ITH Poker Forum

[jfletcher]

So close I can taste it. It's Wednesday night, and I'll be leaving first thing Saturday morning and getting in just in time for Event 32, $1.5K NLHE on Saturday. I'll also be playing the $1k on Sunday if I bust.

Right now I've just been reading poker books. I just got Annie Duke's new book, which is pretty good. It doesn't have a whole lot of groundbreaking material, but, as with any poker book, I think there are a few things in there that will make you think. Maybe it's stuff you already knew, but just didn't think of it in a certain way. I'm also re-reading "One hand at a time..."

I've also been playing a lot of Wilson Tourney Texas Holdem. As I've said many times on here, I think it's a great training tool because it just gives you decision after decision. Sure, the players aren't real, but you still have to ask yourself: "I have 25 BBs and 88 in UTG+1. It's folded to me. What do I do?" ... "I got called by the CO, who has me covered. The flop came AT4r. What do I do?" ... Etc. etc. A few days ago I won a 2,000-player tourney with roughly the same structure as the $1.5K. That's ... something.

Anyway, once I get there I'll be updating on Twitter (@FletchWSOP) and doing reports here. I may save the really detailed report for when I get home, since I won't be bringing a laptop. Just an iPad. Not sure how much writing I want to do on that, without a keyboard.

I know Elmo will be there and I assume Yanks will be there. Of course Chris too. Anyone else gonna be there?

[chrisjp]

Annie has a booth in the hallway that is selling her book. Sounds like I should go over and browse through it. And maybe buy it. Fletch is certainly right. One little piece of information in a book can pay for it right there. Actually it might pay for my whole poker library amassed over the last 30 years. You never know....

[jfletcher]

Annie has a booth in the hallway that is selling her book. Sounds like I should go over and browse through it. And maybe buy it. Fletch is certainly right. One little piece of information in a book can pay for it right there. Actually it might pay for my whole poker library amassed over the last 30 years. You never know....

For example, here's one things I took out of it...

You need to be extra careful about playing speculative hands out of position because even if you hit, it's tougher to build a big pot when out of position. So you can't just say, "I'll call a raise with a small pp if the effective stacks are 10 or 15X the bet." You have to think "If I have position, I can call with 10X, but OOP, maybe I should wait for 20X." Common sense, but I had never thought of it in that way.

The section on playing postflop is pretty good. It's broken down into sections divided by how big your hand is (monster, big draw, medium draw, top pair), opponents (HU or multi), flop texture (wet or dry) and position.

But enough about that. I'm not going to waste my trip report on a book review! Just buy the thing. Like Chris said: If you pick up one thing, it's worth $20 or whatever.

Oh, it will probably help more for cash games than tourneys, because a lot the stuff deals with deep-stacked situations.

[jfletcher]

Woke up at 4:30 in California. At the Rio cage registering at 9.

Table 397. Amazon.

[chrisjp]

GLGL!

[chrisjp]

Elmo reports that Fletch still in well after dinner. GOGOGO!

[nsidestrate]

He reported a 29k stack about 20 minutes ago on Twitter.

[chrisjp]

He reported a 29k stack about 20 minutes ago on Twitter.

Go Fletch! Have to be in Level 10, final level of the day.

[jfletcher]

Busted on the 4th hand of level 10. My last play was risky, but I think slightly +ev. Besides, I really needed to make something happen so I wouldn't end up taking a short stack into day 2. If I'm coming back, I'd rather have a chance to win some real money, not milk a mincash.

I have 12K. BB 800. Two limpers in MP, including Chino Rheem. I have KJo on the button. I figure there is very little chance either of them is limping with AJ+ or JJ+ at that stage. Both had big stacks. I pushed. MP1 thought for a while and when he called I expected to see some middle pair. He had A2s. (I also think I had some FE there and they may have laid down little pairs that were ahead of me.)

Hey, if I'd seen his cards I'd have wanted a call (12K to win 15K as a 58-42 dog), so, what the he'll. Anyway, I lost. He flopped a 2 and turned another 2 before my K on the river.

Registered for the $1K for Sunday. Almost didn't. Never feel like starting over after a day like this, but I'm sure I'll be fired up to go in 11 hours.

Full report later.

[chrisjp]

GG, got to win those flips.

[jfletcher]

Starting 289 Amazon today. Figure I'll be moving quick Watch twitter for updates, if the Internet cooperates.

[jfletcher]

Busted in level 6 of the $1K on Sunday. Then played the 6 pm deepstack and built a stack to about 30K early (start with 10) but ran into AA twice (including once when I had KK) and I busted on AK<JJ with about 80 players left (280 start 27 cash). Then played 1-3 for about 4 hours and won $174. Awesome bluff to win a $130 pot.

Overall I'm very happy with how I played. Only 1 major hand that I think I misplayed (and the result actually may have been better by my misplaying it). I'll get to that in my extended report, which I'll write when I get home.

Oh, here's a picture of probably the most WSOP chips (physical chips) I've ever had. I think there's another stack of black in front that you can't see. It's around 31K, if I added correctly. (At my cash in 06, I had 53K, but the greens had already been colored up, so I never had this many chips.)

[superwomble]

I just got Annie Duke's new book, which is pretty good.

Is that 'Decide to Play Great Poker'? I might have to check that one out.

[chrisjp]

GG Fletch. Running into Aces can be dangerous to one's stack.

[jfletcher]

And now, the full Fletch WSOP report, with apologies that the hands are not quite as detailed as in Chris' reports...

Saturday, 6/18, Event 32 ($1500 NLHE)

This was the third straight year I've flown in the morning of my first event, rather than the night before. The times I've come in early I've ended up getting no sleep anyway (either because of playing or just be too eager and laying in bed with my eyes open), so I decided if I'm not going to get any sleep, I might as well spend the next not sleeping in my own bed next to my wife, and just wake up early. It was a 4:30 am alarm for a 6:55 am flight with an 8:20 arrival in Vegas. I was at the Rio at 9 and registered with no line, then went over to my luxurious Fairfield Inn, where I had a free room waiting for me. (I'm not enough of a high roller to get comped at a casino, but I've done enough travel for work that I have all the free Marriott nights I want.)

On to the poker. My first table in the Amazon room was not that great. Some guys you can tell right away are clueless, but there was no one like that at my first table. Obviously, some of them were clueless (odds say they must be), but they seemed to all be playing reasonably. I got AA on the third hand, made a raise to 75 (blinds 25-25) and took down 50 chips! Woo hoo.

One thing I had promised myself before the tourney was that I wouldn't bluff or try any moves in the first level, because I wanted to have a good read on the players, and also wait till there were more chips out there to be won. Of course, that went out the window. Seat 4 was a middle-aged guy with a big scar on his face. He seemed pretty ABC and passive. He raised from EP and it was folded to me on the button with 32o. I called, with the plan to simply outplay him after the flop. Whatever the flop came, it was going to hit me! I think it was a fairly coordinated flop. I floated him on the flop. Then raised him on the turn, and he folded. Easy!

A little later in that level I got AA again and this time won a nicer pot. I 3-bet an EP raiser. He and a guy in between came along and they both folded to my c-bet.

Then I got balanced to the next table in Level 3 (50-100). This table looked a lot more friendly, with some older, just-happy-to-be-here tourist type guys. There was also a UFC guy in Seat 3. I don't know who he was, so we'll jsut call him UFC guy. He was playing pretty loose and having a good time. He was the Social Table Captain, if you get my drift. He was the villain in the one hand in the whole weekend that I think I bungled...

THE BUNGLED HAND

I have QQ in EP and raise to 300. UFC on the button calls. Flop comes T7x, two hearts. I bet 400. UFC raises to 800. Now, my first instinct is that I'm probably ahead of him, and he's just raising for information (to see if his T is good) or to get a free card with his flush draw, so I know that I need to re-raise. The question is how much. I eventually came up with 2,000, which left me about 2500 behind. (He had me outchippped.) He tanked for a minute or two and then called. Well, that's just bad. Now I'm out of position and kinda lost again. And the turn was the Ac. It wasn't a heart, but it was still a card that could have him him if he had Axh, which was well within his range, or AT or even A7. At this point the pot was 2600 and I only have 2500, so I had to decide how much I was willing to put my whole tourney on the line right here. I checked. He pushed. I folded.

I think I really should have just pushed with my 3-bet on the flop, rather than painting myself into this awkward corner. I let him call for only another 1200 and have position on the turn to see what he could do to me.

After the hand, he said: "That ace probably saved you some money," implying that he was ahead of me on the flop. I suppose that's possible. A set also fits his line. So it's possible that if I'd played it right, I'd have lost all my chips right there.

Shortly after that hand, I doubled on AA vs. KK. We actually got all-in on the flop, when I floped a set, and then I turned quads. (Yes, that's my third AA in the first 2 levels.) Also, this was the last time I was all-in for my tourney life until the hand I busted in level 10!

I got moved into the Pavilion in Level 3, with about 5500, and I lost a big chunk of chips when a shorty pushed with J9 and I called with AK and lost. I was down to about 2500 at the end of level 4, so came back for 100-200 with just about 12 BBs. Fortunately, I doubled with AJ>AT vs a shorty push.

I got moved to the white section and doubled again, on another AJ>AT, so now I had about 8500 (100-200 in level 5) and could play a little poker. I made a random late position steal with JT and floped TTx. A nice old dude in the BB called me. I distinctly remember that when the flop came, we found ourselves staring each other right in the eyes, each looking to see the other's reaction. We kind of snickered, because obviously no one could react to the flop since we were looking at each other. I probably missed some value on this because I checked and called his tiny 500 bet (less than half the pot). I hoped to CR him on the turn, but he checked behind, then he folded to my river bet. Maybe I didn't miss any value. Maybe he whiffed with AQ or something and I got all I could.

After dinner, I had a nice big hand again a big oafy guy to my immediate left who was from Tennessee. He claimed to have had several big scores at the WSOP and on the circuit in Tunica. He had about 20K when I got there, but he lost a lot when he made a move on a shorty and ended up getting caught from behind with QQ. It was folded to me in the SB with JJ. Perfect! I made a raise, which obviously got no respect from him. He called. Flop came 9xx. I pushed. He snap called, which worried me a little, but he had only J9. He had about 5K left, so that was no trivial boost to my stack. Believe I got to about 19K there.

Then I lost about 4K when a shorty raised an I 3-bet him all-in with 22. I hoped he had just big cards and I was willing to flip him for his stack, but he had JJ.

Got a bunch back when I executed a nice bluff on the guy to my right. He was the perfect target because he was pretty cautious, and because he had a stack just a little smaller than mine. This was level 7 (150-300-25). A SB-BB battle. He makes it 1050 to go and I call with 33. Flop came 78J, two hearts. Perfect flop to use my position to tell a story about hitting something. Check check the flop. I didn't want to step into his trap, and I knew (thanks Annie Duke!) that bluffs on the turn are much more convincing. On the 6 turn, he bets 1500, and I raise to 4500. He tanks and folds.

I went up and down a little here, taking some stabs and backing away if they didn't work. No showdowns or major confrontations that I remember. Then I got moved to another table with about 30 minutes to go in Level 8.

I'm on the button with 99. CO raises and I flat. JJx on the flop. He checks and I check. The turn is another J. He checks to me. Now I'm absolutely sure that I'm ahead and that he probably has nothing he can call me with, so I check again to try to get him to bluff the river. The river is T. He checks and I bet. I think it was kind of a big bet, if memory serves. I wanted to make it look like a bluff. He tanked and was really thinking hard about calling. After he finally folded, he told me he couldn't even beat A high. So I don't know why he was thinking so hard. Maybe pondering a check-raise bluff resteal.

I had 17K at the end of level 8. Early in level 9 (300-600-75), I made another steal with JT, and this time I flopped trip Jacks! Got paid off a little, but not much. Around this time I reached my high-water mark of about 31K (50 BBs). That's when things started going horribly wrong.

Guy to my left has maybe 12-14 BBs. I raise on the button with 99. He pushes. Obviously, I'm way at the top of the range he's putting me on for my "steal" so his push could be anything from 22 to QJo. I snap call and he has KK. There goes one-third of my stack.

Now I'm moved to a new table again (No. 5 of the say, if you're scoring at home), where Chino Rheem is sitting with a huge stack. My first hand there I get 99 again and I make a normal raise to 1500. A shorty then pushes for 4500. Now it's folded to Chino, who asks me how much I've got behind. About 19K. He flats. I obviously call the extra 3K. Flop QQx. I check. Chino bets 3500. I think I'm probably ahead, but I don't want to get into it with him, so I just call, hoping that'll send the message to him to not mess around. Turn is a 7. Check Check. That's better. River 8. Check. He's all-in. WTF! I know he's not bluffing (with the all-in), so I have to just fold and he shows TT.

Now I'm down to about 15K, and the blinds are about to go up to 400-800-100 for level 10. At this point there are about 440 players left and 300 cash. We've got one level to go to get to Day 2, so although I could probably fold into Day 2, I'd be looking at either a Day 2 bubble or a mincash. Don't want that.

After a little bit of stack-melting, I have 12K (15BBs). A MP who looks like Freddy Deeb (but isn't) limps, and Chino limps and it's folded to me on the button with KJo. I think for a bit, but this seems like a pretty easy shove to me. I do have some folding equity, and I doubt that any hands that would limp are far ahead of me. I'm happy to take the 3K out there (blinds, antes and two limps) or get called by 55 and flip.

Not Freddy thinks for a while and then calls ... with A2s. Chino folds. Off to the races as a 58-42 dog. If I win, I'm back to 27K (30+ BBs) and I have a great chance of making the money. Flop xx2 .. Turn 2 ... River K.

See ya.

Overall, pretty happy with how I played and battled back from a short stack. I made a few nice moves, and got away from the ones that didn't work cheaply. I never got all-in when I was behind till the last hand. I never had all my chips at risk (without AA) till the last hand.

Well, that's all for this tourney. I'll do the other soon. It won't be as long, obviously.