Before I start, yet another "congrats", this time to my friend Leo (Pechorin/Superfluous Man on this site), who FT'd both the $1050 and the $162 MTT's on Pokerstars last night - winning the latter - for a combined 50K. Great job, man. I think the combined total of the two houses I stayed in in Vegas last month is now over a million since then...

Anyway, I finally got around to reviewing the notes I made back during the two WSOP events I didn't recap. The 1500 summary follows:

I almost didn't play the event, because, thanks to sleeping late the night before, everyone in the house showed up just before it started and wound up having to register as alternates for a 3,000+ person field. What that meant was we wound up getting to play almost exactly 2 hours in - meaning we started with 3,000 chips and 100/200 blinds, ie, with almost no room to play. At my table, which was, of course, composed entirely of alternates, 4 people busted in the first 3 hands as everyone tried to get a playable stack ASAP. Most of them were pretty bad, but it didn't matter; at that blind level with that type of shallow stack poker involved, you just have to play your cards and I didn't get many to play until 2 hours later.

I'd somehow gotten to just under 5K (I think by restealing once or twice) when I got my first break during the 150/300/25 level. Someone limped in EP and I made it 1500 in EMP with tens, intending to basically take down the pot or to get it heads up with the limper. Instead, the button, whom I already tagged as a calling station, called the raise for an effective 1/3 of our stacks. The original limper folded, and we went heads up to the flop, which came a very nice J87. With a pot sized bet or so in my stack, I, of course, simply pushed and was called by a hand which had me crushed - 77 (wow). I hit a 9 on the river to double up and waited out the button's muttering to himself about the terrible beat he'd taken. Shortly thereafter, I won another coinflip with AKs against 33 and suddenly had a 16K stack, 50 BB worth and a real threat. (At that point, of the ~8 people I came to the Rio with and played with as an alternate, only Shaun Deeb was still not busto, and only one other person that started at my alternate table was still there. Incidentally, one of the bustoed alternates was Rainkhan, somebody you'll be seeing a lot of in the WSOP broadcast - we wound up swapping 5% of each other and I had to ship him a couple of hundred bucks after this tourney ended. I have great timing with my swaps.)

At that point, I lost a few all ins to shortstacks who had slightly better hands, dropped down to 12K or so and stayed in the 10-15K range for the next ~3 hours. Hovering in the 10-20 BB area, once again, I mostly just played my cards and occasionally looked for spots to resteal. One of my key targets here was an Asian guy one to my right who was very aggressive from LP and in the blinds - he'd raise almost every time it was folded to him, and as it happens, just as I'd be getting short once again, I'd wake up with some sort of marginal hand like 88 or Axs that was still way ahead of his range, I'd shove and he'd make an annoyed fold like clockwork. This kept me in business until I pushed J9 in the cutoff with something like 10K/12 BB at 400/800/100 (meaning an M of 5), the big blind with 8x woke up with AT and I turned 2 pair to put me up to 18K or so, a workable stack to actually play postflop but at the cost of ruining my image.

Almost immediately afterwards, the Asian guy raised again, this time from UTG+2 or so, and I looked down at black tens in MP2. With my image being what it was now, a reraise wouldn't really get him or anyone else to fold anything, and I felt like he had to have a much tighter range from EP than LP, so I decided to just call. Everyone else folded and we saw a 9 6 5 flop ("gin"), he bet ~5K into a 6K pot, I shoved 10K more, and after tanking a bit, he finally made the call with black eights - a sick spot for him and not one he could really get away from. I held up and wound up with a nearly 40K stack at 400/800, probably in the top 10% of the tournament.

Right after that, I blew off 10K on a weird hand that only happens live. I raised 55 in MP and the guy right behind me immediately shoved his stack, giving me (IIRC) 1.7 to 1 or so. As I was thinking, I looked to my left and noticed he looked increasingly uncomfortable, so eventually, I wound up calling. He *was* uncomfortable - he 'only' had jacks, put me on a small pair based on the amount of time I was taking, but, in his own words, didn't want me to call. Chalk this one up to good reads gone hilariously bad. At any rate, I went into the 800/1200 level, just prior to the bubble, with around 35K - somewhere around the table chiplead, with the rest of the table hovering in the 15K to 30K area.

The table had been tight, but reasonable up until that point. On the bubble, though, everyone simply froze up. This wasn't just a regular old WSOP table with a few good players and some mediocre ones - it was a crowd of people playing the smallest buyin event on a weekend, and it showed in their play. So, of course, I promptly FPS'd all my chips:

After already making a couple of raises that orbit, I raised 8 7 UTG+1 to 3600. It folded down to the BB, a kid in his early 20's, who'd replaced the Asian guy and seemed fairly aggressive since then. Even before it folded to him, I had the sense that, if he would try something, the stacks were right (I couldn't tell his *exact* stack, but felt he had about 30K) to make a big 4 bet. True enough, it folded to him, he paused, and as I stared at the felt, I eventually heard the dealer announce "reraise". He'd made it 9500. Well, okay then...I asked for a chip count, and as it turned out, he had about 15K behind. "Not what I thought, but wow, this is the exact spot I was thinking about. All right, if he ever does this with air, or even 'merely' AQ, he's snap folding, and he isn't going to make a heroic call with tens all that often. All in". I shoved, and to my credit, my read was right again - he took about 20 seconds before reluctantly calling with...AK. Whoooops.

Did you know 87s is only a 58/42 dog to AK, though? Board: J62...5...........4. For the first time at the WSOP, I ran good. [A month after the fact, I think it's a bad play, of course...just not as bad as I originally thought it was a few hours after I'd made it. Yes, it was ugly - he needed to be far deeper for me to pull this off, and him reraising a UTG+1 raiser OOP wasn't exactly the bold aggressive LAGgy "move" I was waiting for. But at least I made it with some decent reasoning behind it.]

After that, having had him covered, my 65K stack was good enough to bully the table around. It broke shortly thereafter, literally during hand for hand (10 from the money), but by the time H4H was over less than an orbit later, I'd already moved up over 80K. At that point, as usual, the room went nuts and 30-40 shortstacks busted within the next 20 minutes. The final interesting hand I played on day 1 came when someone from my old table - who'd seen all of these hands I've typed out - moved into the newly vacant spot 2 to my left, I raised KQs in the CO to 6K at 1/2K and he shoved about 25K total from the BB. Online, this is a snap call, but live, this is usually a close decision - except he'd seen me play and could have been shoving light. Eventually, I decided my hand was slightly too good to fold, called and held up against his.....74o. That got me over 100K, the high point of the tourney and good for a pretty nice picture of me with a pyramid of chips on pokernews somewhere.

I think I lost one more pot after that and ended the day at 93K at 1/2K, good for 20'th/218. Unfortunately, as the entry from back then says, I only won 2 more pots during all of day 2 and finished 83'rd or so. Ah, poker, how I love thee.

Up next: the 1K rebuy recap, and a couple of new articles I'm working on.

Another day, another FT - this time, 4'th/231 in the UB 129 bounty-ment for $2,000. I ran and played pretty well up until the final table, where 66 < 32s and KK < KQ AIPF. To be honest, I wasn't even very surprised, heh. I got back to the chiplead 4 handed, but couldn't seal it when I raised with JJ, KJs called and flopped a flush. That's poker; at some point, the final tables will break my way, too.

I'm probably not going to play tomorrow after a string of late nights, so let me see if I can catch up with this blog then...

Fortunately, it keeps on not happening because instead of having time to write a long entry, I keep making deep runs. Tonight was a nice monkey off my back - 3'rd/272 in the 109 6 max rebuy on FTP for just over $10K, as well as 2 other small cashes, making it a nice 3 for 4 day.

I didn't play my A+ game this time just because I was rarely in a marginal situation all night - either I had the hand and timing to win a big pot, or I didn't. But overall, I'm really encouraged by my post-Vegas results; it's just been deep run after deep run, and with a few exceptions (one pretty big one tonight 4 handed - oh well) I feel like my reads have been excellent, too. It's nice to be on fire while playing good poker.

I'll update this thing one, two, or seven times whenever I'm actually done playing by midnight :)

Looks like I've got 3 recaps to write instead of 2. I set tonight aside to finally get to work on the blog after I busted out of the Sundays, but managed to get to 31'st in the Million before busto, instead. Unfortunately, when I got there, KK < A4 for half my stack and AQ < JJ (on a KQxJx board...) for the rest. Three thousand dollars and change just isn't very sweet when I can taste a second Stars FT.

I'm *definitely* proud of the way I'm playing, though - tonight, I was only all in while behind once in eight hours and my bag of tricks got a lot bigger after Vegas. That also makes the second FT I've made this week (the other was a small rebuy event where I lost a couple of big flips to bust early, as well, but it's a start.)

There's a lot to be said for poker boot camps.

Update: of course, my friend Adam won the tournament for 200K. If somebody other than me had to do it, I'm glad it was him - he's been trying to break through in a major for a while now. Congratulations and I'll see you at Turning Stone :)

Big news today: the house has yet another 100K winner, as JCarver won the FTP 500K tonight while making some absolutely spectacular calldowns. Congratulations JC!

Unfortunately, he was the only one at the house until a half hour after winning, as a bunch of us went over to Nath's place to play the Sunday tournaments. Other than ActionJeff getting to fourth in the 10K HU matches (then basically not flopping a pair for an hour and losing a 3:1 to end it - reminds me of me) for a 14K profit, none of us really went anywhere, but I did make a couple of deep runs, including a 10/95 in the 20K FTP HORSE before getting scooped on two big stud/8 pots on the river. Even through running cold, I'm definitely picking my spots much better lately, and it's showing in my aggression level and willingness to get a lot of chips in in some key hands.

So, the WSOP recap:

I started (and ended - we never broke) at table 18, seat 9. Most of the rest of the table was pretty weak/tight and extremely nitty (sample hand: 44 check/calls a bet from the PFR on a 664 board, bets the turn 3 flush ace, then *check/calls* the K river; AK is flabbergasted), with two exceptions - an Asian guy playing well in seat 6 who turned out to be ActionBob, and seat 10, who came in an hour in or so. More on him later.

The first hand I really played came about 20 minutes in (20K chips, 50/100). After calling a couple of raises and then folding the flop, I called an EP raise from Bob to 225 with 99 in MP. The BB, a young looking guy who seemed a little out of his depth and was already down to 17K or so, overcalled, and we saw an A 9 3 flop. BB bet out 1K, Bob folded, I made it 2500 and the BB quickly called. He check/called 4K on the 7 turn and then checked the T river. I probably should've made it about 4K again - instead, I bet 7K and he managed to find a fold with A 3. Oops.

The harbinger of things to come came about an hour later. With 26K, I overlimped 77 in LMP, someone else limped, the button in seat 2 - a 40-ish guy in a cowboy hat playing tight - made it 500, an EP limper called and I called. I led 1K on the Q J 7 flop into the button, he raised to 3K and I called looking to CR the turn. "Un"fortunately, the turn was the Q, a bad card for me since it basically meant I'd only get one more street of action from an overpair, so I checked - obviously still planning to CR, or possibly check/call, bet, if he bet his aces etc. - and the button checked behind. I led the river 3 for 3K just to get a crying call from aces...except the button tried raising with a single 5K red chip, until the dealer told him he had to minraise to 6K. "Does he do this with AQ? Dammit...maybe. Okay, crying call. Nope, quads. lol, how the hell does he manage not to double up here?" I got to the break at 17,500 or so, still laughing that I managed to lose only a third of my stack with a full house.

Level 2 (100/200) was up and down. While I hovered up and down, the tables shifted from 9 handed (some people were still buying in) to 10 handed, and a 30-ish British guy with 38K - with a few friends also playing in the event, but clearly not a pro - was moved to my left into seat 10. I asked him how he doubled up; the story went "I had AJ in the BB on an AKJ flop, got raised by the UTG limper, just called, then check/called the Ax turn and river." Having heard that, I immediately tagged him as loose passive, which was 'confirmed' a little later (I overlimped AJ, bet the A 8 7 board in a 6 way pot, got called by the Brit, and chopped with his AJ after checking through the 6 9 board). At that point, I figured I'd just treat him like the rest of the table and just play my cards until the antes started, then steal at will. Chipping up a little eventually left me at a little over 19K, which leads us to a hand just before the break:

I raise A Q in EMP. Seat 10 and ActionBob in the BB both call, the flop comes A 8 4, I lead 1200 into 1900 and Seat 10 quickly makes it 2600. Barf. After thinking it over for a minute, there's absolutely nothing I like on the turn or anywhere else, so I just fold.

---

Sounds good, right? It seemed like it at the time, until I got back from the break and the roof caved in.

In a 40 minute span at level 3, 200/400:

-ActionBob makes a raise to 1100 in the cutoff, one of about a million he'd been making. He's down to somewhere around 12K - I've already repopped him PF once and none of his cbets have been working - when I look down at A T in the BB and, since a 3 bet would be ugly stackwise, choose to just call. I check/call 1200 or so on the A 4 3 flop and, since I already saw him 2 barrel 88 on an Axxx board, decide to check the turn, too, which is the 5. He, of course, checks behind, except the river is the 2, the worst card in the deck. I check and he bets 2K, a really ugly amount that I want to simply fold to, but can't. Of course, he has 66.

-I raise two limpers with AQ to 1800, get reraised to 5K behind me and muck.

-Bob raises something or other to 1050 UTG+1. I now only have 13K and look down at red tens in MP, can't really reraise here and flat call. Seat 10 now instantly makes it 3300, Bob folds, I sigh and muck.

-I raise some random hand like Q6 in the SB, seat 10 instashoves and I muck.

-I...someone else...I muck...it goes on like that for a while. When I'm down to 8K, seat 10 raises PF, some action happens, and he eventually has to show his hand down - which turns out to be 65o, ie, the winning bottom end of a straight that puts him at something like 65K. I'm absolutely stunned, because not only does that make everything else I did in the last two hours suspect - it's the most flawed read on a player I've had this WSOP - it means I now have to play much tighter with 20 BB than I was hoping to.

---

In retrospect, the guy simply switched gears and probably did have legitimate hands at the time. Nonetheless, even chipping up a little, I went to dinner break with only 11K and no particular plan of attack other than 'wait for a hand'.

I wound up waiting for almost the entire next level (200/400/50), going incredibly card dead, when I finally picked up tens in the SB after two limpers in the CO/button. By then, I only had 8800, so I decided I'd just shove - planning to get called by some worse pairs and maybe fold out something like AJ - except I live misclicked and left out my lone 5K chip. It didn't matter, because Seat 10 instantly put me all in with aces (sigh)...flop J8x...turn Q...river 9 and I somehow double to 19K. True to form, CO immediately said he folded nines (yes, after open limping. I think he probably calls a shove if Seat 10 didn't.)

Because of that, I started 300/600/75 with just over 20K, trying to wait out seat 10, who was playing every pot to my left with his massive stack and running over the nits in every other position. Of course, I raised two of my first three buttons with Ax, seat 10 instantly made it some large number and I folded. I wound up restealing from other people a few times and treading water until the defining three hand sequence of the tournament:

-Hand 1: it's folded to the SB, Karin Lundgren, a Swedish pro who's been playing pretty passive. She opens to something like 1400 (previously, she'd complete/folded once, gave me a walk and raised once each.) I have AT in the BB with ~18K and make it 3600...and she instantly 4 bets to 10K. Siiiiiigh. Muck.

-Hand 2: on the very next hand, it's folded to my SB and I look down on aces, the first time I've gotten them all tourney. With only 14K and change, I complete. Seat 10 throws out five yellow chips, I Hollywood for 20 seconds and shove, he snap calls getting 2:1 with KQ and is actually pissed off at me when MHIG, because, apparently, I had no fold equity and was slowrolling him. I apologize and make a mental note.

-Hand 3: So, now, I've got 32K, seat 10 is down to something like 40 and definitely steaming about my two double ups off him, the rest of the table is still ridiculously weak tight (only ActionBob is playing any pots at all, usually winding up in tough situations OOP vs. the LAG) and I'm ready to go nuts. *Exactly one orbit later*, the guy from the boat < quads hand earlier makes it 2500 of his 17K or so UTG, still at 300/600. My playing range on the button in this spot is exactly four hands - AA-QQ, AK (and I just call with AK). Of course, I look down on QQ, make it 7500, and am not at all surprised when he shoves and shows aces. Yay, back to 14K.

I mentioned the end of the tourney in my last post, but that was basically it; I chipped up where I could but lost the last, critical flip with Seat 10 for a combined 55K. In the end, with the exception of missing the Seat 10 read for that key half an hour (which, to be honest, probably results in me being out eight hours earlier, because if I knew he was that LAGgy I'd go broke with tens the first time - and in retrospect, he always had a big hand when squeezing), I think I played very good poker. There are a bunch of hands in the report that I'm not mentioning - the reraise with Q8s, the flat call with AK PF/value bet the T92 board combo, a few big multiway cbets with air - all of which were based off solid reads and turned out to be right, and I feel like I have a very good grasp on every aspect of the live game at this point. It's really a shame that the cards didn't cooperate, but c'est la vie. I'll be back next year.

Up next: the recap of the 1500 NL/rebuy events I've been setting aside, and refocusing on online poker. I'll probably throw in some razz lessons when I'm feeling frisky.

I'll let my 2+2 posts speak for themselves:

8:13 PM:

[quote]11K @ dinner break after a (two card) boat < quads and AT < 66 on an A43 board. pretty happy to still be here, really.[/quote]

1:09 AM:

[quote]so I stopped getting 3 bet and 4 bet when I had hands that could do one but not the other and doubled up by trapping with aces. 32K...

until I ran QQ into AA an orbit later. such a skill game.

18600 at 4/8, and level headed or not, I'm getting tired of getting set up (especially when the guy with AA, who played 2 hands all day and neither well, then got AA > KK and has 50 thousand.)

edit: to be fair I did have a TT > AA in there for, like, 9K, so I'm technically freerolling the tourney. except it was another SB/BB hand with a couple of limpers that I had no chance to fold anywhere. seriously, this is getting kinda sick. [/quote]

1:39 AM:

[quote]
10 minutes after the break, AQ > 99 so I have a 26K stack

10 minutes after that, I raise 88 from the SB, BB shoves (he has a 40K stack, and this is about the fifth time we've done some version of this/last time AA > KQ that raised to 10x), AT is very very good because I can't win a coinflip for a stack at the WSOP to save my life.

gl all, also, lol donkaments.[/quote]

Today was basically a nightmare. Every hand I played was a setup hand of one type or another and I'm amazed that I lasted as long as I did, because there was simply no such thing as a premium hand that didn't run into a bigger one or a marginal raise that didn't run into a 3 bet. I think 80% of 2+2 goes out before the first break on the boat vs. quads hand and most of the other 20% is certainly out by the dinner break. Playing very, very well got me to a coinflip for a big stack, though - it just didn't work out.

Meh. I'll post a report later, probably after tomorrow's online tournaments are done. This month has been pretty exhausting to say the least - it's hard to be in a good state of mind when you just can't win.

Iweargoggles runs worse than me. Not that being out in three hands doesn't make plans easier, but that's just hilarious.

I'm playing tomorrow - with any luck, I'll also have a 12% chance to bust on the third hand.

This is my first blog in quite a long time and the first that I'm taking seriously that has a real audience; sometimes, I forget that more than 2 people are actually reading the things I post. My last entry arose out of frustration and wasn't particularly suited to posting on a public forum - regardless of whether I've got valid points, there was no reason for me to name names or needlessly flame people. So I'd like to publicly apologize for being dumb on the Internet and talking trash to specific people - that wasn't the first time and probably won't be the last, but I'd rather not be a jackass without a good reason.

(Oh yeah - to address a reader comment, the Q4o flop call is pretty standard/I'd do the same. It's limit. This kind of stuff actually makes sense there for a bunch of reasons.)

[22:09] Adanthar: so I have a limit shootout table with matt matros, david levi, shawn keller and 2 other guys who aren't supposed to suck
[22:10] Adanthar: so they all suck, and david levi CR's me in a 3 bet PF pot with Qc8x on an AcTc3x board, I am never EVER folding KQ to that clown, he gets there
[22:10] Adanthar: (turn Kc obv so I lose the most)
[22:11] Adanthar: but that's ok, I come back, run a big bluff on Keller then bust him with the only time I bad beat someone all tourney, pick up pots playing well and get 3 handed with Matros and Levi with a chip lead
[22:12] Adanthar: I raise A6, MM calls from the SB (yes calls) with A3, flop A32 with a flush draw, MM is playing so passive that when he CR's I ACTUALLY THINK ABOUT FOLDING TOP PAIR ON THE TURN 3 HANDED IN LIMIT
[22:12] Adanthar: but ok fine, I still have chips
[22:12] Adanthar: I raise 88, MM calls
[22:12] Adanthar: flop 652, I bet he calls
[22:12] Adanthar: I check dark, turn 3, he bets, of course I CR, he calls
[22:12] Adanthar: river 6, I bet, HE CALLS WITH Q4 FOR THE TURNED GUTSHOT AND NEVER RAISES ANYWHERE
[22:13] Adanthar: LIVE POKER IS SO AWESOME

I'm willing to concede Matt Matros just had an off day - all right, he was way too passive, whatever. That happens. But when David Levi calls my raises 8 billion times and leads out (instead of, say, letting me lose chips) whenever he hits top pair...there's just something weird about how these guys can possibly win money at poker.

They're great at hitting 20%'s in big pots, though!

edit: although I have to admit that MM asking who I was and visibly being impressed with my play (you know, prior to the whole 'turn a gutshot and never raise' thing) was a cheap thrill.

I just realized I said '2 for 13' in my last entry but didn't explain what that actually means. Most people don't understand how ridiculous the tournament scene is, so think about it this way:

WSOP tournaments, like most tournaments, pay the top 10% or so, meaning that I'm above average (not that the sample size means anything, heh.) However, obviously, only the top few spots really pay anything - the rest range from 2-10 buyins. To put it another way, instead of the 1 in 10 expectation of an average player, my 2 for 13 finish cost my backers ~13 thousand bucks so far.

This is by no means bad - it's basically close to breaking even (in fact, I myself will probably roughly break even on the trip after costs, because I'm up a few thousand in satellites, have the 3K from Matt for the Sunday Million help, etc., not counting the main event.) Nor are my results anywhere near the bottom. Of the eight people being staked by my backers, only two I know of have actually come out ahead thus far - not nearly enough to cover their combined buyins - and I'm probably third or fourth of the eighth on the ladder. That's not counting the 70,000 in ME $ they will be shelling out. There's an amazing amount of trading online cash for actual cash going on, several people I've always thought were good have left early due to losing their entire bankrolls (admittedly, strip clubs and blackjack pits have a lot to do with this), and this is all just the tip of the iceberg.

I personally know four people who are up $150,000+ due to coming out to Vegas. I also know roughly ten times that many who are down on their trips, including practically every single tourney pro I have talked to [minus the ones who actually have top 5 finishes - but the ones with a 7'th or 8'th place finish *still* often have a losing month.]

On the one hand, there's no question that over the long run, there is an amazing amount of money to be made here. On the other, it's all about buying the 'top 3 out of a pool of a thousand' lottery ticket, and, just looking at the percentages...that's potentially a pretty long dry spell waiting to happen. There are good reasons why so many tourney pros eventually wind up switching to cash.