I haven't played a live tournament since the end of June during the World Series of Poker. It's hard to believe it's now been over two months since I've played. How did that happen? I had planned on playing a few Legends events at the Bike, but it never worked out. Between vacations, kids events, party commitments, etc., I just never had 2-3 days. Why 2-3 days? Most of these tournament require 2-3 days. While I often could make the first day of a tournament, it would become a big issue if I made it to the following day since things would get very sticky if I had to cancel plans. Last year I played a Legends tournament and my wife was leaving at 6:30am in the morning with some friends for a weekend with the girls. I was doing great and made it down from 400 runners to about 50 when a critical hand came up around 4am. I had no good reason to call an all-in raise by my opponent, but I justified the gamble with the rationale 'how was I going to watch my children, if I was to stay alive in the tournament?'

I'll be playing at the Commerce in a $545 CA State Championship event at 7pm. The complete schedule is listed here. While I haven't been playing, I have been reading about, thinking about and discussing lots of poker lately. I'm looking forward to trying out some new strategies I've been thinking about trying. Stay tuned for an update on my experience.

- S

I was just reading through a thread on twoplustwo that really hit home to me. The author of a post was playing a $1000 satellite to an EPT event online at Pokerstars when a player at his table was deliberately stalling on every single hand by taking the maximum time to play. This has happened to me a number of times and it drives me crazy. It usually happens to me during one table sit-n-goes, so the only issue is the time the sng will take. In the case of a big MTT the stalling has serious consequences because you don't have as many hands to play as other players in the tournament.

The poster wrote to Stars and they told him that there was nothing they could do. He kept on complaining and asked who has taken over since Lee Jones left. Here's what they wrote:


The position formerly held by Lee has not been filled at this time but there are a few people who have taken those responsibilities. However they are not going to tell you anything different. Your simply not understanding there is no violation here so we cannot take any further action. EVERY player is given the full time to act on their hand and is their decision if they wish to use that full time.

Again I am sorry your frustrated but you are going to have to accept that this time is given and they can use it even if you would like them to act faster.


Regards,

Trent
PokerStars Support Team



Nothing they could do? Totally legitimate and within the rules? I completely disagree. If this were to happen in a live tournament the floor manager would give a warning and watch the play. If it continued to happen EVERY HAND they would certainly penalize the player. I have seen it happen many times and 100% of the time the floor manager will take a stand and penalize the player.

Pokerstars and other online sites really need to take action on this. It's not really that difficult. If a player takes the maximum time on a certain number of hands and always folds the hands then they should receive a warning. Once the warning is given the player should receive a penalty. What is so difficult about that?

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.

I don't recognize anyone at my table and most people look pretty nervous so I just peg everyone as inexperienced unless they show my that they are not. I already discussed the hand during the first orbit where a guy mucks KK after spending 2/3rds of his stack. What I didn't mention was that that the guy who won the hand and is sitting to my left has been playing 3 out of every 4 pots and comments to the table that he might as well get his money's worth. Well it doesn't last long and he is the first victim after only 20 minutes or so. He tries to bluff the active woman at the table who I also wrote about in my last blog. She happened to have the nut flush and he is out. His strategy wasn't bad because she has been raising light many times before and this wasn't an exception. Only this time her A3s happened to make a flush.

This Loose Woman who I talk about in my last blog looks a bit like a 45 year-old Betty Davis. I could have showed a 45-year old Betty Davis below, but to my she was more like bitchy 70 year-old Betty Davis so enjoy:

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Marcel Luske sits down at our table and is very nice and livens things up a bit. Mlagoo from 2plus2 also joins us but doesn't last long. The loose woman (read my previous blog for more on her) raises preflop and Mlagoo reraises her all-in -- he's a bit short but has enough to get her off of most of her range. However, he didn't count on her calling from the low end of her range with 55. His KQ doesn't improve and he's out. He did win the pokerstars million the next day and took home $315k, so he was probably better off getting knocked out then and having a day to get his act together!

I won a few small hands and gradually chipped up a bit and then picked up AA in late position. There are two EP limpers when it comes to me and I raise my standard 3x BB. The flop comes K high, it's checked to me, I raise about 2/3rds the pot, get one caller. Nothing changes on the turn and I raise again and the EP reraises all-in. I don't like it but it's not that much more to me. He shows KQ and I'm off to the races.

My stack is now at about 5k -- we started at 3k, I continue to chip up just a bit. I don't believe I ever lose a hand or have to show my cards. I move slowsly up to 7k over the next hour or two. The loose woman had slowed her play considerably when Marcel sat down at the table. I believe she was star struck and my belief was confirmed when I saw her getting his autograph during a break and telling him what an inspiration he is to her.

I am sitting two to her left and decide to play pots with her. I'm at 7k and she has a monster stack now with about 15K+. Nobody at our table has more than 5k. I call her PF raises twice with any two cards and win the pots when she checks the flop and I raise. Then this hand comes up. One limper at 100/200, she raises to 700, I call with JJ from LP. The flop comes 974r, she makes it 2.5k which is a weird overbet. I didn't really have a good stack to just raise so I push hoping she didn't have something funky. She goes into the tank and folds. I could see that she was visibly frustrated with me. I'm pretty sure that she felt that I was making a move and appeared close to calling me light with a hand like A7. Too bad she didn't.

I'm now up to about 11k and she still has me covered but not by much. I'm now double of anyone else at the table. On the very next hand after the JJ hand a MP player makes it 300 and the loose woman makes it 1k. I look down at QQ. Normally after a raise and reraise I might just call with QQ, but the first raiser only has 4k-ish, so I'm fine with playing for his stack. Against this loose woman, I'm not too concerned with her just yet. She has been making reraises with almost any two cards. I decide to make it 2500. The MP raiser folds and the loose woman takes a bit of time before pushing.

Oh, boy. I don't like it but how can I fold QQ against this player? At one point after she comments that I probably don't have much I said something to the effect that I'm only worried about 2 hands'. She got all mad saying that I effectively told her what I had. I replied that it didn't matter given that she has no more decisions in the hand. Perhaps I should have realized right there that she had one of those two hands, but I just couldn't bring myself to fold. I call, turn over my hand and she acts like she is all upset for about 3-4 seconds and then smiles, completes the slowroll and turns over AA.

If this were the movies, a Q would have showed up and she would have been taught a lesson. However,this is the WSOP and I'm destined to continue to take one hard shot to the face after another. Oh, well. I go to shake her hand and she comments in an extremely sacrastic manner that I'm a great player. Clearly my comment early on (see last blog) to Marcel has set her off. In truth, I did feel she sucked, but my comment was simply meant to get her to loosen up again.

I apologize for running a bit behind on my tournament blogging, but I did write up a long post two nights ago only to have it vanish in the internet time-space continuum. My internet connection for Vegas was horrible and I needed to use my Treo 700wx as a modem. However, I haven’t figured out a way to get it to block calls, so whenever a call comes in, the connection is dropped. Oh… well. It only took me about an hour to write the post!

I’ll try again to get up to date, but rather than blogging about specific tournaments and results I thought I would give you a flavor of some of the players and type of plays I have seen at the WSOP.

I HAVE TWO PAIR, CAN YOU BEAT IT?

This happened on the 3rd hand of the 1500 NL event on Saturday. A MP player raises to 175 at the 25/50 level. The BB calls. The flop comes Q78. The MP player bets 500 and is called. The turn is an A and the MP player bets 1200. I sense that he is spooked by the A and is reluctant to bet, but does anyway. The BB calls. The river pairs the Q and both players check. The MP player asks the BB ‘what do you have?’ The BB responds ‘two pair, can you beat it?’ and the MP player mucks his cards only to see the BB turn over a pair of eights. ‘What,’ he says. You said you have two pair.’ ‘I did,’ responded the BB. It took a minute but the MP player finally understood. He claims he mucked KK and I believed him. This was for 2/3rds of his stack!


Kid Silence, Legend of the Mute

I played at a table for 4 hours with a young guy, about 20 or so. The guy kept both of his feet resting on his chair so he basically was leaning against his knees. This wasn’t the odd part. What was strange was that this guy never said a word. It’s not that he was quiet, rather he would not talk. Now I really don’t think there was anything wrong with him, because if there was I’m sure he would have explained to us using writing or some other means that he couldn’t speak. No… this was part of his shtick. I’m not sure what he was trying to gain by this, other than to piss everyone at the table off. Not only wouldn’t he talk, but he took 30 seconds to a minute to make most decisions and for the tough decisions he would manically shuffle his chips in silence. Someone finally called the clock on him (I was ready to do it myself) and he did speed up a bit, but still no words came out of his mouth. Pretty strange.

Drinking and Poker do not Mix

I was playing at a table with two loud gregarious sorts. They were both doing well and having a grand old time. After one big pot won by one of the guys, he asked his new buddy if he would join him for a shot of scotch and the other guy said yes. They asked the floorman to get them the drink and the guy was pretty offended and let him know that he was not a waiter. The guy then took out his wallet and asked if he would get them a drink for $100. The floorman smiled and said ‘absolutely.’ After several shots, one was down to the felt. They were raising blind, making crazy calls and plays, etc. The other guy actually did pretty well though, but I have to conclude that in most circumstance drinking and poker do not mix!


Do not call and turn over your cards until everyone has acted

I will save this story for my full tournament report, but will related here how I went all-in after a MP player had raised during a WSOP tournament only to have the initial raiser (Mr. shot of scotch #2) declare ‘I call’ and turn up his hand. However the BB had not yet acted and he had the MP player and me covered. There was lots of commotion (we happened to be pretty far into the tournament and about 3 minutes were left until the night was over and we would return for the next day – it was almost 3am!). The ruling was that the BB -- Mr shot of scotch #2 -- could call and the AK guy must call and could not raise. Of course the flop did not contain an A or K, the BB pushed and the MP player was forced to fold. More about this hand and my fate in the hand in a subsequent blog.


Marcel, you are a brake!

$1500 NL tournament. A woman at my table is playing extremely fast and loose. Within 30 minutes Mrs. Fast and Loose has tripled up. One of her victims happened to be Mlagoo from 2plus2 who won the pokerstars million the next day and took home $315k! He reraised her PF bet all-in with KQ and she called with 55. She was making lots of somewhat loose calls for significant chips. She was also raising PF from any position with virtually any hand.

Anyway, after about 30 mins Marcel Luske sits down at the table and comments on her chips and how she got them.



A few people told Marcel that he would soon see. Well he didn’t see for some time because she completely slowed down. She must have been scared of him or more likely in awe of him. Once it became apparent to me that she had changed her style I said to Marcel ‘Did you know that you are a brake?’ I explained to him what I meant and everyone laughed. I didn’t mean to criticize her play, although I didn’t think much of it. Actually, I wanted her to speed back up again so I could pick her off. I was seated two to her left and wanted her to play fast and loose again which she did.

Marcel, you are a brake! -- Part II, the slowroll

An hour or so went by and Mrs. Fast and Loose and I have a few tangles and I come out on top each time. On the last hand I actually had the goods and pushed over the top of her flop bet. She folded and I won quite a nice pot. I’ll go into it during a future trip report, but I will report here that Mrs. Fast and Loose took me out on the very next hand. There was one limper at the 150/300 level and she raised to 1000. I looked down at QQ and re-raised to 2500. She pushed and I tanked for a bit, but decided against this player I had to call. She had made moves like this before with a wide range of hands. Plus I knew that she felt that I was capable of making a play at her so her range was even wider than normal. Anyway, when I called and turned over my cards she feigned disgust. After pausing for a few seconds she smiled and turned over AA. I didn’t improve and was out. I ignored the slowroll, shook her hand and left.

Marcel, you are a brake! -- Part III, the come on

The next night I saw Mrs. Fast and Loose again. I walked up to her during a break in another event and asked her how far she made it the day before. She didn’t last too much longer (big surprise!), but complemented me on my play. I mentioned to her that she didn’t think much of me the day before and that she slowrolled me, but she claimed not to remember. She asked what I did and where I was from and when I told her she got all excited and put her hands around my back and arm and suggested that we get together. I quickly moved away, smiled and told her some other time.

The next night I was walking down the hall with a friend after dinner and we crossed paths again. She told me how great I looked and asked for my number. I just kept on walking.

That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll try to do some more tournament write-ups.

Good night!