Post Vegas Update

I have returned to poker after my almost 1 1/2 week hiatus from the game, I played a lot out in Vegas and needed time to rest and take it all in. But I started playing again sparingly when time permitted, then Adrian organized another B-House Poker Tournament for Thomas's Birthday. It's been a long time since we have had a tournament over there, so I was looking forward to playing (and the food)!!!!!

We started with $3000 chips this time, and it was a 2-table tournament, I had Nikki, Chris, Barbie, Daniel, Rishi, Ben and Lola at my table. I didn't go into the tournament with any particular startegy other than don't donk of my chips playing stupidly. I started out the tournament playing tight, and I had won a few small pots to get my stack up to about $4000. Then this hand occured

My hand:

I am sitting in the Big Blind, and the blinds are $100/$200 Chris limps into the pot from 5th position, Daniel was in the Small Blind and calls. I check and the flop comes:



Daneil checks, I decided to check as well, Chris leads out with a bet of $600, Daniel folds I think about what Chris could have, and I am thinking he has a King with a kicker like a J, or he had a weak Ace. I contemplated re-raising him in this spot, but I didn't want to put to much into this pot as my hand was easily counterfeitable and if Chris did have something like A 10 he was unlikely to fold, I still wasn't 100% sure exactly what he had but I new I was in the lead. So I just called, the next card was:



I check again and Chris bets out with about $800, I still feel confident I am ahead, but I don't want to overplay the hand, because if my read was wrong I didn't want to lose too many chips this early. So, I just call still confident that I am ahead, but the River card brings:



When I saw that card I knew I was beat beause if Chris had an Ace his kicker was going to beat mine, so I check and Chris checks thinking I had a King and he shows:



He raked in a nice sized pot, I was sort of surprised that he did not raise pre-flop with that hand, it almost cost him a lot of chips. As the tournament moved on I played tight to the vest and moved all-in the few times winning the blinds uncontested. Then I doubled up a few times with pocket pairs, and winning a few showdowns.

I had a decent sized stack of about $8000 chips, then a big hand came up late in the tournament. I am in the big blind with these cards:



Chris limps into the pot from about the seat to the right of the cutoff. Everyone folds, and I just check. The flop comes:



Looking at the flop I haven't hit anything, and I am out of position I have a decent amount of chips even though the blinds are $800/$1600 at this point, I am thinking about the range of hand Chris has, and since he didn't raise pre-flop earlier with AQ I had to expand it a bit. I am thinking he has 2 face cards, and he just wanted to see a flop, and I feel I am behind, so I check to see what he does and he checks behind me, the next card is:



I now pickup a fairly good flush draw, and I don't think the flop or turn hit Chris either, at this point I am thinking he is still ahead of my hand, and there is a possible flush and possible straight on the board, so I check. Chris leads out with a minimum bet of $1600, which I believe to be a "feeler" bet I start thinking about what he has, and the way he played the hand I did not feel that he flopped the flush, and I was confident that the turn card did not help him.

Being that I put him on 2 face cards pre-flop I wondered if one was a Jack or a Ten, but I gave those a low probability because I felt he would have made a nice sized bet on the flop to prevent me from catching a hand to outdraw him. I think a pocket pair wasn't likely here as he would more than likely have raised pre-flop rather than just calling from that position. But even with all of that I still feel that I am behind in the hand, and I don't think calling his bet is unreasonable to take a chance on almost a nut flush, I have about an 18% chance of hitting a spade on the river which isn't very good and if he has the Ace of Spades I would be in bad shape. There was $5600 in the pot, and it cost me $1600 to call I am getting 3.5 to 1 for my money, and I feel confident if I hit a spade on the river I will win the hand. So I decide to call mainly because it's an easy decision if I don't hit the flush I can get away from the hand plus there aren't many other situations where I can win this much money with a single call and have an easy decision to make. So I call the $1600, and the river card is:



Pefect card for me, so I bet $3200 and Chris goes All-in I call, and he shows



a Queen high flush, and I win a huge pot with my King High flush and knock Chris out of the tournament.

This pot basically propelled me to the victory after that hand I gained the chip lead and never relenquished it, I beat Barbie heads up because of the large chip lead I had, but winning a tournament always feel good. I was happy with my play throught the tournament, I made a few mistakes, but I never put too many of my chips at risk without a good reason.

Caesar's $220 Buy-In Part II

The first part of the tournament went fairly well for me, I didn't lose many pots I entered, and I won a decent sized pot immediately after I moved to the table. The 40 minute blind levels really served as a benefit at the beginning of the tournament, but this table I had been moved too forced me to play much tigther. There were a lot of players from all over the world at this table, and they play a bit different style than I am used too. Plus Chris still had a large number of chips, and he didn't fold his hand to raises most of the time. This is where the tourmanent started to go a little bad for me.

I am sitting on the button with about $13000, the player UTG goes all-in blind for his last $2800, everyone folds the player in the cutoff thinks for a while and he just calls. I put him on a somewhat marginal hand, something that he wasn't too sure he wanted to put all his chips in with 3 people left to act behind him, I believe he would have raised with a hand like AA, KK, QQ, or JJ, so I am thinking I am in not that bad of shape when I look down and see I decide I want to isolate myself against the all-in player and push my opponent out he had about $6200 chips left I decided to go all-in for $13000. My thought on this was there was a lot of opportunity to get away from a marginal hand and I would win a huge pot if I could beat the all-in player. Plus if he called I didn't feel I would be that bad of a dog. He thinks long and hard then he calls with I was hoping for AJ or AQ, but I was still happy to be in a race. The flop comes great I flop two pair, but my oppnent in the hand hits a set and I don't improve on the turn or the river and he takes the side pot and the money from the all-in player.

That hand put me down to about $4500 chips, so one hand before the break I re-raise over the top of an early position raiser with he calls with , I spike a on the turn to double up to $9000 before the break.

Later in the tournament I double up with Pocket Queens vs K4, to sit with a stack at about $25,000. But then I make a mistake a player goes all-in blind once again, and a player who is to the right of the cutoff seat thinks for a long time, the amount of the all in was only about $2000. The player raises the bet to $7000, from where I am sitting in the big blind I already have $800 invested, and the small blind and antes along with the other bets leave about $12,200 in the pot, I look down and see , I am looking at the over bet by the player and thinking he is attempting to protect something I am thinking that if I re-raise all in he will fold and even if I lost to the all-in player I would still make a profit, the raiser was a big stack, so he should be able to get away from that bet in th face of strength. So I start to count my chips to see how much I have and I take out the extra money for the call, and place it in front of my cards while I count the rest, I then say all-in, and the player freaks out saying I only called (he was foreign so it was mostly hand signals and raised eyebrows). They called over the tournament director and he ruled that since I placed my chips in front of my cards that it was just a call, so I couldn't go all-in at that point. The reaction from the foreign player just validated my thoughts he was so worried he would have to call and all-in from me that it revealed he probably had a middle pocket pair, I don't think he could have called my all-in. As a result of the ruling the flop comes blanks and he bets $10,000,and I fold, then of course he turns over the other player hit a straight on the turn, but that gave the foreign player a set, then the board paired on the river for the full house.

After that hand the tournament became a crap shoot, people moving all-in just about every hand in order to get chips. So I steal the blinds a few times to try and keep my stack at a decent size, but at the $1000/$2000 w/ $100 ante things were tough. A raiser in late position raises to $10000 on my big blind, I look down to see I think through everything, and I figure my Ace isn't good and fold. He shows his hand and says "See no Steal".

The very next hand the same player raises my small blind all-in for the rest of his chips he has me covered, I look down to see I think for a long time, and I feel that I am ahead in the hand, but probably up against two high cards. At this point I am 4 from the money, but my mind is focused on putting myself in a position to win the tournament, so I call he shows it's a race! The flop comes my hand doesn't improve and I am eliminated in 24th place.

I think my call was ok, I could have waited for a better spot to get all my chips in, but if that hand goes my way I am sure to make it to the money at that point. Sometimes you have take risks in tournaments to put yourself in a position to make the final table, and not just making the money. I made several unforced mistakes that cost me valuable chips, hopefully I can eliminate those mistakes from my play in the future.

Back From Las Vegas

I got back from Las Vegas on Monday Morning and I have taken a full week off from poker, to recover from the Jet Lag and think about my experiences out there. Of course I spent 4 days at the Rio checking out the WSOP and being in the atmosphere, I came close, but was never able to qualify through Full Tilt for the $1500 event, and they weren't running 1-table satellites on the day I got there. So, I was cotent with watching Adrian and Nikki play in the $1500, Adrian cashed in the event, but we all played in a lot of tournaments while we were out there, was a lot of opportunity to get better.

Caesar's $220 buy-in Tourney Part I

This was the first tournament I played in when I arrived in Las Vegas, me and several of my friends decided to play in this tourney known as the best in Vegas. I like the structure because it has 40-minute blind levels, and assuming you do the re-buy (most people do) you start with about $5000 chips.

The tournament starts and I am sizing up the table, at first the table is fairly tight, but I start to notice a few players at the table who are making over bets to steal smallish pots, this didn't make much sense to me at this early stage in the tournament. The first hand I decide to play I raise to 3x the big blind, since it took me 15 minutes to play a hand other than the blinds I got instant respect from the table and everyone folded the blinds to me with one guy saying a raise from you, it's yours. The first big hand that occured was when I limped on the button with the SB calls and the BB checks. The Flop comes the small blind bets $200 the BB folds I take a little time and think about it and call. The next card is a The small blind checks I bet $200 he calls, the river card comes giving me a fullhouse 5's over 4's, the small blind bets $3000 he has about $2000 left behind him, I only called (out of stupidity) he shows fullhouse 4's over 5's, and I take the huge pot down.

Later I am moved to another table up to about $8000 chips (very healthy at this point in the tourney), and I sit down and I see 2 seats to my left is a guy with a WSOP bracelet on. After a little table chatter I realize it's Chris Gros the winner of event #1 at the WSOP this year Profile. He has a lot of chips, but I am sort of excited at the opportunity to go up against a tough competitor, about 3/4 this of the table I moved too were playing or had played in events at the WSOP. This was one of the toughest tables I had ever played at, my game tightened up a bit because of the play at the table. I was in the cutoff seat when I look down and see I typically play this hand looking to make a flush draw and in late position with no raises I raised to 4x the big blind. Chris calls my raise and everyone else folds, the flop comes I had noticed that Chris wanted to re-raise me pre-flop, but my tight image at the table convinced him to just call. The blinds were at $50/$100 he had position on me being that he called from the button, I knew I had to take control of the hand even though the situation was not optimal there were a lot of ways I could be behind at this point. So, I bet $400 Chris thinks about it, and reluctantly calls, at this point I can't really put him on a hand maybe an Ace with a small kicker I was trying to represent Ace King even though I wasn't that strong. The turn card is I know have top pair with a draw to the nut flush, I then bet $800 to make it appear that I am protecting a hand this bet is more scary coming from a tight player, and Chris thinks for a while and folds the hand to me. I never knew what he had it was hard to put him on a hand, I am thinking maybe a King, but it's hard for me to think he would have played it that way.

At this point in the tournament I am in great shape healthy and able to be selective about what pots I play and who I play them with. Part II of this tournament summary will be in the next post.