Trip Report
by Paul McMullin
I'm told that Tiger is going to post a trip summary from ATLARGE II, and
I look forward to it, but I felt that I had to express my thanks to
Jazbo for putting on a super weekend myself [THANKS JAZBO!]... and to report
a few hands from the two poker tournaments that I really liked that I'm
pretty sure won't be in Tiger's report:
In the T500 no-limit holdem on Saturday, when the blinds were about T25
and T50, the guy under the gun had about T1500 and made it T300; I had
about T2200 in late position and found pocket kings - I raised back T600,
and he considered and pushed all-in... I felt pretty confident calling (and
turning up my Kings) until he turned up his Aces... no help; back to being a
below average stack! They consolidated to 3 tables shortly after that, and
I decided it was time to double up or get up - the blinds went by and then
I stole them back with trash, I survived an all-in to double up with a hand
I don't remember (pocket Ts? against AQ?) and then the blinds were raised
T400 or so by the second under the gun; I looked at AQo and pushed T1075
all-in... folded back to the raiser who considered for a few seconds (FOLD
FOLD FOLD - it seemed like forever), counted that he'd have about T400 or
so left if he called and missed, and folded; as we were waiting for pictures
to be taken he said he had AKo; that it was the hardest lay-down he made the
whole day.
I was in 3rd place (T5300?) when they consolidated to the final table
(all 10 places paid), but had the blinds by go twice without anything
resembling matching cards and ditched after a steal attempt got re-raised
to come back down to T4100... three had busted out, and ERB (Ed Baker?) was
down to a single chip and waiting for the blinds to come by when I got pocket
8s in late position (about three more hands before ERB would be blinded in)
when BUD (name?, position T5000?) raised the T200-T400 (I think) blinds to
T1600 in fairly early position... if I folded I'd be sure of being 6th or
better (with ERB out), but if I pushed in and survived I could probably coast
to 2nd without calling another hand. The prizes were $160 for 7th and $190
for 6th; I decided to take my shot; all folded to BUD who called and turned
up AT (suited?); I turned up my 88, someone called out "11-10 favorite"
(what are the REAL odds here - don't I kill some of the straights for the
T with my eights out of the deck and make boats on others?) - the board
helped neither thru the turn, but the river was an Ace and I was standing...
It probably wasn't my best move, and I'm wondering what the West Coast half
with more frequent tournament experience have to say about my reasoning?
Sunday morning, Ed Baker saw me before the tourney and mentioned that he
was impressed with the level of aggression that I had shown in the holdem
event (we had also played in a 5-10 holdem ring game on Friday evening,
and I was raising about twice as often as any one else at the table - he was
sitting at the other end of the table, frequently muttering about "what
could prm have down there to be doing all of that raising???"). Thanks, Ed,
your comment really helped my confidence going into the Stud event!
I was entered into the Stud tourney (T300) strictly for grins - I've probably
played 100 or so hands of 7-stud (mostly with Tiger, drinking scotch at the
1-3 table at the Trop in December)... I've read McEnvoy's and Bjutner's (?)
books on tournaments, and have played in 20-30 tournaments (which is probably
about 15 or so more than most of the rest of the ATLARGE contingent), but
never anything other than Holdem, so I decided to finally follow their advice
and mostly ignore my cards and play my stack and my position... I attempted to
steal the blinds whenever two or three of the upcards were duplicated on my
left (regardless of my cards) and whenever I had paint showing. I called
about 2/3 of the re-steals hoping to get a scare card, and got checked
into a scare card just often enough to about triple up before they started
consolidating tables... When I had built to about T1300 I had split Queens
with a suited Ace when (Arti?, T900) on my right raised the bring in with a
Q up... I re-raised and called his re-re-raise... I got a T and he got a
brick (5?), I checked, he bet, and I raised... he hesitated and called, and
we were committed. He caught the case queen on 5th street but I bet to put
him all-in anyway... I didn't improve, declared Queens with an Ace after the
river, he turned up a four-flush pair of Queens with a King that didn't
improve when he rolled his river card!
Several people asked how I could be playing that hand that strongly, and I
explained that I knew where the queens were and was nervous enough about my
stud ability to know that if I didn't get a big stack QUICKLY I'd just as
likely be out-played easily, so my strategy had been to double up or get out...
after that I went on an absolute binge of stealing the blinds and attempting
to put shorter stacks all-in... I was actually HOPING to get the bring-in
card and brought it in for a raise whenever I had *any* paint underneath
or any of the other upcards were duplicated. I don't think that I flat-called
the bring-in or checked any street more than 5 times on the hands I was in from
there to the final table...
When we got to the final table, there was only one player there in the
running for the over-all jacket - he had finished ahead of me on Saturday...
Jazbo came by and worked out that I had to finish THREE places ahead of
him to win the jacket... fortunately I was the largest stack and he was the
third smallest. He finished in the money (6th), so I had to make it to
third - but when he stood up I still had the largest stack...
I wouldn't feel like an honorable Rec.gambler without claiming some
sort of an angle - so here's mine: when we got down to three handed,
someone offered to deal: the stacks were about JimS (?) on my left with T4800,
Nolan (I should get out a card player and check the spelling) on my right with
T5700, and I had T6700. The prizes left were $280, $700, and $1400. As the
leader I didn't want to flat split it, so I offered to take $150 over and
let the third place take $150 under a split - there was some hesitation,
so I offered $650, 1/3, and the rest for me, and Jim agreed if Nolan would...
He did, and my extra came to $136. I was trying for something "close" to
the actual chip position; at this point I don't know if I got the math
right or not, but Jazbo pointed out that the small stack's chips are each
more valuable than the biggest stack's, so a pro-rated split isn't really
fair... The "angle" comes in when you consider that I had about tripled my
seven-stud experience in the tournament - that most of the day I had been
playing "get someone's chips all-in, turn up your cards, and see if the dealer
pushes you the pot at the river". If they had been paying attention to how
unreal my play had been to that point, they probably would have wanted
to play a few more hands before agreeing to any offer that gave me almost
40% of the money left.
I think that I had someone all-in almost 20 times during the day, and only
5 of them survived... [Nolan had been one of them when we were at about 3
tables - my Ace high hand rivered a pair of sixes - his unpaired open-ended
king-high four-striaght completed with a nine on the river to survive - he
was probably favored at the river, but I was ahead when I put his three-paint
King high all-in on third street with my Ace high...)
My favorite hand (which turns out to be inconsequential, but still gets
my vote) was when we were down to three and had negotiated the split -
I got 2 9 down, and an 8 up; the other two both showed aces. The ante
was T100, the bring in was T150, and the first raise was to T500. Without
a flinch I shoved T500 in (I was risking T350 - the completion of the
bring-in - to win T450 if they both folded; I knew that Jim would be sweating
a raise from Nolan if his ace was unpaired - and that Nolan would be looking
at a dead Ace and someone who had raised into TWO Aces). Sure enough Jim
sweated 20 seconds and folded... and then Nolan sweated another 20 seconds
and folded too! Peter ("foldem"'s brother) had been watching over my shoulder
for about 20 hands, and that was the only time I heard him flinch after the
hand had been settled...
I finished third... I caught absolutely no paint, no pairs for a stretch of
10 or 15 hands, and my stack dwindled to slightly smaller than 1/3 while they
chopped all of my forced bring-ins to both be slightly higher than me...
my last hand was a split pair of 8s against Nolan's Ace up - again I had the
bring-in and made it a full-bet to go; Jim folded a queen or jack, Nolan
raised with his Ace and I re-raised... it only took another pair of raises and
I was all-in; Nolan turned up a no-pair Ace with side paint... on fifth street
I was two-paired (8s and 6s) and he had paired his Ace; I got no more help -
his 6th street was a brick, but he caught a third Ace to send me home with
the third place plaque. If the money and over-all jacket hadn't both been
settled, I surely would have folded right out on that hand. Nolan wound
up winning; I'm sure we'll read about it, but just the same, Congrats!
I had a hooting-super-good weekend; when they were writing out my ticket
to take to the booth after both of my bustouts they asked me for my birthday
(it was Saturday) and were delighted that I had done so well for the weekend.
Again, thanks to all; I'm looking forward to the next one.
-prm
