Professional Poker Player

I got to the Rio at about 11:45 and I’m still standing in line at 1:05. Apparently, there have been major computer and registration problems in the tournament registration office. Things are going very slow right now and I’m typing this as I’m standing in line.

The tournament directors told us about the problem about 30 minutes ago, and think that they are able to fix it by adding a 30 minute break after level 1. Most of us in the tournament registration room think that this is bullshit. However, after voicing our concern about the halving of the value of our chips, one of the directors simply responding by saying “You don’t have to play.”

Why couldn’t they just stop level 1 right where it was? You’re effectively cutting our chip values in half by making everybody (probably a thousand people) start at level 2 with 50/100 blinds. If we wanted to play with this little amount of chips, we would have bought into a $750 tournament somewhere and not put up with this bullshit.

I know one thing, I’m not tipping anybody once I win this thing. No professional service operator, especially a pit boss or a tournament director, should treat their valuable clients like this. If anybody who reads this is playing in the World Series of Poker, be careful about who you tip. All these people care about is the money, and once it’s gone, they are just going to move on to the next whale.

I decided to play a little bit lower stakes due to the cold decks I’ve been running into lately. I’m gonna make this one short and sweet. I started playing the nightly event at 7:00pm and there were 271 entrants. After over 8 hours of perfect poker, I had half of an average stack and found KJ on the small blind. The button (big stack) made a raise to 3BB and I thought he was simply using his muscle to take our chips so I raised him all-in for a total of a little less than 10BB. The big blind folded and the big stack called and unfortuately turned over AKo, beating me with Ace high and knocking me out.

I placed 28th in the tournament, 27 places paid.

Sure, it may have been a common tournament mistake to make, playing against the big stack near making the money. However, I considered the $368 prize to be minimal compared to making the final table. Also, at the beginning of the hand, the tournament clock showed 34 remaining players, not 29 so I had considered the fact that I may have to push my stack to make any decent money anyways.

So I had another disappointing tournament today… at least this one didn’t take 13 hours to realize that I wasn’t going to win something.

We each started with $6,000 in chips. After blinding and calling down to about $5500 I was able to double up. I had AKo in early-middle position and was at a very aggressive table. I smooth called hoping to backraise a player trying to squeeze the pot. The blinds were $100/$200 and there were 4 more callers behind me, building the pot to $1300 in blinds alone. This was odd though, that so many people would call without raising. As expected, the button raised and made it $1000 more to call. Nobody between us called and I reraised him $3000 chips more. My opponent reraised me all-in and I quickly called. He showed QQ and I spiked a King on the flop, knocking him out of the tournament.

It was all downhill after that. I was getting decent cards, but nothing seemed to hit me. I would get A10o, see an ace on the flop, and my opponent would have AJo. I once had AQs missed a flop of K86 men’s warehouse and another hand I had 99 with a flop of KQQ. I couldn’t hit anything whatsoever!

My final hand was pretty bad too. I could have played it differently and won, but the way it went down was disgusting anyways. I had 22 in middle position and the blinds were $100/$200 with a $25 ante. I raised to $700 preflop and the flop came 689 all differnet suits. My opponent checked to me and I bet $700 once again. He came over the top for $1500 more and I moved all in for another thousand. He made a crying call and won with 44.

Anyways, I’ll get a bit luckier one of these days and hopefully catch something that will bring my chips to the level in which they need to be. It’s just so difficult keeping a chiplead with flops like these.

It didn’t take long before 25% of the field was knocked out. I had an below average chip stack of about 3150 and a very weak table of players. My only showdown hand was my last one.

I was under the gun and told myself that if I had anything in the top 10% that I was going to limp-reraise with it. I looked down and saaw KsQs. I limped for 200 (Level 3) and the guy next to me raised to 900. Three other players called the 900 and it was my turn to act. I quickly shoved my stack into the center. The initial raiser moved in for another 200 chips and the other three players folded. My opponent said that he wasn’t going to call but felt lucky and flipped over AQo, something that I didn’t think he wasl

Ace high won the hand and I was knocked out. Now I’m playing a $325 satelitte.

I’ve played in a couple more events since the last time I posted, Event #21 $5000 NLH  and today’s tournament, Event #27 $1500 NLH. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to cash in either. I had a running shot at cashing in the $5000 event, but I was knocked out of today’s event out of sheer bad luck.

I played tough poker during the $5000 event. I was sat at a table that was due to break within the first couple hours, so I didn’t see any point in building any particular type of image for later on. Its unlikely that I’ll see any of these players after we get moved so the image would be worthless. All I cared about was my chip stack.

During the first few levels I played very tight, not even bothering to limp and see a flop with anything less than a top 15% hand. My only plays were to raise or fold. I had a few good hands, one in particular where I was dealt AA in early-middle position. I made the bet 3.5x the BB and a player directly to my left reraised me 3x my bet. There were no callers and the action was back on me. I moved all in, which was not very many more chips, and I had my opponent covered. He instantly called, tossed over QQ. The dealer flopped the community and I won the hand, nearly doubling my chip stack and knocking a player out in the meantime.

I picked up a few more chips during Level 3 and chipped up to about 33,000. Levels 4 to 9 were a grind, and I didn’t see much else for cards. Standing patiently, waiting for whatever I could get. During Level 10, I saw AQo and raised 3x BB only to be forced out of the pot by a reraise then an all-in. I wish I would have called as I had both opponents dominated since they held KQs and A10s. I would have won the pot, and taken a heavy chiplead at my table. Unfortunately, I put at least one of them on AKo or a pair above 8’s and didn’t risk my chips.

Level 11 was coming to a close with 20 minutes of action. Humerto Brenes was at my table and was playing fairly tight and predictably since Level 3 when I joined the table. The only hands that I saw him turn over were pocket pairs, and he almost always got the rest of his money in after the flop. However, I thought that he had been setting his image up during these levels in order to use his tight image to steal pots later in the tournament.

Humberto raised 3x BB in early position. The average stack was about 60,000 at the time, and I had about 28,000. Nobody called and I looked down at A5s on the small blind. I made a loose call, hoping to double up before Day 2 and get back to a healthier chip stack. The flop came 256 with no flush draws. I checked, allowing Humberto to make a half-pot continuation bet, then I moved all-in. He called with JJ and knocked me out of the tournament.

The worst part about it is that the tournament director stopped action and told everybody to grab a bag for their chips. I was knocked out on the very last hand of Day 1 in 120th place out of 731 players. Top 73 paid.

Today was a different story. It was only a $1500 buyin so players only received 3000 in chips. I quickly chipped up to 6000 and it went downhill from there. I didn’t make any bad calls, I was actually playing perfect poker. However, all of my draws were left in the dark and my bets were contested by my opponent betting the river. The worst part about it is that I set each hand up so I would look weak and they would bet on the river, hoping that I would be able to raise when my draw hit.

My final hand of the day was KsKd. I raised 3x BB with about 11x BB in front of my during Level 3. The button called my bet and the flop was Jc10c6c. I bet 3x BB once again to make it appear as a continuation bet, and my opponent raised me all in for another 5x BB. I called and he flipped over KcQc, the 2nd nuts.

I am now going to play in the 3:00 Mega Satellite event (I’m already 45 minutes late because I’m writing this blog) and try to get my way into the $10k Main event at a discounted rate. I’ll be playing it anyways, but I certainly don’t want to pay full price. Wish me luck!

This podcast is about how I won my biggest pot ever, participated in some 7-way flips at and some of my tournament results.

2008 WSOP Podcast - June 7

Current Cash Games Statistics

Current Tournament Statistics