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Server Time: 10/11/2008 12:35:39 AM PACIFIC |
 A Tourney Chop & NLHE at the Belle, FeliciaLee, 25. Dec 2003 11:18 | ||
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| Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Today I wanted to give Glenn a nice surprise. I took him to see "Lord of the Rings III." He was very surprised, since we haven't been in a theater for over five years, I believe. We had a great time, then a great dinner, which turned out to be a story in itself. Perhaps someday I will post it, since it is directly related to Laughlin casinos. Since we don't have to worry about getting to the cardroom early on Wednesday's, due to the disappointing turnout for the $110 tourney, we didn't enter until about 6:30pm. James, our poker room manager, was still there, and collecting buy-in's for the tourney. I figured maybe Norm was sick, but James told me he'd worked late into the night, and needed the evening to rest. I looked at the stat sheet for our WPT points. Wow! I was 6th in points, how did that happen, since I'd busted out 15th, I believe? Well, it seems that we "move up" in points if the people who busted out after us are not participating in the contest (mostly tourists). So even though I was 15th place, I got the points for 6th place! Glenn got points for 4th place, even though he'd busted out at 8th. We only had 21 participants for the tourney. A good mix of locals and tourists. This poor dude in the nine seat had absolutely no idea what he was doing. No matter how many times we showed him the monitor, or the dealer told him the bet, he could not understand that the turn and river were double the bet of pre-flop and flop. He just didn't get it. Several times he check-called with the stone cold nuts! Poor guy. My table was fun. I had to take the five seat, because we didn't get a third table going, and James decided to cram eleven players on table II. Leon was in the one seat. Leon has been the subject of my "Buttmunch" posts. I think I wrote that they had a talk with Leon, since he got into an argument with a female dealer over Thanksgiving. Anyway, he mostly just drinks coffee now, and seems okay, if a little sullen. He definitely is not drinking Corona after Corona anymore. I have never seen him drink more than two in any given tourney, then he goes to coffee. Leon is a loose, aggressive player. He hardly ever limps, he comes in with a raise maybe 75% of the time in the limit portion of the tourney. Like a lot of the locals, though, he gets tighter after we go to no-limit/no-rebuys, and tries to "hang on." I truly think this is a bad strategy, given the very top heavy payout structure. At any rate, things have been very good in the Leon corner now. I often say (while at another table), "Aaaah, listen to the sweet sound of Leon's silence." Larry was at my table, as was a young guy from California, who seemed to play pretty well. On my second hand, I got AA, and was called all the way. Jim, a pretty tight player, raised my blind with AKo. I also had AKo. Both an ace and a king hit. We kept betting and raising each other, only to split the pot after it was all over, lol. I made it to the final table, with quite a large chip count. I was being run over by the deck. Some of my hands in the no-limit portion were: AA, AKs, AKo, 88, 99. I won with all of them, making huge raises BTF, or going all-in. Most of the players were hesitant to call all-in's, unlike some of the other Belle tourneys I've played in the last four months! When we got down to six, a tourist from Canada, who was second in chip position, suggested an even chop. I was perilously low by this time, and readily agreed. Doc S, who was to my right in the one seat, immediately agreed, as well. Doc is funny, he always wants to chop, when he makes it into the money. He was the chip lead on Wednesday, but he was very eager for a chop. He is a super-rock, and maybe he is just so happy to have made it to the money that he wants to end the tourney, so he can "claim" first place, even if we chop the prize money evenly. Who knows! I like him though, and if he always wants to give me a fair share, no matter how short I am, that is fine with me! Anyway, Leon resisted, even though Leon didn't have a lot of chips. Out of the six of us, we three "youngsters" had the least amount: me, Leon and the kid from California. Doc was chip lead, the tourist from Canada was second (but very close), and this 80 year old man, in the three seat, was a close third. Leon wanted to play it out. He said we were all in the money, had recovered our buy-in's, so we should play for the gold. Okay with me! Naturally, Leon was the next player out of the tournament, lol. He doubled me up, when I had 99 and he was in the BB. It was only 3 more chip for him to call my all-in, which he did, but got no help. I believe he had J4 or something similar. Just a couple of hands later, he went all-in himself, was called by the BB, since he had very few chips left, and he was out at 6th, given $105. I had only 2100 in chips, but I was going to be the BB next, which would take 600 of them, followed by the SB, which would be another 300. Yipes! But then I was saved. The same guy from Canada suggested a five way chop. Doc was ahead by about three chips, the elderly gentleman was clearly the chip lead, and the California kid and I were almost even: 2100 vs. 2300. Both of our eyes widened because these older guys were giving us an even cut, but we readily agreed. We each got $400. Doc S. got 1st place in WPT points, I got 2nd, since none of the other three players were competing for the seats. Although I'm happy that I once again got into the money, I am not so happy with some of my plays. I tried to mix it up a little bit in one hand with AJs, feeling that my raises were getting too much respect. So I let the BB stay in. Naturally, the BB had a horrible hand like 63o. A six flopped and turned, the board was double paired 6622, so he had a FH by fourth. I'm not stupid enough to call any bet with my AJs, with that board, and the BB betting out (Larry, whom I know well), but the pure idiocy of letting him see the flop in the first place gnawed at me. Why would did I not raise, when we were shorthanded and I could have stolen another pot? Because I made a mistake, that is why! In another hand, I was one of the blinds and decided to be sneaky and try to "trap" with AQs. Didn't I just get burned on this last Wednesday??? Did it stop me from doing it again? NOOOO! I did it again, and, although this time it worked out, the results are of no consequence. It was a bad move, period. I can get tricky once or twice, when I need to, or have a billion chips to burn. But I'm trying TOO MANY tricks. I have FPS, and can't get out of hell. With the number of premium hands I was dealt, and the number of them that stood up, I should have won this tourney. If I'd played just straight up, not trying to get fancy, I would have had the chip lead when we got down to five, instead of being the shortest stack. I was dealt twice as many quality starting hands, yet I was the dog for most of the final table play. I still have so much to learn, and I am just sitting here kicking myself that I can't control my FPS. Bah! I'm typing this on Friday evening, December 19, 2003. I will type more later, as I think I'm as sick as a dog. We are supposed to be playing in the Omaha tourney tonight. We're not. I've been sleeping off and on all day with icky dreams and nightmares. I took only Tylenol, so I think it must be the flu. Who knows! I am achy and feel sick. Tomorrow morning we are supposed to begin our drive to St. Louis for the Christmas holiday. I don't even know if we can go. I will try to continue this story tomorrow, unless some miracle occurs and we end up taking off for Missouri. I need to write about the new NLHE game being spread at the Belle! ----------------------------------------- Part II James seemed very eager to tell me that the Belle is going to try a small NLHE game. The buy-in will be a min/max of $200. Blinds are 2/5. Not bad. We will need to rely on the Californians to keep it running, but if we get lucky enough, it just might stay healthy. Since I chopped the tourney, I wasn't able to sit in the NLHE game until we were done. By that time, it had been going for an hour or more. To my surprise, most of the players were locals. This was good and bad. Good because I have a very good read on these players, and they don't shock me much, when they expose their cards. Bad because it gets harder and harder for me to extract the maximum value out of any winning hand that I hold. Although I said I wasn't really interested in cash games anymore, spreading the NLHE game brought new life into my soul. LOL. I haven't played that much live NL. The Riverside spreads a small game, but their rules state that NO ONE can go all-in before the flop (this doesn't include those who are short stacked and go all-in with the 2-6 spread limit betting, naturally). Since there is no way to protect a premium hand before the flop, we must play "limit" style, calling raises with drawing hands, then dumping them after the flop if we don't connect solidly. It really is a sucky game, barring those times when players are absolutely nuts. Anyway, the only other time I've played NLHE live is at Binions, which was a rock garden when I visited (late Monday night during Thanksgiving week). I bought in for $200 and had to take the one seat. The game was nine-handed. It was clear that most of the players had never played NLHE before. I looked over at the eight seat, which is where Glenn was seated. He had almost $600! The max buy-in is $200. I tried to ask him what happened, but he just kept shaking his head, like he would tell me later. Maybe he didn't want to embarrass anyone at the table. I probably just would have said, "I tripled up with a flopped set," which is what happened to him, being called all-in by two players: top pair, poor kicker with the nut flush draw, and another player who mucked upon seeing Glenn's set. Glenn tries to be super-polite in all situations. An admirable trait, which I do not possess. Sammy, a Riverside dealer I've profiled before, was in the nine-seat. He was raising any pot he was involved in. His strategy was raise or fold. I was really only involved in one hand of mention during my hour of play. I had AJs in MP. Sammy was UTG and raised the $5 blind to $20. In MP, I flat called. It was passed to Glenn, in the BB, who folded. The flop came Axx. Sammy bet $40, I called. The turn was another rag. Sammy checked, I bet $80, I believe. Close to the pot, but sparing my whites. Sammy thought about the bet for a long time. He finally folded, flashing ATo. Although I would love feedback on this particular hand, I think I will start by saying that I know Sammy very well. His play is predictable. He is a typical rammer-jammer dealer. He will not often limp, but prefers to raise, with a variety of hands, before the flop. Although I didn't know what he had BTF, I figured him for ace-something. Sammy is the type who would elicit callers with anything higher than AJ. He would not bet 4x the BB. Same goes for any premium pair. Then, when the ace hit on the flop, Sammy would have bet less had he possessed a better kicker than mine. By that time, he wanted the pot, uncontested. When I stayed with him, he had to have known my kicker was superior, hence the check. So my errors in this hand might include betting too much on the turn, driving Sammy out, when I should have wanted a call. Since my read of Sammy was correct, I should have tried to keep him in the pot. Pre-flop, I'm not sure if I made any errors. Naturally, I wanted to see the flop, but I only called, in case someone in later position has a premium hand. I could have gotten away from the hand if I'd been re-raised. I guess I perhaps "chickened out" on the turn, trying to just win the hand then and there. Comments? I had to cash out of this game after only an hour, with a pounding headache. I figured that my play would deteriorate if I kept trying to play-through my headache. I hope the Belle can keep this game alive. I would love to see it spread regularly! Felicia :) | ||
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