goofball
07-16-2006, 11:36 PM
I started with T6500 playing 1500 and 3000 stakes. I left my house around 20 minutes before hand and hit traffic. Unlike yesterday I could have easily been blinded off before I got there :-\. Fortunetly I know traffic light routes and made it just in time for the 'shuffle up and deal'.
First hand I get AQs and think 'heh, short day' but alas no callers. Blinds move through me and I pick up KJo, raise get one caller (the bane of my existence guy star of the K9s and 55 hands from yesterday) but he checkfolds a Q high flop, whew. I steal the blinds once more and then pick up KK, raise and get a coldcaller (whoo!) who raises me on a K high flop (WHOO!). I hollywood for about 2 seconds before calling and checkraising him all in for like .5bbs more on the turn. He was drawing dead (second all in for me in the tourney, 2/2 on having my opponents dead) and I was up to around 20k. I puttered around for a while, our table didn’t change much, I won a couple of hands I don’t remember then picked up AK in the BB. A good playing Indian guy who ended up placing 5th I think opened, I 3bet, he calls. Flop A33 yahtzee! I bet he calls and I KNOW he has AQ/AJ/whatever and is planning on a calldown, I decide to check raise the turn and he does indeed call down putting me up to around 50k.
Soon after though Phil Ivey once again moves two spots to my left :-\. Before I got to tangle with him, I got brought down to around 30k twice and doubled back up twice.. The first time a near chipleader opened in the CO, I 3bet with 88 on the button, he called. Flop K83, he checkraised, I called. Turn 4 I bet I raised 2 BBs exactly all in and he called drawing dead with K9o. I played a few pots and lost of had to fold or whatever, then I picked up JTs and called a raise from the BB. Flop J high, I checkraise, raiser calls, turn T, I bet all in he calls with A7 (yes, drawing dead now 4 for 4). Soon after I had my two confrontations with Ivey.
Now, the main reason for me to play limit instead of NL tournaments is these next two hands. Other then the fact that I’m not that good an NL I feel I can at least sort of play with world class players in limit. Basically, in limit I feel like my edge over bad bad players is slightly smaller then in NL, but in limit the edge of phil ivey et al over me is much much smaller then it is in NL. My strategy for playing a NL pot against Phil Ivey would mostly consist of crawling under the table. Onto the two Ivey hands:
9 handed WSOP Limit Tournament limits of 4k/8k.
Ivey opens UTG+1, folds to hero who calls in the BB with Q/images/graemlins/club.gif J/images/graemlins/club.gif
Flop(2.25BBs): J/images/graemlins/heart.gif 7/images/graemlins/heart.gif 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif
Hero checks, Ivey bets, Hero raises, Ivey calls
Turn (4.25 BBs): A/images/graemlins/club.gif
Hero bets, Ivey calls after thinking for 5-7 seconds
River (6.25 BBs) Q/images/graemlins/spade.gif
Hero bets, Ivey folds after thinking for about 5 minutes.
Of course after he thought for more then 5 seconds I wanted a call, but I had to try to make myself look nervous the whole time he was staring me down. I think I did a good job because after the hand several people came up to me and asked if it was a bluff. Obviously the most questionable decision is the turn bet. Debate is encouraged. I thought about going for the river checkraise but thought there were too many hands he would have been happy to check behind.
Two hands later we tangle again:
Hero opens on the button with Q/images/graemlins/club.gif T/images/graemlins/heart.gif, Ivey calls in the BB.
Flop(2.25 BBs): J/images/graemlins/spade.gif T/images/graemlins/heart.gif 3/images/graemlins/club.gif
Ivey checks, hero bets, Ivey raises, hero calls.
Turn(4.25 BBs): 5/images/graemlins/club.gif
Ivey bets, hero raises, Ivey folds.
I thought about just calling down here. If he’s bluffing I obviously want to just call down, however randomly spazzily calling down with second pair isn’t so great for meta-game and he didn’t have a ton of chips left, so I wanted to give him the chance to get all his money in the pot with a 3bet/river halfbet.
This took us to the dinner break where I went around calling everyone I knew telling them about how I took two big pots off of Phil Ivey (after getting some food at Arby’s of course. I was much more nervous during the dinner break then during any other time of the tournament. At the table it’s hard to be nervous, I’m just playing limit holdem a game I play every day for a living. Before the day started I had no chips at all so I was nervous at all. But now, at the dinner break, sitting on 90k with a chance to go to the final table, I was nervous. I was walking around the Rio, couldn’t sit still, finally after what seemed like 3 hours we got back to our tables and started playing again. I got back and right away pulled of a bluff against a Japanese guy who plays well. I opened with JTo, he 3bet, I called.flop K83 I checkraised, he got a look like “goddamnit not again” and folded pretty quickly. I also got some good luck my way when I raise with KTo, got 3bet by the same Japanese guy who had less then 1sb left after the 3bet, I of course put him all in and he shows AQ. Flop KTx good night.
There were only two more hands I played that day that I can remember of any significance. One where I got very lucky and one where I outplayed a guy, whoo. First one, the K9/55/KJ dude was in the SB, I opened in LP with black 88 and he 3bet which he’d been doing a lot. I’d almost always 4bet but this time I decided to just call and raise any flop. Flop was J74 with two clubs. He bet, I raised, he 3bet, he felt weak, I 4bet, he 5bet. Uhoh. I thought about folding right there, but I notice that by playing like a donkey I’d now bloated the pot and had a 2 outer plus backdoor flush and straight outs. The turn was a 2 of clubs so now I can’t fold for sure. The river was of course the 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif He bet, I raised, he looked like someone kicked him in the shins. He thought and thought and thought, he said you must have a flush. I sat still and he thought some more, he stacked out a call, looked longingly at it, almost threw it in the pot but didn’t. He thought some more and with a look like he KNEW he was no good he threw it in the pot. I tabled my hand and he immediately got up to tell the entire room how bad I play. Of course cardplayer reported that I didn’t even raise the river which makes me look like more of a donkey despite now having the chip lead.
The other hand came against a guy I’d been owning recently. He opened, I 3bet with QsJs in the BB, he called. Flop came AsKs4x. I bet, he raised. I thought “wow what a perfect time to jam and test him” so I 3bet and he called. After thinking for way way way too long for me he decided to fold on the turn when it came a red king. Just a few minutes later we were all together as a 10 handed table. I raised with AK, a short stack looked like he didn’t want to play and that his tournament was over but threw his chips in anyway, my AK held up over his A5 and it was final table time.
First hand I get AQs and think 'heh, short day' but alas no callers. Blinds move through me and I pick up KJo, raise get one caller (the bane of my existence guy star of the K9s and 55 hands from yesterday) but he checkfolds a Q high flop, whew. I steal the blinds once more and then pick up KK, raise and get a coldcaller (whoo!) who raises me on a K high flop (WHOO!). I hollywood for about 2 seconds before calling and checkraising him all in for like .5bbs more on the turn. He was drawing dead (second all in for me in the tourney, 2/2 on having my opponents dead) and I was up to around 20k. I puttered around for a while, our table didn’t change much, I won a couple of hands I don’t remember then picked up AK in the BB. A good playing Indian guy who ended up placing 5th I think opened, I 3bet, he calls. Flop A33 yahtzee! I bet he calls and I KNOW he has AQ/AJ/whatever and is planning on a calldown, I decide to check raise the turn and he does indeed call down putting me up to around 50k.
Soon after though Phil Ivey once again moves two spots to my left :-\. Before I got to tangle with him, I got brought down to around 30k twice and doubled back up twice.. The first time a near chipleader opened in the CO, I 3bet with 88 on the button, he called. Flop K83, he checkraised, I called. Turn 4 I bet I raised 2 BBs exactly all in and he called drawing dead with K9o. I played a few pots and lost of had to fold or whatever, then I picked up JTs and called a raise from the BB. Flop J high, I checkraise, raiser calls, turn T, I bet all in he calls with A7 (yes, drawing dead now 4 for 4). Soon after I had my two confrontations with Ivey.
Now, the main reason for me to play limit instead of NL tournaments is these next two hands. Other then the fact that I’m not that good an NL I feel I can at least sort of play with world class players in limit. Basically, in limit I feel like my edge over bad bad players is slightly smaller then in NL, but in limit the edge of phil ivey et al over me is much much smaller then it is in NL. My strategy for playing a NL pot against Phil Ivey would mostly consist of crawling under the table. Onto the two Ivey hands:
9 handed WSOP Limit Tournament limits of 4k/8k.
Ivey opens UTG+1, folds to hero who calls in the BB with Q/images/graemlins/club.gif J/images/graemlins/club.gif
Flop(2.25BBs): J/images/graemlins/heart.gif 7/images/graemlins/heart.gif 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif
Hero checks, Ivey bets, Hero raises, Ivey calls
Turn (4.25 BBs): A/images/graemlins/club.gif
Hero bets, Ivey calls after thinking for 5-7 seconds
River (6.25 BBs) Q/images/graemlins/spade.gif
Hero bets, Ivey folds after thinking for about 5 minutes.
Of course after he thought for more then 5 seconds I wanted a call, but I had to try to make myself look nervous the whole time he was staring me down. I think I did a good job because after the hand several people came up to me and asked if it was a bluff. Obviously the most questionable decision is the turn bet. Debate is encouraged. I thought about going for the river checkraise but thought there were too many hands he would have been happy to check behind.
Two hands later we tangle again:
Hero opens on the button with Q/images/graemlins/club.gif T/images/graemlins/heart.gif, Ivey calls in the BB.
Flop(2.25 BBs): J/images/graemlins/spade.gif T/images/graemlins/heart.gif 3/images/graemlins/club.gif
Ivey checks, hero bets, Ivey raises, hero calls.
Turn(4.25 BBs): 5/images/graemlins/club.gif
Ivey bets, hero raises, Ivey folds.
I thought about just calling down here. If he’s bluffing I obviously want to just call down, however randomly spazzily calling down with second pair isn’t so great for meta-game and he didn’t have a ton of chips left, so I wanted to give him the chance to get all his money in the pot with a 3bet/river halfbet.
This took us to the dinner break where I went around calling everyone I knew telling them about how I took two big pots off of Phil Ivey (after getting some food at Arby’s of course. I was much more nervous during the dinner break then during any other time of the tournament. At the table it’s hard to be nervous, I’m just playing limit holdem a game I play every day for a living. Before the day started I had no chips at all so I was nervous at all. But now, at the dinner break, sitting on 90k with a chance to go to the final table, I was nervous. I was walking around the Rio, couldn’t sit still, finally after what seemed like 3 hours we got back to our tables and started playing again. I got back and right away pulled of a bluff against a Japanese guy who plays well. I opened with JTo, he 3bet, I called.flop K83 I checkraised, he got a look like “goddamnit not again” and folded pretty quickly. I also got some good luck my way when I raise with KTo, got 3bet by the same Japanese guy who had less then 1sb left after the 3bet, I of course put him all in and he shows AQ. Flop KTx good night.
There were only two more hands I played that day that I can remember of any significance. One where I got very lucky and one where I outplayed a guy, whoo. First one, the K9/55/KJ dude was in the SB, I opened in LP with black 88 and he 3bet which he’d been doing a lot. I’d almost always 4bet but this time I decided to just call and raise any flop. Flop was J74 with two clubs. He bet, I raised, he 3bet, he felt weak, I 4bet, he 5bet. Uhoh. I thought about folding right there, but I notice that by playing like a donkey I’d now bloated the pot and had a 2 outer plus backdoor flush and straight outs. The turn was a 2 of clubs so now I can’t fold for sure. The river was of course the 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif He bet, I raised, he looked like someone kicked him in the shins. He thought and thought and thought, he said you must have a flush. I sat still and he thought some more, he stacked out a call, looked longingly at it, almost threw it in the pot but didn’t. He thought some more and with a look like he KNEW he was no good he threw it in the pot. I tabled my hand and he immediately got up to tell the entire room how bad I play. Of course cardplayer reported that I didn’t even raise the river which makes me look like more of a donkey despite now having the chip lead.
The other hand came against a guy I’d been owning recently. He opened, I 3bet with QsJs in the BB, he called. Flop came AsKs4x. I bet, he raised. I thought “wow what a perfect time to jam and test him” so I 3bet and he called. After thinking for way way way too long for me he decided to fold on the turn when it came a red king. Just a few minutes later we were all together as a 10 handed table. I raised with AK, a short stack looked like he didn’t want to play and that his tournament was over but threw his chips in anyway, my AK held up over his A5 and it was final table time.