WSOP Event 59

I went back to work today at the Rio, signing up for the $1000 No Limit tournament.  Each WSOP tournament starts you with a chip stack three times the amount of the buy in.  Thus, for today's event, we all started with 3000 chips.  This is the smallest of all the WSOP events in that regard.  Even though you have one hour levels and the blinds start at 25/25, you need to get some chips early.  If, for example, you haven't increased your chip stack after two hours, you are now looking at a 30bb stack when the blinds start at 50/100.  Well, here we go!

25/25 level

I folded for a few rounds as I got nothing to play.  The first hand I saw was 55.  I raised to 75 from utg, and the button called as did the bb.  The pot was 250.  The flop came out KhTd7h. The big blind checked.  It is important in poker to win pots when you don't have the best hand and/or when you don't have a strong hand, but it is equally important to understand when this is possible.  I think a continuation bet on this board is a bad idea.  It is very common to call a raise with two big cards, and any two big cards you pick connect somehow with this board.  If I do bet here and get called, I will be out of position and won't know if someone called because they had a pair or a draw.  Basically, I know I am getting called, I have a bad hand, I am out of position and I'll have to bet more chips on the turn to try and take this down.  I think I can find better spot so I folded.  It turned out that KJd defeated A8h.  So clearly I was not going to win this pot!

A couple rounds later I looked at AA.  I raised to 75 and everyone folded?! Alas, the big blind called (I want some action with this hand!) and we saw a flop of TcTs5s.  He leads out and bets 75.  That's good for me as it is extremely unlikely he has a T in his hand.  Most players will check such a strong hand and give you a chance to put some chips into the pot.  I don't want to lose my customer so I just call.  The pot is now 325.  (Note if I raise the flop he is folding almost all his hands that I beat, he is never folding a hand with a T in it - which crushes me - and he calls with his flush draws. Not much upside in raising).  The turn is the 8h.  He checks.  This card really can't possibly help him so for the same reasons as the turn I check to let him catch up a little or to bluff.  The river is a Qd.  He bets 250.  I raise him to 725, hoping he somehow hit a Q and would call me.  He folded pretty quickly, so my check got an extra bet from him and he didn't get to see my hand.

The very next hand the utg player r75. I called from middle position with 88.  The sb (same player from the last pot) raised 200.  This is really s stupid raise as we are both getting a good price to call, so he is just building a pot out of position with probably not a super strong holding and not narrowing the field.  We both call and the pot is now 625.  The flop comes 7c7s2c. They both check.  I bet 350 and they both fold pretty quickly. Even though I have a hand here with value that I would probably have to fold to a re-raise, betting is a very good idea.  I find out right now if I have the best hand as it will be harder for the small blind to put in a check-raise bluff with the utg player still to act. Also, if I check half the deck will bring a card bigger than my 88 and possibly put someone else in front. Also note I do not have to bet big here to win the pot or to define my hand.  A little more than half the pot did the trick.  

The very next hand the utg player on my right limped.  I recognized him to be Chris Bigler, an older pro that's been on TV final tables more than once.  I r125 with AhQd. Two others called as did Chris. The pot is 525 and the flop came Ks9s5. Notice here that this is a great flop to continue bet.  AK is right in my raising range and players that called with two big cards can easily miss this flop.  I bet 350 and everyone immediately folded.  That is always fun to watch when you have A high!!

I chipped up to 4350 entering the next level.

25/50 level

CB r150 from utg+1.  I rr to 350 with AK.  All fold and he calls.  The pot is now 775 and the flop comes KdTdT.  He checks.  I have him easily covered in chips.  I know I have a really strong hand but I don't like checking and giving him a free card here.  If he has AQ/AJ/QJ hands he is getting a free shot at hitting his draw.  If he has a pair he is getting a free chance to hit a two outer and take the lead.  More importantly, if I check and he misses the card he needed he is very unlikely to bluff as this flop should hit me pretty hard with the hands I would three bet with.  I would consider giving a free card on a board that looks like it doesn't fit my hand very well and would thus lead to bluffing possibilities.  I bet 425,  he mucks 77 and says "these small pairs are no good today".

Shortly after this hand our table broke and I left this wonderful group of not very good players and headed into the Brasilia Room.  My new table was full of much better players, but the good news was that Derrick was at the next table so I could take some breaks and go check out his action!  

A short while later utg+1 r125 and there were three callers.  I had KJ in the small blind.  I hate folding as my hand has plenty of value. I hate calling because now there are a lot of players in the pot and I am out of position with a marginal hand.  I hate raising because again, my hand is marginal, I am out of position, AND I am new to the table, and if they decide to look me up it could get quite expensive.  I really am just looking to hit big hands for cheap at this stage of the tournament. I  choose to call.  The pot is now 675.  The board comes JhTd3c. I want to know right now if my hand is good so I bet out 400.  It will be very hard for players to continue here without a hand as my lead out bet should look pretty darn strong. Everyone folds but one of the callers.  The turn brings the 9h and I am not too happy!  His call sends up some warning signals and coupled with such a dangerous turn card I decide to check and see what develops.  He bets 700 into the 1475 pot and he has 1200 behind. This all smells bad.  Still, I have top pair and a gutshot straight draw so should I continue with the hand?  As I am thinking the player on my right taps the table with his hand a few times, trying to get me to speed up.  I was pretty shocked as this seems to be way out of line to me!  I asked him if he wanted to play my hand; he said "no, just make a decision".  So I said "Well, then call the clock or stay out of this". We said a few things to each other.  I got back to the hand and decided to fold.  I usually don't get in other peoples' business at the table but he got me fired up!  The table talked about what he did and our exchange as the next couple hands were played out, and it turns out he didn't see my check or the other players' bet (his bet went on top of a WSOP logo on the table and chips are sometimes hard to see when they are on that logo).  He thought I was taking all that time to make my initial decision!  HA!! I thought that was pretty funny and after that we were cool.  He seems like a good dude.  He lives out here and is playing all the tournaments hoping to hit a big one just like the rest of us.  He was a very good player and it was all good after that.  Funny stuff!

Three hands later I r150 with KJs from the hijack position.  The cutoff rr to 300.  The next three players folded.  My raise could look like a weaker hand since I am in late position, his rr is small so maybe he's trying to win this cheaply and my hand certainly has value so I decide to call. But I will proceed with caution!  The flop comes Kc73c.  I check and he bets 450.  I call.  The turn is a 5. We both check.  The river is a 6.  We both check and I win.  Players in general don't go cookoo in these tournaments.  If he fires the turn and river I can always release my hand.  My call on the flop is strong enough to get the information I need. 

We are now at 5050 chips on break.

50/100 level

utg r225.  I rr625 with AK on the button and he called.  The pot is 1400 and he has 2000 behind.  The flop comes KQ7.  He checks.  I guess I can check behind here and hope he bluffs the turn but I chose instead to bet 625 again.  I am hoping he puts me on JJ/TT and will make a play to get me to fold, but he just mucks.  I would rather induce a bluff than check and give a free card to beat me. Maybe if he thinks I am weak he gets squirrely with AT/AJ... not this time.

That was my only real playable hand at that level! 5400 chips going to 75/150

75/150 level

Seat 1 was the big chip leader at the table and he opened another pot to 350.  S2 folded, and i looked at 43s.  I only played a couple pots the last level so I should have a pretty good image.  I rr850 and everyone folded, S1 called.  The pot is now 1925.  The flop came K53h (that means all hearts). He checked.  Even though I have a pair I need to keep control of the pot.  My hand really isn't worth much and will probably become even less valuable after the turn.  I bet 900 and he thinks for 30 seconds and folds his hand.  The player in S4 said "AhK?" The player in S2 said "No, AhA".  The power of the three bet coupled with a snug reputation!  

Believe it or not this was really my only hand at this level!  I lost some chips when there was a r400, the button called and I called from the sb with 44.  I whiffed the flop and check/folded.  Another time I called a raise from the big blind with AT but whiffed that as well.  I tell you, calling just sucks!  I had 5100 chips going into the next level.

100/200 level.

S1 again opened, this time to 450.  I looked down to see AK.  I can rr him here, have position and the best hand and have a good chance to win the pot.  However, my hand becomes much easier to figure out when I three bet him and he can make better decisions against me because he has a good idea what my hand is.  Re-raising is a very good solid play.  I chose another path.  There were two shorter stacks on my left, so I just called, hoping someone behind me would make a play at the pot.  Once S1 called the three bet (he was a very strong caller and was hitting hands) I would move all in, forcing him to fold and leaving me heads up against one player with a lot of extra chips in the pot and almost certainly the best hand. If no one re-raised behind me, I still have a very well disguised hand that can get a lot of value if I flop a pair.  He will NEVER put me on AK... until it's too late!  I liked my plan, I liked my execution, but unfortunately I did not like the result.  Everyone folded, the bb called, and three of us saw a flop of Jc82c.  The bb checked, S1 bet 600 and I wasn't going to get into a mess of a situation in a multi way pot.  I folded, the bb check raised and the hand was over.

The final hand:  After the failed AK hand and going through the blinds a couple times I was down to around 4000 chips (20 bb) when I saw JJ utg.  I r450.  S5 in middle position called as did S1 in the small blind.  (S5 was contemplating what to do; he finally settled on a call.  It seemed to me he was thinking about raising me...)  The pot was 1550 and the flop came out Ts7s3c.  S1 checked, I bet 1100 and S5 called.  S1 folded from the small blind.  The pot was now 3750 and I had an over pair and 2200 left in front of me.  The turn was the Qh.  Well, I am going with this hand so now it's just a matter of how the rest of the chips get in.  I think if S5 flopped a flush draw he would have just put me in on the flop so I wasn't worried about giving a free card.  I figure I am way ahead or way behind.  If I move in on the turn I think he can fold some hands I crush (88/99/etc) and if I check I give him a chance to try and push me off an AK type hand.  Thus, I check to try and get one more bet out of a hand that is way behind mine.  He bets 1200, I check raise all in and he instantly calls and shows TT.  Bummer.  If the flop was 972 he doubles me up.  If the flop is all high cards I may win or lose the pot but I still have chips at the end of the hand.  Basically he has to flop a set with no over cards to bust me.  And he did....

At the end of the day I was really really happy with my play.  I guess I could have done more 3 betting with shit hands when I thought someone was weak? As always, you look for things you could have done better after you bust out but honestly I did great.  No flush draws to push, no big pairs after level 1, no set, no pair + draw hands, hell, I didn't have any suited connectors to even play other than the 34s!! So all is good.  I am ready to rock and roll tomorrow.  I am getting better every tournament and can't wait for the one where a few good things happen.  It's going to be awesome and I can't wait to share it with everyone.

Back at it tomorrow at the Venetian.  They all better watch out - I'm coming to JWB!!

Venetian Deep Stack June 14

After my 15th place finish in the June 12 Venetian tourney I headed over to Little Budda for some delicious sushi with a coaching buddy.  My plan was to then head over to the Rio and sign up for the $500 mega satellite to qualify for the WSOP Main Event.  The idea is everyone buys in for $500; for every $10,000 in the prize pool they give out a Main Event seat to the winner.  It's a way to attempt to get in for cheap.  However, when I got to the Rio I realized I was pretty wiped out, so I decided not to play.  I just gave my brother some advice the other day that if he wasn't ready to play then don't.  Poker tables will always be there the next day.  I didn't want to be one of those "do as I say, not as I do" guys, so I didn't enter.  Derrick was up in his room so I went up there to hang out and talk poker.

We were both very satisfied with my play, but once again I flamed out on the final two tables. Am I doing something wrong? Am I unlucky? Derrick's point - and I agree with him - is you need to build a big stack so you can use it towards the end of the tournament. Absent of the deck falling all over you with AA, KK, etc. how do you get a big stack? His advice is to get more aggressive in the middle of the tournament when the opportunities present themselves. You might get knocked out earlier but if you survive with a bigger stack you will have a better chance to win.  My plan was to take this advice to me for the Deep Stack tourney on June 14.

I sat down in the $1100 buy in event at noon. We started with 15,000 chips but with one hour levels, the same time as you get in WSOP events. The following are, to the best of my recollection, the details of the key hands throughout my tournament.

50/100 level

1. The player in seat two (S2) earlier had raised 225 from early position and when the hand was done showed 85c. It's important to watch what hands people are raising in what position and what amounts they raise to. It will give you a lot of information you can use when you are battling that opponent. In this hand he again opens to 225 from early position.  I am on the button and look at TT.  I make it 525 and he calls after the blinds fold.  The pot is 1125.  I now have position, initiative, almost certainly the best hand and, given that he doesn't look like a sophisticated player, most likely a skill advantage. If you've been reading Derrick's blog (dypoker.blogspot.com) you know these are the four things you look for in a hand.  The flop comes out lower cards, he checks, I bet half the pot and he folds.  Easy peezy.

2. The very next hand he opens again to 225. This time I have 87s in the cutoff and I again raise to 525. This was uncharacteristic for me; I tend to play a more conservative game and look to build a solid image to my opponents that I can exploit to my advantage later in the tournament, but today it is Aggressive Williams in S6! Again, he is the only caller.  The pot is 1125 and the flop falls QcTs9s. I flopped an open ended straight flush draw.  Even if he flopped a set I am a 50/50 against him, and I'm probably a mathematical favorite against whatever hand he has at this point.  He checks.  Here are my options:

1. CHECK in position to see the turn.  I only have 8 high.  I have a monster draw and I want to build a pot so when and if I hit my hand I can make some serious chips.  BAD IDEA!
2. RAISE A LARGE AMOUNT to win the hand right now.  Notice that this flop contains all high cards. It is much more likely this flop hit the range of hands he might raise with, especially given it's his second raise in a row.  Let's say I bet the pot 1125. The pot is now 2250. If he likes his hand, which is very likely, he can check raise me.  A reasonable check raise would be my bet of 1125+2500 more, so now the pot would be 5875 and when I called his raise (I ain't folding this!) the pot is almost 8500 and I would have about 10,000 left in my stack. If a blank comes on the turn he can make a large bet and force me to fold my hand. NOT THE BEST IDEA.  (Also note if the flop was 6s5s2d, I still have an open ended straight flush draw but the board most likely didn't hit him, I might choose to bet bigger, and if he check-raises me I can then put the ultimate pressure on him by moving him all in.  I certainly don't want to get it all in this early in the tournament but in this scenario I have a ton of fold equity, something I probably don't have in our current situation.)
3. RAISE A SMALL AMOUNT. I can win the hand now if he completely missed, and if he did hit the flop hard enough to raise I can now get to the river.  If I bet 500 the pot is now 1625. He can check raise me 500+1500 so now the pot is 5100.  If he bets 1/2 to 2/3 pot on the turn I can now afford it and call to see the river.  NO BRAINER!

I chose to bet 425 I believe and he check raised me to 1500.  (Also note when I bet smaller on the flop it looks like a weaker bet so his subsequent raises and bets are going to be smaller because he wants to keep me in the pot.)   I called and the pot is now 4125.  The turn is 4d. That can't help anyone. He bets 2300 and I call.  The pot is now 8725.  As the river was dealt I focused my eyes solely on my opponent.  I did not see the card.  I did this for two reasons:  1. I want to see if he liked the card and more importantly 2. I don't want him to see my reaction to the card.  His reaction was a thing of beauty - he hated it!  He checked and I looked down to see the 3s.  Clearly he loves his hand but is afraid of that card, so I bet an amount I felt he would pay - 4100.  One of the many things that makes a bad player bad is they pay off.  He did. I wonder what he thought I had that he could still beat?  When I turned my hand over he said "Good thing you didn't make your straight - for your sake." That tells me a J improved his hand, so he must have had KQ. Notice how poorly he played his hand.  He had a one pair hand and he built a pot out of position that cost him a large portion of his stack. You should always build pots in relation to your hands.   If he had 20-30 bb it's ok to build a pot and go with a top pair hand, but when he has 150+bb as he did here he should be check calling and controlling the pot size.  The question he needed to ask himself is this:  If I end up putting in 83bb with top pair will I have the winning hand?  The answer is an unequivocal NO! No competent opponent will put in that many big blinds and not have top pair crushed.  I hope he learned his lesson but I suspect he'll only remember how unlucky he was I hit my flush.  Hope he's not reading this!

3. This was a fun hand: it was folded to me on the button and I r250 with KT.  A very competent player called from the bb.  The flop came QhJh7. He checked, and I bet 225 with the same principle as the last hand.  He check raised me a small amount and I called.  I doubt he has a one pair hand as he is a good player and good players will check call and control the pot mostly.  He either had QJ hand or a draw.  AQ is possible as well.  I called and the turn came a small card.  He bet and I again called.  If I hit my hand I'm going to punish him and if a heart comes out I'm going to represent a flush. The river was an 8c and he bet yet again.  I really wanted to raise the river as there are so many draws he missed, but if he had T9 the draw just came in and I decided to chicken out and give this one up.  Might have butchered it, might have played it well, but I did have fun during it!

4. I r225 from utg+1 with JTh. The same villain from the previous hand called, as did another player from late position and the bb.  The pot is 950.  The flop came JsJ3s. The bb checked.  I bet 525. The villain called and others folded.  Why did he call?  Always ask this question!!  He could have a pair between 33 and JJ. Very likely.  He could have a flush draw.  Very possible.  He could have a J in his hand, but this is pretty unlikely as three of the J are accounted for.  The pot is now 2000 and the turn fell a Qc. This seems like a great card for me, and I think this player is good enough to steal if he senses weakness, so I bet 525 again.  After a short deliberation he called again.  It seems like the middle pairs are much less likely. He might have QXs and now made top pair or just a flush draw.  The river was the Kc. I bet 525 once again and this time he raised me to 2000!  What the heck?  Did he have T9s or ATs? Better?  I called pretty quickly as the point of my small bets was to induce a bluff.  I paid for him to show the QJ!!!  Maybe I should have thought about my river call a bit longer because the way the board ran out there wasn't much I could beat. My biggest mistake in the hand was I believe I flipped it up after to show the cooler I was part of.  Shame on me!  NEVER give your opponent any information; now he saw how I bet that particular hand.  I won't do that again...

5. This hand made up for the previous one!  A young player sat to my right and proceeded to tell the table how he just busted out of the WSOP four handed event a short time earlier. The player in the hijack opened to 250.  The young player called from the cutoff and I looked down to see Ah4c. Normally I dump bad AX hands, but:  1. I have the button which means I will have position throughout the hand.  2. It's possible i have the best hand as the first raise came from the hijack position.  The later a player opens a pot the more likely the hand is a weaker one.  3. We are all very deep stacked early in the tournament so I might flop a monster and extract a lot of chips.  I would never call with this hand if we were in the 20-30bb range. The pot was 825 and the flop came out QhJh5h.  The original raiser bet 600 and the young kid raised to 1500.  It was here I decided to make a play.  I have THE card in my hand - the Ah - so I am the only one that can have the nut flush.  I also think there is a decent chance the kid is goofing around as young players play much faster in the beginning stages, trying to accumulate chips. He is also a very smart player I am sure, so I flat called his raise.  This has to look ultra strong to him.  The original raiser called and the pot was now 5325. The turn was the Ad. This card makes me top pair but is really irrelevant. The kid would never raise a one pair hand, so he either has a draw, a bluff or a flush or set. The original raiser checked, the kid bet 3000 and I raised to 6600.  The first player disgustedly folded (he must have had AQ minimum but clearly he cannot continue) and the kid tanked, counted out his chips, counted my chips, saw I had him covered, tanked some more and mucked 7h6h face up. Two other critical points: (1) he already announced he busted from a big buy in tournament today, so did he really want to bust from another one in five minutes? I was betting he didn't, and it's another example of never give away any information at the table as players can use that against you. (2) he was a good player with a brain, capable of understanding what my betting represented.  If I tried this against the 60 year old tourist from Florida he would have re-raised me all in on the turn and if his hand was second best, so be it.  Make sure you know who you are bluffing before you attempt it.  Great hand and super fun!!!

100/200 level

Shortly after that hand I was moved to a new table.  A quick look around told me most of these players are very serious about their poker.  I had a ton of chips early on was going to sit back and wait for great spots.  Some fun hands came up:

1. I opened to 450 from utg+1 with AA.  The first time I've seen this hand in a tournament this trip!!  (I saw it earlier in a satellite tournament three handed and got it all in vs 88 only to watch the player flop quads. Oh wait, am I whining?  I digress....)  The bb called and the pot was 1000.  The flop was T93. He checked and I checked. I want to induce a bet out of him I might not otherwise get, and I also don't want to start building a pot so big that a one pair hand won't like. The turn was an 8.  He bet 600 and I raised him to 1500.  He called.  The river was a 7 and it went check/check.  He showed QQ!  I told you I was playing with very good players.  If he was the 60 year old tourist from Florida we would have gotten it all in pre-flop and I would have won his entire stack.  Very well played by my adversary. And lucky for him too that the river card was so scary because I was getting one more bet out of him no doubt.

Not much else happened at this level that I can recall...

100/200/25 level

1. S9 opened from middle position to 450.  I called from the bb with 66.  The pot is now 1200. The flop came out Tc84c. I checked and called a bet of 400.  The pot is now 2000.  The turn card was the 5c. I checked and he bet 900.  Notice that I am keeping the pot as small as I can as my hand may be the winning hand.  I chose to call the turn, not just because I picked up a straight draw but now he might have picked up a flush draw with a hand like AcQ, KcQ, etc.  The river paired the board and after I checked he fired 2200.  Well, if the turn wasn't a club I would have given up on the river, but given that I now found some hands in my imagination I could beat I called to look him up.  He showed QQ and I mucked. It cost me a little; I definitely could afford it, and I think I'm ok with it all. A fold on the river would have been fine as well.   Without a club on the turn I fold the river for sure.

2. Seat 8 opened a pot to 425.  The button raised him to 875.  It was the second time the button three bet this player.  When you are observing at the poker table look for how often players are doing certain things from certain positions.  When he three bets him twice from the button did he really have monster hands both times?  Possibly, but more likely he was just trying to apply pressure.  I looked down and saw AK from the bb.  Even though the button was super deep and I didn't really want to battle him out of position I think I certainly have the best hand so I four bet to 2000. S8 didn't see my 4 bet and put out chips to call the three bet.  When the dealer told him what was going on he took his chips back and put them in his stack!  Um, you can't do that sir.  He called over the floor and tried to explain that there's a rule in the rule book that let's him do this, but there isn't.  I announced raise, my raising chips were clearly visible, and the dealer announced raise.  He just wasn't paying attention.  The floor ruled correctly that his 875 chips had to stay in the pot so instead of just conceding his error he decided to call my bet!  The button instantly folded which means he was just trying to steal with a garbage hand. The pot was roughly 5400 and the flop came out Ad22d.  I lead out with a bet of 1600.  This small bet looks very weak and hopefully he interprets it as I had a pair like TT-KK and hated the A. He did as he instantly raised me to 5000 with only 4000 chips back. The pot was so big now and he had so little behind I chose to just put him all in and he quickly mucked.  I think the better play would have been to call and then lead super small on the turn again. But no matter.  It was fun to watch tilt boy in action!

150/300/25 level

1. The very first hand at this level I opened to 900 from utg+2 with AhQc.  (I thought it was 200/400 as no Venetian tournaments had a 150/300 level... until now!  Everyone folded and the bb called. the pot is 2200.  The flop came 7h62h. He checked, I bet 900 and he called.  the pot is now 4000.  He checked, I bet 2000 and he called again.  The pot is now 8000.  I really believe based on this board texture that he has a hand similar to the 66 hand I wrote about earlier. The BIG difference here is where I could afford a river call, he cannot.  The river fell the 5h.  He checked again.  I asked him how many chips he had left, and he said 9-10K.  After short deliberation I put him all in.  It's so much fun being the bully!  He tanked, and tanked, and tanked, and finally disgustedly mucked his hand.  Good players check and call to control the pot size with a hand that has show down value, and I took advantage of this knowledge by putting him to a decision for his tournament life.  A win for the good guys!

2. S1 opened to 675 from late position.  He was the big chip leader at the table and was getting more and more active. True to my plan I stayed aggressive and I three bet him to 1500 from the button with Q9. He called and we were heads up.  I have the initiative and the position.  I probably don't have the best hand and I certainly respect his skills, so I have 2 of the 4 necessary ingredients for a successful hand.  The pot is now 3650 and the flop came 9c6c6. He led into me for 2300! Wow, that surprised me.  I certainly am not folding top pair so I call and will re-evaluate on the turn.  The pot is now 8250 and the turn was the Kd. He now bet 5100 into me! OK, what's going on here? His bet sizing is telling me that a big ass bet is coming on the river, probably one for my tournament life as I only have about 21K behind. If I call this bet the pot will be around 19000 and I'll have less than that in my stack. What does he have?  I put him on a very strong range here.  A good player bets a 6X hand so that I don't have the opportunity to check behind.  He could also have AA/KK/QQ and is now firing for the same reasons.  About the only hand I can beat would be something like 8c7c or Tc8c and I really didn't want to pay to guess, so I mucked my hand.  Very interesting hand.

3. A little while later the same player opened to 675 again.  I called in position with AK. My hand is now very disguised as most players re raise with this hand. If I flop something good I can go for a big pot and if I whiff the flop I haven't lost much.  The pot is about 2000 and the flop comes AsJs6c. He bets 900 and I raise him to 2400.  He calls.  The pot is now 6800.  Once he calls I am fairly certain he has either AQ or AT and is trying to now keep the pot small. The turn was the 3c.  He checked and I bet 5100.  He slowly called. The river was a harmless 7c and after he checked I moved all in.  He tanked.  I stared down at my chips, never lifting my head, never moving.  I don't want to give off any physical information. I know the way I played the hand looks like I could have had a draw that missed (KTs, KQs, etc.) and eventually he reluctantly called.  I showed my hand and he looked pretty incredulously at my hand as he mucked. The player on my right said "sick value!". It was!  I started the hand with about 68-70bb and you don't want to get into the habit of getting that many bb into the pot with a one pair hand, but given that he was an excellent player I knew he was trying to control the pot with AQ type hand, and given that I knew his hand I was going for it.  One of my favorite hands I've played to date.

4. A player from early position opened to 700. A couple of players called, and I looked at KK from the sb.  I raised to 2500, the original raiser called and the others folded.  The pot was around 7000.  The flop came out 622. That's a great great flop for my hand.  It was so good I chose to check and give him a chance to try and win the pot.  He checked behind.  The turn was an 8.  I bet 5000 and he called.  The pot is now 17000 and he has around 9-10,000 behind.  The river was another small card.  I moved all in and he thought for awhile and mucked TT face up. I'm pretty disappointed I didn't get more than one bet out of him.  Maybe if I bet small on the flop I might get more?  I'm not sure.  I think he played the hand well, not losing too much with an over pair to the flop. A bet of 4-5000 on the river probably gets called but I went for the kill shot. I'll have to think about this one some more.

200/400/50 level
1. My coaching buddy and poker enthusiast Greg arrived at my table to say hello, and I jokingly said to him "let me muck this hand and I'll come say hi". Well, I looked at KK and decided he could wait a couple minutes!  I r900 and the small blind call.  He was not a good player and I hoped to maximize this hand.  The pot was 2600 and the flop came out JcTc5d. He checked, I bet 1300 and he called.  The pot was 5200 and he had 10,000 behind.  The turn was an 8h. He checked again.  I think he mostly has one pair hands and is bad enough to call a big bet. I chose to over bet the pot and move all in. He instantly called with Q9h and I was the loser. You hate to lose with such a big hand against a single opponent but he was super lucky to hit his straight card on the turn.  Obviously he wasn't going to see the river if he missed, but that's poker. I liked how I played this hand.  I think if he has a pair I have a great chance of getting his entire stack.

I got moved to a new table and only won two more hands the next two levels.  Here they are:
2. As the dealer was pitching the cards one of mine got exposed - a J. He replaced my card with another and everyone folded to me. I looked to see an A on my first card; I would have had AJ. Damn!  I looked at the other card and it was an upgrade - another A!  haha.  I raised on the button, both the blinds folded, and I had to show the hand just for the story...

3. A player in late position min-raised to 800.  I called from the bb with 75.  The pot was 2200 and the flop was A79. I checked, he bet 1500 and I called. He could be raising with any two cards from late position and I am going to call one time with a pair.  If he doesn't have a strong hand he will check the turn.  If I do not improve and he bets again I will be mucking my hand.  The pot is 5200 and the turn brought a 6.  We both checked.  The river was a 5. I now have two pair and it's very likely he either has a hand like KQ, KJ, QJ, QT, etc. or a hand like AX and he was controlling the pot on the turn.  As there is four to a straight on the board I don't think he'll bet his AX hands.  He might bluff his other hands if I check but there is no guarantee of that.  I chose to bet 3200 and he reluctantly called.  He saw my hand and showed an A when he mucked. 

That was it for the 200/400 and 300/600 level.  And I tried to win pots!  I raised and someone three bet.  I would three bet and someone four bet.  I called raises and someone three bet us both. I raised and continue bet on the flop - that didn't work.  I didn't make a hand and I couldn't win a hand when I tried betting without cards. I did my best to work on growing my stack, but sometimes it just doesn't go according to plan.  Finally, this hand came up on the last hand before the dinner break.  The previous hand I raised pre-flop, got called, and continue bet the flop.  The opponent called that bet, then led out and bet the turn.  As I had nothing I mucked.  The very next hand I opened to 1300 utg with 35s. Two players called and the cutoff player three bet to 4500.  He had three bet a couple times and maybe he thought I was opening weak since I had lost the previous pot.  I four bet him to 11,000.  I had about 35k behind me so this was less than 25% of my stack and left me plenty of chips in case I was wrong.  I was wrong!  He thought for a bit and moved all in.  Clearly I was not calling, but I wasn't happy about losing this pot so I sat there for quite awhile.  I wasn't getting his chips but at least I got some of his dinner time!  I counted the pot, counted my chips, did the whole routine, and finally mucked my hand and went to find some sushi.

400/800/100 level
The End: After folding for a couple levels I had about 30K behind and opened to 1800 utg+1 with JJ. A player two to my left in S9 called as did the big blind.  The pot was 6600 and the flop came out 789. That is not a very good flop for my hand. The big blind checked and I went over my two options:

1. Option 1 was to check and see what developed.  My hand has value and I don't need to bet it. If S9 bet I could call and see what he did on the turn. Also, if the big blind happened to check raise his bet I could get away from the hand without putting any more chips in the pot. If a blank came on the turn I would probably have to check and call one more bet, and if he bet the river again I would probably have to let it go.  Calling two bets would put me under 20bb. My goal this tournament was to be aggressive so this didn't seem like a fun option.
2. Option 2 was the aggressive route.  I could lead out with a bet to protect my hand against worse hands, and if someone raised me I would probably be committed to the pot but I would have six outs twice (four T and two J). I would be a 25% favorite worse case scenario. I chose to bet 4400.  S9 raised me to 11,000, the big blind folded and now the action was on me with a pot of 22,000.  By the time I called 7,000 more the pot would be 29,000 and I would have about 17,000 behind, so this was it.  I moved all in, he called and showed 88, I whiffed and I was out the door. 

Obviously this hand needed some feedback.  I texted Derrick and he said the correct play was to check and call.  I agree.  That board is super scary for my hand: 789 is set central.  It's worth controlling the pot and giving a hand like AQ a chance to catch up in exchange for not putting any more chips in the pot with such a vulnerable hand. Notice that I am not worried about being up against a pair bigger than mine, such as QQ or KK.  Those hands should have re-raised me pre-flop, in which case I was going to get all my chips in the pot pre-flop and would have lost anyway.  My instincts told me that the flop was super scary, yet I chose to take the aggressive path. I know I chose to do so because that was the mode I chose to play this tournament.  Also, my table had been super crazy with lots of three and four betting.  Twice I saw AT five bet all in pre-flop vs QQ.  That's just loony!  However, Derrick made an important point to me when we discussed the aspects of this hand.  He said that he noticed when he played tournaments online that players were hyper aggressive pre-flop, but once the flop came out they all played hands very standard/correctly. I let the pre-flop craziness influence my post flop thoughts.  I thought there would be a chance that S9 would raise with some type of hand I could beat (maybe a draw, or a draw + pair type hand, etc.) given the play at the table.  Lesson learned.

Later that night I went over to the Aria to play some cash game poker with Greg. I sat down at a 2/5 table and immediately recognized the player on my left.  Let's call this player Pat. Pat is a professional player so after a bit of chatting I asked Pat if I could discuss my bust out hand.  Pat said absolutely.  Pat asked me all the details of the hand and after I described the flop Pat asked if I had a plan for the hand.  I described my two options above and told Pat which path I chose. Here is how the conversation then went:
Pat: What hands can you beat?
Me: I can beat a hand with a T in it
Pat: Such as?
Me:  AT
Pat: Never. You said these are good players at the table and a good player is never calling a raiser that has 30bb with AT.
Me: Good point Pat. How about TT
Pat: So you're telling me they are taking their hand and turning it into a bluff by raising you?
Me: Good point Pat. Quit yelling at me please!  (Just kidding, but Pat was very animated...)
Pat: How about T9s? Could they have that?
Me: Of course.
Pat: Again, they would be turning their hand into a bluff.  I don't think so.  In fact, I don't think there is any hand that can raise you in this spot that you can beat.
Me: Good point Pat. Can I leave now please? (Just kidding, I ain't leaving.  I'm getting an education!)
Pat: So it looks like option 1 was your only course of action.  You can check and call one bet. You probably have to fold to a second bet....
Me: Yep, that all makes a lot of sense.  Appreciate the feedback.
Pat: No worries.  FYI, I usually charge $250 an hour to coach poker so you're getting a free one here.
Me: Thanks.  I'll take it easy on you in the cash game!

It was great to get feedback from another professional player on how to play the hand.  And honestly, I usually play this hand with a check/call/re-evaluate when the turn comes out.  There's no doubt my aggressive approach for this tournament influenced my decision and I'm ok with it now (after two days of beating myself up over it) because I learned a great lesson about separating pre-flop and post-flop play.  It's going to help me a lot in an upcoming tournament.

I'm also ok with it because outside of this one hand I think I played some of my best tournament hands ever this tournament.  I will be even more prepared to play my next event: WSOP event #41, a $3000 buy in Friday, June 22. I will be studying and talking poker all week and will be prepared to play my very best. My time is coming. I  deserve it and can't wait to do something great and share it with all my friends.

JWB

Venetian Deep Stack June 12

I am going to catch everyone up on my last two tournaments now.  A few details may be inaccurate due to my delay in writing, but here we go...

I flew out to Vegas on Monday June 11 to do some recruiting and to play a couple poker tournaments.  I had to withdraw from Monday's tournament as I wanted to watch my boy Gregg play his WSOP Event #19. He was the chip leader going into Day 3 and finished 5th out of over 2300 players.  Awesome job!  And of course the steak dinner was on him.  Only Gregg would whine about the price of a bottle of wine after winning over 128K!  Next time you final table Gregg I'm ordering the Caymus Special Select.  HA!!

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-tournaments/3743-2012-43rd-annual-world-series-of-poker/1094345/results

Tuesday June 12th I entered the Venetian Deep Stack $600 buy in event.  It attracted 572 players.  We started with 15,000 chips and 40 minute levels.  The structure is not as good as a WSOP event but still excellent and affords a lot of skill in one's play.  My goal coming into the tournament was to find some good spots early and get my chip stack up, so of course I was down quite a few chips after the first couple levels!  The key in poker is to always play YOUR chip stack at every stage of the tournament.  Don't worry about the average stack size, don't worry about how many players are left, etc... just play your table and your chip stack as best you can.  I will attempt to recreate some key hands now:

HAND REPLAY #1

With the blinds 100/200 a player raised in early position to 450.  I called with 77.  The button re-raised to 1200 and we both called.  It cost me 750 more to call into a pot 3150 so not only was I getting great odds to call both players were deep stacked, so the opportunity was there to win a huge pot. The pot was now 3900 after my call and the flop came out AcQc7c.  The first player checked. I chose to check here and give the raiser a chance to bluff if he missed everything.  He checked as well. The turn was a blank (a blank is a card that doesn't change the nature of the board, in this case a blank would be a card like 4d - it doesn't make 4 to a flush, it doesn't make another straight card, etc.) and first player checked.  I bet 2000 and the button called. The first player folded.  The pot is now 7900.  The river was a Q so I now had a full house.  More importantly, the question is what did the raiser have?

• If he has an A he is trying to keep the pot as small as he can since his hand can win the pot.  I think he will call a river bet.
• If he has a Q he was doing the same thing until the river; now he really likes his hand.  He will definitely call a river bet and possibly raise me.  Not likely, but possible.
• If he had a pair with a club, such as 99c, he probably doesn't call my river bet but he certainly doesn't bet the river himself since his hand has some chance of winning. I must bet.
• If he had nothing on the flop he certainly won't call a river bet, but in this case he would have bet the flop himself to try and win the pot since he re-raised pre flop and was showing strength.  I don't think this scenario is likely.
• The ONLY hand he can have where I can check and let him bluff is a hand like Kc9 or KcT where he was hoping to make his draw but missed.  This scenario is possible but I think he might have taken a stab at the pot in this case.  

Given his range of hands I decided to bet 5100.  I think he has an A here more often than the other hands, but after a short deliberation he chose to fold.  Your goal when you flop monster hands is to maximize your winnings as they don't come along too often.  The reality is that your opponent needs a hand as well.  Did I play this perfectly?  I don't know. Maybe a lead out bet was better, but he probably folds a hand like 99c in that case so maybe I made 2000 I wouldn't have.

REPLAY HAND #2

I can't remember too many more hands that came about.  What I do remember is my chip stack dwindled as the blinds increased and I soon found myself in the 20-25bb range.  I think you need to be extremely careful about wasting chips in this range.  If you are going to steal you really want to make sure you have a good read on the situation and/or your opponent. My stack fell under 20bb and I found myself folding hands like 33/44/AT utg when I was in the 16-18bb range.  I do give myself a lot of credit here.  Most players, when card dead and their chips shrinking, would take these spots and shove their chips in and hope they win.  I chose to pass and wait for a better spot.  It soon came up.  The utg player raised 2.2bb (translation: the under the gun player raised an amount of 2.2 times the big blind.  So if we were at 300/600 he raised to around 1300.)  This player was excellent and had a lot of chips so I would expect he is raising a solid hand but maybe not a premium one.  A late position player moved all in for around 10,000 chips.  I looked down in the big blind and saw KK. Time to get them in!  I moved all in for around 14,000 chips, the utg player mucked his AJd face up and the other player tabled AsT. The board ran KsQsTsTJs.  Thank goodness he didn't have the As in his hand!!  I scooped the pot and had room to play again.

REPLAY HAND #3

A while later I r1400 with 88.  (I am assuming the blinds were 300/600/75 but am not certain.) The "crazy asian" called from late position and the big blind called.  The pot was around 5100.  The flop came out 4c5d6h. The bb checked, I bet 4000, call and fold. The pot is now 13000. The turn card was the Td.  I checked and he bet 6500.  I called.  The river was a 5d and I checked again.  He now bet 20,000! This call is for most of my chips; if I call and lose I am basically out of the tournament, so let's review the hand. 

• He calls me on the flop so he has something.
• He bet relatively small on the turn after I showed weakness so I think he's taking an inexpensive shot at winning the hand.  If he had a big hand he would have either raised me on the flop or bet more on the turn to protect his hand.
• His river bet screams that he wants me out of the pot.  One other thing: as I was looking at him he appeared very aloof, trying to act relaxed.  I am certainly not basing my tournament decision on a physical tell but in my experience this look means weakness, trying to act relaxed and strong. 
• Put this all together and what does he have?

1. A hand with a 7 in it makes a lot of sense. He called the flop to try and hit, took a weak stab at winning on turn when I showed weakness and now is taking desperation shot on the river by threatening me with my tournament life. 
2. 5X hand.  It's possible as this guy basically made all his chips during the tournament with crap starting hands, but I think he checks the turn if he has a pair.  His hand can win if I have an AK type hand.
3. Flush. Would he really call the flop with nothing, hoping to go runner runner diamond? Very unlikely.
4. TX hand? Again, why would he call the flop, and he would bet smaller on the river, trying to get some value.

I think I have the best hand but if I'm wrong I'm toast.  I remembered a hand from two weeks ago where a good player was in the same situation and had the courage to make the call on the river with a marginal hand because he thought he was best.  If he was wrong he was out.  Well, I'm here to win, I think I have the best hand so I made the call.  He said you win and showed A7.  I stacked a huge critical pot and heard players around me say "nice call. great call." It was!

AFTER THE DINNER BREAK
I was now in very healthy shape with I think over 50bb.  My plan was to stay active, three bet when I felt it would work and do whatever I could to grow my chip stack.  And as usual, poker didn't go according to plan!  I didn't get any hands to work with and didn't make anything happen.  I remember twice the crazy asian raised from early position, I folded my 83, and the great player on my left three bet him and made him fold.  Maybe he had a hand? Maybe he just knew he could make the player fold. Maybe it should have been me three betting..... players continued to drop out as we got closer to the money bubble (they paid the top 54 players) and I was moved to a new table.  My first look around told me there were some very skilled players at my table. And on the first hand player A raised and player B re-raised to take the pot.  On the very next hand player B raised, player A re-raised from the bb and player B moved all in! Player A called with QQ and player B proudly (or sheepishly) turned over 65d! Geez, his tournament down in flames with 6 high... these young kids...

I continued to fold my garbage and found myself with 25bb as the blinds continued to grow.  At that point a "pro", Doug Lee, sat down two seats to my right.  He's been on tv numerous times but I put the word "pro" in quotation marks because being on tv or cashing for big money does not make you a pro.  Great play and studying the game and focusing on getting better makes you a pro.  Anyone can get good cards or get lucky. In golfing terms, if my professional buddies Derrick and Will are +2 handicaps I'd give Doug a 4-5 handicap at best.

REPLAY HANDS 4/5/6/7
A while later I had about 25bb. With the blinds 2000/4000 I raised utg with AK. Doug Lee called from the sb. The flop came out 89T. About as bad as you can get.  He checked I checked. He has a piece of that flop a lot of times, and I really don't want to waste any chips finding out if he does or doesn't. The turn came an 8. He bet, I folded. Let's move on....

I finally found a hand!  QQ. One hand every five hours - not bad...  I raised 9000 utg and Doug Lee called from the sb and the bb called. The flop came out QcJc6d. The pot is about 32000. They checked and I bet 17000. Doug called, the bb folded.  The pot is now 66000 and I have 61,000 behind. The turn is a 4h. He checks. I can move all in and protect my hand, OR I can go for maximum value.  It's rare these hands come along so I am going for maximum value.  I get 30,000.  He tanks and calls. The pot is now 126,000.  The river is 5c. It's important to plan your hand as you go along, and my plan for betting small on the turn is to call any river bet that comes along.  If he out draws me so be it.  He puts me all in and I immediately call.  He says "I have a J". I show my hand and scoop the pot. Notice how poor his play is.  Any professional would call the flop, but when I bet small on the turn he/she would notice that I am trying to tie him/her to the pot with a big hand.  I am not going to bet small on the turn and go all in for 31000, making a pot of 157,000 and only 31,000 for my opponent to call.  That would be a horrible bluff and any pro would notice this.  That one mistake there by Doug tells me he is not a quality player by any stretch.

Not only that, but Doug starts losing it!  He starts rocking in his chair and breathing heavily after that pot - I've never seen anything like it. The very next hand a player raised and Doug immediately moved all in and won the pot.  The very next hand Doug raised the cutoff to 8500.  I looked down at 99 in the sb and am 98% certain I have the best hand.  I re-raised him to 24000 to get him heads up.   He thought for awhile and called.  The flop came out AsK9s. I bet 24000 and he tanked before moving all in. Well, he out flopped me so I have to fold.  But I'm going to take my time and make him sweat it out.  As I look at him he is breathing really heavy! HA! He says to me "that's a bad flop for your JJ/QQ. You have to fold. Yep, bad flop, etc." He's trying to egg me into calling.  I fold eventually and he shows the 4c and says "I had 44 but knew you couldn't call". YEAH RIGHT! This junkie called my three bet with A4 (probably A4c) hoping to hit his three outer with not a lot of chips behind.  A horrible play that a professional would never make.  He has to either muck his hand pre-flop or put me all in and put the ultimate pressure on me.  If he put me all in and couldn't get me to fold my 99 he at least would have a 30% chance to win the hand... the best part of all this: for the next 20 minutes he tried to convince me he had pocket 4's!!  Two other guys at the table and I were thoroughly enjoying his monkey show.  That pot hurt. We could have added another 25,000 chips to our stack instead of losing 50,000.  Such is poker.

A while later a player opened with a raise.  A quick look at his stack showed he had around 25bb. This is a perfect stack size to three bet, and for a great explanation of why read Derrick's blog:

dypoker.blogspot.com

I looked down at 98d and three bet him small. Everyone folded back to him, he thought for a long time (it's called tanking in the poker world) and mucked his hand.  We earned some important chips there!  I stole the blinds a few times by raising the weak player's big blind.  We finished the night with 39 players remaining and I bagged up 225,000 chips.  I had 29bb going into day 2.

DAY 2

Chad and Eric did some internet research for me on the players at my table. It's always important to know your opponents.  Although you can usually tell by looking if your opponent is good or not, it's good to do research.  Has he cashed a lot which means he's probably a more skilled player? Does he have big cashes which means he will be more likely to play to win?  Does he have a few small cashes which means he might be more likely to just move up the pay ladder?  As it turned out, our table had a bunch of short stacked players and our table was the first to break!  A couple key hands came up when I got moved and we were down to the final three tables:

With the blinds 4000/8000 I opened to 17000 from the button with KT. The sb folded and the bb re raised me to 34000.  He had me covered in chips.  I small three bet like that from out of position either represents a really strong hand or a cheap attempt to steal it with a weaker hand.  I chose to give it up as he didn't look like the typical young aggressive opponent.  He was an older gentleman so I chose to give him credit. When I discussed the hand with Derrick later he told me I could call on the button in position and see a flop. I just didn't feel like I had enough chips to speculate at the time, but next time I will definitely consider that option a lot stronger.

With the blinds 5000/10000 the cutoff opened to 21,000.  He was another older tighter player so even though he was first to open the pot he has a stronger hand.  A skilled player with chips would open here with a wide range of hands, meaning along with his great hands he would raise with J7d, 86h, Q5s, etc. trying to win the blinds and antes.  I looked down from the button to see 77.  I had 17-18bb.  The correct play here is to move all in.  If he folds I win his bet plus the blinds and antes.  If he calls there's a very good chance I'm up again AQ, KQ type hands and have a coin flip to double up.  However, earlier in the tournament I stayed alive by passing on very marginal spots and doing my best to wait for something better and not panic.  If it was a younger player that raised I would have moved all in without any thought.  I chose to fold my hand. Maybe I was thinking about the 77 hand I lost with a couple weeks ago to the older guys' AA? Mostly I was folding because I had stayed away from close spots during the tournament.  However, at the end of the tournament, when the pay jumps are big, I think the chips become really important and it's worth the gamble to hope he doesn't have a bigger pair.  Next time I am in this spot I will take it.

We got down to two tables and the best hand I was was an A6.  I chose to fold it as I was utg+1 and had to get through the rest of the table.  I had only 12bb and was getting called by any reasonable hand. A lot of pros move all in here but I am ok with passing in this spot.  Maybe as I discuss this with Derrick more I will have a change of heart! I folded my bb and sb and moved all in from the button with 87 when it was folded to me.  I have much more fold equity here as I only have to get two players to fold as opposed to seven players in the previous situation.  They both folded. A couple hands later a player opened and I moved all in with AKs. Everyone folded and the original raiser tanked and folded.  Damn!  I needed a double up with that hand!! The next round I moved all in from the cutoff with AQ. Now I want a call!  With only 12-13bb I am going to get called by AJ,AT, maybe A9s/A8s and all pairs.  These are all hands that I am in great shape with.  Even if I get called with KK I still am a 30% favorite to win, so there would be hope. Unfortunately the bb called and showed AA. Are you kidding me?!  I get AA ZERO times the entire tournament (KK one time) and now it shows up against me when I have AQ?  Wow. Well, the board ran Q864A and I was out in 15th place.

I cashed for $3550 after tipping (they already have tip built into the buy in so you don't need to go crazy when giving an additional tip).  It was possibly the best tournament I've ever played from start to finish.  Not one time did I get a big double up with pair over smaller pair, set vs top pair, win a race, etc...  I just never got dealt those hands. One day soon I will get a couple fortunate hands and will have that big win.  Until then I will continue to study, reflect and get better so I will be ready when my time comes.

Results website:
http://www.venetian.com/uploadedFiles/The_Venetian/Content_Blocks/Gaming/Deepstack_Extravaganza/2012_Deep_Stack_III/Event_20-June-12-2012.pdf

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