I know I’ve been neglecting the blog lately, but poker isn’t as big a part of my life as it used to be so it’s hard to find things to blog about. A lot the time I used to spend blogging, I now spend improving the other sites I manage. I’ve added some new ATM products, am in the process of adding some new ATM machines and I should be launching a downloadable version of poker bluff tools in a week or two when I get back to Seattle. I have a rough draft of a China trip report I’ll put up eventually as well, but haven’t gotten around to yet.
I got to Vegas for the series this Sunday and played my first event yesterday. If anyone’s interested in hanging out, leave a comment as I may be leaving as soon as Thursday. Okay enough blabbing, I’m sure you’re looking for some poker content!
Event #10 was the $1500 6max event. I started with 4500 in chips an had an okay table draw. I lasted about three and a half hours and was the 2nd to last one at my initial table to bust which I’m not sure speaks to how bad the players are or how bad the structure is. I will say that the structure has been slightly improved over last year as the first level is 25/25 instead of 25/50 now. I got a decent number of premium pairs, but never managed to win a big pot with them, just a cbet or take it down preflop.
The best player at the table was directly across from me and was a laggy online guy. He was minraising quite a lot and playing a bit too loose for my liking in the early levels without antes, but to each his own. I saw him call a turn check raise with A8 high and a small river bet vs a fish only to lose to to the fish’s AQ high which he was bluffing with so he certainly wasn’t afraid of putting his chips in lightly. About 2.5 hours in I still have the starting stack and open the cutoff with QTo vs laggy guys’ big blind at 50/100 for 250 and he defends. Flop is JJT rainbow, flop goes check check. Turn is offsuit 6 he bets 350, I call. River is 8 he bets 350 into the 1250 pot and I call again. He shows AJo and takes it down.
Fast forward about an hour to my bust out hand and I have 3900 to start the hand. Laggy guy minraises to 300 at 75/150 and I have AKo in the small blind. With 27 big blinds it’s sort of awkward to 3 bet as I’ll miss the flop 2/3 of the time and am basically pot committed to the hand (if I 3 bet to 800 and he calls, I cbet 800 on any board and he shoves I have to call another 2400 into what would be an 8000 pot which means I need 30% equity which is pretty close to my required equity with just two overs especially considering he will have some draws sometimes). Shipping is an option especially out of position, but I think calling is best with these stacks so that’s what I did. Flop is 246 with two hearts. I check, he cbets 400 like I assumed he would with any hand and I call. Turn is an offsuit 8 and he thinks for a bit and checks. The river is the T of hearts completing the flushdraw and he tanks for a bit and puts out a big stack of chips which is enough to put me all in. It’s a pretty huge overbet of 3100 into 1550 so I need to be good 40% of the time here. I tank for a minute or two and end up making the big hero call for all of my chips and he flips over a slowplayed set of 88. GG.
I think my call is pretty horrible now as there’s nothing worse than calling off your tournament life drawing completely dead, but at the time these were my reasons for making the call.
1) History. In the hand earlier when he had the uber nuts he severely underbet the pot. Just 350 into 1250. Perhaps a big overbet means he’s bluffing.
2) Gutshots galore. 2468T. He may play any 3,5 or 7 this way which is a LOT of hand combos.
3) Live tells. At the time it seemed like he was nervous about me making the call. Results oriented looking back at this now it’s obvious to me he was just acting, and badly acting at that to induce a call. Props to him, but this just goes to show my inexperience playing live.
4) My hand looks really weak. My hand looks like 55 or 77 or maybe ace high. It seems like a good bluff spot for him.
5) Confusion. When I get confused in a hand I usually end up calling. It was hard for me to come up with a hand he would play this way. I thought he would have bet a flush draw and overpair on the turn so it was hard for me to think of a hand he could have. AT makes sense or maybe 8T, but he probably bets 8T a large % on the turn. At the time I didn’t even consider a slowplayed set. Props to him for playing it that way.
Results oriented and looking back I think it’s a pretty horrible call because:
1) It’s live. People don’t bluff that much.
2) The big river overbet is usually, oops I missed out on value on early streets, gotta make up for it now.
3) The alternative of folding still leaves me with 20 big blinds for another 20 minutes and time to find a better reshove spot instead of potentially call off all my chips drawing dead.
So there you have my analysis of my first event of the series. I’m playing the $1500 shoot out tomorrow and then leaving and may be back to play some more events later this month depending on if I ever get my ftp funds back or somehow bink the shootout. Best of luck to everyone else in the series. It’s good to be playing a little poker again.