Poker Wannabe: 1/24/2005

Introduction

This past weekend was supposed to be a fun, simple weekend, with a group of guys going off to the casino and having fun. I figured I'd sit there at 10/20 and hopefully make a few hundred dollars, then call it a weekend and go home. It was a retro weekend-- just about exclusively a multi-tabling online player, I was going back to the old 30-hand-an-hour grind in live-action games with some old poker buddies to live life like it was early 2004.

The last thing I was expecting was a large haul.

Well, no. A large haul was the second-to-last thing I was expecting. The absolute last thing I was expecting was to be in position to win a tournament. Heck, I wasn't planning on playing in any tournaments at all.

Early Returns

The poker frenzy started Thursday night at midnight. Before even going to the hotel, we went right to the Isle of Capri casino and, tired from the drive, I sat down at 3/6/12 table. An hour of mindless poker later and $110 up, I said "to hell with this, I'm playing 10/20!" An hour later and up 20 BB more, I was too tired to continue and the first day of the trip was over with a nice, nondescript win.

Up early the next day (read: noon), my one buddy wanted to check out Harrah's. So off we went to sit at 3/6/12 since 1) 10/20 games in the early afternoon aren't all that great anyways and 2) Harrah's doesn't even spread 10/20 anymore, which is unfortunate (Harrah's has an infinitely better cardroom than the Isle).

While playing the 3/6/12 bingo game, we hear an announcement. Tournament that night. Starts at 6:30. $30 buy-in with up to three $25 rebuys and a $25 add-on. WSOP qualifier, in fact. My buddy came specifically to play in some tournaments and so he wanted to play, and the other three guys on the trip were over at the Isle playing in a tournament over there. Fine, fine, fine, I'll cave to peer pressure. I'll play.

After a few hours and about $180 of profit against the mindless calling stations, tournament players were called to their tables. At the last second I started getting some heebie-jeebies. I was going to buy in and immediately "rebuy" for a $55 total initial outlay. I was probably going to bust out when someone called my AA all-in with J4o and catch two-pair on the river. My expectation was that I would play for about two hours and end up losing $55, whereas my expectation from playing 10/20 was much higher. I rarely play tournaments anyways, so I'm definitely not a strong tournament player. In short, I felt like I was simply throwing my money away. I was up nearly $700 already in less than seven hours of play. Why blow $100+ (counting additional rebuys should I decide to take advantage of them) on a small chance of winning a little bit of money? Top prize was only going to be about $1100 plus entry into another tournament whose top prize would be a seat into the WSOP. And if there's one thing I know about multi-table tournaments, it's this: I never finish first.

So there I was, about to go up and ask for my buy-in back so I could just go play cash games, something I was good at. But for some reason, I still don't know why, I relented and sat down to play.

Tournament

The tournament started badly in every which way. There were between 50 and 60 players to start. Players who rebought immediately got T8000 to start (T3000 initial buy-in plus T5000 rebuy), but the blinds started at 100/200. Aiee.

My very first hand I got AdQs in early position and raised to T800. The button called, everyone else folded. Flop came Ah8c3c with two clubs. I made a larger-than-pot-sized bet and the button went all-in. Thinking he most likely had an A with a worse kicker, I called. He flipped over Kc5c for the flush draw. Turn was the 2d but the river was the Ac giving him the nut flush.

Rebuy!

A hand soon after, I got AQ again. I made a big raise and got two callers. Flop came AJ4. Short-stacked a little bit, I pushed all-in on the flop. A guy who obviously had no idea how to play (but of course had me well covered) sat there agonizing. He was the type for whom folding is the absolute last option possible. He knew he should fold, but I could see him trying to convince himself that he should call. Finally, he stood up and said something like "all right, let's do this!" and pushed his chips in to call. The other player folded.

Agonizer-guy flipped over J9o. He then promptly caught a J on the turn to take the pot.

Rebuy!

Once again short-stacked and about five minutes before the end of the rebuy period, I caught KQo. The blinds were 500/1000 and I had T7500 in front of me. I raised to 3000, hoping just to take the blinds, which were now a sizable portion of my stack. I got two callers, however. Flop came Q92 and I went all-in. Both players called. Caller #1 had QTo, Caller #2 had A6s, but no flush draw (???--obviously this tournament did not attract the highest caliber player around).

The turn was a J, giving #1 an open-ended straight draw to go along with her three full-house outs and I had visions of going home, having expended all of my rebuys.

The river was another Q, however, giving us both trips but me the better kicker, and so in one fell swoop I tripled up to become about an average stack. Whew! After one more hand, it was time for the break.

Add-on!

Yes, this "$30 buy-in" tournament was really, really, really starting to cost me a lot. After the break, though, I finally caught a string of hands.

With the blinds at 1000/2000 and a stack of about 23,000, I got dealt 44 on the button and limped along with about five other players. Flop came T42, giving me my set. It checked to me and I bet the minimum, 2000. I got one caller, a lady that seemed to have just learned to play poker that afternoon (no exaggeration; but of course, she had me covered). The turn was a 9, and suddenly she bet 2000. I thought, figuring that maybe she caught two-pair or something. I raised to 7000, wanting to extract as much from her as possible. She then reraised to 12,000. A turned set of 9s? If so, than screw it, I'm going home. I went all in and she called.

J9o, for a turned pair of nines, and no straight or flush draws. She was drawing dead. Suddenly I had more than doubled up and was now the second largest stack at the table.

Soon after I was dealt A6s in the cutoff and it folded around to me. I raised to 8000 hoping just to get the blinds or at least bust the SB who was a shortstack and I had a hand with a decent chance of holding up against his random hand should he call. However, the BB was agonizer-guy. SB called for his total of 3000 and Agonizer-guy called as well. Flop came 752, so no real help for me. But there was 10,000 in the side pot, 10,000 that I wanted. Agonizer guy checked and so I bet 10,000, knowing he would have bet with any pair or any draw. He agonized, of course, but folded. I got the side pot, but unfortunately didn't improve and the SB got the main pot with a turned pair of 3s (he had A3).

The river was an 8 and agonizer guy went off. "I had A8, I would have won! You bluffed me! I'm never doing that again!" Which I took to mean he's never folding again. At least to me.

Muahahahaha.

Soon after I got JJ and raised. Agonizer guy called and the flop came JT9. I went all-in, knowing he would call no matter what. He did. He actually had AQ so he had straight outs. My set held up and so agonizer guy finally busted, giving me the tournament chip lead with nearly 90,000.

Soon after, the second-largest stack in the tournament was moved over to my table, with nearly 80,000. With blinds of 2000/4000 I was dealt AK and raised to 15,000. #2 chip-stack called from the BB. Ugh. I was worried. That is, until the flop came AK2. He checked. I bet 5,000 as a feeler bet. I wanted some action. He called immediately with a sneaky look. He hit something. Besides a set of deuces, though, I was pretty much safe. A2 maybe? The turn was a 6 and he checked again. Well, if he really hit something, he won't fold, right? I moved all-in. He called immediately, and flipped over AQ. Heh. Drawing dead. I showed my AK and he was crushed, literally sent reeling. Once again I doubled up, and was now the commanding chip leader with over 160,000, as the previous #2 stack went off to his friends loudly describing the hand in amazement. This really was a tournament filled with inexperienced players.

With four good hands, I went from being near the bottom of the chip race to the very tip-top of the totem pole, with no one else even at half my chip count. We were now down to under 15 players, and I could easily cruise into the money.

My buddy busted 13th. A few players busted in rapid succession after that, and we were quickly down to 9 for the final table. The last 10 spots paid, but the payout structure was rather peculiar (numbers approximate):

5th - 10th: $100 each

4th: $220

3rd: $330

2nd: $1050 ($550 + $500 entry)

1st: $1600 ($1100 + $500 entry)

The top two places got entries into the monthly WSOP qualifier, whose winner gets a seat into the WSOP. Approx value: $500.

But basically, I would need to finish fourth just to recoup the money I put into the the damn tournament. I could probably coast that far, but ugh.

The final table saw me going heads up against the other large chip stack on a regular basis. He was a very new player, this being his first live tournament, and he was obviously riding high on his good fortune. He was bluffing anything and everything, pushing people off hands on a whim. So basically, he was unwittingly playing his large stack very effectively, as most of the table was weak-tight players who would just keep folding, even though it was obvious he had nothing. I let him push me off a hand when there were seven of us left simply because, even though I was pretty sure I was probably best (I had 77 on a K832 board), it was not worth severly damaging my chances at the money in that small chance I was wrong. I still had a large stack and could coast for a while. I gave up a fairly substantial pot--and the chip lead--in what I felt was a prudent fold.

It worked, as between him and I, we picked off each of the remaining players. I had AJ against 88 and hit a J. I had KJ against 33 and actually hit both a K and a J. I had A8s against 66 and hit a flush. Like Greg Raymer in last year's WSOP, I was winning every coin flip.

Suddenly we were down to just the two of us, him with the 2:1 chip lead. Since that meant we each got our seats into next week's invitation-only tournament, the floor mentioned that we could make a deal.

Other guy: "Deal?"

Me: "Yeah, sometimes people at the end of the tournament just split the money rather than playing it out."

Him: "Well, I dunno, this is my first tournament, I kind of want to play."

Me, knowing I could outplay him without even looking at my cards, "Yeah, certainly, let's play."

I noticed during the final table that what Other Guy did was he responded to people's actions in kind. If someone raised, then damnit, he reraised big! But if someone limped, he would limp. So rather than get into a preflop raising war with him, I decided to play very passively, and let him continually try to bluff at me--there was no doubt he would bet if checked to every single time.

I wasn't getting particularly strong hands, but I would regardless check on my BB and simply complete on my SB, even once with ATo. If I hit a pair, I'd check call, as he would always, always, always bet. If I didn't hit a pair, I folded. I slowly bled him this way by hitting bottom or mid pair and letting him keep putting money into the pot with absolutely nothing (raising would either make him fold, or make me make a tough decision by calling an all-in with mid-pair...ugh).

Soon we were dead even in chips.

Finally, I picked up a real hand, JJ in the BB. Obviously flustered, he finally decided to do something different and for the first time after about twenty heads-up hands he raised preflop. In what was probably a poor play, I moved all in (maybe I should have seen a flop first and then decided to either push or fold, since JJ is dangerous here--often enough it'll be a coin flip).

He called and turned over, to my surprise, Td6d. I was a huge favorite. Then the flop came 5s3d2d, giving him a flush draw and a gut-shot. Ugh, he had a million outs. The turn was a black J, giving me a set, but still leaving him with all his outs intact.

He was standing up, just like on TV. I was sitting down, stone-faced, just watching the board. Watching and waiting for my fate.

The dealer laid down the river. A diamond? No. A four?

No.

I have no idea what it was--I can't remember for the life of me--but it didn't help him. I had won the hand, and after counting it was determined that we had had precisely the exact same number of chips.

I had won the tournament.

Aftermath

After taxes, dealer tip and what I had invested were discounted, I ended up profiting by a little over $800. Plus I had the tournament entry which I could either keep and play or sell for about $400-500.

I decided to keep the entry and play in the tournament. Top prize, a seat into the WSOP plus $2,500 travel/spending money or $12,500 cash. Second prize, $6000. And so on and so forth. Another 50ish player tournament, so my chances aren't all that bad.

It's next Sunday, six days away now. We'll see what happens.

The Grind

The rest of the trip was back to cash games. The Isle recently started spreading 15/30 in addition to 10/20 and 20/40 and so I played in that game some (with it's interesting $5 and $15 blinds rather than the standard $10 and $15). I didn't get the cajones up to play 20/40 just yet. I spent the rest of Friday night playing 15/30 and then 10/20 and I spent all day Saturday playing 10/20. I did fabulously well, making the trip the second most profitable casino trip I've ever had (or #1 if you count my tournament entry at it's full value).

Conclusion

Between arriving at midnight on Thursday night and playing my final hand at 4am early Sunday morning, I spent 26.5 of the 52 hours playing poker. And by the end of it, I could once again remember what being a live player was like. Live play is 1/10th or even 1/15th as fast as online play, but on a per-hand basis, it's much, much, much more interesting. I think I'll have to go back to incorporating at least some live casino play into my monthly schedule.

So overall the trip was great. And, quite unexpectedly, I now find myself having to turn right around and drive right back out there next weekend. I just hope my tournament summary ends just like this one did.

Poker Wannabe

Life at the bottom of the barrel

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1/24/2005 - Lake Charles

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