Schadenfreude

Poker is a game (like most others) where you can literally derive pleasure from the plight of others, specifically by taking their chips away from them. It has the capacity to bring about gleefully vicious comments even by people not involved in the current action In part that’s because any large stack that gets broken down or even a small stack that busts out tends to benefit the rest of the players by making a big stack less dangerous or simply moving people up the ladder to money.

Late last night I experienced a rather large dose of schadenfreude myself in a 6-max $2K guarantee tournament. I entered late, in Level V at 30/60 and was somewhat startlingly seated next to a player using the name of a company I’d once run. By my 19th hand that player was gone and replaced. The guy two seats behind me in action—who’d been raising everyone off  with a pot-sized bet practically—was up to 19K, and I was down to 1,000 chips, a third of my starting stack. The other four players at the table were between 1,600 and 2,000 chips.

I picked up [qh js] in the cutoff position as action folded around to me. There wasn’t much time left before I didn’t have any breathing space at all so I put out a 400 chip bet into a pot of only 120. The button called, as did the big stack who was in the small blind. Three players to a flop of [2d jc ks]. The big stack checked and I shoved my remaining 633 chips into the pot. Both the other players folded and I was back up to 1,913.

That seemed to be a turning point for the big stack in everyone’s mind, though. He still had nine time more chips than anyone else at the table but our inevitable demise was now evitable. Everyone played the next hand but me. The flop of [7c 2s th] was checked around to the big stack on the button who remained true to form and bet 320. The UTG player went all-in for 1,520 and got called by the big stack. [tc 8c] for UTG game him top pair and [7h qd] gave the big stack middle pair with an over card. The [td] showed up on the river to make trip tens and the big stack was down for the second hand in a row.

The next hand played out in a similar fashion. Big stack made a big bet pre-flop from the cutoff. There were a couple of callers (big blind and UTG+1, on either side of me). Flop is an innocuous [8d 4d th], big blind bets 880 after a check, UTG+1 calls. On the river UTG+1 goes all-in and gets a call. It’s [as a7] (big stack) against [ac 4s] but the small stack has taken another chunk out of the monster, who’s now down to a little over 15K. Still a lot more than any of the rest of us but blood is in the water.

My turn in the big blind with [td 9h]. The big stack’s holding back a little bit this time, only betting 240 but I call him and get a beautiful straight completion on the flop [kh jd qs]. I coyly check, he bets 1,120, and I’m all-in for 1,673, which gets a call. He’s got [8c qc] and about a 4% chance of winning if he makes a full house or four queens but the [5s] on the turn seals that off. He’s down to 13.4K.

He must have been getting frustrated because in UTG position on the next hand (blinds now at 50/100/10) he launches his whole stack on to the table for an all-in. But he gets a call from the button and when the cards flip the button’s holding [as jc] against the big stack’s [qc 6c]. There’s a bit of tension on the [qs 8s 8c] flop, but an [ad] on the turn gives the win to the small stack. Since the button already doubled up against the big stack once, the pot’s over 6K. In four hands, the giant has been reduced from more than 18K to a bit over 10K.

Rather than reassess, he tries it again. The most recent receiver of the big stack’s largesse and I both limp into the pot. The not-so-big stack blasts everything in as the big blind. The player to my right calls by going all-in and I drop out. Big stack has [as 8d], the caller has [jd ks]. [kc] rolls out on the flop with a [jc] following on the turn and the two pair take it. It leaves the “big” stack with 3,926 chips, which is exactly 230 chips more than I have.

Yet another player halves him on the next hand. Then, with everyone limping in ahead of him, he shoves yet again, though it’s with an anaemic 1,976 chips. Three of us (me and the two players on either side of me) call. I’ve got [6s 6c] but the flop is [jd 4s ad]. Not much for me there. The first player to act bets 1,700, more than I have left. I call all-in, hoping for a six to show. The other caller in the cutoff is all-in as well.

When the other cards flip it’s [qc qs] for the former big stack, [ac 8h] for the new big stack, and [qh jc] for the cutoff. The all-ins are hoping for trip completions, but [2d] [7s] on the turn and river don’t do it and nobody has even a diamond, much less a flush draw.

So, I went out on the same round as the buy who went from 18.5K to out in seven hands, despite having 69% of the chips at the table and a 9:1 lead over an of his opponents. But I suspect I was laughing more.

MLK

Played a variety of games last night at a cash game get-together with just six people. Stud games, wild cards, a couple of games I wish I’d never heard of. I went prepared with Council Bluffs, an Omaha Hi-Lo variant I read about where the top card permitted in the low hand is the river card.

On my first deal, though—after suffering through everyone else’s weird games—I specified a game I made up at the table in honor of the day. MLK: Omaha Hi-Lo with the black kings wild. The first time through was kind of a bust, nobody got a wild card, but near the end of the night when I brought the game back into rotation one of the players won big hands with it twice.

I managed to come out on the plus side on the last hand—after having a couple batches of chips wiped out—going all-in and getting two calls, then winning with two pair against a couple of flush draws.

Is It A Bluff?

Got into a late-night/early-morning 6-max turbo tournament a few levels in at 50/100, which put me at just 10 big blinds to start. There were only about 400 players left out of 500 starters, and more than $5,170 in the prize pool. 54 places paid.

I was lucky with my first hand ([ah th]), picking up the blinds with a min raise, then a showdown against an all-in on my first small blind ([ah 7d] v. [4c ad]) gave me a pot of over 1,900  when my seven paired on the flop.

Calling another small all-in from the big blind a little later got me a spade flush (I’m not sure I needed anything that strong to beat [5s qc]), then I picked up [ad as] on the next hand as the big blind eventually going all-in to take a pot of over 9K, mostly from the small blind who had [9h 8h].

Three rounds later, with blinds at 200/400/50, I raised to 1,200 from the small blind with [6c 5c] and the big blind went all-in for more than my stack of 7,140. It seemed like he’d been using that trick an awful lot so I called and he turned over [9h jc]. The flop of [ks 4c th] looked rather grim, but [ac] and [2c] put me up to 14,480 and third place in the chip ranks at the time (which eventually paid $569).

I sat through another twenty hands without much action, maintaining my stack between 16K and 17K but slowly slipping in the rankings. The blinds had just gone through and I was sitting with the button when I picked up [qd 9d] and I miscalculated my chances. Action folded to me and I min-raised. The small blind (a different player than earlier) shoved his 7.5K in and the big blind folded. I had the bet more covered by more than double and called. He flipped an [ah 7h], the board showed two more hearts, but it was the [as] on the river that sealed the deal.

Still, I was in the running. There were only 65 players left, we were just a dozen spots away from the money, and I still had nearly 9K in chips. Still, the blinds were 400/800/75, so that only left me with 11BB. It was shoving time. I was dealt [2c kh] and decided to test the water with a call from the cutoff after the action folded to me. The guy on the button with all of my former chips went all-in for more than 16K and the blinds crumbled. Did he have a good hand again or was he just using all those chips to squash people? I guessed “squash” and called. I was wrong. His hand was even better than the last one: [kc ad]. I had one live card and it was a deuce. Or maybe a heart flush. Amazingly enough, I was only at a 4:1 disadvantage to start. Again, an [as] was the nail in my coffin—this time on the turn—and I was out at 63rd. My nemesis took his 27K and went on to the final table, winning $113.

Feeling the Disconnect

It was wild and wooly outside this afternoon with lots of wind and rain coming down all over the Pacific Northwest. I started playing another EPT Steps 15 FPP Special tournament and two hands in my connection died. I don’t know if it was the weather or something in my local network for sure but I managed to get back in only to have things go sour again just as I tried to call a raise with a pocket pair of kings from UTG+1. By the time I hooked up an Ethernet cord to my cable modem, that hand was long gone and I was down to 895 chips from the starting stack of 1,000, with the big blind of 100 about to take another chunk out. On the 75 chip small blind the next hand I pulled [ac 4s] and went all-in over another all-in of 60 chips and the big blind of 150. The big blind folded, an [as] hit on the flop and that was good enough to put me back up over the starting stack.

Two rounds later the blinds were at 100/200 and I was dealt [kc 7c] in the UTG+1 position. I went all in for 1,005, the next player to act raised all-in to 1,860, and everyone else folded. He flipped over [as kc] but the cards came out [5c 3s 8s] [2s] [jc] and I got some breathing space with 2,285 chips.

Six hands later at 150/300/25 I got [7c 7h]. Not a pair that’s the best to play nine-handed, particularly from my UTG position but I put in 300. UTG+1 went all-in for 1,872 and it folded around to the big blind who pushed everything in for 2,960. I was completely covered but called. The flop was [6s 7d 7s], which left me in pretty good shape. The big blind with [ad ks] was out of luck but there was a minimal chance that UTG+1’s [td jd] could turn into a straight flush, at least until [tc] came on the turn. I took in 7,852.

Someone else’s middle pocket pair was my downfall, when I paired a [td] with the top card on the board at the turn and [6h 6c] tripped up with [6s]. Out in seventeenth position.

Best-Laid Plans

I’d intended to play very slowly and carefully last night in my home league’s second quarterly event. I had a 24-point lead on the second-place position in the player of the year list, which was about 13% of the total points. With twelve players in the game last night, I had to go out first and #2 had to take first or second for the night.

I played a couple of hands I shouldn’t have, though, and my plans were all akimbo. A player who’s only been able to make the quarterly games this season went into the final table (seated to my left, after the re-draw) with a chip stack that must have held close to a third of the chips in play and took out five of twelve players. He threw a bit of chaos into the POY race and took second place after having a little less luck nine-handed than he did with six. Still, I didn’t go out until sixth place, #2 went out in third, and #3 took first. They swapped places on the leader board, my lead narrowed to only 14 points (7%) but I maintained my three-month status as #1.

Reversal of Fortune

A couple of hours into a tournament with $7,400 in guaranteed prizes and I’d managed to recover from a couple of drastic losses to get back to the middle of the remaining pack of about 500, with over 26K in chips. One of the big stacks in the game—with twice my chips—was playing just before me.

The blinds were 500/1,000/100 and I was in the big blind. Everyone ahead of the big stack small blind folded. Stackie pushed his 52K onto the table. I had [ad as] so I called. He turned up [jd jh] but nothing untoward showed up as the rest of the cards appeared, so we basically flipped chip counts.

I cashed out in 207th place fifteen minutes later trying to pull in a pot of 151K.

Hmmmmmm

There’s a chance that I might be playing some non Texas Hold’em poker in the next week so I thought I’d play a couple of different games without putting up any actual cash first. Did a 5-Card Draw Limit game where I increased my chips by 20% in about twenty minutes and then a truly bizarre Omaha Hi-Lo No Limit game where I bought in for 300 chips and left the table twelve minutes later with 16,924 after  winning two low pots and two high pots.

Just to see how that might translate into real money, I put $4 onto one of the 2¢/5¢ tables. Six hands later I left with $6.36. I’m going to have to explore this a little more at another time.

Mixing It Up

You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now: Don’t blow your lead.

I was in second place in the bottom level of the PokerStars EPT Steps ladder—15 Frequent Player Points to buy in—and the game had been going for about forty minutes. There were only about 18 players left (out of 111 starters) and the top nine positions all got the same ‘Step A’ prize ticket. I had over 11K in chips and got a [qc kd] in the cutoff position with the blinds at 300/600/50. The first player to act put in 1,330, the player between us folded, and I called instead of just riding things out. The button and small blind folded, with the big blind making the call.

The flop showed [qh td th], giving me two pair but making trips for anyone with a ten.  The big blind bet out 1,800 into a pot of 4,950, and UTG called. I had them both covered by more than 7K, so I went all-in. They both called and the cards went over. The big blind only had [jh qs] but sure enough UTG turned [ts js]. Three of the queens were exposed; getting the case queen for a full house was a long shot. The jack I needed for a straight would give UTG a full house to beat me. No flush possibilities. I needed that queen (which would give me a chop at best) or a couple of kings (which was an even longer shot than the single queen). Didn’t happen, though. The turn and river were [4c 5s] and I dropped out of the elite, ending up in 14th place.

Shangri-La

Ireland may just have to wait for a while. Another disappointing episode of “Darrel at the Quarter Finals” today, terminated with an ugly loss while I was holding AsKs and followed by action at the cash games trying to get an extra 50¢ for another buy-in that just didn’t go right (aces up busted by a pocket pair of tens that tripped up).

We’ll see how the home league quarterly game goes this weekend; maybe it’ll be time for another try after that.