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$225 No Limit Hold’em Tournament @ Palace (Live Blog)

April 15, 2018

Cards are in the air! Particulars and live updates coming soon!

10:18 AM: Tournaments like this are few and far between in the Tacoma area.

Everyone starts with 10k in chips and blinds are 25/50, so we all start with 200 big blinds, which is pretty deep and made even deeper with 30 minute levels and decently stair-stepped levels. House added $2500 but they are also keeping $25 out of every buy in.

This should be a much softer field than your average $225 buy in tournament and it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the biggest buy in of the year for a decent amount of these players. I haven’t taken much of a look at the field yet but I would imagine most of the best local players were in Pendleton, Oregon playing their main event this weekend.

My table is 10-handed and I recognize four of my opponents: two small stakes Palace regs, one of my WSOP backers, and one of my former Palace co-workers.

One thing we should all keep an eye on is a rare poker appearance from The Legend. With over $2.2 billion in online cashes, his presence in this field is notable. I have him at about -850 to take first outright.

11:00 AM: First notable hand: player that looks brand new min-raises at 50/100 and I have AK in the big. Raising seems like the obvious play here but I don’t like it. This dude seems wildly unpredictable and playing a huge pot out of position against someone that probably understands very few concepts sounds like a high variance spot. I just call.

Flop is all middle cards, like 975 and we both check. Turn is a blank and I bet 300, which is a value bet. I am 95% sure I have the best hand. He calls. River is 7s and I bet 500, another value bet. He says raise and I announce call as soon as he states an amount (1500). Unfortunately, he also has AK.

11:38 AM: Start hand with 6800 at 150/300 and I open with AJ and the noob is my only caller. Flop JT5; I bet 1000 and he puts me all in. Super turbo snap call. He shows JT and that holds.

Second bullet.

11:46 AM: Second bullet going well. KQ < A7 on 953KA and then J5o big blind < T9 on JT7QT facing a min-bet on every street.

Down to 5800 already.

11:53 AM: Okay, I’m pretty triggered. Down to 4300 now. This is the one pot I’ve won so far: one limper at 25/50, I make it 200 with KK, he calls and then check-folds after the flop. I’ve lost every other hand I’ve played. So I have less than half the starting stack on my second bullet in a field that is as soft as it gets. Pretty huge wasted opportunity if I dust two bullets without ever having more than the starting stack in the easiest tournament I’ll play all year.

11:59AM: Open to 700 under the gun with 99 and a stack of 4300. Kind of a weird spot with no antes. This is a pretty obvious open-jam, but with only 450 in dead money, I think making a standard raise here might be okay. I’m obviously getting it in against a reraise. Button winds up calling me and then I bet 1000 on a flop of Q22 rainbow. I don’t think this is ever a bluff, so even though I was never going to fold this hand, I think getting it in here with a likely two-outer is pretty terrible when I still have about 10 bigs behind.

Edit: I bet 1k on flop and they jammed on me.

That was last round though. I now have 2600 at 200/400 and I’ll be jamming my whole range now.

12:09 PM: And that’s that. Jam KQ under the gun, smaller stack calls with JJ, and the small blind tank-calls with A3 and, of course, I beat the jacks but not the A3 so now I’m walking around the building wondering how I could squander such a ripe opportunity.

I mean… you can’t win them all and cashing tournaments is hard, but goodness, I want a redo!!

12:40 PM: Steam has cooled a little. Currently on the list for 8/16, 15/30, 30/60, and 2/5 no limit. This is the first day Palace is trying to spread a no limit cash game and so far there are three names on the list and one of them is the acting floor. 😂 Not expecting that to happen any time soon.

There are seven names on the list for 15/30 and eight on the list for 30/60, but I think I’m the only one that’s actually here. I doubt that game goes any time soon and probably not at all today.

I guess I’ll post cash game updates and monitor some tourney chip stacks. Both my backers are still in: Chief Wiggum and Gargoyle (?). Aquaman and The Legend are still in. Cobra has chips.

1:03 PM: Scratch that, The Legend is out. I heard he turned the nut flush and got it in vs bottom two and his opponent rivered a full house.

Poker is hard.

Aquaman has around 40k and my other friend, I’m going to call him Kung Fu Panda, has around 30k.

Blackjack still in the field – looks like he had about 15k.

1:31 PM: 8/16 is starting 7-handed and the 15/30 isn’t particularly close. Part-Time and a few semi-regs in the game, plus one Palace floor I’ve only seen play 4/8.

Down to 63 in the tournament. 10 get paid.

2:09 PM: 50ish left in tournament. Some updates:

Chief Wiggum 10k
Gargoyle 13k
John Kim HEAPS
Aquaman 50k
Black Turtle 11k
Blackjack 13k
Cobra 30k
Kung Fu Panda 13k

Rocksteady has joined the 8/16 game and Part-Time was like “What’s my muthafuckin’ name?!” and played less than two orbits before cashing out.

2:25 PM: Call a raise after multiple limps with 66 and it’s 6-ways to flop and I get it capped on 643 two spade flop 5-ways. Turn is the 7 of spades and I just call a bet and then fold 8 river to a bet and call. They chop it up with A5 and 75.

2:48 PM: 15/30 starting. Finish 8/16 -$17. Stack updates:

Aquaman 43k
Black Turtle 9k
Blackjack 15k
Chief Wiggum busted
Cobra 41k
Gargoyle 32k
John Kim 35k

Just walked over to see Kung Fu Panda all in with KK vs AQ pre but ace on flop and he’s busted.

15/30 starting lineup: Chief Wiggum, Rocksteady, Kung Fu Panda, and four regs that are mostly decent.

The Queen takes the last open seat. 🤦🏻‍♂️

3:05 PM: Let’s start this off right! I open QJo, Rocksteady 3-bets from small blind and The Queen calls from the big. Last time I played 15/30 with The Queen she played the tightest I’ve ever seen her play… by far. So she has a big hand. Flop is T96 with two diamonds and they take turns raising while I call. Turn is a king and Rocksteady still leads out and The Queen raises. I call it cold because I don’t bet The Queen heads up and I should make more money by keeping Rocksteady in. Unfortunately, he folds and then the board pairs on the river and I lose to her KK.

Gargoyle just busted which also means that Chief Wiggum is leaving the 15/30 game.

3:20 PM: Another fun hand: open KTdd, The Queen and Kung Fu Panda are the only callers. Flop is AQ6 with two diamonds, I bet and they both call. Turn is a brick and I don’t see any good reason to bet here, so I check, The Queen bets and Kung Fu Panda raises. I can’t fold here, so I call and The Queen reraises and comes out on the nice side of variance again when the river comes safe.

31 left in tournament. Updates:

Aquaman 65k
John Kim 25k
Cobra 35k
Blackjack 24k
Black Turtle busted
Gargoyle busted

Aquaman enjoying his deep run:

3:39 PM: Someone came to play today. By far the most prominent regular without a nickname just 3-bet me in b2b hands and showed some spunk postflop.

First hand I open QJ, call his 3-bet and then check-raise AK4 flop. He calls. I bet 3 turn and he calls again (we are playing 25/50 Overs). Obv giving up now, we both check river and he shows… 55? Huh?

Very next hand I open AT, there’s a call, he reraises and we both call. I whiff flop and check-fold and he barrels turn and other guy folds and he shows T7ss for ten high. Okay.

4:10 PM: Just did a lap around the tournament area and saw Aquaman facing an all in on the river on a board of Q98Jx and he called pretty quickly and the all in shows KT. Aquaman shows his QT and does a quick glance at his stack and sees that he’s covered. Pretty brutal runout considering he started the hand from the big blind in a limped pot. 🤷🏻‍♂️

John Kim just hit the rail also.

That leaves Cobra and Blackjack as the last two players standing that I’m following. There’s also a Palace dealer that I used to work with still in, so I’ll keep an eye on him too. They are down to 23.

This 15 session has had a rough start as I’ve won zero notable pots and am already down $700+.

4:25 PM: Sigh. It’s just one of those days, huh? Open cutoff AK and button 3-bets. I just flat as is my play with 100% of my range when I’m heads up and out of position. Flop AKT, we are in 25/50 Overs; I check-raise and he calls. Turn 9. I bet and he raises. Seems like my hand is pretty strong, but it is actually in pretty bad shape on this bird texture against this line. I just call and check-call river and lose to KK.Just a terrible start in what I would call a below average 15/30 game.

4:39 PM: Down to two tables. Cobra busted. Blackjack and the Palace dealer our last hope! Meanwhile I’m stuck $1k already after punting two bullets, threatening to match my terrible dayon April 1st.

5:14 PM: Just heard the floor say a deal has been proposed in the tournament: 15-way chop and 10% to the dealers. From what I heard, only one person said no. Holy shit. That is an amazing lack of gamble. I’m not rooting against the dealers to do well here but 10% is a lot for a $225 buy in and peer pressuring the tip amount gets a huge thumbs down from me. It’s a good way to make someone look like an asshole when it is really matter of personal preference.

Blackjack just busted in 13th, which leaves the Palace dealer as my only rooting interest remaining. Looks like it’s going to be a boring final table… if there even is one.

5:28 PM: One good hand: hijack opens, I 3-bet A9hh from cut and he calls. Flop is K63 two spades one heart and he check-calls $25. Turn is 5 of hearts and he donks $50. I feel like this is a weak probe with a hand that turned a pair or more outs, like A4ss or A5ss (or maybe I’m just steaming), so I make it $100 and he calls. Fortunately, river is the 3 of hearts and I can bet for value but he folds, confirming my suspicion that he was weak.

6:04 PM: Fun session. Open button with A7 and spray off four bets on AK6ss flop and call down on 8-A runout vs AQss. Just getting smashed today.

The game is not good so I’m actually considering just taking the L and heading home.

6:40 PM: Yup. Calling it a night. Cashing out -$1463 for 15/30, which puts me at a solid -$1920 for the day. I’d have to scroll through my records but I’m pretty sure that’s my second worse day of 2018.

Happy to report they are playing this tournament out. They are down to six players now and the Palace dealer is still in. Take a look at this focus!

Sounds like they are chopping 6-ways and I’m out of here. The super green, brand new player that bluff-raised me with AK earlier is getting most of the money.

God bless America.

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

Thursday Poker: $15/$30 LHE @ Palace on 4/12/2018 (LIVE BLOG)

April 12, 2018

Schedule for this week going as planned. I showed up for PLO @ Palace last night and played what was probably my worst poker of the year. I finished -$800, which doesn’t seem too bad, but I played less than four hours and I felt like I gave it away. I got pretty unlucky once when I flopped a set of tens on a dry board vs a set of kings against a relatively short stack, but the rest of my session I lost chips in spots that were entirely unnecessary and I basically punted my last $150 because… I wanted to leave? I had another $1200 in black chips in my pocket, but the game was quite bad – no His Airness, Mister Magoo was unimpressed with the game also and left early, and Hit&Run didn’t show up until I was over it. Plus, I wasn’t playing good, so I made the wise decision to leave, even though I was 3rd (and possibly 1st) up for the $15/$30 game. Eh. Chalk up the loss and come back the next day when I can start fresh and give it my best.

Everything else aside, I was pretty happy to see the $15/$30 game going with a strong list, but I got word that it broke before midnight, which is not great.

I have an hour massage at 1 PM and then I’m heading straight to the casino. There are currently two 8/16 games going with four players waiting for 15/30 and I’m hoping by the time I get there at a little after 2 PM, they will be pretty close to starting 15/30.

Check back here around 2:30 for live updates!

2:22 PM: And we’re off! There are now three 8/16 games going with only five names on the 15/30 list and it’s not a list that looks like it’s going to start anytime soon. It’s still early though!

I’ll be keeping an eye on what’s happening at Fortune, but I probably won’t end up going there. I stopped taking the medication I use for anxiety a week or two ago and I can feel it trying to creep back when I’m driving, particularly when things get congested. I have zero desire to use meds as a crutch for the rest of my life so this is a problem I’m trying to face head on and hope I can just beat it into submission.

Alas, Fortune has two 20/40 going but I probably won’t be driving there by myself today, even if 8/16 ends up being my only option.

2:30 PM: Solid start to my 8/16 session. I pick up AK in the cutoff first hand, raise it up, peel on Q43 rainbow, jack it up on king turn and check back against two opponents on 9 river, that also brings in a backdoor flush… and small blind tables a set of threes.

No blog regulars in my starting lineup. Only one player in the game that I have any significant history with – maybe even three that I have zero hands with.

3:07 PM: Third game broke and I just moved from a bad main game to what seems like a good feeder. Three regulars in this game, none with nicknames though, and still three players I’ve never seen before.

Flopped a set of 5s against an obvious overpair for a big pot and then got two big bet streets of value with 88 (no diamond) on QT3ddd49 against someone that was basically playing his AK face by capping pre and checking every street postflop.

Still only five names on 15/30 list. 😐

Almost missed him… FBI Guy is in my game.

3:47 PM: Every once in a while I go through a little funk where I feel like I’m suffering from what I can only term as “poker depression.” This can obviously happen when you’re getting creamed for an extended period of time, but right now I feel like I’m experiencing it because the games have been kind of blah lately. The 15/30 still isn’t close to starting and I’m sitting in a rather lame 8/16 game. The Queen just sat on my immediate left and I opened with 87hh and she was my only caller and I never bet against her, so I turn an open-ended straight flush draw but she ends up winning showdown with queen high. It’s moments like that where I think: what the fuck am I even doing here? I don’t want to play 8/16 and I definitely don’t want to play in a below average 8/16 game.

This would be a good example of why poker pros advise against other people quitting their jobs to play poker. It it usually more grueling than glamorous. The bonus of doing this for a living is that I don’t have to be here if I don’t want to be, but my volume is already low lately, so… guess I’m gonna grind it out and hope that 15 game gets off the ground at a decent time.

4:03 PM: Complain about the game condition and right on cue: under the gun opens, two call, MP 3-bets, I call 99 from SB and it gets capped five or six ways. Under the gun checks a J76 flop and the preflop 3-bettor bets flop. I’m next to act and I can check-raise the rest of the field out possibly, but I feel I’m against two strong ranges and I’ve seen UTG player check big hands on the flop plenty of times, so I’m going to play my hand like a weak draw for the time being. Everyone calls.

Turn is a three and it checks to MP again and, interestingly, she pauses and hesitates long enough before betting that I think she’s weak here. I call and so does everyone else.

River pairs the three and I check-call after she snap bets river and one other player also calls. She tables 76 for a counterfeit two pair, I table my hand and it’s good.

Kind of weird that I picked up weakness when she was actually strong and kind of hilarious that she fires river against four opponents when her hand crumbles to pieces.

But yeah, when people are 3-betting 76 suited when three people have already voluntarily raised and called, the game might actually be pretty decent.

4:26 PM: I’ve noticed a certain phenomena with a particular player. He plays pretty well overall, but flies completely off the handles in pots against me.

Last time I played 15/30, I sat down and he had five racks and lost almost all of it to me in spots where I was thinking “what are you doing?”

Two examples from today:

We put in four bets on 733hh flop in a 3-way pot, turn 5, I call, river 7, we all check and he has a total airball and I win with A6hh.

Just now, he limps utg, I raise TT, a tighter player 3-bets small blind, and I put the cap on five ways. Flop is 853 and everyone check-calls me. Turn pairs the 3 and my new best friend donks and I raise the rest of the field out. He sort of chuckles and then 3-bets me and I call. River is a blank and we both check. He shows J4hh and there is only one heart on the board.

Huh? I promise we are not brothers and I pray he doesn’t read my blog.

Always amusing when someone is trying to outplay one person when the pot is multiway.

4:48 PM: Taz showing off his spazzy side here. He opens, I 3-bet 88 and he caps with four other players sticking around. Flop is sexy: QJ8ss. He, and some others, check-call when jack pairs on turn and then Taz check-raises 4s river and caps when I 3-bet and I’m a bit perplexed but when he tables 44 it makes some sense I guess?

Is it too late to erase my whining earlier?

5:11 PM: Just finished +$601 in that “bad” 8/16 game and 15/30 is now starting 8-handed.

Starting lineup: random that looks splashy, bad reg I know from Kitsap, another wild player, a nitty reg on my left, Taz, FBI Guy, and the dude that keeps leveling himself against me.

5:29 PM: We’ve seen how my buddy plays his air, let’s take a look at a big hand:

I raise one limper with AQo and this guy 3-bets from big blind and I cap it. Three or four of us to KK8dd flop and they all check to me. I decide to bet with Ad in my hand and two check-call. Turn is a diamond and I check back. River ace of clubs and I call a bet from big blind and he shows KQcc.

Obviously super aware of his image.

6:01 PM: Good read on the guy in s1. He opens from MP and ends up showing me a set of deuces, which is whatever, but just now, one player limps, he raises cutoff, I call KJo (mistake; should 3-bet given read) and check-call him on QQ33 and river is another queen and I wind up chopping with his 72o.

🤤🤤🤤

6:52 PM: Going out of my way to mix it up with s1 by 3-betting the 65dd and wind up riling Taz up instead. He calls it cold from the small blind and I c-bet A74 rainbow flop. They both call and the turn is a jack. This is a clear check. So obviously I bet and get check-raised before rivering the nuts.

There’s an important takeaway here: just because you won a hand doesn’t mean you played it well. Taz is never folding the turn here and I’m never bluffing my way to victory, so my turn bet is just a pure torch. It’s okay to find mistakes in hands you won.

7:17 PM: Second 15/30 game about to start. Maybe it’s the whole people have jobs thing that is going on during the day. 😂

8:04: John Stockton with another big pot assist. I open KJ and he 3-bets button. I call and check-raise KJ3 flop and he 3-bets. I expect to get a check-raise in on turn frequently so I just call. Turn pairs the king, giving me the nuts, and I think this is a card he can actually check back, so I lead and, if he does have a hand like AK, he’s going to raise anyway. That’s what happens and I get 3-bets in again. River is a blank that brings running spades in and he raises me again! I raise and he winds up tabling QTss. I mean, pretty unlucky connection for him, but goodness he just blasts off chips to me. No caution.

8:41 PM: Back-to-back monster pots:

Multiple limpers, there’s a raise, I call 66 on button, Taz 3-bets small blind, and it gets capped six ways. Flop is KT6 with two hearts and it’s capped four ways. Turn is a jack and Taz is still leading. Two calls. I’m getting worried about a set but I still have to raise here. He snap 3-bets, Kitsap player calls, and I’m bowing down into call mode now. River is a Q and it goes bet and raise in front of me and I have a trivial fold. They split. Taz AQhh and Kitsap player AJ.

Next hand Taz is on mega steam and straddles button with all the raises lined up ready to go in. Callers in front of me and how lucky can I be to look down at AA? I raise and I know I’m getting five bets in five ways pre. 🙌🏻

Flop KQT. Hate it. It goes bet and raise in front of me and my hand has been reduced to call down mode already. Turn is uglier: 9. I call and I’m heads up to river which brings in the spade draw and gets me a free showdown vs AJ.

9:03 PM: John Stockton to the rescue! One limp, fold tells behind me, I raise A8ss, and it’s four of us to 864 flop. Stockton leads, I raise, and still four of us to king turn. They all check-call me. River is another 8 and Stockton decides to go for the ole check-raise instead of leading out and allows me to get three bets in again. But wait! This is John Stockton we’re talking about here. Hall of Famer. All-time assist leader! He caps it and rolls over 87 for the L.

9:17 PM: Holy shit I’m running bad with big hands. Just got four bets in pre with TT and run it into KQ on QJTJQ. 🤦🏻‍♂️

9:34 PM: I’m having a decent 15 session but only because John Stockton keeps showing up with the sick alley-oop passes.

Okay, I have now flopped a set with three straight pocket pairs and this time I got the win despite another ugly runout: 76289. Fortunately I got it to heads up after the flop and I’m pretty sure they had a flush draw only.

10:13 PM: Feeder game is off the chains right now, with chips flying into the pot like crazy. Taz just left my game to go there and we picked up a bad reg and…

Snowflake.

As far as I know, Snowflake is the best limit hold’em player that still resides in Washington state. I’ve only played with him a handful of times but I’ve heard he’s a solid winner in limits as high as 100/200 that he plays when he goes to Commerce. The few times I have played with him, I have been impressed. He’s not a tight-solid abc type of player – he’s in there exploiting. Definitely not someone I’m happy to see sit down at my table.

10:53 PM: Joker at my table now. I raise under the gun with AA and he 3-bets and we are heads up so I just call. 30/60 Overs now. I check-raise him on 995 and he calls. Turn is a 4; I bet and he raises. Wonderful. Got him right where I want him. I 3-bet. Then he caps it. Really? If he caps here with KK-TT he’s just an idiot so now I have to think I’m beat and just call down and he shows me the T9cc, a great hand to attack my weak under the gun opening range.

😴😴😴

11:43 PM: Made the mistake of bringing up hip-hop with Snowflake and we haven’t stopped talking rap music for an hour now.

I’m running pretty bad. Lost flush under flush and then this gem.

Cutoff opens, Scrappy Doo raises button and I cap QQ. Flop is QJx and I check-raise Scrappy and they both call. Turn is a 9; I bet, cutoff calls, Scrappy Doo raises, I 3-bet and the cutoff ca- wait… what’s he doing? Capping? This nit is capping it?! Noooo! Scrappy folds and I check-call river and lose to KT.

I’m close to even for this 15/30 game which is bittersweet. I’m losing with some monster hands so I guess I’m somewhat thankful I’m still up?

12:48 AM: Flop a set of 7s against Snowflake and he doesn’t even call me with top pair on the river.

Raise one limper with AK and the small blind donks out on A24 two diamonds and then check-raises me on the turn while doing that thing where he’s showing his neighbor his cards like “can you believe this fucking hand I have?” I suppose that could be my cue to fold, but I have an ace and a king so I call. River king. It would be way too passive to not raise here so I go ahead and do that I’m happy when he just calls and unhappy whenhe tables 53.

1:44 PM: Snowflake and I seem to have a lot in common. Girl next to us is trying to describe some tool to us so we can tell her what it is and we are both like “I dunno,” and Snowflake says “the only things I know about are music, movies, and sports. And poker.”

And I’m like:

Did we just become best friends?

2:11 AM: No, I think not. He opens cut, I 3-bet KK and we get it capped on T65 two clubs and I feel like I should be calling down now because I think my range looks super strong and he should know that. He barrels off on A and T run out and shows me… KQ of clubs, which is a bit surprising.

2:21 AM: Been waiting for this to happen: I missed the action up until showdown, but The Flea is out of position on the river on a king high board and it goes check-check and he turns QQ face up and places a chip on his card to tip the dealer as he pushes his cards forward and… the other player turns over KT.

YES. He’s had that coming for a while.

Well, this session is just never going to get off the ground. I 3-bet QQ and someone caps it. Flop is T85 and I’m the only bettor. The preflop capper calls me down before raising me on a final board of T8566 and I call and lose to TT. I am now stuck about $20 in this 15/30 session and I’m ready to call it a night.

2:50 AM: From The Joker:

😂😂😂😂😂

3:28 AM: Cashed out +$136 for the 15/30 session and finished +$737 for the day. I guess a decent result considering how many monster hands I lost with in the bigger game.

Not really sure what my plan is tomorrow. We are supposed to go out with my wife’s side of the family but she was sick tonight and if she needs to stay home I’m not really sure how that will affect our day. Next for sure blog will be on Sunday for the $225 tournament!

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

This Week’s Poker Schedule (4/9/2018)

April 10, 2018

Going through one of those stretches where lots of random stuff is filling my calendar instead of playing poker. As I noted last week, I spent this weekend attending a celebration of life for my wife’s parents, so I didn’t play at all Saturday or Sunday*. It’s always interesting gaining a new perspective and experiencing something entirely different from the culture I’ve grown up in. Not to mention actually participating in the process and not understanding anything that is being said and worrying that I might disrespect someone unintentionally because I’m uneducated in their customs, or simply because I’m clumsy in executing them. For instance, you’re supposed to crouch down any time you walk past a monk, which I’m sure I didn’t do a number of times. Then I accidentally cut a monk off when we were walking in the same direction and we both insisted that the other go first. So I went first because I didn’t know if it was worse to cut him off or to try and outdo him in a politeness battle. Either way, I’m pretty sure someone in the room saw this infraction and was shaking their head.

Still, it was a great experience and I’m happy to honor my in-laws and I think it’s amazing that they wanted me involved in the ceremony. Not just involved as in I got to sit with everyone, but involved as in I was part of the inner circle of immediate family that participated in spoon-feeding both my wife’s mom and dad while the monks were chanting!

Here are some photos and a video to give an idea of what it looked like:

*though I did manage to watch every pitch of Shohei Ohtani’s ridiculous outing on Sunday. 6+ innings with a perfect game, 12 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 1 hit? On 91 pitches? After hitting .389 with 3 homers for the week? This dude is INSANE! “As advertised” does no justice to what this kid has done so far this season.

Monday night I played in a $5/$10 dealer’s choice house game and it was a lot of fun. I am happy to play at a third of my normal stakes if I’m playing games I don’t normally get to play. They don’t spread any razz, stud, stud 8, 2-7 triple draw, or badugi in any Washington casinos, so this is basically the only way to gain actual playing experience. I had a pretty good night overall, but ended up -$195 because I made the dreaded mix game mistake of playing a really big pot in a big bet game and setting myself up to get freerolled.

We were playing Big O8 and I started with over $400 and made what had to be a terrible call with a double suited hand that had 8432 in it and no ace from the small blind. To be fair, I have done zero studying of this game, so it’s not too surprising that I could make some mistakes, but that’s why I should just fold everything that doesn’t seem like a super obvious play (like suited A23xx hands) instead of setting myself up to get stacked in a game I have basically no experience in. Well, I called a small raise with this super marginal hand and saw the 433 with two diamonds flop. I checked on the flop, the PFR bet $15, the button called and it was back to me. I had no idea what to do. After thinking I should maybe just take a passive line and keep the pot small, I ended up convincing myself that if I potted it now I would probably just take it down and not have to split with a low (as I have basically no low draw), so I made it $76 and only the PFR calls. The turn is the 2 of diamonds. I am now only losing to 44 and A5 of diamonds for high, but my low draw has been reduced to a live 8. I have now successfully set myself up to get freerolled and I decide to try and pot control by checking, but my opponent is not letting that happen and bets $150. I call and I hate it. The river is an ace and he puts me all in and I don’t see how I can fold now after calling turn and leaving myself with less than $200 behind. I pay it off and I’m expecting to chop the vast majority of the time, but he shows A63xx with nut diamonds for a live 6 low (which beats my live 8) and a rivered boat to scoop everything. Absolutely sickening. I feel like I should have folded this hand preflop, but I have no concept of what I should have done after flopping a full house with very little scoop potential and no redraw to speak of. Keep it small and try to get to showdown? Check-call flop and check-fold turn? I honestly don’t know.

But that pot was my whole night. Instead of winning a few hundred dollars because I played well all night long, I lost a few hundred dollars because I played one hand poorly.

Tuesdays are basically always my day off and I spent it watching A Quiet Place, making dinner, and going to the gym with my wife. Now I’m writing this post and playing a couple online tournaments.

Tomorrow I will likely be playing PLO @ Palace but that doesn’t start until 6 PM and who knows how late it will go.

Thursday I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I’ve been occupied lately, but that hasn’t stopped me from checking in on Bravo and the 15/30 LHE game at Palace hasn’t gone three days in a row. Radio Mike going back to his day job and Joker and I being busy outside of poker lately hasn’t helped at all, but I can’t help but feel that interest in the game is somewhat waning. I hope I’m being dramatic, but there’s some things at play here. There have been multiple times where there have been tons of names on the list and the game just doesn’t go and that kind of sends a message to the players that starting the games they want to play in are not a priority. That’s a good way to make players give up on the game or just go elsewhere. Also, there have been some regulars complaining about the lack of action in the 15/30 game and that it’s not a “fun” game and have been boycotting it and encouraging others to play 8/16 and straddle every hand. I don’t really get that concept. You can straddle and gamble at 15/30 also and do what you can do make the game better, so my only real takeaway is these guys want to splash around at a smaller limit and they are trying to get other players to follow suit. Lastly, this Sunday Palace is going to be spreading 2/5 no limit hold’em for the first time. This is obviously not going to help the 15/30 LHE game gain any traction and it very well could kill it altogether. Who knows.

[Edit: I take that back. There’s a chance that it could help. If 15 people come in to play 2/5 NL and there are only 9 seats, that’s six players that could fill a 15/30 seat while they wait. Shrug.]

What I do know is that I’m not about to go back to playing 8/16 every day, so if I have to start travelling to Fortune to play in bigger games again, then that’s what I’m going to have to do. A daily 15/30 in my backyard is a dream, but I’m definitely starting to get concerned about it.

I’m less concerned about the game going on Friday, but my weekend is going to be dominated by family again. My wife has a cousin from San Diego visiting right now and her family wants to take him to The Met in Seattle and I feel like I should go with.

Saturday I have what I hope to be my final meeting with my CPA to complete my taxes. What an ordeal that has been. I won’t get into all the details, but the amount of money I’m supposed to pay the IRS has been very inconsistent and my CPA teased me with a final number that was so amazing I wasn’t surprised to discover a huge oversight when I checked her work and the amount I owed was actually more than five times what she quoted me. Groan. I am confident now that we have sorted out all the details and everything is in order.

After that, we are meeting up with my parents because my aunt and uncle are in town. I guess tentative current plans are to go to Little Creek Casino, but if I play any poker it won’t be a working session, it will be a I-might-have-to-leave-any-minute session which means I won’t be playing anything worthwhile.

Sunday Palace is having a $225 no limit hold’em tournament that starts at 10 AM. I haven’t looked at the structure too much, but I don’t really care. It should be fun! That’s the same day that Palace will be unveiling the 2/5 no limit cash game. If I have to choose between 15/30 and 2/5 I’m definitely playing 15/30, but if my options are 2/5 or 8/16, I might have something to think about, depending on the lineups.

That’s my upcoming week! I will try to blog on Thursday and probably for the Palace tournament on Sunday as well. You may have noticed that I got my own domain: http://www.batcavepoker.com and I also have access to new features for my blog so I will be working on giving the blog a sleek, new look, but when I will actually have time to do any of that is TBD. I’m also putting the final touches on my WSOP schedule so I’ll be posting that in the next week or so.

Stay tuned!

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, poker, poker strategy, poker tournament strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling | 1 Comment »

PLO Live Blog (4/6/18)

April 6, 2018

Going to attempt a PLO live blog. Opener coming soon.

6:10 PM: Things are getting off to a slow start here. When I put my name up hours ago, I was 9th on the list, but there are currently only seven players starting the game.

Current lineup: two players I don’t know, an Invisible Man level nit, Mister Magoo, His Airness (super maniac) and a strong higher stakes reg from Muckleshoot. Two spots in the game. I’m not going to grind it out if they leave. $15/$30 game looks pretty attractive if this game fizzles out.

I told myself I was going to play tighter than normal and I already unnecessarily torched chips in a pot. On the other hand, I opened JJ55 with diamonds and put zero bets in on flop and turn on a board of 765d8d8 in a multiway pot before calling Mister Magoo’s $45 river lead and losing to 77. Not a good end result but feels like I lost the minimum.

6:23 PM: Pretty good last couple of days, despite some rather unfortunate circumstances.

Wednesday I won $1706 in five hours of $15/$30, which is nice, but I only played five hours because the game broke at 11:30 PM. I prefer to play 8+ hours and generally want to stay until 2 AM. Games breaking early are what my nightmares are made of.

More good and bad news yesterday. The good news is I booked another $915 win but the game was absolutely terrible and, even though I was planning to play a shorter session, it broke before I was going to leave… at 7:15 PM.

Gulp. The results are obviously good, but the $15/$30 game being weak and dying early? Not so much. Missing Radio Mike already!

6:41 PM: Felted $500. Magoo and Airness limp and I limp along with A9cc77, SB makes it $15 and at least four of us see 984hh flop. Turn is Ad and SB leads $65; Magoo and Airness call and I pot it for ~$275, which is basically all in for me. I already know small blind is raising too many hands pre and the other two yahoos could have anything. Small blind calls and so does Magoo. Okay, no heart please. River offsuit 4. We all check. Magoo tables KQT all hearts… with a 4 dangler. Because that’s what Mister Magoo does – puts his chips in terribad and then stacks the pot in front of him.

7:11 PM: Magoo and His Airness have around $1k each now, so I reloaded for that much.

Players in this game complaining about how bad the $20/$40 LHE game is at Fortune – and that everybody knows everybody there. Whatever that means. What poker room doesn’t have regulars that know the other regulars? I’ve played enough at Fortune to know that the game can be pretty lame at times, but it’s not that bad. Certainly beatable. Then again, I guess I could see how “fun” players would be turned off. But what do you expect? The higher the stakes get, the more serious everyone is. Still, Fortune has plenty of “fun” players and the games can get really good there.

7:54 PM: First, a poker hand: someone opens and there are two callers, I call with Q765 double suited, a hand I should probably be folding. Flop is 664cc and His Airness leads out $70 and I’m the only caller. We are both over $1k deep at this point and he’s super bluffy so I don’t love raising here. Turn is 9c and he checks it over to me. I bet $130 and he snap calls. River is a queen, which basically gives me the nuts. I bet $200 and he snaps again and I have to wonder if I should have sized up.

Second, a baseball story: Radio Mike checks in from Cheney Stadium and asks if I can check the radio broadcast and make sure it’s playing online. I agree, as long as he works a “Dark Knight” into his play-by-play in the next inning.

They come back from commercial and he opens with a reference to last night’s massive rain delay: “A lot can change in one day: yesterday, lots of rain, dark night…” Gotta love it.

Also, he just mentioned that Shohei Ohtani hit his third homerun of the season tonight and said that Ohtani was “sandbagging” everyone in spring training. Spoken like a true poker player!

8:15 PM: Big connection alert!

There’s a raise to $20 and all the important people are in. I call with A4hh55. Flop is a beautiful Q63hh, giving us the nut flush draw and an open-ender. Everyone checks to me and I bet $80 into $120 and I’m quite surprised to get three callers. No worries: 8 of hearts on the turn and His Airness leads right out for $200. God bless him. Player in between folds and he only has $400 behind, so I make it $500, he calls and then check-calls the rest when the board pairs on the river and I’m still good.

Just like that, my -$500 start is now $1000 sugar and the right people are still in the game with decent stacks.

Forgot to mention that His Airness snap-reloaded for $1k.

9:28 PM: Nothing notable to report, other than His Airness busted and left. He is replaced by Hit&Run, whom has already felted his initial buy in, which means we are in no danger of him booking a quick win at the moment. I don’t think I’ve seen the turn since my last update.

10:38 PM: Discontinuing the blog for the night. I’ll post a wrap up on this one when I’m done but I just don’t think PLO cash makes for a very good live blog. It’s been almost 2.5 hours since my last notable hand. I doubt I’m playing super late, but there are still three names on the list for this game.

11:15 PM: A new hand!

Here’s a hand that illustrates how clueless I am when it comes to proper preflop play a) when the stacks are deep, b) a good player is in, and c) my hand will be face up, d) max bet/raise is $300 each time.

The good Muck reg opens under the gun and I’m next to act with AA72 double suited. Here’s how many times I’ve 3-bet today: 0. So I think flatting is my best play. This is a pretty good AA hand, but not super premium. I can make two nut flushes, but my cards are otherwise unconnected. I might as well just call, disguise my hand, and let the yahoos in behind me and spring to life when I flop well.

I flat. Next player makes it $50 and folds back to UTG and he makes it $165. At this point it’s worth noting that the preflop betting is capped – I cannot raise. I call the $165 and so does the other player. There is now $500 in the pot and max bet size is $300.

766 rainbow

The good Muck player leads $300 and we are still like $2k deep and there’s a player to act behind me, so I call. The other guy folds. This is a pretty good spot. His hand looks like a big pair, with good connectors – maybe even AA – and my range looks much larger and can have middle rundowns like 8765 double suited. I am not too worried about being beat here and I expect him to check-fold turn a lot and that’s exactly what happens.

Solid result but I can hardly say if I played it good or not.

Wrap Up:

Forgot to post this when I finished. I basically only played one more interesting pot the rest of the night and, much like every other big pot I played, it is questionable whether or not I should even be in the hand.

I limp in with KQJT all clubs. I think if this hand was a badugi, I would still play it, so the fact that it’s all one suit is pretty much the same thing, but slightly better because even though I have four clubs there is still some flush potential. But should I call a $35 raise in a 7-way pot with it? I’m less convinced that’s a good idea, but it does seem like it will be relatively easy to play after the flop. So with $245 in the pot we see a flop of K96 with two clubs. Well, I don’t see a way out of this one. The question is, how fast should I be playing this hand? Well, I have top pair, a gut shot wrap, and the second nut flush draw. One of the bright sides about having four clubs is that if someone does have the nut flush draw and decides to gamble, I’m blocking it pretty hard and I’m in great shape against someone that wants to do something stupid with two pair and I suspect I’m in okay shape against a set. I’ll check some of these matchups out in a bit. Anyways, it checks to me and I decide that playing my hand like it’s the best is the my optimal line and lead out for $200. The preflop raiser calls and a splashy, fun player makes it $500 to go with a little over $200 behind. Mister Magoo goes deep into the tank and I’m quite deep with him and he runs so pure I’m not sure I want him to get in there. He reluctantly folds and it folds back to me. I don’t necessarily want the PFR to hang around and I’m obviously willing to play for the splashy player’s stack, so I reraise to $800, the PFR folds and we decide to run it one time.
Turn card is a jack, giving me the nut straight, and the river is a ten, which drastically reduces my hand strength (any Qx hand ties me and AQ beats me now). Fortunately, I am up against a naked set of sixes and scoop this monster pot.

Just ran some simulations on this spot and it’s quite interesting. I can’t really imagine any way I can ever fold this after the flop, but heads up against the set, assuming he has no clubs in his hand, I’m the slightest of favorites. In fact, it’s so slight, it’s basically just a coin flip. Mister Magoo claimed to have the nut flush draw and if he had decided to tag along (which is typical of him – even facing $500 cold) then my winning chances drop all the way down to 26% (though still better than Magoo’s chances). Getting it in heads up here is clearly profitable, so I’m okay with my line, but it’s definitely nice to be on the right side of the end result.

All in all, I didn’t think I played amazing and most of the big pots I won were with hands I think I could have justified folding preflop. This session was a good example of why I drastically prefer limit hold’em to big bet games. In general, poker can be a boring game, with a slow pace, and playing solid winning poker requires that you fold tons and tons of hands and spend most of your time sitting out while everyone else gambles. In the big bet games – especially PLO – this is even more amplified. I go through some dry spells in LHE, for sure, but it seemed like I went two hours between every interesting hand I played last night and I think I even played looser than is recommended for my current talent level. I did watch the good player from Muckleshoot play a lot of hands. No one would dare classify me as a tight player (if they actually pay attention) in limit hold’em games and almost all the extra hands I play are entirely to exploit situations and increase my profits. I’m sure this is what the Muck player is doing in PLO, but I don’t think I’m good enough to play loose against multiple opponents with super wide ranges, especially since almost every pot is raised before the flop. But he seems to do it quite well and frequently ends up with some huge results. One day!

Final Result: +$2270

Pretty amazing result considering how card dead I felt. Wouldn’t have guess I’d end the first week of April up $5k after punting $1600 on the 1st, but that’s why you don’t sweat the bad days! It’s just one day.

Posted in poker | Tagged cash games, gambling, gambling for a living, PLO, poker, poker strategy, pot limit omaha, professional gambling, professional poker | Leave a Comment »

$540 No Limit Hold’em $200K GTD on Global Poker! (LIVE BLOG)

April 1, 2018

Pretty exciting happenings on this Easter Sunday!

First off, Global Poker is offeringa ridiculous $540 buy in no limit hold’em tournament with a $200K Guarantee. On Easter Sunday. They need 400 entrants to meet the guarantee and there are currently only 152 signed up with about two hours before game time. The tournament has a pretty sexy structure. Everyone starts with 20,000 in chips and blinds start at 10/20 and stair step every 15 minutes for the first several levels before going up every 12 minutes thereafter. So yeah, you start with 1000 big blinds. Extra deep. There is a $70 satellite at 1 PM that I may or may not play. It’s a super fast structure and they give away 20 seats. I might take a shot at it.

I’m currently playing a $110 tournament starting with 10,000 in chips and a decent structure. I have Tizull at my starting table and he’s streaming live on Twitch while he’s playing, so I’m obviously watching that as I’m playing.

The Joker is playing Day 2 of the Run It Up Reno Main Event today. I told him to keep me in the loop so I can post updates here all day long. His starting table has a few good players: RIU vet Albert Ng, tournament grinder Jesse Capps, and notable streamer Jamie Staples. He said Jamie is filming everything, so if you go check out his stream (not sure where it’s live) you can probably catch a lot of Joker today.

Finally, it’s Sho Time! Two way star Shohei Ohtani makes his MLB pitching debut at 1:10 PM against the Oakland Athletics today! I can’t wait to see how he does – especially since he is on two of my fantasy teams!

Anyone that wants to sweat my online play can get on Global and check out these tournaments:

12:43 PM: Welp. I decided to sign up for the $77 satellite for the $540 tournament and then decided not to and got the welcome news that I’m not allowed to unregister. So… I guess I’m playing it!

Also just sat at a 1/2 PLO table with Tizull.

12:49 PM: Update from The Joker: he was moved to a different table and now has Ronnie Bardah (record holder for most consecutive WSOP Main Event cashes) and Twitch streaming legend Lex Veldhuis on his right! Jesse Capps also moved along with him. Not getting any easier!

12:57 PM: Okay, I guess I did unregister the satty. Weird. It said I couldn’t like five times. I guess because I already did! Shrug.

1:18 PM: Just felted a buy in in PLO when my AQJ9 double suited ran into 44xx on J94 rainbow. Goodbye $200! I’m a little below starting stack in the $110 tourney.

The Joker just sent word that they are in the money in Reno. Congrats bud!

1:33 PM: Going well so far! Down 2.5 buy ins at PLO and down to ten bigs in the $110 tournament. But at least Ohtani looks great!

1:36 PM: And we’re felted 3.5 buy ins at 1/2 PLO and done with that.

1:38 PM: Basically doubled in the $110 with A6ss > QJ all in pre. Peaking at 12K.

1:40 PM: It’s all bad. Just lost AQ < JJ and down to 4 bigs. And Ohtani just gave up a 3-run homer. GREAT START TO MY DAY.

1:43 PM: Tilt level is extreme right now. Everything falling apart all at once. I’m watching this stream and watching Ohtani give up that bomb and The Leak is trying to talk to me, asking me if I can help her get plants out of the car, while I’m sitting here with a four big blind stack in the $110. Total input overload. I can’t handle it right now!

Woah. Just jammed 3.5 bigs with Q4hh and got called in two spots by AQ and AK. Flop 942 two hearts. Hello! Queen on turn. King of hearts on river. Triple up! 12.2K at 400/800.

1:54 PM: Good news from Reno: The Joker is chipped up with 370K @ 3000/6000 and 62 players left.

2:00 PM: On break in the $110 and coming back to about ten big blinds. Something really tilting that Global Poker does in cash games is if you bet all in on the river and get called, the reload prompt will show up as soon as they call… like before showdown. It feels something like this: “click – you’re fucked. Would you like to reload? Oh, and by the way, here’s how you lost.”

I played $15/$30 Mix until 3:45 AM last night and I won a measly $100. I was up around $800 at my peak and I wasn’t too thrilled with the game mix. They kept taking out all the Stud games (which I was crushing in) and we played basically all games I’ve only played in this mix (Badeucy, Archie, 2-7 Drawmaha). Of course, my inexperience in these games led to a solid $200 mistake where I kept an ace in Badeucy thinking I had a good badugi and was informed at showdown that the ace is high both ways. I was up about $500 heading to the last game and lost $400 in the last orbit, whiffing everything in Badeucy. Solid! I definitely like playing mix games, but the main reason I want to play mix is so that I can get more experience in games I basically only play at the World Series of Poker, so taking out the Stud is very, very annoying. In fact, I’m not planning to play any events that have Archie, Badeucy, or Dramaha, so cutting all the relevant games out of the mix is really brutal.

Just lost with AQ to JJ again. We are super short again. Back to 4 big blinds. Yawn.

2:27 PM: And I’m out of the $110. Got my last 2.5 bigs in with K6o and get calls from Q7o and J7o. It looks great for a triple up on 8628 but the jack spikes on the river and I get to focus on the $540 tournament starting in one minute.

Only stuck $850+ for the day so far. Not that bad. Sigh.

2:55 PM: Last half hour has been better. Off to a good start in the $540 event, currently sitting at over 23K stack and at a pretty good table with no known crushers, according to Sharkscope and at least one player that seems intent on torching off his stack.

Update from Reno: Joker has 300K with average at 255K and 49 players left.

And Kyle Seager just made up for a bases loaded strikeout by getting a lucky hop over Yonder Alonso’s head for a game-typing RBI single.

And my boy Shohei is currently in line for the win in Oakland. Need him to pitch one more inning for a possible quality start though and he was at 80+ pitches in his first MLB start, so seeing him in the bottom of the 6th seems unlikely.

3:03 PM: Just picked off a big river bluff from the torcher at my table and he vowed to play every hand I’m in from now on. Very next hand I limp with 55 for 60 and he jams 13.5K next to act with four players to act behind him. Folds to me and I type: “how much time bank should I use before calling with AA?” and end up folding. Very next hand… is it possible? A dream come true? I have AA. I limp again for 60 and… he folds. Bad beat! But wait, it gets worse. One other limps, big blind checks and I bet 85 into 210 on J99 flop. Other limper calls and I check-call 190 on king turn. River double pairs the board with another king and we both check and I lose a very small pot to QT. 27.4K @ 30/60.

And Ohtani just pitched a very quick 6th inning! Let’s goooooooooooo!

3:14 PM: Dammit. The player gunning for me and eager to give me his entire stack just got moved to balance tables. Unlucky (or lucky – who knows).

3:17 PM: Sigh. Just lost a big one in the $540. One limper, I make it 4x with 65ss and he calls. Flop is 763 with one spade. I bet 400, he makes it 1100 and we are happy to call here. Turn is a 9 and we both check. River is a 6 and he bets 2000 into about 3000. I feel like my hand is too good to call here, right? But… what do I get called by? Thing is… I think a raise here looks bluffy from me considering the board texture, so I think a decent-sized raise gets paid off by a decent amount of hands I beat. I make it 8200 and he snaps with 33. Whoops. Down to 17.4K @ 50/100.

Well, that was a bit spewy. Why fold and move on to the next hand when you can dust off 33% of your stack with 65? Stupid.

3:33 PM: First break of the $540. Wow. Global met the guarantee. 419 entrants. I really didn’t think that would happen.

Dee Gordon just hit a go-ahead homerun in Seattle. DEE GORDON. He hits like two bombs a year. And Haniger with the 2-run bomb! LETS GO MS!

And I just called off almost 100 bigs pre in a rebuy with 99 vs AA and doubled up with a flopped set. LOL. Rebuys.

3:41 PM: Back to 23K in the $540. Opened Q8ss and got called in two spots. C-bet J76cc flop and they both called. I give up and check ace turn, which checks around. River is a queen and it checks to the button who bets full pot. Small blind folds and it’s up to me. This line seems super bluffy to me, unless he’s floating flop with KT, which is somewhat hard to swallow. Plus, after it checks to him on turn and river, does he really think he’s getting paid off for a pot-sized bet with a good hand? I call and I’m good vs 54.

3:56 PM: Joker picks off a bluff with KJdd on T84ddAhAc to chip back above average. Sick call!

388 left in the $540. $40.2K up top. 54 cash.

4:08 PM: Mariners win! Eddy Diaz with the three up three down three strikeouts save. A Kimbrel! Meanwhile, Angels bullpen is trying to mess up Shohei’s win. Athletics have the bases loaded with the winning run up and one out.

Just doubled in the $11 rebuy. Made it 5.5x with KK and get one caller. Flop is QT9 all hearts. I jam 2600 into 1300 with Kh in my hand and they call with T8dd. Snap bangs the ten on the turn, but ace of hearts on the river to dodge the fuckery.

4:17 PM: Reno update: Joker has 275K with average stack at 400k coming back to 8k/16k blinds. 31 left.

Also, Angels hold on to give Shohei Ohtani his first MLB win.

4:30 PM: Two hours into the $540 and basically nothing has gone right for me. My 1000 big blind starting stack is all the way down to 14 bigs.

4:51 PM: Boom! Doubled in the $540 with AQ > AJ. Back over 20K and 20+ bigs!

5:12 PM: Hanging in with 20 bigs in the $540. Just tripled up with AK > A6 and AJ in the $11 rebuy. 42 left in that one and 27 cash. I’m 18th. $5 Rebuy started at 5 PM and I already tripled with AA in that one. Joker just checked in. He’s at 495k at 10k/20k blinds with 21 left. It’s getting serious!

5:27 PM: Sigh. Just doubled the same player twice seven spots off the money in the $11 rebuy. First time he jams 2.5 bigs from small blind and rivers an ace with A2 after I spike an 8 with 84. Next hand he jams ~7 bigs from button and I reshove with A7o and he spikes a 3 on the turn to beat me with A3. WTF. Now I have less than 7 bigs seven spots off the money. But I do have the button.

5:33 PM: Joker has made the final two tables of the Run It Up Reno Main Event! 578k with average stack at 700k. $56k up top!

I’m currently at 9 bigs in the $540 with 164 left. Four spots off the money in the $11 with no chips.

Just doubled twice in the $11. Back to 20+ bigs two off the money.

Just had KK and TT this past orbit in the $540 and my < 10bb jams did not get called.

5:47 PM: Huge Joker update: he just won two sizable pots to chip up over 1M with 16 players left and average stack at 780k!

Just cashed the $11 tournament myself. Not quite as exciting, but… I am going to make at least $9 in this tournament.

5:57 PM: FUCK. Just busted the $540. Talk about never having momentum after the first two levels. Dwindled all the way to 4.25 bigs and jammed A4 suited and lost to KQ. Wonderful.

Still alive in the $11 and I have a top 40 stack in the $5 rebuy, but there will be no saving this day at this point. I have lost over 1/3 of my online bankroll today. Solid!

6:09 PM: Real Joker update:

Peter Lynn Eliminates An Opponent

6:39 PM: Just final tabled the $11 tournament. Started with 173 players, but I’m struggling to find the joy in the accomplishment right now. Immediately lost a player and I am 5 of 8 left.

Update from Joker, on a crazy hand from Chris Moneymaker: “He 3bets pre and then triple barrels a jack high board shoving the river and the kid folds AJ for 500k shove into about 1.5m. Backdoor flush got there but that’s it. He shows KJo. He goes ‘I had the best. You had QJ or TJ.’ Felt like he has KK at worst. I don’t blame the kid for just check calling down but man.. so gross to have him show you that.”

And that’s how you win the World Series of Poker Main Event folks!

6:52 PM: Sigh. Jam ~8 bigs under the gun with ATo and get called by 77 and we’re out in 7th for $123.20. YAWN. Currently 117 of 157 left in the $5 rebuy and I’m not regging anymore tournaments. Calling it a day and hanging out with The Leak when I bust (or win) this one, but I will post updates from The Joker in Reno when I can. He’s currently on dinner break for an hour.

7:28 PM: I’m in the money of the $5 rebuy and didn’t even realize it. I currently have just over 20 bigs. I sat down in a $0.50/$1 PLO game and it took me less than five minutes to lose a full buy in with a straight plus nut flush draw that gets outdrawn by a bigger straight draw. Sigh. Running amazing in the 4-card game today!

7:46 PM: Cards back in the air in Reno. 15 left. Next jump at 12. Everyone gets $2150 at the moment.

I am 37 of 58 left in the rebuy.

8:14 PM: Ugh. I’m so steamy. Just busted the $5 rebuy in 42nd for a measly $31 when I jammed a little less than 10 bigs with 77 and KK called and held. Holy cow. What an epic bad day. I lost $1566.79 despite cashing half the tournaments I played and even final tabling one of them. Of course, I whiffed the two big ones and got absolutely SMASHED in the PLO streets. I won like one decent pot the whole time I played and got stacked multiple times in quick fashion. Just sickening. I torched off about 40% of my online bankroll today, which is hard to swallow, but it doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. I knew I was playing high variance with the online roll by playing in a $540 tournament, but losing 6.5 buy ins in PLO at stakes bigger than I typically play was the real kicker. Oh well. I’ve been in much worse shape than I just left myself in. I’ll be back!

Time to focus on quality time with my wife, but I will post updates on The Joker’s super deep run in the Main Event here whenever he messages me them and The Leak allows for it. Stay tuned!

9:17 PM: Joker has final tabled the Run It Up main and he’s above average! What a sick run.

10:19PM: 8 left in Reno. Joker has 14 bigs.

10:24 PM: He ladders! 7 left. He’s guaranteed $5600 at this point and I’m pretty sure that’s a career high score for him. Achievement unlocked. Leggo.

11:07 PM: Watching the live stream of the final table now. It’s on Twitch… search for Run It Up and it should come up. Looks like multiple people are hosting it. JOKER!

11:25 PM: I put the jinx on him. I got to watch about 15 minutes live before he got it in with AK vs 33 and lost the flip to bust in 5th. I heard Jamie Staples say he has 17k locked up now, so I’m guessing Joker gets somewhere around $10.5k for his 5th place finish. Sick run, dude! Congrats.

A little post-day wrap up coming shortly.

So March 2017 was an amazing month for me. I had the best cash game month of my entire career and I coupled that with my fourth largest cash ever in a tournament. All in all, it amounted to a net profit that is the second best month I’ve ever had, just behind June 2016 when I had back-to-back $32K+ scores. I did cash the WSOP H.O.R.S.E. for $45k last year, which is my biggest cash ever, but I gave up 40% to my backers, so June 2017 only ranks as my third best month as far as personal net profit goes.

Off to a stellar start in April – already stuck $1500+! I love it. Sometimes it’s fun to start with a nice hole and dig my way out of it. Granted, anything I have on Global Poker started with a $300 deposit, so it all feels like gravy to me anyway and doesn’t hurt my bottom line. It’s kind of silly to play a $540 buy in with a $3500 bankroll, but it’s even sillier to worry about $540 when I’m overolled for that BI size in real life, so… gotta go for it. They’ve only had one tournament like that in the entire time I’ve played on Global so far.

I have a doctor’s appointment at 7:30 AM in Bellevue tomorrow and I probably won’t be home until around noon and there’s no way I’m going to play poker before taking a nap, so no clue what time I will start playing tomorrow or if I even will at all. This weekend my wife’s parents are having a huge celebration that is big in the Cambodian culture and we will be occupied with that all day Saturday and Sunday. It’s looking like I’ll only be playing full sessions on Thursday and Friday this week. I will try to get down to the casino at a reasonable time tomorrow, but I’m not going to push it if I’m not feeling up to. I have to wake up at 5:00 AM and I’m still up now, so my whole day might be screwed up. I’m definitely taking Tuesday off and going to see Ready Player One and I’m signed up for PLO on Wednesday but the way my schedule is currently looking I’ll probably head to the casino much earlier than the 6 PM start time for that game.

That’s all for today. Congrats again to Peter for a spectacular run and a great sweat!

Peter’s Elimination Hand (link here so they don’t get mad at me for sharing the picture below)

Oh man, you can see it all in his face:

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | Leave a Comment »

Friday Frenzy: $15/$30 @ Palace 3/30/18 (LIVE BLOG)

March 30, 2018

3:19 PM: A little bit of a late arrival to Palace. We slept in ridiculously late for no good reason.

I ended up taking Tuesday off, as planned, but did play ten tournaments on Global Poker and managed one measly cash.

I also took Wednesday off from live poker but ended up playing on Global again. I got off to a similarly terrible start and was 0-6 while making decent runs in my last two events standing. Well, those ended up very well:

That makes 11 or 12 titles on Global and both of those scores were my best ever on the site. I also won 300 big blinds playing $1/$2 PLO and $0.25/$0.50 PLO cash games. All in all, a pretty great day online which has my Global bankroll at its peak and primed to play in their $200K GTD $540 event this Sunday – with an amazingly deep (1000 bigs to start!) structure.

Last night The Leak and I attended the Seattle Mariners home opener for the sixth consecutive year.

What a game! King Felix was amazing, going 5+ scoreless against a very good Indians team and Corey Kluber’s one mistake to Nelson Cruz was the difference in the game, a 2-1 Mariners win! Great way to start the year, edging out one of the two best starting pitchers in the American League.

3:49 PM: Started off with a $4/$8 warmup and played a fun hand where I 3-bet AQhh multiway from the small blind, call a cap, check-call J98hJ board and shrug-call blank river heads up and win against king high – and then spent the next ten minutes getting berated by that player, before leaving for $15/$30.

$15/$30 starting lineup: lady that had been coming in recently then disappeared for a while, Chief Wiggum, a rather annoying non-reg that Hollywoods almost every hand, a total unknown, a classic maniac, and a couple of nits.

4:50 PM: Nothing too exciting so far. We lost the maniac already, which sucks. I’ve picked off some bluffs and have a little sugar right now.

Dealer is asking me if I have any nicknames for seat four and I don’t. Not because he’s not deserving of one – he is quite special – but just because he doesn’t play much. The dealer suggested “The Pest” or “The Flea” because he super annoying. I won’t say who this dealer was, but it definitely was NOT The Man’s wife. Seriously, I don’t even think she works today.

I think my most interesting hand came against seat 4 when I opened button with QTo. Flop is KTx and we both check. Turn is a blank and he checks, acts like he’s going to fold, and then says, “maybe I can suck out” and calls. River is a ten. He checks and feigns fold again and snap calls when I beat and shows how unlucky he got with K4. Almost played me like a fiddle!

Speaking of fleas, it has been a few weeks since I’ve seen The Tick in here. Please come back! It will turn around, buddy!

5:14 PM: Hmmm… maybe he is The Flea. I open cutoff with JJ, Flea 3-bets big blind and I cap. Flop is ATx, he leads, and I call. Turn king, he bets and I call. River ace, we both check, he turns over K6ss and puts a $1 on his cards to tip the dealer before I do anything – a move straight out of the Douchebag Handbook.

Some wonder how I can have a win rate so high in this game and it’s literally because people go out their way to give me chips.

6:00 PM: I guess Palace is spreading PLO on Fridays @ 6 PM now. When I got here I put my name up, but I thought I was signing up for next Wednesday. Not planning to hop in at the moment, but I may change my mind after comparing the lineups.

I’m a bit of a weirdo when it comes to stuff like this. I came to the casino planning to play $15/$30 LHE and it’s really unlikely I’ll switch gears now and play PLO out of the blue.

But some lineups you can’t resist. There is already one player sitting down that is really good at PLO, so I’m leaning no at the moment.

6:15 PM: Just got back from my second run to the gas station to get The Leak something for her allergies and incoming cold and pick up JJ on my second hand and… go running quads to secure the top High Hand spot with 5.5 minutes left. Leggo!

6:37 PM: Naw. I’m not calling him The Flea. It fits but someone has to be Hollywood and this guy is the biggest actor I come across here.

Hollywood straddles, big defends, I 3-bet QTss and they both call. Flop is Q43 two diamonds and one spade, I bet, Hollywood raises, big calls, I 3-bet and they both call. Turn is 9s, I bet and both call. River is a lovely ace of spades, I bet and Hollywood raises. I reraise and he goes into his whole routine and feigns a muck which I thought meant he was eventually capping it… but then he did something weird… and folded.

Also, ship that High Hand for +$220!

7:33 PM: Couple of tough pots in a row. I have QQ in the big blind and the lead on JT9dd6d (with Qd) in a pot that was capped pre and 3-bets on flop. I get two callers there and the river is an ace. I check, UTG bets, and the cutoff calls. This is also the first street that’s been in Overs, so I’m facing a $60 bet. Kind of painful but I just don’t think I’m ever good here. I fold and AA beats TT. 😮

Very next hand, there’s some limping, button raises, I 3 with the KQhh from SB and all call. Flop is QT6 two diamonds. I bet, Hollywood raises, cutoff cold calls, I 3, Hollywood caps and we all see diamond turn. I check-call. I check ten river, Hollywood checks, cutoff bets, I call, Hollywood raises and I end up folding. Hollywood wins with J9dd.

8:00 PM: It’s always fun when you can sense the whole table rooting against you. Audible groans from people that weren’t even in the hand when I win a pot. Someone turning over an ace high when I give up on the river and someone else not in the hand chiming in with a giddy “that’s good!”

And just now, a “get him” when the third player in the pot folds.

I’m not complaining. I actually really do enjoy it.

🤷🏻‍♂️

8:26 PM: Just ran AQ into 66 on Q64 flop. I am basically even… with the High Hand… which makes the fact that multiple people are openly rooting against me all the more hilarious. I mean… I’m used to it when I’m crushing, but not as much when I’m running really mediocre.

9:40 PM: This place is about to riot because there are 19 players on the list for $15/$30 and they are not starting a second game. There are four $8/$16 games going and basically the whole list is in those games.

I have to admit, if I showed up late and got locked out with 19 on the list and there was no second game in sight… I’d probably just start going to Fortune instead. I’m not making a recommendation but there’s no way I’d be cool with that.

Man, I’ve had this situation where s7 opens from the cutoff and I’m the only caller from the big blind come up about five times and every single time he’s flopped top pair or better. I’ve had top and middle pair a few times and every time I think he can’t always have it and he always does.

And with that latest matchup, I am now stuck… and this game sucks. There are no spewers. No maniacs. No world beaters either, but still.

And as I type that, there’s a straddle and a 5-way pot for three beats each. 😂

9:54 PM: Some odd Overs dynamics: under the gun limp and I reluctantly check the JTdd. Flop is Q99 and I’m actually planning to check-raise, but he checks back. I’m obviously bluffing the turn here but hey, I just made a straight and there’s less than $25 in the pot. I think it’s clear he’s rarely calling $60, so I check again and he checks back. River is an ace and I didn’t take this line to start betting now. I check, he bets $60 and I can’t even contain my grin at the hilarity of it. I raise and he snap-calls and I somehow get him to put $120 into a $22 pot on the river. 💪🏻

10:05 PM: Here it is again: s7 opens cutoff and I defend AQhh heads up. I check-call down on KQ3J6 and he shows KJ.

Every time? EVERY TIME?

I am up less than $100 overall and I’m probably down $500 in this defend vs cutoff scenario alone.

10:45 PM: I am putting on a clinic on how to lose money playing out of position tonight. Two limps, button raises, I 3-bet AQ and they all call. Flop is TT8 with two clubs and I check-call button and three of us see 6c turn. I have Ac so this is an easy check-call. We are heads up and the river is a queen. I think leading has merit but I end up check-calling another $60 and he shows me the T9hh. Sigh.

11:25 PM: The Joker is at Run It Up Reno and just bagged 188k (47 bigs) in the Main Event, which is way more exciting than anything happening at my table. Good luck Pesky!

11:35 PM: Running AWESOME! I’m straddling on the button because this game is trash right now and needs action. Hollywood calls and says “oh, he straddled, I raise!” but dealer won’t let him, someone else raises, I look down at KK and know I can get five bets in without revealing my hand strength so I call and they put the bets in for me. They both check to me on 754 flop and Hollywood check-raises and caps when I 3-bet and the other player is in there too. Turn is a 6 and we all check. River is a 3. A fucking 3. And I have to chop this pot with AQ and KQ. Solid lines from both these champions.

I mean they are both trying pretty hard to torch off their chips here but I think I have to bet the turn. They both raised and reraised preflop and I can have anything, especially straights. That makes this a mandatory turn bet for my range, even if it’s not a great card for my actual hand. Plus, when they both check, I have no good reason to think I’m beat anyway. KQ turned a flush draw but maybe the AQ folds?

The dealer from earlier said she likes The Flea better. She’s right. Hollywood doesn’t even come close to describing how annoying this dude is.

11:56 PM: Small victories! Seat 7 opens cutoff and I defend my big blind with 55. We’ve seen this about seven times already with the same outcome. Flop is 742 and I check-raise… he tanks long enough before calling that I know I got him this time. Turn 3, I bet and he folds! HE FOLDS!

Meanwhile, he has like $130 in front of him, which is goddamn amazing considering I’ve given him $500 of my own chips.

12:02 AM: Well it’s a new day now so they decided to finally start the second $15/$30 game. I’m on the move list because my game is epic bad, but if I move tables I won’t be able to take The Flea’s chips and that’s something I really want to do. It’s a close call. The other game is substantially better. At least three players worse than anyone in my current game.

12:07 AM: My mind is kind of blown right now. I said earlier that I haven’t seen The Tick in weeks. Well, he’s here. And he’s been here since before I got here. It’s funny… I was looking at him earlier and I thought That sure looks like a respectable version of The Tick. But I didn’t think it was actually him. It’s the first time I’ve seen him without a hat on and he’s wearing glasses. And he’s sticking to $8/$16. God bless him.

12:22 AM: Sigh. The good news is I moved to the second game. The bad news is someone I wanted to play with took my old spot. Then, after no one left my previous game for 3+ hours, two other players cashed out and took another player I wanted to play with. 🤦🏻‍♂️

There is still a maniac in the second game. I believe I called him The River Man in my last blog. Plus there’s another player I don’t recognize and that’s always a good thing. The rest of the table is filled out with decent regs, including The Invisible Man.

12:29 AM: Amazing! Another player left and now three of the four players I came over to play with are in my old game. Is this real? Seriously. No one left that game for the last 3+ hours and three people have left in the ten minutes since I switched tables. I swear, sometimes the poker gods just hate you.

12:51 AM: The bad news is The River Man is almost out of chips. The good news is he just doubled up. The bad news is he doubled upthrough me. 🤦🏻‍♂️

12:59 AM: I just saw something crazy. The River Man raised pre and everyone checked Q55. The turn was a ten and the big blind led out and The Invisible Man raised (after open-limping) and the big blind called. River was a blank and the big blind check-called and The Invisible Man shows KJ high. 😮😮😮 A stone cold three big bet bluff! Never seen that from him before. And apparently this detour from his comfort zone was too much to handle because he literally didn’t take another hand and cashed out instead.

1:40 PM: I was eating chicken wings while playing 6-handed so no updates, but Peter “The Joker” Lynn checked in from Reno with a printout of chip stacks after Day 1A of the Main Event:

Joker in 9th and some random with the chip lead.

8:34 AM: Whoops. Forgot to post a wrap up. Not a very good session. Never had any upward momentum. Any time I got ahead I’d lose pots. On the bright side, I didn’t lose pots all day either.

Final Score: -$90

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

Your Muckleshoot Spring Classic Player of the Series is…

March 22, 2018

…me!

Ship that extra $6000 my way!

But not without controversy.

I’m going to tell this story how it happened, even though it will probably upset some of the parties involved. Because maybe they are going to look bad. But that’s not my fault. It’s their fault.

So heading into Day 2 of the Main Event, I was in first place by myself in the Player of the Series standings. 34 players were returning for Day 2 and I knew that if I didn’t add to my point total by final tabling, there were a couple guys still in that could pass me if they finished in 8th or better. I also knew that if they played down to a single winner, the winner would get 150 points plus whatever participation points they had and that person could pass me also.

Well, I busted out in 29th for no additional PotS points and I didn’t want to stick around much, so I headed to Fortune to kill a few hours playing $8/$16 and planned to head back to Muck when they reached the final table and make sure I wasn’t the victim of any shenanigans. I was messaging Flexx via Facebook and he was keeping me in the loop of what was going on. While I was playing, The Leak messaged me and basically summoned me home, saying she hadn’t seen me all week and she wasn’t wrong, so I decided to go home instead of playing a cash game I wasn’t really interested in and sweating a final table I wasn’t playing at.

So I headed home and Flexx kept me in the loop of what was going on in the Main Event. One of the guys that could catch me busted out in 17th. The other guy that could catch me ended up final tabling and passing me in points, but as I mentioned in a previous blog, you had to enter four tournaments in order to qualify for Player of the Series (more on that later) and he didn’t do that and couldn’t qualify. Ouch for him.

Of course, this was information I was getting from Flexx, not from anyone actually running the series, so while it seemed somewhat reliable I wasn’t exactly banking on it just yet. I would need official word before I got truly excited about it, but my understanding was that the only way I could fall behind on the series leaderboard was if someone that had played in at least four events ended up finishing in at least second place. I suppose if there was an even chop there was some way I could be passed, but it seemed unlikely.

A little before midnight on Monday I got a phone call from Flexx saying they were doing a 4-way chop and that he didn’t want to collude with the points to take first place in the Player of the Series race. I am very non-confrontational, especially when taken by surprise, so I didn’t really know what to say to him. He was acting like he was doing me a favor by not cheating and taking enough points to pass me and even asked me to give him $500 for doing me this huge solid. I was admittedly bewildered and didn’t really know what to make of it. Since when does someone ever intentionally cost themselves thousands of dollars so that someone else can have it? I was taken aback, not able to fully absorb what was happening in the moment and told him I would consider it.

It didn’t take me long to realize it didn’t make any sense and that I should definitely NOT be giving him any of my money. He had mentioned something about he could play it out and maybe win it and pass me legitimately and it occurred to me that that is exactly what he would do if he had any real chance in this tournament still. There’s no way he’d be chopping if his chances of finishing first were greater than his chances of finishing fourth (more on that later).

Anyways, I went to bed thinking that I had won Player of the Series and that I would be not giving Flexx $500. Still, I wouldn’t really believe it until someone from Muckleshoot told me it was true.

Tuesday I went to see Red Sparrow with a friend and before I left my house, I had tagged a Muckleshoot employee in a Facebook poker group and asked him to post the final standings. Someone made a disturbing comment, they said: “[Flexx] won POS … I believe..?” This was on my mind as I was watching the movie and I was having a really hard time paying attention. When my Dexcom warned me of low blood sugar, I used it as an excuse to step outside, get some popcorn, and check to see if the standings were posted yet. That’s when I saw it:

1. K.Seachao 152 points
2. M.Coombs 150 points

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

I was boiling mad. It shouldn’t have been possible. And it was exactly what Flexx had called me the night before to insure me would NOT happen. And yet there it was. He was first and I was second.

When I walked back in the theater, I was pretty relieved to hear my friend say, “it’s still as bad as it was before” and I said “let’s go then.” I could barely concentrate on the movie before but now I was fuming. There was no way I was going to finish watching it.

Time to put The Dark Knight’s detective skills to work.

Adding up the remaining points available for the final four players and dividing by four, I discovered that it was possible that Flexx could pass me. He could get 127 points for the chop plus 25 points for participation. That did equal 152. But the only way this should be allowed to happen was if the prize pool was also divided up evenly. If someone got more money than anyone else, then they were indisputably the winner of the tournament and should receive first place points. Or, at worst, the remaining points should be divvied up by the same percentages that the prize pool was. If this sounds like too much work for the staff, well, boo fucking hoo. There are thousands of dollars on the line and staff laziness shouldn’t be a factor in who wins Player of the Series.

So I asked them to post the payouts and saw that someone got $35k, two players got $30k, and Flexx got $25k. There is no way he should have or could have passed me in points.

I called to protest. I was told that’s how they always divide up the points and I immediately called bullshit. Literally four days earlier when I won the Friday night tournament, I got twice as much money as the other players so I got first place points and they divided the rest of the points up evenly. That makes a lot of sense. I was the clear winner of the tournament so I got first place points. They all got the same amount of money so they all got the same amount of points. Good job, Muckleshoot staff! Now what’s this crap you’re telling me about how this is how you “always do it?” The tournament director was silent for a bit and then said he would get back to me.

I’m happy to report they called me back rather quickly and said that I won Player of the Series. I wish I could applaud them for fixing it in a rather timely fashion, but it’s hard to commend them for not allowing me to be screwed out of $2000. If I didn’t question the final standings, I would have lost $2000. If I accepted the TD’s attempt to dismiss me by saying “that’s how we always do it” then I would have lost $2000.

So no, I’m not exactly grateful about it because I’m not sure that it was an honest mistake. They were either standing by while I was getting screwed over or they need to be more in tune to what’s actually happening. I shouldn’t have to overcome laziness or turning a blind eye in order to win Player of the Series – and no one else should ever have to worry about it either.

After I walked out of the movie, I went to Palace to try and handle this situation and ran into John Kim (more on him later), the guy that ended up taking the lion’s share ($35k) of the 4-way Main Event chop, and he told me a much different story than the one Flexx was trying to sell me. He said that Flexx was doing everything he possibly could to make sure he won Player of the Series. Unfortunately, this sounds more like the Flexx I know than the one that was telling me “I don’t care about Player of the Series” and “I hope you win it.” It makes me think that his phone call to me was an attempt to net an extra $500 in case he didn’t win PotS (note: even after talking to Flexx after posting this, I still don’t get why he thought I should give him $500). John also told me he shouldn’t have made the deal because he had over 3 million in chips, the other two had around 2 million, and Flexx only had about 500k (like I said, Flexx wouldn’t be chopping if he wasn’t on the ropes).

(Note: Flexx says these chip counts are wrong. Maybe they are. I was told what they were and kind of estimated but the impression was John K had lots of chips and Flexx was the short stack by a decent margin so the point remains – no one was doing me any favor).

So am I happy that I won Player of the Series? Of course! It’s an extra $6000! But it does feel a bit tainted since I had to call a referee timeout and get a reversal from New York in order to win it.

Do I think I deserve Player of the Series? Honestly? Not really. The requirement that you have to play at least four events to qualify is absolutely silly. The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday tournaments start at noon. How many people with day jobs can realistically make the four tournament requirement without requesting time off from work? Someone could work those three days, win the $500 and Main Event back-to-back and not be eligible for Player of the Series.
That is simply garbage. Perhaps a better requirement is that you have to cash at least two events? It makes sense that in order to be Player of the Series, cashing in multiple events should be more important than playing a certain amount of events. If this was the case, then Flexx wouldn’t have even been in contention to swoop in for a possible win and I wouldn’t have even won it.

John Kim played a better series than I did. He not only won the Main Event, but he also final tabled the $300 event that I won. And the guy played his ass off. He made some mistakes at the $300 final table, but I have no doubt that he played better than I did to get there. He’s an accumulator and I’m a survivor and if I had to pick what style I admire more, I definitely think the accumulators are playing better poker. Plus, after telling me that he regretted his play at our final table, he went out and shipped the Main Event instead. Congrats dude! He also passed me in points and would have won Player of the Series if he had played in at least four events. Not my fault, but it does seem pretty shitty.

Tommy Kivela also passed me in points. He had a sick week. We both final tabled the Little Creek Main Event on Sunday, we both final tabled the Limit Omaha 8 or Better tournament at Muckleshoot, then he was part of another final table chop and capped off his ridiculous week by finishing 7th in the Muckleshoot Main Event. I would have been okay losing Player of the Series to Tommy because he had an amazing week, but he didn’t play in four events either. I noticed that I didn’t get participation points for the Omaha event, so if Tommy missed out on winning Player of the Series because the Omaha didn’t count as an entry, well, then that’s just total crap.

Josh Sepulveda also had a huge showing at this series. I’d never heard of or seen this kid before but I was incredibly impressed with his play. He looked pretty young, probably in his early or mid twenties and if this series was any indication, he has a bright future ahead of him – at least in no limit hold’em tournaments. He played the hyperLAG style to perfection and almost always had a mountain of chips in front of him and any time I saw him lose a big pot, he was right back in the thick of it, winning those chips back almost immediately. Because of his super loose and aggressive style, I was forced to play extremely snug or get into high variance leveling wars with him, and I chose to take the former route and I have to say, at times, it was rather humiliating. Josh ended up chopping with the other three players in the $300 event that I won and he made a deep run in the Main Event, busting in 17th I believe. Josh didn’t pass me in points, but he sure impressed the hell out of me and if I had to say which one of us played better, I’d say he did. I have a feeling he will be doing big things in the near future.

I definitely think the Player of the Series race needs to be tweaked and more closely moderated. The four event qualification should be replaced by a minimum of two cashes and, for goodness sake, if you’re going to have an Omaha event, it should count as an entry and be eligible for points. It shouldn’t be advertised as part of the series if it’s not actually part of the series. Finally, the points should be awarded carefully and consistently. There are thousands of dollars on the line in this race and being wishy washy and hands off about how they are distributed is a good way for something like this to happen. Maybe someone important from Muckleshoot will read this and make the necessary changes or maybe they won’t. If they do, I’ll go ahead and add that they absolutely need to have a pot limit omaha event. It’s 2018 for crying out loud. We are still playing five no limit hold’em events?? Really?

I’m not mad at Flexx for being Flexx. It’s hard to be mad when I have an extra $6000 in my pocket now! I half expect him to read this and think he’s still drawing live at that $500 he asked me for.

Lastly, what a monkey off my back. I can finally stop marking the Muckleshoot Classic on my calendar as my semi-annual donation to the local player pool. The Muck went from being my all-time worst location to… somewhere in my top 5. I have to say I enjoy my tendency of taking my worst locations and turning them around with massive statements. I hope it’s something I can continue to do in the future. Next up: Commerce!

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, muckleshoot, muckleshoot player of the series, muckleshoot spring classic, poker, poker strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, texas hold em | 2 Comments »

Muckleshoot Spring Classic $300 No Limit Hold’em (Updates)

March 16, 2018

As expected, I didn’t get to sleep until super late Wednesday and then, on top of that, I woke up multiple times throughout the night, so I made the prudent decision of skipping the $200 no limit hold’em tournament yesterday and basically took the day off instead, writing my MLB win totals post and watching March Madness games.

I actually did wind up playing a decent slate of online tournaments on Global Poker:

$5.50 $5K GTD NLHE Rebuy
$33 $8K GTD NLHE 2R/1A
$5.50 $750 GTD PLO Rebuy
$55 NLHE (deep)
$11 $250 GTD Limit Hold’em
$22 NLHE 2R/1A
$11 $500 GTD PLO 2R/1A

*note: 2R/1A means two rebuys and one add on.

I ended cashing in 3 of my 7 events, final tabling both PLOs, finishing in 5th and 3rd. I also took 11th in the $8K GTD. I was making a decent run in the $5K rebuy but ran KK into AA for 30 bigs each.

All in all, a small little profit for the day while I was relaxing at home watching basketball.

I honestly kind of hate the Muckleshoot Classic series. It is unbelievable that in the 6+ years I’ve been playing in it they have basically made no adjustments. It is still a five day series that has five no limit hold’em events. Ugh. A little variety couldn’t possibly hurt. It’s probably asking too much to expect them to do an 8-Game tournament or a H.O.R.S.E., but not having a PLO event on the schedule in 2018 blows my mind. You’re telling me a $200 PLO with re-entries event wouldn’t be wildly popular?

Of the five events, I think the $750 Main is the only must play and the only one I actually look forward to. I basically never play the whole series and almost always skip the $500 tournament.

There is the $200 limit Omaha 8 or Better tournament, but they treat it like a bad step child they hope no one notices. It doesn’t get its own day of the series. Instead, it’s buried at 7 PM on the first night and they think it’s so prestigious it doesn’t even qualify for points in the Player of the Series competition. In other words, it’s not really part of the series.

Eh. I don’t expect them to make changes at this point. I asked for a PLO tournament a year or two ago and made a good argument but nothing changed and maybe it never will. I’m sure the no limit hold’em specialists love this series, but I’m close to the point where I may start coming out for the Main Event only.

The Leak accompanied me to the Muck today and this will probably be one of maybe three tournaments she’ll play all year. I asked my CPA if we could write her tournament buy ins off as a charitable donation earlier this week and was informed that we cannot.

Cards will be in the air in about 15 minutes. I will be posting stack updates and some hands here and there.

12:06 PM: We appear to have started with 12k in chips, but I’m not entirely sure because I have 10.5k after triple barreling TT28T with J9 and getting picked off by AQ.

12:18 PM: Woah. The Leak just messaged me saying she doubled up already. Crazy! Details to come.

Puget Sound legends Rep Porter and Lee Markholt making appearances. When I call people legends I’m usually joking but these guys are legit superstars. Rep has three WSOP bracelets, Lee has a WPT title, and both of these monsters are in the top 5 of the Washington state all-time money list.

One seat at my table remains open and I recognize two of my eight current opponents. One is a Muck regular that ranks near me on the Washington state money list and the other is someone that plays at Palace that recently hit a massive Royal Flush jackpot and is someone I want at my table in limit hold’em.

12:33 PM: The Leak tells me she had AA and let her opponent bluff of his stack. No info on board texture or his hand though.

12:40 PM: Everyone asks me why I don’t play more no limit hold’em. It’s because I hate it. The pace of the game… all the posturing… Jesus, can we just get on with it? I know there are some spots that require some real thought, but the guys that take 20+ seconds every time they have anything but a standard fold spot are just terrible humans.

1:01 PM: Forgot to mention this but I ended yesterday’s March Madness action in 31st place of 31 entries in the bracket pool I’m in. I don’t know about you but I find that level of sucking quite impressive.

1:30 PM: 9150 on first break coming back to 100/200. The Leak has a ridiculous 36k stack.

Some other notables in the field: The Riddler, Bill W, Flexx, Slimer, Sandman, Solomon Grundy, decent amount of Palace regulars.

2:10 PM: Sick hand at my table not involving me: JJ vs 22 on J6225. 😮

Probably worth mentioning this now. We spent the first 20 minutes of this level talking about Global Poker and one of my tablemates was trying to sell his conspiracy theory that Global’s software “isn’t rigged,” but that “it’s not random,” and “more bad beats happen there than anywhere else” he’s ever played.

Then this JJ vs 22 hand happened and I said, “yup, that sort of thing never happens in real life.”

2:48 PM: Super card dead for first three hours so this was a nice reprieve: I open 500 with AA and button calls. Flop T98 with three diamonds, giving me the nut flush draw with my overpair. I started the hand with about 9k and there’s basically no scenario where I’m ever getting away from it. I bet 1000 and he calls. Turn pairs the 9, I bet 2500 and he calls. Ace on river relieves any concerns of being beat (not that I thought I was) and I stuff it for 5k. He doesn’t think too long before calling with AT and giving me a full double to 18.5k. Peaking!

3:27 PM: I have about 19k and The Leak has 39k on second break and coming back to 300/600 with big blind anteing an additional 600 each hand.

3:55 PM: One limper, SB completes, and I make it 2200 with QQ and the limper calls. Flop is K82 and I let him bluff off 7k with AJ by check-calling all three streets. He didn’t think about his decisions at all and kept the bets small (2k, 2k, 3k) so it was a pretty easy call down.

4:24 PM: Ouch. My table broke and my new table probably has 5-6 guys that are better than anyone else at my last table. Bad beat.

4:46 PM: When the small blind calls and you look down at QJ suited and think, “well, I can’t not raise this” and then they jam and you’re both 25+ bigs deep. 🤢🤢🤢

5:06 PM: The Leak and I are both in the 26k-28k range heading to dinner break. Blinds will be 600/1200 when we resume in 40 minutes.

6:55 PM: Didn’t play a hand forever and then a flurry of action.

I defend Q8ss, flop top pair on a super wet boar, but only get one street of action.

I open AQ and get jammed on by a short stack with KT and bust him.

Super active and hyperLAG opens to 4500, I flat with ATdd. I would have 3-bet jammed this on him a while ago, but I had chips all the sudden and wanted to take a flop with him. I call 7k on T52hhd and then bet 12k when the 2 pairs and gives me the nut flush draw, prepared to call a jam, but he folds.

7:26 PM: Open 4500 with AK and button calls. I c-bet T82 flop for 5k and he calls. Turn is an ace and I check-call 9k. River queen and I check-call 14k and he shows 33.

Peaking at 98k, coming back to 1200/2400. The Leak has 46k. There are seven tables left and less than 63 players. Can’t see how many cash or how many started.

7:52 PM: The Leak has busted. We are down to six tables and apparently 41 players cash. The money bubble is approaching.

Meanwhile… Virginia is in serious jeopardy of becoming the first #1 seed to lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Obviously, they are my champions.

8:24 PM: Down to 5 tables… four spots off the money.

It took 8.5 hours but someone is finally lighting me up for wearing a Blair Walsh jersey in a Seattle casino.

8:49 PM: Hand-for-hand, I’ll have 12 bigs after posting big blind and ante this next hand.

9:03 PM: Cashed it and then snap-doubled with 55 vs AK. Peaking at 105k.

9:20 PM: Freeroll is on. Under the gun opens and I jam 15 bigs on button when AQ and spike a queen vs AK for the full double.

197k now! 😮😮😮

9:36 PM: Four tables left.

9:48 PM: Open 21k @ 4k/8k and 8k ante with AA and someone flats in position. Flop 754 two hearts, I lead 30k (never folding), he jams, and I dodge his flush draw with AThh.

317k!

9:55 PM: Call a 5 BB jam from the big with Qc8. He shows A6ss and turns aces up but I river a four card flush with my Qc to bust him.

389k with 25 left. Average stack is 160k.

10:33 PM: Open 26k with A6cc from cutoff with big blind having 95k behind at 5k/10k. I would actually hate it if the big jams on me because he’s been playing kind of snug, so when that does happen I’m ever-so-slightly unprepared but after doing some shoddy math, I decide I have to go with it. He tables KQo and has a gut shot, flush draw, and two overs on the turn and bricks it all.

519k with 18 left.

The homie Christian is dealing and asked for a shout out and I kind of have to honor that request since he delivered that AQ > AK suck out to set this rush into motion.

A Kitsap County area player (and former softball teammate of mine) is at my table now making a deep run, something he’s done consistently over the past three Classic series. Kudos to him!

11:16 PM: Reshoved over a 10bb jam with AQ and the short stack has KK and doubles through me.

261k. Puts me close to average now with 16 left.

11:25 PM: Defend < 3bb open with A5dd and it checks around on A86hhh flop. I check-call 2.5bb on jack turn and inexplicably get a free showdown on jack river vs… AcKh!

Lost the pot but minimal damage vs his holding.

Down to 180k though.

Players busting all over the place. I think we are down to ten now, on the final table bubble.

Scratch that. 11 left.

11:52 PM: Chipped down in a blind vs blind situation but just made final table with a paltry 116k.

#Team10Bigs

Second final table of the series and third one in the last week? Seems decent for someone that doesn’t really play tournaments. And thank goodness the limit O8 tourney doesn’t count otherwise I’d be in the running for the $6k top prize for Player of the Series. 🤦🏻‍♂️😡

12:01 AM: I’m starting FT with the shortest stack and 2.5 bigs about to go through me. Will definitely be looking to get it in this next orbit.

12:08 AM: Ouch. Blinds went through me and then went up.

But… as I was typing that, I stacked off with ~3.75 bigs with A6cc and doubled through… AT! Christian is my magic dealer! Back up to 200k(10 bigs).

12:39 AM: Sick double with QQ vs AK all in pre with a K66 flop. Queen on turn! Let’s. Go. Back up to around 500k coming back to 15k/30k.

12:55 AM: MP opens to 60k, I flat AJo and we both check on KQ2 all club flop (no club in my hand). Turn is Td and he bets 85k. If he flopped a flush, god bless him but I’m not going to mess around on this board texture. I jam, he snaps. Uh oh. He rolls KJ with Jc and bricks out.

We are chip leading over a milly. Still nine players left.

My opponent mutters something about how trapped I was and I’m thinking “yeah, nice check, buddy.”

1:10 AM: One player busts and then I open A9ss and a < 10bb stack jams on me and I double him up when his AQ holds.

785k.

1:10 AM: Huge double. Flat AJcc and get it in on J54hh vs 98hh and hold in 1 million pot.

1.7 million

6 left.

1:39 AM: Winner. $20k

2:15 AM: Ended up getting $20k with 5 players left. 1st was $24k so it was an easy deal for me to make. One double up for any of them would have drastically leveled the playing field so very happy to lock up the $20k.

Registered for tomorrow and planning to show up in level 3 or 4.

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, muckleshoot, muckleshoot spring classic, no limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, poker tournament strategy, Poker Tournaments, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em, tournament poker | 5 Comments »

Muckleshoot Spring Classic $300 NLHE Shootout (Updates)

March 14, 2018

Not going to do my normal live blog thing here but I’ll post updates and the occasional hand.

Starting stacks are 8000 and Shootouts start with 10-handed tables and play down to a single winner. I swear I heard them say we are playing down to two players today though so I’ll have to get some confirmation on that, but it’s pretty irrelevant at this point.

Blinds start at 25/50 with 30 minute levels.

I’m already down to 5300 in chips after getting a free play with A7o from the big blind and getting the A87 flop vs 77. Fortunately, he checked back the river for some silly reason and gave me a free showdown.

I plan to re-enter if I bust early.

12:26 PM: I somehow only recognize one of my seven opponents and I don’t even have real history with him. Two seats remain unoccupied.

12:36 PM: Just lost over half of my remaining stack flopping top pair in a raised pot and losing to a turned gutshot. Re-entry ends after level 2 – which just started – and I won’t be looking to take a 2k stack into level 3, so I will be all in at some point in the next 23 minutes looking to double or bust and start fresh.

12:45 PM: Down to nine here. I open 250 with AT, next player calls, next player 3-bets to 850. I start with 20 bigs and I’m looking to get them in, but I feel like I’d be punting here so I fold. Other guy calls and they end up all in on 7758 with 88 busting the PFR’s KK.

Same guy that flopped the set of 7s vs me. Must be nice!

13 minutes left to get all in.

1:01 PM: There are six open seats remaining and they are extending re-entry until they are filled. So I can be a bit more selective.

1:08 PM: 3-way all in at my table not involving me: AK vs AQ vs AJ. So this is what happened: AK limped, AQ limped, AJ raises, AK 3-bets, AQ jams, and AJ stacks off, and so does AK… for like 40-50 bigs each. I mean, how can you fold AJ there? Impossible!

8 left at my table. I might be locked out of re-entry and I’m sitting here with less than ten bigs and needing to pee so bad I can’t take it anymore.

1:17 PM: While I was in the bathroom someone doubled up with AA… in a hand that I wasn’t dealt into… a hand that should have never existed. Everyone seems cool about it but I’d be pretty heated if I got doubled through there.

1:21 PM: Back in it after back-to-back gifts. Someone opens with 74cc from MP – as you should when someone had less than 8 bigs behind you – and I wake up with AK and hold.

Next hand, someone limps and I jam 2050 with AJ. She calls it off with QJcc and I somehow dodge all the outs on AT3c8c runout.

Then someone busts after that and we are down to 7.

I have 4325 with blinds at 75/150 after being all the way down to 850.

1:42 PM: I just heard someone tell the same bad beat story for the third time while I was on break. I can’t stand the breaks here. Everyone standing around blowing smoke in each other’s faces, telling painful hand histories. Ugh. Nope, not for me. You can find me walking laps around the slot areas.

1:45 PM: Coming back to 100/200/200 with 20 big blinds and about to have my first experience with the big blind posting all the antes. Love the concept. Makes everything faster and easier.

1:56 PM: Someone opens to 800, I jam 3600 with TT and double through her KQ.

She busts on the next hand when her AQ < KJ.

We are down to six and I have 7700 now.

2:20 PM: Down to 5. I’m the shortest stack left. No surprise there since I’ve never had more than the starting stack.

2:25 PM: PEAKING! Someone opens 700, I jam 4800 from SB with AA, big blind snaps with KK and other player folds and I hold to more than double to 10.6K.

2:54 PM: Blind vs blind, he limps and calls my raise and c-bet on J87hh. We both check 5h turn (I have Ah) and I call a smallish bet on ace river and he has T9o. 😴😴

Down to 6100 and back to short stack.

3:03 PM: 3-bet squeeze jam with AJ and no caller to chip back over 9K.

3:07 PM: Four players left as someone flopped a set of aces and slowplayed his way out the door.

I just defended small blind’s raise with 75dd and decided to get it in on J52 two spade flop when he bets 1600 and I have about 7.5K. He ends up calling it off with Q8ss and… whiffs! Another double. Peaking at 18.4k.

3:37 PM: Three left. I’m the shortest but there’s a big stack and I’m basically even with the other player. I have position on the big stack and he’s been applying steady pressure on the other guy for a while now so this is a great spot for me.

3:50 PM: Chipped down. AQ loses and then top pair loses to flush.

Down to 8K and at a massive disadvantage.

4:03 PM: 3-bet jam button open with QQ and he finds a fold with an ace. Bleh. Next hand I jam JTcc on button and BB snaps with A9.

I get the KQx with one club flop, but get no love with the rest of the board and and bust in third.

Sigh.

We did a $100 save so I only lost $100 total.

$200 Limit Omaha 8 or Better at 7 PM next.

Stay tuned here. I will start updating this post again at 7 PM when the O8 tourney starts.

6:58 PM: About to start $200 O8 tournament. Looks like we are starting with 8K in chips with blinds at 25/50 and 20 minute levels.

I just had ATddQ2cc in 6-way raised pot, got the K87dd flop and got none of it, which seems pretty fair.

7:19 PM: Had AAJ9 on J95hhd flop and get scooped by K886 w/out hearts. Yes, I bet the flop.

Def QQJT double suited and get the Q96 flop and none of the pot.

I have slightly more than starting stack but… yeah, this has been comical already.

7:28 PM: Talking trash to a huge Twins fan and finally worked my way into an Indians more runs than Twins bet which I thought was amazing until I saw the Twins scored three less runs than Cleveland last year. Looks like a good sweat!

Also, there’s been a Big Daddy sighting!

7:37 PM: Other notables in the field: Flexx, Bill W, Slimer, The Sandman, and – almost missed him – The Invisible Man.

7:47 PM: AAQ4 suited ace in a 3-handed pot on 65386. None of it.

8:09 PM: The Joker just walked into the tournament area and when I say “walked” I mean it looks like he’s been running. Fast. And by “fast,” I mean as fast as an out-of-shape poker player can move.

He was playing short-handed $15/$30 at Palace but the game broke and he was in a 20 mile race against late registration and now he looks like he just went through a car wash.

8:47 PM: Gift shop! I have AA65 on 4329Q in a 5-way pot that is capped on flop and turn, and I don’t slow down until the river when a running flush gets there and my fellow aggressor still leads. She has 65 also (no clubs) and no one else has the nut low so I get 3/4 of this monster.

Then I have AK43 on A94K. I call flop and raise the turn. A third player in the pot calls two bets cold and the original bettor calls also. River is a nasty 5, not only making a low possible (I don’t have one) but also giving the nut low draw a wheel. We check to the turn cold caller and he bets. We both call. He turns over AJJ4 and the other guy has A9 with a busted flush draw. Neither of them have a low. I scoop. Jesus, what a torch.

22.7K

9:05 PM: Last hand before break I open AA54 double suited aces, the next player cold calls and scoops me on JT4cdKd5 with QQ92cc. LMFAO.

Down to 19.8K on first break but obviously my table is unbelievably generous.

9:21 PM: It was too good to be true. My table is first to break. 🤢

9:35 PM: Slimer wearing the same UW Husky hoody every single time I see him almost makes me want to disown my alma mater. Can’t you root for the Lakers or something, dude?

9:45 PM: Defend KKQ2 one suit and it checks around on Q82 all spade flop. Turn pairs the 8 and if neither of them can bet the flop it seems like I should have the best hand unless they tripped up with a dangler. I bet, the PFR folds and the other guy calls his last 1400 with AK49 for some reason and bricks his ace and low draw to bust.

The Invisible Man just moved to my new table and he appears to have double starting stack.

I just got pretty lucky after opening button with 8643 one suit and raise-calling A54 flop and rivering a 7 to chop with 32.

Joker disappeared. Dude didn’t even say goodbye or nothing, like he mad that someone else was live and staying in the fight or something. I’m sorry man, I wasn’t trying to steal your blinds with nothing, but you’re a super aggro, tank-tapping guy that’s bluffing.

Oops sorry, got on an old school Eminem tangent there.

10:31 PM: I’ve been scooping or getting a profitable piece of basically every pot I’m playing. Been on cruise control since the break. I currently have about 48k with blinds at 600/1200 and three tables left.

10:45 PM: Sigh. UTG+1 opens AK76 and I 3-bet AK54 double suited and double barrel KQ692 before checking back river and getting scooped. Pretty hard for that hand to go wrong. Every pot is critical now… especially the 3-bet ones!

10:51 PM: Down to two tables. Flexx is taking his sweet time getting out of my new seat and I shoo him away and he laughs and says, “good luck with this table – you’re gonna be shocked.” I reply, “I doubt it.”

32k with 18 left. 8 players cash.

My new table features a Palace regular, Kirby (as in Puckett, as in the guy I made the Twins-Indians bet with earlier), and The Invisible Man. Sandman is still alive on the other table.

11:18 PM: 35K with 14 or 15 left. I’ve gone a little card dead and I won’t be opening to light since the guy on my left is playing way too many hands. I did open AAQ9 double suited from the cutoff and got the 997 flop 3-handed and. I postflop action.

On break for 10 minutes. Sandman appears to have HEAPS.

11:36 PM: The good news is there are 13 left. The bad news is I haven’t been doing any chipping up.

11:43 PM: Open A742 with nut hearts. Two callers. Flop is 977hh. Just a bloody murder of the board. You should usually never slowplay in O8, but it’s hard for this go wrong. You want to bet so someone doesn’t backdoor a low, but I have he nut low draw, so… it checks around. Turn 2. Not the worst. I all but lock up the high and I still have the second best low draw. I bet, cold caller calls and blind folds. River 4. Sigh. I bet and he calls with a naked A3. COME. ON. 🤦🏻‍♂️

12 left now.

11:51 PM: Open button with AQT9 with clubs and big defends. Flop is a terrible 663hh. I plan to c-bet and give up and he does call. Turn is a 9, which is interesting, but I don’t want to bet it. I check back. River pairs the 9 and puts a third heart on board. Note I don’t have a full house so I still lose to a flush. I think it’s quite close on betting here but this guy seems fishy and checking back seems bad against him. I go for value and he calls. Dealer tables my hand and he sort of mucks, releasing his hand face down on the table and the dealer is hesitating like he’s waiting for him to change his mind and I’m thinking “muck his fucking hand, dude.” And he finally does.

10 left. 8 cash.

12:05 AM: Final table. Everyone agreed to give 9th $300 so we are officially in the money.

Kirby, Sandman, and Palace reg all at final table.

Early clash with Sandman. He opens cutoff. I call SB with AQJ3 but clubs and check-raise the T96 rainbow flop. We both check on A and 5 run out and I have all of it somehow.

Also worth noting, The Joker and The Riddler are clashing in the no limit hold’em cash game streets.

12:24 AM: So when the table agreed to pay 9th $300 I made a joke, “so we agreed to give [Sandman] $300?” because he was coming over with heaps.

Uh, he just finished in 9th. 😮

12:38 AM: On another break. I appear to be 5th of 8 remaining.

Everyone is quite short though. I think one player has 10+ bigs.

8th place pays a measly $365 and 7th is $660ish.

Oh, Kirby just busted someone. Down to 7 now.

12:52 AM: Open AAQ2 suited ace in diamonds and Kirby defends. Flop is Q76 one diamond and Kirby check-calls. Turn is a 3 and he tanks for a while before showing Q3 and folding. Have to say I’m pretty happy about that, since I need to improve to scoop.

Up to 96k.

12:59 AM: Sigh. Weird blind vs blind cooler: I complete with T652 double suited and decide to bet KQ2 rainbow flop. Planning to give up when he calls, but I turn a 2 and a flush draw and keep firing. River is Ac, making my flush and I felt like JT was one of his more likely holdings so I bet for value and he calls with… A2 and scoops me.

Very next hand I get the rest of my stack in 3-ways with AJ52 double suited and the shortest stack (in for most of it though) scoops with A874. 🤢. I get 3/4 of the very small side pot vs AQT2.

Down to scraps.

I have half of my stack in with 7722 double suited and the button raises. I mean Jesus. This is about as bad as it gets, but half my stack is in. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I lament for a while and come to the conclusion I can’t fold.

He tables AQ95 and the flop comes JT3 (brutal). But I turn a set! 8 on the river to make his straight. GG.

6th place for $750. Meh.

I won’t be asleep until 3 AM probably so not planning to play the $200 donkament tomorrow. That means I will be taking the day off or playing $15/$30 at Palace.

Posted in poker | Tagged gambling, gambling for a living, muckleshoot, no limit hold em, poker, poker strategy, professional gambling, professional poker, texas hold em | Leave a Comment »

Minithon Monday: $15/$30 @ Palace 3/12/18 (LIVE BLOG)

March 12, 2018

3:42 PM: Just got to Palace and didn’t have to wait long to get in the $15/$30 game.

Unfortunately I hit snooze on my alarm at 10 AM this morning and next thing I know I’m waking up at 1:15 PM. Ugh.

$15/$30 had already started at that point and I took my sweet time getting there since I was 9th on the list.

When I arrived at 3:30 there were two games going and I was third up for the second game.

I helped them restart the second $8/$16 game and picked up AA under the gun on the first hand and had a $15/$30 seat by the time I was on the button. Starting my day off with $33 sugar!

Starting lineup in $15/$30 feeder: Taz, Part-Time, Elmer and Cobra; a tight-passive lady, a weaker semi-reg, a former reg that hasn’t been coming in much, and a Shelton area player that’s been coming in recently and playing drunk and high.

4:01 PM: Tilting people already. Open QJdd, one cold call, one blind defender. Flop is 982 rainbow with one diamond. I lead, the cold caller raises, blind calls, I 3-bet, he caps, and the SB folds now. I think my hand plays fine as a 3-bet here, even though I’m out of position with queen high. I have multiple weak draws that actually combine to a pretty robust holding that does well against 9x hands or straight draws. Turn pairs the 2 and I check-call. This is actually a great card if he has 98 as queens and jacks make me a winner. So I plan to donk those cards on the river and that’s what I do when I river a queen. He calls and I’m good vs A9.

4:37 PM: Open AQo early, get 3-bet, loose button calls, I call. Flop is AJ7 with two spades. I check-raise flop and get 3-bet, other player is still in. I feel like this is a call down spot, even when the ace pairs on the turn. River is a ten and I check-call and lose to AK.

Open button with KK and only Elmer defends. He donks 873 flop and I call. Turn is a 2, I raise, he calls. River king and he check-calls with JJ. Ugh. Definitely not my optimal line, especially against Elmer since he’s so likely to bet-call flop and still lead turn.

4:58 PM: Lots of movement in the $15/$30 games. I didn’t particularly want to move to the main game but here I am.

New lineup: nitty reg, tight-passive lady from feeder, unknown player, the King of fucking Pop, loud reg with halitosis (obv sitting next to me and obv talks all day long), BVR (!), and the former reg from last table.

Wow. I don’t think I’ll be here long. They keep sitting people I don’t know in the feeder game and people I don’t know are people I want to play with.

Or maybe not. One of those unknowns just got moved to my right and I also have position on the MJ impersonator so probably have to ride this out now.

5:18 PM: One limper, I raise AA on button, both blinds call. Flop is 873 and two players check-call. Dragon Breath donks on queen turn, other player calls, and I’m so confident he’s betting a naked queen that I feel very comfortable raising turn and then betting the 6 river for value when they both check. Both fold river though.

5:50 PM: OMG. Dragon Breath just breathed directly into my face. I don’t mean in my general direction, I mean 12 mph winds straight into my nostrils.

6:00 PM: Feeder game broke so pretty happy with my decision to move. I’ve been winning lots of smaller, uninteresting pots, with some unnecessary assistance from The King of Pop. I’m up a little over $900 already and it feels like I’ve barely done anything. The good life!

6:22 PM: Bad player limps, I raise Q5cc, button calls, four of us to JJ2 one club flop. I bet and two call. Turn is 3c and I barrel. Button calls and other player folds. River ten of clubs and I make my flush. I bet and he raises. Seems like a slowplayed jack to me and I only lose to JT, so I 3-bet, he caps and shows me J3ss. What. Pretty unfortunate because this runout was primed to tilt his shit into oblivion.

Woah. There’s a Joker here. He snuck in very quietly. He’s third up for $15/$30. Hopefully that means ~9 PM.

6:36 PM: Did I say it was smooth sailing? Well, I jinxed it. Open hijack with A5dd and only BVR calls on button. Flop is 654 one diamond. Perfect to check-call and let him bluff off. Unfortunately I don’t improve and he has the 87o for the nuts.

7:04 PM: The bad news is The King of Pop is busted, the good news is he punted his remaining stack to me. I have 87 in the blinds and peel T8x flop. Four of us to turn and I check-raise him when I make trips, he 3-bets and has like 1.5 big bets behind so I help him get the rest of it in, then I make a full house on the river and we’ll never know what he had.

Joker coming into the game now, two hours ahead of schedule, but on my direct right. This dude is carrying six racks of blue to the counter right now. Not even sure if he was in that game for an hour. Jesus.

7:17 PM: Unexpected surprise: haven’t really been paying attention to the list but someone just left and one of the bigger maniacs just sat down. Haven’t played much with him at $15/$30 so no name for him. I have him and Joker on my direct right so…. Jesus Seat.

Maniac wins battle #1: he limps, I raise TT and double barrel A326 and get check-raised. It would be a catastrophe to check back this turn against him, but I also don’t feel like I can call down on this board texture. I suppose I’m ahead of hands like 65, 64, 43, etc. but I’m sure he will provide me with plenty of better spots to take his chips. I fold and I don’t feel that bad about it.

8:02 PM: I went running one card flush with AJo in a 3-bet pot when BVR had AQ and turned a queen.

Maniac started with $1200 and is already down to $300 or so. I just got pretty lucky against him as I was typing this. Turning a straight with K9cc when he had QThh on 875hh board and dodging his redraws.

8:22 PM: The maniac torched off his $1200 stack in just over an hour. Of course, he got a lot of assistance from Joker and myself on his left constantly 3-betting him light (but way stronger than he’s opening) and punishing him.

9:07 PM: Tight-passive lady picks a great time to lose her mind. Maniac limps, I raise AA, she calls SB, big blind defends. Flop is T73, one spade and she’s my only caller. Turn is a 4 and she check-calls. River pairs the 4 and she check-raises. Last thing I ever expected after that amazing runout. I’m never good against this player, but wtf? I also can’t fold. She shows me 42 of spades. WOW! And whyyyyyy?

9:44 PM: Took a really non-standard and potentially dangerous line with AA. 15 players limp in and I raise SB. Flop is 972 or something like that and since I would raise a lot of hands from the SB that can’t c-bet this flop, I go ahead and check one that’s near the top of my range, hoping I can check-raise a bet from late position. That doesn’t happen. In fact, it checks around. Ouch. Turn is a jack. Screw it, let’s try that again. I check, Taz bets, three players call, and I check-raise all of them. No one folds. River is a king. I guess I could bet here? But I’m not folding to a raise and the king improves a lot of hands people are willing to put two bets in on the turn with. It checks around and I’m good.

No, I do not recommend this line. Keep it simple, stupid.

10:23 PM: Wow. No list already. We are 8-handed now. Action Bronson and Joker played an incredibly entertaining hand where Joker button straddles and Action Bronson has declared it will be his last hand prior to action. Board is A42K and when Action Bronson 3-bets it the entire table is laughing at Joker, obviously rooting against him. I’m yelling, “come on, take this pot out of the room, buddy.” But then Joker caps it. Action still leads river and Joker calls, but Action turns up K4 and obviously that’s never winning. Joker has AA. Solid bluff catcher if I’ve ever seen one. Then Action emasculates Joker on his way out the door for just calling on the river and I chime in with “if you’re ever going to slow down with top set it should be because someone might have 53.” Good times! Wish I could have got that hand on video. Not too often you see an entire table laughing hysterically.

Shortly after that, I raise a limper with AK on button, very aggro SB 3-bets and the limper caps it (thanks bud!). Flop is A74 and I raise the small blind and call when he 3-bets. Very unconcerned about being beat here so I’m planning to jack the turn in Overs. He bet-calls and then check-calls river and I’m good.

I am up about $1600 now.

11:35 PM: I don’t know if I’m just card dead or if the game has gotten slow/bad, or maybe it’s a combination of both, but I’m kind of checked out and wondering if I want to go home instead. Pretty rare for me to be thinking like that with a full game before midnight.

I’m getting my taxes done tomorrow, which should be interesting. I already sent the IRS thousands of dollars throughout the year and I’ve been saving all my expense receipts so I’m very curious what kind of damage will be leftover. None? 🤞🏻

Crazy hand against Puss-In-Boots, making a rare $15/$30 appearance. He opens and I defend 55. Flop is T65 and he checks back. Ugh. Turn is an ace and I consider check-raising but he is overly aggressive and very capable of raising a bet. He just calls though. I guess I’ll have to get three big bets the hard way. I check-raise the 4 river and he tanks for over a minute and finally calls. And then the last I ever expect to happen, happens. I lose. He rolls 66. Holy shit! I guess I can take solace in the fact that I lost minimal bets in this mega-cooler, but what a nit/slow roll. My god.

12:24 AM: Was thinking about how cold I’m running after I 3-bet a late position open with K9cc on the button and get the 653K9 runout against 66 that is playing like they have Kx but then I flop a set of 7s in a 3-handed capped pot and get paid off on all streets, so… 🤷🏻‍♂️

1:12 AM: Just took a two orbit break and as soon as I sat back down, two players left, which leaves us 6-handed. Probably not planning to play too much longer.

The Riddler just sat down with $300 so I’m definitely not leaving now.

1:41 AM: One limper, Joker raises, I 3-bet 76dd, and, surprisingly, we go heads up to the flop. It is K65 and Joker check-calls. He usually check-raises or donks his pairs so I feel really good barreling the 2 turn and I’m pretty surprised to get check-raised. This is kind of atypical from him so I’m skeptical and peel river. Hey, it’s a 6! He bets, I raise, and he snaps so… maybe the poor bastard actually had something?

I was debating how I could write this to make myself look like a genius and make Joker look like an idiot. He predicted I would just leave it out… but there it is… in all its wonderful glory.

Riddler lost half his stack on his post hand with AK vs 55 on K5x board and now he is gone without even tangling with me once.

2:21 AM: Just played a capped pot with Joker and his AQ outflopped my JJ and I ended up paying it off after we both checked flop and if I can’t river three of a kind against this guy every time then I don’t even see any point in playing anymore.

Final Score: +$1600

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