Randy "nanonoko" Lew
Blogs @ www.randylew.com but copied here for your viewing pleasure!
Pokernews Article: Randy Lew Discusses a Hand from the World Series of Poker
Here's that interview/article that I did with Kristy Arnett that I was talking about in my last post! Check it out!!
Pokernews Article: Randy Lew Discusses a Hand from the World Series of Poker
Event #12: $1,500 Triple Chance Recap
Today I played event #12: $1,500 Triple Chance. At the WSOP, your starting chip stack is always 3x the total buy-in of the tournament. This tournament was similar but slightly different. You start with 1500 chips and you get 2 rebuys for 1500 chips which you can use at any time. The majority of the players opt to buy in for 4500 chips immediately so it actually ends up playing like a $1500 9max tournament. Watch the video I attached for a little more explanation and my thought process in what I believe is optimal for this type of tournament.
I did a interview with Kristy Arnett of Pokernews of a hand I played in this tournament in the first level which I'll post when I find it.
I was very happy with my first table draw and felt I was playing pretty well overall while chipping up slowly in very solid spots. Eventually, I get moved to a new table in which when I first sit down, Carter King asks me, "how many other tables are you playing?" And the whole table started laughing. hahaha it was a very tough table but very chatty. I played some solid poker and then this hand developed against Dutch Boyd. He raised on the button at 150/300/25a to 900 OTB. I call in the BB with 77 with about 35bb effective. I think 3betting would be a decent play but I felt that I had enough chips where I could take a flop and play it for pair value especially against a button raising range.
The flop came T87r so I flop bottom set. I opted to lead into this pot because I felt that he was going to check back a good portion of his range on this flop in which I wanted to stop him from getting a free card as well as start charging him. It was also one of those boards where I didn't expect him to cbet a lot of random pure air given how connected and hard this board smashes my range so I wasn't expecting to induce many bluffs when I check. I led for 1200 chips, and he raised to 2700 chips. When he raises me on this flop, there's no point in me to continue slowplaying on this board especially if I run the risk of letting any card that makes a straight on the board such as a 6, 9 or J. When he raises me on the flop with these stack sizes it does seem that he likes his hand and is willing to go to war with it. So I opted to repop him to ~6200 and he went all in and we got it in. He flipped up AA and I faded the turn and river. This brought my chip stack to around 22k.
The last hand of the table break, I got dealt KK UTG and I raised it. The BB calls who seemed to be competent but was playing slightly looser. The flop came 874s, and he c/c my 1200 bet. Turn was the Qs which brought a flush. I bet 2800 on the turn and he c/r min me. I tanked for awhile and eventually released my hand as I didn't have the redraw and it looked like a spot that he wouldn't be bluffing. Also given the fact, he's been raising some flops prior, I would expect him to raise strong hands like sets or straights on the flop more often than not especially due to the drawy nature and flush drawed board. The only real bluffs I beat would have to be hands that he's turning into a bluff on the turn but my read on the player was he woudn't be messing around in this type of spot in this manner. When I released my hand, he showed me the As and eventually told me he had the nuts as that would very likely be true given the action unless he was playing offsuit weak aces which I doubt given the positions.
This left me with about 16000 chips and I got moved to another table. I played some hands but got chipped down a little bit. Eventually I had about 10000 chips, and I opted to raise KTs in early position at 300/600/75a. I think this was a mistake given how short I was getting and some of the stack sizes behind me were getting kind of short. Someone reshoved over my raise for about 4200 chips total so I ended calling given it wasn't much more to me (pot odds) and he had AJ and his hand held. This left me with about 9.5bb (5800 chips) in the BB in which early position raised, an guy flat called who seemed to be playing a lot of hands and I had 55 in the BB. I opted to shove because I felt that I can get this pot heads up if someone calls or there is a slight chance that they both fold as well. Given the fact that the antes were at 75 a piece meant that if I took this pot down without showdown then I would gain 1575 chips in blinds + 1350*2 (raise and call) which is 4275 chips. Which is almost doubling up if there's no showdown which has some chance and if someone does call then I would have even more chips and quite possibly be flipping against a hand like AT+, KQ, etc. So to me this seemed like a good spot given the amount of chip equity that I could gain and the strength of my hand so I opted to take it by shoving. The original raiser ended up reshoving instantly with TT and he held and I busted with about 270 players left in which 144 players paid. There were 1340 entrants in this tournament and I gotta say that I'm fixing some mistakes that I've been making with experience in the live tournament and I'm getting better at them and more confident as I continue to play them. I already registered for tomorrow's event which is event #13: $1,500 NL Shootout so wish me luck in that!
For more frequent live updates on my progress don't forget to follow me at either:
twitter - Randy_Lew
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WSOP 2011 Schedule
Hello everyone! I've played 5 events so far this 2011 WSOP. Got the farthest in event #4 5knl and all of the other events I busted on day1. I remember each tournament pretty well so I'll definitely get around to posting some thoughts and some hands from those events. The next event I'm scheduled to play is event #12 NL triple chance which I should be sleeping for! However, I wanted to give you guys a blog update as these long live poker days have been taking quite a bit of my time. I've attached my 2011 WSOP Schedule of all of the events I would play if I'm in the playing mood (which I imagine I'll be) and/or if I was capable of playing all of the events. If I make it deep in some tournaments, I'll be missing some of these events as they'll overlap so this is the tentative schedule if I bust out everything very quickly. You'll notice it's basically the majority of the NL and LHE events and quite possibly every single one since I've arrived. I missed the 25k HU NL. Anyways, wish me luck!
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