Begleiter "It's okay I'm wealthy."

Saw this thread on 2+2 apparently after November Niner Steve Begleiter got knocked out he said the above. Really doesn't bother me, but there was some controversy and hate forcused at him. I started to join the fray and stopped myself deciding to post it here. Why? I'm not going to remember to get on there to follow up to any responses this might have gotten.

This post provoked me...

[QUOTE=tcash777;14409289]Does that me he is NOT wealthy.

Okay, you are right, he should have said, "this sucks, life is so unfair, I only have a few million in the bank, Im so poor."

[B]He is wealthy, it's a fact, not a brag[/B]. He was saying despite being sucked out on, he is still has a lot to be happy and thankful about. I didn't like the way he acted in the WSOP episodes either, but some people are just hating on him cuz he worked hard, got a good job and made money. Anyone hating on him for saying he is wealthy is just a pathetic, lazy, jealous *******, probably.[/QUOTE]

MY RESPONSE:

I disagree with you in two ways...

1. Brags are usually facts, those that aren't facts are usually called lies, and the other type of brags are simply unrevealed/undiscovered lies. To say it's a fact not a brag--is a bit of a headscratcher.

Brad Pitt is good looking. Women probably prefer that he doesn't have to say he is.

If you are rich, you don't need to say you are. Indeed, a humble man doesn't say it.

Even worse to say it in a context like "Yeah, it's horrible what happened to me, but hey at least I'm wealthy"--not so humble. I get the gist was to say, you know what I have too much to be thankful for, to complain about a poker tournament. And that's fine to an extent, but kind of like a back-handed compliment it's in a way suggesting he's better than those that don't have what he has. Doesn't faze me, but I can understand why it fazes others (if you enjoy irony, I'm kind of doing it too with that last sentence).

So, no I wouldn't call the guy humble. Humble is being loaded and people never finding that out about you from you. Or not showing the picture of your gorgeous girlfriend to any and everybody that will tolerate talking to you. If they see her they see her. When you jet-set off to Tahoe for a little skiing, you answer the where ya been question with "trip to the mountains."

2. The second way I disagree with you (though you could argue I'm not hating on Begleiter but just stating the fact he isn't wholly humble so maybe I don't fit into your category) I'm not jealous, pathetic, or lazy... but nor probably are the others that don't stoop to dropping their net worth as though it's self worth. I could care less if he is wealthy or if he feels the need to validate himself in the face of adversity by advertising it.

There are a many types of people in this world. Some are very similar but at the same times very different. Lets look at the ones that volunteer, say at a food bank or a soup kitchen and laugh and try to treat the people they are helping with dignity, and then there are the other guys that volunteer at a food bank and regale anybody that will listen how they wouldn't eat this slop and what a great steak they chowed down on at last night's dinner--all within earshot of the "pathetics" they are serving.

They also get irate when it's suggested their behavior is boorish "Hey, I'm volunteering here." Not realizing Begleiter's "I'm wealthy" statement invalidates his veener of humility means you'd probably fall into the latter category rather rather than the first. It's okay, both you and Begs are mostly good. I know a few wealthy people and most don't get or understand this difference, even the good ones.

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The kid...

You know who he is. He plays with a scowl, he's fearless and not afraid to mix it up with anybody. He's relentless, aggressively betting into any and everybody on the table no matter their position but never getting his head in too deep. I bet he kills the tables when he plays online poker.

For much of the tournament he was at my table with a stack size comparable to mine. I also watched him with the resilency to rebuild his stack after a couple of bad beats back to a chip leading stack in no time. Man what an attribute. Get beaten down, and not only dust yourself off, but just not stop being controlled aggressive. He pounced on weakness from the first hand and didn't stop.

Some people when you slap their hand, that's it. Lesson learned, this kid realizes just the opposite should be true. With him you play back at him and scoop a pot, he's coming right back next rotation. Most people know him as Ricky, I'm most people so I know him as that too, and I have to say playing with him was fun and challenging.

I had to check raise him dry a couple of times because he just kept coming at me. If gave him an inch he'd take a yard. He probably won more off me than I him, but he made me up my game. When he was on my left, if I didn't come in for a raise he had liscense to steal from the table and did so. When he was on my right, the few times it remained unopened to me, I had to raise with any two cards, because he was betting all my marginal ones out.

I constantly watched him get his toes in, and then escape when real hands showed up.

Granted every multi-table tournament is a flawed prism. With limited knowledge at your disposal unless some guy is a complete luckbox and sucking out on everybody, you have no idea how well a guy is playing based on one deep run
with him. That being said, the kid can play. He always has you on your heels.

We both remember a big hand when I knocked him out at the last IP event, ending his string of consective final tables. I felt like I got a read on him and made a call. I knew it involved AJ, but he remembers me sucking out on him, and getting it in bad. He also remembers AJ being involved and maybe 10s.

Probably it's back there in one of these posts, I need to catalogue. It's funny, because I remember that hand and a read I got off him, and I was waiting all day to get the same read, but I never did. However, if I misremembered the hand and indeed got it in bad and won, then that read would have been useless anyway.

Anyway, it was fun to follow his lead and just attack people. I talked about trying to scoop three pots every two rotations, even if it was just blinds and antes, and the speed with which he did so, kept me attacking too.

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Some of my opponents

Like I said I learned a ton from many of the guys I played with. I wanted to touch on some of those attributes. Let's start with the guy won the whole thing, Mike. On a good day, I hope I have his disposition and I try to, but got to commend him he pulled it off effortlessly.

We started on the same table, and I went up and down a bit but had the good fortune to catch hands while my opponents caught hands--with mine being better and then I didn't stop rolling. At first, I rated Mike as passive player and a target as he folded everything.

Then I recognized when he did play some hands, he did so with some finesse, and saw that he was just being patient and selective. He was aware of the table dynamics and played poker with a fun spirit, even when a couple of times the deck got ugly on him.

He never, ever got down on himself. Many of my best runs are when I have the mental fortitude to not throw a pity party after a bad beat, and many of my worst are when I tilt or have the personal arrogance to deny that I am tilting. So, I admire that attribute and wish I always have it.

So later as we meet again later in the tournament on another table, as the blinds get up Mike makes a couple of solid steals and resteals with absolute garbage. And shows them to the table. Good for him, he's got every facet to his game and ain't afraid to mix it up. I thought he'd be trouble.

Of course, I started rooting for him to lose his stack. Far easier guys for me to contend with, than a likabale guy who's hard to put on a hand and never fazed when he has the best of it or the worst. Kind of Chip Reese-y, I guess.

So it was no surprise when he showed up at the final table, and wasn't afraid to get his chips into the middle. When he laid a bad beat on somebody he was genuine in his empathy. He paid me a pretty high compliment too suggesting he thought we'd be the two settling the entire thing from very early on. Maybe it was just my mamoth chip stack. Considering the abilities of the guys we were sitting with, seemed like I was the only guy without a ring or a bracelet when they did the introductions, I took it as high praise.

Also, at one point fairly early in the tournament somebody said I looked like Eric Lindgren (um... no) and after getting agreement from others, Mike chimed in "more like Freddie Deeb" and kept calling me Freddie. Funny.

Anyway, I think I picked up some important aspects of disposition from him. I also thought he was class all the way when we organized our weird chop to not engage in it if even had the appearence of collusion.

Basically, the chipleader didn't want to chop when we were five handed. The other four of us, had about one move under 10 bbs, shove. Rather than let a craps game decide it, we wanted to chop. He wanted no part of it. I said, why don't the four of us chop whatever we win four ways after it's all said and done. We are all playing for first, the ring, and the 10k seat so it's not like we'd be conspiring against the giant stack. Mike brought up that it'd still look that way. So, we simply asked the chipleader if he'd allow it... and he did. Though I can't say I agree totally with some of his sports bets, not the betting but the teams he picked, so I guess we all got leaks.

Don't know how he did on the tournament of champions but now I'm rooting for the guy in any tournament we aren't both in.

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400 Posts

Wow. Just saw that I have 400 posts under the belt, that's a lot of posts. Unfortunately, I rate maybe 5 to 10% as entertaining, I'll try and do better. Too many hands, too much minutia, and that kind of stuff. I want to enliven the blog a bit, so will work to better dedicate myself to getting creative in presentation at least. I know I can but too often I get, well, lazy.

Of course another of the goals of this blog which is to chronicle my mistakes and to learn and grow from them. I also want to track what works for me, that I'm trying out, and put some post-play thought to my blog. No man is an island, and no man is a poker island, so feel free to criticize as you see fit.

What an wide range of 400 posts it's been. Maybe I'll sift through them, perhaps in time for post 500, to give a choice cut. We'll see. I think I've mentioned this before and haven't done it.

It's been a good week. Final tabled and cashed twice--chopped twice. The second final table the winner got a ring and a seat in a 9 handed tournament of champions free roll for a WSOP Main Event Seat. I felt like I was going to win that. I didn't.

I was chip-leader for most of the second half of the tournament which really made me buckle down and not get spewy. I didn't get spewy only because there is cautionary tale on every week. I don't know how many poker telecasts I need to watch to see that an early chipleader is usually a middle level exiter.

I decided to raise three times every two rotations. If I got a hand that made it easier, a tight chipleader only gets action with made hands, so I tried to cultivate that image and it made it easier to get away from the dreck I sometimes had to lead out with. If I played a pot and won it, I didn't necessary have to play two more before the second rotation was over. However, when I was getting card dead that metric was a good way to keep me involved and how I kept my stack growing. Before the tournament, I listened to Matt Glantz on PokerRoad radio talk about exploiting the sublteties in structure.

For example the antes in a very slow structure early and middle wise, that caught up with us in a hurry at the final table, would often repeat: ante 25 blinds 100-200, then ante 25 blinds 150-300. So, if you are going to be aggressive you want to do it when the antes are proportionally bigger. I don't think too many people were paying attention to that, and me pressing the gas a little more in those levels was probably just mistaken for a run of cards and kind of randomized my aggression.

In a similar vein, it always stuns me when a short-stacked player, I'd rate as otherwise good, will shove with any two cards at the very end of the 100-200 level. Why not wait til the next level and do the same thing, if you are in that much of hurry to bust, and have almost double the starting pot (10*25 plus 100, 200).

I had a couple of well time three bets, and had the chip stack to not get in a pissing match when some of the good players did it to me. It was something I was looking to do a little more of and I think had I not had such a big stack it's a skill I'd need to learn.

Plus, I got lucky. Can't win without doing that. There will be a point in time your chips have to get in and then you are at the mercy of your hand holding or catching up.

I played some talented opponenets in the latter stages of both tournaments and will probably spend the next post writing what I learned from their styles, table image, dispostions, and strategies. As with every deep run, I learned a ton.

Thankfully, it was one of those days where my hands held up for most of the tournament. It sounds like the Titlin' Texan and Southpaw Rounder have caught the dreaded bad beat-itis. They couldn't get into a tournament without running into ugly circumstances. Their frustration was obvious, I felt bad for them, and it was a reminder of how fortunate I had been.

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Deep in Event 1 at the IP ii

There are a couple other just terrible spots with passive players willing to call off stacks with weak holdings so I know I got time. A big chipleader on my left and I mixed it up a couple of times. He won more hands but I won the biggest pot.

I raised an unopened pot with pocket fives. In the SB he thought about it and called. The BB called too. The flop was King high with a 5. A set, I almost forgot what it was like to flop them. We all check the rainbow.

The turn is an Ace. Okay one of these guys has to have an A or a King. If it's just a king that might kill my action a little bit but let's hope not. Check, check to me. I put out a nice bet (have an ace, have an ace, have an ace).

The chipleader pauses for a while and puts out a raise. Other guy folds. Yes, he has an ace. Then I mull maybe he's trying to bully. Okay, I feign some weakness just in case he is, subtle almost imperceptible movement, not a great acting job but if he is on a bluff maybe enough for him to continue on the next street.

The river is a blank. He puts most of my chips in and I shove. He calls hoping I didn't river a straight. I show the set and he shows AK. Tough hand for him.

That hand propels me deep into the night.

A hand that was my downfall was a small pocket pair I raised with under the gun (YEAH, THE MISTAKE IS PRETTY GLARING AND OBVIOUS--but in my defense I had been dealt a steady diet of monsters and not gotten a call with my 3x raises once over the course of three rotations). This time, I get flatted from a guy two to my left who I had played a number of pots with earlier and had probably come out ahead. The rest of the table fold. At this point we were down to 4 or maybe 3 tables (pay 18, tables nine handed).

Flop comes out qq2. I like my hand here. I consider check raising, as he's an aggressive player. I had done this to him earlier with a check-raise bluff on a Jack high board, but I figure this time might induce a call if he's got say pocket 8s or something and my hand while ahead was vulnerable. I decide to lead out.

He shoves over the top. Suh-weet. I wish the other card was like a 10 so I could fold more quickly.

I don't like my spot at all. The are two clubs on the board and best case scenario we are flipping. Worse he is holding a queen and I'm toast. KQ and AQ make sense here too.

Then Monkey, who is at my table at this point, gives me an assist, he asks the guy who is wearing a cowboys jacket when the last time they won the superbowl. He has a big patch for each title year emblazoned on it. This guy was a solid steady player, but this question flummoxed him. He could barely answer and he clearly wasn't acting. Shit... he's got a flush draw or nothing. I need to call here.

He finds the 95 patch (which I don't even think is the right answer... is it?). I just get this bad feeling in my stomach, as I decide to fold despite myself. I tell him he has to have a queen, and he shows some relief (he's virtually wearing the definition of FLUSH DRAW across his forehead!). I finally fold. Monkey tells the kid he was holding AJ of clubs and the kid shows it. The dealer spills the deck and I see a club would have come.

So, I made a mistake by the numbers by not calling but he would have hit so I survived to play another hand. Oddly, the kid said something like he had a feeling in his gut it was coming (the fear on his face contraindicated his assuredness) and that's why he pushed. Weird, I had a feeling it was coming too, and that's why I folded. BTW, for the record I hate to follow those feelings one thing to trust your gut that you are ahead another to rely on it to predict the cards to come. I give myself an out by allowing that he could hold a ton of hands that have me crushed, and he could hit his flush draw if we were flipping. That gut feeling is certainly not something you learn at poker school.
Later that same kid raised UTG +1. Came around to me and I see AK suited. Oh well. I shove, he insta-calls what can only be Kings or Aces. It was Kings, but no ace came and I was bounced.

www.gulfcoastpoker.net

Deep in Event 1 at the IP

The IP has really outdone itself and it's a shame more people aren't there to experience it. The tables are all brand new, the space redone, and the dealers all competent or better. Great structure and a well run event.

John P and I signed up and agreed to exchange 10 per cent of each other. I thought about doing a last longer bet but he's relatively inexperienced so that wasn't fair. Exchanging 10% even if it was -ev for me seemed like it could make it more fun for him if I cashed and the same for me if he did.

The last longer would have been over in one hand. John flopped a boat, on the turn a flush draw got there and he got it all in hoping the guy hit his flush. He didn't. He held pocket queens. River queen ball. Okay, at least John had me to sweat after doing everything right and getting crushed.

Later that night in a cash game I told the table my buddy busted on the first hand. A reg asked "How do you bust on the first hand." Flop a boat, get it all in on the turn and get some idiot thinking pocket queens may be best prior to hitting a queen on a river. The response, "Yeah, that'll do it."

John later got in some online poker hands and crushed it so I was happy to see he didn't let the suckout get to him too badly.

As for me, I got a big stack with some big hands early getting up to about 3x of the starting stack. Then I got spewy, as I've been making a habit of doing of late, and got below the starting stack. Fun. I reigned myself back in, and was glad to have had the breathing room to afford the spews.

Play was TERRIBLE. Watched this happen: Board came out J high. Bet call. Turn was a 10. Big Bet call. River was a 10. Huge river bet putting his opponent all-in, call. First guy turned over J7, dealer said Jacks and 10s. Other guy mucks. I think I see his hand... huh?

Another player, a talented kid I final tabled a nightly with at the Beau, Alex, asked to see the hand. The dealer shows Q10. The second guy who was all in folded the winner. Had he been there the previous dealer he would have scooped the pot, because she was a stickler for making both hands turn over face up at any all-in.

The floor ruled the hand dead and it was curtains for the guy who called and didn't know what he had. They have that rule to prevent chip dumping. Okay more on my run next post...

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Donkley 10.28 Chips that start together want to end toghther

I won some pots early and built up my stack a bit. Southpaw Rounder, Tex and his friend Merle were also in the field. So too, Dave Anderson. I saw Alex Wood as well so I knew that there were some real players signed up, that plus the normal 10 to 20 folks that usually make the final table, and it wasn't your typical donkley. Fewer and fewer weak spots. The field had swollen to over 100 which I love but many of the extra players can play, so that's not necessarily a good thing.

Early on Davey busted out I believe it took a two or three outer for his opponent to pass him. He came over and we caught up. I looked down at KK in the Big or small blind. There was a hefty early raise, a quick call from early position and then Larry Price, a very good tournament player who came in second in one of the New Orleans main events recently (I think), who paused and put in a bigger reraise. I considered just taking it down with a shove or at least isolating Larry.

I mulled it over. I had everybody covered and I like to take bigger risks in these things early with a chance to build a chip stack. His raise might just be big enough to get the other two out if I call. Larry was liable to be stealing with a drawing hand or as he had almost exclusively shown on that day playing a genuine hand for a stiff price maybe a middle pair.

Larry isn't opposed to putting his chips in when the flop looks like it'll miss people,so I figured I could flat him, and check call him if the flop looked like it missed, or check-shove depending on the texture. I called, and apparently that offered the right price to the other two. I didn't love that, but I was willing to gamble in this spot so... oh, well. Sometimes you want to be on a poker island for two and sometimes the whole boat comes shore.

I also like my call for another rationale because if the early raiser bumped it again and possibly Larry shoved I can give one of them aces and get away from it (4 and 5 bets in that tournament are rarely anything but rockets) Now, I only had Larry to worry about for the aces after the other two declined another raise.

I checked dark, which I do with drawing hands and so I had this opportunity to balance out those checks with a huge pair I'm probably going to show down to the table, plus I'm pretty sure Larry ain't going to let it check around and I'll get to act after him. Flop came three ragged babies. The two in between us checked and then Larry shoved. I had already decided I was fine with calling off if somebody flopped a set or he had aces. So I quick called.

The other two got out of the way and Larry turned over jacks. I loved my spot. Jack hit the turn. Davey said he heard somebody at the table disparaging my play, if I hadn't hidden my hand I wouldn't have dumped 2/3rds of my stack (still left with just under what I started with). Funny. In that format I'll put my money in having to fade two outs every time. I thought I played it great. I didn't like the turn but I got exactly what I wanted in terms of maximizing value.

Probably would play it more straightforward if we were deeper or in a different spot in the tournament.

Somehow, I rebuilt and with under half the field left I get moved over to Larry's table. I make a joke about my old chips trying to pull my new ones in as I spilled a stack and they rolled toward him. Later on, and I'm fuzzy on the exact details from playing so many hands wednesday, I believe I was in the blinds with a multi-way limped pot. Larry limped from the button so that would make me sb. I had I think a suited QJ or Q10. I popped it to three possible reasons, 1 for a little steal 2 to trim my opponents or 3 to play a multi-way pot with a drawing hand. I like all those results especially demonstrating strength.

I don't like this play because I'm out of position, but if I can steal or c-bet steal vs a lot of weakness I don't hate it. And again, it also balances out the raise I'll put out with a legitimate hand in that spot. I don't do it often but it wasn't a terrible spot to do so.

Of course everybody called. Flop came queen high with two babies. I push out a bet to see where my kicker is at and it's folded to Larry. He smooth calls. I don't like that especially as Larry is an aggressive player and fond of raising. Maybe he has a middling pocket pair and wants to see what I do on the turn. Queen ball hits.

Hmm. Less likely he has a queen with a higher kicker. Also, I rethink and probably he raises those hands, so I push out a bet, he raises all in. I call way too quick and he shows a baby pocket pair he made a set with on the flop and turned a boat. I got outs but none come. Good night.

In retrospect, his shove indicated he could care less about that second queen and it had to help him more than it helped me. I don't think I could fold based on chip stack and bet sizes but I probably could have checked the turn. He'd check behind and maybe I check call the river. Clearly, the problem here is position, pretty simple and straight forward.

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