I recently decided to take a shot at the WPT Event taking place at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City. The Borgata has opened a brand new poker room that leaves little to be desired. The high stakes section alone has over 40 tables with plenty of action to be had at all levels and variants. This was a welcomed site as I needed to earn my buy in for the main event.
I found an opening at a 10-25 no limit table. The buy in is unlimited yet I chose to buy in for close to the minimum. As I did not know most of the players there and they had no clue who I was, it was inevitable they would put me on scared money. I took my time cherry picking hand to enter a pot with and always entered on a raise. I took the first few pots down with little resistance as I had established a very tight table image up until this point.
On one specific occasion I found myself holding pocket Jacks under the gun and decided to limp in. Two others limped in from late position and the two blinds followed us to the flop. The flop as A-J-3. I put out a bet of 150 got one caller and the button raised to 450. The small blind folded, the BB called as did I. The turn was a 7. I led out with a bet of 700. No sooner was did I release my chips, I was immediately asked how much I got left behind. When the action got to the Button he immediately raised an additional $6,000 putting me all in. Everyone else folded around and I immediately called.
The Button had bought in for $50,000 and had been muscling the table all day. When he saw me buy in with a little over the minimum he immediately assumed I would be on scared money and he could bully me off of the hand. The called shocked him, as did my set of Jacks that clearly dominated the A-2 off suite he was playing from the button.
I took $13,000 net profit off the table in an hour and 40 minutes and bought in to the WPT main event. The moral of the story is, in a cash game you can sometimes accumulate a large profit faster with a small stack than with a big stack as your competition will make a critical error and underestimate you wherewithal.
John “The Greek” Leontakianakos is a professional poker player with 27 years of experience. He is currently in the process of publishing a book on poker and runs his own website called JohnTheGreekPoker.
Comments 5
Good work John, I have been reading your articles for some time now and always find them informative. I have definetly elevated my game thanks to you.
How did you do in the WPT Event.
Thanks Always,
Brian
Posted 01 Jun 2007 at 12:22 pm ¶john chuckie aces here i just got done reading this game of ours it not hard to believe the circumstances you went through playing poker this book rocks you are a man amongst boys in this poker scene looking forward to maybe meeting you at the next wpt event good luck and let the poker gods rain on you ur the man chuckie aces
Posted 01 Jun 2007 at 12:29 pm ¶Sorry for the delay, I will let John know you both commented.
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 8:47 pm ¶Brian,
I am very pleased to know that you find these article of value and that they are a help to you. As you will note, my articles are not designed to tell you how to play 77 from the button or AA under the gun. They are designed to make you think and anticipate your opponents actions and reactions.
At the WPT, by the way I bubbled. Pushed all in with AA after hiting top set and lost to A-3 offsuite.
Posted 05 Jun 2007 at 3:52 pm ¶Chuckie Aces,
Thanks for the kind words man. I really appreciate it. Next tournament for me is the Heads Up Championship at the WSOP on 6/19. I figured that would be a good tournament to play as only one player can suck out on you at a time. : )
Best of luck Brother
Posted 05 Jun 2007 at 3:54 pm ¶Post a Comment