Vegas, baby

I started the Vegas report soon after I returned in February, but got sidetracked with work, life and playing poker.

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Wynn Tournaments

Overall, these were uneventful tournaments in which I gained zero traction. I lasted through the mid-levels, but was forced to push with mediocre hands and busted. Waaa.

In my first tournament, I sat down next to Michael Craig, the author of “The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King.” I recognized him immediately when I sat down. The conversation went something like this:

“You look familiar. You write about poker, right?”

“Yes.”

“Where have I seen your work?” He mentions the book.

“I really enjoyed that book.”

“Thanks. It was one year ago today that the Ivey match with Beal started.” He motions in the direction of the poker room to indicate where the game happened. We are seated in an area of the main gaming floor which is occupied by several dozen tournament tables. He also mentioned a book that he is writing with the Full Tilt pros, which he expected to be in print by the WSOP.

I ask a few questions about the Ivey-Beal match and his experience, but his answers were short and clipped. This conversation occurred between hands, and it seemed as though he didn’t want to talk much. I can respect that, because I am very quiet at the tables and don’t care for much chatter when I am playing.

Overall, the experience was much less enjoyable than I would have expected. I would assume that a poker writer would be willing to talk about poker and his book, but apparently not Mr. Craig. He came across as someone who is really into the poker scene, but doesn’t really have time to be bothered by someone who is not a famous player or a pro. He treated me like I was just another schlub at the table.

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Wynn Cash Games – Day 1-2

I played in the $2/5NL cash games a lot in between the Wynn tournaments, and won my buy-ins back plus about another $1000 during the first 36 hours of my stay. The games were fairly soft, and the good players were easy to spot and avoid. There were a lot of 20-ish cowboys that liked to play a blind straddle, and then re-pop no matter what from UTG when it got back to them pre-flop. I took advantage of this twice by deep-limping with KK and AA, and stacked one player with this move.

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Venetian -- The Cash Game Run Begins

At 10:30am on Saturday, I was seated at the only $2/5 NL game running at the Venetian. It played big and surprisingly loose for the early hour, mainly because the table seemed to be populated by players that had been up all night. Except for me. The stacks ranged from $400 to $2500. I bought in for $1000. I’d been at the table for 20 minutes, and played maybe 2 hands, when this hand occurred...

I was UTG with 5s5h and raised to $20. Folded to BB (what, do I appear to be that much of a rock?), and BB just called with around $600 behind. BB had been talking to the guy on his right, and I could tell they are both solid, strategic, experiences players based on their analysis of players at the other end of the table. BB took a little bit to call, and possibly he was thinking about a re-raise.

Flop was 4h-Td-Kc. BB checked and I bet $30. BB thought a bit and called. I got the vibe that he was probably ahead with a better pair, and was probably not on a draw. Maybe something like AK, JJ or 99.

Turn was (4h-Td-Kc)-5c. An unexpected gin! I always look for the set on the flop, but for some reason I am always shocked when it hits on the turn – if I’m still in the hand.

BB checked again. I thought a bit and bet $80. BB raised $200 more, and it looked like a bet of confidence. In fact, it dawned on me that he was probably setting me up all along for the turn check-raise. If I just called, the pot would have been $660. He had around $270 left, so I was not going to fold on the river if he pushed. I paused for a while to make him think I had a tough decision, acted like I’m was counting things up, and then announce that I’m all in.

BB cursed and spun around in his chair. He faced away from the table and hunched over. He spun back around and was clearly agonized and angry about the decision. I was about 95% sure of what I was about to see, since I had done this to myself before.

He called and turned over AA. My set held up on the river.

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The Venetian Tournament

I was a bit aggravated with my performance in the Wynn tournaments, so coming into the Venetian tournament, I made the decision to shift into a higher LAG gear with the Venetian deep stack tournament. I wanted to play this one different that my usual tournament strategy. The plan in my head went something like this:

1. In MP or later, when its folded to me PF, I will raise regardless of my hand. If I get re-raised PF (a) when I have junk, I will fold, (b) when I have anything playable, I will call, (c) with a premium hand, I will re-raise.

2. I will regularly fire continuation bets and play aggressive when the cards come out. The goal was to really ramp up the aggression.

3. Build a big stack early or move on to the cash games.

A lot of players say that they don’t come into a tournament with any sort of plan. Now I know why. My plan was foiled because I kept getting medium and baby pocket pairs. Tons of ‘em. During the first two levels, I remember receiving these starting hands:

22 - 2
33 - 1
44 - 2
55 - 3
77 - 2
88 - 1

The string of PPs was amazing. Since I hit the big hand at the Venetian cash game right before the tournament started, I thought that maybe it was an omen for the luck that I would realize with all these starting PPs.

So, if there was a raise in front of me, I called with a lil’ PP. If it was folded to me, I raised with a lil’ PP. When I open-raised and it was re-raised, I called with my lil’ PP. I decided to see every flop with any PP, regardless of the cost. The way that the table was playing, if I hit even one big hand with a set, I would have vaulted to the chip lead at the table.

Absolutely nothing panned out. No sets. Not even a straight draw. Every single flop missed my lil’ PP in every way. When I took a shot on the flop or after with my lil’ PP, I got called. So, by the end of the second round, I had pissed away nearly my entire stack. The cash games were calling, which is a bad mind-set for a tournament. I went out in a blaze of glory after 5 limpers by pushing a stack of about 2500 with 87s.

I really wish I could play this Venetian tournament table again with more patience, because there were some real donks at that table. Of course, I probably looked like, and truly played like, the biggest donk of everyone, based on the way I ended up playing my hands and busting out first from my table. If this had been the first tournament on my trip, and I hadn’t come into the tournament with a specific “strategy,” I definitely would have played differently.

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A Huge Wynn?

I had played in several sessions at the $2/5 NL tables, and except for the occasionally solid or tricky player, the competition was fairly easy to read. After a few profitable sessions, I decided to step up to the $5/10 NL game.

This felt like wading into a deep pool of sharks. There is no max buy-in at the Wynn NL games. At the $2/5 NL game, it was a sea of red chips and some green. At the $5/10 NL table, you see the full range of colors and wads of cash. Some players were sitting with $5000 or more – mountains of red topped by black and green. Back home, I’d played in several $5/10 NL games, but the max buy-in was $1000 because of the silly Missouri loss-limit rules.

So, sitting down at this table felt, in some ways, like my first few no limit sessions. It’s the intoxicating mix of tremendous excitement and sheer terror. But, after a few tight orbits, I adjusted and settled in.

The villain in question was the kind of maniac that that you see every so often at the tables. He was 25-ish, talkative, antsy, and raised pre-flop in 90% of all pots. He would open raise to $40, or raise after limpers to $70-80. He would raise from MP, the button and the BB with equal consistency. Position meant nothing to him, as far as raising PF was concerned. He was a regular, knew lots of people in the casino, and within my first hour at the table had invited three people to the parking lot to share a joint (with no takers). Spliff the HAG.

Spliff’s stack swung from large to huge, and bet on the flop and after with as much frequency as he raised pre-flop. On the occasion that he got called on the river after wild betting, he showed either medium strength hands (sometimes winners) or complete junk.

I sat with $1500 an had run my stack up to about $2500 after about 2 hours of play. Spliff had about $4000 or so.

The hand:
Spliff raises UTG to $40. One MP caller, and I have JJ on the button. I raise to $155 total. Spliff calls, and MP calls. There is more potential cash involved in this hand than any hand I’ve ever played before. Time to dial it up a notch. Pot is $480.

The flop is 8h-7s-6h. Spliff opens for $300. MP folds.

Now, the problem is that Spliff could have just about anything. His range of hands, even after this bet, is still huge. I can rule out the premium pocket pairs AA and KK because I really think he would have re-raised me PF with another player in between us. What hands could he have that beat me right now? QQ, T9, 88, 77, 66 and 54 are all possibilities. But so are any two hearts, as well as any two random cards, because he has shown the propensity to play complete junk with exactly this sized bet on exactly this type of flop.

So what’s my read of him? He’s staring at me, kind of bouncing in his seat, and I get the vibe that he is trying to intimidate. After a bit, I get the strong sense that he is simply trying to buy the pot, and I am ahead. There’s no particular tell, just a strong feeling. Time to trust my read and my instincts.

I raise to $800 total. He quickly counts out the call in red stacks, and slides them in. I sense that he’s already preparing to bet the turn, because he’s kind of eyeballing the remainder of my stack as the dealer collects the pot together. The pot is around $2080, and I have about $1550 left.

The turn is [8h-7s-6h]-2c. This doesn’t appear to change anything. He says, “I’ll put it all in,” and starts moving his chips, stack by stack, in front of him.

Gulp. Time for a serious gut-check. Several thoughts and questions flash through my mind at once. This is the biggest pot of my life. Was my read wrong? Am I walking into a monster? Or, as I initially felt, is he just trying to bully me out of the pot? What does he have? A set?

Time to calm down. Everyone at the table is quiet, watching me or Spliff. They’ve been waiting for this type of confrontation involving Spliff. Let’s take things one step at a time. The pot is over $3600, matching his push against my remaining stack. What is my read of this play? Two clear thoughts occur to me. First, my read on the flop was that this fit his usual pattern of bullying with junk. I got the strong read that he was not ahead, and was continuing with his normal bluff game.

Second, and more importantly, what does he think of my play? He probably thinks that I’m a rock, and that I can be pushed around. I’ve played relatively tight so far. I’ve only produced solid hands at the showdown. He does not think that I connected with that board. He thinks that I think that the flop could have hit him in many ways. In fact, based on my PF raise, he thinks that I have exactly what I have -- a strong but vulnerable starting hand that did not connect.

Then, its suddenly like I can read his thoughts -- he thinks that I have exactly QQ or JJ. Its like I can read his mind. This is exactly how he would play against a tight-aggressive player that he puts on QQ or JJ with that board, and he knows that I would be scared of that board and his bet, and that I should lay down just one pair. After what seems like five minutes, but is maybe only 60 seconds, I decide to go with my read.

This is the roller coaster that has reached the peak, and freezes just before plummeting. My stomach is in my throat. I call.

The dealer quickly deals the river before either of us act -- [8h-7s-6h-2c]-8c. Spliff looks at me without turning over his hand and loudly says, “Two pair.”

Oh shit, I’m beat. That’s my first thought. I’m staring at the board. Everyone is staring at us. Then it occurs to me that I also have two pair. “Me too,” I say.

Spliff sort of waves his cards in the air but doesn’t turn them over. I’m waiting, and suddenly I forget the rules. He has to show first, right? Yeah, but he’s not tabling his hand. So, I just turn my hand face up on the table. Everyone at the table, and several that I finally notice who have gathered around the table, all in unison crane their necks at my pair of jacks.

Spliff slaps his cards face down in the general direction of the pot. “What a fucking horrible call!” he yells, and stomps away from the table. The dealer collects his hand into the muck, and starts pushing what seems like all of the chips in the entire casino in my direction. I have just won a $3600+ pot.

I start stacking chips, which takes two phases -- assembling the chip buildings, and then arranging my little chip city. I love chips. This goes on for about three or four more hands. I’m in a daze. Spliff has returned to his seat and is still bitching about what a horrible call I made. After a few more hands he wanders off to take a break.

I finally ask to the guy that saw his hand, “What did he have?” He replies, “Pocket fours.”

So, in the end, I basically just sniffed out a bluff, but holy shit was it scary. This is the hand that really taught me to trust my reads, at least in cash games.

Zen Focus

If you are following along with this blog, one theme that you will see bubbling up more frequently is the idea that my poker results are now almost always the direct result of my focus. The more focused I am at the game, the better I play and the better my results. On certain rare occasions, I have been keenly focused and it has felt as if the game was flowing through me -- I could tell exactly where I was in each hand, and it is like a sixth sense had developed that was telling me what to do with incredible precision.

From poker, I am better able to "read" people in everyday life. Its not poker, per se, put a skill that I have developed from playing poker. I am frequently telling my wife that I can almost feel or 'hear' what another person is thinking. (There have been a few times where I was 'reading' the other person so well, it scared me. I haven't really told anyone about this in any detail.) This happens when I am focused on the moment, and not thinking about the past or the future. The nature of my profession requires a lot of planning and thinking about the next meeting, activity, due date, etc., but I am best able to communicate with, and sometimes 'read', other people when I am completely in the moment.

I encountered two things today that drive this point home:

1. On some poker show that I caught today (the 2004 WSOP Tournament of Champions, I think) Howard Lederer was talking about his effort at Zen focus. He said that he was concentrating more on being 100% in the moment at the poker table. Not thinking about the past, the future, or anything surrounding the poker table, but instead focusing his energy 100% within the confines of the poker table. When I saw this, I said out loud to no one, "Yes, that's exactly it."

2. The following is copied directly from Shaniac's blog, posted on March 6, 2007, and is a perfect summary of what I think it takes to play great poker:

"As cliché as it sounds, maintaining a good mental balance is the one true key to performing consistently well in tournaments. There are hundreds of excellent tournament players out there, and most of them are familiar with a similar range of strategic poker concepts. But I think it's a level of Zen-like focus, a real inner calm, that allows the best players (like JC Tran, Nam Le, the Grinder, and, recently, Paul Wasicka) to put up incredible results over and over. That psychological fortitude is much harder to achieve than, say, a basic grasp of Game Theory, and that is why tournaments, while challenging and rooted in luck, are still profitable and fun: in any given event, some percentage of the expert players simply aren't "in the zone" and therefore aren't giving themselves the necessary edge to win."

Monthly Blog Dump

I’ve been typing these posts in Word over the last few weeks. Rather than posting periodically, I’ve collected them. And now, I take a blog dump for your reading pleasure.

Random but Useful Poker Thoughts

Whenever I have to think for a long time about whether I should call a big bet, I am almost always behind. Like 99% of the time. If I can make a decision to call quickly, I am usually right.

Practice at a full cash table erodes my ability to play at 6-seat tables. I should practice both more often, in order to make the adjustment better. I played in a 6-seat table this last weekend [several weeks ago], and I found myself folding way too much and getting completely run over by re-raises pre-flop. When I played a hand to showdown, the starting-hand quality of the PF re-raiser was amazingly poor. I give way too much credit to a PF re-raiser in a 6-seat game.

Whenever I need to regain my balance or confidence in cash games, there is one solution that always works for me: tighten up. If I tighten up for a brief period (like a session or two, or maybe the first half of each new session), it’s usually a solid way to drag a few pots (although less frequently) and regain confidence. There are times, after taking a series of beats, where my sole goal is to simply win a pot and leave the table on the plus-side. Then repeat a few times, until confidence is restored.

If you can get your money in 10 times in a row as an 80-20 favorite, you might lose every one of those 10 hands. Bankroll management is the only way to compensate for these stretches.

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A Good Call

$2/4NL on FullTilt, I’m to the left of a player with a double stack that is habitually overbetting the pot. Massive overbetting. A hand usually went like this -- Overbettor raises to 4xBB in MP, 1 or 2 callers including BB. Flop is low cards, BB bets about 2/3 pot, which makes the pot about $80, and Overbettor pushes for $810. Everyone folds. He is building a massive stack because no one is willing to risk their stack with just a pair (and no one has flopped a great hand against him yet).

This is a giant on-line tell.

The hand:
Overbettor raises to 4xBB in EP, and I min-re-raise to 10xBB with AKo, to isolate. It works, everyone else folds and he calls, and we’re heads-up. Pot is about $86. Flop is 2-3-4r. Overbettor pushes for over $800 and has me covered. The moment I’ve been waiting for. I run through this analysis:

1. He does not have AA or KK, or he absolutely would have repopped PF. So, 2 aces and 3 kings are likely good outs if he even has a PP.

2. He probably would not just push here with a PP like 88, 99 or TT, because there is a very good chance with my re-raise PF that I have him crushed with a bigger PP. SO, I’m putting him on Ax, or a weaker random hand like JTs. But, it really feels like Ax.

3. I may have as many as ten outs if, by chance, he’s pushing with a PP (3 aces, 3 kings, 4 fives). So, my pot equity is probably at least 40%, and maybe much better if my read is right.

4. This fits his pattern of massive overbets when he whiffs.

I call. He shows ATs. But, the turn is a five and we chop. A moral victory, but damn it!

I’ve been the first player at this table to respond appropriately against his overbets, so he is pissed. He proceeds to berate me in the chat box, that I called with “nothing,” I’m a terrible player, etc. This made it all the more humorous, because it was one of my best on-line reads in a long time, and was due mainly to paying attention to his betting patterns for about an hour. I just wish there was a financial payoff from this skirmish. He left the table within one more orbit.

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WPT Championship -- 7 players left

From the Cardplayer blog:
“Thu Apr 26 23:13:00 PDT 2007
Mike Wattel raises to $420,000 and Paul Lee calls. Thomas Wahlroos re-raises all in for $4.35 million more from the big blind. Wattel quickly mucks and Lee calls with A Q . Wahlroos shows A 10 and the board comes J 8 2 2 5 . Wahlroos fails to improve and is eliminated in 7th place for $278,465. Exact chip counts for the remaining 6 players in the WPT $25,000 NLHE championship will follow. “

Are you fucking kidding me? On the WPT Championship TV bubble and this dude pushes with ATs, but he has 27 BBs left and 3 players have smaller stacks? If I were in his place, I would need to have less than 10BBs left to make this play with these cards. That is at least a $31,000 mistake based on the cash difference between 7th and 6th, and certainly a lot more in overall tournament equity.

I read some threads on 2+2 where some argued that this was a good, or great, move given the situation. Yeah, maybe if this was a $100 on-line tournament, and not the WPT Championship TV bubble with $31,000 on the line for 6th vs. 7th, and the opportunity for millions as the 3rd biggest stack at the table.

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WPT Championship winner

Carlos Mortensen won it. This is the first time for me that I was actively rooting for a player to win a tournament. I was following the action closely on Cardplayer, and really pulling for Mortensen.

Back before the WPT, I watched an ESPN show on the WSOP 2001 Final Table. It was before the hole-cams, and a lot of the show focused on some guy they called “Big Country”, but it was the year that Mortensen won. As far as I can remember, it was the first poker show that I ever watched. I still have it on tape. I had been playing with friends in home games for about 8 years at that point, but it introduced me to the WSOP and big poker. I was hooked, and I really liked Mortensen’s demeanor at the table and in interviews. Since then, he’s been one of my favorite players. Until this 2007 WPT championship tournament, I’ve followed poker but never really pulled for anyone.

The WPT Championship is my dream tournament, and I will play in it some day. If someone offered me a free big tournament, I would take this tournament over the WSOP main event, and not just for the buy-in amount.

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Thursday Night Live Tournament + Cash Game

The Tournament

With my renewed interest in tournament poker, I played in the Thursday night Ameristar tournament. Each level is 20 minutes. During the first hour, 3 levels, I was the boss. I was playing great small-ball poker. I would raise to 3xBB with any playable hand (any pair, any two big cards, any suited connectors). I typically got one, maybe two callers. I would make a continuation bet, or raise if it was opened in front of me. During the first level, I showed down KK for the winner, T8s for the winner (flopped 2-pair) and 67s for the winner (straight on the turn). With this full range of hands, I had the table believing that I would play just about any two cards (and I was), and my betting patterns were consistent throughout, so no one had a clue about my hand and every flop was potentially scary.

I think I won maybe 20-30% of the hands during this hour. I was raising liberally and taking down pots constantly with modest continuation bets. I had a good read on the table and had a decent feel where everyone was at in each hand. I was focused and paying attention to all hands, even those that I did not play.

Just before the break, I raised UTG with AKs. Weakish player re-raises with a stack of about 900. He kinda looked like he was getting pissed off with my play, so maybe he was making a play back. I pushed, he called with QQ, and we race. I lose, and he takes a 900-chip bite out of my ass. The trouble with small-ball poker is that it doesn’t result in huge profits, and the big losing hands still significantly damage your stack.

So I was back to about where I started, and during the second hour the blinds escalate quickly to push-fest levels. No one had a stack for me to play small-ball poker, because either I was pushing, or any player that might call was forced to push due to his stack size. Also, during the second hour, I was completely card dead, an endless stream of J4 and K2 type hands. There was no room for maneuvering. Get a good hand and push, or fold. I dwindle down and busted shortly into the third hour. Tournament poker sucks again.

The Cash Game

So, I sat in the $2/5 NL cash game. The game was friendly and very loose pre-flop. Nearly the whole table routinely called. Occasionally, someone would raise the field with a premium hand, and all but maybe one would scatter. Otherwise, it was a decent table for post-flop play, which is what I really like.

I was nearing the end of my session. Every player but one limped to me in the BB, and I wake up with AA. Now here’s the dilemma with AA in this situation. I have two basic choices: (1) raise to something like $40 and chase everyone out, winning $5 from each player, or (2) raise a modest amount, to maybe $25, and invite the whole table in for a monster pre-flop pot. I chose the latter, since I had a good read on the table, and got 5 callers. Eep.

The flop was something harmless like K-8-4 rainbow, and I check-raised one MP player on the flop, winning a decent pot on the flop and escaping unharmed.

I decide to play one more orbit and then pack it in for the night. On the very next hand, the entire table limps to me in the SB, and I look down to see AA again! Same dilemma, compounded by the fact that I may have to make the same play again from the blinds. I again raise to just $25, and get only two callers (the guy to my right, on the button, actually said, “Not again. That’s enough with the bleeding chip thing to you.”)

The flop was Kh-Qh-8c. I open for $80. BB raises to $180 total, third player folds. I check things out, and BB looks nervous. I ask him to raise his arm, to see his chips, but he quickly counts out to exactly $235 behind. [Tell Theory: What does it mean when you just ask to see a stack that’s hidden, and the player counts out the stack without being asked?] If I just call, its probably all going in on the turn anyway. I think there’s about 50% chance that he has a flush draw with AhXh, maybe 40% chance that he has KQ, and 10% chance that he has AK. Here is a key decision-point of my read: I do not have the A-hearts, making it much more likely that he is on the nut-flush draw with the Ah.

So, I pushed. He called with KQ. Eep, again. Fortunately, I suck out with an Ace on the river, and I win about an $840 pot. My night is over and I end happy. Cash games rule.

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Swing Back to Tournaments

Cash games have gone somewhat cold for me, but my on-line SNG/tournament performance has picked up. Again, I am at a loss to explain why these swings occur.

During my February Vegas trip and for about two months thereafter, I absolutely sucked at tournaments/SNGs, but could do no wrong in cash games. My cash game play felt solid, the competition seemed weaker, and I was stacking players on a regular basis. My on-line bankroll hit an all-time high from cash games. I avoided SNGs and tournaments altogether.

About two weeks ago [now three], my cash game results slipped. I would open two tables and after about a half-hour I would be down about 10-15 BBs on each table. Generally nothing horrible, just not gaining any traction. Then, during one session, I dropped two buy-ins on two tables in quick succession. So the thought occurred to me that maybe it was time to switch back to SNGs.

And suddenly, I’m back on track with SNGs and tournaments. I’m cashing in about 6070% of my single table SNGs, and I’m winning about 4 of every 5 $50+2.50 heads-up SNGs.

There’s obviously distinct differences about the flow of cash games and SNGs/tournaments, but I still can’t put my finger on why I swing back and forth with strong performances between the two, but don’t perform well with both at the same time. My play is taking on about a three-month cycle. I’m learning to identify when the cycle is about to swing. Maybe I can anticipate when the swing will happen again, and make the switch before I drop on either. For example, when I initially experienced a slide in my cash game performance a few weeks back, I should have switched back to SNGs right away and avoided dropping a couple of buy-ins at the cash tables.