As I surveyed the room, it was about what I expected/hoped for. Mostly pros and several table with 5-6 well known players per. Sure, it would be tough as could be, but what a great experience nonetheless. At first glance, Ted Lawson was the only player I recognized at my table, sitting to me immediate right in the 2 seat and fresh off a win in one of the prelims. Then I saw that Mark Newhouse was in seat 6. Okay no biggie. Come to find later that Theo Tran was in the 1, John Racener the 7 and Michael Esposito in 5. There was also a very aggressive Asian kid in 10 who appeared to be a pretty good player at first blush.

Level 1 (25/50 75 minute levels) was fairly uneventful for me. I probably played only 4-5 hands, winning 3 without any real decisions. I flopped a set of 3s and won about 2000 to get up to 12,300 at the first break. Tran, Racener, Newhouse and Seat 10 were playing a lot of pots, opening with a wide range of hands. Esposito and Lawson were playing it pretty close to the vest. Seat 8, an amateur calling station who took forever to act after getting clarification from the dealer for the bet or raise every single time managed to win a few pots and became any early target.

In Level 2 (50/100), I was again pretty card dead and played about 3 hands. I raised on the button with T9hh got called in two spots and check-folded a flop of AJx. Then I raised to 300 with QQ from MP and was called by seat 10 in the big blind. The flop came down 8s6s4h. He checked, I bet 600 into 800, and he check-raised to 2175. Given the board, his most likely holding here seemed to be a pair with some kind of straight draw and flush draw, something like 98, 87 or 65 of spades. I thought for over a minute before deciding that, with stacks this deep in level 2, I didn’t want to commit to the hand with a raise, or worse, have to consider folding to a push. I had a little over 11k at the time, so I finally called the other 1575. (Shannon Shorr recounts a similar position with an overpair during level 1 in his blog) I’m not sure it was the right move and may have actually been my worst option. Folding seems really weak-tight there, but with stacks this deep, I’m not sure it’s not better than calling. My final feeling for calling was that it seemed that many of the cards on the turn would either obviously help me or hurt me. As it turns out, the turn was an offsuit 9, he bet around 2200 and I folded. I think that is a pretty easy fold there. He showed 96s for two pair.

In level 3 (100/200) I went over 50 minutes without playing a single hand and dropped down to 8500. Then I opened from the lojack (one before the hijack) with QJoff. (Aside: Not sure if I’m making up the term “lojack” but if I am, let’s try and make it stick. Dario Minieri was moved to a table right next to me, and on his first hand he folded under the gun saying, ”tight is right” to much laughter. Pokerati deserves some credit for that.) The calling station called in the big blind and we saw a 9-high flop with two spades (I had the queen of spades). I c-bet 1200 and he called. The turn was the Ace of spades. Check, check. River was an offsuit 9. I checked and he won the pot with KsJh. Yucky. Queue raised eyebrows around the table, though I’m not sure who they thought played the hand worse.

I then called a raise from Tran in the SB with 55. Esposito called, too, and the flop came K45, one spade. We checked to Tran who bet 1200. I called and Esposito called. The turn was the As. Tran led out for 1600, and I moved in from around 4400 total. Esposito thought for a while with what I assume was probably AQ or AJ and folded. Tran went into the tank for about 2 minutes asking me if I had AK over and over. Not sure what he had here, I’m assuming AT or somesuch. He finally folded. That got me back to around 12000 heading into level 4.

Level 4 (100/200 25 ante) proved to be my last level. On the first hand of the level, I was in the SB with A5 and took the flop unraised and heads-up with the BB. The flop was 455. I check-called the flop. Turn was a 9. Check-check. River blank and I got the BB to call half pot. That got me to my high water mark around 12500. On the very next hand, one I’m still not sure about, I raised the button after two callers with KQdd to 600. Esposito made it 1400 to go, and I was the only caller. Flop came QJTr. He led out for 1700, and I called. Turn blanked, and he bet 2200. Seemed like a smallish bet that was either looking to trap with AK or scared with AA, most likely AA. I folded, but I’m not sure about this play. When I folded, Esposito said “I didn’t want to see a flop with that hand.” Given that when he made his raise there could have been up to three callers, I interpreted that to mean aces, but again, I’m not sure. I didn’t play another hand until my next button when Tran opened in the cutoff to 800. I looked down at two black kings and made it 2000 to go with 8500 behind. With my table image at this point, there is really only 3-4 hands I can have. It appeared as though Tran, who had about 15k was thinking about pushing but finally called. The flop came Q45r. He checked, and I bet 2500. He thought and called, though it looked like he almost pushed. Turn was an ace, and it went check-check. River blanked and I folded to a 2700 bet. He showed pocket queens and was sick he didn’t raise me on the flop. Not sure how I didn’t go broke there. At the time, I would have insta-called a shove on the flop, but in thinking through it afterwards, I’m not sure there is a single hand he could that I could beat there if he did shove on the flop. I think he knows I have a hand, and I don’t think there is any way he would do that with AQ (a hand I think he would bet-fold on the flop).

I bled down to around 3400 after calling a couple of raises and folding on the flop. Then Racener opened for 800 UTG, Lawson called and I stuck the rest in with AQo. Racener insta-mucked, but Lawson went into a very talky tank for almost 3 minutes, asking me over and over if I had AK (again). He had had over 20k in chips, around 2600 to call, and the pot was laying him almost exactly 2-to-1. He finally folded pocket fours face-up which shocked me. A couple of orbits later I busted somewhat insignificantly after again re-raising Racener all in with 55, getting called by Esposito with AKs and having Racener Re-shove with KK. Gotta win races.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and a very different experience from the WSOP Main Event. Even though the structure was virtually the same with 75 minute levels, it played very, very fast, and I wasn’t as prepared for that as I should have been. Hopefully, I can get a little of the 07 mojo back for June and July.

]]> http://pokerati.com/2008/05/wsop-ciruit-caesars-trip-report/feed/ 9 http://pokerati.com/2008/03/dan-at-his-reflective-best/ http://pokerati.com/2008/03/dan-at-his-reflective-best/#comments Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:26:32 +0000 The Big Randy http://pokerati.com/2008/03/03/dan-at-his-reflective-best/ Sure sign the world is about to end? Dan gets a shout-out in ESPN.

PokerStars Game #15530033820: Tournament #77290333, $500+$30 Hold’em No
Limit – Level XII (1000/2000) – 2008/02/24 – 20:49:03 (ET)
Table ’77290333 159′ 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: 2A472 (71017 in chips)
Seat 2: KaiserKoenig (61168 in chips)
Seat 3: CliveWinston (27355 in chips)
Seat 4: bigtruck4w (61560 in chips)
Seat 5: SILK23 (15342 in chips)
Seat 6: TheBigRandy (114524 in chips)
Seat 7: cnew27 (52714 in chips)
Seat 8: PurpleHazze (34613 in chips)
Seat 9: Mekong~x (90306 in chips)
2A472: posts the ante 200
KaiserKoenig: posts the ante 200
CliveWinston: posts the ante 200
bigtruck4w: posts the ante 200
SILK23: posts the ante 200
TheBigRandy: posts the ante 200
cnew27: posts the ante 200
PurpleHazze: posts the ante 200
Mekong~x: posts the ante 200
Mekong~x: posts small blind 1000
2A472: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheBigRandy [Tc Kc]
KaiserKoenig: folds
CliveWinston: folds
bigtruck4w: folds
SILK23: folds
TheBigRandy: raises 4000 to 6000
cnew27: folds
PurpleHazze: calls 6000
Mekong~x: folds
2A472: calls 4000
*** FLOP *** [Ks 6s 8s]
2A472: checks
TheBigRandy: bets 108324 and is all-in
PurpleHazze: calls 28413 and is all-in
2A472: calls 64817 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Ks 6s 8s] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [Ks 6s 8s 4s] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
2A472: shows [6c 6h] (three of a kind, Sixes)
TheBigRandy: shows [Tc Kc] (a pair of Kings)
2A472 collected 72808 from side pot
PurpleHazze: shows [Ad Ac] (a pair of Aces)
2A472 collected 106039 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 178847 Main pot 106039. Side pot 72808. | Rake 0
Board [Ks 6s 8s 4s 3h]
Seat 1: 2A472 (big blind) showed [6c 6h] and won (178847) with three of
a kind, Sixes
Seat 2: KaiserKoenig folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: CliveWinston folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: bigtruck4w folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: SILK23 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: TheBigRandy showed [Tc Kc] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 7: cnew27 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: PurpleHazze (button) showed [Ad Ac] and lost with a pair of
Aces
Seat 9: Mekong~x (small blind) folded before Flop

To borrow a phrase from the Sports Guy, “the lesson, as always, I’m an idiot.”

Umm, yikes.

UPDATE: He did not win.

First, my tournament. I made it into level 7, a little more than halfway through the day. I had a good starting table, with several players limp-calling and nittily letting there chip stacks dwindle away. The only problem was that through the first break (after level 4) we hadn’t busted a single player at my table; at the same time, almost half the starting field on our day 1 was gone. As a result, there were not as many chips for the taking. Even still, I was at 8400 (average of 6200) and feeling pretty good. I have not played a MTT since the Main Event (subject of a to-be-written post entitled “Supernova, or, how to donk away a money finish in the Big One”), and I was a little loosey-goosey early, but I managed to level it out and felt pretty good with a pretty good table image.

After the break, the short stacks started busting, and we got some more chips in play. In the first orbit or two I got it up to 10K without seeing a turn card. Then, in successive hands, I was dealt QQ UTG, AK in the BB and AJs in the SB. I lost all three pots and was quickly down to 5500. The blinds then jumped to 200-400-50 (from 150-300-25), and I was suddenly pretty short. I moved in in consecutive pots in the SB and on the button to add 35% to my stack. I folded two orbits and was down to 6k or so again waiting for a hand to double through or go home. Sitting UTG+1, I found kings. UTG made it 900 to go, and I moved in immediately. It folded to UTG who had around 4200 total. He called in a shot with AJs. a MP player says he had AJ, too, so, of course, I know I’m dead. Door card is an ace. Down to 1800, I get it in on the next hand with K3 and lose to QQ. You have to win races.

As for the tournament, given the field size and the buy-in, I thought they did a very nice job. There was plenty of play, particulary in the first 5-6 levels. I thought it was better value than the 1500 WSOP events, and the field wasn’t as strong. I was also impressed with the dealers and tourney staff. We never had any issues at my table, but at the very least, it was clear they were trying to make this a great event. I was impressed and will play in this or other Winstar tournies again.

Finally, though I didn’t play any cash games, it looks like their new poker room is the real deal. It seems very nice, and they had a ton of action going when I checked it out (I assume much of that had to do with the tourney). I would definitely go back just to play some live poker.

Overall, I was impressed with Winstar and the tournament, and it will be in my future plans.

We’re all still basically dead money, though, collectively, we have been playing poker and tournament poker for several years, and each of us has made a final table in an event with a buy-in of $500 or more. Also, we’ve all played in the WSOP before, and for some of us, this will be at least our fourth event.

Last year, we had several batfaces in the $2,500 NL event (won by Max Pescatori), and our own Zac “Son of Sue” Ballenger cashed fairly deep, finishing 50th out of 1200 (and he probably would have gone deeper if he hadn’t given most of his chips to Scott Fischman).

This year, though we won’t have our tourney ace Son of S. in tow, I think we have another real good chance to send someone deep. The following are my off-the-top-of-my-head odds on how we’ll do:

Make it through Day 1: Only ten percent of the field will survive Day 1. If I were to average what I think each of our individual chances are to survive Day 1, it’s probably somewhere between 7 and 8 to 1. Mathematically, I think that means we have about a 66% chance of someone from our group surviving Day 1.

Make it to final table: Somewhere around 15 to 1.

Final 3: 40 to 1

Bracelet: 100 to 1.