Thursday, 31 May 2012
Vegas 2012
It's finally here ! I'm not yet sure if I will re-find the muse to blog my trip out there this time, but I will probably re-read my old blogs in any case!
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Ex-cruise-iatingly bad poker
I’m writing this blog entry from The Independence of The Seas , on a cruise in the Med. On the whole, I am a big fan of cruise vacations. It’s genuinely true that there is something for everyone on these big ships. This is our third cruise, and our second on this particular vessel. We have already booked for next year.
I’d describe Royal Caribbean as an upper mid-market brand. It’s a high quality offering, but it’s not at all formal or stuffy. Fantastic for kids (especially the older ones). We do not see our 14 and 15 year-olds except at dinner. It’s obviously a very safe environment, and they love the freedom. There is a 1am curfew, which they simply ignore.
The ship has a casino. A pretty big one, and quite busy. Like most American casinos it is rather over-populated with slot machines (this ship is now based entirely in Europe, so the slots are scarcely used).
It also has a whole range of blackjack and (double zero) roulette tables and other daft casino games, like 3-card poker. No craps though, interestingly. The table takes up too much room, possibly. It is a ship, after all. Space is at a premium (theoretically, anyway).
Thankfully (I thought) it does also offer some real poker.
They actually have 2 (count’em – two !) hold’em tables, although both are 7-seater converted blackjack tables. Obviously the considerable expense (many hundreds of dollars) of a real 9/10 seater couldn’t be accommodated after they spent $800Million on the ship itself. This is a shame, although last year I played some enjoyable poker on the same cruise (interpretation: I won).
However, it wasn’t the physical limitations which really irritated me this year.
The fact is, these guys really know how NOT to run a cardroom. Many of you reading this will play at The International which is of course a superb example of how to do things right.
Of course, you may have gripes about the tourney schedule, or the structures, or the buy-in ranges or you may not like the cash race, or the carpet or the temperamental air-con etc. But even if you are a big fan of the club, you probably don’t appreciate just how important the basics are – especially competent, efficient dealers and knowledgeable, consistent management.
When the basics are wrong, it makes for a bad game. The other thing is that the game was full of really bad players. Now, I generally don’t agree with those who say they hate playing bad players.
Of course I understand that it can be difficult to know where you stand against players who don’t know what their bets are supposed to mean, and I have some sympathy for the extra bad beats that come around because the fish do not realise when they are supposed to fold.
However, I usually say that I love to play against terrible players, for the obvious reasons. I’ve organised plenty of very enjoyable corporate tournaments at The Gutshot and The International, where the fields were pretty weak. I even have some decent success against those fields. I also certainly don’t mind playing cash against players who are even worse than me.
However, the cruise players were bad in especially annoying ways (which I shall come on to).
It’s actually quite surprising to me that the players could be so bad. The ship has 4,000 passengers. Altogether, perhaps 20 people or so came along to the poker games. Just 1 in 200.
So, you would imagine these were the ones who actually already play and know the game quite well. It would seem like they must have actively sought out the game (like I did). I don’t think live cash poker is the kind of thing people just “have a go” at.
Actually, the standard in all kinds of games on ship seems quite low. For example, I went along to some darts sessions hosted by Keith Deller (remember him ? Nice guy actually). Highest score with 9 darts – that sort of thing.
tbh, I didn’t trouble the scorers much. I haven’t played for many, many years (although the 1989 Oxford-Cambridge varsity match is still a very clear memory to me. Well, the actual memories are a bit fuzzy as they tend to be after 12 pints, but my memory of not remembering is quite clear).
Still, you would have thought with the number of tattooed arms on the ship, the treble-20 would be wearing out. However, the quality of the arrows was not impressive ! Maybe being at sea causes problems. No such excuses for the poker players.
Last year, the onboard poker game included a couple of genuine UK regulars and some others who had some decent gamble in them, and it proved a fun game.
This year, the players seemed to know the rules and mostly claimed to play a lot online, but they were just mind-numbingly bad.
Let me try to give you some idea just how bad.
The casino was running a 7-handed shootout satellite to win an EPT cruise. $50 entry, with $25 rebuys. The structure was alarmingly shallow. 1,000 chips with blinds 25/50 to start. 10 minute levels, blind doubling at each level. 30 minute rebuy period.
I can tell you for a fact that I was the best player by a mile. I know this because I had 5 rebuys in 30 minutes, which was 5 more than the rest of the table put together. You have to try to get some chips, I feel. I went on to finish (very annoyingly) 2nd in my heat (i.e first of the losers).
The lady who won my table made this play of champions:
After a 3-way all in at the 3-handed stage, she had scooped and I was left with just 1,200 chips at the 1,000/2,000 level. She had 20,800. I won the first heads-up hand [ all in perforce on the BB], so I had 2,400 on the button for the next deal.
Obviously I moved in blind (before the cards were dealt, so there was no iota of doubt that I was blind). She therefore had to put in 400 into a pot of 4,400 against a blind hand. She had me out-chipped by 10-1.
She folded! I don’t think she is necessarily going to be outclassed at the final table, mind you.
Still, she was a tournament player. Perhaps the cash players would be better. Well just barely, I suppose.
The terrible players were part of the problem with the cash game. The slow pace of the game was probably the most difficult thing to cope with.
But, in the meantime, the rake was a nightmare. Now you generally do not find me engaged in a Jack Glass-style rant about the niceties of reduced rake or missed blinds or the like.
I generally do not worry about the rake in any game. I’m usually just happy to play.
Still, 10% is a pretty steep rate in a 7-handed $1-2 game. It was at least capped (at $10). That is where the good news ended. They raked heads-up pots; they raked split pots; they raked pre-flop pots; they started the rake at $5 pots.
The final straw was when I raised the button and the blinds folded. They raked this pot as well.
There was a players’ revolt at this point. Apparently this was a new rule, and I don’t know what was more shocking – the fact they wanted to take a rake in this scenario, or the fact that they couldn’t immediately see it was wrong.
Eventually they relented on this ruling, although we had to put each new dealer straight on it. However, they still raked in the case of limp-raise-all fold.
Pretty tough to beat this rake, and somehow it felt even worse because at the end of each pot they would laboriously stack the pot into $10 piles and then count off the 10%. If you’re going to rob us blind, at least make sure we can’t see you doing it !
I still fancied I could beat the players and come out ahead. But to be honest I never found a good way to counter the extraordinarily passive play. The players would simply limp virtually all the time.
I obviously tried raising a lot. They would often call these raises, which sometimes made for decent post-flop pots, but it was impossible to bet them out of these pots. I suppose the best strategy would be tight-aggressive but the pace of play was glacial, so there simply wasn’t time to wait for good hands.
You would be amazed at the numbers of ways that inexpert dealer and bad players can slow the game down.
Obviously, start with slow shuffling and lots of forgotten blinds. Then, individually make change to everyone who has posted an oversized chip. Also pre-emptively make change for people who want to be able to have the right chips to call the $2 (i.e. everyone).
Since there isn’t a lot of folding, each street can take a while especially as players do not realise when it’s their turn. Naturally if there is an all-in it will take ages to get a count. Allow the $0.50 cent chips to play, of course, to complicate matters. Do various amounts of pointless stacking of the pot. At showdown, no one turns their cards over, and then it takes some time to decide who’s won.
I am exaggerating, certainly, and some of the dealers were accurate and would earn a shift or two at The International (if there were a London-wide pandemic flu, say). Some of the poor players were in fact just a bit weak-passive (almost experts, in context).
The fact is, it is just not fun playing in a game against all bad players where the rake makes it a basically just a zero-soon game.
I’ve already mentioned some of the outlandish rake rulings. To be fair to the casino, I think they ran a fairly efficient operation but just didn’t really understand poker and what makes for a good game.
They were earning a pretty good income despite all the problems (although you would think they would see it made sense to speed up the game). I think there could be a bit of a virtuous circle if they ran a better game with a slightly less extreme rake structure.
The final straw for me came when a player pocketed two-thirds of his stack after we combined two tables. That’s bad etiquette even if it weren’t against the rules. The floor didn’t prevent him from doing this, and for some reason I just couldn’t bear to continue in the game after this happened.
The best thing about this game, I suppose, is that it really makes me appreciate what I’m missing at the club. I can’t wait to get in a properly run game where I’m going to lose because the other players are just much better than me. DC-Wednesdays at The International sounds like a dream come true (£100 FO followed by a spot of 6-max multi-game madness).
I’d describe Royal Caribbean as an upper mid-market brand. It’s a high quality offering, but it’s not at all formal or stuffy. Fantastic for kids (especially the older ones). We do not see our 14 and 15 year-olds except at dinner. It’s obviously a very safe environment, and they love the freedom. There is a 1am curfew, which they simply ignore.
The ship has a casino. A pretty big one, and quite busy. Like most American casinos it is rather over-populated with slot machines (this ship is now based entirely in Europe, so the slots are scarcely used).
It also has a whole range of blackjack and (double zero) roulette tables and other daft casino games, like 3-card poker. No craps though, interestingly. The table takes up too much room, possibly. It is a ship, after all. Space is at a premium (theoretically, anyway).
Thankfully (I thought) it does also offer some real poker.
They actually have 2 (count’em – two !) hold’em tables, although both are 7-seater converted blackjack tables. Obviously the considerable expense (many hundreds of dollars) of a real 9/10 seater couldn’t be accommodated after they spent $800Million on the ship itself. This is a shame, although last year I played some enjoyable poker on the same cruise (interpretation: I won).
However, it wasn’t the physical limitations which really irritated me this year.
The fact is, these guys really know how NOT to run a cardroom. Many of you reading this will play at The International which is of course a superb example of how to do things right.
Of course, you may have gripes about the tourney schedule, or the structures, or the buy-in ranges or you may not like the cash race, or the carpet or the temperamental air-con etc. But even if you are a big fan of the club, you probably don’t appreciate just how important the basics are – especially competent, efficient dealers and knowledgeable, consistent management.
When the basics are wrong, it makes for a bad game. The other thing is that the game was full of really bad players. Now, I generally don’t agree with those who say they hate playing bad players.
Of course I understand that it can be difficult to know where you stand against players who don’t know what their bets are supposed to mean, and I have some sympathy for the extra bad beats that come around because the fish do not realise when they are supposed to fold.
However, I usually say that I love to play against terrible players, for the obvious reasons. I’ve organised plenty of very enjoyable corporate tournaments at The Gutshot and The International, where the fields were pretty weak. I even have some decent success against those fields. I also certainly don’t mind playing cash against players who are even worse than me.
However, the cruise players were bad in especially annoying ways (which I shall come on to).
It’s actually quite surprising to me that the players could be so bad. The ship has 4,000 passengers. Altogether, perhaps 20 people or so came along to the poker games. Just 1 in 200.
So, you would imagine these were the ones who actually already play and know the game quite well. It would seem like they must have actively sought out the game (like I did). I don’t think live cash poker is the kind of thing people just “have a go” at.
Actually, the standard in all kinds of games on ship seems quite low. For example, I went along to some darts sessions hosted by Keith Deller (remember him ? Nice guy actually). Highest score with 9 darts – that sort of thing.
tbh, I didn’t trouble the scorers much. I haven’t played for many, many years (although the 1989 Oxford-Cambridge varsity match is still a very clear memory to me. Well, the actual memories are a bit fuzzy as they tend to be after 12 pints, but my memory of not remembering is quite clear).
Still, you would have thought with the number of tattooed arms on the ship, the treble-20 would be wearing out. However, the quality of the arrows was not impressive ! Maybe being at sea causes problems. No such excuses for the poker players.
Last year, the onboard poker game included a couple of genuine UK regulars and some others who had some decent gamble in them, and it proved a fun game.
This year, the players seemed to know the rules and mostly claimed to play a lot online, but they were just mind-numbingly bad.
Let me try to give you some idea just how bad.
The casino was running a 7-handed shootout satellite to win an EPT cruise. $50 entry, with $25 rebuys. The structure was alarmingly shallow. 1,000 chips with blinds 25/50 to start. 10 minute levels, blind doubling at each level. 30 minute rebuy period.
I can tell you for a fact that I was the best player by a mile. I know this because I had 5 rebuys in 30 minutes, which was 5 more than the rest of the table put together. You have to try to get some chips, I feel. I went on to finish (very annoyingly) 2nd in my heat (i.e first of the losers).
The lady who won my table made this play of champions:
After a 3-way all in at the 3-handed stage, she had scooped and I was left with just 1,200 chips at the 1,000/2,000 level. She had 20,800. I won the first heads-up hand [ all in perforce on the BB], so I had 2,400 on the button for the next deal.
Obviously I moved in blind (before the cards were dealt, so there was no iota of doubt that I was blind). She therefore had to put in 400 into a pot of 4,400 against a blind hand. She had me out-chipped by 10-1.
She folded! I don’t think she is necessarily going to be outclassed at the final table, mind you.
Still, she was a tournament player. Perhaps the cash players would be better. Well just barely, I suppose.
The terrible players were part of the problem with the cash game. The slow pace of the game was probably the most difficult thing to cope with.
But, in the meantime, the rake was a nightmare. Now you generally do not find me engaged in a Jack Glass-style rant about the niceties of reduced rake or missed blinds or the like.
I generally do not worry about the rake in any game. I’m usually just happy to play.
Still, 10% is a pretty steep rate in a 7-handed $1-2 game. It was at least capped (at $10). That is where the good news ended. They raked heads-up pots; they raked split pots; they raked pre-flop pots; they started the rake at $5 pots.
The final straw was when I raised the button and the blinds folded. They raked this pot as well.
There was a players’ revolt at this point. Apparently this was a new rule, and I don’t know what was more shocking – the fact they wanted to take a rake in this scenario, or the fact that they couldn’t immediately see it was wrong.
Eventually they relented on this ruling, although we had to put each new dealer straight on it. However, they still raked in the case of limp-raise-all fold.
Pretty tough to beat this rake, and somehow it felt even worse because at the end of each pot they would laboriously stack the pot into $10 piles and then count off the 10%. If you’re going to rob us blind, at least make sure we can’t see you doing it !
I still fancied I could beat the players and come out ahead. But to be honest I never found a good way to counter the extraordinarily passive play. The players would simply limp virtually all the time.
I obviously tried raising a lot. They would often call these raises, which sometimes made for decent post-flop pots, but it was impossible to bet them out of these pots. I suppose the best strategy would be tight-aggressive but the pace of play was glacial, so there simply wasn’t time to wait for good hands.
You would be amazed at the numbers of ways that inexpert dealer and bad players can slow the game down.
Obviously, start with slow shuffling and lots of forgotten blinds. Then, individually make change to everyone who has posted an oversized chip. Also pre-emptively make change for people who want to be able to have the right chips to call the $2 (i.e. everyone).
Since there isn’t a lot of folding, each street can take a while especially as players do not realise when it’s their turn. Naturally if there is an all-in it will take ages to get a count. Allow the $0.50 cent chips to play, of course, to complicate matters. Do various amounts of pointless stacking of the pot. At showdown, no one turns their cards over, and then it takes some time to decide who’s won.
I am exaggerating, certainly, and some of the dealers were accurate and would earn a shift or two at The International (if there were a London-wide pandemic flu, say). Some of the poor players were in fact just a bit weak-passive (almost experts, in context).
The fact is, it is just not fun playing in a game against all bad players where the rake makes it a basically just a zero-soon game.
I’ve already mentioned some of the outlandish rake rulings. To be fair to the casino, I think they ran a fairly efficient operation but just didn’t really understand poker and what makes for a good game.
They were earning a pretty good income despite all the problems (although you would think they would see it made sense to speed up the game). I think there could be a bit of a virtuous circle if they ran a better game with a slightly less extreme rake structure.
The final straw for me came when a player pocketed two-thirds of his stack after we combined two tables. That’s bad etiquette even if it weren’t against the rules. The floor didn’t prevent him from doing this, and for some reason I just couldn’t bear to continue in the game after this happened.
The best thing about this game, I suppose, is that it really makes me appreciate what I’m missing at the club. I can’t wait to get in a properly run game where I’m going to lose because the other players are just much better than me. DC-Wednesdays at The International sounds like a dream come true (£100 FO followed by a spot of 6-max multi-game madness).
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Sunday, 6 June 2010
How do they know ??
I created my Twitter account and within a couple of hours or so I picked up four "followers".
Each of these was basically a semi-spam account. Real businesses (as far as I know) all related to poker - with something to sell. This happens a little bit on facebook. In my case, for example, a cardroom or casino may invite me to be their friend. I usually decline such meta-advertising.
On LinkedIn, headhunters invite you to connect so they can get in touch with you and so that they can see into your network of colleagues.
Fair enough, I suppose, and I nearly always decline those invites as well.
On Twitter, I doubt one can block a follower - it's a "recipient led network".
There's no real harm in it either.
What what intrigues me is how - when my account was just tens of minutes old and I have made no posts at all - they knew I was a poker player ?
They'd be kind of scary at the table I guess - excellent reads.
Each of these was basically a semi-spam account. Real businesses (as far as I know) all related to poker - with something to sell. This happens a little bit on facebook. In my case, for example, a cardroom or casino may invite me to be their friend. I usually decline such meta-advertising.
On LinkedIn, headhunters invite you to connect so they can get in touch with you and so that they can see into your network of colleagues.
Fair enough, I suppose, and I nearly always decline those invites as well.
On Twitter, I doubt one can block a follower - it's a "recipient led network".
There's no real harm in it either.
What what intrigues me is how - when my account was just tens of minutes old and I have made no posts at all - they knew I was a poker player ?
They'd be kind of scary at the table I guess - excellent reads.
Friday, 4 June 2010
To Tweet or Not To Tweet ?
I am hardly a technophobe, but I don't find myself leaping at the new technologies or the new internet trends. I was a pretty slow adopter of eBay, for example, and highly skeptical of their business idea. Likewise, I did not see the big deal about yet another search engine (google).
It took a while before I decided to give facebook a try, and the same for LinkedIn.
I have quite consciously avoided taking on any more of these networking services - they just eat up time, I think.
This specifically applied to Twitter. I really struggled to see the point of it. 140 characters - why ?
However, I am on the point of caving in.
With a trip to Vegas just around the corner, it seems like it would be the ideal way of keeping friends (those also in Vegas, those about to come, those staying at home or already back) informed of my progress at the tournaments and indeed to share the news of others among the "community" (I do find that UK poker players in Vegas constitute a real community).
I may soon be learning Twitterese.
It took a while before I decided to give facebook a try, and the same for LinkedIn.
I have quite consciously avoided taking on any more of these networking services - they just eat up time, I think.
This specifically applied to Twitter. I really struggled to see the point of it. 140 characters - why ?
However, I am on the point of caving in.
With a trip to Vegas just around the corner, it seems like it would be the ideal way of keeping friends (those also in Vegas, those about to come, those staying at home or already back) informed of my progress at the tournaments and indeed to share the news of others among the "community" (I do find that UK poker players in Vegas constitute a real community).
I may soon be learning Twitterese.
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Thursday, 29 April 2010
A-Z guide to winning a beginners tournament
Avoid Bluffing.
Cheap Draws.
Exploit (Fully) Good Hands.
Introduce Judgement/Knowledge/Learning
Manipulate Novice Opponents.
Position !
Quickly Recognise Situations To Unlock Value
Winner [X] (You !)
ZOMG .....
__________
It didn't work, however.
Cheap Draws.
Exploit (Fully) Good Hands.
Introduce Judgement/Knowledge/Learning
Manipulate Novice Opponents.
Position !
Quickly Recognise Situations To Unlock Value
Winner [X] (You !)
ZOMG .....
__________
It didn't work, however.
Monday, 26 April 2010
Double Trouble
I turned up at The International last Tuesday night with one objective – to play SCRABBLE (and win). We’ve had some great matches at the club, in fact, with several tough poker players showing they are multi-talented.
I have a good record but lack of practice was a factor, and the field looked dangerous. Fair play to Sam Acheampong who was one of the first to put his name down (not his actual name – that doesn’t go in Scrabble) despite being a little outmatched.
Thing is, you never know with Sam. Maybe he could bink this thing as well (nb: BINK does go). I was a little wary when I drew him in the first round.
Sam, in fact, nearly didn’t play despite coming to the club specifically for the tournament.
Actually, when I arrived, I found him playing the £25 Deep’n’Steep. Apparently when he got through the door, he had forgotten why he’d come and clicked “auto-register”. Still, he assured me he’d probably still be available for the 7:30 Scrabble ;)
I resolved that there was no way I would attempt to play both, especially since I was planning to take down the Scrabble. However, I spotted Neil (definitely one of the favourites) at Table B.
This was enough of an excuse – and I was in. My seat was directly to the left of Sam !
There is a report on the Scrabble itself in the International Forum.
This blog is going to be about my attempt to do the Poker-Scrabble double on the same night.
I only had time to play half an orbit before I went off to organize the draw and then play my first round. This was enough time, though, for Sam to divest himself of his tournament duties (6-2 offsuit, how did he miss ??).
My table was broken whilst I got on with my match, and when I came back to play one hand 30mins later, I had to fold to a big 3-bet behind me from a solid player.
The table asks me what Acronym I’m playing today – I can’t think of one, so I say “SCRABBLE”.
One orbit later I came back and found my stack diminishing – down to 6k at 150/300. Playing only about 2 hands an hour, you don’t get too much choice in hand selection so this time I decide to over-limp in EP with 4-3o. The same player 3-bets again. I think “FIP” and call the extra 1,000. The dealer points out it’s actually another 400 on top of that. OK, I call.
Flop: 7-4-3. Check, ship, call. Kings no good sir !
30mins later I get to come back for another hand. I am on the Big Blind and with 7,800 at 800/1600 I figure it’s going in, but I find a fold to an UTG raise. I fold my SB as well.
Now I have only 5,400 and now I face a MP shove from an equally short-stacked player. I find A-5 and it has to be a call. The Big Blind thinks for a bit and decides he has to call.
J-4 for the initial raiser, A-5 here and 3-3 in the blinds.
That's not too bad ....
Flop 4-6-2.
Turn J.
River: 3 !
The BB takes a moment to realise I have scooped with a straight. Having trebled up, I get up to continue my Scrabble semi-final, but there are only 90 seconds til the break so I play one more – pocket Aces !
I end up all in pre vs 87s – I have to sweat an open ender on the turn but finish the level on 36k !
I see with amazement that there are only 19 players left – I’m thinking I may actually be final-tabling both comps.
Unfortunately, the “steep” part kicked in and having raise-folded one hand, I pushed with ATs (I only had 28k at 1,500/3,000 blinds), called by AQ. Queen high flop wasn’t great although the dealer gave it a go with a King on the turn. Somewhat surprisingly no Jack came and I fell in 15th.
Neil, meanwhile, did go on to make the final table and chop the comp. He would have had an excellent shot at the double but unfortunately he ran into Ade in the Semis and lost despite scoring not far short of 400 himself.
So, I have learnt the meaning of another word:
SCRABBLE, I now realise, stands for: Sometimes Call Recklessly And Bink (Be Lucky) – Easy !
I have a good record but lack of practice was a factor, and the field looked dangerous. Fair play to Sam Acheampong who was one of the first to put his name down (not his actual name – that doesn’t go in Scrabble) despite being a little outmatched.
Thing is, you never know with Sam. Maybe he could bink this thing as well (nb: BINK does go). I was a little wary when I drew him in the first round.
Sam, in fact, nearly didn’t play despite coming to the club specifically for the tournament.
Actually, when I arrived, I found him playing the £25 Deep’n’Steep. Apparently when he got through the door, he had forgotten why he’d come and clicked “auto-register”. Still, he assured me he’d probably still be available for the 7:30 Scrabble ;)
I resolved that there was no way I would attempt to play both, especially since I was planning to take down the Scrabble. However, I spotted Neil (definitely one of the favourites) at Table B.
This was enough of an excuse – and I was in. My seat was directly to the left of Sam !
There is a report on the Scrabble itself in the International Forum.
This blog is going to be about my attempt to do the Poker-Scrabble double on the same night.
I only had time to play half an orbit before I went off to organize the draw and then play my first round. This was enough time, though, for Sam to divest himself of his tournament duties (6-2 offsuit, how did he miss ??).
My table was broken whilst I got on with my match, and when I came back to play one hand 30mins later, I had to fold to a big 3-bet behind me from a solid player.
The table asks me what Acronym I’m playing today – I can’t think of one, so I say “SCRABBLE”.
One orbit later I came back and found my stack diminishing – down to 6k at 150/300. Playing only about 2 hands an hour, you don’t get too much choice in hand selection so this time I decide to over-limp in EP with 4-3o. The same player 3-bets again. I think “FIP” and call the extra 1,000. The dealer points out it’s actually another 400 on top of that. OK, I call.
Flop: 7-4-3. Check, ship, call. Kings no good sir !
30mins later I get to come back for another hand. I am on the Big Blind and with 7,800 at 800/1600 I figure it’s going in, but I find a fold to an UTG raise. I fold my SB as well.
Now I have only 5,400 and now I face a MP shove from an equally short-stacked player. I find A-5 and it has to be a call. The Big Blind thinks for a bit and decides he has to call.
J-4 for the initial raiser, A-5 here and 3-3 in the blinds.
That's not too bad ....
Flop 4-6-2.
Turn J.
River: 3 !
The BB takes a moment to realise I have scooped with a straight. Having trebled up, I get up to continue my Scrabble semi-final, but there are only 90 seconds til the break so I play one more – pocket Aces !
I end up all in pre vs 87s – I have to sweat an open ender on the turn but finish the level on 36k !
I see with amazement that there are only 19 players left – I’m thinking I may actually be final-tabling both comps.
Unfortunately, the “steep” part kicked in and having raise-folded one hand, I pushed with ATs (I only had 28k at 1,500/3,000 blinds), called by AQ. Queen high flop wasn’t great although the dealer gave it a go with a King on the turn. Somewhat surprisingly no Jack came and I fell in 15th.
Neil, meanwhile, did go on to make the final table and chop the comp. He would have had an excellent shot at the double but unfortunately he ran into Ade in the Semis and lost despite scoring not far short of 400 himself.
So, I have learnt the meaning of another word:
SCRABBLE, I now realise, stands for: Sometimes Call Recklessly And Bink (Be Lucky) – Easy !
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Poker as SPORT
When I walked into the club last Wednesday, a number of people came up to me to ask we whether I would be playing "No, No, No" again.
I was able to answer "No" (just the once). Tonight was "SPORT".
Almost universally, the other players immediately offered a possible meaning for today's acronym (at least for the "S" - some of them petered out after that).
Kirit came up with the quickest and most complete alternative version: "Shove, Push, Overbet, Re-shove and Tilt"
I decided to keep the real meanings to myself for the time being (mainly because I didn't want to stifle the creative guessing ... )
S for Spew ? S for Solid ? S for Stud ? S for Stacks ?
I can now reveal that this is what I had in mind:
S for Situations / Situational. I do believe that optimum poker is about identifying, understanding and exploiting the situations that arise. A situation can be as simple as "I have 8BB on the button; it's folded to me; I have two cards; I'm all-in !".
Most are a little more complex, and there can be dozens of factors to consider. However, by paying attention to the key variables - stacks, position, betting patterns and so on - we can make more good decisions.
In today's case, I intended "S" to focus me on actively seeking out good situations that didn't rely excessively on hitting good cards.
P for Position. Many of my acronyms will contain "P" since position is so crucial. I like to think it has the special property that no matter how much importance you have given to it, it's always a little bit more important than that.
Position is of course vital in creating and maximising many Situations.
O for Opponents. Playing at The International, one is generally facing a strong field. I do believe that the standard of play is high. I have certainly found that a standard £100 MTT here attracts a tougher field than a GUKPT ot a WSOP event.
The other thing is that I will know a lot of the players. In any case, I was conscious that I wanted to actively bring my knowledge and history with players into my thinking.
Studying the Opponents and their Position is of course useful in identifying good Situations.
R for Reads. When I first started playing, I believed it was a waste of time looking for reads. I thought betting patterns and other objective information were much more important.
Part of the reason I did not pay much attention to reads was that I knew I was too inexperienced to process all the basic info, let alone get into the ephemera.
Now, however, I come to realise that once you and your opponents reach a certain level then the relative importance of live reads grows considerably. I am a long way from being able to do this competently, but it's important to practice.
My plan was to explicitly look for and make reads and then compare my reads with the reality. I resolved to try to make reads in hands that I was not involved with as well, to gain extra practice "for free".
Naturally, Reads combined with information on the Opponents and the power of Position can put us in a good Situation
T for Timing. The "Timing" here refers to a number of tournament concepts - thinking about the stage of the event, deciding when to change gears, evaluating good opportunities to make a squeeze or a steal etc. It's also a reference to taking my time in making important decisions.
Well-judged Timing, strong Reads on the Opponent and good Position can make for a great Situation.
Just after the break, I thought I found a good Situation: I had Position on my my Opponent, Robin Dhinsa. I felt I had a good Read that his raise was weak (he himself was in hijack seat where he would be raising a lot) and that he could fold a lot of hands to a shove.
Timing looked good - I had 20 Big blinds and for Robin to call would be over 1/3 of his stack.
I re-raised all-in with 7h4h.
Robin dwelled. It seemed I had made the right move.
However, Robin obviously believes fishing is a sport as well and made the call with KhQh (only kidding Robin).
Unbelievably, I missed. Next time, I am playing "WHOOPS".
I was able to answer "No" (just the once). Tonight was "SPORT".
Almost universally, the other players immediately offered a possible meaning for today's acronym (at least for the "S" - some of them petered out after that).
Kirit came up with the quickest and most complete alternative version: "Shove, Push, Overbet, Re-shove and Tilt"
I decided to keep the real meanings to myself for the time being (mainly because I didn't want to stifle the creative guessing ... )
S for Spew ? S for Solid ? S for Stud ? S for Stacks ?
I can now reveal that this is what I had in mind:
S for Situations / Situational. I do believe that optimum poker is about identifying, understanding and exploiting the situations that arise. A situation can be as simple as "I have 8BB on the button; it's folded to me; I have two cards; I'm all-in !".
Most are a little more complex, and there can be dozens of factors to consider. However, by paying attention to the key variables - stacks, position, betting patterns and so on - we can make more good decisions.
In today's case, I intended "S" to focus me on actively seeking out good situations that didn't rely excessively on hitting good cards.
P for Position. Many of my acronyms will contain "P" since position is so crucial. I like to think it has the special property that no matter how much importance you have given to it, it's always a little bit more important than that.
Position is of course vital in creating and maximising many Situations.
O for Opponents. Playing at The International, one is generally facing a strong field. I do believe that the standard of play is high. I have certainly found that a standard £100 MTT here attracts a tougher field than a GUKPT ot a WSOP event.
The other thing is that I will know a lot of the players. In any case, I was conscious that I wanted to actively bring my knowledge and history with players into my thinking.
Studying the Opponents and their Position is of course useful in identifying good Situations.
R for Reads. When I first started playing, I believed it was a waste of time looking for reads. I thought betting patterns and other objective information were much more important.
Part of the reason I did not pay much attention to reads was that I knew I was too inexperienced to process all the basic info, let alone get into the ephemera.
Now, however, I come to realise that once you and your opponents reach a certain level then the relative importance of live reads grows considerably. I am a long way from being able to do this competently, but it's important to practice.
My plan was to explicitly look for and make reads and then compare my reads with the reality. I resolved to try to make reads in hands that I was not involved with as well, to gain extra practice "for free".
Naturally, Reads combined with information on the Opponents and the power of Position can put us in a good Situation
T for Timing. The "Timing" here refers to a number of tournament concepts - thinking about the stage of the event, deciding when to change gears, evaluating good opportunities to make a squeeze or a steal etc. It's also a reference to taking my time in making important decisions.
Well-judged Timing, strong Reads on the Opponent and good Position can make for a great Situation.
Just after the break, I thought I found a good Situation: I had Position on my my Opponent, Robin Dhinsa. I felt I had a good Read that his raise was weak (he himself was in hijack seat where he would be raising a lot) and that he could fold a lot of hands to a shove.
Timing looked good - I had 20 Big blinds and for Robin to call would be over 1/3 of his stack.
I re-raised all-in with 7h4h.
Robin dwelled. It seemed I had made the right move.
However, Robin obviously believes fishing is a sport as well and made the call with KhQh (only kidding Robin).
Unbelievably, I missed. Next time, I am playing "WHOOPS".
Friday, 16 April 2010
No, No, No !
I do like to come into a tournament armed with a good acronym.
Recent examples include:
"TV poker" = play Tight, and Value bet - I used that one for the HORSE tournament at the LPM festival.
"TOP" (or "POT") = Tight Or Positional; this was supposed to be for cash games to remind me to think about hand selection relative to my position in the deal. Admittedly, I didn't really use that one. I just said "POT" a lot.
In my most recent outing to the £100 Wednesday Freezeout at The International, I came with "No, No, No" which stood for:
1. No Show: I tend to have a bit of an addiction to showing my hand (i.e. generally showing bluffs - I get many opportunities to do this; occasionally to show my hero folds). I think it is pretty clear that a good rule is never to show and so the first "No" was to remind me of this, and I stuck with it almost 100%
2. No Hurry: Many times in the past (often in big tournaments) I have regretted not taking a little longer to make a really big decision. I tend to act very quickly.
Online I will often finish an MTT without having used a single second of my timebank. Live, I have only been "clocked" twice ever - each time it was an all-in call in a bracelet event. So, I am not exactly pushing the boundaries of an acceptable pace of play.
I should take a little time when the big hands play out, and I did also consciously slow down my routine decisions a little so that I could start to get into a habit of thinking a bit more about my actions.
3. No Fear: a reminder to myself that if the conditions seem right then I must be prepared to put my tournament life in jeopardy - whether it be the important thin value bets, the all-in calls, the strong reads, the short-stack shove with air or the trademark H-bomb check-raise bluff.
As a rule, I am not exactly nitty but I do sometimes hesitate when it comes to being actually all-in, and even I do need to remind myself that it's important to be committed to the moves we have decided upon.
I think, as well, that it's important to try to project no doubts that our opponents may pick up on.
With this mantra in mind, I set out once again on my mission to finally win something at the club. I resolved to play a genuinely solid game and - to many people's surprise - I actually did tighten up a lot on the day.
Admittedly, first hand I opened UTG with 8s7s . I was paid off 3 streets of value as the board came K-7-2-7-5 . My opponent was a bit upset at himself.
I played relatively few hands (for me, at least) and I also found the fold button in many spots where I wouldn't normally. I raise-folded 77 - TT about half a dozen times at least to strong action. Normally I think "they must have AK - let's race !"
I had a lucky break when I raised AcKh from UTG+1, with a MP caller and Terry "Final Table" Simpson calling in the BB.
I decided to check the JcTc9d flop - checked around.
On the turn, good news/bad news: the Qc.
Terry led out just 500 into a pot of nearly 2,000. I was not quite sure what to make of it. I felt I had to raise for value and made it 2,300. MP folded and Terry insta-shoved about 6k more. I have to call, I think. He showed 6c2c . Luckily a club hit the river and I was sitting on a nice stack.
I was pleased at my play in one other pot that I remember. Having raised early with 7h4h and received a call from a loose player in the blinds, I checked the 5c3c2h flop and called when the BB bet the Ac turn.
The river was an offsuit King and I found raise on the river - called by Ace-Ten.
In this hand, I was pretty sure he did not have a flush but in the past I have generally worried that if I raise I may get bluff-shoved and have to make a hero fold.
In this case, I had decided I was calling a shove, but as it was I probably got full value anyway.
Talking of river shoves, there was a funny hand against Chen when I had KhTh.
On the flop (Q9x), I pick up a gutshot and a backdoor flush draw and call Chen's lead bet.
On the turn (Jack), I make the nut straight but somehow I don't realise, and I check behind even though there is now a flush draw on board.
The river pairs the nine and puts a flush there. I am thinking to myself that I may hero-call Chen with King-high if he bets (say) 3/4 of the pot.
However, he over-bet shoves more than twice the pot! I ponder whether I can hero-call now and then after a little while I check my cards as I go to fold, and see I have the straight!
Now, against Chen, I snap call and am good against his A-9.
I began to feel that I had a good chance at my first win but at the 2-table stage, it all unravels after we move up to the TV table.
Phil King opens in UTG+1. I have him well covered and raise with AK. Now the BB wants to shove,
Phil folds (TT apparently), and I have to call 13k into 22k leaving myself with 7k if I lose (about 9bb at that stage).
I can hardly fold (or can I ? If I fold, I have 25bb).
The BB has QQ and holds.
Soon after I shove KsQs and am called by A-8o in MP (a bit surprising !).
The first two cards out are Ts, 9s so I have 18 outs 3 times.....
3d ... No,
7d ... No,
4h ... No !
Need a new mantra for next time ...
Recent examples include:
"TV poker" = play Tight, and Value bet - I used that one for the HORSE tournament at the LPM festival.
"TOP" (or "POT") = Tight Or Positional; this was supposed to be for cash games to remind me to think about hand selection relative to my position in the deal. Admittedly, I didn't really use that one. I just said "POT" a lot.
In my most recent outing to the £100 Wednesday Freezeout at The International, I came with "No, No, No" which stood for:
1. No Show: I tend to have a bit of an addiction to showing my hand (i.e. generally showing bluffs - I get many opportunities to do this; occasionally to show my hero folds). I think it is pretty clear that a good rule is never to show and so the first "No" was to remind me of this, and I stuck with it almost 100%
2. No Hurry: Many times in the past (often in big tournaments) I have regretted not taking a little longer to make a really big decision. I tend to act very quickly.
Online I will often finish an MTT without having used a single second of my timebank. Live, I have only been "clocked" twice ever - each time it was an all-in call in a bracelet event. So, I am not exactly pushing the boundaries of an acceptable pace of play.
I should take a little time when the big hands play out, and I did also consciously slow down my routine decisions a little so that I could start to get into a habit of thinking a bit more about my actions.
3. No Fear: a reminder to myself that if the conditions seem right then I must be prepared to put my tournament life in jeopardy - whether it be the important thin value bets, the all-in calls, the strong reads, the short-stack shove with air or the trademark H-bomb check-raise bluff.
As a rule, I am not exactly nitty but I do sometimes hesitate when it comes to being actually all-in, and even I do need to remind myself that it's important to be committed to the moves we have decided upon.
I think, as well, that it's important to try to project no doubts that our opponents may pick up on.
With this mantra in mind, I set out once again on my mission to finally win something at the club. I resolved to play a genuinely solid game and - to many people's surprise - I actually did tighten up a lot on the day.
Admittedly, first hand I opened UTG with 8s7s . I was paid off 3 streets of value as the board came K-7-2-7-5 . My opponent was a bit upset at himself.
I played relatively few hands (for me, at least) and I also found the fold button in many spots where I wouldn't normally. I raise-folded 77 - TT about half a dozen times at least to strong action. Normally I think "they must have AK - let's race !"
I had a lucky break when I raised AcKh from UTG+1, with a MP caller and Terry "Final Table" Simpson calling in the BB.
I decided to check the JcTc9d flop - checked around.
On the turn, good news/bad news: the Qc.
Terry led out just 500 into a pot of nearly 2,000. I was not quite sure what to make of it. I felt I had to raise for value and made it 2,300. MP folded and Terry insta-shoved about 6k more. I have to call, I think. He showed 6c2c . Luckily a club hit the river and I was sitting on a nice stack.
I was pleased at my play in one other pot that I remember. Having raised early with 7h4h and received a call from a loose player in the blinds, I checked the 5c3c2h flop and called when the BB bet the Ac turn.
The river was an offsuit King and I found raise on the river - called by Ace-Ten.
In this hand, I was pretty sure he did not have a flush but in the past I have generally worried that if I raise I may get bluff-shoved and have to make a hero fold.
In this case, I had decided I was calling a shove, but as it was I probably got full value anyway.
Talking of river shoves, there was a funny hand against Chen when I had KhTh.
On the flop (Q9x), I pick up a gutshot and a backdoor flush draw and call Chen's lead bet.
On the turn (Jack), I make the nut straight but somehow I don't realise, and I check behind even though there is now a flush draw on board.
The river pairs the nine and puts a flush there. I am thinking to myself that I may hero-call Chen with King-high if he bets (say) 3/4 of the pot.
However, he over-bet shoves more than twice the pot! I ponder whether I can hero-call now and then after a little while I check my cards as I go to fold, and see I have the straight!
Now, against Chen, I snap call and am good against his A-9.
I began to feel that I had a good chance at my first win but at the 2-table stage, it all unravels after we move up to the TV table.
Phil King opens in UTG+1. I have him well covered and raise with AK. Now the BB wants to shove,
Phil folds (TT apparently), and I have to call 13k into 22k leaving myself with 7k if I lose (about 9bb at that stage).
I can hardly fold (or can I ? If I fold, I have 25bb).
The BB has QQ and holds.
Soon after I shove KsQs and am called by A-8o in MP (a bit surprising !).
The first two cards out are Ts, 9s so I have 18 outs 3 times.....
3d ... No,
7d ... No,
4h ... No !
Need a new mantra for next time ...
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
A - Z of Poker (abridged)
Avoid being cold-decked; even fold good hands (if justified).
Karma? Luck? Meaningless ... nothing outweighs profits / quality results.
Simple truth: unite volume with experience & you'll zoom !
Karma? Luck? Meaningless ... nothing outweighs profits / quality results.
Simple truth: unite volume with experience & you'll zoom !
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Post Mortem
It's rather incredible that 3 months have elapsed since I last posted. I doubt I have any readers left ! Previous analysis has shown me that hits are closely correlated with posts.
It's not entirely due to a lack of blogworthy activity, although it is true that being back at work has slowed me down in terms of playing and then in terms of finding time to write about it.
Several times, in fact, I have made notes at the table with the intention of committing my thoughts to the blogosphere, but then time has passed by and the events no longer seem sufficiently topical.
This post will have to serve as a placeholder for posts that will follow shortly.
It's not entirely due to a lack of blogworthy activity, although it is true that being back at work has slowed me down in terms of playing and then in terms of finding time to write about it.
Several times, in fact, I have made notes at the table with the intention of committing my thoughts to the blogosphere, but then time has passed by and the events no longer seem sufficiently topical.
This post will have to serve as a placeholder for posts that will follow shortly.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Monday, 30 November 2009
£300 Freezeout Nov09
I was looking forward to the £300 freezeout at the end of November. This event is, I suppose, the Blue Riband offering on the poker schedule at The International.
I rarely play live poker at the weekend. I’ve only played the £100 a couple of times ever, and I have literally never taken part in the £300 (either here or at The Gutshot).
The event would be my last chance to register a tournament win in London for 2009. It didn’t seem terribly likely, but one has to be optimistic !
I started out on a positive note, registering a win in the scrabble beforehand. Perhaps I could overcome similarly tough opposition in the main event ?
Generally speaking, I start out in a deep-stacked tournament by setting fire to part of my stack. I have never adjusted well to the long structures, and I just cannot seem to make the necessary changes to my game. I vowed to try to correct for this today.
As expected, the 63 runners were a Who’s Who of Gutshot/International players. Faces everywhere.
My table was no exception. For example .... on my left, Stuart Prior (serial final tablist in the £100) and Mikey Tse. On my right, Prof Achillea, Martin Spearing and Phil Haddon.
For the first couple of orbits I was very careful about getting involved until I did try a little (and rather obvious) bluff last to act on the river on a Q-8-5-6-6, showing 3 diamonds. Phil Haddon found a call with Q5. Perhaps this was factor in the hand that played out shortly thereafter?
Still at 25/50, we see a 7-way limped pot with Andy having started off the limping. I have KhTh.
The flop give me some hope: J-9-6 with one heart. Andy bet 125 and finds 3 callers including me.
The turn is gin for me: Qh bringing me the nuts with the King-high flush draw. Andy bets 175. I have a range of options, but I must raise for value I think. I make it 625 and am pleased to find Phil Haddon and then Andy calling. There is now about 2,700 in the pot.
The river is a blank. Andy checks. I have the immortal nuts – can I get paid ? Clearly Phil and Andy have hands of some value. Again, there must be a variety of options here. I consider checking over to Phil but I opt to make a small lead bet. I revise down my initial thought of bet size and put in just 1,200. Perhaps it will look weak ?
Good news. Phil puts out a raise (also small) to 3,000. Clearly he is not trying to bluff me here. My first thought is that we may be chopping, but I do find it unlikely that Phil wouldn’t have raised with KT and no hearts on the turn. Surely he would not raise now with a set or 2 pair?
It seems definitely possible that he has T8, even though with this hand he might also flat call the river. Perhaps he doesn’t feel 1,200 is enough reward for his hand and believes I will call with a hand like 2 pair myself?
Andy folds (2 pair he says). It does seem unlikely that Phil will now call if I re-raise the river. I do my best to appear discomfited, and take a look at the stack situation. On the one hand I may need to almost min-raise to get him to call, when he must now believe he is losing. I could make it as little as 4,800 theoretically. I started the hand with about 11k so an all-in raise would be to about 10,000 – about a pot sized raise in fact.
It is well known that I like the river raise or check-raise bluff. The 3-bet-all-in-river-bluff is the most grown up bet in this family of high octane plays. I must get some credit for a possible audacious bluff ?
If I do shove, I am of course expecting either a sigh-fold or a snap call for the chop. I am really not expecting Phil to call almost all-in with less than KT. There again, if he’s calling at all maybe he has to call the shove and maybe it is easier to call the shove?
On the whole I do think I under-bet my monsters, so I go for it.
When he doesn’t snap, I’m praying for him to find the hero inside! He mutters some version of the “this is sick” psalm and I think he uttered the classic “I think you’ve got it but I can’t fold” and with that, he makes the call with T8 and is shown the bad news.
Up to 22k and presumably the chiplead ! Phil still had a couple of thousand left. I think this was a factor in his decision. That is still 40 big blinds in this comp, and in fact Phil doubled up with a T8 straight a short while later. I remember thinking that it was still quite likely he would outlast me !
I made another nice step forward towards the end of the same level. Having made it 150 from late position, I get a call from Mike Tse and one other. Mike leads for 200 from the blinds when the flop comes Ts9h3s. I have As6s and I opt for the raise to 800, which Mike flats.
I ask him “do you have a flush draw?” No answer as per usual. The turn is the Js. The nuts for me. Mike checks. How much to bet ? I decide again on a smallish bet and decide on 1,400. I pick up 2x reds (500 each) and 4x 100 chips. I say “fourteen” and throw in the2 reds and 4 greys.
Now, the greys are 1,000 each so I have actually put in 5,000 chips! There is some confusion and some amusement at the table. Some kind of moody from me ? Some kind of Freudian slip ?
Someone suggested that I may have been made to put in fourteen thousand but I think the decision was pretty commonsense and I colour down the bet. Mike calls.
I’m not too sure what to put him on, honestly. A smaller flush ? KT with the King of spades ? KQ with one or more spades ?
My ideal river is a spade I guess. The Jack of hearts comes down. Hmm. I am not too delighted about this but, really, can he have a house ? Can he have a set on the flop and bet/call like that ?
Unlikely surely. How about TJ, J9 ? Not impossible but would he check the river ? Obviously I don’t want to get check-raise bluffed but once again I am aware that I need to get enough value for my big hand and that my image can help me get paid.
I choose an amount that I hope will dissuade Mikey from a bluff raise. I go for 4,000 into about a 4,900 pot. Mikey obviously had a hand as he found a call after a modest dwell, and I was good.
On about 26,500 chips I was feeling in great shape, obviously. I was very aware of my history of blowing up big stacks and I even took a couple of fairly long breaks from the table to enforce some discipline.
I thought I might really be running good when I picked up Kings on the button. Unfortunately, my standard raise took down the blinds and one limper.
Likewise, just a couple of hands later I find Aces and raise in early-mid position. Robin on my immediate left seemed to have been playing quite solid values and he appeared to think very carefully before make a near minimum raise from 600 to 1,200.
I thought I may be in luck. Ordinarily I might think his raise indicated Aces. This seemed unlikely here ! We seemed too deep for me to just flat but my 2,500 re-raise unfortunately scared him away. He later told me he only had QJ, so I suppose this wasn’t that tight of a fold !
Andy Achillea had been moved from our table and after a period playing 8 and 7 handed, we received a couple of new players. Briony Stone was moved into Andy’s seat on my right.
In her first hand she was the SB to my BB. I thought I may be getting a walk, until Briony bumps the bet to 700 (100/200). I have the rather appealing-looking JhTh. I think (why ?) that Briony may not have a monster so I decide a raise to clarify the situation is in order.
I don’t want to commit myself so I am about to make a smallish raise but something makes me say “2,000 more”.
This is met with an insta-ship for a further 5,200. I guess I found out. I go to fold when something else says to me “getting 2:1 ...” and I’m taking into account that Briony may well realise that my initial raise can be very light. Can’t she re-shove with 8s and 9s and AK, AQ ?
I hear myself say “call”. Briony has Aces, obviously. Is this the beginning of the downward spiral ?
Still, it wasn’t an easy hold for the Aces – two hearts on the flop and a Jack on the river gave me 14 outs on the river. None came, though, and the very next hand I bluffed 2,000 into the river only to find Briony insta-calling with 99 on the Queen high board. The river did complete a straight, but unfortunately it was the 5-7 straight rather than the 5-6 that I held. Still, it was promising to realise I could have value bet a made straight and been paid.
I still was running OK. The main problem was getting paid rather than getting a hand. I was hitting sets for fun, and straights as well although the next straight I made came with a flush on board – Martin Spearing made the flush on the turn exactly when I made the nut straight. I called his check-raise and when the river paired, I was able to see the bad-news-showdown without facing another bet. Could I have barrelled the river and represented ? Maybe.
I continue to preserve my chips relatively well, in my opinion, whilst at the same time playing pretty aggressively. It is important to play within one’s own style, I think.
However, with about 40 players left we’re in the last hand of level 6 (200/400/50), when this happens ...
JoeJoe “Goldenboy” Whittaker opens for 1,025 in early-mid. Martin Spearing is super-short on the button and is now all-in for 1,050. I am the big blind with 9s4s facing 650 to call into a pot of 1,050x2+200+400+9x50=3,150, so I am receiving nearly 5-1 on the call.
I cannot resist the call. OK ...
Flop – good news, bad news. J-9-4 all diamonds. I flop bottom two pair. This is probably winning right now. Of course, our Golden Boy may have flopped anything up to and including the nuts.
I opt to check to see what happens first. I have about 21k at this point and JoeJoe has me covered by several thousand.
He bets 2,025. Into a dry side pot this obviously announces that he has some values. The logic for my next action is one of those part-baked ideas. I wanted to “explain” to JoeJoe that I have flopped a big hand and that he should fold. I decide that a min raise will achieve this, even though realistically he cannot fold !
I duly make it 4,050 and now the rest falls into place. “How much do you have” etc. And then “alright, I’m all in”.
At this point I am essentially certain that he has one pair and one diamond. I should also explain that pre-flop I verbalised the fact that I was making a pure odds call. This means my opponent knows that his one pair/one diamond hand is either the best hand or the best draw. He has excellent information on the scenario.
The only hand he really fears from me is something like 8d3d and even then he knows he is almost certain to have a high diamond draw. There is essentially zero chance I have a made flush higher than a Queen.
OK ... If I fold I leave 40bb, about to become 25bb or so. Not a disaster. However, if I win I will have > 42k chips – up there with the leaders. I am very sure I am ahead now but I am also pretty sure I am about a 50/50 shot.
I think that to do well in these tournies I probably need to alter my style to incorporate a much higher value on my tournament life. In the moment, I made a deliberate decision that I wanted to play to win. Now I suspect a majority may argue that “playing to win” means fold here.
However, not wishing to give Ostrich more ammo to call me The Laydown King, I go for the call.
JoeJoe, as advertised, has QdJh. Martin in fact has a gutshot and a diamond draw with KcTd. The turn brings a Queen – making Martin the current nuts.
I need one of the remaining 4s or 9s. No joy and I am left to rue my pre-flop call. I don’t think I can ever get away on the flop although others maybe can ?
About the only comfort I can take is that my two chip donatees (JoeJoe and Briony) both final tabled as chipleader and eventual winner respectively !
2010 targets ... win a tournament at The International.
I rarely play live poker at the weekend. I’ve only played the £100 a couple of times ever, and I have literally never taken part in the £300 (either here or at The Gutshot).
The event would be my last chance to register a tournament win in London for 2009. It didn’t seem terribly likely, but one has to be optimistic !
I started out on a positive note, registering a win in the scrabble beforehand. Perhaps I could overcome similarly tough opposition in the main event ?
Generally speaking, I start out in a deep-stacked tournament by setting fire to part of my stack. I have never adjusted well to the long structures, and I just cannot seem to make the necessary changes to my game. I vowed to try to correct for this today.
As expected, the 63 runners were a Who’s Who of Gutshot/International players. Faces everywhere.
My table was no exception. For example .... on my left, Stuart Prior (serial final tablist in the £100) and Mikey Tse. On my right, Prof Achillea, Martin Spearing and Phil Haddon.
For the first couple of orbits I was very careful about getting involved until I did try a little (and rather obvious) bluff last to act on the river on a Q-8-5-6-6, showing 3 diamonds. Phil Haddon found a call with Q5. Perhaps this was factor in the hand that played out shortly thereafter?
Still at 25/50, we see a 7-way limped pot with Andy having started off the limping. I have KhTh.
The flop give me some hope: J-9-6 with one heart. Andy bet 125 and finds 3 callers including me.
The turn is gin for me: Qh bringing me the nuts with the King-high flush draw. Andy bets 175. I have a range of options, but I must raise for value I think. I make it 625 and am pleased to find Phil Haddon and then Andy calling. There is now about 2,700 in the pot.
The river is a blank. Andy checks. I have the immortal nuts – can I get paid ? Clearly Phil and Andy have hands of some value. Again, there must be a variety of options here. I consider checking over to Phil but I opt to make a small lead bet. I revise down my initial thought of bet size and put in just 1,200. Perhaps it will look weak ?
Good news. Phil puts out a raise (also small) to 3,000. Clearly he is not trying to bluff me here. My first thought is that we may be chopping, but I do find it unlikely that Phil wouldn’t have raised with KT and no hearts on the turn. Surely he would not raise now with a set or 2 pair?
It seems definitely possible that he has T8, even though with this hand he might also flat call the river. Perhaps he doesn’t feel 1,200 is enough reward for his hand and believes I will call with a hand like 2 pair myself?
Andy folds (2 pair he says). It does seem unlikely that Phil will now call if I re-raise the river. I do my best to appear discomfited, and take a look at the stack situation. On the one hand I may need to almost min-raise to get him to call, when he must now believe he is losing. I could make it as little as 4,800 theoretically. I started the hand with about 11k so an all-in raise would be to about 10,000 – about a pot sized raise in fact.
It is well known that I like the river raise or check-raise bluff. The 3-bet-all-in-river-bluff is the most grown up bet in this family of high octane plays. I must get some credit for a possible audacious bluff ?
If I do shove, I am of course expecting either a sigh-fold or a snap call for the chop. I am really not expecting Phil to call almost all-in with less than KT. There again, if he’s calling at all maybe he has to call the shove and maybe it is easier to call the shove?
On the whole I do think I under-bet my monsters, so I go for it.
When he doesn’t snap, I’m praying for him to find the hero inside! He mutters some version of the “this is sick” psalm and I think he uttered the classic “I think you’ve got it but I can’t fold” and with that, he makes the call with T8 and is shown the bad news.
Up to 22k and presumably the chiplead ! Phil still had a couple of thousand left. I think this was a factor in his decision. That is still 40 big blinds in this comp, and in fact Phil doubled up with a T8 straight a short while later. I remember thinking that it was still quite likely he would outlast me !
I made another nice step forward towards the end of the same level. Having made it 150 from late position, I get a call from Mike Tse and one other. Mike leads for 200 from the blinds when the flop comes Ts9h3s. I have As6s and I opt for the raise to 800, which Mike flats.
I ask him “do you have a flush draw?” No answer as per usual. The turn is the Js. The nuts for me. Mike checks. How much to bet ? I decide again on a smallish bet and decide on 1,400. I pick up 2x reds (500 each) and 4x 100 chips. I say “fourteen” and throw in the2 reds and 4 greys.
Now, the greys are 1,000 each so I have actually put in 5,000 chips! There is some confusion and some amusement at the table. Some kind of moody from me ? Some kind of Freudian slip ?
Someone suggested that I may have been made to put in fourteen thousand but I think the decision was pretty commonsense and I colour down the bet. Mike calls.
I’m not too sure what to put him on, honestly. A smaller flush ? KT with the King of spades ? KQ with one or more spades ?
My ideal river is a spade I guess. The Jack of hearts comes down. Hmm. I am not too delighted about this but, really, can he have a house ? Can he have a set on the flop and bet/call like that ?
Unlikely surely. How about TJ, J9 ? Not impossible but would he check the river ? Obviously I don’t want to get check-raise bluffed but once again I am aware that I need to get enough value for my big hand and that my image can help me get paid.
I choose an amount that I hope will dissuade Mikey from a bluff raise. I go for 4,000 into about a 4,900 pot. Mikey obviously had a hand as he found a call after a modest dwell, and I was good.
On about 26,500 chips I was feeling in great shape, obviously. I was very aware of my history of blowing up big stacks and I even took a couple of fairly long breaks from the table to enforce some discipline.
I thought I might really be running good when I picked up Kings on the button. Unfortunately, my standard raise took down the blinds and one limper.
Likewise, just a couple of hands later I find Aces and raise in early-mid position. Robin on my immediate left seemed to have been playing quite solid values and he appeared to think very carefully before make a near minimum raise from 600 to 1,200.
I thought I may be in luck. Ordinarily I might think his raise indicated Aces. This seemed unlikely here ! We seemed too deep for me to just flat but my 2,500 re-raise unfortunately scared him away. He later told me he only had QJ, so I suppose this wasn’t that tight of a fold !
Andy Achillea had been moved from our table and after a period playing 8 and 7 handed, we received a couple of new players. Briony Stone was moved into Andy’s seat on my right.
In her first hand she was the SB to my BB. I thought I may be getting a walk, until Briony bumps the bet to 700 (100/200). I have the rather appealing-looking JhTh. I think (why ?) that Briony may not have a monster so I decide a raise to clarify the situation is in order.
I don’t want to commit myself so I am about to make a smallish raise but something makes me say “2,000 more”.
This is met with an insta-ship for a further 5,200. I guess I found out. I go to fold when something else says to me “getting 2:1 ...” and I’m taking into account that Briony may well realise that my initial raise can be very light. Can’t she re-shove with 8s and 9s and AK, AQ ?
I hear myself say “call”. Briony has Aces, obviously. Is this the beginning of the downward spiral ?
Still, it wasn’t an easy hold for the Aces – two hearts on the flop and a Jack on the river gave me 14 outs on the river. None came, though, and the very next hand I bluffed 2,000 into the river only to find Briony insta-calling with 99 on the Queen high board. The river did complete a straight, but unfortunately it was the 5-7 straight rather than the 5-6 that I held. Still, it was promising to realise I could have value bet a made straight and been paid.
I still was running OK. The main problem was getting paid rather than getting a hand. I was hitting sets for fun, and straights as well although the next straight I made came with a flush on board – Martin Spearing made the flush on the turn exactly when I made the nut straight. I called his check-raise and when the river paired, I was able to see the bad-news-showdown without facing another bet. Could I have barrelled the river and represented ? Maybe.
I continue to preserve my chips relatively well, in my opinion, whilst at the same time playing pretty aggressively. It is important to play within one’s own style, I think.
However, with about 40 players left we’re in the last hand of level 6 (200/400/50), when this happens ...
JoeJoe “Goldenboy” Whittaker opens for 1,025 in early-mid. Martin Spearing is super-short on the button and is now all-in for 1,050. I am the big blind with 9s4s facing 650 to call into a pot of 1,050x2+200+400+9x50=3,150, so I am receiving nearly 5-1 on the call.
I cannot resist the call. OK ...
Flop – good news, bad news. J-9-4 all diamonds. I flop bottom two pair. This is probably winning right now. Of course, our Golden Boy may have flopped anything up to and including the nuts.
I opt to check to see what happens first. I have about 21k at this point and JoeJoe has me covered by several thousand.
He bets 2,025. Into a dry side pot this obviously announces that he has some values. The logic for my next action is one of those part-baked ideas. I wanted to “explain” to JoeJoe that I have flopped a big hand and that he should fold. I decide that a min raise will achieve this, even though realistically he cannot fold !
I duly make it 4,050 and now the rest falls into place. “How much do you have” etc. And then “alright, I’m all in”.
At this point I am essentially certain that he has one pair and one diamond. I should also explain that pre-flop I verbalised the fact that I was making a pure odds call. This means my opponent knows that his one pair/one diamond hand is either the best hand or the best draw. He has excellent information on the scenario.
The only hand he really fears from me is something like 8d3d and even then he knows he is almost certain to have a high diamond draw. There is essentially zero chance I have a made flush higher than a Queen.
OK ... If I fold I leave 40bb, about to become 25bb or so. Not a disaster. However, if I win I will have > 42k chips – up there with the leaders. I am very sure I am ahead now but I am also pretty sure I am about a 50/50 shot.
I think that to do well in these tournies I probably need to alter my style to incorporate a much higher value on my tournament life. In the moment, I made a deliberate decision that I wanted to play to win. Now I suspect a majority may argue that “playing to win” means fold here.
However, not wishing to give Ostrich more ammo to call me The Laydown King, I go for the call.
JoeJoe, as advertised, has QdJh. Martin in fact has a gutshot and a diamond draw with KcTd. The turn brings a Queen – making Martin the current nuts.
I need one of the remaining 4s or 9s. No joy and I am left to rue my pre-flop call. I don’t think I can ever get away on the flop although others maybe can ?
About the only comfort I can take is that my two chip donatees (JoeJoe and Briony) both final tabled as chipleader and eventual winner respectively !
2010 targets ... win a tournament at The International.
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Bingo!
During a recent late night PLO game, Miriam threw down the scrabble challenge gauntlet. Perhaps it wasn’t exactly a “challenge”, per se, but wanted to play and was confident she would win.
Based on what we know, this seemed plausible. But, never one to let near-certain defeat put me off, I accepted the challenge. We agreed to play before the £300 at the end of November.
I don’t know whether Miriam really expected the game to go ahead, but after I announced it on the forum it really had to be done!
Knowing that Miriam is a very good player, I was surprised to learn that she had in her possession neither a scrabble set, nor a scrabble dictionary!
I don’t have a board either as I have been playing on facebook with other forum members over the past few months but I haven’t played a “live” game for over 30 years. In any case, first order of the day on Saturday was a stop at “Toys-R-Us” to pick up a brand new scrabble kit. The game was removed from its shrink-wrap live at The International – so no issues over it being a complete set!
Expecting a heavy defeat, I negotiated Miriam down from £1 a point to 50p/point and off we went.
I ran good.
First, I picked “E” vs. Miriam’s “O” to win the right to play first (presumably that is an advantage) and whaddya know. Straight away I can play all 7 letters (playing all 7 letters is known as a “Bingo” in scrabble and is one of the keys to high scoring). It is obviously rare to be able to start the game this way, but unbelievably I found “ALCOVES” and I’m off to an absolute flyer – 82 points to open. That’s like picking up Aces vs. Kings in the first hand!
Miriam started with a modest 10, but then as I struggled to follow my strong start, Miriam fought back impressively using small multi-word combos to great effect. I had played “DIRT” when I should have played “WRIT” at move 2 and this enabled Miriam to play a really elegant SAY/DIRTY/NA for 33 points using only 3 letters.
A couple of moves later, she found the chance to play a Q on a double letter score AND pick up the double word – effectively netting 40 points for a single tile. “QUIET” was the word, but the reaction was anything but. Miriam had pulled back to within 3 points.
She was unlucky to find me with a “U” in hand so I could play “QUAD” to the triple word score in the bottom left, effectively neutralising her quad-Q to a great extent.
Now I had picked up 2 S’s and a blank is my hand – that’s a bit like freerolling to the nuts two ways. I had “FISSION” in my hand but couldn’t see how to play it for another Bingo. Miriam called the clock on me and I settled for playing just the “F” and holding the other letters.
Miriam took the chance to play two letters again for an AH/HA/DA combo – 23 points for two letters – very nice. She wasn’t sure about DA and I didn’t think she was bluffing, so I made the first of three important challenges that proved critical in the game.
DA was good (a Burmese knife) so I miss my turn and Miriam gets the chance to play on the open Triple Word at the top of the board. She breaks the 200 point barrier and gains the lead for the first time.
Meanwhile I decide to hold on to the chance of a bingo and play “IO” and “GO” for just 7 points.
Miriam makes an error here, I believe. She challenges and when IO turns out to be a valid term for a type of moth, I get a free go and can now play my S-S-blank combo for a Bingo (SUIToRS) and gain the momentum back.
Miriam couldn't quite believe that one, but at least she has learned a word to use in anger another time.
Game on! The “sack” was hitting me in the face, really, but Miriam countered with a fantastic 50 points for playing X on a triple letter, scoring twice in one move (XI, EX) – 48 points for 1 letter !
She unbelievably had the lead back despite me playing 2 Bingos and snagging a tripled-Q.
I say the tiles were good to me but at one point here I held the rather unfavourable AAEEEEB. I never like to exchange or pass. I prefer to play out of trouble – dropping in EE in the middle of some other words. Miriam was dubious about “IDES” but let it go (it is valid in fact).
After EX/XI I played CAB/BIO (although risky/doubtful) but Miriam elected not to risk the challenge again (BIO was fine in fact).
She was able to tag “CAB” to play LUNGS and SCAB which may have left the board a bit open and when I managed to dump my Z fairly safely, Miriam failed to close off the top-left triple when she chose to play RINK to keep the scoring lead in the game.
I was able to use the triple (and make it safe) with LIVED.
All the tiles were now out and I held EJLOPT to Miriam’s MNNORTU. Playing “MORN/EM/DO” Miriam moved into a single point lead (actually on checking the scores later Miriam was in fact 2 points behind at this stage. “Live” we saw her as 1 ahead – either way it was extremely close).
Miriam announced she could go out at the next turn. I hold a P and crucially an 8-point J in my hand. If she really can go out then I am crushed if I do not play my J. Not only will I not score with it, but it will effectively count against me 8 points twice.
The letter J is not always easy to play, and I am not sure what score I need to defend either.
I opt to play “JO” which I knew was good and at the same time I make “OI” and “JA”. I score the J twice (instead of losing it twice) but I am not certain about “JA”.
I have to make up my mind quickly and decide to go for it.
JA/JO/OI puts me 19 ahead. I have 6 points left in my hand. If Miriam knows this (theoretically she should but in practice she will be guessing) then she will need to score 8 to win. Scoring 8 puts her 11 behind and the 6 in my hand is deduced from my score AND added to hers. This will leave her the winner by one point!
In a world of perfect information, Miriam would know all this and play “TURN” on the double word score, for exactly 8 and a win by a single point.
I give a bit of speech about now being sure of “JA” and Miriam decides to challenge. If she is right, she is a lock for the game but when “JA” is good (it means Yes, basically) I get another go and dump my P.
That settles it for a win by 17 (Miriam actually plays “RUNT” for 6 points on the end which doesn’t matter now).
In quite a twist, I rechecked the scores in detail later (and with the benefit of time) and it turns out that Miriam was in fact 22 points behind so if she doesn’t challenge and plays “TURN” then her 1 pt win would swing to a 2 point loss on recount. How to rule on this one ? She had incorrect information and could have played differently if she knew. Would the result stand? Tricky one!
I only ever play on the internet so wrong scores do not happen. Miriam made no errors at all in calling her scores. I scored wrong 3 times (only by 1 or 2 points) but as we see it can make all the difference!
It’s fair to say that Miriam played the better game but it takes two to tango, and all agreed it was an exciting match. Most said it was more exciting than watching KILLYGLEN fail to trouble the scorers at the Haydock Park which was on simultaneously.
I had wanted to watch the race but the board held my attention, and apparently I didn’t miss much (except for the $100 I had on the stupid nag ...).
International Scrabble Tournament anyone ?
Based on what we know, this seemed plausible. But, never one to let near-certain defeat put me off, I accepted the challenge. We agreed to play before the £300 at the end of November.
I don’t know whether Miriam really expected the game to go ahead, but after I announced it on the forum it really had to be done!
Knowing that Miriam is a very good player, I was surprised to learn that she had in her possession neither a scrabble set, nor a scrabble dictionary!
I don’t have a board either as I have been playing on facebook with other forum members over the past few months but I haven’t played a “live” game for over 30 years. In any case, first order of the day on Saturday was a stop at “Toys-R-Us” to pick up a brand new scrabble kit. The game was removed from its shrink-wrap live at The International – so no issues over it being a complete set!
Expecting a heavy defeat, I negotiated Miriam down from £1 a point to 50p/point and off we went.
I ran good.
First, I picked “E” vs. Miriam’s “O” to win the right to play first (presumably that is an advantage) and whaddya know. Straight away I can play all 7 letters (playing all 7 letters is known as a “Bingo” in scrabble and is one of the keys to high scoring). It is obviously rare to be able to start the game this way, but unbelievably I found “ALCOVES” and I’m off to an absolute flyer – 82 points to open. That’s like picking up Aces vs. Kings in the first hand!
Miriam started with a modest 10, but then as I struggled to follow my strong start, Miriam fought back impressively using small multi-word combos to great effect. I had played “DIRT” when I should have played “WRIT” at move 2 and this enabled Miriam to play a really elegant SAY/DIRTY/NA for 33 points using only 3 letters.
A couple of moves later, she found the chance to play a Q on a double letter score AND pick up the double word – effectively netting 40 points for a single tile. “QUIET” was the word, but the reaction was anything but. Miriam had pulled back to within 3 points.
She was unlucky to find me with a “U” in hand so I could play “QUAD” to the triple word score in the bottom left, effectively neutralising her quad-Q to a great extent.
Now I had picked up 2 S’s and a blank is my hand – that’s a bit like freerolling to the nuts two ways. I had “FISSION” in my hand but couldn’t see how to play it for another Bingo. Miriam called the clock on me and I settled for playing just the “F” and holding the other letters.
Miriam took the chance to play two letters again for an AH/HA/DA combo – 23 points for two letters – very nice. She wasn’t sure about DA and I didn’t think she was bluffing, so I made the first of three important challenges that proved critical in the game.
DA was good (a Burmese knife) so I miss my turn and Miriam gets the chance to play on the open Triple Word at the top of the board. She breaks the 200 point barrier and gains the lead for the first time.
Meanwhile I decide to hold on to the chance of a bingo and play “IO” and “GO” for just 7 points.
Miriam makes an error here, I believe. She challenges and when IO turns out to be a valid term for a type of moth, I get a free go and can now play my S-S-blank combo for a Bingo (SUIToRS) and gain the momentum back.
Miriam couldn't quite believe that one, but at least she has learned a word to use in anger another time.
Game on! The “sack” was hitting me in the face, really, but Miriam countered with a fantastic 50 points for playing X on a triple letter, scoring twice in one move (XI, EX) – 48 points for 1 letter !
She unbelievably had the lead back despite me playing 2 Bingos and snagging a tripled-Q.
I say the tiles were good to me but at one point here I held the rather unfavourable AAEEEEB. I never like to exchange or pass. I prefer to play out of trouble – dropping in EE in the middle of some other words. Miriam was dubious about “IDES” but let it go (it is valid in fact).
After EX/XI I played CAB/BIO (although risky/doubtful) but Miriam elected not to risk the challenge again (BIO was fine in fact).
She was able to tag “CAB” to play LUNGS and SCAB which may have left the board a bit open and when I managed to dump my Z fairly safely, Miriam failed to close off the top-left triple when she chose to play RINK to keep the scoring lead in the game.
I was able to use the triple (and make it safe) with LIVED.
All the tiles were now out and I held EJLOPT to Miriam’s MNNORTU. Playing “MORN/EM/DO” Miriam moved into a single point lead (actually on checking the scores later Miriam was in fact 2 points behind at this stage. “Live” we saw her as 1 ahead – either way it was extremely close).
Miriam announced she could go out at the next turn. I hold a P and crucially an 8-point J in my hand. If she really can go out then I am crushed if I do not play my J. Not only will I not score with it, but it will effectively count against me 8 points twice.
The letter J is not always easy to play, and I am not sure what score I need to defend either.
I opt to play “JO” which I knew was good and at the same time I make “OI” and “JA”. I score the J twice (instead of losing it twice) but I am not certain about “JA”.
I have to make up my mind quickly and decide to go for it.
JA/JO/OI puts me 19 ahead. I have 6 points left in my hand. If Miriam knows this (theoretically she should but in practice she will be guessing) then she will need to score 8 to win. Scoring 8 puts her 11 behind and the 6 in my hand is deduced from my score AND added to hers. This will leave her the winner by one point!
In a world of perfect information, Miriam would know all this and play “TURN” on the double word score, for exactly 8 and a win by a single point.
I give a bit of speech about now being sure of “JA” and Miriam decides to challenge. If she is right, she is a lock for the game but when “JA” is good (it means Yes, basically) I get another go and dump my P.
That settles it for a win by 17 (Miriam actually plays “RUNT” for 6 points on the end which doesn’t matter now).
In quite a twist, I rechecked the scores in detail later (and with the benefit of time) and it turns out that Miriam was in fact 22 points behind so if she doesn’t challenge and plays “TURN” then her 1 pt win would swing to a 2 point loss on recount. How to rule on this one ? She had incorrect information and could have played differently if she knew. Would the result stand? Tricky one!
I only ever play on the internet so wrong scores do not happen. Miriam made no errors at all in calling her scores. I scored wrong 3 times (only by 1 or 2 points) but as we see it can make all the difference!
It’s fair to say that Miriam played the better game but it takes two to tango, and all agreed it was an exciting match. Most said it was more exciting than watching KILLYGLEN fail to trouble the scorers at the Haydock Park which was on simultaneously.
I had wanted to watch the race but the board held my attention, and apparently I didn’t miss much (except for the $100 I had on the stupid nag ...).
International Scrabble Tournament anyone ?
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Lost My Car Playing PLO
Not literally, you understand, but it was the kind of game where you could imagine anything happening.
I made a trip down to The International to play in the $100k bounty tournament, and it turned out to be a great fun night of poker.
First phase was a quick spin in the £1-1 NLH game. I say “spin”, but there is another word that goes after “spin” that is not “up”.
I didn’t have long before the bounty tournament itself, so I was playing “speed poker”. It worked OK some of the time, but a few of the players realised they could call me pretty light.
One player called my shove on the river (double-paired board) with Queen high. Admittedly I did announce “Queen high is good”. Maybe that was too much of a clue. People should tell me if they’re going to take my speech play at face value, so I can adjust.
After a reload (or two...) I should have known better, perhaps, than to 4-bet all in against Sam “Light Call” Grafton. Four-high no good vs his monster Ace-Ten.
On to phase two. The club had laid on an incredible $100k bounty tournament in the guise of a £25 freezeout. One of the bounty pros, Andy Achillea, was at my table and he seemed to be playing 0% of hands. I made up for this by playing 100%.
Things might have worked out. Raising in early position with 4-2o and receiving 4 callers, I was allowed to see a free turn after the T-3-6 flop and was pleased to hit a five. The small blind led into me. Perhaps I should just call but, with 2 diamonds out there in a 5way pot, I opted for a raise and took down a moderate pot.
I tried to put the modern “light call” into practice after hitting bottom pair of deuces against one opponent who kept betting. When I called the river and tabled J-2, he nodded “Good call”. He flipped over his hand – 54o – which was all very well, except that he had rivered a low straight that he apparently had not noticed !
A thin value raise with KQ vs AQ on a queen high board saw me slip to about 3,000 chips (starting chips 6,500) but it seemed I had my second chance when I picked up my first genuine hand.
Andy raised (for the first time in the comp) from early position and was called on his left. I simply shoved from the small blind with pocket Queens.
After Andy passed, the other player dwelled but cannot be faulted for believing he was likely ahead with TT. I was good till the river, when a third Ten was enough to knock me out.
I was disappointed, but this did not stop me getting on the PLO list. The game was quickly up and running and a whole host of familiar faces were involved, including the fearless Warya.
Early on, I could not get a start in the game and dropped several buy-ins before deciding to fight fire with fire and pull up £2,000 – by no means the largest stack at the table.
Immediately things take a turn for the better. Picking up Aces with Ace-high clubs, I get involved in a 3-way pot. Unusually it is only £10 to call pre-flop (I limp the £10), but I still manage to get £2,000 in on the turn when I make the nuts. Warya had Kings with King-high clubs, and the other player had a set, missing.
AAQQ next hand stands up in a £1k pot and then I flop the world a couple of times and get paid off by second best hands.
I put together a great run and am soon on over £10k. Warya, naturally pulls up to cover me and there are otehr deep stacks as well.
It is often said that Omaha is a game of making the nuts. Well, this one wasn’t ! Vast pots were won with one pair, and two pair.
I became comfortable with lighter and lighter calls: £300 on the river in a multiway pot with a pair of queens, jack kicker, for example. Or £1,000 with 9s and 4s (two pairs made on turn and river). I was particularly pleased with a winning call with Aces up when I was check-raised to £1,300 on the river with a pair on board.
Having said that, I probably did not value bet/raise sufficiently light for the way the game was.
For example, in one pot I started with Aces and check-called the flop. I check-called the turn, having only improved to a gutshot wheel draw and a draw to an Ace-flush bluff.
On the river I hit my wheel draw and check-called £500 with £800 left, winning against a flopped set. This was a clear error. I was worried that my lowest-possible straight could easily be losing, but in this game it was a clear check-raise or bet-shove.
I really enjoyed the game and I did feel that I made a lot of good decisions throughout the night. However, it is generally the mistakes that stay in the mind.
I remember one pot against a smart aggressive player where I allowed him to bluff me with essentially air after I check-called the flop for £300 and then led for £600 on the turn, to face an £1,800 all-in.
The board showed a possible made straight (which I did not believe he had), and 2 spades (I had none). I was playing an overpair of Kings at this point, with a gutshot, but I was miles ahead of his bottom pair, no draw. I should have gone with my first instinct.
Most memorable of all was a big pot with Warya and Trevor, which might have been truly enormous if I play it differently.
I straddle £5, called by Trevor and the small blind. Warya raises in the BB to £25 total. I call with T-9-7-4r, and now Trevor raises the pot (having limped) to £105 total, leaving less than £200 behind.
SB folds. Warya calls £80 and now I have to call £80, not to crack Trevor;s obvious Aces, but to play the £10k behind that both Warya and I have left.
Flop 9c-8c-3h.
I flop top pair/open-ender with no part of the club draw. I will be happy to put it all in against Trevor here, but the flop is checked around.
Turn: 6d. I make the nuts but my hand cannot improve. Warya checks again and I bet £225 for value. Trevor agonises. He seems to recognise he is losing but eventually he puts in his last £185.
Now, Warya check-raises to £1,080 ....
If I raise now, I can make it £3,500ish and I could face another £7,000 re-raise all-in. Do I want to put in £10k potentially being freerolled ? I’m not sure what to do, and in the end I go for the call as a default option, obviously hoping for a brick on the river.
I don’t think I had really comprehended how few bricks there are on the river ! My hand could be vulnerable to any club (for a flush), any 7, T, J or Q (for a higher straight), or any 3, 6, 8 or 9 (board-pairing cards, of which there may be as many as 11 still in the deck).
The river pairs the 9. Immediately, Warya announces “full pot” which is £2,665.
Now I lost my nerve. It was one of those classic poker moments where you “know” your opponent is bluffing but you still don’t call. In the end, I think it was simply the sheer size of the bet that overwhelmed my better judgement and I found a fold.
Warya showed T-J-5-5 (no club draw) for nines up (effectively playing a pair of fives) and raked the considerable side pot. When I say “showed”, I mean “slammed down and fist-pumped!”.
”Noooooooooo.....”.
Trevor, meanwhile, has had an absolute coup. On the turn he is drawing dead with A-A-7-5. His backhand came in but I had him crushed, and now out of nowhere he picks up the main pot of well over £800 !
A brilliant example of missed opportunity, and a major case of self-tilting.
The game continued for hours and my stack fluctuated between £5k and £9k most of the time, with the whole stack potentially in jeopardy at all times. It was a scary game, but great fun. It was played in a really good spirit by all involved and I felt I was definitely learning something about the nature of “big bet poker”.
It went on so long that my transport plans were thrown into a tailspin. I had driven into London, ostensibly so that I could get home after the last train. When the game extended to breakfast time, that reasoning became moot. It went on so long that I had to move my car to the nearby Hoxton Church car park.
When we eventually finished playing at about 3pm (by mutual exhaustion), I was too tired to risk a long motorway drive so I left my car overnight (sending word to the car park via the ever-helpful Jimi).
I had to make a trip into London the following day to collect it (some 48 hours after I first parked it outside the club). As I was there, I popped in and there was an Omaha game just starting off ....
I made a trip down to The International to play in the $100k bounty tournament, and it turned out to be a great fun night of poker.
First phase was a quick spin in the £1-1 NLH game. I say “spin”, but there is another word that goes after “spin” that is not “up”.
I didn’t have long before the bounty tournament itself, so I was playing “speed poker”. It worked OK some of the time, but a few of the players realised they could call me pretty light.
One player called my shove on the river (double-paired board) with Queen high. Admittedly I did announce “Queen high is good”. Maybe that was too much of a clue. People should tell me if they’re going to take my speech play at face value, so I can adjust.
After a reload (or two...) I should have known better, perhaps, than to 4-bet all in against Sam “Light Call” Grafton. Four-high no good vs his monster Ace-Ten.
On to phase two. The club had laid on an incredible $100k bounty tournament in the guise of a £25 freezeout. One of the bounty pros, Andy Achillea, was at my table and he seemed to be playing 0% of hands. I made up for this by playing 100%.
Things might have worked out. Raising in early position with 4-2o and receiving 4 callers, I was allowed to see a free turn after the T-3-6 flop and was pleased to hit a five. The small blind led into me. Perhaps I should just call but, with 2 diamonds out there in a 5way pot, I opted for a raise and took down a moderate pot.
I tried to put the modern “light call” into practice after hitting bottom pair of deuces against one opponent who kept betting. When I called the river and tabled J-2, he nodded “Good call”. He flipped over his hand – 54o – which was all very well, except that he had rivered a low straight that he apparently had not noticed !
A thin value raise with KQ vs AQ on a queen high board saw me slip to about 3,000 chips (starting chips 6,500) but it seemed I had my second chance when I picked up my first genuine hand.
Andy raised (for the first time in the comp) from early position and was called on his left. I simply shoved from the small blind with pocket Queens.
After Andy passed, the other player dwelled but cannot be faulted for believing he was likely ahead with TT. I was good till the river, when a third Ten was enough to knock me out.
I was disappointed, but this did not stop me getting on the PLO list. The game was quickly up and running and a whole host of familiar faces were involved, including the fearless Warya.
Early on, I could not get a start in the game and dropped several buy-ins before deciding to fight fire with fire and pull up £2,000 – by no means the largest stack at the table.
Immediately things take a turn for the better. Picking up Aces with Ace-high clubs, I get involved in a 3-way pot. Unusually it is only £10 to call pre-flop (I limp the £10), but I still manage to get £2,000 in on the turn when I make the nuts. Warya had Kings with King-high clubs, and the other player had a set, missing.
AAQQ next hand stands up in a £1k pot and then I flop the world a couple of times and get paid off by second best hands.
I put together a great run and am soon on over £10k. Warya, naturally pulls up to cover me and there are otehr deep stacks as well.
It is often said that Omaha is a game of making the nuts. Well, this one wasn’t ! Vast pots were won with one pair, and two pair.
I became comfortable with lighter and lighter calls: £300 on the river in a multiway pot with a pair of queens, jack kicker, for example. Or £1,000 with 9s and 4s (two pairs made on turn and river). I was particularly pleased with a winning call with Aces up when I was check-raised to £1,300 on the river with a pair on board.
Having said that, I probably did not value bet/raise sufficiently light for the way the game was.
For example, in one pot I started with Aces and check-called the flop. I check-called the turn, having only improved to a gutshot wheel draw and a draw to an Ace-flush bluff.
On the river I hit my wheel draw and check-called £500 with £800 left, winning against a flopped set. This was a clear error. I was worried that my lowest-possible straight could easily be losing, but in this game it was a clear check-raise or bet-shove.
I really enjoyed the game and I did feel that I made a lot of good decisions throughout the night. However, it is generally the mistakes that stay in the mind.
I remember one pot against a smart aggressive player where I allowed him to bluff me with essentially air after I check-called the flop for £300 and then led for £600 on the turn, to face an £1,800 all-in.
The board showed a possible made straight (which I did not believe he had), and 2 spades (I had none). I was playing an overpair of Kings at this point, with a gutshot, but I was miles ahead of his bottom pair, no draw. I should have gone with my first instinct.
Most memorable of all was a big pot with Warya and Trevor, which might have been truly enormous if I play it differently.
I straddle £5, called by Trevor and the small blind. Warya raises in the BB to £25 total. I call with T-9-7-4r, and now Trevor raises the pot (having limped) to £105 total, leaving less than £200 behind.
SB folds. Warya calls £80 and now I have to call £80, not to crack Trevor;s obvious Aces, but to play the £10k behind that both Warya and I have left.
Flop 9c-8c-3h.
I flop top pair/open-ender with no part of the club draw. I will be happy to put it all in against Trevor here, but the flop is checked around.
Turn: 6d. I make the nuts but my hand cannot improve. Warya checks again and I bet £225 for value. Trevor agonises. He seems to recognise he is losing but eventually he puts in his last £185.
Now, Warya check-raises to £1,080 ....
If I raise now, I can make it £3,500ish and I could face another £7,000 re-raise all-in. Do I want to put in £10k potentially being freerolled ? I’m not sure what to do, and in the end I go for the call as a default option, obviously hoping for a brick on the river.
I don’t think I had really comprehended how few bricks there are on the river ! My hand could be vulnerable to any club (for a flush), any 7, T, J or Q (for a higher straight), or any 3, 6, 8 or 9 (board-pairing cards, of which there may be as many as 11 still in the deck).
The river pairs the 9. Immediately, Warya announces “full pot” which is £2,665.
Now I lost my nerve. It was one of those classic poker moments where you “know” your opponent is bluffing but you still don’t call. In the end, I think it was simply the sheer size of the bet that overwhelmed my better judgement and I found a fold.
Warya showed T-J-5-5 (no club draw) for nines up (effectively playing a pair of fives) and raked the considerable side pot. When I say “showed”, I mean “slammed down and fist-pumped!”.
”Noooooooooo.....”.
Trevor, meanwhile, has had an absolute coup. On the turn he is drawing dead with A-A-7-5. His backhand came in but I had him crushed, and now out of nowhere he picks up the main pot of well over £800 !
A brilliant example of missed opportunity, and a major case of self-tilting.
The game continued for hours and my stack fluctuated between £5k and £9k most of the time, with the whole stack potentially in jeopardy at all times. It was a scary game, but great fun. It was played in a really good spirit by all involved and I felt I was definitely learning something about the nature of “big bet poker”.
It went on so long that my transport plans were thrown into a tailspin. I had driven into London, ostensibly so that I could get home after the last train. When the game extended to breakfast time, that reasoning became moot. It went on so long that I had to move my car to the nearby Hoxton Church car park.
When we eventually finished playing at about 3pm (by mutual exhaustion), I was too tired to risk a long motorway drive so I left my car overnight (sending word to the car park via the ever-helpful Jimi).
I had to make a trip into London the following day to collect it (some 48 hours after I first parked it outside the club). As I was there, I popped in and there was an Omaha game just starting off ....
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Bounty Hunter
Tonight I shall make another attempt at winning my first tournament at The International Club. I only had to wait one event to score a win at the old Gutshot Club, but at this venue I have final tabled seven times without taking the last, vital step.
It was (and is) one of my poker targets to score a win this year and - in reality - I have less than a handful of attempts left (not counting thumbs or little fingers, either).
I plan to play the £300 at the end of the month, and tonight’s tournament, but that’s probably about it.
We’re going away early for Christmas so I will miss GOSCARs night, and I have never dared to leave the family behind to play the boxing day event !
Sometimes, such pressure has translated into me playing my A-game. With my A-game and a few H-bombs, I always stand a chance.
On the other hand, tonight is a £25 freezeout with a fast structure so although that sort of structure suits me, it is of course a bit of a luckament.
The added sparkle tonight is the bounty element being thrown in by Gutshot.com. $100 each for knocking out any of the 4 named Gutshot pros is a nice freebie, but they’ve also decided to throw in some serious cash in case anyone manages a multiple knockout.
$1,000 for getting two of the blighters. $10k for a hattrick and $100k for the holy grail of a grand slam of knockouts !
Like finding the holy grail, it is widely assumed that this feat is impossible. To be sure, it is so unlikely that it might as well be impossible, but it makes for a great headline !
I was wondering how impossible it is. Difficult to model realistically, but here’s my first and only attempt at it:
So ....... someone has to win the tournament and I will take it as a given that this person will have knocked out four or more players on the way.
This is not certain to be the case of course; theoretically the winner may knock out only the runner-up, but I have to start somewhere. I will further simplify by assuming they knock out exactly four players.
So, assuming a nice amount of randomness and independence and all that good stuff (definitely not true; there are some clear dependencies, but bear with me) then what is the chance that those four are in fact exactly the fantastic four?
This is a bit like playing the tournament with four bounties but only revealing the names upon the opening of a sealed envelope after the event.
Seems to me that this will be of the right order of magnitude.
There will be at least 100 runners tonight, so I will take 100 as a nice round number.
How many combinations of 4 from 100 are there ?
It’s 100!/(4!x96!) I believe, which is about four million to 1 against. It’s got that “million to one shot” about it, so I think it’s a very suitable answer.
The chances of me winning the tournament are definitely better than a million-to-one, so that’s something to feel good about.
Something else that is better than a million-to-1 is the chance of me picking out the winner of the WSOP main event in a sweepstake that is running on the Gutshot forum.
I don’t know who my "pick" is yet, but I think it’s a fair bet that most people reading this would love to see James Akenhead take the big one down. Good luck James !
If best wishes were Aces, then I think he’s due a sick run of cards.
I have a clear hierarchy of favourites (in the sense of who I’d like to see win, not who I think is most likely to win). If it isn’t to be James then I’ll be supporting Steve Begleiter, as we worked together for many years at Bear, Stearns.
I don’t feel any link to any of the other players, so failing these two, I am on the Phil Ivey bandwagon. I support the view that Ivey for WSOP champion is good for poker.
However it finishes, it promises to be a fascinating final table. A whole bunch of people from the club are in Vegas to see it, I know. If James is out first hand, I'm sure they will find something to do !
It was (and is) one of my poker targets to score a win this year and - in reality - I have less than a handful of attempts left (not counting thumbs or little fingers, either).
I plan to play the £300 at the end of the month, and tonight’s tournament, but that’s probably about it.
We’re going away early for Christmas so I will miss GOSCARs night, and I have never dared to leave the family behind to play the boxing day event !
Sometimes, such pressure has translated into me playing my A-game. With my A-game and a few H-bombs, I always stand a chance.
On the other hand, tonight is a £25 freezeout with a fast structure so although that sort of structure suits me, it is of course a bit of a luckament.
The added sparkle tonight is the bounty element being thrown in by Gutshot.com. $100 each for knocking out any of the 4 named Gutshot pros is a nice freebie, but they’ve also decided to throw in some serious cash in case anyone manages a multiple knockout.
$1,000 for getting two of the blighters. $10k for a hattrick and $100k for the holy grail of a grand slam of knockouts !
Like finding the holy grail, it is widely assumed that this feat is impossible. To be sure, it is so unlikely that it might as well be impossible, but it makes for a great headline !
I was wondering how impossible it is. Difficult to model realistically, but here’s my first and only attempt at it:
So ....... someone has to win the tournament and I will take it as a given that this person will have knocked out four or more players on the way.
This is not certain to be the case of course; theoretically the winner may knock out only the runner-up, but I have to start somewhere. I will further simplify by assuming they knock out exactly four players.
So, assuming a nice amount of randomness and independence and all that good stuff (definitely not true; there are some clear dependencies, but bear with me) then what is the chance that those four are in fact exactly the fantastic four?
This is a bit like playing the tournament with four bounties but only revealing the names upon the opening of a sealed envelope after the event.
Seems to me that this will be of the right order of magnitude.
There will be at least 100 runners tonight, so I will take 100 as a nice round number.
How many combinations of 4 from 100 are there ?
It’s 100!/(4!x96!) I believe, which is about four million to 1 against. It’s got that “million to one shot” about it, so I think it’s a very suitable answer.
The chances of me winning the tournament are definitely better than a million-to-one, so that’s something to feel good about.
Something else that is better than a million-to-1 is the chance of me picking out the winner of the WSOP main event in a sweepstake that is running on the Gutshot forum.
I don’t know who my "pick" is yet, but I think it’s a fair bet that most people reading this would love to see James Akenhead take the big one down. Good luck James !
If best wishes were Aces, then I think he’s due a sick run of cards.
I have a clear hierarchy of favourites (in the sense of who I’d like to see win, not who I think is most likely to win). If it isn’t to be James then I’ll be supporting Steve Begleiter, as we worked together for many years at Bear, Stearns.
I don’t feel any link to any of the other players, so failing these two, I am on the Phil Ivey bandwagon. I support the view that Ivey for WSOP champion is good for poker.
However it finishes, it promises to be a fascinating final table. A whole bunch of people from the club are in Vegas to see it, I know. If James is out first hand, I'm sure they will find something to do !
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
On Poker and Golf
Many poker-playing readers of this blog will also be at least occasional golfers. Poker and golf have a lot in common.
For a start, they are both sports.
I know that there is debate about whether one of these is actually more of a “game” or a “pastime” than a genuine sport. Nevertheless, I believe that – despite their reputation for drinking, smoking, gambling and a general lack of physical fitness – golfers are still genuine sportsmen.
In any event, there are a great many commonalities in the experience of playing these two great games.
In both, the player benefits tremendously from experience and practice. For that reason they are also both sports that one can play credibly at an advanced age with the years of practice mitigating the loss of vigour.
Poker and golf offer a huge amount of material available to the player to further his/her game.
In both cases, the average player totally fails to take full advantage of the resources available and should undoubtedly study more and play less.
In poker there was already a wealth of books magazines and software tools available, and now there are online coaching videos and even one-to-one coaching. Unlike golf coaching, this can be achieved in the warm and dry over an internet link.
I wouldn’t argue that in poker one can gain much advantage by purchasing superior equipment – a difference from the golf parallel. Of course, some believe their latest iPod, ridiculously expensive noise-cancelling headphones and designer sunglasses are vital poker aids, so maybe I am wrong about this.
Both games constantly serve up disappointment but they also offer enough glimpses of glory to keep the player coming back for constant punishment.
In golf, we struggle round with a mix of pulled drives, thinned wedges, missed putts short, long, left and right and then suddenly on the 14th fairway we unexpectedly connect with a 5-wood from the semi-rough, catch a kind bounce and a favourable run and incredibly our ball finishes 6 feet from the hole for a miracle birdie chance.
It sometimes doesn’t even matter if we now miss the putt. Our faith in the game is restored and will carry us for weeks to come.
Likewise in poker we endure a constant diet of bad beats and poor finishes and most likely a steady drain on our bankroll until suddenly one night we make a final table or pull off some miraculous squeeze or river bluff check-raise or make a supreme winning call with King-high and suddenly we’re Phil Ivey all over again.
I think we ultimately remember the highs more than the lows, although I have never lost a WSOP bracelet heads up when my opponent 4-bet shoved with T4o and flopped a full house !
Poker is probably unique in the extent to which our own perception of our ability is correlated to results on such a short timescale, and it must offer one of the highest love-hate factors of any activity.
There are differences of course. Both can be played and enjoyed by beginners, but only poker offers the ultimate level playing field and – yes – that first-timer no-hoper may beat the entire field on the day. It does happen. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve even been that no-hoper.
And, for now anyway, poker (unlike golf) has not been granted Olympic status.
Quadruple crown anyone ? WSOP-WPT-EPT-Gold Medal .... it is absolutely no less ridiculous than tennis at the Olympics in my opinion !
What is the ultimate in either sport for the keen amateur ? Is a WSOP bracelet the equivalent of a hole in one ?
Well, whatever the doubts about the quality of my poker game I know for a fact that I am a better poker player than a golfer and yet I have actually achieved a hole in one. That took me only slightly more than 25 years to achieve but I’d be happy to wait the full 21 more years if I can have the bracelet .... just one time ....
For a start, they are both sports.
I know that there is debate about whether one of these is actually more of a “game” or a “pastime” than a genuine sport. Nevertheless, I believe that – despite their reputation for drinking, smoking, gambling and a general lack of physical fitness – golfers are still genuine sportsmen.
In any event, there are a great many commonalities in the experience of playing these two great games.
In both, the player benefits tremendously from experience and practice. For that reason they are also both sports that one can play credibly at an advanced age with the years of practice mitigating the loss of vigour.
Poker and golf offer a huge amount of material available to the player to further his/her game.
In both cases, the average player totally fails to take full advantage of the resources available and should undoubtedly study more and play less.
In poker there was already a wealth of books magazines and software tools available, and now there are online coaching videos and even one-to-one coaching. Unlike golf coaching, this can be achieved in the warm and dry over an internet link.
I wouldn’t argue that in poker one can gain much advantage by purchasing superior equipment – a difference from the golf parallel. Of course, some believe their latest iPod, ridiculously expensive noise-cancelling headphones and designer sunglasses are vital poker aids, so maybe I am wrong about this.
Both games constantly serve up disappointment but they also offer enough glimpses of glory to keep the player coming back for constant punishment.
In golf, we struggle round with a mix of pulled drives, thinned wedges, missed putts short, long, left and right and then suddenly on the 14th fairway we unexpectedly connect with a 5-wood from the semi-rough, catch a kind bounce and a favourable run and incredibly our ball finishes 6 feet from the hole for a miracle birdie chance.
It sometimes doesn’t even matter if we now miss the putt. Our faith in the game is restored and will carry us for weeks to come.
Likewise in poker we endure a constant diet of bad beats and poor finishes and most likely a steady drain on our bankroll until suddenly one night we make a final table or pull off some miraculous squeeze or river bluff check-raise or make a supreme winning call with King-high and suddenly we’re Phil Ivey all over again.
I think we ultimately remember the highs more than the lows, although I have never lost a WSOP bracelet heads up when my opponent 4-bet shoved with T4o and flopped a full house !
Poker is probably unique in the extent to which our own perception of our ability is correlated to results on such a short timescale, and it must offer one of the highest love-hate factors of any activity.
There are differences of course. Both can be played and enjoyed by beginners, but only poker offers the ultimate level playing field and – yes – that first-timer no-hoper may beat the entire field on the day. It does happen. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve even been that no-hoper.
And, for now anyway, poker (unlike golf) has not been granted Olympic status.
Quadruple crown anyone ? WSOP-WPT-EPT-Gold Medal .... it is absolutely no less ridiculous than tennis at the Olympics in my opinion !
What is the ultimate in either sport for the keen amateur ? Is a WSOP bracelet the equivalent of a hole in one ?
Well, whatever the doubts about the quality of my poker game I know for a fact that I am a better poker player than a golfer and yet I have actually achieved a hole in one. That took me only slightly more than 25 years to achieve but I’d be happy to wait the full 21 more years if I can have the bracelet .... just one time ....
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Mixed Results
Blog for the EPT 8-game is best read on the gutshot blog section as it's a bit long for this layout:
http://www.gutshot.com/bforum/blog.php?b=667
http://www.gutshot.com/bforum/blog.php?b=667
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