Foxwoods Main event Report

[colson10]

I started on day 1b. Sat down to a table full of unkowns and Bill Gazes on my right. He missed the first hand and then made quads on the second hand to get up to 16-17K.

Nothing too interesting during the first level. Did a lot of limping behind trying to flop something big and get paid off by one of the many calling stations. Picked up a couple pots on the flop and ended the level at just under 10K.

Second level I pick up black KK utg and make it 300 (8400 to start the hand). Folds to Gazes in the BB and he doesn’t hesitate in calling. At this point I’m not quite sure what his range is here. He had a ton of chips so I felt like he could be calling with many hands, but I don’t think that was the case.

Flop is Q83 two diamonds. He checks, I bet 400 into 650, he check raises 700 to 1100 total. I call.

Turn is 5d. He leads for 2k (I have 7K at this point). I think there is a very good chance that I’m ahead here to a Q. I also think it’s less likely he has a Q with a flush draw. I think he’d bet less or even check the turn if he had a flush draw to go with his top pair. If he doesn’t have this type of hand then he probably has a set or maybe a small flush. Based on a few things (betting pattern and speed of bet) I was fairly certain he didn’t have the nuts. I decide to call with the plan of calling any river bet (this isn’t 100% since my read may change on the river) unless a diamond comes and he checks. If this happens then I planned on bluffing the flush to hopefully get him to fold a set or small flush. I’m not sure how reasonable this plan is, but I’m sure he saw me as a tight player and I hadn’t been caught bluffing yet. I also figured that he probably puts me on some kind of hand with a flush draw, most likely the Ad, when I call his turn bet.

River is 6d. He checks, I bet 3K of my 5K. He disgustingly mucks and shows me AQh, and says “at least I made you pay for it.”


Soon after I get caught bluffing with the nut low, 23 from the BB on a A4QQx board.

I misplay another one from the BB. 93spades, two limpers Gazes completes. Flop is AK6 two spades. Sometimes I’ll lead here, but didn’t this time, it checks around. Turn is 4o, Gazes bet 300 into 400. I call, like an idiot, realizing that raising is so much better but it's too late. River is blank, he checks. I don’t see bluffing here being correct since I figure he’s checking to call a bet with a rag ace or king. I check behind and he says he missed, “me too”. He turns over 97o no draw, nothing, but his 7 plays. Really simple raise on the turn to win this pot, very frustrated with myself after this one.

I’m at 9500 or so at break.

Vinnie Vinh shows up at our table with a mountain of chips. Luckily, he sits on Gazes right. I have a great seat for this table. Vinnie dumps a bunch of chips off to a guy who made a full house on the river and c/red it. Vinnie said he had the nut flush. He takes a walk.

Soon after he comes back it’s his button. CO weak player open limps, Vinnie limps, Gazes completes and I check. Flop is 983 two diamonds. Checks around. Turn is 6o. It checks to Vinnie who bets 800 into 800, Gazes makes it 2500, Vinnie makes it 5K, Gazes makes it 10K and Vinnie mucks 75 after a long deliberation. It was a very strange hand to watch.

Vinnie has to be on mega tilt now. Since he sat down he’s probably played about 50% of his hands, but now he’s playing probably 80%, limping or coming in for a raise.

Vinnie limps UTG,+1 for 200, I make it 800 with JJ, folds back to him and of course he calls. I have just under 10K to start the hand.

Flop is J77, Vinnie checks to me and I bet 1100, Vinnie c/r’s to 3100. I take a second before calling.

Turn is 5, Vinnie now checks. Oh Vinnie Vinh. I just knew he couldn’t help himself. Guys like this just can’t give up on pots that easily, especially when there are already so many chips in the middle. I bet 1500 to entice him, and was almost 100% positive I was getting c/red with air. He looks at my chips, I have like 5Kish left. He check raises something like 4500 more, I see that I only have a few hundred after that so I just put them in the middle without hesitation. Its 350 more to him and he immediately mucks his hand.

I wanted to thank Gazes and the other guy for tilting Vinnie [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

The very next hand I pick up JJ and raise Vinnie’s UTG limp to 900. Folds to the SB who asks to see how many chips I have, and looks like he really wants to reraise. He ends up calling, Vinnie calls.

Flop is T84r, they check to me and I bet 2K, SB c/r’s all in, vinnie folds. I can’t remember how much it was, I think like 12K or so more to me. I was fairly certain he had QQ or KK because of his preflop action. Though I wasn’t 100% sure I was beat since this was the one unknown aggressive tricky player at the table. The only hand I could beat was AT and it just seemed too unlikely, so I mucked.

Next orbit on the same guys BB I raise a weak UTG limper with QTs to 800. Again he looks like he wants to reraise but just calls again, limper calls. Flop is KT4r, checks to me and I check behind this time. Turn is 3 putting a flush draw up. BB leads for 1600, limper folds, I call. River is 2 completing backdoor flush. BB leads for 3K and I call. He says "ace high" and I table my hand to pick up the pot.

I get up to 22K or so when we hit the next level 100-200 with a 25a. I get moved to a new table which I’m not that happy about.

EMP big stack opens for 700, I call on the button with TT. He bets 1K on a Q85 flop, I call. Turn is blank, he bets 1K again, I make it 3K, he calls. River is another blank and it goes check check, his JJ is good.

Down to 17K, I open 55 in MP for 700, tight guy right behind me makes it 2K with like 5500 behind. Folds back to me. I don’t quite have the implied odds to make the call (around 6.5:1) since I’m nearly certain he has a big pair. I decide to gamble and call. I decided to do this since I like having the image that you can’t just repop me and get me to fold. And 1300 doesn’t change my chip position much at all. Flop is T9x, I check fold and he shows AA. I’m interested to hear what people think of my preflop call.

I’m down to 14K or so when I pick up QQ in MP. EP makes it 600, he’s been raising a fair amount in the last couple orbits. I make it 2K, LP big stack cold calls, EP calls.

Flop is J63 two clubs, EP leads for 4K, I push and they both fold. This puts me back into a comfortable chip position.

Blinds go up to 150-300.

I’ve been opening more than “my share” of pots I’d say, but I’m the 3rd or 4th most aggressive player at the table in terms of preflop raising.

I pick up AA in MP and make it 900, tight guy right behind calls, Andy bloch calls right behind him, and loose BB hesitates before calling 600 more.

I’m kind of disgusted at how this is playing out. I felt that it was perfect timing for me to pick up this hand and thought someone was going to reraise.

Flop is 854 two spades. BB checks, I bet 2800, fold, fold, BB immediately c/r’s all in for 11.3K more. This guy has been the most aggressive player at the table. Because of his hesitation preflop I can’t see him having a set. I’m really worried about two pair. I don’t like calling off this many chips but know that there is too good of a chance that I’m a 2:1 favorite, and with a set being so unlikely I have to call. He has 63 and hits a 7 on the turn.

This pot would have put me at 40K but instead I have 8K. I blind down an orbit or two and open with AA UTG+1 for 1K. BB calls. Flop is Jxx all hearts, I don’t have the ace of hearts. BB leads for 2K or so, I push and he calls with KhJo. Somehow I dodge all of his outs and double up to around 14.5K.

Two hands later I’m in the BB. Aggressive guy who cracked my AA opens for 900 in MP, he has opened on my blind every orbit and I have yet to play back. SB calls. I picked up a tell on the raiser. I noticed the way he said “raise” was different the times he opened and showed TT and 88 from when he showed Q5 and some other crappy hand. This time I knew he didn’t have a premium hand. I also thought that my image of only playing two hands in last couple orbits and showing down AA both times would get me some huge folds. I make it 4500 and very surprisingly MP calls with little hesitation, SB folds.

I looked at my cards when I first got them so I knew I had rags but I didn’t remember what they were exactly since I was so focused on making this move and then when he called so quickly it scared the [censored] out of me. I look back to find 95c. I was very happy to see they were suited [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I have 10K left and didn’t really have time to figure out what I was going to do on a ragged flop. I was hoping to see an ace since I thought his most likely hands were middle pairs.

Flop is QJx two clubs. The pot is 10Kish and I have 10K so it was a no brainer flop for me to push which I was happy about, but that relief only lasted a second before he called with zero contemplation. He turns over JTo. I pick up a gutter on the turn with an 8, but brick the river. And I’m out.

Apparently I had the right read that he was weak but didn’t know he couldn’t lay down the monster that is JTo. Bleh. This guy hadn’t been repopped at all other than a min reraise and barely over min reraise, both of which he obviously called. I had no idea he wasn’t capable of folding to a reraise like this. I guess he just thought I was making a move, but it’s still a bad play on his part no matter what he puts me on. He can’t just call there with JTo. And it’s not like he stared me down and decided I was making a move, he just called almost instantly.

I’m happy with how I played. I made a couple of stupid mistakes in small pots but felt like I had good focus and decision making in most of the bigger pots I played.

[Shorty35]

Nice read.

And the call with JTo; unfortunately that's par for the course at Foxwoods.

[AJo Go All In]

i played with gazes a little bit at the end of day 2 but didn't really get a good feel for him (he called me a "goofball" in a pokerwire interview). what do you think about vinnie's laydown?

i feel like my biggest mistakes come from making big moves when i don't have a strong enough read on the opponent yet. this guy had really not shown any symptoms of big volatility? how long had you played with him?

the best players to move on are aggressive players who can fold as they are most likely to not have a hand and still capable of giving you credit for one. but sometimes it's difficult to distinguish this player from the aggressive player who won't fold also known as the donkey. the one benefit he gets from playing in such a way that will usually result in the evaporation in his chips is that i am generally unwilling to move on him. hopefully though he is not smart enough to realize this fact and will assume i am moving on him at the same rate that i am moving on other players.

in this event i made the same mistake that i think you made and it cost me a ton of chips. for me it was because i had not played with the kid long enough to correctly determine which brand of aggressive player he was (he was a donkey). if i had waited an hour i never would have made the move. but it could be that your man was more clever about disguising his identity. or maybe you have a monster tell. i spotted it on TV but i won't tell you what it is. i'll let others elaborate.

-al

[Exitonly]

i thin vinny's minraise to 5k w/ the low end of the straight was really bad if he wasn't planning on calling a raise.. why wouldnt he just call.

i dont lik eyour 55 call, i don't think protecting your image is quite worth it.

anynways awesome report, was a good read.

[colson10]

hey AJo, congrats on your finish, though I'm sure you were hugely disappointed.

I can't say I had that great of a read on Gazes, but he was playing so many hands because he had a ton of chips right from the start and he was picking up many playable hands, that I got to see him bluff, play mediocre hands, and play the nuts...each multiple times. I thought I picked up a few things in his timing.

I don't know what I think about Vinnie's laydown. At the time I thought it was horrible. While watching the hand I actually thought they were both full of [censored] and they each had so many chips that they could go into these extensive bluffs against each other. The way the hand played out it really felt they both knew the other didn't have anything so they needed to be the one to put in that last raise that "committed" them to the pot and get the other to fold. I guess this was not the case since vinnie actually had a hand. After thinking about it some more I don't think I can have any idea of what was going on. Considering that they have played a lot together I'm sure, including a WPT FT, there's probably too much history between the two for me to really comment on the laydown. But I think it's foolish for Vinnie to reraise if he's planning on folding.

I had played with the JTo guy for about a level or a level and a half. Like I said, he hadn't been played back at much so I wasn't aware that he couldn't fold in this spot. I don't make these kind of moves unless I have a reason to do so. In this case it felt 100% correct at the time based on my image of only showing premium cards, not having played back yet, and the tell I picked up. But I guess you're right, some players are just unwilling to fold in these spots no matter what they have. From what I had seen he didn't seem terrible though, which also made me believe he could fold.

"or maybe you have a monster tell. i spotted it on TV but i won't tell you what it is. i'll let others elaborate"

haha, I'm assuming you're kidding, but not giving off tells is something I'm constantly thinking about and working on. Back in the two EPT events I played I think I must have been a huge tell bag. I was generally nervous and didn't have a set plan of how to look at my cards and raise each time. I kind of got into a groove with it in Deauville, but was moving my hands and chips on a whim for the most part.

I've changed my routine a few times in the past few months and think I've found a good one for me right now.

I don't think I've ever had any problems reading opponents, but giving off tells is something I've always felt I need to work on.

Did you post the results for that Cunningham hand?

[ansky451]

Great post.

I do actually like the 55 call, and I wonder if there are any circumstances in which you would put more $$ in without a set, ie with a tell, or some wierd bet by him.

Its sometimes a fine line between LAGgy donkey, and thinking LAG. I guess you ran into the donkey type, although in the right circumstance that play with the 95s would probably work real well.

[AJo Go All In]

[ QUOTE ]
but not giving off tells is something I'm constantly thinking about and working on. Back in the two EPT events I played I think I must have been a huge tell bag. I was generally nervous and didn't have a set plan of how to look at my cards and raise each time. I kind of got into a groove with it in Deauville, but was moving my hands and chips on a whim for the most part.

I've changed my routine a few times in the past few months and think I've found a good one for me right now.

[/ QUOTE ]

yes this all sounds familiar.

[ QUOTE ]
Did you post the results for that Cunningham hand?

[/ QUOTE ]

nah, it got buried pretty fast and i forgot about it. i said what i said in the post, and then he smiled and made some remark and then limped on the button. my plan was to move in with any hand and i picked up the Td2d and went ahead and moved in, he just smiled and folded without much thought. i'm thinking now that he may read this? hasn't he posted here before? anyway, he asked me if i still move in if he raises, i told him yes which is the truth.

[colson10]

[ QUOTE ]

I do actually like the 55 call, and I wonder if there are any circumstances in which you would put more $$ in without a set, ie with a tell, or some wierd bet by him.


[/ QUOTE ]

If I had flopped an open ender I might have had to push. With a flush draw I'm not sure.

This was the "honest" guy at the table, who likely would never put in a reraise preflop without a big pair, though I hadn't been at the table long enough to be 100% certain of it.

[TheJackal]

I don't think the call with 55 is that bad. It's not even 10% of your stack and if you call and flop a set, you'll increase your stack by nearly 50%. Did you put Gazes on T7 that hand that VV threw away his hand? And as far as the last hand, was this guy an internet player =) ?

[colson10]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think the call with 55 is that bad. It's not even 10% of your stack and if you call and flop a set, you'll increase your stack by nearly 50%. Did you put Gazes on T7 that hand that VV threw away his hand? And as far as the last hand, was this guy an internet player =) ?

[/ QUOTE ]

I commented on Vinnie's laydown in the other post.

I'm pretty sure the guy who busted me out was a B&M player. I think I saw him wearing a blue Brazil soccer jacket on day 2. Maybe that rings a bell with AJo or someone else.