I'm on a bit of a poker vacation. I haven't touched cards since July 3, and I don't plan to do so for at least a couple of weeks.
But before I forget, I wanted to post a couple more thoughts from my WSOP / summer tournaments.
1. The biggest lesson that I learned is to remain patient. While not optimal, the WSOP structures allow for a bit more play than your garden-variety tournament. If you followed my action on Twitter, you might have noticed some significant lulls in activity. In the types of WSOP tournaments that I tend to play (mostly split-pot and all limit), a lot more patience is required. You can't just blow somebody off a hand. You can't just play for half the pot. That requires more careful hand selection and finely tuned betting lines. In limit, it's all about making that extra big bet or saving that extra big bet.
During the OE event, I was happy to have a 20-minute break after the first Michael Craig debacle. My stack was in pretty miserable shape at that point, and I knew that clearing my head was my first priority. I tried to get myself into a relaxed mode and just buckled down the rest of the way. My patience was tested again during the OE money bubble. I was incredibly short and had to sweat a couple of bust-outs. But just as I've found calm being in short-stack ninja mode in NLHE tournaments, I've also found calm being in short-stack ninja mode in limit split-pot tournaments. I scraped my way into a cash in the WSOP OE event and went from 1.5 big bets at the money bubble to final table in the Binion's O-8 event.
Of course, I didn't always remember to remain patient. Looking back on Day 2 of the WSOP O-8 event, I probably could have played a couple of hands differently. I started the day with slightly less than the average stack, but I basically frittered myself into elimination without ever scooping a pot. I know now that I wasn't in the right mindset to be playing and that I wasted an opportunity to get my second cash in this year's WSOP. Lesson learned (in theory).
2. I now have a better sense of what it takes to win an O-8 tournament. Prior to this year's WSOP, I hadn't played a significant number of O-8 tournaments. Sure, I've logged countless hours playing O-8 cash, but tournaments (as you know) are a different beast. This summer, I played 5 tournaments that were either straight O-8 (WSOP, Venetian, Golden Nugget and Binion's) or combo O-8 / stud-8 (WSOP). Other than the Venetian debacle, I went fairly deep in all of them. I am developing a better sense of where / when to make moves, where / when to open hand ranges and how to keep accumulating chips in a game that can be very unforgiving. (Six ways to win, a thousand ways to lose.) I might start dabbling in some of the regular online O-8 tournaments when I come back from my poker hiatus . . .
3. One of the funnier moments from the summer took place at my WSOP Stud-8 table. Sam Grizzle kept asking me if I was going to take him to dinner. I kept saying no. Then he described me as "the woman who won't take guys to dinner." My response: "Sam, I never said that I wouldn't take guys to dinner. I said that I wouldn't take Sam Grizzle to dinner." That got a laugh out of most of the table, Sam included.
4. Conversely, the most miserable moment from the summer took place at that same WSOP Stud-8 table. The guy in Seat 1 was a miserable, self-absorbed douchebag of the highest variety. I was involved in a 3-way hand with Jacobo Fernandez and him. All three of us had full houses by 7th. Fernandez scooped the pot. That caused the douchebag to launch into a huge tirade about how horrible my play was (I was relatively short-stacked at the time and decided that my chips were going in). He kept asking, "Is this the World Series of Poker or an $11 tournament on PokerStars?" Knowing full well that saying anything would lead to more hysterics from the douchebag, I kept my mouth shut. (And for those of you who know me, that's a pretty difficult thing for me to do.) I finally lost all patience when I was all-in pre-4th heads up against the douchebag right before the dinner break. As is standard in an all-in situation in stud, the players' two hole cards are flipped over, 4th, 5th and 6th are dealt face up, and then 7th is dealt face-down. By 6th, douchebag was showing 2-pair to my 1-pair. I was basically dead to a queen. I didn't even squeeze my 7th card. I just flipped it over and tapped the table. Then I realized that I hit my miracle queen on 7th. Douchebag then proceeds to flip out because "I slow-rolled him." That's when I started to go off. If I wanted to slow-roll him, I would have squeezed my 7th card to see if I made anything before flipping it over. We exchanged some choice words before the dinner break, and he didn't utter a single word to me after the dinner break. The funny thing is that the only thing he wanted to talk about the entire time we were at the table is how some chick rolled him for $30k. Nobody paid any attention. Serves him right.
5. Thanks again to the folks who bought shares from me. I'm sorry that I didn't make us any money :-( I'll try to be a better horsie in the future.
6. Congrats to all of my blogger friends who cashed in the various Vegas summer tournament series: LJ, Cardgrrl, F-Train, Drizz, Hoy, Sprstoner and Alceste.
7. It was great to put faces with the names of some more folks in the blogger world: JamyHawk (and his very hot and totally awesome wife), Katie, Lightning36, Memphis MOJO, Shabazz Jenkins and Trevor. Unfortunately, I missed out on meeting up with 1QueensUp1, APOSEC72, CEMfromMD and NYRambler.
8. I am disappointed that I didn't play as much poker as I would have liked. A confluence of events led to a lot less free time / free energy to be spending in a poker room. Even with the relatively reduced hours, I am completely pokered out right now. Playing big tournaments is more mentally and physically exhausting than you might think. When I used to crack out at the Borgata for 36+ hours at a time, I never felt as exhausted as I did at the end of a tournament day. I don't know how some of the pros manage to keep the pace that they do. I am also disappointed that I didn't get to spend as much time with folks as I would have liked. I completely missed Cali Jen's birthday bash and TJ's blogger meet-up, along with countless other goings-on. There are only so many hours in a day, and my job takes away a fair number of them.
9. You might not see me around these parts for a couple of days. I'm taking some time away to relax and rejuvenate. I'll likely be spending more time on my golf game. I've seen some improvements in my last couple of rounds, and I'd like to develop some more consistency in my iron shots and rejigger what has apparently become a major issue with my putting.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
What's Been Going On?
Lots of pokering lately. Let's do a quick recap . . .
Tuesday, June 30th: Played the Binion's O-8 tournament with Drizz and Tuscaloosa John. Snuffy was across the street at the Golden Nugget playing the 2-7 TD tournament. At the money bubble, I had 1.5 big bets left and had to sweat a couple of other short stacks. After the bubble burst, I made a pretty nice run and managed to hit the final table as one of the mid-stacks. Drizz totally Bayned it up and made the final table as well. Our fates would shift, as I ran A-A-K-x into Drizz's A-A-4-8 (my button v his big blind), and I was miserably short after that hand. I added to my stack a bit but then raised and whiffed on a mostly high flop. I was in the big blind for more than half of my stack and basically shoved it in with 3-5-6-8 (all crubs). YIKES! That's when I heard shouts of "crubs" from the rail. F-Train, Al, Otis and Gene made the trip downtown to support us. I flopped a wrap straight draw but whiffed. Out in 8th place for $1,120. Drizz made a deal 5-handed and finished with a nice chunk of change. The biggest winner in all of this? Tuscaloosa John. He busted earlier in the day but had 10% of each of Drizz and me. He went off to a juicy cash game and probably didn't know that his horsies were still playing until the wee hours of the am. Congrats to Drizz on the nice cash!
Monday, June 29th: I played in the WSOP 2-7 TD tournament. It was a miserable run for me, as I busted out before the dinner break. One of those days where I had 1-draws to the nuts (dealt 7-5-4-2 or 7-4-3-2) multiple times and could never make a hand. Meanwhile, a guy at my table was drawing 2 or 3 cards and was hitting 7s like it was his job. I, on the other hand, was pairing 7s, 5s and 2s like it was my job. I headed over to the Wynn to play $10/$20 O-8 and was up about $650 in that game when I moved over to an interesting $10/$20 mixed game. It was BOTER (limit) with $2/$5 NLHE and $5/$5 PLO. The big bet games were capped at $500 per person. I made a pretty ballsy call with A-5-x-x (spades) on a T-9-2-2-5 board. I flopped the nut flush draw and just didn't believe the guy when he bet the turn and river. When I called his $200 river bet, he snap-mucked. I made back a nice chunk of my 2-7 TD tournament buy-in, so the horribleness of my final WSOP event faded pretty quickly.
Sunday, June 28th: I played in the WSOP Stud-8 tournament. That was another debacle. I ran boat into bigger boat into bigger boat and was pretty short-stacked heading into the dinner break. I never managed to recover. Meh.
Saturday, June 27th: I played in the Golden Nugget O-8 tournament. I had a nice stack when we were down to 3 tables (2 tables got paid) and ran into multiple river death blows (my opponents had 4 outs or less to scoop and hit their miracle cards each time). I bubbled. BLOW.
Friday, June 26th: I met up with Chad and Hoy to play some $1/$2 NLHE at MGM. Blinders randomly showed up later. God, I forgot how soft that room is. Hoy, Chad and I were straddling every chance we could (well, except for the fact that the guy who was BB when it was my straddle always left on his BB so I couldn't straddle). The other end of the table was royally pissed off at us, but we didn't care. I somehow managed to make about $800 at that table, despite being out of position most of the time to the Asshat Frat Crew contingent.
Wednesday, June 24th: Day 2 of the WSOP O-8 event. I never managed to get anything going and busted out before the money. After my bust-out, I played some $2/$5 NLHE and $20/$40 mixed and had a relatively profitable session. During one of my first hands at my $2/$5 NLHE table, I made a J-Ball call with nut no pair against an all-in river shove from a kid I was convinced was making a move. He showed 5-high. People kinda stayed out of my way after that hand.
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A huge congrats to Hoy for winning close to $51k in one of the Venetian Deep Stack events. I know he was initially bummed to have gotten shut out of the WSOP $1,500 event, but I know he's not complaining about that finish. Nicely done Hoy!
Now that my WSOP is over, I'll be doing another recap of my thoughts on the series overall, and some other highlights from some of the events that I played. There's a funny Sam Grizzle story in there . . .
Tuesday, June 30th: Played the Binion's O-8 tournament with Drizz and Tuscaloosa John. Snuffy was across the street at the Golden Nugget playing the 2-7 TD tournament. At the money bubble, I had 1.5 big bets left and had to sweat a couple of other short stacks. After the bubble burst, I made a pretty nice run and managed to hit the final table as one of the mid-stacks. Drizz totally Bayned it up and made the final table as well. Our fates would shift, as I ran A-A-K-x into Drizz's A-A-4-8 (my button v his big blind), and I was miserably short after that hand. I added to my stack a bit but then raised and whiffed on a mostly high flop. I was in the big blind for more than half of my stack and basically shoved it in with 3-5-6-8 (all crubs). YIKES! That's when I heard shouts of "crubs" from the rail. F-Train, Al, Otis and Gene made the trip downtown to support us. I flopped a wrap straight draw but whiffed. Out in 8th place for $1,120. Drizz made a deal 5-handed and finished with a nice chunk of change. The biggest winner in all of this? Tuscaloosa John. He busted earlier in the day but had 10% of each of Drizz and me. He went off to a juicy cash game and probably didn't know that his horsies were still playing until the wee hours of the am. Congrats to Drizz on the nice cash!
Monday, June 29th: I played in the WSOP 2-7 TD tournament. It was a miserable run for me, as I busted out before the dinner break. One of those days where I had 1-draws to the nuts (dealt 7-5-4-2 or 7-4-3-2) multiple times and could never make a hand. Meanwhile, a guy at my table was drawing 2 or 3 cards and was hitting 7s like it was his job. I, on the other hand, was pairing 7s, 5s and 2s like it was my job. I headed over to the Wynn to play $10/$20 O-8 and was up about $650 in that game when I moved over to an interesting $10/$20 mixed game. It was BOTER (limit) with $2/$5 NLHE and $5/$5 PLO. The big bet games were capped at $500 per person. I made a pretty ballsy call with A-5-x-x (spades) on a T-9-2-2-5 board. I flopped the nut flush draw and just didn't believe the guy when he bet the turn and river. When I called his $200 river bet, he snap-mucked. I made back a nice chunk of my 2-7 TD tournament buy-in, so the horribleness of my final WSOP event faded pretty quickly.
Sunday, June 28th: I played in the WSOP Stud-8 tournament. That was another debacle. I ran boat into bigger boat into bigger boat and was pretty short-stacked heading into the dinner break. I never managed to recover. Meh.
Saturday, June 27th: I played in the Golden Nugget O-8 tournament. I had a nice stack when we were down to 3 tables (2 tables got paid) and ran into multiple river death blows (my opponents had 4 outs or less to scoop and hit their miracle cards each time). I bubbled. BLOW.
Friday, June 26th: I met up with Chad and Hoy to play some $1/$2 NLHE at MGM. Blinders randomly showed up later. God, I forgot how soft that room is. Hoy, Chad and I were straddling every chance we could (well, except for the fact that the guy who was BB when it was my straddle always left on his BB so I couldn't straddle). The other end of the table was royally pissed off at us, but we didn't care. I somehow managed to make about $800 at that table, despite being out of position most of the time to the Asshat Frat Crew contingent.
Wednesday, June 24th: Day 2 of the WSOP O-8 event. I never managed to get anything going and busted out before the money. After my bust-out, I played some $2/$5 NLHE and $20/$40 mixed and had a relatively profitable session. During one of my first hands at my $2/$5 NLHE table, I made a J-Ball call with nut no pair against an all-in river shove from a kid I was convinced was making a move. He showed 5-high. People kinda stayed out of my way after that hand.
**********
A huge congrats to Hoy for winning close to $51k in one of the Venetian Deep Stack events. I know he was initially bummed to have gotten shut out of the WSOP $1,500 event, but I know he's not complaining about that finish. Nicely done Hoy!
Now that my WSOP is over, I'll be doing another recap of my thoughts on the series overall, and some other highlights from some of the events that I played. There's a funny Sam Grizzle story in there . . .
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Heading into Day 2
I am beyond exhausted right now. Today totally felt like a grind. I worked my stack up to 17,775 but was moved to a new table to start level 7. Once there, I went through a horrible stretch where I wasn't really getting any good cards/flops. I ended the day with 14,000, which is a bit below average. Cards are bsck in the air at 2pm PT.
424 entrants. 45 get paid. There are around 205 or so left.
424 entrants. 45 get paid. There are around 205 or so left.
Monday, June 22, 2009
It's Monday Already
Weekends tend to go by pretty quickly around these parts.
Friday I went to the Venetian to meet up with a former colleague from my investment banking days. We ended up grabbing drinks and dinner before the Venetian 7pm tournament. My i-banking friend stuck around a bit to watch me play, but then took off after I overplayed a pair / nut flush draw combo and lost most of my stack. I did a little short-stack ninja-ing but ran J-J into A-A AIPF to go busto. I headed over to the Wynn after that and played the $20/$40 mixed game (BAOTE) for a while. Things started off rocky, but I managed to book a decent profit on the session.
Saturday I went over to the Rio to play some cash and got into a $10/$20 O-8 game right away. In my one interesting hand, I flopped the nut straight, the nut flush draw (crubs) and the second-nut low draw in a 4-way pot. BB checked. I bet, folding the two players behind me. BB called. The turn was a non-club 6. BB checked again. I bet again. BB thought for a bit, shook his head and then called. The river? Another non-crub 6. BB immediately fired. I said, "That's the worst card possible for me," and made the call. He announced "sixes full of eights with a live deuce for low." I flipped over my hand to collect my half of the pot with my A-3 low. When I showed my hand, the folks at my end of the table said, "What a great hand for that flop." "Yeah, but not good enough to scoop at the river." My opponent was drawing for half of the pot, which is generally not profitable in a heads up situation, and I was scooping until the river. Runner-runner sixes full, UGH. But . . . those are the mistakes that I want people to be making against me when I play in WSOP Event #46.
Shortly after that hand, my name was called for the $20/$40 mixed game (BOTER). I got stuck $500 pretty early into the session but managed to claw my way back to a $6 profit. Brilliant. It was amusing to watch a couple of players continue to draw 2 cards against a pat hand and then nail a monster while justifying their play. I wish I could play mixed games with those people all the time. Instead, it was a whole three hours of break even poker. Meh.
Sunday was a mellow day for me. I did some chores around the house and then set myself up to join the PokerSoup podcast. We played a $5.50 HORSE tourney on FullTilt and chatted about a bunch of random things. I busted 13th in the tournament but still had a lot of fun with my hosts. Some of the hosts were playing in a cheapie 2-7 TD tourney on Stars, but registration closed by the time I could load the program. Instead, I found a $2.20 pot-limit badugi tourney. There were 56 runners. I started off well, but then I ran A-2-3 brick brick brick into a T-7 badugi to bust in 20th. I've never played badugi pot-limit, but I might check out another cheapie tourney sometime.
During the past week, I got to say hello to bayne, cmitch, columbo, lucko and shabazz jenkins, but as is always the case, I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked. Another wave of bloggers are coming through town over the next couple of days, but I have off from work starting Wednesday. Tuscaloosa John has posted details about the blogger meet-up on Thursday, June 25th if you're around.
**********
Congrats to Cardgrrl for cashing in WSOP Event #36 ($2,00 NLHE)!
GL to sprstoner who is playing in Day 3 of WSOP Event #39 ($1,500 NLHE). This is his 3rd cash of the WSOP (3rd in Event #13 and 82nd in Event #34). Right now he's 3rd in chips with 25 players to go.
GL also to lightning36 and MemphisMojo who are playing in Day 1 of WSOP Event #43 ($1,000 Seniors World Championship).
And finally, GL to F-Train who is gunning for his second consecutive cash in WSOP Event #44 ($2,500 Razz), which begins tonight at 5pm PT.
**********
For those of you who bought shares of my WSOP Event #46 action, thank you! Your support means a great deal to me :-) Cards are in the air tomorrow at 5pm PT.
Friday I went to the Venetian to meet up with a former colleague from my investment banking days. We ended up grabbing drinks and dinner before the Venetian 7pm tournament. My i-banking friend stuck around a bit to watch me play, but then took off after I overplayed a pair / nut flush draw combo and lost most of my stack. I did a little short-stack ninja-ing but ran J-J into A-A AIPF to go busto. I headed over to the Wynn after that and played the $20/$40 mixed game (BAOTE) for a while. Things started off rocky, but I managed to book a decent profit on the session.
Saturday I went over to the Rio to play some cash and got into a $10/$20 O-8 game right away. In my one interesting hand, I flopped the nut straight, the nut flush draw (crubs) and the second-nut low draw in a 4-way pot. BB checked. I bet, folding the two players behind me. BB called. The turn was a non-club 6. BB checked again. I bet again. BB thought for a bit, shook his head and then called. The river? Another non-crub 6. BB immediately fired. I said, "That's the worst card possible for me," and made the call. He announced "sixes full of eights with a live deuce for low." I flipped over my hand to collect my half of the pot with my A-3 low. When I showed my hand, the folks at my end of the table said, "What a great hand for that flop." "Yeah, but not good enough to scoop at the river." My opponent was drawing for half of the pot, which is generally not profitable in a heads up situation, and I was scooping until the river. Runner-runner sixes full, UGH. But . . . those are the mistakes that I want people to be making against me when I play in WSOP Event #46.
Shortly after that hand, my name was called for the $20/$40 mixed game (BOTER). I got stuck $500 pretty early into the session but managed to claw my way back to a $6 profit. Brilliant. It was amusing to watch a couple of players continue to draw 2 cards against a pat hand and then nail a monster while justifying their play. I wish I could play mixed games with those people all the time. Instead, it was a whole three hours of break even poker. Meh.
Sunday was a mellow day for me. I did some chores around the house and then set myself up to join the PokerSoup podcast. We played a $5.50 HORSE tourney on FullTilt and chatted about a bunch of random things. I busted 13th in the tournament but still had a lot of fun with my hosts. Some of the hosts were playing in a cheapie 2-7 TD tourney on Stars, but registration closed by the time I could load the program. Instead, I found a $2.20 pot-limit badugi tourney. There were 56 runners. I started off well, but then I ran A-2-3 brick brick brick into a T-7 badugi to bust in 20th. I've never played badugi pot-limit, but I might check out another cheapie tourney sometime.
During the past week, I got to say hello to bayne, cmitch, columbo, lucko and shabazz jenkins, but as is always the case, I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I would have liked. Another wave of bloggers are coming through town over the next couple of days, but I have off from work starting Wednesday. Tuscaloosa John has posted details about the blogger meet-up on Thursday, June 25th if you're around.
**********
Congrats to Cardgrrl for cashing in WSOP Event #36 ($2,00 NLHE)!
GL to sprstoner who is playing in Day 3 of WSOP Event #39 ($1,500 NLHE). This is his 3rd cash of the WSOP (3rd in Event #13 and 82nd in Event #34). Right now he's 3rd in chips with 25 players to go.
GL also to lightning36 and MemphisMojo who are playing in Day 1 of WSOP Event #43 ($1,000 Seniors World Championship).
And finally, GL to F-Train who is gunning for his second consecutive cash in WSOP Event #44 ($2,500 Razz), which begins tonight at 5pm PT.
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For those of you who bought shares of my WSOP Event #46 action, thank you! Your support means a great deal to me :-) Cards are in the air tomorrow at 5pm PT.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Skin in the Game
Tuesday June 23 is WSOP Event #46: $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo.
I will be playing in it.
Are you looking to get some skin in the game? If so, please read below. (Note: for obvious reasons, it sounds very technical. This is to protect everyone involved.)
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I have decided to sell 10 shares of my action for $50 per share. Each share represents 2% of the total buy-in and entitles the purchaser to 1% of my gross winnings (pre-tax / pre-tokes) in Event #46.
If you are interested in purchasing a share, email me at ckbwop at gmail dot com before 9pm PT on Sunday June 21. In your email, please tell me how many shares you wish to purchase. Sending me an email DOES NOT guarantee that you will be able to purchase any shares or the number of shares requested by you. I will send an email in response to all inquiries no later than 11:00pm PT on Sunday June 21. The response email will indicate if there are any shares available to be purchased by you. You ARE NOT entitled to purchase any shares unless I have indicated as such in the response email.
I will accept Full Tilt, PayPal or in-person cash payments for the price of the shares. Due to the limited number of shares, please DO NOT make any payments until I respond to your email and advise you that you are part of the purchaser pool. All payments must be made no later than 3pm PT on Tuesday June 23. If payment is not received by 3pm PT on Tuesday June 23, then you will forfeit the right to purchase any shares.
Payment on shares (if any) will be made via one or more of the following methods: Full Tilt, PayPal, in-person cash payment or personal check as agreed to by both purchaser and me. Taxes on any payment on shares are your responsibility. You agree to provide taxpayer identification numbers and other relevant personal information at my request so that I may comply with tax regulations regarding any gross winnings / payment on shares. If you do not provide any requested information, payment on shares will be delayed until I have received such information.
In the event that I am unable to play in Event #46, you will receive a refund of your share price, to be paid in the same manner in which payment was transferred to me by the purchaser.
I reserve all right to make any deals regarding allocation of the tournament prize pool. If a deal has been made, I will advise you via email as to how the deal affected the published payouts. Payment on shares is determined based on the actual payouts, not any published payouts, regardless of the source.
Thank you for your support!
**********
As of post time, 2 shares have already been allocated. Therefore, there are only 8 remaining shares.
I will be playing in it.
Are you looking to get some skin in the game? If so, please read below. (Note: for obvious reasons, it sounds very technical. This is to protect everyone involved.)
**********
I have decided to sell 10 shares of my action for $50 per share. Each share represents 2% of the total buy-in and entitles the purchaser to 1% of my gross winnings (pre-tax / pre-tokes) in Event #46.
If you are interested in purchasing a share, email me at ckbwop at gmail dot com before 9pm PT on Sunday June 21. In your email, please tell me how many shares you wish to purchase. Sending me an email DOES NOT guarantee that you will be able to purchase any shares or the number of shares requested by you. I will send an email in response to all inquiries no later than 11:00pm PT on Sunday June 21. The response email will indicate if there are any shares available to be purchased by you. You ARE NOT entitled to purchase any shares unless I have indicated as such in the response email.
I will accept Full Tilt, PayPal or in-person cash payments for the price of the shares. Due to the limited number of shares, please DO NOT make any payments until I respond to your email and advise you that you are part of the purchaser pool. All payments must be made no later than 3pm PT on Tuesday June 23. If payment is not received by 3pm PT on Tuesday June 23, then you will forfeit the right to purchase any shares.
Payment on shares (if any) will be made via one or more of the following methods: Full Tilt, PayPal, in-person cash payment or personal check as agreed to by both purchaser and me. Taxes on any payment on shares are your responsibility. You agree to provide taxpayer identification numbers and other relevant personal information at my request so that I may comply with tax regulations regarding any gross winnings / payment on shares. If you do not provide any requested information, payment on shares will be delayed until I have received such information.
In the event that I am unable to play in Event #46, you will receive a refund of your share price, to be paid in the same manner in which payment was transferred to me by the purchaser.
I reserve all right to make any deals regarding allocation of the tournament prize pool. If a deal has been made, I will advise you via email as to how the deal affected the published payouts. Payment on shares is determined based on the actual payouts, not any published payouts, regardless of the source.
Thank you for your support!
**********
As of post time, 2 shares have already been allocated. Therefore, there are only 8 remaining shares.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
In Case You Were Wondering What I Sound Like . . .
The fine folks at PokerSoup have invited me to be a guest on their upcoming podcast.
To get the live audio stream, go to this link on Sunday at 9pm ET / 6pm PT. If you're not around on Sunday, you can listen to the podcast later by going to this link.
I've been told that the topics of discussion will include my cash in WSOP Event #25, some O-8 starting hand thoughts, moving to Las Vegas and whatever else my esteemed hosts can think of.
In addition, you can play in the PokerSoup Invitational during the podcast:
PokerSoup Invitational
Sunday June 21
21:00 ET / 18:00 PT
$5 + $0.50 HORSE
password: pokersoup
This could be a ton of fun or a complete and utter debacle (you *do* recall the last time I went on Buddy Dank Radio and made a very ill-advised prop bet involving Waffles). Either way, I hope it's entertaining!
Introduction to Badugi 101
I ended up at the Wynn last night with fellow bloggers LJ, cmitch and Shabazz Jenkins. The plan was to start a $4/$8 mixed game with some other randoms who were milling about the room. But then a bit of a conundrum arose.
In Las Vegas, the "mixed games" tend to feature a fair number of draw games and fewer of the games that you'd find in a HORSE mix. At the Wynn, the typical mixed game includes badugi, A-5 triple draw, O-8, 2-7 triple draw, stud-8, razz (either regular or 2-7) and crazy pineapple. The Amazon Room has been spreading a regular badugi / O-8 / 2-7 triple draw / stud-8 mixed game and has even started spreading baduci (combination 2-7 and badugi triple draw game).
So when it was time to pick the game placards, a discussion ensued as to whether or not badugi should be included. For the sanity of those involved, we opted to leave it out initially, but then *someone* snuck the badugi placard into the mix. That caught some folks off guard, so I figured that it might be helpful to write an introductory post on the game.
(For those of you who aren't aware, you can play badugi on PokerStars.)
1. Basic Rules
The object of the game is to make the lowest 4-card hand with 4 different ranks AND 4 different suits. That means that A-2-3-4 rainbow is the nuts. Badugi is played with blinds / button rather than antes. After each player is dealt four cards, there is a round of betting. After the first round of betting, the remaining players decide how many cards to discard. Discarding is done in order (based on the position of the button). Discards are also replaced by the dealer in order based on the position of the button, with each player receiving all replacement cards before the next player is dealt. That is followed by another round of betting. This process continues until three drawing rounds have been completed or all players but one have mucked. The small bets are pre-draw and after the first draw, and the big bets are after the second and third draws.
Declaring your hand in badugi is similar to declaring your low hand in stud-8 / O-8. You start with the highest card and work down from there. For example, if you held 8c-6d-4s-2h, you would say that you had an "8 badugi" or an "8-6 badugi". If no player has a 4-card hand, then the best 3-card hand wins. Therefore, if one player has 5h-4h-3s-Ac (a "3-card 4" because the 5h is of the same suit as the 4h) and another player has 8d-3d-2c-As (a "3-card 3" because the 8d is the same suit as the 3d), the player with the 8d-3d-2c-As hand would win because her 3-card hand is lowest (the fourth card becomes irrelevant regardless of rank or suit if no player has a 4-card hand).
2. The Power of Position
Position is incredibly important in badugi (and any type of draw game in general). Not only do you have the opportunity to witness the betting patterns before you act, but you also have the opportunity to witness the number of cards that each player is discarding. Conversely, if you are in early position, you are forced to determine your number of discards before you know how many your opponents are drawing. Position also affords you the opportunity to put pressure on your opponents in situations where they may have a weak made hand but are afraid that you may have a stronger made hand. You can therefore cause a player to "break" a hand (meaning that the player will discard one or more cards from a made 4-card hand to try to draw to a better 4-card hand).
3. Starting Hand Requirements
This will vary considerably depending on your position, the action pre-draw and general table dynamics. If you are in early position, you can play strong 3-card hands comfortably. By strong, I'm generally thinking about a 3-card hand where all of your cards are 7 or lower. In later positions, I'll play strong 2-card hands and even 1-card hands if there is no (heavy) action ahead of me. You should always keep in mind the showdown value of your hand and the strength of your draw. For example, a 7d-6s-4c-x hand is a pretty weak 3-card 7. Compare that to a hand like 4s-2c-Ah-x. If no player makes a 4-card hand, then the 3-card 4 is the second best 3-card hand. In addition, the player with 7d-6s-4c-x is drawing to a rough 7 at best, while the player with 4s-2c-Ah-x is drawing to a wheel. The player that is drawing to a wheel can more effectively and profitably bet / raise with that 3-card hand.
4. Drawing and Breaking
The number of cards you draw depends on the strength of your hand and the strength of your opponents' hands. Although it may seem difficult to discern the actual strength of your opponents' hands, you should be able to get a sense of where you're at based on the betting / drawing action. (Again, this is why position is SO important.) If you are in a hand against a player who just 4-bet and stood pat (meaning that player is not drawing any more cards), you're probably not in a good position if you are drawing to an 8 or a 9 (or even a 7) or are drawing more than one card. In general, if I need to draw 2 cards by the second draw and there are players who are pat or are drawing 1, I will generally not stay in the hand unless I can do so for cheap. Keep in mind that the big bets come in after the second draw, so it's twice as expensive to stick around. One thing that I've noticed (and have been guilty of many times in the past) is getting a bit too draw happy. Those big bets start to add up pretty quickly.
Even if you've made a 4-card hand, you also need to think about whether it might be good. I was involved in a hand last night where a player in LP raised. I looked down to see that I was dealt a rough 9 badugi (9-7-4-6). I three-bet. My opponent then four-bet. Here's the tough situation. Four-bet generally means pat hand. I also had a pat hand, but it was a rough 9. It was a marginal call as to whether or not I should break my 9 to draw to a better hand. I decided to call the four-bet and stay pat. I check-called my opponent after the first "draw" (if players are no longer drawing, the dealer will put down a burn card to represent that the drawing action is complete and will proceed directly to the next betting round). We both stood pat. I checked again, and this time my opponent flashed a J and mucked it. He took a card. Knowing that he just broke his hand, I bet in the dark. He peeled his hand and then mucked. "Good break," I told him.
Now you might be thinking to yourself, why would she do that?
First, it's not as easy to make a badugi as you think. If you have a badugi, it's generally suboptimal to break it unless there is heavy action and your badugi is on the higher side. That's why the decision for me as to whether to break my rough 9 was so tough. Once I stood pat twice, my opponent knew that his J badugi was unlikely to be best, however, before he saw me pat twice, it was reasonable for him to think that his made hand would be ahead if I decided to draw / break. Of course, he was probably hoping that I would break my hand first!
Second, it's a bit easier to play a mediocre badugi in a heads up situation. If there was multiple action pre-draw (with, say, 3-4 players sticking around after putting in 4 bets), it is highly unlikely that I would stay pat with my rough 9 when out of position to the rest of the table (who are probably pat or are drawing one card to a much better hand than mine).
In my next badugi strategy post (if I ever get around to it), I'll dive into some more subtle points about betting.
In Las Vegas, the "mixed games" tend to feature a fair number of draw games and fewer of the games that you'd find in a HORSE mix. At the Wynn, the typical mixed game includes badugi, A-5 triple draw, O-8, 2-7 triple draw, stud-8, razz (either regular or 2-7) and crazy pineapple. The Amazon Room has been spreading a regular badugi / O-8 / 2-7 triple draw / stud-8 mixed game and has even started spreading baduci (combination 2-7 and badugi triple draw game).
So when it was time to pick the game placards, a discussion ensued as to whether or not badugi should be included. For the sanity of those involved, we opted to leave it out initially, but then *someone* snuck the badugi placard into the mix. That caught some folks off guard, so I figured that it might be helpful to write an introductory post on the game.
(For those of you who aren't aware, you can play badugi on PokerStars.)
1. Basic Rules
The object of the game is to make the lowest 4-card hand with 4 different ranks AND 4 different suits. That means that A-2-3-4 rainbow is the nuts. Badugi is played with blinds / button rather than antes. After each player is dealt four cards, there is a round of betting. After the first round of betting, the remaining players decide how many cards to discard. Discarding is done in order (based on the position of the button). Discards are also replaced by the dealer in order based on the position of the button, with each player receiving all replacement cards before the next player is dealt. That is followed by another round of betting. This process continues until three drawing rounds have been completed or all players but one have mucked. The small bets are pre-draw and after the first draw, and the big bets are after the second and third draws.
Declaring your hand in badugi is similar to declaring your low hand in stud-8 / O-8. You start with the highest card and work down from there. For example, if you held 8c-6d-4s-2h, you would say that you had an "8 badugi" or an "8-6 badugi". If no player has a 4-card hand, then the best 3-card hand wins. Therefore, if one player has 5h-4h-3s-Ac (a "3-card 4" because the 5h is of the same suit as the 4h) and another player has 8d-3d-2c-As (a "3-card 3" because the 8d is the same suit as the 3d), the player with the 8d-3d-2c-As hand would win because her 3-card hand is lowest (the fourth card becomes irrelevant regardless of rank or suit if no player has a 4-card hand).
2. The Power of Position
Position is incredibly important in badugi (and any type of draw game in general). Not only do you have the opportunity to witness the betting patterns before you act, but you also have the opportunity to witness the number of cards that each player is discarding. Conversely, if you are in early position, you are forced to determine your number of discards before you know how many your opponents are drawing. Position also affords you the opportunity to put pressure on your opponents in situations where they may have a weak made hand but are afraid that you may have a stronger made hand. You can therefore cause a player to "break" a hand (meaning that the player will discard one or more cards from a made 4-card hand to try to draw to a better 4-card hand).
3. Starting Hand Requirements
This will vary considerably depending on your position, the action pre-draw and general table dynamics. If you are in early position, you can play strong 3-card hands comfortably. By strong, I'm generally thinking about a 3-card hand where all of your cards are 7 or lower. In later positions, I'll play strong 2-card hands and even 1-card hands if there is no (heavy) action ahead of me. You should always keep in mind the showdown value of your hand and the strength of your draw. For example, a 7d-6s-4c-x hand is a pretty weak 3-card 7. Compare that to a hand like 4s-2c-Ah-x. If no player makes a 4-card hand, then the 3-card 4 is the second best 3-card hand. In addition, the player with 7d-6s-4c-x is drawing to a rough 7 at best, while the player with 4s-2c-Ah-x is drawing to a wheel. The player that is drawing to a wheel can more effectively and profitably bet / raise with that 3-card hand.
4. Drawing and Breaking
The number of cards you draw depends on the strength of your hand and the strength of your opponents' hands. Although it may seem difficult to discern the actual strength of your opponents' hands, you should be able to get a sense of where you're at based on the betting / drawing action. (Again, this is why position is SO important.) If you are in a hand against a player who just 4-bet and stood pat (meaning that player is not drawing any more cards), you're probably not in a good position if you are drawing to an 8 or a 9 (or even a 7) or are drawing more than one card. In general, if I need to draw 2 cards by the second draw and there are players who are pat or are drawing 1, I will generally not stay in the hand unless I can do so for cheap. Keep in mind that the big bets come in after the second draw, so it's twice as expensive to stick around. One thing that I've noticed (and have been guilty of many times in the past) is getting a bit too draw happy. Those big bets start to add up pretty quickly.
Even if you've made a 4-card hand, you also need to think about whether it might be good. I was involved in a hand last night where a player in LP raised. I looked down to see that I was dealt a rough 9 badugi (9-7-4-6). I three-bet. My opponent then four-bet. Here's the tough situation. Four-bet generally means pat hand. I also had a pat hand, but it was a rough 9. It was a marginal call as to whether or not I should break my 9 to draw to a better hand. I decided to call the four-bet and stay pat. I check-called my opponent after the first "draw" (if players are no longer drawing, the dealer will put down a burn card to represent that the drawing action is complete and will proceed directly to the next betting round). We both stood pat. I checked again, and this time my opponent flashed a J and mucked it. He took a card. Knowing that he just broke his hand, I bet in the dark. He peeled his hand and then mucked. "Good break," I told him.
Now you might be thinking to yourself, why would she do that?
First, it's not as easy to make a badugi as you think. If you have a badugi, it's generally suboptimal to break it unless there is heavy action and your badugi is on the higher side. That's why the decision for me as to whether to break my rough 9 was so tough. Once I stood pat twice, my opponent knew that his J badugi was unlikely to be best, however, before he saw me pat twice, it was reasonable for him to think that his made hand would be ahead if I decided to draw / break. Of course, he was probably hoping that I would break my hand first!
Second, it's a bit easier to play a mediocre badugi in a heads up situation. If there was multiple action pre-draw (with, say, 3-4 players sticking around after putting in 4 bets), it is highly unlikely that I would stay pat with my rough 9 when out of position to the rest of the table (who are probably pat or are drawing one card to a much better hand than mine).
In my next badugi strategy post (if I ever get around to it), I'll dive into some more subtle points about betting.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Blogger Updates
First, a HUGE congrats is in order to LJ for finishing 10th in the WSOP $1,500 HORSE event! What an impressive accomplishment for someone who's never played HORSE live. We all know LJ as a strong NLHE tournament player, but she also has some serious limit skillz. I was able to rail some of her Day 2 and Day 3 action, and witnessed a very nice round of applause from players and railbirds alike when she exited the tournament. Way to represent for Team Vag!
Bloggers are continuing to trickle in and out of Las Vegas, so here's the latest scoop:
1QueensUp1: 6/25/2009-7/1/2009 (6/27 NLHE $1,500 (WSOP))
APOSEC72: 6/25/09-6/29/09 (6/27 NLHE $1,500 (WSOP))
bayne_s: 6/14/09-6/21/09
Cardgrrl: all of June (lots and lots of tourneys)
Cmitch: 6/14/2009-6/20/2009 (6/18 NLHE $2,000 (WSOP))
Columbo: 6/16/2009-6/22/2009 (6/20 NLHE $1,500 WSOP)
Drizzle: 6/28/09-7/3/09 (6/30 LO-8 $150 (Binion's))
Hoyazo: 6/25/2009-6/29/2009 (6/27 NLHE $1,500 (WSOP))
lightning36: 6/18/09-6/24/09 (6/22 NLHE $1,000 (WSOP))
Memphis MOJO: 6/20/09-6/24/09 (6/22 NLHE $1,000 (WSOP))
Riggstad: 7/2/09-7/6/09
Shabazz Jenkins: 6/17/2009-6/22/2009 (lots and lots of tourneys)
SmBoatDrinks: 6/21/09-6/27/09 (lots and lots of tourneys)
Snuffy: 6/30/09-7/4/09 (lots and lots of tourneys)
Tuscaloosa John: 6/22/09-7/3/09
TJ just put up another post about the blogger meet-up for June 25th, so go to his blog to weigh in on plans.
I am still debating which WSOP event I will play next. Events on my radar screen:
Sunday, June 21: $2,500 8-Game Mixed (still on the fence)
Tuesday, June 23: $2,500 O-8 (80% yes)
Sunday, June 28: $1,500 Stud-8 (99% yes)
Monday, June 29: $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw (long shot)
Bloggers are continuing to trickle in and out of Las Vegas, so here's the latest scoop:
1QueensUp1: 6/25/2009-7/1/2009 (6/27 NLHE $1,500 (WSOP))
APOSEC72: 6/25/09-6/29/09 (6/27 NLHE $1,500 (WSOP))
bayne_s: 6/14/09-6/21/09
Cardgrrl: all of June (lots and lots of tourneys)
Cmitch: 6/14/2009-6/20/2009 (6/18 NLHE $2,000 (WSOP))
Columbo: 6/16/2009-6/22/2009 (6/20 NLHE $1,500 WSOP)
Drizzle: 6/28/09-7/3/09 (6/30 LO-8 $150 (Binion's))
Hoyazo: 6/25/2009-6/29/2009 (6/27 NLHE $1,500 (WSOP))
lightning36: 6/18/09-6/24/09 (6/22 NLHE $1,000 (WSOP))
Memphis MOJO: 6/20/09-6/24/09 (6/22 NLHE $1,000 (WSOP))
Riggstad: 7/2/09-7/6/09
Shabazz Jenkins: 6/17/2009-6/22/2009 (lots and lots of tourneys)
SmBoatDrinks: 6/21/09-6/27/09 (lots and lots of tourneys)
Snuffy: 6/30/09-7/4/09 (lots and lots of tourneys)
Tuscaloosa John: 6/22/09-7/3/09
TJ just put up another post about the blogger meet-up for June 25th, so go to his blog to weigh in on plans.
I am still debating which WSOP event I will play next. Events on my radar screen:
Sunday, June 21: $2,500 8-Game Mixed (still on the fence)
Tuesday, June 23: $2,500 O-8 (80% yes)
Sunday, June 28: $1,500 Stud-8 (99% yes)
Monday, June 29: $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw (long shot)
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Event #25 Snippets from Day 2
My Day 2 starting table looked like this:
Seat 1: Casey Kay - 12,300
Seat 2: Stuart Spivack - 39,800
Seat 3: Jason Mercier - 14,400
Seat 4: Bart Hanson - 16,600
Seat 5: Scott Clements - 26,700
Seat 6: CK - 22,600
Seat 7: Michael Craig - 7,800
Seat 8: Doug Saab - 18,900
We started with O-8 blinds of 400/800 and Stud-8 antes and bring-in of 200. Betting limits were 800/1,600.
During the first level of the day, I busted Jason Mercier in a three-way stud-8 pot with Scott Clements.
This is how the folks from PokerNews reported it:
Mercieradication
And that's the end of the line for the successful young player. You can't win them all, although Mercier's looked recently to be doing his best. A Stud hi-lo hand was his last. It started out fourway, but Mercier's bet on fourth street got rid of one opponent. He did, however get his all-in on firth [sic] called by both Scott Clements and CK.
Mercier: [XX] 5s 3h 8s Qs
Clements: [XX] 9c Ks Qd Qc
CK: [XX] 5h 6d 8h 8d
After they checked the river, Mercier said, "What you got?" lazily turning Ah 3d. Clements showed Ks Kd 3s for trips, but it was CK, somewhat confused about what her hand was, who scooped the lot and busted Mercier, showing Ad 2d 7d. She'd not looked delighted with her hand until the flush was pointed out, plus the seven low. "I didn't see that!" she said while raking in the pot.
Once Mercier was all in, Clements and I checked fifth, sixth and seventh. I knew that I had a pretty strong low draw (I started with Ad 2d) but didn't realize that I rivered the flush. I announced my 7-low immediately and the guy two seats away pointed out my flush. Clements quipped, "Thanks for not betting there."
That pot got me to around 28,200 at the end of level 9.
As you can see from the table start above, Michael Craig was immediately to my left and rocking a pretty short stack. He was all-in once or twice before the end of level 10.
And that's when disaster struck for the first time. I had three baby crubs to Craig's ace. My king-high crub frush was made in five (I would need two babies on sixth and seventh to make a low) and Craig's board was showing all high (Ax-Kd-Td). I figured that I was way ahead at this point and raised on fifth. Craig called. On sixth, I picked up another low card and Craig picked up another diamond. We both checked, as I believe Bart Hanson was all-in after fifth. Craig led out on seventh, and I almost puked. Did he just hit a higher flush? I shook my head and made the call. Sure enough, he went diamond / diamond / diamond / diamond on fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh to hit the ace-high flush. He had started with split aces and went zooming into flush land from there. The Ad was his card on 7th. I bemoaned the fact that it was a one-outer, but technically it was a three-outer. He could have also hit the Qd for a Kd-Qd flush and the Jd for a Kd-Jd-Td flush that would have bested my Kc-Jc-9c flush. That pot put me the whole way back to 14,500 with the next betting level being 1,200 / 2,400 instead of around 48,000. Yup. Six whole big bets. Fan-fucking-tastic.
I knew I had a whole lot of work to do if I was going to make it into the cash. I buckled down after the break and went back to playing TAG poker.
I got incredibly short on a couple of good starting hands that went bad and then got a timely triple-up on an O-8 hand when I was holding A-K-J-4ds (crubs, obv). There was a fair amount of action on the K-3-3-x-4 board, but my kings-up were good enough to scoop. That pot got me back to around 16,500, which was still dangerously low.
During level 12, I all but eliminated Scott Clements in a stud-8 hand. I had a 7-high straight and a 6-5 low against his two pair / flush draw. He had one 100 chip left and was eliminated on the next hand. I was back to 26,700, but the levels were 1,500/3,000.
Shortly after the Clements elimination, I was moved to a table with Steve Wong and Erick Lindgren. I had played some mixed games with Steve Wong in the past, so we got into a pleasant conversation right away. I bled a little bit during level 12 but still had 21,600 at the dinner break. The average was 35,250 and levels were going up to 2,000 / 4,000 (500 ante).
I felt okay during the dinner break. Getting "Michael Craig'ed" was a distant memory. I was focused on continuing to play a solid game, picking spots where I knew I could get my money in good.
Right after the break, I scooped an O-8 pot to jump to around 35k. Shortly after that, I got moved to another table. I had about 38k at that point with 64 players remaining. The big stack at the table was Jon Turner, but he was sitting immediately to my right. Blair Rodman was also at the table.
I've also played some mixed games with Jon in the past and have an okay understanding of how he approaches the game. We got into a friendly conversation about some mutual acquaintances, but for the most part I was relatively silent and focused. At one point, Jon called over to the other table, "Hey, does anyone have the phone number for Wicked Chops?" He then glanced toward the rail. I chuckled a bit. "You obviously know what I'm talking about, right?" he asked. "Yup."
My high water mark of the night was around 50k when I flopped top trips / top kicker on a K-K-8 board against a short-stacked player. He bet on the turn, basically committing himself to calling me if I check-raised. I wouldn't normally play my hand so quickly, but knowing that he was committed, I raised. He threw in his chips and then called all-in for about 300 after the K hit on the turn. Yup. Dems quads, bitches!
Of course, Michael Craig was moved into the seat after that player was eliminated. And I'm sure you all know what happened next.
I started with 4-3-A (four in the door) against Craig's A-x-x. I picked up a 5 on fourth to Craig's J. I raised him on fourth, and he just called. On fifth, I got another 3 to Craig's T. I raised him again, and this time he shoved it all in. What was I up against? Another pair of aces. Just aces. A-A-J-T-x. Three spades. Sixth? Another 3 for me. Another spade for Craig.
Going into seventh, the boards looked like this:
CK: 5-4-3-3-3-A
Craig: A-A-J-T-8-2 (four spades)
River? Craig's card was dealt first. Jon said, "Flush." I needed an 8-7-6-2 for half or a 5-4-3-A to scoop. As much as I <3 9s, I wasn't exactly thrilled to see that I caught a 9 on seventh.
Massive pot shipped to Craig. I was in big trouble.
The Twitter blast went as follows: 15,400. 48 left. 40 pay. need to make a hand. i hate michael craig. obv he donked off to turner who has a gabillion chips.
Betting levels were 3,000 / 6,000. Yup. Two and a half big bets. But antes were 700, thereby creating a huge dent in my stack during the stud rounds. Hoyt Corkins and I were the two shortest stacks. He said to the table, "If I'm putting a chip in the pot, it's going in good. Same thing for her (pointing at me)." "You got that right, sir," I responded. (For some reason I always call Hoyt "sir.")
I raised once with three cards to a 7 and some gutterball straight possibilities. Everyone folded. I open-raised once in O-8 with A-2-4-x suited. Everyone folded. With 45 players to go, I was sitting right around where I was when we still had 48. If I was going to make it into the money, it was going to be by the skin of my teeth.
And then something strange happened. We started losing players in rapid fashion. Ming Lee (who went on to finish 2nd to Ivey) eliminated two players from my table in one hand. Another elimination took place at an adjacent table and we were down to 42. On the very next hand (at least it seemed that way), we heard the floorperson announce to the dealers to stop after the completion of the hand. Someone had already busted, so we were heading into hand-for-hand. But action was still pending at another table. People were standing up. I saw someone shake someone's hand. Then I heard the announcement, "Congratulations, you are in the money."
What a relief.
Grinding back from two Michael Craig beats took a lot of my energy. I was exhausted. I was super short. But I didn't just want to blow off my chips on a horrible hand. My table was next to break, and I ended up sandwiched between Carlos Mortensen and Dutch Boyd. Both had massive stacks.
I got hit with the bring in three times in a row with crap cards (always happens to the shortie) and decided to get it in with split queens suited in hearts with my 5. Dutch Boyd held split aces. We both improved to two pair, and I couldn't hit a 4-outer to stay alive.
As much as 39th was a big disappointment (at first), I am still thrilled with the way that I played.
But now there are more important things to think about.
LJ is super deep in the $1,500 HORSE event. Only 13 players remain. GL GL GL!
Seat 1: Casey Kay - 12,300
Seat 2: Stuart Spivack - 39,800
Seat 3: Jason Mercier - 14,400
Seat 4: Bart Hanson - 16,600
Seat 5: Scott Clements - 26,700
Seat 6: CK - 22,600
Seat 7: Michael Craig - 7,800
Seat 8: Doug Saab - 18,900
We started with O-8 blinds of 400/800 and Stud-8 antes and bring-in of 200. Betting limits were 800/1,600.
During the first level of the day, I busted Jason Mercier in a three-way stud-8 pot with Scott Clements.
This is how the folks from PokerNews reported it:
Mercieradication
And that's the end of the line for the successful young player. You can't win them all, although Mercier's looked recently to be doing his best. A Stud hi-lo hand was his last. It started out fourway, but Mercier's bet on fourth street got rid of one opponent. He did, however get his all-in on firth [sic] called by both Scott Clements and CK.
Mercier: [XX] 5s 3h 8s Qs
Clements: [XX] 9c Ks Qd Qc
CK: [XX] 5h 6d 8h 8d
After they checked the river, Mercier said, "What you got?" lazily turning Ah 3d. Clements showed Ks Kd 3s for trips, but it was CK, somewhat confused about what her hand was, who scooped the lot and busted Mercier, showing Ad 2d 7d. She'd not looked delighted with her hand until the flush was pointed out, plus the seven low. "I didn't see that!" she said while raking in the pot.
Once Mercier was all in, Clements and I checked fifth, sixth and seventh. I knew that I had a pretty strong low draw (I started with Ad 2d) but didn't realize that I rivered the flush. I announced my 7-low immediately and the guy two seats away pointed out my flush. Clements quipped, "Thanks for not betting there."
That pot got me to around 28,200 at the end of level 9.
As you can see from the table start above, Michael Craig was immediately to my left and rocking a pretty short stack. He was all-in once or twice before the end of level 10.
And that's when disaster struck for the first time. I had three baby crubs to Craig's ace. My king-high crub frush was made in five (I would need two babies on sixth and seventh to make a low) and Craig's board was showing all high (Ax-Kd-Td). I figured that I was way ahead at this point and raised on fifth. Craig called. On sixth, I picked up another low card and Craig picked up another diamond. We both checked, as I believe Bart Hanson was all-in after fifth. Craig led out on seventh, and I almost puked. Did he just hit a higher flush? I shook my head and made the call. Sure enough, he went diamond / diamond / diamond / diamond on fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh to hit the ace-high flush. He had started with split aces and went zooming into flush land from there. The Ad was his card on 7th. I bemoaned the fact that it was a one-outer, but technically it was a three-outer. He could have also hit the Qd for a Kd-Qd flush and the Jd for a Kd-Jd-Td flush that would have bested my Kc-Jc-9c flush. That pot put me the whole way back to 14,500 with the next betting level being 1,200 / 2,400 instead of around 48,000. Yup. Six whole big bets. Fan-fucking-tastic.
I knew I had a whole lot of work to do if I was going to make it into the cash. I buckled down after the break and went back to playing TAG poker.
I got incredibly short on a couple of good starting hands that went bad and then got a timely triple-up on an O-8 hand when I was holding A-K-J-4ds (crubs, obv). There was a fair amount of action on the K-3-3-x-4 board, but my kings-up were good enough to scoop. That pot got me back to around 16,500, which was still dangerously low.
During level 12, I all but eliminated Scott Clements in a stud-8 hand. I had a 7-high straight and a 6-5 low against his two pair / flush draw. He had one 100 chip left and was eliminated on the next hand. I was back to 26,700, but the levels were 1,500/3,000.
Shortly after the Clements elimination, I was moved to a table with Steve Wong and Erick Lindgren. I had played some mixed games with Steve Wong in the past, so we got into a pleasant conversation right away. I bled a little bit during level 12 but still had 21,600 at the dinner break. The average was 35,250 and levels were going up to 2,000 / 4,000 (500 ante).
I felt okay during the dinner break. Getting "Michael Craig'ed" was a distant memory. I was focused on continuing to play a solid game, picking spots where I knew I could get my money in good.
Right after the break, I scooped an O-8 pot to jump to around 35k. Shortly after that, I got moved to another table. I had about 38k at that point with 64 players remaining. The big stack at the table was Jon Turner, but he was sitting immediately to my right. Blair Rodman was also at the table.
I've also played some mixed games with Jon in the past and have an okay understanding of how he approaches the game. We got into a friendly conversation about some mutual acquaintances, but for the most part I was relatively silent and focused. At one point, Jon called over to the other table, "Hey, does anyone have the phone number for Wicked Chops?" He then glanced toward the rail. I chuckled a bit. "You obviously know what I'm talking about, right?" he asked. "Yup."
My high water mark of the night was around 50k when I flopped top trips / top kicker on a K-K-8 board against a short-stacked player. He bet on the turn, basically committing himself to calling me if I check-raised. I wouldn't normally play my hand so quickly, but knowing that he was committed, I raised. He threw in his chips and then called all-in for about 300 after the K hit on the turn. Yup. Dems quads, bitches!
Of course, Michael Craig was moved into the seat after that player was eliminated. And I'm sure you all know what happened next.
I started with 4-3-A (four in the door) against Craig's A-x-x. I picked up a 5 on fourth to Craig's J. I raised him on fourth, and he just called. On fifth, I got another 3 to Craig's T. I raised him again, and this time he shoved it all in. What was I up against? Another pair of aces. Just aces. A-A-J-T-x. Three spades. Sixth? Another 3 for me. Another spade for Craig.
Going into seventh, the boards looked like this:
CK: 5-4-3-3-3-A
Craig: A-A-J-T-8-2 (four spades)
River? Craig's card was dealt first. Jon said, "Flush." I needed an 8-7-6-2 for half or a 5-4-3-A to scoop. As much as I <3 9s, I wasn't exactly thrilled to see that I caught a 9 on seventh.
Massive pot shipped to Craig. I was in big trouble.
The Twitter blast went as follows: 15,400. 48 left. 40 pay. need to make a hand. i hate michael craig. obv he donked off to turner who has a gabillion chips.
Betting levels were 3,000 / 6,000. Yup. Two and a half big bets. But antes were 700, thereby creating a huge dent in my stack during the stud rounds. Hoyt Corkins and I were the two shortest stacks. He said to the table, "If I'm putting a chip in the pot, it's going in good. Same thing for her (pointing at me)." "You got that right, sir," I responded. (For some reason I always call Hoyt "sir.")
I raised once with three cards to a 7 and some gutterball straight possibilities. Everyone folded. I open-raised once in O-8 with A-2-4-x suited. Everyone folded. With 45 players to go, I was sitting right around where I was when we still had 48. If I was going to make it into the money, it was going to be by the skin of my teeth.
And then something strange happened. We started losing players in rapid fashion. Ming Lee (who went on to finish 2nd to Ivey) eliminated two players from my table in one hand. Another elimination took place at an adjacent table and we were down to 42. On the very next hand (at least it seemed that way), we heard the floorperson announce to the dealers to stop after the completion of the hand. Someone had already busted, so we were heading into hand-for-hand. But action was still pending at another table. People were standing up. I saw someone shake someone's hand. Then I heard the announcement, "Congratulations, you are in the money."
What a relief.
Grinding back from two Michael Craig beats took a lot of my energy. I was exhausted. I was super short. But I didn't just want to blow off my chips on a horrible hand. My table was next to break, and I ended up sandwiched between Carlos Mortensen and Dutch Boyd. Both had massive stacks.
I got hit with the bring in three times in a row with crap cards (always happens to the shortie) and decided to get it in with split queens suited in hearts with my 5. Dutch Boyd held split aces. We both improved to two pair, and I couldn't hit a 4-outer to stay alive.
As much as 39th was a big disappointment (at first), I am still thrilled with the way that I played.
But now there are more important things to think about.
LJ is super deep in the $1,500 HORSE event. Only 13 players remain. GL GL GL!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Event #25 Snippets from Day 1
Some stats:
376 entrants
40 paid
153 advanced to Day 2
14 advanced to Day 3
Phil Ivey won the bracelet (his 7th) and $220,538
My starting table consisted of the following:
Seat 1: Tom Koral (final tabled the $10k O-8 and this event)
Seat 2: CK
Seat 3: old guy who pretty much never won a pot
Seat 4: Amnon Filippi
Seat 5: black guy who appeared to have taken stud-8 lessons from Dawn Summers
Seat 6: asian guy who appeared to also have taken stud-8 lessons from the aforementioned Dawn Summers
Seat 7: younger white guy
Seat 8: Brandon Cantu
This wasn't a very aggressive table (except when Filippi and Cantu were involved in hands). I don't recall a lot 3-betting pre-flop / pre-4th and I don't think we saw a 4-bet or 5-bet on any street until people were in bust-out territory. I tend to like those types of tables, as it gives me an opportunity to see flops / fourths cheaper and outplay people on the later streets.
In the early stages, if I won a pot it was a scoop. This is obviously very key in a split-pot tournament. For some reason the Asian guy kept paying me off in the stud rounds. Once when I had 9-9-4-4-2-2-x and he called with a pair of 8s and once when I had 8-8-6-4-2-2-A and he called with one pair (which I don't remember, but it was an open pair). I didn't win an O-8 hand until I turned a Bammer Boat against some chasers (the low didn't get there).
The key for me was continuing to build, build, build.
9,150 at the first break (starting chips = 7,500)
12,425 at the second break (average was around 8,000)
14,775 at the third break
The black guy made me chuckle in an O-8 hand. I turned broadway with A-J and the river changed nothing (no low possible, no additional broadway card to create multiple broadway possibilities, no paired board, no flush possible). Black guy led out on the river (just as he had done on the turn) and the other players got out of the way. I raised. Then the black guy Hollywooded for about a minute and a half before announcing a raise. I just threw out my chips and said, "I know we're chopping." He just shook his head in disgust and flipped over his own A-J. Seriously dude, you had to take away 1.5 minutes of my life so you could pretend that you had to think long and hard before you raised???
Filippi was the first to go busto at my table and was replaced by a player who was super short and lasted about two hands. Then that kid was replaced by Marcel Luske. It's always fun to have Marcel around (I played with him back in 2007). He was in one of the seats of death (we lost 4-5 players in each of seats 3 and 4) and I managed to scoop him about three times. It never seemed to phase him, as he just kept singing as the night wore on and he eventually busted.
When Marcel was gone, Gavin Smith took his seat. Now here's the funny thing. I've now met Gavin about 4 times. We've had actual conversations. The last time I ran into him, he thought I was Katkin's girlfriend. Of course, each time that I met him he had obviously had several drinks already.
I'm sure that happens all the time. I'm a nobody in the poker world. Even though I'm a chick, I'm nowhere near as memorable as Shannon Elizabeth. Shannon occupied the seat immediately to my left for a very brief period of time. I think she only had 2 or 3 big bets when she was moved to my table. After her bust-out, I sent the following Tweet: shannon elizabeth busto. i am now the hottest chick at table again. :-P
By the end of Day 1, I was sitting on 22,600 in chips. The average stack size was a shade over 18,000. I hit a couple of good hands in the last two levels to put me in a pretty comfortable situation heading into Day 2.
In the first hand, I started with rolled up 3s against Cantu's split aces. I had the low-card 3 and brought it in without looking. This is something that I've been doing a fair amount of lately, as completing from the get-go tends to telegraph too much about your hand and having last option in the face of a likely completion is a nice benefit. Cantu was showing an ace in the door and completed. When the action was back around to me, I looked at my hole cards and saw the other two taters. I decided to raise. Cantu then three-bet, which led me to believe that he either had split aces or three to a good low. I decided to just call here, as I'm sure that a four-bet would have given away too much information. Besides, with his ace door card, it was likely that I'd be second to act on the remaining streets. Knowing his aggressive style, I'm sure that he'd continue to fire so long as my board didn't start to look too scary. (For the record, the other dead cards were Q-Q-T-T-8-A - yes, I still remember this.) Cantu picked up a J on 5th and I hit a 6. Cantu fired again. I just called here trying to represent a low draw that I was playing a bit cautiously against a likely split pair. Fifth brought another J for Cantu. I picked up a 4. Cantu fired again. This time I raised. Fifth is a big street, and I wanted to see how he'd play back at me with my low-looking board. He just called. I hit a 9 on sixth, which appeared to be a pretty safe card for Cantu. He bet again. I raised again. He just called. Seventh went check / bet / call, and I flipped over my 3s. Cantu flashed A-A-J-J-x-x-x as I had suspected and was down to his last few chips. He was eliminated on the next hand.
This was an interesting hand for a number of reasons. First, it shows how dangerous playing a high-only hand can be if your opponent's board looks low but could still have high-hand possibilities. I was showing 6-4-3 in six and had shown a decent amount of strength by raising his completion bet and calling his three-bet before fourth. Drawing (thinly) to just chop in a heads up situation is something that I've cautioned against many times before. Second, it shows how important card memory is in stud. I knew that one of the aces was dead, leaving Cantu with one ace and two jacks as outs for the full house (unless in some magical fashion his other hole card and both of his sixth and seventh street cards were the same rank). I also knew that two queens and two tens were dead, making a broadway straight also a faint possibility. I noticed that I was a lot more tired after this tournament, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that my brain was working extra hard during the stud rounds.
On one of the last hands of the night, I almost threw up in my mouth. It was a three-way O-8 hand where the final board read something like 8-6-3-5-6. I held A-2-x-x. The flop action went bet (seat 3) / call (seat 5) / call (me). The turn action went bet (seat 3) / raise (seat 5) / call (me) / re-raise (seat 3) / re-re-raise (seat 5) / call (me) / call (seat 3). The river action went bet (seat 3) / raise (seat 5) / call (me) / re-raise (seat 3) / call (seat 5) / call (me). For you O-8 junkies who just followed those last couple of lines, I'm sure you knew what I was thinking. Am I about to get quartered or one-sixthed? I wouldn't put it past the guy in seat 5 (the black guy who wants to be the next Dawn Summers) to raise with just a low. The guy in seat 3 seemed to know what he was doing. The hands?
Seat 3: 6-6-4-x for flopped middle set, turned middle OESD and rivered quads
Seat 5: 9-7-x-x for flopped OESD and turned high end of the straight
Play ended around 3am, but I couldn't fall asleep until closer to 4:30am. I felt very confident based on my play and knew that if I continued to play that well, I had a shot at going very deep . . .
(to be continued)
376 entrants
40 paid
153 advanced to Day 2
14 advanced to Day 3
Phil Ivey won the bracelet (his 7th) and $220,538
My starting table consisted of the following:
Seat 1: Tom Koral (final tabled the $10k O-8 and this event)
Seat 2: CK
Seat 3: old guy who pretty much never won a pot
Seat 4: Amnon Filippi
Seat 5: black guy who appeared to have taken stud-8 lessons from Dawn Summers
Seat 6: asian guy who appeared to also have taken stud-8 lessons from the aforementioned Dawn Summers
Seat 7: younger white guy
Seat 8: Brandon Cantu
This wasn't a very aggressive table (except when Filippi and Cantu were involved in hands). I don't recall a lot 3-betting pre-flop / pre-4th and I don't think we saw a 4-bet or 5-bet on any street until people were in bust-out territory. I tend to like those types of tables, as it gives me an opportunity to see flops / fourths cheaper and outplay people on the later streets.
In the early stages, if I won a pot it was a scoop. This is obviously very key in a split-pot tournament. For some reason the Asian guy kept paying me off in the stud rounds. Once when I had 9-9-4-4-2-2-x and he called with a pair of 8s and once when I had 8-8-6-4-2-2-A and he called with one pair (which I don't remember, but it was an open pair). I didn't win an O-8 hand until I turned a Bammer Boat against some chasers (the low didn't get there).
The key for me was continuing to build, build, build.
9,150 at the first break (starting chips = 7,500)
12,425 at the second break (average was around 8,000)
14,775 at the third break
The black guy made me chuckle in an O-8 hand. I turned broadway with A-J and the river changed nothing (no low possible, no additional broadway card to create multiple broadway possibilities, no paired board, no flush possible). Black guy led out on the river (just as he had done on the turn) and the other players got out of the way. I raised. Then the black guy Hollywooded for about a minute and a half before announcing a raise. I just threw out my chips and said, "I know we're chopping." He just shook his head in disgust and flipped over his own A-J. Seriously dude, you had to take away 1.5 minutes of my life so you could pretend that you had to think long and hard before you raised???
Filippi was the first to go busto at my table and was replaced by a player who was super short and lasted about two hands. Then that kid was replaced by Marcel Luske. It's always fun to have Marcel around (I played with him back in 2007). He was in one of the seats of death (we lost 4-5 players in each of seats 3 and 4) and I managed to scoop him about three times. It never seemed to phase him, as he just kept singing as the night wore on and he eventually busted.
When Marcel was gone, Gavin Smith took his seat. Now here's the funny thing. I've now met Gavin about 4 times. We've had actual conversations. The last time I ran into him, he thought I was Katkin's girlfriend. Of course, each time that I met him he had obviously had several drinks already.
I'm sure that happens all the time. I'm a nobody in the poker world. Even though I'm a chick, I'm nowhere near as memorable as Shannon Elizabeth. Shannon occupied the seat immediately to my left for a very brief period of time. I think she only had 2 or 3 big bets when she was moved to my table. After her bust-out, I sent the following Tweet: shannon elizabeth busto. i am now the hottest chick at table again. :-P
By the end of Day 1, I was sitting on 22,600 in chips. The average stack size was a shade over 18,000. I hit a couple of good hands in the last two levels to put me in a pretty comfortable situation heading into Day 2.
In the first hand, I started with rolled up 3s against Cantu's split aces. I had the low-card 3 and brought it in without looking. This is something that I've been doing a fair amount of lately, as completing from the get-go tends to telegraph too much about your hand and having last option in the face of a likely completion is a nice benefit. Cantu was showing an ace in the door and completed. When the action was back around to me, I looked at my hole cards and saw the other two taters. I decided to raise. Cantu then three-bet, which led me to believe that he either had split aces or three to a good low. I decided to just call here, as I'm sure that a four-bet would have given away too much information. Besides, with his ace door card, it was likely that I'd be second to act on the remaining streets. Knowing his aggressive style, I'm sure that he'd continue to fire so long as my board didn't start to look too scary. (For the record, the other dead cards were Q-Q-T-T-8-A - yes, I still remember this.) Cantu picked up a J on 5th and I hit a 6. Cantu fired again. I just called here trying to represent a low draw that I was playing a bit cautiously against a likely split pair. Fifth brought another J for Cantu. I picked up a 4. Cantu fired again. This time I raised. Fifth is a big street, and I wanted to see how he'd play back at me with my low-looking board. He just called. I hit a 9 on sixth, which appeared to be a pretty safe card for Cantu. He bet again. I raised again. He just called. Seventh went check / bet / call, and I flipped over my 3s. Cantu flashed A-A-J-J-x-x-x as I had suspected and was down to his last few chips. He was eliminated on the next hand.
This was an interesting hand for a number of reasons. First, it shows how dangerous playing a high-only hand can be if your opponent's board looks low but could still have high-hand possibilities. I was showing 6-4-3 in six and had shown a decent amount of strength by raising his completion bet and calling his three-bet before fourth. Drawing (thinly) to just chop in a heads up situation is something that I've cautioned against many times before. Second, it shows how important card memory is in stud. I knew that one of the aces was dead, leaving Cantu with one ace and two jacks as outs for the full house (unless in some magical fashion his other hole card and both of his sixth and seventh street cards were the same rank). I also knew that two queens and two tens were dead, making a broadway straight also a faint possibility. I noticed that I was a lot more tired after this tournament, and a lot of that had to do with the fact that my brain was working extra hard during the stud rounds.
On one of the last hands of the night, I almost threw up in my mouth. It was a three-way O-8 hand where the final board read something like 8-6-3-5-6. I held A-2-x-x. The flop action went bet (seat 3) / call (seat 5) / call (me). The turn action went bet (seat 3) / raise (seat 5) / call (me) / re-raise (seat 3) / re-re-raise (seat 5) / call (me) / call (seat 3). The river action went bet (seat 3) / raise (seat 5) / call (me) / re-raise (seat 3) / call (seat 5) / call (me). For you O-8 junkies who just followed those last couple of lines, I'm sure you knew what I was thinking. Am I about to get quartered or one-sixthed? I wouldn't put it past the guy in seat 5 (the black guy who wants to be the next Dawn Summers) to raise with just a low. The guy in seat 3 seemed to know what he was doing. The hands?
Seat 3: 6-6-4-x for flopped middle set, turned middle OESD and rivered quads
Seat 5: 9-7-x-x for flopped OESD and turned high end of the straight
Play ended around 3am, but I couldn't fall asleep until closer to 4:30am. I felt very confident based on my play and knew that if I continued to play that well, I had a shot at going very deep . . .
(to be continued)
Saturday, June 13, 2009
I Will Not Be Results Oriented (Well, Not Completely)
I am the 39th best Omaha-8 / Stud-8 player in the world!
According to the official tournament results.
But I feel like I played like a champion. My head is still a bit all over the place, but I can only recall two situations where I made a horrible call that I should have known not to make. Once during level 1 in a 3-way pot when I called with a mediocre low and a mediocre high, and once during level 14 when I called with a mediocre high on an all-high board against Blair Rodman.
Notice something about that last sentence? I used the word "call." I win when I bet and raise. I call when I hope I might be good. Hoping isn't going to cut it in a tournament that tends to not have a ton of soft spots.
I am proud of the fact that I took two horrible beats from Michael Craig (once just before the first break on day 2 to drop me to 14k when the levels were moving to 1,200 / 2,400 and once in a crucial spot late in the tournament to put me at 28k instead of close to twice the average with 50 players left) but still managed to fight my way back into contention. I was all-in for my tournament life twice. Once shortly after the first Craig beat and then on my last hand of the night. I took split queens against Dutch Boyd's split aces. We both improved to two-pair on 5th or 6th. I couldn't squeak out the four-outer full or a low.
I am proud of the fact that I played my A-game and didn't care that I was sitting at a table with the likes of Amnon Filipi, Brandon Cantu, Marcel Luske, Jacobo Fernandez, Jason Mercier, Scott Clements, Steve Wong, Erick Lindgren, Jon Turner, Hoyt Corkins and Carlos Mortensen. I proved that I can play this game pretty damn well, TYVM.
As much as I am disappointed with a 39th-place finish, it feels great to have my first WSOP cash under my belt.
I'll go through some more detailed hand histories in another post, but I'm still processing the last two days.
Now the question becomes . . . which event is next? I'm still on a freeroll, baby!
Thanks again to Al and the folks from Full Tilt for the BBT4 prizes. I had already planned to buy into the OE event, but being on a freeroll was definitely an added bonus. I really felt like I was representing for our little blogging universe because my seat (mostly) came through the BBT4 TOC.
I can't tell you how much it meant to me to get your emails / comments / texts / tweets / phone calls / rail support / etc.
You believed that I could do it. I believed that I could do it.
I guess I proved us all right.
According to the official tournament results.
But I feel like I played like a champion. My head is still a bit all over the place, but I can only recall two situations where I made a horrible call that I should have known not to make. Once during level 1 in a 3-way pot when I called with a mediocre low and a mediocre high, and once during level 14 when I called with a mediocre high on an all-high board against Blair Rodman.
Notice something about that last sentence? I used the word "call." I win when I bet and raise. I call when I hope I might be good. Hoping isn't going to cut it in a tournament that tends to not have a ton of soft spots.
I am proud of the fact that I took two horrible beats from Michael Craig (once just before the first break on day 2 to drop me to 14k when the levels were moving to 1,200 / 2,400 and once in a crucial spot late in the tournament to put me at 28k instead of close to twice the average with 50 players left) but still managed to fight my way back into contention. I was all-in for my tournament life twice. Once shortly after the first Craig beat and then on my last hand of the night. I took split queens against Dutch Boyd's split aces. We both improved to two-pair on 5th or 6th. I couldn't squeak out the four-outer full or a low.
I am proud of the fact that I played my A-game and didn't care that I was sitting at a table with the likes of Amnon Filipi, Brandon Cantu, Marcel Luske, Jacobo Fernandez, Jason Mercier, Scott Clements, Steve Wong, Erick Lindgren, Jon Turner, Hoyt Corkins and Carlos Mortensen. I proved that I can play this game pretty damn well, TYVM.
As much as I am disappointed with a 39th-place finish, it feels great to have my first WSOP cash under my belt.
I'll go through some more detailed hand histories in another post, but I'm still processing the last two days.
Now the question becomes . . . which event is next? I'm still on a freeroll, baby!
Thanks again to Al and the folks from Full Tilt for the BBT4 prizes. I had already planned to buy into the OE event, but being on a freeroll was definitely an added bonus. I really felt like I was representing for our little blogging universe because my seat (mostly) came through the BBT4 TOC.
I can't tell you how much it meant to me to get your emails / comments / texts / tweets / phone calls / rail support / etc.
You believed that I could do it. I believed that I could do it.
I guess I proved us all right.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Quick Update
Made it through Day 1 with 22,600, which is above the average of 18,194.
376 entrants. 155 survived Day 1. 40 get paid.
Seats 3 and 4 at my table were the death seats. I think we lost 4-5 players in each of those seats, including Amnon Filipi, Marcel Luske, Jacobo Fernandez and Shannen Elizabeth (who was sitting next to me for a while).
I played a pretty TAG game, which allowed me to continue to chip up and stay ahead of average. For some reason the Asian guy loved to pay me off when I had a scooper. I also scooped Marcel about three times.
Compliment of the night came from Marcel. "She gives nothing away."
Just how I like it!
Back in action at 2pm PT tomorrow.
**********
Thank you for all of the texts, tweets, comments, etc. It really helps to know that I have your support!
376 entrants. 155 survived Day 1. 40 get paid.
Seats 3 and 4 at my table were the death seats. I think we lost 4-5 players in each of those seats, including Amnon Filipi, Marcel Luske, Jacobo Fernandez and Shannen Elizabeth (who was sitting next to me for a while).
I played a pretty TAG game, which allowed me to continue to chip up and stay ahead of average. For some reason the Asian guy loved to pay me off when I had a scooper. I also scooped Marcel about three times.
Compliment of the night came from Marcel. "She gives nothing away."
Just how I like it!
Back in action at 2pm PT tomorrow.
**********
Thank you for all of the texts, tweets, comments, etc. It really helps to know that I have your support!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I Will . . .
1. Remember to think about my image and use that to my advantage.
2. Remember to remember, particularly in the Stud-8 rounds.
3. Remember that I played some pretty tough WSOP tables last year and never felt intimidated by a "named pro" staring me down.
4. Remember that this is supposed to be fun. I'm on a mother f*&king freeroll (almost)!
5. Remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint.
6. Remember to play like a champion today.
2. Remember to remember, particularly in the Stud-8 rounds.
3. Remember that I played some pretty tough WSOP tables last year and never felt intimidated by a "named pro" staring me down.
4. Remember that this is supposed to be fun. I'm on a mother f*&king freeroll (almost)!
5. Remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint.
6. Remember to play like a champion today.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Time Keeps on Ticking
I had planned to write a post on Monday about the BBT4 TOC but I didn't quite get around to it.
Silly me.
Excuse my tardiness. Here's a rundown of the tournament from my perspective.
Blogger opinions generally had me as a below-average shot to win one of the TOC prizes. I wouldn't necessarily argue with those views, but I have recently been putting a lot more time and effort into my NLHE tournament game. Playing the Venetian Deep Stack event the Friday before the TOC certainly gave me a confidence boost.
I would say that I played a generally tight aggressive game (shocker, huh?) in the early stages. For the most part, I was either folding, open raising or re-raising pre-flop. Calling is something that I'm working on doing a bit less of.
I three-barreled TP / Q kicker against StB and ended up chopping the pot with the same hole cards. I was a bit surprised that StB just flatted the whole way, but I suppose that my tight image may have made him think that I had TPTK. Of course, my image wasn't strong enough to get him to fold, but that's okay. It was early in the tournament and I was just starting to get my groove on.
Luckily for me, I hit a river 6-outer against Tuscaloosa John for a nice pot. Check / check after the 6-6-2 flop, and I decided to float TJ's bet after another 2 came on the turn. Q on the river, and I put in a little raise after TJ fired again. TJ had 7-7, which had me in a pretty bad spot after the turn, but running good was certainly a big theme for my tournament.
Apparently so was chopping.
I chopped yet another pot against karmarules when we both had A-K on a K-T-5-K-T board. I made a big move on the turn, which almost caused karmarules to fold. That led to this little exchange:
karmarules: thought you might 55
NightRanger: nice rumble
karmarules: whew
ck31: lol
ck31: i keep chopping
ck31: wtf???
NightRanger: ha! that was a NUT NUT
karmarules and I seemed to tangle quite a bit early on. Luckily I was on the good side of this one.
That got me to 11,252 with blinds still at 40/80 - chipleader. Who knew? But . . . as I'm learning more and more, tournaments are a grind. I wanted to keep building my stack but not put myself at unnecessary risk. What a fun balancing act that is.
The next interesting hand was against Bone Daddy. He was immediately to my right and raised to 3x BB after action folded around to him. I flatted with T-T and saw a 7d-4h-9h flop. Bone Daddy led at the flop, and I decided to throw out a raise. Bone Daddy flatted, and the 7c fell on the turn. At this point, Bone Daddy went all in for his last 2,250 (there was already 2,292 in the pot). I took my time with the decision and made the call.
That pot got me up to 14,528 just as blinds went up to 50/100.
Of course, that's when Hoy got moved to my table with a big stack (16,205). He was two to my right, giving him the button on my BB. And I knew what was coming. He was likely going to raise almost every time if it folded around to him. It makes sense, given what he knows about my play. I re-popped one of his button raises pretty light and one with a bit stronger of a hand, but I knew I had to tread lightly given position and stack sizes.
Action had folded around to Hoy, who proceeded to raise to 600 with blinds at 100/200. I thought about re-raising here, but elected to call instead. Then I made a pretty bad call of Hoy's flop bet on a J-7-Q board and fired when a K hit on the turn. I suppose the turn bet was a bit of a semi-bluff, but I was pretty sure my T-T was no good. Check / check when the river 6 came, and I just dusted off about 3,300 to the tournament chipleader for no apparent reason. I know that one of my big issues is not planning well for hands. I didn't really have a plan for this one other than "maybe he'll think I have a K and just fold," which is pretty sub-optimal thinking. Luckily I had enough cush to take that kind of hit and move on.
I amped up the aggression a bit more when the antes started kicking in. And I will admit this because I know him . . . but I was picking on qrs1's blinds (he was BB when I was in the SB and was SB when I had the button) in a pretty massive way. Had to do it kiddo. You understand, right?
When we got down to two-handed, I expanded my opening range a bit more and was able to maintain / moderately chip up. Of course, I had yet another no-planning brain fart moment and shoved post-flop into iaatg6296 on a draw after he called my raise in position. iaatg6296 had me covered at that point, so I could have been in a whole world of hurt if he called and i whiffed.
By the time we got down to the FT bubble, I was basically shoving or folding. Nobody wanted to call me, so by the time we got to the final table, this is what the chip counts looked like.
Seat 1: hoyazo (40,905)
Seat 2: kickyourace (14,412)
Seat 3: jjok (49,082)
Seat 4: iaatg6296 (7,604)
Seat 5: karmarules (15,051)
Seat 6: SmBoatDrinks (29,580)
Seat 7: ck31 (12,496)
Seat 8: qrs1 (11,118)
Seat 9: actyper (39,752)
Yup. I knew I had a lot of work to do with only the top 4 winning prize packages. I was ready to shove with decent holdings, but I ended up going through a phase of crappy cards right when I needed them the most.
Then again, who needs good cards when you run like Athena.
Action had limped around to us in the blinds, so when SmBoatDrinks called, I decided to see a flop on the cheap. When SmBoatDrinks checked the flop, I shoved. Soul read snap-call there and I was down to 5 outs. 5 outs? PSHAH!
I went through another brutal card dead stretch when this happened:
bearw8 (Observer): dear ftp
bearw8 (Observer): get CK cards
bearw8 (Observer): ty
bearw8 (Observer): signed a big source of ur rake
The very next hand . . .
Thanks bearw8!
So, you know how I was scoffing at 5 outs? Yeah, that's nothing.
I would say that right there was my tournament, but I realized that it was a confluence of a number of things. That hand was just another stepping stone along the way. The "infamous" Hoy hand with A-T against actyper's 4-4 was also a key moment for me. I was the shortest stack 5-handed.
After all the good that had happened over the course of the night, I can't really complain about going out 3rd on this hand.
Had I won that one, I would have had around 35k in chips. That still would have put me in 3rd position, but it would have given me a much more effective stack against jjok (55k) in the battle for the Main Event seat.
But honestly, given the way I ran at the FT, I'm quite lucky to have won one of the $2k packages.
Congrats again to jjok, actyper and karmarules.
**********
I'm heading over to the Rio now to register for the $2,500 OE event. Thursday June 11 5pm PT start.
Follow the action on Twitter (if they're still allowing it in the Amazon Room / whatever room they use for OE).
Silly me.
Excuse my tardiness. Here's a rundown of the tournament from my perspective.
Blogger opinions generally had me as a below-average shot to win one of the TOC prizes. I wouldn't necessarily argue with those views, but I have recently been putting a lot more time and effort into my NLHE tournament game. Playing the Venetian Deep Stack event the Friday before the TOC certainly gave me a confidence boost.
I would say that I played a generally tight aggressive game (shocker, huh?) in the early stages. For the most part, I was either folding, open raising or re-raising pre-flop. Calling is something that I'm working on doing a bit less of.
I three-barreled TP / Q kicker against StB and ended up chopping the pot with the same hole cards. I was a bit surprised that StB just flatted the whole way, but I suppose that my tight image may have made him think that I had TPTK. Of course, my image wasn't strong enough to get him to fold, but that's okay. It was early in the tournament and I was just starting to get my groove on.
Luckily for me, I hit a river 6-outer against Tuscaloosa John for a nice pot. Check / check after the 6-6-2 flop, and I decided to float TJ's bet after another 2 came on the turn. Q on the river, and I put in a little raise after TJ fired again. TJ had 7-7, which had me in a pretty bad spot after the turn, but running good was certainly a big theme for my tournament.
Apparently so was chopping.
I chopped yet another pot against karmarules when we both had A-K on a K-T-5-K-T board. I made a big move on the turn, which almost caused karmarules to fold. That led to this little exchange:
karmarules: thought you might 55
NightRanger: nice rumble
karmarules: whew
ck31: lol
ck31: i keep chopping
ck31: wtf???
NightRanger: ha! that was a NUT NUT
karmarules and I seemed to tangle quite a bit early on. Luckily I was on the good side of this one.
That got me to 11,252 with blinds still at 40/80 - chipleader. Who knew? But . . . as I'm learning more and more, tournaments are a grind. I wanted to keep building my stack but not put myself at unnecessary risk. What a fun balancing act that is.
The next interesting hand was against Bone Daddy. He was immediately to my right and raised to 3x BB after action folded around to him. I flatted with T-T and saw a 7d-4h-9h flop. Bone Daddy led at the flop, and I decided to throw out a raise. Bone Daddy flatted, and the 7c fell on the turn. At this point, Bone Daddy went all in for his last 2,250 (there was already 2,292 in the pot). I took my time with the decision and made the call.
That pot got me up to 14,528 just as blinds went up to 50/100.
Of course, that's when Hoy got moved to my table with a big stack (16,205). He was two to my right, giving him the button on my BB. And I knew what was coming. He was likely going to raise almost every time if it folded around to him. It makes sense, given what he knows about my play. I re-popped one of his button raises pretty light and one with a bit stronger of a hand, but I knew I had to tread lightly given position and stack sizes.
Action had folded around to Hoy, who proceeded to raise to 600 with blinds at 100/200. I thought about re-raising here, but elected to call instead. Then I made a pretty bad call of Hoy's flop bet on a J-7-Q board and fired when a K hit on the turn. I suppose the turn bet was a bit of a semi-bluff, but I was pretty sure my T-T was no good. Check / check when the river 6 came, and I just dusted off about 3,300 to the tournament chipleader for no apparent reason. I know that one of my big issues is not planning well for hands. I didn't really have a plan for this one other than "maybe he'll think I have a K and just fold," which is pretty sub-optimal thinking. Luckily I had enough cush to take that kind of hit and move on.
I amped up the aggression a bit more when the antes started kicking in. And I will admit this because I know him . . . but I was picking on qrs1's blinds (he was BB when I was in the SB and was SB when I had the button) in a pretty massive way. Had to do it kiddo. You understand, right?
When we got down to two-handed, I expanded my opening range a bit more and was able to maintain / moderately chip up. Of course, I had yet another no-planning brain fart moment and shoved post-flop into iaatg6296 on a draw after he called my raise in position. iaatg6296 had me covered at that point, so I could have been in a whole world of hurt if he called and i whiffed.
By the time we got down to the FT bubble, I was basically shoving or folding. Nobody wanted to call me, so by the time we got to the final table, this is what the chip counts looked like.
Seat 1: hoyazo (40,905)
Seat 2: kickyourace (14,412)
Seat 3: jjok (49,082)
Seat 4: iaatg6296 (7,604)
Seat 5: karmarules (15,051)
Seat 6: SmBoatDrinks (29,580)
Seat 7: ck31 (12,496)
Seat 8: qrs1 (11,118)
Seat 9: actyper (39,752)
Yup. I knew I had a lot of work to do with only the top 4 winning prize packages. I was ready to shove with decent holdings, but I ended up going through a phase of crappy cards right when I needed them the most.
Then again, who needs good cards when you run like Athena.
Action had limped around to us in the blinds, so when SmBoatDrinks called, I decided to see a flop on the cheap. When SmBoatDrinks checked the flop, I shoved. Soul read snap-call there and I was down to 5 outs. 5 outs? PSHAH!
I went through another brutal card dead stretch when this happened:
bearw8 (Observer): dear ftp
bearw8 (Observer): get CK cards
bearw8 (Observer): ty
bearw8 (Observer): signed a big source of ur rake
The very next hand . . .
Thanks bearw8!
So, you know how I was scoffing at 5 outs? Yeah, that's nothing.
I would say that right there was my tournament, but I realized that it was a confluence of a number of things. That hand was just another stepping stone along the way. The "infamous" Hoy hand with A-T against actyper's 4-4 was also a key moment for me. I was the shortest stack 5-handed.
After all the good that had happened over the course of the night, I can't really complain about going out 3rd on this hand.
Had I won that one, I would have had around 35k in chips. That still would have put me in 3rd position, but it would have given me a much more effective stack against jjok (55k) in the battle for the Main Event seat.
But honestly, given the way I ran at the FT, I'm quite lucky to have won one of the $2k packages.
Congrats again to jjok, actyper and karmarules.
**********
I'm heading over to the Rio now to register for the $2,500 OE event. Thursday June 11 5pm PT start.
Follow the action on Twitter (if they're still allowing it in the Amazon Room / whatever room they use for OE).
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Who Knew?
$2k seat that I'll use toward the $2,500 WSOP OE on Thursday.
Thank you to Al for putting the BBT4 together and to Full Tilt for donating the prize packages.
Congrats to JJ and actyper on the Main Event seats and to karmarules (I don't have a link) for winning the other $2k package.
Thank you to everyone for the support. It really meant a lot :-)
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