The worst hand I played at the WSOP
So I just came across a link the other day to a PocketFives recap from day 4 of the World Series of Poker. You can check it out at http://www.pocketfiveslive.com/perelman-bluffed-seat-literally-6130/. While I appreciate the press since I’m a relative nobody, and I appreciate having one of only a few pictures of me at a poker table, it made me revisit a hand that I misplayed.
As PocketFives relayed, a player in early position raised to 8500 at 2k/4k blinds and another player called from middle position. I was on the button with AhTh, and I elected to call. Both players had me covered, and we were a few hours shy of heading into the money in the Main Event, so it made no sense to reraise. We had just started the day, and I didn’t have a great read on either player. Folding seemed to weak here, so I called.
The flop came A75 with two spades, and the preflop raiser checked. The player in MP, who I Googled the night before and surmised was a decent player, bet out. I smooth called, feeling like I had the best hand, but wanting to see what the early position player did. He folded, so there was no trap here.
The turn paired the 7, and my opponent checked. I thought for a bit, and settled upon betting, and this was my big mistake in the hand. While I correctly had read my opponent for a draw and decided I had the best hand, it was a bad idea to bet. If he folded, I picked up the pot, sure. But if he raised, he’d be putting me to a decision for all my chips. Can I really call for all my chips with AT before the money bubble has bursted? Hell no. Even worse, this was day 4 of the Main Event, meaning that the players that have lasted this long are fairly decent player. My opponent could check raise with any two cards here and be relatively certain that I would fold, knowing that I can’t risk my tournament life before making the money.
As the story goes, he did indeed check raise me. I didn’t take too long to fold, as even though I realized that this was a bluff probably around 80% of the time, I just can’t go all in here. If I do, he would have been priced in to call, and he could have a 7, 55, or a flush draw that could hit on the river. After I folded the player was all too excited to show his bluff — a gutshot straight draw with 42.
Luckily, I’ve gained a lot of emotional calmness this year, and the bluff really didn’t affect me. If anything, I was only upset at myself for making the bet on the turn, which I realized was an error before he made his check raise. The correct play would have been to check behind and then call any normal-sized bet on the river. If a 3 hit, he wins the pot and I’m still in. If anything else hits, he tries to bluff me and fails, and I have more chips to head into the money to fight with.
All in all, it’s really not that band of a hand. I made a bad bet when I should have checked, even though I read the situation 100% correct in that I had the best hand. One of the things about getting better at poker is realizing all of the situations and mindsets of yourself and other opponents, and I underestimated my opponent in this hand. Luckily, I can learn from this mistake and not make it next year, or even in tournaments leading up to next year’s World Series.
Pai gow @ Planet Hollywood
I had some friends in town this weekend, and they were staying at Planet Hollywood. While I do like this casino more than most strip casinos, I had an incident that really soured me on giving them any action.
After playing some video poker and some Wheel of Fortune slot machines, I brought my two friends over to a pai gow table so show them how to play. There were three pai gow tables running, and a total of about 7 players taking up the 18 available seats. I picked the least crowded table, one with one older lady playing in the 5 seat. The table was a $15 table, and I passed up a $10 table to sit at this emptier table. I sat down in the 2 seat, and my friends sat on my left and my right so they could look at my cards and help be explained which cards go where. They’re not Vegas locals, so I told them they’d need to get up if someone else wanted to play.
I played for about 20-30 minutes while my friends caught on. One of them loves to gamble, and probably would have joined in if I had played much longer. But Planet Hollywood never gave him that opportunity. After playing through two dealers AND a deck change, a disgruntled floor man came over and told my friends that they would need to get up to make room for other players.
When I first heard this, I was shocked that they would be this aggressive at nearly 2am on a Thursday night, with no “other players” in sight. Then one of my friends told the floor that was totally fine, and I realized the floor was just saying they’d need to get up IF other players came by. Oh, that’s OK. We were all totally cool with that, and then he made it clear that he indeed meant that they had to get up NOW. I told him if my friends could not sit with me while I played, that I would be leaving, and they’d be losing my action. He literally said, “There’s nothing I can do about that.” Sure there is, buddy, you can let my friends sit down since nobody’s clamoring to play pai gow at 2am! He stood his ground, so I stood mine and cashed out. The dealer apologized on his behalf, and was clearly upset that nice folks like us were getting pushed away. She enjoyed having people to talk to, and I was one of the few pai gow’ers that was tipping
After I cashed out, I found a supervisor to tell him my complaint. I didn’t yet realize it, but this supervisor was a complete douche. First he tried to explain why my friends were asked to stand up. I told him I understood their rationale, but he didn’t let me get to the point where I was going to explain why this was a bad rule. He said, “If you knew why we did it then why did you ask for me?” Umm, because I’m filing a complaint, jackass. I continued on telling him this was a poor rule, because instead of missing out on hypothetical money wagered by non-existent players, they are missing out on ACTUAL money wagered by an ACTUAL player. I’m sure that occasionally a player is discouraged to sit at a table because there are four people present, but at 2am, that number can’t be nearly as much as a player occupying one of the seats consistently betting.
While this supervisor did start our conversation with, “This isn’t the first complaint I’ve gotten about this,” he would not recognize that they lose more money than they gain. I asked him to estimate what they lose on potential customers, and he said he couldn’t do that. I said I could, since I’m a poker player, and started throwing out some numbers. He cut me off and told me I know nothing about table games, which I admitted, and he said that I’m just making an educated guess. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.” “Well I can do that, too!” Umm, you just said you couldn’t. “OK, how much per hour do you think you’re losing by having someone in your seat that’s not playing.” He immediately blurted out the biggest number he could fathom to try to prove his point: “$500/hr!!!!”
OK, I give up. “Thank you very much for your time, sir, and for taking my complaint seriously.” He was mouthing off further when I walked away.
In all honesty, if the casino has this rule, perhaps they are losing more per hour than they are making by me gambling. I personally doubt it, but it’s possible. I was curious to hear if a supervisor could actually back this up and tell me a figure or confidently say they’re losing more. He couldn’t. Instead he got emotional and defended their rule without any reason why. Oh well, it was a fun ten minutes for me, and a flustering ten minutes for the gentleman. Mission accomplished.
WSOP Main Event
Well, for those who didn’t hear, I played and cashed in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. After living here for five years, I finally got a chance to play after winning a $550 mega satellite the day before the Main Event begun. Overall, I’m fairly happy with my play. I made it to day 4 and got 530th place for $23,196, a fairly decent return on my original $550 investment.
On day 1 I had 99 vs 77 get all in on a 975 flop, so that was lucky. I also won a big pot when I played pocket aces a little tricky.
On day 2 I hit a very lucky hand when I played AT aggressively and made a straight against a guy’s slow played pocket aces. Then I got very unlucky when a player decided to gamble with his AT against my AK and hit his ten. That knocked me down, but before the day was done I was able to double up with AA vs 8h7h all in preflop
On day 3 I slowly burned away chips until I doubled up with 8c5c after a guy pushed all in on an 855X board with 3 hearts — he turned a flush. After that, I was pretty much card dead through the end of the day.
Day 4 was the day where we broke the money bubble, so I had planned to be cautious until we were in the money. Unfortunately, I found myself forced to push all in with pocket queens twice and AQ once before the money hit. Scary stuff, but I was forced to. I did misplay AT, though, when I bet an ace high board and knew a guy would run a bluff on me — he did.
My demise came when I raised with AsTs and one of the blinds called. When the flop came Kc8c6h and he checked, I checked behind, planning on being done with the hand. The turn came the Th, and he checked again. With this draw heavy board, he isn’t likely to check top pair or a set twice, so I put out a bet now figuring second pair would be good. He surprised me with a check raise, forcing me to fold or go all in. I chatted with him, and it became clear to me that he checked with the intention of seeing a free river card, but now that I had bet, he decided to put me to the test. I ended up going all in, and he called showing KhQh. I was right that he had a flush draw, but I was unlucky that he had top pair to go with it. The hand makes perfect sense. Unfortunately when I read him for a flush draw, I had to gamble that he didn’t have a hand like this… I actually thought I was more likely to see something like Tc9c. Oh well.
For my first year playing the Main Event, it was definitely liberating to have cashed. I received a lot of pats on the back the next day in the Dream Team Poker tournament, and a ton of Twitter and Facebook kudos. Hopefully next year I can duplicate my run and improve upon it.
Playing the WSOP Main Event
Well, I’m pretty excited. Less than 12 hours from now I will be taking my seat in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event! I won my seat in one of the last mega satellites down yesterday at the Rio for only a $550 buy-in. When I moved to Las Vegas four years ago, I wanted to play in the Main Event. After trying to qualify since then in tournaments within my bankroll, I have finally succeeded.
I wasn’t too impressed with the mega satellite structure. With only 30 minute levels, I found myself short stacked after not picking up hands and then losing AK vs A5. I ended up pushing all-in without looking at my cards, and a guy called me with QT. I had J9 and got lucky when the board came 678TK. I got lucky again a few levels later when played a hand poorly and reraised a guy all in with AQ and he had AK — I spiked a queen to survive and double up. I got one more double up when I had QQ vs 88. After that, it was mostly smooth sailing until there were 25 of us left, with the tournament awarding 25 seats.
I’m playing Day 1B, which is the 4th of July. Unfortunately they don’t celebrate the holiday in Vegas like they do in San Diego, so I’m not missing too much. And the first day of the Main Event is a short day, so I may even make it outside in time for fireworks… we’ll see. Either way, I’ll be posting updates on Twitter & Facebook, so feel free to check my status there, or on pokernews.com. Good luck, me!
