CARDRUNNERS

So me and a bunch of guys got 2 houses for the summer. if we combined the players in them, it's a really sick collection of players.

The first house is bushman, smokey, ozzy, zeejustin, roman, and the second house is xTBCx (100/200 200/400 limit player), beatiful man, genius28, martine23, reddog, ahhh snap, and me.

In the first event of the WSOP, 3 of the 5 of us who played it made the final 2 tables. martine23 got 12th, steve (xTBCx) got 11th, and smokey is a total hero and won the event.

im gonna go out on a huge limb but i think smokey is the best NL tournament player in the world, especially live. He just plays every hand to the best of his ability and nothing ever makes him lose focus. He's inspired me to play better and I have played extremely well since day 1 of mandalay bay main event when he was at my table.

anyway, everyone from the houses went out to the FT to rail it. When it got down to hu a few guys made some bets with FBT's crew on who would win. Hu starts and FBT had a slight chip lead. Thankfully for smokey, hu started out in NL.

First hand, Smokey raised the button and FBT reraised from the bb. Then the following transpires:



Basically smokey sits there thinking for 2-3 minutes before deciding to call preflop. The deliberate actions out of smokey are literally the scariest things in poker. Imagine sitting there for 2-3 minutes getting stared down by an unflinching extremely focused opponent and then he just calls PREFLOP.

No offense to greg, because he seemed to play really well at times, but smokeys presence at the table is really scary, and id imagine a lot of players soil themselves after a while.

anyway, it was a pretty good hu match and bounced back and forth, and it seemed like smokey really had control of the NL portion of the hu match while the cards really controlled the limit part, whoever was running better at the time seemed to win, however, it did seem like greg had an edge on smokey during the limit periods. Fortunately he was able to win a few big pots during limit and come out on top.

its really great for the image of online players that everyone is doing so well lately. we're really taking over all the major tournaments, and have won the last few big ones, including mandalay and mirage.

im really happy for smokey and hope its a good start to the summer for all of us. here's a really cool picture taken after the win:



back row: nat arem, me, pbdrunks, brandon schaefar and a beautiful man (hiding in the back right)

middle row: roman (empire2000), ozzy, buko, zeejustin, ahhh snap

bottom row: bushman, smokey, martine



As for me, so far this summer im doing alright. have broken even online basically, which stinks, but ive done alright in tourneys so far. I cashed for 35k in the mandalay main event, which was pretty disappointing considering the steep payout structure, and i got 159th in the 1500 nl event for 4700 or so. im playing the 1k rebuy tomorrow and i am really pumped to play it.

i have a funny story which ill post next week i think, me and ahh snap got totally owned.

here is my report for the 1500 mandalay bay tournament today. its very very long and detailed, but i wanted to get it all out there to hear everyone's thoughts, cause there are a few interesting spots.

im cross posting this on pocketfives, liquidpoker, and my blog on cardrunners.



We started with 3k chips in the 1500, 25/50 blinds, hour levels. sucks that we start so short but the long levels help a little bit.

I get to my table and there are a few recognizable faces. David pham is 2 to my left, JJ liu is 3 to my right, and Nemo234 (thank you god, for those that dont know him, just check out his sharkscope) is 2 to my right.

I started off playing pretty tight, folded the first couple rounds. I didnt really want to take huge chances and lose a decent amount of my stack early, so I stayed tight. About 10 hands in, im in the big blind and the following hand occurs.

utg limps, david pham limps, utg+2 limps, mp limps, button limps, sb limps, i look down at KK in bb and make it 375. folds back around to the sb who calls.

flop K53, 2 spades.
sb checks, i check behind.

turn 8o.
sb leads out 1k. i have 2550 behind, so i decide to shove because i dont think he will bluff the river if i flat call, and if he has something like the A high flush draw, he will be getting 3:1 odds on a call. I shove and he folds, and my stack is up to about 4400.


3 hands later, folds to me and i pick up JTo in the hijack. I make it 150, and both blinds call. The small blind seemed like a bit of a station, and the big blind appeared to be on total auto pilot, as he was spending most of the time at the table looking over my shoulder at the AC milan vs liverpool game on the tv.

flop A74 rainbow. sb checks, bb stares long and hard at the flop, glances quickly at his chips, then bets 200 into 450. i decided the glance at his chips meant strength, so i didnt make a play and folded. the sb called, they checked it down and the sb's Q7 won. I catalogued that the bb's long stare trumped glancing at his chips and meant weakness, and that in the future i would act on this tell.


I folded the next few hands until i was in the sb.
3 people limped in front of me and i had KQcc. I decided to complete and not raise because 2 of the limpers were in relatively early position, and i had already raised once from the blinds and thought this would receive more action than i wanted oop with a somewhat speculative hand. the bb checked and it was 5 way to the flop.

flop Qh3d2d.
I decided to check and see what developed. I didnt want to lead out and get placed in an awkward spot if i got raised, and didnt think i would get a lot of action on a bet.
it checks over to the button, who bets 200. he had bet on two previous occassions when checked to, so i decided it was likely he had total air. i thought about raising here to take the pot down, but i figured nobody was that strong because everyone checked, so i flat call. the bb thinks for a while and seems to reluctantly call.

turn is the worst card in the deck, Ad.
I check, bb checks, button bets 450, and i decide to fold cause of huge reverse implied odds, and with a player left behind me. the bb tanked a little bit and finally folded. I now have about 4100 in chips.


i fold the next round of hands, and the blinds go up to 50/100 when the following hand takes place.

2 limps in early/mid position, JJ liu limps, i complete with 47ss, bb checks, 5 way to the flop.

flop 2d5h6h.
checks around to JJ who bets 250 into a 500 pot. i call and the others fold.

turn 4d.
i check, jj bets 400, which was fairly small, and since i was being offered 3.5:1 odds with a pair and straight draw, i called.

river 7d.
i check, JJ checks behind, i show the 2 pair and she mucks without showing. i dont think she had anything, she likes to bet when checked to and usually doesnt bet again if she hits the turn.


that pot boosted me up to about 5500 in chips. i spent the rest of the level not getting any action. i stole blinds 3 times and after posting my blinds i basically broke even, and ended the level at about 5600.

100/200 blinds now. utg limps, jj liu raised to 700 in mp, i had 66 on button. i thought a little bit about calling. i wasnt too scared of the utg having a big hand because he had previously limp folded utg. i decided to fold anyway, the bb called as did the utg limper. flop came J96 all diamonds. checks to JJ who bets 1500. i vomit as the others fold and she rakes in the pot.

not being results oriented i think folding here is correct because of the chance the utg repops and i dont have implied odds to hit a set, and playing a low pocket pair vs an aggressive opponent like JJ seems like a bad idea usually cause i dont really get free cards often and i have to fold most flops.


i fold until im utg, when i get JJ. i make it 625, david pham calls as does JJ liu in the sb.

flop K52 rainbow. JJ checks, i bet 1k, both of them fold. If i was raised i would be in an interesting spot because I didnt bet very strong, only about half pot, the board is so dry and drawless, but it appears as if i have a huge hand because i raised utg and cbet a 3way flop, but thankfully i didnt have to face that spot. My stack is now about 6600.

The next round my stack basically stays the same as I lost a set of blinds and stole blinds once.


next interesting hand, mp raises to 700 (the utg limper from my 66 hand), folds to me in the bb, i have AQ and flat call. flop KT3. I check, he bets 1200 and i fold. I wish i led out on the flop because I cant really call a big bet oop, and I had seem him fold to a flop donkbet from the blinds by amir vahedi a round earlier.

I think check raising the flop would be a dangerous play, we both had about 6500, but he had showed strength in both spots, and seemed somewhat passive and tight before this point preflop, so i decided to just take the safe route and fold.


a few hands later, amir vahedi makes it 700 in middle position, i call in the cutoff with 99, the bb calls and we see a 3way flop.

flop J92 rainbow.
bb checks, amir bets 1k, i smooth call, bb folds.

turn 6h, putting 2 hearts on board.
amir checks, i bet 1500, he check minraises, i shove over it for my last 500 or so, he calls with AJ, and im up to about 14k.


I am in great shape now with a big stack, but unfortunately I cant really use it to my advantage. David pham has about 2200, the player behind him has about 1800, the player behind him has 1500, and the player 2 to his left has about 2k. Thus, I cant really raise light because I will potstick myself with shitty hands or I will fold to a 8-11bb stack reshove over a 3x raise which is just totally horrible.

I take the next 3 rounds off basically, raising once when i got dealt AQs in mp to take down the blinds. After 3 rounds pass, 2 of the shortstacks were knocked out, and david pham increased his stack to a little more than 3k, so i could start raising again.


i got dealt Q9o in the hijack and made it 600. folds to the bb who calls (same guy who i folded AQo to and limped in my 66 hand).

flop AQT, we both check.
turn 2, he checks, i bet 800, he calls.
river 3, we both check and he shows KQcc and takes down the pot. I like how i played this hand, the check bet check line gets value from some worse hands, minimizes my losses to a hand like his cause he cant frontbet river whereas if i had bet flop and checked behind turn, he could put out a little value bet/blocker bet on the river.


The blinds go up to 100/200/25 ante. I fold a round or two, and the following hand comes up when my stack is about 11800.

utg+2 makes it 700. he seemed fairly aggressive. he had previously shoved over a david pham early position raise of 700 for 4000 with AJo, david pham called with AKs and he sucked out to build his stack up a bit. When this hand occured he had about 9500.

folds to me in the bb and i have QQ. I decide to conceal my hand strength and flat call. I also dont like being in a position where if i make it 2200 and he flat calls and a bad flop comes, or if i get shoved on preflop and we both have big stacks, so I am fine with this flat call.

flop T92 with 2 spades. i check, he bets 1k, and i call planning on donking the turn.

turn 9s, putting a 3rd spade on board, i have the Queen of spades. I lead out for 2k, which is about 60% of the pot. he thinks for a couple seconds and then shoves for about 6k more.

I tank for a long time. I didnt put him on a boat like TT 99 22 or T9 because i thought he would flat call in position here. I also didnt feel like he had AA or KK very often, so after a long debate I convinced myself to call, mainly because of the reshove he made on david pham, i figured hands like AK 1 spade and AsTx and JJ were a good percentage of his range, I also felt that if i called and won my stack would be so big (over 20k) that I would be able to really abuse the table and I would have about 55% of a final table stack with 45 people left. i call and he has J8ss for a flush with a redraw to a straight flush taking away the 7s as an out, so i had 10 outs left and i missed, so now i am down to 2300.


i fold the next few hands, waiting for a pretty good spot when a really marginal spot appears.

JJ liu makes it 625 in mp. I had seen her do this numerous times, and she showed down A9o one of the hands. the player directly to my right cold calls after a little bit of deliberation. I had seen him reraise AA preflop previously, so I figured he had maybe a middle pair or some picture cards. he had roughly 8k.

I have KQcc on the button, and my stack is now about 2200. i did a quick calculation and found out that if i was called in one place, I would be getting 1.5:1 on my money, meaning i needed about 40% equity against the hand i was up against. furthermore, i thought there was a small but nonzero chance that i would get both of them to fold. so i shoved, folds back to JJ who reshoves with QQ and they hold.

I just did a pokerstove against some possible hand ranges JJ could have, i gave her the following range: 77+, A8s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, A9o+, KJo+

I think this is a fair range considering that I had seen her raise at 100/200 without antes to 625 with A9o in middle position. vs this range of hands i have 45% equity, which is more than i need. if i give the caller the following range: TT-66, AQs-A9s, KJs+, AQo-A9o, KQo, i have 44% equity vs that as well, so i think my shove is fine.


i feel i played well but could have played a bunch of these hands differently. I am really second guessing my decisions in the QQ hand. I am fine with the preflop play and think it is superior to reraising preflop because of my position, how tight i had been up to that point, the position of the raiser, and how aggressive he was.

I think leading the flop or check raising the flop are both viable options as well as check calling. But I am most skeptical about calling the turn. i was getting about 2.3:1 odds, and I usually have a good amount of odds or am ahead of a lot of his range.

Being in such a bad spot on the turn after leading out makes me wonder if it's better to check raise or lead the flop. Sure I am put in a bad spot if he raises over my bet or check raise on the flop, but is it really a worse spot than I am put in on the turn? It's hard to say, but i think my flop line is acceptable.


all comments and questions welcome. looking forward to advice. thanks