Expecting a sell-out, I'd already registered on Thursday for the Rio's Saturday $1500 NLHE event. I met several people in the hallway, including my English mate Luke, who were turned-away. I sat down in the Amazon room hoping to run good after things seem to have started to turn-around the last couple of tourneys, although not yet translated into big money finishes.

My table was a real mixed bag:

1: Jason Gray brother of infamous online cheater Craig Gray (aka Mr Casino): both players were banned from Pokerstars due to Craig's cheating.
2: Danish Paradise Poker qualifier playing his first ever live tourney and nervous as hell with huge live tells, but not overly aggressive for a scandi
3: Young Dutch guy plays like a Scandi
4: Typical cap'n'shades American dude, played kinda standard
5: Young aggressive American
6: Me
7: 30ish American guy almost certainly an experienced online player
8: Experienced American 30ish guy, played tight
9: Guy with a totally mashed-up face probably from boxing/martial arts or something like that, played kinda bad
10: 40ish US guy in shades, played pretty bad

After playing pretty quiet in Level 1, Jason Gray put on a clinic in LAG play during Level 2 and won a lot of chips, but then lost quite a few of them trying to bluff the nervous Dane off a flush on the river. My chip stack barely moved in Level 1 as I only got involved in a few hands. Only one worth mentioning is Seat 8 opened for 200 at 25/50 from UTG+1 and I held AA in BB, figured he hadn't opened a pot for the 30-40 minutes we'd been playing, so he must be strong, raised it to 700, and he folded, sigh.

During Level 2, I got involved with the loose Dutch guy:

My Stack ~4500, Seat 3 ~6k, Blinds 50/100, I hold 33 in BB.

Dutch guy makes it 300 to go. I figure there's enough implied odds versus this guy to set-mine. so I call.

Pot 650
Flop J93cc

I know he c-bets every pot he opens, so I check to him and he makes it 350. That seems kinda weak, but with draws out there I don't want to slowplay here, so I figure popping it up to 1200 sets the right price. He calls.

Pot 3050
Turn 8o

OK so QT or T7 got there, but these seem pretty unlikely, so I'm confident I still have the best hand, but he must have some piece of this board to have called the flop C/R, so I want to bet here to protect my hand and not allow him a free card. I've ~3k left, so I think jamming here is ok, but I made it 1750. He folded. In hindsight, I should bet a little less here, maybe 1500, but most likely he folds anyway. No worries as I won a nice pot.

I then get involved with Jason Gray:

My Stack ~5.2k, Jason Gray ~8k, Blinds 50/100, I hold 89s UTG

Limping has generally got through at this table, so I figure limping here is ok. I pick-up a few callers and we see the flop:

Pot 500
Flop 876cc

With that flop I'm prepared to go broke here and make a 350 bet to try to get some action going. Only Jason Gray calls.

Pot 1200
Turn 5s

I'm obviously very happy with that card and want to keep building the pot, so I make it 650 and he calls again. I'm thinking please Mr Dealer anything but a club or a Nine:

Pot 2500
River Qc, Ugh!

Knowing Jason's tendencies to call-down hands and try to take them down on scary rivers (which he has done 3 or 4 times and only once looked up by the Dane with the flush and showed complete air), I know he'll bet at this no matter what he's got and I can't think about folding here. I check and he makes it 2k. Man, that looked so strong and confident, different from the other times. I kinda know he's got it this time and maybe if I had more confidence in trusting my ability to read live tells I'd be able to find a fold here, but I crying call and he shows me A4cc. Sigh!

A couple of hands later:

My Stack ~2k, Seat 9 ~2.5k, Blinds 25/50, I hold KTo in BB.

Limped pot we see T84 rainbow flop, I check, Seat 9 bets 500, I move in and he calls with AT, I brick and I'm out just before the first break. Good game!

I taxi over to Bellagio and get into their 2pm Daily just after the start. Many have done the same and it's a big field today with 156 runners by the 6pm end of registration. My opening table is a little tougher than the usual Bellagio mix, but still on the soft side. First hand of note:

My Stack ~9k, Seat 10 ~15k, Blinds 50/100, I hold 53dd OTB

Seat 7 opens for 350, two callers and I decide that's enough value to call OTB. One of the blinds also calls and we see the flop:

Pot 1800
Flop KQ9dd

Checks around and I decide to take a free card:

Turn To

Checks around again and I take another free card:

River 7d

Seat 7 bets out 650 and Seat 10 makes it 1650 to go. Seat 10 has played fairly aggressively, but seems like a competent player (I later find out he's an experienced Russian player). Seat 7 looks dissappointed and I'm sure I have him beat, but I just can't see Seat 10 checking two streets then raising the river without a flush here. If he had the straight, he had it on the turn and needed to bet to protect his hand against the flush draw. So I reluctantly fold. Seat 7 open folds KQ (WTF not betting the flop) and we don't see Seat 10's cards. I order a glass of red wine for my big laydown just like the AA the previous day.

Not much happens for a while, we bust a couple of players, then a new aggressive young guy shows-up in Seat 8:

My Stack ~6.5k, Seat 8 ~6k, Blinds 100/200/25, I hold 66 OTB

Seat 7 opens for 525. He has played a lot of pots since sitting down and donked-off a lot of his stack quite quickly, so I figure calling here is not only for set value, but also to outplay him after the flop in position. Everyone else folds and we see the flop:

Pot 1600
Flop 542cc

He leads for 600 and I make it 2k. He thinks for a while, looking like he's going to call, then jams all-in. I don't think he has much and expect to see two overcards when I call. He has T8cc

I fade all his outs and even make a meaningless straight on the river and double-up to a decent stack. Not much happens for a while until:

My Stack ~11.5k, Seat 4 ~15k, Blinds 200/400/25, I hold QQ UTG+1

I open for 1100 and Seat 4 calls. She is a 20something plain-looking woman who has just been moved from a broken table. This is her first hand.

Pot ~3k
Flop T84r

I bet 2k and she calls:

Pot 7k
Turn 6

There is 7k in there and I have 8.5k behind. It's such a dry board, but I can't imagine not getting it in here. I've no idea how she plays, although she looks very conservative. I decide that checking for value is the right line here as she may bet worse hands or bluff and in any case I'm going broke against sets. So I check, she bets 3k and I jam. She asks how much, has the dealer count the chips and then takes a while to call. As such, I think she's not that strong and might have JJ or AT. She shows me TT. Nice slowroll, miss! (I didn't say this, just thought it, and said nice hand, good game, and left without a fuss).

Back to the Bellagio; always one of my favourite places to play poker. It was buzzing with a big game going on in Bobby’s Room (Durrr, Ziggy, etc…). I got Seat 10 next to the Poker Pixie herself, Anna Wroblewski (Vietcutie online). She didn’t seem too interested in the tourney and did a combination of the following while losing her chips: singing along to her ipod; getting up to say hi to people she knew, including Viffer; and ordering a long island ice tea and then saying she didn’t really want it and I should drink it (I declined, but I did order a drink – see later).

Apart from Anna, the rest of my opening table looked like tourists, except for a late-arrival in Seat 5, who was a local pro. The tourney eventually got 69 runners, paying 9 places with $22k for first. Nothing much happened for the first level as I watched these guys get millions of chips into every pot with weak hands and bad bluffs, while I missed a few flops. It was Level 2 before I got a hand worth writing about:

My Stack ~9k, Seat 5 ~6k, Blinds 50/100, I hold AA in SB

One limp, Seat 5 makes it 300 from MP and I pop it up to 800. Limper folds and Seat 5 quickly calls. Flop KKQdd. I basically want to puke in my mouth. I think for a while and decide to check to evaluate Seat 5’s reaction. He confidently bets 1200 into 1800 pot.

It is at this point that the waitress is delivering Anna’s Long Island and I say that I definitely need a drink now, so I order some red wine. I’m fine playing poker while drinking a little red wine as long as it’s not too much and in this tourney, I continued with around 1 glass every 2 levels, which keeps me at the same point, as it is about as quick as my body absorbs the alcohol.

Back to the action and I consider his preflop range for raising a limper and snap-calling my 3-bet with only 5k behind. It certainly has a lot of Kings and Queens in it. He looks strong. I ask him where he’s from and he says he lives in Vegas, so it’s obvious he’s a local pro, as he also has that image (Anna later confirmed this). I figured that if I continue with this hand it is going to cost me all of my chips to find out if I am good or not and as I was pretty sure I wasn’t there was no point wasting anymore chips finding out, so I open-folded my Aces. He did not show, but looked disappointed.

You can argue about whether or not I should show my fold in that spot. Maybe it makes me look weak-tight, but actually that’s an image that I want to have at this table, as there’s so much crazy betting and bluffing going-in around me (but not by Seat 5). Anna said afterwards that because he’s a local pro it should make me more inclined to believe he was bluffing. She said “You can’t just check-fold Aces there. At least have a bet or check-call and see if he bets the turn.” I disagreed because I was so sure he had it, so why waste chips finding out – that’s something in live play that you don’t really experience online. Later, after out table broke, he told me he had AK, which was pretty much the hand I put him on as I believed that KQ or QQ would slow-play that flop. Of course he might be lying about it, but I don’t think so.

After that I bleed-off a little then this happens:

My Stack 6650, Seat 7 ~12k, Blinds 100/200/25, I hold AKo in SB

MP limp and Seat 7 pops it up to 600. He seems like a recreational player who is fast and loose with his chips and his stack has been up and down. I look down at AK and think about my options. I feel that any raise pot commits me and that there is so much action at this table that if I just throw my chips in, I might get called with worse. Mt chips land in a heap and the single 5k chip is somewhat at the bottom of the pile, but still in plain view. Folds back to Seat 7 and he puts 1650 into the pot; he hasn’t seen my 5k chip. The dealer points this out to him and he nonchalantly throws-in a 5k chip without a second’s though – so I’m expecting to see a monster. He shows me KJo. Umm…

Flop Jxx
“Jeez…”
Turn A
“Phew!”
River blanks and now I’m finally smiling.

After that I go extremely card dead and can’t find a spot to get these crazy guys to double me up. Anna busts out when her last 5k goes-in on J9x9sss board with A5ss versus J9. I miss a few flops, resteal once at 200/400/25, but soon find myself in short-stack mode.

It folds to my button and I see an Ace with just a little over 8k at 300/600/50. I jam and SB insta-calls me with JJ. Oh hi there Ace on the flop and I double through. Still short, but now with resteal equity I manage to short-stack Ninja all the way up to ~50k without a single showdown, some of it after our table broke and getting moved to a new table, including a 4-bet jam with AKo versus a very loose aggressive guy who often 3-bets light.

The local pro is also at the new table and he’s also short. I know by now that he plays fairly tight, but I find myself in an unavoidable spot with ~15 players remaining:

My Stack ~50k, Local Pro ~42k, Blinds 800/1600/200, I hold TT OTB.

He opens for 5k and I jam. He has folded to one of my 3-bets earlier and correctly decides to take a stand with AQdd. The usual insta-Ace on the flop along with two diamonds and he makes his flush on the turn just so there’s no sweat. I’m pretty-tilted that I outplayed the field to go from 17k to 50k without a showdown and then lose a race for an FT stack. I’m left with ~8k all in ante chips (thanks to my winning many pots in the last couple of orbits).

The old guy in Seat 10 throws me a 500 chip, asking for change, which I count out and give to him, by which point I notice that he has 40 ante chips, doesn’t need it and was just being an ass-hole. Obviously tilted from the lost flip, I lose my temper with him and tell him he wins the Ass-hole of the Day Award.

After shoving my two hands and getting no callers, correctly folding my BB to the SB’s shove, Mr Ass-hole opens the pot and I find 77 in the SB. I tell him that it will be so good if he doubles me up here and slide my chips into the middle. He calls with AJ and we’re off to the races:

Flop AJ5, sigh
Turn 5, getting up to leave
River 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t normally celebrate winning a hand, but versus this guy it was special and I tell him there’s his justice from the pokergods for being an Ass-hole. He tells me to GFY and the dealer warns us, but it’s a storm in a teacup and we soon settle down. I know I wrote the other day about being a Steady Eddy and not letting people bother me, but this guy just set me off.

I shove my way back up to ~50k with 12 left, then blind-off to ~30k as we finally make the FT. We agree on $100 each so that 10th get $1k and I’m 9/10 at 1000/2000/400 level. I shove one hand before the break to get to 35k and then we’re back and I fold a couple of orbits before this happens:

My Stack ~28k, OTB ~20k, SB ~80k, Blinds 1500/3000/500, I hold Ax on the CO

Folds to me and I peek at the Ace of Spades. That’s enough and I shove without seeing my second card. OTB has folded every hand at the FT for 3 orbits and now moves-in. SB asks how much I shoved for and when he sees its so little he decides to call.

OTB turns over 8d8h and SB wants me to show before he does. I turn over my As and say I’ve not seen the other one yet and leave it face down. He shows AdKh and I finally flip-up my hidden card: THE ACE OF CLUBS!!!

So I can win an 85k pot if my Aces can hold one time at the Bellagio (keen readers will note that I’ve lost with AA three times out of the four that I’ve held them at the B, including the one-outer versus 99).

Flop XXXddd
“Oh fuck!”

And without even a sweat to the river the dealer peels off the Kd on the turn and I get 9th for $1340 thanks to having more chips than the other guy. Thanks Bellagio! I still luv ya tho!

After all the controversy surrounding my last blog entry, I decided that it wasn’t helping my game to get so bad-tempered with people or to worry about how they act, play or look. As such, I was pretty low key for my next tourny at Caesar’s. I wore my plainest, most conservative image of faded jeans + cream shirt, didn’t get involved in too much table talk and also played a less fancy style of poker.

For the most part my opening table was nice and friendly. I was Seat 3 and the occupants to my immediate left and right were laid-back Southern-US guys with whom I had a few quiet conversations, but I didn’t really raise my voice at all to the rest of the table. The only annoying spot was Seat 6: a loud, talkative, middle-aged Indian-American (not Native, but descended from India). He kept making remarks that perhaps were intended to be witty, but generally came across badly as an arrogant prick. In a way, I can see that’s sometimes how I come across when I’m too talkative at the table, so there’s a lesson-learned.

I played a few speculative hands during Level 1, but nothing major happened until Level 2:

My Stack ~12.5k, Seat 10 ~20k, Blinds 50/100, I hold KK UTG

I’d noticed the table was playing pretty loose-passively with multiple callers in every pot, as is usual during early levels of live deep-stack tourneys, so I made my opener 350 just to try to avoid too many callers. This resulted in 2 callers:

Pot 1200
Flop K63dd

Even though I have top set, I need to bet here for two reasons: firstly to protect my hand against draws; and secondly to set-up an image that I c-bet made hands. Given 2 callers, I want to make this quite a large bet so that if the first caller calls, the second one doesn’t get too attractive a price. I decide on 1k and get just one call from Seat 10.

Pot 3200
Turn 6h

Bingo! Now I’m safe and don’t need to protect my hand anymore. I can give up the lead and see how strong he is here. So I check and he makes it 3k. He might just be having a pop with air / flush draw here, or could have the case King, a medium pair or even trip 6s. In any event, I want to let him potentially improve his hand on the river, so I call the 3k. I also recognise that I’ve a close to pot-sized bet left for the river.

Pot 9200
River 2h

I move-in and he tanks before finally deciding to fold. Through the day, I learn that Seat 10 is pretty much a rock. Had I known that at the time, I probably bet ~4k because he’d pay that, but I was just going for max value. I then played this hand just as we timed-out for the first break:

My Stack ~18k, Seat 8 ~15k, Blinds 50/100, I hold 77 in BB

UTG limps, Seat 8 makes it 500 to go, I call for set-value and UTG calls:

Pot 1550
Flop K74 rainbow

This time, as I didn’t lead pre-flop action, I check and Seat 8 bets 500. That seems pretty small into the pot size and I don’t think he has much, so I just call and UTG calls.

Pot 3050
Turn 8s, putting flush and straight draws out there (and 56 gets there, but Seat 7 never has 56 with his preflop action).

I bet 1500 and both fold. Seat 8 says he had JJ, so the flop kinda killed my action.

Nothing much happened in Level 3 and I feel that I’ve gained a tight enough image that I can open-up a little as the antes kick-in:

My Stack ~20k, Seat 6 ~40k, Blinds 100/200/25, I hold KJo in MP

I open for 550, Seat 6 calls OTB and blinds fold. He has defended both his blinds and his button and got lucky to chip-up so well during the first few levels. He has also been incessantly talking and annoying everyone.

Pot 1450
Flop 974cc

I’ve taken down one or two pots with c-bets, but versus this player, I already know he calls with anything and checks when he hasn’t got much, so I check and he checks behind.

Turn Ad

I feel I can represent a strong Ace here, so I lead for 900 and after some pause he calls. I put him on a weak Ace.

Pot 3250
River 3s

I believe that I can push him off his weak Ace and that there is a lot of value in running and showing a bluff here, so I make it 2500 and he tank-folds, showing me an Ace. I table the bluff and he is flustered. He never sees me make another bluff again, but calls me “the bluffer” for the rest of the day. These things stick in people’s memory and may influence them to play sub-optimally versus my image. During the same orbit I play my next key hand:

My Stack ~22k, Seat 9 ~11.5k, Blinds 100/200/25, I hold AKo UTG

I make it 550, Seat 9 calls OTB and the BB comes along for the ride.

Pot 2000
Flop AQ6dd

I lead for 1250, OTB calls and BB folds. Seat 9 is a youngish Mediterranean, Latino or perhaps even Middle-Eastern guy (can’t figure out his accent). He has played a fairly loose game and clearly has some moves. As such I can put him on a float here as well as a weaker Ace, flush draw or maybe even a Queen. He has just seen me bluff, so my line here might look like I’m just c-betting air.

Pot 4500
Turn: Offsuit 8

I decide that is a safe card to hand him the chance to have a stab at the pot. I know there is a danger he takes a free card and sees the river, but I think he makes a play at this pot almost all of the time here. He bets 3200 with 7500 behind. I feel that he has pot-committed himself with that bet, so I move-in for value. He tank-folds, telling me he doesn’t believe I’d bluff twice in a row. He told me he had AT.

After the break, I play a hand with the same guy:

My Stack ~27k, Seat 9 ~8k, Blinds 200/400/50, I hold AQo in MP.

Seat 9 makes it 1200 to go and I decide that AQo plays well enough versus his 20BBs opening range, so I make it 3000 to isolate and also so I can get away from it if someone jams behind me. Folds back to him, he calls, flop Qxx, I insta-call his shove and win versus 99.

Stay pretty quiet through the rest of Level 5, then catch another big hand in Level 6:

My Stack ~33k, Seat 2 ~30k, Blinds 300/600/75, I hold KK UTG+1.

UTG limps. I’ve been chatting quietly with this guy all day and for the most part he has played good solid poker. He has been drinking whisky-sodas since the start and during the past half-hour or so, he has clearly passed the point where it has started to affect his game and he has loosened-up considerably. I make it 2400 and get not one or two, but three callers, including Seat 2. Not really what I want with KK:

Pot ~10.5k
Flop 774 rainbow

That’s a fairly good flop for me as it makes it much less likely that anyone flopped a set and no drawing-type hands got there. It’s also a good value versus medium pairs. I make it 6k and only Seat 2 calls.

Pot 22.5k
Turn 8s putting two spades out there.

I’m not sure what to make of his check-call here, given his loosened state of mind. He checks again and I decide to check behind for pot control. The river is Ts, making the flush and he checks again. I think for a few seconds about whether there is any thin-value bet here, but decide that it is too risky and just check. He shows me KJo and says he wasn’t calling any bet on the turn, so I didn’t lose out, but I’m still not happy about my line in the hand and maybe I should always be betting the turn versus this type of drunk player.

My Stack ~40k, Seat 8 15.5k, Blinds 400/800/100, I hold AQo in BB

MP limp and Seat 8 makes it 5k straight. Folds to my BB and I jam for value: Seat 8 has been pretty loose in both his opening range and his large bet-sizing and I’m not worried if he happens to wake-up with a monster here. With only 10.5k behind, getting well over 2-1 he tank folds, showing me an Ace.

My Stack ~45k, Seat 8 ~23k, Seat 2 ~20k, Blinds 600/1200/100, I hold AKo in BB

Seat 8 moves-in for close to 20BBs, Seat 2 calls and I decide there’s just too much value here, especially as Seat 2 has got to the point of drunkenness where he is playing most hands and clearly has given up playing poker at all. I lose versus TT and A2s and Seat 8 cheers like he’s won the tourney as he triples-up. I’m left with a fairly short, but still workable stack.

I short-stack Ninja for a while and manage to get up to ~40k without any showdowns while the blinds keep creeping-up:

My Stack ~40k, Seat 2 ~60k, Blinds 1000/2000/300, I hold 64o in BB
Folds to SB who completes. He is an older guy who hasn’t played much since replacing our drunken friend in Seat 2. I can bluff-raise here, but with these stacks it is risky, so I just check:

Pot 7000
Flop 775

He bets 8k, which doesn’t really surprise me as these older guys tend to over-bet a lot of the time. I feel that I’ve got fold equity, so I jam and he says “I just don’t believe you” and calls with 53o. I say “Nice call” and watch as the turn blanks and the 8 hits the river. I don’t celebrate. I pretty-much never celebrate winning a pot, but especially not when it’s a suckout on the river. Suddenly I have over 80k and I’m still stacking chips when it folds to my SB:

My Stack ~85k, Seat 4 ~65k, Blinds 1000/2000/300, I hold QQ in SB.

I make it 6000 and he calls. Seat 4 has called with a lot of speculative hands throughout the day and clearly likes to play flops no matter what the stack-sizes are. We’d chatted a bit through the day and got along well. He recently busted the annoying guy in Seat 6, who was replaced by a sweet, beautiful, ample-bosomed Latino girl: a major improvement!

Pot 15k
Flop TT4

I bet 10k and he moved-in. I just can’t see how I can ever find a fold in this spot and called to be shown T9s. I bricked and was back down to 10BBs short-stack Ninja mode. I soon manage to shove LP with J8 and get action from AK:

Flop A77
“I’m dead, good game guys”
Turn T
“Wait a minute”
River 9

I’m really laid-back about it and don’t make a fuss. After that double-up, I blind-off again down to a short-stack as the blinds go up again. The old guy in Seat 2 busted and was replaced by a young French kid with a LAG style. We saw him open a pot from EP with JTs and beat a short-stack’s 55. He makes it 7.5k at 1500/3000/400 and I jam KJo for pot-odds value, knowing he has to call, and win versus A9s. That gets me up to over 40k and I jam a couple more pots with decent hands. Then another key spot:

My Stack ~48k, Seat 8 ~80k, Blinds 2000/4000/500, I hold KdQh in MP.

Seat 8 opens for 11k and I think he’s not too strong so once again I decide to make a value-play versus his range and the pot odds and he calls with AJo, just what I wanted to see.

Flop A56dd and once again I need runners
Turn Ad, it can’t happen again…
River 2d, oh my…

That gets my up to 98k and finally our table breaks. At the new table, there are tight old guys on my immediate left and right and I manage to pick up a few uncontested pots, including two walks in succession. That gets me to 107k.

Then a guy jams 115k UTG+1 at 3000/6000/500 and I see AQo. I feel that he’s never jamming worse than AQ there and let it go. BB calls and they both have AK and the board bricks. Phew!

A few hands later, however, I get dealt AQo again and now I’m first to act. We’re down to 24 players at 3 tables of 8, with 18 paying and ~15k for the winner. I’m not interested in folding to cash and we’ve been at 24 for over 30 mins. From my observations at the table the big stack who has position on me is putting pressure on the others, who all have stacks like mine or shorter, except for one other guy with ~150k two to my right.

As such, I feel that if I make a standard raise to 15k or so, I’ll likely get called by one of the big stacks and have to play a pot out of position or someone will reraise me and I can’t think of raise-folding AQ here. So I decide that jamming 18BBs all-in is the best play and it folds to the tight old guy in the BB with ~80k. He says “I hope I’ve got something” and peeks at his cards. He kinda sighs and says “I think I’ve gotta call this” and I just know he has AK. He shows me the bad news:

Flop Qxx, maybe it’s my lucky day…
Turn K, I guess not
River brick

I get my last few BBs in after seeing an Ace and BB calls me with AK. I turn over AJs, but can’t suck out and finish 24th. It was an enjoyable day’s poker, with some interesting hands and I’ve not lost control of my emotions or upset anyone (apart from the suckouts). I feel that playing the lower key, Steady Eddy style worked out for me quite well and I don’t mind missing out on the money too much. I plan to stick to this style for the rest of the series and see how it goes.

This was another $340 Mega-Stack at Caesars. I couldn't get anything going at my opening table as every single pot that I opened was contested and I missed most flops. The only way I gained chips was by reading bluffs, e.g.:

My Stack ~13k, Seat 9 ~12k, Blinds 75/150, I hold 77 in BB

Seat 9 is that typical 30-40-ish guy who acts like he's a world champion and has all the gear including fancy designer headphones. He hollywoods every decision and has already been caught bluffing. He opens OTB for 500 and I call.

Pot 1075
Flop KTTdd

I check and he checks behind. I immediately feel he has none of that board: any made hand except for a boat would bet here to protect their hand and charge for draws.

Turn Jh

I check again and now he fires 750 at the pot. He actually did this fairly quickly, but it doesnt seem too strong so I call.

Pot 2575
River 6s

I check again and now he hollywoods. He riffles chips, counts out chips, riffles again and finally throws 2400 into pot. I'm immediately suspicious of the large bet and I say "Why so much?" I quickly surmise he is bluffing, but I'm still considering whether he might be bluffing with the best hand. After a few seconds more thought I say "Either you have the Jack or you have nothing...ok, I call". He announces A-high and I show him my 77 and take the pot. He looks pained. That feels good.

Nothing much happened after that at my opening table as I continue to miss out on flops. I somehow claw my way up to 21k at the dinner break (i.e. after 7 levels) and then get moved to a new table after the break. I'm confronted with a classic Interdweeb.

I'd seen this kid earlier walking through the casino and I'd pretty much laughed out loud at his image. There are kids who play online poker who basically have zero live social skills. A prime example of this is 2+2's Stealthmunk, who can barely hold a conversation in real life and yet can wax lyrical on the internet. I call them Interdweebs (short for Internet Dweebs).

Stealthmunk just doesn't care about his live image at all. He is a slob in scruffy jeans and T-shirt. Other Interdweebs try too hard to construct what they believe to be a cool look, but fail miserably and look totally ludicrous. A classic example of this, if you have ever seen him, is BrynKenney. His look is about as cool as a dogturd on a hot summer's pavement. I saw him the other day in Bellagio and again couldn't help LOL.

This kid was similar. He had probably just turned 21 and looked like he's never shaved in his life. He had a sgraggly little growth around his chin and under his jaw. Combine this with dorky glasses, a cap, a hoodie (with hood up) and, most ridiculously, one of those middle-aged man trying-to-look-cool spangly designer T-shirts and I could barely contain my mirth.

He then proceeds to 3-bet my first action at the table. I manage to fold KJs. I can see an Ace as he folds (he did not show it deliberately, but another skill that he lacks is mucking his cards without showing his bottom card). I see no playable hands as I watch the table. The Interdweeb also hollywoods every decision. I guess he saw that somewhere on TV and think's its cool. It's just annoying and rather boring. He hasn't yet spoken.

Finally after blinding-off to 10BBs (and not having any spot to shove prior to that), I see that the dweeb has limped UTG and I have A8s. I jam and he insta-calls with KJs. Nice trap! When the King hits the flop he's like "yeah, I knew I was gonna bust you" (despite my flopping a flush draw and having 12 outs) and then when it turned another King he was like "go home sucker". I failed to river my flush and got up to leave. The kid couldn't stop ragging on at me for no apparent reason. I lost my rag a little at this point and called him a freak and a retard, but minded my language because I know how strict casinos can be about these things. He continued to demonstrate zero social skills by saying "hey, I'm the one still sitting here with the chips" just like you see so often in the Internet chat box.

I'm smiling about it now and I know that no matter whether that kid has sick poker skills (or maybe not as his limp-call with KJs was pretty retarded), his life skills are so underdeveloped that he's not going to find life so easy in the real world as on the Internet.

PS: If this post comes off as bitter then that is not my intention. I'm trying to be entertaining with this post as there's not much poker to report. I get along well with most online players as I'm one myself. Most online players transition to live play, image and social interaction fairly well and wearing any one, or maybe even two, of a hoodie, cap and designer T-shirt can often be a perfectly good image - just don't be an Interdweeb!

There really is very little to say about my Bellagio $1k Daily Toruney #11. It was one of the grimmest tourneys I ever played where I barely won a hand, sat bored for a few hours and finally lost a coin flip. Nuff said.

Tourney #12 was back to Caesar’s Palace for another try at the $340 Mega-Stack Series with 188 runners and 15,000 start chips, I finally got off to a good start thanks to some luck on the river:

My Stack ~15k, Seat 7 ~15k, Blinds 25/50, I hold Kd9d in the BB.

Seat 7 opens for 150, three callers and I call for value from BB: flop 976hh. Checks around and turn’s 9c. I bet out 525 into the 750 pot and Seat 7 makes it 1700 to go. I think that he might have flopped a set or straight, but it seems unlikely that he checks this with the board texture, so most likely he also has a 9 and my kicker is pretty good. I decide to call and hit a magic King on the river. I check because I know he’s going to bet and he makes it 2700. I say to him, quite deceptively, “did you really make a full-house on the turn…I don’t believe you” and throw out his bet plus a single 5k chip. He calls with A9. Nice river!

I soon get involved with the same guy again:

My Stack ~23k, Seat 7 ~7k, Blinds 50/100, I hold 22 UTG

I limp and Seat 7 makes it 500. I can see that he has only ~7k and I don’t really have enough implied odds to call, but then the button calls the 500 with ~10k and I figure that’s enough to give me value.

Pot 1650
Flop J82 rainbow

I check because I know he wants to bet at this flop. He makes it 1200, button folds and I announce raise. I then throw the 1200 into the pot so that the dealer can pull the bets in before I decide on how much to raise. As soon as I’ve done this, Seat 7 pushes all of his chips into the pot. The dealer tells him to take them back as I haven’t raised yet, but I believe that his chips need to stay in the pot if I match their value. We call the floor. Incredibly, not one, but two floor staff both incorrectly rule that no matter what I do, Seat 7’s chips are not yet in the pot and he can do what he likes. Meanwhile they also correctly rule that I must make at least a minimum raise of 1200. I’m quite gobsmacked that they don’t understand the basic rule that an out-of-turn action is binding if the pending action does not invalidate the out-of-turn action, but I try not to act or appear too upset by this because I don’t want to reveal the strength of my hand. So I quietly accept the ruling and make a min-raise in order to appear like I may fold to his expected shove. Thankfully, he decides to shove and I call. I take a few seconds to put the correct amount of chips into the pot and he then turns over KJ. I show him my set and he says “You slow-rolled me!” I don’t feel that I did as I just wanted to be sure to get all of his chips into the pot.

Seat 7 was replaced by a young African-American guy who acted really cool and friendly, but played like an absolute maniac. His stack oscillated, but just before my major hand with him he managed to get a full double-up when he flopped trips versus TPTK on a J44 flop:

My Stack ~30k, Seat 7 ~25k, Blinds 100/200/25, I hold AJo in the CO

Seat 7 opens from EP for 500 and I call. I might normally fold AJo in this spot, but I felt there was a lot of value versus this player.

Pot 1550
Flop J96 rainbow

Remembering the previous hand, I just call his bet of 1500. Turn A and he bets 2500. I call for value because he will bluff most rivers.

Pot ~9.5k
River T

He picks up three 5k chips and holds them for a moment. I say “Are you sure you want to bet so much” to give him the impression that I might not like to call that much (which also happens to be true, but, whatever). As soon as I say this he naturally flicks all 15k into the pot and I think about it for a while. It is possible that he rivered a straight, but it seems pretty unlikely as this would be a gutshot with a hand like KQ. I discount that. He could have flopped a set, but that seems wrong too. Altogether I can’t think of anything that makes sense that beats me so I call and I’m good. Phew! That was my best call of the series, given that it would have crippled me if I was wrong. He was monkey-tilted by my call, saying that I’m good enough to fold there. He soon donked-off the rest of his chips, but unfortunately not to me.

For the next key hand, I’m not going to immediately tell you what I had because it will spoil the story of the hand:

My Stack ~45k, Seat 1 ~20k, Seat 6 ~90k, Blinds 200/400/50

Seat 1 opens from EP for 1200 and I decide to call for value from MP because Seat 1 seems to be an incompetent older German tourist. Seat 6 is OTB and is a good-natured middle-aged French guy who appears capable of playing quite a creative game and making moves. He has also been running incredibly well. He makes it 3000 to go, Seat 1 calls and I call.

Pot ~10k
Flop QhJd5s

I immediately realise that I have flopped an OESD (I have KT), checks to Seat 6 and he makes it 6k and Seat 1 folds. I figure getting 3-2 with good implied odds is enough to chase my draw to the nuts, so I call.

Pot ~22k
Turn Qs

I had put him on most likely holding AA/KK/AK based on his flop action and, as such, the turn seemed like a good card for me to represent trip Qs or even a boat, based on my flop action. I considered that he was smart enough to read my actions so that if I did actually hold trips or a boat I would not want to kill my action by betting strong, so I decided check and then just call his bet. When he bet only 8k, I realised that if I called that with 28k behind, my stack was a kinda ok to bluff-shove any river, with some fold equity there versus AA/KK and obviously lots versus AK.

Pot ~38k
River 6s

The flush coming-in on the river gave me, in my opinion, even more fold equity so I confidently shoved in my remaining 28k. He sighed, looked extremely pained, but finally called and I was shell-shocked that I’d managed to bluff-off my healthy stack. I mucked and he flipped-up AQ. Of course I was never getting him to fold one of the hands that I was representing and perhaps I should have noticed that his small turn bet was trips. I was getting-up to leave when the dealer turned-up my cards: KsTs. WHAT!!! In my focus on chasing my OESD plus constructing my bluff-line on the turn/river, I had completely forgotten that I had spades. I am officially a retard at this point. The Frenchman was upset, not with me, but with the dealer, claiming that he should have mucked my cards. In fact, the dealer was entirely correct as it is a rule of tournament poker that both hands must be tabled during an all-in showdown to prevent collusion/chip-dumping. After the dust had settled, I found myself with 96k and probably the tourney chip-leader at this early stage. Wow!

I was perhaps still a little dazed by what had happened when this happened a few hands later:

My Stack ~95k, Seat 4 ~10k, Seat 10 ~40k, Blinds 200/400/50, I hold Kd9d in BB

Seat 4 had been playing extremely tight and limped UTG. Seat 10 called: he was a young Asian kid and one of the loosest live players I’ve ever seen. He had got lucky to chip-up hitting draws, but massively over-valued his hands and would readily go broke on any top pair or drawing hand. I checked my option:

Pot 1900
Flop AK9cc

I check and Seat 4 shoves all-in. Seat 10 then decides to call and I’m thinking whether my hand is good here or not. Meanwhile Seat 4 does not realise that I’m still in the hand and starts to flip up his cards before Seat 5 tells him to keep them hidden. I accidentally see an Ace and a card that my brain tells me is a Nine. What I had actually seen was a card with four hearts on one side (i.e. either a Nine or a Ten). I decide to take the conservative route and fold.

I’m kinda upset as Seat 4 tables AT and even more so when I see that Seat 5 has called with A5. Had Seat 4 not made a mistake and revealed most of the information about his hand to me, I most certainly would have called and probably would have shoved to isolate (and may also still have attracted a loose call from Seat 10). Naturally the board bricks out and I missed out on at least 20k extra. I still have one of the biggest stacks in the tourney, but I’m a little tilted by having a live mistake by my opponent cost me chips, but perhaps I deserved that after trying to muck the winner earlier – a bit of karma.

Next key hand:

My Stack ~90k, Seat 8 ~40k, Blinds 300/600/75, I hold TT in MP

I open for 1600 and Seat 8 makes it 4200 to go OTB. He is a young online player who plays perhaps a similar style to my own and is certainly capable of making creative moves. I know he values his button and he has probably observed that I’m opening pots relatively frequently. So he can be making this play with a wide-range of hands. I elect to just call and see a flop:

Pot ~10k
Flop 985cc

I check and he makes it 8k with ~28k behind. I figure that I’m good here a lot of the time and I also may get him to fold out JJ, as well as some flush and straight draws. I move-in and he reluctantly tank-folds. I table TT, saying “Could you beat that?” and he tells the table it was QQ. It wasn’t, but whatever.

My Stack ~110k, Seat 5 ~16k, Blinds 400/800/100, I hold KK in SB

Seat 5 makes it 2k from UTG and before I look at my cards, I tell Seat 4 that he’s bullying him because he’s playing so tight. Seat 5 is a middle-aged American and has shown some tilt at my table banter (I like to chat it up at the table). While I’m still chatting I peek at KK and keep my composure before casually throwing out the call. Seat 4 folds and I announce “Check-in-the-dark.” Flop was T-high or something like that and, as expected, he jams his remaining stack into the pot. I snap-call and hold versus his AJ.

I reached around 130k before bleed down to ~90k. Some of this was running AJ into Seat 8’s short-stack 3-bet shove with AQ in the 600/1200/100 level and some of it on this hand:

My Stack ~110k, Seat 9 ~60k, Blinds 800/1600/200, I hold 72o in BB

Seat 9 is a young guy with lots of moves. His stack has oscillated up to 100k and then down below 50k when he bluffed-off half of it on a 3-bet cold-bluff with AJo on a K-high rainbow flop, snapped-off by the jolly French guy with just 88. He limps from HJ, SB completes and I check my option. Flop A65dd. Checks to him and he bets out 3k. I feel this is kinda weak and don’t ever see this player limping an Ace. At the same time, I don’t like to C/R bluff here because of his propensity to 3-bet bluff and obviously I can’t call. So I call with the intention of taking it down later. Turn was an offsuit deuce and we both check. River is another Ace and I feel that I can bluff him off whatever he has here. So I make it 7k into the 13k pot, which might be a little on the small side, but I wanted it to look like I had the trips. He tank-called with 67. Damn!

That knocked me back a bit and I tightened-up for a while. The blinds and the average chip counts crept up, new big stacks emerged and I felt like I needed to get my stack moving in the right direction again. Here is the key moment:

My Stack ~90k, Seat 6 ~90k, Seat 10 ~24k, Blinds 1000/2000/300, I hold 7c9c in BB

Seats 6 and 10 are different players than those earlier. Seat 6 is a middle-aged Italian-American who has just sat at the table, but has a lot of ante chips, so I assume he is an active player. Seat 10 seems kinda tight.

UTG limps and Seat 6 makes a min-raise to 4k. I’m thinking like WTF is that, then Seat 10 cold call the 4k with only 20k behind. He must have a monster. It folds to my BB and its only 2k more for my speculative hand, so I call and Seat 4 makes up the 2k.

Pot ~20k
Flop 765ss

Checks to Seat 6 and he makes a very weak looking bet of 6k, which feels a lot like a draw. Seat 10 moves-in with an obvious slow-played premium pair and I’m left thinking about the situation. There is 46k in the pot and it is 20k for me to call. That means I only need 30% to make the call. I figure versus his obvious overpair I must have 9 outs (two 7s, four 8s and three 9s), which will give me around 33%.

There is the problem, however, of Seat 6. If I just call and he decides to shove (or just call) there will be a massive pot with me having 66k behind. The blinds will soon be 1500/3000/400, so I don’t want to hang around and let myself get short. I figure that Seat 6 doesn’t look strong and can’t call a shove from me. If he can he is only doing so with an overpair (or maybe a flush draw) and I still feel I have a lot of outs. Of course there is a remote possibility that he has 89, but it seems quite likely that he has no-pair flush draws and straight draws, where I might actually get value if he makes a bad call.

My philosophy when it comes to tournament poker is to play to win. That means winning all the chips and often that means making bold aggressive plays to try to acquire as many chips as possible. I was also aware that with ~38 players left, we would soon be approaching the money bubble and I wanted to gamble for a stack where I could abuse the short-stack given the very high antes.

I figured that if I make the +EV play versus Seat 10, therefore, I have to isolate the player by getting Seat 6 out of there, so I decided to shove. Seat 6 looked like he didn’t want to call off all of his chips. He was close to folding, but finally he said that it was late and he wanted to gamble. He showed me my worst nightmare for any hand that had trouble calling: 88. Jeez! I basically was left with only 4 outs and then one guy said he’d folded an 8 too, so I had 3 outs. I felt sick having ~11% chance of winning a massive pot instead of 33%.

I bricked-out and had blown-up in spectacular fashion. I’m a little upset by going out in that way on my first deep run on this trip, but I think that the structure and the payouts dictate highly aggressive play and it was just a major cooler that he had 88.

First time I’ve had a big-stack on this trip and it felt good for a while. I made some good plays and after writing this up I don’t feel too bad about my play. Perhaps I wouldn’t make the play in a higher buy-in tourney, but these $340s paying ~$13k to the winner are really all about going for first place without fear. I made the plays for that and perhaps just got unlucky in the end.