Day One Hands

Yesterday was the most frustrating day of poker I've ever had, I think.

It was not frustrating for the usual reasons. I had plenty of starting hands. I had aces five times and won all five times, four for pretty solid pots. I had kings and won a large pot.

The table was pretty damn good. The starting table went like this:

Seat One: Billy Baxter (loose, pretty aggressive, a constant nuisance)
Seat Two: A loose, terrible Australian, busted in level three and replaced by a tight short-stack
Seat Three: A straightforward Scandinavian
Seat Four: A weird-playing, fairly readable, and fairly awful older fellow who went broke about seven hours in, replaced by an annoying, normal-playing tool
Seat Five: A stunning Norwegian princess who played pretty solid but appeared to be a bit lacking in creativity
Seat Six: A tight, easy read
Seat Seven: Some guy who I don't remember who busted, replaced by a very solid player at night
Seat Eight: One of the weirdest-playing maniacs I have ever encountered. For the most part, his play was patternless. Position and pot odds meant nothing to the guy. He wasn't super into blind defense, like many maniacs. He wasn't a thief or a bludgeoner before the flop. He wouldn't raise a bunch of limpers, or reraise. When people reraised him, he almost always folded. At times during the day he seemed to be playing about two thirds of the hands. At other times he may have folded thirty straight hands. A couple times he limped, then folded for a 3x BB raise. Other times he coldcalled a raise and a reraise out of position with cruddy hands. On a flop of KJ5, he called a bet and a raise of half someone's stack with AT, then bet huge on the 5 turn.

A lot has been written about how it is preferable to sit to the left of maniacs, so you can see what they do before your decision. You can limp with marginal hands if the maniac limps, or you can raise to isolate him and try to play the hand heads up. In general this is pretty accurate, but I think my seat to the left of the maniac was actually pretty problematic. When he limped into a pot in early or middle position, I had the rest of the table to worry about. If I limped behind him, Baxter or one of the aggressive players would often make a large raise, forcing me out of the pot. I didn't have the chips to play big pots with hands like suited connectors and small pairs. If I'd had some more chips, I could have played some big pots and maybe really gotten something going. As it was, I couldn't really afford to gamble, and I wound up siphoning some chips trying to see cheap flops against the maniac.

The other problem was that you had to have a hand to beat the maniac. When a guy bets 2500 into a pot of 1000, you sort of need to have a hand to call him or play back. When he is calling bets and raises with gutshots, it's unwise to bluff with him lurking in the pot. One hand he limped for 300 and I made it 1100 with AT, just trying to isolate. Everyone folded and he called. He actually limp-folded a ton, which made raising his limp a pretty desirable play once the antes kicked in). But he also limp-called and refused to fold on the flop, which made it pretty scary. In this hand the flop came Q97 and we both checked. The turn was an 8 and we both checked. The river was a king, he checked, I knew I shouldn't do it but I just had to, I bet 1500, and he called with pocket sixes.

The maniac was responsible for much of my early troubles. A hand in the first level was raised to 150, called by the maniac, and called by me with 8d7d. The flop came QcTd9d. The preflop raiser bet 200, the maniac made it 700 (this was before I knew just how wacky he played), and I just called. Normally I would play the hand much faster, but in the first level of the main event, I was determined to play conservatively. It was possible I could be up against the nuts, and I had a bad stack size (too many chips) to commit myself to the pot with a third raise. I also thought I might raise on the turn to get some more chips out of it and represent the nuts. The preflop raiser folded, the turn was the 4c, and the maniac bet 1500. After long thought I decided to just call. The river bricked, we both checked, and to my disgust, the maniac turned over Kc9c. At first I was very upset, thinking I could have won the pot at any time with a big bet. But after observing what the maniac was capable of the rest of the day, I think I may have gotten knocked out of the WSOP on this hand if I had played it more aggressively.

After this hand, I raised the maniac a couple more times with hands like AJ and 99, and had to fold to his gargantuan checkraises on the flop both times. Before I knew it I was down to 3000.

Seat Nine: Me
Seat Ten: A poor, fairly aggressive, somewhat bothersome player. The kind of guy who is very easy to abuse if you have position, but can be a thorn in your side when on your left.

With 3000 left I limped in with AhJh after the Australian limped UTG and the maniac limped. Against normal players and/or with a decent sized stack I would have raised in position, but with my short stack I decided to just limp. After the blinds checked and the flop came J54 with two diamonds, the 'Stralian bet 700 into the pot of 300, and the maniac called. Sometimes when a bad aggressive guy does this, especially after limping early, it means an overpair. Sometimes it means a pair under top pair. Sometimes it means a draw. Occasionally it means absolute shit. After some thought I decided I wasn't getting away from it and moved in for 2900. The blinds folded, the Aussie quickly called, and the maniac quickly folded. The Aussie had ace-seven of diamonds, which I was okay with especially after his immediate call. The board came 3-2 and we chopped it.

A bit after that I picked up one of my five pocket aces of the day after the maniac limped for 100. I made it 400, as I often did after the maniac limped. To my disgust, I received three flat-callers behind me and no one ran the squeeze play which has become the hallmark of the 2006 WSOP. The maniac called as well and I had to see a 5-way flop with aces and a short stack. The flop was a very bland J73 or something and everyone checked to the Australian, who made a moderate bet. I moved in when it got back to me and everyone folded.

In the 100-200 level I was fortunate enough to pick up aces against the maniac, have him call my preflop raise, flop top pair, and not suck out. The very next hand I won a solid pot with tens and I was no longer in danger of busting at any moment, solid with around 11k. I got it up to around 16k and was at 13k at the dinner break.

The 100-200 25 level was easily my best of the day. I really got going when the princess raised my big blind and I defended with Ah9h. The flop came 776 with two hearts and I bet 800 into her, intent on pushing after her inevitable raise. I got kind of a bad vibe when she made it 2000 to go, but pushed anyways. After a long thought she folded.

A bit after that she raised UTG and I found aces for a third time and tripled her bet. She called and I was a bit unhappy to see an AJ3 flop. We both quickly checked. The turn came a 4, putting two two-flushes on board and she bet small into me. I thought she had no hand but decided to raise it in case she had a draw or an ace or a set of jacks; she quickly folded.

Then a hand came up where a weak player limped and the maniac finally got out of the way. I decided I was raising with any two but then I found pocket kings and made one of my patented super-weird limps, expecting the guy to my left, Baxter, or the big blind to raise (all had been heavily pouncing on weakness). No one did raise though and we took the flop four-handed. It came a very safe Q73 flop and Baxter bet 800. I made it 2000 after the other two players folded and Baxter called. On the turn (some low card) he check-called my 2750 bet, and then folded to my bet of 4000 on the river.

At this point I was at 27k, the largest at the table, and pretty confident I would end the day with at least 40. Baxter had gotten pretty short and the maniac appeared to have taken a horse-tranquilizer at the dinner break. The table feared me and I was ready to bully them unconscious.

I then had four consecutive steal attempts reraised. The first I raised with A2s, Baxter called, the Scandinavian put in a large reraise, we both folded, and he showed AK. The second I raised UTG with QJo and the small blind reraised. The third I raised in the small blind with J7o and the big blind put in 70% of his stack. The fourth was the very next hand, I raised on the button with 87s (my first button raise of the entire day), and this time the small blind only put in half his stack.

The very next hand things began to spiral out of control. The Scandinavian limped from early position (which always meant a mediocre hand from what I had seen). In the cutoff I decided to limp with A6o. Normally I would raise but after what had happened the last two hands and Baxter lurking in the blinds I elected not to. In retrospect I should have Hollywooded a bit and then made a pissed-off, here-we-go-again sort of raise. I think it would have taken quite a hand to come over the top of my third straight raise.

In any case the others checked and the flop came 553. It was quickly checked to me and I was fairly sure nobody had anything. I casually threw in a 500 chip, ready to reraise if anyone checkraised. The blinds folded and the Scandinavian called in a manner that made me sure that he had just overcards. The turn came a 2 and for some reason I checked after he checked. Looking back this was one of my worst plays of the day. I was very confident he had crap and I either had the best hand or he had a better ace-high. There was no reason to check. If I bet and he raised, I should have been ready to come back over him. The river was an 8 and he immediately bet 2000. I was so sure he had nothing, I immediately called. It was my fastest action of the day. To my complete disgust he turned over AJ and scooped the 6.5k pot. His bet is completely retarded. If he thinks I was folding a pair to that, he was obviously mistaken. This is the kind of crap that had me on tilt all day long. He calls a bet with no hand, thinking he can win the pot by making a hand or bluffing it later. Both are incorrect. On the river he thinks he is bluffing, I think he is bluffing, I call, and he wins anyways. If he has KQ the hand goes down the same way I think.

After this hand I was tilting pretty hard. Usually that's not an issue for me but that hand kind of pushed me over the edge after an already frustrating day. I was upset with not making hands against the idiots, as had been going on all day, but that one I screwed up myself. There were about 1000 scenarios in which I could have won the pot, and only one in which I would lose anything substantial on the hand, and I managed to find the worst result.

Luckily I picked up aces against the Scandinavian right after that debacle. I limped in early position for 300, as I had been doing all day with medium to weak hands (with the strong hands rarely getting shown down). The Scandinavian made it 1200, I made it 3700 when it got back to me, he made it 7700, I pushed after long thought for 17,700, and he said "nice hand" and folded.
A few hands after that the good player in seat seven made it 1000 in late position, I made it 3000 on the button with AK, and he called. The flop came 982 and he checked. I bet 4200, and after a long staredown, he raised to 12,500 leaving about 10k behind. I really had no idea what he had and folded. He later claimed jacks.

The last two hands really showed where I screwed up yesterday. For whatever reason, no one was ever willing to give me credit for a hand. When I had a hand, they would bet or raise or call and I would get paid off. When I didn't have a hand, they would bet or raise or call and I would lose the pot. Bluffing got me nowhere. If I had never made a bluff yesterday, I might have finished the day over 30k. There were times where I felt I "had" to bluff, like the last hand and the AT against the maniac, but it just was not working against these guys and weak-tight play really would have served me much better.

After losing that pot I lost a couple other small ones and blinded down to 11.5k. After that I won the blinds uncontested with QQ, 99, and AA. Then, with only ten minutes left in the night, the annoying guy made a standard raise to 1500 from early position and I looked down at AK aka "The Boneyard" in mid-late position. I had about 13k at this point and a lot of options. I did not have much of a read on the guy's strength and also had the rest of the table to worry about. The guy had me covered, but only slightly, and seemed like the type who would prefer making day 2 to racing. Eventually I decided to make a somewhat risky all-in shove. When the others folded and he took more than ten seconds, I knew I was okay. At this point I really would not have minded him calling with a pair, as it was an excellent time in the tournament for me to double up or go home. After about four minutes he threw his pocket queens in the muck.

On the second to last hand of the night, I raised with JTs in second position and the big blind (the good player) called. The flop was roughly 852 and he checked. I made a continuation, making sure I changed my body language from the AK hand. After long thought he folded pocket fours face up, acting like it was an epic laydown. That may have been the first hand I won the whole day without the best hand.

So I'm lucky to be alive, I'm lucky the structure of the this tournament is fantastic, I may be lucky to have a new table, and I'm lucky to have two days to recover from the stormiest day of poker I've ever had.