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#023 – FTOPS #4 – Final Update – Cousin of Mickey Lolich Hits Game Winning Homer
That was actually the headline of a Detroit Free Press article from 1972 or 1973. Ron Lolich, a young outfielder with the Cleveland Indians, made the biggest hit of his career, and THAT’S how it was reported.
Andy Bloch, brother of Jon Bloch, finished 346th in FTOPS #4, PLO with rebuys, last night. Jon finished 340 places higher, going out in sixth. He earned $10,184 for his efforts. Andy, in contrast, had won a poker tournament at Foxwoods and competed almost two more years in tournament poker before cashing for more.
Bloch’s play was superb throughout the night. He spent a long time around, and after, the bubble with a short stack, waiting for the right time to move his chips with superior hands. A succession of those efforts led to him building a big stack, though he was neither relentlessly aggressive enough (or passive-lucky enough) to play enough pots to stay at the top.
The final table was set at 3:04 AM EST with just a few minutes left at the $8,000-$16,000 level, six hours after the tournament began. The two big stacks were KudelyKQ, with 917,000 and Deu_Zebra, with 648,000. KudelyKQ had been active through the night, calling blinds, calling raises behind, and punishing opponents when he caught flops. I described in a previous entry how he busted Miss Lulu. Lulu was far, far, far from his only victim.
The first three players busted in just 15 minutes, and Jon Bloch followed a minute later. KudelyKQ, with over 1 million chips, limped for 20,000. Jon raised to 90,000, and KudelyKQ called.
KudelyKQ limped and called the raise with 5d-As-4s-7c.
Jon Bloch had raised with Qc-Qd-3c-9c.
At the start of the hand, Jon had 239,000 chips. He would clearly be able to get all his chips in on the flop, someting KudelyKQ had to have known. In addition, Jon had, for a couple hours, pretty clearly limited himself to playing big hands when his stack was this short. Consequently, the decision of KudelyKQ to call was questionable. It was 10% of his chips and was almost certain to be another 15%. His hand was the sort that plays better after the flop, with deep stacks. He would have to hit the flop exactly right to confidently bet or call 140,000. He could assume that Bloch had a big pair, and maybe an ace (which would clearly have been better than Kudely’s ace).
The flop came 4h-9d-8h. Kudely had bottom pair, no chance at a flush, and needed a six to make a straight. Acting first, and clearly not having enough of a hand to call a bet, he bet 210,000, more than Jon’s remaining stack.
This seemed like a check-and-fold situation. Since Jon had already bet more than a third of his chips, and the nature of the flop meant he had an overpair or had a hand like Kudely’s with “middle” cards that would have been unlikely to hit the flop WORSE than Kudely’s, he was sure to get a call.
Jon called with his overpair, and was helpless then the four of diamonds on the river made Kudely a set.
Aggressive play can work in PLO, but it seemed unlikely to work against an opponent likely to call regardless of the flop – and especially here when the flop was extremely likely to be favorable. Likewise, opportunistic play – limping, calling raises – can also work in PLO, but, again, it is relatively unlikely to work against this kind of opponent unless you get lucky.
KudelyKQ, who clearly benefited from luck but also demonstrated the skill to maximize his return from good starting and and good flops, finished third.
Deu_Zebra and chmi32n played heads-up for 20 minutes. They probably played about 50 hands during that time. During much of the heads-up, they jockeyed back and forth for the chip lead, varying between 1.3 million and 2 million apiece. In the end, they had similar hands in a limped pot, with Deu (with 2 million in chips) starting with 3c-7h-6h-2s and chmi (with 1.3 million in chips) holding Kc-3s-5s-2d.
The flop was 4c-5c-6d. The both flopped straights but Deu, using the 3-7, had the higher staight than chmi, using the 2-3. With the flush draw on the board, they traded raises until all the chips were in. Deu_Zebra’s higher striaght won him the event.
Here is how they finished:
1. Deu_Zebra $ 52,528
2. chmi332n – $ 32,696
3. KudelyKQ – $ 24,120
4. BUBBLESftt – $ 18,760
5. anakinso – $ 13,936
6. Jon Bloch – $ 10,184
7. RollDeep – $ 6,646.40
8. Jojo_B_Good – $ 5,145.60
9. trajan21 duke – $ 4,073.60
Allen Cunningham was the last Full Tilt Pro in the field, going out in 14th place.
ADDENDUM
It will usually not be my practice to respond to specific criticism by adding to a post – I’d rather make a separate post or cover it in the forum (or, best of all, pretend it doesn’t exist and hope it goes away), but I want to do it here. First, I don’t feel as comfortable in my analysis of PLO situations as I do with NLHE. Second, I’m fine goofing up when I say something critical about a pro’s play – you’ll assume I’m wrong – but not so fine when I get it wrong when criticizing an online player. Third, I have to consider the source of the criticism here.
Andy Bloch pointed out some mistakes in my analysis of the hand on which KudelyKQ eliminated his brother. He wasn’t cutting Jon any slack, so I wanted to point out Andy’s analysis, both because it is excellent, and it points out where I was wrong.
Andy: Kudely’s play was not quite as bad as you make it sound.
Andy: preflop, he was slightly less than 50%, but only because Jon didn’t have AA
Andy: (I don’t like Jon’s play preflop that much either, unless he’s pretty sure that the other player will fold)
Andy: http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2391177
Andy: of course, if jon had the aces, he’d be much worse off
Andy: on the flop, Kudely had to call if he checked, so betting out is fine
Andy: against AA he was 43.2%
Mike: What was he after the flop?
Andy: http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2391187
Andy: that’s the flop against AA
Andy: against QQ, the A457 is actually a favorite
Andy: http://twodimes.net/h/?z=2391191
Andy: (after the flop)
Mike: I’m counting just nine outs – 4 sixes, 3 aces, 2 fours.
Andy: In omaha, if you put your opponent on a big pair preflop and the flop is low and not too scary, you probably have the right odds to call an all-in bet
Andy: 7s
Andy: 5s
Mike: You’re right – I forgot about two pair.
Andy: Once kudely called preflop, the rest of the play is automatic
Andy: now, he might have figured that Jon was playing weak-tight and he might be able to bluff him out of enough flops
Andy: but obviously, he was wrong
