Player's Voice
Saturday, November 7, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
Five years ago when I started to play poker “professionally” I was a bad player in a lot of ways – I played too many hands out of position and played too passively in bad situations. These bad tendencies were carried over from when I played poker primarily for recreation (in other words, the last 20 years of my life). But I was also patient and really good at reading people. This allowed me to take some appropriate risks and make really big laydowns. The net result of my bad habits and natural ability made me a winning player, but just barely.
In the beginning I played live poker exclusively. I had never played a hand of online poker before 2005. Up until this time, I thought the internet was only good for shopping and porn. As I began to take poker more seriously, I studied and improved my game by reading books by Brunson, Sklansky and Harrington. I also began to discuss hands with other players on a regular basis. But my game really began to flourish when I started to play online and could play many more hands per hour. I think this is a really common path for poker evolution.
In the spring of 2005 I decided that I needed some experience with the new breed of online players that I was hearing about and that I would probably be facing at the WSOP. So I deposited $600 on a site and never looked back. I started with sit n goes and was making money pretty easily. Soon my bankroll was built up and I was playing some of the biggest buy in tourneys available.
The rapid pace of on line play really accelerated my learning curve. It was also extremely lucrative compared to the somewhat limited action that was available to me in Reno, NV. I could always count on a game being there, never had to wait in a queue and didn’t have the “hassle” of driving 10 minutes to a casino (yeah, I’m spoiled). It was then that my game really started to mature. I was playing pretty well and making decent money. The highly mathematical nature of online play worked great for me (I have a degree in engineering and a minor in mathematics). But there is always room for improvement. In the last year I’ve been working closely with Annie Duke and her coaching has improved my game by an order of magnitude.
But amidst this continued improvement, I’ve run head long into a really confusing situation: In five years of professional play I’m endanger of recording the first losing live tournament year on my books. I’m not stuck big, but I am stuck. This really bothers me. Sure there have been several moments during the year where if I hadn’t gotten unlucky, I would’ve had a cash big enough to put me in the black: I had over half the chips in play five-handed at a final table only to take 6 bad beats from the same bad player for 5th place, I had set over set at the WSOP Main Event, a two-outer on the turn late on day 2 of the Aruba 5k and several others. But the truth is that in many ways this year, I have de-evolved in some ways as a player.
Basically, I have allowed those people reading skills that made me successful early to get a little rusty. I blame the internet. When playing online, it’s very rare for me to fold Aces or Kings (or any other overpair for that matter) on a flop or turn unless something about the board or betting pattern combined with previous history just screams “you’re beat!”
Also, I think my patience has suffered recently. Again, this may be partly due to the rapid fire, multi tabling experience that I’ve grown accustomed to online. If I bust out of a tourney online, it’s barely a blip on the radar because in all likelihood, I’m in four others already. And if I’m card dead on one table for 100 hands straight, no big deal – I’m probably getting good cards in the 500 hands I’m playing at other tables. Not so in live play. If you bust out in the first level of a tourney, you may not be able to get back into action for a few hours, or even a day. But I think this year I’ve had trouble readjusting to the slower pace of live play. I’ve gotten frustrated and as a result, got my money in bad for my tourney life on too many occassions.
So what’s this all mean to me? Well, I’m focusing on resurrecting my live play skill set. I’ll also continue to use the cyber world to make money and hone my situational skills. And if I do, I’m pretty sure I’ll still end the year in the black. Wish me luck!
Tags: Aces, Bad Beat, coaching, evolution, Kings, online, Poker Poker Poker, Professional
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Saturday, October 31, 2009 - 7tempeheat7
It’s been just over two years now since I made my first deposit on UB. After 25 months of blood, sweat, and carpal tunnel (there’s no crying in poker unless you have 11 bracelets), I can definitely say it has been a wild, fulfilling ride. Looking back, I don’t regret much at all. Sure there are the bluffs you wish you hadn’t fired, the thin value bets that went horribly wrong, the spazzes, the blowups, the monkeytilt headsup matches, the awesomely bad misclicks, and of course that 7deuce pot where your three-barrel overbet shove just didn’t do the trick. What I’ve found at UB hasn’t just been another site to kill time on, a substitute for late night TV, or a way to scrape up tuition money – I’ve found a lifelong hobby, a passion for what I do, a family, and more opportunity than I know what to do with.
In my time on UB I’ve been fortunate enough to experience more than most 22-year-olds could even imagine. To begin, I doubt many people my age can say they’ve lost a semester’s tuition to Phil Hellmuth in golf. Watching Phil sweat out a $600 putt in Aruba (he had been playing for $10k a hole the day before) was one of the more memorable moments of my life. Also atop my list of memories is a guitar lesson that I got from the one and only Scott Ian. For a handful of UltimatePoints I was able to make a trip to LA to learn from one of the greatest metal rhythm guitarists of all time. Being a bit of a metalhead myself, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly overwhelmed. Sitting three feet from greatness is a feeling unmatched by much else.
During that same LA trip, I received a phone call from the UB VIP team, informing me that they had two tickets available for a masquerade party at the Playboy Mansion. Obviously I snapcalled since the Mansion is a 22-year-old male’s playground and now it’s been checked off the bucket list (twice). As much fun as it was, I’d still say the best part was watching my buddies back home via Skype play a beer pong tournament to decide who got to come with. There were a lot of sore losers but I guess that’s standard when the payoff includes this:
I could easily write for days about all the amazing adventures I’ve had with the people I’ve met on this site, so I’ll just stick with what’s freshly in my mind – Aruba! This year was my second trip to the wonderful little island that houses the best poker experience shy of the World Series, imo. The tournament itself doesn’t match the prize pools garnered by the biggest ones out there, however the event as a whole is incredible, unforgettable, and you can use a thesaurus to figure out the rest. Although I’ve never gotten farther than a few orbits into day two of the main, I’ve had such amazingly rich experiences after busting out that money has always been a complete afterthought in Aruba. Some people do visit the island to make some cash, but I’ve found that for the most part everyone is really just there to party.
This year I was able to participate in the Mercedes tournament, where an ML350 was on the line at a 10 person sit-n-go. My arch-nemesis P0ker H0 agreed on a last longer bet where the loser would have to paint his fingers and toes alternating pink and black for the rest of the trip. Things were looking great as I chipped up early by coolering Shawn Rice and successfully bluffshoving 8 high against one of the toughest players at the table. But of course, like the pest that he is, H0 kept his stack right there with mine, and he eventually took the chip lead by whatever cruel stroke of fate the poker gods deemed necessary for me at the time. Halfway through the tournament we found ourselves five-handed with quickly escalating blinds. H0 opened under the gun, a shortstack shoved for about twice his bet, I peeled AJss and reshoved to iso the shorty, but H0 had AK and snapcalled (luckbox!). After flopping the gin 882ss I figured I was guaranteed at least a chop since I run well. Unfortunately I forgot that if there’s anyone in the world who runs better than me, it’s H0, so when it ran out king-blank I was off to the salon to get my nails did. However brutal, I did find it fitting to be knocked out by the guy who I was wearing a T-shirt of.
I could keep telling stories but I see some juicy tables running so I’ll make these quick.
Although it was probably equal parts my fault, getting a full drink spilled on you by Scott Ian at Hellmuth’s penthouse party is totally worth it, imo.
Adam Levy ladies and gentlemen.
AD, the hardest working man in VIP-business.
This one’s from ‘08. I’m the “robe guy” if you didn’t already know.
Scuba diving next to an old sunken Air Aruba plane (pretty unreal).
And lastly, it wouldn’t be an Aruba party without Phil in the pool.
Poker has taught me a ton of valuable lessons – work ethic, the will to learn and improve, discipline, perseverance, other buzz words, etc. Aruba has taught me even more – the importance of friends, family, relaxation, valuing the connections you make with others and time spent with them even if you only see them once a year, new experiences, putting yourself out there, and simply having fun. That last one is one of the biggest reasons why I’ve been drawn to the UB poker community over any other site. If you take the time to visit Aruba or hang out in Vegas for the WSOP, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Hope to meet as many of you as possible in Aruba next year – I’ll probably be the kid wearing the robe.
Tags: adventures, bluff, experiences, Mercedes, metal, playboy mansion, Poker Poker Poker, ultimatebet, VIP
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Saturday, August 15, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
Well another WSOP is behind us. My intention was to post a couple blogs during the Series that I’ve come to call pokerpalooza, but then things turned bad and I lost my appetite for recounting it. Things started off great. I was cashing in every other event I played and I made a final table at Caesar’s. The cash games were being easy too. I got to the point where if I needed a thousand dollars, I would just sit in a 2-5 NL game for an hour or so. Then, just like that, the poker switch flipped to “off.” I had Aces cracked three times on or near the bubble of big events. Usually by hands like Ace-ten offsuit or King-Jack (“but it was suited!”). How did these guys get all in preflop? Better still, how did they win? I gathered up all my mental strength and started to turn things around right before the Main Event. But alas, the Main Event ended badly for me in a set over set situation late on day one. Ugh.
One of the things I did to turn it around was a little experiment in a $1500 tourney dealing with table image. It was probably 2/3 of the way through the Series and I was getting desperate to make something happen and change the slide I was heading down. With that in mind, I made a conscious decision to change my table image in one tournament. Normally the image I try to establish early is that of a tight player. This image lets me steal later in the tourney when the antes kick in and my aggression kicks up. But for this tournament, my image was going to be that of a crazy Scandinavian. To accomplish this Kafkaesque metamorphous, I did three really simple things:
The first thing I did was I raised or reraised the first three hands (regardless of my cards). I cbet each time. I made the reraise with J4, which I showed after folding on the flop. I even managed to win one of the hands with a K9 that I got to show down. My starting stack was 4500. The one win didn’t make up for the losses in the other hand (the reraise hurt), but in total I think I lost like 300. Not a bad price to pay for an image.
My second step involved wardrobe. I left my usual novelty t-shirt and ball cap at home and wore my bright red Ajax jersey. Ajax is the local football (uh, soccer) team in Amsterdam. A few people in the US would recognize it if they were into soccer, but anyone from Europe would know it immediately. Add in the fact that it said Amsterdam in prominent type and it should suggest to even the casual poker player that I am freaky-deeky Dutch. Scandanavians typically have a very loose image – think Gus Hansen.
The last thing I did was the hardest . . . I didn’t talk much. And when I did, I used short, broken sentences. So instead of asking someone “Do you really have a Queen for the nut straight?” I would say “You have Qween?”
The results were perfect. After playing the first 3 hands fast and loose, I tightened up and luckily got some cards. For my first big hand, I raised under the gun with AA and had the same player that I previously three-bet with J4 make a gross over-sized reraise with AJ. He pot committed himself preflop and we got it all in. Then I got paid off by middle pair when I bet my KK on every street. Next I faded what a player thought was two overs and a gut-shot with my top set. By the end of the first break I was one of the chip leaders with up over 30k. I got paid on hands that my normal image would never get paid on.
I don’t know how long I could keep my image going. For sure, a few of the original players remaining at my table were starting to reevaluate me. But as new players came in to fill empty seats, many of them would eye me and my stack and make the assumption that I was precisely the Scandi laggtard I was trying to portray. For more than one of them, that mistake was fatal. I think that between showing the occasional crazy raise and the stream of new players, I could have kept things up for quite some time. Ultimately, my image was busted when a reporter from PokerNews stopped by and wanted to interview me. Too bad he tried to do it in Dutch! My subterfuge was done.
So aside from being mildly amusing, what can we learn from this story? I think it illustrates several key things to remember about table images. Everyone talks about reading players – which is to say establishing a table image in your mind for that player. And occasionally people talk about their own table image, but most players probably don’t think about their own table image enough. Some great players go to great lengths to define the precise table image they want. Chris Ferguson started wearing his trademark hat when he was young so he would be the “cowboy” rather than the long-haired pimply-faced computer geek. Phil Helmuth certainly spends a fair amount of time establishing his table image . . . love it or hate it, it works for him. But I think my story illustrates a few points:
First impressions are dangerous. I cemented my table image with just the first three hands of the tournament and a jersey. This first impression lasted much longer than it should have. Even after I had played pretty tight for two hours, many of the players at my table still only remembered the fact that I raised or reraised with some crazy hands early. You need to constantly reevaluate the players around you with an open mind. You also need to realize which players are adjusting to you. Keep in mind that players tend to remember the plays you make against them more than the ones you make against others.
Which brings me to my second point. For the players regularly seen on TV, their table image is a relatively fixed thing. But for the rest of us, our table image is a very dynamic thing – in addition to changing over time it changes from player to player. If you bluff a player and show the whole table, the table may very well forget about the bluff in an hour (or at least assign it less importance). But the player you bluffed will likely have you labeled as a bluffer until you bust him with the nuts once – for some players you may have to bust ‘em twice, or more, before they reevaluate.
So once you establish an image at a particular time and against a particular person, what do you do with it? Most of us know that you play against it. But what does that mean? When I was a crazy Scandi, it meant that I couldn’t semi-bluff my draws. I was going to get called down. But it also meant that I could value bet top pair with a weak kicker and get called.
But what do you do when you’re in a multi-way pot with two players that have differing images for you? Well like most things in poker, it depends. Say you are in the small blind w/ KJ and see a cheap flop of J84 with two spades. If the big blind thinks you’re crazy loose and the third player thinks you’re tight, you should lead out. Many times the big blind will raise. If she does, the third player will likely fold and you can call. But if the big blind folds or calls and the third player raises, you can probably fold.
Now switch it so the big blind thinks you’re tight and the third player thinks you’re loose. Now with the same hand you can check to keep the pot small. The problem with leading out is too often the big blind calls with a draw or pair and the third player sees it as an opportunity to squeeze what are likely to be (in his estimation) two weak hands. If you check and the big blind bets, you can check raise almost no matter what the third player does. If the big blind checks and the third player bets you can just call and make your play later if no spades appear.
Thinking about image is equally important online. Online, many players use programs that provide them statistics about your play. For them, your image is based on a mathematical model, but it is still an image. And if a player is multitabling, your image may solely consist of hands he has played with you. Also, remember to pay attention to players in a tournament that get moved to your table. Their image of you is neutral unless you have history with that player. And speaking of history, take advantage of the note-taking abilities on poker sites like Ultimatebet. If you play for any amount of time, you should have notes on a lot of players. Even in mega fields of over a thousand or more players, I often have notes on a couple of the players at my table before the first card is dealt. My notes in effect tell me what image to assign to that player as well as what image they have of me.
Well that’s enough rambling for today. Think about your image next time you’re at the table and maybe you’ll make a play that you couldn’t before. Good luck.
Tags: bet, mathematical, raise, Series, stack, WSOP
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Saturday, July 11, 2009 - ZMEN
It’s that time of the year where fantasy football and poker will soon collide. I’m both happy and scared. Obviously, it’s great that the NFL season is nearing because every Sunday I’ll be able to sit back, relax, have a few brewskies, and enjoy Sunday NFL ticket rooting for my FF players. That’s the happy part.
Why am I scared?
Well, most NFL games are on Sunday and that’s generally the best day of the week to play poker. So what’s a guy to do? In past years I tried mixing the two but, since I rely on BOTH for income, mixing has taught me a tough, expensive lesson. While I know how to be a winner at both games that’s only when I concentrate on one or the other, exclusively. The past four years I have NOT been able to do better than break-even in poker during the fantasy football season. To me FF and poker are like drinking and driving – don’t mix the two at the same time! So you may find ‘zmen’ absent from the UB tables on Sundays in the months ahead even though Sunday is one of my fav days to play online. No worries. I make that time up by playing more on Saturdays and the rest of the week! The key for me will be to pay attention to FF on certain days and Poker on other days, don’t mix the two, and hope for the best.
As Debo and P0kerH0 certainly know from hanging with me each of the past five years at the Aruba Poker Classic and also at the WSOP, my life for the past decade has been lots of fantasy football. I’ve been on the cover of Fantasy Pro Forecast magazine. I was a regular on a fantasy football show on FoxSportsNet. And I should mention I have two fantasy football books published, Drafting to Win and, most recently, Fantasy Football’s BIG SIX. (BTW, I gave Annie Duke a copy of DTW and Phil Hellmuth a copy of FF’s Big Six. And did you know? Phil/Debo/H0 are all very into fantasy football!)
So you can see my commitment to FF. So much so that in 2004 thru 2008 I’ve ranked as the #1 fantasy football player in the world after consistently winning at high stakes fantasy football (wcoff/nffc) where live drafts are held in Vegas each September. But after a rough 2008 season I enter 2009 as #5. So I will be putting in extra efforts in the upcoming draft preparation to get to the top again, and that probably means a little less poker. OK, just a smidgen less. 
Since poker is my equal passion and bigger supply of income I must move forward and prepare somehow, someway, for FF this Summer and Fall, and hope to continue to still play poker at a high level. It won’t be easy! -z-
Tags: Annie Duke, aruba classic, Debo, NFL, P0ker H0, Phil Hellmuth, Poker Poker Poker, ub, Vegas, WSOP
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Saturday, April 18, 2009 - Z06FANATIC
So the 4th installment of race cards has came around and entails a 2 month long race rather than the standard month long race. I always look forward to these races as the bonus money is amazing and it really pushes me mentally to go beyond what I have done in the past. It’s going to be crazy racing for 2 months – usually in the one month race after 3 weeks you’re dying for it to end – this time after 4 weeks when you’d be able to relax we’re only going to be half way there.
We shall see who has the mentality to keep going despite the cards not going their way and the grueling hours of sitting in front of the computer. My strategy is to put in the hours but not overdue it – this isn’t a sprint it’s a marathon, so I don’t want to come out of the gate too fast and burn out. Pacing yourself is definitely key to getting top 3 in these things. Anyways I’m off to a good start and looking forward to what the next couple of weeks bring me – good luck to everyone and may the best win
Tags: loyalty, players, Poker Strategy, Promotions, race cards, RAI$E, VIP
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Saturday, April 11, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
As we came back from lunch break for the Final Table on the Best Damn Poker Show 2, we were four handed. If either Patrick or I went broke next, Team Hellmuth would win. The blinds were 3000/6000 with a 1000 ante and the stacks were approximately this:
Jason (Seat 1) = 239k
Shawn (Seat 4) = 157k
Scotty (Seat 5) = 72k
Patrick (Seat 6) = 132k
But Scotty, facing a four-hand penalty, had walked off the show. With Scotty gone, I would have position on Jason for every hand except when he was the button. On the very first hand back, I looked down at two ten’s under the gun and made a standard raise. In the past four days, this was the biggest pocket pair that I had seen since having KK in the small blind on the fifth hand of my first match. These tens couldn’t have come at a better time! Jason went into the tank in the big blind and seemed to be considering a raise – if he did, all the chips were going in. Even though Jason eventually folded, this was perhaps the key hand, my stack jumped to 169K and Jason now had 232K, if he lost an all-in confrontation to me now, he would be shorter than Scotty. I pounded this fact home every chance I got.
The first time it was Jason’s button, he made a standard opening raise to about 20K. I looked down at K8 offsuit in the SB and moved all in! My move was partly based on my read and the knowledge that King high was actually way ahead of Jason’s range. But more than that, I had to send a very clear message that my chips were in play and that Jason wasn’t going to just steam roll me with his big stack. He folded and all was right with the world.
After that hand, the table settled into a nice little pattern . . . nice for me anyway. When Jason would raise and I had position, I would flat call him and take the pot away on the turn. When Jason would raise my small blind, I would come over the top with any above average hand and he would lay down. Meanwhile, Patrick was bleeding chips pretty badly. Three times in the first four orbits he opened the pot only to have Jason take it away with a reraise. As a result, I found myself folding my button whenever Jason folded under the gun just so Patrick could pick up the antes and Scotty’s small blind. Most of this play didn’t make it through the editing for the show, but if you watch the chip counts, you can definitely see the result.
The hands that did make it on air, have to be viewed in that light. One key hand where my play diverted from Annie’s suggested line from the coach’s booth came when Jason completed from the small blind and I saw the flop for free in the big blind with 97 offsuit. The flop came out 347. Jason bet and I just called. The turn was another 7 – gin! Jason checked and I considered checking but opted to put in a bet instead. My reasoning was this: I had floated Jason so many times at this point that I could tell he was getting frustrated. Eventually he was going to have to check-raise me, just to keep me honest. I was hoping that this would be the time. Sure enough, he check-raised me this time when I had the goods. But now I had another interesting decision – smooth call and try to bust him (assuming I was ahead), or reraise right here on the turn. Again, my decision was based more on psychology than anything. I decided to min-reraise him.
The min-reraise is, in my opinion, really the most annoying move in poker. Sometimes it is really strong. Sometimes it is a really weak made hand or draw that just wants to slow down the other player. But in any case, when facing a minimal raise, you have to ask yourself which of the three lines do you take: (1) do you want to look weak and fold (2) do you want to play weak and just bleed off chips with a call only to face a bet on a later street with no good information defining your opponent’s hand or (3) do you put in a fourth raise and say enough of this nonsense. The only problem with the third option is that so many times when I select it, my opponent snap calls my all-in with the nuts! So most of the time, I opt for the fold – and anytime a fold getting 5 to 1 or better on my money with more cards to come, I’m pretty annoyed! So I chose my line in this hand hoping Jason would feel the same way and either make a big mistake right now, or make one later.
What proved to be my last hand on the show came when I raised to 47k from the button with Ace ten offsuit when the blinds were 8/16k. Scotty was gone and Patrick had just doubled through Jason to take a small lead over me with about 230k. Jason had about 150k after posting the big blind. I started the hand with about 204k and made a standard raise when Patrick reraised all-in. Jason got out of the way and it was up to me. Annie and Phil disagreed about whether or not I should call here. Annie thought it was an easy call and Phil thought it was an easy lay down. Guess what? I think they are both right! In fact, on the show I announce that I’m doing both the right thing and the wrong thing by calling. You can see them debate the issue here:
http://www.pokergrades.com/flv/bdps/season2/UB2_ULTIMATE_HAND_SHOW_7.swf
From a team perspective, Annie was clearly correct. If I call, no matter what happens, Team Duke is playing heads up against Jason with a 3 to 1 chip lead (If I win, Patrick has about 2 big blinds). That means I, along with every other member of Team Duke, is about a 3 to 1 favorite to win an Aruba package valued at $8,500.
From a personal perspective, folding here probably gives me a slightly better chance of winning the tournament and collecting the 12k WSOP package in addition to the Aruba package. So Phil’s analysis which focuses on me trying to win is correct too. But I knew one piece of information that Phil didn’t that sealed the deal for me. During one of Annie’s coaching sessions with Patrick, she had told him not to call with weak aces from the blind. In Patrick’s hand that led to Annie playing the coach’s card, he held an Ace nine against Jason’s standard raise. Annie told him to reraise there if he sensed weakness. I knew this had had an impact on Patrick because he had mentioned it again when we were talking privately about thirty minutes before my last hand came up. When you include hands like A9, A8 and A7 in Patrick’s range for a reraise, I think calling with AT is the right play even from an individual perspective.
In any event, I lost the race against Patrick’s 88’s. But Patrick went on to win, so my 3 to 1 shot came through. At the “wrap” party (see how I worked the Hollywood lingo in there) I got to give some of my thoughts to the powers that be about improving the show. Hopefully, some of them will make it into the next season. For instance, I think the second WSOP package should go to the person that all four coaches feel played the best at the final table. I’m sure they can agree on that, right?!!! Okay, maybe, maybe not. On the whole, the show was a great experience for me. I’d like to again thank Annie, Phil, Shawn Rice and Poker H0, as well as everyone else at UB for including me in the event. Also, I’d like to thank all the contestants on the show, many of whom have become my friends since filming.
My plan is to keep blogging on occasion here at the UB site. I’ll cover my ups and downs in the poker world in both live and online tournaments. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed my ramblings enough to check in on me from time to time. In the meantime, if you see me at the tables, please say hi!
Tags: BDPS, bestdamnpokershow, loyalty, players, VIP
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Saturday, February 28, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
Whew! Two days of intense poker and I finally made it. I was going to play for Team Duke at the Championship Table of the Best Damn Poker Show 2. I couldn’t be happier. The line up looked like this:
Seat #1, Jason (Hellmuth) – Jason and I played at the same semifinal table and got down to three-handed together. He was tough and aggressive. But he had a lot of tells. Unfortunately, he overheard our Team Duke meeting where we were reviewing some of the tells that Annie and I had picked up on. Even with the tells, I figured him to be the toughest competition at the table.
Seat #2, Shaundle (Duke) – he had been playing solid and was a veteran of the show. I was glad to have him as my right-hand wing man. I would avoid confrontations with him.
Seat #3, Mike “Shipitmuppet” (Hellmuth) – This was my first table with Mike. But I knew he played tight in the early stages. My plan was to use position against him on the flop and turn and bluff more than usual.
Seat #4, Me (Duke)
Seat #5, Scotty (Hellmuth) – I really didn’t know much about Scotty but in the hours before play started we struck up a conversation. Actually, Scotty talked a lot and I just listened and egged him on. Turns out we had many things in common: lived in St. Louis, worked in construction for several years, warped senses of humor . . . I used the conversation to try and build a rapport with him. At the table I would try to keep him talking and let him give away clues, while at the same time be his “buddy.”
Seat #6, Patrick (Duke) – I’ve now played quite a bit with Patrick and still don’t have a good read on him. But from Annie and Shawn Rice’s comments he is playing solid, great poker. No reason to get involved with him out of position (but because he’s tight, I might “borrow” his blind from time to time . . . “stealing” blinds just sounds so nefarious).
I was pretty pleased with our line-up going into the final table. Annie let the six remaining players from her team have a vote in who would be on the table. After Shaundle and I were selected we had a very close vote for the third spot. It came down between Patrick and Jamie. Patrick had played solid, but Jamie had shown great instincts, even if she was a bit spewy at times. In the end we chose Patrick. But I could tell that Annie really felt like she needed that “dash of crazy, X factor” to really have a shot at winning the thing. She and I talked privately for a few minutes after the roster was set and I told her that I had a crazy gear, she just hadn’t seen it yet. So with that boast in mind, I felt like I really had to come through.
For the last two days, through nearly six hours of poker I had played pretty squeaky tight. I’ve only had four hands shown down. My tight image is a result of not only my strategy, but my cards. Because Phil and Poker H0 have seen my hole cards the entire time, I felt pretty confident that they will tell my competition that I’m tight – so this fits perfectly into my plan to play like a wild man!
For the first three hours of the show (the part that aired last Monday night) I never held a hand. I had one pocket pair, 6’s in the blind, and had to lay it down preflop when Jason raised and Shaundle reraised. I never held any big aces, or for that matter any small aces! Nevertheless, I was playing more than my fair share of hands and maintaining my stack by capitalizing on my tight image. Most of these hands didn’t make the tape, and it’s too bad. You shoulda seen the swill I was raising with.
Shaundle misread Jason and they got it all in preflop with Shaundle’s Q5 in bad shape against Jason’s QQ. David lost to Goliath this time and Shaundle was eliminated. It looked pretty crazy on TV, and it looked really crazy from my seat. Needless to say I was really bummed that Jason doubled up and that Team Duke got zero points. The next elimination was a result of Mike getting it all in preflop with AJ against Patrick’s AQ. I was really surprised to see Mike get it in so weak against probably the tightest player at the table. But Patrick had been flailing around a lot and losing chips by the handful. So I guess Mike was basically shoving as a bluff hoping that Patrick would fold.
The hand that would literally shape the final table came up when I raised on the button with J7 offsuit (I told you I was raising with swill!). Scotty called from the big blind. The flop came J23 with two hearts. Scotty checked and I made the mandatory cbet. I say mandatory because with the flush draw out there I don’t want to give a free card and with top pair, weak kicker, I would really like to just end the hand right now. Scotty called. Thought flash – CRAP!!!! This can go wrong in so many ways. The turn brought another Jack. With just over 55k in the pot, Scotty bet into me on the turn for 21k. I had just a shade more than 71k in my stack. To me, Scotty’s smallish bet looked like a defensive bet where he might be trying to see a cheap river card. I tried to confirm my read by talking to Scotty a bit. Based on all the clues so far, I approximated his range of hands like this: Flush draw (50%), Pocket pair (30%), Bigger Jack or a Full House (20%). Taking this range into account, I decided to ship my last 52k into the 100k+ pot. Scotty would be getting about 3 to 1 on the call. I figured that if Scotty had me beat, he would get all of my chips on the river anyway. But if he had a flush draw with an over or two, he might make a bad call as a bigger than 4 to 1 dog. Also, if he had a reasonable pair like tens or a slow-played over pair, he might make a really bad call as a 20 to 1 dog. I didn’t want to just call Scotty’s bet on the turn because if the heart came on the river, I might get bluffed out of a huge pot and leave myself short-stacked.
When Scotty didn’t snap call, it told me he didn’t have a bigger Jack or a full house. I was relieved. Scotty wasn’t feeling the same way. In the banter style we had developed before the table began and while the play was going on, Scotty called me a “mother fucker” when I raised him all in. I didn’t take it personally, but I knew that he had just crossed a line that will result in a penalty. Even though I now knew I was ahead, I was still paying attention to the clues about Scotty’s hand that he was giving me. Why? Because, it would determine if I wanted to try and induce a call from a pair (If he had the flush draw, I didn’t have real strong feelings one way or another – both a call and a fold would be good for me). As Scotty talked the hand out it was obvious he had a pocket pair and thought I did too. I tried to manipulate a call, but after a while, Scotty folded.
Even though Scotty had folded, the mental games in this hand still weren’t over. Figuring there was a strong chance Scotty held a pocket pair higher than sevens, I decided to flash him the seven from my hand as I mucked. I knew if he had folded eights or better, he would be on instant tilt. But two things went wrong with my plan. First, Scotty only had 66. So showing him the seven probably made him think I had 77 (momentarily) and confirmed his good laydown. Second, Jason, at the other end of the table, asked to see the exposed card and the dealer incorrectly showed BOTH of my hole cards. Now I was the one on tilt! By exposing both hole cards, not only did Scotty now KNOW he had made a good laydown, but my “tight” image just went bye-bye. Talk about a plan backfiring!
But in the words of Ron Popeil, “Wait, there’s more!” When the hand was over, tournament director Matt Savage told Scotty that he would be assessed a one-round penalty for calling me a mother fucker. Scotty lost it. He thought the penalty of sitting out four hands was unfair and stormed out. Savage also announced that we were on lunch break. When we returned from lunch the blinds would be 3000/6000 with a 1000 ante. The stacks were approximately this:
Jason = 239k
Shawn = 157k
Patrick = 132k
Scotty = 72k (59k after the penalty)
When we broke for lunch, the players weren’t allowed to talk to our coaches. Obviously getting unlimited coaching during the match with the benefit of knowing hole cards would be too much. So Patrick, Jason and I ate lunch together. Scotty was nowhere to be seen. As we sat there eating, we heard a rumor that he had left the casino, checked out of the hotel and was last seen headed to the airport. At the time, I couldn’t imagine someone walking away from a $20,000 free roll, but on the off chance that the rumor was true, I started to work on a new strategy for Jason.
The team situation was basically this: Because Shaundle went out first, Team Hellmuth would win the match if either Patrick or I went out in fourth place. With every member of the winning team getting a $8,500 Aruba package, this was real money in our pocket. So in effect, every member of Team Duke was on the money bubble. But the members of Team Hellmuth weren’t. Jason knew this. We talked about it over lunch. And based on his big stack play in a similar situation during the semifinals, I knew that he would abuse the bubble like Ike with Tina. Given Scotty’s stack, he would be blinded off in 23 hands. I simply couldn’t let Jason abuse the bubble for 23 hands. If I did, the stacks at the end would look something like this:
Jason = 455k
Shawn = 85k
Patrick = 60k
The solution was to remind Jason about the individual prize at stake. The highest finishing team member on EACH team would get a $12,000 WSOP Main Event package. All Jason had to do was not go bust in 23 hands and Scotty would in effect hand him $12,000 cash. I pointed this out to Jason and he was quick to note that he could still play a big pot because neither Patrick nor I could bust him. We were both playing the head games. “True,” I said, “but if I grab one extra round before you double me up, you’ll be shorter than Scotty and then you will have to risk ruin before Scotty goes broke or else Scotty will out last you!” At first Jason was skeptical, but we did the math together and he saw how it could happen. With that seed planted, I went for the kill. Knowing Jason was a highly-regarded on line player I asked him what the message boards would say if he lost first place prize money to a guy who was sitting out. Jason tried to play it off, but I thought I was getting to him. Picking up the blinds at least once was crucial to my strategy. And as we prepared to return to the table, I was psyching myself up to be the one abusing the bubble. Tune in to next week show on Fox Sports to see how it works out . . .
Tags: bestdamnpokershow, players, Poker Poker Poker, tv, VIP
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Saturday, February 21, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
When the dust settled after the preliminary four tables, there were twenty-one contestants left on the show. Now it was up to Phil and Annie to draft nine players each for their team. Standing there for the draft in front of the cameras and bright lights was pretty intense. Plus, I was having flashbacks to last season when a number of contestants were called by name, jumped for joy, and then later found out that they were in the group being cut. Did it make good TV? Yes. Was it cruel? Maybe. Did it have me on edge? Definitely. So I stood there keen to spot any “Survivor” twists that might be coming.
Starting off the draft, one player was singled out as having played the best in the prelims. This player received all kinds of gushing comments, but neither Phil nor Annie said the player’s name for a while. I’m sure each of the contestants, myself included, was hoping deep inside that they would be that player. But because “being the best” wasn’t really my strategy for round one, I knew it wasn’t me. Finally, Annie Duke revealed the identity of this player with her first pick – Darryl.
Phil made his first pick next. I really wasn’t expecting Phil to pick me high in the draft for one reason. The day before the prelims started PokerH0 came to me with an odd proposition: basically he wanted me to be a sleeper agent for Team Hellmuth. He proposed that I play “mediocre” or even outright bad so that Annie wouldn’t draft me. Meanwhile, Phil could draft me lower and use his upper picks to take players from Annie’s top tier. Because he had played with me a lot before, H0 said that I would be a near lock to make Phil’s final three. Very sneaky. It also gives you an idea of just how bad these two coaching teams wanted to win. Annie and I had never played together live or online, but Shawn Rice and I had several hours together during a WPT event and knew each other a little from online. Because Rice knew me, I doubted whether the plan would work and I told H0 that I just couldn’t go out on national TV and intentionally make myself look like a donkey (looking like a donkey unintentionally was still a very viable option of course!). In any event, Phil chose “ShipItMuppet,” a long-time UB grinder as his top pick.
When Shaundle and Jason were the number two picks for Annie and Phil respectively, I can honestly say I was getting nervous. Unless I went to Phil’s team, I figured I needed a reasonably high draft pick to make the final table. For her third pick, Annie started off by saying she was going with a player who she thought was probably an “unrecognized talent” and that it was very close between this pick and Shaundle. To me, this sounded like the Darryl build up all over again. And I was mentally prepared not to hear my name. So, when she picked me third I was pretty friggin’ psyched. You can see my excitement on the show. It was such a relief to go in the top three because I now felt like the spot on the final table was mine to lose. But as the first semifinal match would show, I had no reason to feel so safe.
The structure for the semifinals was the same as the prelims – 10k in chips, one player from each team would be eliminated and the table winner had immunity. On top of that, we were playing for team points that would affect starting stacks at the final table. The final table starting stack was going to be 100k. But whichever team won the semis would get 10k off the losing teams stack (so the starting stacks would be 90k vs 110k). This was huge. And just to make it more cutthroat, each semifinal table winner would also get $1000 cash.
The first semi table was full of surprises. Annie’s team consisted of Darryl, Niago and Patrick. Darryl lost a race early to Muppet. Patrick played great poker but couldn’t outlast Niago, who won the table. So the first shocker of the show came when Annie was faced with the decision of whether to cut Darryl (who probably was the most experienced player at the table with the most lifetime winnings) or Patrick (who played a solid error-free table). I think in Annie’s mind, fairness ultimately won out and Darryl was cut. This was both good news and bad news for me. First, it effectively meant I moved up to the number two spot on Team Duke. Second, the Niago-Patrick one-two finish staked us to a healthy point lead. The bad part was that it showed me just how easy it would be to take a “bad beat” here and be off the show.
The second semi table was a disaster for Team Duke. My teammates were the first three busted. Now it was Team Duke that faced the huge point deficit going into the third and last semifinal table. Specifically, we needed to bust two of Phil’s players in 6th and 5th or else Team Hellmuth was guaranteed the chip lead on the final table. Even if we busted two of Phil’s players first, Team Hellmuth would still get the chip lead if his remaining player won the table. The table lineup was like this:
Seat 1 – Me (Team Duke)
Seat 2 – David (Team Hellmuth) – a very talented and successful on-line cash player. Perhaps his most impressive claim to fame is being a lifetime winner in heads up cash games against Tom “drrrrr” Dwan.
Seat 3 – SassyTexan (Team Duke) – Tight, aggressive and solid. Sassy was at my prelim table and when Annie gave me my choice for a table mate, Sassy was my first pick. I knew her solid play would keep the two of us from getting mixed up in any needless confrontations.
Seat 4 – Brad (Team Hellmuth) – my first impression was that he could be pretty wild.
Seat 5 – Jon (Team Duke) – probably the most inexperienced player in the field. Like Brad, I expected him to be unpredictable.
Seat 6 – Jason (Team Hellmuth) – another talented young on-line phenom. Jason is routinely ranked in the top 100 for on-line multi-table tournaments. He would be aggressive and the most dangerous. Fortunately, I would have position on him.
The first hand of the table really affected my strategy for the whole tournament. Brad raised from the button, Jon min raised from the blind and Brad put in a fourth bet that was just barely above a min raise. Jon called. The flop came down three baby cards with two diamonds. Jon check folded to a half-pot cbet from Brad. From the outside, it looked like Jon had a weak ace, maybe AJ to A8, that missed and Brad probably had a reasonable overpair or a big ace. As it turns out, Jon had the AQ of diamonds and Brad had tens. I probably wouldn’t have thought about the hand again, but I got called into the coach’s booth before the button orbited the table again.
The hand before I got summoned to the booth, I flopped bottom two pair in a multi-way pot between Jason, myself and Brad. Jason had top pair (queen) with a weak kicker and we went to war on the turn. Jason made three queens on the river and checked to me. Being counterfeited on the river, I knew the only way to win was to bet. Jason made the easy call and I tabled my “busted monster” and read the hand out loud as “queens and eights.” I congratulated Jason on his nice suckout and he got defensive, insisting that his queen on the flop was ahead of my eights. He missed the fact that I had flopped two pair. This started a lot of sarcasm and ball busting from me. I had just asked Jason if a pair of queens beats two pair in his home game when I was summoned to the coach’s booth.
In the coach’s booth Annie asked me to go back to the table and talk about a hand from the prelims where Jason got all in with two over cards and a flush draw versus a pair. She wasn’t allowed to tell me what cards other players had during the semi table. But as we had only played a few hands, only one of which had significant action. I was able to deduce that Jon had a hand like AK or AQ of diamonds on the first hand. This revelation was edited out of the show as aired. But knowing this fact changed my approach to the game. Jon had clearly made a huge error. Barring a brain fart by Sassy or myself, Jon would probably be Annie’s choice for elimination. Combine this with the elimination of Darryl in the first match and the performance of Team Duke’s players on the second table and I figured that my spot on the final table was nearly assured. This pushed my strategy back toward the style I employed during the preliminaries, but Annie also told me to take some more risks because Phil’s players were “playing scared.”
Throughout the semifinal table I never held a pair – not even deuces. Nevertheless, I cultivated a tight image, won a lot of pots with well timed bluffs and reraises and only had to show down two more hands during the whole match.
The first elimination of the match came when Jason raised from early position. I held KQ in the cutoff. Normally I would consider playing here, but David was on my left (on the button) and had checked his hole cards already. When he checked them, his posture changed ever so slightly. He leaned forward a bit, which I interpreted as he had a hand. I didn’t want to get caught between two of Phil’s players in a situation where I might be dominated so I bowed out. As it turns out, David’s suited Ace-Ten caught top pair, but got busted by Jason’s top two pair.
The big hand that made the show for me was when Jon opened in early position with KK five-handed and I had AK in the blind. I had a stack size of about 15 big blinds. This is a good size stack to reraise with. With that in mind, had this been a regular online SNG, I would have moved all in 100% of the time. And after sitting there for over an hour without a pair, AK looked like the nuts to me. But two things made me go with a different line. The first was my read on Jon. As soon as he checked his hole cards his demeanor changed. On the show that aired you can see his head rolling around on his shoulders like a Stevie Wonder bobble head doll. He was suddenly very relaxed and excited, but trying to hide it. Everything pointed to him having a HUGE hand. Based on my read, he had QQ at a minimum. The second thing that made a reraise my less favored move was that, this being team play, I didn’t want to bust Jon at this point, or worse, get busted by him. I couldn’t be sure that he would fold 99 in this spot.
Taking all that into account, I almost folded preflop. And based solely on my read, had Phil and Annie NOT been watching my hole cards, I probably would have folded. Ultimately I decided that the problem with folding was that if my read was wrong, I would have played AK like a total rube and Annie might cut me based solely on this play. Also, I felt like there was little chance of Jon bluffing me on the flop if he had a hand like AJ or AQ and if an ace hit, I could just open-shove – thereby letting him know that I’ve got a real hand. As it turned out, I blanked the flop and checked folded to Jon’s all-in bet.
But this hand also highlights two of my strategies for any poker game, particularly hold ‘em. The first is when to look at your hole cards. There are a lot of theories out there. Some very good players like Chris Ferguson suggest waiting until it is your turn to act. I used to do this, but think it is probably not the best plan. By waiting until the action is on you to look at your cards, you not only slow down the game, but you also ensure that almost everyone is looking at you when you do check your cards. That’s bad. Most players give up tells (1) when they first look at their cards (2) when they make a bet and (3) when they face action from an opponent. You can’t avoid all eyes being on you when you bet. And if you are heads up, your opponent, if she’s good, will certainly be watching you in the third scenario. So why draw attention to yourself in the one scenario you control: when you look at your hole cards for the first time?
Therefore, one of the things I like to do is look at my hole cards when no one is looking at me. Even when I’m under the gun I usually look at my first card before my second even arrives because players are usually watching the dealer pitch cards to them instead. Just knowing the rank of my first card under the gun vastly narrows my probable plays. Preferably, I look at my cards while the action is at the opposite end of the table. If timed right, I only miss one player checking his cards while I check mine. All things being equal, I’ll try to time my peek with the tightest player at the table. If he raises, I don’t need any tells. I know he has a hand. Besides hiding inadvertent tells from opponents, this has the added benefit of allowing me to prepare myself for how I want to act when the action is on me.
I will often recheck my hole cards when the action comes to me. But I will never show genuine surprise or excitement when I look down at AA or KK. The reason is I checked my cards earlier and I’ve been preparing myself for several seconds for how I want to look when I check the second time. So now I can try to give a false tell if I want to.
Case in point, on the show when I had the AK, the action was on me but I was staring at Jason for some time while I thought about what line to take. Once I knew I was going to call, I pretended to ask the dealer if the action was on me. Then I acted sheepish, like I just realized the table had been waiting on me, checked my hole cards (for a second time) and nonchalantly called Jon’s raise. If you watch the show closely, you can pick up on it.
The second strategy this hand highlights is that you have to constantly reevaluate your options. When I first saw I had AK, no one had acted yet. Like I said, given my drought of hands and my stack size, I was hoping someone would raise just so I could autoshove. When Jon raised, I had to reevaluate based on my read. And even after that, I had to reevaluate the whole scenario based on the team aspect of the game. After each evaluation, my plan changed. I went from shove, to fold, to call.
Ultimately, Brad went out 5th. Jason would later lose a heads up battle with Jon when Jon’s AQ sucked out on Jason’s AK all in preflop. The end result was a final table where each player would start with 100k in chips. Without giving too much away, the final table was crazy. There was some great poker. Some amusing hi jinks. And some bold bluffs that really blew up. So be sure to tune in!
Tags: bestdamnpokershow, players, poker media, Poker Poker Poker, Poker Strategy, VIP
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Saturday, February 14, 2009 - C00LHandNuke
So by now you’ve probably seen the first two episodes of the Best Damn Poker Show 2 on Fox Sports. The competition was structured so that 24 players would be separated into four six-person tables. One person would be eliminated from each table based on how well Phil and Annie thought they played (dropping our number to 20). But if you were the chip leader at the end, you had elimination immunity. After that Phil and Annie would each select nine contestants to be on their team for round two. The draft would therefore eliminate another two players. After the draft we would play another round with three tables of six-handed action. Phil and Annie would then select their three best players to square off for the final table.
With this in mind, I went into round one with a very specific strategy – play tight and don’t make any stupid mistakes. I would show my “skills” off in round two, after the draft. In many ways, this is the exact same strategy I use when playing the early stages of an on-line sit-n-go. There is very little reason to get involved with a hand like A8 offsuit early on, because, barring some miracle flop like AA8 and an opponent w/ AK, you are just unlikely to get paid off. Yet even at the $500+ buy in levels, I see people defend their big blind with Ax all the time in the opening rounds – the aggressive players may even reraise if the suspect a steal! They flop an ace and lose 1/3 of their stack (or more) because the initial raiser had an ace with a better kicker. To put it another way, when you are nine-handed and the top three spots get paid, it’s almost impossible to amass enough chips to assure yourself a cash. Almost all you can do by getting out of line early is lose.
I was on the fourth table. This gave me the advantage of seeing how the first three tables went. None of the contestants were made privy to hole cards absent a show-down, but watching the first three tables reinforced my strategy. On a few occasions players got busted at the table, but weren’t selected for elimination because the bust was “righteous.” In other words, they played well but either got cold-decked, took a bad beat, or lost a coin flip as the aggressor. Also, from the comments made by Annie and Phil, it was pretty obvious that several players at the second table had some holes in their game. So I figured that I could pretty much count on one or hopefully two of these players to not be drafted. The only wrinkle came when the third table played so well that no player was eliminated. Hollywood Dave dramatically told us at the beginning of the fourth table that because of this, they might eliminate two players from our table. But taking everything into account, it didn’t change my strategy. Essentially I had to finish in the top four of my six-person table to “cash.”
The players on my table were lined up like this:
Niago (seat #1 – the grinder from LA) Niago is very attractive and she knows it. I’m not saying she is stuck up. Far from it. She is a really honest and down-to-earth person. Rather, she knows that men will do stupid things at a poker table whenever an attractive woman is in the hand. And from talking to her at dinner the night before, I could tell that she knew how to adjust her game for guys who would try to bully her. So if she raised my big blind from the button, I would be less likely to three bet without having a good hand.
Patrick (seat #2 – the on-line qualifier) Patrick beat over 8000 players in a series of on-line free rolls to win his seat on the show. As you would expect, he is your typical on-line whiz kid . . . just turned twenty-one, uber-aggressive and hopped up on Red-Bull and vodkas. NOT! Patrick was among the oldest competitors and has three kids older than the majority of the online poker-playing population. So he’s not your typical young-gun jammer. And you have to respect the time, skill and luck factor that guided Patrick through such massive fields in the series of tournys he won to get here. Bottom line, he was an enigma. He was hard to plan for and harder to read. But I expected him to be aggressive and play position – two keys to internet success in particular.
Shawn (seat #3 – the hero in this story, at least for now)
Tony (seat #4 – the body builder from New York) Tony sat in the seat behind me for the flight out to SoCal, but he didn’t know that. During the flight, I got to listen to him tell the guy next to him all of his “good” poker stories. From these stories I knew the following: Tony had experience in big buy-in live events and he liked to play loose early on when the blinds were small in hopes of flopping huge and getting someone to stack off light. With him on my left, I could fire into him on a lot of uncoordinated flops if he limped expecting him to fold most hands. If he called, I would know he had a hand.
Lynn “Sassytexan” (seat #5 – long-time UB grinder) Sassy is a student of Shawn Rice poker. Now I’ve had the pleasure of playing with Shawn for about twelve hours of day one of the WPT’s World Poker Challenge Championship, so I figured that at least in the early stages, Sassy’s game would be solid, maybe even to the point of being ABC-like. If she put lots of chips in the pot, she had the hand. I wouldn’t expect her to bluff or get too carried away with a draw.
Lenal (seat #6 – a pro from Miami, FLA . . . cue Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side”) Lenal is covered in tattoos which may lead you to think he is a wild man, but he is a pro. He’s played lots of big events and his home game in Florida includes Chino Rheem (maybe you’ve heard of him from the final table of the 2008 WSOP Main Event) and most of the Mizrachi brothers (if you haven’t heard of them, you’re not reading this because you have no internet and likely have been living on a desert island for the last five years). Needless to say, he was the wild card and the player I would most likely try to avoid.
As play got underway, I stuck to my strategy of playing tight. This was made easier by the fact that I never held a hand better than J8 off suit for the first hour. I love it when the cards and your strategy align! On the first hand I had 72 off suit in the big blind. Tony and Niago limped. The flop came A35 rainbow. I checked. Tony bet and Niago folded. I hemmed and hawed a bit before folding, telling Tony I had misplayed a big pocket pair. In the coach’s booth, Phil commented on my theatrics. But my rationale was simple, I wanted to portray an image that would allow me to steal later and represent the ace when need be. It worked. Even with bad cards, I was able to build my stack by leading into ugly flops against Tony and Lynn, usually after getting a free peek from the big blind or raising the button.
The main hand that shaped the table was a battle of the blinds between Sassy and Lenal. With blinds at 100/200 Sassy had QQ and tried to make it 600 to go by throwing in a 500 chip on top of her 100 small blind. But she didn’t announce raise and thus the “one chip rule” meant she had just called. Lenal wisely decided to see a flop for free with the J9. So the first mistake was made by Sassy. I see a lot of internet players make mistakes like this when they try to move to the brick-and-mortar world. The flop came down J94 with two clubs. Gin for Lenal! Sassy bet 500 and Lenal just called. I believe his call was the second mistake in the hand. When Sassy tried to raise preflop it should have told Lenal she had some sort of hand. Her bet on the flop could have just been frustration with two big cards that missed like KQ, Ax or the like, or she could have a medium to big pair, or even a flush draw or straight draw. Bottom line, she could have anything. Lenal needed to define her hand and protect his hand on this draw heavy board. The turn brought the Q of spades (putting two spades on board and completing the KT straight and the less likely T8 straight). Now all hell breaks loose. Lenal finally puts pressure on the pot and Sassy tanks for a bit before going all in. Lenal makes the somewhat-crying call. When the hands were turned up, I breathed I small sigh of relief because it was the first hand I saw where I felt like a clear mistake had been made. Remember, my strategy was to basically wait for the other players to make a mistake, even if it wasn’t against me. So for the first time at the table, I felt relatively safe.
As it turned out, Phil and Annie actually faulted Lenal more for the hand he played just prior to this one. But because I couldn’t see the whole cards, I had no way of knowing that Lenal was in jeopardy. In that hand he raised under the gun with A4 off suit and defended against a near-min raise from Patrick (holding KK). Even though he was getting great odds due to the smallish reraise, he had a dog hand that was likely a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 dog. And that’s assuming he gets to see all five cards. In reality, he is a bigger dog because unless he flops two pair or better, he will have to fold on most flops. Even assuming all three aces are live, he will flop the ace less than 20% of the time. The same goes if the 4 is the live card and he is up against a bigger ace. One thing worse than only having three outs, is having three outs, but not knowing what they are. That’s the situation you’re in with a rag ace when there is a lot of action preflop. When someone offers me 3 to 1 to call their three-bet it used to make me sick to my stomach to fold because it looks so weak. But in my case, this is ego talking. In order to win, you have to put ego aside and do what’s right.
My cards continued below the Mendoza line for the rest of the table. Near the end I had two hands that didn’t make the television airing, but were mildly interesting. The first, I picked up KK in the small blind and everyone folded to me. I raised it 2.5 times the big blind and had to use all my Jedi mind tricks just to get Tony to call. We took a flop and my read was he completely whiffed. I went ahead with a smallish cbet hoping he would interpret weakness and make a play. He almost bit, but then seemed to remember that Phil and Annie were watching and that he had air. He folded.
The other hand also involved Tony. This time he raised 4.5X from under the gun. I looked down at AJ off suit in the blind. We both had slightly more than 15 big blinds, so I had some fold equity to shove. My read on Tony was that he had a pocket pair that he knew figured to be the best hand five-handed, but that he didn’t want to play a difficult flop with over cards out of position. A lot of this read comes strictly from Tony’s bet size (so you can use it on-line pretty accurately), but it is also supported by my take on his personality. No way he makes that bet with AA, KK, or QQ. It’s not in his trappin’ nature. The only real threat here is that he has AQ. Some players feel the same way about AQ as 55. If they get called and have to play a flop, they hope to hit it hard and turn green when they miss. On the whole, I decided to fold because I didn’t want to run into AQ here (a disaster that would occur probably 1 in 4 times based on my read) and didn’t feel the need to show “strong play” and try to make Tony lay down a hand like 88. If I hadn’t already sensed a mistake from Lenal or if I felt like I needed the chip lead for immunity, I probably would have shoved here. Calling for me wasn’t an option. I talked to him later and he said he had 99.
Well, that pretty much sums up my opening round on the show.
Cheers
Shawn
Tags: Annie Duke, Best Damn Poker Show, C00LHandNuke, Phil Hellmuth, Player's Voice, Poker Strategy
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Saturday, February 7, 2009 - JMURJEFF
My experience at the Superbowl was definitely a good one. Ultimate bet contacted me about the promotion to get the tickets right before Christmas time and I traded in points to obtain the tickets. The tickets were to be either picked up in Tampa or delivered to your hotel during the week of the Superbowl.
Ultimate bet makes sure they keep in touch with you to let you know what is going on. They sent me a jacket, a hat, and a shirt as well as for the guest who I brought along. On the day before the Superbowl we went to pick up our tickets from Tony Luisi who was definitely a nice guy. The pick up location was on the same street as the stadium so it was very easy to get to. Also when we got there Tony gave me and my guest a bag with Superbowl memorabilia as well a pass for parking. The parking pass for no additional cost is good because stadium parking is $50. I also ordered the NFL on location party from Ultimate bet through points redemption. So I was able to pick up the tickets for those as well at that time. On the day of the Superbowl I was offered a drink by Tony and a manager from Ultimate bet, however my guest really wanted to go to the NFL experience right away so I had to turn down the request. Although it was definitly a good gesture and maybe another time I would definitly take them up on this offer. Right outside the stadium there is a lot to see from football beginnings to present times. The NFL on location was definitly the place to eat because the open bar with the food was worth it. Cause if you were hungry at the stadium you would be paying $10 a beer and $9 a cheeseburger. When we went to the stadium it was awesome because our seats were on the 50 yard line 23 seats up from the field. So I was able to see everything during the game and it was definitly an experience. It definitly is much better to be at the stadium cause you can see all kinds of things you don’t normally see. Like how the recievers run their routes and the sidelines. The half time show was awesome because whenever Bruce Springsteen plays you know it has to be good. Everyone was standing up during the 4th quarter because of how crazy the game got. The majority of the fans may have been for Pittsburgh but towards the end I don’t think anyone really cared who won because both teams were putting on such a great show.
After the game we got to go back to the NFL on location to eat more food. So that party is something I recommend cause it is better to enter the stadium and leave on a full stomach.. Also because traffic is crazy in the beginning so you might want to wait a while before leaving. Overall this was a great experience and if you can take advantage of this offer then I recommend it! Cause how many times will you get the go to the Superbowl?
Tags: Icon, loyalty, NFL, players, points, Promotions, RAI$E, Super Bowl, VIP, vip host
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