Deep Stack Poker Today

I played the Hideaway Sunday noon deep stack today.  You start with 200 big blinds and rounds are 20 minutes, so there's actually some poker play before stacks become short.  I'm going to try a bit different reporting format.  Note that the tournament starts with 100-200 blinds.

I finished 8th of 22, which means I played a while and didn't get any money.

Why I lost:

1. I played only B+/A- poker and could have played better.
2. I got unlucky.  And this was the primary reason.

I sounds like sour grapes to say I got unlucky but given how tournaments play you need to make some hands AND get paid when you do or win a lot of coin flips.

I believe I pushed all-in and risked my tournament life twice the entire tournament.  Once in the middle stages I re-raised pre-flop with AA and my opponent folded and even if called I would have been all-in with the nuts.  The other time was my last hand.

And the former hand is a good example of how I got unlucky.  In the first round of the tournament I flopped the nut flush draw, turned the flush and got paid off by a player who flopped a straight.  And that's the only time by big hands really got paid off.  I won a ton of pots, but most were raising pre-flop and taking blinds or taking it down with a continuation bet, often when I had nothing.

I had a stretch of hands where I had KK, QQ, and KQ and couldn't even get any action on my pre-flop raises.  With QQ I raised just more than 2 BB in EP.  With KQ I raised less than 4 BB from the small blind after 2 limpers.

3 key hands that made or broke the tournament for me:
1) The aforementioned AA hand.  I think I played this pretty poorly.  I had about 53000 in chips.  With blinds 1500 and 3000, MP raises to 10K, I have AA in SB and after thinking a bit decide to shove since any re-raise commits me.  I also though the oversized raise might look weak.  This was bad for two reasons.  First, he still has to call off most of his stack here.  And unless he has a top 5 hand it's not likely.  Second, with AA I'm so far ahead I can afford to slow play.  In retrospect I should have smooth called and check-raised all in on the flop.  Might have busted, but likely could have won 15K or maybe 40K more. (Note that something seems off here but perhaps this was the start of the level.  The next hand seems to have happened way later.)
2) Last hand before the second break.  Blinds are 1500/3000 about to go to 2000/4000.  UTG shoves for 30K and it folds to me in BB.  I know UTG understands short stack play and that he doesn't have time to wait.  I have 66 and it's going to cost me 1/3 of my stack, which is borderline for calling.  I decide that so much of his range is two-big cards that I should call.  He says "nice call" and rolls over A2s.  He catches an ace on the river and instead of being up to 123K and first or second in chips, I have 62K and an average stack.  This is killer.  I realize I'm going to lose 30% of the time and that's poker.   But I KNOW to win I need to win pots like this.
3) I had raised and won the pot uncontested pre-flop about 4 of the last seven hands (I had K8, KK, QQ, KQ so it wasn't just moves).  I showed KK once.  Action folds to me on the button with KJs.  This is a raising hand but I'm concerned someone will play back at me.  My error is that they two player in the blinds are so tight that they aren't going to play back with less than a premium hand.  SB and BB calls.  Flop is JT6 all clubs, it checks to me and I bet 12000 into 18000.  SB raises to 25000 and I call.  Turn is a 2 and she shoves for the pot.  I think a long time and decide I don't want to go broke here.  Should have raised PF, should have shoved the flop, should have called her shove knowing her game.

Lost too many chips on that last hand and put me in bad shape the rest of the way.

Meier got 4th place, which was nice for him.  Will definitely play this again.

Hideaway Fall Classic

One of my disappointments in the local poker scene is the lack of reasonably priced deep stack events -- tournaments where you actually play some poker before you get to the stage where everyone is shoving all-in every hand.  Either you have daily $30-60 tournaments that are fast with little or no skill or $500+ special events like Tulalip's 10-10-10 $1010 event.  So I was excited when I saw The Hideaway was having a Fall Classic with a series of reasonably priced events $60-120 and $240 for the main event with a lot of chips to start with and 20-minute rounds.

I played in a few of these.  The first was a $60 buy-in tournament starting with 30K chips (100-200 blinds) and 20-minute levels -- their normal tournament but twice as much play.  I didn't play very well and went out early.  The second event was an interesting twist on a team tournament.  Normally in a team tournament, the teammates switch who's playing every level (15 - 30 minutes).  In this tournament each team member was part of a pool of 20 players.  Each pool played its own tournament with the top 3 getting paid.  Then the top team, based on the ranks of its team members, wins 25% of the total prize pool.  I finished 4th in my pool and Meier got 3rd in his pool, which made us the top team.  We'll take it but we both feel like we could/should have won our individual pools as well.  Meier in particular got unlucky on his last two hands or could have been heads up with 2/3 of the chips.

I had a Mariners conflict and missed the Omaha/8 tournament which I wanted to play.  I played the NL bounty tournament Friday AM and finished with two bounties and go unlucky and busted at the final table.

Then I played the HORSE tournament on Saturday.  HORSE is a mixed game where you play Hold 'em, Omaha/8, Razz, Stud, and stud/Eight.  (Yeh, the "E" is kind of a stretch.)  Anyway, the tournament sucked and everyone who played in it thought so too.  Basically they started with too many chips for everyone given it's a fixed limit structure and raised the blinds too slowly.  I played 6 hours before busting at which point they got to the final table of 8 from 24 who started.  A tournament of this nature shouldn't take 6 hours to complete much less to just get to the final table. We spent 3 hours just passing chips back and forth when the blinds were tiny.  Then played some poker for a couple hours, then hit a shove fest where it came down to who caught cards.  Oh well.  Was fun to play HORSE for real and I'd probably go back for their cash game.  But I'd never play a structure like that again.

For the series, I think I wound up slightly ahead -- cashing once in the team tournament to pay for my four entry fees and having the bounties as profit.

No poker as I'm busy at work.  Played a silly social game Sunday night.  I'm not even sure you could call it poker.  Looking to play on Friday when the card room max jumps from $40 to $100 and there's going to be 1/3 "no limit" at the Hideaway.

Poker Tournament Win

Been working on a lot of small projects over the past couple of weeks.

Had cousins in town last weekend -- on their way to an Alaska cruise -- and spent much of Thursday, all day Friday and Saturday evening with them.  Working on getting ready for 4th of July this week.  Cleaning up, though Monica doesn't notice it, planting plants, making lists and checking them twice.

I took a break today and played the 11 AM tournament at Hideaway.  As I've probably mentioned, this is the best local daily tournament as you start with 100 BB but it's still pretty fast.  Was able to grind my way through with great short stack play and bully the table, despite losing half my stack with QQ vs AA, ironically with both of us limping in.  One thing I like about this tournament is that the short stack play is terrible and any tournament like this involves mainly short stack play from about 12 players left.  Stole blinds, but really I won because I won a bunch of races, mostly as a slight underdog.  After the ugly QQ vs AA hand, I won KQ vs. 77, 33 vs a very short stack A6, KJ vs 99 for 75% of the chips, and on the final hand my JTs beat the small stacks Q6.  I raised on the button and he called.  Made a net of $300+.

Day 3

Went to Hideaway to play their 10:30 poker tournament. This is the best structured daily tournament in town.  You start with 100BB which gives you some time to play before you're short stacked and generally the field is small so it's not a luck fest until you're at the final table.  One of the guys who seemed to be a regular said they get 40 or 50 people which I found surprising.  They actually had 22 people at the start and just had two tables with two alternates. I lasted about an hour in the tournament.  On the only good hand I had early I managed to steal the blinds.  Lost a bunch of chips where I got unlucky and then bluffed off much of my stack against a guy who couldn't figure out he should fold, or had an amazing read on me.

Had lunch with my friend Meier and talked at length about ideas for an upcoming Vegas trip.  Seems like it actually might not make sense to drive down, even for a long stay.  Then came home to work on the yard.  I fixed the light in the backyard; actually if just fixed itself but I programmed the timer.  Filled in half a dozen holes in backyard and pretty the ground for reseeding.  We love our dogs, but wow do they do a number on the lawn; number 1 that is.

Then to the Mariners game for the second night in a row. Who knew filling dirt would be more fun than the Mariners game.  Wow is it cold for May baseball.  The reported crowd was 17,000 but this is one of the two smallest crowds I've seen. Can't believe it was much more than 10K, if that.

Tulalip tournament

Finally played poker for the first time in a couple of weeks.  A friend wanted to play the Tulalip evening tournament, so we met in Northgate and carpooled up.  The tournament has 30-minute levels which is much better than the 15-20 minute levels you see in most places.  The structure allows for play, though there's a huge jump after the first break when blinds go from 100-200 (300 an orbit) to 200-400 with a 25 ante (850 an orbit).  To be frank, this is a flaw in what's otherwise a good tournament.

Given that you go from good stack to short stack after the break, I took some chances in the third and fourth levels and wound up busting out early.  While busting out early seems like a bad thing, it's actually better to take chances and bust out early than nurse a tiny stack a long time and still miss the money.  11th and 120th place pay the same -- nothing.  Of course if you get to 11th or 12th, you had a chance to cash, but truly these no difference between 30th and 90th except you waste a couple more hours.  A had a couple of hands where I made a steal raise, bet the flop and got check-raised all-in.  Not having much of a hand, I could fold but that cost be a lot of chips.  Went out when I made a small raise with KK looking for action, shoved on an A-A-9 flop (pretty good) and was called by 99.

The cash game was good, though I hate the 1-3 blinds and $200 max structure.  I guess it's the same as 2-5, $300 max but both feel very, very small.  On an aside, that's one of the pluses of playing in Vegas -- they have larger max buy-ins which allows you to win more money and play more hands.  Imagine choosing between two stocks that are similar companies each selling for $10/share (yes the price is silly but bear with me).  If you were told one stock could never go above $20 while the other could go into the $50s, the latter is the better choice all other things being equal.

I turned a small profit in the cash game and was close to even for the night.  I think I made one bad fold, but since I folded I'll never know. I'd go back sometime, but it's still quite a trip.  With a couple stops at the park and ride and dropping off Meier and home, it took me well over an hour to get home.

Tournament at Hideaway

I played the 2-5 game at Snoqualmie last Wednesday and had some huge swings.  Was down two buy ins at one point.  Quite honestly I wasn't playing well -- too loose and too passive.  I got "fooled" on a big hand where my opponent took a lot of time to make his decision on the flop and looked like he was going to fold and I pegged him for weak.  Instead he had flopped the nuts and I guess was pondering a raise.

I shaped up my play, hit some draws, made a couple of hero calls in big pots and wound up cashing out up a buy-in. That gets me close to even for the year.

This morning I decided to check out Hideaway with Meier.  We'd popped in a couple of time since it re-opened a couple of years ago, but it never seemed inviting.  Was the same four to six regulars and a couple of dealers hoping to get a 3-6 game started.  But recently they've been advertising a pretty good structure for their daily tournaments so I figured I'd give it a try.  I had the day off today for President's Day (yes really) and Meier is always happy to play in Shoreline casinos.  It turns out we know the casino manager there.  Mooske used to be the poker room manager at Treasure Casino and then Rascal's before both places removed their poker room; and while there ran the best low buy-in tournaments in town.

Unfortunately it was a bit of a last minute decision and we were both alternates.  I didn't get in until the middle of the third level which put me at a disadvantage.  After the break, it was push fest time -- my chip stack was so small my only choices were to go all-in or fold.  I stole the blinds with 54s, then raised with KQs and was called by a shorter stack with 44 -- a really terrible play as he's either a slight favorite or a 4.5:1 dog if I have a pair -- flopped a king and knocked him out.  Then I shoved with AK and took the blinds and had my M up to 9 and we broke to two tables.

From this point on I ran over the table, shoving liberally to pick off blinds which is the only way to play.  Sometimes I had hands, but a lot of times I just had position.  I believe of the perhaps 15-20 times I pushed all-in pre-flop the KQ v 44 hand was the only time I got called.  In a key hand, a decent shack shoved, I found KK and re-shoved and didn't get unlucky against 66.  At this point I finally had enough chips that I could raise without having to go all-in.

At the final table, the big stack was on my right and I continued to accumulate chips once he was out of the hand.  I think we started the table with 165K for him and 120K for me.  Key hand of the tournament.  Blinds are 10K-20K and big stack (now #2 stack) is first to act min raises to 40K, I ask what he has left and he counts 150K.  I shove for 230K total with AK, the BB tosses in her last few chips and #2 guy thinks a long time before folding JJ.  BB shows QT (or something silly), I flop an ace and we're 5-handed and I have almost half the chips in play.  It was easy from there especially since no one wanted to tangle with me.

Last hand I limp on the button with A7o, trying to trap.  Flop is K-7-4 and my opponents pushes for about the size of the pot.   I think a bit and can't believe he has a king and call.  He shows 54 and doesn't suck out.

If only they were all this easy.  Turned $50 into $565 in about 2.5 hours.