Archive for July, 2009

So, some final thoughts on the 2009 World Series pilgrimage to Vegas.  For nights out I’d say it was right up there, more of us than ever, and great to hook up with Bearded Mike again.  Crazy to think we met in the first place because we were sat at the same table in the Triple Draw event at the 2008 WSOP, with 400 other people playing.

However, the main thing is the poker, that’s why we’re here and if the poker was somewhere other than Vegas then I would be as well.  It’s pretty obvious that it went pretty poorly on the tables for me, and I ran pretty badly.  Does that bother me?  Not particularly – poker is a game of swings and you have to expect some good and bad bits of running.  It’s sad for me that I ran badly during my one huge poker period of the year, but whatever.  I lost what I budgeted to lose, even tho I had hoped not to lose it.

On the other hand, my game has improved again.  I adopted more of a “don’t risk the stack” approach, particularly in the WSOP, and having played that way for a few days there I really got something out of it and felt I was reading the game better.  Of course, I pack in more poker in 2 weeks in Vegas than in the rest of the year combined, and each year I think I take another big step forwards.

Next year I would like to play in the KCL and Triple Draw events, as well as more than just the one NLH event.  We’ll have to see tho, it’s a World Cup year and there might be a trip to South Africa during the WSOP.

Watch this space…

Well, it’s taken me several weeks to get round to posting the last night stuff, but here we are.  What a night to go out on as well, probably the best night when we were all together.  We met up in teh Baccarat Bar in Bellagio and went on for dinner at FIx, also at Bellagio.  FIx does just the best fillet mignon on this or any other planet, and all 8 of us ordered it

in the Baccarat Bar

We then took a limo over to The Venetian, where the club Lavo is.  Again we’d gone for a private table, for the full Vegas experience.

in the limo

What followed was another awesome Vegas VIP night, and being July 4th the atmosphere was even more celebratory for our hosts.  As before, there were many more photos taken than will ever surface, but even looking back on the ones here it’s easy for me to picture it all.

early, before the wreckage really begins

Ade & Mike

with the dancers…

Ads meets someone from NYC…

…and so do I

Ives got to know this girl quite well

two of the New Yorkers

the whole NYC crew

And that was that.  Evening ended (for me) around 4am and off to the airport late the next day.  Definitely went out on a high note.

Our good Florida friend Bearded Mike has a hat.  Here is a photo of it:

This is Bearded Mike’s hat.  It is not Bearded Mike.

That was kind of gratuitous, particularly for a poker blog.  However, Mike plays poker in the WSOP, and that really is his hat, so it counts.

Stuff the poker, Vegas is alright without it.

Adrian made his 4th final table cash for the trip today – one in the Binion’s Classic series, 1 in the Caesar’s Mega-Stack and the other 2 in other Caesar’s tournaments.  He’s cashed over $14k and since the Binion’s cash has been on some run of form.  His tournament game is top notch, and if he could satellite into a few big ones I can’t see it being long before he takes down a big score.

He was very down ion his game after the first week here, it just goes to show how one result can change things around.  Last year it was Ads who bubbled everything.  This year it’s me who can’t get anywhere.

Nevermind.

A few nights ago we decided to play pot limit omaha, (PLO), at Excaliber, where they have electronic tables.  At these tables there are no dealers, it’s very like playing online.  There are many more hands dealt per hour, and the casino rakes much more.  My feeling is that all poker rooms will go this way, simply because the casino’s know they can make massively increased profits from it, and money talks.  In a game like PLO, it also means there are no dealer errors, and split pots are worked out for you.

Mike & Johnny on the electronic tables at Excaliber

You can see from the photo that each player has their own ’station’, and you use a card to get money in and out of the game, with a community screen in the middle to show the flop and the pot.  Your hole cards are face-down until you touch them.  I actually think far more sophisticated tables are coming, which will be similar to Microsoft Surface, which will be more popular than these tables.  I don’t say it will be a positive thing, becuase I personally love chips, cards, dealers, I just think it’s inevitable.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t win any money in the PLO session – I actually hate the game, just wanted to try the tables…

After lunch I gathered myself together and decided to have a shot at the evening tournament at Caesar’s.  Again, I tried to keep the risks low and build a stack, and did ok in the first half hour.

Here’s a strange pot tho.  A Swedish guy opens for 250, with blinds at 50-100.  I called in late position with A-10 to see a flop.  The flop misses me completely.  The Swede checks, so I check behind.  The turn is a blank too.  He checks, I took a stab and fired out 300.  He thought about it and called.  The turn was another blank.  He checked again and I decided to fire out again, first to try to take it down, second to potentially value bet what might well be the best hand.  I hoped he’d fold, so I wouldn’t have to show the bluff, but in fact he called.  I announced that I had nothing and he must win, and he showed…. A-10!  I showed and we split it.  He looked pretty smug, but it’s one of the weirder calls I’ve had made against me.  He risked neatly 1000 chips to split the pot, and with A-10 even my bluff might have been better than his hand.  Strange.

Anyway, then this happened.  A guy opens for 350, the Swede calls and I call on the button with AK.  The flop is 10-K-Q, all diamonds.  I have the ace of diamonds, so I’m in great shape here.  The first guy makes it 1500 to play.  The Swede raises to 4200.  There’s no getting away from this – I have top pair, top kicker and the nut flush draw with an inside royal flush draw.  I push all-in.  First guy folds, but the Swede calls.  He has AJ, and so has flopped a straight.  I still have a lot of outs for the flush, or to chop.  However, naturally it bricks out and I’m gone.

The drink and cigar help to deaden the pain

I’m now 8-0 down in all-in pots on ths trip.   The scenario is the same every time – everything goes well and I build steadily, and then I find a situation whcih forces me to put my chips in the middle, and it’s gone.  I just need one of these monsters to hold up and I’m there, but we’re running out of time.  The trip as a whole is awesome, but the poker is a now a sever test of my patience.  Deeply depressing.  PLaying again tomorrow, but kind of dreading it.  Last chance saloon…

The $330 Mega-Stack at Caesar’s Palace, and I felt confident given my recent play, despite the appalling run and no cashes.  During the early play I found myself to be day-dreaming heavily, and during the first break I gathered myself together and locked myself in to focus properly.  From then on I built my stack up to around 20k on the back of a good call with AK on a ace-high raggy board, where my opponent had played it really strong, calling and raising me all the way before shoving on the end, and a couple of other plays I was happy with.  All plays where I had a decent hand, a good read and was not risking my stack.

Then, an older Russian guy wn a huge pot, knocking someone out.  He was still stacking his now monstrous amount of chips when I was dealt QQ in early position.  With blinds at 100-200, and with one limper, I raised it up to 750.  The Russian guy glanced at his cards and raised me to 2500.  I flat called, looking to see a flop and not looking to get into a raising war.  He continued to stack his chips.  The flop came 2-2-7 and he immediately announed all-in.  The thing was, it wasn’t his turn to act, it was mine.  For me, this was a huge WTF moment.  Here’s this guy with a monster stack, throwing 40k at a 5k pot, acting out of turn and still stacking his chips.  Inside I knew it could only mean he had a huge hand, and my QQ was probably beat by KK or AA.  However, the injustice (as it felt) of this made the red mist descend a bit.  I wasn’t sure whether to shove, or to check and let him complete his all-in.  If I did shove, would he go back on it and fold?   Would he call and show JJ? Or AK?  Should I check-fold, or would I be giving up a great spot to double=up to a monster stack?  I threw in a 5k chip.  In hindsight I did this to commit myself to call if he did shove, meaning I wouldn’t have to sit there and think about it anymore.  He did shove.  I called, fearing the worst, and he did indeed have KK and I lost.

I found this to be deeply, deeply irritating.  Even tho, for me, it would have beena huge fold, I know I am capable of making it and I was annoyed at mysefl because once again I had built a stack by playing good, small=pot, low-risk poker and had it blown apart with one massive hand.  What I really hated was the cold-deck of me getting QQ with KK behind me.  As a one-off, you just tend to accept this, but after the week of beats I’ve had I will admit that it clouded my judgement a bit.  Others have said it was a 50-50 call and it’s ok to have made it, and that I would have been second-guessing myself all-day if I had folded and missed a chance to double-up.

Another sick day.  At this point I have played 7 all-in pots, more than half of them with a dominant hand, and lost every one of them.

Right, back to hold ‘em.  A huge event at The Venetian, a $330 evemnt with nearly 1000 entries and a huge prize pool.   I got there late and was the 110th alternate, (alternates come in as people get knocked out, up to the first break).  This meant I was blinded out until I could start, so I had 10k of the original 12k stack to start with.  Nothing really happened for me to be honest – I managed to get my stack up to about 18k, but blinds were getting up there.  I lost about 8k when I made a very tight fold with AK on a board of A-7-Q-Q, and I was probably wrong, but I got it back again a few hands later making a shove move on the same guy with another AK.  At the break, with blinds at 500/1000 with a 100 ante, I had 15k and really needed a double-up.

And so, first hand back and in the big blind, I woke up with K-10 and decided to see if there would be an opportunity to make a move.  A guy with 20k raised to 3.5k from early position, and it folded round to me.  Now if I pushed, and he folded, he’d still have 17k left, whereas if he called and lost he’d be crippled.  Therefore I decided to shove and hope had a hand he could fold.  He thought about it and then said “let’s gamble”, called and showed K-J – exactly the sort of hand I thought he could fold.  Obviously he won, and I was out.

Then I did something bad.  The frustration of the last few tournament beats boiled over and I kind of threw my chips to him, quite aggressively.  He stood up, and in a big of a temper, I swiped his drink and his chip stack across the table.  Chips went everywhere, and so did coffee.  A security card was nearby, (of course), and I was escorted away from the poker room.  It was made clear that I wouldn’t be welcome back, and given that they have all my details from registration, I have to hope I’ll be able to play at Caesar’s tomorrow…

OK, actually none of that happened.  Well, in a way it did happen, coz the scenario certainly played itself out in my head while I smiled, said “nice gamble”, and wandered away…

Finally got around to writing this one up.  Off to the Golden Nugget for the event that Ads, Mike and I had really been waiting for – the 2-7 Triple Draw at the Grans Series of Poker at the Golden Nugget.  Triple draw isn’t spread at many places, so it was great to be able to enter an affordable buy-in tournament. There weren’t many entries and only the top few got paid, but even so it was worth winning.

I didn’t have a good table – full of good young pro’s and grinders who all knew the game.  I was hoping that the experience of the game that I had would mean I could really chip-up from people not really knowing what they were doing, but it was clear early that in fact I was easily the least experienced player there.  Even so, early on I crushed the game.  I hit a few really good hands and got paid on all streets.  I also pulled off a bluff I was quite pleased with.  It folded around to me in the small blind and i decided to raise to steal.  My hand was something like 5-5-7-7-8, so nothing to write home about.  The big blind put me on the steal and called.  At this point I decided to ’snow’ (bluff).  I announced to draw 2 and picked 2 random cards from my hand.  BB also drew 2.  I actually drew yet another 5 and another 7.  I’m now very confident that I’ve had a lot of the BB’s potential outs and that he won’t hit his draw, and that if I continue to play the hand strong then I ‘ll bet him off it.  I bet, he called.  I drew one, (to make it look like my hand had improved), and the BB drew 2 again – perfect.  I bet, he called again.  This time I stood pat, and he drew one.  After the last draw I bet and he folded.  He’d missed his draw, mainly because I’d got all his outs at some point.  If he had somehow hit some miracle I would have had to show down a totally screwed random hand.  Later on we had a truly weird hand, which ended with 3 of us having the nuts – 2-3-4-5-7.  No-one had ever seen this before, and no-one probably ever will again.  One person was pat on the 2nd draw with it, and the other 2 of us hit it with our last draw.  Very very weird.

Monster stack looming above the bag and glasses

At the break I had a huge stack.  However, I was still very wary.  The problem with triple draw is that if you are dealt a monster draw, say 1 card to a 7, you are committed to betting and calling raises with it on every draw in order to try to hit it.  If you miss all these draws you can easily spew 5 or 6 big bets in one hand.  A couple of these close together and your stack can easily be decimated.  It’s exactly what happened to me in the WSOP triple draw event last year in fact.    And, undortunately, it’s exactly what happened to me again.  First of all I actually had rough 9 that I stodd pat with after 1 draw against a guy drawing 3, then 2, on the grounds that I thought he would probably miss.  With 15k in the middle he actually hit the nuts on his last draw, halving my stack.  Then I got dealt 2-3-4-7-x and drew 1 card all the way and missed, and that was me out.  I think I was out around 12 or 13th.

Great fun, but sadly, still no sign of a cash…