Brandon Adams Blog

2500PL

200-400blinds
I was all-in pre-flop for with AA vs QQ for a 19000 chip pot, and a queen hit on the flop. I would have had an above average stack with about 100 players left, instead I was busto.

In my tournament career, I’ve taken a surprising number of pair over pair beats at critical junctures. Three of them have been worth over $50,000 in tournament equity and one was worth over $250,000. The one yesterday was worth about $25k in my mind. It’s a brutal game.

BA
BA

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2500PL

200-400blinds
I was all-in pre-flop for with AA vs QQ for a 19000 chip pot, and a queen hit on the flop. I would have had an above average stack with about 100 players left, instead I was busto.

BA

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The 1500nl tourney today was UNBELIEVABLY BORING. 50-100 blinds after two hours — this is just not interesting poker. I guess the structure is good given the number of players and the time constraints, but this is all pre-flop poker and as a player I find it mind-numbing. I look forward to the 5000nl short-handed in a couple of days.
I played with Jeff Madsen in the 3000 08 — great story. HE just turned 21 and his BR went from 0 to 800k in a month. –BA

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So yesterday I worsened my record and lightened my roll with two bustouts —- the 12pm 1500plo and the 4pm 1500plo with re-buys. At dinner, Layne Flack told me that I was a crazy gambler for my assorted stock market speculations (i favor leveraged, concentrated positions in small biotech companies). I told him that anyone with a roll less than 2mill who played in the 50k HORSE is a far crazier gambler than me, but he disagreed. –BA

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Updates

July 12. Early in the summer, I considered playing the $50k HORSE, but I decided against it last week. Essentially, the ego gain I’d get from playing (and potentially making the final table) was not adequate compensation for the EV loss I could expect against such a tough field. Poker players constantly have to make money-ego tradeoffs along these lines, and, at the end of the day, ego usually wins out over money.

I played golf with my girlfriend today at
www.golfwolfcreek.com
The place is unbelievable, but we only finished nine holes b/c of the 100+ degree temp.

July 13.
Played in the 2500nl short and busted in the second level. I pushed in for 1600 with KTo from the BB against a button raiser who I read as weak. I was wrong — he called with 99.

Played 100-200l, 25-50nl and 50-100nl at Bellagio for six hours and went up 8k.

July 14.
HORSE… it looks like this was a fairly efficient way to transfer money to the already rich. This is quite a final table.

I’m taking the day off to do some organizational stuff.

My next tourney will probably be Monday.

Brandon

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The WSOP is brutal, I’ve cashed in 2 of 9 events and I’m down $12000. After expenses, juice, and taxes, it’s pretty much impossible to make money here.

I finished 195 of 2800 in the $1000nl yesterday. I felt like the blinds and antes were so high all day that it was difficult for anyone to make a significant mistake. You wouldn’t go too far wrong after the dinner break by open-shoving with any pair or any ace. Almost all the action occurred pre-flop.

Today I felt like I was a little impatient. I find that at the WSOP you have to maintain a strong bias towards tight play. It’s too easy to get bored and play too many hands. You are rarely if ever getting the necessary implied odds to play drawing hands at the WSOP.

With blinds of 25-25, there was an early raise to 75 and a call. I thought both of these players had strong hands. I called on the button with 8c9c. The BB also called. The flop came 2c9hAc. It checked around to me. I bet 400 and was raised all-in (1025 more) by the small blind. He had A2 and I didn’t draw out.

Brandon

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I busted from the $10k PLO in the last hand of level 4. I made some fairly big mistakes. I’ve been a winning Omaha player for a year but it’s clear now that I’m a dog to the $10k field. Here was one costly mistake…..

I make it 500 from the button with KcKhJcTs. Two callers.
Flop is 8c5hTc.
check check
I bet 1500
one player calls
turn is 4s
he checks. i should definitely definitely take a free card here, but i pot bet thinking he will laydown a flush draw or a low set (since he’ll think that he’ll face a bet for his stack on the river). obv it’s unlikely that he has a set of tens.
after my pot bet, he raises 5500 and i can’t call. he probably had a wrap to the moon on the flop.

BA

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Rebuy!

This will be a fun tournament. I took the last two days off. I’m 1 for 5 in the WSOP so far (15th $2000 O8). The ESPN coverage changes the rebuy tournament such that if a player is otherwise indifferent to rebuying or adding on, he should go ahead and do it. For this reason, I expect a huge prize pool today.

I will rebuy as many times as necesssary. I won’t go so far as to adopt the “get as many chips on your table as possible so you can win them back later” strategy. This strategy is….
buy-in for $2000, go all-in with any playable hand.
bust, repeat.
add-on for maximum at end of rebuy period.
This strategy might make sense though if you have some kind of sponsership deal that gives you big $ for final table appearances. It means that you’ll probably have a big stack at the end of level 2 and you’ll have a lot of chips at your table.

Brandon

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