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WSOP $1500 H.O.R.S.E.: Let’s Repeat!

June 6, 2018

Not much time to write before the event starts. Tormund ended up taking 142nd in the Colossus for a smallish cash and I played 15/30 O8 cash at Orleans with The Atom for a bit before running out of steam early and booking a +$18.

Just registered the $1500 HORSE with The Joker. I took 5th in this one last year so hoping this is the event to activate some run good for me.

Pacific Northwesterner Adam Coates is still alive in the $10k O8 event. There are six players left. He’s second in chips. First place is over $400k. Holy. Shit. I can’t even comprehend the level of that sweat. PNW has come up just short twice already but I have a feeling about this one. There’s a mega short stack, but Adam is gonna have to go through superstars Eli Elezra and Paul Volpe to pull this off. Good luck!

The Joker just took this seat to the right of a Poker Hall of Famer… Barbara Enright. Eh. Could be worse. No one else at my table with tournament starting in 4 minutes.

I might post some hands and I’ll definitely post stack updates on breaks but my focus is going to be on… focusing.

Let’s go.

First Break: 6225

My starting table is amazing, so that’s a frustrating start. No strong players and multiple weaklings.

This first break was mostly a battle against my blood sugar. I had to change the batteries in my PDM for my Omnipod, I had to change my pod, and I had to change my Dexcom sensor.

Then I ate.

For some reason I forgot how to properly change my batteries so my whole PDM resets and doesn’t do bolus calculations for like three hours. And often, when I change my pod my first few boluses seem to have little affect.

So when it was time to configure my sensor with my current blood sugar, I was over 400. It wouldn’t even calibrate.

My last check was 478, but my check before that was 477 so it seems to finally be leveling out and hopefully going down from there.

Needless to say, I haven’t been in my comfort zone.

The Atom has over 16k at first break. Joker is at 5800.

2:26 PM: The biggest punter at my table is felted and I have less chips than I started with. No justice.

2:49 PM: I just brought it in with a 5 up in Razz. Pretty cool.

From The Joker, in regards to Barbara Enright, Poker Hall of Famer:

Lhe Ep raise Barbara defends. Flop q64ss she donks. He flats. Turn 3c she bets again and calls the raise. River 7c she check calls he has AQ she rolls 37hh 🤣

Just a pure torch from a “legend” of the game. A prime example of why you shouldn’t worry about name players until you actually see how they play.

3:43 PM: Just met Chris “DeathDonkey” Vitch and he told me he reads my blog which kind of blew my mind although it probably shouldn’t – we both post semi-regularly in the Limit Hold’em forums on Two Plus Two.

13,675 after four levels.

Adam Coats still alive with four left in the $10k O8. I tried to snap a pic but the quality was garbage.

6:17 PM: Adam doing work:

There are still four players remaining. They have really been battling it out.

I’m sitting on 19.8k on dinner break, which should be well above average. The worst players at my table have busted but it’s still pretty good.

My most notable hands:

Before the first break, I played a weird stud hand where I opened with K8-T because there were three jacks up behind me and nothing else to worry about.

The first jack up calls me and we both brick on 4th street and he calls again.

I make a pair of kings on 5th and I’m jolted into shock when my opponent raises with his board showing xx-J67 rainbow with two jacks dead. So bewildering. He doesn’t have jacks and if he called with a draw, it hasn’t developed. So he’s saying he has 76-J67 or… 77-J67? Bizarre he would call with either of those hands with two jacks dead. I guess 98-J76 makes some sense.

Either way, never folding here. I call and make open kings on 6th and it’s probably optimistic to think I can check-raise this card, but that’s what I try to do and it checks through.

I don’t fill up on 7th, but I do bet for value and get paid off. My hand is good.

Dang. I had another good hand but I’ve been sitting here for 20+ minutes trying to jog my memory and it hasn’t happened yet… so PUBLISH.

8:00 PM: Adam just busted the $10k O8 in 3rd place for $181k. What a sick run. The PNW continues to represent!

9:11 PM: Sitting on over 40k coming back to 300/600 blinds.

One fun hand: I open with split aces in Stud high and only the bring-in calls.

I catch an offsuit six and he catches paint and he calls my bet.

On 5th I catch an offsuit three and he catches a king and I decide that if I was on a steal here I would give up, so I go ahead and check-raise. He calls.

He calls on 6th and 7th also and I end up making aces and nines to win a big one.

Tormund is making a deep run in the $250 Deep Stack and is currently in the money with a pretty decent stack.

The Atom and The Joker are out of the HORSE event.

Two more levels tonight and I’m in great shape to advance.

9:42 PM: Registration is closed with 731 entrants. 328 are left and 110 cash. $202k up top.

And Phil Ivey just entered right before this level started.

11:21 PM: Well, I made it to Day 2 for the first time this series, but what a disastrous last two levels. I am bagging 23.3k.

Here are some of the worst hands from these two levels:

I open in o8 and call a 3-bet with AK32 double suited. Flop is Q73 with two of my ace high suit. I check-raise and he calls. Not much that can go wrong here, right?

Turn is a 2. Oh wait. Yeah. That can happen. I decide to keep on betting because I do have two pair and the nut flush draw and that could be a counterfeit card for him also. He calls.

River was a 9 and at this point I don’t know if I’m bluffing or value betting so I check and call when he bets and I have to chop with a naked A4. Ugh.

Stud Hi, there’s a limp, I raise with K9-Q all diamonds and two players call.

I spike a king on 4th and they both call again.

On 5th street I get raised by a board showing three spades. I strongly consider folding but I still have a three flush and a pair, so there are 6th street cards I can continue on and he may not have a flush yet. I call.

I make open kings on 6th and I’m somewhat surprised to see it go check-check.

I brick the river and still check and this time he bets. I call because I’m confused now.

He shows an ace high flush and a pair of aces. He said he had aces on 3rd and a flush draw on 5th and got there on 7th. Kind of a strange line with AA-8, but pretty crafty.

The hand that broke my spirit:

Folds to me in Stud 8 and I’m in a good spot to steal with 8J-8. Only the bring-in defends.

I catch a 4 and he catches a queen and calls my bet.

On 5th street I catch a queen and he catches a jack and decides to lead out. I think he thinks I’m going low and I’m quite confident I have the best hand – especially since I have a queen and a jack and it would be weird for him to defend with either of those cards in the hole. I raise. I expect him to fold here. He doesn’t.

On 6th I catch a blank and he makes open sixes and bets out. I’m so perplexed I end up calling him down even though I don’t improve and he does have three sixes.

Holy shit. I can’t really wrap my mind around this hand. I get his thinking on 5th but seems like it should be a fold when I’m blocking multiple outs. I dunno… but it stung.

Finally, there’s a button open in o8 and I 3-bet AJT2 double suited. He calls.

Flop is A98 with two spades. Not great. Not terrible. I bet and he raises. Now it’s really not great. My low draw is already counterfeit and I do have a straight draw but only three of my outs are scoopers. I do have a flush draw but it’s only ten high and the ace on the flop is the non-spade so he has the nut flush here a lot. I call because it seems like the right thing to do.

Turn is a 5 and I check-call again. Maybe another small card gets me half also?

River is a ten and I’m pretty happy when it goes check-check and he turns his hand over and I don’t see a low. Looks like a scoop for me! Uh, nope. He has AQJx with a busted nut flush draw… but his QJ is the mortal nut for high and he doesn’t even know he has it. I get scooped.

So yeah, pretty brutal last couple levels.

We restart at noon tomorrow with blinds at 500/1000 so not the end of the world but not what I was thinking would happen when I was sitting on 50k three hours ago.

I played a decent amount with Andrey Zaichenko ($3 million in lifetime cashes) and… what a piece of work. I didn’t know who he was until I saw him write his name on his bag, but he was messing around on his iPad the whole time, not paying attention to anything, constantly being asked to ante, putting his antes right in front of him so the dealers couldn’t reach it, and not folding his upcards. I thought he was a dick before I knew who he was and I still think he’s a dick.

Tormund is making a really deep run in the $250 Daily Deep Stack. There are 40 players left out of 1050 and $36k for first place. I’m grabbing some food with The Atom and going to sweat him a bit but I’m not looking to stay here much later.

Restart at noon!

1:25 AM: Tormund still in with 14 left. They are flying out of this thing. Looks like I’m gonna see it through.

1:46 AM: Tormund heading to the final table, let’s go!

2:40 AM: Tormund busts in 8th when he reshoves AK vs AQ and the blind wakes up with TT and holds to bust them both.

Sleep time.

DAY TWO

11:59AM: Only player whose name I know at my starting table is Tony Ma and most of his success was over 15 years ago. I am slightly below average and somehow have the most chips at my table. Pretty crazy coincidence. Still lots of play for these games though. 205 remain. 95 spots until the money.

Leggo.

12:06 PM: Rep Porter, Kate Hoang, Tommy Hang, Ian Johns, Scott Clements are some of the players still in with Washington roots.

12:15 PM: Early scoop! I make a flush in a 3-way Stud 8 pot with Tony Ma showing xx-26A7 on his board and somehow pays me off without a low.

39k

12:24 PM: Yikes. Running good. I open QQ under the gun, next player calls and big blind defends.

Flop AJ8, big blind donks, I peel, cold caller raises, and we both call. My plan is to fold unimproved.

Turn is a ten, the second best card in the deck for me as it gives me eight additional outs. I check-call and we are heads up.

River is a beautiful 9. I lead and my opponent reluctantly calls with AJ.

I c-bet a set of 9s in a 3-bet pot after that and got a fold.

51.1k

12:35 PM: Ugh. Scooped with AQJ3 by A552 on a Q98(rainbow)75 runout. He called turn for over half his stack and catches his only scoop card. What. Just brutal.

41.1k

12:50 PM: Phil Hellmuth is two tables behind me and I just heard someone there call him an “idiot player.”

Sigh. Someone just 3-bet me all in in Razz with 62-6 and gets a triple up. Why?

36.5k

What a volatile start.

1:18 PM: Start with a three flush in Stud Hi and get 3-bet by an ace up. I immediately improve to a four flush but this guy’s board on 5th is xx-AAA. Come on.

33.7k

1:31 PM: Ughggggg. Just got scooped in a massive 4-way pot in Stud 8 when I have 32-45 on 4th and only one ace dead. Got back-to-back bricks and had to pay three big bets to see 7th. So sick.

18k

1:47 PM: 10 bigs starting the flop games. Need a lot of love here. 40 spots off the money atm.

2:04 PM: What an absolutely painful start. The thrill of immediately chipping up to 50k only to have it disappear just as fast.

That Stud 8 pot is going to be one I remember forever. If I can find an ace or six I scoop that monster and I’d be sitting with like 70k right now. I have some thoughts about 7th street on that one I might extrapolate on later. I think there’s some chance I can win half of that pot.

Anyways, I’m sitting on 11k at the first break and I’ll be coming back to a big blind of 1500 with like six hands of o8 left.

We are still about 40 spots off the money and it’s definitely looking grim but I’m not dead yet!

2:31 PM: Heading to the ante games with two big bets. GL all in!

2:54 PM: Super cold in Razz (although I did get the 88-8 one time) and I’m all the way down to 4400 after antes and a 6 up opens so I raise my first playable hand and we get it all in. I start with 26-7 and he has A3-6.

Fortunately his final board is A3-6QQ8-J.

Unfortunately my final board is 26-7K5K-2.

There are roughly 130 players left when I bust – 20 spots off the money – and for the second time in three years I turn a 50k+ stack on Day 2 of HORSE into a non-cash.

My frustration level right now is so high I was in an Uber back to my timeshare before I even considered what I wanted to do next.

I’m going to cool off and possibly nap for a few hours and go from there. I probably won’t play again today as I have some stuff to catch up on anyway. I’ll put in a power cash session somewhere tomorrow and my next event will be the WSOP $1500 8-Game Mix on Saturday.

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, horse, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, professional poker, world series of poker, wsop | 1 Comment »

WSOP $565 No Limit Hold’em COLOSSUS & Kate Hoang Heads Up For A Bracelet

June 4, 2018

So after busting the Aria O8 event on Saturday, I went to the Rio to quasi-sweat Kate Hoang’s deep run in the $1500 WSOP Omaha 8 tournament and play some $20/$40 O8 cash myself.

My O8 game was actually very good but there was no love for me and I ended up finishing -$643 over about four hours and multiple extensive breaks away from the table watching Kate’s final table.

I ended up cashing out around 2 AM and the WSOP staff called it a night around the same time and added a fourth day to Kate’s event and she was due back at 2 PM Sunday with four players, left sitting second in chips.

I am very much rooting for Kate – and anyone from the Pacific Northwest really – so Tormund and I got to the Rio a little after 2 PM hoping to see her close out a win before our HORSE tournament started at Venetian at 4 PM. There was early good news as we passed one of the remaining players at the entrance indicating that they were now down to three players.

The short stack was pesky and hung around for a while, but they eventually eliminated him and Kate was heads up for a bracelet for the second time in three years. In fact, she took an insanely brutal beat against Josh Arieh at the $10k PLO8 final table last year that cost her a huge chip lead and eventually the tournament. So three straight years with a final table and at least two second place finishes locked up. Needless to say, Kate is on everyone’s radar now.

Tormund and I hung around to watch this heads up battle until about 4:15 and it looked like Kate might close it out before we left, but the other guy fought back and eventually took a commanding lead. The players went on break and that was our cue to try to go make our own money and root her on from afar.

They ended up battling heads up for nearly four hours, constantly changing chip leads and forcing the staff to add at least three levels of play that previously did not exist. Alas, Kate ended up finishing in second place for a hefty cash of $148,150. Amazing.

And yet I really feel her pain. Kate has been nothing but humble when I’ve heard people talk about her success but I know she had to really, really, REALLY want that bracelet. Hell, I would.

Still, it was another amazing performance from one of our area’s top players and I’m personally quite confident that Kate has bracelets in her future.

In other local player news, The Sandman is making waves in the $2500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball tournament. He bagged a top two stack after Day 1 and was still alive with 12 players left after Day 2. I slept in super late today and wanted to catch up on some things otherwise I would have shown up to the Rio early today to sweat his sick run. I’ve been keeping an eye on it via PokerNews and he currently sits 7th in chips with ten players left and a guaranteed payout of nearly $12k.

Yesterday I played the $600 HORSE tourney at Venetian and while I did manage to accumulate some chips for the first time this trip, it was another incredibly disappointing finish. I made it to dinner break with about 30k, which was well above average, but came back from break and immediately lost three pots in a row and was back to nearly starting stack.

Some brutal run outs in the stud variants crippled me. First I had four to an ace high flush and a gut shot in a three way pot in stud high only to finish with an ace high hand. Then in Stud 8 I was facing an opponent clearly trying to punt by betting an obvious pair of 2s with no low draw and I had four to a low working plus all my cards as likely winners if they pair. I missed my low and made a pair of kings on 7th, but he rivered fours and deuces to scoop me. Why not raise my hand at some point, you say? Because punters don’t fold. This guy was going to 7th street no matter what our boards looked like or what I did.

I was down to 6000 in chips with blinds at 1000-1500 when we arrived at limit hold’em and I had 1500 in the big blind holding AJ. Matt Grapenthien, a notable mixed games player, opened in early position, the button called, and I 3-bet to get my stack in. They both called and I bet my last 1500 in the dark before the dealer brought the flop. It was a pretty favorable AT3 rainbow board and I was quite happy to see Grapes make it 3000 to go. The button tanked for quite some time and called two bets cold. The turn paired the ten and Matt bet again. I don’t love that card because tens are definitely hands Matt would raise on the flop to try to isolate with a player all in, but I still thought I had very good winning chances. The button called again. The river was a 5, Grapes bet, and the button called. Grapes rolled over A6 and I was pretty happy to see that I had tripled up.

And then the button rolled his hand. Why is he rolling his hand? How can he ever have the best hand here? Maybe he has an ace with a slightly better kicker? Surely, he would call the flop much faster if he had AK or AQ. Nope. He doesn’t have either of those hands. He doesn’t have an ace at all actually. Nor does he have trip tens.

He has pocket fives. A rivered full house. A hand that 98% of poker players would snap fold on the flop for two bets cold without giving it a second thought.

This is one of those poker stories that sound almost too unbelievable to be true. I mean I don’t really believe it and it happened to me. I think I actually sat in my seat for a full two minutes after I busted out in disbelief. It was such a sick parlay for it to happen. In a no limit tournament, my four big blinds would never get a fold from 55, but in a limit event, with a third player in the pot, THAT RAISED THE FLOP TO ISOLATE, there is no way I should have ever lost here. I had Grapes drawing dead to a chop on the turn and he gave me another chance at protection by betting his A6 again.

Ugh. I wouldn’t have had a great stack after that, but it would have been a full triple up and would have given me some hope of getting back into the fight. Alas, it was my fourth consecutive bust out in Vegas so far to go along with two small losses in cash games. It has not been a good first week.

I’m about to hop in the shower and head to the Rio to play the 5 PM (and last) flight of the Colossus. The structure in this event is one of the worst at the WSOP and no limit tournaments are not my preference, but I have cashed the Colossus in back-to-back years. Hopefully I can run deep again and maybe make my first Day 2 of the trip? That would be pretty cool.

I will post updates here – and keep an eye on what Sandman has going on – but probably won’t get too in depth with it as I’m playing.

5:10 PM: Great planning on my part. I’m currently four rows deep in line to register the Colossus. The Atom was walking out of registration as I walked up and said it took him a solid 30 minutes to get through.

Sandman update: 5th of 8 left. I’ll see if I can snipe a pic on my way to my seat.

One more interesting piece of info: Phil Ivey played the Colossus yesterday. Let that sink in.

He’s baaaaaaaaack.

5:31 PM: And I’m in. Starting with 5k and blinds at 25/50. I recognize zero players at my table, but superficial judgement is it looks promising.

5:35 PM: Just lost half my stack on the third hand.

Not really. Blinds are 50/100 now.

5:58 PM: Sandman is at the Triple Draw Mix final table, sitting 5th of 6 left, and guaranteed at least $22.3k.

I’m down to 3375 already after whiffing a 3-bet pot with KJdd and giving up with 77 in a raised pot on Q43A.

6:29 PM: I stole the blinds.

And this is officially the coolest thing to happen to me so far this trip:

6:36 PM: Tormund finally making his way through the Colossus registration line.

Stole the blinds again… with KK.

Tormund just walked by my table, looked at my stack, and shook his head.

7:06 PM: I made it to the break. I have 2200 coming back to 100/200/25. That’s 11 bigs. Wonderful.

Sandman down to final five. He looks like the short stack. Scott Seiver and Chris “DeathDonkey” Vitch are still in there. $31.8k guaranteed.

Just watched Sandman double.

8:12 PM: Got a 3-bet jam through with AQ but dwindled back down to 10.5 bigs and got it in at 100/200/50 with AJ vs 55 and 99 and found no help.

Standing in line to re-enter and sit down with 25 bigs.

🏉🏃🏻‍♂️

8:25 PM: First hand at my new table finds five players all in: A5ss vs JJ vs QQ vs AQ vs JJ.

Flop: Q22.

GG, fellas.

8:28 PM: This may have been my worst use of $565 ever. I’m basically sitting down with 12 big blinds: 4850 @ 200/400/50 now.

8:43 PM: Jammed 3600 with 55 right into KK.

GG.

Having a great time so far.

9:11 PM: The Atom and Tormund are still in the Colossus. Just got texts from Tormund saying he busted JC Tran and crippled Ishmael Bojang. He must have a decent stack going and just dispatched his toughest opponents.

11:00 PM: Sandman busts the $2500 Triple Draw Mixed Lowball event in 3rd place for almost $72k. Another sick run from a PNW player. Congrats man!

11:10 PM: Tormund and The Atom are both still in the Colossus. Tormund has 67k and The Atom is sitting on 18k @ 500-1000 blinds. They have three hours of play left tonight and I’m debating whether I want to play cash until Tormund is done or go to sleep at a decent time. I’m tentatively planning to play the Triple Draw Mix tourney at Binions at 11 AM tomorrow.

11:33 PM: Tormund just lost most of his stack so I’m gonna sit down in 20/40 O8 and hope something good happens in the time I’m here.

3:35 AM: I guess I should post a wrap up of sorts. The Atom min-cashed the Colossus and Tormund is actually putting something together and is currently 15 minutes away from bagging.

I’m actually having a good o8 session. I am up well over $1k and leaving soon.

Yet another local is doing big things. I’ve been crossing paths with Adam Coats for years now and he’s no stranger to deep WSOP runs, having finished 131st in the Main Event in 2014 and 8th in the $1500 O8 the same year. Well, Adam is at it again, bagging up the second best stack after Day 2 in the $10k O8. There’s $418k up top in this one and of course I’ll be keeping an eye on that and rooting Adam on.

Tormund just bagged up 116k and is headed to Day 2 of the Colossus and I cashed out a +$1440 winner while I was waiting for him. A nice change of pace for our household.

I will be taking it easy tomorrow, catching a movie with The Atom and playing O8 cash at The Orleans so I’m fresh and rested for the $1500 HORSE on Wednesday.

Posted in poker | Tagged colossus, gambling, gambling for a living, Kate Hoang, no limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | Leave a Comment »

Aria $470 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8/Better (Live Blog)

June 2, 2018

So yesterday I didn’t have much of a plan and around 3-4 PM The Leak and I decided we were going to play cash games at Bellagio, but I dropped her off at the B and then parked our car at Planet Hollywood to skim on parking costs.

She informed me that the $20/$40 Limit Hold’em list was almost 25 deep and since I was walking through Planet Hollywood I decided to check out the $300 Triple Draw Mix (Badugi, 2-7, A-5) tournament I thought about playing. Well, it was 4.5 hours deep, but registration was still open and I could sit down with 15 bigs. Plus, I spotted Kevin Gerhart, a Run It Up warrior, in the field and asked him if he had less than the starting stack. He said “yes” and I thought, Hell, if this guy still thinks he has a shot, I might as well take one.

I actually managed to win some pots to start off on the right track, getting my 15k up over 30k but I lost a critical 2-7 hand that I never recovered from.

In the hand in question, I opened drawing one to a smooth 8 and a player I thought was capable called my raise and then patted after the first draw. I picked up on something that made me think he was snowing and when I made a pair of 8s after the last draw and he still bet, I gave serious thought to check-raising, but didn’t pull the trigger. He tabled a pair of 6s after I folded.

Sigh. That’s what I call having really good poker sense but not enough experience to know how to capitalize on it in a variant I’m not super familiar with.

I ended up busting in 17th or 18th place which was about ten spots off the money in what was a pretty small field of less than 70 runners.

Then I headed to Bellagio and immediately got a seat in a $40/$80 Limit Hold’em game. For those that follow my blog closely, you will know that I’ve only played a game this big once in my life and it was an utter disaster at Commerce back in January this year.

I suppose this session went better, but the game I was in wasn’t great most of the time. I played a little less than six hours and started off poorly down over a rack immediately and then around even for the rest of the time.

I did briefly play with Humberto “the shark is hungry” Brenes and Chau Giang, a former nose bleed stakes regular and likely future Hall of Famer, for an extended period of time, although he spent a lot of time out of his seat.

I would have booked a small win but I made a time game mistake. With the dealer push coming up in a few minutes, I posted my big blind knowing I wasn’t going to pay for the next half hour. Since I wasn’t going to finish the orbit I was about to pay the blinds for without paying more time, I should have just left right then.

Instead, I posted my big blind and my good friend The Crypt Keeper (whom hasn’t made a blog appearance in forever) raised under the gun and I defended with JTo.

I check-called the T9x flop, knowing his UTG opening range is weighted towards extremely strong hands and then I check-raised the turn when I made top two pair. He thought for a bit and then called.

The river was a king, which is an amazing card for his continuing range. I’m basically only beating AA and an optimistic line with AK at this point. Maybe AJ. No value in betting here and I can actually probably even check-fold against The Crypt Keeper because his bluff frequency is close to zero. I call though because that’s what you’re supposed to do and he shows me QQ for a straight.

I posted my small blind and played my button before the dealer change and then couldn’t take any more hands because I wasn’t paying time.

So I donated $360 to my buddy on a hand I shouldn’t have even let myself be dealt in on and that was the difference between a win and a loss yesterday.

-$230 in 5.5 hours which drastically increases my lifetime $40/$80 win rate to -$328/hour.

My plan was to play this Aria tournament today but we got in pretty late last night so I had to force myself out of bed and I did take my sweet time getting here.

I sat down about an hour after it started, but the structure is super deep and good, so still massive amounts of play.

Starting stacks are 20k and blinds were 100/200 when I sat down.

Blinds are now 150/300 and I have a little less than 22k with no super interesting hands of note yet. I recognize three players at my table, including a bald guy rocking a mullet – a look I would strongly recommend to Radio Mike if he’s reading this – but nobody I know by name.

Finally, some shoutouts before I publish:

-Snowflake got a nice cash (48th) in the $1500 O8 and The Sandman min-cashed it.

-Tormund hit and ran the shit out of Johnny Chan and Robert Mizrachi last night, sitting down in a big mix game during the Big O portion and won a roughly $5k pot and then immediately left when the game switched. LOL. I bet they were PISSED.

-Trey (or Goatluv), a dealer from Fortune made a deep run (46th) in the WSOP Casino Employee event.

-Hal, a floorman from Palace is deep in the $600 Venetian No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Event. He reported that there are about 230 runners left out of a starting field of about 1600 and 154 spots pay. Looks like he’s starting Day 2 with about 30 bigs, which isn’t a big stack, but definitely workable. Good luck, Hal!

-Pacific Northwest Omaha superstar Kate Hoang is doing what Kate does: crush Omaha tournaments at the World Series of Poker. She is still alive with 36 left in the $1500 O8 and her stack looks to be about middle of the pack to start Day 3. Good luck, Kate!

Also – and I’m sure Kate will appreciate this 😳 – I spotted this gem of a thread on Facebook with 400+ comments of guys drooling over her.

1:21 PM: Today is a sad day. The Leak is leaving me for Washington and we won’t be seeing each other for the longest period of time since we first started seeing each other over six years ago.

I am going to miss her terribly and I can’t say enough what an amazing support system she is for me and my poker career. It takes a special person to let their husband disappear to Vegas for six weeks and grind poker tournaments while she’s at home and working. I try not to lose sight of the fact that I play a game for a living and I really do appreciate my wife letting me pursue this dream of mine.

I love you so much honey. I will try my hardest to make this time apart worth it!

1:31 PM: So I thought Bellagio had some pretty ridiculous MLB World Series futures, but when I was registering for this tournament in the Aria sports book I saw something that blew my mind.

They have the Mets at 10-1 to win the World Series and the Braves at 40-1.

Holy shit.

The Mets are a game below .500 with their ace on the disabled list and the Braves are in first place in the NL East and look like a much stronger team with a very good farm system that can help the big league club via promotions or as trade chips for someone like, I dunno, Manny Machado.

This line is stupid. I can’t comprehend what they are thinking.

I fired $100 on the Braves and $50 on the Mariners at 50-1.

🔥🔥💵🔥🔥

1:58 PM: Aria has the stream of the $3k Shootout on a TV and former Main Event champs Joe Cada and Joe McKeehan are at a final table full of sunglasses. Uhm. I like their chances.

2:08 PM: Just got word from Hal that he busted the Venetian tourney in 151st for a nice little cash to start his trip out. Congrats! Seat open at Aria, buddy!

2:17 PM: Wonderful. One opener at 300/500 blinds and I defend KKQ3 one suit and check-call on the K52 rainbow flop. Turn pairs the 5 and I get a check-raise in. River is an ace.

Sigh. What a horrible card. The low gets there and AA improves. I think for a while and maybe I make a mistake: I bet. I was thinking it’s pretty easy for him to have a hand he can call with that has a counterfeit low and my bet really only stings when he shows up with exactly AA. Of course that’s what he has though.

Actually it’s worse. He has AAT9. He doesn’t even have a low draw and the only way he can get any piece of this pot is with an ace. Ugh.

Momentum still evades me on this trip so far. Back to starting stack.

2:58 PM: Last hand before break I open from the cutoff with Q532 one suit. Big blind defends and donks on 986 two spade flop. I have good draws heads up in both directions but I elect to go with a call on this board texture. Turn is 7 of spades, giving me the third best low and a queen high flush. He bets, I raise, and he calls. River is my nut card: an offsuit ace. I now have a big flush and the nut low and he check-calls and I scoop a nice pot.

27.7k heading to 400/800 blinds.

3:22 PM: Unfortunate connection against the big blind. I have AT83 on QJ9 vs KTxx. On the bright side, I raised flop and checked back turn before calling on river. Back to starting stack.

3:29 PM: Registration is closed. 144 entrants. 126 left. $17.5k for 1st!

4:02 PM: Had a big connection with AK93 from the small blind. Limped pot and I lead out on 652 two diamond flop and two players call me. I have the nut low with a king high flush draw, so… loving this situation.

Turn is an offsuit 8 and things get funky. I bet and both players raise. I’m not really sure how to react to this, but I’m definitely not folding. I do feel like I can be getting quartered a lot of the time, even when I make my flush, but I still have a pretty robust hand.

Here’s a surprise: the river is the ace of diamonds. Okay, so I guess I had the nut flush draw. I also have a live three but that’s probably not a scoop card. Still, I should lead here because I’m guaranteed half and check-raising is dumb. I bet and only the button calls. He has 6432 for the nut low and the other guy claims to have had 74 in his hand.

This was a decent half pot but I chipped back down right away when I decided to give up my AJ54 when I paired my 5 on A925 rainbow board against a player that bet/3-bet the flop. She showed AA when I folded.

20.4k

Side note: the tournament area is not in the poker room, but out near the slots and cigarette smoke keeps wafting up my nostrils. So fucking disgusting. Can we please make this garbage illegal already? Yes, wishful thinking in a casino environment but breathing second hand smoke has to be my number one pet peeve.

4:20 PM: Sometimes you have to go gangster on them. One player limps, the button raises, and I make a very borderline defend with 7763 one suit.

Flop is KKJ two clubs and the button bets when it’s checked to him. I decide to raise as a bluff with my club draw as the remotest of backups if I get action. I think this is a good board to attack on and my hand is pretty worthless, so I can happily let it go if I get raised at any point. He calls.

Turn is the queen of clubs and he calls again when I bet my flush.

River is a blank and while I’m happy I haven’t been raised, my hand is not good enough to bet for value. I check and I’m probably going to call if he bets, but he checks back and my flush is good.

He is not happy.

Just switched to a new table and I only know one player. They call him Taxi. I chopped the Golden Nugget 8-Game Mix with him in 2016.

Peaking at 31.2k and coming back to 1000/1500 blinds after a break in a few minutes.

4:30 PM: Dealer in the box at my new table just interrupted a conversation about the outrageous rake (15%) in these tournaments and claimed that very few casinos in Las Vegas actually make money and a direct quote about Aria specifically: “this casino is so far in the hole it’s not even funny.”

Wouldn’t that be something?

5:14 PM: Kate Hoang update: she just took the chip lead with 21 left. Holy shit!

Meanwhile I’m peaking at 38.5k.

6:08 PM: Pretty unfortunate run out here: I have AK63 on 642TJ vs AK3J with a third player calling down with A852. Had a pretty good handle on 3/4 of that one and it slipped away on the river.

Just opened A754 from hi-jack and had to give up on QJ33K when I missed my flush draw and checked back the turn.

24k coming back to 2000/3000 blinds.

Blah.

6:54 PM: With the blinds at 2000/3000 I open with AJT2 with a suit and someone 3-bets me. I start the hand with 21k so I consider capping it, but I supposed there are flops I can give up on and preserve chips. I call.

Flop is KT3 and I check-call with my pair, gut shot and back door nut low draw.

Turn is a 6 and with only 9k left and multiple decent draws, I go ahead and get it all in there. He calls and tables AAK7.

River 9. Good game.

That bust out was with about 50 players left and makes three straight events where I never had much momentum.

On to the next one.

Headed to the Rio after that to sweat Kate a little and possibly play some cash games. Kate is currently third in chips with 15 players left.

8:28 PM: Sitting down in a $20/$40 Omaha Hi-Lo cash game with Tormund.

I believe Kate just final tabled the $1500 O8 event. I just got a notification that it will be streaming on Twitch. I will be tuning in.

False alarm: they are streaming the $100k High Roller on Twitch.

Posted in poker | Tagged Aria, Bellagio, gambling, gambling for a living, Kate Hoang, limit hold em, omaha, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | 1 Comment »

WSOP Event #4: $1500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8/Better (Live Blog)

May 31, 2018

It’s time.

The World Series of Poker is here. Technically it kicked off with the Casino Employee Event and $10k No Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty yesterday, but today will be my first day in action.

The Leak and I left Tacoma at about 7:30 PM on Tuesday night and I drove straight through until 8 AM, which put us just across the Nevada state line. The Leak took the reigns from there and got us to Las Vegas by about 2 PM yesterday.

I didn’t sleep much in the car, so after driving through the night I wasn’t about to play any meaningful poker on my first day in Vegas. I just lounged in the Bellagio sports book watching the Stanley Cup, Mariners, and the Super High Roller Bowl on PokerGO while The Leak played 20/40.

I have to say this is the most prepared I’ve ever been for the WSOP. I’m in the best physical, mental, and financial shape I’ve ever been in while I’m here and I actually feel well rested in Las Vegas for what feels like the first time ever.

I probably won’t be doing much live blogging for most of the tournaments here (stack and break updates for sure though) but Omaha Hi-Lo is probably the easiest variant to write during, so check back for updates all day!

Cards are in the air at 3 PM.

1:43 PM: Eating a light lunch before the tournament starts and I’m near the sports book and I am quite horrified by the World Series odds I can see from my seat:

Angels 13-1

Giants 33-1

Mets 20-1

Rockies 22-1

Twins 35-1

Mariners 50-1

What.

The.

Hell.

I don’t necessarily think the Mariners have a real shot to win the World Series this year – the Astros, Indians, Red Sox, and Indians are all clearly better teams just in the American League – but looking at the odds for some of these other teams, that price is extremely attractive. I’m going to torch a Benji on it.

I don’t think any of the teams I listed above are clearly better than the Mariners and the Angels being seen as that much better than Seattle is baffling to me. I’ll give them an edge in starting pitching, but when healthy, I like our lineup and our bullpen more. 13-1? Jesus.

That is just crazy talk.

1:55 PM: Omaha Hi-Lo is definitely not the variant I’m the most prepared for. I just checked my YTD numbers and I’ve logged a total of 16 hours of O8 in 2018. That’s the culmination of two tournaments and six “sessions” in which I played more than 45 minutes once (2.25 hours).

Still, I feel good about my general strategy and I seem to play tournaments better than I play cash games.

I have top five finishes in LO8 at the LAPC and at the Round-Up in Pendleton over the last couple years, plus a cash in this same event last year, so I know I’m capable of a deep run even though I’m a bit rusty.

2:21 PM: First look at the Thunderdome:

Looking to make an appearance there for the third consecutive year.

2:34 PM: Last year saw 902 entrants for this event with over $238k for first place so… yeah… this would be a nice one to ship!

2:45 PM: Longest hour of my life! Let’s do this already. I’m the first player at my table which is fine. I can name check everyone’s receipts as they sit down and look at their Hendon Mob stats.

Players start with 7500 in chips for this event with blinds leading off at 50/100 and 60 minute (!) levels.

3:06 PM: Impressive start from our dealer. It took him over three minutes off the clock to deal the first card.

Six opponents at my table currently and I only recognize one of them. I don’t really think he’s a notable but I’ve seen him around at the WSOP and LAPC.

3:12 PM: Scooped on my first contested pot. I open cut off with A854 suited ace of hearts and the big blind 3-bets. I call down on 872hh97 and he scoops with AA3x.

Pretty great flop for me – top pair, nut flush draw, second nut low with backup – but I showed some restraint and put the minimum in to get to showdown.

From my seat, I can see two players that play at Palace sometimes (no nicknames).

A Pacific Northwesterner just sat down at an open seat at my table! Represent!

Sandman sighting.

3:44 PM: First scooper! I open AA2x with hearts and make the nut low and nut flush against one opponent.

3:54 PM: Cold call a raise with AK62 suited in diamonds and we go five ways to ultra sexy K53 two diamond flop. PFR leads, I raise, and two call. Turn is an offsuit 8 and they both call again. River pairs the 5 and I get check-raised by the PFR. The third player calls two bets on the river also, so I feel pretty fortunate to chop with the PFR’s 5432, but… that could have gone better.

4:05 PM: 6175 after L1. About to take my first mid-level bathroom break because this is what life as a hydrated diabetic is like!

4:14 PM: Tormund is staying with me and was on the fence about playing this event, but he is now confirmed in the field.

4:23 PM: I raise one limper with A732 spades on button and bet all streets on J83cc79 and… scoop! Above starting stack for the first time.

4:29 PM: I have seen seven marked cards. Could be a coincidence or one player just looking at their cards the wrong way, but six of the seven have been wheel cards.

Sigh. Scummy.

We’ve already had two cards replaced. I’m not the type to bring it up and have them removed but I’ve definitely noticed it. No one will be seeing the backs of the cards I’m playing, that’s for sure.

4:45 PM: Three aces have been replaced and our table is under heavy scrutiny now. It seems like a difficult problem to solve but the floor said if we keep having issues, he’s going to watch for an entire orbit and look at every hand folded and try to see who is doing it.

Woah.

Extreme, but effective.

5:03 PM: 9550 on first break.

5:24 PM: Bad start to L3. I 3-bet AK42 double suited, the small blind caps and three of us see 642 two club flop. I have two pair and the nut flush draw here, but I’m clearly drawing to half the pot. I wind up getting trapped for three bets and, in retrospect, I’m probably best off just folding when it’s three bets back to me.

Instead, I call, call turn, and *gasp* call river when I make aces up and the third player folded on turn. I can probably save three big bets on this hand, but instead I get torched for -2200 chips when my opponent shows me a blatantly obvious A53x.

Ugh.

6:07 PM: Back up to around starting stack after scooping with AKT3 on QJ8A5.

For those that don’t know, check out PokerNews for regular updates on all WSOP events. I’ll be updating my stack size on the MyStack app so it will appear in their chip counts.

7:04 PM: Running cold. And bad. I 3-bet AAJ3 double suited and get heads up in position (with a 2 exposed). I get check-raised on T94 two spade flop (with no spades in my hand) and wind up folding on river when my backdoor low draw whiffs and the queen of spades lands on the river.

Down to 4900 with blinds going up to 150/300 in seven minutes.

7:36 PM: Starting 125/250 blinds with 5000.

8:21 PM: Solid dealer performance here: she flips up a card to the 3 seat (5th card exposed of his today) and sets it off to the side after she replaces it… and then mixes it into the muck.

I’m like, “what’d you do with the king of spades?”

She reaches into the muck and turns over a random card: The queen of diamonds. 🤦🏻‍♂️

She’s about to put that back and flip another one over and I’m like, “nooooooo…. just use the queen.”

And then it took what seemed like forever for her to figure out what to do with it.

“Just put it face down on the top of the deck. We’re gonna make it through this.”

😂

8:34 PM: Chipped up a bit on the last hand before L6. Folds to button, he opens, and I 3-bet AT32 double suited. He calls. Flop is KQJ with two diamonds, giving me the nuts with a three high flush draw. I start with a bet and he calls. I think this is a perfect board texture to check-raise on bricked turns. I just expect him to bet a high percentage of the time, thinking this board is not good for my range. He does bet and then calls me down when the river bricks off also.

6k starting 150/300 blind level.

8:52 PM: Got back over starting defending my blind heads up with QJT8 and scooping on a KQ47A run out.

But then got quartered by A764 when I had AA54 and we both made lows but she turned a flush.

I have no had a suited AA with a wheel card hand four times and I’ve lost chips all four times. Amazing stuff.

9:03 PM: I did it! Open AAQ2 suited spades. Big blind 3-bets and I cap. He check-calls QTx flop and then check-folds when the ten pairs on the turn.

9:27 PM: Down to 5k after my AJ54 gets scooped by AQQx when I make aces and jacks and he flops a set.

My table appears to be one of the next ones to break.

9:51 PM: My table broke. No one I recognize at my new one though.

Kate Hoang sighting. Local LEGEND!

10:22 PM: Ron Ware takes the open seat at my table. I played with him at the LAPC earlier this year. He won the $1500 8-Game bracelet last year.

10:55 PM: I’ve literally been card dead for eight straight hours…

…but I’m still in there.

Tormund just text me that he busted.

11:29 PM: Extremely short after getting a free play with AK38 and flopping a king, second nut low draw and a bad flush draw against a set that quaded up on the river.

On the button with 1475 and blinds at 250/500. Yuck.

11:44 PM: Open AAKQ with a suited ace and get three callers. That’s a bad start.

I’m all in on K74 rainbow flop. One guy raises and the other cold calls. Sigh.

Turn is a queen. Hmm… okay. This time it goes check, bet, call on the side.

River pairs the 4 and it goes check, bet, fold.

I’m blocking sets of kings and queens, so I feel like it would be really unlucky to bust here, but the bettor has KK in his hand and I didn’t bother to look at his other two cards.

Gross. Not a fun start to the Series. Basically folded for 8+ hours straight and then had bad things happen most of the time I had premium hands. I do think I made some mistakes in a few spots, but mostly I just had nothing to work with the whole day. I spent 95% of the tournament below starting stack. Pretty disappointing but that’s how it goes sometimes.

Not sure what’s on deck for tomorrow. There’s a $300 Triple Draw Mix at Planet Hollywood that I’m interested in and the first flight of the WSOP $365 No Limit Hold’em Giant starts at 7 PM. Maybe I’ll play cash. Maybe I’ll let my wife decide what we are doing.

The WSOP Colossus starts on Saturday, there’s a H.O.R.S.E. event at Aria on Sunday that I’m playing and I might play the $1500 WSOP Dealer’s Choice on Monday, but the next WSOP event I’m 100% playing is the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. on Wednesday.

Until then…

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, Omaha hi-lo, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, professional poker, world series of poker | Leave a Comment »

Friday Frenzy! $15/$30 LHE Live Blog

May 25, 2018

First off, congrats to Art D for shipping the new monthly Palace tournament last Saturday. This is definitely a case of the cream rising to the top. Art is certainly one of the better tournament regulars in the Puget Sound area right now and it’s no surprise to see him take that thing down.

Also, Joker took third but I doubt anyone cares about that.

Sunday was the Main Events of Global Poker’sRattlesnake Open series and… it was a total collapse.

Not on my part, but on the site’s software. I’m actually surprised I haven’t seen any bad publicity about the end of the series because Global had three Main Events planned for last Sunday with huge guaranteed prize pools and then it ended up being a total shit show.

Sometime around noon (pacific time) just as the $22 Low Main Event was about to start, the tournament lobbies on Global stopped loading… I was registered for the Low and the $110 Medium already but I couldn’t register for the $218 High.

This was bad.

No one else could register either, so the Low was running far below the Guaranteed prize pool and no one else could join.

And then the Medium started waaaaaay below the Guarantee.

And then the Low went on break and never started again.

And then the High was completely cancelled and eventually the Medium stopped running and the site went offline altogether.

I eventually got a refund and a little profit for the tournaments that froze, but I have to say Global’s handling of this situation has been amazingly bad. I never got an email from the site explaining the refund or an explanation of what happened or an apology. If you didn’t play the events or read about the mess up on social media, you’d probably never know about it. Global has posted zero acknowledgment of the situation that I’ve seen.

I don’t really care that much about the incident. I was disappointed that I planned my whole day around these tournaments and didn’t get to play them, but as far as feeling ripped off or cheated, I’m not on board with that.

Obviously the site was experiencing technical difficulties at the most inopportune time. I don’t think they should be held accountable for the massive overlays. No one could register!

With that said, they could be more involved with the aftermath instead of pretending like nothing happened.

Oh well.

I lost half my stack in the Medium right before the disconnect… hence my comment in chat.

Almost forgot about the wedding we went to on Saturday. Let me preface by saying I’ve met these people once in my life before and if I were quizzed beforehand on what their names were I could maybe come up with one of them.

And then my phone went off when they were exchanging vows like a true asshole.

Fortunately I was sitting on a bale of hay and the whole thing was actually pretty informal and no one looked at me like I just assaulted the bride.

It was actually pretty cool and quite a bit different from any wedding I’ve ever been to. Certainly the first one with a rain delay.

And cows.

Monday I took the day off and Tuesday I popped into Palace to play their $5000 weekly freeroll for the first time.

It was a great performance. First I bluffed off 67% of my stack on T6342 by check-raising the turn against a weak bet and then making hefty bet on the river… and got called by a pair of 4s… with a 5 kicker. I got picked off by someone that didn’t even know they had a straight.

Then I opened to 50 at 10/20 blinds with T9 of clubs, got the QT9 flop, the small blind led 75, the big blind called, and I jammed my remaining 710 in the middle. The small blind snap-called with QJ and immediately spiked a straight on the turn and I hit the rail as one of the first players out.

I played 8/16 for a few hours but went home early a $300 winner.

I took Wednesday off and played 8+ hours last night and had my worst 8/16 session since August of last year – a solid -$814. I won two meaningful pots the whole day and never had any upward momentum that lasted longer than a single pot.

Here I am again at Palace and there is no 15/30 game at 6:30 PM on a Friday. These are depressing times. I have zero desire to play 8/16 regularly again and I also have little desire to drive to Fortune multiple times a week. I am ecstatic to be leaving the Puget Sound poker scene for the next six weeks.

Today started off just like yesterday. I open KQ and get the K77 flop against 77 on the very first hand dealt.

Then I get a free play from the Big with JT and bet all three streets on J423J and get called down by one player that has… AJ.

What.

Already down a rack.

6:36 PM: Some good news though… I made these guys…

…look like this:

6:41 PM: Whoops. Thought I published this an hour ago.

7:00 PM: Another free play from the big blind with K8 and I get the KJ88J run out vs QJ.

I guess it’s just my time to get tortured for a while. Let’s get it out of the system before June!

7:14 PM: Some run good! Hit&Run opens, I 3-bet A9ss and the button cold calls.

Flop is K64 with two spades, I bet and the button raises. H&R folds and I call since jamming my draw here out of position makes zero sense against this player.

Turn is an ace, which is nice but isn’t a card I’m looking to check-raise as KQ, KJ, KT, etc. check back way too often. I bet and they call,

River is a spade and now it’s time for my opponent to execute the expert slow play by raising me with AK after I get there and I’m able to collect three big bets on the river.

8:05 PM: I’ve had some hands hold up and find myself with the tiniest bit of sugar as I switch tables. But one last hand before I go!

Limpers, I raise AA, all call. Flop is JT6 with two hearts. Checks to player on my direct right, he donks, I raise, and three players cold call.

Turn is jack of hearts, which seems like it should be the worst card in the deck for me. They check to me though and I can’t see how I can bet here.

River is an 8 and one of the flop cold callers bets, but he’s a crazy person and then the original flop bettor just calls. Well, I can’t fold in this spot and I actually think I might have the best hand.

I don’t. The crazy guy turns over T5 of clubs, which isn’t a pair or a draw, but the other player turns over Q9o. Yawn.

8:26 PM: 15/30 starting but first a leveling war with Flea.

I defend a small blind raise with T9 of clubs and flop goes off multiway. Small blind checks on 742 with two clubs and I go ahead and bet my flush draw. Flea raises and two players cold call so I three bet my draw with two overcards and everyone calls.

Turn pairs the 7 and I decide to check and so does everyone else. I should probably bet this card since I’m the only one that’s shown any real strength.

River pairs the 3 and now I do go ahead and bet. Flea raises me and he never has a hand here so when the other players fold, I go ahead and reraise, but unfortunately he goes into the tank as ultimately calls with ace high.

Finish 8/16 -$149.

15/30 starting lineup: Rocksteady, Flea, and some new recent regulars.

8:46 PM: Solid start to 15/30. Defend A3 from the big and run into small blind’s A9 on A93. Blah.

8:57 PM: Limper, a raise and a reraise in front of me and the player next to me calls three bets cold and then says “would you call?” after I fold and shows me JTo and I say, “yup.”

This guy is driving me nuts. He’s a bit drunk and being super friendly and talkative and of course I’m sitting right next to him, trying to mind my business, listening to the Mariners game and typing on my blog.

But then he starts saying how lucky we all are to be here and not in a jail cell, or at war, etc. and that he’s just super happy to be able to play in this game right now.

And goddammit.

He’s right.

And then I just ruined his day by raising him on the river with quads. Which apparently is a no no and something he’ll remember.

No friends at the poker table, PAL.

10:30 PM: This game is kind of juiced right now. Guy to my right has been drinking and is now opening J5 suited from hi jack when I’m in the cut off (not advisable).

Then I just saw Hit&Run raise under the gun and a player from middle position that has the disguise of a tight-solid player turned over Q4o at show down. What.

Weird spot with KK. Hit&Run opens under the gun, there’s like three cold callers, and I have KK in the big blind. We all see the flop for three bets.

It comes down 743, I lead, Hit raises, and the whole field cold calls. I decide to just call him and reevaluate all my options on the turn.

The turn pairs the 7 and I’m fine with that. Shouldn’t change much really. My current plan is to check-raise when Hit&Run leads but then an actual tight solid player raises and I reluctantly fold my hand. Hit calls and then donks when the river is a 6. He wins with 55 and the other player flashes 87 of clubs.

10:43 PM: I’d like to take a moment of silence to remember all our fallen 15/30 comrades, may you all Rest In Peace: Humpty Dumpty, Curious George, Game Genie, Tick, Taz, Dansby Swanson, Radio Mike, Mister Magoo, Elmer, Action Bronson, and probably a number of others I might be forgetting… because you all stopped playing!

I thought you were all nickname worthy and then you disappeared from my life with no warning.

And a special RIP to The Human Torch. You started this whole thing, man, and we miss you terribly.

🤐☠️👻⚰️🤐

11:03 PM: The Flea is wearing sunglasses.

That is all.

11:29 PM: Drunk player limps, I limp 44, another limp, a raise, and six of us see the flop for two bets. It comes down 874 rainbow and the drunk on my right leads out, so I raise, Flea and Rocksteady cold call, the drunk torches a 3-bet, I cap, they all call.

Turn is a 2 of hearts and how lucky can one man be? The drunk kid leads right into me and I get to raise the other guys out or make them pay $60. Flea folds but Rocksteady calls. Strange. I guess I’m trying to fade T9 or backdoor hearts?

I’m watching Rocksteady as the river falls and I’m pretty unhappy to see him reach for chips and bet. It’s the 9 of hearts. Drunk calls and I overcall. He shows K5 of hearts and the drunk guy turns over the J7o. Lol. How does he not help me win this pot?

12:30 AM: I somehow just got $75 in on the A65 two clubs flop with AK vs QQ heads up and couldn’t win the hand.

Even worse, I actually check-call the queen river because the club draw (and AJ and AQ) got there and this clown is putting three Overs bets in on the flop without the queen of clubs in his hand.

Also worth noting, he just called preflop. With QQ. Waited for the ace to flop and then went crazy.

These are the people I’m losing to tonight.

Everyone is playing exceptionally bad and I am not benefiting. I’m close to being stuck despite hitting two High Hands today. I could be up $1500 real easy right now.

12:53 AM: Just lost with KJcc on AK5ssd flop to J6dd.

Pretty cool stuff happening.

12:59 AM: A few notes before we get into this hand; a) this player has been running exceptional against me since he started playing here a few weeks ago and b) I’ve been running miserably the last few hours.

One limp, I raise KK, both blinds defend. Flop is 432 with two clubs, drunk guy donks, I raise, and the small blind calls it cold. Sigh. Turn pairs the 3 and I’m not even remotely surprised when this guy that has been walking on water vs me check-raises. I call down, wearing my emotions on my sleeve like an idiot and this guy shows A9 of spades for the super punt (no spades even on board).

This is a prime reason to contain your emotions when you’re playing poker because it’s never a good look when you act like a cry baby before winning the pot.

I’m ashamed.

2:15 PM: Called it a night.

Final Score: +$479

But it felt more like -$1500.

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | 4 Comments »

Officially Selling Main Event Pieces

May 24, 2018

SOLD OUT!!!

I will be marking up 15% which is pretty generous considering my ROI in tournaments the last few years.

1% = $115

5% = $575

10% = $1150

20% = $2300

I’m looking to sell up to 80% and I will need the cash in hand before I leave for Vegas next Tuesday.

I prefer to sell bigger pieces rather than a bunch of smaller ones.

Hit me up via text or Facebook if you want some of this action!

I will refund everyone if for some reason I don’t play the Main.

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Final 2018 WSOP Schedule

May 21, 2018

Here’s a link to my final 2018 World Series of Poker schedule. I’ll be targeting non-NL events all around Vegas. Events highlighted in green are the ones I’m 100% to play unless a deep run in something else prevents me from doing so.

Vegas Tourney Schedule

I am not selling action for anything except possibly the Main Event. I will know in the next week or so if that’s something I’ll need to do or not.

I can’t wait!

Posted in poker | Tagged 2018 world series of poker, 2018 wsop schedule, gambling, gambling for a living, limit hold em, no limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | 1 Comment »

Friday Frenzy! $15/$30 Live Blog

May 18, 2018

It’s a BLOG DAY.

4:04 PM: Happy to see 15/30 going bright and early today (well, at least since 3 PM)! Just missed the last open seat by seconds, but appears I might be getting in very shortly.

Current lineup: Chief Wiggum, Fleabag, Bill W, Part-Time… a new nickname Snack Pack… and an unknown.

Also, I’m pulling the trigger on this. The Gnat will be called TWO FACE from now on. It’s not a perfect fit but he qualifies in a lot of ways.

He’s probably been Bat enemy #1 for the last several weeks, so there’s that. However, unlikely attorney Harvey Dent, he’s never been a friend of Bruce Wayne. That ship had sailed long before he ever tried to say a nice word to me.

On the other hand, after playing the villain for the first several sessions with him, he did try to briefly extend an olive branch and while I was cordial, I was mostly standoffish because I already know – he’s not a nice dude; he’s a dick.

I’ve seen him berate dealers and cuss at players, but he’ll sing and whistle when he’s winning.

Congrats Gnat – you have been upgraded to a true Bat-villain. You are Big Bad Harv.

You are TWO FACE.

4:31 PM: So I sit down and post in cutoff, Flea opens, I 3-bet 66, the button calls and Bill W caps it from the small blind. Welp, I guess I’m gonna have to flop…

663

Checks to me, I bet (we are all in 25/50 Overs), button raises, Bill folds, Fleabag takes $50 to the dome, and I 3-bet. They both call. I lose Flea on the turn, but the other guy calls me down and I start my session off with not only a huge pot, but a $225 High Hand as well.

4:36 PM: Of course on the day I ordain Two Face a certified Bat-villain he’s slumming in 8/16 while we have an open 15/30 seat.

I guess his days of printing money at the Palace are in the rear view.

5:47 PM: I open under the gun with AA, Fleabag calls, Part-Time defends. Maybe one other player is in there. Flop is Q64 with two spades. Part-Time leads, I raise, Flea calls, PT 3-bets, and I cap.

Turn is ace of spades and PT still leads out. Hmmm. I don’t LOVE it, but I do think my hand is way too good to not raise here and if I wind up having to pay three big bets to see the river, it’s not the end of the world.

So I raise and Flea goes into the tank for… way too long. He finally calls, Part-Time 3-bets… sigh… I call, and Flea goes into the tank again. Are you kidding me? This dude is the biggest waste of everyone’s time I’ve ever seen in a limit game. Hilariously, he folds.

River is a blank and I pay off Part-Time’s Q3ss.

Naturally, Flea chimes in with “I knew you had it” and says something about me overplaying my hand. Oh my God. Please never change.

6:47 PM: Yaaaaaaaawn. There’s a call and raise in front of me, I 3-bet AK of clubs, Snack Pack caps it from the blinds. Everybody checks to me on K64 one club flop and two of them call. Turn is 9 of clubs and now Snack Pack check-raises me. So… I’m losing to like 99 only, yeah? Seems like a good time to take myself to value town, so I 3-bet and he goes ahead and caps it. I whiff river and pay off the 99.

Come.

On.

So much for the nice head start. I am now stuck.

6:53 PM: My friend Kung Fu Panda is in the game, but he’s getting a name change now also. I heard Snowflake call him Fan Boy last week and I guess it’s because he used to wear one of those tiny fans around his neck when he played poker. I like that name. Not exactly because of the reference but because it’s funny…. and there’s something derogatory about calling someone a Fan Boy.

Sigh. I limp along with A7 on the button and get two bets in four ways on A97 and in my head I’m thinking JT is the number one hand I’m looking to fade and BANG! There’s the 8 on the turn and they all check to me. How can I take a free card here? I can’t. I just CAN’T. So I bet and get check-raised by Snack Pack and then the original flop bettor leads out when the river is a 6, Snack calls, and I can’t even show my hand down.

Flop bettor has T9 and Snack Pack has 65.

Running hot all the sudden.

7:07 PM: I just flopped the nut flush in a raised pot.

The big blind defended pre and check-folded the flop.

SO I GUESS THINGS ARE TURNING AROUND.

7:37 PM: Snack Pack is straight murdering me. I have 99 vs his K8 on T96Q7. That is two 4-outers (granted he turned an 8-outer in this latest one) and one 2-outer he’s hit against me in less than an hour now – and every time I’ve been at the top of my range.

It has been quite painful.

7:49 PM: I open KJ suited under the gun, Bill W calls, big defends.

Flop is J74 with two diamonds. I bet, Bill W raises, the big cold calls, I 3-bet and they both call.

Turn is… 6 of diamonds. Of course it is. I check-fold and Bill W shows down KTdd.

And now I’m taking a patented steam walk around the building because things are starting to get absolutely silly.

8:10 PM: Here’s a picture of Snack Pack’s stack:

He bought in for zero green chips.

Actually, only one person bought green chips.

Spoiler alert.

It was me.

8:49 PM: Massacred Hit&Run when he opened and I 3-bet AA. Flop is AQQ with two hearts and he checks to me. It may seem like I have the deck crippled here, but it’s always worth betting the flop just in case he has a queen, plus most players are going to peel at least once with their gut shots and small pocket pairs here and he’s never folding a heart draw. So I go ahead and c-bet the flop and he does call.

Turn is the 3 of hearts and I expect to get check-raised here a lot. It’s why I bet the flop. People just don’t expect you to fast play AA here and they may give you unwarranted action. Whereas checking back the flop and raising a turn lead looks super strong.

I do get check-raised and he pays me $200 on the turn and river.

And then 20 minutes I get another $225 for the High Hand. That’s two top High Hands today already and FIVE High Hands in the last two days in 13 hours of play.

Okay, maybe I’m running decent.

9:18 PM: This place is cracking now. Second game looks on the verge. Snowflake, Jesus, Sandman, and The Leak all on the list and it looks about 9 deep from where I’m sitting.

Lots of Washington state LEGENDS up in here right now.

10:22 PM: Well that was crazy.

First, the Mariners staged an epic comeback in a game that they looked like they had already lost in the first inning.

Second, the homie Trevor253 was making multiple deep runs in the Rattlesnake Open PLO Low and Medium and I was trying to rail him. He ended up taking 2nd in the Medium for what was definitely a career high Global Poker score. Congrats bud! The pain of finishing runner-up will fade out by tomorrow.

Lastly, fools were just brawling in Palace. First time I’ve ever seen multiple blows connect and bodies moving so aggressively at each other. Kinda scary in this day and age. You really never know what people are capable of but you see it all the time on the news. Really not trying to catch a stray bullet because somebody rivered a gut shot against a set of aces.

10:29 PM: In other news, I got all those green chips back from Snack Pack.

10:30 PM: Because I bought them back from him before he left.

💪🏻

11:07PM: Here’s how you trap yourself for the max in a straddle pot. Button straddles, I defend A4 of spades, there’s a call, a 3-bet, button 4-bets, I call, someone 5-bets and suddenly there are twenty bets in the middle.

Flop is T53 with two hearts and one spade. Not the kind of flop I’m ever folding on in a pot of this size… even with Overs in play. I call two bets cold. We are all still fighting for this monster.

Turn is the king of spades and now we have some serious life. Fortunately, I only have to call one bet here and it’s from a new player…

…so when the board pairs with the five of spades on the river, I estimate my winning chances at 100%. I go the check-raise route and we have another new bettor, on my immediate left. There’s a call, I raise, and the river bettor pays me off with trip 5s.

11:25 PM: Hi baby.

11:34 PM: Two Face is playing 4/8 now. There are still two 8/16 games going and he has all his chips from 8/16 in front of him. Like $1000 worth. I think this is better for his ego. Lording over white chip players. Because his ego is definitely getting bruised in this game.

Good for him.

12:08 AM: The whole table is ROASTING Fleabag right now. I’m not participating but I am definitely enjoying.

Pretty epic hand that I wasn’t involved in. Flop is T96 with two clubs and there is a flurry of action. Turn is a blank and Flea bets, button calls and the third player check-raises. Flea says “I’ll get him out for you” referring to the third player and makes it three bets. The button is not phased and calls it all off. It gets capped.

River is a CLUB. I’m watching the button as the turn capper still leads and then Flea RAISES. Like wtf do you think the button has, fellas?

OH MY GOD. The button just 3-bet the river. I did not see that coming. First guy folds and Flea turns over his 87 of clubs to try to save some face before calling and losing to AK of clubs.

Then Flea starts berating the first player for leading the river… like that player somehow forced him to raise his inferior flush into someone that was quite obviously on a big flush draw.

So of course the rest of the table jumps all over him for trying to blame someone else for his stupid river raise… and it was quite hilarious.

12:56 AM: Here’s an odd one. I open cut off with A9 and Flea calls small blind and big blind defend. Flea donks out on my dreamy 942 two spade flop and the big blind raises. Well, I like my hand on this board so I 3-bet and the big caps it. Turn card is a blank and they both check to me. A little concerned but definitely have to bet here. They both call. River is another blank and they both check again. I bet, Flea folds, big says “I promise you’re good” and I know that’s true because how could I not be? I flip my hand and then he flips QQ. Haha. What?

1:21 AM: Sandman, Jesus, FanBoy, and Snowflake all in my game now.

And Tormund Swordsbane and Joker making special non-poker playing cameos. Joker is here with his fiancé… Harley Quinn. She’s a real person, folks. I’m guessing a lot of people lost money on the under on that one.

2:25 AM: A nice go home pot: Snowflake raises, Jesus and Flea cold call, I defend QTo. Flop is QT4 with two spades. Sno bets, Jesus calls, Flea raises, I check 3-bet and Jesus ends up back capping it.

No spade please.

Turn is a 3. I bet, Jesus is all in, Flea raises, I 3-bet, Flea calls.

River king of spades. Sigh. Just a nightmare card. I might even be losing to whatever Fleabag was overplaying now. I check-call him. He tables 43 of spades for the side and Jesus turns over A8 of spades for the main pot.

And it looks like I’ll be leaving stuck now.

3:07 PM: I ran JJ into Snowflake’s AA on a 8 high board on my last hand of the night.

Final Score: -$350

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | 2 Comments »

Why Not Wednesday: PokerNews Spotlight, CardPlayer Blurb, and Live Poker Live Blog

May 16, 2018

We bloggin’. Opener soon.

3:53 PM: So after shipping that Rattlesnake Open event last Wednesday, I was contacted by a Global Poker representative and he asked me some questions and said I was going to be featured in their upcoming press release.

I’ve seen at least four different articles come from this, including an appearance in CardPlayer Magazine. I’m hoping that little piece actually goes to print. It would be pretty sick to see a picture of my wife and myself in their actual magazine.

I also saw a blog post that said “he favors NLHE, but has also done well in…” Wait. Favors NL? Thanks for the super personal write up, guys.

This was all pretty cool, but then Valerie Cross from PokerNews reached out to me personally and sent me a bunch of questions to answer and I knew she was going to write something different. Something special.

I wasn’t disappointed. Here’s a link to her awesome article!

Global Poker Player Spotlight: Mike “darkknight17” Coombs

4:14 PM: Currently playing some live 8/16 LHE while waiting for the 15/30 or PLO to start. Currently 7 names up for 15/30 and PLO starts at 6. I may or may not play the latter, depending on lineup.

I have Chief Wiggum in this 8/16 game and a bunch of other 8/16 regs.

One of the first hands I won a monster pot when I had KK vs Wiggum’s QQ on T5223. We capped pre, went 3-bets on flop and 2-bets on the turn… all while having like thirty other people in the pot with us. I cleared almost everyone out with my turn raise and got another bet on the river and started my session with an immediate rack of sugar.

4:41 PM: Update on the Rattlesnake Open Player of the Series race:

I quit.

I was still in the top ten after min-cashing one of the three limit hold’em events on Thursday but then I went 0-3 on Friday and Saturday I gave a joke of an effort in the six events that day.

We had plans to spend Saturday with my wife’s side of the family for Mother’s Day and even though I had permission to stay home for the first three events, visit for an hour, and go back home for the last three events, I thought that playing on my iPad while hanging out for the first three events would be doable and then I can head home before the PM events and really focus.

Well, I ended up whiffing the first three and then we started playing volleyball and, my goodness, it was fun. I had every intention of going home to play but after two full games of volleyball I was having way too much fun with that.I registered the 5:30 PM and 6 PM events, sat out, and set my alarm for 6:15 so I could do the add-on for the first event. I did the add-on for the Low but never made it back in time for the Medium.By the time we were done playing volleyball, I had like 1.5 bigs in the Low and my biggest stack was in maybe 10 bigs. No surprise, I ended up whiffing and finished the day 0-6 and one min-cash in my last 12.I was still determined to fight come Sunday and I was eager to play the bigger buy-in deep stacks. Then this happened on the first hand of the $22 Low:Blinds were 10/20, there was a limp, the cutoff raised to 80, and then VooDooRange jammed 10k on the button. Go ahead, do the math. That’s a 500 big blind shove. And there I am next to act with pocket kings. If there was ever a time to fold KK before the flop… it wasn’t this spot. If I run into AA here in a $22 tournament, good day to ya. I’ll take my chances and see if I can stack up 1000 big blinds for hand #2.I tried to take a video but everyone else snap folded so I took a pic as fast as I could and the brutal beat was already well in motion.Pretty, pretty…. pretty sick.Then I busted the $110 Medium and went deep in the $218 High without any momentum and busted near the bubble while my wife kept asking, “are you almost done yet?”It was pretty clear that I did not have the green light for that evening’s events, so after going 1 for my last 15 and falling out of the top 20, I decided I was done making it a priority. I didn’t play the Sunday night events, or the events on Monday or Tuesday. It’s safe to say I have thrown in the towel and can go back to enjoying my life.

I will be clearing my schedule for the Main Events this coming Sunday, however.

5:38 PM: Under the gun raises and it folds to me and I call with J5hh because folding is LAME. Just kidding. This is a defensible and probably even standard fold but I feel just fine defending wide ranges against average 8/16 players – even when they raise under the gun. I’ll take my chances.

Flop is T52 with one heart and I go ahead and check-raise. He immediately goes to call, hitches, and decides to raise instead. I now think he’s heavily weighted towards bluffs, so I go ahead and call down when the board runs out K52T9. I’m basically beating all his airballs except AT, QJ, and A9, so I like my chances, even though the board didn’t run out great for me.

He shows AQ and I privately congratulate myself for correctly spotting weakness.

6:45 PM: Defend the 65o in a 4-way pot and donk the 743 flop, hoping to trap everyone for all the bets. I’m able to 3-bet the flop 3-ways and even though my man slows down, I have him pegged for an overpair, so I check the jack turn, expecting to get both players for a double bet. He checks back. Unfortunate. I’m confident of my read though, so when the jack pairs on the river, I go for the check-raise again and this time I get it. He shows TT and says the jack on the turn scared him. 🤷🏻‍♂️

7:52 PM: Decided to pass on PLO. I dunno. Doesn’t look great and I’m cruising in this 8/16 game. My patience has been rewarded because The Gnat just sat down – and he’s in a singing mood! Let’s see how fast we can turn him into a crybaby.

Wait a minute… 🤔 Did I finally find my Two Face? TBD…

Elmer also making an appearance again. Seems like I haven’t played with him in forever.

7:59 PM: To raise or not to raise? Two limpers, I raise KThh button, the big blind and others call. Flop is QJx with one heart and Elmer donks right into me. It’s been a while, but when Elmer donks the flop and you raise him, he will still usually donk the turn, so a free card play basically never works here and I think my hand miiiiight play better letting others call along, so I just call and the big blind calls also.

Turn is a ten and after Elmer bets and I call, the big blind check-raises. Gross. Thinking about the big blind’s range, it seems like folding here would be horrible. It seems like worst case scenario is K9, as I’d expect him to 3-bet AK preflop. So I go ahead and call and so does Elmer. River is a 9, big bets, Elmer folds and now I have to decide if raising makes any sense. Since I determined that K9 was the worst case scenario, I think I have to raise here, although he probably checks most of the time he doesn’t have at least a king. I raise, he 3-bets, I wonder how stupid I can possibly be, call, and he does show me ACE KING.

8:27 PM: Here’s The Gnat trying to free card play but getting owned for the max instead because he has zero concept of board texture and ranges. Multiple limpers, I raise JJ from the SB and five of us see the AJ8 two diamond flop. I lead, big calls, Gnat raises, I 3-bet, and Gnat caps it… let’s think about what he’s repping here: AJ, A8, 88, J8? Is he raising weak aces here? Whatever it is, his range is clearly DRAW heavy and he’s confused if he thinks that play is going to work on me. Not that capping the flop is much of a free card play. If there was any chance I thought he had a made hand, I would check-raise the turn, but he may consider himself victorious if I let him see the river for “free,” so I lead out on the turn, even though a 9 is one of my danger cards (QT). The big blind is also still in the hand. River bricks, I bet and Gnat is already showing the dealer his cards in disgust before the big blind does anything.

He’s also yet to push a bet across the line.

What a dick.

9:58 PM: Rocksteady opens hi-jack, I 3-bet AK, and three of us see A76 two spade flop. I bet and only Rocksteady calls. Turn is a king and I bet in Overs. He calls. River is a ten and now he check-raises me. What. This is not a turbo raise or a turbo call. I’m confused. I really feel like I’m losing to QJss only… maaaaybe 98? I’m sizing up the situation and the spidey vibes are saying call, but the limited combos I’m losing to and then the fact he would check-raise worse two pairs ultimately makes me put 3-bets out there. Now he starts thinking but again my senses are tingling, so I say “dude, if you have QJ just cap it already.” He does cap it and then shows me 98 of hearts.

Then the next hand I river the nut straight when someone else rivers a flush and no one bet the flop (when we both had good draws). I did just call that time, but I’m starting to feel the bleeding all the sudden. After being up between two to three racks all day, I am now up less than $200.

And The Gnat is high fiving people that beat me in pots. Mutha!

10:11 PM: And now I ran QQ into KK in a heads up Overs pot on a ten board. I am up $60. Wtfffffff.

Quicksand!

10:22 PM: I’m melting!!!

Just whiffed a flush draw/straight draw combo in an Overs pot and then Elmer beats me with 75 on Q98 flop.

Rocksteady opens cutoff, I 3-bet ATo and he caps. Flop is J93 and I have a standard peel here. Turn is a queen and I’m planning to raise this card, but he checks, so I take the lead, whiff the river, fire another bullet and get called by the hand I know he can’t call with: AK. This sends The Gnat into an orgasm.

Yes, Rocksteady won the pot, but this is a bad call down. What hands do I float with on the flop that don’t have AK beat? All the straight draws have made at least a pair now. All the pairs are still… pairs. I literally have to have AT only for him to win.

But it’s a total collapse over here so of course that’s what I fucking have.

Just defended 55, check-called the K42 flop and then the preflop cold caller bets on 2 turn, and I think my hand is pretty good here. The PFR folds so now I really like the situation. River pairs the king, increasing the chances I have the best hand even more, but when I check-call river he shows… 52 of clubs.

What in the world is going on?

It’s a BLOOD BATH.

⚰️☠️🤦🏻‍♂️🔫

Working on -$400.

This is insane. Time for a walk.

10:42 PM: I actually might take off. I’ve been playing for 7+ hours already and I’m not too interested in playing 8/16 until 2 AM trying to get even. I’m kind of wrapped up in “Evil Genius” on Netflix, plus I scooped up “Rick and Morty” season three and watching either of those sounds way more appealing than chasing a loss at 8/16.

I’m way past my reload stage and I haven’t done that yet so that probably means I’m taking off if I don’t win my next few contested pots.

11:53 PM: I’m still here. Staging a bit of a comeback.

Let’s math: under the gun raises, four players call, and I defend KJo. Flop is AT8 rainbow. UTG bets, two call, and I call getting 15-1. Turn is a blank and it goes bet and call back to me. There are now 10 big bets in the pot and I’m about 11-1 against. I’m a little short on pot odds, but I almost certainly will make up that extra bet on the river and maybe two. With implied odds, I qualify. River is a magic queen and not only do I get a check-raise in against the bettor, but the third player in the pot pays off two big bets also.

Huge pot. I 3-bet KK on the button in a multiway pot and then four of us cap the 743 two club flop, with the small blind and myself doing all the raising. Turn is an ugly 6 and the small blind still leads out. This is a bit weird. Obviously I hate this card, but unless he flopped a straight I feel like there would at least be some hesitation before he bet into three opponents on this turn card. Elmer calls and so do I. River is a queen and the small blind bets, Elmer folds and it’s all up to me. I sort of expect to lose, but I’m definitely skeptical – I’m not convinced I’m paying off. I call, he tables K6, and it takes me a second to figure out I won the pot.

And just like that, I’m back to sugar status.

1:14 AM: Called it a night. Quite a rollercoaster tonight as I peaked around +$500, fell all the way down to -$400, and bounced back to finish at a respectable +$255. Basically three 3-rack swings in opposite directions. Crazy!

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Friday Frenzy: 15/30 LHE & Rattlesnake Trophy Hunting! (LIVE BLOG)

May 11, 2018

Since I last posted on Tuesday, something big happened: I finally won an event in a Global Poker series. If you’ve been following along here, you probably know I’ve had two runner-up finishes in the Rattlesnake Open already and I also took second in an event during January’s Grizzly Games as well. Needless to say, even though the money is nice, finishing in second is super frustrating – especially when things like oversized trophies and Global swag is on the line!

My final opponent in this tournament is super accomplished (based on his Sharkscope stats) on Global, but it didn’t take me long to see that I had a massive advantage over him in heads up play. He was playing very straight forward and letting me get away with murder, like getting folds in spots where it’s blatantly obvious that my range is weak and he seemed to almost never bluff. It’s pretty hard to win heads up if you are relying on having the best hand every pot. With a decent chip lead, I thought I was going to have to get very unlucky to let this one slip away… and then I did. I think I had about a 2 to 1 chiplead when we got all the chips in preflop with my AT vs his A2 and he spiked a deuce that held up and suddenly I had a 2 to 1 disadvantage. My wife was already asleep and my brother-in-law that lives with us was also asleep and I have to admit I was struggling to contain my volume after losing that hand.

Still, I recognized that I was a favorite and I wasn’t too worried about things, but I also knew that another unlucky all in confrontation would result in yet another second place finish. I could really feel the pressure I was putting on myself. I have to admit that shipping one of these events was pretty damn important to me. I ended up regaining the chip lead through pure exploitative poker and eventually got him all in with another dominated ace and managed to hold on this time for the win! Much like when I lost the chip lead, I was struggling to contain my volume and excitement as I was quietly celebrating my win all by myself. I did it. Finally!

My first Global Poker trophy! I’ll post a pic when I get this thing.

Not only did I finally ship a trophy event, but I finally had success in one of their bigger buy ins and the actual win was almost triple my previous high on Global. This also put my online bankroll north of $6k and gets me out of the $3-$3.5k range I seem to get stuck in before falling back down. I didn’t set out to do a bankroll challenge or anything, but it’s worth noting that I have only deposited $300 on Global. I feel totally comfortable putting money on there now, but initially I was pretty skeptical about depositing any serious money online and now I’m hoping I’ll never have to.

This win also boosted me back into the Player of the Series race. After playing only one of the three events on Tuesday, I had dropped all the way down to 41st. Apparently you get 10 points for every tournament that you play, so the 11 events I’ve missed so far was having a dramatic affect on my place in the standings. Prior to Wednesday’s win, the 110 points I would have from playing those 11 tournaments was the difference between 41st place in the PotS race and being in the top 8. Pretty sick. After managing one measly min-cash on the day of the series I’ve been looking forward to the most (Limit Hold’em Day), I now sit in 10th place on the leaderboard. Now missing 11 tournaments is the difference between 10th and… 1st. Assuming I cashed zero times in the 11 additional tournaments (unlikely), I would currently have a 20 point lead over second place. Ugh. Who needs an extra $5000 I guess?

My wife still doesn’t seem to embracing the opportunity here. We are heading to her parents house for Mother’s Day tomorrow and then my parents house for Mother’s Day on Tuesday and then next Saturday we are apparently attending a wedding. As has been noted, missing tournaments has been detrimental and Saturdays and Sundays are especially important as there are six events each day. I basically have the green light to play tomorrow – either by visiting for an hour in between the day and night events or by playing on the iPad while I’m there – but I’m not sure how I’ll manage Tuesday and there’s no way I can play next Saturday unless she shows mercy on my soul and doesn’t make me go to a wedding for two people I don’t even know. I suppose if I fall out of contention by then it won’t matter, but if I’m in the thick of it, those last two days are going to be super critical. I can’t really blame her though, especially since I’m going to be gone for six weeks for the World Series of Poker, but I’m right there! I can ship this thing!

Something else interesting has happened because of my recent win. I’ve been contacted by both a Global Poker representative for inclusion in their upcoming press release and by PokerNews. I’m still waiting for questions from PokerNews, so not exactly sure what that will entail, but seems like I’m going to be getting some publicity in the near future. The PokerNews editor mentioned reading my blog, so hopefully they will include a link in their write up and if I happen to get any new readers please feel free to subscribe and follow along!

I am definitely NOT a fan of multi-tabling on my iPad while playing live poker, but I kind of have to do it. My live play volume has been waaaaay down this month – mostly because I’ve been staying home to play online. Even with the iPad multi-tabling, I’m still only on pace for just over 80 hours of live play for the month of May. That’s roughly half my normal volume. Kind of inexcusable. The $3500 cash was really nice and the chance at a $5k package is appealing, but the kind of money I can make in these online tournaments pales to what I make playing live poker.

So I will be heading to Palace shortly and hoping that the 15/30 game gets off the ground if it hasn’t already (I haven’t checked for a bit). Unfortunately tonight’s Rattlensnake events are all 4-max tournaments, so it is going to be really challenging to play live while playing 4-max on my iPad, but I did manage a 2nd place finish doing exactly that last week.

Expect this blog to be live for a little over an hour or so before I get involved in the tournaments, then I will probably go mostly quiet for a few hours, and then back to regular updates when I’m back to playing live only.

See you in an hour!

4:25 PM: Sitting down in 8/16 and should get an hour worth of updates in before online poker takes over.

I was hoping to play 15/30 all night but the game looks a ways off. There are 8 names on the list but one of them (the Gnat) is MIA and there are multiple potential flakers. Looks like I’ll be playing 8/16 for a while, which is probably for the best considering the distraction level I’m about to experience.

8/16 lineup: The Queen, FBI Guy, Grumpy (yay!) and some other random I’m not overly familiar with.

4:53 PM: Wonderful start. Admittedly playing a little sloppy so far and then I get to add this gem to torment: two limpers, I limp T8ss, someone raises, some blinds call, FBI Guy comes through with the limp-raise and six of us see the flop for three bets. It’s pretty nice! J93 with two spades and one heart. FBI Guy checks and I start the fireworks as the original PFR helps me get it capped with five of us still in. Turn is gin: 7 of hearts! We have the nuts. I go ahead and lead because the PFR screams of draws that check the turn and three players call me. River is a 2 of hearts and now the PFR raises me. Jx of hearts is my primary candidate to be losing to but instead this guy was capping the J9x two spade flop with four opponents holding the KThh. AS YOU SHOULD.

I have spotted them a rack of blue already.

👏🏻👏🏻

5:10 PM: The Man is trying to start 15/30 super short-handed and as appealing as it is to play 3-handed with The Gnat, it’s going to be tough enough 3-tabling 4-max while playing in a full live game. That’s a pass from me for now.

5:15 PM: Here’s something that annoys me:

What the hell am I supposed to do with that chicken? Cut it up myself? Eat it like a Neanderthal? Seems like I shouldn’t have to ask the kitchen to cut my chicken in a way that makes sense for a salad.

5:25 PM: Sigh. They are starting 15/30 right as my tournaments are about to start and there are only four players that have bought chips so far. Spectacular.

This should be… interesting.

Finish 8/16 -$191.

5:29 PM: Part-Time, The Gnat and some random are in the game… and now The Man is sitting down to make it 5-handed while he’s working… because beating up on the floor man at 15/30 is what I want to do. 🤦🏻‍♂️

5:57 PM: The Global tourneys all have two rebuys and one add on. I have been playing splashy in the Low, running my stack all the way down to 270 from 3k starting before building it back up 1800 and getting stacked when my AA ran into the mighty 74 blind defend.

On the bright side, I’m back up to 3k stack.

6:20 PM: On bullet #2 of the $22 Medium. I open 66 and guy with 30 bigs left jams on me. It’s a rebuy so I’m willing to gamble here. I somehow hold against his T2o.

He reloads and then stuffs 100 bigs on the button. I have 77 in the small blind and even though I’m flipping most of the time I can’t resist the gamble. It’s not a flop – I have his Q7 crushed. But he spikes a Queen on the turn and now I have 30 bigs.

A few hands later, he opens on button and I try to induce by making a small raise. He jams, I snap call, and his 44 holds to bust me.

And then they move that player that player the next hand… only to replace him two hands later!

No justice!

6:38 PM: Final bullet of Medium, as my 30 big blind reshove with AQ can’t shake AJdd and he makes a flush to bust me.

6:51 PM: And QQ < KT to bust the Medium. Sometimes you just run awesome.

I have about 30 bigs in the Low and same in the High.

7:03 PM: And out of the Low. 12 big button jam with A2ss loses to 55.

Then I get 16 bigs in pre with JTdd vs TT, flop a jack and lose to the one-outer on the river in the High.

Second bullet there.

And now my live game waits for me to bust two tournaments before going on pause. We are 5-handed… one player is felted… and two others are on break.

😴😴😴

7:08 PM: Weird hand against The Gnat. Some limps in front of me, I raise KJo on the button, and then The Gnat check-raises and caps on J95. He checks to me on a blank turn and I’m wary, so I check back. River is another blank and he checks again so obviously I have to to bet now and he check-calls mewith… AJ!

Unknown opens, I 3-bet 66 on button and he caps out of position. I call down on Q7752 and he shows me 22.

What.

7:35 PM: On break in the High and I added on 3000 chips for $50 to my 7000 stack. Meh. Not great value but whatever.

I just flopped sets in back-to-back huge pots in the live game. I’m crushing it but the game is on fumes.

7:51 PM: The Gnat just went runner-runner flush on me, so he’s obviously singing now.

Gosh dang, he’s so good!

7:57 PM: And I’m out of the High. Solid 0-3 showing tonight. 3-tabling 4-max NL while playing 5-max live poker is haaaard.

I basically never input my own bet. Just bet half pot, pot, or whatever preset sizings there are.

Plus I do cool things like this:

Yes, that’s me timed out and folded with the nuts.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

My wife is here now and we are about to have dinner and then time to focus up on this live game.

8:38 PM: Well I was up $1500 in the 15/30 game but it’s come crumbling down quickly.

First I lost with AK on QTxK9. Then I folded JJ on A77xK. Then I had TT vs QcJc on T98cc and never improved. And just now I bet the K65 flop, Gnat raises all in to $20, big blind calls, and I call because that’s the only thing I can do. The 6 pairs on the turn and the big blind fires the first $60 Overs bet of the evening. I’m perplexed but call. River 9, same action, and he rolls K9.

Solid -$700 swing in one orbit.

10:13 PM: We have gone card dead, folks. I did pick up the QQ once and got out flopped by KT and then I missed the nut flush draw in a 3-bet pot, but those have been my only hands of note. After turning the faucet on for an orbit, my downswing has becomemore of a slow drip.

10:17 PM: And immediately after posting that last update, I 3-bet KK and it goes cap and cold call behind me. Four of us see the T33 two hearts flop and I get it capped with the preflop capper. One player calls two bets but winds up folding so we are in Overs for the turn action. I’m running kind of bad at the moment so leading out for $60 feels almost spewy but I’m only losing to TT and AA, so bombs away! I’m quite relieved to see him just call. The river is the queen of hearts and now we are only beating JJ. So I check and he checks behind with the one hand we still beat.

10:57 PM: The Tick, Gnat, and Flea are all in the building and I left my insect repellent at home.

11:14 PM: Kung Fu Panda in the game! Threatening to buy in for less than $400…

👀👀

12:22 PM: Kung Fu Panda and Snowflake are sitting next to me totally distracting me. I am crushing though. These guys keep commenting on how I win every pot I play, I always have it, they give me too much action, etc.

One big connection I have KJdd in a 3-bet pot and then get the QT3dd flop with Overs in play. Bink the flush on the turn and get six bigbets from my opponent.

Here’s Kung Fu Panda’s stack:

So you can see why he’s jealous.

1:57 AM: Snowflake is now in the game and he’s possibly wasted and telling everyone he’s going to 3-bet me every hand. I have a feeling my variance is about to get tumultuous.

The Leak is also playing in this game for some reason.

The Gnat felted. The Flea is in.

2:06 PM: This just happened: Snowflake is being so annoying that The Flea just asked for a seat change to move away from him.

The fucking FLEA wants to move because someone is annoying HIM!

3:15 AM: Session is over. Sorry for the lack of content tonight. Snowflake was sitting behind me and Kung Fu Panda and talking to us for hours before he got in the game and writing about hands became very hard to do.

It was a good, smooth session though. Very minor hiccups for the last several hours as I cruised to a +$2209 finish.

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, global poker, limit hold em, no limit hold em, online poker, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, PokerNews, professional gambling, professional poker, Rattlesnake Open, texas hold em | Leave a Comment »

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