Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 16:05:05 -0800 (PST) From: Kenny Shei Subject: escargot 2006 trip report Thursday Since I just moved back to California a few months ago, I figured it would be nice to check out ESCARGOT this year. A couple of weeks ago, John Grout mentioned on the Bay Area poker list that he was driving down, so I carpooled down there with him. I was pretty tired, so I slept part of the way down, but once I got down to the Bike, I was awake again. Q: Has anyone ever felt tired, but then upon arriving at the cardroom, felt more awake? A: Yes. After signing in for ESCARGOT, John drove over to the hotel that he's staying at, and I tried to find a game to play. I was looking for 9-18 or 10-20 hold'em, but they weren't spreading that. So I get on the list for the 8-16. There's a spot open in the 4-8 so I jump into that game since I have nothing better to do. Wow, the 4-8 is really loose and aggressive. I can't wait to get into the 8-16 game. But when I get called for the 8-16, it was a bit underwhelming. There weren't any sharks there, but on the other hand, after hearing tales of L.A. 9-18 games where people are shoveling chips into the pot, the relative tightness of the 8-16 was a bit of a disappointment. It's not quite as bad as seeing an oasis in the desert, only to find out it's only a mirage when you finally get there, but it's close. After not much of interest in the 8-16, I go watch some of the action at the 3-6 mixed game. (I might have even sat in, though I can't remember now) Soon, it's time for the PLO/8 tournament (which I'm not signed up for), but I watch for a bit. Jerrod Ankenman's strategy seemed to be: 1. Let someone else raise 2. Come over the top with AA2x in the hole 3. ???? 4. Profit! Don't mess with Jerrod. After a bit, my friend from L.A. shows up and I head over to his place to hang out. No more poker until Friday. On Friday, I woke up and went out to lunch with some friends at a Cuban restaurant. I got a pineapple soda from Cuba which was pretty good. I ordered a pork dish because I figured the Cubans knew how to do pork, and the meal turned out to be very nice. Looking around the restaurant, there were a lot of photos of Cuba. A photo of some kids playing (in Cuba). A busy street corner (in Cuba). Some picture of the ocean (as seen from Cuba). A photo of Cuba (Gooding Jr.) Only in L.A., I guess. Heh... after all, it was a Cuban restaurant, so why not play up the Cuba theme? FRIDAY AT THE TOURNAMENT I should have written down who was at my table so that I wouldn't make mistakes in the trip report or forget people, but anyway, I think some of the people at my table were John Grout, zbigniew, Michelle Lancaster, and maybe Fich (or maybe he was moved to my table later??) At one point, Jerrod busted out from another table and went over to talk to someone. John Grout jokingly said that Jerrod was probably saying "I'm a theorist, not a poker player." It turned out that Jerrod had lost with kings vs. aces, and was probably recounting that confrontatation, but it was still a funny line nevertheless. Jerrod, if you ever get interviewed after busting out of a televised tournament, you should use the "I'm a theorist..." line -- especially after your book comes out! I don't remember if I got above average cards or not, but I was able to get to the final table. After losing a coin-flip hand, I finished in 9th place and got my buy-in back. I put my name up on the board for the 3-6 mixed game. Eventually, enough ESCARGOTers expressed interest and a second table was formed. (The first table seemed to have built around Chic, heh.) Taki and Jerrod are in the game. At one point, Jerrod warns Taki that Taki's chip stack is too high (as I think Taki has a base level of 20 chips, and then a second level of an additional 10 or 20 chips). Later, Jerrod, having had enough of Taki's stack, walks behind Taki and asks, "Hey, is this your Coke?" Taki turns around to look at his soda and at that moment, Jerrod knocks over Taki's chips. Everyone was pretty stunned. I think Taki was stunned, and then slightly annoyed, but he soon regains his humor. I guess no chip stack is safe when you're playing against Jerrod. What a donk move! Speaking of donkeyish plays, or moves that may seem like that, Bill and Jerrod have both said they get a ton of vitriol directed at them on-line from opponents who feel like they play like donkeys or fish. I mentioned that those would make nice blurbs for the back of their book. For example, in the "about the authors" section, they can just have quotes like "u suck" or ".... is a ****ing idiot" or "A8??? He called off all his chips with A8?!?" The 3-6 game was pretty fun though; I had a blast. After everyone else went to sleep, I played some 8-16 hold'em for the rest of the night, but I finished down. :( I'm pretty tired at the start of the Saturday tourney since I have no sleep, but I did my best to cope. At my table: Denny Williams (tourney director for some of our other tourneys), Nick Christenson, Michael Hunter, Mike Chow, and some others I forget now. The name Michael Hunter sounded familiar but I wasn't sure why. It turns out that he was recently at my table in the WRPGT! In the middle/late stages of the (Escargot) tourney, I raised, Michael Hunter jammed, and I went into the tank with A8 or A9. I finally decided to call getting 1800-1100. I really should work out all of the hands I want to call with in a certain situation *away from the table*, so that I don't have to think too long in these spots. But right now I'm concentrating more on improving my limit hold'em game, so I guess that working out call/fold charts in response to a jam is something I'll have to do later. I lost that hand but I was eventually able to win my table. In the heads-up section, I lost to Joo "yo" Pal in my first match. Once he got the chip lead, he was pretty aggressive, and I ended up folding some hands after putting in some money. I think I should have done more checking and calling in order to better control the size of the pot and also to get some value out of my not-super-strong hands. Next, I faced Scott Harker, who had just bought me a soda in the gift shop. I repaid him by putting a bad beat on him (sorry, Scott): I raised to 50 from the button with KJ, and he made it 200. I don't like to raise and then frequently fold to a reraise, so I called with KJ since it's one of the stronger hands in my range. I flopped a king and called when Scott went all-in. He had aces but I hit running jacks to win a big pot. Ai-yah. He stayed alive for a little while longer, but eventually I won the match. [not sure if I am missing a match somewhere] Next, I faced "yo" again. It was a see-saw battle and I think I played a little better than I had in our earlier match, although I think I was making lots of mistakes in the later stages. I probably didn't defend my raises enough in the high blind stage, so I should probably just play jam/fold at those stages. Of course, I don't really know the value of the hands since I hadn't bothered looking at a chart or anything... I was able to defeat Pal in our rematch. Next up was Patti Beadles. I think she plays a lot of sit-and-goes, so I felt like I wouldn't have an edge in playing jam/fold *or* trying to play lots of pots post-flop. Basically I was in bad shape. I got the money in with ace-something (maybe AT) against JJ and she won the match. I caught some of the Patriots game and took periodic mini-naps to try to make up for a sleep deficit. Russ Fox bought me a tiramisu to keep me going until the banquet -- thanks! The food at the banquet was good, although it was tough to watch the Pats commit a lot of mistakes and get bounced from the playoffs. At the banquet it was revealed that JP Massar may or may not have been Mr. M, and there is some other show coming out that may be of interest to various people. Heh. >From the Bike, I went with Nolan Hee and Chris S. (ADB Ploink) to buy some beverages for the Chowaha tourney. We picked up some Tecate, Johnny Walker Black Label, a bunch of gatorades (for hydration!!) and Diet Dr. Peppers, and maybe some other beers in a green bottle (perhaps Heineiken or St. Pauli Girl). We took our first bad beat of the night when the top of the 12-pack Nolan was carrying ripped in the parking lot. A bunch of beers crashed down. Some bottles broke, and beer was lost. Ai-yah. Either Nolan or Chris went inside the store to warn them about the broken glass while I picked up a few larger pieces and put them in a box to throw out. Eventually, we're told that someone from the store has a broom and will sweep up. We blocked the parking space with something so that someone doesn't drive over the glass, and just as we're about to drive away, someone came out to tell us that the store would give us more beer to compensate for the ones that we dropped. We said "that's okay," turning down the offer. An ADB'er turning down alcohol?! At my starting table for the Chowaha tourney: Sabyl, Kyle, Michelle, Joo "yo" Pal (prounciation sounds like "Paul"), I think Oz and Taki were also at my table. And when I say table, I mean bed! Some people at the other table were: Nolan (2005 champ), Jerrod (former champ). Not sure if Peter Secor (former champ) was at the other table but I think someone said that all of the former champs who were in attendance were at one table, so Peter was probably at the other table. Nolan was drinking a fair amount, although I didn't see this since he was at the other table. But once the final table was set, I could see that Nolan was being a bit rowdy. There was one point where Andrew Prock and Nolan were going to high-five or do a fist bump (probably more of a solidarity fist bump than a celebratory one) but apparently there was some miscommunication, as Prock held out a closed fist for the fist bump while Nolan was trying to do a high five. That was already funny enough but then Prock said "Ouch! Have you been working out?" to Nolan. That's gotta be the first time (other than in roshambo) where someone's fist hit someone's open palm and the guy with the fist felt it more, but I guess Nolan was probably impervious to pain at that point. I made it to the final table but didn't have a big stack. I took a big hit when I played a capped pot preflop with 99 because with three flops, you gotta hit a nine, right? Well, the answer is no. Math is hard. I called the flop to peel off two more turns, but no luck there either. I folded on the turn and it turns out the nine wouldn't have hit on the river, so from a results-oriented view, it's good I folded the turn. However, the hand crippled me, and I soon got it in before the flop with T9s. No help for me, though, and I was out. Here's a side question for Chow-aha experts: So in hold'em, let's say there's one open-raiser, and everyone folds to you the BB. Many BB's will call with all playable hands and autocheck the flop, expecting the raiser to autobet. Would this also be a good idea in Chowaha? It seems that hand values change a lot on the flop, so should/would the preflop raiser autobet after BB checks, even on a [triple]flop that totally missed? I stuck around for a little longer to watch some more chow-aha. As fate would have it, or maybe as justice would have it, two of the final three (ADB Ploink and Nolan) were probably the ones drinking the most that night. (Andrew Prock was the other person in the final three -- I handed him a Tecate at one point but i'm not sure how much else he drank). After Ploink busted out, I was already pretty tired, having gotten no sleep for over 36 hours, so I headed over to the Bike where my friend picked me up. (I found out the next day from Prock that Nolan won the chowaha tournament, but I guess destiny/alcohol was really on Nolan's side the whole time). Sunday NLHE tourney with rebuys: At my table: Mike Chow, George (don't know his last name), Andrew Prock on my left. Some others too, but I didn't write any of this down. I was joking with Andrew about his nametag because it said "Andrew" (in quotes). Other people's names weren't in quotes, but maybe the people making the name tag were like "Andrew?! That's gotta be a nickname, right?!" Excerpt of a hypothetical conversation with Prock: '...okay, _"Andrew"_, if that really is your name...' In the tourney, I got better than average cards early on. AA twice, 99, AKs, AQ, etc. I don't get a ton of action on these hands, unfortunately, but I'm still able to build up my chip stack. At some point, Nolan walked in a little late, but other than the infamous Nolan lateness, there's zero outward sign of a hangover. That's gotta be a medical miracle! Perhaps he lacks the hangover gene? Prock had some bad luck in the NLHE tourney -- every time he picked up a hand it seemed like someone else picked up a bigger hand. On his last hand, he went all-in with 99 but someone behind him woke up with aces. After Andrew busted out, Kyle moved over to the seat next to me, just in time for him to take the BB for the next blind level. One limper to me. I looked down at A5 and thought I might have a good chance at taking the money in the pot, so I jammed. Kyle has QQ and calls quickly, the original limper folds. His QQ holds up and I'm out of the tournament. Oh well. [By the way, throughout the NLHE tourney, the Steelers-Colts game is on TV in the room. It's crazy. The Steelers build a solid lead, and appear to have the game in hand, but fumble near Indy's goal-line, and Indy almost runs it back for a TD to take the lead. Indy has a chance to send the game to OT, but they miss the field goal. What a crazy game.] Sunday mixed game: I got into a 3-6 mixed game with a few ESCARGOTers, but one by one, they start to leave. Finally, Scott Samarel and I are the only two ESCARGOTers left. Luckily, the locals who fill out the seats are pretty cool (i.e. they're friendly and participate with us in the "incoming" dealer tokes). I'm glad the game got the cool locals (instead of ones who are unfriendly, abuse the dealers, slow the game down, etc.) At one point, a woman tries to sit in the game, and everyone asks her if she knows it's a mixed game. We're in the badoogi rotation, and she doesn't say anything when we ask he if she knows the rules. She just kind of shrugged her shoulders. The first hand she's dealt, she raises and stands pat even though everyone else is taking cards. Someone tells her that she's allowed to draw. She doesn't say anything. Hmm.. I have a decent draw and play on. Every round, she bets and then stands pat. At the end, I only have a three-card hand, and I pay her off even after someone person calls ahead of me because I'm afraid he's calling with a weakish hand to induce me to fold. The woman turns over a 5-high badoogi that she was dealt!! Ai-yah!!! There was another hand that I think I might have misplayed.... I make a badoogi although it's not great. Might have been something like ten high? I bet, someone raises behind me. So I figure he's ahead, and I break on the last drawing round and catch either a 6 or 5 that wins for me. What's the right play? I realize it might be kind of hard to evaluate given that I don't give you the pot size, but I think there were only 2 or 3 cards I could catch to win. I don't think the pot was *that* huge. Does badoogi play significantly differently than triple draw 2-7 when you get raised before the last draw with a mediocre made hand that you are thinking of breaking against what might be a slightly better made hand? Now that I think about it, you usually have more outs in triple draw (since you're generally unlikely to put yourself in a position where you need to dodge a flush), so should you should be less likely to break before the last draw in badoogi? Oh well, there's not much more to write, since I don't remember much else. Scott Samarel bought a couple of rounds for everyone at the table, so if I see him at BARGE, I'll have to buy him a couple of rounds. I'll try to make it to my first ATLARGE this year, but if not, I'll definitely be at my first BARGE later this year.