KILL EVERYONE Casino Malaysia

Just finished reading Lee Nelson’s new Casino Malaysia Kill Everyone. It is a great read, some very interesting stuff, and what seems to me, vital concepts about tournament play. I think the comment made about why to read it – because your opponents are – is very valid.

While I am sure all the concepts are sound, it always seems to me that the insistence to play optimum strategy to determine when you must fold, must call or must go all in still ignores the fact that you only have one life.

Sure, optimum strategy will give you a distinct advantage over many hands. But when your tournament life can end at any time with one unlucky break, what advantage does 5% or even 20% on a single hand really give you?

Still, to use against other good, thinking, and well read players, it is definitely going to increase the leverage.

MUST KEEP IN PACTICE

Played the WAPL Pro game $40 buy in at the Market Tavern last night. I haven’t played a hand of poker for almost a month, and it really showed.

With pocket sixes and a good, tricky player to my right I called his BB. Everyone folded, SB called, BB raised about 3 x BB. I called, SB folded. Flop came all low rainbow with a six. I made a pot size bet and he folded. Stupid, with that flop I was way ahead and should have checked to trap for more chips.

A few hands later I called his pre-flop raise with A J suited. The flop came Ac 9h Jc. He checked, I figured I would trap and so I checked too. Turn was a 6c. He checked, I checked. River was a blank, he checked, I bet $200, he raised to $600. I called, he showed the flush. Stupid, stupid stupid. I should have at least made a bet that shut out the flush draw on the flop.

In the mean time, he had also picked up chips from two other all ins and so was a massive chip leader. He set about shutting down possible steals and speculative play, and continued to accumulate chips.

With the blinds increasing I was down to about 12x BB, and just waited for a hand I could push with. The tables recombined and the best hand I had with a full table was K4. I continued to wait, but was almost blinded away. In the BB for 400 with only 600 chips left I was all in with K2. Got called with A 10 and that was it for me.

STUPID, STUPID HAND

The deepstack tourney went well on Saturday night. We ended up with 10 starters. With 10,000 chips the opening blinds were only 5/10, further increasing the relative depths of the stacks. With very slow blind progression, I figured the game to go for about six hours – and so it did, ending at 9pm from a 2:30pm start.

At one point I was down to just over 2,000 with the blinds at 150/300 – a situation that was created when I called and all-in bet from an A Q, against my pocket queens, and lost when they made a straight on the river. I then doubled up with K K against a 10 J, and almost doubled again, against another short stack’s all-in when my paired K Q made trips Kings on the river against their paired Ace with A Q.

Some more prudent aggression and considered calls and value bets built my stack back up to just under 17,000 – about 3rd place to the remaining 7 players. With the blinds now at 400/800, I figured I was in a good spot to cash, as long if I kept on form.

But alas, disaster. With pocket 7’s I in early position I raised 2,400 pre flop. Ken ‘calling station’ (and the chip leader) on my left called and everyone else folded. The flop came 3c, Ad, 6c. Now Ken will generally call any pre-flop raise if he has an ace, and will call any bet to the river if he connects with the flop in any way. I knew that. I knew that with and ace on the flop, if I bet and he had hit he would call any size bet.

So for some bizarre reason, after almost six hours of careful concentration and thoughtful play, I had a brain spasm and pushed all in. Ken insta-called, and showed As 2h. My pockets didn’t improve and that was it for me. Ken went on to cash in 3rd place.

I guess in my defense, Ken would also just a likely call any bet to the river if he had a hand like K 3 or j 6. Also, I had showed no bluffs for the entire game, and the hands that people had seen of mine called to the river had always been the best hand on the flop. One hand I had shown to folds on the turn had been pocket kings. My table image had to be super-tight. A hand for me like A K or Ac Qc was very plausible to credit me with I would have thought. Although apparently not.

But it was a really stupid move by me. I’ll be kicking myself for some time over that one.