Poker Wannabe: 1/31/2005 - Return to Lake Charles

Introduction

So last weekend (1/21-1/23) I won a small tournament at the Harrah's in Lake Charles, LA, which in addition to a little bit of cash won me an entry into their month-end WSOP qualifying tournament, for which the winner would win an entry into the WSOP (or takes the cash, $12,500).

So this past weekend (1/28-1/30) I went back out there to compete in the month-end tournament that was held on Sunday, 1/30. My roommate and I went out there on Saturday with the plan of playing cash games Saturday night, cash/tournament on Sunday and then leave Sunday night, for a 24 hour whirlwind of poker (he's a graduate student and I'm now a working stiff so we both had places to be Monday morning).

Besides the tournament, one of the more interesting stories of the weekend would be how Roomie faired in the games since he'd only played microlimits before--.25/.50 limit online, and some $5 live NL tournaments. He recently played in a $20 tournament (which included "free" dinner) and that was stretching his comfort factor as far as it would go. The Lake Charles 3/6/12 games with their $100+ buy-in, therefore, would be quite a big game for him to be playing (although that game would definitely not be above his skill level).

Saturday

We arrived Saturday evening and I got seated right away at 10/20 while Roomie went to 3/6/12. He'd never played in a casino before, so on the car ride up he was asking about tipping dealers and buying chips and switching tables and stuff. Awww, how cute.

I started off by winning a small pot almost immediately, so at one point I was up $53. I should have stopped right there.

Much different from the previous weekend, the 10/20 game was kind of tight and so when I was called to 15/30 I was a bit worried about switching to a presumably tougher game. The 15/30 game was actually looser than the 10/20, though, and so I stayed there for most of the night. It still wasn't a great game, especially by the Lake Charles standard, but there was one super-soft spot and two calling stations in a mostly six- and seven-handed game, so I was content.

It still didn't matter.

Being largely an online player now, I often translate live results into online data estimates. I think my V$IP (voluntarily put money into the pot preflop) had to have been well under 20%, not because of tight play but because of absolutely horrendous hands, my W$SD (won money at showdown) had to have been 40% if that and my Pots Won percentage was, oh, 5-6%, so much lower than the 15%ish average. I couldn't catch a break. Opponents' runner-runner two pairs and rivered small sets were the norm, as was missing every one of my own flush draws. It was the standard "running bad" routine.

Super-soft spot, on the other hand, was an unstoppable Force. He was a stereotypical Texas-boy, with the cowboy hat, rustic button-up shirt, jeans, cowboy boots, stout-not-fat form, and the moustache. Oh, yes, the 'stache. It was thick with greased curls at either end, exactly like Rollie Fingers (although the Force's ends were a little shorter than Rollie's).

He had no clue what he was doing. He was making the most ludicrously bad plays imagineable.

He was running over the table.

Every other hand he had was a full house. It didn't matter if he had to cold-call three bets on the flop with an underpair to catch his set on the turn and rivered board pair, he was doing it. He single-handedly broke six players (including a few quite strong players, so I wasn't too disappointed). I kept hanging around though, occasionally refilling my stack, just waiting for his luck to run out and mine to improve. Neither ever happened.

At one point he had two women behind him fawning over his fantastic play as he kept raking in pot after pot, tipping $5 apeice. Finally he got up and left, struggling a bit under the weight of all his racks. Within about 15 minutes the game broke and I was back down to 10/20, where my luck continued as I kept running into AA or KK (or 73o) and I finished the day down about 40BBs.

Roomie was holding his own at the 3/6/12 game. I went over to see how he was doing a few times and, honestly, it seemed as though his chip stack never budged. Being fairly inexperienced player and rather cautious with his money, he was playing textbook low-variance poker. He wasn't going to be winning a ton, but darnit, he wasn't going to be losing a ton either. The game he was at didn't seem very good, and I recommended that he consider switching to a few other games that were blatantly good games (I believe, through many hours spent collecting observational evidence, that there is a direct correlation between table volume and pot size). He didn't do it and so was stuck playing at a fairly tight table at a low-limit with a high rake. In other words, he was probably at an unbeatable game. He didn't do too badly, though, walking away down only $19.

Sunday

The tournament started and noon, and so at 11:30 we were at Harrah's, Roomie at their 3/6/12 game and me waiting for the tourney to start. Just like last week, there was a somewhat unusual payout structure:

1st: $12,500 (or seat in WSOP + $2500)

2nd: $7400

3rd: $3700

4th: $2200

5th: $1500

6th - 8th: $200

9th-10th: $100

60 players total.

Therefore, I would have to finish 5th just to get as much money as I could have sold my entry for ($400ish). In fact, 5th would allow me to essentially "break-even" for the trip, making up for my cash game loses and as much as I could have sold the entry for last week.

It was obvious from the start that this tournament would be an entirely different animal from last week's. Last week's tournament was populated with horrible players trying to give their money away. This week's tournament was full of super-tight, thinking (at least occasionally) players.

Many hands never saw a flop, the large majority never saw the turn. Luckily, after an hour or so, people started getting a bit impatient and loosening up. I took out two players when I isolation raised with 77 against a poor player with a short stack (in fact, the guy who finished second in last week's tournament with his all-in call with T6s), but ended up with one other guy going all-in as well (also with a small stack for barely more than what I had raised to pot to) . It was ATo, QJo and my 77. Board came J53...A....7 (!!) and they were both sent to the rail.

At one point I was the chip-leader for my table, with about 8500 (starting chip stack was 3000).

Unfortunately, the blind structure was brutal, essentially doubling every 20 minutes--at this point the blinds were raised to 500-1000, so my chip-stack lead lasted a total of less than half a dozen hands.

Since the blinds were big relative to the stacks and it was a fairly tight game, I probably should have tried to steal more. I didn't because of my endless parade of 83o cards, and I wanted something that had a halfway decent shot of holding up were someone to call (is A8o, or KTo too much to ask for?). Still, I should have taken a couple blinds with my 83o. Also frustrating was that I kept getting dealt 22 UTG, an automatic fold, and then flopping sets. Three times that happened, and each time someone ended up going all-in. If only those could have happened one hand later, in my BB...

I managed to tread water for a long time as people began dropping like flies while the blinds kept cleaving their stacks in half. It took over two hours to go from 60 players to 30, but barely 30 minutes to go from 30 to about 15. With two tables going, we started synchronizing hands so one table couldn't "outwait" the other. In another 30 minutes, we were down to the final table. I had made the money at least.

Unfortunately, my prospects for making the "real" money, 5th or higher, were dim. With the blinds at 2000/4000, one guy had 1000 in chips, I had 6500, while the remaining players each averaged over 20,000. And those players were remarkably uniform, with all but the chip-leader pretty much between 15,000 and 25,000. They could just wait for us smaller stacks to get blinded out and then start to play.

The guy with only 1000 in chips began the final table as the SB and busted immediately. We were at nine players. With the blinds bearing down on me, I then started talking deal.

Deal? Deal? Deal.

Surprisingly, it seemed as though the whole table agreed to save a little extra for spots 6-9. Most didn't want to do an even chop, or even a proportional chop, but they were all willing to add a little to the "gas money" payouts.

Unfortunately, the clock didn't stop and so the hands kept coming while we were trying to negotiate a deal. The blinds were only two hands away from me. 500 off first, 400 off second, 300 off third, add 300 to each of the bottom four spots? 400/400/400? No one was really objecting, but no one was in any hurry to get a deal done, it seemed. They had an eye on my chip stack.

Soon enough, it was my BB. 4000 of my 6500 stack went into the pot. The big stack raised, and I knew his raising standards were low, so when I saw K2s, I was tempted to call.

Me: "Do we have a deal yet?"

The other seven players at the table: "Sure."

The big stack: "No. After this hand."

I folded.

The next hand was my SB. 2000 of my remaining 2500 went into the pot, leaving me with a single 500, the smallest chip on the table. The big stack raised again and the button went all in. It didn't much matter what I had, as long as it wasn't a big pocket pair.

Me: "Do we have a deal yet?"

Others: "Nope."

Once again I folded, knowing I could last another seven hands if necessary.

Luckily the button ended up busting out, and since we hadn't made a deal yet, he only got the $100.

The very next hand I got AK.

Me: "Deal?"

Table: "No, and don't count on it."

I went all in against a guy who had already raised and ended up having AT. I won and so with the blind money, was now at 2000.

Finally, with a few guys now facing the blinds, I convinced them to stop the clock and work on a deal before continuing.

Pretty quickly, everyone agreed to give spots 6-8 $600 instead of $200 by skimming some off of the first three payouts. But at the last second the big stack (a real prick I might add, for reasons independent of how he dealt with these negotiations) objected. "Give them $400, no more." Everyone else agreed to that almost immediately, and having 2000 in front of me with 2000/4000 blinds didn't give me much power, so I had to agree.

Two off the button I got K8o. It folded around to me and I went all-in, figuring at this tight table I had a good chance of getting heads up with the random big-blind hand. I should have waited, but having secured a better payout and since I figured I had to get at least 5th, I decided had to start taking risks and hope to win a couple races.

The cutoff did The Pause, however. The traditional Big Decision With a Big Hand Pause. He looked around the table, counting stacks. He counted his own stack.

"Raise."

Another pause while he thought, his eyes unreadable behind his dark glasses.

"14,000."

Both blinds folded. We were heads up.

I turned to him, "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

He was noncommital as he turned over QQ. Argh.

599....A....A.

My tournament was over.

Tournament Thoughts

So I ended up in 8th place, with a $400 payout, about what I could have sold the entry for.

I thought I played pretty well despite being card dead for pretty much the entire tournament. My biggest mistake was not adjusting quickly enough to the skyrocketing blinds and thus stealing more. Just a few more steals would have left me in much better chip position at the final table, perhaps good enough to wait out 5th place if need be.

The only other mistake was in a hand where I was shortstacked in the BB with Q2. We had 13 players at this point. 1000/2000 blinds. The SB, the aggressive, not-nearly-as-good-as-he-thinks-he-is, absolute prick chip leader, just completed. I thought he might be trying to trap. The flop came A72, giving me bottom pair and he checked, so I checked behind.

The turn came (A72)T. Once again he checked. At this point I figured that if he had a pair he would have bet. But I was afraid of something like 33 or 44, and I definitely did not have enough to push him around much, with only 6500 in front of me. I should have pushed, but once again I checked.

River: (A72T)J. Now he though for a second and bet 2000. He was weak. He gave me a menacing look. He was REALLY weak. I should have called, 2000 to win 6000 and increase my stack to 12500. But my thoughts were that the blinds were about to increase to 2000/4000 and I might need the extra 500 to last yet one more round (which ended up being true). I thought it was safer to fold, just in case he did have 33 or 44 or hit a J or had a 7 all along or whatever.

So basically, I played just to reach the gas-money payouts, and that's what I did--I won gas money. Players who win tournaments don't play "just to make the money." They play to win. I had more than enough odds and reasons to call that last bet, and I think had I called it, I would have been in much better position at the final table, not with my back against the wall. To further convince me, the SB then went over to giggle with his friends, saying stuff like "I got away with murder," which I took to mean he had absolutely nothing (I told you he was a prick; once he leaned over to try to see my cards after he had folded and I had raised). Poor, poor play on my part.

So, ultimately, I think I played well, especially once I reached the final table and was able to turn what I thought was a $100 payday into a $400 payday (although my final hand was questionable). But I did make a few mistakes, and as is the nature with tournaments, a couple mistakes can cost you big time, in this case as much as thousands of dollars.

To End on a Low Note

It was still before 4pm, so I sat down at 3/6/12 to play a few last hands right next to my roommate. He was doing well, up about $60. But then he caught a bit of my luck.

My AA lost to TT when my opponent, ahem, flopped quads and decided not to slowplay a bit, completely throwing me off of what he had. I was certain he had a big pocket pair based on preflop raising, so when the flop came TT3, I figured I had his KK "pwn3d". I check-raised him on the flop. He three-bet. I check-raised him on the turn. He three-bet again. C'mon, how does he have a T? He would ONLY three-bet me preflop with a big pocket pair, and he sure as hell doesn't have TT, right?

I called him down. Yup, TT.

So a few hands later, Roomie decided to get in on the action. He limped in late position and, unraised with five players, the flop came J64 with two hearts. It checked to him and he bet. Everyone called.

The turn brought (J64)J. It checked to him. He bet again. I figured he had AJ. One again, everyone called.

The river brought (J64J)9. It was the 9h, putting a flush on the board. Once again it checked to roomie, who still bet. He's a smart cookie, he realizes the chances of someone having a flush with four callers in a full-ring, play-anything-soooted game are pretty good. Personally, with AJ I'd still bet and then perhaps fold to a raise, but he's quite cautious and would probably check-call, so by betting I figured there's no way he doesn' t have a full house. He wouldn't play J4 or J6 or J9, so that means he had hit a set on the flop. He had sixes-full, I was sure.

Then someone raised. I had to work hard not to smirk! Someone just hit their flush, the best thing possible when you have a full house. I think both of us were counting the chips in the pot already imagining them in his stack. Everyone else dropped and Roomie three-bet, but then was suddenly four-bet.

Uh-oh.

"What does she have, quad jacks?" He says to me, not expecting an answer, of course. No way, I was thinking. She still most likely just has the flush, almost certainly the nut-flush if so, but she might have J9 and hit her runner-runner full house. That would absolutey suck if true. Roomie called and since she was just about all-in, threw in an additional $3 to cover her.

JJ.

Wha-wha-whaaat??

He of course had 66. $63 down the drain in one hand, to go from being up a decent amount, to being down $10.

We left at the end of that round.

Conclusion

So the trip was definitely not profitable. I lost a fair amount, even including my tournament take, although I kept the loss in the triple-digits.

Roomie was down $29 in what was not a bad introduction to poker. He could have done a lot worse. Of course he could have done a lot better, and that last hand he had really bit. His initial reaction was that he would never play poker again, but near the end of the car-ride back he mentioned playing more online to get better. So we'll see. Maybe I've created another poker-obsessed degenerate.

And who knows. Maybe I'll have to start playing more tournaments.

Poker Wannabe

Life at the bottom of the barrel

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1/31/2005 - Return to Lake Charles

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