My two friends from Madison are both into poker, so I figured Badger Poker would be a good opportunity to see them. Badger Poker plays almost every day of the week and has some sort of points system and qualifier action to send people to major games, like the WSOP. They also have cash tournaments at the same time, so I signed up for the 20-player $30 game. They also have some sick cash side games: 25c/50c and 1/2 NL. And if people are as loose in the cash games as they are in the tournaments - wow. I should move back just for that!

The Tournament

It was limp city, so when I picked up in late position, I made a hefty raise. I got 2 callers - cool. The flop brought two small clubs and a ten. Check, check, and I check. These people loved calling to the river. The turn is the and both players check to me. I bet the pot, and get called by middle position. The river brings the - great :/ She checks, and I decide not to hang myself. She turns over . Wow. She called 20% of her stack with ace high, and then didn't even bet it on the river.

I switch gears and join the limp-fest with good drawing hands. Nothing much of note, but I was able to take down some pots here and there and get to the final table with a good chip stack. I made two errors and I was out, just like that.

The first error was not believing my opponent would check-raise the flop with an overpair, but he would :) My middle-pair runner-runner straight draw didn't hold up when I put him to the test for all his chips.

The second error was re-raising all in with when one person was all in and the other player who showed interest in the pot was pot-committed. For some reason I convinced myself it was the best spot to try and 2.5x up. I ended up playing against and and didn't hit. Ugh.

Cash Game

I bought in for every dollar in my wallet - a whole $28. Two of the 6-7 opponents at the table were friends and one of the guys was my friend's roommate, so it was an interesting game.

The Roommate

I felt bad when I flopped a straight draw and turned an open-ended straight flush draw against my friend's roommate. I told him to not bet. I promised him I had him beat. Oops :/

The Finley

One hand against my good friend from college was pretty disgusting. He plays pretty conservatively, and he raised it up from middle position. I was on the button and playing pretty loosely, so I called with .

The flop was . My friend bet, but something about it smelled like a likely continuation bet, so I called. I put him on something like and figured I could hit a four, five, or nine... or maybe I was crushed by a large pocket pair, in which case I still had 4 outs :)

He checked, which solidified my read, so I checked behind. In retrospect, I'm pretty sure I missed a bet there. But, lucky me - the turn was the magical . He looked he wanted to bet, so I suggested he check and flashed the four.

The Chad

Chad and I didn't mix it up. I think he folds too much :p

The Girl

At this point I had built my stack up to around $50. I was having a good time pushing real hard, so when I was dealt and the girl on my right made a raise, I figured it would be fun to put her in for her last $20. She calls pretty quickly, so I figure I'm screwed.

I ask her if she's gonna flip up if I do, and she says "no". I say I won't flip over until I hit the flop, and, what do you know, a little ten-bomb climbs out of the deck. I flip over and she doesn't hit a king to go along with her - yowch!

The Guy

I'm up to around $90 when I get into it with the guy-friend of the girl on my right. I paid my left-hand opponent half of the straddle so he'd juice it up, and he obliged. I pick up and am ready to party. I get two limpers, so I make a speech about how I need to pop it up a bit so nobody calls me. Everybody folds around to the guy.

I manage to talk the guy into calling me after I tell him he probably should call because he seems to really want to get my money. He finally calls and the flop comes . This isn't so good for me, but he bets right out, which seems weak, so I call. I know if I were him, I'd check a jack there.

The turn is a rag, and we both check. I checked because if he doesn't have a jack, he's somewhere in between drawing dead and to a two-outer. And if I'm wrong, I might as well keep it small. Who knows, maybe he'll try to bluff me out :)

The river is another rag, and he bets $5 into the $15 pot. I tell him I can't figure out if I should raise or just call. I think for a bit and he decides to inconspicuously show his lady-friend what he's got. He's acting pretty strong, which makes me feel pretty good.

I decide a sucker raise is in order, so I just raise him $5 more and declare I am making a "value raise". He doesn't consider it much and just goes all in for $25 on top of my raise. Again, his body language is that he is just pissed off, so I figure there's a good chance he's full of it. I call pretty quickly and he shows queen-high.

I scoop up the pot and we cash out to get some drinks, courtesy of "the guy".

Verdict

Play cards in WI :p

Update: Evidently I have offended Mr. Willy from WI with this verdict (read the comments below). I apologize to anyone who doesn't recognize this tongue-in-cheek humor. I'm from WI. I have friends in WI. And I'd like to think we are all better-than-average players :)

I just got home. After I busted out, I didn't get to sleep until about 5am - I didn't feel like checking out at 11am. So Adrian and I decided to extend our stay one day and properly celebrate with Jeff and Stephen.

We played some 1/2 at the Venetian and won $12. Adrian and I battled hard against each other and it was a lot of fun. The other players probably hated it and loved the extra action at the same time. The best hand was when Adrian was telling a story about the tournament, flopped a straight (and straight-flush draw) against my two pair, and doubled up for $300 through me. The whole time we just kept talking like nothing was going on. :D Of course, I got my money back because "crazy Jason" would never flop a set against an opponent with top pair and raise him. Yoink! BTW, that's called "JC Tranning" somebody now. :/

K, I have to eat then sleep. I'm so tired. I will read and respond to all your comments and threads and everything. I really appreciate the support. Wow! Oh, and I'll definitely write more about it after I catch up on everything. Out.

Placeholder for updates. We start at 2pm PST. Keep 'em crossed.

Update:

Jason is clearly ready for the final table

Update: (3:00 pm via Ethan)
Adrian is out in approx. 180th place. So that sucks but still awesome job!

Update: (3:21 pm via Ethan)

• Just witnessed a 200,000 chip pot between the two chip leaders, AA v AK
• In about 140th place
• 24,500 in chips
• blinds are 1000/2000 with 300 ante
• My m = 5

Update: (3:42 pm via Ethan)
Just tripled up with ! Now at 70,000. Had more but lost with a full house ( . came down on the river, so king high won. Board was .

Update: (4:38 pm via Ethan)

• Luck sack city! I have and end up going all in against and because I was priced in. A comes out and I take it down! I've got more chips than I can count and might be the chip lead.
• My m = 8
• 108 players left

Update: (5:04 pm via Ethan)
I called a stone-cold bluff from the chip leader so I'm at 300K!!!

Update: (7:56 pm via Ethan)

• 250k in chips (pictured below)
• Cell will be off for at least the next 2 hours. I need to concentrate!

250k of hard earned chips

Update: (9:34 pm via Ethan)

• 237k in chips
• 36 people left

Update: (10:34 pm via Ethan)

• have 290k, avg is 290k
• 27 players left
• going to have to start going all-in soon

Update: (11:47 pm via Ethan)

• Over 500k in chips
• 18 people left
• going to start getting really tough

We are waiting to be seated. I'm finally starting to feel actually nervous. Wheeeeee! Look for an update on the break in about 2 hours.

Update: (Via Ethan)

• Got 2 great hands so far:
  1. , followed by another on the flop for trips!
  2. Flopped Broadway with
• I've got about 8800 in chips
• I've been rivered on 2 big pots so far
• The chip leader is on my left, he's the best at the table, and he's the guy who rivered me, both times
• My table image is a carefully-cultivated loose/aggressive, which I'm using to my advantage
• I've ended the aspirations of 2 players so far

Update 2: (Via Ethan)
Up to 11,500!

update: via my phone at dinner break (after 6 rounds)
Turn for the worse. I had to show some suspect/drawing cards (but won one hand). That was good but then my image was loose/aggressive and ppl refused to fold after that. One misplay resulted in a 4k loss then the blinds went up and ate more of my money. I'm at 8k, but the blinds are gonna be 300/600 with 75 antes. I'm in the cutoff at the start so I might be done soon :/ btw, I took out mr cubs. Oh yeah, 590 ppl left of 2700 and 270 pays.

final update: (2:23am)
Adrian and I are both in the dollars! There are 215 players left. I'm going to research the payout structure tomorrow morning (tired now), but the real money starts with 50 left (something like $8k).

I have 49,500 in chips, which is above the average chip stack of about $38000. The blinds are going to be 800/1600 with 200 antes (playing 9-handed) so that makes for 4200 in the pot before cards are dealt. That puts me at 49500/4200 Harrington Ms, which is just under 12. Thankfully I brought the red book and will skim the chapter on the yellow-to-red zone over breakfast with Adrian ;)

Thanks for all the support. This has been crazy. It was really fun when it was the bubble. We played one hand at a time and everybody was running to the rail in between hands to talk to their friends and wait out the last players. When it finally happened, the mood was so good. Everybody was just happy to be there and really friendly. This has been a great experience :) Special thanks to Adrian for making me do this!

Sorry, Ethan, I broke the no-Coke rule. I had 2 cups of Pepsi for dinner (gasp, Pepsi), but I needed to wake up.

All right, that's it. Sleep time. I am so psyched!!! Thanks again for the comments and well-wishes and finger crossing :D

Adrian and I arrived, ate some food, watched Rebecca for a while, and then hit the cash game.

The only NL Hold'em game we could find was a 2/5, which is a bit beyond what we wanted to play, but what are you gonna do, right? (BTW, the "back room" spreads a 1/2 game, supposedly.) We sit for 3-4 hours and I leave down $14. Not bad - the players seemed pretty solid and I hung with them pretty well. I felt pretty good after this session.

Rebecca went out early in the fifth round :( We decided to go check in. Twenty dollars worth of grease got us strip view on the 28th floor of Harrah's - nice. Next we met up with Jeff and Stephen and got some din-din. Where? Well, the Grand Lux Cafe, of course. The rule is I go there at least once a trip. Yum.

We hadn't planned to play more poker, but what else are you going to do, right? We play the 1/2 game, and I build up to +$300 pretty quickly. It felt pretty good, and then this hand happened. Wait, for Graham's sake, I am not implying I lost the hand. Maybe I just didn't get enough money out of my opponent. Or maybe I want you to think I lost it, but really I won it.

I pick up in middle position after UTG limped - raise to $7. The cut-off calls and the button re-raises to $17. He doesn't play that many hands, and usually plays them pretty strongly, so this weak reraise had me confused. Either way, I figured I had good odds and called. That was mistake #1, I think, but not so terrible.

The flop is . I decide to test the waters and hopefully block more action and bet $20. I get a-bit-more-than-min-raised and call. There is $65 in the pot and I'm being asked to call $25. Two-to-one is not good enough odds to call on a flush draw, and I already put this guy on a decent hand (or maybe , but I call anyway. I was doing really well, feeling pretty confident, and I guess I didn't stop to think enough. So now there is $90 in the pot.

The turn is a nightmare card - the . Now I have a pair, too... I'm starting to trap myself into this hand :/ I check, and he bets $80, laying me perfect odds for my 14-outer (any 7, J, or diamond). I call. This is the first right thing I did this hand.

The river is a and I shut down. He bets another $80, and then I do the dumbest thing ever. I call after convincing myself he's bluffing with or something like that. Obviously, he flips over . I just blew $80 on the river, and made two suspect calls pre- and post-flop. Ugh. Perhaps the river call would be good if there is a better than 1-in-4 chance he is bluffing. If you're going to make a mistake, it's better to lose $80 on a bad call than to give up a $300 pot on a bad fold. The problem with my call is there probably wasn't a 1-in-4 chance he was bluffing.

Soooooooooo, anyway, I cashed out $65 ahead, won another $15 playing casino war (another tradition), so I'm up on the day. Most importantly, I got knocked down a notch after playing well at 2/5 and then raking in the dollars initially at 1/2. I'm going to tell myself that's a good thing. Remember, people don't bluff as much as you think they do. That lesson is ingrained in my brain right now, and maybe it will be worth a couple hundred this weekend.

Thanks for reading. Keep your fingers crossed :)

This is my last post before roll up my stake and go to Vegas for the World Series of Poker event #49. My blog series intro can be found here. Once I'm in Vegas, I hope to keep up a daily blog with updates each break. I just hope I make it through enough breaks for it to be meaningful :)

I've collected some advice from some of my bestest friends. I've tried to digest it and spit out some of the most salient points.

Chip Acquisition

After looking at the tournament structure, I decided to think about how I was going to turn my 3000 chips into 80k by the end of the 10th hour. The blinds for day 2 will be 800/1600 with 200 antes at that time, and I think 80k is about right if I am doing well. Wow, that's a lot of chip accumulation. How am I supposed to do that?!

Here are the suggestions I received:

• a good strategy is to play correctly for the opponents at your table - if players are loose, play few pots with big hands for a big score and don't steal/bluff; if players are tight, play more drawing hands from position and scoop many smaller pots
• accumulate chips early (don't wait for aces or kings to make a play)
• players tend to be very tight and don't want to get involved in lots of hands
• you can bluff, but make it cheap and be prepared to get away when you're caught
• focus on bluffing with hands that have a good chance of winning when you hit (for example, suited connectors)

I agree that I can't walk into the tournament with a predefined strategy, but it seems most people I talk to think the general play will be tight at first. I know I'll be having a hard time not playing tight to start - I just paid a month's rent for a tournament entry fee!

There will be seasoned pros that would laugh at that statement, and those are the players that will be taking advantage of us amateurs. I'll just have to label each player accordingly and attack as necessary.

Position

Position is extremely important. Most of the comments I received stressed this. Big hands aren't as big in early position. Lately I've been learning and are crappy in early position. Don't limp in with small pocket pairs. is a good hand for the muck, not the flop.

It was noted in advice that most standard players will be raising with an ace, face cards, or a pocket pair and therefore I should get comfortable calling reasonable raises with good drawing hands if the pot odds are decent.

Play the Players

Another top piece of advice I received is to focus on how my opponents play and how they perceive me, and keep tabs on how both of those change over the course of the tournament.

• immediately spend the first few rounds gauging the other players and play ABC poker; figure out the right style after that
• establish a routine of consistency early on and change gears once you feel the thinking players have got you figured out

One interesting comment I was sent was to try and figure out at what level my opponents are thinking. For example, a level 1 thinker just plays their cards. A level 2 thinking player will try and put their opponent on a hand. And a level 3 thinker will also consider what kind of hand I might be putting them on. Keep this in mind when I get into pots.

The "Don't" List

• don't lose focus
• don't overthink or get cute, especially early on
• don't build unnecessarily large pots
• don't leak
• try not to be all in, ever

Be Yourself

I've played in a lot of tournaments, and have done fairly well. I've won many 40+ person tournaments in casinos, have played well in 200+ person tournaments, and have won countless smaller games. It seems like a bad idea to change from my normal strategy right before the biggest game of my life. However, this is no normal tournament, so some degree of all the modifications above are absolutely necessary.

Thanks

Thanks to George, Ken, Kyle, Parag, Kerry, Bobby, Graham, and everybody else who commented on my posts. I'll hook you guys up if I win something :)

Please let me know if you have any last-minute advice. Put it in the comments. Thanks!

Adrian made me go to Lucky Chances tonight to play 1-1-2 NL, even though I wanted (yes, wanted) to work and had a million things to do at home. I rescheduled the home projects with Garrett, and we were on our way. We stopped by the Steelhead Brewery, and I had a salad (yes, salad) and no coke (yes). I am two days in to no drinking sugars and things that turn into sugars. BTW, I'm hungry right now :/

So, isn't that a nice story? Yeah, it is. I figure not many people read this anyway, so if I feel like telling a pointless story, I might as well. To those of you who actually read this, I apologize and will get to the point now.

Shortly after sitting down with my $200, I take some small pots, get lucky with and beat pocket eights, and take somebody out with . Awesome. But then I go right back down to even after making a terrible bluff into a set of nines. Oops.

Weird Call

I tighten up a bit and either raise to 12 or 16 or fold. No limping. I even raise with my crap and make a continuation bet about 75% of the time, regardless of the flop. This build me to about $300. I pick up on the button and 3 people limp in. I make it $16 to go, which was my "people limped in" raise. The guy two to my right pops it up to $40 and has about $50 behind. I decide he must have a small pocket pair (or is a genius with and I call. The flop is and he quickly goes all in. He seems to be a really good player, and I decided that he was probably planning to go all in if an ace didn't come up. I had been raising fairly frequently, so it seemed like an accurate read. I decided all of this as he was pushing his chips in and Phil Hellmuthed an insta-call. He was not happy, but didn't realize he was still ahead! The turn was a and I celebrated and threw my hand down face-up. Yessssssss. The turn was a just for fun and I scooped a nice pot. He showed .

Bad Call?

I pick up in the cutoff and limp in (this one is for you, Nick). The big blind raises to 12 and a couple people call, so I do, too. The flop is - I just flopped a straight flush draw with a pair. The raiser bets $20 or so and the guy on his left goes all in for $68. I think and think and think, and decide I can't fold, even though I really felt like my flush draw was compromised.

It turns out the raiser had and the other caller had , so I was practically drawing dead. Crazy!! I had a straight flush draw but instead of 15 outs I had only 2. The turn was the magical to give me hope (now 12 outs for the full house and straight flush), but, alas, I didn't hit. Wow.

Would you fold to the $68 with that draw? And with a bad beat jackpot of over $150k if four-of-a-kind loses? One of those guys could have had pockets...

Finally, Straight Flush

I was feeling randy after building my stack to over $400 and limped in on the button with . I did have a dollar in :p

The flop was - I flopped the nuts (but there was a flush draw). The small blind bet out all in for about $28 and another player flat-called, so I just called. I wanted to be able to get away if the flush came. The turn was the , so the board was paired and the flush draw came. The other player went all in for about another $60 (this is the same guy who made the move with the underpair nines). I didn't like it, but I decided I wasn't going to believe, and besides, if I was wrong, I always had the straight flush draw. Obviously, the river was the and I yelled "oh my god". I thought we could have a possible bad beat, but it turns out both my cards have to play. Small blind shows for the rivered (losing) full house and the other player shows for a flopped baby straight. BTW, he flopped 2 other straights and a flush earlier. Can't win them all, I guess :)

Yay

So I played a bit more, missed a good bluffing opportunity and decided to call it a night. And I was just saying the other day how I haven't had a straight flush in forever. Thanks, poker Gods!

Questions

1. Would you call with the ?
2. How would you play the flop/turn differently with the flopped straight?