Prose from a Poshboy

[youthnkzR]

Day one:

Keith, Stato and I all lost between 775 and 940 euros! I played the satellite and busted in actually a very interesting hand I think. I don't often find tournament hands interesting these days, but this has left me scratching my head a bit.

Dom Nitsche limps bvb 300 at 150/300, playing 6k. I raise to 800 he calls. Pre also interesting.

He checks I bet 700 he calls.

Check Check

He checks, I bet 1400, he jams 4800. Am I too far up in my range to fold? Is he ever bluffing or does he know I have a king and never expect me to fold? I could call my AK combos, QJss, QTss JTss combos that I play this way. But if Im bet folding KQ/KJ/KT etc then thats just way too many combos of bet/fold so need to call some of them in theory.

I called and he had .

If we bet river with either KQ KJ K10, having the / / would be a good start for randomizing b/cs vs b/fs I guess. As far as our flop sizing goes, I might size up a little. I doubt hes gonna reverse float too light at these stack depths or even get too OOL with x/raises on this board as it seems pretty unattractive board to do it as an airball on, therefore hands which continue flop will continue to a larger sizing as they would to our 700 into 1600. We encourage fast plays from draws which we likely have in really rough shape. Ax flush draws would probably consider opening the pot preflop themselves a lot of the time therefore we're much more unlikely to be facing more than 9 direct outs if he has a FD (no overs). We also set up for 2 streets rather than 3 if we bet 1200 into 1600, as he has 4k back into 4k, this gives us the option of jamming turns / checking back turn and bluffcatching rivers...etc. Im pretty surprised he L/C pre   though im not sure what the tournament standard play is now. P.S. when we raise pre are we R/c or R/fing vs a jam, i was thinking KJo maybe the line for my RC so im interested to hear yours (as i said im well out of touch)?

Have a great time mate, looking forward to reading the rest of the reports!

[pleno1]

I'd check pre (getting shoved on really sucks and nice to have hand like this in our range)

I'd play flop the same as played. (Kinda surprised he doesn't c/s
Flop?)

I'd probably bet most of my range ott, assume this should most likely be a value bet.

River I probably b/f unless you think he shoves worse kings for value

[cambridgealex]

Day one:

Keith, Stato and I all lost between 775 and 940 euros! I played the satellite and busted in actually a very interesting hand I think. I don't often find tournament hands interesting these days, but this has left me scratching my head a bit.

Dom Nitsche limps bvb 300 at 150/300, playing 6k. I raise to 800 he calls. Pre also interesting.

He checks I bet 700 he calls.

Check Check

He checks, I bet 1400, he jams 4800. Am I too far up in my range to fold? Is he ever bluffing or does he know I have a king and never expect me to fold? I could call my AK combos, QJss, QTss JTss combos that I play this way. But if Im bet folding KQ/KJ/KT etc then thats just way too many combos of bet/fold so need to call some of them in theory.

I called and he had .

If we bet river with either KQ KJ K10, having the / / would be a good start for randomizing b/cs vs b/fs I guess. As far as our flop sizing goes, I might size up a little. I doubt hes gonna reverse float too light at these stack depths or even get too OOL with x/raises on this board as it seems pretty unattractive board to do it as an airball on, therefore hands which continue flop will continue to a larger sizing as they would to our 700 into 1600. We encourage fast plays from draws which we likely have in really rough shape. Ax flush draws would probably consider opening the pot preflop themselves a lot of the time therefore we're much more unlikely to be facing more than 9 direct outs if he has a FD (no overs). We also set up for 2 streets rather than 3 if we bet 1200 into 1600, as he has 4k back into 4k, this gives us the option of jamming turns / checking back turn and bluffcatching rivers...etc. Im pretty surprised he L/C pre  though im not sure what the tournament standard play is now. P.S. when we raise pre are we R/c or R/fing vs a jam, i was thinking KJo maybe the line for my RC so im interested to hear yours (as i said im well out of touch)?

Have a great time mate, looking forward to reading the rest of the reports!

Yeh I like all this. Haven't ran the numbers but my instinct is that calling Kx , Kx and Kx along with everything better would be enough.

I've played 5 tournaments all year so am also out of touch with the trends.

[cambridgealex]

The beautiful Salles des Etoiles (Room of stars)

Click to see full-size image.

One of the nicer rooms to play in!

[Doobs]

I loved it when I was in Monaco for the poker.  I loved that poker room. It was a while ago and would love to go back one day. I am sure you realise by now, but there is no need for it to be excessively expensive if you work out where the food is reasonable, work out where the supermarkets are.     

How is the weather?  There can't be many better things to do than walking down by the harbour on a warm spring day. 

I was inspired by your post to see what the accomodation was like on airbnb for the Monaco Grand Prix.  Needless to say that the locals are probably worse than the hotels for upping their rates.  £1000 a night for a flat seems legt.  Luckily it was only £4000 a night on a yacht, so I didn't feel completely ripped off.

Good luck in the poker.

[cambridgealex]

Jet lagged.

Yes it's only an hour difference. But in London my playing hours are 8pm-3am and here they have to be 12pm-11pm. So add an hour time difference and it feels like travelling half way across the world lol.

Always get so excited about these trips but when the first tournament comes around and it's a 10 handed 1k and I'm falling asleep pre antes, the excitement subsides somewhat...

Early ethical spot:

Blinds 150/300, by turn pot is 5k guy threw out 5k chip and said "3" dealer says 3 thousand, I know rules state that that bet should be 300. Should I get ruling? Regardless of my hand? Most ppl think it's a stupid rule, I read a decent argument for the rule recently by very well respected TD. Does what I think of the rule matter?

[George2Loose]

If he had string bet 3k but intended 3k would you allow it?

Rules are rules imo

[Rexas]

Jet lagged.

Yes it's only an hour difference. But in London my playing hours are 8pm-3am and here they have to be 12pm-11pm. So add an hour time difference and it feels like travelling half way across the world lol.

Always get so excited about these trips but when the first tournament comes around and it's a 10 handed 1k and I'm falling asleep pre antes, the excitement subsides somewhat...

Early ethical spot:

Blinds 150/300, by turn pot is 5k guy threw out 5k chip and said "3" dealer says 3 thousand, I know rules state that that bet should be 300. Should I get ruling? Regardless of my hand? Most ppl think it's a stupid rule, I read a decent argument for the rule recently by very well respected TD. Does what I think of the rule matter?

Personally I think that's a dreadful rule as the angle it allows is worse than what they're trying to protect people from. People could do what this guy has done but actually intend to make it 300, knowing that rule, and get a cheap card/cheap showdown. Bollocks rule imo, much better that the dealer just clarifies it with the player, or they just rule based on obvious intent.

[cambridgealex]

http://joebeevers.com/a-poker-rule-i-believe-needs-changing/

This is where I read it.

[bobAlike]

http://joebeevers.com/a-poker-rule-i-believe-needs-changing/

This is where I read it.

Definitely a bad rule.
Happened to me in a DTD deepstack where I threw a 5k chip into an 8k pot and announced '5' on the turn with top trips. Zimbler asked the dealer what the bet was and the dealer stated 5k Zimbler argued that it should be 500 only. Got the TD in and called for 500 hitting his middle pin. To rub it in he stated he would have folded for 5k. Sour grapes from me but terrible rule.

[PathFinder]

People that call a TD to clarify what '3' or any single declaration meant are being dicks and angling IMO. Common sense has to prevail. It should be obvious what unit the player is betting in relation to previous streets and pot size. If you did have any doubts just ask the player what he meant and get on with it.

[George2Loose]

That's not the question posed by Alex. We all know what the rule should be/common sense applies but the rule is his bet is 300 regardless of intention

[PathFinder]

I would say give the player a warning about his verbal action rather than instant punishment. It happens with players acting out of turn which is a bigger sin

[cambridgealex]

I'm all for asking for clarification/ common sense to be applied. But what happens when that bet is snap called by the player?

The dealer asks the player for clarification? Clearly if bluffing / weak he'll use the smaller size and vice versa. So other option, the dealer uses common sense and looks at the size of the pot / previous betting streets? That can't really work either, player says "well I wanted to bet really small on the river, why am I being forced to bet big" or vice versa again.

It's hard to remove this rule and leave the dealer to interpret what was intended in the case of a snap call.

The other option is introducing a pot size rule, where in the case of a player action before clarification has been asked for and given- if the smaller sized option is <1/5 pot then it stands as the bigger amount.

[PathFinder]

Yeah the scenario with the snap call makes it more difficult. You could also include multiway pots where 2 different players interpret the verbal declaration differently.

I think in these scenarios it's just down to the discretion of the TD I guess, he makes an informed decision based on previous streets/actions and rules what is more probable. Warns both players of future declarations.

You could come up with lots of scenarios based on rules and when grey areas come up the TD decision is final.

Thank god most of my volume is online lol