San Jose

As I say every year, the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament in San Jose is my favorite tournament of the season. They send a jet to pick us up, they have multiple bounties, they have a friendly and knowledgeable staff, they actually pay the “stars” an appearance fee, they have the most enthusiastic poker fans in the country, and they let a mentally challenged man (Matt Savage) run the whole show! (Although his wife, Mary Ann, keeps him on a tight leash.)

I’ve always played hard and tried to win there, but I’m not sure that I’ve always played my best. Sometimes I decide to gamble when I probably should wait. Sometimes I put on the brakes when my table calls for uber-aggression. And sometimes I’ll say something to myself like, “Well, I don’t want to come back tomorrow as a short stack, so I’m going to either get chips or get out.”

The main reason I’ve had these thoughts (or lack of thinking) has usually been that it simply hasn’t been that important to me to do well in tournaments. I mean, I’d like to win, but if I don’t, that’s OK, too. I didn’t need the money, so the motivation to play my absolute best simply wasn’t there.

With the downturn of the economy, and all of my investments with it, that’s changed quite a bit for me. Money is no longer just a way to keep score for me; it’s something that I need to pay my mortgage every month. It hurts more than just my pride now to get knocked out of a tournament.

This definitely has resulted in a change in the way that I play tournaments. I’m not playing them very often — just one a month, or so. But when I do play, I feel like I’m learning much more than I used to. I pay better attention and focus much harder, as opposed to just slippin’ on the old headphones right away and going on autopilot. This actually has made tournaments fun for me again for the first time in years.

It’s not like I’ve had great success in tournaments in this past year, but I have at least tripled up in almost every one that I’ve played. After that, it seems that I just can’t dodge the bad beat that kills me. A case in point was this tournament.

Things started off well but somewhat slow for me. I was at a great table where players had no idea what to open the pot for. One guy opened for 2,000 when the blinds were 25-50, and two guys really razzed him hard. Then, within a few minutes, these geniuses brought it in for 500!

That is better than 2,000, but it’s still more than two and a half times the proper bring-in. This is great if you can pick up a hand to take advantage of their mistakes. Otherwise, all you can really do is look on and pray that they keep it up.

I managed to increase my stack about 50 percent before my table was broken and I was moved to a table with both Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth. While both of these guys are great players, I love to play with them, especially together. Mike and I started giving Phil a hard time, and he wasn’t taking it well (he seldom does). Then, this hand came up:

Phil raised from early position and I was right behind him with pocket aces. Now, I know two things here: First of all, Phil has a good hand, and second, he knows that I know he has a good hand. Therefore, if I reraise him, he’ll know that I hold a category-one hand, and he will either fold if dominated (holding a big ace) or call if he has a good hand to crack a big pair with (that is, a small pair or suited connectors).

I don’t want to give him that option, so I opt to disguise my hand and limit my vulnerability, as well as maximize my win potential. I just call his raise, and everyone else folds. The flop is a queen and two rags, rainbow, and looks good. He bets about two-thirds of the pot, and I call. The turn is another rag, and we both check.

The river brings yet another rag. This time when Phil checks, I overbet the pot and he goes into the tank. He starts asking me questions, like don’t I think I can win a showdown? Finally, he announces that I have pocket sevens, and is so sure of himself that he turns over his pocket tens before he calls.

Mike thinks this is hysterical, and falls on the floor laughing while he’s making fun of Phil. I slide a needle or two in there, and all of a sudden, Phil disappears. After about an hour and a half, about a third of his chips have been anted off, so “Loudmouth” calls him, and he’s on the driving range hitting balls!

Mike lectures him for about 10 minutes about the fact that this is a major tournament and he has to get control of himself. It works (kind of), and Phil’s back in his chair 15 minutes later. It’s a shame that it wasn’t 16 minutes, because he picked up pocket eights on the first hand, and got busted. LOL!

A few more levels go by and I have close to tripled up when this final hand comes down: A player under the gun makes a big raise (four times the big blind), and Matusow cold-calls from second position. Two more players call, and I look down at the A Q in the big blind.

I study for about 30 seconds. I want to throw it away so badly. You see, when Mike cold-calls an under-the-gun raise in second position, he has a big hand. There’s a real good chance that it’s A-K, and I’m dominated. (And this turned out to be the case.)

But, I figure, I’m getting some serious pot odds here with four other players. The fact that the ace is suited is really enough to make the call. And the suit is what hit me, as the flop was 9-4-2 with two diamonds.

I needed to get Mike out with his A-K, so I went for the check-raise. It came down perfectly, as everyone checked to the button, who was an action player. He bet 15,000, which was about the size of the pot, and I raised 50,000 more, all in.

It turns out that my opponent had pocket jacks. This should have been an easy laydown, as there is no hand he can be a favorite against. I won’t jeopardize all of my chips with a pair smaller than jacks. So, that leaves an overpair or a set, both of which are about a 10-1 favorite over him — or, what I had, which is about a 55 percent favorite over him.

Gabe Thaler, who was sitting next to me, summed it up well: “That pot’s almost impossible for you to lose. First, he has to make a ridiculous call, and then you have to miss twice.” I think that’s what I would like to have inscribed on my tombstone.