Other than that, it’s been a quietish week of poker for moi. It’s Tax Week, which means that I’ve drawn down every bit of money I have to pay the Feds and the state after spending hours trying to figure out how to pay less. Yes, my timebank and poker bankroll are a bit depleted,so no trip out to Pendleton for the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up. Good luck to everyone out there.
Encore Club $2K NLHE
Every now and again, I like to discipline myself by forcing myself to not do re-buys or add-ons. This was one of those experiments. It went very well at first; I shot up from 15K starting stack to 55K in the first three levels, then just before the break, I doubled the same player up twice after felting him in an early round with K♥5♥ making a low straight. I caught 2nd pair on an uncoordinated queen-high flop and put him all-in when he did have the queen, then on the vert next hand playing J♦7♦, I caught top pair on the turn and thought I was about to catch him with another straight after the board ran out Jx9x8x5x6x. He hesitated when I bet the river, then went all-in with 7xTx for the second nuts and I called. By the second break, I’d built back up, and continued accruing chips, but not fast enough. I did outlast the guy I’d doubled, though.
Three hours and twenty-five minutes. 13th of 31 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
I was on another heater during this tournament and made it to the final table with a decent-sized stack, but ended up in a hand of AxQx v AxKx and busted short of the money. Overlay in this tournament of 12% of the prize pool.
Three hours and fifty-five minutes. 6th of 21 entries.
Puffmammy NLHE
The home game I started out with. I did re-buy in this game, then had a massive number of chips after playing 2♦3♦ and making a straight flush on the turn. I managed to get myself called by two pair on a board with straight, flush, and full house possibilities. But I somehow didn’t even get close to the money.
Two hours and thirty minutes. 5th of 7 entries.
Encore Club $1K NLHE
Got to this game at the first break after busting Puffmammy. Encore had dropped some of the guarantees during the week, but I jumped in (getting the add-on because I was late-regging). Sat at the table with Brad P for a while, then got moved, then he was back when we were down to two tables. I picked up A♣J♣ in the BB and got involved in a three-way all-in with Steve S, who’d shoved AxTx in middle position, and got called by K♥Q♥ on the button. A couple of tens on the board and Steve S was the one left standing. Or sitting.
One hour and thirty minutes. 17th of 27 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
I was about a half-hour late to this. Was doing fine, not great. On the last hand before break I raised AxKx, got several callers, and flopped an ace with two lower hearts. I shoved, got called by A♥2♥ and he caught a deuce on the turn. Did not rebuy.
Fifty minutes. 20th of 24 entries.
Encore Club $8K NLHE
Got to Encore about halfway through the first level and picked up AxQx on my first hand UTG. Raised it, got several callers, flopped an ace, and kept the gas on. UTG1 kept calling me to the river with second pair and lost about 6K in the process, so I had a decent start. One of the guys I used to play with at the old Aces sat down two seats to my left after I got there, and on a hand where I’d called a raise with K♣9♣, he jammed 7.3K on the button after having lost most of his chips in the short time since he sat down. Action folded to me and I called for about 40% of my chips. He had TxTx. The flop was TxAxQx, I made Broadway on the turn with Jx but the river paired Jx and I lost to the full house. From there, I never managed to quite have the best hand. The guy I doubled up lost all the chips I gave him bluffing into a nut flush. And I was out after flopping top top with AxJx only to have the BB in the hand with QxQx.
Fifty minutes. 81st of 97 entries but out before break.
This Friday is the anniversary of Black Friday: April 15, 2011, which put a kink in the lives of a lot of US poker players who played on PokerStars, Full Tilt, and other sites (though most of them had other issues that would have brought them down, eventually). I’d mostly been playing in a home game since coming back to poker, and hadn’t really gotten deep into the online world before it got shut down. Coincidentally—or not—the boom in Portland poker came not long after Black Friday, with Aces Players Club, Ace of Spades, Final Table Poker Club, and Encore Club opening to join the already-existing Portland Players Club. Four years later we’ve got two $100K guarantee live events in the city in the space of a week.
The site doesn’t seem to have much going for it (I can see a bunch of PHP errors on the landing page behind the sign-in dialog) but it’s not a joke, it definitely isin Portland and the Google Maps image from just two months ago even shows the same SUV parked in a slightly different position.
Stay Safe Out There
Heard a disturbing story on Tuesday from a player who’d been at Encore Club the night before. After winning some money at the shootout tables, he left and walked to his car, which was parked around the corner from the Mission Theater, just a couple blocks from the club. I wasn’t particularly late, about 10:30pm as he recalled. Then a guy stuck a gun in his face and told him to hand over his wallet.
For whatever reason, at the time the player told his story, he said he hadn’t contacted either police or the club—for whatever reason, some people don’t like dealing with the police—which everyone at the table we were at encouraged him to do, so I’m leaving out a number of details.
As poker players, some of us are wandering the streets with wads of cash in our pockets (others not). But just being in the vicinity of a place where it’s known that there’s a lot of cash can make you a target, because somebody’s going to assume that a percentage of the people in the neighborhood will have a chunk of money on them, and if they see you coming out of a club’s door, that just increases the probability.
So make sure you’re not an easy target. A robber would have to have someone inside a club (not inconceivable) to know who might be walking out with a lot of money, but you could easily lose what you brought to the club and still get a gun shoved in your face just by being there. You don’t want to have to have the “I just lost everything” conversation with a twitchy felon. Keep an eye outeven if you lost and be ready to circle back to the front door if anything seems sketchy.
If you’re playing late and parked a ways away from a club, spots closer in usually open up as the night goes on. Pop out and move your car closer so your exposure isn’t as great when you leave with money.
If there’s a security guard and you’ve got a bunch of cash on you, ask the guard to walk you to your car. They’ve got a gun. Both Encore and Final Table hire armed security for most of their big events, and they’re usually more than willing to accompany you for a block or two.
If you are walking or you’ve got several blocks between you and your car, call a cab. Sure, you might be only going a few blocks, but that can be an expensive few blocks if you get robbed. Way more expensive than a cab that can pick you up at the club door and take you right to your car. Or home.
Deal of the Day: Encore Poker Series VIII
Starting a week from tomorrow, the Encore Poker Series returns with four increasingly large guarantees: $20K, $30K, $50K, and $100K. Results from last fall’s series were posted on Encore’s Facebook page (and reposted here). The short version is that the prize pools for the four events (with the same guarantees as the series next week) were $40.5K, $52.5K, $66.4K, and $140.9K, with the top 2 players in the $100K each getting nearly $30K apiece. This will be the first Portland event that I’m aware of reported to the Hendon Mob poker database. Pretty soon, you won’t need old Poker Mutant to find out past prize pool info (sniff).
Do I really need to say much more about this? The smaller events usually take the room to capacity and beyond. Last fall, even the $100K got a total of 215 entries (including 50 re-entries). I’d love if they could run a satellite to the series like Muckleshoot does, with one satellite giving you entry to all four events, but apparently the gaming club ordinances don’t allow for those types of things. I’m just hoping for some more run-good.
Encore Club‘s monthly $35K is the lead-in to next week’s EPS. $200 entry and re-entry, $80 add-on. 35 minute blinds. Saturday and 1pm. A number of the guarantees this week have been reduced, likely due to players being out of town for the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up. Check the site for specifics, but you know you’re going to play anyway.
At the Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic, Thursday through Monday are $400 flights for a $500K guarantee. Two flights per day at 12:30pm and 5pm, with Day 2 on Tuesday. Next weekend is a $200K guarantee with $50K guarantee for 1st place.
The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up continues through the weekend. Thursday is the $1.1K High Roller (there’s a $225 satellite for that tonight at 7pm), as well as a $225 NLHE with $3K added. Friday is the $325 NLHE ($5K added) and Saturday is Day 1 of the $530 Main Event.
Calgary’s Deerfoot Inn Spring Super Stack series runs through 17 April; the Main Event is a C$150K guarantee, C$1.1K event.
Talking Stick outside Phoenix has another Getaway Poker Classic, where you get two night’s free room if you register for all three of their tournaments (one $200 and two $300) this weekend.
Sunday is the beginning of the Colorado State Poker Championship at Midnight Rose Poker Room near Colorado Springs. It runs through the end of the month, with a plethora of $110 tournaments, ending with a $500 Main Event.
If you’re in Las Vegas instead of Portland next weekend, the Wynn Signature Weekend is a $250K guarantee tournament with a $600 buy-in. Entry flights Thursday through Saturday at noon. Or you can try out Planet Hollywood‘s Phamous Weekend, with Friday and Saturday flights at noon and 4pm ($350), a $100K guarantee. Day 2 for both events are on Sunday.
Next Thursday is also the first of three days of flights for a $100K at San Diego’s Oceans 11. $240 buy-in and flights each day at 10am and 6pm, with Day 2 on 24 April.
The Lucky ChancesBattle of the Bay is coming up a week from Saturday, and it might be a nice next stop after you’ve cashed big at the EPS (see the Deal from last month). Multiple events with guaranteed prizes up to $100K for 1st.
The Last Sunday tournaments at Tulalip and Muckleshoot are, respectively, a $30K ($345 entry, 11am) and a noon $150 entry with $100 add-on. Last Sunday this month is 24 April, which is the $100K at Encore, so I expect more southbound traffic than anything going north.
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 19♦3♣ UTG 13K 25/50
I started in seat 4, table 8. Seats 1 and 6 are open. I fold.
Hand 43♦3♣ 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 106x7x SB 14.75K 25/50 I limped in along with several others and the flop was Kx4x5x. 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 16JxJx 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 17TxTx SB 50/100 Another raise over limpers, this time nobody calls. Up to 18.7K.
Hand 195x5x CO 50/100 Call a raise and fold on the flop.
Hand 23 AxQx UTG 75/150
I raise and get reraised by an aggressive player now in seat 6. The flop is Ax8x6x, I check, he makes a small bet, I raise, and he shoves. I stupidcall into the set of eights.
Hand 25Qx3x 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 29QxTx UTG3 75/150
I open to 400 and fold on the flop.
Hand 308x9x UTG2 75/150 Limp and fold on an ace-high all-club flop (I did not have clubs).
Hand 314x4x UTG1 75/150
I raise to 500 and fold to a bet on a QxJx3x flop. By the time the button comes around, I have 5.5K.
Hand 373x3x CO 75/150
Limped in with these for old-times sake. Folded on the flop. Down to 5K after the blinds.
Hand 48J♥9♥ UTG3 100/200
Called 500 and folded to a 1.5K bet on a flop of AxQx8x.
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 56JxJx 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 57A♠6♠ 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 58KxKx 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 AxQx face up. I showed.
Hand 59Q♣T♣ UTG1 200/400
Raised and folded on the 9x8x2x flop rather than go for the inside straight draw.
Hand 61A♠6♠ 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 8x7x6x flop. By the time the button came around, I had 28.1K.
Hand 70Q♠J♦ SB 200/400
Called a raise to 900 and folded on 6x3x2x flop.
Hand 78A♥4♦ BB 300/600
Three limpers. I folded on the 9x9x8x flop.
Hand 808x8x D 300/600
I somehow managed to stay good with a 7x5x4xAx3x runout. Up to 29.4K.
Hand 869x9x UTG 400/800/100
I raised and got called by BB. The flop was 6x5x3x, 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 91AxJx UTG3 400/800 I raise over a limp, the limper shoves when action gets back to him, and I fold.
Hand 956x6x BB 400/800/100
Called a raise, flopped 5x4x3x, turned 2x and got paid with Jx on the river. Back over 41K.
Hand 98 K♣8♣ 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 Kx3x2x. 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 998x8x HJ 51.8K 600/1.2K/100 Called a raise to 3.2K, folded on JxTx4x flop.
Hand 100A♣5♣ UTG2 600/1.2K/100 Raised to 3.6K, then folded on 2♠4♠7x flop.
Hand 1058♣8♥ 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 K♠9♠2♦ flop.
Hand 118A♣9♣ UTG 44.3K 600/1.2K/100
Raised to 3.5K and folded on an all-spade flop with no pair.
Hand 119AxJx 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 1228♥8♠ UTG 800/1.6K/200 I opened to 4K and got two callers, then BB 3-bet to 16.6K and I folded.
Hand 126K♦Q♠ 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 AxKx8x 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 4♦3♣ SB 40.6K 1K/2K/200 Several players limped in, so I took a chance and folded to a bet on the 9x9xKx flop. Not for me.
Hand 142A♥9♣ 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 146K♣T♣ UTG2 57.6K 1K/2K/200 I opened to 5K and got 4 callers. The A♣ was on the flop but that was the only one and everyone folded to a small stack shove from HJ.
Hand 147A♦T♥ UTG1 52.2K 1.5K/3K/300 I raised to 5K and folded to another shove, this time from BB in seat 3.
Hand 1568♣9♣ 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 7♣J♣J♥. Some betting on the flop. T♣ on the turn and the betting got really heavy, enough to have put me and my straight flush all in. UTG1 had 7x7x and HJ had JxTx, but that was my opportunity to triple up.
Hand 1627♥8♥ UTG2 38.9K 2K/4K/400 I open-shoved suited connectors. So shoot me.
Hand 166AxQx 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 2x2x. 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.
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.
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.
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 AxKx 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 A♣5♣ 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.
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 K♥9♣. HJ 3-bets to 3.2K holding 2♦6♣. SB calls with 8♠8♣. I have 10K in BB and K♣A♦ and shove. HJ calls all in for less (gotta have faith, I guess) and SB calls with 4.4K behind. Nothing higher than a 9♦ 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 KxKx in late position. BB shoves 30BB. I call, he hits an ace with AxJx and I’m down to just over 3BB. Out on the next hand.
Sixty-five minutes. 27th of 31 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo
I late-regged with about 15BB and doubled up on hand 2 with Q♠T♠ against K♦K♣, making a straight on the turn. Drifted down to 12K, then T♦T♥ more than doubled me up. It was a turbo, though, and with about 7BB, I shoved A♣9♥ UTG, got called by 4♦4♠ 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 K♣Q♣ hitting top two pair on a flop of K♠Q♠9♠, and getting it all in on the 2♣ turn against a player who’d called my raise with 4♠6♠ after just complaining the hand before about monochrome boards. Touché.
Two hours and thirty minutes. 71st of 113 entries.
Bovada $22 NLHE Satellite
First hand, UTG2 min-raises 7♣7♦ (we’re 25BB deep), I call on the button with K♥J♣, and BB calls. The flop is 3♥K♣T♠ UTG2 bets 6.5BB, I shove with top pair, BB goes over the top, and UTG2 folds. BB has A♥K♦ and I’m out.
One minute. 1 hand. 7th of 8 entries.
Encore Club $11K NLHE
I picked up AxAx in SB early and made several thousand in the first round going all-in on a 6x4x 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 9xTx, the flop was 7x6x5x and I called an all-in from a short stack in the blinds who had 4x6x. He caught the 4x on the turn, but the river 8x gave me the straight. Another hand with QxTx I raised and BB, a fairly aggressive player, made a big re-raise. I called, and the board flopped AxKx8x. 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 AxTx. 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 AxTx, I’d limped in at 600—which proved to be a mistake, maybe. Several players came along, the flop was T♣4x3x and I bet, then seat 6 shoved from the BB for nearly 20K. I called, BB had 2♣5♣, 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 AxKx and the three-bet player folded tens face up. The shover flipped over 8♥3♥, 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 9x9x shove with A♣8♣ 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 AxQx when I shoved 9xTx in late position. Home by midnight.
Three hours and twenty-five minutes. 49th of 101 entries.
When will art directors figure out that most poker players don’t have five cards in their hand or that this is a horrible 2-7 Triple Draw or Big O hand?
Just a couple of months to go before the start of the Colossus. If you’re going to Vegas that weekend (or any other weekend), my tips from last year for navigating the crowds might come in handy.
Projects
Hey, poker friends. I’m always looking for projects. Paying projects are preferable, but pique my interest enough and I might just fire up the little gray cells and take them out for a spin, just to blow some of the crap out of the cylinders (there’s a metaphor that’ll be antiquated once everyone’s driving electric cars).
This past weekend, dealer, tournament director, and bad poker boy Forrest Auel recommended me to a friend of his (the Head Coach at Scrotoms R Us, according to his Facebook profile) as someone who might know the answer to a question about deep runs in the WSOP Main Event. I didn’t know the exact info off the top of my head, but I was able to figure it out pretty quickly (if by “quickly” you mean I spent a sunny Sunday afternoon hour staring at my computer screen, like I do anything else).
That info should be showing up this week in the first PokerNews article I’ve done in a number of months.
Soon to appear here is the story of a bet on the expected value of professional players in the Main Event. I think the results will be…interesting.
And for the two or three people who liked my Game That Will Live In Infamy series, if you’d really love to see the same type of hand-by-hand analysis of a PLO8 game, you’re in luck! Because it’s already part-way finished, and it’s not nearly as long, though once again, every hand down to the final heads-up confrontation is there.
Pendleton
It’s been a year since Angela Jordison whacked the first three events at the Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up, an achievement nearly unparalleled in poker history. Can she do it again? Can anyone? We’ll find out this weekend with the first three events. I’m not sure if I’m going to make it out there myself yet, but keeping my fingers crossed.
Deal of the Day: You Kids Get Off Of My Poker Table!
Several of the Las Vegas summer series schedules are out now that they’ve had time to adjust themselves around the WSOP schedule. The Venetian Deepstack III has been out a couple of weeks. Planet Hollywood’s Goliath series followed that. Downtown, Golden Nugget’s Grand series released several weeks ago, and this past week, the Binion’s Poker Classic schedule came out. One type of event that’ll be on all of the schedules are the incredibly popular Seniors tournaments.
How popular are they? The 2014 WSOP Seniors tournament was the largest-ever live poker tournament with a single starting day. 4,425 entries, won by pro Dan Heimiller for $627K. Seniors tend to have more disposable time and income that family guys in their 30s and 40s (or they’re desperate and hoping to hit it big so they don’t have to live off of whatever has replaced now-expensive cat food as the meat of choice for old folks in poverty). They also seem to like the prospect of not having to play poker with a bunch of snotty-nosed brats with their hoodies and their hippity-hop music. Of course, for the past couple years, the Poker Brat’s been able to enter most Seniors events, which are typically 50+ (I’m looking at you PacWest Poker Classic. 55+ is a travesty!) And it’s not going to be all that long before Kid Poker can play them, right along with Phil Laak and Gus Hansen. Maybe that’s why the WSOP added a Super Seniors event last year for players 65+ in age; there are a lot of former kids who think playing a Seniors field’s going to be a piece of melba toast.
TY to all of my friends and followers for the outpouring of 50th birthday good cheer and #POSITIVITY via text, Twitter and Facebook!
The WSOP’s Seniors tournament (#27 on their schedule) is a $1K buy-in (another thing we seniors like is cheap stuff, and for WSOP events, this used to be as cheap as it got) on Friday, 17 June. It’s a 3-day tournament with a single entry day, starting at 10am (if you were one of the people complaining about the earlier start times for WSOP events, just wait until you’re old) on Day 1 and 11am on Days 2 and 3. Their Super Seniors tournament (#31, also $1K) starts Sunday, 19 June.
The Grand Series at the Golden Nugget has a $250 Seniors (#31) game 18 June, with a similarly-priced Super Senior (#35, 60+) tournament 20 June. The next weekend is a $360 Seniors (#45), and a multi-day Seniors Super High Roller (#48, $10K entry, starting 26 June). The afternoon before the SHR, there’s a $1.1K Mega Satellite to the big game.
At Planet Hollywood’s Goliath series, 18 June is a one-day $100K guarantee Senior tournament with a $600 entry.
Binion’s has a $240 Seniors game 22 June.
At the Venetian, there are two entry days (14 & 15 June) for their $600, $250K guarantee Seniors tournament (#29). It returns for completion on 16 June.
So, depending on your bankroll and time constraints, the week starting Tuesday, 14 June is your week for Seniors tournaments, with events at the Venetian, the Rio, the Grand, Planet Hollywood, and Bellagios, ranging in price from $250 to $2.1K. The following week are the smaller Binion’s tournament, the slightly larger Golden Nugget game, and the Nugget’s Super High Roller if you did well the week before. Plus, there’s a whole lot of other poker tournaments going on, as well.
You do have to wonder though, if it’s true that “The Old Guy Always Has It,” who’s got it when there’s nothing but old guys?
Disclaimer: My earliest Hendon Mob cash was a multi-way chop in a Seniors tournament at Caesar’s with the 2004 WSOP Seniors bracelet winner.
This Week in Portland Poker
I got nuthin’. No announced specials for the next week, as of Tuesday night. Doubtless, there will be special event announced the day or or day before they take place over the next week. There is a $35K guarantee coming up at Encore a week from Saturday. The following day is a Special Player Day Event at The Game, but they don’t have a time for it on their schedule yet. A week from Friday (at 7pm) The Game is giving away another WSOP package, to the Millionaire Maker. See the #PNWPokerCalendar for links to the schedules.
Only a Day Away
The Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic continues at the Hustler Casino in Los Angeles.Event #10 this weekend is a $100K guarantee with a $335 buy-in. It’s a two-day event with both starting flights on Saturday, at 12:30pm and 5pm.
Deepstacks Poker Tour wraps up at Casino Yellowhead in Edmonton on Monday. The C$1.1K Main Event has starting flights at noon Thursday—Saturday, with the final table on Monday.
The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up begins tomorrow, with an evening satellite to the Main Event at 7pm Thursday, 7 April. Event #1 is a $120 (including dealer bonus) NLHE tournament at noon on Friday, 8 April. The Main Event is the weekend of 16 & 17 April.
Mid-States Poker Tour’s Golden Gates also gets under way tomorrow, Blackhawk, Colorado. Event #1 is a $360 entry $100K guarantee with starting days 7—9 April and a Main Event ($200K guarantee, $1.1K entry) with three starting days the next weekend.
Full House Poker’s $10K Heads-Up Championship is this weekend in Eugene.
The WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley series starts Saturday, with a one-day $100K ($400 entry) as its opener, capped off with a $250K guarantee, $1.1K entry event starting Tax Day.
If you’re going north, Muckleshoot has a $220 Monthly Special at noon on Sunday.
Calgary’s Deerfoot Inn has a 5-event Spring Super Stack series scheduled for 13—17 April, including a C$150K guarantee, C$1.1K event.
Talking Stick outside Phoenix has another Getaway Poker Classic, where you get two night’s free room if you register for all three of their tournaments (one $200 and two $300) from 15—17 April.
MIssed the Thursday night $9K because of a family obligation and I had to work on Saturday, so the special $25K game was out. I ended up getting in at break in the Friday night game after passing up the opportunity to smoke legal weed at a friend’s get–together early in the evening. Got the buy-in and add-on, but not the live re-buy. I’m cheap.
My table was entirely late-reggers, including several of the club’s top regulars. On the second hand I played, about 40 minutes after the first break, I had K♥T♥ in a multiway raised pot, the flop was K♣T♣8♠, and a regular on my immediate right made a bet. I shoved, everyone else folded, and the reg called with A♣8♣. The two pair held and he doubled me up, though it didn’t make much of a dent to his stack, even though we’d started at the same time.
Half an hour later at the second break, I had 40K, equal to what you could buy in for if you bought the max chips. Chip average was 51.5K, so I felt relatively comfortable. By that point, my original table had broken and I was in a new position.
On the first hand after the second break, we had a raise and four callers (not including me) to the flop, a bunch of low diamonds on the board. Everyone checked, The turn made it 3♦4♦5♦6♦. Nervous chuckles all around, but no bet. 7♦ on the river and everyone checks, not a diamond in the bunch. Not that it mattered at that point. Five way chip.
I picked up blinds and antes in one hand with a shove holding KxQx. A little bit later, I open-shoved the same combo from SB and was called by BB, who showed down the same hand. Lost a little more than a third of my stack when I called a raise with it, then a third player re-raised, the original raiser called, and I called, only to have the original raiser shove a Jx7x4x flop, which he took down.
Two-and-a-half hours in I hadn’t seen a pair above 6x6x. Finally got QxQx and shoved 12BB and got no callers.
I spent most of three hours with a third to a quarter of the average stack. I’d just been through the blinds when our table broke and I was moved into the BB on the new table. A fold left me with only about 3BB (and I still had to pay SB on the next hand. Shoved over a raise with Ax8x and got called by queens, with low bards on the board and that was the end of the chance to make the WSOPC Main Event at the Bike!
Three hours and forty minutes. 27th of 104 entries.
Bovada $2K NLHE 6-Max
I really blew this one. Got into the game with a ticket from points for all of the Zone play. Fifteen minutes in, I got incredibly lucky, and not because of the cards.
I was in BB with T♦A♥. UTG and SB limped, I raised from 40 to 160 (stacks were still mostly in the range of the the 5K starting stack). Both players called. The flop was A♦7♣K♦, I bet 250, UTG called, BB folded. UTG had Q♥J♠, so he’s pulling for a ten. The turn is 4♦, I bet 500 and call a raise to 1K. 9♥ on the turn, I check, UTG tries to rep the flush again, and I go all-in to call. I was down about 500, so I come out with 9K.
I take out a short-stacked player half and hour later, drop back down near starting stack after losing a couple hands then getting bluffed off 6♦6♣ on a 5♦7♥9♦5♠ board by A♦4♦. Then I tripled up with J♥J♣ against A♣2♣ and J♠A♥ on 3♣4♣8♦J♦8♠. That put me up to 14K. Just a couple hands later, I knocked out a similarly-sized stack with K♦K♥, outrunning a flopped flush draw by J♠Q♠. Suddenly, I was in the chip lead. Picked up another 5K from a guy who 3-barreled me when I had 2nd pair, which put me over 30K.
Then it was downhill. Flopped top pair against bottom set (who made quads on the river) but didn’t pay off the river value bet. I did, however, pay off with 7♦7♣ when K♦Q♦ went all-in after making a river flush. That hand took me from 22.3K to 8.3K, and left me with just over 16BB, which wasn’t enough to keep me alive long enough to make the money.
Three hours and five minutes. 210 hands. 26th of 142 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE 6-Max Turbo
Lost 3/5 of my stack the first hands I played. J♣9♣ made an open-ended straight draw on the flop. A short stack goes all-in, UTG shoves, and I shove. UTG has 9♦J♦, short stack has J♥Q♣, and short stack wins with queen-high. Out just a fe3w hands later all-in pre-flop with Q♥T♥.
Fourteen minutes. 13 hands. 37th of 43 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
The start of a bad day of live poker. Already trying to forget it. Did an (uncommon for me) rebuy because there was some overlay (the early starts this month in Final Table’s shootouts may be eating into their morning tournament). Half the field went to the final table. I was short-stacked, lost a race with tens to another short stack and missed the money by a few spots.
Two hours and forty minutes. 7th of 21 entries.
Final Table $1.5K NLHE
Came back in the evening and the overlay was even bigger. Again, I had to do a re-entry, but things did not go my way and I busted on the last hand before break.
Fifty minutes. 14th of 15 entries.
Encore Club $1.5K NLHE
The early bustout from Final Table meant I could get over to Encore in the middle of the second level. Bought the live re-buy when I got in, There was not only no overlay there, the pot was more than double the guarantee. I made what was probably a bad bet and had to fold to an all-in and just never managed to recover.
Sixty-five minutes. 37th of 43 entries.
Bovada $2K NLHE
Late reg with a ticket. It’s a Deepstack tournament with 10K chips to start. I sign up during a break during Level 11, with blinds at 250/500/50. My first hand, I have AxKx UTG2, and I raise to 1.5K. CO shoves for 7.6K, I call when action gets back to me, and the board runs out with a ten on the turn. Next hand, I shove 7x9x and triple up against the table chip leaders with high ace hands. Then it’s out a couple hands later shoving QxTx.
That medallion next to my card cap in the blog header is for winning a non-series bounty tournament at the Venetian. One of the final events of the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza II this last weekend was a $15K NLHE Bounty tournament, and it was won by Dwayne Heido of Tualatin. Congrats, Dwayne! You can find other DSE winners here.
Deal of the Day: Stay At Home
The Deal each week is all about finding value. Usually, that means trying to extract the most for your poker-playing dollar by getting somewhere cheap where there’s a possibility of a big payoff.
I have a friend who kind of snickers art the idea of driving to Seattle for a single tournament or flying to Las Vegas for a few days to catch a few tournaments, but my contention is that if there’s some potential payoff that you can’t get at home (bigger prize pools, longer levels), then it can be worth it.
That pretty much goes out the window this month. With the number of large events going on in Portland alone (see last week’s April Is the Pokerest Month), unless you’re in Las Vegas, LA, or—God help you—Edmonton for some other reason, there’s not much of a reason to leave town for poker value. Just the announced events (Final Table $20K and $100K, $200K of events during the Encore Poker Series and a $35K) are worth hanging around for—I’ve gotten a couple of inquiries from people coming from out-of-town to play—and it’s a certainty that there are going to be the type of last-minute announcements that I don’t get in time for the calendar that just drive me crazy!!!!! Stop putting every special event on Wednesday and Saturday, guys!
Calm down. OK.
Poker calendars across the West (and around the country) are exploding with events in the lead-up to the summer WSOP (which starts in 62 days). But until May, you can do it all here in Portland. Not that that’ll stop me from posting another out-of-town deal next week.
The Players Club is running weekly Big O games at their new location in A&L Sports Bar, Friday nights at 6pm. $40 buy-in and re-buys, $20 add-on. Late registration until 8pm.
Only a Day Away
The Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic starts tomorrow at the Hustler Casino in Los Angeles. It kicks off with a $200K guarantee with six starting flilghts over three days, and a $250 buy-in. It runs through the entire month.
Deepstacks Poker Tour is at Casino Yellowhead in Edmonton starting Friday. No direct flights from Portland (most involve stopovers in Vancouver or Calgary) but five to six hours is about what you can expect for travel time. It finishes on 11 April.
The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up kicks off a week from tomorrow, with an evening satellite to the Main Event at 7pm Thursday, 7 April. Event #1 is a $120 (including dealer bonus) NLHE tournament at noon on Friday, 8 April. The Main Event is the weekend of 16 & 17 April.
Mid-States Poker Tour’s Golden Gates stop starts the same day in Blackhawk, Colorado (satellites to the first event actually get going on 4 April). Event #1 is a $360 entry $100K guarantee with starting days 7—9 April and a Main Event ($200K guarantee, $1.1K entry) with three starting days the next weekend.
Full House Poker’s $10K Heads-Up Championship is the weekend of 9 & 10 April in Eugene.
The WPTDeepstacks Thunder Valley series runs 9—17 April, with a one-day $100K ($400 entry) as its opener, capped off with a $250K guarantee, $1.1K entry event starting Tax Day.
Calgary’s Deerfoot Inn has a 5-event Spring Super Stack series scheduled for 13—17 April, including a C$150K guarantee, C$1.1K event.
I’ve been working on a sort of smash-and-grab approach to Zone Poker where I stop playing after ten or fifteen minutes (or less). Not exactly ratholing; I don’t immediately jump back in the game, but I do leave when variance hits me with a good session. Remind me not to get all-in with JxTx. Overall, not a good week on the tables, -7BB over about 2.5K hands: -0.28BB/100. Session 17 was particularly brutal. On the first Zone hand, you’re always in as BB. I had 5♣5♠, actioon folds to the button, who raises to 3.5x, I call and hit a set on 5♥K♣7♥, check and call another half-pot bet. Turn is J♠, I check, he bets pot, I shove, he has top two and rivers K♠ for full house over full house. Eight hands later, after I buy back in, I had K♦A♦ in SB, and a stack of about 40BB. Button raises 3x, I 3-bet to 9x, he shoves with a 140K stack, I call, he has A♥Q♥ and makes Q♠ on the flop. Yes, it’s just poker, but the downside of Zone is that the bad beats (as well as the good) come a lot closer together.
Big hand for me was J♦A♥8♠7♠. Not much to look at, but I called a UTG1 raise from SB along with BB, flopped 9♠K♥J♥, and everyone checked through the 3♦ turn and A♠ river. I bet my two pair, UTG went all-in with A♥4♠3♠6♣ and a worse two pair, and gave up nearly 30BB on the river alone.
Nineteen minutes. 19 hands. +37BB.
Bovada 0.05/0.1 PLO8
A rundown of 5♣6♣8♠7♦ was the winner here, though not because I made the straight. No, a short-stack with T♣J♠A♣4♠ made a pre-flop raise, I was one of two callers, I hit the open-ended straight on the Q♦9♥7♣ flop, SB potted, I raised, he called all-in, there was a Q♥ on the turn, and a 3♦ on the river, and he missed everything.
Twenty-five minutes. 22 hands. +76BB.
Encore Club $11K NLHE
Lost my first buyin all in pre-flop with AxQx v 7x7x. Rebought and went out on the last hand before break after I flopped trips from BB in a limped pot then lost to a flush draw who called my all-in. Saved myself the add-on (prize pool in the image isn’t complete, they hadn’t put in all the add-ons yet.
One hour. 78th of 83 entries.
Encore Club 1/2 NLHE
Tried a couple tricks that went horribly wrong.
Thirty minutes. -80BB
Encore Club $1K NLHE
Very fast busto. No re-buy, no add-on.
Five minutes. 8th of 8 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo Bounty
Got all-in with Q♥J♥ and a decent-sized stack against aces at two tables and didn’t make it much longer after that.
Ninety minutes. 81 hands. Four bounties. 13th of 194 entries. +188% ROI.
Bovada O8 Bounty
I got to HU in this game with a 2x chip lead, but managed to give away a bunch of chips. Highlight hand was number 62. I was down to 2.7K from the 3K starting stack, limits are 300/600, and I’m in SB with Q♦Q♠A♠3♥. A full table, BB’s all-in for the blind, almost everyone’s limping until HJ raises J♦8♦J♥A♥. Then everyone but D is calling, until it gets back around to UTG3 (9♦T♣6♠8♣), who 3bets to 900, and that gets called all the way around. The flop’s A♣T♥Q♥, I bets and get three calls. 4♣ on the turn, I make the big bet and everyone calls again. 5♦ on the river, I bet, UTG1 calls with two pair and no low, I scoop the pot with a set and get a bounty for BB.
Three hours. 189 hands. Four bounties. 2nd of 25 entries.
Bovada $200 O8
Another late-reg mistake.
Forty-seven minutes. 20 hands. 20th of 27 entries.
Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker
Another shot. I was in need of a double-up with half the chip average and 10BB, I raised to 3BB with K♦K♣ and got called by a 16BB stack with Q♦T♦. The flop was K♠A♦J♥ and I shoved my set into the Portland Nuts.
One hour and twenty-four minutes. 72 hands. 73rd of 115 entries.
Bovada $5K NLHE Turbo
Got in with 20BB after busting the Thousandaire Maker. A♥Q♠, meet Q♣Q♥.
Fifteen minutes. 18 hands. 199th of 564 entries.
Bovada $4K NLHE 6-Max
Got K♠J♠ in on a K♦J♣7♠ flop against T♠A♣ and ran into Q♦ on the turn.
Ten minutes. 8 hands. 43rd of 50 entries.
Bovada $7K NLHE Turbo
Got into this with 12BB after busting the 6-Max. Tripled my stack in the first 30 hands. Hand 38, with 8BB, I got T♣T♠ in BB and call all-in pre-flop against a UTG2 raise and call from CO. UTH2 has K♥8♥, CO has A♣A♦, and I hit top set on the flop. Last hand, I shove K♠Q♣ UTG with 10BB (though about the same number of chips I ended up with 20 minutes earlier) and run into aces again, without the lucky result.
Sixty-eight minutes. 55 hands. 84th of 713 entries. +55% ROI.
Final Table $1K NLHE
Burned through two buy-ins, didn’t add on, and went out on a bad beat I don’t remember. I just know it was bad.
Seventy minutes. 20th of 26 entries.
Bovada $200 PLO Turbo
Late-regged in the second level of a turbo and a third of the field was gone already. Looking at the hand I busted on, I cannot figure out what I was doing.
Five minutes. 4 hands. 27th of 43 entries.
Bovada $500 PLO8 Bounty
Called a 900 raise preflop (18% of my stack) with Q♠K♥T♠K♠, flopped an open-ended straight on a flop of T♣4♦J♦, bet it and got raised for my entire stack. Hit the nuts on the A♣ turn, then lost two ways with the T♦ river against Q♦A♠2♥A♦.
Fifty-five minutes. 31 hands. 34th of 46 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
I got very lucky at the final table. Then very unlucky. We were eight-handed, I had K♣3♣ in the BB and a solid—if a little sticky—lady in middle position made a min-raise that folded around to me. I was short—about 12BB—but called anyway, only to get a 3x3x2x flop. I check-raised all-in, which she called with AxAx, I managed to avoid an ace on the turn and river, even hitting a king for a full house and doubling up enough to get to the money. By the time we were three-handed, it was me with about 8BB, an even shorter stack, and a “giant” stack with about 20BB. I picked up 9x9x UTG, shoved, and the short stack in BB called me with Tx3x, hits two pair on the flop and tops it off with a full house on the turn. I go out next hand with 4x8x against the big stack, catch a four on the flop and lose when he makes a higher pair on the river.
Three hundred and ten minutes. 3rd of 22 entries. +325% ROI.
Bovada FLO
Got involved on a 4♣3♥5♥K♣ hand on a Q♥7♥J♣ flop that looked promising. and continued on a 5♠ turn, but the river paired the board and I lost.
Twenty-six minutes. 20 hands. 17th of 19 entries.
America’s Cardroom $200 PLO8
Checked in on ACR to see if I had any funds left there and decisded to play them badly for a while.
Forty-five minutes. 35 hands. 25th of 31 entries.
Aces Full $1K NLHE
I hadn’t been into Aces Full for a while. Their daily noon game allows two live rebuys, but there isn’t an add-on. I don;t usually like rebuys, but I did one after having my jacks lose to a 4♦7♦ that made a straight on the river and paying it off. That guy lost his entire stack to the guy on my right just after the first break, so with two tall stacks of 1K ships, he was one of the three callers against the tens I finally had to shove with less than 4BB. Lost to AxKx, but other wise might have tripled up.
One hundred and thirty minutes. 16th of 19 entries.
Portland player Zachary Kerns made a donation to a favorite charity of Thinking Poker podcast host Andrew Brokos, and won a drawing for an on-podcast hand analysis, which was posted in Monday’s episode. The hand is from Day 2 of the Main Event at the recent PacWest Poker Challenge and it starts about two-and-a-half minutes into the podcast.
April Is the Pokerest Month
The run-up to the summer season is always chock-full of action, and from just what’s been announced already, April is going to be intense for Portland and Oregon poker aficionados.
The month will start off, as usual, with a Final Table First Friday $20K, that falls fortuitously on April Fool’s, the first day of the month.
The Wildhorse Spring Poker Round-Up runs from 7—17 April in Pendleton, with a $1.1K High Roller on Thursday, 14 April and the $520 Main Event on Saturday 16 April.
Full House Poker in Eugene has their Heads-Up Championship ($200 for one entry, $350 for 2 entries, and $500 for three entries) the weekend of 9—10 April.
Eugene’s High Mountain Poker Palace has a quaterly (sic) $230 tournament Saturday 16 April. and a $120 monthly game the next day.
Encore Club’s now-monthly $35K is scheduled for Saturday 16 April. It’s closely followed by the Encore Poker Series VIII, four events with $20K, $30K, $50K and $100K guarantees on 21—24 April.
If all that poker seems like too much for you, Encore’s taken a page from the online world (and some land-based casinos):
Introducing self-ban option. It’s pretty simple. If you feel like your poker playing hobby has gotten a bit out of hand and a bit out of control then ask us to put you on our “unwelcome guests list” temporarily or permanently and we will happily oblige (message us here on FB). We are very glad that we do provide truly social, low stakes game with no house odds or rake involved where skill, strategy and knowledge are very important if you want to be a winning player in the long run but we do acknowledge the fact that, sometimes, even in that kind of environment, this hobby can be too enticing to the detriment of other things that are important in your life.
If only we could suggest people for banning, life would be perfect.
Deal of the Day: Battle of the Bay
If you’re a fan of the Big Shot tournaments at The Game or the $20K-to-first-place event recently held at Final Table, and you want to fill in the gap between the $100K events in Portland at the end of April, you might look at the Lucky Chances Battle of the Bay, running 23 April—2 May in Colma, California.
Colma is about halfway between the city of San Francisco and San Francisco International Airport. It’s virtually uninhabited—though it’s about two square miles in size—because it’s been San Francisco’s necropolis for the past hundred and twenty years: meaning that almost all of the city’s graveyards are in Colma.
If that doesn’t creep you out, then read on.
This next Battle of the Bay has a survivor event ($375 entry, payouts are evenly divided), and four events with guarantees to first place: $40K, $20K, $25K, and $100K. Lucky Chances is the home casino of the afore-mentioned Andrew Brokos, and if you’re a regular listener of the show, you may remember that he won the big tournament in a series there last November. The casino appears to have a spotty record of reporting results to Hendon Mob, but the winner of the Main Event in last spring’s series received $80K, with the next three places paying a little over $50K each in a deal.
Summer Schedules
The #PNWPokerCalendar has links to several summer series already, including the WSOP, the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza (and Warm-Up), the Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget, and just out yesterday, the Planet Hollywood Goliath. Check out events for May on the calendar.
The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza II ends Sunday. The final big event starts today with entries Thursday and Friday and Day 2 on Saturday. It’s a $150K bounty tournament with a $250 buy-in. Saturday is a one-day $15K guarantee bounty game with a $300 entry, and Sunday is a $200 entry for a $10K bounty tournament.
The Liz Flynt Spring Poker Classic starts 31 March at the Hustler Casino in Los Angeles. It kicks off with a $200K guarantee with six starting flilghts over three days, and a $250 buy-in.
Deepstacks Poker Tour is at Casino Yellowhead in Edmonton starting 1 April, Its schedule and buy-insa are similar to the Reno series, but the money’s Canadian dollars! No direct flights from Portland (most involve stopovers in Vancouver or Calgary) but five to six hours is about what you can expect.
Not a particularly uplifting week. Some more near-misses and agonizing defeats. Poker, in other words. Work kept me from playing the big games in Portland last weekend, so I had to make do with mostly online.
Bovada 0.5/1 and 0.25/0.5 NLHE Zone 6-Max
I had a bad patch at 0.5/1 and decided to drop down for a bit. Still managed to call off with tens against an obvious 4-bet pair of pocket kings, but….
Seven sessions. One hundred and eighteen minutes. 500 hands. +319BB
Bovada $200 Omaha Hi-Lo
Never really got much going in this, but I did make it nearly to the money.
One hour and fifty minutes. 95 hands. 8th of 26 entries.
Bovada $5K NLHE Thousandaire Maker
You only start with 2.5K in this tournament though it’s a decent structure. I don’t think I ever got it much over 5K. Hand 82 I’m UTG2 with T♣T♦ and less than 12BB. I rip it in and get called by two shorter stacks with A♥Q♦ and J♠Q♥, 5♣K♣7♣ on the flop, I’ve got better than 75% equity at that point but an ace (not clubs) comes on the turn and another king on the river and I’m pout on the next hand. Eight places paid $1K, with a ninth-place consolation of $100.
One hour and forty-eight minutes. 83 hands. 31st of 108 entries.
Final Table $1K NLHE
There was over $200 in overlay Monday morning. I got to the final table with one of the shorter stacks but managed to stay alive, shoved aces and 10BB, got two calls from smaller stacks and a pair of queens beat me with a flopped set. Another bubble.
Four hours. 6th of 19 entries.
Bovada $500 O8
I limped in with K♦4♠2♦4♣ and flopped a set and flush draw, with a potential full house on 4♦7♦2♠, and post-flop betting put me essentially all-in with the shallow stacks in this tournament. The A♣ turn made a straight for another player, and it remained good with no deuce, four, or diamond foe me on the river. Out a couple hands later.
Eighteen minutes. 12 hands. 47th of 53 entries.
Bovada $4K NLHE 6-Max
Hit a flush on hand 5 with 7♥5♥, lost to 9♥J♥ and didn’t manage to recover.
Eight minutes. 12 hands. 39th of 46 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo
I late-regged with 15BB, just about doubled up my 1.5K stack on hand 3 with 9♦9♣, picked up A♥A♦ two hands later and got it all-in pre-flop against 4♥4♣, then he caught a set on the flop. Got most of it back on the next hand (Q♠J♥ v 6♠6♦ against the same guy), but never got higher than that before my Q♣K♦ lost to A♦6♠ (we both hit the diamond flush).
Twenty-six minutes. 29 hands. 78th of 214 entries.
Bovada $200 PLO Turbo
Late entry, starting stack is 1.5K, blinds are 60/120. I was in the BB on hand 4 with two limpers and Q♠7♣Q♣5♥. The flop is 3♣Q♦A♦. I pot to 360 and SB calls with K♦A♥2♣9♦. K♥ on the river, SB pots, I raise all-in for 1.1K, and he calls. T♦ on the river makes his flush. Running the numbers, I’m way behind all the way.
Five minutes. 4 hands. 30th of 48 entries.
Bovada $1K NLHE Turbo
I was still more or less at starting stack after late-regging , and was down to 12BB after nearing the end of the first hour. Called an all-in with K♠J♠ and lost all but 60 chips to 8♣8♥.
Fifty minutes. 30 hands. 96th of 165 entries.
Bovada $500 PLO8 Bounty
I was the chip leader for most of this tournament. Got off to a good start on the fifth hands with T♥J♦A♣8♣ and made the nut flush on the turn against a king-high flush, then picked up part of bounty on the next hand with 9♠J♥5♥7♠ when I made a flush. Bovada’s algorithms for awarding bounties are screwy. I took half the pot for the high, two other players split the low, but I got only a third of the bounty. Got up as high as 10x the starting stack and probably should have dialed it back a bit there, but kept taking risks and inevitably lost a couple of key hands with low draws.
Three hours and forty-eight minutes. 145 hands. 13th of 59 entries, 6-1/3 bounties. +88% ROI.
Muckleshoot Spring Poker Classic #2 $4K Added NLHE
I thought I was in luck. Had jury duty scheduled in East Multnomah County for Wednesday and Thursday, the first two days of the Muckleshoot series (and the less-expensive events) My names called first in the random selection Wednesday morning, then the computer crashes after a few more names are read. They have to reset the computer, and when they do the second random selection, I’m not on the list, so I’m off for another two years.
Drove up to Auburn on Thursday for the $200 buy-in event. I managed to run my stack up to 2.5x the starting stack by the end of registration, but there it sat for the next five-and-a-half hours. Knocked out five players (including two on one hand) but never managed to cross the 30K mark. Didn’t have any really gut-wrenching losses—I shoved K♠T♠ over a raise from AxQx who lost to me, and the guy across from me at my second table lost half his stack with aces to a junk hand that made a straight around one card—I eventually went out with A♣K♠ and 10BB UTG, and got called by TxTx 18 places short of the money.
I had aces once and didn’t get any action, and jacks four times, one of which I flopped a set on but had to lay down when the board ran out K♠J♣8♥T♣Q♦ and the guy who’d called my bets all the way put out another 3K. I might have been beat on the turn, but even a nine beat me on the river.
Pretty good structures, apart from the numbering, which had the breaks as a level (you came back from the first break after level 3 to level 5, a little weird). A sort of Italian antipasto at dinnertime for the tournament players. The payout curve was very steep, with 21st to 26th only paying $300 and $14.5K up top.
I started working on this series just a few days after the tournament, which was on 7 December, so for me it’s been more than three months of on-and-off work. Then the past three weeks—in-between working on the Calendar, the weekly Planners, playing poker myself, and life, it’s been a busy time. Thanks for staying with it.
I could have wrapped up with the last hand, but after running the first sets of numbers on VPIP, I was intrigued by the stats I was getting on player 5, the winner of the tournament.
As I mentioned early on, the Six-Max format requires you to open up your range. Putting money into the pot an average of single hand per orbit, your VPIP is going to be about 17% (as opposed to 11% for a full-ring table playing one hand per orbit). A VPIP of 33% in full-ring would be considered very loose (playing essentially three hands per orbit), whereas in Six-Max it’s only a little loose. Player 5 had a VPIP of 57%, meaning he put money into nearly three-fifths of the hands played. Since the bulk of the hands where I observed him were five-handed, he was playing essentially three hands every orbit.
The possibility exists that he was dealt exceptionally good hands. As I showed in an article I wrote for PokerNews.com last spring, variance can truly make a difference in the quality of cards dealt to players in the short-term length of a tournament. Graphing the cards dealt to myself and player 5, however, the cards he was given were—if anything—worse than the cards I got.
The square charts show card combos, with aces at the top left and deuces at the bottom right, and colors/numbers indicating multiple instances of the same combo. Suited combos are above the diagonal line. The histograms show how the cards fall into the Sklansky-Malmuth hand groups.
I was dealt 150 more hands (that are in my hand history) than player 5 (my charts are on the left side), but the histograms between the hand charts show proportionally how the hands dealt fit into the Sklansky-Malmuth hand groupings. The classification bands are practically identical in size; I actually got more hands considered “good” than player 5 (the uncolored portion of the histogram on the right is larger than that on the left, indicating that a higher percentage of player 5’s hands fell outside of the eight Sklansky-Malmuth zones).
I did get pocket aces twice in the course of 324 hands, but probably more significantly, I picked up queens three times. In just 174 hands where I observed player 5, he had aces and kings once each and pocket queens and jacks both twice, in addition to every other pair except for eights and threes.
This is the range of hands where player 5 and I put money into the pot other than for blinds. If you compare the VPIP chart for player 5 with his hands dealt, you can see that he either raised or called with all of his suited aces (the top row shows AQs, AJs, and A5s) and all but one of his unsuited aces (the left-most column). Nearly the same thing can be said about his king-high hands: of seven suited kings (row 2 to the right of the diagonal), he didn’t add money to the pot with one of them, and he put money on eleven of fifteen unsuited kings (second column from the left, below the diagonal). He played about half of his unsuited connectors (combos immediately below the diagonal line). The histograms show that while nearly all of the hands in my VPIP range were in one of the 8 Sklansky-Malmuth zones, more than 40% of the hands player 5 put money in with were outside all of the zones.
I made a pre-flop raise (including re-raises) with about two-thirds of the hands I played. By contrast, player 5 only raised about half the hands he got involved with pre-flop, doing a lot more calling than me. Still the absolute percentage of hands he raised pre-flop was more than the percentage of hands I played. He limped the only pocket aces I tracked him on, and he limped deuces, but raised every other pair he played, as well as most of the other ace hands he played. He also raised 23o pre-flop, though that was in the late stages of the final table, as SB in an unopened pot four-handed at Hand 307.
Both player 5 and I won more than half of the hands where we raised (or re-raised) pre-flop without going to a showdown and both of us laid down about a sixth of the hands we raised. Players either laid their hands down pre-flop or we won with further bets on the flop, turn, or river. Comparing the histograms for these hands to the PFR chart above, you can see that an even higher percentage of “garbage” hands in what player 5 was able to win with—nearly half—made up this category, whereas the distribution in my histogram (on the right) is identical to the PFR range for all intents and purposes. Player 5’s histogram for lost raises shows that he didn’t fold any premium hands (green bands) when he made a pre-flop raise.
Both of us went to showdown with over a third of the hands where we put money into the pot. Player 5’s showdown hands are definitely more widely-distributed than mine are, with more than a quarter of them falling outside the Sklansky-Malmuth classifications. My win-rate at showdown was marginally better than player 5’s but he won as many showdowns as I did though he was dealt only half as many hands (that I could track).
Summary
Two different styles of play that get you to the same HU result. Our final hand was a race: J♦Q♠ v 6♠6♦, where I caught a pair on the flop as he caught a set. Could have gone either way, though I like to think that I could have ground down his 9:5 lead given a better outcome on that hand.
Four hours and fifty minutes. 324 hands. +2,050% ROI.
For anyone who might have missed the blitz of Tweets and Facebook shares I did on my new article for PokerNews, it takes a look at the chance that a player will make the Top 100 in the WSOP Main Event more than once.
