Early results...

Well I already deviated a bit from my plan in the post below - I was only able to play on one day of the WSOP during my Grand Canyon vacay with the fam, and on a Thursday no less.

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...

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.

Alas, the rest of the afternoon would not go as well.  My opponents were nothing special, but I couldn't seem to drag many chips.  I kept ending up in my favorite place, the land of second best; and to top it all off my JJ was cracked by 99 AIPF to put a serious hurt on my stack.

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.

30K to start.

I was happy enough with my table draw.  Overall it seemed fairly soft.  There was one paunchy regular who was opposite to me in the 8 seat who I had played with before and I knew him to be sticky and very tricky.

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 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!"

"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!

Lost it all on Blackjack right after this pic was taken.

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!

Plan of ATTACK

Most years in this blog I've hammered out my itinerary for the World Series of Poker ahead of time - this year will be no exception but I'd like to take it even farther.

In addition to what my plan is for the actual WSOP, I'd also like to jot down specifically what I'm going to be doing almost every day between now and the Main Event.

I recently have re-discovered playing poker online again.  The site is Global Poker and I'm not sure I understand how they get away with it, but it is real money and it is only American players.  I've had decent results playing nothing but $6 Sit-N-Gos and $5 MTT's, I'm up over a hundred bucks in profit which is a nice feeling after playing micro stakes for only a few months.

I think all the recent playing online has made me a better player for sure.  The player pool isn't nearly as large as Full Tilt and Stars were back in the day, so the competition is generally quite a bit tougher.  Still, there are plenty of fishy players who fold too much and make accumulating by being aggressive a profitable proposition.

Between now and the WSOP I need to keep playing poker online, and I also need to devote time to studying.   Most of all though, I need to look at my family and work schedule between now and then and realistically plan to play as much live poker as possible; preferably mostly in card rooms.

So here, in black and white, is my exact live poker schedule between now and then.  Writing it all down so I'll stick to it.


Grand Canyon Vacation May 24 - June 3 (in Vegas 5/31-6/3)

Thursday May 31 - 2pm - $250 WSOP Daily Deep Stack

Friday  June 1 - 2pm - $250 WSOP Daily Deep Stack + 7pm $365 Giant (day 2 - 7/1)


Tuesday June 5 - 730pm - The Bike Mega Satellite for Day 2 of 500K guarantee.  $250

Wednesday June 6 - 1pm - Day 2 500K gtd. (obviously have to win seat in satty)

Thursday June 7 - 730pm - POSSIBLE Julie home game Burbank $100

Friday June 8  - 8pm - PSP SNG, $60 home tournament (if no Julie home game)

Saturday June 9 - 5pm - Moose Lodge Event, $100 (this game is a whole other post I need to write)

Sunday June 10 - 12pm - HPC Sunday $150 15K gtd.


(wife and kid away this next week)

Monday June 11 - 7pm - HPC Daily $120 3K gtd.

Tuesday June 12 - 7pm - HPC Daily $120. 3K gtd.

Wednesday June 13 - 6pm - Commerce Daily $65

Thursday June 14 - 5pm - Bike Survivor Summer Series $350 (if no Julie home game)

Saturday June 16 - PSP MTT 7pm $45


Tuesday June 19 - 7pm - HPC Daily $120. 3K gtd.

Thursday June 21 - Julie Home Game OR 7pm - HPC Daily $120. 3K gtd.

Friday June 22 - 8pm Garner Home Game OR - 7pm HPC $150 12K gtd.


Monday June 25 - 730pm - Bike Mega Satellite for Day 2 - $400

Tuesday June 26  - 4pm - Day 2 500K gtd. (have to win satellite)

Thursday June 28 - 7pm - Julie Home Game OR 7pm - HPC Daily $120. 3K gtd.


I travel to VEGAS on Sunday July 1 - I don't play in the Main until Tuesday July 3.   I will be staying at the Rio with no rental car.  Here is my tentative Vegas schedule -


Sunday July 1 - 1pm  - Rio Daily Deepstack - $250
                           2pm - POSSIBLE GIANT DAY 2

Monday July 2 - 10am - Turbo Daily Mirage/T.I./Harrah's
                           1pm - Rio Daily Deepstack $250 or Golden Nugget Daily NLHE - $150

Tuesday July 3 - 11am - WSOP Main Event Day 1B - $10K

Wednesday July 4 - 10am - Turbo Daily Mirage/T.I./Harrah's
                                1pm - Rio Daily Deepstack $250

Thursday July 5 - 11am - WSOP Main Event Day 2A&B*

Friday July 6 -    1pm  - Rio Daily Deepstack - $250

Saturday July 7 - 11am - WSOP Main Event Day 3**

Sunday July 8 - 11am - WSOP Main Event Day 4**



*If I don't make day 2 of the Main, I will still play poker on Thursday and probably Friday, I will likely come home on Saturday.

**If I don't make day 3 of the Main, I will very likely come home on Saturday.  Obviously every day I survive the Main after that, I will remain in Vegas.


So there it is, written down.  I know it seems like a heck of a lot of poker, but really there's quite a few tournaments there that are contingent on various factors.  A couple of either or tournaments and a few others that are satellites into bigger tournaments.

I think it's super important that I play several times a week, with days off here and there so I don't get burned out.

I realized, looking at the first week in July when I'm at the WSOP, I will not only be fulfilling my adult-lifelong dream of playing in the Main Event, but I'll also be trying for the first time a long wished for opportunity to play poker every day in Vegas for a full week - and all of those tournaments will likely be at the WSOP!   Neato!

Can't wait!

Dream Tournament Achievement Unlocked

Below is the most recent post from my Home Poker Blog and my WSOP Study Group Blog, it details what happened a couple of weeks ago when we sat down to play for a seat in the World Series of Poker Main Event.  Afterwards you can read my personal commentary on the afternoon and what was going through my head then and now.

*********

And so it came down to the eight of us, locked in battle for a solid 8 hours (with a half hour dinner break) for a chance at greatness.  The stakes?  A seat in The Main Event of The World Series of Poker.

There were ups, there were downs, there were highs and there were lows.

And for starters there was a killer collectable chip.

Sure to be the rarest of them all.

The stage is set.

Ooooh... pretty..

After a lengthy discussion about taxes, what to do if the representative couldn't make it, and various other housekeeping items - it was on like Donkey Kong!

Much appreciation to the wife for these stellar pics.

The structure was almost the same as the actual Main itself, but we had half hour levels instead of 2 hour levels, as we wanted this to be a one day event.

Rather early on we had our first bust, Tony succumbed to the power of Andrew's rockets and we were down to 7.

It would be almost 3 hours later before our next exit, Marc bid adieu and then it was dinner time.

We returned after scrumptious pizza to fight on.   The two Eric's were next to bust, though I can't remember in what order.

Finally Jeff G. succumbed, and then Andrew was out in third.  The former had been a juggernaut for most of the afternoon and it was only a bit of bad luck that found him out of the winner's circle.

Who's the luck-box who took this shot?

Oh. 

Heads-up for all the marbles.

Final hand - suck-out thy name is poker.

 When the dust finally settled it was nearly 8:30 and dark, and somehow yours truly found himself as the last man standing.  Jason and I had exchanged the chip lead a few times, yet in the end I caught better cards and that was that.

I was elated, I was thrilled, I was humbled and speechless.

I still have a hard time believing that I am headed to the greatest poker tournament on the face of the earth.  This is for sure a bucket list item and I can't believe I'm going to be so young when I get to tick it off.

A huge thanks to Jeff G. for hanging around and shuffling - you made heads-up play a lot more awesome.

I must say I owe a lot to my brothers on the felt - all 7 of you gents who participated in this adventure, I cannot thank each and every one of you enough.  I know our late night study sessions and poker battles made my win possible - I will do my best to honor all the work we have put in together in pursuit of this dream.

Can't wait to post here about my massive deep run in the Main!  Stay tuned!

********

Okay so for the personal / strategy stuff regarding our satellite for this here personal poker blog.

First and foremost on my mind was that there was ZERO reason to get involved in big hands early on. We were starting with 80,000 in chips, an absolutely absurd amount, and mirroring the Main structure exactly, also absurd considering that the actual Main starts players with only 50K.  The big difference  in structure though that we did have was half hour levels instead of two hour levels.  Still, I knew that I needed to cool it early and play super tight.

I was somewhat surprised, but not at all shocked, that some of the other 7 guys came right out of the gate firing multiple barrels, bloating pots and blasting away.  Although it was not the strategy I was adopting, it was still impressive to see such aggression.  I have to say, if it wasn't going to be me, I would still feel pretty good with any one of these guys going to the big dance, they were fearless!

Most impressive early on was Andrew, a regular at my home game now for at least 5 years, he had for sure brought his A game and c-bet large and often, accumulating early on and setting the tone for the rest of the table.

Other players that stuck out in those first few hours, Marc bluffed me off of a hand pre-flop.   He showed me what he had done afterwards and I was both irritated and delighted - irritated at folding the best hand, delighted that he had such a naked bluff in his arsenal.  He is known as one of the tighter players in our group.

Eric L. also had brought his a-game.  He's the fellow who binked 10K for us at last years WSOP.  His game has come incredibly far in the last two years.  I am super proud that our study group has had a lot to do with that.  Eric L. has good aggression in the right spots, and a lovely stickiness and reluctance to fold that when honed and refined just a little bit more will make him an exceptionally dangerous player.

And then there's Tony.  Tony has a great natural feel for the game, a really nice instinct that I likely will never have.  I have been playing with him for over 20 years and he still sniffs out my bluffs and manages to pull bluffs on me as well every once in awhile.

But Tony has a problem - he is still enamored with the idea that Sasquatch is real.

In other words, he genuinely believes in a sixth sense that will guide him to make the correct decisions, irregardless of probability or numbers.

Now I love the guy, and as I said, I genuinely admire his intuitive feel for the game, it's a trait I wish I had been born with.  But he really takes it too far, and nothing I say to him seems to sway this idea that he has a direct link to the poker gods and that he calls on it to make decisions.  Witness this amazing excerpt from one of our many e-mail exchanges...

" I know you don’t really think “gut instincts” factor into much of the poker decision-making process, but I do. I’ve experienced too many situations where I sense something is going to happen and it does, or I feel like I’m going to hit my card and it hits, or I feel like I’m NOT going to hit my card and I’m right. 

On Saturday (yesterday) I was playing in Steve's home game and I had a pretty big chip stack. A young lady to my right went all in with an amount of chips that was equal to a quarter of my stack. I looked down and found AQ suited. I thought to myself, I’m not going to win with this hand because she probably has a pair, but I have to call because at this point in the tournament with this hand and my stack, it’s almost an auto-call. I also pictured you and the rest of the Pepper Street Crew telling me “shove, shove, shove  you idiot!

I made the call and of course her 4-4 held and I doubled her up. This is the type of thing that happens to me over and over again. I think if I sprinkle in this “sixth sense” along with good, solid thinking and planning from you and the rest of the group, I’ll start playing better. I also know what you’re thinking right now and it’s not very nice! (hahaha)"

The good news is that he is self aware and understands how ridiculous he sounds to me and the other guys.  But the bad news is, he will not change the fundamental problem - which is relying on guidance from a higher power to make difficult decisions.

Now I am a person of faith, I believe in God and all that - but I also believe that God wants nothing to do with my degeneracy and could not give less of a shit about my poker habit.   

The only thing that works in poker for me is hard work and hard numbers.  I am comforted by the simple truth that math is cold and indifferent - it doesn't care about my feelings, it doesn't care that my aces get cracked all in pre-flop by a pair of sixes.  It certainly doesn't care that when I fold 8d3s sometimes the flop comes 888.  All math 'cares' about in the long run, is the long run - that is, making correct decisions.

When we make correct decisions mathematically, we will win.  In the LONG run.  Not necessarily on that particular hand.

Letting go and letting God is a good way to live one's life, and I believe it is also true of poker.  You have to make the best decision you can, and then not get too upset over short term results that are often determined by luck.

I'm going to play in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker on July 3rd 2018.  I understand that I may be lucky and sit down to a table of recreational players or I may get unlucky and find myself at a table of doom with high roller grinders.  Most likely it will be a mix.  But in any case, my only jobs are to savor the experience and make the best decisions I can based on the information I have - one hand at a time.

I can't get worried when I have 21 big blinds towards the end of Day 1 and I look down at JJ from the cutoff and an active player two seats to my right opens 3x.  My only decision there is to stick it in.  Period.

I can't look to the heavens and imagine in my head - "This feels weird.  It seems like he has aces. I should fold."  OR "This feels weird, it seems like he has AQ.  I don't want to flip.  I need to fold."  OR "I should probably see a flop and then shove if no over cards hit."

Those are all TERRIBLE notions, driven by emotion and nothing more than the random firing of random synapses in my tired brain at the end of a long day of poker.  I need to tune those right out and already have a plan in place before I even look at my cards.

"That guy has been opening a lot.  I'm ripping here with all premiums, AJs and 77+. Anything else I'm folding."  I look down and it's JJ.  INSTA SHOVE NO REGRETS THAT'S POKER THE END.

So the whole point of this entire tangent was that Tony busted WAY earlier than he should have. 

After a couple of tough beats, in hands that he played just fine, he got pretty steamed and the next thing we know he four bet pre-flop with 77 and 50 big blinds behind and then CALLED to Andrew's five bet shove!  

Naturally Andrew had AA and that was that.

Absolutely horrific call, (not crazy about the 4 bet either) and driven entirely by emotion and the random brain fart notion that Andrew was full of shit.

Andrew had been aggressive, he certainly was 3 betting wider than just premium holdings.  But really, not really.  

Andrew is a very good aggressive player who knows how to accumulate with little risk to his stack.  He had been pounding away at the table for almost 3 full hours - but his betting and sizing (though a bit large for my personal tastes) always gave him room to maneuver and extricate himself if he got into trouble.

In other words, he's not sticking in his stack against a 50 blind stack with nothing less than a premium.

No amount of "I didn't think you had it" will ever overcome that fundamental, MATHEMATICAL, truth.

Anyways, the point here isn't to bash on a dear friend that I do truly love - but to illustrate for myself and everyone how far afield emotions can take us.  We need to allow ourselves to feel at the poker table yes, we are all only human, and instinct will always play a part.  But instinct needs to be driven by and also tempered by careful thought and planning that's based on math and probability. 

Otherwise we end up calling off 50+ big blinds with pocket sevens.

So with Tony's exit there were 7 of us remaining.  Tony was pretty shook, but truthfully I knew that 6 of us would also be facing the same result, and the closer each of us got to the prize the more painful it would be.  In no small way Tony had gotten off easy.

My mind gets a bit fuzzier recalling the next string of bust outs.  I believe it was Marc who succumbed to a bad beat at the hands of yours truly, I could be wrong, but I remember getting a good price to chase my draw which hit on the river.  I don't think I busted him but I did cripple him as he found a call on fifth street with his over pair.  He was out shortly thereafter.

We then broke for dinner and all of the sudden everyone wasn't super deep any more.

The two Eric's busted out shortly after we got back, I don't remember in which order or how.  But I will say that Eric L. more than once made light calls that dented his stack pretty badly.

Most impressively, Eric L. has confided in me that a leak he sees in his own game is his overvaluing and over playing over pairs.  I know he works hard on his game and I know he will improve the timing of this tendency as he plays more and more.

Eric T. had played very well and very patiently, in a similar style to me, but he never found a moment to flip the switch.  That is, as we all must do in poker tournaments, shift gears and get more aggressive.   At one point he had a pretty good stack, and he needed to kick it up a notch and start accumulating.

Instead he would open somewhat infrequently and then shut it down if he missed the flop.   He would also check call if he was drawing and then surrender on fourth or fifth street if he missed or the betting from his opponent got too painful.

That said, Eric T. is a solid player and has gone deep in the WSOP and brought home monies for the group a few years back.  He has played poker a lot and has a great intuition based on that experience.  He is capable of bluffing when he needs to and he is pretty good at sniffing out bluffs as well.  If he had been blessed with better cards he for sure could have brought this one home.   

My only criticism of his game is that he doesn't c-bet nearly often enough.  If he was balancing his check backs with made hands that would be okay, but usually when he checks back the flop it means he has missed.  Then all his opponent has to do, and I've done it more than once, is wait for a scare card to roll off on the turn and river and then fire away.  More often than not he will release.  Hopefully he reads this and adjusts!

Then there was just four of us.  Four formidable players;  Jeff G., another WSOP vet who can be infuriatingly sticky when he has chips.  Andrew, the aforementioned aggressive grinder.  And Jason, my long time poker confidante who is as capable of emptying the clip (triple barrel bluffing) as any top tournament pro.

I believe I was somewhere in the middle of the group with my stack, but as soon as it got four handed I threw the switch and start opening pots a lot wider.  I was also very good about c-betting against single opponents when I whiffed - thankfully, as I had hoped, the table was tightening up as the top prize got closer.

Jeff G. busted first, he had been unable to get much traction or too big a stack - thank goodness, despite his deadly ability to call light and hit out of position; I managed to avoid getting smacked too hard by his wide range and capable betting.

Surprisingly it was Andrew who exited in third - literally a hand or two after Jeff's exit.  I don't remember specifically the hand or even who knocked him out; but I can say pretty confidently that there was nothing untoward about it.  I think on the day Andrew had played better than all of us, and it was truly the luck of the draw that saw him finishing third.  Now I'm all the sudden remembering that earlier on he took a huge hit against Jason when I was in the house going to the little boys room.  I think that's right, but I'm not 100%.

And so then it was just Jason and myself.

The sun had gone down and we truly went at it ferociously.  One thing (of many) that I love about the guy is that we always play our hardest against each other and we both still care very much about each other afterwards.  This time was certainly no exception.

I was up at first, then I took a hit when I looked him up light on a river that didn't complete any draws.  He had my top pair middling kicker beat quite handily with a very made hand, I kind of leveled myself into paying him off.

Discussions were then had for a little bit about a possible split of the money - and both of us going to the Main, with me as the slight chip leader still representing PSP and putting up the difference myself or something.  Honestly, the hour was late and I know neither of us really wanted to miss out on the chance to go - I'm not sure either of us was really thinking it through clearly.

At any rate, we carried on without an agreement in place, and I was able - and I don't think I'm revealing anything here that Jason probably doesn't already know - to chip up simply by keeping my foot on the gas.  I bluffed as often as I thought I could get away with.  I know he did as well.  Both of us played fairly aggressive and did our best not to give an inch.

In the end it truly did come down to the cards, I remember winning a big pot because my draw got there on the turn and Jason had TPTK or similar.  Afterwards he was short the money went in with me dominated and I sucked out to take it down.

I've already described my elation - but what I didn't mention at the time of my writing is that I was actually so bowled over that I ended up taking a 2 week break from poker - very unusual for me these days.  I think the long break stemmed from a real feeling of achievement, like I can really genuinely rest now because I've reached the mountain top so to speak.  Only very recently have I felt the urge to play again, and I'm looking forward to it.

I also really need to bear down a bit and study some more - I have a LearnWPT membership online which is a HUGE resource that I need to take more advantage of.  I also need to continue on with UpSwings Master Class in tournament poker that I purchased awhile ago.  A lot of it is fairly dry, but it's good stuff, and I paid good money for it - no excuses!  

As you can read in the Pepper Street blog, Jason would go on to win the following weekend's WSOP satty, so he will be going to Vegas this summer, albeit not to the Main.  If there's any way I can make it happen for me to get out there that weekend, I will.  I would love to play some daily deep stacks and get my feet wet at the Rio before the big dance in July.

Failing that - without fail I will be at the Rio for the first week of July, arriving Sunday the 1st and playing a one day event on the 2nd before taking the plunge on Tuesday the 3rd in Day 1B of the Main Event.

God willing I will be around for Day 2A&B on Thursday July 5.  Whether I'm in or out I will be playing a less serious one day event on the 4th, more than likely at my usual low stakes haunts of Mirage, T.I. or similar.

If I have busted on my Day 1 or if I bust on Day 2 I will be leaving Friday morning.

If I'm still around at the end of Thursday, I will be extending my stay through Sunday.

Day 3, when A&B combine with C, will be Saturday.  If I am lucky enough to still be around I will pray to the poker Gods that I can last until Day 4 which is Sunday and MONEY day in the Main Event.

If I do make the money, I will again be extending my stay and also calling in sick to work - though I will certainly tell them the truth about where I am and what is going on.  There are some benefits to working for the same company for 22 years - deep loyalty on my part and my employers part is not the least of them.  I know they will be happy for me, and they also know that I will more than make up for lost work.

If I'm still around on Monday day 5, then we are entering a dream world where every climb up the ladder is simply gravy.  I really only have a single goal going in - survive day 1.  After that, each day will be only to survive the day. (Initially just to make it to the first break, and so on and so on.)

If I wake up and find myself deep into day 5, then the sky truly is the limit.  I will be fatigued, but I also will be at a point where I don't have to worry about anything - I've already won and I can just play poker.  I also will hopefully be able to completely jettison the nerves and the awareness that this is the biggest stage in the world in tournament poker.  I was unable to do so at Thunder Valley, but I was barely there.  I am fairly confident that I will be in the zone and zenned out and non-plussed at my surroundings if I'm still healthy and kicking on day 5.

Leave the whooping and hollering to others, leave the fist pumps and the celebrations to the amateurs and the brain damaged grinders that may be formidable but are missing the temperament to hold on to greatness.   If I'm guaranteed a pay day I'm just going to let expectations and consciousness of place evaporate.  I also plan to completely forget about money jumps until (God willing) I get to six figures.  At that point ICM will be too big to ignore, but I must remember that until that point, there is no reason for me to get too concerned with pay jumps, even if it's thousands of dollars.  The money is not life altering at that point, and I'm much better served putting pressure on others rather than fretting over earning 58K instead of 63K.

Yes, this is getting a bit ahead of myself - but I also believe in the power of positivity.  I know it may sound strange after I wrote half a dozen paragraphs disparaging purely instinctive play - but I think pre-visualization with an expectation of a positive outcome, as long as it is contingent on making good logical and mathematically solid decisions, can only be a good thing.

We will see.

Let's get Specific

A few months out from my LearnWPT class and a few weeks out from of my WPT Main Event experience, my thoughts are turning to the summer and of course Vegas and the World Series of Poker.

This year is a first for my home game, we are going to send someone to the actual Main Event of the WSOP - a $10,000 buy in event.   There are 8 of us in our group and we will all put up an equal share of the buy in - then we will play a satellite tournament and the winner takes the cash, enters the Main and keeps 60% of any winnings and gives the remaining 40% to the group to be divided evenly.

In preparation for this monumental event, both the satellite and the Main itself we have been all talking through hands with each other and have also held a couple of discussion groups where we talk poker and strategy.

Getting together as a group is fun and productive, but it can also be overwhelming and hard to remember everything that I wanted to discuss.  There's lots of creative minds in our group, and in just a few hours it's tough for everyone to get out what they want to say and ask of each other.

Thankfully I have this here blog - so Imma write about what I think is the most important stuff that I'm trying to pass on to the group.

Keep in mind, yes I write this stuff down for my poker compatriots but I also certainly do it for myself to try and help retain the info that I've learned.

You must forgive me, as I'm certain to get some things wrong here, but I think it's important that I try to recall as much as I can from just my memory of what I think is pertinent to our group.


The first point that I really wanted to impress on the guys is this -

"I didn't think you had it" by itself is bad poker.

This idea that we can stare someone down and read their mind is quite simply not true any more than Sasquatch or ghost stories are real.  Now, some people do believe in that stuff, and good for them, but I think it's a bunch of hooey and I feel the same way about 'soul reading' in poker.

Once in a blue moon, yes, an opponent will exhibit a physical behavior that helps us make an informed decision; but it is a behavior that is real, not some gut instinct from our point of view.

Our poker decisions are based upon information - not gut instinct or our mood at a particular moment.

How we extract that information is very specific - it is an actual strategy that we can follow, a plan if you will.

I don't think it's as important that I get into specific strategies, for example like the ones I learned at WPT, what is far more important is to impress that meaningful and specific strategy is the key to success in the game.


By far the biggest leak in our group I can see is that most of us don't have a specific pre-flop plan.

I would like to zero in on the largest factor that goes into this leak - we are all calling WAY too much pre-flop.

Calling to 'see a flop' and hoping to hit is a terrible, terrible way to play tournament poker. Hope is NOT a strategy.  We have to have a methodical approach, and I firmly believe that approach involves much less calling.  When we do call it should be only under very specific circumstances.

Having a specific and narrow 'calling criteria' that is - defining specifically the kind of hands we can call pre-flop with does a couple of things...

First, it dramatically increases our aggression pre-flop because we are only getting involved most of the time by raising.   This alone is something I think our entire group could benefit from.

Second, good things happen when we raise, we thin the field, we likely get information and we get value from our good hands immediately or we give ourselves a way to take down the hand pre-flop altogether.

Conversely in most spots when we just call we are putting ourselves at a disadvantage.  We are relinquishing the lead and the initiative to someone else, we are gaining zero information about the players to our left (or to our right for that matter) and worst of all we are giving ourselves only one way to win by HOPING to hit the flop.

A losing strategy in and of itself, made worse because often the decision to 'see a flop' is based on nothing more than a gut feeling of "Well, this could be a good hand if I hit, let's see a flop".  A recipe for burning chips unnecessarily, considering everyone whiffs the flop 2/3 of the time.

In our last hand laboratory I promised to share with everyone my calling criteria - I shared a bit at the time but couldn't remember every detail and couldn't expect others to remember all of what I was describing either.

So here's the criteria I use when I look down at my cards pre-flop and ask myself "Can I call?"

1 - I have to have a speculative hand.  For now I define a spec hand similar to the way LearnWPT does -

             Pocket pairs, 22-99 (rarely I will make an exception with 1010 or JJ)
             Suited connectors that don't include paint except for J10.
             1 or 2 gap suited connectors that don't include paint.
             Suited aces that don't include paint except for AJ.

2 - I can't be the first caller, the hand must be multi-way (at least one caller) already.

3 - The amount of the call has to be small,  5% or less of the shortest stack in the hand.


If my hand or the situation don't meet any one of these three requirements I have to raise or fold.  I cannot call.


This is what I mean by a specific strategy.  If you have A, then you automatically do B.

Now, in all strategies there can of course be exceptions, but we have to have very good reasons to deviate.  That is a whole other discussion.

As an aside, the reason I can call with these particular hands is that when these hands do hit they tend to hit big multi way, so we want multiple opponents involved when we hit our set or otherwise smash the board.

I don't think it's super important or necessary for the others in my group to adopt this exact calling criteria, but I think it's very important that they formulate some kind of specific pre-flop calling criteria for their games.

Otherwise there is going to be far too much "I like this hand, let's see a flop and see what happens" nonsense at the table.  Hope is not a strategy, especially hope for something that only happens one time out of three.

By carving out specific guidelines of what kind of circumstances and hands you need to call pre-flop, it will free up mental resources to focus on other elements of the hand, especially the more important post flop streets.

I hope the guys reading this will give serious thoughts to a specific calling criteria that results in far less calling and more raising.

For the first couple days of the Main Event, I think we can get by playing passively and being super patient, but eventually as the money starts to approach, it will be time to actually play poker.  And a chance at a deep run is about ZERO if we are flat calling most of the time pre-flop.



As for post-flop, these were my thoughts for the lab, most of which I didn't get to.

Having a plan, a specific strategy, rather than relying on feelings, is also super important post-flop.

First...

If I have called pre-flop I am only continuing with the hand if I flop 2 pair or better or a draw with 8 outs or more.

Top pair hands are BIG trouble multi-way post flop.  I rely on hitting the flop hard against recreational players when I have a big hand and all they have is top pair.  We don't want to be one of those recs that stacks off with top pair, we want to be the ones who have called correctly and flop a monster.

C-Betting

The biggest example of a plan post-flop is something that nearly all of us do, c-bet (continuation bet), whether we hit the flop or not after we have been the last aggressor pre-flop.

I like to get very specific with my c-bet approach, beyond just "I'm going to fire most of the time"


If I am in position post flop and I MISS THE FLOP,  I am still c-betting 100% of the time unless...
             
*  I have 3 or more opponents.

* I have 2 opponents and I am out of position against at least 1 of them.

*  The board is coordinated (not with my hand) and I have 2 opponents.
     
In these situations I am checking back and likely giving up.  (I elaborate more below in the Turn 2nd Bullets section.)


If I HIT THE FLOP, middle pair, top pair, two pair or a draw of 8 outs or more - I am c-betting 100% of the time unless...

*  I have 4 opponents or more.  (I may still fire with 4, but they have to be very fishy)

* I am out of position against three or more opponents. 

 

*  All I have is middle pair and I am up against 2 or more opponents.


If I HIT THE FLOP with a set or better - I am c-betting 100% of the time unless...

*  I flop a monster with 1 opponent.  (a set on a wet board is not a monster)


The whole point of c-betting, keeping the initiative after being the pre-flop raiser, is so that we can win pots uncontested some of the time.  It's much more likely to happen against a single opponent as when we most commonly hit the board it will be with single pair hands that are much stronger against one player rather than several.

Whenever I c-bet, whether it's as a bluff, semi-bluff or a value bet on a made hand, I make sure that my sizing stays the same.  I don't want to tip off the strength of my hand by changing the size.

I know I can get more specific on my c-betting strategy, but this is what I can recall off the top of my head for now.  It is still something I need to work on.


The Turn

A simple default strategy I use on the turn...

If I c-bet as a bluff against 1 opponent and get called, I will check back the turn when -

* The turn is a complete blank for me. This is me giving up.

If I c-bet as a bluff and get called, I will fire a second bullet when -

* The turn is a scare card a higher card than any card on the flop, either an A, K or Q.
* The turn brings me 8 or more outs.
* The turn actually hits my hand - turns it into top pair good kicker or better.

Hopefully this will see me firing enough second bullets so that my opponents don't simply float me on the flop all the time and try to take away the pot on the turn. See below for what I do on the river after firing second bullet if I miss the river.

If I c-bet for value against a single opponent, I will check back the turn when -

*  I flopped a top pair good/top kicker type hand where I am either way behind or way ahead. I am checking back even if the turn brings a big draw to the board, I already gave my opponent the wrong price to call on the flop – I am not going to worry about letting him get there. I would much rather keep the pot small and evaluate the river.

If I c-bet for value and get called I will fire a second bullet when -

* My hand improves
* My medium strength hand (above) picks up a draw of 8 outs or more


In other words, against a single opponent if I have a top pair type hand, I'm looking to get 2 streets of value (either inducing a bluff on the river or me value betting on the river) for top two pair or stronger I will fire on the turn looking to get three full streets.


The River

A very simplified default river strategy I use is…

If I have checked back the turn after C-bet bluffing the flop, I have given up and will not fire at the river even if the river improves my hand. If this happens, it's really even more of a reason to check back because now I have showdown value.

If I have checked back the turn after C-betting the flop for value, I will likely call if my opponent leads out into me on the river. If my opponent checks, I very likely will bet the river for value if I think I can get called by a worse hand.

If I have fired a second bullet on the turn as a bluff I will only fire a third bullet as a bluff on the river if I have 12 outs or more on the turn.  If I have 11 outs or less on the turn I will give up on the river unless there is a compelling reason based on my opponents tendencies to fire again.

Obviously if I have fired a second bullet on the turn for value I am aiming for a third Street a value on the river most of the time. I may check back if the river brings in a draw that is unrelated to my hand.

I have said it before but I will say it again, I am not varying the size of my post flop bets based on the strength of my hand. The exception to this would be if I can exploit my opponents playing tendencies. If they are very fishy I very well might over bet the river as fish tend to over value their medium strength hands. I may also try this line against a very good player, as over betting tends to look pretty bluffy. But I have to be careful because if I overbet for value against a good player I have to be prepared to do the same thing with a bluff.

So that actually got a lot more specific than I intended, but I think it's good for me to write down my thoughts on how to approach the game. I hope any of you reading can get some value out of this and please, of course, I would love to hear feedback – positive or negative, the next time we see each other.

I truly can't wait to play for a seat in the greatest tournament on the planet with my friends. Even if I don't take it down I will genuinely be happy for whoever gets to go. I plan to be in Vegas at the Rio that week regardless of whether I win a seat or not, this will be the first time I have ever seen the main event and I can't wait!