I’m pretty sure I mentioned before
that during my Vegas stay in December, I played in three tournaments and cashed
in two. I played 8 plus hours in all
three of them! Thus, I will do write ups
about all three, and so I might as well do them in chronological order. This will be the write up of my only time at
Binion’s this trip. Since I didn’t cash,
I won’t give quite as detailed a post as I would want to do if I had made some
money.
I sometimes amuse myself when, days,
weeks or months (or longer) after a day in Vegas, I play back the audio
recording I made of my notes the next day.
Playing back the notes for this tournament was one of those times. I heard myself say over and over again that,
after this experience, I was never going to play in another tournament again,
that it was stupid to play in tournaments, that it was just too frustrating to
play them, too inconvenient, etc, etc.
Very little of my ranting (to myself, you understand) had to do with the
issues I raised in this post here,
although I did hear myself say, “Tournaments are not designed for
diabetics.” So there were some of that,
but it had more to do with playing so long and having nothing to show for it.
Let’s start with a pocket Kings hand
in the fourth level. I raised just under
3X with them and got one call. There
were two Queens on the flop so I had to fold to a donk shove.
A bit later, I limped/called $1100
with pocket 6’s (blinds were 200/400).
The flop was Queen-Ten-6. I
raised $1,800 to $4K. He called, but
wouldn’t call my turn shove (didn’t have enough chips to bet anything
less).
I started level 5 with $19,200, and
since the starting stack is $20K that’s not good. But the last two hands of the level I came
back. I limped in from the button with
Ace-10 off, five ways. The flop was
Ace-10-x, two spades. The guy on my
right bet $1,700 and I raised to $4k and took it down.
Very next hand, in the cut-off, I
called a raise to $2K with pocket 4’s. I
did that because 4 people had already called the $2K. The flop was King-Queen-4 and it folded to
me. I bet $7,500 and no one called.
Soon after I raised to $2K with
Ace-King and a big stack made it $7K.
That was not the time, I thought, to get it all in with Ace-King so I
folded.
I raised with Ace-7 off, got a caller,
and had to fold to his shove when the flop totally missed me.
After a couple of limpers I made a
nice raise from the button with 10-9 offsuit and took it down.
I opened to $2,700 (bb was $1k, no
ante) and had a couple of callers when “Nice Guy” made it $5K. Nice Guy is a player I see virtually every
time I play Binion’s, and more often than not, I end up at the same table
with. So a total reg, pretty much an ABC
player—and also, as the name indicates, a heckuva nice guy. I couldn’t imagine
him doing that with a hand that didn’t have me crushed. We all folded and sure enough, he showed us
his hand—a couple of Aces.
Same level, in the big blind, no
raise, I saw a flop with 4-7. Pretty
good flop for me: 8-6-5. I led out for $4K
and got a call. I didn’t like the 6 on
the turn, but I shoved, and he folded.
After one limper, I made it $3,500
with King-Jack of clubs. A short stack
shoved for $5,500, I of course called.
He had Ace-rag. King on the flop,
Jack on the turn and I was good.
At level 8 I had $28,500 (blinds are
100/600/1200). I raised to $4K after a
limper with Ace-8 of clubs from the button.
I totally whiffed on the flop, it was Jack-high, no clubs. It checked to me and I shoved. No call.
Then I got a little cuter. I limped with pocket 6’s and missed. There the flop was Queen-Queen-10. I bet $2k to try to steal it, but had one
caller (one other had seen the flop). I
bet $5k on the turn when I still had nothing but 6’s. He called.
No betting on the river—I gave up—and he a crappy 10 to take it.
The end of level 8 meant it was time
for me to get some dinner. I guess maybe
that’s why I made the two moves I just described. I wouldn’t have minded so much getting
eliminated there so I wouldn’t have to rush thru a really crappy dinner. But it was clear I was hanging around for
awhile and that damn deli next to the poker room would be closed by the next
break. I would like to actually miss a couple of hands there at the end of the
level so I can race to the deli before it becomes too crowded and I can’t get
my food in time. But I was stuck being
the blinds. Luckily, those hands went quickly, and with just a minute or two to
the break, I decided to forgo my button to get a jump on the crowd to get my
dinner. See, this is what I mean about the
inconvenience of dealing with my condition in regards to tournaments. Maybe that button hand was Aces and I would
have doubled or tripled up? Of course,
it could also have bounced me out of the tournament, sure. And actually, the fact is, we were at the point
of the tournament where being in late position isn’t really that valuable. It’s sometimes better to be in early position
to be the first to raise or shove when so many others are contemplating the
same maneuver.
I actually missed both the button and
the cut-off but I was able to get my two hot dogs ahead of the crowd and
managed to consume them during the break.
I honestly can’t tell you if they were the best hot dogs I ever had in
my life (doubtful) or tasted like rancid moose meat (more likely). I ate them too fast to notice.
Level 9 (200/800/1600), $23K. I limped/folded pocket 7’s. Then I open shoved with King-Queen, no
call. Open shoved with King-Queen
again. This time a short stack called
with $11,500. He had Ace-5 of
spades. I caught a Queen on the flop and
took it.
It had become a running gag that I
seemed to be doing much of my raising when Nice Guy was the big blind. He started giving me a hard time about it, it
a kidding way—counting how many times I had done it, “threatening” me with
payback. One time when I had garbage he
was the big blind, and I looked at him and grabbed some chips and “Let’s see,
since you’re the big blind so….” But I quickly mucked before it went too
far.
Level 10 (300/1000/2000), $36K. Nice
Guy was the BB again I raised to $6,500 with Ace-9 off after a big stack limped
in. Nice Guy and the big stack called. The
flop was Ace-high, I shoved, Nice Guy folded, the big stack folded after
tanking a bit, showing an Ace. The big stack said she didn’t like her kicker,
but I wonder if it was really less than 9?
Then I got a much needed double up at
Nice Guy’s expense. He shoved in front
of me, which was pretty cool since I had two Aces. He showed Ace-King. No suck out for him. I had him covered by just a bit.
Level 12 (400/1500/3000), $65K. After the big stack limped in, I raised to
$11K with 10-9 of diamonds. Limper
called. Flop came Jack-7-x, both the
Jack and the 7 were diamonds. I bet
$20k. Big stack tanked forever and then
folded.
Then came an instructive point of
rules with this next hand. I had Ace-4 of diamonds in the big blind and it
folded to the small blind. He raised to
$7K. I figured he was just stealing and
I had an ace. So I grabbed some chips
and announced “raise.” I was trying to
figure out how much to raise to. I had
picked up three white chips, which were $5K each, but I really wasn’t sure what
to bet. But as soon as I said, “raise”
the player shouted, “all in.” Fine,
except I hadn’t finished my action yet.
The dealer pointed this out to him and
he said, “He has three $5K chips in his hand, that’s a raise to $18K. He has to
put them in the pot.” The dealer said
no, I hadn’t done anything except announce raise. The floor was called who said, as anticipated,
that I was only obligated to put in the min raise. Well, this guy had a very similar stack to
mine and I wasn’t about to risk it all on Ace-4. I made the min raise to $11K and then put on
a show of how I was thinking about whether to call his shove. I even asked for a count to make it look
good. But I never intended to call of
course. I saved myself some chips with
the guy jumping the gun like that but I honestly can’t say what I would have
bet if he had kept quiet. Considering
that he literally couldn’t wait to shove, I assume that he had a really
big hand.
That took us to the next break for
what I guess you could call “The Chinese Fire Drill.” I should explain that for the big Saturday
tournament, Binion’s has a separate tournament area a bit away from the actual
poker room. When I initially started
playing in this tournament, there was an actual room they held the tournament
in, which is right on the other side of the deli. It was actually a great room for the
tournament, so naturally the management at Binion’s decided to take it away
from the poker dept and use it for something else, against the objections of
the poker people.
First they had an Elvis exhibit in
there. Then it was used for
storage. Recently, they turned into a
(very) small showroom and they have a hypnotist act in there. I’m not sure if this act was running when I
was there last, but it was running this night and the room is right next to the
tournament area. Apparently the hypnotist
act is so loud (and the guy is so vulgar) that they can’t really use the
tournament area once the show starts—too loud, too distracting. So on this break, when they are down to just
a couple of tables, they move everyone into the actual poker room to finish the
tournament.
For this break, players are told they not
allowed to leave the table early (although I don’t know how they can actually
stop anyone from doing that) and then, when all the tables are finished with
the last hand, everyone takes their chips and follows their dealer to their new
seating assignments inside the poker room.
It’s a pit of a pain to be sure and a nice waste of about 10 minutes
getting everyone situated in their new seats.
Really shows you how casino management treats poker.
By this time, we were down to three
tables and just one player away from two tables (9-handed). There were 90 or so players, the prize pool
was over $11K and first place was around $3,500. You had to get fourth place to just barely
get $1K. The min-cash was around $250,
so not even double your $160 buy-in, which I maintain should be a requirement
of a prize pool for a tourney this size.
They were paying 12.
And it was also the prize pool
distribution that I heard myself complaining about playing back my notes. It was like, “And even if I had cashed, I
wouldn’t have gotten enough money to make it worth it.” Of course, not getting any money back made it
a whole lot worse.
After the break, it took us just one
hand to get down to 2 tables. So there
was a redraw of course. Now this was
really annoying. After all that we went
through to get situated in our new seats because of the new location, we all
had to move again after just one hand.
Frustrating!
The climate in the poker room was
vastly different than the tournament area.
The former was very much on the cold side, especially since I was
sitting near the door to the outside, and every time someone came in, we’d feel
the cold air. The poker room itself was
very warm, almost stiflingly hot. It was
maybe the only time on this whole trip I was ever too warm.
There was another issue with
room. Every now and then, we would all
notice a very distinctive scent permeating the area. Either there was a skunk loose in the poker
room, or someone was smoking marijuana.
It was a really strong odor—very unpleasant. Presumably one of the players in a cash game
was taking frequent marijuana breaks and was coming back wreaking of it. Ugh.
So down to 18, the rest of my
tournament was pure torture. I would
have expected more people to bust out sooner.
But this took forever. We had
moved to the poker room for level 13 and late in level 16 we still had 15
players—three from the money. Meanwhile,
I had gone completely card dead. I tried
shoving and stealing as best I could, but I just couldn’t keep up with the
blinds.
During this period, I raised or shoved
with hands like Jack-9 off, Ace-9 off, King-Queen suited, King-Jack off, King-9
of clubs, Ace-3 off, and Queen-Jack off.
Never did I get a call, so I never had the double up I needed. All the money I was getting with these hands
were not enough to keep up with the blinds and antes.
I started level 16 with $41K, where
the blinds were 1500/5000/10000. So I
was beyond desperate. I kept stealing
blinds and antes, but not enough to even keep that stack. Three away from the
money, it was not looking good for me to hold on and cash. I had been playing over 8 hours. I’m pretty sure that any similar tournament I
have ever played I would have been in the money by then.
I was under-the-gun and I had 10-9
offsuit. Knowing that being the big
blind next hand meant I would pretty much have to shove with whatever two cards
I had, I figured 10-9 was more than good enough to open shove. Sadly for me, the big blind had Ace-Queen and
called with his big stack. I caught a 9
on the flop, but then an Ace hit the turn and I was out.
It was 10:20PM, I had been playing
since 2PM and was extremely frustrated leaving empty-handed. I would have been slightly less frustrated taking
home the $350 min cash. I really
couldn’t believe that I was there so late and didn’t get a penny, the last few
levels had been painful to play, the lack of players busting was excruciating.
And thus the vow to never play in
tournament again. Of course, I’ve
already given it away that I didn’t keep my vow very long. Not sure if it will be my next post or not
but I will tell you about the next tournament, one with a better ending, soon.
So who sez smoking is bad for you lungs????
ReplyDeleteAssume you are talking about the pic there, Lester. heh heh.
DeleteYou have just described the worst part about playing in tournaments. One time I played 8 hours and was 14 when they decided to pay the bubble plus one. You guessed it that was 12th and 13th. I went all in with A Q and got called by big stack with A 3. 3 on the river took me out. I went out to my car and screamed for 10 minutes. The life of the tournament player in a nutshell. Keep grinding sometimes you cash.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ed...terrible story there. I can totally believe you were screaming in your car for 10 minutes. In fact, I'm impressed that you waited until you got to your car.
Deleteyr best post ever A+++++++
ReplyDeletelol.....I figured this one would get your attention.
Deletemayb WPT or HPT can have a diabetic and 420 friendly tourneys 4 ppl with our special needs??? gluacoma and SHEEEEEEEEEIT shouldnt mean that ppl cant enjoy poker tourneys . after P3 is done shoveling snow going to ask him to file a brief in forma pauperis and sheeeeeit #discrimination
ReplyDeleteI can't argue with that.
DeleteSo you folded early in the tournament on a QQx board with KK? Did you C bet then he shoved, Or did he just shove. If he just shoved that's a huge spot to call. He would have to be near the worst player ever to just shove on that board with the Q that early.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steven, that was a hand I spent like zero time thinking about either the next day or when I was writing the post weeks later. I wanted to breeze thru the early stuff in the write up for reasons I mentioned in the post. I only mentioned it at all because it was pocket Kings and as you know, that's a thing for me.
DeleteMy stack there was about 20K, pretty much the starting stack. The shover was short, slightly less than 5K (he did shove before my action). My instinct there was that he had a Queen and that it wasn't worth risking 1/4 my stack there to find out for sure. In this tournament, with this crowd, 90% of the time at that point they have it.