yesterday's report (1500 NL and 2+2ers)
I wanted to play the $1000 7 Stud Hi/Lo event on Monday but I was too burned out from the weekend to do any serious pokering. So I slept in all day and decided to recuperate and attack the $1500 NL on Tuesday, the last event before the ME.
I got two full nights of sleep and found I was playing much better. Unfortunately, the second full night of sleep meant I didn't even show up to the Rio until 12:15, so I was placed on the alternate list. My table didn't sit down until 1:30, an hour and a half into the event. With 1500 chips and starting halfway through the 25/50 level I knew I was going to have to go into attack mode.
The only person I recognized at my starting table was Laura Fink, who was seated directly on my left. She placed 13th in the 5k pot-limit HE event, but I knew her because me and my travelling posse that was in town last weekend went out on Saturday for drinks at the Bellagio. We met up with a bachelorette party that one of my brother's friends was a member of and the bride-to-be mentioned she knew her and I should keep an eye out for her.
Anyway, I didn't get to see her play too many hands so she doesn't play a big part in the poker part of this story.
I started off playing pretty fast because we were under such a time crunch. In half an hour the blinds would be 50/100 and that would leave little room to maneuever. I wanted to identify and target the weaker players as well as look for spots to pick up pots nobody else wanted.
This amounted to me open raising lots of hands and playing lots of pots in position. We started eleven-handed, so I still had to be somewhat patient, but it's also possible that playing 3-4 hands a round 11-handed instead of 8- or 9-handed disguised how loose I was playing to the rest of the table.
First good pot I take I have QQ in BB. MP raises to 300 (50/100) and I have 1300 total and QQ in the BB, so as soon as I look I toss in the rest of my chips. No reason to get coy this short. He folds.
I took my first real beat of the series in an early pot at 50/100. I had already gotten my stack over 2000 when this happened. Two limpers in MP and I complete Q7 from the SB. Laura checks in the BB and the flop comes down Q74. I don't like to checkraise here because I think I get more out of one-pair hands or get people to overcommit with worse hands by leading out, especially with these stack sizes. I bet out 200, BB and first limper fold, and the second one minraises 200 more. I take about 3 seconds to stick it in, and he calls and turns over KQ. Turn 4 and a river 4 result in a chopped pot.
My stack is still healthy, though. Here's another hand I played and I kinda like it.
MP with 1500 opens to 300. I have 87hh and call; it's loose given his stack size but I figure between position and willingness to be aggressive I have a decent chance to take the pot.
Flop is AT9 one heart and he bets 400. I call. I don't jam here because I know he's only calling with an ace and I don't want to definitely get it in as a 2:1 dog. If the ace doesn't slow him down on the turn I'll fold, unless I hit (or pick up a heart). The turn is a low card and he checks. I bet 800 to put him in and he folds.
A bit later, or earlier, I don't remember which: Super tight old guy makes it 400 from LP. SB calls all in for 375 total. I look down at AQ and think I have a good chance to isolate against the player I know I'm ahead of and push. LP old guy thinks for a few seconds and says "I know I'm folding the best hand" and tosses away AK face up. I said "yes, you are"; SB has K9s and I have AQ. Flop comes Q high with two spades and he doesn't get there. Old guy even says he put me on AQ or AJ but "AK is nothing" and he's not putting in 80% of his stack with it. Okay then.
I lose some back opening AQ UTG to 275. SB pushes in for 425 more and I call and lose to his AK.
Get to break around 2700.
First hand back LP opens to 500 or 600 with like 1200 behind. I look at AK in BB and toss in a stack of purples. He calls with AT and I win.
I'm opening lots of pots, especially in LP. People aren't putting up too much resistance so my stack is growing slowly. I give back small pieces misplaying hands but I'm still slowly incrementing.
Then I got my huge lucksack break of the series:
Folds to me in SB and I have A9o. I open to 575 (not enough from the small blind, I knew it then and know it now and did it anyway). BB calls. Flop is A73 all diamonds (i have none). BB has 2500 or so total, maybe slightly more. I decide that since I probably have the best hand but it is very easy to get raised off it, especially with these stack sizes, I should check-raise all-in. I check, he bets 500, I shove, he calls with T8dd. Oops.
It's okay: The turn comes an ace and the river a 3. I boat up and knock him out, jumping to 7700 chips or so in the process.
I give some back when I don't play well and get to the break with about 5700. The only hand that was one of those "shit happens" things was when I open AJ to 525 in MP and BB (tight old man who folded AK earlier) raises 1000 more. I fold faceup in like 3 seconds, and he shows AA. I ran my raises into big blind's AA several times.
100/200/25 levels after the break. I'm opening more frequently since the antes make the pot so huge. I'm taking down a decent amount of pots preflop but giving some back when I do stupid crap like float.
First cooler hand of the day: Button opens to 600 when he has 1500 total. Normally this would set off warning bells but he'd been doing this a lot, i suppose assuming everyone knew he was committed. I was in the small blind and saw KK so it was a no brainer reraise for me. The BB thought for a minute and folded and I wish I knew he had a hand so I could have flatted and let him make a move and trap him. I don't have those kind of predictive powers, though. The button turned over AA and I doubled him up.
Interesting hand from later on:
I have about 6k and open 55 UTG to 650 (still 100/200/25). MP 4 seats down who is a good player pushes, and it turns out to be like 5500 total. A short stack who's loose and wild calls all-in for like 1300 total. It comes back to me and I have a "blink" moment: "Call, you have the best hand." Then I stop and realize "You're putting your whole stack at risk hoping for a race in the SIDE POT and you don't even know what the short stack has." So I fold.
Raiser turns over AK suited and short caller has A3s. The board runs out 6635x and the A3 takes the pot.
Now it's easy to say I'm results oriented here, but afterwards I was analyzing the hand and I realized why I had that "blink" moment:
-Even though I'm a loose player, people may not have fully realized that here, and an UTG raiser at an 11-handed table still has a reasonably solid range.
-The reraise was so massive that it ONLY makes sense with AK. AA/KK would try to extract some value, and since I raised UTG, 99-JJ has to seriously worry about a bigger pair from me. QQ could go either way, I think, but still for both those concerns almost never makes an all-in raise.
If this is all true, then AK is so much more likely than anything else that with the pot odds I should call.
But then what about the overcaller? Couldn't he have me dominated and therefore in a bad spot even with pot odds? Maybe, but not necessarily. He was wild; I must have sensed that and known he'd be willing to throw it in with lots of hands. If he has an ace there that actually helps me and I become close to 60/40 to win the side pot at least.
Obviously it would have been a bad call on the surface but thinking about the way the hand played out makes me understand why I had my initial reaction. Plus, if I do call and am right, I have a big enough stack to wield as a weapon vs. the table.
Things were uninteresting after that. My bustout hand was a cooler: 150/300/25 and I have JJ in EP and 4500 or so in chips. I open to 875. Kid a couple seats behind me stops to think, asks how many chips I have. Gets a count, thinks for a few minutes, and calls. BB calls, he's a bit loose and donkish (saw him not long ago open to 800 UTG and fold to an all in for 1300 more; even if I'm opening loose in EP I'm not folding with those pot odds). Flop is 644 and he pushes for like 1500. I overpush and kid calls immediately, at which point I know I'm beat but don't know how. BB shows 55; kid has KK, and that's all she wrote.
I played better yesterday but didn't get the cards when I needed them. Hopefully in the ME I'll have both going for me.
I decided that since I had nothing to do I would watch Daryn Firicano (2+2er Daryn) at the final table of the $1000 NLH rebuy. I walked around the side of the stage looking for fellow 2+2ers and spotted Vanessa (fslexcduck). We introduced ourselves and she introduced me to the rest of them-- Daryn, Yeti, flawless_victory, FoxwoodsFiend (Ariel), jcmoussa, pfkaok, and a few others. We went to dinner where I started drinking to get into proper sweat mode. After getting back saw stevepa, AJo (Alex Jacob), and chuddo/snagglepuss, among others. Our spots on the bleachers were taken so we took a seat at one of the tables behind the final table stage. FF, jc, duck, and I played $10 a point Chinese Poker with 2-7 low middle and royalties (3 points for trips in front, 5 for quads in back, 7 for straight flush in back). I lost $20 and then we got kicked out because someone unrelated to us broke a table. We explained to security that we were there to support our friend and when we went out to dinner with him a bunch of Hellmuth fanboys took our seats. They cleared room for us.
The drinks started coming heavily. I increasingly razzed Hellmuth from the bleachers; when Daryn opened the button, Hellmuth reraised, Daryn pushed, and Hellmuth folded, I yelled "Must have misread his soul". pfk and I were trading jokes about Phil's small bets and raises ("12k/24k/4k... Hellmuth makes it 49k").
Hellmuth doubled up Daryn twice which was nice, first when he called his A2s push with KJ, and second when Daryn played this sweet hand: He opens from button, Hellmuth calls. Flop is like A42 two diamonds. Hellmuth checks, Daryn checks. Turn is a T. Hellmuth checks and Daryn pushes for like 2x the pot. Hellmuth tanks for like 3 minutes and finally calls with A6. Daryn shows A8 and the 8 plays.
Daryn took a sick beat when he moved in with AQ from the SB and Juha Helppi called with AJs from the BB and flopped a jack. Daryn was short after that and finally lost pushing KQ over Helppi's button open. Juha called with A8 and it held. Third place wasn't a bad score, but Daryn was playing really well and could have taken it if he'd gotten a few breaks.
Afterwards the whole big group went to a house that a few of them (AJ, Ariel, and Jason Strasser) were renting and partied the night away. Those kids are fun. They are also really, really good at pool.
(no offense to anyone I didn't reference by first name. I didn't forget you but for convenience I only used those people I would reference more than once for story's sake.)
Took today easy; just placed 6th in Stars 55r. Gonna chill some tomorrow, see some people who arrive. Maybe get a massage. Time to relax and prep up for the ME.
I got two full nights of sleep and found I was playing much better. Unfortunately, the second full night of sleep meant I didn't even show up to the Rio until 12:15, so I was placed on the alternate list. My table didn't sit down until 1:30, an hour and a half into the event. With 1500 chips and starting halfway through the 25/50 level I knew I was going to have to go into attack mode.
The only person I recognized at my starting table was Laura Fink, who was seated directly on my left. She placed 13th in the 5k pot-limit HE event, but I knew her because me and my travelling posse that was in town last weekend went out on Saturday for drinks at the Bellagio. We met up with a bachelorette party that one of my brother's friends was a member of and the bride-to-be mentioned she knew her and I should keep an eye out for her.
Anyway, I didn't get to see her play too many hands so she doesn't play a big part in the poker part of this story.
I started off playing pretty fast because we were under such a time crunch. In half an hour the blinds would be 50/100 and that would leave little room to maneuever. I wanted to identify and target the weaker players as well as look for spots to pick up pots nobody else wanted.
This amounted to me open raising lots of hands and playing lots of pots in position. We started eleven-handed, so I still had to be somewhat patient, but it's also possible that playing 3-4 hands a round 11-handed instead of 8- or 9-handed disguised how loose I was playing to the rest of the table.
First good pot I take I have QQ in BB. MP raises to 300 (50/100) and I have 1300 total and QQ in the BB, so as soon as I look I toss in the rest of my chips. No reason to get coy this short. He folds.
I took my first real beat of the series in an early pot at 50/100. I had already gotten my stack over 2000 when this happened. Two limpers in MP and I complete Q7 from the SB. Laura checks in the BB and the flop comes down Q74. I don't like to checkraise here because I think I get more out of one-pair hands or get people to overcommit with worse hands by leading out, especially with these stack sizes. I bet out 200, BB and first limper fold, and the second one minraises 200 more. I take about 3 seconds to stick it in, and he calls and turns over KQ. Turn 4 and a river 4 result in a chopped pot.
My stack is still healthy, though. Here's another hand I played and I kinda like it.
MP with 1500 opens to 300. I have 87hh and call; it's loose given his stack size but I figure between position and willingness to be aggressive I have a decent chance to take the pot.
Flop is AT9 one heart and he bets 400. I call. I don't jam here because I know he's only calling with an ace and I don't want to definitely get it in as a 2:1 dog. If the ace doesn't slow him down on the turn I'll fold, unless I hit (or pick up a heart). The turn is a low card and he checks. I bet 800 to put him in and he folds.
A bit later, or earlier, I don't remember which: Super tight old guy makes it 400 from LP. SB calls all in for 375 total. I look down at AQ and think I have a good chance to isolate against the player I know I'm ahead of and push. LP old guy thinks for a few seconds and says "I know I'm folding the best hand" and tosses away AK face up. I said "yes, you are"; SB has K9s and I have AQ. Flop comes Q high with two spades and he doesn't get there. Old guy even says he put me on AQ or AJ but "AK is nothing" and he's not putting in 80% of his stack with it. Okay then.
I lose some back opening AQ UTG to 275. SB pushes in for 425 more and I call and lose to his AK.
Get to break around 2700.
First hand back LP opens to 500 or 600 with like 1200 behind. I look at AK in BB and toss in a stack of purples. He calls with AT and I win.
I'm opening lots of pots, especially in LP. People aren't putting up too much resistance so my stack is growing slowly. I give back small pieces misplaying hands but I'm still slowly incrementing.
Then I got my huge lucksack break of the series:
Folds to me in SB and I have A9o. I open to 575 (not enough from the small blind, I knew it then and know it now and did it anyway). BB calls. Flop is A73 all diamonds (i have none). BB has 2500 or so total, maybe slightly more. I decide that since I probably have the best hand but it is very easy to get raised off it, especially with these stack sizes, I should check-raise all-in. I check, he bets 500, I shove, he calls with T8dd. Oops.
It's okay: The turn comes an ace and the river a 3. I boat up and knock him out, jumping to 7700 chips or so in the process.
I give some back when I don't play well and get to the break with about 5700. The only hand that was one of those "shit happens" things was when I open AJ to 525 in MP and BB (tight old man who folded AK earlier) raises 1000 more. I fold faceup in like 3 seconds, and he shows AA. I ran my raises into big blind's AA several times.
100/200/25 levels after the break. I'm opening more frequently since the antes make the pot so huge. I'm taking down a decent amount of pots preflop but giving some back when I do stupid crap like float.
First cooler hand of the day: Button opens to 600 when he has 1500 total. Normally this would set off warning bells but he'd been doing this a lot, i suppose assuming everyone knew he was committed. I was in the small blind and saw KK so it was a no brainer reraise for me. The BB thought for a minute and folded and I wish I knew he had a hand so I could have flatted and let him make a move and trap him. I don't have those kind of predictive powers, though. The button turned over AA and I doubled him up.
Interesting hand from later on:
I have about 6k and open 55 UTG to 650 (still 100/200/25). MP 4 seats down who is a good player pushes, and it turns out to be like 5500 total. A short stack who's loose and wild calls all-in for like 1300 total. It comes back to me and I have a "blink" moment: "Call, you have the best hand." Then I stop and realize "You're putting your whole stack at risk hoping for a race in the SIDE POT and you don't even know what the short stack has." So I fold.
Raiser turns over AK suited and short caller has A3s. The board runs out 6635x and the A3 takes the pot.
Now it's easy to say I'm results oriented here, but afterwards I was analyzing the hand and I realized why I had that "blink" moment:
-Even though I'm a loose player, people may not have fully realized that here, and an UTG raiser at an 11-handed table still has a reasonably solid range.
-The reraise was so massive that it ONLY makes sense with AK. AA/KK would try to extract some value, and since I raised UTG, 99-JJ has to seriously worry about a bigger pair from me. QQ could go either way, I think, but still for both those concerns almost never makes an all-in raise.
If this is all true, then AK is so much more likely than anything else that with the pot odds I should call.
But then what about the overcaller? Couldn't he have me dominated and therefore in a bad spot even with pot odds? Maybe, but not necessarily. He was wild; I must have sensed that and known he'd be willing to throw it in with lots of hands. If he has an ace there that actually helps me and I become close to 60/40 to win the side pot at least.
Obviously it would have been a bad call on the surface but thinking about the way the hand played out makes me understand why I had my initial reaction. Plus, if I do call and am right, I have a big enough stack to wield as a weapon vs. the table.
Things were uninteresting after that. My bustout hand was a cooler: 150/300/25 and I have JJ in EP and 4500 or so in chips. I open to 875. Kid a couple seats behind me stops to think, asks how many chips I have. Gets a count, thinks for a few minutes, and calls. BB calls, he's a bit loose and donkish (saw him not long ago open to 800 UTG and fold to an all in for 1300 more; even if I'm opening loose in EP I'm not folding with those pot odds). Flop is 644 and he pushes for like 1500. I overpush and kid calls immediately, at which point I know I'm beat but don't know how. BB shows 55; kid has KK, and that's all she wrote.
I played better yesterday but didn't get the cards when I needed them. Hopefully in the ME I'll have both going for me.
I decided that since I had nothing to do I would watch Daryn Firicano (2+2er Daryn) at the final table of the $1000 NLH rebuy. I walked around the side of the stage looking for fellow 2+2ers and spotted Vanessa (fslexcduck). We introduced ourselves and she introduced me to the rest of them-- Daryn, Yeti, flawless_victory, FoxwoodsFiend (Ariel), jcmoussa, pfkaok, and a few others. We went to dinner where I started drinking to get into proper sweat mode. After getting back saw stevepa, AJo (Alex Jacob), and chuddo/snagglepuss, among others. Our spots on the bleachers were taken so we took a seat at one of the tables behind the final table stage. FF, jc, duck, and I played $10 a point Chinese Poker with 2-7 low middle and royalties (3 points for trips in front, 5 for quads in back, 7 for straight flush in back). I lost $20 and then we got kicked out because someone unrelated to us broke a table. We explained to security that we were there to support our friend and when we went out to dinner with him a bunch of Hellmuth fanboys took our seats. They cleared room for us.
The drinks started coming heavily. I increasingly razzed Hellmuth from the bleachers; when Daryn opened the button, Hellmuth reraised, Daryn pushed, and Hellmuth folded, I yelled "Must have misread his soul". pfk and I were trading jokes about Phil's small bets and raises ("12k/24k/4k... Hellmuth makes it 49k").
Hellmuth doubled up Daryn twice which was nice, first when he called his A2s push with KJ, and second when Daryn played this sweet hand: He opens from button, Hellmuth calls. Flop is like A42 two diamonds. Hellmuth checks, Daryn checks. Turn is a T. Hellmuth checks and Daryn pushes for like 2x the pot. Hellmuth tanks for like 3 minutes and finally calls with A6. Daryn shows A8 and the 8 plays.
Daryn took a sick beat when he moved in with AQ from the SB and Juha Helppi called with AJs from the BB and flopped a jack. Daryn was short after that and finally lost pushing KQ over Helppi's button open. Juha called with A8 and it held. Third place wasn't a bad score, but Daryn was playing really well and could have taken it if he'd gotten a few breaks.
Afterwards the whole big group went to a house that a few of them (AJ, Ariel, and Jason Strasser) were renting and partied the night away. Those kids are fun. They are also really, really good at pool.
(no offense to anyone I didn't reference by first name. I didn't forget you but for convenience I only used those people I would reference more than once for story's sake.)
Took today easy; just placed 6th in Stars 55r. Gonna chill some tomorrow, see some people who arrive. Maybe get a massage. Time to relax and prep up for the ME.
posted by Vernon Freedom at 11:42 PM
1 Comments:
What up man,
so I don't understand the poker speak. i don't know what to make of QQ BB LMNOP or whatever. Maybe you should have a translator/dictionary function on your blog for card-tards like me.
Hope you're doing well despite some bad breaks in the game as of late. If not, you'll get over it soon b/c the wife and I will be there this weekend. Thanks for that, by the way.
I caught some banter on a previous posting regarding some prick possibly bad-mouthing you. We can discuss that later but you really should probably let it go. You're better than that. Just play your game and let the wins do the talking. If some jackass wants to talk trash behind your back or to your face, you automatically have the advantage. Don't forget that.
fuck bitches, get money
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