Let me start by saying that Limit Hold’em is by far my best game. I would consider myself an expert at Limit Hold’em. I’ve played Limit Hold’em professionally in Las Vegas for over 8 years, so I’d like to think I know what I’m doing

I generally, don’t play to many big buy in tournaments a year, usually less than 10 or so including the World Series. The Wynn Casino is having their annual Wynn Classic Tournament and I decided to play today’s event: The 1000 Limit Hold’em Tournament.

1 Hour Rounds
Starting Chips of 4000
Starting blinds of 25-25 (blinds going up every hour)

I knew immediately, I liked the table I drew. There wasn’t a player in the bunch. A couple older inexperienced guys, one older lady who was having the rules explained to her. The closest, I could come to finding someone who was decent was a wannabee player wearing big headphones (who I’ve never played with). I watched him carefully for the first 5 minutes of play, and determined he wasn’t much to worry about. When the tournament started we were missing a couple of players, and I was pleasantly surprised when an action player who I’ve played with many times at the Bellagio, sat down two seats to my right. So here is the lineup for the tournament:

Types of Players by Seat #

1. Loose Passive Calling Station
2. Me, Cash Game Expert, Tournament Donator
3. Older gentleman, passive calling station
4. Middle aged muscle head, who played almost every hand, constantly complaining about his bad luck, and how bad he is running before the tourney even started.
5. Older Tourist Donkey, Calling Station Extraordinaire, complete with the wannabee pro sun glasses. Picture attached in part 2.
6. Older Lady, tighter than a frogs butt (water tight), very straight forward player, bets when she has something, check folds when she doesn’t
7. Middle aged guy, very weak tight, plays very few hands, but when he does play them, plays them poorly
8. Younger Player with Head phones, better than the rest of the players, but not by much. Really misplayed several key hands early in the tournament (more on that later)
9. Action Player, a mild threat because he was loose and aggressive, but I definitely like my position on him being two seats to the left. Immediately to the left is a great place to be in relation to action players, because when you get a good hand you can three bet them and isolate the action, and you get the benefit of always acting after he acts. This particular player is a habitual bluffer, he's like a pirate always looking to steal someones tresure

Basically, I love this lineup. I should be able to see a lot of flops for cheap and generally control the action, which is what I like. Show them a few good hands and then kick up the aggression factor and start winning a lot of small pots.

Part 2 of the tournament story: Wynn Poker Tournament in Las Vegas: Part 2

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

You say you watched the player with the headphones for five minutes, and knew he wasn't a threat..

How did you come to that conclusion? Playing style? Body Language (Specifically?)? Conversation?

Good Questions, I'll do my best to answer.
The simple answer is 8 years of experience playing professionally , but let me expand on that a little bit.

General Profiling -

The first thing I do, normally before even sitting down at the table is size up the opponents. I try and determine who plays good, who plays bad, who is a threat. If there are multiple tables, I check to see which game is the best. When you sit down, listen, watch, take mental notes, who feels comfortable, who doesn't, what do they say?, How do they say it? Do they know what the hell they are talking about, or are they clued out?

All I generally need to observe is a small sampling of hands a player plays, taking note of their value of starting hands by position, whether they come into the pot raising or just calling will tell you a lot about their "Style", whether they are weak and passive, or strong and aggressive. As noted in the article this player really misplayed a few hands early missing a lot of bets. Good players don't misplay hands the way this guy did, he had a serious case of "FPS", Fancy Play Syndrome.

Body Language - It's a bit of a generalization and stereotype, but generally speaking guys who wear big head phones are wannabees. In fact in 8 years of playing I'm not sure I've ever seen any great players wear big bulky headphones and here is the reason why: Your giving up to much information, there are all kinds of verbal clues, and hints that players unknowingly give up all the time. If your listening to music, how the hell are you going to hear that free information??

Conversation - after misplaying the first hand, he tells everyone out loud that he played the hand bad (Gee, you think). Even if you are an idiot, you don't normally stand up and say so. Then two minutes later he makes basically the same mistake, missing multiple bets with way the best hand. Mistakes happen, but the idea is to learn from them, not repeat them

So my basic profile of this guy was that he was a wannabee, plays passively, and makes a lot of mistakes so he isnt' a threat.

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

Good story! Although, I have seen Phil Hellmuth wear the big headphones before and I'm not sure who, but there was another poker pro I recall that did as well. I'll have to come back as I can't remember who it is off hand.

Ahhh, but are they really playing music while they are wearing them? LOL

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ertrauma


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As my father always said, "Son, choose your sword wisely for some day you may find you must fall on it".

Karma...Any stereotype of player that just annoys you in live play.

My big nuissance always seems to be that old lady who thinks she knows how to play but is completly horrible and talks too much

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Kickboyswoop

I thought this would make a good new topic so I started a new thread here:

Poker Players that are annoying

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !