A Few Days in Reno

I recently returned from the World Poker Challenge at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, where one of the two main events was $2,950 no-limit hold’em with $50,000 added.

Only 118 players entered. Although the tournament officials were expecting a bigger turnout, they stayed true to their word and added the full $50,000. I give them credit for abiding by their advertising, and also for running an excellent tournament. For us players, it meant that with a $100 entry fee per player, we were looking at a $38,200 overlay, and that’s never something to sneeze at. I managed to come in fifth, for a payday of approximately $24,000.

Sometimes it’s tough to objectively explain to my friends and financial backers whether I feel like I played well, got lucky, or a little of both. Usually, you need both, and this tournament was no exception. But this time, in explaining to them why I think I played well, I gave them what I believe is an extremely underutilized and underrated poker statistic: I played for about 17 hours, and my hand was shown a grand total of only seven times.

Between noon and 2 p.m. of the first day, I showed my hand twice, both times in all-in confrontations in which I had my opponents dominated. After that, my hand was not shown again until 9:30 p.m., when I split a pot with the A J versus the A 5 when the board made a straight to the ace. During the time between those hands, I built my stack from 27,000 to 35,000 without revealing my cards once.

If you don’t understand the importance and significance of that statistic, in terms of table image and the ability to continually run bluffs, I suggest that you take a moment to contemplate it. At the final table, my cards were shown exactly one time, when I was all in preflop with A-7 against Q-3 and the board came A-K-J-10-X to eliminate me. That hand was the only one in the whole tournament that I showed and lost. Sure, there were other factors that contributed to my success, but all in all, I felt great about my performance due to that one simple statistic.

An interesting thing about our final table was that the winner’s pivotal hand came when we were still eight-handed; usually it will come much closer to the end of the tournament. The two clear chip leaders were Andy Seth (the eventual winner) and James Van Alstyne. Both were playing aggressively, although James was much more selective, while Andy was in every other pot. In the critical hand, with the blinds at 2,000-4,000, Andy opened from early position for 9,500. Everyone folded to James in late position, and he reraised to 29,000. When the action got back to Andy, he hesitated briefly before going all in for almost 250,000. James, who had 290,000, thought for a little while before calling and turning up the A K. Andy revealed Q-Q. The flop came K-10-9, but a jack on the turn gave Andy a straight and the
massive chip lead, and he never looked back.

I thought the call with the A K took a lot of guts, and I give James credit for it. Given Andy’s playing style and raising patterns, he almost certainly did not have A-A or K-K. Most likely, he would have reraised less with either one. My gut feeling when he moved in was that he also had A-K, but Q-Q fit his pattern, too. I’m sure that James made a similar read, and given that tournaments are about playing for first place, he did the right thing by taking his shot in that spot.

Andy played extremely well and certainly deserved the win. But, for what it’s worth, I thought James played the best of anyone over the course of the two days. His level of selective aggression was perfect. Some of our extremely aggressive opponents (Internet players under the age of 25) put him to the test pretty often, but he was able to correctly make some very tough calls with marginal hands. The A K hand left him with only 40,000 in chips and in eighth place out of eight players, yet he still managed to finish fourth. Even then, it took a tough beat to knock him out. I congratulate him on an excellent showing.

A couple of days earlier, Jennifer Harman’s charity tournament was held, supporting the National Kidney Foundation. More than 300 players showed up, including 220 from 22 casinos that sent 10-player teams. I was really impressed by the turnout, and I attribute it to Jennifer’s drawing power more than anything else. She is clearly a class act, and I don’t know any other poker personality who could get that many people to show up for a charity event in Reno.

Bill Roberts from The Palace in Hayward, California, took first place, but more importantly, some serious money was raised. The tournament alone raised more than $107,000 for the foundation. Combined with a silent auction that took place simultaneously, as well as some other donations, more than $150,000 was raised. Especially in tough economic times, it was really cool to be reminded of how generous poker players can be. I hope they can run the same tournament next year. If so, I intend to be there again.

The team from the Atlantis Casino in Reno took the first-place team prize. I was on the team from the Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, California, and I’m proud to say that we finished second. Actually, we tied for second with the team from the Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS), but I played roshambo with a member of their team to break the tie, and managed to win. I am now undefeated in my roshambo career at 1-0, so if poker ever goes south, I might have something to fall back on.

Matt Lessinger is the author of The Book of Bluffs: How to Bluff and Win at Poker, available everywhere. You can find other articles of his at www.CardPlayer.com.