Chris Bigler Saved My Life Tonight At The Legends $5K

[Howard Treesong]

The one seat quickly establishes donkey status: He limps playing 25-50 and I, doing my Negreanu impression, make it 300 from the SB holding Tc7c. He calls. Flop is Js 6c 2d. I check-call his 500 bet and the turn is a sweet 9c, giving me the flush and the SF redraw. I check again, suspecting he's going to bet -- and he does. I checkraise his 500 to 2500, and he instacalls. Not having played anything against him, the call is worrisome. A T hits the river, and I'm uncertain precisely where I am, so, after considering a blocking bet, decide to check it and call if he bets. He checks meekly behind me and shows JT off. Eyebrows go up from the eight, ten, three and five seats.

There's some shouting at the table next to us, and as it happens, one of my favorite RGP lurkers is involved. I hear about the hand on a break: Fern is on the button holding AA and after a limper, the player to her right bets 300. Fern makes it 900, limper and bettor call. Flop comes down A J 6 with two spades. Limper checks, bettor bets 1,000; Fern minraises to 2000, limper makes it 4,000 and bettor smooth calls. Fern realizes her mistake in betting the 1K and wisely stacks off: everyone calls. Limper has 66 and bettor JJ, and Fern stacks up a very nice $30K pot. Two players bust at the fifteen minute mark.

I yoyo through levels two and three, with a high-water mark of about 18,000. Seat five limps for 150, as does six. I find KK and raise to 750, only to find the nine seat reraising for 2250 more. Five and six go away and I call; he has AJ and my hand stands up.

I lose a substantial pot when I misplay one street and pay: I raise to 600 from the cutoff with 8s6s and I'm called by a new player who has just moved in to the table. Flop comes J 5 7 with one spade, checked to me. I bet 1200 and get raised to 3000 straight. I call, getting about an even-money price. Turn is a 6, enemy bets 2000. I have ten solid outs with four possibles, getting better than four to one on my money. I call. River is a seven and we check, he shows JT and takes down a big one.

I'm getting short, but remain hopeful that the donkey in the one seat will find a spot to double me through. Wish granted! He raises to 500 from UGT+2 playing 100-200-25. I make it 2000 straight with AT and he calls. Flop comes down T 6 2 and he checks. Normally, I'd be skittish against a guy who makes a raise that small from EP, but not this fellow. I stack off. He instacalls, then rolls over 8d9d for a cold gut draw and backdoor diamonds. Turn is a slightly scary 2d but the river bricks and he's gotta ship me 5800 more.

To make the remaining long story short, I can't find a good spot to commit and get ground down to $5,650 by the end of the day. Meanwhile, the pompous sort-of-jerk in the five seat finds AA four times, two of which find full action. The last half hour is a flurry of activity, but I cannot find even a marginally good situation. And Mr. Kotter, directly behind me, can't miss a a hand: he has almost $100K by the time we break.

More Monday. I'll be back for day two, but desperate. Other observations: the room was viciously hot for many hours. It was sweaty and tiring. Padraig (pronounced "Paw-rie") Parkinson is wonderfully witty. The emotional swings one feels in a big tournament are intense: for about twenty minutes, I missed the little Treesongs so badly that I almost cried. There are tons and tons of people who simply do not try to gain information from others, and seem to blindly play by some mystical formula. One can identify internet-only players from a mile away: they don't handle their chips well, and aren't used to calculating correct minimum bets. You can spot them a mile away. Evelyn Ng is, quoting Slim, the advance man for a famine. Some dealers would call the f-bomb on their own; others would require a player to say something.

p.s. as for the title, well, it's a slight exaggeration. While I was chatting briefly with an acquaintance at the valet when we finished, Bigler warned me that a car was about to back into me. Had he not said anything, it might have hit me going about two miles an hour. So realistically, he saved me from slight bruising and massive embarrassment.

[SCfuji]

awesome, betterluck tomorrow.

[cwsiggy]

Nice report. I'll assume you meant there were two clubs on the board in the first hand. Good luck with the short stack. All in !!

[MeanGreenTT]

It still makes me weep like a little girl to realize how close I came to seating....good luck!

[Howard Treesong]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice report. I'll assume you meant there were two clubs on the board in the first hand. Good luck with the short stack. All in !!

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, of course: it was the Jc, not the Js. That's what happens when you draft trip reports whilst tired.

Actually, I woke up this morning agonizing over one more hand. I'd been putting huge pressure on the ten seat's blinds. He was a decent player: tight/solid, aware, and doing the math. At the 150-300-50 level, I stole his blind on the first hand out of the deck. He became very, very hostile, and said "That's the last time. That's the last effing time. I mean it." On the next orbit, I found AQ in the cutoff when he was the BB and of course made it 1000 straight. He made it 3000 and I called right away. Flop came J T 2. We both checked. Turn 8. I checked and he bet 4,000; I dwelled up for a long time and finally mucked. I have eight sure outs, six possibles, and no folding equity, as I only have 8,000 in my stack. He showed me 88, making my turn fold easily correct.

I'm agonizing on the flop play, and trying to figure whether I should have pushed. With 8000 in my stack and 6000 in, I can put serious pressure on him. The flop doesn't look like it hit him hard, and I have a pretty good chance of shoving him off of it. But the backup plan is lousy: there aren't many hands in his range here (AA-66 or so, plus AK-AJ and maybe KQ) that I'm ahead of. And if his range is wide enough to include KJ and QJ -- very possible given his furious anger at blind pressure, I can't move him out.

It's a tough position. My emotional reaction this morning, of course, is that I should have pushed. Thoughts?

[DesertCat]

[ QUOTE ]

Turn 8. I checked and he bet 4,000;

Thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you have a huge tell here. When the turn card hits, and you check out of turn, that probably told him you were weak. He didn't need a set to push you off that hand [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[NYCNative]

[ QUOTE ]
My emotional reaction this morning, of course, is that I should have pushed. Thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]I am thinking that given his fury that you pushed over the top pre-flop. Given his range you had him on it was probably sketchy but given the range he *could* have been on (I could see him make a move with nothing just to get you off your less-than-nothing which he probably suspected at that point) it would have really put him to the test and you probably did have FE at that point. It would have been hard for him to call your all-in with 8s there, methinks, and it would have at said that you DID have a hand most likely.

This move is a lot easier to make with AK, I am aware. And you should know that these are stakes quite outside of my realm by the magnitude of... well, a friggin' lot.

[Howard Treesong]

Tell of tells, indeed! Ni1. He bet out, sir.

[pokergripes]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Nice report. I'll assume you meant there were two clubs on the board in the first hand. Good luck with the short stack. All in !!

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, of course: it was the Jc, not the Js. That's what happens when you draft trip reports whilst tired.

Actually, I woke up this morning agonizing over one more hand. I'd been putting huge pressure on the ten seat's blinds. He was a decent player: tight/solid, aware, and doing the math. At the 150-300-50 level, I stole his blind on the first hand out of the deck. He became very, very hostile, and said "That's the last time. That's the last effing time. I mean it." On the next orbit, I found AQ in the cutoff when he was the BB and of course made it 1000 straight. He made it 3000 and I called right away. Flop came J T 2. We both checked. Turn 8. I checked and he bet 4,000; I dwelled up for a long time and finally mucked. I have eight sure outs, six possibles, and no folding equity, as I only have 8,000 in my stack. He showed me 88, making my turn fold easily correct.

I'm agonizing on the flop play, and trying to figure whether I should have pushed. With 8000 in my stack and 6000 in, I can put serious pressure on him. The flop doesn't look like it hit him hard, and I have a pretty good chance of shoving him off of it. But the backup plan is lousy: there aren't many hands in his range here (AA-66 or so, plus AK-AJ and maybe KQ) that I'm ahead of. And if his range is wide enough to include KJ and QJ -- very possible given his furious anger at blind pressure, I can't move him out.

It's a tough position. My emotional reaction this morning, of course, is that I should have pushed. Thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

He wouldn't have folded if you pushed...angry people call with those eights, and then you would have lost more.