by John "The Scientist" Hayes
On Friday night September 16 at 7 p.m. 653 players converged on the 2nd-floor tournament playing area hoping to grab the $10K Guaranteed Prize Pool at the Commerce Casino in City of Commerce, CA. I was one of those players. Over 1200 players initially signed up on Facebook.
The structure was a $60 buy-in (no rebuys), 10K in starting chips, twenty-minute levels, and 2-hour rounds. This particular tournament structure provides a great game for beginners, recreational players, and aspiring pros because it helps them get their feet wet in tournament play without having to commit too much cash or time.
The structure is also great for the casino because it gets more players in the doors, which, in the long-term, is good for the players also.
It was a stark contrast to see the facebook beginning players seated on one side, with the $2000-buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Championship being played on the other side of the same room.
My hat goes off to Commerce Casino and staff, in particular VP of Player Relations David Mosikian, for their visionary use of the internet in marketing. One suggestion: if you add more money to the guarantee, more players will participate. Kudos also go to Jason Vega, Commerce Casino’s customer service host and greeter, whose hard work and exuberant professional style made us all feel like this was one big home game.
My own final result: down to the break I was up over 17,000 chips, but after the break I was knocked out with two-thirds of the field still playing. Check the website www.commercecasino.com for final results, and thanks to Commerce Casino for a highly successful event and hopefully a bigger prize pool next year.
Player Reactions to My Last Column. Most of the players who replied to my last column, “Back to the Drawing Board,” regarding my call against Brian “The Bear” McCann’s “All-In,” said that I was correct in calling with my A-9 heart-suited.
I am honored that George “The Engineer” Epstein, smallstakes expert, Poker Player Newspaper Columnist, and author of the Hold’em Algorithm, thought that I made the correct call.
George writes: “I think you played the hand well. You had a good starting hand (27 points -- well over the 22-point minimum required in late position according to the Hold’em Algorithm). On the flop, you had four-to-the-nut flush plus the ace (assuming one of your opponents makes a pair of jacks); with 12 outs, your card odds were almost even money. And you satisfied the ‘Two-Step’ requirement . . .”
Reader Ismael Covarrubiaz adds: “He knew the 6 made his hand that much stronger and missed your hand, and that’s the reason he shoved all-in: he knew you were still drawing (solid). The talk is obviously so he could give you a false tell. If he’s telling you to call, he probably would have told you to call even if you had shown top pair (young). You probably made the call because of your outs regardless of what he held, but if I were in that situation, I would’ve called because I smelled weakness. The short answer is: yes, your call was correct.”
The only professional player who said I should have folded was Robert “Chipburner” Turner. He writes: “You should have smelled something fishy when ‘The Bear’ said ‘show me your cards’. He was playing with your mind, and you fell right into it. If ‘The Bear’ had a losing hand, he would tell you to fold, and when he saw he held two of the heart cards you needed, he tells you to call. The KEY here is: it’s not worth risking two-thirds of your chip stack for that draw; you can wait for better.”
Thank you one and all for your helpful feedback.
»
