The Colossus was still a day away, so it was time to sign up for the 1pm $250 Daily Deep Stack.
But first there was business to take care of...
That's right, because we were driving to Vegas it was a lot easier to deal with carrying 10K than it would've been on an airplane (I would think anyway). So I sauntered up to the cage and bit the bullet!
The lady was nice and she did indeed count the bills by hand, then had her supervisor come over and count it again. Then I got this...
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| I've got a Golden Tiiickeeettt.... |
And as you can see in the pic, I also sat down for the Deep Stack. Many on social media were confused and thought that the Main Event was starting! Nah, just a different tournament that cost 2.5% as much as the Main does to enter.
Maybe it was because of such a HUGE price difference that I felt like ZERO pressure sitting down in the Pavilion room at the Rio to splash around in what is essentially a glorified turbo that just happens to have the WSOP brand name and a nice chunky five figure prize up top.
So splashed it up I did. The table was favorable and in no time I had doubled up.
 |
| Easy game. |
After the second break I was still up to 50 big blinds, which is well above average in this event.
During the break I peed next to this guy.
Good news is, he thoroughly washed his hands. Bad news is, several other men in that bathroom did not. Yuck.
I also strolled by the Mother Ship - now back in the Amazon room where she belongs.
Then I sat back down and got tangled up in a hand where all the money went in on the flop, I had AK and flopped top two pair on a AKx board and my opponent ripped and I snapped. He had AJ and the turn was a Queen and naturally the river was a Ten. Dirty.
Down to under ten big blinds, I waited patiently for my moment - and found it soon with AK again, jammed it in and the chip leader snap called with AQ. Board xQxxx and POKER OVER THE END.
So dejected but consoled that it was about 4 hours of good decisions but bad results - I late registered for the 4pm $200 single big blind ante Deep Stack.
Let me just say - as I have before I'm sure - that the single ante format is the future of the game and there is ZERO reason for people to be anything but less than 100% in favor of its universal implementation.
This time around I sat down with 50 big blinds to a VERY favorable table (I can honestly say I was easily the best player there which is not typical in the Rio) and promptly doubled up again when my opponents wonky gut shot hit on the turn but the board paired and boated me up (and bailed me out) on the river.
And then it was the second verse, same as the first. A string of unlucky run-outs, capped off with my QQ losing AIPF to JJ held by the chip leader. A short and somewhat frustrating day of poker, but still I was very glad I partook as I felt super comfy getting my feet wet and was super hungry to come back and play more very soon.
Driving back to Vegas on Saturday I informed the wife of my intention to play as much as I could between now and the Main in July. She rolled her eyes a bit but was ok with it.
On Sunday my kid was over at a friends house and the wife just wanted to chill, so I was down for some pokerz.
I texted my homies Sven and Fish and put the question to them - should I play in a card room and put my war face on for real money or go to the Moose Lodge for some silliness and fun? Truthfully, it was the latter that I had my mind on. I knew if I went to the Moose I would have fun no matter what - I love the people there and it's super low stakes. I really didn't feel like going to battle and potentially getting severely wounded with poker pain.
But my friends, who also happen to have 5% each of me in the Main, quickly dissuaded me from a dumb afternoon among friends with zero benefit to my poker game. I needed to get real and get it on. I climbed in my car and made a half hour trip to the fabulous Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood to play in their Super Sunday $230 25K guarantee.
Happily I was able to convince Sven to come along and then later I also texted G-Bone who also found time to come and gamble it up. Poker is so much better with homies, even though we don't see each other too much and when we do we try to take each others money. Quick chatting during the break is a lot of fun and also can be helpful when we talk about interesting hands, not bad beat stories which are forbidden.
250+ runners sat down to fight for a prize pool that ended up being almost double the guarantee. There was almost 14K up on top and the structure was deep and the chips were plentiful.
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| 30K to start. |
We tangled a few times, with him getting the better of me and then this hand happened.
I had been a bit stymied in trying to chip up, I was the effective stack at 50 big blinds.
UTG limped. My nemesis click raised and I flatted with As7s in the CO because I knew the table was super passive and extremely unlikely to squeeze without a premium. Most of all I reeeallly wanted to play post-flop with this guy. The big blind defended and the original limper came along. 4 players to the flop.
Flop was xAK rainbow. All players checked to me, I checked back, under representing my hand with a plan to flat any reasonable turn bet.
A ten rolled off on the turn (yucky) also bringing a club flush draw. With 8 bigs in the pot it was checked to nemesis and he fired a 1.5 blind bet. Lol wut. I called and all others folded.
River was a 2 of clubs. Nemesis tanked briefly and then BOMBED the pot with an 8 blind bet. I tanked and realized this would hurt me fairly bad but I decided on a call based almost solely on tilt from my frustration and a little piece of information that came back to me about his sizing. Earlier I had looked up a super small river bet from him (when all I had was king high) and he had a monster. This time he bombed the pot so big, I think he would never realistically expect a call from me - if he wanted value he for sure would bet smaller. He wasn't good enough to polarize his range on the river like so many good players do.
So I called. He shook his head and mucked. I reflexively turned up my cards before realizing I didn't need to show if I didn't want to - he had surrendered the hand. But I'm glad I did show, it rattled him to see that I had called him with a single pair shit kicker.
As I said, I would put most of my reason for calling squarely on me being tilted from being unable to to get anything going. Still, in hindsight I like my call more and more, as it would've been damaging but not deadly to my stack and I had ended up being correct that this guy was up to no good and it would send him a message to get in line, at least with me.
And so then I'd like to report that buoyed by my soul-read I straightened up and flew right and accumulated chips expertly to make a deep run.
Except I was still tilted because I realized my call had been emotionally driven, and good results or not - that's never a thing I want to get into the habit of.
And so still being tilted I managed to spew. And spew.
And spew.
It all came off the rails on the third hand that I would lose to my nemesis. He opened from middle position, I defended my big blind with king jack off suit. I flopped a gut shot straight draw and check-called his smallish c-bet. Turn was absolutely no help and this time it looked like he might he have bet a bit larger, throwing out a single 5K chip as he murmured something. I asked the dealer how much the bet was, the dealer looked me in the eye and said 2000. About a quarter pot bet. I slung out two chips and right afterwards my opponent said "I said 4000".
"OK then give me my chips back."
Well you can probably guess how this turned out. It escalated it a bit, with five regulars at the table yelling at me that the money had to stay, but I stopped short of calling the floor because I know how it works in Southern California card rooms, and I said so aloud to everyone at the table. "I'm not going to bother to argue because I understand that the rules are different for casual players like me as opposed to regulars like you guys. I could waste Coreys time (the TD) but I know how this would turn out. You guys make the rules."
I disgustedly tossed in two more 1K chips and of course folded when the river blanked and my opponent pushed.
I was mad. Mad at the culture of regulars who basically run the place, much like the homeless in Los Angeles they are free to do whatever they want whenever they want and the rest of us just have to go along with it. The rest of us includes the dealers by the way, who have to endure all sorts of abuse and behavior that is out of line.
I would have folded to a half pot turn bet, I was getting the right price to see a river with a quarter size bet. The dealer had looked me in the eye and answered my question. That I was not allowed to take back a call based on false information because the regular had mumbled his bet amount is pretty goddamn ridiculous. I'm getting worked up again just writing about it.
Anyways, like I said this was when the wheels came off. I think I lost another small pot or two and then this catastrophe happened.
With 12 big blinds I opened under the gun for 2x with 810 of diamonds. That was my first mistake. Way too loose of an open, and also I really don't have room to open with only 12 big blinds. Some very good players do it, but I'm not so good that it would work for me. I need to get it in or fold.
But my second mistake in the hand was a humdinger and catastrophically stupid. It folded around to the cutoff, a quiet and tight player who had about the same amount of chips as me, shipped his stack into the middle. The action got back to me and I thought very little before disgustedly pushing my chips into the middle as well.
This was a truly terrible and emotional decision. The cutoff player had not once shown himself to be out of line. His range was rather narrow. The very worst hand he would shove with was probably Ace Ten suited. I was well behind his entire range. But I was so mad and ready to get the fuck out of there that I couldn't wait to get my money in bad.
I proudly turned up my garbage hand and my opponent showed JJ.
How about a miracle dealer? No, dummy, absolutely not.
The board ran out and the jacks held. I rose to depart, and I heard the old familiar "Hey, you still have chips!"
I sat down, dejected, fondling my paltry chip stack. It wasn't really a stack. More like a small collection. I had about maybe five big blinds? I prayed decent cards to get my chips in during the next orbit, but the cards never came. Absolute trash, so I had to let the blinds pass through me, along with a full round of antes. As the next round started I took this picture...
Alas, no good cards came and by the time it was my turn to be big blind again I had just over two bbs total. Of course I was going to be putting everything in without looking at my cards. An early position player opened the hand with a min raise, two callers came along. I laughed and pushed my remaining chip in, I now stood to collect the entire main pot if by some miracle my hand held up.
The flop came with an ace, yuck. I still hadn't looked. The raiser c-bet and all folded, I turned up my hand and was delighted to see a bullet. My opponent actually had missed the flop, but he had pocket kings. The turn and river came and my hand held.
Now I was only severely short stacked, with just under 10 big blinds.
Less than an orbit later I woke up with AJ in late position. My old faithful nemesis had opened the pot with a 3x and had gotten two callers. I shoved, and nemesis re-shoved with his big stack for protection. The players folded and nemmy turned up, wait for it...
Waaaait for it...
65o.
The folded out players were incredulous, now I just needed my hand to hold. I wasn't that big of a favorite. Personally, I kind of liked the move, there was a lot of dead money out there.
My hand held and all of the sudden things weren't so grim.
The very next hand, on my big blind, the hijack, the same fellow who I had donated to in the disaster hand earlier, had been involved in two massive hands since and now had a mountain of chips, 3 bet old nemmy who was now determined to play every hand.
The bet I was facing was probably about a third of my sack. I was really hoping by some miracle I would not have to fold. And low and behold I looked down and saw QQ. I ripped, old nemesis hemmed and hawed and finally folded. The cutoff snapped and turned up AQ. The chorus of bitching and moaning from several regulars (led by nemesis) rose to a fever pitch as my hand held up.
"You are quite lucky sir."
Yes. Yes I am.
I felt a massive weight lifted from my shoulders. All of a sudden I had an actual and viable stack of chips. I was right back in this tournament. I wasn't super deep, probably around 25 big blinds, but it was only a little less than an average chip stack.
I don't know what I had done to deserve this second chance, but I was so lifted in spirit, so invigorated, that I was now determined to simply make the best possible decisions I could and put all the negativity far behind me. I was now in A-game mode.
And it's probably not the best thing I was so heavily influenced by my emotions. But on the other hand, I'm glad to see that I can recover from such a severe spiral. Not to mention a teeny teeny tiny stack.
I knew deep down that such a come back was possible, I had just recently come back from less than one big blind to win a tournament that was in a home game for much lower stakes. But that game was full of stoners, so it wasn't too crazy that the one sober guy at the table was able to take it down after being on the nub. But this was something special - I had been given another shot to not waste my afternoon. I wasn't about to blow it.
I knew deep down that such a come back was possible, I had just recently come back from less than one big blind to win a tournament that was in a home game for much lower stakes. But that game was full of stoners, so it wasn't too crazy that the one sober guy at the table was able to take it down after being on the nub. But this was something special - I had been given another shot to not waste my afternoon. I wasn't about to blow it.
I was back to playing regular poker. Some hands worked out, others didn't, but from here on out, after about 5pm when I had recovered a viable chip stack, I would make nothing but good decisions. There may have been one exception. I don't know. Feel free to let me know what you think the next time you see me.
It was a crucial hand - several new players had come and gone and we had also lost quite a few of the original players at the table. For awhile a solid grinder with a big stack sat directly to my left. He was very active and aggressive and clearly knew what he was doing. At one point he opened on my big blind three orbits in a row. On the fourth time he did it he had two callers and then I also defended for the first time. Previous times I had had truly raggedy hands. This time it was Ah5h.
I was not super happy calling, especially with two callers already in the hand who were both pretty tight players. The grinders open was 4x, which was a big chunk of my 25 big blind stack. I should mention that although I was accumulating steadily, the rising blinds pretty much kept my stack at 15 to 25 big blinds for the remainder of the tournament. Anyways, probably not the best call, but getting over 4 to 1 I rationalized it in my mind. And besides, these days I have taken to defending my big blind much wider than I used to.
The flop came all low cards with two hearts. This was pretty much Yahtzee for me. I was not calling off such a big part of my stack to find a fold if I flopped a big draw. I checked, grinder c-bet half pot–ish. It was folded to me and I let it rip. Grinder sighed, and then in a very irritated manner called and turned up pocket queens. He was complaining loudly before the turn card even came out. "Man I know you're going to hit, you've been so lucky."
No verbal free rolling sir. The turn was a heart. Now my stack wasn't just viable, it was one of the biggest ones in the tournament.
Damn it felt good to be a gangster.
An old and super funny Asian fellow to my right went on and on about how lucky I was and kept asking for change he didn't really need so he could get some 'lucky' chips. I happily obliged.
Grinder then quickly spewed off his remaining short stack, not to me unfortunately, and he was replaced by a super boisterous and a little bit scary classic Hollywood Park regular.
He liked me though and he had me in stitches with his banter. Some of the gems he dropped - (apologies for the profanities, but we are all adults right?)
"Look at this motherfucker over here, he be clownin' that motherfucker!"
"Ah shit son, you gots ta' come correct, I knew you didn't have shit!"
An old and super funny Asian fellow to my right went on and on about how lucky I was and kept asking for change he didn't really need so he could get some 'lucky' chips. I happily obliged.
Grinder then quickly spewed off his remaining short stack, not to me unfortunately, and he was replaced by a super boisterous and a little bit scary classic Hollywood Park regular.
He liked me though and he had me in stitches with his banter. Some of the gems he dropped - (apologies for the profanities, but we are all adults right?)
"Look at this motherfucker over here, he be clownin' that motherfucker!"
"Ah shit son, you gots ta' come correct, I knew you didn't have shit!"
"That's my boy right there, positivity man, gosta have positivity up in this bitch!"
A short stack a few seats to my right shoved over a few limpers. I looked down at 1010 and re-shipped my stack from the small blind. And then I heard...
"Oh fuck me..."
My neighbor to my left had looked at his cards and was in agony over whether or not to get his chips in. He stood up and hemmed and hawed for a good 30 seconds and then angrily folded...
Other players folded, the short stack turned up a baby ace and I turned up my pair of tens.
"Ah yeah boyee! Folded pocket 8's! Ha ha ha!!!" Exclaimed my neighbor as he spun around to pump his fist. Then he turned back as the flop came rags with an 8.
"Mother fucker!! Dealer you always do this shit to me!!! God damn!!!"
The turn was a blank and the river was a 10.
"Yeah that's what I'm talking' about! Booyah beeaatch!!"
More chips slid my way and the bubble approached.
Then there was the hand where I busted my neighbor. This is a bit fascinating to me.
The previous hand was what sent him into a bit of a spiral.
My other neighbor on my immediate right was also a classic HPC homeboy who knew everyone, but he was very much self aware and he and I got on really well because he was also very smart and funny and knew what he was doing and picked up right away that I did as well. We avoided each other when we could but for sure enjoyed each other's company. I loved that he mumbled and took the piss out of my nemesis across the table. ("Look at this motherfucker, calling with 7 9 off suit, that's some dumb ass shit right there")
He was doing an interesting thing by limping most of his range. But twice he had big premiums underneath and was able to snap off other players and drag quite a few chips. Not a style I would play in, but it seemed to work for him.
So, the hand - he was on the button. There were several limpers and this time he chose to shove, I assume because the limpers stacks, my stack and my neighbor to my left's stack, couldn't really hurt him too much. I figured him for jacks or similar and made an easy fold.
The boisterous homie to my left again looked at his cards and blurted an expletive of anguish - he couldn't believe how good his cards were and he was truly truly in pain about whether or not to call or not.
"What you want me to do dawg?" he finally asked his homie.
Now, you may be saying to yourself, "Uh, you can't do that..." and you'd be right. But this is Hollywood Park, also known as HPC and the C stands for COLLUSION. You didn't know that?
To his credit, the dude on my right said "Do whatever you want, I'm all-in"
And then, this is a true story, homeboy on my left said "Do you want to chop it up no matter what?"
My eyes widened but I didn't say anything and no one else did either. Again, to his credit, the dude on my right just repeated himself, giving no indication what he wanted his buddy to do.
I am still wondering what would've happened if the all-in player had said something like "I got you dawg" or something similar.
Eventually the neighbor to my left folded, but not before saying "Do you know what I'm talking about?" to his friend. The friend didn't answer.
The fold put the potential colluder on massive tilt. All of the sudden he was involved in every hand. Always angry or gleeful depending on the outcome.
It wasn't but less than an orbit later that I woke up with KK and opened. Tilty McTilt 3 bet me and it folded around and of course I 4 bet jammed.
Again the agony, again the frustration and then pretty quickly - a call.
"This my baby mamma's birthday!" He said proudly as he turned up 8 6 suited. I turned up kings and he stood and all the energy drained out of his body as the board ran out harmless. I had him covered and that was that.
He scowled and stomped off without a word to anyone.
Well that was lovely. Made me feel a bit better about being what I considered too emotional.
And then before we knew it, the bubble approached.
There was a brief window where I managed to throw the switch and accumulate some chips with zero risk. There were a handful of players at the table that would actually fold sometimes. I targeted them when it was folded to me and opened 2.5x without looking. If they didn't fold pre, I would simply c-bet and sometimes it worked. If they called I would then look at my cards and go from there.
This worked probably half the time over a dozen hands or so, which means it was profitable. I was happy that there was a Russian dude somewhere over on table 1 who refused the bubble safety. They wanted to pay 3 bubbles! Absurd!
Somewhere on this blog, if you dig back through the archives you can find a long rant by me about money bubble safeties. I was young, I was dumb, I was every bit the recreational player who thought he was awesome but really didn't know much.
I made the case - that professionals, semi-professionals and regulars should look at the big picture and at the bubble of a large tournament that has been going on for a long time (this one had been almost 7 hours, the one in my other post was over 9) and say yes to agreeing to pay the bubble because there are typically a lot of recreational players in low buy in events with big guarantees.
I reasoned that the 'big picture' is that pros should want amateurs to be happy and want to come back. In the post I told the story of a young kid across from me who had a heartbreaking experience when he was the bubble boy because Poker Hall of Fame member Barbara Enright had said no to the safety.
Everyone in that room was mad at her, including me. Nasty names were bandied about, and I thought they were deserved at the time.
Now I know better.
In a tournament - bubbles are quite literally EVERYTHING.
I've realized that there are also multiple bubbles in every tournament. The biggest and most obvious is the money bubble, but not far behind is the final table bubble. There are also pay jump bubbles, especially when the next payout is 4 figures after a 3 figure payout (or a 5 figure after a 4 figure and so on). There's also smaller but very real bubbles, break bubbles, the table is about to be broken bubbles, and several more. One that's a bit bigger is the end of Day 1 (or whatever day) bubble, especially big if it's not a time but number of bust outs that determines when the day ends.
All of these bubbles are a chance for free chips when you have a stack. You can pillage and plunder with very little effort or risk. Bubbles are ESSENTIAL to No Limit Tournament success.
I apologize to Barbara Enright and all other players I've been mad at for denying bubble boys and girls equity. They were 1000% right to say no. I was 1000% wrong. Why would you EVER surrender a chance to accumulate with zero down side?
Now, I don't play for a living and I don't play to supplement my income. So if a bubble safety is asked for, I don't say no. The only time I would, would be in a bigger buy-in event with real money on the line; and in an event like that I doubt very much I would be the only one saying nay. In fact, I would be shocked if a safety was even proposed.
So we played until we got to hand for hand. A boring and tedious process that I've only been witness to a handful of times.
Fortunately, this time, we only played one hand and the bubble burst.
Then it was time to climb the ladder of pay jumps. As I mentioned, I had been hovering around 20 big blinds since my recovery. Typically I would accumulate a bit, up to 25 or 30 bigs, and then the levels would raise the blinds and I'd be back down to 15-20.
I kept up with the same strategy after the bubble burst - to a point. I still looked for easy spots to accumulate, but I dialed back the aggression just a skoch with cards that had less equity. Left and right people were now super eager to get all their chips in.
The first set of payouts was $400. Then it jumped to $450. Not much difference in pay. Then there was a jump to $600 for 18th - 14th place I believe. After that it went to $800 for 13th - 10th. I was pretty conscious of these numbers and would always ask myself "Do I want to pass on this for a $200 pay jump?" Often the answer was, yes. But when it was too good a spot or too good cards I would let it rip.
Most often when I did, I used my stack as a 3 bet jam, especially to squeeze after someone would open and another player would flat. Very effective.
As the final table approached I remember waking up with JJ two hands in a row. The first time I got no callers after I jammed over 2 limpers. The second time I opened and then 4 bet jammed a big stacks 3 bet.
He had 9h8h. My hand held. He obviously thought, because I was only using my entire stack and not trying to see a flop, that I was an aggressive idiot. Guess he had to prove he was a bigger dummy than me.
And so I went to the final table with a hefty 30 big blind stack.
There were a handful of super short stacks, the rest had me well covered, including the Russian who had said no to a money bubble safety. His stack was massive. Case closed on that argument.
I got pretty card dead (not that that's anything unusual or any kind of excuse) so I was pretty well shut down as play commenced. I did manage to bust the teeny tiny stack, who was hilarious and friendly. Almost felt bad to see him go. Almost. His departure assured everyone a $1K payout minimum.
Another small stack fell, payout was now a guaranteed $1250. The next jump would be $1450.
A little light bulb went off in my head. This table was super friendly, and there were zero notorious "No-Chop!" regulars to be seen. There was one more micro-ish stack left, and then there was me who was now down to 15 big blinds, but that was actually not as bad as it sounds. Everyone else was now short as well, the monster stack probably had maybe 30 big blinds if that. And the blinds were set to rise again soon.
I thought to myself, "Self, if this micro stack busts, I'll bet you someone will ask to run the ICM numbers and if everyone agrees, and they most likely will, I stand to collect probably double $1450."
So I sat tight, and soon all that I foresaw came to pass!
It was the big stack Russian who grinned ear to ear and said "Let's look at numbers..." after the last tiny stack exited.
It took only a few minutes, they are a well oiled machine when it comes to chops at HPC. The tournaments are designed to not go too long so we degenerates can get back to donating at the cash tables.
The biggest stack would only get just over 9K (there was almost 14K on top) but the smallest stack - that would be me - would get $3650! Hells yeah, ship it!
Thankfully everyone agreed with me, as everyone knew fortunes could change very quickly with the blinds going so insane and the next level would put an average stack at less than 10 bigs.
Handshakes all around. Corey the TD, who is as nice and friendly and professional as some regulars at HPC are smelly and grumpy, mentioned that this was the biggest payout in the history of the Sunday Special tournament. Nice! Everyone at the final table got a gang of points for their monthly 10K award. We each got 450 and Corey said last month's winner had just over 1000 points. Boy, if I didn't work, I would for sure be going after that 10K prize!
And so there it was, officially my biggest cash ever, outside of my 10K satellite win I suppose, but that was just a seat - this is actual monies.
I know we as poker players all have that fantasy of a really big day culminating in a phat payout. And I know all of these fantasies are probably pretty similar - a day of great decisions, making tons of moves, and a bit of luck.
Well, my actual day went like this. 4 hours of suspect (okay terrible) play, followed by a miraculous comeback courtesy of the poker Gods, and then a re-emergence of my A-Game which (along with that ubiquitous dash of luck that is required for these things) carried me to the final table and a nice beefy slab of cheddar.
Needless to say, this is a flipping' great start to the Summer! The wife didn't get to roll her eyes at me when I got back after 11pm! She was all smiles! Yay!
Hopefully I'll be back here often regaling everyone with more endless rantings about big scores!
Until then - I will see you on the felt!
A short stack a few seats to my right shoved over a few limpers. I looked down at 1010 and re-shipped my stack from the small blind. And then I heard...
"Oh fuck me..."
My neighbor to my left had looked at his cards and was in agony over whether or not to get his chips in. He stood up and hemmed and hawed for a good 30 seconds and then angrily folded...
Other players folded, the short stack turned up a baby ace and I turned up my pair of tens.
"Ah yeah boyee! Folded pocket 8's! Ha ha ha!!!" Exclaimed my neighbor as he spun around to pump his fist. Then he turned back as the flop came rags with an 8.
"Mother fucker!! Dealer you always do this shit to me!!! God damn!!!"
The turn was a blank and the river was a 10.
"Yeah that's what I'm talking' about! Booyah beeaatch!!"
More chips slid my way and the bubble approached.
Then there was the hand where I busted my neighbor. This is a bit fascinating to me.
The previous hand was what sent him into a bit of a spiral.
My other neighbor on my immediate right was also a classic HPC homeboy who knew everyone, but he was very much self aware and he and I got on really well because he was also very smart and funny and knew what he was doing and picked up right away that I did as well. We avoided each other when we could but for sure enjoyed each other's company. I loved that he mumbled and took the piss out of my nemesis across the table. ("Look at this motherfucker, calling with 7 9 off suit, that's some dumb ass shit right there")
He was doing an interesting thing by limping most of his range. But twice he had big premiums underneath and was able to snap off other players and drag quite a few chips. Not a style I would play in, but it seemed to work for him.
So, the hand - he was on the button. There were several limpers and this time he chose to shove, I assume because the limpers stacks, my stack and my neighbor to my left's stack, couldn't really hurt him too much. I figured him for jacks or similar and made an easy fold.
The boisterous homie to my left again looked at his cards and blurted an expletive of anguish - he couldn't believe how good his cards were and he was truly truly in pain about whether or not to call or not.
"What you want me to do dawg?" he finally asked his homie.
Now, you may be saying to yourself, "Uh, you can't do that..." and you'd be right. But this is Hollywood Park, also known as HPC and the C stands for COLLUSION. You didn't know that?
To his credit, the dude on my right said "Do whatever you want, I'm all-in"
And then, this is a true story, homeboy on my left said "Do you want to chop it up no matter what?"
My eyes widened but I didn't say anything and no one else did either. Again, to his credit, the dude on my right just repeated himself, giving no indication what he wanted his buddy to do.
I am still wondering what would've happened if the all-in player had said something like "I got you dawg" or something similar.
Eventually the neighbor to my left folded, but not before saying "Do you know what I'm talking about?" to his friend. The friend didn't answer.
The fold put the potential colluder on massive tilt. All of the sudden he was involved in every hand. Always angry or gleeful depending on the outcome.
It wasn't but less than an orbit later that I woke up with KK and opened. Tilty McTilt 3 bet me and it folded around and of course I 4 bet jammed.
Again the agony, again the frustration and then pretty quickly - a call.
"This my baby mamma's birthday!" He said proudly as he turned up 8 6 suited. I turned up kings and he stood and all the energy drained out of his body as the board ran out harmless. I had him covered and that was that.
He scowled and stomped off without a word to anyone.
Well that was lovely. Made me feel a bit better about being what I considered too emotional.
And then before we knew it, the bubble approached.
There was a brief window where I managed to throw the switch and accumulate some chips with zero risk. There were a handful of players at the table that would actually fold sometimes. I targeted them when it was folded to me and opened 2.5x without looking. If they didn't fold pre, I would simply c-bet and sometimes it worked. If they called I would then look at my cards and go from there.
This worked probably half the time over a dozen hands or so, which means it was profitable. I was happy that there was a Russian dude somewhere over on table 1 who refused the bubble safety. They wanted to pay 3 bubbles! Absurd!
Somewhere on this blog, if you dig back through the archives you can find a long rant by me about money bubble safeties. I was young, I was dumb, I was every bit the recreational player who thought he was awesome but really didn't know much.
I made the case - that professionals, semi-professionals and regulars should look at the big picture and at the bubble of a large tournament that has been going on for a long time (this one had been almost 7 hours, the one in my other post was over 9) and say yes to agreeing to pay the bubble because there are typically a lot of recreational players in low buy in events with big guarantees.
I reasoned that the 'big picture' is that pros should want amateurs to be happy and want to come back. In the post I told the story of a young kid across from me who had a heartbreaking experience when he was the bubble boy because Poker Hall of Fame member Barbara Enright had said no to the safety.
Everyone in that room was mad at her, including me. Nasty names were bandied about, and I thought they were deserved at the time.
Now I know better.
In a tournament - bubbles are quite literally EVERYTHING.
I've realized that there are also multiple bubbles in every tournament. The biggest and most obvious is the money bubble, but not far behind is the final table bubble. There are also pay jump bubbles, especially when the next payout is 4 figures after a 3 figure payout (or a 5 figure after a 4 figure and so on). There's also smaller but very real bubbles, break bubbles, the table is about to be broken bubbles, and several more. One that's a bit bigger is the end of Day 1 (or whatever day) bubble, especially big if it's not a time but number of bust outs that determines when the day ends.
All of these bubbles are a chance for free chips when you have a stack. You can pillage and plunder with very little effort or risk. Bubbles are ESSENTIAL to No Limit Tournament success.
I apologize to Barbara Enright and all other players I've been mad at for denying bubble boys and girls equity. They were 1000% right to say no. I was 1000% wrong. Why would you EVER surrender a chance to accumulate with zero down side?
Now, I don't play for a living and I don't play to supplement my income. So if a bubble safety is asked for, I don't say no. The only time I would, would be in a bigger buy-in event with real money on the line; and in an event like that I doubt very much I would be the only one saying nay. In fact, I would be shocked if a safety was even proposed.
So we played until we got to hand for hand. A boring and tedious process that I've only been witness to a handful of times.
Fortunately, this time, we only played one hand and the bubble burst.
Then it was time to climb the ladder of pay jumps. As I mentioned, I had been hovering around 20 big blinds since my recovery. Typically I would accumulate a bit, up to 25 or 30 bigs, and then the levels would raise the blinds and I'd be back down to 15-20.
I kept up with the same strategy after the bubble burst - to a point. I still looked for easy spots to accumulate, but I dialed back the aggression just a skoch with cards that had less equity. Left and right people were now super eager to get all their chips in.
The first set of payouts was $400. Then it jumped to $450. Not much difference in pay. Then there was a jump to $600 for 18th - 14th place I believe. After that it went to $800 for 13th - 10th. I was pretty conscious of these numbers and would always ask myself "Do I want to pass on this for a $200 pay jump?" Often the answer was, yes. But when it was too good a spot or too good cards I would let it rip.
Most often when I did, I used my stack as a 3 bet jam, especially to squeeze after someone would open and another player would flat. Very effective.
As the final table approached I remember waking up with JJ two hands in a row. The first time I got no callers after I jammed over 2 limpers. The second time I opened and then 4 bet jammed a big stacks 3 bet.
He had 9h8h. My hand held. He obviously thought, because I was only using my entire stack and not trying to see a flop, that I was an aggressive idiot. Guess he had to prove he was a bigger dummy than me.
And so I went to the final table with a hefty 30 big blind stack.
There were a handful of super short stacks, the rest had me well covered, including the Russian who had said no to a money bubble safety. His stack was massive. Case closed on that argument.
I got pretty card dead (not that that's anything unusual or any kind of excuse) so I was pretty well shut down as play commenced. I did manage to bust the teeny tiny stack, who was hilarious and friendly. Almost felt bad to see him go. Almost. His departure assured everyone a $1K payout minimum.
Another small stack fell, payout was now a guaranteed $1250. The next jump would be $1450.
A little light bulb went off in my head. This table was super friendly, and there were zero notorious "No-Chop!" regulars to be seen. There was one more micro-ish stack left, and then there was me who was now down to 15 big blinds, but that was actually not as bad as it sounds. Everyone else was now short as well, the monster stack probably had maybe 30 big blinds if that. And the blinds were set to rise again soon.
I thought to myself, "Self, if this micro stack busts, I'll bet you someone will ask to run the ICM numbers and if everyone agrees, and they most likely will, I stand to collect probably double $1450."
So I sat tight, and soon all that I foresaw came to pass!
It was the big stack Russian who grinned ear to ear and said "Let's look at numbers..." after the last tiny stack exited.
It took only a few minutes, they are a well oiled machine when it comes to chops at HPC. The tournaments are designed to not go too long so we degenerates can get back to donating at the cash tables.
The biggest stack would only get just over 9K (there was almost 14K on top) but the smallest stack - that would be me - would get $3650! Hells yeah, ship it!
Thankfully everyone agreed with me, as everyone knew fortunes could change very quickly with the blinds going so insane and the next level would put an average stack at less than 10 bigs.
Handshakes all around. Corey the TD, who is as nice and friendly and professional as some regulars at HPC are smelly and grumpy, mentioned that this was the biggest payout in the history of the Sunday Special tournament. Nice! Everyone at the final table got a gang of points for their monthly 10K award. We each got 450 and Corey said last month's winner had just over 1000 points. Boy, if I didn't work, I would for sure be going after that 10K prize!
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| Lost it all on Blackjack right after this pic was taken. |
I know we as poker players all have that fantasy of a really big day culminating in a phat payout. And I know all of these fantasies are probably pretty similar - a day of great decisions, making tons of moves, and a bit of luck.
Well, my actual day went like this. 4 hours of suspect (okay terrible) play, followed by a miraculous comeback courtesy of the poker Gods, and then a re-emergence of my A-Game which (along with that ubiquitous dash of luck that is required for these things) carried me to the final table and a nice beefy slab of cheddar.
Needless to say, this is a flipping' great start to the Summer! The wife didn't get to roll her eyes at me when I got back after 11pm! She was all smiles! Yay!
Hopefully I'll be back here often regaling everyone with more endless rantings about big scores!
Until then - I will see you on the felt!
