He Let This One Off the Hook—But Should He Have?

This post is a little different than usual.  It is basically a long comment in response to a recent blog post on someone else’s blog.

I’m not leaving this as a comment on that blog for two reasons.  For one thing, it will be way too long.  As you have probably figured out by now, when they were passing out instructions for how to write succinctly, I took one look at the instructions, handed them back and said, “Too long, didn’t read.”

The other reason is, this particular blog doesn’t accept comments.  I guess that’s really the major reason.

The blog post is written by Lee Jones and you can find it here.  If the name Lee Jones sounds familiar, it should.  Lee has played poker for a long time and has long been associated with PokerStars.  But he’s also an author, and he wrote what is often considered the definitive book on low limit hold’em, Winning Low-Limit Hold’em.  It wasn’t quite the first book I read when I started getting into poker, but it was the first one that really made sense to me.  I read that book over and over again in my early days (and remember, I started out playing limit).  Last time I touched that book it literally fell apart in my hands from having been paged through so often.  The other books I read at that time not only were weak on strategy but didn’t really explain the rules and the etiquette very well. They weren’t particularly well-written. Lee’s book excelled in all areas.  It really helped me understand the rules, as well as the strategy for low limit games like the ones I wanted to play. And presented all of that in a way that was clear and easy to understand.

So go ahead and check out Lee’s post that I just linked to.  I’ll summarize but it will be better if you read it in Lee’s own words.  He’s an excellent writer and it will give you insight into what he was thinking—and why he did what he did—better than I ever could.

That said, here’s the short version.  Lee was playing a short-handed 1/2 NL game well into the wee hours, and he flopped the nut flush with a suited Ace.  His flop bet was called by one player, a reg.  When he bet the turn, still holding the stone cold nuts,, the remaining player announced “all-in.”  Dealer put the all-in button in front of him, Lee snap called of course and flipped over his hand, announcing that he has the nuts.  And the other player said, “I didn’t say all-in.”

Indeed, the other player insisted that he didn’t say “all-in” and refused to put any of his chips in the pot.  The floor was called, the floor told him he must put his chips in, and the player kept saying he wouldn’t do that.  Just as it was about to get real ugly, Lee left the other player off the hook and said he’d just take the pot as it is (again, it’s worth reading the original post for the full flavor and to get Lee’s reasoning).

Lee’s generosity and class saved the poker room a big, messy scene.  And for sure, Lee is to be totally commended for how well he handled this, and even admired for it.

That said….I cannot agree with Lee’s decision.  I believe it was wrong-headed.

I say this knowing full well that Lee Jones knows has forgotten more about poker than I will ever know.

Lee ultimately decided that $300 wasn’t worth it.

If it had been me, I would not have have accepted that.  And honestly, as nice a gesture as it was, I don’t think Lee should have accepted it either.

It’s not the money—although of course, it isthe money.  But beside that, it goes to the integrity of the game.  One of the reasons that we play in a casino instead of a home or underground game is that the house is supposed to protect the players.

Furthermore, even with the house there to protect us, there is an implied agreement we all make with each other when we sit down at the poker table. That agreement is that we will abide by the rules of the game.  For example, when I switched from limit to No Limit, I was surprised to see that “all-in” bets were often not immediately pushed forward.  In limit, the bet is a fixed amount each time, so you put the call or the raise (double the call) in right away. But in NL, all you have to do is say “all-in” and you have given your word of honor that you will surrender all your chips if you lose the pot.

If we allow someone to say “all-in” and not really mean it, the game falls apart.  You would have to change the etiquette and insist that the player shoving literally put all his chips out in front of him.  And therefore, a person couldn’t just say “call” in response—he would have to count out the bet to cover the all-in. 

But we don’t do that because, as we know, “verbal is binding.” 

Of course, the villain in Lee’s story insisted—after he had seen Lee’s hand—that he did not say “all-in.”  Even though Lee heard him say it, the dealer heard him say it, and at least one other player at the table heard him say it.  That should be enough for anyone.

But there’s more.  The dealer, upon hearing the word’s “all-in” come out of his mouth, put the “all-in” button in front of him.  Lee points out that the player had been there for hours and was a regular in the room.  Thus, there is no possible way that he didn’t know what the “all-in” button in front of him meant.  And yet he didn’t immediately object to it by asking the dealer what the heck that button was doing in front of him, and stating that he had not declared himself to be all in.

No, he only said that after he had seen that Lee had the nuts. And when he was called on it, he said, “"Do you think I'm going to go all-in when he has the nuts?”  Umm…..I can’t believe someone didn’t point out the obvious fact that when he went all-in, he didn’t know that Lee had the nuts, did he?  Lee could have had a lesser flush, two pair, a set, or 7-high. 

By the way, this story is a little similar to one that happened to me a few years back, which you can find here.  The big difference was, my villain had made it conditional.  He said,”Oh if you’re betting, I’m gonna call whatever you put out.”  That was a bit of gray area.

Here, the player didn’t make it conditional at all.

Of course, despite three people (at least) hearing him say it, despite the “all-in” button sitting in front of him, he boldly stated that he had not said “all-in.”

He didn’t even try to say something like, “What I said was, ‘I’m thinking of going all-in.’” Nope, he flat out denied saying what three people heard him say.

In other words, he lied to save himself some money.

That’s what he did.

I’m sorry, there is just no way you can let a player get away with that.  Ever.

When you sit down at a poker game, especially in a casino, you have to know that the house will protect you from something like that.  Otherwise, you should never play.

Look at it this way. Suppose the shoe had been on the other foot.  Suppose it was Lee who said “all-in” and it was the villain who snap called and turned over the nuts.  As unhappy as Lee would have been to see his opponent’s hand, would he have honored his bet and sent his chips to the other guy? 

Of course he would have paid him off.  He would have done that because that’s the rules of the game, and because he knows if it was reversed, he would have gotten his opponent’s chips. Well, except for this time, that is.

Besides, Lee called knowing that, despite having the nuts at that point, he could still lose.  Suppose the villain had a set and rivered a full house?  Lee was surely prepared to pay him off in that case.  Notice I said “prepared to” and not “be happy about it.”

That’s why you play poker, right?  To get the other players’ chips.  Lee won them fair and square.  Every decision you make, every bet you make, every call you make, is done with the understanding that the rules will be enforced properly, so that if you win, you win.  If you lose, you lose.  There’s no third option (unless there’s a chopped pot of course). 

Every single player at that table—including the villain—was sitting there with the understanding that if a player makes a verbal bet, it is binding.  Period.  End of statement.

Lee should have said nothing.  The floor person should have insisted the guy put his chips out in front of him (or maybe grabbed them himself).  If he refused, he should have called security.

Lee is a nice guy, and his good-nature about this is to be applauded.  And he’s certainly right that the $300 he was cheated out of (and that’s exactly what happened) is not the end of the world, and would have had little impact on his life.

Nevertheless, for the integrity of poker games everywhere, he should have been awarded all of the villain’s chips.  Because he won them under the rules everyone had agreed to when they sat down.

I’m right, aren’t I?

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How Much Do You Bet With a Set of Aces?

Saturday I went to Player’s Casino in Ventura to toss some cards and chips around.  Otherwise known as playing poker.

The goal was to get out of the house, have some fun, and see if I could manage to come up with a winning session, something that has been all too rare of late.

When I got there, the list for the 2/3 game was quite long, but within minutes of adding my name to it, they called a new game, and I was last person on it to get in.

The game was a little chaotic and wild to start out.  As often happens with a new table at PC, a number of the players in this game were really waiting for a seat at a bigger game—either the PLO game or the 3/5 NL game.  So they were a little more aggro than the average regular 2/3 player.  The first couple of pots played out huge and there had been no limping. Three-betting preflop had been the rule, so when I looked down at Ace-King in early position before the first orbit had been completed, I momentarily considered limping, waiting for someone else to raise.  But no, I did indeed raise, and waited to see how much the three-bet would be.

But my raise to $12 was only called—by two players—not raised.  The flop was ugly. Queen-Jack-Jack.  Well, I did have a gutshot to Broadway.  I held my breath and put out $25.  Only one player called.  The turn was a deuce, no help.  I checked, giving up on the hand.  I was a bit surprised that the other guy checked behind.  My play smelled of exactly what it was—c-bet. a missed flop and then giving up when he called.  This player was one of the ones waiting for the 3/5 game, too.  The river was a 3.  I thought about it and decided to bet it.  The guy’s check on the turn showed bigger weakness, in my eyes, than my turn check had.  And I had a hard time believing the 3 helped him.  I figured what the hell and counted out $35 and bet it.  He folded quite quickly.  Cool.

Not long after I had Ace-Queen and opened to $13 (meant to put out $12 and grabbed an extra dollar chip by mistake).  Again, two callers.  This time the flop was a little more boring, just Jack high.  I tried a $25 c-bet and won my second pot of the day.

After about 20 minutes, they opened a new 3/5 game and all hell broke loose.  Three players from our table left to join the bigger game and everybody at my table left decided to change seats.  For about five minutes, it was like a Chinese fire drill as everyone claimed new seats, and a couple of players who came in new played a hand or two and then moved to another game as well.  Luckily, the list for our game was long and they didn’t have any trouble filling up our table.

I was happy to see the guy on my immediate left take off.  For one thing, he straddled my big blind every time. Also, he was annoying.  He liked to discuss the hands afterward—recreate them—in great detail.  All while the next hand was going on.  I was trying to follow the current hand and he was talking about who raised on the turn on the previous hand.  I really don’t like playing next to a guy who thinks he’s Norman Chad.

One of the seats was taken by a middle-aged woman.  Perhaps middle-aged is a tad generous.  She sure didn’t look like a poker player.  But if we thought she was going to be some timid nit, we were in for a rude awakening.  She played pretty crazy.  Her first few raises (of many) were huge--$25, $20.  Eventually she made smaller raises, and limped a decent amount of the time.  But folding preflop was not anything she liked to do except on rare occasions.  A lot of times she took pots with aggressive play, but when we were able to see her hand we some odd cards.  Her stack fluctuated quite a bit. 

One time when she had fallen below $100, she open shoved.  The fellow on her left had commented to a few of us on her play when she was away from the table earlier.  None of us could really figure her out.  Anyway, that guy raised to $200.  That got everyone to fold, which was his plan.  He showed his hand—pocket Jacks.  She showed her hand—Queen-3 offsuit (she wasn’t a lot below $100 so it was a totally horrific play on her part).  Of course, she caught a Queen on the turn and took the pot.

This lady was responsible for one of the more unusual things I’d seen in a poker room.  By the time this happened, she had gotten to the point where she was limping a bit more frequently than she was raising.  There was one limper and then she put out three yellow chips (in this casino, as in the Bike, the $5 chips are yellow, the $1 chips are blue).  She went oops and somehow indicated that she hadn’t meant to do that.  The dealer said, “You meant to just call?”  She said she grabbed the yellow chips by mistake, she thought they were the blue ones.  The dealer said, to everyone, “Is it ok with everyone if she takes it back and just calls?”  I didn’t think that was allowed, at least not as it occurred there. Has anyone ever seen a player raise and then be allowed to take it back?  Or allow a vote of the players to decide if a bet is a bet?  But no one objected and she limped instead. Someone else raised, the hand went to showdown and on the river, she went all-in.  The only player left was the same guy on her left.  He tanked and folded and said, “Well, you’ve got to show your hand….we gave you that break.”  But she acted like she didn’t hear him and sent the cards back to the dealer face down.  The guy, a friendly, jocular fellow, said, “OK, next time, we’re not giving you any breaks.”

Meanwhile, I had fallen into my recent pattern of being incredibly card dead.  I barely played another hand for a long time.  I realized at one point that I hadn’t seen a single pocket pair the entire time I was there.  Not a big pair, not a little pair, and nothing in between.  Nada.  I had maybe seen one medium suited connector and Ace-Queen once or twice that didn’t go anywhere.  I actually looked at my watch to see how long I’d been there.  It was about an hour and 45 minutes.  Seems like a long time to go without a pair.

Just a few minutes after I had done that calculation, I looked down and saw a pocket pair, finally.  And wouldn’t you know, it was a couple of Aces.  Worth waiting for—I hoped.  A couple of people limped in front of me so I made it $18.   Only one player called—the guy I mentioned who was on the lady’s left.  He had been one of the limpers.  The flop was totally innocuous and he checked.  I started to grab some chips and before I could count them, he folded.  But then he turned over his cards—two Jacks.  “I assume these are no good?”  I was a bit surprised, why had he originally limped in with Jacks?  Note: This hand occurred before the hand when he had raised the lady’s all-in to $200 with Jacks.  Still this guy had been reasonable aggressive, and had put in more than his share of preflop raises.  I couldn’t believe Jacks weren’t in his preflop raising range.

So I actually said to him, “Surprised you didn’t raise with those.”  He misunderstood what I meant and said, “No….I wasn’t going to re-pop you with Jacks.”  I got that—it was the first time I’d raised in at least an hour.  I said, “No I mean you limped in with pocket Jacks, I wouldn’t have expected that.”  He just shrugged, said, “Yeah, I limped.”  Ok, I can’t blame him for not giving away his strategy, I wouldn’t have either.

That didn’t exactly open of the floodgates for me, card-wise.  I did get Ace-King again, and won a two way pot with a raise and a c-bet.

Then I just checked with King-Queen offsuit in the big blind. I bet $5 on a King-high flop and got a caller.  I bet $15 on a blank turn and got a call.  The river put a third heart out there and I checked.  Instead of checking behind me, the other player just mucked his cards.  Strange.  That annoyed the same guy who had limped with Jacks earlier.  He said, “Why didn’t you check, I wanted to see his hand?” He meant my hand.  Somehow, this guy had gotten particularly interested in how I was playing.

In the big blind I had 7-3 of hearts and there was no raise.  It was just three of us.  The flop was Queen-5-4, one heart (the 5). I checked and the next guy bet $10.  The other guy folded and I decided to see one more card, so I called.  I was kind of hoping for the 6 of hearts but I wasn’t too sorry to see the 6 of spades instead.  From his play all day, I expected this guy to bet, so I checked.  He didn’t disappoint and put out $20.  Of course I knew that 8-7 beat me, but I dismissed the possibility.  I couldn’t see him playing that the way he did.  I was pretty sure he had a Queen and not really a strong one.  I thought about betting smaller, but decided my check-raise would be to $60.  He took some time to call, but did.

The turn was a 9, no flush possible, and still 8-7 was the nuts.  I went over it in my mind again, and still was convinced he didn’t have the nuts.  I put out $100, which I suppose was too much (but the pot was around $140).  He tanked for a long, long time.  He took a stack of $100, put it close to the betting line, but not over.  And finally, he folded.

Before I relinquished my hand, the guy who had limped with Jacks spoke up.  “I’ll give you seven bucks if you show me anything other than 7-8.”  I laughed.  Now by this time, I was almost ready to call it a day.  So I figured what the hell and flipped my cards over.  The guy said, “Well….almost the same thing.”  But sure enough, the tossed me seven $1 chips.  I laughed. But I actually didn’t feel right about taking them….even though he had committed to it and I had taken him up on it.  After all, “verbal is binding.”  Still, it felt wrong.  I said, “I can’t take this.” and tried to give them back to him.  He said, “Well, here, at least I’ll post your small blind for you.”  So he put two of them back for my small blind.

My initial $300 stack had grown past $350 despite being so card dead.  And I decided that this was going to be my last or second to last orbit.  And I still hadn’t gotten a second pocket pair yet.

I got nothing until, in early position I got my second pocket pair of the day.  Two black Aces.  Well, I guess if you’re going to only get pockets twice in a session, that’s the pair to get, right?

I opened the pot to $15.  And promptly got three callers, including the guy so fascinated with my play.  He was the big blind.  I didn’t really want to play my Aces against three other players, surely someone would hit something.

Well, someone did.  Me. The flop was Ace-6-3, two diamonds.  The big blind checked and I had to decide how to play it.

Here’s where I’d like your input.  I’m certainly not checking there, not with the diamonds out there. For that matter, any of the players in the hand could have called my raise with 5-4, especially if it was suited.  If it was two or three-handed, I would probably go with a 2/3’s or 3/4’s pot size bet.

But three others in the hand gave me pause.  I wasn’t about to do anything crazy like shove to make sure no flush draw called me.  I’ve seen my opponents do that many, many times.  But I sure as hell didn’t want to make it easy for anyone to call, or for more than one player to call.  I tanked for a bit and decided that, if I was going to lose with a set of Aces, I was damn sure going to give them bad odds to hit it.  I went with $60—a pot sized bet.  Well, I guess a little bit more than pot-sized, when you take out the rake.

The first guy mucked instantly.  But the next guy went into the tank.  He was a youngish Asian guy, but he had not played anything like the kind of “Crazian” you see in Vegas.  He was actually a pretty tight player.   After a few minutes, when it really looked like he was going to call….he mucked.  My buddy, the big blind, folded immediately.

Now I was just a hand or two from leaving, so again, out of character for me, I showed my hand.  That got a few oohs and ahhs.  The Asian didn’t say what he had but said he assumed I had Ace-King, Ace-Queen and thought that he could maybe steal the pot on the turn if the right card came up.

But I ask you, what was the right bet to make there? I have to say, if anyone who had cards had a decent flush draw, I don’t think my $60 bet would have gotten them to fold. I just wanted them to be wrong for hitting it.  Let me know what the right bet was.

And a few hands later I racked up and cashed out.  It was a pretty fun table and I won some money.  My $110 profit wasn’t a lot, but it was a welcome change from the way I’ve been running lately, and I was glad to leave with more money than I came in with.

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Stolen Blinds, Dreaded Kings & a Welcome Table Captain

Yesterday I made my first visit of the year to The Bike in historic Bell Gardens, CA.  It is historic for being home to The Bike, which I believe to be the second largest poker room in the U.S.  The last time I went there, it was to check out the status of the remodeling project (see here) after they opened their hotel.  This time, I went to see their new system of poker room management which was recently installed by my employer, PokerAtlas. It is called TableCaptain and you can read about it here.  And if you want to see it in action without taking a trip to The Bike, just look at Bike’s page on PokerAtlas (here).

As you will observe, you can see all the live cash games going and also the tournament clocks for all the tourneys going on.  If you click on the waiting list, you can even see the names of the players waiting for a game.  Now, this great software is handled by a totally different side of the business than I am associated with it.  So I only know about it from my colleagues.  Until yesterday, I had never seen it in action at all.  But I knew my colleagues have been working their tails off, day and night, getting the second largest poker room in the U.S. up and running with it.

Now that they have (mostly) completed the task, I just had to go down to the Bike and see it for myself.  Oh, and also get a little poker session in while I was there, of course.

And it was really cool.  I was impressed that my old Bike player’s card, issued to me over 10 years ago, still worked and did not have to be replaced.  I was clocked in immediately when I sat down.  And here’s something neat: my picture actually appeared on the screen next to the dealer, along with my name.  I imagine there might be some players who won’t like that, since the camera that took all those pics many, many years ago was probably not the best.  And some folks might have older pics than mine!  My picture has me with darker hair and a moustache I got rid of last decade.  And aside from unflattering pics, I suppose some folks might prefer more anonymity. But the good news is the pic appears very, very small on the screen!

I was only there a few minutes when the guy next to me asked the dealer how much time he had accumulated that day.  And the dealer told him.  Hmm….the dealer can’t tell you that using some other system you might be thinking of.  That comes in handy for several reasons.  The Bike offers cash back for playing (but you have to play way longer than I ever would in a month to qualify).  Also, you get either free or discounted meals for playing so many hours.  In the game I was playing (2/3 NL), you need to play three hours (in a day) to get a free meal.

All the cash and tournament info for a room using TableCaptain that you see on the website is also available using the PokerAtlas phone app, of course.

When I first sat down, it appeared like this game was going to well exceed Bike’s reputation for wild games.  First hand I was in, a guy raised to $18, got a call, and then someone raised to $102.  The raiser called.  The flop was Ace-high and the three-bettor shoved (another $200 or so).  The other guy folded without showing.

Next hand was similar, a $16 raise, another re-raise, so I folded my Ace-4 of spades.  More betting on the flop where I would have flopped a gutshot and a back-door flush draw.  On the turn, where both players got it all in, I would have caught my wheel.  As it was, the guy who was the bigger aggressor (and shoved the turn) had a pair of Queens and rivered his set.  The other guy had pocket 9’s, unimproved.

It did get a little calmer after that.

I limped in with 9-8 offsuit, one call and then the big blind made it $8, I called but the other guy folded.  The flop was 9-7-x and I called $10.  The turn was an 8 and I called $20.  He checked a blank river and I bet $30, but didn’t get a call. 

With pocket Jacks I raised to $15, only had one call.  The flop was King-Queen-x, but my c-bet of $25 took it down.

I opened to $15 with Ace-Jack and had one caller.  The flop was Ace-high, I bet $25 and he called.  But he didn’t call my $50 turn bet on a blank.

With pocket 6’s in late position, I opened to $15.  One hand earlier I had raised to $15 with a suited Ace and gotten two callers—and had to fold to a donk bet when I missed.  This time, with the sixes, I was three-bet to $30 by the most active player at the table.  It folded back to me and I called. The flop was 10-9-9 and we both checked.  The turn was a 7 and we both checked.  The river was a Queen and he still didn’t bet.  I showed my pocket 6’s.  The other player was on my immediate left and although he didn’t show, I saw him look at his cards and it was either Ace-King or maybe Ace-Jack.  I’ll bet he was shocked as hell that I raised with those 6’s and even called his three-bet with them.  And I’ll bet he was pissed he didn’t c-bet.  I was thinking I might get a few more calls now having showed the table how I played a low pair.  And winning the pot was nice too.

Despite these hands, I was still down to about $280 (from $300) when I got—wait for it—the dreaded pocket Kings. Now, rather than tell you how well that went, I’m gonna show you.  On a previous trip to the Bike, (see here), I met Steve Miller, one of the folks behind the nifty ShareMyPairapp. And yesterday, Steve was finishing up his session at the Bike and he recognized me and came by to say hello,  And despite the fact that we here are only the seventh most awesome poker blog in the universe, he had some incredibly nice things to say about what passes for poker content here.  Thanks, Steve, you really made my day.

And running into Steve got me thinking about his app again, so I decided to give it a try with my favorite hand.  I’m embedding the video below.  But I believe due to the limitations of my blogger software, it might not fit right.  I hope it doesn’t block out any text and that you can view it.  If not, a link to see the video on the SMP site is here.

Hopefully you can all see it.  Basically, I opened to $17 with the dreaded hand.  What I couldn’t figure out how to tell the app was that the guy in the cut-off was posting a missed blind, so he was already in for $3.  That’s the reason for betting $17.  I had already decided my standard 2/3 opening to $12 was no good; I was opening to $15.  I was only called by four players.  The rainbow flop made a flopped straight possible.  Anyone think I shouldn’t have bet there?  I’m open to suggestions.  Once the board paired there were so many ways I could be beaten I didn’t see the point of continuing.  It was, after all, Kings.  Anyone disagree?  The guy behind me was the aggro at the table.  He wouldn’t have folded any draw he had.  Of course, he flopped the straight so….Short stack got ridiculously lucky with the flopped two pair and boating up.  Lucky for the guy with the straight the other guy was short-stacked.

Once again, done in by the dreaded hand.  I only noted one more hand after that.  In the big blind I had King-9, no one raised.  There were many limpers.  The flop was King-10-8, I checked/called $10.  A second King on the turn and I checked, thinking about a check-raise.  But he didn’t bet.  A blank hit the river, I bet $30 and didn’t get a call.

There was one really noteworthy thing I witnessed that I’ve never seen before in a cash game. In the past, I’ve complained, no doubt more than once, about all the walkers at the Bike. Check out this post, for example.  It’s one of the things that drove me away from there.  It seems that half the table would be made up of players who would play a few orbits, then miss a few orbits, then come back, play an orbit, and disappear for two or more orbits yet again.  Drove me crazy.  You seldom had two consecutive orbits that were nine-handed.

Last time I was there, I noticed that instead of tossing players “missed big blind” buttons when they were away, they were throwing a card that said, “Missed 1.”  I think I might have seen one time a card turned over when it happened twice in a row and then it said, “Missed 2.”  I never really knew what that meant.

But yesterday I found out.  The player next to me took off for a long time.  He got the card and next orbit they turned it over so it showed “Missed 2.”  He was still gone when the big blind would have been his again.  And so the dealer asked another player to take $3 off his stack!  And yes, they put that money in the pot (but still had the regular small and big blinds).  They actually penalized the guy—monetarily that is—for missing his blinds so often.  And indeed, they took the small blind from him next time.  And they did it again for one more orbit until he returned.  It was a whole new definition of “stealing blinds.” 

Of course, that’s the standard in a tournament.  But I’d never seen that in a cash game before.  Has anyone else seen that?  Honestly, as much as I complain about walkers, I’m not all that sure I like it.  But I definitely see the virtues.  The walkers yesterday were mostly non-existent.  Sure, players took a quick bathroom (or, unfortunately, a cigarette) break.  But it was fully 9-handed most of the day.  And I like that very much.  Let me know what you think.

I ended up losing about half my buy-in for the day.  And of course, it was the damn Kings that did the most damage.  When will I learn to just throw them away?

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"You're More Internet Famous Than I Am"

This session took place Saturday night, right after I had dinner following the Stratstack tournament (see here).  I decided to play at the Linq, the 1/1 game.  I’ve had success there before and the games are usually fun.

I was seated right away and as I sat down, a player across the table said to me, “Oh I know you…you’re Rob, right?”  I confessed and then tried to figure out who this was.  Young guy, wearing a baseball cap (the proper way).  I totally blanked out.  “Who are you?”  He said, “Dave…I played with you at the Venetian.  Tony and a bunch of your other friends were there.”

I remembered Dave from that Venetian session—a whole bunch of us played there that night with Tony, and we met Dave, who was familiar with Tony’s blog.  I wrote it up as a three-part post, the part with Dave is here.  The problem was, this guy didn’t look anything like the Dave I remembered from that session.  So I asked him to take off his baseball cap.  I’ve found that guys really look different in a cap if you’re not used to seeing them wear one.  I remembered the time I ran into a couple of MGM dealers at the M Resort, back when they had a poker room.  I recognized one right away and said hi.  We were chatting for a few minutes when another player, wearing a baseball cap, said, “Aren’t you gonna say hello to me?”  I looked right at him and drew a complete back. But his voice was familiar and I finally recognized him—from his voice.  Of course, I’d never seen him in a cap before since that isn’t part of the MGM poker dealer uniform.  I was amazed that I didn’t recognize him instantly.  He’d only dealt me around 1,000 hands of poker over the years and we’d always chatted whenever I was at his table.

The point is, it’s amazing how much a hat can do to hide one’s identity.  You know how ridiculous it is that we’re supposed to believe that no one can tell Clark Kent is Superman just because of the glasses, right?  Well, if instead, Clark just always wore a baseball cap, it’d work.

Anyway, I recognized Dave with his hat off, and he was at the table with me most of the night.  He’s still a really nice guy, so spending over a year grinding poker in Vegas hasn’t corrupted him (so far).  We caught up on Tony and some of the other blogging pals he ran into that night.

There was another familiar face at the Linq this night, but it was someone I expected to run into—The Trooper.  I hadn’t seen him until he was ready to push into our game for the first time that night.  I was sitting across from the dealer and so I said, “Hey, I recognize that guy!”  The dealer who was being pushed out looked to see who it was, saw it was Tim and said, “Oh yeah, he’s on the internet.”  I said, “Yeah, he’s like a TV star.”  Another player said, “Oh is he famous? Is he a celebrity?”  I’m pretty sure that player knew exactly who Tim was and was just kidding.  Regardless, I said, “Well…..he’s internet famous.”  Tim looked at me and said, “You’re more internet famous than I am.”  I disagreed and said, “No…the visual is more powerful than the written word, plus it makes you more recognizable.”  He got distracted and we never finished our “argument.”  But yeah, his face, his voice, his Starbucks cup are up on the internet every day.  I can’t compete with that.  But it was fun to even start the discussion…a few years ago, I never would have expected to get into a discussion with someone about which one of us was more famous. 

During one of his downs, something happened that reminded me of a recent post of mine about poker rules.  I don’t remember what the incident that triggered it was, but Tim made some sort of comment about how he was or wasn’t going to enforce a rule.  It reminded me of the post here about the string bet, and whether or not it is the dealer’s or the player’s responsibility to call out a string bet. I explained the situation in the post, and asked him if he, as the dealer, would call out the string bet.

I was surprised that he said he would not.  He felt that that was between the players, and that the dealer should not get involved.  Basically, he took the exact same position that the Player’s Casino in Ventura takes. It’s a player’s game, not a dealer’s game and he doesn’t want to be part of the game. It’s the player’s responsibility to call it or not.  Then he added that this was for a cash game.  He said a tournament was different, because every single player in the tournament–even ones at different tables—has an interest in the game, and every action affects every player in the tournament. 

I didn’t argue with him.  But in thinking it over later, I still don’t agree.  A rule should be enforced if it is reasonable to do so—otherwise, why have rules?  Furthermore, I could make his same argument about a cash game.  Who wins a pot in a cash game—and how much they win—does affect the other players in the game.  All other things being equal, I want the bad player to win that pot, not the grinder.  If the grinder is angle shooting (by manipulating the string bet rules if the dealer doesn’t call him out) and gets some fish’s chips, that makes it a lot harder to get those chips myself than if the fish had them. 

Early on, I had pocket Queens.  The guy in front of me raised to $2 (remember, both blinds are $1). I wouldn’t say that’s a common raise, but you do see it from time to time in this game.  I made it $10 and three of us saw the flop, which was Ace-Queen-4.  I bet $10 and they both called. I don’t remember what I was thinking to have bet so small and my notes don’t tell me. I bet $20 on the turn, a Jack and had one caller.  A King on the river made me a bit ill.  I checked as did my opponent.  He had Ace-Jack and my set was good.

King-10 of hearts, I raised to $7 and had three callers.  The flop was Jack-10-2 and a guy donked out $15. I called and we were heads up.  A King hit the turn and I called $25.  Blank on the river and he bet $45 and I called.  But he had King-Jack and was ahead the whole way.  

In the big blind, I had Ace-9 off and no one raised.  Just a few of us saw a flop of Ace-Queen-Jack.  I bet $3.  I check the turn, an 8, and he bet $15, which I called.  A blank on the river, I checked and called his $25 bet.  He had flopped Broadway with King-10.

That took me down to $12 (I had bought in for $100) and I added $90.  I did that rather than $100 just to get rid of all the smaller bills from my wallet.

I went back to (or stayed, depending on how you look at it) card dead.   Went a long time without really playing a hand.

In the small blind I had 6-4 offsuit and no one raised (remember, in this game, if there’s no raise, the small blind doesn’t have to add anything to stay in, since it’s the same as the big blind).  The flop was 7-5-3 which was pretty nice.  It was rainbow so I decided to check.  The button put out $5 and I just called.  The turn was a 10 and I checked again and this time he bet $10. I check-raised to $25. He called.  The river was an Ace, I bet $35 and he shoved.  I snapped and he showed a set of 7’s.  He had me covered, so it was a nice double up. I had around $90 when the hand started.

I had pocket Aces and raised to 10, it was three-ways.  The flop was Jack-high, two diamonds.  I did have the Ace of diamonds.  I c-bet $30 and a tough player check raised to $65.  I called, we were heads up. A black card hit the turn, ending my dreams of a back-door flush.  This time he led out for $110.  I folded.  Good fold?  I dunno.  The player said, “I played a bad hand and got lucky.”  I dunno, sure smelled like he had better than a pair of Jacks.

I called $5 on the button with Queen-Jack off.  It was four of us seeing a Queen high flop.  It checked through.  On a blank turn, I bet $10 and it was down to three.  On a King river, I bet $20 and didn’t get a call.

I had Aces again and raised to 8, it was three-ways.  The flop was King-7-7.  I bet $20 and had one caller.  It was the guy who bet me off my Aces earlier.  The turn was a Queen, the river was a King and there was no betting.  The other guy showed 10-7 offsuit.  Apparently this guy was an expert at cracking Aces with bad hands.

When Dave left, he came over to me and whispered, “I’m gonna be checking your blog to see if this night is written about.  I’m hoping there will be a good ending.”

Sorry, Dave, can’t do it.  I didn’t have a noteworthy hand after he left, and took off not much later, another losing session for this trip.  Got a few hands, but still mostly card-dead, and couldn’t get Aces to hold either time.

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All Noon Poker Tournaments Should Serve Free Pizza

Let’s get back to the highlights, which were actually lowlights, of my March Madness trip to Vegas.  The trip was only a week, so just one weekend, the first weekend of March Madness.  It’s actually been awhile since a Vegas visit for me didn’t include at least two weekends.  And generally I only play tournaments on the weekends.

Now as you must have come to realize by now, I have a love/hate relationship with poker tournaments.  They do tend drive me crazy.  I always gripe about the payouts, and they are increasingly inconvenient for me to play.  There are plenty of reasons for me to stop playing them altogether.

And yet….well, here’s the thing.  I’ve become increasingly convinced over time that I am actually a much better tournament player than I am a cash player.  And of course, the best way to get a nice score moneywise is to run really deep in a tournament.  You just have to accept the wider variance.  But I’ve been running deep in tournament after tournament lately, and cashing in my share too.

As an aside, I’ve taken a serious look recently at the tournaments in the L.A. area rooms that are available to me. And you know what?  As a general rule, they tend to suck.  I don’t want to call out any rooms by name (at this point, I have too high a profile in the poker community to be comfortable doing that), so you’ll just have to take my word for it.  The tournaments here that are in anyway comparable (time and/or buy-in wise) to the Aria & Binion’s tournaments I like seem to have pretty bad structures.  And the timing of them (and lack of meal breaks) make them even less attractive to me.

So basically, if I am to going to continue to pursue tournament poker, Vegas it is. 

Anticipating the trip, I was trying to figure out how to play in a Saturday tournament under the new arrangement.  As I mentioned in the post here, Binion’s moved the start time of its big Saturday tournament to 1PM, which is much less convenient for me.  And Aria now starts both its Friday and Saturday tournaments at 11AM, with neither a lunch or a dinner break.  And that post explains why I find that objectionable.  I’m just not ready to try to figure out a way to play a 8-10 hour tournament without meal breaks that starts that friggin’ early.

I thought I had the answer.  Instead of playing Aria on Saturday, I’d just play it on Sunday.  The Sunday tournament, at least for now, is still at 1PM and is still $125 (Friday & Saturday it’s $240 but the buy-in doesn’t bother me).  That seemed like a pretty good solution.

But then, not too far in advance of my trip, I received word (as part of my job) that Aria was going to have a special series of tournaments for the first weekend of the basketball tournament.  Thursday through Sunday, the 7PM tournaments were all cancelled and the daytime tournament would be $355 and start at 10AM.

Yeah, 10AM.  Well, if I don’t like an 11AM start, you can imagine how I feel about a 10AM start.  Especially with no meal breaks.  Totally out of the question.

Another aside.  Without getting any official explanation, I knew instantly why Aria was doing this.  For this weekend, they would be packed.  They could easily fill all their tables just with cash games. They were purposely trying to limit the number of tournament tables they needed so they could spread more cash games.  The early start time helped too.  They would only need a few tournament tables by late afternoon when the waiting lists for the cash games figured to be huge. 

I briefly considered Binion’s at 1PM on Saturday.  But 1PM downtown is tough.  And also, I was concerned I wouldn’t like my parking options downtown on such a busy weekend for the city (I won’t go into detail on that).  So I decide to pass on that.

I was trying to come up with a plan C or D when I heard from Mark over at the Stratosphere.  At sort of the last minute, he was able to schedule a “Stratstack” tournament for that Saturday. I wrote about playing one previously here.  It’s a pretty nice $110 tournament and it figured to get a decent turnout on this particular weekend.  It was an excellent bit of luck (finally!) for me.

Now the tournament starts at Noon and yes, you’re right, that’s earlier than I’d like.  But here’s the really nice thing about the Stratstack.  At the first break, the serve free pizza.  In other words, instead of rushing through a too-early lunch at my temporary residence, I could just have my (free) lunch at around 2PM, a more normal time. What if I busted out before the first break?  Well you can bet I would have hung around to get my free pizza.  After all, I would have paid $110 for it.

The free pizza is such a great idea for tournaments that start early. I wish more rooms would do it. To be sure, it’s not the greatest pizza in the world, but I’ve had plenty that’s way worse and it provides enough fuel to keep a poker player going until dinner.

For $110 you get a $20K starting stack and 30-minute levels.  They ended up with 68 players for a $5,440 prize pool.  First place was $2,067.  Second place was $925, third was $598.  Does that sound right?  How is second place less than half of first?  Another payscale for me to complain about.  They were paying 8 with the dreaded min cash being a mere $218.  Gee, they couldn’t have made it $220 for an even money payback?  Or better, $225 so you could tip $5 and still get double your investment back?  I guess I’m asking too much.

Of course, that’s pretty much my complaint with every tournament I play.  Hence the love/hate relationship.

This was my third day in town and my third consecutive day of being card-dead.  I was actually so very card dead that I was able to last a long time just because I wasn’t losing chips very fast, so few hands did I play.  That is not the preferred way to make a deep run in a tournament of course.

Spoiler alert—I didn’t cash.  I had so little to play that for the first five levels I jotted down about three hands.  I won the very first pot from the small blind with King-4 off on a board of K-3-3.  I did get pocket Queens, raised, had one caller, and took the pot with a c-bet. In the small blind it folded to me with Ace-Jack, I raised and the big blind folded.  I checked from the big blind with Queen-8 vs. the small blind and caught a straight on a four-flush board.  But my straight held.

So, those few small pots, combined with not getting decent enough cards to lose chips with, actually had me ahead of the starting stack  I started level 6 with $24,400 (blinds were 50/500/1000).  And then finally, I awoke from my slumber and actually got a few hands to play in rapid succession.  I was actually unable to keep up with my notes so I may have some of the details wrong.

I opened to $2,700 with Jack-9 of clubs, no call.

In the cut-off, I opened to $2,700 with Jack-10 off.  The big blind called “raise” and put out $5K.  The dealer told him he had to make it $5,400.  The player protested, but the dealer said no, he had to double my bet.  It was only another $400 so he put it out.

Of course, the dealer was wrong.  This was preflop, so my raise had been $1,700.  The min raise was another $1,700, he could have bet as little $4,400. I almost protested myself, I would have preferred $5k to $5,400.  But I didn’t want to advertise the weakness of my hand so I let it go.  I couldn’t fold for such a small amount (especially since I’d have position) so I called and we were heads up.

The flop was King-Jack-10, rainbow.  He checked I bet $7K.  He shoved.  I called and was thus all in.  He showed two Queens and didn’t improve.  That brought my stack to $49,450.

I limped in with pocket deuces but folded to a big raise.

Now at level 7 (100/800/1600), In the big blind I had Ace-Queen off.  The button and the small blind limped in.  I added $7K to my blind.  The button folded, the small blind called for less and showed Queen-10.  I caught an Ace and took it.

After one limper, I made it $8k from the button with King-10 of hearts.  It folded back to the limper who shoved.  It was only $17K total and I couldn’t see folding. He had pocket 6’s.  I flopped a flush draw.  He turned a set.  I missed the river.  That hurt.

That took me down to $38,700 by the time I could count my stack again.

I limped/called $4K with pocket 3’s and missed, folded.

After a limper I raised to $8k with pocket Queens, no call.

Under the gun I opened to $5500 with King-Queen off and didn’t get a call.

On the button, after two limpers I made it $9K with pocket Aces.  Both limpers called.  The flop was all spades and I didn’t have the Ace of spades.  The first player checked, the second to act shoved, for about $17K.  I knew this guy. I recognized him as an MGM reg.  I’ve played with numerous times before, and he’s a major nit.  Seriously, he sits there in the cash game and plays fewer hands than I do.  So I was sure there was no way he would make that move without a very big hand.  There was just no chance my Aces were any good.  I reluctantly folded.  The other guy tanked for a bit and then called.  The MGM reg that I had pegged as a total nit showed Queen-8 off, no spades.  He had nothing.  Zilch, nada.  It was a total bluff. You could have knocked me over with a feather. The other guy had King-Queen, the Queen was a spade.  I couldn’t believe I had folded the best hand.  No, the flush didn’t hit.  Instead, the MGM reg (just a cash game nit, not a tournament nit, apparently) went runner-runner for a straight using the 8.  Unbelievable. I made a bad play but it turned out to be the right (results-oriented thinking). 

In the big blind I called a short stack’s shove with Ace-King off.  He had Jack-8 of spades.  There was both an Ace and a Jack on the flop.  Nothing else came.  He was done for the day.

I think that was level 8 and I failed to make note of the change.  There was actually a level there that there were relatively few hands dealt.  First, our table broke.  We actually were down to two tables when I moved.  Then, at the new table, there were two huge stacks all in against each other.  When the hand was decided, it appeared that the loser had the smaller stack, but there was no way to be sure without counting both stacks.  And the dealer had a bit of a problem doing that, she had to start over.  It took a lot of time to confirm that the loser was busto, but he was and we finally got to play another hand.

So we were now at level 9 (300/1500/3000) and I was down to $26K.  In other words, desperate I open shoved with King-Queen and the big blind called.  He had King-Queen too for the chopped pot.  He said he only called because he was the blind.

I was under $20K and my shoving range was wide.  The big stack at the table limped into a pot. He was the guy who had one won that monster pot that took so long to count.  Since then, he had entered a lot of pots preflop, sometimes raising, sometimes limping. It folded to me and I was only a few hands away from being the blind.  I had Ace-2 of hearts and decided to shove.  I figured the big stack had a low-medium pair or big cards but not an Ace.  I was sure he would have raised with an Ace.  In hindsight, I’m not sure if my logic was solid.  I think with his stack, compared to mine, if it folded back to him and he would have called even with just a pair of threes.  And with any pair he had, it would have been worse than a coin flip for me.  So I guess my shove was a mistake.

I was very surprised when he flipped over Ace-Jack.  At that point in the tournament, and with his stack, how the hell could he not have raised with Ace-Jack?  Seemed very strange.  The Ace on the flop didn’t change anything, but the Jack on the turn left me drawing dead.  And I was done.

I had played about 5 hours and I busted something like 17th or 18th.  No money to show for it.  But I had a long run and actually had a brief period where I was getting cards to play.  It gave me hope that things were getting better.

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