Friday, May 22, 2009

$2,085 CSPC Final Table Recap

The bad news is I didn't make a staggering comeback to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The good news is I moved up one spot and finished 4th which paid $8,800. I lasted about an hour and went broke the hand after the 5th place finisher. When I finished the tournament I felt like I was 95% sure I'd play the $5,100 main event. An hour later I was 50/50. Now I'm 100% not going to play it.

I've been playing well, but feel like it will be better to go home with a few grand for my efforts and good momentum going into the WSOP.

It will be back to the grind for two weeks and then off to Vegas!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

CSPC $2,085 NLH Recap

This was a tough tournament. Only 46 players started, even the worst players were OK, and they only paid 5 spots (if 50 players had entered they would have paid 9).

I got off to the best possible start. On the second hand of the tournament I got dealt KK vs QQ and got it all in on the turn. We'd started with 7,500 chips and I was up to 15,000 before my seat got warm. I won a few more hands and was up to 23,000 in the first half hour!

Then things were steadily boring. I dropped to 17,000 or so at the end of the first hour and stayed there for a long time. After 2 hours I had 17,000. After 4 hours I had 18,000. After 6 hours I had 15,000.

Around 7 hours in some major good shit happened. The blinds were 300/600 with a 50 chip ante and I was starting to struggle. I had something like 12,000 and we were down to 12 or 13 players. I got dealt K9 in the big blind and the big stack (who was a great player) raised to 1,500 from the button. I decided to call at take a flop which came down T 9 6. Not exactly the nuts, but I did have 2nd pair. I checked, my opponent bet 2,500 and I went all in. He instantly called me with AT. But, I nailed a 9 on the turn and doubled up.

A round or two later I was on the button with 75. It was garbage, but the blinds were playing so tight preflop that I thought I had a good chance to steal the blinds and antes. I raised to 1,800 and the big blind reraised to 3,200. I still had garbage, but his reraise was so small I had to call and I thought I could out play him after the flop. The flop came down J 6 4 and my opponent bet 5,000. After about 10 seconds I moved all in. I had a straight draw and more importantly I had 23,000 chips which I thought was enough to win the hand right there. After 2 long minutes my opponent called with QJ. But the turn was an 8 giving me the nuts and a huge pot!

One the very next hand I got dealt 66 and again raised to 1,800. Both blinds called and the flop came down AK6! BINGO! To my total shock and delight the small blind moved all in unprovoked for over 25,000 with AJ! I called in a millisecond and was up to 80,000. A few hand later we were down to 9 players.

I was in first by a hair and it was 12:45 am (we started a 5 p.m.). Then I ran SOOOOOOOOOO bad. Everyone was making smaller than normal raises and since I was so deep stacked I was inclined to take a lot of flops with sort of marginal hands. I dropped 20K pretty quick. Then I lost another 20K with top pair vs AA.

It took until about 2 am to lose two players, another hour to lose one more and another TWO HOURS to lose the 6th place player. During this time I played almost no hands. I got total garbage, the big stacks were very good players, and even though I felt short I still had enough chips to wait it out. During the last hour I was really starting to sweat making the money, but in the end after the shorter stack had survived an all in 3 times, we finally lost one.

We go back today at 4:30 playing 5 handed. The blinds will be 600/1,200 with a 200 chip ante for a few more minutes and I have 18,100 chips. I'm in last, but the other players have 25K, 42K, 49K and 210K. Clearly that one guy is running away with it, but if I can double through one of the others I've got a chance.

5th pays $4,500, 4th pays $8,500, 3rd pays $13,500, 2nd pays $22,000 and 1st is just over $40,000. I'll let you know what happens.

If I go broke before 7 pm I'll be playing a $540 satellite to the $5,100 main event.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Change of Plans

Well, I went broke in about an hour in the $335 (top set vs a flush did me in). I feel pretty good right now so I've decided to go back to plan A and play in the $2,085 tournament at 5. Wish me luck!

Call the Sheriff! Somebody Stole My HORSE!

We started the $1,065 HORSE tournament at the CSPC with a field of 60 players. Most of them were very tough and included a few multilple WSOP bracelet winners. On the other end there was a guy at my table who kept asking how much he could bet and wasn't really sure how all the games worked! That's L.A. for you!

I started off good and kept it going taking my starting stack of 5,000 up to 12,500 by the time we had lost 20 players, which took about 5 hours. But after six hours we were down to just over 30 players and I was down to 3,700 chips as we took our third 15 minute break (there was one every two hours).

Then I went on a run. I went from 3,700 to 33,000 in the next two hours of play. I was feeling great. Around this time I was almost sure I'd make the top 8 spots and the money. By the time we made it down to 15 players, average was 20,000 I had 40,000 and was in first place. We were playing 800/1,600 stakes at the time and I was hoping I could press my advantage.

Then I went stone cold dead. I couldn't win a damn thing! I started with the best hand quite a few times, but the only pots I won from there on out were either just the blinds or just the antes. To make it worse there was plenty of action which made every brick more expensive.

In the end I finished 13th. The money in this tournament wasn't insane. First was $20,000, 8th was only $1,200 and I'd sold off a fair chunk of my action. But missing out on the final table after being in such good shape was a major disapointment. I'm not sure it it was because it was 5 in the morning when I went broke or what, but it hurt pretty bad.

I feel better today, but I still feel a little tired even though I slept until almost 1. So I'm 90% sure I'm going to skip the $2,000 NLH that starts at 5 and instead play a $335 NLH with a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool that starts at 2.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A Final Table Dud

When I saw the chip counts for the 10 handed final table of my $335 NLH event at the CSPC I confirmed that I was in second place. In fact with 95,700 I was only 4,000 off of first, but I was only 55,000 ahead of 10th - the chip stacks were very tight.

This was an incredibly boring final table. It took close to 3 hours for us to lose one player and that player was almost me! In the same amount of time the $335 Stud tournament from the day before that restarted at the same time we did played from 16 players to conclusion (the made a deal when they were down to 4).

I dribbled away my stack for the first two hours, getting no cards, finding no good spots to make a move, and finding myself with about 60,000 chips. Then I picked up QQ and got it all in vs KK who had 50,000.

After that hand I was down to 10,000 when I found a real miracle. The blinds were 2,000/4,000 with a 500 chip ante and I looked down at KJ. I moved all in sure that at least the big blind would call me. Instead I got called by the big blind and the small blind. The flop came down A 6 4 and the small blind moved all in! YUCK! I was sure I was against an ace.

In fact I was against A4. I needed either running KK, JJ or QT to win the hand. As the turn was coming out I said "Put a queen up there." BANG, a queen comes. "Put a Ten up there" I called out. BANG, a ten. I was up to 35,000 and while still in last, I was back in it.

I never made a full recovery, but we lost three players while I was hanging on for dear life. I finished 7th which paid $2,227 (at least I beat lollipop who finished 8th!). Not what I was hoping for at the start of yesterday's action, but still a great result for the tournament as a whole.

The winner got a trophy that was basically just a big ass grizzly bear. It wasn't huge, but it was pretty big and I swear it was made of solid iron and weighed at least 40 pounds. With all the tournaments I've won, I don't have any trophies, bracelets, rings, ribbons, plaques or anything. I want one of those bears!

Today it's HORSE time! Maybe if I win I'll get myself a similarly sized horse and have it riding the bear trophy!

Monday, May 18, 2009

A Great Story and CSPC $335 NLH Recap

I had a great day yesterday in the $335 hold'em tournament at the CSPC. We started with 230 players each with 3,000 chips and I seemed to get good but not great cards all day. It made for interesting, fun play and I didn't often find myself sitting there doing nothing for long stretches.

I'll fast forward through the early stages to the point where I had about 25,000 chips and we were down to 35 players (27 spots paid). I had the best seat at my table, just to the left of the two best players who were both very aggressive Vietnamese fellows. I'll call one gap tooth and one lollipop since one had a massive gap between his front two teeth and the other was sucking on a lollipop and then a stick the entire time I was playing against him.

Gap tooth was good, but tilt prone. He had about 50,000 chips when I sat down (average was around 20,000) and was using his big stack to play a lot of pots against the short stacks. He's also made some big calls with very marginal hands so I knew I'd need to make a hand to get him, but if I did I was likely to get paid off big.

After almost an hour of waiting I got my chance. With blinds of 400/800 with a 50 chip ante the under the gun player went all in for 2,000. Gap tooth was in the small blind and just called. Later he said he got distracted by the loudmouth who was all in and forgot all about me which led him to call instead of reraising. I looked down at K3 which is total garbage, but there was already 5,200 in the pot and it would only cost me another 1,200 to call. Also I knew I could get action from gap tooth if I hit big.

The flop came down K 7 3. BINGO! Two pair! Gap tooth checked and I bet out 4,000. Against someone else I might have slow played or bet less, but I thought even if he missed he might try to take me off the hand. He reached for chips slowly, counted out 12,000 and pushed them into the pot. I tried to look worried as I thought for 30 seconds. Then I said "I'm all in."

He wasn't happy, which I knew meant I had the best hand. After the dealer counted down my stack he called with KJ. The turn was a 4, the river was a 6 and I was over 50,000!

I took out a short stack with AT vs 88 which put me at about 60,000 when the next hand came up. Gap tooth was steaming at this point. While he'd won a few big hands with garbage and taken his stack back to 50,000 he'd just lost 20,000 with AA vs 44 which had him back at 30,000.

The blind were 600/1,200 with a 75 chip ante and gap tooth made it 4,000 to go. I looked down at KK and had a tough decision to make. How was I going to play this hand? I could just call hoping to trap him and maybe get someone behind us to move all in. I could make a standard reraise to something like 14,000. I could reraise small to 9,000.

I took my time and eventually decided that I should just move all in. It would look weak like I didn't want a call and since gap tooth was on tilt he might just get fed up and call with a marginal hand.

So after 20 seconds I moved all my chips into the pot. Gap tooth looked like he was going to explode and said "I call." When the cards got turned over he had QJ off suit! The board was all garbage and I took down a huge pot. I was proud of myself for reading this situation right and getting someone with 150% of an average stack to get it all in with me 5 spots short of the money as a major underdog.

I won some more pots and found myself with 110,000 chips when the average was 23,000. I was in first place in the whole tournament by a mile and no one at my table had more than 40,000. But that 40,000 chip stack was in the hands of lollipop.

When we got down to 28 players - 1 spot out of the money - I made and extremely bold play (This is the great story part). I was on the button and the blinds both had about 10,000 chips. It was obvious to everyone that there was no way they were calling anything. They were just going to wait until they were in the money before the did anything. When it got to lollipop he made it 4,000. He'd be doing this time and time again stealing the blinds. I'd played back at him once with a reraise a while earlier and he went all in. He'd also shown a propensity to call standard reraises and take a flop. I wanted to stay patient, but I felt like I was getting run over.

I knew he could have just about anything, and I was tired of him stealing all the blinds that I should have been stealing! I was the big stack! This was my house! After he made it 4,000 I thought "If I have anything at all here I'm moving all in." I looked down and saw 72! The worst possible starting hand. I paused. "We're one spot short of the money. No one is going to call me if I move all in, it doesn't matter what I have" I thought.

In a moment of boldness I said "I'm all in." The blinds quickly folded and lollipop said "Really?" Immediately I knew he had something. I thought it might be AQ or a pair below JJ. He'd been thinking for about 90 seconds when someone went broke at an other table meaning we were now in the money. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" I thought. Now the pressure was off him to some degree.

He kept saying things like "This is a $300 tournament. If this was a $10,000 tournament I'd fold. This is a $300 tournament." It was pretty clear he read me as weak, but didn't want to risk his whole stack. Now everyone had gathered around. After this hand we were going to redraw for seats and everyone was just waiting. There were about 50 people watching the hand and I could hear whispers about what I might have and what he might have. No one was saying they thought I had 72!

I was trying to think if there was anything I could say to get him to fold, but I decided to stay quiet.

Finally after close to 5 minutes he pulled a quarter out of his pocket and said "Heads I call, tails I fold." Then he threw the quarter at least 10 feet in the air as everyone held their breath. It bounced in the middle of the table and hopped up on to the rail (the edge of the table) looking like it was going on to the floor, but stopping just short.

It was heads. Everyone said "heads!" Instantly lollipop said "I call." "AHHHHHHHHH!" I thought. When I turned over my hand everyone said "OOHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

He had pocket tens and there was a ten on the flop ending any chance I had of a miracle. I was down to 70,000 and in the money which was still great, but I was feeling a little like an idiot.

At my new table I quickly lost two small all ins with 88 vs JJ and 66 vs A9. I was down to 35,000 and feeling like I had one foot out the door wondering how I'd gone down hill so fast.

But then things turned around! I won some pots made some head way I ran it back to 95,700 which is how many chips I have right now. We stopped at 10 players and I'm going back today at 4:30 to finish the action. I'm not sure if lollipop is still in it, but I think I'm in 2nd or 3rd chip position. While I'm only guaranteed something like $1,400, first place is close to $20,000. Hopefully I can finish the job and take this one to the house!

People often refer to a confrontation between a pocket pair and two over cards as a coin flip. They say "You need to win some coin flips to win a tournament." This is the first time I've ever lost 40,000 chips on a literal coin flip!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

CSPC $215 NLH Recap

There were over 1,700 entrants spread over two days in my first tournament of the California State Poker Championship. I played on Day 2 and got about what I expected from my competition - a bunch of crappy players!

We started with blind of 25/25 and 3,000 chips. My first good hand I raised to 75 and got 5 callers! OK I guess I need to go bigger. Next I raised to 100 first in and got 6 callers! Finally I raised to 125 under the gun and got called by 7 players! It was insane. The first guy in after me in that last one had 53s and the player after him had 56 off. We saw every single flop for the first hour and there were only one or two preflop reraises. These guys were weak!

Players tightened up a little as the blinds got bigger, but the play was still pretty weak. In my first big confrontation I raised JJ and got called by the woman just to my left. She was pretty tight and I'd seen her smooth call with 99 a few hands earlier.

The flop came down 8 7 5, I bet 500 into the 550 chip pot and she made it 1,000. ACK! This was screaming set, but I decided I wasn't sure enough to make a lay down this big. I decided to go for it and reraised all in. I wasn't surprised to see I was up against 55, but I was happy when the turn came a 9 and the river a ten. The only downside is I had to hear her bitch about this hand for the next hour as if it was the worst bad beat of all time.

From there I ran my stack up to 10,000 and was feeling good about my chances. Then I got 3,000 in preflop with TT vs QJ. After that I lost another 3,000 with JJ vs AQ.

On my final hand the blinds were 150/300 with a 25 chip ante and I had about 4,000 left. One player raised to 750 and got called by the guy just to my right. The first player was raising often and the other was calling a lot with a wide range of hands. I thought there was a good chance I could get them to fold if I moved all in and considered doing it no matter what I had. When I looked down at my first card and saw it was an ace it was an easy decision.

Sadly a third player woke up with JJ behind me and moved all in. My kicker turned out to be a 2 which meant I was in big trouble. The first card off the deck was an ace, but the second was a jack and that was it.

The good news is I went over to a nice $20/$40 game, won $500 in about 45 minutes and then got a call from my wife telling me her sister and boyfriend were free for dinner and I should head out.

Today I have $335 no limit hold'em at 2 and there is a $335 7 card stud at 5 pm. Late registration for the stud stays open for 2 hours so if I go broke anytime in the first 5 hours of the NLH I'll be playing the stud as well.

Wish me luck!

My WSOP 2023 Plans and Missions

After four and a half years working for StubHub I wrapped up my time there in March. I've been at the poker tables 3-4 days a week since...