2 for 2 in SCOOP SATs
To top off a great weekend, I played and won my second $2000 satellite to the $10,000 WCOOP main event. The first one I played, which I replayed for Poker Savvy Plus, had only 9 runners and paid one seat plus a lot cash. This one got 52 runners, paying 10 seats plus some cash for 11th. Naturally it was a very different satellite dynamic. Here are a few of the more interesting hands:
This one occurred with 25 players left. With fewer players left, or a slightly weaker hand (JJ, even), I think it would be very close. Even here, I wasn't happy with Queens:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2000+$100 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 30 Ante (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG (t7802)
Hero (UTG+1) (t6339)
MP1 (t5140)
MP2 (t7681)
CO (t4490)
Button (t9135)
SB (t2515)
BB (t6864)
Hero's M: 10.31
Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with Q, Q
1 fold, Hero bets t666, 3 folds, Button raises to t2000, 2 folds, Hero raises to t6309 (All-In), Button calls t4309
Flop: (t13233) 3, 8, 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)
Turn: (t13233) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: (t13233) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)
Total pot: t13233
Results:
Button had K, A (one pair, tens).
Hero had Q, Q (two pair, Queens and tens).
Outcome: Hero won t13233
On this next one, I'm pretty happy with the flat call. I think TT is too strong to fold, but not strong enough to get in pre-flop. This stage of the tournament is going to force Villain to play pretty straightforwardly, and combined with my position, I think I'll be able to realize my showdown value post-flop and avoid losing too much to better hands.
I'm actually unsure about this river bet, though. I have the best hand pretty much always, but I think I get called almost never. I'm wondering if something smaller, like 5500, wouldn't be better rather than force Villain to risk his tournament life?
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2000+$100 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds 40 Ante (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
CO (t11648)
Hero (Button) (t12058)
SB (t7025)
BB (t6051)
UTG (t6180)
MP (t7004)
Hero's M: 17.48
Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 10
2 folds, CO bets t900, Hero calls t900, 2 folds
Flop: (t2490) 7, 10, K (2 players)
CO bets t1200, Hero calls t1200
Turn: (t4890) J (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets t2345, CO calls t2345
River: (t9580) 6 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets t7573 (All-In), 1 fold
Total pot: t9580
Results:
Hero didn't show 10, 10 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t9580
There were 12 left for this last one, and I was like 5th or 6th. Villain's raise size made me nervous, since it seemed larger than necessary, but he also may have been trying to make clear to the Button that he was calling a shove (though that should have been clear anyway).
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2000+$100 Tournament, 350/700 Blinds 85 Ante (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button (t2982)
Hero (SB) (t12949)
BB (t17050)
UTG (t9051)
MP1 (t11756)
MP2 (t13217)
CO (t19973)
Hero's M: 7.87
Preflop: Hero is SB with J, A
3 folds, CO bets t2100, 1 fold, Hero raises to t12864 (All-In), 2 folds
Total pot: t5495
Results:
Hero didn't show J, A (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won t5495
Thing is, big stacks are not that much bigger than small stacks, given the blinds, and if you don't occasionally take risks like this, you can easily end up having to take far bigger risks should you find yourself short. I've cost myself a few seats in the past by getting too tight prematurely and underestimating just how long the bubble would take.
Santa Cruz, CA
Awesome town! I had this preconception of a kind of shallow California surfer dude town, but I actually found a surprisingly friendly, welcoming, and charming place with a strong sense of community and civic identity (as a California surfer dude town, granted), at least among the locals. I'm sure the place can get pretty crowded and insufferable on weekends, especially on summer weekends. But there was a great diversity of restaurants and independent shops collected in a few very walkable downtown blocks. Plus, it's just minutes from the beach and a boardwalk that features a well-regarded roller coaster, at least according to my brother the ex-coaster fanatic. Sadly, the coaster was only running on weekends, so I didn't get to ride it.
I did, however, get to camp in a nearby state park and spend the afternoon on a beautiful beach. On the east coast, at least the mid-Atlantic region where I grew up, we don't have cliffs and trees right along the shore. It was pretty neat to hang out on a beach with a tree-lined, rocky cliff towering overhead.
A short walk along the beach revealed that someone had built an incredible shrine of sorts in the shadow of one of the higher cliffs out of driftwood, stones, and local plants. There was an elaborate "courtyard", entryway, and "altar" that must have taken says of solid work, but no artist in sight. I took some pictures, but I'm not sure how well the scale and detail of the place comes across:
The next morning we hung out for a bit at a local coffee shop to take advantage of their free internet and overheard some aging, bearded conspiracy theorists sharing their crazy with some young California surfer dudes and two bohemian intellectuals who seemed to be Mexican. There was a lot of discussion about a car that can run on compressed air that the US government is keeping a secret. It was pretty classic.
Oh, and someone in a burrito joint recognized my Foucault T-shirt and asked where I got it! (Answer: Tres Normale)
Sorry for the long silence, but I've been camping with limited internet access and just generally had better stuff to do here in California besides blogging. But whenever I get around to posting next (quite possibly tomorrow), I'll talk about Big Sur.
Vacation is Well Underway
Note: Cross posted at thinkingpoker.net
For those who didn't see Calmer's comment yesterday, I didn't last long at all on Day 2 of the WPT. My table was fairly tough, not that it mattered. There were a few, young internet players who seemed pretty tough, one or two middle-aged guys who were probably the soft spots but weren't particularly bad, a dealer in one of the local card rooms who played well enough, then Men "The Master" Nguyen and Erick Lindgren.
Blinds started off at 500/1000/100- can't say enough about the great structure tournament director Matt Savage put together! My 17K chips gave me the perfect stack for shoving over raises. The first time I was in the BB, action folded to one of the internet guys in the SB. I felt like he was probably going to raise any two, because most of those guys just cannot bring themselves to open fold. He made it 2400, which unfortunately told me he was probably good, capable of choosing just the right bet size. But I had 44, moved all in, and got him to fold quickly. "I'm gonna pump your stack up 2400 chips at a time," he told me, with a hint of disdain in his voice.
"Feel free," I responded.
My second BB, one of the weaker players opened to 2100. I hate calling raises with such a short stack, but with Q9 I felt like I had to. I check-folded to 4500 on a ragged flop.
On my third BB, action folded to the SB again. He opened to 2400 again. It's hard to say what his range is here, given that I shoved on him last time. I could see him open shoving some hands that he didn't want to raise-fold or raise-call, stuff like QJ and suited connectors. But I doubt he was open folding anything, so he probably had a lot of bluffs in his range anyway. I shoved with K3o, but he had AA and that was that.
I'd only wasted half an hour on the tournament that morning, so Emily and I took off for Santa Cruz, where we camped by the beach. There are worse consolation prizes!
Bay 101 WPT Day 1am
note: cross-posted on www.thinkingpoker.net
I decided to play the Bay 101 because of the combination of a nice location, great structure/tournament director (thanks Matt Savage!), and interesting people I thought it would attract, both because of the area and the number of pros who play as "shooting stars" with $5000 bounties on their heads.
At the outset, they distributed the bounties evenly, with one or two at every table in the 5 and/or 7 seats. I was fortunate to get probably the single softest bounty in the field at my table: 2007 WSOP main event champion Jerry Yang was seated to my immediate left. He was very quiet, but friendly enough. To my surprise, he made a lot of hopeless bluffs, especially in the early stages of the tournament. That's not exactly how I expected him to play, which is maybe what he was going for. I called him down correctly once with 8s 4s on a Js 8h 3s Qd 3d board.
I did some splashing around in the early going, got into pots with weak players but couldn't make anything happen and bled away about 10% of my chips in the first hour. I lost about the same in the next hour, but then just before the first break I picked up 77 in early position. Blinds were 50/100, and because the table was playing very loose, I just min-raised to 200. Small pairs are hell to play out of position in big pots, so I was mostly looking for set value.
A young, boisterous Asian kid who seemed to be a local regular rather than an internet phenom re-raised to 650. It was the first re-raise we'd seen at our table all day, and I was very sure what he had. I called, and got a nice but not perfect Tc 8c 7s flop. There was only 1300 in the pot but 16K in the effective stacks. This guy seemed like exactly the sort to overplay a big pair here, trying to "protect" his hand, and I wanted to get the money in before a scare card came off. I was afraid that if I check-raised him he might just call, which I didn't want. So I led out for 900, he raised to 2K, I moved all in, and he called so quickly that for a second I was afraid he might have TT. But he turned over AA, looked disgusted, and failed to hit his two-outer. I went into the first break with nearly 35K, well over the average of about 22K.
After the break, blinds were 100/200. I called a raise from a tight older Japanese guy who seemed not very good with Ah 7s in the SB. The flop came AJT with one heart, and we both checked. The turn brought the Qh, giving me a flush draw and the idiot end of a gutshot to go along with my top pair. To a more aggressive player, I check here, but against this guy, I decided to bet out 700 instead, thinking he'd call with a lot of draws and worse pairs that he wouldn't bet.
Instead, he raised to 3000, leaving about 3000 behind, which was pretty much the worst thing he could do. Especially from this player, this was a very strong line. I didn't want to shove, because I was sure I did not have the best hand. It was very close between call and fold. I ultimately decided to call, but in retrospect I'm not sure that was best. The river was an off-suit 4, and I check-folded. I'm still not sure whether leading out on the turn was actually better than just check-calling. Even if I also check-called the river, it probably would have cost me the same but I would have seen my opponent's hand.
I ran into a few interesting spots against Yang where his bounty influence my decision. In one, I opened to 500 with KJs on the button, and he made it 2000 from the SB with 8000 behind. Ordinarily I would fold, but relataive to this many chips the $5000 for busting him is a huge overlay. I opted to call and fold to a shove on a T74 flop with none of my suit. He told me he had KK, and I decided that even with the bounty my call was a bad one.
A little later, he had position and a somewhat deeper stack and repopped my 500 raise to 1500. I called with QTs and again check-folded a flop that whiffed me entirely. That one I think was justified.
The guy I'd busted was replaced with Bill Gazes in the 7 seat. Bill wasn't actually a bounty, but because he was known to a lot of the dealers and sitting in the bounty seat, he had to keep explaining that he wasn't actually a shooting star. I don't think he actually felt snubbed at not having a bounty, but it would have been funny if he did since dealers kept assuming that and shouting for the floor when he was all in.
It was unfortunate for me that he wasn't a bounty, because I ended up busting him. The last hand before our first break, blinds were 150/300/25. Gazes, sitting on about 12K, raised to 1000 UTG+1. I called with 88 in the SB, expecting him to be very strong, and Maria Ho (who had replaced Yang on my immediate left) called in the BB. I had about 20K, and she covered me.
The flop came Jd 9d 8s, and I had to think about how I wanted the money to go in. If we check to Bill, he probably bets, then I have to raise and Maria folds probably every hand worse than mine. Instead, I led out for 1800. Maria called, and Bill moved all in. I put on a show of thinking about whether to call, hoping to entice Maria in with a wider range, but she was paying no attention at all, which was actually bad for me. Either she was already planning to fold, or she had a huge hand and was doing the classic Caro "weak-means-strong" pretending to have no interest in the hand. I finally shoved in, and she quickly folded.
Bill actually had TT, giving him something like 40% equity, but my set held up. He was very gracious about it, chatting with me briefly about the hand, then clapping me on the back and saying, "Use them well my friend." Definitely left a very favorable impression with me.
There was a middle-aged Asian guy with bad teeth but a good sense of humor who initially seemed pretty fishy. In the early levels, he was playing almost every hand, often limp-calling raises out of position. As the blinds got bigger, though, he tightened up a bit, got a bit more aggressive, and started playing reasonably well post-flop. He still had his leaks, but for a while I was really overestimating how bad he was, and it cost me.
Blinds were 200/400/50, and he hadn't limped in in ages. He called for 400, and a very tight/straightforward South Asian guy named Bobby (probably not how he spells it, but I didn't ask) on my right made it 1600 on the Button. I was in the SB with AKo with 40K. The LAG had about 24K, but Bobby covered me and I didn't think I could get AK in pre-flop profitably against him. I elected to just call the raise, expecting both of them to overplay top pair if they flopped it, such that my implied odds were very good.
The limper made it 6K. Even though he was pretty LAG, he'd only limp-raised once before, and it was with KK. I thought for a long time and folded. He showed me the 6h, and I kicked myself for an awful weak-tight fold.
Towards the end of the night, I was moved to a new, tougher table. There were three shooting stars there: David "The Dragon" Pham across the table from me, Annie Duke a few seats to his left, and Kenny Tran on my immediate right. If Annie recognized me, she didn't give any indication of it, as she has in the past.
For her part, she was looking rough. It's a popular assertion on 2+2 and other poker forums that Annie is unattractive, but when I first met her three years ago, I thought she was pretty good looking for a 40-year-old mother of four. Now, though, there were rings under her eyes and a darkness in her face, perhaps a physical manifestation of the slow corruption that affiliation with Ultimate Bet was exacting on her soul.
The first time that she raised my blind, it was 400/800/100 and she raised to 2200. Kenny Tran called in the SB, and even before I looked at my cards, I was thinking squeeze. I looked down at 85s, straightened in my seat a bit, looked around, capped my cards, did some mental arithmetic, and raised to 8000. They both folded very quickly.
Kenny Tran, as I've already said, was on my right. On my left was a big, kinda doofy Italian guy whom I've seen around at Foxwoods and the WSOP. He and Kenny got into a conversation about how many players would be left at the end of the day, and the Italian somewhat off-handedly said that he'd take the under on 50.
"Ten thousand dollars?" Kenny asked.
"Book it." And just like that, a $10,000 prop bet was made. There was some quibbling over details, such as what would happen if exactly 50 players remained (technically, the Italian had volunteered to take the under, but they confirmed the accuracy of the posted number with the tournament director before finalizing the bet, and in that time they renegotiated that 50 would be a push), but there was no doubt in my mind that either man would pay if he lost.
"Cash only," Kenny said.
"Bellagio chips?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's fine. But just like, no check."
"Check? You're talkin' to the wrong guy, check. I haven't had a checking account since... I was born."
"OK, good."
"What about Circus, Circus? Will you take Circus, Circus chips?"
Kenny laughed, but then the Italian leaned over and whispered to him (though I could hear, because I was sitting between them), "Seriously, I'll get you cash no problem. I won't have it tonight, but a lot of people owe me money, and they will pay me by Wednesday. One hundred percent." Kenny waved him away, no problem, and I believed him as well. Like I said, he was Italian.
Maria Ho was moved to the same table I was, and despite reraising me three times at our last table, had generally been staying out of my way. She went so far as to open limp her button when I was in the BB, but I found AKs and popped it to 4K. She re-raised to 9K and change, but I had only 30ish left, so I just shipped it in. She tanked for a long time, staring at me, commenting on the tension in my neck, etc. but eventually folded. Although that is what I wanted her to do, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have minded a call either.
Two hands later, the action folded to me in the SB, where I had 99. I raised to 2500, and the Italian called. The flop came KJx with two diamonds, hardly what I wanted to see. I checked and reluctantly called a 2500 bet.
Bink! The turn was a 9, and I checked again. Unfortunately, so did my opponent.
Even worse, the river brought a T, putting four a straight on the board. I bet 4500, which he hemmed and hawed and called, only to crow about the bad beat when I showed my set.
That table broke with only half an hour left in the night, and I got moved to a new one with Freddy Deeb, Joe Sebok, and Daniel Alaei. The first hand I played, I raised Deeb's blind to 2400 with 44. He called and led into me for 5000 on an AQx rainbow flop. It seemed pretty unlikely to me that he had a super strong hand, so I called, figuring I'd turn my hand into a bluff if he checked the turn. He bet 13K, though, and I folded.
As for how the day finished up, most of you know how it went for me. There were exactly 50 players left, so the bet ended in a push. And there were more than 200 registered for Day 1B before the night was up, so I'm assuming there was good turnout today. Most likely we'll need to play down from 140 or so to 36 tomorrow, which should take roughly the same 10 hours as yesterday. Hopefully I'll still be among the 36, as tables will be 6-handed on Day 3!