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#333 – FTOPS VII Event #1 – 15 Minutes of Fame – Part B
By 7:02 PM, two minutes after the start, I was in touch with both contest winners, Theresa (TedForrestFan) and Sammy (sammymorb). Both mentioned their sense of anticipation. Theresa, who regularly plays small-stakes cash games, spent the afternoon playing MTT SnGs, trying to adjust. Sammy confessed to being “nervous, anxious.” “Woke up an hour early this morning, ready to throw up.” He read up on pro tips while he was at work.
I know that most readers of this blog are poker players, though I don’t know your reaction to this. Have you gone through this yourself? Have you played these events and not felt that way? Have you not playing $200+ buy-in events and wondered what it felt like? Do you think it’s silly getting worked up over such a thing?
Me, I understand exactly how they feel. I get that way myself, even now.
Even though I played a dozen events at the World Series last year and a couple hundred $200+ buy-in events on Full Tilt, I still get nervous and excited before they start. It’s afeeling of possibility, that by doing things right and continuing to survive with and over the eight people at my table, that something incredible can happen. I love that feeling and hope I never lose it.
If you remember Sammy’s entry, he wanted an excuse to avoid watching AMERICAN IDOL with his wife. IDOL started the same time as the event. He told me his first goal was to avoid being the first eliminated, and then to make the first break.
Theresa showed up with webcam on, bikini top, sunglasses, and straw hat just like in the photos that appeared at the top of #332 and in the red-headed avatar, which she does in fact resemble. She also typed 10 compliments about me that she pasted into her table chat from time to time.
I didn’t catch them all but here were a few:
“Does anyone read Michael Craig’s blog? It is one of the most entertaining I’ve ever seen.”
“The avatar for Michael Craig doesn’t do him justice. He looks far more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than his image would suggest.”
“Michael Craig just busted David Benyamine.” [That actually wasn’t pre-typed.]
“I learned everything I know by reading Michael Craig’s books … and I’m not just talking about poker.”
“I learned how to play by reading Michael Craig’s ‘Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide, Tournament Edition.’ He is a great author.”
“You should definitely buy Michael Craig’s books.”
And my favorite, “On my ‘All-Time-List-of-Babe-Magnets, Michael Craig is up there … WAY up there!”
I communicate with Sammy though IM but because Theresa has the webcam set up, we talk through the audio.
Theresa and I each pick up pots through a strategy I explained that could have led to us making LESS than we might otherwise have done. I tell her how great this strategy is but it’s open to debate. My strategy is about starting aggressive and becoming less aggressive as the hand goes on. Here’s how it played out in our opening hands.
Theresa had QcJc in late position and one limper. She raised 3x BB, to 60. (I might have raised more because of the limper.) The limper called. The flop came Jd-6s-8c. The limper bet 100. Theresa called. Pot = 350. Tc on the turn. The limper bet 185, Theresa called. Pot = 720. Qh on the river. So the board is J-6-8-T-Q, no flush but obvious straight possibilities. Theresa has top-two-pair. The limper bets out; I don’t have the amount but it’s half the pot. Theresa calls.
All these moves were exactly the way I’d play it. Theresa is an experienced cash game player and it was clear from talking with her husband Greg that he’s a savvy and thoughtful cash game player, too. I don’t know if they’d be inclined to play this way.
It certainly doesn’t SEEM like you ought to be giving up control, meekly calling along, right, with top pair and that threatening board? And then just calling on the river with top-two-pair?
I’m not saying it’s the right way to play but it’s the way I think you should play early in tournaments. The implied odds for an opponent hitting a big hand with improbable cards are potentially so great that it’s hard to get opponents off draws. Plus the limper-caller could have anything and your aggressiveness can win you either a small pot (when they have no hand and no draw) or lose you a huge pot (when they suck you in with a monster or hit their draw). You can win a huge pot only when they have a great but second-best hand or make/call huge bets on draws and miss.
Well, Theresa didn’t have a hand that was likely to get a second-best hand to spend a lot of chips. But by keeping the pot small, she could possibly induce a bluff (or ill-considered “value bet”) from a mediocre hand or a draw that missed. And that’s the other benefit of playing this way: you induce players to make bets you can call and win but which you couldn’t comfortably make at the end.
[In this hand, Theresa’s opponent had AhJh. He was actually ahead until the river when Theresa picked up her second pair. ]
In my hand, I raised on the button with Kh-Th. The small blind called. The flop came Td-2d-Tc. There was 140 in the pot so I bet 80, the same bet I’d make with just about anything. He called. There was now 300 in the pot. The turn was the six of diamonds. He checked and I decided to check. I can’t find anything he could really have and call with, and I figure this sets him up to bet the river, which I’ll raise unless a club comes on the river, in which case I’ll just call. I don’t think it’s very likely he has 2 clubs – he has the random small blind hand. I’m thinking maybe he has an ace.
The river card is the ace of clubs, a very mixed blessing. He bets the pot, 300. Of course I’m going to call but I feel I can’t raise. Maybe he does have 2 clubs. And most of the hands he’d bet that I can beat are hands he would fold. If he’s taking a stab as a bluff, he won’t call. He might call a reraise with a number of aces but if he has a weak ace, maybe not. I don’t think he’ll call if he has a deuce or a six. Maybe if he has a pocket pair he’ll call but not with a small one. After all, the ace LOOKS LIKE what I’m betting.
I call and he shows Q-T. We both have trip tens but my kicker plays and I take the pot.
I have mixed feelings here. I could have potentially busted this guy. He had one of the few hands that would have called potentially anything on the flop, the turn, and the river. Granted, it’s hard to put an opponent on the case ten. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
Fifteen minutes in, Theresa has 3,415. I have 3,330. Sammy has 2,805. I announce the totals and say, “We’ve all survived the first fifteen minutes.” Theresa tells me, “That was really my goal.”
