Fortunately Luis was willing and able to take a train out from the city to come visit for the weekend! Emily found a great French restaurant in Val David where we had an excellent meal. Even Luis was impressed by it, and he used to work at one of the best French restaurants in Montreal! One of the best according to him, that is – when he told the owner of La Table Des Gourmets about his experience, she dismissed it as “merely a bistro”.

Anyway, it was great to see him, but the end of WCOOP was otherwise quite anti-climactic. Emily and I dropped Luis off at the train station and returned in time for me to late register the $1050. I played a total of five hands and promptly busted AQs < ATo.

The $530 was even less remarkable, I chipped up a bit and eventually lost AJ to 99.

And the Main Event, well… I played two bullets and never won a pot larger 6000 chips. This is probably one of the more interesting losses. TBH I almost just folded the flop:

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has 9h Kh
fold, UTG+1 raises to 2.06 BB, fold, MP+1 calls 2.06 BB, MP+2 calls 2.06 BB, fold, Hero calls 2.06 BB, fold, BB calls 1.06 BB

Flop : (11.92 BB, 5 players) Jc Kd 9s
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP+1 bets 5.96 BB, fold, Hero calls 5.96 BB, fold, fold

Turn : (23.85 BB, 2 players) 7h
MP+1 bets 11.93 BB, fold

MP+1 wins 23.85 BB

The only WCOOP event I played was the $500 6-max. Not much to report, but here’s a fun little spot where I bet think most people just never bluff (note that I block 76ss):

PokerStars – 300/600 Ante 75 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BB): 140.41 BB
UTG: 85.44 BB (VPIP: 27.00, PFR: 15.00, 3Bet Preflop: 3.57, Hands: 100)
MP: 71.6 BB (VPIP: 33.22, PFR: 23.25, 3Bet Preflop: 7.87, Hands: 286)
CO: 43.07 BB (VPIP: 19.23, PFR: 14.66, 3Bet Preflop: 9.43, Hands: 235)
BTN: 59.06 BB (VPIP: 28.09, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 10.21, Hands: 569)
SB: 74.94 BB (VPIP: 20.46, PFR: 13.99, 3Bet Preflop: 6.71, Hands: 394)

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has 9s 7s
fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.11 BB, SB calls 1.61 BB, Hero calls 1.11 BB

Flop : (7.09 BB, 3 players) 6c 6h 6d
SB checks, Hero checks, BTN bets 3.07 BB, SB calls 3.07 BB, Hero raises to 7.97 BB, fold, fold

Hero wins 16.32 BB

I ended up busting on a much larger bluff. Not to say this is necessarily good, but I don’t think the results really speak to it being bad, as this is surely near the top of Villain’s range and not a hand I need him to fold in order for the bluff to be profitable:

PokerStars – 800/1600 Ante 200 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BB): 52.33 BB
UTG: 74.37 BB (VPIP: 33.14, PFR: 21.30, 3Bet Preflop: 8.43, Hands: 170)
MP: 77.28 BB (VPIP: 35.69, PFR: 25.22, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 356)
CO: 61.25 BB (VPIP: 35.10, PFR: 19.23, 3Bet Preflop: 5.62, Hands: 209)
BTN: 35.57 BB (VPIP: 27.16, PFR: 18.67, 3Bet Preflop: 6.25, Hands: 82)
SB: 33.4 BB (VPIP: 22.56, PFR: 14.69, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 464)

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has 3s 2s
fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.2 BB, SB calls 1.7 BB, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Flop : (7.35 BB, 3 players) Kh 5h 5d
SB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn : (7.35 BB, 3 players) 4s
SB checks, Hero bets 7.35 BB, BTN calls 7.35 BB, fold

River : (22.05 BB, 2 players) 8d
Hero bets 42.65 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 25.89 BB and is all-in

Hero shows 3s 2s (One Pair, Fives)
(Pre 41%, Flop 2%, Turn 9%)

BTN shows 5c 6h (Three of a Kind, Fives)
(Pre 59%, Flop 98%, Turn 91%)

BTN wins 73.83 BB

PokerStars – 300/600 Ante 75 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 40.77 BB (VPIP: 34.18, PFR: 20.25, 3Bet Preflop: 7.89, Hands: 79)
BB: 36.24 BB (VPIP: 20.94, PFR: 14.34, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 277)
UTG: 58.62 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 12.04, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 110)
Hero (MP): 193.9 BB
CO: 126.23 BB (VPIP: 30.28, PFR: 21.22, 3Bet Preflop: 8.85, Hands: 867)
BTN: 53.83 BB (VPIP: 22.76, PFR: 13.82, 3Bet Preflop: 1.69, Hands: 123)

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has 7d 7c
fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, CO raises to 7 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 4.72 BB

Flop : (16.25 BB, 2 players) Td 5c 4s
Hero checks, CO bets 5.04 BB, Hero calls 5.04 BB

Turn : (26.33 BB, 2 players) 6c
Hero bets 16.5 BB, CO raises to 114.07 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 97.57 BB

River : (254.47 BB, 2 players) 3d

Hero shows 7d 7c (Straight, Seven High)
(Pre 52%, Flop 69%, Turn 68%)

CO shows Ac Qc (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 48%, Flop 31%, Turn 32%)

Hero wins 254.47 BB

I ended up bubbling in a quite interesting spot. The all in Villain had a substantial bounty, large enough that I think it was worth the risk of bubbling to go after it. It’s important that I give myself the option to fold and sneak into the money if the flop doesn’t give me a shot of KO’ing the all in player – if I had to get all in myself before the flop, the decision would have been much tougher and probably I would have to fold.

What happened was the worst case scenario: I flopped well enough to get all in but ended up busting, collecting neither the bounty nor a min cash (though I was still in the black thanks to my earlier bounties).

PokerStars – 3000/6000 Ante 750 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 40.34 BB (VPIP: 31.50, PFR: 15.08, 3Bet Preflop: 5.36, Hands: 129)
BTN: 54.55 BB (VPIP: 24.55, PFR: 16.51, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 110)
SB: 78.86 BB (VPIP: 20.29, PFR: 12.32, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 354)
Hero (BB): 21.49 BB
UTG: 8.56 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: 35.36 BB (VPIP: 27.57, PFR: 20.06, 3Bet Preflop: 8.97, Hands: 347)

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has Th 5h
UTG raises to 8.44 BB and is all-in, fold, CO calls 8.44 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 7.44 BB

Flop : (26.57 BB, 3 players) 5d 6h 3c
Hero bets 12.92 BB and is all-in, CO calls 12.92 BB

Turn : (52.41 BB, 3 players) Ac

River : (52.41 BB, 3 players) Kd

Hero shows Th 5h (One Pair, Fives)

CO shows Ah 8h (One Pair, Aces)

UTG shows Qc As (One Pair, Aces)

CO wins 25.85 BB
UTG wins 26.57 BB

I’m struggling to find an interesting hand from the $215. This is the best I came up with. It may look like a straight-forward spot, but in my experience a lot of less experienced players will just call the flop (which, to be fair, is probably what I would have done too a few years ago):

PokerStars – 800/1600 Ante 200 NL (8 max) – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 24.59 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 15.56, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 45)
Hero (BB): 76.47 BB
UTG: 42.8 BB (VPIP: 21.13, PFR: 14.25, 3Bet Preflop: 6.29, Hands: 427)
UTG+1: 19.79 BB (VPIP: 19.32, PFR: 15.97, 3Bet Preflop: 5.83, Hands: 266)
MP: 59.01 BB (VPIP: 29.84, PFR: 17.74, 3Bet Preflop: 5.88, Hands: 124)
MP+1: 90.76 BB (VPIP: 20.97, PFR: 15.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 124)
CO: 58.3 BB (VPIP: 31.22, PFR: 20.78, 3Bet Preflop: 10.58, Hands: 238)
BTN: 31 BB (VPIP: 19.48, PFR: 13.25, 3Bet Preflop: 7.22, Hands: 578)

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has Js Kc
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, fold, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop : (5.5 BB, 2 players) 5h Td Jc
Hero checks, BTN bets 2 BB, Hero raises to 6.75 BB, BTN raises to 28.6 BB, Hero raises to 50.45 BB, BTN calls 0.28 BB and is all-in

Turn : (63.25 BB, 2 players) As

River : (63.25 BB, 2 players) Ac

Hero shows Js Kc (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks)
(Pre 25%, Flop 69%, Turn 9%)

BTN shows Ad Kd (Three of a Kind, Aces)
(Pre 75%, Flop 31%, Turn 91%)

BTN wins 63.25 BB

I also max late registered the $530 Courchevel, which is a game I really enjoy, though I’m not sure I’m a favorite in a $530 field. With the late register, though, I got in with about 120 players remaining and 35 getting paid, so that’s how I justified it. For those who don’t know, Courchevel is a five-card PLO8 game where one of the flop cards is revealed before the pre-flop betting.

I didn’t last long at all – had QQ with a Q in the door, got all in pre against someone holding AA with a nut suit of the door card and some wrap potential. There’s no equity calculator for Courchevel so I’m not really sure whether I was favored there, but I doubt it was dramatic one way or the other.

Anyway, the big news is that I won the $44 Bounty Builder, which is a daily Progressive Knock-Out event on PokerStars. In the past, during COOPs, I used to fill screen space with Zoom games, and I still do that sometimes. But early in a session, I’ve started using smaller buy-in tournaments instead. I find it helps not to have to switch back and forth between tournament and cash mentality, and in many cases these tournaments may be better value anyway, the drawback being that sometimes it sucks when your session is extended by a few hours for a tournament you didn’t really want to play anyway. But it’s all good when you win it!

Even better, I recorded the last few hours live for Tournament Poker Edge. I started recording because I was in a bunch of events that were tough to cover in a replayer: some PKOs, the $55 Razz, and eventually the $530 Courchevel. So I thought it would be fun to record live. Then I just kept recording as I made the final table and eventually won the tournament!

I’m not going to post any hands from that just yet because you’ll have a chance to see lots of the important action on TPE soon enough.

PokerStars – 175/350 Ante 45 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BB): 183.45 BB
UTG: 165.5 BB (VPIP: 23.81, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 42)
UTG+1: 129.36 BB (VPIP: 25.42, PFR: 19.64, 3Bet Preflop: 10.71, Hands: 60)
MP: 145.31 BB (VPIP: 18.34, PFR: 14.11, 3Bet Preflop: 8.91, Hands: 574)
MP+1: 158.17 BB (VPIP: 15.91, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 44)
MP+2: 142.54 BB (VPIP: 5.26, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 19)
CO: 115.69 BB (VPIP: 17.36, PFR: 10.95, 3Bet Preflop: 6.61, Hands: 481)
BTN: 131.73 BB (VPIP: 31.82, PFR: 15.91, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 44)
SB: 70.86 BB (VPIP: 31.25, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 48)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.66 BB) Hero has Kh Kc
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 12.35 BB, CO calls 9.35 BB

Flop : (26.35 BB, 2 players) Jd Qh 8d
Hero bets 13.17 BB, CO calls 13.17 BB

Turn : (52.7 BB, 2 players) Tc
Hero bets 26.35 BB, CO calls 26.35 BB

River : (105.39 BB, 2 players) Ks
Hero bets 131.45 BB and is all-in, CO calls 63.69 BB and is all-in

Hero shows Kh Kc (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 67%, Flop 55%, Turn 77%)

CO shows Ad 3d (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 33%, Flop 45%, Turn 23%)

CO wins 232.77 BB

Villain was a world-class player, and I hated this spot from the flop.

My plan after the turn was actually to barrel off as a bluff, as I think I have way more AK in my range than Villain, and although KK could be good, it often won’t be and will be tough to showdown when it is.

Then I had to change course again on the river. In the moment I decided that I didn’t want to check-fold for a good deal less than a pot-sized bet, so I might as well shove for thin value. I remember thinking “just about the only Ace he can have is Ax of diamonds”. But in retrospect there are a good number of those, and Villain has some 9x as well which means he probably doesn’t need to call with hands I beat. So yeah, in retrospect I think I should have check-folded.

As for the $109, I ultimately busted in 54th. Here’s a Day 2 hand I’m pretty happy about:

PokerStars – 50000/100000 Ante 12500 NL (8 max) – Holdem – 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG+1: 33.51 BB (VPIP: 19.06, PFR: 12.85, 3Bet Preflop: 3.79, Hands: 322)
MP: 20.39 BB (VPIP: 9.18, PFR: 7.37, 3Bet Preflop: 5.56, Hands: 98)
CO: 30.9 BB (VPIP: 29.58, PFR: 26.47, 3Bet Preflop: 15.00, Hands: 72)
BTN: 23.72 BB (VPIP: 23.26, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 8.24, Hands: 219)
SB: 36.51 BB (VPIP: 16.39, PFR: 15.00, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 61)
Hero (BB): 14.88 BB
UTG: 14.22 BB (VPIP: 28.83, PFR: 14.81, 3Bet Preflop: 2.17, Hands: 112)

7 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.37 BB) Hero has 7d 4s
UTG raises to 2 BB, fold, MP calls 2 BB, CO calls 2 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop : (9.37 BB, 4 players) Tc 9h 6c
Hero checks, UTG checks, MP checks, CO checks

Turn : (9.37 BB, 4 players) Td
Hero bets 2.81 BB, fold, fold, fold

Hero wins 9.37 BB

Pretty nice to increase stack by about 2/3 with no hand and very little risk!

I also ended up running quite deep in the Big $109 again (I came 3rd last week) but ultimately busted in 18th.

I got off to a good start in it but then lost AK to AK.

In the $215 PKO, I got quite ambitious in an early pot. I’m still not sure what to think of it – it’s so hard to decide how to value accumulation vs survival in these events. It doesn’t look great, but I think looking at each decision in a vacuum none seems bad to me.

Initially, I’ve got a pretty good hand and there’s a ton of money in the pot that I’d love to win immediately. I don’t think Villain’s 4-bet is that likely to be light, but it’s not impossible. Plus with all the dead money and the bounty on Villain, getting in AJ vs KK isn’t the end of the world anyway. Losing your chips early in a WCOOP sucks, but running up a big stack in a PKO has a lot more value than in a regular tournament because it enables you to chase bounties.

PokerStars – 150/300 Ante 40 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 139.08 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
MP+1: 115.54 BB (VPIP: 20.83, PFR: 12.63, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 96)
MP+2: 185.11 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
CO: 151.38 BB (VPIP: 37.50, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
Hero (BTN): 164.16 BB
SB: 137.6 BB (VPIP: 21.01, PFR: 14.03, 3Bet Preflop: 6.37, Hands: 562)
BB: 190.93 BB (VPIP: 21.59, PFR: 16.28, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 88)
UTG: 158.31 BB (VPIP: 26.11, PFR: 15.84, 3Bet Preflop: 15.46, Hands: 204)
UTG+1: 166.27 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 3)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.7 BB) Hero has Jd Ac
UTG raises to 2.5 BB, UTG+1 calls 2.5 BB, MP calls 2.5 BB, fold, fold, CO calls 2.5 BB, Hero raises to 12.59 BB, fold, fold, UTG raises to 34 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 164.03 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 124.18 BB and is all-in

Flop : (326.56 BB, 2 players) 2s 6h 4s

Turn : (326.56 BB, 2 players) Qd

River : (326.56 BB, 2 players) 6c

UTG shows Ks Kc (Two Pair, Kings and Sixes)
(Pre 71%, Flop 87%, Turn 93%)

Hero shows Jd Ac (One Pair, Sixes)
(Pre 29%, Flop 13%, Turn 7%)

UTG wins 326.56 BB

The Sunday Million was frustrating. I kept getting into bad spots with big pairs, where it felt like I didn’t have any great options. This was the worst: https://www.boomplayer.com/25291484_011D353AB9

Frankly, I’m surprised the SB was so light here (though he was Brazilian). Given that I’m essentially 3-betting into a dry sidepot, there’s just not that reason for me to be light, and I don’t think he has that much incentive to randomly 4-bet me. And then the 5-bet from UTG – obviously it’s hard to like the fold once i know the results, but in general my rule is to trust my gut when it tells me to hero fold, because that’s not usually what it tells me to do.

It probably didn’t help that I’d already been in a few spots where I at least suspected that I’d been coolered, including this one where I ran KK into AA: https://www.boomplayer.com/25289125_4ADA91F5DB.

All of that said, I did get two double-ups in spots where that required at least a little above the rim play: https://www.boomplayer.com/25287412_36769CB6FC and https://www.boomplayer.com/25291645_CBB5AA13F0.

In happier news, I made Day 2 of the $109 WCOOP-Low!

Saturday started early. Usually I deal with that by late registering, but the 7AM event was a progressive knock-out, and although Stars allows late registration in those, it’s a financial disaster to do so. So I figured I would play that and then see how I felt for the afternoon event.

It got off to a rough start. A guy put in a crazy amount with 22 against my AK, which wasn’t the end of the world since I covered him, but his pair held up so instead of getting his bounty I got short-stacked. I managed to make a recovery though (it’s easy to get your money in good as a short stack in a bounty event, because everyone else has incentive to call you very light) and after this extremely fun hand I had more chips than anyone else in the tournament (also on Boom if you’d rather watch the replay):

PokerStars – 1250/2500 Ante 325 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+2: 69.55 BB (VPIP: 19.40, PFR: 10.61, 3Bet Preflop: 2.86, Hands: 67)
CO: 88.92 BB (VPIP: 13.75, PFR: 7.50, 3Bet Preflop: 2.56, Hands: 81)
BTN: 17.37 BB (VPIP: 17.69, PFR: 4.65, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 131)
SB: 22.61 BB (VPIP: 26.74, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 16.28, Hands: 87)
Hero (BB): 166.42 BB
UTG: 85.05 BB (VPIP: 19.64, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 57)
UTG+1: 54.64 BB (VPIP: 17.95, PFR: 10.26, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 39)
MP: 51.98 BB (VPIP: 31.34, PFR: 19.08, 3Bet Preflop: 9.23, Hands: 136)
MP+1: 129.68 BB (VPIP: 17.61, PFR: 13.81, 3Bet Preflop: 10.48, Hands: 517)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.67 BB) Hero has 7c 9d
fold, fold, MP raises to 2.3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.3 BB

Flop : (6.27 BB, 2 players) Ts 9c Th
Hero checks, MP bets 2.32 BB, Hero raises to 5.59 BB, MP calls 3.27 BB

Turn : (17.46 BB, 2 players) 8h
Hero checks, MP bets 6.36 BB, Hero raises to 15.41 BB, MP calls 9.05 BB

River : (48.28 BB, 2 players) 4s
Hero checks, MP bets 28.55 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 28.55 BB

MP shows Js Kc (One Pair, Tens)
(Pre 65%, Flop 38%, Turn 23%)

Hero shows 7c 9d (Two Pair, Tens and Nines)
(Pre 35%, Flop 62%, Turn 77%)

Hero wins 105.38 BB

I’m not too pleased with the hand I busted on. I do think I should have gone broke given how the board ran out, but it would have been better to call the flop and get all in on this turn.

PokerStars – 6000/12000 Ante 1500 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 6.98 BB (VPIP: 22.16, PFR: 13.23, 3Bet Preflop: 9.18, Hands: 194)
Hero (BTN): 31.1 BB
SB: 75.19 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
BB: 135.17 BB (VPIP: 18.84, PFR: 13.43, 3Bet Preflop: 3.85, Hands: 73)
UTG: 165.89 BB (VPIP: 31.67, PFR: 17.65, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 242)
UTG+1: 44.35 BB (VPIP: 19.67, PFR: 14.66, 3Bet Preflop: 10.24, Hands: 606)
MP: 25.96 BB (VPIP: 16.70, PFR: 11.94, 3Bet Preflop: 5.09, Hands: 504)
MP+1: 35.16 BB (VPIP: 21.00, PFR: 16.26, 3Bet Preflop: 10.31, Hands: 501)
MP+2: 37.86 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 9)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has Ac Js
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2.4 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 2.4 BB, fold, BB calls 1.4 BB

Flop : (8.82 BB, 3 players) Tc Jc 9d
BB checks, MP+1 checks, Hero bets 2.65 BB, BB raises to 6.58 BB, fold, Hero raises to 28.58 BB and is all-in, BB calls 21.99 BB

Turn : (65.98 BB, 2 players) 2d

River : (65.98 BB, 2 players) 2c

BB shows 9c Qc (Flush, Queen High)
(Pre 40%, Flop 62%, Turn 43%)

Hero shows Ac Js (Two Pair, Jacks and Twos)
(Pre 60%, Flop 38%, Turn 57%)

BB wins 65.98 BB

I didn’t do anything too interesting in the $215 rebuy, but here’s a hand I screwed up:

PokerStars – 300/600 Ante 75 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 83.23 BB (VPIP: 33.46, PFR: 20.31, 3Bet Preflop: 6.56, Hands: 267)
CO: 51.64 BB (VPIP: 22.86, PFR: 22.86, 3Bet Preflop: 17.65, Hands: 35)
BTN: 49.94 BB (VPIP: 15.11, PFR: 8.73, 3Bet Preflop: 1.79, Hands: 140)
SB: 79.96 BB (VPIP: 20.26, PFR: 14.66, 3Bet Preflop: 6.86, Hands: 545)
Hero (BB): 96.56 BB
UTG: 37.1 BB (VPIP: 20.21, PFR: 12.43, 3Bet Preflop: 5.75, Hands: 189)

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has 7s 8h
fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 0.5 BB, Hero raises to 3.7 BB, SB raises to 13 BB, Hero calls 9.3 BB

Flop : (26.75 BB, 2 players) 9d 4d Td
SB bets 12 BB, Hero calls 12 BB

Turn : (50.75 BB, 2 players) 6d
SB checks, Hero checks

River : (50.75 BB, 2 players) 7c
SB bets 15.73 BB, Hero calls 15.73 BB

SB shows Jc Jd (Flush, Jack High)
(Pre 82%, Flop 85%, Turn 100%)

Hero mucks 7s 8h (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 18%, Flop 15%, Turn 0%)

SB wins 82.22 BB

I think I played the turn right, and maybe the flop? But pre-flop, I probably screwed up twice, and the river should probably be a fold. #TheyAlwaysHaveIt

PokerStars – 100/200 Ante 25 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 223.49 BB (VPIP: 35.71, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 15)
BTN: 256.49 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
SB: 250.62 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
Hero (BB): 251.25 BB
UTG: 247.62 BB (VPIP: 14.15, PFR: 12.00, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 205)

5 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.12 BB) Hero has 4c 4h
UTG raises to 2.5 BB, fold, BTN calls 2.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.5 BB

Flop : (8.62 BB, 3 players) Kc 4d 5d
Hero checks, UTG bets 4.14 BB, BTN calls 4.14 BB, Hero raises to 25.18 BB, fold, BTN calls 21.04 BB

Turn : (63.13 BB, 2 players) Kd
Hero bets 18.94 BB, BTN raises to 57 BB, Hero calls 38.06 BB

River : (177.13 BB, 2 players) Qs
Hero checks, BTN bets 171.68 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 166.44 BB and is all-in

BTN shows 5s 5h (Full House, Fives full of Kings)
(Pre 81%, Flop 96%, Turn 98%)

Hero shows 4c 4h (Full House, Fours full of Kings)
(Pre 19%, Flop 4%, Turn 2%)

BTN wins 510.01 BB

Honestly, I’m not at all sure this was a good river call. I do think it’s just a bluff-catcher, and although the 4s are somewhat relevant blockers, this is probably a spot where most people underbluff enough and my remaining chips valuable enough for me to fold.

It all worked out in the end though, because I took a few hours off (I hadn’t registered anything else yet) and then put in an afternoon session instead, which culminated in my taking 3rd out of nearly 1000 runners in the Big $109. That will almost certainly become a video on Tournament Poker Edge so I don’t want to give away too much, but here are two fun hands from the last two tables:

PokerStars – 2500/5000 Ante 625 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 17.34 BB (VPIP: 21.60, PFR: 15.87, 3Bet Preflop: 6.06, Hands: 705)
BB: 69.56 BB (VPIP: 26.88, PFR: 20.24, 3Bet Preflop: 6.90, Hands: 93)
UTG: 49.33 BB (VPIP: 45.45, PFR: 36.36, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 11)
UTG+1: 23.91 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 13)
Hero (MP): 18.75 BB
MP+1: 33.19 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 15.79, Hands: 56)
MP+2: 8.21 BB (VPIP: 22.35, PFR: 14.32, 3Bet Preflop: 8.12, Hands: 427)
CO: 76.27 BB (VPIP: 15.45, PFR: 9.62, 3Bet Preflop: 5.13, Hands: 110)
BTN: 31 BB (VPIP: 21.48, PFR: 16.00, 3Bet Preflop: 12.28, Hands: 257)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has Qs Kh
fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.28 BB

Flop : (6.18 BB, 2 players) 7s 2h 5s
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn : (6.18 BB, 2 players) 2c
BB checks, Hero checks

River : (6.18 BB, 2 players) 6h
BB bets 4 BB, Hero calls 4 BB

BB shows 4s Ks (One Pair, Twos)
(Pre 29%, Flop 46%, Turn 32%)

Hero shows Qs Kh (One Pair, Twos)
(Pre 71%, Flop 54%, Turn 68%)

Hero wins 14.18 BB

Villain was active in the chat box, which made it even more fun.

This was with 11 players remaining. Villain timed down to 0 before folding. Was quite the sweat:

PokerStars – 6000/12000 Ante 1500 NL – Holdem – 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 14.71 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 18.75, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 33)
UTG: 36.57 BB (VPIP: 20.49, PFR: 15.05, 3Bet Preflop: 8.39, Hands: 701)
CO: 65.94 BB (VPIP: 18.41, PFR: 15.04, 3Bet Preflop: 9.80, Hands: 357)
BTN: 50.35 BB (VPIP: 22.90, PFR: 16.75, 3Bet Preflop: 5.00, Hands: 434)
Hero (SB): 34.54 BB

5 players post ante of 0.13 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.12 BB) Hero has 8c Kc
fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.1 BB, Hero raises to 6.48 BB, fold, BTN calls 4.38 BB

Flop : (14.59 BB, 2 players) 7s Ts 5d
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn : (14.59 BB, 2 players) 6c
Hero checks, BTN bets 7 BB, Hero raises to 27.94 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 28.59 BB

PS Nothing to write home about in the $1050 PKO. Collected one bounty.

Wednesday did not get off to a great start in the $500. Pretty early on, I lost this gem:

PokerStars – 200/400 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 142.61 BB (VPIP: 24.49, PFR: 10.20, 3Bet Preflop: 8.00, Hands: 49)
MP+2: 130.55 BB (VPIP: 27.19, PFR: 15.18, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 114)
CO: 126.32 BB (VPIP: 23.53, PFR: 19.73, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 154)
BTN: 130.29 BB (VPIP: 19.65, PFR: 13.86, 3Bet Preflop: 4.79, Hands: 343)
SB: 97.6 BB (VPIP: 22.38, PFR: 16.79, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 143)
BB: 116.88 BB (VPIP: 17.28, PFR: 12.45, 3Bet Preflop: 6.87, Hands: 273)
UTG: 127.12 BB (VPIP: 17.39, PFR: 16.19, 3Bet Preflop: 8.20, Hands: 184)
UTG+1: 172.18 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 15.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 20)
Hero (MP): 77.76 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has 9c Tc
fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, fold, MP+2 calls 2.28 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.28 BB

Flop : (8.46 BB, 3 players) 8c Qs Jh
BB checks, Hero checks, MP+2 bets 4.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 4.5 BB

Turn : (17.46 BB, 2 players) 5c
Hero checks, MP+2 bets 8.73 BB, Hero raises to 22.22 BB, MP+2 calls 13.49 BB

River : (61.9 BB, 2 players) 2c
Hero bets 48.63 BB and is all-in, MP+2 calls 48.63 BB

Hero shows 9c Tc (Flush, Ten High)
(Pre 34%, Flop 92%, Turn 84%)

MP+2 shows Kc Jc (Flush, King High)
(Pre 66%, Flop 8%, Turn 16%)

MP+2 wins 159.17 BB

The Zoom 6-Max was going better, for a while. It’s a fun format, over as quickly as a turbo but the Zoom structure means you get more hands per level than you would in a turbo (though it still isn’t as deep as a normal WCOOP). I actually gave some thought to folding this river, as I really couldn’t figure out what he would 3-bet-call from the SB that I could beat. Finally I decided it could be a strangely played AK, and thankfully it was!

PokerStars – 400/800 Ante 100 NL FAST (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 58.23 BB (VPIP: 25.76, PFR: 16.92, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 68)
SB: 70.2 BB (VPIP: 25.33, PFR: 18.31, 3Bet Preflop: 3.57, Hands: 75)
Hero (BB): 105.34 BB
UTG: 47.54 BB (VPIP: 19.46, PFR: 17.19, 3Bet Preflop: 10.11, Hands: 2,416)
MP: 64.6 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 12.90, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 133)
CO: 77.86 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has Jc Jd
fold, fold, CO raises to 2.2 BB, BTN calls 2.2 BB, SB raises to 7 BB, Hero raises to 20.83 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 13.83 BB

Flop : (46.81 BB, 2 players) Td 2s 4c
SB checks, Hero bets 11.11 BB, SB calls 11.11 BB

Turn : (69.03 BB, 2 players) Tc
SB checks, Hero checks

River : (69.03 BB, 2 players) 8h
SB bets 38.13 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 38.13 BB

SB shows Kh Ac (One Pair, Tens)
(Pre 43%, Flop 26%, Turn 14%)

Hero shows Jc Jd (Two Pair, Jacks and Tens)
(Pre 57%, Flop 74%, Turn 86%)

Hero wins 145.29 BB

Karma caught up to me though, as I eventually got in JJ vs AK pre-flop and lost.

PokerStars – 600/1200 Ante 150 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 51.71 BB
BB: 54.56 BB (VPIP: 21.21, PFR: 17.28, 3Bet Preflop: 5.41, Hands: 200)
UTG: 41.95 BB (VPIP: 17.68, PFR: 12.53, 3Bet Preflop: 5.50, Hands: 477)
UTG+1: 38.72 BB (VPIP: 11.18, PFR: 8.82, 3Bet Preflop: 2.94, Hands: 170)
MP: 22.59 BB (VPIP: 22.96, PFR: 13.43, 3Bet Preflop: 1.75, Hands: 137)
MP+1: 29.47 BB (VPIP: 13.55, PFR: 9.15, 3Bet Preflop: 3.45, Hands: 156)
MP+2: 9.75 BB (VPIP: 18.32, PFR: 14.32, 3Bet Preflop: 7.83, Hands: 395)
CO: 70.81 BB (VPIP: 18.14, PFR: 13.06, 3Bet Preflop: 5.38, Hands: 659)
BTN: 184.3 BB (VPIP: 27.75, PFR: 15.79, 3Bet Preflop: 10.11, Hands: 192)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has 9d 9c
UTG raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.7 BB, fold

Flop : (6.52 BB, 2 players) 9s Qd Js
Hero checks, UTG checks

Turn : (6.52 BB, 2 players) Jh
Hero checks, UTG bets 2.28 BB, Hero calls 2.28 BB

River : (11.09 BB, 2 players) Th
Hero checks, UTG checks

Hero shows 9d 9c (Full House, Nines full of Jacks)
(Pre 82%, Flop 95%, Turn 100%)

UTG mucks 7c 7s (Two Pair, Jacks and Sevens)
(Pre 18%, Flop 5%, Turn 0%)

Hero wins 11.09 BB

Win the Button is a format I haven’t quite wrapped my head around yet. The most obvious adjustment is that you should try harder to win pots because there’s more of a reward for winning pots, but what’s less obvious is that you also care who win them from. That means the delta on defending your BB against the Button is much larger than defending against UTG, because if you fold to UTG you will be CO next hand, but if you fold to Button you will be BB again. I did some extra battling in late position for this reason, but here’s the hand I’m most proud of:

PokerStars – 175/350 Ante 45 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 145.3 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BTN: 367.52 BB (VPIP: 62.50, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
SB: 127.53 BB (VPIP: 17.39, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 9.52, Hands: 46)
BB: 155.34 BB (VPIP: 100.00, PFR: 60.00, 3Bet Preflop: 66.67, Hands: 5)
UTG: 7.57 BB (VPIP: 23.76, PFR: 19.52, 3Bet Preflop: 6.27, Hands: 1,005)
UTG+1: 131.33 BB (VPIP: 26.90, PFR: 16.07, 3Bet Preflop: 8.97, Hands: 343)
MP: 169.78 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
Hero (MP+1): 75.54 BB

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.53 BB) Hero has Ad Qh
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.79 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 2.29 BB, BB calls 1.79 BB

Flop : (9.39 BB, 3 players) 4d As 6d
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 2.82 BB, SB calls 2.82 BB, fold

Turn : (15.03 BB, 2 players) Th
SB checks, Hero bets 15.03 BB, SB calls 15.03 BB

River : (45.09 BB, 2 players) Td
SB checks, Hero bets 54.77 BB and is all-in, SB calls 54.77 BB

Hero shows Ad Qh (Two Pair, Aces and Tens)
(Pre 74%, Flop 86%, Turn 93%)

SB shows Ah 9d (Two Pair, Aces and Tens)
(Pre 26%, Flop 14%, Turn 7%)

Hero wins 154.63 BB

Needless to say, Villain should fold pre, and this is kind of an example of why. His A9o may have reasonable equity against my opening range, but it doesn’t realize that equity well, especially not against a player capable of recognizing spots like this.

There was also this value bet with Ace-Queen high on the river:

PokerStars – 1250/2500 Ante 325 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 29.62 BB (VPIP: 24.42, PFR: 17.80, 3Bet Preflop: 6.59, Hands: 394)
BTN: 88.21 BB (VPIP: 24.02, PFR: 9.04, 3Bet Preflop: 1.35, Hands: 179)
SB: 37.35 BB (VPIP: 24.30, PFR: 15.26, 3Bet Preflop: 3.77, Hands: 252)
BB: 28.47 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 12.73, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 56)
UTG: 73.5 BB (VPIP: 27.12, PFR: 19.01, 3Bet Preflop: 6.62, Hands: 713)
UTG+1: 17.34 BB (VPIP: 14.62, PFR: 7.77, 3Bet Preflop: 1.03, Hands: 212)
MP: 81.56 BB (VPIP: 24.51, PFR: 14.97, 3Bet Preflop: 6.00, Hands: 358)
MP+1: 94.43 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 15.16, 3Bet Preflop: 8.11, Hands: 345)
Hero (MP+2): 42.84 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.67 BB) Hero has Qc Ad
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, CO calls 2.28 BB, fold, fold, fold

Flop : (7.23 BB, 2 players) 3s 8c 7h
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn : (7.23 BB, 2 players) 6d
Hero checks, CO checks

River : (7.23 BB, 2 players) 8h
Hero bets 2.17 BB, CO calls 2.17 BB

Hero shows Qc Ad (One Pair, Eights)
(Pre 69%, Flop 81%, Turn 93%)

CO mucks Ah Jh (One Pair, Eights)
(Pre 31%, Flop 19%, Turn 7%)

Hero wins 11.57 BB

The hand I busted on felt bad, and in fact while CREV likes my flop check (it plays a mix but mostly checks ATdd), it has almost no raising range on the turn. Which makes sense: this isn’t a flop on which I should often check strong hands, so on blank turns I’ll generally be quite capped and should therefore play the role of the bluff-catcher. Of course that would enable me to fold on a river like this one:

PokerStars – 2500/5000 Ante 625 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 33.71 BB (VPIP: 18.78, PFR: 13.74, 3Bet Preflop: 4.70, Hands: 773)
CO: 42.19 BB (VPIP: 19.51, PFR: 15.00, 3Bet Preflop: 6.25, Hands: 41)
Hero (BTN): 21.18 BB
SB: 44.05 BB (VPIP: 23.38, PFR: 17.57, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 77)
BB: 55.1 BB (VPIP: 18.99, PFR: 14.11, 3Bet Preflop: 7.33, Hands: 339)
UTG: 24.1 BB (VPIP: 30.93, PFR: 7.45, 3Bet Preflop: 6.38, Hands: 97)
UTG+1: 24.17 BB (VPIP: 14.58, PFR: 13.04, 3Bet Preflop: 8.70, Hands: 48)
MP: 58.91 BB (VPIP: 20.45, PFR: 16.28, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 44)

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has Ad Td
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, fold, BB calls 1.28 BB

Flop : (6.06 BB, 2 players) Th 3d Qh
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn : (6.06 BB, 2 players) 4c
BB bets 3.24 BB, Hero raises to 18.77 BB and is all-in, BB calls 15.53 BB

River : (43.61 BB, 2 players) Jh

BB shows 7c Qc (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 37%, Flop 74%, Turn 89%)

Hero shows Ad Td (One Pair, Tens)
(Pre 63%, Flop 26%, Turn 11%)

BB wins 43.61 BB

Nothing so interesting to report from the $215; I didn’t win it.

The day off (it wasn’t a proper day off, as I did do some studying, but no playing) was nice. Emily and I had brunch at a cafe in the nearby town of Val-David. When we ordered, the server was friendly and patient with my limited French. I commented to Emily that she seemed to understand that my French was poor and be helping me along with simple words and phrasing, which I prefer to the approach more common in Montreal where people just start speaking English. It seems like out in the mountains many people still have learned English but are far less comfortable with it.

Anyway, just to prove me wrong, within minutes of my saying that the server returned to the table and said something long and complicated very quickly. I told her, “Sorry, my French is not great”, by which I meant only that I needed her to rephrase and speak more slowly, but she responded with, “Ah, OK, I am not so good in English but I will try.” And then she apologized that she’d forgotten to put our order in and it would still be a little while. Of course we were understanding, but probably she was nervous which was why she’d started speaking quickly.

Elsewhere, people were somewhat less friendly about it. I went with Emily to help her get a season pass for the regional park, and was prepared to conduct the entire transaction in broken French, translating for Emily when necessary. The woman switched to English when she saw me doing that, but she was kind of grudging about it, and made a comment at some point that, “It’s very hard for me, in English.” Which, again, I didn’t have any expectation that she speak English, only that she be patient with my French.

The grocery store is where I’m at my most comfortable, partly because not much speaking is required but also because I’ve got my routine down. Yes, I need a sac plastique. No, I don’t have a carte Métro. I’m sure it’s obvious that I’m not a fluent speaker, but it’s a perfectly fluid transaction. So after doing all of that in French, the woman looks at me over the rim of her glasses and says, “Thank you” in English like she’s caught me in some dirty secret.

There’s a nice bike path that runs through town called “Le P’tit Train Du Nord”, built on what used to be a railway. It’s very well maintained and quite popular in the summer. We got a few smiles while out on the trail but it was surprising how many people would pointedly avoid eye contact or even just stare without smiling when you gave them a little wave or head nod. So maybe it wasn’t the English, maybe the Quebecois just aren’t a friendly people (that would certainly accord with stereotypes I’ve encountered in the States).

Anyway, poker…

PokerStars has gotten a lot of criticism since Amaya took over (including from Talal Shakerchi). I think much of it is well-deserved and they are mostly full of shit when they try to sell changes that are obviously designed to increase rake as being “good for the game”. That said, their shift towards Progressive Knock-Out Tournaments does seem to be good for the game (if also good for Stars’ bottom line). These events routinely get way bigger fields than comparable Freezeouts at the same buy-in level. And at least for now, people play them badly.

I found myself in a rough spot early on, after cold four-betting Kings and getting a nightmare flop:

PokerStars – 300/600 Ante 75 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG+1: 88.29 BB (VPIP: 25.32, PFR: 17.39, 3Bet Preflop: 6.25, Hands: 237)
MP: 64.14 BB (VPIP: 23.91, PFR: 13.04, 3Bet Preflop: 6.67, Hands: 92)
MP+1: 75.05 BB (VPIP: 20.87, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 207)
MP+2: 74.09 BB (VPIP: 20.65, PFR: 15.22, 3Bet Preflop: 6.82, Hands: 92)
CO: 86.02 BB (VPIP: 21.59, PFR: 14.77, 3Bet Preflop: 9.30, Hands: 88)
BTN: 85.29 BB (VPIP: 21.74, PFR: 13.04, 3Bet Preflop: 4.88, Hands: 92)
SB: 90.07 BB (VPIP: 20.52, PFR: 14.66, 3Bet Preflop: 7.43, Hands: 888)
Hero (BB): 78.3 BB
UTG: 109.01 BB (VPIP: 16.16, PFR: 10.20, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 99)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has Kh Kd
fold, UTG+1 raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 5.94 BB, fold, Hero raises to 18.52 BB, fold, BTN calls 12.57 BB

Flop : (40.66 BB, 2 players) Jc Qh 5s
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn : (40.66 BB, 2 players) Qd
Hero bets 12.2 BB, BTN calls 12.2 BB

River : (65.06 BB, 2 players) 8d
Hero checks, BTN bets 54.45 BB and is all-in, fold

BTN wins 65.06 BB

I may have overreacted to seeing a Q and a J on the flop, because CREV still thinks I should get the money in (a result that is, admittedly, sensitive to the assumption that Villain has a lot of AK in his range). I do, after all, have only a pot and a half in my stack upon seeing the flop. CREV also thinks flop is a mix but mostly a bet. Again, there’s a lot of equity to be denied to AK. It’s important to keep in mind that even with my blockers, there are 8 ways to have AK and only 6 ways for Villain to flop a set (I’m comfortable assuming he never has 55).

My plan was not to double buy (that is, to rebuy 10K chips for $215 rather than 20K chips for $430), because the add-on buys 20K chips for $215, which means that buying that extra 10K during the rebuy period is quite expensive. Your initial chips are expensive too, of course, but you can’t add on if you don’t have chips!

Eventually, though, I convinced myself that the players on my right had enough chips and were playing badly enough that I wanted to have more to invest against them. I’m not sure that was the right decision, but it paid off:

PokerStars – 125/250 Ante 30 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 91.93 BB (VPIP: 18.84, PFR: 11.94, 3Bet Preflop: 6.90, Hands: 69)
Hero (BTN): 80.09 BB
SB: 157.66 BB (VPIP: 18.92, PFR: 15.09, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 113)
BB: 177.09 BB (VPIP: 47.00, PFR: 27.00, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 100)
UTG: 40.52 BB (VPIP: 9.09, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 22)
UTG+1: 43.26 BB (VPIP: 22.97, PFR: 10.64, 3Bet Preflop: 5.03, Hands: 359)
MP: 36.4 BB (VPIP: 11.11, PFR: 7.04, 3Bet Preflop: 5.41, Hands: 144)
MP+1: 79.88 BB (VPIP: 19.11, PFR: 12.20, 3Bet Preflop: 6.86, Hands: 246)
MP+2: 104.4 BB (VPIP: 38.16, PFR: 18.42, 3Bet Preflop: 9.38, Hands: 76)

9 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.58 BB) Hero has 3s 3h
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2.5 BB, MP+2 calls 2.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 2.5 BB, fold, fold

Flop : (10.08 BB, 3 players) 5h Qs 3c
MP+1 bets 5 BB, MP+2 calls 5 BB, Hero raises to 21.55 BB, fold, MP+2 raises to 101.78 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 55.92 BB and is all-in

Turn : (170.02 BB, 2 players) Jd

River : (170.02 BB, 2 players) Qh

MP+2 shows Kd Qc (Three of a Kind, Queens)
(Pre 48%, Flop 2%, Turn 0%)

Hero shows 3s 3h (Full House, Threes full of Queens)
(Pre 52%, Flop 98%, Turn 100%)

Hero wins 170.02 BB

I won more big pots with 66 vs 64 on 764dd (frankly that Villain overplayed his hand as well – I flatted his flop check-raise, and he overbet jammed a Qd turn!), and then a really big one getting QQ all in against AK and holding. After winning that huge flip – note this for when I start whining about losing flips – I was in second place overall. Eventually, though, I just blew up:

PokerStars – 1250/2500 Ante 325 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 43.44 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 65)
Hero (MP+2): 119.24 BB
CO: 10.53 BB (VPIP: 15.00, PFR: 11.76, 3Bet Preflop: 5.65, Hands: 301)
BTN: 23.3 BB (VPIP: 20.27, PFR: 13.46, 3Bet Preflop: 8.72, Hands: 376)
SB: 43.79 BB (VPIP: 14.68, PFR: 9.67, 3Bet Preflop: 2.27, Hands: 542)
BB: 25.05 BB (VPIP: 17.35, PFR: 9.28, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 98)
UTG: 81.7 BB (VPIP: 23.81, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 21)
UTG+1: 40.24 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 13.14, 3Bet Preflop: 5.22, Hands: 288)
MP: 31.2 BB (VPIP: 23.56, PFR: 17.00, 3Bet Preflop: 7.89, Hands: 452)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.67 BB) Hero has Ts 9d
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 1.78 BB, fold

Flop : (6.73 BB, 2 players) 9s 5h Ad
SB checks, Hero bets 2.02 BB, SB calls 2.02 BB

Turn : (10.77 BB, 2 players) 3d
SB bets 6.68 BB, Hero calls 6.68 BB

River : (24.12 BB, 2 players) 6h
SB bets 6.03 BB, Hero raises to 108.14 BB and is all-in, SB calls 26.66 BB and is all-in

Hero shows Ts 9d (One Pair, Nines)
(Pre 43%, Flop 18%, Turn 5%)

SB shows 3s As (Two Pair, Aces and Threes)
(Pre 57%, Flop 82%, Turn 95%)

SB wins 89.5 BB

This isn’t even typically a hand I’d open from this seat, but the BB was quite tight. I just got it into my head from the flop that I was going to three barrels, which I think is a fine plan holding the 9 blocker, but I refused to re-evaluate after Villain took the lead on the turn.

Frankly, his bet is bad. All he has to do is check and call and he gets my stack when he’s going to get my stack. Donking on a card that really doesn’t change the board – even though it did improve his hand – throws up a red flat that ought to enable me to change course and fold, though I stubbornly ignored it. So that was frustrating.

After that it was pretty uneventful, with not too many opportunities presenting themselves and me slowly blinding down as we neared the bubble. I open jammed AK, got called by TT, and that was that.

I did manage a cash in the $530, though even that got a bit dicey. I got off to a bad start thanks to more stubbornness:

PokerStars – 200/400 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG: 160.07 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
UTG+1: 14.47 BB (VPIP: 25.31, PFR: 14.88, 3Bet Preflop: 4.02, Hands: 748)
MP: 259.15 BB (VPIP: 22.88, PFR: 15.52, 3Bet Preflop: 3.17, Hands: 119)
Hero (MP+1): 129.48 BB
MP+2: 79.47 BB (VPIP: 11.04, PFR: 8.18, 3Bet Preflop: 4.23, Hands: 163)
CO: 121.62 BB (VPIP: 26.23, PFR: 11.67, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 61)
BTN: 143.79 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 36)
SB: 123.99 BB (VPIP: 20.80, PFR: 17.03, 3Bet Preflop: 8.27, Hands: 330)
BB: 121.79 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has 8d 8c
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.79 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.79 BB

Flop : (7.2 BB, 2 players) 5h 2h 3c
BB checks, Hero bets 2.16 BB, BB raises to 6.1 BB, Hero calls 3.94 BB

Turn : (19.4 BB, 2 players) Ah
BB bets 6.94 BB, Hero raises to 23.59 BB, BB calls 16.64 BB

River : (66.58 BB, 2 players) Qs
BB checks, Hero bets 43.94 BB, BB calls 43.94 BB

Hero shows 8d 8c (One Pair, Eights)
(Pre 82%, Flop 9%, Turn 6%)

BB shows 3d 3h (Three of a Kind, Threes)
(Pre 18%, Flop 91%, Turn 94%)

BB wins 154.46 BB

This Villain was fishy enough that I think I can just fold flop. I told myself it could be a protection raise, and then the turn presented an irresistible bluffing spot. I still don’t regret firing away at turn and river, but I do think I should have folded the flop. Recognizing and exploitively folding against obviously strong lines from weak players is something I used to be more diligent about. I need to regain that discipline.

After that, it was standard stuff. I won some all ins, ran up a large stack, then lost a flip as the bubble approached. That left with me about 25bbs which I nursed until we were in the money. I found a spot to open jam about 10bb with Kh 9h from MP and was horrified when a player who’d been quite tight snap called from the HJ. I guess he was ready to gamble now that he’d cashed, though, because he had Qs Ts. The flop was all clubs and missed both of us. The turn was the Qc, but then the river was a fifth club so we ended up chopping. What a roller coaster!

The very next hand an early position player jammed 4bb, I reshoved AJo, someone else shoved, and then the BB, who was extremely short, called off the rest with his AJs. He actually made a flush to win the main pot, but I couldn’t outrun 88 for the much larger sidepot, so I finished with a min cash.

Still, I’ve cashed two of the eight WCOOP events I’ve played so far, and both felt like they could easily have been deeper runs (as did a few of the non-cashes). There’s a lot I’m doing that I’m really happy about – just got to find some discipline and some (more) rungood!

Edit: Taking today off. Was going to play the $1000 6-max shootout, but it’s capped at 216 runners and will probably be a tough field. The $215 8-game always sounds fun, but I think a day off will be more fun than (probably) busting early or (best case scenario) playing Razz until 2AM.

PokerStars – 500/1000 PL Hi (6 max) – Omaha Hi – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 48.94 BB (VPIP: 47.62, PFR: 23.81, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)
SB: 122.09 BB (VPIP: 23.81, PFR: 9.52, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 21)
Hero (BB): 45.3 BB
UTG: 178.14 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 9.52, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)
MP: 33.32 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)
CO: 215.82 BB (VPIP: 47.62, PFR: 19.05, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Js As 4d Qs
fold, fold, CO raises to 3.5 BB, fold, SB calls 3 BB, Hero calls 2.5 BB

Flop : (10.5 BB, 3 players) 4h 9d Tc
SB checks, Hero checks, CO checks

Turn : (10.5 BB, 3 players) 5h
SB checks, Hero bets 10.5 BB, CO calls 10.5 BB, fold

River : (31.5 BB, 2 players) Jd
Hero checks, CO bets 31.5 BB, Hero calls 31.3 BB and is all-in

CO shows Kh 7s Ks 3h (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 57%, Flop 43%, Turn 68%)

Hero shows Js As 4d Qs (Two Pair, Jacks and Fours)
(Pre 43%, Flop 57%, Turn 33%)

Hero wins 94.1 BB

I made the money, surprising no one more than myself, and ultimately busted with dignity, holding a pair and a wrap against top two pair that turned a boat. I had to run the equity afterwards, but I got it in with about 62%, so can’t feel bad about that:

PokerStars – 8000/16000 PL Hi (6 max) – Omaha Hi – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 35.37 BB (VPIP: 31.82, PFR: 4.55, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 22)
Hero (CO): 46.58 BB
BTN: 72.41 BB (VPIP: 29.69, PFR: 14.06, 3Bet Preflop: 4.00, Hands: 128)
SB: 40.05 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 30)
BB: 65.48 BB (VPIP: 30.56, PFR: 17.36, 3Bet Preflop: 1.96, Hands: 147)
UTG: 43.88 BB (VPIP: 42.55, PFR: 21.28, 3Bet Preflop: 5.56, Hands: 47)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 4h 3d 6d 7c
fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.79 BB, BTN calls 2.79 BB, SB calls 2.29 BB, fold

Flop : (9.37 BB, 3 players) 6h 5c Qd
SB checks, Hero bets 6.18 BB, BTN raises to 27.92 BB, fold, Hero raises to 43.79 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 15.86 BB

Turn : (96.94 BB, 2 players) 6c

River : (96.94 BB, 2 players) Ah

Hero shows 4h 3d 6d 7c (Three of a Kind, Sixes)
(Pre 44%, Flop 61%, Turn 0%)

BTN shows Kd As Qs 6s (Full House, Sixes full of Aces)
(Pre 56%, Flop 39%, Turn 100%)

BTN wins 96.94 BB

Although in retrospect maybe this just isn’t a good open from the CO? Like I said, undoubtedly lots of small mistakes.

I got trounced in the $1K in an interesting spot:

PokerStars – 175/350 Ante 45 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 178.74 BB (VPIP: 22.60, PFR: 15.46, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 209)
UTG: 237.43 BB (VPIP: 20.20, PFR: 13.07, 3Bet Preflop: 5.60, Hands: 307)
Hero (UTG+1): 147.77 BB
MP: 121.09 BB (VPIP: 27.81, PFR: 18.67, 3Bet Preflop: 14.07, Hands: 608)
MP+1: 117.71 BB (VPIP: 22.44, PFR: 15.81, 3Bet Preflop: 9.48, Hands: 259)
MP+2: 240.61 BB (VPIP: 9.82, PFR: 5.94, 3Bet Preflop: 1.89, Hands: 226)
CO: 64.04 BB (VPIP: 23.45, PFR: 16.25, 3Bet Preflop: 7.44, Hands: 293)
BTN: 135.27 BB (VPIP: 22.26, PFR: 18.96, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 276)
SB: 141.29 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.66 BB) Hero has Ah 8h
fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN calls 2.28 BB, SB calls 1.78 BB, BB calls 1.28 BB

Flop : (10.28 BB, 4 players) 8d 2c 7h
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 6.78 BB, fold, SB raises to 21 BB, fold, Hero calls 14.22 BB

Turn : (52.28 BB, 2 players) 7c
SB bets 35 BB, Hero raises to 124.36 BB and is all-in, SB calls 82.88 BB and is all-in

River : (288.03 BB, 2 players) 6h

SB shows 7s As (Three of a Kind, Sevens)
(Pre 36%, Flop 8%, Turn 95%)

Hero shows Ah 8h (Two Pair, Eights and Sevens)
(Pre 64%, Flop 92%, Turn 5%)

SB wins 288.03 BB

Of course it looks bad that Villain hit a two-outer, but I think he played the hand well, and there are other ways for him to win besides binking. I like my flop defend. It’s a nasty spot, but I think given how often I’ll hold overpairs in this same spot, I should continue with this hand (which blocks 88 and 87s) and mostly dump those.

I thought of the turn as a better card than it probably was. Of course it makes sets/two-pair less likely, but I didn’t really consider that 7x would be a likely flop bluffing hand for Villain because he wants to block 77 and 87s. In retrospect, folding or even calling turn might well be better than sticking it in, even with a bounty on the Villain (which really isn’t likely to come into play, come to think of it).

I had a tricky spot in the $500 that I’m still not sure about:

PokerStars – 400/800 Ante 100 NL (8 max) – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG: 143.26 BB (VPIP: 21.55, PFR: 19.25, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 232)
UTG+1: 49.15 BB (VPIP: 22.62, PFR: 13.41, 3Bet Preflop: 6.06, Hands: 84)
MP: 79.88 BB (VPIP: 19.31, PFR: 15.00, 3Bet Preflop: 6.85, Hands: 668)
Hero (MP+1): 58.58 BB
CO: 62.9 BB (VPIP: 25.84, PFR: 21.32, 3Bet Preflop: 12.16, Hands: 332)
BTN: 86.71 BB (VPIP: 15.91, PFR: 10.13, 3Bet Preflop: 2.21, Hands: 398)
SB: 19.67 BB (VPIP: 21.78, PFR: 16.28, 3Bet Preflop: 9.55, Hands: 487)
BB: 68.82 BB (VPIP: 16.36, PFR: 12.79, 3Bet Preflop: 7.27, Hands: 276)

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has 6d 5d
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.28 BB

Flop : (6.06 BB, 2 players) 4c 7d 9c
BB checks, Hero bets 4 BB, BB raises to 13.61 BB, Hero calls 9.61 BB

Turn : (33.28 BB, 2 players) 9s
BB bets 17 BB, Hero calls 17 BB

River : (67.28 BB, 2 players) Kd
BB bets 35.8 BB and is all-in, fold

BB wins 67.28 BB

It feels bad to call off so much with 6-high, but I still struggle to see a better option. The flop bet and call seem pretty clear-cut. Turn is tricky. Of course I could be in bad shape vs a 9, but I could also be very live against a flush draw, and if Villain doesn’t have the flush draw then I may get the opportunity to rep it if it comes in. I don’t think jamming the turn is any good, but I could certainly be convinced that it’s a fold.

I lost the rest with AK to 99 all in pre, nothing too exciting there.

I considered taking today off, but it’s dreary outside, so I’ll likely play the $215 rebuy.

Upon our arrival, I got probably my best opportunity ever to use all that French I studied some fifteen years ago. My experience in Montreal (and even in France) was that almost everyone spoke better English than I did French, but our host wasn’t comfortable in English, so she showed us around the house and she and I discussed some logistics in French. Fortunately she was patient and accommodating! To be honest, I don’t know how much the French even mattered, because Emily told me she was able to get the gist of almost everything despite speaking hardly a lick.

I max late registered the $200 Warm-Up shortly after our arrival and promptly ran my 20bb up to a top 10% stack. Then I ran AK into AA for most of my chips and lost the rest with 77 < 99 in a spot where we may have been close enough to the bubble for me to pass on my pair. Oh well.

The $500 6-max Progressive Knock-Out got off to a good start as well, with me collecting a bounty from a guy who just randomly open jammed 30bb UTG with A9o into my JJ. Then there was this hand, not a huge one but one of the more interesting I played yesterday:

PokerStars – 500/1000 Ante 125 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 58.95 BB (VPIP: 24.65, PFR: 16.59, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 216)
SB: 156.74 BB (VPIP: 26.87, PFR: 18.22, 3Bet Preflop: 7.62, Hands: 524)
BB: 99.7 BB (VPIP: 30.59, PFR: 17.16, 3Bet Preflop: 12.05, Hands: 170)
UTG: 71.55 BB (VPIP: 39.06, PFR: 21.88, 3Bet Preflop: 10.71, Hands: 65)
MP: 41.68 BB (VPIP: 21.04, PFR: 16.61, 3Bet Preflop: 7.93, Hands: 933)
Hero (CO): 90.44 BB

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has 2h As
fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, BTN calls 2.28 BB, fold, BB calls 1.28 BB

Flop : (8.09 BB, 3 players) 4d 2c Jh
BB checks, Hero bets 2.43 BB, BTN calls 2.43 BB, BB raises to 9.27 BB, Hero raises to 17.98 BB, fold, fold

Hero wins 29.05 BB

I got a bit careless later, though, ultimately getting in too much with A9o on the Button vs a BB squeeze (in my defense, he had a decent bounty!) and then stubbornly refusing to fold Aces that I’d slowplayed pre-flop to a BB who’d pretty obviously flopped trips.

I want to save this hand from the $1K for the next time one of my students tells me he checked after flopping a strong hand because he wanted to induce a bluff:

PokerStars – 125/250 Ante 30 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 215.8 BB (VPIP: 53.85, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
BB: 179.85 BB (VPIP: 16.02, PFR: 11.52, 3Bet Preflop: 2.82, Hands: 207)
UTG: 204.52 BB (VPIP: 14.11, PFR: 8.02, 3Bet Preflop: 2.53, Hands: 165)
UTG+1: 193.04 BB (VPIP: 24.62, PFR: 17.50, 3Bet Preflop: 5.99, Hands: 535)
Hero (MP): 175.49 BB
MP+1: 207.92 BB (VPIP: 15.82, PFR: 11.95, 3Bet Preflop: 7.65, Hands: 496)
CO: 241.58 BB (VPIP: 26.92, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
BTN: 132.1 BB (VPIP: 38.46, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)

8 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.46 BB) Hero has 4d 4c
fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.28 BB, fold, CO calls 2.28 BB, BTN calls 2.28 BB, SB calls 1.78 BB, BB calls 1.28 BB

Flop : (12.36 BB, 5 players) 6c 4h 7d
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 8.16 BB, fold, BTN raises to 20 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 11.84 BB

Turn : (52.36 BB, 2 players) 6d
Hero checks, BTN bets 25 BB, Hero calls 25 BB

River : (102.36 BB, 2 players) Qd
Hero checks, BTN bets 84.7 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 84.7 BB

BTN shows Ah Jh (One Pair, Sixes)
(Pre 49%, Flop 4%, Turn 0%)

Hero shows 4d 4c (Full House, Fours full of Sixes)
(Pre 51%, Flop 96%, Turn 100%)

Hero wins 271.77 BB

Villain showed Ah Jh.

I chugged along with a top 15% stack for most of the first six hours before losing a big flip with JJ to AKs. I won a few flips after getting short to stay alive, but eventually lost AJ < QQ to finish off my first day in the WCOOP.

A few mistakes aside (which I don’t want to be too dismissive of – making fewer mistakes is a key tournament skill), I was pleasantly surprised with my play. I’d hardly played at all since WSOP, and although I’ve been studying a lot, there’s always the danger of either being rusty or making mistakes trying to implement new concepts that I’ve only studied in theory. I don’t feel like I feel into either of those traps yesterday, and in fact I was quite pleased with some of the adaptations I made after reading Matt Janda’s new No Limit Hold ‘Em for Advanced Players.

I wanted to share a hand with you from the third event that I played, which was a $700 Progressive Knock-Out. I tried looking at my biggest losses, but they were all-in pre-flop with KK and AK, so nothing too exciting there. Then I switched the column so that biggest wins would be at the top and momentarily confused myself because my biggest win was -80, a pot where I anted and folded. It turns out I didn’t win a single pot the entire tournament! In my defense, I did register quite late and walk into the aforementioned coolers.

Anyway, here’s one from the $200 Rebuy. It’s a good illustration of a common misunderstanding about slowplaying, that it’s somehow about “protecting your range” or some other tepid-sounding cliche that makes it sound like you’re sacrificing present value in the interest of some nebulous future gain.

In fact, playing certain strong hands in a way that’s consistent with how you’ll play weaker hands gives your opponent incentive both to bluff and to value bet thinly. If he acts on that incentive at an appropriate frequency, then you should do about as well as if you’d played your hand faster. And if he decides to go overboard, well…

PokerStars – $200+$15|700/1400 Ante 175 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 20.7 BB (VPIP: 15.76, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 5.54, Hands: 761)
UTG: 98.11 BB (VPIP: 29.25, PFR: 20.57, 3Bet Preflop: 7.50, Hands: 215)
UTG+1: 66.5 BB (VPIP: 20.77, PFR: 16.97, 3Bet Preflop: 7.63, Hands: 574)
MP: 11.13 BB (VPIP: 28.53, PFR: 19.05, 3Bet Preflop: 13.86, Hands: 340)
MP+1: 8.74 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 22.89, 3Bet Preflop: 8.82, Hands: 90)
CO: 44.64 BB (VPIP: 23.81, PFR: 17.21, 3Bet Preflop: 9.62, Hands: 126)
BTN: 60.7 BB (VPIP: 19.35, PFR: 14.58, 3Bet Preflop: 8.63, Hands: 622)
Hero (SB): 19.4 BB

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has Ks Kh
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 0.5 BB, BB raises to 3 BB, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop : (7 BB, 2 players) 7d 2h Kd
Hero checks, BB bets 2.89 BB, Hero calls 2.89 BB

Turn : (12.77 BB, 2 players) 6c
Hero checks, BB bets 5 BB, Hero calls 5 BB

River : (22.77 BB, 2 players) Ah
Hero checks, BB bets 9.69 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 8.39 BB and is all-in

BB shows Js 4h (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 12%, Flop 0%, Turn 0%)

Hero shows Ks Kh (Three of a Kind, Kings)
(Pre 88%, Flop 100%, Turn 100%)

Hero wins 39.55 BB

A lot of people worry about slowplaying in a spot like this because of the flush draw on the flop, but when ranges are sufficiently wide, that’s just not that big of a concern. It’s not like you have to fold a set in a low SPR spot just because a flush gets there, and plenty of times your opponent will be drawing stone dead and even a third diamond comes that might just give him more inducement to bluff.

I already posted one from the $200 Warm-Up, so here’s one from the second event that I played, the $1K Sunday Million. It’s an example of a concept that came up in the discussion of the previous hand, which is when to turn a hand that you originally called with for showdown value into a bluff. Here’s an example where, although I had a pair on the flop, the board ran out in a way that made it nearly impossible for me to win without bluffing, and also strengthened the rest of my range such that this is now close enough to the bottom to be a bluffing candidate on the river.

PokerStars – $1000+$50|500/1000 Ante 125 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 32.23 BB (VPIP: 26.26, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 9.52, Hands: 99)
SB: 41.23 BB (VPIP: 25.53, PFR: 21.74, 3Bet Preflop: 19.05, Hands: 48)
Hero (BB): 97.29 BB
UTG: 87.76 BB (VPIP: 13.76, PFR: 11.65, 3Bet Preflop: 4.44, Hands: 109)
UTG+1: 35.24 BB (VPIP: 16.84, PFR: 10.53, 3Bet Preflop: 2.44, Hands: 190)
MP: 122.99 BB (VPIP: 27.78, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
MP+1: 53.42 BB (VPIP: 9.38, PFR: 6.25, 3Bet Preflop: 11.76, Hands: 32)
MP+2: 88.98 BB (VPIP: 15.91, PFR: 11.20, 3Bet Preflop: 3.51, Hands: 264)
CO: 161.21 BB (VPIP: 18.61, PFR: 14.67, 3Bet Preflop: 8.67, Hands: 468)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has 7s 8d
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2 BB, fold, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop : (5.63 BB, 2 players) 9c 8c Th
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn : (5.63 BB, 2 players) Qh
Hero checks, BTN checks

River : (5.63 BB, 2 players) Ad
Hero bets 3.38 BB, fold

Hero wins 5.63 BB

For more on playing a wide range out of the Big Blind, see my Big Blind Defense series on Tournament Poker Edge.

The other fun thing about my starting table was that Ian Simpson was there. If you don’t know Ian, you will soon. We’ve already recorded an interview with him and will publish it perhaps as early as this coming Monday, if it doesn’t get pre-empted by WSOP content (will depend on how much time we find to record in the next few days).

Nate and I had high hopes of getting dinner with Ian and Ryan Hall, but it turned out that the break was only 30 minutes, which caused Ryan to drop out, and Ian had already busted and left, so it was just Nate and me. And in fact, if Nate hadn’t busted shortly before dinner break and volunteered to get a table and place an order in advance, we wouldn’t even have managed that. I really don’t understand the point of a 30 minute dinner break.

Overall I think I played perhaps the best tournament poker I have yet in this event. I got moved away from my awesome starting table and spent the rest of the day tangling (or trying not to tangle) with some tough young Europeans. Unfortunately I just kept losing pre-flop all ins after chipping up.

There was one other hand I was proud of. At 400/800/100, I opened to 2000 with Jc 9c in the CO, and the BB, one of aforementioned Europeans, re-raised to 6000. There are some people who will be quite strong when they three-bet from the big blind, preferring to call most hands that they might use as “light” three-bets, and although I did expect this player to be polarized, I would expect him to have a more good/balanced three-betting strategy even from the big blind. So, I called with about 31K behind.

The flop came Qc 9hs 8c, and he bet 6K. I think a lot of people will just jam here because they know they have a lot of equity and they aren’t comfortable playing future streets. With a slightly weaker hand, say Kc Tc, I think shoving is correct – you’d rather get all in on the flop, ideally with some fold equity, than call and get forced off your equity on a blank turn.

However, I think my hand is strong enough to get all in no matter the turn card, and I don’t think Villain will fold many hands with substantial equity. It’s important to consider all of your options rather than just defaulting to a shove any time you have enough equity to get all in, and here I think there’s more value in calling than shoving.

The turn was a Q, and we both checked. The river was the 3s, we both checked again, and he showed Aces to win the pot. To be clear, although this was a nice side benefit of just calling the flop, avoiding a stack off to overpairs on a few specific runouts is really not the main reason to call the flop. I’m going to be stacking off on most turns, this was just the rare card that neither of us particularly wanted to bet, and that happened to work to my advantage.

I had a weirder spot with the most obviously recreational player at the table, an older woman who was quite friendly and whom I’m sure I’ve seen around before and perhaps even played with. She opened from middle position to 1700 (BB was still 800), and I called with 52s in my BB.

The flop came 877r, and we both checked.

The turn was a 2, I bet 3000, and she called.

The river was a 3, and I was a bit unsure how to proceed. I expected to have the best hand quite often, as I think she’d bet pairs on the flop almost always. Was she really going to call me down twice with Ace-high though? On this board, it seemed plausible. I’ve actually coached a few people who are roughly in her demographic and quite aware of their image and accustomed to people who look like me firing spewy bluffs at people who look like them. So, I bet 6000, and she called with K7s for trips, which it actually surprised me a bit that she would have that based on her pre-flop position (not that she couldn’t have other 7x) and doesn’t really tell me anything one way or the other about the river bet.

A few orbits later, with the BB at 1000, she opened my big blind again, to 2200. This time, I held 22. I decided to jam for my last 18K, based on the fact that she’d showed down the K7s and also A6o from a similar position. I also thought that she might fold a bit too much, perhaps something as strong as AJo. Frankly, though, this is probably a little spewy, and if we’re being honest, I caught a whiff of strength when she looked at her cards.

Sure enough, she called with 88 to bust me. The only consolation was that even if I had called with the 22, I would have flopped a set and lost to a turned 8, so in this case the mistake didn’t actually cost me anything, but it was a mistake nonetheless.

Nate and I are going to play the Team Event at the WSOP today, which should be fun.

Blinds 25/50

MP opens to 150, Villain calls in CO, I call 66 on the Button, and BB calls.

Flop (625) Js 8d 6h Two checks, the CO bets 325, I raise to 800, two folds, and he calls.

Turn (2225) 3s. He checks, I bet 1500, he thinks a bit and calls

River (5225) Qd. He looks at my stack, then puts me all in for 4500. Admittedly, 66 is basically the nuts here, as I can’t see anyone good just check-calling 1500 on the turn with T9. Even spades probably plays better as a raise, especially given his incentive to get all in against me and put my bounty in play.

I was pretty sure I was going to call, but I took my time anyway, and I guess that made him assume that his QJ was good. I do think that especially in a bounty, where he has so much to gain by stacking me, he does make sense for him to shove the river, but it’s not a play a lot of people will make it, and I do try to think it through before making or calling large bets.

There were two other interesting spots, both at the 75/150/25 level. In the first, the HJ, who seemed just a touch too active but not overall a bad player, opened to 400, and I called with Qs Ts on my BB. He had a little over 7K behind, and I had about 11K.

Flop (1125) Qh 9c 7h. I considered donking here but ultimately checked. He bet 550, and I called.

Turn (2225) 5d. I checked, he bet 1500, I shoved, and he called with Ah 6h and hit the Th on the river.

In the second, the UTG player (at a 10-handed table) opened to 375, and I called with Ac Jh in the BB. I had about 3300 behind, and he had more than 30K, enough to still cover the entire table even if he doubled me.

Flop (1075) Kc Tc 5d. I actually bet 600, planning to fold to a raise. Even with his stack, this player seemed extremely passive and cautious, so I thought he would overfold and also shove much less often than he should. My hand is a decent one for betting because it’s equity is not so bad against a calling range but poor enough against a shoving range that I don’t lose a lot by folding. Plus I can jam turned clubs. However, the hand isn’t strong enough to check-call or check-raise, which means I usually just lose my equity if I check. Anyway, Villain called.

Turn (2275) Ah. Given Villain’s passivity, as well as the bounty factor, I just shoved. He reluctantly called Kc Q and my hand held up for a double.

I did a little GTORB analysis on both of these hands, and although that can’t take into consideration the very important bounty factor, it did reveal some slightly interesting stuff. Most notably, both of these players have such significant range advantages that I should very rarely (in practice, probably just never) donk bet in either spot.

I also wasn’t sure what GTORB would suggest for Villain’s Ah 6h. On the one hand, it’s obviously a huge draw, but on the other, with stacks being what they are, I thought Hero might often shove, putting Villain in a tough spot with a big draw.

Turns out that GTORB has Villain betting all of his A6 on the turn, with or without a heart draw, and always folding to a raise (though Villain’s call may not be wrong, as the bounty gives me incentive to raise a wider range, possibly including some dominated draws). And the Hero actually only check-raises about 10% (QT strictly prefers calling, though again, bounty may well change that). I guess it’s significant that the Hero generally raises his flopped monsters, and this is not a turn card that creates a lot of new monster hands (this is why A6 is a good betting hand, because it blocks 86), which means that Hero is pretty capped and the Villain can bet draws with abandon.

Tomorrow, I’ll most likely play the Venetian $1600.

Still, I got into two spots that are interesting not because of the magnitude of the decision – in both cases, it was quite small – but because of the frequency with which they occur, as well as the fact that in a shallow tournament, even small decisions have a big influence on your ROI.

Both occurred at the 50/100 level. In the first, I opened to 250 with Qs Qc on the button, and the big blind called.

The flop came AT4, all spades (meaning I had a flush draw), and we both checked.

The turn was the 9c, and we checked again.

He quickly checked a third time, on a Td river, and at the time it seemed so likely that my hand was good that I threw out a small value bet, about a quarter of the pot. He called with A6o to beat me.

In retrospect, I’m not so sure this was a good bet. Maybe it’s a bit results oriented knowing that A6o in his range, but I don’t think that’s really so surprising (it would be in mine). The Villain is going to have so many Ax combinations in his range that even if he doesn’t check a pair of Aces at a high frequency, it still could add up to enough combos that I can’t put in a value bet on the river. There are, of course, a limited number of worse hands that will call a bet, mostly 9x, pocket pairs, and maybe 4x or K-high.

In the second hand, I was down to about 2300 and had 7s 4s in the big blind. The hijack opened to 250, and the CO, who was the only truly good player among my opponents, called. With 550 in the pot, I had the option to call 100 more to see a flop. Although I would certainly call in a heads up pot, I elected to fold here, a decision that I later discussed with fellow Tournament Poker Edge pro Chris Moon.

My argument was that there aren’t many flops I can feel that good about in a multi-way pot. It will be rare that I can commit with just a 4 or a 7, and even when I flop a draw, I can’t expect that much fold equity against two players.

Chris suggested an interesting way of approaching that: assume you have no fold equity and will always either fold or get all in on the flop, at your option. Put them both on ranges, and run a simulation on ProPokerTools.

After the flop, you’ll commit 2200 chips for a final pot of 5050, meaning you’ll need 43% to get it in. Pre-flop, you’re getting 5.5:1, meaning that you need to get a “good enough” flop about 15% of the time. Of course these are simplifications: sometimes you will win without a showdown, sometimes you’ll see a turn, sometimes you’ll cause one player to fold substantial equity.

Even under these constraints, I found it to be close. For some reason I’m having trouble uploading the image, but here’s a link, which includes the ranges I gave both players (given my stack size, I think the CO can cold call some big hands, though maybe not quite as many as I gave.

It seems to me that given how rarely I’ll end up all in against two players, I probably should have called and just taken my equity on the 15% or so of flops that are “good enough” for me. Live and learn.

Today is the $1500 bounty, which I hope will be a fun and more interesting event!

Blinds were still 25/50, and I opened to 150 with Kc Qc in the HJ. The CO, SB, and BB all called.

The flop came 975 with two clubs, and the blinds checked. I certainly wouldn’t just c-bet arbitrarily into three opponents here, but with two overs and a flush draw, it’s an easy bet. I bet 450, and only the CO called.

The 2h turned, and on such a blank card, I think he’s more or less capped out at one pair, maybe TT or JJ at best and almost always weaker than that, so it’s a great spot for me to bombs away. I bet 1500, and he quickly called. The fact that he didn’t even consider raising made me even more certain that the didn’t have two-pair or a set.

So, I didn’t have to sweat a full house on the 9c river. I also didn’t think he’d call the turn with bare flush draws, at least not so quickly, so the only better hands in his range figured to bet Ac 8c and Ac 6c. I expected him to have T9 and 98 more frequently, and be unable to fold trips. I bet 4000, and he called with Ac 8c.

Nothing of great interest happened after that. I got a double up with AQ by convincing my opponent to spaz with 77 on a Q9xxx board.

Once I was down to 20 blinds, I wasn’t getting any shoving spots. Mostly my cards were bad, but also there was a guy with a big stack on my right who’d decided that he should play more than half the hands he was dealt. I’m honestly not sure he was joking/posturing when he wondered out loud whether he should call my 11BB UTG shove blind (I had AJo, and he folded).

A few hands later he opened to 1100 on the button, which it was really hard for me to imagine him folding a button, so I had a pretty easy shove for 5K or so with 22 in the SB. He called with A4o to bust me.

After the tournament I went and hung out with Carlos for a bit at the Tournament Poker Edge booth, then decided to check out the cash game scene at the Rio.

It truly does seem to get worse there every year. Now there are no chip runners (which, I realize, may not be their fault, but it sucks either way), which means that when they open a new game it takes a long time to start because people have to go wait in line at the cage, buy chips, then take them to the table, and of course no one wants to sit at the table waiting for others to show up, and certainly not come over from an already-running game to get the new one started, so it’s just a slow process and I can only imagine that the most impulsive (ie most desirable to have at your table) players are not sticking around for all that.

My first table was pretty boring, everyone seemed decent enough and the average stack was less than $2K, which is quite small for an uncapped $5/$10.

I was about to quit when my table change came through and I landed at a new table where my $6500 made me just the third largest stack! Had there been chip runners, I would have added on, but as it was I decided just to make do with 650 big blinds.

It was a fun game, nobody spewing but nobody playing particularly good deep-stacked poker, and I was winning solidly. Then, literally the hand before I was going to quit:

I open 22 to $40 UTG (believe we were 7-handed at the time), and four people call. The flop comes K72r. I bet $150, and only the button called. I had about $7500 at the time, and she covered me.

The turn was another K. I checked, figuring a check-raise could get more money in against a K and also give her a chance to bluff/protection bet weaker hands. She checked behind.

The river card was something small (not a 2!), and with $500 in the pot, I threw out a $1K chip. Overbetting was not unprecedented for me, and none of those hands had yet gone to showdown.

She asked if that was a $500 chip, the dealer told her it was $1000, and then she nodded and said, “All in.” Faced with calling $6K to win $8500, I really don’t think is a tough fold at all. I’m uncapped, which means I have both nut hands and better bluff-catchers, not that I would expect to see many bluffs here anyway.

Even though that basically wiped out my profit for the night, I quit feeling pretty good about myself. Among other things, I probably would have lost my ass if she’d bet the turn!

For some crazy reason the Monster Stack is not a re-entry, so I’m just going to play cash tonight, probably at Bellagio, and then hit up the $1K Turbo WSOP event tomorrow morning.

Nate folded to Queens to two shoves that turned out to be from AK and JJ; the story he’s sticking to is that both players were at the bottoms of their ranges and he would make the same fold again. Then he lost QQ to AA to get pretty short and then lost AQ < 87s if memory serves.

Leo jammed the nut flush draw into a made full house. He claims it was a punt but he’s harder on himself than any poker player I know, so probably it was just a cooler.

Although cashing the Main Event was clearly going to be a very significant notch in his belt, Carlos had the stones to stick his stack in twice near the bubble, once jamming KJ over a raise and once open jamming KK for 15 BBs very close to the money. Thankfully neither was called. Interesting question whether turning the Kings face up and eating a one-round penalty would be the most +EV play, but that’s neither here nor there. Ultimately he was busted after shoving 77 into a raise from a “mangy” Russian woman who slowrolled him with Aces. It was a poetic exit, at least!

Former podcast guest Clayton Fletcher is still in the hunt with nearly 600K chips and a top 10% stack! Follow him on Twitter @claytoncomic.

As for myself, it’s tempting just to tell you I lost with Kings vs Aces and let you assume it was an unavoidable cooler, but the sad truth is that 5-bet jamming the Kings was probably the worst option available to me. Here was the situation:

It was early on Day 2, my stack was slightly above average, and the table was generally pretty decent, though not amazing. There was one really tough player (Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo) on my immediate left. He’d been flatting a lot of my opens, running and playing well, and generally making life difficult for me.

He opened for 1200 UTG at 250/500/50. UTG2 called. I began the hand with about 58K, and both opponents covered. I made it 4800 with KK, which I think is already a mistake. I don’t mind squeezing Kings (though it isn’t as automatic as it may seem), but think my range should be very narrow here, probably just QQ+ and some big suited Aces, because of how strong both opponents’ ranges are and often I’ll be called and end up playing OOP with a lot of money behind. Neither of these players is very likely at all to 4-bet, so I should use bigger sizing, probably 6K.

Anyway, Jonathan threw out two more orange without much hesitation, making it 11,200, and I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t think too hard before I shipped my stack.

In retrospect, there’s little doubt that his range for calling a shove will be exactly AA, which means that no matter how light he might be on this 4bet (and to be honest, because of how profitably he can flat call and how quickly he raised, I suspect he isn’t that light to begin with), jamming can’t be better than either calling or 5-betting small and calling it off (the latter only being good if he has a very 4betting range, which again I doubt). Nate pointed out, and I agree, that even folding would be better than jamming.

So… I dunno what else to say. It was an unlucky spot, and I know a lot of people would have gone broke there, and it’s possible I would have lost most or all of my chips even if I’d called, but the more I think about it, the more I think my play was pretty clearly suboptimal.

Maybe next year!

So I bust the PH 200K and at the last minute, a friend from back home hits me up to late reg the Monster. I rush over and get in with 15 mins left in the 200/400 level. I have 16.5K at dinner.

AA to AK takes me to 26K.

Stolen blinds take me to 31K.

99 to KJo shorty shove takes me to 39K.

Last hand of the night, I defend 54s against aggro guy with 20bbs. Flop TT7 with a flush draw for me. I check shove and end the night with 47.5K

Didn’t see many flops at all.

While we were bagging, a guy got excited and says “it’s after midnight, I cannot believe I bagged on my birthday!” At this point, I break my silence for the first time and reveal the fact that I am also a fish on a heater and that we share a birthday. There was a bracelet winner on my right (Greg Ostrander) bragging about how he took down a 3K three years ago for $750K. I cut him off mid sentence all like yadda yadda yadda. It’s my birthday, take my picture and he did.

My own play in the Monster Stack was not so exciting. I had to fold good pairs to bad rivers in a couple of medium sized pots, and that took me down to about 9K. In one of my first hands at a new table, a competent-looking player limped UTG at the 100/200 level. I was UTG2 and chose to limp behind with 99.

I raise here more often than not, and always against a weaker limper, but I think calling is a viable option when a good player has limped UTG. I didn’t want to face a limp-raise, and with so many players behind me, there’s a good chance that at least one player who has position is going to call me anyway, in which case the value of going to the flop in a raised pot is not so high. Limping makes it harder to win the pot, but it also makes the pot less important, conceals my hand, and sometimes gives me the option to limp-raise myself.

Sure enough, another capable-looking player limped the CO, and then a young European on the button raised to 1000. The blinds and the first limper folded, and I think at this point I have an easy shove. I gain a lot from his folds, I won’t be in terrible shape when called, and I don’t particularly want to induce a shove by 3-betting less than all-in. To my surprise, the CO jammed as well, and the button folded. This seemed like an even better outcome for me, because I thought he was more likely to have a smaller pair than a larger one, but he actually had AKo and won the flip.

It was a weird hand, but it did in fact turn into the good spot that I hoped it would.

Edit: Carlos asked me to add a shoutout to PokerJunkey.com for providing him with the Eat Sleep Poker t-shirt he’s wearing in this picture. Yet another milestone in CW’s career: free endorsement SWAG!

My original table was awesome, and I got off to a great start, chipping up from 7500 to over 10K in the first hour. Probably the most interesting hand from that level began with UTG, one of the better of my opponents, opening to 125. The CO and SB called, and I had an easy call with 88 in the BB.

The flop came K77r. We checked to the pre-flop raiser, who bet 250, about half of the pot. I again had an easy call.

The turn was another K, I bet 250, or about 1/4 pot, and he folded.

Think about our respective ranges at this point. Neither of us is particularly likely to have a full house, which means that while UTG will occasionally bluff or value bet this turn, he’s going to check behind very often. I can make a little bet like this with my relatively strong range. When I have a hand like 88, I don’t gain much from Villain’s calls, but I do keep him from cheaply realizing his equity when he has unpaired overcards. My stronger pairs do a little better when called but still gain when Villain folds QJ or whatever. And my full houses profit by not allowing Villain to pot control his big pairs.

Just before antes were introduced, my table broke. The next one was still pretty good, but I ended up having to make some big folds. I’m pretty sure they were correct, but they were costly.

At 100/200/25, I opened to 500 with AQo UTG, and only the BB, a recreational player, called. The flop came A65 with two hearts (I had no hearts in my hand). He checked, I bet 750, and he called.

The turn was the 9h. I know a lot of people like to pot control here, but I really don’t think that accomplishes much. If I check back here, it’s because I think I’m in such bad shape that I can’t profitably put another bet in. If I’m going to call or bet river anyway, I’d rather make that bet on the turn, when I can still either get value or at least fold equity from draws. I don’t think there’s much danger of getting check-raise bluffed, so the only thing you lose when raised is one bet, which you were going to put in on the river anyway. I bet 1600, he raised to 3500, and I folded.

Then at 150/300/50, I picked up AA on the Button. I opened to 600, and the BB called. He checked and called 800 on J87dd (I had the Ad). The turn was a K. He checked, I bet 1800, and he raised to 3800 with about 4000 behind. There’s a bit more of a case for pot controlling this turn, as there are a lot of runouts where I either won’t be able to value bet river at all or it will be very thin, but I think that even if you’re going to get just one more bet from this hand, the turn might well be the better time to do it. Anyway, I folded, and Villain showed a J. He approached me when the table broke and excitedly told me he had JJ there, which I believe (he was the sort who might not 3-bet it, and I didn’t ask him to show or anything, so he really had no incentive to just come up to me out of the blue and lie).

There was one a while later where a woman opened to 1200 at 250/500/50. The SB, who had only about 10BB, called, and I called getting a great price with Th6h in the BB. The flop came J98 with one heart, and the SB jammed for just about pot.

I thought the original raiser was pretty strong, which was sort of a plus and a minus. She only had about 8K, or a little over 2x the preflop pot, behind. If she overjams with KK or AA it barely affects my equity in the main pot, but I do put in another 5K or so in a dry side pot against her. I ultimately decided to fold largely because I thought SB might have hands like AT or JTs in his range. He had AJo, she had AA, and I would have drilled the river. Still not sure what to make of this, but I think folding is OK.

I ended up losing two coin flips in a row to bust. The first was a close call, as I opened 33 UTG to 1300 at 300/600/75, and UTG1 jammed a little over 8K. He had AKo and got there, even though the BB said he folded AK!

The other one I jammed 99 into a late position raise, and the big blind woke up with AJs to bust me.

I took today off and don’t have any more tournaments planned until the Monster Stack this weekend, gonna play cash for the next few days.

The table was, perhaps not quite as good as the previous day’s, but pretty spectacular. I made good use of one live tell, but mishandled another.

You Raise, I Call

At the 25/50 level, I looked down at 22 and was reaching for raising chips when I noticed the player on my left loading up. I grabbed just two green chips and called. He raised to 250, and I called. The flop came 843 and we both checked, so I immediately put him on whiffed overcards. The turn brought a 2, and I bet 200. This probably should have been more, but I really didn’t want to let him off the hook if he just had a gutshot, and I thought the smaller size might even keep in a hand like KQ. The river was a 9, I bet 400, and he called so quickly that I regretted not betting more, but at the time it seemed like a reasonable amount to expect an unimproved AQ to call.

Calling Chips

There was another pot where I can’t even remember what I had, but whatever it was, I was betting the river for value. I grabbed two yellow chips, planning to declare, “Twelve hundred”, but as I did so my opponent very clearly grabbed calling chips. I quickly changed course and said, “Fifteen hundred,” but he tanked for a long time before folding. What I should have realized is that he knew I could see him grabbing chips and it was actually a “strong-means-weak” tell meant to deter me from betting.

Blocking Bet?

The two significant pots that I lost were both to that same player.

At 75/150, I opened to 450 with As Kc on the Button, and the BB called. The flop came Ah 8h 3h, and he checked and called 500. He checked and called 1000 on a Qd turn, after a long tank.

The river was the 2h, and he threw out 1000 without much hesitation. At this point I was getting nearly 5:1 and convinced myself he could be block betting a worse Ace, but I don’t think that’s consistent with his thinking so long on the turn. I called, and he showed me 7c 6h.

Lucky Turn

I opened to 400 with ATo at the 100/200 level. Villain called, as did the CO, Button, and BB. I was pretty tempted just to give up, but the Q52 was a little too good, so I bet 700 into 2100. Villain called, and everyone else folded.

I had about a pot-sized bet behind, and was thinking Ks and Js would be great for shoving, but then a 3 popped off and I realized I had more backdoor straight draws than I’d consciously realized (though this was probably part of the reason the flop struck me as too good to give up). I stacked up my chips to jam, and Villain once again reached for his chips. Remembering what this meant the last time, I carried through on my shove, but he practically beat me into the pot. “I got very lucky,” he told me, turning over 33 for a turned set.

“Indeed you did,” I said, a little more snippily than I intended. On to the next one.

Another Lucky Turn

My cash session started off with more of the same. After scoping out five tables at two different venues, I settled into a 5/10 game at Bellagio. There were a few young guys who seemed like serious players, but only one of them seemed to rise above the level of “mediocre reg”, and there were a few soft spots as well.

I limped UTG with 22, two players limped behind, and then one of the seemingly mediocre regs made it $40 on the Button. The seemingly good reg on the BB called. Thinking that the Button would have raised bigger with a premium hand, I re-raised to $160. The action folded to him, and he called quickly. The BB called as well.

The flop came 6c 3c 3s. The BB checked, I bet $200 into a pot of about $500, the Button called with about $500 behind (this is why my flop sizing was small), and the BB folded.

I was ready to be done with it, but the turn was an offsuit Ace. Intriguing. I checked, and Villain checked behind. The river was a Q. I threw five black chips into the pot.

“So sick,” Villain said. “I know you got there. Ugh, I did not want to see a Queen.” Huh, that’s not what I wanted him to be afraid of. “Fuck it, I call,” he said, turning over Ac Kc. I showed him my twos, tossed him $500, and mentally demoted him from “mediocre reg” to “wannabe”.

Bad Donk

I played this one pretty badly to be honest, but because it turns out I was winning until the river, I’m allowed to feel sorry for myself, right?

UTG opened for $30, Wannabe called on the Button, and I called with 43o on the BB.

Flop ($95) 864r. I bet $70, UTG folded, Button quickly called.

Turn ($235) 2. I really need to just cut my losses here, but the gutshot was just too tempting to keep me from firing again. I bet $170, and Button called with no hesitation.

River ($575) A. This is probably a decent card to follow through, but he seemed in no mood to fold, so I finally gave it up. He proudly tabled A5o.

I planned to leave pretty soon and decided not to top my stack off from $1250 to the $1500 cap. Of course a few hands later I flopped the nuts and doubled through someone who probably would have paid off another $250 considering he put me all in for $500 more when I bet $500 on the river.

Pot Odds

I finally got my revenge, plus a good laugh, on what turned out to be my last hand of the session (I was waiting for dealer change because it was a time rake #nitcast). UTG, a weak player who’d been raising too much from all positions, opened for $40. UTG1, who seemed like a good pro, called. I made it $140 with As Js UTG2. Wannabe cold called from the SB, UTG called, and UTG1 called.

Flop ($575) 2s 3c 7h. Checked to me, I bet $300, SB called, the other two folded.

Turn ($1175) Ac. He checked. I briefly considered trying to get my value now, but I actually thought AK was a real possibility for SB, so I decided to check back and fold to a big river bet or value bet if he checked.

River ($1175) 2d. He checked. I thought about betting pot but settled on $700.

Wannabe groaned. “I told myself the bigger you bet, the more I was going to call you. You bet the pot. That means you have either Aces or nothing.” Wow, it was hard to keep a poker face after that little monologue. But he wasn’t done yet. “How much is in the pot?” he asked the dealer.

“I can’t tell you that,” she said.

“You can spread it out, right?” he said. She spread the pot. “Eleven hundred,” he muttered to himself. “That means I only have to be right half the time.” Again, I suppressed a smile. Finally, he gave up the facade and copped to his true logic: “Fuck it, I call.”

I don’t think any of the Millionaire Maker hands were terribly interesting (though some were humorous), so here’s one from cash. UTG is the spot at the table, which isn’t to say he’s terrible by any means, but he’s got a huge amount of money in front of him and is a little too eager to stick it into the pot. BB seems to be a very talented player, not sure what either of them thinks of me. BB has 9K, I have 10K, UTG covers us both. One player is away, so game is eight-handed.

UTG opens for $75, I call UTG1, and BB calls.

Flop ($235 in pot) Ah 8s 3c. Checks around.

Turn ($235 in pot) Qd. BB bets $150, UTG folds, I raise to $625.

What should my raising range look like? What should BB call with? What should he 3-bet?

My starting table was pretty great, full of the most ideal sort of recreational players. There was one guy who was a little better than the rest but thought he was a lot better and wouldn’t shut up about how unlucky he was getting and how well he was playing. It got so bad that he was bragging to people in the middle of hands about how he was reading them. When one of the Bubbas three-bet him, he said, “Well, I know you don’t have AK, because you just call with that.” The Bubba was clearly rattled by this and said, out loud, that he’d have to change up the way he played.

Other than that kind of thing, random dumb poker talk from bad players doesn’t really tilt me the way it does a lot of pros. I sometimes even find it endearing.

What does bug me is the near-compulsive need to make lame comments and jokes any time a remotely attractive woman walks past or the subject of sex is mentioned. My current theory is that most poker players – most people, really – want nothing more than to fit in, make no waves, and be unobjectionable. Sports and (heterosexual) sex talk are the least controversial subjects you can broach at the poker table, and so making the easy joke or obvious pun is a way to affirm your normality and ensure that you’ll get a chuckle or grunt of agreement. Also most of these guys have no filter or impulse control, which is a big part of what makes them so bad at poker.

After that I got some tough tables. Dan O’Brien was at one along with three guys I didn’t recognize but who all seemed to know him and each other. That had to be one of the worst tables in the room.

Then that table broke and I ended up Calvin Anderson and someone else really good whom I feel like I should’ve been able to identify but couldn’t put my finger on it. Obviously there was still a ton of easy money in the tournament, and although I had access to some of those players, I think I could have run a lot better on table draws.

Anyway, interesting hands:

You Were in the Right Ballpark

Villain open limps the hijack, SB completes, I check 63o in the BB. Flop 9d 5h 4d. Checks to HJ, he bets 100, SB folds, I raise to 400, HJ calls. Turn 8d I bet 600, he says “Well, I put you on the flush draw”, flashes a 9, and folds.

All That For a Chop?

I’d had AK twice before against Villain. Once I raised his limp, checked back the flop, and folded to a turn bet. Once I’d three-bet him, checked back the flop, and folded to a turn bet.

Villain limps UTG for 150. I make it 600 UTG2 with Ah Kc. Action folds back to him, and he calls. Flop 822 with two hearts. We both check. Turn 8, he checks, I bet 400 into 2000, he raises to 1500, I call. River 4 he puts me all in for 4500, I call, he has As Ts which is about the worst hand he could possibly play that way.

More Bluffing

Villain limps UTG1, someone else limps, SB completes, I check 54o. Flop Tc 8c 6h checks around. Turn 3d, SB checks, I pot it for 600, UTG1 calls, others fold. Turn Kd I bet 800 to get him off busted draws, he folds.

Bad Fold

Blinds 150/300/25. Very good players UTG1 opens to 700, folds to me in BB, I call with K2s. Flop AKKr. I check and call 800. Turn Q. I check and call 1600. River T. I check and fold when he puts me all in for about 5500. My thinking at the time was that it would be hard for him to get to the river with enough bluffing hands given that he opened UTG1 at a 10-handed table. However, there are so few nut combos when I block the K (I don’t think he’s jamming a J for value, though I could be wrong about that, and if I am calling is a lot less good) that even just giving him T9s and 98s is probably enough for me to call. He later showed up with K3s after opening middle position, so he was clearly getting out of line pre-flop, which also makes my assumption less good, though I didn’t have that info at the time. This is definitely a good board for him to go three barrels with air, it’s just a question of how often he’ll have it.

Facing a Donk Bet

I opened 2.5x from the CO with As Tc, a good player in the small blind called, and the big blind folded. Flop came 7s 9h Js. Villan donked about half pot, I raised 3.5x, he folded.

Making a Donk Bet

Blinds 100/200 button opened to 450 SB called and I called Ks Ts in the BB. Flop Qs 9d 8d SB checked I bet 900 button folded SB called. Turn 5, SB checks, I bet 1800 with 4500 behind, he folded. Plan was to jam most rivers if he called.

Donking a Set

I opened 44 UTG, Button made a small 3bet, I called. Flop K94r I bet 4500 into 6700 he called. Turn was an T, I checked, he jammed his last 15K, I called and beat his KQ. In this case I doubt it much mattered what I did, but I think this is an interesting spot to donk bet. The thing is that when he doesn’t have K it’s pretty hard for me to get stacks in if I check. I can’t rep a big draw by check-raising, he’ll check behind a lot of turns if I check-call, etc. I think a donk is quite likely to get called or raised by hands like AQ, AJ, QJ, JT, QQ, JJ, TT. Then even if the turn goes check-check I can still jam the river for pot.

River Bluff

Blinds 500/1000/100. Button opens to 2200, I make it 6000 with KQo, he calls. Flop 952r, I bet 6500 which is about half-pot, he min-raises, I call. Turn is a 4 and checks through. River is an 8, I put him all in for 37K (there’s about 52K in the pot), and he calls with TT and not much hesitation. I was actually surprised he was that strong, and I may well be able to get him off of smaller pairs and/or Ace-high (if he takes this line) often enough for this to be profitable even without him folding TT.

Pre-flop is actually the part I’m most ambivalent about. We’re a bit deep (nearly 60bb) for three-betting KQo. Quite possible it’s better to just call. I like the flop bet, and I like calling flop getting 7:1 (easily the right odds when he has underpairs, especially if he lets me see a free river), and I think KQ is close enough to the bottom of my range to jam as a bluff. Value range is going to be JJ+, sets, and perhaps two-pair if I have them in my preflop range.

I Haz Blocker!

Blinds 800/1600/200. Good player UTG (has been talking to Bryn Kenney about playing EPTs etc) opens to 3200. Weak player on CO calls off of a 35K stack. From some players that would be strength, but from him it’s weakness. I was already thinking this was a good spot to squeeze and then I found dem rockets on the button. I made it 11K, UTG eyed my stack and then called without much deliberation. CO folded.

Flop Kc Qc Th. Not exactly ideal for AA, but I had the Ac. He checked, and I checked back.

Turn 4c. He bet half pot, and I called.

River was an offsuit 7. He bet 32K into 57K.

When I put the details down in black and white like this, it looks like a pretty straight-forward call. The thing is that Villain was shaking as he put the money into the pot and seemed pretty amped up generally, not worried but excited. It was a pretty strong physical tell, and of course in retrospect I wish I’d listened to it. It was just so hard to put him on a flush given that I was looking at the A, the K, and Q, and he’d raise-called from UTG. But, he had the 9c 8c.

Busto

Blinds 1000/2000/300. Same Villain opened to 4000 from the button. SB (same weak player who called in the previous hand) called, and I called 8h 7d from a 40K stack. Flop T64 with two hearts. Checks to Villain, he bets 5800, SB folds, and I jam for a little over pot.

To be honest this might be a little tilty. I mean, it can’t be too bad, but I don’t think how often Villain is bet-folding this texture, he probably checks back a lot of broadway-type hands and any draws that aren’t strong enough to bet-call. Calling could actually be better for me. Board ran out dry and I lost to a set of 4s.

Leo Wolpert, who also cashed this tournament, convinced me to play the Millionaire Maker tomorrow, so that’s where I’ll be at 10AM.

PokerStars – $2000+$100|200/400 Ante 50 NL (8 max) – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 91.04 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 14)
SB: 79.65 BB (VPIP: 27.91, PFR: 9.52, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 43)
Hero (BB): 29.43 BB
UTG: 20.47 BB (VPIP: 23.89, PFR: 9.82, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 113)
UTG+1: 20.85 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 9)
MP: 29.11 BB (VPIP: 21.03, PFR: 15.98, 3Bet Preflop: 5.75, Hands: 196)
MP+1: 102.62 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
CO: 40.3 BB (VPIP: 27.91, PFR: 18.60, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 43)

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has 4c 7c
fold, fold, MP raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1 BB

Flop : (5.5 BB, 2 players) 3d 5c 6c
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn : (5.5 BB, 2 players) 6d
Hero bets 3.09 BB, MP calls 3.09 BB

River : (11.67 BB, 2 players) 5d
Hero bets 5.84 BB, MP raises to 21 BB, fold

MP wins 23.34 BB

There may be a case for betting bigger than I did on the turn. Villain is generally drawing dead or two two outs, though, so I’m not too concerned about the price I’m laying him. The river is obviously not a great card, but moreso because of how much it strengthens my range than because it’s likely to give Villain the river.

I suspect a lot of people will want t check-call here, but I don’t see any value in that. Villain is too likely to have showdown value that he won’t turn into a bluff. I see my options as bet-fold or check-fold, and given how capped Villain ought to be, I think a thin value bet is best.

Unfortunately he manages to find a raise. It’s awfully hard to see him doing this without a 6, regardless of how improbably it is that he played a 6 this way to the river. I suppose my hand is a reasonable bluff-catcher, but still, I just don’t expect to see a bluff here. Among other things, I expect Villain to put me on a more polarized range than I actually have.

Next up was the $1K Main Event, where I wriggled my way out of at least one dicey spot:

PokerStars – $1000+$50|125/250 Ante 30 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 85.65 BB (VPIP: 22.09, PFR: 15.34, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 164)
MP+1: 67.92 BB (VPIP: 26.84, PFR: 18.42, 3Bet Preflop: 2.70, Hands: 193)
Hero (MP+2): 78.2 BB
CO: 62.44 BB (VPIP: 18.18, PFR: 10.81, 3Bet Preflop: 2.60, Hands: 189)
BTN: 53.54 BB (VPIP: 38.39, PFR: 22.32, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 112)
SB: 82.09 BB (VPIP: 21.62, PFR: 12.61, 3Bet Preflop: 9.62, Hands: 112)
BB: 33 BB (VPIP: 16.22, PFR: 10.81, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 112)
UTG: 51.23 BB (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 13.39, 3Bet Preflop: 2.13, Hands: 112)
UTG+1: 26.18 BB (VPIP: 18.92, PFR: 11.71, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 112)

9 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.58 BB) Hero has Kd Kc
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, fold, BTN raises to 5.28 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 13.33 BB, BTN calls 8.05 BB

Flop : (29.24 BB, 2 players) 7h Ac Qd
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn : (29.24 BB, 2 players) 9d
Hero bets 6.66 BB, fold

Hero wins 29.24 BB

Eventually, though, I lost a pretty big pot in a pretty good spot:

PokerStars – $1000+$50|200/400 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 45.27 BB (VPIP: 23.12, PFR: 14.52, 3Bet Preflop: 6.49, Hands: 187)
SB: 35.65 BB (VPIP: 26.29, PFR: 17.84, 3Bet Preflop: 2.35, Hands: 216)
Hero (BB): 88.34 BB
UTG: 22.05 BB (VPIP: 18.57, PFR: 10.58, 3Bet Preflop: 2.20, Hands: 212)
UTG+1: 76.72 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)
MP: 56.37 BB (VPIP: 21.64, PFR: 12.69, 3Bet Preflop: 9.23, Hands: 135)
MP+1: 47.31 BB (VPIP: 17.91, PFR: 11.19, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 135)
MP+2: 23.96 BB (VPIP: 19.26, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 3.28, Hands: 135)
CO: 9.53 BB (VPIP: 17.91, PFR: 11.28, 3Bet Preflop: 6.15, Hands: 135)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Ah Kc
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.25 BB, fold, Hero raises to 6.67 BB, BTN raises to 14.25 BB, Hero raises to 88.22 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 30.89 BB and is all-in

Flop : (91.91 BB, 2 players) 8c 2s 3s

Turn : (91.91 BB, 2 players) 4s

River : (91.91 BB, 2 players) Jh

Hero shows Ah Kc (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 74%, Flop 81%, Turn 69%)

BTN shows Js Ac (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 26%, Flop 19%, Turn 31%)

BTN wins 91.91 BB

I got my second and final High cash of the SCOOP in the $1K 6-max turbo, though because it was a turbo those were pretty much all uninteresting pre-flop spots.

Thanks to everyone who followed along here, on Twitter, on Twitch, or anywhere else. I’m in Las Vegas now, I’ve actually been here for over 48 hours and am yet to play a single hand of poker. I had dinner with Keone last night, and he, Carlos, and I will be picking Nate up at the airport in a few hours.

At the moment, I’m on way out the door to a Red Chip Poker meet-up. Details on a nitcast meetup will be coming soon. So much to do in Vegas this time of year even without setting foot in a poker room!

The only High buy-in event I played on Saturday was the $2000 Six-Max Progressive Super Knockout Variable Level Times. Say that three times fast. It was basically a turbo with bounties, pretty fun though my bounty was collected in rather gruesome fashion. First off, just because I’ve posted a lot of failed bluffs lately, here’s one that actually worked:

PokerStars – $1000+$1000+$100|40/80 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BTN): 71.63 BB
SB: 93.38 BB (VPIP: 39.29, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 28)
BB: 38.31 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 28)
UTG: 52.94 BB (VPIP: 35.90, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 39)
MP: 79.88 BB (VPIP: 30.77, PFR: 23.08, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 13)
CO: 42.81 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 6.67, Hands: 28)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 9d Jh
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.5 BB, SB calls 2 BB, fold

Flop : (6 BB, 2 players) 7c 4h Td
SB bets 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB

Turn : (12 BB, 2 players) 6c
SB bets 6 BB, Hero raises to 20.5 BB, fold

Hero wins 24 BB

And here’s where the last of my chips ended up:

PokerStars – $1000+$1000+$100|125/250 Ante 30 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BB): 15.65 BB
UTG: 30.24 BB (VPIP: 32.31, PFR: 16.92, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 65)
MP: 13.6 BB (VPIP: 38.10, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 21)
CO: 17.02 BB (VPIP: 27.63, PFR: 24.66, 3Bet Preflop: 18.52, Hands: 76)
BTN: 21.04 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 22)
SB: 48.32 BB (VPIP: 26.15, PFR: 21.54, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 65)

6 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.22 BB) Hero has Tc 8c
fold, fold, fold, BTN calls 1 BB, fold, Hero checks

Flop : (3.22 BB, 2 players) 6c 9s 7s
Hero bets 2.41 BB, BTN raises to 4.82 BB, Hero raises to 14.53 BB and is all-in, BTN calls 9.7 BB

Turn : (32.28 BB, 2 players) 7h

River : (32.28 BB, 2 players) 9h

Hero shows Tc 8c (Straight, Ten High)
(Pre 34%, Flop 91%, Turn 88%)

BTN shows Th 9c (Full House, Nines full of Sevens)
(Pre 66%, Flop 9%, Turn 13%)

BTN wins 32.28 BB

Thursday was a $1K Super Knock-Out, though my bounty was collected before I could nab any of my own. This first hand wasn’t a huge pot, but I’m disappointed in myself for calling the river:

PokerStars – $500+$500+$50|15/30 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 210.43 BB (VPIP: 24.75, PFR: 16.75, 3Bet Preflop: 2.11, Hands: 204)
SB: 165.67 BB (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
BB: 156 BB (VPIP: 19.35, PFR: 12.90, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 31)
UTG: 55.37 BB (VPIP: 37.04, PFR: 18.52, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 55)
UTG+1: 237.3 BB (VPIP: 37.25, PFR: 13.73, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 52)
Hero (MP): 137.67 BB
MP+1: 234.8 BB (VPIP: 13.64, PFR: 11.36, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 44)
MP+2: 166.67 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 1)
CO: 159.93 BB (VPIP: 22.00, PFR: 14.00, 3Bet Preflop: 12.00, Hands: 50)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Kc Kh
fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 2.5 BB, fold

Flop : (7 BB, 2 players) Jh 3d 7c
SB checks, Hero bets 5.23 BB, SB calls 5.23 BB

Turn : (17.47 BB, 2 players) 2s
SB checks, Hero checks

River : (17.47 BB, 2 players) 5h
SB bets 17 BB, Hero calls 17 BB

SB shows 5d 5s (Three of a Kind, Fives)
(Pre 20%, Flop 10%, Turn 5%)

Hero mucks Kc Kh (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 80%, Flop 90%, Turn 95%)

SB wins 51.47 BB

I don’t think Villain is bluffing, and with that sizing, he’s not value betting worse either.

I had a bad feeling about this one, but I think, despite the outcome, I was correct to suppress it as “seeing monsters”:

PokerStars – $500+$500+$50|30/60 Ante 5 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 310.33 BB (VPIP: 27.31, PFR: 16.97, 3Bet Preflop: 2.29, Hands: 285)
MP+2: 14.77 BB (VPIP: 17.71, PFR: 11.46, 3Bet Preflop: 6.52, Hands: 96)
CO: 50.67 BB (VPIP: 14.10, PFR: 8.97, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 79)
BTN: 74.15 BB (VPIP: 21.05, PFR: 14.04, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 57)
SB: 150.58 BB (VPIP: 36.92, PFR: 16.15, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 133)
Hero (BB): 62.23 BB
UTG: 74.27 BB (VPIP: 21.77, PFR: 12.90, 3Bet Preflop: 5.17, Hands: 125)
UTG+1: 140.47 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 12.35, 3Bet Preflop: 7.32, Hands: 82)
MP: 123.92 BB (VPIP: 24.43, PFR: 13.74, 3Bet Preflop: 8.20, Hands: 131)

9 players post ante of 0.08 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has Kd Ks
fold, UTG+1 raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, MP+2 calls 3 BB, fold, BTN raises to 7.02 BB, SB calls 6.52 BB, Hero raises to 20 BB, fold, MP+2 calls 11.68 BB and is all-in, BTN raises to 74.07 BB and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 42.15 BB and is all-in

Flop : (149.75 BB, 3 players) Tc 9d 8s

Turn : (149.75 BB, 3 players) 5d

River : (149.75 BB, 3 players) 7h

Hero shows Kd Ks (One Pair, Kings)

Main Pot [54.82 BB]: (Pre 18%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot [94.93 BB]: (Pre 18%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)

BTN shows Ah As (One Pair, Aces)

Main Pot [54.82 BB]: (Pre 65%, Flop 79%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot [94.93 BB]: (Pre 82%, Flop 88%, Turn 95%)

MP+2 shows 5h 5c (Three of a Kind, Fives)

Main Pot [54.82 BB]: (Pre 17%, Flop 9%, Turn 90%)

MP+2 wins 54.82 BB
BTN wins 94.93 BB

I also Twitched some PLO8 on Thursday, you can find that here.

I’ll be playing all day tomorrow, probably late registering the earliest tournaments by a bit just so I don’t end up with an insanely long day, but hey, it’s the last day of SCOOP, gotta make it count!

PokerStars – $2000+$100|1500/3000 Ante 375 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (MP+2): 21.83 BB
CO: 67.09 BB (VPIP: 27.79, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 10.73, Hands: 403)
BTN: 157.16 BB (VPIP: 10.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
SB: 15.14 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 10)
BB: 45.85 BB (VPIP: 18.79, PFR: 12.73, 3Bet Preflop: 4.00, Hands: 166)
UTG: 36.72 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG+1: 65.67 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 12)
MP: 23.49 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 20.66, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 123)
MP+1: 14.18 BB (VPIP: 23.08, PFR: 22.58, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 65)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Kh Jh
fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2.22 BB, CO raises to 5 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 2.78 BB

Flop : (12.63 BB, 2 players) 5h 9s Qs
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn : (12.63 BB, 2 players) Tc
Hero checks, CO checks

River : (12.63 BB, 2 players) 6d
Hero bets 16.71 BB and is all-in, CO calls 16.71 BB

Hero shows Kh Jh (Straight, King High)
(Pre 36%, Flop 30%, Turn 97%)

CO shows Jc Js (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 64%, Flop 70%, Turn 3%)

Hero wins 46.04 BB

I saw Kim do a lot of pot control and delayed continuation betting yesterday, so I was ready to check-raise the flop (in part because his betting range is probably more polarized than some people’s) and also the turn. When neither of those things happen, I think he’ll feel obliged to call an overbet with some hands, and because his range is likely capped, it’s a situation where I can and should shove the nuts and some air. I was a bit lucky not just to drill the gutshot but also that he had such a good bluff-catcher.

The next orbit, he did actually catch me in a bluff:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|1500/3000 Ante 375 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BB): 45.54 BB
UTG: 44.76 BB (VPIP: 27.70, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 11.17, Hands: 408)
UTG+1: 154.25 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: 34.93 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 15)
MP+1: 43.73 BB (VPIP: 18.24, PFR: 12.35, 3Bet Preflop: 3.90, Hands: 171)
MP+2: 21.2 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
CO: 63.54 BB (VPIP: 35.29, PFR: 23.53, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 17)
BTN: 23.99 BB (VPIP: 26.98, PFR: 20.63, 3Bet Preflop: 7.27, Hands: 128)
SB: 15.18 BB (VPIP: 22.86, PFR: 22.73, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 70)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Jd As
UTG raises to 2.2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Flop : (6.03 BB, 2 players) 5h Td 5d
Hero checks, UTG bets 1.83 BB, Hero calls 1.83 BB

Turn : (9.69 BB, 2 players) Kd
Hero checks, UTG checks

River : (9.69 BB, 2 players) 9c
Hero bets 6.3 BB, UTG calls 6.3 BB

Hero shows Jd As (One Pair, Fives)
(Pre 28%, Flop 12%, Turn 5%)

UTG shows Qd Qc (Two Pair, Queens and Fives)
(Pre 72%, Flop 88%, Turn 95%)

UTG wins 22.28 BB

There may be some runouts where I can just check and try to show my hand down unimproved, but this isn’t one of them. Between the King coming on the turn and his passing up a decent bluffing card, there’s little chance that AJ is good. The flush getting there makes this just about the bottom of my range, and he’s got plenty of underpairs and maybe AQ that will be hard-pressed to call, so I think a bluff is clearly correct. QQ isn’t a hand I’d expect him to fold, especially after he saw me value bet a relatively weak hand in a spot like this yesterday.

I picked up some more chips busting a short stack AK > AJ, then lost JJ < QQ versus another short stack. The only other interesting one that went to the flop was this:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|2000/4000 Ante 500 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 25.39 BB (VPIP: 43.70, PFR: 36.44, 3Bet Preflop: 21.43, Hands: 123)
MP+2: 51.78 BB (VPIP: 26.54, PFR: 12.96, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 162)
CO: 25.98 BB (VPIP: 20.68, PFR: 13.62, 3Bet Preflop: 12.26, Hands: 238)
BTN: 169.98 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 15)
SB: 75.43 BB (VPIP: 27.63, PFR: 22.37, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 78)
BB: 24.22 BB (VPIP: 18.75, PFR: 9.38, 3Bet Preflop: 4.00, Hands: 64)
Hero (UTG): 23.35 BB
UTG+1: 29.85 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
MP: 17.51 BB (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Kd Ad
Hero raises to 2.22 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1.22 BB

Flop : (6.07 BB, 2 players) 8d 3h 7c
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn : (6.07 BB, 2 players) Js
BB checks, Hero checks

River : (6.07 BB, 2 players) 3d
BB bets 2.81 BB, fold

BB wins 6.07 BB

Villain’s stack size makes betting the flop awkward. Especially as he could shove semi-bluffs, bet-folding causes me to forfeit a lot of equity, but I don’t really want to bet-call either. I tanked a while before folding the river. Yes, he could easily be bluffing, but my entire range can beat a bluff, so I don’t need to call with all of it. I can have some 7s, maybe even some 8s or Js, and 66 and 55 make particularly good bluff-catchers as they block a few of his 7x and 8x combinations. Folding all of my non-pairs might still be a bit exploitable, but especially in a tournament I’m OK with that.

As it happened, Randal Flowers, who eliminated me from the previous 2K event and nearly busted me on the bubble of this one, ended up taking the last of my chips when his AK beat my KK.

The upside was that I got to spend some time outside and take a long walk. I’d planned on having today as a day off, and it felt that way even though it technically wasn’t. Here are some pics from my walk around Stanley Park:

Thanks to everyone who wished me well today or showed up to rail. I start tomorrow at 11AM Pacific playing all three Super Tuesday tournaments, though I’ll probably late register the Low and Medium PLO events at that time as well. I’ll post the new podcast tomorrow morning, but wanted to get this up first as I didn’t want to leave you hanging concerning results.

PokerStars – $2000+$100|40/80 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 126.5 BB (VPIP: 14.86, PFR: 8.11, 3Bet Preflop: 5.13, Hands: 75)
SB: 133.29 BB (VPIP: 8.11, PFR: 4.05, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 75)
Hero (BB): 101.28 BB
UTG: 94.94 BB (VPIP: 13.70, PFR: 9.59, 3Bet Preflop: 3.57, Hands: 74)
UTG+1: 125 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 4)
MP: 158.91 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 14.81, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 27)
MP+1: 142.38 BB (VPIP: 22.22, PFR: 18.06, 3Bet Preflop: 8.70, Hands: 74)
MP+2: 151.38 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 68)
CO: 100.48 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 49)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Qd Qc
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 2.5 BB, BTN raises to 7.5 BB, fold, Hero raises to 18.05 BB, fold, BTN raises to 126.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 83.23 BB and is all-in

Flop : (205.55 BB, 2 players) 5c 2s 6c

Turn : (205.55 BB, 2 players) 6s

River : (205.55 BB, 2 players) Kc

Hero shows Qd Qc (Two Pair, Queens and Sixes)
(Pre 18%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)

BTN shows Ac As (Two Pair, Aces and Sixes)
(Pre 82%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)

BTN wins 205.55 BB

In the afternoon events, I managed to get up stacks in both the $200 and the $2000, though I probably misplayed and got lucky on the first critical hand from the High:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|30/60 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG: 159.08 BB (VPIP: 21.28, PFR: 19.15, 3Bet Preflop: 5.00, Hands: 48)
UTG+1: 130.07 BB (VPIP: 10.42, PFR: 4.17, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 48)
MP: 166.17 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 15.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 20)
MP+1: 166.67 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
MP+2: 165.33 BB (VPIP: 13.64, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 44)
CO: 152.48 BB (VPIP: 20.83, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 48)
BTN: 157.45 BB (VPIP: 19.57, PFR: 13.04, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 48)
SB: 169.05 BB (VPIP: 21.62, PFR: 13.51, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 37)
Hero (BB): 150 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has As Ks
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 9.5 BB, MP+1 calls 6.5 BB

Flop : (19.5 BB, 2 players) Th 7h 5s
Hero checks, MP+1 bets 10.43 BB, Hero calls 10.43 BB

Turn : (40.37 BB, 2 players) Qs
Hero checks, MP+1 bets 28.75 BB, Hero calls 28.75 BB

River : (97.87 BB, 2 players) 8s
Hero checks, MP+1 bets 66.15 BB, Hero raises to 101.32 BB and is all-in, MP+1 calls 35.17 BB

Hero shows As Ks (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 62%, Flop 41%, Turn 66%)

MP+1 shows Jh 9h (Straight, Queen High)
(Pre 38%, Flop 59%, Turn 34%)

Hero wins 300.5 BB

This is basically just weak-tight play on my part, but my thinking was that Villain wasn’t going to fold better to a turn shove. His sizing meant either a monster or a big draw, not a hand like JT that would fold to a shove. That leaves open the question of what exactly I’m going to do on blank rivers. Calling isn’t beyond me, but I think I’m better off just sticking it on the turn. It turns out I got the gin card on the river, which I want to be sure to acknowledge because I’ve been on the wrong end of some similar spots recently and I want to combat the selective memory of those spots.

For much of the day, I was stuck at a tough but interesting table with several good cash game players, including Dong Kim. That meant a lot more pots than usual were going to flops, as these players preferred to play post-flop rather than get into the pre-flop raising wars in which the tournament pros specialize. I usually prefer the former myself, but sensing less of an edge than usual in that regard, I switched to a strategy of employing larger open raises. That said, I did get in a nice value bet against Kim that, though not really a tough decision, gave me the warm and fuzzies:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|400/800 Ante 100 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 100.43 BB (VPIP: 19.85, PFR: 13.58, 3Bet Preflop: 7.81, Hands: 268)
CO: 30.25 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 15.11, 3Bet Preflop: 4.41, Hands: 141)
BTN: 74.91 BB (VPIP: 30.45, PFR: 23.02, 3Bet Preflop: 13.16, Hands: 266)
SB: 43.76 BB (VPIP: 19.62, PFR: 11.36, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 266)
Hero (BB): 60.52 BB
UTG: 85.96 BB (VPIP: 17.89, PFR: 10.53, 3Bet Preflop: 6.12, Hands: 96)
UTG+1: 40.53 BB (VPIP: 24.43, PFR: 15.33, 3Bet Preflop: 5.88, Hands: 265)
MP: 26.38 BB (VPIP: 32.58, PFR: 17.98, 3Bet Preflop: 3.20, Hands: 267)

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has Qs 6s
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.2 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.2 BB

Flop : (5.9 BB, 2 players) Ks Qc 9h
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn : (5.9 BB, 2 players) 3s
Hero checks, BTN checks

River : (5.9 BB, 2 players) 8h
Hero bets 4.17 BB, BTN calls 4.17 BB

Hero shows Qs 6s (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 55%, Flop 66%, Turn 86%)

BTN mucks Jc 9c (One Pair, Nines)
(Pre 45%, Flop 34%, Turn 14%)

Hero wins 14.23 BB

The main lesson here is that just because you are value betting a hand that is relatively weak in absolute terms doesn’t mean you should use small sizing. After the flop and turn action, any middle pair is a strong hand, and Kim will feel compelled to pay off even a somewhat large bet with weaker in order to prevent me from bluffing.

That’s not to say I never got outplayed postflop. Here’s one against another heads-up player where I may well have folded the best hand:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|700/1400 Ante 175 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG+1: 28.46 BB (VPIP: 19.06, PFR: 12.58, 3Bet Preflop: 7.19, Hands: 321)
MP: 35.01 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 14.00, 3Bet Preflop: 9.09, Hands: 50)
MP+1: 52.96 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 7)
MP+2: 65.05 BB (VPIP: 30.09, PFR: 22.33, 3Bet Preflop: 12.59, Hands: 319)
CO: 148.32 BB (VPIP: 26.92, PFR: 19.23, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 26)
Hero (BTN): 54.59 BB
SB: 57.54 BB (VPIP: 20.95, PFR: 11.49, 3Bet Preflop: 7.04, Hands: 149)
BB: 39.88 BB (VPIP: 24.76, PFR: 15.92, 3Bet Preflop: 6.52, Hands: 318)
UTG: 121.86 BB (VPIP: 19.11, PFR: 13.16, 3Bet Preflop: 4.48, Hands: 157)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Ks Kd
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2.25 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 6.35 BB, fold, fold, MP+1 calls 4.1 BB

Flop : (15.32 BB, 2 players) 5h 9h 3c
MP+1 checks, Hero bets 6.35 BB, MP+1 calls 6.35 BB

Turn : (28.02 BB, 2 players) 7h
MP+1 bets 7.13 BB, Hero calls 7.13 BB

River : (42.28 BB, 2 players) Qs
MP+1 bets 33.01 BB and is all-in, fold

MP+1 wins 42.28 BB

I don’t know that here’s anything I can do but fold my actual hand, but it sucks playing with players good enough to take advantage of spots like this one. With the Kh, I think I would have called.

The nice thing about SCOOP is that, even many hours into a $2K, you do still get some truly weak players, and I managed to double through one of them:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|600/1200 Ante 150 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 36.52 BB (VPIP: 19.74, PFR: 13.03, 3Bet Preflop: 7.43, Hands: 310)
MP+2: 88.66 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 10.26, 3Bet Preflop: 5.56, Hands: 39)
CO: 33.59 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 4.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 25)
BTN: 73.91 BB (VPIP: 29.87, PFR: 22.48, 3Bet Preflop: 13.08, Hands: 308)
SB: 116.29 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 15)
Hero (BB): 41.91 BB
UTG: 51.65 BB (VPIP: 19.71, PFR: 10.95, 3Bet Preflop: 6.06, Hands: 138)
UTG+1: 52.29 BB (VPIP: 25.33, PFR: 16.17, 3Bet Preflop: 6.72, Hands: 307)
MP: 147.98 BB (VPIP: 19.86, PFR: 13.48, 3Bet Preflop: 4.84, Hands: 146)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has 8d 8s
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, Hero calls 2 BB

Flop : (7.63 BB, 2 players) 9h 5h 7d
Hero checks, CO bets 6 BB, Hero raises to 38.78 BB and is all-in, CO calls 24.47 BB and is all-in

Turn : (68.56 BB, 2 players) 9s

River : (68.56 BB, 2 players) Kh

Hero shows 8d 8s (Two Pair, Nines and Eights)
(Pre 67%, Flop 81%, Turn 89%)

CO shows Qc 7c (Two Pair, Nines and Sevens)
(Pre 33%, Flop 19%, Turn 11%)

Hero wins 68.56 BB

Despite all of this, I was whiffing a lot post-flop and Kim had the button when I had the BB so I wasn’t getting any walks easy BB defenses. By the time the bubble rolled around, I had barely 10BBs and was forced to make some tight folds, including AJs facing a raise from a pretty active player.

On the exact bubble, I was dealt JJ in middle position. I think the big jump from no prize to $4000, followed by very gradual prize increases thereafter, would have forced me to fold it if someone had opened in front. It seemed too good not to open jam, though, even on the bubble, so I shipped it. None other than Randal Flowers, who’d busted me in the morning $2K, quickly shoved over the top. I actually said out loud, “Are you FUCKING kidding me?!”, which is quite out of character. Thankfully he “just” had AKs so I had a few heart-stopping seconds to sweat but I did manage the cash.

Once we were in the money I was pretty card dead but won one more flip for my tournament life, which means I’m coming into Day 2 with just over 20 BBs, in 71st place out of 86 remaining players. Play restarts at 11:30 AM Pacific time, and I’ll probably late register the triple stack at that time as well.

Of course you have to accept more of that when you play in tougher tournaments, and yesterday’s 6-max shootout and today’s 4-max both featured tough fields. Furthermore, because they were short-handed, there were a lot more spots where it both my opponent and I began with wide ranges, which introduces more variance and more opportunities for coolers and bluff coolers.

The 4-max met my expectations in the sense that there were a lot of accomplished tournament players, but many of them were (IMO) playing overly aggressive. For whatever reason, even many very good players approach 4-max more aggressively than they do a ring game table in which the first five players have folded, though strategically they ought to be the same (or even a bit tighter in 4-max, during ante levels).

What was frustrating was that players with extremely wide ranges kept making monster hands against me:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|15/30 NL (4 max) – Holdem – 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 170.33 BB (VPIP: 35.71, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
Hero (BB): 157.83 BB
CO: 315.47 BB (VPIP: 41.67, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 13)
BTN: 167.67 BB (VPIP: 66.67, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 3)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Tc 7s
fold, fold, SB raises to 2.4 BB, Hero calls 1.4 BB

Flop : (4.8 BB, 2 players) 5s 8c 5c
SB bets 2.4 BB, Hero calls 2.4 BB

Turn : (9.6 BB, 2 players) Ts
SB checks, Hero bets 9.6 BB, SB raises to 24 BB, Hero calls 14.4 BB

River : (57.6 BB, 2 players) Ac
SB bets 36 BB, Hero calls 36 BB

SB shows 8s 5d (Full House, Fives full of Eights)
(Pre 37%, Flop 99%, Turn 95%)

Hero mucks Tc 7s (Two Pair, Tens and Fives)
(Pre 63%, Flop 1%, Turn 5%)

SB wins 129.6 BB

My entire play in this hand is premised on the assumption that Villain’s range is wider than it should be, which given that he shows up with 85o seems like a reasonable assumption. So I float the flop with backdoors and, in all likelihood, two live cards.

On the turn, he’s either giving up or bluff-catching (or trapping, though only a very small portion of his range is strong enough for that), which is why I’m going for a big value bet. The raise is worrisome, but my pot-sized bet is a bit “out of rhythm” and may induce some spazziness (as I said, the 4-max was full of over-aggressive play), so I think my hand is too good to fold. The river is not as bad as it looks, because I don’t think Villain will value bet a bare 5, especially not for a big bet, and I can’t imagine Villain taking this line with all of his flush draws on the turn. It may, however, look like a very good card for Villain to fire again if he was bluffing the turn. Believe it or not, I feel pretty good about my line on this one.

I feel a little less good about this next one:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|20/40 NL (4 max) – Holdem – 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 115.55 BB (VPIP: 35.71, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
Hero (BTN): 152.6 BB
SB: 316.28 BB (VPIP: 43.18, PFR: 27.27, 3Bet Preflop: 11.76, Hands: 46)
BB: 149.05 BB (VPIP: 62.86, PFR: 22.86, 3Bet Preflop: 5.88, Hands: 36)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Ks 8h
fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, BB calls 2 BB

Flop : (6.5 BB, 2 players) 3c 3h 8c
BB checks, Hero bets 3.25 BB, BB raises to 10.5 BB, Hero calls 7.25 BB

Turn : (27.5 BB, 2 players) 4d
BB bets 20 BB, Hero calls 20 BB

River : (67.5 BB, 2 players) 6h
BB bets 47.5 BB, Hero calls 47.5 BB

BB shows Jd 3d (Three of a Kind, Threes)
(Pre 41%, Flop 91%, Turn 95%)

Hero mucks Ks 8h (Two Pair, Eights and Threes)
(Pre 59%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)

BB wins 162.5 BB

I half-pot my entire range on this flop, which makes this hand quite close to the top. Really, even from the button, I don’t have much 3x in my range. Clubs miss on the turn and Villain may have picked up a gutshot or just be firing again, so I call again. River is where I think a fold is possible. Villain was a weaker player, and although spazzing isn’t out of the question for him, and this probably is one of the best bluff-catchers in my range as it blocks 88 (which, say, KK would not), it might be best just to make an exploitive fold. It definitely “felt” like he had it, though I’m less inclined to rely on that kind of feeling when I’ve been running bad because of “monsters under the bed” syndrome.

This last one is the best example of running into a tough spot because of the field. It was against Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|25/50 NL (4 max) – Holdem – 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 154.36 BB (VPIP: 40.38, PFR: 30.77, 3Bet Preflop: 19.05, Hands: 55)
Hero (CO): 61.64 BB
BTN: 188.34 BB (VPIP: 45.78, PFR: 31.33, 3Bet Preflop: 15.63, Hands: 87)
SB: 182.44 BB (VPIP: 45.95, PFR: 21.62, 3Bet Preflop: 5.71, Hands: 77)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 8s 9s
Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (4.5 BB, 2 players) Qc 4h 7s
BB checks, Hero bets 2.24 BB, BB calls 2.24 BB

Turn : (8.98 BB, 2 players) 5s
BB checks, Hero bets 6.72 BB, BB calls 6.72 BB

River : (22.42 BB, 2 players) 2s
BB checks, Hero bets 16.8 BB, BB raises to 66.64 BB, fold

BB wins 56.02 BB

Against most people I’d consider this a, not exactly easy, but definitely correct fold. I can only beat a bluff, and while two spades makes for a pretty good bluff-catchers, a lot of people are just never bluffing here. Does Lichtenberger fall into that category? I probably shouldn’t assume so. The more I think about it, the more I think my range can include at least sets and 86, so even though this is one of the worst flushes I can have, I might just have to suck it up and call. I want to emphasize, though, that this is only a gross spot because of who the Villain is. I really think it’s a clear fold otherwise, crazy as that may seem.

I busted with AJs vs 99 in the blinds, so I guess I got what I asked for in that regard.

The Variable Level Times was a neat format. Stacks started extremely deep – 25,000 BBs, to be precise – but blinds went up every 3 minutes at first. Over time, the blind increases got less frequent. There was a LOT of craziness in those early levels. People were really not adjusting well to the deep stacks and playing all kinds of junky hands out of position. Unfortunately I didn’t get much opportunity to take advantage, but the mistakes were plain to see.

I made a pretty big fold with a flush in this one as well:

PokerStars – $665+$35|600/1200 Ante 150 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 28.35 BB (VPIP: 23.53, PFR: 23.53, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
BTN: 74.15 BB (VPIP: 31.62, PFR: 16.24, 3Bet Preflop: 6.52, Hands: 120)
SB: 109.83 BB (VPIP: 35.88, PFR: 23.08, 3Bet Preflop: 15.09, Hands: 132)
BB: 38.83 BB (VPIP: 28.57, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 33.33, Hands: 14)
UTG: 22.73 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 20.39, 3Bet Preflop: 2.22, Hands: 106)
Hero (MP): 82.32 BB

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has Qc Js
fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, CO raises to 4.5 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 2.5 BB

Flop : (11.25 BB, 2 players) Kc Tc 2c
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn : (11.25 BB, 2 players) 7c
Hero checks, CO bets 5.5 BB, Hero calls 5.5 BB

River : (22.25 BB, 2 players) 5h
Hero checks, CO bets 18.23 BB and is all-in, fold

CO wins 22.25 BB

For better or worse, if Villain had bet the flop, we could have gotten all in. His range for 3-betting and then checking the flop has a LOT of Ax in it, though, and not a whole lot else. Among other things, this is a very plausible line for AcK, AcQ, and AcA. If he were going to bluff, I think he’d most likely just bet the flop. This isn’t exactly a fluke turn card. It’s irrelevant that I have the Queen when he shoves. He’s either got the nuts or a bluff, and I’m proud of myself for laying this one down.

I busted this one on a coin flip as well, AK < 77.

I’m not going to skip a Sunday, so I’ll be starting at 8AM Pacific in the Warm-Up. There’s a good chance I’ll take Monday off, though, unless I”m not able to because of a Day Two!

The field in the $2K 6-Max was no joke, either. My Round One opponents consisted of three top-notch tournament players (Amak16, P0cket00, and SmokRokFlok) and a sixth player I didn’t recognize. Honestly, I was a bit intimidated. Not that I didn’t think I could hold my own, but I certainly wasn’t expecting much of an edge.

That last player turned out to be pretty weak, which was a relief, and it wasn’t as tough as I thought to spot fundamental leaks in the other players’ games. Two of them quickly ran PFRs into the 30s, and people were just generally playing too many hands pre-flop. Of course they were tough post-flop, but if everyone is tough post-flop, then the player with the best pre-flop ranges has the edge. I aimed for that player to be me.

I think I accomplished that, but I still had to be tough post-flop, and that’s where my chips got off to:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|30/60 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 64.28 BB
BB: 157.52 BB (VPIP: 45.83, PFR: 29.17, 3Bet Preflop: 13.64, Hands: 49)
UTG: 28.67 BB (VPIP: 31.37, PFR: 22.00, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 52)
CO: 160.78 BB (VPIP: 26.53, PFR: 16.33, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 49)
BTN: 88.75 BB (VPIP: 16.95, PFR: 8.47, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 59)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 4s 4h
fold, fold, BTN raises to 2.15 BB, Hero calls 1.65 BB, BB calls 1.15 BB

Flop : (6.45 BB, 3 players) 7s 5d 2c
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN checks

Turn : (6.45 BB, 3 players) 5h
Hero checks, BB bets 3.22 BB, BTN calls 3.22 BB, Hero calls 3.22 BB

River : (16.1 BB, 3 players) Ah
Hero checks, BB checks, BTN bets 8.7 BB, Hero raises to 25.45 BB, fold, BTN calls 16.75 BB

Hero shows 4s 4h (Two Pair, Fives and Fours)
(Pre 54%, Flop 76%, Turn 80%)

BTN shows Kc As (Two Pair, Aces and Fives)
(Pre 46%, Flop 24%, Turn 20%)

BTN wins 67 BB

I don’t think his call with this hand speaks to the value of the bluff one way or the other. Ax is the vast majority of his range here, and he needs to call with some of it, and he might as well include AK in his calling range in case I’m ever going for thin value with a worse Ace. So I either ran into the top of his range, or he’s never folding any Ace, which would make the bluff bad – can’t tell from the results.

I do think this is a good bluffing candidate. My range for overcalling the flop is not wide, I suppose I could have 86s though I don’t think I’d call with that pre, so this is both the bottom of my range and blocks 54s which may be relevant.

I took two “gambles” in the $1000, putting the money in with hands I usually would not because of the bounties. The first seemed pretty straight-forward:

PokerStars – $500+$500+$50|50/100 Ante 10 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 151.59 BB (VPIP: 27.03, PFR: 18.92, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 37)
Hero (BB): 114.91 BB
UTG: 46.2 BB (VPIP: 27.27, PFR: 18.18, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 11)
UTG+1: 23.84 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 21.43, 3Bet Preflop: 9.68, Hands: 70)
MP: 184.24 BB (VPIP: 27.88, PFR: 12.12, 3Bet Preflop: 8.75, Hands: 165)
MP+1: 51.98 BB (VPIP: 13.58, PFR: 8.64, 3Bet Preflop: 1.33, Hands: 163)
MP+2: 36.25 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
CO: 87.32 BB (VPIP: 27.66, PFR: 16.43, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 141)
BTN: 45.75 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has Td 9d
fold, fold, fold, fold, MP+2 raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, SB calls 1.5 BB, Hero raises to 8 BB, MP+2 raises to 36.15 BB and is all-in, fold, Hero calls 28.15 BB

Flop : (75.2 BB, 2 players) 2h 5d Qc

Turn : (75.2 BB, 2 players) 7s

River : (75.2 BB, 2 players) Qd

Hero shows Td 9d (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 38%, Flop 27%, Turn 14%)

MP+2 shows As Js (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 62%, Flop 73%, Turn 86%)

MP+2 wins 75.2 BB

The real question is whether to squeeze with the intention of calling in the first place. Once he shoves, calling needing just 37% equity even in the absence of the bounty is pretty trivial with a strong suited connector. Flatting pre-flop has some merit, and although I like having a shot at winning the pot immediately, my hand’s equity does hold up well in a multi-way pot, and I can also take a shot at Villain’s stack post-flop (as it happens, though, I may well have been bet off of a good bet of equity if I’d gone to the flop).

After the tournament, I took a walk and began to question this second call in my head. Then I crunched some numbers and it turns out to be a clear call:

PokerStars – $500+$500+$50|75/150 Ante 20 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+1: 110.57 BB (VPIP: 27.06, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 13.33, Hands: 85)
Hero (MP+2): 38.44 BB
CO: 68.59 BB (VPIP: 11.11, PFR: 11.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 18)
BTN: 46.95 BB (VPIP: 32.20, PFR: 13.56, 3Bet Preflop: 5.45, Hands: 118)
SB: 149.75 BB (VPIP: 28.64, PFR: 13.15, 3Bet Preflop: 8.00, Hands: 213)
BB: 20.25 BB (VPIP: 12.86, PFR: 7.62, 3Bet Preflop: 1.03, Hands: 211)
UTG: 25.03 BB (VPIP: 23.33, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 30)
UTG+1: 58.2 BB (VPIP: 27.13, PFR: 15.51, 3Bet Preflop: 2.35, Hands: 189)
MP: 84.79 BB (VPIP: 32.14, PFR: 23.21, 3Bet Preflop: 6.90, Hands: 56)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.7 BB) Hero has 4d 4s
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2 BB, Hero calls 2 BB, fold, BTN calls 2 BB, fold, BB raises to 20.12 BB and is all-in, fold, Hero raises to 38.31 BB and is all-in, fold

Flop : (45.94 BB, 2 players) 2s Ts Qs

Turn : (45.94 BB, 2 players) Ks

River : (45.94 BB, 2 players) Jc

BTN mucks 7h 7d (One Pair, Sevens)
(Pre 0%, Flop 0%, Turn 0%)

BB shows Ad As (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 82%, Flop 93%, Turn 100%)

Hero shows 4d 4s (Flush, King High)
(Pre 18%, Flop 7%, Turn 0%)

BB wins 45.94 BB

Against {77+,KQs,KQo,ATs+,AJo+} it’s barely a fold even without the bounty. Tightening Villain’s range slightly by removing the KQo and KQs barely changes my equity at all, and pulling out the ATs and AJo makes a bit closer but still a call given the bounty. I really can’t imagine his range being any tighter than that.

Tomorrow is Big Antes at 8AM Pacific and then 6Max Shootout at 11AM, the latter of which is another I’m really looking forward to.

The $700 Ante Up was disappointing because I love the format and look forward to the tournament, but despite some good luck in all-in pots, there was just too much going wrong. I got some bad runouts, and despite making some big laydowns (AQo pre-flop, flopped trips, flopped top pair, that kinda stuff), I think the biggest mistake I made in the tournament – probably the biggest mistake I’ve made in the SCOOP so far – was not folding this on the turn:

PokerStars – $665+$35|5/5 Ante 100 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 3451.2 BB (VPIP: 61.82, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 55)
BB: 1430.8 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 9.52, 3Bet Preflop: 6.52, Hands: 84)
UTG: 1060.2 BB (VPIP: 63.64, PFR: 10.91, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 55)
UTG+1: 1659.2 BB
MP: 2451.6 BB (VPIP: 58.18, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 12.90, Hands: 55)
MP+1: 2633 BB (VPIP: 50.91, PFR: 5.45, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 55)
Hero (MP+2): 1275.8 BB
CO: 2889.2 BB (VPIP: 60.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BTN: 1385.4 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 16.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 50)

9 players post ante of 20 BB, SB posts SB 1 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 182 BB) Hero has Kd Ks
UTG calls 1 BB, UTG+1 calls 1 BB, MP calls 1 BB, MP+1 calls 1 BB, Hero calls 1 BB, CO calls 1 BB, BTN calls 1 BB, SB checks, BB checks

Flop : (189 BB, 9 players) Js 2c 9d
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 bets 1 BB, MP calls 1 BB, MP+1 calls 1 BB, Hero raises to 111 BB, fold, BTN calls 111 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold

Turn : (414 BB, 2 players) Qc
Hero checks, BTN bets 246.8 BB, Hero calls 246.8 BB

River : (907.6 BB, 2 players) 9h
Hero checks, BTN bets 1006.6 BB and is all-in, fold

BTN wins 907.6 BB

Limping behind pre-flop is certainly risky, but at this stack size I’m not going to have a raise-fold range, and there were still four players to act, including an over-active button who was raising really wide ranges in a lot of bad spots. I’d say there was a 60%-70% chance someone was going to re-open the betting after I limped.

I really don’t know what I’m beating on the turn. AQ and probably KQ raise pre, not to mention I block KQ, and Villain isn’t likely to have a bluff after calling the flop. Not to mention that even if he is bluffing, he’ll shove most rivers, and there aren’t many I can call.

If you’re curious for more Ante Up strategy, I’ve got a whole series about it on Tournament Poker Edge.

I’ll be back at it at 11AM Pacific tomorrow in the $1K Progressive Super Knock-Out.

I won Round One of the $700 in dramatic fashion:

PokerStars – $665+$35|40/80 NL (2 max) – Holdem – 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 58.33 BB
BB: 66.68 BB (VPIP: 76.81, PFR: 44.93, 3Bet Preflop: 17.65, Hands: 72)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Ah Ks
Hero raises to 2 BB, BB raises to 5.5 BB, Hero raises to 12.49 BB, BB calls 6.99 BB

Flop : (24.98 BB, 2 players) 9h 4h 3c
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn : (24.98 BB, 2 players) 3h
BB bets 15.25 BB, Hero calls 15.25 BB

River : (55.48 BB, 2 players) 6d
BB bets 38.94 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 30.59 BB and is all-in

BB shows 8d 5d (One Pair, Threes)
(Pre 40%, Flop 23%, Turn 9%)

Hero shows Ah Ks (One Pair, Threes)
(Pre 60%, Flop 77%, Turn 91%)

Hero wins 116.65 BB

Unfortunately in Round 2 I went down to a bad beat and a cooler:

PokerStars – $665+$35|40/80 NL (2 max) – Holdem – 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 71.3 BB
BB: 53.7 BB (VPIP: 78.26, PFR: 53.62, 3Bet Preflop: 14.71, Hands: 70)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has 7h 9c
Hero raises to 2 BB, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (4 BB, 2 players) Kh 7s 4d
BB checks, Hero bets 2 BB, BB raises to 6.8 BB, Hero calls 4.8 BB

Turn : (17.6 BB, 2 players) 7c
BB bets 10.55 BB, Hero calls 10.55 BB

River : (38.7 BB, 2 players) Js
BB bets 34.35 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 34.35 BB

BB shows 4s 4h (Full House, Fours full of Sevens)
(Pre 51%, Flop 98%, Turn 84%)

Hero shows 7h 9c (Three of a Kind, Sevens)
(Pre 49%, Flop 2%, Turn 16%)

BB wins 107.4 BB

PokerStars – $665+$35|40/80 NL (2 max) – Holdem – 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (SB): 98.35 BB
BB: 26.65 BB (VPIP: 76.92, PFR: 53.85, 3Bet Preflop: 15.63, Hands: 66)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Qc Qh
Hero raises to 2 BB, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (4 BB, 2 players) 2c 7s Js
BB checks, Hero bets 2 BB, BB calls 2 BB

Turn : (8 BB, 2 players) Kh
BB checks, Hero bets 6 BB, BB raises to 22.65 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 16.65 BB

River : (53.3 BB, 2 players) 9h

BB shows Tc Qs (Straight, King High)
(Pre 11%, Flop 9%, Turn 18%)

Hero shows Qc Qh (One Pair, Queens)
(Pre 89%, Flop 91%, Turn 82%)

BB wins 53.3 BB

I got to take a few minutes off before the rebuy events started. I got off to a good start in the $700, then ran into this spot:

PokerStars – $665+$35|200/400 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 37.5 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 9.76, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 42)
MP+1: 12.62 BB (VPIP: 21.31, PFR: 21.67, 3Bet Preflop: 3.85, Hands: 61)
MP+2: 13.15 BB (VPIP: 12.77, PFR: 9.09, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 47)
CO: 18.98 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 42)
Hero (BTN): 64.76 BB
SB: 48.04 BB (VPIP: 19.05, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 42)
BB: 43.54 BB (VPIP: 26.19, PFR: 19.05, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 42)
UTG: 23.57 BB (VPIP: 18.52, PFR: 12.77, 3Bet Preflop: 3.45, Hands: 189)
UTG+1: 14.23 BB (VPIP: 21.43, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 5.00, Hands: 42)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Ad Qc
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, SB raises to 5.95 BB, fold, Hero raises to 13.89 BB, SB raises to 47.92 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 34.03 BB

Flop : (97.96 BB, 2 players) 6h 9d Tc

Turn : (97.96 BB, 2 players) Kh

River : (97.96 BB, 2 players) 9s

SB shows Ac Kd (Two Pair, Kings and Nines)
(Pre 75%, Flop 84%, Turn 91%)

Hero shows Ad Qc (One Pair, Nines)
(Pre 25%, Flop 16%, Turn 9%)

SB wins 97.96 BB

Getting it in pre is on the thin side, but I don’t see how else to play it. I guess flatting the 3-bet is an option, but even for 50 bigs AQ is a pretty big hand button vs SB.

I got the last of my money in good, but I’m still not sure I played it optimally:

PokerStars – $665+$35|250/500 Ante 60 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 31.23 BB (VPIP: 19.75, PFR: 19.23, 3Bet Preflop: 3.23, Hands: 81)
BB: 19.08 BB (VPIP: 11.67, PFR: 8.77, 3Bet Preflop: 3.85, Hands: 60)
UTG: 14.72 BB (VPIP: 14.55, PFR: 12.73, 3Bet Preflop: 4.17, Hands: 55)
Hero (UTG+1): 16.51 BB
MP: 99.18 BB (VPIP: 21.82, PFR: 18.52, 3Bet Preflop: 8.70, Hands: 55)
MP+1: 24.02 BB (VPIP: 25.45, PFR: 16.36, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 55)
CO: 4.48 BB (VPIP: 17.82, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 202)
BTN: 11.89 BB (VPIP: 21.82, PFR: 16.98, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 55)

8 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.46 BB) Hero has Ah Ks
fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (5.46 BB, 2 players) 5h 2h 9c
BB checks, Hero bets 1.8 BB, BB raises to 15.5 BB, Hero calls 12.59 BB and is all-in

Turn : (34.24 BB, 2 players) 7h

River : (34.24 BB, 2 players) 6c

BB shows Th 6h (Flush, Ten High)
(Pre 37%, Flop 49%, Turn 84%)

Hero shows Ah Ks (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 63%, Flop 51%, Turn 16%)

BB wins 34.24 BB

Arguably just shoving pre is better. I do have a raise-fold range from this stack size, though, and I definitely do get three-bet when I open in spots like this. I could also see checking or jamming flop, too. I mean, it’s not like I WANT action from Th 6h.

I’ll be playing again tomorrow starting at 11AM Pacific with the $2000 Super Tuesday replacement. I usually tweet interesting hands while I’m playing, so if you aren’t already, you might want to follow @thinkingpoker.

I had a bit of friction coming into Canada yesterday, nothing too serious, but the most difficult I’ve encountered on any or my trips here. The first customs agent asked me the usual questions but seemed satisfied with my answers and sent me on my way. Thinking I was in the clear, I retrieved my bag and went to leave the airport, handing my declaration form to another customs agent on the way out. The first agent must have marked something on there, because the second did a double take and then sent me to the immigration office.

The agent there was polite and a bit less aggressive than the customs people usually are, which was nice. He asked about how often I came to Canada, how long I planned to stay, and where I planned to stay. He also asked whether poker was my only source of income, and when I mentioned coaching and writing, he asked whether my writing was entirely online. I’m not really sure why that was important, but he told me to leave my bag and have a seat, then he disappeared for at least fifteen minutes.

Finally he returned and told me I’d be allowed in (he never actually inspected my bag). He said they’d had problems with online poker players staying in Canada for months at a time, returning to the US only briefly, and then coming back to Canada again. Apparently my track record of relatively brief visits over the last few years reassured them, and I was allowed into the country. Still, this was a bit of a scare, and also significant for being the first time a customs/immigration officer I’ve dealt with has demonstrated an awareness of the phenomenon of US poker players coming to Canada to play online.

Now that I’m here, it’s great to be playing the SCOOP on the west coast. Event 1 started at 5AM, which was early even for me, but from here on out none of the tournaments starts before 8AM or after 2PM. 8AM might sound early to some of you, but it’s roughly when I tend to wake up anyway, and I’m glad not to have events starting at 5PM and running until 5AM (I skipped several events last year for this reason).

I late registered all three Event 1s and came somewhat close to cashing in the $1K, ultimately busting on a coin flip:

PokerStars – $1000+$50|250/500 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 34.46 BB (VPIP: 26.92, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
MP+1: 26.33 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 11.54, 3Bet Preflop: 21.43, Hands: 26)
MP+2: 25.08 BB (VPIP: 24.44, PFR: 15.56, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 45)
CO: 41.15 BB (VPIP: 12.33, PFR: 5.48, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 73)
Hero (BTN): 30.1 BB
SB: 13.1 BB (VPIP: 23.08, PFR: 11.54, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
BB: 14.84 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 8.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 26)
UTG: 40.98 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 26)
UTG+1: 75.37 BB (VPIP: 26.92, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 26)

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has Jh Ac
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 5 BB, fold, fold, CO raises to 41.05 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 25 BB and is all-in

Flop : (62.4 BB, 2 players) 3s 4c 9h

Turn : (62.4 BB, 2 players) 6h

River : (62.4 BB, 2 players) 4s

CO shows 6d 6s (Full House, Sixes full of Fours)
(Pre 55%, Flop 76%, Turn 100%)

Hero shows Jh Ac (One Pair, Fours)
(Pre 45%, Flop 24%, Turn 0%)

CO wins 62.4 BB

Relatively standard I think, though I can see a case for flatting pre-flop as well.

The 6-max progressive knock-out was a lot of fun, and I wish I’d lasted longer in that one. I got off to a pretty good start, three-betting quite a bit against a very active player on my right and generally getting the better of the many pots we played together. Then I lost a chunk running JJ into his QQ. I would have been ready to lose it all, but he just flatted my three-bet out of position, and we didn’t end up getting stacks in post.

I once again miraculously managed not to go broke here:

PokerStars – $1000+$1000+$100|75/150 Ante 20 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG: 60.97 BB (VPIP: 5.88, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
MP: 282.54 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 22)
CO: 61.31 BB (VPIP: 47.37, PFR: 32.43, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 38)
BTN: 147.22 BB (VPIP: 35.96, PFR: 19.70, 3Bet Preflop: 2.17, Hands: 203)
SB: 77.58 BB (VPIP: 24.50, PFR: 13.91, 3Bet Preflop: 5.13, Hands: 155)
Hero (BB): 61.95 BB

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.3 BB) Hero has Qd Ks
fold, fold, CO raises to 2.16 BB, BTN calls 2.16 BB, fold, Hero calls 1.16 BB

Flop : (7.78 BB, 3 players) 6s Qh As
Hero checks, CO bets 3.5 BB, fold, Hero calls 3.5 BB

Turn : (14.78 BB, 2 players) Qs
Hero checks, CO bets 12.5 BB, Hero calls 12.5 BB

River : (39.78 BB, 2 players) 7s
Hero checks, CO bets 14 BB, Hero calls 14 BB

CO shows Ac Ah (Full House, Aces full of Queens)
(Pre 86%, Flop 95%, Turn 98%)

Hero mucks Qd Ks (Flush, Ace High)
(Pre 14%, Flop 5%, Turn 2%)

CO wins 67.78 BB

Villain could have easily shoved the river, and given that there was a $500 bounty for eliminating me, I think he clearly should have.

Ultimately, I was busted by a player who went after my bounty a bit more aggressively:

PokerStars – $1000+$1000+$100|75/150 Ante 20 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 167.27 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
BB: 373.33 BB (VPIP: 41.30, PFR: 34.78, 3Bet Preflop: 40.00, Hands: 47)
UTG: 107.29 BB (VPIP: 52.38, PFR: 40.32, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 63)
MP: 61.73 BB (VPIP: 35.53, PFR: 18.86, 3Bet Preflop: 2.75, Hands: 228)
CO: 68.97 BB (VPIP: 23.30, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.30, Hands: 180)
Hero (BTN): 24.38 BB

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.3 BB) Hero has 2c 2h
fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 24.25 BB and is all-in, fold, BB calls 23.25 BB

Flop : (49.79 BB, 2 players) Tc Ah Ks

Turn : (49.79 BB, 2 players) 8h

River : (49.79 BB, 2 players) Th

BB shows 8d 2d (Two Pair, Tens and Eights)
(Pre 37%, Flop 15%, Turn 98%)

Hero shows 2c 2h (Two Pair, Tens and Twos)
(Pre 63%, Flop 85%, Turn 2%)

BB wins 49.79 BB

The most interesting pot I played was against Chris Moorman in the $2000 Sunday Million replacement:

PokerStars – $2000+$100|50/100 Ante 10 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (UTG): 135.17 BB
UTG+1: 105.97 BB (VPIP: 38.46, PFR: 23.08, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
MP: 69.55 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 8.89, 3Bet Preflop: 2.22, Hands: 91)
MP+1: 23.7 BB (VPIP: 21.11, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 4.76, Hands: 91)
MP+2: 108.03 BB (VPIP: 31.87, PFR: 19.78, 3Bet Preflop: 7.69, Hands: 91)
CO: 105.24 BB (VPIP: 22.47, PFR: 17.98, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 89)
BTN: 104.23 BB (VPIP: 20.69, PFR: 8.62, 3Bet Preflop: 2.94, Hands: 60)
SB: 103.1 BB (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
BB: 95.76 BB (VPIP: 16.44, PFR: 13.70, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 74)

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has As Ac
Hero raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO calls 3 BB, fold, fold, fold

Flop : (8.4 BB, 2 players) 3d 4c 7c
Hero checks, CO bets 4.2 BB, Hero calls 4.2 BB

Turn : (16.8 BB, 2 players) 7s
Hero checks, CO bets 8.4 BB, Hero calls 8.4 BB

River : (33.6 BB, 2 players) Jc
Hero checks, CO bets 22.39 BB, Hero calls 22.39 BB

CO shows 5d 5h (Two Pair, Sevens and Fives)
(Pre 20%, Flop 23%, Turn 14%)

Hero shows As Ac (Two Pair, Aces and Sevens)
(Pre 80%, Flop 77%, Turn 86%)

Hero wins 78.38 BB

It was all downhill from there, though. I was really card dead, barely opening at all and getting three-bet almost every time I did (except when I had Kings, of course!) Eventually I open jammed 13BBs with JJ and lost a flip to AK in the big blind.

Tomorrow is the heads up, which should be a lot of fun!

I was playing a particularly nitty $5/$10/$20 game where pretty much everyone except me was quite reluctant to lose whatever they had on the table. Naturally, I’d been leaning on them, especially the player on my right, even harder than usual. I’d also been catching kind of well, so there were a few pots where I actually had the goods but didn’t go to showdown,which probably made me seem even more aggressive than I was.

Villain open limps the CO, I limp behind with As 8h on the Button, SB folds, BB completes, and the straddle checks.

Flop ($80 in pot) Qs 8d 3s. Checks to me, I bet $20, BB calls, straddle folds, CO raises to $80, I call, BB folds. This is a tricky spot because although CO’s line is pretty suspect and I block several of the strongest hands he’s representing, it’s also a kinda odd spot for him to bluff. Then again, the underbet can induce some weird stuff, especially in a player who’s already annoyed. Plus backdoor nut draw!

Turn ($260 in pot) 8s. That’s the best card in the deck for me, unless it isn’t. Villain checks, and so do I.

River ($260 in pot) Ts. Villain bets $175. I raise to $375. He seems to waffle between calling and folding, counts at another $200, then suddenly grabs more chips and makes it $700 to go. I try to talk to him a bit, don’t pick up much but he definitely doesn’t seem uncomfortable. I fold.

There’s a lot going for a fold here, especially when you realize that if this is a bluff, it would probably be the first time in this guy’s life that he ever three-bet bluff the river. Then again, I have a tendency to bring that out in people!

I’m fine with folding the As here. But the As with a hugely significant blocker, getting better than 2.5:1? Against a player who is visibly annoyed with me? Think I shoulda called this one, but it’s closer than it seems when you just look at the hand details.

For what it’s worth, I did consider jamming as well, as 33 is the hand I’m most likely to lose to if I call, but Q8 and even QQ aren’t out of the question for Villain, and frankly I don’t think he was in the mood to fold a full house to me.

The hand took a long time on the river, so when it’s over there was a lot of speculation about what we had. Someone claimed we both had nothing, someone else insisted we both had big hands. I said something along the lines of, “I folded a big hand. Not a lot of people are good enough to bluff there,” but that didn’t get any kind of reaction from Villain. I have to imagine he would have been sorely tempted to show a bluff at that point (he still had his cards), but he also didn’t muck and then insist he was bluffing, which would be a plausible reaction if he weren’t bluffing, so who’s to say?

If I could have my cards back, I’d call. You?

UTG2 opens to $60, gets four calls, I call with 85s in the BB.

Flop A85r (no backdoor for me), checks to the second caller, who bets $170. I call, everyone else folds.

Turn A. We both check.

River 4.

At this point I’m almost certain he has a bare Ace, and 85 is the absolute worst hand I could have. In fact, my range otherwise consists only of Ax, straights, and flopped sets. In one sense, that makes it an easy bluff with 85, and I shouldn’t even really bet that much as Villain has an easy fold with most Ax (not that he should be betting that on the flop anyway, but this guy would). Then again, LOL at some live player, even a nit (which this guy is) folding trips for one bet on the river. $525 down the drain.

Don’t take the wrong lesson from this. There are plenty of situations where you should be thinking about how you’d play different parts of your range and actively thinking about your best bluffing candidates, using the strength of your range to determine whether you can value bet or what sizing to use, etc. Those are situations where you aren’t sure what your opponent will do with a specific hand, or you aren’t sure what he has. This just wasn’t one of those situations.

He open limped the CO for $10, I made it $40 with Ah 5h on the Button, the blinds folded, and he called.

The flop came Kh Qh Ts. He checked, I bet $75 (was experimenting with multiple bet sizes last night), and he called.

The turn was the Jh, he checked, and I bet $75 again because I was mostly targeting two-pair or a low-straight. I didn’t think he’d play much Ax this way, and I blocked a lot of flushes.

He tanked for a while, then raised $200. I was planning to 3-bet to $600, but I took my time, and he started giving off some really blatant weak-means-strong tells. He told I didn’t have anything, that I should just let him win a small pot, etc. At some point he asked if I had an Ace or a 9.

All of that made me aim a little higher, so I popped it to $700. He pushed out a stack worth about $1800, I shoved for his last $600 or so, he quickly called, and I tabled my hand even before the river came down because I thought I had the nuts. The river blanked off, and then he tabled the Th 9h. Even after I saw it, it took me a minute to realized I’d lost.

Despite the blatant tells, I don’t regret my play. I think he could behave the same with a lot of flushes, thinking that I just have an Ace.

UTG opens to $40, MP calls, I call with 4c 2c in the BB.

Flop ($125 in pot) 9c 5s 3h. I check, UTG bets $75, MP folds, I raise to $275, UTG makes it $640, I call.

Turn ($1405 in pot) 4h. I bet $800, UTG calls.

River ($3005 in pot) As. I shove for ~$3000, UTG calls with 99.

Pre-flop isn’t exactly standard, but MP was the weakest player at the table (overly loose, sizing tells, etc.), and although UTG seemed like a pretty decent player, I knew that he wasn’t one of the best regs, because even though I don’t play at Maryland Live that often I do know who the best pros there are.

I love my hand on this flop. As deep as we are, I’m more excited to have hit this than to have hit bottom set. The only hands I’d rather hold are top set, 76 with a backdoor, or 64 with a backdoor, in that order. This is a very easy check-raise. If you’re not clear on why, put yourself in UTG’s shoes and imagine how you’d feel about playing for stacks with anything less than 55 (which may not even be in his UTG range).

To be honest, I was skeptical of Villain’s three-bet. I’d actually won another pot recently at the must move table (Villain was already in the main game so wasn’t around to see this) by min-4-bet bluffing against another reg in a very similar spot. I can’t see him doing this with the intention to get stacks in unless he has a set or a big draw, and many players won’t take this line with those hands anyway. Because I had such a good draw, though, I decided to peel and pull the trigger on a later street.

The turn is a great card for my purposes, because it completes the most obvious draw. I can’t definitively exclude 76s from Villain’s range, but I had my doubts as to whether he’d open it pre and whether he’d three-bet the flop. I think he should do both, but even many pretty good mid-stakes live pros are too nitty about that sort of thing.

My biggest mistake here is the sizing. I planned to shove any river that didn’t pair the board (maybe not hearts either, just because he might not expect me to jam non-flushes for value although I would), and consequently I should have set up sizing so that I was betting more similar percentages of the pot on both streets. I think $1000 into $1400 on the turn and then $2800 into $3400 on the river would have worked out better.

Frankly, I think his river call is pretty bad. Most of my semi-bluffs have gotten there, and on this run-out I’m not shoving a lower set for value. This is what happens when you just think about “bluffs” generically rather than considering which exact hands your opponent would bluff with.

I was initially excited not only to win the pot but also to have a player sitting two seats to my right who still had me covered! As tempting as the prospect of winning a $20K pot was, he proved pretty nitty and it was getting late, so after an hour of unsuccessfully trying to provoke a confrontation with him, I cashed out and called it a night.

The Main got off to a good start. I felt much more confident playing with the 300 – 400BB stacks than most of my opponents, and I was really leaning on my position to take down pots. That set me up for this spot:

PokerStars – $5000+$200|30/60 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG+1: 404.28 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 8.89, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 45)
MP: 321.18 BB (VPIP: 12.00, PFR: 6.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 50)
MP+1: 336.22 BB (VPIP: 38.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 50)
Hero (MP+2): 329 BB
CO: 292.92 BB (VPIP: 22.45, PFR: 20.41, 3Bet Preflop: 4.35, Hands: 50)
BTN: 333.02 BB (VPIP: 17.65, PFR: 3.92, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 51)
SB: 300.98 BB (VPIP: 18.37, PFR: 12.24, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 49)
BB: 456.18 BB (VPIP: 18.37, PFR: 12.24, 3Bet Preflop: 12.00, Hands: 49)
UTG: 240.8 BB (VPIP: 20.14, PFR: 17.96, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 292)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Jd Jh
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2.52 BB, Hero raises to 7.55 BB, CO calls 7.55 BB, fold, SB calls 7.05 BB, fold, MP+1 calls 5.03 BB

Flop : (31.2 BB, 4 players) Ts Js 8c
SB checks, MP+1 checks, Hero bets 18.5 BB, fold, SB raises to 48.5 BB, fold, Hero raises to 321.45 fold

Hero wins 128.2 BB

I’m not entirely sure that shoving is the best play here, but I like it. I don’t really see Villain being on a stone bluff, I don’t think he’s cold calling the 3bet with Q9s or 97s, and there’s only one combination of JTs out there, so I think he very likely has either a lower set or a draw. If he has TT, he may not expect me to just shove with a bigger hand, in which case he may call. I don’t want to just call, because so many turns will be tough for me to play, I don’t think a smaller raise will induce him to shove a combo draw, and honestly getting him to fold a hand like Ks Qs or As Qs is not such a bad outcome for me.

He tanked for a really long time before folding. I think if it weren’t so early in such a major tournament he probably would have called.

Not long after that, I played two significant pots against the player on my left. The first was a small one but set up the second a bit:

PokerStars – $5000+$200|50/100 Ante 10 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 230.54 BB (VPIP: 16.90, PFR: 8.45, 3Bet Preflop: 2.94, Hands: 71)
MP+1: 170.58 BB (VPIP: 13.16, PFR: 6.58, 3Bet Preflop: 2.86, Hands: 76)
MP+2: 188.28 BB (VPIP: 30.26, PFR: 17.11, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 76)
Hero (CO): 243.53 BB
BTN: 180.28 BB (VPIP: 24.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 5.71, Hands: 76)
SB: 222.74 BB (VPIP: 23.38, PFR: 5.19, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 77)
BB: 194.5 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
UTG: 269.89 BB (VPIP: 21.33, PFR: 12.00, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 75)
UTG+1: 163.1 BB (VPIP: 21.34, PFR: 18.71, 3Bet Preflop: 10.49, Hands: 318)

9 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.4 BB) Hero has Kc Qd
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, BTN calls 2 BB, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (7.4 BB, 3 players) Kd 2d 8c
BB checks, Hero bets 3.7 BB, BTN calls 3.7 BB, fold

Turn : (14.8 BB, 2 players) 4h
Hero bets 9.36 BB, BTN calls 9.36 BB

River : (33.52 BB, 2 players) 8d
Hero checks, BTN bets 24 BB, fold

BTN wins 33.52 BB

Then he got me good with:

PokerStars – $5000+$200|125/250 Ante 30 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 62.36 BB (VPIP: 22.09, PFR: 14.11, 3Bet Preflop: 2.74, Hands: 165)
MP+1: 62.81 BB (VPIP: 18.34, PFR: 9.47, 3Bet Preflop: 2.47, Hands: 170)
MP+2: 84.74 BB (VPIP: 27.98, PFR: 16.07, 3Bet Preflop: 5.06, Hands: 170)
Hero (CO): 93.22 BB
BTN: 139.29 BB (VPIP: 31.36, PFR: 18.93, 3Bet Preflop: 7.23, Hands: 170)
SB: 57.36 BB (VPIP: 23.53, PFR: 7.65, 3Bet Preflop: 1.15, Hands: 171)
BB: 53.99 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 6.73, 3Bet Preflop: 1.89, Hands: 104)
UTG: 115.56 BB (VPIP: 18.93, PFR: 10.65, 3Bet Preflop: 7.50, Hands: 169)
UTG+1: 76.04 BB (VPIP: 20.10, PFR: 17.08, 3Bet Preflop: 8.84, Hands: 412)

9 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.58 BB) Hero has Kc 9h
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, BTN calls 2 BB, SB calls 1.5 BB, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (9.08 BB, 4 players) 5c 3s Ks
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 4.54 BB, BTN calls 4.54 BB, fold, fold

Turn : (18.16 BB, 2 players) 7c
Hero bets 9.11 BB, BTN calls 9.11 BB

River : (36.38 BB, 2 players) Kh
Hero checks, BTN bets 28 BB, Hero calls 28 BB

BTN shows Kd Js (Three of a Kind, Kings) (Pre 73%, Flop 86%, Turn 93%)
Hero mucks Kc 9h (Three of a Kind, Kings) (Pre 27%, Flop 14%, Turn 7%)
BTN wins 92.38 BB

That left me on a short stack, which is where I lingered for the next few hours. I didn’t get a lot of big hands or good shoving opportunities, but I was fortunate to win the first three times that I was all-in and called.

The two times that I did pick up big hands were at inconvenient times, with an awkward stack and a raise from an UTG player in front of me. When I had KK, the raiser called a small 3-bet and check-folded a rag flop. I felt like it was very obvious I had a huge hand, but I didn’t see any value in checking. The second time I had AK and the raiser called a small 3-bet and check-shoved a rag flop.

The hand I ultimately stacked off with warrants some discussion. Villain was not overly aggressive in general, but this wasn’t the first time he’d opened when I was in the BB, and many players will correctly open lighter with a short stack in the blind:

PokerStars – $5000+$200|400/800 Ante 100 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP+2: 49.8 BB (VPIP: 12.86, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 70)
CO: 25.35 BB (VPIP: 24.40, PFR: 21.84, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 211)
BTN: 84.78 BB (VPIP: 12.16, PFR: 10.81, 3Bet Preflop: 5.71, Hands: 74)
SB: 50.58 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 31.67, 3Bet Preflop: 11.54, Hands: 60)
Hero (BB): 14.63 BB
UTG: 25.1 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 10.91, 3Bet Preflop: 4.60, Hands: 165)
UTG+1: 220.18 BB (VPIP: 20.55, PFR: 10.96, 3Bet Preflop: 6.98, Hands: 74)
MP: 28.41 BB (VPIP: 19.35, PFR: 9.31, 3Bet Preflop: 4.03, Hands: 250)
MP+1: 112.6 BB (VPIP: 21.11, PFR: 17.53, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 200)

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has 5h Ah
UTG raises to 2.19 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 1.69 BB, Hero calls 1.19 BB

Flop : (7.69 BB, 3 players) 5d 9h 7c
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG bets 3.09 BB, fold, Hero raises to 12.32 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 9.22 BB

Turn : (32.32 BB, 2 players) Kd

River : (32.32 BB, 2 players) 4c

Hero shows 5h Ah (One Pair, Fives) (Pre 34%, Flop 25%, Turn 11%)
UTG shows Qs Qd (One Pair, Queens) (Pre 66%, Flop 75%, Turn 89%)
UTG wins 32.32 BB

Against a calling range of {77+,76s,87s,98s,T9s}, I have 21.5% equity in a 32BB pot. When he folds, I win 11BB. If I did the algebra correctly, I need him to fold about 60% of the time.

That calling range is 3.5% of the deck, so I need him to show up with 9% when he bets flop. In a heads up pot, I’m sure he would. I don’t know how much the SB’s call will deter UTG from continuation betting with air, but it may well be enough to make shoving a bad idea.

Villain is a well-known Australian pro, a very successful tournament player whose specialty is NLHE but whom I’ve often encountered in non-hold ’em games and surely has a better idea of what he’s doing than I do.

PokerStars Hand #121971038991: Tournament #948919234, $500+$30 USD Razz Limit – Level IX (300/600) – 2014/09/23 17:04:54 ET
Table ‘948919234 12′ 8-max
Seat 1: AceSpades11 (6520 in chips)
Seat 2: V-MAX261 (14197 in chips)
Seat 3: thegosu2 (4974 in chips)
Seat 4: kalthor (6978 in chips)
Seat 5: Koziammo (13562 in chips)
Seat 6: dimmmmi1 (7353 in chips)
Seat 7: Andy McLEOD (13680 in chips)
Seat 8: foucault82 (8505 in chips)

*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to AceSpades11 [Qs]
Dealt to V-MAX261 [2s]
Dealt to thegosu2 [Jh]
Dealt to kalthor [8h]
Dealt to Koziammo [6d]
Dealt to dimmmmi1 [Tc]
Dealt to Andy McLEOD [5c]
Dealt to foucault82 [5h Qc 2h]
AceSpades11: brings in for 90
V-MAX261: folds
thegosu2: folds
kalthor: folds
Koziammo: folds
dimmmmi1: folds
Andy McLEOD: raises 210 to 300
foucault82: calls 300
AceSpades11: folds
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to Andy McLEOD [5c] [9h]
Dealt to foucault82 [5h Qc 2h] [7s]
foucault82: bets 300
Andy McLEOD: calls 300
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to Andy McLEOD [5c 9h] [5s]
Dealt to foucault82 [5h Qc 2h 7s] [Ks]
foucault82: bets 600
Andy McLEOD: raises 600 to 1200
foucault82: calls 600
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to Andy McLEOD [5c 9h 5s] [Js]
Dealt to foucault82 [5h Qc 2h 7s Ks] [3c]
foucault82: bets 600
Andy McLEOD: calls 600
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to foucault82 [5h Qc 2h 7s Ks 3c] [4s]
foucault82: checks
Andy McLEOD: bets 600
foucault82: raises 600 to 1200
Andy McLEOD: calls 600
*** SHOW DOWN ***
foucault82: shows [5h Qc 2h 7s Ks 3c 4s] (Lo: 7,5,4,3,2)
Andy McLEOD: mucks [2c 8s 5c 9h 5s Js As] (Lo: 9,8,5,2,A)
foucault82 collected 7770 from pot

If you look at the situation on 3rd street, the action folds to him with just a 2 and a Q behind him. Between the antes and the bring-in, there’s 570 in the pot, and his raise risks 300 to steal it. That means that between myself and the bring-in, we need to defend at least two-thirds of the time to make Andy indifferent from raising with any two down cards.

Because I’m showing a 2 while the bring-in is showing a Queen, my range is much stronger than his and consequently the majority of that burden falls on me. To keep it simple, let’s just say that I need to defend twice as many hands as he, or about 44%.

There are four As, four 3s, four 4s, three 5s, three 6s, four 7s, three 8s, and three 9s left among the 44 unexposed cards. Thus the odds are (28/44) * (20/43) ~ 36% that I’ll have three to a 9 when I’m showing a 2. There’s an additional (15/44) * (18/43) ~ 14% chance that I’ll two cards to a wheel plus a T or worse. Playing all of those hands to the raise would have me defending 50%, which is a bit too much.

I’m not entirely sure whether calling with a Q and a wheel card is worse than calling with a pair and a wheel card (in which case I’d block a strong card from the opener’s range), and I don’t think I need to do both. So it’s possible that this should be a fold on third, but I think it’s close.

Perhaps you can see where this is going. Much as in hold ’em, we’re going to end up with an aggressive late position dynamic here where all players have a lot of incentive to play marginal hands.

My bet on fourth street is mandatory. Even though Andy has not caught a complete brick, he may fold now if I caught him stealing a particularly weak hand or if the 9 paired him, and even if he does not fold I have 37% equity against four to a 9.

It’s possible that I err in betting fifth street. When we both brick, my equity drops to 30%, and Andy is savvy enough to recognize that I probably two-bet the better hands in my range on third street, which means that if he actually has four to a 9, especially when he pairs a baby, there’s a good chance he’s ahead, and he raises for value. I have to call. Weaker Razz players won’t raise here but may bet when checked to, which makes betting much more attractive against them.

After catching well on 6th, I’m a slight favorite and can bet.

Even though I make a lock hand on the river, I check because I know he’s drawing. Although he will check some hands that would call a bet, I also think he’ll bluff some bricks and bet some worse hands for value.

I’m curious about his river bet. I probably have to call no matter what, because of how easily he could make two-pair, but if he’s going to pay off a check-raise, then he loses two bets when I improve as opposed to rarely winning more than one when I do not (occasionally he picks off a check-raise bluff). He can assume that I have four to at least a 97, and against his board I can confidently raise any 8, so without crunching the numbers, my hunch is that he needs to assume I’m betting some of my stronger hands on the river to make bet-calling a 98 a good idea.

PokerStars – $200+$15|15000/30000 Ante 3750 NL – Holdem – 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 32.33 BB (VPIP: 35.14, PFR: 27.78, 3Bet Preflop: 5.88, Hands: 37)
MP+1: 10.99 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 10.53, Hands: 30)
CO: 7.48 BB (VPIP: 8.11, PFR: 5.71, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 37)
BTN: 63.88 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 16.67, Hands: 10)
SB: 62.6 BB (VPIP: 19.48, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 77)
Hero (BB): 42.1 BB
UTG: 19.66 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 1)
UTG+1: 8.58 BB (VPIP: 21.62, PFR: 10.81, 3Bet Preflop: 6.25, Hands: 37)

8 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.5 BB) Hero has Kh Qh
fold, UTG+1 raises to 8.46 BB and is all-in, fold, fold, fold, fold, SB calls 7.96 BB, Hero raises to 41.97 BB and is all-in, SB calls 33.52 BB

Flop : (93.4 BB, 3 players) 2d 4s Ks

Turn : (93.4 BB, 3 players) Kd

River : (93.4 BB, 3 players) 7c

SB shows Ac Kc (Three of a Kind, Kings)
Main Pot [26.37 BB]: (Pre 35%, Flop 78%, Turn 81%)
Side Pot [67.03 BB]: (Pre 71%, Flop 87%, Turn 86%)

Hero shows Kh Qh (Three of a Kind, Kings)
Main Pot [26.37 BB]: (Pre 24%, Flop 13%, Turn 14%)
Side Pot [67.03 BB]: (Pre 29%, Flop 13%, Turn 14%)

UTG+1 shows 9c 9d (Two Pair, Kings and Nines)
Main Pot [26.37 BB]: (Pre 41%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)

SB wins 93.4 BB

Basically a short stack shoves in early position for about 8 BBs, the SB calls, and I’m in the BB with KQs. The SB has me covered. My in-game thinking was that there’s a lot of money in the pot, I’m a solid favorite vs the short stack’s jamming range, the SB should have a healthy call-folding range, and I’ll be in OK shape even if the SB called.

After actually quantifying all of those assumptions, it seems like they were all slightly skewed in the wrong direction, and taken together they turn this into a pretty bad shove, especially at this stage of a major tournament.

For one thing, I’m not a favorite vs the short stack. I gave him all broadway hands, all Aces, all pairs, and some of the better suited connectors and I’m almost exactly 50/50. I don’t know that that range is exactly right, but fidgeting with it a bit didn’t change my equity by more than 1%.

I’m also in pretty bad shape when SB does call. Against {TT+,AJs+,AQo+}, I have less than 33% equity (which if I’d really thought about his calling range I would have realized in game, didn’t really need Slice for that one). I’m used to that being “good enough” but in a dry sidepot it’s a lot worse than when there are blinds and antes cushioning your fall.

It turns out that I show a small profit, about half a BB, if SB folds 2/3 of the time. The calling range I gave him was about 5%, and given the cards I’m holding he’ll actually have a hand in that range about 4% of the time (disregarding any blocker effects from the other player’s shoving range, which is admittedly Ace-heavy).

A generous range for his first call is all the pairs plus the better broadways and A9s. That has him folding about 2/3 of the time to my shove. However, this assumes that he never shoves some hands, like medium pairs, that he really shouldn’t be trying to induce or call-fold. Take those out of his calling range and my shove becomes a lot less good.

And all of that, with the generous assumptions, is still only enough to make this slightly +cEV, which for risking the last of my chips at this stage of the tournament is simply not good enough.

Of course a bad beat would have been disappointing, but it’s much more of a bummer to realize I busted on a bad play. At least I learned something, though I’m a little embarrassed that my instincts were so off in the first place.

This was from the $215 10-minute levels NLHE 6-max WCOOP event. Villain is Philipp “philbort” Gruissem. As many of you know I’m pretty stubborn about folding my BB to small pre-flop raises and also folding to smallish barrels once I get any piece of the board. When I see the flop with such a wide range, even a gutshot is in the top 2/3 of range, and then I turn a pair…. I still think it’s possible Villain has air, but I don’t know how likely it is that he’ll fire the river with that, so I chose instead to make what I’m sure was a very confusing shove for him. He tanked all the way down literally to the last second before calling with a hand that I doubt he was going to bet on the river. Although maybe he was, to be honest it is still very likely to be good, and a player as good as Philbort should be able to recognize and act on that.

PokerStars – $200+$15|500/1000 Ante 125 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

UTG: 59.04 BB
MP: 35.77 BB
CO: 27.02 BB
BTN: 29.05 BB
SB: 46.6 BB
Hero (BB): 83.28 BB

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has Ts 9c
fold, MP raises to 2.25 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 1.25 BB

Flop : (5.75 BB, 2 players) Ks 5c Jc
Hero checks, MP bets 3 BB, Hero calls 3 BB

Turn : (11.75 BB, 2 players) 9d
Hero checks, MP bets 6 BB, Hero calls 6 BB

River : (23.75 BB, 2 players) 9h
Hero bets 71.91 BB and is all-in, MP calls 24.4 BB and is all-in

Hero shows Ts 9c (Three of a Kind, Nines) (Pre 34%, Flop 18%, Turn 11%)
MP shows Kh Qh (Two Pair, Kings and Nines) (Pre 66%, Flop 82%, Turn 89%)
Hero wins 72.54 BB

PokerStars – $200+$15|60/120 Ante 15 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 17.19 BB
SB: 25.44 BB
BB: 69.54 BB
UTG: 143.37 BB
UTG+1: 68.83 BB
Hero (MP): 170.98 BB
MP+1: 67.21 BB
MP+2: 81.08 BB
CO: 120.99 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Kh Ac
fold, fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, MP+2 calls 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (7.63 BB, 3 players) Kc 7h 7c
BB checks, Hero bets 3.81 BB, fold, BB raises to 9.58 BB, Hero calls 5.78 BB

Turn : (26.79 BB, 2 players) 6c
BB bets 12 BB, Hero calls 12 BB

River : (50.79 BB, 2 players) Qs
BB bets 15.63 BB, Hero raises to 147.27 BB and is all-in, fold

Hero wins 82.04 BB

I had Villain covered by a lot, so my shove was actually for about 55 BB total, or 40 BB more to him.

PokerStars – $300+$20|600/1200 Ante 150 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BTN: 127.59 BB (VPIP: 26.58, PFR: 20.09, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 228)
SB: 66.01 BB (VPIP: 23.23, PFR: 18.37, 3Bet Preflop: 8.51, Hands: 100)
BB: 107.86 BB (VPIP: 36.81, PFR: 26.38, 3Bet Preflop: 27.40, Hands: 166)
UTG: 58.67 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 14.62, 3Bet Preflop: 11.54, Hands: 133)
Hero (MP): 105.67 BB
CO: 28.34 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)

6 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.25 BB) Hero has Ts As
fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (5.25 BB, 2 players) Jc 8h 5d
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn : (5.25 BB, 2 players) 2c
BB bets 10 BB, Hero calls 10 BB

River : (25.25 BB, 2 players) 5s
BB bets 50 BB, Hero calls 50 BB

BB shows Qc Ac (One Pair, Fives) (Pre 71%, Flop 86%, Turn 95%)
Hero mucks Ts As (One Pair, Fives) (Pre 29%, Flop 14%, Turn 5%)
BB wins 125.25 BB

This was a big pot. The amount that I lost was about the average stack at the time. Honestly, even if this is in his range, I still like my call. I think he just never has a value hand, and there are enough weaker draws that missed for me to come out ahead even if I lose or chop occasionally.

Also, even if I do occasionally call with worse, Villain’s bet is really bad, for basically the same reason that jamming 60BBs with AJo vs a 3BB button open is bad. His equity is very good vs my flop check back range but not good against my range for calling such a big turn bet.

Nevertheless, this was my 10th cash of the WCOOP, out of 25 tournaments played, so I feel good about that.

PokerStars – $200+$15|50/100 Ante 10 NL (4 max) – Holdem – 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 121.31 BB (VPIP: 44.32, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 88)
Hero (CO): 78.18 BB
BTN: 146.22 BB (VPIP: 41.33, PFR: 28.19, 3Bet Preflop: 17.86, Hands: 156)
SB: 22.06 BB (VPIP: 46.36, PFR: 29.80, 3Bet Preflop: 1.75, Hands: 156)

4 players post ante of 0.1 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.9 BB) Hero has Qc Jd
Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, BB calls 1 BB

Flop : (4.9 BB, 2 players) 5s 5h 2s
BB checks, Hero bets 2.45 BB, BB calls 2.45 BB

Turn : (9.8 BB, 2 players) 8d
BB checks, Hero checks

River : (9.8 BB, 2 players) Qs
BB checks, Hero bets 5.88 BB, BB raises to 19.88 BB, Hero calls 14 BB

BB shows Td As (One Pair, Fives) (Pre 58%, Flop 78%, Turn 86%)
Hero shows Qc Jd (Two Pair, Queens and Fives) (Pre 42%, Flop 22%, Turn 14%)
Hero wins 49.56 BB

To be honest I’m not sure whether the results corroborate my call or not. I’d expect him to bet anything without showdown value on the river, so for him to be bluffing, he has to be taking something that had some showdown value vs my turn check-back range and turning it into a bluff. On the other hand, I also think he’s unlikely to check a flush or trips (and certainly to check-raise trips). So I basically just decided that he’d be sufficiently weighted towards the bluffs. As it turns out, though, he had a pretty ideal bluffing hand, so it really doesn’t prove that he’ll be bluffing a lot in this spot.

PokerStars – $665+$35|200/400 Ante 50 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 73.5 BB
Hero (UTG): 107.43 BB
UTG+1: 45.14 BB
MP: 128.49 BB
MP+1: 145.05 BB
MP+2: 87.37 BB
CO: 85.57 BB
BTN: 299.2 BB
SB: 95.52 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Ks Ah
Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to 5 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 13.13 BB, CO raises to 23.5 BB, Hero raises to 107.31 BB and is all-in, CO calls 61.94 BB and is all-in

Flop : (173.51 BB, 2 players) 3s 8c Js

Turn : (173.51 BB, 2 players) 9h

River : (173.51 BB, 2 players) 8h

Hero shows Ks Ah (One Pair, Eights) (Pre 7%, Flop 6%, Turn 0%)
CO shows Ad Ac (Two Pair, Aces and Eights) (Pre 93%, Flop 94%, Turn 100%)
CO wins 173.51 BB

Pre Flop: (t7500) Hero is SB with 8 T 2 A
UTG raises to t10000, 2 folds, Hero calls t7500, BB calls t5000

Flop: (t30000) K Q 2 (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets t20000, Hero raises to t90000, BB folds, UTG raises to t148555 all in, Hero calls t44768 all in

Turn: (t299536) 9 (2 players – 2 are all in)

River: (t299536) 4 (2 players – 2 are all in)

Poker Stars $300+$20 Limit Stud Hi/Lo Tournament – t100/t200 Limit + t20 – 7 players – View hand 2576621

DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Seat 1: t4010 M = 13.83
Seat 2: t7900 M = 27.24
Seat 3: t6091 M = 21.00
Seat 4: t7605 M = 26.22
Seat 5: t4676 M = 16.12
Hero (): t5651 M = 19.49
Seat 8: t2151 M = 7.42

3rd Street: (1.4 SB)
Seat 1: xx xx 5____Seat 1 completes____Seat 1 calls
Seat 2: xx xx 8____Seat 2 folds
Seat 3: xx xx T____Seat 3 folds
Seat 4: xx xx K____Seat 4 folds
Seat 5: xx xx A____Seat 5 raises
Hero: 4 5 2___Hero brings in for $30___Hero calls
Seat 8: xx xx 8____Seat 8 folds

4th Street: (7.4 SB) (3 players)
Seat 1: xx xx 5 J____Seat 1 folds
Seat 5: xx xx A 6____Seat 5 bets
Hero: 4 5 2 4___Hero calls

5th Street: (4.7 BB) (2 players)
Seat 5: xx xx A 6 3____Seat 5 bets____Seat 5 calls
Hero: 4 5 2 4 3___Hero raises

6th Street: (8.7 BB) (2 players)
Seat 5: xx xx A 6 3 K____Seat 5 checks____Seat 5 calls
Hero: 4 5 2 4 3 9___Hero bets

7th Street: (10.7 BB) (2 players)
Seat 5: 5 5 A 6 3 K xx____Seat 5 checks____Seat 5 calls
Hero: 4 5 2 4 3 9 3___Hero bets

I’m a novice Stud/8 player. I find it interesting, I play it occasionally, I’ve studied it a bit, but I don’t have an expert’s grasp on what is a very nuanced game. So take everything I say with a larger grain of salt than usual.

Third Street – I very rarely open complete. I prefer not to give away anything about my hand before others have acted. There might be a case for three-betting this, but it’s a hand that plays well multi-way, I don’t really think Seat 1 is going to fold anyway, and I’m not going to be more than slight equity favorite. Especially in a tournament, I think it’s best not to bloat the pot on third.

Fourth Street – Now may be the time to raise and drive out Seat 1. However, he may fold anyway, and I’m not eager to shovel in money against Seat 5.

Fifth Street – I’m still not a favorite, but my thinking was that my equity was good enough to start putting pressure on him. In retrospect, I don’t think he’s folding any run out unless maybe I catch an A, in which case he folds correctly. It’s just too hard for me to have him beat on both directions. Even if he has doubts about his low, there’s some chance that he can win the high with no pair in the event that I have a better low.

Sixth Street – See above. I’d be better off taking a free card.

Seventh Street – I think a lot of people may miss this value bet. Hero’s high hand isn’t especially strong, and Villain could easily have a low, so it may seem like you should check. But Villain is definitely going to bet hands that scoop you anyway, and you can’t fold to a bet, so that bet is going in the pot anyway if you’re getting scooped. You might worry about getting raised, but realistically it’s very hard for Villain to raise your bet because it’s so hard for him to have a strong two-way hand, especially since Hero could easily have a wheel. If Villain has a low, it’s tough for him to also have your high beat, so in actuality you have very little to lose by betting, and it gives Villain a chance to call for half when his low draw missed. I think it’s possible to be called here even by AK high (which goes back to why the fifth and sixth street aggression was a mistake).

PokerStars – $300+$20|5/5 Ante 300 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

BB: 2476.4 BB
UTG: 8686.2 BB
UTG+1: 10924 BB
MP: 4431.4 BB
MP+1: 5299.6 BB
MP+2: 11989.8 BB
CO: 3856.2 BB
Hero (BTN): 8377.2 BB
SB: 6175 BB

9 players post ante of 60 BB, SB posts SB 1 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 542 BB) Hero has Ad Td
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2 BB, MP+2 raises to 548 BB, fold, Hero calls 548 BB, fold, fold, fold

Flop : (1640 BB, 2 players) Qc 2d 4d
MP+2 checks, Hero checks

Turn : (1640 BB, 2 players) 5d
MP+2 checks, Hero bets 1128 BB, MP+2 raises to 2413.6 BB, Hero calls 1285.6 BB

River : (6467.2 BB, 2 players) 5s
MP+2 bets 8968.2 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 5355.6 BB and is all-in

MP+2 shows Jd Ks (One Pair, Fives) (Pre 38%, Flop 17%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows Ad Td (Flush, Ace High) (Pre 62%, Flop 83%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins 17178.4 BB

And here’s the really gross hand that I mentioned on Twitter, the one that caused me to bubble the $215 Heads Up NLHE:

PokerStars – $200+$15|25/50 NL (2 max) – Holdem – 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 129.14 BB (VPIP: 82.61, PFR: 52.17, 3Bet Preflop: 12.50, Hands: 30)
Hero (BB): 70.86 BB

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, Hero posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has Ah Kh
SB raises to 2 BB, Hero raises to 6 BB, SB calls 4 BB

Flop : (12 BB, 2 players) 2h 5d 4h
Hero checks, SB checks

Turn : (12 BB, 2 players) Ad
Hero bets 7.2 BB, SB raises to 17.26 BB, Hero calls 10.06 BB

River : (46.52 BB, 2 players) 3d
Hero bets 47.6 BB and is all-in, SB calls 47.6 BB

Hero shows Ah Kh (Straight, Five High) (Pre 77%, Flop 83%, Turn 93%)
SB shows 6c Ks (Straight, Six High) (Pre 23%, Flop 17%, Turn 7%)
SB wins 141.72 BB

PokerStars – $200+$15|60/120 Ante 15 NL – Holdem – 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BTN): 75.23 BB
SB: 93.64 BB
BB: 70.51 BB
UTG: 120.21 BB
UTG+1: 95.52 BB
MP: 49.17 BB
MP+1: 135.2 BB
MP+2: 110.58 BB
CO: 72.73 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Tc 9c
fold, fold, fold, MP+1 raises to 2 BB, fold, CO calls 2 BB, Hero calls 2 BB, fold, fold

Flop : (8.63 BB, 3 players) 9h Qd Td
MP+1 bets 4.5 BB, CO calls 4.5 BB, Hero calls 4.5 BB

Turn : (22.13 BB, 3 players) Th
MP+1 checks, CO checks, Hero bets 7.4 BB, MP+1 calls 7.4 BB, fold

River : (36.93 BB, 2 players) Jd
MP+1 checks, Hero bets 15.37 BB, MP+1 raises to 121.18 BB and is all-in, fold

MP+1 wins 67.66 BB

Villain covers me by a good deal, so I’m actually getting about 2:1 on a call, which makes folding a two-card full house pretty questionable. Here are the arguments for folding:

1. Although it’s a full house, it’s far from the nuts, and most if not all better hands are plausibly in Villain’s range.

2. Villain doesn’t seem bad enough to shove worse for value, except MAYBE 99, of which there is one combo.

3. It’s awfully tough for Villain to get to the river with air, so he has to be turning a pair into a bluff, presumably with the intention of folding me off of a straight or flush. Not a lot of randoms in the Sunday Million are capable of that.

4. It’s early in a huge WCOOP tournament, and this is for all of my chips. Folding a small edge is correct here.

Arguments for calling:

1. This is damn close to the top of my range. Not raising pre-flop or on the flop takes a lot of full houses out of my range. My hand probably looks more like a straight or flush that got there than it does a full house.

2. The T in my hand blocks a lot of the hands I’m worried about. This is a much easier fold with 99.

3. Villain probably bets better hands on the turn at least sometimes.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

1.

One of the first hands I saw when I sat down at the 5/10 game was this guy (“Villain”, hereafter) 4-bet-jamming 54 (no draw) on a 9h 7h 4s flop. He actually won a “flip” against 8h 5h, and his opponent was pissed. Other than that he was active pre-flop but wasn’t swinging his stack wildly post-flop, so there was probably something specific to the other player in that hand that led to that action.

Anyway, about two hours later I was dealt AA in a straddled pot. Villain opened for $75 in early position, I re-raised to $275 from the big blind, and he made it $675 with about $2500 behind. As I said, other than that 54 hand, he hadn’t done anything too wild, so if I were to shove here it would probably be only with AA and AKs. I decided to flat instead, as most of the value I potentially miss is from hands that will stack off on a lot of flops anyway given the low SPR.

The flop came Jd 9c 4d. I checked, and Villain tanked for a long time, fiddling with his chips and seemingly like he had a real decision. This was surprising to me because I thought with KK or QQ he’d be pretty eager just to bet big. Not that I was going to fold, but I started to worry that I might be up against JJ. Finally he just shoved for 2x pot, which put me more at ease. I called and rolled my hand immediately.  The turn and river came out 2h 9h, and my opponent looked for a minute, then perked up and declared “Straight!” turning over Qd 8d. I double-checked the board, and he shook his head. “Never mind, I thought that was a T on the river. I figured you must have had KK or AA. I was going to just give up, but then I flopped so well….”

Act Two: The Chase

Our next confrontation came after we’d both made it to the main game. I opened to $30 with AA in late position, he raised to $130 from the SB, I made it $330, and he called. The flop came Q22r, and he checked and called $400. We both checked a 9 river, because at that point I was mostly looking to get value from TT or JJ and even if he had AQ or KK I wasn’t at all sure that he would call three streets with it. Also with only about $1900 in the effective stacks I could just shove a lot of rivers to go for max value anyway.

A J was not my ideal river. He checked, and I was tempted to check behind, but then I remembered the Q8s hand and figured he could have enough random Qx to make up for the times that he was trying to check-raise a boat. I didn’t want to shove now that the board was scarier for my target hands, so I bet $900. He quickly shoved for another $1000, and I folded just as quickly.

Act Three: The Worst Feeling in Poker

(I just couldn’t find a way to stretch this to make “Junior” a relevant subtitle)

Our final confrontation was the most interesting. The under-the-gun player opened to $35, got called, this Villain raised to $75, someone else called, and I started thinking this would be a pretty good spot for a light 4-bet. Only the original raiser was of much concern to me, as no one else’s play was really consistent with a monster. I looked down at As 3s, which is a pretty damn good hand for making this play, and popped it to $375.

Only the Villain called, so with about $900 in the pot, we saw a Kd Kh Qc flop. With only about $1000 remaining in Villain’s stack, this was a very awkward spot for me. I wouldn’t really bet any hands for value in this spot, so I was reluctant to bluff, but checking might open the door for him to bluff me with a hand that would have folded to a bet. But what could he fold, really? And if I am checking all of my strongest hands, then it shouldn’t be that easy for him to just randomly fire with 98s or something. I checked, and he checked behind.

The turn was the 2d. I bet $375, mostly just trying to get Villain off of his air and keep nutted hands in my range. The leverage effect should make it tough for him to call even with a pocket pair, but I was resigned to not getting him off of those. He called.

The river was the very interesting Qs, making the final board Kd Kh Qc 2d Qs. The only thing betting could accomplish was getting him off of a chop, and I didn’t think there was much Ax in his range anyway, so I checked. He quickly shoved for $675 into a pot of $1650, representing a full house and offering me some pretty enticing odds.

A Q is a reasonable value shove, but would he do it so quickly? Wouldn’t he at least consider whether I’d check a K and what I’d call with?

A K would be a reasonable slowplay even on the turn, but many people get rightfully concerned about draws when the pot is already very large. Of course KQ or quads were hands that made a lot of sense, but there were only 6 combos of those. He didn’t look too comfortable while I was tanking. After a lot of agonizing, I called him. He sheepishly turned over Ad Td. “Ugh, are you serious?” I groaned, exposing my own Ace.

He shook his head. “Boy, you’ve really got my number.”

“Not really. I wasn’t expecting to chop it.” Frankly, I think shoving an A there is a pretty bad idea. It was some showdown value, though not a lot as I’d probably shove a lot of my air on the river. But he’ll also have a lot of air to shove on the river, and the best he can hope for is getting me off of a chop. I would definitely check a Q on the river, so it’s not like he’s freerolling on the shove.

Man, hero calling in a big pot, being right, and then getting half the pot is one of the worst feelings in poker.

Monday

I played all three of the Action Hour tournaments. For those who don’t know, these are tournaments where the blinds go up very quickly for the first hour or so, during which rebuys are permitted. After that, the blinds go back down and the tournament ends up playing very deep as a result of all the chips on the table. Combine that with the long structure on a SCOOP-H event, and this made for frankly an absurd tournament. I played for hours and busted nowhere near the money, though I did manage a shallow cash in the $50. I’m not too thrilled with my bustout from the $500:

Poker Stars $500+$30 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t75/t150 Blinds + t20 – 6 players – http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2501934

CO: t11046 M = 32.02
BTN: t14568 M = 42.23
SB: t19535 M = 56.62
Hero (BB): t13608 M = 39.44
UTG: t26519 M = 76.87
MP: t23706 M = 68.71

Pre Flop: (t345) Hero is BB with 7s 9s
4 folds, SB calls t75, Hero raises to t450, SB calls t300

Flop: (t1020) 9h 8s 8h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t510, SB raises to t1388, Hero calls t878

Turn: (t3796) 4c (2 players)
SB bets t2688, Hero raises to t11750 all in, SB calls t9062

River: (t27296) Qh (2 players – 1 is all in)

Tuesday

After 48 hours of clouds and rain, the sun finally appeared over Montreal. I took the opportunity to ride to the Marché Jean-Talon, which is just about my favorite thing to do in Montreal.

In the afternoon I played the M and H heads up events without cashing. I think I was pretty fortunate in my High matchups, in that I twice drew tournament players who didn’t seem to have a lot of heads up experience. The second match ended with me five-bet jamming AQo into his KK, which could probably be called “standard” although I really try to avoid big pre-flop pots against opponents like this who are so easily outplayed after the flop. You only only take that so far, though, and while I wouldn’t have 4-bet AQ to get it in, that doesn’t mean that I’m wrong to 3-bet it or to shove it over a 4-bet.

I also managed a shallow cash in the Super Tuesday $1000 SCOOP. As reported here, I made Day 2 with only about 20BBs. They all went in when I got AJs in the BB against a min-raise and a call, so it was a spot I felt quite good about it although the raiser had AQ and busted me.

Wednesday

I played and whiffed all three Super Knockout tournaments. I think in some spots I made a little too much allowance for the large bounties (seeing a lot of flops early) and in others not enough:

Poker Stars $1025+$1025+$50 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t30/t60 Blinds – 9 players – http://www.handconverter.com/hands/2501938

Hero (SB): t7127 118.78 BBs
BB: t5156 85.93 BBs
UTG: t4964 82.73 BBs
UTG+1: t9403 156.72 BBs
UTG+2: t3672 61.20 BBs
MP1: t7236 120.60 BBs
MP2: t3712 61.87 BBs
CO: t1932 32.20 BBs
BTN: t9301 155.02 BBs

Pre Flop: (t90) Hero is SB with Qh Qd
3 folds, MP1 raises to t150, MP2 calls t150, 2 folds, Hero raises to t750, 1 fold, MP1 raises to t1525, 1 fold, Hero calls t775

Flop: (t3260) 8h Th 4c (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets t1285, Hero folds

This was a complicated hand. I expected my squeeze to look very strong, and the original raiser was quite good, but the caller was really weak so I figured I could just blatantly build the pot with him. I took it for strength that the first player was willing to raise the weaker one out of the pot, but in retrospect because he covers me he really has a lot of incentive to get it in preflop with AK and maybe even worse than that, so I probably should have gone with this, post-flop if not pre. Trying to setmine to the 4-bet was likely the worst option.

Thursday

I love the Ante Up format, and I played all three tournaments. The fields were disappointingly small, and I took bad beats early in the L and M events, but i ended up making quite a deep run in the H. I was really happy with the adjustments I made to the format, and I think that my recent live cash game experience helped because I was much more familiar with hand reading in deep, multiway pots than was anyone else and was able to make some nice plays as a result. Unfortunately I ended up taking it too far and running a suicidal bluff into a full house, ultimately finishing 19th.

The tournaments didn’t start until 5PM, though, so I got to spend the day with Luisinho, whom some of you may recognize from the blog comments. Vegetarian chili, the best coffee in Montreal, and some of the best natas (Portuguese egg tart) in the world were a great start to the day.

Friday

I played the $10 and $100 Big Ante events. I was on the fence about playing the $1000, but it drew a small and tough-looking field and I wasn’t at my sharpest after staying up until 5AM playing the Ante Up the night before, so I passed. Nothing remarkable happened in the other two.

Saturday

I played all three six-max shootouts and made the semifinals of both the H and the M. If I’d used the same tactic as on Friday and monitored the H field closely, I probably wouldn’t have played, but unlike on Friday I was really feeling sharp and pretty roundly outplayed my first table. The second table just wasn’t winnable from my seat. I got set under set for half of my stack and then lost a flip to bust the other half.

The $200 event was much more interesting, but I’ll likely cover it in a series for Tournament Poker Edge, so I won’t get into too many details here.

Sunday

Sundays are such brutal days. The fields are just so huge that even running well for hours on end isn’t enough to guarantee success. I finished in the top 2% of the L Warmup event for less than $200 and near-bubbled the M and H Sunday Million tournaments. The big news was final tabling the Sunday $100 rebuy, ultimately finishing 4th for about $30,000. Really I just ran absurdly hot. I won’t deny that I made some good plays along the way, but in retrospect my play at the final table was embarrassing. I guess if nothing else it’s a good wake-up call that I’ve grown rusty in this regard, which when you’re playing tournaments you simply can’t afford to do.

It reminds me of a point I always scold my MTT students about, which is not being confident with heads up play. When you enter a tournament, you simply can’t afford not to play well at the final table or heads up. Even though they don’t come often, so much of your equity depends on making the most of these situations.

Prior to this hand, I’d really been hammering on the player in the CO. Mostly it was out of the BB, where I basically never folded to his button min-raises, sometimes 3-betting, sometimes calling and getting stubborn post-flop, but definitely not making it easy for him just to raise and take pots from late position.

It’s not that I think the BB’s cold 4-bet is weak exactly, just that there’s a little more room for it to be light than you might otherwise expect. My pre-flop and flop calls seem pretty unambiguous to me.

The turn is where it gets interesting. On the one hand, it’s a dicey spot for him to barrel. On the other hand, I’m getting 4:1, and he’s repping a really narrow range. I don’t see him betting AA here, with or without a heart. Even against that narrow range, I’m drawing pretty live. So basically on the turn I’m worried but don’t think I can fold.

In retrospect, I think that’s a reason to fold the river. Of course he’s still repping a really narrow range, and my hand is a decent bluff-catcher in that I block a couple things like AhQh, QhJh, and KQ that could play this way. However, I probably have enough trips, flushes, and boats in my range that I don’t really need to call with pure bluff-catchers like this.

My thinking is that even though my turn call is actually pretty strong Villain may just desperation shove the river with all his air once he gets that far. Probably that would be more plausible in a random $100 rebuy or something, but not so much in a $2K SCOOP event. Not to mention that I didn’t really think he had that much air in his turn range, though admittedly that was a weak read.

PokerStars – $2000+$100|250/500 Ante 60 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

CO: 67.91 BB
BTN: 59.46 BB
Hero (SB): 113.82 BB
BB: 91.59 BB
UTG: 24.84 BB
MP: 14.75 BB

6 players post ante of 0.12 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.22 BB) Hero has Qc Qh
fold, fold, CO raises to 2 BB, fold, Hero raises to 6 BB, BB raises to 14.4 BB, fold, Hero calls 8.4 BB

Flop : (31.52 BB, 2 players) Kc 4h 8h
Hero checks, BB bets 11.11 BB, Hero calls 11.11 BB

Turn : (53.74 BB, 2 players) Kh
Hero checks, BB bets 17.78 BB, Hero calls 17.78 BB

River : (89.29 BB, 2 players) 5d
Hero checks, BB bets 48.19 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 48.19 BB

BB shows Ac Ks (Three of a Kind, Kings) (Pre 43%, Flop 87%, Turn 77%)
Hero shows Qc Qh (Two Pair, Kings and Queens) (Pre 57%, Flop 13%, Turn 23%)
BB wins 185.67 BB

I was going to post this one as a What’s Your Play? but frankly I’m not confident enough in my PLO game to present it as a clearly correct play. Anyway, it’s my very first hand at the table, six players limp for $3, and I check my option with Qh 9h 6c 3c.

Flop ($21 in pot) Qd 5h 4h. I check planning to evaluate the action and quite possibly raise, but it ends up checking around.

Turn ($25 in pot) Js. I check, UTG bets $15, gets two calls, and I call.

River ($85 in pot) 9c. I check, UTG bets $25, the other two fold. I raise pot, Villain folds.

Other than recognizing that my two-pair doesn’t have a lot of showdown value, this spot really doesn’t require knowing much about PLO. It just requires recognizing that Villain thinks he may have the best hand but doesn’t want to put a lot of money into the pot. After that, it’s a pretty standard spot, in any big bet game, to turn a hand with marginal showdown value into a bluff.

My Day 2 starting table was probably above average. It featured Harrison Gimbel (youngest ever winner of the PCA main event, now 23) and Russell Thomas (of 2012 WSOP main event final table fame), but both were across the table from me, and the rest of the players were pretty weak.

Early on I lost a biggish pot to Gimbel. Blinds were 500/1K, and I opened to 2K, with a little over 100K behind, UTG+1 with AQo. The big blind was an especially tight player, which I think is significant in terms of how Gimbel will perceive my opening range. One of the weakest player at the table called my raise in the HJ, and Gimbel made it 7500 on the CO. He covered me by quite a bit.

Given whose blind I’m raising and who the caller is, this seems like a really good spot for him to squeeze. Still, I wasn’t eager to get in 100+ BBs against him. With AQs I’d probably just flat, but AQo seemed like a better hand to 4B-fold (expecting there’s a fair chance he’ll call the 4B with a range I’m ahead of, even though playing post-flop can easily get tricky). I made it 19K, he made it 38K, and I think when he does that he’s functionally shoving – I can’t see him folding if I shove 105 or whatever and he’s getting better than 2:1. Who knows what his range is but it ought to be quite strong – I folded. Obviously I’m getting good odds to call but if I’m right about his range it will be hard to get money in good postflop, because a lot of it dominates me or won’t pay off when I flop top pair. I never saw his hand, and to be honest this one still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but I it’s also not clear to me what I could have done differently. If he really was light here, I guess I can take solace in the fact that he’s underestimating the strength of my range and was lucky to run into the bottom of it. Cold comfort, that.

I got in a very similar spot a few orbits later against Thomas. This time I’d opened A9s in the same spot, the same player called, and he squeezed for a comparable amount. I also gave him very little credit, but he had only 80K and I didn’t want to 4-bet-fold or 4-bet-call so I just called. The woman called as well and we got an awesome A99 flop. We checked to Thomas who bet about 12K. I called, and the third player folded. The turn was a blank, I checked, he bet 23K, and I called. The river was a K, I checked, and he shoved 40K with 96o. Really unlucky spot for him obviously but that’s what he gets for squeezing 96o!

So that was good, and I took about 180K to my new table when that one broke. The new table looked bad but wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be. The only really good player was Scott Baumstein, whom I’d seen running around the bigger games at Borgata and hanging out with some other tournament sickos but whom I didn’t know anything about specifically (not even his name, at the time – if I’d had the chance to google him, I probably wouldn’t have made this next fold). He was on my immediate right but still managed to be a tremendous thorn in my side.

At 800/1600, he opened to 3300 in the HJ and I made it 8800 with AA in the CO. He called. The flop came 963r, and I checked it back with the express purpose of underrepresenting my hand and strengthening my checking range. The turn was an 8 that put up a flush draw, and he overbet like 22K into 17K, which instantly made me regret the check. Basically I know that checking opens me up to this sort of thing, and it’s just not something most tournament players (or any players, really) are capable of. After some thought, I called. The turn was an offsuit 5, and he bet 38K into about 60K. To be honest I had no idea what to do. I basically never have a 7 and while I do think he could have some I was actually more worried about a value bet from a set or two pair. I had the sense that a fold would be exploitable but everything about the spot just felt like he had it and in the past not believing big bets has been one of my more consistent mistakes. His river sizing felt value-y, he seemed confident, etc. I folded and he showed Ad 4d for a whole lot of nothing.

My bustout hand is another kind of questionable one. UTG was an older guy who was on the tight side (which doesn’t necessarily make him a bad squeeze candidate, as he may respond tightly/passively to 3bets). He opened to 5100, a guy with about 300K called, I overcalled with AQo in the CO, and then the BB, who was friends with Scott and seemed like a pretty capable player in his own right, made it 17.5K. The other two folded, and although I didn’t feel great about the spot, there was nearly 20k in dead money (including my call) in the pot, and I could certainly see some TT/JJ in his range as well as not seeing any reason why he shouldn’t sometimes be a little light here. I shipped it for 80K, and he called and won with AKs. FWIW, I wasn’t going to fold getting nearly 3:1 in position, and there was an A on the flop, so probably the result would have been the same even if I’d just called.

That was shortly before dinner, and Carlos wasn’t playing anything at the time, so I suggested that we leave AC immediately. This as the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and bad weather was in the cards, so the I-95 corridor was likely to be a mess if we waited until Wednesday. In fact, the alternative to leaving immediately would have been to leave at something like 5AM, as Carlos had a flight out of Baltimore-Washington International at 9:30 Wednesday morning (though it was with Southwest so easily changeable). For my part, I was going to visit my family for Thanksgiving, and my mother lives about 15 minutes from the airport, so it was easy for us to get the drive out of the way and have Carlos spend the night at her house.

Despite some rain, it was a remarkably easy drive, no problems to speak of with regard to traffic. We left around 6 and got to my mother’s house shortly after 10, despite my driving slightly below the speed limit as a result of the weather (#nitcast). She and Carlos got on well, as they had some common interests in veganism, nutrition, and yoga. You’ll have a chance to hear more about the trip on the next podcast, where Carlos, Sean, and I share some stories.

Thanks for following along!

Edit: Somehow failed to record my conversation with Carlos, so won’t be able to include that tonight after all. Sorry, show is going to be a bit shorter than usual as a result.

Anyway, I finished Day 1A with 110,500 chips. We started with 30K, and the average is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 60K, so I’m pretty pleased with that result. It was a wild ride, though, with a lot of ups and downs.

I recognized only one player at my starting table, but he was the very accomplished Darren Elias, so that was enough to make it a potentially tough table. Fortunately, he was sitting just a few spots to my right, and the rest of the table didn’t seem too challenging (though a few of them surprised me in that regard).

Darren had a few of the weaker players on his immediate right, and he was just making life hell for them in the early-going, using his position and the deep stacks to apply a ton of pressure when they were obviously weak. Though it was frustrating to see so many chips flowing into his capable hands, this ultimately proved beneficial for me.

We were still at the 25/50 level when I overcalled a raise with 66 in the small blind and got an AA6 flop. The pre-flop raiser, one of the guys Darren had been picking on, bet 300, I raised to 1200, and he quickly called. I doubted he could fold an Ace, but I didn’t want to count on him doing the betting for me, so I needed to find a way to get as much of the 23K remaining in his stack into the pot. I started by overbetting the turn, tossing a 5K chip into a pot of about 3600. To my delight, he quickly shipped his whole stack, and I was happy to call. I faded seven outs to bust his AJ and nearly double up. Darren primed him, but I was the one to benefit from the resulting blow-up.

The whole table was talking about how crazy it was for him to go broke there, but two players were especially vocal about it. I made a mental note to run big bluffs on them in the near future, which is how I managed to get my stack back below 30K before the antes kicked in. Apparently some poker players talk a better game than they play, who knew?

The first of these bluffs began with me raising 88 under the gun. One of the talkers three-bet from middle position, I called, and we saw a A46 flop. We both checked. I’d seen this guy limp and call AK before, so I wasn’t sure he’d 3-bet it against an UTG raise, and I also thought he’d probably bet the flop if he had it. So, when the turn brought a 5, I overbet the pot, 2500 into 1750 or so. He called.

The river paired the 6, I bet 7000, and he agonized and called with AQs. I can really only chalk that up to a bad read and/or a good job of mixing up his play, as he’d showed up with a hand I hadn’t expected to see.

The next big bluff came a while later, when I’d overcalled a raise from the other big talker with Kd 4d on my big blind. The flop came 88J with two diamonds. I checked, he bet less than half the pot, got one call, I made a pot-sized raise, and the pre-flop raiser quickly shoved about three times the pot. I didn’t see his cards, but based on the situation I highly doubt he had better than one pair. With somewhat shallower stacks I could actually see calling with my hand, but the real possibility of him having AA, AK, KJ, or the nut flush draw, all hands that kill some of my outs, made me want to fold.

I reined in the aggression and set out to make the most of my spewy table image. I got the opportunity when I overcalled a raise with 44 on the button only to have the small blind put in a squeeze. Someone else called in front, and there was still a lot of money behind, so I called again, still looking to set mine. The KJJ flop was no help, but we checked it around. I was still done with my hand on a 9 turn, but we checked it again.

And then there it was, a beautiful 4 on the river. Now the small blind bet 2500, about a third of the pot. The other guy folded, and I threw out two blue 5K chips. He shrugged and called, disgustedly throwing away his Aces when he saw my hand.

Not long after that, I flatted a raise with JJ only to have this same guy jam behind me. He ended up having AQs, so it wasn’t as great as I was hoping but still a good spot for me, and I was lucky enough to win the flip and eliminate him.

Both players I busted were replaced with much, much tougher tournament players. Also, the long-vacant 9 seat on my left was finally filled by Orson Young, a regular in the highest stakes cash games at the Borgata.

I kept my held down and was lucky to get into some pretty good spots and keep accumulating chips, both and without showdown, mostly by making strong hands. Both Orson and Darren were eventually eliminated, but both were replaced by beastly new players, including another winning regular in the big Borgata games. Thankfully by that point there was only an hour left in the day, and I managed to avoid spewing off to any of them.

This is a rare flop where I don’t feel committed to my hand. If he calls a small bet, I’ll hope to check it down but fold if he bets the turn. I have plenty of Aces in my range, so it’s not like he can just float me with abandon planning to bluff turns.

His raise makes no sense. He’s probably jamming his best Aces pre-flop, and there’s just no reason to raise this flop with an Ace, especially a weak one. Stacks are short enough that pot building isn’t going to be a concern no matter how strong his hand is. If I have an Ace, I’m never folding it, and if I don’t, he shouldn’t be trying to scare me out.

This is what I mean when I say that I can afford to give him good odds pre-flop.

PokerStars – $200+$15|800/1600 Ante 200 NL – Holdem – 9 players

Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

MP: 58.84 BB
MP+1: 119.87 BB
CO: 34.29 BB
BTN: 135.91 BB
Hero (SB): 20.96 BB
BB: 20.3 BB
UTG: 26.45 BB
UTG+1: 37.7 BB
UTG+2: 28.02 BB

9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.63 BB) Hero has Qc Qh
fold, fold, fold, MP raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 4.86 BB, fold, MP calls 2.86 BB

Flop : (11.85 BB, 2 players) 6c 5h Ad
Hero bets 3.47 BB, MP raises to 7 BB, Hero calls 3.53 BB

Turn : (25.85 BB, 2 players) 8s
Hero checks, MP bets 5 BB, Hero raises to 8.97 BB and is all-in, MP calls 3.97 BB

River : (43.8 BB, 2 players) Th

Hero shows Qc Qh (One Pair, Queens) (Pre 83%, Flop 90%, Turn 95%)
MP shows 2h 2c (One Pair, Twos) (Pre 17%, Flop 10%, Turn 5%)
Hero wins 43.8 BB

PokerStars – $200+$15|250/500 Ante 60 NL (6 max) – Holdem – 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

SB: 26.62 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BB: 64.03 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
Hero (UTG): 54.18 BB
MP: 93.82 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
CO: 108.71 BB (VPIP: 40.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)
BTN: 26.62 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 5)

6 players post ante of 0.12 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.22 BB) Hero has Ks As
Hero raises to 2 BB, fold, CO raises to 5.8 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero calls 3.8 BB

Flop : (13.82 BB, 2 players) Qc 8s 3s
Hero checks, CO bets 5 BB, Hero calls 5 BB

Turn : (23.82 BB, 2 players) 8d
Hero checks, CO bets 7 BB, Hero ?

I think there are a lot of close decisions here. Four-betting pre-flop is certainly viable, as is check-raising the flop. His sizing and the general situation (I’m new to the table and opening UTG, his 3-bet is on the large side considering stacks and position) made me think he was strong, though.

Given that hunch, I think there’s a case for folding the turn. I’m getting almost the exact right price to draw to spades, but I don’t think I can count on implied odds, and with a pair on the board reverse implied odds are a real possibility. I’m sure there’s some value in hitting an A or a K, but again I can’t really hope to get money in good on those cards and indeed I think I’d have to fold to a bet even if I hit them. The little bit of equity I get from the times I make top pair and show it down might be enough to mitigate the reverse implied odds, but that still just leaves the call as a break-even proposition.

Of course, that’s all premised on the hunch that he’s strong, but I think on the turn he’d bet either more or not at all with a bluff. A pair like JJ or TT is probably my best case scenario for him there.

Thoughts?

I arrived at the Venetian DSE area, which is actually in the Palazzo, at the stroke of noon. I confirmed the start time with the woman who sold me my seat, because it sure didn’t look like a poker tournament was about to get underway. Six dealers sat surrounded by chip stacks at six tables, surrounded by a dozen or so empty tables. A few people milled about, but the tournament area was largely vacant.

I glanced at the information screen: I was the 26th player to register. Not much of a turnout, but the upside was that I didn’t recognize anyone else in the room, and none of them looked to be particularly good. Had I discovered some hidden gem whose value was unknown to all of the other professionals in Sin City?

I had not. The field continued to grow as players late registered, and the ones would couldn’t be bothered to show up on time looked to be consistently stronger than their more punctual counterparts.

Still, I felt pretty good about locking in a weaker starting table with my on-time arrival. Better yet, we would be among the last to break, so I could count on playing with these guys until I had all their chips and they were finally replaced by tougher competition.

I had Kings in the only significant pot that I played in the starting 50/100 level. I opened to 300 in the HJ, and the CO made it 750. We started with 30K, so I’m not looking to get all-in preflop. I also think that 4-betting is going to put Villain on alert and make it tricky to play my hand postflop since even in a 4-bet pot I won’t be looking to go to the felt unimproved. So I just called.

I checked and called a bet of 800 on an 842r flop. The turn was a 2, I checked, and Villain bet 900. Perhaps against his weak sizing I should continue slowplaying, but now I was confident enough in my hand to raise. I made it 3200, and he folded.

I didn’t play too many pots early on because the guy on my right was playing a lot of hands aggressively and badly. He’d run up a bit of a stack and I was just dreaming of how nice those chips would look sitting in front of me when the floor showed up to whisk him off to another table. Lovely.

It got worse though. The table didn’t break, but within an hour I too was moved to another table, one of the recently opened ones full of late registers. Probably every player at this table was better than every player at my last table.

There was again a really aggressive player, but this one seemed to have a much better idea of what he was doing. I had about 35K at 100/200, and he covered when he opened to 500 UTG. He got one call, then I made it 2K with Qc Qs on the button. Without hestitation, he 4-bet to 4500, the other guy folded, and I called.

He checked a Kc 9c 6c flop, and I was happy to check it back. I may, however, have made a mistake checking the 2c on the turn. You have to target some pretty weak hands, including non-flushes, in a spot like this, and against weaker players it’s probably best just to check here and look to get one bet on the river. This guy, however, may have correctly read this check, followed by a bet on a 5s river, as strong, because he tank-folded.

For the umpteenth time, a player who seemed to know what he was doing revealed himself to be a fish by running his mouth at the table. He had a strong New York accent and looked like he spent about three hours a day in the gym. After losing a medium-sized pot to one of many bad river cards, he told his opponent, “Nice river. If it had come a blank, I’d have busted you.” Then, turning to another player not involved in the pot, he said, “And your ass should be out the door too.”

Turns out he was referring to an earlier pot in which he’d not been a major player but in which this other player had won with a straight. Apparently the New Yorker had several outs to a full house, and had he made that hand, and had the other guy played his hand the same way, and had the other guy then paid off a river check-shove, said other guy would be “out the door.” I’m not sure where the “should” comes from, though.

New York stormed away from the table and quickly became the subject of conversation and laughter, which died down upon his return. “Somebody say something about me?” he demanded. “Were you talking about me?’ addressing this time specifically to the guy whose ass apparently should have been out the door.

“I said you were from the east coast,” which was the truth, if not the whole truth.

“I hope if somebody said something about me he would be a man and say it to my face, not whisper it behind my back like a pussy.”

“I just told you what I said. I said you were clearly from the east coast. Because of your accent.” There was some more back and forth, and the floor had to intervene when New York kept making threats.

After paying off KQ with probably just an A on an AKQxK board, he asked no one in particular, “This gonna be all day today?” Then he repeated the question. “This gonna be all day today?” Then he repeated it twice more, word for word.

Needless to say, I was eager to get into a pot with him. I overcalled one of his raises with J7s and flopped a flush on a KT8 board. He called 1200 on the flop and 1700 on a K turn, then snap checked back a fourth diamond on the river. I tabled my hand, and the dealer indicated the board cards I was using to make a flush.

Peering from across the table, New York demanded, “Put it over here. I wanna see too. One of those fucking days. Another 2500 down the fuckin’ shitter.” Then he tilt shoved Ace-rag over a raise for a stupid amount and sucked out on a better Ace. Then he pretended to tilt shove an even more ridiculous amount with KK and got called by a bad Ace that sucked out on him. That one he actually took pretty well.

Although I got off to a good start, I went card dead after the antes kicked in and just couldn’t make anything happen. The table continued playing aggressively, and I was nitting it up. The few times I tried making a move or even opening a less-than-premium value hand (ie 99 UTG), I got reraised by players who, despite the generally high level aggression, really would have had trouble being light. We’re talking cold 4-bets, UTG+1 3-bets, etc.

It’s one of those things where all signs point to strength but you have to wonder, since you aren’t seeing the cards, whether you just keep running into big hands or if you are getting run over. Then you finally pick up a big one of your own and get no action. One of those fucking days.

The one successful move I did make began with me opening JTs to 1100 at the 250/500/50 level. The player on my left, who’d just cold 4-bet the first light 3-bet I’d made all day the hand prior, 3-bet to 2400. I called.

We both checked a K84r flop. A Q on the turn gave me an open-ended straight draw, but with about 14K behind it was too much to shove, and I didn’t want to bet and get shoved on. So I checked, he bet 2K, and then I shoved to take it down.

Other than that it was a lot of patience and folding. I hung around with 20ish big blinds through the dinner break and most of the next few levels. The best hand I saw during that time was AKo, which the first time I had it ran into another AKo.

The second time, I made a small 3-bet and got 4-bet. Then the big blind cold 5-bet shoved. Had he been deeper, I actually would have folded, but as it was he had even fewer chips than I did so I shoved after the original raiser folded. The 4-better came along, and we all turned over AKo.

Then, with half an hour left in the day, the second most aggressive player at the table opened from the HJ. The most aggressive player called on the CO. I shoved AJo from the button. The raiser shoved and the caller called. Both turned over QQ, which was about the best I could hope to see, but I failed to get there. Somehow they just had it every single time. One of those fuckin’ days.

What really threw me was that these seemingly experienced players were playing in a way that seemed incorrect to me, splashing around in a lot of pots, confidently calling down modest bets with one-way hands, etc. Meanwhile I was card dead and folding damn near everything, and I started to wonder whether my approach wasn’t just off-the-charts wrong. I ended up making the classic error of check-calling big turn and river bets with little more than the nut low, justifying it on the grounds that everyone else was doing it and I had a blocker (ie I was playing A22x, that pair of deuces being the aforementioned “little more” that I somehow convinced myself had a shot at winning the high).

Thankfully it was a small pot and a sadly needed reminder. I cooled off, sat back, and let the others go broke all around me. The next time I played a big pot, it was 25/50 and I tossed out a black 100 chip as a call, hoping to limp-reraise my double-suited AA54. The action folded to the big blind, who, thinking I’d raised, tossed out 50 more chips. That reopened the betting for me to pot it, which he reluctantly called. He called off the rest with 8765 or something like that on a QQ5 board and I had him in pretty bad shape, ultimately scooping the pot.

I started to find a rhythm after that, and as the blinds got bigger the situations in which I found myself started to feel more and more familiar. I was able to read hands, semi-bluff, check for pot control and deception, and just generally feel like I was playing poker instead of waiting around for premium hands and then blindly jamming the pot. Best of all, I was having fun!

As we approached the end of the day, I had run my starting 4500 up over 40K. They announced that we’d play just three more hands and call it a night – just in time for me to avoid paying the big blind! On the second-to-last hand, I raised AA94 suited in hearts and diamonds. Mark Gregorich called from the small blind, then potted into me on a 7c 7s 8s flop. The SPR was only 1.5 when we saw the flop, so there was no question of me folding, and I got it in against his ATT3 with a spade draw. He drilled the low on the turn and the flush on the river to scoop a 25K pot.

I wasn’t rattled. I still had a roughly average stack of 30K, and I’d had my share of luck throughout the day. I calmly wished as well, folded my next hand, bagged my chips, and drove home to relax and prepare for a tougher day of competition tomorrow. These kinds of frustrating things happen in poker, and it’s important to keep your cool when they do. Even if you’re upset on the inside, it’s important to keep a professional demeanor. Wish your opponent well not only with your words but with your heard. Smile, and you will feel the resentment float away like a burden liften from your shoulders.

Today is another day. I am calm and collected. I am water.

Even better, I took a big bite out of his 7500 starting stack almost immediately. Blinds were 25/50, and I called a min-raise with T8o on the BB. He bet 175 at a 965 flop, and I check-raised him to 425. He called, but no problem, I binked the gut shot on the turn. He called 800, and then paid off an overbet of 3500 on a K river.

I played my next big pot at the 75/150 level. The UTG player raised to 400 and got two calls when I found Ah Kh in the small blind. I raised to 1600, intending to call a shove from any of the players already in the pot, all of whom had 8K or so. To my surprise, the big blind cold called, and the others all folded.

He was an amateur and seemed uncomfortable with the situation. I put him pretty squarely on Jacks, with a chance of AK, QQ, or a slightly smaller pair, but thought he would certainly reraise Aces or Kings considering how many players were still to act behind him.

The flop came 557 with a heart. It’s not often that I try to bluff someone off of an overpair, but this seemed like a pretty ideal spot. There’d been surprisingly little reraising at our table, and considering the stack sizes involved, I got the sense that he’d correctly read me for strength. He’s probably playing just a few WSOP events and not eager to be eliminated in level three. Plus even if he were to call with JJ, my hand would have a lot of outs. I decided to check and see what his bet sizing told me.

He bet 1200, barely a quarter of the pot. I moved all-in for about 8K more. He tanked for a very long time before calling. I turned the flush draw but didn’t get there on the river, so it was back to the starting stack for me.

Shortly thereafter, the player to my right opened to 400, and I called with 77. The button and SB called as well, then the player in the BB, who was a relatively new addition to the table and seemed to know what he was doing, moved all-in for 6K. The original raiser folded, and I went into the tank. This seemed like a good spot for him to try to increase his stack by about a third, and while he would surely play all better pairs this way, I thought he might shove a few worse ones and quite a few unpaired hands as well.

I called. So, to my great displeasure, did the player in the small blind, who turned out to have 10s. The big blind had AKo, but once again a miracle 7 led to me raking a big pot.

On break, I stepped into the blazing afternoon sun for some fresh air. A day laborer started talking to me, and I was about to compliment him on his flawless English when I realized that it was Leo Wolpert!

The table got progressively tougher with the addition of some new players, most notably Christian Harder who landed two seats to my left. He put me to quite a decision at the 150/300/25 level, when I opened to 700 with A8o in the CO and he called from the SB. We both checked an AQQ flop and a 5 turn, then he checked again on a K river. I bet 750, and he quickly raised to 3000.

This is a tough spot because I’m quite unlikely to have a Q, and I know that Charder knows that, and he knows that I know that he knows and etc. It’s also a very plausible way for him to play a Q. The question is how many Qs he really has in his pre-flop calling range versus how many hands he’d feel the need to bluff with. I wasn’t sure what to make of his preflop range, but it seemed not at all out of the question that he could turn a pocket pair into a bluff here. I called and was good.

I picked off another bluff from a really aggressive guy who’d previously gotten the better of me in a few pots. I called his button raise with J9 on my big blind and check-called a Td 9d 4s flop. The turn was the Tc, and I bet out for slightly over half the pot. He called. I checked a 5d river, and he bet about half the pot. Against some people this would be more of a decision because their turn calling ranges wouldn’t be all that wide, but this guy hated to give up on pots. I called, and he announced 8-high, so probably he had 87 but maybe 86..

I’d been reluctant to make dinner plans for fear of jinxing myself, but with half an hour to go I finally texted a friend who’d just arrived in Vegas. I was out of the tournament within 10 minutes. First it was AQ in the small blind versus the over-aggressive guy with QQ in the CO, then AK into JJ on the very next hand.

I was approximately three minutes late getting to the tournament area, and consequently I missed the first hand. That’s not like me. I like to be punctual, and I don’t like to miss hands.

But I also want to be comfortable. I want to be unhurried. I got a little lost on my way to the Rio – leave it to me to screw up right, left, right, and then left on to Rio Drive. I didn’t panic. I didn’t run yellow lights. I didn’t sprint from my car to the Brasilia Room. In fact I stopped to go the bathroom. Postponing that would only mean missing more hands later, because no way I was going to last two hours.

After folding the first hand I actually looked at, I started sizing up the table. An Asian guy about my age was two seats to my left, then an amateurish-looking middle-aged guy, then a kid who was trying too hard to look like a good player, then another amateurish-looking and slightly younger guy.

In this particular hand, the kid bet and called a small raise from the amateur on his left when a third spade came on the turn. The board paired on the river, the kid potted it, and the amateur shrugged and called quickly. The kid showed a full house, and the amateur turned over a small flush like what-can-you-do? He was welcome at my table.

He and I played a small pot the very next hand. We’d both checked the turn, but the dealer wasn’t revealing the river card because she was puzzling over a receipt that Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee had just handed her. The other amateur hurried her along. She dealt the river, we both checked, and my opponent won a small pot. “You’re at the wrong table,” the dealer said to my opponent as she tossed him a few chips.

“You checked me in,” he told her, and presumably she had. I wasn’t there to see it, but the dealers are supposed to check each player’s receipt and photo ID as he claims his seat. She’d let this one sit at the wrong table and lose nearly half of his stack. The floor was called. He ruled to send the amateur to his assigned seat and put Kevin MacPhee in his, an unequal exchange if ever there were one.

I protested. “Are the stacks equalized in the second round? Or will the winner of our table bring more chips into round two than the winner of that other table?”

The floorman started to tell me that the stacks weren’t going to be equal anyway because some tables had more players than others, but Kevin cut in. “I just claimed my seat, no one’s been eliminated, yet I have less than the table average. That’s not fair to me. It’s not a big deal, but it’s obviously not fair to me.”

The floor ended up retrieving the player who’d been in the wrong seat – he hadn’t yet played a hand at the other table – and swapping him back, sending MacPhee over to the table where the amateur was supposed to be. That strikes me as the right decision. Obviously it’s not a perfect outcome, but that’s a problem that’s created when the dealer lets the guy sit and play at the wrong table. Provided dealers are generally diligent about checking these things, which in my experience they are, it’s not exploitable.

One guy at the other table was decidedly not happy about it, though. He kept arguing with the floorman. He insisted that Jack Effel be called. Then he argued with Jack. They seemed to settle it, but he was clearly still steaming, and in a few minutes he hopped out of his seat and chased Jack down to argue some more. I can only imagine how badly he hurt his chances in the tournament by letting himself get so worked up over this.

Meanwhile a new player had joined our table, a Russian who claimed the seat on my immediate left. He described himself as “a software guy”, not a poker pro, but he seemed to know what he was doing and in at least one past year he’d played in the 50K Player’s Championship event, so he was not just any amateur.

As we neared the end of the first hour, blinds were still 25/50. I had 7600 out of a 9000 starting stack when I found pocket Aces in the cutoff. I raised to 125, which was the amount I’d been raising all level. The Russian on the button, who began the hand with about 11K, made it 350.

The Asian guy in the small blind, who had about 9K, cold called the 3-bet, which was uncharacteristic and noteworthy given that he’d been playing a pretty snug game. This is a clear 4-bet, though I may have erred a bit on the small side. I made it 1100, the button quickly folded, and the small blind asked to see my stack. Then he called.

With 2550 in the pot and 6500 in my stack, we saw a T74 flop. He checked, I bet 1050, he shoved, I called, and I lost to a set of 4s.

I’m not going to go too much into the strategy of the hand right now because Nate and I discuss it on Episode 35 of the podcast, which should be out on Wednesday. Suffice to say that I thought he was probably setmining preflop – his double call and counting down my stack sure made it seem that way – which makes the flop a more tricky spot than it may seem.

So the largest WSOP event I’d played so far this summer was over and done with before the end of the first level. It was over thanks to a stupid spot that I probably didn’t play badly but that maybe – just maybe – there’s some sick soulreader out there who would have let it go correctly (as opposed to some nits who might have folded for the wrong reasons).

Walking to my car, I came to the sickening realization that this could be the rest of my summer. I’m not guaranteed any deep runs nor even any cashes. Plenty of players at least as good as I whiff the series every year. I knew that intellectually, but now I felt it in a visceral way that I hadn’t before. I guess there’s always a part of you that believes you aren’t going to be that guy, that couldn’t happen to you. But of course it could.

Given that I’d put in just an hour at the tables, part of me wanted to go play something else. There was a $1500 Fixed Limit Hold ‘Em starting at 5. I’m not good at FLHE, but I might still be +EV in a $1500 field. Or I could go play cash somewhere.

I was doing it for the wrong reasons, though. I would have been chasing losses. Instead I ran some errands, went to the grocery store. I suggested dinner to Ed Miller, a writer whose work I admire and who’s been a guest on the podcast but whom I’d never met in person. He accepted.

It was great, exactly what I needed when I was feeling frustrated. He recommended a Thai place that, though not strictly vegan, had a lot of vegan options on the menu. I selected one in his honor.

We talked about tournaments, where to find the best mid-stakes cash games during the series (no consensus), writing and publishing, Las Vegas, non-poker careers, and debate. Yep, turns out he too was on his high school debate team, which helps to explain why I feel like his thinking parallels my own so well. Serious debaters learn to think and to structure their arguments in a very specific way that manifests itself in their speaking and writing in many other contexts, and I’ve always been good at spotting a fellow debater.

I’m usually an excellent judge of how much time has passed, but that night I was way off. When I finally checked the time, I was thinking we’d been at the restaurant for two hours, and in fact it had been three. I walked out of the restaurant a lot less tilted than I was walking in. Thanks, Ed.

On the way, I had to put gas in the car – there was less than 1/8th of a tank when I picked it up, and it’s an Economy car, so I wasn’t going to get far on that – and stop at the bank to pick up cash. It was a Friday, so of course the lines were long. Most people looked like they were cashing paychecks, but something told me that the two young guys a few spots ahead of me were fellow poker players. That something was the poker chip shaved into the head of the heavier guy, and the letters WSOP shaved into the other side of his head. As I waited my turn, I watched him flirt not unsuccessfully with the teller.

Cash in hand and gas in tank, all that remained was to buy in to the tournament. Being generally unfamiliar with the preliminary WSOP events, I was surprised to find the buzz in the Rio convention center pretty comparable to what it’s like during the main event. The halls were filled with poker players, most of them identifiably so if not quite as blatantly as the guy from the bank. A security guard recounted a bad beat story to a bored-looking cocktail waitress who was way out of his league. Two dealers swapped bat beat stories of their own; I overheard something about “so now I’ve got a fourth sidepot” as they passed by me. A young man stood alone in the hallway catching a ball in a cup.

I was an hour early for the $1500 6-max, and the line for registration looked to be about 15 minutes long. A security guard reminded me that I’d need a WSOP Player’s Card, which of course I’d once again forgotten to bring with me, so I had to go to another section of the convention center to get a new one, easily my sixth in eight years, printed.

Finally I bought into the event, and as I was walking away from the cage, Diego AKA RonFezBuddy from Tournament Poker Edge called my name. We chatted for a minute and he introduced me to Casey “BigDogPckt5s” Jarzabeck, and they asked me to join them for lunch. I needed coffee, though, and I already had my lunch. So I sat in the Starbucks, drinking a small iced Americano, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from a plastic baggy, reading Saul Bellow’s Herzog, and waiting for my World Series of Poker to begin. Now there’s a sentence that’s never been uttered before.

There were just two of us at the table when “Shuffle up and deal” was announced, and I had position. Blinds were 25/25, and with both of them sitting out, my opponent opened with a raise to 50. I made it 150 with 7c 5c, and he called. The flop came KQ9, he checked, and figuring that he’d fold on the turn anything that he’d fold on the flop, I checked behind. The turn brought a 7, he checked again, and now that I had some showdown value, I was happy to check as well. The river brought a 5, but I wasn’t too thrilled when he bet 325 into the pot of 350. I called, and sure enough he had KQ.

I didn’t show my cards, but I nonetheless worked up a pretty aggressive image with this player on my right. After that hand, I won every postflop contest we had, though none of them was particularly interesting.

Then, with blinds of 25/50, I opened to 125 with K7s in the HJ, which was also UTG since we were playing five-handed. This in itself is probably a mistake at a table full of decent players, which mine was. Anyway they all folded except for this player in the big blind, who called a little spitefully.

The flop came 765r, he checked, I bet 175, he raised to 475, and I called. This wasn’t the first time he’d check-raised my continuation bet, and I’m pretty sure the last time he’d had nothing. That might make him less likely to do it as a bluff again, but at least I know that move is in his arsenal, and I didn’t get the impression he was calling pre-flop to play fit-or-fold.

The turn brought a 3, he checked, and I bet 725 thinking I could be called by worse made hands and also charge 8s and overcards. Probably a little too ambitious for a tournament with an unforgiving structure. He fingered calling chips – a tell to which I ought to have been more alert – and then moved all-in, laying me roughly 2-1 on a call. He had a commandingly large stack, probably three times the size of mine, so it was actually my survival and not his that was at risk.

I began the staredown. He was quiet and a little fidgety. I’d seen him act very animated in big pots before, and though we didn’t actually see showdowns, I got the impression in those cases that he was looking for calls. This would be a crazy call, since I could easily be drawing dead and an overcard + open-ended-straight-draw was probably the best I could hope to see. Still, my gut was howling at me that he was weak. Admittedly I’m not one of those feel players, but I’ve rarely experienced a “gut reaction” at the poker table as strongly as this.

I ran through the possibilities. Did it make sense to check a 4? Sure, that was reasonable, though not a guarantee. Probably more 8s than 4s in his pre-flop calling range. Pretty likely to check-raise an 8 on the flop, unless he had a pair, which actually a lot of his 8s would. Same is true of his 4s though. Think he’d bet 98 on the turn. Better non-straight hands than mine seemed unlikely though not impossible.

He called the clock. That’s arguably a sign of strength as well, but something about the way he did it felt weak to me. As the floorman counted down my time, my opponent saw someone he knew passing by and struck up a conversation. It felt forced to me, like he was trying to act relaxed.”You have ten seconds remaining.” Is this really how I wanted to kick off my WSOP? What the fuck does that have to do with anything? “Four, three, two…” I pushed my stack into the pot and looked at him inquiringly. He flipped 84s, and I mucked without waiting for a river card.

I’m well aware that in writing this looks like a terrible call even before you see the results. And try as I might, it’s impossible for me to recount the details of the hand without probably skewing them a bit in favor of my mistaken read. All I can in my own defense is that rarely deviate so far from what seems like the correct play based on a read, but the feeling I got during this hand was something I’ve rarely experienced at the poker table, and I’ve been right more often than not when I’ve acted on it in the past. Had he shown me a bare 8, I would have felt like a genius, but as it is, I feel like a schlub.

Welcome to the World Series of Poker.

There were a lot of younger guys I didn’t recognize in the game, and while it was still decent, it was much more aggressive than usual. On my second hand at the table, I overcalled a raise with TT in the SB and flopped AQT. Everyone including the pre-flop raiser checked to an older, heavyset player I also did not recognize, who had me covered by a few hundred dollars. He potted it for 125, I called, and everyone else folded.

The turn was an offsuit 5, I checked and he quickly bet 350. I usually assume that players of his description are nitty when it comes to playing big pots, and that was bad for me. They also tend to overvalue/overprotect hands certain types of non-nut hands, though, and slowplay nutted hands in bad spots. I figured AA was very unlikely for him, and QQ and KJ could surely be in his range for seeing the flop though I wasn’t sure he would play them this way. Then there was AQ, perhaps the most likely candidate, and even AT/QT to consider, though I wasn’t sure which of those would call a raise. I shoved, he called with KJ, and I binked a 5 on the river.

A few hands later, I opened to 25 with AA in early position. I got one call, then one of the young guys three-bet to 125, then the guy who took my seat to watch the game cold 4-bet to 330 out of a stack of 1200. I figured the weakest thing I could do would be to make it 660, which could maybe give impression of leaving myself room to fold to a shove from the 3-better. The 3-better folded, but the 4-better guy shoved so fast I thought he probably had the other two Aces. He showed Ks, and in my first ten minutes at the table I was up more than 400 BBs.

The next few hours were a lot less eventful, and I lost one sizeable pot that was straddled three times, with the final $40 straddler waking up with KK, which was a lot better than my 54s. Eventually I was moved to the main game, where the Heat guy had already been seated. The game didn’t look nearly as good as the must-move, and I was getting tired anyway, so I decided just to play around to my blind and then call it a night.

On my second-to-last hand, the UTG player straddled to $10. I limped next to act with 88, there were a couple more limpers, Miami Heat completed from the BB, and the straddle raised $35 more. That’s unlikely to be a monster, and I should probably just 3-bet now. I wasn’t eager to play a big pot, though, and I also expect my implied odds with a set to be pretty good, so I just called.

Everyone else called back to Heat, who put $500 on top. The straddle tanked a bit before folding, and in that time I realized that I was going to have to shove. Nines or Tens weren’t completely out of the question for him, but his line really made no sense. Not that I was going to look terribly strong, but he might fold to a shove, and even if he didn’t we were probably flipping. I moved in for $1700 more on top of his $535, and he agonized for a bit before correctly deciding he was priced in.

The board ran out KQ7J5, and he showed J9s. I suppose losing a 1000 BB coin flip was an appropriate end to the night. I’m going to an independent regional professional wrestling match tonight, so that should make for an interesting night of a different sort…

“The more time I spend on the internet, the more disdainful I become of the physical world. I work online, I play online, I shop online, and I meet people online. Owning physical things is mostly a nuisance to me. They have to be stored, carried, cared for, and packed or discarded every time I move, which is often, thanks to the freedom that online poker provides me.”

Not only was my trip to Montreal for the purpose of playing poker online, but it was arranged entirely online. I comparison priced flights online. I found and booked an apartment on AirBnB. Trip Advisor helped me figure out the best way to get from the Montreal airport to my apartment. I used Yelp to find places to eat and things to do during my time off. I used Google Maps to find the best bike routes around the city. And of course I chronicled the whole trip on my blog.

When I was comparing apartments, the reliability of the internet was naturally my primary concern. I ruled out a few otherwise good places because they had a connection shared by an entire building rather than their own modem. The owner of the apartment I ultimately chose assured me that the connection was quick and reliable, and until now it always had been. He did warn me that there was a monthly limit of 50 GBs, but I’d forgotten about that because I didn’t think there was any chance of running into it.

I’m still not sure that that’s what happened, but it’s my best guess. As I mentioned in my Day 1 post, I’d been listening to Spotify near-continuously during the WCOOP. I streamed The Lederer Files and downloaded the 2+2 Pokercast. I unwound after stressful days with Aziz Ansari, YouTube clips, and The Colbert Report (also available in Canada). And I just may have shot myself in the foot during the most important part of the series.

In a way, the timing was fortuitous. At least my disconnection occurred after the end of Day 1 of the Main Event and before the start of Day 2. So while it was harrowing to find a new internet connection while deep in the 1K, it would have been infinitely worse on the bubble of the 5K.

As it happened, I woke up on Monday morning, still without internet in the apartment. Among other things, that meant that I couldn’t actually look up the coffee shop where I was the night before or exactly how to get there. It was a pretty ideal work space, though, so I left myself plenty of time to find it and hopped on a trusty old Bixi.

I impressed myself by beelining straight to it. That gave me nearly an hour to have a coffee and a sandwich and get settled in. The only downside was that the bathroom, which I’m usually eager to use at every break, required a key, so I had to go request that every hour.

I started the tournament with a somewhat short stack, and it got even shorter when I lost a flip to a really short stack with KQs to his JJ. After that, all I could do was nit it up until we were in the money.

That’s not the way I’d prefer to play the bubble, but the payout structure mandated it. A min-cash was worth more than $12,000, and the next few payjumps were roughly $400 each. The implication of that is that sneaking into the money with a very short stack is preferable to risking elimination in order to accumulate chips, because making it into the money with twice as many chips might win you only a few thousand more dollars or less.

I even ended up folding AKo pre-flop when we were 2 or 3 places from the money. I was in the BB with 25 BBs. The chipleader, who’d been bullying the bubble quite successfully, opened for a min-raise from early position. I was ready to shove on him, but then the SB shoved 60 BBs, the second-biggest stack at the table, into the only guy who could bust him. Even if we weren’t on the bubble, this would probably be a fold, so I didn’t have to think too long about it.

The next time I got AK, we were in the money and there was a raise and re-raise in front of me, so it was an easy shove. They both folded and I scooped a good sized pot.

Blinds went up again, though, and I was still too short to make much happen. Finally I reshoved about 13 BBs over a middle position 9.5 BB shove with ATo and lost to AQo. Unfortunate outcome but the right play I think.

Just a few hands later I put my last 4 BBs into the pot with KK and more than doubled through QQ. I thought getting up to 9 BBs would generate some fold equity for me, but when I open shoved A8o from the CO, the button reshoved A6s. The flop came off Q22 with a flush draw for him, then another 2 on the turn to all but lock up at least a chop for him. The river, however, completed his flush and brought my 2012 World Championship of Online Poker to an end.

Thanks for following along! I suppose the last somewhat interesting tidbit was my conversation with the US Customs agent before my return flight. My strategy for dealing with this sort of authority figure is generally to speak only when spoken to and to be extremely literal and limited in my responses. It tends to get on their nerves, but not in a way that they can do very much about. So here’s roughly how our conversation went:

First off, it was early in the morning and there was no one ahead of me in line or at the agent’s window, but I made a point of stopping behind the red line and waiting for her to summon me over, which she did with a subtle nod of her head. I noticed that her name was Canaba, which is funny since she worked in Canada, but I figured I wouldn’t be the first one to point that out so I didn’t mention it.

I greeted Canaba with a cheery, “Good morning!” and handed her my passport and customs declaration, on which I’d declared $3 worth of Canadian-purchased goods crossing the border with me.

She ignored my greeting with a scowl. “You bought $3 worth of something?”

“Yes.”

“What did you buy?’

“Granola bars.” She snorted.

“What were you doing in Canada?”

“Playing poker.”

“How much cash do you have with you?”

“Not very much.”

“What does that mean? Not very much. How much?”

“Like $40.”

“So you didn’t win.”

“I was playing online.”

“What does that mean? Did you win or not?”

“Like, I was playing on the internet. Not at a casino. So I wasn’t playing with cash, and I don’t have cash with me.”

“Ok but did you win or lose?”

“I won.”

“How much did you win?”

“About $15,000.” I probably shouldn’t have answered this. I’m 99% sure I shouldn’t have to, but I guess I’m the sort of guy who’s willing to allow his liberties to be trampled in order to spare himself some discomfort and inconvenience.

“You can’t play online poker from the United States?”

“Correct.”

“Correct you can?”

“No, you cannot play online in the United States.” It might have been more fun to give her an answer like “not on this particular site” or “not without a VPN”, but I decided against trying to confuse her further.

Nonetheless, she suddenly got very defensive. “OK, well I don’t know. I don’t know the rules of poker. Or any kind of gambling.”

“…”

With that she handed my papers back to me. I left her with a breezy, “Have a nice day!” but I didn’t expect an answer, and I didn’t get one.

I’m kind of embarrassed to post this, because it’s pretty hokey, but I do think it helped, so maybe it can help you too:

“This is a long and profitable tournament. You are lucky to be playing it. It deserves your best effort and full attention. There is nothing else you would rather be doing than playing this tournament.

There will be many good opportunities. Wait for them. Conserve your chips. Do not invest in questionable situations, and do not wade into murky waters. Do not bet on guesses when there will be time to form better reads.

Take your time. Think before you act, even, especially, when the decision seems trivial. Pay attention to bet timing and sizing. What does he have? When you bluff, what do want him to fold? When you raise, what do you want him to call? Have you considered all of your options?

This is a long and profitable tournament. You are lucky to be playing it. It deserves your best effort and full attention. There is nothing else you would rather be doing than playing this tournament. Play your best.”

I read this to myself before I started playing and during every break. Later in the evening, when the only tables I still had open were the $5K Main Event and the $1K Second Chance, I had this up on my screen as a constant reminder.

The pre-flop action in this tournament was intense from the very beginning. This is an extreme example, but it gives you an idea of how much people were playing back at each other:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 5200 Tournament, 60/120 Blinds 15 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t20391)
MP2 (t19448)
MP3 (t37186)
CO (t18108)
Button (t52811)
SB (t10829)
Hero (BB) (t28608)
UTG (t22249)
UTG+1 (t10452)

Hero’s M: 90.82

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, 3
UTG bets t240, 5 folds, Button raises to t389, 2 folds, UTG calls t149

Flop: (t1093) 4, 10, 7 (2 players)
UTG checks, Button bets t511, UTG calls t511

Turn: (t2115) 5 (2 players)
UTG checks, Button bets t1189, UTG raises to t2880, Button raises to t5289, UTG calls t2409

River: (t12693) 3 (2 players)
UTG checks, Button checks

Total pot: t12693

Results:
Button mucked 7, 2 (one pair, sevens).
UTG had 4, 4 (three of a kind, fours).
Outcome: UTG won t12693

For most of the first day, I operated under the assumption that there was a good chance any of my raises would get 3-bet and that any of my 3-bets would get 4-bet. Consequently, I played a snug, boring game and I don’t have a lot of interesting hands to share with you from this tournament.

What was interesting was a song that came on while I was playing. I listened to Spotify pretty much non-stop while I playing the series, and after exhausting a few of their other playlists, I was listening to Pitchfork‘s Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s during the Main Event. One song fades, there are a few seconds of silence, and then I hear,

“Yeah, I’m losing my edge.
I’m losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I’m losing my edge.”

This is actually the opening to a song by LCD Soundsystem, but it’s a hell of a thing to hear when you’ve just turned 30 and you don’t play online poker nearly as much as you used to and there are all these guys you’ve never heard of before who all seem to know what they’re doing and it seems like every time you google an opponent’s name the first hit is either High Stakes Database talking about his wins at 50/100 PLO or the PokerStars blog talking about he dominated the final table of a recent Sunday Million or SCOOP tournament.

So I had a good laugh at that but I kept my head down and plugged away. After a few hours of nitting it up and not catching much, I’d blinded down to about 14 BBs. I picked up AKo and ended up chopping with another AKo. Two hands later I open shoved AQs for 15 BBs from the CO. The SB called with KQo to double me up. Two hands after that I doubled again:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 5200 Tournament, 250/500 Blinds 60 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t14879)
SB (t22362)
BB (t23123)
UTG (t22248)
UTG+1 (t96537)
MP1 (t65036)
Hero (MP2) (t15710)
MP3 (t63133)
CO (t18350)

Hero’s M: 12.18

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K, A
3 folds, Hero bets t1000, 4 folds, BB calls t500

Flop: (t2790) 3, 3, A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t999, BB calls t999

Turn: (t4788) 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t2666, BB calls t2666

River: (t10120) Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t10985 (All-In), BB calls t10985

Total pot: t32090

Results:
BB had 5, A (two pair, Aces and threes).
Hero had K, A (two pair, Aces and threes).
Outcome: Hero won t32090

Given the kind of action I was getting despite my nittiness, I felt vindicated in my decision not to get too out of line. Then in the next level:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 5200 Tournament, 300/600 Blinds 70 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 (t59661)
MP1 (t15965)
MP2 (t30852)
MP3 (t13174)
CO (t98427)
Button (t69983)
Hero (SB) (t43714)
BB (t59207)
UTG (t10126)

Hero’s M: 28.57

Preflop: Hero is SB with J, A
5 folds, CO bets t1200, 1 fold, Hero raises to t3600, BB raises to t7800, 1 fold, Hero raises to t43644 (All-In), BB calls t35844

Flop: (t89118) 8, A, 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t89118) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t89118) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t89118

Results:
Hero had J, A (one pair, Aces).
BB had 10, 10 (one pair, tens).
Outcome: Hero won t89118

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 5200 Tournament, 350/700 Blinds 85 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t44286)
SB (t18240)
BB (t32885)
UTG (t11119)
UTG+1 (t110948)
MP1 (t81380)
Hero (MP2) (t83778)
MP3 (t21688)
CO (t14290)

Hero’s M: 46.16

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K, A
3 folds, Hero bets t1400, MP3 calls t1400, 1 fold, Button calls t1400, 1 fold, BB calls t700

Flop: (t6715) 10, 8, K (4 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t3333, MP3 raises to t20203 (All-In), 2 folds, Hero calls t16870

Turn: (t47121) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t47121) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t47121

Results:
Hero had K, A (two pair, Kings and eights).
MP3 had K, Q (two pair, Kings and eights).
Outcome: Hero won t47121

I won a few more medium pots, then went card dead again towards the end of the night, made a few moves that didn’t work out, and ended the day with 20ish BBs, a healthy but not ideal stack. With the bubble approaching, I knew I was going to have to nit it up again the next day, but I was excited just to be there.

It was nearly midnight, so I would have welcomed the chance to hit the hay and rest up for Day 2 of the Main Event. That wasn’t an option, though, because I was still in the $1K Second Chance, and we were getting down to it. This was the only notable hand from that tournament so far:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 1050 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds 25 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t19580)
Button (t14087)
SB (t23987)
BB (t16749)
UTG (t37817)
UTG+1 (t16725)
MP1 (t10047)
MP2 (t17606)
Hero (MP3) (t21136)

Hero’s M: 40.26

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A, K
2 folds, MP1 bets t400, 1 fold, Hero raises to t999, 4 folds, MP1 calls t599

Flop: (t2523) 6, 2, Q (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets t1212, MP1 calls t1212

Turn: (t4947) 6 (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets t1212, MP1 calls t1212

River: (t7371) Q (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets t17688 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t7371

Results:
Hero didn’t show A, K (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t7371

So I’m chugging along nicely in that tournament, trying just to play well and not think about how tired I’m going to be tomorrow. There was still a thing or two I wanted to do in Montreal – most notably the Latin Quarter, a student hot spot near the Université du Québec à Montréal. Oh well. This was more important.

It’s 2:30 in the morning, and an aggressive player opens the CO. I 3-bet ATo from the SB. He min-4-bets. I go into the tank. Clock is ticking down. I drag the bet slider all the way to the right, take another second to think, and then click “Raise.”

Nothing happens. Then that “Connecting…” bar appears on the screen, and the wireless icon in the bottom right hand corner of my screen is “Looking for signal…”. I stare helplessly, willing the connection to come back. I’ve been playing on this connection for nearly three weeks without the slightest trouble, and it picks now to go out?!

I get down on my hands and knees, unplug the router, wait 60 seconds, replug it. Nothing. Try again with the router and modem. Nothing.

Shit. What are my options? I’m too tired to think clearly. I’m picking up other connections, but they’re all Secure. Blinding off would cost me ten to fifteen thousand dollars in equity. It’s not an option.

I don’t know any of the neighbors. Do I bang on doors in the middle of the night, try to explain the situation, beg for a wireless password? If I could get someone to open the door and listen to me, I could make it worth their while. Offer them enough cash that they’d be glad I woke them up at 2:30 in the morning. How much to offer? $200? $500? It would easily be worth it. But I don’t have that kind of cash, and there’s no ATM around. So then there would be the added complication of getting them to accept an IOU.

I only know one person in Montreal, and though I have Luis’ phone number, I don’t have any way of calling me. Skype was my only phone.

The apartment is just a few blocks from Avenue du Mont-Royal. There are a lot of restaurants and such on that street. I don’t remember seeing any 24-hour places, but I could probably find something eventually. But how long would that take?

I resolved to walk in that direction but also see if I passed anyone on the street who looked like they could be helpful. I wasn’t sure what to expect at this hour, but if I was really lucky maybe I would meet a student on the way home from a late-night study session or something. I grabbed my laptop and stepped out in the Montreal night.

There weren’t many people out, and the first few didn’t look like they had homes, let alone wireless routers. I saw a young couple approaching, but they were so drunk they could barely walk. From the way they were giggling and leaning in to each other, it also seemed like they weren’t going to be wanting company.

Then a cab drove past, and finally I had a plan I felt good about. I walked to the busiest street in the vicinity and hailed a cab. I asked if he know of any place that would have internet at this hour. I was ready to ask in French if necessary, but he understood me. “Probably somewhere on St. Denis,” he told me. The Latin Quarter. I couldn’t help smiling as I hopped in.

Ten minutes later we hit Rue St. Denis, and I spotted an all-night coffee shop and internet cafe almost immediately. “Perfect!” I told him, left him a generous tip, and dashed inside. I bought a stale muffin, got the wireless code, and was back in action less than forty minutes after my disconnection. For all I know, I might have been about to jam into Aces, so it could even have saved me money.

Of course I was getting short, but I doubled almost immediately with TT > AKo. Looking at the hand again, I see know that it was versus the same player who would eliminate me from the Main Event the next day.

Unfortunately I was still frazzled from my little crisis and couldn’t get my head back in the game. I was playing really badly. I made a stupid shove with A7 but sucked out on 77. A few orbits later, we were down to four tables. The button opened for a min-raise. I jammed 20 BBs with T9s in the SB. Assassinato, who was already one of the chip leaders and who went on to chop the tournament, woke up with JJ and that was the end of me. He writes an excellent poker blog, by the way; I suggest you check it out.

I took a cab back home. It was after 4AM, and I was eager to get what rest I could before what I hoped would be another big day. The internet was still out at the apartment, but that was a problem I could solve in the morning.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds 5 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t7965)
Button (t7370)
Hero (SB) (t7445)
BB (t7370)
UTG (t14995)
UTG+1 (t7495)
MP1 (t7495)
MP2 (t7370)
MP3 (t14995)

Hero’s M: 62.04

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
UTG bets t125, 1 fold, MP1 calls t125, MP2 calls t125, 3 folds, Hero raises to t666, 2 folds, MP1 calls t541, MP2 calls t541

Flop: (t2218) J, 3, 6 (3 players)
Hero bets t1224, MP1 calls t1224, MP2 calls t1224

Turn: (t5890) 9 (3 players)
Hero bets t5550 (All-In), MP1 raises to t5600 (All-In), 1 fold

River: (t16990) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t16990

Results:
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
MP1 had 10, 8 (straight, Jack high).
Outcome: MP1 won t16990

Rebuy! And then a bit later in the tournament:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 30 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) (t21289)
SB (t19553)
BB (t23730)
UTG (t21931)
UTG+1 (t20220)
MP1 (t15720)
MP2 (t26511)
CO (t47258)

Hero’s M: 34.62

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, 6
3 folds, MP2 bets t500, 1 fold, Hero calls t500, 1 fold, BB calls t250

Flop: (t1865) 6, 8, 8 (3 players)
BB checks, MP2 bets t750, Hero calls t750, 1 fold

Turn: (t3365) 5 (2 players)
MP2 bets t1350, Hero calls t1350

River: (t6065) 9 (2 players)
MP2 bets t3500, Hero raises to t13333, MP2 raises to t23881 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: t32731

Results:
MP2 didn’t show
Outcome: MP2 won t32731

It was actually only about 5K more to me to call, but even getting like 7:1 with a full house, this is an easy fold. I actually think raising the river might even be a mistake. I analyze the hand in more depth in my October 2+2 article Telling a Story With Your Value Bets.

My girlfriend didn’t come with me to Montreal, so I was by myself on my birthday proper, though I had plans to take Saturday off before the WCOOP Main Event on Sunday and to hang out with Luis that evening.

In lieu of cake, I did a little research on Yelp and found that one of the most popular dessert places in Montreal was a shop near me that sold macaroons. They’ve never been my favorite, so while these were pretty good, the real excitement for me was that it was by far my most thorough transaction in French. I asked the woman behind the counter which she preferred, but that no I didn’t like raspberries, anything else? Etc. Neither of us ever had to ask the other to repeat anything, though I suspect she was going easy on me in terms of vocabulary and speed. I picked up a few more local brews to try and watched Aziz Ansari’s Dangerously Delicious special.

Saturday was a little more exciting. Luis and I got coffee and then beer and then met up with his lady friend at an all-you-can-eat vegan Chinese restaurant. I chose this place, so I guess I have no one but myself to blame for the fact that it wasn’t very good. Almost all of their offerings had the oily sauciness of a low-end Chinese place, only with fried tofu products in place of meat. Worst of all, they charge you for what you don’t eat, so we even had to choke down the stuff that wasn’t that good.

Luis’ friend, on the other hand, was a pleasure. For one thing, she was beautiful, half-French and half-Cambodian. A little of Luis’ league IMHO, so well-played my friend. She was also very patient with my stilted French, and the three of us spoke mostly in French for about half an hour. We only switched to English when Luis went to the restroom, I guess because although it was better than my French it was a far cry from Luis’ near-perfect English and she was embarrassed speaking in front of him. It was very good practice for me even though (more likely because) I made a ton of mistakes.

The two of them were headed somewhere afterwards, but I turned in early. I wanted to be well-rested for the Main Event on Sunday…

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 30 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t4500)
BB (t12160)
UTG (t5127)
UTG+1 (t7145)
MP1 (t12320)
MP2 (t5159)
Hero (MP3) (t9635)
CO (t8782)
Button (t16240)

Hero’s M: 14.94

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A, J
4 folds, Hero bets t500, 1 fold, Button raises to t1250, 2 folds, Hero calls t750

Flop: (t3145) 2, 5, 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t1250, Hero calls t1250

Turn: (t5645) K (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t2250, Hero raises to t7105 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t10145

Results:
Hero didn’t show A, J.
Outcome: Hero won t10145

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds 25 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 (t4510)
MP3 (t3987)
CO (t7052)
Button (t7380)
SB (t15716)
BB (t6219)
Hero (UTG) (t9610)
UTG+1 (t5147)
MP1 (t12140)

Hero’s M: 18.30

Preflop: Hero is UTG with J, A
Hero bets t400, 4 folds, CO raises to t855, 3 folds, Hero calls t455

Flop: (t2235) 6, 9, 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t1005, Hero raises to t8730 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: t4245

Results:
Hero didn’t show J, A.
Outcome: Hero won t4245

I won a big pot early in the $500. It was a horrid river card for me, but fortunately he had about the only hand I could still beat:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds 10 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t9325)
Button (t9548)
Hero (SB) (t12758)
BB (t10183)
UTG (t4825)
UTG+1 (t10546)
MP1 (t9270)
MP2 (t12094)
MP3 (t5692)

Hero’s M: 60.75

Preflop: Hero is SB with 6, 9
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t80, MP1 calls t80, 4 folds, Hero calls t40, BB checks

Flop: (t410) 7, 8, Q (4 players)
Hero bets t400, BB calls t400, 2 folds

Turn: (t1210) 10 (2 players)
Hero bets t1111, BB calls t1111

River: (t3432) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

Total pot: t3432

Results:
Hero had 6, 9 (straight, ten high).
BB mucked Q, 7 (two pair, Queens and eights).
Outcome: Hero won t3432

FWIW I think he should fold the turn.

In this next one I played back post-flop at a guy I knew was opening too wide of a range from early position. Too bad he had the hand I was representing. Interesting spot on the river when I get there but can’t value bet because I’ve already repped a stronger hand than I actually have:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 75/150 Blinds 20 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t11139)
MP2 (t14547)
Hero (CO) (t29929)
Button (t24244)
SB (t26627)
BB (t12150)
UTG (t18863)
UTG+1 (t19420)

Hero’s M: 77.74

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q, K
UTG bets t300, 3 folds, Hero calls t300, 3 folds

Flop: (t985) 6, A, 10 (2 players)
UTG bets t505, Hero calls t505

Turn: (t1995) 3 (2 players)
UTG bets t1085, Hero raises to t3333, UTG calls t2248

River: (t8661) J (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Total pot: t8661

Results:
UTG had 4, 5 (flush, Ace high).
Hero mucked Q, K (straight, Ace high).
Outcome: UTG won t8661

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t18968)
UTG+1 (t26004)
Hero (MP1) (t12162)
MP2 (t47189)
MP3 (t39281)
CO (t13163)
Button (t45665)
SB (t17625)
BB (t9615)

Hero’s M: 11.58

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Q, A
2 folds, Hero bets t800, MP2 raises to t1713, 5 folds, Hero calls t913

Flop: (t4476) 5, 6, 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t1519, Hero raises to t10399 (All-In), MP2 calls t8880

Turn: (t25274) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t25274) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t25274

Results:
Hero had Q, A (two pair, Queens and sixes).
MP2 had K, K (two pair, Kings and sixes).
Outcome: MP2 won t25274

Like I said, spazzed out pretty badly on that last one.

First up was the PLO8. I got a stack gifted to me almost immediately:

PokerStars Omaha Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t4606)
MP2 (t4319)
Hero (CO) (t4540)
Button (t4697)
SB (t7821)
BB (t3708)
UTG (t4310)
UTG+1 (t4599)

Hero’s M: 100.89

Preflop: Hero is CO with 9, A, 10, 5
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t30, MP1 calls t30, 1 fold, Hero calls t30, Button calls t30, SB calls t15, BB checks

Flop: (t180) 8, J, 7 (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets t180, Button calls t180, 4 folds

Turn: (t540) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t540, Button calls t540

River: (t1620) A (2 players)
Hero bets t1620, Button raises to t3947 (All-In), Hero calls t2170 (All-In)

Total pot: t9200

Results:
Button had 3, J, J, 3 (three of a kind, Jacks).
Hero had 9, A, 10, 5 (straight, Jack high).
Outcome: Hero won t9200

Slowplaying isn’t often correct in this game since a single card can dramatically decrease your equity in almost any given situation, but here it’s hard for Villain to have much, so I’d like to underrepresent my hand. Once a low draw appears on the turn it’s time to start betting, even though I have the nut low draw. I like potting the river because it’s possible (though unlikely) for better lows to fold and worse highs to call, and in any even I’m guaranteed at least half the pot:

PokerStars Omaha Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t4319)
BB (t3455)
Hero (UTG) (t9334)
UTG+1 (t5174)
MP1 (t5224)
MP2 (t5142)
MP3 (t6021)
CO (t7828)
Button (t3260)

Hero’s M: 103.71

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 2, 6, A, 3
Hero calls t60, UTG+1 calls t60, 3 folds, CO calls t60, Button calls t60, SB calls t30, BB checks

Flop: (t360) K, 7, J (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, CO checks, Button bets t300, 2 folds, Hero calls t300, 2 folds

Turn: (t960) A (2 players)
Hero bets t666, Button calls t666

River: (t2292) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t2292, 1 fold

Total pot: t2292

Results:
Hero didn’t show 2, 6, A, 3 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t2292

I got off to a great start, then got blinded down for a while and ended up playing too big of a pot with too marginal of a hand. In my defense, though, this player was extremely aggressive on his button, so it was unlucky for me to run into a hand that had me so smashed:

PokerStars Omaha Tournament, 125/250 Blinds (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t9022)
SB (t8725)
Hero (BB) (t12020)
UTG (t19654)
UTG+1 (t30877)
MP1 (t10834)
MP2 (t10662)
CO (t22702)

Hero’s M: 32.05

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8, 9, 4, A
4 folds, CO bets t500, 2 folds, Hero calls t250

Flop: (t1125) 2, 9, A (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t750, Hero raises to t3375, CO raises to t11250, Hero raises to t11520 (All-In), CO calls t270

Turn: (t24165) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t24165) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t24165

Results:
Hero had 8, 9, 4, A (two pair, Aces and nines).
CO had 9, 4, 3, A (straight, five high).
Outcome: CO won t24165

These hands from the 1R1A highlight some of the changes I talked about making to my game after a poor performance on Sunday. Here’s a big laydown that I’m still pretty happy with:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 75/150 Blinds 20 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t3877)
MP2 (t21924)
MP3 (t4825)
CO (t7510)
Hero (Button) (t14490)
SB (t26039)
BB (t13930)
UTG (t11442)
UTG+1 (t14810)

Hero’s M: 35.78

Preflop: Hero is Button with J, K
4 folds, MP3 calls t150, 1 fold, Hero bets t450, 2 folds, MP3 calls t300

Flop: (t1305) J, 9, 9 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t1305) 9 (2 players)
MP3 bets t300, Hero calls t300

River: (t1905) 5 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets t1350, MP3 raises to t4055 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: t4605

Results:
MP3 didn’t show
Outcome: MP3 won t4605

This one, on the other hand, now looks like a mistake to me. I was planning to make fewer “representational” bluffs where I’m relying on some hand reading from my opponent to get a fold, but this is still probably worth a bet:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 40 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 (t13149)
MP1 (t33184)
Hero (MP2) (t12122)
MP3 (t28282)
CO (t13986)
Button (t8237)
SB (t26467)
BB (t14761)
UTG (t22179)

Hero’s M: 14.97

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 10, K
UTG calls t300, 2 folds, Hero bets t900, 4 folds, BB calls t600, UTG calls t600

Flop: (t3210) 6, Q, A (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets t1467, 1 fold, UTG calls t1467

Turn: (t6144) 2 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: (t6144) 8 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Total pot: t6144

Results:
UTG had Q, K (one pair, Queens).
Hero mucked 10, K (high card, Ace).
Outcome: UTG won t6144

If I told you any more about this tournament or the Big Ante, I’d just be whining about coolers, so I’ll spare you and stop here

The day started nicely enough. It was overcast again, but not raining, so I repeated my Sunday morning ritual of taking coffee, pastry, and Kindle to the nearby park. Once again, a swarm of squirrels cut short my entertainment.

The first WCOOP tournament started at 11, but I wanted to be fresh for the $2K, so I waited until the last minute to late register. That didn’t give me too many big blinds to work with. I managed to get AKo all-in preflop against T9s for 22 BBs, but it didn’t hold up.

None of the other Sunday tournaments I played was going too well either, due to some combination of bad luck and poor play. I lasted a couple hours in the $2K without doing terribly much. It was a tough table, though probably not beyond the pale for a $2K, and the guy on my left was 3-betting me a lot. Finally I lost my cool and shipped a few too many BBs with TT into his QQ.

I managed a min-cash in the Sunday $500, but otherwise the day was a complete whiff. For the first time all series I was not just disappointed but upset about how the day had gone. I decided I needed to make a few changes to how I’d been playing, in particular the way I dealt with 3- and 4-bets.

It seems to me that light 3- and 4-betting, which has been rampant in even small stakes cash games for years now, has finally become widespread among tournament players. Of course the best players have been doing it for a while, but weaker players tended either not to do it or to do it badly. For the first time I was seeing hundreds of players I didn’t recognize 3-betting a wide variety of hands in decent spots with decent sizing. I’m not saying they were getting it perfectly right, but it was enough to render worse than useless my default assumptions about how to play against unknowns in a large-field MTT.

I also decided that I needed a day off, and I intended to take one on Monday, but the weather was lousy and I was eager to try out some of the adaptations I’d been thinking about the previous night, so I ended up playing after all. As I’ve already reported here, that turned out pretty well.

I wish I had a specific example of this to give – perhaps the hand below will serve – but I got the distinct impression during our match that Liv was capable of playing extremely well but had for some reason decided to treat me as an unsophisticated opponent. That worked out OK for me. One of the more interesting hands we played is serving as this week’s “What’s Your Play?”. Here’s the one that finished the match:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t3148)
Hero (BB) (t11852)

Hero’s M: 131.69

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8, 9
SB bets t138, Hero calls t78

Flop: (t276) 7, 3, 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t151, Hero raises to t444, SB calls t293

Turn: (t1164) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks

River: (t1164) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets t1164, SB raises to t2566 (All-In), Hero calls t1402

Total pot: t6296

Results:
SB had 10, A (straight, seven high).
Hero had 8, 9 (straight, nine high).
Outcome: Hero won t6296

I guess she thought I wouldn’t have potted it with a hand that could beat the board? I considered just shoving the river, which is something I’d often do as a bluff, but I figured I might as well give her room to do something like this, especially since she’d probably jam it in herself if she had an 8.

Round 2: Ben “NeverScaredB” Wilinofsky 

Ben was a harrowing but entertaining opponent. We’ve never met in person but have spoken online a few times and there’s mutual respect between us. He took some really creative lines that forced me to rise to the occasion and think hard about everything I did, even in seemingly trivial spots. It was tough trying to stay one step ahead of him, and each of us got the best of the other in a few big pots.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t9757)

BB (t5243)

Hero’s M: 108.41

Preflop: Hero is SB with 5, K

Hero bets t120, BB calls t60

Flop: (t240) 3, 2, 7 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets t120, BB calls t120

Turn: (t480) 10 (2 players)

BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t480) K (2 players)

BB checks, Hero bets t333, BB raises to t1425, Hero calls t1092

Total pot: t3330

Results:

Hero mucked 5, K (one pair, Kings).

BB had J, K (one pair, Kings).

Outcome: BB won t3330

Bad call by me. I decided I had to call because a pair of Ks is the top of my range after checking the turn, but as we see here that also means that he can make some thin value bets. Think I need a better kicker to call.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t7265)

SB (t7735)

Hero’s M: 60.54

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, J

SB bets t200, Hero calls t120

Flop: (t400) 4, 9, 5 (2 players)

Hero checks, SB bets t240, Hero raises to t666, SB calls t426

Turn: (t1732) 8 (2 players)

Hero bets t888, SB calls t888

River: (t3508) 7 (2 players)

Hero bets t1666, 1 fold

Total pot: t3508

Results:

Hero didn’t show Q, J (nothing).

Outcome: Hero won t3508

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t7405)
SB (t7595)

Hero’s M: 61.71

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4, 4
SB bets t200, Hero calls t120

Flop: (t400) 3, 10, 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks

Turn: (t400) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets t280, Hero raises to t666, SB raises to t1555, Hero calls t889

River: (t3510) K (2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks

Total pot: t3510

Results:
SB mucked 2, 7 (high card, King).
Hero had 4, 4 (one pair, fours).
Outcome: Hero won t3510

Round 3: Should’ve Been Easier

This guy was by far the weakest of my opponents, and it took me by far the longest to finish him off. That was partly a choice on my part – I felt my edge was large so I played an extremely small-ball game – and partly a function of his style. He was passive and tightish, though he made some good decisions about when not to let go of relatively weak hands. Though he never got up sufficient aggression, he also did a good job of adapting to my adaptations over the course of our three-hour match. Generally I would win a bunch of small pots, lose some medium-sized ones, and we just didn’t play that many big ones. The first one we did play went badly for me:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t8248)
SB (t6752)

Hero’s M: 109.97

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, K
SB bets t100, Hero raises to t350, SB calls t250

Flop: (t700) K, 6, J (2 players)
Hero bets t350, SB calls t350

Turn: (t1400) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets t1000, SB calls t1000

River: (t3400) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t2222, SB raises to t5052 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: t7844

Results:
SB didn’t show
Outcome: SB won t7844

Yes, it’s an unlikely backdoor draw, and it was early in the match, but after playing with this guy for as long as I did, I remain confident that I was beat here.

After that it was back to the same MO: win a bunch of small pots, lose a bigger one. Eventually I got it in with 99 vs his AKo preflop and won the flip to get back in the game. Then I won another big one with 99:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t5928)
BB (t9072)

Hero’s M: 15.81

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9, 9
Hero bets t500, BB calls t250

Flop: (t1000) 9, 10, 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t500, BB calls t500

Turn: (t2000) K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1234, BB calls t1234

River: (t4468) K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t3694 (All-In), BB calls t3694

Total pot: t11856

Results:
Hero had 9, 9 (full house, nines over Kings).
BB had A, A (two pair, Aces and Kings).
Outcome: Hero won t11856

I ground him down some more, then got it in with A4o to his A8o for his last 8 BBs and doubled him up. Finally he jammed A2o over my min-raise with TT and I held to eliminate him.

Round 4: Eugene Katchalov

Since we were the last to finish, my next round started immediately, and I was not pleased to see Eugene Katchalov seated across from me. My game plan against him was completely different. Now I wanted to swing for the fences and force lots of big pots, since I didn’t have any delusions of outplaying him in the small ones. My range for calling a pre-flop min-raise in Round 3 was dramatically from my range in Round 4, partly because I was 3-betting more often but mostly because I was throwing a lot of hands to Eugene that would have turned from out of position against my previous opponent. It didn’t help that I took a sizeable loss on the very first hand we played:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t7500)
Hero (SB) (t7500)

Hero’s M: 100.00

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, 10
Hero bets t100, BB raises to t300, Hero raises to t750, BB calls t450

Flop: (t1500) J, 3, 2 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t666, BB calls t666

Turn: (t2832) 3 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t2832) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Total pot: t2832

Results:
Hero mucked 10, 10 (two pair, tens and threes).
BB had J, A (two pair, Jacks and threes).
Outcome: BB won t2832

I held my own and even managed to claw some chips back from him, though they were hard fought. I managed to get it all in good, but it was more or less a cooler really, and I couldn’t hold:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t7976)
Hero (BB) (t7024)

Hero’s M: 58.53

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, J
SB bets t160, Hero raises to t555, SB calls t395

Flop: (t1110) K, 2, J (2 players)
Hero bets t666, SB raises to t1760, Hero raises to t6469 (All-In), SB calls t4709

Turn: (t14048) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t14048) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t14048

Results:
SB had 8, A (flush, Ace high).
Hero had J, J (three of a kind, Jacks).
Outcome: SB won t14048

This was one of my more painful losses of the series, as it came on the bubble and I’d fought long and hard in a lot of tough matches to get there.

The only WCOOP that I played on Friday was the $200 Rebuy NLHE. I was in for the “minimum”, but that was the only bit of good news. Actually it got off to a really good start, with me winning two big pots with big hands in the first couple of orbits:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds 5 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t10840)
Button (t9970)
Hero (SB) (t4945)
BB (t4270)
UTG (t4995)
UTG+1 (t4995)
MP1 (t4995)
MP2 (t4995)
MP3 (t4995)

Hero’s M: 41.21

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, K
3 folds, MP2 bets t100, MP3 raises to t250, 2 folds, Hero calls t225, 1 fold, MP2 calls t150

Flop: (t845) 3, A, K (3 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks, MP3 bets t300, Hero calls t300, MP2 calls t300

Turn: (t1745) K (3 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks, MP3 checks

River: (t1745) 8 (3 players)
Hero bets t690, MP2 raises to t4440 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls t3700 (All-In)

Total pot: t10525

Results:
Hero had A, K (full house, Kings over Aces).
MP2 had K, Q (three of a kind, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won t10525

Note that a flush also came in on the river, so for Villain to jam bare trips into me is an absolute gift.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds 5 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t14758)
BB (t9940)
Hero (UTG) (t15500)
UTG+1 (t4995)
MP1 (t5902)
MP2 (t9900)
MP3 (t4890)
CO (t10025)
Button (t4315)

Hero’s M: 129.17

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, K
Hero calls t50, 1 fold, MP1 bets t350, 6 folds, Hero calls t300

Flop: (t820) 8, 9, K (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 checks

Turn: (t820) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets t444, MP1 raises to t1300, Hero calls t856

River: (t3420) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets t2255, Hero raises to t4510, 1 fold

Total pot: t7930

Results:
Hero didn’t show K, K (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t7930

I turned around and bluffed off a lot of those chips trying to get a very good player to lay down an overpair:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 30/60 Blinds 5 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 (t15498)
MP1 (t9170)
Hero (MP2) (t19876)
CO (t7666)
Button (t4700)
SB (t4453)
BB (t9590)
UTG (t4167)

Hero’s M: 152.89

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 8, 8
UTG bets t180, 2 folds, Hero calls t180, 3 folds, BB raises to t475, 1 fold, Hero calls t295

Flop: (t1200) J, Q, 7 (2 players)
BB bets t660, Hero raises to t1666, BB calls t1006

Turn: (t4532) 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1280, BB calls t1280

River: (t7092) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t4000, BB calls t4000

Total pot: t15092

Results:
BB had A, A (two pair, Aces and sevens).
Hero had 8, 8 (two pair, eights and sevens).
Outcome: BB won t15092

It’s not a river call I would have made, but he’s a better player than I am, so I won’t say that he was wrong to make it. In any event I recouped a good 80% of what I lost on that hand when the same Villain called me down light in a similar spot:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds 10 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP2 (t16855)
MP3 (t9985)
Hero (CO) (t11755)
Button (t3237)
BB (t3795)
UTG (t5518)
UTG+1 (t15162)
MP1 (t8163)

Hero’s M: 58.77

Preflop: Hero is CO with 5, A
UTG+1 bets t200, 2 folds, MP3 calls t200, Hero calls t200, Button calls t200, BB calls t160, 1 fold

Flop: (t1160) 5, 2, 10 (5 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 bets t490, 1 fold, Hero calls t490, 2 folds

Turn: (t2140) 8 (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t1222, UTG+1 calls t1222

River: (t4584) A (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t3333, UTG+1 calls t3333

Total pot: t11250

Results:
UTG+1 mucked K, A (one pair, Aces).
Hero had 5, A (two pair, Aces and fives).
Outcome: Hero won t11250

I came out of the rebuy period with plenty of chips but ran KK in the SB into AA on the Button for about 65 BBs to make an early departure from the tournament.

The sky threatened rain, so I didn’t plan to do too much with my free afternoon. I grabbed an umbrella and walked a few blocks to a dépanneur that, according to Beeradvocate, offered one of the city’s best selections of local microbrews .

A dépanneur is a convenience store, but most double as liquor stores because until the 1990s they were the only non-government entities permitted to sell alcohol in Quebec. Although you can now buy beer and wine in grocery stores, it seems the best selection is still to be found in the dépanneur, and I had the good luck to live walking distance from one of the very best.

The front room looked like a low-end convenience store, with tightly packed and poorly maintained shelves of overpriced junk food. The back room looked like an upscale wine shop, except that they sold almost exclusively beer. They had literally hundreds of varieties, organized by type, available for individual purchase, and in many cases accompanied by a ranking and/or review clipped from assorted cerevisial publications.  So in one row you’d find all of the stouts, in another all of the wheat beers, etc. This was ideal for my purposes, since I could buy just one of each beer I wanted to try rather than an entire 6-pack.

I’d already done some research, so I beelined for the IPAs. Of the five I wanted to try, I found three. One was sold out, and amazingly there was one they simply didn’t carry. I say “amazingly” because it was hard to imagine them not having a given Quebecois beer, that’s how vast their selection was. I picked out one cold beer for immediate consumption  just based on its packaging and made my way to the cashier in the sensorily dissonant front of the store, where I waited in line between two twitching Charles Manson look-alikes pooling change from their pockets to pay for a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke.

My table was great, one of the softest I had in the series, but unfortunately they were running great as well.

I’m still not sure about this one. I think there’s a fair chance I can win it here and also be in fine shape if I get it in against the original raiser. The guy who ends up raising the flop, however, has taken an extremely strong line.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP (t5020)
Hero (CO) (t4708)
Button (t4707)
SB (t4980)
BB (t5090)
UTG (t5592)

Hero’s M: 156.93

Preflop: Hero is CO with J, Q
1 fold, MP bets t40, Hero calls t40, 1 fold, SB raises to t120, 1 fold, MP calls t80, Hero calls t80

Flop: (t380) 10, 5, J (3 players)
SB bets t180, MP calls t180, Hero raises to t588, SB calls t408, MP raises to t1620, Hero folds, 1 fold

Total pot: t2144

Results:
MP didn’t show
Outcome: MP won t2144

I think his range is mostly sets, and assuming he bets non-club turns, I don’t have the right odds to draw against that. Then again that’s an awfully narrow range to put him on, particularly given that he didn’t 3-bet pre-flop, and if we start adding nut flush draws into his range, my equity improves considerably.

Of course it sucks to raise-fold this hand, but that wasn’t my plan when I raised. I just ended up going that way because MP gave me the willies.

My next big loss was with AK in a four-bet pot:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t4618)
Hero (UTG) (t3020)
MP (t4603)
CO (t5883)
Button (t4810)
SB (t5827)

Hero’s M: 40.27

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K, A
Hero bets t100, 1 fold, CO raises to t150, 1 fold, SB calls t125, 1 fold, Hero raises to t555, CO calls t405, 1 fold

Flop: (t1310) 6, 10, 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (t1310) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: (t1310) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t450, Hero calls t450

Total pot: t2210

Results:
Hero mucked K, A (high card, Ace).
CO had K, 10 (one pair, tens).
Outcome: CO won t2210

River should probably be a fold, but it’s a good value bet by him.

I recovered from that hand, then ran into QQ into KK, recovered a bit from that, and then went broke with JTs. The 3-better in this hand is the same guy who min-3-bet with KTs (he also showed something really junky like 86o in an even worse spot than this), so I wasn’t giving a lot of credit to his 3-bet:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds 10 Ante (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t3133)
Hero (MP) (t2501)
CO (t2257)
Button (t11039)
SB (t5044)
BB (t7534)

Hero’s M: 11.91

Preflop: Hero is MP with 10, J
1 fold, Hero bets t200, 1 fold, Button raises to t300, 1 fold, BB calls t200, Hero raises to t2491 (All-In), Button raises to t4682, 1 fold

Flop: (t5392) 2, 2, Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t5392) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t5392) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t5392

Results:
Button had A, K (three of a kind, twos).
Hero had 10, J (three of a kind, twos).
Outcome: Button won t5392

On the bright side, I wrapped up this tournament in time to make a special, 90-minute tour of the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal offered only twice a week and only during September. The guide was a charming Quebecois about my age who clearly had a deep love for the basilica, which made him a great tour guide for myself and the ten or so old ladies on the tour with me. He spoke a highly understandable but also very unique version of the English language, best exemplified by his promise to, “Say you more of my explainings later.”

The basilica itself is a huge and beautiful building. Its interior makes heavy use of the color blue, which caused it to feel quite different from other churches and cathedrals I’ve visited. This special tour included access to the balconies, ordinarily closed to visitors, giving us the opportunity to look down on the space from above, which was pretty cool.

That evening, I had dinner with someone that regular blog readers and especially commenters ought to recognize: Luisinho! Based on his name, I’d always assumed he lived in either Portugal or Brazil, but apparently he’s French-Portuguese and moved from France to Montreal a few years ago. The city actually has a vibrant Portuguese quarter with which he was a familiar, and we shared a fine meal there, complete with vinho verde, a Portuguese specialty that is not literally green wine but rather “young” wine that has not aged and has a light and refreshing flavor. I’m not much of a wine drinker, but when I do, I prefer whites, and vinho verde was basically a distillation of everything I like about white wine.

I came out of the gate fast, stealing the blinds by raising A6o UTG on the very first hand (we were 7-handed). My next move was 3-bet-calling AJs against an UTG raiser who had a little over 20 BBs. That wouldn’t always be a wise play but I knew this guy to be a very aggressive opener. Speaking of unwise moves, he showed 44 and won the flip.

My next big loss came on a failed bluff:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 6000/12000 Blinds 1500 Ante (7 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t410485)
UTG (t342780)
MP1 (t794249)
Hero (MP2) (t834706)
CO (t1318796)
Button (t403370)
SB (t576610)

Hero’s M: 29.29

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K, Q
2 folds, Hero bets t24000, CO raises to t53328, 3 folds, Hero calls t29328

Flop: (t135156) 5, 9, 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t55722, Hero raises to t123456, CO calls t67734

Turn: (t382068) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

River: (t382068) J (2 players)
Hero bets t234567, CO calls t234567

Total pot: t851202

Results:
Hero had K, Q (high card, King).
CO had A, 9 (one pair, nines).
Outcome: CO won t851202

Of course this is no good if he won’t fold A9, but based on the info that I had at the time, I don’t regret making the play. It’s possible that he puts me on a straight or air here, which is very incorrect. This would be an easy value bet for me with any two pair or better, though sets and straights are also very much in range.Obviously it’s not a very large bet, but my hope was that so deep in the tournament it would still feel very threatening to him. Probably would have worked better if he’d had a shorter and more vulnerable stack.

I stole the blinds a few more times, won a modest pot picking off a river bluff, and then raised KQo and called a 14BB shove to outflip 44. The guy was none too happy with my call, but with the image that I had, I expected people to shove light on me. I’m pretty confident KJ and KT are in his range, not to mention hands like pairs and AJ/AT against which I’m practically flipping and occasional “pretty” hands like T9s.

Small ball was going well for me, and I was getting a lot of chips just by min-raising pre and either taking pots pre-flop or going to showdown cheaply with a marginal hand.

The next big confrontation was against an extremely good player on my right. I don’t believe I’d ever played with him prior to Day 1 of this tournament, and probably a lot of his play is on Euro sites, but he had some high stakes cash experience on Stars, including 4-tabling 25/50 NLHE against Isildur. I wasn’t thrilled to get into a confrontation with him, but my cards were simply too good to play any other way:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 7000/14000 Blinds 1750 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG+1 (t373735)
MP1 (t251530)
MP2 (t868039)
MP3 (t1190468)
Hero (CO) (t1068045)
Button (t1489718)
UTG (t629929)

Hero’s M: 32.12

Preflop: Hero is CO with J, A
2 folds, MP3 bets t28000, Hero raises to t66666, 3 folds, MP3 raises to t135232, Hero calls t68566

Flop: (t303714) 5, 3, 9 (2 players)
MP3 bets t123455, Hero calls t123455

Turn: (t550624) 6 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets t166666, 1 fold

Total pot: t550624

Results:
Hero didn’t show J, A.
Outcome: Hero won t550624

This hand started to build a dynamic between us that led to my making a mistake down the road. This hand, about an orbit later, furthered that dynamic:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 7000/14000 Blinds 1750 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t374610)
MP2 (t252405)
MP3 (t836539)
CO (t900281)
Hero (Button) (t1349272)
SB (t1501968)
BB (t924652)
UTG (t462450)
UTG+1 (t730689)

Hero’s M: 36.71

Preflop: Hero is Button with 3, 3
5 folds, CO bets t28000, Hero raises to t66666, 2 folds, CO calls t38666

Flop: (t170082) 2, 6, Q (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets t66666, CO calls t66666

Turn: (t303414) Q (2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks

River: (t303414) 3 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets t225000, 1 fold

Total pot: t303414

Results:
Hero didn’t show 3, 3 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t303414

So here’s that mistake. At this point I’m second in chips with I think 16 people remaining:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 8000/16000 Blinds 2000 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO (t296860)
Button (t1075760)
SB (t690310)
Hero (BB) (t1489604)
UTG (t1591991)
UTG+1 (t1054702)
MP1 (t456700)
MP2 (t676939)

Hero’s M: 37.24

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, 9
6 folds, SB bets t34566, Hero raises to t77777, SB raises to t156789, Hero raises to t1487604 (All-In), SB calls t531521 (All-In)

Flop: (t1392620) 3, 2, 6 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t1392620) 7 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t1392620) 10 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t1392620

Results:
SB had J, A (high card, Ace).
Hero had A, 9 (high card, Ace).
Outcome: SB won t1392620

It’s not easy to be dealt a hand better than A9. This wasn’t an “open fold my SB” sorta guy, so his opening range is quite wide. Still, given how much I’d been playing back at him, it might have been a little tighter than usual. More importantly, at this stage of the tournament, he’s probably not going to 4-bet in a spot like this (which is quite different from the AJ spot) into an aggressive chipleader all that often. I can easily jam, I can easily take a flop in position, and he just shouldn’t invite that kind of confrontation right now. He’s getting good odds himself, and he surely has a lot of confidence in his postflop play, so a lot of hands that he could consider 4-betting he’ll more likely just call.

It’s hard to say what I should do differently – maybe fold to the 4-bet despite the good odds. Just calling the original raise is OK, but A9 isn’t a hand that plays all that well postflop against a good player with a wide range. It’s just too risky to get so many chips into the pot pre-flop with A9 even in a blind battle. If he has something like 550K chips, I’d feel better writing this off as a cooler.

This wasn’t the end of the tournament for me by any means. I believe I shook it off and plugged away quite valiantly, continuing to fight for pots and pick up chips with controlled aggression. I made some big hands that I was hoping would win a little more than they did given my image, but I was doing well for myself.

This was a tough laydown that I’m still not sure was correct. My timebank was quite low and I didn’t want to burn the last of it, especially since I’ve recently used that extra time to talk myself into some bad calls.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 10000/20000 Blinds 2500 Ante (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t918238)
UTG (t1786690)
Hero (MP) (t1097032)
CO (t1673357)
Button (t1049957)
SB (t1728330)

Hero’s M: 24.38

Preflop: Hero is MP with 8, 8
1 fold, Hero bets t40000, 3 folds, BB calls t20000

Flop: (t105000) Q, 6, 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t33333, BB calls t33333

Turn: (t171666) Q (2 players)
BB bets t57850, Hero calls t57850

River: (t287366) 2 (2 players)
BB bets t219150, Hero folds

Total pot: t287366

Results:
BB didn’t show
Outcome: BB won t287366

I lost a smallish pot to the AJ guy when I flopped middle pair and he turned a flush. I probably wasn’t putting more money in anyway, but it was nice of him to check it to me twice. The next hand I won a better pot from him anyway:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 12500/25000 Blinds 3125 Ante (6 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t2008887)
SB (t1745975)
Hero (BB) (t839044)
UTG (t1602357)
MP (t1225707)
CO (t831634)

Hero’s M: 14.92

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10, J
4 folds, SB bets t57777, Hero calls t32777

Flop: (t134304) 9, 6, K (2 players)
SB bets t58125, Hero calls t58125

Turn: (t250554) 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: (t250554) J (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t88888, SB calls t88888

Total pot: t428330

Results:
SB mucked A, 9 (one pair, nines).
Hero had 10, J (one pair, Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won t428330

Arguably I should even bet a little more on the river. Real happy with turn check, though. It’s not the way I would ordinarily play the hand, but my spidey sense was tingling.

Fittingly the same player eliminated me in 10th place. At least I won’t lose sleep over that one:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 320 Tournament, 15000/30000 Blinds 3750 Ante (5 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t1577751)
SB (t1546199)
Hero (BB) (t885900)
UTG (t1080366)
MP (t616984)

Hero’s M: 13.90

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, J
3 folds, SB bets t65000, Hero calls t35000

Flop: (t148750) J, A, 9 (2 players)
SB bets t68500, Hero raises to t166666, SB raises to t1477449 (All-In), Hero calls t650484 (All-In)

Turn: (t1783050) 5 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t1783050) 8 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t1783050

Results:
SB had 9, 7 (flush, Ace high).
Hero had 9, J (two pair, Jacks and nines).
Outcome: SB won t1783050

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 5/5 Blinds 30 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP1 (t4110)
MP2 (t3122)
CO (t5294)
Button (t7168)
SB (t1982)
BB (t4949)
UTG (t6636)
Hero (UTG+1) (t8508)

Hero’s M: 34.03

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 10, 10
UTG bets t111, Hero raises to t333, 5 folds, BB calls t328, UTG calls t222

Flop: (t1244) 10, J, K (3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets t666, BB raises to t1400, 1 fold, Hero calls t734

Turn: (t4044) Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: (t4044) 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Total pot: t4044

Results:
BB had J, J (three of a kind, Jacks).
Hero mucked 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
Outcome: BB won t4044

I was sorely tempted to turn my hand into a bluff on the turn, which just goes to show that I ought to have folded the flop. His range for cold-calling a 3-bet can’t be that wide, and I seriously doubt he check-raises AK/AA/QQ on this board even if he has them pre-flop.

This next one I think counts as getting rivered even though I was a huge equity dog all the way. I was sure the guy was on a flush draw, so I’m just betting that he either folds it before the river (unlikely) or misses it (likely). The problem, as we see here, is that he can also make a pair. I tried to size my river bet large enough that he might fold a hand like the one he has, but that may have  been a mistake. Possibly a very small bet is best just to get him to fold complete whiffs for very little risk:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 215 Tournament, 5/5 Blinds 30 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t4235)
BB (t3002)
UTG (t5879)
UTG+1 (t4940)
MP1 (t7048)
MP2 (t1857)
MP3 (t7135)
CO (t6033)
Hero (Button) (t6640)

Hero’s M: 23.71

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, 2
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t5, 2 folds, MP3 calls t5, 1 fold, Hero calls t5, SB checks, BB checks

Flop: (t295) 3, 5, K (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP3 bets t50, Hero raises to t333, 3 folds, MP3 calls t283

Turn: (t961) 8 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets t666, MP3 calls t666

River: (t2293) 10 (2 players)
MP3 checks, Hero bets t888, MP3 calls t888

Total pot: t4069

Results:
Hero had 6, 2 (high card, King).
MP3 had 10, A (one pair, tens).
Outcome: MP3 won t4069

I managed to get the last of my chips in with top pair, top kicker against a bare flush draw, but he got there and ended the tournament for me.

I also played the $500 NLHE Shoot-Out. I was the shortest of the final four players, and the best of my opponents had more chips than the other three of us put together. I managed to hang in there though and eventually the chipleader was out in third and I went to heads up with the lead against one of the other guys.

I came out of the gate aggressive, lost a few small pots and then a somewhat larger one:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 530 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 35 Ante (2 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t26200)
Hero (SB) (t26300)

Hero’s M: 50.58

Preflop: Hero is SB with 3, 4
Hero bets t600, BB calls t300

Flop: (t1270) 10, J, J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t1270) 3 (2 players)
BB bets t615, Hero raises to t1800, BB raises to t3875, Hero calls t2075

River: (t9020) K (2 players)
BB bets t6000, Hero folds

Total pot: t9020

Results:
BB didn’t show
Outcome: BB won t9020

Despite that, I felt like I had a pretty big edge in the match, and we were so deep that there was plenty of time for that to manifest itself. Which means it was probably a bit of a mistake for me to 4-bet call it off with TT pre-flop for 80 BBs. I was generally trying to avoid big pre-flop pots, which meant that I hadn’t done any 4-betting yet and he probably wouldn’t be 5-bet jamming all that light (though he was certainly 3-betting light). It still can’t be that bad to get it in with TT pre-flop, but I think calling the 3-bet to play a little more smallball would have been better. He had QQ and that was that.

After scoring a delicious St-Viateur bagel, I headed over to a coffee shop called Le Lapin Pressé. This means “The Hurried Rabit”, which I thought was probably an Alice in Wonderland reference, though there was no evidence of this inside. What they did have inside were some of the highest-quality coffee beans I’ve tasted.

A good cup of coffee (or two) is one of the few luxuries I permit myself on a daily basis. I buy high-quality beans, grind them myself when I’m in a place where I can do that,  and make my coffee in a french press. I have one that’s built into the lid of a travel mug, so that goes with me pretty much anywhere I go. I probably pay about 100x more per cup than I would if I drank the cheapest coffee I could find, but since we’re only talking coffee, that’s still cost of perhaps a couple hundred dollars per year which I consider money very well spent.

Partially because I already had good beans that I didn’t want to go to waste and partially because I wasn’t sure what I’d be able to find in Montreal, I brought about half a pound with me, but that wasn’t going to last much more than a week. When I started doing my research, though, I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of well-regarded microroasters and coffee shops in Montreal. I’ll probably have cause to try another before I leave, but I was quite pleased with what I got from Lapin. It comes from a microroaster called Saint Henri, and it looks like they actually sell their stuff online, if you’re so inclined….

I was also pleased to be a bit more comfortable getting around the city by bike. It’s actually quite easy if you know the cardinal directions you want to go and the nearest bike path. If you need to go north and east, you just start following the path east, and eventually it will intersect with a north-south path. Until you get very near your destination, there’s no need to ride in traffic or guess about which roads are best for riding.

A few hours later I was home with my new victuals and ready to start grinding. There was nothing too remarkable from the 1K really. Here are the two most notable hands:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 1050 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t7425)
Hero (UTG+1) (t5969)
MP1 (t7400)
MP2 (t7470)
MP3 (t7927)
CO (t7728)
Button (t7285)
SB (t6780)
BB (t8261)

Hero’s M: 132.64

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with J, K
1 fold, Hero bets t90, 3 folds, CO calls t90, 2 folds, BB calls t60

Flop: (t285) K, A, 4 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (t285) Q (3 players)
BB bets t120, Hero raises to t420, 2 folds

Total pot: t525

Results:
Hero didn’t show J, K.
Outcome: Hero won t525

Villain may be drawing, in which case I want to draw him, but I also think that bombing blank rivers will get him off of many Aces.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 1050 Tournament, 250/500 Blinds 60 Ante (8 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t16023)
BB (t30871)
UTG (t49675)
UTG+1 (t27647)
MP1 (t32325)
MP2 (t14812)
Hero (CO) (t17634)
Button (t14461)

Hero’s M: 14.34

Preflop: Hero is CO with 2, A
4 folds, Hero bets t1000, 2 folds, BB calls t500

Flop: (t2730) 9, 2, A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1234, BB calls t1234

Turn: (t5198) 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t3333, BB raises to t6666, Hero raises to t15340 (All-In), BB calls t8674

River: (t35878) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t35878

Results:
BB had A, 7 (two pair, Aces and sevens).
Hero had 2, A (two pair, Aces and twos).
Outcome: BB won t35878

I really like to avoid chalking stuff like this up to a cooler. Villain was a pretty big calling station, so it was alarming when he min-check-raised the turn. My hope was that he could play 97 or 72 this way, but if at all (I did expect a quite range for calling from his BB) he probably only plays those suited. A7 and even 77, on the other hand…. I don’t know, I think this is probably foldable.

Though it was nearly 8:00, the city was still and fresh, just waking up. The only other people walking the streets of my neighborhood were solitary men well over twice my age.

And the cats. I had seen a few on the streets around here, including one scrawny, patchy-furred beast that was a perfect caricature of an alley cat, but I had no idea there were so many. I must have seen twenty in ten minutes, poking their heads out from under cars or scurrying into gardens.

There’s a bakery around the corner I’ve been meaning to try, and this seems the perfect opportunity. Finally I see someone other than old men on the street. A couple with a young daughter enter the bakery just ahead of me. I buy a croissant and follow them to the park.

Saturday’s storm must have intensified after I went to bed, because branches and tree limbs scatter the ground. My intention is to find a bench where I can read and enjoy my breakfast, and I do, but soon the squirrels find me.

A child of the mid-Atlantic, I’m no stranger to squirrels. It was clear that these rodents were used to being fed, but I figured that if I didn’t offer them anything, they’d keep their distance. Wrong. They hopped up on the bench and inched closer, barely flinching when I stomped the ground in an attempt to scare them off. I’m convinced that they would have climbed right into my lap if I didn’t move.

So now I’m wandering through the park like the Pied Piper, with a dozen squirrels creeping a few feet behind me. They didn’t leave me alone until I finished eating and threw away my garbage. Finally I got to sit in peace and read.

Friday and Saturday were supposed to be light poker days, but with Friday’s deep run and Saturday’s WCOOP special (ie playing for 8 hours to win a pittance), they were anything but. Not wanting my Sunday to drag on longer than necessary, I waited until the last minute to late register the first NLHE event of the day. Three orbits later I’d lost AKo < to AJs and 66 < 88 and that was that.

The $700 was a little more interesting. The guy on my left was a bit of a lunatic, and I found what I think was a pretty good spot against him, though it ended badly for me:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t14833)
UTG+1 (t15543)
MP1 (t5280)
MP2 (t4798)
MP3 (t11924)
CO (t5565)
Button (t9500)
Hero (SB) (t9665)
BB (t4416)

Hero’s M: 80.54

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, 4
7 folds, Hero bets t320, BB calls t240

Flop: (t640) 10, 10, 2 (2 players)
Hero bets t369, BB raises to t1058, Hero calls t689

Turn: (t2756) K (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t2756, Hero raises to t5512, BB calls t282 (All-In)

River: (t8832) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t8832

Results:
Hero had A, 4 (three of a kind, tens).
BB had 9, K (full house, tens over Kings).
Outcome: BB won t8832

I treaded water for like two hours after that, finally got KK, flatted a 4-bet, and check-folded frustratedly to a big bet on a dry A-high flop. A few hands later I convinced myself that the same guy could be a lot weaker than he clearly was:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 700 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 40 Ante (9 handed) – PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t27812)
UTG+1 (t15042)
MP1 (t22581)
MP2 (t23368)
MP3 (t11516)
CO (t83612)
Button (t21029)
SB (t56371)
Hero (BB) (t10755)

Hero’s M: 13.28

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, 10
2 folds, MP1 bets t750, 5 folds, Hero calls t450