Poker Articles

This article is continued from part one.

After starting day two of the WPT Borgata Open with 40,000 in tournament chips Lou Russo was down to 14k and got it all in with his tournament life on the line with A10 vs AJ. His "one suckout of the tournament" allowed him to double up and proceed to grind his way back to the 40k he started with. Later that day another big hand came up which put him in better chip position going into day three.

The blinds were 1k/2k with a 200 ante and I was back up to 40k or so. I was on the BB again and guy raised my blind to 6k and there were two other callers- the 3 seat who I had sucked out against earlier (A10 vs AJ) and the chip leader. So there was a raise and two smooth calls in front of me and I look down and see AKs. I'm not a great proponent of AK but I decided this was another time where I would put my tournament on the line, so I push. The first two guys fold and the third guy who is the CL at our table and a pretty weak player in my opinion went into the tank. I think he can't have a hand that's beating me here if he's thinking that hard. He made the mistake of calling with AQ and doubled me up to close to 100k.

The rest of the day I played some solid poker with no remarkable hands. I was never in jeopardy and I ended the day at 185k. So on day two I was all in twice with one suckout and one dominant situation and doubled up both times.

I started Day 3 with 185k and the blinds were 3/6k 500 ante, I was slightly below the tournament average with an M of around 14. I had a bad draw with two of the top 5 chips stacks in the tournament at my table.

The table looked like this:
 
1- me, 185k
4- 450k
5-Mark Seif, 500k
9- 350k
10- Jennifer Tilly on a short stack,

Tilly played very well that day and built up a nice stack. She actually sank Mark Seif’s tournament by constantly giving him trouble.

Mark Seif and the two CLs at that table all went out in the first level that day. They were playing every hand and they were punished by the rest of the table, especially Jennifer Tilly. I didn't get involved much and whittled down to about 150k.

I was in the BB and it folded around to the button, which was a rarity. He [the player on the button] was down to 180k after starting at 350k that day. He wasn't making standard raises he was raising to 1.5 or 2x the BB and then folding to re-raises! He made it 25k on my BB (3/6) and I had 77. We were one or two away from the money bubble and he had already let some hands go so I pushed for the whole 140 I have in front of me thinking to take it down right there. He called off 80% of his chips with A10 o/s! The flop came rags and I won the race to double up to over 300k. I stay that way for a while and we broke that table a short time later. Making the money of 13k is nothing when you are playing for 1st prize of 1.5 million, so on the bubble and even after it burst I wasn’t really thinking much about the money.

They moved me to Table 2, which had a ton of chips on it, including the tournament chip leader with 1.5 million in chips. I was in seat one with 280k and the CL was in seat 8. I watched a few rounds to get a feel for the table. The CL wasn't playing a lot of hands, which gave me a good idea of his style of play. I took a few blinds to get over 300k again. The next interesting hand was this:

I had AK on the cut off and I raised it up to 30k (3x). The button smooth called and the SB pushed all in for about 200k. As it turns out he ended up at the final table and I think he was a pretty weak player, probably the weakest at the final table in my opinion. He could very possibly have been pushing with a weak ace there, but I wasn’t going to play that big a pot pre-flop with AK.

The very next hand I had JJ and the chip leader made his first real bet. He raised it up to 60k, and I couldn’t tell if he just decided that when he played a pot he was going to go big, if this was his standard raise, or what. I just had a bad vibe and I decided I was not going head to head with the CL with JJ. Even though Jacks is a good hand, he (the CL) didn't play many hands and at worst he probably had a big ace. He seemed like an egotistical guy too, so it didn't matter what he had he would make me commit a lot of chips to this pot no matter what. I knew if I called his next bet would be to 200k, so I mucked the Jacks preflop.  

We are almost done with the day and the blinds were at 6/12 with a 1k ante. I’m in the BB with 260k, so I’m getting a little short (<10 M). A local player who I have a lot of respect for and was playing very well raised my blind to 36k. He had the chip lead coming into the day but had dwindled to about 400k at this point, which still had me covered. I had KQs and I decide to make the call. The flop came Q-7-4 with two diamonds.

I was first to act and I decided to check because I felt I could get a lot of information out of him at this point. I was probably going to check raise, but he checked behind which I found very curious. The turn was a black jack. I bet out 50k and he min-raised to 100k. I called, leaving myself with about 150k. The pot was pretty decent already and the river brought a 3, a blank. I thought to myself, "Let me see if he value bets me here, if he's got a really good hand he's probably going to value bet me here. If he pushes all in I think I've probably got him beat if he makes it dramatic.”

Sure enough, he pushed all his chips into the center and announced, “All in!” I counted it down to see where I was at and I think I've got him beat so I call.

"You've got me, good call, I've just got the seven" he said and mucked when I showed me queen. A little later I was in middle position and the CL limped UTG, the first time I had seen him limp. I was a little concerned by that but I think if he has a hand he would probably raise it up the way he had been playing. The next guy made it 90k to go with about 140 back. Before I even looked at my cards I put him on 99-JJ because it was a little bit of an overbet. When it came around to me I looked down at QQ. I assessed the situation- I was still a little bit worried about the CL but I pushed all in for 500k to isolate. It folded back around to the raiser who said, "I'm sorta committed here." He turned over 10s and the two guys to my left said, "That's not good enough". My Queens held up and I finished the day seventh in chips.

I started Day 4 with 756k and the first hour was 6/12 with a 2k ante. We were playing nine handed so that made it 36k a round and my M was over 20 for the first time since day one, so I was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately that day I went as card dead as you can go. Just to give you an example, the last 13 hands I played I didn’t have a card higher than a 6. I came back from the dinner break with 320k, and I NEEDED a hand. The chip leader had 7 million and was throwing out 175k to open, so there was no stealing for me!

Before I forget, on day four t soprano went in with AA vs 99 and lost to a runner runner flush. When I said P5ers were tough, I meant it. JoeytheB let me know he was t soprano on day three when I first played with him. I had position on him the whole day and he had a very rough time with me because I was able to come over the top of his position raises and take some easy pots.



The next day when he had position on me he was outplaying me. I didn't play many hands but when I did he was really taking advantage of me. He is a very good player and it was unfortunate that he went out the way he did because he would have had a very good shot. I have nothing but respect for his play. It really highlighted for me the importance of position.

Back to the final table- when you're sitting with less than 500k and someone at the table has 7 million it's going to stifle your game. I got moved in the 5th level on my last day. Jennifer Tilly was knocked out and I was moved into her seat. I looked to my left and saw a mountain of chips, 6 million at least. There were two other stacks over a million at the table, so I was scrunched between three big stacks, so I couldn’t make any plays.

When we got down to 7 players someone said, "The TV bubble is better than any money bubble I've ever seen.”  I was getting respect so any time I played at the pot I would pick up blinds and antes, which kept me alive. It looked like I was trying to scratch my way up one pay level at a time, but I was still playing for first place. The cards just didn’t cooperate.

On that last day I had probably 90% of the crowd rooting for me, which was great! It was a great feeling it was almost like having home court advantage. The support from the rail is very important. I can certainly understand the camaraderie that goes on with PocketFives and the railing people do. It's a little different online but still very helpful. When you have a good friend and a great player watching you it inspires and motivates you to bring up your game a notch and it also allows you to instantly discuss hands. It is invaluable and Joey was that person for me. I have to give him a lot of thanks.

Just a scouting report of the table you're playing at is very helpful. I've done that for Joey and he's done that for me. If you've got someone railing you they can really help you keep track of the overall situation of the tournament. You can’t always be aware of your chip position, the action at the other tables, and a lot of other things that a friend on the rail can help you with. 

A few last thoughts:

Early in the tournament, even the first two days of a live tournament, it's not that critical to have a huge chip stack. Even if you are on a short stack survival is much more critical. What I tried to do, especially when I was in control of the pot, I tried to keep the pot size small. In the later stages of the tournament the pots are so huge you can double up at any time, so survival is key. It's not about winning the tournament in day 1 or day 2.

Lou “ljrtr” Russo lives in Brooklyn, or “BodogAri’s territory” as he calls it. His P5s screenname are his initials + “tr” for trader. He used to trade commodities on the floor of the exchange, but now he does it all from home on the computer. He has been married for 25 years and has two children, a daughter who is a sophomore at UPenn and a son who is in his senior year at Xavier.

Be sure to check out some of the great coverage of the Borgata Poker Open in the PocketfivesLive Coverage Archive!