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Saturday, July 08, 2006 

WHO IS MR MICAWBER?

Monday last, Mr Micawber finds himself in an olde-worldy tavern, sipping a quiet pint of ale, when the shout of "Shuffle up and Deal" echoes up from the next door room. Curious, Micawber wanders through to find a wholly unexpected, but not unwelcome sight: the back-room awash with card-players, smoke and anticipation, a poker tournament is all set to start. After a brief enquiry, his wallet £55 lighter, Micawber joins a table with a motley assortment of miscreants, preparing to gamble his week's pay, in the game that is sweeping the nation - No-Limit Texas Hold'em. Micawber, like so many others, has been studying the game for many months now, catching the broadcasts when he can, but so far unwilling to risk the prospect of personal misery that will surely ensue if the books don't balance at the end of the month. After an exchange of pleasantries, with affection beaming out of one eye, and calculation shining out of the other, Micawber settles in to play the best poker of his life, albeit the only poker of his life.

The tournament is a £50 freeze-out: no reflection on ambient temperature (Micawber had already seen off a couple of all-in hot flushes) - the freeze-out is a straight elimination with no opportunity to rebuy chips. After four hours, and with 23 runners reduced to a final table of eight, Micawber is struggling somewhat, waiting for some royalty to arrive. The top five are due to get paid out, and soon there are only six left, when a huge hand arrives:

With blinds of $700/$1500 - Nemesis, the chip-leader, with $25,000 chips, as near as calls 'under the gun' - this means he is sitting to the left of the big blind and so acts first. Grendel, next to act, with just under $22,000 raises $4,000. There are $115,000 in play - of which Micawber has $10,300 - he is now the small stack. He has 9-6 off-suit, so folds.

The Newcomer, on the button with around $24,000, thinks a while, makes like he could raise, before calling and the blinds fold. There is now $14,700 in the pot; Nemesis needs to put a further $4,000 to play (pot odds of 11 to 3 or so) so calls, and the flop arrives.

HAND ONE: THE FLOP



ACTION: Nemesis comes out firing, betting $10,000 and is immediately re-raised all-in by Grendel. The Newcomer manages to throw away his pocket Jacks and Nemesis makes a reluctant call &ndash he has Grendel covered (i.e. he has more chips). The cards come up:

NEMESIS - $25,200GRENDEL - $21,500



THE TURN



THE RIVER



OUTCOME: Grendel wins $49,200 with 3 Nines, beating 2 Pair. Nemesis has $3,700 left.

ANALYSIS: Neither Nemesis nor Grendel did much wrong – as usual in poker aggression pays – difficult for Nemesis to put Grendel on a 9. Once re-raised, Nemesis needs to put a further $6,000 in to win a pot of $43,200. (over 7 to 1) - in fact he is not quite getting the odds to call, if he puts Grendel on a 9 or an overpair, as he needs to hit one of two 10s left to win (around 11 to 1). If the Newcomer goes all-in, Nemesis probably walks away with $9,700 in tact.

THE NEWCOMER - $24,600



THE NEWCOMER has picked up a big hand, 6-handed, and it is easy to say that he could have won the hand by going all-in, but facing a raise under the gun, and an immediate re-raise from players relatively unknown to him, who can fault his play? His call gives him a chance to walk away if Nemesis goes all-in, and if Nemesis calls, he can be pretty sure he hasn't got a bigger pair. When Nemesis calls, he gets to see the flop with the other players acting first. He said subsequently, he was going to go all-in on the flop, but Grendel got there first.

GRENDEL rated to have KQ or better perhaps a smaller pair, and with the raiser still to act, the Newcomer was royally sandwiched. Nemesis's suspicious call is consistent with a possible big pair (he loves the 'slow-play' does Nemesis)

THE NEWCOMER ended up getting knocked out soon after in 5th. His whole game changed, once he was assured of a payout, he made the greatest mistake in poker - he relaxed. Play on 'the bubble' is tense and tight - a prime opportunity for larger stacks to make moves against players fearful of going home with nothing.

THE BUBBLE occurs when there is one player left before the money. At last year's WSOP after an inordinately long period on the bubble, Harrah's scored a PR hole-in-one by offering the unfortunate bubble-boy free entry into the next year's event: virtue is its own reward - the positive publicity was rated in the millions by a simple act of goodwill that was pure Jack Binion.

Initially on seeing the hand played out, Micawber had thought the Newcomer had misplayed the hand, pre-judging him as a rookie. After a few recent losses, Micawber had brought only £100 for the evening, which left him two blue £20s for the cash game: getting 5th in the tournament for Mr Micawber would mean the difference between misery and happiness: 5th place would mean £69 from a £50 + £5 outlay, with drinks on top. In fact the Newcomer's play held the key to Micawber's survival...

HAND TWO - MILLIONAIRE:On the very next hand Micawber is second to act when Grendel, with $49,200 calls for $1,500. Nemesis is the big blind, leaving him with $2,200 with a small blind of $700 on its way. Nemesis is gutted, and giving Micawber that Nemesis look, as if somehow this was his fault - 'We must face reverses boldly and never suffer them to frighten us', Micawber mutters to no-one in particular. Grendel has a monster stack, and is acting accordingly. A certain Mr. Heep in the small blind is slavering. Beowulf arrived in style at the final table but has been quiet ever since - but is now awakening. Everyone is sniffing blood. Mr Micawber looks down at his cards - he inches the first one, a letter not a number, black, the letter A. He looks again, a spade, the spade ace - his pulse quickens. He bends the other..

MICAWBER - $10,300



Micawber is still sitting on his hands, wondering what to do, trying to get a read on Grendel - but he is merely monstrous, when his phone beeps. He phoned Mrs. Micawber during the break and told her of his evening's entertainment - unfortunately she'd had less enthusiasm for the whole endeavour than he: "Mr. Micawber - your difficulties are coming to a crisis". He looks down at the message - searching for a life-line. The 'Big Lick', 6-9 could have won him the pot on the previous hand, how would the 'Big Slick', A-K fare for him. What should he do? Micawber picks up the phone, he thinks he's on 'Millionaire', he phones a friend......... your phone rings - it's Mr Micawber - what advice do you give him?

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