How much better are they really?

So, in the last couple of months I've experienced some sustained success and gained some confidence in my poker abilities. I've always known I was better than the average tourist playing 1/2 NL HoldEm, that's why I moved to Vegas; I don't have to instantly be the best player in town, I just have to be able to find tables where I can identify players worse than myself. My plan for my first year here was to play the lowest stakes, hone my skills, build my bankroll, see where I'm at in a year. It's been a little over a year, my reads have gotten better, my bankroll is in good shape, so I've been contemplating my next step. Moving up probably means branching out to play more at other casinos; right now I play primarily at the MGM Grand, which is probably the best room around for 1/2 NLHE, and where I've made the most friends, but has a more limited 2/5 NLHE selection. Some people have asked me why I don't play 2/5, some people have told me not to move up because "[I'm] a 1/2 player", whatever that means.

A couple of recent events added something else to think about in my quest to improve. Last night I watched a guy fold KK face up against what turned out to be only AK suited. Stack sizes being what they were, and knowing what was known about the player making the re-raise, there is no possible way I would fold pocket kings in that situation. Then today, I'm reading an article about the 3 largest pots ever played in online poker, which all happened at the same table, in quick succession. In one of them, in $500/$1000 NLHE game, a $678,000 pot was built pre-flop when pocket aces and pocket kings got it all-in. In this situation, the stakes were higher, the stacks were deeper and the players involved are some of the best in the world, and yet all the action occurred pre-flop and the second best hand couldn't get away from it. I don't know the exact sequence of the action, but with deeper stacks and supposedly better players, it would seem that there might have been enough information available to deduce that KK was behind in this case.

There have been a couple of cases where the little voice told me my kings were up against aces and had I listened, I might have gotten away and saved myself significant (to me) money, but more often, the stacks involved dictate the action. Reading about situations where top pros make misreads for that much money make me wonder just how much separates us, other than the stakes. And if that is the main difference, how gradual an increase in stakes do I need to restrict myself to?

Near Notable Near Sightings Near WSOP

I haven't been doing anything with this space, it usually feels too narcissistic to think anyone is interested in my experiences as a grinder. But this week I encountered more "names" than usual. It would appear that some people think the offerings at the Venetians Deep Stack Extravaganza are either a better value than, or possibly a good tune-up for, the WSOP offerings. This week I've played in the same event (but not at the same table) as Steve Dannenman (we both cashed, but I finished deeper!). I saw Jamie Gold playing in an event the following day, and last night I looked up to see Dan Harrington on the rail just next to my table. His co-author Bill Robertie was seated one table over from me, but I didn't last long enough to see how he finished (though we both cashed). I wouldn't have been surprised to see any of these people at the Rio.

I'm both disappointed and encouraged at my recent results. I've entered 5 $340 events in the last 2 weeks and I've made the money in the last 3 of them. I think that speaks well for consistency, but I've been unable to finish better than 18th (18th, 54th, 33rd) in some fairly large fields (371, 543, 649, 654, 677). I may try a larger buyin event, but I'm not sure if anything smaller is as good a value.

There. I wrote something.

Burst of energy

I finally posted to RGP, and there were replies(!) so there's a remote chance someone might google me for more information. And then they'd find my dusty old blog, with no updates in months. Which is a shame, actually, since all of my biggest poker $ucce$$e$ have come since my last update.

What would those be? I had a much better celebrity encounter at the Bike before that trip wrapped up, wasn't just nearby this time, but at the same table and profitable. I've also had several more high money (1,2,3) finishes in good sized fields with my biggest payouts to date.

The Night of the Return of the Land of the Celebrity Encounters started off very differently than all my other sessions at the Bike. I sat down at the $100 buyin $2/$3 NLHE as per usual by now, but I was seated next to a familiar looking guy* with the largest stack of $1 and $5 chips I'd seen yet at this level. "Wonderful," I'm thinking, and then I see two chips of a different color tucked away at the bottom of one of many towering columns. I asked him what those were and he showed me his $1000 chips, giving him close to four grand at a table with a $100 max buyin. I wonder how this seat became available...

Mostly I just stayed out of his way. He occassionally showed me some of the hands he was playing (any two if he felt like it, since if he hit big and anyone else overplayed their hand or tried to bluff him, he could just completely absorb them), and I don't know if he was showing off or giving me a friendly warning.

Inn knee weigh, the table with the monster stack eventually breaks (half the table flees in terror, and then Godzilla racks up and moves to a different game entirely) so I move to an open seat at a/the remaining 2/3 table. Much better situation, this time the guy to my immediate right is also the biggest stack by a wide margin, but he only had about $1300 in front of him, compared to everyone else's $100-500 stacks. For a while I was so focused on the fact that I had run into yet another big stack to my left, that I didn't notice the player to my right. But I soon recognized him as a player I had seen/heard being belligerent about a perceived bad beat the week prior. I noticed him because of the commotion, but I remembered him because he looked familiar, and I had wondered at that time if he was some sort of minor celebrity.

Someone else asked him "if he was that guy that was on VH1" and it came out he had been (on) MTV, not VH1, on "Punk'd". I knew I hadn't seen that show, but I had seen him somewhere, and it was bugging the hell out of me to remember where. Finally, it dawned on me that I recognized him from "Celebrity Poker" and remembered thinking then that they were really stretching their definition of celebrity, because I had no idea who this guy was or how he rated that classification.

I also remember him coming off as pretty obnoxious, and wondered how heavily they had to edit not just his comments, but those of the rather irritated looking other players. Playing with him confirmed all those suspicions, and then some.

Burst of energy has dwindled, resting up to post some more soon...

I wish there was more to report...

Unfortunately, though, I haven't had another tournament money finish and my cash game sessions haven't been that remarkable. Some of them have been profitable and others haven't, but I guess at the very least, I'm getting exposure to a lot of different players and their styles and am getting a good poker education. I guess it's a good thing that at least some of the players that I've pegged as being pretty good have labeled me as "tricky," if not good, for whatever that's worth.

I also had a semi-celebrity semi-encounter tonight, I was playing at a table next to the table where that Masterson kid from "Malcolm In The Middle" (brother of that other Masterson from "That 70's Show") was playing. I know how impressive that is...

Who needs to go all the way to the Great Barrier Reef?

I swam with sharks at the Bicycle Casino last night, without a cage, even. I managed to outlast about half the field last night, and was disappointed at that result, but I was up against some really tough competition and mostly just got unlucky. In the other tournaments (after the first one), I saw a number of people I recognized from other events. But this time, very few of those faces were around, and instead, I was surrounded by guys who were talking about how they did in the smaller WSOP events. I tried to mostly just play very tight, and not be too tricky. That approach worked for the most part, except these guys quickly realized what I was up to, so I got very little action when I entered a hand. I would have liked to use that to my advantage to steal a few more pots than I did, but there was usually someone else already representing strength, and usually someone who also seemed to be playing pretty tight. My final hand consisted of me losing to a bigger full house (he had AA and flopped a set, I had 99 and turned my set, river made it an irrelevant full house), and for the first time, I can only think of one mistake I made, and that one didn't cost me much. In fact, if I made any major mistakes, it wasn't the hands I did play, but possibly in the hands I didn't. Not hands that I folded many that would have won, and I don't beat myself up too much about those anyway, but I probably missed at least a couple of opportunities to exploit my tight image and steal.

Went back to the cash games after a short break, and that started off so well, I thought for sure I was going to make a lot of money. I managed to double up on the very first hand I actually played (just the fourth hand I was dealt). I got raised out of my blinds, and then folded on the button, but in the cutoff, I picked up A9 suited with little or no action in front of me, so I made a raise. I wasn't exactly thrilled when the big stack on the button called me, but at least he didn't re-raise. I couldn't ask for a better flop, 99x ! I checked, he bet, I called. Turn brought the fourth 9, so I checked again, hoping he made a full house, he bet, I called. The river brought a deuce, and I think a possible flush, so I led out, pushing in the rest of my chips, still hoping he had the full house and had no fear of a flush. He called, I showed my quads, and he mucked, saying he had pocket kings. I probably should have walked away right then, but I thought I could make some more money. Didn't quite work out like that, and six hours later, after a few bad beats and chopped pots, I was out of chips. Since I had been playing off my initial buy-in and was now pretty tired, it didn't seem to make sense to rebuy, so I just headed back to my room. Even though I ended the day down $650 ($500+50 for the tourney and $100 and the ring game), I felt like I played OK. I definitely made some mistakes at the cash game, but there were a lot more people coming and going and crazy drunks, so there were more adjustments to be made, not all of them in time. But I knew adjustments needed to be made, and approximately what those adjustments were, at least, even if I didn't always reach my goal. A fairly expensive lesson, to be sure, but I do feel like I learned from the experience and can meke it work for me in the future.

Second verse NOT same as the first

Since I made the final table in the first PLHE event, I had high hopes for the second one. Didn't work out that way, though. The lower buy-in brought with it a smaller starting stack and the need to catch good cards and have them hold up (or at least not get involved in hands without premium cards).

So, I wound up making an earlier exit than I planned, but Kevin at least hung on for a 3rd place finish. We had another 10% exchange deal, so that brought me a few bucks, even after subtracting my loss to our last-longer bet.

Kevin had given me a (mild) hard time about declining his earlier offer of a last longer bet, and I guess it was a little unsportsman-like, I should have at least asked what stakes/odds he had in mind, but I just passed, thinking Kevin would certainly last longer thean me in almost any event, making it a sucker bet. This time we talked about it after I was already short-stacked, so he offered to pay me $50 if I lasted longer, and I'd only have to pay him $30 if I went out first (I think those were the number, but it was a similar ratio whatever the numbers).

The good news for the day is that I had a small win at the cash games prior to the tournament, which put my head in a better place about that aspect of my game. With that in mind, I went back to the cash tables after the tournament and settled in to try and make some money. I wasn't sure that was such a good idea at first, I had to rebuy a couple of times, but 11.5 hours later, I cashed out about $600 up, which gets me more than even for my ring game sessions.

I actually made most of my profit that session on a hand that I played horribly. I overplayed AJ against AK & QQ, hitting an A on the flop and a miracle J on the river. I knew gow lucky I was, and since I had been playing for about 16 hours straight, I left after a few more hands. I can't count on getting lucky all the time, but I'll sure take it when it comes.

I guess I can't expect to make the final table every time

As expected, the turnout for the $100+25 NLHE event was huge, 502 players. That makes for a decent prize pool, and there are a lot of chips in play, but that's a lot of players to fight through. Starting stacks are fairly short (10 x buy-in), so if you play a hand and it doesn't hold up, you can be severely crippled. That's pretty much what happened to me, played only 6 or 7 seven hands and then I was out (JJ, beat by a weak Ace that hist; all-in w/ TT, spiked a miracle T on the river for a full house; 9T suited, hit the 9, won a small pot; QJo, I stupidly limped and had to let it go when I didn't hit the flop and faced a bet; all-in w/ 99, it held up; and a short-stacked all-in w/ KQo on the button, called by A8, I didn't improve). I was a little disappointed, but didn't think I was playing badly, so I sat down at $100 buy-in NLHE ring game, only played about 4 hands there, and when busted to slow-played AA.

I don't plan to play in tomorrow's $100+25 LHE event, so I will probably head to a different casino and try my luck there against some different players. I do plan to play in the $100+25 PLHE event on Sat. though, PLHE may be my new favorite game. Too bad there aren't more games spread in my stakes range (Kevin tells me some casinos have it, but it's usually at least a $500 buy-in game.

I loaned Kevin my new copy of Brunson's _Super System 2_, but I'm probably going to just re-read the Harrington book at least once more, since it focuses on NLHE tournaments and that's my primary agenda on this trip.

Guess I had that coming (or just call me "chum").

I don't really like rebuy tournaments, but I decided to enter this one anyway. I should have gone with my gut, not only did I not play well, but I was seated with a table full of sharks. At least three of them I had already played with in earlier tournaments and had pegged them as good players, and there were a couple more that the sharks knew and avoided. But they had my number for sure, I only won two hands, both of those with pre-flop raises. If I saw a flop, I lost. By the time the final add-on came around, I had zero chips, so even a double rebuy would leave me short-stacked, so I decided to just cut my losses and leave. I just headed back to the room and read some more Harrington. Maybe some of it will eventually stick...

Ouch, that hurt

I was pretty tired heading into tonight's $250+30 NLHE tournament, that and the higher buy-in made me have to really think about whether I wanted to play this event. Kevin wasn't going to play this one (had to work), so I had to make my decision without his advice. I decided I had been playing pretty well, and with the winnings from the other night, I could afford it. 250 entrants created a $62500 prize pool, which was pretty tempting, too.

Played pretty well for a couple of hours, then got shortstacked but got lucky and came back, but made one boneheaded play and busted myself out in 34th. And of course, only 27 places paid. I still feel like I only made the one significant mistake, so I'm not going to beat myself up too badly, but it's still painful.

Tomorrow: $100+25 NLHE rebuy tournament

06/04/05

  6/4  Didn't get quite as much

sleep as I'd have like so

I was tired when 4:15 came

around, but I entered the $150+25

LHE tourney anyway. Was up

then down, then started to

make a comeback, which included

hitting quads after a lot of

action initiated by others

Lost when my straight got

beat by a rivered flush and

full house. Oh well, what can

you do?

Now that's more like it...

Tried entering some $40 satellite tournaments (10 handed, winner receives $330), but busted out of three of those w/ nothing to show for it. Playing one more would have totaled almost as much as tonight's tournment entry fee, it didn't seem like that route was working.

Went back to the room and spent the afternoon reading (Dan Harrington's _Harrington On Hold'Em_), hoping to pick up some useful strategy tips. I had heard good things about this book, and I am very impressed so far.

Headed back to the Bike, and met up w/ Kev, but after the results to date, I wasn't sure I should play at all, especially since I don't have much experience w/ Pot Limit Hold'Em. But the field was smaller than the night before, and Kevin reminded me why I came out (to play some poker, dagnabbit). So I entered, and wound up at the same table as Kevin, with him to my immediate right. Grreaat. I was a little worried that he'd be the one taking me out, but I think his presence made me play better poker, I didn't want to embarass myself in front of him. I got some good cards, but I played well too, only making a couple of mistakes and wound up taking down 5th place, which paid $1040. Wh00t! Even better, Kevin won the whole thing, which paid $9240. Since we had the same 10% arrangement, that added another $820 to what I took home. Wh00t Wh00t! I'm out of the hole completely, even paying for travel expenses (so far). If I can do that even once more, I should be in pretty good shape.

Not the start I'd hoped for...

After finding a BoA ATM, got some cash and some lunch and headed over to the Bike to play in some cash games to get "warmed up" for the tournament that night. Played 3/6 limit Hold'em for about 6 hours, started w/ $100 and held it at around $125 for a while, but by the time it was time for the tournament, I was down to $0. At least the timing was right...

Kevin showed up just in time, we registered ($150+25) and picked up our complimentary Bicycle Casino baseball caps (I wound up w/ Kev's, he doesn't wear hats/caps). There were about 375 entrants, but I was a fairly early departure. I tried to play a pretty conservative game, I only played about 6 hands in 1.5 hours, but ran into sets on the last two of those and I was gone.

From there, I went back to the cash games, but decided to try out the No Limit tables this time. They had a $100 buy-in game that looked to be within my abilities, but it was a 2/3 blind structure, instead of the 1/2 structure I expected. Unfortunately, I lost $200 in short order and realized I was not playing well and got up to check on Kevin's progress.

Before the tournament, Kevin proposed a couple of side bets/deals. I declined to accept a "last longer" bet, which is a good thing, because Kevin lasted much longer than I did. But I did take him up on his offer to swap 10% stakes in one another, which was a good thing (for me) since Kevin made it into the money. He finished 17th, which gained me $35. Not much, but better than nothing.

I'm here...

Flights went smoothly, car was ready, hotel was easy to find. So far, so good. Didn't play any tonight, just got settled and talked to Kevin about the next few days' plans

See, I do know a pro!

A friend of mine since long before he went pro, Kevin's been playing for a living for many years now, even though, like a lot of pro players, we haven't seen him on TV (yet?). He's been giving me advice, support and encouragement since before I started playing, hopefully some of it stuck. I have to hope I'm picking up a little sumpin-sumpin on my own, too...

Speaking of TV, the MSOP has none (coverage), which might make it seem like an odd choice for my first real excursion into the poker world. Why not a WPT or WSOP circuit event? Even though I'm flying to another city for a month to play in a tournament, I'm really still just testing the waters. I know all the biggest names will be at the WSOP, and with no cameras and a smaller field, there should be less stress; I'm hoping I can just concentrate on the poker I know I can play (make good decisions, make good decisions, make good decisions) and see where that takes me.

Making it happen

So, lodging plans will have to be re-worked, but where there is a will, there's a way, and dammit, I'm making this happen. Bought the cheapest ticket I could find, with an expectation I may have to pay to change it (hopefully to stay longer, which should mean I'm winning, which should cover any change fees) and started looking for a cheap place to flop near the Bicycle Casino. Found a likely candidate, put in time off requests, and started feeling like "It's on!"...

Will it happen?

My friend and poker mentor, Kevin, has returned from Thailand, so I was hoping to finalize my travel plans. It turns out Kevin hasn't told/asked his girlfriend June about my staying with them (for a MONTH, "Oh, June, by the way, you remember my friend Tom...?") and needs to get clearance. I understand this, but anything less than 2 weeks advance purchase costs extra.

Which raises a question, I can save a couple hundred dollars by pushing my flight back, but I would miss the first three events I planned to play in. In a way, that's a "savings" too, since that's about $525 in tournament entry fees I wouldn't be spending, so should I spend more on a ticket to get there earlier to be able to enter those events? Or save some money on the plane ticket and enter the later more expensive events only (since you were planning on entering them anyway)? I also have to keep in mind that this is LA we're talking about, there are multiple casinos and other tournaments at about the same stakes going on; there's no shortage of poker, the only thing I'd be missing would be some portion of a semi "name" event.

It's not that I think I'm that good...

...but a couple of people expressed interest in my trip, so I created this page. I'll try to include the interesting details of my first major poker tournament (major for me, anyway).

If a blogger posts on the Internet...

...and no one knows or cares to read it, did they miss a bad analogy?

04/30/04

4/30 Went to Hollywood Park on way to airport was up about $50 at one point. Got to airport & found out I was confused about the time, pushed me back until tomorrow. Went back to HP & lost almost all my winnings

04/28/04

4/28 Went to the Bicycle Casino w/ Kev & Linda. The hospitality hostess knew Kev & treated us all to dinner. Which is good, since I lost about $38 (of $50 buy-in) playing 2/4 HE. Got dealt several pocket pairs, but didn't win w/ any of them. 2nd hand 3 people flopped a set, mine was bottom, of course.

04/22/04

[...] After that, headed to Casino Europa to play in another tournament. Bang, Chad, Paul, Trang, John & Shane from the other day/night were there. I didn't make it as far tonight but I found out I was sitting next to a former World Champ, Jose Rosencranz. Bang & John Hickox made it to the final table & both were knocked out on the same hand by Rosencranz. Bang made his flush, but the same card made a full house for J.R. Bang & Chad said they went on the same whitewater trip I'm going on tomorrow & that it was fun. Looking forward to it...

04/20/04

Woke up early & ate, arranged to take in the rainforest canopy cable run. Fun & the forest is impressive. Can now say, "Been there, done that, got the CD". Had a salad & an iced drink at lunch, hope that wasn't a mistake. Decided to start writing this down while i figure out what to do tonight. Hit a casino or two, maybe. [Later] One casino, 2 tries to get there, as it turns out. First, they took me to the Europa Hotel, which has a casino, but not the one I was looking for, and no poker. Fortunately, the actual location (Radisson Hotel), wasn't far away. When I got there, I ran into two guys I met on the canopy tour, Chad & Bang(?). Bang had mentioned he played & that his sister had moved to CR w/ her boyfriend, who also played. They told me there was a $10 buyin NL Hold'em tournament and they were entered. Decided I could afford to spend $10 on poker. Wound up spending $70 after all the rebuys, but made it to the final table and placed 6th, which paid $142, so I doubled my money! I stuck to my game plan, played tight, for the most part, and made as few mistakes as possible. I think I could have gotten more money out of some of my winning hands by slow playing a little more, I probably folded at least one winning hand (pocket Jacks) when an opponent went all in, and I never truly bluffed. Bang's sister's boyfriend Paul was a cool guy who knew his poker, he reassured me that I played well. He said they'd be back there Thurs. Got back to the hotel, checked email from their mini cyber cafe, sent poker reports to Kevin & Nick, talked computers w/ the night desk clerk. I need to move to another hotel, but I don't want to waste the day waiting to check in somewhere else, and I don't want to haul my luggage around all day either.