Reno
Hilton World Poker Challenge - Day 3
Today
for me was the final table of the $330
Pot Limit holdem, for everyone else it
was the watching paint dry contest (7
stud hi/lo, I think they had 133 players),
there was no sponsor for today's event
but if we had managed to sign up a drug
dealer he could have made a fortune selling
uppers.
On
the 'dark side' today was an atrocious
display by Men in a pot limit Omaha game.
Some of you might not like that I'm reporting
this incident but I didn't like the way
he treated Linda Johnson or the dealer,
so for better or worse, here's what happened.
Actually, I'm not sure what happened,
but something about he had sat down and
not been dealt in. He got mad, then madder,
then madder, then he screamed at Linda
Johnson (I think either for not defending
his argument or maybe for trying to get
him to calm down. Knowing Linda as we
all do I'm sure she was simply doing her
best to calm down a tense situation),
then he screamed at the dealer for not
liking him and dealing him out on purpose,
then the floorman came over and I think
he was told to leave, then he came back
and screamed some more right in Linda's
face and at the dealer for both of them
making him look bad, then he was literally
dragged away by Scotty and another friend
amidst a round of applause from one of
the ring game tables. This is the very
first time I have ever seen anything like
this in Reno.
Meanwhile
back at the final table, I got the chip
counts wrong yesterday, it was about 30,000,
28,500, I had 28,200, next place was about
19,000 on down, so I was in better shape
than I thought. My strategy for the day
was 'think wimp', I wasn't going to get
involved in anything serious, I was just
going to maintain my stack as best I could
and wait to see what developed. Well what
developed was a cautious boring table
that after about 30 minutes turned into
a wild action table, absolutely perfect
for me as I could just sit there patiently
with my big stack and wait for the nuts.
The nuts never came, I had literally used
up all my good hands yesterday, I had
maybe three playable hands the whole day.
What I did do was maintain my rock image
and stole a blind here and there to keep
solvent. Meanwhile 4 players went out
and I was slowly creeping up the pay table.
Pat
Fleming, or 'not available' as he likes
to call himself on the player list ever
since his Orleans incident, would steal
my blind every single time when he was
first in, but what was amusing is that
Dennis, the chip leader, sitting to his
left came to play and would often call
or come over the top of Pat, so I didn't
feel so bad about having to keep giving
it up. Then finally Pat raised, it was
folded around to my BB and I had a playable
hand, 99, the best hand I'd had all day.
I re-raised the pot, 4500, thinking I'd
finally get Pat to stop bothering me,
but instead he came back over the top
all in. I asked for a count of his chips,
the dealer looked at the three stacks
of 500s and other assorted chips and announced
the amount, which would have left me extremely
short chipped and probably out of the
tournament if I lost. I was sitting thinking
for quite a while when Dennis suddenly
looked at Pat's stacks and said they looked
short. They were, instead of stacks of
20, they were stacks of 17!!! Angle? Honest
mistake? Dealer error for not counting
them down? Pat error for not correcting
him? I know what I think. The irony was
that earlier the dealer had missed a straight
for a winning hand for Dennis against
Pat, I quickly corrected him while Pat
was scooping up all the chips, so it was
nice that Dennis now pointed out the error
in my favor. Anyway, back at the hand,
I've played Pat before, he could easily
have had a lower pair, but he could also
have a bigger pair or AK/AQ (making it
a 50-50 gamble that I really wanted to
avoid). Because I was playing so tight
I decided that he either had to have a
big pair to make that move, or he knew
I wouldn't call without AA or KK. After
much thought I gave up the hand and was
left with 20,000, enough I felt that I
could recover and get back in the game.
Then
finally the hand I had been waiting for,
K5 off-suit finally came, (K5p is ranked
just below 'presto' on the advanced hand
ranking tables). A guy who had been gambling
all day had limped in, got a caller and
me in the BB with the K5. Flop was K65,
I made a small bet hoping he would come
over the top knowing I was a wimp and
wouldn't call, he did, the other guy folded,
and I came back over the top. He then
came back over the top all in and without
hesitating, even though I probably should
have, I called and he turned over 65,
WOOOO! HeGHN and I was now back in action.
Meanwhile Pat had stopped raising my blind
after his close encounter with me, and
I was able to steal a couple more pots
to keep my stack healthy, and back to
my waiting mode. The table was perfect,
I was the only one playing a patient game
and soon it was down to three of us. Dennis
now had half the chips, I had slightly
more than the other guy and we stopped
the clock to talk deal. The problem was
none of us knew what we wanted, the prizes
were about 18K, 9K, 5K and I decided I
was not going to take less than 9K as
I thought I could outplay the other guy,
at least into second place, and Dennis
wanted a lot for his half the chips. So
we played on, which was fine with me because
I was pretty sure the other guy would
jeopardize his chips long before I did.
He did, he busted out, I was 4K richer,
and Dennis and I were heads up. The bad
news is I now had 45,000 chips, while
Dennis had 126,000, but with the prize
money so top heavy for the top three I
felt I had achieved my goal, and now my
fate was in the hands of the gods. I got
aggressive the first three hands, then
I got caught on the fourth with my 97o.
I bet the bad flop, Dennis called, we
checked the turn, I bluffed the Ten river,
and Dennis called with his Ten, DOH! The
gig was up, he'd seen me bluff for the
first time all day and that wasn't a good
thing unless I now picked up a hand. Things
didn't go well after that, Dennis picked
up hand after hand (he showed AK, AQ,
etc.) and even when he limped he always
hit the flop, showing me a few hands where
he was trying to trap me but I thankfully
hadn't tried to steal. Now I was down
to 30,000, and finally picked up literally
my first real hand of the day, KK in the
BB. If I could double up I would be back
in the game, so I decided this was the
hand I was going to gamble with. I have
debated long and hard if I played this
hand correctly, there were certainly many
other ways I could have done it, but anyway,
here's what I did; I just called the BB
after Dennis raised. The flop was Kxx,
two spades. I checked, Dennis checked,
Turn was another spade, I bet 4,000, a
bad bet, I should have bet much more,
but I hoped Dennis would try coming over
the top, he didn't, he just called. The
river was my nightmare card, the fourth
spade, I checked (when I probably should
have bet all in), Dennis moved all in,
and I wimped out, folding my top set.
He later told me he had two pair, no spade,
so an easy call for me in retrospect but
I would have felt pretty silly at the
time if he had had a spade. So I'd gone
for the trap and ended up runner-runnering
myself out of the hand. I think I would
have been better off raising pre-flop,
checking the flop and moving in on the
turn, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Well now I was in major chip trouble and
a few hands later raised with A8o, Dennis
called with his AK, and the Ace on the
flop sealed my fate. Dennis is a very
nice guy, he played great and deserved
to win. IGHN, but $9,650 'aint bad and
overall I felt I had done the best I could
today.
Tomorrow
is the $330 No limit, that's not my game
but I have a lot of money in my pocket
:).
Paul
|
