I read an article on the FTP website that talks about how Chris Ferguson used nothing but an empty account, and built up a 10k bankroll from it. His strategy is also discussed. I may try to follow his footsteps here. :-)
Link to that article here.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Looking for a new place to play
I went looking for some different poker venues. I found my way to the Full Tilt Poker web site, the free one where you play for points, not money. I played a few tournaments, and its clear to me (using the points anyway) that the tournament style is much different.
I played some cash (points) games and did okay. Took my points balance from 1000 to 4500. Played some sit-n-go tournaments and realized my style of play wasn’t going to work very well. As soon as the tournament began, many around the table went all-in. Matter of fact, it was an all-in festival. Whereas on ESPN it takes about 30 minutes thin half the field, on this site it takes about 7 minutes. J It took me a bit to adjust my playing style, but not before I blew through about half those points I earned.
I then went back and built my points back up again, and joined a 630 player sit-n-go that apparently was a super satellite for the Aussie Millions tournament. Didn’t know that as I played it. I did pretty well, finishing 10th out of 630. One player shy of the final table, so not too shabby. :-)
I played some cash (points) games and did okay. Took my points balance from 1000 to 4500. Played some sit-n-go tournaments and realized my style of play wasn’t going to work very well. As soon as the tournament began, many around the table went all-in. Matter of fact, it was an all-in festival. Whereas on ESPN it takes about 30 minutes thin half the field, on this site it takes about 7 minutes. J It took me a bit to adjust my playing style, but not before I blew through about half those points I earned.
I then went back and built my points back up again, and joined a 630 player sit-n-go that apparently was a super satellite for the Aussie Millions tournament. Didn’t know that as I played it. I did pretty well, finishing 10th out of 630. One player shy of the final table, so not too shabby. :-)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Tournament Update
An update on my big tournament day. I did not play in the $10,000 tournament. Early in the morning, I played some cash games to warm up and found myself not playing very good cards and losing money. I also learned that this tournament can last until 8pm at night, which would cause me to miss the ESPN tournament. I felt like my chances were going to be better in the ESPN tournament, so I found someone to buy my seat at the Tulalip tournament and went home early.
The ESPN final tournament went okay for me, but no grand prize. Out of 411 entries, I finished 114th. Not quite where I wanted to be, no grand prize, etc. But hey, I think I did okay considering the day I was having. I was in what Harrington calls the Green and Yellow zones during the first hour of the tournament. For a final tournament, I would have figured they would have given each player more than 1500 in tournament chips. I found myself running behind for most of the second hour. Harrington calls this the Orange and Red Zones. I shot myself in the end going all-in with ATo, found one caller who paired his J on the board to knock me out even though I had paired my T.
So I just don’t feel like I was playing good cards today. I’m not playing academically lately and I think I’m playing the game itself and not playing the cards. I think I need to take a little time away from actually playing poker and work on some of the fundamentals. I think I’ll read my books for a few days and not play at all. See you in a few days... maybe.
The ESPN final tournament went okay for me, but no grand prize. Out of 411 entries, I finished 114th. Not quite where I wanted to be, no grand prize, etc. But hey, I think I did okay considering the day I was having. I was in what Harrington calls the Green and Yellow zones during the first hour of the tournament. For a final tournament, I would have figured they would have given each player more than 1500 in tournament chips. I found myself running behind for most of the second hour. Harrington calls this the Orange and Red Zones. I shot myself in the end going all-in with ATo, found one caller who paired his J on the board to knock me out even though I had paired my T.
So I just don’t feel like I was playing good cards today. I’m not playing academically lately and I think I’m playing the game itself and not playing the cards. I think I need to take a little time away from actually playing poker and work on some of the fundamentals. I think I’ll read my books for a few days and not play at all. See you in a few days... maybe.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Bright and Early
Didn’t play in a tournament today, but I did play in a $3-6 limit cash game at Muckleshoot. I think its fun to start playing a cash game early in the morning like 5 or 6am. Oftentimes you can catch a few folks that have been there all night – some just keep throwing their money away, drawing dead, chasing hands they shouldn’t even be in. Being the early riser today earned me an extra $208. Maybe I should have played the tournament, but I didn’t want anything to distract from my focus on tomorrow.
Tomorrow I have two big tournaments. Tomorrow morning is a $150 buy-in no limit tournament at Tulalip. They pay the top 10% of the field (normally 20 players), and first place is a guaranteed $10,000. They have these big tournaments every month at Tulalip and every seat in the house is full. Last month, the first place prize was $12,000.
Later Sunday, I have the final tournament on ESPN Poker Club (the free site). First place is a travel package to a WSOP Academy class in Vegas.
So tomorrow will be a big day. Bright and early. J
Tomorrow I have two big tournaments. Tomorrow morning is a $150 buy-in no limit tournament at Tulalip. They pay the top 10% of the field (normally 20 players), and first place is a guaranteed $10,000. They have these big tournaments every month at Tulalip and every seat in the house is full. Last month, the first place prize was $12,000.
Later Sunday, I have the final tournament on ESPN Poker Club (the free site). First place is a travel package to a WSOP Academy class in Vegas.
So tomorrow will be a big day. Bright and early. J
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Wish You Were Here
Went and played the $90 Saturday tournament again at Tulalip. On the way up to the casino, the radio station played a few cuts from Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, the title tracked followed by Welcome to the Machine. It put me in a great mood, so I was inspired to stop by the WalMart next to the casino and pick up a copy of the CD, even though I already own it a few times over. I just had to listen to more of it before the tournament started. It may soon become a pre-tournament ritual for me.
This is a qualifying tournament, where if you can finish fifth or better you can return on October 20th for a chance at a freeroll into one of two WPT events – the Bellagio Cup or the Bay 101 Shooting Star events. They have these qualifiers every Saturday.
Last week I busted out just way too quickly in the third round. Today I made it to the fifth round. One the way up there, I had told myself I was going to lay off the first few hands. Well, the first hand I was dealt was TT. I limped in, but the flop and next round of betting chased me out. The second hand was 33 and after betting 3 times the BB, I landed a set of 3’s with the flop. But I was sandwiched between better hands. The turn brought a second spade and large betting caused me to throw away my set. My suspicion was correct, two spade flushes were made with the river.
In this tournament, I fell behind with my chip stack and stayed that way. I went all-in three times and survived each one. Even tripled up on one occasion, but that only brought me back to my original chip amount – 4000. But my luck was soon to run out. With only $1100 in chips left I went all-in with KT. As it played out on the board. I made paired both the K and the T, but fell to a Ace-high straight on the river and was knocked out along with another player who is usually pretty agressive.
But hey, made it to the fifth round. Out of 149 original entries, and I figured I went out somewhere between 60-70th place. So I made it past halfway through the field and never had a decent chip stack.
I’ll likely play again tomorrow in the Sunday tournament. I did pretty darn well in that tournament last week. Fingers crossed.
This is a qualifying tournament, where if you can finish fifth or better you can return on October 20th for a chance at a freeroll into one of two WPT events – the Bellagio Cup or the Bay 101 Shooting Star events. They have these qualifiers every Saturday.
Last week I busted out just way too quickly in the third round. Today I made it to the fifth round. One the way up there, I had told myself I was going to lay off the first few hands. Well, the first hand I was dealt was TT. I limped in, but the flop and next round of betting chased me out. The second hand was 33 and after betting 3 times the BB, I landed a set of 3’s with the flop. But I was sandwiched between better hands. The turn brought a second spade and large betting caused me to throw away my set. My suspicion was correct, two spade flushes were made with the river.
In this tournament, I fell behind with my chip stack and stayed that way. I went all-in three times and survived each one. Even tripled up on one occasion, but that only brought me back to my original chip amount – 4000. But my luck was soon to run out. With only $1100 in chips left I went all-in with KT. As it played out on the board. I made paired both the K and the T, but fell to a Ace-high straight on the river and was knocked out along with another player who is usually pretty agressive.
But hey, made it to the fifth round. Out of 149 original entries, and I figured I went out somewhere between 60-70th place. So I made it past halfway through the field and never had a decent chip stack.
I’ll likely play again tomorrow in the Sunday tournament. I did pretty darn well in that tournament last week. Fingers crossed.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Poker after work
A couple of friends at work wanted to go play some poker Monday night after work. We talked about where to play, and finally we settled on Muckleshoot. Their tables were in pretty crappy condition and the air wasn’t moving around very well. A long, long way from Caeasar’s poker room. So Muckleshoot wasn’t very memorable for me. I played 3-6 limit for about 6 hours and left there down about $180. My friends didn't fare much better.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Cheap Sunglasses
This morning I woke up and decided to go play in Tulalip’s $50 tournament. I arrived about 90 minutes early and decided I’d look at the outlet malls for a pair of sunglasses. I thought it might improve my tournament game. I first stopped in the Oakley store. The staff there were busy talking amongst themselves and hardly had any time for me. None of the shades had any prices on them. That combined with the lack of any attention of the staff got me to walk. Found another place (PacSun) that sold cheap ($15) sunglasses. But they didn’t have any cords to keep the shades hanging off my neck. So I had to go to yet another place. Finally geared up properly now, I headed over to the casino.
I bought into the tournament right away and sat down to a cash game while I waited. I played for roughly 40 minutes or so, and was down by $6. Yes, a whopping $6.
The tournament was interesting. I was fortunate enough to be able to keep the same table throughout my tournament run – table #16. There were 187 entrants in this tournament, about the same number as yesterday. Yet today’s outcome was far different than yesterday.
I focused primarily on keeping my emotions in check. The blinds in these tournaments move fast, so frequent coasting isn’t going to be a long-term winning strategy. Yet a large chip stack compared to your peers allows you to choose from a couple of things, coast for a few hands and pick the right spot to attack or maybe try to bully others off their hands. I noted that many who had shades didn’t wear them. I kept mine on whenever the cards were in the air.
After the first hour of play, I got farther than I had on Saturday. Monitoring the size of my chip stack, I realized that I had to pull the trigger on a few hands just to keep my average up. Getting behind on chips causes me to be in the mindset of “now you have to find a good ride before you get blinded out”. With each hand you get you ask yourself “Is this the best hand I’ll get before those blinds come around again?” and more importantly, “Is this one winnable?”
Of course I took several of those chances. Make a mistake here and you’ll head home early. I took four (maybe five) of those chances in this tournament. One of the most memorable hands of this tournament was an all-in I did with Kevin, a very dominant personality and intimidating body frame. If he’s not the chip leader he’s close to it. I have position on him and we both limp in to see the flop. What he doesn’t know is that I have pocket 3’s and the flop completes a set. He makes a big raise, about 1900 chips. I have maybe 1700 in my stack. I push my stack across the line, sit back and freeze for a moment. I then stand up to watch the turn and the river. My set holds up and I draw back a lot of chips, which takes me well above 5000 in chips. This allows me to go much farther in the tournament. I think I established enough dominance that anytime I pushed in chips, look out. I know I kept Kevin off some marginal hands.
About two and half hours in, I started paying attention to how many tables were still filled with tournament players. Six tables soon turned into five, then four. Blinds kept increasing every 15 minutes and then soon we were down to two. That’s when I started thinking I might make the final table. I had to put that aside though. I needed to win another good hand to get to that table. Almost as soon as I that thought registered, I found myself sending two to the rail with one hand. This was a bounty tournament and that earned me two chips (and a large stack) at once. I ended the tournament with three bounty chips.
Well, soon enough found myself at the final table. Thankfully, the final table was located right at the first table I sat down to in this tournament – table #16. Never moved the whole time. Kevin, my all-in nemesis, was right there along with me. Soon the final table of 11 became 4. The chip leader knocked out two more including Kevin, and soon it was just me and the chip leader.
First place pays $1600 and second place pays $1300 in this tournament. Gary the chip leader offers me $100 to simply volunteer to go out in second place, he really wanted the special encased button that says ‘tournament winner’ and was willing to pay for it. I wasn’t going to give that chance up. I already had second place locked and I wanted my chance to play for the button. After all, I think heads-up is one of my best games. We battle back and forth on a few all-ins, and I manage the chip lead with a well-timed spade flush. I have him covered by at least 2:1. The blinds are 20000 and 40000. I’m in the small blind, I limp in and Gary goes all-in. I call with A-8. Gary turns over A-Q and he prevails. This turns the chip counts around and I’m now at the disadvantage. A few more hands go by and I’m out in second place with $1300. No button.
But I think I did get my tournament game back that I thought I had lost Saturday. My wife reminded me that in just two weeks, I’ve entered my first seven tournaments, and found the final table in four of them, cashed three, and won one. The month’s tournament winnings, $1,832. So far.
I love my cheap sunglasses.
I bought into the tournament right away and sat down to a cash game while I waited. I played for roughly 40 minutes or so, and was down by $6. Yes, a whopping $6.
The tournament was interesting. I was fortunate enough to be able to keep the same table throughout my tournament run – table #16. There were 187 entrants in this tournament, about the same number as yesterday. Yet today’s outcome was far different than yesterday.
I focused primarily on keeping my emotions in check. The blinds in these tournaments move fast, so frequent coasting isn’t going to be a long-term winning strategy. Yet a large chip stack compared to your peers allows you to choose from a couple of things, coast for a few hands and pick the right spot to attack or maybe try to bully others off their hands. I noted that many who had shades didn’t wear them. I kept mine on whenever the cards were in the air.
After the first hour of play, I got farther than I had on Saturday. Monitoring the size of my chip stack, I realized that I had to pull the trigger on a few hands just to keep my average up. Getting behind on chips causes me to be in the mindset of “now you have to find a good ride before you get blinded out”. With each hand you get you ask yourself “Is this the best hand I’ll get before those blinds come around again?” and more importantly, “Is this one winnable?”
Of course I took several of those chances. Make a mistake here and you’ll head home early. I took four (maybe five) of those chances in this tournament. One of the most memorable hands of this tournament was an all-in I did with Kevin, a very dominant personality and intimidating body frame. If he’s not the chip leader he’s close to it. I have position on him and we both limp in to see the flop. What he doesn’t know is that I have pocket 3’s and the flop completes a set. He makes a big raise, about 1900 chips. I have maybe 1700 in my stack. I push my stack across the line, sit back and freeze for a moment. I then stand up to watch the turn and the river. My set holds up and I draw back a lot of chips, which takes me well above 5000 in chips. This allows me to go much farther in the tournament. I think I established enough dominance that anytime I pushed in chips, look out. I know I kept Kevin off some marginal hands.
About two and half hours in, I started paying attention to how many tables were still filled with tournament players. Six tables soon turned into five, then four. Blinds kept increasing every 15 minutes and then soon we were down to two. That’s when I started thinking I might make the final table. I had to put that aside though. I needed to win another good hand to get to that table. Almost as soon as I that thought registered, I found myself sending two to the rail with one hand. This was a bounty tournament and that earned me two chips (and a large stack) at once. I ended the tournament with three bounty chips.
Well, soon enough found myself at the final table. Thankfully, the final table was located right at the first table I sat down to in this tournament – table #16. Never moved the whole time. Kevin, my all-in nemesis, was right there along with me. Soon the final table of 11 became 4. The chip leader knocked out two more including Kevin, and soon it was just me and the chip leader.
First place pays $1600 and second place pays $1300 in this tournament. Gary the chip leader offers me $100 to simply volunteer to go out in second place, he really wanted the special encased button that says ‘tournament winner’ and was willing to pay for it. I wasn’t going to give that chance up. I already had second place locked and I wanted my chance to play for the button. After all, I think heads-up is one of my best games. We battle back and forth on a few all-ins, and I manage the chip lead with a well-timed spade flush. I have him covered by at least 2:1. The blinds are 20000 and 40000. I’m in the small blind, I limp in and Gary goes all-in. I call with A-8. Gary turns over A-Q and he prevails. This turns the chip counts around and I’m now at the disadvantage. A few more hands go by and I’m out in second place with $1300. No button.
But I think I did get my tournament game back that I thought I had lost Saturday. My wife reminded me that in just two weeks, I’ve entered my first seven tournaments, and found the final table in four of them, cashed three, and won one. The month’s tournament winnings, $1,832. So far.
I love my cheap sunglasses.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Another tournament under my belt
Played a lot of $4-8 limit today. Within a good hour or so, I was up exactly $90, just enough to enter a qualifying tournament. The last tournament I played was the $150 at Caesar’s, in which I busted out at the first level. Well, at least this time I made it to the third level.
I then played some more $4-8 after I busted out. There were some good players around. I think I played for a good 6 hours and found myself down about $300. I had a series of good hands, and before I knew it, I had clawed my way back to down by $100. A couple of hands of pocket Q’s helped, too. Kind of reminded me of the three hands of A-A earlier in the week.
Maybe I’ll go back and play the Sunday tournament tomorrow.
I then played some more $4-8 after I busted out. There were some good players around. I think I played for a good 6 hours and found myself down about $300. I had a series of good hands, and before I knew it, I had clawed my way back to down by $100. A couple of hands of pocket Q’s helped, too. Kind of reminded me of the three hands of A-A earlier in the week.
Maybe I’ll go back and play the Sunday tournament tomorrow.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Mini-satellite at Tulalip
I may go and play at Tulalip this weekend. They are having a mini-satellite for the Bellagio Cup, $90 buy-in. Why not, I say.
I've not played a single hand since the 3 straight pocket AA's. I may have forgotten how to play this game.
I've not played a single hand since the 3 straight pocket AA's. I may have forgotten how to play this game.
My Las Vegas trip
Well I certainly meant to blog while on my Las Vegas trip, I just never got around to it. I also burned myself out on the game. I’ve had a range of experiences, which I’ll do my best to document here.
Wednesday
I was supposed to get into town on Tuesday around lunchtime. Because of the flights and work, I didn’t actually arrive until Tuesday night. So on Wednesday, bright and early, I sat down to the tables for a few hands of 2-4 limit. I didn’t rake it in, but I managed to pay for the day’s tournaments at Excalibur. Their tournaments are usually 3 or 4 tables with a $35 buy-in. Each of the tournaments had some 35 players or so. In each of the tournaments, I made the final table. I finished tenth in the first, fifth in the second, and I won the last. It was my first tournament win at a live table! I pulled in $478.
The second tournament was a little strange. Being extremely short stacked, I just wanted it to be over. On the deal I push my stack in pre-flop and go all-in, blind. I didn’t even look at my hole cards. I had 66 and the board gave me a third 6. Good enough to win the hand, survive the blinds and get another couple places up in the finish for fifth – enough to reach the money. I made a big $54. Woo hoo, don’t spend it all in one place.
The third tournament won’t soon be forgotten. The final three was myself, a Frenchman, and a Korean woman. The Frenchman was a big chip leader at the final table for most of the hands and I was the short stack. The Korean woman asked if we wanted to chop the winnings. I would have gone along with the rest of the table. The Frenchman didn’t want to. So we continued to play, but not before the Korean woman brags about how she asked at her last tournament and then proceeded to win it all from her opponents.
The Korean woman knocks out the chip leader. I’m now heads up with her – and I love playing heads up. She had me covered by maybe 2:1 and I asked her if she wanted to chop, and she says no. “I’ve got way more chips than you”. Well I certainly didn’t think I’d beat her, but with two all-ins in a row, I knocked her out. She wasn’t happy with me. I wished her good luck and thank you for playing with me. She didn’t even answer. Clearly she was angry with someone, probably me.
I play a few more cash 2-4 limit games and I do come out ahead, but nothing spectacular.
Thursday / Friday
Thursday and Friday I was mostly busy with work, so I couldn’t play very much. I did play at Bally’s and Caesar’s Palace which was nice to get some experience in poker rooms where I was uncomfortable. My first trip to Caesar’s was pretty good. I played with two friends from work in a $3-6 limit game. I did pretty well until my friends left. I found one weakness in my game which was older women who resemble someone that I know or am related to. For some reason the grandmothers can read me like a book. There was one such person at Caesar’s and she was taking my money. Apparently she was a local who had won some of the bigger tournaments, despite her assertion that she had only been playing for six months. She was awfully good for only six months experience if true. J My friend had labeled her “Scary Lady”. She was as kind as anyone could be. She only wanted to take your money. J I landed quad-3’s, from which I would receive the high hand jackpot of a big sixty dollars.
Saturday
On Saturday I jumped up quickly to play before anyone else woke up, about 9 am. I couldn’t find any limit games going on at Excalibur. I was also too chicken to join in the no limit games. Later in the day we did find a good $2-4 limit game. I did reasonably well, including hitting quad 3’s and quad 4’s. Later, I went to Caesar’s and they had several 3-6 games going, but my poker partner didn’t want to play there. “Too many sharks,” he said. He suggested Bally’s, as this is where he was going to check into. I went over to Bally’s and there was nothing but the no-limit games. Call me chicken.
I did play by myself later on Saturday at Caesar’s, but I went down by $100 and walked out. “Scary Lady” had come back and soon she returned to building up her chip stack. I had noted on my first trip that they had some decent tournaments with a much higher buy-in than I’m used to - $150. But they had decent chip stacks with some 5,000 in chips. Looking at the blind structures, these do tournaments last awhile. According to the desk host, they can sometimes last until 2 or 3 in the morning.
My poker partner and I did play Bally’s later that evening. We have a mantra when we play “No Reload” or essentially “No rebuys”. He rebought twice. That was okay, I was enjoying playing with him. I didn’t rebuy and only came out even. There really were some good players at the table. By this point I started feeling a little tired of poker. I’m even asking myself – if I’m getting tired of poker after only 4 days, how would I handle the stress of a lengthy tournament such as the WSOP? Not that I’m good enough for that, but being consistent enough for it?
Sunday
Sunday gave me a good, hard lesson in poker. Sometimes the cards are good to you. Sometimes they are not. Each and every game for me on Sunday was a losing one. Had to rebuy in a 2-4 limit game at Excalibur. Busted out of the $35 Excalibur tournament quickly. Had to rebuy in the 3-6 game at Caesar’s. It was brutal. Couldn’t catch anything, it seemed. I got a lot of A-9, but those never seemed to go anywhere.
I figured my luck had to change soon enough. I eyed that $150 tournament. To date, it’s the most expensive tournament I’ve entered. When the cards start to fly, its clear my table mates are good – really, really good. The pace is very quick – everyone is attentive to the gameplay. The tournament starts off with a lot of people stealing blinds and little else. Then someone gets knocked out. I see a couple of flops and I think I stole a blind myself.
I’m dealt Kh Qh. I think to myself – good hand – get in and bring back some chips. I’m in middle position and no one raises pre-flop, and flop brings Q T 4. Checks around to me and I open with $200, thinking I’ve got top pair with a good kicker. The turn comes and the villain bets like $250 and I raise it to $1000. Villain calls. The river comes with another Q. I don’t go all in, but villain makes another large bet and I raise it again with most of my chip stack. He calls. I show my trip queens, and he shows Q T for the full house. He had me beat with the two pair on the flop.
I’m pretty much dead at this point. I survive the blinds another round and eventually go all in with 6 6. After all, they were good enough to me earlier in the week. It proved to be not good enough and I was out in the first round after only 40 minutes. I’m feeling pretty down after this. Maybe I’m not cut out for this game of poker. I deduce that my head is just too muddy for poker today. Maybe some days I should just not play. At all.
Monday
I got another good hard lesson in poker today. Maybe the best lesson yet. I just didn’t realize what lesson I was getting until I was sitting on the runway at McCarran airport waiting to take off. I woke up this morning with a few hours to kill before it was time to go to the airport for home. At 8am, I decided to at least go see what the action was like down at the poker room just one last time on this trip.
The 2-4 limit game I was most comfortable with was not being played. Just a couple of tables of 1-3 no limit. I have never played the no-limit cash games, figuring the players were much better and I would lose very quickly. So this was my first. I played it much like I do tournaments – aggressive, limp in with good hands or the nuts where possible, and then extract as much as you dare.
For me the most obvious difference between limit and no limit is you have fewer people chasing straights and flushes. I once heard from a dealer the nickname for the limit games I was used was “no fold-em hold-em”. It also seems that you can bluff and push people off their hands with large bets.
I played reasonably well. I stole a few blinds here and there with high pairs and such. Won a pretty good hand at showdown with a A-high straight. I went a little loose and speculated a bit, and soon I found myself about $40 up. Nothing special.
Let me describe the table. The chip leader at the table “Paul” had an amazing army of $5 chips in front of him. I’m guessing it had to be over $2000. I at first didn’t want to play this table with such an amazing chip stack. I wanted to play the other one. After all, its too easy to join a no-limit game when you’ve got someone that can bet 200-300 a hand pre-flop without even batting an eye.
Another guy who was really drunk (even passed out once) made one of the worst moves I think I had seen at the table. The board was very favorable to a straight, with 7 8 9 T on the board. Paul had been doing most of his betting either pre-flop or right after the flop. He had been using his chip strength to steal a lot of hands. Drunk guy and Paul get into a showdown, but not before drunk guy pushes his whole stack for all-in. Paul calls. Whole table is thinking straight and we’re right – drunk guy flips over 5-5. Paul on the other hand flips over J-Q.
A few hands later, I figure I had maybe another good hour left to play when I was dealt AA. At the time I was sitting on $240 or so. Astonished, I played it as cool as I could. I managed to hook a few and follow them to a showdown. I had a main pot going and two side pots. I prevailed and brought home a nice little new army of red $5 chips and knocked out someone that was on the short stack. Even got a good little chunk from Paul. Everyone at the table is clearly jealous of the pocket pair and the tight-aggressive player dragging back a big stack.
Now while I’m still stacking my chips and customarily tipping the dealer, two more cards suddenly appear. I’m still on the high from the high of the last hand. I figure I’ll take a quick peek, fold, and go back to putting my new little army in proper formation. I peek, it’s AA again. I can’t believe it. I’ll describe what I’m thinking at this point. I can’t believe my good fortune. My heart is pounding loudly, to the point where I think the rest of the room can now read me like a book, just like Scary Lady did. I play it out. I’m starting to draw a crowd of onlookers, because I’m betting big right from the flop. I’m slowly hooking one of the same players I hooked the last hand – an older Asian man who led with a $100 bet after the flop. He has maybe $75 left or so in his stack. Paul is next to play, and he calls. I just call this round. On the next round, go all-in with my second straight AA. Asian man calls, Paul gets out of the way. My aces hold up, and my army grows.
As you can imagine I had little time to process everything that was going on around me. I figure I had ten onlookers. Again I’m back to stacking even more chips and my army is starting to take the same shape as Paul’s. While I’m stacking chips, two more cards magically appear. Guess what? It’s AA again. At this point I’m not sure I’m able to process this. My heart rate had to be astronomical. I figure everyone can read me still. I know I played this almost automatically. But the showdown this time is only Paul and I. I’m ahead of Paul position-wise and Paul is aggressive with his bets. Before the showdown happens, there must have been a good $1000 (maybe closer to $1200) in the pot. Neither of us spent any time thinking about the calls or the raises. The number of onlookers has also grown. The table is quiet. The board is something like TxxTK (Can’t remember the other two cards.) I’m thinking cool – I’ve got Aces and 10’s and I’m going to extract yet another huge pot, this time from the chip leader here and take the chip lead on this table.
But this time my amazing luck has run out. Paul flips over his T to win with a set. Other players are first amazed that I drew AA three times in a row and then suddenly become a little angry, with one player calling for a new set of cards to be brought in. I gathered the rest of my chips and cashed out immediately, leaving with $400, doubling the $200 I brought into the game. Later I would discover that the odds of hitting AA three times in a row is about 1 in 10,793,861. That’s like winning the lottery-style odds. If I’m going to be that lucky, I’d rather it be winning the lottery.
Now of course I’m reeling a bit that I played (and lost) a thousand dollar hand. I know I must have a few stones loose to play that size of a hand. I should have read the board better and suspected a set. Maybe I couldn’t while Paul was being so aggressive with his betting. Hard to say. What I do know is this:
If I had been dealt anything other than a monster pocket pair, I would have folded and returned to neatly stacking my chips. This would have been true for the 2nd and the 3rd AA. But I thought I had the momentum. No one would stand in my way here with such aggressive betting. Or those that dared, I would simply make them pay with my monster hands. This aggression, combined with the loss of situational awareness, and that my heart felt like it was working harder than it ever has is what the pros must say is playing on ‘tilt’. I hope that lesson proves to be more worth far more than the value of that third hand.
Wednesday
I was supposed to get into town on Tuesday around lunchtime. Because of the flights and work, I didn’t actually arrive until Tuesday night. So on Wednesday, bright and early, I sat down to the tables for a few hands of 2-4 limit. I didn’t rake it in, but I managed to pay for the day’s tournaments at Excalibur. Their tournaments are usually 3 or 4 tables with a $35 buy-in. Each of the tournaments had some 35 players or so. In each of the tournaments, I made the final table. I finished tenth in the first, fifth in the second, and I won the last. It was my first tournament win at a live table! I pulled in $478.
The second tournament was a little strange. Being extremely short stacked, I just wanted it to be over. On the deal I push my stack in pre-flop and go all-in, blind. I didn’t even look at my hole cards. I had 66 and the board gave me a third 6. Good enough to win the hand, survive the blinds and get another couple places up in the finish for fifth – enough to reach the money. I made a big $54. Woo hoo, don’t spend it all in one place.
The third tournament won’t soon be forgotten. The final three was myself, a Frenchman, and a Korean woman. The Frenchman was a big chip leader at the final table for most of the hands and I was the short stack. The Korean woman asked if we wanted to chop the winnings. I would have gone along with the rest of the table. The Frenchman didn’t want to. So we continued to play, but not before the Korean woman brags about how she asked at her last tournament and then proceeded to win it all from her opponents.
The Korean woman knocks out the chip leader. I’m now heads up with her – and I love playing heads up. She had me covered by maybe 2:1 and I asked her if she wanted to chop, and she says no. “I’ve got way more chips than you”. Well I certainly didn’t think I’d beat her, but with two all-ins in a row, I knocked her out. She wasn’t happy with me. I wished her good luck and thank you for playing with me. She didn’t even answer. Clearly she was angry with someone, probably me.
I play a few more cash 2-4 limit games and I do come out ahead, but nothing spectacular.
Thursday / Friday
Thursday and Friday I was mostly busy with work, so I couldn’t play very much. I did play at Bally’s and Caesar’s Palace which was nice to get some experience in poker rooms where I was uncomfortable. My first trip to Caesar’s was pretty good. I played with two friends from work in a $3-6 limit game. I did pretty well until my friends left. I found one weakness in my game which was older women who resemble someone that I know or am related to. For some reason the grandmothers can read me like a book. There was one such person at Caesar’s and she was taking my money. Apparently she was a local who had won some of the bigger tournaments, despite her assertion that she had only been playing for six months. She was awfully good for only six months experience if true. J My friend had labeled her “Scary Lady”. She was as kind as anyone could be. She only wanted to take your money. J I landed quad-3’s, from which I would receive the high hand jackpot of a big sixty dollars.
Saturday
On Saturday I jumped up quickly to play before anyone else woke up, about 9 am. I couldn’t find any limit games going on at Excalibur. I was also too chicken to join in the no limit games. Later in the day we did find a good $2-4 limit game. I did reasonably well, including hitting quad 3’s and quad 4’s. Later, I went to Caesar’s and they had several 3-6 games going, but my poker partner didn’t want to play there. “Too many sharks,” he said. He suggested Bally’s, as this is where he was going to check into. I went over to Bally’s and there was nothing but the no-limit games. Call me chicken.
I did play by myself later on Saturday at Caesar’s, but I went down by $100 and walked out. “Scary Lady” had come back and soon she returned to building up her chip stack. I had noted on my first trip that they had some decent tournaments with a much higher buy-in than I’m used to - $150. But they had decent chip stacks with some 5,000 in chips. Looking at the blind structures, these do tournaments last awhile. According to the desk host, they can sometimes last until 2 or 3 in the morning.
My poker partner and I did play Bally’s later that evening. We have a mantra when we play “No Reload” or essentially “No rebuys”. He rebought twice. That was okay, I was enjoying playing with him. I didn’t rebuy and only came out even. There really were some good players at the table. By this point I started feeling a little tired of poker. I’m even asking myself – if I’m getting tired of poker after only 4 days, how would I handle the stress of a lengthy tournament such as the WSOP? Not that I’m good enough for that, but being consistent enough for it?
Sunday
Sunday gave me a good, hard lesson in poker. Sometimes the cards are good to you. Sometimes they are not. Each and every game for me on Sunday was a losing one. Had to rebuy in a 2-4 limit game at Excalibur. Busted out of the $35 Excalibur tournament quickly. Had to rebuy in the 3-6 game at Caesar’s. It was brutal. Couldn’t catch anything, it seemed. I got a lot of A-9, but those never seemed to go anywhere.
I figured my luck had to change soon enough. I eyed that $150 tournament. To date, it’s the most expensive tournament I’ve entered. When the cards start to fly, its clear my table mates are good – really, really good. The pace is very quick – everyone is attentive to the gameplay. The tournament starts off with a lot of people stealing blinds and little else. Then someone gets knocked out. I see a couple of flops and I think I stole a blind myself.
I’m dealt Kh Qh. I think to myself – good hand – get in and bring back some chips. I’m in middle position and no one raises pre-flop, and flop brings Q T 4. Checks around to me and I open with $200, thinking I’ve got top pair with a good kicker. The turn comes and the villain bets like $250 and I raise it to $1000. Villain calls. The river comes with another Q. I don’t go all in, but villain makes another large bet and I raise it again with most of my chip stack. He calls. I show my trip queens, and he shows Q T for the full house. He had me beat with the two pair on the flop.
I’m pretty much dead at this point. I survive the blinds another round and eventually go all in with 6 6. After all, they were good enough to me earlier in the week. It proved to be not good enough and I was out in the first round after only 40 minutes. I’m feeling pretty down after this. Maybe I’m not cut out for this game of poker. I deduce that my head is just too muddy for poker today. Maybe some days I should just not play. At all.
Monday
I got another good hard lesson in poker today. Maybe the best lesson yet. I just didn’t realize what lesson I was getting until I was sitting on the runway at McCarran airport waiting to take off. I woke up this morning with a few hours to kill before it was time to go to the airport for home. At 8am, I decided to at least go see what the action was like down at the poker room just one last time on this trip.
The 2-4 limit game I was most comfortable with was not being played. Just a couple of tables of 1-3 no limit. I have never played the no-limit cash games, figuring the players were much better and I would lose very quickly. So this was my first. I played it much like I do tournaments – aggressive, limp in with good hands or the nuts where possible, and then extract as much as you dare.
For me the most obvious difference between limit and no limit is you have fewer people chasing straights and flushes. I once heard from a dealer the nickname for the limit games I was used was “no fold-em hold-em”. It also seems that you can bluff and push people off their hands with large bets.
I played reasonably well. I stole a few blinds here and there with high pairs and such. Won a pretty good hand at showdown with a A-high straight. I went a little loose and speculated a bit, and soon I found myself about $40 up. Nothing special.
Let me describe the table. The chip leader at the table “Paul” had an amazing army of $5 chips in front of him. I’m guessing it had to be over $2000. I at first didn’t want to play this table with such an amazing chip stack. I wanted to play the other one. After all, its too easy to join a no-limit game when you’ve got someone that can bet 200-300 a hand pre-flop without even batting an eye.
Another guy who was really drunk (even passed out once) made one of the worst moves I think I had seen at the table. The board was very favorable to a straight, with 7 8 9 T on the board. Paul had been doing most of his betting either pre-flop or right after the flop. He had been using his chip strength to steal a lot of hands. Drunk guy and Paul get into a showdown, but not before drunk guy pushes his whole stack for all-in. Paul calls. Whole table is thinking straight and we’re right – drunk guy flips over 5-5. Paul on the other hand flips over J-Q.
A few hands later, I figure I had maybe another good hour left to play when I was dealt AA. At the time I was sitting on $240 or so. Astonished, I played it as cool as I could. I managed to hook a few and follow them to a showdown. I had a main pot going and two side pots. I prevailed and brought home a nice little new army of red $5 chips and knocked out someone that was on the short stack. Even got a good little chunk from Paul. Everyone at the table is clearly jealous of the pocket pair and the tight-aggressive player dragging back a big stack.
Now while I’m still stacking my chips and customarily tipping the dealer, two more cards suddenly appear. I’m still on the high from the high of the last hand. I figure I’ll take a quick peek, fold, and go back to putting my new little army in proper formation. I peek, it’s AA again. I can’t believe it. I’ll describe what I’m thinking at this point. I can’t believe my good fortune. My heart is pounding loudly, to the point where I think the rest of the room can now read me like a book, just like Scary Lady did. I play it out. I’m starting to draw a crowd of onlookers, because I’m betting big right from the flop. I’m slowly hooking one of the same players I hooked the last hand – an older Asian man who led with a $100 bet after the flop. He has maybe $75 left or so in his stack. Paul is next to play, and he calls. I just call this round. On the next round, go all-in with my second straight AA. Asian man calls, Paul gets out of the way. My aces hold up, and my army grows.
As you can imagine I had little time to process everything that was going on around me. I figure I had ten onlookers. Again I’m back to stacking even more chips and my army is starting to take the same shape as Paul’s. While I’m stacking chips, two more cards magically appear. Guess what? It’s AA again. At this point I’m not sure I’m able to process this. My heart rate had to be astronomical. I figure everyone can read me still. I know I played this almost automatically. But the showdown this time is only Paul and I. I’m ahead of Paul position-wise and Paul is aggressive with his bets. Before the showdown happens, there must have been a good $1000 (maybe closer to $1200) in the pot. Neither of us spent any time thinking about the calls or the raises. The number of onlookers has also grown. The table is quiet. The board is something like TxxTK (Can’t remember the other two cards.) I’m thinking cool – I’ve got Aces and 10’s and I’m going to extract yet another huge pot, this time from the chip leader here and take the chip lead on this table.
But this time my amazing luck has run out. Paul flips over his T to win with a set. Other players are first amazed that I drew AA three times in a row and then suddenly become a little angry, with one player calling for a new set of cards to be brought in. I gathered the rest of my chips and cashed out immediately, leaving with $400, doubling the $200 I brought into the game. Later I would discover that the odds of hitting AA three times in a row is about 1 in 10,793,861. That’s like winning the lottery-style odds. If I’m going to be that lucky, I’d rather it be winning the lottery.
Now of course I’m reeling a bit that I played (and lost) a thousand dollar hand. I know I must have a few stones loose to play that size of a hand. I should have read the board better and suspected a set. Maybe I couldn’t while Paul was being so aggressive with his betting. Hard to say. What I do know is this:
If I had been dealt anything other than a monster pocket pair, I would have folded and returned to neatly stacking my chips. This would have been true for the 2nd and the 3rd AA. But I thought I had the momentum. No one would stand in my way here with such aggressive betting. Or those that dared, I would simply make them pay with my monster hands. This aggression, combined with the loss of situational awareness, and that my heart felt like it was working harder than it ever has is what the pros must say is playing on ‘tilt’. I hope that lesson proves to be more worth far more than the value of that third hand.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)