I dreamt about this event last night, and it was intertwined with my nightmares. Then I spent all day mulling over what happened yesterday. Again I was off to a good start. It's a great structure that enables the player to sit back and wait for the right opportunities. There were 647 entrants and at the dinner break I had 36k in chips and an average stack was 21k. Back from dinner I was in the big blind with 99 and the level was 100 antes and 500/1000 blinds. There was a limper in middle position and the button limped. I raised 4k more.
The middle position player threw in 3k and the dealer corrected him to let him know it was 4k not 3k to call. I noticed this and the look on his face and wondered why 1k seemed to make a difference to him. I mean really, if you're willing to call 3k why would 4k be such a big surprise. The button called. The flop came out 422. I bet 9k. The middle position player called and the button folded. What? Why did he call? What the heck can he have? He limped in and then called a big pre-flop raise. Now he's going to stick with the hand? He doesn't make any sense. The turn comes off a 3. Well, I'm thinking, I can't check to him. If I let him bet I'll be stuck with a tough decision. I really can't imagine what kind of hand he could have. Maybe he had or has a straight draw. If he has an Ace I don't really want him in the hand any longer. I shove all in. He insta-calls and shows.... are you ready for this? .... 5h 2h. WTF? An ace comes off on the river improving his hand to a straight and I lose 30k on the hand. I was a bit of jerk after that hand, but I'm not really sorry for it. He was an idiot and that's what I said out loud at the table. He said something like, "Well you were betting into me." And I said, "Well of course. I didn't expect you to be stupid and call 4k preflop with 52. I didn't know you were an idiot." And then he went on to say something about pot committed or some other such nonsense. The fact is he can't justify his hand there. He just called with crap and got lucky. And I was very vocal about how much of an idiot he was. In retrospect I start to see where that 4k versus 3k was a sticking point for him preflop. He's an idiot. He thought his hand was worth 3k more, but would have folded if he'd realized it was 4k more, but since he had already thrown in the 3k he pretty much had to put in the other 1k to see the flop and THAT's what he meant when he said "pot-committed". It's still absolutely ridiculous and he made himself sound like that much more of a dummy by trying to justify his bad play.
So here's my mistake. I forgot my #1 rule of poker. I don't think I've blogged about this, but this is something that I've lived by for years after playing and winning several $2 tourneys on Poker Stars. You ready? Assume every opponent is an idiot! Yep, that's right. Don't give them credit for being a smart player. Assume they will put their money in bad. Assume they will play bad. Assume they are stupid. This assumption can save me lots of money and it's the one revelation that I let slip away yesterday in that hand. In fact, it took me all day to remember this - my very own rule!
So, yes, I recovered from that loss. I used my steaming appearance to acquire chips. I picked up AK and shoved. The big blind called with 66 and I hit my hand to double up to over 12k. He threw his cards in all pissy and all I could think was when you lose 30k to 52 you can get huffy, but losing 6k to AK doesn't warrant your attitude. I didn't say anything though. I just stacked my chips and moved on. A little while later I the idiot was in the big blind. Another player limped in. I had A4 and shoved. The level 100, 600/1200 so with 10 big blinds I was still in short stack mode. The Idiot called the roughly 13k bet and the other player folded. Are you ready for this? The Idiot had K8! LOL hahahaha... proving he's still an idiot he doubled me up to over 25k. Then I pick up AA and make a fairly large preflop raise. Get one caller and the flop comes ... 522! AHHHHH! I shove all in. And the player says, "What? You don't think I play 52?" LOL So I said, "No sir, you look like you're way to smart to play 52." ... me taking another shot at the idiot who was still at the table! LOL He folds and some how I find myself sitting on 50k which is roughly 20k more than an average stack at this point in the tournament.
I pick up 55 and raise to 4k. We're still at the 100, 600/1200 level. The guy on my left raises to 10k. Now, he's been coming over the top of me rather consistently, but he and I have been talking about it and I know it's not that he's picking on ME. But coincidentally he's been picking up hands whenever I do. This time, I decide I'm done with my raise/fold play. I decide to put HIM to the test and I shove all in. He goes into the tank. He looks at the clock and sees that we are comming up on a break. There's about 180 people left. He finally decides to call. He has AK and he hits his hand to double through me and leaving me with 13k in chips. It was a chance and I decided to take it. In retrospect the only other way I would have been content to play the hand would be to call his 6k raise and then I would have had to fold on the flop when the A or the K or both hit. That would have saved me a bunch of money, and ultimately this hand did cost me the tournament. BUT, I did say in my last blog that I wanted to be more aggresive. SOooooo, maybe a good balance between aggressive and not would be appropriate. He's right, it was a decent time to race. And if I'd won the hand I would have been sitting on nearly 100k in chips and sitting pretty for a run at the money. All in all I'm happy with the way I played (minus the 52 idiot hand) and I'm glad I took my game up a notch from where it was when I played on Monday.
Tomorrow is a $200 satellite event to win a seat into the $1600 main event. I plan on winning my seat! I did it back at the IP when there was a WSOP stop there last Oct or Sept or whatever. I can do it again. My plan for tomorrow? Well, I don't have to race for all of my chips. I don't have to take big chances. I can wait for good hands and make them profitable. I don't have to win the whole tournament. I just have to get into the money to get the seat. So, I'll be aggressive, but I'm looking to use well timed aggression to get my opponents chips. I'm good at building my chip stack and this is a great skill to have in a satellite tournament. I EXPECT a win tomorrow.
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