Monday, July 25, 2016

H8H8H8


Next event up was the Tag  Team event, which I entered with Daiva (one of the bloggers Christian dubbed our team Beauty And The Beast). This turned out to be the most fun event of the series and one I hope they repeat in future. Not much fun for us as a team though: Daiva played the first hour and preserved our starting stack without any real hands, and passed on a wealth of notes on hands played and opponent reads. I played the second hour and lost the lot with two premiums.

Hand 1: I open aces utg. An Asian playing every hand badly but hitting everything called in late position, as did both blinds. 

Flop
Kt7hh

I cbet and just the Asian called.

Turn 4 (non heart)

I bet and was called again.

River Q (non heart)

I checked to induce bluffs from missed flush draws, but when I called his half pot bet found he had a different draw that had got there (AJ with no heart)

Hand 2: last hand before the break. With less than 15 big blinds and queens, my only thought now is how to try to get all in as early as possible in the hand. So I min raise, the Asian calls, and the aggressive big blind squeezes. I now stick it in and it's off to the races against Ak after the Asian folds. The ten high all diamond flop gave him additional flush outs, one of which he hit on the turn, and all that was left was for me to find my team captain and break the sad news that she had no stack to return to.

My next event was another 1k NLH side event. This was another gritty grind it out performance to the cash but not much further. Still, I was happy with the performance and having gone some ridiculously high number of live events since February without a cash, it was nice to get a new streak of cashing two in a row (in solo events) going. The only downside was as I came back from dinner in day one I suddenly got one of the most violent sore throats I have in my life. This was the precursor to one of the heaviest colds I've ever endured which persisted for the rest of my time in Vegas and beyond. Most players seem to get sick at some point of the series (hardly surprising in a chilly crowded environment where most of us aren't sleeping or eating the best, and we are continually passing chips and cards to each other in an environment that could be described as a giant Petrie dish). I'd been feeling smug about having avoided the bug that it seemed everyone I knew had fallen foul off so I probably had it coming.

That left the main up next. I was intending to play 1b, the Sunday. Day 1c always dwarfs the others and the conventional wisdom among pros is its the best day to play as it's the day recreational players and satellite qualifiers go for to minimise their expenses. Of course, this also means it's the day most of the pros play, which is why in terms of overall numbers it tends to get twice as many starters as the other two days put together. This can make for pretty hellish scenes at the breaks when almost 5000 people simultaneously throng the corridors of the Rio heading to the restroom. The WSOP is supposedly doing everything they can to relieve this bottleneck, this year moving 1c to a Monday, making it the only non weekend day 1. I assume the thinking behind that was that a lot of recreationals would choose a weekend day over a Monday, but it didn't really work out that way for a number of reasons, at least one of which I think I know.

I'd qualified for the main through an 888 satellite a good while back. Most of the emails I got from that were short on information and long on demands (that I wear their patch among other things). I didn't really need the hotel room in the package so I asked them if it was possible to get a cash alternative (something most other sites offer, sometimes at a discount which is fair enough). They were quite vehement that it was not. I contacted their official accommodation agent who I know personally to see if they could work something out. I was surprised to be told that while they normally would try to accommodate me (and I've personally found them very accommodating in the past), they had been explicitly prohibited by 888 from doing this. It says a lot about 888 as a company that they go out of their way to act against the financial interests of their clients.

After sending a couple of emails enquiring about the registration process, I received an email suggesting I present myself at the cage on the Wednesday before. When I did, the nice WSOP lady told me they had received nothing from 888 yet, and she suggested I wait a day or two and try again. I waited til Saturday, and having inched my way to the top of a very long weekend queue, was told that my registration was there, but I had to go round to the other side of the cage to get it (where VIPs register, and payouts are done). I expressed a little surprise that the person I was talking to couldn't just walk the ten metres or so to there to get my ticket for me and save me the ordeal of another weekend queue in my flu-weakened state, but was told in no uncertain terms that she couldn't.

When I got to the top of the second queue I was told blankly that I hadn't been registered yet by 888.

"Huh? I've just been told on the other side that I was"
"By who?"
"I don't know her name but she had supervisor on the tag".

After disappearing off to consult with the supervisor, she came back and said I was registered, but had to go behind a curtain at the end of the room (this is not a joke: a literal curtain) into the employees only area to get my ticket.

Behind the curtain, three guys were discussing a satellite they'd chopped. I was told I'd have to wait til this was resolved before I could get my ticket.

First guy up was South American, without too much English. The lady told him his options.
"You can take 7400 in cash, but we have to withhold some for tax. Or you can get 7400 in lammers (the WSOP equivalent of tourney dollars), or you can pay the extra 2600 to buy in to the main event"
"I take lammers"
"Ok but I don't have lammers right now so you'll have to come back"
"I can get dollars?"
"I can give you money but then we have to withhold taxes"
"I don't want taxes. I take lammers"
"Ok but we don't have lammers right now. You'll have to come back when we do"
"When you will have? Tonight?"
"Probably not. I suggest you come back tomorrow"
"I come back tomorrow"

The next guy, an Asian, also with rudimentary English, now shuttled forward.
"You can take 7400 in cash, but we have to withhold some for tax. Or you can get 7400 in lammers, or you can pay the extra 2600 to buy in to the main event"
"I take lammers"
"Ok but I don't have lammers right now so you'll have to come back"
"I can get dollars?"
"I can give you money but then we have to withhold taxes"
"I don't want pay tax. I take lammers"
"Ok but we don't have lammers right now. You'll have to come back when we do"
"When you have lammer? Tonight?"
"Probably not. I suggest you come back tomorrow"
"I come back tomorrow"

By now a queue had formed behind me. A Scandinavian and a South American behind me asked if this was the 888 registration queue. I confirmed that it was, hopefully. My heart sunk when the Scandi confided that this was the fourth day in a row he'd been through this rigmarole, and still no tournament ticket.

The third satellite guy was French, and had apparently almost no English.
"You can take 7400 in cash, but we have to withhold some for tax. Or you can get 7400 in lammers, or you can pay the extra 2600 to buy in to the main event"
"Lammers!"
"Ok but I don't have lammers right now so you'll have to come back"
"Lammers?"

At this point, the Scandi lost patience and wailed "oh for God's sake they have no lammers". This just confused matters to a halt, and eventually I ended up acting as an impromptu interpreter to explain the situation to the French guy. He wandered off, and I was finally handed my main event ticket. Surprised to be just given one without being asked which day I wanted to play, I scrutinised the ticket to reveal I was down for 1c, on the Monday. When I told the WSOP lady I wanted to play tomorrow rather than Monday, she sent me back to the main cage queue (the one I'd started out in) to get it changed.

When I'd finally edged to the top of that queue, the guy tried to change my day but seemed unable to. He went off to get the supervisor. Together they peered at the screen for a while before she exclaimed "Oh, you're 888. They're not allowing us to change their qualifiers from day 1c".

So once again, 888, great at prohibiting their clients from things everyone else can do. And even if there's some sound reason behind forcing us all to play on the busiest day 1, it would be nice of them to tell us why. Or even that this was the case....at no point in my communications with them before, most of which as I said was them insisting on patches, was I told my day 1 was 1c, and could not be changed. When the WSOP later tweeted lamenting the day 1c logjam and asking for suggestions on how to alleviate it in future, Adam Owen tweeted back referring to my tweets that it might be an idea to have a word with their proud sponsors 888 and ask them not to force all their qualifiers to play 1c.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Event 56

After the previous night's shenanigans at McCarran airport, I didn't exactly get the amount of sleep I'd have liked before Event 56, a  normal 1500 NLH event. I wasn't particularly worried about that after a restful few days in New York. In my personal experience at least, cumulative sleep deprivation tends to be a much bigger issue than one or two interrupted nights.

I was a bit more worried when I lost a third of my starting stack in the early going. After my stack contracted to 5k (from 7500) I reminded myself that this was starting stack in the 1k events. When it dipped further to 3500 I started to think it would be another early exit. From that low point though I rallied and made my first day two of the series, bagging up a bit more than average.

I must confess I was pretty relieved to get safely through the bubble. I hadn't cashed a live event since a min cash in the Seniors at EPT Dublin way back in February., easily the longest cashless streak of my career.


I didn't keep count of the streak this time but I'm sure it smashed my previous worst 23/0 streak from a couple of years ago. I was keen to break the streak ahead of Vegas, but it wasn't to be. Ultimately streaks don't really matter unless you allow them to affect your game, so I stopped worrying about ending the streak and slipped into a mentality of "it will end when it ends".

I had a very good day two until near the end when I went into reverse. I'd love to go into some detail on the interesting spots but to be honest there weren't any: just a lot of standard situations. One of those became significant in light of subsequent developments. I opened aq in early position late in the day. D Peters thought for a while (even by his standards) and eventually shoved about 20 big blinds. The small blind who had just been crippled reshoved for less, and I folded quickly. It seems like a pretty clear fold as I had a tight image, had raised from early position, so many of the hands getting shoved for value have me crushed. AQ is a deceptively weak hand: it looks pretty good but against true premiums has only 30-35% equity.

I was happy with the fold when both players flipped over AK. However, the queen high runout does mean that had I made a suspect call, I'd have eliminated D Peters (and he therefore wouldn't have gone on to claim his first bracelet).

Although I'd have liked to get there with a healthier stack, following my first day 2 of the trip with a day 3 was heartening. Overnight I was 13/28, and as fate would have it, I ended up coming 13th. I lost almost half my stack in the early going, mostly standard spots, but there was one hand I could probably have played better.

D Peters opened in early mid position, and I elected to flat with eights on the button playing 35 big blinds. My thinking was the hand was not strong enough to get in for that amount, and I didn't want to 3 bet fold. The small blind (the only player older than me left in the tournament at this point) also called, so three of us saw a 532 rainbow flop. Checked to me, I decided I had to bet to protect my equity (I usually have the best hand now but there's a lot of two over card type hands with enough equity that I'd like them to fold now). Unfortunately I got check raised by the small blind, and D Peters folded. Since my opponent had just arrived at the table, I didn't know anything about him other than he was older. He also had the kind of neat nit stack (no low denomination chips) suggesting someone who has blinded down from the last pot won, rather then the rich in ante chip stack maniacs tend to have from all the small pots they contest and win. As I tanked he also looked very comfy so in the end I thought it's a pretty clear fold. I couldn't find too many hands he'd play like this that eights beat, and even hands I might be ahead of for now have a lot of equity.

I felt a lot better about the fold after seeing the villain fold every hand for the rest of the time we shared a table. If I had to put him on a single hand, I suspect my opponent had jacks. However the hand niggled me for a number of reasons so I spent the next few days soliciting the views of all the best players I talk through hands with. The fact that all but one agreed with the flop fold was heartening, but Gareth Chantler suggested that the flop bet was a mistake and in fact I should check behind my entire range in that spot. Although it's a hand that benefits from protection it's only of the very few in my range I want to bet for that reason, so I should be checking rather than turning my hand face up as vulnerable, on a board where my range is more capped than the two villains (they can have sets, I can't really). Eventually all the other players I consulted agreed with this view,. Dan then went on to suggest that since I couldn't bet even this benign flop for protection, that makes the hand very hard to play profitably post flop, so I would be better off to turn it into a three bet bluff preflop, which is what I think I should have done.

The fact that it took over half a dozen fine poker brains several days to reach this conclusion means I won't beat myself up to much about not finding the optimal line in game (also, not to be results oriented, but if I had three bet, chances are I would have lost at least as much if not more against jacks).

My only other moderately interesting spot was when I got aces under the gun with 12 big blinds. Card death meant I had an even tighter image than usual, so afraid my shove would just get through too often, I elected to min raise. Naturally this is going to arouse the suspicion of strong players (assuming they don't just think I'm some stack size unaware fish) but I thought they were a couple of weaker players at the table who might not notice. As it was, one of the better players had kings and had to talk himself into getting it in (reenforcing the point that this play can cost you action from better players who will interpret the shove as weaker). My aces held for a much needed double.

Unfortunately that was my high point, and by the time we got down to 13 I was the second shortest. I was still hopeful I could repeat my feat of last year (when i was shortest or second shortest all the way from 18 left to headsup). However that requires you to win a few flips, and in this occasion I lost my first one (ace king versus Ivan Luca's nines). I missed out on a 5k ladder by dint of that and another race Luca won a few hands earlier.

I wasn't as deflated by my bust as I thought I'd be, it was more a case of Oh well. I think there are a few reasons for that. The fact that the tournament was a grind from start to finish where I never had a big stack is one. Also, I think I was just relieved to have broken my longest cashless streak and prove I was capable of not just cashing but going deep again. I was also relieved to have provided a decent sweat and return on investments from my investors after a campaign of early exits. The amount of support I got from my rail both present and virtual was very heartening too. A big thank you to Andy Black, Dan Wilson, Padraig O'Neill, Groggsy, Martin, Carlos Welch and everyone else. I'm well aware that railing is a dull affair (particularly railing someone as restrained as me), all the more so when you have no financial self interest (of the name I listed, only Padraig had a percentage). This is one of the times in poker life when you find out who your real friends are.

As I was led to payouts, I saw my friend Daiva wandering around dizzily looking for me, having pulled herself away from sun bathing and waiting for her husband to land. She joined us for commiseration drinks in the Gold Coast, which somehow escalated into a drunken grocery shopping expedition, a rather surreal end to a day I had hoped would end with a bracelet, or at least another final table.

While we were drinking in the Gold Coast I had a quick look at the updates to see how Cathal Shine was getting on. At dinner on day 1, he told us he was going back to a very short stack. When I spoke to him again on day 2, he was still short. When I saw him on day 3, he was still short: shorter than me in fact. When I checked the updates, I saw he was still in,10/10, still short. I was therefore surprised as well as thrilled when we got back to the condo after the night out to hear from Dan and Smidge that Cathal had laddered all the way to second. I probably shouldn't have been surprised though: while he doesn't play that much live, for as long as I've been playing Cathal has been a mainstay on the Irish online scene. I think when I first became aware of PocketFives shinerr was the top ranked Irish player, and over the years when so many other top players have fallen by the wayside, he has remainedahead of the curve, a constant fixture near the top of the Irish list. Great player, great guy, great performance, fabulous result.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Daiva, modern day siren



Before heading to New York for a much needed mid series mini break and mental reset (I still felt I was playing as well as I can but also felt that might not continue if I continued being the dog that gets beaten every day and wakes up sad), I went to meet my friend Daiva who had just flown in from London to start her campaign. Any meeting with Daiva is pretty much a guaranteed morale booster, and here's how this went (I already tweeted  most of this so apologies to my Twitter followers for the repetition):

1. Go to Treasure Island to meet Daiva and go to steakhouse Smidge swears is great
2. Send her message we are in coffee shop near check in. Get message back saying she's in check in line
3. Walk to world's longest check in line. Fail to spot Daiva in scrum
4. Back to coffee shop. Text Daiva saying message me when you get to top of line and I'll come back
5. A while later, walk back after she texts. Spot her familiar blonde pony tail and shape at check in desk
6. Alarmed when the Daiva I'm watching check in texts back without touching her phone or interrupting her chat with check in person
7. Suspicions of disconnect between Daiva I'm watching check in and Daiva I'm texting grow when I see she's checking in with a guy who looks like an extra from the Sopranos in an episode that is some main characters last
8. Disconnect confirmed when I get text saying she's not staying at Treasure Island but at another hotel. Walk over to other hotel wondering why I ever assumed she was staying at Treasure Island (answer: I'm an idiot) and finally find her
9. Walk back to Treasure Island steakhouse with Daiva where an angry hungry cranky Smidge is wondering why what I said would take 2 minutes actually took 45
10. We order Caesar Salad to the apparent annoyance of waiter
11. Brought two of the mangiest Caesar salads in history (three lettuce leaves dipped in something or other with a couple of bread squares tossed on top)
12. After a debate as to whether we should accept these imposter Caesar salads, I watch Daiva steal some of Smidge's pasta dish he gloats is awesome. Hear her assure him it is far from awesome. Resolve to stop taking dining tips from Smidge or anyone else from Longford

13. Go for my first night of drinks with Daiva safe in the knowledge I just have to flop on a plane to New York after. Daiva is something of a modern day siren. Sirens were beautiful but dangerous creatures who lured sailors to shipwreck on the rocky coast. Daiva is a more benign version: she is such good company time flies by in her presence meaning I usually come close to missing planes when she's around, and once again I cut it fine by not noticing the time
14. Walk back to her hotel so she can order me an Uber only for her phone to die in the act. Lend her adapter so she can recharge phone. Now got a genuine might miss flight sweat
15. Forget to take adapter but make it to airport just in time to be told my flight is cancelled
16. After an hour in cancellation line, told I'm on a flight to LA in 6 hours where I can try to sprint to make a NY flight
17. Type up this note in the airport on my dying phone as tired drunkenness turns into a fretful hangover


18. Spend a pretty grim night surrounded by slots and cleaners in Vegas airport, wondering if a 48 minute connection in LAX is even possible



19. Take only 2 minutes to walk between the gates in LAX. Still almost manage to miss the plane watching everyone else at the gate wondering when the boarding will start
20. When I finally stroll to the gate 15 minutes before takeoff, I'm urgently told "Final boarding. Run! Run!" (I guess LA is a bit too laid back for boarding announcements). I do run run down the shoot, only to find myself sitting on a plane waiting to takeoff for over an hour.

The last time I was as relieved to see Mrs Doke as I was to finally see her in JFK was almost three decades ago when I wasn't certain that I'd successfully tricked her into leaving behind a perfectly fine life in Nurnberg for the craziness of coming to live with an eccentric Irishman in pre Celtic Tiger Ireland until she got off the plane in Dublin. And the last time an Irishman was this happy to see New York, there was a potato famine going on back home.


We stayed (as we always do) with our friends Russ and Nancy in their wonderfully located apartment on the Upper East Side a few blocks from Central Park. Wonderfully located it may be, but it might as well be in Queens as we rarely left it except to eat and drink :)


The name of the game was chill, and that we most certainly did. After a few days largely spent lying on sofas watching TV and chin flapping with Russ, it was time to head back to Vegas for round 2 of my WSOP this year. In terms of outcomes it could hardly go much worse than round 1, so I was raring to go.

Mrs Doke and I traveled back to Vegas on different flights scheduled to arrive at the same terminal. We arranged to meet at baggage reclaim, but as I was about to head down the stairs to there, I  got a text from her saying I had to catch a train to train terminals. I arrived in a terminal devoid not just of Mrs Doke but anyone, and was unable to catch a train back. I ended up walking the mile and a half between the two terminals at 2 AM, along a route not exactly designed for pedestrianism (think roundabouts, flyovers and ramps). Highlights were when I start to gain on a homeless person in the midst of a rant:

"You're all fucking cowards, hiding in your compounds, keeping everything and everyone out, hiding behind your gates and your walls, driving around in your Popemobile"

and as I approached the destination terminal, a cop car started slowly following me. I guess they were wondering why someone who looked like me with a green ninja turtle bag was walking towards an empty terminal. After making my way inside, I followed the signs and found myself back at the exact spot where I had checked my texts. At the bottom of the stairs waited an impatient Mrs Doke.

Dylan Lindh tweeted that after his best ever WSOP last year, this year's worst ever was a humbling experience, but he had had enough humility and was ready to start running better. My thoughts exactly

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Shooting it out in Vegas

3k Shootout

With just 400 runners, I knew that more than likely this event was going to be my best realistic chance of a bracelet this year, or at least a final table (conversely, with a tougher then average field and only 10% paid, it's the toughest to cash). Win two Sit n Gos and you make a final table; win a third and the bracelet is yours. I didn't have the softest of tables, featuring as it did Ant Zinno and Dominik Nitsche, but there was definite value in the form of three old school players whose indiscriminately aggro/stationy style might have been winning a decade ago but is easy to exploit these days. This one had a genuine slow deep structure early on, and this fact plus the one that I was out of position to both Zinno and Nitsche led me to think playing a bit tighter than normal was the way to go. This worked out very well: I lost most of the smaller pots but won all the big ones and chipped up steadily to triple starting stack with no major incident or cooler.

Once we got four handed I decided it was time to change gears and open up more. This wasn't immediately successful as the young guy who was by far the most aggro on the table and was now big blind to button peppered me with three bets. After a few raise folds and one light four bet that worked, I decided to limp the button because of his stack size and tendencies with 87o. This was my first limp so I also felt it might set off alarm bells and make it less likely to get played back at than a standard open, and it has enough post flop playability to not have to be automatically folded to any normal sized raise. It's also a nice hand to have in the limping range as it hits unexpected boards and in limped pots I can represent high card boards I haven't hit.

Anyway, Zinno completed his small blind and a suspicious looking big blind checked. Flop q56r, the big blind fires 900 into 2200, I call with my openender, and Zinno check raises to barely over the minimum. We both call getting great odds. A lovely nut making 9 on the turn and before I have time to start considering how to maximise value, Zinno overbet shoves. The other guy tanks an eternity before folding, and I find the call. Zinno has Q5o for top and bottom, and doesn't get there.

So now we are three handed and as I tweeted at the time, basically playing a well structured spin n go for $30k in equity. Myself and Goran, a Dublin based Croat who played flawlessly all day and was the player I least fancied to have to face headsup, were roughly equally with over 40% of the chips, with the most aggro player at the table significantly shorter. When he got it in a little optimistically with 8 high against Goran's top pair top kicker it meant I was headsup, but with a chip deficit against a player playing perfectly. Not exactly ideal, but unless there's a massive gulf in class (which I didn't feel there was) then the player who runs best headsup usually wins,so I was feeling stoked to be just a headsup battle away from my first cash this series (and a 4 man stt beyond that from a final table).

Unfortunately it was not to be. I got dealt a lot of junk against a player who wasn't making mistakes and wouldn't let me steal with garbage, and any time I made a good hand, it tended to be second best by the river. Aj v aq on a jack high flop and queen turn did some damage, and before I knew it I had less than 20 big blinds was running Nash calculations in my head. Still, I had a chance to get back into it when Goran shoved with T9s and I called 99, but the turn again was not my friend as it paired his ten. No miracle one outer on the river, and all I could do was congratulate my opponent on a flawless display. Had my 9's held I'd still have been outchipped over 2 to 1.

Monster stack

The following day I was back for the Monster Stack. Weekend WSOP fields in events with a buyin less than 3k tend to be very soft and filled with weekend warriors, So I wasn't paying much attention to the 9 stranger faces until we kicked off and I got a chance to see how everyone was playing. After a while I noticed my neighbour to the east, who I had initially just assumed was a typical somewhat portly middle aged weekend warrior, was playing s lot different and better than my initial attempts at profiling would suggest. After a visitor to the table mentioned the Limit FT I realised my neighbour was Original David Baker.

My two most interesting hands of the trip so far were against him.

Hand 1: it's folded to him in the small blind at 100/200 and he raises to 600. He was playing very loose in general, opening something like 40% of hands total, and he's obviously even wider in this spot. To my delight, I find aces, so I reraise to 1500. He calls

Flop kt7r
He checks, I cbet 40 % of pot, and he check raises unexpectedly. His sizing isn't huge and I obviously can't just give up on my aces just yet, so I call. At this point I assume he most likely had a made hand often better than mine, or a draw.

Turn 9

He bets just over half pot. If I call, we will both have just under pot behind going into the river, so it feels like I have to decide now whether my hand is good. I tanked looking but not expecting to get any physical indicator from him and didn't get much (he looked calm composed and comfortable). Although he was playing super aggro and barreling a lot this was the first time he had put in a lot of his stack postflop. I also considered my own image and figured he had no reason to think I'd fold Ace King in this spot, so no incentive to keep barreling unless he can beat ace king. And pretty much everything that beats ace king beats aces too, so I eventually folded feeling a little sad inside. If I had to pick his most likely hand, it would be qj.

Hand 2: he's just lost most of his stack in 2 instalments, both coolers. Folded to him in the cutoff, he opens to 700 at 150/300. With KQs on the button I elect to call for a number of reasons:
(1) my hand feels too weak to get in for 35 big blinds (his stack), so raise calling doesn't seem good
(2) my hand feels too strong to raise fold
(3) the suitedness adds a lot of playability to the hand, either headsup in position against a late position open, or multiway in position if one or both of the blinds decide to come along
(4) calling allows hands I dominate that will more than likely fold to a raise to continue
(5) by now I had seen enough hands to have a clearer idea of how ODB was playing post flop. One tendency that jumped out was a very high cbet frequency (almost 100%) and similarly high barreling frequencies on later streets. Cbetting almost every flop and continuing to barrel is a very effective strategy against many weaker players (particularly weak tight ones) but like any unbalanced strategy is easy to exploit (call down when you hit, bluff and semi bluff more when you don't)

Both blinds fold and the flop comes
K83r

ODB led for his standard half pot cbet and I obviously called. This is a pretty dreamy flop for me, as I nearly always have the best hand and there are no immediate draws to protect against.

Turn Td (second diamond)

ODB bet again, less than half pot this time. The board is now more draw heavy, but I didn't see this as a strong enough reason to raise. I'm trying to exploit a villain with a wider than GTO range (he still could almost have literally anything) who likes to keep barreling, so giving him the chance to keep doing so with his whole range seems like a better play than raising to protect against a small part of his range (draws that picked up equity on this turn card) that in any case don't have huge equity with just one card to come. So I called again.

River Ad
This is obviously the absolute worst river card in the deck for me. Not only do all the draws come in (diamonds and qj) but now any old random Ax beats my hand. To make matters worse, he makes a small one third bet that looks exactly like a value bet trying to get a crying call from the exact hand I have. So even though the plan from the start was to call all the way down if I hit the flop, this is maybe the one river I have to think about folding. But while every draw and all the aces got there, my opponents range is so wide (it started close to any two and at least in my opinion hasn't narrowed much subsequently) there's still a lot I best. As I agonised it seemed to me ODB was a lot stiller and looked less relaxed than in my first tank against him. This of course adds zero certain information: even if my read on the physical behaviour is right (and it might not be: in my experience people often see what they want to see in these spots to justify the decision they want to make) all it tells me is it is different from last time. And since I didn't see his hand last time, I could just be getting it wrong twice (thinking he was strong the first time, and bluffing here). In the end, I felt the decision was close enough for this to tip it to the close your eyes and call column, so I prepared myself to look stupid when he showed any of the many hands that beat me and called.

 He mucked without showing his hand.

Apart from ODB the rest of the table was relatively straightforward and I chipped up from 15k to 50k mostly without showdown and entirely without major confrontations, so I was feeling pretty smug about my prospects of pushing on with a very big chiplead over the table.

However, pride tends to precede a fall quite frequently in poker. A young guy got moved to our table with almost as many chips as I had. He was playing super wide preflop but relatively straightforward post flop (he was wearing sunglasses which I generally associate with post flop paranoia in inexperienced players) so I was by no means afraid to play pots against him. Anyway, he opens utg and the best player on the table (after the recent departure of ODB) calls. This makes my sixes on the button a very attractive call, so I did. Both blinds were very tight, as evidenced by the fact that both folded getting immense pot odds. If it seems odd that I mention their tightness since they folded pre, the point is that loose players play wider ranges from every position and stack size when there are weak tight players in the blinds.

The flop was
KQ6cc

The original raiser checked, the good player in mid position bets big apparently committing himself (he's short enough to imagine there aren't many bet folds or bet once and give up in his range). I quickly call trying to make my hand look like a draw, figuring I'm getting in versus mid position guy no matter how I play it, so the important thing is to encourage the opener to continue with a wider range. The opener now check raises, mid position guy shoves and I over shove. The opener looks like his dog just died and he has to wear sunglasses to the funeral, and verbally agonises "how did I get myself into this awful position?"  After counting down his stack he did the universal "Ah feck it I call" gesture and pushed his stack in.

He has kqo for top two, while mid position guy flipped over QJcc fot a pair and a flush draw.

Great spot for me to power past 100k at bb 300, or at least make a healthy profit from the much bigger main pot even if the flush came, but once again the turn (the case q) was not my friend. After the stacks were counted down I was left with a few big blinds. I waited a few hands before pushing them in with AQ, and chopped a threeway pot. Another double and I was one double away from a workable stack, but the green shoots of recovery were ripped up when my reshoved a9s ran into queens n the hands of late position opener raising close to any two.

So another bitterly disappointing early exit to end the first phase of my WSOP 2016 campaign.

Monday, July 4, 2016

WSOP 2016 Part 1 (Getting there)

Getting there

My trip over to Vegas this year was considerably less eventful than some previous ones. I came via Manchester, and the main trend was that the hassle grew from airport to airport.

Dublin

For once I arrived not having checked in in advance, as I wasn't sure if I could check my luggage through all the way to Vegas. Every time I go through Dublin airport (recently voted European Airport of the Year and it's easy to see why) I marvel at the efficiency and commitment of the staff there. Within 2 minutes of my arrival my luggage was on its way to Vegas and I was in possession of the two boarding passes I needed to get there. 5 minutes later I had walked to and cleared security, once again overawed by the employee efficiency which ensured queues were kept to a minimum.

Manchester

Here it got a little more stressful, partially my own fault. For some reason the fine employees of Manchester airport decided that the boarding passes issued in Dublin could not be used here. A Virgin employee attempted to herd us as we got off the plane and gave us directions to the desk in another terminal that we had to go to to get new boarding passes. There we were issued with new ones that looked almost exactly like the old ones, and contained exactly the same information, down to seat numbers. Someone needs to explain that one to me.

Once I had cleared security, I wandered around a bit with the clarity of thought and purpose you'd expect from a man in his 50s who hadn't slept in over 24 hours. Somewhere on this meander I managed to lose my new boarding pass. Stranded between security and a boarding gate without a pass I'd need (or at least thought I would) to board I found a Virgin information phone, where a very helpful young man explained that I didn't actually need a boarding pass to board (they could do a new one at the gate). Relieved and with nothing better to do, I retraced my meandered steps and managed to find my boarding pass.

Las Vegas

For whatever reason (maybe our plane got there just after several others) the immigration queue was the longest I've ever seen. It took me almost two tilted hours to get to the top, but at least the immigration officer was on the ball. He took my passport, after which the conversation went:
"Happy birthday"
"Thank you"
"How long are you staying for?"
"12 days, then....."
"Enjoy your stay sir"

I was doubly thankful for a performance that made it look like he hoped one day to work at the European Airport of the Year when I got to baggage reclaim and found my bag was about to be hauled off to wherever unclaimed baggage goes. Bag reclaimed and a short cab drive later, I was at the Gold Coast where I was staying for the first 5 nights.

By now I was up past hour 40 for how long since I'd last slept, but it's mid afternoon so the last thing I wanted to do was crash, wake up around midnight, and have to play my first event (the seniors) the following day. So I pushed through the tiredness by going for my first run in Vegas, regging for the Seniors, eating, and doing a few other errands like opening a safe deposit box. Somewhere around 10 pm i conked out, and woke up 9 hours later fully refreshed, jet lag overcome, ready to get straight into the right mind frame to play.

First event (seniors)

Every time they increase the stack sizes at the WSOP, they remove some early levels, making for an even faster structure early on. There's nothing inherently wrong with that (I think too many small buyin events in Ireland and the UK have a structure that is too slow at the start and speeds up too much later on, meaning some virtually meaningless early levels so that you can find yourself playing for over a day only to find yourself bubbling, or playing a nine big blind average stack game later on when the big bucks are getting handed out). But it does mean you need to win your first few big pots, there's no real prospect of small balling your way to a stack early on, and you are going to bust within 3 or 4 hours quite a lot. Again, nothing inherently wrong with that: in common with most pros (but probably not recreational players which I guess is why structures are the other way round back home) I'd prefer to be forced to flip for my stack a few hours in than a day later, particularly if it means (as it does in the case of the WSOP) more play later on in the money.

The early bustout was my lot in this event (queens < ak), surviving barely into the fourth hour. The fact that I was actually the sixth bustout at the table reenforced just how fast these bad boys play early doors. The highlight of my brief involvement came after the second bustout when a familiar looking shape arrived to fill the vacated seat, and chirped "The Dokester". I hadn't seen my old mucker Mark Dalimore in at least three years, and it was great to see him in better fettle then I had in ages.


Second event

My second event the following day was almost an action replay. After a day off to play online on two of the American sites, I did at least start to build a stack in my third event, the Summer Solstice   The extended 90 minute levels undoubtedly helped, and I peeked at around 16k (from 7500) and made my first dinner break. Flopped top set versus a turned straight and an opponent playing so randomly as to be virtually unreadable did some damage, as did flopped top set versus turned topper set. So far the turn has not been my friend this trip: if every turn was a blank I'd be a lot better off. Another recent trend that continued was my first shove found me at the bottom of my range against a caller near the top of his, and that ended my involvement.

When you're busting one or more (counting smaller buyin events like Daily Deepstack and single table satellites) in Vegas, it's very easy to get punch drunk and jaded, something I learned the hard way in previous years. So I took a full day off away from the felt to settle in to my new digs, a very nice condo across the road from the Rio, replacing a homeward bound Fergal Nealon as roommate to Smidge and Dan Wilson. Not a total day off, but an easy one running some simulations and doing other off table work on my game.

After remarking to Smidge that I was feeling unusually lethargic, he commented that he often felt the same in Vegas when it was going losing day after losing day. As professional and focused as we like to think ourselves, we are still animals by nature, and when a dog gets used to being beaten every day he starts waking up sad. So I devoted a day to low variance single table satellites that offered the best chance of a physiologically boosting winning day. Mission accomplished, I felt re-energised going into the next day's 3k shootout, my biggest buyin event to date. It being a shootout, I also felt it made additional sense to sharpen my single table game by running simulations on likely spots all week and getting in actual playing time in them the previous day.

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