Letter from Doke (10th Oct 2011)

Hi,

Doke here again. After Barcelona, I headed to London. I got there in
time to late register for the 1k side event. I had an up and down day
one but a late rush saw me finish with about 56k, in or around
average. Day 2 got off to a bad start when I got rivered in a big pot.
That left me with less than 6 big blinds well before the bubble, but I
managed to stage a recovery to be back to near average after the
bubble broke. Then I got rivered in another big pot to be short again,
and never really recovered, exitting in 16th for £2800. Still, I was
glad to keep up my record of cashing in something in every EPT I've
attended but one.

I played a couple of turbo side events, one of which featured an
unusual twist: every player still in the hand by the river was dealt a
separate river, which almost changes the game into a cross between
holdem and seven card stud. This changes things a bit more than most
people think. I'd like to play this variant again in a non turbo.

The next side I played was a hyperturbo. I almost didn't play this as
a protest against the exorbitant reg (effectively over 23%).
Hyperturbos are frantic at the best of times, but live ones are
essentially farcical. Blinds were rising twice an orbit, tables were
breaking faster than the floor staff could handle it, and you could go
from having too many chips to shove to being so short you had to call
any two in the big blind within a few hands. Which is basically what
happened to me. Bob Willis described it as the poker equivalent of
pitch and toss, which sums it up nicely.

Last event for me was the 10K freeroll for Irish players who played an
EPT Main event last year, as recognition of Ireland winning EPT
Country of the Year. 38 players qualified, but only 14 showed up. I
ran really bad in this, picking up only two premiums, AQ in the big
blind, which crippled me after Big Mick G shoved just under 10 bbs utg
with KTs and hit a king, and queens next hand, which lost to Feargal
Nealon's qjo (he hit a runner runner flush). That knocked me out in
8th: the only consolation being that 8 spots were paid, so I collected
another £500 for my trouble. Marty Smyth was playing this at the same
time as the final table of the Omaha, and was struggling to live
multitable. He ended up cashing in both though, so fair play.

On Saturday I headed up to Belfast for the wedding of my friends Rob
Taylor and Cat O'Neill. Both Rob and Cat are top class players: Rob
final tabled the Irish Open this year, and Cat is a former final
tableist of both the IPO and the IPC, so there's a really strong
possibility that any children will grow up to be top class players :)

This week's strategy hand is not one I was involved in but the crucial
hand from the London EPT main event final table. I didn't see the hand
at the time but when I went over to chat to Nick Abou Risk and Jesse
May they were debating the hand. It happened early on on the final
table. There were two giant stacks, a few short stacks, and some
medium ones. One of the shorter stacks opened in early to mid
position, chipleader Benny Spindler flatted on the button, and the
other giant stack threebet in the big blind. The short stack folded
and Benny now shoved, a massive shove several times the pot. After
some thought, the big blind called with AK and found himself in a race
with Benny's tens, which held. Both Jesse and Nick were questioning
whether the AK call was correct.

In my view, it wasn't, in this specific situation. When you have two
giant stacks that tower over all the other stacks, they risk a
considerable amount of equity in a confrontation. This means that the
player calling it off has to think he's well ahead for the call to be
correct. This concept is explained in detail in the book "Kill
Everyone". Benny's hand looks like tens, jacks or queens once he
shoves (aces and kings are unlikely, because his opponent has one of
each, and he probably wouldn't play them this fast). In "Kill
Everyone", the authors describe play between two big stacks in these
situations as a "game of chicken". Correct strategy is to either get
the chips in first (since your opponent is then making a mistake if he
calls it off when he's not clearly ahead), or keep the pot small. In
this spot, I'd probably have flatted with AK rather than threebet, to
keep the pot small (and also disguise my hand). The AK may have
threebet thinking if Benny made a normal sized 4 bet, he could 5 bet
shove. Benny's overbet shove is great play as it deprives the AK of
this possibility. This illustrates an important concept that crops up
a lot late on in tournaments: if you decide to raise, decide in
advance what you will do if you get shoved on. If you decide you have
to call because of the price you'd be getting, but you'd rather not
get shoved on, then shove in first, even if it's an overbet. Another
example of this is if you raise a weak ace on the button or in the
small blind, and the stack(s) behind are 15 big blinds or less. You
can't raise fold even a weak ace at this effective stack, so if you
think your opponent will reshove a lot of hands you'd prefer him to
fold, just shove rather than raising. A6o is ahead of JTs, but it's
virtually a flip (51/49), so if you have A6o and your opponent JTs,
you're better off shoving to get him to fold rather than make a normal
raise that induces him to shove.

I booked my flights to next European Masters of Poker event in Riga on from the 17 - 20 November in the Royal Casino Spa & Hotel Resort. There is a lot of interest in this final EMOP event of the year with a good many Team Irish Eyes players attending. If you want to join us, there are satellites from €2 and qualifers from €100 on www.irisheyespoker.com. I hope to see you there.

Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)

Doke