2008 WSoP Post 6 - On coolers and plain old bad luck
First things first – sorry for the lack of updates after Saturday. I changed hotels and was out of range for the wireless service I had been using, and was not about to pay $24.99 a day to use the hotel’s network. As a result, this post is going to be abnormally long.
Now, into a little “Catch-Up”. After my great run at the Wynn on Friday night and into Saturday, I checked out of one hotel Early Saturday morning and killed time in the Harrah’s Poker Room for about five hours until I could check into the second hotel. I had a good run at a $1/$2 table (I really hate playing $1/$2, because there simply isn’t enough money on the table), picking up about $300 in the time there. Unfortunately, I had to cab it back to hotel #2 where I had stored my bags, check in, and then cab it back to the Strip.
Sadly, for this entire trip, I probably managed to spend $300 on cabs and monorail rides alone. Every cab trip was between $12 and $15, and the monorail is $5 each way but doesn’t run 24/7.
Anyway, for the rest of Saturday night I played various $2/$5 games at the Wynn. That’s where the definition of “cooler” comes in…
I picked up a bunch of big hands throughout the course of the night, occasionally getting paid and occasionally dropping chips to someone else. The biggest hand that missed at my first table was pretty ugly.
I made the mistake of pushing someone all-in when they had a monster and I had a monster…draw. I flopped an open-ended straight flush draw to the 7 of spades against a strong player who had top set of jacks. I had 17 outs, missed them all. Sure, I was a slight underdog, but with 17 outs and two cards to come I was really expecting to catch.
Wouldn’t be the last time that would happen on the trip.
Later in the night, on the third table after everything started breaking, I hit the first cooler of the weekend.
I left a table to run to the bathroom just as the dealers were changing. As I came back, the new dealer was just starting to shuffle, leading me to yell out “I’m in! Deal me in!” Standard play – poker players hate to miss a hand, just in case they pick up a monster.
I did. Unfortunately.
I looked down to find Pocket Kings in the Big Blind. After there was a raise to $25 and three callers, I re-raised to $110. I only got one caller – the initial raiser.
On a rainbow flop of K-3-A, I thought I was made. I still had about $1300 in front of me, about $25 more than the other guy did. I bet out about $125, trying to see just how big his Ace was.
He raised to $300. Oh man – his Ace must be huge with that type of value bet! Maybe even A-K! I’m about to get paid huge, and walk off the table at 7am after another great night at the Wynn!
I go in the tank, thinking forever about whether or not he’ll call an all-in bet. I finally decided he wouldn’t, and just called.
The turn was a blank (a six, I think, without matching a suit on board), so I checked to him. He bet out $450ish, leaving about $500 behind. I looked over and said “OK, let’s just get it all in there now”.
He beat me into the pot… and showed Aces. Definition of a “cooler” right there, both of us flopping three of a kind. Left with only $25, I shoved all-in blind on the next hand and got 3 callers, somehow hitting two pairs with J-4 offsuit and staying alive… I survived for about another 15 minutes at the table before busting out and going back to my hotel to sleep it off.
After getting about 6 hours of sleep, I decided to head over to Caesar’s on Sunday night/Monday morning. I had planned to play in another Mega Stack tournament that afternoon, but since I didn’t get to sleep until 9am and the tourney began at noon, it wasn’t really an option.
Since I hadn’t played a cash game there yet, playing only in the Mega Stack tournament a few nights earlier, I was pretty eager to see how people were playing.
I ran into some of the people I had played in the tournament with, but overall it was mostly new people. I also ran into one of the luckiest players I’ve ever seen, and one of the best cash game players I’ve ever played against. The result was the same for both – I lost.
Finally, after about eight hours our table broke down and I moved to a new seat at a new table. I was moving with about $1400 in chips and bills, just slightly down from my second $1500 buy-in for the night. (I limit myself to two buy-ins for a night - whatever those buy-ins might be – when I’m playing cash games. Tournaments are a different story.)
Less than half an hour into the move, I got the biggest monster I’ve ever had, and it turned out to be one of the biggest coolers I’ve ever given out to someone else.
On the button, I found Jacks. We were only playing 7-handed (plus it was about 4am), so any pair was pretty much gold. However, I’d gotten in trouble three times at the first table re-raising with Jacks and Tens even when I was in position, so I decided to simply call any raise, or if I was the first raiser I would make a small push that I could get away from if someone came over the top.
There was a raise to $25, and I just called. The flop came up 4-9-J with 2 clubs, and I knew I was made. We both checked the flop, and when the turn brought the fourth Jack I actually thought I had gotten screwed. Now, any bet from me into someone with Aces, Kings or
The river landed with another 9, and I was nearly certain there was no way I could get paid. I mean… who’s going to bet into someone who basically just declared that they were holding at least one Jack to have a full house?
Yet somehow, he bet to me. $175. I went into the tank… then I raised to $425, figuring he’d go away unless he thought I was bluffing and wanted to come over the top. He went into the tank... then said out loud “Maybe we’re chopping it?” Trying to play off like he thought we both had a Jacks over 9’s full house. Uh, no. I have four Jacks. I doubt you have one as well.
Then he went all-in for another $800 on top of my bet. I immediately called, announcing “I have quads”.
His response? “So do I…. oh shit.” He flipped over 9-9 to my J-J.
Now, here’s where it gets really sick. Caesar’s Palace is part of the Harrah’s family of casinos. Harrah’s has a bad beat jackpot, which at the time of this hand required you to have quad 9’s or better beaten with a pair of 9’s in the hole. The bad beat jackpot stood at around $130,000; 30% of that goes to the person that loses the hand, 20% goes to the winner of the hand, and the remaining 50% is distributed throughout the Harrah’s family of poker rooms to anyone on a cash game table. Meaning this hand was about to net the quad 9’s about $40k, and I would not only win the $2300 in the pot (plus a high-hand jackpot), but another $25k from the jackpot. I was, needless to say, a little excited.
Only problem? Caesar’s isn’t part of the bad beat jackpot. They never signed on to the idea with the other Harrah’s casinos, because they didn’t want to take another $1 out of every hand from the players. Meaning the loser got nothing for his troubles, and although I won the hand and got $100 for the “High Hand”, the other $25k was not to be.
If the hand had happened across the street at Harrah’s (or the
I left the table about two hours later, down about $200 total for the night. Not bad considering how the night started.
Finally, Monday night into Tuesday morning. Um… ouch.
After I woke up Monday afternoon (my sleep schedule was so screwed up it’s not even funny. And now back on East Coast time, its even worse. I’m blogging at 2AM because I didn’t get out of bed until 3 yesterday afternoon), I headed back to Harrah’s to catch the 3:30 afternoon tournament – a $60 buy-in with a $40 rebuy. Basically, just a good way to kill time and maybe make a couple hundred bucks. I ended up as the third alternate and had to wait until the third blind level to get a seat. When I finally got in, I had 4500 chips with blinds at 100/200, so I was reduced to either stealing a lot of blinds or just shoving all-in and praying.
I chose the former, stealing three blinds in the first revolution alone with aggressive over bets on small pots. I even managed to steal a couple of calls, since my table was extremely tight except for one hyper-aggressive kid.
Naturally, it was him that I ran into to end my day.
I finally limped into a pot, under the gun with pocket 9’s. The aggressive kid was in the small blind and only called the extra hundred to complete the blind, leading us to a 6-handed flop.
After the board hit 8-3-3 with three different suits, the blinds checked to me. Hoping nobody had a three in the hole (or worse yet, pocket 8’s), I bet out 1300 chips into a 1200 chip pot. Since the aggressive kid hadn’t taken a stab to try and represent a hand from the blind, I thought I might have been safe.
Everyone folded to him, and he pushed all-in. The big blind folded, and I had a decision to make. I didn’t believe he hit the three, and if he though I was stealing with big cards he might only have an eight, meaning my pocket 9’s were good. I thought for awhile, and then finally called.
He turned over 8-3 off suit (Whoops!) and I was done. I should have stopped there, or just killed time for three hours until the 8pm tournament at Harrah’s.
Instead, I returned to Caesar’s $2/$5 game trying to pick up the $1400 I was down for the trip, or at least make a dent in the losses. I did pretty well at the table, winning a big pot on only my second hand when I turned two pairs over my opponent’s flopped top two (Kings and 3’s over 7’s and 8’s), picking up about $300 in the process. Then our table broke and I moved to a new table. After floundering in place with a cold run of cards, a new $5/$10 table opened up directly next to me with three people I’d already been playing with, people I had good reads on. I decided to move.
For the first two hours, it was a great idea. With higher stakes I bought in for a higher amount to keep up with some of the massive stacks at the table; one guy bought in for $5000, another for $4500. I figured $2500 would be strong enough.
I caught another cooler when I flopped a set of
Three hands later, down about $500, I picked up A-8 of diamonds in the small blind. There was a raise to $40 and I called along with three other players (putting $200 in the pot preflop. God I love $5/$10). Before the dealer turned over the first three cards, I actually thought to myself “this would be a great time to flop a monster”.
How about a flop of 7d-10d-9d, giving me the nut flush and an open-ended straight flush draw? That qualifies as a monster.
I checked. The big blind fired out $200 and got one caller (yikes!) I immediately put one of them on either Kd-10x or J-Q of diamonds, so I just called. Let’s face it – if I lost to a better flush – a straight flush – then it just wasn’t going to be my day.
The turn was the King of clubs (phew!), and again I checked. The big blind fired out $700 into a $600 pot. The other player folded, obviously chasing something or maybe thinking A-10 wasn’t going to be any good. The action came around to me, and I went into the tank. I wasn’t sure what the guy had, but I was pretty certain he had also flopped a flush, maybe even with the JQ of diamonds for his own straight flush draw. But I couldn’t be certain he didn’t have a set of 9’s or 10’s leaving him with a handful of outs on a full house.
I chose to end the action right there, re-raising him all-in for my last $1900-ish and immediately went into “freeze” mode; I put the iPod in on high volume, and picked a certain chip in the pot to lock a stare on. After about thirty seconds, the other guy started counting out his bills – I couldn’t believe he was really going to pay me off! I was pretty certain he didn’t have a flush at this point, otherwise he would have called immediately. Now I had him on either three of a kind – probably Kings on the turn with the King of diamonds – or else he had hit something like 8-9 or 9-10 on the flop or maybe the Kd-10x I had thought of earlier, and just couldn’t get away from it.
He waited for another thirty seconds or so – at this point, I was almost biting my lower lip trying to act calm – then finally he looked at me and said “I hope you’re not stealing this pot from me… I’ve got a huge hand, but I think you’ve got me beat.” He flipped over 9-10 for top two pair on the flop, and folded without paying me. I didn’t show.
I wasn’t unhappy to rake in a huge pot - $1050 not counting the $250 I’d invested myself – but I wish he would have made the call. Of course, with the way my luck turned later, he probably would have made the full house on the river.
After getting fairly lucky later in the night to double myself up to about $3400 in chips (I caught a 5-outter after I made a semi-bluff against a player I didn’t believe had anything – he actually had the second nut straight, and I was left to my draw. Luckily, I hit), I went on a run of coolers to end all coolers.
The “big bluffer” – the 8-5 that cracked a set of
I picked up A-6 off suit out of position and limped. There was a small raise from the button to $30, and both the bluffer (in the big blind) and I called.
The flop hit Jh-6c-Ah (another jackpot… sort of) and the bluffer and I checked to the initial raiser on the button. He fired out $110 into the $95 pot trying to take it down right there. The bluffer came over the top for $400. It came to me, and I immediately assumed he was on a draw, maybe a straight with the big cards or a flush with the 6 so he had a reason to stay in the pot.
In any case, I wasn’t looking for any more action. $600 in the pot was enough for me, so I re-raised to $950. The button insta-folded, and the bluffer went into the tank. Now I was certain he had absolutely nothing, and was deciding how much of his money he wanted to risk. He had about $1700 when the hand started, and had already committed $500 to the pot.
Finally, after about two minutes, he announced “call” but pushed his remaining $1200 in chips into the pot. I checked with the dealer to see which move would be counted – the verbal call or the action of the $300+ raise (which I would have called instantly). Since both actions happened together, the dealer said the verbal bet was the binding one (the correct call, by the way), and we went to the turn.
There was a blank card (2 of spades, I think) and the bluffer checked (?!?). I immediately went all-in. He thought for a second, and then called. I flipped over my Aces up, announcing to the table that if my hand held up I would be leaving immediately (the bluffer had done exactly the same thing a few hours earlier, hitting a monster hand then immediately leaving to play in a tournament. He returned only after he busted out). The bluffer flipped over 8-3 of hearts (?!?!?!) for only an 8-high flush draw I would have expected to see at least some kind of straight draw to go with it. Half the table either gasped or started laughing… until a third heart hit the river. Cooler #1.
The very next hand, as the bluffer was trying to explain how he had made a couple of great calls with his 8-high draw, I picked up Jh-10d. I’ve mentioned here before how J-10 is one of my favorite hands, because there are so many way to make a hand with it.
There was no raise from anyone until the bluffer in the small blind. He bumped the pot to $50, and there were three callers including me. The flop came up Jd-8d-9d, giving me top pair with another open-ended straight flush draw. As long as nobody had already flopped a set or a flush or straight higher than the one I could make, I should have been a huge favorite.
The action checked to me, and I fired out $175 into the $200 pot. The bluffer pulled his usual move, check-raising to $400 and chasing out the other two players. I immediately went all-in, trying to show the strength of my hand, for my remaining $1100-ish. The bluffer actually thought for a couple seconds, then called the bet and showed a set of 8’s. First time he didn’t call all-in on nothing but a draw of some sort.
Essentially, I had 17 cards to make a straight or flush on either the turn or the river, plus the hand could have theoretically run out with the 2 remaining Jacks, or two of the three remaining 10’s or 9’s, or any combination of those. He had to dodge a ridiculous number of cards – in fact, he was only about a 53% - 45% favorite with about a 2% chance of a tie.
Of course, I missed all of them, with the board running out with a couple of small black cards that completely missed my hand, and I was suddenly forced to re-buy onto the table. Cooler #2.
On the very next hand, I picked up pocket Kings. Naturally. I made a big raise ($10 to $70) pre-flop and got only one caller – the bluffer. Yup. The flop hit with three small cards - two clubs – and I fired out $180 to him on the button. He called. Of course he did. The turn brought the Ace of clubs, and now I went on the defensive. I checked to him, since I was fairly certain he had hit either the flush or the Ace. He bet $400 and I insta-mucked. He just grinned and showed 3-5 of clubs for the flush. Nice call pre-flop. Cooler #3.
At this point, I needed a break and went for a half hour walk. I e-mailed my buddy Jay – the guest of honor of the last Vegas trip – and tried to cool myself off. Finally, I returned to the table to find I’d missed a blind. I posted the required $15 and got a hand.
Pocket Aces. Yup. No lie, I almost mucked them pre-flop rather than risk my luck getting in the way again.
Instead, I re-raised from a $60 bet to $230 and went into freeze mode. The bluffer looked at me and asked “How much did you buy back in for?” I took out the iPod and responded “Same as before – twenty-five”. Now I was pretty certain he had a real hand this time, maybe even Kings but didn’t want to put the pressure on pre-flop for that much money, since he probably thought I would have instantly shoved all-in (which I would have). He just called my bet, and so did the initial raiser.
The flop came out Kh-4c-Ah – Bingo! – and the initial raiser checked to me. I bet out $550 into the $700 pot. The bluffer took a minute, then shoved all-in (putting me all-in for about $2250 with the stone cold nuts at the time – top set). The first raiser went away, and I insta-called thinking he had Kings or A-K.
I showed my AAA, he showed Jh-10h for a gut-shot royal flush draw, although any heart or Queen would have made his hand.
After the 7h fell on the turn (guh), I was left calling for a board pair that never fell. Cooler #4.
Four consecutive hands, four consecutive ridiculously bad beats. One idiot getting rich off of my cold run.
I walked away shaking my head, trying to figure out how the hell I could possibly run that cold for that long. In the end, I just returned to my hotel room to pack up for the morning flight on Tuesday.
I actually thought about it for awhile – I’ve been on the wrong end of five consecutive suckouts in pots of over $3500 when I’ve put my money in with the best of it going back to the last week in May, not counting the one-outer in the WSOP tournament last Monday. I have only gotten lucky myself once on a large pot, the $3400 straight I hit on the semi-bluff Monday night before the cooler run began.
I’m not actually sure what all this means. Maybe I’m just running unlucky, since I am getting my money in when I’m ahead in the hand. Or maybe it’s a sign that I need to be more aggressive earlier on in hands to try to end the action before it is profitable enough for other players to chase their draws.
Either way, I’m back from Vegas for a little while. I haven’t decided if I’m going to return for a weekend in about 13 days – winning the Harrah’s tournament also got me entry into a freeroll there with about $100k going to the top-10 winners and only 100-150 players expected to compete. Probably worth my time. Otherwise, I’ll continue grinding it out at Foxwoods for the next few months until October, when Caesar’s is running another tournament series.
Besides, I really shouldn’t be in
Labels: Bad Luck, Gambling, Las Vegas, poker, Tournament, World Series, WSOP
posted by Big D @ 2:17 AM
1 Comments:
Man, I'm going to Vegas in August for the first time, and I'm going to get crushed at the tables.
Post a Comment
<< Home