(NOTE: This post is the very definition of a print and poop.  Make sure you’ve got at least a half hour free before you start rolling through it.)

Before I dive into a recap of the first three tournaments I entered in this year’s Foxwoods World Poker Finals’ series, let me define a few terms you’ll need to understand in order to make life easier throughout this post…

Limp: To just call the big blind without raising before the flop.

NLHE: No-Limit Hold’Em.  Sadly, the only game worth playing anymore; there’s no money in others, even if Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo-8 is a far better game.  In fact, as you’re reading this I’m likely entered into my final tournament for the series – the $400 Omaha High Pot Limit event, where we will probably have under 300 players and first place will probably not even earn enough to be required to fill a 1099 with the IRS.  But I digress…

Nuts: The single best possible hand at the time.  Or, the best possible of a certain type of hand; i.e. in a game of NLHE, having 10-J in your hand for the “Nut Straight” on a board of Ks-Qh-9s-4h-2s is not “The Nuts”, because any two spades will beat you with a flush.  But if you have As-6s in your hand on that same board, you have “The Nuts” – there’s no straight flush possible, no four of a kind and no full house, so therefore the Ace-High flush is the best possible hand.

MTT: Multi-Table Tournament. Pretty self explanatory, I think.  But just in case – a tournament with enough players so as to require multiple tables.

Outs: The number of cards remaining in the deck that can change the outcome of a hand.  In other words, a one-outter means there’s one card left in the deck that can change who wins the hand.  That will become important later…

Continuation Bet: A bet, usually after the flop, that is made by a player that raised a pot during the previous round of betting on the hand.  So if a player raises before the flop, and then sets out another bet immediately after the flop, it could be considered a continuation bet.  Continuation bets are hardly ever respected or believed to represent a big hand, which is why they can be very effective if in fact the bettor has a monster.

Broken Table or Table Break: In a MTT, as players are eliminated other players are moved to fill up the seats and try to keep all the tables filled with the same number of players.  When there are 10 seats available at other tables, the highest number table remaining is “broken” and those ten players are scattered throughout the room.

Rainbow: No flush possibilities.  A “Rainbow Flop” means three different suits on the flop – a “Rainbow board” means all four suits are on the board, meaning there’s no way to make a flush.

Chop: To split a pot.  When the term is used in regards to the prize money, it usually refers to splitting up prizes evenly or with relation to the current standings.

Equity Chop: A method of splitting a prize pool with exact relation to current chip standings at the time of the agreement.  The fairest way to split a pot, in my opinion.

Bubble: The last few players eliminated from a tournament before prizes are distributed.  Some people consider the bubble to be a singular person; I consider the bubble to encompass the last table (usually 10 people) eliminated before the money.

Donkey: Me.  Not really, I just felt that way after the end of my last tournament.  Essentially, a Donkey is just a stupid player.  A lucky player.  A player that makes exactly the wrong play and manages to occasionally still win.

As I mentioned in The Missing Episode(s) Podcast, I had planned to play three of the events in this year’s series.  I managed to get into the three that I was looking at: all three were No-Limit Hold-’Em MTTs, with buy-ins of $400, $500 and $600.  All were two-day events beginning at 11am Day One, 50 minute levels with 10-minute breaks every two levels, and we would play down to either the final ten people or 2am, whichever came first.

Tournament One: The $400 event was on October 22^nd – last Wednesday.  Unfortunately, I misread the flyer I had gotten in the mail and thought that it started at noon.  So… strike one.  I showed up just in time to get one of the last ten seats being sold, but then I looked at my seat assignment: Table 66, Seat 6.  Might as well just give it up now.  After five hours of floundering, misreading players and getting cold-decked, I finally picked up a legitimate hand with less than half of the average chipstack and pushed all-in with Ace-Queen of spades trying to just steal the blinds and two limpers’ chips.  I got a call from a huge stack holding pocket fours (hearts and clubs); he had more than 10x what I had for chips, so it was an easy call for him.  I flopped an Ace and a spade, then turned a second spade for a flush draw before he hit the one-outter Four of Diamonds on the river.  End of Tournament One.

Tournament Two: The $500 event began last Monday, October 26^th.  I actually remembered what time this tournament started at, so I made sure to get to Foxwoods on time.  Because of the number of players in these tournaments, the field is usually split into two different rooms; 30 tables in a ballroom, and another 30-40 tables in the main poker room.  The ballroom is the main tournament area, where the final tables are held and such.  When enough people are eliminated to fit everyone into the ballroom area, the tournament is paused for a half hour and the poker room tables are consolidated into the ballroom.

In the $500 tourney, I began the day at Table #16, Seat #4.  I believe there is a distinct advantage to starting at a lower number table in a long tournament.  You are able to get comfortable in your own little area without having to move around a lot.  You get to play with essentially the same group of players throughout the tournament; because the higher number tables are broken first, players will always be brought to your table but you will not move until all other higher tables have been broken.

Anyway, I was rolling pretty well throughout this tournament.  I picked up some solid hands and was able to get away from lousy ones.  More importantly, I was reading my opponents very well and was able to pick my spots for bluffs as needed.  While it is exceptionally helpful to understand the math behind the game, there is no skill more useful at a poker table than the ability to know almost exactly what your opponent is holding.

It also helps to get lucky occasionally, and I got very lucky on one particular hand early on… I held AJ suited in diamonds on the button.  There was one raise from a semi-tight player two seats to my right.  With the blinds at 300-600 and a 75 ante (1650 in the pot pre-flop) he raised to 2100.  After a second, I called his bet and we went to the flop as the only players involved in the hand.  On a rainbow flop of 5-6-J, he bet out 4000 chips.  I had about 13k left in my stack, so I pushed all in and he immediately called.

I had only slightly mis-read him; I believed he would have made exactly that same continuation bet with any number of hands, including pocket 9’s or 10’s, both of which I could beat.  Unfortunately, he had Pocket Queens and I was suddenly in a lot of trouble as he had a little over 2000 more chips than me.  Luckily, I caught one of my six remaining outs on the river when the Ace of Spades fell and I doubled up to almost 30k while crippling my opponent.  He busted out a couple hands later.

Sadly, that was the last time I had a major hand; in fact, I never got above 60k chips for the entire event.  Shortly after the one-hour dinner break (when I stupidly blew $500 playing blackjack because I wasn’t hungry) I picked up the best hand I’d seen in awhile and pushed all-in with KQ suited.  I was called by AK and my day was over in 65^th place, right on the edge of the bubble – 55 players were paid.  End of Tournament Two.

I likely could have sat still and tried to sneak into the money in this tournament – I had almost 20k in chips with blinds only hitting the 1000/2000 range on the next hand.  But I don’t play tournaments just to make the money, I play to win.  If I’d been able to steal the blinds and antes on that final hand, I would have had almost 23k in chips and felt better about my chances.

Tournament Three: My third tournament, the $600 buy-in was last Wednesday, the 28^th.  I almost considered not playing in this tourney after the way the previous two had ended, but after Tournament Two I decided to play roulette for a few hours (that’s a whole separate instructional post) and made enough money to feel safe about paying the $600 buy-in.

After getting to Foxwoods early to make sure I made the registration in plenty of time, I killed some time at the tables (bad idea) and finally decided to just enjoy a cup of coffee and listen to music while watching SportsCenter in the poker room.  Hard to lose money doing that.

Once the tournament started, I was off and running.  We started with 7000 in chips and after two levels I had already almost doubled my stack.  I ended level two with 13,825 in chips after hitting three flushes, a straight and three of a kind.  I was making some good moves and picking up pots in between the big hands, but more importantly I was able to get people to pay me off when I had those big hands.

Of course, it was during level four that I hit the single biggest long shot I’ve ever had.  Allow me to elaborate…

With the blinds at 100/200 with a 25 chip ante, I held 7h-8h in the big blind.  An unusually aggressive player who had been catching cards all day long raised the blind up to 700.  The button called the bet and so did I, and we went to the flop three-handed.

After a flop of 6h-6s-10h, I checked to the original bettor.  He fired out 1500 chips.  The button just called the bet.  I decided that this was a good time to make a move.  I figured the original bettor to have a marginal hand; a small pair or maybe Ace-King.  The Button made me a bit nervous with his call rather than a raise, but I thought he might have a 10 or maybe he also held two hearts.  I re-raised all-in for almost 13,000.  The original bettor folded, quickly.  The button looked at me and said “I think I’m good here” and called… he had pocket sixes.  Four of a Kind.  Whoops.  I just laughed, assuming I was about to be eliminated, and announced “At least I’m not dead; I’ve got an out” (the nine of hearts would make me a straight flush).

No sooner had I said it, the dealer showed the turn card – Nine of Hearts.  I actually jumped out of my chair; no small feat for a man of my size.  That double-up put me at nearly 30,000 in chips and I rolled from there.  Our table was moved into the ballroom shortly after, and in less than an hour we were broken and scattered all across the room.  I managed to make a few more big hands hold up and by the time I was moved again I was over 60k in chips; the average for the remaining players was under 40k.  I felt good about my position and great about how I was playing.

Unfortunately, just before the 6pm dinner break I began a roller coaster ride after one monster hand played out.  I lost nearly 50% of my stack when I doubled up a strong player who I simply couldn’t read; I played the hand just on the math and odds but I just didn’t get there.

For the next three hours I had to play catch-up; when we reached the next break I had managed to get back up to over 70k in chips when a couple monster hands held up for me, but I was still well below the average.  Two levels later at the end of level 12 I was sitting almost right on the 99k average at 102,000.

I spent levels 13 and 14 on cruise control, just trying to survive, steal some blinds when I could and outlast as many players as possible to move up the ladder.  At the level 14 break, we had 21 players left and an average of 160k.  I was sitting at 117,000 and feeling the pressure – I needed to finish in the top 20 to break even from the ill-advised trip to the tables earlier in the morning, and top 15 to cover the buy-ins from the other tournaments.

Like I said earlier, the tournament format is set up to play down to 10 players or 2am.  Unfortunately, with 21 players still left and the clock well past 1am, it looked like we’d have to play another full level before breaking for the night.  That couldn’t have worked out any better for me.

After the 10-minute break (during which I drank approximately 11 cups of coffee) I came back with a vengeance.  The very first hand I picked up Pocket Aces in the big blind and got a courtesy double-up from a player who had raised with AK.  Up to almost 250k.  I knocked out players on back to back hands to get up over the 400k mark, and was able to pick up two more big pots and a couple small ones just as the day came to an end.  When we broke for the night, we had 13 players remaining and I sat at #2 in chips with 610k.  Bingo.

Unfortunately, Day Two wouldn’t be nearly as eventful, or last as long.  We tried to talk about chopping the pool with all 13 players left, giving the top two a double share ($32,000 each) and an even share to each of the remaining eleven players ($13,000 each), but people weren’t listening.  I’m not usually a fan of chopping a pot up that early, but it would have guaranteed every player no worse than sixth place money, and the top two stacks – myself included – just under what second place was scheduled to pay.  For the record, that other top stack and I combined to make just over 2/3 of what we each would have gotten through the early chop.

After busting out the first three players, we had our final table (Note: PDF File).  Rather than recap the entire table, I’ll let you read the story in the flyer.  I went into the table second in chips… and was the second one busted out (9th place).  I made the perfect play against the perfect player – the only one at the table who had the chips to eliminate me – but I had the exact wrong read on him and it cost me the tournament (not to mention a lot of friggin’ prize money…)

So, I cashed.  I made a final table.  I easily could have won it all, and probably would have if I’d been paying closer attention, but it wasn’t to be.  End of Tournament Three.  All in all, a great week.  I didn’t make enough to go back to playing full time, not even close.  But a win’s a win, and I’ve got something to build on in April when the tournament season starts heating up again.

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