My WPT London And Dinner Bad Beats

After Cork, I headed up to Donegal for the weekend with Nicky, Paul Spillane and Julian Gardner, for a golfing weekend. It was great fun with a lot of money changing hands but ultimately no one ended up winning or losing much, which is about the best I can hope for against these guys really. Unfortunately, the weekend still turned out to be pretty expensive for me.

As is the case with a lot of poker players, we like to gamble on most things, and that includes dinner. Normally we play a game called spoof, where everyone puts anything from 0 to 3 coins in their hand and you have to guess the combined total. If you get it right then you eat for free, and the other guys play again until there is one person left with the bill. It’s mainly down to luck, but there is a small bit of skill in predicting how many coins people are likely to choose, and because of this Nicky objected to playing, as we were a bit more experienced at the game than he was.

Instead, we chose a method what was completely down to luck. We each wrote our names down on a scrap of paper and had the waitress pick one. We’d had a good few drinks with dinner, so the bill was sizeable enough. Even so, I didn’t mind too much when she picked out my name. When she also picked my name out on the second night, it was a little bit annoying but I still saw the funny side. However, I struggled to see the funny side on the third night, as she AGAIN drew my name out to complete the 63/1 treble!

After showing this kind of form, it probably shouldn’t have come as a shock to me when after flying to London on Tuesday for the WPT, I busted on a 50-50 near the end of day 1.

My exit hand was completely standard, with me shoving with A-K and Richard Ashby having too many chips committed to the pot to pass his 9-9 by the time of the final raise. There were a couple of pots I played early on that I wasn’t entirely happy with though.

I’d raised 2 out of 3 hands and picked up the blinds just before this. The first 2 were semi-genuine hands, although I’d have been passing to any re-raise. I was then dealt Q-Q in mid-position and again opened for a pretty standard amount. This time a young Scandinavian re-raised me from the button. I know he may have had a big hand here, but I think it’s more likely that he’s just getting a bit fed up that I’ve raised 3 out or 4 hands. I’m not really sure how I should have proceeded here. It was very early in the tournament and we were both very deep.

I thought about raising him again, but with the stacks that we had, I think he could easily have decided to call another bet and play the flop against me in position, which I really wouldn’t have been that happy with. I could make a big over-raise that he couldn’t call with suited connectors, but then it’s the sort of situation where I’m going to win a small pot if he’s bluffing or else lose a very big pot if he does actually have A-A/K-K.

I do think my Q-Q is good here though, and while calling gives him a chance to outdraw me, it also gives him a chance to bluff off some chips later in the hand. It should also ensure that I can’t damage my stack completely in the hand.

I had the right idea. He’d raised me pre-flop with K 8, obviously having decided that I was raising a bit too much for his liking. Unfortunately for me, he caught a dream K-J-4 flop with 2 diamonds. I checked the flop and he checked behind, slow-playing. The turn was an off suit 8 and I check-called a small bet. Then the river paired the 8 and he made a big pot-sized bet. I was a bit annoyed after the hand that I had paid him off here, but now I think maybe I had to call. I thought it was either a very big hand or else a bluff, and the whole reason I had played my hand so weakly was to induce a bluff from him, if I was right about him making a move, and also keep the pot relatively small if I was wrong and he had a big hand.

It was a bit annoying that I’d allowed him to outdraw me, but I guess I was a little unfortunate that he made such a big hand. I’m pretty sure that if he missed the flop, as he should do most of the time, then I’d have picked up some chips by allowing him to bluff.

Check back for part two of my WPT review tomorrow…