By Pechorin on August 9th, 2007 (more posts by author)

It's been a while since I've updated, but I've been busy running sick good. I've run super hot at tournaments (at least at the end of July) and at cash games. When I got back to Virginia, I really felt like putting in a lot of time playing; hell, there's not much else to do when all my friends around here have 9-5 jobs and can't do much 'til the weekends. I played a bunch of 10/20 to climb out of the 40k hole I dug myself at the beginning of July, and then had two great tournament scores on one day (final tabling the 'stars $1k buyin and winning their nightly 100k) to book a solid winning month. After that, I convinced myself that I had both the bankroll and confidence to play 25/50 again, and it's been working out so far this month. Suffice it to say, if I keep up this pace (wishful thinking, in all likelihood; I've just been running sooo hot that I know I'll have to cool down eventually), I'll have my biggest winning month ever by far. Anyway, on to the main point of this post: how not to play against good players in tournaments.


On some Sunday in June while I was in Vegas, I won a 'stars 100 rebuy tournament. This was on the same day that Matt won the biggest Sunday Million in history, so I had a great time celebrating his monumental win afterwards, as well as my own small victory. It actually meant a great deal to me to win this, and to do it while my friends in the house were sweating me and cheering me on made it all the more special. But, it was a way to prove to myself that I was capable of not only going deep in tournaments, but closing the deal against a tough field, as well. It also probably made my ROI in tournaments go above 0 for the first time all year, which was certainly nice.

But it almost wasn't to happen. Shortly after the rebuy period, I had gathered up a nice chip stack, and during the second hour of the tournament I continued to accumulate chips. I was playing well...but then I almost blew it all by playing a hand like a total moron. Here is that hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t800 (9 handed) pokerhand.org hand converter

MP3 (t18575)
CO (t17760)
Button (t29494)
SB (t21285)
Hero (t33320)
UTG (t16145)
UTG+1 (t22997)
MP1 (t29588)
MP2 (t24083)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9:club:, 9:spade:.
[color:#666666][i]1 fold[/i][/color], UTG+1 calls t800, [color:#666666][i]3 folds[/i][/color], CO calls t800, [color:#666666][i]1 fold[/i][/color], SB completes, [color:#CC3333]Hero raises to t4800[/color], UTG+1 calls t4000, CO folds, SB folds.

Flop: (t11200) 7:spade:, Q:club:, 2:spade: [color:#0000FF](2 players)[/color]
[color:#CC3333]Hero bets t7200[/color], [color:#CC3333]UTG+1 raises to t18147[/color], Hero calls t10947.


Well, the converter doesn't quite capture this, but I bet 7200 on the flop, then called UTG+1's shove. (Edit: now the converter DOES capture it!) I mean, you can figure out what he had; it's not difficult. Here's a hint, it made me want to barf and then punch myself in the face for being such a god damn idiot. Let's look at all the ways I fucked this hand up...

1) UTG+1, a player known for his aggressive style, limps in EP. He has a Scandinavian name, for fuck's sake, so he must be a complete lagtard who never open limps. Warning bells should be going off. This is probably not a good time to get frisky with 99 out of position, when a limp-rr is going to make me vomit. This may sound nitty, but I think I should be playing this for set value, as against 3 opponents, when I hit my set I will get at least one of them to stack off to me, most likely. And, I don't lose a ton when I'm behind either!

2) Noted aggressive player, UTG+1, simply calls my raise. The warning claxons should be screeching so loud in my head that my eardrums should burst, and the resulting ear pain should cause me to fold, or at least pass out in front of my laptop and time out. But, apparently, I don't hear them, because I am a moron and a spewmonkey and I just don't wanna hear them god damn it! He calls off 20% of his stack preflop. THIS IS NEVER NOT A BIG HAND! HE IS ALWAYS TRAPPING HERE! HE ALWAYS HAS AA OR AT WORST KK! (For what it's worth, I don't learn either, because I made a similar dumb play in a marginally similar spot in the WSOP main event, and got shown a huge hand again; at least that time I had 5 outs instead of 2). And, to make it easier, there's an overcard on the flop. Now I have an excuse to get away from the hand, you know, in case he decided to limp-call with AQ (which he never does). This is about the easiest check-fold I could ever ask for in my life. And yet...

3) I bet! WTF! How do I bet here? He never folds here! I'm never ahead here! Gah!

4) Then I call his shove! What the fuck was I thinking? Did I do something monumentally dumb like put him on AKss? I'm getting good odds, but they're not good enough when I'm going to be something like a 10:1 dog against his range!

The lesson to be learned here is: when a good, aggressive player makes a trappy play like limp-calling in EP for a big percentage of his chips preflop, HE HAS A HUGE HAND. SHUT DOWN UNLESS YOU ARE BEATING AA/KK ON THE FLOP. PERIOD. There are similar analogous situations, like when a good, aggressive player cold-calls your preflip 3-bet for a big percentage of his chips. Of course this lesson doesn't apply when you're playing against idiots. Idiots do stupid shit all the time for no reason, because they're idiots and don't realize that limp-calling 20% of their chips for no reason is a bad idea. But good players DO have a reason, and that reason is to trap. And, being the spewmonkey I am, I charged full-speed ahead into the trap.


Anyway, after I lost this hand I was really, really angry at myself. But somehow, I didn't steam. I probably have the presence of level-headed people like Thomas, Ben, Nate, and Nath (wait, did I really just call Nath level-headed? :P ) to keep me from going off the deep end and tilting off the rest of my chips. I went back to doing the usual tournament thing: restealing and winning flips. I guess that no matter how badly you fuck up, the only true way to screw yourself in a tournament is to give up. Even when you're the short stack in a tournament you're only a few coinflips and suckouts away from a final table, or even a win.

OK, I don't really feel like writing any more tonight, but I think in my next entry I'll try to rate some of the more famous players I played with during the WSOP. It sure will be fun courting controversey and burning bridges by insulting...er, critiquing so-called "poker pros" and celebrities. Oh, and I'll also share with you the secret of Chad "lilholdem954" Batista's success in tournaments. Hint: it has to do with the rap music.