Going to the World Series of Poker

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Thanks for the congrats and warm wishes, everybody! And thanks for the link, OO – I’m bookmarking that puppy now.

I don’t actually know which pool I’ll start in. It looks like I can have my choice until the days fill up, but I’m not sure how to go about choosing. I’ll have to give it some thought.

I’ll tell the story, even though it reveals the lion’s share that luck played in this particular victory. As I reviewed the tournament, this turned into a bit of a saga – if y’all skip the boring details, I won’t be hurt.

I’m a pretty tight, conservative player (something I need to work on if I’m going to mix it up with the big boys, I guess), and in the early going of the tournament, I did reasonably well. An early double up with AK against AQ was followed shortly by another big pot when my JJ held up against AK. Lost my first big pot in level three when I had to fold my AJ (board paired the J on the turn) on the river when the player who’d been hanging in in the face of my bets pushed all-in when the third heart hit the board. It was only a few hands later, though, that I more than made up for it with QQ against an all-in from 99.

And so things went on from there. Mostly small losses and mostly large wins meant I built up a good-sized stack by the first break. An exceptionally large win came with 94d, of all things, in the big blind. The flop came with a four and two medium/high diamonds. I checked and it was checked around to the button who put in a pretty good-sized bet. I put him on a position bet and raised him. It was folded around to him and he pushed all-in. I had him covered with about 2K chips to spare, and now I put him on the diamond draw, because I’d seen him make this move with four to a flush twice before. I figured I was ahead with my little pair of fours, and I had two of his diamonds, cutting down on the chance of the flush hitting, so I called him. He was playing 87d, the flush card hit and my 94 beat his 87.

A long dry spell followed, punctuated by a one good-sized win and one good-sized loss. In level 8 I took a big hit to my stack when 54d pushed all-in four to a flush against my ATc, with the ten paired on the board, and caught his diamond on the river. I lost about a third of my stack to that hand, and had to set about rebuilding. As it turned out, I was able to rebuild in one fell swoop with JJ against A2o and TT, which more than doubled me up to 28K.

to be continued

22

Part the Second

Another run of crap cards ensued, and when three good hands finally came along in quick succession, I won two big pots and lost all those winnings on the third when my AQo in the small blind ran into AA in the big blind. I HATE that! After that I was hovering around 33K with two tables left. I nearly doubled up though in blind against blind play a little while later. With KK in the big blind, I got into a mini-raising war preflop with the small blind. When the flop came JT4 with two diamonds and a heart, the SB went all-in. I called, he turned over T6 black and I caught an insurance king on the river to put him away.

When we got down to the final table, I was in second with 72K; the chip leader only had a 3K lead on me. Play at the final table took an hour and a half – it was a marathon. Forty minutes in and with five players left, I risked all but my last 4K chips with 99 in the BB against an all-in reraise from the button. He had A9 and my pair held up. He was out, and I was holding onto second place, now 25K off the lead. Three hands later we had a swing when I called a preflop raise from the chip leader with A4o. The flop came 443 and I managed to take him for 67K, putting me over 100K in the lead with 240K chips.

Unfortunately, another run of lousy cards now came along. Comfortable with my lead, I let the three others duke it out while I waited for something more promising than 75o to come along. As a result, four-handed play stretched on and on. I’d nab the occasional small pot here and there, but When I finally got a real hand – KK – I lost to an all-in preflop from A8d when he caught an A on the board. I took a 70K chip hit on that hand, and retained only the shakiest of chip leads. I fell back to second when another large stack knocked out the fourth-place player.

The three-handed action brought a fair bit of see-sawing – all three of us were in contention for the chip lead at various points. I got a commanding lead back when I limped from the small blind with Q4 and flopped top two pair. I check-called the flop. Check, one-bumped the turn, then bet the river when it brought another Q, giving me Qs full of 4s. He raised me, I reraised him and he called, showing Q2. The loss left him at 46K chips (in retrospect, I might should have put him all-in on the river, but I really wanted the call, and I wasn’t sure he’d put all his chips on the line to call me – I hoped he might re-raise, though) and me in the lead with nearly 300K chips. A few hands later the small stack went all in under the gun and the button/small blind called him for half his stack. I was sitting in the big blind with a pair of sixes and very reluctantly (and very mistakenly, as it turns out) folded. Small stack turned over KJ, and the button turned over KQ. The KQ held up on a board that paired neither of them – my sixes would have won. Had I reraised the button for all his chips preflop, I could have taken the tournament right then.

Instead, we went into heads-up play, and I had about a 2-1 chip lead. The lead swung to him when I flopped two pair with 73o and called his big bet on the end – slow-playing my two pair, I let him make a flush on the river. Twenty or so tedious hands of small moves ensued, and the balance of power didn’t noticeably shift. He was more aggressive preflop than I was, but I was still holding my own. Then I was dealt AJo in the big blind. He raised, I reraised, and he pushed all in. I called for all my chips, and when he turned over AK, my heart sank. The flop came 69Q, with no suit help for either of us. The turn card paired my opponent’s king. The river brought my miracle ten, made my straight, and returned me to a commanding chip lead: 300K to his 130K.

The next twenty-six hands were a back and forth of mostly small pots, and on the twenty-seventh, I was dealt QQ in the small blind. I limped into him, hoping for some aggression, but he checked. The flop came 876 rainbow. He checked, I bet 12K and he raised it to 60K, leaving himself just 85K chips. I pushed all-in, he called and turned over J8o. The turn came 9, giving me horrifying visions of poetic justice – that miracle ten on the river would be revisited upon me. But the river brought a harmless old king, and I prepared to take my place in WSOP history. (The chat window suddenly filled up with vitriol from my opponent’s railbird friends, who assured me that I would be out in the first round in Vegas).

When I look back on the tournament, overall I feel pretty good. I made some big mistakes – one that could have killed me – and some questionable plays, but most of the way, my tournament was marked with small losses and big gains.

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Uncouth ruffians! They’ll be none of those in Vegas.

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Dang, what a write-up. Nice job. Your next career move may be poker journalism. Or turn your WSOP experience into a mag article or book.

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Yeah, thanks for the re-cap,A. You write every bit as good as Bernard Lee (from the linked blog), it’s fun to see how the twists and turns end up.

The only bad part? It’ll be like October before ESPN plays the dang thing on TV. It’s gotta be hard enough waiting until July to play.

26

Holy shit, that’s awesome! :cool: Congrats from a fellow female player – and I second all of the “nice job” comments on the writeup.

I’ve only been playing poker for 6 months, and only recently started watching it on TV and daydreaming about the WSOP. I haven’t played online … yet. :smiley:

Definitely keep us posted!

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Please join us on Thursdays for fun, frivolity, and rude and grim behavior.

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I’m playing in tonight’s event. I was in the top five at the end of the first hour, but I am getting murdered this hour.

I have been getting tons of almost good hands (A-10, KQ, etc.) and all they do is make me lose money.

Just got Js10s and folded it. Now I’m scared.

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I’ve actually peeked at the SDMB Pokertropolis thread a few times … I don’t know that I want to start playing online yet, but when I do I’ll definitely join in. Thanks for the invite. :slight_smile:

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Congrats!!!

I am not a poker player but I do live in Vegas. If you want to meet when you come out here let me know, my email is in my profile. Maybe we could make it a mini-dopefest.

Slee

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Thanks again for the compliments, folks! I thought I might have overdone it a bit with that recap – I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Lamar, how’d you make out?

slee, Yeti, et al, I’d love to see a mini-Vegasfest for the WSOP! Reading Bernard Lee’s blog really convinced me that having a cheering section on the spot would be very helpful. I can only imagine how lost and lonely I’d feel out there if I didn’t have somebody on the scene rooting for me.

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I can fly out on Southwest pretty cheap, the Thursday night guys have been talking about doing Vegas. This is a pretty decent excuse!

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The second hour the Gods turned against me. I went from $8500 and fifth place down to $3500 in a half hour, then lost when my AA got beat by a 99 getting another on the flop.

I finished 63rd. I think I’ll try again next week.

34

I’m a poker dealer. Here’s my advice, if you can, go play some live games so you can learn to read tells. The world I live in is radically different than online play. Most poker rooms offer tournaments.

We have a guy that is lucky, I mean damned lucky. The thing is, once the table starts commenting on his luck, he gets cocky and counts on his luck and forgets to read the table. I dealt to him in two tournaments Friday night and it was his downfall in both. We have a lady that if she calls a raise, she has an A* or a pocket pair. She will call to the river. I have to hold myself back from calling her hand as “Aces…and…” before she turns her cards over. Don’t look at your cards until everyone the last minute, use that time to see players reactions as they look at their hands. After a few hands, you can usually gauge a players hand by what they’ve shown vs. how they reacted.

Disclaimer: I’ve never dealt the WSOP, but with so many online players winning seats in it, they are less likely to be aware of their tells. You included.

As a woman, remember, you have a natural advantage, guys can never tell when you are faking it. Also, many players (younger ones are worse if you can believe it) assume that women are inferior players. Women can be better poker players for the same reason they are safer motorcycle riders, better shooters, etc. We don’t have years of bad habits to unbreak and we also don’t have quite the egos. No offense either, but if there is a woman with a low cut shirt on at the table, very few men seem to be able to concentrate. Plop a pretty girl at a table, hell, they will practically give you their money. (don’t bet on that in the WSOP)

Hearing about poker bores the tears right out of my eyes, but if there is any questions you have from a dealers perspective, feel free to ask. (Oh, ruffling your chips, splashing the pot and arrogance, rarely impresses anyone but yourself, ditto with the “artful calling/folding/raising” crap. Put your bets within reach of the dealer, fold your cards safely out of the way of other players hands and on occasion, when you have a request, say please. Trust me, you will stand out. As dealers, we can’t alter your cards, but you will have one person at the table rooting for you. Be the player the dealers are rooting for. Find out the tipping policy for the WSOP, I know I live on tips.

Most of all, good luck. May the flop be with you.

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Aholibah, if you live anywhere near Northern Virginia I can offer you a seat in a weekly Friday afternoon friendly tournament ($20 buy-in). The folks I play with would love to share the table with someone who’s going to the WSOP … and we could always use another woman! :smiley:

I’m one of three women who usually play in the weekly game I just mentioned, and the other two regularly finish in the money. Whenever I talk with the guy who kind of runs the game, he always says he’d love to see them play in a women’s tournament in Vegas or AC because he thinks that most of the women in casinos don’t take the game very seriously and/or aren’t very good – that they only play poker because their boyfriends do, or because they saw it on TV, etc. Do you agree with that? Is it something that might have been true a year or two ago, but not so much anymore?

Oh, I like that. :slight_smile:

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AuntBeast – Thanks so much for the pointers. I don’t have much experience in live play, and I’m very worried about it. The first time I ever played holdem was at the Taj in Atlantic City, I think it was $1/$2 limit, so not really very analogous. But I did at least learn about string bets. I’m still worried about screwing up in that area, though. Also, I’m a little confused as to conventions when raising. Say the blinds are $25/$50, and I want to open for a raise, making it $150 to call. The action is to me: if I say “Raise to $150” and put $150 in chips (neatly stacked) in front of me, have I done it right? What I’m afraid of is saying “Raise $150” which, I think, would mean I should put $200 in chips out there. Is that right? And it’s what I say that counts, not how many chips I put out (if those two don’t agree), right?

Anyway, since that Atlantic City trip I’ve played in low buy-in no-limit ring games with a bunch of guys who have a monthly poker game that’s very casual, so again, not really terribly helpful.

I’m planning to use a bit of that $1000 in spending money I won to go play in a tournament or two up in AC, just so I can get more used to the atmosphere. But I expect I’ll be a cinch to read, and very slow to pick up on others’ tells. I’ve been amassing quite the poker library over the last year and a half, and Mike Caro’s Book of Tells is amongst my acquisitions. I’ll be rereading it like mad in my efforts to minimize my own and train myself to pick up on other people’s.

On the other hand, I know I’ll be polite to the dealers and the others at my table. My mamma brought me up right. :slight_smile: I read somewhere that the dealers at the WSOP don’t get tipped until the end, out of players’ winnings, but I’ll be sure to double-check that. I don’t want to stiff anybody.

Misnomer – I did start playing because guy friends of mine were into it. But I’ve been pretty serious about it for the past year. I’m a very competitive person, and when faced with a new challenge I tend to go whole hog (as that growing library can attest), so I don’t feel too much like a poker dilettante at this point. And I’m used to competing against guys who don’t take me seriously at things like poker and pool, so I’m pretty comfortable turning that to my advantage.

I’m in Alexandria, VA, and I would love to get in on that tournament. What time on Fridays does it start?

37

I think that’s right.

Jim McManus, who came fifth in the 2000 WSOP Main Event (winning $247,7609), wrote a book called Positively Fifth Street about his experiences. He talks about tipping at the end, when he collects his winnings.

Now, this only describes the tipping situation for someone who actually finishes in the money.

I’m not sure if WSOP contestants who get eliminated before the money are meant to tip, or if it’s assumed that only those who actually win something will take care of all the tipping.

38

Just pause between the words. If you say “Raise…150” while at the same time putting out 150 in chips, it’s clear what your intentions are. Alternatively, say “raise. 150 total” and put out the chips.

Or just play Kill Phil strategy and announce “all in” every time.

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mhendo – Thanks, that’s probably where I remember it from. I read PFS last year.

And thanks, Otto, for that clarification. Maybe if I don’t screw up the simple stuff I’ll be able to concentrate effectively on the hard stuff. :slight_smile:

40

In our tournaments, players who do not finish in the money are not expected to tip. Players who finish in the money however, are. You aren’t just paying for your dealer, you are paying every dealer that worked the tournament. It’s alot of time and alot of dealers. We are lucky to get $10 a down (30 minute session) for tournaments. In poker, tips are only expected if you win and basically, if you win, you tip the dealer for dealing to you. If we don’t hit you, you get us for free for 30 min. Like other tipping professions, we make less than minimum wage and rely on our tips. Thank you all for tipping.

Raising: usually the minimum raise is 2x the big blind, so if the blinds are $25/50 the minimum raise would be $100. Now if you raise to $100 and the next guy goes $500, the next raise must be $900 because you have to double the raise. (The $500 raise was actually a $400 raise, so 500+400=900) You want to be clear, practice saying “raise to x” or “make it x”

Another note: Protecting your cards. The first rule of poker is it is the players responsibility to protect their cards, from us, from other players. Get a card protector (usually coins, SDMB shotglass, etc) to prevent your cards from being mistakenly folded, or from being “killed” by a player next to you throwing their cards in. Keep your hands on your cards at all times until you are certain that the dealer reads your hand correctly. If they misread it, and muck it, it’s gone forever. Regardless of what the dealer says you have, the cards speak. Just correct the dealer, mistakes happen.

Stacking your bet isn’t necessary, just make sure that your bets are identifiable as yours, don’t throw them into someone elses chips. If the perimeter bets are short, you don’t want to be the one that the dealer guesses is the one that didn’t complete the bet.

You are getting great advice here. Please get some practice in live action tournaments, it’s pretty hard to shove those chips in when you gotta grab them.

One dealer on your side already…