Chop Chop Bubble Talk

How about some friendly talk about chopping and bubble pay?  We have all been in that situation where the blinds are huge and everyone is friendly, and pretty evenly stacked.  Chop?  No problem. We have also been in those tournaments with the jerk who absolutely refuses to chop or pay the bubble boy.  Ego?  Thinks he is giving something up like his equity in an eventual win?  Here are a couple of my favorite stories about chopping and bubble paying (or not).

Playing in the Crazy Moose $25 tournament we were down to 2 players, me and "Sarge".  Sarge had been a command sergeant major in the army, and had taught hand-to-hand combat to Rangers.  He was one tough old bird, however he was around 90 years old at the time.  He had 90% of the chips in play.  I am not sure if I had even 2 big blinds.  He said, "Do you want to chop?"  I answered, "Sarge, you have most of the chips here, are you sure?"  He then said, "It is time for my nap, yes".  So we chopped.  A most generous act and one I have not forgotten when the chop times come and there is a short stack sitting there hoping for the best.

Playing a deepstack at the Venetian, I am remembering a $130 or so buy-in.  I had taken a really bad beat early on, re-entered the tournament and played down to the final table.  I was playing great, had the 3rd largest chip stack, and we were on the bubble with 6 players remaining.  Everyone but the big stack wanted to pay the bubble.  He was a class A A-hole.  The chop was out of the question.  I picked up KK in the small blind with a min-raise UTG and of course the big stack calling. I shoved (poor decision as better to see a flop and avoid an ace) and both players called.  The flop came ace high and the AA that had min-raised took it down.  I bubbled but had the satisfaction of seeing the big stack jerk drop into a distant 2nd place.  What hurt was the big blind had almost no chips and would certainly have been out before me had I waited.

My general attitude toward both of these subjects is Karma and variance.  I want to create as much good karma as possible and both of these situations accomplish that.  Same with variance.  By chopping you are getting more than if you are the next one out.  I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the guy who refuses to chop or pay the bubble be the next one out, irregardless of his chip stack.  I think it is a personality flaw as they are often jerks in general.

Short Stack Success

At Wheeler last night with 29 players, I really just putzed along with starting stack most of the night. Making the final table was a minor miracle and was probably 2nd shortest stack with around 5 big blinds.  We got down to 6 players, paying 5, and the shortest stack insisted that we not pay the bubble.  He explained later to me that he has been crushing the tournaments and never chops or pays bubble so when he is shortest he thinks it would be hypocritical to agree to pay it.  O.K., guess I can agree with that logic.  He was the next player out.

Now in the money (5th paid $90) but with no chips a miracle happened.  A big stack raised with A/9, a smaller stack shoved with A/Q, and the biggest stack called with 9/9.  The 2nd largest stack then shoved, the biggest stack tanked and finally called.  The case 9 hit the flop and we were down to 3 players!!  I doubled up with AA, then doubled again to pull almost even with the 2nd stack.  Finding A/2 on the button shoved and was called by him with QJ.  Flop good, turn good, river brings in the gutshot straight.  3rd place money was $220.  Glad to win it.

Random Thoughts

A comment was made to me after our Friday night game.  A player told me "your problem was that you let yourself get too short stacked on the final table".  I have been thinking about that for a while since I really respect the player, but came to the following conclusions:

1.  I entered the final table with a decent chip stack, maybe around average stack.
2.  I was extremely card dead.
3.  There were a couple of shove opportunities for me, but was pre-empted before I could do it.
4.  I raised a few times and did not get callers with my premium hands.
5.  My next to last hand was a good shove, 10/J in small blind vs. BB.  Just rotten luck to run into JJ.
6.  So, don't think I made any egregious mistakes on final table, just didn't pick up cards or opportunities.

Other random thoughts:

1.  The longer I play, the more I believe that you have to play the player.  I do much better when I semi-ignore my cards and pick places and people and stack sizes rather than waiting for the nuts.  I want to be less predictable so that when people target me as weak tight, or tight aggressive I can either bluff them or stack them with unpredicted holdings.

2.  Playing some pot limit omaha 8B lately with very mixed results.  It is a super scary game in that you never really know if the jammers...and there are usually at least one per table.... have high hands, low hands, draws or made hands.  It is a great game if you have really great board reading skills and are good at putting people on hands.  It really plays like a no limit game in that you can definitely get your whole stack in the pot given certain circumstances.  The game favors aggressive play, you will lose your ass if you just call most of the time.  It is unlike limit omaha in that the draws usually get poor odds, but often will come along anyway.

Omaha is essentially a drawing game as my poker expert (3 books written) pointed out.  If you flop the best hand, the draws that call actually have a great chance to beat you.  An example of this is, you hold A/3/8/10.  The flop is 8/9/10.  You have 2 pair plus the second nut low.  Looks good right? Except if your opponent holds something like J/K/A/2 you are really in horrible shape as any low card except a 2 loses the low for you, and you are drawing to 4 outs to fill up, while your opponent has 8 outs for the nut straight.  It can get even worse if the flop is suited and favors the flush draw for your opponent(s)!  If in the above instance he has the A2 of clubs and there are 2 clubs on the flop you can add another 7 outs to his draw.  Youch!

Anyway, my hope is to buy in light to the low limit omaha game at the Venetian and try my luck.  Goal is to play a ton of online omaha to get ready.

Sometimes I Suck (out)

My stories are usually filled with bad beats suffered.  Trying to become more aware of when I hand them out rather than receive them.  Here are a couple of recent ones:

Raised with J/J, 2 callers
Flop is A/10/x with 2 hearts
Turn is a queen, check, check, bet, call
River is king.  Bet, raise all-in, folds.
I was toast until the river.

Raised with KJ, flop is 8/K/x
We get them all-in, he turns over 8/8 for flopped set
Turn is a jack, river is a jack for my overfull boat.

One of the more interesting bad beats was last night at the American Legion.  On the final table the big stack raises large with A/3 of spades on the button, short stack in big blind defends re-raising all-in with A/8 off.  Flop is 3 spades with the 8 of spades (x/x/8) for the nut flush.  Turn is an ace, river is an 8 for a full house and what would remain as the high hand for the night worth an additional $48. The two players involved ended up chopping 1st and 2nd places.

I ended up in 5th place, worth $64, despite entering the final table with a good stack.  Just went card dead and two shoves got no callers.  My next to final hand was my shove from the small blind vs. the big blind.  The two previous hands had both folded their small blinds with the BB showing crap as well.  My hand was J/10 with the worst possible match-up, J/J.  I had him covered barely, so my next big blind was all-in with A/8 suited.  Two callers, one with j or q /8 caught a straight on the river as they checked it all the way.  Hate it when that happens.     

Flopped Royal

Playing today in a pot limit omaha game I had my ups and downs.  With a $1000 maximum buy-in, I was up to around $3000 and got stacked with my set of kings plus nut straight draw and nut low draw losing to a rivered flush.  Buying in again, I had gotten back to around 3K when this hand came up.  Notice the almost equal starting hand values.  His hand was actually a little stronger with the queen vs. my 7.  Nice flop for me with a royal flush, and checking the flop I was rewarded when the 2nd queen hit.  He called my pot sized raise, and gave me almost all his chips on the river with the queens full of 2's.

I am really interested in learning to play PLO better as it is a great action game and can generate monster pots.  I would like to try my hand in Vegas in June but need some serious practice, reading and maybe coaching.  I was talking to Ray Zee last night about it, he is a serious expert in the game, playing a huge game in Montana regularly.  Got his phone number and will try to sit with him for a while and get some tips.  I may have mentioned Ray in an earlier post, but he is an old time poker pro, even attending the very first WSOP and has published several poker books.  He said he was offered the opportunity to get his picture taken with the players (the one they display at Binion's), but he turned down the historic offer.  Just not that big a deal at the time.  He has a million stories. 

Poker Road Trip

First my apologies to my favorite blog follower, Lynne.  Sorry I didn't clarify that I would be in town and give you my poker play times.  I really didn't play that much and ended up visiting other friends most of the time.

Now, here is my sad poker story.  Only played one tournament as too tired Monday night after my drive and decided to play cash game on Tuesday.  That was a mistake as it was the usual "coffee club" game of the rocks playing only the nut premium hands.  I ended up losing $20 after a few hours of play.  Wednesday played in the morning tournament for a total of 2 hands.  The first hand I folded, Clark is eliminated with his KK vs. AA.  Second hand I called a $100 raise from the player to my immediate right with pocket 3's.  Half the table called so it was a bloated pot.  The flop was 5/7/3 with two diamonds.  The pre-flop raiser bet $300 and I raised to $600 to shut down the flush and straight draws plus giving overpairs really bad odds.  One player called and the raiser folded along with the rest of the table.  The turn was a non-diamond 9, and with the pot so large I shoved.  He called and tabled pocket 9's.  Nice hit on your 2 outer stud!

So, eliminated early I was in for the cash game which started about 45 minutes later.  Got stacked early on my $120 buy-in by Doug who was on a major heater and doesn't know how to fold a hand.  Two re-buys later I was in to the game $320, my last buy-in caused by my huge raise with AA which was called by "one of my favorite hands" kid with J/7 off.  His 7 made a straight on the river.  He then proceeded to go on a heater, racking up at least $800.  I had moved to the "hot" seat that Doug had left and was in the "1" seat, while the kid was in the "3" seat.  Remember that for a moment and I will tell you how I should have played.

Made a major comeback eventually losing "only" $60, funny how that can seem like a win when you are down so far.  The table was insane, with someone (usually the kid) raising pre-flop almost every hand....and not small raises.  Three guys from some Tennessee company were playing and 2 of them also racked up big.  One was in the "2" and another in the "4".  They were all chatty and friendly with the kid who had just graduated from law school.  How an unemployed student can afford that game is a mystery to me.  Guessing rich parents.

Anyhow, I figured out later that my ultimate winning strategy would have been to button or UTG straddle every hand.  As many of you know, I am not a big fan of the straddle as I prefer to raise with real hands, but thinking about my position on the table it would have been a winning strategy.  The kid was raising out of the blinds with great frequency, usually in the 15-20 range after a bunch of limpers came in.  How awesome would it have been if I was button straddling, forcing him to have 2nd action with the entire table with better position and me with a mystery hand to put in a big raise? By the same token, an UTG straddle would have forced him to play early for bigger pots.  Also not a winning strategy.  This is a somewhat unique situation and not optimal for most tables, but perfect for this one.  I usually prefer to have the extremely loose aggressive player to my right so I can see the raises coming and re-raise to isolate, but this idea works too.

After my mediocre results decided to pack it in and go home on Thursday.  Son-in-law arrived late last night and poker tonight at the Legion.

Interesting article forwarded to me by poker buddy Mike.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/place-your-bets-%E2%80%98brains-vs-artificial-intelligence%E2%80%99-event-will-determine-poker-champion/ar-AAbAzL1

   

But Wait.....Just When You Think You Have Seen The Worst Play

John was on fire last night at the Legion.  Moving to the final table with me still in the game (all 3 dealers were still in...if that tells you anything) and dealing I got to see a couple of the worst plays ever.  I was an early victim of John, I raised with AJ, he called with J/10, and the flop came out J/10/x.  I was running a short stack (probably should have just pre-flop shoved), but likely he would have called anyway with about 1/2 of all chips in play.  I was lucky to still be around as had majorly sucked out a little earlier (see I can do it too), when I shoved from the button with A/7 and was called by AQ suited.  The flop had 2 clubs, went runners on clubs, I had the 7 of clubs.  I don't get on the giving end of that kind of beat very often.

There was an older player who had really chipped up.  Frankly, he was clearly a tight passive player with not much tournament experience.  It was the first time I have seen him play.  Twice he won huge stacks by limp/calling to the river with monsters (AA the first time, KK the second).  He moved to table 2 and returned with a much smaller stack (thanks to John) for the final 9.  He was involved with the hand that was insane.

John raised large pre-flop with a weak ace (maybe A/6), and is called by I think 3 players, including one who shoves, the elderly gentleman, and my nemesis Gary.  The flop is 3/3/3, and all players check.  The turn is the case 3.  And now, John bets large. Gary looks at his cards, shows me (he is sitting in the 9 seat next to me) his weak ace, and folds.  The elderly gentleman calls, showing J/J.  The all-in player has king high and two players go down.  Amazingly, the elderly guy never bet, yet called with his jacks, more amazingly Gary folds the nuts (and half of the high hand money $58). Wow! I have seldom seen such bad calls and folds.

Final tournament result:  John wins with 3 way chop plus $100.  Mike and Eric share the spoils.