#445 - WSOP Notebook #18 - An Afternoon in Purgatory, Part II - Satellite Heaven [?]

[written June 14, p.m.]

4:20 PM - Table 4, Seat 3. $525 single-table satellite. 20 minute rounds, 2,000 chips.

4:30 PM - Here’s the quality of player in the $525 satellite. It’s the first level, a player in early position with Q-Q limps. Four others limp. He check-calls all the way with a king high board. And the guy betting folds face-down after he’s called on the river. Then the player who folds re-raises all-in on the very next hand with Ad-5d. He runs into K-K and is out in three hands.

There is definitely great value here, but it takes patience, the kind of skill that excels in single table sit-n-gos and turbos, and probably some bankroll. You can play with these lousy players, but sometimes they are going to win, especially in this turbo-style game.

In one hand in the previous satellite, a guy flat-calls me for 525 and a short stack moves in for 800 more. I’m stealing so I fold. So it’s 800 more for the flat-caller, who now has a shot at a 2,400 pot. He should be calling with any two cards, especially any two he would flat-call my middle-position raise. Even though he has a big stack, he folds. On the next hand, I have A-Js and raise. The same player who flat-called puts in a min-reraise. I push and he has pocket aces. You’re going to lose occasionally to people like that, but much more often you are going to win.

4:53 PM - I’m all-in with ten ten against ace queen. He gets a queen in the door, but there are four clubs on the board to go with my ten of clubs to take it. Seat 4 asks about my Full Tilt shirt. “Where did you get it?”

“They gave it to me.”

With great difficulty, after the next two hands, he pulls a card out of his wallet and shows it to me. There is clearly some ceremony involved in the presentation. It is Tom McEvoy’s business card.

He says he takes lessons from McEvoy. McEvoy charges him $200 per hour, and they do two-hour lessons. He’s done two lessons so far. He’s in town from San Jose, so he can’t take them regularly.

5:02 PM - I have 4,000 in chips and we’re 8-handed.

I am so curious to ask Seat 4 what he has learned for $800, but I can’t think of how to ask. It will come out either like I am trying to steal something, or like I’m mocking him.

5:06 PM - I never get to ask Seat 4 what he’s learned from Tom McEvoy because I have just busted him. And I busted him after he made a play I’m certain Tom Mc Evoy would not endorse. He limped in early position with K-To. It was my blind so it didn’t cost me anything to see the flop with Jc-8c. I hit a dream flop, Jd-Tc-3c. I bet out and he was the only caller. The next card was the ace of clubs, making me a flush. I checked, not wanting him to fold if he was afraid of the ace. Furthermore, I figured if he had an ace, he would be encouraged to bet. He bet 300 and I called. The river was the eight of diamonds. I now had a flush and I had the board somewhat crippled for other cards because I had a jack and an eight to pair with the two non-clubs on the board. I decided to bet out, because I thought he would be afraid of my having a flush but if I made a reasonable bet, he might call it. I bet 450. He moved all-in for close to 2,000 more. I called him of course, though I was a little bit worried that he had a higher flush. He wanted to fold his cards face down, reluctantly showing that he had a red off-suit K-T, and that he was trying to bluff me at the end.

It was as ridiculous a bluff as I could imagine. Here he had the third pair, since there was a jack and ace on the board, and there were three clubs on the board, and I lead the betting after the flop, called his bet on the turn, and then led out on the river. Why would he conceivably think he could bluff me off a hand or that I didn’t have a real hand, or that I didn’t have a hand that could beat third pair after I had put so many chips in the pot. Again, I don’t think the problem was Tom McEvoy’s coaching … I think it might have been his learning. 

6:30 PM - After going heads-up with Steve, a local I recognized from the Bellagio, I win $5,000. We have a $1,000 save, so I end up with 8-$500 tournament chips. Steve is a decent player, but he makes a few mistakes. I do catch him bluffing one time, but otherwise, I think he’s playing too conservative. He folds almost every time I raise before the flop, and I raise before the flop quite a bit. When we start heads up, I have a chip lead, and I never really relinquish it, though one time he doubles up reraising with A-J when I call after raising him with A-7s.

He also made the mistake of occasionally criticizing my play earlier. One time when I had just called a raise of his with pocket threes, another time when I had called another player who was short stacked all-in after I had raised with A-2s and that player had re-raised all in with A-T. By making these criticisms, he informed me of aspects of my game he was taking notice of, and also revealing things about how he played.

The strangest thing about playing heads-up with Steve occurred near the very end. After he had doubled up with the better ace, we were almost even. At this point, some large dude named Mike came by the table and started bothering Steve about the money that Steve owed him. They ended up having an argument that was so big that I thought it might get physical. A friend of Steve’s came by and offered to kick Mike’s ass. (The friend was a woman named Mindy who I wrote about a couple months ago. She came to my attention because she’s very pretty, reminds me of a girl I had a crush on in high school, and told me she carries a concealed weapon. So I don’t doubt for a second that she could have kicked Mike’s ass.)

Steve, a very low-key player, was getting increasingly agitated by the attention. Mike kept acting like he was done talking, but he would finish every sentence “… but when are you gonna be able to get me the money?”

And every response of Steve’s ended with him saying, “… will you leave me the fuck alone? I’m trying to play.”

I think Mike realized his strategy for getting paid was counterproductive and he suddenly reversed course, trying to calm down the now-angered Steve by saying - yelling really - “Don’t talk to me. Don’t even fucking look at me. Just play.”

For some reason, this made Steve even madder. “Leave me the fuck alone and don’t tell me what to do. And good luck getting your money on my way out of the room.”

The argument continued on, even though both sides seemed to agree that Mike was out of line for bothering Steve. At one point, Steve was trying to explain how broke he was. While we were playing hands and he was betting or folding, he turned out his pockets to show he had only $12 with him. He then explained his financial arrangements with the backer who put him into the satellite and about how little money he’s going to make even if he succeeds. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that after just a few minutes of this, Steve busts.

Of course, the cards help too. I raise with A-J, Steve moves all in with A-9 and I call him. Obviously, if the cards had been reversed, the same thing could have happened and Steve would have doubled up. But I think the karma of the situation was that Steve was destined to lose since some guy he owed money to was bothering him for the money while he was trying to earn it.

Steve was a pretty decent player. But he was the only decent player at the two tables. And these were among the more expensive satellites in the room. So I think it bears repeating: Get to Vegas as soon as you can, and play these satellites, if you can handle the atmosphere.