2 Hours w/ Doyle Brunson

Nearly all of the World Poker Tour's season 3 alluded me. Work, the bar league and other activities conflicted with me catching one of my fovorite television shows. So I was delighted to open the brown Amazon.com package today that contained the 8 DVD set the best of WPT's season 3. The extras contain Shana Hiatt Bloopers and more importantly deleted hands. Episode 1 on the DVD is Bicycle Casiono's Legends of Poker, which Doyle Brunson goes on to win.

I haven't got to see alot of Doyle's play, but his results speak for themselves. I heard about this touney win and also of his 10th WSOP bracelet. I also got an opportunity to hear him speak to small group of people in New Orleans about a year ago. He mentioned how this tourney win really built up his confidence, he hadn't done so well in tournaments for a while.

This final table was especially interesting because when Doyle was Heads up with Lee Watkinson the total chips in play were over 200 times the size of the big blind. Lee had the lead when it got down to heads up. Doyle pretty much systematically destroyed Lee, and played what Mike Sexton referred to as "flawless" poker. Doyle does not play by the book poker. Hands that were especially interesting were ones where Doyle flopped a monster, a good example is when he flopped the nut straight (347) w/ 56. Doyle always takes his time to act and is very good at extracting alot of $ from his opponets. I'm not going to break down key hands but suffice it to say that getting inside of Doyle's head was educational. From a purely textbook viewpoint I feel that he risks more chips than he needs to at certain points but I could see how he was setting up Lee.

The final hand Doyle had Q9, and Lee Q3. They both flopped top pair and there was a possible flush draw on board (QJ7, 2 spades). Doyle checked, Lee bet 150k and Doyle went in the tank and went all in, Lee called. Doyle's hand held up. There are 2 factors that made the all in work here: first he was representing a flush draw, as this is how many players would play there, and secondly Lee was frustrated and made a rash call due to the fact that Doyle had gone all in several times recently and he had folded. The set up was perfect.

That Doyle is a sneaky, sneaky ultra aggressive player who is keenly aware of what hands he thinks you will have him on and see's these opportunities to trap.

I found Doyle's style fascinating and plan on watching this episode again soon, and break it down more thoroughly. Also I found a tell on stone faced Doyle that will come in handy the "next" time we play.

Another win

in Wednesday nights bar league.

I got off to a good start, but then lost most of my stack when my kings got busted by AJ. I've got about 10k in chips left, and the blinds are 1k/2k when this interesting hand comes up. 3 limpers and I look down and find 99 in the small blind. With only the big blind left to act behind me I have 4 opponets in this pot. I considered limping myself and trying to flop a set but quickly decided to push all in. Being relatively shortstacked I was concerned that some of the looser players would call. 99 is also a tricky hand to play in a multiway pot. Knowing that hitting a set is unlikely (8.5 to 1), and on top of that I' ve probably got the best hand, the prospect of narrowing the field to heads up, and going after those chips that I so desperately needed made the all in a very compelling move. Everything went according to plan. Only one player called, w/ A6s and my glorious nines held up nearly tripling me up. I wish poker was always this easy!

With about 18 players remaining I was in the top third in chips but still short stacked in relation to the blinds. I made it to the final table with an average stack and stole blinds when I could while picking my spots carefully and managed to make it to the final 3. Millard, a rock, took a bad beat and I was now heads up w/ a slight chip lead. Fortunately for me my opponet was a tell box, but after I chipped away at her she switched to all in mode. That made things more difficult and I layed down several hands untill this hand came up. Blinds are 16k/32k and I am a 2 to 1 chip leader. She is on the button and limps in. Remember she had been pushing alot, but I had a good read on her and sensed that she held a monster. The flop came JT4 rainbow pairing my T8. Normally this is a good hand heads up but I had her on QQ, possibly AA, KK, AK, AQ. I checked and she bet. I folded and called her hand which she showed! I love it when I do this, it really impresses the onlookers! I chipped away at her stack for a bit and then called her all in w/ JQs which held up for the win! I can honestly say that I played perfect poker from the nines on, stealing what I could and making excellent reads with no misteps!

A couple of friends and I played a few games at my house later, I won the first, got 2nd in the second tourney, and later won a heads up match. Not a bad poker day.

2 more cool things happened, One of the bar league players who plays a solid game asked to change seats at the final table saying he wanted to be on my left because I "terrify" him. Later at my house Aaron a winning online player who also plays in our league told me that he thought I was the best poker player he knew. Thanks for the compliments guys!