Pow Wow $500 main event
This one left a bad taste in my mouth.
A quick rant on structures:
I've become spoiled playing at Muckleshoot for most of my tournaments. They really do an excellent job catering their poker tournament structures to be player friendly. They now only deal 9-handed (as opposed to 10) and generally have very good structures as far as starting stacks and blind levels go, which means more time playing with deeper stacks. As stacks get shorter, play becomes much less creative and much more robotic. This is not to say there are not skill edges to be had playing with short stacks, but I think most poker players (amateurs included) would agree that playing deeper is preferable. Generally, the higher the buy in for a poker tournament, the "better" the structure becomes in terms of level length, starting stacks and blind levels.
While decent, the structures at Tulalip have not been impressive as a function of buy-in cost. By level 6, it seemed like the average stack had fallen to approximately 20-30 blinds. Not atrocious, but it definitely felt like it left something to be desired.
I digress.
Levels 1-3
Honestly nothing interesting to report here despite being the levels where stacks were deepest. I peacefully built my stack here and there by either raising and taking it down on the flop. Or by raising, hitting my hand, and getting one street of value followed by a fold.
One hand that had me scratching my head a little occurred during level two. Blinds 50/100, I raised to 300 from utg with AKo. Two callers and then the player on the button, who I had not seen play a single hand, min re-raised to 600. The big blind called cold and it's back to me. At this point, everyone is deep. AKo does not play particularly well multiway and I honestly have no read on the player who squeezed other than "tight." Folding seems very, very weak...and 3-betting? Well, it would certainly look strong to raise, 4-bet from utg. In hindsight, I do believe this to be the correct play. That is, 4-bet and fold to another raise (which essentially has to be KK+ based on my read). AKo simply does not play great as a call here. Small ball has it's merits - but it has to be applied judiciously. However, in the heat of battle I do simply flat and we are suddenly off to see a flop 5 ways, which I'm relieved comes 2 6 5. Check fold from me.
Stack: 15,000 to 19,000 (50bbs)
Levels 4-6
A lot of being card dead whittles my stack down a bit, then this hand happens. An early-position raiser makes it 1000 and gets one caller on the button. I look down at A8ss with about 18,000 total. This would be a snap fold from me had the button not called, and I do think it is still a fold, albeit a close one, in my spot. Suited aces do well against a raiser and callers when stacks are sufficiently deep enough and when in position. I'm certainly not in position this hand and having 18x the initial raise is very borderline in terms of implied odds. Ideally I'd have something like 25x+ his initial raise. I am getting a small discount on my call from the sb, however, and I simply cannot resist peeling to see a flop...which comes 10s9h2s. With the flopped nut-flush draw and a potential over, I'm not going anywhere. I want to chose a line that will maximize fold equity. Check raise seems good to me. I check, the original raiser bets 2500 as expected, the button folds and I make it 8k to go. My opponent looks pained, looks down at his stack and suddenly I realize that he started the hand with fewer chips than me. Implied odds don't work when the odds aren't there to begin with! My opponent apparently only started the hand with 11k, which makes calling preflop on my part a big mistake. And this hand illustrates why. After raising 1k and betting 2500 on the flop, my opponent only has 7.5k behind. He looks pained, but keeps looking at his stack like, "oh well!" and sticks it in. Q10hh. A questionable open on his part, but in his shoes, I am never folding after hitting top pair with that stack size, and neither did he. I brick my flush and ace draws and he doubles through me.
A silly mistake by me that costs me over half my stack. There simply cannot be room for errors like this while expecting to be a profitable poker player.
A lot of folding and waiting for good spots after this. I did manage to get a couple streets of value with JJ on a q-high board. But not much else to report on.
Stack: 19,000 to 9,100 (11bbs)
Levels 7-9
Now everyone is getting short, but me especially. All you can do in these spots is wait for good opportunities (not even necessarily good hands) to shove all in and cross your fingers.
Well, nothing of the sort happened for all of level 7. Suddenly it was level 8 and I had 5 big blinds, which is the absolute lowest you should ever let yourself get down to. At this point, you may as well just *pretend* to look at your cards and open shove all in at any given opportunity. Doing that with a shred of fold equity is *far* better than letting yourself get blinded down.
However, due to the lack of opportunities and sudden level change, I found myself two off the big blind with 5 big blinds facing an utg raise from one of the bigger stacks at the table. He had opened up a little bit recently, seemingly leveraging his big stack, and l look down at J10o. No fold equity of course, and I'm certainly not ahead, but given the enhanced potential odds of getting heads up against the raiser with dead blind money, I'm just getting it in here with a hand that should have decent equity against his range. This goes as planned and everyone else folds, I'm up against KQo - which is about the best I could hope for. Flop comes with a jack and I hold.
Many hands later after getting blinded back down to 8bbs, I look down at K9s from MP and ship it in. The big blind wakes up with AJdd and suddenly I'm facing elimination for the second time...
Board 9 10 Q 7....7. and I get lucky once more...
More folding. More everyone getting short. Yawn.
Stack: 9,100 to 16,000 (8bbs)
Levels 10-12
Ahhhh the joy of tournament poker. I'm already living on borrowed time and then I'm gifted with this gem.
Biggest stack (about 30bbs deep for what its worth...) min raises from ep and it folds around to the small blind, who calls. I look down at Q10o (still with only 8bbs) and I call. The odds are way too enticing here to fold. Raising with almost no fold equity with this hand seems bad. I am very short, however, so I plan on getting it in if I flop anything at all...
Flop 9 K J rainbow.
Wow. Check, check, original raiser cbets, fold, and I, of course, go all in. The original raiser tank calls with 98ss...bottom pair with a backdoor spade draw. Turn 10s giving me the lose/split sweat, but the river brick a 2 and suddenly I'm sitting on over 20 big blinds.
I manage to raise and take it down a couple times preflop and we get to level 12 - the last level of play before the day ends. Another table breaks and I get sat with a couple new players. No sooner than this happens and I look down at 99 from under the gun...
And this is where it all goes down hill.
I 2.5x it and it folds all the way to a new player directly on my right in the big blind. He calls.
Flop 7d5d3h. He checks, I bet 60% pot and he nonchalantly, and quickly calls. I have no read on the player other than first impressions and stereotypes. Asian, middle aged, care-free demeanor. Seems like he could be splashy.
Turn 10d. Now suddenly he leads for the same bet I made on the flop, that is to say...a small bet compared to the size of the pot now.
That woke my brain up. This bet makes no sense. It does if he has exactly a high flush and is making a strange, value/induce type bet. Fold? It crosses my mind for a couple seconds. After all, I could be drawing stone dead. I don't have a good read on the guy. Call? If I do that, I'll inevitably be faced with a very tough river decision. More than half the deck contains a card I'm not particularly happy to see. Raise? Bingo. As I tanked....and tanked...I was literally screaming "just do it" in my head. Equally screaming was the other half saying "if you're drawing dead this is going to look terrible." Why the weak bet? A smaller pair turning his hand into a bluff? A hand that was better than mine to begin with? Why no raise on the flop? Fishy fishy....
I tanked, for well over a minute. This is nothing for a lot of people, but very long for me. I generally hate it when people take a long time on decisions if I feel like there is little to no reason for it. It's obnoxious and bad for the game. I cannot even fathom those epic tanks that apparently happen in excess of 5 minutes+
Of course as I'm tanking I start thinking about how obvious it is that I don't have a strong hand and how that can affect the hand. Honestly - it doesn't matter. If he doesn't have the flush he's representing - my hand is almost certainly good. His bet is 3 big blinds, and I have 11 behind. It is true that my hand cannot really be called by worse hands, except for perhaps a smaller pair that picked up a flush draw on the turn. But given these stack sizes and how vulnerable my hand is to river cards - I believe a shove is the best play by quite a bit.
Reeling, and feeling self-imposed pressure from my own tanking. I....call. And I hated it the second I did it. Now I'm basically in a spot where I have to hang on tight except for the worst river cards, like another diamond.
River 4h.
So the final board is 7d5d3h...10d...4h. He now leads again for 3 big blind. Puke city. This would be an absolute ridiculous bluff, but the pot odds are way too enticing. I call, leaving myself with a barely playable stack and he shows me 62o for the rivered gutshot.
I had kind of resigned myself to losing against this river bet, so it honestly didn't upset me all that much. What did upset me is not going with my instincts and shoving the turn. There are times when yes, perhaps I am drawing dead and I look like a LAGtard. For as logical and analytical and math-based poker can be - there are times when you simply have to go with a read. I'll call this the "x" factor. As you gain more experience in poker, your instincts for situations naturally improve over time. I won't say they cannot be explained - because they certainly can. It is hard to do, however, because there are many subtle factors that go into having a read and having an instinctual feel for a situation. This was one of those spots - and there are few feelings worse than going against your gut and being punished as a result.
Left with just over 5 big blinds a couple hands later I ended up shoving K7 on the button and not getting lucky once more against the small blind's A10. C'est la vie.
That's a wrap for a while. Off to Japan on Monday and I should be back in time for peak poker-tournament season. That is, summers in Vegas. Going to try and keep the rust at bay by studying in Japan, despite not being able to play.
A quick rant on structures:
I've become spoiled playing at Muckleshoot for most of my tournaments. They really do an excellent job catering their poker tournament structures to be player friendly. They now only deal 9-handed (as opposed to 10) and generally have very good structures as far as starting stacks and blind levels go, which means more time playing with deeper stacks. As stacks get shorter, play becomes much less creative and much more robotic. This is not to say there are not skill edges to be had playing with short stacks, but I think most poker players (amateurs included) would agree that playing deeper is preferable. Generally, the higher the buy in for a poker tournament, the "better" the structure becomes in terms of level length, starting stacks and blind levels.
While decent, the structures at Tulalip have not been impressive as a function of buy-in cost. By level 6, it seemed like the average stack had fallen to approximately 20-30 blinds. Not atrocious, but it definitely felt like it left something to be desired.
I digress.
Levels 1-3
Honestly nothing interesting to report here despite being the levels where stacks were deepest. I peacefully built my stack here and there by either raising and taking it down on the flop. Or by raising, hitting my hand, and getting one street of value followed by a fold.
One hand that had me scratching my head a little occurred during level two. Blinds 50/100, I raised to 300 from utg with AKo. Two callers and then the player on the button, who I had not seen play a single hand, min re-raised to 600. The big blind called cold and it's back to me. At this point, everyone is deep. AKo does not play particularly well multiway and I honestly have no read on the player who squeezed other than "tight." Folding seems very, very weak...and 3-betting? Well, it would certainly look strong to raise, 4-bet from utg. In hindsight, I do believe this to be the correct play. That is, 4-bet and fold to another raise (which essentially has to be KK+ based on my read). AKo simply does not play great as a call here. Small ball has it's merits - but it has to be applied judiciously. However, in the heat of battle I do simply flat and we are suddenly off to see a flop 5 ways, which I'm relieved comes 2 6 5. Check fold from me.
Stack: 15,000 to 19,000 (50bbs)
Levels 4-6
A lot of being card dead whittles my stack down a bit, then this hand happens. An early-position raiser makes it 1000 and gets one caller on the button. I look down at A8ss with about 18,000 total. This would be a snap fold from me had the button not called, and I do think it is still a fold, albeit a close one, in my spot. Suited aces do well against a raiser and callers when stacks are sufficiently deep enough and when in position. I'm certainly not in position this hand and having 18x the initial raise is very borderline in terms of implied odds. Ideally I'd have something like 25x+ his initial raise. I am getting a small discount on my call from the sb, however, and I simply cannot resist peeling to see a flop...which comes 10s9h2s. With the flopped nut-flush draw and a potential over, I'm not going anywhere. I want to chose a line that will maximize fold equity. Check raise seems good to me. I check, the original raiser bets 2500 as expected, the button folds and I make it 8k to go. My opponent looks pained, looks down at his stack and suddenly I realize that he started the hand with fewer chips than me. Implied odds don't work when the odds aren't there to begin with! My opponent apparently only started the hand with 11k, which makes calling preflop on my part a big mistake. And this hand illustrates why. After raising 1k and betting 2500 on the flop, my opponent only has 7.5k behind. He looks pained, but keeps looking at his stack like, "oh well!" and sticks it in. Q10hh. A questionable open on his part, but in his shoes, I am never folding after hitting top pair with that stack size, and neither did he. I brick my flush and ace draws and he doubles through me.
A silly mistake by me that costs me over half my stack. There simply cannot be room for errors like this while expecting to be a profitable poker player.
A lot of folding and waiting for good spots after this. I did manage to get a couple streets of value with JJ on a q-high board. But not much else to report on.
Stack: 19,000 to 9,100 (11bbs)
Levels 7-9
Now everyone is getting short, but me especially. All you can do in these spots is wait for good opportunities (not even necessarily good hands) to shove all in and cross your fingers.
Well, nothing of the sort happened for all of level 7. Suddenly it was level 8 and I had 5 big blinds, which is the absolute lowest you should ever let yourself get down to. At this point, you may as well just *pretend* to look at your cards and open shove all in at any given opportunity. Doing that with a shred of fold equity is *far* better than letting yourself get blinded down.
However, due to the lack of opportunities and sudden level change, I found myself two off the big blind with 5 big blinds facing an utg raise from one of the bigger stacks at the table. He had opened up a little bit recently, seemingly leveraging his big stack, and l look down at J10o. No fold equity of course, and I'm certainly not ahead, but given the enhanced potential odds of getting heads up against the raiser with dead blind money, I'm just getting it in here with a hand that should have decent equity against his range. This goes as planned and everyone else folds, I'm up against KQo - which is about the best I could hope for. Flop comes with a jack and I hold.
Many hands later after getting blinded back down to 8bbs, I look down at K9s from MP and ship it in. The big blind wakes up with AJdd and suddenly I'm facing elimination for the second time...
Board 9 10 Q 7....7. and I get lucky once more...
More folding. More everyone getting short. Yawn.
Stack: 9,100 to 16,000 (8bbs)
Levels 10-12
Ahhhh the joy of tournament poker. I'm already living on borrowed time and then I'm gifted with this gem.
Biggest stack (about 30bbs deep for what its worth...) min raises from ep and it folds around to the small blind, who calls. I look down at Q10o (still with only 8bbs) and I call. The odds are way too enticing here to fold. Raising with almost no fold equity with this hand seems bad. I am very short, however, so I plan on getting it in if I flop anything at all...
Flop 9 K J rainbow.
Wow. Check, check, original raiser cbets, fold, and I, of course, go all in. The original raiser tank calls with 98ss...bottom pair with a backdoor spade draw. Turn 10s giving me the lose/split sweat, but the river brick a 2 and suddenly I'm sitting on over 20 big blinds.
I manage to raise and take it down a couple times preflop and we get to level 12 - the last level of play before the day ends. Another table breaks and I get sat with a couple new players. No sooner than this happens and I look down at 99 from under the gun...
And this is where it all goes down hill.
I 2.5x it and it folds all the way to a new player directly on my right in the big blind. He calls.
Flop 7d5d3h. He checks, I bet 60% pot and he nonchalantly, and quickly calls. I have no read on the player other than first impressions and stereotypes. Asian, middle aged, care-free demeanor. Seems like he could be splashy.
Turn 10d. Now suddenly he leads for the same bet I made on the flop, that is to say...a small bet compared to the size of the pot now.
That woke my brain up. This bet makes no sense. It does if he has exactly a high flush and is making a strange, value/induce type bet. Fold? It crosses my mind for a couple seconds. After all, I could be drawing stone dead. I don't have a good read on the guy. Call? If I do that, I'll inevitably be faced with a very tough river decision. More than half the deck contains a card I'm not particularly happy to see. Raise? Bingo. As I tanked....and tanked...I was literally screaming "just do it" in my head. Equally screaming was the other half saying "if you're drawing dead this is going to look terrible." Why the weak bet? A smaller pair turning his hand into a bluff? A hand that was better than mine to begin with? Why no raise on the flop? Fishy fishy....
I tanked, for well over a minute. This is nothing for a lot of people, but very long for me. I generally hate it when people take a long time on decisions if I feel like there is little to no reason for it. It's obnoxious and bad for the game. I cannot even fathom those epic tanks that apparently happen in excess of 5 minutes+
Of course as I'm tanking I start thinking about how obvious it is that I don't have a strong hand and how that can affect the hand. Honestly - it doesn't matter. If he doesn't have the flush he's representing - my hand is almost certainly good. His bet is 3 big blinds, and I have 11 behind. It is true that my hand cannot really be called by worse hands, except for perhaps a smaller pair that picked up a flush draw on the turn. But given these stack sizes and how vulnerable my hand is to river cards - I believe a shove is the best play by quite a bit.
Reeling, and feeling self-imposed pressure from my own tanking. I....call. And I hated it the second I did it. Now I'm basically in a spot where I have to hang on tight except for the worst river cards, like another diamond.
River 4h.
So the final board is 7d5d3h...10d...4h. He now leads again for 3 big blind. Puke city. This would be an absolute ridiculous bluff, but the pot odds are way too enticing. I call, leaving myself with a barely playable stack and he shows me 62o for the rivered gutshot.
I had kind of resigned myself to losing against this river bet, so it honestly didn't upset me all that much. What did upset me is not going with my instincts and shoving the turn. There are times when yes, perhaps I am drawing dead and I look like a LAGtard. For as logical and analytical and math-based poker can be - there are times when you simply have to go with a read. I'll call this the "x" factor. As you gain more experience in poker, your instincts for situations naturally improve over time. I won't say they cannot be explained - because they certainly can. It is hard to do, however, because there are many subtle factors that go into having a read and having an instinctual feel for a situation. This was one of those spots - and there are few feelings worse than going against your gut and being punished as a result.
Left with just over 5 big blinds a couple hands later I ended up shoving K7 on the button and not getting lucky once more against the small blind's A10. C'est la vie.
That's a wrap for a while. Off to Japan on Monday and I should be back in time for peak poker-tournament season. That is, summers in Vegas. Going to try and keep the rust at bay by studying in Japan, despite not being able to play.
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