Event: World Series of Poker, Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas (Various Buy-Ins), July 13 – July 28, 2006
Entered the $2,500 NL Shorthanded event today. The event started late, so I played some $75-150 Omaha Hi-Low to kill time. Won one big hand — had A-5-6-Q with hearts and the board was Q-4-3-2 with two hearts. I had lock low, lock high, and a lock high redraw. My hand was huge and there was a lot of action on the flop and the turn. The river was a beautiful off-suit jack and I only got called by one person. I scooped up about a $3,000 pot. That was about it, though; didn’t play many eventful hands other than that. I ended up winning a little over $1,500 in less than an hour. Not a terrible way to kill time!
On to the tournament. I’ve decided to try something different this year, since I’m playing in an event every day and rate my own play every day. I’m going to try to be honest with my self evaluations. Today, I honestly give myself an A. I played extremely controlled (even though, for my style, this means playing a lot of pots) and the last hand, when all the money went in, I was a decent favorite.
My first table is a great one — I feel like I’ll easily control it. We start with 2,500 in chips and the blinds start at 25-25. We’re playing six-handed at all the tables because it’s a short-handed event. A very funny thing happens on the first hand. A young kid raises to 75, everyone folds to me, and I call my blind with 6-5 off suit. The flop comes 10-8-4 rainbow, I check, the kid bets 100, and I call my gut-shot straight draw. The turn is an ace, I check, he checks. The river is a 9, making the board A-10-9-8-4. I think about bluffing at the pot, but decide to check. The kid checks behind me. I say, “You win,” and I muck my hand because it obviously can’t be any good. He says, “You shouldn’t have done that,” and shows 5-3 of hearts. My 6 high actually would have won the first pot if I’d just shown it!
I am raising about 90 percent of the hands. I keep making small raises and my opponents assign me the label of “maniac” right away — which is perfect; it’s just the image I want. They are so scared to play with me that I raise the minimum to 50, and if they have a big hand they make it something like 550 because they don’t want to play post-flop. By continually throwing out small pre-flop raises, I’m narrowing the possible hands they can have while no one has any idea what I hold. I’m then making solid post-flop decisions: winning all the pots when everyone has nothing, getting away from other players’ solid hands cheaply, and maximizing my take on my big hands. The young kid is the only one who wants to play with me, and we tangle in a lot of pots.
On one hand, I raise with 7-2. The flop comes J-7-6 with two spades. I bet 200, the kid check-raises all-in, and I’m seriously contemplating calling. He has me covered at this point so if I’m wrong, I’m out. Even though I feel my hand is best (he made too big of a raise for me to think I’m beat; a huge overbet), I decide to fold because I’m pretty sure I can dominate the table and there’s no reason to take unnecessary risks. He shows 5-4 for an up-and-down straight draw. This outcome gave me even more confidence because my read was on. I think he thought he was rattling me or something.
Later on, two hands before my table broke up, I pick up J-7. I have about 3,000 chips at the time. The kid is in the big blind and has about 1,500 in chips. I raise to 75, the button calls, and then the kid calls, too. The flop comes 7-5-3 with two spades. I bet 200, the button calls (he started the hand with about 3,500 chips, so he has me covered), the kid thinks about it and goes all-in for an additional 1,300. This hand feels very similar to the previous one I’d played against him. The circumstances are different, though, because this time I have him outchipped 2-1, so if I end up going heads-up against his all-in and lose, I’d still have 1,500 chips (enough ammo this early in the tournament that I’d still be healthy). My major cause for concern is the button’s smooth call of my bet behind me. I figure that the button has, at best, a hand like A-7 and that if I go all-in on top of the original all-in, he’d lay down a hand like that. So, I decide to move all-in. The button folds and the kid has Q-2 of spades. I dodge both the spade and the queen and I’m up to about 5,000 chips.
Our table breaks — which is very unfortunate for me — and I move to a new table. I recognize some of the players and can tell instantly that this is going to be a tougher table than the last one. The stacks are as follows: me, 5,000; the first player to my left, 7,500 (close to being chip leader in tournament at this point); second to my left, 800; third to my left, 4,400; fourth to my left, 1,000; and fifth to my left (one to my right), 400. One of the few guys who has me covered is sitting directly to my left. I play very few hands and believe I’ve established the exact opposite image I’d created at the first table. The few times I’m involved in a hand, I pick up the pot with a bet on the flop.
When I’m in the button position, the following hand comes up. Under-the-gun raises to 175 and everyone folds to me. I have 5-4 spades. I decide to call because I feel like I can win the pot even if I miss the flop — and I can possibly win a really big pot if things fall into place. The small blind is the chip leader and he looks like he’s contemplating a re-raise. I’m thinking that this isn’t good — if he re-raises, I can’t make it to the flop. I’m praying for him to just call so I can see a flop. He ends up calling and the big blind folds. The flop comes Q-8-4 with one spade, and the small blind leads out for 400. The original raiser folds and now I’m left with a decision. I’m pretty sure I’m beat, but what does he have? I don’t think he has A-A or K-K because he’d have probably re-raised these pre-flop. I think he might have Q-Q, but this is a very unusual hand to lead out with the flop of Q-8-4 rainbow. I finally narrow down his hand to most likely being 8-8 or A-Q. These are the two hands with which he would most likely consider re-raising pre-flop but might elect not to. I finally decide that A-Q is the most probable holding because I just don’t think he’d lead out at the flop if he hit a set. Okay, I decide to gamble here and call. Some might argue against this call, but let’s look at the facts. First, I’m calling 400 when there’s already 1,000 in the pot, so I’m getting almost 3-1 on my call. Second, being the one guy who has me covered, my hand is so disguised that if I can hit it on the turn, I might be able to double up. Third, this guy was playing really tightly and I thought there was a possibility of seeing a free river card if I missed the turn.
The turn is a 5 — eureka, I hit it! He checks to me (so I was right about possibly getting a free river card) and now I have to decide what to do. I bet 1,500 and he quickly puts me all-in. Ouch, now I don’t know what to do. I need to analyze this hand and see if I messed up. Did he flop a set? If he did, he played the hand AWESOMELY. He trapped me here drawing dead. How can I fold this hand? I really didn’t expect him to move on me. After thinking about it for four or five minutes, I decide that, with only another 2,000 in front of me, I have to call and hope I’m ahead. I finally call and he flips over A-Q. My read was right the whole way! Now all I had to do was dodge eight outs once. Thirty six out of 44 cards on the river double me up and put me in the chip lead of the tournament (still a long way to go, of course, but with over 10,000 in front of me, that table was going to face a LOT OF PRESSURE). Alas, the river was another 8, nullifying my two pair and knocking me out of the tournament.
Obviously, I was pained at first (getting knocked out of a tournament ALWAYS sucks), but after sitting back and analyzing the day, I am not upset with my effort and don’t feel like I made any mistakes. I put myself in a good situation to accumulate a lot of chips early, and I got really unlucky to get knocked out. There is really not much more I could ask for.
Well, on to the next! Tomorrow is a $2,000 buy-in, No-Limit Hold’em event. I’ve also signed up for the main event already, so I could pick my day — I’ll be playing on Day One (July 28).
