Edmond and I met with the marketing folks at the Bike today and we were done around 5pm. I saw no reason to head out the door when the sweat sound of chips hitting the felt beckoned me to stay a while. Edmond agreed to play too, and we were both immediately seated at a $5/$5 table with $300-$500 stakes.

There were 1-3 empty seats during our 2 hour session and the play was fairly loose preflop with many limped pots. Standard 3x or 4x PF raises didn't usually accomplish much to thin the field, and often PF raises as much as $30-40 were made regularly. One guy even raised $100+ PF with one small raise in front of him and won the pot when he was called by two big cards. The $200 guy had 83o!

I bought in for the max $500 and in the first orbit I'm dealt K6 in late position. Four of us see a flop of:

QT6.

The SB makes it 40 and one other guys calls. I decide to make a loose call with botton pair, backdoor flush draw and position. I really did it more because of the position than anything else, but yes, it was a very iffy call.

The turn brings a club. The SB now makes it $100 and the other player folds. The SB was as deep as me so with a minimum of 9 outs and more likely up to 14 outs, it was an easy call for me. The river brought a club and didn't pair the board so I was fairly confident I had the nuts.

The SB made it $140 and had a few hundred left as did I. Now I don't like to hollywood, but to be honest, I hadn't checked my suits since the hand started and I was now not 100% sure I had the clubs -- only 99.8% sure. My problem was that if I looked back at the cards and then pushed it would be so obvious I had the flush. So I pretended to be ready to fold, looking at my cards and then purposely waited a good 30-40 seconds. Not for the hollywood effect, but to separate the looking at my cards from the pushing. Hey, I know it's hard for him to put me on the backdoor flush so it probably didn't matter. He called very quickly and the table clearly was not impressed with my suckout. Even Edmond gave me a look. Hey, it never sucks to win a $1,000 pot. Given the guy's quick call he likely had trips so my 5 outs might not have been good enough, but I guess two pair was possible too.

I stayed with a stack of $1,000 for the next hour or so. Didn’t catch many hands and when I did, I got no action. On two consecutive hands I hit two pair on the flop with QT, and got no action and then raised PF with QQ, got one caller, hit trips, made a standard continuation bet and got not action again. Soon thereafter, this hand came up. Edmond felt I played it like a donk. What do you think?

I’m dealt Q5 on the bottom. A bunch of limpers and I limp too. The flop comes down:

KJ2

An EP player makes it 15 and 2 callers so I call too with the the second nut flush draw. The turn brings the T so the board reads:

KJ2T

And now I have the open-ended straight draw and the second-nut flush draw. It’s checked to me and I make it $30. It’s folded to the guy to my right who raises it $60. He could have a made hand or also a Q. I don’t think he has a K given his call of a small bet on the flop, but I guess KT is possible or even TT.

I'm thinking that he might even have the A so perhaps I don't want to see a club at all. In fact, maybe a miss is my best bet because the club could mean a big loss and an A or 9 might simply be a split pot.

I decide to call and a junk card falls on the river. The guy checks to me. Hmmm… He’s a tight player, but he is not a bad player. The raise on the turn could have meant so many things: he didn’t believe my bet and wanted to take it away with a so/so hand or a draw, he had a draw too with the A, etc. Anyway, no way I’m winning this hand with a check and with both draws missing I felt it was EV to take the chance so I bet $100. He called me with the nut flush! It turns out that I was drawing dead.

Everyone was congratulating him for his check, but I don’t think it was a good move. He didn’t know that I had a missed draw and if I did I wasn’t always betting there. I think he needed to bet there to get value out of his hand the most often. Thoughts on my play and his check?

Going forward nothing very exciting happened. I raised quite a bit with hands like AQ, KQ, 88, etc., and every time got callers and then had to surrender my hand on the flop either to an EP raise or to a RR or call after I made a CB.

There was one hand where I screwed up just a bit (or should I say another hand). I had a flush draw on the turn with second pair and an A on the board. My opponent raised $50 and I’m getting almost 2-1 to call. I have at least 9 outs, but more likely he only had an A so I could have up to 14 outs. I looked at the guy’s stack and he only had $100 more. I just didn’t feel like calling with such a small stack behind him, but I guess it was close.

I decided to leave at 7pm and locked in a profit of $150. Not great, but better than a losing session. I didn’t play my best poker, I probably fell too much into the slow rhythm of the game instead of forcing my opponents to play my game a little more. Does that make any sense? I’m not sure even I understand what I mean!!!

** BTW, we both ate a delicious chicken kabob dinner which was on the house. The service and food at the Bike is always first rate. The players were friendly and management handled a little screw-up very professionally. Here's what happened to the best I can tell. A guy gets busted and buys in for another $130 or so and is waiting for his chips. Somehow he ended up with $230, but only $130 was his, he owed the dealer $100. He proceeds to get into a hand where he doubles up and the opponent gives him $230. Well, a few minutes later everyone realizes that he owes the dealer $100 and the other player $100. He doesn't want to give it back. He finally does, but it takes at least 5 minutes for it to happen. Ed, please correct me if I didn't get the details exactly right.

Played in the October tournament series at the Bike last night. The buy-in was $350 with 200 or so runners. I got home around 3:30am and only slept for about 4.5 hours so I'm running on fumes. Here is a quick summary. I'll fill in the gaps in the next post:

- podiman was in from NY and invited me to join him at the Bike last night
- we both made it deep. Podiman was knocked out with about 4-5 tables left. I made it to 19th, just in the money.
- my $525 win amounts to about $25 per hour. Wow!
- I called a guy a pussy after he yelled at a guy for cracking his Aces. The problem was I did this without first even looking to see if i could take him! I was in the 9 seat, he was in the 1 seat, so I never got a good look at him. Luckily, he was not very big and didn't give me any trouble.
- Was short all night. Just grinded the best I could. Was all-in 5 times. Once we had the same hand. The other 4 times I was either about 50/50 or 40/60. Won all 4.
- Had a few big hands in the last few hours when the blinds were high. KK/KK/QQ/AK/AK/AQ. Not EVEN ONE time did anyone raise in front of me or call my raise. Not once. Could never pick up a big hand, or any hand for that matter when I needed one.
- Finally busted when I had to make my 100th move to keep a manageable stack when the 900/1800 blinds were about to hit me and my stack was only 6500 or so.
- This was a bounty tournament. They gave you $25 for every person you knocked out. I played for 7+ hours, made it to 19th and never busted another player. In fact, never was even in a position to bust another player.

I'll fill in some details after I get some sleep.

- S

First Satellite

I made it the Commerce around 3pm. The tournament wasn’t starting until 7pm so I had plenty of time to play a one table satellite. They were running plenty of $120’s so I immediately sat down at one and it started within a few minutes. I only recognized a few regular local pros at the table. A few of the guys seemed pretty green and nervous. One guy asked if anyone was interested in a $50 last longer and I was the only taker. This in itself told me that the table was inexperienced because at the WSOP about 5-6 guys would always want to do it.

We start with $1k in tournament chips and 25/25 blinds/15 min levels. I was fairly card dead and didn’t play many hands. Given the fact that we only start with $1k in chips, it’s dangerous to splash around too much at the start, so I tried to find a good hands. Unfortunately it never happened. When the blinds got to 50/100 I was in the SB with AT and about 550 chips. The button had me covered and pushed. I thought for just a bit and decided to call. He was on a steal with Q8 and my hand held up. On the very next hand I raise to 250 with KJs from the button when folded to me. The BB pushes for 300 more so I’m getting over 2-1, which made it an easy call. He had A8 so I was 46% to win and a J on the turn made my 46% good. My last-longer partner busted out soon there-after so now I’m only in for $70.

Unfortunately, nothing much good happened after my KJ hand. I still never saw a premium hand and didn’t have many steal opportunities. With blinds at 200/400 and 4 people left I’m in the BB and the button pushes and has me covered. I have 850 left after posting the BB and look down at 89s. Not great, but it’s 850 to win 1450 so I’m getting 1.7 to 1. His range is super wide here, likely two overs which I would be 41% to, but he could have one over too with a hand like A5 so I would be a bit closer to 50/50, he could have an under pair which would put me at 50/50 or an overpair which is the only hand I don’t want to see; but this is by far his least likely holding. More important, was the fact that after this hand I have to post the SB and will be left with 650. Any hand I play for the next few hands I’ll definitely need to go to showdown and I won’t be able to win this many chips. Anyway, what seemed at first to be a so-so decision became an easy call for me. He had K7, so I was in okay shape, but his hand held. If you’re interested, here’s a link to an EValuator scenario which looks at this:

Link to scenario 1

This scenario assumes all 4 holdings for my opponent are equal, and of course the are not. Here’s what I believe is a bit more realistic based on the situation:

Link to scenario 2


Second Satellite

It was still only 5pm when I finished the first satellite so I signed up for a second $120. This time I recognized about 5-6 of the players from previous tournaments. Warren Karp was seated to my right. Warren told me about a horrible beat he suffered in the Main Event this year of the WSOP. It was day 5 and they were down to 70 players. Warren had about $1 million in chips and was on the button with blinds of 15/30k. An UTG player makes it $100k and it folds to Warren. He looks down at AA. He feels that the UTG player was likely to have a hand in the JJ-KK/AK range and felt there was a decent likelihood that he would call an all-in. This player had about $1.2 million.. The average stack was about $1.5 million. Warren pushes and the UTG player calls quickly. Guess what he had? 55! Can you believe this guy plays for 5 days, made it this far, is in reach of going really far and calls off almost his entire stack with 55! It boggles the mind. Of course the guy turns a 5 and Warren is out. Oh, well! Warren still had a very nice payday, but it was very painful.

On to the satellite. On the very first hand the UTG player limps for 25. I'm just to his left and look down at 67 and decide to call too. The button and both blinds call. The flop comes 389. A straight flush draw… not bad. The SB makes it 75, the BB calls, I call and the other two players call. The turn was the beautiful 5 so now I have the nuts. The SB pushes, the BB calls (what is going on here?) and I call. SB had 99 so he flopped trips and the BB had A 3 so he has a flush draw. I manage to dodge about 15 outs and triple up. Not bad. I tightened up a bit for a while, but did win a nice pot when I see a flop with KQ and hit trip Q's on the flop.

We got down to 3 players and I was the chip leader, but when one of the remaining players took out the other guy he had a 30-50% chip lead on me. He asked if I wanted to chop and offered me 500 in tournament chips and I took it. He was only getting about $100 more than me, so it seemed like a pretty good deal given that the blinds were now at 400/800 and he was a solid tournament player so it would be a crap shoot going forward.

Tournament

I didn’t recognize anyone at my table, but for the most part the majority of players were solid and experienced. This was a big contrast to my experience at the WSOP where 7 out of 10 players were extremely green and nervous at each starting table. We start with $2k in chips and 25/25 blinds. Levels are 40 mins. This is a very fast structure and you need to get hands and quickly build your stack or you’ll be dead. The next level is 25/50, followed by 50/100 and then 75/150.

I was completely card dead for the first 3 levels. I never saw a pocket pair and the only big A I was dealt was AQ on the 3rd hand. My one mistake – perhaps – is that I splashed around quite a bit. I often limped from MP through LP with suited connectors and I called a few raises from the blinds with hands like AT. I never hit a flop, but I did have a few draws so lost a bit more when I called a bet to see another street. I won one hand in total during these levels – I had KQs and I called a guy down on the flop and turn with a K high board. If he pushed on the river I might have folded, but he checked on the river (I was out of position and checked to him on every street).

It might sound like I was playing very weak-tight, but the cards really dictated my play. Sure I could have made some big bluffs with nothing, but there really was no need for anything crazy yet. I had time -- or so I thought I did!

Towards the end of the 50/100 level I was down to 1300 in chips. I felt it was still just a bit early to push to steal the blinds and I didn’t like raising with only 13bb, so my goal was to go for a steal raise all-in. I couldn’t find a good situation, but then was dealt 88 UTG. As I said, I could have pushed, but felt it would be better to limp, hoping for someone to try and raise and then I would push. That’s what happened. UTG+1 also limps (very loose player) and a somewhat loose player in MP makes it 325 and I push. He pegs me as a tight player and went into the tank. He’s getting about a 50% overlay on his call. He asks if I have QQ/JJ and mumbles something like 'these are the only hands I want to see.'

This tells me that he has AK and he’s worried I have AA or KK. I really think if I said something like 'not QQ/JJ, a little better but you might have one over, who knows!' he might fold. But to be honest, I was more than happy to go against AK and get back into the tournament so I didn’t say much of anything. He counts out the pot and comes to the conclusion that he needs to call. He did have AK and I’m really not sure why it took him so long. He wasn’t concerned about the player to the left of me because this guy was very loose and it was clear he didn’t have much.

Of course an A came on the flop and I was out. The good news was that it was quick and painless and I got to go home at a reasonable hour and watch some of the US Open Women’s semi-finals on TIVO.*

I visited the Commerce last week to meet with some potential business partners. After the meeting I decided to stick around for a few hour cash game session. There was no wait and I was immediately seated at the $5/10 NL table. The maximum buy-in is $400 and that’s what I started with – if you bust-out they allow you to buy back in for $600.

A quick scan of the table revealed few dominant stacks. There was an attractive Asian woman to my right who did have about $1000, but she told me that she was actually even having bought back in for $600. She was very chatty with the guy to her right. He just lost a substantial portion of his stack when he raised PF with AK, hit the A on a AT5 flop and then was CR all-in on his flop bet and called. His opponent had A5. He spent about 10 minutes discussing with her his bad luck and the reasons for his call.

The table was somewhat passive. Nobody appeared very aggressive or creative. Lots of very standard poker – fold bad hands, play good hands, bet with good hands, call with draws and good hands, etc. TPTK was a monster on this table and people were more than willing to go broke here with less than TPTK. Most everyone knew each other and was having a good old time being chatty and friendly. I was happy to join the party!

I waited a few hands for my BB and called a MP raise to $30 with A9. There were two other players. The flop came 9 high with few draws. I lead out for $70 and one player called. The turn paired the low card and I made it $150. The other player folded. One hand, good start. If only every hand could be so simple!

Things kept on going well for me for the first hour or so as I ran my $400 up to $1000 fairly quickly. Here’s a fun hand:

I like to raise with most hands from late position if it’s folded or limped to me. I’m in the CO and raise to $25 with T7s with one limper in before me. The blinds call and the original limper calls so there is about $100 in the pot.

The flop comes A high and it’s checked to me so I fire $60. Only the original limper calls but he doesn’t seem that confident. He makes a comment such as ‘no way you have an A, right?’. I didn’t think he was angle-shooting here, I really believe he meant it. My plan was to fire again on the turn if checked to me.

The turn pairs the A, which I like and don’t like. It makes it more likely that he doesn’t have an A, but also more likely that I don’t have one either. He checks again and as I take my time (as I always do) to ponder my options, he again says something like ‘no way you have an A.’ I only respond by saying $140. The second card on the board is a 9. I put him on either a 9 or a pair like 88 or TT. There is a possible straight on the board too so perhaps he has a straight draw. He takes quite a bit of time but calls. Now if he doesn’t say anything in this hand there’s a really good chance I would have given up the hand by now, but at this point I really think he doesn’t have the A and if I continue to play the game I think I can get him to fold. The river is a blank 2 and he checks again. He seems really frustrated and lost as I start to count out my bet. There’s no way I’m not going to take another shot at this hand. I just do not see him calling one last bet if he doesn’t have an A. I have about $250 left and announce all-in. He doesn’t take long to fold his JJ face-up. I was pretty surprised that he limped with it and also surprised he called the turn bet with it. This was the hand that put me at $1000 in chips.

Nothing much good or bad happened for the next hour or two. I win a bunch of small pots and lose some too. I don’t lose any pots at showdown. Most of the hands go like this:

raise from late position, blinds call. Bet at flop, they either call and I slow down or they fold.

OR

Raiser in front of me who I peg as weak, I call with intention of taking the pot away on the flop or turn when they slow down. If they are willing to fire on flop I will sometimes call if I hit some of flop or if I sense weakness. Often they check, I bet and take down the pot.

So nothing much happens for a while, although this was an interesting hand:

I raise from button with T6o, both blinds call, flop comes K64. It’s checked to me, I check this time – for no reason other than mixing things up a bit. The turn pairs the 6 so now I’m looking good. The BB bets $40 into a $75 pot. I pop it to $150 and the BB calls. The river is a Q. The BB checks. I’m a bit worried that he has a 6 too and really don’t want to get CR here. There was a flush draw on the board and the Q brought the flush so this could also be a problem for me. I decide to check and he shows 67. Unfortunately the Q gives us the same hand. I had him on the turn, but oh, well. What are you going to do. One thing about the hand was that the table saw what I raised with from LP. This was the first time in 2 hours that I had to show my hand from one of these raises. Not sure if this is good or bad, but I need to be aware of it.

I don’t play much for the next orbit or two and then this crucial hand comes up:

I’m in MP+2 with 97. The CO raises and 3 players call. I call too and 2 other people call so there’s $150 in the pot.

Flop comes T 6 4

The MP player bets $40 and one player calls after him. Now I have nothing but a gut shot here, but the bet is just so weak. I decide to call and my plan is to consider taking it away on the turn. One of the blinds calls too, so three of us see the turn and there is now $270 in the pot.

The turn is the J so now I have a flush draw with my gut-shot. The MP player bets only $70 this time – what is going on here. Hmmm. What to do… The guy in the blind has only $120 left and the MP player has $250 left. I have tons of potential outs, plus these guys seem so weak and unsure of their hands. I decide that the best option is to push (I have tons of chips here). The blind folds, but the MP guy calls pretty quickly. He doesn’t really take much time to think about it.

The river bricks so I have nothing. The guy waits for me to show my hand and I do. He stares for quite some time because he cannot believe what just happened. He had K3 so he missed too – he had a similar draw to me. So he wins this huge pot with K high. Unbelievable. His calls was actually pretty interesting. Assuming he didn’t put me on an A high flush draw, he had 12+ outs (his K could have been good, but probably not). Not sure what he thought I had or even spent a second thinking about it. He was probably a 2-1 dog at best and he was getting better than 2-1, but I really think he thought process was simply – ‘there’s a lot of money in the pot, I have to call.’ Well, it worked for him. What can I say?

Nothing much good happened for the next hour. I lost a race with AK, won a few small pots and ended up down about $100.

Well, had a great meeting and the session was fun. I was in the 5 seat and had a great view of the 2nd round of the PGA. I got to watch Tiger’s historic 63. That was fun too.

Played in the $125 plus one rebuy tournament last Monday. There were approximately 130 entrants and we started off with 1500 chips at the 25/25 level. I'll just report on a few significant hands:

1) Get AQ in mid-position and make it 100 after one limper. Both blinds call as does limper. Flop comes AT5 rainbow. I make it 350 and get check-raised all-in by BB. I played with him for a while in a cash game while I waited for this tournament and he seemed pretty solid and reasonable. In a non-rebuy event or perhaps in a bigger buy-in event I fold here in a minute -- especially given that there was no flush draw on the board that he could be semi-bluffing with. However, given that this is a rebuy event I called for two reasons a) there is a chance he could be making a move with AJ or even the same hand as me. If he had AK I'm pretty sure he raises preflop; and b) it's a rebuy event so I can just rebuy. I was pretty sure he had AT or A5 and sure enough he had AT and I had to rebuy. Not crazy about my call, oh, well...

2) Nothing much happens for a while and then at the 25/50 level I call a raise from lp with KQ. Three of us see a flop of AKT, so I have second pair and a gut shot. EP makes it 400 and one guy calls before its to me. There's about 1300-1400 in pot and neither of these guys seems that strong. I don't think the 2nd guy has a strong A or he would have raised. The first guy could have a strong A but he could also have a flush draw (2 spades on board) or a weaker A, he's also the initial raiser so he could be making a continuation/feeler bet with a pair. I have 1500 left and decide to push. The 1100 more is significant to both assuming they don't love their hands. Even if they have an A I still have potentially 10 outs. They both fold and I'm back to even with around 3000 chips.

3) I get QQ from LP at the 50/100 level and make it 350. Two callers. Flop comes with an A. Checked to me. I bet 800 and both fold. That worked out well.

4) Women goes all-in with only about 1000 left. Guy to my right calls. I look down at JJ and push (I have 4000 at this point). Caller folds and I'm heads up against T9 and my J's hold.

5) Here's a mistake: Blinds are 100/200 with 25 ante. I just won a nice pot and am counting my chips when a guy who is short pushes with about 1000. I have AJs from the button and just call. The BB calls. Flop comes QJx and it's checked to me. I make it 1600 and get check-raised all-in by BB. He has me covered and I fold. He had QJ and would have folded PF if I would have isolated the all-in raiser AND my hand would have held-up against the all-in raiser. That sucked, but that's what I get for not paying attention. Unfortunately, I'm usually good for 1 or 2 of these per tournament. Need to avoid these.

6) A little later with blinds at 200/400 and 50 ante there are 3 limpers and I push with A6. I'm down to about 4000 at this point. One guy calls me -- he has me covered and he turns over 55 which is the best I could hope for. I turn an A and double up.

7) For the next hour or so I move up to about 10k, but it's up and down to get there. I come over the top of a 2k pf raise with 99 and he folds (he told me he had 66 and did seem to seriously consider calling... to bad). A few times I try to bully guys off hands and get re-raised and have to fold.

8) We are down around 30 -- pays top 18 or so. I have about 10k in chips with the blinds at 300/600 and 75 ante so there is close to 1500 in pot each hand before betting. I'm about 3rd in chips at my table, but probably around average for all participants.

Folded to button (which is pretty rare at this table). Button makes it 2000. I'm in BB and have K9o. The button is good LAG player. He has shown the ability to fold a hand. Another consideration... when I had A6, he agonized and folded, but there was one caller who had 55 and I won the race. He clearly wasn't happy with his fold that time.

I put myself in the button's shoes. It was fairly rare that it would get folded to the button in this spot with the blinds and antes so large so there were very few hands that he would not raise with. He also wasn't the kind of player to limp from the button knowing that I would likely smell weakness and raise him off his hand. So therefore his range was close to any two cards -- any pair, any A, K, Q, and connectors, two gappers, etc.

I also didn't feel like he was reckless, so he was likely to fold a large % of the hands in his range. Perhaps as high as 70-80%. Do you think this is too high?

Last, even if he called, I would not be in terrible shape to most of these hands. The only hands I really don't want to see are 99-AA, AK-A9 and KQ-KT, and there's a good chance he doesn't call with the K hands given that I could easily have an A.

The pot represented a 3rd of my stack. I'm not sure how this could be a good fold, but I would love to hear thoughts. Anyway, I call he turns over A9 and I get to go home!