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Many of my poker playing buddies cannot believe that I have never cashed in a Live Multi-table tournament. I have cashed in online multi-table tournaments, online sit and gos, and live sit and gos. Don’t get me wrong, I love live tournaments. But I dislike tournaments that do not favor skill. When you start with 2000 chips, 50/100 blinds, and the 20 minute levels, it makes for a rather quick tournament. You are at the mercy of the cards, and all good poker players know it. Why do you think main events on the World Poker Tour feature at least 60 minute levels with a large starting chipstack? As a consequence, I do not play in a lot of live tournaments because the casino is only interested in moving the tournament along and getting the next one in.

There are exceptions to the rule, and one of the most prominent one is in the weeks leading up to a World Poker Tour $10,000 buy-in event. Casinos will usually hold a series of tournaments in the weeks prior to the main event. In these events, you are usually given a larger chipstack with blind levels lasting anywhere from 40-60 minutes. Foxwoods hosts two World Poker Tour events per year. In the spring is the Foxwoods Poker Classic, while in the fall is the World Poker Finals. I do not like to play in fields that are large either (in excess of 900 people), so I tend to buy into the $2,000 events. The fields are usually about 200-400 in size, which is a perfect number. The field is beatable, but not so large that it is a lottery. This year, I decided to change things up a little bit. Instead of playing in the $1,500 or $2,000 event, I decided to play in what Foxwoods calls a “Modified Shootout”.

In the Modified Shootout, there are two qualifying rounds, and a final round. You can play in either qualifying round where you essentially play a sit-and-go. Unlike a traditional Shoot-Out where you must WIN the table to advance, in this modified shootout, you only have to make the top 3 at the table to advance to the finals. In other words, you play a Sit and Go, and if you would normally place in the money, you get an entry to the finals. The finals is played as a normal multi-table tournament.

It sounded intriguing, so I played in the $300 shootout on October 21. I was fortunate enough to place in the finals without having to buy in a second time. There were about 1400 players in the shooout with 411 players in the finals and the top 120 were paid. You started with 5000 chips and blinds were 40 minutes long. This is more of the structure that I like. I was card cold and literally only had 2 hands to play. Regrdless, I lasted to about 190th place - about 70 shy of the money. If I had any sort of “normal distribution” of cards, I am pretty confident I would have made the money.

The next week featured another modified shootout, but the entry fee for this one was $600. The only difference was that in this event, the blinds were 50 minutes long in the finals instead of 40 minutes. I decided to give it anther shot. Again I was able to make it to the finals fairly easily.

At 4pm all the winners converged in the Sunset Ballroom to start the finals. I played my normal tight-aggressive tournament style and it paid dividends. I just held my ground while slowly increasing my stack size. The number of players kept dwindling. We started with 165, then there were 140, then 120, then 100. It felt good to crack the century mark. I watched the screen as we flew past 90, 80, 70, and then 60. At 60 players, play got REALLY tight. We were getting close to the money and everybody sensed it. Everybody went back to A-B-C poker. I played my hands aggressively, and watched the tournament clock display. 55, 50, 49, 48. The top 40 were paid. I knew I could make the money if I was patient. I had to keep telling myself, “I will not bubble, I will not bubble”. I have bubbled so many tournaments, it is pathetic. It took about an hour to get from 50 players to 40, and it was quite a grind. That hour felt like it was actually 8 hours. When we got down to 41 players, the tournament was played hand for hand. We lasted all of four hands before somebody busted out and we were all in the money! Hooray! I had overcome the bubble jinx.

Players fell rather quickly after that. We were down to 30 people in a matter of about 30 minutes as the short stacks started to push. I was playing solid poker and I knew I could go a lot deeper. The next moneyline was at 27 players. There were 29 left when I had this hand came up. I was in the cutoff with about 30,000 chips. It was folded to me and I had:

The people to my left were moderate stacks, so I knew they would not want to tangle without a good hand. The blinds were 600/1200, so I popped it to 3600. The button and small blind both fold. The big blind has 7000 chips, and he thinks and thinks. His face is twitching. He starts a motion to push all in, then stops. He does this 2 more times. I know he is weak, but probably has me beat. Finally, he says that he has to make a stand and he pushes all in. Grrr, I wanted to pick up the blinds. I ran the pot odds, and I was getting 3:1 on the call. I look at him and said, “You caught me with my hand in the cookie jar, but I have the pot odds to call”. I made the call. he shows:

I really do not know what he was thinking. He KNEW I was going to call regardless. I think he made a mistake here, but that was his decision.

The board came:

And I took another player out.

At the 12:30 curfew we were down to 23 players. The average chipstack was about T40,000. I had about T25,000. I was mentally exhausted. I needed sleep.

The next morning, I woke up around 9:30 ready to go. I could not wait. Finally, noon came around and the tournament was off and running. The tournament short stack was to my immediate right. He had T4500. The blinds started at 1000/2000 with 200 antes. As expected, on the first hand, the short-stack pushes all-in. He is called by the big blind who shows:

While the short stack shows:

The short stack spiked a King on the river to stay alive. Mr. Short Stack now has T12,000. He promptly pushes all-in on the next hand. I look down at:

This is a tough spot. I don’t like to call for half of my chips here. The next money line is 2 spots away (at 21 players left). There are 4 players to act behind me. I must push all-in to isolate or fold. After thinking, I decided to fold. Everybody else folded. I keep replaying this one in my mind. If I had T40,000, I would have probably called. He most likely has an overcard in this spot, and perhaps two. I had a bad feeling, so I laid it down.

Once we hit 21 players, they started to fall left and right. It seems like every hand we were losing a player. We redrew for seats at 20. The next money line was at 18, and above 18, the prizes kept increasing every spot. We lost 4 immediately, and we were down to 16 and this hand came up. UTG who has about T28,000 chips raises to T8000. Everybody folds to me. I see:

Oh, this is nice. Since I only have T18,000, its an easy all-in push. Unfortunately, the call was easy for the other guy and he shows:

What a time to run into cowboys! The board came:

and I was busted out in 16th place. I won $2,406, but more importantly, the bubble monkey is now off my back.

It feels good to cash in a live multi-table tournament. This was my sixth event. I definitely learned a LOT an gained a LOT of valuable experience from this. It will better prepare me for future tournaments.

The results of the tournament are here.

A good friend of mine also pointed out to me that since I cashed in a “tracked event”, I now have my own Cardplayer.com page, which is right here. How cool is that? Lets hope that I add more and more events to this page!

Tournaments are tricky. You can play several days of perfect poker, then you are obliterated by one bad read or bad beat. The pressure in tournaments is high, especially as you get deeper into the field. When you face a critical decision for all of your chips, everybody at the table is watching you for any kind of tells. It is quite an eerie feeling. As everybody is watching you, you must have kept track of the pot size, pot odds, hands odds, what your opponent might have, what your opponent might think you have, and what your opponent might think you think that he has. All this must be done while not giving off any tells. Here is a situation that I faced once:

Tournament: Word Poker Tour, Battle for the Season Pass

Location: Cable Beach Resorts, Nassau, Bahamas
Buy-in: $4,000
Entrants: 198
People left: 69
Starting Chips: 20,000
Payouts:
First: WPT buy-in for 15 Main Events, plus airfare and hotel. This package is worth about $170,000.
Second: $25,000 WPT World Championship buy-in
Third: $10,000 buy-in
Forth: $5,000 buy-in
Fifth: Invite to WPT Celebrity Tournament
Sixth: WPT Champions Boot Camp Pass

Day 1: This would be classified as my first major tournament. Levels were 60 minutes long and we started out with T20,000 chips. This was a deep-stack tournament with 15 professionals. On day one, I had two professionals at my table (Jennfer Tilly and Jules Leyser). I was up to about T80,000 in chips. Late in the day, I ran into a set over a set (I had the smaller set). I lost a good portion of my chips on this hand. I ended day one with about T28,000.

Day 2: I had a bad draw and was seated between the two chip leaders (Chris Stadler and Crispin Leyser). I do not know if this was a blessing or a curse. I knew the big stack would not want to compete against each other. Nonetheless, I had two big stacks that might be able to double me up several times if I caught cards. I survived the first hour (with no opportunities to double up) and my table was broken. I was then moved to a table with Karina Jett. Also at the table was a guy who I had played againt at the cash tables before the tournament started. This guy was pretty arrogant and thought everybody else was inferior. He had no problems telling people that he made a final table on the WPT. He also claimed to be a professional poker player, although I had never heard of him. To be honest, he was an idiot. Anyway, he does know the game and plays well despite his arrogance.

We were at Level 10, which was well into day two of the three-day tournament. Blinds were 600/1200 with a 200 ante. At the moment, I had about 18,000 in chips.

Mr. Arrogant raises to 6400 (4x BB) from an early/mid position (UTG+2). Everybody else folds.

I look down at:

Now, I have a tough decision in front of me. I had been card cold all day. You can only see so many 84o before you get sick. Here is the analysis that I did at the table:

According to Dan Harrington, both of our Ms are in the Orange Zone (about 6 – 6.5 for me and about 7 for the enemy). Both of us are starting to drift toward the bottom of the Orange Zone and are in danger of entering the Red Zone. The Red Zone (M of 5 or under) is a bad place to be. Both of us need to think about making a move soon.

What would he make this move with? Assuming he has knowledge of the zones and he plays inflection points in a reasonable manner, I figure he would raise with a pocket pair down to about 77, AK, AQ, AJs (weak), ATs (weak), KQ. The problem is that he raised about 1/3 of his stack. He is essentially committing himself. If he gets a caller, then there is no way anybody will fold on the flop with anything reasonable. At that point, he can only make a pot-sized bet, which would give anybody 2:1 pot odds. This is certainly enough for an open-ended straight or flush draw.

With everybody at the table staring at me, I ran the following distribution probabilities, (taking into account that I have AQo). Below are the various hands and possible combinations:

AA: 3 combinations
KK: 6 combinations
QQ: 3 combinations
JJ through 77: 6 combinations
AK: 12 combinations
AQ: 9 combinations
AJs: 4 combinations
ATs: 4 combinations
KQ: 16 combinations

I am a big underdog against AA-QQ and AK, which is 24 hands.
I am a big favorite against AJs, ATs, and the KQ, which is 24 hands.
I am a coin flip against pocket pairs of JJ and lower, which is 30 hands.

All in all, this looks like a true coin flip situation. I made this exact analysis in the tournament and decided to call. Later when I analyzed this hand, I realized that I made a mistake when I did my calculations. Did you catch it? I adjusted the number of combinations for AA, QQ, and AQ correctly, however, when I calculated the number of combinations for AJ, ATs, and KQ, I forgot to take into account the fact that I had an Ace and a Queen in my hand.

Doing the correct hand distributions gives the following result:

AA: 3 combinations
KK: 6 combinations
QQ: 3 combinations
JJ through 77: 6 combinations
AK: 12 combinations
AQ: 9 combinations
AJs: 3 combinations
ATs: 3 combinations
KQ: 12 combinations

This tells me:
I am a big underdog against AA-QQ and AK, which is 24 hands.
I am a big favorite against AJs, ATs, and the KQ, which is now only 18 hands.
I am a coin flip against pocket pairs of JJ and lower, which is 30 hands.

This corrected analysis shifts me from being a total coin flip to a slight underdog based on probability. Had I correctly analyzed this situation in the tournament, it would have been enough for me to fold the hand.

Getting back to the problem at hand, what do I do in this situation? Calling is certainly out of the question. If I call, I am committing over 1/3 of my stack. I am then in the red zone. My only options are to fold or push all in. If I fold, then I am still at the mercy of the cards. If I push all in, then I have the possibility that he might fold several of the mid pairs and maybe some of the holdings like KQ, AJ, ATs and pick up a free 6400 chips (plus blinds and antes). I decided that I was going to take the true coin flip (which was inaccurate) and push all in. He called and showed QQ. The board did not help me and I exited the tournament in position 68.

Final thoughts: The pressure of a tournament is high, especially as you get deeper into the field. While I was running these numbers, everybody at the table was staring at me wondering what I was going to do. It is not easy thinking on this level with 10 people wondering why you are taking so much time. In the end, I was on the right track with the analysis, but I made a very expensive mistake by not calculating the correct distribution of possible hands. Looking back on it, I would have folded if I had made the correct calculation. Oh well, live and learn. I got to go snorkeling that afternoon and took this wonderful picture of an Eagle Ray:

Knowing your opponents is one of the most crucial things in any poker game. If you study them and know what cards they play, how they play in certain situations, and how much they bet when they have certain hands, you will have a huge advantage when you play against them. This knowledge can be used to manipulate them unmercifully.

Consider this hand I had at a 2/5 NL table at Foxwoods.

Scenario: I had been playing for about 90 min. I am in seat #5 with about 550 in chips. The button is in seat #3, making me the Big Blind.

Seat 6: Fold
Seat 7: Fold
Seat 8: Min-raise to $10
Seat 9: Fold
Seat 10: Call
Seat 1: Fold
Seat 2: Call
Button: Fold
Small Blind: Fold

I look at

There is $37 in the pot, and I need to put in $5 more to call. I am getting 7.5:1 pot odds here, so making the call is automatic.
Before I go further, here is my take on the table.

Overall, it has been a fairly loose-aggressive game. There are two guys at the table who are constantly raising and reraising with marginal hands (seat 7 and 3). Individual player knowledge goes as follows:

Seat #7: Extremely loose-aggressive player, however, he is NOT in the hand.

Seat #8: A fairly decent player who recently took a bad beat and lost all of his chips. He has just bought in again for $500. He has been at the table about the same amount of time as I have. He is quiet. His betting patterns suggest that he has a good command of the game.

Seat #10: This guy is like the Rock of Gibraltar. This guy is VERY VERY tight. I think I have seen him play two or three hands in the 90 minutes I have been there. I have been listening to his banter since I sat down. Although he is NOT obnoxious, what he says tells me that is a very strong, solid, and knowledgeable player, just like seat #8. The rock has about $900 in chips

Seat #2: He likes to socialize a lot. He has the largest chip stack at the table with about $1,600. Like the three other players in the hand, he knows what he is doing.

So, as it stands, there are 4 people in the pot, all of whom are knowledgeable and solid players.

Pot: $42

Flop:

This was a fairly good flop for me. I have a flush draw. I elect to check to see what the other people are going to do.

Seat 8: Bets 50, about the size of the pot.

Seat 10: Thinks for a minute, and raises to $150.

Seat 2: He is visibly disturbed. His anger is genuine (i.e. he is NOT acting to give off a false tell). He think and thinks and thinks and talks to himself. Finally he raises to $450.

This is an interesting situation. The key to the analysis is knowing that the four players in the pot are both knowledgeable and straight-forward players.

Lets analyze the action preflop.

Seat 8 min-raises. Min raises are tough. If the player is solid, it means they have a monster hand. If they are a weak player, it does not mean a whole lot - they could be on a wide variety of hands. Not having seen him really mess up, lets say he is an average player. What would an average player raise with in this spot? He would make this play with any pair down to 66 (AA, KK, QQ, JJ are unlikely because he probably would have put in more than a min raise, but we will keep them in the possibility list for now). Certainly up for consideration is AK, AQ, AJs, ATs, KQ, KJ, KT, QJ, QT, JT and some other random hands. That is a pretty broad range.

Seat 10 calls the min raise. Knowing seat #10 is VERY tight and using the GAP theory, we can narrow his holdings somewhat. He would make this call with pocket pairs from AA down to 88, maybe 77. Unpaired cards might be AK, AQ, AJs, KQs, KJs (weak). I highly discount the possibility of AA, KK, QQ because the guy would probably reraise to try to isolate the person in EP. His most likely cards are JJ, TT, 99, 88, 77, AQ, AJs, KQs, KJs, and perhaps some mid-range suited connectors.

Seat 2 calls. This call is peculiar. However, he could be playing position and hoping to flop a monster. He is getting almost 3:1 for his call. Those are decent pot odds preflop, so he could have a wider variety of cards. Pocket pairs from AA down to 55, any two cards over T, and any suited connectors down to about 54s.

Now, lets analyze the action on the flop.

I am in a bad position I check to see what everybody else is going to do. This play is reasonable.

Seat 8 bets the pot, which is about $50. The question is WHY did he make a pot sized bet? The obvious answer is that with three other people in the pot, he does NOT want to give anybody the pot odds to draw at the flush. So, we can rule out seat #8 as being on a flush draw (betting the pot on a draw is a very bold move, and one that I did not think this player was capable of making). So with the pot sized bet, what could he have? He might have flopped the straight (KT or T8). T8s is unlikely from his position, but he might be trying to protect a KTo, which is reasonable. He could also have flopped trips (QQ, JJ, 99) or two pair with QJ (possible), Q9 (less likely, but possible), J9 (possible). Lastly, he might have an overpair (KK or AA), but by his small preflop raise, this is unlikely.

Seat 10 raises to $150. This bet tells you a lot too. If you are going to raise, the standard amount is 3x the last bet. Seat 10 does not disappoint in that regard. To raise a pot-sized bet, he MUST have something good. With a threatening board like this, seat 10 would dump 2 pair given his tighness. Also, by raising to $150, you can logically deduce that he has a completed hand and is afraid of (at least) a flush draw. He does not want to allow any other players to have the odds to draw at that hand. Now, what does he have? Seat 10 might have a straight (T8 or KT), trips, (QQ, JJ, or 99), or an overpair (KK or AA). We can rule out the AA and KK due to his preflop call. I also do not suspect he has QQ because he did not raise preflop. Seat 10 most likely has T8, KT, JJ, or 99 with no flush draw.

Seat 2 then thinks and thinks and thinks. He is visibly disturbed. His emotions are genuine. He then raises the previous raise by 3x, which is $450. Raising in the face of a pot-sized bet and then a 3x raise again tells me he must have a strong hand, and he is NOT on a draw. What might seat 2 have? He does not have T8. If he had T8, he would be afraid of KT and would have simply called, or more likely folded. He probably has a set or the KT. Best guess: QQ, JJ, 99, KT with no flush draw.

Now, back to me. With the betting thus far, I can logically deduce that no players have a flush draw. I am very confident of this. I am not afraid of somebody who has made a straight because they cannot improve further. However, if somebody did flop 2 pair (seat 8 ) or trips (seat 10 and 2), then I have to worry about the board pairing, this giving them a full house. The only other possibility I am afraid of is runner-runner diamonds so that somebody makes a larger freak flush.

There is no calling in this situation. It is push all in or fold. What do I do? Lets look at some math.

If I push all-in, my hand odds are 1.9:1 to make the flush by the river, and I am guaranteed to see two cards if I do in fact push. Would seat #2 call my all-in? His initial bet (pot-sized) indicates that he has a strong hand. He shoved $500 in the pot a few hands ago, so he is not afraid to put his money out there. That is a good thing for me. Would seat #10 call a $550 bet? His $150 bet indicates that he would. With a strong hand, he would be getting good pot odds at this point. Seat 2 would certainly put in an extra $100. With seat 10 and 2 making the call, I would be getting the required odds to push all-in. If I knew if seat 8 was going to call as well, I would be getting about 3:1 money odds on a 2:1 draw. Seems like an easy choice.

The things against me are that there might be some diamonds out. This flop has obviously hit all four of us. If anybody hit trips, then there is a good chance that some of my diamonds are gone. If two are gone, I am a 2.6:1 underdog to make my hand by the river. I still have the necessary odds to push all-in if I know all three players are going to call.

This is a tough decision. In a tournament, this hand is an easy fold. In a cash game, you must push small advantages. The decision is closer than one might guess.

In the end, I decided to fold not because I did not think I had a good betting proposition, but rather I had only been at the table for 90 min and I did not want to walk away if I lost.

As the hand turned out, the other three people were all-in. Seat 8 showed Q9 (2 pair), seat 10 showed 99, and seat 2 showed QQ ! All four Queens and Nines were OUT and I had no fear of a full house (barring a runner runner pair). The turn was a 7 of diamonds. Had I called, I would have taken down a $2,000 pot.

Playing in a game where everybody is a good player can be a lot of fun. You might not be the best player in the bunch, but you can still come out a winner. Deception and manipulation can be used with a high degree of success. Good players can see when inconsistencies arise and will lay down a good hand when they feel that they are being trapped. I had the pleasure of playing in one of the toughest games I have ever played in at Foxwoods when I had this hand:

Game: 2/5 NL Cash Game
Stack: $400

Scenario: Extremely tough table table. I am in seat #3. The guy to my immediate right (seat #2) won a seat into the Foxwoods Poker Classic Main Event ($10,000). By observing him, he is a solid player. He knows the game. I am unsure of how advanced he is in terms of psychology. There is another person two seats to my left who is a very tight solid player as well. There are no real weak links at the table - which is unusual. There are usually 3-4 semi-clueless people in any 2/5 NL table. I would classify everybody at least as advanced, with a few experts. Knowing that everybody is on this level forces, you to play differently than at a wild loosey-goosey table where most people think they are better then they actually are. This kind of table is fun.

Button is in seat #8.

Seat 1 / UTG: Fold
Seat 2: Raise to 25

I peek down at

Normally, a raise is in order. If I simply make a call, I am inviting people after me to call. They would be getting at least 2:1 on their money. However, the table is overwhelmingly solid. Knowing a raise came from an Early Position should deter the limp-fest that normally occurs in weak games. I need to play with deception at this table - it will be noticed. Ideally, I would like everybody to fold so I will be heads-up against the original raiser. I elect to make a semi-risky smooth call.

Seat 4: Fold
Seat 5 (another Mr. Solid): Call
Seat 6: fold
Seat 7: Call
Seat 8: Fold
SB: Fold
BB: Fold

Pot: $107

This is not exactly the result I wanted. There are four people are in the pot. The rockets are vulnerable, and I need to proceed on yellow alert.

Flop:

Seat 2 leads out for $100 - a pot-sized bet. I have $375 left in my stack.

A raise is order. I need to fear a hand like KJ or J9s – both of which are possible. Judging by Seat 2’s pot-sized bet, he is afraid of the same thing. His most likely holdings are KK, QQ, AQ, or KQs. QT and 33 would not be in the pot from an early position.

You could make a case either way for him, having TT.

If he has trips, would he want to check-raise? The answer is “doubtful”, because he risks a check around the table. This is a high possibility since he showed the preflop aggression. A free-card would be extremely dangerous for him.

Because of the size of the bet, I must put him on some type of hand, not a draw. If he had a draw, then I would have expected a continuation-sized type of a bet.

I am also worried about the other two people behind me. If I call here, they have the odds to draw at anything. A raise is the only play. The question becomes how much do I raise? The standard raise is 3 times the last bet. If I raise to $300, then I leave myself with only $75. Seat #2 will know this and see I am pot-committed and may fold. A good player recognizes when the bet of player will commit them to the pot. If he sees this, then he can safely assume that I am going to put in my remaining $75. He can then factor that into his decision of whether to play the hand or not. Seat 2 is capable of this analysis.

The problem is if I min-raise to $200, then the stacks behind me might be tempted to play if they have a drawing hand. This is a situation where my stack size is a hindrance to my betting. The choices I have left are raise to say maybe $250 or push all-in. The raise to $300 and the all-in push are equivalent because of the logic above. If seat #2 has AQ, I certainly want a call. If he flopped trips, then I just got unlucky. If I bet $250, it still leaves me with some chips, and essentially pot-commits me, but to a lesser degree.

Action: I decide to raise to $250.
Seat 5 folds

Seat 7 agonizes. He moans that he wants to call. He looks at me and says “for $100 I would have called”. This leads me to believe that he has that draw that I was fearful of (KJ or J9s). He reluctantly folds.

Seat 2: Thinks for a minute then pushes all-in.

Comments: This was a good result for me. I am pretty sure that I have Seat #2 beat. I do an insta-call.

Seat 2 asks if I have a set. I say no- do you?. He says, no, a pair of Queens, and he flips over AQ. Perfect! I show AA. He is surprised and says, “I never put you on AA because you did not raise pre-flop.” I told him that I did not raise preflop because I did not want to give my hand away.

He smiled and said, “Well played.”

The turn is a 2 and the river is an 8. After the river, Seat 7 says that he indeed did have J9s and would have rivered a straight. Knowing how much to bet and when to bet it is an integral part of No Limit Holdem Strategy!