I must admit that I'm extremely excited to see someone as much of a public figure as Michael Phelps begin to enter poker tournaments as visible as the Caesar's tournament. Not only was there a buzz in lots of poker rooms in Las Vegas that may create short term interest in tournaments, but I think lots of long term effects can help poker. Poker has been shunned by legislatures and federal agencies all across America lately. We have done the standard American thing and pretended like it's simply not there. Millions of people don't play online every day and if you just put a .net at the end of your poker website, it removes all the legal problems your poker site can face. When someone as visible and loved as Michael Phelps takes up the game seriously, it can easily make more people understand that the game is more than just your standard gamble. Of course, there will always be people that don't understand poker is a long term skill game. I hope more people that are visible, intelligent, successful people replace the obnoxious people we have in our game today. I was pretty sad to see Phil Hellmuth parading around with Michael Phelps at the Bellagio. Talk about two completely different people for the game. While Hellmuth has progressively lost his mind with each tournament, blog post, commercial, whatever he's embarked in, Phelps maintained the standard swagger of a champ without being too cocky, but just backing up his swagger with golds. Of course, Hellmuth has many WSOP bracelets and those can't be taken away from him. I just find the contrasting demeanors funny. So anyway, good luck to Michael Phelps and other public US figures that can do positive things for our game.
I voted yesterday before heading to Caesars to finish 23rd in the 1k with 18 getting paid. I got knocked out at 12:15 over 12 hours after beginning to play with nothing to show for it. It was one of those tournaments where you are just put to the test so often. On the third hand of the tournament I had AQ and called from the SB the 150 raise in a 5 way pot. Flop came Q 4c 5c. It checked to the raiser who bet 250 into the 750 pot. I called out of position because I don't raise for information or play huge pots with top pair this early in the tournament. David Plastik called behind. The turn was an A of hearts. I checked to the raiser again and he bet 1500 this time. Now, I had the option to raise here, but really didn't see much value in doing that. My hand was disguised. I was a little intimidated by the size of the bet because it felt at worst he could have AK of clubs or AK. AA or QQ or 55 or 44 were the really concerning hands in his range here. The river was an 8 of spades. I checked to him again and he fired 4000. I hated my hand but called and he showed 55. I don't know if I can fold here. I call online all day and even get it in on the turn sometimes. I've actually struggled with this hand a lot because there really isn't much I'm beating here.
I folded with my 4k stack for about an hour and a half then raised to 600 UTG with AQ to get called by a tighter nice old man UTG+1. The flop came QJ5. I bet 800 and he moved in with AK. I held. I basically then didn't play any big pots. I played the ultimate small ball game and eventually built my way from that 4k stack to 20k after the 4th level. There really weren't that many notable hands, but I did make some lay downs where players would show and I was right 3 times. When I got moved to a new table, I played the short stack for about 3 hours. I probably put my stack in the middle 10 times without getting called in this period of time. There was one pot where a player raised to 2400 with probably 6500 total chips. I had about 10k in chips at 400/800 and looked at KK in the big blind. I just assumed that he couldn't fold, so I pushed in and he mucked. I mean I guess I can flat call here, but come on people. I eventually pushed with KJ off in the cutoff with 16k at 800/1600 with 200 ante. I got called by 88 and won the race. At this point, I felt I was picking up steam and started opening finally. I had a great image . Now for purposes of the fact that I haven't told anyone what I had on this hand. I opened for 4k under the gun with 800/1600 and I had around 40k. I was flat called on the button. The flop came K Q J. I bet 5500. I was soon raised 13000 more. So at this point, I had either AK AA AQ QJ. I was on the verge of pushing my chips in when the player said "I'll show." At that point, the alarms went off in my head. I just felt like I was actually being leveled into a call. Why would anyone ever say that to someone? One the first level, they want you to fold. On the second level, they want you to think they want you to fold to get action. On the third level, they know you think them saying that means you will think they think they want you to fold. So before I confuse myself anymore, I really felt like he was saying this to get me to put my chips in. I folded my hand and he showed KJ. After blinds go up, I'm again around 10bbs and we get to shoving time. I played the patient short stack again until I shoved A5 of hearts and was finally called after like shove 15 with 99. I lost that and still had 2 bb's when I no looked 6 9 of diamonds and was isolated by 66. I can't even be angry about anything. I really think I played well. Confidence in live tournaments can go a long way. After playing at the WSOP this year, I kept making consistent good decisions without many results to back it up. Then I would come home and play online and had my best month of the year in June with big wins. I'm hoping the same theme continues. I'm still deciding what to play next at Caesar's. They have a 2k on Wednesday, but I really want to play the 500 HORSE on Thursday even though they have another great 1k. The 2k on Wednesday has 20k in starting chips and hour levels which means we could play down to the time of 2am and still not be at the final table. By the same token, I'm really pissed about how HORSE worked out at the WSOP.
Props to the PPA (Poker Players Alliance) for putting out the Congressional scorecard. It literally changed my vote to support the Republican in my district. He's in a tight race and his A rating by PPA changed my mind. If more voters follow these things, I can see PPA making a big mark in many tight races that hopefully lead to the proper changes in poker legislation in America.
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