From the Desk of the Poker Philosopher

The $15K World Poker Tour Bellagio event always attracts a star-studded field of pros fresh off competing in the World Series of Poker. The six-handed final table this year was no exception:

Seat 1: Ralph Perry - 1,635,000
Seat 2: Luke "IWearGoggles" Staudenmaier - 3,495,000
Seat 3: John "The Razor" Phan - 3,495,000
Seat 4: David Benyamine - 4,860,000
Seat 5: Gabe Thaler - 1,550,000
Seat 6: Mike "SirWatts" Watson - 5,060,000

Watson won over $1.6 million for his first place finish. Sigh, I still recall playing with him at one of my first big final tables, a $10 rebuy on Poker Stars. I've had the privilege of meeting him twice, most recently during the WSOP main event when we were both in good shape on Day 2B.

I love this photo of Watson with all the people from 2+2 who were there to see him win it. There's really an extraordinary collection of talent in this photo, including two other winners of earlier events in the Bellagio series: Tony "Bond18" Dunst, who won a $3K event, and Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke, who won a $5K event just weeks after turning 21. What a huge couple of weeks it's been for 2+2. I only wish I could have done my part by final tabling the main event.

Congratulations, Mike!

Labels: Bellagio, poker, tournament, WPT

Stumble It!

Frankly, I didn't do a very good job of courting/attracting media attention despite my deep run in the WSOP. But here are a few links to coverage of my play:

Interview with Poker Stars

O By the Way Blog 1

O By the Way Blog 2

PokerNews Photos

Poker Savvy/Cardplayer Round Table

And honorable mention goes to the Hendon Mob, who reported that:

"Only five players -- Andrew Brokos, Pat Dattilo, Marc Friedman, Vinod Jadav, and Stefan Mattsson -- cashed in both the 2006 and 2007 Main Events. All were going for their third consecutive cash this year. However, only one player survived (and is guaranteed to cash). He is Stefan Mattsson, from Stockholm, Sweden – currently in 308th place)."

Really, 308th place? Sick run, Stefan. I'm really surprised there were only five of us who cashed in '06 and '07.

Also according to Hendon Mob, the record for consecutive cashes is held by Bo Sehlstedt, who cashed in 2004-2007 but failed to cash this year. C'mon, Stefan, we can take him.

Labels: Card Player, news, personal, poker, Poker Savvy, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Seat 1: Craig Stein – 440,000
Seat 2: Niklas Flisberg – 1,264,000
Seat 3: Mark Wilds – 485,000
Seat 4: Andrew Brokos – 4,444,000
Seat 6: Lisa Parsons – 581,000
Seat 7: Peter Neff – 1,275,000
Seat 8: Darus Suharto – 1,057,000
Seat 9: Owen Crowe – 1,050,000

Owen Crowe is Ocrowe online, he actually busted me out the final table of a $1000 WSOP satellite on Stars a few months ago. Definitely a strong player. I don't anything about the others, but I'm happy with their chip counts: big enough to be worth stacking, but not so big that any of them can cripple me. Seems like a favorable draw.

Thanks for all the comments. Don't worry about that "not reporting" thing, for some reason the dealer took a copy of my paperwork before I wrote in my chip count, not a big deal.

Labels: poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Thanks for all the support guys. Today was ridiculous, such a tough table for most of the day, fought tooth and nail to get up to 2 mil then got moved to softer table and picked up quick 2 mil. Alex is an amazing player, had some awful luck today and kept coming back. Even on my right he was ridiculously tough to play against. He deserved to finish higher, but for selfish reasons, not sorry to see him go. Roothlus and Gbecks on my left, also very solid of course. Raptor got moved to table at end of day, but then I was moved not long after. Gah I feel like I've been dangling by the seat of my pants for four days now.

Sorry I don't have a pic with chips stacked up, but believe me that bag was heavy as hell and weighted down with beautiful green chips worth 25K each. I look forward to ripping it open and stacking it all up tomorrow while the rest of my table drools with jealousy.

Here's a wild hand: Alex on my right is super LAG, has been opening like 30% of pots. I've 3-bet a couple of times, recently he called OOP with 87s, check-raise bluffed a K-high flop, and showed when I folded. He told me to stop 3-betting him. I did.

Few orbits later, blinds 10K/20K/3K, he opens to 55K UTG+1, I call, tight player in HJ raises to 200K, Alex calls, I shove for 1 million, tight guy tanks and folds K's face up. Alex folds and tells me he had AK. Deliberately not revealing my hand here, but what do you think of their folds?

Another one, late in the day, I have 3M. Fat middle-aged guy from GA with like 1.5M opens to 80K at 12/24/3, I flat with AKo, everyone else folds. Flop Q44 he bets 125K I call. Turn A he bets 300K I call. River blank he bets 500K I tank. He doesn't seem like the type to triple barrel bluff, and I can't imagine I beat anything he's value betting. I'm afraid he has AQ. I tank some more and try to talk to him.

"Aren't you afraid I have a 4? Did that cross your mind?" No response.

"I wish I knew more about you sir. All I know is you are from Georgia." No response.

Finally I call, he tables KQ. I show AK, and he mucks angrily and asks, "How do you call the flop when I fire?"

I ignore him.

"You call with nothing on the flop?" he asks again.

"Sorry sir, but you wouldn't answer any of my questions," I tell him as I stack his chips.

I'm second overall, with 79 remaining. $77,000 locked up.

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, narrative, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, tournament, trip report, wsop

Stumble It!

Seat 1: Garrett Beckman – 515,000
Seat 2: Allen Carter – 413,000
Seat 3: Brad Johnson – 237,000
Seat 4: Reagan Silber – 671,000
Seat 5: Brent Sheirbon – 919,000
Seat 6: Pontus Khosravi – 629,000
Seat 7: Alexander Kostritsyn – 1,137,000
Seat 8: Andrew Brokos – 678,000
Seat 9: Anthony Clark – 397,000

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

I'm listed as Andrew Brooks on Poker News, finished the day with 566,500. That's down a fair bit from my peak of 750K but a hell of a lot better than the 65K I started with. I finished level 1 still at 65K, then won a flip for my life against Brandon Adams AK >JJ. After that I won two more big pots against Brandon when he bluffed into my top pair and another with top pair against another really aggressive guy on Brandon's right. I 4-bet AA pre-flop against the same dude, maybe not the best way to play it, but got a decent pot regardless. Then I busted one guy QQ > TT, then busted Mike Mercedes (whom I later learned was MikeyMer- we dropped the ball on that one, research team) with shoving Q9 over his check-raise on a 984 flop to bust his A8. That was all during level 2.

After that I mostly just played good until the bubble, then dropped a brutal beat on some poor bastard named Mitch. We were hand for hand with 668 players left, I raised to 9K (at 1500/3000/400) UTG with 87s because this shorter stack was in the BB. He called, and we saw a Q87 flop. He lead out, I shoved, he called and flipped 77. I'm a sonofabitch and rivered an 8 to bubble him.

Last level I dropped nearly 200K, but I don't think I did anything spewy. Just raised decent hands pre-flop and either missed flops or folded to 3-bets or called 3-bets in good spots but missed flop. No regrets, and still in good shape for today.

We don't start until 1:00, but I'm going for breakfast now. Here's my table draw, looks favorable at first glance, though I haven't googled anyone yet. I'll be doing some research of my own after breakfast, but anything you want to e-mail to me would be greatly appreciated.

245 Huyen Vo Houston Texas 224000 O22 1

174 Graddus Terwiss Cha Van 0 DNR 318000 O22 2

299 Randy Benton Rolla Missouri 176000 O22 3

89 Hai Bo Chu Melbourne Australia 453500 O22 4

18 James Mills Downey California 757000 O22 6 (2_2)

467 Aleksandar Rasic Troy New York 35000 O22 7

255 Cedric Kolstad Mesa Arizona 217000 O22 8

50 Andrew Brokos 566,500 9

Thank to everyone who's been leaving comments as well. It's great to know people are cheering for me, and I'm flattered to have fans I didn't even know existed!

Labels: 3-bet, 4-bet, NLHE, poker, session review, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Here's my Day 3 lineup. I've never played with Brandon Adams, but from what I've heard, he's very good. I played with Liv last night, she tells me she's a professional, but I didn't think she was especially tough. Very nice, though, and achingly beautiful. I can't say I mind having her at the table one bit. Benvenuti is apparently a pretty successful internet tournament player, though with his current chip stack he won't be a big threat. Peter Hedlund and Michael Meredith have played several big tournaments around the world this year, but hasn't done anything significant in any of them.

Brandon Adams 353,600 O04 01
Mirza Nagji 109,200 O04 02
Irvin Hoffman 31,000 O04 03
Michael Benvenuti 21,400 O04 04
Dominic Prunko 86,500 O04 05
Andrew Brokos 65,100 O04 06
Peter Hedlund 61,300 O04 07
Liv Boeree 36,000 O04 08
Michael Meredith 83,000 O04 09

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Wow crazy today. Climbed steadily to 145K by dinner, got 100K in drawing dead, pulled out AK > JJ for a 90K coin flip, sucked out 6c 3c > AQ on a Qc 4c 4x flop (running straight, baby!), won 12K 22 > AK to get up to 180K, then got rivered for 20K, made some bluffs and a bad call, didn't adapt well to my image and kept getting re-raised, finally ended day with 65K. Average is probably like 100K, blinds going to be 800/1600/200. So I'm not in great shape, but very much in the fight.

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

The numbers are in, and 6,844 players entered the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. Fewer than half survived Day 1, and only about 1/3 of those will survive Day 2. Hopefully I will be among them.

I've done some research to learn my Day 2 seating assignment along with the players and chip stacks against whom I'll be competing. Here's the table:

George Price 35,700
James Viglizzo 10,900
Bernd Hirschberg 32,750
Thomas Wayne 11,125
Andrew Brokos 67,125
Drew Matheson 64,925
Steve Wong 43,350
Duane Woolsey 44,850
J McLane 16,525

There's a lot of good news here. I've got the most chips of anyone and far more than most. Google wasn't able to turn up much on most of these players, suggesting that they are probably amateurs with limited poker knowledge/experience.

The bad news is that the players who are 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in chips are all lined up on my left. This means I will have to act before them in most pots, putting me at a distinct disadvantage against them. There are also not that many chips at our table. While that means there are fewer threats to my survival, there are also fewer chips for me to win. There's no prize for surviving Day 2, and if I do survive, I'm going to need every chip I can get for future days.

The only recognizable player here is Steve Wong. Steve is a professional originally from Hoofdorp, outside of Amsterdam. He was a very successful tournament player online and has now had a lot of live success as well. There's an interview with him on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F9YV6vC6cM.

Be sure to check out the comments to this post throughout the day, as I'm going to ask a few friends to post comments with update chip counts and maybe some key hands as well.

Labels: NLHE, personal, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

I finished my first day at the WSOP with 67,125. I think the average is like 40-50K, so I can't complain. But I was up over 100K with 30 minutes to go and got myself in a really bad spot. I raised K4s to 1100 UTG (tight table, end of the day, especially tight BB) and got called by the CO, who called me fairly often and had nearly 50K in chips.

Flop was Kc 4c 5s, I bet 2000, he called. Turn 2s, I bet 6000, he raised to 24,000 with about 12,000 behind. I had a bad feeling, but 55/44, a total of four combinations, was about the only thing I could plausibly put him on that beat me. I tried talking to him, and he seemed kind of confident but I didnt' feel like he wanted a call either. Eventually I stuck the rest in, and he called so reluctantly that I thought I was good. But he did have 55, and I did not hit my two outer. The more I think about it, the more I think this was a fold.

Oh well, still in good shape. I play again Wednesday. Need to sleep now, but I'll post more later.

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

Stumble It!

I was having trouble getting the ESPN360 feed to work. I finally got it streaming just in time to hear, "There are eight players left, Tom Chambers has busted out." Whoops. I don't know the full story, but apparently he got all in with top set and lost to a rivered flush. 20K's nothing to sneeze at, though. Nice run, Tom.

Labels: PLO8, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

After spending more than enough money to buy in directly, I finally won a freaking main event seat in one of the last $650 satellites Stars will be running. Counting the spending money and sponsorship deal that comes with the package, I think that I ended up breaking even on satellites almost to the dollar.

It wasn't a particularly interesting tournament, but I did make one tight fold fairly early on. I raised QQ UTG, and the BB min-re-raised me. I didn't have quite the right odds to chase a set, but I called anyway and then folded when he bet half his stack on a ragged flop. Obviously I'm not 100% sure I was beat, and the guy did turn out to be a pretty aggressive player, but I still have my doubts about just how wide his range is for min-re-raising an UTG raise.

I also found myself folding both AK and KK preflop much later in the tournament, but those were actually trivially easy situations. In both cases I had a safe stack, we were one player away from the bubble, and there was a massive chipleader open shoving every hand. There was just no reason to get involved, even with AA.

Speaking of which, here was an interesting spot that I saw at another table on the bubble:

Poker Stars, $615 + $35 NL Hold'em Tournament, 3,500/7,000 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: 42,162
UTG+1: 52,824
UTG+2: 56,370
MP1: 88,111
MP2: 84,791
CO: 12,672
BTN: 169,828
SB: 18,412
BB: 59,926

Pre-Flop: (16,800)
5 folds, CO raises to 11,972 and is All-In, BTN calls 11,972, SB folds, BB calls 4,972

Flop: (45,716) T 8 8 (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
BB checks, BTN checks

Turn: (45,716) 6 (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
BB checks, BTN checks

River: (45,716) T (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
BB checks, BTN checks

Results: 45,716 Pot
CO showed A A (two pair, Aces and Tens) and WON 22,858 (+10,186 NET)
BTN mucked and LOST (-12,672 NET)
BB showed A A (two pair, Aces and Tens) and WON 22,858 (+10,186 NET)


It's to the BB's credit that he played this correctly. I think a lot of people would have reshoved with AA there, but he's much better guaranteeing that the BTN goes to showdown and increasing the odds of the short stack getting eliminated.

Feels good to win this, because now I don't have to waste time and effort booking a hotel, finding someone to pay me to wear their clothing, etc. Just nice to have all that stuff taken care of.

Labels: Las Vegas, NLHE, personal, poker, Poker Stars, poker strategy, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

BryanS, the awesome guy who represents Poker Stars on the 2+2 Forums, just posted a nearly final draft of the schedule for their annual World Championship of Online Poker. As usual, it looks like it's going to be a ground-breaking event for internet poker, featuring some huge buy-ins, some multi-day events, and some new tournament formats like NL 2-7 single draw that to my knowledge are not offered anywhere on the internet.

I don't envision myself playing any of the 10K+ buyin events, as I'd need to get a backer and the fields will probably be pretty tough anyway. But I'm excited about pretty much everything else. I like that a lot of the lesser played games have small enough buy-ins that I can afford to take a chance on them and that that chance will be subsidized by players even worse than myself doing the same.

Hopefully my non-poker schedule for this year will work out so that I'm able to play most of the events. It's nice that, since this is the internet, one can play events that run simultaneously. This is a big complaint from some at the WSOP. Now I just need to build up a bankroll on Stars. Thankfully Poker Savvy pays me in Stars money...




Some notes...

1. The event types "Mixed Hold'em", "Variety", and "NL 2-7 Single Draw" are planned and in development. If for some unforseen reason the development is not able to be completed in time for the 2008 WCOOP, these events will be replaced by other games.

2. The event name "Variety" is perhaps a bit ambiguous. We plan to hold an event which is a combination of the following games: Triple Draw 2-7, all five segments of HORSE, NL Single Draw 2-7, PL Omaha, and NL Hold'em. After much deliberation without coming up with a satisfactory name for it, we're asking our players... what do YOU think we should call such a tournament?

3. We have two "Mixed Hold'em" events on the schedule, though we debated replacing one of them with a second Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. What do you think of this? In terms of what we'll actually spread, this is pretty much the last one up for debate... we want to know what you think! Please discuss.

4. Regarding tournament times: while we would love to come up with the one time on the schedule that is perfect for everyone all over the world, this is of course impossible... no such "one perfect time" exists. We have done our best to schedule the events to reach as many of our players as possible, including our European friends who will no doubt enjoy the 14:30 (19:30 UK, 20:30 CET) tournaments which now appear every day on the schedule. We do regret that some players may miss events they'd play if they could, due to off-PokerStars obligations (work, etc), but we feel that this is unavoidable and that the schedule is rich with many chances to play.

5. Regarding 2-day events: in the end the decision was made that it's best to begin the biggest events on the biggest day. Some players, particularly our European players, will likely have to plan to take Monday off of work if they play in one of the big 2-day NLHE events. It would hardly be fair to say that we're not catering to our European players, though, as a majority of the weekday events are at times which will require our North American players to shuffle their schedules to play at all.

Labels: poker, Poker Stars, tournament, WCOOP

Stumble It!

More often than not I end up regretting big moves like this in tournaments, but I think this one is alright. It worked, anyway.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 120/240 Blinds, 25 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP: 25,020
CO: 25,268
BTN: 3,120
SB: 6,095
Hero (BB): 6,510
UTG: 7,269

Pre-Flop: (510) 2 A dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, MP raises to 720, CO calls 720, 2 folds, Hero calls 480

Flop: (2,430) K J 5 (3 Players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO checks

Turn: (2,430) A (3 Players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO bets 960, Hero calls 960, MP calls 960

River: (5,310) 9 (3 Players)
Hero bets 4,805 and is All-In, 2 folds

Results: 5,310 Pot
Hero mucked 2 A and WON 5,310 (+3,605 NET)


MP was new to the table, but so far he'd been pretty tight/straightforward. CO was a giant calling station, especially pre-flop. He was in like 70% of pots, rarely as the aggressor. He pretty much always potted it when he liked his hand, but would call with as little as a gutshot.

Preflop and flop are pretty standard. Leading the turn is an option, but really I'm still not happy with my hand, and I want to see what happens behind me. If MP bets or if CO pots it, I'm folding. I wasn't sure what to make of CO's bet, but getting nearly 4:1, I think it's a call. When MP overcalls, I decide my hand is probably not good. If I'm lucky, I'll get a chop.

But when the river falls, I think a flush is a very reasonable holding for me, and more importantly, I wasn't too concerned about anyone else having it. MP passed up two opportunities to bet, which makes me think he probably didn't have a flush draw. And CO's range is so wide that flushes can only be a small piece of it. I also don't think he has something really strong like top two or a set that would be tempted to spite call, because we would have heard from him sooner.

Labels: 6-max, bluff, Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, tournament

Stumble It!

Man I was around Vegas for most of the WSOP last summer and nothing spectacular happened. Then I sit it out this summer and all of my best poker buddies start kicking ass. Guess I am a jinx.

Payouts

1 $434,789
2 $277,452
3 $167,973
4 $137,343
5 $112,641
6 $88,927
7 $69,165
8 $54,344
9 $39,523

Seats and Chip Counts

Seat 1: Sebastian Segovia (Guatemala) -- 128,500
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin (Brooklyn, New York) -- 534,000
Seat 3: David Singer (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 334,000
Seat 4: Thuy Doan (Williamsburg, Virginia) -- 369,500
Seat 5: John Phan (Stockton, California) -- 396,500
Seat 6: Matt "Plattsburgh" Vengrin (Red Hook, New York) -- 1,007,500
Seat 7: Stewart Newman (Coral Gables, Florida) -- 398,000
Seat 8: Johnny "Schwah" Neckar (Madison, Wisconsin) -- 796,000
Seat 9: Tony "Bond18" Dunst (Melbourne, Australia) -- 333,000

There are a few other notable players here as well, including FTP pro David Singer, who recently won the $25,000 heads up tournament on that site, Thuy Doan, who posts as Shes on 2+2, Matt "Plattsburgh" Vengrin, who's been backed and ghosted to some big internet scores by the infamous JJProdigy, and Johnny Neckar, who's well-known to 2+2 MTT community as Schwah.

Play is scheduled to start in about an hour. Good luck Tony!

Labels: NLHE, poker, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Ugh I can't even tell you how gross the weather is in Boston right now. It is so humid, and my window fan is doing nothing. I really was in no mood to play poker today, and I think it showed. Here's my bustout hand from the FTP 750K:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 250/500 Blinds, 50 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: 7,107
UTG: 6,306
UTG+1: 9,197
UTG+2: 26,034
MP1: 18,533
MP2: 5,256
CO: 9,424
Hero (BTN): 17,312
SB: 22,581

Pre-Flop: (1,200) K T dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, MP1 raises to 1,375, 2 folds, Hero raises to 3,262, 2 folds, MP1 calls 1,887

Flop: (7,724) 9 Q 2 (2 Players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks

Turn: (7,724) 6 (2 Players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks

River: (7,724) T (2 Players)
MP1 bets 15,221 and is All-In, Hero calls 14,000 and is All-In

Results: 35,724 Pot
MP1 showed J K (a straight, King high) and WON 35,724 (+18,412 NET)
Hero mucked K T (a pair of Tens) and LOST (-17,312 NET)


I don't want to post my reasoning for the call yet, because I'm curious whether you all think it was ridiculous. I was really, really torn, but I wonder if I was just overthinking it. I started a thread on 2+2 as well.

Labels: Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, tournament

Stumble It!

Before Greg Raymer was a World Series of Poker champion, he was 2+2 Forums poster Fossilman8. And even before his 2004 main event victory proved it to the world, his status as a world-class poker player and theorist was well-known to the 2+2 community. One of his most famous contributions to the game was the stop-and-go play, which has since appeared in such publications as David Sklansky and Ed Miller's No Limit Hold 'Em: Theory and Practice.

The idea is to pick up a little extra fold equity in a situation where you were going to move all in pre-flop by instead calling and then moving all in on any flop. If you're pretty sure you were going to get called pre-flop anyway, then you don't have much to lose.

The potential drawback is that you might give your opponent a chance to make a correct post-flop fold. For instance, if you have AK and your opponent folds AQ on the flop but would have called pre-flop, that's bad for you. And it usually looks like such an improbable line that you don't get a lot of fold equity anyway. After all, if you actually called pre-flop on a short stack and flopped top pair, wouldn't you usually check?

For these reasons, the stop and go isn't a play that I employ very often. I did find a useful spot for it recently, though:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 140/280 Blinds, 25 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG+1: 6,650
UTG+2: 2,660
MP1: 6,510
MP2: 6,105
CO: 6,620
BTN: 4,389
SB: 2,705
Hero (BB): 3,460
UTG: 6,155

Pre-Flop: (645) 7 7 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 800, 6 folds, Hero calls 520

Flop: (1,965) J A 3 (2 Players)
Hero bets 2,635 and is All-In, UTG+1 folds

Results: 1,965 Pot
Hero mucked 7 7 and WON 1,965 (+1,140 NET)


As you can see, I've only got about 12 BB left in my stack. With such a big chunk of my stack in the pot and a decent pocket pair, I don't think I can fold, even to an early position raise. But with a stop and go, my flop shove is big enough that it won't be a trivial call if my opponent makes like an underpair or misses with AK or something.

This looks like a bad flop, but this hand actually illustrates another important point about the stop and go, which is that once you decide to execute, it's generally correct to grit your teeth and shove even if the flop looks bad for you. I don't think my opponent folded an Ace, but I have gotten him off of 88 or KQ because I followed through on my plan.

Labels: Greg Raymer, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, stop and go, tournament

Stumble It!

Well, I final tabled the Stars $300 today, but I took 9th which was only good for under five buyins. I actually want to look at a hand from the FTP $50 1 rebuy/1 add-on (not sure why I played this, was just in the mood for tournaments today):

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 250/500 Blinds, 50 Ante, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: 8,217
UTG+1: 10,977
MP1: 5,795
MP2: 13,211
CO: 2,386
Hero (BTN): 15,929
SB: 36,045
BB: 10,620

Pre-Flop: (1,150) A K dealt to Hero (BTN)
4 folds, CO raises to 2,336 and is All-In, Hero calls 2,336, SB raises to 35,995 and is All-In, BB folds, Hero calls 13,543 and is All-In

Flop: (34,994) 8 J 9 (3 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (34,994) A (3 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (34,994) T (3 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 34,994 Pot
CO showed Q J (a straight, Queen high) and WON 7,908 (+5,522 NET)
Hero showed A K (a pair of Aces) and WON 27,086 (+11,157 NET)
SB showed A 6 (a pair of Aces) and LOST (-15,929 NET)


I see a lot of people reraise or shove with AK in this spot to isolate the all in player. With these stacks, I think that's a mistake. The all in was for more than 5x the BB, so it's not like anyone is going to overcall especially light. By flat calling, however, you keep your range much wider. In other words, since you are putting less money into the pot, you can call here with many more hands than you can reraise. Any time you keep your range wide, you increase the chances of your opponents making a mistake. For instance, the SB here probably would not called my all in with A6. However, by giving him the illusion that he could isolate the short stack and my dead money, I got him to put in a lot of money very bad.

Granted, AK is not a huge favorite against random cards. Even if SB had something like 87s, I'd probably prefer that he fold it, since I'm only a small favorite for the side pot, and I lose substantial equity in the main pot. But flatting stuff like AK also helps me call with hands like KT that I will fold to a reshove. The presence of AK in my range makes it harder for my opponents to exploit that KT call by reshoving aggressively.

There are certain hands where I'd be committed to calling an all in but wouldn't want to induce one from almost anything. I'm thinking especially of small pairs. With those, I'd rather re-raise or shove to isolate the short stack and maximize fold equity against everyone else. But AK, though not quite a monster, is the top of my range, and it's important to play it that way.

Labels: Full Tilt Poker, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, session review, tournament

Stumble It!

Tom Chambers, 2+2's LearnedFromTV, has just made the final table of WSOP Event 10! It's a $2500 tournament that alternates between Omaha 8-or-better split and Stud 8-or-better split. Tom is a former math teacher and a mixed games expert (he's got a win in the Stars $200 Sunday HORSE under his belt), so it's no surprise that he kicks ass at these games. He's also a good friend of mine, so I'd be pulling for him regardless, but I'm especially excited because I have 10% of his action!

Here's the final table chip counts according to CardPlayer:

Farzad Rouhani - 513,000
Greg Pappas - 304,000
"Miami" John Cernuto - 285,000
Tom Chambers - 235,000
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi - 231,000
John Racener - 180,000
Daniel Mowczan - 122,000
Yueqi Zhu - 87,000

At 4 p.m., the eight of them will battle it out for the bracelet and $232,911 first prize. Stakes start at 10K/20K and the average stack is 195K, so Tom's 235K puts him in pretty good shape.

One time, dealer!

Labels: O8, poker, Stud/8, tournament, wsop

Stumble It!

Cardplayer just posted a great interview with the always entertaining Tony "Bond18" Dunst. On why he enjoys being a professional poker player:

"I get to play a game all day, every day, and take any day off I want. What could be better? Last time I got a little burnt out, I took two weeks off and spent all day getting high and playing Call of Duty 4. And you know how many consequences there were? Zero."

Also, if you haven't already been following Tony closely on his Around the World in 90 Days tour, now's a great time to start, with the WSOP just getting underway.

Labels: narrative, poker, tournament

Stumble It!

It's one of the hallmarks of the Sunday Million that interesting hands just aren't likely to come up. This is owing both to the remarkable weak players, against whom fancy play is largely a liability, and the shallow structure, which leaves little room to maneuver. But in thinking over my deep run last night, it occurred to me that there were a few mistakes I made as a result of not adapting well enough to the special kind of bad that you'll encounter late in a big Sunday tournament. I'm thinking here of the satellite qualifiers and other small-time players who are playing very tight and weak and scared when they get deep because the little two and three hundred dollar money jumps mean a lot to them and they don't want to blow it. Here are a few spots where I failed to take this psychology sufficiently into consideration. These first two occurred just after the bubble burst:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t4000 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG (t55538)
UTG+1 (t45993)
MP1 (t29060)
MP2 (t15340)
MP3 (t98348)
Hero (t281151)
Button (t64304)
SB (t87580)
BB (t132818)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 4h, 4d.
2 folds, MP1 raises to t8000, 2 folds, Hero raises to t15751, 3 folds, MP1 raises to t28660, Hero calls t12909.

Flop: (t60120) 7c, Ts, Jc (2 players)

Turn: (t60120) Ks (2 players)

River: (t60120) Tc (2 players)

Final Pot: t60120

Results in white below:

MP1 has Ac Ah (two pair, aces and tens).

Hero has 4h 4d (two pair, tens and fours).

Outcome: MP1 wins t60120.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t4000 (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG+1 (t31738)
MP1 (t80193)
MP2 (t58520)
MP3 (t22820)
CO (t93548)
Hero (t243691)
SB (t67104)
BB (t86751)
UTG (t133618)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 7s, 7c.
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t9889, 4 folds, Hero raises to t15778, 2 folds, UTG+1 raises to t31338, Hero calls t15560.

Flop: (t65476) Ad, 5d, 3d (2 players)

Turn: (t65476) 2c (2 players)

River: (t65476) 9d (2 players)

Final Pot: t65476

Results in white below:

UTG+1 has Qs Qd (flush, ace high).

Hero has 7s 7c (one pair, sevens).

Outcome: UTG+1 wins t65476.


Against solid tournament players, it would be reasonable to run these big pairs up against their shoving range, especially given my big chip stack. But even after the bubble, I need to realize that unknowns like these two are likely to be on a MUCH tighter range than is correct, even for the last of their chips. Add to that the shady raise sizes, and I think both of these should be folds. In my defense, I'd seen the shady raises from both of them before, and the second guy did fold after he did it, so that alone wasn't a decisive factor. But still.

And here's another one where I didn't take this guy's passivity into account.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t12000 (8 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG (t245674)
UTG+1 (t275472)
MP1 (t197614)
MP2 (t208108)
CO (t219628)
Button (t207712)
SB (t301880)
Hero (t806597)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Kh, Js.
5 folds, Button raises to t36000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t805397, Button calls t170512 (All-In).

Flop: (t1019109) Ts, 3d, 6h (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t1019109) 9c (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t1019109) 8h (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t1019109

Results in white below:

Hero has Kh Js (high card, king).

Button has Ac Kc (high card, ace).

Outcome: Hero wins t598885. Button wins t420224.

Stack sizes are just perfect for me to shove KJ over a button raise. Except that this guy had been open limping most of his hands, and bells should have gone off when he came in for a raise. I'm not as sure about this one, because if the guy is scared money, maybe he is folding stuff like 55 and AQ, and I was just unlikely he had AK? I don't know, but I think this may well be a mistake, and it did prove pretty costly.

Labels: NLHE, poker, Poker Stars, poker strategy, session review, tournament

Stumble It!

Had my deepest run ever in the Stars Million tonight, but it still wasn't quite good enough. After 7.5 hours, I finished 69th out of nearly 7000 runners and earned less than $2000 for my trouble. I really don't recall any especially interesting hands, I just picked up a lot of big pairs at good times. Eventually I shoved K3 from the SB into a 10x BB who woke up with AQ. Then a few hands later I open shoved 87o for 8 BB and the same guy woke up with KK and that was that. Man, winning just shy of $200,000 for first would have been a nice way to snap out of this three month downswing.

Labels: NLHE, poker, Poker Stars, tournament

Stumble It!

My One Minute Recommendation: Kill Everyone is one of the better tournament books on the market. It will be most useful for those interested in big live tournaments, but the excellent section of the math of late game situations is enough to make the book worth buying for any tournament player. But hurry! Much of the focus is on exploiting current trends in poker tournaments, so the fish may wise up eventually.

If this review is helpful to you, please consider purchasing this or other poker books through my Amazon affiliate links. 100% of the proceeds go to the Boston Debate League.

According to their introduction, the authors of Kill Everyone set out “to marry poker math with real-time experiences to provide a sound approach to recurring situations you’ll encounter as you accumulate chips and approach the money” in poker tournaments. Although the book does contain a healthy mix of math and tactics, I can’t agree that the two are married. In fact, they are rather bifurcated: Lee Nelson writes largely about the latter in two sections of the book, while Tysen Streib focuses on the former in his “Endgame Strategy” section.

The Streib section is fantastic, easily some of the best poker writing I’ve seen and well worth the cover price in its own right. Nelson’s material is more hit-or-miss. He explains a lot of concepts and plays well, though many will be familiar to successful internet players already, and at times his presentation is distracting or downright misleading. On the whole, Kill Everyone is a solid tournament book, and even the “bonus” short-handed cash game section by Mark Vos is pretty strong.

Not only is Streib’s contribution excellent, it’s also especially valuable because it focuses on late game and final table play, where the stakes are at their highest. Central to Streib’s analysis are some concepts he calls CPR (cost-per-round, or the sum of the blinds and antes), CSI (chip status index, which, like Harrington’s M, tells you how many more rounds you can survive without winning a pot), and the bubble factor (a measure of the non-linear value of chips based on stack sizes and payout structure). His explanation of this non-linearity and quantification of how it ought to affect decision making is the most convincing and helpful material I’ve seen on the subject.

A wide variety of charts and graphs elucidate these concepts and demonstrate how to put them into practice. Because late game tournament play sees short stacks moving all in pre-flop, Streib is able to solve optimal strategies for shoving, folding, and calling that take the bubble factor into account. The techniques he employs, called Independent Chip Modeling (ICM) are extremely important for tournament players to understand.

Naturally, this material is of special interest to sit-and-players, and Streib’s section even includes a hand-for-hand analysis of an actual sit-and-go played by Juanda, Ulliot, Ferguson, and Ivey. I suppose there’s something to be said for the name recognition, but as good as these players are, none of them is actually a sit-and-go expert. Still, Streib uses their mistakes as much as their correct plays to illustrate important concepts.

Perhaps the most innovative portion of Streib’s work are shove/fold/call charts that incorporate empirical data on how small stakes sit-and-go players actually play. In other words, he details not only the game theoretically optimal solutions but also the best way to exploit opponents who do not themselves understand or implement optimal play.

Nelson’s material is more scattershot. It ranges from tight-aggressive (TAG) play to loose-aggressive (LAG) play to picking up tells to what to eat and when to sleep before and during a tournament. There’s some good stuff in there, but it’s not presented in an especially thorough or methodical way. Rather, tactics and “pointers” are blended with anecdotes and disparaging comments about “online players”.

Nelson’s first section is about accumulating chips in the early stages of a tournament. His overviews of TAG and LAG play are good, and he offers some helpful explanations such as why it’s worth raising speculative hands even when blind stealing is not an important consideration.

Key concepts here are Fold Equity and Fear Equity. The former should be familiar to most poker players, but it’s important enough to warrant discussion anyway. Nelson does give it thorough consideration, including an explanation of why and how fold equity matters even when you have the best hand.

Fear Equity is a way of getting Fold Equity. It refers to building an image of a tough, aggressive player whom other players will want to avoid. Later in a tournament, this is important for stealing blinds pre-flop and picking up pots with continuation bets.

Though much of this material will be useful online, Nelson is a live pro and his work generally assumes that context. For the most part, he is good about explaining the assumptions that underlie his plays, such as the important observation that on the contemporary tournament scene, all-in bets are often perceived as weaker than smaller bets. However, he also has an annoying tendency to make disparaging asides about “online players” as a group.

Unlike Streib’s heavily mathematical material, Nelson’s is grounded primarily in experience and anecdote. The author’s insistence on sharing these stories is generally more distracting and results oriented than it is entertaining or enlightening. When he does touch on math, he doesn’t always get it right. For instance, his consideration of the “5-10 Rule” (you can call with speculative hands for 5-10% of the effective stacks) is superficial and misleading. The rule rests on a lot of assumptions about an opponent’s range and tendencies that Nelson does not consider and that probably do not hold in his examples.

I do appreciate that Nelson references other poker authors both to support his arguments and to explain how and why his views differ from theirs. It’s unfortunate that so much poker literature insists on either reinventing the wheel or contradicting other well-respected works without explanation. This can leave inexperienced readers bored or confused. Hopefully more authors will take Kill Everyone’s lead and begin dialoguing with each other rather than pretending that they write in a vacuum.

Nelson, a retired doctor, also addresses a grab bag of other topics such as how to deal with jet lag, how to relieve stress and clear your mind, what to eat to keep your mind sharp during a tournament, etc. Those who appreciated Tommy Angelo’s Elements of Poker will find this material helpful, as Nelson is a lot more concrete in his recommendations and even offers some pharmaceutical and technological shortcuts.

The final section, penned by guest author Mark Vos, is surprisingly good. I say “surprisingly” because it’s all about playing with 100BB+ stacks, and Vos is notorious for short stacking the big NLHE games on Full Tilt Poker, where he’s a sponsored player. But he provides a competent, concise introduction to short-handed cash game play.

In particular, he offers some helpful tidbits that will orient tournament players unaccustomed to seeing a lot of turns and rivers. These streets are the trickiest for cash game beginners, but also the most important. Vos doesn’t have room to address them thoroughly, but the tips he does give should plug some common leaks.

Unfortunately, this section is much better on the 5-10 Rule than was Nelson’s. Though Vos recognizes that, “If the player is tight aggressive and skilled post-flop, speculative holdings lose a lot of value, because the skilled players seldom pay you off by losing their entire stacks,” he still claims that implied odds of 10-1 are good enough to call a reraise with a suited connector. It also would’ve been nice to see a more thorough discussion of board texture and how it affects what kinds of plays you try to make.

Though not particularly well integrated with each other, the contributions of each author are overwhelmingly good, and on the whole Kill Everyone is one of the better tournament books on the market. The biggest “weakness” of the book is that a good chunk of it focuses on exploiting currently popular trends and plays, so it may become dated at some point. But that’s all the more reason to buy it soon!

If you enjoyed this review, you might like my other book reviews or my poker strategy articles as well. And don't forget to benefit the Boston Debate League by purchasing your copy of Kill Everyone using my affiliate link above.

Labels: book review, NLHE, poker, poker strategy, tournament

Stumble It!

Sorry, forgot to post this before going to bed last night. If you haven't read it already, here's Part 1. I'd just won a series of big pots and was ready to abuse my commanding chip lead:

Grrrrrrrr Min-Raise

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 800/1,600 Blinds, 200 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: 28,421
SB: 36,064
BB: 72,78
UTG: 22,033
Hero (MP): 205,650
CO: 77,975

Pre-Flop: (3,600) 7 7 dealt to Hero (MP)
Hero raises to 4,450, CO calls 4,450, 2 folds, BB calls 2,850

Flop: (15,350) 2 2 T (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 7,500, CO raises to 15,000, BB folds, Hero calls 7,500

Turn: (45,350) A (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: (45,350) 3 (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets 50,000, Hero folds

Results: 45,350 Pot
CO mucked and WON 45,350 (+25,700 NET)

Even if I was good on the flop, that Ace is a killer. Then again, I didn't expect the guy to overbet Aces or T's up on the river, so I was tempted to call. But really those overbets are strong no matter how little sense they make. Honestly I think it's more likely he had AA or TT than a bluff.


Blocking Bet

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 500/1,000 Blinds, 125 Ante, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 44,322
BTN: 22,992
Hero (SB): 155,277
BB: 16,022
UTG: 76,995

Pre-Flop: (2,125) 6 6 dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG raises to 2,550, CO calls 2,550, BTN folds, Hero calls 2,050, BB calls 1,550

Flop: (10,825) 5 T 3 (4 Players)
Hero bets 6,602, 2 folds, CO calls 6,602

Turn: (24,029) T (2 Players)

Hero checks, CO bets 1,450, Hero calls 1,450

River: (26,929) Q (2 Players)
Hero bets 4,550, CO raises to 21,500, Hero folds

Results: 36,029 Pot
CO mucked and WON 36,029 (+20,752 NET)

I was so ready to be done with this hand when I was called on the flop (that's why I led the flop), but then the T paired and I felt obligated to peel for that tiny bet. Since I was going to call another dinky little bet anyway, I decided to make it myself. I'm pretty sure this player wasn't capable of bluff raising in this spot, so it seemed like a good time to make a rare blocking bet. So much for running the table over.


Gutshot No Good

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,000/2,000 Blinds, 250 Ante, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: 30,071
UTG: 75,080
CO: 19,433
Hero (BTN): 186,850
SB: 131,489

Pre-Flop: (4,250) Q K dealt to Hero (BTN)
2 folds, Hero raises to 5,100, SB folds, BB calls 3,100

Flop: (12,450) 5 K 3 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets 6,500, BB raises to 24,721 and is All-In, Hero calls 18,221

Turn: (61,892) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (61,892) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 61,892 Pot
BB showed 6 7 (three of a kind, Fives) and LOST (-30,071 NET)
Hero showed Q K (a full house, Fives full of Kings) and WON 61,892 (+31,821 NET)

After this, I got away with a few steals but eventually lost a sizable pot when my 75s was priced in against AK and couldn't hold. Then I lost a big one to an ill-conceived river bluff:

Bad River Bluff

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,200/2,400 Blinds, 300 Ante, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: 84,128
SB: 113,566
BB: 151,117
Hero (UTG): 189,911
CO: 139,322

Pre-Flop: (5,100) 7 8 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 7,111, 2 folds, SB calls 5,911, BB folds

Flop: (18,122) 2 5 5 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (18,122) A (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets 10,000, SB calls 10,000

River: (38,122) K (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets 25,000, SB calls 25,000

Results: 88,122 Pot
SB showed J A (two pair, Aces and Fives) and WON 88,122 (+45,711 NET)
Hero showed 7 8 (a pair of Fives) and LOST (-42,411 NET)

I'm trying to get him off of a pocket pair here, but there are so many more Ax combinations that he's never folding in his range than there are pairs. Not that you can tell it from this hand, but I definitely felt I had an edge on even the better tournament players when stacks were deep. I was fortunate, then, to be at a table with so many 100K+ stacks. It's always great to have a big stack, of course, but having other slightly smaller ones at your table enables you to take the most advantage of it by pressuring them, winning the maximum when you have a great spot, and all around pushing your edge (assuming you have one).

That's More Like It

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,200/2,400 Blinds, 300 Ante, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: 76,728
UTG: 163,777
CO: 146,617
Hero (BTN): 154,900
SB: 136,022

Pre-Flop: (5,100) J T dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG raises to 5,977, CO folds, Hero raises to 16,000, 2 folds, UTG calls 10,023

Flop: (37,100) 2 A 6 (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero bets 21,000, UTG folds

Results: 37,100 Pot
Hero mucked J T and WON 37,100 (+20,800 NET)

I tried for a steal with 98s and some short stack decided it would be a good idea to shove K5s at me with no fold equity. He was right. So I needed another 3-bet bluff to get those chips back:

Another 3-Bet Bluff

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,400/2,800 Blinds, 350 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: 187,454
BB: 120,272
UTG: 241,800
MP: 153,344
Hero (CO): 164,728
BTN: 186,456

Pre-Flop: (6,300) J K dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, MP raises to 7,000, Hero raises to 19,378

Results: 20,300 Pot
Hero mucked J K and WON 20,300 (+12,950 NET)

Eventually, though, the aggressive 3-betting got me into trouble with Phat Cat, who's a top ranked player on Pocket Fives:

Can't Win 'Em All

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,400/2,800 Blinds, 350 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: 177,604
UTG: 127,322
MP: 215,000
CO: 142,516
Hero (BTN): 182,556
SB: 209,056

Pre-Flop: (6,300) 3 A dealt to Hero (BTN)
MP raises to 8,650, 2 folds, Hero raises to 22,222, SB folds, MP calls 13,572

Flop: (50,744) 4 8 K (2 Players)
MP checks, Hero bets 24,984, MP calls 24,984

Turn: (100,712) 8 (2 Players)
MP bets 42,444, Hero folds

Results: 100,712 Pot
MP mucked and WON 100,712 (+53,156 NET)

Two hands later, I decided not to let supreme LAGtard busto_soon abuse my atrocious image:

Don't 3-Bet Me

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,400/2,800 Blinds, 350 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: 172,704
SB: 119,622
BB: 267,806
UTG: 152,316
Hero (MP): 134,650
CO: 206,956

Pre-Flop: (6,300) 4 4 dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 7,800, CO folds, BTN raises to 19,200, 2 folds, Hero calls 11,400

Flop: (44,700) 7 5 K (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets 25,000, Hero raises to 115,100 and is All-In, BTN folds

Results: 94,700 Pot
Hero mucked 4 4 and WON 94,700 (+50,150 NET)


Please, son. The 5/10 NL 6-Max games have taught me a thing or two about playing back at light 3-bets, thanks. I was pretty sure he was full of it pre-flop, but even if he did have a hand, it's really tough for him to have one that's happy with this flop. Unless he paired the K, I think he's folding here. If he has something like QQ, I would imagine he's not betting the flop, so I was expecting him to fold everything worse than top pair that he was betting. That could include some lower pocket pairs like 88. For what it's worth, I would also play AA like this, and possibly KQs/KJs, but that's about it for made hands. Thankfully he didn't realize that, or couldn't do anything about it. I mean even if he did figure that out, what's he gonna do, call me with AQ?

Stubborn

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,700/3,400 Blinds, 400 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: 209,008
MP: 143,422
CO: 293,656
BTN: 153,566
Hero (SB): 154,200
BB: 100,202

Pre-Flop: (7,500) 9 A dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG folds, MP raises to 7,200, 2 folds, Hero calls 5,500, BB folds

Flop: (20,200) 7 Q A (2 Players)
Hero checks, MP bets 11,500, Hero calls 11,500

Turn: (43,200) 4 (2 Players)
Hero checks, MP bets 31,500, Hero calls 31,500

River: (106,200) Q (2 Players)
Hero checks, MP checks

Results: 106,200 Pot
MP showed A 7 (two pair, Aces and Queens) and LOST (-50,600 NET)
Hero showed 9 A