So Close, and Yet So Far

What I hate more than anything is to play for 3 or 4 hours in a tournament and come away with nothing.  Today in the deepstack at the Moose we were down to 4 players.  I was about tied for low stack, having come back from only 3,000 with 2/4,000 blinds, back up to over 20K when this hand came up.  I had been raising the big blind all-in every time it had been folded to me, and he would fold.  Several times, he had an ace, but I had him outkicked, and had doubled up once through him when he called.  Finding A/7 offsuit in the small blind, elected to just raise to 12,000.  He played back at me with K/5 suited by going all in.  I called, thinking this time I get paid off.  The turn brought a 5 and I was out on the bubble.  The big stack wanted no part of any bubble pay so I got nada.  Great.  3rd place paid $430, so the 5 cost me a bunch.

Blogging Las Vegas

It is very tough for me to consolidate 6 days in Las Vegas.  In total, I played in 3 deepstacks, 1 bracelet event, 1 "normal", $60 tournament and several cash games, both no limit holdem 1/3 and omaha 4/8 with a half kill.  Not big games, but big enough to win or lose a few hundred in.  I had several successful sessions, including one at Caesar's Palace where I won enough to buy into their deepstack for $240 and also have some cash left over.  As it turned out that was to be my only tournament cash, coming in 20th place out of 181 entries for $471.  I consider that my "freeroll".

If I was to summarize my play it would be this:

1.  Played sqeaky tight in the first bracelet event.  Can you blame me?  I was fortunate to survive for 11 hours as the cards were not good to me, with only 10 pairs, the highest pocket 10's.  It was not a game I was used to with the long blind structure working for me, but it was a tight aggressive game with raises before nearly every flop.  Only saw maybe 5 limped pots all day.  I felt pretty good about my play, and finishing 460th out of 2300 players I outlasted over 3/4 of the field.  My last hand was a shove with KQ off, called by 9/9.  You have to win those kinds of races.

2.  Made a stupid mistake in the $60 Mirage tournament.  I was over-confident as have cashed the last 3 times played there.  I was running good, bluffing, playing aggressively and getting good cards.  There was a senior citizen regular in seat 10 that I totally misplayed.  I raised with 8/8 (my favorite pair to hit a set), and he re-raised.  I called, the flop was A/K/x, and we both checked.  The turn, bingo, 8, I bet my set, about pot size, and he came over the top all-in.  Without taking time to really think things through, I called to see his pocket kings.  Well played Sir!  What was I thinking?  If I had slowed down, or even under-bet the pot, could have escaped.  There is no hand he is raising with preflop that he does this with except pocket aces or kings.

3.  Both RIO deepstacks were not good to me.  Never really got any traction and forced to commit with non premium hands.  Worst call was shove (he had AK), my call for nearly all my chips with A/9 suited.  I guess I was thinking back to bracelet event where 8/7 shoved, KQ called, I folded A9 suited, and flop came A/A/X.  Even then, I finished both tournaments in the upper 1/3 of players....usually around 1200 registered.   

4.  Best tournament for me was Caesar's.  Not as tough competition, caught some great cards (AA 3 or 4 times).  Key hand was this:  button shoved with a big stack, I am in small blind with J4, big blind and I both are very short stacked and we are on the bubble.  Before I can act, the dealer sweeps the all-in's cards into the muck.  He loudly protests, the floor rules that the BB amount 6K must stay in the pot, but his hand is dead.  I pause, decide to complete the blind.  BB checks his option (later said he had an ace, and almost shoved).  The flop is jack high, I go all in, he folds and I pick up 18,000 plus antes.  That was enough to ensure my cashing in the tournament as two players shortly went out.

5.  Cash games were tough for me.  Other than the 1/3 at Caesar's, where I made over $300, did not have another NL win.  Not big losses, but losses nonetheless.  I did have some success in omaha.  After dropping $200 in 1/3 NL, I took my remaining $60 over to the 4/8 omaha.  Cashed out a couple of hours later for $360.  Total net win $100 for the day.  I headed back to the room, sick as a dog, swilling theraflu all night.

6.  Overall, played o.k., but not brilliantly.  With decent cards I stand a chance, but cannot seem to "outplay" the big boys.

The WSOP is a wild ride, and the top players from the whole world are there.  You have to play darned good and get lucky, and catch decent cards to hope to win.  A lot of fun and a good bucket list item.  Had a great time visiting with my buddy Don and wife Penny. 

Also, it was fun seeing the big pros like Barry Greenstein, Joe Hachim, Greg Raymer, Erick Lindgren walking around. Quite a show.

Off to the WSOP

Leaving in a few minutes for the airport and ready to play in my 1st WSOP.  Most of my bad beats out of my system hopefully.  Will report on my progress via blog or texts.  Just knocked out of online tournament, 9/9 vs. 8/8.  The flop was:  6/7/8 all hearts, I have the 9 of hearts.  Using my poker calculator I was 4 to 1 preflop and coin flip after flop with the open ended straight flush draw.  Got to hit those bad boys in the big tourney.

Thanks for the help, Kevin

Joking with Kevin yesterday I thanked him for getting all of my bad beats out of my system before the WSOP.  He remarked that based on what he was seeing, I should have no problem getting to the final table.  Lost another $400, notable bad beats include a $200 pot with AJ vs AJ, he hit flush on river.  Lost most of my chips in tournament to QQ vs my 99.  I flopped the set, he rivered his set.

Weekend Update

Played zero live poker this weekend.  Just focused on computer tournaments and reading poker books.  Trying to get sharp for Saturday.  Surprise call from Jim Worden, one of my racquetball buddies in Seattle.  He was playing the WSOP Senior's event and noticed my name at the top of the leaderboard.  Called me to see which table I was on, had to burst his bubble by telling him it was the other Phil Hall.  Gotta watch out for that guy, identity theft and all.  Checking final results, he did not cash...a 68 year old Utah guy won it, his first WSOP event.  First prize was almost $700K, largest field, 4400 players, for this event ever.

Been A While

I have not posted for a "while" for a variety of reasons.  Lest I lose my scant readership figured I had better get something up "post haste".  This week has been a total freaking disaster for me at the Crazy Moose.  The tournaments have been bad for me, the cash game much worse.  It seems like my aces are doomed to be cracked in big pots.  Yesterday had them twice and folded one on the flop (there were 3 diamonds, and I had none), the second on the turn when the 4th spade came (I had none....won by 7/7....one of them a spade).  Both hands was able to get away from them without a "crying call", though the first was a semi-bluff but came from in front of me with players behind to act.  Basically o.k. cards but absolutely no connections with the flop.  Thus stuck, I played the tournament today, made the final table, but was knocked out with my AJ suited vs. KQ offsuit.  Always the way, the worst hand wins.

Getting excited for the world series trip.  Just 9 days away.  Got my confirmation email on my deposit so am good to go.  Have talked to several people that have played in it, and others that will be there next week.  May have mentioned earlier that 2 friends are playing in the same event, should be fun.  I am trying to work on my attitude....trying not to get down when the bad beats come as that means that I got my money in good.  Just trying to relax and have a good time.  Isn't that what we are supposed to do in life.

Just for fun, here is a great video about dogs & cats and trust.

  

The Ultimate Bad Beat Story

 

  I had heard this story before, and was trying to tell it at the poker table last night.  It is a great one if true.

 

The ultimate bad beat

Updated: February 2, 2006, 5:02 PM ET

By Bluff magazine | Adam Slutsky

 

According to Ace Hunter, commander of Megaforce: "Life's like a wheel: it all comes around." And the poker table is the ideal venue for Commander Hunter's philosophy to play out, oftentimes with dire consequences.
While attending college at Arizona State University, I would often play poker at Casino Arizona, a good-sized card room with a wide variety of games. For those of you who haven't mixed it up in one of the Grand Canyon State's casinos, they are all Native American-owned, and the majority offer impressive perks and giveaways. But since poker is our primary concern, the only "perk" worth mentioning are the bad beat jackpots.
If you've never played in a poker room with a bad beat jackpot, the rules are simple: using both hole cards (for hold'em), if your high hand (normally aces full of 10s or better) is cracked by a higher hand (often quads or better), congratulations, you just netted yourself a hefty bonus. At most card clubs, the loser of the hand receives 50 percent of the jackpot, the winner gets 25 percent, and the other players seated at that table divide up the remaining 25 percent. What's more, most of AZ's bad beat jackpots are progressive -- increasing daily until they are hit. If memory serves me correctly, Fort McDowell Casino in Fountain Hills holds the record for the world's largest bad beat jackpot ever paid, somewhere in the neighborhood of $160,000.
While biding my time for a more lucrative $20/$40 limit hold'em game, I snagged an open seat in a $6/$12 game. Shortly after unracking my chips, I realized there was a significant amount of tension at the table, all of it between two players: the No. 3 seat, a young guy, mid-30s, stocky, with a crew cut, and the No. 9 seat, an older woman, possibly way north of the century mark. Had someone handed her a broom, I would've grabbed Dorothy and Toto and whisked them to safety.
Seated in the center of the table, the first few hands I played felt like a ping-pong match as Crew Cut continuously spouted muttered-but-audible off-color remarks, all directed at the Wicked Witch of the West, who had absolutely no qualms about issuing verbal retaliations. Being impartial, I nevertheless gave props to the elder combatant; her replies were much more creative: "The height of your hair is a direct reflection of your IQ," and other statements along those lines.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I turned to my neighbor for enlightenment. Apparently, the bad blood began the way it usually begins at a poker table: he had a high pocket pair (in this case, queens) and she stayed in with a small pair (fours), and eventually snapped him off when she paired her kicker (an unsuited 7) on the river.
OK, it happens, let's move on. However, Crew Cut had no intention of letting the events of Bad Beats Past fade quietly into the night. Oh, no.
A few hands later, nearly the entire table stuck around to see the preraised flop (Casino Arizona is well known for ultra-live action, regardless of the game -- must be the desert sun!) of K-K-A. After a bet and a call, only two were left in the hunt: yup, you guessed it, Crew Cut and the Witch (sounds like the title of the next Harry Potter novel, doesn't it?).
Something irrelevant, an 8, I think, hit the turn and all hell broke loose. Because they were heads-up, there was no cap on raises, and the two kept coming over the top of one another as if they were playing leapfrog to the death.
The rest of us were amped by the furious action and we were all reasonably confident that a boatload of "found money" was about to land in each of our laps. Expecting to dole out some serious cash -- the jackpot was around $60,000 at the time -- two floormen raced over to watch the hand play out.
Crew Cut got it all-in first and the pot was now somewhere in the vicinity of $500, pretty decent for a $6/$12 game. With no betting action left, and only the river to come, Crew Cut proudly flipped over his hand, pocket rockets, giving him aces full of kings, the minimum qualifier for Casino Arizona's bad beat jackpot.
"Go ahead and beat it," Crew Cut said antagonistically. "Gimme a bad beat."
A rag on the river changed nothing and all eyes turned to the old hag, now nodding her head in the affirmative. "Okey-doke," she said, and turned over her pocket kings, giving her quads, the winning hand, and the small end of the bad beat jackpot.
Crew Cut threw up his hands in victory. "Boom!" he screamed, mentally spending his lion's share of the jackpot, right around $30,000.
But the drama wasn't finished yet. Before anyone could convince her otherwise, Witchy-Poo scooped up her pocket kings and held them out to her younger, wise-cracking nemesis.
"Here's your bad beat," she said with unflinching satisfaction and casually tossed her hand into the muck.
We were all dumbfounded -- the players, the dealer, the floormen, not to mention all the lookie-loos who always run to a table when a jackpot has been declared. A chorus of "Holy [expletive]" spread through the crowd.
As for Crew Cut, he turned more colors than a chameleon on a Twister board and collapsed heavily into his chair, mouth agape, his hands locked onto his near hairless scalp.
"Why would you do that?" he queried, mouth aquiver. "You were gonna get 15 grand."
"I don't need the money," she said with complete disdain, while racking up the remainder of her chips. "But knowing you did … " She stopped racking, stared at him and smiled wide, a grin so wide, it would give a fly the chills.
To say we were all pretty pissed was a major understatement, as we were just intentionally hosed out of our players' shares, a smidge over $2K each. But I gotta hand it to the old gal -- she definitely got the last laugh, and taught that kid a valuable lesson he'll never forget.
Ol' Ace wasn't kidding: Sooner or later, it all comes around.
Take the Bluff reader's poll and tell the poker world what you think!. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the #1 poker magazine in the country: Bluff magazine or visitt bluffmagazine.com.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print
• Subscribe

Running Unlucky Vs. Lucky

Playing to day in the "morning Moose", I was getting some great starting cards, QQ, JJ, KK, 1010, 77.  Lots of pairs.  I ran my chips up to around 2800, lost a couple of hands and was just above starting stack when this hand came up.  With blinds at 50/100, the player to my right raised to 275 which coincidentally was the exact amount I had in my hand to raise with.  I called and "Telemundo" re-raised another 500 out of the blinds.  The other player folded, I called with my pocket 7's with the plan to shove on a favorable flop, or fold to a big card flop.  The flop nailed me, 10/7/2 and when Mundo shoved I insta-called.  He tabled his KK.

The turn was another 10, which doubled his outs and then unbelievably the river was another 10 for his larger full house.  Now that, my friends, is a truly bad beat.