Posts Tagged ‘4-bet’

The conclusion of my 2011 WSOP main event trip report is now appearing in the October issue of 2+2 Magazine. We’re down to Day 6, and needless to say, things are starting to get tense:

“The last hand before a break, especially a dinner break, always means fireworks. Some people are eager to fold and get out of the room, which makes other people more inclined to steal, which makes other people more inclined to resteal. Ranges get wider and sometimes it just turns into a pissing match.

I was dealt 9′s in the CO, which are exactly the sort of medium-strength hand that can be tough to play with that sort of dynamic. The action folded to me, and I opened to 60K. Marc called on the Button, and the blinds folded.

We got a J62 flop with two hearts. I bet 85K, about half the pot, and he raised to 225K.”

Read on to find out how I navigated this and other dicey spots on my final two days in the tournament!

I suppose my main event was a fitting end to the series and a paradigmatic WCOOP experience. In the early stages I plundered the satellite qualifiers, going on an early rush that made me chipleader with 1400 players remaining. Over time the table got tougher and tougher, with 3-bet pots becoming the norm and 4-bets not uncommon. I went card dead for a few hours, with people coming over the top every time I tried to steal, except for the few times that I actually legitimate hands, when I either won the blinds or ended up having to make a big fold post-flop. I spent the last few hours of the day rocking a 20-40 BB stack and finding spots to pick up pots without showdown. Eventually I got into a coin flip, the first time I’d been all in for my tournament life, and won it to reach my high point for the tournament, which by that time was still just 75% of the average. Then it was back to card dead as I blinded down, finally getting all in with AK for my last 19 BBs. Villain had Aces, and I was eliminated with an hour to go in the day and about 10% of the remaining field needing to be eliminated before we made the money.  Read the complete post...

This was one of the more frustrating events I played, probably because it came on the tail end of so many other frustrations. I played for nearly 7.5 hours and finished in something like 140th place with 108 paying. This is the hand that I went out on:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 1000/2000 Blinds 250 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t183638)
BB (t37589)
UTG (t51714)
Hero (UTG+1) (t100357)
MP1 (t185740)
MP2 (t104500)
MP3 (t22619)
CO (t171688)
Button (t73031)

Hero’s M: 19.12

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with A♠, K♠
1 fold, Hero bets t4000, 5 folds, SB raises to t10475, 1 fold, Hero calls t6475

Flop: (t25200) 5♠, J♠, 7♦ (2 players)
SB bets t10480, Hero calls t10480

Turn: (t46160) K♥ (2 players)
SB bets t19925, Hero calls t19925

River: (t86010) 9♦ (2 players)
SB bets t142508 (All-In), Hero calls t59227 (All-In)

Total pot: t204464

Results:
SB had K♣, J♦ (two pair, Kings and Jacks).
Hero had A♠, K♠ (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: SB won t204464

Villain is a very good player who ended up final tabling this tournament. He plays in high stakes tournaments and cash games as big as 50/100. He’d been very quiet up to this point, but I’m sure he’s capable of making moves, so if anything that probably makes him more likely to try something.  Read the complete post...

I’m really upset at myself for spewing off my stack in the 4-max. It’s such a fun tournament, especially in the early stages when everyone is really deep and trying to play loose aggressive. Many otherwise good tournament players are just clueless about playing wide ranges super-deep and seem to think that being deep is a justification for never folding anything preflop and that being shorthanded is a justification for never folding anything ever. So of course what do I decide to do but run some huge bluff. I accidentally left $6 behind, which in this case didn’t affect anything since Villain snap-shoved over my river bet and presumably had the nuts (I probably should have called just to see his hand, though I did run the $6 up to the $72 before getting bad beat!). I think in theory this is a fine line, but the way people were playing in this tournament he might not even fold like two-pair.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (4 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) (t4313)
SB (t7167)
BB (t4705)
UTG (t3795)

Hero’s M: 95.84

Preflop: Hero is Button with K♠, 8♠
1 fold, Hero bets t60, SB raises to t160, 1 fold, Hero calls t100

Flop: (t350) Q♣, 8♣, J♥ (2 players)
SB bets t250, Hero raises to t666, SB calls t416  Read the complete post...

I’m not a great Razz player, but you really don’t need to be to do well in a large-field Razz tournament. I like to break the players down into two categories: those who understand the basic strategy of the game (how to evaluate starting hands, when to continue past 4th, obvious bluffing and bluff-catching spots) and those who do not. There are things that truly great Razz players can do to get an edge on those of us who are merely competent, but it’s a simple enough game that I don’t believe that the ability to save an extra bet here or there gives them a big edge. There is, however, a huge gap between those who do and don’t understand the basics. To wit, here’s a guy capping 6th and 7th streets with the 7th nuts when I’m showing three wheel cards:  Read the complete post...

I played all of today’s WCOOPs but only did anything notable in the $320 6-handed shootout. My starting table feature PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis, thankfully on my right, and four players I didn’t recognize. I’d been playing aggressively against Lex, generally with the best hand, and finally he’d had enough. I picked up QQ in the BB and got him to 4-bet all-in with A7o in the BB. With his chips in my stack it wasn’t too much trouble to get down to the heads up.

My opponent was pretty much an ideal heads up opponent. I felt totally in control of the match the entire time, since by the time two bets had gone into the pot I knew everything I needed to know about what he had and where I stood. I played extreme smallball with him because I was sure my edge was huge. At first he was only continuing past the flop if he had a pair, so I was c-betting everything and calling all of his pre-flop raises. Eventually he started continuation betting, but again I caught on so quickly to what he was doing that I started check-raising him and was back in control in no time. I polished him off and waited a solid hour and a half for the next match to start.  Read the complete post...

It’s a clear and lovely evening here in Canmore, great for unwinding after a long day of poker.

I played both of the $200 WCOOP events today but didn’t last long in either. Honestly I consider that a fine result. The one thing I dread every time WCOOP rolls around is playing for six hours and bubbling, or for ten hours and min-cashing. PokerStars made more of the events two-day tournaments this year, which I think is a very good change.

Anyway the upshot is that I don’t have a lot of really interesting hands to post. Here are two from the 6-max event, in which I got a rather difficult table draw for an event with mid-four-figure participation.

Liv Boeree was on my immediate left and playing very well, and there was a well-known online MTT’er at the table who was actually not playing that well (mostly just unaccustomed to deep-stacked play I think). Of the three people I didn’t recognize, two were decent, and the major mistake the sixth guy made was playing too loose, which is a tough thing to exploit when he’s two seats to my left. Between him and Liv, I couldn’t open many pots.

This one is against Liv and I’m not happy with how I played it:  Read the complete post...

The second installment of my trip report from the 2011 World Series of Poker main event is now appearing in the September edition of 2+2 Magazine. It covers my experiences on Days 3, 4, and 5:

There are people who are good at poker, and then there are people who are downright intimidating, players who are ready to fight for literally every pot that they believe they can win. A player like that is not someone you want on your left when you have a lot of chips. I tightened up my game pre-emptively, folding hands I otherwise would have raised because I knew that Gonzalez was waiting to attack me and I needed better than average cards to stand up to him. I watched him give hell to a lot of others at the table.

If you haven’t read Part 1, you can find it here.

In other news, the weather here in Canmore has been fascinating. Last week it was warm, sunny, and clear. This week clouds rolled in, blanketing the valley in fog and rain. Today they started to clear, and through the breaks in the clouds you can see all the snow that fell in the mountains. I never realized the extent to which the weather could be both cloudy and sunny at the same time!