In Search of My Inner Phil Hellmuth

i have not lived up to my promise of keeping up with daily reports. partly that is a result of generic laziness. i am also adjusting to many late nights and sleeping in. at least two or three nights a week bedtime is between 4am and 6am. i can't recall when i was last on that kind of sleep schedule. in addition, the last couple of weeks have also not been very kind to us. instead of trying to keep up on a daily basis i will post instead when i have specific hands of particular interest or thoughts about the game that i would like to hash out a bit.

today, i would like to discuss making big pre-flop laydowns. twice, recently i was incapable of laying down a big pocket pair to what i perceived to be pocket aces. a week ago, sunday, we were playing at the horsehoe casino. there was one tourist at the table who was a total fish and i could not lay down KK to his obvious AA. i lost about $250 on the hand and a total of $500 for the session which was my worst day ever.

let's take a look at the psychological groundwork involved. i was already down somewhere in the neighborhood of $250. i was not involved in any major pots prior to this one. i was losing many small- and medium-sized pots. 40% of cards seem to fall in this range - 62o, J3o, Q2o, and K8o. my highest pocket pair prior to the kings was a pair of eights. i limped in early position with my kings because i was confident the fish would raise. he raised the vast majority of hands and played almost every single hand. like clockwork, he raised to $10 when the action moved around to him in middle position. when the action got back to me i made it $40 to go. he then re-raised to $140. that was when i started suppressing all of the alarm bells that were going off. the hand was perfect until his $100 re-raise. i didn't even make the smart bad play which is to just call the re-raise and move all-in on the flop when an A doesn't hit in case he is over-valuing AK in this spot. i would have still lost all my money since the flop was 10 high, but if an A hits i can lay it down. i moved all-in and he called instantly. before the cards are even flipped steven declares "kings and aces".

my ego just wouldn't allow me to heed my instincts. in the midst of this bad session i couldn't accept that my perfectly excuted use of my first big hand had gone from gold to shit in a matter of seconds. "how could this happen against the fish?" "how could i lay this beautiful hand down against the guy who has been giving away plenty of money at the table for the last few days?" the real question that i need to ask if i want to reach my potential is, "how can i not lay this hand down?" my post-session analysis of my play started with the thought, "i am good enough to lay the kings down in this situation" followed almost immediately by, "obviously, i'm not."

steven came over with another regular from the game, monty. the first thing he said was, "if u lay down those kings there u are a better poker player than i am" followed a little later by, "remember that's the hardest lay down in poker". those statements were partially to cheer me up and partially for monty's benefit. when alone he said, "u have to be able to lay those down there". the big lesson is to focus more attention on the psychology of the game. why is this person playing poker today? what are his/her tendencies? how can i exploit them to win more money? one of the biggest things for me is to accept the inevitable downswings. until now they have only existed in theory.

the reason i titled this entry, "in search of my inner phil hellmuth (official site" is hellmuth has an unbelievable ability to put people on hands and make big big laydowns. he has supreme confidence in his reads and then let's that dictate his play. in this situation, i would not allow myself to pay complete attention to what in restrospect was obvious – even the fish can pick up AA. had i simply accepted my $40 loss then i would have avoided losing an additional $200. i can't let what has already happened in any given session dictate the decisions i have to make. although i did not act immediately after the $100 re-raise i certainly didn't allow myself the proper time to think through where i was at in the hand. focus, focus, focus. it is the small things that one does over and over that separate the weak from the average, the average from the great, and the great from the phenomenal.

tuesday we played in the rebuy tournament at the radisson. after the break i had T1085 and the blinds started at 15 - 30. i lost a chunk in one of the very first hands. i picked up Qd 8d in the bb. two people limped in and so did the sb. i checked my option. the flop was was 998. the sb checked and i bet out T125. the two limpers folded and the sb moved all-in. i made the easy laydown and the sb flipped up A9. i was drawing dead to running queens or running 8s. i'm not sure if the sb would have gotten any more money out of me or not, but that was definitely a weak play on his part.

several hands later with about T900 in chips i pick up QQ in middle position. one player limped in front of me and i raised it to T150. leo (spelled liu), a solid player, re-raised to T400. i considered folding the queens, but decided to call and see what the flop brought. it was J high and i moved all-in and was called immediately as leo turned over AA. part of the reason i did not fold pre-flop was the nature of tournament play. i need to double up to have a reasonable chance to make some money. i figure that there is a good chance that leo has AK and if the flop doesn't have a K or an A i will move all-in. again, i didn't listen to my instincts. i sensed he had aces, but instead played the hand as if i my read was generic - "he has a big hand, but i can't be sure how big". once i commit almost half my chips pre-flop it was hard to get away from.

in reflecting upon this hand, i realized that i had more information available to me than i actually consciously processed. i have seen leo play a fair amount and i have seen him raise plenty of times, but i don't believe i have ever seen him re-raise anyone. had i thought about this i probably could have eliminated AK from his possible range of hands or at least minimized the possibility that this is what he was holding. if i do this then i need to make this laydown. there is a slight chance he would re-raise with JJ, but unlikely. the only hands that make sense are KK and AA. if i have more chips i can call the raise and see if i flop a set because i am almost guaranteed to get all his chips.

in the future, when faced with situations like these i will ask myself "what would phil do?" (WWPD).

Bursting The Bubble

on wednesday steven played in the rebuy tournament at the fiesta casino. he did not do well in the tournament. he said he couldn't get anything going. every time he raised he was re-raised. i think we all know how that goes. he did exceptionally well in the $3 - $5 no-limit cash game. he won $650 in the cash game to clear $350 for the night.

thursday we played in the $100 tournament at the radisson. once again, steven was out early after flopping a big hand. holding pocket eights after significant action in front of him ended up all-in on a board of AA8. he talked another player holding a weak ace (A 3) into a call. the turn of course was a 3. last week it was an 8-outer on the river and this week a 4-outer on the turn. if steven's flopped nuts and full houses could hold up he'd be golden.

at my table i picked up some nice hands early. i busted the first player of the tournament when i flopped a set of sevens. i had limped from the bb with several other limpers in the hand. the board was scary (7 5 3) so i made a pot size bet and had two callers. a Q came on the turn and i bet out T350 and was mini-raised (T700) by the first flop caller. i asked him how many more chips he had then pushed all-in and was called immediately. he turned over the hand i expected (AQ) and was drawing dead. i had T3600 by the middle of the first level of blinds. after that nothing much happened for me for a while. i wasn't particularly active again until the middle of the third blind level. i had about T3500 at the break which was at the end of the fourth blind level (15 - 30).

we were at the final table by the middle of the sixth blind level (50 -100). that was the quickest we made the final table since i have been playing at this tournament. i had about T4000 when we started the final table and was it pretty good shape. only six players were being paid out tonight. i think we started the tournament with 27. i was the only player who accumulated chips on a regular basis. for the most part i was just picking up blinds and antes (once they started). the only hand i had to give up was when i raised with pocket sevens from early position and was called by both blinds. the flop was all over seven high and the small blind bet out big. easy fold. the two players to my immediate left were short-stacked for most of the time so i was able to punish them.

when the final table started there was one super big stack who was active early and then settled down and his chip stack began to dwindle. i was up to T6000 when we were down to eight players and it looked like i was super close to the chip leader. then the payoff hand came up for the table. two players all-in and the chip leader called with AQ. the other players held KK and Q 10. an A hit the flop and we were in the money, but now the chip leader was well out in front again.

after we were down to five the chip leader knocked out two players on the same hand again. we were three-handed and i was well behind with T6000 with a approximately T36,000 in play. the blinds were at 150 - 300 with 50 antes when we started. my chips had dwindled to about T3700 when a key hand came up at 200 - 400 blinds. i limped from the button with KK. neither blind made the raise that i hoped for. the flop couldn't have been better -- K88. checks all around on the flop. on the turn the big blind and chip leader bet T700. i called and the small blind folded. he bet T1000 on the river. after some thought i moved all-in. since i only had about T600 more than the minimum raise no play would make sense other than a call or all-in. the big blind folded.

another nice hand came up for me a few hands later. i raised to 1200 from the button with As6s. the big blind called. the flop was 24x with two spades. the big blind bet out and i called. an offsuit 5 hit on the turn and the action was check check. a 3 of spades hit on the river. the big blind bet out T1500. i probably over played my hand and moved all-in. i thought the mini-raise would be fishier. he flipped out an ace of clubs when he folded so that 3 had given him a wheel. i guess i should have just raised to T3000. he probably would have been forced to call.

my exit from the tournament was a mistake on my part. we were up to 500 - 1000 blinds with 100 antes when this hand came up. i had T11,900 and raised to T3000 with KcJc. after some thought the big blind called. the flop was AXX. the big blind check and after just a moment's thought i moved all-in. he called immediately with Ah3h. shit! had i been more focused i would have realized his most likely holding was some kind of weak or middle suited ace. if had held a pair he would have pushed all-in. he was not likely calling a raise with suited connectors. he also probably would have pushed all-in with a big ace. it turns out our stacks were exactly the same size and i was history. had i only mini-raised pre-flop maybe i wouldn't have felt the need to push in on the flop. i also think there is a reasonable chance that he would have folded had i pushed all-in pre-flop. my take was $240 and a few more lessons learned.

More Catching Up

steven played a rebuy tournament at the radisson on sunday night. i really didn't feel like playing so i just chilled at home. the initial buy-in was $50 plus two re-buys for an additional $100. no luck. it sounds like he just couldn't get anything going.

on monday we headed down to the horseshoe about 7:30. it looked like it was going to be a good night, but it turned very ugly. i won a decent pot or two early and steven won a monster on one of the first hands we played. he raised pre-flop to $17 from the small blind with two callers. the flop was A 2 5 with two hearts. steven moved in right away. he got two callers. the first caller had two pair (A 2)and was shocked when steven turned over AA. i knew what he had before he flipped his card because it was the only strong hand he would play that fast. given how often people will play their draws down here with or without the pot odds to do it one learns to protect their big hands. the other caller never showed his hand, but i assume he had a flush draw. steven basically tripled up tight out of the gate. we should have just left after about half an hour up $400 - $500.

if we were only that smart. over the course of the night i did not have any notable hands - winners or losers. i ended our session down about $145. steven lost some huge hands and finished down $500. first big loser was when he had AK, flopped a K and rivered a K. the other player in the hand was a weak player. he didn't really understand the game very well. i read him for weakness the whole way. steven bet the flop, the turn, and moved all-in on the river. the dude had flopped a set of tens so that river filled him up. he thought he had lost the hand - he thought it was trips Ks vs. trip tens. he flipped over his cards saying he just had to see. i'm not sure exactly how big the pot was, but this guy had over two racks of chips in front of him after this hand -- over $1000.

next big hand for little bro was when he flopped top two pair. he was in the hand with two other players. he checked the flop. the pre-flop raiser who held AK, had flopped tptk, bet out. javier who flopped the nut flush draw called. steven moved all-in. the pre-flop raiser called and so did javier. the flush hit. the old guy who raised pre-flop actually thought he was ahead of steven even after the cards were flipped up and couldn't believe he moved all-in with an A and a mediocre kicker. javier easily had the pot odds to make that call, but is the type who would have called even if the first bet was all-in and the old guy in the middle folded.

throughtout the session there were plenty of fish at the table, but somehow the money was not ending up in front of us. we ended up playing until about 5:45 in the morning to bust out this one last player, edwin, who was drunk and giving his money away. he hit the atm a number of times. over the last couple of hours he just wouldn't give it up. i'm sure we didn't lose money, but with the rake we probably didn't do much more than break even during the last stretch of the session. this other guy justin, in town from san diego (official site), was able to pull in a ton of his money. the huge hand was when edwin called justin's K high flush with his 3 high flush. justin made the most noteworthy play i have seen since i have been down here. steven, justin and edwin see the flop. all i remember about the flop was that the board was paired and had two hearts. justin bets out and steven calls. edwin moved all-in for not much more. justin then raised edwin's all-in. steven read justin's play exactly the way justin wanted him too. he believed justin had flopped trips and was attempting to shut out the flush draw. since he wasn't getting the right price for his nut flush draw he folded. edwin turned up trips and justin turned up the J high flush draw. not only was it a great play, but the flush hit.

there was a fourth of july party at the jazz casino at the white house in the hills of escazu. i played in my first $3 - $5 no-limit game since arriving here. i was unsure about playing but steven encouraged me to play. we both bought in for $300. at first my stack dwindled down to about $225 or so and then i hit a hand to bring me up over $300 again. steven was up $200 almost right away. things were starting to get a bit of hand. several of the players wanted to play $5 - $10 and really hand no regard whatsoever for the money they were putting into pots. many pots were straddled or double-straddled. one pot even had three straddle's making it $40 to go. each straddle is like a new blind so it needs to be double the previous blind. utg is the first player to the left of the last straddle. the last straddle has the last option to bet pre-flop just as if s/he was the big blind.

in my key hand at the table i raised it to $15 from early position with QdQs and had three or four callers. the flop was all below ten with two clubs. i bet out $50 and tommy, who is a solid player called. i never played with him before, but that was my immediate read which was later confirmed by steven. the K of clubs hit and tommy bet out $100. i immediately sensed that this was a play. it took me about 30 seconds to convince myself to move all-in. tommy had over $1000 in front of him and my all-in wasn't wnough to make him lay down his hand. he held JJ with one club. a club hit the river and i was busted. i may have lost the hand, but it gave me confidence in my reading ability. steven was very impressed with call, but believed i shoud have made a bigger bet on the flop. maybe so, but the hand would still have played out the same way unless tommy lays down an overpair to my flop bet. unlikely.

i bought in for another $300. it was shortly after rebuying that things really got out of control. in addition to all of the straddling, one player was often betting $35, $40, or $50 on his hand in the dark. steven suggested that i move over to the $1 - $2 game that had started while we were playing. i took his advice. things worked out very well for me. i picked up some big pairs early and won some nice size pots. i busted one guy when i decided to limp in from the button with 10 10 with about three limpers plus the blinds in front of me. i had already started rebuilding my stack so instead of potentially taking down the pot immediately with a nice size raise i figured i would see if i could flop a set and win a larger pot. bingo, i flopped a set. a player in middle position made about a pot-sized bet and the player immediately to my right called. i called. the turn was a 3. the original better was short-stacked and moved all-in for about $35. of course, i'm saying a mini-prayer that the other player calls, but to no avail. the all-in player was bummed to see my set of tens because he had turned a set of threes. i ended the night up $25 which was fine by me after dropping $300 in the first hour or so. steven ended the night up $560 so all in all it was a good night.

Catching Up

sorry, this will be a brief and relatively uninformative post. i have to do a better job of keeping up before the shape and nuiances of sessions begin to slip away. i do not have the recall that joe sorge seems to have for recalling the details of hands and sessions. we put in about eight hours in at the horsehoe on friday to accumulate hours. the horsehoe runs a regular tournament and a player can either buy-in for $500 to receive T5000 in chips or earn freeroll chips based on hours played. minimum hours to qualify is 30 which translates into T1000. maximum hours are 90 for the full T5000. additionally, if a player opens the game for the day s/he receives double hours. any play after midnight also counts as double hours. we finished with over 65 hours a piece to earn T2800 in chips. I can't say that i recall many specifics of the day. i won about $150 and steven lost $60. so we didn't post a loss, but it was a long day to clear $90.

saturday was a short day for us. the early blind levels last only 15 minutes which is all fine and good for our home game when the winner is going to clear $60 tops, but in a tournament with about 20 players in which top prize is close to $3000 that just isn't cutting it. steven went out first. the blinds were already beginning to rise and he had only T1400 when he flopped second pair with a king kicker and moved all-in. the problem was that one of the chip leaders flopped top pair with a king kicker leaving two outs for steven that never showed up.

my exit involved my first truly donkey play since i have been down here and as usual it was not the hand that knocked me out, but the last hand i played before that. much worse, it was a bad lay down. this hand took place several hands before steven's exit. wayne, a solid player, opened for a raise from early position. i called with Qd Jd from middle position. the flop comes Kd 9d X. he bets T300 which was slightly less than the pot. I decide to attempt to push him off his hand. i figure if he does not have AA, KK, 99, XX, or AK and this is a garden variety continuation bet i can pick up the hand right now. i raise to T1000. he moves all-in. obviously, not a continuation bet. in retrospect, i should have smooth-called and seen what happened on the turn or pushed all-in right away and put the pressure on wayne. when faced with my decision, i was more concerned about possibly being the first one out thn i was about the pot odds of the situation. i decided to conserve my last T1400.

i will never make this mistake again. the pot is laying more than 2.5 to 1 on my money and i have as many as 12 outs -- 9 diamonds (including the ten of diamonds) for the flush plus 3 additional tens for the straight -- which is very close to even money. if he is holding the Ad i lose one out or if he has a set then the diamond which pairs with the X card is not an out. 11 outs still puts me close to 45% so this should have been a no-brainer. In the immortal words of amir vahedi, "in order to live you must be willing to die"and in this situation i wasn't. A couple of orbits later my pocket fours lost to pocket tens. steven said something to the effect of, "if i had known that was your hand i would have taken you outside and kicked the shit out of you". the adjustment of playing for real money was had an impact on my play. this was the most glaring example. sitting at the table in my house or playing a sit 'n go on party poker i make this call in a heartbeat. i don't believe i need to learn this lesson again.

after our early exit we went to the grand opening of motor psychos in santa ana. the place looked great. there were burgers and hot dogs cooked outside on a grill with excellent baked beans. the three owners are all gringo bikers. richard, the man in charge of the food, has already been involved in many successful restaurant ventures down here. there is a glassed encase section in which Tak will build customed-made bikes for at least $20,000 a piece. there is also a little boutique section with t-shirts and numerous other motorcycle-related accessories. trust me, one does not need to be a biker to enjoy this place. there are about 15 to 20 tables up front and a bar in the center section with a handful of bar tables. oiut back there is an open courtyard with a covered section to the side with a pool table. We did not try any of the food from the kitchen, but steven assures me that richard always turns out great fare.

Bubbled Again

before discussing my exit on the bubble for the second week in a row at the radisson's $100 entry thursday night tournament let me tell u about steven's quick and exciting exit. on about the tenth hand or so, someone made a substantial raise from early position with two callers before
steven found 2d 3d in the sb. he decided to call and hit the dream flop - A 4 5 rainbow. he made a small opening bet and the original raiser made it T350 to go. one of the callers moved all-in and steven said he couldn't get his chips in fast enough. the original raiser also called. the original raiser had AK. the first all-in player had a set of fours. the player with the set of fours filled up on the river when a second five hit the board. obviously, the player who moved all-in with the set of fours made the correct play. the overcall by the original raiser is a bit ridiculous. if a player cannot lay down tptk in this situation when could they ever.

i was able to acquire a fair amount of chips near the the beginning of the third blind level (10 – 20). an early position player limped and a gringo two to his left raised it to T80. a player in late position called. i woke up with KK in the sb so i re-raised to T240. the original raiser moved all-in and the other player folded. without hesitation, i pushed my chips while saying, “i don't see how i can make the monster laydown here.” my hand held up so i was in good shape. That put me just below T3000. when we broke to two tables i had about T3200. i was able to raise my chip total for a while – mostly i made many uncalled pre-flop raises to pick up the blinds. i think i only played two hands post-flop and won both without much resistance. i then went card dead for an extended period.

after having my stack up to about T5400, i entered the final table with about T3600. there were at least three stacks that were smaller than mine when we started and a couple about the same as mine. i picked up blinds and antes once during the first orbit and then was not presented with a good situation to get my chips involved for almost two full orbits. in the mean time, one player had already exited so we were down to nine and the tournament paid the top eight this week. this week i made the exact opposite mistake from last week – i was too aggressive. i was in the bb with a limper plus the sb. i had Js 8s and the flop was 9 10 X. i moved all-in and was called by the original limper and the big stack at the table. he held J 10 which eliminated the J as a potential out and i could not hit my straight. I should have just check – folded and waited for one or two others to go out. the week before, i needed to acquire chips and this past week i needed to survive and make the money. the other factor i was oblivious to was that the original limper was the chip leader and unlikey to lay his hand down if he had a piece of that flop.

steven got involved in a pretty heavy cash game. almost every pot had a straddle and/or a mississippi straddle so this was more like a 4 – 8 no-limit hold'em game. several of the looser locals were in the game as well as this kid, heinrich, who is a loose aggressive player, but very good. simply from a psychological standpoint i am not ready to sit down in a game like that. for me, one of the most fascinating and challenging aspects of becoming a better poker player is that i have to learn to shed many of my natural tendencies. i tend to be reserved and cautious and that is not generally rewarded as a poker player. i need to develop a much healthier (at least for a poker player) disregard for money. money is the way we keep score and in order to win big one must be willing to gamble and place money at risk.

unlike most poker players i am not a gambling junky. i do not play blackjack or craps or bet biug on sports. i do not get the enormous rush that others do from gambling. for me, i am turned on by the intellectual and psychological aspects of the game. I am learning and i will continue to develop. this is only the beginning. i understand the basics very well, even if i have not completely mastered them. that will come with experience. when i think of the differences between steven as players i tend to forget that he has been playing this game for about 8 ½ years and i have been playing it for about 2 ½. when it comes to discussing poker and poker strategy things have never become heated between us. we can criticize each other openly and neither of us ever take it badly.