Going into the Tunica event, I was really starting to think I had these tournaments all figured out again. I had cashed in three straight
World Poker Tour events, and with a fourth cash, I would break the
WPT record for most consecutive cashes.
Last year, Tunica was good to me, as I won the
World Series of Poker Tournament Circuit event and more than $750,000 there. Actually, I did well the year before, as well, coming in third in this very
WPT event for about $400,000. Tunica has been a lucky spot for me the last few years, and I can't really figure out why. Who knows, maybe I play better when I'm hungry; not as in hungry for money, but, literally, hungry for food!
The people down South are all very kind and polite by nature, and I'm a fan of Southern hospitality. As for Southern cooking, being a vegan (no meats or dairy products), it was extremely difficult for me to find food that I would eat.
Knowing this going in, though, I was sure to pack a few essentials to keep me going (granola, soy milk, fruit strips, and so on). Also, the floor staff was extremely sympathetic to my situation, and went out of their way to help me out by making trips to Subway for me, and even by making me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich right there on the spot!
Early on in the second level, I played a hand differently than I normally would, and much differently from what you are used to reading in this column.
When you go with a "small-ball" strategy, one of the cardinal rules is that you don't make pots bigger than need be and you don't invest too much of your stack trying to force your opponent off a hand. Well, in this hand, with the blinds at $50-$100, I raised it to $250 from early position with the Q
J
. Up to that point, I hadn't played too many hands, and few if any of the players at my table had much of an idea as to how I play, so I thought they may fear a monster hand.
A player called from middle position, a tight player in late position called, and the big blind called. Now, with three callers, I'd already decided that I wasn't going to try to plow through this hand unless I had a piece of it.
The flop came 7
2
2
. That looked like a flop that could help only the big blind. Since I thought I had a newfound tight image, I decided to try to steal the $1,050 that was out there. I bet $600. The first player folded, and the tight player raised to $1,300. At the time that he raised, I was already committed to giving it up and moving on to the next hand. While the big blind was thinking, though, I had a chance to look at the tight player, and he seemed nervous to me. His raise started to seem like a feeler bet with a hand like 9-9 or 8-8. It appeared that he was making that "raise to find out where I'm at" play that I don't particularly like.
So now I asked myself the question: If I reraise him, what will he put me on? Most likely, a big overpair. What will he do if he puts me on that hand? Well, I figured he would fold his 8-8 or 9-9 and feel smart about the way he played it, since he was able to find out where he stood before he became too involved with the pot.
It just felt like taking candy from a baby, honestly. The only real hand he could have would be 7-7, and if he had that, he wouldn't be raising the flop. He'd likely wait for the turn or river, instead.
Now that I'd committed myself to taking this pot away from him, the next question I had to ask myself was this: What would be the right amount to raise him so that I would convince him that I wanted him to call, while not risking too many of my chips?
I had about $22,000 at the time, so I called his $1,300 raise and reraised $1,500 more. I thought that even if he called the $1,500, I could still win the pot in one of two ways: (1) I could get lucky and catch a queen or a jack, or (2) I could follow through with a bet of, say, $5,000 on the turn.
He thought about calling for a little while before finally realizing that I had to have him beat (I didn't, of course). As I raked in the pot, I gave him that dishonest nod, as if to be saying, "Good laydown, buddy; you know I had to have you there."
I ended day one with $42,925, more than doubling my original stack of $20,000. Anytime you are able to do that on day one of a
WPT event, you should consider it a success. You can't win the tournament on day one, but you sure can lose it if you get sloppy.
You can play poker with Daniel and read his blog at www.fullcontactpoker.com.
