Player's Stories

The Education of a Poker Player:
Part VI -- Day 5 & 6
6 Days, 15 tournaments

By Randy Glover

Day 5: I GET SOME HANDS

My wife calls at 6:15 am, Las Vegas time. But that's not the weird thing. The weird thing is, I am actually cheerful. I feel great, having gotten 8 ½ hours of sleep. Leaving the Monte Carlo on my way to the Luxor and Mandalay, I am on top of the world. The sun is shining, the streets are mostly empty and somewhere, I know, birds are chirping (just not on the Strip).

I feel: "I can take this town."

Mandalay Bay 10 am:

I get KK early, raise it and two limpers call. In these small tournaments the limpers could have anything from KK on down to 32 os. The flop is JJ9. I bet, get a raise and a call. I fold. One of them has AJ or something similar; or at least a Jack. Amazingly, neither of them does. It is very hard to read players in a $25 buy-in tournament. They both bet to the river where the showdown reveals a Q9 vs. a 10,9. Unreal. Mr. Q9 rakes in a big pot.

Soon after, I get the following three hands in succession: QQ, AA, QQ. I lose only on the last hand when an Ace flops and I immediately fold to a bet.

I am up to $750. We are down to 18 players out of 30.

I catch KK in the BB. The action is: 4 people Fold, 2 Call, one person Raises, then another Reraises. I raise again. Fold, Fold, Call, Call. Wow. But I did the right thing. I want this thing as close to heads up as I can get.

Flop is all small cards with two diamonds. I bet, get one fold. Then the SB raises. I reraise, putting him all in. The river is a diamond and he flips over 10,7 of diamonds.

I would like to say this only happens in small buy-in tournaments, but that is not true. In the $1,000 buy-in NLHE tournament at this year's World Poker Open, someone at the final table pushed all of his chips in on 10,8 os. This was the very first hand of the final table. He was not that short stacked and could have waited a good 20-30 hands.

As I watch the $950 pot being pushed to an incredibly bad player, I remind myself:

WE WANT PLAYERS LIKE THIS PLAYING AGAINST US. IN THE LONG RUN WE WILL WIN. THIS IS WHERE OUR PROFITS COME FROM.

But in the short run, I am not happy. While I want players like this in my games, I just don't want them sucking out on me on a huge pot.

This is totally irrational thinking, I know. If people play that badly, they are going to suck out on you occasionally.

I now have $300 left. I look for a hand or a situation to go all in on. The limits have just gone up; it is now NLHE.

Mr. Q9 has been raising exactly $300 with A8 or worse. I am in the BB, and Mr. Q9 raises $300. I have A10. I will get to see maybe 6 more hands before the blinds take my money. And this is the situation I wanted. He likely has an Ace with a weak kicker or a K9 or some such hand. I call with the last of my chips. Unfortunately he has a real hand this time: AK.

Luxor 12 pm:

I don't play a hand and find myself down to my last $125 when I catch 66 and triple up. A few hands later I find KK. It holds and I am up to $900. We are down to 10 players and it is now NLHE.

I am soon down to $550 with 9 players left. There are 3 shorter stacks than myself. They pay 7. Getting into the money in any shape or form would be a moral victory for me.

When 2 players are gone, I use my $400 to steal with A9os, A7s type hands. This works as long as you don't run into a real hand. But the alternative to not stealing is being blinded out. You can't wait for AA, KK or AK at a 7-person table when the blinds are high.

My lack of live experience comes into play again. UTG goes all in with his last $300. Blinds are at $200/400. I am in the SB with K5os and $1500 in chips. The BB, a young guy with a shaved head, seems like a savvy player and will likely just check this hand down unless he catches big. I try to call just the $100, matching the all-in's bet. The bald BB, a dealer from the Mirage, points out my error.

The dealer at the Luxor won't make a ruling. They call the floor man, who calls the Poker Room Director. I think they are going to call the head of casino operations next, but this guy finally makes a ruling. I can fold, leaving my $100 in there. Or I can add $100. A no-brainer at this point: I add the $100. I break even on the hand. UTG has a small pair and wins the main pot. My King high wins the side pot of $200.

When we are down to 4 players the short stack goes all in again. UTG, the bald dealer from the Mirage, has already called. I've got K of diamonds, 8 of spades in the BB. It is only $100 to me (yes, I'm sure this time). I call, knowing that the bald dealer will only raise me out with a premium hand. The flop is junk with 2 diamonds. Turn is a third diamond. The bald dealer bets out half his stack. I fold. I put him on a flush, but less than the nut flush. The river is a 4th diamond. The all in and the bald dealer both turn over their hands. The bald dealer has an A2os, no diamond. The all in caught a small pair and stays alive. I tell the bald dealer that I would have won with the flush and he looks sheepish. He apologizes and says he knows better and rarely makes that mistake. I believe him.

It is another 15 minutes before we knock the short stack out.

I wish I could remember the hand that knocked out the bald dealer and brought me a mountain of chips. All I remember is that after this hand, I am out-stacked by the chip leader approximately 1.5:1. If I outplay him just a couple of hands I'll catch up.

I'd like to say I outplayed him over a grueling series of hands, but I didn't. I got lucky.

Here is what happened:

He turns down an offer of a chop that I thought was very favorable to him. Then we steal from each other once from our respective small blinds.

The 3rd hand heads up I look at my hole cards and find AA. I can raise here and rake in the blinds, or I can try to trap. I opt for a trap. I call from the SB hoping for a raise. He checks. The flop is:

A4A.

I think Caro's tells and stare at it for a good 4-5 seconds, like I'm mulling over the possibilities.

Two handed the SB is also the button. So I am second to act after the flop. I plan on slow playing this one, hoping he catches on the turn or river. Amazingly I don't have to. He puts me all in.

"You're not going to like this," I tell him.

He grins when he sees my quad Aces. Oh, he had a K,4 off suit.

My next hand is 55. I figure I've am going to win the thing outright on this hand. I push all in from the BB. He calls with K,7 os. A straight wraps around his 7 leaving me chip leader by only a small amount.

This time he accepts the chop (in my favor) and I leave with $180.

'I WIN, I WIN,' I think as I walk back to the Monte Carlo.

After lunch I meet Jerry at the Mirage for a limit HE satellite. It takes us a good half hour to get eight players and after waiting another 15-20 minutes, the assembled eight each decide to each put in another $5 and play 8-handed.

Only one problem. The 8th player, a loud obnoxious guy, has joined a live game. The problem is not that he doesn't want to play in the tournament. The problem is that he doesn't want to put up the extra $5. He asks one of us to put it up for him. We all laugh. We figure we are in for a long wait. But the guy is so obnoxious that his live table puts in the $5 for him.

Mr. Obnoxious talks non-stop, and I am glad when he busts out.

I do poorly, but Jerry chops, winning about $90.

The Sahara NLHE Wednesday Night:

The Wednesday night tournament is $65 for 4000TCs and a one-time rebuy of $40 for 5,000TCs. The blinds start at $50/$100 and we have an ante of $25. The large amount of chips and large amount of dead money produces a large amount of action.

I find AA in mid position the third hand out. I bring it in for 3X the BB. I get 2 callers. The flop is K57 with 2 hearts. I bet out $2,000, wanting to drive out a possible flush. I get one call from a very inexperienced payer in seat number 8. The turn is a 7 of clubs. I can't see him, inexperienced or not, playing K7. I put him on KQ, maybe AK. I go all in. He folds. Strictly for advertising purposes, I show the table AA.

I know some poker writers disagree with showing you hand. I think you show your hands occasionally. My logic (and it may be wrong) is that if you show down good hands early in the tournament, this helps you steal later on.

A few minutes later I have 3 limpers to my BB of 89os. I make a mistake by not memorizing the suits. The flop is 10JQ, all clubs. I have to look at my hand, committing the classic Caro tell of 'Did I have that suit?'

I know they were both black. Ah, the 8 is a club.

I bet out $1,000.

One player says, "Got the flush, huh?"

I grin. All fold. I am up to $9,000.

A few hands later I limp with J10 os from mid position. Not a move I often make, but I have the chips to make a few calls like this. My logic is that since I have the biggest stack at the table, no one will come over the top of me without a premium hand. Also, this has been a table of limpers. I am just hoping to get in cheap and catch big on the flop. But even if I catch an open-ended straight draw, I will let it go if I am not getting way more than true pot odds.

There are 5 players in this pot, including both blinds.

The flop is J,10,3 with two hearts. I bet out $2,000 hoping to push out the flush draws and take the pot down here. I get 2 calls and the blinds fold. The turn is a 6. I bet out another $1,000. I run out one player, but the inexperienced player in seat 8 calls. I wonder what he could have.

The river is an Ace. I shut down here. I've got the player way outstacked and I may call a less than an all in bet. But what I don't want is to bet then get a reraise. Maybe my logic is flawed here, but that is what I am thinking.

Anyway, my check is followed by a check. Seat 8 flips over QJ. Wow, he called two big bets with top pair and a queen kicker. He did not even have the flush draw. By far the most likely hand I was holding (given my bets on the flop and turn) was AJ.

I now have $14,000 in chips. I can pick my situations to minimize any risk to my stack.

I pick one right before the break. A player goes all in for his last $1450, making the pot $2,400. I am in the BB with KJ os. There are no other players in the pot. A call from me is $1,150. Over 2:1 pot odds. The only hands that he could have that don't justify a call are AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK. Odds are he may have AQ, AJ or 99/88 and the like. I decide on a relatively small gamble. I call.

I spike a Jack on the river and it turns out he had AQ. I tell him tough break and he scowls at me before leaving the table.

I am up to $15,500.

At the break I buy another $5,000 in chips, giving me around $20,000. I am in great shape.

The next two hours are brutal. I get NO CARDS. No Ax suited where I could steal. No pocket pairs. No nothing.

In the meantime, the player in seat 9 has amassed a tower of chips. He plays mostly solid hands but occasionally he has just plain gotten lucky with junk.

Jerry is to my immediate right. I am UTG and fold. Jerry, in the BB, faces two limpers. The flop is A1010 with two hearts. Jerry bets out $2,000. Mr. Tower bets out $7,000, all of Jerry's chip. The SB calls. Jerry calls time. He stares down at the far end of the table, looks back at his cards, back at Mr. Tower, then back at his cards again.

What I am thinking is that at least one of the three has to have a 10.

What Jerry is thinking is he is trying to determine if Mr. Tower has the ten or is on a semi-bluff heart draw. I have seen Jerry make some great reads on players, and he makes a great read here - but only on the initial raiser.

Jerry calls. I am praying that Jerry has a 10.

The river brings the third heart.

The raiser shows down a Q8 of hearts.

The SB shows K10.

Jerry shows AK.

Jerry later tells me he did not even consider the SB.

Jerry and I have both been playing about the same amount of time - maybe two years -- so we are going to make these kinds of errors.

Later, in the car on the way back to the Monte Carlo, Jerry tells me he realizes how big an error he made. But that is the way of beginning poker players. We make mistakes, learn from them, and hopefully cut down on the holes in our games.

Back to the present: I catch no cards at all. My big stack is now a medium stack, approaching a small stack. I don't have even any stealing hands such as AJ, A10s, KQs. Nothing even close. And if I do try to steal I have to get through two aggressive stacks to my left (including Mr. Tower). These guys will call with just about any playable hand.

We are down to 11 people and I catch AK at a 6-person table. This is a great hand at a short table. Just not tonight. I meet 55 and instead of an Ace or a King, a 5 spikes and I am gone.

Day 6: YOU GOTTA WIN WITH AK

I make my way to the Luxor and find Jerry has already signed both of us up. We walk to the Mandalay and sign up there.

Mandalay Bay 10 am: The only memorable thing about this tournament is a classic limit play I made on one hand. The only reason I am including it is that Jerry recognized immediately: my hand, my play, and what I hoped to gain from it.

I am on the button with AKs and find two limpers ahead of me. I raise $10 and both call. At least I have run out the blinds. The flop is junk but with two spades. One of the limpers bets and I raise him so I can see the turn card for free. Both call. And when the turn card comes, both check to the raiser. I feel like I am back in the classroom as this is right out of the textbook. The river is also right out of the text, an Ace (one of 15 cards that would likely win me the hand).

Again both check and when I bet they fold.

If limit hold 'em ran like this all the time I would play more if it. But it doesn't, and I don't.

Neither Jerry nor I get in the money.

Luxor 12 pm:

No cards for either of us.

Due to our early exit from the Luxor, Jerry and I have some time to kill. We head over to the MGM to play the ponies -- the mechanical kind.

The game looks like something out of the 1960s - and it may well be. Five, two-inch high ponies gallop around an oval 5 feet by 2 1/2 feet. It is a silly game. Jerry and I lose 80 quarters each before I watch Jerry win $150 on a dollar Megabucks machine.

We hit the Bellagio buffet for lunch. Then it's off to the Mirage where we try to find easy pickings in the satellites.

We don't.

In the first satellite we are up against the winner of Sahara's Sunday and Wednesday night tournaments. Also in the satellite is the player Jerry chopped with in yesterday afternoon's satellite. While we are playing, they deliver his photo for winning the Wednesday night Limit HE tournament. There are, I would estimate, 6 strong players and 3 weak ones. I don't estimate myself.

The competition does not get any easier in the second satellite. The eventual 1st and 2nd place finishers of that night's tournament are playing in this one (hey, it could be Randy and Jerry).

I go out 5th in both satellites. Jerry lasts until 4th in both.

Patience Pays Off:

The Thursday night Mirage NLHE tournament is $120 for $500 TCs and a one-time $100 rebuy for $1000 TCs. This makes the rebuy almost mandatory.

My first AK of the tournament comes early. There is little in the pot to steal, so I limp behind two early limpers. The flop is no help. I fold.

Twenty minutes before the first break, I find AK suited. I have $380 in chips. I post my BB and a player in mid position, who has been raising a lot, raises once again. I call.

I should have pushed all in I later realize. (I talked about this over our first break with Jerry and an Englishman named Tony. Both said, at worst, I have a coin toss hand. The guy likely had very little, and I get a rebuy. Definitely an all in hand here.)

Anyway, when an Ace or King does not flop I release the hand to a $100 bet.

I get AA a few hands later and double through to a little over $500. The break comes and I rebuy, putting my stack up to $1500.

After the break I get AK once again, raise 3X the BB and get a call from the SB. I put him on JJ or below, or maybe AK. The SB, Tex, is a good player.

I make a mistake by checking out of turn on this hand and it is obvious that I have nothing. I fold to his bet.

Mr. G2 from the Monday night Orleans' tournament arrives at our table. Tex outplays him so badly over two hands I feel sorry for him. Tex adds $3,000 of Mr. G2's chips to his stack and Mr. G2 goes off to gamble elsewhere.

Fatigue sets in. I make it to break number 2 with $350 in chips. Jerry is moved to my table. On the second hand back I get my KQ suited mucked.

What happened was I reached for my chips and was going to go all in. For some reason one player behind me mucks out of turn and then all but the BB muck in about a two-second interval. The dealer just begins raking in cards, mine include. Things happen fast sometimes and it is my own fault for not protecting my hand.

The BB and SB eat up most of the rest of my chips and I make a futile stand on a J10 suited.

I wish Jerry luck and grab a complimentary buffet pass. Anyway, here is what happened while I was gone:

Down to two tables. Five people limp to Jerry in the BB. He has AQ. He thinks about going all in and driving everyone out, but he is on a very big drawing hand. A hand of 2,2 could have limped and has him beat. A player sitting across from Jerry notices Jerry's hesitation, giggles (an annoying high-pitched giggle Jerry says) and announces: "Your play was to go all in and take the pot from all the limpers if you have that good of a hand."

Don't you love these kinds of players. I do. Without them, poker would be so much less colorful.

Well the flop is generous to Jerry: Qxx.

This time Jerry doesn't hesitate - he goes all in.

All fold except a guy in a green hat and shirt. Green Hat looks at Jerry for a good 3 minutes before calling.

Jerry flips over his AQ and Green Hat flips over KQ. Jerry more than doubles through.

Jerry has not been playing many hands at all, and when you get down to this few people at the Mirage, almost all of them are paying attention. So Jerry steals with a lowly 33.

Next up was AK. Jerry decides to limp behind another limper (the bald dealer who got third in the Luxor tournament yesterday). This is a very valid play. How you play AK depends on the competition, stack size, where you are in the tournament…everything. It is the pivotal hand in most any tournament. I had AK run bad on me tonight. Jerry has better luck.

The flop is Axx. The bald dealer slumps and checks. Jerry pushes all in and the dealer mucks, saying, "It had to be the Ace." He flashes Jerry his KK and Jerry shows the Ace.

Jerry is down to $1,500 and the blinds are creeping up there - now at $150/$300. He finds an AA in the BB and one player goes all in driving everyone out of the pot. With only the two of them in they each flip over their hands: Jerry's AA holds up against QQ and he doubles up.

I return from a great buffet to see Jerry still hanging in there.

A few hands late Jerry finds AK. One player ahead raises. Jerry goes all in, in an attempt to isolate the player one on one. Jerry puts him on anything from a small pair to A with a big kicker. He is hoping for the later. The player shows a measly A7 and Jerry doubles through again to a now respectable stack of $6,000.

We are now down to the final table. I settle in at the sports bar where I can peek over the railing and see the action.

At this point Jerry lets the other players go at it. They are eliminating one another left and right. Jerry routinely lets hands such as AJ go when there are already two players committed to the pot.

The chip leader by a wide margin, Tex, begins playing sheriff by picking off the smaller stacks as they go all in. Soon they are down to 6 people. They pay 5.

A player goes all in. Jerry suspects that the player is just making a move at the pot. Jerry has A4s. Not a bad hand at a short table. Jerry starts talking, rambling about not knowing what to do, etc… As he does this Jerry gets a read from the all in player that the player would rather not see a call. Jerry is good at this - rambling and reading others. The rambling I will never develop into a skill. The reads of other players is a skill I am working on but am very weak at now.

Sure enough when Jerry calls, the other player visibly slumps and shows K7. Jerry doubles through. The K7 is out a couple of hands later. Tex remarks that Jerry should not even have had to think about his A4 suited hand. "An automatic all in," Tex says.

Jerry has made it into the money. The table takes a short break.

I volunteer to pick up Tex's pizza for him from California Pizza Kitchen. Tex drove straight from work to the Mirage, never having dinner. He was extremely gracious to me despite my lapses in play earlier.

The cashier at California Pizza Kitchen is a 30-something guy. There are four attractive 20-something girls flirting with him. The combination of the two means that this 40-something poker player has no chance of getting Tex's pizza quickly. I wait for what seems a ½ hour.

By the time I get back I see Jerry filling out paperwork. This is good. This means he got over $600.

The action I missed, as described by Jerry:

This is when the strangest hand happened. Green Hat is to my right and goes all in with JJ. Me and a bald guy fold to Tex. He thinks for a minute and then calls with KQos. Both players flip over their hands. Flop comes AxJ and Green Hat is about to double through. Turn is x and Tex can't control himself anymore and he reaches over picks up both hands still face up as the dealer rivers the 10 for the straight. I swear that Tex would have been called for a balk as his hand had forward motion towards the muck with both hands. He stopped in mid flight and put both hands back on the table in position and that's when hell broke loose.

It all happened in about 15 seconds but Tex was apologizing. Green Hat really didn't know what to do or say and the dealer is yapping at Tex. It would have been funny if it hadn't had a $300 swing for Green Hat. In any case, after numerous apologies, and Green Hat being very gracious, he went out in 4th. I give Green Hat credit, because after the initial shock, he congratulates Tex on a good hand and did not request a floor ruling. I think it would have gone in Green Hat's favor, but it was almost like he looked at the board and felt he did not have the best hand, therefore he had no reason to dispute it.

A few hands later and I'm just folding along waiting for something when Baldy finds a hand he likes and of course Tex calls. Next thing I know Tex and I are heads up.

At this point I have a lot of adrenaline going as this is turning into my biggest money win. I would like to believe it is the reason for my last hand. I should have taken a few seconds to collect myself and see where I was chip-wise to Tex. I had about 12-15K in chips at the time and there were only 70K or so in play. I just kept looking at his stack and thinking there was no way for me to mount a comeback. The thing was I had all $500 chips and he had a bunch of $100 chips.

The visual is what distorted my thinking. In fact I could have seen at least 5 more hands than I did and I only need to double through once to get some breathing room. I should have counted the chips down before I started to play heads up. Blinds were $500 and $1K. Tex was willing to push the blinds back and forth I believe as he had enough chips to be very patient. We are in the third or fourth hand heads up when Tex limps in the small blind. I have K6os and so I check. Flop comes xQx and I check and so does Tex. Turn is a 6 and Tex checks and I go all in. It was a foolish move and Tex flipped over QQ for the set.

Well, there's my trip.

Oh, the 10%. Jerry got $1800 for 2nd place, and I net out my biggest payday for the trip--$180.

See you at a final table soon.

Randy Glover