billandmatt's Journal

Event #7 3K Limit Holdem
So one of the lessons of this tournament is the purpose of winning a lot of chips, that is so you can survive losing chips later. Here is a table of chip counts vs round:

1 3000
2 2775
3 5300
4 2825
5 1400
6 7100
7 3300
8 12500
9 12500
10 38.5k
11 29k
12 51k
13 111k
14 43k
15 122k
16 67k
17 144k
18 740k
19 1.1m

Anyway, I think this is a fairly typical trajectory of chips for me when I am fortunate enough to win. Even when you win a big tourney, there will probably be just a lot of swings where you lose the majority of your chips. So one thing to keep in mind is that this is fairly normal, and that you should expect it to happen, and when it does just to keep playing and making the best decisions.

So, it always takes a while to get used to the type of play in a new venue. IT's often hard to guess what the level or type of play you are going to get at the WSOP. I've been playing a particular limit holdem game online, and while there are mistakes made in this game (that's why I play), in the first couple of rounds I saw some plays that I don't see very much. One play is limping, especially limping in late position first in. I feel this is a weak play in general since the exploitive purpose of this play is to create a multiway pot favorable to your particular hand. This effect is negated if people play tighter in tournaments or if you are already in late position. Also in the WSOP, you will be amongst strong players that can narrow your range of hands if you are the initial limper.

Another play is the following. In the first couple of rounds, a player raises on the button. I have 55 in the SB so I reraise, BB folds and button calls. The flop is 942, I bet and get raised. I call, the turn is a Q, check-check. The river is a 3. Now I value bet, get a call, and show down my hand which I have little doubt is good. He has K9 and takes the pot. Now I was a bit floored, I mean I just didn't expect such a low level of play. After raising the flop it is hard to see much reason for checking behind when a Q hits, but this is sort of the type of play that takes some calibration to get used to.

A similarly passive situation happened in the 2000 limit when I 3-bet out of the SB with AK and bet down and got called only by AJ with a board of A54J5. Of course readin Jerrod's blog I guess even these two examples weren't the extreme. I guess the point I am driving at here is that a lot of the edge you ihave in limit is in value betting. I have to say I rarely missed value bets in this tournament.

So rounds 1-2 when I built my chips to 5300 ther wasn't really much to talk about. I was dealt AK three times, and won two of them, getting a lot of value from my top pair. Then rounds 3-4 were spend losing those chips back. IT would mostly be raises that missed, or blind defenses that missed on the flop. There was one decision that I discussed with Jerrod and Matt, and I think they disagreed with my decision. I try to steal with KJ. The SB defends and the flop is AJ9, I bet and get check-raised. The turn is a 9, the player bets, what do you do?

Round 5 (200-400 limits) I am down to 1400, but I am able to get it in a 5-way pot and actually build my chips. That was a key hand there and was able to build back up to 9K at my peak. Then I try stealing with 99, get reraised and flop a set, unfortunately he rivers a set of aces, and I am down to 3300 at the dinner break. BTW Mickey Appleman sits down to my left, and we discussed a lot of things. He seems very well read--we talked about The Nicholas Taub book Fooled by Randomness and we sort of hold opposing views on many topics, for example he thinks online poker should be regulated because it destroys the lives of many kids.

Also the following hand happens. I have 54h in the BB, a player that just moved to the seat raises, someone in the field calls, I defend. Flop is 765, original raiser checks, caller bet, I raise, original raiser calls, other player calls. Turn is a K, orignal raiser now bets, other player folds, I call. River is a J, I check, original raiser bets, I think and call. Jerrod thought the call was clear, I thought it was close. In any case the raiser had AQ. So a few hands afterward he's wondering if I picked anything up--I tell him I didn't have a read at all and that it was close, but I called because he was a young kid with sunglasses. Anyway having to decide whether to call or not on hands like this are probbly why people are uncomfortable defending with hands like mine in the BB.

So after dinner in Round 7, I get moved to a table in Seat 1 with with John Bonetti in Seat 2, Andy Bloch in Seat 4 and Johnny Phan in Seat 5. Early on, I have to take a stand with TT in early position. Fortunately, Seat 3 with 99 puts me all-in and protects my hand somewhat. Then a hand happens where Andy Bloch three-bets from early position and there are three cold callers behind as well as the initial raiser. The flop comes T44, Andy bets and gets raised by Seat 7. The turn is the T and the river is an A, Andy calls down and Seat 7 shows KTo (!??), so it is an interesting table. Later in the round I raise and Johnny Phan defends in teh BB. I have Ax, eventually by the turn, there are three suited to my ace on the board. Phan bets, I raise, and I take the pot. There was some discussion about this hand later. The question is whether I should simply use the two bets to call the turn and possible river bet, considering that if Phan 3-bets on the turn I *still* have to call with my draw, and I wouldn't totally put past him the play of reraising with a worse hand trying to win ont he river. However if he *does* have a foldable hand by calling I am giving him the chance to at least hit a pair.

I have about 8K at this point, and I pick up AQ and raise in early position. Seat 7 from above cold calls from the button. The flop is J74, I bet and get raised by Seat 7. The turn and river are cards under J, one of them is a T. He has KQ. That sort of helped my chip situation. One of my worries is that he was actually making a "value" bet with AK. Truth be told, there were body language indications that he was either bluffing or pushing a weak hand, but opinions are welcome on this call.

In Round 9, Phil Ivey comes to our table and sits directly to my right. I raise with K8 on the button, he three bets out of the small blind. Flop comes K8x, turn is an 8, I get lucky and get a lot of bets this hand. At my peak I have about 40K. In Round 10, I raise and give up, defend my blind and give up, etc several times. and make the money--the final 45 with 29000.

So the second day starts of well. I turn a set with 99 vs AA, I win with 66 and AQ. In round 13 with 18 players left I have 111K. Then Karlo Lopez opens for a raise, I have JJ so I 3-bet, he calls. Flop is 432 two diamonds, I bet and get check-raised, which I call. Turn is a Jd, he bets, I raise, he reraises I call down. He has A5 for a wheel. Another few hands and I am down to 20K, I win an all-in showdown with A7 and am up to 40K. Then the following hands with PHil Hellmuth:

I and down to 32K, playing 3-6 and raise from early position with JTs (7-handed), Barry Shulman calls, Phil calls in the BB. Flop is 986, Phil bets out, I decide to raise, Barry folds. I have 8 chips left--Phil calls saying "well I have too good a hand to fold but I will just call here and maybe put you in when I'm ahead." Turn is the 6s, bringing two spades on the board. He checks, I decide to bet, he does put me all-in with 77, but I hit one of my many outs. At this point he goes on a rant (mostly for the cameras I think) and asks when do I raise with JTs in early position (answer: almost always)

He exacts his revenge on anothe rhand where I raise with KJh, he defends the BB. Flop is 976, I bet, he check-raises. He has 6 chips left now playing 4-8. Do I decide to commit or to fold? I decided commit by calling and calling the turn. He shows 77 I am drawing dead and he wins.

Finally, I do get to reraise with QQ into a 5-way pot. Flop is 554, turn a Q, I keep betting, Phil is all-in, and I win with QQ even when the river came with a 5. That's mostly the tale of how I have 122k going into the final day.

Now some comments about the final day. The key hands are all recorded, I am happy to answer questions about them. I did draw first blood with AK to win an 80K pot (netting 45) but then after that sort of got taken off on a few pots and was mostly short stacked. The blind defense with Q3 when I made trip 3's was key as well as many survival hands. I have to say Karlo Lopez is an aggressive player who picks up a lot of chips that way, but he does this play of cold snowing (raising and betting with nothing all the way) probably a little too much for limit. I gained a lot of key chips on an AK calldown with nut-no-pair. It was touch and go with a my stack for a long while, oftentimes with the next confrontation potentially fatal.

I will have to say the breakout hand is where I busted Karlo with T8 when I flopped top two pair. I was able to increase my chips to 270+ and never looked back. I don't really have much to say about the shorthanded play, except I was very comfortable and the plays become more automatic because this is the game I am used to playing. The final heads-up did take there hours and I am happy my rooting section was there. I may talk about some hands specifically later but I am just trying to catch up now.

At the end the press, cameras, etc was incredible! Thanks for everyone's support.

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