Note to Dawn Summers

From this point forward, you are never again allowed to say I never gave you anything.

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2009 WSOP: LOL Day 1d-aments and Big Draws, Part 2

If you follow the poker world then by now you've heard that Day 1d of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event sold out with 2,809 entrants. This despite the fact that each of the first two Day 1 flights didn't even hit half-capacity (1,116 and 873) and only 1,697 turned out for Day 1c. There were lots of shenanigans at the Rio as desperate donkeys tried to figure out a way to slip into the Day 1d field via a back door.

Figuring out a logical and fair way to balance competing Day 1 flights has long been a problem for poker tournament officials but the 2009 Main Event puts the problem in a new light. With potential room for a total of 11,236 players, the tournament should NEVER sell out. Even at the height of the poker boom in 2006 -- before Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act -- the Main Event attracted "only" 8,773 runners, about 78% of capacity.

I don't ever remember a poker tournament I've covered over the last year where the final Day 1 flight wasn't the largest. I think it comes down to logistics. Players like to condense their playing time as much as possible. For this year's Main Event, players who played on Day 1a had three days off before they will return tomorrow for Day 2a; players on Day 1b and Day 1c have two days off before returning for their Day 2a and Day 2b flights. If you're a player who satellited into the Main Event and are on a budget those extra days in a hotel (and potentially away from work and family) can be very, very costly. Compare that with players who survive Day 1d. They have one day off before returning for Day 2b.

I'm not sure how the problem can be fixed in a brick-and-mortar setting. The only halfway plausible solution is to require people to pre-register before Day 1a (no registration possible after late registration closes on Day 1a) and then assign their Day 1 flight randomly. But that will drive down the total number of registrants and doesn't solve the problem of extra time away from jobs and family. It also makes it impossible for out-of-towners to plan their trips to Las Vegas. So despite the "neatness" of that solution, it's not really a solution at all.

All of Day 1 cannot be played on the same day. There isn't adequate space anywhere in Las Vegas that can serve the needs (poker needs, eating and drinking needs, bathroom needs, etc.) of 7,000 players all at once. That's the reason Day 1 was broken into four flights in the first place.

Is the solution to play the Main Event out on the internet? After all, the rumors are that Harrah's is positioning itself to be a force in the online gaming industry within the next year...

--

Back to my big draws (finally!). Remember there were three cases:

Case 1 - AdJd in position. I called a raise to $15 from a LAGgro donk that was also called by one of the blinds. LAGgro donk had shown a willingness to call down light after the flop -- she value-towned herself a couple of times for no good reason other than an unwillingness to lay down any kind of hand. The flop hit me very hard, {Qd} {10h} {2d}. The blind checked and LAGgro donk bet $40. I was playing about $300 and was covered by both opponents.

Case 2 - QsTs in position. A tight, passive player in early position raised to $17 and was called by one person. I also called to a flop of {As} {9s} {8c}. The tight-passive bet $30 and the other player called. Again I was playing about $300 and was covered by both opponents.

Case 3 - $1-$2 PLO, I was playing $300 and was covered. There was a pot raise ($8) that was called in two spots before action came to me in the small blind. After squeezing out {Ad} {As} {4d} {5s}, I re-potted to $42 and was called by two players. The flop came down {6s} {Jc} {3s} and I had first action.

Case 3 seems to be the easiest. Almost everyone agreed I should lead out for pot ($136). Which is what I did. The only problem I see with betting pot is that I have the deck crippled. I'm not sure who's calling my pot bet on that flop (and in the specific instance nobody did). But at least nobody thought it was wrong to bet pot and get as many chips in as possible.

Case 1 there was more of a divergence of opinion. Two people said raise, two people said raise all in, one person said call and one person mis-read the action. Based on that limited sample, I'm glad that I wasn't sure how I should play my hand. Where I was stuck was: LAGgro donk was raising lots of hands preflop. She could have had any any two cards and would probably fire again on the turn without any significant push-back. But she also might stack off with a hand as weak as top pair. I wouldn't mind much if she stacked off (as I told Alceste after the hand, "No way I am folding that hand against her ever.")

The more I think about it, the more I like a less-than-all-in raise, maybe to $100. It leaves myself $185 behind and allows me to assess the strength of both opponents before acting on the turn.

In the end I opted to raise all in. The third player in the hand folded and then the LAGgro donk snap-mucked what she said was a pair of eights. Drat.

That bring us to Case 2. Here most people agreed that a call was the right play, given my opponent's image. That's how I played it too. The turn was a red king and this time my opponent bet $50. Her bet folded the third player in the hand, bringing the action to me. I had to call $50 to win $191. I felt for sure that my opponent would not bet into two players behind, from early position, without a big hand (two pair or a set), leaving me with zero fold equity. I had plenty of pot odds to call again however. I called, the river blanked and I folded to a bet. Later, as I was racking up to leave, I asked the player what she had. She said A-K for top two pair.

I'm not sure I could have gotten her to fold the flop with a hefty re-raise. Given the board texture and her likely range, calling felt like the better option. Yet isn't it strange that in these three specific drawing hands, the best play each time was a different one?

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A Spot of Color

When I'm covering a poker tournament like the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, I enjoy looking for the "color" stories. That's especially true on the early days of the tournament since most of the pots that develop are small relative to the sizes of the chip stacks. Nobody cares much what happens on Day 1 of an eight-day poker tournament.

Today my search for color brought me to Table 91, where Frankie Gay was seated. Gay and his fiancee Shea Walker were wearing matching "Playing for Pruitt" shirts. Gay's son Pruitt Rainey -- an avid poker player -- was a soldier killed in Afghanistan on July 13, 2008. I listened to Gay's and Walker's story, asking a few respectful questions along the way so that I could do a thorough write-up of this "color" for the blog. They were surprisingly composed.

I thought about my own brother. It was never easy for us. At times I resented the fact that I had acquired the functional equivalent of a twin when I was five years old. Everything we did was shared, everything we received was shared. For a long time we were treated identically in all ways, I think so that neither one would feel like the other was more important, or more loved or more special. That was tough for me. From my brother's side, he didn't even look like the rest of the family, so how easy could it have been for him?

He's on his second tour in Iraq now, scheduled to come home in a few months. I'm not sure if I could have been as composed as Gay and Walker if someone were asking those questions of me about my deceased relative. And this is for a brother with whom I've never had a solid relationship. I can't imagine what it's like to answer those questions regarding your own son.

As I've gotten older I've found that things which would have just rolled off my back in the past affect me more deeply. Listening to these two fine Georgians talk about a young kid and how much he loved to play poker -- and then thinking about the tragedy of his death -- hit me in a way I wouldn't have expected. But I suppose I'm at the end of a long, rough summer. Maybe with a few solid days of sleep I'll feel right as rain and not give a second thought to that kind of story.

(Sorry no poker content today. Back tomorrow with Part 2 of the big draws post.)

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2009 WSOP: The Calm Before the Storm, and Playing Big Draws

Yesterday was a day off. Or rather I should say it was a day away from the Rio because it wasn't a day off. Some other freelance work kept me occupied during the afternoon.

Today is another day off. The last preliminary event finishes up alongside the Ante Up for Africa tournament. I don't see many well-known names in the final fifteen of that last preliminary event. It's a safe bet that all eyes will be on Ante Up.

An interesting discussion that's come out in the last few days is one that I had with my friend Zeke several weeks ago. Zeke contended that the "World Series of Poker" has really become two different entities -- the $1,500 no-limit hold'em tournaments, which are like "WSOP B", the minor leagues of the World Series or the amateur hour at the World Series, and the bigger buy-in and "other game" tournaments, which are like "WSOP A" or the major leagues of the World Series.

While I agree with Zeke, I don't think it's so much because the pros shun the donkaments. We always have a decent smattering of pros in the donkaments. It's just that NLHE appeals to the masses in a way that razz or limit O8 never will. The pros are therefore a much smaller percentage of the field in the donkaments than they are in the "other games" events. Their skill edge in the "other games" events is also much higher than it is in no-limit hold'em, a game that has been exhaustively studied and taught in books and on the internet.

The pros didn't set the World Series up this way. The amateurs did by not taking an interest in anything except NLHE. Personally I'm fine with that. I prefer the fields of the games I play not to be 3,000-person lotteries.

--

I got some pokering time in late last night. Alceste is in town. We wound up in a 1-3 NLHE game at Wynn. Now, it's been a long time since I played any NLHE cash. Twice a similar hand came up that I wasn't sure how I was supposed to play.

Case 1 - AdJd in position. I called a raise to $15 from a LAGgro donk that was also called by one of the blinds. LAGgro donk had shown a willingness to call down light after the flop -- she value-towned herself a couple of times for no good reason other than an unwillingness to lay down any kind of hand. The flop hit me very hard, {Qd} {10h} {2d}. The blind checked and LAGgro donk bet $40. I was playing about $300 and was covered by both opponents.

Case 2 - QsTs in position. A tight, passive player in early position raised to $17 and was called by one person. I also called to a flop of {As} {9s} {8c}. The tight-passive bet $30 and the other player called. Again I was playing about $300 and was covered by both opponents.

Meh, what the hell. Let's throw in a PLO hand also.

Case 3 - $1-$2 PLO, I was playing $300 and was covered. There was a pot raise ($8) that was called in two spots before action came to me in the small blind. After squeezing out {Ad} {As} {4d} {5s}, I re-potted to $42 and was called by two players. The flop came down {6s} {Jc} {3s} and I had first action.

The question, in each case, is how should I play my hand? Discuss amongst yourselves. I'll be back tomorrow with my own thoughts and what I did in each case.

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2009 WSOP: Now the Real Fun Begins

Today marks the commencement of the last of the preliminary bracelet events, $5,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em. That means the Big Dance begins on Friday, and the social calendar for the next week becomes very, very busy. A party celebrating the 10-year anniversary of UltimateBet was last night at Studio 54; the Bluff party is tomorrow at Sapphire; the PokerStars party is next Friday and there are sure to be a host of other parties in between. The Everest Poker Lounge at the Rio finally opened just in time for a host of Everest qualifiers to descend on yesterday's donkament in zip-ups that are eerily reminiscent of some PokerStars zip-ups.

Hell, even Otis is here now. You know the party's started when Otis gets here. Two nights ago I joined Gene, Al, Otis and Drizz for some late night early morning pai gow. After getting battered by the dealer for the better part of two hours, Otis declared the Degree All-In Moment and pushed his remaining stack onto the betting circle. We all followed suit and then exploded in cheers and shouts of "Pai Gow!" when the dealer pulled his first pai gow the whole time we'd been there.

It's really difficult to enjoy all this stuff (no, really) but I'm doing my best. The finish line is in sight.

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2009 WSOP: The Week of Run-Bad-aments

First it was the razz. No need to re-hash that.

Then it was a session of 20-40. Not memorable enough to really recount.

Finally, there was Day 3 of the $2,500 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tourney yesterday. We started play with 23 players. When I looked at the structure sheet and the chips in play, I heaved a big ol' sigh. It looked like a 3am-4am night from a 1pm start. And indeed that's what it was. There was a brief moment, around 11pm or 1130pm, when if the cards had broken the right way, we could have accelerated that pace. But they didn't break the right way and it was indeed 3:30am when we finished.

I doubt I can complain too much. I've had several very short final tables so far this WSOP. But the pain of a split-pot game can be excruciating when you're trying to report on a tournament. Most hands either fold on the flop (not very interesting) or chop on the river (similarly not so interesting). It's hard to find those scoops that show some chip movement and momentum in the tournament. By the end of the night danafish had broken out a bottle of whiskey and we were taking some generous pours. It was a needed relief from some stupidity I had to deal with earlier in the evening that threatened DefCon 1 for life-tilt.

The real insanity -- the Main Event -- is looming just around the corner. Here's hoping I keep my shit together through the end.

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2009 WSOP: The Late, Late Show

There's been a rash of problems within the last week at the 2009 World Series of Poker with the daily 5pm bracelet events. They're not starting until 5:15. That wouldn't be a problem in and of itself, but it's a symptom of a bigger issue. Each tournament got off late because by 5pm only about 60% of the final field had registered.

The problem repeated itself three nights in a row -- with the $2500 Eight-Game Mix, the $2500 Razz and the $2500 Omaha Hi/Lo. The effect was that each table started play extremely short-handed. My razz table played 4-handed for about 45 minutes and 5-handed for another 45 minutes after that. We didn't fill out to 8-handed until Level 3. For the first two levels we were effectively playing a different game. We weren't playing razz; we were playing short-handed razz.

This happened because of the way the registration process works. As best I can tell, the WSOP makes an estimate of the number of entrants for a particular tournament and then allocates tables and dealers based on that estimate. If they estimate 300 entrants for an 8-handed tournament, they might allocate 41 tables. Then as players register, they are randomly assigned a seat at one of those 41 tables based on an algorithm that balances the number of players at each table. So far, so good.

The problem lies in the fact that late registration extends for a full two hours and twenty minutes after the start of the tournament. And when a tournament goes off late, it means late registration goes late also. For whatever reason -- triple chips, multiple events on the same day, pure laziness -- anywhere from 35-40% of the field for each of the 5pm events this week registered after the scheduled start of the tournament. Given that players have two and a half hours to register, many of them show no particular rush to take their seat at the scheduled time. While this was always true for tournaments in general, it has become especially true in fixed-limit tournaments. There is less incentive to show up on time in fixed-limit tournaments because it is very difficult to acquire a large number of chips in the early stages without playing like an utter maniac.

[I should point out that if you register on time, your stack is placed on the table and anted off, whether you show up or not. If you register late, you start with a full stack once you arrive at the table.]

I've never understood why late registration needs to extend so late. It could be that extending late registration until the first break in the tournament seems to tournament officials like a convenient time to do so. Or maybe it's because the WSOP is trying to keep the name pros (who often play multiple events on the same day) happy by giving them oodles of time to gauge their chances of a deep run in one tournament before registering for another. Perhaps in events like $1500 NL donkaments, tournament officials are trying to jam in as many people as they can in order to increase their take. I hope that neither of the latter cases is true because each would sell out a tournament's integrity.

How can the problem be fixed? Very simply by not allowing late registration to go so late. Thirty minutes is more than enough time for late registration -- if someone over-sleeps or gets stuck in traffic, they will still have ample cushion to register. That's what late registration should be for -- allowing people who've had some inconvenience in their life the chance to overcome that inconvenience and still play the tournament. It shouldn't be for what it's being used for now, which is to allow lazy players to show up when they feel like it. And by limiting late registration to 30 minutes, it will ensure that tournaments (a) start on time, (b) don't penalize players who sign up on time by requiring them to play a different game than the game they were expecting to play for the first two hours, (c) will allow players to have a much better idea of the size of the field they can expect to encounter when registering and (d) collapse to full 7- or 8- or 9-handed play (depending on the game) before the first level ends.

I'm interested in any competing theories as to why two-and-a-half hours of late registration is a good thing. Feel free to leave a comment.

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