Making it to DAY 2 in the WSOP

Let me preface this with reminding everyone of how big of a donkey poker player I am. I mean, I play as a hobby only, and then take a shot at a big tournament once a year. It amazes me how the professional poker player does it. Not only do they have to endure the hours and hours of sitting at a table (as much as 14 hours a day), but they also have to endure the sickening suck outs by lesser skilled players that I'm sure could make them want to go crazy.

That being said, I played the $1500 NLHE WSOP Event #18 a couple of Saturdays ago. This was my second attempt at a $1500 event, and I did watch my wife cash in a $1500 event last year. If you want to skip the details: I felt I played great the first day, then lost focus and couldn't close the deal on Day 2.

The first few levels (1 hour each) are filled with donkeys. People with huge tells, people shoving with draws, and people who fold to any aggression. If you take your time and get to know your table, you should be able to chip up pretty easily. When I played three years ago in a $1500 event, I played way too tight (after the advice of Dan Nassif), then I got delusional (not a metaphor) as the time sitting at the table wore me down (because I was super hungover from the night before), and eventually was out by the dinner break.

This time, I prepared myself and felt like it was worth it. I got plenty of sleep the night before. Ate a big breakfast.  I got to know my first table, carefully picking my spots and chipping up nicely the first 5 hours. I was well over the chip average going into the second half of the day. As the day grew on, the competition became tougher and tougher. I was at table 15, and we never broke all day. So I saw bust out after bust out as I sat and eventually became one of two original players left at #15.

One thing that you have to get used to is the "new" betting style by the internet kids. At my starting table I had the old time Navy guy (raised 4x whenever he came into a pot), the old crabby guy that has read every book (raised exactly 3x every time he came in), the young "dude" (who had two moves: raise 1400 into a 500 pot or shove -and we found out his shoves were always draws which eventually led to me taking him out), the rest of the guys raising 3x BB's, and then the internet kids raising 2.1-2.5x BB's. The internet kids will drive you crazy. I tried to adjust but I just don't have enough experience doing it yet to be that good at it. The great thing for them is that they seem overly aggressive, but they have severely widened their range. A widened range helps when you hit a pot, but since their raises are smaller, it doesn't hurt as bad when they miss. It's a hard style to play back against -for example, one of the guys down there with me went out to a J4 when an internet kid raised his big blind 2.2x, my friend just called with a marginal hand that hit the flop (admitted later he would have folded to a 3x bet), but the internet kid flopped two pair. It invites you to widen your range as well. I think this style forces you to play even better post-flop -which is not what an amateur like me wants to do.

Anyway.....

Around level 7, an internet kid (could tell by bet sizes) sat down next to me and picked me apart. I must have folded to a 4 bet and he picked up that and 4 bet almost every single 3 bet I made. At first, I was picking on the BB when I was the cutoff and he was re-popping me. I picked up on it, and tried to vary the BB's I was going after. But he kept at it. He would even shove, when it was twice in a row or the third time I raised. I thought about playing back at him, but never had the right hand.

This caused me to tighten way up and eventually start to bleed off chips. I was outplayed beautifully. I'm sure in his mind, he knew he owned me.

With about 15 minutes left in level 10 (the final level of the day), I started counting chips against the BB's of the next day. So when I was down to $5,000 in chips I figured I had 5 BB's to start the next day (500/1,000/100). I didn't want to come back the next day with only 5 BB's, so I announced to the table that very thing. "I'm not coming back tomorrow with this many chips, so you are going to see my chips all in very soon".

The very next hand, another internet looking kid who had been very aggro and had just lost a huge hand to an "MMA fighter dude" that had 27off, shoved all his chips in ($11,000). I made the donkey call with A8off. It was probably a bad call, but it just looked like he was frustrated shoving weak. I was right, when he flipped over K7 and I doubled up. The very next hand, he shoved again, and I called with A10. This time his K5off hit a K on the river and took me back down to about $12,000 or 12 BB's. I was happy going into day 2 with that, so watched as the clock ticked off 4 more minutes and we were going to day 2. I had $11,900.

All night, and the next morning, I was channeling my luckbox skills. "AA", "KK", "AA", "KK" I kept thinking. One double up and I can play poker again. I will be losing 2500 chips every orbit and I need about 1 1/2 hours of play to get to the money. There were 469 left and 324 pay. I can't fold to the money.

First hand, I look down to AA. Unbelievable. What to do? I'm in middle position. I'm thinking shove with any premium hand, but I really want action. It folds to me. The big stack to my left has not arrived yet (that turned out to be a bad beat for me because he surely would have played with me) so I had 3 to act after me. I raised to 2.5x BB and got 3 folds. I win 2.5 BB's.

Fold, Fold, Fold for awhile.

The winner of this event last year (Pascal LeFrancois) is sitting two to my right so is the button on my BB. He is raising about 40% of the hands and is chip leader at my table. He raises EVERY BB I have. I get down to 9 BB's and shove from MP with AJ. No callers. Back up to 11BB's.

I get QJ off in the BB and LeFrancois opens the pot for 2.1xBB. SB folds, and I decide to flat. Flop comes A23rainbow. I check, he checks. I don't think he's being tricky, so I assume no Ace, but still a lot of possible hands ahead of me. Turn is a 2. I think long about betting out, but decide to check. He checks pretty quick. River is a 3. I wait a bit and bet out 3K (almost a third of my stack). I figure there is a good chance we chop here, but I didn't realize at the time that there wasn't a single hand he would fold to my bet there. Again, I'm the donkey still learning. He thinks a long, long time. Finally he calls and shows 66 FTW. Only thing I figure could have happened was I check it down. A preflop shove and he surely calls and I'm out. Even if I shove after the flop, I think he calls. He has 50K vs my 10K at this point.

Pretty soon I'm down to 5 BB's figuring I have to make a move soon. There are 360 players left but I figure it will be at least 30 more minutes or about 4 orbits and I only have 2 orbits of chips. Still can't fold to the money. I get an unopened pot with 4 to act behind me and look down at A7sooted. I ship it and get called by AQ. Out about 350th with 324 getting paid.

So I beat myself up the rest of the day. How could I not have been more patient on day 2? I folded A7 sooted plenty of times on Day 1. I even folded AJ plenty of times. I decide I'm just way out of my league to even be playing there, but then I figure a couple of different outcomes and I'm sitting on plenty of chips to make a run on Day 2. Who knows?

I do know it was a blast. I learned a lot making it to Day 2. Now looking back, I feel even more confident that I could make a Day 2 again. It takes some physical preperation, some patience, some good play, and of course, some "run-good".

I can't wait until next time. I hope you run good. Thanks for visiting.

Got some live play in

It is pretty rare that I play at the casinos here in Saint Louis. But I need some practice before I go to Vegas on June 10th. Really, the structures are horrible. 20 min blinds with very speedy blind acceleration. But that's ok with me. You just have to adjust to it. If you get a hand, you better try to get it all in. There is no folding big pocket pairs.

So I play the $60 buy in 50 max players, with alternates for the first hour. Nothing major happens the first couple of levels. I win a few pots, I lose a few pots. I get AA in the big blind and see one of the very rare walks that happen. Old timer gets moved to our table and raises all in after I raise. I have AKsooted and call for about half my stack. He shows 66 and hits a set of 6's right off the flop.  Thanks. He says sorry, I am ready to go home so I'm just playing anything. Very next hand I get JJ and shove after 1 limper. Old timer insta calls with 88 and I get all my chips back and then some. At the first break I am up to 12K from the 10K starting stack but blinds are now 500/1000.

After the first break, loose player that has played a lot of pots, is in the sb while I'm in the bb. Folds to him so he raises my 1K bb to 7500. I insta shove with 13,000 behind and he calls with 55. My AQ hits an Ace to double up. Now I have 28K. I get moved to a new table.

Now with the blinds 800/1600 I limp from MP with 55 after two limped ahead of me. Flop comes 678. bb bets 4K after the flop but she looks disgusted. 2 folds and my action. I put her on 2 overs so I shove and she folds. Still looks disgusted still. Up to 38K.

I raise young internet playing looking kid whose been pretty aggro. I make it 14K after he limped UTG. I have QQ. He calls. He checks dark and flop comes Ad4d7c. I check behind. Turn is the Jack of diamonds. He checks and I shove all in having him covered by about 15K. He tanks and folds. Then he goes all in several times after and gets lucky with AA but then knocked out a hand later with 10c9c on a total bluff.

2nd break and I have 61K. Average stack is 42K and I am chip leader at my table. Must have been a bunch of chips at the other table because we have a bunch of 15-20K players. 14 players left and blinds are now 3k/6k. Like I said, the structure is crazy fast. We have been playing about 3 hours now.

Blinds get to 4k/8k. I have about 68K. In the bb I get AQoff. Girl from 55 hand limps, sb limps and I shove having everyone covered. Girl tanks for a long time. I figure I might be in trouble against AK or even flipping against small pair. After about 3 minutes she says "oh well" and pushes her stack out. sb folds and the Girl  shows As2c. Flop is 553, turn 2, river brick and I lose 40K total.

Very next hand I have 107off in the sb with 2 1/2 blinds left. Old timer is still playing and is UTG and limps. I call (because I know a shove and he calls with any pair or any Ace). bb checks. Flop comes KJ8 with flush draw. I shove my remaining 16K praying everyone folds. bb calls for 1/3 his tack, old timer calls for 2/3 of his stack. I actually don't mind this because if I hit the straight, I can triple up. I'm playing for a 60K pot. Turn comes a beautiful 9. YES! BB checks, Old timer goes all in and bb calls. Ruh-roh. bb shows a K2 for top pair 2 kicker. Awesome! Old timer flips Q10 for turned straight just like me, but a higher one. I go home. . .

Blech. I felt I played good. Never got it in too bad. But I finished 13th of 60 (7 spots pay -although everyone was talking about how the final table/10 all get something usually negotiated). I went from top dog at my table to out in 2 hands. But that is the super turbos at Harrah's.

I had fun. Hope you are too.

Live Play

In an effort to sharpen my skills, I've been playing live once a week. I leave for Vegas next Friday, so wanted to get some live sessions in against people I don't know. It may sound basic for some of you, but my live play really needed some help.

Anyway, last night was my 3rd session in as many weeks. I played a 20 min blinds $100 buy in. I felt I was playing really well. I got paid off on my big hands (I made sets, straights and flushes) and I folded some big hands at the right time (I folded KQ to AK on a KQA board). I ended up finishing 4th.

Here's my question for you. What do you do in this situation?

UTG (7,000)
Button (82,000)
SB Me (45,000)
BB (51,000)

5 spots get paid. 4th gets $281 and 3rd gets $500. 2nd and 1st are irrelevant here.

Blinds are 3500/7000 no antes. UTG is all in next hand by default. I pick up QQ. UTG folds and the button folds.

So what do you do? Do you shove? Do you fold for 3rd place? Do you min raise and fold to a shove?

?
?
?
?
?
?
?

I raised to $21,000 hoping to draw in the BB. I figure, if he wakes up with AA, AK or KK, so be it. Any other pocket pair and I will be the chip leader with 2nd place guaranteed (1st place guaranteed in my mind as the chip leader was NOT a strong player at all). I've seen him all in a couple of times with any Ace and I'm willing to race if he is on Ace rag. Best case I am the new chip leader, but I'm also happy adding $7,000 to my stack by just buying the blinds.

BB shoves over me and I insta call. He shows A10off suit and spikes his Ace on the river.....

So what would you have done?

Shorty was all in and out on the next hand. . .

Domo Arigoto Mr Roboto

The internet is truly amazing. I want to build my itunes library with more songs from my high school days, including one hit wonders. I just google search classic rock playlists from 1980-1985 and *POOF*: I have it. Lists of songs, some of which I have forgotten (and some I will forget again).

I've played almost as much live poker as online over the last few weeks. How's it going? Let's see:
1)18 players -finished 9th
2)13 players -finished 1st
3)27 players -finished 12th
4)20 players -finished 18th

The 27 player tournament is my monthly WSOP wanna be tournament. We have played 8 of 12 tournaments and I am ranked 4th (disappointing to say the least). Top 3 spots will get a buy in to the WSOP this year (1st gets the Main Event -the other two get $1500 buy ins). It's an interesting series to say the least, because you have to focus on winning the monthly tournament, but also try to get as many points as possible each month. Sometimes your decisions will be different depending on which you are focusing on at any given moment. I have won enough money to cover 10 of the 13 buy ins, so that helps. We finish up in April with a "2 tournaments in one day" extravaganza.

I was looking at Party Poker the other day, which is one of the best UK poker sites on the net. I heard a rumor that they might be opening up play to the United States players again. We still talk about how "juicy" it was playing there. . Anyone else heard anything on this?

Anyway, looks like it's back to work. Stay patient....

Weekend live poker

pissed away my buy in Saturday night in the live game. I just never got any good feel going. This is a group of calling stations and it is frustrating to watch them catch river after river to beat you. I literally felt I had two choices: ALL IN and FOLD. When I would raise, I would either get 5 callers or someone comes over me all in.

Anyway, here's the short version on how I went on tilt and went out. A4 sooted on the button, raise 4x BB. 3 callers. Flop comes 99Q none of my suit. I C-bet, then fire two more bullets, but get called down to river where my opponent hit flush from runner runner.

Right before first break, I raise 5xBB (3 and 4 times BB not chasing anyone away) with AJ sooooted on the button.. SB raises 4x my bet. This is the second hand in a row he goes all in. I fold, frustrated since it will essentially have left me with so little, I would have had to go all in. He states: "I'm trying something new".

First hand after break, Middle player raises 2x BB, I fold, same person to my left goes all in and takes down the bets right there.

Very next hand I get 1010. Several limpers to me, I raise 5xBB and same person to my left goes all in. Everyone folds around to me. I instacall, frustrated that he keeps going all in and keeps taking away my raises. He flips over JJ and I go home 5th out of 27 players. PATHETIC! A couple of hands later I watch a shortstack all in with 1010 and get called by KQ sooted. The 10's doubled up. I throw up a little in my mouth.

I have played 3 times this year live and 2 of 3 I have gone home with 1010. Once to A8 and now to JJ. Puke!

I just need to be more patient. Really. That is it. I can play in that tournament if I stay more patient. As a switch, I played a few tournaments online and cashed nicely this weekend. I took my pokerstars account up to $170 from the $100 I initially put in. I was supposed to be playing cash tables to get FPP's to earn my bonus but I have been playing tourneys instead. Nice thing is that I'm up in my bankroll. Bad thing is that I have only earned 36 of 2000 points needed to get my bonus.

Oh well. Remember to stay patient. Don't call the bully's all in with 1010 early in the tournament. You'll get him later... Have a great week!

Jamyhawk

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

You may remember my post from last week where the temperature was 5 degrees in the morning. The official recorded low for last Friday (3 days ago) was 3 degrees. Today the high will be around 61 degrees. Gotta love weather in the Midwest. If you don't like it, wait a day: it'll change.

I am officially unable to beat the $2 SNG's on FTP. See my ROI below. At $2, I'm bad, at $2.50, I'm worse. I've struggled at $6 and $11, but for some reason, I do well at the $5 level. I've tried several different approaches at the $2 level, but can't seem to find a way to consistently win there. Oooops. I mean I can't seem to find a way to win at all there!

Looks like I will need to reload into FTP again. Last year finished with a profit, but down so far this year. I really need to study more. Maybe some videos recommended by WillWonka would help. I also need to get the 2nd Harrington Tournament book. I found that in 2007, while I was reading Harrington 1, I was more profitable than when I was playing without studying at the same time.

Also, I forgot how much more I love playing live, than on the Internet. I played a home game Saturday night, and had a blast. It was a $50 buy in with 32 players. I went out 9th on a busted bluff. I really loosen up, the more I drink, and several Heinekens insured I wouldn't finish the tournament without going all in on a stone cold bluff. I bluffed 108 off into a 965 board. The caller tanked, but eventually called 90% of his stack on A5. His hand held up and I went home, chewing myself out for putting in all my chips on a bluff. I don't recall which book I read that said "all in at the final table near the bubble with 108offsuit is a great play".... Oh wait, maybe I didn't read that.

Anyway, I am looking forward to playing more live this year. My play up until we reached the final table was very good (IMO), as I didn't bust on marginal hands and tried to maximize on my made hands. And I rarely bluffed. Go figure. At least I have that move burned into all the players at the final table. I'm sure I can use it to pay me off later this year in these once a month tournaments.

I think we picked up about 10 more players for my charity tournament. Everyone was very excited to hear that we had some FTP funds as one of the prizes. Everyone I talked to there has a FTP account. Thanks again to RecessRampage for donating those funds.

So let's see if we can take this year to turn things around. As Beck said: "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?" "I'm a driver, I'm a winner; things are gonna change I can feel it".

As a reminder to myself more than anyone: Stay patient...

Monday night live poker

A friend of a friend had a "fundraiser" tournament Monday night that I played in, along with Hawkette. 56 players, $55 buy in. Pays top 3 places. Normally, I would not play somewhere that doesn't pay top 10% but this was a fundraiser, and I knew several of the players from the industry I am in. They also raffled off several donated prizes and had free beer and food for the first hour.



Now, if you have ever played in a charity or fundraiser tournament (I play in 2 or 3 a year), you know it is very different from any other tournament. You have players that are uncles or friends of the organizers or "donors", that will pay the money as a donation and then sit and "learn" hold'em as they go. There is nothing wrong with that, except when they play 23 o/s all in and beat your KQo/s. . . Actually, I Keeed. They are great to have at your table because you can time your plays right to win big pots and build your chip stack with relative ease.

In these same tournaments you will have the "shark-wannabees" that show up to prove that they should be playing with the pros in Vegas and will just have to take down this little tournament in the meantime. They can be very annoying with their raise 5x BB 8 out of 10 hands in a row. Again, you can take down some nice pots when you do get some cards.

At my first table, starting on my immediate left, we have Mr. Mouth ("man, I love these cards, but not enough to call that big bet"). Miss Knows-how-to-play-but-not-how-to-bet. A Weak Male player. A Calling Station. An Online Donkey complete with ipod and earbuds. An Aggro-idiot. And then an Aggro-donkey. Now this last player, the Aggro-donkey was actually a pretty decent player. He ended up telling me he lived in Vegas for six months and tried to go pro, but he couldn't limit his spending in Vegas. He couldn't have been older than 24. He would raise a minimum 4xBB and most times 5 or 6xBB. And he raised early and often. I was fortunate he was to my right and not left. He definitely ran the tempo of the table. When he would leave to smoke and miss 4 or 5 hands, the whole table slowed down and actually saw some flops.

Some notable hands: I got Kc3c from cutoff and I bet 3xBB to steal the blinds. Calling station does what he does best: calls. Flop comes Ac10c3d. CS bets out 1/3 of pot, and I raise to a pot sized bet to attempt a steal, again. The CS thinks for a long time and eventually folds. Must have had a 10?

As5s from button, and again I attempt a steal. CS calls me. Flop is 2s3sJc. I have nut flush draw and straight flush draw. I bet pot sized bet and CS calls. Turn is Ad, so I now have TPWK so I bet pot sized bet, CS calls. River is a Qd which scares me that he was chasing the straight. I check, he checks and shows KingJackoff for 3rd pair. I win the pot with Aces.

I get KQo/s on the button and CS (UTG) limps in. Online Donkey (UTG +1) limps, fold, fold, I bet 3x BB. SB folds, Miss Knowhowtoplaynothowtobet (BB) calls and is all in. CS and OD fold. She flips over 23o/s. 3 on the flop holds up and I miss out on a $1600 pot while blinds are 150/300.

One hand, I get 82o/s in SB. Easy fold hand, but in these tournaments I really should broaden my range when given an opportunity to limp in. CS limps, fold, fold, I fold and Mr. Mouth (BB) checks. Flop comes 8K2 rainbow. CS bets, Mouth calls. 2 on the turn. I almost fell backwards out of my chair. CS bets big now (surely on a very strong K10) and Mouth folds. I miss another big pot opportunity.

Online Donkey was first one to go out when he realized we had a calling station and got "caught" all in with 2nd pair. CS had top pair -not a drawing hand as the OD thought. Buh-Bye.

I try to limit my aggression to when the Aggro Donkey is on breaks. Luckily, he took a lot of them. I did try to push back on him once when he was stealing my BB from the SB and he simply went "all in". He had me covered and I had to fold my re-steal with junk hand.

AD took a big hit when he got caught stealing against the CS. CS was playing A2 when two 2's hit the flop. AD put the CS all in and then doubled him up when his draw from the flop did not improve over the set of 2's. That was a 19,000 pot to the CS. Surely, I could work some of that out of his hands. Consequently, the AD was out very soon afterwards.

I took Mr.Mouth out when I limped from the SB with A2o/s. Flop comes AAQ and I check. M&M goes all in and I instacall. He says "oh no. you must have one of 'dem bullets. you tricked me." His 88 does not improve.

The people running the tournament had no experience and struggled to keep the tournament running efficiently. My wife's table actually played 3 hands over a 45 minute period (while we played several hands) and they ended up skipping an entire blind. Some people were getting ignorant and complaining. I let it go, since it was a fundraiser. By the time we got down to 13 players, we had been playing for 4 1/2 hours. From 56 to 13 in 4 1/2 hours was just way too long. I was getting shortstacked relative to the blinds (1500/3000). The guys running the tournament sped up the blinds because it was lasting too long. A knee-jerk reaction which made things worse, IMO. I think the average chip stack at our table now was 15,000 and so we were just pushing chips back and forth to each other. "All in", fold, fold, fold then deal again. This happened several times as few people wanted to risk a 1/4 of their stack just to see a flop.

I have a new guy to my left who is short stacked and goes all in with AJo/s and does get a caller. Caller has 88, but an A on the flop doubles the short stack. A couple of hands later someone raises to 3x BB (6000bet) and guyonmyleft goes all in and buys a nice pot. Now he is chip leader at our table. The very next hand, I am in the cutoff and look down to see 33. With 10,500 in chips, I can't see calling or minraising to see a flop, so I shove and guytomyleft instacalls with AQo/s. Ace on the flop and I am out 13th. Don't you play 33 there also? I figured I only had two orbits left in me and could possibly steal the blinds here. Only the Calling station and the Weak Male Player were left from my original table.

Hawkette actually lasted a few hands longer than me. She had been sitting to my immediate right when we got down to two tables. She had 2500 in chips when the 4000 BB came to her so she went all in with "the Doyle". She was not as fortunate as Mr. Brunson so went out in 10th place.

We were actually glad to be going home as it was almost midnight and we told the grandparents we would be home around 11pm to get the kids. All in all, it was a long night, but we were happy the money was going to help some kids sports team.