Yes it has been a while since I’ve blogged and I won’t provide any excuses as to why I have not. Many things as always race through my mind and sometimes I feel like I should share them yet I don’t…anyway on to poker
I have a feeling that I will blog more if I write about poker and analysis of my play…so I guess I will try this next. Although I’m sure other topics will sneak especially with my upcoming trip to Southeast Asia!
Cashed in my 1st WSOP event this past weekend! I definitely am excited about that and it has given me a sense of accomplishment per se in my young poker adventure. I had been playing very inconsistent and running bad during the weeks leading into the WSOP circuit event in West Palm Beach. I hadn’t had many deep runs until the night before we left. I specifically played that night in an attempt to have a deep run and boost my confidence a little, which it did. I final tabled the Wednesday night event at Silks and played solid the whole night. I played smart and focused the entire night while focusing on playing position and being selectively aggressive. This was the strategy that I was going to follow in West Palm. Play my game and not to let myself be force or get out of my comfort zone. I was excited but also nervous leading into the event. I hadn’t played in a field of this size before and I didn’t know what to expect as far as the level of play for the field and how many “professionals” I would have to play against. Although, my nervousness was delayed after not knowing for sure that we would get a chance to purchase entry tickets due to the tournament selling out. Whoops! In a strange way this calmed me. Not sure why, but maybe it distracted me from focusing on how I would play and instead on actually getting a ticket. But we were able to get tickets and it was time to grind my first event…
I decided that I wasn’t going to get carried away early and I wanted to get a good feel for the players at my table. Guy to my left was watching shows on Hulu on his iPad, older guy to my right liked to make big bets PF with speculative hands that could miss on the flop, southern guy two to my left was solid and seemed to have a similar strategy to mine, guys three and four to my left were nitty and waiting for big hands to play back at people, no one that I was too worried about. We also had two dead stacks at the table which changed to one when a super LAG player showed up, him and I would tango later. After I got comfortable with the table, which didn’t take too long, I was focused on gradually building my stack. I didn’t want to force myself to play big pots unless I had a huge hand because I didn’t want to put my stack at risk unless it was worth it. I picked up a few hands here and there, c-bet a few pots, and was able to build my stack slowly. The slow blind structure was VERY nice because it allowed me to be patient and not play many speculative hands if I wasn’t first in. A few hands…hand 6 is the one I’m guessing I’ll get the most feedback on if you want to skip ahead.
1st hand
I think we were at the 150/300/25 level. Older guy on my right opens for like 1200. He always opens larger than anyone at the table. The standard was 2-2.5BB opening bet. I look down on the button or cutoff at QJcc and call. Our stack sizes were similar to start the hand maybe 15-20K range. The flop comes K high with two clubs. The King of clubs also. He bets large again into the pot like 2-3k I think. So put him on a King and call to see if I can spike gold on the turn. Turn comes club. BOOM! He bets again about the same amount and I snap raise 3-4 times his bet leaving about 8-10K behind. He thinks about it for a while and proceeds to look at my stack while thinking then calls. Uh oh! is what I am thinking. River is a blank. Doesn’t pair the board and isn’t another club. He tanks again looking at my stack counting his then proceeds to check and I flip over my flush for the winner. I didn’t bet the river because I felt like I wasn’t going to get called by a worse hand and I would only get checked raise by a better hand or bluff. I didn’t want to be force to make a hard decision for my tournament life in this hand. Glad it worked out.
2nd hand
I’m in the small blind and the southern guy two to my left opens UTG 3 x BB I think we were at the 300/600/75 level. Folds to me and I have AQcc. I call. BB folds. Flop comes AQ5sss. Uh oh. Good flop but all spades damn. I make an almost pot sized bet hoping to end the hand here. He tanks, ask me if I have a big hand, I shake my head yes, and he calls. Once he calls I decide I’m shoving the turn unless it’s a spade. I have behind a little more than is in the pot. I see a red number card and instantly shove. He tank folds. He either had KK or JJ with K or J of spade.
3rd hand
Southern guy opens again UTG to 1800 (300/600/75 level) and it’s folded around to me and I have 10 10. I think about raising because I’m almost certain he has AK, AQ, AJ, or similar. But decide to call. The BB raises to 6500. Uh oh! Southern guy tank folds and I’m force to a tough decision. I have about 30K behind at this point and I’m certain he has AA, AK, or KK here. With more weight on AA or KK. What’s crazy is the hand right before this one he was AIPF with AA against the hyper lag that had KK. AA held up. So I ask him “another big hand” and he is stone cold stiff. Almost deer in the headlights look. So I fold my 10s face up and he shows AA again…WOW what are the odds! Great fold me!
4th hand
Approaching the dinner break we get a few new players at the table with similar stacks to mine. I’m UTG+1 and look down at 88 and open to 1800 level 400/800/100. New guy at the table calls everyone else folds. He just lost a big pot a few hands ago and I think he may be slightly on tilt. Flop comes 10 high with two hearts. Not bad but not great for my hand. I have the 8h btw (blocker). I bet 2.5K and he insta shoves for about 10K. I tank and reconstruct the hand, calculate the pot, etc…decide to call. He shows AK only one heart and misses. I drag the pot. YESSIR! Dinner break 50K stack.
Plan as of this point is hopefully avoid a cooler and continue to build my stack. Average stack for Day 2 will be about 100K.
5th hand
Hyper lag has been crushing flops and taking out people with mediocre holdings PF. He has a smaller stack than me so I’m hoping to catch his hand in the cookie jar with a big hand. Hyper lag opens for 3k two to the right of the button I believe. I’m in the BB with KK. The hand I’ve been waiting for (at least that is what I thought). I raise 13 or 14K and he almost instantly raises to 28K leaving about 8-10K behind. Anybody else at the table I actually consider folding here. But he has 3 and 4 bet light quite a few times just to get lucky on the flop flopping two pair ect…so I shove and he insta calls with AA. WTF!!! I miss and double up the LAG. I have about 12K now. BOOOOOOO.
I’m a little deflated at this point. But I collect myself and decide I’m not going to let myself go on tilt due to the cooler. I proceed to double up…I can’t remember the hand other than I know I had to fade a big draw in order to win. Then our table breaks. Get to my new table and look at quite a few big stacks at the table over 100K and we are approaching the break point for day 2. About 3 hours left to play until break for Day 2. Second hand at the table I get AA (first time for the tourney). I hollywood a bit making it seem like I don’t want to shove then “All IN”. It folds around to one of the big stacks at the table who calls. AA holds up. Sweet! Up to about 40k.
I proceed to fold hand after hand. Can’t pick up a decent hand or be first to open. Then I get 66 UTG +1 and open for 3xBB get two or three callers. Flop comes 6sAdKd. I don’t want to mess around so I shove and get one caller with QJdd. Uh oh! So I start saying “Pair the board”…K on the turn. Yes! Wait please don’t put the 10d out there….river blank. Sweet. Double up!
After that I pick my spots wisely. My table was tough. A lot of 3 betting PF and raising bets on the flop. I pick up blinds and antes a few times. But my stack gets smaller due to missing flops when I’m in hands. I pick up a decent pot before the break for Day 2. Small stack goes all in gets one caller. I look down at AJ and shove ALL IN. I had the caller covered or close too. He folds and I catch an Ace for the winner. He later said he folded AQ. Whoops dodge a bullet there…my stack was short though and I was shoving any ace at that point. He should have shoved before me…then I would have folded.
End of Day 1 and I have 75.5K with the average being slightly over 100K.
Wow didn’t expect this at all. Although I knew I wasn’t a bad player I honestly can say that I was humbled to make day 2. Looking back at the day…I played smart, was able to hit flops/boards here and there, and survived one cooler. I felt good knowing those things alone. I was very confident in my game going into Day 2 and I felt like as long as I was able to pick up a few hands early I would have a good shot at going deep into the money.
Day 2
309 left and 279 are in the money. First few hands the dealer makes it easy for me and guys are shoving at my table every hand getting zero callers.
6th hand
This hand was borderline to me…We weren’t in the money yet and I look down at AQdd UTG and open for 11 or 12K blinds were 2k/4k/500. I have about 60K behind. Guy to my left shoves for about 52K total. It folds to me and I tank call. He shows AK and I lose. Looking back at this hand I feel as though it is a marginal call. Looking at the numbers…there was 11K from blinds and antes, 12k from my bet, and his 50K in the pot. About 73k total. So I have to call about 40K in order to win 73K which puts the pot odds at 1.5:1. So would need to be at least 40% to win the hand to justify the call. I felt that he would shove AK, AQ, AJ, and any pair AA-88 or 77. From my quick conversation with him he didn’t seem like he was just going to fold his way into the money. So I’m flipping with a lot of his range here, a favorite to one hand, and quite a bit behind against 3 hands. So looking at his range here I felt like I was in that 40% range and could call since I would be flipping against most of his range. I was willing to flip at this point because I decided I wasn’t going to just fold my way to the money. My goal at this point wasn’t a min cash I was shooting for at least top 30. Also if he had more chips than me I would have folded. Having a little over 20K behind factored into my decision as I would still have a shot to build a stack.
After this hand I fold to the money. Really didn’t have a choice due to the hands I was getting and I’m in the money. WHOOP! First WSOP event and I cashed. Yes LAWD! LOL…It is a great feeling and gives me more confidence in my game. They give us a break to cash out the players who busted on the bubble and I hope that I can pick up a decent hand early when we get back to double up with.
Standard hand…I’m in the BB hoping I have a hand with some sort of chance winning after a flop and I look down at 67dd. Cool…raiser from mid position calls my All In and I double up against A9cc. Yes! On the right track.
Few hands later UTG raises 3xBB and I look down at 10 10 in late position and shove. He calls with AQ…Ace in the window. Boooooo! 214th place for me!
Hindsight is 20/20…yes I could have folded the AQ vs AK hand and had more chips once we were in the money. Maybe I would have been able to chip up. I don’t know. But I felt like at the time that wasn’t a bad play. Great no…marginal yes. I’m sure some will disagree which is fine with me. I’m still learning this game but I feel as though I have the tools necessary to make deep runs in tournaments like these. I will continue to do the things necessary to improve my game and hopefully I’ll make another deep run in Vegas during the WSOP this year!
Fred
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