Bricks and mortar
It’s an oft repeated cliche that recreational players are the life blood of poker, particularly live poker. Like most cliches it’s pretty much totally true. We have reached that point of the year when much of poker social media is given over to professionals complaining about things that displease them about this year’s WSOP. Despite all this naysaying, the WSOP pretty much goes from strength to strength, largely for one reason: they never lost sight of what recreationals care most about.
In Europe, the people who have had this clearest vision recently of what you need to grow and sustain a live tour includes Party Poker, and they are now reaping the rewards, as more and more recreationals give them their vote with their feet, as well as a growing band of professionals like myself and David Lappin who think there’s more to a live stop than hard EV calculations.
To brick or not to brick
When I started travelling the Irish and European circuit, it wasn’t unusual for me to brick (not cash a single event) an entire festival. Back then, everything was a freezeout, so a brick might only represent three or four tournament bullets without a cash (I did however brick several early WSOP campaigns which involved many more bullets).
Then the era of multiple reentry started, and much more varied side event schedules. The recent Irish Open had about 100 side events, whereas Andy Black told me he remembered one only a couple of decades ago where the number of side events was just four (one for each day). It therefore became rarer for players like me who commit to volume to totally brick a festival. It has happened a couple of times already this year though, and it’s not a habit I want to get into.
I flew into Madrid on Friday afternoon, and fired my first bullet at the main event. Bullets 2 and 3 were fired in the final hyper flight the following morning, but no bag was secured. That freed me up to late register the Faded Spade side event. That was looking very good for a while when I was second or third in chips with 12 left, but one hand left me short with 8 left (6 paid). A recreational whose approach to final tables seemed to be just “shove any decent hand from any position for any amount” shoved from early position. He’d done this enough times I was already starting to think his definition of decent might extend to half or even quarter decent so when I see jacks in the small blind I have a very easy reshove. I was ahead of the shover’s ace seven off but not the kings I ran into in the big blind, which left me with a few big blinds I was unable to spin. So a rather disappointing stone bubble and by now I was starting to wonder if I was going to brick another festival.
The nightly hyper did nothing to dispel this notion as I lost twice with the best hand to king queen which rather optimistically called my shoves, leaving only the high roller to avoid the total brick.
Rolling in the deep
The high roller started poorly, at definitely the toughest table in the room including as it did Firaldo and Spanish Party pro Barbara Jimenez, as well as several other more than decent players. I drifted back to half starting stack before I started to get something going. For once I had a decent stack on the bubble which I successfully navigated. I got lucky against John Cahill when my queens rivered his kings. A couple of other successful all ins meant I got to the final table fourth of seven. That became third of four when the chipleader limped from the small blind and I looked down at 97o. With ICM here, there’s even less reason to raise, so I checked my option to see a “free” flop. He’d been raising or shoving previously in the spot leveraging his ICM advantage, so when he limps it’s likely he’s very polar (he either has a very strong hand that is hoping I raise or shove, or a very weak one that is too weak to shove). If I raise here, he will go with all the strong hands and a few bluffs and I’ll have to fold. Essentially this is a “miles ahead or miles behind” spot where I’m either way behind the strong hands he’s limping, or well ahead of the weaker ones. In these spots, raising makes no sense.
The flop came 875 with two clubs (I do not have a club in my hand). He now bet small and this is no longer a “miles ahead or miles behind” spot but more a case of usually ahead but very vulnerable, sometimes behind with decent equity. In these spots you obviously can’t fold, and calling is unwise as you won’t know how to proceed on most turn and rivers cards facing the almost inevitable continued aggression of the chip leader, and as the third biggest stack of the four remaining, I have massive risk premium (ICM), which means to call a shove I need a lot of equity, and unless my hand improves I’ll never have the equity on turn and river. So all you can do in those spots is put the chips in yourself first, forcing your opponent to fold a lot of equity if he’s behind, and getting to realise your own equity and the chance to suck out if he’s ahead. Or in layman’s terms, you’re rooting for the fold, but know you nearly always have a decent chance to suck out with your pair and gutshot.
Not on this occasion though: my opponent snapped my shove with 64o for the flopped straight and instead of the 9 outs I’d usually have when behind, I only had the three remaining sixes. None of them obliged with an appearance on turn or river, so I ended up busting in fourth for €5500. After the initial disappointment faded, I was happy to have emerged from the festival healthily in profit, and with my own performance to keep plugging away when it seemed the deck was not cooperating. In a forthcoming episode of the Chip Race, we talk about the importance of resilience in tournament poker in an excellent interview with Brandon Sheils.
Some shoutouts
The first final table I made of the festival (when I stone bubbled) was one of the friendliest I’ve ever been on. Mother and son Angela and Darach Rogan were sat side by side in seats seven and eight at the start, and ended up getting headsup, with my namesake claiming the trophy. Not to be outdone, Angela got her own trophy taking down the mystery bounty the following day, to cap off an incredible twenty four hours for the Rogan clan. I chatted to them both before I left and what seemed like a great feel good story from the outside us even more so when you get talking to them: a lovelier mother and son you couldn’t hope to meet. Darach is full of the enthusiasm of youth and all in for poker now: it’ll be very interesting to see how his caress develops but he’s off to a flier already with two live trophies.
Also on that final table was a very friendly Scottish gentleman Edward Cherrie, who had quite the festival also. He followed up his fifth place finish in the Faded Spade with a win the nightly hyper, and he got headsup the following day in the last side event. He asked David and myself for a photo on that occasion and we were only too happy to oblige. Also shoutout to his home game Live At The Shed. Every so often, there's a lot of noise trying to create an antagonistic atmosphere between pros and recreationals, but one of the unique things about poker is how both can not just co-exist but compete at the same events, creating a much more enjoyable experience for both overall.
My roommate, cohost, valet, travel and accommodation booker, and butt of my incessant fat jokes David did that most professional of things: he chopped the PLO Masters event three handed before snap busting in third.
And finally, a shoutout to all the marvellous Party live events staff who made this stop their biggest and best yet, and to the gentleman I probably chatted the most to at this stop, John Cahill. John expressed a great mental attitude towards bad beats (that they don’t bother him because he’s done what he was supposed to with his hand), but I still felt for him when my Queens rivered his kings near the bubble of the high roller. As I’ve often noted in the past, this is a sick game where we routinely break the hearts of friends and people we like, and they do the same. But we keep coming back as long as live organisers keep putting on great live events like this one in Madrid.
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