2009 WSOP Event #14 ($2,500 Limit 6-max) Recap

Like I said in my preview 6 handed limit hold'em is my specialty. As a result I went into my first event of this years WSOP feeling confident. My travel to Vegas went off without a hitch and by 2 p.m. I was checked in to the hotel, registered for the tournament (which started at 5), and eating a steak. After all who cares about a $40 lunch when you're about to play a $2,500 tournament right?

This year the WSOP has taken over even more of the Rio convention area (which is massive to say the least). In 2005 my first year at the WSOP and only the second year since the WSOP moved over from Binion's, everything was in the Amazon Room. That's where you went to play the events, register for the events, play cash games, play satellite tournaments and even play smaller buy in nightly tournaments (for the amateurs, spouses and friends who don't want to pony up the big bucks). It's a big room (think warehouse or airplane hanger - the size of a few football fields), but it was a still a little crowded.

They've gradually expanded each year and this year they have a room where you register for everything, another room that is just for satellites, and even the WSOP events have been split into multiple rooms. I'm always impressed that every year they make improvements.

Now on to what happened in the actual poker! We started with 367 players each with 7,500 chips. 36 players would make the money with 36th place paying about $4,500, 1st place being $224,000 and 35th through 2nd falling somewhere in between. Finishing 37th or worse meant you'd be losing your $2,500.

For the first four hours I was at a fairly good table. I was in seat 1 (just to the left of the dealer). In seat 2 was a player who was clearly a serious tournament pro, but who was playing too many hands and (in my expert opinion) was too aggressive. In seat 3 was a total buffoon. This was a guy who had money and that was the only reason he was playing. He blamed the dealer for his bad luck and once called a raise with 92 because he "had a feeling." I LOVE seeing this type of player at the WSOP! In seat 4 was a guy about my age who seemed like he knew what to do, but was too nervous to play well. In seat 5 was a middle aged Asian fellow with the biggest watch I've ever seen. He was an OK player, but fairly predictable.

Lastly in seat 6 was Daniel Negranu who is one of the most successful tournament poker players of the past 10 years. In 2004, he was WSOP player of the year, has 4 WSOP titles, and something like $10,000,000 in career tournament earnings (and that's not counting millions in cash game winnings). He was also one of my heroes when I first started playing poker. I always thought he was great, not just because he was a fantastic player, but because he was charming, friendly, and engaging with just about everyone he played. That is certainly something I've tried to emulate. There are a ton of pricks in the poker world and I am constantly reminded how foolish they look.

It was great fun playing against Daniel and luckily he was not giving me any trouble. First of all because short handed limit hold'em isn't his specialty and it is mine. Second of all he was dead tired and a little loopy. I found out through conversation that he has a $300,000 bet with John Juanda that spans the length of the WSOP. Whoever earns more player of the year points wins. Amazingly he also has similarly sized, but slightly smaller bets with Eric Lindgerin, Barry Greenstien, and Chris Ferguson. As a result of these bets (and because the best players measure their careers by how many WSOP titles they have) all of these guys are playing as many tournaments as they possibly can (apparently Ferguson had played 12 of the first 13 events!). Trying to win a bet like that means starting at noon just about every day, playing multiple tournaments at once (you have to periodically run back and forth usually playing the tournament that is farther along while your chips just sit there in the game you're not playing and they take your blinds and/or antes), and going until 3 am if you're doing well. And doing it day after day after day for 6 weeks!

I started off this tournament playing well and getting OK cards. After two hours of play I was up to 9,000 chips, and got my stack as high as 12,000 chips, before going back to square 1 by the end of round 4. In the mean time the two softest players had gone broke and been replaced by tough players. I was not thrilled.

After four hours of play it was time for dinner break. My favorite restaurant at the Rio is a seafood restaurant called Buzio's. They have a lobster tank outside the restaurant and when you order one they pick one out and throw it in a pot. It is amazingly good lobster. Another thing I like about this place is they have a counter like you might find in a diner except you're getting top notch seafood instead of pancakes.

So I sit down at the counter and who sits down next to me - Gap Tooth! My regular readers will know this is a guy that I decimated in a tournament on my last trip to L.A. I resisted the temptation to bust his balls by asking him what he'd do if he raised to 5,000 with QJ offsuit and someone moved all in for 30,000. He probably wouldn't say, get pissed, put in all my chips and loose to pocket kings!

After dinner I came back and instantly got moved to another table. This was good news and I liked my new table a lot more than my old one. Two of the players were missing (stuck at dinner I guess), another was terrible and I went on a major rush. With a combination of bluffs and made hands I was up to 20,000 in 20 minutes! All of a sudden I was liking my chances a whole lot more.

Then things started to turn sour. On my right at my new table was Raul Paez, who I'd never heard of, but it was clear he was sponsored by fulltiltpoker.com which means he is at least a somewhat accomplished tournament player. I knew who he was because his hat said RaulPaez.com. I looked him up and he has probably the least impressive resume of any player sponsored by fulltilt. Also I don't think he played particularly well, but he got the best of me time and time again.

Here are four hands I can think of that happened in quick succession. He raised in the small blind with QJ I reraised with A6. The flop came down T 6 4. He checked, I bet, he called. 8 on the turn and we both checked. Jack on the river, he bet I called.

4 hands later another player raised, he called with KJ, I three bet from the button with AT, the other player made it four bets and we both called. The flop was Q T 5, the other player bet and we both called. The turn was a blank, the other player bet and we both called. The river was an ace, the other player checked, Raul bet, I raised, he three bet and I called. This was a huge pot and the other player said he had 99.

5 hands later he was on the button and raised with A3. I reraised from the small blind with AT and the flop came down A 5 3. I didn't make two pair and lost another big pot.

3 hands later he raised with KT under the gun. I reraised with QQ and the flop came down KJ9 with three spades and I had the queen of spades. He bet the flop and I raised. We both checked the turn which was a jack. I missed my draws on the river, but had to call his bet.

These hands took me from 20,000 down to about 6,000. In all of them I was ahead or way ahead at some point and I think I lost the minimum or close to it every time. If we were playing no limit I would have gone broke at least twice, but I was still in it.

About the time we were finishing our 5th hour of play I got moved to a new table. I was only there for 10 minutes, but that was long enough to bust Josh Arieh. Josh finished 3rd in the 2004 main event, has two WSOP titles and $4,500,000 in career tournament earnings. And he took it like a big baby when I busted him!

I had AK in the big blind and he raised under the gun with T9. I reraised him, he raised again and I put him in for the last few chips he had. When the flop came down A K 5 he literally threw his cards five feet in the air and stormed off before the turn card even came out!

Shortly after that I was moved to a new table which was tough. To my right was Cardplayer publisher Barry Schulman (I'm not sure if he's supposed to be good or what - his play seemed a little goofy to me, but he's well known so I thought I'd mention him), and to my left was Evelyn Ng a well know pro (and a very nice and attractive woman - as rare as a straight flush at the poker table), and to her left was John "PearlJammer" Turner who is one of the premier online tournament pros. And the other two guys didn't suck!

By the time we finished level 6 I only had 5,000 chips and in level 7 we were playing 500/1,000 so I knew I'd have to take a stand with any good hand. About 10 minutes after play resumed I'd been through the blinds once which left me with 4,200 and I was back in the big blind when I looked down at AQ. Turner raised, I reraised, he looked at my sad stack and reraised, and I made it 5 bets (online 4 bets is a cap, but here it's 5 bets). The flop came down KJ3, I bet, he raised and even though I was pretty sure I was beat, I had to put in my last few chips (I knew a ten would be good and I thougt there was some chance an A or even a Q would make me a winner). When the cards got turned over I saw he had KQ, I missed and that was it. I finished 158th of 370.

The good news is I have 10 more chances to make something happen and it only takes one good one to make this trip a success!

$2,500 6 handed Limit Recap (Coming Soon)

Played late and I'm exhausted. I'm going to sleep as late as possible tomorrow, but I should have a recap up by 2 or 3 Saturday afternoon.

It's Almost Time!

I'm off to Vegas in the morning and by this time tomorrow I'll be playing my first event of the 2009 World Series of Poker. I've never been more confident heading into a WSOP. It helps that I made a stong showing in LA (as well as in my last few major series of online tournaments) and the last ten days or so have been one of the best stretches I've ever had playing cash games.

I know it sounds insane to say that I'm not sweating the money when I'm going to play $20,000 or so in tournaments in the next two weeks. But I'm not sweating the money. I've just been doing so well lately that I know there's another dollar right around the corner. I'm hoping this feeling is going to allow me to play my best (which I've also been doing lately) and take the big risks when they are warranted.

Now for an Event #14 Preview! Event #14 is $2,500 6 handed limit hold'em. This is my specialty. If I had to pick one tournament to put all of my money on this would be the one. There is also a $2,500 no limit event that day at noon, so I'm hoping that some players who bust out of that one early come take their shot.

Plenty of no limit players look down on limit players for some reason. I guess it's like the difference between a fighter pilot and a cargo pilot. But in the same way that flying those two types of planes might seem similar on the surface with major differences underneath, no limit and limit hold'em require vastly different skills to play at the highest level. Similalry playing 6 handed vs 9 or 10 handed requires different skills. As a result I expect that even players who are greatly superior to me in the grand poker scheme (and there are fewer and fewer of those these days) will have a tough time against me in this tournament.

I'll put up an update at the end of day 1! Until then, just think how great it would be if I knocked the first one out of the park!

The Best Game I've Ever Been In?

In these last few days before I head off to Vegas for the WSOP I'm planning to take it easy, play a few smallish buy in tournaments and not do any serious playing. At least that was my plan until I saw someone who clearly didn't belong playing $50/$100.

I know I've mentioned the pokerstars VIP system before, but to briefly refresh your memory (since it pertains to this story) there are 6 levels: Bronzestar, Silverstar, Goldstar, Platinumstar, Supernova and Supernova Elite. About a year ago they started allowing players to display their VIP level for everyone to see. You don't have to show your level and maybe only 30%-40% of players choose to do so.

When you open an account you are instantly Bronzestar. You can't be any lower. If I started from scratch it would take me about 2 hours to earn silverstar status. So if I see someone who is bronzestar it means they played less in the last month than I did in the last two hours.

I've played against at least a hundred if not a few hundred bronze star players who have advertised the fact that they are bronzestar. Not one of them has been any good at all and most are absolutely terrible players (at least by my standards). Usually they show up at the $10/$20 games with $150 lose it in a few minutes and quit. I make it a point to never leave a game with a bronze star player in it until they go broke or leave. To date that has never taken longer than 90 minutes. I'd never seen a bronze star player play above $15/$30 until this week.

Today I saw a bronze star playing $50/$100 and he had FIVE GRAND in front of him! I was in a state of drooling shock. I got the seat just to his left which was perfect because it meant I'd be acting after him in the vast majority of situations which would give me the best chance of getting his money.

I bought in for $3,000 and was prepared to go a few thousand deeper if I needed to. A few hands in, I got dealt AJ in the big blind. The first player to act (who is a regular $100/$200 player and was the only tough spot in the game) raised to $100, another player 3 bet to $150, bronzestar called from the small blind and I called from the big blind with AJ.

The flop came down AJ6! BINGO! TOP TWO! The preflop 3 bettor, bronzestar and I got four bets each in on the flop. I was almost 100% that the 3 bettor had AK and had no clue what the bronzestar had. I bet the turn (which was a Q) and they both called. I bet the river (which was a beautiful deuce) and they both called. The 3 bettor flipped up AK and the bronzestar had JT! Only a total goof would think JT had any chance of winning that pot vs two opponents.

I dragged the $1,800 pot and then something else good happened. The 3 bettor starting bitching about the fact that I called his three bet before the flop! He started talking about how online players all suck and went on and on about how bad I was playing. This was a clear indication that this guy didn't have a clue either.

A little later I saw a hand where another player in the game raised under the gun with 84s and got called by the bronzestar who had 92! It became crystal clear in the first 5 minutes that I had three clowns to my right and they were the best kind of players to play against. They all did a lot of calling, but not much raising. Mr. Bronzestar in particular was seeing about 65% of the flops regardless of the action in front of him. If he bet it meant he hit it. If he raised look out. But other wise he just check called to the river and paid you off with anything ace high or better not matter what the board looked like.

To top it off I was getting cards! I've been in a lot of great games where I thought "man if I could get any kind of cards I'd make a fortune!" I wasn't exactly getting aces every hand, but I was getting my share of face cards and pairs and for the most part my good hands were holding up. I took a few bad beats but nothing that made me want to jump out the window.

When the smoke cleared an hour later and two of the three clowns (including Mr. Bronzestar) beat it, I was up $4,500!

I think this might be the best game I've ever been in in terms of what I could make long term if I could play those players for those stakes every day. I suspect that my long term hourly rate in that game would be on the order of $400-$500 an hour.

I made note of Mr. Bronzestar's username and you can be sure if I see him again I'll clear my schedule and play until I keel over as long as he's in the game!

My WSOP Schedule Revisited

I'm off to Vegas on Friday for my 5th trip in as many years to the World Series of Poker. Now that all of my backers have given me their share of the money, I know there are at least a dozen of you who are eager to hear more about my schedule, plans and which events I'll definitely be playing vs which ones I might miss.

Let me start by saying that there is still no chance of my playing the $1,000 ladies only event even though I'm sure I could sneak in if I just put on a dress. I mean we've all seen six foot five bearded women before right?

My flight arrives just after noon on Friday which should give me plenty of time to register for the tournament, check in to my room at the Rio, get some food and take a nap. By the time the tournament starts I should be in top form.

My first tournament is $2,500 buy in 6 handed limit hold'em at 5 pm. Clearly it's 100% that I'll be playing that one! On Day 1 (like all the 5 pm start time events) we'll play eight 60 minute levels with a 20 minute break every two levels and a 60 minute dinner break after level #4. Play will resume the next day at 2 pm.

The next day (June 6th) I'm planning on playing $1,500 7-card stud which is also at 5 pm (All of the tournaments start day 1 at either noon or 5 pm). I'm not sure how long they'll allow late registration, but I assume they will for at least an hour if not two. So unless I make it 4 hours into day two of the 6-max limit I'll be playing this one (I'd give it 90% overall)

June 7th is a blank day for me. The events that day are ladies only NLH and $10,000 Omaha hi-lo. Of course I hope to be in day 2 of the 7 card stud or at the final table of the 6-max limit.

June 8th bring me back to the action with $2,500 no limit 6 handed (Close to 100% that I'll play this one). I made the money in this event last year. This event starts at noon so we'll play ten 60 minute levels with a 90 minute dinner break after level 6 before day 1 is over. We'll resume the next day at 2.

June 9th is the $3,000 HORSE which happily is at 5 pm. That means even if I make day 2 of the 6 max NL I'll have to go at least 3 hours deep on day two to miss the start of the HORSE. I think I'll have to finish in the top 2%-3% of the NL to miss the HORSE (95% chance I'll make this one).

June 10th is also a blank which is fine because with the late start of the HORSE and the fact that the larger buy in tournaments come with more chips, it's maybe 50% (or higher) that I'll make day 2.

June 11th $1,500 No limit hold'em. There at six $1,500 NLH events at this years WSOP and they draw the weakest players. That one is at noon(Close to 100% chance of playing this one).

June 12th is $1,500 limit hold'em. If I make it to day two of the NLH from the day before I might still play this one. It will depend on my stack size. If I'm on fumes in the NLH I'll sigh up for and play the first two hours of the limit. Then I'll go back to the no limit and just get slowly blinded off in the limit. I'll jump back and forth on my breaks and play them both until I get eliminated from one or the other. That's a real balls to the wall thing to do, but I wouldn't be the first person I've seen do this (90% chance of playing this one).

June 13th, guess what? Another $1,500 no limit hold'em also at noon. If I'm still in the limit from the day before or I'm just beat I'll skip this one since it's nothing special (60% chance of playing this one)

June 14th, more HORSE! This one $1,500 and at 5 p.m. Again given the late start it's very likely that I'll play this one (95% chance).

June 15th $2,000 no limit hold'em. This one is at noon and I will gladly skip it if I'm still in the HORSE which is likely given the late start (50% chance of a skip). I don't care as much about the no limit hold'em tournaments (except for the main event!) I think my edge is much greater in the other games and while all of these WSOP tournaments are VERY important to me, the NLH events have to take a back seat to the others.

June 16th, more $1,500 no limit hold'em at noon (85% chance of playing)!

June 17th is my planned departure date.

Here is a summary:

Friday June 5th - $2,500 6 handed limit hold'em
June 6th - $1,500 Seven Card Stud
June 7th - Off
June 8th - $2,500 no limit hold'em 6 handed
june 9th - $3,000 HORSE
June 10th - The HORSE starts at 5 pm so I'm hoping I'll make it to day 2)
June 11th - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em
June 12th - $1,500 limit hold'em
June 13th - $1,500 No limit hold'em
June 14th - $1,500 HORSE
June 15h - $2,000 No Limit Hold'em
June 16th - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em

July 6th $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event.

While I'm planning to leave on the 17th if I really kick ass, I might stay a few more days. There is a $2,000 NLH on the 18th, a $2,000 limit on the 19th, a $1,500 no limit on the 20th and a $2,500 8-game mixed event on the 21st.

I'd really like to play that mixed event, but I'm sure I'm going to be missing home and my family. My wife and son as well as close friends are going to be visit the second weekend so I won't have been on my own the whole time but it's draining to spend so much time on the road. I'll have to make a game time decision.

Also I just saw that there is a $10,000 limit event on june 15th at 5 pm. If I've knocked one out of the park before then I'll gladly skip the other tournament that day and the one the day after and go big!

I'll do my best to put up individual event previews as we go, I'll probably put up one more post before I leave town and if anyone has any questions please put up a comment.

$2,085 CSPC Final Table Recap

The bad news is I didn't make a staggering comeback to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The good news is I moved up one spot and finished 4th which paid $8,800. I lasted about an hour and went broke the hand after the 5th place finisher. When I finished the tournament I felt like I was 95% sure I'd play the $5,100 main event. An hour later I was 50/50. Now I'm 100% not going to play it.

I've been playing well, but feel like it will be better to go home with a few grand for my efforts and good momentum going into the WSOP.

It will be back to the grind for two weeks and then off to Vegas!

CSPC $2,085 NLH Recap

This was a tough tournament. Only 46 players started, even the worst players were OK, and they only paid 5 spots (if 50 players had entered they would have paid 9).

I got off to the best possible start. On the second hand of the tournament I got dealt KK vs QQ and got it all in on the turn. We'd started with 7,500 chips and I was up to 15,000 before my seat got warm. I won a few more hands and was up to 23,000 in the first half hour!

Then things were steadily boring. I dropped to 17,000 or so at the end of the first hour and stayed there for a long time. After 2 hours I had 17,000. After 4 hours I had 18,000. After 6 hours I had 15,000.

Around 7 hours in some major good shit happened. The blinds were 300/600 with a 50 chip ante and I was starting to struggle. I had something like 12,000 and we were down to 12 or 13 players. I got dealt K9 in the big blind and the big stack (who was a great player) raised to 1,500 from the button. I decided to call at take a flop which came down T 9 6. Not exactly the nuts, but I did have 2nd pair. I checked, my opponent bet 2,500 and I went all in. He instantly called me with AT. But, I nailed a 9 on the turn and doubled up.

A round or two later I was on the button with 75. It was garbage, but the blinds were playing so tight preflop that I thought I had a good chance to steal the blinds and antes. I raised to 1,800 and the big blind reraised to 3,200. I still had garbage, but his reraise was so small I had to call and I thought I could out play him after the flop. The flop came down J 6 4 and my opponent bet 5,000. After about 10 seconds I moved all in. I had a straight draw and more importantly I had 23,000 chips which I thought was enough to win the hand right there. After 2 long minutes my opponent called with QJ. But the turn was an 8 giving me the nuts and a huge pot!

One the very next hand I got dealt 66 and again raised to 1,800. Both blinds called and the flop came down AK6! BINGO! To my total shock and delight the small blind moved all in unprovoked for over 25,000 with AJ! I called in a millisecond and was up to 80,000. A few hand later we were down to 9 players.

I was in first by a hair and it was 12:45 am (we started a 5 p.m.). Then I ran SOOOOOOOOOO bad. Everyone was making smaller than normal raises and since I was so deep stacked I was inclined to take a lot of flops with sort of marginal hands. I dropped 20K pretty quick. Then I lost another 20K with top pair vs AA.

It took until about 2 am to lose two players, another hour to lose one more and another TWO HOURS to lose the 6th place player. During this time I played almost no hands. I got total garbage, the big stacks were very good players, and even though I felt short I still had enough chips to wait it out. During the last hour I was really starting to sweat making the money, but in the end after the shorter stack had survived an all in 3 times, we finally lost one.

We go back today at 4:30 playing 5 handed. The blinds will be 600/1,200 with a 200 chip ante for a few more minutes and I have 18,100 chips. I'm in last, but the other players have 25K, 42K, 49K and 210K. Clearly that one guy is running away with it, but if I can double through one of the others I've got a chance.

5th pays $4,500, 4th pays $8,500, 3rd pays $13,500, 2nd pays $22,000 and 1st is just over $40,000. I'll let you know what happens.

If I go broke before 7 pm I'll be playing a $540 satellite to the $5,100 main event.

Change of Plans

Well, I went broke in about an hour in the $335 (top set vs a flush did me in). I feel pretty good right now so I've decided to go back to plan A and play in the $2,085 tournament at 5. Wish me luck!

Call the Sheriff! Somebody Stole My HORSE!

We started the $1,065 HORSE tournament at the CSPC with a field of 60 players. Most of them were very tough and included a few multilple WSOP bracelet winners. On the other end there was a guy at my table who kept asking how much he could bet and wasn't really sure how all the games worked! That's L.A. for you!

I started off good and kept it going taking my starting stack of 5,000 up to 12,500 by the time we had lost 20 players, which took about 5 hours. But after six hours we were down to just over 30 players and I was down to 3,700 chips as we took our third 15 minute break (there was one every two hours).

Then I went on a run. I went from 3,700 to 33,000 in the next two hours of play. I was feeling great. Around this time I was almost sure I'd make the top 8 spots and the money. By the time we made it down to 15 players, average was 20,000 I had 40,000 and was in first place. We were playing 800/1,600 stakes at the time and I was hoping I could press my advantage.

Then I went stone cold dead. I couldn't win a damn thing! I started with the best hand quite a few times, but the only pots I won from there on out were either just the blinds or just the antes. To make it worse there was plenty of action which made every brick more expensive.

In the end I finished 13th. The money in this tournament wasn't insane. First was $20,000, 8th was only $1,200 and I'd sold off a fair chunk of my action. But missing out on the final table after being in such good shape was a major disapointment. I'm not sure it it was because it was 5 in the morning when I went broke or what, but it hurt pretty bad.

I feel better today, but I still feel a little tired even though I slept until almost 1. So I'm 90% sure I'm going to skip the $2,000 NLH that starts at 5 and instead play a $335 NLH with a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool that starts at 2.

A Final Table Dud

When I saw the chip counts for the 10 handed final table of my $335 NLH event at the CSPC I confirmed that I was in second place. In fact with 95,700 I was only 4,000 off of first, but I was only 55,000 ahead of 10th - the chip stacks were very tight.

This was an incredibly boring final table. It took close to 3 hours for us to lose one player and that player was almost me! In the same amount of time the $335 Stud tournament from the day before that restarted at the same time we did played from 16 players to conclusion (the made a deal when they were down to 4).

I dribbled away my stack for the first two hours, getting no cards, finding no good spots to make a move, and finding myself with about 60,000 chips. Then I picked up QQ and got it all in vs KK who had 50,000.

After that hand I was down to 10,000 when I found a real miracle. The blinds were 2,000/4,000 with a 500 chip ante and I looked down at KJ. I moved all in sure that at least the big blind would call me. Instead I got called by the big blind and the small blind. The flop came down A 6 4 and the small blind moved all in! YUCK! I was sure I was against an ace.

In fact I was against A4. I needed either running KK, JJ or QT to win the hand. As the turn was coming out I said "Put a queen up there." BANG, a queen comes. "Put a Ten up there" I called out. BANG, a ten. I was up to 35,000 and while still in last, I was back in it.

I never made a full recovery, but we lost three players while I was hanging on for dear life. I finished 7th which paid $2,227 (at least I beat lollipop who finished 8th!). Not what I was hoping for at the start of yesterday's action, but still a great result for the tournament as a whole.

The winner got a trophy that was basically just a big ass grizzly bear. It wasn't huge, but it was pretty big and I swear it was made of solid iron and weighed at least 40 pounds. With all the tournaments I've won, I don't have any trophies, bracelets, rings, ribbons, plaques or anything. I want one of those bears!

Today it's HORSE time! Maybe if I win I'll get myself a similarly sized horse and have it riding the bear trophy!

A Great Story and CSPC $335 NLH Recap

I had a great day yesterday in the $335 hold'em tournament at the CSPC. We started with 230 players each with 3,000 chips and I seemed to get good but not great cards all day. It made for interesting, fun play and I didn't often find myself sitting there doing nothing for long stretches.

I'll fast forward through the early stages to the point where I had about 25,000 chips and we were down to 35 players (27 spots paid). I had the best seat at my table, just to the left of the two best players who were both very aggressive Vietnamese fellows. I'll call one gap tooth and one lollipop since one had a massive gap between his front two teeth and the other was sucking on a lollipop and then a stick the entire time I was playing against him.

Gap tooth was good, but tilt prone. He had about 50,000 chips when I sat down (average was around 20,000) and was using his big stack to play a lot of pots against the short stacks. He's also made some big calls with very marginal hands so I knew I'd need to make a hand to get him, but if I did I was likely to get paid off big.

After almost an hour of waiting I got my chance. With blinds of 400/800 with a 50 chip ante the under the gun player went all in for 2,000. Gap tooth was in the small blind and just called. Later he said he got distracted by the loudmouth who was all in and forgot all about me which led him to call instead of reraising. I looked down at K3 which is total garbage, but there was already 5,200 in the pot and it would only cost me another 1,200 to call. Also I knew I could get action from gap tooth if I hit big.

The flop came down K 7 3. BINGO! Two pair! Gap tooth checked and I bet out 4,000. Against someone else I might have slow played or bet less, but I thought even if he missed he might try to take me off the hand. He reached for chips slowly, counted out 12,000 and pushed them into the pot. I tried to look worried as I thought for 30 seconds. Then I said "I'm all in."

He wasn't happy, which I knew meant I had the best hand. After the dealer counted down my stack he called with KJ. The turn was a 4, the river was a 6 and I was over 50,000!

I took out a short stack with AT vs 88 which put me at about 60,000 when the next hand came up. Gap tooth was steaming at this point. While he'd won a few big hands with garbage and taken his stack back to 50,000 he'd just lost 20,000 with AA vs 44 which had him back at 30,000.

The blind were 600/1,200 with a 75 chip ante and gap tooth made it 4,000 to go. I looked down at KK and had a tough decision to make. How was I going to play this hand? I could just call hoping to trap him and maybe get someone behind us to move all in. I could make a standard reraise to something like 14,000. I could reraise small to 9,000.

I took my time and eventually decided that I should just move all in. It would look weak like I didn't want a call and since gap tooth was on tilt he might just get fed up and call with a marginal hand.

So after 20 seconds I moved all my chips into the pot. Gap tooth looked like he was going to explode and said "I call." When the cards got turned over he had QJ off suit! The board was all garbage and I took down a huge pot. I was proud of myself for reading this situation right and getting someone with 150% of an average stack to get it all in with me 5 spots short of the money as a major underdog.

I won some more pots and found myself with 110,000 chips when the average was 23,000. I was in first place in the whole tournament by a mile and no one at my table had more than 40,000. But that 40,000 chip stack was in the hands of lollipop.

When we got down to 28 players - 1 spot out of the money - I made and extremely bold play (This is the great story part). I was on the button and the blinds both had about 10,000 chips. It was obvious to everyone that there was no way they were calling anything. They were just going to wait until they were in the money before the did anything. When it got to lollipop he made it 4,000. He'd be doing this time and time again stealing the blinds. I'd played back at him once with a reraise a while earlier and he went all in. He'd also shown a propensity to call standard reraises and take a flop. I wanted to stay patient, but I felt like I was getting run over.

I knew he could have just about anything, and I was tired of him stealing all the blinds that I should have been stealing! I was the big stack! This was my house! After he made it 4,000 I thought "If I have anything at all here I'm moving all in." I looked down and saw 72! The worst possible starting hand. I paused. "We're one spot short of the money. No one is going to call me if I move all in, it doesn't matter what I have" I thought.

In a moment of boldness I said "I'm all in." The blinds quickly folded and lollipop said "Really?" Immediately I knew he had something. I thought it might be AQ or a pair below JJ. He'd been thinking for about 90 seconds when someone went broke at an other table meaning we were now in the money. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" I thought. Now the pressure was off him to some degree.

He kept saying things like "This is a $300 tournament. If this was a $10,000 tournament I'd fold. This is a $300 tournament." It was pretty clear he read me as weak, but didn't want to risk his whole stack. Now everyone had gathered around. After this hand we were going to redraw for seats and everyone was just waiting. There were about 50 people watching the hand and I could hear whispers about what I might have and what he might have. No one was saying they thought I had 72!

I was trying to think if there was anything I could say to get him to fold, but I decided to stay quiet.

Finally after close to 5 minutes he pulled a quarter out of his pocket and said "Heads I call, tails I fold." Then he threw the quarter at least 10 feet in the air as everyone held their breath. It bounced in the middle of the table and hopped up on to the rail (the edge of the table) looking like it was going on to the floor, but stopping just short.

It was heads. Everyone said "heads!" Instantly lollipop said "I call." "AHHHHHHHHH!" I thought. When I turned over my hand everyone said "OOHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

He had pocket tens and there was a ten on the flop ending any chance I had of a miracle. I was down to 70,000 and in the money which was still great, but I was feeling a little like an idiot.

At my new table I quickly lost two small all ins with 88 vs JJ and 66 vs A9. I was down to 35,000 and feeling like I had one foot out the door wondering how I'd gone down hill so fast.

But then things turned around! I won some pots made some head way I ran it back to 95,700 which is how many chips I have right now. We stopped at 10 players and I'm going back today at 4:30 to finish the action. I'm not sure if lollipop is still in it, but I think I'm in 2nd or 3rd chip position. While I'm only guaranteed something like $1,400, first place is close to $20,000. Hopefully I can finish the job and take this one to the house!

People often refer to a confrontation between a pocket pair and two over cards as a coin flip. They say "You need to win some coin flips to win a tournament." This is the first time I've ever lost 40,000 chips on a literal coin flip!

CSPC $215 NLH Recap

There were over 1,700 entrants spread over two days in my first tournament of the California State Poker Championship. I played on Day 2 and got about what I expected from my competition - a bunch of crappy players!

We started with blind of 25/25 and 3,000 chips. My first good hand I raised to 75 and got 5 callers! OK I guess I need to go bigger. Next I raised to 100 first in and got 6 callers! Finally I raised to 125 under the gun and got called by 7 players! It was insane. The first guy in after me in that last one had 53s and the player after him had 56 off. We saw every single flop for the first hour and there were only one or two preflop reraises. These guys were weak!

Players tightened up a little as the blinds got bigger, but the play was still pretty weak. In my first big confrontation I raised JJ and got called by the woman just to my left. She was pretty tight and I'd seen her smooth call with 99 a few hands earlier.

The flop came down 8 7 5, I bet 500 into the 550 chip pot and she made it 1,000. ACK! This was screaming set, but I decided I wasn't sure enough to make a lay down this big. I decided to go for it and reraised all in. I wasn't surprised to see I was up against 55, but I was happy when the turn came a 9 and the river a ten. The only downside is I had to hear her bitch about this hand for the next hour as if it was the worst bad beat of all time.

From there I ran my stack up to 10,000 and was feeling good about my chances. Then I got 3,000 in preflop with TT vs QJ. After that I lost another 3,000 with JJ vs AQ.

On my final hand the blinds were 150/300 with a 25 chip ante and I had about 4,000 left. One player raised to 750 and got called by the guy just to my right. The first player was raising often and the other was calling a lot with a wide range of hands. I thought there was a good chance I could get them to fold if I moved all in and considered doing it no matter what I had. When I looked down at my first card and saw it was an ace it was an easy decision.

Sadly a third player woke up with JJ behind me and moved all in. My kicker turned out to be a 2 which meant I was in big trouble. The first card off the deck was an ace, but the second was a jack and that was it.

The good news is I went over to a nice $20/$40 game, won $500 in about 45 minutes and then got a call from my wife telling me her sister and boyfriend were free for dinner and I should head out.

Today I have $335 no limit hold'em at 2 and there is a $335 7 card stud at 5 pm. Late registration for the stud stays open for 2 hours so if I go broke anytime in the first 5 hours of the NLH I'll be playing the stud as well.

Wish me luck!

WSOP Warm up In L.A.

The WSOP is right around the corner, but first I'm off to Southern California for a week of tournaments at the Commerce Casino. These tournaments are part of the "California State Poker Championship," which actually started April 30th, and should attract fairly large fields (for in person tournaments).

The great thing about tournaments at the Commerce is they do them right. They give you long limits, slow blind increases and plenty of chips even in the small buy in tournaments.

For example my first tournament (on May 16th) is a $220 NL hold'em ($28 goes to the house instead of $15 like online - it costs A LOT more to run a tournament in person!) and we'll start with 2,500 chips, 40 minute limits and 25/25 blinds (that's not a typo - in order to avoid using chips with less than a 25 denomination in the first round the big blind and small blind are the same). (I love parentheses!)

My second tournament is $335 NLH and if I go broke in the first 3 hours in that one I'll play the $335 7-card stud that goes off - as you may have guessed - 3 hours later in the day.

The day after that is a $545 heads up matches tournament. I think that one would be very cool to play in but since they are limiting it to 128 players I suspect it might be sold out by the time I get to town.

The tournament that was the real inspiration for this trip in on May 19th. It's $1,065 HORSE! I have never played HORSE in person, but the evidence that I kick ass at it is overwhelming. I'm pretty excited about it.

The day after the HORSE is $2,085 no limit hold'em which is followied by "Super Satellite Day." The main event in this series is $5,100 no limit hold'em (15,000 chips and 60 minute limits in that one) and on super satellite day there will be three $540 qualifiers - one at 11 am, 3 pm and 7 pm. My plan is to play all three.

Of course if I go bananas in one of the earlier events or stomp the shit out of some people in the cash games I'll play the $5,100 event even if I don't win a satellite seat.

I'll be posting results daily so you can all read about my latest quest for glory.

This makes me think of a story!

It's been a little more than 5 years since my first trip to the Commerce. It was right about the time I first started playing online poker and I was still grinding it out at the Oaks club. The point of that trip was to go play a $1,500 no limit hold'em tournament. Before that the biggest tournament I'd ever played was $215, $500 was a big win for me and I still knew how many times I'd won over $1,000 in a day (it was about five at the time - now I'm not sure how many times I've won more than $10,000 in a day!).

I made the 6 hour drive with Matt Lessinger who also played the tournament. When I sat down I was crazy nervous. A few hands in I got dealt pocket kings and my heart rate shot up. It's not scary to get dealt bad cards and fold them, but I knew I had a hand I would almost certainly take to showdown and there was a chance I could go broke.

I made a standard raise and got called by one player on the button. I was terrified. I didn't want to come all that way for this one tournament and go broke in 10 minutes. "I don't know if I want to make a set. I could never get off a set and if I lose with a set it's going to take me a month to recover. GIVE ME QUADS!" I thought as the flop came out. I flopped a king and heart rate went up even more. I got hit with a gallon of adreneline and my hands were shaking as I put the chips in the pot to bet. I honestly think this might be the most nervous I have ever been in my entire life. Please God do not let me lose this hand. I am going to pass out if I lose this hand.

I got called and the turn came out. It was another f-ing king! I couldn't belive it! I had made quads in the biggest tournament of my life!

I checked and my opponent bet! "AH HA! PLEASE HAVE SOMETHING YOU BASTARD!" I thought as my heart contunied to pound at what felt like 200 beats per minute. "I'LL GET HIM ON THE END!" The voice screamed in my head. "THIS IS GOING TO BE SUCH A GREAT SLOW PLAY!" I just called and checked the end expecting a bet. But alas it got checked behind me and I took down the pot. A lowly pot. I'd taken my starting stack of 5,000 all the way up to about 5,700.

"How am I ever going to make it though this tournament?" I thought. "If I get another hand like that I'm going to be dead. Not from a heart attack, but from a f-ing heart explosion. They guys in the seats next to me will be lucky to survive the impact of the shock wave."

After a few hours I settled down. I'd budgeted for the $1,500 loss and won a few bucks in the cash games so it wasn't like I was in over my head. On my last hand I got it all in with 55 vs 99 and missed. I lasted about 8 hours and finished in 64th place out of 309.

I've come a long way since then. I've literally played millions of hands in that time and I've never been even close to that nervous again. It's not one of my favorite hands, but I know that hand with those kings is going to stick with me forever.

I can't wait to get down there and kick some ass!

More Comment Talk

After my post regarding the hand where the hero had T9s on a board of JJ9J I got the following comment.

Good point about the stack sizes preflop.

I'm mostly a sng player, and there it is very common for the big stack to float the flop the take the pot away on the turn if the raiser missed the flop since the stacks aren't deep enough to fire 2 bullets without committing to the hand. Perhaps I overestimated the chances of it happening here.

Also, since this was a small buy-in tournament I probably don't give the players enough credit.

You never mention the possibility of him having a smaller pocket pair. I thought this was a likely holding for him. He would just call before the flop hoping to hit a set, and call a c-bet hoping I missed with big cards. You also don't mention the possibility of him having a 9. When he calls the flop bet am I really beat almost every time here? I considered the fact that he was slowplaying but thought my hand was often good. I was more worried about him having a 9 with a higher kicker but when the Jack came on the turn we would chop.

If I check the turn and he bets, I think he's going to have a smaller pocket pair or a 9 a large % of the time so I don't see how I can fold. I agree that I should have had a lot more chips at the start of the hand then I could have still been alive by the time I realized I was beat.

Interesting that you didn't mention his actual hand. He had QQ.

Thanks for the feedback.

First of all the reason I didn't mention QQ is it's very rare for anyone to smooth call a raise with QQ because it's virtually always a terrible play, but a play bad players almost never make. So you have to have a someone who is at least a fair player making a bad play. It seemed likely that you were up against a big hand and whether it was QQ or AA was irrelevant given your hand and the board.

The reason why I didn't think an underpair was very likely (so unlikely that I guess I didn't mention it) is the stack sizes and the stage of the tournament. Most people give up on cold calling a standard raise trying to flop a set once the blinds go above 25/50. In this case I would expect pairs 88 and lower to either go all in (assuming there were no other massive stacks waiting in the blinds) or fold.

Similarly in order for him to have a 9 he'd have to call your raise preflop with a hand that contained a 9. Maybe A9 is a slim possibility, but only the very worst players would cold call 600 here with K9 or 89 or whatever. Given that you have a 9 and there is one on the board, it seems very remote that your opponent would have one too. Even if it was more likely your opponent had a 9, risking your whole remaining stack hoping to get half the pot is clearly not a great idea.

Of course there is always a chance that your opponent could be doing something that makes no sense (I've mentioned a few hands recently that proved that point). But I think the key to this hand is when you make it to the turn do you think it's more likely that you opponent has a hand like AK or AQ or an over pair. Both are somewhat likely. If you think it's 50/50 or even 40/60 given the money in the pot and the 5% chance that you could be up against a wacko then it's go time. If you think there's a 75% chance its an overpair, it's time for you cards to hit the muck.

I always find it interesting to think about these hands in great detail. That way when I come across a similar situation in the future I've already worked out what I think is the right play and can feel confident making it. Thanks for the comments!

Mercielss Beatdowns!

I had a great day today. I stomped some poor bastards!

I started off playing a mix of $10/$20 and $15/$30 6 handed limit games 4 or 5 at a time. After about 1,000 hands I was losing about $2,000. Clearly this was a pretty bad start to my day. I'd lost about $1,500 of it at one table. This fellow named yojimbo (who I know from past experience is a bad player) was killing me. I was getting good cards and making good hands but it was as if he was getting to choose the best possible turn or river card over and over. Yojimbo isn't the worst player, but he plays way too many hands before the flop and overplays them with too many bets and raises post flop. If you can make a few hands you'll win a ton, but if you keep missing it's not going to be cheap.

Then I saw that he was uncharacteristically at two $30/$60 games in addition to the one $15/$30. I decided to drop all of my other games which weren't exactly stellar and get into both of these $30/$60. I quickly got a seat in both games.

After 100 hands or so things were going well. I was winning about $700 in one game and only losing $120 in the other. Then the folloing two hands came up at exactly the same time!

In game #1 I got dealt JJ, yojimbo open raised to $60, I three bet making it $90 to go and he just called.

In game #2 I got dealt 77, raised and got called by yojimbo who was in the big blind.

In game #1 the flop came down J 4 2 giving me top set! I prayed for action and I got it. I bet, got raised and three bet it and yojimbo just called.

Back in game #2 the flop was coming down K 7 6 giving me another set! Again I prayed for action and I got it. Jimbo checkraised me and I decided to just call planning to raise the turn.

Meanwhile the turn was coming out in game #1 - it paired the 4 giving me a full house! I bet and yojimbo just called. But then it got wild on the river which was a 2. It turns out my friend jimbo had come all this way with A5 and now he'd made a straight! I bet $60, he made it $120, I went to $180 and he capped it at $240! BOOM! $987 pot headed my way!

Of course I was still in the hand in game #2. The turn was a three and I still had a set of sevens. Jimbo was first to act and he bet out $60. I popped him to $120 and he three bet it making it $180! I thought about capping it, but decided it would be pretty clear what I had if I did, so I decided to just call and raise him on the river. Just like clockwork, he bet out and I raised him. He just called and turned over 67 for two pair! $852 pot headed my way!

This all took place in about 45 seconds. It was insane.

Yojimbo played another round or two and then took off. I decided I would do the same and took a short break and a shower. I was about even for the day and feeling great about my comeback.

Post shower I played about another hour and picked up what felt like an easy $1,000 in the $10/$20 games. Then it was time for lunch.

After lunch I got in about an hour of play while my wife was out running errands and my son was taking a nap. When he woke up I had to jump out of my games, but I'd somehow made another $1,000.

I played with my son for a few hours while we watched some Sesamee Street and a little bit of the Mavericks/Nuggets game. When my wife got home I decided to log back on and see what I could do.

I then went totally nuts in three $15/$30 games. I played 204 hands in a little over a half an hour. I won 18 of 25 pots at showdown and 40 pots without a showdown. I was winning a pot about ever three and a half hands playing 6 handed and there was A TON of action.

One of my opponents was a total nut. He was in almost every pot and was giving a ton of action. In one of the first hands of the session I raised in the cutoff with AT and he three bet me from the button. I called and the flop came down AKQ I check raised and he called. The turn was a J making me a straight. I bet and he called, The river was a blank, I bet and he called. Do you know what he had? Pocket fours! WHAT!?! I guess he put me on 89s, 22 or 33.

I just kept making hands and getting action. When the smoke cleared I'd picked up another $3,000! I'm not sure, but $5,000 might be the most I've ever won in one day playing cash games. Certainly I've never run so hot as I did in those $15/$30s.

It was a great day filled with merciless beatdowns!

A Hand From a Commentor

I got three comments within 12 hours of my last post. I think that's a new record. One of the comments was a questions about a tournament hand. Here is the comment:

Here's a hand from a tourney I'd like to hear your thoughts about:

$33 buy-in, 60 make the money I have an average stack with 300 people left.

Blinds are 100/200 and I have about 4700 chips. I open raise to 600 from the cutoff with T9s and the button calls with a very big stack. I'm new to the table so no read on him.

Flop is JJ9 rainbow. I bet 800 and he calls. I think it's likely he's floating with overcards (or nothing) or has a smaller pocket pair, maybe a 9. Less chance he's slowplaying a jack or overpair, or maybe QT/T8.

Turn is a jack. I check thinking that I'm risking him checking behind with overcards, but since he's the big stack I'm hoping to induce a bluff where he could easily be drawing dead. He bets 1800 and I checkraise all-in.

What do you think of my play and thinking behind the play?

I'll start at the beginning. One of the pillars of successful no limit play is avoiding tough decisions. The problem with a hand like T9s is you often end up with tough decisions when you make a pair. Unless you make a straight or a flush (which will only happen about 6% of the time - I think - and that's if you go to the river) it's hard to tell where you stand. While it's not crazy to raise T9s from the cutoff in the scenario you mentioned, it's not crazy to just fold it.

Think about it this way; by far the most likely things to happen are everyone folds or someone reraises you. If everyone folds you win 300. If someone makes a standard reraise (or an all in reraise) you lose 600. That seems like a breakeven play at best. It's better when there are antes.

The big problem here is the size of your chip stack. I'd like this raise a whole lot more if you had 15,000 chips and the 600 wasn't such a big chunk of your stack. Then if someone makes it 1,600 or 1,400 you can call in position and see what happens.

I'm realizing that I could go on and on about blind stealing at this stage of a tournament, but let me quickly say that the stack sizes of they players behind you are much more important that what you have in your hand if you're not going to call a reraise (you want to blinds to be a little short stacked, but no so short they are likely to just go all in). Even if you're going to fold to a reraise, having an ace in your hand doesn't hurt because if people are going to play back at you they usually have a pair or an ace and if you have an ace that's one less for your opponents to have.

I guess that's not really what you were asking, but it occurred to me so I thought I'd mention it.

So once you raise and get called now your in a tough spot. My first thought is that it could be AA or KK trapping. The deeper you get into a tournament the more worried you should be about getting smooth called like this. Of course if it's not one of those two then it's almost certainly big cards.

You have to bet the flop. I would be very worried when I get smooth called again. Overcards are a possibility (I like betting a little more like maybe 1,200 to unload the overcard hands that will take one off for 800), but much more likely it's AA, KK or AJ, KJ or QJ. I think you can probably rule out QT or T8 since he'd probably fold those hands preflop and if he took it to the flop, given the stack sizes he'd probably just move all in. It's very dangerous to hope that someone is floating you. Whenever I think "This guy could be floating me" I always screw myself over.

When you get called on the flop you have to think "I'm beat. I'm done with this hand unless the turn is a 9, 8, Q or maybe a jack." Of course the turn was a jack which means they chances of your opponent having a jack just went way down.

This is a really tough spot. If I was playing my A+ game I would check fold the turn, but 90% of the time I'd do what you did. If you're going to go with it, I like checking to induce the bluff or the bet from a worst hand. Certainly this was a hand that had a lot to it. I welcome additional comments on it from anyone.

I'm guessing he showed you AA and that was the end of the tournament for you?

A Little Poker Quiz

I finally got a "why haven't you been posting on your blog?" comment today so I thought I'd put up a quick post.

I've been playing great poker lately. I don't know if it's because I've been exercising 5 times a week and lost ten pounds or if I've just gotten a little better after however much more experience or if the poker gods have just been with me. Whatever it is for the past month or so I've been steadily booking nice wins with a few moderate losses mixed in.

This success and some increased confidence has allowed me to take a few shots at the bigger games. While I still spend most of my time in the $10/$20 games I usually have at least one $15/$30 in the mix and I've been playing maybe 100 hands a day on average of $30/$60 with a sprinkling of $50/$100. I keep my eyes on the bigger games and if I see someone who is a real fish playing over their heads (usually in an effort to get even) I jump in. So far I've been able to scoop out a few small wins and get some more experience playing for those stakes.

I had two interesting hands come up in the past few days and I thought I'd share the action with you and see if you can guess what my opponents had. It's a little poker quiz!

In the first hand I was playing $30/$60 and got dealt QQ in first position. I raised to $60 and the soft spot in the game made it $90 to go. I capped it and the flop came down T 6 4 with two spades. This looked like a great flop and of course I bet. When my opponent raised I wasn't surprised, but I wasn't thrilled about it either. I thought he could have AA, KK, JJ, 99, 88, 77, AK, AT or two big spades, but I didn't think the pairs below ten were very likely. I could beat all but two of those hands, but given that I'd capped it out of position preflop my opponent was showing a lot of strength by raising me on the flop.

I considered three betting the flop, but opted to just call and see what the turn brought. It was a king! Yuck! I checked and my opponent bet $60. Now I liked my chances much less, but the pot was too big to fold so I called.

The river was and ace! Double Yuck! I checked and called my opponents bet mostly out of frustration. I didn't think I had much of any chance to win, but there was $583 out there staring me in the face and if I folded I would go from little chance to zero chance of getting that money.

What do you think he had?

A) JJ

B) AK

C) QQ

D) QJ of spades

E) 63

F) 89 of spades

I'll put the answer at the end!


In the other hand of interest I was playing $15/$30 and got dealt AK of diamonds on the button. The player to my right who was one of two soft spots in this game came in raising and I three bet. We took the flop heads up and it came down Q T 5 with two diamonds. I didn't have anything yet, but I had a monster draw with two over cards, a flush draw and a gut shot straight draw, so when my opponent bet into me I had no doubt about what to do and raised.

My opponent just called and the turn came down a jack! BINGO! Not only did I have the nuts, but there was also a chance that my opponent just made two pair which would mean good action. My opponent bet into me again! Ah ha!

I raised and to my shock and delight he reraised me! I capped it, he called, and the river was the 2 of diamonds making me a flush. Double bingo! Given the turn action I thought there was a good chance that my opponent also had AK and now I'd be getting the whole pot instead of half. When my opponent bet out I was even more sure he had AK, but I had the nuts so I raised...and he reraised! I capped it, he called and I took down the $652 pot (which interestingly enough is only $9 more than the pot was in the first hand after I called the river).

So what do you think this guy had? Here are some familiar choices!

A) JJ

B) AK

C) QQ

D) QJ of spades

E) 63

F) 89 of diamonds

In the first hand my opponent amazingly had 63 off suit! My mouth practically fell open when I saw it. I would have been devastated if I'd folded on the river and he'd shown his hand. Dan Harrington (the 1995 WSOP main event champ) says he assumes there is a 10% chance that his opponents could be doing something totally irrational. This was clearly a case of pure insanity from my opponent. He had about $600 when that hand started and was broke and gone about 5 hands later. If I ever see him again I'll make sure to get into that game!

In the second hand my opponent hand 89 of diamonds. I think he played the hand pretty well. I probably wouldn't have three bet the river, but I guess he was sure I had AK and didn't consider that I could have AK of diamonds. It's so sweet to make the best possible hand knowing you can't lose and get crazy action.

That's the end of my first poker quiz! I bet you all failed!

Looking Ahead to the WSOP

I've been spending the afternoon of my day off working out how much I owe all of my backers (there were 14 people who had a piece of the action this time around). Some people have asked me if it sucks to give up a piece of my winnings and I can honestly say it doesn't. I wouldn't have played all of the events I did if it was all my own money and it's a great feeling to win money for your family and friends.

I've proposed to all of them that they reinvest some or all of their profits in the WSOP which will start for me on June 5th. In the last 4 series of tournaments in which I took on backers (WCOOP, FTOPS X, FTOPS XI and SCOOP) I've had profits of 160%, 265%, 0% and 154% of the original investment. I guess I didn't realize how good of an investment I am until I just wrote that last sentence!

The WSOP is where I'm hoping to cash in on the good will I've built up. This is the most important and most prestigeous set of poker tournaments in the world and I'd play every event no matter what percentage I had of myself if I could. It attracts the worlds best, but it also attracts plenty of the worst.

Everyone who watches the WSOP on TV and plays poker at all dreams of going to Vegas and taking their shot. Thousands of players descend on the Rio every summer many of whom have never played a tournament at anywhere neat the stakes of the tournaments they enter and some of whom have gotten most of their experience in home games against who knows what kind of competition. These yahoos have no chance against the likes of me!

Of course there will be plenty of players who are better than me, but no one is so good that I don't have a chance against them. I'm good enough that no one can dominate me. In fact I think I've made vast improvements in the past year, and I'm head and shoulders better than I was in 2006 the last time I took a big shot at the WSOP.

Here is a look at my tentative schedule:

Friday June 5th - $2,500 6 handed limit hold'em
June 6th - $1,500 Seven Card Stud
June 7th - Off
June 8th - $2,500 no limit hold'em 6 handed
june 9th - $3,000 HORSE
June 10th - The HORSE starts at 5 pm so I'm hoping I'll make it to day 2)
June 11th - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em
June 12th - $1,500 limit hold'em
June 13th - $1,500 No limit hold'em
June 14th - $1,500 HORSE
June 15h - $2,000 No Limit Hold'em
June 16th - $1,500 No Limit Hold'em

July 6th $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event.

That's $29,000 in tournaments. All of the preliminary events are 3 days events so if I make the money is any of them I'll be on to day two and if I make a final table it will be on to day 3. That means I almost certainly will not get to play all of the events listed and if I do well and still feel up to it I might stay in Vegas as late as June 21st.

Notice that I have TWO HORSE tournaments in there! I'm really excited about both of those.

Another thing that's good is the WSOP organizers have increased the number of chips everyone gets in every tournament. The first three years I played at the WSOP you got one chip for every dollar of buy in. For a $1,500 tournament you started with 1,500 chips and blinds of 25/50. This is one of the reasons I went broke early so many times. It's not hard to get all the money in with those stakes and that means you have to put yourself at risk. Of course I also got massively hosed time after time, but maybe I could have survived those beats if I'd had a deeper stack.

Last year they made a massive improvement DOUBLING the number of starting chips in each tournament without altering the 60 minute rounds, or the structure of blind increases. This doesn't double how long the tournament takes (the most significant factor in terms of overall tournament length is the amount of time they give to each round). In fact it only makes the tournament a little longer, but it does make a big difference in the early stages of the tournament and allows skill to come in to play to a greater degree. This year they've taken it even farther. This year for a $1,500 tournament you get 4,500 chips, they've kept the levels the same length and they've even added a few new levels which should stretch things even more.

I'm going to be in Vegas for close to two weeks the first time around. I know Matt is going to be there some of the time and my wife and son will me making at least a short visit. But I'm sure I'm going to be there by myself some of the time. Even though I'll be focused on playing, Vegas can be a lonely place if you're there by yourself. I'd encourage anyone I know to make the trip out to see me anytime that I'm there.

I'm getting fired up just thinking about it!

The End Of The SCOOP

In the final event of the SCOOP ($1,050 No Limit Hold'em) I got screwed. The blinds were 100/200 and I raised to 600 with KK. I got two callers (a little unusual) and then the player in the small blind moved all in for about 10,000 (which is what we all started with). Not only was this an easy call, but I was about 90% sure I'd be seeing an underpair when the cards got turned over. Sure enough my opponent had 99 and I was 82% to win a big pot. Sadly a 9 came on the flop and that was it.

The good news is in the medium, high and satellite tournaments I made a profit of $23,186!!! You're welcome again backers!

This was a very successful set of tournaments. Of course the highlight was the deep finish in the HORSE event, but I also came close to a final table in the Razz, and the $425 8-game mixed and had a few other solid cashes.

I finished 77th (out of tens of thousands) in the player of the SCOOP competition which was won by "Get Crunk" who I played against in at least 4 SCOOP events! My gross tournament winnings were 119th best and only 70 players had more cashes than I did (I had 7 total). You can check out other interesting things about the SCOOP including a list of the 150 or so countries that were represented by players in the SCOOP at http://www.pokerstars.com/scoop/stats/

I'll be sending all of my backers an e-mail today or tomorrow with your final number and plans for getting you the money.

Out of the $5,200

Jesus I got screwed today! The last 4 hands of my tournament sum it up (there may have been one or two others in there, but if not 4 in a row these were a tight cluster). I get KK, raise and everyone folds. I get AJs I raise and everyone folds. I get JJ I raise and get called by 64s in the big blind. The board is all cards ten and under and I lose to a straight. With my last 500 chips I raise with KQ suited, it gets three bet and capped before getting back to me. I go all in and lose to AJ.

It was all either no action or get action and lose. I played just over 250 hands in this one and only won 25. You can't win 1 in 10 hands playing 6 handed (some of the time we were 4 or 5 handed) and expect to do anything but go broke.

This tournament was so annoying! AHHHHH!

Cold Decked in the SCOOP!

I've been running really bad today. Bad cards, bad beats, and a little bad play have left me out of everything...except for the $5,200 limit tournament.

We started with 5,000 chips and I was just about all in at one point (if I'd lost a specific pot I'd have been down to about 100 chips). I ran it back to 4,400, but now I have 3,100 which is not great. I'm going to do whatever I can to get back into the mix, but I'm not feeling great about my chances.

SCOOP Update

I took my second and last shot at getting into the $10,300 main event. Today pokerstars offered a $797 qualifier that was for supernova's only. On top of splitting the prize money into $10,300 blocks they also added $10,300 from the pokerstars coffers as a gift to the supernovas. 44 people played and I needed to make the top 4 to win a seat or the top 7 to pick up $1,600, but I came up short.

Event #19 $530 (719 entrants) and $55 (3,283 entrants) Pot Limit Omaha is underway, but event #20 is the one I've really been looking forward to - 6 handed limit hold'em!!! We're looking at $55, $530 and my biggest event of the SCOOP $5,200! Let's do this thing! To the house!

Early Exit

I busted out of the $215 with one rebuy and one add-on in about 45 minutes. I'd already had a few things go against me so I was in bad shape, but on the final hand I got AK vs AA, the AA just called my preflop raise and the flop came down king high. Nothing to do there, but go broke! Chalk up -$415.

$425 8-game Result

I finished 27th of 444 in the $425 buy in 8-game mixed. On the final hand I had 68,000 chips (we started with 5,000 and at my peak I had 122,000), we were playing 1,000/2,000 blind no limit hold'em and I raised to 6,000 from the button with AJ. The small blind made it 17,000 and I moved all in. When the cards got tuned over he had KK and I missed.

This is one of those hands where when you move all in and the other guy folds you think "Ah ha! Making strong plays is great!" and when you get called and lose you think "Man, maybe I could have let that one go!"

Part of me feels a little disappointed. I had a good stack, deep in this one, my opposition was OK, but not great, and other than the one hand I mentioned in a previous post I was playing great. Coming withing a few spot of the final table yesterday in the razz, and getting close again today feels like a real tease. Also I really felt like I was going to make the money in the $4,175.

The other part of me (the logical part) can acknowledge that I am having GREAT results in these tournaments. It should not be easy to get so close to a final table, and I already have one final table, and a few close calls in a pretty small group of tournaments. I am playing some of the best poker I ever have and it's paying off.

Anyway 27th paid $1,154. Tomorrow I have $22 and $215 NLH each with one rebuy and one add-on and $55 limit Omaha hi-lo. Nothing major.

A Stupid Terrible Play

I just made one of the worst plays I can remember making. We were playing pot limit Omaha and I got dealt KKQ8 with the KQ of hearts in the big blind. The blinds were 400/800 and the button who had a little over 100K made it 2,800 to go. I reraised the maximum to 8,800 leaving another 35K in my stack.

Now here is where the bonehead maneuver came in. My opponent made it the maximum which was 26,800. The only thing he could possibly have here is AAxx which would mean at best I'm about a 2 to 1 underdog and at worst a 4 to 1 underdog (I didn't actually know it was that bad, but I've since done some research).

This was an obvious fold. But for some reason I lost my mind and moved all in. My opponent instantly called with AA74 with the A4 of diamonds making me 33% to win.

Amazingly I flopped a king and took down a nice pot. Even though it worked out I feel like a real dunce.

The good news is I have about 80,000 chips and I'm in 7th of 43.

Out in the $4,175

I had two big hands go against me in the Stud and that was all it took. In the first I made a straight and lost to a flush (that was an 11,000 chip pot). That left me on fumes and somehow I got the rest of my chips in with a pair of sevens against rolled up aces! ACK!

I finished 23rd which was a fair showing. I know I played well and if they offered this tournament tomorrow I'd play it again. That's the real sign that playing this event was a good decision even though it resulted in a loss.

In the Money in $425 8-Game!

I almost ate shit in the $4,175, in the limit hold'em of all games! I was down to about 3K, but somehow I almost instantly went back up to 12K.

We're in the money in the $425. I was in super shape with close to 60K in chips, but now I'm down to 33K which is right on average. I'm in 30th place of 66.

Still Doing Well

I'm at 31K chips in the $425 and in 15th of 100 and 12K chips the $4,175 which is 13th place of 36. It's very likely that I'll make the top 66 and the money in the medium stakes, but it's still totally up in the air in the big one.

SCOOP Update!

I am blowing the doors off the medium and small stakes 8 game mix! I'm up to over 30,000 in the medium stakes in 3rd place of 189 and I'm over 25,000 in the low in 91st place of 703.

I slipped a little in the one that really matters though. Not too much, but a little. I'm at 8,700 and in 21st of 60. I had some trouble in the Razz, but I just got moved to a new table and it's a little softer than the one I started with.

Event #15 Underway!

I'm off to a good start in the $4,175 and $425 8 game mixed. In the first I've more than doubled my starting stack of 5,000 and am in 3rd of 74 remaining players (we started with 84). In the second I've also doubled my starting stack and am in 73rd of 314 (we started with 444).

The big one pays 9 spots and 9th is an insane $13,440 (about the same amount as you'd get for FIRST in the $44 event with 2,200 entrants!) and first is just over $100K.

Massive Choke Job!

I totally blew it in the razz! I finished in 15th of 713 (It paid $1,312) which is great. This is by far the best finish I've ever had in a razz tournament. But I still blew it!

With 17 players left I was in third. Of course since it was a limit tournament it took 5 or 6 hands going against me to do me in, and I did get unlucky towards the end. But I also overplayed a few hands. I haven't played a ton of razz so it's hard for me to look back and say conclusively whether I played bad or was just the victim of bad luck, but I feel like I could have done things a little differently.

Still it was a good result that washed away the mess of the rest of the day.

Tomorrow is a big day. I have $44, $425, and $4,175 8 game mix in the morning, and $320 Stud in the afternoon. I'm sure the big one is going to have a tough field, but after how well I've done playing HORSE even at the $1,000 level I just can't pass up a chance to play a mixed games event for big money.

In the Money in SCOOP Event #13!

The bad news is I came up short in the $530 and $55 NLH and the $22 Razz as well as a $33 with rebuys satellite (-$183 in that one).

The good news is I have a solid stack and I'm in the money in the $215 Razz. Right now I'm in 19th of 94. I need to make it to 16th to get about even for the $530 and all the satellite bricks I put up today.

But I'm running good and playing pretty well so anything could happen.

SCOOP Update

SCOOP Event #13 is underway with 2,945 players in the $22 low stakes (1st place $9,500), and 713 in the medium stakes (1st place $26,700). I have less than I started with in both, but it's been pretty boring so far.

In other bad news I came up short in two satellites. The first was a $280 attempt to win a $5,200 seat and the other was $109 with rebuys where 1st place was a $10,300 main event seat. Chalk up -$589 in the satellite column.

SCOOP $3,150 Mixed Hold'em Recap

At the point of my last specific update we were down to 52. From there we dropped to 40 players over the course of the next hour. And then the tournament came to a grinding hault.

People were still playing hands of course, but not one was being eliminated. We were stuck on 40 for maybe as long as a half an hour! I had no fewer than 10,000 and no more than 16,000 chips during that time and was boucing between 30th place and 35th place.

In a situation like this you have to balance trying to just make the money and playing your normal game which might get you eliminated, but should also lead to more chips in your stack. Normally it's an easy decision for me. I play my normal game because I want to WIN the tournament or at least finish in the top few spots. Of course just making the money is usually a few hundred not over six thousand!

Another thing that made this spot unique was the player I was up against. One was Dan_druff who is a WSOP braceltt winner (he has at least one other WSOP final table) and a high stakes online player. Another was THE_D_RY who might be THE toughest SNG player on all of pokerstars. He plays the biggest SNGs (up to $2,000 buy in!) and all of the biggest tournaments. Then there were three other players who were all very strong players. In fact I might have been the worst player at my table! I'm not sure I can ever remember a time when that was the case in any game. Even at the highest stakes I've played there's always been at least one person (usually many more) who I could point to and say "At least I know I'm better than that guy!"

Eventually ever so slowly people started to drop. I'd be surviving just by stealing blinds or winning very small pots, but then I started to get some good cards. I took my stack all the way up to 27,000 chips and was in 23rd place with 35 players to go. At that point I thought I had it locked up for sure.

Then I had a big hand that was full of tough decisions - exactly what I didn't want! We were playing limit and the blinds were 500/1,000. I got dealt A8 with the A of clubs in the small blind. The button came in raising and I three bet make it 3,000 to go. He capped it at 4,000. Uh Oh!

The flop came down J 9 4 with two clubs. I checked and he bet 1,000 into the 9,000 chip pot. I didn't have anything, but this guy was super aggressive. I thought there was a chance I could have the best hand and the pot was just so big that I couldn't fold. The turn was the queen of clubs which gave me a flush draw and a gut shot straight draw. Now I had to call, which I did when he bet.

The river was a total brick and after my opponents bet I was looking at a 17,000 chip pot. A pot that was worth $10,200 in real world dollars if you do the math on the equity. If I folded it would just be gone. So I called, and my opponent showed AT for a slightly better ace high! AHHHHHHHH!

That was 9,000 chips out the window and then I slipped some more! With only 32 players left I was down to 10,000 chips and in 29th place when the following hand came up. I was in the big blind and the very aggressive button who was the big stack at the table came in raising (we were still playing limit at the same stakes). I was in the big blind with A7 and I knew my opponent could raise literally any two cards given the situation.

I was pretty sure I had the best hand, but I wanted to play the hand as cheaply as possible since survival was more important than picking up chips. So I just called.

The flop came down A K 4 which looked like a great flop to me so I check raised. And my opponent three bet! Uh Oh! I called which mean 5,000 of my 10,000 chips were in the pot and calling a turn and river bet would cost me 4,000 more. If I lost here I was done. But no way could I fold.

The turn brought another ace which was a fantastic card, and I check called. The river was a blank and I thought about betting, but I figured my opponent would fire again no matter what he had. Sadly he gave up, checked and turned over 86 which was no pair no draw!

I would have been super pissed to finish in 32nd! But I didn't, and went on to make the money which paid $6,400! This is the most I've ever been paid and the highest net profit I've had for just making the money.

I went broke almost right away after we made the money losing first with AJ to KK and then with 2nd pair to top pair. But 30th place was just fine with me!

Recap of $3,150 Mixed Coming Soon!

Let me just say that the field in the $3,150 Mixed Hold'em was the toughest I've ever faced online and with the exception of the $5,000 NLH event at the 2006 WSOP the toughest field I've ever faced. I'll recap the action before noon PT Wedneday.

Wednesday I have $22 and $215 Razz in the morning and $55 and $530 NL hold'em 6 max in the afternoon.

SCOOP Update

After running my starting stack of 5,000 up to 15,000 in the Stud H/L I finished in 319th of about 700.

But I'm still in it in the $3,150 mixed hold'em. This tournament is going to give me a heart attack. Here is a hand history for a big hand I played. Note that Chad Brown is a sponsored pokerstars pro.

PokerStars Game #26840026570: Tournament #200904113, $3000+$150 Hold'em Mixed (Hold'em No Limit) - Level XIV (50/100) - 2009/04/07 15:23:28 PT [2009/04/07 18:23:28 ET]
Table '200904113 33' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: LockDown120 (11966 in chips)
Seat 2: FatalError (12490 in chips)
Seat 3: ACESEDAI (10916 in chips)
Seat 4: ChadBrownPRO (4290 in chips)
Seat 5: villepn (4121 in chips)
Seat 6: RonaldKosh (17208 in chips)
ACESEDAI: posts the ante 15
ChadBrownPRO: posts the ante 15
villepn: posts the ante 15
RonaldKosh: posts the ante 15
LockDown120: posts the ante 15
FatalError: posts the ante 15
ACESEDAI: posts small blind 50
ChadBrownPRO: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ACESEDAI [9s 9c]
villepn: folds
RonaldKosh: folds
LockDown120: folds
FatalError: folds
ACESEDAI: raises 300 to 400
ChadBrownPRO: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [3d 6d Qd]
ACESEDAI: bets 600
ChadBrownPRO: raises 600 to 1200
ACESEDAI: raises 2800 to 4000
ChadBrownPRO: calls 2675 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (125) returned to ACESEDAI
*** TURN *** [3d 6d Qd] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [3d 6d Qd Qs] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ACESEDAI: shows [9s 9c] (two pair, Queens and Nines)
ChadBrownPRO: shows [Kd 6s] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
ACESEDAI collected 8640 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8640 | Rake 0
Board [3d 6d Qd Qs 4h]
Seat 1: LockDown120 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: FatalError (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ACESEDAI (small blind) showed [9s 9c] and won (8640) with two pair, Queens and Nines
Seat 4: ChadBrownPRO (big blind) showed [Kd 6s] and lost with two pair, Queens and Sixes
Seat 5: villepn folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: RonaldKosh folded before Flop (didn't bet)


He had two shots to hit a K, 6 or diamond and missed it all.

In another hand that was tense to say the least I got all of my chips in with A4 of clubs vs K8 on a board of 6 7 9 with two clubs. I made the last raise and when I got called I was sure I needed to hit to win. Instead all I had to do was fade a K, 8, T or 5. The turn and river were nothing and I survived.

Another time I flopped a flush and got it all in vs top pair and a bigger flush draw. I dodged that one too.

You might think I'm in great shape given all these wins, but I'm not. I keep losing small and medium sized pots and then winning when I'm forced to go all in.

We're down to 52 of 247 with 30 spots paying and I'm in 42nd place. Not out of it, but in need of help if I'm going to make the money.

SCOOP Event #11 Underway!

I'm already out of the medium and low stakes, but I'm doing well in the $3,150 high stake tournament. We started with 247, we're down to 159 and I'm in 46th place with 9,500 chips (we started with 5,000). 30th is the edge of the money and pays $6,400. 1st is $184,000. Also at the last minute I jumped into the $215 Stud H/L which pretty much just started for me.

The Total, Today's Action, and What's Left

Just short of halfway through the SCOOP I'm down $279 in the low stakes tournaments with only one cash in ten tournaments. I feel like such a loser. I don't know how I'm ever going to get that money back! Oh wait I'm ahead $32,462 at everything else!

Today at 11:30 PT I have 6 handed mixed hold'em which is half limit (my specialty) and half no limit. The low stakes is $33, the medium is $320 and the high is $3,150. I'm going to play them all. Originally the high was not on my schedule, but it should have been.

The 1:30 PT event today is Stud hi-lo split. This is one of my worst games, so I'll probably skip it to focus on the $3,150 tournament. If I go broke in that one in the first two hours then I'll take a shot at the $215 Stud H/L.

After Sunday's result it sort of feels like the SCOOP has bared it's fruit and is just about over, but there is a lot more left! The big stuff is the $4,175 8 game mix, $5,200 6-max limit hold'em, and the $1,050, $3,000,000 guaranteed medium stakes main event. But after today there are also 7 other medium stakes tournaments (most in the $500 range) and 10 low stakes tournaments. There is also a $10,300 NLH main event. I'll probably take about $1,000 and try to qualify for that and if I have another $30,000+ result I might just play it regardless.

The good news is even if I totally blank in everything from here on out (which is pretty unlikely), the worst case scenario is a profit of $15,000 meaning all of my backers will at least double their initial investment. I won't get into the best case scenario, but it's pretty good.

Recap of Monday's SCOOP action

After Sunday's sweetness, Monday was pretty boring. I started the day off winning a $22 with rebuys satellite to a $425 tournament. That was a net profit of $323. Not bad.

Originally I'd planned to skip the $215 Triple Draw Lowball, but after my big win I have plans to play a $4,000+ tournament later in the series that is a mix of 8 games (The HORSE games, plus pot limit Omaha, no limit hold 'em, and limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball). Triple Draw is the first game in the mix and I needed the practice.

The way Triple Draw works for those of you who don't know about it is there are six players who each get dealt 5 cards. The goal is to make the worst hand possible. Aces are the highest card not the lowest, and unlike other games where a low hand comes into play in this version straights and flushes count against you. So the best possible hand is 2 3 4 5 7 with at least two suits represented which is why the game is called "Deuce to Seven" lowball (in contrast to "Ace to Five").

There are blinds just like in hold'em and after a round of betting whoever is left gets to throw away bad cards from their hand and get them replaced with new ones. Unlike in 5 card draw where you only do this once, in Triple Draw you get a chance to draw new cards three times with a round of betting after each draw.

I used to play regular lowball at the Oaks clubs years ago (in that variant there is only one draw, aces are low, and straights and flushes are irrelevant so A 2 3 4 5 is the best hand), and there are some similarities. I've also played the 8 games mix at my normal stakes so I have some experience there, but it was good to work out some of the holes in my game yesterday.

I made it through about 3/4 of the field in both the low stakes and medium stakes events before coming up short of the money (-$22 in the low and -$215 in the medium). In total that was 7 or 8 hours of play and I'm feeling my better about lowball skills.

The other set of tournaments was heads up matches. In the low I won three matches which was good enough to make the money (+$14). In fact it took me a TOTAL of three hands to win the first two matches! The third match took about 10 hands, and the fourth took about 50, but I came up short. In the medium stakes, in massive contrast, my first match took over 150 hands, I got it in with a strong draw and lost to top pair (-$162).

A Big Surprise (for some of you)!

I did a little something in the HORSE tournament yesterday. I was on a break and I started to write a post. This is what I wrote:

They say you never have so many chips that your victory in certain or so few that you're out of it. After being all in several times with very marginal hands and miraculously surviving, I went on a run. It's hard for me to recall hands from non hold'em games, so I can't say exactly how it happened, but I made the money! Not only that, but I'm in good shape.

I was looking to add a few specifics when the tournament resumed and I forgot all about my post. In fact I felt like I'd put it up on the blog and everyone knew I was still in it and in the money! Instead when the tournament concluded I saw my post sitting there waiting and realized nothing had gone up on the blog!

So what happened exactly? Well I went on a tear and went from fumes to an average stack with 100 players or so left. As we crossed the edge of the money which was 64th place I lagged a little and had about 22,000 chips when the average stack was 35,000.

And then I went on a major rush in the razz. The way the tournament was set up was the limits increased every 20 minutes, but the game switched every 10. So it was 10 minutes of Hold'em, 10 minutes of Omaha, then a limit increase, 10 minutes of Razz, 10 minutes of Stud, then a limit increase and so on. For the whole tournament it seemed like I didn't have any luck in the other 4 games, but when it got back to razz, I killed it!

I went from 22,000 for 50,000+ in a matter of minutes. The amount of money I was guaranteed jumped every 8 places to start. 64th to 57th paid $1,775, 56th to 49th paid $1,875, 48th to 41st paid $2,125, 40th to 33rd paid $2,625.

When we got down to 36 players I was in 9th place. I was all but positive that I'd make the next pay jump which was at 32 players, but I had my eye on the 24th to 17th place range. That paid $4,375 which was about what I needed to get even for the day.

I blasted right through it and by the time there were 17 of us left I was in 3rd place. In a no limit tournament you can go from the top few spots to out with one bad beat. The great thing about being ahead in a limit tournament is it takes more than one or two disastrous hands to get you in trouble.

It was looking good for me to make the final table. And that's just what I did! 8th place was $10,000 so I was guaranteed at least that much and since I was in 4th place (I think) it was likely that I'd do even better. There were two short stacks, one of them took that $10,000 prize and the other took $12,500 for 7th.

Meanwhile I was starting to pick up momentum. I wasn't nervous at all and I kept playing my normal aggressive game. On the other hand my opponents were playing timidly. The chips started piling up and the other players started to fade. Someone finished 6th and got $17,500. Before I knew it I was in first!

Playing 5 handed It looked like I was in good shape for at least 3rd place. I had something like 750,000 chips, another player had about the same, the player in third chip position had 500,000 or so and the other two guys had around 100,000.

Then I started to slip. I made a mistake here and there. I had a couple of big draws miss. I had a few big made hands get beat by bigger made hands. Two hands have stuck with me through the night. The first was in Razz where I started with A 2 3 4 as my first four cards (the best possible four card start) and ended up catching 3 bricks in a row and losing to someone who made a fairly weak hand. The second was in Omaha where I flopped top set which was the nuts on the flop and turn. Another player had a flush draw and a low draw and a card that made his low and his flush came on the river. These were both huge pots and losing them took a big chunk out of my stack.

Of course as the chips were flowing out of my stack, they were flowing into the stacks of my opponents. The short stacks went from almost dead to healthy again in what felt like no time.

I managed out outlast one more player who got $25,000 for 5th. I took down 4th place which paid $37,500! YAY!

This was an awesome result especially since I was in such bad shape in the middle of the tournament. Man do I love HORSE!

Totally Bamboozled!

I had this post all locked and loaded when I was down to about 1/4 of average in the $1,050 HORSE, but I've since stormed back to an average stack with 138 players left. 64 spots pay. Anyway here's what I wrote. I'll post again if I make the money, but otherwise you can assume I came up short.

I bricked in everything today! ACK! I was doing well in both HORSE tournaments for a while taking one to 3X my starting stack and the other to 2.5X. But then it was down, down, down the tubes. Not much to say other than that. Today just wasn't my day.

Tomorrow I have triple draw lowball (which I might skip) and heads up matchs all for pretty minor stakes.

SCOOP $3,150 NLH Recap

Doing a Recap shortly after the tournament starts is never a good sign! A few hands into the tournament I got dealt AQ of spades. The blinds were 25/50 everyone had pretty much the starting stack of 10,000 and I made a standard raise to 150. The small blind made it 450 to go and I just called. The flop came down low with two spades and my opponent bet out 80% of the pot. I considered raising, but opted to just call.

The turn was another small non spade and again my opponent made a near pot sized bet of 2,000. I certainly could have folded here, but I was getting 2 to 1 on my money, I knew a spade was good, an A or Q or both could be good and there was some non zero chance I had the best hand would win unimproved. So I called. The river was a total blank and my opponent moved all in. I said bye bye to 3,000 chips and folded.

About a half an hour later I had 6,000 chips left and open raised to 180 with 55. Three players called and the big blind raised to 660. I called as did everyone else. The flop came down 6 4 2 with two diamonds and the big blind bet out about 1,000.

I thought there was a fair chance he'd have big cards and that I could get rid of everyone else if I moved all in for a little more than 5K, and even if I did get called I'd have 2 shots at 6 outs. To my surprise the small blind moved all in for 20K and the big blind called him!

When the cards got turned over the small blind hand A7 of diamonds and the big blind had QQ. The turn was a 4 and the river was a 6 and the QQ took down a huge pot. It wouldn't have been crazy for him to fold QQ in this spot after my all in and the other all in from the small blind. If he'd folded I would have won.

In other news I'm on fumes in the $320 NLH, but I'm still in the $109 and $1,050 HORSE and doing OK.

SCOOP Event #7 Underway!

I've been looking forward to event #7 ever since the SCOOP schedule came out. It's HORSE day baby! The low stakes tournament is $109 and started with 2,674 entrants. This is in stark contrast to the daily $109 HORSE tournament that I've won 3 or 4 times which usually has about 50 entrants. Clearly almost everyone in this tournament should be out of their comfort zone. The edge of the money is 520th place and pays $118. First place is $43,452.

The medium stakes tournament is $1,050 and started with 444 entrants which was short of the number pokerstars needed to meet the $500K guarantee. There turned out to be a $33,800 overlay which is $76 a person. Nothing to scream about but it's $126 better than if they'd filled this one up. The edge of the money is 64th place and pays $1,775. First place is $95,000.

I found myself facing a bit of a quandry earlier today. With 30 minutes to go before the start of the $10,300 high stakes HORSE event there were only 29 people signed up. Pokerstars guaranteed a $750,000 prize pool and I found myself thinking "What the hell am I going to do if this thing goes off with 35 players and there is a $10,000+ per person overlay?" It would be like getting into a $20,000 tournament for $10,000, but I'd be playing against the world's best. Luckily enough players signed up at the last minute so I didn't have to think about it.

Triple Shootout Results

I was the first person out at any table in the second round! CRAP! I lost half of my chips with a three barrel bluff (a bet on every round) that started as a semibluff. The other half went in the 88 vs AA on a 2 5 6 board. Oh well.

Tomorrow is a big day. I have $109 and $1050 HORSE in the morning and $320 and $3,150 no limit hold 'em in the afternoon.

SCOOP Update!

Todays Omaha tournaments (Event #6) were really bad. I've forgotten what happened in the low, but I was out before the add-on losing $42.

In the medium I forgot to rebuy immediatly and won the first pot so then I had too many chips to rebuy. But I ran my starting stack of 2,500 up to 4,000 or so. Then I got most of those chips in with a straight draw and a pocket pair vs two pair. I had two shots at 10 outs and missed. I lost my remaining 600 chips on the next hand.

I still had a rebuy left so I rebought and got another 2,500 chips. On the very next hand I got it all in with AAxx vs 89TJ and lost. This tournament only lasted 20 minutes for me! On the positive side I went broke before the add-on so I only lost $415.

In other bad news I played 4 satellites and missed in all of them. They were pretty low stakes attempts to win my way into the $3,150 NLH event tomorrow so it's not too surprising that I came up short. The total damage there was $295.

The good news is I made it past the first round of the $162 triple shootout which means I'm in the money!

I got off to a good start and had my 5,000 starting stack up to 8,000 or so right away. Then I sat on it for about 90 minutes. By that time we were down to 3 players and I was up to 10,000 chips and just thinking about getting it heads up (anything can happen heads up!). I worked my stack up to 14,000 by the time there were just two of us, but my opponent had 36,000 so it wasn't looking good.

My opponent was playing too tight for heads up and I slowly built my stack to 22,000 when the key hand of the tournament came up. The blinds were 100/200 and my opponent made it 500 to go from the small blind which was his standard raise. With A8 I made it 1,600 and he made it 4,500. Looking back I should have folded here, but I called instead. I get a little impatient playing heads up with very deep stacks and sometimes I force the action which is actually exactly what I did on the flop.

The flop came down T 7 6 giving me a gutshot straight draw and one overcard. I knew if I cheked my opponent would bet no matter what he had. He bet 5,000 into the 9,000 chip pot and I decided to go for it. I had 17,000 left which I thought was enough that I might get him off a better hand like AJ, AQ or AK or a pocket pair below 6 and even if I got called I knew hitting a 9 would make me a winner. If he had a big ace then hitting my 8 would be good, and if he had a big pocket pair as long as it wasn't aces hitting an ace would be good.

So I moved all in and he instantly called me with KK. Yikes! I was actually 30% to win at this point and feeling hopeful. The turn was a 5 which meant I was now 25% to win with one card to come. Happily the river was a 9 and I had a commanding lead. A few hands later I got the rest of his chip with A9 vs A4. Interestingly I won this shootout without elminating anyone except for the last player! That's pretty rare.

I'm guaranteed a $577 payout, but that's the most I can make unless I win the next round. At the final table however each spot pays a different (large!) amount.