[as posted to rec.gambling.poker]
Date:
05/19/1999
Author:
Patri Forwalter-Friedman
<patri@cs.Stanford.EDU>
Patri's WSOP report.
Since I was at the WSOP for a very long time, with very little
sleep, I am going to skip
over the part before the Big Dance, which was a long blur of
names, faces, and lost
satellites, and just talk about the championship event.
Day One:
So I buy in to the world series. Then I wait a few hours for
the tournament
management to get their pathetic low-tech act together (writing
names and seat
assignments on a huge whiteboard - have these people never heard
of computers?)
and get us ready to play. Once tables are assigned, I write
down who is at mine,
and get a full report on their strengths, weaknesses, and tells
from my two
informants, Mssrs. Fox and Paulle. The biggest threat at my
table appears to be a
guy named Alex Brenes, with most of the other players being pretty
un-scary.
I sit down in the 9 seat, resolved to play my best game of poker.
Having thought
for a while about what its like to play in a tournament with
such deep stacks and
long rounds, I am prepared to play very tightly, and to watch
those who don't be
busted by those who do.
Within the initial ten minutes, it becomes clear who is going
to bust out first. The 5
seat is an incompetent kid, jittery, talkative, clearly over
his head. I don't know how
he got into this, but he does not belong. He calls bet after
bet, rarely raising, rarely
folding, just calling his money away. Ten thousand dollars lasts
him two and a half
hours, and I only get a grand of it. I keep hoping he will hit
a big hand and double
up, but the World Series is cruel and unforgiving, and he is
soon gone. Another
player, who is in the 8 seat, open raises with an ace-ten, hits
an ace, and loses a
thousand or so in chips on an early hand. His whining afterwards
indicates complete
ignorance of his foolishness, and I am sure that he is slated
for second. It takes 4
or 5 hours, but I am right.
During the first round, I have one amusing hand. A dealt card
hits a players hand
and flips up. Its a king. I look down to see pocket kings,
and raise the pot. The kid
calls, and perhaps one other. The dealer somehow manages to
find the case king in
the deck, and put it on the flop. I check my top set on the flop,
and all fold when I
bet on the turn, even the kid, who had nothing. Oh well.
Alex Brenes is at least as good as his reputation. Despite the
inconvenience of having the flu, he plays a solid cautious-aggressive
game, and I am extremely impressed, although I thought he overplayed
a few hands, and was a little too easy to trap. He built up his
chips, lost some (his AK vs. KK with a K on the flop, the set
gets all-in for 10K, Alex has 25K and calls), built them up, lost
some (AK vs. KQ with KQ on the flop, cost about 8K), but was
certainly gaining overall. We only tangle once. I have AK in
late position. Someone open-raises, and two other players call,
including Alex. I call. The flop comes KJx. I don't remember
whether he bet and I raised, or it was just checked to me and
I bet, but he ended up calling a fairly substantial bet (2K or
3K) on the flop, the others folded. The tension level rises noticeably.
Turn is a blank, he checks, tensely, I check, tensely. River
is also a blank. He hesitates for a while, looking at his chips,
looking at the pot, looking at the board, but prudence wins out
and he checks. I hesitate for a much shorter time, and check
behind him, turning over my AK. He turns over the same hand,
and we split the pot, smiling and laughing. Two ultra-cautious
players who respect each others calls, each not wanting to have
to call a bet after the flop.
I love poker. I love the confrontations, the ego, the personality.
Two examples from
the Series:
During the $2500 NLHE tournament, I am in the 3 seat with Patrick
Bruehl, a famous
actor/singer from France (Appearing as "Rene" in the
new movie "Lost and Found"),
in the 4 seat. The 5 seat is SOG (Some Oriental Guy). He and
Patrick are in a hand,
and the flop comes with two treys and a big card. Patrick bets,
just as the
waitress delivers a drink to SOG. SOG takes a good two minutes
to deal with the
waitress, searching his pockets for change, eventually just giving
her a twenty and
having her make change, holding up the action the whole time.
People say "its on
you" a couple of times, but he appears not to hear them.
Eventually, he looks back
at the board and calls. When the hand is over, Patrick has put
a bunch more chips in
the pot, and shows down top pair/good kicker. SOG turns over
a suited A3, for
trips on the flop. Patrick fumes about the "Hollywooding",
which was totally an
angle, and tells SOG things like "I have never seen a good
player do that. Only bad
players. Good players don't need to." SOG ignores him.
Just then, a cute oriental
girl, apparently SOG's girlfriend, comes over to talk to him.
It having been mentioned
that Patrick is very popular with the mademoiselles, and knowing
what the French
are like, I lean over and whisper in his ear "You should
steal his girlfriend. That would
get him back!". I lean back and the two of us exchange
some conspiratorial smiles
and laughs and glances. Providentially, before anything more
is said, the girlfriend
initiates a conversation with Patrick, and soon there is some
mild flirting. Now it is
SOG's turn to fume a little. That's poker. I love poker.
During the 10K event, there was another confrontation that occured
fully within the
context of the game. After the incompetent 5 seat busted, some
other kid came
and sat down. He was a little older, maybe 25, and had a fair
number of chips for
midway in the second round - about 18K. Our table chewed him
up and spit him
out. One of the older guys at the table asked him where he had
gotten those chips.
Did he buy them at the store? Some similar light mockery ensued.
At first, he was
The Man. He had the Big Stack. He was playing a lot of pots,
raising and re-raising,
pushing people around. He raised a pot, and Alex called. The
flop comes KQx, , turn
blank, river blank. I don't remember whether he or Alex bet
the flop/turn, but I think
that Alex bet the river and the kid raised him. Alex hesitated
for a while, and then
called. Alex shows AK and the kid shows KQ. A crap hand beats
one of the hands
that dominates it. Alex is fuming visibly. He wants his chips
back. He wants to get
even. Now is when the Kid shows that he is not made of the right
stuff to play
no-limit poker.
Ignoring the heated player behind him, he raises yet another
pot. Alex comes over
the top. The kid hesitates for a while, and folds. A few more
hands go by. The kid
raises. Alex comes over the top. The kid hesitates for a long
time. The tension is
high. Does Alex have a hand, or is he just trying to get his
chips back? Is he on tilt,
or is he crafty like a fox? I love it. I love the confrontation.
Hand or Bluff? Tactic
or Tilt? It doesn't matter, because the kid doesn't have the
guts to move in and
find out. He folds. Having shown repeated weakness to the entire
table, we
proceed to run all over him. He ends up taking an AQ against
KK, who slowplays his
hand, and when the flop comes queen high, the KK doubles through
him. The kid has
5K in chips. Suddenly he is not The Man, and he is not The Stack.
He is nothing. He
sits for another couple of hours, fuming, quiet, remembering
his past glory and
unable to re-achieve it. He goes all-in a couple times, and
eventually gets called.
Hasta la vista, wimp.
The rest of the first day is fairly unmemorable. We pretty much
always seem to get
better players than we lose. The rock at the table, who has
pretty much only
showed down AA as far as I can remember, raises with AK. When
the flop comes
A7x, he, being a rock, and forgetting that other people know
this and are playing to
trap him, gets all-in for 15K against the one seat (Robert Oxenberg),
who has 77
and now the tables chip lead. He ends up as the tournament chip
leader at the end
of day one, and was also involved in one of the few hands I played.
This was a hand where I was trying to trap someone, but ended
up against the
wrong guy. This older guy in the three seat had been open-raising,
flop-betting, and
showing some really crappy hands (KQ/AJ/KJ sort of thing). I
was itching to trap
him. He open-raises, all fold, and I look down to see AK in
the small blind. I call. The
one seat, in the big blind, also calls. The flop comes rags,
and its checked around.
The turn is an ace. Oh boy, I think. I hope he has a weaker
kicker. I'm gonna trap
his ass. We check, the preflop raiser bets. I call, and the
one seat calls behind me.
A little bell goes off in my head. "DING! DING! Warning!
Another player who you
haven't put on a hand yet is in the pot". The river is the
jack of clubs, making a
straight and a flush both possible. I check, and the one seat
bets out. The preflop
raiser folds, and I have to think. I have about 7K or 8K, and
the bet is about 3K, so
it would leave me a bit low. The only thing which makes me want
to call is the size
of the pot - at this point its like 10K. It would be a serious
win. Still, I cannot
imagine a hand that he could bet into the raiser with that I
could beat, unless its a
stone cold bluff. He could easily have two pair, a straight,
or a flush. He didn't have
to call a bet on the flop, and when he called on the turn, he
was getting good pot
odds and there were lots of draws possible. I fold. A few hands
later, he tells me
that it was a good laydown, he had a combo straight & flush
draw on the turn, and
the river made it. Dunno if it was the truth, but I believed
it.
At the end of the first day, I have had aces once and kings three
times, and never
gotten into a major confrontation with them. I have not flopped
a set and gotten
action. I have never been handed a big stack of chips by an
idiot with an AQ,
although I have watched lots of other people be the recipients
of that sort of
generosity. I have about 11.5K. Mr. Fox, who was sort of acting
as my tournament
mentor (my "Big Dance Instructor", so to speak) has
assured me that this is plenty
of chips, and that I didn't really need to win any on Day 1,
and that I should play
patiently. He was totally correct.
Day Two:
I sit down at my new table. I don't really remember anyone from
it. It lasts a
couple of rounds before it breaks. I make a set of deuces and
make a little money,
maybe 3K or 4K. I make my first big-ish preflop laydown. A
player limps in early
position, and I have pocket queens. I raise. Others fold.
He re-raises a substantial
amount. The phrase that runs through my mind again and again
is "There's no
reraise...Like a LIMP-RERAISE." I have found out what I
needed to know. I am not
getting odds to try and flop a set. I muck my queens, without
even much regret.
My table breaks, and I get moved to a table where it seems like
I know everyone. I
am in the 7 seat. To my right, the 6 seat is Berry Johnston,
a big name. The 5
seat, with a huge stack of chips (80-100K) is Jonathan Kaplan,
a guy who I had met
in the live games before, who I got along well with. He seemed
like a great example
of the kind of modern player who surprises everyone as an "unknown"
when he does
well, but shouldn't be a surprise at all. Just because you haven't
heard of someone,
just because they aren't on the tournament circuit, and just
because they have a
young face, doesn't mean they aren't a badass poker player.
Jonathan is not as
young as he looks, but I'm sure he surprised some people who
expected that anyone
with a lot of chips would be either a big name or a wild player.
If he plays next year,
I am going to try to convince him to trade a few percent (even
though I am
guaranteed to win and thus it is a negative EV move). In the
3 seat is Jack Fox, and
in the 2 seat is Chuck Thompson, both of whom are friends of
mine.
I misplay a hand. I have been fairly quiet and the blinds are
large. I have KQ in early
position. I open raise. A small stack to my left moves all
in. My open is for 4K, he is
all-in for about 7.5K, the antes+blinds are 2.5K. All fold to
me, I have to call 3.5K to
win 13K. I should have called, because he is a desperate small
stack who needs to
make a move and could have anything. I neglect to consider this,
instead I think
about what a crappy hand KQ is and how many hands there are that
dominate it,
especially hands that you would move in with. After a while,
I fold. He was surprised
that I didn't call, he had an underpair and just felt he needed
to get some chips or he
would go like Broomcorn's uncle, so I was getting more than odds.
Next time, I will
not respect a small-stack move.
A little later, I get re-stolen or fail to steal a couple times
or something, and get
short stacked. I have about 8K or 9K, with the blinds/antes
at 2.5K a round, and it
is folded to me in late position. I have a bare ace. I put
in 3K or 4K, and one of the
blinds, a big-ish stack, pops my ass all-in. I am pot-committed,
and call. He has
queens. I flop an ace. Hallelujah! You gotta get lucky at least
once to get
anywhere. I now have 18K, and that seems to be plenty. I play
carefully for the
next few hours, trying to stay ahead of the curve, which I consider
to be 10 orbits
worth of blinds and antes. I actually get some decent hands,
and while they don't
win much (pocket queens/smooth call a preflop raise/flop is checked/I
bet
turn/raiser folds/oh well), they bring me enough antes to get
up to 30K or so by the
time my table breaks.
Things are getting short now. They are down to 12 tables or
so. I don't recognize
many of the people at my new table, although the guy to my left
is pretty famous,
Surindar or something like that. I have KQ in the small blind,
and its folded to me. I
raise. He pushes all-in for about 18K. I have enough chips
(~30-35) that if I lose, I
still have a chance, and I figure that I probably have a much
better hand than he
figures, since raising in the small blind is almost automatic.
I call. He has a pair of
9's, a coin-flip confrontation, and a king on the river brings
me to 60K in chips. Finally
I have a decent stack. I cause some amusement by walking around
the table and
counting down everyones stack, although the players admit that
its a wise move,
and gives away much less than doing it when faced with a call.
Still, they think its
funny.
Then, Tony Ma sits down in Surindar's seat. Uh oh. You don't
fuck with Tony Ma, as
I quickly found out. I have some junk (Jx or Qx or something)
in the small blind. Its
folded to me. I make an automatic steal-raise. With barely a
moments hesiation, he
pushed all-in for 25 or 30K. Oops. Maybe he has nothing. My
holding may be even
better than a random hand. But he knows I ain't gonna call.
I muck. Don't mess
with Tony Ma's big blind. Lesson learned. A while later, I
have a QJ two off the
button. Its folded to me. I haven't stolen in a while. I make
a standard open-raise.
Tony Ma doesn't hesitate. He re-raises me. Oops. Maybe he
has something.
Maybe he has nothing. But I don't want to call 8K more when
his stack is only 20K
deeper. I fold. Goddamn aggressive player on my left. It cramps
my style.
Then come the two key hands which knock me out of the tournament.
To my right is
a guy who I don't know much about. He has been drinking a beer,
and not talking
much. I haven't got him pegged. He has as big as stack as I
do. I am in the small
blind with AK of spades. Several players limp, including him
on the button. The blinds
are 800/1600, so there is like 10K in the pot. I raise it 10K.
Only he calls. The flop
comes 2-3-4, one spade and two hearts. I bet out 10K. He pushes
all-in. I have to
muck my no-pair hand (but I have a wheel draw!). He said later
he had AQ of
hearts, a flush/wheel draw. If so, I would have called had I
known (30K to win 90K,
he needs a queen or heart to win, a 5 to split). But I didn't
know, so I folded. I was
suddenly back down to 28K.
There are 7 tables left when I pick up 67 of clubs in the big
blind, and I misplay it.
Oops. Its folded to him in the small blind. He just calls.
The flop comes jack high,
with two clubs. I have a flush draw (maybe a gutshot too).
He bets 2K. I call. The
turn is a 7, giving me a pair. He bets 3K. I call. The river
is a blank. He checks. I
feel that if I lose this pot, I am disastrously short stacked
(its costing 4K an orbit,
and I have 22K), so I move in for 22K into a pot of 14K. He
has 70K. He thinks for
a little while, gets my stack counted, and calls. I show 67.
He shows 78. His kicker
plays. Of all the possible two-card holdem hands, he has the
one which is exactly
one notch higher than mine. He had read me, correctly, for a
missed flush draw, for
a stone cold bluff, and so called with his pair. If he had shown
a jack, it wouldn't
have hurt so much, because I would have been more solidly beaten.
But that
notch...ouch. I stand up and walk away, thinking that if I'd
only picked up 9-7 instead
of 6-7, I would still be in the tournament.
Talking it over afterwards, it becomes clear that if I was going
to make a move, it
should be on the turn, before my outs have collapsed. I have
a lot of outs on the
turn, and there were many ways the bettor could be beat. Checking
and calling
twice on a suited board, and then overbetting the pot on the
river is much too
suspicious a bluff. And bluffing with no outs is a bad thing
to do. I should have
moved on the turn or played for a showdown.
But thats the World Series. One mistake in two days, and you
are out. The
difference between winning and losing is razor thin, as thin
as a single notch between
kickers. 67 loses. 78 wins.
I sure did have fun tho, and I will certainly be back next year,
with a bigger wad of
cash, a bigger conviction of victory, and a bigger, brighter
mohawk. See you there.
Patri.
P.S. After having played in the world series, I am *even more
convinced* about that
AK vs. QJ question. I would fold it in a second. The difference
between 10K and 20K
on the first hand is much, much, much smaller than the difference
between 0K and
10K, for a good player.
Subject:
Another interesting WSOP hand
Date:
05/19/1999
I forgot to mention this one in my report. It was by far the
most interesting hand
that I played, although it ended up fairly simple.
I have AK with the king of spades in the small blind (I picked
up a lot of AK's in the
small blind, as you may have gathered). An early position player
open-raises, I
call, the big blind calls. The flop comes queen high and all
spades. I have the
second nut flush draw, but it could be totally worthless, because
either of the
other players could easily have the ace of spades. I check,
and its checked
around. The turn is an offsuit king.
I found this situation fascinating. I have top pair/best kicker,
and I have the
second nut flush draw. Normally a very strong combination. However,
I have
absolutely no confidence that I have the best made hand or the
best draw! The
early position raiser and the big blind have both shown fairly
strong hands (the
open raise was for a reasonably portion of our stacks, this was
early in the first
day, so I had about 14K, and the open was probably about 1K).
There could
easily be a KQ, AA, KK, QQ, or smaller set that
beats my made hand, and either of my opponents could have the
ace of spades,
killing my draw. Someone could easily have AA or AK with the
ace of spades,
and a total freeroll!
What do you do? I didn't want to have to call a bet, but I didn't
want to fold, so
of course I bet out, 2K (underbet the pot). I figured that if
I got raised, I was
done with the hand, and if I got called, well, I had no clue
whether I wanted a
spade on the river or not.
Both my opponents folded.
Last Modified: The Closing Days of the Millennium
Patri Friedman / patri@izzy.com