WSOP Day Four

Day Four started with 474 players, which made the average chip count 288,776. Bearing that in mind, here’s the table I drew:

B01-1: Matt Matros – 822,500 
B01-2: Mitchell Smith – 332,500 
B01-3: Frank Chimienti – 175,000 
B01-4: Denny Lee – 162,000 
B01-5: Brian Hansen – 634,500 
B01-6: Helge Pedersen – 517,000 
B01-7: Eric Tom – 218,500 
B01-8: Alan Jaffray – 908,500 
B01-9: David Saab – 321,500 

Five of my eight opponents were above average, no one was short, and one of only 13 people in the tournament with more chips than I had been drawn to my table. That was bad, but it got much worse when the 2 and 3 seats busted and were replaced with David Benefield (on my immediate left) and James McManus (not the writer, a different guy), another tough player, both of whom had very large stacks. A reporter mumbled that our table had more chips than any other table in the tournament.

I thought it would be tough sledding, and I was right. The entire table, it seemed, was tough and aggressive. I played a bunch of difficult hands, but two were especially memorable. With blinds of 2500-5000 and a 500 ante, I opened for 15k with AJo in the hijack. Only the big blind, an aggressive player I’d played with a little on an earlier day, called. The flop came J86 rainbow. My opponent checked and I bet 21,000. He check-raised to 58,000. I had a pretty big hand for the situation, so I called, planning to call again on the turn and possibly the river. The turn was a deuce, bringing a backdoor flush draw, and my opponent surprised me by checking. I thought my opponent would’ve check-raised the flop for value with many worse hands than mine (worse jacks, middle pairs, etc.) and that he was probably planning to call a turn bet with them. I bet 85,000 for value. My opponent check-raised 105,000 more to a total of 190,000. Now I was in a very odd spot. I don’t like to value bet and then fold to a raise, but I’ll certainly do it with the worst hands in my value betting range. But something about the big blind’s story didn’t completely add up. Obviously I didn’t give him an overpair without a preflop reraise. He could’ve flopped two pair, but it would be strange for him to check the turn with such a vulnerable hand, and stranger still to make the small check-raise. I thought he either had a set or was bluffing/semi-bluffing. With this read, and knowing my opponent was aggressive, and getting 4-1 on my money, I decided I couldn’t justify a fold. I called, waiting to see what he did on the river. The river brought a five, and my opponent bet 210,000 into the 530,000 pot. I hated the river card. I thought my opponent’s most likely semibluffing hand was a straight draw, and 79 got there on the river. To be fair, 9T was still no good, and the backdoor flush draw hadn’t got there. I was now getting about 3.5-1 on my money, but of course my opponent’s most likely hand, based on the action, was a set. I took a long time and was legitimately on the fence about this river decision. When I’m that close on a decision, I usually go with my instincts. My instincts at the table, at that moment, were that my hand was good often enough to justify a call. I didn’t care about “maintaining my chip position,” or about “losing a big pot with one pair,” or anything else. I only cared about making the most positive-EV decision I could with the information I had. I called. My opponent said, “good call” and rolled over ATo for a complete bluff. I have to credit him with a hell of play that really almost worked. After the hand, I had about 1.2 million in chips.

The second memorable hand was a button vs. small blind confrontation. With blinds of 3000-6000 and a 1k ante, the button opened for 18k. I made it 60k in the small blind with pocket threes. The big blind folded and the button called. The flop came A54 with two diamonds. I bet 85,000, my opponent called. I thought his most likely hands were a medium ace or a flush draw. The turn brought an offsuit six. Picking up the open-ender, I decided to fire another semibluff. I bet 175,000, and my opponent called again. At this point I no longer gave him a flush draw, and thought it unlikely that he had even a medium ace. Now I had him on AK or AQ. The river paired the six. I thought this was a bad card to try to bet. If he had what I thought he had, he would be unlikely to fold after the board paired and none of the draws came in. I checked, giving up. My opponent thought for a while, and eventually checked behind me. “You must win,” I said. “No,” he said, “you win.” I rolled over my hand. Let me repeat that. I ROLLED OVER MY HAND. He said, “that wins.” I looked over at David Benefield (we’d sort of become friends over the past few hours) in shock. But then my opponent said, “oh wait, do I win?” At that point I knew I’d been slowrolled. He turned over 8d5d. He’d flopped a pair and a flush draw, turned a gutshot to go with it, and somewhere along the way forgot that a pair of fives beat a pair of threes. I never get upset at anybody, but when he tried to explain what he’d done I said, “just shut up and take the pot.” A few minutes later he tried again and I said, “dude, I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” At that moment I thought I’d be mad at the guy forever (as you’ll see in a future update, it turns out I didn’t stay mad at him). I was down to 800k again.

How did I work my stack back up? No really, I don’t remember, how did I do it? Reading over old updates…ah yes, “Aces Again for Matros.” They don’t mention that I probably played them like an idiot. With blinds of 5k-10k with a 1k ante, the button (yes, same guy) opened for 30k and I made it 90k from the small blind. David Benefield called everything cold from the big blind. The button folded. The flop came J75 with two hearts. I bet 130,000. David called again. The turn brought an offsuit deuce. I checked, intending to induce a bluff. (I don’t remember if I was planning on check-calling or check-raising, sorry.) David checked right behind me. The river brought the eight of hearts. The flush draw and several straight draws came in, not to mention that 88 just made a set. I’d had David on queens or jacks preflop, and I still thought both those hands possible. Of course, I only beat one of them. If I bet and got raised, I would be in a very tough spot against a very tough player. And if I bet, would David even call with two queens? Probably, but possibly not. I didn’t think he’d call with tens or nines. And he was certainly tricky enough to have the nut flush (I had black aces) or even T9 or 69 for a straight. I decided to check and call. David checked right behind me again. My aces were good. We’ll never know how many bets I missed. 

At that point I had about 1.1 million, and our table broke. I did mental cartwheels. Unfortunately I got moved to the slowest table in poker history. It took us about 20 minutes to play the final hand of the night. I’m not kidding. And the guy who had the “huge decision” was getting some enormous price and he had an overpair. I’m not kidding. I ended Day Four with 1,126,000.

This thing took longer than I thought it would to write, so Days Five and Six will have to wait for another post.

Good News for Online Poker

I interrupt my WSOP recap to make sure everyone knows about the legislative victory for online poker that happened yesterday. After failing in its first attempt a few months back, Barney Frank’s Payments System Protection Act–a bill that severely weakens the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) passed two years ago–passed a committee vote by a count of 30-19.

Now I’m no lawyer, but the bill is written in English and my interpretation seems to be the same as the one that’s been floating around the internet. The bill basically revokes the UIGEA for everything other than sports betting (which is specifically illegal outside of Vegas), at least until the legality of other forms of gambling is made clear. In other words, until someone declares poker illegal, this bill would make it so that U.S. banks allow transfers to online poker sites.

There is a long way to go. The bill has to get debated and passed in the House and Senate, and then signed into law by the President, before any of this takes effect. The process could last years. Or, like Bill “Douchebag” Frist did with the UIGEA, a legislator could tack this bill onto another bill and get it passed and signed into law much, much sooner.

Even if the bill becomes law, there’s no way of knowing whether Party, Paradise, et al will reopen their doors to U.S. customers. And even if the bill becomes law, poker would not suddenly be seen as 100 percent legal in the eyes of the U.S. government. But getting this bill out of committee is a great start, and marks a sharp contrast from where we were two years ago, when the complete shutdown of online poker seemed a distinct possibility.

Are you excited about the development? Or do you perhaps have a different interpretation or additional information? Feel free to comment. I’ll return everyone to their regularly scheduled WSOP recap soon.

Relaunch

Welcome one and all to the relaunch of mattmatros.com. Actually, it’s not so much a relaunch as it is a tweaking of the design, and a renewed effort to start posting again. As most of you probably noticed, I never could keep up with the various sections of the old site (the polls, math corner, essays, etc.), and even the journal suffered from periods of neglect like that of the last two months. So in the new iteration of the web site, I’m going to focus only on the journal—and I guess I should relent and call it what it is, a “blog.” I’d be happy to add more features, or even return to the old design if people demand it. But I’m hoping and guessing that y’all will like the new look better.

Way back when, I promised a longer post about my WSOP main event experience. That seems as good a topic as any with which to start the new blog, so here goes.

For those who don’t know, I finished 78^th out of 6,844 entrants in this year’s Main Event at the World Series of Poker, busting early on Day Six as a short stack, after being in excellent chip position for most of the first five days. Where to start?

I’ll start from the beginning, or close to it. I lost just about every hand I played for the first three hours, and found myself down to about 6,600 from my starting stack of 20,000. To being working my way back, I gambled a little and slowplayed aces in a multi-way pot, and I’m pretty sure I earned a couple of extra bets because of it. That got me up to about 10k. Then the worst player at the table limped for 200, two others limped, and I checked my option in the big blind with 52o. The flop came Q75 rainbow. It checked to the limper who bet 200 into the 800 pot. It folded to me, and only because I thought this guy might do something silly if I hit my card, I called. The turn, of course, paired the five. I checked, and my opponent bet 600. I made it 2,000. He made it 4,000. I had been playing with this guy since the start, and I strongly felt that he had either aces or nothing. If nothing, I didn’t think I’d get any more money anyway, so I figured I might as well just get it all-in against aces right then and there. I moved in for about 4,800 more. My opponent tanked…and eventually called with K7o! Welcome to the WSOP main event, where you can actually get paid when your opponent has nothing. The river bricked and I was back to my starting stack.

Two hands later, the cutoff opened for 600 and I made it 1,800 from the button with AA. He called. The flop came KJ8 and he checked. I bet 2,500, and my opponent check-raised to 7,500. I was worried about king-jack and 88, but I thought there were enough ace-kings and king-queens in his range to justify calling the 5,000 more, and so I did. The turn paired the eight—a beautiful card. Now I was ahead of king-jack, and 88 was far less likely. There was still some chance of jacks full, but hey, you can’t have everything. My opponent checked and I moved all-in for about 11,000. He thought for a while, and eventually called with KQ. The river bricked out, and now I had about 40k.

The very next hand. I opened for 550 in the cutoff with AJo. The terrible player from the 52o hand called in the big blind. The flop came J-7-2 with two clubs. He checked, I bet 800, he made it 2,000, I called. The turn brought a six. He bet 4,000, I called. The river paired the six. He checked. I bet 6,500. He announced all-in, for about 7,000 more. I shrugged my shoulders and called. “You called?” he said—always a good sign. He rolled over QJ, and just like that he was out of the tournament, and I had gone from 6600 to over 60k in about 15 minutes.

The bad player got replaced by a good player, and the two players to my immediate left also eventually busted and were also replaced by good players. With murderer’s row behind me, I decided to just pack it in and play a very straightforward style for the rest of the day. I ended Day One with 66,475 in chips, well above average.

What the heck even happened on Days Two and Three? (Checking my FTSweat updates…) OK, I now remember my starting and finishing tables for both those days, and at least some of the key hands. Early on day two, I got dealt KK against JJ, and actually got unlucky when my super-tight opponent laid down his overpair on the flop to me, after I’d been very active up to that point, and after I’d been caught playing 94o (or something) specifically against him. I stole quite a few pots that day, but I can’t really remember any that stand out. I do remember that at the very end of the day, Brandon Cantu was to my immediate right. I’d never played with him before, and actually didn’t know who he was at the time. He’s the most aggressive player I’ve ever seen. There was a point where he literally opened every pot for about two orbits. You hear about that happening a lot, but I’ve never actually seen it—someone opening literally every hand. I reraised him twice. Once he mucked, and once he called, and called again on the 579 flop. I folded on the turn, and he later was dying to tell me that he eight-six and couldn’t believe his good luck. Whatever he had, I ended Day Two with 191,800.

Day Three was a thing of beauty. I snapped off another big stack’s bluff early on, and then was lucky enough to have AA against GBecks’s JJ and won a nice pot. I moved to another table, and continued to accumulate chips. The other big stack called one of my raises, and then check-called a ragged flop. He then told me during the break that he’d had ace-king suited, but didn’t want to mess with me. Oh man, he really shouldn’t have told me that. Later on I opened with some trashy hand (maybe like 97s or something) and the big stack who “didn’t want to mess with me” reraised. I called in position. The flop came AA4, and because of his earlier description of the AK hand, I felt I had to steal this pot. He bet the flop and I called. The turn brought a blank and he check-folded, claiming he had two tens. I told him I had an ace, and he said, “I told you I didn’t want to mess with you.”

I can’t even describe how good I ran on the bubble. I mean, of course I was playing very aggressively, but the sick thing was that I almost always had a hand. One poor sap got a decent-sized stack all-in with me during the hand-for-hand period with ace-king, and I happened to have pocket kings. You gotta feel for that guy. There was also the usual, a short stack open-raised from the small blind and then bet the ace-high flop, and I set him all-in from the big blind. He folded ace-jack face-up, not wanting to risk elimination. Another time a player folded ace-king face-up after I’d moved him in on the king-high, two-heart flop. I had the king-nine of hearts! When all was said and done, I had 838,500 when we hit the money, almost twice as much as I’d had a level earlier. I finished Day Three with 822,500.

That’s enough for now. Next post: Days Four-Six.