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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.
1 comment:
Great trip report.
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