Target audience
When I’m at home working on the next book, video, or other training content, I am constantly reminded of the target audience. For one thing, I get daily messages complimenting, criticising, or querying some aspect of my existing content. This hits primarily on an intellectual level, like a gentle reminder that whispers: “There are actual real people who consume this stuff you create.” By contrast, when I travel to live events and people very kindly take the time to let me know the impact it’s had on them or someone they know, it hits very differently, on an emotional level, a flesh-and-blood example of the bond created by the content you create.
a young guy told me my book on satellites changed his life
In the short time I spent in Birmingham (just over 48 hours) at the recent Party Poker UK tour stop, a young guy told me my book on satellites changed his life and set him on the path to being a pro and living the kind of life he wanted, a charming lady shared that she was “bricking herself” when I arrived at the table as she was currently reading my book GTO Poker Simplified and didn’t want to be the worst player at the table (which she definitely wasn’t), and an older gentleman informed me his 19-year-old son was thrilled to see his dad on my instagram story (the son has all the books reportedly) and intrigued to hear the details of a big hand we played in the high roller.
Sid wins the raffle
The Party Poker team have done a great job this year getting their grassroots UK tour up and running. Their friendliness and professionalism transfers to the players and the experience at the table. The schedule is well-thought-out and offers lots of variety to recreational bolsters on limited budgets, while also including a 1k high roller that attracted no less a luminary than Sam Grafton into Resorts World.
On my first night there, I hopped into a small side event that provided a lot of extra Ev provided by Party in the form of 2k added to the prize pool in tickets to other events. I was at a particularly friendly table that included my close friend Sid (who I stayed with on my most recent trip to the UK), my distant friend (and co-author) Barry Carter, a new friend from Scotland who was telling me about his sports betting among other things, Leigh Wiltshire (from APAT), and one of my favourite ladies in poker Natalie “Proper Burnley” Bromley.
who was to say he was the only Siddharta in the tourney?
The added 2k in prizes was in the form of a raffle for the players in the tournament just after the close of play, and when they got to the top prize (a 1k high roller ticket) and called out the name “Siddhartha…” I gave Sid beside me a friendly congratulatory punch in the shoulder before realising that might be a little premature (who was to say he was the only Siddharta in the tourney?). Thankfully it wasn’t.
The high roller
By the time the high roller started about 36 hours later, I’d already busted three bullets in the Main Event without a bag. I’d also fired a max late reg bullet in the Mystery Bounty where I made the final table (but not the money: I was set over setted very first hand by Party team pro Matt Staples). That freed me up to enter the high roller which had just started, and almost the first hand I played was one of the more interesting and eventful I played on the trip.
The tournament was seven handed (a nice touch) and after the LoJack opened to 600 at BB200, I look down at Queens on the button and bump it up to 2k. When it folded back to my opponent, he bumped it up further to 7k, and I called somewhat reluctantly. In my experience, against a recreational early on in a buyin much bigger than they are used to playing, the range here is pretty much Aces, Kings, and Ace-King. Against that range I barely even have the price to call, as there are 16 possible Ace-Kings, which I’m a 54% favourite against, and six possible Aces and six possible Kings I’m an 18% dog against. If you do the math on those numbers I’m only going to win about 10.8 out of 28, or about 39%, but this is more than the 5k I have to call into a pot of 14500 (roughly 34%), and I also have the advantages of position and a very clear idea of my opponents range. Why is this such a big advantage? Well, if the flop comes with an Ace or a King and no Queen, I can very easily throw my hand away at no further cost to my stack. On the other hand, if it comes with a Queen but no Ace or King, I can very likely stack Aces or Kings, and win at least some more chips from Ace-King.
What I don’t want to do here is shove and potentially reduce the range I get in against to just Aces or Kings (the one advantage of this play is getting Ace-King to find its 46% equity is nice, but this doesn’t make up for the times we get the lot in with less than 20% equity).
As it happens, the flop did have an overcard to my Queens, but also a Queen, when it came:
Ks-Qc-7s
My opponent bet 5k and now my thought process runs like this:
(1) If he has aces, I want to just call and let him continue to believe he has the best hand, making it easier to get him all in over the next two streets. He still retains all six possible combinations of Aces as I can’t see any of the four Aces either in my hand or in the board.
(2) If he has Kings, I’m getting stacked no matter what barring a one outer. It’s now only half as likely he has Kings though, as with a king on the flop, he can only have three possible combinations of pocket Kings.
(3) If he has Ace-King I have him drawing almost dead, so again want to just call and let him continue to believe he has the best hand, making it easier to get him all in over the next two streets. The arrival of the king on the board reduces his ace king combinations from 16 to 12.
So I call.
The turn is ten of clubs so the board now reads
Ks-Qc-7s-Tc
My opponent checks after some thought and I’m fairly sure he doesn’t like his hand as much any more. My thinking now is while he doesn’t love his hand any more (and therefore probably has Ace-King), he won’t fold that to a small bet, so I bet 8k. He called fairly quickly.
The river came a red Jack and he shoved fairly quickly. Given I’m now pretty sure he has Ace-King or Aces, I fold quickly.
That left me with half a starting stack, which I gradually grinded up to starting stack again… just as late reg closed (should have just max late regged!)
I had the very affable Jamie Staples beside me for much of the rest of the tournament. It was a strange tournament for me as I never had a stack so never really felt I was in it, but every time I needed to win a flip I did. That got me all the way to the final table until I fell in 5th. Sid ended up with the trophy after a three way chop to complete a great few days for him (he also chopped the side event he won the 1k ticket in!)
Final thoughts
I greatly enjoyed the first Party event I attended this year (in Glasgow), and this Birmingham stop was even more fun. Even as an ambassador for a rival brand, it is great to see Party back on the scene with great live events, which has long been one of their unique selling points. Rumour has it the next stop will be in London in December, and I hope to be there!
