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Last night I played my first tournament since coming back from Vegas, not counting the SHOKD mix-game here at the Hood Rock Casino. It was a £200 event with 8000 stacks, 4000 of which you start with and the other 4000 available at any time in the first 2 levels. The levels were 30 mins, and while there were only 35 entries it still went on until 3am, and the prize pool was £6.5k, paying 5.

To get straight to the point, I ended up in a 4-way chop for £1.5k, and was second in chips at the time, so all very peachy thx. The interesting thing is how I got there. At the break with blinds of 200-400 I still had my starting stack – I’d played fairly well I thought and was gaining in confidence all the time, having made some decent decisions on turns and rivers and seeing the other players do and say things that made me feel good about my own game. With 300-600 approaching and me on 8000 I decided it was time to get aggressive, and I felt that the game was entering my kind of period, where I could push people around pre-flop.

Now, althoI do work on my game and would love to be better Negreanu-like player, reading flops and outplaying people on turns and rivers, what I’m actually good at is picking good spots pre-flop, knowing where I’m at, and 3-bet shoving on people, getting them to fold. Between the 300-600 and 1500-3000 levels, (where it ended), I did this with AK, 10’s (3 times), 9’s and A10. In several cases there was an opening bet of 4x and a caller, making it a sweet pot to take down uncontested. In all these cases I only got called and faced a showdown on 1 occasion, and I lost it with 10’s v AQ. That means I didn’t “get lucky” on a single occasion in order to cash, and I’m quite happy with that. I avoided open-raising with any hand I thought I could pushed off from, such as A9 or KQ, and looked for opportunities where (a) I thought someone had opened with a hand they could fold, given their stack and my stack sizes, and (b) I had a hand I could do this with some confidence. I’d love to be able to tell you that I’d do it with 64o but the truth is that I probably couldn’t, outside of certain specific scenarios. However, I grew increasingly happy with my ability to get others to release hands I chipped up nicely all thru the rest of the event.

Some hands I did play, I folded a flush I made on the river on a board of 10h-5c-6h-5d-6h so with 2 others still in the pot and a bet and a call in front of me I let it go. This seems such a clear fold to me, but the table thought it was a great fold, which still mystifies me. On another occasion I was in the big-blind with K7, and checked to see a flop. I hit the K, and the rest felt blank but I was getting bet into. It felt weak tho, so I raised, then jammed the turn after he called, and he gave up, so I was happy with that. I don’t make those kind of decisions too often to be honest, so to be right gives you confidence. Both of these hands were at early-ish levels.

Thereafter it was the 3-bet shove all the way to the end, and it worked out beautifully. Too many weak opponents opening and folding. I was lucky of course that none of them did that with AA or KK or whatever, but it never felt like that was what they had. On a couple of occasions I did fold jammable hands when it felt like shoves were coming, and I was right there too.

A good night, haven’t had one of those for a while, other than the first night at Caesars in June.

We’re in Pure, it’s 1am or so.  Ives is dancing.  A big black guy beckons him over, and the following conversation ensures:

Guy: Dude, got any E’s? Sell me some E’s
Ives : No mate, I haven’t got anything
Guy: C’mon man, got anything else? What have you got?
Ives: No mate, I don’t do anything like that
Guy: Man, you must have something to be dancing like that…

The Rio have a pretty sick series set up alongside the WSOP – $200, 15k starting stack and half-hour levels.  They are directly competing against the Caesars MegaStacks and that’s odd because they are both Harrah’s casino’s.  Anyway, we played one today that had 700+ runners and a $28,000 first-place, paying 72.  That’s pretty good odds on a $200 event.  Sadly we all busted – personally I was pretty card-dead and didn’t adjust very weel, but Ads and Ives went pretty deep.  Ives was particularly unlucky as he busted on the bubble when he rans his queens into aces.  Ives has been playing well but has yet to cash so it was a but of a gutter for him to bubble such a big one.

After busting in yesterdays event, we went to check out some WSOP action and get food at the Rio.  A player we know in Brighton has a bracelet win already and finished second last night, so Sussex doing well so far…

We went to the Voodoo Lounge for food, a very decent steak & fish place at the top of the Rio with an amazing view over Vegas. They do a dangerous cocktail there called a ‘witchdoctor’, which contains every alcohol you can think of, plus some fruit.  And dry ice.

Witchdoctor cocktails at the Voodoo Lounge

The view from the Voodoo Lounge, top of the Rio

Weirdness transpired.  We’d finished the food for the most part, and were drinking and chatting, when a clearly hammered/crazy woman came up to our table and started talking to Ivens and eating all the food he’d left.  She wolfed down a ton of shrimp, lobster and crab, talking the whole time.  She finished off by getting her breasts out and shoving Will’s head in them.

This is weird

In the cab on the way back to the Bellagio the driver embarked on a non-stop comedy monologue about how he spent the day naked with his girlfriend and a bottle of bourbon, and she got up to cook bacon but wouldn’t put a t-shirt on, so came back to bed covered in grease and smelling of bacon, and they shagged a lot, coz bacon smells good I suppose.

It was all fairly surreal

Today I busted after a few hours play when read that my pocket 10’s were ahead on the turn and subsequently found that I was drawing dead to a set of kings, so I was about as wrong as it’s humanly possible to be   Still, I’d actually be less happy if I had folded, coz in that case it would have meant I didn’t trust my instincts and wimped out. Shit happens.

El Diablo’s for dinner tonight – great food, awesome margaritas

Annoying today.  Built up a decent stack early and was playing well.  At the 300-600 level I found aces in the big blind.  I’d been chatting and having a laugh with the dealer and continued to do this having glanced at the hand, to try and not give anything away.  UTG limped, and 3 others limped along, so I raised to 2500, so another 1900 needed to all me.  UTG called, and so did one other.  On a flop of J87 with 2 spades, I bet out 4000, and UTG shipped.  I had about 9k left and I called.  He had a set of 7’s and I busted.

I’m annoyed because in fact I knew he had a set of 7’s instinctively when I called and when I thought thru the hand immediately afterwards pocket 7’s (or maybe 8’s) is the only hand he can possibly have that makes any sense at all in the position.  I had the ace of spades so the flush draw is out of the question, you wouldn’t call the raise with KQs.  With a pocket pair such as QQ or KK he would shove pre-flop, as with jacks, and no other hand, such as J-10, would make the call.  There is therefore no draw on the flop, and no 2-pair hands.  I should have taken the time to think it thru, fold the hand and re-build.

On tbe plus side, this whole thing does make me feel that I am now kind of immersed and thinking about the game again, and that should stand me in better stead today…

So, after a pretty successful start to the trip, time to get a touch more serious.  This is the MegaStack series at Caesars, which is pretty much the ’standard’ tournament for us here in Vegas during the WSOP trip.  Although I didn’t play brilliantly the other day, some of the old instincts kicked in and a 4th place gives confidence.  Today started at noon with 15k, 40 minute levels, 160 runners (lower than normal apparently) and paying 18 places with a decent prize pool.

Well, the early levels were fairly noneventful for me, I ducked and dived enough to stay at pretty much the starting stack for the first few hours without anything really exciting happening.  This was fine for me, as my game is kind of built on being patient, and I won most of my pots by c-betting after raising pre-flop.  At the 600/1200 level, (quite a long way in), I went on something of a tear up and built a stack of around 50k, (much more comfortable).  I had a few good hands and busted a few people.  At the dinner break at 6.30pm I was pretty happy, despite making an iffy laydown with jacks in the last hand.  There were 40 left.  18 paid.

After the break I was really card-dead and blinded down horribly.  Players ahead of me stole my position for raising or moving in, and the blinds grew and grew.  I beat myself up for a while for not shipping in the big blind with A2s after a raise from a loose player and a call from a tight player which probably have given me 16k more chips but I just couldn’t pull the trigger, but other than that I’d had no opportunities.  This continued for ages and I ended up with about 6 big blinds at 1500-3000 with a 400 ante, and I needed to shove blind.  I ended up with 9-2 v A-Q with some dead money in the pot, and I won – bringing my all-in blind record to 5 out of 6.  This was lucky, and it gave me some crucial breathing room.

With 35k and not feeling too bad, but still with only 10 big blinds left (and therefore still not in great shape) I picked up KQ.  Only 21 left – remember, 18 get paid.  I shipped it and got called by a shorter stack, and he showed K-10, which was awesome.  I was well ahead until the river, which was a jack and made him a straight.  A truly sick beat at a truly sick time.  Win that hand and I’m coasting to a second straight cash, and a good one at that, and a real boost having not played for so long.  Bad beat stories are boring, every player has so many, and this is one to add to the collection for me, and will be memorable for me mainly because it came at such a sick, sick time in the tournament.

So, down to 19, and I have 15k left with blinds at 2000-6000 with a 500 ante and clearly I am now running on fumes and am once more in “all-in dark” territory.  This hand was going to mean I either got a second straight cash, or I busted on the bubble, the worst possible spot, and I needed to get lucky just one more time…  Ten and a half hours of play, comes down to this.

My opponent shows K-J and I flip up 9-2 again.  The flop was 10-8-7 so I was open-eneded, probably the best flop I could see without actually hitting.  I need a deuce, a 6 or a jack to win.  A 9 popped on the turn, but sadly this made a straight for the other guy.  The river was a deuce, giving me 2-pair, but it wasn’t enough and I was out in the worst place of all, the bubble (one before the money).

Again, a very deep run, lots of patience, picked good spots, got it in good, (other than when I was all-in blind).  So plenty to be pleased about.  On the other hand, being all-in dark does not imply brilliant play, so still a lot of improving to do.  However, given my lack of practice and time since I went deep in a big event this, and the last tournament, are huge confidence boosts and I can’t wait to play again.  At the same time, it’s truly gutting to bubble the cash, I should have been adding several thousand more to the kitty if not for the sick beat with the K-10.

Wine and cigars in the Baccarat Bar in Bellagio for a few hours, (it’s now 1.20am), and it doesn’t seem so bad.

But it is.

Next case…

So, after a decent night’s sleep and a day of shopping for jeans it was time to hit the tables.  As I said previously, I haven’t played for ages and haven’t had a decent run for a year or so, so I decided to get started fairly gently with the $150 tournament at Caesars at 7pm.  You start with a decent stack of 10k, and 30 minute blinds, so plenty of play.  140 runners meant a pretty good prize-pool as well, first was worth $6,000 and 9th would get $500 – only the top 9 got paid.

Well, early on I settled into my normal steady kind of play and got my stack up to 20k fairly easily.  This was perfect for me, as it meant I could really take my time and play solid, and not be forced into anything risky early on.  I had a few good hands, made some decent lay-downs and generally felt in control.

Later on and we moved around a bit, and I was never in any trouble – my stack varied form pretty good to average, but I was never short.  The field dwindled pretty raplidly, and with 4 or 5 tables left I sensed a chance to go very deep.  My stack then hovered around 15 big blinds for ages, before gaining a pretty good stack with a flurry of good hands, including a straight-flush.  I both won and lost big pots with jacks, so I was involved a lot.  With 2 tables to go it was going to be nip & tuck whether I could make it thru to the final table of 10 and then hopefully a cash, but I squeaked home with about 50k, and blinds at 3000/6000 and an ante of 500.

It was around 1am, and now the fun started.  We did a deal to give 10th place $200, so now I was guaranteed money.  I became somewhat obsessed with not going out 10th tho, and so did everyone else.  There were 2 or 3 short-stacks, including me, but they all kept doubling up.  I stole the blinds with A9 and doubled up with pocket 4’s against A-9 with a load of dead-money in the pot.  Then a guy was all-in in his big blind, and got 6 callers.  Amazingly, and infuriatingly, he won the hand!  I was pretty angry about that to be honest.  Anyway, after nearly 2 hours of play a guy busted in pretty unlucky fashion and we were down to 9.  I only had 1.5 big blinds left, from a stack that at one point was over 90k, and that’s not great play really.  I was also going to be in the big blind after the break, so I decided to go all-in blind whatever happened.  A few players limped, then the small blind raised, which was awesome, because it meant there was a load of dead money in the pot and I only had to beat one player.  He turned up AQ and I turned up 10-7, and obviously I won, because I am deadly when all-in blind   That put me safe again for a while.  Another short stack busted, and now I was guaranteed 8th, and $700. It’s now around 3am.

Then, a bit of magic.  A huge stack busted 2 other pretty sizeable stacks in one hand when he hit 2 pair on the flop, and suddenly I was up to 6th.  I started to play a fair bit at this stage, feeling really awake and in the game, and I managed to keep fairly safe with a stack that was just enough to give me fold equity when I shoved.  Another big stack busted, getting tired I think, so now I was 5th.  Another guy busted, being rivered pretty harshly, and now I have 4th spot.  I grew my stack to about 120k and was doing ok.  Of the 4 of us, me and one other guy had about the same stack, and the other 2 had bigger stacks.  The other guy with my kind of stack was in the small blind to my big blind when I picked up A4.  He moved all-in on me and I decided to call.  I decided to do this because I figured that basically we were racing for 3rd place, and a possible deal.  It was going to come down to one of us going out, I had an ace and I was prepared to gamble.  Sadly for me he had A9, and I didn’t hit, so I finished 4th, at 4.30am.

4th spot was worth $1,300 and I was pretty happy with that.  Not having played for ages, and not having had a deep run for even longer, it’s good to have a decent early cash in the bag, and be $1k+ on the road to a profitable trip.  And my jeans are paid for

Peachy keen.

Now, in the hotel room, it’s about 5am and Korea v Greece is on tv.  I’m thinking of getting breakfast in the room and then getting some kip after the England game in a few hours time…

So, arrived today.  I must say I don’t think I’ve ever been more unprepared for a poker break than this, I haven’t played for ages and the last few weeks of work have been pretty mental.  I’ll need to get in shape pretty quick if I’m to play the WSOP $1500 event on Wednesday.  Need to get some sleep first!

All this shouldn’t be filling me with confidence, but poker can be wierd this way – in 2009 I probably played my best poker and had my worst results. The year before, I pulled off the miracle “all-in blind” moves and came back from the dead to cash several times.  So form isn’t always a huge factor, it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that I could do well.  The first couple of events I play will be telling.

Shuffle up n’ deal

So, in Vegas for work.  Yes, I know, it’s pretty sweet.  However, while most people think that ‘working’ in Vegas involves minimal effort and maximum debauchery I’m afraid that for me work means work, and hefty hours of it.  However, there are worse places in the world to work than Vegas and I have no problem with that in the slightest.

On the poker front, which is what this blog is about after all, I stayed at the Aria – the brand new casino on the Strip near Bellagio which has cost everyone an absolute mega-fortune at precisely the time of the worst financial downturn most of us have ever seen.  I was keen to play in it’s plush new poker room, but the game is $1-$3 and that’s not me.  Particularly how down I am on my game right now.  I did check it out tho, does look nice.  I headed out to Caesars, to find that they have replaced their $1-$2 game with $1-$3 as well, I think there’s a trend – more action, more rake etc.

Anyway, I didn’t get to play until the night before flying home.  I was very tired, and to be honest I played purely because I couldn’t really face the idea of being in Vegas for 6 days and not playing poker even once.  So I went over to the Flamingo and promptly dusted off $200 in about 3 hours.  I started playing quite well, without winning, and didn’t get involved in a big hand for ages.  I then lost a big pot when my flopped 2-pair with A-10 was out-done by a jack on the turn, giving my opponent a bigger 2-pair.  Then I lost to guy who called a pre-flop raise in 2nd position with A-2.  Then the tiredness caught up with me and I pretty much made a conscious decision to tilt-off the rest   Yes, I ‘decided to tilt’.  I do get very frustrated and annoyed, but it never affects my play, except that very occasionally I just decide to let it affect my play, and now was one of those times.  I ignored the Harrington in my head, and I when I left the table I couldn’t even remember what the hand was that had beaten the 2-pair I made on the river.

I headed to the Wynn at midnight to meet Bearded Mike, over from Florida for March Madness, (the biggest sports betting event of the year), and had cigars & white russians until 3am.  That was much more fun.  The moral?  Don’t play tired.  Proper poker to follow in Vegas in June.

Recently I have been reading Dan Harrington’s books on cash games, intriguingly titled “Harrington on Cash Games”.  I’ve been doing this for 2 reasons: first, I would like to play a bit more cash in Vegas and I am aware of how different the discipline is from tournament play, and second, the early stages of deep stack tournaments play very similiarly to cash games, and I feel that getting a decent cash game strategy will enable me to be far ore comfortable at these stages – bear in mind that most of the tournaments I play in Vegas are very deep stacked, (except the WSOP).

I haven’t read Harrington since reading his essential books on tournament poker, and I’d forgotten how good a writer on poker he and his co-writer Bill Robertie are.  It’s a great read, and I’m already incorporating certain aspects of it into my play.  Generally, my play in tournaments has been quite aggressive pre-flop and on the flop, and more circumspect after – I prefer the decisions to be easier and the situations I play to be less complex. Sensible stuff really, I’ve no problem with it and it’s served me well.  However, it’s not a good strategy for cash games, and I would very much like to broaden my skills on the later streets of a hand, and I already feel I am making good progress here.

I guess we’ll know a bit more when I hit the $1-$2 NLH tables at Caesars Palace…