Once in a while, when I meet someone and it comes up that I work at Google, the person often asks what the 20,000 employees are up to. While I can give a direct answer to what one person is doing, and wave my hands in the air about what the 100 people in my area are doing, it usually ends there. I do know that we launch something seemingly every day I'm at work, and this post is a start at trying to collect some of that information for my friends, family, and random passerbys of my blog. Here is a short summary of some things that have happened in (approximately) the last week - either new features, new products, or site updates. It's not perfect, so if there is something I've missed, please leave a comment!
Suggested Driving Directions Google's
Driving directions just got better. Whenever there are 2 similar routes from A to B, Google Maps will now list both of them in the left sidebar for you to compare. For example, back in the day, it was common for my friends to wonder: is it better to take US Route 101 or Interstate 280 to the DNA Lounge?
Migrate to GMail
I've had several friends complain about their email accounts and want to switch (either to GMail, or any other provider). This is actually a difficult problem, not made easier by most email providers. Now, GMail has made it easier. And GMail has always provided ways to get your email out with POP
and IMAP, should you decide it's not for you.
Chrome 2
Google's web browser for Windows just got way faster! If you haven't checked it out yet, definitely give it whirl. In addition to speed, you'll also get several new features and improvements
Disneyland Paris in Google Earth
Google Earth's 3D landscape just picked up some extra inventory: Euro Disney! Just open Google Earth and search for Euro Disney, and you'll be flown straight there. You can then zoom in and fly around the various 3D models of the resort. Check out some screenshots.
Redesign of Google Earth Outreach
In other Google Earth news, the outreach program has completely overhauled their website. If you are unfamiliar with Google Earch Outreach, you can watch the video embedded on their site.
Maps Ad Unit (Advertising)
If you are making (or want to make) money on the web through hosting advertising on your site, there is now another revenue stream: Ads on your maps. If you have a map on your site, you can now request an ad unit be placed somewhere on your map, and you can earn money from clicks on it.
Google Labs: Maps Data API (Technical)
If you've ever used the "My Maps" feature of Google Maps, you know that you add markers, lines, and routes to maps, which you can then share with friends. Now, Google has made it possible to programmatically interface with this data through the Google Maps Data API. This will allow web programmers to more easily store geographic data on the web and make fancier map-related applications.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
WPT Championship Debriefing
This week I played in the WPT "World Championship". I put the tourney title in quotes because anyone can buy their way in... it's quite a bit different than other "sports". I did happen to qualify back in November with a win in the Doyle Brunson classic, so I felt a bit more qualified than some; but by far I was one of the most inexperienced at this level. This was only my 2nd 5-figure buy-in event.
First of all, thanks to everyone who followed the Facebook/Twitter/Friendfeed updates... both for following and for the support. It was nice to have the home team rooting for me.
Day 1
The first day I sat down at a table that had a couple people who might(?) be recognizable to people who follow a lot of poker: Kristy Gazes, Russell Rosenblum, Allen Kessler, Joe Beevers. From the play, it was obvious that these 4 really good players. The table also had 2 internet-types, who played a lot of cheap small pots trying to hit disguised big hands. They were aggressive, and unfortunately I had one that was two to my left. It kept me tight (which is good), but I had a lot of good hands early. The guy two to my left kept playing a lot of my pots, trying to get under my skin. It actually turns out that I had a lot of patience and was OK folding a few hundred chips here-n-there to his positional play on me. It set me up nicely for a later hand....
A bit into the first day, we were at 100/200 and I raised to 600 with XXx (my hand is encrypted, to see if you can guess it.) Mr. Aggressive two-to-my-left came in behind me with a re-raise, which I flat-called. The flop came QJT with two spades. I about 2/3 the pot; he calls. Now there is about 7k in the pot. The turn comes a 3rd spade. I check, he bets about the pot, I raise about 10k. He thinks, and calls. The river comes a 4th spade. I do my best non-Hollywood Hollywood ever - letting out a small disguised sigh that I think barley registers. I think for a while, and slowly check. He bets 30k. I think and think... the table is quiet, as this is one of the biggest pots of the day at our table. I reraise him 40k and he immediately mucks. I have to say that folding a few thousand chips to him in 3 hours was more than made up for in this hand!
This is where I reached my maximum of 140k chips right around this time. From there out, I kept running into trouble with good hands. I got QQ twice and it was the end of me. The first time was with a two-suited J-high flop. I raised pre-flop in early position and got a caller in late position. I bet 2/3 pot and got a call. The turn was gave a 2nd flush draw and I bet 1/2 the pot (probably too weak). The original caller came over the top for most of my chips. It could have been AJ on one of the flush draws... or it might have been a set. I had to lay it down... it was too risky the way he played it. I could have been behind, or even had to dodge a flush card on the river.
The 2nd time I got QQ, I was 2nd to act. UTG was Joe - a very good, tight player. He raised and I flat called. I don't like to overplay my QQ in such early position, trying to disguise it a little. Mr Aggressive re-raises to 5k (~5k in pot) and the rest of the table folds. Joe mucks. I decide to see where I'm at with a 10k re-raise. I was worried about a big hand out there - re-raising a flat-call by me behind a UTG raise by Joe... that's gutsy - this was Mr. Aggressive, but it wasn't Mr. Stupid. I figured if I got re-re-raised, I'd muck. However, when Mr. Aggressive went all-in, I got loopy. I had to know I was beat, or at best in a coin flip against AK. I thought and thought... it wasn't all my chips... only 2/3rds of them. Somehow I rationalized a coin-flip or a 20% chance to grab a huge pot was worth the risk. This is totally against my normal playing mode. I had the cards in my hand, about ready to muck... and at the last second decided to call. Mr Aggressive turns over KK and it holds. Ack! Really dumb call. Sent me to short-stack.
I finished the day with 23k chips and in 296th of 301 remaining (338 started the tourney). I was nearly out.
Day 2
We redrew for seats and I ended up at a table outside the main room - we were to be the 2nd table to break to fill in seats as people busted in the main room. Only one person was recognizable to me: Steve Brecher, who had won the Bay 101 Shooting Star just a month ago. Since I was so short stacked, I tried my best to put on the "super nice guy, people just have to like me" demeanor. I knew I needed to steal some small pots to start building chips, and the more sympathy I had, the better.
I was barely at this table for a round. I raised a pot and got re-raised all-in, to which I folded. The pot odds were nearly right given my meager stack, but those last few chips are insanely valuable. I waited until a little while later when some put in a too-big raise (which is almost always a small pair) and I pushed with KJs. He flipped 77. I won the coin flip and got to 30k.
That table breaks and I go to the main room. I recognize several faces. I can't place everyone, but there are two that I know. One is a guy I played with in LA in the Celebrity Classic. (He knocked me out when I had inside-straight & flush draws to his set. I also had top pair, but his set made that moot.) The other is Scotty Nguyen (baby!). In contrast to his final-table TV appearances, Scotty is stone-cold sober and super-tight. We seemed to have both gone card dead, as neither of us was playing many pots.
At one point, I'm down under 20k and the blinds + antes are 500/1000 + 100. It's getting expensive for me to play hands at this point. I raise UTG with AJ to 3k and immediately get re-raised to 10k. Reraising the short-stack shows a lot of strength... probably a decent pair, but maybe AK. At this point, I know I need to double up and decide to push. Probably a bad play - I could wait for better spots. Turns out, the raiser has KK, so I'm a 2.5:1 dog or so. Fortunately, this works out for me and I made the nut full house. So now I'm healthy again.
I play only a pot or two after that, and spend hours nursing my stack. I'm around 40k, when the button comes to me. It's 800/1600 + 200. We get one limper in early and then Scotty limps. Given Scotty is in a pot, I know the blinds won't get frisky, so I can lower my standards a little bit. However, I look down at A9d, which is easily playable in this position, even without Scotty in the pot. I call, small blind calls, and BB checks. Whoa! Five limpers and antes makes nearly 10k in this pot. (In retrospect, I shoulda just raised all-in and taken it down... but I feared Scotty and the early limper.) The flop comes J-high with two diamonds. It checks to Scotty. Scotty bets 5k. I raise to 15k with my flush+over. Everyone folds. Scotty thinks and pushes me all-in. (In retrospect, the 10k raise didn't buy me as much fold-equity as I hoped... shoulda pushed here.) At this point, I don't think I'm up against AJ, so I think I've got nearly a coin-flip to a pair and the pot is huge compared to the rest of my stack. I'm comitted and call. Scotty shows KJ. The turn gives me a gut-shot with my 9... giving me 15 outs on the river. But alas, none of them came. Scotty was super-nice, as was the rest of the table, as I left (except maybe the KK that I had busted... she didn't talk to me much after that hand.)
Scotty went on to take 6th place and nearly $300k. I went out and decided to play some cash games that netted me $3k. Not quite the same order, but I'll take it.
The highlights didn't show me much that I already didn't know:
First of all, thanks to everyone who followed the Facebook/Twitter/Friendfeed updates... both for following and for the support. It was nice to have the home team rooting for me.
Day 1
The first day I sat down at a table that had a couple people who might(?) be recognizable to people who follow a lot of poker: Kristy Gazes, Russell Rosenblum, Allen Kessler, Joe Beevers. From the play, it was obvious that these 4 really good players. The table also had 2 internet-types, who played a lot of cheap small pots trying to hit disguised big hands. They were aggressive, and unfortunately I had one that was two to my left. It kept me tight (which is good), but I had a lot of good hands early. The guy two to my left kept playing a lot of my pots, trying to get under my skin. It actually turns out that I had a lot of patience and was OK folding a few hundred chips here-n-there to his positional play on me. It set me up nicely for a later hand....
A bit into the first day, we were at 100/200 and I raised to 600 with XXx (my hand is encrypted, to see if you can guess it.) Mr. Aggressive two-to-my-left came in behind me with a re-raise, which I flat-called. The flop came QJT with two spades. I about 2/3 the pot; he calls. Now there is about 7k in the pot. The turn comes a 3rd spade. I check, he bets about the pot, I raise about 10k. He thinks, and calls. The river comes a 4th spade. I do my best non-Hollywood Hollywood ever - letting out a small disguised sigh that I think barley registers. I think for a while, and slowly check. He bets 30k. I think and think... the table is quiet, as this is one of the biggest pots of the day at our table. I reraise him 40k and he immediately mucks. I have to say that folding a few thousand chips to him in 3 hours was more than made up for in this hand!
This is where I reached my maximum of 140k chips right around this time. From there out, I kept running into trouble with good hands. I got QQ twice and it was the end of me. The first time was with a two-suited J-high flop. I raised pre-flop in early position and got a caller in late position. I bet 2/3 pot and got a call. The turn was gave a 2nd flush draw and I bet 1/2 the pot (probably too weak). The original caller came over the top for most of my chips. It could have been AJ on one of the flush draws... or it might have been a set. I had to lay it down... it was too risky the way he played it. I could have been behind, or even had to dodge a flush card on the river.
The 2nd time I got QQ, I was 2nd to act. UTG was Joe - a very good, tight player. He raised and I flat called. I don't like to overplay my QQ in such early position, trying to disguise it a little. Mr Aggressive re-raises to 5k (~5k in pot) and the rest of the table folds. Joe mucks. I decide to see where I'm at with a 10k re-raise. I was worried about a big hand out there - re-raising a flat-call by me behind a UTG raise by Joe... that's gutsy - this was Mr. Aggressive, but it wasn't Mr. Stupid. I figured if I got re-re-raised, I'd muck. However, when Mr. Aggressive went all-in, I got loopy. I had to know I was beat, or at best in a coin flip against AK. I thought and thought... it wasn't all my chips... only 2/3rds of them. Somehow I rationalized a coin-flip or a 20% chance to grab a huge pot was worth the risk. This is totally against my normal playing mode. I had the cards in my hand, about ready to muck... and at the last second decided to call. Mr Aggressive turns over KK and it holds. Ack! Really dumb call. Sent me to short-stack.
I finished the day with 23k chips and in 296th of 301 remaining (338 started the tourney). I was nearly out.
Day 2
We redrew for seats and I ended up at a table outside the main room - we were to be the 2nd table to break to fill in seats as people busted in the main room. Only one person was recognizable to me: Steve Brecher, who had won the Bay 101 Shooting Star just a month ago. Since I was so short stacked, I tried my best to put on the "super nice guy, people just have to like me" demeanor. I knew I needed to steal some small pots to start building chips, and the more sympathy I had, the better.
I was barely at this table for a round. I raised a pot and got re-raised all-in, to which I folded. The pot odds were nearly right given my meager stack, but those last few chips are insanely valuable. I waited until a little while later when some put in a too-big raise (which is almost always a small pair) and I pushed with KJs. He flipped 77. I won the coin flip and got to 30k.
That table breaks and I go to the main room. I recognize several faces. I can't place everyone, but there are two that I know. One is a guy I played with in LA in the Celebrity Classic. (He knocked me out when I had inside-straight & flush draws to his set. I also had top pair, but his set made that moot.) The other is Scotty Nguyen (baby!). In contrast to his final-table TV appearances, Scotty is stone-cold sober and super-tight. We seemed to have both gone card dead, as neither of us was playing many pots.
At one point, I'm down under 20k and the blinds + antes are 500/1000 + 100. It's getting expensive for me to play hands at this point. I raise UTG with AJ to 3k and immediately get re-raised to 10k. Reraising the short-stack shows a lot of strength... probably a decent pair, but maybe AK. At this point, I know I need to double up and decide to push. Probably a bad play - I could wait for better spots. Turns out, the raiser has KK, so I'm a 2.5:1 dog or so. Fortunately, this works out for me and I made the nut full house. So now I'm healthy again.
I play only a pot or two after that, and spend hours nursing my stack. I'm around 40k, when the button comes to me. It's 800/1600 + 200. We get one limper in early and then Scotty limps. Given Scotty is in a pot, I know the blinds won't get frisky, so I can lower my standards a little bit. However, I look down at A9d, which is easily playable in this position, even without Scotty in the pot. I call, small blind calls, and BB checks. Whoa! Five limpers and antes makes nearly 10k in this pot. (In retrospect, I shoulda just raised all-in and taken it down... but I feared Scotty and the early limper.) The flop comes J-high with two diamonds. It checks to Scotty. Scotty bets 5k. I raise to 15k with my flush+over. Everyone folds. Scotty thinks and pushes me all-in. (In retrospect, the 10k raise didn't buy me as much fold-equity as I hoped... shoulda pushed here.) At this point, I don't think I'm up against AJ, so I think I've got nearly a coin-flip to a pair and the pot is huge compared to the rest of my stack. I'm comitted and call. Scotty shows KJ. The turn gives me a gut-shot with my 9... giving me 15 outs on the river. But alas, none of them came. Scotty was super-nice, as was the rest of the table, as I left (except maybe the KK that I had busted... she didn't talk to me much after that hand.)
Scotty went on to take 6th place and nearly $300k. I went out and decided to play some cash games that netted me $3k. Not quite the same order, but I'll take it.
The highlights didn't show me much that I already didn't know:
- I made mistakes that I don't normally make. It's not good to gamble a big chunk of your stack early in a deep tournament.
- I did have to play a lot of good cards early and have to learn how to deal with that image. I'm still not very good at that.
- I played aggressive players out of position fairly well. I've had to do this before, and I sorta get it. Not perfectly, but I'm doing OK.
- I got a couple double-ups that went my way... but I'd rather reserve that sort of play to when I'm up against short stacks or in the money.
- I need to raise all-in to gain more fold-equity when I feel I'm committed to calling all-in anyway.
Friday, January 16, 2009
New Year, New Project
Starting this year, I've started on a new team with a new project. The team is just ramping up and I'm the only one who doesn't have other responsibilities at the moment. Over the next month or two, we will transition a few more engineers and have their undivided attention.
Google generally encourages people to switch teams with some frequency. I think it is hoped that people stay on a project for 1.5 years - I was on my old project for just over 2 years. My group ran a behind-the-scenes data crunching pipeline. While it had impacts on many, many changes to what people saw, we didn't actually make visible changes ourselves.
My new project will actually alter what you will see on google.com, so I'll be sure to let you know what to watch out for and when. :) Today I got some of my code approved to go into "live" servers. It won't make any changes; it's more to enable the changes I want to make later. Exciting stuff!
It's a lot of fun to start on something new, and I think people should be encouraged to shift job functions every couple of years. When you start something new, you are totally unshackled - free to start contributing at a fast pace. You are learning lots of new stuff and are very engaged. After a couple of years, depending on the job, cruft can start building up and a lot of stuff starts to seem tedious instead of fun. I'm excited to have moved onto something totally new, and I really feel good about this new transition!
Google generally encourages people to switch teams with some frequency. I think it is hoped that people stay on a project for 1.5 years - I was on my old project for just over 2 years. My group ran a behind-the-scenes data crunching pipeline. While it had impacts on many, many changes to what people saw, we didn't actually make visible changes ourselves.
My new project will actually alter what you will see on google.com, so I'll be sure to let you know what to watch out for and when. :) Today I got some of my code approved to go into "live" servers. It won't make any changes; it's more to enable the changes I want to make later. Exciting stuff!
It's a lot of fun to start on something new, and I think people should be encouraged to shift job functions every couple of years. When you start something new, you are totally unshackled - free to start contributing at a fast pace. You are learning lots of new stuff and are very engaged. After a couple of years, depending on the job, cruft can start building up and a lot of stuff starts to seem tedious instead of fun. I'm excited to have moved onto something totally new, and I really feel good about this new transition!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Online in '08
Here's some of the things I enjoyed from the internet in '08. Some I've known about longer, but didn't really become regular for me until this year.
Podcast: 60-Second Science
Music: Pandora
News: Newser
Puzzle Games: Blocks With Letters On and Auditorium
Intellectual Blogs: Good Math, Bad Math and This Week In Evolution
Fun Blogs: I Can Has Cheezburger? and Indexed
Podcast: 60-Second Science
Music: Pandora
News: Newser
Puzzle Games: Blocks With Letters On and Auditorium
Intellectual Blogs: Good Math, Bad Math and This Week In Evolution
Fun Blogs: I Can Has Cheezburger? and Indexed
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Big Poker Payout
Many people have heard, but last weekend (Nov 29-30), I won a fairly large poker tourney in Vegas. Instead of continually repeating myself to people, I promised to put up this blog post to document the experience. So, here it goes....
Pretext
The trip to Vegas was motivated by two ideas: I hadn't had a poker-only trip in quite some time, and it was my birthday. To reward myself for my birthday, I rounded up 3 other poker enthusiasts - Simon F-L, Scott K, and Scott S - and got a room at Planet Hollywood. My plan was to play two of the intro tourneys for the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. PH is a decently priced strip hotel that is perfectly located right across the street from the Bellagio.
Since the buy-ins for the tourneys I was interested in were on the high-end of my comfort range (at $1590 and $2100), I asked a few friends if they would be interested in staking me to help diversify the risk. Four agreed, and I ended up selling approximately a 7% stake in each tournament. Not much diversification, but that is how it goes....
Our group arrived in Vegas on Friday afternoon, and the first big tourney I wanted to play in was Saturday. We spent Friday night playing a short tourney at the Venetian in which Scott K made in the deepest, but not quite in the money. After that, we just played some cash games for a while, and then closed out the night with some free drinks while playing BlackJack switch over at the Casino Royale.
On Saturday morning, I headed out the door around 11am to sign up for the first tourney at the Bellagio. The buy-in was $1590, down 25% from the original posting. Turns out that Vegas is feeling the economic downturn as well. I grabbed some pulled-pork sliders at Snacks, and then wandered over to my table. I was one of the first to arrive, and sat around for a bit chatting with the dealers.
Tight, Tight, Tight
The tournament started with 25/50 blinds, with 4500 starting chips. There were ~205 people entered, which meant the top 18 win money, with 2/3rds of the money is in the top 3 places. (Update: included in the first place prize is a tournament bracelet and an entry into the $25,500 buy-in World Poker Tour World Championship) The levels were 1 hour, with breaks after even levels. It was a fairly comfortable 90x big-blind start with nice long levels, so I wasn't in any hurry. I estimated we were playing 1 hand every 2 minutes, which gives a lot of time for skill to win out over dumb luck.
The first few hours of the tournament are of very little interest. I was by far the tightest player at my tables. After 20 minutes, I played my first hand. Someone asked "Is that his first hand?" and other answered immediately "Yes." The whole table had noticed I was waiting for good hands. From then out, every time I played a hand, someone would shout out the current count of hands I played. It was a fun group, and everyone was really nice.
I enjoy having a tight image at tournaments, as it is especially useful in the late going. Over the course of 3 hours, I think I played just 8 hands. When I did come in (always with a raise), I usually took down the pre-flop pot. Once I did get some action when coming in from early position, but a continuation bet on my part took down the pot right after the flop. It was a bluff, but given my image I was pretty sure it would work.
After 3 hours, about half the people were gone, and I had only gained enough chips to pay for my blinds. I was well behind the average stack. I got switched to a new table, so had to start my image all over again; although, an unknown image isn't half bad either. My new table had two named pros at it: David Sklansky and Max Pescatori. While I had started poker by reading David's book, I didn't find out who Max was until later. (I actually think that by not watching poker on TV, I was not able to be intimidated by some of the pros.)
Tough Going
The next three hours were topsy turvy. I was starting to feel some pressure, as the blinds were basically doubling each hour. I started to make a little headway with some pots, and then got tangled up and had to fold some decent hands. My tight image did pay off, and I didn't lose nearly has many chips as I could have in some cases - people were very leery of me holding a monster. I do believe I got outplayed by Max for a decent pot, when he shoved a huge bet on the river when a low card paired. I couldn't call with top pair, though I'm fairly sure I was ahead. After 4 hours of play, there were 80 people left. I was still at 4k chips, while the average chip stack was over 11k, and we were putting in 600 chips before any action. I was definitely getting low.
After the break, I started pushing all-in in good spots, and managed to accumulate a few chips. I managed to get to 8k in chips without to much confrontation, and I felt comfortable about playing a bit more normal. At one point I opened with a standard raise in mid-position with KQo. The big blind came over the top all-in. From his actions and a few remarks he made, I was pretty sure he didn't have a big hand. Once I convinced myself he didn't have AQ or better, and I convinced myself that I needed to double up or go home, I called. Usually, I won't call into a potential coin-flip unless the situation is getting dire. My opponent flipped over pocket 4s. My 50/50 opportunity worked out, and I doubled up. In retrospect this was very questionable, and may be the only thing I'd change about how I played that day. I hung out at about 16k chips until the end of hour 6, at which point the average stack was 20k and there were 41 people left.
Acceleration into Dinner
I was comfortable almost at the average stack, and knew the 1 hour levels were going to give me some time. Around this time, we got down to 27, and we redrew for seats in the final 3 tables. At my new table, I recognized a few familiar faces from earlier, but it was mostly new people to me. (I didn't know it at the time, but Toto Leonidas was at my table.) Being nearly average stacked, I went about my business waiting for good situations. I was getting a little hungry by 6 hours in, having eaten all the fruit snacks I had brough by this point. Dinner was after hour 8 of playing, which was 9pm, after including 45 minutes of break and a little slop.
People were starting to get feisty, as the blinds were starting to eat into the small stacks. I knew well enough to stay out of the way. I think I stole one or two decent pots to add some chips, but the big moves occurred the last three hands before dinner. I managed to get two players all-in, one with my QQ vs their JJ (I called) and one with my AQ vs their AJ (he called). In both cases, the dealer didn't improve my hand, but at least managed to not lay down a J on the board. Phew! I then stole the blinds with pocket 4s on the final hand, to end with my chip stack at 85k. The average stack was 38k, with 23 players left. I was way ahead!
We went on dinner break, and I felt pretty good about things. The Bellagio comp'd the remaining players all dinner. (They owe me a couple free ones for knocking out 2 players right before dinner...) We could have brought guests, but all my buddies were busy playing over at Ceaser's Palace. I couldn't eat a whole lot, so spent a big chunk of time walking around and then talking to Scott S, who had come over from Caeser's toward the end of the break.
The Final 18
After dinner, I just sat back and waited. I was in great position and in no hurry. I had easily enough to get into the money, and knew the short stacks were not amenable to reasonable poker play anymore... the terrain had gotten a lot more dangerous. When we got down to 18, we again redrew for seats, and I got to sit again with Toto, as well as three "internet punks", as I call them. These punks are the guys who sit around talking poker to no end, telling random stories from online play, and spouting about their hot assistants who do their dishes. I think it is 90% bulls**t. They didn't make it far, pretty much in inverse proportion to how punky they were. None made the final table.
Our table drew most of the chips, including the chip leader, who was one of the internet punks. Since we had most of the chips, our table was a bit boring. No one wanted to really tangle, except for a few folks who were a bit low.
It was at this table where Toto and I started getting into a bit, and where I started to discover he was a pro from the table talk. Toto was 2 to my left, so always the big blind to my button. I feel kinda bad for the poor guy in the small blind. When I was on the button, it would usually fold around to me, since I was a big stack and you just do that if you value your tournament life. I counted about 7 times that I raised in this setup, and I think 5 times Toto raised me back all-in. My hands were all decent, but I could never call Toto's re-raise. I knew it was coming almost every time, but I kinda had to do it to show that I wasn't scared, and to setup for a time when I had a monster. Unfortunately, the monster never came.
In the final 18, I remember three hands that played out a bit. In one, I did get Toto all in with my AK vs. his TT - he raised 40k all-in early with TT, and I called (my stack was 120k) - but he won that coin flip.
In another hand, I had 66 in the blind, and there was a single raise from cut-off. I called and flopped a set, with an ace on the board. I fired at the flop, and got a call. He had an ace! On the turn, I came out firing again. Instead of trapping, I was disguising the disguise of my set. Unfortunately, it was the wrong play, and my opponent folded, claiming he had AJ. I tend to believe him, as he thought a long while before folding. I was really hoping he had a stronger kicker or two pair. I might have been able to milk it for more, so this is another play I might have screwed up.
In the third hand, I was also big blind. Toto raised early, and the cut-off (same guy) pushed all-in. I looked down at KK. I called with a bigger stack, and Toto laid down. The cut-off flipped QQ, and my pair held up again. Phew! The cut-off was pretty large at this point (he was an internet punk who had crippled the chip-leader internet punk earlier), so I grabbed a ton of chips with that hand. I was feeling really good now.
From there, I coasted until the end of the day. We played until the end of round 14, if I remember right. It was after 3am, and I was mentally tired. I was chip leader with 201k chips, with 10 people left. There were 920k chips in play. I grabbed the guys, and we went and had a beer and played some blackjack for a short time to help unwind. Then we hit the sack.
Day 2
I woke up at 8, after only about 4 hours of sleep. I was totally wired and couldn't sleep. Scott S had also woken up early, so we decided to head out and hit the Bellagio cafe. It helped get my mind off things, though we did talk some strategy along the way.
The tourney got going again around 3pm. My plan at this point was to avoid the small stacks and snarf up chips from the blinds/antes. Toto was sitting diametrically across from me, so our chance of confrontation preflop over the blinds/antes was minimized. There was one stack at 130k two to my left that I would have needed to worry about had it not been for an exciting early hand....
The first time the big blind came to me, the short stack on my immediate left raised all-in UTG. With the blinds coming, he could be playing anything, and the guy with 130k must have known that and raised up over him. It folded to Toto, who thought for a while and made a good read: he went all-in over the top of that. Interestingly, the player to Toto's left woke up with a great hand and went all-in as well. Four people nearly all-in! Everyone else was excited - 3 people were about to be knocked out or crippled and we'd all move up in the money! The cards flipped and we saw (in order) AQo, 77, TT, and AA. The hand went to Toto with the underdog TT (actually a favorite if the AA hadn't been there) when a 3rd T fell on the turn, much to chagrin of AA.
While I wasn't thrilled that Toto was now ahead of me, I wasn't too upset given that the other large stack was crippled (and went out a couple hands later) and 2 others were gone. For the next couple hours, Toto and I just played smart poker and slowly mopped up the stacks. After about 3 hours, the last of the small stacks were eliminated and I had gained on Toto. I was at 480k chips and Toto was at 440k.
Being up against a pro, it was time for me to deal: first place was ~$90k + $25k WPT seat + tournament bracelet, second place was ~$60k. The moment 3rd place was eliminated, I offered Toto to split the money at ~$75k each and play for the seat + bracelet. He agreed, though as we were about to play offered to end it there with an additional deal (him taking the bracelet and some extra cash; me taking the seat). I preferred to play on.
Heads Up
(For those not familiar with heads up play: the button has the SB and acts first on the first round of betting, while the BB acts first on the final three rounds of betting.)
Playing Toto heads up turned out to be quite the marathon chess match. There was a lot of raising, re-raising, and folding. The blinds and antes put about 25k or so in the pot (I'm averaging over the 3 hours), so neither of us was in much trouble unless we fell under 200k. Hardly anything went to the flop. I pushed hard on him initially and picked up chips, widening my lead to about 600k to 300k. At that point, I raised from the SB with a small pair. He came over the top. I hoped he didn't have a pair and called. He had KQ and went on to win the coin flip, giving him the 2:1 advantage. Damn!
From there, it was a lot of pounding back and forth. He wore we down and chipped away at my stack, but I kept pushing back on him before I was too small. He was very scared to let me double up, which kept me in the game.
However, at one point, I stepped into a bad situation. I was below 200k - Toto raised his SB, and I re-raised all-in with 35o. This happened a lot. I was pushing with a lot of crap hands, and was getting desperate. This time it didn't work. He called with TT and I thought my tourney was over. Lucky for me, I hit a 5 on the flop and a 3 on the river to win with 2 pair. This doubled me up and got me back in the game.
Another noteworthy hand, where I think I made a great play, started with me having 34h in the BB. I was a bit behind Toto here, but I don't recall the exact stacks. Toto raised, as usual, and I called... also quite usual. The flop had some high cards and two hearts. I made a decent bet, about 2/3rds the pot, having caught a nice draw, and hoping Toto would just fold right there. Toto decided to call. As happens in about 1 in 5 cases, a heart fell on the turn to nab me the flush right there. Now it was time to try and outplay Toto. I bet a little less here - probably 1/4 the pot, feigning fear of the flush and that I didn't want to commit too many more chips. In reality, I was only marginally happy with my low flush and really was hoping another heart would not come. Toto called again. The river brought a blank, which made me happy inside. I played it off quite well, just checking it to Toto. He thought for a bit and then pushed me all-in. I called and won a huge hand. I didn't force Toto to show, though it would have been interesting to see what he had.
By the way, if you thought my 35o was a bad play, I did manage to catch Toto raising with 58o when I had 77. The cards almost stop mattering during pre-flop heads up play (and some post-flop play). Anything could be a winner, and it really comes down to how aggressive you play, how well you can read, and how well you throw off the other player's reads.
Now we're on to how I finished off the tourney. The play developed over a couple of hands. It might be all in my head, but I think I had set Toto up for this sequence, and I think I managed to outplay him solidly. I had 78o in the BB and called a raise. The flop came 2 suited with an 8 as the low card. So there I am, stuck with 3rd pair and not much going. Of course, there's a good chance Toto didn't have a pair yet. I bet out a decent amount, and got a call. The turn brought another overcard to my pair and completed the flush. I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking here, but I trusted my spider senses and pushed all-in. I hadn't done this move much, so I suspect it projected a lot of strength. Toto thought for a long time - I would love to know what he was thinking. I'm tempted to think he had nothing, but I think he was worried about the possibility that I had a decent piece of the board with a 1-card flush draw. Who knows. He ended up folding, seemingly in a lot of pain, which gave me a decent pot and put me ahead in chips. As I mucked my cards, I flipped to show him my 4th pair. I was hoping at this point his blood started to boil.
On the next hand, I looked down at the SB at 66. Now, I should point out that when I had the chips to spare, I would call the SB with junk hoping to see a flop - to which Toto responded about 80% of the time with a raise. I folded in that situation most of the time. This time, when I called in the SB, Toto raised all-in. I think it was a bit large of an all-in, but I think I may have tilted him with the previous hand. The large bet lead me to think it was not a big pair (when strong, play weak... and vice versa), and after 5 seconds of convincing myself to take a coin flip... I called. Toto showed 67o, giving me much better than a 50-50. My 6s held up, and I took down the seat and the bracelet!
Pretext
The trip to Vegas was motivated by two ideas: I hadn't had a poker-only trip in quite some time, and it was my birthday. To reward myself for my birthday, I rounded up 3 other poker enthusiasts - Simon F-L, Scott K, and Scott S - and got a room at Planet Hollywood. My plan was to play two of the intro tourneys for the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. PH is a decently priced strip hotel that is perfectly located right across the street from the Bellagio.
Since the buy-ins for the tourneys I was interested in were on the high-end of my comfort range (at $1590 and $2100), I asked a few friends if they would be interested in staking me to help diversify the risk. Four agreed, and I ended up selling approximately a 7% stake in each tournament. Not much diversification, but that is how it goes....
Our group arrived in Vegas on Friday afternoon, and the first big tourney I wanted to play in was Saturday. We spent Friday night playing a short tourney at the Venetian in which Scott K made in the deepest, but not quite in the money. After that, we just played some cash games for a while, and then closed out the night with some free drinks while playing BlackJack switch over at the Casino Royale.
On Saturday morning, I headed out the door around 11am to sign up for the first tourney at the Bellagio. The buy-in was $1590, down 25% from the original posting. Turns out that Vegas is feeling the economic downturn as well. I grabbed some pulled-pork sliders at Snacks, and then wandered over to my table. I was one of the first to arrive, and sat around for a bit chatting with the dealers.
Tight, Tight, Tight
The tournament started with 25/50 blinds, with 4500 starting chips. There were ~205 people entered, which meant the top 18 win money, with 2/3rds of the money is in the top 3 places. (Update: included in the first place prize is a tournament bracelet and an entry into the $25,500 buy-in World Poker Tour World Championship) The levels were 1 hour, with breaks after even levels. It was a fairly comfortable 90x big-blind start with nice long levels, so I wasn't in any hurry. I estimated we were playing 1 hand every 2 minutes, which gives a lot of time for skill to win out over dumb luck.
The first few hours of the tournament are of very little interest. I was by far the tightest player at my tables. After 20 minutes, I played my first hand. Someone asked "Is that his first hand?" and other answered immediately "Yes." The whole table had noticed I was waiting for good hands. From then out, every time I played a hand, someone would shout out the current count of hands I played. It was a fun group, and everyone was really nice.
I enjoy having a tight image at tournaments, as it is especially useful in the late going. Over the course of 3 hours, I think I played just 8 hands. When I did come in (always with a raise), I usually took down the pre-flop pot. Once I did get some action when coming in from early position, but a continuation bet on my part took down the pot right after the flop. It was a bluff, but given my image I was pretty sure it would work.
After 3 hours, about half the people were gone, and I had only gained enough chips to pay for my blinds. I was well behind the average stack. I got switched to a new table, so had to start my image all over again; although, an unknown image isn't half bad either. My new table had two named pros at it: David Sklansky and Max Pescatori. While I had started poker by reading David's book, I didn't find out who Max was until later. (I actually think that by not watching poker on TV, I was not able to be intimidated by some of the pros.)
Tough Going
The next three hours were topsy turvy. I was starting to feel some pressure, as the blinds were basically doubling each hour. I started to make a little headway with some pots, and then got tangled up and had to fold some decent hands. My tight image did pay off, and I didn't lose nearly has many chips as I could have in some cases - people were very leery of me holding a monster. I do believe I got outplayed by Max for a decent pot, when he shoved a huge bet on the river when a low card paired. I couldn't call with top pair, though I'm fairly sure I was ahead. After 4 hours of play, there were 80 people left. I was still at 4k chips, while the average chip stack was over 11k, and we were putting in 600 chips before any action. I was definitely getting low.
After the break, I started pushing all-in in good spots, and managed to accumulate a few chips. I managed to get to 8k in chips without to much confrontation, and I felt comfortable about playing a bit more normal. At one point I opened with a standard raise in mid-position with KQo. The big blind came over the top all-in. From his actions and a few remarks he made, I was pretty sure he didn't have a big hand. Once I convinced myself he didn't have AQ or better, and I convinced myself that I needed to double up or go home, I called. Usually, I won't call into a potential coin-flip unless the situation is getting dire. My opponent flipped over pocket 4s. My 50/50 opportunity worked out, and I doubled up. In retrospect this was very questionable, and may be the only thing I'd change about how I played that day. I hung out at about 16k chips until the end of hour 6, at which point the average stack was 20k and there were 41 people left.
Acceleration into Dinner
I was comfortable almost at the average stack, and knew the 1 hour levels were going to give me some time. Around this time, we got down to 27, and we redrew for seats in the final 3 tables. At my new table, I recognized a few familiar faces from earlier, but it was mostly new people to me. (I didn't know it at the time, but Toto Leonidas was at my table.) Being nearly average stacked, I went about my business waiting for good situations. I was getting a little hungry by 6 hours in, having eaten all the fruit snacks I had brough by this point. Dinner was after hour 8 of playing, which was 9pm, after including 45 minutes of break and a little slop.
People were starting to get feisty, as the blinds were starting to eat into the small stacks. I knew well enough to stay out of the way. I think I stole one or two decent pots to add some chips, but the big moves occurred the last three hands before dinner. I managed to get two players all-in, one with my QQ vs their JJ (I called) and one with my AQ vs their AJ (he called). In both cases, the dealer didn't improve my hand, but at least managed to not lay down a J on the board. Phew! I then stole the blinds with pocket 4s on the final hand, to end with my chip stack at 85k. The average stack was 38k, with 23 players left. I was way ahead!
We went on dinner break, and I felt pretty good about things. The Bellagio comp'd the remaining players all dinner. (They owe me a couple free ones for knocking out 2 players right before dinner...) We could have brought guests, but all my buddies were busy playing over at Ceaser's Palace. I couldn't eat a whole lot, so spent a big chunk of time walking around and then talking to Scott S, who had come over from Caeser's toward the end of the break.
The Final 18
After dinner, I just sat back and waited. I was in great position and in no hurry. I had easily enough to get into the money, and knew the short stacks were not amenable to reasonable poker play anymore... the terrain had gotten a lot more dangerous. When we got down to 18, we again redrew for seats, and I got to sit again with Toto, as well as three "internet punks", as I call them. These punks are the guys who sit around talking poker to no end, telling random stories from online play, and spouting about their hot assistants who do their dishes. I think it is 90% bulls**t. They didn't make it far, pretty much in inverse proportion to how punky they were. None made the final table.
Our table drew most of the chips, including the chip leader, who was one of the internet punks. Since we had most of the chips, our table was a bit boring. No one wanted to really tangle, except for a few folks who were a bit low.
It was at this table where Toto and I started getting into a bit, and where I started to discover he was a pro from the table talk. Toto was 2 to my left, so always the big blind to my button. I feel kinda bad for the poor guy in the small blind. When I was on the button, it would usually fold around to me, since I was a big stack and you just do that if you value your tournament life. I counted about 7 times that I raised in this setup, and I think 5 times Toto raised me back all-in. My hands were all decent, but I could never call Toto's re-raise. I knew it was coming almost every time, but I kinda had to do it to show that I wasn't scared, and to setup for a time when I had a monster. Unfortunately, the monster never came.
In the final 18, I remember three hands that played out a bit. In one, I did get Toto all in with my AK vs. his TT - he raised 40k all-in early with TT, and I called (my stack was 120k) - but he won that coin flip.
In another hand, I had 66 in the blind, and there was a single raise from cut-off. I called and flopped a set, with an ace on the board. I fired at the flop, and got a call. He had an ace! On the turn, I came out firing again. Instead of trapping, I was disguising the disguise of my set. Unfortunately, it was the wrong play, and my opponent folded, claiming he had AJ. I tend to believe him, as he thought a long while before folding. I was really hoping he had a stronger kicker or two pair. I might have been able to milk it for more, so this is another play I might have screwed up.
In the third hand, I was also big blind. Toto raised early, and the cut-off (same guy) pushed all-in. I looked down at KK. I called with a bigger stack, and Toto laid down. The cut-off flipped QQ, and my pair held up again. Phew! The cut-off was pretty large at this point (he was an internet punk who had crippled the chip-leader internet punk earlier), so I grabbed a ton of chips with that hand. I was feeling really good now.
From there, I coasted until the end of the day. We played until the end of round 14, if I remember right. It was after 3am, and I was mentally tired. I was chip leader with 201k chips, with 10 people left. There were 920k chips in play. I grabbed the guys, and we went and had a beer and played some blackjack for a short time to help unwind. Then we hit the sack.
Day 2
I woke up at 8, after only about 4 hours of sleep. I was totally wired and couldn't sleep. Scott S had also woken up early, so we decided to head out and hit the Bellagio cafe. It helped get my mind off things, though we did talk some strategy along the way.
The tourney got going again around 3pm. My plan at this point was to avoid the small stacks and snarf up chips from the blinds/antes. Toto was sitting diametrically across from me, so our chance of confrontation preflop over the blinds/antes was minimized. There was one stack at 130k two to my left that I would have needed to worry about had it not been for an exciting early hand....
The first time the big blind came to me, the short stack on my immediate left raised all-in UTG. With the blinds coming, he could be playing anything, and the guy with 130k must have known that and raised up over him. It folded to Toto, who thought for a while and made a good read: he went all-in over the top of that. Interestingly, the player to Toto's left woke up with a great hand and went all-in as well. Four people nearly all-in! Everyone else was excited - 3 people were about to be knocked out or crippled and we'd all move up in the money! The cards flipped and we saw (in order) AQo, 77, TT, and AA. The hand went to Toto with the underdog TT (actually a favorite if the AA hadn't been there) when a 3rd T fell on the turn, much to chagrin of AA.
While I wasn't thrilled that Toto was now ahead of me, I wasn't too upset given that the other large stack was crippled (and went out a couple hands later) and 2 others were gone. For the next couple hours, Toto and I just played smart poker and slowly mopped up the stacks. After about 3 hours, the last of the small stacks were eliminated and I had gained on Toto. I was at 480k chips and Toto was at 440k.
Being up against a pro, it was time for me to deal: first place was ~$90k + $25k WPT seat + tournament bracelet, second place was ~$60k. The moment 3rd place was eliminated, I offered Toto to split the money at ~$75k each and play for the seat + bracelet. He agreed, though as we were about to play offered to end it there with an additional deal (him taking the bracelet and some extra cash; me taking the seat). I preferred to play on.
Heads Up
(For those not familiar with heads up play: the button has the SB and acts first on the first round of betting, while the BB acts first on the final three rounds of betting.)
Playing Toto heads up turned out to be quite the marathon chess match. There was a lot of raising, re-raising, and folding. The blinds and antes put about 25k or so in the pot (I'm averaging over the 3 hours), so neither of us was in much trouble unless we fell under 200k. Hardly anything went to the flop. I pushed hard on him initially and picked up chips, widening my lead to about 600k to 300k. At that point, I raised from the SB with a small pair. He came over the top. I hoped he didn't have a pair and called. He had KQ and went on to win the coin flip, giving him the 2:1 advantage. Damn!
From there, it was a lot of pounding back and forth. He wore we down and chipped away at my stack, but I kept pushing back on him before I was too small. He was very scared to let me double up, which kept me in the game.
However, at one point, I stepped into a bad situation. I was below 200k - Toto raised his SB, and I re-raised all-in with 35o. This happened a lot. I was pushing with a lot of crap hands, and was getting desperate. This time it didn't work. He called with TT and I thought my tourney was over. Lucky for me, I hit a 5 on the flop and a 3 on the river to win with 2 pair. This doubled me up and got me back in the game.
Another noteworthy hand, where I think I made a great play, started with me having 34h in the BB. I was a bit behind Toto here, but I don't recall the exact stacks. Toto raised, as usual, and I called... also quite usual. The flop had some high cards and two hearts. I made a decent bet, about 2/3rds the pot, having caught a nice draw, and hoping Toto would just fold right there. Toto decided to call. As happens in about 1 in 5 cases, a heart fell on the turn to nab me the flush right there. Now it was time to try and outplay Toto. I bet a little less here - probably 1/4 the pot, feigning fear of the flush and that I didn't want to commit too many more chips. In reality, I was only marginally happy with my low flush and really was hoping another heart would not come. Toto called again. The river brought a blank, which made me happy inside. I played it off quite well, just checking it to Toto. He thought for a bit and then pushed me all-in. I called and won a huge hand. I didn't force Toto to show, though it would have been interesting to see what he had.
By the way, if you thought my 35o was a bad play, I did manage to catch Toto raising with 58o when I had 77. The cards almost stop mattering during pre-flop heads up play (and some post-flop play). Anything could be a winner, and it really comes down to how aggressive you play, how well you can read, and how well you throw off the other player's reads.
Now we're on to how I finished off the tourney. The play developed over a couple of hands. It might be all in my head, but I think I had set Toto up for this sequence, and I think I managed to outplay him solidly. I had 78o in the BB and called a raise. The flop came 2 suited with an 8 as the low card. So there I am, stuck with 3rd pair and not much going. Of course, there's a good chance Toto didn't have a pair yet. I bet out a decent amount, and got a call. The turn brought another overcard to my pair and completed the flush. I'm not sure exactly what I was thinking here, but I trusted my spider senses and pushed all-in. I hadn't done this move much, so I suspect it projected a lot of strength. Toto thought for a long time - I would love to know what he was thinking. I'm tempted to think he had nothing, but I think he was worried about the possibility that I had a decent piece of the board with a 1-card flush draw. Who knows. He ended up folding, seemingly in a lot of pain, which gave me a decent pot and put me ahead in chips. As I mucked my cards, I flipped to show him my 4th pair. I was hoping at this point his blood started to boil.
On the next hand, I looked down at the SB at 66. Now, I should point out that when I had the chips to spare, I would call the SB with junk hoping to see a flop - to which Toto responded about 80% of the time with a raise. I folded in that situation most of the time. This time, when I called in the SB, Toto raised all-in. I think it was a bit large of an all-in, but I think I may have tilted him with the previous hand. The large bet lead me to think it was not a big pair (when strong, play weak... and vice versa), and after 5 seconds of convincing myself to take a coin flip... I called. Toto showed 67o, giving me much better than a 50-50. My 6s held up, and I took down the seat and the bracelet!
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