Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Run down

My main PC kinda died on Monday so I felt less inclined to play much online on one of the slower ones at home while I waited for the new one to arrive.

Hence, I spent more time reflecting in the "Where to from here" mode. Still made no firm decison on what my main online game should be. Till now I've been the ultimate dabbler, doing a bit of everything without really concentrating or specialising. That said, about 90% of my profits online have come from cash as opposed to tournaments. Problem is I don't seem to enjoy cash, but don't seem to be able to sustain the same hourly rate playing SNGs or MTTs. Or maybe I haven't done enough tournaments to be able to say.

Running hasn't been going well either. A speed session at the track on Monday was an utter fiasco: my heart didn't seem to be in it. Not for the first time this year I found myself wondering if my days as a runner are drawing to a close. I can't imagine every going back to being a couch potato, but I could myself returning to being the recreational runner I started out to be before my characteristic insanely competitive nature took over. On the other hand, I don't want to look back in 10 or 20 years when I'm too old to be competitive internationally and think I wasted my opportunities.

I need to get my enthusiasm and attitude back. I've just been confirmed as an automatic selection for this year's World 24 Hour Championships in Seoul in October. I have a feeling that race will tell me what kind of future I have left in ultra running, and I want to give it my best shot at least. If you can't get excited about representing your country at the world championships of your sport, you're probably done.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Luck and first principles

Now that there seems to be at least one other person occasionally reading this blog, I've decided I should probably supplement the content so it's not all just boring brags or whining about beats. So I'm adding boring general thoughts and pontifications on poker.
First: luck in tournaments. I know a few serious poker players who felt Doyle Brunson let the side down when he said luck was a bigger factor than skill before the Irish Open. But I think there's little doubt that in any one tournament, luck plays a bigger role than skill (in the long run, the reverse is true of course).
I think a lot of players focus on one very narrow aspect of luck: the suck out (and selectively when they are done unto them). Good players tend to get their money in good so they will be sucked out on more, and suck out less, than bad players. That's not to say they can't get lucky. As I've said before, to win three consecutive races where you're 70/30 favourite is almost as lucky as to win one where you're the 30/70 dog.
Your marginal decisions can greatly result the outcome of a tournament, as can the marginal decisions of others. Harrington has an example of what he calls "hidden luck" in his first tournament book. Looking at a hand where he had a marginal decision as to whether to call or raise with AK, he showed that not only would the outcome have been very different for him if he'd raised, but also for every other player at the table with an interest in the hand.
There are other manifestations of hidden luck. Ever looked down at a raggy ace and decide you'd try a blind steal if it was folded round to you, only for someone to raise ahead of you, and then the BB pushes because he just woke up with Aces? Lucky. Or decided that the guy who raised from the cutoff for the third time in a row needs to be taught a lesson so by God you're shoving your 10-5 off from the BB, only for Tighty McTight to beat you to it from the SB with some muck like Queens, and runs into the blind stealer's Aces? Lucky you again.
It's lucky to get it all in preflop with Jacks against 10's. Guy could just as easily have had queens. Lucky to pick up Aces when someone else has Kings. Lucky to get AK when he's got AQ. Etc. etc.
There's also the timing of your luck. When I was all in shortstacked with 8's at the weekend against 5's and a 5 hit the turn but an 8 hit the river, my first reaction was I was glad my 8's had held up. My second was I'd rather my Kings had stood up against the 5's in my exit from the WSOP ME. If you get lucky in your local pub freezeout, does it make up for the time you got unlucky in the Irish Open?
The second thing I want to witter on about is the importance of being able to think from first principles. While in Vegas I read a Mike Caro column in which he was asked was it essential to know the maths underlying poker and he said no, so long as you knew the corect strategies which had been worked out by those who do. Of course he's right: if someone tells you that you need 2 to 1 pot odds to call an allin with a flush draw, you don't need to know how the 2 to 1 was calculated. You don't need to understand why it's push or fold when you're shortstacked so long as you do it. You don't even need to know why it's sometimes better to push with Q10 (on the button, folded round to you) than with AQ (in second position, when a tight player has raised UTG).
That said, it helps to understand the maths. Sometimes what appears like a standard situation has some subtle differences that totally change the optimal strategy. These most often arise on the bubble of a tournament, or in satellites. An example arose at the end of the last tournament I played in Vegas, the Caesar's Palace nightly $170 game.
We'd played down to a final table of 10, with 9 prizes. I have a slightly below average but comfortable stack. It's folded around to a guy with a smaller stack, who shoves from the cutoff. I've played with him a bit to know he shoves light here and assess his range as almost any Ace, any two paint cards, any pair. Coversely, with a genuine biggy like a premium pair or a big ace, he'd either do a small raise or a trappy call. I look down at A10s in the BB which is well ahead of that range so I have an easy call. Granted I'm not very much ahead of most of his likely holdings, but if you want to win tournaments rather than sneak up the money ladder, you have to be willing to make those calls. He had KQ and I lost.
Now I'm virtually microstacked, with an M less than one if I fold my SB. Standard short stack strategy would be to get it in next hand. I look down at 63off and know that I'll be at least a 30/70 dog if I put the chips in. There's a bunch of callers and the clear expectation is that I'll shove and it'll be checked down to burst the bubble. There's general consternation when I actually fold, leaving myself with a stack of precisely 10 antes.
The first point is that even if I somehow win the hand and quadruple up, I'm still short. I still need to get it in some time in the next orbit, almost certainly as a 30/70 dog. And even if I win that, I'll still be the shortest stack at the table! Given that my chances of winning with the 63o are probably 10% at best, I'm a 33 to 1 at least for that to happen.
The other point of my fold is the effect it had on the table dynamic. I made it quite clear my intention was to fold any two cards, even pocket aces, until I was all in on my ante. I even said so aloud several times, in effect telling the other three short stacks at the table that if their intention was to fold everything until I was out, they'd be microstacked themselves and no longer in the running for the major prizes by the time that happened.
A few hands later, one of them shoved and lost. I was in the money. A few hands later, another shoved and sucked out. A few hands later, I was all in on the ante. I was nominal BB in the hand but had nothing else to post. Several players said things like "Dude you should have been all in 20 hands ago". Amusingly, one guy shoved allin with only KQ (same guy I'd lost to originally with the A10) giving me protection and 8 to 1 on my ante. I hit one of my two undercards to scoop the antes. Now I was in the bizarre position that if I somehow won the next hand, I'd almost be back in the tournament with 2.5BB. I shoved blind with, it turns out, Ace 10, the big blind had J10, and sucked out.
Everyone else at the table was convinced I'd played my short stack incorrectly, because they read somewhere that when you drop below 10 BBs you have to shove virtually any two cards. But when you're microstacked to the point that you'll still be the shortie even with two lucky double ups, and there are other guys who can't afford to wait and let the blinds through them to have any chance at a big prize, and virtually all your remaining equity is your slim chance of sneaking into 9th, then folding everything is mathematically correct.

Monday, July 28, 2008

4 betting with air and other advanced pro strategies

Finished up 4th in JP's 250 game. Played pretty well overall I thought, although I got two marginal decisions wrong and ultimately the tournament probably hinged on them.
First one: I'm playing 87s on the button against Paul Ward (in the small blind) and Paul Coyle. Flop of 987, Paul Coyle leads out for 20K. Paul bets every scary flop like that and keeps betting if he's not raised so after a bit of thought I decide to just call. Unfortunately the other Paul calls too and now I have no idea where I am when an Ace hits the turn. Paul Ward plays a lot of medium aces so I figure there's a strong chance he's just hit two pairs. He checks, Paul Coyle bets 40K. Any raise now pot commits me so I decide to just call and see what the other Paul does. Really I'm more worried abouh him as I'm 80-90% confident in my read that Paul Coyle is bluffing. Paul Ward calls behind. The board gets even more horrible when a Jack hits the river making a straight for anyone playing a ten. Paul Ward checked, Paul Coyle bets 60K and I hate the spot I'm in. I'm still reasonably certain I'm ahead of Paul Coyle, at least enough to make the call, but have no idea what Paul Ward has. I stare at him a while trying to get a read, he looks calm and disinterested, and I can't decide whether he's weak or strong. Eventually I decide there are too many hands he could be playing that I'm behind (any two pairs, a straight with the ten) and really only one I'm beating (a 6, which seems unlikely) so I fold. To my dismay, he instafolds and Paul Coyle triumphantly turns over pocket 2's to prove he was bluffing all along as I suspected.
From that point on, Paul's stack just grew and grew. He was a bit ropey early on but once he got his stack he played it very well. I kept hoping to pick up a hand against him I could go with but it just didn't happen by and large. I took a few pots off him with air to keep in reasonable shape but apart from that it was pretty much one way traffic from everybody else's stack to Paul's. Once Paul Quinn and Dave Masters (who I had a great chat with before: lovely guy and awesome player) were gone, nobody else at the table seemed willing to play back against Paul with the honourable exception of Damian Kavanagh.
Second one: we're 4 handed, I've been card dead for a stretch, I button raise to 60K with K10s, Derek calls in the BB. Flop is KJ6 with two diamonds, he checks, I bet 60K, he shoves. After a dwell, I'm reasonably certain I'm behind, but not certain enough to fold and even if I have I almost have the odds to suck out if he has the hand I suspect (aces). While Aces is the most obvious candidate there, he could be doing the same move with Queens, a worse king, Ax of diamonds, Q10 etc, so I called. He did indeed have a very cleverly played pair of aces and I didn't suck out and now I've doubled up a dangerous player.
Funnily enough, I'd be talking to my PH and mentor Nicky Power the previous day, and that hand mirrored his exit. Unlike my rather weak crying call though, Nicky played it right when he shove/4 betted for several thousand big blinds with his K10 and the other guy unfortunately wasn't good enough to get away from his aces pre-flop. Advanced strategies like 4 betting with air are why Nicky's sponsored. Hopefully he'll let us in on a few more of those advanced pro secrets in his regular columns for BrucePoker :)
After that, I was short. I jimmied my stack up to 12 BB. Paul Coyle was pretty much running over the table and the new dynamic seemed to be that the other two shorties were just trying to outlast each other. As the shortest of all, I had the least to lose so I decided first hand I got against Paul I was shoving. That hand was KQs when he button raised. I shoved from the SB, he called with A5o, I hit a monster draw flop (J97 with two of my suit) but missed my 18 outs twice.
Obviously I was disappointed not to take it down but apart from those two marginal decisions I was happy overall I gave it my best shot. I made some good laydowns which kept me in it at different points.
Really great tournament, great venue and atmosphere and the structure was so brilliant that it was really only at the end after 14 hours play that it got crapshooty. As I've said before, we're really fortunate in this country to have the likes of JP and Neill Kelly organising great tournaments with great structures for reasonable buyins. Compared to the crapshoots you get in the UK or the US for those buyins, we're truly blessed. Also, JP seems to have taken on a lot of Cool Hand Luke's staff so the dealers were very good too.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Another final table

Had planned to spend the day doing online donkaments lol but now have the much more pleasant prospect of a final table in Citywesy in JP's new place. Great tournament, structure, atmosphere etc., and something of a miracle I'm there and decent stacked. I lost 14K of my 20K starting stack VERY FIRST HAND when I ran a flush into a bigger flush. I deserved to be out because I played it horribly. Also: note to self, stop playing suited connectors. They just don't work out for me.

Was down to 12K (6 big blinds) a bit out from the bubble when I raised with Jacks on the button. Derek Mulligan check raised me from the BB on a queen high flop and I decided I had just about enough to fold and scratch my eyes out when my read told me I was beat. Next hand I picked up pocket 8's and came over the top of the hijack's limp, he called with pocket 5's which I told him was my bete noir hand, sure enough he hit a 5 on the turn, but I sucked out on him on the river. Then a rush of cards and most importantly having my hands hold up when I got it in good and I surged to 371.5K by end of play.

Very interesting table, and played all day with Dave Masters which was a truly great experience. Boring TAG that I may be, but nothing excites me more than watching a really good LAG in action. Plus Dave clearly went to the same school of poker that the likes of my mate Mark Dalimore, or John O'Shea, went to. Guaranteed to tilt a few guys at the table, and entertaining to watch. I think at least some of the donations I received on my way to the final table were at least partly the result of Dave's table talk.

Anyway, as ever, all I can hope for is to play well, run good and not make any fatal mistakes.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Ids and ands

First, let me just say how thrilled I am to hear that my PH, Nicky Power, has landed a sponsorship deal. Long overdue, IMO, and Bruce Poker have been very sharp not to miss a trick unlike the other operators in the Irish poker market by snapping up Ireland's most charismatic and popular-with-the-grassroots pro. Hopefully this is the start of some high profile TV appearances and the like for the world's only 50 year old man to bear an uncanny resemblance to a TV cartoon baby.

Also, belated congratulations to all the Irish who cashed in the main event, especially young James McManus (Hawkeye on boards) who sounds like he had a most eventful first Vegas :)

Not much to report myself, been grinding along online and planning my forthcoming live outings. As of now, the plan is to play JP's game in Citywest on Saturday, followed by the Fitz EOM the following Thursday, the Sporting monthly game the following Saturday, then the following Wednesday I head to Luton for the GUKPT leg there, and then back for the Irish Classic in the Macau in Cork (which I've also qualified for online).

On the running front, I've managed to shed most of the excess weight I gained in Vegas and proved to myself that not all was lost there by winning the old-but-not-too-old (ie, over 40) section of the latest Lord Mayor Series 2 mile road race in Raheny last night.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Over but not out

Back from Vegas and recovering. Not so much from the trip or the flight home as the horrific discovery when I climbed on to my scales at home that I gained almost 9 pounds! While I kept the running up, it seems that the American diet and portion sizes and irregular eating hours/habits did more damage than running in 40 degrees could repair.

I continued my late Vegas rich run of form by making the final table of the Caesar's Palace nightly tournament on our last full day in Vegas for my 7th cash of the trip and my 5th in the last 4 days. Given that I played only 24 tournaments, I maintained my normal ratio of cashes/tournaments entered from home. Unfortunately, they were the wrong tournaments (ie, the smaller ones I played near the end after the bigger ones were over) so overall I had my first ever losing trip. Good experience though, and plenty of positives to be taken. Overall I played very well, but ran pretty horribly. I can really only pinpoint two tournaments where I made serious mistakes: my exit hand from the $2000 NL side event against Dave Stann (aka Hollywood Dave) was horrible, and I played the Limit event quite poorly early on. All my other exits were as a result of cumulative suckouts or, occasionally, card death. As Johnny Moss once said, all I can do is keep getting my money in good, and I did that consistently.

The main positive is that my game stood up to the battering it took, both psychologically as a result of the seemingly never ending suckouts to the bad players, and technically to the probing of the good players. After the Day Ones of the main event were over, almost all the bad fish left town, and even small nightly tournaments had a very unhealthy pros to fish ratio, making them some of the toughest tournaments I've ever played in. The fact that I managed to overcome the disappointment of what had happened in the WSOP and keep playing my best game to rack up 5 cashes in 4 days is something I'm happy about.

I also won overall in cash (which I should probably have played more of), which is heartening.
Some thoughts on the American game. Like everything else about America it seems, the good (poker players) are very very good, arguably better than the rest of the world, while the bad (the vast majority) are much worse than the worst specimens you'd find anywhere else. It seemed to me that this might be because with their can do attitude most Americans think they should be able to play poker well (even if they patently can't), whereas in the rest of the world only those with some natural aptitude persist. It took a while to adjust to just how bad the so called recreational players are and to figure out how to best exploit their typical errors. The main one is a total overrating of pairs: any pair, no matter how small, it seems is worth either going allin with, or calling an allin, from any position. There were guys moving all in under the gun for 100 big blinds with pocket 2's: I kid you not. Conversely, they totally underrate Ace King, regarding it as drawing hand muck to be discarded as soon as somebody raises. Had a bemused conversation with Rob Taylor about this a few days into the trip where he pointed out that back home (here in Ireland) you wouldn't push all in automatically in all situations with a pair of 10s because you wouldn't get called by a lower pair, only higher ones or at best Ace king, but in the US 10's is a great hand to push in with because anyone with a smaller pair will call you and anyone with Ace king will fold.

I think this is partly a result of the fact too that the typical US tournament is a shortstack crapshoot. We don't know how lucky we are in this country: even the $500 buy in events over there typically have 3K starting stack, 20-30 minute blinds, so become bingo fast. Hence, pairs are premium pushing hands. Hell, even the WSOP side events start with 3K or 4K stacks.
Standard was so bad in the main event, worst than the worse pub tournament I've ever played in here, than even with a modicum of luck, or rather the evasion of bad luck, I think I'd have gone very deep. Rob had "warned" me that standardwise, it's the worst tournament you'll ever play. Any half decent player over here would be ridiculously plus EV in the ME. Obviously as in any tournament that size though, you pretty much need to run like the wind to go deep. Already looking forward to next year, when the plan will be to get there earlier, and leave earlier too. As I said, the fish mostly leave town once they've donked out of the main event.

OK, enough about the bad players. As I said, the good players are very very good indeed. They tend to fall into two categories: old school pros who's default game is solidly TAG but who can open up when the conditions are right, and the Internet kids who are much looser. Of the two, the old school guys are tougher to play against because their game is so fundamentally solid you really need to prise their stacks from them chip by chip, they vary their game optimally, which makes them hard to read. The Internet kids give off more physical tells for all their hoodies sunglasses and Ipods, and to be honest they often play quite mechanically. Perhaps it's the result of multitabling to the point where all your decisions become standardised, but they don't vary their game as much as the old schoolers and once you've figured out their particular game, it's like you've broken the code. Plus raising every single time it's folded around to you on the button, cutoff or hijack is very transparent. A lot of dead chips to be had simply by reraising with ATC. However, these Internet kids are arguably more effective than the old schoolers against the fish as they are in more pots with them and outplaying them after the flop. It's high variance stuff though: I remember watching three Internet kids taking the piss out of two old timers on my brother's table in one tournament in the Venetian. Both old timers went on to final table, long after the 3 Internet kids were but distant memories as far as that tournament went.

Two random poker highlights: an attractive young American female pro (who used to be a stripper!) asking me in the middle of a hand if I was wearing red underwear (no idea who she was, but whoever she was she was getting texts from Mke Matusow and Kenna James all the time), and a Vietnamese boat person prop in our hotel casino accusing the brother and me of being hustlers.

Meanwhile, it's back to the online grind. Qualified from super satellites yesterday to the GJP satellites for the Irish Winter Festival and the GUKPT Luton. Played the satellites this evening. Went deep in the IWF one: 71 starters, three tickets, 6 left, when I got it all in on the turn with the nut straight against a flush draw. I just needed to dodge a diamond with one card to come, but couldn't manage that. Couldn't even kick the computer in disgust as the Luton satellite had already started and I was going well. Three tickets there too and I recovered from short stack status early on on the final table to nail one of the tickets. Yay! I do love satellites. Qualified for the satellite to Killarney on Ladbrokes tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Winding down

Just been playing small tournaments this week as my first Vegas trip winds down. Chopped one yesterday morning and followed it up with a second place in the afternoon, so at least the trip is ending on a bit of an upswing with 4 cashes in 3 days. In terms of cashes to tourneys ratio, I've done pretty well on the trip with a total of 6 cashes, but unfortunately from a financial point of view they came in the wrong tournaments. Also been staking the brother and he's been running even worse than me. Should probably be playing more cash as I win every session, games are really soft, but I find cash too much of a grind. Last full day today so plan is just to play a few more small tourneys. Looking forward to getting home to be honest. I've learned a lot on this trip, more on that when I have more time to reflect at home.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Mixed

Beat: played a single table winner takes all SNG for a ticket to the $5000 Venetian event plus 200 cash. 3 handed, playing brilliant, with 30K. Blinds 1500/3000 so we're into the bingo. Guy with 15K shoves, I call with AKs, he flips over 89. Ahead all the way till the river and beyond, or at least so we all think, until the guy who has just shaken hands with me and started to walk away notices there are 4 clubs on the board and his 8 is a club. So again, rivered. Got headsup with him shortly thereafter with an almost 4:1 chip deficit. Shove first hand with A9, he calls with A10, and it's all over.

Brag: chopped the weekly tournament in my hotel this afternoon to make a small dent in what I'm down overall on the trip.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Hell contined

I'm an optimist by nature but as suckout follows suckout I may need to rethink. Venetian Deepstack early on yesterday started great with an early double up when I hit a flush and one of the blinds decided his bottom 2 pair simply must be good. Then tried a move with a flush draw and overs on a Q high board, was priced in to call his allin reraise (with QJ, which is rubbish if you ask me since I could just as easily have had KQ, AQ, a set etc. etc.), missed everything and was short. Recovered to go deep into the last 100 but ran out of cards on the bubble and got caught pushing ace rag from le bouton. Ho hum. Today was even sadder. I played one early pot against Julian Thew quite badly when he sucked out on me (not the bad part: rather paying him off), then a few more suckouts and I'm down to half starting stack. Then I 5 bet with Jacks in the button and the SB and 4 limpers all call! Flop is 346 with 2 spades, original limper bets half pot, I think for an age before deciding his most likely holding is a draw or a pair between 6 and J, so I push. He instacalls with 7's and hits a 7 on the river. Gay. Managed a few small winning cash sessions meantimes. I'd be much better off if I'd stuck to cash on this trip but can't quite bring myself to do it.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Busto

Day 2 report, sadly not a long one.

Worked my way up to 11.5K, then took a hit with pocket 6's in the BB. I raised when the SB flatcalled, flop came 972 all spades, I continuation bet to see if my 6's were good, he stayed in, and I have to muck when a 4th spade arrives and he bets the turn.

Card death and lack of good situations saw me drift back to 5.5K when I get it all in preflop with Kings, called by 5's in the SB. First card out is a 5 and that's all she wrote. One thing I've learned on this trip is that American recreational players love their pocket pairs and will call anything with any pair, which is part of the reason why I pushed (looking for loose call).

Anyway, hanging around for another week or so so hoping to pick up a decent cash or two. Good luck to Irish still in.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Running so bad it hurts

OK, main event Day 1 minireport first.

The good: I played extremely well and survived.

The bad: I'm short with less than half my starting stack.

The ugly: Suckout after suckout after suckout. The reason I think it might be the best day's poker I ever played is my big hands kept getting cracked, and I kept realising just in time so that I didn't put a single chip into a pot when I was no longer favourite.

Early on my kings were cracked by Ace rag, Jacks by 107o (and I managed to get away on a 10 high board) etc. etc.

But my absolute favourite suckout of all time went thusly.

Bad LAG raised from the CO, 1K, just over 3 big blinds.

I make it 3K on the button with AK.

Doddery old fool who has been sucking out to keep saving himself flatcalls in the SB, as does the original raiser.

Flop AJ10 rainbow. OK, top pair, top kicker, but there are lots of hands these clowns could be playing that are beating me (and I don't just mean the obvious pairs: AJ, A10, J10 and KQ absolutely can't be ruled out on the basis of what has already transpired), so when it's checked around I bet 6K to see who is interested. The original raiser folds but the SB flatcalls, the alarm bells go off and I decide that checking the hand down would be a good result from here and not another chip goes into this pot if I can help it. Turn's an innocuous looking 7, and it goes check check. River's a harmless looking 2 and it's checked down. As I suspect, I'm beaten, but not by one of the hands I think: he has pocket 7's! How he called that flop bet would be beyond me if it were not for the fact that I'd seen him call everything down so long as he had a pair, any pair. So basically I'm about a 93% favourite when the last chip goes into the pot, which pretty much sums up the day.

I started the day by just drifting back faced by suckout after suckout. I was down to about 7.5K when I picked up pocket 8's late and 3 bet (600). The button raised big, 3200, pretty much announcing he didn't want a call. I'd seen him do that before with overrated low pairs (a common problem over here) so I thought there was a very strong possibility he had an underpair, so I pushed. I was obviously disappointed when he turned over AQ and we were racing, but the 8's held.

I'd worked up to 25K when the 7's suckout above happened. If I'd won that pot, I'd have had about 40K and really been in good shape.

Quickly afterwards, I picked up Ace King in the big blind. A guy who had been playing very tight but had just taken a bad beat to be short raised to 1.2K from early. He seemed to be tilting a little so I strongly suspected he'd called light with a weaker ace if I shoved, which is exactly what happen. But for I think the 7th time in succession, I just couldn't win an aipf with AK v. AQ. This time AQ found a new way to dog me with the queen ever showing her face: flop was a harmless looking 9 high one, but a jack on the turn and a 10 on the river filled a straight to the queen.

With about 20 minutes left on day one I was down to 3K, but a late triple up gave me some hope at least for day 2. I'll start with just under 19 big blinds so I'm not officially desperate yet, and I've had a few days to think about the best way to play a stack of 15-20 BBs.

Played a couple of small tournaments today, one in the hotel where I bubbled (running Kings from the button into aces in the SB), and the nightly $340 game in the Rio where I, yup, bubbled yet again, involved in a three way all in with ace queen suited in the big blind versus ace nine off in the small blind (who I covered) and 108 in the cutoff from the table bully. A 10 on the flop scooped the pot for the table bully. Shame, because if I won that pot I'd have been the big stack. The brother's still in though, which is some consolation (he also cashed in the hotel tournament this afternoon).

Been making some money playing cash in the hotel too, not enough really to make a serious dent in the amount I'm down in tournament buyins, but still better than nothing. If I just played cash all day in the hotel I'd probably be better off financially, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Great to see Gary Clarke and Donal Norton flying high at this stage in the ME. Gutted to see Rob Taylor exit in typically horrible fashion (his top set got sucked out on). Rob's one of the players on the Irish scene I admire the most and he's also a really nice and interesting guy but he's had the most appalling luck this year in Vegas.

Also spoke to John O'Shea who was going and playing great early on but unfortunately didn't survive the day. Great WSOP for him though with his final table.

I'm planning to take it easy tomorrow so as to be fresh for Tuesday's Day 2 where I'll be hoping for something similar to what happened to Gary late on Day 1 when he managed to jump from 15K to 80K in about 20 minutes. If it happens it happens but at the very least I'll be hoping to die well.

I somehow picked up a cold so my recent runs have been a bit curtailed but I might try something a bit longer tomorrow.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Mad dogs and Irishmen

Played the Limit shootout yesterday and exited 6th in the first round. I didn't play very well at all in the early stages, got a few marginal decisions wrong, which meant I was shortstacked when the blinds made it crappyshooty. Played that section well but then the strategy at that point - camp out till you get a hand you can push all the way - is pretty simple. Worked back up to almost starting stack but then had Aces cracked by 7's and that was that. After that, I ran back to the hotel (literally) and then ran about 45 mins more to make it an hour run. People were looking at me like I must be crazy to be running in 45 degree heat but actually it was quite pleasant. Did another 90 mins today but otherwise taking it easy till the Main Event kicks off tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

First cash

Albeit a very minor one in the nightly $340 tournament. Decided to take an easy day yesterday so just played the nightly tournament. Good decision as I was in a much better frame of mind and played my best poker. Patient early on for as long as the blinds allowed, then pushed when I had to with 8's and got a double up from an Ace 10. A rush of cards then saw me motor from 3K to 28.5K to be in good shape with 100 left. A couple of hits near the bubble meant I had to fold into the money. When the bubble burst, I had less than 3 BB, and was BB. A great situation arose when the monster stack on the button raised, the other big stack reraised, and getting 6 to 1 on my money I had a no brain call with any two. As it happened I had 109 off, and was up against Ace 7 off, with a better than sporting chance of more than tripling up to get back in the game. Alas, it was not to be.

Played the $1500 today and just got nothing to play with. When I tried to be creative I ran into monsters and by level 5 was in push or fold mode. Lost my first all in and that was that.

Still, very happy with my game overall and the main event is the main event, as it says on the tin.

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