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Monday, August 21, 2006 

BACK ON THE HORSE AGAIN

Or should that be the Fox? I am returning to the home of poker (no not Las Vegas, or at least not yet); my home of poker is situated in The Cotswolds. Last week I played in the semi-final of the Heads-Up Tournament. Poker is above all about information - often incomplete, and just like the wider world, whoever controls the information controls the game. So why am I telling you this? I had won my quarter-final against a fair player - half-way through The Greek had kindly offered to deal for us, and had asked to peak at some of the mucked cards. So he saw me winning pots with nothing - heads-up play (one on one poker just to make it clear). Anyway as it turns out I end up being drawn against The Greek for the semi-final. So he has some information about me and how I play (Level 1), but I know this (Level 2), but I am confident he is not up to Level 3 thinking, which is complex: He does not know that I know he knows. So I control more information than he does.....

So we sit down with 5,000 in chips, blinds of 25-50 with a 15-minute clock (this means the blinds double every 15 minutes, ensuring a more rapid conclusion) and I pick up in the small blind (also the dealer, so I have a huge positional advantage):

HAND ONE: MY HAND



We have $5,000 dollars each in chips. I make the minimum raise, making it $100 to play. Whereupon the Greek raises a further $400, which I call (there is little point in reraising, as you will either win a smallish pot, or end up playing for most of your money pre-flop with odds of 55% at best, if he has two over-cards - KQ, AQ, AK, and around 20% if he has a bigger pair QQ, KK, AA). So I call - one reason I have made the minimum raise initially - keep control of the information). The flop....

HAND ONE: THE FLOP



Good news, but dangerous. He could have KQ and the nuts, but I am thinking more likely AK, AQ or a big pair.
So he bets out $500, which I raise a further thousand (to be fair he thought the bet was a further $500 - so he called, pushing $500 more in - the extra $500 came in on the turn, when I'd spotted the pot was shy). So the turn comes....

HAND ONE: THE TURN



This time he checks and I push-all-in, $3,000 more into a pot of $4,000 and he folds, showing me his cards....

THE GREEK'S HAND



I won the pot, putting me on a $7000-$3000, lead. I ended up winning the semi-final with the same hand pocket jacks, this time up against The Greek's 6-6: I put in the minimum raise $200 as the blinds had risen to $100-$200, he raised a further $600, I rearised him the rest of his stack, $1500 more and no miracles happened.

The Greek made several poor decisions:

1. Don't ask to look at people's muck cards (muck cards are folded cards that always remain unseen)- even if you are not involved. In poker your cards are the closest thing you have - you wouldn't ask to touch another man's wife, so stay the @*$# away from his cards. So he had bad karma going in, and I ended up making better use of the information than he did.

2. A-9 is a terrible hand in a full-game - you have only ace-high, with a poor kicker, although heads-up it rates to be well above average. I have raised, which to-be-fair could mean anything, so a re-raise is not out of place.

3. The size of the re-raise is at least twice as much as it should be. Reraise a further $150 to $200.

4. The fact that I have called a big re-raise and the flop is very dangerous makes his pair of 9s look pretty sorry. Check and fold would make sense. I don't mind the bet, but calling the re-raise, even if it had been the minimum raise was sweet charity

5. The biggest mistake of all, in my humble opinion was his decision to show me his cards. I now had further control of the information, and finishing the job was simply a matter of keeping the pots small, seeing flops, and staying safe - only build big pots when you have a genuinely big hand.

Next time I will tell you about the final - the good news being that I now had enough points to ensure a top-16 finish in the League, which plays off in under 100 minutes. I start with just over 3000 chips, squeaking into 15th place, as opposed to Pete, our leader, who has over 6000 chips. There is only one winner - a prize of 1600 pounds, which comes in the form of a tournament entry. If the winner goes onto cash in the tournament, 30% goes to the other 15 players.......

5:36 PM | Permalink |  

Monday, August 07, 2006 

KEIR CASHES $46K - 211TH PLACE

Keir Fitz-Gibbon busted out yesterday, as the WSOP proceeds apace. I have had to return to the UK earlier than planned, so didn't play any more bracelet events. I did manage to convince Mr. Bull to play in a tourney at Caesar's - my Aces fell to a set of Fives (or should that be a bunch of fives). Mr. Bull put all his chips in with pocket Jacks and a taunt to 'The Kid', who he informs me had been mouthing off three seats to his left. Anyway 'The Kid' called him with pocket 2s, as did an AK, and The Kid hit a third 2 on the turn. So Mr. Bull joined the $1-$2 cash-game, and proceeded to get lairy. He made his money back and more, only to lose his jacket full of cash, phone, wallet....Waking up miserable, he was soon delighted when a call to Caesar's revealed the honesty of the poker-room staff - all present and correct, with considerably more cash than Mr. Bull remembered. My night went well, considering I was down $500 after two hours of poker. I fought back and was just approaching profit when the 9-8 of hearts appeared with me on the button....Under the gun raised to $17, called in 2nd seat, and by me. The small blind went all-in, a further $45, reraised by the Big Blind, a weak player with just under $200, a further $45. The original raiser, with $900 in front, called (a big mistake - he should have reraised with his pocket Ks, and I made a decision that I was not going to jeopardise the $700 in front of me, on a drawing hand. The flop came 10-3-2 with two hearts, and the rest of the money went in. The turn was the spade Jack, which would have given me 6 more outs (The weak player had pocket 7s) and the river was the Diamond Queen. I played safe, but could have won a monster. The first rule of poker, thanks to Amir Vahedi, "In order to live, first you must learn how to die".

6:51 PM | Permalink |  

Saturday, August 05, 2006 

WSOP UPDATE: KEIR BUSTS McEVOY

I have just received a text from Las Vegas: Keir Fitzgibbon just took Tom McEvoy (author of the first poker book I ever bought and previous winner) down for all of his chips. Keir now has $250,000, as of 10 p.m. UK time, 2 p.m. Vegas - two hours into Day 4.

10:29 PM | Permalink |  

Tuesday, August 01, 2006 

LOW AND ROLLING

The Low-Roller is a little bit low and rolling - luckily what goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas. With one level to go before the day's completion I busted out. The killer hand came for me when I flopped a set of 9s (with a board of Q-9-3 with two hearts. So I come out betting, trying to build a pot, having raised initially, he raises me with K-10 of hearts and I pump it up, coming over the top - so he calls and hits a heart), leaving me crippled. With blinds and antes totalling 1100, I go all-in with my stack just under 4000 and my A6 gets called by The Iranian's AK - Bye Bye Low-Roller!
I can not be sure what the next move is, but reaching into the fridge for another Corona sounds pretty good right now. Leonard Cohen just came on the ipod shuffle, and Mr. Bull and I laughed a lot - what's he got to be so miserable about? I am searching the room for that glass half-full, and have discovered the WSOP schedule, event number 40 (now there's a good number ho, ho - third time lucky and all that.) Event number 40 is a mere $1,000 buy-in event on Thursday, lasting we hope for two days.
I feel wiser, and humbler, and there's a lot to this game that eludes me at moments, but then I play some hands like a man possessed. I Started badly when my nut straight got topped by a flush, and I went down to $4275, only to build it back up to $16,000, which was by then an average stack. It would be fair to say I failed to maximise when I did hit - preferring to take down a moderate pot, knowing I had the best hand, rather than attempting to build a bigger pot at the risk of being drawn out on, and going bust. I will just give you two hands to cheer you up - Firstly with me holding 98 of hearts in the small blind, the cut-off, who's quite loose raises to $600 with blinds of $100-$200. I have a stack of $8,000 and am wondering whether to call a sixteenth of my chips - in a cash-game it would be trivial. I think of Positively Fifth Street, remembering that it is the author's lucky hand, and make the call for $500. The flop comes K-K-10 and I think a while, before betting $500 at the pot of $1,400, and I take it down, at very little risk. It seems quite trivial now, but it felt good at the time. The second one was also in the small blind, when I call three limpers with J-9 offsuit. The flop comes Q-10-5, with two clubs, and I check, and the cut-off bets $500, called by the button and called by me. The turn is a four of hearts, giving the board a second heart, and I bet $1,100, which takes down the pot. Right I've done that - just needed to re-assure myself that I can play poker.

The experience has been good, and I am not done yet. If nothing else I have enjoyed the writing above all else. Vegas is quite a place - Lovely Linda escorted me home - now don't get the wrong idea - she was my taxi-driver home, and Linda, I learnt yesterday means lovely in Spanish. She was great and did in fact give me the option to raise all-in with some girls to the room, but I reckon I have been all-in enough to last me... well at least til Thursday.

Don't know how this will read in the cold light of day, but I feel let down, and that the dream is punctured, and your hopes too, but the glass is still half-full, and filling up by the minute - or is that my beer glass? I welcome any suggestions, comments, but sympathy no - not my thing. So here we go, publish and be damned!

1:45 PM | Permalink |  

LOW-ROLLING BUT RIDING HIGH

The question now is "Should I go down to the 7-11 and buy another 6-pack of Corona?". Bill Hicks is doing the business on the ipod (thanks to The Sanskrit Professor are long overdue). Mr. Bull is still with us at 4.55 a.m, deep into Positively 5th Street, and we are considering our options - we managed to run the battery flat on The Taurus, with the in-car fridge - an omen if ever you saw one. Mr. Bull was last seen in the car-park at The Rio, trying to frutilessly push-star an automatic, which I now believe to be an impossible feat.
My decision is pretty much made up. I am here and I am staying, prepared to gamble some more, with the lottery of life's dice. Tomorrow we should secure our press-pass, and with my video-camera and suit, I can go in search of the story. I think we shall see a Brit or two at The Final Table - perhaps it is coming home. Wayne Rooney has been sent off, but it can still be done - but watch out for The Swede (they have the highest representation of any nation per capita). The Swede nailed us once....so be prepared, as I'm going to be writing more than Id intended. We have lost some big names today, Chip Reese, winner of the WSOP's biggest event, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event - I did outlast him. Lennox Lewis too, and he joined the tournament four hours in. The answer anyway is no - the 7-11 is too far away, but room service could do the business. Is anyone out there?

1:44 PM | Permalink |  

ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD

Tomorrow is another day, or more truthfully today is another day. I feel a huge release of pressure - playing NLH for 10K has not been relaxing. Next time, and there will be a next time, rest assured, I will be more relaxed. I do have a self-repeating tendency to pile pressure on myself. If the truth be told, I could have given the weaker players the opportunity to off-load all their chips, rather than steady increments, and then I'd have played the KJ offsuit - the hand ended with The Iranian going all-in with the idiot end of the straight - I would have had the nuts, being tripled-up by a two-pair merchant. So my first attempt at The Big One was not meant to be - I have a lot to learn before I'll be taking any bracelet, other than the ones Gerald Ratner pedals. All my moves hit a brick-wall, and my AKs came thick and fast. This one was typical: With $700, in the pot from blinds and antes, I bet $900 with AK of Hearts. Belushi in the small blind, who will never fold a small blind, says call, pushing a further $150 in on junk, having not heard the raise: so he is forced to put the full $900 in -$600 more. The board comes 7-5-2, no suits and he checks, I bet and he raises all-in - yes, I should have checked, and yes, I do fold - the gamble is 3-1 for my whole tournament. Dawn is arriving in Vegas - the construction industry already cranking up, The Rio a long way away, but all is well. I have moved on. I am dreaming the next dream, and I want to play more poker - this town has my money. I want it back.

1:22 PM | Permalink |