From the Desk of the Poker Philosopher

As some of you may already know, my girlfriend Emily has accepted a job doing public relations and marketing work for an adventure tours company based out of Las Vegas. Believe it or not, Vegas was in no way my idea, and in fact I was not thrilled to hear she was considering it. I don't want to be a career poker player, and I feel like my window of post-graduation loafing is closing. The next few years are going to be important in terms of setting my life on a trajectory, and Vegas just isn't the direction I want to be going. Truthfully, it is tempting in some ways, so I guess it's more accurate to say that isn't the direction I want to want to be going.

Some background: Emily and I went to high school together, though we didn't start dating until she was in college at Boston University and I at the University of Chicago. We had a long-distance relationship for three years, seeing each other every few weeks and living together during the summer (once in Boston, once in Maryland, where we're both from originally).

After graduating, I turned down a full time job working with the Chicago Debate League and the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues so that I could move in with Emily in Boston. At the time, she was working for one of the few Republicans in the Massachusetts Congress, and she later worked on Kerry Healey's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign.

Even while making money playing poker, I made an effort to spend a lot of my time doing stuff that I felt was important. I ended up starting an urban debate league in Boston, which has been the equivalent, time-wise, of a pretty substantial part time job for the last three years. The League has come a long way in the last three years, but there's a lot to be done. If I were to leave Boston now, a lot of the time and money I've invested in the League in the last few years would go to waste.

So when Emily first asked months ago about my plans for the near future, I told her I wanted another year in Boston. Healey's loss to Deval Patrick in the gubernatorial race meant that come December, Emily was without a job. Frustrated by months of unanswered applications, she started looking for interesting summer jobs, something that would be a break from the office/political work she'd been doing.

What she found instead was this job in Las Vegas, where her prospective employers seemed like pretty cool people who were very eager to hire her full time, year round. I wasn't happy about it, because I felt like I had given up a very appealing job in Chicago to move to Boston where she had a job lined up, only to get attached to something in Boston and have her looking to leave again.

But I was also forgetting how frustrating it was back a few years ago when I was applying for job after job, pouring hours into scanning listings and sending out resumes to get not so much as an acknowledgement that my application had been received in return. I've been extraordinarily fortunate to end up in a situation where I can make very good money doing something I enjoy, accountable to only myself, and with enough free time for another project that is substantial, fun, rewarding, and valuable. It's only understandable that Emily wants to find something similar, a job where she is appreciated, where she likes what she is doing and who she is doing it with, and where she isn't selling her soul to make a living (remember, she's been working in Republican politics).

It's hard to begrudge her those things, when I've been so fortunate. I make enough money to pay the rent myself, my schedule is flexible enough to allow extended visits with her, and if I'm going to have a home away from home anywhere, it might as well be Las Vegas! It would be pretty selfish of me to refuse to use those benefits to help someone I love achieve similar satisfaction.

So I'm going to spend one more year in Boston while Emily is in Las Vegas. It's far from certain that even after another year the Boston Debate League will be able to survive my departure, but it is a sure thing that it would fall apart if I left now. I honesty thing another year of advocacy will give it a fighting chance, and even if it doesn't work out, I will still have introduced that many more students to a valuable, potentially life-changing activity.

Emily is packing now, and on July 7th, we're going to start a week-long drive to Vegas, taking our time along the way to spend a few half days in places like Niagara Falls and Denver. Unless something comes up to require my presence in Boston, I'm going to stay out there with her through the WSOP main event in early July. I have a lot of research to do, but I'm also looking forward to playing some live tournaments and some internet tournaments on West coast time (100K guarantee starts at 6PM there!!!).

A week ago, I was speculating about some of the non-HE WSOP prelim events and whether I should play them if the conflict with the NLHE ones. But I actually think I have that bass ackwards. There are going to be better NLHE tournaments going on during the same time period (Venetian Deep Stack Series, Binion's Poker Classic, Bellagio Cup III, Orleans Open), with more generous structures and buyins better suited to my bankroll. But often does one have the opportunity to play a big buy-in Razz tournament? Actually, there are some more affordable non-HE games in those series as well, so I may not end up playing many WSOP prelims at all, especially since I want to play some live ring games as well.

I may not update much during the week we're on the road, but hopefully we'll have some fun experiences worthy of a trip report.

Labels: boston debate league, narrative, personal, poker, wsop

Stumble It!

Playing the afternoon $150 on FTP, I pick up KK UTG+1 and type in my bet amount. Click raise, nothing happens. kahfldhaglashgdsajhfdashfdaslf piece of [censored] router fklahgdhafkashgdsaf. After much swearing, my connection comes back in time for me to see a bet and a raise all in on an Ace high flop. No showdown, but I'm pretty sure KK was no good. Somebody's got my back....

Labels: poker

Stumble It!

I almost always fold to raises like this, because even though my hand is under-repped, I feel like these low- to mid-stakes players are almost universally incapable of taking advantage of that. From time to time, I talk myself into a call, though. The Villain in this hand was new to me, but he was playing a full stack on several tables and seemed to be competent:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Hero ($600)
UTG ($773.55)
MP ($1796.75)
CO ($1313)
Button ($437.40)
SB ($1429.45)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ah, 9d.
2 folds, CO raises to $21, 2 folds, Hero raises to $66, CO calls $45.

Flop: ($135) 5h, As, 3d (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks.

Turn: ($135) 6d (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks.

River: ($135) 7d (2 players)
Hero bets $84, CO raises to $240, Hero calls $156.

Final Pot: $615

Obviously a lot could be said about my play up to the river, but let's set that aside. On the river, my hand is massively under-represented. It looks like a weak Ace at best, and probably more like KK or QQ. I certainly can't beat anything that raises for value, but unless he has exactly 44 or 77, his line makes no sense. Because of how weak looking my hand is and how scary the board is, it's a good spot to bluff raise. Checking a set on the turn would be criminal, and I can't imagine him checking a flush draw either, after I've checked to him twice. Maybe 44 checks, but it probably shouldn't. He shouldn't be calling the reraise with those hands either, but plenty of people do, so I'm not excluding them for that reason. Anyway, he of course shows me 44, and I feel like a tool for assuming he's capable of doing this with anything less. Too smart for my own good, I guess.


Speaking of hands that shouldn't be calling reraises, here was my bustout from the UB $120 bounty tournament:


jabbadahutt is at seat 0 with 2400.
DEGENWLDBOY is at seat 1 with 2400.
RagnarPirate is at seat 2 with 3190.painter5 is at seat 3 with 2830.
oops2809 is at seat 4 with 5240.BeL0WaB0Ve is at seat 6 with 3145.
giboman is at seat 7 with 4100.
thebirdman84 is at seat 8 with 3445.
urbandb888 is at seat 9 with 3120.

The button is at seat 0.
DEGENWLDBOY posts the small blind of 30.
RagnarPirate posts the big blind of 60.

urbandb888: Ad Ah

Pre-flop:
painter5 folds. oops2809 folds. BeL0WaB0Ve raises to 160.
giboman folds. thebirdman84 folds. urbandb888 re-raises to 470.
jabbadahutt folds. DEGENWLDBOY folds. RagnarPirate folds. BeL0WaB0Vecalls.

Flop (board: 7s Qs 7h):
BeL0WaB0Ve checks. urbandb888 bets 650. BeL0WaB0Vegoes all-in for 2675. urbandb888 goes all-in for2650. BeL0WaB0Ve is returned 25 (uncalled).

BeL0WaB0Ve shows 9s Ts.
urbandb888 shows Ad Ah.

Turn (board: 7s Qs 7h 5h):

River (board: 7s Qs 7h 5h 2s):

Showdown:
BeL0WaB0Ve has 9s Ts 7s Qs 2s: flush, queen high.
urbandb888 has Ad Ah 7s Qs 7h: two pair, aces and sevens.

For those who don't know, BA is ranked as one of the best online tournament players by Pocket Fives. I honestly don't see it. I've seen other people post hands like this, where he just hemorrhages equity pre-flop without nearly enough stack depth to make up for it no matter how "sick" he is post-flop, I've watched his videos on PokerXFactor, and although he's capable of advanced thought in plenty of situations, he also makes some really fundamental, inexcusable mistakes. You just can't profitably play T9s for 15% of effective stacks pre-flop out of position against a re-raise.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

Most of the Razz hands I've posted here lately have been against this same fish. He's mostly just way too loose aggressive, hates to let go of a hand even when he's been caught bluffing. That can make him tough to play against, but it also makes him easy to read once you understand him. To wit:

Razz ($20/$40), Ante $3, Bring-In $6

3rd Street - (0.75 SB)
pokeraholic5: xx xx 9___folds
ifishharderer: xx xx 7___folds
dqdq2000: xx xx A___completes___raises
urbandb888: 2 6 3___raises___calls
iampong: xx xx T___brings-in___folds

4th Street - (7.05 SB)
dqdq2000: xx xx A K__calls
urbandb888: 2 6 3 2___bets

5th Street - (4.53 BB)
dqdq2000: xx xx A K Q___checks___calls
urbandb888: 2 6 3 2 2___bets

6th Street - (6.53 BB)
dqdq2000: xx xx A K Q J___checks___calls
urbandb888: 2 6 3 2 2 K___bets

River - (8.53 BB)
dqdq2000: xx xx A K Q J xx___bets___folds
urbandb888: 2 6 3 2 2 K 4___raises

Total pot: (10.53 BB - $421)

First off, on third street, he's never folding that A in the door with two to act behind him, even when I'm showing a 3. So I have a very raise 3-bet with three to a 6. We both catch bad on 4th, but he doesn't know I caught bad, so I bet. But he hates to give up, so he calls. On fifth we both catch bad again, but I could still be ahead, and regardless I've got the scarier board. Among other things, these bets are to set up a steal on a future street if I catch good (or at least a scare card). No matter how stubborn he is, he'll have to fold at that point.

Sixth street is where it really gets tricky. At this point, if he's not paired (and even he isn't dumb enough to call down with a pair and this board), he's a lock to win against the hand I'm holding. But versus the hand I'm representing, he's a 2-1 dog even if his hole cards are as strong as 5-4. So I just have to hope he folds. No such luck.

But then he leads into me on seventh, which makes no sense at all. The best hand he could possibly have is Jack high, so he really can't bet for value no matter how well he caught. Also, the only way to justify his calls so far is that he thinks I'm bluffing and didn't have a made low on 6th. So if he thinks his hand is best, it's a very easy check and call for him, as I either improved to something that beats him or I'm still hopelessly behind. That means his bet has to be a bluff. I can't even beat a bluff, though, so there's only one way to win the pot....

Naturally I show him, which results in a later river raise getting paid off very light:

Razz ($20/$40), Ante $3, Bring-In $6

3rd Street - (0.60 SB)
pokeraholic5: xx xx 9___folds
dqdq2000: xx xx 7___completes
urbandb888: 6 9 3___calls
iampong: xx xx K___brings-in___folds

4th Street - (2.90 SB)
dqdq2000: xx xx 7 Q___calls
urbandb888: 6 9 3 A___bets

5th Street - (2.45 BB)
dqdq2000: xx xx 7 Q A___calls
urbandb888: 6 9 3 A 2___bets

6th Street - (4.45 BB)

dqdq2000: xx xx 7 Q A 8___checks
urbandb888: 6 9 3 A 2 3___checks

River - (4.45 BB)
dqdq2000: xx xx 7 Q A 8 xx___bets___calls
urbandb888: 6 9 3 A 2 3 4___raises

Total pot: (8.45 BB - $338)

dqdq2000 mucked [Tc 4h 7h Qd Ac 8c 4d] - T,8,7,4,A

In this hand, sixth is a weird spot for me. If he's got T-5 in the hole, I'm an 80% favorite. If he's got 6-5 in the whole, he's a 70% favorite. I decided the easiest thing to do would be to take the free card and make the correct river decision, since I know he isn't folding.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

I won another WSOP seat tonight in a $650 satellite. Man, these things are soft. I mean, there are some good players, but you don't even have to get first. Plus you get half hour levels, so nice deep stacks to outplay the donks. Three and a half hours into the tournament, I had 120 BB's, which is unheard of for an online poker tournament. I took a brutal beat when I was 2nd out of 16 with 6 seats to pay.

I got 1/3 of my stack in with KK versus 88, and the guy caught. That knocked me down to the point where I had to scrap for my seat, whereas winning that would have pretty much locked it up for me. I stole and restole really effectively, though, and despite winning an important coin flip at the final table, I managed to coast in thanks to some very bad bubble play by others. And in an act of karmic justice, the 88 guy bubbled (in 8th place, no less) when his AKs lost all in preflop to AQo.

I was going to post some hands, but I just scoured the HH and really didn't find anything of much interest. It was mostly straightforward stuff, the structure is good enough that you can wait around for good opportunities early on. The bubble play was kind of interesting, but not in terms of isolated hands. I literally think that my cards mattered in like 2% of the decisions I made during the last 25% of the tournament. I was just open raising or re-stealing very situationally, and other times open folding TT in the SB or A9 on the button. I don't claim to play these spots perfectly, but just recognizing them is so much more than even many otherwise solid players can do.

As of the last seat I won, I've now spent $15,387 on WSOP sats to win a $12,000 prize package plus $2000 cash and W$20,000. In two weeks, I went from basically break-even on these to a greater than 100% return on my money. That's tournament poker.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review, wsop

Stumble It!

Even though we'd technically had our last game a few weeks ago, Logan invited some regulars over for $.50/$1 NLHE game on Wednesday with a $150 buy-in. I played really poorly and got kind of tilty towards the end, which I don't usually do, and as a result I was pretty upset with myself, even though it was just a friendly game. I'm not going to do a whole write-up because there weren't a lot of interesting hands, but the quick summary is that I was way too loose pre-flop and then tried to dig myself out of that mistake with stupid bluffs on later streets.

This one hand, though, was kind of amusing. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but I believe Darren opened from to $3.50 from the CO, I called with A4s in the SB, and the BB called. Flop was Jc Js 4c. The action checked to Darren, who bet $6. On a board this dry, his range to bet is super-wide, even with two callers (like I said, I was pretty loose pre-flop that night). I called, BB, folds.

Turn was the 9d. I checked, and Darren bet $15. I don't remember how deep we were exactly, but I'm sure effective stacks were at least $200, which means he's always betting here with trips or better. We're deep enough that he doesn't have to worry too much about getting check-raise bluffed off of a club draw, so that's a possibility for him, though I imagine he checks that sometimes. He's also very capable of firing two barrels with air, and in fact I think that's his most likely holding. I think generally he's going to play pot control with an Ace, particularly a good one, and sometimes with pairs as well, though he probably bets those more often than not. After a long thought, I called him again.

We locked eyes as the river card game out. I glanced at it, saw the 5c, and checked quickly. He bet $35 so quickly I wasn't even sure he'd looked. I thought it through, and I felt like he would correctly think I rarely play a flush draw like this, which means that he can both bluff this card and value bet a wide range. In general, though, his thinner value bets tend not to be so close to pot-sized on the river.

I called, and he turned over 52o. Though I hadn't shown my hand yet, I must have looked disgusted, because Logan asked me, "Did he river you?" I nodded.

"Were you value betting there?" he asked Darren.

"I don't even think he looked at the river card."

"I saw that it was a club," he laughed. "My plan was to bluff a club, and check otherwise."

"But you wouldn't have bet if you'd seen it was the 5c?"

"No," he confirmed.

So not only did he hit a 3-outer to win the pot, but he hit the only card in the deck that also resulted in him collecting a pot-sized bet on the river, a bet which he wouldn't have made had he actually seen the river card. Unreal.

Labels: poker

Stumble It!

I've been trying to play some higher stakes Razz games recently to feel them out, get some practice, and decide whether it's worth trying to play the $1500 WSOP Razz event. It hasn't been going great, but I don't feel like I'm in over my head. I've certainly got some leaks to work out, but in a good game, I don't think I'm losing much if any equity in the long run.

When I first joined the game, there was just this guy sitting by himself with $400. This was the second hand we played:

Razz ($20/$40), Ante $3
dqdq2000 (Seat 4): $391
urbandb888 (Seat 5): $409

3rd Street - (0.30 SB)
dqdq2000: xx xx T___completes___calls
urbandb888: 9 K 7___raises

4th Street - (4.30 SB)
dqdq2000: xx xx T 5___calls
urbandb888: 9 K 7 6___bets

5th Street - (3.15 BB)
dqdq2000: xx xx T 5 2___raises___folds
urbandb888: 9 K 7 6 4___bets___raises

Total pot: (7.15 BB - $286)

Everything I've heard or read about Stud games suggests that open completing as the bring-in is never a good idea. You give away information about your hand and put more money than necessary in the pot before you know anything about what your opponent's are going to do. Anyway, my opponent open completes with a T in the door. Even though my K is almost certainly behind, all he can see is my 7. There's no way he can know he's ahead right now, so I go ahead and raise him.

On fourth and fifth we both catch well. I've now got a draw to a 9, which means I'm not in bad shape to catch up even if I can't get him to dump his T. Then he raises, which makes no sense at all. There is zero chance of him being ahead of the hand I'm representing, which means he can't really raise for value. Even if he thinks I'm going to be bluffing some percentage of the time, he ought to call down rather than risk getting 3-bet. So when he raised, I thought it most likely he was just trying to slow me down or find out whether I really had a hand. I told him that I did, and he let go.

Full Tilt pro Huck Seed sat in for a few hands, then left. Eventually some other guys joined, and I ended up getting all in against one of them:

Razz ($20/$40), Ante $3, Bring-In $6
snyde_1 (Seat 2): $303
dqdq2000 (Seat 4): $839.50
urbandb888 (Seat 5): $786.50
ChrisWard1000 (Seat 6): $188

3rd Street - (0.60 SB)
snyde_1: xx xx 5___folds
dqdq2000: xx xx 7___brings-in___folds
urbandb888: 7 A 6___completes___calls
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5___raises

4th Street - (4.90 SB)
urbandb888: 7 A 6 8___calls
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5 2___bets

5th Street - (3.45 BB)
urbandb888: 7 A 6 8 5___raises___raises
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5 2 A___bets___raises___calls $5 (all-in)

6th Street - (9.70 BB)
urbandb888: 7 A 6 8 5 3
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5 2 A J___all-in

River - (9.70 BB)
urbandb888: 7 A 6 8 5 3 K
ChrisWard1000: xx xx 5 2 A J xx___all-in

Total pot: (9.70 BB - $388)
Results:
Total pot $388 Rake $2
ChrisWard1000: [Ad 7h 5s 2h As Jd 4c] - 7,5,4,2,A

At this point, we were four-handed, and thanks to the large ante on Full Tilt (twice the ante in the Stars game), the game was playing pretty fast. People were firing pretty aggressively at pots and calling down light. Still, when I open UTG into three players showing low cards, I'm very likely to have at least three to an 8.

So when Chris 3-bets me on third street, it's very likely that he has a strong low. In my mind, his hole cards are weighted towards Aces and 2's. This is corroborated by the fact that I can see two of the 7's, and I don't think he would 3-bet me with just three to an 8.

Absent this information, fourth street would usually be a fold. I've got nothing but a draw to a rough 8, whereas my opponent could easily have a smooth 5, 6, or 7. Given the assumptions above, however, there's a better than average chance that the 2 paired him. This led me to take another card off and re-evaluate on the first big bet street.

On fifth, we both catch an Ace. This makes my rough 8, but what does it do for him? Maybe he paired on fourth and maybe he didn't, but between fourth and fifth, I think it's very likely that he's now paired. He doesn't have much left, so I raise him, we get it in, and he outraces me.

I crunched the numbers later on Two Dimes, and it turns out we were 50/50 when the money went in. In part, this is because he had a 7 in the hole even though there was one dead and one in my hand. Had he had a 6 in the hole instead, I'd have been a 52-48 favorite.

cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV

Ah 8h 7h 6h 5h 244625 48.92 248428 49.69 6947 1.39 0.496
Ac Ad 7d 5d 2d 248428 49.69 244625 48.92 6947 1.39 0.504

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

In general, I've found that my opponents at mid-stakes no limit are quite passive: they don't make a lot of big bluffs, and they aren't very good at value betting thin. In a lot of ways, this makes them easy to play against, but it generally means that when I want to play a big pot, I have to do the betting myself. Aside from whatever other drawbacks slowplaying may have, I just can't count on my opponents to build a big enough pot even when they think they have the best hand.

However, I do from time to time run into some overly aggressive players, and I often can induce them to bluff at me. The key is to do it in a way that will invite them to make big bluffs instead of small ones. Had I just checked my set, I would give my opponent to make a smaller bluff or play for pot control if he has a little something. By leading weak instead, I keep building the pot at least a little bit just in case he does try for a cheap showdown, and I force him to bluff big if he's going to bluff at all:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (4 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG ($400)
Button ($409.50)
SB ($1361.70)
Hero ($400)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3s, 3c.
UTG raises to $14, 2 folds, Hero calls $10.

Flop: ($30) 3h, Qs, 7d (2 players)
Hero bets $21, UTG calls $21.

Turn: ($72) Kc (2 players)
Hero bets $45, UTG calls $45.

River: ($162) 3d (2 players)
Hero bets $70, UTG raises to $320 (All-In), Hero calls $250 (All-In).

Final Pot: $802

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

I'll explain why soon, but it looks like I'm going to be in Las Vegas for most of the preliminary WSOP events. After reviewing the schedule, I've identified these tournaments as the ones I'm most likely to play:

Friday, June 15th. $2000 NLHE 3-day event.

Saturday, June 16th. $1500 NLE 3-day event.

Sunday, June 17. $1000 Razz 2-day event.

Monday, June 18. $2500 NLHE 6-Handed 3-day event.

Thursday, June 21. $1500 NLHE 3-day event.

Friday, June 22. $2000 PLHE 3-day event.

Saturday, June 23. $1500 NLHE 3-day event.

Thursday, June 28. $1000 Stud/8 3-day event.

Friday, June 29. $2000 NLHE 3-day event.

Saturday, June 30. $1500 NLHE 3-day event.

I'm probably going to play 3-5 of these, and I'm trying to decide which. Obviously it will depend somewhat on how I do in the earlier ones and how my work is progressing, but I'm curious to get people's thoughts on this. The non-NLHE events are going to have smaller fields, but I don't know whether the play will on average be more or less difficult. I'm certainly less good at the Stud games than I am at NLHE, but I think that's probably true of the poker population at large, as well. Any thoughts on this?

Also, does anyone have any experience with the structure in the prelim events? Are the $1500's even worth playing?

Lastly, these are somewhat out of my bankroll (thought I do have like $W8500 and hopefully more in a few weeks to spend on this), so I'm probably going to sell some of my action for like 1.33% of the buyin per 1% of my winnings. Let me know if you're interested.

Labels: poker, wsop

Stumble It!

This is from today's $300, 20-minute level Saturday tournament on Poker Stars. The Villain is a pretty solid regular, but I don't have much of a read on him beyond that. Blinds are at 15/30, I have about 3600, a nice improvement from our 2500 starting stacks. Villain, who has me covered, limps UTG+1, and the action folds to me. I raise to 180 with TT on my BB, and he calls.

The flop is KQ5r. I bet 250, and he raises to 1000. Obviously this is not a good flop for TT, and I'm not happy to be raised. But I'm really having tremendous difficulty putting him on a hand. I'd be surprised if there are many if any K's in his limp-calling range, and of those, I'm not sure that he'd raise the flop. I guess with KQ, a flop raise is justifiable, but this just isn't how a "solid regular" usually plays KQ.

55 is another reasonable holding for him, but while I'm almost always a fan of fast-playing sets, this really isn't a great spot for it. He ought to put me on a fairly tight range raising an early position limper out of my blind. In general, he might expect to get paid off by AA and AK, but he's going to get stacked by KK and QQ (not that that's avoidable), but also scares me off worse hands that might bluff or pay off smaller value bets later. It's just a rare situation where you don't necessarily want to play a big pot with bottom set. Which isn't to say that my opponent will necessarily think this way, but it's also kind of uncommon to see such a large raise with bottom set on such a dry board.

(By the way, if he doesn't put me on a very narrow, strong range pre-flop, which he doesn't necessarily have to do, then he may not have the implied odds to call off 5% of our effective stacks with 55 pre-flop. This is why I'm just kind of working under the assumption that he puts me on a big hand pre-flop the times he shows up with bottom set.)

So the more I thought about it, the more I felt like JT (probably suited, not that that mattered much now, but in term sof hands he'd limp-call), semi-bluffing with an open-ended draw, was his most likely hand. So at first I was going to shove, then I decided to call and get it in if the draw missed on the turn, which it did. I check-raised all in, and got called pretty quickly by 55. Oh well.
Stumble It!

I was doing some research yesterday when Joe from my old home game sent me an IM to tell me he was at a really juicy 2/4 PLHE game but had to leave. Thankfully there was no waiting list, so I was able to get into the seat he vacated and keep the game running in the background while I continued to work. It really was a great game, with three mega-calling-station fish all sitting on nice stacks. Couple hands:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

BB ($525.45)
UTG ($471.35)
MP ($380.90)
Hero ($463)
Button ($289.30)
SB ($620.90)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 6d, 8d.
2 folds, Hero raises to $14, Button calls $14, 2 folds.

Flop: ($34) Ts, 9s, 7c (2 players)
Hero bets $24, Button calls $24.

Turn: ($82) Ah (2 players)
Hero bets $75, Button calls $75.

River: ($232) 5c (2 players)
Hero bets $232, Button calls $176.30 (All-In).

Final Pot: $640.30

He called me down with KT. Then the chat starts:

thebaz9: holy &$#$
thebaz9: u are so bad at poker
thebaz9: gut shot ion the river
thebaz9: suckout
furbandb888: ok, buy back in and take all my money
thebaz9: ok
thebaz9 adds $160
thebaz9 has returned
urbandb888: 160? hahahhaha
thebaz9: u dont put me on anything?
urbandb888: take a while to get it all with that
urbandb888: why don't you start with 400?
thebaz9: no i dont like playing against ppor players
thebaz9: i cant believe u hit that
thebaz9: urband u are terrible
thebaz9: have u ebver been ahead
urbandb888: all this terrible money could be yours
urbandb888: but you need to buy in for more
thebaz9: it will be too
urbandb888: you'll never get it all 160 at a time
thebaz9: yes i will
urbandb888: next thing you know i'm gonna have $910
thebaz9: not of my oney
thebaz9: unless u get lucky again
thebaz9: i am the better player
urbandb888: you are the broker player
urbandb888: a good player could afford a full buyin
thebaz9: ill garuntee it urban when it is all ssaid and done i wil have the best hand, ull suck out
urbandb888: with 400 on the table you might be able to chase me off a draw

The guy made me promise not to quit, which of course I did, but he ended up doubling through another donkey and quitting himself. Still, there was a really atrocious player to my immediate right:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

MP ($400)
Button ($689.25)
Hero ($779.20)
BB ($412.30)
UTG ($369.90)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ah, Ac. MP posts a blind of $4.
1 fold, MP (poster) checks, Button calls $4, Hero raises to $20, 1 fold, MP folds, Button calls $16.

Flop: ($48) 2d, Th, 4h (2 players)
Hero bets $44, Button calls $44.

Turn: ($136) Jd (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.

River: ($136) Jc (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $52, Hero raises to $165, Button calls $113.

Final Pot: $466

He had T7s. He had potted the river a few times in spots where I kind of suspected he was bluffing but didn't have the stones to snap him off, so I was hoping he'd take a shot at this one. He didn't bet as much as I wanted him to, so I helped him out on the river.

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB ($130.95)
BB ($705.85)
Hero ($914.60)
MP ($787.30)
Button ($422)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 6h, 6s.
Hero raises to $14, 3 folds, BB calls $10.

Flop: ($30) Kh, 6d, Th (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $30, BB calls $30.

Turn: ($90) Jd (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $90, BB calls $90.

River: ($270) Ts (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $220, BB calls $220.

Final Pot: $710

Same guy again, this time paying off with K9. He tanked on the river and predicted I would have AQ. Then he said how stupid it was for him to have called. Based on this, I felt it wasn't going to be quite so easy to just bet-bet-bet my next big hand against him.

This seemed like a good way to rebuild my image. I put him on top pair, and thought there was a decent chance he would fold it, and obviously I don't mind getting it in against him either.

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

CO ($232.90)
Button ($149.20)
SB ($650.55)
Hero ($1468.10)
UTG ($716)
MP ($495.60)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9h, 7h.
2 folds, CO calls $4, Button calls $4, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: ($16) 9s, 5h, 3h (4 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO checks, Button bets $8, SB raises to $20, Hero raises to $84, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds.

Final Pot: $128

I showed him the hand, and he said he folded 98. Perfect, hopefully that rebuilds a bit of a bluffing image for me.

At this point Joe checks in on me two hours later and sees me sitting with like $1500. Then he sees this:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com



UTG ($443.50)

MP ($584.10)

Hero ($1576.90)

SB ($713.80)

BB ($483.85)



Preflop: Hero is Button with Ac, Ah.

1 fold, MP raises to $14, Hero raises to $48, 2 folds, MP raises to $164, Hero raises to $504, MP raises to $748.1 (All-In), Hero calls $128.10.

Flop: ($1386.20) 8c, 9d, 3s (2 players, 1 all-in).

Turn: ($1386.20) 8d (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($1386.20) 8s (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $1386.20

Results in white below:

MP has Qs Qd (full house, eights full of queens).

Hero has Ac Ah (full house, eights full of aces).

Outcome: Hero wins $1386.20.

Damn, Joe, I don't know where you had to be, but I hope it was worth it. And thanks for the tip!

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

Wowowow were there ever some donkeys out last night. I had a great session at 2/4 and 3/6 NL. I felt like I was doing quite a lot of things right: good table selection, applying a lot of pressure in position with deep stacks, building big pots against the fish, etc. I made a few mistakes, of course, but not nearly as many as these guys. Some examples:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB ($640.30)
Hero ($639.10)
UTG ($591)
MP ($591)
Button ($535.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3s, 3c.
3 folds, SB raises to $18, Hero calls $12.

Flop: ($36) Qs, Qc, 3d (2 players)
SB bets $24, Hero raises to $71, SB raises to $118, Hero raises to $271, SB raises to $716.3 (All-In), Hero calls $421.10 (All-In).

Turn: ($1444.40) Kh (2 players, 2 all-in).

River: ($1444.40) 4d (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $1444.40

I usually 3-bet any pocket pair in a blind battle, but this guy was so bad that I wanted to just take a flop with deeper stacks in position. And what a flop! Without much going in pre-flop, I've got to start building a pot right away and hope he has something. His flop 3-bet I read as either a Q or a re-steal, so I put in a tiny 4-bet figuring he never folds a Q and might be tempted 5-bet bluff. He ended up shoving 22, so, uhm....


Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

MP ($768.60)
Button ($389.40)
Hero ($1348.20)
BB ($506.60)
UTG ($400)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9h, 8h.
1 fold, MP calls $4, Button calls $4, Hero completes, BB raises to $20, MP calls $16, Button calls $16, Hero calls $16.

Flop: ($80) 9s, 8d, 2d (4 players)
Hero bets $78, BB folds, MP raises to $314, Button folds, Hero raises to $1328.2 (All-In), MP calls $434.60 (All-In).

Turn: ($2156.80) 4c (2 players, 2 all-in) .

River: ($2156.80) 8c (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $2156.80

This raise out of the blinds is almost always a big hand, so the BB is the guy against whom I was trying to build a pot on the flop. Instead, I got paid off by a dude who had limp-called AA in a four-way pot. No one plays a set this fast, especially not a fish, so I wasn't much worried on the flop. I thought we might have the same hand or maybe he had like JT or something. But nope, just Aces that decide to wait until they were beat to raise.

This next one was actually a tough hand. The BB was a very loose and aggressive regular who seems to be a winner in the game. I just got the feeling early on that he was going to play back at me a lot and not allow me to bully the table. His name, in fact, was HyperAggroDonk. We don't have a lot of history together, but he's probably seen me around enough to figure I'm a competent player as well.

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG ($635.25)
MP ($933)
Hero ($942.45)
Button ($398.50)
SB ($190)
BB ($424)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Ah, Kd.
2 folds, Hero raises to $14, 2 folds, BB calls $10.

Flop: ($30) 4c, 5d, Td (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $23, BB raises to $69, Hero calls $46.

Turn: ($168) Qs (2 players)
BB bets $120, Hero raises to $859.45 (All-In), BB folds.

Final Pot: $1147.45

The flop is the kind that I'm very unlikely to hit and very likely to continuation bet, making it a good candidate for a check-raise bluff. I felt like BB would have a draw, one pair, or total air much more often than a monster. My call represents an overpair, which isn't to say he's definitely going to give me credit for one. I intended to fold to a turned diamond and otherwise evaluate his bet to see whether he left room to fold. I picked up a gut shot and got the sense that I could knock him off of a lot of his one pair hands if he had anything that good, so I went for it.

I just plain got scared in this one:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

CO ($362.50)
Hero ($980.40)
SB ($915.15)
BB ($597)
UTG ($600)
MP ($186.10)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Kc, Qc.
3 folds, Hero raises to $21, SB raises to $70, BB calls $64, Hero calls $49.

Flop: ($210) 5d, Qd, Kh (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($210) 4c (3 players)
SB bets $150, BB calls $150, Hero calls $150.

River: ($660) Jc (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: $660

I posted it on 2+2 and got less than rave reviews:

"you checked the flop. ok, slowplaying? um, bet the flop. that is forgivable.what on earth are you thinking overcalling the turn like that? you really are putting one of them solidly on QQ or KK? wtf wtf wtf? jesus. raise.river it checks to you. you say you can't envision them checking worse hands. will they call? YES PEOPLE LOVE TO CALL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE BETmy head is spinning "

Ouch.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

Wowowow were there ever some donkeys out last night. I had a great session at 2/4 and 3/6 NL. I felt like I was doing quite a lot of things right: good table selection, applying a lot of pressure in position with deep stacks, building big pots against the fish, etc. I made a few mistakes, of course, but not nearly as many as these guys. Some examples:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

SB ($640.30)
Hero ($639.10)
UTG ($591)
MP ($591)
Button ($535.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3s, 3c.
3 folds, SB raises to $18, Hero calls $12.

Flop: ($36) Qs, Qc, 3d (2 players)
SB bets $24, Hero raises to $71, SB raises to $118, Hero raises to $271, SB raises to $716.3 (All-In), Hero calls $421.10 (All-In).

Turn: ($1444.40) Kh (2 players, 2 all-in).

River: ($1444.40) 4d (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $1444.40

I usually 3-bet any pocket pair in a blind battle, but this guy was so bad that I wanted to just take a flop with deeper stacks in position. And what a flop! Without much going in pre-flop, I've got to start building a pot right away and hope he has something. His flop 3-bet I read as either a Q or a re-steal, so I put in a tiny 4-bet figuring he never folds a Q and might be tempted 5-bet bluff. He ended up shoving 22, so, uhm....


Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

MP ($768.60)
Button ($389.40)
Hero ($1348.20)
BB ($506.60)
UTG ($400)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9h, 8h.
1 fold, MP calls $4, Button calls $4, Hero completes, BB raises to $20, MP calls $16, Button calls $16, Hero calls $16.

Flop: ($80) 9s, 8d, 2d (4 players)
Hero bets $78, BB folds, MP raises to $314, Button folds, Hero raises to $1328.2 (All-In), MP calls $434.60 (All-In).

Turn: ($2156.80) 4c (2 players, 2 all-in) .

River: ($2156.80) 8c (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $2156.80

This raise out of the blinds is almost always a big hand, so the BB is the guy against whom I was trying to build a pot on the flop. Instead, I got paid off by a dude who had limp-called AA in a four-way pot. No one plays a set this fast, especially not a fish, so I wasn't much worried on the flop. I thought we might have the same hand or maybe he had like JT or something. But nope, just Aces that decide to wait until they were beat to raise.

This next one was actually a tough hand. The BB was a very loose and aggressive regular who seems to be a winner in the game. I just got the feeling early on that he was going to play back at me a lot and not allow me to bully the table. His name, in fact, was HyperAggroDonk. We don't have a lot of history together, but he's probably seen me around enough to figure I'm a competent player as well.

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG ($635.25)
MP ($933)
Hero ($942.45)
Button ($398.50)
SB ($190)
BB ($424)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Ah, Kd.
2 folds, Hero raises to $14, 2 folds, BB calls $10.

Flop: ($30) 4c, 5d, Td (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $23, BB raises to $69, Hero calls $46.

Turn: ($168) Qs (2 players)
BB bets $120, Hero raises to $859.45 (All-In), BB folds.

Final Pot: $1147.45

The flop is the kind that I'm very unlikely to hit and very likely to continuation bet, making it a good candidate for a check-raise bluff. I felt like BB would have a draw, one pair, or total air much more often than a monster. My call represents an overpair, which isn't to say he's definitely going to give me credit for one. I intended to fold to a turned diamond and otherwise evaluate his bet to see whether he left room to fold. I picked up a gut shot and got the sense that I could knock him off of a lot of his one pair hands if he had anything that good, so I went for it.

I just plain got scared in this one:

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

CO ($362.50)
Hero ($980.40)
SB ($915.15)
BB ($597)
UTG ($600)
MP ($186.10)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Kc, Qc.
3 folds, Hero raises to $21, SB raises to $70, BB calls $64, Hero calls $49.

Flop: ($210) 5d, Qd, Kh (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($210) 4c (3 players)
SB bets $150, BB calls $150, Hero calls $150.

River: ($660) Jc (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: $660

I posted it on 2+2 and got less than rave reviews:

"you checked the flop. ok, slowplaying? um, bet the flop. that is forgivable.what on earth are you thinking overcalling the turn like that? you really are putting one of them solidly on QQ or KK? wtf wtf wtf? jesus. raise.river it checks to you. you say you can't envision them checking worse hands. will they call? YES PEOPLE LOVE TO CALL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE BETmy head is spinning "

Ouch.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review

Stumble It!

PokerStars Tournament #49464655, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: $615.00/$35.00
551 players
Total Prize Pool: $338865.00
Target Tournament #43905792 Buy-In: $10000.00
30 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started - 2007/05/13 - 18:00:00 (ET)

Dear foucault82,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

This qualifies you for a seat in Tournament #43905792.
As you are already registered in this tournament, your account has been credited
with 10,000.00 W$. W$ can be used to buy into any qualifying special PokerStars event.

Click on the cashier screen to see your W$ balance,
and visit our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/tournaments.html for more details.

In addition a $1,000.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Whew, does that feel good. Since Stars started running WSOP sats in February, I've spent $12, 816 to win two seats. The first is effectively worth $12,000, since it comes with a sponsorship deal to get an extra $1000 for wearing Poker Stars gear during the tournament. The second is worth $11,000, with $10,000 paid in $W that can be used only for certain events, such satellites to the WSOP and other major events, preliminary WSOP events, and the World Championship of Online Poker.

Poker Stars ended up giving me $10,000 in cash for the first seat, because Harrah's this year is not allowing internet poker sites to buy players into the tournament themselves. So the best Stars can do is put the money in our accounts and tell us to buy in, which unfortunately many people, including a disproportionate number of those with a negative expectation, probably will not do.

Truthfully, were it not for added $1000 sponsorship, I probably couldn't justify spending the $10,000 to buy in directly, either, once I had the cash in hand. However, the fact that I am really looking forward to playing, have a four and possibly five figure positive expectation, and am getting paid to play is enough for me to buy in even though I don't have to.

What's really concerning to me is that this is going to be very bad for the WSOP's numbers, and I'm sure Harrah's knows that. The fact that they chose not to allow poker sites to register their qualifiers directly, in full knowledge that it could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost fees and other indirect revenue generated by the tournament, suggests that they have a very concrete and imminent concern about the legal consequences of doing business with online poker sites. If the Department of Justice has been leaning on Harrah's about this, that's bad news for the legitimacy and legality of internet poker altogether.

But hey, for the time being, I'm going to enjoy my win. Here are some interesting hands:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com



BB (t2240)

UTG (t2420)

UTG+1 (t3290)

Hero (t2680)

MP2 (t4360)

MP3 (t2320)

CO (t2140)

Button (t2480)

SB (t3080)



Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Kh, Ks.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls t20, Hero raises to t130, 3 folds, Button calls t130, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls t110.



Flop: (t420) 4d, 3d, 5s (3 players)

UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t300, Button folds, UTG+1 raises to t800, Hero folds.



Final Pot: t1520

If we were more shallow or the structure of this tournament were less good, I'd get it in here, as combo-draws are certainly possible for Villain. But those hands are mostly like 50% against me, and if he has a set or better, I'm crushed. With AA I get it in here because of the straight re-draw, but with KK, I didn't feel like gambling.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com



UTG+1 (t1105)

MP1 (t5160)

MP2 (t865)

Hero (t5425)

CO (t4970)

Button (t2105)

SB (t2430)

BB (t660)

UTG (t2290)



Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Qs, Ac.

4 folds, Hero raises to t125, CO calls t125, 1 fold, SB calls t100, BB calls t75.



Flop: (t500) 5d, 8s, 3s (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t300, CO folds, SB calls t300, BB folds.



Turn: (t1100) Jc (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets t650, SB folds.



Final Pot: t1750

The main Villain here is SivTec, a pretty solid but straightforward/predictable player. On the flop, I think there's a chance my hand is best, and even when I'm called I generally have 6 outs, so I take a stab. When Siv calls out of the SB, his hand range is pretty narrowly defined. It's very unlikely he has JJ or better, as he didn't reraise pre-flop. I don't think he slow-plays a set in a four-way pot with a lot of draws on board. I'm representing quite a lot of strength betting into three callers on this board, and then firing again on the turn, and there's some chance that the J improved my hand, so I think I can get him to fold virtually his entire range here.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com



UTG (t9935)

UTG+1 (t2430)

MP1 (t8100)

MP2 (t5115)

Hero (t11700)

CO (t5475)

Button (t17663)

SB (t3721)

BB (t9200)



Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 5s, As.

4 folds, Hero raises to t600, CO calls t600, 2 folds, BB calls t400.



Flop: (t1900) Kh, 3s, 9d (3 players)

BB checks, Hero bets t1100, CO calls t1100, BB folds.



Turn: (t4100) 5c (2 players)

Hero bets t4000, CO calls t3775 (All-In).



River: (t11875) 8d (2 players, 1 all-in)



Final Pot: t11875

He called down with KJo.

I'd been kind of aggressive lately. Generally when a guy calls off more than 10% of his stack pre-flop, even in position, I put him on a pair. Sometimes he's slowplaying a big pair, sometimes it's a small to medium-pair that wants to see a flop or just use his position before committing. There ought to be few if any Kings in his range, so I felt that although he could peel the flop with a lot of pairs, he'd often fold the turn, and if he did have K, I just picked up two more outs. Whoops.

I posted the whole HH at http://www.pokerxfactor.com/servlet/pxf?a=mv&t=myhand2&handid=61174&filename=535_20070514_112938.txt if anyone wants to see it. I'm happy to answer any questions posted here.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

Todd and I hit up the breakfast buffet at the Veranda Café. I mentioned that I like casino buffets for cheap meals because although some of the food is guaranteed to be terrible, you can keep rolling the dice until you find something you like. If you order a sandwich from the deli, you’re stuck with it no matter how unappetizing it is.

This holds true at the Veranda. On my first trip, I grabbed pancakes and French toast. The pancakes were so hard that even by raising my knife a good six inches and slamming it down onto them, I could barely make a dent (and let’s face it, when a pancake is capable of holding a dent, it’s not going to be a good pancake.) The French toast was pretty good, though, as was the bacon.

We talked for a while about all the “pros” we’d encountered yesterday. There are obviously a ton of guys who hang around the Foxwoods poker room, lose money pretty consistently, and consider themselves pros. It was a bit more surprising to me, though, that, as Todd put it, there are also a lot of guys who travel the live tournament circuit and live the lifestyle but are actually financing a losing habit because they have some lucrative business on the side. I guess it’s also possible that some of them hit a big score early on, convince themselves they’re good, and start burning through their winnings trying to make it as a pro.

But we’d both played with these guys who were just back from the Bellagio 25K or the Caesar’s 10K or whatever and talking about how they play all these live tournaments and then just demonstrating a complete lack of really basic poker and/or tournament poker skills. For example, there’s one guy I played with at both the Foxwoods 2K and in a satellite yesterday who talks a big game and knows everyone on the circuit, but from what I’ve seen (and what I’ve heard better players who know him say), is not especially good.

With like 25 players left in the satellite last night (19 paid), he blinded down to the point where he was posting like 30% of his stack in the BB. Antes were huge, and there was no way he was going to fold into a seat. The CO raised, a smart and aggressive player in the SB shoved, and he unhappily folded, saying he would have called the CO hoping to be 60/40. I just can’t conceive of anyone making money playing tournament poker and not recognizing how much his situation improves when the SB shoves and gives him protection and better odds on his money with what is likely not a much tighter range than the CO was raising in the first place.

We also talk a bit about our plan for the day. The tournament doesn’t start until noon, and the director has already said that if it isn’t over by 1AM we’re going to break for the night and start over at 1PM the next day. Todd definitely has to be back tomorrow morning, and is supposed to be back by 6PM for the ballroom dancing lessons his fiancée insisted on in preparation for their impending nuptials. He assures me, however, that it will not break his heart if he has to miss the latter.

“Are you any good?”

“Nope!” he scoffs. “Our teacher suggested we choose a song without a beat for our dance because the beat ‘just confuses’ me.” Pwned.

I still don’t know how I’m going to get home if I do make it through the day and he has to leave. My friend Logan mentioned he might come down tonight when he finishes a law school final, so my new plan was to hope he’d be willing to stay the night if necessary.

My starting table features at least one of those “pros” I was talking about, a guy I played with at 2/5 NL yesterday. He seems to be one of those live players who is way too loose, passive, and predictable, but makes some good reads and sometimes traps aggressive players like me with retarded slowplaying. I believe his name was Brian.

Other players of note include a tall, skinny guy with glasses who looks like a grown-up Harry Potter, a tremendously fat Italian-American kid with trashy goatee and a huge silver cross around his neck, and a guy whom I actually believe when he claims to make money at poker. His story is plausible for a couple of reasons, most notably that he can produce a concrete figure of what he’s looking to earn in a month and that he seems to have a budget that really does depend on him winning this money. Specifically, he owns a Cold Stone Creamery in Manhattan, that, he says, has so far cost him over 100K in his first two years of business. “I have to earn 12K a month playing poker just to keep the place open.” The fact that he’ll openly admit to having lost money so far on a business also suggests he isn’t just deluding himself into thinking he’s a winner at poker.

There are a couple of empty seats at the table, and I’m not happy when one of them is filled by another familiar face. I played with Lenny during the Foxwoods 2K. He seemed to be good, and I later learned that at last year’s World Poker finals he’d won two preliminary events and the title of best all-around player. Sweet.

To my right are a couple of limp-monkeys, with Harry Potter being the worst offender. Blinds start off at 25/50, 30K starting stacks, and go up every 40 minutes. Not a bad structure at all for a live event with just a four figure buy-in. The limpers quickly ignore me, and when I pick up black 3’s, I pop a couple of them to 350. The fat kid, who I think was named Paul, calls from the SB, and everyone else folds. The flop is K-high with all hearts and no 3. He checks, I bet 650, and he folds.

Next orbit UTG and UTG+1 limp, I make it 350 again, this time with QQ, and only UTG+1 calls. He checks and calls 550 on a Kh 4d 3h flop. We check through a 7s turn, and then he leads for 1000 on a 7h river. For whatever reason, I didn’t think he had a flush. I can’t see him limp-calling many Kings, and I don’t know why he would have a 7. Then again, random live players are pretty passive and suck at making thin value bets, and I couldn’t really see this being a bluff for barely half pot. Finally I decided this could be a blocking bet with like 66 or something often enough for me to call with a pretty under-represented QQ. Nope, he’s got 33 for bottom set that boated up. Whatever, he didn’t win nearly enough to justify his pre-flop call.

The next time I raise up some limpers it’s with As 7s. Once again, Paul calls in the SB. I’m starting to see a pattern here. I get once other call and elect to take a free card to a gut shot on a Th 9c 6h flop. Paul leads for half pot on a 4c turn, and the action folds to me. What a weak ass bet on this very draw-heavy board. I’m so tempted to float him and fire at one of a dozen river scare cards, but I guess he could have a lot of draws in his range, so I may end up bluffing into him when he hits. I fold but make a note to punish this dumb LAG if I get the chance.

Blinds jump to 50/100, and Lenny gets himself into some trouble against Cold Stone. He opens from like CO-1 to 300, and Cold Stone re-raises to 825 out of the SB. Lenny calls. Flop K52r, Cold Stone bets, Lenny calls. Turn is a blank, action goes check bet call. Now on a blank river Cold Stone pots it for 6K. Lenny looks pissed and finally calls. Cold Stone turns up a pretty obvious KK, and Lenny angrily flips over his AA.

Lenny looks to be steaming pretty bad and leaves the table. He is gone for literally 15 minutes of so. What the [censored] kind of professional acts like that? It wasn’t even a bad beat, 90% of the money went in when you were way behind, and you didn’t play it particularly well. 300 BB deep, I think you need to 4-bet AA (and a lot of other stuff) pre-flop when a solid player re-raises your LP raise out of the blinds. After he check-calls turn in a spot where it doesn’t make much sense for him to have any kind of draw, I can find a river fold, too.

And regardless, you run into some bad luck and have to leave for 15 minutes?! During one of the most profitable stages of the tournament?! Anyone who’s spent a fair amount of time at the tables, let along a professional, should be able to handle a rough spot better than this. But whatever, I don’t mind having him gone.

Next pot I open is with AK for 300. I get called in three spots, including by Paul and Brian. The flop is a dangerous Kh Th 8d. I bet 900 (probably should have been more), and they all fold. Jesus, what are you monkeys calling with pre-flop?

Lenny finally returns, and I’m about to pop some limpers but for some reason decide to overlimp instead with 87s. As soon as I did it, I was like “[censored], you know Lenny is going to raise you guys from his button.” Sure enough, he makes it 800, and along comes Paul from the SB. The others fold, and I’m tempted to re-raise, but I know that makes no sense at all, so I just call looking to make a play at the flop, cuz I still don’t believe Lenny.

It’s a not very appealing JTTr. We check to Lenny, who bets and gets check-raised. Bah, I fold. Lenny calls. Turn is something irrelevant, Paul asks what Lenny has left and then bets half of that. Lenny call. Shaaaaaaaaaaady. River K, Paul shoves, Lenny insta-calls with JJ for a full house. Paul apologies and flips over KK. HAHHAHAHAHAHAHA NICE TRAP PRO!!!!!

“I strung you along so nice,” Lenny is muttering to himself. Yeah, calling off half your stack on the turn was real sneaky of you.

“I knew I needed it. I mean, you called half your stack.” Paul says in his own defense. Does that mean you were check-folding the river? I have my doubts, but nice hand. Paul seems better than average and like he could be a pain in the neck, but I’d still rather see him with the chips than Lenny. Lenny does leave the table with class, though, shrugging his shoulders and saying “What can you do?” He’s probably not a bad guy at all, and almost certainly a good player, I just wasn’t in the mood to have any respect for anyone. It’s part of getting psyched up for an event I’m not really bankrolled to play.

For the next hour or so, I’m real quiet, and decide to capitalize on that by popping some limpers to 1200 with QTo (we’re now at 100/200). “Haven’t heard from you in a while,” the guy to my right says as he mucks. Thanks for noticing.

A few hands later I check Jc 7c against a ton of limpers on my BB. The flop comes 8h 7s 4h. I know I ought to just give it up here, but I decided to check and raise if there’s a bet from late position. Brian takes a stab at it for 800, and he’s so passive that I should have known better, but I make it 2400. The others fold and he calls. I check and fold my gut shot on a turned 9, and he shows me a set of 4’s. Yeah, yeah, I nod knowingly at him.

We get a break and come back for 100/200/25. I’ve lost about 10% of my stack in the first two hours but still have well over 100 BB. Not for long, though. I’d decided to open up now that antes had kicked in and raised to 700 with Tc 7c in MP. Brian calls from the SB and leads into me for 1500 on a Th 8s 6s flop. I’m obviously not folding, but I should’ve bothered to put him on a hand. Instead I just called pretty quickly.

The turn blanks, and he leads 3500. I know I’m in trouble now, but I still feel like I should be able to 9 outs on the river or a bluff a spade, so I call. The river is an ugly offsuit 3 and he makes a blatant value bet of 4000. I muck, and he shows QQ, which I really should have known. He’s passive enough not to reraise that pre-flop, too passive to semi-bluff a draw like he did, and too passive to fast-play a set. Only an overpair makes much sense, and with these stacks, his weak-tight tendencies, and his fondness for ‘reads’, I think I could’ve taken him off the hand if I were willing to be more creative.

A small turn raise leaving a pot-sized bet left for the river would have been perfect. If he were fast-playing a set, he’d likely shove the turn, and there’s no way he calls a river shove even with AA when we’re well over 100 BB deep when I call flop and make a sketchy turn raise. If I do hit an out, I might even be able to take him to value town, but the bottom line is that I failed to recognize a situation where I would have been better off playing top pair as a bluff rather than a bluff-catcher. Against a guy like Brian, who is bad per se but has a lot of exploitable tendencies, there’s a lot of money to be made with plays like this. It’s one of the reasons I want more experience with live poker, because you don’t run into many spots like this in online tournaments (though you do occasionally in cash games, which is where I’ve been working on lines like the one I’m advocating here).

I overlimp K6s on my button and see a K25r flop. SB leads 600 into a 1400 pot, BB calls, Brian makes it 1600, and I fold my top pair and backdoor flush draw. Both blinds call. Turn is a blank and they check it through. I put Brian on AK that he was raising for value and to take control of the betting. Yes, he overlimps AK, I’ve seen it. River A, blinds check, Brian bets 3500. SB thinks and calls, then BB thinks and calls. SB shows KQ, Brian looks pissed, flashes a K, and folds. WTF? Was he value betting? Bluffing? Neither seemed likely for him, I don’t know what that was all about.

Everyone looks to the BB, who tables A3. Now Brian really looks pissed. “I was going for a gut shot.” So you were. “I wouldn’t have called the river, really thought you had AK, but then he called and I was priced in.” Wow. Brian is really pissed.

Now sitting with around 20K, I open for 600 UTG with Qs Js. Paul calls, someone else calls everyone else folds. Flop J23r, I bet 1200, Paul calls, other guy folds. Turn blank, I check-call 2000. A Q river gives me two pair, but it occurs to me that unless he cold called KK/AA pre-flop, the two pair doesn’t really improve my hand versus his range, except for KQ and AQ. I check again and call 3500, he show QJo.

This [censored] guy. I’m stoic as usual at the table, but in my mind we’re having a whole conversation where I’m berating him:

“What are you doing calling my UTG raise with QJo? You going to outplay me with your awesome post-flop skillz?”

He laughs arrogantly and shrugs. “What are you doing raising QJ UTG?” then high fives one of his goombah friends.

“Buddy, the immensity of the gulf separating my situation from yours is rivaled only by the size of your stomach.” Ooooh, good line, too bad we’re not actually talking. I’m so [censored] clever.

I quiet down, what with all the stations at the table, but do manage to steal blinds a few times. I also take note of an aggressive player a few seats to my right who bluffs off most of his stack but then gets a fair amount back. With blinds 200/400, I’m already contemplating a re-raise out of the BB when he makes it 1100 from the CO. The station in the SB calls, and now it’s obligatory. I glance at my 73s just out of curiosity, and then pop it to 4500. This is the first time I’ve reraised all day, and the raiser’s been at the table from the beginning to know that. He folds quick, but the SB looks ready to call. He asks how much, thinks for a long time, and finally folds. That’s obviously good for me, but truthfully I was already thinking to myself how easy it would be to make his additional 3400 mine as well on most flops.

At 300/600, I made it 1800 UTG with KQo. Not great at a 10-handed table, but I was shallow enough that I wasn’t too concerned about reverse implied odds, and entering UTG seemed the only way I could be first into the pot. Brian called on the button and Harry Potter from the BB. Flop AK8, and now Harry leads for 10K, slightly overbetting the pot (big antes). This was super uncharacteristic for him, as he’d largely been real loose passive. Brian min-raises to put him all in, and he tanked for like 2 minutes, finally calling. Brian showed AQ, and Harry had 88 for bottom set HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA TAKE THAT PRO!!!!

Wow, was he mad. “What the hell were you thinking about?”

“It was for all my chips. You know, potentially a $200,000 decision. I just wanted to get it right. You could have had a higher set.”

“What?!?! I would have re-raised pre-flop.” Good to know, since you’ve passed up every opportunity to reraise AK and QQ. Jesus some people are stupid.

I couldn’t resist a little needling. “You must have thought for sure you were good when he had to think.”

“Of course I thought I was good!” Brian snapped at me. “Why the hell would he have to think about 88?” I just smiled and laughed a little as he steamed.

After our next break, I decided I had a good stack size (19K) to steal raise at 400/800. I’d be putting in just over 10% of my stack, which should make it tough to call or re-raise me. It’s a stack size I like online, anyway. I made it 2200 from MP with K7s, and undeterred, [censored] Paul called on the button. I check-folded a ragged 9-high flop, and he showed A9o. Good God what are you doing with these calls?

Next orbit a guy who just lost a big pot open shoves 5800, and I shove AT over the top. He’s got JJ, but I spike the A to bust him.

We’re coming up on dinner now, and there’s talk of buffet vouchers. I joke that I don’t want to bust on the buffet bubble, then last hand before break a pretty straightforward players opens for 4500 UTG (at 600/1200), and I find JJ in the SB with 15K. I ask the dealer if I’ll still get a buffet voucher if I bust here. “There are no buffet vouchers.”

“[censored], then I’m all in.” UTG calls with AK, but I fade and I get a nice double up just before dinner.

I talked to Logan at like 4:30 and he said he was driving down from Boston, but he still hadn’t arrived when we started back up at 6:40. I folded the first few hands, and then when I was UTG+1, the first to act open shoved. I looked down at AA, and just as I was asking for a count, the player behind me started to say call then quickly shut up when he realized I was thinking. I did my best to pretend I hadn’t heard him, thought for a minute, and shoved over the top. UTG+1 quickly called with 88 for his last 10K. UTG had 65s, and suddenly I was above average for the first time all tournament.

Not two minutes later, Logan walks in. “You missed it, man. I just won a three-way all in with Aces.”

“Nice job. I’m gonna go play 2/5, just saw one of my favorite fish sitting over there.”

He watches me play one more hand where I pick up A9o on the BB and fold to a 10xAI from UTG+1. “Nit,” he scoffs. With big antes, that could be a correct call if UTG+1 were shoving perfectly, but I’d say the odds of that are about 100:1.

Next orbit I pick up AK and raise Brian’s BB. What a shocker, he calls. I c-bet an AQx flop and leave him room to check-raise me, which he considers but ultimately folds. “I almost moved in on you,” he tells me menacingly. Bring it on, tough guy.

The aggressive player I squeezed a while ago lost a big pot to Brian after semi-bluffing the flop and turn and nailing his gutshot on the river only to find that the 5s also completed a flush for Brian, who had open limped QTs on the button. At 1K/2K, he tossed his last few chips in, and a new player to my right isolated for 4500. I found AQs and made it 14,500, prepared to fold if the guy shoved for 55K. Something about that little raise made me suspicious. He called me raise and checked and AKJ flop. Hmmm, I still didn’t have a good feeling and checked behind. Turn blank, we check through again (bad, I should have bet). River Q, he checks and curses when I bet 15K. “I let you get there,” he says as he folds. Then he sees my hand and asks why I didn’t bet sooner in a way that makes me think I was good all along. Oh well.

Probably the biggest mistake I made all day came when I checked T8o in my BB against four limpers (with average stack being like 25 BB’s, LOL) and saw a 975r flop. I led for 10K, which is how I play draws out of the blinds when I’m deep. I’m not sure how bad it is here, but I’m pretty sure people are either going to shove or fold, and when they shove I’m often not going to have odds to call because my T often won’t be an out. I think check and evaluate, sometimes calling, sometimes raising, would have been better, but then again people love to slowplay sets and may just call down with one pair, so maybe I’m not killing my hand value completely by leading.

Anyway, Brian shoved last to act and gave me a very tough decision. It was 27K to win 87K for me. Ugh, but Brian’s so passive, is my T ever good here? He could have some of my outs with a pair plus draw or have a redraw with a set… this is so thin… I fold. “I wasn’t drawing,” he told me. Nobody thought you were drawing, buddy.

Next time I opened was against Brian’s BB. I raised to 5500 (at 800/1600) with KJs, Paul called on the button, and Brian called. The flop was complete rags. This shallow I usually give callers a lot of credit and just check-fold stuff like this. But against these two monkeys, I felt the need to bet out 12K. Paul folded quickly, and Brian thought again about check-raising. I’d bet enough that he had no fold equity, though I could have easily folded to Paul. Finally, he mucked. “I know my pair was good.” No you [censored] don’t know that, or you would have moved in. I really hadn’t been that aggressive, I don’t know why no one every believed me.

A young guy who dressed like Jersey trash but was actually a pretty cool kid took a seat to my left. He introduced himself as Jeremy. We chatted a bit, and I saw him talking with his mother outside during break. “Your girlfriend’s cute,” I told him when we returned. He looked confused for a second and then laughed.

“Man, I saw the most amazing ass upstairs. This Asian check… good God! So juicy. I wasn’t just looking, man, I got up and followed her for like five minutes, just staring at that ass.” He drew the shape in the air with his hands. “I finally saw her from the front… SHE WAS A [censored] TRANSVESTITE!” It’s lucky I wasn’t drinking anything or it would have come out of my nose. Several Foxwoods regulars at the table knew who he was talking about, apparently she’s a regular blackjack player from Boston.

Now one of the chipleaders at my table, I opened A9o from MP1, and just the BB called, leaving exactly a PSB left in his stack. Flop 9h 9s 5h. He checked, which I took as a sign of strength, since I’d been expecting a flop shove, but you never know with these live donks. I didn’t expect him to fold to a flop bet, but I felt that I might as well give him rope to bluff just in case. “How much you have left?” I asked suspiciously, wanting him to think I was scared of his flat call/ flop check line. He told me, and I tapped the table cautiously.

He quickly shoved a blank turn, I doubled checked that I actually had trips and called. Ah Th is not what I wanted to see, but he missed, and I took a nice pot.

At 1500/3000/500, the CO shoved 24K with QJ, but my 66 in the BB snapped him off.

When the 61st player busted, we got three new guys at our table. They were paying 30 spots, and with 135K (120K would have been average), I liked my standing quite a bit.

The action folded to MP1, one of the new players to the table. With blinds 2K/4K/500, he opened to 14K last hand (which was only his first or second at the table), and I folded my BB after a moment of hestitation. He opens to 14K again, and this time the player to his immediate left, also new to the table, calls. The raiser had about 135K to start the hand, and the caller had about 120K.

Action folds to me in the SB, where I have TT and about 135K. My sense was that the raiser is likely to have a stronger hand than you would expect in this spot, because he's raising twice in a row at a brand new table. The caller may also be kind of strong, having called off over 10% of his stack. A re-raise is going to commit my entire stack to the pot in a spot where I'm only likely to get action from hands that crush me and maybe from AK.

In like 15-20 minutes (ie not long at all in live poker time), blinds will be 3K/6K/1K. This is kind of a critical juncture in the tournament, because the ante suddenly becomes absurdly big and makes the whole thing much more of a crap shoot. In other words, this is a good time to gamble. I pick up a ton of equity if I fold out hands like AQ/AJ/KQ.

I decided to pop it to 55K with 80K behind. This both to make my hand look more like KK/AA and less like AK and to give either of the Villains in the hand the opportunity to make a bad flop fold. These two didn't really look like the type, but there are players in these events who will call pre-flop and fold for like half pot on the flop even when it should be obvious that I'm shoving any flop.

The raiser tanked and finally came over the top with QQ. A Q in the door sealed my fate, but the fact that he tanked makes me think he would have folded JJ and maybe even AK, so I don’t really regret how I played it. Logan and Todd came over just in time to see us turn the cards over. Great, so Logan shows up just in time to miss my triple up and just in time to see me bust. Sweet timing bro.

After paying off the QQ, I had exactly one T500 chip left, just enough to pay the ante. 9:1 odds baby, probably the most +EV play I’ve made all tournament! Action folds to Jeremy in the SB, who completes and bets an AT3 high flop. The BB folds, and I flip over J5 for no pair, no draw. “You’re ahead,” he says, turning over 87s with no draw. Sweeeeet. But wait turn A river T we have to chop the antes!?!?!?!? Akfhdlahfahgajfklahdagadsl you freaking donkey call my all in with 8 high and runner runner a chop? Unreal.

I’m now armed with 2000 chips. UTG raises to 11K, I call all in blind, everyone else folds. He’s got AK, I turn over… 66 OMG I’m ahead!!! “I haven’t lost a race all day,” I tell him. The streak holds, but the dealer messed up and didn’t create a side pot. She tries to give me back just 7500, Fat Paul is arguing that I deserve 9000, and I have to tell the entire table to STFU as I patiently explain why I get 10,500. Can’t beat a septuple up!

Next hand, action folds to me CO-1, I look out of curiosity only and shove. SB isolates, which he ought to do with a super wide range, but of course he turns over TT. Ace on the flop OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO WIN THIS TOURNAMENT!!! I can envision some live donkey at the table using me as an example of why never bluff at a sidepot. “Kid had just enough to pay the ante, and he went on to win $200,000. I learned my lesson then and there….”

The next thing occurs to me is that I have no way of getting home if I do stay until tomorrow. Logan has already told me he has to be back, so now I have visions of myself taking the bus back to Boston with a bunch of old women, their oxygen tanks, and 200K in cash tucked into my sock.

Whoops, Tc on the turn, and I’m busto. GG Foxwoods.

Labels: poker, poker strategy, session review, trip report

Stumble It!

With about ten minutes to go before the 6PM $500 satellite, I spot Rich (2p2’er Shorty55), whom I first met in Vegas last summer and who took half my action in the 2K I played at Foxwoods a few months ago. Then again, he’s not tough to spot, partially because he’s like eight feet tall, and partially because he’s neither an octogenarian nor a corpulent Italian and therefore sticks out like a sore thumb in the Foxwoods poker room.

We chat for a few minutes, and he tells me he was debating whether to come while playing 5/10 NL online. As he explains the decision-making process: “I flopped bottom set with 22, turn is an A, I’ thinking ‘Great, he’s got two pair, time to get the money in.’ Turns out he had AA for top set, but wait, deuce on the river! When something like that happens, you just have to go to Foxwoods to play tournaments. Poor guy, I saw him make quads under quads in the next half hour, too. Never seen that before.”

We take our seats, and my starting table turns out to be real soft. Early on, with blinds 25/50, UTG opens for 200, UTG+1 calls, and I re-raise to 1000 with QQ. UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, flop is a very nice J52r. This guy has passed up two opportunities to reraise me, so I’m not too worried about AA/KK/JJ, and I’ve seen him overvalue top pair already. Basically, I’m looking to bet the flop and call a check-raise for 8.5K. That’s exactly what happens, with him showing me JTo. Even though I got his chips, I still wish he could somehow rebuy and keep sitting to me right.

Oh well, as consolation I open to 300 (blinds now 50/100) with QQ next orbit, and BB reraises to 1000 pretty quick. Live donks tend to do stupid shit with Aces and sometimes with K’s, and the size of this raise felt more like TT/JJ/AK trying to end the action pre-flop. I call, and flop is 742. Well, no getting away now. He bets 2K, and I call. Turn is another blank, he bets 3K with 3.5K behind, I think, reassure myself that he doesn’t have to have AA here, and set him in. He’s got JJ, and I’m up to like 27K from my starting 10K in half an hour. Heart live poker.

After that, it’s mostly folding for me, because the play is too loose to make many moves. I snap off a short-stack shove with AKs on my BB, I think he had like AT or something I dominated.

With blinds 200/400/50, I pick up ATs on the button. The worst player at the table limps in, I make 2K, he already has 400 in the pot so obviously can’t fold for 1600 more. Flop A95hh. Not ideal, but this guy’s pretty bad. He checks, I bet 3K, he hems and haws forever and tells me he doesn’t know if he can call but I know he can and sure enough he does.

Turn was something harmless, he checks, and I check behind cuz I know he’ll let me know where I stand on the river. It’s an off-suit 8, making for one more hand I don’t beat. He checks again, and I finally decide I can’t value bet. He tables A8o and tells me I should have bet the turn, as he would have folded. I purse my lips and nod sagely in acknowledgement of his advice.

Unfortunately, the structure on these satellites sucked, and after going card dead and not playing a single pot for the next three levels, I was back on life support at the next break. I was also starving, and Todd and Joe (a guy from our home game who met us at the ‘Woods on his way to NY) had already gone to eat. I asked Rich if he wanted to eat after I busted, and he told me not to think like that. “You’re going to play a short stack really well against these guys.” True. “Just be patient. Especially in satellites, by desperation threshold is literally like 3 BB’s these days. If you ever get a hand, you can get back to average so quick.” True.

I do some more folds and shove AQ over a raise. Unfortunately my new table features a maniac old man who loves to shove his stack in retarded spots, so it’s once again tough to make moves. Then it happens: rockets, American Airlines, the holy grail of poker! At 800/1600, I make it 4100 UTG. The old man shoves, though unfortunately he recently got clipped after calling a re-raise with AJ and shoving a rag flop checked to him (obviously JJ insta-calls him). Then MP1 cold calls the shove. I’m up against A9 and QQ and hold up. Back in business, baby!

We’re approaching the bubble now, but I think I began overcompensating a little too soon. There were roughly 40 left in the tournament with 19 spots to pay. I had one of the biggest stacks at the table. Another big stack who’d been described to me as a little aggressive and capable of psychotic calls opens for 6000 from MP. I had the opportunity shove 35K more at him wit