Bellagio 5 Diamond Episode 1

Here are my comments from the 1st episode of the televised WPT Bellagio final table I played in December 2015. If it ever gets uploaded online, I'll link to it.

Hand #1: I have ATo, Bill has KQs

This fold is standard. I'm a bit fortunate I wasn't dealt AJ or even AQ/99/TT as it's possible I would've hero-folded. I'm not sure if the jam is winning given how tight I'm opening with a bullyable stack(I considered open-folding ATo as is), and even if it is, calling is certainly more profitable. Though, if you have the image Bill had at that point, 2 blockers to good hands, and I'm making the ridiculous folds above, it gets better.

I played with Bill for 2 days prior to this where he was playing extremely tight and being the fourth hand of the day, I had not realized that Matt Stout had started coaching him yet.

Once I started to figure out this was happening, I began to imagine the conversations that were taking place between the two and even brainstormed with my friends on what adjustments he could be making. Some were obvious.

It's possible he coached him to raise to 2.5x big blinds preflop, but I would also not be surprised if Matt told him to make it whatever size I was(I'm kind of a trendsetter). It didn't take long for me to assume that Bill was going to defend his big blind more liberally, which is something I would expect a coach to be able to fix quickly. It was as important to guess what he couldn't learn in a short time frame - I wouldn't expect him to be able to learn when to bluff-catch multiple streets with marginal holdings.

It's interesting that the most useful generic piece of advice you could give to Bill is to "play looser," but this can backfire heavily. Playing tight and leaving money on the table is still much better than punting. This is true in all scenarios, but much more punishing at a final table where ICM(payjumps) is in play. There are situations at a final table where it's also correct to play incredibly tight too, so having a student play looser can lead to abysmal results.

Hand #2: I have A6s, Bill has KQs

I'm off by a pip, though I think this simulation is wrong by being too tight for reasons I won't discuss.

A bigger concern is whether I think Bill is tighter than this range. Given that I could see his coach telling him to open jam hands under 15 blinds, Cate appearing to play snug, and this being a much tighter range than usual(button should jam 34.2% of hands here in winner-take-all), it's a reasonable estimate.

I used to beat myself up whenever I made a wrong decision, no matter how small an error, but now I'm pleased knowing I'm close to the robots whenever I have to think extensively in a shovebot situation.

Hand #3: I have AJs, Kevin has A5o

I have multiple options here preflop. Going all-in on 25 blinds would normally be reasonable, but ICM is heavily in play, and I would not have guessed that A5o was in Kevin's opening range. Even though Cate seemed to be underdefending her big blind, his stack is still bullyable by Jake. On 73 blinds, it's possible his plan was to 4-bet bluff a 3-bet by Jake with an ace blocker and not much room for Jake to call, but the hand is too weak for that. Getting flatted by Jake when holding A5o out of position is a pretty big nightmare too.

I expected Kevin to have a normal opening range or be a pip tighter, and was wrong. If I knew, I would have gone all-in.

This is also a reasonable spot to 3-bet bluff, but my hand is too good to get blown off by a 4-bet all-in, where I would have to have an extremely tight range to call off. I can probably only 3bet/call profitably with QQ+ and I wouldn't be that surprised if the dream machine told me it was actually KK+, so I shouldn't have many bluffs either. Considering all this, I elected to call.

On the turn, I might normally bet 2 streets, but chose to check to further reduce variance. It should be somewhat transparent that my preflop range is tight here out-of-position at these stack depths, so it's possible I'm not getting paid-off by much in betting twice. I played this hand like a coward and am damn proud of it.

What you didn't see:

I know that the television industry films a ton of content and then edits heavily so a lot gets left out, but was still surprised at some footage that didn't make the cut.

"I don't think that would have ended well." -@Jake11291
"NO IT WOULD NOT... but it would have made for some amazing television." -@catehall

— Ben Yu (@benyupoker) December 19, 2015

At the beginning of the final table, I showed Cate this text that Lauren sent me, read it aloud and it was all filmed. I can see why they didn't show it as it breaks the fourth wall and is a bit of an unaccessible inside-joke that requires some background in poker Twitter.

This is a good illustration that people are capable of seeing/creating humor about being marginalized. "Can't you take a joke?" is common defense used to backup misogynistic behavior. Yes, they can(not that they should have to), but I often hear from women that the jokes usually aren't that funny, and that they've heard some of them numerous times. Once you strip away the cleverness, it really is just annoying at best, harassment at worst.

Pressure

I was interviewed on day 5 on whether I felt any pressure given the stakes and situation, and responded with a long rant:

Athletes and poker players are often asked about whether they feel pressure in high-leverage/$$$ situations and usually lie or deflect the question. They do this because the media portrays it as all-or-nothing. Either you were CLUTCH or you melted down under the lights, when that's a poor representation of what's going on.

My interior monologue in tense situations often looks something like this: "I have king-queen suited in the high jack, this is an open. *raises to 2 million, the small blind 3bets to 5.5 million* Oh man, this could be a big pot. I have 40 million and he covers me so we're playing 50 big blinds effective. Calling is a bit under 10% of my stack, my hand is good enough to call. *calls* Oh man, it'd really be nice to flop well here. There's a bit more than 12 million in there now, so the stack-to-pot ratio is 4, that's roughly 3 half pot bets...

Distractions and desires weave in-and-out of my thought-train, but for the most part I'm grounded in logic. I used to try my best to prevent diversions from entering my consciousness, but now I acknowledge them, let them pass, and go back to thinking. In contrast, I feel like the media depicts it as "OMG SO MUCH $$$ IM GOING TO PUNT!" perhaps because my characterization of it is too nuanced.

So yes, I feel pressure. I'm emotionally attached to the tournament as the adrenaline pulses through my body. I'm going to be devastated if I bust. But I just continue to sit there and play as well as I'm capable of.

I might comment on episodes 2 and 3, but we'll see. WSOP is still in full swing - fatigue is starting to kick in, but for the most part, I'm still excited to battle and go on adventures with my friends everyday.