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A good friend of mine won a seat into the World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational. He wanted me to meet him there to watch and play poker. Fortunately, I was able to get a good deal on a flight, hotel, and rental car. I booked the trip and was off to root for him. Naturally, I left early to play poker myself. The last time I was in LA was for the WPT Cash Boot Camp -which was purely awesome.

I flew out on Wednesday February 27. My flight arrived around noon, so I was all checked into the hotel by 2:00. I had my trusty GPS with me, so off to The Bike I went.

The level of play was just as it was when I was here a year ago. The games were pretty soft. Unfortunately, it was a night of second best hands. I lost $400. Frazzled, I decided to go check out the Commerce Casino. It is only a couple of miles from The Bike.

The poker room at The Commerce Casino was HUGE. It has upwards of 200 tables and any limit you would ever want - from 1/2 limit to 100/200 NL (with a $40,000 minimum buy-in). I settled on a 2/3 NL game with a $200 buy-in. It was not too long before I was felted. I decided to call it a night after being down $600.

On Thursday, I decided to head back to The Bike. I played 5/5 NL, but again it was another day of second-best hands. Full houses beat by quads, flopped flushes beat by larger flopped flushes, etc. Very frustrating. I got felted, and had to buy back in. Fortunately, I was able to hold my own and cash out even for the second buy-in, but still down $500 for the day. Total: down $1100.

Friday was a fun day. I went back at the Bike to play more. I really like the Bike because when you sit in the High Limit area they comp whatever food you want. The food is pretty good too, so its a big bonus. Again, I got felted with in the first hour, so I had to rebuy. I was up and down when this hand happened:

Game: 5/5 NL

Buy-in: $300-$500

My Stack: $500

There are several callers, and I get:

in the big blind. I check my option and see the flop with 6 other people.

Pot: $35

Flop:

I pick up a decent flush draw, but I am out of position. I decide to check to see what happens. It is checked around. The pot is still $35.

Turn:

Good news, I hit my flush. I want to see if anybody else has hit theirs, so I check. Again, it is checked around. The pot is still $35.

River:

Jackpot card! I have the absolute nuts with the king-high straight-flush. I need to bet here. If somebody has the ace of diamonds, they will certainly let me know by raising. I make a $50 bet into the $35 pot. Everybody folds to the button who does not hesitate and says, “All-In” for about $550 total.

As soon as I say call, I hear him say, “Straight-Flush” in a scared voice. I look at him and say, “Nuts.” He hangs his head and does not wait for me to show my hand - he starts counting out chips. I show the straight-flush and everybody at the table is in awe. Pretty cool! I rake in an $1100 pot.

At the end of the night, I cash out $1500 for a $500 profit. Things are starting to look up.

The Invitational started on Saturday. I met John and we had lunch. Unfortunately, nobody was allowed in the tournament room because of all of the high-profile people that were there. So much for watching my friend play. I had to sit back and play cash games (shucks darn). I went back to the Bike to play. As it turned out, Saturday was dead-even. I bought in for $500 and cashed out $500. I was up to $1200 at one point, but gave it all back. I did see Jerry Buss and Barry Greenstein though.

More to come in Part II . . .

I have heard pros talk about sitting at the table longer than they anticipated because the table was “Juicy”. I have been in some pretty bad games, but this one rewrote my definition of “Juicy”.

I was in the Bahamas for the World Poker Tour’s “Battle for the Season Pass II“. There were special cash games just for the people in the Boot Camp. However, a few people in the casino found the poker tables and sat down to play. Technically, only people that were attending the camp were permitted to play, but nobody really complained.

The last night there, I did not plan on playing too late - perhaps until midnight or so. I ended up at a 2/5 NL table. Nine of the ten players were WPT Boot Camp Attendees. The tenth player was a guy who turned out to be an Ambassador from Canada, and he was REALLY REALLY drunk.

The first time I locked horns with him was on this hand:

I am in seat 5. The drunk Ambassador is in Seat 4 - I have GREAT position on him

Seat 4 (Mr. Ambassador) straddles for 10

I have:

I know that I am out of position, but if this hand hits, I can win a large pot. Additionally, I know that more people than normal will be playing because the Ambassador is in the hand. So, I limp in for $10. Four more people call. The Ambassador puts in $30 more. Everybody calls. Six players.

Pot: $240

The flop is:

Seat 4 leads out for $75. I picked up a flush and a gutshot straight draw. I have twelve outs, so I make the straight-forward play and call. My reasoning for just calling was to get more money in the pot. Tricky play will not work against the Ambassador. He is not that aware. Seat 1 calls and everybody else folds.

Pot: $465

Turn:

This card did not help me, but it should not have helped anybody else either. The Ambassador leads out for another $100.

With 12 outs and over 5:1 pot odds, it is an easy call. Seat 1 picks up on my weak play and makes a raise to $300. Mr. Straddler calls. I have $437 left in my stack. At this point, I will only have $137 left if I call, so I just push all-in. Both Seat 1 and the straddler call, but is it them who are all-in (I have them both covered - but not by much).

Pot: $1450

River:

I get flush and take down a $1450 pot.

I offer an unused drink ticket to seat 1 (who was a pretty good player). He politely declines, but Mr. Ambassador chimes in and says he will take it. So, I oblige and give him the unused drink ticket.

Several hours pass and Mr. Ambassador displays just how bad he is. On one particular play, he CALLS an all in bet with a mere Jack High. Wow!

The Ambassador was literally an ATM. He would lose $500 and rebuy. He would get felted again, go to the ATM, and bring back another $1000. He would lose that, go back to the ATM and bring back another $1000. He must have done that five times through the night. Each time that he got felted, I would offer him an unused drink ticket. After one felting, he said that he had to go back to his room to get more money. As he left, I checked my drink ticket supply and found out that I was out. I explained the predicament to the table and everybody GLADLY gave me the rest of their unused drink tickets (which totaled another 6 or 7). We wanted to keep him at OUR table at any cost.

I continued to buy the Ambassador drinks into the wee hours of the morning. He kept getting felted time after time. At one point I had so many red chips in front of me, I could barely get my arms around them ($4500 worth). Around 3:00 am, the guy said that he was done for the evening. Comically enough, when he left, the table broke. Nobody wanted to stay around any longer.

In this game, I bought in for $500 and cashed out well over $4000. Now I know exactly what the pros mean when they say a “Juicy Game”.

People like to take the path of least resistance, especially when money is involved. In poker, this translates to a person checking a draw. Afterall, why risk additional money on a hand that may or may not materialize? The answer is simple: Deception.

Some books say to bet your draws, some say to check and take a free card. Both strategies have legitimate reasoning behind them. Personally, I take a lot of mental notes when I play, and use my image to my advantage. Normally, I have a tight image. This means that people respect me when I bet, and think that I usually have the goods. If I bet, there is a reason. I like to play that image for awhile, then use it to my advantage. Consider this example from a 1/3 NL game where I felted my opponent (I will refrain from comments until after the hand is over):

I am in a mid position with:

There was a limper in an EP, so I limped, and so did six other people. There were 7 people who saw the flop.

Pot: $21

It is checked to me, I bet $20. Everybody folds except the guy to my immediate right, who calls. We are heads up.

Pot: $61

The turn is:

The guy to my right checks, I bet out $40. He raises to $115 ($75 more). I smooth call

River:

He bets $60.

I push all-in for $240. He is in agony, but finally calls. I show the nuts, and he shows pocket 66 for the bottom set on the flop.

The analysis on this hand is pretty straight-forward.

From a mid-position, I limped with a drawing hand. I flopped the nut-flush draw. Most people would check-call in this spot. However, check-calling is usually interpreted as a draw (which is more times than not - correct). The people at this table were smart enough to think about pot odds. They will all try to put you on a hand as well. This is where you must think on multiple levels. My thought process goes like this:

If I check and call, then my opponents will put me on a draw - probably the flush draw. If it hits, then I have less chance to get paid off.

If I bet, then people will give me less credit for the flush draw. If the flush hits, then I have a better chance of getting paid off. On times where I do bet, if I bet a little bit, people might see that as a “pot-sweetener” bet, and be less likely to pay me off with my flush. If I make a pot-sized bet, then they will think that I am trying to push out the flush-draws, and it is unlikely that they will put me on the flush if it hits.

These situations are where you have to put yourself in your opponents shoes and look at YOUR actions and how they come across. You should use these actions to manipulate the situation. I decided to make a strong pot-sized bet for deception - hoping to give the illusion that I was afraid of the flush draw. The turn gave me the flush.

My opponent checks to me, so I lead out again, but with a smaller bet - about 2/3 the size of the pot. I immediately get raised. What does this mean? The opponent probably had something on the flop - 2 pair, a set, or perhaps a flush-draw himself. The only 2-pair I can put him on is 86. A set of 8s or 6s are a reality, as is the flush draw. I have the nuts at the moment. The question is, do I raise right now and let the cat out of the bag, or do I play coy and smooth call? Raising big would let him know that I have the flush. He has about $200 more behind him, which I want to get into the pot. I doubt he would put it in at this point, so I just smooth call to make it look like I am afraid of the flush possibility.

The river is inconsequential. He leads out with a rather small bet of $60. A normal raise would be $180. Since I only have $240 total, an all-in push is correct. However, there is another reason why this push is even better. People will sometimes bluff all-in when they miss their draw. I push all-in and he goes into the tank. He even says, “I think you had a huge draw and missed it”. After about a minute, he calls, and I causally flip over the nuts. He shakes his head and says, “That was a very good smooth call on the turn. That is what committed me to the hand.”

The bottom line is that people will try to put you on a hand by your bets. While this is normally a good strategy, a smart player will use the situation to his or her advantage to manipulate the situation.