ThePokerResource.net: A Rounder’s blog

The following day, I walked back into the RIo for the 1000 no-limit with re-buys. I was planning on re-buying twice if the table was good. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. At my table were Howard Lederer, Kathy Liebert, and David Rheem (part of Michael Mizrachi’s posse). Two of the chip stacks went without an owner and were simply blinded off. Of the other four players, only two were semi-bad players. Overall, an unfortunate table draw. I was hoping to get lucky early as I wasn’t planning on re-buying twice.

In these re-buy events, a lot of the pros go pretty much cannon and fire a lot of shells, hoping to accumulate early. David bought in seven or eight times in the first 90 minutes and kept shipping it with cheese. There was another cannon who re-bought four or five times. Kathy Liebert was the primary beneficiary of David�s play, as well as several others. She built up to 9k pretty early. After two bad players doubled up, and after Lederer, Liebert and Rheem re-bought early, I re-bought one time to get full value if I picked up a hand. I went from 900 to 1900 after re-buying and unfortunately never picked up a hand. In the first 30 minutes, I limped once with A10 of diamonds, flopped an ace and took down a small pot.

I might have won one more small pot from one of the blinds. But after that, I went about an hour without picking up one playable hand. Adding to the frustration was that David and two other cannons were really going at it, raising and re-raising with very little. If I could pick up so much as tens or jacks, I’d put my whole stack into play. But, I looked at rag after rag. Near the end of level 2, with the blinds at 25/50 and with my chip stack at 1600, I finally picked up AK of diamonds. Unfortunately the cannon UTG raised to 350, which made everyone fold to me. I really wished that I picked up this hand against Lederer, Liebert or Rheem because they all knew how tight I’d been playing and I could probably move them off most hands. This cannon, I was pretty sure, had a medium pair. He was splashing around a lot, but usually he raised 150 to 200 with marginal hands. His overraise of 350 told me that he actually had a hand that he wanted to protect. I was also pretty sure that he was not good enough to lay down tens or jacks. But, given my hand and my image, I decided to make a play. I mean, AK is supposed to be the third or fourth best no limit hand, and there was a reasonable chance that it was good if the cannon had AQ or AJ suited. I raised to 1100, and of course, unfortunately, the cannon called. The flop came queen high with one diamond. He checked and I moved in for what little I had left: 500. He called with two jacks. Ugh. The turn card, ten of diamonds, gave me oodles of outs but I missed and once again, I left the Rio feeling frustrated. I just wasn’t very happy with how I exited. Even as I was re-raising pre-flop, I kept hearing my friend Joe’s words from the previous day while he was playing an online tourney: “I’m so sick of busting out of tournaments with this hand.” I couldn’t agree more. As I walked back out to my car, I kept thinking what I could have done differently. Initially I thought I could have folded if I put my opponent on a medium pair but AK suited is just too strong. I came to the conclusion that if I was in that spot again and I knew that my opponent wouldn’t fold, calling wouldn’t be so bad. I mean, if I whiff on the flop, I only lose 350, not 1600. He probably would check the flop given the queen and my image.

I guess, ultimately, I just don’t know. I know that I wasn’t happy with how I went out in the last two events. Poker is a partial information game but I think I had more info at my disposal in my last two exits which I should have utilized more. I honestly can’t say that I was happy with my play on the last hand of the last two tourneys. Granted, I was in a marginal spot, but I hope next time I�ll feel more comfortable with my decision making.

I’ve decided not to play the 1k event Monday because I just don’t think there’s enough play. Blinds are 25/25 and you start with 1000. Losing your first pot would cripple or break you so I think it�s too much of a crapshoot early on. I think 2500 to 3000 are good starting stacks, but unfortunately, there are only 1500 to 2000 events left for me.

-PR