So I decided to come down to Melbourne after all. I arrived yesterday afternoon (too late to play the Main Event unfortunately) and last night played some 10/20 (the straddle to 40 was happening about 75% of the time). It was pretty boring and uneventful and I lost 2.7K, 2.2K coming from a hand where I opened the BTN to 125 with TT and got 3-bet by the straddler to 340. I shoved, he called with KK and he held.
Today I decided to play the 1.1K NLHE event on a whim, mostly because I found 10/20 last night so incredibly boring. I’d forgotten how horrible live poker can be when you’re card-dead for hours on end! I got off to a great start and had about 2.5x the starting stack within 30 minutes. My double up came in pretty funny fashion. A player limped in MP and I limped behind with 22. It was five-ways to the flop of Q42cc. The first limper bet 225, I raised to 700, it folded to the big blind who 3-bet to 2500, the limper folded visibly annoyed and I shoved. My opponent tanked before finally calling with 42o (which was pretty lol given his raise was for half his stack). The limper said he had AQ and when the Q came on the turn he said “oh no, don’t do this to me!” Sure enough the river came an Ace so I doubled up while the limper rued what could have been.
It was all downhill from there though and 4 hours later I open-shoved 12bb’s in MP with 99 and ran into KK. C’est la vie.
During the dinner break of the tournament I decided to try out live PLO for the first time. I sat down with 1K at 5/10 PLO and won 305 in about half an hour before having to return to the tournament. After I busted out of the tournament I sat back down with my 1305 and second hand I picked up 8654 with three hearts in MP. The straddle to 20 was on so I opened to 70 and got 4 callers. The flop came down 844ssc and I got it in versus the button. I had 1 out and didn’t hit. Great game, PLO.
Tomorrow I’m just going to grind 10/20 live until dinner when I’m meeting up with two friends from PCA (speaking of which, I’ll do my PCA/NYC trip report when I get back; it was genuinely such an awesome holiday!). On Saturday I’m going to play the $2200 6-Max event and if I bust out of that (which seems inevitable given my MTT history in Melbourne) I’m going to play the $550 Turbo on Sunday. That was another tournament I didn’t initially intend to play but I really want a live title and since that field will probably be about 15 people strong (since it’s on the very last day of the series) I’m liking my chances there!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Going on Exchange to Lund!
I finally found out my exchange results and I’m going to Lund, Sweden! What’s especially cool is that it’s right across from Copenhagen and I’ve wanted to go there for a while now so that’ll be awesome too.
I’m here in NYC for another 3 days and am currently deciding whether to go down to Melbourne or not for the end of Aussie Millions. I can’t get back in time for the Main Event but I could grind cash for a few days, play the $2200 6-Max event and generally soak up the cool vibe that comes with an international poker tournament. The only problem is that the highest NLHE game apparently running is only 10/20/40 which is pretty meh and I’m pretty tired too so I’m not sure. We’ll see I guess.
My trip so far has been amazing though. PCA this year had a completely different vibe to last year and was generally a lot more fun this time around. As for NYC, it’s my first time here and it’s been awesome too: sight-seeing by day and bar-hopping by night. We saw Wicked and went to a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman too. I’ll do a trip report when I get home.
Anyway 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty cool year. Bahamas and NYC this month, Cambridge University in July, exchange to Sweden in September, and then I imagine a lot of travelling around Europe in August!
I’m here in NYC for another 3 days and am currently deciding whether to go down to Melbourne or not for the end of Aussie Millions. I can’t get back in time for the Main Event but I could grind cash for a few days, play the $2200 6-Max event and generally soak up the cool vibe that comes with an international poker tournament. The only problem is that the highest NLHE game apparently running is only 10/20/40 which is pretty meh and I’m pretty tired too so I’m not sure. We’ll see I guess.
My trip so far has been amazing though. PCA this year had a completely different vibe to last year and was generally a lot more fun this time around. As for NYC, it’s my first time here and it’s been awesome too: sight-seeing by day and bar-hopping by night. We saw Wicked and went to a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman too. I’ll do a trip report when I get home.
Anyway 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty cool year. Bahamas and NYC this month, Cambridge University in July, exchange to Sweden in September, and then I imagine a lot of travelling around Europe in August!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
PCA 25/50/100 Session
I went down to the poker room yesterday for another quick session before dinner and sat down in the 25/50 game which had a straddle to 100 happening about 80% of the time. This meant we were effectively playing 25/50/100 and with only 20K on me so this was probably always going to end badly.
I won some small pots early and was up $1500 when the following hand went down.
Hand 1
I opened to 325 in MP with KQo, the CO called and one of the blinds called.
The flop came Q97r and I bet 700 into 1000 and the CO called.
The turn brought a 5 and put a flush draw out there and I decided to bet $1500.
Whether to bet or not is actually really close and I find this spot really tough in general. The main reason I like to bet here though is because it generally makes the hand much easier to play. I find that if you bet here and get a call they generally check back a ton of stuff if you check to them on the river. For example if the river bricks and I check he may check behind AQ because he may think I’m checking KK to induce a bluff from JT. On the other hand if I check/call the turn with KQ they have an easy value bet on the river with AQ and you now have a much tougher decision on the river with a hand like ours. The same reasoning would apply if we held a hand like JJ on this board.
Anyway he called and the river paired the 7, meaning the final board was Q9757. I checked and he bet 4000 into 5600. At this point I felt his value range was very polarized and consisted of QQ, 99, 77 and some combos of AQ (I discounted AQ a bit due to the bet-sizing and because of what I said above). The problem though was that there were virtually no bluffs in his range. I would be hoping for a hand like JT, T8s, 65d, KJd or some other flop float which turned a diamond draw like ATd. I ended up making the call though and he showed 99 for the full house. I’m not sure what I think of my call. It’s definitely not terrible but probably not great either and slightly –EV. The 7 on the river just makes it so hard to fold though because his range just becomes so ridiculously polarized. AQ would be a pretty quick and mandatory call I think (though not fist-pumping by any means, I think you’d have to call because other than perhaps QQ it’s at the very top of your river checking range as KK+ I’d usually just bet the river with and hope to get a call from a Q) and QJ would be a fold so KQ is obviously right on the borderline.
Hand 2
An orbit later I opened to 175 with AKs utg+1 (UTG wasn’t a straddler), got called in 2 or 3 spots and then got squeezed by the youngish player in the big blind to 900. I 4-bet, he shoved for 7500 total and I called. He showed QQ and we decided to run it twice. Unfortunately I bricked both boards and he shipped the 15K pot.
After this hand I got up and went to watch some friends play a SNG and 1/2 cash respectively. Eventually I got bored of just watching and dived into the 1/2 game as well, playing every hand and making a solid $150 profit in about 30 minutes.
This reduced my total loss for the two hour session to just $13155. Awesome...
I won some small pots early and was up $1500 when the following hand went down.
Hand 1
I opened to 325 in MP with KQo, the CO called and one of the blinds called.
The flop came Q97r and I bet 700 into 1000 and the CO called.
The turn brought a 5 and put a flush draw out there and I decided to bet $1500.
Whether to bet or not is actually really close and I find this spot really tough in general. The main reason I like to bet here though is because it generally makes the hand much easier to play. I find that if you bet here and get a call they generally check back a ton of stuff if you check to them on the river. For example if the river bricks and I check he may check behind AQ because he may think I’m checking KK to induce a bluff from JT. On the other hand if I check/call the turn with KQ they have an easy value bet on the river with AQ and you now have a much tougher decision on the river with a hand like ours. The same reasoning would apply if we held a hand like JJ on this board.
Anyway he called and the river paired the 7, meaning the final board was Q9757. I checked and he bet 4000 into 5600. At this point I felt his value range was very polarized and consisted of QQ, 99, 77 and some combos of AQ (I discounted AQ a bit due to the bet-sizing and because of what I said above). The problem though was that there were virtually no bluffs in his range. I would be hoping for a hand like JT, T8s, 65d, KJd or some other flop float which turned a diamond draw like ATd. I ended up making the call though and he showed 99 for the full house. I’m not sure what I think of my call. It’s definitely not terrible but probably not great either and slightly –EV. The 7 on the river just makes it so hard to fold though because his range just becomes so ridiculously polarized. AQ would be a pretty quick and mandatory call I think (though not fist-pumping by any means, I think you’d have to call because other than perhaps QQ it’s at the very top of your river checking range as KK+ I’d usually just bet the river with and hope to get a call from a Q) and QJ would be a fold so KQ is obviously right on the borderline.
Hand 2
An orbit later I opened to 175 with AKs utg+1 (UTG wasn’t a straddler), got called in 2 or 3 spots and then got squeezed by the youngish player in the big blind to 900. I 4-bet, he shoved for 7500 total and I called. He showed QQ and we decided to run it twice. Unfortunately I bricked both boards and he shipped the 15K pot.
After this hand I got up and went to watch some friends play a SNG and 1/2 cash respectively. Eventually I got bored of just watching and dived into the 1/2 game as well, playing every hand and making a solid $150 profit in about 30 minutes.
This reduced my total loss for the two hour session to just $13155. Awesome...
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Sickest 25/50 Session at PCA
I busted out on the 4th last hand of Day 1B with QQ v AK for a 55bb pot so no luck in the Main Event unfortunately. I went and played some 25/50 cash after and lost $585 in about 3 hours in a 4-handed game with ADZ, jmc (two pretty well-known Stars regs) and a 25/50 FTP Cap player.
Yesterday I bought 50% of Fraser’s action in the $1100 6-Max and he currently has 21bb’s going into Day 2 today with 48 players to be paid and 55 players remaining (452 starters). I went to check up on his progress at 2AM yesterday and decided to jump into the 10/25/50 game that was running and play for 1.5 hours until he finished. That turned out to be the best decision ever as a drunk player sat down and proceeded to lose about 30K in an hour. I ended up playing the full 2 hours until the tables closed at 4AM and booked a great $18575 win!
I think my plan for the rest of the trip now is to live it up during the day and then rock up to the poker room at 1AM and play drunk people for 3 hours :).
Yesterday I bought 50% of Fraser’s action in the $1100 6-Max and he currently has 21bb’s going into Day 2 today with 48 players to be paid and 55 players remaining (452 starters). I went to check up on his progress at 2AM yesterday and decided to jump into the 10/25/50 game that was running and play for 1.5 hours until he finished. That turned out to be the best decision ever as a drunk player sat down and proceeded to lose about 30K in an hour. I ended up playing the full 2 hours until the tables closed at 4AM and booked a great $18575 win!
I think my plan for the rest of the trip now is to live it up during the day and then rock up to the poker room at 1AM and play drunk people for 3 hours :).
Saturday, January 2, 2010
My Epic Vegas Trip – The Epic Conclusion
I’ve decided to finish my Vegas trip report with this one epic post (rather than continue my day to day format) because I’m leaving for PCA in 2 days and I really want to get this done before I leave.
In case you haven’t read the earlier parts:
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-1.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-2.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-3-loads-of-pics.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-4.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-5-espn.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-6-pics-galore.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-7.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-8-photo-blog.html
Friday July 10 – Main Event Day 3
I started Day 3 with 57,600 in chips and the blinds began at 600/1200.
I was down to about 45,000 when I picked up JJ on the button versus a hijack open. I 3-bet, my opponent thought for a bit before 4-bet shoving, and I called. He had A6s and I, being covered by about 5 big blinds, was all-in for the second time in the tournament. Fortunately my hand held and I doubled up.
Bluffing with my tournament life
The next significant hand I played I opened the hijack with T9h and the small blind was the only caller. The flop came 963ccc, he checked and I checked. The turn came the Qd, he led and I called. The river came the 4c, putting a four-flush out, and my opponent bet 20K.
I had about 75K chips left and before I knew it they were all in the middle.
Immediately I thought to myself “WTF did you just do Joey???”
Well, that’s kind of a lie. I knew what my reasoning was. It was more the fact that I couldn’t believe how easily I pulled the trigger. Rewind 6 months to PCA and there was zero chance that I would’ve pulled a move like this.
Fortunately my opponent folded (I probably had the best hand anyway) and I chipped up nicely to 110K.
Can’t give off them live tells yo!
I got moved to a new table and immediately started to pick up cards. I won about 10 of my first 20 hands and could soon feel everyone gunning for me. It was as though I had broken the tranquillity of their table and they wanted communal revenge. There was one hand where I opened on the button and a lady in MP went completely over the line by remarking “did he even look?” I was especially unpleased a few moments later when my 44 was met with a 3-bet...
In another hand I picked up TT on the BTN and the CO opened. I called, the SB called and we saw a flop of Q83cc. The SB checked, the CO bet, I called and the SB folded.
The turn was the Ac and the CO checked. I didn’t know whether I had a club or not so I moved to take a peek.
Then I stopped myself and thought: “if I take a peek, it’ll make it obvious that I don’t have a flush! After all, if I peeled the flop with a flush draw I would know that I now have a flush!”
So I sat there wondering what to do next. If I had the Tc I would normally check it behind but since I wasn’t sure I decided to turn my hand into a bluff. I figured that I could represent the flush quite well and get him to fold by the river. I bet a solid 2/3 pot amount and my opponent tanked for a good minute before folding what presumably was an Ace. Ship it!
This turned out to be a bit of a theme for the rest of the day as I started turning more and more hands into bluffs. Everyone played so weak-tight and so face-up that it just made so much sense to do so.
Tilted by a ruling dispute
I managed to work my stack up to about 150K at this new table but made perhaps one move too many and soon found myself back at 110K. I was getting a bit tilted when a hand went down where a young player called an all-in and wasn’t especially pleased to find that the third player behind him could still re-re-raise (and re-raise he did). After folding his hand the young player explained “I play online ALL THE TIME and this isn’t how it’s done ONLINE” while I tried to explain how he was thinking of an entirely different situation.
Anyway he and the back-raiser continue arguing and realising he’s probably wrong the young guy then goes: “DON’T SHOUT AT ME, WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING? I’M JUST HAVING A CIVIL DISCUSSION HERE!”
For some reason this changing-the-subject-instead-of-admitting-defeat line of argument always tilts the hell out of me...
Anyway the guy to my left then chimes in “Are you guys sure? I thought that was the case too?” and OMG I’ve never been so tilted in my life.
Young hotshot: “Oh yeah, let’s get a ruling on this!”
Guy to my left: “Let’s!”
Dealer: “FLOOR!”
***FACEPALM***
So hang on. The hand is over yet our play on our table is being paused for 5 minutes so that the floor can be called over to explain to some goofball the rules of poker?! In a $10,000 buy-in event?! Come on, get real!
Fun and frivolity
As we neared the end of the day the table became quite chatty and I had a pretty funny conversation with an English expat who now lives in NYC. It involved Shane Warne and cricket though so I won’t bother recounting it here since no one will understand.
Earlier in the day the lady who called me out on the button explained to us that she was a grandma and in her 60s. This came as a shock to all of us as she definitely looked very good for her age, and there were friendly jibes about her for the rest of the day. In this one hand towards the end of the day she made a bet on the river and her young opponent thought for ages before releasing his hand. The player to my left then commented “he’s trying to get into your good books” and everyone laughed.
He then replied “yeah, ‘cause I have a thing for grandmas”, and everyone laughed again.
We then looked to the dealer, waiting for her to deal our next hand.
But she simply sat there - still, silent, and completely aghast. Then, it came:
“THAT’S not a very nice thing to say!”
We all looked at her like “WTF woman? Get a sense of humour!”
Then we realised she hadn’t been there for the initial exchange and the comment must’ve seemed completely uncalled for and out of line to her. You probably had to be there, but it was definitely very funny!
Saturday July 11 – Main Event Day 4, My 22nd Birthday at Jet
Day 4 was the day the money bubble would burst and for the first time I woke up feeling nervous. Up till now I had never really expected to cash and indeed making day 4 had far surpassed my initial expectations. Quite frankly, I had long ago written off my $10,000 buy-in as the price of a once in a lifetime experience. All of a sudden though, I found myself a few hundred people away from the money and the opportunity to say that I cashed in the WSOP Main Event. The minimum cash was not an insubstantial amount either: given a choice between $0 and $21,000, I’m very happy taking the latter!
I started day 4 with 132,500 in chips and the blinds started at 2000/4000. I had a little bit of wiggle room but suffice to say I had to get a move on.
All-in first hand!
On the first hand of the day I got dealt 88 in MP and opened. The BTN 3-bet, it folded back to me and I thought to myself “well, this sure is going to be brief”. Now, this is probably a fold but I decided to do everyone’s favourite trick and put him on AK. In reality I didn’t feel like grinding a mid-20bb stack since you basically have to play your cards with this stack size and this was not something I wanted to do with the bubble approaching. So I shoved and he called and fortunately he did have AK and I won the race and managed to survive my third all-in of the tournament.
Naturally, my opponent went ballistic: “ALL-IN WITH 88?? WHAT, ARE YOU CRAZY??!!”
:)
Snail-pace poker
I got moved to a new table and, with the bubble approaching and hand-for-hand play across the room, play slowed to a snail’s pace. I think we played something like 7 hands in 2 hours.
There was a middle-aged Asian a few seats to my right who played the craziest style I’ve ever seen and literally raised every pot that was folded to him and 4-bet anytime someone 3-bet him. A few days later I would hear Joe Sebok describe a ridiculous lag-tard at his table and I immediately knew it was this guy.
The second time I 3-bet him and got 4-bet again I was *THIS* close to jamming 50bb’s all-in with Q8s but with the money just 3 spots away I chickened out. SHAME ON YOU JOEY!
Eventually, some poor guy clinging on to dear life lost his last ante and with 648 players left we were in the money! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Carefree poker!
So I’d made my goal of making the money and would be leaving Vegas with at least $21K more than I expected (pre-tax anyway). As you might expect, I was pretty pleased with myself.
All that remained now was to live it up and party in Vegas!
Oh wait...
I’m still in this damn tournament...
My birthday was the next day and I had booked a $1500 cabana at Wet Republic for it. As you can imagine, I was REALLY keen to go.
I also noticed how ridiculously flat the payout structure was: 3K jumps for every 100 players to bust until we reached the final 100. In addition, the 30% tax-withholding that applied to me made the effective payout structure even flatter.
The obvious conclusion?
Play with reckless abandon!
I think you can guess what happened next... I can’t lose a single pot!!!
Overpairs are the nuts!
In one key hand I raised KK in MP and got a call from the crazy Asian dude in the big blind. The flop came 864r and he led into me and I called. The turn brought the scary 5 and he led again for a bet which basically committed me to the hand if I continued.
As was the case on day 2, the first thought that raced through my head was how stupid I would look if I shoved on a four-straight board and got called. I could hear everyone laughing already.
“Haha, fish can’t fold an overpair!”
“What a donk, how did he make the money?”
After a bit of consideration though I concluded that this was a shove. Ironically, I probably would have folded if the board read 8647 instead of 8645. Why? In both cases, I think he checks the turn with two pair or sets because that’s just what people do when the board becomes four-straighted. The question then becomes how likely is it that he has a 7? I thought that with a hand like 87 or 77, he’s far more likely to check the flop because he has decent showdown value and doesn’t want to bet/fold his hand. On the other hand, he might lead 55 or 45s on the flop because they’re very vulnerable hands and he wants to take the pot down now. If he gets raised he can fold because “oh well, I only have 3rd pair”.
So I shoved and his hand was in the muck quicker than you could blink!
Levelled my entire table!
In another hand UTG opened with 30bb’s and I held 99 next to act. This is probably a fold but as I said I was in no mood for folding and called. We were heads-up to the AT5cc flop. He checked and I checked. The turn came the 9c and he bet. My first instinct was to raise to protect my hand but then I realised I’d probably fold out JJ-KK with a raise and simply get it in versus AA or TT. A raise might get value out of AK but that probably bets the flop and I can get a bet out of that on most rivers anyway. So I called and the river brought a beautiful offsuit 5.
My opponent checked and I overbet 70K into 45K. It’s a beautiful spot to represent nuts or air because there is literally no way I can have a flush or better in this spot except with the precise hand that I have (and he might even expect me to raise 99 on the turn). My opponent thought for quite a bit before calling (probably because the bet represented 75% of his stack) and mucked in disgust.
It was pretty cool because after the hand the three players to my left all remarked that they thought I was bluffing! :)
Making straights
I played two pretty big pots with a tallstack to my left. In the first I opened 76o in the small blind. A bit loose for sure but I wanted to see how much trouble he’d be giving me in this spot. He called and the flop came QJ8 with a flush draw and I just checked with the intention of giving up. He checked back though and the turn brought a 5 which I bet. He called and the river brought the 4 giving me the nuts and I bet again. When he called and I said “straight” he did the funniest double-take and mucked.
A little while later I opened 43s from the CO and he was the only caller on the BTN. The flop came down 852r and I bet and he called. I’ve never prayed for an Ace so much in my life and sure enough it came down on the turn. I bet again and he called and the river brought another Ace: definitely not as welcome as the first but still not bad since in his eyes it makes it more much likely I was bluffing the scare-card on the turn.
After I made a strong 90% pot bet and he called I announced “straight” again and he looked at the board in disgust, wondering how a straight was possible. Good times.
I finished the day with a monstrous 878,000 chip stack which was 110bb’s going into day 5 and good for a top 40 position with 400 players left!
On the one hand I was ecstatic. I was in prime position to make a sick run in the Main Event. On the other, I realised that a Wet Republic birthday was simply not happening. Oh well, I guess you have to take the good with the bad!
My 22nd birthday at Jet
The lovely people who organise the WSOP must have been thinking of me because they ended play at 7PM, meaning I had plenty of time to get ready for my big night out.
Before leaving for Vegas I had done loads of research on nightclubbing in Vegas. It’s just such a weird world: VIP hosts, table service, tipping everyone who utters a word at you...just completely bizarre! I probably spent a good 30 minutes before we left our hotel room working out how the hell to shake someone’s hand and slip them bills at the same time.
We chose Jet because we were staying at the Mirage and it looked like one of the better clubs after XS (which was already booked out). After much difficulty lining up and trying to get into the damn place (Pete’s fault!), the rest of the night went smoothly enough. The one thing that was weird though was that everyone was so old! In Australia if you’re 22 and walk into a club you’re probably the oldest person there but in Vegas, the average age seems to be 30! I had a great time though and I think I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. We may or may not have gone to the Rhino afterwards as well :).
Sunday July 12 – Main Event Day 5, Birthday Dinner at Nobu
The brute strength of my alarm woke me up at 10.30 (though it seemed to have no effect on Pete and Fraser) and, after showering and checking my table draw, I blearily made my way to the Rio. Having gone to sleep at 6AM, I was extremely tired, had a headache, and was generally in no mood for playing at all. As I took my seat, I resolved to play pretty snug for the first level until I got some Red Bulls into me.
On the first hand of the day the HJ opened, the BTN called and the BB called.
The flop came down...um...hmm...uh oh...
Houston, we have a problem!
I could barely read the flop! My eyes were completely dead.
Our table immediately broke (I always seem to pick up the first-to-break tables!) and I was extremely grateful for the respite that my trudge to the other side of the room provided.
Pocket rockets aplenty!
The poker gods obviously felt sorry for me and decided that seeing a flop should not be necessary for this poor blind boy on his birthday. So they graciously gave me AA 4 times in the first level! What??!! I know! I could hardly believe it myself. Was I really running hot the one time in your life you really want to run hot???
After the first break I had a monstrous 1,335,000 in chips, mostly courtesy of AA and AA and...
Joey Lawrence, Main Event Champion. Has a ring to it doesn’t it?
The collapse
Throughout the tournament I had run well in the sense that I had constantly been placed at tables filled with short-stacks. With each elimination at this table though a new tallstack filled the void and before long our table average must’ve been twice the tournament average. Play became much tougher.
With my stack at 1.2M, the key hand of my tournament occurred. Luckychewy opened in MP, 2 players called, I called in the SB with 54d and the BB called. The flop came Ad 9d 4c and I led out for 80K. The BB made a curious call since it invested about 40% of his remaining stack and it folded to the BTN who shoved for 400K total. I was getting 2-1 on my call and with a pair and a flush draw this is pretty much an auto-call I think. If the BB called the rest off (which he was guaranteed to do) my odds were even better.
I called and the BB snapped with 99 for middle set while the BTN showed KJd for a higher flush draw. Ugh, I was suddenly drawing dead!
Not all was lost though. If I held versus the KJd I would break roughly even or maybe even show a small profit. Unfortunately the turn brought the 8d and I fell to 760K.
Most ridiculous hand ever
In the last orbit of the day I played the most ridiculous hand of my life. I raised UTG with AJh, got 2 callers and then the BTN squeezed. I had seen the button flat TT on the BTN versus a HJ open so I knew his range here was super, super polarised. Moreover, though I had been playing very snug throughout the day, I had successfully raised and taken down pots preflop on 3 of my last 4 UTG’s. Thus I thought there was a good chance this player thought I was abusing the respect a UTG raise normally commands.
So I went ahead and made a 4-bet bluff. I can represent immense strength having raised UTG initially and, with an Ace blocker and a hand that plays well postflop if called (and which is at the very top of the range that I’d otherwise fold), it was simply the perfect textbook spot to 4-bet bluff. My opponent’s 3-bet was to 120K, so I made it 280K.
It folded back to my opponent and he quickly 5-bet. For some reason he didn’t 5-bet all-in, but given that I only had about 50K chips behind he was clearly calling a re-shove. I didn’t think he’d ever do this as a bluff so my plan all along was to 4-bet/fold. However I counted my stack and realised that I may have accidentally committed myself with the 4-bet sizing. I only had about 450K left and I did some math later and discovered that if his range was JJ+, AK I would’ve had just 1% too little equity to call. That’s way too close for comfort! Given his range felt more like KK+ however I decided to let it go.
He instantly stood up and slammed his T5h on the table.
Ugh...
What annoys me more now though is not that I got bluffed but that my plan of 4-bet/folding over 1/3 of my stack was just criminal. The initial 4-bet bluff just seemed too +EV a spot to pass up though...
Obviously, everyone at the table then asked me if I made a big laydown with QQ...
Sigh.
2 hands later, with just 3 hands left in the day, I was dealt TT in the small blind. UTG limped, the player with the T5h isolated, and I 3-bet to 100K, quite happy to get my stack in, win or lose. It folded back to UTG though who shoved and then it was back on me.
FML.
I’ve now committed 1/4 of my stack with TT and this guy also clearly has like KK+. Can I really fold again?
I was on semi-tilt, I wanted to get my flight home the next day with my friends, I did my utmost best to put him on AK, but in reality I just couldn’t see any other action than folding. And so I did.
Nobu
Back at the hotel I was given a few presents for my birthday (including Joe Hachem’s book with a personalised birthday message for me!) and then we headed out to Nobu for dinner. Because of my deep run I had had to change my flight but for everyone else this was their last night in Vegas so it was also a nice way to finish our trip. We all had the degustation and it was really nice but probably not as amazing as I expected.
For those of you who don’t know, Nobu is in the Hard Rock Hotel which is a little off the Strip but is meant to have a sick pool and a sick pool party (Rehab). We considered staying there because of this but didn’t in the end because of its location. Having had a look around though, I’m really glad we didn’t! The poker room was dead, the casino felt really trashy (loud, in-your-face music and leather-clad pole dancers while you play blackjack?!) and the place just looked so ridiculously gimmicky. The complete anti-thesis of Bellagio. Glad we dodged that one!
Monday July 13 – Main Event Day 6
The doorman
As I had done every other day, I caught a taxi from the Mirage to the Rio. As he had done every day, the doorman called over a taxi for me, opened my door, and thanked me for the tip.
This time though, something different happened.
He still called the taxi over, opened my door, and thanked me for my tip.
But then he added:
“Good luck”
I don’t know why, but suddenly the enormity of what I was playing for hit me.
Throughout the week, I had been impressed with how knowledgeable some of my taxi drivers were of the goings on at the WSOP. But to have my own doorman, the one who had greeted me every morning, the one who had seemed oblivious as to what I was doing every day, suddenly wish me good luck...well, all I can say is that it really left an impression on me.
It made me feel like the whole world was watching, like everyone knew the WSOP was on right now and that it was drawing to its closing stages. It made me realise that, for another few hours at least, I would be living every poker player’s dream, and I owed it to myself to give it the best shot I could.
I had woken up that morning, down and out and ready to bust. But by the time I reached the Rio, I was ready to rock.
Small double-up
Day 6 blinds began at 8K/16K and I had about 370K. For the first hour I played as tight as I could and merely watched in envy as the person to my immediate right picked up JJ, QQ, and KK in the space of 2 orbits to go from 400K to 1.5M.
I wasn’t so lucky with the cards and eventually had to make my move. It was folded to the HJ who had been extremely tight and he opened. I had QJo in the BB and was pondering what to do if it folded to me and my 15bb stack. The SB called however and with the overlay in the pot I decided to just go for it. I wasn’t going to die a slow death!
The HJ instantly called and my heart sank. All-in for the 4th time in the tournament! Fortunately he held just AK and I managed to bink top 2 on the flop and hold. 35bb’s baby!
Alas, all good things must come to an end...
2 hands later Antonio Esfandiari opened in the HJ and I had A8o on the BTN. I had been watching him carefully and he literally opened every single time it was folded to him in LP. I had read and heard about how surprisingly loose and aggressive he is (given how tight he plays on HSP) and so far it seemed that those stories were accurate. Twice already I had thought about 3-betting him, with A3s and A5s respectively, but decided not to because my stack was simply too short to 3-bet/fold and too big to 3-bet/shove. But now I finally had a workable stack with which to put some pressure on him and so I 3-bet my A8o.
It folded back to him and he INSTANTLY jammed. I found this kind of weird. He didn’t have THAT many chips and although I was not deep I still had 34bb’s which represented a big chunk of his stack (which probably stood at around 100bb’s). You’d think he’d at least ask how many chips I had right? I considered saying “you know I have a stack of greens (25K chips) behind here right?” to get a reaction but decided that I wasn’t good enough to pull that off.
I thought back to how I paused before folding those times I thought about 3-betting and how he might’ve picked up on that and realised I was wanting to 3-bet him light. I also thought about the pure math of the situation. The guy is opening every single hand it folds to him, what are the odds the one time I 3-bet him he actually has a hand?
I tanked into the break and eventually it was just us 2 at the table and ESPN cameras swarmed around. I have to admit, it did cross my mind how stupid I’d look calling it off with A8o. It also crossed my mind how awesome it’d look if I called it off and was right. In the end though, I played the way I’d been playing throughout the tournament, and that was to make the play I thought was best, even if it was incredibly high-variance and marginal.
I called, and he showed AJ...
I guess I was kind of right...he wasn’t strong and must’ve known that I would be 3-betting light since shipping in 34bb’s with AJo is certainly not standard. I think if he ships AJo he can definitely ship weaker hands like KJs and small pairs or even pure bluffs as well so I don’t think my call is terrible...but it’s definitely not great either.
I asked some people afterwards and the consensus seems to be just to fold preflop. Though 3-betting is definitely +cEV in that spot, the problem is that 3-bet/folding is basically a disaster given my stack size and just not worth it.
When I saw Antonio flip over the AJ, for the first time in the tournament I was emotionally attached to the outcome. I stormed to the rail and started pacing up and down, unbelieving that I was actually facing elimination. A few seconds later, when I saw his hand hold up, I had this huge sinking feeling. Given how nonchalant I was about the tournament just 2 days earlier, and given how unfussed I was by my previous encounters with possible elimination, my reaction took even me by surprise. I don’t think I realised how badly I wanted it until I got knocked out. Up till then, I was just living a dream.
Aftermath
I shook Antonio’s hand, walked to the cage, and collected my payout: $41,000 for 146th place, less a $9000 tax-withholding. Not bad really.
I changed my flight again to the following day and booked myself into Caesar’s for one night. It would’ve been easier to stay at the Mirage but I felt like a change and checking out Caesar’s seemed pretty logical. The pool seemed nice (from a distance, I didn’t bother going there) but I either got the crappiest room in the entire hotel or Caesar’s just plain sucks: my internet didn’t work, my air con didn’t work, I was next to the noisy pipes and there was no mini-bar! Oh well, at least I now know not to stay there again!
My friends were on a plane somewhere over the Pacific Ocean so it was just me and Vegas for one night. I couldn’t really think of much to do so I ordered some room service and then donked away some money at Roulette and Three Card Poker. Needless to say I did not feel like playing any more poker.
By 7PM the next day I was on a plane back to Sydney. And so came to an end my first trip to Vegas...
Reflections – Jan 2nd 2010
I remember for the first month or two after the Main Event I didn’t want anything to do with it. I delayed blogging about my trip and for the first time I did not watch any ESPN coverage and I avoided all things to do with the November Nine. I was still hurting from my mistake in my bust-out hand and badly wanted to erase it from my mind. It should have been me there damn it!
Quite simply, I felt like I had blown it. I was given the opportunity of a lifetime, one that I’ll probably never get again, and I had blown it.
I think in some ways I was also quite unprepared for it. When you never consider making day 2 let alone day 6, you don’t really know what to do once you actually get there, especially when you get there on your first attempt.
It is now 5 months since I made that fateful 3-bet/call. I still wish I could take it back, but when I look back on my trip now I no longer dwell on it and prefer to look at the positives.
I mean, I went to Vegas.
I played the World Series of Poker Main Event.
I came 146th out 6494 players.
I cashed for $40,000 and made $23,000 profit.
I partied at Jet, I ate at Nobu.
And I had an awesome holiday.
What more could you want?
In case you haven’t read the earlier parts:
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-1.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-2.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-3-loads-of-pics.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-4.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-5-espn.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-6-pics-galore.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-7.html
http://thepokermind.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-epic-vegas-trip-day-8-photo-blog.html
Friday July 10 – Main Event Day 3
I started Day 3 with 57,600 in chips and the blinds began at 600/1200.
I was down to about 45,000 when I picked up JJ on the button versus a hijack open. I 3-bet, my opponent thought for a bit before 4-bet shoving, and I called. He had A6s and I, being covered by about 5 big blinds, was all-in for the second time in the tournament. Fortunately my hand held and I doubled up.
Bluffing with my tournament life
The next significant hand I played I opened the hijack with T9h and the small blind was the only caller. The flop came 963ccc, he checked and I checked. The turn came the Qd, he led and I called. The river came the 4c, putting a four-flush out, and my opponent bet 20K.
I had about 75K chips left and before I knew it they were all in the middle.
Immediately I thought to myself “WTF did you just do Joey???”
Well, that’s kind of a lie. I knew what my reasoning was. It was more the fact that I couldn’t believe how easily I pulled the trigger. Rewind 6 months to PCA and there was zero chance that I would’ve pulled a move like this.
Fortunately my opponent folded (I probably had the best hand anyway) and I chipped up nicely to 110K.
Can’t give off them live tells yo!
I got moved to a new table and immediately started to pick up cards. I won about 10 of my first 20 hands and could soon feel everyone gunning for me. It was as though I had broken the tranquillity of their table and they wanted communal revenge. There was one hand where I opened on the button and a lady in MP went completely over the line by remarking “did he even look?” I was especially unpleased a few moments later when my 44 was met with a 3-bet...
In another hand I picked up TT on the BTN and the CO opened. I called, the SB called and we saw a flop of Q83cc. The SB checked, the CO bet, I called and the SB folded.
The turn was the Ac and the CO checked. I didn’t know whether I had a club or not so I moved to take a peek.
Then I stopped myself and thought: “if I take a peek, it’ll make it obvious that I don’t have a flush! After all, if I peeled the flop with a flush draw I would know that I now have a flush!”
So I sat there wondering what to do next. If I had the Tc I would normally check it behind but since I wasn’t sure I decided to turn my hand into a bluff. I figured that I could represent the flush quite well and get him to fold by the river. I bet a solid 2/3 pot amount and my opponent tanked for a good minute before folding what presumably was an Ace. Ship it!
This turned out to be a bit of a theme for the rest of the day as I started turning more and more hands into bluffs. Everyone played so weak-tight and so face-up that it just made so much sense to do so.
Tilted by a ruling dispute
I managed to work my stack up to about 150K at this new table but made perhaps one move too many and soon found myself back at 110K. I was getting a bit tilted when a hand went down where a young player called an all-in and wasn’t especially pleased to find that the third player behind him could still re-re-raise (and re-raise he did). After folding his hand the young player explained “I play online ALL THE TIME and this isn’t how it’s done ONLINE” while I tried to explain how he was thinking of an entirely different situation.
Anyway he and the back-raiser continue arguing and realising he’s probably wrong the young guy then goes: “DON’T SHOUT AT ME, WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING? I’M JUST HAVING A CIVIL DISCUSSION HERE!”
For some reason this changing-the-subject-instead-of-admitting-defeat line of argument always tilts the hell out of me...
Anyway the guy to my left then chimes in “Are you guys sure? I thought that was the case too?” and OMG I’ve never been so tilted in my life.
Young hotshot: “Oh yeah, let’s get a ruling on this!”
Guy to my left: “Let’s!”
Dealer: “FLOOR!”
***FACEPALM***
So hang on. The hand is over yet our play on our table is being paused for 5 minutes so that the floor can be called over to explain to some goofball the rules of poker?! In a $10,000 buy-in event?! Come on, get real!
Fun and frivolity
As we neared the end of the day the table became quite chatty and I had a pretty funny conversation with an English expat who now lives in NYC. It involved Shane Warne and cricket though so I won’t bother recounting it here since no one will understand.
Earlier in the day the lady who called me out on the button explained to us that she was a grandma and in her 60s. This came as a shock to all of us as she definitely looked very good for her age, and there were friendly jibes about her for the rest of the day. In this one hand towards the end of the day she made a bet on the river and her young opponent thought for ages before releasing his hand. The player to my left then commented “he’s trying to get into your good books” and everyone laughed.
He then replied “yeah, ‘cause I have a thing for grandmas”, and everyone laughed again.
We then looked to the dealer, waiting for her to deal our next hand.
But she simply sat there - still, silent, and completely aghast. Then, it came:
“THAT’S not a very nice thing to say!”
We all looked at her like “WTF woman? Get a sense of humour!”
Then we realised she hadn’t been there for the initial exchange and the comment must’ve seemed completely uncalled for and out of line to her. You probably had to be there, but it was definitely very funny!
Saturday July 11 – Main Event Day 4, My 22nd Birthday at Jet
Day 4 was the day the money bubble would burst and for the first time I woke up feeling nervous. Up till now I had never really expected to cash and indeed making day 4 had far surpassed my initial expectations. Quite frankly, I had long ago written off my $10,000 buy-in as the price of a once in a lifetime experience. All of a sudden though, I found myself a few hundred people away from the money and the opportunity to say that I cashed in the WSOP Main Event. The minimum cash was not an insubstantial amount either: given a choice between $0 and $21,000, I’m very happy taking the latter!
I started day 4 with 132,500 in chips and the blinds started at 2000/4000. I had a little bit of wiggle room but suffice to say I had to get a move on.
All-in first hand!
On the first hand of the day I got dealt 88 in MP and opened. The BTN 3-bet, it folded back to me and I thought to myself “well, this sure is going to be brief”. Now, this is probably a fold but I decided to do everyone’s favourite trick and put him on AK. In reality I didn’t feel like grinding a mid-20bb stack since you basically have to play your cards with this stack size and this was not something I wanted to do with the bubble approaching. So I shoved and he called and fortunately he did have AK and I won the race and managed to survive my third all-in of the tournament.
Naturally, my opponent went ballistic: “ALL-IN WITH 88?? WHAT, ARE YOU CRAZY??!!”
:)
Snail-pace poker
I got moved to a new table and, with the bubble approaching and hand-for-hand play across the room, play slowed to a snail’s pace. I think we played something like 7 hands in 2 hours.
There was a middle-aged Asian a few seats to my right who played the craziest style I’ve ever seen and literally raised every pot that was folded to him and 4-bet anytime someone 3-bet him. A few days later I would hear Joe Sebok describe a ridiculous lag-tard at his table and I immediately knew it was this guy.The second time I 3-bet him and got 4-bet again I was *THIS* close to jamming 50bb’s all-in with Q8s but with the money just 3 spots away I chickened out. SHAME ON YOU JOEY!
Eventually, some poor guy clinging on to dear life lost his last ante and with 648 players left we were in the money! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Carefree poker!
So I’d made my goal of making the money and would be leaving Vegas with at least $21K more than I expected (pre-tax anyway). As you might expect, I was pretty pleased with myself.
All that remained now was to live it up and party in Vegas!
Oh wait...
I’m still in this damn tournament...
My birthday was the next day and I had booked a $1500 cabana at Wet Republic for it. As you can imagine, I was REALLY keen to go.
I also noticed how ridiculously flat the payout structure was: 3K jumps for every 100 players to bust until we reached the final 100. In addition, the 30% tax-withholding that applied to me made the effective payout structure even flatter.
The obvious conclusion?
Play with reckless abandon!
I think you can guess what happened next... I can’t lose a single pot!!!
Overpairs are the nuts!
In one key hand I raised KK in MP and got a call from the crazy Asian dude in the big blind. The flop came 864r and he led into me and I called. The turn brought the scary 5 and he led again for a bet which basically committed me to the hand if I continued.
As was the case on day 2, the first thought that raced through my head was how stupid I would look if I shoved on a four-straight board and got called. I could hear everyone laughing already.
“Haha, fish can’t fold an overpair!”
“What a donk, how did he make the money?”
After a bit of consideration though I concluded that this was a shove. Ironically, I probably would have folded if the board read 8647 instead of 8645. Why? In both cases, I think he checks the turn with two pair or sets because that’s just what people do when the board becomes four-straighted. The question then becomes how likely is it that he has a 7? I thought that with a hand like 87 or 77, he’s far more likely to check the flop because he has decent showdown value and doesn’t want to bet/fold his hand. On the other hand, he might lead 55 or 45s on the flop because they’re very vulnerable hands and he wants to take the pot down now. If he gets raised he can fold because “oh well, I only have 3rd pair”.
So I shoved and his hand was in the muck quicker than you could blink!
Levelled my entire table!
In another hand UTG opened with 30bb’s and I held 99 next to act. This is probably a fold but as I said I was in no mood for folding and called. We were heads-up to the AT5cc flop. He checked and I checked. The turn came the 9c and he bet. My first instinct was to raise to protect my hand but then I realised I’d probably fold out JJ-KK with a raise and simply get it in versus AA or TT. A raise might get value out of AK but that probably bets the flop and I can get a bet out of that on most rivers anyway. So I called and the river brought a beautiful offsuit 5.
My opponent checked and I overbet 70K into 45K. It’s a beautiful spot to represent nuts or air because there is literally no way I can have a flush or better in this spot except with the precise hand that I have (and he might even expect me to raise 99 on the turn). My opponent thought for quite a bit before calling (probably because the bet represented 75% of his stack) and mucked in disgust.
It was pretty cool because after the hand the three players to my left all remarked that they thought I was bluffing! :)
Making straights
I played two pretty big pots with a tallstack to my left. In the first I opened 76o in the small blind. A bit loose for sure but I wanted to see how much trouble he’d be giving me in this spot. He called and the flop came QJ8 with a flush draw and I just checked with the intention of giving up. He checked back though and the turn brought a 5 which I bet. He called and the river brought the 4 giving me the nuts and I bet again. When he called and I said “straight” he did the funniest double-take and mucked.
A little while later I opened 43s from the CO and he was the only caller on the BTN. The flop came down 852r and I bet and he called. I’ve never prayed for an Ace so much in my life and sure enough it came down on the turn. I bet again and he called and the river brought another Ace: definitely not as welcome as the first but still not bad since in his eyes it makes it more much likely I was bluffing the scare-card on the turn.
After I made a strong 90% pot bet and he called I announced “straight” again and he looked at the board in disgust, wondering how a straight was possible. Good times.
I finished the day with a monstrous 878,000 chip stack which was 110bb’s going into day 5 and good for a top 40 position with 400 players left!
On the one hand I was ecstatic. I was in prime position to make a sick run in the Main Event. On the other, I realised that a Wet Republic birthday was simply not happening. Oh well, I guess you have to take the good with the bad!
My 22nd birthday at Jet
The lovely people who organise the WSOP must have been thinking of me because they ended play at 7PM, meaning I had plenty of time to get ready for my big night out.
Before leaving for Vegas I had done loads of research on nightclubbing in Vegas. It’s just such a weird world: VIP hosts, table service, tipping everyone who utters a word at you...just completely bizarre! I probably spent a good 30 minutes before we left our hotel room working out how the hell to shake someone’s hand and slip them bills at the same time.
We chose Jet because we were staying at the Mirage and it looked like one of the better clubs after XS (which was already booked out). After much difficulty lining up and trying to get into the damn place (Pete’s fault!), the rest of the night went smoothly enough. The one thing that was weird though was that everyone was so old! In Australia if you’re 22 and walk into a club you’re probably the oldest person there but in Vegas, the average age seems to be 30! I had a great time though and I think I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. We may or may not have gone to the Rhino afterwards as well :).
Sunday July 12 – Main Event Day 5, Birthday Dinner at Nobu
The brute strength of my alarm woke me up at 10.30 (though it seemed to have no effect on Pete and Fraser) and, after showering and checking my table draw, I blearily made my way to the Rio. Having gone to sleep at 6AM, I was extremely tired, had a headache, and was generally in no mood for playing at all. As I took my seat, I resolved to play pretty snug for the first level until I got some Red Bulls into me.
On the first hand of the day the HJ opened, the BTN called and the BB called.
The flop came down...um...hmm...uh oh...
Houston, we have a problem!
I could barely read the flop! My eyes were completely dead.
Our table immediately broke (I always seem to pick up the first-to-break tables!) and I was extremely grateful for the respite that my trudge to the other side of the room provided.
Pocket rockets aplenty!
The poker gods obviously felt sorry for me and decided that seeing a flop should not be necessary for this poor blind boy on his birthday. So they graciously gave me AA 4 times in the first level! What??!! I know! I could hardly believe it myself. Was I really running hot the one time in your life you really want to run hot???
After the first break I had a monstrous 1,335,000 in chips, mostly courtesy of AA and AA and...
Joey Lawrence, Main Event Champion. Has a ring to it doesn’t it?
The collapse
Throughout the tournament I had run well in the sense that I had constantly been placed at tables filled with short-stacks. With each elimination at this table though a new tallstack filled the void and before long our table average must’ve been twice the tournament average. Play became much tougher.
With my stack at 1.2M, the key hand of my tournament occurred. Luckychewy opened in MP, 2 players called, I called in the SB with 54d and the BB called. The flop came Ad 9d 4c and I led out for 80K. The BB made a curious call since it invested about 40% of his remaining stack and it folded to the BTN who shoved for 400K total. I was getting 2-1 on my call and with a pair and a flush draw this is pretty much an auto-call I think. If the BB called the rest off (which he was guaranteed to do) my odds were even better.
I called and the BB snapped with 99 for middle set while the BTN showed KJd for a higher flush draw. Ugh, I was suddenly drawing dead!
Not all was lost though. If I held versus the KJd I would break roughly even or maybe even show a small profit. Unfortunately the turn brought the 8d and I fell to 760K.
Most ridiculous hand ever
In the last orbit of the day I played the most ridiculous hand of my life. I raised UTG with AJh, got 2 callers and then the BTN squeezed. I had seen the button flat TT on the BTN versus a HJ open so I knew his range here was super, super polarised. Moreover, though I had been playing very snug throughout the day, I had successfully raised and taken down pots preflop on 3 of my last 4 UTG’s. Thus I thought there was a good chance this player thought I was abusing the respect a UTG raise normally commands.
So I went ahead and made a 4-bet bluff. I can represent immense strength having raised UTG initially and, with an Ace blocker and a hand that plays well postflop if called (and which is at the very top of the range that I’d otherwise fold), it was simply the perfect textbook spot to 4-bet bluff. My opponent’s 3-bet was to 120K, so I made it 280K.
It folded back to my opponent and he quickly 5-bet. For some reason he didn’t 5-bet all-in, but given that I only had about 50K chips behind he was clearly calling a re-shove. I didn’t think he’d ever do this as a bluff so my plan all along was to 4-bet/fold. However I counted my stack and realised that I may have accidentally committed myself with the 4-bet sizing. I only had about 450K left and I did some math later and discovered that if his range was JJ+, AK I would’ve had just 1% too little equity to call. That’s way too close for comfort! Given his range felt more like KK+ however I decided to let it go.
He instantly stood up and slammed his T5h on the table.
Ugh...
What annoys me more now though is not that I got bluffed but that my plan of 4-bet/folding over 1/3 of my stack was just criminal. The initial 4-bet bluff just seemed too +EV a spot to pass up though...
Obviously, everyone at the table then asked me if I made a big laydown with QQ...
Sigh.
2 hands later, with just 3 hands left in the day, I was dealt TT in the small blind. UTG limped, the player with the T5h isolated, and I 3-bet to 100K, quite happy to get my stack in, win or lose. It folded back to UTG though who shoved and then it was back on me.
FML.
I’ve now committed 1/4 of my stack with TT and this guy also clearly has like KK+. Can I really fold again?
I was on semi-tilt, I wanted to get my flight home the next day with my friends, I did my utmost best to put him on AK, but in reality I just couldn’t see any other action than folding. And so I did.
Nobu
Back at the hotel I was given a few presents for my birthday (including Joe Hachem’s book with a personalised birthday message for me!) and then we headed out to Nobu for dinner. Because of my deep run I had had to change my flight but for everyone else this was their last night in Vegas so it was also a nice way to finish our trip. We all had the degustation and it was really nice but probably not as amazing as I expected.
For those of you who don’t know, Nobu is in the Hard Rock Hotel which is a little off the Strip but is meant to have a sick pool and a sick pool party (Rehab). We considered staying there because of this but didn’t in the end because of its location. Having had a look around though, I’m really glad we didn’t! The poker room was dead, the casino felt really trashy (loud, in-your-face music and leather-clad pole dancers while you play blackjack?!) and the place just looked so ridiculously gimmicky. The complete anti-thesis of Bellagio. Glad we dodged that one!
Monday July 13 – Main Event Day 6
The doorman
As I had done every other day, I caught a taxi from the Mirage to the Rio. As he had done every day, the doorman called over a taxi for me, opened my door, and thanked me for the tip.
This time though, something different happened.
He still called the taxi over, opened my door, and thanked me for my tip.
But then he added:
“Good luck”
I don’t know why, but suddenly the enormity of what I was playing for hit me.
Throughout the week, I had been impressed with how knowledgeable some of my taxi drivers were of the goings on at the WSOP. But to have my own doorman, the one who had greeted me every morning, the one who had seemed oblivious as to what I was doing every day, suddenly wish me good luck...well, all I can say is that it really left an impression on me.
It made me feel like the whole world was watching, like everyone knew the WSOP was on right now and that it was drawing to its closing stages. It made me realise that, for another few hours at least, I would be living every poker player’s dream, and I owed it to myself to give it the best shot I could.
I had woken up that morning, down and out and ready to bust. But by the time I reached the Rio, I was ready to rock.
Small double-up
Day 6 blinds began at 8K/16K and I had about 370K. For the first hour I played as tight as I could and merely watched in envy as the person to my immediate right picked up JJ, QQ, and KK in the space of 2 orbits to go from 400K to 1.5M.
I wasn’t so lucky with the cards and eventually had to make my move. It was folded to the HJ who had been extremely tight and he opened. I had QJo in the BB and was pondering what to do if it folded to me and my 15bb stack. The SB called however and with the overlay in the pot I decided to just go for it. I wasn’t going to die a slow death!
The HJ instantly called and my heart sank. All-in for the 4th time in the tournament! Fortunately he held just AK and I managed to bink top 2 on the flop and hold. 35bb’s baby!
Alas, all good things must come to an end...
2 hands later Antonio Esfandiari opened in the HJ and I had A8o on the BTN. I had been watching him carefully and he literally opened every single time it was folded to him in LP. I had read and heard about how surprisingly loose and aggressive he is (given how tight he plays on HSP) and so far it seemed that those stories were accurate. Twice already I had thought about 3-betting him, with A3s and A5s respectively, but decided not to because my stack was simply too short to 3-bet/fold and too big to 3-bet/shove. But now I finally had a workable stack with which to put some pressure on him and so I 3-bet my A8o.
It folded back to him and he INSTANTLY jammed. I found this kind of weird. He didn’t have THAT many chips and although I was not deep I still had 34bb’s which represented a big chunk of his stack (which probably stood at around 100bb’s). You’d think he’d at least ask how many chips I had right? I considered saying “you know I have a stack of greens (25K chips) behind here right?” to get a reaction but decided that I wasn’t good enough to pull that off.
I thought back to how I paused before folding those times I thought about 3-betting and how he might’ve picked up on that and realised I was wanting to 3-bet him light. I also thought about the pure math of the situation. The guy is opening every single hand it folds to him, what are the odds the one time I 3-bet him he actually has a hand?
I tanked into the break and eventually it was just us 2 at the table and ESPN cameras swarmed around. I have to admit, it did cross my mind how stupid I’d look calling it off with A8o. It also crossed my mind how awesome it’d look if I called it off and was right. In the end though, I played the way I’d been playing throughout the tournament, and that was to make the play I thought was best, even if it was incredibly high-variance and marginal.
I called, and he showed AJ...
I guess I was kind of right...he wasn’t strong and must’ve known that I would be 3-betting light since shipping in 34bb’s with AJo is certainly not standard. I think if he ships AJo he can definitely ship weaker hands like KJs and small pairs or even pure bluffs as well so I don’t think my call is terrible...but it’s definitely not great either.
I asked some people afterwards and the consensus seems to be just to fold preflop. Though 3-betting is definitely +cEV in that spot, the problem is that 3-bet/folding is basically a disaster given my stack size and just not worth it.
When I saw Antonio flip over the AJ, for the first time in the tournament I was emotionally attached to the outcome. I stormed to the rail and started pacing up and down, unbelieving that I was actually facing elimination. A few seconds later, when I saw his hand hold up, I had this huge sinking feeling. Given how nonchalant I was about the tournament just 2 days earlier, and given how unfussed I was by my previous encounters with possible elimination, my reaction took even me by surprise. I don’t think I realised how badly I wanted it until I got knocked out. Up till then, I was just living a dream.
Aftermath
I shook Antonio’s hand, walked to the cage, and collected my payout: $41,000 for 146th place, less a $9000 tax-withholding. Not bad really.
I changed my flight again to the following day and booked myself into Caesar’s for one night. It would’ve been easier to stay at the Mirage but I felt like a change and checking out Caesar’s seemed pretty logical. The pool seemed nice (from a distance, I didn’t bother going there) but I either got the crappiest room in the entire hotel or Caesar’s just plain sucks: my internet didn’t work, my air con didn’t work, I was next to the noisy pipes and there was no mini-bar! Oh well, at least I now know not to stay there again!
My friends were on a plane somewhere over the Pacific Ocean so it was just me and Vegas for one night. I couldn’t really think of much to do so I ordered some room service and then donked away some money at Roulette and Three Card Poker. Needless to say I did not feel like playing any more poker.
By 7PM the next day I was on a plane back to Sydney. And so came to an end my first trip to Vegas...
Reflections – Jan 2nd 2010
I remember for the first month or two after the Main Event I didn’t want anything to do with it. I delayed blogging about my trip and for the first time I did not watch any ESPN coverage and I avoided all things to do with the November Nine. I was still hurting from my mistake in my bust-out hand and badly wanted to erase it from my mind. It should have been me there damn it!
Quite simply, I felt like I had blown it. I was given the opportunity of a lifetime, one that I’ll probably never get again, and I had blown it.
I think in some ways I was also quite unprepared for it. When you never consider making day 2 let alone day 6, you don’t really know what to do once you actually get there, especially when you get there on your first attempt.
It is now 5 months since I made that fateful 3-bet/call. I still wish I could take it back, but when I look back on my trip now I no longer dwell on it and prefer to look at the positives.
I mean, I went to Vegas.
I played the World Series of Poker Main Event.
I came 146th out 6494 players.
I cashed for $40,000 and made $23,000 profit.
I partied at Jet, I ate at Nobu.
And I had an awesome holiday.
What more could you want?
***
