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Charity Event
Saturday, July 30, 2005 On Thursday night I played in a charity tournament to benefit the American Cancer Society. As I've written before, it feels much more productive to play poker when it's for a worthy cause. And since I've lost many family members to cancer, this event was particularly satisfying. Not that I played much poker. I played exactly two hands, and I was all-in preflop on both of them. On the first, I doubled up. On the second, I busted. Such is No Limit Hold 'Em with huge blinds. Anyway, I'm always interested in charity events, so if anybody hears of one, please send the info my way. Another Good Sunday Monday, July 25, 2005 My favorite place to finish seems to be third, and that's where I ended up on Party yesterday. And as usual, I briefly had the chip lead three-handed, but just couldn't close the deal. Of course, third place was 200 buy-ins ($40,000) and that's nothing to sneeze at. I'll take third place in a 2500-person event anytime, and of course I did have to get pretty lucky to make the run I did. Just one of these times I go deep in these things though, I want to win. (Yes, I'm aware I won Paradise earlier this year, but that was "only" 400-something people, which hardly counts :).) You might ask if I had any interesting hands. No, not really. Not to me, anyway. You don't have to play any interesting hands to make a score in these things--you just have to try to get chips instead of sneak into the next spot (which, amazingly, is what 80 percent of the field is doing once the tournament gets close to the money). I complain a lot about stallers, but the fact is the people who stall almost always have a fundamental misunderstanding about how to make money in tournaments, and I should be grateful for them. There was one hand I should've played differently. I won the hand, and I would've won the exact same amount if I'd played it better. But I absolutely misplayed it. Basically, I had the chance to bet into a (mostly) dry side pot and isolate with an all-in player when I had a medium pair. I had high confidence that the other active player would've folded all but his monsters if I had bet, but for some reason I did the "routine" (and wildly incorrect) thing and checked it down. I got away with it this time, but I won't make the mistake again. Bet update: Finally, I went backwards for a week. It had to happen eventually. Total this week, -$4,863. Overall, +$27,745. The WSOP is Over Sunday, July 17, 2005 Congrats to Joe Hachem, our new world champion. I'd say he earned it, but I don't think anyone can justify earning $7.5 million for a week's work. Even A-Rod has to work almost a quarter of the season to make that much! But Mr. Hachem is deserving of the title after playing almost 100 hours of high-intensity poker, much of it under the lights. Congrats also to fifth-place finisher Andy Black, who was one of the three people I made a deal with when I reached the final table at The Palms! He seemed like a great guy, even if the deal he proposed was wildly in his favor (and pretty solidly in mine, I might add--Andy and I were the short stacks). And finally, congrats to twenty-fifth place finisher and former champion Greg Raymer. With a final table in this year's WSOP in a 2000+ player field, and a 25th in the 5800+ player main event, Greg has proven to anyone who ever doubted that he is one of the best No Limit Hold 'Em players in the world. Of course, some of us already knew this, but it will be nice not to have to listen to the uninformed discussing Greg's abilities anymore (or at least, the uninformed will somewhat accidentally no longer be uninformed on this particular issue). I went 0-for-4 on tournaments today. Stars: QQ v KK. Party: trips vs. trips. UB: top pair vs. set. Dise: Seat 1: jbjmongo (25 in chips) Seat 2: ponyandtrap (5,310 in chips) Seat 3: spencerman (3,205 in chips) Seat 4: soapman (3,795 in chips) Seat 5: lucky--7 (6,825 in chips) Seat 6: jacksup13 (3,975 in chips) Seat 7: mungrag (1,795 in chips) Seat 8: ALL GOLF (2,820 in chips) Seat 9: Sub Ten (1,025 in chips) Seat 10: SHOEDOG (3,430 in chips) ponyandtrap: Ante (25) spencerman: Ante (25) soapman : Ante (25) lucky--7: Ante (25) jacksup13: Ante (25) mungrag : Ante (25) ALL GOLF: Ante (25) Sub Ten : Ante (25) SHOEDOG : Ante (25) jbjmongo: Ante (25) soapman : Post Small Blind (100) lucky--7: Post Big Blind (200) Dealing... Dealt to jacksup13 [ Js ] Dealt to jacksup13 [ Jc ] jacksup13: Raise (500) mungrag : Fold ALL GOLF: Fold Sub Ten : Call (500) SHOEDOG : Fold ponyandtrap: Fold spencerman: Fold soapman : Call (400) lucky--7: Fold *** FLOP *** : [ Kd 5d 2h ] soapman : Check jacksup13: Check Sub Ten : Check *** TURN *** : [ Kd 5d 2h ] [ Th ] soapman : Check jacksup13: Bet (3,450) Sub Ten : Call All-in (500) soapman : Call All-in (3,270) *** RIVER *** : [ Kd 5d 2h Th ] [ 9d ] *** SUMMARY *** Pot: 250 | Side pot 1: 3,200 | Side pot 2: 5,540 | Board: [ Kd 5d 2h Th 9d ] jbjmongo lost 25 (showed hand) [ 5s 3d ] (a pair of fives) ponyandtrap lost 25 (folded) spencerman lost 25 (folded) soapman bet 3,795, collected 8,990, net +5,195 (showed hand) [ 6d Td ] (a flush, king high) lucky--7 lost 225 (folded) jacksup13 bet 3,975, collected 180, net -3,795 (showed hand) [ Js Jc ] (a pair of jacks) mungrag lost 25 (folded) ALL GOLF lost 25 (folded) Sub Ten lost 1,025 (showed hand) [ 9s 9h ] (three of a kind, nines) Fun stuff, eh? Check out the chat that followed. soapman: I really thought you were value betting the flop soapman: and then I played at the turn and got lucky soapman: you bet out the turn and I have to fold jacksup13: dude, just stop saying stuff I played a really weird hand in the Party tournament. If anyone has seen anything like this before, let me know. I think it's a first for me to see the min-raise, call, min-bet, call, min-bet, call, min-bet, fold line. Seat 1: danny0111 ( $1710 ) Seat 2: gosk89 ( $1410 ) Seat 3: m994770 ( $1630 ) Seat 4: jacksup ( $2755 ) Seat 5: linder1 ( $1450 ) Seat 6: Riapeno ( $1335 ) Seat 7: KyKid32 ( $325 ) Seat 8: stevielimo ( $2238 ) Seat 9: kevo13 ( $1512 ) Seat 10: BretHerring ( $635 ) Trny:14019914 Level:2 Blinds (10/20) ** Dealing down cards ** Dealt to jacksup [ Kc Ah ] kevo13 folds. BretHerring calls [20]. danny0111 raises [40]. gosk89 folds. m994770 folds. jacksup raises [155]. linder1 folds. Riapeno folds. KyKid32 folds. stevielimo folds. BretHerring folds. danny0111 calls [115]. ** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, 4d, 8c ] danny0111 bets [20]. jacksup raises [200]. danny0111 calls [180]. ** Dealing Turn ** [ 2c ] danny0111 bets [20]. jacksup raises [280]. danny0111 calls [260]. ** Dealing River ** [ 6s ] danny0111 bets [20]. jacksup is all-In [2120] danny0111 folds. jacksup does not show cards. jacksup wins 3460 chips How bizarre, how bizarre. Bet update: This week, +$7,179. Overall, +$32,608. Almost a third of the way home. I should be picking up the pace on this thing now that I'm home and settled. Also, I'm going to try to respond to everything in my Inbox tomorrow, so if you're waiting for an email from me, you should be getting one tomorrow. Everybody run goot this week. Two Left Tuesday, July 12, 2005 From my original list of Who We're Rooting For. And they are: Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, the chip leader with $1,064,000. You think maybe he's a good player? Mike May, in 139th place with $153,500. I wasn't surprised to see Mike vault into contention from nothing yesterday, and I won't be surprised when he climbs the leaderboard again today. Good luck boys, do the East Coast proud! Bet update: Again, I forgot to update on Sunday. Last week, +$2,996. Overall, +$25,429. My Friends Play Goot! Monday, July 11, 2005 End of Day Two chip counts, from those we're rooting for. Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer $318,700 Have you heard of this guy? Olga Varkonyi $209,500 Not a fluke. She has about as much big buy-in tournament experience as her husband. Gavin Smith $84,900 Trying to add to what's already been a breakout year. Matt Hawrilenko $102,000 Known in some circles as Matt #2, he has studied well under the tutelage of Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman. This "math guy" is going for his second final table in his first-ever WSOP. Matt has to be one of a handful of the best players under age 25. Andrew Prock $93,000 The author of Pokerstove. Hmm, maybe that math stuff really is useful in poker. Mike May $16,900 Do not count out this New Yorker. One of the best players on the east coast, Mike plays a short stack extremely well, and could easily be back in the thick of things by the end of the day. Good luck all!! Who We're Rooting For, WSOP Main Event Sunday, July 10, 2005 With Day One finally over after it started three days ago, here are some of my friends still in the tournament, by chip count. If I left you off, I apologize. Olga Varkonyi $80,700 Nicholas Fradet $70,150 Joe Pelton $68,850 Gavin Smith $61,925 Andrew Prock $60,700 Gavin Griffin $54,600 Greg "Fossilman" Raymer $39,525 Mike May $38,300 Ken Adams $34,725 Adam Schoenfeld $28,875 Cliff Josephy $26,625 Steve Brecher $22,825 Matt Treasure $21,100 Peter Alson $16,475 Matt Hawrilenko $14,850 Peter Feldman $12,275 Howard J Mann $8,700 Anthony 'The Greek Jr.' Snyder $6,175 Go get 'em boys! And girl! (Although she's got the most chips of anyone on the list, so she doesn't need as much encouragement.) Unhappy Ending Friday, July 08, 2005 For the second straight year, I have busted out on the first day of the World Series of Poker main event. I got down to T8,000 pretty quickly, then got it up to T13,000. I had a little more than T10,000 in my stack when my bustout hand occured. A player who had limped very often limped, and the player behind him (who also limped often) limped. I made it T1,000 with two jacks. I'd been raising players' limps a lot, usually with success, and I was glad I finally had an actual hand to raise them with this time. The first limper, one of the few players who seemed willing to engage with me at the table, reraised to T3,000. The other limper folded, and I decided to call. The flop came 932 and after a lot of thought, my opponent moved me in. I thought for a little while and decided to call. He had kings, and I was gone. I gave my opponent a fairly wide range for several reasons. Who knows if he would've also made that play with two sevens (as I believed he would), but we do know that this time he had two kings and I was gone. Sure it's disappointing, but as my friend Richard Brodie said, it's just another poker tournament. There will be plenty of others. Not just yet, however, as I am planning on taking some time off (a month? a week? two days?) from playing poker. In the meantime, here's hoping that all my friends still in the WSOP meet up at the final table, or close to it. I can't be too upset with my overall World Series. Here are the numbers from my second leg. WSOP events: 4 WSOP cashes: 1 WSOP final tables: 1 WSOP event total: +$4,410 Other brick-and-mortar tournaments: +$3,420 One-table satellites: 6 One-table satellites won: 1 One-table satellite total: +$2,600 Brick-and-mortar total: +$10,430 Online total: +$12,801 And here are the overall WSOP numbers. WSOP events: 10 WSOP cashes: 2 WSOP final tables: 1 WSOP event total: -$8,365 Other brick-and-mortar tournament total: +$2,870 One-table satellites: 12 One-table satellites won: 3 One-table satellite total: +$9,985 Super satellites: 1 Super satellites won: 1 Super satellite total: +$8,840 Brick-and-mortar cash game total: +$547 Total result, online poker: +$12,895 Total result, brick-and-mortar poker: +$13,877 Total overall result: +$26,772 This, coupled with the $36,896 I won online during my break between WSOP trips, makes for a pretty good thirty days of results. I didn't become a millionaire, but I did just fine, thanks. I like how I'm continuing to grow my bankroll by taking manageable risks, and I'm excited about learning how to play some new games so that I'll be capable of competing in even more events at next year's WSOP. But for now, I'm so excited to be returning home to Ivy--to read and write and sleep in my own bed, to watch the Mets and the MetroStars, and to eat food I actually prepare myself. Ah yes, homeward bound. For me, there is almost nothing sweeter. 12 Hours to Go Thursday, July 07, 2005 Well, it's finally here. The 2005 World Series of Poker main event. I bought-in to this thing more than six months ago. Tomorrow I take my seat on Day 1A. I'm going to give it my best effort, but it's not my style to set goals for how long I'll last, or whether I'll cash, or anything like that, because those goals just don't make sense for individual tournaments. I'm very pleased with my poker results over the first six months of this year, and that will be true no matter how I fare in the biggest of big events. That said, I'm ready to play. Let's get it on! Bet Update Tuesday, July 05, 2005 While focusing on the Limit Hold 'Em tournament, I forgot to post my bet update for last week. So here it is: Last week, +$5,752. Overall, +$22,434 Day Seven: $3,000 Limit Hold 'Em, continued Tuesday, July 05, 2005 The day started out great as I couldn't lose a hand for the first hour and ran my stack up to T170,000. Then everything went to hell. I lost showdowns in three major pots and ended up limping my way to the final table with just T31,000. Eddie Scharf went broke shortly after his aces got cracked, before I had a chance to go broke when I took my couple of beats a few hands later. I ended up finishing ninth (they played the final table ten-handed), for a profit of about $19,400. Obviously I'm disappointed, but we have very little control over our short-term results in this game. I'm very happy with the way I played, and I'm sure in another day or so I'll by psyched for the start of the main event. Tonight, however, I'm going to stay disappointed. Day Six: $3,000 Limit Hold 'Em Monday, July 04, 2005 End of play tonight. 25 players left, I'm in second with T104,000. Par is T48,720. Upcoming blinds are T2,000-T3,000, with limits of T3,000-T6,000. Good night. Day Five: $1,000 Bellagio No Limit Hold 'Em Sunday, July 03, 2005 I ran good in this Bellagio event for a while. With 27 players left from the starting 149 (18 get paid), I had T19,000. Par for the final two tables was T25,000. With blinds of T400-T800 and an ante of T75, I opened in the cutoff for T2,500 with KcJc. The button and small blind folded, but the big blind, a highly highly aggressive player, moved in for T13,800 more. A few hands ago, he had moved in on me on the flop for a large overbet and then stared aggressively at me. I called with middle pair, he had bottom pair, and I doubled through. Now he was giving me the same stare again. I didn't read it as a reverse tell--I read it as, he's weak again. So I called, again. He had As8h. The board came KhJh7hAhX and I was crippled. I busted a few hands later. I needed 41% equity to call with the KJs and I had 46%, so the call was at least FTOP-correct. I'm pretty sure it was correct, period. Given my read of him, I estimate that I had about 50% equity against his range. And then, of course, there are the meta considerations. After everyone sees me make this call, if I win I can pretty much run over the table with little fear of being reraised. Besides, calling was fun! Tomorrow is the $3,000 WSOP Limit Hold 'Em event. Limit Hold 'Em is my secret love. Day Four: $3,000 No Limit Hold 'Em Saturday, July 02, 2005 I ran my starting stack of T3,000 to T3,900. I don't remember how. Then I opened for T50 (blinds T25 and T25) UTG with two kings. The next seat called, and a player a few seats to his left made it T275. Folded to the big blind, who called. I made it T1,050 total. The caller folded, but the reraiser called. The big blind mucked. The flop came ace-high, with two spades (I had no spade). Check-check. The turn brought the queen of spades (ugh). Check, he bet T1,400, I folded. But not too long after that I was lucky enough to get AA against KK, and soon my chips were up to T6,700. I played a bunch of pots without winning any and was down to T4,900 when I got all-in with KK against AK. I lost, and went down to T2,000. Then, with blinds of T50 and T100, I opened for the minimum in early position with KQs. Three callers, and a player on tilt moved in for T1725 total from the button. I was getting almost 2-1 to call him, and I knew he didn't have a big hand, so I moved in. The three callers folded, and my opponent had two nines. I lost, and was down to T150. I worked the T150 up to T2,700 in six hands! Then I opened for the minimum (T200) UTG with two jacks. The player three seats to my left made it T600. I was ready to move him in, but then a late position player thought for a while and finally made it T1,300. I read him pretty squarely for aces, so I mucked. Then Todd Brunson limped in UTG (he does this fairly often), and a so-so player limped behind him a few seats later. With T700 in the pot, I decided to shove in for T2,600 in late position with A8s. The blinds folded, and Todd folded, which was great because he was the player I was most worried about. But the other guy called all-in with AQs. And I lost. Oh well, I can't conceive of playing AQs that way with 12 big blinds in my stack, but more power to him I guess. So I was down to T175. No miracles this time, as I busted on the next hand. I still managed a decent profit on the day, thanks to a couple of hours of the Party $30-$60 game in my hotel room. Man, online poker is good. With six days until the WSOP main event, I've opened up a WSOP Pick 'Em contest. Pick 25 players, and if your team wins more money in the main event than any other team, you win. Here's the team I picked, in alphabetical order: Jerrod Ankenman Doyle Brunson Joe Cassidy Johnny Chan Bill Chen Allen Cunningham Martin de Knijff Chris Ferguson Layne Flack Alan Goehring Gus Hansen Phil Ivey John Juanda Daniel Larsson Howard Lederer Erick Lindgren Matt Matros Michael Mizrachi Carlos Mortensen Daniel Negreanu Scotty Nguyen Paul Phillips Erik Sagstrom Erik Seidel Gavin Smith Think you've got a better team? You can join the pool for fifty bucks. Tomorrow I move from the Gold Coast to the Bellagio, which is nice for obvious reasons, but inconvenient because I'll have to start taking cabs to and from the Rio, and I'll lose the option to go back-and-forth to my room whenever I feel like (although I still have a bunch of friends with rooms over here, if I ever need to crash for a few hours). I'm going to try to play the $1,000 NLHE tournament over at Bellagio after I check in. Then Sunday is the $3,000 Limit Hold 'Em WSOP event. We're nearing the end! Day Three Friday, July 01, 2005 I played very little poker today. Played half an hour online (lost $200) and played another one-table satellite. I had worked my starting stack of T2,000 up to T4,100 when this hand occured. Eight-handed, blinds of T200-T400, I opened UTG for T800 with 77. A loose-tricky player two seats to my left thought for a while and called. Everyone else mucked. The flop came J84 rainbow. I checked, and my opponent bet T1,200 by firing a bunch of chips into the pot. Then he proceeded to stare at me. Given these strong-when-weak indications, and given that I knew this player was capable of calling with relatively weak hands preflop, I decided to move-in, raising him T2,100 more. I thought his most likely hand was 99, and his second most likely was AQ. And I thought there was a chance he'd fold either one of them. He thought for so long that somebody put a clock on him. At one point he was holding his cards in the air to muck them, but then he pulled them back. The clock got down to ten seconds when he finally called...with AJ! I couldn't believe he'd even considered folding a hand as big as top pair-top kicker. And I also think my read was correct--he really didn't like his hand. I guess he was afraid, because of my minimum raise preflop, and my check-raise all-in on the flop, that I had an overpair. I'd actually played very few hands up to that point, so I guess his read wasn't totally unreasonable. Still, if you're going to call preflop with AJ when the blinds are that high, how in the world can you get away from a jack-high flop? So anyway, I busted on that hand. Wandering around the room I ran into Bill Chen, his buddy Matt (who is known in some circles as Matt #2), Gavin Smith, and Morgan Machina. We got a game of Liar's Poker going on one of the abandoned tables. I just learned this game tonight. Every player has a bill ($1, $100, whatever, you change the bill every hand), looks at the serial number, and when it's his turn to act, makes a bid on how many numbers are on all players' bills, or challenges the previous bidder. (I know I'm not explaining this well, but it's too late for me to do a better job. The minutiae of the rules aren't important anyway, just know that the game revolves around the serial numbers of the bills. If you're interested in the details, do a Google search.) We were playing for a dollar a point, but we were sitting around the table with stacks of hundred-dollar bills in front of us, becuase those were the only bills we had enough of to keep the game going. Here were four poker players, sitting around a table that probably had $10,000 in cash on it, playing Liar's Poker for $1 a point. Eventually Bill decided we needed a fresh supply of bills and went to break a hundred-dollar bill for a hundred ones. He came back with a hundred crisp singles and started passing them out. We almost started playing with them, until Matt pointed out that the new bills' serial numbers were in sequential order. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I think I won like 20 or 30 bucks. Finally, a WSOP event for me. $3,000 No Limit Hold 'Em tomorrow. Wish me luck.  September 2004 | October 2004 | December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | May 2005 | June 2005 | July 2005 | August 2005 | September 2005 | October 2005 | November 2005 | December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | July 2006 | August 2006 | September 2006 | October 2006 | December 2006 | January 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | July 2007 | October 2007 | January 2008 | |
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© 2004-2006 by Matt Matros | All Rights Reserved |
