Party Poker Million VI Blog

So I’m on the Party Poker Million cruise. The tournament hasn’t started yet, so I don’t really have anything to say. I mean… it’s cute and all that you came to this site hoping to find something to read… but I’ve got nothing for you.

Right now we’re at port in Bari, Italy (wherever the hell that is). The tournament starts shortly after we leave port. I’m pretty happy about the structure, I think it’s going to be sick. To characterize it, there’s a 250/500 level between 200/400 and 300/600. That’s pretty hot.

What’s not hot is that I think the field might wind up being better than I figured it would be. I sorta pictured a bunch of fish from Party Poker (“oooooooooh! Party Pokah!!”), but it seems that most of the people here are younger guys who one might assume have a reasonable set of poker skills. The good news, at least, is that there aren’t many “pros” here. In fact, there aren’t really any at all. I heard someone say that J.J. Liu and Dan Alspaugh are the two biggest “pros” on board. Supposedly, Michael “timex” McDonald was supposed to play, but I haven’t seen him, and I probably would have by now if he’s on board. Maybe he’ll roll in big pimpin’ style on a helicopter fifteen minutes before the tournament starts with a harem of fine bitches. God that’d be so pimp. Seriously… if that kid charters a helicopter to take him to this boat just for the tournament, that’ll pretty much be the most ballin’ thing I’ve ever seen. And that’s saying something, too. One time I saw some Indian guys at Bollywood (a Houston-area club that serves as India’s answer to strip clubs) throwing money handful after handful at belly dancers. But those guys might have been props to try to get us drunk, jackass white boys to do the same. I think it almost worked on Michael. Also, the bills were just ones, so it really wasn’t that balla at all.

Told ya’ I had nothing.

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Day One Recap

Today was day one of the Party Poker Million. I bagged up 7,775 chips (started with 10k, blinds are 150/300/25 tomorrow). I’m pretty disappointed with how things turned out today. My table was pretty weak. The best players at the table were just “not bad”. The worst were fairly awful. It was kind of painful watching these nitty old guys bag up 15-25k.

There weren’t too many interesting hands, but I’ll mention one. Basically, I had between 12-14k almost the entire day. With ten minutes left in the last level, I raised to 550 with Queen-Jack offsuit in middle position. One of the nitty old guys called in the cutoff. A younger German guy shoved 3.5k total from the small blind. This would have been a pretty easy fold against almost anyone at the table except him.

A little background: He busted a shortstack a few hands before by re-raising and calling an all-in with King-Four. I mean, he was pot committed to call the all-in, but three betting was pretty reckless. The shorty was pretty tight. There’s not much he was raise-folding with. So after that hand, I noted that the German guy, while generally competent, also had some spew tendencies.

Given that a.) it was a squeeze play which younger balla’ (or wannabe ballas) like to do a lot, b.) the old guy didn’t re-raise me (which he absolutely would have done if he had something strong enough to shove after I call the German’s shove), and c.) I only needed around 37% equity against the German’s range for it to be a good call, I went ahead and called. His hand was disgusting for me: King-Queen.

So basically I get to go to bed on tilt for turning a totally decent stack into a totally mediocre stack at the very end of the night after playing all day. Oh well… I’m anything but desperate.

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Day Two Update (Dinner Break)

We’ve played four levels so far today. I managed to squeak up to 13,000 (without ever being all-in) despite being at the toughest table I’ve probably ever played at. To give you an idea of how tough it is, four of us are direct buy-ins (Mike “timex” McDonald, Tony “Bond18” Dunst, this German guy who plays HSNL online and said he lived with yellow sub (amongst others) during the WSOP in Vegas last year, and myself). Before the tournament started, I asked how many of the 171 entrants bought in directly. I was told there were a total of 12. Now, four of us are at the same table with just 55 players left.

Well, it’s 400/800/50 after dinner. We’ll see how it goes. I intended to write about this interesting hand that timex was involved in, but that will have to wait. Dinner calls.

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Day Two Recap

I made it to day three with a stack of 41,100. The first level tomorrow is 800/1600/200. There are 34 players left, 24 pay. So far I’ve been all-in once in this tournament, that was with Ace-Nine against pocket threes for a 24k pot during 500/1000. Aside from that, I’ve just been building chips without any showdowns. This will probably be a fairly long entry because I think there are a couple of interesting things to talk about. I’d recommend skipping the rest of this entry unless you care to read meticulous details from two hands I want to write about: the timex hand I mentioned earlier and a hand in which I did something I virtually never do.

Timex Hand

I can’t promise to get each and every exact detail of this hand correct. It happened like six hours ago, and my memory might be a little foggy. Hopefully I can get the main point across.

Timex raises under the gun (during 250/500/50) to 1,400. He had about 30k chips to start the hand. An extremely tight player immediately after him called the raise. This player started with about 20k. An aggressive German guy in the big blind also called.

The flop was Queen-Jack-Five rainbow. Timex checked, the super tight player bet 3k, and the German guy called in the blind. Observing this action, I put the tight player on a very strong hand. Ace-Queen at the absolute weakest. The German guy could have had something like King-Queen or perhaps a straight draw.

When the action was on Timex, he raised fairly substantially. I think his raise was to 10,500. The tight player almost immediately shoved all-in. The German folded. Timex called (he had to) and turned over Ace-King. I was very surprised that he thought he could buy this pot. The tight player had pocket Jacks and dodged a ten.

I’m not sure what his thought process was there. Clearly he had to think he had a significant amount of folding equity in order to justify making that play. But I don’t know how he could have thought he had much folding equity. Like I said, I think the worst hand the tight player has there is Ace-Queen. So basically, Timex is having to hope a.) that’s exactly what he has and b.) he’s capable enough to realize that Timex is representing an overpair and fold.

I don’t think I’m crossing any lines in saying that he played that hand bad. Mike’s clearly a sick poker player and I’m guessing he probably agreed that he could have played it better. Anyway… I thought that ws an interesting hand.

Side note about Timex and Bond18, both of whom I played with almost all day: very, very cool guys. They were enjoyable to be around. I honestly enjoyed being at that table even though it was brutal to my expectation. Timex, in particular, displays an admirable disparity between the degree to which he could justifiably act as if he is "better than everyone" or choose to be totally down to earth. For an 18 year old, he is exceedingly humble amidst every right not to be. It's hard not to root for him, [so I was genuinely disappointed for him when he approached me on the morning of Day Three to share with me the details of his bustout hand from the last level of the previous night (note: he had recovered from the aforementioned hand to amass a stack that had me thinking, "shit... this kid's actually going to win another one.")]

Fold I Never Make

During 500/1000, I had around 22k chips. An aggressive German player who had been opening a ton raised to 3000 in early position. Another guy who had recently been moved to the table (but generally seemed aggressive) called his raise from the cutoff. I looked down at King-Queen suited and new I had to squeeze here. I raised to 8,500 total which I hoped would look strong enough to get them to fold. The German didn’t waste much time to say, “all-in” (he started the hand with somewhere around 55k). When he said that, I knew I had to snap call when the action got to me. Then, much to my surprise, the other player said “call”.

I was like “holy shit… do I actually fold here?!?!” I mean… I can’t think of a single instance where I’ve put in 35% of my chips preflop only to fold. I shrugged and said, “I guess I’ll live to play another hand,” and folded face-up. I was pretty pumped when I saw their hands: Kings and Queens. Of course, the one outter queen came on the river to give the German guy a swelteringly large stack.

Anyway, that hand was clearly uncharted territory. I asked Timex what he thought about the play, and the impression I got from his answer was something like: “well it sucks pretty hard to put in a third of your stack and fold, but I think you played it correctly.” At the very least, that made me feel good.

What made me feel even better was rallying back from that to end the day at 41,100.

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Port Update: Izmir, Turkey

I suppose it’s pretty common in life to under expect or over expect things. But usually the target will miss its expectation by a somewhat marginal degree. Like, maybe something you’re dreading turns out to be mostly bearable or something you’re really excited for turns out to be “just okay”. However, it’s kind of rare to have a scenario where expectation and reality are on entirely different ends of the spectrum. Today, Izmir, Turkey was just such a scenario.

Michael and I woke up around 9:00 am right about the time the ship was docking in Izmir. This cruise is making stops in Italy, Greece, Croatia, and Turkey. Of all these countries, I entirely expected Turkey to be the “most interesting”, but not for any particularly positive reasons. My expectation for this Turkish port was something of an uber-religious culture where the people are generally in a “take first, give second (if at all)” type of mentality. I mean, I guess my expectations for Turkey probably weren’t that much different than what I would expect out of, say, Saudi Arabia: generally kind of a backwards culture where you never feel quite comfortable or safe until you get the hell out of there.

I turned out to be entirely wrong.

Izmir, Turkey wasn’t just “okay”, it was absolutely fantastic! Like, aesthetically, I think I probably enjoyed Copenhagen more, but that city aside, there’s not one place on this side of the globe I have been to that I enjoyed more thoroughly. Granted, my image of Izmir might benefit from the fact that we were only here for four hours, but I’m confident that was long enough to get a pretty good grasp on things. The country is absolutely gorgeous, the women are gorgeous, the people were hospitable, friendly, quick to smile, and the goods were cheap! When Americans go to Europe, they usually cringe at the increase in day to day expenses. Turkey was the exact opposite. As one shop owner managed to convey in broken English “to you, one Euro is nothing, to me, it is a fortune!”
I bought more clothes in this city in four hours than I buy in America in four months.

After today, I am a huge fan of the country of Turkey. I mean, I didn’t see this coming whatsoever. What a pleasant surprise. I hope our time in Istanbul tomorrow doesn’t reverse this bullishness. Assuming it doesn’t, I’ll probably sprinkle a little money in a Turkish ETF when I get home, if for no other reason than to show support for truly underrated nation.

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Day Three Update (Dinner Break)

We’ve played two levels so far today. They’ve been good to me: we’re in the money and I’ve chipped up to 66k with little resistance. There are 23 players left with blinds of 1,200/2,400/400 (note the huge ante!) The money bubble turned out to be entirely painless because a.) I was fortunate enough to hit the ground running which meant my stack was never precariously thin and b.) players busted out faster than I thought they would. Before today began, Tony “Bond18” Dunst surmised that it would take 2.5-3 levels before we were in the money. It wound up only taking 1.5. Unfortunately for Tony, I believe he was among those who helped expedite the bubble process. Another player who fits that description was a man named Ralph from California. The two of us came into the day as the only remaining Americans. (Note: I realize Tony Dunst is American, but he was billed as representing Australia in this tournament which is where he now calls home).

I sense (perhaps incorrectly) that much of the staff is sort of pulling for me. While all remaining contestants aside from myself are European, the staff is composed almost entirely of Americans. Not the least of these is Matt Savage who deserves the utmost compliments for his capacity as a tournament director. This is undoubtedly the most well-ran live tournament in which I have participated. In a sense, this should be expected. As Tony Dunst pointed out yesterday, they have the benefit of a.) a small field and b.) working a light schedule since a tournament that might otherwise take three days has been stretched into five to accommodate the port schedule.

I have a less than ideal table draw right now. To my immediate left is a middle-aged Swedish guy whose presence as a relatively unspectacular poker player is made up for by a chip stack capable of funding fearlessness. Two to my left is Johannes Strassman. I have mentioned him several times in this blog, he was the player who spiked the one outter Queen in the “Fold I Never Make”. He is the tournament chip leader and is very, very aggressive. On the very first hand of this table draw, he raised to 3x under the gun and had to call a small all-in. His hand? Seven-Five suited. To characterize how things are going for him: he handily won a race versus pocket twos.

It’s really not too bad having these players to my left with just 25 big blinds. If I possessed a bigger stack, it would kind of suffocate me into playing tighter than I would otherwise care to. But my current stack is small enough that I’m going to be playing tight anyway. Plus, my reputation in their minds seems solid enough that they won’t play back at me light.

Today will finish after four more levels or when eight players remain. My chances of reaching this checkpoint are uncertain enough that of all readers, I’m probably the one most excited to learn of what the next entry contains. ;)

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Day Three Recap

I want to preface by saying that I am exhausted beyond belief, so there’s a good chance this entry will lack grace.

Well I survived day three and made it to the final table. I have 90,000 chips with the next blind level set at 3,000/6,000/1,000. While I don’t have a particularly large stack, fifteen big blinds is certainly familiar territory. I mean… I haven’t had more than 25 big blinds since the early levels of day one. One player has 44,000. I’m second to last. From there, someone has 123,000. Beyond that, everyone has at least 150,000. Payouts go something like: 9th - 21k, 8th - 40k, 5th - 92k, 1st-353k.

I wish I could say that I was never all-in since I made the last entry. That’s true with the exception of one hand. I don’t even remember what level or how big my stack was, but basically it folded to my small blind where I had 12 big blinds and looked down at Queen-Five. I’m not entirely polished on the mathematical ins-and-outs of this hand, but I figured at the absolute worst, a shove was just marginally bad. It’s worth noting that the ante was like enormous. Whatever… that’s enough defending a shove that’s probably totally standard. Anyway, the big blind (the Swiss guy with quite a few chips who played pretty well all day) called with Ace-Eight. I mean… I’m like… what?… at worst like a 38% dog there? The fact that I won the hand was particularly thrilling since the board came: Nine-Nine-Ten…. Four…. FIVE!!!!!!! A rough calculation of my equity on the spot said that river card was worth about $65,000 to me. Ship it!

We played two tables of five handed for literally close to three hours. I mean, it was awful. The Swede and German to my left were super aggressive. Still, I managed to increase my stack (admittedly not by much at all) over the course of our five-handed play without showing a single hand. Like… that‘s not an exaggeration: three hours of five handed play and I managed not to show one single card the entire time. It was a particularly brutal stretch of being cold decked. I feel there’s one hand worth mentioning from this stretch:

During 2,500/5,000, it folded to the button who raised to 15,000. I had 75k in the small blind and Ace-Jack suited. The standard play here would be to shove, but there were two things that made me think otherwise: a.) this player folded to such re-raises constantly… (for example: he laid down Ace-Queen face-up in two separate instances after raise-folding from the button in a scenario where I would have snap called in his spot) and b.) I figured he was bad enough to be oblivious of stack sizes such that I could re-raise, get him to call instead of fold or shove, and then get him to fold when I shove the flop. I mean… I know that all sounds pretty extravagant… but it turns out I knew what I was doing because it worked to absolute perfection. I re-raised him to 33,000. Right after he called he said to me, “do you have aces?” (read: he thought I was hella strong). I shoved the flop (which incidentally was Jack-Five-Four… but that hardly mattered) and he folded. I felt like a pimp after that play since I increased my stack by 40% without turning over a card.

The five handed play was notably frustrating since it lasted way longer than it should have. At the other table, short stacks survived Threes all-in against Nines (three on river), Ace-Queen all-in against King-Queen (after a tease of a Jack-Ten-x flop), and Queen-Nine all-in against Tens when the board ran a five-high straight.

Well I’ll close this update by saying that the final table actually isn‘t until Thursday. There’s no poker tomorrow. A part of me is happy about that since Istanbul will be easier to enjoy when there’s not a final table looming in the immediately future. But a larger part of me hates the thought of having to wait like 36 hours to play the final table. I guess I’ll just remind myself that WSOP Main Event final tablists will have to wait 2,808 hours.

This entry was needlessly long. Cliff Notes: I made the final table… SHIP IT! (FWIW: not accounting for skill whatsoever, just chips, I’m worth about $60,000 right now).