The game creator blogged about it, describing it as taking the psychological and face-to-face aspects of poker and putting it into a purer “gaming” context, stating that ever since Moneymaker won the world series of poker and made poker mainstream that the game became too technical and non-adventurous for his taste.  The effectiveness in which he captures that aspect in Mascarade is striking – the game is all about making deductions based on incomplete information, and bluffing or calling out the bluff based on misinformation, reading people, and imperfect memory.

The opening of the game requires players to reveal their single dealt card before turning it over face down to give them an opportunity to memorize where things are – despite the fact that it quickly changes and not in a way that is easily memorized.  Because we only played the game twice, i felt pretty novice at the memory aspect of the game – the second time i had to resort to some basic Memory Palace techniques that i have not at all trained in but know about and have done some basic versions of from watching too many episodes of the Mentalist, and that broke down fairly quickly after people started passing cards – i stopped being able to hold all of it in my head and started focusing on one or two potential cards at a time.

I think it’s the sort of thing i could get better at just through repetition – to be able to glance at any card and know what it is and what it does as opposed to having to look at a cheat sheet – but even so, the game can be played with over 10 people, and i think there’s a breaking point somewhere in there – with so much going on, the ability to keep track of the cards on top of being able to read people and deduce the likelihood of them doing this or that action would require some actual Effort at memory techniques that i haven’t done since i was a kid.

And that’s what makes the game stick out to me – if you put strategy games such as Chess or Catan or Dominion on one end of the spectrum in that the most successful players have a solid understanding of seeing the big picture based on facts that are laid out very clearly, and if you put poker in the middle of that spectrum in that the most successful players have a well-balanced understanding of the obvious facts (one more card could give me a flush) and non-obvious facts (there’s a 36% chance of that happening by the river and the immediate odds of my opponent’s bet aren’t favorable, but the implied odds are…) with the psychology of the players (…based on my read that if i hit my flush there’s a high likelihood that he’ll pay me off), Mascarade leans towards the other end of the spectrum in a place that very few other games i’ve played lives, and that makes it pretty fantastic.

I kind of want someone to create a Google+ Video hangout version of the game.  I wish i had the programming chops for it.  It’s totally something i would do if i did.

Photo credit to boardgamegeek.

Harrah’s December WSOP event has had a low turnout the past two years – circuit player regulars speculate that they’re trying to find a pretense to eventually shut it down. The first year i moved here, the afternoon events would have 200-300 people in them, but last year that december number dwindled to an average of 100-150 and this time the average attendance per tournament was 50-100. For non hold-em events that made it even worse. The first PLO event i played last week had about 33 people in it. When this one started yesterday, there were only 9 people for the first level or so, and then others trickled in. The final count was 22 people.

I didn’t do very well in the event last week. Part of it was that i was getting crappy cards and getting sucked out, but the other part that i realized in retrospect was that i just didn’t manage my chips well, making improper bet sizes – namely, betting too large when fold equity was too small and then being crippled with my remaining stack. I chalk this to not having played in any tournaments in months. I ended up having a brief conversation with Jeff Becker about it and coming into this tournament i adjusted my mentality, played more in context.

We started with 8000 in chips with blinds at 25/50. The rounds were 30 minutes each and were pretty solid for patient playing. The table that I started out on before i got moved was super super passive, so i was able to limp cheaply for a lot of pots with great potential hands and i caught good cards enough to bring myself up to about 13k in the first hour. Then, at some point in level 3, I ran into two rough beats. The first was me losing 67 to a 6J on a 66J7x board. The second was me also flopping trip 6’s and a guy making his wrap on the turn. This didn’t put me in the red zone, but i got blinded down so far that i did end up having to shove on an open ended straight draw and i hit it.

Between the first break and the second break, a similar set of actions happened – i built up a pretty healthy stack from what i feel was solid play, and then someone who was shorter than me ended up pushing in when i had top set with a 15 outter that he caught on the river. That hurt my chipstack to about 6bb that i was later able to double up against the chip leader, a very solid PLO player. I raised pf with QQxx and hit a set on a 10QK board. I bet on it and he potted me, effectively putting me all-in. I didn’t want to call because he had been playing tight all night and didn’t usually make moves like that so i felt like he had the nuts, but folding would have been stupid. a) i would have been so crippled in chips that it would have taken 4 double ups to get out of the red zone. b) he was a smart poker player. Even though he hadn’t made a move like that, he also saw me as a pseudo conservative player with a shortstack and could have easily decided to make a move thinking that i could fold two pair when he doesn’t have much. c) even if he was ahead, i had outs and i needed to make a move. So i called. He ended up having a pretty weak hand, maybe one pair with a gutshot draw. My set held up.

There was a period of about 2 hours where there were 11 people left, one table of 5 (that i was on) and a table of 6. In those two hours, everyone tightened up. I was probably 8th in chips, but i kept on grabbing the odd pot here and there to not make me feel in too much danger. At that point, i was trying to survive well enough to make the final table so that i had breathing room. Finally someone got eliminated, and then 45 minutes or so after that, 10th place went out, so the remaining 9 people moved. I was still low in chips at that point, under 10bb for sure, but not the shortest stack. One person had maybe 3bb left, another had about 7bb, &c. The chip leader had a solid chip lead – no one was even close to touching him.

the guy sitting to my right was an interesting fellow. He had been drinking a lot and was a little bit of an obnoxious personality, but he was also clearly a seasoned poker player and managed his play pretty well. He started chatting with me during the game, mainly making comments about hands or other players, two of which he knew. He also kept on complaining about his headphones, saying that they were crappy because “my stepson must have taken my good ones.” He definitely made the table more interesting for me, and helped keep me awake when i started to get a little tired.

I ended up making a few big hands and was about 4th in chips when i ended up shoving an all in against a guy who i’ve played with before. I played him really well in the hand too – I think i raised with AKQ5 double-suited or some similar hand, and he called. The board came out 55x. I’m out of position, so i bet out, he thinks for a moment and calls. Turn comes a K, so now i have 5’s full. I check trying to induce a bet. He does, i pop him, he calls. He put me on the trips but not on the made full house, he was holding a flush draw and pocket 10s… and caught a 10 on the river. from 4th in chips down to 8th in chips on a two-outer. it was ugly.

So here i am in critical position yet again, and after folding a whole lot of hands i hit another break, doubling up on a key hand against the guy who had 2-outted me. I had Ax2s4s9x in the big blind and it had limped around to me. The board came 35x with two spades. I shove. if everyone folds to me, i take down the pot easy, but if i get a call (i only expect one call based on how play has been going at this point) then i still have a flush draw (even though it sucks) and a wrap. I get called by that guy who had top two pair, i turn the straight. That guy eventually busted, i think he went out in 6th place.

When it got down to five people, 5th was really short and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (i was 3rd) were really close in chips. Chip leader was way ahead of everyone else, but he wasn’t being overly bullyish – he was a very patient player. Chips exchanged for about 45 minutes and then a miracle happened – chip leader was on the button, position raised. small blind (5th) shoved for his remaining chips and big blind (4th) shoved on top for his remaining chips. Chip leader had a healthy lead – he wasn’t going to fold. He ended up making some marginal hand but one that still won so knocked 5th and 4th out. Suddenly i was in the money.

The guy on my right was 3rd in chips and i ended up taking him out by hitting a flush to his set, so it went heads up. I knew based on conversation with the chip leader earlier that he didn’t want to deal because he had been running bad during his time here and winning the full prize would put him back to even which he wanted to do, plus he had about 3.5x my chip stack so he was in a good position to win it.

We ended up playing about four hands before the big one hit. I was on the button/sb with 467Q double suited. I min raised, he called. The board came out 779. He decides to lead out, 5000 into a 16000 pot. I think for a second about slow-playing, but i worry about him catching up to me and/or not maximizing what i can out of the hand, so I pot him, he pretty much instantly repots which puts me all in. He flips over xx7J. My Q kicker holds up, and for the first time in the entire tournament he loses his chip lead because i had a healthy stack in front of me – now he’s behind, although not by much. Since we’re pretty even, he asks, “how about we split $1700 each?” I don’t hesitate. I’m tired, i have to get up early the next day for a doctor’s appointment. I win the tournament, profit of $1500.

Looking back on the tournament, i was very happy with how i played. I got lucky on a couple of hands, but i only made one truly blatantly bad call because i couldn’t let go of my trips on a guy who never bluffed so i should have known better. Everything else felt like solid poker and given how poorly i played the last tournament and the subsequent cash games, i needed it.

There are still a few gaps in my play that i need some study on. I still need to get an omaha book to sharpen my skills. i’m a decent omaha player, but i still don’t count myself as a true expert. We’ll see what happens in the coming months.

First, i’ll put out how the cards played out from my viewpoint:

in my hand i had QQ
board comes out AQ5 with two clubs (not the ace).
turn comes 7 of clubs.
river comes Q.

One of the books that i’ve read talks about “manipulating the pot size to make decisions easier”, and this hand played out in a way that is a very good example of that. I had QQ under the gun. I preflop raise to $15 (on 1/2 blinds) and get four callers. After the flop, i bet out $45 because i hate slow playing a set with two flush cards on the board. I got one caller. On the turn, i was scared of the flush, but i didn’t want to slow down in case he was holding the Ac with a big kicker or 2p or whatever, so i bet out $75. He reraises me all-in for an additional $75-85ish.

Based on how he had been playing the whole night and how he pushed all-in, i was certain that he had a flush. But also at that point because of how i was controlling the size of the pot, it made it very easy to call. Basically i had to call $75 to win $375 (pf $60 + flop $90 + turn $225) which is 5:1 odds. I had 10 cards remaining in the deck that could improve my hand (any A, 5, 7, or the last Q) which is also 4:1 odds, which means that it’s correct to call even if i know i’m behind, and i improved my odds to call by a fraction on the small chance that he was holding 2p or a lower trips. So i call. He turns over AK of clubs. i river the Q and take down the pot.

Now, let’s suppose that i decided to play that differently. Suppose i checked the flop and for the purposes of this example it checked around. The turn comes a flush card, I bet out a 2/3rd sized bet, which is $30. There are now two different ways that that could go: AK raises me, or AK smooth calls.

Let’s say that he raises me. If i put him on the flush for certain and thus know i have to draw to make my hand, i now have that same 5:1 to hit. If he min-raises me, i have to call $30 into a $120 pot. the immediate odds are *just* favorable (4:1) and the implied odds are cut based on the fact that a) he’s a fairly tight player and that if the board pairs on the river it’s going to scare him, and b) i’m out of position, so if i bet out after calling his raise, he may fold if i make the bet big enough, and if i check the river there’s a danger that he’ll check behind.

(if he decides to smooth call me instead, it mimicks the above scenario pretty well also).

if he does more than min-raise me, it’s even worse for me. Say he raises me to $100. Now, i have to call $70 into a pot that’s $120, which is a horrible immediate 1.7:1 odds, and the variables of a) the board pairing and scaring him and b) him having position on me makes it so that if i do decide to call, it’s turned from an easy call to a gambling call. and in that situation i might have made the tough laydown.

Let’s say that i try one of the other weapons in my arsenal: bet the flop, representing as a continuation bet, then check the turn, representing, say, JJ or KK and now i’m scared that he has an ace or that the flush card helped him. it’s unlikely that my opponent is going to check because he wants to build a pot and he doesn’t want me to catch up if he puts me on 2p or trips, so he bets out. Again, if he bets out an amount that doesn’t offer me good immediate odds, it’s a gamble, but if he puts out an amount that does offer me those odds, it doesn’t build the pot, so instead of winning a $425ish pot, i now have a pot that may barely eke beyond $200.

Later in the evening, someone else who raised pf in the sb and got one caller checked the flop of Axx rainbow, checked the turn which was a K, and then checked the river which was a blank. After the guy in later position checked the river, he turns over KK and wins a $30 pot. Someone asked why he didn’t bet out, and he said, “i was trying to slow play” and shrugged, and that resonated in me as a situation similar to mine played incorrectly, where he allowed the player in position to take control of the pot. If he had bet out on the turn and the guy didn’t have anything, he would have won the same size pot as what he tried to do, but if instead he bet out, he might have gotten an Ax to call, and a bet amount that he dicated rather than his opponent’s. He may even have gotten a river call or river raise if the guy hit 2p or a lower trips.

More enforcement to the idea that the princples behind “strong hands should build strong pots” is something better controlled by me than someone else. Hopefully a lesson that i’ll continue to learn and bank with.