Atlantic City Week - Part III

Picking up where I left off in Part II last issue, I was in the midst of the $5,000 buy-in championship event at Borgata. As you recall from that column and the previous one, I had gone through quite a roller coaster ride of emotions during my tournament week in Atlantic City.

With all of that behind me, it was now time to take control of my table and make a serious run at winning this tournament! With some well-timed aggressive play, I saw my stack go from the initial $10,000 to more than $45,000.

I'd done this by playing with opponents who weren't showing too much resistance. Of course, Keith "Lehr Jet" had me guessing earlier, but he was long gone. With Keith gone, I didn't think anyone at my table was very willing to "dance."

Then, Baryshnikov shows up, equipped with his dancin' shoes and lots of chips! He wasn't the real Baryshnikov, obviously, but in poker terms, David Oppenheimer was the next best thing. David came to the table with almost $40,000 himself, so I knew there would be an instant power struggle – almost like two bucks butting each other, looking to dominate. Well, I've played lots of hours with David, and have tons of respect for his play. I like to think we have similar styles. While I respect him and his style, they certainly weren't welcome on my "turf."

Instantly, David's mere presence would have an effect on my strategy. I would have to concede to him in some instances rather than risk going broke in a huge pot. Of course, I had to do that without compromising my own game. It was a tough balancing act: I had to stay aggressive, yet be cautious. I had to play it safe, but not let him take advantage of me.

That's when poker is really fun for me. I just love the challenge, and David is a formidable opponent, to be sure. He is so formidable that he was absolutely destroying me – either by outplaying me, out-flopping me, or simply out-carding me. It was clear that I was getting much the worst of our encounters, which were many.

He simply wouldn't let up. He took every opportunity he could to capitalize on weakness – every one. For about an hour, the betting went something like this: I limped, David raised, I called. After the flop, I checked, he bet, and I called. On the turn, I checked, David bet, and I folded. This happened on countless occasions. I never had a hand I believed was good enough to make a stand with, while at the same time I had no intentions of going broke to him on a silly bluff.

What made it so difficult to play against David was that he followed through basically every time. He followed his preflop raise with a bet on the flop. Then, he bet the turn regardless of the card that came off. My goal, of course, was to exploit that and trap him, but that situation never came up.

Instead, he was bleeding me $3,000 to $8,000 at a time. I knew going in that David's specialty is limit hold'em, and the way in which he bet his hands in no-limit appeared to be in line with the thinking of a limit player.

It's important to understand here that I'm not criticizing his no-limit play; I'm simply making an observation that he approaches the game from a limit background. Having more no-limit experience than he does, I was hoping I'd be able to exploit that somehow. Instead, his strategy against me was working to perfection.

I didn't want to veer away from my strategy, but I knew that sooner or later I would have to make a stand and put a stop to the massacre!

So, I was in first position with the 8 7 and limped in for $400. One other player limped, and David – who had been doing this all day – raised to $2,400. Thinking this might be a good hand with which to trap David, I called. Additionally, I knew David was raising with a wide variety of hands in this situation, and often showing them. For example, in one hand I'd raised from first position and was called by another player. David then decided to come over the top, and both the caller and I folded. David flashed us both the 2. He was really playing well, and mixing it up extremely well.

So, here we were with $6,700 in the pot up for grabs. As had been the case in every pot we'd played that day, David had position. The flop came Q 7 3, not exactly what I was looking for. I did as I had always done and checked to David, who put in his automatic $5,000 bet. That was his bet of choice, and no one could blame him with how well it was working!

Hmm … the sevens could very well be good. He didn't necessarily have to have anything to bet here. I thought to myself, "You have to at least call." That's the play I'd been making all day. Then, I thought, "No, you can't keep bleeding your chips away like that. If you call, you are either going to give him a free card to beat you or, worse, allow him to once again outplay you on the turn. No, let's test him this time."

I counted out my chips and found that I had a little more than $33,000, which was still a very good-size stack. However, there was now $11,700 out there for the taking. The dilemma I faced was: How much of a raise could I make without fully committing myself? In other words, what was the right amount to raise, knowing that if he reraised me, I'd have to fold my hand?

Well, going all in clearly would leave me with no escape route if he had indeed flopped something. Raising the minimum might be too inviting for him, causing him to call, leaving me with another dilemma if he did so.

After some deliberation, I decided to make it $15,000, a raise of $10,000, which left me with $18,000 if he either moved in or called. Considering how much control David had over me that day, I was fairly sure he would be willing to give one up. My thinking was that even if he held top pair, he would consider laying it down.

This was the first time all day that I'd played back at him on the flop, so he had to give me some credit. Well, David studied for three and a half days, and finally folded.

What he actually had was irrelevant to me. Even if I had the best hand, the play seemed equally important to me. So, here is the part where I am supposed to tell you that I busted David and went on to win the tournament – but things didn't exactly work out that way.

Although I'd won this small battle with David, he clearly won the war. We continued to do battle during the last hour of day one, and after losing a few pots to him, and one other crucial pot, I ended the day with $9,750. "Oh, brother." I probably should have been a little more cautious. I once again was just a little too involved in the action … woulda, coulda, shoulda.

I fought hard on day two and got back up to $33,000. Unfortunately, I picked up 7-7 against 5-5 and lost, and that sealed my fate. I was left with very few chips after that hand, and literally anted off 40 straight hands until I was forced all in on the big blind.

What happened to the buck who won our little skirmish on day one? Well, he went on to finish in third place. Congratulations, David. I look forward to future battles in the ring, whether it be in WPT events or in a cash game somewhere. But next time I promise to make your experience as miserable as you made mine!

Daniel can be reached through his website: www.fullcontactpoker.com.