The Main Event is almost here. I'm heading out to Vegas in a couple hours and then tomorrow I start playing. Unless I get knocked out real fast I probably won't update this until Saturday. I'll try to remember as much blogworthy stuff to write as I can until then. All I have to write about now is what I will try to do.
Here's the plan for Day 1A:
1. Play aggressively and don't be afraid to bust. It will take a lot of bold moves to outlast 7000 people just to get in the money. There is no point in me trying to prolong the experience by playing it safe. I want to win so I'm going to play smart, watch out for traps and bad signs, but stay real aggressive so I can...
2. Get above average chips by the end of the day. I believe that we are going to go from about 2000 down to 800 people by the end of Day 1A. So I need to move my stack from 10k to 25k in the first day to be average. If I stay alive with less than 25k that is fine, but I have a goal of at least 25k that I would like to meet.
3. Eat well, drink water, stretch, stay focused. All these things should keep me comfortable and in a good state of mind throughout the long day.
4. Observe my opponents tendencies and betting patterns. I didn't do this as well as I though I could in AC.
5. Outhink the dimwits and the pros. No need for anything too fancy. Just get inside their heads and understand what they are thinking so I can play appropriately.
6. Convince everyone at my table that I am half-robot.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Strike 3
Ouch. 0 for 3 in the big money events and 1 for 1 with a small cash in a smaller tourney for the trip. I guess what hurts most is the one I did cash in on Thursday night since I had a great chance to make a big score. Here's how that tournament went down.
We started with ~150 players, 500 chips, and my initial table was pretty bad. There was this old lady across from me who gave me her whole stack calling down my AK with her A6 when an Ace hit the flop and I moved up to 10,000. There were a couple of decent players there but no one doing anything too tricky. I hit a very long cold run of cards after this and got pushed out of the few flops I saw after I hit nothing. But I did win enough pots to just stay about even as the blinds increased.
We got down to 30 left I still had 8,000 but the blinds were getting up to 400/800 with a 75 ante and I started having to make some desperate moves. When in the big blind it folded around to the very conservative SB who limped into me. I looked at K9s and pushed and he thought a long time before folding showing me A4. So I kinda dodged a small bullet there. I don't remember exactly how but I won a small pot a bit later to move up to 15000. Then I almost doubled up when my AQ called and AJ all-in and held up.
Was not getting many cards still and we got down to about 25 players with 500/1000 blinds when this hand happened. UTG limped quicky. UTG+1 (loose) also limped and mid-position guy who hadn't played many hands but talked a lot raised to 10,000. I looked down at pocket tens and thought real hard. Eventually I detrmined that the chance I was behind was too great and if I went all-in I was only getting called by muchbetter hands or possibly one that was a slight dog. So I folded. When UTG quickly called I was sure I made the right move. I didn't see how the board played out but It went to showdown where the raiser showed 52 of spades and the caller showed 76 of spades!!!!!! I was bewildered by the whole thing as was the guy who lost with the 52. I guess it shows that making a great read that your opponents limps are weak only works if the actually will fold to a reasonable raise. Also my TT would have held up so I threw up in my mouth at a wasted opportunity.
Moved to a new table when we went down to 2 tables at 20 players (top 18 paid). I was still pretty short. Many of the players left were pretty weak and I started getting awesome cards. I took down a pot when I raised with a big ace, got 1 caller and hit an ace on the flop, but the caller folded to my bet. I was getting big aces and high pocket pairs about 1 out of every 3 hands and raising them. Once we hit in the money people started calling me with weak hands and my chipstack went up tremendously. Made a huge double up off the chipleader at our table with my KK against his AQs. That guy busted shortly after and I went to the final table as the chipleader.
Payoff increases were steep at the FT but I felt pretty confident I could run the table if I kept getting big cards. First casualty was a nice kid who had been at my table earlier and played only big hands. He went rerasied all-in with JJ and was called by a guy with KQs, a weird hand to call an all-in rearaise with. 2 kings hit on the flop and this guy was toast for 10th place. I now had ~155k and this guy who just won the hand had about 140k. It's all bad news from here.
A couple hands later I'm 3 off the button and open raise the 4k/8k blinds to 22k with A9 of clubs. The guy with 140k calls from the SB. Flop is 863 with 2 clubs. He checks and I bet 24k into the pot which he deliberated for a while and the calls. The turn is a nonclub 5. He checks again. Now I should just check and see a free river. I know that. But I can't resist the urge to try to take that now. I thought he might fold I guess. I bet 30k and he stares at me for a long time before calling. River is a non-club 6 and we both check. I about fall out of my chair when he shows me T3o for a flopped bottom pair and enough to take it down.
I am down to 80k but still quite healthy relative to a lot of the remaining stacks. The very next hand i get pocket tens again (which I had gotten 2 times after the earlier folded TT hand and won nice pots). I raise to 23k and the same guy calls me again now on the button. I'm fine with that as he clearly will play anything and thinks he's got my number. With over 55k in the pot and 55k behind i was gonna push any flop that wasn't absolutely horrible or absolutely beatiful. A flop of Q82 looked perfectly reasonable to push. I do, he calls, and flips over Q8, no tens hit, and I am done. Booooooo!
Friday I played in the 1k+80 event. Start with 10k in chips, 25/50 blinds, 45 minute levels and 281 players. Not much noteworthy happened that I can remember. I played pretty conservative/passive/shitty. Tried to make a few moves early but couldn't hit any flops. I actually got real good cards preflop the whole early part of the day, but my flops were always horrid and full of action and I had to fold.
I again just hung around most of the day. got shortstacked and got 94o in the BB. I thought i was UTG and tried to fold but someone spoke up before i could and i had given away the weakness of my hand. Got several limpers so i see a flop of J94 all diamonds. I go all-in with bottom 2 and get called by AQ of diamonds and I hit a turn on the turn to get real lucky and double up. But I am still short. I keep making raises with both good and bad hands and my good hands everyone fold and my bad hands i get reraised. I am befuddled by this.
Eventually I am again short and have 1 limper when i get KTs in the SB. There is about 40% the size of my current stack in the pot. I shouild raise all-in, but i am a pussy and call. The flop is ten high all hearts. i go all-in and get called by K7 hearts and am out in ~100th place. I should have gone all-in preflop.
So I am a bit disappointed that I played so passively and scared for the most part. I was nervous and it showed even when i tried to keep it under control. But I did learn a lot about live play and got to recognize what I have to improve. I didn't get to get in much play as the big stack, because I wasn't hitting many flops early and wasn't picking up pots. hopefully things will go differently in a couple weeks.
We started with ~150 players, 500 chips, and my initial table was pretty bad. There was this old lady across from me who gave me her whole stack calling down my AK with her A6 when an Ace hit the flop and I moved up to 10,000. There were a couple of decent players there but no one doing anything too tricky. I hit a very long cold run of cards after this and got pushed out of the few flops I saw after I hit nothing. But I did win enough pots to just stay about even as the blinds increased.
We got down to 30 left I still had 8,000 but the blinds were getting up to 400/800 with a 75 ante and I started having to make some desperate moves. When in the big blind it folded around to the very conservative SB who limped into me. I looked at K9s and pushed and he thought a long time before folding showing me A4. So I kinda dodged a small bullet there. I don't remember exactly how but I won a small pot a bit later to move up to 15000. Then I almost doubled up when my AQ called and AJ all-in and held up.
Was not getting many cards still and we got down to about 25 players with 500/1000 blinds when this hand happened. UTG limped quicky. UTG+1 (loose) also limped and mid-position guy who hadn't played many hands but talked a lot raised to 10,000. I looked down at pocket tens and thought real hard. Eventually I detrmined that the chance I was behind was too great and if I went all-in I was only getting called by muchbetter hands or possibly one that was a slight dog. So I folded. When UTG quickly called I was sure I made the right move. I didn't see how the board played out but It went to showdown where the raiser showed 52 of spades and the caller showed 76 of spades!!!!!! I was bewildered by the whole thing as was the guy who lost with the 52. I guess it shows that making a great read that your opponents limps are weak only works if the actually will fold to a reasonable raise. Also my TT would have held up so I threw up in my mouth at a wasted opportunity.
Moved to a new table when we went down to 2 tables at 20 players (top 18 paid). I was still pretty short. Many of the players left were pretty weak and I started getting awesome cards. I took down a pot when I raised with a big ace, got 1 caller and hit an ace on the flop, but the caller folded to my bet. I was getting big aces and high pocket pairs about 1 out of every 3 hands and raising them. Once we hit in the money people started calling me with weak hands and my chipstack went up tremendously. Made a huge double up off the chipleader at our table with my KK against his AQs. That guy busted shortly after and I went to the final table as the chipleader.
Payoff increases were steep at the FT but I felt pretty confident I could run the table if I kept getting big cards. First casualty was a nice kid who had been at my table earlier and played only big hands. He went rerasied all-in with JJ and was called by a guy with KQs, a weird hand to call an all-in rearaise with. 2 kings hit on the flop and this guy was toast for 10th place. I now had ~155k and this guy who just won the hand had about 140k. It's all bad news from here.
A couple hands later I'm 3 off the button and open raise the 4k/8k blinds to 22k with A9 of clubs. The guy with 140k calls from the SB. Flop is 863 with 2 clubs. He checks and I bet 24k into the pot which he deliberated for a while and the calls. The turn is a nonclub 5. He checks again. Now I should just check and see a free river. I know that. But I can't resist the urge to try to take that now. I thought he might fold I guess. I bet 30k and he stares at me for a long time before calling. River is a non-club 6 and we both check. I about fall out of my chair when he shows me T3o for a flopped bottom pair and enough to take it down.
I am down to 80k but still quite healthy relative to a lot of the remaining stacks. The very next hand i get pocket tens again (which I had gotten 2 times after the earlier folded TT hand and won nice pots). I raise to 23k and the same guy calls me again now on the button. I'm fine with that as he clearly will play anything and thinks he's got my number. With over 55k in the pot and 55k behind i was gonna push any flop that wasn't absolutely horrible or absolutely beatiful. A flop of Q82 looked perfectly reasonable to push. I do, he calls, and flips over Q8, no tens hit, and I am done. Booooooo!
Friday I played in the 1k+80 event. Start with 10k in chips, 25/50 blinds, 45 minute levels and 281 players. Not much noteworthy happened that I can remember. I played pretty conservative/passive/shitty. Tried to make a few moves early but couldn't hit any flops. I actually got real good cards preflop the whole early part of the day, but my flops were always horrid and full of action and I had to fold.
I again just hung around most of the day. got shortstacked and got 94o in the BB. I thought i was UTG and tried to fold but someone spoke up before i could and i had given away the weakness of my hand. Got several limpers so i see a flop of J94 all diamonds. I go all-in with bottom 2 and get called by AQ of diamonds and I hit a turn on the turn to get real lucky and double up. But I am still short. I keep making raises with both good and bad hands and my good hands everyone fold and my bad hands i get reraised. I am befuddled by this.
Eventually I am again short and have 1 limper when i get KTs in the SB. There is about 40% the size of my current stack in the pot. I shouild raise all-in, but i am a pussy and call. The flop is ten high all hearts. i go all-in and get called by K7 hearts and am out in ~100th place. I should have gone all-in preflop.
So I am a bit disappointed that I played so passively and scared for the most part. I was nervous and it showed even when i tried to keep it under control. But I did learn a lot about live play and got to recognize what I have to improve. I didn't get to get in much play as the big stack, because I wasn't hitting many flops early and wasn't picking up pots. hopefully things will go differently in a couple weeks.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Strike Two
Damn I am tired now. Tournament this morning was brutal. Barely lasted an hour finishing around 400th out of 444. I can list every hand I played though.
1. AT of hearts in the BB and a few players limp in and i check. Flop comes ten high with 2 hearts and I bet about 2/3 pot. Get 1 caller, turn is an A. I bet 1/2 pot, he folds.
2. I limp in in mid position with 22. No 2s on the flop but checks around. no 2 on the turn either and i fold to a modest bet.
3. I make a minimum raise with 53o from the button and the BB and 1 limper call. Flop is something like J46. I bet, they fold.
4. ATo in the BB and several limpers. Flop is A45 and it checks around. Turn is a T again giving me 2 pair and putting 2 diamonds on the board. I bet the pot and an active player raises 3x my bet. I had seen him make this exact play earlier with a flush draw+inside straight draw and end up taking it down when his straight came throung so i stubornly put him on something like a flush draw with 1 pair and raised him all in. He called quickly and flipped up 23 of diamonds giving him the nut straight and flush protection. a great hand. I still had 2 Aces and 2 tens for outs but neither cam and I was done.
Went to the beach in Brigantine for a break and had some lunch and beer.
Played in the 2nd chance tournament at 6pm. Cost was $230. ~140 entries. The whole story is long. The short story was that I doubled up early, hung around while getting no cards through the middle and then got awesome cards when we got down to 20 left. Was the chipleader going into the final table (1st place=$9400). Then via 2 very strange hands I lose all my chips and go out 9th place for $540. Extremely disappointing and I'm not quite over it. I'm pretty much in shock thinking about how it happened and I'm not sure whether I did anything wrong or everything wrong. I'll write more about it later. I'm going to bed if I hope to play in the big $1000 tournament tomorrow morning.
1. AT of hearts in the BB and a few players limp in and i check. Flop comes ten high with 2 hearts and I bet about 2/3 pot. Get 1 caller, turn is an A. I bet 1/2 pot, he folds.
2. I limp in in mid position with 22. No 2s on the flop but checks around. no 2 on the turn either and i fold to a modest bet.
3. I make a minimum raise with 53o from the button and the BB and 1 limper call. Flop is something like J46. I bet, they fold.
4. ATo in the BB and several limpers. Flop is A45 and it checks around. Turn is a T again giving me 2 pair and putting 2 diamonds on the board. I bet the pot and an active player raises 3x my bet. I had seen him make this exact play earlier with a flush draw+inside straight draw and end up taking it down when his straight came throung so i stubornly put him on something like a flush draw with 1 pair and raised him all in. He called quickly and flipped up 23 of diamonds giving him the nut straight and flush protection. a great hand. I still had 2 Aces and 2 tens for outs but neither cam and I was done.
Went to the beach in Brigantine for a break and had some lunch and beer.
Played in the 2nd chance tournament at 6pm. Cost was $230. ~140 entries. The whole story is long. The short story was that I doubled up early, hung around while getting no cards through the middle and then got awesome cards when we got down to 20 left. Was the chipleader going into the final table (1st place=$9400). Then via 2 very strange hands I lose all my chips and go out 9th place for $540. Extremely disappointing and I'm not quite over it. I'm pretty much in shock thinking about how it happened and I'm not sure whether I did anything wrong or everything wrong. I'll write more about it later. I'm going to bed if I hope to play in the big $1000 tournament tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Strike One.
I'm going to be using this blog space to update my WSOP status starting July 28th (Day 1a). As a prelude I'll use this space to report on 3 events I am playing at the Borgata Summer Open in Atlantic City.
Today's event was $300+50 Pot Limit Omaha (High Only). Probably my 3rd best game, but way below hold-em. However, a lot of people playing didn't appear to be experts either and the game is a lot of fun. 114 people entered. I think 110 of them were dudes. We started with 5000 chips and the blinds were 25/25. Lots of room for play.
Early on I spotted a couple of very bad players at my table that were overplaying mediocre hands. I tried to play in a lot of pots with them but couldn't hit a flop and had to fold. I was able to win a decent pot from a solid player early in the 2nd level by turning the nut straight, but he folded to my 1/4 pot river bet when a blank hit the river and showed AAxx as he folded.
There were a few crazy hands after that, including 1 where 4 players went all-in preflop, including a couple of bad players with mediocre hands. Unfortunately these hands moved lots of chips from bad players to good (or at least decent) players at my table.
About the middle of the 2nd level I won a small pot to move me up to 7600 chips, which was 3rd at the table but still pretty solid overall. Unfortunately that was the last hand I won all tournament. 2.5 hours later I was gone in
I think I played pretty well for most of the tournament. I just didn't hit many flops. But I'll post a couple of hands i think I may have made a mistake on.
1. I check in the BB with KT87 and 5 players see a flop of 976 and 2 diamonds(I have no diamonds) giving me 10 high straight and the current best hand possible. I bet the pot quickly and get 2 callers. Turn is a non-diamond 8 making my straight only 2nd best possible and I check into the field of callers. It checks around. and the river was another low blank. Again I check but this time the button bet 1100 into a pot of over 3000. The SB called quickly and now I have to think. I have the second best possible hand but JT is the best possible and those are cards people are likely to play. I figure I have the button beat as he would have had to check the nut straight when last to act on the turn with a diamond flush possible - if he also had Ax of diamonds then he might do that. I'm not sure if the SB would just call with the nuts to try to get my money rather than raise. But I'm not sure what hands he would want to call with given the previous action. So I figure he's got something pretty good but not good enough to beat me. I end up calling, button shows JT and SB shows a measley set of sevens and I learn that my logic is way off. Not sure if I could have folded this but thought it was mildly interesting.
2. After losing the previous pot and several rounds of blinds getting dealt unplayable hands, I get dealt a great hand AKKJ double suited (clubs and spades) in middle position with the blinds at 50/100. 2 players call before me and I have about 3500 chips. I could raise up to 550 total but instead I decide to just call and hope an aggressive player to my left raises so I can reraise a large amount and take a big pot. Unfortunately he just
called and we get a couple more callers to see a flop that was something like Q83 all diamonds. Checks to me and I decide to bet the pot. The aggressive player thinks and raises just over the minimum. Folds to me. I think something is up with that raise and fold showing my KK. He shows a JT of diamonds. Weird play but I should have raised preflop I think. However I'm not sure how it would have played out if i did raise and he called preflop.
Several rounds of bad hands later with blinds 100/200 and my stack at 2200 i get A8(both diamonds)53. 3 callers and i complete and BB checks. Flop is T93 with 2 diamonds (the 9 and 3) and i check. BB raises pot. another player raises all-in. then another goes all-in. I figure that I am up against at least 1 set and 1 other flush draw reducing my outs severely. But I am very shortstacked and winning this pot would over quadruple my chips to almost 10,000 and I have ugly backdoor straight draws as well. So I feel I must do it and make the all-in call. BB calls the all-ins and flips over TTxx (no diamonds). another player has KQJ3 with QJ diamonds and another player has 99xx with 1 diamond. I need a diamond that doesn't complete anyone elses fullhouse, quads, or straight flush, or i need an unlikely backdoor straight. There are 7 diamonds exposed. 6 remain but the T gives the BB quads and another card will counterfeit my would-be flush on either the turn or river. Turn is a non-diamond 6 and i now have an inside straight draw. river is a non-diamond K giving KQJ3 a straight and i am gone in 55th or so place.
A couple random obs about live omaha:
1. Some dealers had a ton of trouble keeping track of the pot and several times calculated it incorrectly. Others were very on top of things and made the game much easier. I'd say when we had a good dealer we got almost 1.5x as many hands in. The difference is that big.
2. It is hard to handle your cards to look at your hand. Much more unwieldy than the 2 for hold-em. The first few tries I must have looked retarded, eventually I just checked them as they were dealt.
3. It's also hard to remember your hand without repeating it over and over in your head. But then you keep running it through your head even after you have folded. This is complicated further when you have to watch the dealers and calculate pot size to prevent more dealer mistakes.
That's all for today. Tomorrow is the 500+60 NL Hold-Em event. Hopefully I will be in that long enough that my update is very late. Should be quite a few players. I got my seat today and its on Table 16 already so I'm guessing we may get over 300. Maybe way over.
Today's event was $300+50 Pot Limit Omaha (High Only). Probably my 3rd best game, but way below hold-em. However, a lot of people playing didn't appear to be experts either and the game is a lot of fun. 114 people entered. I think 110 of them were dudes. We started with 5000 chips and the blinds were 25/25. Lots of room for play.
Early on I spotted a couple of very bad players at my table that were overplaying mediocre hands. I tried to play in a lot of pots with them but couldn't hit a flop and had to fold. I was able to win a decent pot from a solid player early in the 2nd level by turning the nut straight, but he folded to my 1/4 pot river bet when a blank hit the river and showed AAxx as he folded.
There were a few crazy hands after that, including 1 where 4 players went all-in preflop, including a couple of bad players with mediocre hands. Unfortunately these hands moved lots of chips from bad players to good (or at least decent) players at my table.
About the middle of the 2nd level I won a small pot to move me up to 7600 chips, which was 3rd at the table but still pretty solid overall. Unfortunately that was the last hand I won all tournament. 2.5 hours later I was gone in
I think I played pretty well for most of the tournament. I just didn't hit many flops. But I'll post a couple of hands i think I may have made a mistake on.
1. I check in the BB with KT87 and 5 players see a flop of 976 and 2 diamonds(I have no diamonds) giving me 10 high straight and the current best hand possible. I bet the pot quickly and get 2 callers. Turn is a non-diamond 8 making my straight only 2nd best possible and I check into the field of callers. It checks around. and the river was another low blank. Again I check but this time the button bet 1100 into a pot of over 3000. The SB called quickly and now I have to think. I have the second best possible hand but JT is the best possible and those are cards people are likely to play. I figure I have the button beat as he would have had to check the nut straight when last to act on the turn with a diamond flush possible - if he also had Ax of diamonds then he might do that. I'm not sure if the SB would just call with the nuts to try to get my money rather than raise. But I'm not sure what hands he would want to call with given the previous action. So I figure he's got something pretty good but not good enough to beat me. I end up calling, button shows JT and SB shows a measley set of sevens and I learn that my logic is way off. Not sure if I could have folded this but thought it was mildly interesting.
2. After losing the previous pot and several rounds of blinds getting dealt unplayable hands, I get dealt a great hand AKKJ double suited (clubs and spades) in middle position with the blinds at 50/100. 2 players call before me and I have about 3500 chips. I could raise up to 550 total but instead I decide to just call and hope an aggressive player to my left raises so I can reraise a large amount and take a big pot. Unfortunately he just
called and we get a couple more callers to see a flop that was something like Q83 all diamonds. Checks to me and I decide to bet the pot. The aggressive player thinks and raises just over the minimum. Folds to me. I think something is up with that raise and fold showing my KK. He shows a JT of diamonds. Weird play but I should have raised preflop I think. However I'm not sure how it would have played out if i did raise and he called preflop.
Several rounds of bad hands later with blinds 100/200 and my stack at 2200 i get A8(both diamonds)53. 3 callers and i complete and BB checks. Flop is T93 with 2 diamonds (the 9 and 3) and i check. BB raises pot. another player raises all-in. then another goes all-in. I figure that I am up against at least 1 set and 1 other flush draw reducing my outs severely. But I am very shortstacked and winning this pot would over quadruple my chips to almost 10,000 and I have ugly backdoor straight draws as well. So I feel I must do it and make the all-in call. BB calls the all-ins and flips over TTxx (no diamonds). another player has KQJ3 with QJ diamonds and another player has 99xx with 1 diamond. I need a diamond that doesn't complete anyone elses fullhouse, quads, or straight flush, or i need an unlikely backdoor straight. There are 7 diamonds exposed. 6 remain but the T gives the BB quads and another card will counterfeit my would-be flush on either the turn or river. Turn is a non-diamond 6 and i now have an inside straight draw. river is a non-diamond K giving KQJ3 a straight and i am gone in 55th or so place.
A couple random obs about live omaha:
1. Some dealers had a ton of trouble keeping track of the pot and several times calculated it incorrectly. Others were very on top of things and made the game much easier. I'd say when we had a good dealer we got almost 1.5x as many hands in. The difference is that big.
2. It is hard to handle your cards to look at your hand. Much more unwieldy than the 2 for hold-em. The first few tries I must have looked retarded, eventually I just checked them as they were dealt.
3. It's also hard to remember your hand without repeating it over and over in your head. But then you keep running it through your head even after you have folded. This is complicated further when you have to watch the dealers and calculate pot size to prevent more dealer mistakes.
That's all for today. Tomorrow is the 500+60 NL Hold-Em event. Hopefully I will be in that long enough that my update is very late. Should be quite a few players. I got my seat today and its on Table 16 already so I'm guessing we may get over 300. Maybe way over.
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