My first Main Event and a chesspoker round-up July 11, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : chess, poker , trackback
So I am back from the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, my first live deep-stacked event. It was an incredible experience to play in the ME, as you really get the feeling that just playing in the event is a dream come true for so much of the field. Well this was true for me too, so I was nervous every time I put chips into the pot. My nerves were in direct proportion to the chips in the pot, and not at all with what I actually had-my heart stopped whether I had the nuts, a marginal hand, or absolutely nothing. I made it through the first day with about as many chips as I started with and then big DRAMA about fifteen minutes into day two.
I had scoped out the table composition and googled all my opponents. I knew that the short-stacked guy on my left was an aggressive pro who would try to make a lot of moves for the blinds and antes. The biggest stack at the table, with 60K (pretty much everyone else had between 25 and 32K), was Annie Duke’s husband, Joseph Reitman. Reitman is an actor and has also been playing a lot of poker since marrying Annie. I didn’t really know what being Annie’s Duke husband would mean about his play, but I was guessing tight-aggressive.
In our first hand of the level about ten minutes in, Joseph raised in early position to 3x the BB, 1500. I called on the button with tens. Flop is Q 2 3 rainbow. He checks. Baffling! I was ready to raise on a continuation bet and then give up to resistance but this check is confusing. I bet about 3K, which some of my poker friends said was awful (they like checking behind to keep pot small.) Others say it’s fine, or even good. Turn is a 7 or a 5. He bets 5K! I reluctantly call, thinking that there’s a decent chance he’ll give up on the river, which brings a 5 or a 7. He fires out again 12K. I fold. Kind of annoying hand to lose almost a third of my stack on. My gut told me there was a 50% chance my tens were good, but my brain told me the chances had to be much lower. Unless he’s a total savage or a mind-reader.
The very next hand I get KJs on the cutoff. Middle position limps. I raise to 2K, partly because I know the guy on my left will shove with a huge range if I also limp. I don’t want to waste 500 chips in that way. Flop is 89Q with two spades. Original limper makes it 3500. I think for a minute and shove my remaining 20K. He instacalls and turns over 99. I don’t catch. Bye to me! I had a gutshot and a flush draw, but because if the board pairs he fills up, I was just under 35% to win the hand. It was still the correct play. Against his range of hands, I have fold equity against many and then great equity against a lot of others. I’m even a slight favorite against hands like JJ or AQ. The only time I’m way way behind is against something like AT of spades.
Feel free to leave a comment if you can think of other chesspoker players I don’t know about. Going into day three, Michael Casella (still active 2300) and Randy Bruekner (no longer active, 2000) are still in. How can I forget Dan Harrington? He’s also still in at the end of day two, with 182K in chips. Keep the dream alive!
Comments
Hey Jen,
Don’t know if you knew this, but Howard Lederer (Annie Duke’s brother) is also a (former) chessplayer. I think he was only a Class A or Expert though. I guess he doesn’t count though since he no longer plays (chess that is).
Good luck!
Al Pinto
Seymour, CT
Hey Jen I didn’t realize you were playing in the WSOP Main Event… you should of tweeted your progress. Oh well, maybe next time.
Does your nervousness increasing as the pot sizes go up have an effect on your tells? Do you film it or have a coach to try to notice your tells? Do you do the thinking routine most of the time like Gus Hansen or do you strive for the unflappability of a Johny Chan, or have your own style? No I don’t think the pawn on your chips is dorky at all. On a scale of 1-10 it’s a zero. A Queen might be nice. Loved it on your shoulder. It’s like putting the players on notice that you can calculate the odds with the best. Hope when you mucked with pocket tens it wasn’t just getting bullied by a big stack with a bluff. Good job getting as far as you did. You looked happy.
In a conversation I had with Bob Ciaffone a few years back, he mentioned that Howard Lederer made it to 2100; when I first played New England events with him, he was 17-1800, though on the rise(roughly the years 1982-86).
Congrats on your first ME. Sounds like you have a lot of fun.
What other poker achievements can you tell us about? Consider this an invitation to boast!
Your 10s were no good.
Joe: Thanks for letting me know!
Al: Yes, I knew Lederer played chess. I’m ready for fulltilt chess.
FT: I don’t worry too much about tells cause I have more crucial things to work on at this point, especially in the large % of my tourneys, where most of my opponents are not poker geniuses and if they tried to detect and use a tell against me, it’d probably lead them more astray than anything. The few “tells” I was really conscious of at the ME were related to bet-sizing and timing my deep thinks.
C-Rex: Don’t have any major brags for you but don’t worry, you’ll hear about them when I do
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