November 2009 - Las Vegas - Day 2

Play the $220 at the Wynn at noon. Since it is now Monday the tournaments are smaller and this one has only 31 runners – top 3 get paid. This means at one point we are playing 11 handed – luckily there were none of those larger gentlemen you sometimes come across in the poker room.

Witnessed the second worse play I have seen in poker. (For those students of my blog you will recall that the worst play in poker was the knocking out of Shannon Elizabeth of American Pie fame in a tournament I played in the Venetian). It is very early in the tournament and 2 players have not shown up yet so their stacks are blinded away in their absence. Coincidentally they are in adjacent seats so there comes a point when they are the small and big blind. It is folded around to a nice old lady on the button who fails to observe they are not there so she folds too – to much hilarity from the rest of the table. She compounds her mistake by saying “gee I was thinking I must remember to get those blinds for free”.

We start with a rather ridiculous 20,000 chips and 50/100 blinds – 30 minute levels. Not much happens in the first 2 levels but make a nice 2 pairs out of the big blind with 89 after 4 limpers. Flop is 894 and I tag along before hitting the guy who slow played QQ with a river check raise. This gets me up to 24k.

Lose some chips with AK and when we get towards the end of Level 4 (300/600 25) there are still 18 players left I have around 18k. I pick up AQ in late position and raise to 3600 after 2 limpers and get one caller. Flop is QT9 2 clubs (I don’t have a club). He checks and I bet 5k – he then raises to 12k. I had only recently moved tables but the guy looked like he knew what he was doing so could easily be bullying my standard continuation bet – perhaps with a club draw. However on reflection there are not that many other proper hands he can have that I am beating. KQ is a possibility but if he has a set of T or 9 is or KJ I am in big trouble. The problem was that if I fold now the blinds are about to go up to 400/800 and I will have around 9k and will be in all-in mode. I decide to err on the aggressive side and go all-in – he then calls with KJ for the nut straight and I am out.

On my way to the Bellagio I am wondering whether we need some scale to measure those all-in situations. For those non-actuaries amongst my few readers, we measure and use in our rather obscure calculations the probability of dying at a particular age x and give it the symbol qx. But in a glass half empty/full kind of way there is the more optimistic item px which is the probability of surviving to the end of age x. These items are related by px=1-qx.
So in the poker world I think that a “Manson” should be the measurement when you get your money in good and lose and the inverse is the “Sanderson” when you get it in bad and win.
So let us set a standard Manson to be the typical dominated situation i.e. AK vs AQ. A SuperManson would be for a 2 outer such as AA vs 22 and a MegaManson for when you have AA vs KK and someone helpfully tells you they folded a K pre flop and the case King duly turns up. A MiniManson would be the traditional race of JJ vs AK and a MicroManson where you are slight favourite to some draw on the flop.
So in this case “I attempted to HyperSanderson him with runner runner to make a full house to beat his straight”.

This is the $330 that Wilson won earlier this year which started at 2pm. Although there were only 25 runners at the start the locals predicted a total field of 50 or so since you can enter any time up to 6pm.
We start with 10,000 chips and the levels are 35 minutes.

Not much happens on L1 of 25/50 but on level 2 50/100 I lose a few when I have 24 in the BB with several limpers. Board is 345 and my speculative bet is called in 2 spots. Turn is a 2 so I bet again but this time there is a raise and reraise all-in which is called so I fold (67 eliminates A4) .

So I am down to 8.5K in Level 3 when I pick up AK UTG. I make a standard raise to 600 which is called by an old Italian guy in the SB. He has been overplaying the doddery old fool card mainly by whingeing about how he is colour blind and can’t see the colour of the chips. He makes a big deal about checking in the dark and when the board comes down QJT he gives me some reverse psychology European solidarity BS so I make a continuation bet of 600 trying to look like a weak intimidated English tourist – he of course then springs his “trap” by raising to 2000 - where is all that solidarity now? I push all-in and then he gives the big spiel about being pot committed (er I don’t think he is given he has me covered) and then is rather disappointed that his QJ is rather crushed by my AK. Of course I am Mansoned when the J appears on the turn but at least he has the decency to be a bit sheepish about his amateur dramatics earlier.

I take the opportunity to go off to the Las Vegas Outlet mall – the only time it is EVER acceptable to travel on a bus in America. The shopping centre is out by the airport so it is a $3 ride on the bus or $20 in a cab which rather negates the savings you can make on shoes and jeans. In fact the Timberland shop is the one place you can be absolutely guaranteed to meet a Brit since the prices are usually about half the UK. American's unfamiliarity with the concept of a bus is well illustrated by the fact that when I hop on downstairs is as crowded as a 38 at Victoria Station at 8.30 am on a Monday but upstairs is an oasis of empty seats. Having said that you have to be impressed with the fact there are 2 staircases.

Later I meet up with David Hargreaves (who is in Las Vegas "studying" for a financial planning exam - nice one) at the bar by the Caesar’s sportsbook for pre tournament training. Unfortunately the Pussycat dolls are “dark” on Monday nights so we actually buy some Guiness which is not too outrageously over priced – and you get it free if you play one of the poker slots at the bar. So it would appear that we now have the perfect strategy for table games – pick the cheapest one to get you free drinks – either $1 on red and black simultaneously on roulette and wait for the zero or 10c per game of slot poker.

We play the 7pm at Caesar’s with 83 runners and it is a fairly uneventful first few levels. The cocktail waitresses at Caesars are rather variable but this evening they are not bad. Start drinking “New Castle” beer when the guy to my right orders one – I was not expecting to see that – the waitress is most amused when I ask for a fine English ale in Withnail style. She proves to be quite a sport when she returns later with a drink for the rather attractive girl who has recently been eliminated by my brown ale quaffing chum. He says that he knocked her out earlier but the waitress mishears him and repeats “you knocked her up earlier” ? we all have a good chortle at this and she goes rather red. She gets a lot of ribbing every time she comes past – but takes it in good heart.

I manage to work my stack up to 18k when I sneak in with 8Jh after a lot of limping. Flop is 49T and after some checking the turn of a 7 makes a guy trips which he falls in love with.
We get to level 8 200/600/1200 and I am down to 14k having lost a race against a shorty. Pick up 88 on the button but when I move in, my attempted SuperSanderson against JJ does not come off and I am out in 30th place. David does rather better but does not cash.