Hi All
Doke here. Well it's been a hectic few weeks to say the
least. First highlight was the European Nations Cup in Cyprus. The Irish team
was myself, Big Mick G, Dermot Blaine, Eoghan O'Dea, Cat O'Neill and last minute
substitute Rob Taylor (Cat's husband), with Parky acting as captain and
substitute.
First of all, credit to Padraig Parkinson for assembling
about as strong a team as he could for this event from those players who made
themselves available for selection. Other national captains were not as
successful apparently. When I saw the list of names on the French team, I was
surprised that I didn't recognise a single name on the list, as I know pretty
much all of the top French players. All became clear when Parky shared a bus
from the airport with the French team, who informed him that the team was
selected on the basis of a live satellite played in Deauville (so essentially
they ended up with 6 random players who happened to be in Deauville at the time,
entered the satellite, and ran well in it). Other national captains apparently
just selected all their mates.
The format (duplicate poker) was a little unusual, and I
will have a look at some of the implications of it later in the strategy section
of the letter.
Right before kickoff, there were some very mixed views
about our chances. Chatting to the Lithuanian captain who I'm friendly with
since we shared a livestream commentary gig, he was somewhat dismissive of our
chances, feeling that a team of predominantly mtt players could struggle in a
format where the blinds never increased and everyone's stack was reset to 200
big blinds at the start of every hand. This was a popular view: that players
with experience of deep stacked cash games were what you wanted (this turned out
to be more or less completely wrong as it happened, but it was the widespread
view. As it turned out, a much more important skill was the ability to pace
yourself and know when and how to reduce or increase variance, something all top
mtt players understand). The Dutch captain was even more dismissive of our
chances when he spoke to Parky. But on the other hand, when we tried to get on a
team bet with the UK, Neil Channing turned us down after due consideration,
opining that we would be favourites not only to finish ahead of the Brits but in
his view to win the whole tournament. Never underestimate the shrewdness of the
Channing when it comes to these types of assessments: while we led the way and
moved slowly and safely to victory, the Dutch and the Danes (who on paper had
the strongest teams, and mostly adopted a hyper aggressive approach) punted
their way up down and around the lower half of the
field.
We
were up with the leaders throughout and went into the fourth and final session
with the narrowest of leads imaginable over France in second. As we got into the
fourth session, I realised that my seat was the hot seat this time around. So no
pressure other than the knowledge that if I got too many big decisions wrong it
could cost the entire team (Jesse May told me later that Parky exclaimed "oh
Christ that's Doke's seat" on the livestream when it became clear that 5 was the
hot seat (by now as a team we were getting used to the idea that most seats were
cold and there was generally one hot seat per session that got most of the cards
and tricky decisions, so at every break you were keen to find out how your
teammate in the hot seat had got on). Luckily I played as well as I felt I could
(which I pretty much always do under
pressure).
As
soon as the session ended I immediately tweeted that my seat had been the hot
seat in that last session and I just hoped I hadn't got the big decisions wrong
and cost us (for obvious reasons we were not allowed to tweet or use any
electronic devices during sessions). So I may not have been the most elated man
in the room when it was announced that we had not only won but had actually
extended our lead in the last session (that would be either Rob Taylor who
literally went ballistic with happiness or a similarly thrilled Big Mick G who
had just scooped his seat, Player of the Tourney and team gold) but I'm pretty
sure I was the most relieved. Before the announcement, we assembled at a table
and waited nervously. Jesse May and Parky arrived and immediately ratcheted up
the tension by offering different opinions as to who had won, Parky plumping for
France while Jesse felt the UK had done it. Big Mick winning his seat (and then
MVP) boosted our hopes, but then as it was announced that not only had the lady
on the UK team Daiva won her seat but also captain Barny Boatman his, we started
to get a little paranoid that Jesse as livestream supremo might have been told
something.
Overall we were pretty thrilled to win (and qualify for
the World finals). The feeling in the camp was summed up perfectly by Big Mick G
who tweeted:
"
I've won a lot of money playin poker over the years but 2day was defo d biggest
achievement/most rewarding day of my 7 year professional Carer winning player of
the tournament and winning the tournament overall 4 ireland was some buzz. Great
feeling. Come on d Irish!".
For those unfamiliar with the duplicate poker concept,
the basic idea is that each seat on each table gets dealt the same cards for
every hand. So on hand 1, if you look down at K7o, you know that every other
player in your seat on other tables is also looking at K7o. Flops turns and
rivers are similarly pre-ordained. There are 6 players per team (one of whom
must be a female), and each team has one player in each seat at different tables
(which are therefore obviously all 6 handed). Each hand is scored by calculating
the net amount of chips each team won or lost overall on that hand. The team who
won the most chips gets maximum points, the team who won the second most gets
one point less, and so on down to the team who lost the most chips who get the
minimum points. Every hand counts, so effectively every decision by every player
in every hand feeds into the overall result. The cost of a really bad error is
to guarantee your team nul points on that hand, which is far more significant
than what a well sized thin value bet or a good fold early in a hand stands to
gain you, so the performance of each team was more likely to hinge on the
weakest link rather than the strongest (a point illustrated by the fact that
despite the UK winning two of their seats, they only came fourth overall). So
optimal strategy seemed to be to err on the side of caution and take the low
variance ABC route when in doubt.
The only big hand I played in the first session was a
pretty gross one that illustrates that while duplicate poker is supposed to
reduce the luck element, it certainly doesn't come close to eradicating it (it
just makes some things like who wins a standard flip unimportant but makes other
factors like team selection, table draw and timing much more important). Lars
opened the cutoff, I 3 bets queens from the small blind, and he called. I cbet
the 864 flop, he raised, and I shoved. Over the next thirty seconds, I went from
hoping it hadn't gone all in on other tables and feeling pretty good about
myself to praying I wasn't the only table where it did go in, as the board ran
out 8647T to make the nines a straight.
So
at the break I was eager to find out from my teammates how that particular hand
had played out on other tables. I was somewhat relieved to find that it had gone
in on most tables (usually on the turn, except on Rob's table where he had the
nines and the queens butchered the hand by check raising the river all in),
except for one table where the queens had somehow folded the flop (a bizarre
fold to say the least) and another where the queens got away more legitimately
on the turn. This illustrated how big a part luck could still play: the dubious
fold on the turn with the queens probably ended up getting that player's team
maximum points since he lost considerably less than the queens did anywhere
else, and the nines on that table must have felt great but actually cost his
team. Similarly, any player who managed to get away from the nines on the flop
would actually have been severely punished by the scoring system. To me, this
illustrates that while you often hear the phrase "play normal poker" there's
really no such thing. It always depends on the reward or scoring system, and a
myriad of other factors.
I
was pretty card dead for the first three sessions and the only spot where I got
to exercise a bit of creativity was one that had nothing to do with cards or
stack sizes or position but everything to do with bladder. The Serb to my
immediate left had been requesting a substitute so he could take a toilet break
for some time, and was becoming visibly more uncomfortable by the second as it
took some time to locate the substitute. The sub finally appeared just after he
had opened under the gun, meaning that he was free to go relieve himself once
the hand was over. After it was folded to me in the big blind, he muttered
"Please fold quickly". So I obviously threebet ridiculously light. After he
squirmed and called and we waited 30 seconds for the flop to appear on screen, I
started to move chips into the pot. Before I had announced the amount, he had
already folded and was sprinting towards the bathroom. Lars Bonding, realising
what had just happened, chuckled and tapped the table. He also suggested that my
plan if I encountered any resistance had to involve a very long tank while
making flowing water noises.
Since I got home, I've been focussing heavily on
grinding online. I want to put in as much volume as I can before I take off on
my travels again in June, first to Marbella and then to Las Vegas for the WSOP.
It's been going well: I won a number of online tournaments in the last week and
achieved a PocketFives Triple Crown (awarded for winning three large tournaments
with more than 100 runners on three different sites in the same week). Hopefully
this form will continue all the way to Vegas and I go there brimming with
confidence for this year's bracelet hunt. I'm going for a shorter campaign than
in previous this year (three weeks) in the belief that it will be easier to stay
at the top of my game and avoid the dreaded Vegas burnout that
way.
I
am selling some action for my WSOP side events so if you fancy an interest or a
sweat in this year's WSOP, full details are at http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?p=703981
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Good Luck at the tables......unless I am at the same table :)
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