WSOP Event #2 recap

Monday I played Event #2 in the WSOP, a $1500 buy in event.  We started with 4500 chips and the blinds started at 25/25 with one hour levels.  Even though this starting stack is shorter than a lot of deep stack events it is still an excellent structure.  Both Derrick and I were competing in this event and we were ready!  I found my table in the Amazon room, my table was Purple 429, seat 9.  The WSOP is held in the convention center area of the Rio.  There are three massive rooms used for the events, and each room is divided into different sections by color so it is easier to find your table.  I looked around my table and it didn't seem like there were many skilled players at my table.  Just to prove my point, seat one in his first two hands was dealt a flopped full house, then AA, and won the absolute minimum in both.  A couple hands later seat 3 put in a stupid bluff on the river to waste some chips.  (If you are going to bluff, put out more than the minimum bet into a big pot!!)  This was going to be a good day!!  Here were my first three hands:

Hand 1: about ten hands in I was dealt AT in middle position in a 7 handed game.  I raised to 75 and the small blind called.  The pot was 175 and the flop came out 884.  He checked, I bet 100 and he called.  Always ask yourself why is your opponent making the action he does?

• does he have nothing and is setting up a bluff?  HIGHLY unlikely.  He isn't very good and it's way too early in the tournament to do something like this anyway...
• did he flop trips (an 8 in his hand and two on the board)?  Mathematically it is very hard to flop trips, especially since he is the only other player in the hand, but possible.
• does he have a pair (a 4 or a small pair in his hand - 33,55,66,etc.) MOST LIKELY

The turn was a 2.  If he thought he was best on the flop he's still best.  If he has an 8 I'm toast.  If 

he has nothing I'm still ahead.  No reason to bet so I check.  The river is a T.  He checks again. Once he checks the river he does not have an 8 in his hand.  (Bad players play trips by calling the flop, checking the turn to hope you are an idiot and bet again with the hopes of check-raising, then when you don't bet the turn they bet the river to make sure they get some value out of their hand.)  So, he most likely has a small pair.  (If he was planning some weird bluff he would have put some chips in the pot by now).  The pot is 375 and I want to bet on the higher side to get him to make a crying call but not too big that he gives up.  I bet 225 and after some agonizing thinking he calls.  We win.

Hand 2: The very next hand I was dealt AK and raised to 75.  The button called and the bb called. The pot was 250 and the flop came Q63.  The bb checked, I checked and the button checked.  I can definitely bet this flop as it is most likely they both missed, but I didn't for three reasons:  

1. I felt they were weaker players and wouldn't take a stab at the pot without a hand.
2. If the button did make a bet I felt was strong I could fold as I only have 75 invested
3. I just bet the flop with nothing so maybe now that I check the flop they'll give me credit for a hand and I'll get to see a free card for cheap

The turn came an A, so now life is good again!  The bb checked, I bet small and they both folded immediately.

I called a couple small raises from the blinds in the next couple rounds with some hands with possibilities (53s, J9c, etc.) but whiffed on them.  Then came THE hand....

Hand 3: A girl sat down on my right to make our table 8 handed.  She wins a pot with what was probably quads  (777 on the board and probably a 7 in her hand).   The next hand she opens the pot with a raise to 100.  I look down at JJ and re-raise to 275.  (I don't want to call and encourage a 5-6 way pot.  By re-raising I am taking control of the pot and getting a pot heads up where I will play in position for the remainder of the hand.)  Everyone folds and she calls.  The pot is 600 and the flop comes out QhJd7c.  And bingo was his name-o!  I just flopped gin and now the goal is to build as big a pot as possible.  QQ is the only hand that beats me and I beat everything else.  Remember that the goal in poker is to build big pots with big hands and smaller pots with smaller hands.  She checks and I bet 325.  She calls and the pot is now 1250.  The turn is the 3h.  This is a very safe card except for the possibility of a flush draw now developing.  She leads out and bets 250 into the pot of 1250.  This is a very small bet!  What does it mean?  Most likely it is a blocking bet and she wants to see the river card for cheap.  Why would she do this?  KK,AA are possible, AQ is very likely, KQh and AKh are possible, KT suited?, maybe she has 77 and is trying to induce me to bet.  In all cases I am ahead and I need to continue to build the pot.  I raise the pot 1850 more, but before I do here were my thoughts (remember to think about future actions when debating your current action):

• If somehow she has QQ she will check raise me all in and I will call her bet and get knocked out of the tournament minus a miracle river card.  Set over set (a set is a pair in your hand and one of that card on the board) is extremely rare in poker and is called a "cooler".  You can go months without seeing this.  
• If she has value hands I am beating (AA,KK, AQ most likely, 77) I need to get her to put more chips into the pot so I can attach her to the pot.  She will then be much more likely to call my river bet.
• If she does have a drawing hand (KTs, KQh, AKh, etc.) I need to charge her to draw to the last card.  BUT, I also realize before making my bet that if a draw does get completed on the river she is absolutely going to put me all in.  There is no way she is going to call 1850 into a pot that will be roughly 6300 and not put me all in for my last 1600 or so if she hits.  She wouldn't take the chance of checking and having me check behind. If she calls my river bet AND a scary card comes on the river AND she puts me all in I will have to think about what I am going to do.  It's going to be a tough decision!

I make the decision to raise 1850 more and if a scare card comes on the river and she just checks then she did NOT complete a draw and I will go ahead with my plan to extract value.  I raise and she just calls.  The river is the worst card in the deck - the Ah!  She checks!!  Well, I hate this card but I am sticking with my plan.  I go all in for my remaining chips; she hesitates, thinks and finally calls.  Did she really hit a draw!?  I turn over JJ and she turns over QQ!!! I'm out!  A pretty fitting ending to this trip I guess.  

As always, I wanted to critically analyze my play so I asked Derrick on his break if I should check the river or do something different to save some chips. He basically said "Come on dude, you flopped the second nuts. You have to get your chips in there. You got coolered.  There's nothing you can do.  Next tournament."  I had a couple people question why I bet the river with such a scary card that hit. The basic question was "What hand could you beat?" I really appreciate the question and definitely consider other opinions.  But the thing in poker is you cannot be results oriented.  If she turned over AQ or 77 or KK (remember, by just check calling flop and just calling turn with the nuts she is clearly putting me on a bluff so it would actually make complete sense for her to call the river with KK) I don't think anyone questions it.  I think everyone says "great bet, great thinking, etc." and I think that is wrong to do also.  Poker is all about the process, not the results or what cards actually are shown. She will turn over AQ or 77 WAY more than QQ and she will turn over KK just as often as QQ.  At the end of the day I think my thought process was excellent and my execution in the face of scary cards was excellent.  Very happy with the results of my process!.  Note how poorly she played the turn.  To just call with the nuts with lots of draws out there is just weird.  And wrong.  If she is putting me on an absolute complete bluff in the first level of the tournament then check and calling is ok I guess, but it would be supremely bizarre for someone to take this line in the first level of a major event. 

The good news from the tournament was that Derrick cashed!  He truly is a superstar player that is all about the process of getting better every day and not worrying about the results.  He sent me texts of a lot of his hands during the event and he played extremely well.  Still, it's important to understand that no matter how well you play you do need a certain amount of good fortune during a tournament to off set any bad misfortune that arises.  He had a couple of important hands go his way, but the fact of the matter is he played both hands perfectly.  And as good as Derrick is he had a few hands where he would be the first to admit he made a mistake in the hand.  I guarantee you he won't make those same mistakes again. 

Flying Home from Vegas

Once again I’m in the airplane, this time on my way back home.  It was a long five days of poker but it was a heck of a lot of fun!  No drinking, no partying, just some good exercise, some great mochas and sushi, and tons of discussions with Derrick on poker, goals, and how to continue to get better at this amazing game.  The poker blogging has been scarce the past couple days as I picked up a nasty little stomach bug and chose rest and trips to the bathroom over writing!  But now the laptop is out and I will attempt to catch up.  I will start with something I tell my golfers to do and that is to write about your shot of the day.  It’s a great idea to start with positive reinforcement about something you do well.  Here I will write about my hand of the trip.

PLAY OF THE DAY

This hand happened Saturday at the Aria poker room.  Derrick and I got knocked out of our tournaments that day so we headed over to play some cash game poker.  I sat at a $2/5 no limit table with $700 in front of me.  The second hand I played I raised to $15 as the second player to act (in poker lingo this is under the gun plus one or utg+1) with AJc.  The button called and everyone else folded.   In poker it’s super important to profile the players at the table.  The player on the button was young, European, wearing headphones and had a ton of cash and chips in front of him.  Add this all up and you get a player that’s going to be very aggressive and try to bully you around.  The flop came out 2d3s6s ,which is about as bad as it can get for me. I knew right away there was NO chance I was going to win this pot.  The easy thing would be to check and fold to a bet, but I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make a bet, let him push me out of the pot (he knows that a bunch of low cards typically miss the hand range of a raiser) and train him that he can run me over.  I’ll use this little training session later in the day I hope!  So, I bet $20, he raised to $70 just as I thought, and I folded my hand.

Two hands later:  there were two limpers and our buddy raised it to $25 in the cutoff seat. (The cutoff seat is one before the button.)  The button called, the small blind call, I called with ATh and one limper called.  The pot was $125 and five of us saw a flop of T82. We all checked, he bet $70, fold, fold, I called, and another fold.  We are now heads up with a pot of $265.  The turn was a 2.  Great card.  If I was ahead after the flop I’m probably still ahead now.  I checked, and he asked me how many bills I was playing  (poker lingo for how much $$ you have in front of you.)  I told him $600 and he bet $160.  I thought about what was going on.  By betting again he’s trying to tell the story that he can beat my hand.  But can he?  Let’s look at the evidence we have so far:

1. He bet only $25 after two limpers.  That small raise is inviting a lot of players to see the flop.  This European is a smart guy and he knows that if he has a hand like AA, KK, QQ, or JJ he needs to raise more to get the number of players to see the flop as small as possible.  Typically you want just one or maybe two opponents against you with these hands.  The evidence says I’m ahead.
2. If he did have a huge hand he would want me to stay in.  But by only betting $160 on the turn he is leaving me almost $500 in front of me, so when he bets huge on the river he can scare me out of the pot.  If he had a huge hand he would bet more on the flop and turn to “attach me to the pot” and with not as much $$ in front of me by the river it would be easier for me to call.  The evidence says I’m ahead.
3. He’s freaking European!  Enough said!!

 

Well, evidence is all nice and good but playing a top pair hand for $700 in a $2/5 game is big time losing poker.  It’s what the bad players do and is why people can make a living at this game of skill.  However, Derrick has taught me two things:  Look at the evidence that the hand presents and make a plan now for what might happen later in the hand.  I decided before I called the turn bet that he was going to “shove the river”, meaning bet all my remaining money.  So, I called the turn knowing I was also going to call the river.  And the river was an A.  Great card!!  If I was somehow wrong with my above analysis then that card just saved me.  My first instinct was to bet as you’d hate to check a monster hand like top two pair and have him check behind you, costing you the chance to make money.  However, I reminded myself that I thought he was bluffing so I needed to let him carry through with his plan on one final street of action.  (Also, if he was bluffing with AK he would now bet this card to get value out of his hand.  If he had KK,QQ,JJ he would check and hope his hand was best, but I didn’t think that was the case.)  I checked, and he pretty quickly threw a stack of bills on the table and announced “all in”.  I called fairly quickly, and he said “K high”.  Talk about music to my ears!  Haha.  I was very proud I had the ability to think through the hand while it was in action and the courage to make the call on the river. 

I have to give Derrick a ton of credit on this hand for all the wisdom he has shared and the training he has imparted.  But he gets none of the cash!!

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

I also teach my players to use their journals to analyze weakness and mistakes so that they can experience and adjust.  Here is the one hand from my trip that I would do much better next time:

In my last Venetian $400 tournament of the trip the blinds were 150/300/25.  I raised to 725 from utg+3 with 88.  The button called and the flop was Q53 with a pot of 2150.  I bet 1025 and he called.

The pot is now 4200.  The turn was a 6.  I checked, he bet 1200 and I called.  The river was a 3 and we both checked.  I won.  The hand was played very well.  The very next hand I raised to 725 with AT.  The small blind was the only caller.  The flop came out A75 which is a pretty darn good flop for my hand.  The play here is obvious.  I probably have the best hand but my hand is not strong enough to get three streets of value (bets on flop/turn/river). The correct play is to check behind on the flop when he checks.  I can then induce bluffs from him on the turn and river and/or get value from my hand as he now would not think I have an A.  If in the off chance he has a better hand (AJ, AQ, AK, two pair, set, etc.) by checking the flop he will bet small on the turn and river trying to extract a little value from his hand and i will only lose a little.  Also, if he does have a better hand the board might get scarier and slow him down from betting a better hand.  

So if I know all this, why the hell did I do what I'm about to tell you!?  

• Greed? Possibly.  I wanted to get as much value from this hand as possible as this guy wasn't very good. He had shown some crappy hands previously that he called from with small blind with.
• Opponent? As I said, this guy wasn't very good and my read was that he was going to dump his chips at some point in the near future.  
• Frustration?  I HOPE NOT!!! I had played excellent poker this trip but things had not gone my way.  It's very possible that subconsciously I let this frustration lead me to get greedy and play this hand incorrectly.  If so, shame on me and it won't happen again in the near future!!!

So back to the hand.  The pot was 2150 and the flop was A75.  He checked.  I bet 750 to make it look like a weak stab at the pot and induce a bluff.  (Note that in the last hand my continuation bet was 1025 with a real hand.  My goal was for him to notice this and try to steal the pot.)  He did just that, raising to 2000.  Well, I got what I wanted!  I called and the pot was now 6150.  The turn was a 3. He now bet 3500.  Is he still bluffing?  I called and now the pot is 13150 - huge for a one pair hand and shitty kicker!  The river came a 4 and he bet 5100.  I made the definition of a crying call and he showed AK to win the pot.  This hand knocked me down to around 5 big blinds and he had a ton of chips.  At least my read on the player was right - he ended up busting out of the tournament before me!!  But all the evidence for my actions were created in my head - not on what he did.  Lesson learned for sure. (FYI next time if I did go for three streets of value and bet the flop small I would fold to a check raise.  If he was bluffing me the more power to him.  If he just called my flop bet I would put in bigger bets on turn and river to get paid off by a poor player.)

I will write in my next blog a recap of my WSOP event.  Yes, more poker writing coming up!!

Heading to the Rio for WSOP

We are about to leave and get some breakfast, a mocha that Derrick owes me and then head to the Rio for WSOP Event #2, the $1500 buy in.  Nothing went too well in yesterday's event at the Venetain, but as always I think I learned a couple things from some hands that will help me today. 

I will write much more later but we have to head out... it's going to be a great day!  JWB

May 27th, 8:30am

Here is where I will heading over to soon.  It's about a 15 minute walk from our hotel.  I am going to play the Venetian's $400 deep stack tournament while Derrick will be playing in WSOP event #1, the Employee's event.  It is a $500 buy in tournament that is only open to casino employees.  Derrick qualifies as he works at the Capitol Casino.  He has been doing very well on this trip playing cash games and from the details of hands he has been sharing he is thinking on a very high level and extremely focused. All of the WSOP events are held at the Rio.

Yesterday was a really frustrating tournament in the sense that I played really well for nine hours, had great discipline while getting no cards to play most of the day and then busting out with 50 players to go.  A key hand came up towards the end:

The blinds went up to 1000/2000/300 and I had 46000 chips (23 big blinds). The action was folded to the player in the hijack and he moved all in for 23000 chips (about 11bb).  I looked down at 77.  Middle pairs in poker might be the hardest hands to play in poker and this time was no exception.  I took a long time to make my decision and here are the things I put into the old computer:

• If I play this hand I have no fold equity as he is all in.  The only way I win is if I win the hand.  I cannot win the hand by another player folding.  FOLD
• If I lose the hand I drop down to 11-12 bb which is a bad place to be.  FOLD
• Given that he is a short stack he is going to open the pot here and shove his chips with all his pairs, all his high cards and probably some suited connected cards, and maybe suited AX hands.  I beat 22-66, I lose to 88-AA and am ahead of all the rest.  SUPER CLOSE CALL
• I just got moved to this table and it looked like a tough one.  There were three players to my left with big chip stacks and two of the players looked to be excellent.  If I passed up positive equity spots and didn't pick up any hands in the next hour it was going to be difficult to keep my chip stack at a playable level.  CALL
• I was in the cutoff so if I moved all in I only had to get through two more players (the small blind was such a short stack he wasn't even a factor.)  CALL

Honestly, this is a hand I usually fold, and later when I bust out of a tournament I always think back and wonder if I should have taken a close spot like this.  This was the last thought in my head and maybe it was the thought that swayed me to play the hand.  I moved all in.  The button folded.  The super short small blind moved all in and the big blind showed the As and mucked.  Turns out I was up against AA from the first all in player and QQ from the small blind!!  I lost the hand but was very happy I went through the thought process i did.  When this situation presents itself again I would probably fold it just because of the chip stack argument, but I am completely happy with the decision I made last night.  Absolutely no regrets other than a 7 didn't hit the board!!!

One of the reasons that tournament poker is so much fun is that there are so many variables involved.  One variable is that the blinds go up every x number of minutes depending on the structure of the tournament.  (In the Venetian events they go up every 40 minutes.)  That means you need to keep your chip stack up however you can or eventually the blinds will get you.  So in a tournament, if you see an oppotunity to win chips you need to pounce on it.  In a cash game the blinds remain the same and if you see someone making a play where they might not be that strong you can let it go and wait for a really good opportunity to come along.  The best tournaments are the ones with more chips and longer blind levels as this leads to more skill.  Tournaments at your local casinos have really poor structures; they are designed to get the customer into their casino so they can get them playing cash game poker after that tournament.  Venetian and WSOP tournaments have much better structure and give an advantage to the players with skill. 

Today's points of focus:

• Take my time with each decision.  Think about all the factors involved before acting.
• Continue to watch players to my left to see if they look at their cards early.  Bad players give so much information away before it is their turn to act.
• Count the pot every time!  Know how much is in there and what fraction of the pot each players is betting.  Bet sizing is one of the biggest tells in poker, much easier to spot than physical tells.
• Play in position whenever possible.  And most importantly....
• If I think I have an opening I am going to take it!  If I think a player is weak I am going to be aggresive in position regardless of my holding. 

Before I leave my fun hand from yesterday:

With the blinds 800/1600/200 it was folded to me in the cutoff.  I looked down at the As and raised to 3800 without looking at the other card.  It is actually very important NOT to look at the second card because if you see a crappy card A. people might notice your reaction and B. it might lead you to folding.  And getting the blinds whenever possible is so important.  Button folds, small blind folds, and the big blind is a clown I've played with all day.  He hesitates and then grabs chips to raise and makes it 10,500.  It really seemed pretty weak.  Now I need to look at the other card - it is Ad!!  I just call.  If I raise him here he is going to muck his bad hands.  By just calling I am forcing him to act once the flop comes out.  The flop is T99.  He says "I guess I am all in" and moves all in.  I called.  He said "I'm dead!" and he turns over the old J4!  HA!!  Like Derrick said, I wonder what story he's going to go tell his poker friends about how he busted out of the tournament!!  And remember, when you see one A only in your mind you can still have AA and you give off a much stronger body langauge to the rest of the table.  That's my poker tip for the day.

Off to work.  And yes it is work.  But what fun work it is!!

JWB

May 26th, 11am

Had a great dinner last night at Little Budda which was made even better since Derrick treated!!  But the best part of the night was winning two mochas from him afterward as he tried to battle me in the music game.  These young kids....

Thought I would post some fun hands from yesterday's tournament for the poker enthusiasts that read this.  My numbers might be a little off with regards to chip amounts.  Here we go:

130/300/25 level.  I had 8000 chips.
A super active player raised to 800 from the hijack. I had been folding for two hours + and looked down at 33 on the button.  At first glance you'd think it's an easy call or raise, here were my thoughts:
CALLING: I am putting in 10% of my chips, the flop will come with 3 over cards and he is going to fire a continuation bet.  I am going to have to call another 4-6bb on the flop just to see what he does on the turn.
RAISING: I most likely have the best hand and I do need the chips, but if he does decide to gamble with me and he puts me all in with a four bet (he has plenty of chips to do so and had been doing this on more than one occasion) I will be forced to gamble for my tournament life praying it's a coin flip.
FOLDING: always sucks to fold the best hand, but the other two options don't seem that attractive and the chips I save will really help as I am moving close to the shoving all in area....
I folded.  While it might not have been the very best play I think my thought process was very good and I was very happy with the decision.

200/400/50 level.  I have 7500 chips.
Same guy opens to 900 from early position.  I look at TT and easily go all in.  The button calls (that's not good) and the original raiser goes all in for 30K (that's really not good) and the button calls  (as scooby doo would say - ROT RO!).  I am up against AA & QQ.  But the board runs 67989 and my straight takes the main pot.  Back in it!  Got lucky, but the important part is my decision was correct.
After that you are in the hands of the poker gods.

200/400/50 level.  22K chips.
utg opened to 900.  two callers.  I look at TT on the button.  In general, I don't like three betting a hand with value and then have to fold it to a four bet because you are basically turning a good hand into a bluff.  Here however, there are too many people in the pot.  I need to raise to get my hand heads up.  TT plays well heads up.  Horribly against 4-5 players unless you flop a set, and how often does that happen? I called, the blinds also called.  And I had to fold on the flop.
I hated my play of this hand.  Bet it doesn't happen again!


My coaching partner Todd coined the phrase "experience and adjust". It means exactly that: when you experience a situation you adjust any mistakes you made so you do it better in the future, because situations always reoccur.  We preach this to our golfers.  A lot of times we hear our golfers or parents talk about recruits and bringing in more good players but what the players have to recognize is that they are good players!  If they continue to experience and adjust they can be as good as anyone.  That's why I love poker so much because it gives me a chance to compete with the very best in the world as long as I continue to E&A.

Thursday I played a hand where I had 88 on the button against two other players and the flop came QhJh8s. A player bet out and after I matched his bet I would only have a pot sized bet left behind me (meaning if the pot was 10K after his bet basically I had 10K chips left).  I decided to move all in, he folded and I won the hand.  I sent a text of the hand to my poker peeps and Will, Derrick and Gregg all commented that my play was correct. Later Thursday night Will sent me a text mentioning that if I had more chips in front of me I could just call his bet on the flop and get another bet from him on the turn or river.  And if the turn or river cards completed a straight or flush I would just have to read to player to figure out what to do.  So what happens yesterday?

200/400/50 level. 21K chips.
Very next hand after TT, a player raises to 900 from early position.  I call in the cutoff with 99. The small blind calls. Flop KhQh9s!!! The raiser bets 2200.  I just call this time because I have much more chips in front! The small blind folds.  The turn is a 5h.  He bets 6K so there's that extra bet Will talked about!!  I put him all in as he only has another 6K in front.  He calls and shows 55!!! Will is going back to school next year in Copenhagen but he always has a lucrative career as a back up.  The dude is a damn brilliant poker player!!  Guess that's why he owns a WSOP bracelet.

And to think he's 0/2 lifetime against me heads up... and I have the True Romance DVD signed by him to prove it!  Thanks Will!!


200/400/50 level.  35K ish chips
The active player opens to 900.  I call in middle position with 77. The cutoff (who just made a great river call and accumulated a lot of chips) 3 bets to 3100.  We both call.  Flop QT7 rainbow. Pot about 10K.  First player checks.  I can easily check here, let the aggresor fire a continuation bet, then check raise him, but then my hand becomes obvious and I only win one bet.  I go for the glory and lead out a half pot bet.  If he has a Q,T, over pair or draw he will call minimum, and he has plenty of chips to bluff raise me here.  (Typically my bet looks like an informational bet and will fold to a big raise.)
He decides to give up and says "nice bet". Translation:  I 3 bet with absolutely garbage and was just hoping to win the pot pre-flop! 
Oh well, it was still a nice pot and I loved my play!

After that I got moved to a new table and absolutely nothing went right.  Had to fold AK three times after I put in a bet, made one questionable river call that cost me 6K after the guy hit a lucky turn card, and got cold decked twice against the super short stack who knows absolutely nothing about playing poker!! 

Today's another day.  I'm well rested and ready to start the Venetian $600 deep stack event in 45 minutes.  I don't know how it's going to turn out but I do know I'm going to play great!!

JWB

May 25th, 7:45pm, OUT

Unfortunately nothing good to report.  When I moved to my new table it all went downhill.
Except for one river call I possibly could have folded everything went pretty ugly.  Every big
hand I got (AK three times) I had to fold it... there was a player that came to the table that
had no clue what he was doing - he would call raises with 10 big blinds and then fold.  When
he got down to 6bb he went all in from under the gun and I correctly moved all in with AQs.
He happened to have AK and I lost.   Later, with 14bb I folded 44 from early position, and on
the very next hand I moved all in with 88.  The same guy went all in from the button with JJ!
HAHA!  He got most of my chips there and I went out a couple hands later.  He's still alive
and I'm typing!!  You have to enjoy the humor in tournament poker or you just can't do this.

The good news is I went out one hand before the dinner break, so I don't have to come back
in an hour with no chips.  No more poker tonight.  Going to find some good food, relax and
get ready for tomorrow.  Had a couple really interesting hands that I'll type about later.  Derrick
busted out from the tournament in the 4th level.  He played well but had one hand he would
probably play differently.  The good news is we are both getting some great experience in these
smaller buy in tournaments that will help us get ready for the upcoming events.  My patience
was very good today but I probably could have been a little more active when I had more chips.
Going to give myself a B grade today. 

Dinner time - hope Little Budda has an open table!!

May 25, 11:45am

Yep, a $7.57 mocha.  You gotta love Vegas!!  The Espressemente mocha is on equal footing with Mocha Joe however and definitely worth it.  About to start my noon tournament today at the Venetian - $400 buy in deep stack. Same as yesterday, 12,000 starting chips and 40 minute levels.  Derrick is playing in this one also.  I figure if I can finish in the top five that should just about cover my mocha losses in Vegas for the past two years!   I walked over to the Palazzo this morning from our hotel so I got some exercise, have the fruit, nuts and an orange bell pepper in the back pack, in it to win it!

JWB

Venetian $400 Deep Stack today

Going into today’s tournament I was a little apprehensive.  It has been quite awhile since I’ve played poker and even longer since I’ve played a tournament.  My real job has kept me busy lately.  (Did I just call golf coaching a real job?!  My apologizes to all of you out there with REAL jobs!!)  When the tournament started I looked around my table and saw mostly experienced players.  (You can just tell.)  You really want to see a bunch of amateurs that are going to give their chips away, but you just make do with the situation you are presented. 

I’m happy to announce I played really well today.  I made good decisions, made chips from my good hands, minimized my losses when I was beat and took down a couple important pots with good bluffs when my reads were correct that my opponents were weak.  A couple fun hands from today:

·        with the blinds 150/300/25 a player limped from middle position (mp).  I made it 900 in the cutoff with Ad4d. The small blind (sb) called. His name is Burt Boutin, a professional poker player with 2 WSOP bracelets to his credit.  (just looked that little nugget up on my phone!) The big blind (bb) and the original limper also called.  The pot is now 3850.  The flop was 2d3h8s. The sb lead out a bet of 2500.  The next two players folded.  Usually a lead out bet in this spot is not a strong hand, and when I looked at him he smiled at me as if to say “sorry kid, I hit that flop”. In my experience that look means a pretty weak hand, so I deliberated and raised him to 5700.  He looked agitated but folded his hand after a short period of thought.  If he called and a diamond (d) came on the turn I was putting him all in, and even if he had a hand like TT he would have to lay it down.  I would have been representing a huge hand and he would have had to give me credit.

·        On the next level with the blinds 200/400/50 Mr. Boutin raised from under the gun (utg) to 1100.  It was folded to me in the small blind and I looked down to see AA.  Yes, it looks as pretty at the table as it does when you type it!  I looked at his stack and re-raised (rr) to 3200 and he called.  The pot was now 7300 and we both had about 30000 behind, so my raise made the stack to pot ratio (spr) close to 4:1.  That is a great ratio for AA and now my goal, barring a crazy flop, is to get my chips into the middle.  The flop was KhJh3d.  I checked to him, he bet 6000, I check-raised to 14000 and he quickly mucked his hand.  

During the tournament I send out texts of fun or interesting hands to my poker-playing followers.  Two players on my list are superstar players: Derrick Yamada, whom I’m staying with, and Will Haydon, a former Aggie golfer turned professional poker player and a WSOP bracelet winner.  I get some great feed back while I’m playing from them as well as some other excellent poker playing friends, Gregg and Eric.  On that AA hand Derrick pointed out that a check raise looks super strong and instead of check-raising I could have check-shoved that flop, and maybe my over bet looks weaker to him and he makes a call in that spot with a hand I have crushed.  Whether a different play would have worked better is really irrelevant; the importance is it helps me critically think about the hand in another way that might work better when it comes up again in the future. 

What I noticed today is even though my table was full of experienced players, all but one of them made significant mistakes during hands, and that’s the difference in poker, as in golf, as in life: minimize your mistakes, and if you do make a mistake, experience and adjust and don’t make it again! That’s what we preach as coaches; dentify your weaknesses and make them stronger. Our best golfers are always the ones that identify weaknesses, no matter how small, and fix them.  Poker is the same animal, just with a luck factor.  And now to the luck factor….

With the blinds at 300/600/50, the player on my right opened to 1500.  He came to my table a short time earlier with a lot of chips and was very active.   He had about 33,000 chips in his stack.  I looked down at AK and raised it to 3800.  (A lot of time I will play this hand a bit slower against another deep-stacked opponent, but he was opening so many pots his hand range was very wide and my AK crushes most of his hands.) Everyone folded and he called.  The flop came down K2K – and bingo was his name-o!  The pot was 9000.  He checked and I bet 4200, he called.  The pot is now 17,400.  My goal is to get all my chips in by the river as this is a monster, monster flop for me.  The turn is a 3.  GREAT!  If he did have QQ,JJ,TT,99,88 and was just calling the flop to see what I would do this card certainly didn’t help him.  I bet 11,000 and again he quickly called.  The pot is now 39,400. Did he slow play AA pre-flop and is now just being careful?  QQ?  KQ,KJ,KT? I don’t care – I got him!  The river is another great card, an 8, and he deliberates and checks.  I go all in for his last 13,000 or so and he immediately calls and shows Kc2c!!!  WOW!!!  He made a really bad call pre-flop and really, in my humble opinion, a bad check on the river, because I’m never betting AA, QQ, JJ on the river if he checks and if I have AK, KQ I am never folding when he shoves.  His check only allows me to bluff the river but I’m NEVER bluffing the way I was attaching him to the pot.  SO, he makes two mistakes in the hand, I make none, and he takes down an 80,000 chip pot. 

Two years ago I would have whined to anyone who would have listened, but I’ve learned that poker is brutal and you just have to focus on how you played and plug ahead.  So, I give myself an A- for my first tournament and look forward to tomorrow.  Time for some dinner, then off to find an internet connection to post this.  In the immortal words of Chris Berman:  “They can’t stop me, they can only hope to contain me!”

JWB

Flying to Vegas

I’m on the airplane now traveling to work.  I was attempting a nap but I’m much too excited to sleep!  So, this is a good time for my first update.  First off, thank you everyone for your support.  I am wishing all of you the best of luck over the next month!!  I will be staying the next five days with my good friend and poker professional Derrick Yamada.  He is a superstar player – one of the best players I know – and an even better person and friend.  We will be discussing our tournaments and poker hands in depth when we’re not playing.  He has helped improve my poker game an amazing amount.  I hope I have helped him half as much as he’s helped me.

My first tournament is today at noon at The Venetian.  It’s a $440 buy in deep stack tournament.  We start with 12,000 chips and 40-minute levels.  The structure of the tournament is very good and gives an advantage to the skilled player.  That being said, all of you who have played tournament poker know that a lot of good fortune is needed as well as skill.  I will text some fun and interesting hands during the tournament to those of you that are interested.  (I know some of you have real jobs and don’t need the distraction, but since I’ve never held a real job I can’t say for sure….)  If you would like to be on my text list just text me and I’ll keep you up to date. 

I got the idea of this email update from Derrick.  He has a poker blog that he will update during his stay for the WSOP.  He will be living out here until mid-July.  Here is his blog if you’d like to check it out:  http://dypoker.blogspot.com/?m=1

I will keep you up to date via email or a blog when I can.  Typically the first day of a tournament runs until 2am.  I’m in it to win it!

JWB