ITH Poker Forum

[chrisjp]

"Today will be the charm, I predict. gogogo!" --nside, the Seer of the East. Or at least the Mid Atlantic. Let's hope the pokergods agree. I signed up last night and was rewarded twice:

1) I didn't have to stand in line to register
2) I got Table 57, Seat 2. Wonderful, this table won't break for a long time if ever.

Now lets go to work. There were 557 runners yesterday, and there's clearly going to be more than that today. At least 650. They are still registering through the first 3 Levels.

But on to my table. Pretty good actually. The only player that appears really good is Seat 1, a young kid. But he seems a bit overconfident. Seat 4 is a poor chaser and there's just no one else who is impressive. The following hand summarizes my table in a nutshell. UTG limps. Two more limpers and both blinds are in. Five to the flop. What are the odds that two of these players have AA. Well, it's actually 100% as UTG and MP2 are the only two that make it to the showdown. Well they tried to give the others a chance to outdraw them, and they certainly scared each other. It was pretty hilarious....boy they were both happy to split it.

But on to my hands. I get in the SB. CO, who raises frequently, does so again. I call as does the BB.
Flop: . It is checked around.
Turn: I lead out and they both fold.

Seat 10 limps UTG. This time I'm MP1 and stare down at . I raise his 100 limp to 425 and get heads up with him.
Flop is moderately good for me. . Top pair/top kicker and nut flush draw. If he beats me with a straight flush so be it. I cbet and he folds.

I move up to 14000. Seat Belt time. I'm in the BB. It folds to the young gun in Seat 1, who is in the SB. He is obsessed with social networking with all his buddies that are playing, and he's also following Barcelona v Man U. A busy guy. I felt like telling him you can't do that while you're playing a hand. But I don't really care, and I certainly don't want him to know that I know the rule.

He deftly raises to 425. I look down at We are playing 75/150--no antes this early of course. I call. He's got about 12,500 and I've got 14,000. Let's see if I can stack him.

Flop: .
He leads for 500. Oh boy, how can I be so lucky? I sure hope he has a king. Anyway the two stretching diamonds make it just right for a raise. I raise to 1500. He puts his IPOD or whatever the heck it is down. After brief thought he raises to 3900. How lucky can I get. If he had a set of kings he probably would have just smooth called. OK, I call. I'm hoping he'll put me on a draw or a King.

Turn:
Well it's not a diamond so that's good. And it doesn't pair the board and that's good too, might slow down the action. But it is an overcard. That might freeze his action too. Anyway, he doesn't take very long and checks.

Time to figure out a bet size. 7800 in the pot and he's got about 8500 behind. I'm not sure if I should just push or not. I decided to just flip my 5000 chip out there. In hindsight I think a push is better. But who knows. He thinks briefly and I can see he has concluded, "What the hell." He splashes the pot "All in".

Teddy, don't splash the pot.

I instacall, in fact I called too fast. I should have hesitated briefly. But who cares at this point. He flips . Well I was hoping AK but this is good enough. He's got 8 outs. Time to bust this good player and get a nice early lead.

River:

He rakes in the pot like he deserved it. Pokergods, you don't have to give me another day off you know.

Shortly after Seat 1 is dealt KK. Flop is Kxx and he is paid off all the way to the river. Seat 1 tells the dealer, "I like you!" I bet he does.

OK I'm down in Sheets mode again. A couple of orbits and we are into Level 3. 100/200. My M has shrunk to 3. Woe is me. I'm in the BB and it folds to my friend in the SB. He puts me in. I look down at Wow, he'd probably put me in with Any Two. Lucky me. I call.

He flips . Geez. The board runs out with no help to me and I'm all done.

I have a lot of time to kill. I look around at a lot of the tables. I see T.J. and David Plastik, two of my least favorites. And a couple of very well known young guys who I can't place. But mostly a rag tag like yesterday. A fair amount of young players, but not overwhelming. I decide to drop by the Rio on my way home to see how much has already been set up. On my way out of the Venetian I spot a ten dollar bill on the floor. I pick it up and look around for someone who might have lost it. No one is very close. Oh well. Then I spot a whole quarter on the floor. .25. Wow. This must be my lucky day.....

I think not. But I'm not turning any gifts down.

The Rio seems to be all set up. At least most of it. The tables are all up. Looks just like last year. A bunch of dealers were there picking up their uniforms or going through orientation or something. It's almost here! It kicks off Tuesday with the $25000 Heads Up Tournament. They start slow at the World Series.

This report is too short! Oh well, can't get too greedy. Yanks get into town tomorrow evening. I was hoping to be playing. I guess not. Probably Tuesday...that's a $550 at the Venetian.

Chris

[nsidestrate]

"Today will be the charm, I predict. gogogo!" --nside, the Seer of the East. Or at least the Mid Atlantic.

It was supposed to be! Stupid fates.

[chrisjp]

From Venetian Twitter--

Final Day 1B entries 673 players for a total of 1,230 entrants for first DSE III event. First Place $ 69,436 !!

126 places paid and they said it was going to go another day. Makes sense. Too many left. They don't start until 4pm today. There should be about 150 still remaining, but that's just a guess.

Good turnout. Wonder how many played twice like me. Lots for sure.

Chris

[chrisjp]

<Young gun with 80BBs in the SB raises almost 3BB>. I'm in the BB. I look down at <I have about 95BB> I call

Flop: .
He leads for 3.5BB. I raise to 10.5BB. He 3bets to 26BBs. I call.

Turn:
He doesn't take very long and checks.

He has 54BBs left and I bet 33BBs into a 52BB pot. He pushes and I call. He shows

Questions here...

1) Anyone 3-bet preflop?

2) Anyone 4-bet the flop?

3) Anyone push the turn?

I'll make one comment. I think pushing the turn is fine and correct most of the time. I think Rad or Yanks should push the turn. I think I should push the turn online. But I don't think I should in this case. It's nitpicking and if I push that's fine...no problem. I just think my bet is slightly better. Now I'm never folding this hand ever no matter what comes on the river...so the smaller bet is not to save me any chips. It's to get him to call or push more often. I've had this discussion before but given my age and image live I think that my bet doesn't look as strong as a push. In fact it looks a bit scared. Of course I should be pot committed and we are both pot committed on the river if villain just calls (unless he has a flush draw that misses...even then he might push as a bluff).

Chris

[nsidestrate]

I actually probably would 3 bet pre-flop. You'll have some fold equity, although you'll hate it when he 4 bets. I think your line is fine but a 3 bet is more in keeping with my general laggro image. I'm never 4 betting the flop and I'm always shoving the turn. Although I understand what you are saying about your image and I agree with you that you live in a different world than me. Still wearing the visor? That kills me.

[chrisjp]

I actually probably would 3 bet pre-flop. You'll have some fold equity, although you'll hate it when he 4 bets.

I would have some fold equity, but I don't 3bet pre for two reasons.

1) I want to underrep my hand and keep my implied odds huge if I hit the set. If I raise to 9BBs and he reraises to 23-27BB well my implied odds are all messed up.

2) This is most important. I'm not trying to win the pot now. I'm trying to win a bigger pot. This is a very aggro young kid and I think I can get him to put one more bet in at least with nothing. My plan is to play trappy...depending of course. If I flop a draw or top pair (or even second pair if no Ace or King flops...or a set...it's off to the races. I have position and that's a big edge when you keep the pot smaller.

I've got my cap...but I need to get another visor.

Also, and I find this interesting: There are very few players wearing dark glasses. Don't know what to make of that. Quite a few caps, but not many shades. Certainly less than there use to be. I experimented with shades; didn't like them.

Chris