Description of My Tourney While Waiting at the Wynn

[shipitfish]

I am waiting for a game at the Wynn, and nicely one can watch the QueueOS list from the hotel room (thanks to Greg who told me about that).

For those that didn't want to play the audio files (that means you, W.K.), I busted out of the tournament on the fourth level (100/200 blinds). W.D. and I talked extensively over dinner about each play and it is pretty clear that I could have done nothing differently.

I had an extremely tight table. We played about six hands before we ever saw a flop (one raise, everyone folds). In the first three levels, two hands went beyond the flop. I tried to make sure I was raising and picking up the right amount of blinds. I did, and made it up to 1,800 at one point. I got dealt only three pairs (QQ, AA, and 22) and one AK. I took a flop with a KT on the button and a KJ in middle position, both after limpers ahead. I took a flop for a raise with 85s and bluffed with a gutshot and got a fold. When I had the QQ and AA, I raised and everyone folded. When I had 22, I raised, got called, and folded when I bet and was raised on an 87Q flop.

I eventually got blinded down pretty hard until I was holding 950 when the blinds were at 50/100. I made it 300 to go with KQs third back from the button. The big blind, a very tight player who liked to get his chips in preflop with big hands, reraised me to 1,200. I am still not sure if he realized that put me all-in or not. I thought through what I'd seen this guy do, and he really liked to get it all-in preflop with big pairs, AQ and AK. Indeed, I'd even say that seemed to be his game plan. I had never seen him out of line, and he always had one of those hands when he got it in preflop. I decided he must have my hand mildly beat (ala JJ) or had it dominated (with AK or AQ). I folded.

W.D. argued that I should have just pushed the 950 to start. I think not. Making it 300 represented more strength than that anyway, since I'm leaving 650 behind. I can be pretty sure if I get moved on, I'm beat, and I was. (When I busted, I asked the guy to please tell me, and he stepped away from the table and whispered Ace king, so I think he wasn't lying. He also sort-of flashed part of his card on folding anyway, and I saw it was either an ace or a duece.)

I looked for a hand to make a stand, and got 92, 34, 45, 27, 63, and the like for the next round. I took the big blind due to lack of hands to make a stand, and got 46s in the blind. I was ready to call it off with that (figuring two live cards against a raiser), and they actually gave me a walk. That bought me a round, and I got more of the same for nine hands. I got K6o under the gun, and almost moved in. I decided instead to take my chances in the blind.

A tight player raised it, and I had T8o. I said, I don't think you knew you were raising a short stack, did you? and he (I believe honestly) said he didn't. I knew he was strong, but felt it was likely AQ or AK, and decided to take my hopefully 30% equity right there and hope to double up and survive. He actually held AA, and a board of QQ6T left me drawing to only two outs on the river, which was a 7. (Too bad the flop had to overpair me, and take my fighting chance.)

I think the only big mistake I might have made is not moving in with rags to try to steal earlier after the KQ incident. I'm happy with my KQ fold, especially after finding out I was right, but it gave me a fighting chance had I picked up hands I could move with. It's a fast blind structure and you have to get lucky early.

I'm very glad to have played the way I did, and a 20 hand dry spell happens. That's just poker. I think I'm unlikely to ever play a small WSoP event like this again; the luck is too great. I am just glad that I didn't make it close to the bubble, and have been forced to play until 2AM or later last night, and then back today for a few hours before even getting close to the money.

The cash games are interesting here. I played a good amount at the Wynn, and I absolutely love playing 1-3 blinds with deep stacks, which a no cap buy-in permits here. Bellagio was nice, and I got to gawk at the “big game“ (with Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Daniel Negreanu and Eli Elezra), and the games seem loose. But, I see why people love the Wynn, and I'm glad I picked my time to play here.

By the way, a little trick: like Foxwoods, they don't notice if you fail to check out and come back during the day, so you can get hours fast by not checking out and making sure you check out before it gets too late.

Comments

[swolfe.livejournal.com]

"blinds were at 100/200. I made it 300 to go"

eh? 300 to go isn't a full raise with a BB of 200. if you really had 950 (i.e., less than 5BB) then open pushing would be the way to go. if the blinds were 50/100, like i think you may have meant, then i think pushing with less than 10BB is still the standard play.

but i don't play tournaments, so what do i know :)

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

Typo, that's when blinds were still 50/100. I've corrected the post. And, had I moved in, I would have gone bust. I was a big favorite to pick up the blinds with 300, and knew if I was moved in on, I was beat. Trust me, this table was so extremely tight that it was worth trying to keep some behind because I would win the blinds so often without risking my tourney life.

[swolfe.livejournal.com]

i understand your reasoning. i was just pointing out that most tourney players i've talked to say that just pushing with less than 10BB is the standard way of doing it.

as you played it, it didn't matter that you had KQs or 92o. i would almost rather limp-reraise since i wouldn't mind either scenario of seeing a cheap flop or getting it all in preflop. i'll tell you one thing though...i think that sticking in 1/3 of your stack, then folding is a mistake.

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I see the point. From my point of view, a 3X blind raise picks up the blinds at that table almost all of of the time. Meanwhile, my big blind opponent is only going to reraise with hands that have me in extremely bad shape. He's offering me 1.07-to-1 when he moves in, and I am sure I'm a much bigger dog than that. Frankly, it would have been better to call with 29o (or, as I did later, T8o) against his hand, because the odds with two live cards would be better than the dominating situtation he obviously had me in.

I didn't know I was about to have a 20 hand run of 92o-style hands; if I had, perhaps I'd rather have gotten it all in there. But, my thinking at the time was I had 650 to push a few times, and about 7/10 hands, the 3X preflop raise had been picking up the blinds. I have a little more than 3X the 200 big blind that's about to start, so I figured I'd get a few Ace-highs and push, and have more of a chance than I did against my opponent's obvious dominating hand in the big blind.

I certainly wouldn't have done it this way if the table was looser. But the place was so tight, I could easily put him on a hand that beat me and find a better spot.

I do agree with you that in most situations, the plays you suggest are more or less no-brainer tourney strategy. But, I think given the likelihood that I could pick up blinds so easily at the table, my remaining 650 had more value in that regard. I'm so likely to go bust on the hand (my read was in fact right, my opponent told me he had AK after I busted), I'm better off trying to rebuild my stack instead.

In retrospect, I think the real mistake was not making a play or two with the 29o, 35o, and the other such hands I got in the 20 hands that followed. I should have taken my chances knowing that my table was so tight I was likely to get away with it. So, thinking over again, I still like my fold of the KQs against my opponents obvious AQ or better, but I what I did really wrong was fail to take advantage by all-in bluffing more in the 2 rounds that followed.

[(Anonymous)]

I typically don't like to get below 10BB in a tourney. At that point I either want to double to +20bb, or just bust out and go do something else.

[shipitfish.livejournal.com]

Do you follow the same strategy regardless of the way the table is? I normally agree, but I have found in online practice and some live tourneys that letting yourself take the blinds when you can keep back 5-8 BB's lets you pick up better, because you get a tighter image and your opponents give you more credit.

[patty-bush.livejournal.com]

The advantage of pushing with anything before you are truly crippled is that the bet is still a strong raise, so if anyone calls and loses it'll really hurt, so you'll more likely be able to pick up the blinds.
This is something that is discussed at length in Harrington's second book when he talks about being in zones and what your "M" is. M is the ratio of your stack to what's on the table preflop (blinds + antes if any) which also turns out to be the cost to fold every hand for one round. So your M is basically the number of rounds you can sit and wait before you're blinded down. It's a little better than calculating the number of BB you have left since it gives a number that means something, plus it accounts for antes if there are any. The concept of M was first written about by a backgammon player.

So long story short, once you're M gets to five or below your only move is an openning all-in move. If anyone limps or raises before you, you fold, with very few exceptions. You don't want anyone in the pot before you, because you want your raise as big as possible, to give the worst odds for calling. Every time you pull this off, your M goes up one, and you buy yourself one more round. Also if someone is limping in, they have a good enough hand that they're investing 1 BB, they may invest more.

HoH II is a good book in that it talks a lot about playing with different sized stacks. I may look for the Skylansky book that you liked, what's the title? and one more thing, what did you mean by the trick you play at Foxwoods, I have no idea what you're talking about.