Event #7 preview

Jen's parents and sister came to town for the weekend to see me play and check things out. Unfortunately I was up in my room working on my blog instead of playing when they arrived. Since I had plenty of free time, we had an early dinner and then spent a few hours playing Pai Gow and craps at the Paris. We all won at Pai Gow and then got totally hosed at craps. Despite that run of bad luck Jen and I are still ahead somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 for "negative expectation games" (or stupid casino games that you can't possibly win at) which is great.

Tomorrow is Event #7 limit hold 'em. In limit hold 'em, unlike no limit, the bets are fixed or structured so you can't just shove all your chips in whenever you want. In no limit the size of the game is denoted by the size of the blinds whereas in limit the size of the game is denoted by the limits. If you were to play a $10/$20 limit cash game the blinds would be $5/$10, all the bets before the flop and on the flop would be in increments of $10 and all the bets and raises on the turn and river would be in increments of $20. Lets look at a few examples to make this more clear. If I was first to act before the flop my ONLY options would be to fold, call $10, or raise to $20 (I couldn't make it $50 or $100 or $27 or whatever). If I called the next player would have the same options. On the other hand if I raised to $20 the next player's ONLY options would be to fold, call $20 or raise to $30. If he raised to $30 the next player could only fold, call $30 or raise to $40. Betting and raising on later betting rounds works the same way except on the turn and river the bets and raises are in increments of $20 (ie check or bet $20 and then in the event of a bet the next player could fold call $20 or raise to $40). Limit hold 'em is far more popular than no limit in cash games and far less popular in tournaments. In fact until no limit poker started to appear of TV it was difficult to find a no limit cash game at all.

Tomorrow's event is a $3,000 buy-in event and I'm really looking forward to it. I've always done well in limit events, but don't play a ton of them because all the easy money seems to be in the no limit tournament. I think most players don't like limit events because the first few rounds can seem meaningless. The limits are so small compared to the number of chips everyone has that no one is in danger or being eliminated and it's very difficult to add significant number of chips to your stack early. Limit takes much more finesse and much less insane risk taking. As a result the players who aren't very good, who have a chance to get lucky and do well in the no limit seem to always come up short in the limit. I don't want to say there's more skill in one or the other, but it takes more than winning a few big hands to do well in a limit event. I'm also looking forward to most likely getting to play for a while tomorrow (only a hand full of players will be eliminated in the first hour or two) since I got bounced so early today. As far as that early exit goes, keep in mind that the worst possible outcome of any tournament it to be the last one out who doesn't get paid any money. In almost any tournament I'd much rather be the first one out and spend the day relaxing than play for 10 hours and still get nothing. This case is a little different, I guess, because the experience of playing in the WSOP carries with it some value.

Last year the $3,000 limit event only had 406 entrants so it will probably be my best chance to win a tournament outright. On the other hand the higher buy-in and the lack of sex appeal of this event means that it will be packed with all of the big names. I'll let you know how it went tomorrow (I'm about ready to deliver some more good news after these last few duds!)
Also for those of you who are interested I'm down $3,739 for the WSOP tournaments so far after playing 4 events and skipping 1 (to play day 2) although almost half of the damage is being taken by my backers (sorry guys!).

Event #6: A Big Fat Turd

I went to the tournament area today well rested, ready for action, but a little behind schedule. I arrived around 11:30 and found myself at the end of a huge line of people waiting to enter into today's event. The amateurs only want to play no limit hold 'em so those events are the most popular and we started with over 1700 players, well over the 1400 hundred entrants this event has last year. I found myself at a table with a guy I recognized from the Oaks Club (where I used to work as a dealer and then as a prop player) and Johnny "World" Hennigan (a player with 2 WSOP bracelets). Right away it looked like Hennigan was going to run over the table. He was in lots of pots and was slowly building a decent sized stack when the following hand came up. With the blinds at 25/25 the first player to act made it 75 to go and Hennigan just called. The player on the button made it 325, the original raiser just called, Hennigan moved all in and was quickly called by BOTH players. When the cards were turned face up Hennigan had two black aces and BOTH of his opponents had KK! This is the absolute best possible situation you can have against two other players. The player with the black kings can't win the whole pot and has only a 1.34% chance of getting half the pot. The player with red kings has a 2.33% chance of winning the pot and a 1.34% chance of getting half. When the cards were turned over, Hennigan said "I've dreamed about this hand, only it was at the final table of the main event." I've played about 500,000 hand of poker in the past 6 years and I can't remember ever seeing this situation arise before. In fact the chances of it occuring are about 1 in 1,047,000. What's even more amazing was the flop came down Jh 8h 5s the turn was the 7h and the river was the 9h giving the red kings the pot! The guy that won the pot used up about a years worth of good luck on that one hand. He'll probably have a safe fall on his head the next time he walks by a tall building.

We sure love to hear about people we don't know getting smashed by safes (who doesn't?), but what happened to you Dave? Well once again I got eliminated on a hand that I couldn't have played any differently. I had about 2100 chips after starting with 2000 and we were in the final minutes of round 1. I picked up Ah Jh two off the button and raised to 75. To my surprise I was called by the cutoff (the player one to the right of the button), the button and both blinds. We took the flop 5 way and it came down Ac 7h 4h. I had top pair and a flush draw and after the blinds checked I bet 275 into the 375 chip pot. The player to my left thought for about 5 seconds and then called. The player behind him grabbed all his chips and confidently put them into the pot. As soon as I saw that flop I knew I was calling all action. I thought it unlikely that anyone had AK because they almost certainly would have reraised preflop. I thought maybe he had AQ or maybe 77 or 44, but even in the worst case scenario I would win the pot 30% of the time. I was hoping that he had either a smaller flush draw or a smaller A in which case I'd have him in really bad shape. He turned over Ac 7d for two pair. He had me beat but I still had a 45% chance to win the pot and I had 400 more chips than him so even if he won I wouldn't be completely eliminated. What's interesting to note here is even if he turned over his cards and showed me that I was beaten I still would have called his all in bet. There was already 2600 in the pot and I only had to put in another 1400 to win it. I would only need to win the pot 36% of the time to make this call mathmatically correct (often times in tournaments good strategy dictates that you pass on small edges when your tournament life is at stake, but this was not one of those times). Unfortunately the turn was a black 5 and the river was a black 9 and I was crippled.

A few hands later I picked up pocket 9's on the button. One player raised to 75 another called and I moved in for 350. The first player thought for about 30 seconds and folded, but the other player called and showed me AA. Nothing dramatic happened and I found myself headed back to the room an hour after the tournament started. Event #7 preview coming later.

A Few Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from the tournament area. They are slightly blurry because they allow you to take pictures, but you can't use a flash.

Here's one of Dave on Day 2 of the Pot Limit event. You can see Chris Ferguson at the table behind him as well as the top of John Juanda's head. I guess the dealer didn't realize I had such a photo op!

These two are of the area where they film the final table. They are really blurry since it's so much darker there, but it's interesting to see that it's just sitting right in the middle of the rest of the tournament tables. On TV it looks like it's in a separate studio! You can also see the big pile of money, just in case the players weren't nervous enough already!


This is during the 6 handed event. I couldn't get one of Dave because he was about 6 tables away from the velvet ropes that they won't let spectators past, so I took one of these bozos instead. Also, this is the half of the room that wasn't really shown in Dave's earlier picture of the room, just to give you more of a sense of how huge it really is. And every player in the room is shuffling their chips. It's a very eerie sort of noise, like hundreds of crickets.


Today's event has just started and it looks like there's going to be about 1,720 players. Good Luck, Dave!!

Event # 6 preview

Event #6 is a straight forward $2,000 buy in No limit hold 'em event. Last year there were two events of this type and size. The first was event #9 last year and had 1,403 entrants with first place of $611,795, 9th was $51,630 and 140th paid $2,325. Event #29 was a little smaller at around 1100 entrants (I actually played in #29 last year). I've been playing really well and look forward to taking another shot tomorrow.

On another note a few people have mentioned that they can't find me on Pokerpages.com or Cardplayer.com updates. The reason why is these updates are submitted by about a half dozen little men who are running around the torunament area making notes of who has how many chips. They know that for the most part the people reading their updates only care about the big name players so that's who they focus on. Once you get into the money they include more names and let you know when everyone is eliminated, but before that you won't see anything about me.

Event #5 recap

I decided to play Event #5 ($2,500 buy-in No Limit with 6 handed tables) today even though I'd considered skipping it. After getting less than 2 hours of sleep the night before Jen crapped out at 9 p.m. and soon after I joined her. I found myself wide awake at 1 a.m. but managed to get back to sleep around 4 so when I got up at 11 a.m. I was well rested and after a quick shower headed to the tournament area.

We started with 824 players seated 6 to a table and right away I got involved in a significant hand. On hand #2 of the tournament with blinds of 25/25 I open raised to 75 with Ad 7c (note that the little d means it's the ace of diamonds and the little c means its the 7 of clubs). The button called as did the big blind and flop came down A 3 4 all clubs. Right away the big blind went for his chips and tossed 150 into the pot. I didn't like to see him bet into me, but I figured he probably didn't have an ace AND a club so I was either drawing live or had the best hand. I decided to just call and do some further analysis on the turn. To my surprise the player on the button also called and the turn was an offsuit 10. Now the big blind checked. Well what the hell is going on here? I was pretty sure the guy behind me was on a flush draw and now that the first guy checked I hoped that they both were. I decided to stay aggressive and bet out 500 into the 700 chip pot. After some careful thought by both players they each slid a pink 500 chip into the pot. At this point I figured I was in big trouble and barring a 7 showing up on the river I was done with this hand. The river was a K of clubs and as I was trying to decide if I'd call even a small bet with my small flush the first player checked, I checked and the last player said "I really screwed myself, I check." The first player turned up A 10 for top two pair and the second player showed 44 for three of a kind and my baby flush took down a nice pot.

Right away I was up to 4000 (after starting with 2500) which was a huge advantage because it meant the most I could lose in a pot was 2500, which would still leave me with a decent sized stack. Immediately I got aggressive raising with lots of hands and betting flops whether I had anything or not. The rest of the table was pretty passive and for the most part the other players let me grind them down. When one of the short stacks finally did take a stand against me with 10 10, I had AK and called his all in bet. I flopped a K and sent him packing. Shortly after, I open raised with 88 and had another short stack move all in with 77. Nothing dramatic happened and I sent him to the rail also.

I was up to 6900 when I had a bit of a hiccup. In round 2 with the blinds at 25/50 two players limped in for 50, the small blind put in another $25 chip and I took a free flop with 5h 4h. The flop came down 8h 5s 4s and the small blind checked. I'd flopped two pair which was almost certainly the best hand right now, but it was very vulnerable so I decided to make a strong bet. I fired out 3 $100 black chips into a 200 chip pot, two of the players quickly folded and the small blind moved all in for 1300. I made an easy call and he showed me 10s 8c. I was 69% to win the hand at this point but after an A came on the turn and another A came on the river I lost to a bigger two pair. This was a minor blow and I went on break with 5500 chips.

When I came back with the blinds at 50/100 I got involved in a major pot right away. I had Js 9s which is a marginal holding at best but after the player to my right limped in for 100 I decided to gamble a little and called behind him. The blinds both called and the flop came down As Ks 5h giving me a flush draw. Everyone checked to me and I bet out 300. I didn't have anything yet but even if I got called I'd still make my flush 1 time in 3 and there was a chance I'd pick up the pot right there. The player who'd been in the big blind who'd been very aggressive moving all in into small pots (and was the only one who had more chips than me) rattled his chips and I thought I might be facing a huge bet. Happily he only made it 500 more and I decided to do some acting. I knew I was going to call, but instead of calling right away I took my time. I took all of my $500 chips from the bottom of my stack and made it look like I was about to reraise him another $2000 while I stared at him as if looking for a reaction. I figured that if he thought I was thinking of reraising he might check to me on the turn and I could see the river card for free if I missed my flush (and if I made it he probably wouldn't put me on a flush). After about 30 seconds I called and the turn brought the 7 of spades competing my flush. He checked as I figured he would and I did even more acting. I knew exactly what I had, but I looked back at my cards as if I was checking to see if I had a spade. It's easy to remember what rank your cards are, but unless they are the same suit, after 75 hands it's easy to forget what suits they are. Often times people have too look back and I've used this move many times in the past to mislead my opponents. I knew I was going to bet but took my time and after about 10 seconds I bet 1000 into the 2000 chip pot. To my delight, he immediately moved all in. I had the second best possible hand and when he turned over Ah 8d I saw that he was drawing totally dead. If not for my acting he may have been able to get away from the hand or at least lose fewer chips.

I had 10,000 chips which was a huge stack, but it was all down hill from there. Shortly before we went on break a player from a broken table sat down on my left with a good sized stack of chips. He turned out to be my nemesis. About 20 minutes after I won that big pot he raised to 300 from first position and I called from the big blind with Ad Jh. The flop came down Jd 7d 4d which was a great flop for me. I wasn't going anywhere with top pair and a flush draw and I decided to go for a check raise. Unfortunately he checked behind me and the turn came 4c. I figured this wasn't a bad card and bet out 500. He quickly raised it to 1500 and I figured he either had AA, KK or QQ and was slowplaying (checking a strong hand to convince your opponent you are weak) on the flop or he thought I was bluffing and was playing back at me. Regardless, I still had 11 cards of the remaining 46 (9 diamonds and 2 jacks) that would almost certainly make me the best hand no matter what he had so I called. The river was a black Q which was about the worst card in the world for me, but I still paid off his 1500 chip bet on the end. He turned over Ah 4h and I let out a big sigh as the dealer pushed him the pot. I think I played the pot OK but I certainly could have done it differently. I could have bet the flop forcing him to fold or I could have reraised before the flop which would have forced me to bet the flop if the hand even made it that far. Also I maybe could have folded on the end saving 1500 chips. Or of course a card other than a 4 could have come off on the turn (I was 94% to win the pot on the flop), but I try not to focus on the part that's out of my control.

I was down to just over 6000 chips and this guy kept giving me problems. It wasn't like he was in every pot, but EVERY time I raised or called he would call behind me. If I bet the flop he would either call or raise. If I checked the flop he'd bet behind me. Normally this would be fine and I kept thinking that eventually I'd connect with a flop and take a big chunk of his chips, but I kept missing and he really ground me down. When I was down to about 3,500 with the blinds at 100/200 I picked up AA in the small blind and made it 500 to go. I thought "great I'll really stick it to this guy now!" Even though he only had to call another 300 with 800 already in the pot he folded what seemed like a millisecond after he looked at his cards. I couldn't believe it. 10 hands in a row he's cold calling my raises and now he folds? This is bullshit! It seemed like maybe he had a great read on me but he also seemed like a real idiot. I was really frustrated but vowed not to let it affect my play. More time passed and I found myself back at 2500 right where I started. Then I picked up QQ in first position and open raised to 600. An instant later my nemesis shoved his entire stack (well over 10,000 chips) into the pot and after about 25 seconds of thought the small blind put his stack of about 3,000 into the middle also. No way was I folding and when the hands got turned over I saw my nemesis had Ad Qd and the other player had two black tens. At this point I was 54% (29% for the AQ and 17% for the tens) to win the pot and triple up, but an A on the turn eliminated me from the tournament.

For those of you keeping track at home, in my three tournaments I've been eliminated with AA, KK and QQ. If I go down with JJ tomorrow I'm going to jump out the window.

Break #1

They've been playing for about 2 hours and Dave is still going strong. They started with 2500 chips and he's built his stack up to around 5500. That should be well above average, but they haven't posted any official numbers yet about number of players, prize money, etc. Pokerpages.com estimated that just under 800 players started.

Event #5

Hi, Jen here!

Dave decided he would play today's event, the $2500 Short handed No-Limit Hold'em event. Last year only 548 players played, so this will probably be a smaller field than the other tournaments Dave plays in. I'll talk to him at his first break, around 2:00, and let you know if anything exciting happens!