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Taj Mahal - $5000 No Limit Event
Monday, December 20, 2004 This sucker started yesterday (Saturday, 12/18) at noon. I got back from Vegas late Thursday night. After spending one day at home with Ivy, I was back on the road bright and early Saturday morning to make the two-hour drive to the Taj. We got 155 players, which was about twice what they were expecting--fantastic news for those of us who know how to play poker. Day One started well. I had a great table, with only two people that could play even reasonably well, two people that played ok, four people that played pretty bad, and one total fish. The fish doubled through The Professional (East Coast players will be familiar with this guy, a good player who is fun to play against) on a flop of QQ6. Fish had Q6, Professional had AQ. And no, Fish wasn't anywhere near a blind when he entered this pot. Despite this score, Fish busted first at my table (surprise, surprise). I got some chips from him on his way down, and I got my stack up to 24,000 (we started with 10,000, and we played 90 minute levels!). But then I got involved in several hands against a loose-aggressive player and had to fold every one before the showdown (extremely frustrating). This got me way down. At my lowest, I hit 3,800. But then I ran my stack back up to about 15,000...WITHOUT SHOWING A HAND!! This is almost impossible, and it would've been impossible without my absurdly weak-tight table. I got four walks in my big blind. An UTG raiser made it 1500, I moved in for 7100 with KQ, and he mucked. He said he had TT (and I'm sure he did). That's how bad these guys played. The field was absurdly soft. The PokerStars $500 tournament has a much tougher field than this one. After two confrontations with one of the good players went my way, I finished Day One at 24,900. I treaded water for a few hours at the start of Day Two. Eventually I reraised a late position raiser all-in with JT. He called with 99, and I spiked a jack to double up. Then the same guy called off all his chips to me with QT on a ten-high board, after a calling my raise preflop (and he wasn't remotely pot-stuck at any point). I had AT. Suddenly I was at 80k. With 20 players left (they were paying 18), I called a bad player's early position 3x raise with 97s on the big blind. The flop came T73. The pot had about 9000 in it. The bad player had about 22000 left. I checked, knowing he would move in behind me. He moved in. I called. He had 44. See ya. I went into bubble time (hand-for-hand) with about 105k. I ran it up to 120k by taking advantage of the people trying to sneak into 18th to get $10,000 (I was much more interested in the $295,000 for first). Then my strategy backfired. I open-raised, and a good player, but one who was clearly worried about bubbling, reraised me. He made it 12k, and had 29k behind. I had KJ. I thought for a little while, and thought he wouldn't call me without an enormous hand if I moved him in. Plus, he looked nervous. So I moved him in. He thought for three solid minutes before calling with QQ. I couldn't suck out, and was back down to 80k. Then I raised a very tight player's big blind with T8 on the button. He moved in on me quickly. Unfortunately, I was getting about 2.2-1 on my money, so I called him. He had KK. Oops. When the carnage was over and we finally reached the money (it took almost two hours to get from 19 players to 18), my stack had dwindled down to 57k. I got no cards and mostly treaded water for the first hour at the final two tables. Then, on my 3k big blind, it folded to the small blind who made it 9k. I looked down at A9--an absolute monster the way I'd been running--and quickly moved in for 47k total. My opponent had just won an enormous pot and announced he would call to play his rush. He had Q9s. JT4 on the flop, eight on the turn and I go home now in 13th place (my lucky number!). I hate playing well for two days (and I do feel I played well) and earning the same amount as the schmuck who sneaked into the money as a short stack and busted in 18th. But that's this stupid game I love. Bellagio WPT event - Out on Day Two Thursday, December 16, 2004 Not much went right today. I got few opportunities and fewer hands to do anything with for the first two levels, and my stack went down to 63k. I was down to about 50k in the third level when a loose, bad player limped UTG and Randy Jensen limped behind him. I limped behind Randy with T9o. The blinds called and we took the flop five-handed. It came 983. Three checks to Randy who bets 10k into the 8k pot (I actually thought he'd bet 9k, but it wouldn't have made a difference). I call. The turn is a blank and Randy thinks for a while before moving in for 17k. I call. Randy has Q8s, doesn't hit anything, and I'm back to 84k. I owe this pot to Andy Bloch (just as owe the pot that got me to the final six in the WPT Championship to Andy Bloch), because he'd told me about an hour earlier that Randy would be involved in a lot of pots. Without this information, I probably muck to Randy's overbet on the flop. Unfortunately, I gave away the chips almost as soon as I got them. I tried a semibluff check-raise against a highly aggressive player and it blew up in my face. Then I lost two very frustrating pots to David Pham on my immediate left in blind-on-blind situations. I finally went broke with QQ against AKs (all-in preflop). Although I'm very disappointed with the result given where I started the day, that's poker. Sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it don't. Matt Bellagio WPT event--Day One Update Wednesday, December 15, 2004 It was a good day. Just a few highlights before I go to sleep. We started with T30,000 in chips. Level 3 (Blinds 100-200, 25 ante): A conservative player to my immediate right makes it 700 in early position. I make it 2100 with AK. Everyone else folds, he calls. Flop 833. He checks. I bet 2200. He makes it 5000. I move him in for like 16000 more. He mucks. Level 4 (Blinds 200-400, 50 ante): An aggressive player makes it 1200 UTG. I have two kings in the small blind and make it 3200. Big blind folds. UTG thinks for a while and calls. He has about 16k left after calling. Flop comes K85. I lead out for 3500. He makes it 7000. I move him in, he calls instantly with 55. He goes home now. Level 4: A guy who looks like a moron (you'll just have to take my word for it--it's too late at night for decent descriptions) sits in the seat vacated by the aggressive guy I busted with set-over-set. I make it 1000 in early position with AdTd. Folded to the moron who says, "800." The dealer informs him it's 1000 to call, so he calls. The flop comes J72 with two hearts. I check. The moron fires 1500 into the pot with such force that the chips are splayed all over the table. I make it 4000. He thinks for a while and calls. The turn is a blank. I check, he checks. The river is a blank. I bet 4000. He mucks. Level 5 (Blinds 300-600, 75 ante): I get moved to John Juanda's immediate right (ugh!). I win some chips from him (sorry, can't tell the story yet in case he reads this somewhere). Then, second-to-last hand of the night, five limpers on my big blind. I check with Kh9s. The flop comes king-high, all spades. Checked around. Turn is a blank. I bet 2000. Loose/aggressive player (the first limper in the pot) calls. All others fold. River is the 4s--this is the fourth spade, and it pairs the board. I check. Loose-aggressive bets 6000. I call. He has 7s6s. I win. I'm at T81,750, good enough for 28th place out of 233. The problem is, here are some of the players who have more chips than me: Tony G (224.5k) Daniel Negreanu (217) Devilfish Ulliott (169.5) Johnny Chan (148) Phil Hellmuth (138) Lee Salem (137) Hasan Habib (136) Men Nguyen (130) Phil Ivey (119) Eskimo Clark (109) V Senthilkumar (96) Jeff Lisandro (95) Chip Reese (86) Not only that, I drew a lousy table for tomorrow (in order of seats): 1 - Mikhail Smirnov (37.9) 2 - Ronnie Jackson (71.25) 3 - Ted Forrest (69.475) 4 - Lee Markholt (24.375) 5 - Greg Raymer (63.95) 6 - Me (81.75) 7 - Chris Ferguson (41.075) 8 - Lonnie Alexander (15.55) 9 - Bill Seber (63.55) They actually list Chris Ferguson on another table as well. With luck, the "real" Chris Ferguson will be elsewhere. Still, if anyone has advice on this table, I'd love to hear it. Going to sleep, Matt Bellagio - $3000 No Limit Hold 'Em Tournament Sunday, December 12, 2004 This one got off to a fun start, when I drew an opening table that featured John Hennigan, Dan Larsson (Aruba finalist, 2003), and my old pal Martin de Knijff. (For those who don't know, Martin won the 2004 WPT Championship, the tournament in which I finished third.) Counting me, that's four WPT finalists at one table. Yikes. Early on, there were five limpers for T50 each on my big blind. I looked down at two red queens and raised the pot, making it T350 total. Everyone called. With the pot now T2100 (we only started with stacks of T6000), we all took a flop of 743 with two spades. The small blind checked and I led out for T1200. The first two limpers folded, but then Dan moved in for several thousand more. I wasn't going to call Dan anyway, but my decision was made real easy when the small blind instantly called behind him. They turned the hands over--65 of clubs for Dan, A6 of spades for the small blind. No spade, no five, and the small blind went broke. The small blind was replaced by a loose-aggressive wannabe pro (LAWP). A few orbits later, we got five limpers again (?) for T100 each, and I looked down at AA in the small blind. I made it T750 to go, and everyone folded to LAWP on the button. He called T650 more, making the pot about T2000. The flop came AT6. I led out for T1200 and LAWP instantly moved all-in. I happily beat him into the pot, and he was drawing near dead with his T8o. Building on that pot, I got my chips up to T10,000. But then I open raised in the cutoff with Kd7d. The big blind called me. The flop came Q72 with two clubs. The big blind led out for T1000, and I made a minimum raise to T2000. He thought for a second and called. The turn brought an offsuit ten and the big blind led out for T4000. I was done with the hand and laid it down. After that I never really got things going (nor did I get anything resembling a hand). The only highlight was that I got to play with Tobey Maguire for a little while, and I'm happy to report that he's much, much more fun to play poker with than some other celebrities I might name. I busted when I flopped an overpair with my pocket tens, only to run into the big blind's set of fives. Let's hope the poker gods are saving my real cards for the main event. Bellagio - $2500 Limit Hold 'Em Tournament Saturday, December 11, 2004 I arrived in Vegas late last night, giving myself just enough time to eat, sleep, and get my money out of the cage before today's Limit Hold 'Em tournament. On like the sixth hand I lost 20 percent of my stack with a set of tens against Minh Nguyen's set of aces (don't worry, nines paired on the turn just for fun). I later lost with AA against QJ and with KK against 88. Despite all this, I had T5400 at the second break (we started with T5000), and was ecstatic with that position given my run of cards. I got my stack up to T13,000 through a mixture of good luck and good value bets. But then I got pot-stuck with top pair against someone else's AA. And then I got aggressive with AQ only to have my opponent call me down with pocket sixes. My chips got finished off the same way they got finished off in the Foxwoods World Poker Finals main event--with KK against AA. Today was not meant to be. Maybe that means I'll score in one of the other events. Bahamas Here I Come Friday, December 03, 2004 Last night I won my seat to PokerStars' World Poker Tour event in the Bahamas. I did it through one of PokerStars' double shootouts--a great satellite where you've got to win a one-table tournament, and then another one-table tournament made up of the winners of the first round, in order to win the trip. I caught some lucky hands (including a straight flush with nine players left) and took advantage of them. I played six double shootouts in all while trying to win the trip. In three of them I made the final table but didn't win, which was good enough to get my money back. I also played a few single tables for the traditional super satellites. I won one of those single tables, and got to play one of the super satellites. Got all that? All told, I spent about $1,000 winning the $11,000 prize package. Hope to see some of my readers in the Bahamas!  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