It's one day later. A night and a day to reflect on 5 hours of live poker. Until I burned out and busted, I played some damn good poker. A lot of my prior experience in medium and big tourney live play experience (and I don't have a ton besides the home game and about a dozen live casino tournies, most $100 games with 100 people) culminated in a pretty strong performance. I have a few regrets too....
You're in a room with 100 to 500 strangers, and sit down with 10 of them. Only one is friendly, the dealer. Real casino tourney action rocks. Dealers rock.
Right off the bat, before "shuffle up and deal", I want to establish table image and find out who are the players and who are the payers. This is a $500+50 game, 110 people showed up. 5000 chips to start, levels a very leisurely 30 minutes. The buy in is steep but the game itself is comparable to the $100+9 game I play online and have most of my real money success at. I am comfortable. I brought a prop, the chip marker I got along with a crappy trucker hat at the last $500+50 game I played (my first live tourney ever)
Let's start with that first live tourney experience.
500 players in a casino theatre. Never been. The price is high. the table is tight, but interesting. There is a real character 3 seats to my right. He's talkative, very loose, very relaxed, by hand 3 its clear he came to play. I curse myself with my QJ in the BB with him on the button. I have a nice flop (Q 10-9 rainbow...top pr and sweet draw) and the small blind bets the flop lightly, I call lightly, he raises. I have a very good hand but it is early, I don't know the field, and he;s betting like he flopped big. I'm top pr and a draw. he could have 2 pr or a set and be protecting his hand. I fold to the raise. Turn is an 8 and In curse. The small blind played with him and he showed down a suited 10J for the straight and a nice opening pot. If I stayed in, we would have split the sb's chips.
If I had the guts in hand 5 to reraise, take down 1000 chips early. At worst we showdown a split.
I got guts later, but avoided playing with this guy. He usually had position on me, and he played loose, crazy, aggressive, like he didn't care about his chips. He made big bets and got big laydowns and chipped up early and often. His excellent play in that early hand and general crazy attitude earned him a ton of table respect. He played like to bet into him was in insult and his response was to put you in for all your chips.
At this tight table of regular joes, this was very effective.
As I spent some time carefully observing the regular joe players when I wasn't in the hand. They were cautious, and often it was easy to spot when they were uncertain. Soon I had my own table image, but I mismanaged it. I had some big hands early, AA, KK, and would generate preflop action, usually out of position, and found my hands shaking and heart racing holding these big hands. And I was not prepared to play a sneaky, trapping game with these big cards which is riskier, because you offer your opponent cheap cards in order to induce a bet. I play this way all the time on-line..."help me I'm so weak......UNLIMITED POWER!" (to quote Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars Episode III.) (No, I am not a sci-fi nerd. I am a poker nerd).
So I was getting the table image of a guy who can put you on your cards, who plays good hands, and knows when you're beat. THIS IS CALLED A TIGHT TABLE IMAGE.
Phil Gordon says this is what you want early. A TIGHT TABLE IMAGE. So that your opponents will respect your raises when you need to steal blinds and antes much later.
WRONG
You won't be at that table with those players late in the game. You will have changed tables 3 or 4 times. Your early image is gone gone gone.
YOU DO NOT WANT PEOPLE FOLDING TO YOU IN THE FIRST LEVELS. YOU WANT ACTION.
You want to be crazy guy! Or something else.
YOU WANT A SCARY TABLE IMAGE.
Go all in early, when you know its safe, and not pre-flop. When the guys made a bet and you know you have him beat, raise, and especially check-raise, all in. Immediately after his bet. Watch him jump in his seat in awe of how quickly you put him on a bluff or a draw. Watch him fold and rake in that pot.
Don't do this on the flop if you think you can drag more chips out of, but especially do it if there is a draw on the board and you think he's semi-bluffing to that draw. Let him know you know what his cards were by betting him out. Don not show your hand, just smile.
YOU WANT A GAMBLING IMAGE
Even if you're not really gampling. Pay a little too much for a draw ONCE, and show your mistake. Then you can represent draws when you have big flops later, and get paid.
YOU WANT PLAYERS TO RESPECT YOUR GAME, AND FEAR YOU ENOUGH TO BET YOU OUT OF DRAWS THEY THINK YOU HAVE WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE THEM BEAT
Play a good, and unusual, drawing hand like 9J sooted, make that straight, and use misdirection through the streets to build a monster pot (especially if you flopped it and there is no risk of a better draw....see Chapter II! Know your enemy's hand!) This scares the pants off of the table.
You may never get any more action after a stunt like this, but you just chipped up and knocked someone out. The table will break up soon, and table 2 will only know you from your chipstack.
My tight image in big tourney #1 in a tight table earned Crazy Guy about 15k in chips after 2 hours. In spite of holding the image as the other real player at the table, and holding AA KK, and KK, I had exactly 5000 chips, what I started with. He played more pots more aggressively and more unpredictably, and it was impossible to put him on a hand.
Thankfully, was able to exploit Crazy Guy's "you raisin' ME?!" weakness to chip up soon after the break. This guy had a knack for loose all-in calls that turned into great calls but he messed up this one.
He was in early position and limped in for 200. I had QQ and raised to 700. table folds back to me. He re-raises me...I dont know how much, I was giddy for the opportunity to rumble these QQ FINALLY, with a stack willing to gamble. I pushed all in immediately, he called without thinking with QK offsuit. I was terrified of that one overcard, and shook like a leaf through the showdown, but I doubled up.
My table never got better. These tight players had waited too long to make a pot, and one by one fell to the blinds and other desperate players, and got replaced by bigger stacks from more aggressive players. And my tight image and lack of cards after this killed any action when I did get cards. A min raise with KK got Crazy Guy to protect his BB but nothing else. I bluffed a shortstack in the BB with a bad habit of protecting his blinds with AJ on a crap flop. 4 dry hours after my double up, I had enough chips for 2x the blinds and had to push with Q10. I caught top pr in a 3 heart flop and got 4 flushed by AQ off. But 80th of 500 with no cards is a good start to my live career? It was enough to get me to the casino as a Wednesday regular....I hated the table but loved the game....
Flashback's over. The moral to this story is play to win, not to stick around and watch. When the blinds are cheap, PLAY POKER! You can't get a big payday off of AA, KK, QQ early in a tourney anyway. You have the deep stack to play a broad range well, and either grind up or double up when the opportunities arise.
July 18, 2007
We start the day late due to the weather, so there is a chance to get chatty at the table. This is a week-long series of day tournaments, and the topic of discussion is day one's events. Apparently a few people at the table were playing, and the final table dragged to 2:15 a.m. when the 4 remaining, all deep stacked with 10k/15k blinds, decided to chop the pot there based on chipcount order.
A young man with an apparent ADHD problem joins the table: apparently he was 3rd, and came for game 2 on 6 hours sleep. We'll call him #3. My marker generates attention, and I don;t lie about my result in Tourney #1. I want to underplay my skills, not puff up.
I like the table.
Better news...I know the dealer from my regular casino, a pretty and chatty Vietnamese girl.
Even better, I have a hand on hand one, 99, I get to open the first hand with a nice raise of 150. I get one caller and we see a Q-9-10 flop, two spades. It's early, and I don't want to get busted on a flush, but I want action for my set. I bet 200, get a call. Turn is 4 of clubs. I check, he checks back. I been there done that. The check trap when your opponent turns the nut flush. I always seem to have the 2nd best flush when this happens. I check the river...a random card. He bets 600. I have a set and a good price to see it. I call. "Can you beat a set?" I ask, turning over the nines. He mucks. My now LUCKY DEALER rakes it over.
I now have a few things going for me:
- first pot for 1000 fresh chips (man that first pot can take time and patience sometimes):
- display to the table that I know how to play a good hand out of position:
- I just found the table floater
This was a very obvious player. He talked too much. He flirted with the dealers too much. After he was down to 2500 chips, he gave a little speech before raising with AA about "going on tilt"
Beware the speech. It is the sure sign of a big hand looking for action. Here is how NOT TO PLAY AA unless you want to go broke.
betting 800pre-flop, he got one caller, who had position on him.
The flop is Q 10 x, two hearts, a flush draw and a straight draw on board.
Floater bets all of 300 and gets a call.
Turn is the A of hearts.
he bets small and is raised, and he beats his opponent to the pot all in.
his opponent shows KJ to his AA, a straight to his set.
Floater fished out on the river. A Q hits the board, and the board pair gives him a full house.
You will recall my discussion of OLD SHERIFF's 4 (2) outs to the boat in the MONSTER DRAW in blog 2. When you hold a PP and flop set, as I did on hand 1, and Floater did on the turn, clearly you are not dead beat to that straight or flush. You are in fact way better off here than if you hit that set with the flops help and then gave up straight or flush on the turn as well. Lets compare:
Floater: AA, Q,10, x, A on the board
Opponent: KJ
Because his opponent has not put a pair up, all those board cards are live to pair up. Floater has these outs:
- one Ace for quads
- three Q's
- Three 10's
- three of whatever x was
Although some of these cards are big, playable cards, there was absolutely no other interest by any other player in this flop, so nothing suggests an above average of his outs got mucked: in fact, in this case, given that Queens and 10's are often cards, when connected to others, get limped in, the fact that 5 players before them folded preflop suggests a Floater might even have a few extra outs in the deck than the statistical average would appear. Instead of 4.7 outs, lets give him 6 out of 25 remaining cards are live. If this is correct, he has 24% left to catch the board pair and bust the straight.
Straights are especially vulnerable this way, because a good straight uses both your hole cards so you aren;t carrying any outs for the set holder. The best flush draws, on the other hand, caught a pair (for even better, hit top pr on the flop with the lower cards holding your suit and the A as your kicker).
The average set holding river rat with the average outs in the muck has a pretty hefty 19% suckout rate with one card to go. Given how often players fall in love with their sets and ignore the draws, thats a reasonable guarantee on the fact that you slowplayed a guy into a straight, and put your chips in on the turn to see what you;ve done to yourself.
Of course a flopped straight and set gives the set holder, given that both went all in, a full 39% chance to catch up. This is one out better than a flush draw on the flop. Pretty good considering you pushed the chips in think your hand was made, not drawing.
The typical top pr flush draw is only slightly better to beat you with that one missing out in his hand, but, of course, if you have a SET and there is a flush draw on the board, and you didn;t bet the flush draw out, or chose to slow down if the circumstances suggested he caught top pr too, you will be playing for that river if the turn hit that flush, and 15% to catch up one one card is trouble.
The 8810 flop where you caught big with A8 potentially as well off. Lets say you gave up a free 9 on the turn, and betting goes all in and you show down with JQ;s straight.
- 1 eight
- 3 tens
- 3 nines
- 3 aces.
This is also a "stealing flop", but only if there are only 2 or 3 in the pot.
Depending on the paired card, these flops can be real trouble, not just to straight draws. a QQ10 flop might very well see two hands showdown a Q in a kicker battle.
You should raise the better moderately on this flop. A smooth call will tell you if you have kicker trouble if you have a trouble kicker.
In other words, the 8810 flopped set looks like the same number of outs to catch full, but it isnt because of the commonality of your kicker and the single card to hands being played. Never slowplay these flops at all. The more playable the paired card, the more caution, and bets for infromation are crucial to know where you stand. Keep in mind that 9J and 79 have open ended draws here, and I LIKE TO PLAY THESE HANDS. a 6 or Q will not look like a straight has been made.
We will talk about this more in Chapter III, when we talk about MORE MONSTER DRAWS. I love horror stories. It's like I'm camping.
Back to me, and the first 4 levels at table one.
Having shown down a well played set of nines, I had some respect when I opened the pot with raises in early position. My next significant hand was a 200 raise with A10 and blinds of 50/75. A latecomer to the table made the call in position. He wasn't there to see the set showdown. Possibly a good thing, as the hand turned out.
The flop is A 4 2 with 2 hearts.
I've raised early and continue my betting. 500 comes in. My opponent calls.
I should comment on my opponent. He's a sloppy looking older guy who didn't bother to shave and is dressed in a dirty brown shirt. I dressed like I was going to work on casual day, nice t-shirt, dress shoes, very, very black sunglasses. It will turn out his play is sloppy too.
I have no idea whether I am good here. A10 is a marginal Ace and I HATE A-x! Every damn fool plays a damn A and the only good A on the flop has a K kicker attached (and they get busted all the time on A high flops by sets and lower card draws, what good is even AK in this flop?) I would rather play a K high or Q high hand just so I;m not playing this "how good is my kicker" game, especially out of position, and you'd be surprised how many hands you can steal in a raised pot with K high, position, and a flop that missed an A or is obvious more playable kickers like J, Q, K, 10.
My kicker is good. It hit the turn card, a nice juicy 10.
Even though I haven't seen this guy play, I've got a feel. This is an ABC player. Plays obvious cards obviously. I have two reads on this fellow now: flush draw or he also doesn't know if his kicker is good on his A.
There is 1600 or so in the pot and I feel good about where I stand. I confidently splash out my chips in a neat row past the yellow line so that they can easily be counted. The dealer announces my bet of 1600.
This guy looks hesitant but makes the call. Flush draw? Pretty stupid call if it is (see pot odds in blog II: they still count here: 17% to hit the river flush and he wants me to commit 50% of my stack to catch it? I can't call my bet in his shoes, but clearly this guy plays loose, passive and lucky, not tight, strong, aggressive, or particularly smart)
With 2300 of each of our chips in the pot, and he was late so 400 or so got blinded off, I have correctly set him up for the river bet. he has about 2300 left.
Sklansky and Miller have an EXCELLENT book on hold'em which all about betting correctly. Find it. Read it. The bets I have made are not so much related to pot size, but chip stack size. If I make a pot sized bet on the turn that creates a pot of 4000 and he has 1000 chips left, he doesn't call, he goes all in or folds. I intended to make a river bet here which commits his stack to the pot or forces a fold, assuming the river works out here for me.
This guy is semi pot-committed, but he can get away. Lets see a river.
You are now OFFICIALLY MY LUCKY DEALER. Board pairs another 2.
I gather my chips up swiftly but confidently and slide them past the yellow. All in, she announces (man, she's sweet).
About 5 seconds pass before he mucks.
Why didn't I fall to another set turning full? you ask. Good question.
There is no way this fellow played a pocket pair on this hand. There are only AA, 10-10, and 2-2 ,and 4-4 available to set up, and I am holding A and 10. He couldn't have AA or 10 10. the river pulling quads? no way. 4-4? This guy never had the demeanour of a trapper and he was no actor.
In the very next hand, he will show down A8 in late position. He might have had the flush draw, maybe a low A with the flush draw (quite possible given his hesitant turn call). He was beat. We both knew it. He had given up the mental game when I took the betting initiate and he passively called instead of playing back, and I could feel he was in trouble. If he had re-raised on the flop, I probably muck A10, but maybe not. Flush draw semi-bluff raises are common. I often smooth call back these raises and bet all in on the turn when it clearly could not have helped make a draw.
My neighbour to my right asked me if I was holding AK. I showed him the A10. It pleased me that I was able to represent the strength of AK holding A10 out of position. This fellow will follow me from table to table, and his respect for my bets will serve me well when we are blind to blind together later Lets call him IPOD GUY.
OH THE VERY NEXT HAND!
We all have a fish story. I will come to regret not playing this hand.
I have chipped up to 8200 chips and we have played 45 minutes. I am content. I look down from 3rd position to see A9 sooted, 2 diamonds.
I think: I just got lucky playing A10 out of position for a big pot. Lightning won't strike twice. I fold it preflop just because of position. This is not my game usually. I will play a drawing hand out of position for cheap all the time. The blinds are cheap. I have 8200 chips. 75 of them will limp it in and I will see where I stand when the pre-flop betting betting completes.
Doyle Brunson is dead right. Win a big pot play the next one, regardless of your cards. I am guilty of being contented when I should stay on the offensive.
A tight player, Sloppy Guy, Floater, and IPOD, in the BB, all come into the pot. It may or may not have been raised: if it was it was cheap to call. IPOD had just doubled up 5 hands ago when AK ran into his set of 99 on a A-9-x flop. No shocker there. The size of his stack will be important, as will the flop.
AA10 rainbow, one heart.
I would have flopped rather nicely.
The betting on the flop is quiet. The turn is a 9
a 9!!!!
A NINE!!!!!!
I MUCKED ACE FUCKING 9!!!!!
I'm okay. I keep my mouth shut. I'm not going to mess up anyone's action here by whining about how I should have played. Very bad etiquite there if I did, and action is a coming.
The nine is a heart, which is of some interest.
There is some betting, but not a ton, maybe 400 chips from tight guy, Sloppy, and IPOD, Floater folds.
River is 8 of hearts.
We have a paired board, a straight draw, a flush draw. IPOD bets 500. Tightie calls, Sloppy is all in for his last 2500 chips. IPOD calls, but does not re-raise. Tighie calls.
IPOD shows his 99. Tightie mucks. Sloppy Smurf smiles. He displays his A8 with pride and rakes in his triple-up. IPOD is just glad to have his starting chip stack back.
I had mucked best hand preflop. Had I been in that action, slow playing my best of 3 full houses (tightie must have mucked the flush or straight, he made his hand too or he doesn't invest 50% of his stack on the river).
Put me into that river betting in 2nd position after IPOD and watch the fireworks.
IPOD: 500
Me: raise to 1000
Tightie: call (clearly he;s cautious about that AA on board, but he has a hand he wants to show down)
Sloppy: all in for 2500
IPOD: call
Me: all in for 2500 +6000 more
Tightie (probably muck, way too much action now, and he's not pot committed)
IPOD: call
I may have saved tightie most of his stack, but I turn a 8500 chip pot for Sloppy into a 22,000 chip pot for me. IPOD thought he had best hand and was shocked to see he was beat (I feel ya, bro)
I was content with my chip stack. Never be content. If you have a hand to play and chips you can afford to lose, see an affordable flop in any position. I would regret this failure to chip up later.
Its one thing not to be greedy, but tournament play is always about being ahead of the curve. 10k in chips feels good an hour in. When 1/2 the field is gone, it will be an average stack. When the blinds hit 300/600 with 50 antes come in, if you're stil grinding with an average stack, you're in trouble.
My monster 22k stack can play all my interesting hands in many positions and my stack and terrorizing style of play will back a lot of people off from calling and steal a lot of pots with draws or just good reads in position.
Play for that monster, ladies and gentlemen, when the blinds are small and you can afford to play. The bigger your stack the more hands you can play. When you play well you give up small pots and pick up big ones, and get bigger, and if you stub your toe once, you have a bug cushion and a reminder that you're getting sloppy, not a chip crisis.
I never saw a pocket pair bigger than 99 in the 5 hours I played. I made my chips playing marginal hands like A10 and QK and 99 well and often at a table that saw me as a player to be respected. Round 2 was dry, and, I managed to hover at 10k until the antes came in in hour 3. I caught a few hands and got more aggressive and smarter. I'm not there yet.
Lets talk about QK and how to put your opponent on hand in a live game.
New guy comes to the table. Lets call him IPOD #2. He explains he was late bacause he was trapped on the phone for an hour. I feel for ya man. Welcome to the table. He's a well groomed late 30's early 40's oriental, techie/professional type. I put him as a reasonable player, but don;t expect wildness or aggression.
A few hands in, he raises 100 blinds to 300. Big stack me has QK off suit and position to the immediate left. I've learned my lesson, I call.
K 10 5 flop, two spades.
IPOD #2 bets 700. I think a second, and call.
I don't know if this guy has AK or what. His 700 didn't seem confident, tho. I watch him closely as the dealer turns a 4, there are now two spades and two clubs and my K is one of them.
IPOD #2 hesitates briefly, and checks.
IPOD #2 has 3500 chips left. Pot is 2200. He is in position to make a very appropriate all in bet on that turn card, and if he has AK, the usual move here is to protect it. I have him stacked 2-1, but see blogs 1 and 2 and the dude with AA. AK's correct move is all in here to protect that hand.
Unless he has me on a set? He doesn;t know me. Why put me on a set?
Its clear he's put me on a hand that can beat him. He's right. I don't hesitate nearly as long as all that analysis seems. I'm just showing my work so you can get in my head. I already made up my mind my K is best with his response to my smooth call post flop and the turn card. My 1400 bet produces a brief tanking, but I know he's only deciding his gut is right to fold, and he does. I stare at him while he makes his decision to help me along, from my dark, dark sunglasses.
He tells me he mucked QQ. Good Lay down. He put me on the AK. He gets a straight answer. And I explain to him how I figured I was good.
I don't mind telling a player at that table that I can out-think him. The reason is obvious. We will be in pots I want to win together later.
This is a long blog. This was 5 hours of poker. I have focussed on early tournament play for a reason. IT IS SO CRUCIAL TO CHIP UP.
Doubling up is very good, especially in a deep stacked, slow level game like this one, after 4 levels. The goal should be closer to a triple up or more. You will need folding equity in the next 4 levels, and stealing skills when the antes kick in the blinds get in in levels 9-12. I am happiest on line when I start with 1500 chips and finish hour one with 6000 or more.
Later for that. I have practicing to do. I've registered for the Main Event on Saturday. Same buy in, 10000 chips, maybe 450 players.
A final comment on IPODs and poker. I love my IPOD. It stays in the truck. I need to make my players and I need all the information available to make them. I can't tune out the table. I am sure it has a calming, zen-like effect to keep you patient and level listening to your favorite tunes, but my style of play needs my senses focussed on the game, including the hands I'm not playing in. I will try it sometime, maybe for the cheap casino turbo tourney...
Wish me luck.
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