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World Poker Finals, No-Limit Hold'em Shoot-out Qualifying
Friday, October 28, 2005 Chris and I got to Foxwoods yesterday at 12:45 p.m., in time for the 1 p.m. flight of the No-Limit Hold'em Shoot-out Qualifying. Or so we thought. It turned out the flight had been sold out long before, so we decided to buy-in right then and there for the 4 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m. flights. Each flight is a one-table tournament, and if you win your table you advance to Day Two. (You're allowed refunds if you've bought-in for all your flights and then win a flight.) I got unlucky in my first flight. Got it in with QT against Q6 on the QJ9 flop. Chopped. Got it in with AK against AJ preflop. Chopped. Then lost two showdowns when all the money went in preflop and that was that. I doubled up early in my second flight. I lost some on a strange, somewhat bothersome hand. A terrible player limped for T50 early on, so I made it T175 with QhTh to isolate. A decent player (or so I thought) to my immediate left called. The player immediately to her left made it T400!!?? The blinds and limper mucked. I called. The player to my left mucked!!?? The flop came JT6 with two diamonds. I checked and my opponent bet T400. He had about T900 left and I had him covered (we only got T1500 chips to start). I didn't know what to make of the bet. I thought it probable he had a very big hand, but couldn't really understand why he wouldn't bet more on the scary board. I'd also seen him make small bets earlier, so there was a little doubt in my mind about what he had. Finally I decided to take the strategy of "call the small bet to catch trips or two pair on the turn." I called. The turn bricked and I checked. My opponent quickly went all-in. I thought for a while and decided I wouldn't win the hand often enough to show a profit by calling, so I mucked. I'm pretty OK with my play, but the hand did leave a bad taste in my mouth. Anyway, I then lost a bunch of chips when I got it in with top pair against a better top pair. (The guy had recently come to the table, and he looked as though he'd be a loose player. I later learned that he was very tight. Oh well.) I finally moved in for 6BB UTG seven-handed with As7s. Folded to the bad player on the big blind who called instantly with Kc2c. He made trip kings and I was gone. In my third flight, I never really got chips and eventually decided to gamble with 33 against two players. One of them had AQ and flopped a queen (we never saw the other guy's hand, but I'm pretty sure I had him beat) and that was that. Fortunately, Chris won his second flight. (Woohoo!) Unfortunately, he busted a few hours into Day Two. (D'oh!) We're heading back to Brooklyn tonight. My next events will be online tournaments this weekend. My next WPF event will probably be the Omaha Hi-Lo on Monday. The First in a Wave of Posts Tuesday, October 25, 2005 I realize I haven't exactly been updating this journal frequently these last few weeks. The truth is I just haven't played too much poker and there's really not a lot to report. There will be a lot more poker and a lot more updates very soon, thanks to the World Poker Finals, which begin on Thursday. I will be at Foxwoods for most of the event, and I will try to write updates for every event I enter. Here is the tentative schedule of the events I'll be playing: 10/27 No-Limit Hold'em Shoot-out Qualifying Rounds ($200+$40) 10:00 am, 1:00 pm, 4:00 pm, 7:00 pm & 10:00 pm Win your table and advance to the Shoot-out Finals Seating is limited to 200 per round 10/28 (we hope)Day 2 - No-Limit Hold'em Shoot-out Finals 10/31 Omaha Hi-Lo (8 or Better) ($500+$65) 11/01 Limit Hold'em ($500+$65) 11/02 No-Limit Hold'em ($500+$65) 11/03 Limit Hold'em ($1000+$100) 11/05 No-Limit Hold'em ($1000+$100) 11/08 No-Limit Hold'em ($2000+$150) 11/10 No-Limit Hold'em ($5000+$200) 11/13-11/18 No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event ($10,000+$200) Gadzooks, Foxwoods charges a lot of juice. Thanks to all who emailed regarding my Sunday/Monday dilemma. It turns out I missed an enormous factor in the decision, which is that Foxwoods is building a day off (Thursday) into the tournament. That's right, unless Foxwoods changes its mind, the entire final table gets a day of rest before they play on Friday. This basically eliminates the biggest reason I had for playing on Sunday, so I've requested a Monday start date from Dise. Assuming Dise actually has the ability to grant this request (and they seem to think they do), I'll be starting the World Poker Finals main event on Monday November 14. My next update will be from Foxwoods. Hope to see some of my readers there. The Woods Tuesday, October 18, 2005 I won my seat into the main event of the World Poker Finals tonight in a super satellite on--say it with me--Paradise Poker! The Dise! Woohoo! I got an email from the Dise promotional department afterwards saying I can "confirm the starting date [I] wish to have." The Foxwoods event has a two-day Day One, with the possibilities being Sunday, November 13 and Monday, November 14. Here are the advantages for each choice. Sunday Advantages: 1) I believe it is to a player's advantage to have a day of rest in the middle of these long tournaments. 2) If I bust, I'll get home a day earlier. I like being home. 3) ActionBob and I will play golf on Monday if we both play Sunday. I like playing golf. Monday Advantages: 1) I am the one person in this country that is really into Major League Soccer (MLS). The championship game of this league--MLS Cup--is on Sunday. If the MetroStars are in it (which is admittedly quite unlikely) and I miss it, I will be extremely unhappy. 2) I also get to watch NFL football on Sunday. 3) I also get to play the online tournaments on Sunday, if I so choose. 4) If Foxwoods is making a habit of giving players their choice of days, most of the pros will start on Sunday, meaning the field will be weaker on Monday. Overall, I think my equity in the Foxwoods tournament is higher if I play Sunday. But I don't think it's higher by much. If the EV difference is, say, $100, then I could easily make that up by playing online, and I'd still get to watch my sports. But if the EV difference is, say $1,000, I'd be crazy to pick Monday for what are essentially personal reasons. So what does everyone think? Send emails to jacksup@mattmatros.com with your opinions. Apologies Thursday, October 13, 2005 Sorry it's been so long since my last post, all. I don't really have a good excuse. I haven't played much poker, although I did take fifth in a Dise tournament the other night (surprise, surprise). I wouldn't have played except that my friend Nordberg alerted me to a nice overlay. Thanks Nord, I owe you dinner. I'm also starting to think that at final tables, there are more situations where calling improves your chances of winning the tournament but folding is actually higher EV than I previously thought. This is upsetting to me because 1) I have to start learning when I should make these -chip EV folds that are actually +$EV, and 2) my style is too keep trying to get chips until I win. Why don't they just make tournaments winner-take-all already? :) Right now I'm trying to come up with an idea for my next CardPlayer article. I'm hoping inspiration will strike any second. FARGO, and other stuff Tuesday, October 04, 2005 FARGO was a blast, as always. I, of course, didn't win any money in any of the FARGO activities, but that's hardly the point of FARGO. I got to hang out with lots of people I haven't seen in a while, including golf pro Kevin Conlon, who showed me and ActionBob how golf was meant to be played on the course across the street from Foxwoods. It was by far the hardest course I've ever played, and almost certainly the hardest course I ever will play. There was a hole with a 205-yard carry to the fairway, and that wasn't even from the back tees. I carried it! Yeah, Matt. I still played like crap, but hey, I'm just getting back into golf after many years off. I ran the Fossilman Heads-Up Invitational Tournament (FIHUPT), a FARGO tradition started by Greg Raymer in 1999. As readers of my book know, I've been playing FIHUPT since 2000, and it's one of my favorite events every year. Since Greg couldn't be in attendance this year, I had the honor of running the event. And I had the honor of bestowing the crown on our new champion...Jodi! She went a perfect 8-0 to win the first FARGO event she ever entered. Congrats Jodi! Bet update: Another week of not-too-many hands. Total this week: +$3,212. Overall total, +$51,530. I'm more than halfway home, but really this bet should've been over by now if either Chris or I had put in the hours. The truth is (and this should've been obvious from the beginning) that a $100 bet is not motivation enough for either of us to play more often. In fact, I've been logging so few hours online lately that for the last two nights I decided to play the higher limit games to increase my hourly rate. I may continue to do that for a while this week. (Early results, lost $4500 in the Stars 1-2 on Sunday night, won $11,500 in the UB 80-160 last night.)  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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