I wrote about how the World Series of Poker had turned out not be the the optimum time for a recreational player, however competent, to visit Vegas to play the game.
A couple of days before leaving for San Diego to meet up with Lyra I signed into a game again. After writing the previous post I had thought about what were the things I could control to improve my chances of winning. What I couldn’t control was the fact that tables were full of good players.
I decided on two things:
- For me to play anything other than Pot Limit Omaha in this environment was what pros would call a leak. I’m just not good enough at the other games.
- I play a short stack better than a big one and had somehow forgotten that on this trip, buying in for 4/5 times the minimum and playing too loose.
So on this evening I bought in for the minimum in a biggish (for me) PLO game. Just 50 times the big blind, only 25 if everyone straddles (adding a voluntary third blind, so blinds of 5/10 might become 5/10/20) effectively doubling the size of the game.
If you only have 25 big blinds, decisions tend towards black an white: All In or Fold. Optimal strategy consists of picking very good hands and getting all the chips in against just one other player. A Dutch player wrote a book about this strategy and it suits my game.
Of course, if you only play monsters, everyone will fold when you enter a pot, so the clever bit is to create the impression you’re a reasonably active player without ever putting much at risk. I’m quite good at this.
On this particular evening I got all my chips in three times and ended up with about 3 1/2 times what I had started with. This time, rather than change strategy for this, now medium, stack, I got up, cashed out and moved to another casino. Once again I bought in for just 25 times the straddle. Once again I ran it up, playing very strong hands that held up. If my strong hand completely missed the flop, my table image was often strong enough to get a fold when I bet.
I still wasn’t out of the rather deep hole I had dug for myself but went off to meet Lyra in San Diego with a bit more swagger than I’d had a few days earlier.
Once back in Vegas, along with over a thousand others, I signed up for a PLO tournament. I’d won small cash prizes in my last two UK PLO tournaments, so playing a bigger one here seemed sound. By the wholly unoriginal tactic of playing good hands aggressively I managed to reach 30th position and a nice win. I was delighted by this result, not least because I never had more than a small stack.
Things were looking up. My bankroll was still carrying a flesh wound, but it was out of Accident and Emergency and chatting to the nurse in the recovery ward.
Buoyed by this I decided to make one last buy-in to the biggish (for me) game before heading to the airport.
Somehow my table image was completely different now. One of the Good Locals (see previous post) was back and the respect he showed me counted; an American who had played in London for a year swapped names of London PLO players with me and I had played with them all; most importantly, I had just had a good cash in a WSOP tournament. I played small stack poker and won a double-up when my Aces held up against a caller. Another win came when I bluffed a young aggressive player off two pair by betting as if I had a straight.*
The poker has just about paid for itself on this trip, neither winning or losing a significant amount. I’ve learned a lot, mostly about myself, my game and where the limitations lie.
I’ve had to pay for flights, hotels and food with real money but, hey, I was on holiday and isn’t that what most people have to do on holiday?
I’ll be back in Vegas, for the poker some time soon.
But maybe not for the WSOP.
*Bluffing with straight blockers
Here’s how that hand played out. On the flop (first three cards) the best possible hand is a straight made with a 7 and a 9. I have two 9s, making it less likely that he has one. Its a dangerous play because there are four 9’s in the deck but I bet the maximum. He called for two reasons: I might be bluffing and if a 6 or an 8 comes his two pair turns into a full house. Note that my bet is cot a complete bluff, a 7 makes me an actual straight rather than the one I’m pretending to have.
I had to fire all three bullets (i.e. bet on the turn and river cards too) to get rid of him and even then he dwelled up, asking himself out loud if I could possibly be bluffing before tossing his cards in the muck.
Because I was heading to the airport soon, I showed the bluff and earned a nod of respect from the young player and a fist bump from Good Local.
Sweet