GBH $100K+ Tournament Trip Report
On the eve of Great Blue Heron Casino's Spring Classic, I talked to a forumer who wanted to buy a piece of me for the $1000+$100 event, so I said OK. With the long drive during the morning, I did my usual lucky "Phil Hellmuth" of arriving late, but this time I only missed one hand. The Skill Level 6 tournament had 10,000 starting chips with 30-minute blinds.
I didn't like who I saw at my table and around the room. With this being the biggest buy-in tournament in Ontario so far this year, some of Canada's best players made a special trip to GBH. The CPT champion who is on this month's cover of the Canadian Poker Player magazine was there, along with previous finalists from Blue Water Classic, WPT NAPC and Las Vegas events. I also recognzied a couple of players from the CPT/WPS events in Dominican Republic who just flew in from PEI and Nova Scotia. There were three forumers there, all of whom were in the top 10 in the GBH points leaderboard. "cheers: It was the toughest field I have seen since last year's $10K WPT event.
Drinks At Ontario Casinos
After having experienced poker paradise at the Venetian in Las Vegas that includes free premium alcohol, Red Bull, Rockstar energy drinks, pomegranate juice and Fiji water, I can't help but notice the huge difference in Ontario casinos. A GBH player was complaining that he had just been charged for ordering water and I didn't believe it until a friend that had come to rail me was shocked at having to pay $2 for his bottle of water.
I experienced the same surprise at Point Edward Casino last month when I first sat down at the "no-limit with a $100 limit" :rolleyes: cash game and ordered juice but was asked to pay. After later being charged $4 for a small can of Rockstar, a player from Caesars Windsor revealed that it was a rip-off as it only costs him 80¢ wholesale. I had previously thought that Casino Brantford was the worst rip-off for the $6 Rockstar, but it was for the big can so it wasn't as bad as Point Edward.
Female Sharks
I saw only three ladies out of the 110 players, but sat beside them all at some point. In my first table filled with Fallsview sharks, I become shortstacked after I lost a pot to a semi-pro who had also won multiple WPT NAPC seats last year and whom I had won a $500 last-longer bet at the WPT. When my table was broken up, GBH correctly paused the clock unlike some casinos in other provinces where some players cheat by delaying moving to their new table to avoid the blinds.
In my second table, I sat beside the pretty lady who I had correctly predicted would win the big $800 tournament at Casino Brantford after my AA and KK got sucked out on and I was eliminated. She got eliminated herself in GBH in a crazy AK vs. KK hand when a high-stakes Fallsview pro hit the case King on the river for a suckout re-suckout.
There were huge stacks in my table. One LAG doubled me up when he called my KK all-in with 8-6 sooooted.
The biggest stack had been eliminating players with monster hands, but I caught him on his first big bluff and doubled up again.
I got moved to a table with a forumer. He loses a big heads-up pot against the points champion and championship finalist from the Blue Water Classic, whom I put on TPTK. I want to have hands discussions with the three forumers who play in casino tournaments as I have been confused by a few of the hands that I have seen them play at both GBH and Point Edward.
I later got moved to a table with another forumer. I raised UTG, he re-raised all-in on the BB and my hand held up to eliminate the highest-ranked forumer in the GBH leaderboard.
After a couple of breaks and table changes, I was seated beside the third female shark, who likes to dress sexy. She has won a bunch of tournaments and is currently #3 on the GBH leaderboard. We had gone to war a bunch of times in the WPT satellite battlefield, where she had won a $10K seat but ended up selling it. In a battle of the blinds, I raised her with AQ; she re-raised all-in. After going into the tank to do the analysis, I knew the correct equity-maximizing play was to call, and I won the coin-flip against her 44.
Bubble Time
With 11 players making the money and down to two tables, it was nearing the most nerve-wracking yet my favourite time of a tournament - bubble time! I finally got AA for the first time in the tournament. After momentarily considering folding them preflop,
I raised, then the Point Edward points champion made a big pot-committing raise. I had taken him out with AA too in the Blue Water Classic. I thought about flat-calling, but with my remaining chips about the same as his raise, I opted to re-raise all-in. He called with AQ and he was crippled.
When there were 13 players left, hand-for-hand started. It got down to 12 and bubble time when the following hand happened. Blinds were 2K/4K with a strange ante of only 200. The biggest stack in the table who had been raising the most, raised only 2.5 times the BB to 10K on the puck. SB folded. I had the second biggest stack in the table and had
:ah :6h
What would you do?
With over 100K in chips and because I was soooted, I opted to call the 6K more and see the flop. The flop was
:6s :kh :8h
What would you do?
I bet 13K. He raises all-in. After the initial shock, I sit down to start to go into the tank. Even though it was hand for hand anyway, a douchebag not in the hand pulls a Tiffany Michelle and calls clock on me while I am trying to make a huge decision on the bubble for the ~$110,000 prize pool!
What would you do?
I didn't like who I saw at my table and around the room. With this being the biggest buy-in tournament in Ontario so far this year, some of Canada's best players made a special trip to GBH. The CPT champion who is on this month's cover of the Canadian Poker Player magazine was there, along with previous finalists from Blue Water Classic, WPT NAPC and Las Vegas events. I also recognzied a couple of players from the CPT/WPS events in Dominican Republic who just flew in from PEI and Nova Scotia. There were three forumers there, all of whom were in the top 10 in the GBH points leaderboard. "cheers: It was the toughest field I have seen since last year's $10K WPT event.
Drinks At Ontario Casinos
After having experienced poker paradise at the Venetian in Las Vegas that includes free premium alcohol, Red Bull, Rockstar energy drinks, pomegranate juice and Fiji water, I can't help but notice the huge difference in Ontario casinos. A GBH player was complaining that he had just been charged for ordering water and I didn't believe it until a friend that had come to rail me was shocked at having to pay $2 for his bottle of water.
I experienced the same surprise at Point Edward Casino last month when I first sat down at the "no-limit with a $100 limit" :rolleyes: cash game and ordered juice but was asked to pay. After later being charged $4 for a small can of Rockstar, a player from Caesars Windsor revealed that it was a rip-off as it only costs him 80¢ wholesale. I had previously thought that Casino Brantford was the worst rip-off for the $6 Rockstar, but it was for the big can so it wasn't as bad as Point Edward.
Female Sharks
I saw only three ladies out of the 110 players, but sat beside them all at some point. In my first table filled with Fallsview sharks, I become shortstacked after I lost a pot to a semi-pro who had also won multiple WPT NAPC seats last year and whom I had won a $500 last-longer bet at the WPT. When my table was broken up, GBH correctly paused the clock unlike some casinos in other provinces where some players cheat by delaying moving to their new table to avoid the blinds.
In my second table, I sat beside the pretty lady who I had correctly predicted would win the big $800 tournament at Casino Brantford after my AA and KK got sucked out on and I was eliminated. She got eliminated herself in GBH in a crazy AK vs. KK hand when a high-stakes Fallsview pro hit the case King on the river for a suckout re-suckout.
There were huge stacks in my table. One LAG doubled me up when he called my KK all-in with 8-6 sooooted.
The biggest stack had been eliminating players with monster hands, but I caught him on his first big bluff and doubled up again.I got moved to a table with a forumer. He loses a big heads-up pot against the points champion and championship finalist from the Blue Water Classic, whom I put on TPTK. I want to have hands discussions with the three forumers who play in casino tournaments as I have been confused by a few of the hands that I have seen them play at both GBH and Point Edward.
I later got moved to a table with another forumer. I raised UTG, he re-raised all-in on the BB and my hand held up to eliminate the highest-ranked forumer in the GBH leaderboard.
After a couple of breaks and table changes, I was seated beside the third female shark, who likes to dress sexy. She has won a bunch of tournaments and is currently #3 on the GBH leaderboard. We had gone to war a bunch of times in the WPT satellite battlefield, where she had won a $10K seat but ended up selling it. In a battle of the blinds, I raised her with AQ; she re-raised all-in. After going into the tank to do the analysis, I knew the correct equity-maximizing play was to call, and I won the coin-flip against her 44.
Bubble Time
With 11 players making the money and down to two tables, it was nearing the most nerve-wracking yet my favourite time of a tournament - bubble time! I finally got AA for the first time in the tournament. After momentarily considering folding them preflop,
I raised, then the Point Edward points champion made a big pot-committing raise. I had taken him out with AA too in the Blue Water Classic. I thought about flat-calling, but with my remaining chips about the same as his raise, I opted to re-raise all-in. He called with AQ and he was crippled.When there were 13 players left, hand-for-hand started. It got down to 12 and bubble time when the following hand happened. Blinds were 2K/4K with a strange ante of only 200. The biggest stack in the table who had been raising the most, raised only 2.5 times the BB to 10K on the puck. SB folded. I had the second biggest stack in the table and had
:ah :6h
What would you do?
With over 100K in chips and because I was soooted, I opted to call the 6K more and see the flop. The flop was
:6s :kh :8h
What would you do?
I bet 13K. He raises all-in. After the initial shock, I sit down to start to go into the tank. Even though it was hand for hand anyway, a douchebag not in the hand pulls a Tiffany Michelle and calls clock on me while I am trying to make a huge decision on the bubble for the ~$110,000 prize pool!
What would you do?
Comments
Very nice report though...
Btw...please start using names if you know what it is...I hate guessing which pro/poker star you played with
This is a situation where hearing what 13Cards has to say would be helpful.
What were the stack sizes???? I can't answer the question without knowing the stack sizes.
But they were soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooted!
It's a weird bet by the big stack. I mean a set doesn't play that way, two pair doesn't play that way (just by thinking with effective stacks). It really smells like KQ or something stupid like that.
The fact that you lead into him should give him some indication that you may have hit the flop but then I am thinking if he puts you on a K he must have some combo draw.
I put him on maybe 57H or 79H....
His line suggests that he doesn't think you will just call with 1 pair and if you do he has a monster set of outs.
Barring any reads I would skew his range wayyyyy towards AK, AA and a set and fold. On a Q or J high board you can include KK (and QQ) in his range as overpairs making it more of a flip with your ace live, but on a K high board your ace is likely dead killing 12% of your EV and it's a fold. I understand he likely understands that accumulating bubble chips is important, but is he likely to be making a move for his entire stack?
I call preflop if he is opening loose on the bubble, but what was the purpose of your lead -- as a blocking bet for the turn or to get it all in on that board? Did you just see the flop and bet out without thinking it through enough (not as insult, I've done this at times as well) because it looked great for your hand?
You still have a workable if not great stack if you fold as well and you are likely better than most of the remaining players, so again fold.
In general I really like your analysis GTA and concur. However I think given the $$$ already in the pot I don't think he's -ev vs AA and AK, Buddy already has a "pair" of 6's so either of 2 6's or 9 hearts makes him good, 11 outs times 2....
In a cash game a call for sure but in a tournament a fold can be argued strictly because of the value of chips gained vs lost and their relative value.
Thinking of this a little more though and I think those arguing for a fold pre have some merit unless the villian has been overly active or you know for a fact he's a poor player...
I call and if i get lucky, im in excellent shape to dominate the rest of the tournament. PLAY TO WIN TOP PRIZE.
I think the key to this entire discussion is the fact that I don't know what 'raising the most' means in this context since it's a perception. Has he been raising every button? Raising large amounts? Has his bet sizing been pretty standard (raising all the time 2.5x the blind)? Can you clarify? What percentage of hands has he been raising with?
I'm calling here since it's a smallish hit to my stack and the potential is there for other options depending on the board.
It all depends on the answer to the above questions about raise frequency.. If he's likely raising premium holdings, then the chance the K hit him is increased. Hands like QQ, KK, AA, AK, AQ all are possible. If he's more liberal, you can start adding hands like 66 and 88, perhaps even a KQ type of a hand to his range.
The more I think about this, other than 666 what better flop are you getting with a pre-flop call? Isn't this exactly what you were hoping for?
I ran a quick PS and depending on how liberal it swings between coinflip favouring him and a flip favouring you. Here's an example:
If he's been liberally raising PF (loosey-goosey):
Board: 6s Kh 8h
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 57.855% 55.80% 02.06% 56896 2099.00 { Ah6h }
Hand 1: 42.145% 40.09% 02.06% 40876 2099.00 { QQ+, 88, 66, AJs+, A8s, A6s, K9s+, AJo+, A8o, A6o, KTo+ }
Start by stabbing the guy who called clock..
Once I know a bit more about the raising habits of your villain, I'll grunch my response.
Whot hoppened?
As an aside: The CPT is back in print?
You need to hit your flush to win imo. Why risk your tourney on a 33% draw against the chip leader? Yes even if you play to win I do not think this is a good spot. On the other hand, if you are willing to call here then you should have been the one to push and put him to the decision.
Whot hoppened??
With 23,200 chips preflop then my opponent raising my 13K bet all-in for my remaining ~90K chips, I needed ~39% equity to make it +cEV to call (90K / 229K). I put my aggressive opponent's likely range to be K-x. As long as he didn't have A-K or better, e.g., K-Q, I was actually a favourite to win (52%). If he had A-K, my equity was 43%. If it was a cash game, I would call because I'm just a "math robot" who loves profitable so-called "coin-flips."
However, this was bubble time, the twilight zone where poker decisions can become very counter-intuitive. As third in chips, I had a lot of $EV in the $110,000 prize pool. Calling and losing the coin-flip would get me a "big fat zero" as my daughter loves shouting whenever I ask her what I just got for being bubble boy in an online tournament. So while it may have been +cEV to call, it was -$EV to call so folding was the correct decision. I asked the TD how much time I had left and I took that time to go through the REM (Range-Equity-Maximize) analysis again; ironically, I would have taken less time to make a decision if the douchebag did not call clock on me.
A few hands after I folded, I woke up with AA! No, I did not fold AA preflop on the bubble but raised instead. The same guy who was the early chip leader and doubled my short stack when he bluffed at me, re-raised all-in. My Weapons of Math Instruction held up and the money bubble was burst! All 11 players would get a nice trophy with 11th place getting just below his buy-in.
By the way, an interesting rule that GBH has is that no hoodies are allowed. None of the pro wanna-bes that were told to remove their hoody and Ipod while wearing sunglasses in the the dark-lit casino made it to the money, as usual.
Final Table
There was a player in the final table who had earlier asked me after the tournament had started to swap a percentage, which I said OK. Per World Poker Association's proposed rules, I disclosed this to the TD, who mentioned it to the table. I don't like the pros who hide their stakes in each other then cheat by playing softly against their horse in the same table.
As the smallest stacks got eliminated, blinds had become very high, so I knew that luck would be the big factor in who would win. I made it to the final five, third in chips. I was in the SB, and the biggest stack and two micro stacks had already folded. I could have folded to try to move up the money ladder, but I had an above average hand and being a $EV-maximizing go-for-the-win kind of :fish:, I opted to go all-in knowing that the BB could not call without a monster. Unfortunately, for the second time against my raise, villain woke up with a monster, QQ (KK the other time), called and took me out.
Unlike many other casinos who automatically take out up to 4% from the buy-ins for tips to tournament staff, the OLG casinos do not take anything out for tips. As usual, I left my tip with one of the dealers, but just like at Casino Brantford, some of the money winners did not leave a single cent for the dealers. ???
I finally got to use my free buffet coupon. The villain in the OP, who went out in sixth place on an all-in bluff, confirmed that he did have AK when he raised all-in.
Yes, the second issue of the new Canadian Poker Player magazine has been out for awhile. Another forumer and I received our copies in the mail as CPT members last month, but the magazine may still be available in the casinos. I thought of posting about the CPT Finals hand that they got slightly wrong in the magazine, but I first have to finish writing an article for the next issue.