Subject: ESCARGOT LHE Tournament Trip Report-Part I From: wcpp@mail.anonymizer.com (World Class Poker Player) Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Reply-To: wcpp@mail.anonymizer.com Date: Tue, Feb 12, 2002 3:47 PM Message-ID: <3c698fc3.456890303@mammoth.usenet-access.com> I sit down in my seat (table 4, seat 1) with $1000 in chips. Beth is ADV is in seat 3, a nerdy looking math professor from SDSU is in seat 2, Patrick Mulligan (sp.?) is in seat 5, a wierd looking white guy with an ADB hat is seated in seat 6, and Ploink (I know it's him because he has a rock with "ploink" painted on it in front of him--BTW this guy takes his nickname waaaaay too seriously!). Han, the least nerdy looking person at the table is sitting in seat 4. The first thing that pops into my mind is that I am going to have to make some serious adjustments to my play. I ponder my early stage tournament strategy. After a couple of rounds, I size up the players. 1) The nerdy math professor (actually everyone at the table is super extra mega nerdy), the big guy in seat 5 (Patrick Mulligan), and Han (the only normal looking guy at the table) are both playing weak tight trying to conserve their chips and slink into the middle stages of the tournament. 2) Beth is playing her regular ring game without any adjustments for tournament play. 2) Ploink and the white guy with the ADB hat obviously know each other and are wannabe professional poker players--aka FPS syndrome. They are making way too many moves trying to impress each other and the rest of the table. Nobody at the table looks like a real player (defintion- a player capable of beating L.A. brown chip poker for 1BB per hour). I decide my early stage strategy is going to be to attack. I proceed to happily pound away on the blinds and on Ploink and the wierd white guy in seat 6. When the nerdy math professor, Han, or Patrick are in blinds or limp in, I raise pre-flop with alkmost anything. They constently fold as I steal with 92o and J7s). A couple of times they actually flop something. When they bet or check-raise on the flop I fold. When the nerdy math professor, Han, or Patrick come out betting I fold everything. I also decide to steal some chips from the white ADB hat guy and Ploink. When they raise pre-flop, I 3-bet with a junk hands like Ax suited, KJ offsuit, J10, etc. Any two cards above 9 are worth a re-raise if ADB white hat guy and Ploink have raised. I follow up my pre-flop 3-bet with a check raise/raise/3-bet on the flop if I have a draw or any pair. They cooperatively fold several times on the flop, turn, and river while passing glances at each other. They obviously have caught on to what I am doing but are not willing to calling me to the river with a big Ace or two face cards, and are waiting for a real hand to run me down. Ploink makes a comment to the table and white ADB hat guy that everyone keeps folding and I haven't been called down yet. Translation--why doesn't someone else squander his chips to see if I actually have something when I am betting and raising. I take this as a sort of tacit attempt at collusion and mark Ploink as a bully/chicken. My chip stack grows ($2000+$50 at $75-$150 limits?) and I am carded to another table. The other table immediately goes short and I am carded right back to my orginal table except in seat 9 (there are 4 tables left). A young white gut (Matt?) is in seat 1 and a nice middle aged woman in is seat 4. From her comments, the nice middle aged woman seems to have big crush on Lou Krieger. The nice middle aged woman, besides having a crush on Lou Kreiger, also either has terrible taste in clothing or is very polite. How do I know this? Ploink is wearing a truly hideous embroidered shirt featuring a royal flush in foot high cards across his chest. The nice middle aged woman complements him on his shirt! She either has very bad taste, is very polite, or, maybe, she has the hots for Ploink????? Stranger things have happened! As I retake my seat, the white ADB hat guy and Ploink make a comment about how it would have been better if I had been moved to any table but theirs. Ploink and white ADB hat guy are pounding away on Beth and the woman in seat 4. Ploink takes a beat, loses a big chunk of chips, goes short. I play conservatively trying to make it to the final table. I have a medium stack and should be able to outlast the short stacks without taking any risks but..... ADB is short stacked in the cutoff seat (or one to the right of the cutoff) and raises pre-flop. He has one BB in chips left. I have been observing him and guessed that he was waiting for any decent hand to commit his limited chips. I 3-bet with A9 (A8) figuring I'm the pre-flop favorite. Beth, all of sudden, goes into a long thinking session. She is also short stack and survived an all-in several hands before. She thinks and thinks while I ponder what she might have--AA, KK, QQ, and JJ are out of the question. She must have a middle pocket pair or a big Ace. Either way I am screwed if she calls. After a long thing, she does call. Shit. The cards are turned over. Ploink has A5 against my A9-my read was correct and I am the big favorite. Unfortuneatly Beth has AK (AQ?) and Ploink and I are both screwed. The dealer flops, turns and rviers. I suck out picking up an ace high flush on the river--knocking out both Ploink and Beth. The table breaks shortly therafter, leaving two tables. I have about $3200 in chips and good shot at winning the tournament. More to come..... Subject: ESCARGOT LHE Trip Report-part 2 From: wcpp@mail.anonymizer.com (World Class Poker Player) Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Mon, Feb 18, 2002 9:50 PM Message-ID: <3c71e0dc.46258195@mammoth.usenet-access.com> After knocking out Beth ADV and Ploink, my table breaks and I am moved to table 1, seat 8. The nerdy math professor is in seat 1. A young Asian boy (Nolan Hee) is in seat 4 with a big stack of chips. A happy white girl is in seat 5. She is giggling at almost anything. A woman who looks like a catholic school teacher (Mary something) is in seat 9. There are only two tables left, both short handed. A quick look at the other table shows no short stacks. Right away, I realize there is going to be trouble. The young Asian boy with the big stack gives every indication that he knows how to play. He is calling almost all pre-flop raises and check/calling or raising to the river. He obviously understands that his chips, given he has so many, are not very valuable and is wielding his big stack effectively and confidently. A couple of hands later, I see more trouble. The nerdy math professor has suddenly come alive. Either he is getting a good run of quality starting cards or he realizes that, with everybody trying to make the final table (only the final table is getting paid), now is a good time to try to steal some chips. Watching a couple of hands come down, I conclude the nerdy math professor is not getting a big rush of quality hands but is trying to take advantage of the conservative play of the short and medium stacks trying to get to the final table. In my mind, I mentally move the nerdy math professor's playing ability up a notch. He is not just a weak tight rock but actually understands tournament play. The catholic school teacher is playing weak tight. She is on my right but with the nerdy math professor and the young Asian boy behind her, she is not going to be of much use. This situation becomes even more problematic when both remaining tables go short but noone is really short-stacked on the verge of being blinded off. It looks like I am going to have to play short-handed for quite awhile. Skill is not going to be enough. I am going to have to get lucky.There really isn't anything I can do but pray for some good starting hands that hold up. I get A10s on the button. It is checked to me and I raise. The catholic school teaher folds and the nerdy math professor calls. On the flop I have no pair and a single spade. It is checked to me, I bet and get check raised. I call. A blank comes on the river, the nerdy math professor bets out and I fold. I am left with about $1000 in chips when the table breaks and I get carded to seat 1 of the final table. The limits are $300-$600 so there isn't much I can do except pray for cards. Praying for cards is a pretty lame excuse for a strategy, but that is the nature of tournament play. Right away I am dealt pocket 8's UTG. It is time to take my shot. I raise. It is folded around to the big blind who 3-bets. I throw in the rest of my chips. He calls and turns over QQ. There is no miracle suck out. QQ holds up and I am knocked out. I place 9th for $50. Subject: Re: ESCARGOT LHE Tournament Trip Report-Part I From: eaeven@aol.comhatespam (ADV Beth) Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Tue, Feb 12, 2002 5:20 PM Message-ID: <20020212202050.27127.00000808@mb-mh.aol.com> >Subject: ESCARGOT LHE Tournament Trip Report-Part I >From: wcpp@mail.anonymizer.com (World Class Poker Player) >Date: 2/12/02 3:47 PM Pacific Standard Time >Message-id: <3c698fc3.456890303@mammoth.usenet-access.com> > >I sit down in my seat (table 4, seat 1) with $1000 in chips. Aha! Hello Kenneth... >Beth is ADV is in seat 3, a nerdy looking math professor from SDSU is >in seat 2 Steve Pierce, who won this same tournament at the first ESCARGOT >Patrick Mulligan (sp.?) is in seat 5 Actually, "Milligan" >a wierd looking white guy with an ADB hat is seated in seat 6 That's Foldem, although I've never thought of him as weird-looking...but then, you're Buddha-resembling Asian (which some Americans might characterize as "weird") so you just might think that most white guys look weird or nerdy. After all, ESCARGOT tournaments were predominantly white and male, which is highly unusual for the California poker scene. >and Ploink (I know it's him because he has a rock with "ploink" painted on it in front of >him--BTW this guy takes his nickname waaaaay too seriously!). Eh, I think that he only uses the nick around RGP events. To be honest, if anyone refers to Ploink by his given name, I have a blank look because I have no idea about whom they're talking! Many of us have names/paraphenalia (shirts, card protectors, "fishies") regarding RGP jokes which we (at least, I) only bring out for RGP events. We show a certain side of ourselves which we may not share either in our non-poker lives or when we play poker otherwise. Those in the community "get" the joke. Since this was your first *ARG event, and it seems to me that you have chosen to keep yourself separate from the community (by both the "anonymous" WCCP nick and appearing only at the ESCARGOT tourneys but not interacting at other times), you obviously didn't "get" the joke. >Han, the least nerdy looking person at the table is sitting in seat 4. LOL -- this must be Dieter, who was also wearing his ADB shirt, but you must not have noticed. If you thought that he was the least nerdy-looking person, then it simply must be due to his being German! (BTW, although I have never thought of myself as hip, I never thought that I looked nerdy...hmmm...maybe I should have worn the toga instead of my "Yes, Beer" T-shirt from BARGE XI...) >2) Beth is playing her regular ring game without any adjustments for >tournament play. Hmmm...and how did you do in the ROE tournament?!? ;-) In this LHE tournament, it may be so, although it is hard to me to say...frankly, I got so little cards. I tried to steal the blinds in the first hand of the game when all folded to me on the button, but K4o no g00t against big blind Patrick's AA! I got 83o and 92o so many times...I just couldn't get much with which to steal. And since this was a full game and the beginning of the tournament, my general tournament strategy is to play fairly tight. But then, I don't have much RL tournament experience, just online tournaments. Still, I don't know if it was a lack of adjustment to tournament play as much as I didn't adjust enough to these players -- who do not play like the average online tournament player, let alone the average Bay101 ring player! So when I three-bet before the flop with my TT and Ploink then caps...I didn't stop to think enough about what he must be holding in his hand and thought that I could still be good after a king appears on the flop (it's obvious to me *now* that Ploink would not have AQ or smaller pair like many of my typical opponents.) Of course, Kenneth, you didn't see the hands which I didn't show...like the ATo which I raised UTG to take down the pot...I wouldn't do that in my regular ring game (or, at least, I don't think that I would...) >2) Ploink and the white guy with the ADB hat obviously know each other >and are wannabe professional poker players--aka FPS syndrome. They are >making way too many moves trying to impress each other and the rest of >the table. I didn't notice myself...so I guess the moves went over my head...or maybe I'm just used to that style of play and didn't think anything of it. >Ploink makes a comment to the table and white ADB hat guy that >everyone keeps folding and I haven't been called down yet. I was well aware that you were stealing from the beginning; but you had position on me and I was getting such garbage most of the time that I couldn't bring myself to play back. >From her comments, the nice middle aged woman seems to have big crush on Lou Krieger. >The nice middle aged woman, besides having a crush on Lou Kreiger, >also either has terrible taste in clothing or is very polite. How do I >know this? Ploink is wearing a truly hideous embroidered shirt >featuring a royal flush in foot high cards across his chest. Actually, I must have terrible taste then as well, because I liked the shirt too. Remember, most of us are wearing stuff just for ESCARGOT as a RGP event. Ploink always wears (and collects) poker-related shirts. Also, Debbie (Parks) does not have a crush on Lou...we were having fun sharing stories about him in the corner because both of us have been friends with Lou (away from the poker room) for years. I hope that it won't hurt or bother Lou for this to be revealed here, but Debbie doesn't even find him attractive. It is particularly based on these observations that I realize that I'll have to take your other observations with a large grain of salt! :-) >ADB is short stacked in the cutoff seat (or one to the right of the >cutoff) and raises pre-flop. He has one BB in chips left. I have been >observing him and guessed that he was waiting for any decent hand to >commit his limited chips. I 3-bet with A9 (A8) figuring I'm the >pre-flop favorite. Actually it was ADB Ploink (not ADB Foldem, to whom you've been referring as simply "ADB"); and, as I recall, you had A6o. It was not much larger than the A5o which Ploink held. >Beth, all of sudden, goes into a long thinking session. She is also >short stack and survived an all-in several hands before. She thinks >and thinks while I ponder what she might have--AA, KK, QQ, and JJ are >out of the question. She must have a middle pocket pair or a big Ace. >Either way I am screwed if she calls. I was trying to decide if I should just step aside and let you take Ploink out...evaluating based on the stage in the tournament. I realized that the tournament wasn't yet at the point where I would gain by allowing others to bust out before me; also, I was a little nervous that one of you might have a pocket pair (of any size) which could hold up. >The cards are turned over. Ploink has A5 against my A9-my read was >correct and I am the big favorite. Unfortuneatly Beth has AK (AQ?) and >Ploink and I are both screwed. AK >The dealer flops, turns and rviers. I suck out picking up an ace high flush on the >river--knocking out both Ploink and Beth. Yep, runner-runner diamonds for a four-flusher. {sigh} I was 17th, and the tournament broke down to two tables after that hand. I played ok, but never felt that I got into a groove or played particularly well. I often had hands with which I would have raised...but then someone would raise in front of me and they weren't hands with which I would cold-call two bets or make it three bets. I really felt my lack of live tournament experience here. BTW, that young white guy, Matt? He cashed in the TOC last year. It would have been interesting to hear of your experience if you had been at a table with Matt, Scott Byron (who played in the other ESCARGOT tourneys), Bill Chen and JP Masser. Our table consisted much more of the recreational players (with the exception of Foldem and myself, who prop full-time in the Bay area.) I still may like you anyway...I haven't decided yet! ;-) ADV Beth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: ESCARGOT LHE Tournament Trip Report-Part I From: adbploink@hotmail.com (ADB Ploink) Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Wed, Feb 13, 2002 11:42 AM Message-ID: wcpp@mail.anonymizer.com (World Class Poker Player) wrote in message news:<3c698fc3.456890303@mammoth.usenet-access.com>... > I sit down in my seat (table 4, seat 1) with $1000 in chips. > > Beth is ADV is in seat 3, a nerdy looking math professor from SDSU is > in seat 2, Patrick Mulligan (sp.?) is in seat 5, a wierd looking white > guy with an ADB hat is seated in seat 6, and Ploink (I know it's him > because he has a rock with "ploink" painted on it in front of him--BTW > this guy takes his nickname waaaaay too seriously!). Han, the least > nerdy looking person at the table is sitting in seat 4. > The one thing I don't do is take myself seriously. Obviously you don't get that. > 2) Ploink and the white guy with the ADB hat obviously know each other > and are wannabe professional poker players--aka FPS syndrome. They are > making way too many moves trying to impress each other and the rest of > the table. > I could care less if I impress anyone. So far your reads are dead on. No wonder you're a "World Class Poker Player." > I follow up my pre-flop 3-bet with a check raise/raise/3-bet on the > flop if I have a draw or any pair. They cooperatively fold several > times on the flop, turn, and river while passing glances at each > other. They obviously have caught on to what I am doing but are not > willing to calling me to the river with a big Ace or two face cards, > and are waiting for a real hand to run me down. > Gee, I wish I remember those glances that Foldem and I are supposed to have shared. Perhaps you only *thought* they were about you. More likely they were thoughts like, "dammit, when is that cocktail waitress gonna get back here!" > Ploink makes a comment to the table and white ADB hat guy that > everyone keeps folding and I haven't been called down yet. > Translation--why doesn't someone else squander his chips to see if I > actually have something when I am betting and raising. I take this as > a sort of tacit attempt at collusion and mark Ploink as a > bully/chicken. > Now *this* is a funny statement! I sure wish I was that good to imply and/or elicit collusion with such a comment. Like all RGP events, nothing is really taken too seriously. At the final table of this same event, both Jerrod A. and myself were kibitzing, laughing and making comments. I talk all the time during my RGP events, it's part of my "having fun". It is true I knew you were stealing, does the thought cross your mind that perhaps I was stealing at times myself? > The nice middle aged woman, besides having a crush on Lou Kreiger, > also either has terrible taste in clothing or is very polite. How do I > know this? Ploink is wearing a truly hideous embroidered shirt > featuring a royal flush in foot high cards across his chest. The nice > middle aged woman complements him on his shirt! She either has very > bad taste, is very polite, or, maybe, she has the hots for Ploink????? > Stranger things have happened! > Hmm, the people at work sure seem to like my poker shirts. Oh wait, I forgot, you still don't get it. Not even that observant either, as it wasn't a royal flush on my shirt, just AKQ. > As I retake my seat, the white ADB hat guy and Ploink make a comment > about how it would have been better if I had been moved to any table > but theirs. > Again, this statement was made jokingly. You seem to take yourself far too seriously. But then, you are "World Class" > ADB is short stacked in the cutoff seat (or one to the right of the > cutoff) and raises pre-flop. He has one BB in chips left. I have been > observing him and guessed that he was waiting for any decent hand to > commit his limited chips. I 3-bet with A9 (A8) figuring I'm the > pre-flop favorite. Actually that was me again. Although I am an ADB as well so technically you are correct (just not consistent with the rest of your post). Yup, must be World Class to make that read. Actually I went all-in with my hand for T400 with blinds at T100-T200. I would expect anyone at the table to 3-bet with any reasonable hand. But what do I know. > > I suck out picking up an ace high flush on the river--knocking out > both Ploink and Beth. > > The table breaks shortly therafter, leaving two tables. I have about > $3200 in chips and good shot at winning the tournament. > > More to come..... I can't wait! Oh darn, now that I'm out of the tournament, I guess there won't be any more mentions of me. Oh well. Ken, it really sounds like you just didn't get what the group is all about. Which is OK, not all people do, even some RGPers. Life is too short. I don't play poker for a living. I don't consider myself a "World Class" player. I'm probably not even a recreational player any more. I have a "real job" and when I play poker, I play to have fun first, make money second. This is why I no longer play ring games at the local clubs. There is no point in driving 45-60 minutes on the freeway only to watch people throw cards, curse, etc. Yet I have (and will again) flown across the country to attend an RGP event. They are that enjoyable to me. I would encourage you to attend more RGP events and find out what they are really about. For me, the events are about having fun, meeting up with old friends, making new friends, talking about poker and playing poker. Oh yeah, and sometimes even talking about non-poker things (such as the birth of Jester's baby. Wait, since he's a future WSOP champion, that's probably about poker too). For you, the event seemed to be (from your post) about something different. Whatever, to each his own, etc. etc. -ADB Ploink