Jan 20 WSOP notes
Local tournament last night.
Hand #1: First sign that I am playing well: I limp into a pot with A-6 of clubs. There is six way action. The flop is A-4-3. Checked to me, I bet. The small blind calls and one other calls. Turn card is jack. The small blind bets out. I am confident that I saw a HAR. The monkey mind wanted to call with my last $500, but I folded – confident that my top pair was no good. In small tournaments I might make this “top pair†call. Folding was very empowering because it bolstered my confidence. I was playing well and I knew it. I was confident in my reads. Note that this doesn’t mean that I was right, but it means that I am going to go with a combination of feeling and reason and I am going to ignore the monkey-mind.
Down to 500 I get all in three straight hands. A-5o in late for a split. Then Q-8s for a double through against 7-7. And then the most questionable hand of the tournament for me.
Hand #2: Short stacked UTG player moves all with 1700 chips (blinds where 300-600 I think). I have 2300 and I hold A-Qo. I close call one way or another. The UTG was generally tight although it was possible that he overvalued some hands. I figured that he held a big ace, a suited ace or any pocket pair. Against that range of hands I felt my A-Q was a small favourite although it was certainly a high variance situation. With the large blind size and the rapidly rising blinds I decided I needed to gamble in this spot (after returning I ran poker stove. A-Qo = 52%) Bad news, a player behind me raised and I was forced to call me last 600. A-Q for me. A-J for UTG. And, J-J for raiser. Q on the turn, I win and triple through. I was never again short stacked.
I welcome comments and criticism on this hand and the next one (and anything else you read here).
Hand #3: The final hand. I am about equal stacked with another at $50K. There is one small stack of $10K. Big Stack raises to $12K (blinds $2K-4K). Small stack thinks about it and reluctantly calls. I have A-J of clubs. I moved in. I figured that I had a hand that would play well against the small stack and moving Big Stack out would be OK. Worse case, Big calls and busts us both and I finish second. There was, of course, come possibility of busting in 3rd, but I didn’t like the thought of laying down A-Js in this spot and letting Big chip up against the small stack. Big calls. J-J for Big. A-8s for small stack. A-Js for me. Ace of flop and nut flush on river I win the whole thing.
I am humming and hawing about this hand though and I am not sure that my all-in move was a good idea. I am playing to win, and not to sneak up a pay level. Comments welcome.
Other things…
Love my new purple poker glasses of power. They are like reading glasses so I am able to look over the top of them. Since my left eye is 20/200 (i.e. really really bad) if I look over the top and close my right eye it can’t see a thing. This means that when it comes time for a withering stare down at the WSOP I can rest my head on my right hand and hold my right eye closed. Looking over the top of my glasses my opponent (Phil Hellmuth) will think I am staring at him, but in reality I can’t even tell if he still has his shirt on. Ah… it’s like wearing sunglasses without actually wearing any.
TV has become the teacher. It used to be that a new guy came into the room not knowing how to behave. I don’t mean they behaved badly, I simply mean that they did not understand the nuance of poker culture. Consequently they would observe the locals and model their behavior after what they saw. This is no longer the case. Now, players who have NEVER played in a casino are modeling TV. So, the know to flip their cards violently into the muck when the lose, showboat, etc. The new generation are a lot of show and, no action. And, there are some REAL breaches of etiquette. In one hand BUTTON is all in. He shows his hand to his friend who says “Yuck, you have kicker problems.†The flop is A-5-3. BB check to me. Do I bet my pocket pair? Uh… no. Turn is 7. BB now bets. I announce “Well, since I know that I am up against at least an ace in the button’s hand, I fold.†Button shows A-5. BB shows A-A and wins. But, guys… no talking out loud about the hand while it is in play.
Hand #1: First sign that I am playing well: I limp into a pot with A-6 of clubs. There is six way action. The flop is A-4-3. Checked to me, I bet. The small blind calls and one other calls. Turn card is jack. The small blind bets out. I am confident that I saw a HAR. The monkey mind wanted to call with my last $500, but I folded – confident that my top pair was no good. In small tournaments I might make this “top pair†call. Folding was very empowering because it bolstered my confidence. I was playing well and I knew it. I was confident in my reads. Note that this doesn’t mean that I was right, but it means that I am going to go with a combination of feeling and reason and I am going to ignore the monkey-mind.
Down to 500 I get all in three straight hands. A-5o in late for a split. Then Q-8s for a double through against 7-7. And then the most questionable hand of the tournament for me.
Hand #2: Short stacked UTG player moves all with 1700 chips (blinds where 300-600 I think). I have 2300 and I hold A-Qo. I close call one way or another. The UTG was generally tight although it was possible that he overvalued some hands. I figured that he held a big ace, a suited ace or any pocket pair. Against that range of hands I felt my A-Q was a small favourite although it was certainly a high variance situation. With the large blind size and the rapidly rising blinds I decided I needed to gamble in this spot (after returning I ran poker stove. A-Qo = 52%) Bad news, a player behind me raised and I was forced to call me last 600. A-Q for me. A-J for UTG. And, J-J for raiser. Q on the turn, I win and triple through. I was never again short stacked.
I welcome comments and criticism on this hand and the next one (and anything else you read here).
Hand #3: The final hand. I am about equal stacked with another at $50K. There is one small stack of $10K. Big Stack raises to $12K (blinds $2K-4K). Small stack thinks about it and reluctantly calls. I have A-J of clubs. I moved in. I figured that I had a hand that would play well against the small stack and moving Big Stack out would be OK. Worse case, Big calls and busts us both and I finish second. There was, of course, come possibility of busting in 3rd, but I didn’t like the thought of laying down A-Js in this spot and letting Big chip up against the small stack. Big calls. J-J for Big. A-8s for small stack. A-Js for me. Ace of flop and nut flush on river I win the whole thing.
I am humming and hawing about this hand though and I am not sure that my all-in move was a good idea. I am playing to win, and not to sneak up a pay level. Comments welcome.
Other things…
Love my new purple poker glasses of power. They are like reading glasses so I am able to look over the top of them. Since my left eye is 20/200 (i.e. really really bad) if I look over the top and close my right eye it can’t see a thing. This means that when it comes time for a withering stare down at the WSOP I can rest my head on my right hand and hold my right eye closed. Looking over the top of my glasses my opponent (Phil Hellmuth) will think I am staring at him, but in reality I can’t even tell if he still has his shirt on. Ah… it’s like wearing sunglasses without actually wearing any.
TV has become the teacher. It used to be that a new guy came into the room not knowing how to behave. I don’t mean they behaved badly, I simply mean that they did not understand the nuance of poker culture. Consequently they would observe the locals and model their behavior after what they saw. This is no longer the case. Now, players who have NEVER played in a casino are modeling TV. So, the know to flip their cards violently into the muck when the lose, showboat, etc. The new generation are a lot of show and, no action. And, there are some REAL breaches of etiquette. In one hand BUTTON is all in. He shows his hand to his friend who says “Yuck, you have kicker problems.†The flop is A-5-3. BB check to me. Do I bet my pocket pair? Uh… no. Turn is 7. BB now bets. I announce “Well, since I know that I am up against at least an ace in the button’s hand, I fold.†Button shows A-5. BB shows A-A and wins. But, guys… no talking out loud about the hand while it is in play.
Comments
For some reason I found this unusually hilarious because I tried immediately stopping the first idea right at the end of this sentence.
It makes me feel that I can play well myself.
ScottyZ
For Hand #3, I think you played it fine under the assumption that your coming first is far more important to you than moving up into second place. (If the latter is the case, just calling seems superior.)
This is almost a dry side pot raise, but I think it's a good play because
1. If the button is stealing pre-flop a "normal" amount, you've got no reason to put him on a big hand. The short stack may also be willing to make a stand with hands that are merely above average.
2. AJs itself is a big hand 3-handed, and particularly strong against the typical pre-flop raising hand, A-random.
3. The side pot isn't truly dry. There is already $4K (= 1 big blind) of dead money out there. Your moving in put your net chip risk at only $8K in cases where the button folds. The open-raise to $12K is a bit of a bungle IMO. Better to either bet exactly $10K, or overbet the pot by a fair amount (say $20K or more to go) with a hand as good as JJ.
ScottyZ
I didn't mean to imply that it was bad writing. Clearly, it entertained at least one reader.
I think I was just reading it in a bizzare way.
ScottyZ
Hand #2: I think I would've moved in after the short stack because 1) I feel shortstacked, and 2) try to get a medium pair (77, 88) to fold and go heads up against the short stack. In the end, it would played out the same anyways.
Hand #3: I would've played it the same way.
This is the lesson in the local tournaments for me. There are not too many players in my local tournaments who will fold 7-7 under ANY circumstances. Since they will not, I like to see the flop as cheaply as possible. In THIS situation 77 is folding the original raise... or not. My extra 600 will not force the fold. At least, I didn't think so. The main question in my mind is whether I should have called at all.