How the Dream Died at the WSOP Global Casino Championship
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They say if you played well, you aren't supposed to care after busting a tournament. But I feel like all the people who say that must have all of the money and titles, because I can't imagine feeling anything other than the immense disappointment after busting the World Series of Poker Global Casino Championship at Harrah's Cherokee.
I previously shared some thoughts here from what turned out to be a mostly successful Day 1 of the event. As those know who followed the coverage here on PokerNews, the dream died fairly early for me on Day 2.
Unfortunately, while I was mostly happy with my play once again, variance failed to cooperate. I lost a couple of preflop all-in spots — one was a flip and the other was my final hand of the event when my 9♥8♥ outflopped Ax10x but couldn't hold. And while I was able to manufacture chips in several spots, ultimately you do have to win some of these all-ins to make deep runs in these things.
While those hands were standard and unexciting, and there were a couple of moderately interesting hands that I may write up at some point, one hand stood out as the most interesting I played in probably the entire tournament. I'll go over that one here and explain my thought process on what was kind of an excruciating hand against a very tough opponent in Stephen Song (pictured above) who had a ton of chips.
The Hand
I unfortunately don't quite have all the details 100 percent pinned down. I usually take notes just after a hand completes, but in this case my very next hand turned out to be my last one, which distracted me a little from getting all of the particulars of this one.
What I can tell you is that we were playing the 2,000/4,000/4,000 level, and Song opened for 9,000 in the hijack. Holding A♣J♣ and sitting on a stack of about 110,000 in the small blind, I called.
The big blind folded and the flop came 9♠9♦6♠. I checked and Song bet around 13,000. I called and the turn was the 9♥. I checked again and this time Song bet 35,000. I called once more and the river was the K♥. Again, I checked. This time, Song shoved and I folded to preserve my last 63,500.
Thoughts and Analysis
This hand has many interesting decision points, the first of which came preflop.
I recognize the "standard" play in this spot would just be to shove all in with my ace-jack suited. In a faster-structured event, I may have done just that, but I'm a little reluctant just to shove stacks that are decently over 20 big blinds in a tournament with a good structure and one-hour levels (as was the case with this one).
I feel like if you do shove here you get rarely called, so you miss a lot of value on your big hands, and you can't really shove that many bluffs because it's kind of a disaster when you get called to lose a playable stack in such a fashion.
It's just kind of an awkward stack to three-bet in general from the blinds. That's because you end up with a pot-to-stack ratio a little over 1 if you make a "standard" sized three-bet and then there's almost no play postflop and you're out of position.
Sometimes I like to call my strong playable hands here and go postflop, although there are pluses and minuses that I see here. For a positive, I'd expect Song to put in some chips on most of the boards that are good for me except for possibly those where I make the nut flush. On the negative side, I'm out of position against one of the toughest players in the event — someone who is surely going to put the screws to me and force some difficult decisions.
In any case, I did opt for a call and we went heads-up to a board that would lead to exactly those difficult decisions. On the flop, I think I have a clear-cut check-call. My hand may be best and Song will likely continue betting when I improve on the turn.
The turn is where things get more interesting. With trips on board, Song continues to bet, sizing much bigger and setting up for a possible shove. What are his value hands here? He could certainly have quads, as well as big pairs, but I block two of the latter. Medium and small pairs would potentially keep betting as well.
As for bluffs, I'd expect he has a lot more than most opponents. Song is one of the most loose and aggressive players I've come across. He could honestly have two low suited napkins that had no relation to the board here and just expect he can fold me out with maximum three-barrel pressure. I still think I have the best hand often enough to continue, but I have to be ready to make a big call on the river unimproved in some cases.
That brings up another interesting option — shoving the turn. Even though I didn't have a ton of chips to shove over, I still think there was enough for some fold equity, especially given I'd seen Song fold to similar sizings before after betting or raising.
Though my hand is often good here, most rivers will be very difficult to play. Shoving allows me to realize my equity always, and I should usually have seven outs even if Song has a full house already, which is far from a hopeless spot. I'm blocking some of his strongest hands, so I think there's a lot of merit to turning my hand into a bluff even though it's often best.
As played, I went for a call and unimproved is exactly how I'd describe my hand as one of the worst cards in the deck hit the board on the end. Now, my jack doesn't even play if I'm against a weaker ace-high hand, which I fully expected he might have. Even worse, I felt many of his bluffs might be king-high hands that were attempting to fold out ace-high with a big turn bet. Now, all I could beat was an airball three-barrel.
I didn't expect him to shove mediocre boats for value, so his value range was actually pretty thin unless he expected to get looked up by ace-high, which I doubted.
Still, it's a little ugly to be trying to bluff-catch when some bluffs get there and I chop with some others. I had planned to call off my stack on many small and medium cards on the river as well as obviously the cards that improved me. The king was one of the few where I opted to give it up and try to keep fighting with my remaining 16 big blinds.
Unfortunately, that battle only lasted one more hand, and it was all over for me when an ace hit on the river to send me packing a couple of tables short of the money.
In retrospect, I do wish I had shoved the turn as I think this play might be a little better. Credit to Song, though, as he put me in a very tough spot and moved on to score a 10th-place finish for a decent cash.
