You are playing in the WSOP main event. It's the first level pretty early on, you don't have a read on the relevant players. Blinds are 100-200, starting stacks of 30,000.

You pick up KK. Someone limps third to act for 200, and you raise to 700 around back. The big blind and the limper defend. The flop is 932r. The big blind bets out 1650 and the limper folds. You elect to call. The turn is an offsuit J, and he bets again, this time for 2750. You call again.

The river is an 8. He bets a third time, for 5000. What do you do?

Poll #1494666
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

Do you:

Now it's wrgpt (emailament) instead of the WSOPME. Do you:

Another very good day.

The short summary: I bought in for 2300, promptly flopped a set and doubled through MC, a very tight player. He didn't show.

Then I busted someone for 1600 with aces all in preflop, then Matt, the guy who outed my blog today busted to me in the following slightly odd way: MC opens for 60 utg, Eldon calls, Matt calls on the button, I raise to 260 from the sb with rockets. Everyone calls. Oops. The flop was 944, and MC and Eldon are deep, so I decide to play my hand for a showdown and check. Checked to Matt who pushes all in for 850. I think and call, everyone else folds, he tells me my hand is good so I turn it over. It holds up over what he later told me was a small pair that thought he could get out random overcards. He rebuys short.

Then I bust Matt again (hi Matt!), this time with QQ on a 9(32) flop where he had 65s for the gutshot plus flush draw, we get it in for $1600 or so and my hand holds up against his monster draw. Then he goes to his box and rebuys for $20k to have me covered. Awesome, especially since he's just to my right -- but unfortunately he tightens way up and we don't play another pot.

Meanwhile I flop another set, this time on Eldon on an A32 board when he had AK, and he busts for $2000. It was a multiway pot with $300 in the middle and he was the opener. He checked the flop and I bet it, and he gave a speech about how I hit every flop, then jammed. Presumably this speech was to make me think something or other, but I didn't think about it or care because, mmm set.

So basically by getting all my good hands paid off I had another big win. I flop trips against Eldon who is totally convinced I'm making a move with a draw, but decides to let his 88 go on the (Q9)9 board anyway, I turn a set but get no action, and am generally running good. Then I badly misplay a hand against Mike, one of the toughest players in the game:

He opens early for 80, two calls, I call in the sb with JTs, the bb calls. The flop is T95 all diamonds. We check to Mike who bets 220; I call. The turn is another 5, I check-call 360. The river is the fourth diamond, and I decide to bluff at it.

So... what was I thinking? I check-call the flop thinking my hand might be good, then again on the turn hoping he's pushing a diamond, then on the river... now I hope he doesn't have that diamond and will lay down whatever he was betting? Check-calling to catch his AK diamond draw hands is ok, but if that's what I'm doing I really need to check-fold when the diamond gets there, or raise the turn and hope he doesn't have it yet. Instead I randomly lose the max to his AxKd.

If I'm not a) way ahead and b) tired I don't make that mistake. Really I need to close that leak of, when I get tired, not doing a good job of thinking through my opponent's range -- I played it like a draw, so I should bet when the draw gets there! Except if he pretty much has to have the draw. Bah.

Still, another very good night. I think it's probably enough helpful for me to think through hands via posting them here that it's worth it that some of the players might read this. My goal is to have a good enough game that I can describe my strategy and still win with it. I'm not quite willing to lay out my preflop strategy in an open post exactly, since it's nice people wonder what hands I 4-bet with, for instance, but generally play mostly good cards up front with a few small pairs and suited connectors, loosen up towards the back, have a big hand for a big pot... I think it would be a surprise to pretty much nobody that that's how I play.

I'll wait with anticipation for my first comment from Eldon or Matt or Marcus, though.

A few hands of note, in chronological order:

The game starts when I get there (hmmmmm...). I buy $2200. Second hand, I have KK in the blinds, raise preflop, bet the flop, and push in on the turn. I get called down and win -- he started with 1500 and busted.

A while later I'm up to 4500 when Marcus arrives. He bribes a player $300 to give him his seat, and we pretty quickly get into a hand. Emre and Marcus limp, Eldon raises to 220. He only has 1200 back, but Emre has 3500 and Marcus has infinity, and I'm pretty sure they'll call if I do, so I call with 77 on the button and they in fact call behind. The flop is K(74), ding. Checked to Eldon who jams for 1200. I think for a while and smooth call, Emre folds, and now Marcus pushes all in. I call of course, and the turn and river blank off. Eldon shows A2s for the nut flush draw, Marcus claims a straight flush draw, and then tells me I got lucky that everything worked out the way it did. Indeed.

Eldon rebuys and opens for 80. I raise to 280 in the cutoff with QQ, he calls. The flop is (AK)T, we check. The turn is a Q, he bets out 360. Hm. I call. The river is a K, and he bets 600 with 800 behind. Well, what could he have? I think he'd fold a J if I raise, and I'm behind most of the boats. So either he has a bluff, a J, or a better hand, so raising seems bad unless he specifically has TT. So I just call. He was in fact bluffing with 99.

I have 10,000 and AK late. Marcus opens for 80 and gets a call, and I raise to 320. Marcus now reraises 1000 more. Hm. What's his range here? QQ+/AK? JJ? Actually I think not only will he do it with JJ, he'll also have some random bluffy hands in there too. How will he respond to a raise? I think he'll put me on a giant pair and fold QQ and AK and so on, which makes a raise look really tempting. Ok, I raise 3000 more. He thinks for a while and folds, then asks me if I had AA. No, I tell him, just cowboys. (I wonder if he reads this? This seems like the kind of hand I should probably not reveal. Shhh, don't tell anyone.)

Then I open utg with 99, Emre calls, and Marcus raises 200 more. I call as does Emre. The flop is K92r. I bet out 560, hoping to get raised. Emre folds and Marcus calls. The turn is an 8, putting the second club on the board. I check, Marcus fires 1600, and I check-raise to 4500. Marcus thinks for a bit, then tells me that "it's almost impossible for you to have this hand beat." That strikes me as extremely good news. I have the second nuts, and if he had the nuts I don't see him thinking it might be possible to beat it. Plus that sounds like an unlikely speech to give there with the nuts. Eventually he calls. The river is a J, and I put him in for his last 6500. He sighs, says he has top two, and then tells me I must have 99. Then he calls. Yup, 99, nice read. He shows KcJc for a pair and a flush draw on the turn.

So... you have top pair, ok kicker facing a $3000 bet on the turn and you think it's almost impossible for you to be beat? That deep in a hand I either have top pair beat or a bluff, and mostly not the bluff. You should be thinking, "How likely is it that he's bluffing," not "My hand sure looks good." Though to be fair, he will definitely get the other 6500 on the river if the backdoor clubs show up. He gets up and leaves.

I later relate this hand to a friend in the following way: "I open for 60 early, and you raise with KJs..." and so on. We get to the turn and I ask what he does in Marcus' shoes after he gets check-raised. He replies, "I don't make any of those actions." Yeah, good point. Me neither.

Then a couple of smaller pots. Several people are in for 60, and so am I with ATo on the button. The flop is A66, they check, I bet 260, Eldon calls. The turn is an 8 and he bets out 500. Hm. This looks a lot like a delayed steal, which is a play I've seen him make from time to time, and he's stuck which makes stealing a lot more likely. I think he doesn't really have to have any kind of draw here -- a pocket pair, or KQ, or whatever is definitely possible, so I don't mind giving a cheap card. And if I raise, he can't bluff again. So I call, planning to call the river again. The river is a 7, and sure enough, he bets his last 1200. I call and get shown... 77. Nice hand sir, well played.

I flop another set or two for small pots, and cash out the biggest win I've ever had in a cash game.

Winning is fun. I recommend it to everyone.

Yesterday's session at Lucky Chances was entertaining. One of the players I talk a lot about is Eldon. I think his A game is the best I've ever seen -- his hand reading is tremendous, and when he's in tight/aggressive/selective bluff mode, he's really tough. But I'm pretty sure he is a decent to big loser in the game because he periodically blows up and bluffs off thousands in a session.

Yesterday he took a beat, started playing looser, lost with AQ all in preflop against 96s for 2000, played looser, lost again to a 5 outer for 3000 after the money went in on the turn, and was in full steam mode. He started offering various bets to people. He offered me this: ever time he wins a pot he pays me 100; every time I win a pot I pay him 80. Blind steals count. I was three seats to his right for a moderate positional advantage.

So on the face of it, this is a super good bet for me. In our normal games he plays more hands than I do; when he's steaming he plays a ton of hands. But it does mean we can almost never play a hand, and certainly never raise preflop unless the pot is already big. Pot-building raises preflop only.

I declined for two reasons. One is that I'm not sure I'd be better at adjusting than he is. It would take me out of my regular, winning game. The second is that it would give him a good reason to tighten up, and I really didn't want that. So I declined.

Here's why I didn't want to take the bet. Some time later, he's lost more again mostly due to bad beats, and still hot. I open for 60 from the middle with AdJd, and then learn that it's a kill pot so it's 80 to go. Bah, ok, I limp for 80. The kill (between the sb and button) calls, and Eldon in the bb calls. The flop is As4c2s, they check, I bet 140. Eldon calls. The turn is another 4. He bets 500, I think and call planning to call on any nonspade river, and maybe on a spade river too. The river is a J, ding. He bets 2000, and I decide not to raise my last $140 and just call. He has A9.

Somehow I don't think I was getting 2500 out of the prop bet. If he's in his normal game he would never ever make such an insane river bet.

Bonus Eldon hand: Eldon opens for 80, one call, I raise to 380 with red AA. He reraises 700 more. I have 4400 back and smooth call. The flop is Q84cc, he bets out 1400, I push for 3000 more. He thinks for a while and folds what he claims was KK, telling me I could only have AA, or maybe possibly QQ. Huh. That's a pretty good read. I reward it when he bets with another player about my hand and pays me $40 bucks. Eldon won if I beat or tied his claimed KK, he lost if I didn't -- so he got a $500 refund from a third player.

I got away to LC for a last pre-baby session, played for four hours and only had two and a half big hands.

First, I open utg with JJ for 60, one call, then Erik, a young, tight-aggressive player, raises 210 more. I have 1400 total and consider calling then betting the flop with no A or K, but decide I have a good amount of fold equity here so I jam instead. He has KK and I don't have any fold equity, or any equity at all on the T high board by the river.

Second, I open for 60 in early position with AQ, two calls, and Marcus in the bb raises 300 more. I have 2100 or so, and know he's doing this with a ton of hands. I consider jamming but decide I'm too deep, so I call. Flop is A94cc, he bets 420 and I push for 1470 more. He thinks and folds.

Third, Marcus opens early in a kill pot for 120, I have 3500 and just call with AK to vary. John calls behind, and then Eldon raises 600 more in the bb, and Marcus calls. Hm, a pot sized raise is 2900, and this seems like another spot with a ton of fold equity, so I jam for my 3500. Eldon overjams quickly for a few hundred more, and Marcus has a long time to consider while we fix the dealer error after she made change out of my stack and randomly stuck a bunch of it in the middle. This involved completely reconstructing the action, and by the end of it, Marcus had decided to call.

Eldon told me I had AK. He's pretty good at that sometimes. He had QQ, and Marcus claimed a pair but didn't show. I hit an A on the flop and tripled up. I didn't win enough to make up for last session, but got a good chunk of the way back. So I got that going for me.

Last night I went to LC for some no limit, and I decided ahead of time I'd get back to recording my big hands, where a big hand is defined as my making or calling a bet over 500. This session turned out to be a doozy, with tons of big hands, so here's a veritable potpourri of, well, mostly of losing.

1. Marcus opens utg for 80, Eldon calls as do two other people. I find black aces in the big blind and raise to 500. Marcus instantly calls and Eldon comes too. I only have 1600 back, so my plan is to jam any flop without an ace or three spades or three clubs. The flop comes A82hh, so I check. Marcus bets 700, Eldon raises to 2000, and I of course call with the nuts. Marcus calls as well, and fires on the 5h turn. Eldon folds his set of 8's, and Marcus' 6h4h flush holds up. Rebuy!

2. A tightish player who used to be a regular in the game but hasn't been around for a while, Ron maybe?, opens for 60 in the middle. I call in the cutoff with KTs, the button and big blind come along. The flop is JTThh, Ron bets out 100, I raise to 360 with 1600 back (he has more). He ships, I call, he has the nut flush draw but my hand holds up.

3. Ron opens for 60 again, and Sam calls. I raise to 240 with KhKc and only Sam calls (I'm surprised he called. Medium pair, maybe, looking for a set?) The flop is 443cc, we both check. Turn is a Q, Sam checks, I bet 400, he calls. River is the third club. He counts out 600 with 800 back and then checks. I think he'll bet with any kind of made hand here instead of going for the check raise since I'm checking behind so often in that spot, so I bet the 600. He thinks and calls, and my hand is good. He claims a Q. Back to even!

4. Will, a youngish asian player who has trouble laying down decent hands but otherwise plays pretty well, opens for 40 utg. I try to raise to 120 with AhAs, but fumble out 100 instead. Marcus on the button and Will call. The flop is 653cc, Will checks, I bet 280, Marcus calls, and now Will check-raises 1000 more with 2000 back, I have 3600, and Marcus has infinity. Hm, I'm not sure what to make of this. Will could definitely have a set here, but he could also have an overpair or a flush draw. I'm not ready to give this up yet, but I don't really like jamming since it folds out the hands I beat but gets called by the big draws and sets, so I just call. But now Marcus jams, and Will tanks and folds.

Hm. Marcus is very capable of smooth calling a set on the flop, but he's also very capable of running a squeeze play here with a flush draw or straight draw. I think he'll mostly raise sets since his image gets him lots of action if I have a big pair, plus I've shown I'm willing to call him light. So I think this is probably a squeeze play. I call. He has KcTc and gets there. Bah.

5. Marcus is getting up but playing one more hand. I tell him it's his last hand and he's winning (he's up like 14k) so he should kill it. He does, whee. I find AQs late and open for 120, and Sam pushes in the sb for 1000 exactly. I snap call, but his AJo hits a J on the turn.

6. I open for 60 early with red rockets with 3200 behind, one call, and Eldon raises to 200. I reraise to 700, and he calls. The flop is Q85hh, I bet 1200, which is half my stack. He calls. The turn is a J, I jam, he calls with QQ. I was pretty sure I was beat after he called the flop, but my theory is that if I get more 20% of my stack in with rockets preflop I'm not folding heads up, and he can go ahead and set farm all he likes. Still, putting in that last 1200 didn't feel good. 0-3 with aces today, felted every time.

7. Three limpers to my bb, and I toss in a chip with K5o. The flop is KQ6ss, checked around. The turn is a 4, and I bet 120. A fish calls, and now Sam asks the fish how much he has and raises 300 more. Ok, that's odd. The board was drawy and Sam was in late position on the flop, so he's betting basically all of his top pair or better hands there. The only good hand I think he can have is a set of 4's, but that seems tremendously unlikely. He probably has a draw. I call and the fish folds. River is an offsuit deuce, and I check again, and Sam bets 900, most of the pot. I still think he has way more draws than made hands there, but he is a rock. I think it through and decide it really almost has to be a draw, so I call. He raps the table and then looks completely disgusted when I table my hand and scoop the pot.

8. Eldon and John limp late and I call in the bb with 32s. (I like getting 5.5:1 with almost any two, but there probably should be limits. I folded J2o and 32o earlier in similar situations, but call with any two suited and K5. Not sure what the right balance is.) Flop is 922r, ding. Checked around. Turn is a 5, I bet 80 and Eldon calls. River is a 7, I bet 160, and now Eldon raises 500 more. I don't see how that 7 could have hit him. Did he slowplay a 2 twice? It's a small pot and a big bet; I should probably fold here. But I call. He has 77.

9. Someone opens in the field for 80, John calls on the button, I call in the bb with 5s4s. Flop is 9d8s7s. Checked to John who bets 200, I raise to 600, John puts me in for 2400 more. I fold, he shows the As.

10. I open for 60 with 1500 back holding QQ. Sam calls, and Eldon raises 300 more from the sb. I smooth call in position, planning to get it in on a safe looking flop. Sam folds. The flop is T84cc. Eldon bets 500, I push, he has TT and I bust again.

At this point it's pretty late and I'm tired of busting, so I head out. A new personal loss record for a session at over $11k. Sigh. Anyone think I played any of those hands egregiously poorly? I'm going to chalk up most of this to variance, but it's very hard to evaluate how much a few bad beats affects your play.

Not much to report, sadly: I busted on the first day.

Things started out quite well. The table was pretty soft, lots of people seeing flops, no three betting. One player seemed to me to be dangerous, playing lots of hands, making lots of small bets -- I later found out it was John Tabatabai. But I had position on him, and he never really got it going.

I actually really like being behind players like that. We'd have hands like: he minraises from the field, I call in latish position with like T7o, flop comes AT4, he continuation bets then folds to my raise. That turns out to be much better for me than stealing the blinds. I didn't do it every hand, but did it pretty often.

For some reason I got a ton of hands utg -- I think I raised 6 of the 8 utg hands I had in the first level. Only once was I really out of line, with A7s. The most memorable was raising with AKs, flopping the nuts, smooth calling the flop and the turn and getting a bet called on the river. After the first level, I had about $40k.

But I lost half my stack over the course of several hands in the second level. Here are two:

I defend the bb with KJo against a late position raiser. Flop comes J87. I check intending to raise, but he checks behind. Turn is a 4, I bet, he calls. River is another 7, I bet half the pot, now he raises to 2.5 times my bet. Can I fold here? Is he ever bluffing? I call and he has 67 for trips.

Here was a bad one. Early position tight player raises the 100 blind to 525, another guy tries to limp, and then once he is informed of the raise says he would have folded but since he is forced to leave his limp in now calls. I defend the BB with 8h7h. Flop is 76h5h, ding. I check, utg bets 1000, guy cold calls, I raise to 4200, utg folds, limpy guy calls. Turn is the Jh. I'm actually slightly concerned about a higher flush draw since he called twice, so I check. He checks behind. River is the ugly Qh. I check again, he bets 7000. I tell him I can only beat a bluff, and he immediately flips down his sunglasses and stares stone faced at the center of the table. I'm not sure what to make of this, but I eventually call -- in retrospect I don't like this call at all, since I hadn't yet seen him bluff. He declares straight flush and flips over Th9h. He is genuinely surprised to discover he doesn't have a straight flush that he was slowplaying on the turn -- he said he was hoping I had the Ah. I sure wish I had it too.

The next level I went back to playing lots of small pots and mostly winning them, firing at weakness and avoiding strength. Only that pro was playing the same game, and he didn't seem to be able to adjust to my picking on him from behind. The fourth or fifth time I raised him on the flop he thought for a long time, maybe to try and make a play. I had bottom set, so I really wish he had. I decided to slowplay the next time I had a real hand against him:

He opened early for 600, a minraise (no antes yet). I raise to 1800 with AQo, he calls. Flop is AJx, he checks and I do too. Turn is another A, we check again. River is a J, he bets out 2000, I raise to 6000, he thinks for a few seconds and calls... with A9. So I could have gotten a ton of value on the turn had I pulled the trigger then. And still chopped on the river.

I chip back up to a starting stack by dinner. After dinner, I stopped hitting flops. Lots of hands like, I raise to 1025, bb defends, flop is A high, he calls my cbet with an A and we check it down and I lose.

Here's a weird one at the 150-300-25 level: utg limper, the straight flush guy raises to 825, one cold caller, I call in the bb with 7s4s, utg calls. Flop is Ad8s5s, which seems good. I check intending to check-raise, checked around. Turn is the 4d, so I have a pair to go with my gutshot straight flush draw, and nobody seems to want this pot, so I bet 1600. Utg folds, and the raiser now makes it 5000. Button folds... and now what should I do? All my options seem reasonable here. I eventually decide to call -- I'm getting correct odds if all my outs are good, plus implied odds, but I don't know which of my outs are likely to be good. Against AK, say, I'm drawing fine, and I think there's a chance he's raising a diamond draw. River is the 7d, one of those cards I don't know if it's good or not. I check, he thinks for a long time and checks behind. Ok, I probably win. I turn over my two pair, and he tables... Qd6d, the second nuts. "You thought so long before checking I was worried you had the K high flush," he explained.

So at the end of level 4, I'm down to 16k. I'm still deep enough for some play at the 200-400-50 level, but have less than half an average stack. I decide to tighten up because of that and because it's getting late and I'm tired. After a couple of rounds I open raise with AA, get three bet with AKs and shove, he calls, and my hand holds up. Whee.

I rarely see a flop for the next hour, maybe two or three in that time, from the bb or steal position. I do take down two pots by three betting preflop, so I actually chip up a little in that time. Then, 15 minutes from the end of the day, a big stack who is new to the table raises to 1200 from three off, and I defend the bb with J9. The flop is Jh9xh, ding. I check, he bets 1800, I raise to 6000. He thinks for a bit and reraises to 16000. Hm. Well, I think my hand is good enough here, so I shove for 34000ish. He thinks for 30 seconds, says he hopes I don't have a set, and calls (correctly) with Ah9h. He's got 12 outs twice, and indeed hits a heart on the river and I am out.

So... bah. I was happy to be making day two even with a slightly below average stack. I felt like I had a lot of good opportunities, shoulda made a couple of laydowns I didn't, but was generally happy with my play and with the table. But I'm not sure what I could have done on the last hand. I guess I could stop and go on the flop to defend against the draw, but I at least did get it all in with the best hand.

Oh well. Next year, I guess.

I abbreviated my last post when I got to the mega, so here's a bit about the final table.

Super satellites are very silly at the bubble. Here's an example hand to see why.

The blinds are 4000-8000 with 1000 ante. I'm the second biggest stack with 68000. I find A9 in the cutoff, and I jam. The button has 48000, and 99. Here's the crazy part: he has me dominated, yet if I showed him my hand, he still has to fold.

We're 7 handed with 6 seats and 4500 for 7th, so this is a $5700 bubble. If he wins, which he does 70% of the time, he's very likely to get the seat, say 98%. If he loses, he's out -- that's 30%. What happens if he folds? Well, he's short, but there are two shorter stacks, one of whom is in the bb this hand, and the other of whom will hit the blinds before he will. He only has to outlast one of them. If they were even he'd have a 66% chance of being the next out; given the positions of the blinds and the nonzero chance that some bigger stack will make a mistake or run into aces, he must be over 70% to get a seat. Plus there's a chance of a deal, always, though as it turns out he took a bad deal so maybe that shouldn't be a consideration. If I show him an A, he should only call with rockets there.

He tanked for a long time, then asked for a clock to be put on him (never seen that before) then folded. Calling would be only a tiny mistake given that I had A9, but it would be a huge mistake if I had AJ instead, or any other two overs. So he has to fold, even though, as he put it, "he has my range crushed".

The big stack at the table with 94000 has AQ. He has a very easy fold, since he's basically a lock for the seat, and getting involved in a pot that could jeopardize that can only be a mistake. He should fold AA there. The other small stack had rags, and I won the pot.

Now, I don't know if it's right for me to jam A9 there, but it's certainly right for everyone else to fold almost everything. The problem is that if someone makes a mistake by calling with 99, say, or QQ, they lose equity but I lose even more (the rest of the table benefits). So I don't want to get involved in too too many pots for fear that someone will do something dumb and hurt me.

There are also weird degenerate hands that come up. For instance, one player has the 8000 blind and another 8000 back. Everyone at the table with a playable hand came in for the minraise and checked it down to try and knock him out (I folded 72o). The bb had K9, hit his 9, and quintupled up. The next time it happened, though, it worked and the bb busted (that got us to 7).

Once the guy to my right folded 99, he needed to outlast the other two short stacks. Each of them jammed and took the blinds, which were huge at this point. He decided to try to deal instead.

First he proposed an even split. I objected on the grounds that as a big stack I wanted a little extra. His next position was that the big stacks would get $10k instead of the $10k + $200, and the small stacks would divide up the rest. Um, that seems good for the big stacks, so sure. Then there was some negotiating about who counted as a big stack, but I didn't care since I was one, so I stayed out. But let's check the math.

I have like $86000, and the small stacks have $40-50k. So let's say they're twice as likely as me to bust out. And let's further say that the big stacks are all in the same boat as me, even though there's some variation in stack size. So 4x + 3(2x) = 100%, so x = 10%, which is my chance of busting next. But actually I think it's rather lower based on the fact that I'm much, much harder to call than a small stack, so I'm going to claim that I only have a 6% chance of bubbling here. That means my fair share is 9858, so 10k sounds just fine with no risk. If I think I have a lower chance of bubble then the deal gets worse, but I'm only giving up $29 if I have a 3% chance of busting, and that seems ok too. It's hard to believe I have less than that. If I really do have a 10% chance of bubbling here, my fair share is $9630, so $10k looks like a steal.

So I got a decent deal, but not amazing. The guys who got the amazing deal were the two shorter "big" stacks with 75k and 68k. The 68k guy was halfway between the small stacks and the biggest stacks, and yet got the full big stack payout even though it was totally clear to me he would have settled for less. But the small stacks were motivated to make a deal work out, and the #3 stack was starting to make noise about getting on with it (he'd looked at his hand and it was good), so they didn't argue about it. The 68k guy did agree to chip in enough money to even out the payout for the small stacks so they ended up with $8600 instead of $8566 or whatever, so he did take $120ish less than I did.

I'm happy it ended when it did, because it was 12:40 or so, and could have gone on for a good while longer since it's so damn hard to call someone if they shove.

One note on strategy: a couple players were raising small amounts. This is completely horrible, because they have to fold basically everything if a bigger stack shoves on them. Because taking a small bustout risk is so bad if you have chips, you throw away everything, so raising with smaller amounts is just giving them away. And indeed the guy who came to the final table with $102k bled down to half that via that method, before reverting to jam mode and getting back up a bit. Just awful. I took advantage of that several times to build to my big stack status.

It's been a while since I updated here, so here goes.

Last week was a big pile of hosing. I went somewhat deep into the $2500 mixed limit/no limit event, with 50% more than average chips at dinner, partly from picking off bluffs. But then I picked a rather dumb time to bluff myself and was out. Some hands:

I open raise on the button in limit with 22, Victor Ramdin tells me I have K high and three bets me. I call. Flop is T84r, he bets, I call. Turn is another 4, he checks, I should check behind but I bet, and now he check-raises. I decide it's worth two more big bets to see if he's bluffing, so I call the turn and the river, and he shows down KQ no pair. I explain to the table that they should refrain from trying to bluff me.

A few hands later, 100-200 no limit, I open for 525 late with 75s, Victor cold calls on the button. Flop is T63r, and I decide to check instead of betting my gutshot, and Victor checks behind. Turn is a 2, check check. River is a 7, and I value bet my pair for 600. Victor now raises 1000 more with like 1400 back. Odd... I don't really see how he could have a hand other than like TT or 33, and a bluff sure seems more likely. So I call and he raps the table and my hand is good.

Much later, I'm in the 800 bb in no limit with 18000 back, big stack opens for 1950, button who just has me covered call, and I defend with 97s. Flop is K86, checked around. Turn is a Q, I check, big stack bets out 2000, button raises to 6200, and I think my stack is a good size for a resteal and jam my straight draw. But actually this really isn't a good spot -- the button has shown a lot of strength this hand, is a pretty tight player, and would be getting better than 2:1 on his money and might not lay down a hand like AK. The big stack folds and indeed the button has bottom set and calls. I was in a really good spot on the flop with an open ender against a set getting a free card -- my equity there is huge if I don't stack myself if I miss on the turn. Which I did.

The next day I play a few one table satellites, and lose them all. One I got down to four handed with a big stack, but ran into AK on back to back hands with worse aces and was out. In another I was the first person out: lost a small pot, then had my KK cracked by a set but lost the minimum -- I checked the flop and called the turn and river with my overpair -- then ran JJ into KK. Bah.

The trip this week started out with a series of small annoyances. I get to the airport a bit early for my flight, and they're boarding the previous flight to Vegas. I ask about standby but even though they plane is half full and it would cost them nothing to put me on it, they want to charge me $95 for it. I decide I can wait an hour after all. I guess they have to think about the longer game so people don't book the cheapest flight and just standby onto earlier flights that would be more expensive, but it sure seems like there should be some way for them to get me on for a nominal charge instead of more than doubling the cost of the ticket.

Then in a tiny bad beat, despite me having the best boarding pass, the gate guy decides there aren't enough people to bother with being organized and declares everyone can come up at once. Only 14 people on the flight and I got my front row seat anyway so whatever.

Then, when I get to the Bellagio, the computers are down and they're checking in everyone by hand. So it takes an hour to get through the line and get checked in, and during this they fail to put in my credit card for room charges so I can't get internet when I get to the room.

So I've stayed at the Bellagio 5 times this month now, and there have been annoyances every time. The first trip, the lights over the beds didn't work, and it took two trips from the techs to fix them (they fixed one but didn't bother to check the other). Next trip the shower clogged, and again it took multiple calls to fix it. Also there was an annoying buzz coming from I think the ice machine in the hallway that was loud enough it made it a little hard to get to sleep. The third trip they put me in a smoking room, then when I complained told me I would get an upgrade but it'd take a few hours, then reneged on the upgrade. Last week I got another buzzing room, and this one had the check in problem. Plus I couldn't check out this morning from the room, and had to spend another 10 minutes in line to check out.

None of these things are a big deal, but for a hotel that thinks it's high end, it's a pretty long litany of complaints. On the other hand, it really is pretty cheap for a nice hotel this month, so I guess it still feels like a good deal. Especially compared to trips we've taken to places like New York and Madrid, where the hotels were like 5 times the cost and not really that much nicer.

So after the hotel annoyance, the next morning I head over to the Rio pretty early because I think there's some chance the 1500 event will sell out, so I figure I'll buy in at 8 or so and have breakfast. But I get there and discover it sold out the night before at around 9. I hang around in hopes of unregistrations, but there is a line, and eventually I give up and go eat. I come back and Kenny is there planning to unreg because he isn't feeling motivated, and we try to figure out some way for me to get his seat, but the unreg process is strict and they won't transfer the seat to me. We hang around in line planning to get me to the front and then have him unreg and have me be next in line, but the line refuses to move and we give up. He decides to play anyway.

Well bah. I sit on a bench outside the registration room and read my book for the next couple of hours in case there are late unregistrations from people who made day two from the previous day's tournaments, but nothing doing. So I buy into the 3:00 $330 super satellite (which is called a "mega satellite" because I guess "super" isn't impressive enough); the tournament doesn't start until 4, natch. No cash games or one tables running either due to no tables being available, so I end up playing pai gow for an hour. I win $10. It's slightly odd playing a game where I was betting $50, and the woman next to me was betting $450 on my hand. So my wins and losses on my hand are dwarfed by hers (she's also betting that much on her hand). I let her opine on my settings since she cares more than I do, but pai gow is pretty formulaic.

The satellite, however, went well. I play a bunch of small pots then win a big one, then resteal a lot. There are a couple of super passive readable players and I abuse them. I bust a small stack who pushed with TT, which obviously doesn't beat my 77 preflop, then double up another small stack when his AJ beats my AQ. But mostly I am jamming over raises a lot and taking it down. The passive limpy woman next to me tells me repeatedly she really wishes she had my seat, as if I could possibly be getting enough hands that were raising hands by her standards.

I suck out again when the sb limps and I check in the bb with 83s. Flop comes T32 with one of my suit and two clubs, and he bets. I jam over him, he agonizes and calls with JT, but I hit a 3 on the turn. Whee.

We get short and I have decent chips so I slow way down, picking on stacks that need a monster to call me, and avoiding spots where I could go broke. We get down to the final table, then 8 handed. There are 6 seats and 7th place gets 4500. Then, entertainingly, the small stack jams and the bb is agonizing, and the small stack declares he has a pair to get the bb to fold. The TD declares an 8 hand penalty, and the small stacks doubles with 66 against QTs, then has to sit out for a round. He begs but is rejected.

Ok, my flight is boarding, so long story short, at 7 handed I am the #2 stack, we agree to a deal where the big stacks get $10k seats (six places get 10k seats + $200, so I'm "giving up" $200), and the three small stacks split the rest. The small stacks are clustered around 40k, the big stacks around 80k (I have 84), so this seems like a good deal for me. I later did the math, and I think I made about $200 on the deal.

So I won a seat. Playing monday, day 1D.

I flew back out yesterday, landing at 1, at the Rio by 2:30. Only to discover that they weren't running satellites because the seniors' event sold more than they were expecting, and in fact sold out, so they didn't have any tables. Ok, I'll play a cash game until dinner.

I play 10-25 for a while. The game had an interesting rule: the optional Mississippi straddle. Here's how it works: you straddle on the button (for 50). Now the small blind acts first preflop, then the big blind, and around the table, so you get last action preflop (and every other street). Wow is that a hosing for the blinds.

So the question is, what are the strategy adjustments when the straddle is on, and is it worth taking?

Well, there are two effects on the quality of hands to enter a pot. For any given position, say UTG, you now have more information -- the blinds have acted and probably folded. So that's a big incentive to play more hands there, perhaps slightly more than if you were 3utg and the first two people had folded, since there's now dead money in the pot and the most likely candidate to call a raise, the bb, is out. However, there's a countervailing issue which is that if you get called by the button, which is likely, you are going to be out of position post flop, which is a big deal. After some thought and observation, I decide that I'd loosen up my opening standards by one position (instead of two), and raise more than usual preflop to discourage the bb from playing random stuff in position.

Is it a good idea to take it? Well, you're making the pot bigger when you have position. And you're completely hosing the blinds, and that equity has to go somewhere, and I think you get a bigger share of it than anyone else, so that somewhat offsets the $50 you're putting in blind. I think it's worth it, though putting in blinds is always questionable. I did put it on myself.

Two hands. 1: I straddle on the button. Fishy guy opens for 150 from the field, I defend with 66. Flop comes AT6 rainbow, ding. He bets 175, I raise to 525, he reraises 1000 more. He has 1300 back and must be totally pot stuck, so I just stick it all in... and he folds! Bah.

2: Straddle is on, and I'm in early position but after the blinds. One of them limps for 50, I find AKs and raise to 250. There's one cold caller, and the button reraises to 1000. He has 2200 back, and after the limper folds, I shove. The cold caller folds, and the button thinks for a while and folds as well.

So the straddle definitely seems to encourage action.

I pick up shortly after 6 with a $1000 profit and look for dinner companions. JP has just joined the HORSE mega satellite (which turned out to be somewhat less than mega, only getting one table), Sable busted out of the 8-game or whatever she was playing in time to go play the Razz tournament, the rest of the team is all playing that. So do I want to wait until 9 to eat with people, or go off on my own?

I decide to wait and sit into a $25/point chinese game, half high with surrender and honors, half low no surrender. This is bigger than I've played before, but the table talk makes it clear one guy has no idea what he's doing, and I figure that's good enough. I promptly lose my first n hands and am down almost a grand.

But I slog along, and get a straight flush in back which pays $100 from everyone. That was sort of pleasant. Here's how honors work: if you get a qualifying hand, then you win points from people depending on how you do for the rest of the hand. So if you get a straight flush in back, you win 4 points if you lose your other hands, 6 if you win one, and 8 if you win both. Quads in back pay 3-5-7, full in the middle pays 2-4-6, trips in front pay 1-3-5.

It's a bad rule since it just increases the variance (no skill in finding quads), and actually removes some skill from the game since there are settings you can't consider. For instance, the other time I had a qualifying hand I played boat/boat/rags. In a regular game I'd play boat/trips/pair, but I can't even consider that setting because of the honors. This time, though, I was on the upside of the honors variance, so I guess it worked out.

After a while the fish leaves, and I play another couple of hands, then JP come over on break and tells me the game is awful. Ok, I get up. By the time his break is over the best player had left and was replaced by an unknown, which JP thinks means fish, so I sit back down. I'd rank the players as Solid Guy > me > guy with clue who makes mistakes >>> new tyro. I think that's probably good.

I start winning and win some more. I was up a few hundred during my brief haitus, and up 1300 when JP busted and the dinner break for the 5 o'clock tournament rolled around and I picked up. Whee.

JP and I wander around to find people in the Razz tournament and fail, but we do get hold of Sabyl on the phone. She declines dinner, and JP and I try the Noodles place at the gold coast, recommended by Fich. fich is on crack. It was not nearly as good as Ping Pang Pong, the other chinese place there. Perhaps we chose our food poorly, but it just seemed less good.

Then we head back to the satellite room, and both get into a $275 limit omaha 8 satellite. I hose out in 5th place, but JP scrapes and claws his way into the top two and chops it.

I decided not to play any events today. The noon event is the $10k pot limit holdem, which might be good but my real stacks pot limit experience is minimal. The 5:00 event is limit O8, which I can play reasonably but not at a super high level. Anyway tomorrow is the half limit half no limit holdem event which I really want to play, so I don't want to play the 5:00 event today regardless.

So satellites and cash games today for me.