I woke around 6 AM this morning so that I’d have time to shower, eat, and make the two hour drive to Foxwoods and arrive by 9AM. Though the $2,000 tournament didn’t start until 9, I needed to get a Wampum Rewards card (lost my old one) and register, and I didn’t know what to expect in terms of lines, etc. That turned out to be more time than I needed, so I had about twenty minutes to kill.
My starting table was ridiculous: one guy with a WSOP bracelet (from 1974, not sure which event, but he was a good NLHE player- Mike Seca (sp?) was his name), guy who won two prelim events and final tabled the main event at Foxwoods last year, three other pros who are talking about a 50/100 NLHE game they all played together at Commerce recently, and a few other solid players.
There was only one weak spot at the table, but he was pretty weak, way too loose and aggressive. I didn’t realize just how bad he was until he bet 1500 on the river on a JJ844 board and pushed over a min-raise with 74.
Most of the table was pretty quiet and unremarkable, but there were two notable exceptions. Sitting to Mike Seca’s immediate left was an Italian guy from Long Island dressed in a running suit with some flashy jewelry and slicked back hair. He spent the first three hours of the tournament text messaging patrons of his underground poker club and loudly (often humorously) teasing Mike. The two seemed to know each other quite well and were talking about 10K tournaments they had played together around the country.
Despite his appearance and demeanor, the Long Island guy turned out to be a pretty tight player. He talked like a professional player, though some of the things he occasionally said made me think his theoretical grasp of the game was slightly lacking. I may have been able to take advantage of that had I lasted long enough for the blinds to get big, but alas, it was not to be.
The first interesting hand was at the 25/50 level, the first we played. The whole table has been pretty tight, and I have most of my 7K starting stack and a tight image. The weak player limps UTG, last year’s final tabler limps, internet pro limps, and I make it 300 with AA on the button. The soft spot folds, and the other two call.
Flop 883r. First to act checks, the internet pro bets 350, I make it 1000, other guy folds, IP calls. My thinking was that this would look weaker than a call, but I’m not sure in retrospect that was a good idea.
Turn 6r. Check, check. Still trying to entice action from a worse hand. I don’t know a lot about this guy, so although I’d have to fold to a turn check-raise, I would like it.
River 4, he bets 2700, which is basically pot. We both have a little over 5K. After thinking for over a minute, I folded. Basically, I felt that with the pre-flop action, he couldn’t have the kind of one pair hand that would look to value bet this river. Given the size of his raise, he’s clearly not blocking with a medium-strenght holding. So he’s either bluffing or he can beat AA. And it would be a weird spot to bluff, after leading the flop and calling a raise. I felt it was kind of obvious that I had a big pair, and I didn’t think he expected me to fold it.
The only other interesting hand I had was the one where I busted. A new player had just moved to the table with a big stack. He seemed to be a solid, tight aggressive player. With blinds 100/200/25, he raised to 700 UTG+1. It folded to me in CO-1, where I found AKo with an awkward stack of about 8000.
Holding AK here, I really have two conflicting goals: getting action from worse hands, which would mean not reraising, and folding out small pairs and other holdings that have nearly 50% equity against me, which would mean reraising. A few factors tipped me towards calling. First, I was in position, which would hopefully allow me to make some better decisions on future streets. Second, with a below average but healthy stack, I’d prefer to frequently lose a small pot (when I miss) and occasionally win a big one (when I flop well against a dominated hand) rather than often win a medium one (when I take it down preflop) and sometimes lose a big one (when I get it in preflop against KK or AA). Last and most importantly, the bad player was in the BB and had just lost a lot of his chips. I felt he would tilt-shove quite frequently, which would be the best way for me to get my money in preflop against a wide range of hands.
This is what happened: I called the raise, BB shoved for 2000, UTG+1 made it 3500, I shoved, he called with Q’s, the board came out 55678 to eliminate me, and, miraculously, triple up the donkey, who had K9.
I was tired and sick and not in the mood to play any more poker, so I got right back in the car and drove home to Boston. Lame, I know. At least I got to hand out with Richard Shorten (Shorty55 from 2+2), who is a cool guy and good internet buddy. I’ll see him again in Vegas, if he gets his act together and wins a WSOP seat.