High On Poker

Man, I am running out of “Tuna Titles”. If you’ve been following along a HoP, you are probably aware that I have been trouncing the tournaments at the local underground poker room, putting up four wins in a row (wins = cashes, although three out of four were chops where I took the top spot), followed by two losses. Overall, I am way over .500 at the Tuna tourneys, and tonight, I continued to add to my positive results.

I decided to play poker this afternoon when I realized wifey Kim had dinner plans. Tuesday is the $130 buyin (including fees and the $10 dealer toke/add-on), with a structure that is faster than my bread and butter Sunday $160 Tuna tournament.

Since I hadn’t planned to play until this afternoon, I was at a preparatory disadvantage. Usually, I’ll pack comfortable clothes, essentially my poker uniform: a t-shirt (usually my $uperman shirt or my High on Poker shirt), a hoodie, cargo pants, a cap and sunglasses, along with two Buddha statue card caps and my iPod. Fortunately, I stilll had my most important items, my sunglasses and iPod. The sunglasses keep me focused. Most people think they are to hide tells, but in reality, it’s to allow me to look around at players without letting them know I am watching them. But even moreso, it’s because when I wear my sunglasses, I play better. I think the darkness is a visual reminder to pay attention.

After work, I hopped in the subway and headed to 8th Avenue, allowing myself a one avenue walk to the poker room. On the way, I stopped at Boston Market for a quick bite, which I ate at the room while I waited for the game to start. I was early, as always, and eventually got into a conversation with Dre, one of the dealers. Dre is a skinny black kid. I say kid, but I have no idea how old he is. He comes off as relatively young, but he clearly has a mind for the game and he plays higher limits than I do. I was still wearing my suit and he asked about my outfit. He’s seen me often enough to know my M.O. As we chatted, I explained that a great part of it was image. I want to look like the degenerate. He said that I would be better off with the suit because it looks like I have money to burn. That’s a valid point, but the question is what are we trying to get from our opponents. The degenerate look says, “loser.” And that’s good, because I want my opponents to pay me off.  The suit look says “success,” which is more likely to get people to fold. I want to optimize my big hands. It’s just how I play. So, I dress the part.

The second reason why I wear my poker outfit is that its comfortable. And really, that trumps all other reasons. (Bonus third reason: I don’t have to think about what I’m going to wear. I stole that move from Einstein.)

The tourney started on two mostly full tables. I had a pretty good lineup. The best player of the bunch was on my immediate right and I knew enough about the tendency of the other players to be happy with the group. In the first orbit, I was dealt JJ and when it checked to me in EP, I bet 200 with blinds of 25/50. I got a MP caller followed by a call by the BB, a chick who goes by the name of Dawn (but not IHO Dawn.)

The flop was J98. Dawn bet out 400 and I called. The turn was a blank. Dawn bet out 600 and I raised to 2600. That was a large raise, perhaps too large, because once she pushed all-in, I had to call, given the pot odds, even though I feared I was behind. She showed QT for the flopped straight. I then rivered a 9 for the full house. This 10-outter (three 9s, three 8s, three of the blank turn, and one Jack) put me in great position, so I sat back and let the magic happen.

I chipped up some more with good cards that I was able to maximize, and was probably around 22k (4.5k starting stack), when I played my worst hand of the tournament. Preflop, I raised with AJh and was called by an Israeli guy who wouldn’t stop yapping, akin to what I normally do, except more annoying. Or, um, actually just exactly what I normally do, but since I wasn’t the one doing it, it was more annoying to me. I played along with it mostly. He was playing crap cards and calling reraise pushes with crap like KJ, so I didn’t fear him much.

The flop was QQ2. I checked and he bet 1200, which was probably 2/3 pot. I called because I felt he was weak and I thought I was ahead. The turn was another low card. I checked and he bet 1200 again. If he bet higher, I’d've believed him and folded, but at that price, I was still thinking that it was worth a call. I felt my A or J would be good if they paired and I still wasn’t 100% sure that he had anything worth betting. The price was cheap enough to keep me in.

The river was another 2. I checked and he bet 1200. He only had maybe 2000 left behind. I flat called and he showed 33. He was good. I looked like a fool.

I followed that up a little while later with one of the best plays (and ballsiest plays) I have ever made.

I was in the BB, which was 400, I think, and held 84h. We were shorthanded,  6 players, as we played down to the final table. On the button, an old, fat, sloppy guy called. I wish I could be kinder, but that’s the perfect description of this guy. Old (late 50s at best, probably mid 60s), fat (250+ on a 5’7″ frame), and sloppy (disheveled appearance). He had already gone through two buy-ins, and I had watched him play really poorly throughout the evening. In fact, when he made his last rebuy, the blinds were so high that it was a complete sucker’s bet, and anyone willing to do that is clearly not in the right frame of mind to win.

So, preflop, the Sloppy Guy min raises to 800 from the button. He had done this earlier, and this time, I decided to call with my 84h because I had the chips and I was confident I could read this mess. I also knew he did not have a premium hand based on his raise, so I could potentially outflop him too.

The flop was A82 with two spades. That was actually a pretty good flop for me, especially when I saw the reaction of my Sloppy opponent. I have to emphasize that this isn’t some obvious tell; it’s just demeanor. I checked and he made a continuation bet of 1200. I remember thinking that this was another obvious sign, based on his previous betting patterns. He didn’t have the Ace; at best he had an underpair, at worst he had missed the flop entirely with maybe K-high or less. I called.

The turn was another Ace. Sloppy had about 3,000 behind, and I saw that he was getting ready to push them all-in. There was only one problem…I was first to act. And this is where I got ballsy. Knowing that mere moments before, my opponent was indicating a push, I decided to beat him to the punch, announcing, “All-in!” Remember, I had him mightily outchipped, and I had a feeling he was trying to push me out of the pot. Essentially, I was betting that he did not have an Ace. Even KK in that position would be scared, since I called a min bet pre-flop, called a c-bet post-flop, and pushed when the Ace on the flop was paired on the turn, clearly indicating that I had a baby Ace. If you want, you can add to the story the fact that I was pushing after there was every indication that my opponent would call, so clearly I had a strong hand.

My Sloppy opponent pulled back his chips, which were incidentally still behind his cards in-motion to going all-in when I beat him to the punch. He mulled it over for a bit and I made sure not to do anything to tip him off to my ruse. That meant that I couldn’t just lock up and go into tell-hiding mode, since that is a tell in and of itself. Instead, I just kept along with whatever conversation was going at the time. My opponent eventually folded and I showed for flair. Sometimes, it’s important for your opponents to know that you have their number…or that you are an all-in donkey. Either way, I liked the results.

By the time we were down to the final table, I was probably the chip leader, but blinds were going up quickly, and I lost a huge portion of my stack to the new chipleader, a player named Ali who had spent the first table at my immediate left. I thought I had a read on the guy, and when he pushed a turn, I figured him for a flush draw. Alas, he actually had turned trips after flopping third pair to my second pair. That put me in a tight spot, but thankfully, I still had enough chips to be competitive.

After every bust-out, the Isreali from my first table would say, “9-way chop?” or “8 way chop?” By the time he said, “5-way chop?” the stacks had evened out. I had about 22k, he had about 22k, there was one guy with a shorter stack of about 12k, and two guys with large stacks of about 30k and 40k. To my amazement, the 40k guy agreed, and once that fell into place, some quick math was done and we all agreed to chop it up 5-ways for $500 each, a $370 profit.

I was happy to chop, given the blinds (800/1600, about to go up to 1200/2400), but I really need to find a good opportunity to play one of these tournaments to the end. That isn’t my #1 goal. My #1 goal is to make money, and on that account, I succeeded. But next time I am in this situation where I feel I have enough of an advantage to take first place, I really want to play it out. This just wasn’t that time. I was getting a good price, we were about to devolve into a push-fest (hell, we were already there), and there were enough players left that hitting first or even second was hardly a given. Oh, and it was relatively early. I can’t complain about that.

As it turns out, I am now $6 away from my 2009 Goal, which is an exciting thing in and of itself. If i can earn $6 more profit by the end of the year, it’ll be my fourth success in five attempts, having failed last year to earn as much as I would’ve liked.

Next year’s goal will be an interesting one, especially if I really can find more time for higher buy-in live tournaments. But that’s a discussion for another post.

Oh, and if all goes well, you are reading this from my new site, HighOnPoker.com, utilizing the old feed. Go me!

Until next time make mine poker!