My Time Is Coming: Report 11 or Straight Flushed Away

A little late with the Report this week; I was finishing up a couple of articles—including what should be the first item I’ve had on PokerNews in a number of months—and getting ready to pay taxes.

Final Table $20K NLHE

Encore late-announced a $20K against the longstanding First Friday $20K at Final Table. A friend texted me and asked me where I thought the bigger prize pool was going to be, and despite my preference for the structure (and chairs) at FT, this was my response:

Encore consistently outperforms FT on guarantees of the same size. Encore will probably pull players from FT. If its a live rebuy, average at Encore’s going to be equal to FT buyin+addon. FT’s had a few games on edge of guarantee over past year, they may miss tonight. Last month FT had $24550 in pot. Encore would need about 165 players to make that. I expect they’ll get near.

Back in the old days of the blog (and every now and then more recently), I used to note my hands in live games and write them up. Matthew, one of the dealers at Final Table mentioned it during the game, for which I want to give him a shout-out. It’s tough to do live. It takes away from your ability to concentrate on the hands you’re not involved in, but my memory’s never been eidetic. I like to tell people it’s hard to get a read on me because I can’t remember what my cards were  five seconds after I looked at them. If I don’t not down details of a hand, likely as not I’ll forget about it. But I brought out MomentDiary for the First Friday $20K. Not every hand will have all the details—this isn’t an online hand history—but I got a lot of what happened. Hand numbers aren’t absolute, as bustouts and changing numbers of players at the table make things difficult to reconstruct exactly.

Hand 1 [9d 3c] UTG 13K 25/50
I started in seat 4, table 8. Seats 1 and 6 are open. I fold.

makeamericacamoHand 4 [3d 3c] D 13K 25/50
I don’t usually like low pair, but I limped in with this one, flopped a set, and made a little against seat 5, who was apparently playing every hand with a jack in it. It’s a system. He also had on a MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN camo hat.

Hand 10 [6x 7x] SB 14.75K 25/50
I limped in along with several others and the flop was [kx 4x 5x]. I called a flop bet from seat 2, made the [3] on the turn, and got paid off on the river, putting me up to 17.3K.

Hand 16 [jx jx] BB 14.7K 50/100
I make a raise to 1K over several limpers and get a couple calls. i bet on the flop and win.

Hand 17 [tx tx] SB 50/100
Another raise over limpers, this time nobody calls. Up to 18.7K.

Hand 19 [5x 5x] CO 50/100
Call a raise and fold on the flop.

Hand 23 [ax qx] UTG 75/150
I raise and get reraised by an aggressive player now in seat 6. The flop is [ax 8x 6x], I check, he makes a small bet, I raise, and he shoves. I stupidcall into the set of eights.

Hand 25 [qx 3x] SB 75/150
I limp in, catch a three on the flop, nobody’s betting. I get a queen on the river and it checks around. Nobody can beat my two pair. Down to 7.2K.

Hand 29 [qx tx] UTG3 75/150
I open to 400 and fold on the flop.

Hand 30 [8x 9x] UTG2 75/150
Limp and fold on an ace-high all-club flop (I did not have clubs).

Hand 31 [4x 4x] UTG1 75/150
I raise to 500 and fold to a bet on a [qx jx 3x] flop. By the time the button comes around, I have 5.5K.

Hand 37 [3x 3x] CO 75/150
Limped in with these for old-times sake. Folded on the flop. Down to 5K after the blinds.

Hand 48 [jh 9h] UTG3 100/200
Called 500 and folded to a 1.5K bet on a flop of [ax qx 8x].

I didn’t record the hand I busted out on just before the break and I don’t remember what it was (see what I was saying?) I went to get a re-entry and ended up in the same seat rather than taking a spot at one of the folding tables.

Hand 56 [jx jx] HJ 22K 200/400
First hand after the break, I’ve got a new stack and add-on. I raise to 2K and get one call. The flop has an ace on it, with two under cards, I bet another 2K and he folds.

Hand 57 [as 6s] UTG3 200/400
I flop two pair with three clubs. The turn is another club. But the river gives me another ace and I win with the full house over a high flush.

Hand 58 [kx kx] UTG2 200/400
The only really big pair I get during the entire game. I made a biggish 3-bet over a raise from seat 2 (not the same as before) and he folded [ax qx] face up. I showed.

Hand 59 [qc tc] UTG1 200/400
Raised and folded on the [9x 8x 2x] flop rather than go for the inside straight draw.

Hand 61 [as 6s] BB 200/400
Two players were in for 1.1K, the hand worked well for me not long ago, but I folded to a bet from Aggressive6 on the red [8x 7x 6x] flop. By the time the button came around, I had 28.1K.

Hand 70 [qs jd] SB 200/400
Called a raise to 900 and folded on [6x 3x 2x] flop.

Hand 78 [ah 4d] BB 300/600
Three limpers. I folded on the [9x 9x 8x] flop.

Hand 80 [8x 8x] D 300/600
I somehow managed to stay good with a [7x 5x 4x ax 3x] runout. Up to 29.4K.

Hand 86 [9x 9x] UTG 400/800/100
I raised and got called by BB. The flop was [6x 5x 3x], BB put in a bet and I shoved on him. He thought about it for a long time and finally folded. Talking about it later, he had eights, so my read was more or less correct. It put me up to about 40K.

Hand 91 [ax jx] UTG3 400/800
I raise over a limp, the limper shoves when action gets back to him, and I fold.

Hand 95 [6x 6x] BB 400/800/100
Called a raise, flopped [5x 4x 3x], turned [2x] and got paid with [jx] on the river. Back over 41K.

Hand 98 [kc 8c] CO 40.9K 400/800/100
Got a little hinky with a hand outside my normal full-table range, but I was in late position. I think I limped in after a couple of others and flopped top pair on [kx 3x 2x]. I bet the flop and BB seemed to be obviously trying a float. [3x] on the turn. [7x] on the river and he tried to rep the trips. with a 10K bet, which I called pretty quickly. I flipped my hand over and he mucked.

Hand 99 [8x 8x] HJ 51.8K 600/1.2K/100
Called a raise to 3.2K, folded on [jx tx 4x] flop.

Hand 100 [ac 5c] UTG2 600/1.2K/100
Raised to 3.6K, then folded on [2s 4s 7x] flop.

Hand 105 [8c 8h] CO 48.4K 600/1.2K/100
Limped along with several others after UTG1 tried to raise but didn’t put enough in and it was deemed a call. Folded to a bet on a [ks 9s 2d] flop.

Hand 118 [ac 9c] UTG 44.3K 600/1.2K/100
Raised to 3.5K and folded on an all-spade flop with no pair.

Hand 119 [ax jx] BB 600/1.2K/100
Raised to 7.5K over two limpers and took the pot. Our table broke after that hand and I moved to table 1, seat 5, where there were several massive stacks, one immediately on either side of me, another in seat 1, and one in seat 9, UTG2. We were down to 63 players.

Hand 122 [8h 8s] UTG 800/1.6K/200
I opened to 4K and got two callers, then BB 3-bet to 16.6K and I folded.

Hand 126 [kd qs] CO 36.2K 800/1.6K/200
One of the big stacks in seat 9 limped in, and called my 4K raise. The flop was [ax kx 8x] and I called a 5K bet on the turn, and showed down the best hand. Five minutes later when the same player lost another hand, the player in seat 6 said he hadn’t seen him lose a showdown all night and I pointed out that he’d lost one just two hands earlier.

Hand 141 [4d 3c] SB 40.6K 1K/2K/200
Several players limped in, so I took a chance and folded to a bet on the [9x 9x kx] flop. Not for me.

Hand 142 [ah 9c] D 39.6K 1K/2K/200
I called in late position made 2 pair on the turn and shoved over a delayed c-bet from the big stack on my right. He seemed surprised. The chips put me up over 58K.

Hand 146 [kc tc] UTG2 57.6K 1K/2K/200
I opened to 5K and got 4 callers. The [ac] was on the flop but that was the only one and everyone folded to a small stack shove from HJ.

Hand 147 [ad th] UTG1 52.2K 1.5K/3K/300
I raised to 5K and folded to another shove, this time from BB in seat 3.

Hand 156 [8c 9c] UTG 45.5K 1.5K/3K/300
This is the hand that cost me the money. Not because of how I played it, but because of how I didn’t. I gave some serious consideration to opening with it here but laid it down. Two of the big stacks were involved, seats 6 (UTG1) and 9 (HJ). UTG1 opened, HJ called. The flop was [7c jc jh]. Some betting on the flop. [tc] on the turn and the betting got really heavy, enough to have put me and my straight flush all in. UTG1 had [7x 7x] and HJ had [jx tx], but that was my opportunity to triple up.

Hand 162 [7h 8h] UTG2 38.9K 2K/4K/400
I open-shoved suited connectors. So shoot me.

Hand 166 [ax qx] SB 2K/4K/400
A top 5 player from the Hendon Mob Oregon All-Time Money List in CO shoves over a 10.5K raise from HJ (another big stack, who’s been raising from late position very regularly) and I shove for a little less. HJ folds and I’m racing against [2x 2x]. I catch an ace on the flop and CO stands up, which—as poker lore would have it—is what causes a deuce to show up on the river. I’ll have to try that sometime.

Five hours and twenty-five minutes. 166 hands. VPIP: 21%; PFR: 10%; 19% of hands played won without showdown; 28% of hands played went to showdown; won 70% of showdowns. 32nd of 114 entries. 

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For comparison, here’s (part of) the screen from Encore at a similar point in the tournament. I apologize for the crop, I didn’t take it but some of the screens are difficult to shoot when there are players in front of them. Average buy-in at Final Table was $162; at Encore it was $169. Average share of the pot at Final Table (including overlay) was $175, for an 8% immediate +EV.

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Bovada $500 NLHE Bounty

Played a couple of medium-low suited connector hands that cost me early on and slid downhill fast.

Thirty minutes. 24 hands. 41st of 50 entries. 

Final Table $1K NLHE

Had to do a rebuy, but then the cards started coming. I hit set after set, and by the first break I was up to 50K, so I didn’t do the add-on.

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Got to the final table with about a fifth of the chips in play. Doubled one of the players—James—twice, the first time when he took a chance with [ax kx] against my flopped top pair andcaught on the turn, the next when he had me outkicked. In-between, though, I took out some other players, a couple of large stacks who called off with almost nothing, apparently thinking I was bluffing them. Proposed an ICM chop at four players, but the third-place player wasn’t interested. By then, James was in 2nd chip position to me. After the 4th player went out, I sort of stayed out of James’s way; I laid down [ac 5c] on the last hand, when James called an all-in by 3rd place. The flop was all clubs, and the nut flush would have taken both of the other out, but James and I chopped the money evenly and went our separate ways.

Five hours and five minutes. 2-way chop for 31 entries. +690% ROI.

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Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo

About as Turbo as it gets. I late-reg. On the second hand, UTG raises to 10x the big blind with [kh 9c]. HJ 3-bets to 3.2K holding [2d 6c]. SB calls with [8s 8c]. I have 10K in BB and [kc ad] and shove. HJ calls all in for less (gotta have faith, I guess) and SB calls with 4.4K behind. Nothing higher than a [9d] on the board.

One minute. 2 hands. 202nd of 354 entries.

Encore Club $1.5K NLHE

Came in during the second level. Did the rebuy and add-on. Second hand after break, I raise [kx kx] in late position. BB shoves 30BB. I call, he hits an ace with [ax jx] and I’m down to just over 3BB. Out on the next hand.

Sixty-five minutes. 27th of 31 entries.

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Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo

I late-regged with about 15BB and doubled up on hand 2 with [qs ts] against [kd kc], making a straight on the turn. Drifted down to 12K, then [td th] more than doubled me up. It was a turbo, though, and with about 7BB, I shoved [ac 9h] UTG, got called by [4d 4s] and busted short of the money.

Fifty-one minutes. 48 hands. 80th of 416 entries.

Encore Club $8K NLHE

Encore late-announced this event after I’d posted the #PNWPokerCalendar in the morning. I had the night off work, and got the chance to play it, then blew up after building up a 50K stack (well above average at the point I busted) raising [kc qc] hitting top two pair on a flop of [ks qs 9s], and getting it all in on the [2c] turn against a player who’d called my raise with [4s 6s] after just complaining the hand before about monochrome boards. Touché.

Two hours and thirty minutes. 71st of 113 entries.

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Bovada $22 NLHE Satellite

First hand, UTG2 min-raises [7c 7d] (we’re 25BB deep), I call on the button with [kh jc], and BB calls. The flop is [3h kc ts] UTG2 bets 6.5BB, I shove with top pair, BB goes over the top, and UTG2 folds. BB has [ah kd] and I’m out.

One minute. 1 hand. 7th of 8 entries.

Encore Club $11K NLHE

I picked up [ax ax] in SB early and made several thousand in the first round going all-in on a [6x 4x 3] board against what one player later said was a pair of tens, and another pair of what I’m guessing was jacks. A little later, after limping in with [9x tx], the flop was [7x 6x 5x] and I called an all-in from a short stack in the blinds who had [4x 6x]. He caught the [4x] on the turn, but the river [8x] gave me the straight. Another hand with [qx tx] I raised and BB, a fairly aggressive player, made a big re-raise. I called, and the board flopped [ax kx 8x]. He had about 10K left and made another bet on the [tx] river, then flopped the rest of his chips in before the river card was out. It was a [jx] and I said “I call” and turned over the straight, which beat his [ax tx]. I was up to 50K by the first break and didn’t do the add-on or live re-buy.

We had a player in seat 6 who would get in a pot and then shove on the flop. She’d done this several times, and on a hand where I was UTG1  in seat 8 with [ax tx], I’d limped in at 600—which proved to be a mistake, maybe. Several players came along, the flop was [tc 4x 3x] and I bet, then seat 6 shoved from the BB for nearly 20K. I called, BB had [2c 5c], and hit a backdoor flush on the river. The same player cold four-bet shoved a hand blind pre-flop into Dan “Goofy” Beecher (who was sitting on my left with a big stack after being on life support early on). He called with [ax kx] and the three-bet player folded tens face up. The shover flipped over [8h 3h], caught a three on the flop, and held, taking a big chunk out of Goofy’s stack (since she’s already doubled up through me.

Goofy called  my [9x 9x] shove with [ac 8c] and hit two eights on the flop for trips, costing me about half my stack and taking me down into 10BB territory. Then he got the rest of it with [ax qx] when I shoved [9x tx] in late position. Home by midnight.

Three hours and twenty-five minutes. 49th of 101 entries.

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