So, a friend of mine, Russell Rosenblum, is playing in a rebuy poker tournament in the Five Diamond Poker Classic at Bellagio right now.
He called me to relay a story I've honestly never witnessed. I'm sure it's happened before, but it's a bit shocking.
There were 3 people in a hand, with the board showing 2c 6c Qd 8c (for those that don't play poker, that's the deuce of clubs, the 6 of clubs, the Queen of diamonds and the eight of clubs).
On the turn (after the 8 of clubs was dealt), one player started to turn his hand over. Everyone at the table tried to stop him, but he turned his cards over in the middle of the hand anyway.
Why, you might ask? Well, he had the 6 of clubs in his hand. Make that "a" six of clubs, since this deck apparently had two of them. The guy said he knew he had turned a flush, but wanted to double-check his cards to be sure. When he went back to look, he discovered the problem.
The deck was pulled from circulation, and was shown to contain 53 cards. Although Russell's not 100% sure his table started on time, the deck was in play at least through one break, which meant it was ordered and shuffled at least once. Possibly twice, if the table started on time.
I'm sure this has happened before, but I don't remember hearing about it. How do multiple dealers miss something like that?
Showing posts with label Poker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poker. Show all posts
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Follow Me at the World Series of Poker
For those that know me well, you're aware of my goal to play in the main event of The World Series of Poker. I've had a number of excuses over the last few years of why I didn't play (not having a spare $10,000 lying around always seemed to be at the top of the list).
Well, I've had a fairly successful run over the last few years in tournaments, and it's time to take a shot. Starting Monday, I will be playing a couple of WSOP warmup events. Monday is a $2K No-Limit Hold 'Em tournament. I'll follow that up with a $1500 buy-in event in late June, then the main event, which starts on July 3rd.
I intend to update my blog throughout the day from my Blackberry so people can follow along. You can find plenty more information about the World Series of Poker at www.wsop.com. While I doubt my name will be mentioned that frequently during the early updates, you can follow along with live updates of Event #32 on the WSOP site as well.
Time to see how I stack up against the biggest live poker field in the world.
Well, I've had a fairly successful run over the last few years in tournaments, and it's time to take a shot. Starting Monday, I will be playing a couple of WSOP warmup events. Monday is a $2K No-Limit Hold 'Em tournament. I'll follow that up with a $1500 buy-in event in late June, then the main event, which starts on July 3rd.
I intend to update my blog throughout the day from my Blackberry so people can follow along. You can find plenty more information about the World Series of Poker at www.wsop.com. While I doubt my name will be mentioned that frequently during the early updates, you can follow along with live updates of Event #32 on the WSOP site as well.
Time to see how I stack up against the biggest live poker field in the world.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Actual Poker Content
I just got back from a marathon 8-day trip to Las Vegas and Chicago on business. My apologies for slacking on blog entries. I got my first chance to play poker in quite some time, and ended up with an interesting/amusing hand.
I played the nightly tournament at Venetian last week. It was the first live poker I've played in quite some time. I bought in about an hour late, but at the Venetian, as long as you buy in within the first 80 minutes, you get a full stack of chips. So, I started in the 6 seat with 7500 in chips, and blinds of 100-200, with a 25 ante.
I felt like I was reading my table pretty well. I picked up two small pots from a lady in the 8 seat that was pretty timid. I took the lead heads up against another player, making pot-sized bets on the flop and the turn. He called both, and the river brought a potential flush. My read was spot on, in that I checked, he bet, I folded, and he turned up his made flush. While this hand cost me a bunch of chips, I *didn't* pay off the river, and I did give him the wrong price to call.
There was an Asian guy to my left with an average stack. His MO was to raise frequently in limped pots in order to pick up some easy chips. He was very successful at this. I just needed to get the right opportunity, and I could win a bunch of chips off of him.
Not long after I sat down, that opportunity. UTG, I was dealt two queens. I limped, hoping for the standard response of a few limpers, and my Asian friend putting in his big raise. The guy to my left called, as well as the cutoff. Then, a fairly quiet kid wearing headphones who seemed to be an okay (not great) player, raised to 700. My Asian friend thought about it briefly, looking around, before calling the extra 500.
I was pretty sure he was calling because of the odds, figuring someone behind him (like me, who had been playing a lot of pots) would call. There was the chance that he had a monster, but I didn't feel that was likely at all.
I waited about 20 seconds before doing exactly what I had planned, shipping my chips to the middle. I was all-in for another 4800. It was folded around to the SB, who went into the tank for a few minutes.
Since he was in the 4 seat, he couldn't really see me. While he was trying to stare around the Asian guy at me, the Asian guy got up and walked away, as we had just started the break. The dealer admonished him for getting up while still involved in the hand, but it seemed that the kid already knew (like me) there was no way Asian guy was calling.
Asian guy sits back down, making it harder for the kid to see me. Kid cuts the chips out a few times, shuffles them back in his stack. He has about 6000. He finally calls, and I table my two queens. He looks at me and says, "Wow. I definitely misjudged that."
He shows me KQ of spades. I'm a pretty solid favorite.
Then he flops 3 spades. :)
I turn a Q to make things interesting, but don't improve, and IGHN.
I'm really happy with how tuned in I was after not playing for a long time. This should bode well for my first foray at the World Series of Poker this summer.
I played the nightly tournament at Venetian last week. It was the first live poker I've played in quite some time. I bought in about an hour late, but at the Venetian, as long as you buy in within the first 80 minutes, you get a full stack of chips. So, I started in the 6 seat with 7500 in chips, and blinds of 100-200, with a 25 ante.
I felt like I was reading my table pretty well. I picked up two small pots from a lady in the 8 seat that was pretty timid. I took the lead heads up against another player, making pot-sized bets on the flop and the turn. He called both, and the river brought a potential flush. My read was spot on, in that I checked, he bet, I folded, and he turned up his made flush. While this hand cost me a bunch of chips, I *didn't* pay off the river, and I did give him the wrong price to call.
There was an Asian guy to my left with an average stack. His MO was to raise frequently in limped pots in order to pick up some easy chips. He was very successful at this. I just needed to get the right opportunity, and I could win a bunch of chips off of him.
Not long after I sat down, that opportunity. UTG, I was dealt two queens. I limped, hoping for the standard response of a few limpers, and my Asian friend putting in his big raise. The guy to my left called, as well as the cutoff. Then, a fairly quiet kid wearing headphones who seemed to be an okay (not great) player, raised to 700. My Asian friend thought about it briefly, looking around, before calling the extra 500.
I was pretty sure he was calling because of the odds, figuring someone behind him (like me, who had been playing a lot of pots) would call. There was the chance that he had a monster, but I didn't feel that was likely at all.
I waited about 20 seconds before doing exactly what I had planned, shipping my chips to the middle. I was all-in for another 4800. It was folded around to the SB, who went into the tank for a few minutes.
Since he was in the 4 seat, he couldn't really see me. While he was trying to stare around the Asian guy at me, the Asian guy got up and walked away, as we had just started the break. The dealer admonished him for getting up while still involved in the hand, but it seemed that the kid already knew (like me) there was no way Asian guy was calling.
Asian guy sits back down, making it harder for the kid to see me. Kid cuts the chips out a few times, shuffles them back in his stack. He has about 6000. He finally calls, and I table my two queens. He looks at me and says, "Wow. I definitely misjudged that."
He shows me KQ of spades. I'm a pretty solid favorite.
Then he flops 3 spades. :)
I turn a Q to make things interesting, but don't improve, and IGHN.
I'm really happy with how tuned in I was after not playing for a long time. This should bode well for my first foray at the World Series of Poker this summer.
Friday, January 16, 2009
A Deep Run at Venetian (Again)
So, I played the Noon tournament at Venetian on Tuesday. The tournament got 130+ entrants, which was both good and bad. Good, in that it was a decent sized field for payouts, bad in that we got just enough players for the tournament to pay 18 spots instead of 9.
Things started out very well. With a starting stack of 7500, I was very quickly up to 17,000 with no truly memorable hands. I then got into a great zone where I was playing and reading very well. I flopped top pair against an aggressive guy, when I was holding AK. I had a sense that, based on the way this guy was playing, if I checked behind him on the turn after betting the flop, he would bluff at the river quite a bit. Well, true to form, he did bet the blank river. However, he unexpectedly pushed all-in, which was a pretty big overbet. Could he have a set? I thought it was much more likely he had a busted straight draw with two big cards as opposed to a set. The problem was the tell he was giving off. Earlier, he had been staring right at me in a hand when I read him for weak. Now, he was staring down, and wouldn’t say much. I asked him if I was losing, and he started to say something, then got really quiet and shrugged, pointing at the pot. This was enough to convince me that he was pretty nervous, and I called. Had he kept quiet and still, I might have laid down top pair. But taking the overbet and the change in mannerism into consideration, I ended up making the right call. He showed me a busted straight draw. This propelled me over 30K.
A couple of automatic calls/hands that played themselves, popped up, and I won coin flips against smaller stacks to push myself over 40, where I treaded for a while. I crossed over 50K when we were down to 80 players, then ran KK into AA to dump off half my chips. I ground my way back up to 50K again, only to take AK vs. A7, and drop back down to 32K. At this point, the blinds were starting to become a factor. We were at 1000-2000, with a 300 ante. I was stealing enough pots to stay afloat, but things weren’t great. The blinds moved up to 1500-3000, with a 500 ante, and I was officially in bad shape. With less than 40 players left, I had 23K in middle/late position. A fairly tight player in early/middle position raised to 6K. This screamed weakness, since he usually bet more when he was protecting bigger hands. The guy next to him smooth called the 6K. I looked down at pocket 7s, and hoped I had enough to get the initial raiser to fold. The player to his left was fairly weak-tight as well, so I thought if I could get through the first raiser, I was fine. That was, until the SB just called my raise to 23K. The SB was a tighter player as well, who had a bad habit of over-valuing his hands. I had no idea where I was. The original raiser folded, but the second guy in the pot decided to call, even though it looked like he wanted to jam. I think he just didn’t realize the SB called instead of jamming. On the flop, both of them get it all-in. One of them held AA, the other KK. The true beauty of this situation was that the flop came out 7 high. All of a sudden, I had 80K, and we had 30-ish players left.
The next hour was short-handed play as players dropped somewhat quickly. I was able to pick up lots of small pots to keep my stack at around 80K, but when we were down to 22 players, I lost 35K on AK vs A7. Yes, I lost to A7 holding AK all-in preflop twice in the same tournament.
When we got to 20 players, everyone in the room wanted to take $300 off of first place to pay 19th and 20th $150 each. The prizes were already thin enough ($14 profit for finishing 18th). The floorman, Daniel, who I consider a good friend, asked if there were any objections. I complained a bit, but told him if I was the only dissenter, it was fine. Then, some moron suggested that we take $200 off of first and $100 off of second. I started screaming that the clock was still running, and just wanted to play poker. In reality, the money bubble is always a great spot for me to pick up chips, which is what I had been doing for an hour. So, I was sad to see it go.
It took about another hour for us to get down to the final 10. 10th place still only paid $200, vs. $5000 for first. So, aggression was still the method of the day.
There were 997,500 chips in play. I was 3rd or 4th in chips with roughly 130K when we got to the final table. I played one hand poorly with pocket 4s, but managed to work my stack over 200K. We dropped a few people to get to 6-handed, then busted the girl to my left with AQ vs. A9 to get us to 5-handed. I had almost 300K in chips at this point, and was the chip leader. Sitting in the SB, I reraised the button holding AK only to have him jam for just a bit more holding KK. No improvement, and I was down to 150. I worked back up to 200K, then lost a coin flip to drop under 100K for the first time in a while. I stole few pots preflop, then got into a 3-way pot. Instead of making a play at the pot on the flop, I waited until the turn (something I’ve been trying to add to my game), and successfully took down the pot to get over 100K again. Blinds were 6000-12000, with a 2K ante at this point. Effective aggression had me back over 200K again when I raised from the button with A9s to 33K. The BB jammed for another 37K more, and showed me K9. He rivered a straight, and now everyone had roughly the same stack.
It was at this point that someone suggested a deal. Based on the crazy size of the blinds, we quickly agreed to chop it up 5 ways, each taking $2400. So, all in all, a strong tournament for me. However, I feel like it could have been a much better payday if things had gone my way at the final table. I got lucky on the 77 hand earlier, but not a lot went my way at the final table. Ah, the cards can be fickle!
Things started out very well. With a starting stack of 7500, I was very quickly up to 17,000 with no truly memorable hands. I then got into a great zone where I was playing and reading very well. I flopped top pair against an aggressive guy, when I was holding AK. I had a sense that, based on the way this guy was playing, if I checked behind him on the turn after betting the flop, he would bluff at the river quite a bit. Well, true to form, he did bet the blank river. However, he unexpectedly pushed all-in, which was a pretty big overbet. Could he have a set? I thought it was much more likely he had a busted straight draw with two big cards as opposed to a set. The problem was the tell he was giving off. Earlier, he had been staring right at me in a hand when I read him for weak. Now, he was staring down, and wouldn’t say much. I asked him if I was losing, and he started to say something, then got really quiet and shrugged, pointing at the pot. This was enough to convince me that he was pretty nervous, and I called. Had he kept quiet and still, I might have laid down top pair. But taking the overbet and the change in mannerism into consideration, I ended up making the right call. He showed me a busted straight draw. This propelled me over 30K.
A couple of automatic calls/hands that played themselves, popped up, and I won coin flips against smaller stacks to push myself over 40, where I treaded for a while. I crossed over 50K when we were down to 80 players, then ran KK into AA to dump off half my chips. I ground my way back up to 50K again, only to take AK vs. A7, and drop back down to 32K. At this point, the blinds were starting to become a factor. We were at 1000-2000, with a 300 ante. I was stealing enough pots to stay afloat, but things weren’t great. The blinds moved up to 1500-3000, with a 500 ante, and I was officially in bad shape. With less than 40 players left, I had 23K in middle/late position. A fairly tight player in early/middle position raised to 6K. This screamed weakness, since he usually bet more when he was protecting bigger hands. The guy next to him smooth called the 6K. I looked down at pocket 7s, and hoped I had enough to get the initial raiser to fold. The player to his left was fairly weak-tight as well, so I thought if I could get through the first raiser, I was fine. That was, until the SB just called my raise to 23K. The SB was a tighter player as well, who had a bad habit of over-valuing his hands. I had no idea where I was. The original raiser folded, but the second guy in the pot decided to call, even though it looked like he wanted to jam. I think he just didn’t realize the SB called instead of jamming. On the flop, both of them get it all-in. One of them held AA, the other KK. The true beauty of this situation was that the flop came out 7 high. All of a sudden, I had 80K, and we had 30-ish players left.
The next hour was short-handed play as players dropped somewhat quickly. I was able to pick up lots of small pots to keep my stack at around 80K, but when we were down to 22 players, I lost 35K on AK vs A7. Yes, I lost to A7 holding AK all-in preflop twice in the same tournament.
When we got to 20 players, everyone in the room wanted to take $300 off of first place to pay 19th and 20th $150 each. The prizes were already thin enough ($14 profit for finishing 18th). The floorman, Daniel, who I consider a good friend, asked if there were any objections. I complained a bit, but told him if I was the only dissenter, it was fine. Then, some moron suggested that we take $200 off of first and $100 off of second. I started screaming that the clock was still running, and just wanted to play poker. In reality, the money bubble is always a great spot for me to pick up chips, which is what I had been doing for an hour. So, I was sad to see it go.
It took about another hour for us to get down to the final 10. 10th place still only paid $200, vs. $5000 for first. So, aggression was still the method of the day.
There were 997,500 chips in play. I was 3rd or 4th in chips with roughly 130K when we got to the final table. I played one hand poorly with pocket 4s, but managed to work my stack over 200K. We dropped a few people to get to 6-handed, then busted the girl to my left with AQ vs. A9 to get us to 5-handed. I had almost 300K in chips at this point, and was the chip leader. Sitting in the SB, I reraised the button holding AK only to have him jam for just a bit more holding KK. No improvement, and I was down to 150. I worked back up to 200K, then lost a coin flip to drop under 100K for the first time in a while. I stole few pots preflop, then got into a 3-way pot. Instead of making a play at the pot on the flop, I waited until the turn (something I’ve been trying to add to my game), and successfully took down the pot to get over 100K again. Blinds were 6000-12000, with a 2K ante at this point. Effective aggression had me back over 200K again when I raised from the button with A9s to 33K. The BB jammed for another 37K more, and showed me K9. He rivered a straight, and now everyone had roughly the same stack.
It was at this point that someone suggested a deal. Based on the crazy size of the blinds, we quickly agreed to chop it up 5 ways, each taking $2400. So, all in all, a strong tournament for me. However, I feel like it could have been a much better payday if things had gone my way at the final table. I got lucky on the 77 hand earlier, but not a lot went my way at the final table. Ah, the cards can be fickle!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Deep Run at Venetian
After landing in Vegas midday on Wednesday, I went over to Bellagio to sweat Russell in a $5K event that he had made the final table of. He busted 7th after getting a bit unlucky. With no other work projects to handle, I decided to play the $120 buy-in 7 pm tournament at the Venetian. Since I'd gotten up at 5:30 am EST, this was going to be a long night if I did well.
We started with 7500 in chips. Before the first break, I had my stack up to 25,000, in great shape. I lost half my stack on a marginal decision, then lost another pot to essentially make myself a short stack with 60 players to go.
Fast forward 4 hours, and I'd grinded until we had 30 players left. They started dropping like flies, and I won a few pots to give me a big enough stack to open up my game. When we got down to 2 tables, I was chip leader at my table. The floorman (Mark) promptly moved me to the other table, where I was 7th in chips out of 8. Thanks, Mark. We can't be too pissed at Mark, since he's a Padres and Chargers fan. Mark gets a lot of practice saying, "This is a rebuilding year."
I still managed to pick up enough pots at the table to keep up with the chip leader. I was happy that I was calling with marginal hands, then either betting out or check-calling to win some nice pots from players too afraid to go broke. Very shortly after moving tables, we were in the money. There was no money until the top 3, so I played as such at the final table.
Early on, 9-handed, with about 110K in chips, I limped from early position with T9o for 4000. A bunch of players saw the flop. The SB was the chip leader, with about 130K in chips. It was checked to me on a Q92 flop, with 2 clubs. I bet out 5500. The chip leader called and we were heads up to the turn. He bet out 25,000 on the turn, a 5 of spades. This appeared to be a blank, and I was pretty sure it didn't improve his hand. I studied him for a while, and decided to call. I hadn't see him play even one pot at the other table, so I really didn't have a good read on him. The river was a red 3. The chip leader bet 35,000. I spent a long time thinking and studying him. I really felt like it was most likely he hadn't improved, and could potentially have missed a draw. But, he also could have a better 9 than me. The bet was big enough to leave him chips to play, which was the factor that almost lead me to calling. Well, I should have gone with my gut. My cards weren't even in the muck when he turned up JTo, for a busted straight.
Oh, well. I started stealing pots here and there, and worked my stack back up to 120k pretty quickly. We were down to 6 players, and I had 4 decent hands against short-stacks who reraised me all-in. Getting great odds on all, I called. I went 1 out of 4. Back down to 60k. We dropped two more players (1 of which I doubled up twice while I was holding AK). 4-handed, the blinds were 4K-8K, with a 1K ante. I had 89K. The clock had already expired, so I knew we were going to 6K-12K on the next hand, with a 2K ante. I had 7BBs left. On the button, before looking at my cards, I decided to steal the blinds. The SB was weak, trying to hang on to move up. The BB was erratic, but showed he could lay down big hands. I looked down at 27o. They were letting me open for small amounts and still folding, so I opened for 22K. The SBs cards hit the muck so fast, they caught on fire. BB thought for just a second, and called. He had about 12K less than me. I was pretty much done with the hand, but the flop was 234 with 2 hearts. I had the 7 of hearts as an emergency re-draw to a flush, but more importantly, it was virtually impossible that my opponent had a better hand at this point. He shoved in, and I was getting the right odds to call. He turned over K-T of diamonds (eep!). Turn was a T, river King.
Down to 14K, fold UTG. In BB, I get dealt KQo. Button and SB both call with worse hands, but the SB fills up with T8 off, and I'm out in 4th place for a whopping $600.
I don't feel like I've been playing good poker lately, so I was happy with the deep run. There were a couple of times where I felt like I may have made the wrong decision, but in the end I felt like I played solid poker. I don't think I'm 100% focused yet, but I do think I'm playing better.
We started with 7500 in chips. Before the first break, I had my stack up to 25,000, in great shape. I lost half my stack on a marginal decision, then lost another pot to essentially make myself a short stack with 60 players to go.
Fast forward 4 hours, and I'd grinded until we had 30 players left. They started dropping like flies, and I won a few pots to give me a big enough stack to open up my game. When we got down to 2 tables, I was chip leader at my table. The floorman (Mark) promptly moved me to the other table, where I was 7th in chips out of 8. Thanks, Mark. We can't be too pissed at Mark, since he's a Padres and Chargers fan. Mark gets a lot of practice saying, "This is a rebuilding year."
I still managed to pick up enough pots at the table to keep up with the chip leader. I was happy that I was calling with marginal hands, then either betting out or check-calling to win some nice pots from players too afraid to go broke. Very shortly after moving tables, we were in the money. There was no money until the top 3, so I played as such at the final table.
Early on, 9-handed, with about 110K in chips, I limped from early position with T9o for 4000. A bunch of players saw the flop. The SB was the chip leader, with about 130K in chips. It was checked to me on a Q92 flop, with 2 clubs. I bet out 5500. The chip leader called and we were heads up to the turn. He bet out 25,000 on the turn, a 5 of spades. This appeared to be a blank, and I was pretty sure it didn't improve his hand. I studied him for a while, and decided to call. I hadn't see him play even one pot at the other table, so I really didn't have a good read on him. The river was a red 3. The chip leader bet 35,000. I spent a long time thinking and studying him. I really felt like it was most likely he hadn't improved, and could potentially have missed a draw. But, he also could have a better 9 than me. The bet was big enough to leave him chips to play, which was the factor that almost lead me to calling. Well, I should have gone with my gut. My cards weren't even in the muck when he turned up JTo, for a busted straight.
Oh, well. I started stealing pots here and there, and worked my stack back up to 120k pretty quickly. We were down to 6 players, and I had 4 decent hands against short-stacks who reraised me all-in. Getting great odds on all, I called. I went 1 out of 4. Back down to 60k. We dropped two more players (1 of which I doubled up twice while I was holding AK). 4-handed, the blinds were 4K-8K, with a 1K ante. I had 89K. The clock had already expired, so I knew we were going to 6K-12K on the next hand, with a 2K ante. I had 7BBs left. On the button, before looking at my cards, I decided to steal the blinds. The SB was weak, trying to hang on to move up. The BB was erratic, but showed he could lay down big hands. I looked down at 27o. They were letting me open for small amounts and still folding, so I opened for 22K. The SBs cards hit the muck so fast, they caught on fire. BB thought for just a second, and called. He had about 12K less than me. I was pretty much done with the hand, but the flop was 234 with 2 hearts. I had the 7 of hearts as an emergency re-draw to a flush, but more importantly, it was virtually impossible that my opponent had a better hand at this point. He shoved in, and I was getting the right odds to call. He turned over K-T of diamonds (eep!). Turn was a T, river King.
Down to 14K, fold UTG. In BB, I get dealt KQo. Button and SB both call with worse hands, but the SB fills up with T8 off, and I'm out in 4th place for a whopping $600.
I don't feel like I've been playing good poker lately, so I was happy with the deep run. There were a couple of times where I felt like I may have made the wrong decision, but in the end I felt like I played solid poker. I don't think I'm 100% focused yet, but I do think I'm playing better.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Borgata
I had to be in Philly for a meeting yesterday. Once I got checked into the hotel, I went back out to my car. Inevitably, the rental car turned East and headed to Borgata.
Now, I really can't stand going to Atlantic City. The only thing worse than the drive is the city itself. However, you can get off the highway and go right into the Borgata parking lot and avoid most of the ugliness.
We got there 2 hours before the evening tournament started. A quick bite to eat, and a tour through The Water Club ensued. Awesome La Perla lingerie store and a pretty cool bar.
We still had an hour to kill, so I sat down in 2-5 NL to lose a rack of chips. Cash games have never been my forte. I always get bored to quickly and end up spraying chips. A funny thing happened on the way to the tournament, though. I ended up winning about $500. I also had another Borgata first. I saw my first yellow $20 chip, which the dealer gave me when I colored up before leaving the table.
In the tournament, I lost almost half my stack on the very first hand when I flopped top pair and rivered trip Queens with a jack kicker when my opponent turned over KQ. I spent the next 4 hours scraping by, picking up chips where I could. The table was mostly calling stations, and it was a "tell" buffet, with everyone giving a bit of a hint as to what they were playing.
I was in a talkative mood, so made some friends (and enemies) by talking non-stop for the first hour. At the end of the second hour, I tilted a guy at our table that was already in a bad mood. It was the last hand before the break. He limped along with one other player, and I saw a flop holding K7s in the BB. The flop was 752 rainbow, and I bet out. The middle player folded, and "tilt boy" called. The turn was another 7. I bet out roughly the pot, which was about 1/3 of his remaining stack. He hemmed and hawed for most of the ten minute break, then finally folded. As I was getting ready to discard my hand, he told me he folded the 7 of diamonds. I then turned over the 7 of diamonds, and an interesting conversation ensued where he insisted he had it, even though I was holding it.
He severely tilted later, and busted out. The story doesn't have much of a happier ending for me. I busted out a few spots out of the money when I misread a rock at the table. Oh, well. Hopefull, better news next time.
Now, I really can't stand going to Atlantic City. The only thing worse than the drive is the city itself. However, you can get off the highway and go right into the Borgata parking lot and avoid most of the ugliness.
We got there 2 hours before the evening tournament started. A quick bite to eat, and a tour through The Water Club ensued. Awesome La Perla lingerie store and a pretty cool bar.
We still had an hour to kill, so I sat down in 2-5 NL to lose a rack of chips. Cash games have never been my forte. I always get bored to quickly and end up spraying chips. A funny thing happened on the way to the tournament, though. I ended up winning about $500. I also had another Borgata first. I saw my first yellow $20 chip, which the dealer gave me when I colored up before leaving the table.
In the tournament, I lost almost half my stack on the very first hand when I flopped top pair and rivered trip Queens with a jack kicker when my opponent turned over KQ. I spent the next 4 hours scraping by, picking up chips where I could. The table was mostly calling stations, and it was a "tell" buffet, with everyone giving a bit of a hint as to what they were playing.
I was in a talkative mood, so made some friends (and enemies) by talking non-stop for the first hour. At the end of the second hour, I tilted a guy at our table that was already in a bad mood. It was the last hand before the break. He limped along with one other player, and I saw a flop holding K7s in the BB. The flop was 752 rainbow, and I bet out. The middle player folded, and "tilt boy" called. The turn was another 7. I bet out roughly the pot, which was about 1/3 of his remaining stack. He hemmed and hawed for most of the ten minute break, then finally folded. As I was getting ready to discard my hand, he told me he folded the 7 of diamonds. I then turned over the 7 of diamonds, and an interesting conversation ensued where he insisted he had it, even though I was holding it.
He severely tilted later, and busted out. The story doesn't have much of a happier ending for me. I busted out a few spots out of the money when I misread a rock at the table. Oh, well. Hopefull, better news next time.
Friday, November 14, 2008
World Series of Poker Table
Obviously, the most disappointing thing was that I wasn't at the final table. Not far behind that would be how disappointing the coverage was.
First, the geniuses running the WSOP decide to delay the final table of this event until November, to match up with the ESPN TV schedule. Then, inexplicably, they don't show the event live. Instead, it's played a day or so before the broadcast, and the winner seeps out on the internet.
Now, I wasn't one of those who mistakenly found out who the winner was early. But that didn't make the broadcast any better. One brief illustration of the lack of suspense was the story of Kelly Kim. He was the short stack with 10 players left, doing everything he could to hold on this summer and make the final table. We see someone else bust out 9th, and ESPN does a great job showing us plenty of dramatic coverage with Kelly Kim holding on by his fingers. Fast forward to November. Kelly Kim doubles up early, and someone else busts out 9th. Kelly Kim is now a millionaire. We get to watch him celebrate. A real storyline. But wait, we come back from the next commercial break, and Kelly has busted out of the tournament. They don't even show us the hand. He just stands up and leaves.
Peter Eastgate, from Denmark, beat Ivan Demidov heads up in a fairly uninspiring match. This isnt' meant to take anything away from Peter. He played well, appeared to get the right amount of luck, and won a boatload of cash. But ESPN never really built a story around him. So, despite the fact that Jamie Gold was annoying, I felt more attachment to watching him win than Peter.
ESPN did a good job profiling Chino Rheem all along, so I'll give them a passing grade there. The rest of the coverage blew.
Congratulations to Peter. More importantly, congratulations to my friend Matt Matros, who made two final tables at the Series this year, along with top 100 finish in the main event. Matt missed a WPT final table in Canada a few weeks ago, and has had a hell of a year playing poker.
First, the geniuses running the WSOP decide to delay the final table of this event until November, to match up with the ESPN TV schedule. Then, inexplicably, they don't show the event live. Instead, it's played a day or so before the broadcast, and the winner seeps out on the internet.
Now, I wasn't one of those who mistakenly found out who the winner was early. But that didn't make the broadcast any better. One brief illustration of the lack of suspense was the story of Kelly Kim. He was the short stack with 10 players left, doing everything he could to hold on this summer and make the final table. We see someone else bust out 9th, and ESPN does a great job showing us plenty of dramatic coverage with Kelly Kim holding on by his fingers. Fast forward to November. Kelly Kim doubles up early, and someone else busts out 9th. Kelly Kim is now a millionaire. We get to watch him celebrate. A real storyline. But wait, we come back from the next commercial break, and Kelly has busted out of the tournament. They don't even show us the hand. He just stands up and leaves.
Peter Eastgate, from Denmark, beat Ivan Demidov heads up in a fairly uninspiring match. This isnt' meant to take anything away from Peter. He played well, appeared to get the right amount of luck, and won a boatload of cash. But ESPN never really built a story around him. So, despite the fact that Jamie Gold was annoying, I felt more attachment to watching him win than Peter.
ESPN did a good job profiling Chino Rheem all along, so I'll give them a passing grade there. The rest of the coverage blew.
Congratulations to Peter. More importantly, congratulations to my friend Matt Matros, who made two final tables at the Series this year, along with top 100 finish in the main event. Matt missed a WPT final table in Canada a few weeks ago, and has had a hell of a year playing poker.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Vegas
I've been in Vegas on business since Thursday, and haven't stopped moving since. Thursday started with an early morning flight from the East Coast, a 6:00pm dinner meeting followed by a 9:30pm dinner meeting.
I finally had some time to play poker on Saturday, heading over to The Venetian for their noon tournament. I made a deep run, and was positioned well for the money. I was laying down hands at the right time (folded a straight on the river when I was 100% certain my opponent had me beat). I then had the following two hands:
I limp from middle position with KQ of spades after two players limp in front of me. Both were calling stations, so a raise didn't seem appropriate here. We picked up 2 more players behind me, for a total of 5 seeing the flop. The flop was K92, with two diamonds. It was checked to me, and I bet 3/4 of the pot. The player next to me shoved all-in for roughly double my bet. Everyone folded back to me, and I called. He showed me JT, and rivered a Q.
The very next hand, I was dealt pocket 5s. 1 limper in front of me. I limp, a girl 3 to my left limps, and the blinds come along. The flop is 752 rainbow. I bet out a pot-sized bet when it gets to me. Girl calls, everyone else folds. Turn is a ten, suit doesn't matter. I bet 3/4 of the pot, she calls again. River is a 4. I bet 3/4 of the pot again, which doesn't leave me too much behind. She sets me all-in. I call and she shows me A3 offsuit.
And that, my friends, was the end of the ballgame.
I finally had some time to play poker on Saturday, heading over to The Venetian for their noon tournament. I made a deep run, and was positioned well for the money. I was laying down hands at the right time (folded a straight on the river when I was 100% certain my opponent had me beat). I then had the following two hands:
I limp from middle position with KQ of spades after two players limp in front of me. Both were calling stations, so a raise didn't seem appropriate here. We picked up 2 more players behind me, for a total of 5 seeing the flop. The flop was K92, with two diamonds. It was checked to me, and I bet 3/4 of the pot. The player next to me shoved all-in for roughly double my bet. Everyone folded back to me, and I called. He showed me JT, and rivered a Q.
The very next hand, I was dealt pocket 5s. 1 limper in front of me. I limp, a girl 3 to my left limps, and the blinds come along. The flop is 752 rainbow. I bet out a pot-sized bet when it gets to me. Girl calls, everyone else folds. Turn is a ten, suit doesn't matter. I bet 3/4 of the pot, she calls again. River is a 4. I bet 3/4 of the pot again, which doesn't leave me too much behind. She sets me all-in. I call and she shows me A3 offsuit.
And that, my friends, was the end of the ballgame.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Poker Friends in The Money
I have two friends who had significant cashes yesterday in poker tournaments. Neither did as well as they wanted, but both achievements are very notable.
First, Matt Matros finished 7th at the WPT North American Championship in Niagara Falls. The tournament had 454 entries, each putting up $10,000. Matt walked away with just less than $100K. After having what I would consider to be a fantastic WSOP (Matt may have a different opinion), where he made two final tables and finished 78th out of 6844 entrants.
I was able to watch one of Matt's final tables on ESPN360.com, where he got sucked out on pretty badly to wipe out a nice chip stack. I was actually in Vegas during Matt's run to the money, standing in the room at 1 in the morning when they finally made the money. Definitely a lot of fun watching, here's hoping I can be sitting down for it one day!
You can check out Matt's redesigned blog at http://mattmatros.com. Matt had a great run a few years ago in the WPT Championship at Bellagio in 2004, finishing at the same final table his best friend, Russell, made. Matt finished 3rd, winning just over $700K.
Another friend, Russell Rosenblum, entered a $3K event at the Festa al Lago tourney currently going on at Bellagio. They got 56 entries, paid 5 spots. After being short-stacked for the entire final table, Russell got down to heads up, worked his way back even in chips, but ended up coming up just short. Coincidentally, he busted with the same two sets of hands (AQ vs JJ) that he did when he made the final table of the WPT Championship in 2004.
Congrats to both!
First, Matt Matros finished 7th at the WPT North American Championship in Niagara Falls. The tournament had 454 entries, each putting up $10,000. Matt walked away with just less than $100K. After having what I would consider to be a fantastic WSOP (Matt may have a different opinion), where he made two final tables and finished 78th out of 6844 entrants.
I was able to watch one of Matt's final tables on ESPN360.com, where he got sucked out on pretty badly to wipe out a nice chip stack. I was actually in Vegas during Matt's run to the money, standing in the room at 1 in the morning when they finally made the money. Definitely a lot of fun watching, here's hoping I can be sitting down for it one day!
You can check out Matt's redesigned blog at http://mattmatros.com. Matt had a great run a few years ago in the WPT Championship at Bellagio in 2004, finishing at the same final table his best friend, Russell, made. Matt finished 3rd, winning just over $700K.
Another friend, Russell Rosenblum, entered a $3K event at the Festa al Lago tourney currently going on at Bellagio. They got 56 entries, paid 5 spots. After being short-stacked for the entire final table, Russell got down to heads up, worked his way back even in chips, but ended up coming up just short. Coincidentally, he busted with the same two sets of hands (AQ vs JJ) that he did when he made the final table of the WPT Championship in 2004.
Congrats to both!
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