I spent parts of four weeks in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker and saw several items worthy of further discussion.
I believe it was Mike Matusow who said that one of the most important skills in tournament poker is table selection. Of course, you are supposed to have no control over that. I ran really bad in table selection this year. My first starting table had Joe Sebok and Marco Traniello; I then ran into Daniel Negreanu early in my next tournament. My last starting table had four internet pros.
Of course, it appeared that Harrah’s random draw wasn’t particularly random for the main event. There were numerous reports that individuals who registered the day before the event were seated at tables solely with other individuals who registered the day before the event. While you would expect to see some of this, so many of these occurrences made it clear that Harrah’s needs to make some adjustment for 2011.
I did make a deep run in one of the no-limit tournaments, finishing seventy-fifth. After we got into the money, I was moved to a table full of players I expected to see at one of my starting tables.
There was an individual seated across from me who gave off a wonderful tell. If he liked his hand, he put his cards long-edge vertically under his protector; if he disliked his hand, the cards went horizontally. It’s always nice to know how one of your opponents is going to act in advance. He also looked at his cards the moment he got them. I owe this unnamed gentleman thanks for doubling me up twice.
This table also had the unlucky man who was moved from the big blind into the big blind at our table. He had to post nearly half his stack for that big blind. On that hand, there was an early position raise and all folded to Mr. Unlucky. The cost to call the raise would have been about half his remaining chips. Given how much of his stack is already in the middle, a case can be made for just moving all-in no matter what two cards he held. Yes, if he had a truly dreadful hand he could fold. But certainly calling would never enter his mind. You know what he did: He called.
The flop was something like 6a-6d-3s, about as innocuous as you can imagine. So Mr. Unlucky is going to move all-in, right? He checked, the raiser bet enough to put him all-in, and he folded. Mr. Unlucky was out a few hands later.
I also saw a gentleman at the table who made me look loose. He folded every hand for two orbits, and then limped under-the-gun. Alarm bells went off, and when I looked down at J-J, I was very unhappy. I was certain I was up against aces or kings. When I glanced across the table at Mr. Tell I saw that he liked his hand, so I folded. Mr. Tell raised, and shock of shocks, the limper shoved. Mr. Tell quickly called and flipped over pocket tens. The limper, of course, had aces and doubled up.
Sadly, that table soon broke and I was moved to a table with competent opponents. A couple of hours later I ran pocket tens into the big blind’s pocket aces and was out of the tournament.
Nevertheless, I’m convinced that there’s still money to be made in large field events at the World Series of Poker, especially if you are an observant player.
Russell Fox is the co-author of “Mastering No-Limit Hold’em,” “Why You Lose at Poker,” and “Winning Strategies for No-Limit Hold’em.” He’s a federally licensed tax preparer specializing in gambling, with a blog at taxabletalk.com. E-mail Russ at rcfox@claytontax.com
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