Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Jealous as hell, enjoy it Tony, you deserve a rest.x

Thanks Maureen.

I need a rest? Well my life is one long hedonist binge, so I'm not complaining really, though some days things get a little heavier than I'd prefer.

For those uinaware, Maureen had hoped to play Walsall this weekend, but young Reece had another setback, & has had to have another emergency operation.

He's OK now, we hope, but for a baby, that Reece has the heart of a Lion. A real man already. What a story his short life has been! Anyone wanna guess how many ops he's had already?

Our thoughts are always with you Maureen, Stacey & Reece too.

xx

[tikay]

Went to Walsall for the £300, & a wonderful field of 126 took their seats for the 9pm start.

Faces noted (well, remembered) included Lucy, Red, Karabiner, Burnley John (exited with his AA v KK early), Alan Geddes, Ash & Zippy, Mrcus Bebb-Jones, Lord Werrnick, John Hewston, Andy Johnson, Dave "The Hat" Smith, Nick Slade, Simon Zach, Mad Turk, Paul Rigg, Mo Nicholson, Thewy, (open-toed 1950 style sandals, no socks), Des Bling Bling Jonas, Steve Jelenik, Mick "Chunky Mick" Jones, Big Trev Reardon, Raj Mohda (what a lovely guy), snoops (fresh from chopping the Broadway Rebuy on Friday night - beating KKK with 2-4 in the process), Ben Callinan, Pete Singleton, & Pete Linton.

A splendid buffet precded the Tourney, Walsall do the best buffets in the UK - they are actually full meals, & Zac was Master of Proceedings, with Dani arriving later complete with arm in sling.

Thewy must grab the Headlines, after a typical showing. Low early, he grinded along, then somehow found Aces when Dave Smith made a move with Q-9. Not content, he then made an UTG lunge, a massive all-in Overbet with 3-3, & was lucky to find not just QQ, but KK behind him, both of whom accepted the invitation gleefully. Until the 3 popped out. He's incorrigible.

Des Jonas was halfway out of the door after he took on A-K wih 6-6 & the flop came K-7-7, turn 6....... Remarkably, he later limped against me with J-J & then called my 8-8 Raise, & we saw a 6-6-7 flop, he checked & Passed when I moved in. I assume he was unwell.

I've never played with Reyaaz Mulla before (I don't think) but he'll sleep well tonight, he's a busy little bee. He soon sussed I'm weak-passive & plundered my Blinds all night until I decided "enough" & Re-Raised him all-in with no hand - well, AK, to be honest. Remarkably, he fancied a gamble, but I marginally outkicked his A-4.

He busted Trev Reardon in THE most spectacular fashion.Trev had arrived at the table & sat quietly, not played one hand, for 2 or 3 orbits, then Raised on the Button to Mulla's BB. Mulla instantly pushed, Trev called even quicker. Trev had made an astounding read (they both had decent stacks) with K-T, & Mulla proudly flipped his 6-3. The J-9-4  flop looked pretty decent for Trev, but running perfect-perfect 5 7 elicited plenty of oohs & aahs.

What a great comp this is, the best regular monthly non-ranker in the UK. I always think of it as the Ali Mallu comp, he won this for fun, & it's sad we don't see him in Grosvenor's these days.

I had a torrid first 2 Levels, & was down to a miserable 3k at the first break, during whch everything went wrong. After the resumption, I ran that up to 15k in short order, before calling the all-in "move" K-9 man with K-K, but I was not over-keen on the T-J-Q flop. Back down to 6k, I then upped gears from slow to quite slow, & was soon back on 37k after an extraordinary AK v A4 jobbie (my AK), in which I check-Raised all-in post-A-high flop, & got called!

I think this must be the first time I've lost with AA, KK, QQ, JJ & TT on a Day One & still survived the cut, though this says more about the structure than my game. The AA lost to to 7-7 after an obvious straight turned, & I got away from it cheaply. The KK lost to K-9, the JJ was Passed after I got Check-Raised on the K-T-T flop (may have been winning, but I could find a better spot I thought), the TT was Passed (when winning) to 5-3, after a move by Q-6 man who got called by the 5-3 on the A-A-5 flop!

But the QQ was the real purler, when I Raised properly & got looked up by Steve Jelenik. (He who busted my Aces earlier). The flop came a harmless 5-3-3 & I thought I'd let him hang himself, so checked, as did he, demonstrating his obvious weakness. So I bet the blank turn, got called, & checked the blank River, after which Steve made a teasing bet which I was not brave enough to  call. He showed the 3, for the flopped set, & I was intrigued how he could have called my Pre-Flop Raise with the 3 in his hand, it was my first Raise in 2 hours. "What is your other card Steve, a suited A I guess?". So he showed me the deuce.......Wow! His game has changed & improved out of all recognition in the last 12 months, if I may say so, as his results at The Bellagio & Monte Carlo prove.

Great fun, as ever, all the more because I'm on Poker Week duty, so I am effectively freerolling in the Tourney on Poker Week wages. How lucky am I?

I spent an enchanting & fascinating hour at Tom's place before the Tourney, but that'll have to wait till later, as it's nearly 6am.

[byronkincaid]

But the QQ was the real purler, when I Raised properly & got looked up by Steve Jelenik. (He who busted my Aces earlier). The flop came a harmless 5-3-3 & I thought I'd let him hang himself, so checked, as did he, demonstrating his obvious weakness. So I bet the blank turn, got called, & checked the blank River, after which Steve made a teasing bet which I was not brave enough to  call. He showed the 3, for the flopped set, & I was intrigued how he could have called my Pre-Flop Raise with the 3 in his hand, it was my first Raise in 2 hours. "What is your other card Steve, a suited A I guess?". So he showed me the deuce

Do you remember what the effective stack sizes were? ie what implied odds he had. I've noticed in a lot of reports that good players seem to call with weird hands in tournaments that I wouldn't call with even with 100+ BB stacks in a cash game. Is it because it's worth having a -ChipEV gamble because doubling your stack will greatly increase the money you win?

For a while I was calling all the time with stuff like 86 suited cos I was thinking implied odds, deceptive hand etc but you hit so rarely and when you do hit you don't get paid off all the time... I watch Cardrunners videos where some of the best cash players in the world are folding small pocket pairs to raises from good LAG players with 100 BB stacks, then I hear about tournament players calling with 33 with 20BBs. There are obv a lot of differences between cash and tournaments, but I don't understand this one.

[stewart]

u can blame me for mulla haveing all the chips he busted my KK and AA once with 67off and once with Q10  all before the break i didnt last much longer than the break made a push with J9 after 5 limpers on my bb and got looked up with 89  ce la ve lol

[RED-DOG]

Thewy must grab the Headlines, after a typical showing. Low early, he grinded along, then somehow found Aces when Dave Smith made a move with Q-9. Not content, he then made an UTG lunge, a massive all-in Overbet with 3-3, & was lucky to find not just QQ, but KK behind him, both of whom accepted the invitation gleefully. Until the 3 popped out. He's incorrigible.


I was the bloke with KK v QQ and Julians 33, it was a 50,000 pot.

As soon as he turned his cards over I knew that Mr jammy ba***rd golden bollocks was odds on favourite.

Am I bitter? Oh God yes!













Good luck Ju, get it won.

[julian]

mmm, the 33 hand occured before the aces coup.
4the record, it was the last level, i didn't want to come back with peanuts so i heaved 13,800 in at 600/1200 UTG,
red predicted that the 3's wouldn't lose & luckily 4me all that positive energy resulted in a beautiful flop.
ul guys, my bad...

[RED-DOG]

mmm, the 33 hand occured before the aces coup.
4the record, it was the last level, i didn't want to come back with peanuts so i heaved 13,800 in at 600/1200 UTG,
red predicted that the 3's wouldn't lose & luckily 4me all that positive energy resulted in a beautiful flop.
ul guys, my bad...

No problems Ju, I'm only joking. (You know I love you really)

[tikay]

But the QQ was the real purler, when I Raised properly & got looked up by Steve Jelenik. (He who busted my Aces earlier). The flop came a harmless 5-3-3 & I thought I'd let him hang himself, so checked, as did he, demonstrating his obvious weakness. So I bet the blank turn, got called, & checked the blank River, after which Steve made a teasing bet which I was not brave enough to  call. He showed the 3, for the flopped set, & I was intrigued how he could have called my Pre-Flop Raise with the 3 in his hand, it was my first Raise in 2 hours. "What is your other card Steve, a suited A I guess?". So he showed me the deuce

Do you remember what the effective stack sizes were? ie what implied odds he had. I've noticed in a lot of reports that good players seem to call with weird hands in tournaments that I wouldn't call with even with 100+ BB stacks in a cash game. Is it because it's worth having a -ChipEV gamble because doubling your stack will greatly increase the money you win?

For a while I was calling all the time with stuff like 86 suited cos I was thinking implied odds, deceptive hand etc but you hit so rarely and when you do hit you don't get paid off all the time... I watch Cardrunners videos where some of the best cash players in the world are folding small pocket pairs to raises from good LAG players with 100 BB stacks, then I hear about tournament players calling with 33 with 20BBs. There are obv a lot of differences between cash and tournaments, but I don't understand this one.

The effective stack sizes? Well, fwiw, it was Level 3, (100-200), I opened the betting & made it 600, & my turn bet was 1,300.

However......

For a while I was calling all the time with stuff like 86 suited cos I was thinking implied odds, deceptive hand etc but you hit so rarely and when you do hit you don't get paid off all the time..

This needs to be looked at far wider, & is something I do a lot, though more usually in Cash Games (I don't have the nerve to do it in the bigger Tourneys) & I'm sure I don't do it half as well as Steve & the Big Boys.

The reason I do it, & I'm sure Steve did, too, is not necessarily to "hit", but more probably to enter the Pot with the sole intention of wresting it away from the Original Raiser later in the hand. (Which is how I came to win a nice Pot at Luton in the week with 2-4, but that was a £100 jobbie). Certain ingredients are needed for it to work, certainly these are the criteria I use....

1) Position - I only do it in Position, i.e,, behind the Raiser, & if it's unlikely anyone else will join the party.

2) Against weak-passive players who are inclined to check if they see a bad flop. (And Steve certainly must view me in that light, & correctly).

3) When the stacks are reasonably deep relative to the Blinds, because if the original Raiser is pot-committed it ain't gonna work, he's gonna bet out anyway.

4) When I try it, if the OR checks a flop that is paint-rich, I'm deffo gonna represent it.

Having said all that, Steve does it a zillion times more effectively than I do, nonetheless, it's something I've added to my game this year & I think it's a Positive step for me.

I never discussed the reasons with Steve, so I may be wrong, but there can be no other reasonable explanation - one certainly can't justify these plays on implied odds or upon hoping to hit. In a way, Steve was unlucky - a more aggressive player than me would have lost a lot more than I did, & woulda fired at the flop as well.

Steve also did me with his 7-7 (turned the straight) against my Aces. I questioned him about his pre-flop call, as it was only my second Raise in 2 hours, & I had to have better than 7-7, & he well knew that. His River Bet was less than half the Pot, but I passed easily, as I knew the score exactly.

I do find this interesting. To lose so little (as I did) with A-A & Q-Q says many things. (I just lost the pre-flop Raise & the continuation bet in each case). It says "passive" & "easily pushed off a hand", but these are not necessarily, or always, weaknesses. I acknowledge, of course, that I often get pushed off winning hands by being weak. This happened later when I Raised with J-J & got flat-called behind, & was check-Raised off the K-T-T flop - I was not wholly convinced I was losing, but felt, well, maybe I can find a better situation to go to war for my complete stack.

As I noted earlier, Steve has changed his game enormously, & he's some player. (And a good friend of long-standing).

[byronkincaid]

awesome post. fantastic thread.

thank you

I would have called the river bet on the QQ hand, but I'm an online player, I guess if you know your opponent and have live reads to go on you can make that sort of laydown?

[RED-DOG]

awesome post. fantastic thread.

thank you

I would have called the river bet on the QQ hand, but I'm an online player, I guess if you know your opponent and have live reads to go on you can make that sort of laydown?

I agree entirely byron, for me this illustrates exactly the major difference between live and online poker.

[tikay]

awesome post. fantastic thread.

thank you

I would have called the river bet on the QQ hand, but I'm an online player, I guess if you know your opponent and have live reads to go on you can make that sort of laydown?

Oh yes, I'm good at making laydowns - though not always good laydowns!

And this is the whole crux of it. Many players are there to win the Event, and that includes me, but in my list of priorities, "survival is all" is high up there. I can't win a Tourney from the Rail, & if I survive every battle, I still have a shot at the war. "Dodging bullets" is the name of the game for me! Hence, if you look at my record on any Database, you'll see oodles of low place finishes in Finals, 9th & 8ths & 7ths galore. But this year, I have changed the emphasis slightly, & I've only had 6 Fessie Cashes so far (though work has prevented me playing quite so much), but they have been much higher finishes than was previously the case - 4th, 5th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1st. I should add that all of these were in £500 or less Buy-In Comps, & all were in smallish fields. Hence I'm seriously wondering if I should continue to play £1,000+ buy-in Events any longer, they don't seem cost-effective for my game, whereas I can get by very nicely in the smaller jobbies. "Know your limitations" is a great Bankroll preserver for those of us who are non-sponsored. Sod this shooting for the stars lark, I'm just happy to survive in the game.

[tikay]

I'm never gonna emulate Kev's astounding health kick, but someone told me recently that a good walk every day, & eating better, would be a good thing.

So I've just walked all the way to - & back! - the KFC, from the Village Hotel. It's approximately a mile each way, I'd say.

[Longy]

awesome post. fantastic thread.

thank you

I would have called the river bet on the QQ hand, but I'm an online player, I guess if you know your opponent and have live reads to go on you can make that sort of laydown?

I liked to echo this post as well, as i was reading the thread like Byron thinking there is no way that call with 32 can be a good one. Yet Tikay's explanation makes alot of sense and shows how poker can be very situational at times.

[booder]

I'm never gonna emulate Kev's astounding health kick, but someone told me recently that a good walk every day, & eating better, would be a good thing.

So I've just walked all the way to - & back! - the KFC, from the Village Hotel. It's approximately a mile each way, I'd say.

hmmm   miswalk

[RED-DOG]

I'm never gonna emulate Kev's astounding health kick, but someone told me recently that a good walk every day, & eating better, would be a good thing.

So I've just walked all the way to - & back! - the KFC, from the Village Hotel. It's approximately a mile each way, I'd say.

Considering the fact that one digestive biscuit provides you with enough calories to walk 4 miles, I think you would need to do a round trip to Watford Gap services before you would be +EV