Well, it turned out the irritating verbal free rolling I've been doing on this blog, in chat and in e-mails (saying I wasn't likely to win a seat) did it's job - I won the seat.
It all boiled down to staying frosty, making reads and getting lucky. I was especially lucky that the two other contenders in FlatWorld (my online World Series of Poker League) couldn't get anything going to save their lives, and were short stacked as the "improvement bubble" (the levels they would have to achieve to gain any more points) approached.
In the end, they both had to make desperate moves, and they both fell short. So neither had improved their scores. One was tied with me, the other a single point ahead. With 6 players left, it was up to me to move up one spot on the ladder to tie for the seat, and two spots to clinch it.
Early on I had gotten a generous double up from one of the better players in the league, our lone remaining female player, when I raised her big blind - I was in the small blind. I had done this to her twice before, once with AK and the second time with Kings. Both times she had folded. This time, I had aces - she re raised and I insta shoved with a massive overbet of my entire stack, hoping to make it look like a ridiculous bluff (that I have on tilted occasions before, done in this league). She didn't think but a few seconds before calling off with AQ. A queen came on the turn but the river was a glorious case Ace.
I used my big stack to steal, fairly relentlessly - and accumulate and pad my lead. Once the two contenders were gone I was really glad that I had some ammo to at least keep my head above water as the blinds got more serious.
Then, player number six had busted, and shortly thereafter so did player five. I had locked it up. Or had I? Slightly ahead of me in chips was Miles, the very same player we had sent to the WSOP two years before. Turns out, if I busted out next AND he took first place in this tournament, we would be tied for the seat. It wasn't over yet.
I would love to give more details on the hand that eliminated him, as well as specific info on earlier hands in this tournament - but suffice it to say, the emotions that overcame me when Miles did bust (I do dimly recall that he got unlucky) have smeared my memory into a hazy fog. I was actually quite emotional, tears welled up as I realized that come the last weekend in June, I would be playing in the big dance.
I had come so close the previous year, and the year before that. While not technically in second place in 2010, I felt as though I had fallen just short - when my cowboys got two outed by Sigfried and Roy. And I believe I actually was just behind Miles in 2009. This time, it was I who was able to come from behind and lock it up.
Easy game.
Funny enough though, I had just played in a Hollywood park evening tournament before Monday nights online showdown - and I had done rather well.
With 7 tables, I got smacked in the face with the deck more than a few times and got paid on monster hands. (Aces held up in a three way pot pre-flop, my K10 filled up on the turn against a flopped broadway straight, etc.) I then coasted to the final table, playing small ball and accumulating more and more from the passive targets I had selected. I wouldn't say I was a table bully, my VPIP (money Voluntarily Put In the Pot) was only probably around 20% after I had gained my mountain of chips. But the blinds and antes were so big, that every "small" pot I won was significant. Almost all of these wins were pre-flop and also a few on c-bets on favorable boards. If tried to go after medium stacks, but I pre-planned and was ready to get away against any big stacks or call against mini-stacks if I did get involved with them.
Finally, it was five handed and I had about a 4 to 1 chip lead against everyone else. There was not one HPC regular in the bunch, so I was feeling great. UTG folded, I was in the next spot and looked down at queens and popped it. The button folded, the small blind who had a tiny stack, shoved. The big blind who had the largest stack besides mine also insta-shoved. I had him covered by quite a bit, but I still wasn't happy. I knew I was likely behind or against AK in the best case scenario, and if I lost we would be likely chopping. (Because there were no regulars at the table, no one had brought up the idea of a chop yet. I had stayed silent on it, though I'm usually the first to make mention). I called. The SB had A10, the BB had Aces.
Queen on the flop, easy game.
The two remaining stacks were both way short. One turned to the other and said "Well, do you want to give him first and you and I split 2nd and 3rd?" The recreational player digested this, and then quickly agreed. I took it down for the first time at Hollywood Park. First place was $1370.
So really, I had enough money to play in the WSOP if I wanted. I thought about it for awhile, mentioned it to the wife who was elated at my win (she thought I should keep the money and use it for something practical, like couches or some shit, JK sweetie) but she agreed that it was sensible for me to use it to fund my buy-ins in all the little tournaments I had planned for the weekend. I would be free rolling at the Aria, Venetian, etc. I was on cloud 9.
I have no doubt that my victory at HPC boosted my confidence greatly for the following Monday night - feel good, run good = play good in teh pokerz.
So my plan between now and the WSOP is to try and play live once a week at HPC. I know I've sworn off evening tournaments during the week, but HPC recently moved the starting time up 45 minutes earlier to 6:30. I will have to make an effort to get down there when my work is light and nothing big is coming up the next day. I'll also likely do a Sunday 10K guarantee at some point. I feel good at a live table in a card room, I'd love to get to a point where I feel great. I know I'll be nervous as hell in the Rio regardless, but the more live hands I can get in between now and then, even if I reduce the butterflies only a little bit, it will be worth it.
As for my strategery, I've pretty much gone over that in the below post towards the end. But I still have an open mind. Any of you Flatliners who read this want to chime in on how I should approach the World Series, I would greatly appreciate it.
Initially in FlatWorld the idea was to get enough for a $1500 event seat. We fell short of that amount by a couple hundred, so I was going to just play in the 1K, the same event as Cali. Just today I've had two Flatliners chip in to buy shares outright, so I'm less than a hundred away from the $1500 mark. I think I will go ahead and foot the extra few bucks and enter the larger buy in event. Last year, the same 1500 event had almost a thousand fewer runners and yet still had a bigger prize pool than the corresponding 1K. Plus the 1500 gives me 4500 starting chips instead of the 1K's 3000.
I will be tweeting the hell out of my experience - and most of all, win or lose or whatever - I will put having fun and savoring the journey at the top of my list of priorities. This will likely be a once in a life time occurrence, I plan to make the most of it.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
So close...
Yet so far away. (Anyone remember that classic / dreadful song from Hall and Oates?)
Last Monday I took down first place in Flatworld, my Poker Stars Home Games WSOP league. It was my fourth first place finish in 17 tournaments. This has now put me one point behind the first place player, and I'm tied with another guy for second.
Our last tournament in this series is on Monday. I have to improve my score (since we only count our top ten scores I have to finish in fifth place or higher) to have a chance for the seat. If I improve my score by two points and the first place guy and the second place guy don't improve - I win the seat. If I improve my score by one point and neither of my competitors improve, I'm tied for the seat. (Which means I have to play a tie breaker tournament the following week.)
It is very much down to the wire here - and I have no one but myself to blame for coming EXTREMELY close to a seat for the third year in a row.
If I could somehow bring may A-Game, you know, the one I played last Monday - where despite an absence of premium cards I was able to parlay laser sharp selective aggression and spot on reads to a decisive first place finish - If I could bring that every week, it wouldn't even be close to being close right now.
Yes, luck is a big factor, we essentially play turbos because the tournaments are almost always over within three hours - but still... I really feel more than ever now that I have a BIG edge over this league.
So I've decided that this Monday night, when it is truly all on the line - that I can only focus on me. Improve my score by 2 points is my goal, what the other guys do (and who decides to donate chips to them) is pretty much entirely out of my hands. This is doubly so because we are now averaging only 10 players, where our early tournaments typically had 20+. The points for first place remain the same, so odds are not that great that one or both of the other two contenders won't improve their scores.
But as long as there are also guys involved like the one who paid me off with almost his entire stack after I turned quads - and he had the third best flush on the flop, I feel really, really good about my chances. I just have to remember not to be devastated if history repeats itself and I get massively unlucky. Last year, as you may recall, there was a crucial hand that basically sent a fellow to the WSOP instead of me.
It was all in pre-flop, I had Kings he had Queens. It still stings to this day - simply because it was such a mental momentum killer for me. I can't even remember if that hand eliminated me, I believe it did, but at the very least I was crippled and out soon after. He went on to win that entire tournament, and I believe if memory serves, that was enough to put him out in front for good in points with only a handful of tournaments remaining. I am 100% confident that if my 80/20 hand had actually held up, the 2010 WSOP would have been a very different story.
To his credit, this player "The Ruben", is one of the better in the league and he did in fact make the deepest run of anyone I've ever helped send to the big dance. He busted just before the dinner break.
In my home game this year I've sent a new rep, my bestest buddy Cali. He is already thinking about day 2 in the event and how he's going to make it to the money. I'm telling him, just get to the dinner break, and he'll be a winner. To realistically go beyond that point, requires quite a bit of forethought.
While I wouldn't call the 1K WSOP event a turbo, I will go out on a limb and say that if you don't accumulate big, well before the antes kick in, you have little or no chance of making it to meal time, let alone the second day or the money. The key in this event is to be 200+ BB deep when level 6 finally rolls around - at that point (and only at that point) you have to start stealing and accumulating. Before the antes, there's no point in trying to be a thief for two reasons. One - unless you quadruple up, you don't have the ammo for it. And more importantly - Two - the un-raised blinds aren't yet big enough to justify shenanigans.
So because you're so short stacked to begin with, at least you are after the end of level 2 with only 30 big blinds, you must, must, MUST be looking for a spot to get all of your chips in as a big favorite. Ideally, you want to four bet shove with cowboys or rockets
and get looked up by big slick or a pair of queens. That is a very specific, best case scenario. But there are lesser versions of this which may have to do as well. Set mine if it's super cheap and check raise shove on the flop when you hit. Hope that there's an ace or a king on board that connected with your opponent. Speculate with a suited connecter where there's multiple limpers and flop the world. Plan to get it in by the river.
It's not fancy or tricky poker, but it is all about getting lucky and getting that mountain you're going to need when it's time to shift gears. Ideally, you want a shot at two mountains in the first five hours. If you have a chance to get it in as a 60/40 favorite, don't hesitate.
You may also find yourself coolered - don't try to avoid this. If you fold pocket kings pre-flop you deserve a punch in the junk. If you fold bottom set on the flop, ditto.
If you do find yourself with a Carlos Mortensen-like castle at ante time - pillage all you can, in position and against weak targets only. Before you've even gotten to this point, chat it up a bit and see if you can discern who's a tourist like yourself and who is of the predator variety. Avoid the latter in your thievery.
Raise with junk from the cutoff. Dry board with an ace? C-bet. Barrel again on the turn if it blanks. Is he still there? Might be time to give it up - or stick it in on the end if you know he'll buckle. Trust your reads.
I'm writing out these thoughts for myself mainly, but I hope it gives Cali food for thought if he stumbles across this. I've said it before, but it bears repeating - instinctively he is a better player than I am and probably always will be. I have a tendency to over think and over extend myself, I'm always working my way back to the place in my game where it is about making correct decisions - but it's a never ending journey.
I just can't wait for Monday. Stay tuned.
Last Monday I took down first place in Flatworld, my Poker Stars Home Games WSOP league. It was my fourth first place finish in 17 tournaments. This has now put me one point behind the first place player, and I'm tied with another guy for second.
Our last tournament in this series is on Monday. I have to improve my score (since we only count our top ten scores I have to finish in fifth place or higher) to have a chance for the seat. If I improve my score by two points and the first place guy and the second place guy don't improve - I win the seat. If I improve my score by one point and neither of my competitors improve, I'm tied for the seat. (Which means I have to play a tie breaker tournament the following week.)
It is very much down to the wire here - and I have no one but myself to blame for coming EXTREMELY close to a seat for the third year in a row.
If I could somehow bring may A-Game, you know, the one I played last Monday - where despite an absence of premium cards I was able to parlay laser sharp selective aggression and spot on reads to a decisive first place finish - If I could bring that every week, it wouldn't even be close to being close right now.
Yes, luck is a big factor, we essentially play turbos because the tournaments are almost always over within three hours - but still... I really feel more than ever now that I have a BIG edge over this league.
So I've decided that this Monday night, when it is truly all on the line - that I can only focus on me. Improve my score by 2 points is my goal, what the other guys do (and who decides to donate chips to them) is pretty much entirely out of my hands. This is doubly so because we are now averaging only 10 players, where our early tournaments typically had 20+. The points for first place remain the same, so odds are not that great that one or both of the other two contenders won't improve their scores.
But as long as there are also guys involved like the one who paid me off with almost his entire stack after I turned quads - and he had the third best flush on the flop, I feel really, really good about my chances. I just have to remember not to be devastated if history repeats itself and I get massively unlucky. Last year, as you may recall, there was a crucial hand that basically sent a fellow to the WSOP instead of me.
It was all in pre-flop, I had Kings he had Queens. It still stings to this day - simply because it was such a mental momentum killer for me. I can't even remember if that hand eliminated me, I believe it did, but at the very least I was crippled and out soon after. He went on to win that entire tournament, and I believe if memory serves, that was enough to put him out in front for good in points with only a handful of tournaments remaining. I am 100% confident that if my 80/20 hand had actually held up, the 2010 WSOP would have been a very different story.
To his credit, this player "The Ruben", is one of the better in the league and he did in fact make the deepest run of anyone I've ever helped send to the big dance. He busted just before the dinner break.
In my home game this year I've sent a new rep, my bestest buddy Cali. He is already thinking about day 2 in the event and how he's going to make it to the money. I'm telling him, just get to the dinner break, and he'll be a winner. To realistically go beyond that point, requires quite a bit of forethought.
While I wouldn't call the 1K WSOP event a turbo, I will go out on a limb and say that if you don't accumulate big, well before the antes kick in, you have little or no chance of making it to meal time, let alone the second day or the money. The key in this event is to be 200+ BB deep when level 6 finally rolls around - at that point (and only at that point) you have to start stealing and accumulating. Before the antes, there's no point in trying to be a thief for two reasons. One - unless you quadruple up, you don't have the ammo for it. And more importantly - Two - the un-raised blinds aren't yet big enough to justify shenanigans.
So because you're so short stacked to begin with, at least you are after the end of level 2 with only 30 big blinds, you must, must, MUST be looking for a spot to get all of your chips in as a big favorite. Ideally, you want to four bet shove with cowboys or rockets
and get looked up by big slick or a pair of queens. That is a very specific, best case scenario. But there are lesser versions of this which may have to do as well. Set mine if it's super cheap and check raise shove on the flop when you hit. Hope that there's an ace or a king on board that connected with your opponent. Speculate with a suited connecter where there's multiple limpers and flop the world. Plan to get it in by the river.
It's not fancy or tricky poker, but it is all about getting lucky and getting that mountain you're going to need when it's time to shift gears. Ideally, you want a shot at two mountains in the first five hours. If you have a chance to get it in as a 60/40 favorite, don't hesitate.
You may also find yourself coolered - don't try to avoid this. If you fold pocket kings pre-flop you deserve a punch in the junk. If you fold bottom set on the flop, ditto.
If you do find yourself with a Carlos Mortensen-like castle at ante time - pillage all you can, in position and against weak targets only. Before you've even gotten to this point, chat it up a bit and see if you can discern who's a tourist like yourself and who is of the predator variety. Avoid the latter in your thievery.
Raise with junk from the cutoff. Dry board with an ace? C-bet. Barrel again on the turn if it blanks. Is he still there? Might be time to give it up - or stick it in on the end if you know he'll buckle. Trust your reads.
I'm writing out these thoughts for myself mainly, but I hope it gives Cali food for thought if he stumbles across this. I've said it before, but it bears repeating - instinctively he is a better player than I am and probably always will be. I have a tendency to over think and over extend myself, I'm always working my way back to the place in my game where it is about making correct decisions - but it's a never ending journey.
I just can't wait for Monday. Stay tuned.
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