SossMan
03-09-2005, 01:57 PM
Got to the cardroom at around 9:30 or so and registered. They had a huuuuuuuuge buffet. I mean, the tables were literally overflowing. It was actually kind of cartoonish. So I wait around for the two hours and talk to a few railbirds. Finally, Matt Savage calls the players to the tables. I’m sitting at table 22 of 22, so we will be one of, if not the, first table to break. I already know that there are three pros at my table.
Seat 1 is a woman who’s name I recognize…I think her and her husband are pros – very ABC from what I gathered
Seat 2 is John Esposito
Seat 3 is a guy w/ a paradise poker shirt on who has obviously never played live…think Zaxx, not MLG
Seat 4 is an older gent who is from Iowa (?)…kept talking about twisters and earthquakes, didn’t seem to want to go home early, FWIW
Seat 5 was Dave Williams
Seat 6 was a younger guy who seemed to know what he was doing, a little weak tight for my taste
Seat 7 was the best player in the world
Seat 8 was a guy who took implied odds a little to far because he would call almost every 3x raise preflop, and fold on most flops if bet into
Seat 9 was a guy about 30ish who seemed decent enough
Seat 10 was Blair Rodman (pro)
I was torn in the beginning about how to treat round 1 (super tight, limp into some flops, aggressive from the get go?) but as you will see, sometimes, I just can’t help myself.
I’ll have more details about these early hands because I was able to write them down at the first break. The later hands will be from memory and may be slightly fuzzy.
First orbit:
#1
25-50 blinds
Seat 4 (Iowa) limps
DW limps
I raise to 250 from the SB w/ Ah2s
Blinds fold, limpers call
Flop is As 5s 7s
I check, Iowa checks, DW bets 600, I ch-raise to 1500, both fold.
#2
25-50 blinds
I open raise in MP to 150 with A7o.
Loosey to my left (I didn’t know he was loose yet, obviously) calls.
Esposito calls in BB.
3 to the flop for 475.
Flop is Ac 9c 2s
Esposito bets out 250. I look left and loosey is about to muck out of turn, so I call. He mucks.
Turn: Kh
He checks, I check behind.
River: 3h
He bets 500 into a 975 pot and I call.
He flopped two pair A9. I muck and silently thank god that the river wasn’t a 7h.
#3
25-50 blinds
Open raise from MP w/ ATs
Loosey calls
Blair Rodman calls on button.
Blinds fold.
I had just ordered a water, so I was a little distracted, and I didn’t know that the blinds folded, so when the flop of Q 9 7 rainbow came out, I was waiting for the blinds to act. Finally, they said that it was on me, and I said, oh, were 3 handed? Ok, I bet the pot. It was just enough unintentional hollywooding to get them to both fold. (Okay, maybe it was because they had no pair)
#4
A little history…the hand right before this one DW raised preflop, was called from the blinds. He made roughly pot sized bets on the flop and turn when it was 887x. He was called by the SB both times (loosey). The river was a 9 and the SB bet out about 4k into a big pot. DW called w/ KK and loosey had 99 for the rivered boat. DW seemed a little tilty.
25-50
BR limps UTG
DW limps in LP, I limp on the button w/ Ah9h, blinds limp. We all have around 10k except DW who has about 3800.
Flop is Qh 3h 2c
Checked to DW, he bets 325 into a 250 pot. I call, everyone else folds.
Turn is a black 4.
He checks. I consider betting, but check.
River is the 8h, giving me the nuts.
He bets out 400, and I’m praying that he’s got a flush. I decide that he’s played it exactly like a flush and he’s a little tilty, so maybe I’ll get a loose call from a set or st8. Plus he’s got a 5k bounty and I would be pissed if I let him off the hook by making a smaller raise. I push. He thinks for a bit, flashes a queen, and mucks….DAMN!!
#5
Blinds went up to 50-100
BR limps UTG, Zaxx-imposter limps, folded to me, I raise to 500 on the button w/ Ac9c. Blinds fold, limpers call.
Pot = 1650.
Flop is 9s 6s 7c
They check to me, I bet 1500, only BR calls.
Turn: 4h
Check check
River is another 9. I bet 1200, he calls and MHIG.
#6
Blinds 50-100
KK UTG+1. UTG folds, I raise to 325, BR calls, everyone else folds.
I bet 500 on a 358r flop and he folds.
Sometime after my nut flush hand w/ DW, he tripled up w/ JJ on an undercard board and was back to around 10k. Then he got tangled w/ Esposito on a flop of 9d 7d 2c. There was some flop betting and turn betting and the river was an offsuit Queen, Esposito put him all in and DW called. He had AdQd for the rivered tptk, esposito had a set of 99. DW busts on the first hand of round 2. Esposito now has a mountain of chips. Greeeeaat.
#7
Esposito (JE) opens from MP for 300. Only I call from the SB w/ AsJs.
Flop is AQx rainbow.
I check call a 500 bet.
Turn is the 3 of rainbow.
I check call a 1500 bet.
River is a J.
I bet out 1500. He thinks a bit and folds (flashing an ace)
#8
UTG raises to 300. I call in the SB w/ KQ.
Flop comes Q high with no flush draw.
I check call 500.
Turn and river are undercards and we check down both streets, and MHIG.
#9
John Juanda has replaced DW. My day just keeps getting better.
Blinds 50-100
Zaxx limps, JJ limps, I limp from button w/ Ac9c. SB folds, BB checks.
Flop is TTx w/ 2 clubs.
Zaxx bets 300, I call.
Turn is a 3 diamonds (putting two diamonds out there).
He checks, I bet 1000. He calls.
River is a 5 of clubs. He checks, I bet 1000, he check raises me to 2000. I look at the board, and there is a small chance that he made a flush too. There’s a small chance that he’s bluffing with a missed draw. Maybe he thinks his T is still good? Maybe he called the whole way w/ 55? I really want to put him in for his last 4500, but I wimp out and just call.
He emabarassingly turns over the 8d2d (sooooooted) and of course MHIG.
Unfortunately, this is my high water mark. I have around 18k at this point and am about even with JE for table lead.
He comes the gore:
#10
Blinds 50-100.
I open raise to 300 from MP w/ Q-To. BR calls from the button. JE calls from the BB.
Flop is K9x.
JE checks, I bet 525, BR folds, JE calls.
Turn is 2 of purple horseshoes.
JE checks, I bet 1200, JE calls.
River: K
JE checks, I bet 2000, and he calls with QQ and HHIG.
#11
Very next hand
I limp from MP w/ QJs. Loosey limps. BR limps. JE limps from SB. BB checks.
Flop is QQT.
Checked to me, I bet 525 (the same amount I bet last time on my gutshot)
Only JE calls. Uh oh.
Turn is a small card.
He checks, I bet 1200, he raises it 1500 more (2700 total).
I call.
River is an A.
He checks to me. Do I check behind like anyone with half a friggin’ brain? Of course not, I decide to bet 6600. He calls.
He has QT for the flopped boat and I curse myself for playing like such a douche. What a terrible bet. What is he calling me with that I can beat? What is he laying down that I can’t beat?
Unless he has exactly Q9 or maybe Q8s. Just dumb.
#12
Last hand before the break. I’m down to around 6k. I have QT in the BB. It’s folded around to decent player to my right who limps. I check.
Flop is QQx (oh no, not again). He bets out 300. I call.
Turn is an A. He bets out 1000, I call.
River is a blank. He checks, I bet 1000, he calls and I’m back up to around 10k.
Shortly after the break, our table breaks up and I’m moved to table 3, seat 4.
I only recognize one player and he’s to my left. Miami John. He has a bounty.
He has around 3000-4000 in chips, so he’s bustable. I hover between 9k and 12k for all of round 3 and 4. The table is not very good. It’s really tight and aggressive. It’s rarely folded even to late position for a steal raise. I make a few resteals from MP openers and have some success. There is one guy in seat 1 who takes like 5 min on every decision. He also like to look at you when the flop came out if it was heads up. Only after you acted would he look back at the flop. I picked up on this pretty early (since he was in a lot of pots) so I thought that I would throw him a fake tell. He opened from MP (for the zillionth time) for 600 (blinds 100-200). I reraised to 1200 w/ T7s from one off the button. Only he called.
Flop was like K Q 6. When the flop came, I darted my eyes down at my chips then quickly looked away from the table. He checked, I non-chalauntly bet 1200, and he mucked. What a goober.
Round 4 was uneventful until the very last hand.
What I thought was a conservative player to my right (he had a big stack of chips, but wasn’t using them…something like 20k or so) open limped from three off the button. I didn’t realize that he hadn’t acted yet when I said raise. I followed through anyway, and made it 800 to go w/ AJ-off.
Miami John called behind me, folded to limper, he called.
Flop was Kxx. Checked around.
Turn paired the 3 a nd also put a club draw on the board (I didn’t have the Ac). guy to my right bet 1200. I thought that I could take it away here or on the river, so I raised it 3k more. Miami folded.
He thought for a good 2 min and called.
He checked to me on the river.
I thought for a bit deciding whether to follow through or not. I really read him as weak on this hand for some reason. I wasn’t sure if he’d even call w/ something like KQ.
I had about 9k left. He had about twice that. The pot was about 11k. I bet out 7k.
By this time everyone was at break. He thought for what seemed like forever and finally called me. I said nice hand. He turned over KT and my heart sank.
So I’m down to around 3k with blinds going to 150-300 w/ 50 ante. I need to find a hand.
I have a few candidates (A9 in LP, 55 in MP) but early raises spoil my party.
I finally pick up AA on the SB. I am now down to 1900 total. There are 500 in antes in the pot. MP opens for 1000. I push from SB, he instacalls with TT and my AA holds up. I am now up to about 4100. I still need to make a move, but now have some breathing room. Unfortunately, this table isn’t cooperating. They won’t let me limp with small pairs, they won’t let me open raise.
I also caught a real dry run of cards that I couldn’t do anything about. I was anted down to 1900 again when I pushed when it finally got folded to me on the button w/ A6s. I took down the blinds/antes and was up to 2800ish.
Next hand first hand of level 6, blinds 200-400 antes 50. I open push w/ QJo from the CO, and SB wakes up with QQ. Miami John tells me he folded a jack. Thanks, John.
Flop comes K high, I ask for a T on the turn, but the dealer puts a 2 and I’m drawing dead. Actually I made a jack high spade flush on the end, but he had the Qs of course.
Overall, I think I played well on most hands, but made some costly river mistakes. I think I need to go read TOP again.
Seat 1 is a woman who’s name I recognize…I think her and her husband are pros – very ABC from what I gathered
Seat 2 is John Esposito
Seat 3 is a guy w/ a paradise poker shirt on who has obviously never played live…think Zaxx, not MLG
Seat 4 is an older gent who is from Iowa (?)…kept talking about twisters and earthquakes, didn’t seem to want to go home early, FWIW
Seat 5 was Dave Williams
Seat 6 was a younger guy who seemed to know what he was doing, a little weak tight for my taste
Seat 7 was the best player in the world
Seat 8 was a guy who took implied odds a little to far because he would call almost every 3x raise preflop, and fold on most flops if bet into
Seat 9 was a guy about 30ish who seemed decent enough
Seat 10 was Blair Rodman (pro)
I was torn in the beginning about how to treat round 1 (super tight, limp into some flops, aggressive from the get go?) but as you will see, sometimes, I just can’t help myself.
I’ll have more details about these early hands because I was able to write them down at the first break. The later hands will be from memory and may be slightly fuzzy.
First orbit:
#1
25-50 blinds
Seat 4 (Iowa) limps
DW limps
I raise to 250 from the SB w/ Ah2s
Blinds fold, limpers call
Flop is As 5s 7s
I check, Iowa checks, DW bets 600, I ch-raise to 1500, both fold.
#2
25-50 blinds
I open raise in MP to 150 with A7o.
Loosey to my left (I didn’t know he was loose yet, obviously) calls.
Esposito calls in BB.
3 to the flop for 475.
Flop is Ac 9c 2s
Esposito bets out 250. I look left and loosey is about to muck out of turn, so I call. He mucks.
Turn: Kh
He checks, I check behind.
River: 3h
He bets 500 into a 975 pot and I call.
He flopped two pair A9. I muck and silently thank god that the river wasn’t a 7h.
#3
25-50 blinds
Open raise from MP w/ ATs
Loosey calls
Blair Rodman calls on button.
Blinds fold.
I had just ordered a water, so I was a little distracted, and I didn’t know that the blinds folded, so when the flop of Q 9 7 rainbow came out, I was waiting for the blinds to act. Finally, they said that it was on me, and I said, oh, were 3 handed? Ok, I bet the pot. It was just enough unintentional hollywooding to get them to both fold. (Okay, maybe it was because they had no pair)
#4
A little history…the hand right before this one DW raised preflop, was called from the blinds. He made roughly pot sized bets on the flop and turn when it was 887x. He was called by the SB both times (loosey). The river was a 9 and the SB bet out about 4k into a big pot. DW called w/ KK and loosey had 99 for the rivered boat. DW seemed a little tilty.
25-50
BR limps UTG
DW limps in LP, I limp on the button w/ Ah9h, blinds limp. We all have around 10k except DW who has about 3800.
Flop is Qh 3h 2c
Checked to DW, he bets 325 into a 250 pot. I call, everyone else folds.
Turn is a black 4.
He checks. I consider betting, but check.
River is the 8h, giving me the nuts.
He bets out 400, and I’m praying that he’s got a flush. I decide that he’s played it exactly like a flush and he’s a little tilty, so maybe I’ll get a loose call from a set or st8. Plus he’s got a 5k bounty and I would be pissed if I let him off the hook by making a smaller raise. I push. He thinks for a bit, flashes a queen, and mucks….DAMN!!
#5
Blinds went up to 50-100
BR limps UTG, Zaxx-imposter limps, folded to me, I raise to 500 on the button w/ Ac9c. Blinds fold, limpers call.
Pot = 1650.
Flop is 9s 6s 7c
They check to me, I bet 1500, only BR calls.
Turn: 4h
Check check
River is another 9. I bet 1200, he calls and MHIG.
#6
Blinds 50-100
KK UTG+1. UTG folds, I raise to 325, BR calls, everyone else folds.
I bet 500 on a 358r flop and he folds.
Sometime after my nut flush hand w/ DW, he tripled up w/ JJ on an undercard board and was back to around 10k. Then he got tangled w/ Esposito on a flop of 9d 7d 2c. There was some flop betting and turn betting and the river was an offsuit Queen, Esposito put him all in and DW called. He had AdQd for the rivered tptk, esposito had a set of 99. DW busts on the first hand of round 2. Esposito now has a mountain of chips. Greeeeaat.
#7
Esposito (JE) opens from MP for 300. Only I call from the SB w/ AsJs.
Flop is AQx rainbow.
I check call a 500 bet.
Turn is the 3 of rainbow.
I check call a 1500 bet.
River is a J.
I bet out 1500. He thinks a bit and folds (flashing an ace)
#8
UTG raises to 300. I call in the SB w/ KQ.
Flop comes Q high with no flush draw.
I check call 500.
Turn and river are undercards and we check down both streets, and MHIG.
#9
John Juanda has replaced DW. My day just keeps getting better.
Blinds 50-100
Zaxx limps, JJ limps, I limp from button w/ Ac9c. SB folds, BB checks.
Flop is TTx w/ 2 clubs.
Zaxx bets 300, I call.
Turn is a 3 diamonds (putting two diamonds out there).
He checks, I bet 1000. He calls.
River is a 5 of clubs. He checks, I bet 1000, he check raises me to 2000. I look at the board, and there is a small chance that he made a flush too. There’s a small chance that he’s bluffing with a missed draw. Maybe he thinks his T is still good? Maybe he called the whole way w/ 55? I really want to put him in for his last 4500, but I wimp out and just call.
He emabarassingly turns over the 8d2d (sooooooted) and of course MHIG.
Unfortunately, this is my high water mark. I have around 18k at this point and am about even with JE for table lead.
He comes the gore:
#10
Blinds 50-100.
I open raise to 300 from MP w/ Q-To. BR calls from the button. JE calls from the BB.
Flop is K9x.
JE checks, I bet 525, BR folds, JE calls.
Turn is 2 of purple horseshoes.
JE checks, I bet 1200, JE calls.
River: K
JE checks, I bet 2000, and he calls with QQ and HHIG.
#11
Very next hand
I limp from MP w/ QJs. Loosey limps. BR limps. JE limps from SB. BB checks.
Flop is QQT.
Checked to me, I bet 525 (the same amount I bet last time on my gutshot)
Only JE calls. Uh oh.
Turn is a small card.
He checks, I bet 1200, he raises it 1500 more (2700 total).
I call.
River is an A.
He checks to me. Do I check behind like anyone with half a friggin’ brain? Of course not, I decide to bet 6600. He calls.
He has QT for the flopped boat and I curse myself for playing like such a douche. What a terrible bet. What is he calling me with that I can beat? What is he laying down that I can’t beat?
Unless he has exactly Q9 or maybe Q8s. Just dumb.
#12
Last hand before the break. I’m down to around 6k. I have QT in the BB. It’s folded around to decent player to my right who limps. I check.
Flop is QQx (oh no, not again). He bets out 300. I call.
Turn is an A. He bets out 1000, I call.
River is a blank. He checks, I bet 1000, he calls and I’m back up to around 10k.
Shortly after the break, our table breaks up and I’m moved to table 3, seat 4.
I only recognize one player and he’s to my left. Miami John. He has a bounty.
He has around 3000-4000 in chips, so he’s bustable. I hover between 9k and 12k for all of round 3 and 4. The table is not very good. It’s really tight and aggressive. It’s rarely folded even to late position for a steal raise. I make a few resteals from MP openers and have some success. There is one guy in seat 1 who takes like 5 min on every decision. He also like to look at you when the flop came out if it was heads up. Only after you acted would he look back at the flop. I picked up on this pretty early (since he was in a lot of pots) so I thought that I would throw him a fake tell. He opened from MP (for the zillionth time) for 600 (blinds 100-200). I reraised to 1200 w/ T7s from one off the button. Only he called.
Flop was like K Q 6. When the flop came, I darted my eyes down at my chips then quickly looked away from the table. He checked, I non-chalauntly bet 1200, and he mucked. What a goober.
Round 4 was uneventful until the very last hand.
What I thought was a conservative player to my right (he had a big stack of chips, but wasn’t using them…something like 20k or so) open limped from three off the button. I didn’t realize that he hadn’t acted yet when I said raise. I followed through anyway, and made it 800 to go w/ AJ-off.
Miami John called behind me, folded to limper, he called.
Flop was Kxx. Checked around.
Turn paired the 3 a nd also put a club draw on the board (I didn’t have the Ac). guy to my right bet 1200. I thought that I could take it away here or on the river, so I raised it 3k more. Miami folded.
He thought for a good 2 min and called.
He checked to me on the river.
I thought for a bit deciding whether to follow through or not. I really read him as weak on this hand for some reason. I wasn’t sure if he’d even call w/ something like KQ.
I had about 9k left. He had about twice that. The pot was about 11k. I bet out 7k.
By this time everyone was at break. He thought for what seemed like forever and finally called me. I said nice hand. He turned over KT and my heart sank.
So I’m down to around 3k with blinds going to 150-300 w/ 50 ante. I need to find a hand.
I have a few candidates (A9 in LP, 55 in MP) but early raises spoil my party.
I finally pick up AA on the SB. I am now down to 1900 total. There are 500 in antes in the pot. MP opens for 1000. I push from SB, he instacalls with TT and my AA holds up. I am now up to about 4100. I still need to make a move, but now have some breathing room. Unfortunately, this table isn’t cooperating. They won’t let me limp with small pairs, they won’t let me open raise.
I also caught a real dry run of cards that I couldn’t do anything about. I was anted down to 1900 again when I pushed when it finally got folded to me on the button w/ A6s. I took down the blinds/antes and was up to 2800ish.
Next hand first hand of level 6, blinds 200-400 antes 50. I open push w/ QJo from the CO, and SB wakes up with QQ. Miami John tells me he folded a jack. Thanks, John.
Flop comes K high, I ask for a T on the turn, but the dealer puts a 2 and I’m drawing dead. Actually I made a jack high spade flush on the end, but he had the Qs of course.
Overall, I think I played well on most hands, but made some costly river mistakes. I think I need to go read TOP again.