WPT Championship 1a - Rough Table

The final 5K event at Bellagio started well with a quick double up in the first level when someone went crazy with a flush draw on the turn against my flopped nut straight. Unfortunately it turned around just as quickly when I was busted an hour later after running into my new nemesis, fluffdog (I kid you not, that is how he introduced himself). In the last few months I've ran into him a few times and each time it's ended up with a quick trip to the rail for me after a big suckout. In an exact copy of the hand he busted me from the LAPC heads-up event we got it all in on the flop with my set losing to his nut flush draw.

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Next up was day 1 of the 25K main event at Bellagio. As soon as I sat down, I realized I'd be in for a tough day. Here was my table draw:

1)me

2)Brandon Cantu

3)Paul Wasicka

4)Bruno Fitoussi

5)Tony "Bond18" Dunst

6)Barny Boatman

7)Jen Harman

8)Brad Berman

9)unknown player

In tournament poker a good table draw can put you on easy street and a bad one can make your life a living hell. This was the worst draw I'd ever run into at the tables.

Not only was my table filled with tough pro's (not a suprise given the small field), but I also had the aggressive players (Cantu, Wasika and Fitoussi) sitting on my left, and the tight players (Harman, Berman) sitting on my right.

There are only a few top player who choose to play the ultra loose aggressive style. In my opinion this is the most difficult style to play, but if played well it is also the most successful. They are easy to spot. They are the players that play almost every pot, yet somehow whenever the big pots come up they are still able to show down monsters most of the time. I give huge respect to anyone that is able to pull this style of play off.

I ran into two of these players recently, Shaun Deeb and Brandon Cantu. The difference in the two situations was extreme, and had to do with the one big difference, position. Playing against Shaun, I had position on him and was able to use that to pick my spots, take some small pots and slowly build up my stack. Against Brandon I was forced to do my best to just avoid him, and throw in a few check raises to try and slow him down.

The most important point in playing against the hyper LAG player is position. It is usually the difference between being run over by their aggression and being the wall they keep bluffing off their chips to.

I was able to stay out of Brandon's way for the most of the day, but still I probably ended the day down 10K-20K to him.

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I started the day with a great run of cards, including hitting quads with my pocket jacks against seat 9. But with starting stacks at 100K and blinds at 50-100, it was difficult to build up many chips. By the end of level 2 I was up to 120K.

In level 3 I had a few of my bluffs picked off, and fell down to 110K. On one important hand I made a semi-bluff for about 5,300 on the turn to try and scare off Wasika and Berman. Wasika ended up calling me down and winning the pot with top pair no kicker and Berman folded. This clearly annoyed the very tight Berman who had likely laid down the best hand.

I was able to take advantage of that bluffing image later to win a large pot. Harman raised from early position and got 3-4 callers including Berman and myself (holding pocket fives). The flop comes K-9-5 rainbow, a great flop for me. Harman checks, Berman bets 4,100 (near pot size). I decide to slowplay and call, and Harman calls. Turns comes a 3. They both check to me, and I bet 10,000. Harman folds, Berman calls. River comes and 8, no flush possible. Berman quickly checks and I immediately fire out 20,000 and he calls after thinking for a few seconds and then mucks after I show the set.

The hand was pretty straightforward, but the thing to remember is that Berman is an ultra tight player. He likely only had a hand like KQ or AK but was willing to snap call me on the river for 20K. What was he putting me on, given that there was no real draws available on that flop? Clearly he was remembering the bluff from earlier and thought it likely I had complete air and was bluffing with something like QJ.

In the end, the earlier bluff failed and cost me about 6K, but it allowed me to get paid off when I did have a big hand and win 40K. This was the biggest pot of the day for me, and I ended that day at 170K, good for 18th/105 players at the the end of day 1a.

The structure is so good in this tournament that the field lost less than 20% on day 1. On my table, we only busted one player the whole day. Somehow I wasn't too supsrised when that one player ended up being seat 9, the only player I didn't know. Maybe there is a little bit of skill invloved in this game…