Thursday, September 10, 2009 - Liv Boeree
Now I’m back in London I’m having kind of a crappy week dealing with the mundane and the not so mundane, including some rather large life changes such as house moves and figuring out where I want to live for the foreseeable future. I am finding myself increasingly drawn to the “Land of the free” as you people call it, and could well be heading out west yonder (back to the country speak too). I’m not sure when, or even to which city (most like LA or Vegas) but I reckon by the end of the year for sure, so it’s exciting times!
The next thing I’m really excited about is the English Poker Open that I’m playing in next week – Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson are also coming over to play the event, which is a $5k buy in with $1m guarantee, and it’ll be by far the biggest tourney I’ve ever played on my home turf so it seems only right that I should win it, don’t you think? Til then I’m gonna be playing online on UB – I’ve rediscovered my love for cash again over the past few weeks, having not played much at all for nearly a year. It’s too easy to get swept up in the glory and gratification that tourneys dangle infront of your face each time you enter one and had forgotten the joys of good, deep-stack grindery. Even just playing a few hours a week has helped re-vamp my game immensely over the past month and has truly blown away the cobwebs of stuck-in-a-rut post-WSOP poker blues!
Tags: doyle brunson, English Poker Open, London, Phil Hellmuth, Play online, Poker Poker Poker, ub, Vegas, WSOP
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Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - HollywoodDave
OK, first off — someone please remind me that I’m not allowed to use an exclamation point in the title of at least my next 2 blog entries in a row! Cuz as i look back over the last 3 or 4, i see nothing but overly emphasized title phrases & that just will not stand.
But seriously — I have been a tournament playin fool the past few weeks, gearing up for Aruuuuuuuuba baby. The good thing about spending so much time in Vegas this year (I still have my place in LA but have been kickin it here with my girl most of the time) is the access to tons of live tournaments. Not all of them have the biggest prizepools, but after spending so much time playing online at Ultimatebet, its really good to be able to switch things up and go live once in awhile too.
Just the other day I took 2nd in a 54-person daily tourney at Caesars for like 7 hundy… not much $$$ but a good for keeping the live tourney muscle working. Funny thing is, I lost to a guy who looked just like our very own Scott Ian! Plus it was extra cool to have my girl final table as well, going out in 4th. Party time, baby!
Also, I got a chance to play a 100k blackjack tourney at the Golden Nugget last week as well — man, its been awhile since I’ve done that! Even though I didn’t make the money, it was great to be able to access all the old BJ knowledge databanks again & I was happy to see its just like riding a bike — you never forget.
People often ask me for advice on bj tourneys & I usually tell them its not really about playing your hands — its all about the correlation in the bets. Which was perfectly illustrated in a key hand that allowed me to advance to one of the middle rounds of the tourney:
It was the final hand, and 2 of the 3 of us remaining would advance to the next round. Maximum bet allowed was 2000, and I was first to act with 4350 in chips. 2nd to act had 6250, and last to act sat on 6000 chips. The 2k max bet allowed me the chance to just barely catch both players, as long as I won my hand while at least one of them pushed/lost. Not a very good shot, but it was there nonetheless.
I bet 2000 and 2nd to act bet 500, a pretty suboptimal bet. He needs to bet at least $150, in order to cover my win, but also wants to bet less than $250 so he can beat a push or loss by the 3rd to act guy in the hand. So his $500 bet accomplishes the same thing as the better $200 on the high side, but also opens up the possibility of a swing if he loses while the other guy pushes. In blackjack its all about making perfect bets — which can (and often does) make all the difference in the world when deciding who moves on and who cries in their drink.
So the 3rd to act guy (with the 6000 chips) jumps outta the tree and bets a full 2000, another bad bet. Think about it: even if the guy who bet 500 manages to double down and win 1000 chips (on top of the 250 he’s already ahead), this guy only needs to bet 1300 to accomplish the same thing on the hi side as the 2000 bet. But what he gives up is so much more valuable to me: If he loses 2000, he drops to 4000 chips. Which means that now instead of having to outright WIN my hand, I can actually push it while he loses too. And if I somehow DO manage to double my full 2000 bet, HIS 2000 bet won’t cover the high side. So him betting 2000 instead of 1300 gains him absolutely nothing, but opens up another path for him to lose while I win. The best bets lock out as many possibilities for your opponents to advance, but mine here had just opened up some much-needed possibilities!
The the cards came: I had a hard 12, 2nd to act (with the 500 bet) got a hard 13, and 3rd to act (with 2000 bet) received a blackjack!! To make things more impossible, dealer had a Ten up, but thankfully checked and found no blackjack underneath. So quickly things changed: much like someone who makes a terrible call with A6 in poker, only to flop 66 — the 2000 bet was rewarded with a monster blackjack, instantly locking up one of the 2 available advancement spots. So the remaining spot was between me and the hard 13 with the 500 bet. And I had to act on my hand first. Fuck my life.
Well, I couldn’t just wave off on my hand, cuz that would guarentee a loss if the 13 waved off behind me (we both end up with the same result by default — both win or both lose, depending on what the dealer did). Nope, in order to advance here I would HAVE to win my hand WHILE my opponent lost. No other result would do. So it was just a question of whether to hit or double.
I debated for awhile the merits of both. Unfortunately, doubling in this tournament would result in a face UP double down card (as opposed to face DOWN), so I wouldn’t be able to hide my result from the other player. So — if I busted — he would immediately know it and not be put to a tough decision at all. On the other hand, since his 500 bet was enough to cover the high side of the hand (meaning, if I won my hand, all he had to do was win HIS hand and he’d still be good to advance), I thought I may need to get more money out, so that if I won a bigger bet (like doubling for another 1000), he wouldn’t be able to beat the high side even if HE doubled too.
Only problem was, if i doubled and caught an Ace, 2, 3, 4 (or maybe 5), i’d really want to hit again and wouldn’t be able to. And if i doubled and caught any ten, I’d bust and it wouldn’t matter anyway. Ultimately I needed to give myself the best chance of outright winning the hand first and foremost, and hitting the hand out gave me the best chance of doing that. Plus, there was always the chance that this guy would misplay his hand, as evidenced already by his bad bet (and several questionable plays during the earlier hands in the match). Against another pro player, I’d probably lean towards doubling to lock up the high side, but against this obv tourney novice I opted to hit it out to give myself the best chance of winning the hand alone.
Well, I hit and caught a 6 for hard 18, and now I had a whole new problem. Great — not only was I still an underdog to win the hand (19 v dealer T is a favorite, but not 18), but if I waved off and my opponent was smart enough to see it, he’d realize that he had a virtual lock by waving off on his 13. Check it: if he waves off, the ONLY way he doesn’t advance is if the dealer turns his Ten into a hard 17 EXACTLY. Because a dealer 19, 20 and 21 means we both lose, and dude advances. A dealer bust means we both win, and dude advances. And a dealer 18 means I push while dude loses, but he still has more chips than me and advances. So again — against another pro player, I have to hit here, but against Novice McGee — I wave off and pray he does something stupid.
And I wasn’t disappointed! Despite standing being the overwhelming best play for him, he opts to take another card. But not just another card — he actually DOUBLES his hand!! So even though he ALREADY has me covered on the high side (if we both win our single bets, he still wins), rather than hitting (and giving himself the chance to re-hit if he catches too low a card), he opts to force himself into receiving ONE more card only! Sweet — I’m picking up scraps of hope with every passing second. I can only pray he busts! Because even though he doesn’t realize it, doubling and catching a small card (or, actually, ANY non-busting card) still gives him the auto-win unless the dealer makes the perfect 17.
But rather than being rewarded for his terrible play, he catches the 9 and busts!!! So here I am, sitting on a hard 18 v a dealer 10, and now actually have a chance to win this thing!! Please please please…. don’t let me duck dodge and weave my way thru this whole hand only to have it not matter in the end — at least give me a sweat, dealer!!!
Dealer flips a 4 in the hole — come on, baby, bust it!!!! — and then a beautiful fucking ten for the bust and the win, baybeeee! What a rush…. and this is why I love blackjack tournaments. Cuz when you know the numbers and see the betting correlations laid out before you — and realize that hardly anyone else sees this stuff — what a sick edge to have in a game. So sweet.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t ultimately to be for me and I feel just shy of the quarterfinal round. But how awesome that I could go home, log onto UB, and play blackjack sngs and tourneys right there on my computer! One of my priorities going forward is to try and see what I can do to bring some more excitement and action back to the blackjack tournament and sng side of things at UB, now that we have Cereus up and running so smoothly and have the UB Mac client pumped out as well, both really awesome components of the total UB experience. Things keep getting bigger and better around here every day & I can’t wait to see what comes next!
rock on, bitches –
-hd.
Tags: Aruba, Play online, Poker Poker Poker, Scott Ian, ultimatebet, Vegas
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