chrisjp Event 27 $1500 NL Complete Report

[chrisjp]

I combined Parts 1-4 together and made one complete report. Nothing new if youi read all the others.

So this is a three day event with 2706 runners. We will play 10 levels day one which takes about 13 hours with the dinner break and the other breaks every two hours. We start at noon so ending at 1am is not too bad really. Hope I make it. They are paying 270 spots and 270th gets $2700+. We will hit the money today probably on the last level, maybe level 9.

Level 1: 25-50 Starting chips 3K

The blinds are going to double the first 4 levels basically, the fourth level almost double. And more than half the field will go broke. Each level is 1 hour and you usually get about 30-35 hands in these levels. Hands per hour will slow down greatly later when there are lots of chips and the players approach the money.

They have an enormous amount of tables at the Rio. They have the Main Room divided into quadrants with 50 tables per quadrant. Red Section, Orange, Blue and Green. The poor Green only has about 15 tables though because the TV table is in that quadrant and the stands for the fans, etc.

But there are more tables than that. They have 15 tables or so set up as you walk from the Convention Center to the Casino. These are the Buzio tables, so named because they are just outside of a resturant with that name. I don't want to be out there. I'll explain later. I also don't want to be in their Casino Poker Room which also has 30+ tables or so.

I start in the Brasilia Room. It is near the Main Room and has 60 tables. I heard they could have up to 276 tables. Since we had 2706 runners, at ten per table, we used 271 of them.

Unlucky draw not to start in the Main Room. Because as tables collapse early they move you to an open seat in the Room you begin at. They only move you to the Main room after 4 or 5 hours. So here's what happened to me.

I'm at Brasilia Tbl 6 for like an hour, then Tbl 10 for a short time, then Table 17, then Table 20, then Table 27. Geez. They are breaking from low to high. This sucks. Then Table 34 I think.. This is so bad. You can't get the reads at the table and the flow. So unlucky.

Anyway to the action. My first table is predictably soft. I am in Seat 9 (ten handed) and all the players are pretty poor or predictable or whatever. Not any lunatics however. Player in Seat 5 seems pretty good. He looks like he would be good, and he doesn't play many hands. Don't know about him.

I am not too active and move up to 4K or so. Then I lose a hand, nothing special, and drift down to about 2.5K. Then my first KEY HAND. I am dealt QQ in middle position. I raise and the blinds both call. The SB is the player that I said might be good. Flop is T73 rainbow. They check to me and I make a continuation bet. SB moves in. He has me covered. Yike. OK, looks like a call but let's make sure. I go into Matthew mode and take a long time thinking this through. What can he have? There was 450 in the pot preflop, I bet 200 on the flop and he pushes for my remaining 2150 or so. Why so much? Did he read me as weak because of the small cb. I bet <1/2 pot here because of Chris Ferguson. When the board is uncoordinated give them a chance to call with something, they are unlikely to hit this flop. No flush draw, only one decent straight draw. Did he really slowplay AA or KK? No way KK. AA it's possible, but would he push the flop? Why. Just let me bet the turn. Or maybe a smaller raise. A set? Maybe, but again why isn't he milking me. Well if he has me he has me. I call. He says, "Good call." and flips over 44. The poker gods don't screw me and I double up. The other thing I do is play up the fact that I almost folded. Of course I never really considered folding but I did take my time. I want people to bluff at me. Nothing is certain in this of course. He could have had 33 or AA and misplayed it IMO, but not likely. It looked like he had a pair, maybe even 87, or maybe 98, but it was a clear call.

Shortly after that we break, too bad, and I move three times in the next hour or so. My second table was actually pretty wild but I wasn't there long. My third table had Sybil Cohen at it. She had a pretty big stack already and seems very nice and very straightforward. There are some desperate shorties. A Scandinavian guy who is short pushes three times. The third time he is UTG. Folded to me in the SB. I have AQs. I push. He shows 22 and I win the race. Another shortie pushes, I call with AT and he shows A7. Another winner. I raise with AJ, and another shortie pushes. I have an easy call with nice pot odds and he flips AA. Flop is JJx. This is the way it's suppose to work you know.

Now I get moved to Humberto Brenes' table and I play there for a couple of hours. He already has accumulated a large stack, larger than mine. Why is that always the case? The blinds have gone from 25-50 to 50-100, then 100-200, and now are at

LEVEL 4 100-200A25. Everyone else at the table is outright clueless or predictable. He uses table talk very effectively. It was interesting watching him get people to open up. I have about 6K now, and Humberto is over 10K. I am pretty card dead. He is directly across from me, him in Seat 5 and me in Seat 10. He raises a lot and is clearly controlling the table with his big stack...plus getting lucky. He raises when I am in the big blind. I fold. He raises the next orbit when I am in the BB. He is raising almost half the hands. I am going to have to put a stop to this, even if It means going bust. I need chips!

I have about 5K. He raises a third time when I am in the BB. OK, if I get anything, suited connectors, something, a pair, JT, I am reraising him. And he will fold anyway. I look down and see AQ. I really hate this hand, I shouldn't of course, but why AQ? Anyway I reraise, a healthy reraise. He starts talking. And talking. I have my visor on and just sit there and never say a word. He procrastinates and talks and talks and geez, lets go already. You are either dominated or we are flipping, but you're going to fold. Let's go! "You got AK?" he says. Over and over. I am in my Patrik Antonius statue mode.

Finally he folds. What else is new. I think this has some long term benefits as you will soon see. I think he really wanted to bust me because he couldn't get me to play his "game".

A while after this KEY HAND #2 comes along. I am in the BB again and Humberto raises to 550. The guy to his left, a loose poor player, moves in for 2500. I have 4500. I look down and those Cowboys looking up at me. I move in for 4500 with KK. Humberto goes in the tank. Blah blah, not too much talk. He is thinking. Please call Humberto. Finally he calls. Amazingly he flips up TT. Shortie flips 88. Flop is KJx, turn a blank, and now I have a stack. Yeah me!

It's about 4 hours in and we finally are getting moved into the Main Room. Our table isn't breaking we are just moving. This is annoying. We have to bag our chips, then follow the dealer into the Main Room Tble Green #1, then get seated, then unbag the chips, and then play. We lose about ten minutes, thats horrible. Well nothing you can do. But I still love this table...still with Humberto.

But then...after about two hands, the table breaks. This really is ridiculous. They apologize, but I don't see any comps to Buzio's being given out. OK now I'm moved to an Orange table. This table looks good, but we have to wait and see. Yep it's good. ep player raises. mp calls. Big stack pushes. Ep calls quickly. Ep is jabbering away. mp is thinking and finally calls. EP QQ, Big stack 77. MP KQs. KQs??? He had a reasonable stack too.
The board ends up with a 6 high straight.

I'm in MP. I raise with . The player on my left, seems loose, pushes. There is a way to figure out what to do here live that works for me. The dealer takes my bet and the amount of my raise from the reraiser, pushes those chips into the pot, and then leaves the reraise from the all in guy out in front of him. Let me quote Gus Hansen here, from his book that I highly recommend, Page 189 from Every Hand Revealed:

WHEN TO CALL A SHORT STACK ALL-IN
POT ODDS 2-1
If you are sure you are dominated fold, else call!

OK so I look at the raise. Then I look at the pot. Does the pot have at least as many chips as the raise? If so then I am getting 2-1 at least, better than that if the pot is larger than the raise. You don't even have to count it up.

In this case the pot had a bit more than the raise. Easy call. But I waited a bit because I want to protect the times when I am really thinking, and I want to mislead the rest of the table into thinking that I am thinking.

He turns up Lovely!

The dealer starts to spread the flop. The door card is the

But before I can react to that he spreads the flop:

That got the peanut gallery going. One player says, "The odds of that happening are 600,000-1. Well I use to play a lot of video poker. The chances of being dealt a pat Royal in 5 cards is 600,000-1. The loser was good natured about it, shook my hand, and off he went.

I'm significantly above average now, not way above.

Some time around now we make the dinner break. I think there were about 500+ remaining out of the 2700 that began. The average was about 16K and I think I had close to 20K. I know my Orange Table had broken and now I was moved to Blue # 30. I would spend a long time at this table, all the way into Level 10, the final Level of Day 1.

I loved this Table. Good ol' Blue #30. At least for a couple of hours. We come back from dinner and I have all passive players with relatively short stacks on my left and no good player. The biggest stack is immediately on my right but he is not at all aggro.

I'm in steal heaven. I raise, take it. Raise, take it. Wait a couple of hands. Raise, take it. I creep up to close to 30K. Then I get AKo OTB. One of the shorter stacks, with about 5K, moves in. I push. He shows 99. Off to the races. I river a K! Now I am at about 36K with the average in the low 20s. Life is sweet!

Every time someone busts you pray for a small stack to join the table. Good fortune happens one time, then again, then again. How long can this go on. The rock utg raises. He hadn't played a hand in ages but he had somewhat of a stack. I'm OTB with AQ. Well I folded it. I'd rather just continue stealing from him, and anyway he probably has AK or AA-QQ so why get involved.

But reality eventually returns. We are now in Level 8 400/800A100

An older gentlemen, moves in 3 to my left. He looks good. Then Connor Tate, with a stack of like 50K, moves into my BB. He looks like John Duthie and for a while I thought it was he. He appears very good and starts controlling the table. I go card dead. I lose a couple of small pots. On one hand I get QQ in the SB. An early position raise. I call. The flop is AKK. I check, he moves in with a big stack. I fold. The blinds keep moving around and I'm dwindling. I'm still about average with 25K or so and then this hand comes up. The good older player is UTG and he raises. I'm in the CO and have AA. Nice! But I've been very quiet. What to do, do I raise or just call. Well with Tate in the BB I can't just call, or don't want to. I put in a reraise. The raiser doesn't even think at all and folds. Oh well. I did win the pot. I get 77 and there is a raise. I call in late position. The flop is Td9dx I have the 7d. Raiser pushes, a big overbet. OK he has an overpair. Into the muck mine go.

I dwindle back down to 23K. We are about to go to Level 9 and I figure the bubble will break at this level. They pay 270 and we are approaching 325 or so. I pick up 77 OTB. It folds to the CO who raises to 2400. Now CO is a very timid player, but he's not that timid first in. 77 again. What to do. I start thinking about Connor Tate in the BB. Normally I would call here in a shot and try to outplay a weak tight opponent postflop. But I was concerned about the BB. If I call here, then will he try a squeeze play? What to do. I finally decide to raise, but I only raised to 6800 which will give the raiser good odds to call. Although he might not. But I figured that raise would prevent the BB from doing anything fishy.

So what happens? The BB moves in. Geez. The CO folds like a shot. So now I start thinking. Nice pot odds, but I only have 77. Why did I raise? I talked with Matthew about this later and he thought the raise was ill advised. I do too. I think it's a clear mistake. But this push by Tate is no move. He's got something and I don't want to know what it is. Not for my tournament live. I fold.

Now we are in Level 9, 500-1000/A100 Things start to slow down as the bubble approaches. I make a raise but have to give it up on the flop. Darn I wish I had that 4400 I threw away on that ill conceived 3 bet. Quit thinking about that Chris! I'm down to about 13K and things are slowing down. The average will be 30K when the bubble bursts but who cares about that. I need a hand! There are about 300 remaining. I'm down to 10K. This is torture! I'm in middle position with TT. Gotta push this. I'm all in. Connor Tate goes into the tank. Please fold kind sir. He thinks for a long time ... and folds. I get a one orbit reprieve.

Now there are about 280 players left. Table 31 left to break and then we are in the money! Now Tate with the big stack starts raising every hand. He makes no bones about it. It's bubble time and it's the "duty" of the big stack to raise. He tells the two shorties, shorter even than me, to stall until the go hand for hand. It's for their own good, and they need to do what others are doing. There is another table where two guys agree to check it down. They are both given a one orbit penalty and this penalty is announced to all. No checking down!

We get to 273 and they start playing hand for hand so stalling is fruitless. I get 88 in middle position. I am in Elmo EV mode and fold like a shot.

The play is so slow. We enter Level 10, 600-1200A100. Play is slow slow slow. And I need chips. Break this bubble please!

I liked the last hand for hand. There were 271 remaining so one more to bust the bubble. I have about 9K. For some reason Connor Tate UTG+1 folds. The two real shorties in middle and late position fold. Button folds. The SB, with absolutely no heart at all, completes. Completes? Why didn't he put me in? Because he's too scared that's why.
I have KQo and check. At this point the room starts applauding and so I know someone has busted. Of course all tables still must complete action. If lets say two bust, which is what happened, then they share 270th place and split the $2770. If three would have busted they would have each gotten 2/3 of a full share, etc.
Back to the hand.
The flop is AJT rainbow. There is now 3300 in chips in the pot. The SB bets 2400. I have about 7500 behind. I think for a little bit and say, "The bubble just broke, right. That means the bubble broke, right?" There is some confirmation from the table. A very friendly table. So then I say,
"All in"

SB winces and folds saying he has a ten. We are in the money. And I win an important pot.

The bubble burst and our table quickly breaks. Off to another table. I play about one orbit after being moved into the big blind. I'm on fumes with only 10,100 chips. Plus we draw for new tables. At least I get Seat 9 at my new table. That means I will be the button on the first hand of Day 2. We ended at about 1am, and Day 2 begins at 2pm. 13 hours off, not bad.

Nothing exciting about Day 2. I got a good table draw, no big stacks and passive play. They were dropping like flies. We started with 224 survivors and we lost about 60 of them in the first 30 minutes. I doubled once when A6>AK. I stole some blinds/antes. I pushed from the SB with J3o and BB folded. Twice I stole the blinds with AA.

I survived until Level 13, about 2 ½ hours into Day 2. I got moved to a table with Jean-Robert "Bobby" Bellande. This is the guy who was on Survivor. Let's just say he thinks he is god's gift to humanity, and we all know he isn't.

Being short is so awful. My M falls to about 2+. There is a raise and two calls. I have 64o. I fold. But immediately after folding I think that I should have been in there. Hope they have high cards or whatever. Just take a shot and hope to go from 15K to probably 40K or more. I need chips! The average stack is about 70K now. Anyway I folded and then the flop is J64. Whoops. Not sure I would have won it as there was some heavy action and no one called on the turn. I will never know.

Shortly after that I am dealt JTo. The player on my right raises. I reraise all in, only a small additional raise. I was hoping I wasn't dominated, and also hoping others would trail in behind, and just hope to win it. Well Bellande called and so did the raiser. 3 to the flop: Q97 2 suited. It's checked to Bellande and he bets into the dry side pot. Raiser folds. He shows 87o. I can't complain about that. But I need help of course. The turn is a K. And finally I have some chips! Well not that many but I'm up to about 30K. Average is about 75K.

Finally I get ATo in middle position. I push. Bellande calls and shows AQo. If I can just suck out here I will be fairly close to average. This time I'm not so fortunate.
No ten and I'm out.

105th for $4,063.
It was instructive, fun, sort of depressing, but not disheartening. Good experience.


Chris

[PauliF]

woooooo

cant wait for the next bit

[chrisjp]

One more hand from my second table. This was the wild table. I'm in middle position and raise with AJo. The guy on my left calls as does one of the blinds. The flop is Txx all clubs. I have the Jc. I make a cb and the player to my left makes a big raise. What does he have? I know if I had the Ac this would be more interesting, but this is an easy fold. I think for a bit and then fold. "Too good for me." He's a nice guy and he shows me his hand: JJ.

Successfully getting them to show their hands is so great.

[chrisjp]

I finally put the complete report together. Thanks again for everyone's support. Go ITH!

Chris

[ammbo]

Very nice trip report, gg, sir. I really enjoyed the narrative on the royal hand.

[poker_Elmo]

Great report Chris!

I am not sure I want my name synonymous with folding otherwise playable hands with very short stacks on the bubble, however.

One night recently on IRC, Yankees made a statement that hit home about this. He said something like: "I don't mind bubbling, if I have a big stack." This is so true. When you have a big stack, the minimum money level is only a small part of your overall EV. The shot at the bigger payouts is much more important. But, when you have 1/3 of the average or so, doubling is great, but the increase in EV from doubling is probably not much more than the minimum payout.

[cymansez]

[jfletcher]

nice playin Chris. Thanks for posting a report. I just love reading these.

[jeffnc]

fantastic read, thanks man, good job!