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