Dave's 2005 WSOP Journal Jan 6
Last year leading up to the WSOP I kept a "stream of consciousness journal" as I prepared. I will be posting some of this year's journal here.
I welcome all feedback and criticizm.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
In last night’s tournament last night at the Emerald Casino I was more or less happy with my play. There is one hand that I regret and one observation/question to be asked.
In the hand in question, I limped in with A-9s after one limper. A young player who I did not know, but I assumed was very predictable based upon my short observation of him (YG). Raise from a player on my left who is a tricky player (TP). He has a wide range of raising hands and is capable of running a flop-to-river bluff. YG calls and I call. Flop is Ad-Kd-7x. YG checks. I bet. TP folds. That’s good. I was prepared to fold if he raised. YG calls. I am fairly certain at this point that I have the best hand. Turn is Tc. YG exhibits a huge adrenalin response (HAR – thanks to Bob Jarrett for this term). He checks and re-checks his cards a few times. Then, he checks. Hmm…. It seems clear to me that this cards has done something for him, but I am not sure what. I check. River bring 2d. YG now bets. I look at him and say: “You’ve got two diamonds one of which is the ten of diamonds. How did I do?†He fidgets and it is uncomfortable for him. But, I call. I call? Why am I calling? The only hands that he can have beat me. When he checks the flop, what does he have? Either a BIG hands (set) or a draw. The ten on the turn has hit broadway if he has Q-J and the diamond on the river has hit a flush. Also, I already had him down as a predictable player. This is a poorly played hand. I either should have bet the turn (folding to a c/r) or checked the turn and folded the river when he bet. But, I had to prove myself correct so I called the river and he showed me Q-J for broadway. Yes, the ten on the turn had been a HAR.
Secondly, I think that I am pushing too hard near the bubble in these tournaments. The blinds get so big that the average stack is under a lot of pressure. One missed steal attempt takes a person right out of the race. The main overlay in these tournaments comes from other players paying you off when they should not. They call raises with hands that they should not, etc. If you are raising with too wide a range of hands you may, in fact, be turning their bad play into good play. This may be a problem for me in Regina as well and I need to give some thought to slowing down once the average stack is under pressure. At the WSOP not so much, but in Saskatoon and Regina the main error they make is “calling too much†so do not make their bad play into good play by raising too much. Remember – if they are calling stations, acquire the best hand cheaply and earn money with it, but do not try and muscle them around.
Further thoughts on Foxes… Against the real players a critical question to ask is: “What does he think of me?†If you correctly guess what his perception of you style is, then you are a lot closer to understanding what he is doing to you at the moment.â€
I welcome all feedback and criticizm.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
In last night’s tournament last night at the Emerald Casino I was more or less happy with my play. There is one hand that I regret and one observation/question to be asked.
In the hand in question, I limped in with A-9s after one limper. A young player who I did not know, but I assumed was very predictable based upon my short observation of him (YG). Raise from a player on my left who is a tricky player (TP). He has a wide range of raising hands and is capable of running a flop-to-river bluff. YG calls and I call. Flop is Ad-Kd-7x. YG checks. I bet. TP folds. That’s good. I was prepared to fold if he raised. YG calls. I am fairly certain at this point that I have the best hand. Turn is Tc. YG exhibits a huge adrenalin response (HAR – thanks to Bob Jarrett for this term). He checks and re-checks his cards a few times. Then, he checks. Hmm…. It seems clear to me that this cards has done something for him, but I am not sure what. I check. River bring 2d. YG now bets. I look at him and say: “You’ve got two diamonds one of which is the ten of diamonds. How did I do?†He fidgets and it is uncomfortable for him. But, I call. I call? Why am I calling? The only hands that he can have beat me. When he checks the flop, what does he have? Either a BIG hands (set) or a draw. The ten on the turn has hit broadway if he has Q-J and the diamond on the river has hit a flush. Also, I already had him down as a predictable player. This is a poorly played hand. I either should have bet the turn (folding to a c/r) or checked the turn and folded the river when he bet. But, I had to prove myself correct so I called the river and he showed me Q-J for broadway. Yes, the ten on the turn had been a HAR.
Secondly, I think that I am pushing too hard near the bubble in these tournaments. The blinds get so big that the average stack is under a lot of pressure. One missed steal attempt takes a person right out of the race. The main overlay in these tournaments comes from other players paying you off when they should not. They call raises with hands that they should not, etc. If you are raising with too wide a range of hands you may, in fact, be turning their bad play into good play. This may be a problem for me in Regina as well and I need to give some thought to slowing down once the average stack is under pressure. At the WSOP not so much, but in Saskatoon and Regina the main error they make is “calling too much†so do not make their bad play into good play by raising too much. Remember – if they are calling stations, acquire the best hand cheaply and earn money with it, but do not try and muscle them around.
Further thoughts on Foxes… Against the real players a critical question to ask is: “What does he think of me?†If you correctly guess what his perception of you style is, then you are a lot closer to understanding what he is doing to you at the moment.â€
Comments
Regards,
all_aces
Ok, as the self-appointed avatar critic, I really liked your other avatar much more. Perahps if you can take a scan from the WSOP money shirt, that would be way cool. Aslo, can you as Esool and Zithal to change their icons -- they may take your advice!
I really must thank you for sharing your road to the WSOP. You've inspired me to be more open, and get back on track with my WSOP 2005 program.
Part of my program was/is to review my week in play and pick out my brialiant play of the week, and my idiot play of the week. While I learn a ton from my poor plays, I found I quite often overlooked my briliant plays. Oh, I happily review the bad play a couple of thousand times, but the satisfaction of the good play was left at the table. I haven't read the other stream of conciousness, but ask that you share the great plays as well!
After doing the right thing which really is the wrong thing, I often think of our parent's advice when we were younger, "If your friend is going to jump off a bridge, are you going to jump off the bridge as well." As you suggest, there's no need to pay off the loose callers with marginal raises/bets/calls.
I think I've found some monkey-man medicine. You may have read my post in the off-topic forum, which was extremely funny (I still chuckle when I think about the story) http://pokerforum.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=2648 . One of the things I do well, is pay attention to each action and can pretty much get an instant replay on all the hands I've watched. One of the things I don't do well is throw a flag on the play and ask for an instant replay. My new monkey-man medicine is to ask msyelf for an instant replay of the hand, and others I cand draw from. Perhaps if you had an instant replay of the A9 hand it would have been a cursing fold.
I might add that the first rounds of the WSOP main event are similar but different. Much better players that will disquise their hands way better than YG, but a very similar approach is needed. IMO, on Day 1, re-steals, steals and pushing small edges are not going to work that well. Same basic principle, get people to pay off your good hands. The field is just way too big. And, there will be way more bad players in the field. The good thing is that the most skilled players are least equipped to deal with the mine-field of poor players -- we'll have lots of good experience!
Re-steal not so much, because lots of rocks (bad re-steal victims) and fish (also bad re-steal victims) are still in the field.
I thought I should rotate my avatar. Change it up from time to time.
You mention something that has always baffled me with my own play. I have too often found myself saying I knew player X had XX so why did I call? I have been working hard on my game to not call a player down if I KNOW (or pretty damn certain) they have a better hand than my own. I know I need to trust myself more and stop convincing myself I might be wrong. In your situation it is a little different but I'm not sure (may have been 20/20 hindsight in the overtone of your recollection) if your river call was a needed. According to your play-by-play you knew he hit the turn hard and I think you could have stuck with your gut and saved some precious chips(may have also depended on the price too though). Though, it is very easy to be an arm chair quarterback and play when your not at the table.
You had stats for end of each month. Losses, winnings and comments for each.
You have inspired me to try the same this year and maybe I will meet you there!
Next time your in TO let me know, and I will buy you a beer.
Thanks for your journals.
Rob M.
http://www.canadianpoker.com/results.htm
(1) Calling with the worst hand; and
(2) Folding the best hand.
As players we tend to skew our play to making error number (1) in favour of error (2). Partly this is because we have all read Sklansky's admonition that "folding the best hand is a mathematical disaster" and so we tend to call "just in case." Great players trust themselves enough that they fold. They make the occassional "mathematical error" but in the long run they come out way ahead.