Death and Texas

The Triple Draw Mix

I came to Houston for the Champion's Club Winter Poker Open - a 2 week series of poker tournaments with buyins ranging from $150 - $2500. The card room was a short drive from my mom's house, so I could visit family while I was there.

Most of the tournaments were holdem events, but one exception was the $250 Triple Draw Mix. The three games were A-5, 2-7, and Badugi, all played as limit triple draw. In each game the goal is to make a low hand.

I made a deep run in the triple draw mix but found myself as the short stack on the stone bubble - one person away from making the money. It's the most miserable way to exit a tournament. Everyone else is pumped to cash and you have to make the walk of shame.

My bustout hand was some badugi hand where I committed myself before the first draw and my opponent made a badugi immediately to send me out on the bubble.

The Monster Stacks

Every morning I would drive over to my mom's house for breakfast. My mom's family is an atypical household crammed into a typical suburban home. Five people none of whom are within 10 years in age (step-dad, mom, sister, half-brother, niece) and about 40 animals.

After I ate I would have my laptop out reviewing hands from the previous day. My sister would be cleaning the mouse cage and my mom would be doing a crossword puzzle. At some point I would retrieve a deck of cards and share with them my interesting hands.

There were two $400 Monster Stack tournaments in this series and I made deep runs in both of them. My bustout hands in these weren't notable, but here's a wild one I dealt out on the kitchen table:

I cashed both of these tournaments but not for significant scores, falling one flip short of the final table both times.

The 6-Max

The tortoise at my mom's house had recently come out of hibernation. She gets full run of the house, although she doesn't exactly "run". One morning while I was sharing poker hands she was very slowly making her way out the back door. She was having trouble making it though because the macaw wouldn't leave her alone.

The newest and loudest member of my mom's household is an adult macaw my sister rescued. Apparently he used to live with a tortoise. They must have had something special because he is obsessed with my sister's tortoise.

Frodo and Minny Under Her Blanket

Anyway for this hand from the $500 6-max imagine a flightless macaw chasing around a 100 lb tortoise who has her own mobility issues:

This tournament I did reach the final table but it was a smaller prize pool and I got coolered into a 6th place finish AKs < KK for $1320.

After making a deep run in the first $400 monster stack and then immediately final tabling this one I was feeling optimistic for the series. The fields were soft and I was playing well. In the wise words the Casino King, what could go wrong?

The $300 Tourneys

I did not do well in the $300 tourneys for this series. One was a 2-day where I fired 14 bullets and min cashed for $580. The other was a random daily where I only fired once but didn't cash.

My performance in these tournaments was I think related to a big leak of mine - gambling too much early in low stakes tournaments.

I talked about this with Chance Kornuth from Chip Leader Coaching during a 1-on-1 call we had (that was briefly interrupted by a screaming parrot). Chance framed it as overvaluing a big stack in a tournament and undervaluing the small stack. We're willing to get it in bad early in a tournament because doubling seems so important. We don't want to fold and have less than a starting stack so we call it off bad thinking we'll just rebuy.

Chance shared a story of a recent WPT final table he made where he had under 20bb to start day 2. My biggest score in the Mystery Millions I was a short stack to start day 2 as well. I was also short stacked for Day 2 in my second biggest score - a WPT final table in December.

It's hard to stay focused and make disciplined folds when the stakes feel low. This is a new goal of mine.

Galadriel

The PLO Championship

The $1100 PLO Championship was a late start so I took my sister to Fabrictopia to buy her a bunch of textiles for her birthday. It's a giant store filled with rolls of different fabrics. You carry your roll over to a table and then the employees cut you out as much as you want.

Besides suburban animal husbandry my sister's big hobby is dolls and making clothes for them. So Fabrictopia is heaven for her.

Due to shopping and I-10 traffic I showed up late to the PLO tournament on the first day. No matter - they hadn't started anyway. It was a small field event and every flight started late waiting for 4 people to enter.

Improving my PLO game is one of my poker goals for the year. In this one I felt like I played well enough to cash given some good variance. But I also made some pretty noobish mistakes to dust off huge stacks:

The final turbo flight was at 8am the morning of Day 2. The early morning vibe was pretty cool. Unfortunately I ran bad and was unable to find a bag. I busted my last bullet getting coolered by "Big Boy" - a local whale who owns a bunch of hair salons. I got it in with AAK7 on K65 versus his naked queen high flush draw and he rivered the flush. No PLO cash for me and I was now stuck several thousand dollars on the trip.

Big Boy

The Main Event

Most nights I would go back to my mom's house and watch Worst Cooks In America with my mom, sister, and niece. This is the show they were binging at the time. It was a pretty nice way to wind down after a long day of poker.

One night I arrived mildly drunk and fired up about soft bubbling the Main Event.

I had been playing since the 8am PLO turbo flight that morning. I fired some bullets in the morning flight of the Main Event and busted. Then I decided since I was already compromised by being tired I would make the night flight a drinking flight.

With three tables left and approaching the bubble I found myself at a table with no aggressive players. This is the dream in tournament poker. I was able to play a lot of hands stealing small pots and then I caught some run good and stacked a couple people to take the chip lead.

With two tables left and 2 eliminations away from bagging for the night (the soft bubble) I played the hand that would define this trip for me:

At my mom's house I cracked a beer and started ranting in defense of my poker abilities. I had been losing so much that my family was starting to doubt me.

But this hand had me doubting myself. Days later I was still analyzing it.

I got some feedback online saying that getting drunk will lead you into reckless aggressive lines you wouldn't take when you are sober. Was this just a drunk punt?

It's definitely possible. But I thought my decisions were all based on good logic and hand reading. I think I ranged my opponents well. I think I had a good idea where I was at in my own range. I wound up in a spot on the river where I had a lot of strong hands and just a few combos of whiffed straight flush draws and 65s. If I was ever going to bluff this spot then 85s would be in there.

But there's also an idea that you shouldn't try to bluff a fish off of top pair, let alone an overpair. Would this guy have just snap-called me with AA here anyway?

Days later in a different tournament I asked the guy who eventually busted me if he thought the fish would have folded AA in that spot. He said yes. The fish was talking about how he only fires one bullet per tournament. He really valued cashing. I don't think he would have called it off with an overpair.

No way to prove it though. And in the meantime I had just dusted off a huge stack on my way to not cashing this main event on 18 bullets.

My final bullet of the last starting flight Big Boy whaled me again. This time I 3b AKs to a non-all-in sizing and he cold called with ATo. The flop came ten high and I jammed for about 2/3 pot with overs and a backdoor flush draw. Easy call for him.

The High Roller

My last chance to break even on this trip was the $2500 high roller. This was a tiny field event that we played in a private room at the club. We began 4-handed and the field never grew to more than 2 tables.

The players were mostly good regs but also included Big Boy and a couple recreationals as well. Big Boy ended up accounting for something like 20% of the total prize pool on his many bullets.

Gabby the high stakes pro was fun at the table. He was drinking wine and telling stories about partying on Cary Katz's yacht. He would often burst into song.

Gabby

I began the tournament on absolute fire and was up to 3 starting stacks after a few 50-minute levels.

But then the tides turned against me. I lost an allin AKs < TT. Eventually I was back down to a starting stack and chose poorly in a nasty spot vs the recreationals:

So now I was down to my last bullet in the high roller. The rest of Day 1 was a bit rollercoastery for me but I did end up putting chips in a bag and coming back for Day 2.

Day 2 I came out of the gates on fire again. I flopped broadway but kinda won the minimum on a bad runout. I doubled through Big Boy with a bigger pair vs his smaller pair and gutter.

By the time we reached the final table I was one of the big stacks but again I started to run bad. I doubled up Big Boy KK < ATs. I doubled up another guy AJs < 33.

Because this was such a small field it was only paying 5 places and the min cash was a significant $5500 with $24k for 1st. Eventually we were down to 6 and on the stone bubble.

The remaining players were myself, Gabby, Big Boy, a loose fish, a tight fish, and a good reg. We played a long bubble where I'm pretty sure everyone had the chip lead at some point.

I had the chip lead twice and got it in bad both times to surrender it. The first one I got in 18bb with 88 vs the tight fish's KK. The second one was more interesting:

It was all downhill from there. Eventually I found myself all in with K3s on the BTN for 7.5bb getting snap called by Big Boy in the BB with AJo. No king, no 3, and Big Boy got me yet again.

This was a painful bubble. I had the chip lead twice and couldn't even find a min cash. And this would have been a big min cash. Plus the remaining field was half recs. It was a great spot.

There's nothing worse in tournament poker than a stone bubble.

Now I just had one tournament left to play for the series: The Triple Draw Mix.