Commerce Day II...Struggling at Stud

I think I got some of the things mixed up in my results post. Not the numbers (like they aren't already dismal), but the days I played certain things. Like I think that on Thursday I played both the NLHE multi-table sat and the Stud. At any rate, the results were the same, lol.

I also think that Thursday Glenn won another sat, not Friday. Not that this matters one bit as far as results go, just that it confuses me when I'm sitting to write out the story.

Anyway, I played the $500 Stud tourney. I didn't even make it to the first break (two hours in). I was the second to bust out at my table, the first being Gioi Luong, whom I've spoken about last year at the WPPA. I like Gioi a lot, as does everyone who meets him and gets to know him. Why he is mixed up with Men is beyond me.

So Gioi and I were side-by-side. Charlie Shoten was across the table in the seven seat.

I basically played three big hands, lost them all, and that was that. I played way too tight, and when I did play a hand, I was outdrawn on the river, or I was behind all the way (in one hand).

--I had 222, a player in the eight seat had two pair and filled on the river.

--I had a three straight flush which turned into a four-flush on fourth, a straight on fifth, never flushed up, and a player with jacks made a flush with my same four diamonds on the river. Why he still drew to diamonds, although he could see two on my board, and another couple of diamonds dead on other boards is beyond me, but he did start with jacks, so I guess it was tough for him to give up the hand, head's up, although I check-raised him on fifth when I made my straight.

--My last hand I had two pair, but a very loose, passive player hit a hidden full on the river.

--I was forced to give up all of my pat hands before the river.

--I was only successful at one steal attempt on third.

--The players were very, very loose for a $500 event.

The player in the one seat couldn't really speak English. He was Asian, but Gioi said he had no idea what kind of Asian. Gioi was sitting in the two seat and very turned off by the one seat, who never stopped talking. We had a horrible time understanding anything he said. Later I learned he busted almost every player at our table himself. He played maybe 80% of the hands or more, and drew to any drawing hand, no matter how dead. He was super deceptive because for the most part he was very passive and we couldn't put him on a hand easily. He busted Gioi, Charlie and myself, yet still didn't make the money.
----------------------------------
Although I took some beats, the fact of the matter is, I didn't play enough hands, and I didn't play them hard enough, not betting my draws for value in order to chip up. We didn't have enough chips, nor was the structure any good (40 minute levels, 1000 starting chips, 30/60-50/100-100/200-200/400). I didn't adjust to the fast play, and so I got outplayed and manipulated. I got bet off of hands I should have played (one time I threw away queens on fifth due to my read and the most logical hands of my opponents, when I had the best hand all along), and I called down hands when I was beat.

Overall, this is a losing strategy. It doesn't matter that I usually start out with the best hand, I'm not getting bad beats, I'm getting outplayed.

Felicia :)

Trip Report...one day at a time

Okay, so now that everyone has seen my dismal results, I guess I'll type up a small trip report, based on what I can remember, for each day I played at Commerce.

On Wednesday, the day we arrived, we got to Commerce about 7pm.

I played in a couple of one table sats for the $500 Stud event on Thursday. I was unsuccessful in both, always starting with the best hand, but being drawn out on. That is something that has tormented me in all of my satellite play and/or speedy structure tournament game from the start of my big buy-in tournament poker journey (almost one year ago).

Since I started out as a Stud cash game player, my first instinct is "tight is right." Tight always won for me before, so why fix it if it "ain't" broken? Duh, because it IS broken! In a fast tourney with no chips, just playing tight is far from right.

California has super fast structures. It is almost a crapshoot in these small STT's and even the bigger buy-in events. One doesn't have time to wait for cards or for good opportunities. We have to just get right into the fray or be blinded off. There is no middle ground.

You would think that would make the tourneys unplayable. This is not true, and if you check Commerce's results, you will see the same group of players making the money consistently in the tourneys there. Even if 200 players buy in to a Stud event, you will see the same people cashing. Is it just luck? No, if it were, then the same names wouldn't keep cropping up.

There is a way to play fast structured events, but I just haven't adjusted my strategy well enough yet.

Glenn, however, won money in both satellites he played, so I had my entry for Thursday's Stud tourney.

I met up with Max Pescatori, Charlie Shoten and Carl Frommer. I met up with many of the other circuit players and felt right at home. These guys really know how to make a warm community out of virtually nothing, and I have been consistently pleasantly surprised at the quality of friendship among the circuit players. For once in my life, I really attempt to be liked, instead of doing my usual "burning bridges" routine, lol. Sure, I'm still candid to a fault, but I truly like this large group of people I've come into contact with, and so I attempt to be friendly, while still being myself ;)

Max was relatively short stacked in Wednesday's NLHE event when I came upon him. Right as I stepped behind his chair, he was dealt pocket aces and had an all-in before him. Sweet! As a bonus, they held up and he doubled through.

Felicia :)

Ted Forrest Bits & Pieces

In my clouded, illness mind of pre-Commerce, I forgot to bring my notebook to record details of interest. Therefore, I have no notes to share with you, and make into long, interesting (I hope) stories.

There were lots of neat things that happened, though, and some of them didn't even need recording, because they are things I'll never forget.

One of the funniest, long stories I can share happened with Ted Forrest.

On our way to Commerce, Glenn and I were talking and making fake, little wagers about things we were assuming would or would not happen at Commerce. I made mention that Ted would most likely not show up until the final event, if that. I reasoned that he didn't come to the small Stud events last year at the California State, so why would he show up this year, when he has a 4/8k mixed game at Bellagio, right at home? I said that given his past record of smaller buy-in tourneys (who would have thought 10 years ago we'd be calling $500-2500 events "small buy-in's?") he most likely would skip the first few weeks.

So the next day I'm sitting at my tourney table with about two minutes before kick-off, when who walks into the room and starts waving at me from the registration desk? Yeah, you guessed it, Ted, lol. So much for that wager...one of the hundreds I lost at Commerce!

After we both busted out, I saw Ted downstairs again playing 400/800 Razz. It might have been 300/600, but I think that first day was 4/8. Anyway, we started talking like we'd been talking every day since last year at the WSOP. That's Ted. He doesn't give out info about himself, and keeps his private life private, as well as his poker life, but he is very friendly and makes a person feel special each time he speaks with them. Over the next week, I spoke with Ted as much as I could, and still have the same impression of him being a wonderful guy I'd like to get to know.

Now, I can skip over most of our conversations, but one of them was too hilarious not to write about.

A couple of days after the first Stud 8 tourney, I saw Ted downstairs again. He gave me a big thumb's up and waved me over. I went to his table to find him playing 300/600 Razz.

He congratulated me on the Stud 8 victory, to which I sadly had to correct him that I hadn't won. Another woman won the event, but she sure wasn't me. The mix-up came when Ted heard someone say a woman had won the event, and he asked the guy, "Was it Felicia?" to which the guy responded affirmatively. Obviously there was some mix-up, lol.

Anyway, we started talking again and he was telling me about the Razz game. I don't have the bankroll to play in that game, nor would I even if I did, because I'd surely be dead money. Although I love Razz, I think it may be a few years before I can compete in Ted's game ;)

So Ted then proceeds to say, "Felicia, you could play in this game, seriously. I guarantee that you would be one of the top three players at this level, if you were to play this high!"

I started cracking up, waved my hand over the table and said, "Um, of course I'd be one of the top three players in this game, Ted, YOU ARE PLAYING HEAD'S UP!"

Ted turned five shades of purple and started protesting that it wasn't what he meant. I know what Ted meant, but it was so hilarious that I there was no way I couldn't take advantage of his unintentional joke. He kept saying over and over again that he meant if it was a full table, not just at the Commerce, but in a full game anywhere, etc.

The whole thing was so funny, and I love being the butt of accidental jokes like that, that I told everyone I knew at Commerce, repeating it as often as I could, because I thought it was the funniest thing that had happened to me in a year.

Thanks for cheering me up, Ted, and for always being there as an encouragement to me!

Felicia :)

(PS: more Ted stuff to come)

Interesting Comments

While I was at Commerce, several of the players I've gotten to know questioned why I made my journal private and took this one virtually off the air.

I told them the story about the hate mail, the violent threats I'd gotten over some of my most candid posts.

While everyone was sympathetic and understanding, one thing that was said time and again was that I cannot take even violent threats over the Internet as seriously as I would take a face-to-face threat.

They begged me to put my journal back out for public consumption, saying my writing was too good to be private. Although I have never believed that I was a good writer (I see my writing as juvenile), I'm glad that so many others have been snowed into thinking I know what I'm doing, lol.

One thing that kept cropping up in discussions at Commerce was putting my journal back up for the general public. In separate conversations with totally different people. So many requests are hard to ignore.

I think that the general consensus among the top tourney players, something unsaid yet obvious if I read between the lines, is "Felicia, you can't play poker at this level, but you sure are an interesting writer, so stick to what you are good at!"

LOL, ow, but I get the message, so here I am.

PS: If I get killed and buried in a shallow grave in the Mojave, you have no one to blame but yourself, hahaha.

Commerce Results

1/26/05 Wednesday: -160 STT's

(Glenn +500 STT's)

1/26/05 Thursday: -500 Stud Tournament

1/27/05 Friday: -400 MTT Sat
-500 O8 Tourney

(Glenn +500 STT's)

1/27/05 Saturday: +12 NLHE cash game

1/28/05 Sunday: -500 Stud 8 Tourney
+250 Stud/Stud 8 20/40 cash game

2/2/05 Wednesday +450 Stud 8 cash game

2/3/05 Thursday -75 Stud 8 cash game

2/4/05 Friday +400 Stud 8 cash game

2/5/05 Saturday -800 Stud 8 cash game

2/6/05 Sunday -150 Stud 8 STT

Totals:
-390 satellites
-1500 tournaments
+237 cash games
-700 backing

Trip:
-2353 (doesn't include expenses)

Updates

Updated Links

Paradise 5-Card Stud +20
UB O8 +5