Okay, its been a nice week for me, $1350 prize for 3rd in an online $100+9 on Tuesday, and the full monty last night at the casino, 1st place and $2880 in the weekly $90+10. Definitely my best week's haul, and already better than my $3400 month of August.
The online $100+9 is my tournament of choice for the internet game, and this and the live casino weekly have some key similarities and key differences. Both start with 2500 chips, but the online game, as a big price buy in, has a much more leisurely level structure relatively speaking, while the casino game is a bit more action oriented. Starting with blinds as low as 5/10 with 15 minute levels, means you will play perhaps 60 hands in the first hour before your minimum bet reaches 60. after 1:15 the blind level is 50/100. At the casino, with 20 minute levels starting at 25/25, that same 1:15 or so (1:20 actually) we have begun 100/200 blinds. At a very fast table with a very good dealer, you will get 12-15 hands in live during each 20 minute level, with the ratio of hands to level tending to drop fairly steadily due to two factors: longer "in the tank" periods for big decisions in big pots, and the need for the dealer to physically sort out big pots which may have all-in parties and side-pots to sort out.
Both games have the same number of typical players, 90-120 (and both my wins came from shorter handed tourneys, 89 online and 80 live) and I find this number very manageable. Obviously the online game permits me to have much more patience, and I play a tighter game as a result, most early pots being small. I can easily see a fair number of flops early online , miss them all, and still have 2350 after 30 minutes, last night for example, 500 of my chips were gone in the same time frame looking for flops with playable hands and not catching.
In other words, the live game starts to enter into a mini crisis mode quite early. For me yesterday, that meant, while holding AQ of clubs in position, a hand I might just see a flop with on-line, meant reraising a weak opening raise, and ultimately, playing the hand all-in preflop.
Amazingly, I had walked into AA, leading to a a flop of 109 crap, a turn of J, and, suckout of suckouts, a big fat K in the river to hand me Broadway to bust a pair. Having been french-kissed so by the Lady of Luck, it was time to play up to her expectations.
I now had the chips again to see flops, and this time, I was catching better. I limped in with K10 to see a 10 9 4 flop, two spades, and raised an initial bet of 125 to 400. I had position, and felt I had the best of the flop. The next card being a 5, I bet another 500 after my opponent checked.
Lets talk about my bet size choice here for a moment. Pot wise, it offered good odds for my opponent with 1000 in the pot, but I don't think my man is on a draw at all. I think he has 10J. He is out of position and doesn't know where he stands in the hand. He really doesn't know what I have, because although I have folded a lot of hands post-flop, I also demonstrated some impatience overplaying my AQ. I am acting uncertain with the smaller bet, but really I am value betting. He decides to keep floating.
My other goal is to put his chip stack at risk. He commits 1000 to his 3500 stack at this point, creating a pot of 2000 while destroying the improvement he had made to his starting stack. I am putting his stack leverage and ability see future flops at risk, and this will work out in my favour on the river.
My opponent calls my 500, and we see another 10 on the river. This time, he makes the "weak"
bet into me, 700.
Let's look at this bet. 2000 in the pot, 1800 left to his stack. The bet is right on the crisis point for him and for me. He still doesn't know where he stands, and he is hoping I have been caught bluffing, as that 700 pretty much wipes out my lucky double up just a few hands ago.
I went all-in over him, pretty much sure that I had gotten the most I was going to get. I'm not sure if he folds a 10 here, maybe he had A9, he mumbled something about a kicker. Maybe he made a heck of a laydown with weaker trips, but I also think a casual minraise to 1400 in the river has the same effect as an all-in trap sprung.
After the break, following less successful flop prospecting, I settle in to a reasonable position of 5000 chips, could be better, could be worse.
The aggressiveness required after the break is real contrast to the tight game I have earlier described in early middle play which is the hallmark of the $100+9 online game. It becomes very exploitable.
A couple of examples, one involving my next double up:
- to my left is a big bearded guy who has impressed me as a relatively competent player. With blinds of 100/200, he has opened the pot with a bet of 500, he gets 3 callers, including, in the BB, a kid with an Ipod and a baseball hat. He has the same shifty eyes and general deadpan demeanour as Phil Ivey, but he's Caucasian, so let's call him Phil Ivory. He filled a dead seat about 50 minutes in carrying a decently improved stack, and so far he has not played a lot of pots. Right now Phil Ivory is an enigma.
- The flop is a hilarious 2 -7 -2 and right away I am thinking BB special. Phil checks, and Big Beard makes a good bet into this pot of 2100: 1600. The players fold to Phil Ivory, who makes the call. Big Beard has 2000 left
- The turn is another small card, lower than a seven. Phil Ivory checks and so does Big Beard. My impression now is that this is a pocket pair battle, and the players do not know who has the better pair. I will turn out to be pretty much bang on, or half right anyway.
- With another small card on the river, Phil Ivory makes a great bet: 1400. Its small relative to the pot, but Big Beard has invested half his stack into this pot, and will be down to 10x the BB if he lays his hand down. Big Beard tanks for a few, then puts the rest of his chips in, knowing Phil will be calling. Mr. Ivory had flopped a full house, and shows his 77 to Big Beard's measly 99.
My turn.
- Soon after Big Beard's bust out, a late player, who's chips have been blinded away, finally comes to the table. This is a bearded Japanese player, and immediately he's in a hurry to catch up. His first move is a big raise, no action, his next a big all in move to isolate a short stack with JJ, and he doubles up in two hands.
- I complement him on his move there, but soon find that this fellow really is playing Kamakaze. He CALLS another shortish stack with A7 spades, and is of course dominated, and hands over 2000 chips Ehem--nobody but nobody CALLS ALL IN WITH A7 AT A 10 HANDED TABLE! Even if you have the raiser beat, someone has you beat. And while Zero here winds up chipping up pretty good within a few hands, and in fact has me well outstacked 10 minutes after he sat down, I wake up in the cutoff with QQ.
- The blinds are still 100/200, two people have limped in, and I decide I want action, so I raise to 600. Zero protects his BB with a call and the two limpers call too. Not exactly what I wanted, but the flop is nice, and all three players check to me.
- Hey, I have position, a flop of 2 8 7 two hearts, and noone liked the flop. There is a nice pot out there and the possibility of a draw, and I need to at least thin out my field. 2500 in the pot, I make a bet of 1500. Again, my bet is good enough sized to damage an opponent, sweetened the pot to 4000, and still, in theory, let me get away from my hand.
- Exactly the message I wanted. I looked like a weak thief preflop and I am simply continuing the charade postflop. Zero raises me all in.
- There is no hesitation to my call. I know I have him beat, and, in fact, we showdown 2 10 to QQ. I turn another Q to prohibit a suckout, and double up.
Let me briefly compare this to the online tourney of Tuesday. The first hour was a bit of struggle, but managed to close to double up from a couple of decent pots late in the first hour. I then just cycled between 4000 and 6000 chips until I was able, 45 minutes or so later, to pull a similar stunt at 100/200 blinds when I raised an unopened pot from the cut off with QQ, to 600 only to get played back from by the BB, whom I had outchipped, but not by a lot. He reraises to 2400, and I decide to simply call. The flop is a wonderful K Q 8, and the BB hesitates a bit before putting 2000 of his last 2400 into the pot. He shows-down A4 to my set of ladies, and I joke with the rest of the table about Phil Gordon teaching him to raise a "blind steal from the cut off" with "any ace". Got a Phil Gordon book? Don't throw it away. Read it to see how the other half lives so you better know how to beat predictable ABC poker Monsterstyle.
Right after my QQQ double up yesterday, the table breaks up, and Phil Ivory and I both wind up sitting beside each other, Phil to my left. There is one other big stack at the table, a talkative Asian Banana type (not a perjorative expression where I come from, simply referring to an Asian person who walks, talks, dresses, and acts like every other Canadian: yellow on the outside, white inside like a Banana). ABBA is a very friendly guy, maybe he talks too much, usually has something to say before he raises.
ABBA will soon come to hate that he has PokerMonster and Phil Ivory with huge stacks in the BBs when he is on the button.
On ABBA's first attempt to steal, he makes a joke about the likelihood either Phil or I will play back. I happen to have A9 sooted, and give it some thought, but decide to fold to ABBA's raise, and he doesn't like to raise too much, 800 against 150/300 blinds. Phil takes advantage and reraises, and ABBA has to fold.
The next time things come around, I am again in the SB, there has been an UTG raiser to 900, and ABBA simply makes the call. The UTG now makes a comment about Phil or I making a squeeze play from the blinds, ABBA laughs back, and I wake up to two lovely ladies (always a good thing, even in Poker). I oblige the UTG raiser, and reraise, to 3000. UTG now folds, and ABBA gives it some thought, not much, and simply makes the call.
Interestingly enough, when I raised preflop, Phil asked me to give a chipcount as if he was considering his own move. I don't really want a monster pot here.
I like this move by Phil. Perhaps he had no intention of entering the pot. I've made a big move from a weak position, and the chip count is an opportunity to study my hand movements and voice, probably as information for later. We now know I have 9600 chips, I appear confident about my hand, Phil folds, UTG folds, and ABBA's call in the wake of this drama helped pin me on his hand.
I now know ABBA has a hand. It is a very good hand, but a hand to see the flop with. My gut says AK, and my read will have a big impact on the play. I'm going to use ABBA's talkative, gregarious nature against him (just a bit).
The flop is a glorious 10 high no draw. I am certain I am good, and I put the rest of my chips in.
ABBA tanks, and wonders aloud whether he has the best of it. I tell him he will have to pay to see if his AK is good. His response confirms I have him on a hand, and I ask him, "I've put you on a hand, have you put me on a hand?" He sighs, and says probably an overpair, and eventually mucks. I reward his insight with a peep show of my ladies (25 cents a gander, gentlemen!).
WHY OH WHY DID THE MASTER OF SNEAK PUT ON SUCH A DISPLAY?
- I'm new to the table, expect to be here a while, and I will need to steal later, and the drama might help me out;
- I DID NOT WANT A 4-WAY POT PREFLOP HOLDING QQ;
- with the aid of Phil's chip count on me, I have put ABBA in his hand, and I have a 7500 chip pot here. I risk a marginal 25% but still realistic suckout with two cards to go knowing he has two live overcards to come. Greed kills every time. I think if I play it any other way, I induce the call, but this is a happy pot and I want it.
In other words, QQ is vulnerable, unlike my KK lesson from Tuesday inviting you to trap to find a three way big pot to triple up.
ABBA got caught in the middle AGAIN holding AK on a Q high flop with Phil THE NEXT TIME WE WERE IN THE BLINDS, having committed all but 6000 chips to find Phil check-raising all-in to a 3000 (weak, and obviously weak) ABBA bet in a strongly raised pot.
I will push ABBA around AGAIN with QQ in the blinds THE NEXT TIME AROUND, but all players folded that time.
ABBA will get the better of some weaker players, who have sensed his ability to make big folds. He got 3 way action holding AA, against two short stacks with 109 and 77, and pulled a few chips back.
I, on the other hand, get to exploit my own aggressiveness from the blinds soon after.
UTG, I had made a moderate raise of 1100 against 200/400 blinds holding AA. I got no action, and showed AA.
The next hand, a pretty aggressive player in middle position who has been stealing a lot makes a raise to 1600. Play folds to me and I joke about my monsters in the blinds and how I'll see AA two hands in a row.
Then I peek at my cards. Big Slick. I don't hesitate to push all 16,000 chips into the middle. It was an instant all-in similar to the play Al busted his two ladies chasing KK on Monday. Obviously AK is not KK. But I'm in a zone, and I must have picked something up from the raiser.
He obviously didn't pick up anything from me. There was nothing to read, of course, until I looked at my cards and said I was all-in. Amazingly, he thought AJ was good, and made the call pretty quickly, as Al did Monday, but jeez guy, instacalling with QQ is one thing, but AJ? For all your chips when you can just as easily fold? No suckout for you.
I am suddenly chip leader with over 30,000 chips with 18 people left.
Now life is not all wine, roses and paired painted ladies for the PokerMonster. When I have hands to push and raise with, I get pushy, and in spite of all these big hands I have either shown or shown down at this table, my raises get action. When I open the pot in the cut off or button, there are nothing but hungry short stacks in the blinds, and of course I am only pushing when I have a hand, but do I get credit for a hand? Forget it.
The first time I push 66 into a very short stack VERY happy to wake up to AQ. He catches and I don't mind. But the next time I push with A 10 (a very strong hand vs two random desperate blinds), I have to pay 6000 off two shortie #2 who decided to call with K3 sooted (and caught a 3)
Phil Ivory had escaped to the other table. After a point I am annoyed, and back down to 15000 chips, and ecstatic when they move me to Phil's table.
I have position now on Phil, and decide to take some advantage of Phil's respect for my game. We are 14 handed now, and with blinds 500/1000/150 and 500/1500/200, my 15000 will whittle down if I play too tight, and is too little now to gamble a double up.
Thankfully, the whole dynamic is different at this table. More stealing and less big pots.
Soon into my time there, I notice Phil is doing his share of raising. with 500/1500 blinds, his steal attempts are bets of 4200 consistently.
Let me talk about this particular stealing bet price. 2.5x the blinds in consistent betting is a technique I have seen often. The bet is small enough to get away from a raise. It is big enough to force your opponents to define their hand and play a pretty big pot when the average stack looks like mine. Betting the same, we don't know whether he is raising to steal or raising a big hand for value.
But having spent some time with Phil, I have poked a few holes in his armour. First, I am all too aware of this technique for stealing/disguising big hands. Second, he knows I will reraise any amount including all-in with big hands (and guess what? I'm going to change gears on Phil later too). He saw my moves with both QQ and my huge all in with AK. Third, I seem to be able to detect a little concern in his eyes when he has something to be concerned about.
With a meager A8 spades, I move against Phil's standard steal raise all in. He tanks. He likes to tank and play stare down. He, like Phil Ivy, shuns sunglasses, but I can stare back with impunity. I do not play statue. I shift my posture. At one point I start acting bored. I grab some fries from my plate of dinner and munch absentmindedly.
I say one thing, eventually, after probably 2 full minutes of tanking, "You've seen how I play". That is enough to force him to muck.
This play sets a nice tone for me at the new table. The next hand I will see and play is 10 10, and I am UTG, so I just go all in with it. I get folds and I show it, and tell the table I didn't want the suckout action. I will also steal against a limper UTG and show A10 hearts to the folders when we are 6 handed.
During bubble time, with so many similar sized stacks, caution while stealing is the name of the game. I had too many chips to get a call, and I knew the UTG player was a cautious player from pots before and play at the other table. He had even limped in QK from the SB to play against my K8 BB, and I learned much after I had bet the turn A after a A 4 5 flop had been check check. He told me he had QK after I told him I though K high was good there.
This is another key similarity with the online game. 2 tabled, stacks do not have a huge variation in size. The biggest might be 30,000, with plenty in the 15,000 to 20,000 range, and shorter stacks with 7000-10000 busting up the online game to the final is tougher, as the blinds are smaller, levels longer, and the blind grind not as onerous.
Somehow, his caution fell by the wayside the very next hand when UTG and Phil had an all-in showdown. Phil's AA almost got sucked out on, when UTG's 77 hit what I will be told was the case 7 on the flop, only to be busted by the case A on the turn.
This blog is long. I'm going to edit and continue with the final table in the next blog, but without delay. Just gonna head to the casino and buy into saturday's game.
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