Close But No Cigar
(Note: if you want a reference to poker lingo, click here.)
On Saturday, I played in Day 1 of the World Series of Poker Circuit main event. This is not to be confused with the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The WSOPC is a series of series that plays in casinos around the country and also comes to Las Vegas. The WSOPC is not as prestigious, or as rich as the WSOP, but it’s still very respectable and attracts a lot of great players. The WSOP gives out bracelets to the winner, but the WSOPC gives out rings. The best I’d done at a WSOPC tournament was second place. This time, maybe I’d get that ring!
Day 1
One player at my table kept betting too much and too often, but he doubled up earlier in the tournament. I expected he’d lose his chips once his luck ran out. I also figured that I could get a lot of chips off of him if I could just get the right cards. And I did. These kinds of loose playing lucky players can be the best thing or worst thing for me in a tournament. Sometimes their luck continues long enough to bust me out while other times, with a good hand at the right time, I can siphon off a huge amount from them. This time I did the siphoning.
I got dealt AQ. One player raised. Two players called. I reraised. One player folded. The other two players called. The flop was Q94. I bet a lot. One player called, the other folded. The turn was 3. I bet a lot; the other player called. The river was a 2. The other player bet a lot. I felt he was betting too much. The 2 almost certainly didn’t help him. Either he had a great hand like a set or possibly two pair, or he had missed a draw. I bet on the latter, so I called, thinking if he already had a great hand, he would have raised on the turn to stop me from getting a better hand. It turns out he only had 89. I won a giant pot.
Then I got pocket Ks. A short stack shoved. I shoved. He had Q8 suited. I won.
I got 99, flopped a set, and won another big pot. In poker it’s always best to be smart, but it’s much better if you’re also lucky!
Then I lost a big pot. On the flop I had bottom pair and an open-ended straight draw. Two shorter stacks shoved. I decided to take a chance and call. The good news is that I got my straight. The bad news is that the bigger short stack got a higher straight. He had the nuts. I had the second nuts. My giant stack had become only a very good stack.
I got pocket As and limped in under the gun. I got two callers, the two blinds. The flop was 4 10 4. One player bet $1,500. I raised to $4K. One player called. The other raised to $12K. I was really bummed, but I folded, knowing there were many possibly hands that beat me and no rational player would bet so high without one of them. It’s so hard to fold pocket As, but I did. The remaining player called. It turned out they both had a 4, so my fold was a good decision.
On the button, I had QJ. I raised. The short stack in the small blind shoved. The player in the big blind folded. I called. He had A9. I didn't get a Q or J, so I lost. My stack was still good but shrinking.
Then I won a big pot with AK. But after that, I just couldn’t get any good cards for an hour or two until I finally won two really big back-to-back pots!
A short stack shoved. I called with KJ. He had AK. Luckily, I hit a J to knock him out of the game.
Then I limped in with pocket 9s from the small blind. The big blind called. The flop was A79, giving me a beloved set! I kept checking and he kept betting bigger each card. On the river I bet $15K. He called with A7 and was certain he'd won. As he raised his cards to enthusiastically slam them onto the table in victory, I softly flipped mine over. His arm slowed mid-motion as he saw my set, stopped in mid air, and his hand opened to let his cards flutter pointlessly to the table. I was back, baby!
I got back from the dinner break and won a really big pot with K♠Q♠ when I missed my flush, but a K came on the river. After that, however, I didn’t get any winning hands for a long, tortuous time.
At was poker pro Brad Owen (see https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?n=495335), a very nice guy who, interestingly enough, was taking selfies with other pros. He seemed a little like a groupie, but he records poker videos and is co-owner of a poker club in Austin.
They moved me to a new table, and I won the first hand for a nice amount. That began a streak of winning hands! I felt like I was getting a decent distribution of cards, plus no one was doing anything crazy. It’s the way I like poker to be played, especially because I think I have an advantage in these situations. I think rationally, understand the odds, and can read the players.
I knocked out a really good player. I had pocket 6s. She was short stacked and shoved with A5. She hit a 5, but it wasn’t good enough. She and I have kind of gotten to know each other over the past year or so, finding ourselves at the same table at the Venetian a lot. I don’t know her name, but she’s a professional player, plays really well, and is very hard to read. The first time I played her, she raised me off of almost every hand because I couldn’t figure out if she was bluffing or had me beat.
I then won a big pot against a well-known pro. I paired in the turn and got a straight on the river!
Then I won another big pot. I got 83 in the big blind. One player raised. I was going to fold but the small blind called, so I did too. The board ran out 24556, giving me a straight and what’s called “the big blind special.” That’s where the big blind stays in the hand with terrible cards only because the big blind is forced to bet before the cards are even dealt. So you may as well stay in the hand if no one raises or if a lot of people call a small raise. I had a big stack, so I could afford a small loss for the possibility to grab the entire pot. In other words, there’s too much money in the pot to fold even bad cards like 83, which is one of the worst possible starting hands. But I got lucky and won!
Then I started a tremendous run of good cards and hitting the flop until I became the table chip leader.
I got pocket Js. I raised and the big blind called. The flop was J44, giving me another big win.
Then I destroyed well-known pro Guiseppe Pantaleo (See https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?n=153423). I rivered a straight and he put in all his chips except $1K. I called. He was bluffing. I actually didn’t realize that he’d kept $1K behind or I would have raised him. But I didn’t need an extra $1K since my stack was already over $200K.
Then I lost a hand. Can you believe it? This game is rigged! 😊
And then I lost another hand. Jeez!
I got A9. The board ran out 95579. I scored a very big pot.
The board was K♥Q♥J♥6♥7♠. I won with 5♥. No one else in the hand had a heart.
At this point I had about double the next biggest stack at my table. Things were going well. At the end of the evening, I bagged $273,000 in chips, about 55 big blinds when Day 2 started on Monday at noon. That turned out to be the fourth highest for the day.
Everything went so smoothly; better than any tournament I can remember. My stack increased slowly throughout the day. I won almost every hand I played. Almost every time I had a great hand, I got at least one player to put in more chips. Almost every time I bluffed, I got the other players to fold. I was playing against some great professionals like Jeremy Becker (https://www.pokernews.com/news/2023/05/jeremy-becker-wins-seven-wynn-tournaments-in-a-month-43573.htm) who had one of the most amazing runs in poker history last year. We were all having a fun time talking and joking. It felt really good. A change from last year.
Day 2
At the start of Day 2, there were 131 players left out of 659 entries. 101 would get paid. First place would be paid over $192,000.
By the way, I won the first tournament I ever played, and a lot of people didn’t believe me because that tournament also took place on April 1.
My pocket Js beat pocket 10s for a big pot. There were 117 players left.
My AJ just beat A9 for a big pot. There were 110 players left.
We were on the money bubble! And it cracked immediately as one person busted out right away. I was in the money!
When there were 90 players left, they broke up our table, and the tournament chip leader was at my table. Oy vay!
At the first break, after two hours of play, there were 84 players left. I'd lost some chips but was still above average.
I got pocket 8s. One short stack min raised. I called. The short stack in the big blind completed the bet. The flop was QQJ. The short stack in the big blind shoved. The other short stack called. I figured one of them had a Q or J, so I folded. Turns out one had AK and the other had K9. The board ran out Q 10. I would have won with a full house. Darn!
Whew! I got dealt QJ. I raised. One player called. The flop was A35. He checked. I bet. He called. I put him on a weak A or two pair. The turn was J. He checked, I bet, he called. The river was Q. He shoved with a bigger stack than me. I hoped he had the weak A or two pair, 2s and 3s. I called. If I lost, I would bust out. He had A7. He doubled up my already decent stack!
When there were 67 players left, I won a good pot against 3 other players when my Q9 turned into the nut straight on the turn.
By the time there were 50 players left, I had been having a bad run with few good cards, so my stack was a little below average, but still very good.
On the second break there were 48 players left. I was still mostly folding my lousy hands and leaking chips slowly.
By the time there were 40 players left, I was still running card dead. My stack was shrinking faster as the blinds increased. The two times I had decent cards and bet, someone shoved so I folded. One time two players went at it, and both got straights, but I would have had a flush to win if I’d stayed in the hand. Sigh...
Oh man! One player raised. I shoved with pocket 9s. He folded. The next hand I got Q10. One player raised. I called. Another player called. The flop was Q 10 7. I bet big. One player called; the other folded. The turn was Q! The other player checked. I checked. I don't even remember the river card—I didn’t care, knowing my full house was a winner. He bet really big. I thought for a while then min raised. He folded. There were 36 players left and my stack was decent once again!
I folded AK suited. Most pros would never do that. I was in the big blind. The other player limped in from first-to-bet ("under the gun”) position. Some players do that to disguise a very good hand like AA or KK. I called. The flop was J23. He bet very big. I folded. If I was right, and he had AA or KK, my odds of winning were very small. If I was wrong, I lost a small amount of chips and got to keep going anyway.
After that, the flops were not going my way. I played hands, but my large cards got small flops and vice versa. That meant I was draining chips quickly.
At the dinner break, there were 31 players left. I was short stacked. I got A♦4♦ and shoved. I got called by A9. He hit a 9 and I busted out at #31 out of 659 entries.
Overall, I did well, had a deep run, and had a good time. Most poker pros are fun to play with. Any one win or loss is not so critical for them, so they're more likely to have fun and joke around than recreational players. This year, so far, feels so much better than the last one to one-and-a-half years. This year, I’ve been getting a good distribution of cards and only a few bad beats. This is how poker used to feel years ago. I don’t think I’m playing differently, but I’m glad my bad luck streak, or whatever it was, is over. For now at least. And I still have my sights on that bracelet and poker fame.