The Bat Cave

You always know it’s possible to go on a cold stretch when it comes to tournament poker – I’ve certainly done it many times – but having it happen during the World Series of Poker when I’m playing my biggest schedule ever has been extremely brutal. I’m writing this on June 18th. I’ve played 15 bullets across 14 tournaments and I’ve managed just two min-cashes. In a nutshell, this is how it looks so far:

Both times I cashed a tournament, I busted a bigger tournament for more than I profited on the same day… so I actually haven’t had a single winning day in the month of June. I’ve only played cash games twice this month and those sessions went not well and extremely awful – not that I gave myself much of a chance. I played 3.5 hours the first session and about an hour the second one and both times the accumulated tilt of a bad Series overwhelmed me to the point where I didn’t feel like playing anymore.

I’ve made Day 2 in four WSOP mixed events, but I think I’ve only had one day since I’ve been here where I felt like I ran even close to above average and that was on Day 1 of Limit Hold’em. I had some bad levels at the end of the night in that one, but most of the day I was building a stack. That hasn’t happened in any other tournament this year. Everything else has been a struggle and any time I’ve had some momentum going, I haven’t been able to maintain it.

All my Day 2s have been absolute shit.

In Limit Hold’em, I 3-bet all in with the KQ and Pads 4-bet behind me. The flop came K83 with two diamonds and Patrick Leonard (Pads on Pads) bet the flop and turn and his opponent called both times. On the river, they both checked and I figured that meant I was tripling up, but the early position player was going for the trap trap trap line with 88 and I was somewhat surprisingly out of the tournament.

In Badugi, I didn’t bag a very big stack but I found myself in a crazy pot early on in Day 2. Middle position opened, the button called, Daniel Weinman 3-bet from the small blind, and I looked down at A53x. I decided to go with a 4-bet to see if I can get either of the dudes out behind me. It’s rare for people to fold in limit games once they’ve put in multiple bets preflop, but it can certainly happen in Badugi. For instance, if the middle position player opened with a bad queen high Badugi, he should just fold here. We are always pushing equity against the button, so we are indifferent on whether he puts more money in or not. Weinman obviously has at least a good 3-card dugi, so it’s probably a fair fight with him. Anyways, everyone calls. Weinman draws one, I draw one, the middle position player stands pat, and the button draws two. I don’t improve and we check to the pat player, he bets, and we all call. Same exact draws as the first time: one, one, pat, two. We all check to the pat player and he bets and we all call again. And then something crazy happens: Weinman draws one, I draw one, and out of nowhere for no reason at all the player that has been pat the whole time suddenly decides to draw a card. It blew my mind. I looked at Daniel Weinman and I could tell his mind was blown too. This was an amazing result. There’s a chance Weinman had a better 3-card hand than me, but there was also a good chance I had the best hand and now that this guy broke his Badugi, I might be a favorite to win this massive pot. I actually reduced to A43 on my last draw, but didn’t make a Badugi. Everyone checked to the button and he bet. Weinman folded so I torched another big bet just in case this dude was trying to steal a monster pot with a bluff. Unfortunately he made a 97 Badugi and won the pot. Before the river action there was 180k in the pot which was well more than average stack at this point. Instead of sitting on 200k+ and cruising to the money, I had 30k or so and was out shortly afterwards.

Razz was a pure nightmare. My worst limit showing of the summer so far. I couldn’t win when I had the best draw, I couldn’t win when I made a 7, I lost when I check-raised 7th with a 6, my bluffs all got picked off and the one time I made a wheel I was all in on 3rd street. Nothing but pain.

I lost all my chips in Razz hands in the $1500 8-Game as well. By the time I busted the 8-Game I was feeling like I wasn’t capable of winning a Razz hand. In fact, when I was mega short in the Aria 8-Game a few days later on the bubble, I came back from break with 4-5 hands of NL Hold’em and I was curious what the next game was going to be…

Somehow Razz didn’t kill me in that one. But I dwindled so low that I posted my big blind in limit Hold’em with one big blind behind on the stone bubble and had to defend Q3 offsuit vs a raise and a call. I was pretty delighted to see the 733 and that triple up helped me mincash my second tournament of the summer.

My Day 2 of the $1500 2-7 Triple Draw was more pain. I started the day with a below average stack but plenty enough to spin it up and make a run. The first hand I played, I opened 742 and the big blind defended. We both drew two. I improved to 7542 and she check-called my bet. She drew two again and I drew one. I made 97542 and this time she check-raised me. My hand is not great but since I was still drawing and she was a card behind, I thought she might check-raise worse pat hands or break ones that were slightly better, so I decided to 3-bet. If she called and pat, I could consider breaking my hand and draw to a 7. If she 4-bet, I could call and break. Fortunately, she called and broke her hand. Huge victory! She checked dark on the last draw and I snap checked behind. She turned over a 7 and had 6542 down. Unreal. She told me she broke a 96 so she had me beat and I got her to break the best hand. And my reward: losing the pot anyway. I was extremely short after that, so naturally I made a wheel after one draw when I was already all in. I got short again after I got dealt a pat 97653 vs a CO open and they ended up making an 8 on the last draw. I made an 86 on my all in hand on the second draw and had to fade a one card draw on the last draw to double, but he made a 7 and I was out in the first level of the day.

This reminds me of a key pot that I played (poorly) late in the Aria 8-Game mix. The button was short stacked and opened in 2-7 Triple Draw. I defended with 733xx, figuring I could fold if I brick the first draw and continue if I improve. I do improve to 743 on the first draw and check-call a bet. I catch a king and a jack and he’s all in for half a big bet so I call even though my hand and draw are pretty damn bad. I draw two and he draws one. I turn my cards over one by one to show him what he needs to beat: a deuce and a six! Unbelievable. I botch this hand completely and end up making #2 (76432) to knock my opponent out and win a key pot for myself… unless… he shows 7432 and rips over a 5 to make a wheel. Even when I play bad and get incredibly lucky and make the second nuts… I still can’t win.

I had a really good table draw in the $1500 NL Monster Stack and even though I was floating just below starting stack most of the day, I felt really good about my chances of accumulating chips because no one seemed capable of challenging me for the position of Table Captain. I was about 4.5 hours in when the spot I was waiting for came up. Someone limped in early position for 600, the next player made it 1600, one other player called, I defended the QJ of spades in the big blind, and the limper called also. The flop was QJ7 rainbow and I decided to donk lead 3500 since the pot was multiway. I didn’t want hands like TT or AK or AJ to check behind and if he had KK or AA, I figured I was going to get it all with this line. Sure enough, the limper calls and the preflop raiser does raise it up… to 7500. I fist-pump rip it in for 40k and high five all my friends in the group chat and then the dude snap calls and turns over QQ and I’m dead to running jacks. In retrospect, his flop raise sizing is mega sus (so small it should raise alarm bells), but my hand is way too good to ever consider folding and you never know what random, somewhat inexperienced players are capable of doing. Maybe he makes this raise size with AA or KK or AQ (but probably not). Just like that, I was out.

I was going to skip Monster Stack Day 1B because I was over it and also because I didn’t want to be trapped on the strip if I busted early due to the parade for the Golden Knights Stanley Cup win. But against my better judgment and after much badgering from my friends…

Monster Stack Day 1B I did accumulate some chips, getting my 50k up to around 80k. I ended up getting moved to a pretty tough table though through pure magic bad luck. My table broke and the seat card I was given had a player in it already. So the floor person just had me follow them and sat me at the first open seat they saw. Chaos. I somehow managed to play nearly ten hours without winning with a single pocket pair. My medium pairs (99-JJ) were all in tough preflop spots and my small and medium pairs all whiffed. I was pretty short with about 20 minutes left in the day when the hi-jack opened to 5500, the cutoff 3-bet to 15k, and I looked down at two red kings on the button. I ripped my last 30k knowing I’m always getting called. The cutoff turns over black JJ and I’m 80% to more than double up. The flop comes quite bad – three spades – the turn is another spade and I’m completely dead and my night is over (and it took me over an hour to get out of the parking garage at 1 AM anyway).

I was going to take today off, but I heard I could put money on WSOP.com with PayPal and play a $500 bracelet event. That sounded fun so I did that and I was doing okay up until late registration ended. About 100 spots off the money, this happened:

I picked up some pots without confrontation after that and then about 50 spots off the money, this happened:

And… I was out. After the tournament, I thought I’d dabble in cash for a bit and then this happened:

I’m not going to lie. I’m in a lot of pain. I sold 30-45% of myself in everything from the jump and as the Series goes on, I’ve sold more and more of myself. Despite that, June 2023 is already the worst month of my career by a long shot. I have two small cashes across what is now sixteen total bullets for a total of -$14,420. I’ve only played nine hours of cash since I’ve been here but I’ve managed to lose another $1848 doing that also. There is still plenty of time to turn things around, but I’m losing more and more willpower by the day and there’s only so much damage I’m willing to do to my bankroll before I call it quits. In the big picture, this 2 for 16 showing is completely normal, but this is the biggest schedule I’ve ever played and I’ve put a substantial portion of my bankroll at risk. You always know a bad run like this is possible, but you really hope it doesn’t happen during the most critical stretch of your poker career.

This next week I’ll be playing the $1500 HORSE on Tuesday, the $1500 Super Turbo Bounty NL on Wednesday, the $2500 Triple Draw Mix on Thursday, the $1500 Millionaire Maker on Friday, the $1500 Stud 8 on Saturday, and… the tournament I’m most excited about: the $3000 6-max Limit Hold’em on Sunday. If this next week goes poorly as well, I’ll be taking a break until the Main Event and heading to New York City for the first time in my life to visit my girlfriend because she’s out there trying to do big things for her career right now. If I do that and then don’t make a deep run in the Main, that will be it for my 2023 WSOP. I’ll go home early and lick my wounds and spend the next year getting ready to show and prove in 2024.

It can be hard to celebrate other people’s wins when you’re drowning in your own misery, but I would be a shit friend if I didn’t mention my buddy Eric Trexler (Godzilla when I used to blog regularly with nicknames) making a sick ass run to 2nd place for a $300k score in the second biggest field for a live tournament of all-time (interestingly, my friend and Team Torch member Jared took 2nd in the biggest live field of all-time). If you have a PokerGo subscription you can watch ET boss it the fuck up at the final table and I think it might even be free on YouTube. It’s a must watch. He put on an absolute show. Here are some fun videos I took while railing him:

Anyways, let’s hope I have much better things to report next time I make an update. STOP THE BLEEDING!