Experience matters.

Finally able to find 4 days to head to Vegas for some cash poker. In Florida, I play only tournaments because of the $100 cap on cash games.  Consequently, I have far less cash time than I'd like.  I used to do well playing cash, but found on this trip that the players have really improved. There are far less clueless players than there used to be.
I learned a few new lessons, and re-learned some old ones. That's the problem with playing so infrequently, and the lessons are always expensive.  The main thing I learned on this trip (twice unfortunately), is that when a player shoves, especially when you have him/her covered, they have the nuts. That seems pretty obvious, but I lost a big hand when I had a set on the flop and the only thing that could beat me was a straight (which I saw, but was such a weird one that I refused to believe it was out there). My mistake was that I didn't raise pre with my pair and I allowed the blind in with anything.

The other thing I did wrong was play  tired and I made a donkey call with JJ. I do know that a pair isn't much in a good game, and once again, I failed to raise enough pre, min-raising when I always would raise at least 3x in this spot.  I generally view cash like the early stages of a tournament when the stacks are deep, and I would have insta-folded my JJ in a tournament at the first level against a shove. Just tired, and stupid.

 Other than that, held my own in some pretty tough games. As always, the poker room is the best place in a casino. Relatively chaos-free, smokeless, coffee always on, friendly....I could live in a poker room if only I had the bankroll.  Can't wait to go back while I remember the main lesson of not calling big shoves.

Reporting from the Florida Million

The Florida Million is a truly different event. Games capped at 150 players are being held at six participating cardrooms (Day Ones) throughout Florida with the top 10% winners of each game meeting at Derby Lane in St. Pete for Day Two. Every player making Day Two will be in the money. The current prize pool has already exceeded the guaranteed $500K and is now over $650K. The event has been really well run and well promoted. The site updates after each round of Day Ones and lets us know what the average and big stack sizes are as well as the number of participants. There's also a good blog on the site that explains the rationale behind all of the decisions which seem very well considered.

I played at Mardi Gras, the only room in the Dade/Broward area. I played on March 14th and it was a sellout with people turned away. It was a great format ( 15,000 chips/40 minute levels/$550 buyin), and the atmosphere was charged. Everyone really wanted to win and had their A game (except me that is...wanted to win/had B game). I made some loose calls that I generally wouldn't make and don't know why I did since everyone was playing really well.

The game lasted until around 12:30, a solid intense focused 12 hours for those who made it. I went by later to see some friends and it was down to four tables which were really quiet except for an occasional knockout everyone-out-of-their-seats eruption.

I'd like to give it one more shot. Most of the rooms have been running good satellites. The problem for me is that the skills for winning the satellites are pretty much the opposite of winning the longer format games. The thing I love about this whole event is that you only have to beat 150 players to make a very, very big payout possibility. I frequently cash at the Hard Rock and Dania where there are generally over 225 players so this 150 number sounded appealing.

What's With All The Cashes?

I've had an unusual percentage of  tournament cashes lately, most recently 6th at the Hard Rock's 25k Guarantee Friday game (210 players).  Could it be that poker is actually a game of skill!?  I don't think it's just that I happen to be getting better cards, or that I'm on a lucky streak. I think it's that I'm playing better.  At the end of the year, I listed all of my leaks and vowed to fix them one at a time, and I think it's paying off. Generally when I leave a game, I can think of many things I did wrong, and usually it was in the hand just before the hand that knocked me out.  This time, I really think I played optimally, that is to the best of my current ability. Over the course of our poker lives, I think we all have a similar distribution of good and bad cards, lucky suckouts and bad beats.  It's how we play them, and I'm seeing that pay off in 7 cashes in the past month.

Chopping: The Final Negotiation

Played a $100 game at Dania last Tuesday night. There were 70 people so seven places paid. Dania recently changed their policy of paying out to ten players if there were over fifty entries which I think is good. It increases the payout and makes it somewhat more worthwhile to make it to the top 10%.

At around midnight, we were down to the final table.  (This was my 5th final in a row so I really wasn't expecting it. What are the odds?!)  It was pretty quickly agreed that we'd wait for a few of the short stacks to bust out before talking about any chop. The prize pool was around $5,600 as I recall. There was one pretty big chip leader (he kept falling asleep at this point), a few smallish stacks and around 3 mediums of which I was one.

It was suggested that we all take $800, but the chip leader wanted $1,000 of he was just going to sleep it out. It each player contributed $35 the additional $200 would be there to end the game. We were tired, the lights kept going out which felt a lot like closing time, there was one cash table going, but most importantly, it's crazy to play down to the end at these high blind levels we were facing given the chips in play. I'm sure the pros would have chopped here, and everyone I've talked to who plays way more than I do says a chop is the only way to go. It's bingo nw. We could just play our cards up and the best hand dealt wins.  The room for real poker has passed.

There was one hysterical woman who wouldn't stop talking about the times she was on the bubble and no one paid her, so she didn't even hear that we actually had a deal: one guy and me offered to give up $100 each to make the chop happen, and I had chips.  Finally, reason prevailed. But it reminded me of the problems with such amateur games. The tournament director was paying very little attention to the final table at all, ignoring requests for water.  Dania really needs to get its floor act in order to keep the steady players coming. There are plenty of good games now, and while the room at Dania is  nice (and I seem to be one of the only people who think so), I don't think this amateur-hour is going to fly much longer without some professional attention.

Final Table Thoughts

By whatever miracle, I've made 4 final tables this month.  The cashes were in some fairly big fields for weekly games (250, 230, 80 and 80).  This has given me a chance to think about some situations that come up after the bubble and near the final that we regular players just experience every so often.  Here are some thoughts:

Level time matters: Of course we all know this, but so many people continue to play bad format games.  I think a big reason for my string of cashes is that the Hard Rock (Florida) added 10 minutes to their Friday game levels (from 20 minutes to 30 minutes).This has made a huge difference to me in two ways: I play better in that time frame, and many people play worse.The other two cashes for me were at Dania where the levels are also 30 minutes but the blind structure isn't as good as the Hard Rock. Dania skips many blinds so they go up much faster. This is true at the Isle as well. Gets very fast after the break

The worst, and critical time: You certainly have to play well the whole tournament, but when the game is down to say 3 tables with maybe 24 players and you're playing short-handed at huge blind levels with the need to keep up but also want to make the final...that's an awful time. The blinds are coming around way too fast and you can't wait to break into two ten handed tables.  Luckily, at one of the games I had a huge chip stack at this point so I wasn't in as difficult a position. However, a big stack is hard to play there too. You don't want to sit back and miss opportunities, but you have more to lose and have to be super-thoughtful.

Suddenly at the big stacks meet at the final:  Or at least it seems sudden.  You've been the big stack at your table, then when you move to the final you see the real situation. You're about average! Or at least there are several other stacks in your range. Again, a strategy adjustment, but now the blinds are astronomical.

Making these finals so close together has been a great chance to think about all the challenges that come up.  Can't wait to make another one so I can put this experience to continued good use.

Let me know any "near the final" thoughts or tips you might have please.

Hard Rock 35K Guarantee/Final Table

This is always a great game and was even better on the 15th because the levels were 30 minutes,  instead of the usual 20 minutes. Also, lately tournaments have been run better with more oversight and rule enforcement which was much needed. That said, this particular game was a bit out of control by my standards.  Too much running around and people not in the game getting involved, etc.  I especially wished when it got down to the final, that a better floor person was there (when it's Nick, he watches the final table which I think is great). Scot and Richard stay pretty on top of things too, but they weren't there at the end. Also, at this final, we had one of the worst dealers which does make a difference. The Hard Rock has so many terrific dealers with a few duds, so that kind of sucked.

The game started on two floors, then moved upstairs, and finally to the small upstairs room with 3 tables...then down to one!  I had around 270,000 in chips which was very competitive and at many times during the last three tables, was the chip leader at my table.  Boy, things change so fast at a final table.

For example:
-suddenly you're with all the big stacks, and in this case some really good players
-people are getting knocked out, so just when the blinds are huge compared to your stack, you're somewhat short-handed and in the blinds more often.

I really had my eye on spots 1,2 or 3 which basically means part of a good chop, but was sick to be knocked out 8th.  Poker really is like race car driving, one miscalculation and you're dead.  That analogy carries further  in that you're always watching for a hole to race ahead  through.  Can't wait to try again.