Campfire Stories

Borgata Poker Open $5k+200

I'm out, and thoroughly confused. ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH. I'm so frustrated right now.

I started today feeling fresh and fired up and found myself at the sweetest table draw ever for a $5k event. There was only one trouble spot on the table, two weak tighties to my left, two donkeys to my right, one to the left, and two average players across the table. In the first two levels (25-50 and 50-100, 15k starting stack) I chipped up easily to 21k, and then found myself at 24k after the 75-150 and 100-200 level.

Come back from break expecting to play 100-200/25, and much to my surprise we're playing 200-400/25. What the ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Are you kidding me? I've heard nothing but good things about the structures here, but that is just ridiculous. So, instead of having a huge stack with all the time in the world, I instead only have 25m's, good for a medium-large stack.

First hand back I found KK and lost 7k to JT on a J8x flop vs. a shorty. About one orbit later the player who had the JT opens UTG+2 for 1200. Straight-forward donkey (this has been established as fact. Means he plays straight forward with big hands, calls off way too lightly in weird spots, and makes pointless bluffs.) calls next in, one fold, weak tight donkey calls, fold, and it's on me on the button, I have JJ. Calling here sucks, shipping it sucks, so I make it 4k, enough to get the job done without exposing myself too much.

Initial raiser folds, donkey #1 TANKS. And TAAAAANKS. He's not thinking about raising whatsoever. I'm giving him 88-TT, AQ/AJ. For the record, we've already seen him numerous times calling raises with Ax and other crappy hands, and even calling some re-raises with those crappy hands. I am not worried about this player or the next one in any way at all. I would still prefer to take down the 4450 without a fight, but I am extremely confident in my hand. He finally calls and the other donkey folds.

Flop 9 6 6 . Perfect, hope he doesn't have 99, but at this point I have committed myself to this hand. There's 11,250 in the pot, I have 11,800 in my stack. He checks, and clearly is still in the same demeanor. If he has 99 or 66 so be it, but I'm not getting off this hand ever.

Bet small or ship it in? Well, since I'm never folding this hand, I might as well try and get some value and give him a chance to do something stupid. I bet 6k, and he TAAAAANKS again. Seriously tanks. Is not thinking of putting me in. Hates his spot. I can now rule out all the Ax hands, even the A x cause he would visibly like the flop much more and would have probably put me in already. I'm giving him TT, 88, 77 in that order. Possible JJ, but that's pretty unlikely, AA, KK, or QQ he's already shipped it on me (he had a little more than 30k at the start of the hand), but this guy is goofy enough that I can't totally rule out A9 or some small pair or complete air. The point is that I am begging for a call now. I know I have the best hand. I am shipping it on any turn period unless I pick up some visible tell on a "scare" card in his range, but it's going to have to be pretty serious for me to ever fold this hand. It seriously took him 90 seconds to call the flop. Nobody hollywoods that long, and I know that he wasn't even thinking about raising ever.

Turn is a K , and he checks again. I know he doesn't like that card. I don't like that card at all and it's not because I think I'm beat now - I would have bet my bankroll that he didn't have A K or any other Kx hand. I think it might scare him off of his medium pair. I ship it, and he really tanks. It's 6850 to call and there's 23250 in the middle already - so he's getting fantastic pot odds, and it's exactly how I wanted it. He called after about two minutes, I was sure my jacks were the nuts and tabled them quickly.

He had queens.

Queens? Huh? WTF? Oh, my, God. He had the only even remotely possible hand that beat me and I had the only even remotely possible hand that he could beat. There is a huge gap here between JJ and TT for my holdings. I'm only playing AA-JJ that way, period. I'm calling in position with TT>, AK, etc. Plus, while I thought he'd never play QQ that way, it's clearly the absolute top of his range - he's never playing AA, KK, or AK like that ever. Ever. And I'm thoroughly shocked that he played QQ that way.

Think about it for a second - when have you ever seen a loose donkey cold call a raise with QQ and they're not trying to be funky? I've never seen it! They usually make a sizeable re-raise to "protect" their queens from letting in Ax or Kx. It's so standard that it didn't even cross my mind the remote possibility that he had queens.
Looking back on the hand, I can understand what's going on in his mind. He's gotta hate his life vs. my range too. My play on all streets was super strong, and he's really only beating JJ. Furthermore, my image was super-nit tight, and this was the most action I had put into a pot in 4.5 hours.

Arrrrrgh.

There wasn't a dang thing I could do there.

This hand fits nicely in the category of Wednesday's 2500 hands. I recieved some e-mails questioning why I lost so many chips with one and two pair hands, and in this hand I busted with a one pair hand. The point of poker is not the rank of your hand but the rank of your hand vs. their hand. In the hands on Wednesday I had the effective 3rd nuts with AA and the effective 2nd nuts with the AT. In this particular hand I felt like I had the effective nuts and am always willing to play a big pot when I feel that I have the effective nuts. You establish the effective nuts based on their range, which narrows with each action taken. If their range doesn't include any hand that beats you, then you have the effective nuts. One hand that beats you and several others that don't? Second nuts. Follow?

So, in this hand I felt that I had the effective nuts, but was obviously wrong. I had the effective second nuts, and it really doesn't matter if I even put QQ into his possible range, because the hand still plays out the same. I can't quit on the turn with so much invested and his range sitting at QQ or less w/o 99 or 66. I have to ship it there.

Oh well. I am very happy with my play today in all aspects and am super excited for the 10k on Sunday. I'm playing well and expect big things to happen very soon.

I saw a ruling today that drove me nuts. Rule # 15 of the Borgata's official rules talks about a player calling a bet when unsure of the bet amount being able to forfeit the amount put into the pot and fold or call the rest. For example, guy opens in the 10 seat for 200, guy in the one seat throws out 50 at the 25-50 level. Seat one can either fold and leave the 50 or throw out 150 more and call.

So, come river in this particular hand, player A in 8 seat bets two purples and two blacks, 1200. Player B in 1 seat throws out 700. Dealer does not announce bet sizes, doesn't confirm pot correctness, and just says "call." Player A tables his hand and it's good, player B asks if he has to call the additional 500. I LOLed - totally thought he was kidding. He finally puts the 500 in before a floor can be called, but when the floor got there he said that the player did not have to call the additional 500.

Yes, I understand that this is how the rule reads, but there has to be some sort of ammendment to the rule and the dealers need to be more attentive to making sure the pot is correct. Think about all the ways this can be exploited! Make a thin call for a few big chips less than what he bet. When ever does a player with a weak hand question whether the call is complete or not? NEVER! I accidentally called a guy today for 750 when the actual bet was 1250 (I was calling 1250 or any other number also FWIW) and his cards instantly hit the muck when I threw chips into the pot. After his cards were in the muck, THEN the dealer told me that it was 1250 and I owed 500 more! LOLOL!

So, if you're the bettor, make sure PERIOD before you table your hand or say anything. I can see this angle getting super blatantly abused.

The point is that there should not be rules that protect people from their own mistakes (ie putting chips in the pot when they don't even know the bet size), enables huge angles to be shot, and forces players to go out of their way to protect themselves from a stupid rule.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

posted by Devo @ 3:23 PM |