes up on the turn.  I think about it for a long time, and eventually fold.  I figure he has an ace, or an overpair.  Anything other than an ace on the flop and I probably call, but I can't put him on anything that I can beat.   I fold and now I have to wait for a premium hand or I'm done.

3.  Does ATs count as a premium hand?  Three orbits later and its by far the best I've seen.    There are a couple limpers and I push all-in.   I get called by JT.  Of coarse he catches a Jack on the river and I'm busted in 9th place.  Yes that was a shitty bad beat story. I don't care.  This is probably the most frustrated I've ever been at poker.

ug.


Here is this week's results, and the overall standings.

1. Shane
2. Aaron
3. Mark
4. Archie
5. Jason M
6. Jason S
7. Jason K
8. Noah
9. Me
10. Greg

And the overall standings

1. Jason M (55)
2. Aaron (55)
3. Mark (49)
4. Shane (46)
5. Jason S (40)
6. Archie (38)
7. Greg (37)
8. Me (26)
9. Noah (20)
10. Jason K (19)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 03/06

Things actually went well this game. For the most part. Although I think the key hand was quite a bit of luck.

Very early on Jason S is the short stack at the table and goes all in. Jason K calls. Jason S has 55 against K's kings. S spikes a five on the flop and halves K's stack. K I'm guessing this puts K on tilt pretty bad. The very next hand I have 88. A couple players limp and I raise. K goes all-in. I call, and he shows 29o. I knock him out and get a decent sized stack in the process.

For most of the rest of the tourney I play tight, and bide my time, picking up some small pots here and there as people knock each other out. I'm never the big stack, but I'm never short stacked either.

Until we get down to three handed. Jason M (seriously, no more jason's allowed in the league) has had more than the rest of the table combined for quite a while. Greg has been bouncing up and down, and I'm holding steady, but getting close to desperation time.

The fatal hand comes after Greg has taken a bunch of chips off Jason. Jason raises, and I look down at A7s. I figure three handed, I'm probably ok. Plus I think a bet of about a third of Jason's stack will scare him off most hands anyway. Maybe I was right about that, but it didn't matter because he didn't have most hands. He had AK. In hindsight, he doesn't raise much so that raise was probably and indication of a pocket pair or high ace. If I had just called his raise, I could have gotten out after missing the flop. I would have been in trouble but I would have lived to fight another day. Instead I'm out in third place. I just barely missed out on some much needed points, and cash. Hopefully this is a trend and I can ride create some momentum to finish off the season strong. Half way through its not looking too good.

The surprise of the year has to be Jason M though. I would have put his odds at making the top two at 100:1. He's cashed in three of the last four tourneys though to take a six point lead overall. I'm not convinced that there isn't a good amount of luck in those finishes, based on some of the hands I saw him play tonight, but you can't argue with results.

Here are this weeks results:

1. Jason M
2. Greg
3. Me
4. Jason S
5. Mark
6. Noah
7. Aaron
8. Archie
9. Shane
10. Jason K

And the overall standings

1. Jason M (50)
2. Aaron (44)
3. Mark (41)
4. Greg (37)
5. Jason S (36)
6. Archie (32)
7. Shane (31)
8. Me (25)
9. Noah (18)
10. Jason S (16)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 03/05

So I've decided I'm no longer any good at poker. In fact I'm pretty terrible. I have no reads on anyone. Every time I try to take a stab at a pot I get raised, every time I'm tentative I find that I was ahead, and get sucked out on. The only thing that ever seems to go right on me is playing 72o. I got it in the BB this time around. The small blind was the only other player in the pot and he limped in. The flop was rags, he bet and I raised forcing him to fold. Other than that. Bad night for me.

I'm incredibly frustrated with my play lately. I think a lot of it has to do with rust, but I don't know how to fix that. Online play isn't an option any more, except for this league, and I don't have time to go to the casino. At this point I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be playing in the WSOP this year unless I can convince a lot of people to stake me. It would take a miracle for me to place in the top two of the league, and I've had a few very large and unexpected house expenses that have made my wallet a bit weepy. I don't think I can justify the full buy in this year.

We'll see.  It looks like there is going to be a large group of people going to Vegas this year so I'm at least going to do that.   Maybe things will turn around by then.

 Here are the standings for this week, and overall.

1. Greg
2. Jason M
3. Jason S
4. Mark
5. Aaron
6. Noah
7. Shane
8. Jason K
9. Me
10. Archie

Over all.

1. Aaron (41)
2. Mark (36)
3. Jason M (35)
4. Archie (30)
5. Shane (30)
6. Jason S (30)
7. Greg (26)
8. Me (17)
9. Jason K (16)
10. Noah (14)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes To Vegas Episodes, 3/2 and 3/3 Plus live Poker

I've been slacking on my WSPL-GtV updates. I'm not sure how interesting summaries of small tournies actual are, especially when I'm not to happy with my performance.  So lets talk about my play overall.

In season one I was pretty successful playing a fairly conservative game.  I knew that I could run up a bunch of middle of the road performances, plus a win here and there to advance to the WSOP.  And it worked for me.

In the second season I decided to play more aggressively.  I tried to get involved in more hands and to push my advantage in  the early stages.  I did OK, but often found myself in trouble, losing critical points in the standings with early exists.  I ultimately finished in third place.  The top two consisted of a fairly loose aggressive player and a very measured conservative player.

This year my goal was to play simple, smart, conservative poker, a revival of my season one strategy. My goal was to not put chips at risk unless absolutely necessary.  It the first two matches that led to a boring game where I couldn't get enough chips to stick around very long.  It also lead me to fold a fair number of hands that I think I could/should have won because I was playing scared.

The same thing happened in the live game.   A friend started hosting what is turning out to be a pretty large monthly game.   I'm not a huge fan of the blind structure, and he makes one person be permanent dealer, which I don't like, but other than that, its a good tournament.   I played pretty solid for the first hour, chipping up slowly.  I lost couple pots when I couldn't chase some less than stellar players off of their garbage hands, but I was still in good shape at the break.

Then the blind schedule got aggressive, and it was getting close to all in or fold mode.  I got my aces cracked by the aggressive guy at the table when he flopped two pair.  And while that was annoying it wasn't what angered me about the game.  Looking back at the first hour, while I did have more chips than I started with, I left many opportunities to have even more chips by being overly conservative pre-flop, and not being willing to take a chance with anything other than super premium hands.  Had I played better early on I wouldn't have been in a situation where I had to get all-in and I could have escaped that hand with at least a chip or two.

Back to the only other thing worth noting is that Aaron has gotten super tilty, despite winning the first game.   Its one of the small joys of playing with him, seeing how angry he gets after losing.  Twice when he was in the BB I was dealt 27o.  I raised pre-flop hoping everyone would fold so I could show my hand and tilt him more.  Both times though I was called before it got to him, then hit either trips or two pair on the flop and went on to win big hands.  Good times.

Here are the results from the last two weeks and the overall standings.  We took a break for the Superbowl, but we will be back on this Sunday and every Sunday for the next nine weeks.

Week 2:

1. Archie
2. Shane
3. Jason K
4. Jason S
5. Me
6. Aaron
7. Noah
8. Mark
9. Greg
10. Jason M

Week 3:

1. Jason M
2. Mark
3. Jason S
4. Me
5. Greg
6. Archie
7. Noah
8. Aaron
9. Shane
10. Jason K

Overall Standings (points)

1. Mark (24)
2. Jason M (23)
3. Archie (22)
4. Aaron (21)
5. Jason S(20)
6. Shane (16)
7. Me (13)
8. Greg (11)
9. Jason K (9)
10. Noah (6)

Its going to be a close one this year.  The top 5 are separated by only 4 points, and any of the bottom 5 can get right back in it with a win.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas episode 2/11

We're playing twice this week since the last game was scheduled to be the day after Noah's wedding. Of course since we made a special game for him, Noah managed to not show up.

Things did not go very well for me this game. Early on I had JJ in the big blind. Everyone folded to Archie in the small blind who limped. If everyone limps to me in the big blind I generally like to just check it to disguise my hand. In this case I should have raised. I hate playing jacks. You never feel safe because someone is almost guaranteed to have overcards. This time the flop was ace high, Archie checked and bet. Same on the turn. The river was a third spade. Archie bets about 2/3 pot. It wasn't a very big pot, but still. It was great bet because I felt like I had to call even though I was sure I was behind. Sure enough he had rivered the flush with q2. Its my own fault. A raise pre-flop and I probably win that pot without the drama.

The next few hands were also multiway limps where I felt like I had to call. And I kept getting good pieces of the flop, but not good enough to stand up to the raises that I was getting. Before you know it I'm short stacked. and in trouble of going out real early.

I managed to stay alive long enough to finish in fifth, one spot ahead of Rich, but unfortunately Mark made it to XXXX place so my chances are pretty slim.

My final hand I had 88 in the big blind. Aaron min raised under the gun and I pushed all in. He had Aces and despite his claims that he never wins his aces held up. The frustrating thing about that is that I had 88 in the big blind earlier on when I had even less chips. Mark and Archie were both in a raised pot and while I contemplated pushing, I chickened out. Mark was also short stacked and I was hoping Archie would bust him. The flop was 89T and Mark ended up winning a big pot with a pair of tens. Not that I think I would have tripled up, but I would have at least won a decent amount of chips and prevented Mark from doing so. Second night in a row I let one of my top rivals stay alive.

Here are the standings after tonight

1. Aaron
2. Mark
3. Shane
4. Archie
5. Me
6. Rich
7. Jason
8. Cookie
9. Noah (DNP)

And the totals:

1. Mark 94/85
2. Rich 86/83
3. Me 80/76
4. Aaron 77/72
5. Archie 64/62
6. Noah 61/61
7. Jason 59/56
8. Shane 41/40
9. Cookie 37/35

So If Mark and Rich both choke tomorrow and Aaron or I win we have a chance, otherwise it looks like those two are going.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas episode 2/10

Both glorious and terrible things happened in this week's tourney.

We'll start with the glorious.

Actually no we'll start with some background. Mark is currently in the lead for our league with Rich in second. I'm in third, tied with Rich overall and a point behind after dropping our worst two.

The tourney goes more or less as usual.  Jason goes out first, then Noah and Shane and Aaron.  Mark and Rich are both short stacked for most of the early going, but keep battling back.  I'm comfortably sitting second behind Archie with the chip standings.

I'm playing really tight and getting bad cards so I'm getting chipped away while Rich and Mark slowly get back into it.  Mark is impossible to eliminate early on.  He's so patient when shortstacked and never seems to lose an all in until late in the game.

Anyways, I was worried that my image was starting to look weak passive, so I was looking for opportunities to raise when I get good old 72o.  I raise and Mark calls.   The flop is seven high.  Mark leads out and I push all in.  He thinks a bit, then calls with AJo.  The turn pairs the board  and the river is  another seven, so I managed to knock out the league leader with the worst hand in the game.  Good times.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to capitalize on it as much as I would have liked.  And I had a great opportunity too.   Rich was short stacked again and pushed all-in pre-flop.  I had ATo.  Archie called ahead of me though and I chickened out.  Archie was the chip leader and I didn't want to get into a pot with him that was already that big.  I figured he must have something good, so I let him try to knock Rich out.  In hindsight Archie probably would have let me check it down so I should have take the chance.  Plus the flop was AAT and there was another ten on the turn.   Terrible play, and not just because I would have won the pot.  I played that hand scared and it cost me big time.

Rich then went on to finally get a win.  I came in third losing to Jason. Three handed, Jason started as the chip leader and I just could not get a read on him.  He would check/call just about anything to the river, whether he had something or not.  Sometimes it worked to my advantage, other times not so much.

The had I lost I had pocket eights and made large bets pre-flop and post flop.  He called.  The board read JTX.  The turn was a rag and I pushed in my remaining chips.  He calls with AK and rivers the queen to knock me out.

So here are the new standings:

1. Rich
2. Jason
3. Me
4. Archie
5. Mark
6. Aaron
7. Shane
8. Noah
9. Cookie

Overall:

1. Rich (82 Total 79 Dropping the worst two)
2. Mark (83/74)
3. Me (75/71)
4. Noah(61/60)
5. Aaron (62/57)
6. Archie (58/56)
7. Jason (56/53)
8. Cookie (35/33)
9. Shane (33/32)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

My WSOP Adventure

I arrived in Las Vegas Friday afternoon, and after getting checked into the hotel I was introduced to three card poker by a couple of guys in the group.  They had been playing for a few hours before I got there and claimed that it was an easy mindless game where you could nurse your chips for a while without going broke.  For the most part I didn't quite have their luck, as I burned through my allotted stack fairly quickly.  But then the big payoff came.  I hit trip fives with a payout of 30x1 + a bunch of other side bets.  That allowed me to hang around until it was time for dinner, and for the first time in a long time I was able to leave a table with more money than I started with. That would be the only time this happens for the weekend.  For anyone in the group.  As long as you have a big enough bankroll to last until you hit a big payout three card poker isn't a terrible game.  Just be warned that like any game, if you hit a bad run you could lose all your chips real fast. But, you probably didn't come here to read about my failures at three card poker.



After dinner, Smack and I headed over to the Rio to register for the event #43 at this year's WSOP. I haven't really been following pro poker for the last few years and he's got a much better eye for it, but he was picking out poker pros left and right whereas I would have let them walk by just assuming they were random guys.  In the half hour that we were there to register and scope out the venue we saw Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Eli Elezra, Alan Cunningham, Huck Seed, Men Nguyen, Joe Hachem, Eric Seidel and a bunch more that I don't remember.


On to the tourney.

We start off 5 handed at my table.  Three registrants had yet to show and two seats were open waiting for late buy ins.  Ultimately Cherish Andrews sits down to my immediate left.  I don't recognize her, but a guy at the other end of the table congratulates her. She's eventually forced to divulge that she had come in fourth place in a tournament earlier this month.   About half way through the second blind level Simon Charette sits down in seat number four.  He looks familiar, but I wouldn't have been able to name him if the guy in seat five didn't out him.  Simon won event 23 earlier this month.


On a side note, I found Cherish Andrew's twitter page.  She is selling 1% stakes in herself for $35.  If my math is correct after 42 or 43 sales she'll have paid for her entry leaving 57% of the profits for herself.  I'm going to start a price war next year.  1% stakes in me will only cost $30.  Don't all volunteer at once, there are plenty of sponsoring opportunities for all of you.



Back to the tourney.  I had terrible cards the entire tournament.  I'm sure that's what everyone says, but I almost nothing I could do anything with.  I don't think I saw an Ace until halfway through the second level.  I had a bunch of hands that I might have considered gambling on in our league, but those are marginal hands that are more likely to lead to trouble than anything good.  The exception to my hand luck was pocket nines.  I got them four times in the first two hours.  The first time I flopped an open ended straight.  The turn gave me a set, but gave the other three players in the hand my open ended straight.  I guess I should have tried to take the pot there, but I was forced out.  I didn't feel good about my set. It was too easy for someone to have the straight. The river ended up completing the low end of the straight so the best I would have done is split the pot. The next two times I had nines, I took down some medium/small pots on the flop.  The last time I folded three handed to flop bet with an ace on the board.  Cherish ended up taking that hand with pocket sevens.  So I guess I was playing a little too conservatively.

Despite not playing many hands, I was able to get up to just over 5K from the starting point of 4.5K after the first level. I lost a little bit in the second level, down to around 4.8k when we got to the final hand before the break.  I was in the big blind and seven players called a min bet ahead of me.  Of course I came along for the ride.  Eight handed, the flop is J 8 3. Fifth or Sixth position bets 500 and I pop it to 1000.  It folds back to the original bettor and he pushes all-in for about 2k more.  I call, and he shows pocket jacks. the turn and river don't help and I go from an OK stack to a real short stack just like that.

I feel like I played the hand correctly.  I wanted a lot of people in the had so I'd have someone to pay me off if I hit my set, which I did.  Unfortunately someone else flopped a better set.  I was putting him on AJ, or maybe two pair, or a big over pair.  I think I'm ahead in that scenario the vast majority of the time, and if I don't make that play I'm costing myself a lot of chips.  Maybe he intentionally disguised his hand by betting the way he did, or maybe he got lucky no one sucked out on him, but I feel like he should have bet pre-flop to prevent 8 people from getting into the pot with him in the first place.  The chance of not hitting someone's overcard has to be pretty slim.  He got lucky and just about the only scenario that pays him off happens.  For me, I wasn't going past the flop unless I hit my set or it checks around.  Before the hand I was counting up my chips so I could update my friends at the break, and I guess I should have just walked away, happy to be even at the second break.


The third level was pretty uneventful for me.  I start with 1900 chips for blinds at 50/100.  I tried to take stabs at a couple pots, but got pushed out both times.  Finally I raise preflop with pocket sevens.  Its reraised back to me for most of my remaining chips.  I figure I'm going to have to make a move sooner or later, so it might as well be now and call.  He has AK, but flops an ace and just like that I'm going home.

Overall I think I played OK, maybe a little more conservative that I should have.  I generallly tried to avoid gettin into confrontations with mediocre cards.  Theres nothing worse than pairing your top card with a bad kicker and being forced to fold because you aren't confident in your hand.  There's no reason to let yourself get into those situatoins.  As a result, I folded a lot.  A lot.  However sometimes maybe I should just play a random hand or two, to keep people on their toes, and because I may hit a big hand, or be able to claim a pot or two with continuation bets.

Overall players at the table weren't as aggressive as I'm used to in live tourneys. Probably because the blinds don't start out as high relative to your starting chips as in the smaller daily tourneys.  The blinds also increase at a much nicer pace, so there is no reason to panic if you aren't doubling up in the first half hour.  There is still a lot of pre-flop raising, but it was only 2.5-3.5 the big blind, and there wasn't a lot of all-ins out of nowhere.  The game flow was definetly something I was more comfortable with, I just couldn't quite take advantage of it.

I played in the $85 dollar tourney at Ceasrs the next night.  This is where you realize how bad players can be.  The contrast with the WSOP was incredible.   It was impossible to get a read on the table.  A pre-flop raise of 1200 with blinds at 50/100 gets called by three people with garbage hands and my 600 raise when I get aces scares everyone out. I'm doing fine in this tourney as well, when the big blind calls my preflop raise.  He asks me if I'm going to keep stealing his blinds.  I didn't think this was the case, but I may have raised him the last time he was in the blinds.  I have KK. The flop is A 9 4 and he goes all in immediately.  I'm not even convinced he saw any of the cards on the flop. I think about it for a while and ultimatly decide that doesn't have the ace. I'm pretty sure he was going all in no matter what.  I may or may not have been right.  He turns over 96.  Its possible he thought I was trying to steal and that he could take it back from me with his middle pair.  I'm sure you konw where this is going.  He rivers another 9 and I'm down to the proverbial chip and chair.  I actually manage to triple up ont the next hand with queen high, but it still wasn't enough as I was forced in again on the next hand and didn't survive.   Oh well.  That's poker as they say.

Overall, it was a good time, it just lasted significantly less time than I was planning.  I hope to be back again next year.  And I was only partially joking about that selling shares in me part.  If I don't win my way in I'll need to finance it somehow.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 10

I'm goin' to Veeeegas
I'm goin' to Veeeegas.

Ok its not definite yet, but after this week's game it's looking pretty likely. Noah finally cashed this week taking first place, and I finished in second. Which means I increased my lead on the rest of the pack and makes it very difficult for anyone else to catch up. It will take cashing in both of the remaining events and me finishing worse than fifth in both for any one else to have a chance.

I'm getting ahead of myself though.

Back to the action:

Things went slowly this game. I think especially for me and possibly others that the format of the event has a lot to do with it. I knew that I was comfortably in second place overall, and as long as I could outlast some of my nearest competitors, and/or finish above my previous worst scores of 5 points, I'll be that much closer to winning the WSOP entry. That fact coupled with the absolutely abysmal cards that I got meant that I didn't play very many hands. There was no reason for me to risk chips with anything less than a premium hand. This enrages Aaron who really wants me to go out early as he realizes that I'm standing between him and a WSOP entry. That alone makes folding hand after hand somewhat enjoyable.

As a result of my super tight play, the few hands I did get into resulted in me winning and allowed me to stay a little bit ahead of the average chip stack. I didn't blow a lot of chips on speculative hands as I might often do.

Our points leader Smack had a rough night. He plays very aggressively and if he doens't at least get some cards to back up his play he can find himself in trouble pretty quickly. He was forced in to all-in or nothing mode fairly early, and while he managed to get all-in with the best hand, Noah hit a runner runner straight to knock him out.

After that, no one was eliminated for quite a while. An absurdly long time There was a lot of back and forth plays, and a three players, Archie, Rich and Jason, struggling to keep their heads above water. The blinds would eat away at their short stacks, and they would finally make a move and steal some blinds or win a small all-in to start the cycle over again. They hung around for a long time before luck finally caught up with them.

I really think PokerStars wanted me to win this one though. Like I said earlier I got horrendous cards. However, most of the time, and way more often than usual, had I played those cards I would have flopped a monster. Not only that, it would have been a monster that no one would have seen coming, because who plays 53 off under the gun? Of course I was playing exceptionally tight so it was all for naught.

Noah was getting cards this game, and for once not getting them cracked. He was the big stack for most of the tourney and used it to effectively bully the rest of the table. Eventually it came down to just us two. He had me by 5 or 6 to one, but his luck finally started to wear out. We battled for quite a while and I whittled down his lead when he finally got me all in. I had a pair of sixes, he had wired tens. I congratulated him on a good game and was about to log out when I rivered a third six to nearly cripple him. Like I said, PokerStars wants me to win.

We battled back and forth for a while longer still. I think this had to be the longest heads up battle of the season. Finally Noah is able to win a few large sized pots and suddenly I'm on death's door again. I don't remember what the final hand was, but he managed to knock me out. It was late I was content with a second place finish and a non-contender ahead of me so the final hand didn't seam to be worth remembering.

Here are the current standings.

Week 10:

1. Noah
2. Me
3. Aaron
4. Shane
5. Jason
6. Archie
7. Rich
8. Cooke
9. Smack

Totals:

1. Smack (81 Points)
2. Me (81)
3. Cookie (63)
4. Aaron (60)
5. Shane (58)
6. Archie (58)
7. Rich (56)
8. Noah (48)
9. Jason (41)

Total (minus worst two)

1. Smack (79)
2. Me (71)
3. Cookie (59)
4. Aaron (57)
5. Shane (56)
6. Rich (54)
7. Archie (53)
8. Noah (47)
9. Jason (40)

The interesting thing here is that the totals section represents the worst case scenario for each player. If, for some reason someone doesn't play the next two events and gets 0 points, what they currently have in the totals section will be their final score. This means the worst I can do is 81 points. Looking at it from the other side, the best someone can do is their total minus the worst two + 30. This means even if Noah or Jason win the next two, they can't catch me, or Smack.

For Archie to qualify, he will need to win the next two and then have me finish no better than fourth.
Rich also has to win the next two. He can tie me if I finish third and fifth or worse, or beat me if I do worse than that.
With a first and second place finish, and me not doing better than fifth, Aaron or Shane could still go.
Cookie can tie me with two second place finishes and me not doing better than fifth.

I think that except for Smack and myself, whoever doesn't win the next event is eliminated. I think all Smack has to do is not finish last in both of the next games and he is in. Even if he does finish in last he is still probably in.

Now we'll have to see how my wife feels about me ditching her with an infant for 3-4 days so I can go play poker. Maybe if I promise to buy her something nice with my winnings she'll let me go. Otherwise I'll have pick a stand in. My instincts for fill in would be Archie and then Noah, but neither of them have done very well in this format so I'm not so sure. Maybe the live format suits them better.

No game next week since Archie will be out of town, but we're thinking of doing two the following week so that we can finish up the season and figure out which event we are going to play this summer, and start making travel plans.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Biggest Pot Ever

I won my biggest pot ever this morning. Keep in mind, that's not really saying much since I almost never play ring games, especially no limit, and when I do, I play at about as low stakes as I can find. Still, its nice to hit something big every once in a while.

I'm still loving Rush Poker. Either I'm getting extremely lucky, or its easy money, or some combination of those two. I moved up from my $.5/.10 all the way to $.25/.50, where the big money is.

The caliber of play wasn't noticeably different. I did find that I was recognizing a few of the players this time around, those with odd names, or huge chip stakes, so I guess you could theoretically try to build an image, but it seems like it wouldn't be worth the effort.

I did notice couple of potential leaks in my game. I checked the best hand on the river on multiple occasions. It makes me nervous when my pre-flop raise gets called, and I get check called to the river. Especially when I only have a mediocre hand. I'm content to check it down at that point instead of risking a check-raise that I would potentially struggle to call. On the flip side, there were a number of hands where my opponent raised me ridiculous amounts when I had pretty good hands, but not good enough to risk calling that type of raise. I don't know what I can do to prevent that situation, other than firing back every once in a while. The problem is, firing back doesn't help because next hand no one will know me, and they may actually have the hand they are representing.

So I know hand replays are probably getting old, but like I said at the top, this was my biggest pot ever so I'm going to go back through it. Feel free to skip ahead.

In the small blind I get dealt Aces, and better yet the player under the gun raises to 3.5BB That means I can just call and disguise my hand a bit. Then the guy one from the button calls. I'm tempted to slow play here, but decide to bump it up to $4.00 hoping one of them will fold. Slow playing aces with multiple players is a great way to get them cracked. In retrospect, I probably should have gone higher if I wanted them to fold, but $4.00 seems like a lot preflop in a 50 cent game. At the very least they should be on the defensive. Both call.

The flop is Qs 2s 8c. Not bad. I could do without the flush draw, but I'm almost certainly ahead at this point. A set of queens is a concern, but I don't think I have to worry about it. I be $8, 2/3 of the pot and both call. Curious. That $8 is more than most hands have in a pot at showdown.

The turn is 7s. Potentially a very bad card. If one of them just hit a flush I'm in trouble. I know if I check here I'm going to have to fold to any bet so I bet $15, less than half the pot, but I large amount for these stakes. UTG calls, and the guy to my right puts his last $6 in. There's now about $72 in the pot. I'm worried about the flush, but I'm still on a nut flush draw and I don't buy that either of them have it. knowing neither of them have the ace makes it hard for me to believe that they've been chasing a flush.

The river is a glorious 6s giving me the nut flush. I bet $25 which puts UTG all in. He calls and the $115.95 pot gets pushed my way. UTG has AQo, no spades so he chased that hand the whole way with top pair top kicker against two players, one of whom was betting fairly aggressively. The guy to my right had KJs, so I ended up getting lucky on the river. I wonder if he had more chips if he would have raised me on the turn. I also wonder what it would have taken to get him out of the hand on the flop.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Rush Poker Part 3

Yes three posts in a row about the same thing. But I probably didn't even have three posts all of last year, so you should take what you can get.

I'm really enjoying rush poker. I hope whoever came up with this at FullTilt got a promotion because its genius and they stand to make a ton of money on it.

I played 150 hands at the micro limits in about half an hour and doubled my buy in. Some more notes:

• Stealing blinds is easy. People seem much less willing to defend their blinds when a better hand is milliseconds away. (small sample size, super low stakes, yadda yadda)
• I always make sure that my preflop raise is the same amount, whether I have aces, or 9Ts, or I'm on a bluff so as not to give any indication of what I have. There's not really a point in doing that in Rush because no one will remember what your normal raise is. Maybe try to squeeze in a bigger raise with your super premium hands.
• One of my weaknesses as a player is that I don't pay attention to my opponents as much as I should. I'll notice certain players, but in general I get distracted by other things than hands I'm not in. The Rush poker format neutralizes that by randomizing your opponent, and I think my skills against a random opponent are better than average.
  
• I'm playing poker somewhat regularly again. Woot. Although Mass Effect 2 comes out tomorrow so this might be a short lived journey back into the poker world.
  

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Rush Poker Part 2

Hey wow two posts in one day! See the post below for an explanation of rush poker.


So I tried a little rush poker. I played less than half an hour at the $0.05/$0.10 table. Big money I know. In that time I played 110 hands playing a single table. Its intense. You fold and split seconds later the action is back on you. Here's some observations from my first exposure.

• Its fast. The average hands per hour at a rush table was around 275 compared to 80 at a normal table.
  
• I couldn't figure out how to leave a table because it won't let you stand up while you're in a hand, and as soon as you fold you're in another hand. (check the sit out next hand box, then stand up)
  
• You can't build an image. There's not really a point in trying to build an image, or play sneaky or opposite what you were playing because you're not going to be at the table with these people next hand.
• Play is tighter. I'm used to micro limit tables having more people see the flop than not. If you can exchange your rags, or even your somewhat playable cards for a new hand immediately why waste time with garbage?
• Its fast.
  
• Sometimes I miss watching a hand to completion. You know those hands where you kind of want to stay in, but know you shouldn't? And you fold, but want to stick around to see what the other players have? You can't. As soon as you fold you're off to a new hand and you don't get to see what happened in the one you just left. I think you can go back and look at the hand history, but by the time you do three or four more hands have completed and you don't remember what you were looking for anyway.
• Its fast. Did I mention its fast? There were some pros playing at the $0.50/$1 tables four tabling. I have no idea how they can do that.
  
• If I remember correctly, they have an iron man promotion that rewards you for getting X number of FullTilt points each day in a month. It wouldn't take long to get there playing Rush style.
• I actually made a profit. I more than doubled my $10 investment. That in itself is a miracle as I am not a good cash game player. I think the tighter play, both for me and my opponents contributed to that. Plus the small sample size and quitting while I'm ahead thing.
  

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Small Blind Call and Bet

While my SNG poker game has been nothing to brag about lately, there is one particular move that I've been using with much success. Its nothing new or mind blowingly clever, but it works well.

The situation is this. I'm in the small blind and it has been folded to me. I hate being in this spot. I feel obligated to raise, yet anytime someone raises in this situation it looks like a steal, and it seems like I get called/raised way more than I should. And I never get a good feel for where I am in the hand because I can't tell if my opponent has a hand or is just putting me on a steal attempt. And yet I can't fold. I'm getting 3:1 on my money by calling and he's not going to even challenge me with most hands.

So if you haven't guessed, I've started just calling and then min-betting no matter what on the flop. The min bet actually ends up being a half-pot sized bet. Sometimes I'll make it a full pot sized bet, but usually not.

I've found that my opponents are more likely to fold in this scenario than if I were to raise pre-flop.

Since I only call pre-flop, they are most likely just happy to see a free flop. If I raise they see it as a steal attempt and try to defend, but by calling they see more cards with no risk. Sure sometimes I get raised in this case, but then I've only lost a half bet, and if that happens five times I've still lost the same amount as if I had raised to 3x blinds and got reraised. So I get to see a cheap flop and they get to see a free one.

The automatic bet on the flop is just hoping that they didn't hit anything. Even if they suspect a steal here, they are less likely to try to call my bluff if they've missed the flop as well. And since I just called they have no idea what I have. If the flop is garbage, its possible I called with garbage and hit. If the flop has scare cards, and they don't, then maybe I was setting them up. Either way I've found that more often than not they fold. And if they do call, or raise, and I have nothing, I've risked very little chips and I can get out relatively cheaply.

Nothing too fancy, but I find that it helps me win more than my fair share of blind battles, in a situation where I'm normally not very confident in my hand.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com