mystpoker.com: October 2007

mystpoker.com



Sunday, October 28, 2007

WPT North American Championship - Day 1

I couldn't have asked for a better start to the tournament! I finished Day 1b as the chipleader, and I believe I am 2nd in chips overall. More than half of the field was eliminated in this long and grueling, 13 hour day.





Near the end of the day, I did an interview with PokerListings.com. It's titled, "Marc Karam: Playing at Home", and you can read it by clicking here. We had been playing for around 11 hours when this interview took place, and you can tell by some of my responses that I was really tired and mixed up some of my words. Other than that, the interview was great!

The structure for this tournament is awesome, you could lose half of your starting stack into the 4th level, and you'd still have 50 big blinds to play with. We started with $20,000 in chips and $25/$50 blinds with 90 minute levels.

I arrived at my table a little late and I didn't notice any big name pro's. There was one fellow Canadian from Montreal who is a solid player, and one ex-journalist from Pokerwire.com, but other than that I didn't recognize anyone. I established my image early on, splashing around in a lot of pots and showing a few bluffs.

Still in the first level, I was dealt Ad8d on the button. Pokerwire makes it $150 to go, one caller in the cutoff, I call on the button, and one other caller from the blinds. The flop is perfect, KdQdTd! I flop the nut flush, and I decide I am going to play it strong the whole way, because the player in the blind is a calling station. The raiser bets $400, cutoff calls, I raise to $1400, blind calls, and both other players fold. Turn is a black 9. He leads out for $2500, and I am positive he has a Jack for the straight. I make it $7500, and he quickly calls. River is a black 7. He checks, I move all-in, and again he quickly calls. I show my nut flush and he mucks his straight. Just like that I was up to $40,000 in the first level.

I grinded up to around $45,000, and I then proceeded to miss 2 massive draws, one flush draw + gutshot with 6h5h on a Tx2h3h flop, and another with Ac9c on a 5c6c7x board. I then flopped a straight with 9h6h on a Th8x7x board. I led out for $1500 and calling station called. Turn was the 4h, also giving me a flush draw! I lead out for $3000 this time, and he calls. River is the Js. I lead out for $6000, and he calls with T9 to split the pot. So now, instead of having $60,000-$70,000 and being way out in the chip lead, I was back down to around $27,000.

I was then dealt QQ on the button, and the hijack raised to $800. I make it $2200 and he flat calls. Flop is a safe-looking 532 with 2 hearts. He checks, I bet $4000, he min-raises for $4000 more. I wasn't sure what to make of this, and I had around $21,000 left. After much thought, I decided to flat call. I thought that if he had any pair between JJ - 66 he would have to slow down on the turn. If he had AA or KK or a set, he would shove and I could get away still having $17,000 to play with. Turn is a 7. He checks, I check. River is another 5. He thinks for a short while, and then moves all in, having me covered. I tank it for approximately 3 minutes, and reluctantly fold. He says, "I'll show out of respect", and proceeds to flash his pocket deuces for a full house. What a nice guy, and he made me feel a lot better about my fold!

With my new-found confidence, I slowly built my stack up to $28,000 by taking small pots here and there when the following hand occurred. With the blinds at $200/$400, a loud and active player made it $1200 to go UTG. There are 2 callers in mid-position, and I call another $800 from the big blind with 66. Flop comes T64 with 2 hearts. I check to the raiser, and he makes it $3300, and both other players fold. I think about making a raise here, but I don't want to scare him off in case he has overcards like AK. I hope for no heart on the turn, because he might suspect that I'm on the flush draw. Unfortunately the turn is the 7h, a bad card for me. I really want to lead out now for around $8000, but if I do, if he has an overpair with a heart or bare Ah or Kh, he is going to call anyways, and if the river comes a heart, I'm in a really bad spot. So I check, hoping he bets, so that I can move all-in. But he checks. The river is a great card, a black King. I decide to lead out for $9000, hoping he hit the King and doesn't believe I have a big hand. He thinks for about a minute, and calls. This brings me back up to $40,000.

A few orbits later, on my button, I was dealt 6c4c. Mid-position makes it $1400 to go, I call, and the big blind almost min-raises to $3000 total. The original raiser calls and I call. The flop is great for my hand, Ac Tc 4x. The raiser bets $12,000 and I am 1000% sure he has AK. The other players fold, and I immediately push all-in. We count it out, and it's around $24,000 more to call. He goes into the tank. I'm really hoping he folds, of course. In his shoes, it's a very tough call, because he can NEVER have me dominated here with AK. At best he can be around 50/50. I can never have AQ or AJ here, obviously. I can only have 2 pair, a set, or a combo flush/straight/pair draw of some sort. After much deliberation, he ended up calling me with AK. The turn was a bittersweet Kc, giving me the flush, but also giving him 4 outs to make a full house. The river was the Qh, giving me the pot and causing my stack to soar to over $80,000 and into the chip lead!

I was actually a slight favourite in this hand, as the odds show:
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=3845651
pokenum -h ah kd - 6c 4c -- ac tc 4s
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing 4s Ac Tc
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Kd Ah 494 49.90 496 50.10 0 0.00 0.499
6c 4c 496 50.10 494 49.90 0 0.00 0.501

So, I finally hit one of my draws and now its time to take over! I proceeded to just go nuts and raise 4 or 5 hands out of every orbit. I re-raised preflop on the last 3 hands of the day and took them all down right there, because who wants to go out just before the end of the day? I ended up adding over another $40,000 to my stack without risking many chips. I finished with $126,600 and in the chiplead, but not far ahead of a few of the other stacks. There's still a ton of work to do and I definitely can't get comfortable where I am. Hopefully, Day 2 will go as well as Day 1 did. Thankfully, we have a day off and a chance to get some much needed rest. We resume play on Monday at 12:00 Noon. There will probably be around 200 of the original 500 players remaining, and we will have another long day ahead of us.

Thanks for reading, and wish me luck!