Enter The Donkey: 2011

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Main Event Round 3

After a brutal Round 2 we're back in the ring.

Seat 6 raises to 750 and we call from seat 7 with 56c. Everyone else folds. Flop comes red ATT. Hmmm, there's no chance we want any part of this. He bet. I don't remember what it was. It could have been a simple dare that we would pluck an eyebrow if we lost the pot; we would have folded at any opportunity.

We raise pre-flop twice from late seats, once with AJh and once with QK. Both times everyone folds. Good result. Same thing from seat 3 with 77.

So far today we've had KK, JJ (twice), 77 and 44. Not bad.

Seat 5 raises to 600 and we call from seat 7 with TJc. The BB calls and the flop comes 24T with one club. They check and we bet 1500. They fold. Our stack is almost back to 30,000.

Seat 3 limps and PP in seat 8 raises to 1200. SB folds and we're in the BB with 77. It's 900 to call, and if we think we can get 7200 if we flop a 7, then it's right to call. PP is aggressive, so we call. Seat 3 folds. Flop comes 57T. Fantastic. Let's let him bet. We check and he checks. That's disappointing. Turn comes Q. We bet 1300 and he raises to 3500. We have a lot of chips to get in the pot and we're in no rush. The board is a rainbow, so there's no flush fear. It's highly unlikely that he's raising on a straight draw. The only hands we're afraid of are QQ (which he would have bet post flop) and TT. Really, TT is the only hand he can have that scares us. We raise to 8500 and he raises all in. TT is looking like a real possibility here, but set over set flops are pretty rare and, well, if that's the way we go out, there's no shame in it. Meanwhile, if he has TQ or AA or something like that, we'll double up. We call. As you might have figured out from the timing of this email, he had TT and, with a K on the river, PP put us out of the tournament.

This was the worst WSOP performance ever. I'm going to go flog myself. Thanks for following along. If I can get up the courage, I'll play again next year. Most of it was fun, if troubling.

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

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Main Event Round 2

We start Round 2 playing 100 200.

Seats 4567 all limp. We haven't seen this yet. We are in seat 8 with AKs, a premium hand. We should raise, but the BB is the short stack with 4400 in chips and hopefully we can induce him to push. We limp, and so does seat 9 and the SB. The BB folds. Sad. Still, we have a monster brewing with 6 other players. Flop comes A47 with 2 diamonds. Great flop for us. Everyone checks to us and we bet 1000 into the 1400 pot. Seats 4 and 5 call. Turn comes 2c, putting 2 clubs on the board. They check and we bet 5000. Seat 4 raises to 10000. Oiy! If he has a set, we're dead. He could have a straight with a 35, but that's highly unlikely. More likely he's on a flush draw hoping we'll fold (or he flopped a set). We call and the river comes Kh. He bets 7000. What to do? The K is a crazy card. It is fantastic if he somehow has 2 pair, but the real threat of a set doesn't get impacted by the K. We call. He shows 35d. He missed is flush draw, but his a straight on the turn. Oiy, that really hurt. That's why we play those 35d sometimes; he got paid big time. We're way down. Time to sit up straight and double up to where we started :( I want to vomit. I'm going to regret not raising pre flop for a long, long time.

Seat 5 limps and everyone folds to us on the button with JQd. We limp and see the flop with the blinds and Seat 5. Flop comes 5JK with 2 spades and a diamond. The BB bets 500 and Seat 5 folds. We call and the SB folds. Turn comes 3s and BB checks. We bet 900 trying to sell a flush. He raises to 2000 and we fold. The bile is spilling upward.

Still thinking of the AKs. I'm not sure there was a worse way to play that hand. Then again, I'm not sure I played it poorly. I would have looked like a genius if the short stack pushed, but I should have folded to the raise on the turn. However, if that raise we're an Ax flush draw, I again would have looked like a genius. The 35 was highly unpredictable. If we though we faced a flush draw, however, we should have pushed all in. My AK couldn't expect to get better. So the play starts to look good, but I should have paid more attention to the number of limpers who got the free flop and I should have given greater chance to a set or straight.

We see a couple flops and discard, each time leaving 600 in the pot. We're down to a third the chips we started with. I'm considering taking a walk, just to relax. That or swearing off anything short of premium hands.

The first player to bust at our table is gone. Probably 15% of the field is busted. That doesn't make me feel better. Aaaggghhh!

In seat 6 we limp in with 67c. Seat 7 limps and seat 8 raises to 800. We call as does seat 7. The flop comes 45Q with 2 clubs giving us an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw, for 15 outs, or roughly 53%. We check and seat 7 bets 1000. Seat 8 folds. If we were playing 3 handed, I might make a small raise to build the pot. Here, with just over 50% playing heads-up, I'd rather take the pot down now or race for the double up. We push all in. He folds; that's just fine. We're back over 10,000, actually over 11.

Seat 3 raises to 500 and gets 3 callers including the short stack. It's only 400 for us to call from the SB with Q9h, so we do and the BB does. Six players. Happy to see a flop for 3000. Flop comes 8TQ with one heart. We check and everyone checks to the button who bets 1600. He's very aggressive, and likely doesn't have a Q, but he could. We call hoping for a 9Q or h to turn. Everyone else folds. Turn comes Td. Terrible, now he beats us with a T. We check and he bets 3000. We have to fold or push. If the turn had been a rag, we might push. We fold. Back to just over 10,000.

We've lost another player; the short stack is gone.

Last hand of the round everyone folds to us in seat 7. We raise to 600 with 45h hoping everyone will fold and make their ways to the bathrooms instead of fight over the final pot. The blinds both call and the flop comes A35 with 1 heart. Not bad, but not great. The SB bets 1000 and the BB folds. Do we call 1000 to win a pot of 2800? Hunt for the 245 or 2 hearts? We call. Turn comes 2. Miracle card; we have a straight. SB bets 800 into us. We were hoping for a big bet; 800 is less than the bet on the flop. Very strange. We have almost 9000; how to get that all in? We call, just hoping the river isn't a 4 (which would put the straight on the board). River comes 2, pairing the board. This could give him a full house, but if that's why we exit the tournament in 2 rounds, so be it. He bets 2000, which is somewhat eclectic in light of the 1000 and then 800. We go into the tank for a minute and then push all in. He goes deep into the tank, which is great, because he would have snap called with a full house and likely with the 46 straight too. He mulls it over for a while. I stand up and get my bag, ready to exit with everyone leaving for break. Finally he calls and mucks his hand when he sees the straight.

Still very frustrated with the AKs hand, but we finish Round 2 with 21,700 in chips. That's a fighting stack, even if it's only 72% of what we started with. That was a great time to get lucky and the double up would indicate that it couldn't have been played better.

Trying to flush the AKs out of my furry donkey head, but I know that's the hand I will most likely remember tomorrow and next year.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Main Event Round 1

Welcome fans to the World Series of Poker. Imagine yourself in the largest event room you've ever seen and fill it with the smell of a freshmen dorm room, complete with pot, doritos and. Of course, sweat. But not the healthy clean sweat of your 18th year on earth, the sweat of the world's least healthy athletes, hot dog eating competitors included.

We are playing Day 1 today, but we are in the 4th Day 1 (group D). Survivors of Day 1 from group D will play again Monday in Day 2 against the survivors of Day 1 who played yesterday in group C. Those who survive Day 2, for all groups, ABCD, will finally fit under one roof for Day 3 a few days later.

We start playing 50 100 with 30,000 chips; each Round lasts 2 hours. We're sitting in Seat 1 on Table Orange 316. Over 2000 players are in today's Day 1. Big turn out. We begin in the SB, which is fine. We start with Billy Joel "Pressure" on the iPod, and away we go!

As a quick aside, I will be focusing on the play of my opponents even after I fold, so I will not be able to give a play by play in general. Speaking of my opponents, I'm happy to report that I don't recognize any of them.

First hand everyone folds to seat 8 who bets 225 (no one sitting in seat 9 at the moment). Looks like a steal, but we'll let our 50 SB go, along with our Q5s. The BB calls and flop comes 4TK rainbow. BB bets 200 and Seat 8 raises to 525. BB folds. They could have had anything. Their play, however, was what you would expect from good players; no donkeys next to us.

Everyone folds to us in seat 5 with JQ and we raise to 275. The blinds call and the flop comes 88K. They check and we bet 425. They fold. Excellent!

Side note. Something here I've never seen. There's a man wearing 2 pair of glasses. He has the poker mirror glasses pushed tightly against his face, which I always think are funny because I have to believe there are times people can see his cards in them. But then he has reading glasses hanging at the tip of his nose.

We see a couple of flops and then discard our hands, and we're back to our starting chips. Okay.

We play our first questionable hand from the button. With 4 players ahead of us in for 400 and the blinds behind us, we call 400 with J5h. We probably should have discarded, but the table is seeing action and with a 2000 plus pot to start, if we hit, we'll get paid well. Unfortunately, we got a second chance to discard after the 239 rainbow flop, and we did.

There's a guy at our table who has won big pot after big pot by hitting great cards. He also seems to be a donkey. He has bet 3 times out of order from the button, mistakenly thinking he's in the SB. One time he even took the SB's chips as change when he called a pre-flop bet. Now it's our turn against him. We'll call him PP (for the Pink Panther bc we can't spell the french guy's name).

PP raises to 375 from seat 7 and we raise to 975 from the SB with our first premium hand, AQc. He calls. Flop comes 4QA with 2 hearts. Excellent. We bet 1000 and he calls. Turn comes 6h. Terrible. There's a heart flush on the board. Unlikely he has it, but . . . We bet 1500 and he calls. River comes 2d rag. We check and he bets 3500. Unless he has 2 hearts or a set, or a 35, we'll win. We call and he turns over A5h. PP strikes again. Ouch!

Seat 3 raises to 200 and seats 56 and 7 call. We call from seat 8 with 57s. Seat 9 calls. It's a family pot, but the SB raises to 1150 and everyone folds to us. It's a long shot, but huge payout if we hit. We call, and we're happy to see seat 9 call flop comes 68A giving us an open ended straight draw. SB bets 2050. We could raise, even though we're behind, and hope he folds? But we have to hope seat 9 folds too. We call and seat 9 folds. Turn comes 7 giving us a pair. Not what we were looking for, but some value. He checks. Should we bet and hope he folds? Maybe, but what if he raises and then we lose that bet and have to fold without seeing the river? We check. Turn comes J, no help. He checks. We bet 2750 hoping he has something like 99 or TT and will fold. It's a small bet relative to the pot, but sometimes those are the scariest. He folds. Yay! We're almost back to even!

Everyone folds to us and we raise to 350 from the button with AT. BB calls and flop comes 48Q. BB checks and after a moment of thought we check. Turn comes 6. BB bets 525 and after a moment of thought we raise to 1400. We're representing that we have a Q and if he doesn't he should fold. Apparently he didn't. He folds and we're one step closer to even.

Seat 5 raises to 350 and gets calls from seat 7 and 8. We're in the BB with our first pocket pair, KK. Giddey-up Cowboys! We raise to 1350 and here's where it gets odd. Seat 5 raises the 3950 and everyone else folds. Does he have AA? Do we want to get crushed in round 1 that way? No, but can we live with ourselves if we fold so irrationally, no. So, call or raise? We're out of position so we'd like to raise, but we'd also like to make sure the flop doesn't have an A before committing all our chips. Then again, he only has another 11,000 in chips. If we call, the pot will be over 8000. Why take the chance he gets to see that A? Even if he doesn't have one, there's a good chance he pushes post flop regardless. It will never be easier to make the call than now (unless a K flops). Also, if we push, we risk another 11000, but maybe he folds and we get his 4000 without ever seeing the flop. We push. He thinks for a minute, which is all we really wanted. That means he doesn't have AA. He thinks for another minute and discards. Yay! We're back over where we started!

Seat 7 raises to 300 and we call from seat 8 with JJ. No one else calls and the flop comes TJK with 2 clubs love the flopped J, but what a scary board. Flushes and straight and lions and tigers. He bets 400. We have too much fear to slow play and raise to 1200. He folds. That's fine. That was too harsh of a board for us. Any club, Q, K, A, or 9 would have put us in an awkward spot.

We finish Round 1 after getting punched by PP with 33,525 in chips. Happy result.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Sunday, June 19, 2011

NLH Rounds 7-8

Back to White 49 -

Playing 150 300 with 25 antes, we'll be pushing all in soon.

Seat 4 raises to 675 and we call from the BB. We have a terrible J4, but it's only 375 to us. Flop comes AQ7. We check, he bets, we fold.

We then fold our A4 SB. Our J8 button. Our 56 in seat 9 (dealer screwed up and exposed a card; we should have had 66, and there was a 6 in the flop). Our 23 in seat 8; 5T in seat 7; our 83s in seat 6; K5 in seat 5; Q4 in 4; A2s in seat 3; and now we're in the BB. We have to push soon - let's see what comes.

Everyone folds to the button who raises to 800. The SB folds. We have 69d. We can hope he's trying to buy the blinds and push or we can fold and move forward with about 4000 in chips. At this point, 4000 doesn't work well. We'd rather push and hope he folds, in which case it's a 1200 win, and if he doesn't fold, hope that we win and double up. We push. He calls with 88 and knocks us out.

Donkey going home with about 600 players left.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

NLH Round 5-6

Playing 100 200, here we go. The screens now show 3,144 entrants!

First hand seat 7 raises to 500 and we call from seat 9 with 55. Flop comes 49T with 2 spades. He bets 400 and we call. Turn comes 6s. He checks and we check. River comes 3. He checks and we bet 950. He goes into the tank and then folds.

Same guy raises to 500 next hand from seat 6. We call from seat 8 with 66, as do the button and both blinds. Flopping a set would be huge here. Flop comes 58T. Everyone checks to the button (loose) who bets 1000. Everyone folds.

We limp in from seat 4 with 7Js. Seat 8 and the blinds see the 6QK flop with us. The blinds check and we bet 450 into the 800 pot. Everyone folds. Inching forward.

We discard our K2 BB to a 600 raise and our 7Qd SB to a 750 raise.

Seat 3 limps and we limp from seat 6 with J9h. SB folds and BB checks. Flop comes 6JQ with 2 clubs. They check and we bet 450. They fold. 500 pick up there. Inching forward.

Here come the blinds.

We're in the BB with KJ. Everyone folds to the SB who calls. We raise 600 more and he folds.

Everyone folds to us in the SB and we limp in with 36. BB checks and flop comes 3TQ. We begin getting chips to bet and he discards. Not bad, we won 400 on our blinds. Inching forward.

From seat 7 we raise to 600 with A9. Everyone folds and we pick up the 300 blinds. Great result.

In seat 4 we raise to 450 with 89s. Seat 6 (loose) calls and the SB pushes all in for about 2500. We fold, but Loose calls with KK and beats his JJ. She's got chips!

We have A6 in the BB and get a walk, winning 100. Then in the SB we limp with 9T (two limpers ahead of us), but the BB raises to 1400. Loose calls, but everyone else folds. Ultimately BB takes it down going all in on the river without a call from Loose.

Seat 7 raises to 450 and we call from seat 8 with TQh. Blinds fold. Flop comes 4QA. He checks and we bet 350. He calls. Turn comes T. I like it. He checks and we bet 850 and he calls. River comes 3. He checks. This doesn't smell right. We check and he shows AA underneath. I'm surprised he let us see the river with a TQA on the board, but whatever. That hurt 1650, but could have been much worse.

Same guy raises next hand to 425 and we call with AQ. BB calls. Flop comes 27Q with 2 hearts. BB checks and he bets 950. We raise another 1600. That amount makes it inappropriate for him to call with the heart flush draw. BB folds and he goes into the tank. He folds. When our table breaks, he tells me he had JJ.

Table breaks and we're at white 49 seat 8. Damn. We've lost Loose!

Moving into Round 6. We have about 9000 in chips playing 100 200 with 25 antes.

New table, new round, have to study the players. In Seat 3 we fold 47d.

Now we're in the blinds.

Seat 4 raises to 475. There's 1025 in the pot now and it's 275 to us with Q7. We call. Flop comes 6QK. Not bad, unless he has a Q or K. We bet 725 and he raises to 1500. This is not the hand to get crushed on. We fold. Ouch.

We fold the 36 SB.

In seat 7 we raise to 450 with 78h and everyone folds. Great result. The blinds and antes are 550.

Of the 3144 starters, 1070 are alive.

Seat 9 raises to 600 and we call from BB with JQd. Flop comes 67A. Not good. We check and he bets 600. We can either fold or raise to 1500 and hope he doesn't have an A. We fold. Oddly he shows the A before discarding his winner.

Now is when we need those premium hands!

We raise to 450 with A9 from seat 5 and get calls from seats 6 and 8. Flop comes 22A. Good flop. We bet 1100 and seat 6 calls. Turn comes 5 putting 2 diamonds on the board. We bet 1100 and seat 6 raises all in for another 3000. We have about 5000 in chips left. There's little difference between losing 3 and losing 5. I hate to fold. What could he have? It would be a bold bluff. Or he could have a 2 or an A with a better kicker, in which case I have 3 outs to win and 4 to tie? With greater restraint than I usually can bring to play, we fold.

As the dinner break starts we raise to 450 from seat 3 with K9h and everyone folds.

We head to dinner at the end of Round 6 with 5600 in chips. Well over half the field is out. The fish are dead. Hopefully you won't hear from me for 3 1/2 hours.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

NLH Round 3-4

Starting round 3 playing 50-100, we're in the BB with 3350 in chips.

Seat 5 raises to 225 for the 3rd hand in a row. From seat 9 we call with 55. Flop comes 6JK and we throw it away.

He raises again the next hand and we call with 9Js. BB raises to 900 and he folds. We fold.

We limping seat 4 with AA hoping the aggressive guy now on the button will raise. No one does. Sad. We see the flop with the blinds. It comes AAQ with 2 hearts. We just flopped quad Aces and there only 300 in the pot! They check, we check and the turn comes Th. Conceivably they could have a royal flush with the TQAh on the board. They check and we bet 125. The BB calls. River comes Js. We were hoping for a h, but hopefully he has a K and made a straight. He checks and we bet 525. He folds. We win 325 with quad As and our first premium hand. How depressing.

Seat 4 (loose) limps, seat 5 limps, the SB limps and we check in the BB with Q6s. Flop comes 7TJ with 2 spades. We check. Seat 4 bets 200 and seat 5 calls. 3 way is good for us. We raise to 700 and they fold.

Next hand, 3 hands after AA, we get AA again. Seat 7 limps. No action again. We raise to 250 and get calls from the BB and seat 7. Flop comes A33. Perfect. We check and they check. Turn comes 6. We check and they check. River comes Q. We bet 325 and the BB calls. We take it down.

Well, we certainly can't bitch for lack of premium hands this round, but. No one else is hitting anything, so we're not really getting paid. We made about 1100 over the two AA hands. Oh well. Let's be happy with the extra chips.

On the button with AQh, another premium hand! And . . . Wait for it . . . Everyone folds to us! Oiy. We raise to 250 and the blinds fold. It's like a bizarre curse.

Seat 8 raises to 300 and we call from the button with 88. The SB pushes all in for 1750 and seat 8 folds. As long as the SB doesn't have an overpair, we should call. It's 1450 to win 2750; we just need a 33% chance for the call to be right. We call and he shows AJs. It's basically a 50/50 race. Unfortunately a J comes on the turn and he takes it down. Damn that hurt. We were inching up over 5000 and just got smacked back down.

Seat 7 raises to 225 and we call in seat 8 with 9Jd. Flop comes 4TK with 2 clubs. He checks and we check, hoping for a Q. Turn comes J. He checks and we bet 525. He folds. Good result.

We limp from seat 5 with 78d and everyone folds. We see the 29T flop with the BB. He bets 125 and we call with our open-ended straight draw. Turn comes 4 and he bets 175. He seems to be hoping to push us out. We raise to 525 and he folds. Great result. Inching up.

We discard our 58 BB to a seat 6 raise to 300.

BB is away from the table, so his 100 blind is dead. Everyone folds to seat 9 who raises to 225. Looks like a steal, particularly with the BB's undefended money. The button folds and we raise to 675 with J5. He folds. Great result. Dangerous because our hand was bad and we couldn't call a re-raise, but good result.

Everyone folds to us and we raise to 275 in seat 8 with A7. As hoped, everyone folds and we profit the 150 in blinds. Inching back toward 5k.

Seat 5 raises to 225 and we call from seat 6 with JQ. Seats 79 and BB call. Big pot. Flop comes AA9 and everyone checks. Turn comes K. We need a T for a straight, but basically have crap. When BB and 5 check, we bet 350 and everyone folds. Guess no one had an A! Great step taking us just over the 5k threshold.

From seat 4 we raise to 275 with QQ. Yes, four premium hands in one hour! Crazy. Of course, the curse continues and everyone but the SB folds. Flop comes 39K. He checks. Terrible flop. We bet 350. He'll only call if he has a K and has us beat. He folds. We pick up 375 on that premium hand.

We finish Round 3 with about 5400 in chips, sitting in the BB playing 75 150. Given our cards, wish we had garnered more chips, but still we're in a good place.

Seat 4 (loose) raises to 300 and we call from the SB with Q2s. Not a good hand, but if we hit we should get paid. Flop comes 9QA. Darn A. Maybe she doesn't have one. We bet 250 and she calls. Really doesn't mean anything from her. Turn comes glorious 2. Love it. We bet 400 and she calls. River comes J. We bet 750 and she calls with AK. Our 2 pair takes it down.

Seat 5 raises to 300. Seat 8 calls and we call from seat 9 with 9Ts. The SB pushes all in for 2500 and seat 5 pushes all in for 3000. Tempting. If they both have Ax, the pot odds might make it right for us. We fold. They have AJ and AQ, but the flop has two Qs.

A guy doubles up by going all in with 33 pre flop and beating QQ. He now has 2000 in chips. We'll call him Mr3.

Seat 3 calls and we call with 7Td. Mr3 calls from seat 6 and seat 9 calls as well. Along with the blinds, 6 of us see the 7JQ flop (2 hearts). The blinds check and we bet 350. Only Mr3 calls. We check the turn in the dark. A K comes and Mr3 checks. River comes K and we bet 625. Mr3 has about 1500. Psychologically something happens to players when they have to risk 40% of their chips. It makes then feel like it's an all in. He folds. Pretty sure he had us beat.

Mr 3 raises to 275 from seat 3 and seat 9 pushes all in with about 2000 (seat 9 is the guy who had QQ against Mr3). We push all in with JJ and Mr3 folds showing AQ. Lucky for us, seat 9 also had AQ. Even luckier, we flop a J. JK4. Now we only have to worry about a T. Turn comes a rag and the river is a Q. We take it down. Nice 2000 pick up!

We call a raise to 350 with A2h and discard after the flop. We play fairly judiciously for a while, folding things like 78s while Mr3 sits a few seats behind us with 1100. He will push soon. He does, again with AQ against JJ and loses. Mr3 out.

We raise from seat 4 to 375 with TT and get called by seat 8. Flop comes 4QQ. He checks and we check. Turn comes 5, putting 3 diamonds on the board. He checks and we bet 650. He calls. River comes 7. He checks and we bet 1250.
He pushes all in for a few thousand more. Oiy. He has to have a Q or a flush. We fold.

Same guy raises from seat 6 to 400. The button and the SB call and we call from the BB with 44 and the flop comes 235. Nice flop. Everyone checks to seat 6 who bets 1500. Oddly large. He either has a big pair, in which case we're about a 38% dog, or 2 big cards, in which case we're a 76% favorite (more if one of his cards is an A as the A hitting the board would give us a straight. We call. Turn comes 8. We check and he checks. More likely he has 2 big cards. River comes another 8. We check and he bets 1500. Hmmm, we call. He takes it down with KK. Huge hit to us, but we're still over 5k. We were closing in on or over 10k, but head in the game. We have chips.

We finish Round 4 with 6225 in chips. We took a couple of harsh hits at the end of the round, but we're in good shape heading into Round 5 playing 100 200.

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

NLH

Pre-script: we are now bought in for the big dance. We will be in the Amazon Room, Seat 1 on Orange Table 316 on July 9. That means we'll start in the SB, which is fine. It also means we will have trouble seeing the 9 and 10 seat players, which is annoying.

Today we're at the most common of games today, NLH. Today should be the softest field we face as this is a relatively cheap entry (1k) and a Sunday start. So we will have even bigger donkeys in the field for the first few hours.

We are in seat 1 of a 9 handed table playing 25 25 with 3000 in chips. We start in the SB. First hand everyone folds to the button who raises to 75. We have AJ and raise to 375. BB and button fold. We're up!

We fold the next ten hands, all the way through our blinds. At this stage of the tourney, that only cost us 50.

Everyone folds to us in seat 8 and we raise to 75 with K9h. Everyone folds and we've won our 50 back by stealing the blinds.

We limp in from seat 6 with 56c. Seat 8 calls and seat 9 raises to 150. The blinds fold and we call, along with seat 8. Flop comes 457 with 2 diamonds. Great flop. We bet 250 and they fold. Okay.

Seat 4, who is very loose, limps. Seat 5 limps and seat 8 raises to 75. We call from the BB with 38d. Seat 4 calls. Flop comes 24Q, all diamonds. Excellent, we flopped a flush. Problem is that if another diamond hits, our 8 high probably won't be good. We bet 175 and they both call. Turn comes As. Perfect card. Hopefully one of them has an A to fall in love with. We bet 750 and seat 4 calls. River comes 6d. Terrible. We check, she checks, and we take it down. She didn't have any diamonds. The 6d only stopped us from betting the river.

We steal a couple small pots and then raise to 125 from the button with JK and get called by the BB and seat 8. Flop comes 26Q. The BB checks and seat 8 bets 150. We lay down our biggest loss so far.

We are now playing 10 handed. From Table Seat 1, I have trouble seeing if 9 and 10 have cards. Again, annoying.

There are two women at the table, in Table Seats 3 and 4. Seat 3 is a tourist. Very sweet, but she's the loose player at the table. She keeps talking to the woman in seat 4, who just smiles and tries to nicely ignore seat 3. After 35 minutes of this, the new dealer came in and asked seat 4 to move her chair a few inches to create the right distribution of room at the table. It became clear at that point that seat 4 doesn't speak English. Someone said she's Russian. She did move, conveniently away from seat 3 who stopped talking to her.

In seat 3 we raise to 75 with TJ. Seats 46 and 7 call; the blinds fold. The pot is 350. Flop comes 7TA. Didn't want to see an A. We think, then check. Everyone checks and turn comes Q. We bet 350 and seat 4 calls. River comes 7. Pot is now 1050. What does he have? We bet 450. If he has an A, he'll call. If not, he'll fold. So we're getting more than 2 to 1 odds that he doesn't have one. He folds. Guess he didn't have one.

Seat 4 raises to 75 and seats 7 and 9 call. We call from the SB with K6 and the BB calls. Flop comes 234 with 2 spades. Everyone checks to seat 9 who bets 175 (he only has 1000 left). Here's the math. The pot has about 550 and I need 175 to call. Everyone else will likely fold. If I hit a 5 on the turn, I will get the pot plus his 1000 he'll almost certainly push on the turn. That's close. K or 6 are probably good too. We call. Turn comes Qh. We check, he bets 1000 and we fold.

We raise to 125 from seat 9 with AT. The blinds call and the flop comes 348. That's terrible against the blinds. We check, they check, turn comes 9 and everyone checks again. River comes 6 and SB bets 175 and takes it down. This is the loose player, but our A high probably isn't good.

We limp with 57d from seat 5. Seat 6 raises to 125 and seat 8 pushes all in for about 1000. We fold and seat 6 folds.

The dealer looked over at my KCC insignia card cover and asked, "yer from Kansas City?" I'm not sure what he thought the second C of KCC meant, but I tried to be nice as he seemed like a good guy and sometimes I have truble speling to. Okay, this isn't spelling, but you get my point right? Fine, I'm a dick. Anyway, back to the cards.

We finish round 1 with 4625 in chips. Great start. Now playing 25 50 in Round 2.

We raise to 175 from seat 9 with 77. Our first pocket pair today. Not great, but let's steal blinds. The SB (loose player) calls and the flop comes 8KK. Actually an okay flop for us. She checks and we bet 350. She calls, which means nothing. Turn comes 5. Great turn for us. She checks and we bet 650. She calls. No idea what she has. River comes 9 and she bets 1000. Hmmmm. She needs an 89K or overpair to beat us (or 55 or 67). I'm lost on this one. I'd rather lay it down and take the 1200 hit on the hand than call and risk another 1000. We fold. Ouch.

We call a seat 6's raise to 150 from seat 9 with JQ. Flop comes 57A. Seat 6 bets 400 and we fold. Down to 3400.

We limp from seat 5 with 37c. Very strange play that I don't recommend to anyone at home. Seats 8 and 9 call and the SB folds. 4 of us see the flop come 467. Great flop. We bet 225. Let's take it down now! Seat 8 calls and the turn comes 5. Giddey-up, we have a straight. The only fear is she could have a higher straight to the 8 or could get one on the river. We bet 525 and she calls. River comes A; perfect. We bet 750 and she folds.

We limp in seat 3 with TT and get four other limpers. Great, if we hit this will be a monster. Flop comes 29Q and everyone checks. Turn comes 8, giving us a gut shot straight draw. We bet 225 and get 2 calls. Oiy! Was hoping they'd fold. River comes A. We check and fold to the bet of 225.

Our table becomes a push fest and we lose two people in 5 minutes, including the Russian woman.

We lose another player and are playing 7 handed waiting for new players. New player enters before the cards are dealt.

Seat 3 (loose) raises to 150. This is her first pre-flop raise, which means she has a hand, but also that if we hit we should be able to fleece her for all her chips. Seat 4 and 7 call and we call from the BB with K3c. Flop comes 45Q with one club. We need runner runner for a flush or a straight; not good. Seat 3 bets 225 and gets 2 calls. As bad as our chances are, the pot odds and upside equity demand we call. Turn comes Q and seat 3 checks. Everyone checks and the river comes 9. We have no hand and it's easy to fold with everyone else when seat 3 bets 1000. She is on a wild run and taking down pot after pot. I suspect someone is going to hit a hand and get well paid; I just hope it's us.

We limp from seat 6 with 55 and seat 7 calls. The SB raises to 250 and the BB calls. Odds are right to call, so we do. Seat 7 calls. Flop comes 6TQ with 2 hearts. The BB bets 600 and we fold.

After 2 hours, we go on break with 3350 in chips. Not terrible given we have had no premium hands. We go back in playing 50 100.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Friday, June 17, 2011

Pot Limit Omaha Rounds 3-4

Playing 75 150, we limp in in seat 3 with A344 (A3h). Seat 4 raises to 500 and gets calls from seat 6 and the blinds. Big pot. We call. Flop comes 36T rainbow and everyone checks. Turn comes As, putting 2 spades on the board. The blinds check and we bet 1200. Everyone folds but the BB who calls. River comes 7h. He checks. He has about 3000 in chips and no resurrection chips. We bet the pot. He has to risk going home to call. He calls and takes it down with A7. The river 7 gave him a weak winner, but a winner nonetheless. That hurt.

Everyone folds to us in seat 8 and we pot raise to 525 with 79TT. The SB calls and the flop comes 445. He checks and we check. Turn comes 7. He bets 600 and we call. River comes J, putting 3 clubs on the board. He checks and we check. He takes it down with a 4 in his hand.

Seat 3 limps and seat 4 raises to 675. We call from seat 5 with 8JQK (3 clubs to the K). Seat 7 calls and seat 3 pushes all in for 3100. Seat 4 folds. We call and Seat 7 calls. Flop comes 8TA with the Ac. Good flop for us. A 9JQ or K gives us a straight and we have bottom pair. We push all in and seat 7 folds. We turn over our cards afraid to see AA in seat 3's hand, but he has a lot of random stuff including an A. He's in the lead, but we have a lot of outs and 2 cards to see. The turn comes T, which is bad for us, but the river comes 9 to give us a straight. We take it down.

Question for Sensei. Should we have checked the flop? Given all of our outs, should we have tried to get player 7 all in with us? Play slow? Bet the river?

We play 2 hands in a row with suited As. Both times the flop has 2 spades. The first time there's a post flop bet that we call. The turn is a spade and we check. The river comes and he checks, we bet, he folds. Not a huge pot, but happy. The second hand has pre flop action and big post flop action. We only stay in because there are 3 players. Flop was 5JK and we had A5s. Turn is a rag and there's big action. River is Ac. The aggressor checks. We have A5. We may have the best hand, but betting would allow him to raise and we would have to fold. We just check and are thrilled to take it down he had JK!

We didn't have a moment to count our chips at the end of round 3, but we're on the right path. Now in round 4 playing 100 200.

Seat 4 limps and we raise to 700 from seat 6 with AAK8 (AKh). Everyone folds to seat 4 who calls. Flop comes Q46 with 2 hearts. Great flop. He checks and we bet 1500. He raises to 4000 and we push him all in. He has a total of 8000. He turns over QQ. We need an A or a h, so we're about a 40% dog. Turn comes Q giving him Quads.

A quick count shows we still have over 20,000 in chips.

In seat 4 we limp with JQKA (KAs). Monster hand. Seat 5 raises to 600. Seats 8 and 9 call and the BB calls. Big pot. We raise to 2800 and get calls from seat 5 and 9. Flop comes 9TJ with 2 diamonds. Glorious. We bet 7000 and seat 8 raises all in. Seat 9 folds and we call, putting another 6000 in chips in. He turns over a pair and two diamonds. The turn comes 4d giving him the flush and he takes it down. All of the sudden we're crushed. We were so high a minute ago. That was a terrible beat. We were about a 65% favorite on a pot with 35000 chips in it!

We have just over 5000 in chips.

We limp from seat 8 with 99JK and see the flop with 3 other players. Flop comes 49Q rainbow. Great flop for us. Seat 4 bets 900 and seat 6 calls. We call and the BB folds. Turn comes 5. Great card. Seat 4 bets 2200, which is most of our chips. Seat 6 folds. Our all in doesn't surprise anyone as calling would be silly. We turn over our cards and he shows QQ. He has the over set and we now need a T for a straight or the case 9. We get neither. We get to go home.

Wow, frustrating. PLO is probably the fastest swinging game, but we got up to 30,000 and then took two beats in a row on huge pots, including a bad beat on a 35000 chip pot. Donkey taking tomorrow off!

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Pot Limit Omaha

Here we are in Donkey's favorite pasture. Before we begin, a note on the last tournament. We played A+ level poker for about seven hours. We may have missed two or three opps to get a little more $ and we may have spent a few chips more than we had to here or there, but I doubt anyone could criticize much of the play and no one could criticize the play overall. It was a great run with decent cards. Then, I mid stride, we tripped and fell on our face, smashing in some teeth and allowing our glasses to break into shards that went straight into our eyeballs. While we lay there upset, the other runners trampled us. Poker is a marathon, mostly made of one solid step after another. Let's try to stay on our hooves today.

Playing 25 50 with 3000 chips and 2 add ons (resurrection chips), we fold our first 5 hands and then call a raise to 150 from the SB with 79JK. Not a good hand, but the pot odds with 3 players in ahead of us are good enough to merit seeing the flop. We see the flop, a 24J with 2 hearts. Original better bets 600 and gets one caller. We fold. The J isn't too impressive, and with straight and flush draws on the board, we'll wait for something better.

With 5678 in seat 5 we call seat 4's raise to 125. Seat 6 and the BB call. Flop comes 78T with 2 spades. BB checks and seat 4 bets 350. This is a good flop for us with 2 pair, but there's a good chance of high flush draws and even made straights out there. It's unlikely that Seat 4 has a straight, but still possible. We take a stab with a 900 bet; if Seat 4 missed and is trying to buy the pot, he should fold. Seat 6 pushes all in, BB folds and Seat 4 pushes all in. Hmmmm, seat 6 may be trying to buy the pot, but Seat 4 clearly has a hand. Likely they both do. We fold and lick our wounds. They show their hands. Seat 4 had TT underneath for top set and Seat 6 had JQKA including the AQ of spades. A spade turned, the river didn't pair the board to give Seat 4 a boat, and Seat 6 took it down with his flush.

We fold for a while and then call a raise from seat 4 to 150. Seat 6 called and we are in the SB with 89JQ. Flop comes 4QQ rainbow. We check, seat 4 checks and seat 6 bets 500. He bets 500. We only have about 1500, so we push. Seat 4 folds and seat 6 calls with 8QKA. Turn comes 5 and River comes 7. He takes it with QA. Time to use our first resurrection chip.

We call a raise to 125 from seat 5 with 2345, but toss that after the flop of 79Q. So far no good hands, and the flops have moved them downward in value.

We raise to 175 in seat 4 with 4QKA with AQs and get callers from the button and the BB. Flop comes 55Q with 2 diamonds. BB checks, we check and the button bets 375. BB calls and we fold. No 5 and no diamonds makes this a bad place to be.

After approximately 20 hands at this table we're batting 0%.

Seats 3567 limp in, so we limp in with 223K (K2c). Not a good hand, but great pot odds and I love big family limps as post flop play is my strongest arena. The blinds limp and 7 of us see the 268 flop (2 hearts). Everyone checks to seat 7 who bets 300. We raise the pot. Someone has 2 hearts and someone has a great straight draw - no need to give them a new card to look at. Everyone folds. Our first victory.

We limp in from seat 6 with 3457 and see the flop with 5 other players. I like this friendly play. Flop comes 67Q rainbow. Great flop for us. A 345 or 8 will give us a straight. Seat 3 bets 300, seat 5 raises to 1100 and we push all in for 2200. Seats 3 and 5 go all in. Just what we wanted. Our straight will likely win and we have 13 chances, which is roughly 47%. Turn comes J, but river comes 4. Giddey-up; we triple up! Now we have some chips to play with.

We enter Round 2 with 1 resurrection chip and about 7500 in chips, playing 50 100.

We get up to 8700 in chips and then seat 3 and 4 limp and seat 5 raises to 500. We call from the BB with 4789. Seat 3 calls and the pot is about 1700. Flop comes 289. We like top 2 and bet 1200. Seats 3 and 4 fold, but seat 5 raises to 3000. Hmmm. Unlikely he has a set. He raised pre flop so unlikely to have 22. I have an 89, so unlikely he has the other 2 of either. He could have a huge straight draw, but unlikely he would raise preflop with 67TJ. More likely he has TJQQ or something of that nature. Hmmm, we're probably ahead right now, so let's get the chips in. We push and he calls. He shows 9TKK. He needs a TK or 2 to beat us. He turns a K to make a set and takes it down. Ouch. We were about a 60% favorite.

Resurrection chip 3 in play. We are in seat 4 with double suited 78KK. Seat 3 raises to 300 and we pot bet to 1050 and get a call from seats 6 and 3. Flop comes 49J. Seat 3 checks and we pot bet all in and get a call from seat 6. I don't recall what he had, but I do recall his chips pushing toward me at the end of the hand.

Again, we have chips to play with. Over 6000.

Seat 4 limps and the SB limps. We're in the BB with 9JQA (JQc) and raise the pot (to 400). They call and the flop comes 4dTcKc. We have a second nut flush draw, an open-ended straight flush draw, a 9JQ or A gives us a straight. All good things. SB bets 800 and we raise the pot (to 3600). Seat 4 folds, but the SB pushes all in with more chips than we have. We call, knowing we could be heading home soon. He shows A4c and 89. He looks at our cards and says he's way ahead. I'm confused by that and want to ask what he means, but the Qs turns and I can't make myself point out that he was wrong as it's rather moot now. The river is not a club and we take the pot down. Note that he had a higher club flush draw, but we had 6 clubs in our hands and on the board. Of the 7 that could give him a flush, 2 gave us a straight flush. He only had 5 good clubs.

We close Round 2 with 13300 in chips, but no resurrection chips. Overall, that's a good spot (the resurrection chips are worth 3000 each).

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

NLH 6-Handed Round 7-8

We enter Round 7 with 434 players left (we started with 1378). The top 126 get paid. We're playing 200 400 with 50 antes, which means 900 in the pot before cards are dealt. People will be betting over 1000 from the onset. In that light, my chip stack won't last more than a couple bad hands before we're back in push position, even if all I do is see the flop on those bad hands.

Seat 3 raises to 1000 and the SB calls. We're in the BB with AQ. We like the hand, but we'll be out of position post flop. Also, we're sandwiched between the two guys who have been pushing all in over and over. We'd rather put the chips in now. We raise to 4500 and they both fold. That's just fine.

Seat 3 raises to 1000 and gets calls from 4 and 5. Big pot! It's 600 to us to call and there's 3900 in the pot, so we call with total crap, 84. Flop comes QQ5. Everyone checks. Turn comes 7d putting 3d on board (we have the 4) and giving us a gut shot straight draw. Seat 4 bets 2600 and seat 5 folds. We have to fold. We can't call that hoping for a non diamond 6. Seat 3 calls so we get to see the river. It's an 8, which may have made our hand the winner. We will never know because Seat 4 bet 5500 on the River and 3 folded.

Our table breaks and we move to yellow 108. We are again sandwiched between the smaller stacks of 10-15000. Oiy!

We're also starting in the BB. First hand, seat 6 raises to 1100 and the SB calls. We have AQs. Same analysis as the last table. We raise 4000 more and they fold. I hate to say good-bye to a premium hand, but I'll take the 2500 income and call it a happy trade.

We're practically 7 hours in and I just can't help noticing the lack of pocket pairs. We've yet to get 45679J or K pairs. We got Qs twice, but that means we've only had 7 pocket pairs in 7 hours. That's oddly low (and we've not hit a set on the ones we did have).

We move into Round 8 playing 50 500 with 50 antes. We have about 23000 in chips, so we're making some progress, but we're still very shallow.

Table breaks again. We're at Black 20 with 21000 in chips and less than 300 players. I recognize one scary bald guy with reflective mirror glasses at the table. There are 2 players with stacks like mine and 3 with larger stack. I find this constant table changing annoying.

We raise to 1600 in seat 4 with AT. The blinds call and the flop comes 48K with 2 clubs. Scary bald guy with glasses checks in the SB but BB bets 3000. We fold. We take out our sunglasses. If we play against scary bald guy, we'll wear them. It's too weird to not know if he's looking in our big donkey browns.

Everyone folds to the SB who makes it 1300. We're in the BB with AJ. We're probably way ahead, so we want to raise, but we have some fear of a re-raise. If he's not trying to buy the pot and re-raises (he has us covered), will we push or call? Not knowing makes it hard to raise. AJ is just not strong enough to push with, so we'd probably fold. That supports just calling. But if we call and the flop comes without an A or J, and he bets, what will we do? Hmmm, we take a shot. We raise another 2600 and he folds. Perfect.

We're in seat 4 and raise to 1600 with 99. Seats 5 and 6 fold, but mirror glasses raises to 4000. Oiy, tough decision. We call and the flop comes AA4. He checks and I check. Turn comes 5. He checks and we bet 4000. He really doesn't seem to have an A, but he calls; and the river comes 5. He bets 5000. Very strange. The pot is huge; do we fold for 5000? No, we call. He takes it with KK. Not bueno. That really hurt.

We are in push position with 9000 in chips in the BB. Seat 4 raises to 1300 and seat 6 calls. We call (for 800) with 58d. Not a good hand, but we still have enough in chips to make it worthwhile if we hit something. Flop comes 348. We have top pair. Strange flop. We would have pushed with a 67 or 2 diamonds, but do we push here or try to extract value? We push unfortunately he insta calls turning over 33. He flopped a set!

We are out. Although we outlasted over 1000 opponents, we didn't make it into the money by about 100 people. Oiy!
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

NLH 6-Handed Round 5-6

It is not surprising, looking back over what I've written, that I focus on the hands where I took a beating; they're simply more memorable. This is true for all poker players. We remember the beats and the lay downs more than the wins. Oddly, and excuse me for waxing philosophically, this is a microscosmic representation of the general human condition. We remember the times we were snubbed or disappointed much more acutely in every relationship than we do the times that we were happily surprised. Which leads me to my next point. With 7000 in chips we still have a healthy stack, although half what we had before. Still, playing 25 antes and 100 200 blinds, we're at a place where we will be all in on many hands we play. Pots will have 550 before cards are dealt. Either we will push all in or be pushed all in often (not so much as a true short stack, which would be about 5000! Here goes Donkey.

Seat 4 raises to 500 and we call from seat 5 with JQ. Seat 6 (scary guy is Vietnamese guy named Jimmy. Very famous player. I'm sure many of you know who he is. I don't.) and the SB call, making it a 2000 plus pot. Flop comes 345. BB and Seat 4 check. Now's the time to represent a mid-pair like 88. We bet 1600. Everyone folds.

We do something similar 3 times - each time we call a pre-flop raise, check the flop and then raise the turn when someone bets it. Once we get re-raised and suffer the pain of folding. Once we hoped someone would call as we flopped a flush, but no one did. Anyway, twice no one called, so we got the pot plus whatever was bet post turn. Anyway, we're back up to about 10,000 and our table is soon to break.

Table breaks and we go to White 53, where we are the smallest stack on the table. We have over 10k now, but the first hand we fold and watch someone go all in for about 16k pre-flop; play time is over.

Our new table has a guy from our first table who has gathered about 40,000 in chips, what looks like a few European Internet players and a woman.

We watch the first 10 hands without seeing a flop. That's rather expensive, but less expensive than playing terrible cards at a table where people show a propensity to push lots of chips in. We even fold an A9 in the bb to a 325 raise.
Hand 11. Seat 3 raises to 525 and gets called by seats 5 and 6. We call from SB with 9T and BB calls. 5 players. First 5 player hand I've seen tonight; we start praying. Flop comes 36J rainbow. Terrible, but likely bad for everyone unless someone hit a set or is playing AJ. We bet 1600. Seats 3 and 6 call. Turn comes 2. Couldn't be a bigger rag. We can only win by bluffing. Do we check and live for another hand with the chips we have left or bluff? In comes the Donkey! They have to view me as a tight player. I've sat out every hand since I got here. We could make a large bet, but that wouldn't leave us enough chips to make a meaningful river bet. We push all in, with no hope but that they believe us and don't have much. The all in should push out hands like QK and maybe even JT. They both fold. Donkey still alive!

We picked up over 5000 on that hand. Time to get back to real poker, and maybe a massage just to calm down.

Seat 4 makes it 550 and Button calls. We're in SB with 68d and call putting 450 more in the pot. Pot odds were right until the BB pushed all in for about 10000. Everyone folds. We're back in playtightland.

In seat 4 we raise to 550 with AKc, premium hand! BB calls. Flop comes 347 rainbow with one club. Terrible. She checks and we continuation bet 725. She folds. Good result. We end round 5 with almost 15000 in chips and enter Round 6 playing 150 300 with a 25 ante.

Seat 3 raises to 750 and gets called by seat 5 and 6. The SB pushes all in for 7000. He has a huge push range and has pushed twice recently. We think about pushing with JK to isolate him on what's probably a race. If everyone folds, it's a great move, but we risk getting handicapped badly if we lose. We fold and everyone else does too. He shows 66. Statistically we should have pushed IF we knew everyone else would fold.

We play a good number of hands winning when we have good cards and losing when we don't. A couple moves here and there and we're headed to dinner at the end of Round 6 with 17000 in chips. I suspect half the board is dead already, but Donkey has his legs still.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

NLH 6-Handed Round 3-4

We start round 3 playing 75 150. Stacks are going to move fast now and it's time to tighten up a little. That's tough to do 6-handed.

First hand in seat 3 we have QQ. QQ has historically been a bad bad hand for us, but we raise to 425 and are sad to see everyone fold.

Aggressive boy raises to 325 from seat 5 (there's someone between us now). We call with 79 in the SB and BB calls to. Flop comes 29J. We check, BB checks and aggressive boy bets 525. Hmmmm, we raise to 1725. BB folds and Aggressive Boy folds. We pick up the pot happy with that result. Glad to see everyone fold this time; if Aggressive Boy had a hand, that would have hurt.

Table breaks and we move to Yellow 118. Not happy with the change. I recognize the guy to my left as someone I've played with before and don't want to play with again. Also, somehow 3 of the guys at this table have much bigger stacks than I. Finally, I had a good read on my old table and I'm coming in here fresh. Not good.

We play a few hands and are up a little. Then in seat 4 we raise to 400 with QQ and the button and BB call. Flop comes 47A with 2 hearts. Terrible. BB checks and we bet 750. It's a stab. If neither of them have an A, they should fold as we were the pre-flop better and most likely representing an A. The button raises to 1550, not good. The BB raises to 4000. We wouldn't have called the 1550. We fold.

Seat 4 raises to 375 and we call from the SB with K8h. Not a great hand, but let's see! BB, the guy to my left who scares me, calls. Flop comes 237 with one heart. Great flop for blinds. We think for a minute and then check. They check and the turn comes 9h, giving us a flush draw. We bet 625 hoping they'll fold, but they both call, putting the pot at about 3000. River comes 3 (not heart) pairing the board. The board is now 23379. We bet (read full on naked bluff) 3100. They take turns being upset and then folding. Fantastic result, but that could have badly hurt our stack. We risked 4000 on that hand to win 2000!

Seat 5 raises to 400 and we call with 88 in seat 6. Flop comes 22A. Hmmm, great unless he has an A. He bets 500 and we call. Turn comes 4. Our 88 still likely good. He bets 1000 and we call. River comes A. He pushes all in for about 15000! If he's bluffing, that's a huge bluff, because I call with any Ax. We fold. We lost at least 1000 more than we should have.

Next hand same guy, now in seat 4, raises to 400 and we call with A9h. Flop comes TTK. He checks and we check. Turn comes 9. We bet 700 and he calls. River comes rag 5 and we bet 1500. He calls with QQ and takes the pot. Time for a massage. We're playing below our grade, even the Donkey grade.

We finish Round 3 with about 13000 and start Round 4 playing 100 200.

We get up to about 15000 and then play the following 2 hands:

Seat 3, who I've outplayed a couple of times leading to the 2000 increase, makes his standard raise to 400. We call from the SB with AQ and the BB calls. Flop comes 344. The blinds check and seat 3 checks. Turn comes 5. The blinds check and seat 3 bets 500. We call and the BB folds. River comes 8. We check, he checks, and he takes it with AK.

We call a raise from seat 5 when we're on the button with JKs. Flop comes 35K. Short story is he had QK and took the pot with the Q kicker!

We limp in from seat 5 with 9Qd. Seat 6 (guy who scares me) and the blinds see the flop come 58Q. Blinds check and we bet 300 into the 800 pot. Seat 6 calls. Turn comes 3. The board is a bunch of trash. We bet 1100 and he raises to 3100. Should we fold? Our Q is prob good unless he has QT. We call. River comes 4. More garbage. We check and he pushes all in for about 11000. We're not ready to go home if he has QT. Painful, but we fold. Did he get in our fur covered head?

Later we wind up in a decent size pot with him. I don't remember the play by play, but a third heart came on the turn (giving us nothing), we checked, he bet 1100, and we check raise bluffed all in. He folded. Donkey head clear now, but chip stack has suffered. At this point in our story we're at 7000, back to where we started!

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

NLH 6-Handed Round 1-2

Donkey back. Welcome to the bray.

We're playing the standard game of no limit hold'em, but six handed. That makes this a faster, more aggressive game. That means less commentary as we go.

We start with 7500 in chips playing 25 50.

Third hand of the day. Seat 3 raises to 125 and we call from seat 4 with TJ. BB calls. Flop comes 4JQ. BB checks. Seat 3 bets 200. If he has a Q, we should fold. Calling tells us nothing. We raise to 525. BB folds and seat 3 calls. He probably has a Q, but a weak Q. Turn comes J. Amazing. He checks and we bet 700. He calls. River comes 8. We bet 1100 into the 2500ish pot. He calls and mucks when we show our cards.

The rest of the round went fast, but we had good luck and played well, which is usually a good enough combo. We end the round with about 13000 in chips, fantastic stack! I hate to send this out with so little info, so I'm going to extend this to Round 2, playing 50 100.

First hand seat 5 makes it 225 and we call with TJ. The blinds fold. Flop comes 66J. Love it. Unless seat 5 has QQ,KK or AA, we should be good. He could have AJ KJ or QJ, but doubtful he has a 6. He bets 225. No reason to let him see a QK or A turn. We make a pot-sized raise to 1025 and he folds.

Interesting hand. Very aggressive SB raises to 325. We're in the BB with J4s. Normally we'd fold, but we're in for 100 already and the big bet makes us think he doesn't want a caller. Plus, if we hit our hand, aggressive boy should pay us.
We call with what basically amounts to garbage, but the flop comes 69J. Heads up this is a great flop for us. He bets 375. While normally this would indicate a player likes his hand, here I suspect aggressive boy would play any 2 cards this way to try to get us to fold. We smooth call. Dangerous because if a QK or A hits the board, we won't know what to do next. Happily we see a 4 turn. We have 2 pair.

Now the only unpredictable play. Aggressive Boy checks??? Has he pegged me as Loose Donkey who will call anything? Or is he hoping I'll bet so he can check raise an actual monster? I suspect the former. We check hoping to lull him into a bet on the river. River comes rag 2. Fantastic, but he checks. There's 1400 in the pot, so we nonchalantly throw a yellow 1000 chip in and, after watching him squirm for a minute, happily watch him throw two blue 500s in as a call. He mucks when we show our crap-turned-2pair.

We play a series of small hands, watching the flop and folding or betting and pushing everyone out. There are simply too many to give them justice, but nothing huge.

We end round 2 with 15000 in chips, twice what we started with.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Monday, June 13, 2011

PLO Round 4

Playing 75 150 - Seat 7 raises to 350 and we call from SB with A24Q double suited. BB calls. Flop comes 369 with 2 clubs. We have Q4c. We bet 600 and the BB calls. Turn comes 8d. We check and BB checks. River comes 8c giving us Q high flush. We bet 1100 and BB raises the pot. That's over 4000. She likely has Ace high flush; that or a strong bluff. We fold.

Seat 3 and 4 call 150 and we have 4QKK and raise pre flop to 600 from seat 7. We get three callers including the Blinds and the woman who just pushed us out a bit ago. Flop comes 39T with 2 spades. We have K4s. The blinds check and we check. She checks and the turn comes K. Giddey up. We have K high flush draw, gut shot straight draw and top set. Blinds check and we bet 1600. She raises 5000. That about puts us all in. The only thing she can have is a straight, but if she does, we have 9 spade outs and 8 other cards that give us a full house or quads (plus 3 cards that likely give us the same straight she has. If she doesn't have a straight, we have her crushed. Do we let her push us out again? No, we push all in. She calls with the straight and the river is a rag.

I want to vomit. We've gone from a huge stack to turning in out extra life chip at a time when that gives us just one big crack.

First hand we have KK78 with K7h. Ks again . . . We raise pre flop to 400 and get three calls, including the woman who I will refer to as Donkey Killer. The short story is that we go all in and she has AA underneath and takes our last bit of chips and pride.

Donkey dead.

Although we should expect to place only 1 in 10 tourneys, having lost the first few has Donkey down. I may go crazy and play the super mixed tourney. If I do, there will be no investors (unless we get deep into day 2; you'll free roll until then) and no updates. This will be a high focus tourney of:

Limit Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Seven Card Razz , Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball

Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

PLO Round 3

In seat 4 we limp in with 9JJQ and wee the 34J flop with 3 other players. Our set of Js is huge right now, but there are 2 hearts on the board and a straight draw. The blinds check and we bet 400. The player behind us calls and the blinds fold. Turn comes 7d. If he has 56, we're in trouble. Otherwise, we're still in the lead. We bet 900 and he calls. River comes Th. Terrible. I double that gives him a straight (he'd need 89), but his earlier calls make his hand now a likely flush. We check. He bets 1100 and we lay down the top set. Painful. That's happened too many times today.

A new player, we'll refer to as Wild, had finally replaced Agro. Not sure why it took them so long to bring in a player, or where they found this guy, but I suspect they are having administrative problems and just grabbed the nearest person they could off the street.

We limp in with 789Q and see the 48A flop with the blinds. They check and we bet 150 into the 300 pot. The BB, the guy who recently paid my Aces, calls. The turn comes 9 giving us 2 middle pair. Not great, but okay heads up. He checks and we bet 450. He calls. River comes Q. He goes into the tank for a minute and then bets 1000. Hmmmm . . . What? There's very little chance he has TJ for a straight and I have one of the Qs, so he probably didn't just make a set. Fact is, I don't know what he has, but unless he has AQ, I'm pretty confident the Q was a rag for him. Moreover, as I've been betting every round, if he did just hit something, he might check raise me rather than suddenly launch in. The Q helped me, but really didn't. My Qs and 9s now is really no better than 9s and 8s pre-river. Hmmm, we call and he folds without even showing his cards. I like this guy. We have to come up with a name for people who feed the Donkey.

We discard 34TT. Wasn't even worth limping with because we're feeling a little burned by flopping sets and losing anyway. Flop comes with TT in it. We would have flopped Quads! Oh well.

In seat 3 we discard A37K even though the A is suited. I'd like to limp in and see the flop, but I couldn't call a raise and, even if a diamond flush comes, the fact that we have the Kd significantly reduces our chance of getting well paid. Flop comes 59T with 2h and no diamonds.

We discard and discard and see a couple cheap flops before discarding some more.

We finish Round 3 with our extra life chip and about 10,000 in live chips.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

PLO Round 2

Playing 25 50 now, which means betting limits will go up much faster now.

Aggressive player to our right raises to 175. We call with 9TKK and 2 other players call. Flop comes 57K rainbow. Beautiful! Two players check to us and we check hoping to get the last player to bet or someone to bet after the turn. Our only fear is a straight using the 57. Last player checks and turn comes 2 completing the rainbow again, perfect. Aggresso bets 500 and we raise to 1000. Everyone folds. Good pick up.

Next hand same start. Aggresso raises to 175 and we call with 9JJA double suited. Two others call and the flop comes 7JQ. Love it, but we're middle set now, not top set. BB checks, Agro bets 500, we raise to 1000, a player folds and BB pushes all in. Soon we're all in, Agro with a straight draw and BB with QQ. Donkey needs the case jack. It doesn't come and we just lost everything we picked up. We're back to 1600 (we had more chips than the BB).

From seat 3 Agro raises to 175. We have AAJ8 double suited in seat 4. Phenomenal hand. We call, hoping a later player will raise. Seat 8 raises and seat 9 pot bets. Agro calls and I push all in. Soon, 2 people are all in and 2 live. Flop comes 88Q with 2 hearts (we don't have hearts). Who would have thought the 8 would have been our good card? The remaining 2 players go all in, but our 8 takes the lion's share of the pot.

We continue to grind up to about 8000 in chips, knocking Aggresso out along the way. Then seat 4 min raises to 100 and we call from the button with 44QQ, just to see if we flop a set. The blinds call and the flop comes 24K with 2 hearts. We made the middle set, again . . . The blinds check and seat 4 bets 300. Does he have KK? Maybe, but that's all we're afraid of. Let's not let someone cheaply draw a straight or a flush. We raise to 800 and the blinds fold. Seat 4 re-raises the pot and the question now comes do we want to risk 3000 more chips to try to win about 5000 with our mid-set? Yes. We wind up putting him all in with about 4000 of our chips in. He doesn't have KK, but he has A356 with 35h. Not good. Any heart, A356 gives him a straight or a flush; of course the board pairing gives me the full house. His crazy hand is built for this flop against a set. We're actually a slight underdog, something like 45%. The turn comes Jh and the river doesn't pair the board, so he takes the huge pot with his flush. Shame. That's a few races we've lost.

We raise pre-flop from seat 5 with AAQ7 and get three calls. The flop comes 78T. Pretty tragic. The blinds check to us and we bet 600. The button and BB call. Turn comes 5 putting 2 spades on the board (we have 7Qs). We all check. River comes Jc. BB checks and we bet 1600. It's a stabbing bluff. Button folds, but BB goes into the tank and then calls. No good. However, he can't beat the AA, so very good! We finish Round 2 with our extra life and about 8000 in chips.

Hopefully more in 80 minutes. Going on break now.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

PLO Round 1

Donkey Resurrected!

Today we're playing Pot Limit Omaha. You may recall the Omaha Hi-Lo game. Same thing here, but there's no "Lo"; hi hand gets everything. Also, betting is pot limit, so players can bet the amount in the pot. For example, if there's 100 in the pot, player 1 can bet up to 100. If player 1 bets 100, player 2 can fold, call 100 or raise. The limit of the raise is 300, computed as the original 100 plus the 100 bet plus the 100 call player 2 must make before raising. So player 2 can make a 300 raise to 400 total. If player 1 re-raises, the math can get complicated and the bets similar to no limit.

This game has 3 chances. We start with 1500 in chips, but can call for 1500 more twice.

We fold the first few hands and then in seat 5 raise to 100 with 4556. Everyone folds but the SB. Flop comes 25A with 2 spades. Great flop for us, but the spade flush draw is a problem. Highly doubt he has AA as he did not re-raise pre-flop. SB checks and we bet 150 on our set of 5s. He raises to 500. Does he have 34? We push all in and he calls with an A high flush draw. We are 70% favorite. Turn comes Js giving him the flush. We need the board to pair, giving us a full house on the river. It doesn't, and we are down our first time. Hmmm, annoying beat.

We limp from seat 5 with 9TKA and see the flop with the blinds. 37J with 2 spades. They check and we bet 50 into the 75 pot to try to steal. They both call. No luck there. 3h falls putting 2 hearts on the board. They check. Doubt we can push them out right now. We check. River comes Js. They check. Now my original post flop bet becomes important. If I were betting because I had top pair, I now have 3 Js; if I were betting the spade flush draw, I just hit it. Although I was betting neither, we bet 200 and they fold.

We win another small pot with TTQQ and fold a couple immediately after seeing bad flops. We finish Round 1 with one extra life chip and 1625 in live chips.

Hopefully more fun stuff in an hour that finds us still with an extra life chip. Side note, as the blinds go up, the extra life chips lose value. There's little point to restarting with 1500 in chips when blinds are 300 600.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Re: Hold'em Round 1

Correction - the death hand was officially the last hand of Round 1, even though the damage occurred after the clock moved to Round 2, thus the 75 bet.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

----- Original Message -----
From: Eric Kurtzman
To: 'esethk.pokerdonkey@blogger.com' <esethk.pokerdonkey@blogger.com>
Sent: Sun Jun 12 13:12:18 2011
Subject: Hold'em Round 1

The Burro is Back! Here at the Rio for a stretch in a relatively low price tourney ($1,000).

Today we're playing NLH, which is the hold'em you see on TV. We start with 3,000 in chips.

Side note - for those tuned in earlier, you'll remember that the urinals have goal posts with footballs strung between them in order to get players to aim into the urinal. Quote of the day was from a guy talking (loudly as if he didn't know others were there), "Hey, I scored a goal!" The irony of calling poker a sport is that this was probably his most athletic point of his year and the goal the highest reward he's ever received for an athletic endeavor. On to the table . . .

First hand we are playing 25 25 with 3000 in chips; we're in seat 5 (9-handed) and discard 79o. There's big betting pre flop and after the 356 flop. Turn comes 8. We would have had a straight on a big pot. Oh well.

Second hand we raise to 100 from seat 4 with TT and BB calls. Pot is 225. Flop comes 5QK. Terrible flop for us. He checks and we bet 150. He folds. That's good.

Hand 3 we discard 9J. Flop comes 78T. Wow! We would have had a straight again.

Player 3 limps and 5 people limp after him. We check from the BB with J4s. Love seeing a free flop with a huge family and crappy cards. Flop comes 2JA with 1 spade and 2 hearts. We check. Seat 4 bets 125 and gets 2 callers. The pot is right to call in search of a 4 or a spade. We call and the 9h turns, putting 3 hearts on the board. Seat 4 bets 200 and everyone folds.

Next hand three players limp to seat 7 who raises to 150. Looks like a steal, so we raise to 525 with our QKd. The BB calls and everyone else folds. We were right about the steal, but what does BB have? Flop comes A47 with 2 spades. Could it be worse? We check and he pushes all in for about 1000. We fold.

At this point we call for the massage.

The massage helps us fold a few and then we check the SB and get to see a free flop with 4 other players and our Q7o. Flop comes 7TJ. Not great, but we bet 125 to try to steal (unlikely to work against 4 players). 2 call. Now we pray for a 7 and WE GET ONE. We bet 350 and the first player folds, but the second calls. River comes 3 rag. We think for 10 seconds, mostly preparing the vocal chords, and say in a choppy word "twelvehundred". He thinks for a minute and then calls. He mucks when we show the 7. If I could tip the dealer I would. Sitting across from him, I consider giving him a little foot action. But don't because I'm married.

Next hand seat 6 raises to 100 and we call from the button with 79c. Everyone else folds. Flop comes 6QA, all spades. He checks. We consider the bluff and instead check. Turn comes Kh. This is a crazy powerful board. He checks and we bet 150. Unfortunately he calls, likely with a small pair, perhaps something like 99, including 9s. River comes 4d, a total rag. He checks. We have nothing, but we delay 10 seconds, just like last hand, and state in the same choppy tone, "fourhunded". He folds. Please note this as lesson 1 in Poker Bully 101.

A new player comes to the table filling an empty seat beside me. He's a large 20 something player. Before he sits down, the smell of pot coming from him is like a wave of greenery. Good times. Pot is the performance enhancing drug of the poker sport.

Seat 8 raises to 75 and we call from SB with 9J. BB calls and flop comes 578, all clubs. We need a T for a straight or a club for a flush. We have the Jc; not a huge club, but at lease we have one. We check, BB checks and seat 8 bets 125. We call and BB folds. Turn comes 6c giving us a decent flush. We check and he checks. He probably doesn't have a good flush card. Our J gets beat by a QKA4 or 9 (4 or 9 give him a straight flush), making the J in the bottom half of flush cards. River comes 3d rag. We bet 200 and he calls. He has TQ with the Qc to take the pot down.

Everyone folds to us and we raise to 75 from seat 7 and 9J. The BB calls. Flop comes 68J. Good flop. He checks and we bet 75. He calls. Turn comes A. No good. He checks ands we bet 200. He calls. River comes 4. He checks. We think about betting, but will he fold anything that beats us or call with anything that doesn't? We check and he shows A4 for 2 pair made on the turn and river. The 4 was just overkill.

Seat 3 limps and we raise to 75 from seat 5 with AKd, our first premium hand. We get 3 callers, which is great because if our hand hits enough to be one of them, we should beat all 3. Flop comes 9TJ rainbow. Terrible. We check and the last player bets 325. Big bet. Everyone folds to us. He probably doesn't have a straight, but he could. He could also have something like JQ, in which case he's ahead and if I hit my K, he makes a straight. Worse than not knowing what to do now, I will know even less what to do after the turn (unless it's a Q giving me the nut straight). We fold. Death by 1,000 paper cuts!

Early in Round 2, we're doing well with about 3500 in chips and we raise to 75 in seat 4 with our second premium hand, QQ. Seat 7 calls. SB raises to 325. He's been very aggressive buying pots, but with the seat 4 call, this doesn't look like a purchase. The BB calls. That's a surprise. Big pot already. We'd be happy to take it down. What we don't want is to let someone with an AJ see the flop cheap. We raise to 1050. Seat 4 folds and the SB pushes all in. We're afraid of KK or AA, which is in his possible spectrum of hands, but so is AK or AQ as he's out of position and at a disadvantage betting post flop. We have about 2500 in chips in front of us. We push all in. He shows AQs and taps the table in the "good call, good hand" salute to our Qs; we're about a 70% favorite. The flop comes 86A and unless the case Q comes we're headed home. We've fallen to a 4% underdog position. And, well, this is the first, last and only blog entry of the day. Donkey down.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Hold'em Round 1

The Burro is Back! Here at the Rio for a stretch in a relatively low price tourney ($1,000).

Today we're playing NLH, which is the hold'em you see on TV. We start with 3,000 in chips.

Second hand we raise to 100 from seat 4 with TT and BB calls. Pot is 225. Flop comes 5QK. Terrible flop for us. He checks and we bet 150. He folds. That's good.

Hand 3 we discard 9J. Flop comes 78T. Wow! We would have had a straight again.

At this point we call for the massage.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Omaha Round 11

Crazy rates, playing 2000 4000.

First hand we're in the SB and everyone folds to us. We raise to 4000 with 4TJA and the BB calls. Flop comes 5QQ. We check, he bets, we raise and he folds. First "move" of the day!

Big hand. We have A245 and raise to 4000 pre-flop. The blinds call. Flop comes 459. SB bets 2000 and BB calls, we raise to 4000 and SB calls, but now BB raises to 6000. We raise to 8000 and everyone calls. Turn comes 8, great. We have nut low and 2 pair. SB bets 4000 and BB calls. This is the hand to push with. We raise to 8000 and everyone's pushing chips in. River comes A. The only cards that hurt us are A and 2. Now we have a duplicated A. The pot gets swept by a guy playing 23xx (I think the xx was 67). He had a great straight wrap on the flop, turned a straight and rivered the nut low.

Donkey out near the close of Round 11.

We probably won't jump back in for a couple days. Maybe as late as Sunday noon, when there's a nice ordinary game of no limit hold'em. Thanks for tuning in.
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550

Omaha Round 10

Playing 1500 3000 we enter a pot with A367 (A3d) and flop 255. Turn and river are 9s and the pot is won by a guy who called my river bluff with a pocket pair of 3s. That's painful. Good call though. Sadly we're down to 23000. We have one big hand in us. That sounds bad; makes me think of my doctor.

We're in the BB with 9TJQ. I love this hand multi-player as if it hits it should sweep the pot. We call 2 raises and see the flop for 4500. It comes 459, all diamonds. What crap. We fold.

In a late seat we have 9TTQ double suited and call a raise to 3000. 3 people see the 56K flop, all spades. We made a flush, but our 9Ts isn't too strong and we could lose everything to an A or Qs. Player 1 checks, we bet, player 3 raises (that's bad), 1 calls and we call. Turn comes 3s, a whole board of spades. Everyone checks. River comes 7d. Player 1 checks and we bet 3000. I'm surprised that player 3 folds (she/he announced later that she had a 3567, so she had no low even though it seemed hard to miss. Player 1 goes into the tank. I'm hoping he folds rather than chase a terrible, but half pot winning, low. He calls, but when I show the flush he mucks. He didn't have a low either. Small pot, but we sweep it, which makes a huge difference. After losing 3800 on our blind hands, we have about 32,000 now. We need a huge stroke of luck!

Seat 3 limps and we limp in with 9JQA (A9c). With the blinds we see the flop come A27, all spades. Terrible! We fold, but at least it only cost us 1500!

Our table breaks and we move literally one table over. This one will probably break soon too. The screen shows 135 players but they're generally behind in their count. Still, the field is thinning. We need chips soon! First hand at the new table, we fold, but someone else gets knocked out. Droppin like flies. Wow - now he's autographing a book for the guy who took him out. Crazy!

In the BB we call a raise with 4669 double suited. Not a good hand, but it's 1500 more to see a flop and play heads up. Flop comes TTQ. We bet 1500 hoping he was playing for low or at least that he'll be afraid we have a T. He calls. Turn comes 9c putting 2 clubs on the board. Now we have a flush draw. We check and he bets. Is it worth 3000 to try to hit a 6 for a full house or a club for a flush? Yes. We call. River comes 8d. We could bluff, but spending another 3000 doesn't sound good or likely to win. We check and he checks and shows pocket As to take it down.

We finish Round 10 with 25,200 in chips. We are still in the place where we can make one huge push or see a flop or two cheap and still make a huge push. Hopefully you won't hear more for an hour!
Eric Kurtzman
Kurtzman Carson Consultants
2335 Alaska Ave
El Segundo, CA 90245
voice (310) 751-1500
fax (310) 751-1550