Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 20:32:47 -0800 (PST) From: Zbigniew Subject: [ESCARGOT] TRIP REPORT: Zbigniew at ESCARGOT 2004 Wednesday: Keith, Stubing and I are MPN (the home game) ambassadors to ESCARGOT. We drive together from the Bay Area. We land at the Bicycle Casino around 18:00. I play 10-20, 6-12 and 8-16 holdem. Lose 22 bucks. Thursday: I play in the Bike's noon no-limit holdem tournament. 10+5 with rebuys and an add-on. I rebuy once and take the add-on. I have one of the largest stacks at the first break. I feel good about the situation. In the seventh round, my stack is still looking good. I limp in with 55. (Presto!) Several others limp in. Flop is 654. Ding. I overbet the pot, perhaps twice its size. Folds around to a comparatively loose, yet experienced, player. He goes all-in. He has me covered, barely. I call. He turns over 99. Ding. River is a 9 and I am out. Sigh. I play 10-20 holdem the rest of the afternoon. Lose. The first ESCARGOT tournament is half-and-half pot-limit omaha (high only) and holdem. I can not make much happen. My stack shrinks once. I rebuild it. But, in general, it's always the same. (We start with 1000. I have 1300 after round six.) In the seventh round, blinds are 100-200. I am down to 700 after paying some blinds and seeing no decent hands. I make a stand with QQ87 (one Q is s00ted). My pot-sized open-raise puts me all-in. Lou K., to my immediate left, reraises pot. All fold. Lou has KKxx. The board helps neither of us. I am out in 14th place (of 39). Keith picks up third place and c. 300 bucks in this tournament. Lou K. wins it. I play 6-12 holdem until 03:00 with the other MPN'ers and some local r00lerz. Win. Friday: My brother, who lives in LA, stops by to visit. He's not a poker player, but is interested, so he sweats me in the 10-20 game for a few hours. I warn, "Be prepared to watch me fold a lot." I end up folding a lot. When he leaves for work, I'm hanging close to even. After he leaves, I snag ten big bets. College buddy, who lives in LA, stops by to visit. He is a poker player, but has never played in a California cardroom. We have a nice dinner in the Grill and catch up. He sweats me during the ESCARGOT limit holdem tournament after dinner. I do pretty well in the limit holdem tournament! Somewhere in the middle of the tournament, I flop a set with 55 (Presto!) and turn a boat. Lots of chips make it into the pot on the flop. PattiB calls my bets on the turn and river. I win and seem to be in good shape. I start playing a little silly and lose some chips. I decide it's time to tighten up. Let the other small stacks bust out. Maybe I'll make it to the money. I pick up QQ twice and win some pots, but my stack is still a comparatively short. I make it to the final 12 (or so) players. A save for 10th place is agreed upon. (Take 60 from the first place spot and give it to the 10th place player.) I continue to play exceedingly tight and make it to the final table of 10. I have a short stack. I peek at my hand and raise. Lou K., to my immediate left (Again!), reraises. All others fold. I cap. (Ya, it's capped heads-up in limit tournaments.) I have less than a bet left and, after a hesitation, say, "Well, I guess I have to bet in the dark," and do so. Lou calls, leaving him with one 100 chip. With me all in, we turn over our cards. I have AA. Lou has 66. A six falls on the river and I'm out in tenth place. Sigh. Thanks to the save, I pick up 60 bucks. Semi-ding. Lou goes on to third place. Jerrod wins the tournament. I play some 6-12 holdem with the MPN'ers and drop a rack. MPN'er Keith implements an interesting strategy. He develops an image: "I am a lucky player. Fear me." After a major suxout, he starts saying things like, "I call for the suxout," and "Oh, there's my card!" He tells me he was able to steal a few pots with this act, especially from the victim of his first suxout. Keith goes on to use this strategy throughout the week. (Ad nauseam. I know Keith, and know he's acting, so it got a little tedious for me. The other players probably did not notice, though, so....) Saturday: ESCARGOT tournament, no-limit holdem shoot-out to match play, is in the morning. The first portion of this tournament is a shootout, where the top two players at each table advance to double-elimination heads-up matches. The random draw, oddly, puts all three MPN'ers at the same table. I do pretty well here, but drop a chunk when I play AQs vs. Jerrod's all-in with AKo. MPN'ers Stubing and Keith bust out, along with Rick N. and Shelley. So, here I am, one of the last three players, trying to bust out either Stephen L. or Jerrod, both excellent players. I pick up 88 and raise about half my stack. Stephen comes over the top. Jerrod folds. I think for a few seconds and, after considering what Stephen might reraise with, decide to call all-in, saying, "I hope I am not gambling." We turn over our cards. Oops, I am gambling, big time. Stephen has QQ. No r00ling suxout for me and I'm out. Stephen wins the shootout at my table. Sabyl takes the cheese in the tournament. Play some 10-20 and lose a bit. Head to the ESCARGOT 2-4 CHORSEL game, play too loose, tip a lot, and lose a bit. Banquet time. Food was buffet style, which, in my opinion, is a good thing for this sort of banquet. Speaker was Steve Badger, former WSOP omaha/8 champ and longtime RGP contributor. The Q&A session was interesting. ("What do you do in an omaha game when players start getting tight?" "Generate some action yourself!") Unfortunately, the MPN'ers sat together and our tablemates had something else to talk quietly about, so I did not get the interesting discussion with (comparative) strangers that I usually do at *ARG* banquets. Back to 10-20, where my cards are dead. Brian G. is in this game and, unfortunately, is r00led by the locals. Example: late position r00ler cold-calls Brian's early raise with J5. Flops a pair of fives. Rivers a J. Brian's AA is no g00t. Game breaks when down to five players. I head to 3-6 ESCARGOT CHORSEL. The CHORSEL game has a tuff lineup. Bill C., Jerrod, Lou K., Steve BIA, MIchelle, Don (?), Stubing (not so tuff ;). When I land in the game, they have made it through "L" and are now playing triple-draw Padooki. [1] I learn Padooki in two minutes and manage to pick up a big hand, with Lou K. calling my bets. But, being a beginner, I'm not sure if my seven-high Padooki is good on the last betting round, so check. Lou checks behind. I show my hand. The Padooki veterans say something along the lines of "Omigod. That's a monster! How could you check!?" I reply, "Oh well. Beginner misses a bet. Sorry." We continue on with other fun non-CHORSEL games: triple-draw Padooki/lowball split, triple-draw deuce-to-seven (AKA Kansas City) lowball and so forth. I am up for a while, but Bill C. r00ls at triple-draw deuce-to-seven and I give him all my win and a little more. The game breaks, so I move to the 2-4 CHORSEL game. I bleed back more chips, but pick up the high half of an omaha/8 pot that helps my stack. On that hand, Keith caps the river with nut low and a three-way pot. He gets quartered. Math is hard for Keith, but that is good for me. I end up losing here, too. Poker-wise, this is a pretty crappy trip. Results across the board are poor. (In the "Statistics to Make Me Feel Better" department, if I get rid of all those CHORSEL results, the big-bet loss ain't so bad. ;) Fun-wise, a great trip. Good to see the Usual Suspects again. Great to meet the newbies. Tons of fun in the ESCARGOT tournaments and CHORSEL games. ESCARGOTers are some tuff nuts to crack. This is a great opportunity to take a few cheap lessons from some great players. Thank you, organizers, for a smoothly running and entertaining event. Thank you, Bike staff, for being friendly and outgoing. Thank you, Bike management, for letting us use food coupons in the restaurants. Thank you, Badger, for speaking and answering questions. Thank you, Lou, for the swag. [1] Padooki info: http://www.pokerpages.com/articles/players/steve-ruddock06.htm P.S. Congrats and best wishes to mickdog, who was missing from ESCARGOT. I read on the BARGE list that he had a good excuse: a new month-early baby. Nice hand, sir. Well played!