George Epstein is a poker author who writes columns for Poker Player, Card Player, and authored the modestly titled book, The Greatest Book of Poker for Winners.
Inasmuch as he gets paid to do all this writing, one would presume that he knows what he’s talking about. As such, I can only conclude that his recent article for Poker Player Magazine, “Playing Big-Slick in Texas Hold’Em” was either intended as a humor piece, or it’s part of an elaborate plot to manipulate his opponents into playing badly. At least he seems to realize that his thoughts on the subject might be a bit flawed when he parenthetically observes in the first paragraph, “Note: This strategy is bound to be controversial.”
His advice in a nutshell is “Play weak-tight & scared.” More specifically, he advises you to think about not raising pre-flop, and, worse yet, not raising on the flop with a flush draw.
The worst thing about his advice is that he ignores the situational nature of poker. Take his advice for not raising with a flush draw:
Should the flop bring four-to-a-flush, don’t go wild and start raising. Wait until the flush arrives before raising. Should you be fortunate and make the flush on the flop (Wow!), play it slow to keep them interested. Don’t [reduce the size of the playing field].
Wrong, wrong, wrong. If you have three or more opponents, and raising won’t eliminate players, you should raise every time. You will make your flush roughly one time in three, so while you will lose that extra bet two thirds of the time, you’re only contributing 25% of the additional money that’s going in the pot. So when you hit your flush, you more than make up the extra money that you lost from the times you raised and missed.
Barry Tanenbaum has an excellent article in Card Player relating this very mistake to something known as Prospect Theory. While you should read the entire article, here is the relevant bit, wherein Tanenbaum explains that loss aversion causes people to miss important bets:
Loss-aversion also happens when a player has a nut-flush draw on the flop against three opponents and fails to raise. He is getting an overlay for this bet, as he will win 33 percent of the time and is putting in only 25 percent of the money. But he knows he will lose two-thirds of the time, and feels bad when this happens. When he wins, he feels good anyway, and the extra few bets do not seem to matter as much.
Even players who read this and say, “Hey, I make that raise,” typically will not raise on the turn in the same situation against six opponents. The issues are the same, but the player will lose two double bets four times out of five. Even though the play is a long-term winner, the frequent large loss hurts more than the gain feels good.
What’s more, Epstein’s advice to slow play your flush when you make it is often a mistake. If you check when a scare card comes, it’s entirely likely that everyone will check behind you, when they may well have called had you bet. Meanwhile, when you finally do show up with a bet on the end, many people who wouldn’t have called a turn bet anyway will lay down now. Plus, you’re risking giving away a free card, which is rarely a good thing.
Additionally, if you raise while on a flush draw, most players won’t put you on a drawing hand, at least not at low- mid-level games where people tend to expect relatively straight-forward play. Your raise for value on the flush draw then turns into an excellent device to conceal your strength when you catch your flush, allowing you to continue to push the hand for full value.
It’s these small-but-important extra bits of value you pick up on which significantly add to your hourly rate in the long-term. Back to the Epstein article, his 2nd and 3rd paragraphs observe:
Even if an opponent has a pair in the hole, his chance of flopping a set is rather slim — about 8-to-1 against him. Whereas starting with A-K, you can expect to flop either an ace or a king about 1 out of 3 hands. Yes, the A-K is a super starting hand. So what is the best way to play it?
Should You Raise? Let’s consider the A-K unsuited. Raising in an early-middle positions should force some opponents to fold — reducing the size of the playing field, RSPF. You do that to gain a better chance of a big pair holding up to the end — assuming your A-K will connect. But the odds are you won’t improve on the flop, so why invest a double bet. Just calling is the preferred strategy here.
Fascinatingly, Epstein has managed to argue why you SHOULD raise pre-flop, and then advised that you NOT raise pre-flop. You will connect with your hand 1 time in 3, he observes, so if you have at least 2 opponents who will call your pre-flop raise, you should raise. It’s as simple as that. What’s more, raising will chase out some hands which might have caught random two-pairs against you, but will still let in dominated hands, and pairs which will be destroyed should you hit the flop (so long as they don’t catch a set, but as Epstein points out, that will only happen about one time in 8 ).
What’s more, there are strategic advantages to raising pre-flop. It puts you in the driver’s seat in the hand, for one thing. If the flop completely misses you, you may still be able to take down the pot with a continuation bet. If you have position, and completely miss the flop, you may have a chance to take a free card. It’s up to you how to handle things, as every hand is situational & depends on the behavior of your opponents in the hand, but at least you have the option thanks to your pre-flop raise.
What’s more, when you have A-K, you quite likely have the best hand at that moment. While any pocket pair is technically a superior hand (in terms of odds of winning at showdown), low to middle pairs can’t withstand any action when overcards come. A player who cold-calls your raised A-K with pocket 7s (who knows what he’s doing at any rate–always beware of calling stations) is going to have to fold them when the flop comes Q-8-2 and you bet out. As such, you’re only really worried about getting called by bigger pairs, and then only when you fail to improve.
Further on in in the article, Epstein states:
Raising in late position won’t force out opponents who have already invested one bet. The blinds may fold, but not those others; they want to see the flop for the price of one more small bet. So, here again, it generally makes better sense to just call. See the flop first; raise if you connect.
More bad advice. While he’s correct that your late position raise won’t force out opponents who have already invested one bet, this is not a raise to thin the field; rather, it is a raise for value. You’re raising here because you most likely have the best hand. You have a pot equity edge over your opponents, so a fraction of every additional bet they put in the pot is +EV for you.
Epstein’s final point is this:
But if the turn brings a pair on the board, you could be in trouble. Someone could have a full boat, although trips or two pair is more likely. Be cautious in that case.
Here, I’m not sure whether he’s recommending you shut down in case scare cards come, or switch into check-calling mode. Again, this is generally a mistake, which will result in the long term in lost bets. Note that he’s not talking about instances when you have TPTK. He’s talking in that paragraph about when you have the ace-high flush. While you could potentially lose to a full house, it’s much more likely that you still have the winning hand, and should you fail to bet it when there is someone in the hand who would have called, you’re losing money. Nut flushes don’t come around very often, and you have to do everything in your power to maximize your return on them to make up for all the times you’re drawing but miss.
If the board pairs, you could be up against a full house, but most of the time, you will not. If you get raised & then have to check-call the river, that’s poker for you. But weak-tight play is bad poker. Poker is also a situational game. Epstein completely ignores considerations of situation, position, and your opponents. Let’s say you raised your flush draw on the flop (as I’ve advised), and a rocky player 3-bets it. What’s more, you know he would only 3-bet here with two pair or a set. In that case, then yes, go into defensive mode if the board pairs on the river. But in the absence of a specific situational reason to not bet, value bet your flush.
I was especially interested in this article when I first saw the headline. Big Slick is one of the most over-played hands in hold’em. People go nuts with it in the face of obvious strength, and they refuse to lay it down when they’ve failed to improve. There are volumes that could be written on properly playing A-K, but Epstein has completely missed the chance to add anything to the discussion.
Posted by Beck as Poker at 3:23 AM PST
3 Comments »
Everyone else is doing it so I thought I’d join in the fun.
Better yet, two people paid me off as I bet it the entire way.
Posted by Beck as Poker at 8:19 AM PST
3 Comments »
OK, little puff piece for ya. Got some screenshots I want to share.
The first is from a NL cash game. Unfortunately, this was before the “Dem’s quads BEETCHES” meme caught on. I didn’t make too much on the hand, but my river bet WAS called, for whatever that’s worth. Unfortunately, I was only at a $1/$2 limit table, as I had been working on my multi-tabling skills.
The next image is from a single table SNG. I flopped the nut broadway straight, which was nice. I managed to get all-in against two other players, which was nicer. The turn card, however, was the nicest of all.
That was my first straight flush of any kind ever. And it just so happened to be of the royal variety.
The final picture is from a game I was playing yesterday morning. I had logged in, but didn’t really feel up to the old hold’em grind, so I decided to try something new. I sat down in a stud game. Inasmuch as I’ve never played any real stud before, I decided to sit down in a $0.10/$0.20 game. I figured just playing tight would win the money, even though I didn’t have the faintest notion of what constituted a good starting hand.
A hand came up where I folded to the bring in, but as it developed, it became quite evident that one player almost certainly had a flush & quite possibly had a straight flush. What she actually had was something I’ve never seen before and most likely will never see again:
You saw it here first folks. A seven card straight flush.
Posted by Beck as Poker at 7:00 AM PST
6 Comments »
It appears there is some concern about the WWdN tournaments.
I’m glad everyone was having fun, but… some silly, suck-out playing… throwing the “Hammer” (72 offsuit)… other silly hands… and then yammering about what good plays they were. Again, I guess everyone’s having fun, but it’s not poker I enjoy.
I started to respond by posting a comment on his blog, but I decided other poker bloggers might feel the same way, and so I thought I’d post my thoughts here…
I played the first few tournaments, and enjoyed myself tremendously! The way I look at it, if I go out to a bar, or go to a movie with my friends, I’m not really spending money on drinks or the film. I can buy a 6 pack of beer for the same price as ONE in a bar, and pay for a month’s worth of Blockbuster Online for the cost of one movie. What I’m really paying for when I attend these social gatherings is the chance to spend time with friends. We laugh, we swap stories, we pick on each other and we have a good time. If you buy into these tournaments and realize that it IS about being social, you might enjoy them more.
Why should I? Any MTT takes time and an entry fee. I could be playing in a tourney that I stand a better chance in…. afterall, I am not playing this game for “social hour.”
Sure, sure, I’ll admit I played in the first one just to see if Wil Wheaton would say hello to me (he even busted me out of the second one!), but really, it’s about spending time with people who come together because they share a common passion in poker, and discovering so much more. I think for most poker bloggers (forgive me if I am speaking out of turn), it really is about social hour. Personally, since my bankroll wouldn’t even cover a couple of lap dances for Pauly, I had to stop playing every tournament. But, I did stop by and join the chat and shared a few laughs watching tonight’s tournament. If it’s not the type of poker you enjoy, you can always stop by and visit like I did!
The WWdN tourney really is about socializing — again, fine, except it also looks like a closed group. I recently read about the snubbing Felicia recently took by a group of 2+2rs… wonder if this is the same thing in the works?
I can personally attest that poker bloggers are not a closed group. Quite the opposite, actually. The most obvious example is that the WPBT and gathering in Dec is open to anyone (until it filled, of course). They didn’t say, “Your poker blog must be more than a year old” or anything like that. Hell, if they had, I wouldn’t be attending! I discovered the poker community in March of this year and created my poker blog around the same time. March. What’s that? 9 months? Already, I’ve met some really cool people, and one crazy poker blogger even let me crash on her couch - without ever meeting me in person beforehand! Not to mention all the other friendships I’ve devloped through phone calls, IM conversations, emails and comments on this blog. If that’s not an open community, I don’t know what qualifies. Keep in mind though, that most of these people have known each other for quite awhile. It’s like moving to a new school in the middle of the year — They already know each other and share inside jokes. It can be a bit intimidating as the new person, but if you give them a chance, you’ll see just how welcoming most of them can be.
Wil never has said hello to me, and I still haven’t won any money in these tournaments. But, when I have the $11, you can be sure I’ll sign up. Entering the poker blogging tournaments is about so much more than just winning money.
It’s about community and common interests. It’s about otherwise unlikely friendships. It’s about meeting people and thinking, “Wow, I’m not the only one.”
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 2:49 AM PST
8 Comments »
Judging by the excitement on the faces of the ten lucky players who qualified for the $10,000 WSOPC Feature Event through the supersatellite, and the buzz permeating through the poker room all night long, the feature event was going to be a major event.
It wound up being pretty disappointing.
The first problem was the event location. If you look at the entire 2005-06 WSOP Circuit Event Schedule, you can clearly see one location doesn’t belong:
Tunica
Las Vegas
Biloxi
Elizabeth, Indiana
Las Vegas
Atlantic City
Tunica
Atlantic City
San Diego
Atlantic City
Las Vegas
New Orleans
Lake Tahoe
A derivative problem here was timing. The opening events of the WPT event at Foxwoods ran concurrently with the final table at the WSOPC, plus the 2005 WSOP Tournament Of Champions started just a few days afterwards. This meant that many of poker’s brightest stars probably just as soon skipped coming to Indiana. (Some big names did come; more on them later.) When the cards were in the air, only 127 players had showed up. This created a respectable purse of $1.2 million, with a top prize of more than $437,000; but that was still less than even the smallest event from the 2005 WSOPC, the New Orleans event where Jeffery Lisandro pocketed $542,360.
But the biggest problem was just with the way the tournament ran. While the newly-remodeled poker room at Caesars Indiana was gorgeous, and the actual machinations of the tournaments went off without a hitch, the tourney as a whole seemed to be disrespected. For the early part of the tournament, even though there appeared to be plenty of tables in the poker room, all but two of the tables in action were outside the poker room, in the adjacent wing of the boat.
Here’s the travesty: while I was playing $4/$8 limit Hold’em in the brand-new poker room, with the WSOP logo imprinted everywhere, the actual WSOP event was being held in the “Burning Of Rome” room, which did look spiffy. But they hollowed out the middle to fit in the tables. Imagine twelve tables in two rows of six, bunched together as tightly as sardines, with a bank-lobby divider separating them from not just railbirds, but from dozens and dozens of blinking, whooping slot machines.
According to one knowledgable person, this was due to an Indiana gaming law which made it so that all casino cash games had to be held in the poker room and nowhere else. I believe this; Indiana has some goofy laws, and can sometimes be downright puritannical.
But there was no reason they couldn’t have put more of the tournament in the poker room. Almost all of the tables in the supersatellite were in the poker room (the Ladies’ Event was going on in the Burning Of Rome room). Or, if Caesars Indiana felt they simply had to hold the tournament in a different area of the casino, then move all the slot machines, or just TURN THE DAMN THINGS OFF. It couldn’t have been that difficult.
I can’t understate what a distraction this must have been both to the pros who were looking to win hundreds of thousands of dollars, and also to the schmos who just wanted to make the most out of their tournament. I play once a week in a bar, with a pounding stereo, and the scene in Caesars Indiana was worse than that. One pro I talked to said it was “driving him crazy” (he busted out very early); another admitted befuddlement that I was playing nickel-and-dime games while they felt like they might as well have been playing from inside a phone booth.
I would be very, very surprised if the WSOPC came back to Indiana next year. Or, if they do, whether any pros will bother to show up.
Who did come to Indiana? Glad you asked.
Mark “Big Daddy From Cincinnati” Hanna found no luck in the supersatellite, so he had to drop ten large and buy in. Men “The Master” Nguyen was there, and did very well. Scott Fischman busted out early, as did Gavin Smith. Caesars Indiana poker ambassador and former University of Louisville men’s basketball coach Denny Crum finished in 59th.
But here are six names you might recognize:
Carlos Mortensen, David “The Dragon” Pham, Kathy Liebert, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.
Like the shirt? You want it? ‘Cause I’m giving it away to whoever can bust me in a $24 + $2 tournament. I’ll have details when I put it together, but for right now I promise you a way to get in — free. Just register at Full Tilt Poker using the links on my site or the bonus code MARCHRON, deposit $50 in real money, and earn 100 FTP Points, and I’ll buy you in myself. Swear to God.
Liebert, Seidel, and Fischman were all seated at the same table when play started. Jesus showed up late. I only stayed until after the dinner break, when Caesars Indiana finally wised up and moved the biggest tournament they may ever have into the actual poker room. Liebert, Seidel, and Jesus were all at the featured table.
The last thing I did before leaving was get Men The Master’s attention. One of the TVs was showing a broadcast of the 2003 WSOP, where Men was playing out a hand. He stopped what he was doing in the hand in front of him to admire his play on TV. Egotistical? Yes. But that’s why he’s Men The Master.
Unfortunately, I was unable to get pictures. No cameras were allowed on the boat, and I was such a goody-two-shoes about the rule that I forgot when I encountered Jesus, John and Carlos outside the boat in the pavilion, by the buffet, that I could get a picture with them. So you’ll have to settle for this:
Larry Kang had a media pass and got to take nicer pictures. (You may have to cycle through to find them.) Those pics do reveal who won, so if you’re waiting for the ESPN broadcast, tread lightly. Jason Kirk liveblogged the entire tourney, and was lucky enough to hit the town and party like a poker star several hours after I left.
If I had known Chris Ferguson was going to a Halloween party dressed as a pimp . . .
(Photo: Larry Kang)
. . . I would have stuck around.
Posted by Mike as Poker, Reviews, Tournament Poker, WSOP at 12:25 AM PST
4 Comments »
I’ve kicked around the idea of writing my own little treatise of no-limit Hold’em tournament play, and in the WSOPC satellite at Caesars Indiana I managed to violate the first two rules of my forthcoming bestseller. Rule #1 is to always know what the buy-in is. This I knew: $200 + $25 (meaning $200 went to the money pool, $25 as the house fee). But I didn’t discover until later that the tournament had re-buys and add-ons. I’d never played in a tournament that had re-buys and add-ons, and had never even heard of a satellite with them — I thought it defeated the whole purpose of a satellite (allowing players with smaller bankrolls to make bigger tournaments) to make it so that players who had higher ambitions needed to spend more money.
For those of you who’ve never heard these terms, they’re basically exactly what they say. A re-buy is to poker what a mulligan is to golf; if you bust out, you can buy back in by matching the original buy-in amount and receiving the same amount of chips. An add-on allows you to tack on more chips at a certain point in the tournament. The $225 supersatellite allowed unlimited rebuys for the first three levels (90 minutes) for any player at or below $200 in tournament chips (meaning it was perfectly legal to re-buy before the tournament even started — three people did just that at my table alone). At the 90-minute mark, all players were allowed either a single or double add-on: dropping $200 would purchase $200 more in tournament chips; $400 would get you $400 in chips.
Rule #2 is to factor in the blind structure — both length of the level and steepness of the blind increases — when making decisions. The levels were thirty minutes and started reasonably at 5/10, then 10/20 and 15/30. But after the add-on period, they got stiff: 25/50, then 50/100 and 100/200. This isn’t too terrible — if you brought enough money to re-buy and then purchase a double add-on — but I only brought about another $200 for side games, plus blackjack and craps. This meant that I couldn’t play as conservatively as I normally would in the early stages of a regular (”freeze-out”) tournament. Well, I shouldn’t have played as conservatively, anyway. I did, and it cost me.
Here’s two examples. After taking down the first pot I entered with pocket kings, I found myself in the small blind with Ks/5s. Two players limped in, I chucked in another fiver to call, and the big blind checked to see a flop of 10h/5h/5d.
I bet out 25, and after two folds, the button raised to 50. A min-raise. In a regular tournament, I wouldn’t want to let someone outdraw me, so I’d raise enough to telegraph that I was holding trips. And I did, raising to 150. He folded.
After the fact, though, I thought about it. My opponent didn’t seem like the kind of player who was savvy enough to raise with just a flush draw. I was crushing almost any other hands he might have been holding; given his preflop limp and his small raise, he probably had a 10 with a weak kicker. I probably should have just called, in the hopes to extract another bet, if not all his chips. A dangerous play if I allowed him to outdraw me, but with a hand that strong I should have been thinking about how to win more than a grand total of 80 chips with it.
Later on, in the second round, I held As/10s in middle position, and raised to 75 after action was folded to me. The big blind, who re-bought before the tournament started, called.
The flop came Ah/9c/6c, and he immediately fired out a bet of 125. This represented less than half his chips but more than half of mine. I could have been ahead at that point, but a lot of hands crushed me (ace with a better kicker, two pair) and some had good draws (ace plus a flush draw). Faced with such a large bet, I gave it up. I probably should have been a little more aggressive in that situation; doubling up would have been very important, and if he did have me beat, I could always re-buy.
Most of the rest of the hands I played were straightforward. Here’s a fun one: when the blinds were 15/30, action folded all the way around to the small blind, who went all-in for his final 55 chips. I’m in the big blind for 30, and am facing a bet of 25 into a pot of 85. I can call with virtually any hand, and I look down and see 5s/3h. I called.
With cards that awful, it was almost certain that I was “drawing live” — that is to say, my cards weren’t in common with his, making it so that I was an underdog, but only a 2-1 underdog as opposed to being a 3-1 or 4-1 dog if I were being dominated. My pot odds were better than 3-1, so it was an easy call. He turned over As/9h, and though I wasn’t proud of it, I busted him with my trashy cards when fourth street paired my 5. (I still should have busted him with my trip-5’s earlier; at least that way I would have spared him the ignominy of breaking him with 5/3 offsuit.)
My unluckiest moment came a few hands later. On the button with Ac/Jh, I raised to 100, and the big blind and the under-the-gun limper, a nice-looking but fierce-playing Asian lady, called. The flop came As/10h/Qc, and she put me all-in. It was a trivially easy call at that point, and the big blind called as well. I thought that if I wasn’t already beat by A/K or A/Q, then hands like A/10, K/J or Q/10 might have just overtaken me. But the turn Kc gave me Broadway, and thoughts of tripling up danced through my head.
After the BB and the Asian lady checked around, my dreams of tripling up were dashed when the river came Jd. Now we all had the nut straight and a 3-way chop. My profit for the hand was one-third of the small blind: 5 chips. Even worse was that I did have them both beat: the Asian lady had a smaller ace, and the big blind, who played rather donkishly, had K/10.
After the third round came a 10-minute break, wherein any player who wanted an add-on (or two) could stick the requisite amount of money under their stack so the staff could chip them up. In went my fun money, and I went to catch a break. When I returned, the blinds slowly gobbled me up. I tried doubling up with pocket nines, but the early position raiser chickened out. At the 100/200 level, I was down to 375 chips, and went all-in under the gun with Qd/8d, figuring Q/7 is the statistical median hand, so Q/8 suited is technically better than average. I got two callers, and dreaded being knocked out by the unspoken “check it down” conspiracy. But the flop came Qc/4h/7h, and the remaining players fought it out, with another winding up all-in. They had A/J and J/10, so I was way ahead. Another Q came on fourth street, leaving them both drawing dead and me tripled up, for real this time.
It was short-lived. Before the blinds could get to me next round, I went all-in from early position with 6d/6s. I had a bad feeling about going all-in from such early position, but with the blinds so high and me so short-stacked, it was undoubtably the correct play. The nice Asian lady immediately called. I grimaced. I saw that it was for all but 75 of her chips and winced. I asked her if she had a pair, and when she said “Yeah!” I cringed.
Ac/As. Try the veal, I’m here all week.
IGHN, placing . . . well, I don’t even know where exactly I placed, it was that badly. About 250 players registered, but with all the re-buys and add-ons there was enough money in the pool to send ten players to the $10,000 Final Event.
But that’s for the next post.
Given that I put myself in a corner by coming to the tournament short-rolled, I think I acquitted myself fairly well. Next time I won’t forget the first two rules.
And don’t feel too bad for me; after a quick trip to the nearest ATM I came back, played $4/$8 limit at the regular tables, and made back most of my “fun money.”
Posted by Mike as Poker, Reviews at 12:24 AM PST
1 Comment »
In my review about Trump Lake Michigan, I said that the poker room was “the nicest I’ve ever been to,” and that when you’re there, “you almost forget that you’re actually on a boat.”
Caesars Indiana supercedes both of those comments.
Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. decided to remodel the poker room at Caesars Indiana to accomodate the World Series Of Poker Circuit Event they hosted, and it’s magnificent. The poker room now takes up nearly half of the bottom deck. The tables, chairs, and (most importantly after the nuisance at Trump) chips are all new, with the WSOP logo everywhere. Caesars Indiana set out to create the biggest poker room in between Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and while I can’t prove it, I certainly believe it. The room is huge, with more than 30 separate tables. They spread limit Hold’em as low as $4/$8 and as high as $200/$400, with a sprinkling of no-limit, plus Omaha and Stud games.
The decor is also fantastic. The section of the boat used to be called the “Movie Room,” and they kept the motif. The room looks a lot like a movie or TV set, with track lighting and black ceiling lattices. The walls have large photographs of some of poker’s brightest stars: Jen Harman, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Chris Moneymaker, and the man who won the 2005 WSOP Main Event (I won’t say his name, for the six of you poker fans out there who haven’t yet had the results spoiled). TVs show sports action and tournament timers, and a large plasma TV at the front now keeps track of wait lists after they got the system online over the weekend. The adjacent All-In Deli serves sandwiches, dinners, and drinks.
And since it’s Caesars, there’s plenty else. If you’ve ever been to Caesars Palace in Vegas, the Hoosier version looks much like it, only on a slightly smaller scale. Outside the boat is a miniature empire, featuring the hotel, four restaurants (an upscale bistro, a bar/nightclub, a buffet, and a café), two retail stores, a convention center, and a conference room. Unfortunately, they’re going to be spending an awful lot on remodeling: Harrah’s, Inc. has decided to scale back the Caesars brand to just the “Palaces” in Vegas and AC. Caesars Indiana will become a Horseshoe next year, which means all the marble and architecture will be replaced. So if you want to see Rome in the Midwest, better book your reservation soon.
One more thing: Caesars Indiana also has no-limit Hold’em tournaments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. If the Saturday $200 + $20 tournament has the maximum 250 players, the top three finishers all receive a buy-in to the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
Posted by Mike as Poker, Reviews at 12:22 AM PST
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As I was leaving to go home, I found out that AC is a dealer there and plays a lot, and CB has placed in the top 5 of several of her last tournaments. (It seems they both play there a lot, which is why I cannot tell you what the initials stand for. If they found my blog, and I went to play there again…Just not good joo joo)
And I came in second with a field like that!
Yeah, I’m stoked!
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 1:32 AM PST
4 Comments »
With my trip to Vegas looming, I knew I needed to spend more time playing live poker. After finding a willing escort, I played in a $35 tournament earlier this week, along with 59 other people. Top 6 get paid.
I drew the button, and looked down to see KJh for my first hand of the night. I raised it up preflop and got a few callers. The flop missed me completely, but isn’t very pretty so I toss out a continuation bet. When it is called, and the turn missed me too, I get out of the hand. Trying to calm my nerves, I resolve to stick to premium hands and not try to get tricky.
Throughout the first hour of the tournament, the table buzzed about all the aces and fours that kept ending up on the board. On the last hand before the first break, I was dealt A4o in the big blind. A few people limped in, the SB completed and I checked my option. The flop came 2-4-5 rainbow. SB checked, and I bet about 2/3 of the pot on my fours. I get one caller behind me, and when it gets around to the SB, he pushed. Now, the SB was playing like a donkey all night. He bluffed at pot after pot, chasing draws and just generally being obnoxious. I really didn’t believe him, but did I want to risk 1/4 of my stack and my chip lead on a pair of fours? Plus, I had the guy behind me to worry about, too. I looked at my cards and said, “I really want to play this hand.” He just sat there looking as dumb as a box of rocks, and the guy behind me didn’t seem too interested. Really, I would have been content to get to the river cheap since I just wanted to show the hand. Finally, I decided to follow my gut that the guy was bluffing, and I said, “I call.” The guy behind folded, and as we flipped up our cards, I said, “Let’s test the A4 luck!” He showed K9o, and didn’t find any help on the turn or river. The break started, and everyone said, “I knew he was bluffing. I hoped someone would call. Nice call, Jax!” I still think my call was kinda fishy, but I’m glad I followed my gut.
My “only play premium hands” resolution was good to me, and I spent the first couple of hours as the chip leader at my table. As I watched the “still remaining” number flicker across the TV, I set a goal for myself. Just don’t finish last. As people busted out, I updated my goal accordingly; Just finish in the top half, just finish in the top quarter, just finish high enough for the points board (top 15 places earn points).
Suddenly, there are 13 people remaining, and I’m still in it. The blinds were killing me and I was no longer the chip leader at my table, but the final table was in my sights!
Just make the final table.
After being in both the blinds, I had about 10k left with the blinds at 1k/2k. They pass me the button, and I’m going to sit on my hands so that I can feel the thrill of the final table. As the dealer is shuffling the cards, we find out that 3 people are all-in on the other table. Nooo! I just sat through the blinds! I cannot afford to do it again! I was torn between wanting to make the final table, yet not wanting to risk sitting in the blinds. Since the decision was out of my hands, all 3 were busted and it was time to make the final table.
I walked over to draw for my seat, and viewed the face-down cards with trepidation. I grabbed a card, took a deep breath, and flipped it over. 10s! Yes, I drew the button! Clutching my dwindling chip stack, I know I’m going to need to catch something soon, or I wouldn’t make the money. There were also two other women at the final table. AC, was in the 4s, and CB was in the 6s. I didn’t know anything about AC’s poker prowess, but I didn’t have a good opinion of her. CB seemed to know what she was doing and I tried not to play too many hands with her.
I knew I’d have to do something with my chip stack early, and my sacrifice to the poker gods paid off. I’m dealt AQs, AJs, and AK all within my first few hands. I know most people are against showing cards, but any time my raises weren’t called preflop, I showed my cards. I wanted everyone to know that I wasn’t raising with trash, and could hopefully pull off some steals later. My chip stack is a bit healthier when I look down and find rockets on the button. A few limpers around to the cutoff, and he pushes. I follow suit, and everyone else gets out of the hand. I barely have him covered, so if he managed to crack my aces, I’d be all-in on the next hand. I call, and he flips over jacks. When I showed my aces, he just shook his head and laughed. He didn’t find any help, and I doubled up. I pick up a few more small pots, and suddenly, I’m the chip leader. We’re down to 7 or 8, and I find AKo UTG. I declare raise, and as I counted out my raise, some railbird said, “Why are your hands shaking? Are you bluffing?” CB told him, “Her hands have been shaking all night, even when she had good cards.” I was very nervous (and cold) but I really tried to stick to my game. The complaining from the table about all my preflop raises grew louder, with AC the most vocal. It’s folded around to TFG, and he pushes for the rest of his chips. I don’t really want to bust him so close to the money, but he doesn’t have much more than my initial raise. I apologize, call and the cards were still on my side as my AK held up against AJ.
Just make it to the money.
With the blinds at 2k/4k, I find AK UTG again. “Raise. 16k.” A guy in MP calls all in for less, and a black cloud of fury hangs over AC’s head as she goes all in. It’s another ~20k for me to call, which wouldn’t even put a quarter of my chip stack in the middle. Even if I lost, I wouldn’t drop lower than second place. MP was extremely shortstacked, and I put him on a medium pocket pair. But what about AC? Could she have rockets? I didn’t think so, but I figured she at least had KK, QQ or maybe even pocket jacks. Deciding it was worth the price, I called. He had pocket 9s, and she had pocket kings. “How can you raise 16k in early position with that? I cannot believe you raised 16k. 16k! How stupid.” I couldn’t hear what she was mumbling to the people next to her, but I’m sure it wasn’t nice, especially when the flop came out AQJ. I must have wavered in my homage to the poker gods, because while the 10 on the river knocked out 9’s and put us into the money, it also gave us a split spot.
AC was still complaining about my run of cards, and asked for a dealer change. They weren’t supposed to bring in the new dealer until we lost another person, but they succumbed to the grumbling of the table. Humming, “If Looks Could Kill,” I sat back and watched the other stacks battle it out. AC managed to gather quite a chip stack, and the blinds are really tearing me up. But, somehow, the first guy is busted, then the second and finally the third! The final three are all women! Considering only 6 women entered the tournament, that’s pretty awesome! AC held a nice chip lead, and CB was in second but we are pretty close.
Just make it to heads up.
Honestly, at this point, I was so nervous that even now I cannot even think of a good analogy to describe it. What in the world was I doing in the final three? My hands were still shaking, and I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I had made it so far. I’m on the button, and squeeze my pocket 8s. Ugh. I hate medium pocket pairs. Not really sure what to do, I min raise for the first time all night. AC calls and CB folds. The flop is Q92 rainbow. She min bet, and I raised about half the pot. She called. She checked the 10 on the turn, and I checked behind her, happy for the free card and wondered if a J would give me a good straight. The 10 on the river doesn’t help me, and she bets most of my stack. I felt like I was having an out of body experience as I watched myself trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t want to donk off my chips just because she kept shooting daggers at me. Could I really put my whole stack at risk with pocket 8s on a board like that? Realizing that I played this hand horribly, I folded. She jumped out of her seat and threw her cards face up. 83o. She bluffed me.
Wow. I folded the best hand.
Stunned and trying to end this out of body experience, I didn’t gamble with any risky hands, and was content to let them battle it out. I picked up a few pots to stay ahead of the blinds, and suddenly, CB was all in with A7. AC called with A5. Damn! I didn’t want her to double up, but I didn’t want AC to further pad her chip lead either. Alas, I didn’t have a say in it, and the 5 on the flop (not the mention the 5 on the river) sealed CB’s fate.
I was keeping an eye on my watch, and it was just before midnight. The next scheduled break was a few seconds away. When I left, I told SK that “panic time” was midnight, so I knew I needed to call her and let her know that I would be late. I was also dancing in my chair because I needed a bathroom break. I didn’t realize how far my car was in the parking lot, and when I made it back in, the timer had already started! We were 15 seconds into the level and I still hadn’t made it to the bathroom! Thankfully, they stopped the timer and I tried to compose myself before I sat back down.
Don’t worry about first. Just play your best.
She had me out chipped 6-1, and things weren’t looking so hot. My cards were running dry, and my chips were sliding the wrong direction. Finally, with only about 3.5BB remaining, she min raises, and I push all in with AJs. She said, “I gotta call. I have fours.” The flop was meaningless, but the poker gods again showed me their favor when the lovely Ace hit on the turn.
I wish this story had a better ending.
Remember all the aces and fours from earlier? It appears I had fallen from grace after all. She spiked a 4 on the river, and IGHN.
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 2:04 PM PST
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First item of business: I’m going to Vegas for the WPBT!
Arrive: 12/9 at 2:26p
Depart: 12/12 at 11:40p
This is very exciting! /happy dance
As I was looking at the list of people attending, I noticed that there are still a lot of people in the poker blogging world I don’t know. If you want to swap links, just leave a comment and I will take care of it.
Also, does anyone else have a non-poker blog? I know it borders on sacrilege, but sometimes I like to read things OTHER than poker blogs. If you write about the rest of you life somewhere else, let me know and we can swap links on my personal blog.
Speaking of my personal blog, we started a new contest called SK’s Question of the Week. It even has prizes! Well, only one prize has been officially announced, but it’s a doozy. For more information, check out Do You Want Fries With That?
Don’t miss Beck’s Quick and Dirty (but Accurate) System for Figuring Out if You have Pot Odds to Call a Bet With a Drawing Hand. It really helped me out. Uhm, on second thought…if you ever sit at my table, don’t read it. It’s a piece of junk 
Posted by Jaxia as Poker at 2:49 PM PST
1 Comment »
