A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Day 2

On Friday, I dropped Carrie off at the airport to visit her mom and had all weekend to play poker! Not that she ever objects, but now I could have a wild and crazy time of… poker and sleeping late. And doing some work. Whatever.

Day 1

For a change, the cards were going my way. I liked the play and the players at my table. They were fairly conservative players with no wild ones. Or stupid ones. The chips seemed to make their way around the table and eventually ended up with me and a couple other players on our side of the table. As other players busted out, our stacks got bigger. Then the worst thing happened…

I made a big mistake. I don’t make many mistakes these days, but this was a bad one and it got me down. Sometimes I have a choice between two fairly equal options and I choose one when the other would have worked out better, but I don’t consider that a mistake. This time, I had a very big stack of about $200K and got dealt K9. I decided to bet. Another player raised, and I called. The flop was K94, which was pretty damned good for me—top two pair. She bet $1000. I raised to $3000. She called. The turn card was a Q. I bet $3000 and she shoved her entire stack. She had about $133,000, or two-thirds of my stack. My thinking was that it was unlikely that the Q helped her because she already had a big hand right after the flop. Maybe she had AK. What I wasn’t thinking about is that there were lots of hands she could have to beat me: KK, QQ, 99, 44, KQ, or J 10.  But I went ahead and called her, and she had J 10 for the nut straight. My only hope was to get a K or 9 on the river, but I didn’t, so I lost 2/3 of my stack. I was mad at myself for not thinking it through. There’s a human tendency that I work hard to avoid, and that’s thinking that because you’ve been lucky in the past, you’ll be luck in the future. I may have felt something like that, thinking that If I wasn’t ahead of her when she shoved, that I could river a full house. But of course the odds of that were small. I should have folded when she shoved.

Shortly after that, I became short stacked. I just hate playing short stacked because your options are limited. Yet I find myself in that position a lot. Maybe too much. As a short stack, my options were only to fold or shove. You just have to wait for a decent hand, but you can’t wait too long or your stack will dissolve from the blinds and antes.

After a while I found a good hand of J♠10♠, shoved, and got a caller with A♥K♦. I was so intent on seeing a J, a 10, or three spades, that when none of those came up, I stood, wished everyone luck, and walked away. But everyone shouted for me to come back. I hadn’t noticed that the board gave me a 789 for a straight. I doubled up!

Shortly after that, I got K♦8♦ in the big blind. One player raised the minimum and another player called, so I called. It was the best hand I’d seen in a while, and I wouldn’t survive much longer if I didn’t increase my stack soon. The flop was 4♦7♦6♣. That's when I shoved.  They both called me. One player had AQ but the other had KK! I had a lot of outs, though—any heart for a flush or a 5 for a straight. The turn was 5♣, giving me the straight! I tripled up!

The player to my right, who I knocked out, was an Israeli transplant to Vegas who just started a poker tech company. We traded business cards before he left. We agreed to get together next week to discuss our poker ventures. For those who don’t know, or who have forgotten, I’m starting an online poker site that includes patented technology to incorporate audio and video. We changed our business model about a year ago, so that delayed things. Now everything is ready; it just needs to be load tested (i.e., testing under conditions where a lot of people are playing simultaneously). Once that’s complete, I’ll announce the site. Keep on the lookout for the announcement in these pages.

After that triple up, I won another hand. My stack was then above average. 

A couple hours later, there were 44 players left; 21 players would cash and go to play on Day 2, Sunday.

Then there were 38 players left. 

Then there were 36 players left. 

At that point, I was moved to another table and saw the funniest thing. Two players had really big stacks and were betting against each other. On the river, one player shoved. The other player called and showed a pair of aces in his hand and one on the board for a set of aces. The first player said, "You won," but when a player shoves, all players are required to show their cards. So the “losing player” showed two diamonds, and there were three diamonds on the board, giving him a flush. He stared at his cards for a moment and said, "Oh my god, I won! I thought I was bluffing!" As he scooped up his chips, and the real losing player left the tournament, the winning player kept saying “I’m sorry.”

I told him not to say he’s sorry—this is poker; that’s what happens. “But I feel bad,” he replied. “I told him he won and then realized I’d won. I thought I had hearts in my hand, not diamonds.”

I responded that I thought it was really funny and I’d remember it for a long time, and that he hadn’t done anything purposely wrong. Anyway, I said, the player he busted out had been at my table earlier and after many of my plays, he’d say something, “You actually called that bet?” Or “Why would you raise with those cards?” He seemed to think I was an idiot, so I was happy to see him go. That made the winning player feel better.

After some time, I more than doubled my big stack with a big hand and had $600K in chips. Maybe the biggest stack in the tournament.

After that, I tried to play conservatively so as to not bust out on the bubble as I’d been doing a lot recently. However, I lost a lot of hands, mostly with small pocket pairs that didn’t turn into a set on the flop. My stack got whittled down to $400K, which was still above average.

Finally there were 23 players left. At my table and another table, two short-stack players went all in, and both got callers. Both short stacks lost and busted out, so there was not the normally dragged out, emotionally draining bubble. At around midnight, I had cashed and made it to Day 2.

Day 2

I began the day by winning a few small pots and then losing chips slowly over time. I was making only a few bets, but losing them all.

I looked up at the numbers on the screen in the poker room and saw that people were busting out regularly. We started with 65 players and were already down to 56 within the first half hour.

My 8-high flush beat a 7-high flush. Whew!

I won a nice pot with AJ when an A came on the river. My stack was back up to just over $400K.

I won a big pot with A♠J♦. I bet $20K. Another player raised to $60K. I decided to call. The flop was Q♠9♠6♠. I had the nut flush draw. Our stacks were about equal. I snap shoved. He shouted, "How can I fold AQ?" But he did fold it. And he got a one round penalty for announcing his cards while play was ongoing—that's not allowed.

I got KQ. The flop was 47K. The short stack shoved. I called. He showed KJ. I won and knocked him out.

49 players were left. I had $650K, comfortably above average.

With about $800K, I realized I was the table chip leader. It happened so slowly that I hadn't noticed.

I got pocket Ks. I did a small raise. A shorter stack raised big. I shoved. He called. He had pocket As. I lost. He took half my stack. 😥

Things change quickly. I just lost another hand and now I'm short stacked.

On Day 1 and today, I kept getting pocket deuces and betting, hoping to flop a set but never did. I got pocket deuces again in the small blind. One player did a min raise, and another called so I called. The flop was A26. I was I heaven! One player did a big raise. The other player folded. I used up a time token, pretending to think. I then shoved. He called with... pocket 6s! Set over set. I busted out at 34th place out of 576.