Day One- wasn't that bad


Two days ago, call it a Tuesday I arrived in LA. All hotels were booked so I've sequestered myself at the Ramada 8 mins down the street.

Next morning (Wednesday) I hustled on down to the Commerce to register for the 10k hu no limit event. I first haggled with a few people at the front desk in order to receive the 100k wire I made here, there was one moment of nervousness where the two tellers were conferring in the back utterly confused as to whether it had arrived or not. It did though, sweet. Cashed out 40k for walking around money and went to register a full 3 hours before the event with great success. Finding myself bored with 3 hours to kill pre-event I wandered downstairs, happening upon a 20/40nl game, with 200 BB ante and a 300 2-7 bounty. Naturally I sat. Things zipped along smoothly with me opening a pot here and there, winning a few continuation bets, but mostly just sitting on a tight/solid image. The table was just awful for a live game, the lineup was the Bermans, Keith, Kevin and a couple of other live pros playing tight. Not one mark.

7 handed, the weakest player at the table opened UTG+1 to 200, Brad Berman called, Keith called, and Lyle called from the small blind. I picked up QQ in the BB with a 20k stack or so and after some quick internal debate made it 1500, the PFR folded, Keith called and Lyle called from the SB. Pot 5k or so on the flop of 8s 4x 3s. I again had a bit of a tough decision as betting commits me to the hand, but I thought they might think I would bet AK here as well as some of my SC type hands and sometimes people are more apt to put you on a bluff the first time you show aggression (specially if you're a scruffy young kid). I bet 2500, which coincidentally was the number of white ($100) chips in front of me, mostly because I hate talking when I'm in a big pot OOP with money behind, declaring 3400 or so while tossing in a flag I'm not really sure what kind of intonation to go for to project weakness to two strong live players. Keith thought for 4 beats or so and called, Lyle folded. The turn came an offsuit ace which presents a couple problems. Pot is around 11.5k with 16k behind so my only real option if I decide to bet is to bet/fold. This is of course completely fine if I expect my opponent to never re-bluff, never spazz with worse pairs, and to never ship an 8-out draw. I'm not sure if that's the case, also I had seen Keith make some floaty/bluffy plays in the past, and I was sure he was capable of turning pairs into bluffs. So I checked. He thought for a bit longer and bet $3600 (leaving me 11.6k I remember behind). As a continuation of my previous reads this meant one of two things: he had a draw/bluff- hands like 55 or 65, or he had a set. Sets are difficult to get, so I called, taking an appropriate length of time to do my live-poker dance and make a variety of weak looking gestures, hopefully subtly. River came an offsuit 2, improving hands like 65, 55, I checked and he pushed for 11.6. I decided at this point to put him on JTs, QJs type of hands or perhaps 66, 77, 99, TT, JJ as he shoved very quickly. Getting 2.5 to 1 I called, though it's very close, I also discounted hands like AQ AK and A4 A3 which were a part of his range on the turn, so let's not think this river card was TOO terrible. He had 888.

Then I headed upstairs for the 10k hu. They had the most idiotic table assignment system imaginable. There were 110 entrants, and maybe 20 first round byes. Instead of simply creating a bracket and letting us look at it, they had 110 degens lined up like highschool graduation to listen as they announced each match individually in monotone. Zzzzzzzzz. Also, in a miraculous coincidence 19/20 (or 1 less than the total, I forget the exact number) of first round byes were given to various live pros of differing significance. Sure seemed like a hundo in the right place could net you +10k equity, though this is of course completely unsubstantiated and is a conspiracy theory. I was lucky enough to not even be assigned a table, such is my stature in the live poker community. After finding my opponent we convinced the tournament staff to give us one.

My opponent was Jason Griffin, who I believe is a live-pro playing 10/20 and 20/40 at the commerce. Not surprisingly he folded quite a bit too much preflop and called too much postflop, but otherwise played reasonably solidly. The match went back and forth and we eventually got all the way to the 500/1k blind level with 20k starting stacks, which actually remained 20k stacks. He limped in for 1k, and I made it 3k instead of jamming with KQo. He called and the flop came 732r. I knew he was getting it in with any pair or draw, and occasionally bluffing and so thought bet/folding or calling would leave me in a terrible spot. I checked and he checked behind pretty quickly. The turn came an offsuit queen. I thought for a bit and checked as I thought he would put me on ace high at best as the match up to this point had been playing very straightforward and I had been aggressive, caught jamming over his limp with Q6o for 10bbs, etc. He bet 4k pretty quickly and I called med-quick. River was some blankish card, an 8 maybe and I checked. He jammed quickly again, I of course snap and won against T6hh, boo-yah!

My next opponent was The Grinder, along with his entourage of maybe 10 friends who hung out on the rail talking sht. I booked a 5k sidebet with one of them pre-match to spice things up a little. The first hand I misplayed kind of badly, Michael 3bet my open with 98dd to 1500 with 20k stacks. I decided to call and float some flops. KT7 one diamond, he bet I floated. Turn was something random, a ten I believe and he bet some tiny amount I think 3k into 7k or so. I called again. River was a blank and checked. I probably should have checked here as I need him to fold hands like AJ AQ 22-66, 7x, which I'm not sure he will. I bet 3600 as I had no showdown value and he tank-called with 97o. NH Grinder I guess. He won a bunch more pots grinding me down to 8k or so when I won a flip 55 vs AJ aipf. I stole a few more pots and got my stack up to 21k, opened KJs otb at 200/400 and Grinder made it 2k (over my 800). I called. Flop came J74ss I believe, grinder made a med-sized bet, but a big bet for him as he had been min bettng and just generally making tiny probing type bets all match, mostly with weaker hands. I called. Turn was an offsuit queen and he bet med again. This was actually kind of a tough spot as I thought he was likely semibluffing this card a ton, but not necessarily betting weaker jacks or hands like 88-TT but what can I do but call? River was a king and he bet 4500 or so. I jammed and he thought for easily 10 minutes, drawing a crowd of maybe 20 people to the rail. I decided to do the stoic stare at the table thing as he seemed pretty intent on eliciting tells all match. He did all the live pro tricks, clanking chips to see if my eyes darted, fake moving in or betting in different spots, stacking and unstacking. Finally he called with Kx.

My third match was against Vivek, Psyduck of 2p2 fame. I expected him to be a bit overaggro in certain spots, and perhaps to play overly ABC. I'm not sure if I was right. This was my third tough match of the day, starting at 11pm and I had been up since 9 that morning. I was definitely tired, something about hours of live poker makes me go sort of half insane. I could barely count up the pot or stacks, my mind was mush. Brandon Adams described it was a state where you are too tired to sleep, too tired to think, too tired to eat and can only continue playing poker. That. I also was in that kind of silly-tired mood where you just laugh at everything, which caused me to talk a lot of sht during the match. Sometimes I do this thing where I string sentences together and sort of drawl, purposefully making something that approaches sense, but when further examined is actually complete drivel. I specially like to do this to people who want my poker advice and think nuggets of wisdom are hidden inside. Fck, maybe they are, I was too tired to care.

I took control of the match pretty early, Vivek was playing his hands a bit too face-up and I started out bluffing and calling my way to about a 2.3 to 1 chip lead when the following hand happened. I limped J7o and Vivek checked from the BB as he had been doing with probably 75% of hands. Flop come Kd Kx Jd and he led out for 600 (blinds 200/400), I called. He had typically been leading with weaker hands that had equity, I'd previously seen 2x on J42, and a couple of others I hadn't called. Though I don't believe he had C/Red a limped pot either, so that's not to say he can't have a strong hand. I called, turn 9x. He bet 1200, I called putting him on a range of Kx, diamonds, jacks, QT, maybe ace high type hands but much less likely. River was a 3d, he bet 2500, and after some thought I jammed for 6k more or so, trying to get him to fold QJ J8 JT J9, Kx and maaaybe QT. He got up from the table, talked about how sick the spot was, and called with T7dd. OK, whatever... From there he won just about every pot, I forget my busto hand exactly which means it was likely very standard and I returned dejectedly to my room. There is actually a losers bracket though which means I had a match at 3pm tomorrow, but being in the losers bracket was just instant death as you needed to win 2x as many matches and I had 12 to win the 110 person tournament, when I only had 7 in the beginning of the initial bracket. Sigh.

Bed.