Chipless Wonder No More

[DevilFish73]

Congrats to Scott for besting 49 other players today.... Scott finished 1st and won $2400 in a live event here in Columbus.... Nice job Chipless Wonder

[charlton49]

Congrats to Scott for besting 49 other players today.... Scott finished 1st and won $2400 in a live event here in Columbus.... Nice job Chipless Wonder

Well done, sir!

[SNutizzle]

Holy crap Scott! Very well done! I can't believe you still found time, after such a big accomplishment today, to still stalk me on Full Tilt tonight. I'm flattered

[niner1984]

Very nice job
i ask scott how he finished and he did not even tell me how he did.
once again congrats

[Rdsknman]

Wow...much congrats to you scott!!

[D-Nut]

Way to go Scott! Very impressive! You deserved it after Saturday night!

[Chipless Wonder]

First off, thanks to Brian Hall for inviting me to this tournament! I owe you a steak dinner.

This tournament was held at the Italian Club on West Third Street in Grandview. I’d describe it as a nicer version of a Moose Lodge. This was a very well run event with good dealers. The atmosphere was fun and friendly and I don’t think I saw a single temper tantrum all day.

The buy-in was $200, the prize pool was $7,500 and $2,500 was donated to charity (an Italian college fund which I can’t recall the name of). Everyone started with 1,000 chips. The blinds began at 5/10 and increased every 30 minutes. There were no antes. I was there for eleven full blind levels, and of the ten blind increases, five of them were doubling. I wouldn’t call the structure aggressive, but it was faster than some of us are used to. It took a total of six hours to weed through 50 players.

Being the analytical player that I am, I did happen to take a few notes that I’d like to share.

Level 1 – 5/10 blinds – 1,000 chips – 50 players

We’re starting with five full tables of ten players each. I drew table one, seat one, so I decide I must be destined to be number one today. My first observation is that there are two or three players at my table who are comfortable handling their chips. Everyone else either fumbles or leaves them alone. My second observation is that half the people seem to know each other. I’m the unknown here for sure. The only person I even recognize is Brian. Glad he’s at a different table.

On the second hand of the game, one of the players I had identified as a good chip handler limped from first position. Middle position raised to 50, and then the limper re-raised to 150. On the flop, the limp-reraiser bet 300 and got called. Then on the turn he went all in, his opponent folded and he showed aces. I was surprised that his opponent lost half his chips on the second hand of the tournament and didn’t suspect aces from the early position limp-reraise.

It only took one lap around the table to pinpoint two or three weak spots, and by the tenth or fifteenth hand I started to go after these guys. When they’d limp, I would raise. When they would check, I would bet. Simple and aggressive seemed to be very effective in this level. I only played small pots. By the end of the level I had increased my stack by 30%.

Level 2 - 10/20 blinds – 1,300 chips – 12/49 players remaining

I am feeling very good about my reads on people, and am starting to enter ‘the zone’. I am going to take Ben’s advice and play more hands.

Here’s my favorite one in this level. I limp from late position with 10-6 of diamonds. The button calls and I sense that he is very strong. I’m surprised he didn’t raise. I actually get a sense that he plans to trap me, since he seems to be one of only two or three people at my table who have noticed that I’m taking advantage of a lot of situations. The flop comes with three diamonds, so I have flopped a ten high flush. I look over at him and he still looks very confident. So I decide to give the impression of being overaggressive to try and induce him to go all in. I think there was only ~ 80 chips in the pot and I bet ~ 200. He had ~ 800 and instantly goes all in. I called and he showed pocket kings. Guess he should have read this message forum...

Level 3 – 15/30 blinds – 2,500 chips – 7/46 players remaining

More of the same. I got pretty lucky in one hand during this level. I raised to 150 with A-J offsuit and got three callers. More people were starting to call my raises now, so I’m going to have to change gears pretty soon. The flop came A-9-2 rainbow, and I bet 600. This was a lot, since the average chip stack was only ~1,100 at this point. One of the blinds called and I was nervous about that. The pot now contained ~1,900 and my opponent only had ~ 900 left so he was pretty much committed. I was nervous that he might have flopped two pair or a set, and I couldn’t think of a way out of this hand. If I checked the turn, he was likely to bet the rest of his chips and I would pretty much be forced into calling. If I bet out, he would call me if I was beat, and might call me with A-10 or A-8. Things weren’t looking good until a jack came on the turn. This gave me top two pair and took care of half the concerns that I had. I bet half his remaining chips and he called. Then on the river I bet the rest of his chips and he called again. He showed A-9 for a flopped two pair, and he had let me catch up with him by not check-raising me all in on the flop.

Here was one amusing hand. There was one player who hadn’t played a single hand yet. Not even one hand in nearly an hour and a half! Someone raised, and he re-raised all-in. The first raiser called with A-10 and of course the ultra-tight player showed aces. This same guy then played five or six hands in a row and won every pot. Everyone assumed he must have aces again. Interesting strategy.

Level 4 – 25/50 blinds – 3,700 chips – 4/40 players remaining

I decided that I was going to stop being as aggressive soon, since I now had a nice chip lead and the blinds would be doubling three times in a row. That’s an increase of 700% in two hours!

But it should be OK to raise one more time, since the weakest blind defender at the table was in the big blind. I made a mistake and didn’t happen to notice how short-stacked he was. So when he reraised all in I was priced into calling with my J-3 offsuit. Not a good outcome. And here’s where things took a major turn for the worse.

Brian Hall was just moved to my table, and of course he took the seat right after me. Within the next three hands, I managed to give him 1,200 chips. Don’t even ask how. It was just a pissing contest of two guys who had played together before and he won each confrontation. It was stupid of me.

Then on the very next hand I managed to lose another 800 chips when I folded aces full of jacks on the river to an all-in bet. I did manage to convince him to show me his hand though, and it really boosted my confidence when he showed aces full of kings! Now I was back on the right track mentally, but I had squandered 70% of my chips during this level, and the blinds would be doubling three times in a row.

[Chipless Wonder]

Level 5 – 50/100 blinds – 1,175 chips – 23/34 players remaining

I went back to playing solid poker, but I kept my raise sizes the same as before so no one would realize I had switched gears. I managed to take out one player when I hit a set with pocket sixes. I stayed out of Brian’s way during this level, and ended up nearly doubling up in thirty minutes. But the blinds are doubling again, so I’ll need to do it again…

Level 6 – 100/200 blinds – 2,025 chips – 13/28 players remaining

More solid poker for the most part during this level. This is about when I noticed that some of the players here weren’t playing good tournament strategy. They’d be down to three to six big blinds and fold to a raise when they were the blind. This happened over and over, so I started to take advantage of it. I did manage to take out one or two of the short stacks during this level. I doubled my chip stack in thirty minutes again, but the blinds are doubling yet again…

Level 7 – 200/400 blinds – 4,100 chips – 9/22 players remaining

More solid poker during this level. A couple blind steals, but no bold bluffs at all. Took out another short stack too. More than half the field is short-stacked and my reads are dead on. I am in the zone, so the next level or two should be painful for my opponents.

Level 8 – 300/600 blinds - 6,700 chips – 7/16 players remaining

First, I have got to comment on this habit the dealer at this table had that drove me absolutely crazy. Say the flop would come 6-3-9. He would move the cards around and put them in numerical order: 3-6-9. This was fine. But then if the turn would be a 7, he would move it over and swap places with the 9. So instead of 6-3-9-7 you’d see 3-6-7-9. This made it tough to retroactively figure out what someone had, because I’m so much in the habit of ‘knowing’ the fourth card is the turn and the fifth card is the river, etc. Has anyone seen this before?

I have been making some killer reads on my opponents, and am at the top of my game right now. We’re down to eight-handed, and this is where I feel at my best. I am going to push the envelope during this level.

If the initial raiser didn’t look like he was willing to commit his tournament life, I just pushed. It’s a dangerous way to live, but I’m trusting my reads. I think I reraised all-in pre-flop three hands in a row. We probably played about twenty hands during this level, and I reraised all-in six times. I got called one time and took out a player. Four other times I won uncontested. Nice! Dangerous, but nice!

OK, here was my worst play during this level. The guy to my right had a couple of weaknesses. First, whenever he’d look at his hand, he’d pick his cards up and hold them in front of his face. I told him that I could see his cards, but he kept doing it. The table was really tightening up now because everyone wanted to make the final table. Even people with three and four big blinds were just being as patient as could be.

Anyways, the card shower’s other issue was that he would always minimum raise. On two separate occasions the dealer had to explain to him that he couldn’t raise from 600 to 900, since 1,200 was the minimum. Then he’d raise the minimum. Three or four times I saw him raise with absolute junk and everyone would fold. So I decided that the next time he did this when I was in a blind, I was going to re-raise all in regardless of my cards. So he did, I did. Oops! I lost half my chips as my K-5 got crushed by his A-Q. I was so 'ready' to make my move, that I didn't even look at him and try to determine whether or not he was strong this time.

Level 9 -500/1,000 blinds - 16,900 chips – 4/10 players remaining

We’re almost to the final table and now I finally have some chips.

Here was a very nice play I made on the final table bubble that really helped my table image. The big blind only had 900 chips left and 600 were in the blind. There was only one limper, and I called from the small blind with 9-6 suited. The big blind then raised all-in to 900 and we both called. There was now 2,700 in the pot, and I checked dark trying to get my opponent to do the same.

The flop came with three cards all in the same suit, and nine high, giving me top pair. Even though I had checked, my opponent bet the minimum. I really struggled with this, since he shouldn’t bet here without a flush or an overpair. Something seemed fishy though, so I called.

I checked dark again, trying harder to send him the message. Now there was 3,900 in the pot. A offsuit jack came on the turn and he bet the minimum again. I struggled more this time, and eventually called again, just hoping that maybe he had something like A-K and didn’t know how to play it.

I checked dark one more time, and threatened to check-raise him all-in if he bet the river. I can’t remember what the river card was but he smiled and bet the minimum again. Now there was 5,700 in the pot and I had to call with pretty much anything at all. I still took several minutes trying to decide what to do, and it was a pretty intimidating decision. The clock was paused and the entire crowd was gathered around since there was a 99% chance this was the final table bubble hand. Not to mention that I had more than half of my chips in the pot. I just didn’t want to get this decision wrong. Finally I noticed that my opponent seemed to be losing confidence, so I decided to call. He immediately said ‘good call’ and showed pocket sixes. So my nines were good! Definitely one of the hardest calls I’ve ever made, even with 9:1 pot odds…

Now we’re back to a full table. The final table bubble has busted. The blinds just doubled, and they’ll be doubling again in a half hour. I think the rest of this level will determine the rest of the tournament.

Level 10 – 1,000/2,000 blinds – 18,000 chips - 1/4 players remaining

Due to chip ups, there are now a total of 53,000 chips in play and I am finally the chip leader. The problem is that even with the chip lead, I only have nine big blinds.

Payouts are as follows:

1st - $3,000
2nd - $1,800
3rd - $1,200
4th - $900
5th - $600

Over the next six hands, I went from 18,000 to 26,000, and then all the way down to only 8,000 chips. I called two all-ins in a row with K-Q and lost both of them. This doubled up both of my opponents and put me in last place. I decided right then that a three-way chop would be a good idea, but I didn’t figure anyone would entertain my suggestion since I was in last place. So I waited until I pulled back into second and then suggested that we do an even three-way split for most of the money, and then play it out for the rest. My opponents seemed to think this made sense and we all agreed to the following chop:

1st - $2,400
2nd - $1,800
3rd - $1,800

As soon as I made this deal I knew I was going to win the whole thing. Isn’t that how it always works? Anyways, eight hands later I had all the chips, just as the buzzer sounded for the blinds to go up again.

And if you’ve read this far, you must be a poker addict…

As always, any and all comments are welcome. Even though this was my biggest win to date, I still made quite a few mistakes and there’s lots more to be learned…

[Chipless Wonder]

Two more comments I should add:

1. I only had pocket aces twice all day. Both times I was in the big blind, and got walks.

2. I didn't have pocket kings a single time all day.

[PaintedHeart]

And if you’ve read this far, you must be a poker addict…

Not an addict - I just skimmed the article!

Good job dear. Keep up the good work. My horse wants to live in our backyard!