Hands From the Second Table

Ten swarthy gamblers gathered at the Rio at 9 PM for the second table of the $1500 NLHE Shootout. The players I recognized were Brandon Adams a few to my left and Daryn Firicano two to my left. Right away a focused, competitive vibe spread throughout the table. Bad blood quickly developed between a few of the guys. There was a maniac calling raises with garbage hands which pissed off some of the tighter players. For whatever reason the maniac seemed to be in a terrible mood. He was playing and talking like he just found out his wife was cheating on him with his brother or something.

I folded about twenty hands before picking up [As Qd] after the maniac limped. At this point he hadn't yet exhibited his maniacism. I made it 2500 after his 600 limp expecting to just pick it up right there but when it got back to him he quickly moved all-in for around 13,000. I thought for about ninety seconds and then folded. This was literally the first hand I had played so there was no reason for him to think I had anything but a monster. He ended up showing [Kc Kh]. I never would have folded if I knew what a nut he turned out to be.

An orbit later the same guy limped and I again made a large raise, this time with [Ac Jh], and when it got back to him he reraised me once again. I knew he had to have a monster to pull this one twice so my cards hit the muck within a couple seconds. He showed [As Ad].

At this point I was the short stack of the ten. I got lucky though and nailed a [Kh 9h 7c] flop with the [7h 7d] and doubled through an [As Kc] in a raised 4-way pot. I checked the flop from the small blind and was facing a bet and a raise for almost all my chips by the time it got back to me, so that was an easy double-up. Not too much later I busted the same guy with [As Ac] against his [5s 5h].

We got down to two players without much trouble. The professor to my left busted a young player with a sneakily played [As Ac] against [Jh Js] on a board of [Ts Tc 3h 6h] in a reraised pot, then broke Adams with [Kh Kd] against [As 2c] on a [4s 3c 2d] board, again by just calling the preflop reraise. I was happy to see Adams go as he is a skilled lunatic and would be tough to beat coming from behind. On the other hand the professor was getting a hold of a ton of chips and in the shootout format you have to get ALL of the chips so consolidation to one player is a bad thing unless that player is you.

Fortunately I was able to win a large pot with [Qh Qs] preflop, bust an Armenian pro with [Ah Kh] against his [Ad Jd], and then oust the Australian to my right with [Ad Td] against [Kd 3h]. There were some steals and small pots and a successful checkraise with [9s 9h] against the Armenian on a [Kh 7s 2c] board but mostly it was really easy straightforward poker.

My heads up opponent was a cagey professor named Stephen. He didn't really play tight but he wasn't really loose either. His game was really hard to figure out actually. This tournament was his first ever at a casino but I think he could be an extremely successful player on the tournament circuit if that was what he chose to do. I really had a hard time figuring out what he had in a bunch of hands but it seemed every time there was a big bet out there, he had way the best of it. When we started he was up around 170k-130k and it wasn't too long before he had me down to 100k.

At this point I made a decision that I was going to have to start making some reckless moves if I wanted to get back in the match. The crucial hand came when he raised on the button and I reraised with [7c 5c]. The flop came [Qd 6s 5h] and he called my continuation bet. The turn was the [Ts] and I decided the tournament was over if I checked so I moved all-in. This hand was pretty wild and non-professional. I can't see a top pro getting all his money in the pot in a spot like this just praying his opponent will fold with no idea what he has. Like I said though, Stephen was running me over and I felt I needed to take some risks to shake it up. Luckily he folded.

Just a couple hands later he limped on the button and I raised it up with Qc8c. He called. The flop came something like [9s 9c 3c] and I bet out. He raised liked I had hoped and I shoved in for a huge amount more. He folded and now I had a small chip lead.

The next big pot we played came when I raised the button to 4500 with [9s 6h]. He called. The flop came [Ks Qc 7d] and he checked. I bet bigger than I usually do, 7.5k I think, as I had earlier when I flopped top set with [Ks Kc] and had shown the hand. He called. The turn came [8c] and he led out for 7k. I considered taking the cheap card but instead decided to stay aggressive and represent a big hand and raised to 20k. He thought for a long time and then raised 18k more. At this point I sat back in my chair and sighed, which was a mistake. People told me later I looked really weak when I did this, though I don't know if Stephen was paying attention. I thought for quite a while about whether to just call or not and then sort of suddenly decided Stephen probably didn't have a big hand, was feeler-raising, and would have to fold one pair if I moved in for his last 100k. I declared all-in and Stephen didn't take too long before calling with [Kd 9h].

I think I made a good poker play here, and my opponent played the hand quite poorly. I was aggressive every step of the way and my betting represented a huge hand. However, I made a gigantic mistake. I had been pushing Stephen around lately and I failed to consider his psychological state. If I had not gone all-in in the face of heavy betting on two of the previous few hands, Stephen might have given me more credit for a big hand and maybe laid his top pair down. As it was, Stephen was likely sick of getting pushed around and felt he needed to take a stand.

Before I had processed what was happening, the [5c] was on the felt and they were counting the chips down. I immediately started apologizing to Stephen for the bad beat and told him how well he had played. His wife had just come over to watch and said "so he just hit a straight on the river?" I felt really terrible, but the match was over and I was going to a WSOP final table.