From: "Russell Fox" Subject: [ESCARGOT] ESCARGOT Trip Report 2003 (part 1 of 2) Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 08:44:56 -0800 When Lou Krieger asked me last year to take over as lead organizer of Escargot, he told me that it's pretty easy -- the Bike handles almost everything. Well, that's true to some extent but as Harry Baldwin will attest to, there is definitely some stress involved (Chuck, Zimmers, & Fold'em, I sympathize with you). Wed 1/29 Tuesday night I returned from a software implementation in Burbank (it took four days) and I was beat. Of course, I had to turn-around and head to Bell Gardens for the start of Escargot. There were two "all your buy-ins" satellites in the afternoon; Pete Mikulin won the first and Beth Even (I believe) won the second. I played only in the second satellite and finished 3rd. During the satellite I bought my entry into the "nooner night" evening low buy-in tourney (NLHE, $10+$5 with rebuys). I ended up spending $55, about par for the course. On my first hand I hold AKs, I raise to $55 (blinds of $10/$15), get re-raised all in. I flop top pair but lose to runner-runner flush (T7o). REBUY, table 9. After this low point my stack begins to grow. The field is fairly weak (about 1/10th Escargoters who were (in general) the stronger players), and I take advantage. With 20 minute levels and blinds that go up, up, and up, we're soon down to 4 tables. I'm moved to the table of death -- that is, Jerrod's table where Jerrod and Shauna Madrigal both have huge stacks. I get nothing at this table, and am very happy when I'm moved to Beth Even's table. I'm even happier when my first hand is AA **and** I get action in front of me. At least 4 Escargoters made the final table (myself, Jerrod, Shauna and Beth). I'm knocked out in 8th or 9th -- I forget which -- when I reraise all in with KhQh and lose to 99 (from my bb). This is an interesting hand that Jerrod & I discussed. We both think it's correct for me to take this action -- a decent stack size is needed to have a chance for the top and there's little difference between 9th & 5th. Another interesting note is that when I won the Barge NLHE, the first key hand that I had at the final table was 99 vs KhQh (99 won). Jerrod was among 4 involved in the deal. Thursday 1/30 Jerrod & I agreed to carpool Thursday and Friday -- it just doesn't make sense for both of us to drive the 35 miles when we live a mile from each other. We get to the Bike around 11 and sit in an awful 6/12 Omaha game (2-3 players seeing the flop). We both played the nooner Stud 8 tourney; I bust out in the middle and play 6/12 Omaha the rest of the afternoon. The first Escargot tourney was 1/2 PLHE - 1/2 PLO (high). I finished 15th, with 3 key hands determining my result. First, fairly early in PLHE, I'm down to roughly $800 from my starting $1000, and find A5o on the button. I raise the max ($175), am reraised by the bb (Jerrod) $400, and push in my last $250. Some history is necessary here. Over the past year, whenever Jerrod and I have faced off against each other, when I would hold xx, Jerrod would hold (x+1)(x+1). Jerrod knocked me out of SCATS last year with AA (vs. my KK); there have been many similar instances over time. My reraise is not particularly intelligent -- Jerrod figures to have my A5 beat (what can he be reraising with that **won't** beat my hand). He had JJ (and a 70% chance of winning the pot). Of course, JJ; that can't win, especially with an ace on the flop. Jerrod would have been much better off if I held TT.... The second big hand was when I held ATs in the BB. Adam Bachrach raises to $400, and I have a decision. I put him on a weak steal. Should I reraise the max (probably the best option), call (absolute worst), or fold? I called....His T7 ended up making 2 pair and my stack was really shrunk. I went out on a steal in PLO, with AT98 (ace suited with something) on the button; Beth Even made quad Queens. Oh well.... The only (to me) negative about the whole week was Thursday night: the Chinese New Year celebration. Neither Rick Cloward nor I looked at a calendar when we set the dates for Escargot; Thursday night was the Bike's Chinese New Year Celebration, complete with a ceremonial dragon and drummers; and drummers; and drummers; and drummers....We played in the Pavillion area of the Bike, which contains the Asian games; the drummers spent a lot of time in our area (necessitating an additional break). Oh well; if anyone knows the dates of the Chinese New Year for 2004 let me know! Friday 1/31 Jerrod and I arrived at the Bike around 11:30; Jerrod ended up in the nooner tourney (LHE-headhunter); I played Omaha all day. I dislike LHE tournies. I should mention that Peter Secor either won or chopped the nooner. While waiting for the 6/12 O8 game to start, I walk around and say hello to /david [Huberman]. David has a bad beat story, and it's a doozy. He picked up AA (in 3/6 HE), raised pre-flop, got a bunch of callers, and saw a flop of 55T. On the flop, it is bet and raised in front of him. The turn is a delightful A. David raises the bet, and 3 or 4 see the river of a T (board is 55T/A/T). After several (5?) rounds of betting, the other man in the pot calls, and says, "Show me a hand!" /david's AAATT loses to TTTT, but /david is consoled by the jackpot he won. Congrats! I'm not needed to fill SCATS (a satellite to TARGET); Gary Furness (creepshow) was the winner. We're in the ballroom as we play the Escargot LHE tourney. This was a very unusual tournament in that big big hands dominated throughout. I'm at table 1, with Dan Goldman on the other side of the table and Kyle Minnis on my right. On one of the first 2 or 3 hands I hold AKs and Dan has 88; Dan gets around $150 from me on that hand (I get no help). I'm down to around $600 before I start inching back to even. After just putting my head above water I find myself with 77 in the bb. Kyle raises pre-flop and I call; the two of us see a flop of J74. This was a disastrous flop for Kyle (who held 44); when we both fill up on the turn (J) Kyle's stack shrinks to desperation level. Kyle must have played very well to end up in the money (our table breaks soon after this and I don't see Kyle again until the final table). I'm moved to a new table and find Jerrod on my left (oh, joy); Beth a little further to my left and Sharon Neely across from me. I start getting big cards (AA, for example) and start accumulating a big stack. As I jokingly ask Jerrod, "What am I supposed to do with a big stack?" I keep raising and winning pots, putting a big crimp into Beth and Sharon. I'm moved again and find Mr. Bob on my right (Bob Maher); I was very impressed with his play throughout the weekend. When I'm moved to this table my good cards vanish and I find total unstealable junk (72, 83, 94, etc.) for the most part. My stack size holds around 4000 while Mr. Bob's stack grows to 8-9000. Zbigniew (Rick Bevan) takes a huge bite out of Mr. Bob's stack when his KQ rivers 3 Kings to upend Mr. Bob's pocket rockets. Soon after this I start getting some cards and am able to grow my stack. When we get to the final table I'm in second chip position (Peter Secor is clear chip leader). As an aside, this is the only event where there were last longers of NorCal vs. SoCal vs. unCal. About an hour into the event, Steve BIA Nissman is eliminated; he had been holding the lists and the last longer money. He gives this to me ($170). I'm wondering if Steve is unusually prescient? This final table is dominated by huge hands. I hold AA 3 times; Ron Nutt has AA 2 or 3 times; Peter has AA 1 or 2 times; there are many KK, QQ, etc. hands. Yes, there were some J8 vs K4 matchups, but it was mostly a good hand versus a big hand. I should point out that I did not take notes during any of the events; frankly, I was too wiped out to do so -- I just wanted to concentrate on my cards. I watch as Zbigniew loses a big hand to Ron (I think he ran into AA), leaving him with a relatively small stack (we're 6 handed at this point). I find myself with J9 in the small blind, and steal-raise. Zbigniew calls from the bb and we see a flop of Jxx. I bet, he raises all-in, and I call. His KK looks good but I pull a Schmengie and pick up 2 pair on the turn (9). Rick's eliminated in 6th. When we get down to 3 handed (Peter, Ron and myself), the money moves in a circle for some time (all of us at one time hold the chip lead). First myself and then Ron take big bites out of Peter's stack leaving him very short-chipped. I find AQ and take a huge amount of Ron's stack (if I remember the hand correctly, I flopped a Q). Peter's down to 2 chips, Ron has ~12, and I have the rest. Peter has the button with AsTs; Ron is in the sb with 7h7d; I hold 6c5d in the bb. Peter calls, Ron raises, I re-raise to put Ron all-in. According to Steve Brecher's HoldEm Showdown, the odds are: AsTs 7h7d 6c5d % chance of outright win 44.944826 41.574710 13.244317 % chance of win or split 45.180973 41.810857 13.480464 expected return, % of pot 45.023542 41.653426 13.323032 fair pot odds:1 1.221060 1.400763 6.505799 pots won: 617162.00 570966.00 182626.00 The flop was 3c3h9d. The odds have now become: AsTs 7h7d 6c5d % chance of outright win 25.027685 71.871539 2.436323 % chance of win or split 25.692137 72.535991 3.100775 expected return, % of pot 25.249169 72.093023 2.657807 fair pot odds:1 2.960526 0.387097 36.625000 pots won: 228.00 651.00 24.00 The turn was the 4c. I am now dead to a deuce; the odds being: AsTs 7h7d 6c5d % chance of outright win 14.285714 76.190476 9.523810 % chance of win or split 14.285714 76.190476 9.523810 expected return, % of pot 14.285714 76.190476 9.523810 fair pot odds:1 6.000000 0.312500 9.500000 pots won: 6.00 32.00 4.00 Of course, the deuce came on the river..... It should be pointed out, of course, that had I lost this hand, I would still have had a huge chip lead over Ron (or Ron & Peter, had Peter won the small main pot). There's an interesting question as to what to do if you're in Peter's position. Should you fold the hand and hope that Ron goes in and busts (so you can move up to 2nd)? It's an interesting theoretical question. By the time I head out of the Bike it's 1:45am, and I'm glad I made a hotel reservation for the night. As I head up the 710 freeway to my hotel (a 10 minute drive) I run into a traffic jam. At 2am. Only in L.A.... Saturday and Sunday will be covered in Part 2. -- Russ Fox From: "Russell Fox" Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 21:29:40 -0800 Subject: [ESCARGOT] Part 2 of Russ' Escargot Trip Report Saturday 2/1 Although I went to sleep at 2:30am, I'm up way too early -- 8am -- so what should I do? Go back to sleep for an hour or two, or head to the Bike and be a degenerate gambler? That's not a decision.... So I'm back at the Bike by 8:45am, and there are **no** Escargoters in sight. I take a seat in a non-interesting 3/6 Omaha game, and in walks Maverick. He asks to be entered into the nlhe, and after he pays me the $35 entry fee, I get him his packet. I then draw up the bracket lines (no artist need worry about my taking their roles) in the ballroom. The turnout for the nlhe shootout to match play was disappointing -- only 41 people showed up (55 signed up -- more about this later), so most of the tables were 5-handed (we use 8 starting tables because the bracketing works). Ron Cramer gives us 3 books as bounties (I put one of the bounties on myself and one on Maverick; the third book goes to the third place finisher; the books were Rules of Poker by our tournament director). I sit down and am horrified by my table. Now I realize that ARG events have gotten tougher, but I was by far the worst player at my table: Sabyl immediately to my left, Johnny D to her left, then Steve "BIA" Nissman, and finally Dan 'Pokerstars' Goldman. Of course, with Sabyl sitting anywhere near me I'm doomed to have horrendous cards (see, for example, SCATS in 2001). And I did... I don't remember much from this table (I think I was enjoying my lunch too much), but I do remember winning a 40% hand from Sabyl that contributed to her being eliminated. In any case, I somehow manage to get heads up with Johnny. I respect his poker playing a lot (more on this later), and as we start the heads-up battle he has 60% of the chips. He ends up with all of them. I'd love to put in some poker hands, but I don't remember anything from the match (that we were both aggressive, picking our spots, is the limit of my memory). I then watch a few matches as I tell everyone (for the second time) that all matches will be randomly drawn; that you must lose 2 matches to be eliminated; that the blinds will change every 10 minutes in the shootout matches, etc. (I had announced this before the tourney began, but no one paid attention. Well, almost no one.) For my second match, I could have gotten Ploink or Jerrod (they ended up against each other), but I draw Harry Baldwin. I've played against Harry before, and he's a good player. He's patient, reads people well, and has good concentration. Harry also got the benefit of this being a handicapped match -- about every 20 seconds someone comes up to me and asks a question about the formatting. Next year we will put the answers to most of these questions on the structure sheets on the off-chance I make it past the shootout. I jokingly tell Harry that our match is the molasses match and figures to be the last to finish (it almost is). I end up being eliminated when Harry flops top pair, I flop middle pair with redraws (straight and flush, I believe); when nothing gets there I'm done. Harry, though, doesn't get the book for knocking me out; he had already won a bounty by knocking Maverick out! We end up giving the book to Te-Kan Yin, who has to leave early to catch his flight. I end up spending the next few hours talking to Faith (Nolan Hee's wife), as Nolan, an excellent player, almost makes it to the finals (he finishes third). I also spend a lot of time talking with Ron -- we spend most of that time discussing the future of the Horseshoe. We both think that Becky's days of running it are numbered. (We had both just heard about the insurance fiasco. But then again it seems that there's a fiasco just before the WSOP....) Johnny D ends up winning the nlhe, beating Ellis Starks very quickly. Congrats, Johnny! The banquet is great; Barry Tanenbaum gives a wonderful talk about being a professional player. Had we had the time the q&a would have gone another hour. Thanks again, Barry. Sunday 2/2 I head back to the Bike and put my name on the Omaha list, and sit down next to Andrew Prock. Andrew is playing 30/60 stud 8, in a game that I'm sorely tempted to get into. Not because of Andrew (who is a very good player), nor because of a player to Andrew's right (who I recognize as a good player). There are two horrendous players in that game. I find out later that one of them won the small end of the 6/12 hold'em jackpot last night (~$11,000) and is going to surprise her husband later with the money. Or what's left of it after losing $5,000 in this game. I have a rule that I will not enter a game if I don't have (what I believe to be) a sufficient bankroll. I've got enough for a buy-in, but I'd be on scared money. So I pass, and watch Andrew's play (I do fine in the Omaha, so I don't mind too much). Andrew, who was losing when he walked in, ends up (i.e. winning). The game stayed good most of the day. Also in that game was David James. Yes, David "The Big Blind" James. He told us that his movie is complete, and we'd recognize only 2% of what was in it. (For those who don't remember or who weren't at Escargot 2000, David's movie was screened. It was a series of poker-related vignettes filmed at the Lake Elsinore Casino.) We talk on-and-off all afternoon. By 6pm I'm getting tired, so I say my good-bys to those that I see. I had a great time, which is all one can ask for in any fun event. I'm going to lead the parade next year, so here are some (almost) final thoughts: - Per Beth Even's request, we won't be up against the Chinese New Year next year (Chinese New Year is Super Bowl weekend next year) - We will require at least a deposit on the entry fees for the tournaments you sign up for. We had too many no-shows, especially for the nlhe. - Rick Cloward of the Bike approached Marc and I and asked us how we could make this a 7-day event. (It's possible that Binion's may take care of this one....) We may look to lengthen ESCARGOT next year by a day (much more realistic). I'll be sitting down with Rick in late March or April (after tax season). - My thanks to everyone at the Bike. They treated us extremely well. How well? Free food, a banquet with good food; very well run tournaments; plenty of side action; and wonderful support for the organizers. I have my own business and don't have all the free time in the world. The Bike makes my running of ESCARGOT easy. - The dealers love us. Dealers **want** to deal our games. This may not be meaningful if you live outside Southern California; however, most of the games in SoCal are filled with, well, let's say people you **don't** want to deal to. Now, if they'd only get Chowaha -- then they'd really see tipping in action. An Epilogue (February 15th) After a day of preparing tax returns, and then nervously watching Cal just get by UDub, I head over to Commerce to play in my one SuperSatellite attempt at their large buy-in tourney. I'm card dead throughout (with one slight exception). With a fair chip stack, I'm almost all in with AsKs versus KdJd (who is all-in). I'm a 70% favorite, except on Saturdays in February, when three diamonds fall on the flop, so I'm down to one $25 chip. I quadruple up with a mediocre hand (AA), only to, on the next hand, be eliminated (with half my stack in I'm forced to play any meaningful hand, including the Q2o that I held, versus JJ). The reason I'm including this in my ESCARGOT trip report is who I run into -- Johnny D. Johnny has already won two seats in Friday's main event (good luck!), so he's had a very good trip to SoCal. After I bust out at 9:00pm, we talk for an hour about poker and strategy (everything from Mike Laing to our mutual zig-zag theories of poker). And after I finally say good night to one class act, as I walk down the stairs I literally run into another, Barry Tanenbaum. After thanking him for his excellent talk, we talk about poker for quite a few minutes. I may not have won a seat, but I did gain some knowledge. Only 350 days to ESCARGOT 2004! --Russ Fox