Two Plus Two Older Archives - Thanks again for your support

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Thanks again for your support

It was a great run, and of course a disappointing finish. I met several 2+2ers during the last 6 weeks, and was very happy to shake your hands. I have read through the congratulations thread, and I truly appreciate the many positive comments.

Here are some facts that will help with all the debate going on out there in many of these threads as to this year's event, last year's event, and the final 2 hands that are being discussed so thoroughly but without the correct facts.

In last year's ME, I was never once all-in as a dog. I cannot say that this year, even before the final hand. Last year, I was all-in with 88 vs. KK after the flop came J83. I was later all-in with the nut straight on the river. There was also the hand where I had AA all-in preflop against Marcel Luske's AK. And finally, the hand against Matusow, where I had AdJd against his 9s7s after a flop of T92 and two diamonds. I'm not much of a favorite there, but I was the favorite. ;-)

This year, I was down to 3500 at the end of level 2, and got moved to the TV table. There was another player who had 2100, and we got it all-in preflop with my AK vs. QQ. I got the A, and won a pot that was crucial for me, and being a small dog while doing so. I ended up getting to a total of over 40,000 chips within an hour at that table. The rest of the key hands were AA vs. QQ all-in preflop; AA vs. KK all-in preflop; and J9 for me vs. KK with almost all of the money (though not all of it, nobody went all-in that hand) going in after I flopped two pair and turned a full house.

Early on day 2 was the hand where I could no longer say I got lucky as the underdog when I needed it. I semi-bluffed all-in on the flop with a flush draw and an overcard, but the opponent finally called with top pair and the same overcard, leaving me with only the flush draw as an out. I hit it on the turn and the river.

In other hands, there were times I busted somebody who was the favorite against me, but none of those involved me being all-in, or even being close to all-in. I did go all-in once on a semi-bluff that wasn't called on day 4, and my opponent later told me he folded top two pair.

The key hand.

We are 8-handed, and blinds are 20K and 40K with a 5K ante. I raised to 100K as the first person into the pot, which was my standard raise for that level. Aaron called behind me pretty quickly, and my read was that he did not have much of a hand. The flop was 357 with one heart. I bet 150K into the 300K pot. Aaron quickly called, and I was very sure he did not have a draw, nor did I think he had a big hand of any sort. My best guess was a medium Ace such as AQ-AT, or a medium overpair such as 77-99. I thought he was either taking off a card to hit his overcards, or waiting for another small card before he made a move with his medium pair.

The turn was the 7h, and it clearly did not make his hand. I saw nothing in him to make me believe that he had just made a straight or a set. I bet 300K. Aaron quickly started counting out chips for the call and for the raise. It took him about 15-25 seconds to get the chips arranged. While he was doing this, I was almost 100% certain of my read that he had close to nothing, and was bluffing. I waited for him to say raise and to push forward the chips to legally seal the size of his raise, and then I immediately said "All-in" before he had even finished moving his chips. He got a completely disgusted look on his face, and said something like "I have to call." His raise was either 500K or 600K, and my last raise to put him in was about 800K or 900K more.

Aaron was getting about 4:1 on the last call, and had to make it, but he did not ask for a count before doing so. So, either he didn't care to check out whether or not he was getting the correct pot odds, or he had already done that math in his head when he made his raise. I found his quick interview with Rich on Cardplayer.com to be very interesting. He said he called the flop with the intention of making a play on the turn, which is the ONLY reasonable basis for making that flop call. However, he never said anything about doing this because he had a read on me. He said he thought that the board was scary and looked like a good board to bluff at. It made me wonder if he's really new to live poker, and is playing this event as if it were online. That is, is he ignoring tells, or not even looking for them, and just playing the cards alone? I can't say, because I saw so little of his play that day, and did not play with him on any previous days.

I was glad to get 1.7M into the pot on the turn as a 9:2 favorite, and glad to see that my read of him, even being a player I had almost no experience with, was so dead on. I only regret that the river was a heart. ;-)

I had 420,000 after this hand, and the next hand I was UTG. I had Kc7c, but knew that the players were going to assume I could be on tilt, so I did not make the all-in raise with this hand. We then had a break.

On the next hand, I had to post the 50K blind, and basically had 400K in my stack counting this blind. Aysan raised in middle position, and gave me this look before he raised to 200K. It was pretty clear to me that he did not have a monster hand, but had a hand that he was willing to play all-in against me as the short stack (Aysan had about 1.5 or 1.6M before the hand started). Given that read, there was no way I could fold A9, even though his raise was half my stack. Since this situation met absolutely every requirement for the stop-and-go play, that is what I did. The flop was KK7, and I paused a few seconds before pushing all-in. Aysan did think for a minute or two, but then called with 55, which held up.

Of course, there were numerous other noteworthy hands throughout the tournament, but since these two are getting all the press right now, I thought you might appreciate the details.

As for the remaining players, my two favorites are Andy and Tex. I think both are very good players, and both seem to be very good human beings as well. Based upon my sparse knowledge, they would make the greatest champions of our game for the next year. Aaron is probably a nice young man, but I was not impressed in our one hand, nor by his explanation to Cardplayer.com. Plus, I've heard about other suckout hands where if the description is accurate, it would appear he made a bad decision when he put the chips in the pot. Of course, there is a good chance that the descriptions were not very accurate, and it may be that he is a really good player. Joe Hachem seems to play very well in the time I observed him, and was always polite and friendly, so he would probably make a good champion as well. I don't know anything about Steve, Daniel, Scott, or Brad, so I have no comment. As for Mike, well, there is some history there. ;-) I do think Mike is a very talented poker player, and is also very entertaining to watch or play poker with. However, I think it would probably not be good for the game if he won this title. I do not want the young kids who are taking up the game, and who will be joining me at the tables when they turn 21 to think that trash-talking and ranting are the way it should be. I truly do not dislike Mike at all, I just think he needs more impulse control, and I do not want him to be the role model for all the young players entering the game.

I may or may not be checking in again over the next few days, as I haven't yet figured out my schedule, so if you ask a question and I don't respond, I hope you won't mind.

Again, thanks for your support and kind wishes, and I hope I can make another good run next year.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)