Here’s a link to my final 2018 World Series of Poker schedule. I’ll be targeting non-NL events all around Vegas. Events highlighted in green are the ones I’m 100% to play unless a deep run in something else prevents me from doing so.
I am not selling action for anything except possibly the Main Event. I will know in the next week or so if that’s something I’ll need to do or not.
I can’t wait!
Since I last posted on Tuesday, something big happened: I finally won an event in a Global Poker series. If you’ve been following along here, you probably know I’ve had two runner-up finishes in the Rattlesnake Open already and I also took second in an event during January’s Grizzly Games as well. Needless to say, even though the money is nice, finishing in second is super frustrating – especially when things like oversized trophies and Global swag is on the line!
My final opponent in this tournament is super accomplished (based on his Sharkscope stats) on Global, but it didn’t take me long to see that I had a massive advantage over him in heads up play. He was playing very straight forward and letting me get away with murder, like getting folds in spots where it’s blatantly obvious that my range is weak and he seemed to almost never bluff. It’s pretty hard to win heads up if you are relying on having the best hand every pot. With a decent chip lead, I thought I was going to have to get very unlucky to let this one slip away… and then I did. I think I had about a 2 to 1 chiplead when we got all the chips in preflop with my AT vs his A2 and he spiked a deuce that held up and suddenly I had a 2 to 1 disadvantage. My wife was already asleep and my brother-in-law that lives with us was also asleep and I have to admit I was struggling to contain my volume after losing that hand.
Still, I recognized that I was a favorite and I wasn’t too worried about things, but I also knew that another unlucky all in confrontation would result in yet another second place finish. I could really feel the pressure I was putting on myself. I have to admit that shipping one of these events was pretty damn important to me. I ended up regaining the chip lead through pure exploitative poker and eventually got him all in with another dominated ace and managed to hold on this time for the win! Much like when I lost the chip lead, I was struggling to contain my volume and excitement as I was quietly celebrating my win all by myself. I did it. Finally!
My first Global Poker trophy! I’ll post a pic when I get this thing.
Not only did I finally ship a trophy event, but I finally had success in one of their bigger buy ins and the actual win was almost triple my previous high on Global. This also put my online bankroll north of $6k and gets me out of the $3-$3.5k range I seem to get stuck in before falling back down. I didn’t set out to do a bankroll challenge or anything, but it’s worth noting that I have only deposited $300 on Global. I feel totally comfortable putting money on there now, but initially I was pretty skeptical about depositing any serious money online and now I’m hoping I’ll never have to.
This win also boosted me back into the Player of the Series race. After playing only one of the three events on Tuesday, I had dropped all the way down to 41st. Apparently you get 10 points for every tournament that you play, so the 11 events I’ve missed so far was having a dramatic affect on my place in the standings. Prior to Wednesday’s win, the 110 points I would have from playing those 11 tournaments was the difference between 41st place in the PotS race and being in the top 8. Pretty sick. After managing one measly min-cash on the day of the series I’ve been looking forward to the most (Limit Hold’em Day), I now sit in 10th place on the leaderboard. Now missing 11 tournaments is the difference between 10th and… 1st. Assuming I cashed zero times in the 11 additional tournaments (unlikely), I would currently have a 20 point lead over second place. Ugh. Who needs an extra $5000 I guess?
My wife still doesn’t seem to embracing the opportunity here. We are heading to her parents house for Mother’s Day tomorrow and then my parents house for Mother’s Day on Tuesday and then next Saturday we are apparently attending a wedding. As has been noted, missing tournaments has been detrimental and Saturdays and Sundays are especially important as there are six events each day. I basically have the green light to play tomorrow – either by visiting for an hour in between the day and night events or by playing on the iPad while I’m there – but I’m not sure how I’ll manage Tuesday and there’s no way I can play next Saturday unless she shows mercy on my soul and doesn’t make me go to a wedding for two people I don’t even know. I suppose if I fall out of contention by then it won’t matter, but if I’m in the thick of it, those last two days are going to be super critical. I can’t really blame her though, especially since I’m going to be gone for six weeks for the World Series of Poker, but I’m right there! I can ship this thing!
Something else interesting has happened because of my recent win. I’ve been contacted by both a Global Poker representative for inclusion in their upcoming press release and by PokerNews. I’m still waiting for questions from PokerNews, so not exactly sure what that will entail, but seems like I’m going to be getting some publicity in the near future. The PokerNews editor mentioned reading my blog, so hopefully they will include a link in their write up and if I happen to get any new readers please feel free to subscribe and follow along!
I am definitely NOT a fan of multi-tabling on my iPad while playing live poker, but I kind of have to do it. My live play volume has been waaaaay down this month – mostly because I’ve been staying home to play online. Even with the iPad multi-tabling, I’m still only on pace for just over 80 hours of live play for the month of May. That’s roughly half my normal volume. Kind of inexcusable. The $3500 cash was really nice and the chance at a $5k package is appealing, but the kind of money I can make in these online tournaments pales to what I make playing live poker.
So I will be heading to Palace shortly and hoping that the 15/30 game gets off the ground if it hasn’t already (I haven’t checked for a bit). Unfortunately tonight’s Rattlensnake events are all 4-max tournaments, so it is going to be really challenging to play live while playing 4-max on my iPad, but I did manage a 2nd place finish doing exactly that last week.
Expect this blog to be live for a little over an hour or so before I get involved in the tournaments, then I will probably go mostly quiet for a few hours, and then back to regular updates when I’m back to playing live only.
See you in an hour!
4:25 PM: Sitting down in 8/16 and should get an hour worth of updates in before online poker takes over.
I was hoping to play 15/30 all night but the game looks a ways off. There are 8 names on the list but one of them (the Gnat) is MIA and there are multiple potential flakers. Looks like I’ll be playing 8/16 for a while, which is probably for the best considering the distraction level I’m about to experience.
8/16 lineup: The Queen, FBI Guy, Grumpy (yay!) and some other random I’m not overly familiar with.
4:53 PM: Wonderful start. Admittedly playing a little sloppy so far and then I get to add this gem to torment: two limpers, I limp T8ss, someone raises, some blinds call, FBI Guy comes through with the limp-raise and six of us see the flop for three bets. It’s pretty nice! J93 with two spades and one heart. FBI Guy checks and I start the fireworks as the original PFR helps me get it capped with five of us still in. Turn is gin: 7 of hearts! We have the nuts. I go ahead and lead because the PFR screams of draws that check the turn and three players call me. River is a 2 of hearts and now the PFR raises me. Jx of hearts is my primary candidate to be losing to but instead this guy was capping the J9x two spade flop with four opponents holding the KThh. AS YOU SHOULD.
I have spotted them a rack of blue already.
👏🏻👏🏻
5:10 PM: The Man is trying to start 15/30 super short-handed and as appealing as it is to play 3-handed with The Gnat, it’s going to be tough enough 3-tabling 4-max while playing in a full live game. That’s a pass from me for now.
5:15 PM: Here’s something that annoys me:
What the hell am I supposed to do with that chicken? Cut it up myself? Eat it like a Neanderthal? Seems like I shouldn’t have to ask the kitchen to cut my chicken in a way that makes sense for a salad.
5:25 PM: Sigh. They are starting 15/30 right as my tournaments are about to start and there are only four players that have bought chips so far. Spectacular.
This should be… interesting.
Finish 8/16 -$191.
5:29 PM: Part-Time, The Gnat and some random are in the game… and now The Man is sitting down to make it 5-handed while he’s working… because beating up on the floor man at 15/30 is what I want to do. 🤦🏻♂️
5:57 PM: The Global tourneys all have two rebuys and one add on. I have been playing splashy in the Low, running my stack all the way down to 270 from 3k starting before building it back up 1800 and getting stacked when my AA ran into the mighty 74 blind defend.
On the bright side, I’m back up to 3k stack.
6:20 PM: On bullet #2 of the $22 Medium. I open 66 and guy with 30 bigs left jams on me. It’s a rebuy so I’m willing to gamble here. I somehow hold against his T2o.
He reloads and then stuffs 100 bigs on the button. I have 77 in the small blind and even though I’m flipping most of the time I can’t resist the gamble. It’s not a flop – I have his Q7 crushed. But he spikes a Queen on the turn and now I have 30 bigs.
A few hands later, he opens on button and I try to induce by making a small raise. He jams, I snap call, and his 44 holds to bust me.
And then they move that player that player the next hand… only to replace him two hands later!
No justice!
6:38 PM: Final bullet of Medium, as my 30 big blind reshove with AQ can’t shake AJdd and he makes a flush to bust me.
6:51 PM: And QQ < KT to bust the Medium. Sometimes you just run awesome.
I have about 30 bigs in the Low and same in the High.
7:03 PM: And out of the Low. 12 big button jam with A2ss loses to 55.
Then I get 16 bigs in pre with JTdd vs TT, flop a jack and lose to the one-outer on the river in the High.
Second bullet there.
And now my live game waits for me to bust two tournaments before going on pause. We are 5-handed… one player is felted… and two others are on break.
😴😴😴
7:08 PM: Weird hand against The Gnat. Some limps in front of me, I raise KJo on the button, and then The Gnat check-raises and caps on J95. He checks to me on a blank turn and I’m wary, so I check back. River is another blank and he checks again so obviously I have to to bet now and he check-calls mewith… AJ!
Unknown opens, I 3-bet 66 on button and he caps out of position. I call down on Q7752 and he shows me 22.
What.
7:35 PM: On break in the High and I added on 3000 chips for $50 to my 7000 stack. Meh. Not great value but whatever.
I just flopped sets in back-to-back huge pots in the live game. I’m crushing it but the game is on fumes.
7:51 PM: The Gnat just went runner-runner flush on me, so he’s obviously singing now.
Gosh dang, he’s so good!
7:57 PM: And I’m out of the High. Solid 0-3 showing tonight. 3-tabling 4-max NL while playing 5-max live poker is haaaard.
I basically never input my own bet. Just bet half pot, pot, or whatever preset sizings there are.
Plus I do cool things like this:
Yes, that’s me timed out and folded with the nuts.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
My wife is here now and we are about to have dinner and then time to focus up on this live game.
8:38 PM: Well I was up $1500 in the 15/30 game but it’s come crumbling down quickly.
First I lost with AK on QTxK9. Then I folded JJ on A77xK. Then I had TT vs QcJc on T98cc and never improved. And just now I bet the K65 flop, Gnat raises all in to $20, big blind calls, and I call because that’s the only thing I can do. The 6 pairs on the turn and the big blind fires the first $60 Overs bet of the evening. I’m perplexed but call. River 9, same action, and he rolls K9.
Solid -$700 swing in one orbit.
10:13 PM: We have gone card dead, folks. I did pick up the QQ once and got out flopped by KT and then I missed the nut flush draw in a 3-bet pot, but those have been my only hands of note. After turning the faucet on for an orbit, my downswing has becomemore of a slow drip.
10:17 PM: And immediately after posting that last update, I 3-bet KK and it goes cap and cold call behind me. Four of us see the T33 two hearts flop and I get it capped with the preflop capper. One player calls two bets but winds up folding so we are in Overs for the turn action. I’m running kind of bad at the moment so leading out for $60 feels almost spewy but I’m only losing to TT and AA, so bombs away! I’m quite relieved to see him just call. The river is the queen of hearts and now we are only beating JJ. So I check and he checks behind with the one hand we still beat.
10:57 PM: The Tick, Gnat, and Flea are all in the building and I left my insect repellent at home.
11:14 PM: Kung Fu Panda in the game! Threatening to buy in for less than $400…
👀👀
12:22 PM: Kung Fu Panda and Snowflake are sitting next to me totally distracting me. I am crushing though. These guys keep commenting on how I win every pot I play, I always have it, they give me too much action, etc.
One big connection I have KJdd in a 3-bet pot and then get the QT3dd flop with Overs in play. Bink the flush on the turn and get six bigbets from my opponent.
Here’s Kung Fu Panda’s stack:
So you can see why he’s jealous.
1:57 AM: Snowflake is now in the game and he’s possibly wasted and telling everyone he’s going to 3-bet me every hand. I have a feeling my variance is about to get tumultuous.
The Leak is also playing in this game for some reason.
The Gnat felted. The Flea is in.
2:06 PM: This just happened: Snowflake is being so annoying that The Flea just asked for a seat change to move away from him.
The fucking FLEA wants to move because someone is annoying HIM!
3:15 AM: Session is over. Sorry for the lack of content tonight. Snowflake was sitting behind me and Kung Fu Panda and talking to us for hours before he got in the game and writing about hands became very hard to do.
It was a good, smooth session though. Very minor hiccups for the last several hours as I cruised to a +$2209 finish.
I didn’t even know I was going to play live poker today but here I am, at Palace before 1 PM.
12:49 PM: Pretty rare I get to the casino this early these days and because of the early arrival I’m starting a pretty lame 8/16 game.
Starting lineup: The Leak, The Queen, a Palace dealer, an old Kitsap friend, a lawyer that saved me $10,000, and maybe two people I truly want to win money from.
Blah.
I thought today was the first day of the weekly Palace freeroll but it’s actually next week and I wouldn’t have qualified anyway.
Why? Because I saw the homey Kendrick on Saturday and then Shohei Ohtani keep the Mariners at bay on Sunday.
And here are the famous (infamous?) Safeco Field grasshoppers:
We didn’t buy them ourselves but someone in our section did and was passing them around to the whole crowd. A nice way to try something wild without spending money on it and wasting them when we realized they are as unappetizing as they look.
1:14 PM: Pretty great start! One limper, I complete A2cc, and The Leak checks her big blind. Flop is 543 with two spades and a diamond. I bet and my wife flats. Turn is the jack of diamonds and now she jacks me up. I call because I sort of enjoy quasi-slowrolling my wife when I know I have her crushed. For instance, when she pops the turn with J8 of spades or something and I get out of my seat at showdown to take a close look at it before rolling over my wheel and looking at her like 👀.
Well, I call her turn raise and then check-call again on king of diamonds river and there is no slow roll opportunity here as she rolls over the A5 of diamonds for the nut flush. 🤦🏻♂️
A few hands later, there’s some limpers, the Kitsap player raises cutoff, I 3-bet with KQ and four of us see the flop. It’s decent, not great: QTT two spades. Two players check-call flop. Turn is jack of hearts, also not the greatest but I continue betting and they both call again. River is the 3 of hearts, completing a backdoor flush draw and the second caller leads out for his final $5. Easy call, but he rolls over the 95hh – you know, the kind of hand you can limp with and then call three bets with pre before peeling the QTT flop.
Solid.
Then I make a very loose play by cold-calling a raise and call with 54ss from the cutoff, then The Leak 3-bets from the button and we all call. Flop is KT2, all spades, and the first cold-caller leads out, I raise, and the other two fold. He calls. Turn 2: he check-calls. River King: he leads, I bang my head against a wall and then call. AK good.
Down less than $80 somehow though.
1:33 PM: Back to Kendrick. I saw him at the Tacoma Dome and the experience was underwhelming, so I decided to splurge this time and got some decent tickets. The experience was infinitely better. Not only were the performers about thirty feet away but the sound at the White River Ampitheater was a million times better than the Tacoma Dome – you could actually hear everything the artists were saying.
Anyways, while this was the TDE Championship Tour, artists like Ab Soul, Lance Skiiwalker, SiR, and Jay Rock had pretty short sets. This was definitely a ScHoolboy Q, SZA, and Kendrick show.
Probably the biggest takeaway from this show, for me, was finally appreciating how good SZA’s last album is. She basically has hits from start to finish.
Which is how every Kendrick album sounds, but you don’t need me tell you that.
My other takeaway is that I might not ever see another show at the Tacoma Dome. This experience was just so much better…
…until we had to leave. Holy shit. What a brutal experience. We got in our car around 11:15 PM and didn’t move more than five feet from our parking spot until 1:10 AM. Almost two hours of just sitting there wondering how it is possible that not one single car in sight is moving.
1:49 PM: And the other reason I haven’t been playing live as much this month? Because I’ve been trying to play as many Rattlesnake Open events as possible on Global Poker. I missed six events over the weekend and if it’s true that you get 10 points for every event you enter, then sitting those tournaments out are the difference between me being in 29th place (380 points) on the Player of the Series leaderboard and in a tie for 10th place (440 points). Plus, on average, I cash more than 1 in 6 times, so chances are I’d be squarely in the top ten if I didn’t miss any events.
Oh well. Guess I have to get there the hard way: by crushing. I’ve found it difficult to multitable on my iPad while playing live, but I somehow had my best Global cash ever while doing exactly that – in a 4-max format, no less!
Tonight’s events start at 5:30 and they are a turbo format with no rebuys, so they won’t distract me for too long, even if I go deep in some.
2:23 PM: Three limps and a small blind complete and I raise the big with QJdd. Flop is T82 with one diamond, I bet and three call. Turn is 3 of diamonds and while I don’t barrel all my draws, this is one that qualifies. My equity seems great: queens, jacks, nines, and diamonds all seem like winners. I’m also not worried about getting raised on this board texture very often and when it does happen, I don’t care too much. I bet, two call, and the small blind check-raises. Shrug. I call and one other player stays also. River is an offsuit 9 for the mega nuts. I raise and my straight beats the small blind’s set of deuces.
2:32 PM: The Queen and The Leak have moved to the main game and the Palace dealer has cashed out so this game is much more my speed now. Fleabag takes a seat. And I’m going to add two new nicknames: Crentist (because he’s a dentist – “The Office” reference) and the Kitsap player will be Wolverine because that’s what he’s always been.
2:38 PM: Strange hand where it’s obvious some people think I’m always leveling. Some limps, Wolverine raises, I 3-bet KK, and five of us see Q82 with two spades. I get check-called and multiple spots and the turn is as safe as it gets when it pairs the deuce. Wolverine decides this is a good time to check-raise me and I think for quite a bit about whether or not I want to raise. He could feasibly have AA or 2x but both are very unlikely and he’s really only repping QQ and 88. I have a pretty clear advantage against his range, so the real question is whether or not I want the other player in. I should probably jack it up but I just call and so does the third player. River is a red 7 and I call and Wolverine shows all the signs of being caught in a bluff so I table and he flashes me AK high before mucking.
3:36 PM: Or maybe this is why he thinks I’m always leveling. Wolverine opens button, I 3-bet small blind with K8ss and then c-bet A52 flop and he folds. I flash him my cards, not because I think I bluffed him but because I want him to know how light I know he is.
Global tourneys start in ~2 hours. Mariners start in 30 minutes. Red Sox-Yankees start in 30 minutes.
Let’s.Go.
3:48 PM: Groan. I had The Flea on massive tilt, all prepped for epic hemorrhaging but then I raise under the gun with AA, he’s one of the cold callers, and he raises and caps Q73 two spade flop. I’m ready to lead out on blank turns but it’s the 4 of spades, so I check-call down, and he gets the pleasure of showing me the T2 of spades and instant tilt relief. Ugh.
Sometimes a feel good pot will calm people down but there’s a chance he will continue to unnecessarily get involved in pots I open. It’s the Flea way.
Wolverine out. Taz and Bingo Man in..
4:46 PM: Moment of realization at the table: dude I don’t know sitting next to me is rocking a Mariners jersey and then fires up the Red Sox-Yankees game on MLB At Bat right before I do and we kind of look at each other like 🤔. I’ve been posting in 2+2 forums semi-regularly for years now and I immediately start thinking of some of the baseball lovers on that site and sure enough this dude is a regular in the MLB thread. Since he likes the name bighurt that will be his name here as well.
4:56 PM: Fleabag gets another ugly one from me. This time I open the KTdd and he flops two pair with 84 on 874dd. I get two bets in multiple ways on the flop and then bink the 7d on the turn and then let Flea show down his 8 when the river comes a third 7 to give him a full house.
The Gnat is in the game… sitting next to The Flea… so the douchebag levels are about to go through the roof.
I’m tempted to bring up the Muckleshoot tournament that Gnat said he final tabled (but maybe didn’t even play), but that might actually require me to interact with these jack offs.
5:02 PM: Gnat and Flea are talking about seeing The Gnat play poker on T.V. someday. I could make this shit up, but fortunately I don’t have to. The content writes itself.
Holy shit. The Flea just turned another flush against me and then when I check-call river he turns to The Gnat and says “good lay down,” while tipping the dealer before turning his hand over. Goodness, I hate him so much.
5:12 PM: Dang. The Gnat moved to the main game. He is replaced by Action Bronson though. 👍🏻
5:19 PM: Action Bronson immediately makes me feel the pain of his presence. The button straddles are on and I find myself defending the 75o and then putting in four bets on the 543hh flop. Board runs out 8h and 9h and Action shows the T2hh (not from the blind or the straddle).
Losing to flushes every hand. Losing with my flushes. Pretty cool.
5:37 PM: Good start to the Global Low: I 3-bet AK during the first level and the opener jams for a full starting stack. I call and lose to his K8o in a 160 big blind pot.
I didn’t even know it was a rebuy so early second bullet for me.
Oh it’s not a rebuy. There is one rebuy and one add on, which totally explains why he was willing to get 80 bigs in pre with K8o.
5:54 PM: Getting throttled in the live game now too. Action Bronson has drastically increased the volatility and so far it’s been nothing but pain for me. River a straight in a huge pot when he turned a boat. Then flop top top in another monster pot and lose to a 2-outer on the turn.
Sigh. Then I 3-bet AA in the Global-Low and get 30 bigs each in against KQ and lose to two pair. Down to 1.5 bigs now. I have 398 chips and I’m not doing the add on.
And my wife clearly wants me to come home so that’s what I’m going to do
GOOD SESSION.
6:10 PM: Won a big pot right before I left and finished at -$110 and lost two bullets in the Low. I didn’t really want to play today anyways so I’m at peace with leaving early.
I didn’t blog my session yesterday, but if you read my post on Friday, you know I didn’t get home until nearly 4 AM, so when I started getting texts around 10 AM that the 15/30 game was going short-handed, with players that had been playing all night, I wasn’t quite ready to make my return to the casino. Seriously, by noon, three different people had text me to tell me the 15/30 game was going short-handed. I have to say it’s pretty cool that people see something like that and feel the need to flash the Bat Signal in the sky.
I ended up taking my sweet time getting to the casino, running a lap around my block, updating my rosters on MLB The Show, playing a game, and drinking my coffee, but The Leak was REALLY taking her sweet time. I gave her a significant head start on getting ready and I still ended up sitting around twiddling my thumbs for nearly 45 minutes. It was one of her all-time greatest getting ready performances in our 6+ years of being together.
It was past 2 PM when we left the house and I knew the 15/30 game was currently three-handed and I knew that two of the players had been there since the night before and that one of them was The Gnat.
I made a bold prediction to my wife: I said that after playing for over half a day straight and all through the night, The Gnat would quit shortly after I sat down in the game. There are players that love the challenge of playing against me and there are players that really want no part of it (and, of course, the majority of the players don’t give any shits). I’m pretty good at sizing up which group people belong to and while almost everyone doesn’t mind playing with me in full games, it’s extremely common for people to abandon ship as the games get shorter. I could tell The Gnat was a ship-jumper. He puts on quite a bravado facade and when he’s sitting next to The Flea he has been extremely arrogant and condescending to a lot of players – especially me. But I know he doesn’t want any part of me. Not really.
He exceeded my expectations. After I bought in, he immediately took a break and never got dealt in another hand.
Then he surprised me. After walking around the casino and socializing for a half an hour, he came back to the table and racked up his chips and suddenly started talking to me like we are friends. He said he finally got even and had been playing all night long and straight up admitted to everyone at the table that he’s scared of me and said that I’m the best player he’s seen at Palace so far. Wow. It was quite the 180 from all the shit talking he had been doing previously. If you go back and read my blogs from the past couple weeks, while I didn’t give him the name of The Gnat yet, you can probably figure out when I’m talking about this player (usually sitting next to The Flea) and I had been getting nothing but condescending vibes and disrespect from him. Which was fine. I actually find joy in people giving me reasons not to like them because I mostly make my living winning money from genuinely nice people and that’s something I sometimes feel conflicted about. I would probably be happier playing at a table with eight pieces of shit.
Anyways, I’m still not a Gnat fan and I’m sure he was just feeling the high of being stuck on a bender and finally getting sugar. He’s the type of dude I expect to go right back to being a dick the next time I see him. Maybe I can finally give someone the Two Face nickname.
I ended up absolutely smashing those guys three-handed. Granted, the deck was slapping me in the face. I was dealt an insane amount of premium pocket pairs and my unpaired starting hands flopped top pair or better at a very favorable frequency. When you are playing short-handed against a good player that’s also running hot, you have zero chance. I ended up winning $1422 in less than 90 minutes before killing off one of the players. I then played 8/16 for two hours and realized the 15/30 game wasn’t going to restart at a decent hour and decided to go home and rest up for the tournament instead of grinding out at smaller stakes.
I’m about to hop in the shower and head to Muckleshoot to play this tournament with a ridiculous start time of 10 AM. There’s a scheduler that knows nothing about his player pool. Poker players don’t want to wake up at 8 or 9 AM to play tournaments on a Sunday. Generally, we’d rather start at noon and play til 2 AM if we have to.
One thing I’ll elaborate on before I head out: I mentioned that we might have a WSOP Main Event-sized last longer bet in this tournament and I guess I should elaborate on that. Originally, Palace was supposed to host a 10 player $1100 buy in one table satellite today and the winner of this table would use the money to travel to Las Vegas and buy in to the $10,000 WSOP Main Event. At the last minute, a decent amount of the players decided they wanted to play the Muckleshoot tournament today and the satellite was cancelled. It was proposed to me that we do an $1100 last longer bet in the tournament instead and the winner of the last longer could use the money for the same purpose. Since my backers are covering this 100% for me, I don’t care what we do, but this last longer sounds much more appealing than the one table satellite, so I’m in.
When the satellite idea was proposed to me, I balked. I would have to put up $1100 for a roughly 10% chance at having 73% of myself and have to piece out the remaining 27% nine different ways. This didn’t appeal much to me. I have had plenty of people offer to put me in the Main and my absolute worst case scenario plan is that I’m going to sell 80% of my action at 1.25 markup and play the Main Event at zero cost to myself. 20% of myself 100% of the time sounds better than 73% of myself 10% of the time. You can do the math there and see that it’s a pretty simple decision, especially when you consider one route costs $1100 and the other route costs $0. But then my backers said they would just buy me in and I couldn’t say no to that. I believe the same deal would apply to this last longer bet.
Getting in shower and leaving shortly.
10:32 AM: Well, I started this thing off in spectacular fashion. Before I can even digest the particulars I’m posting with the 53 of clubs and find myself in a 6-way limped pot.
The flop is 532, I bet 400 into 600 and three players call.
Turn is brutal, yet interesting: 4 of clubs. The 2 of clubs is on the flop. So I now have two pair and an open-ended straight flush draw and the current best hand 0% of the time. It checks to me, I check, the button bets 2k, the small blind calls, and the big blind makes it 5k. I have a pretty monstrous draw so I’m not interested in folding here, but I do have a bit of a dilemma because calling can create some problems. But let’s be real here – I’m not folding this hand during the rebuy period.
I call. And the bad things happen. The button jams for 18k, the small blind folds, and the big blind calls for 10.5k. I spent some time trying to do the math of the situation and determined that I needed to call 13k to win nearly 40k, so I’m getting 3 to 1 and need to win 25% of the time to break even. I have four full house outs and nine flush outs, so I’m going to win about 26% of the time, plus I’m guessing I have two straight outs. Calling here is correct. Plus I can still rebuy for another 90+ minutes. I stick it in and whiff against two 6x hands.
That cost me almost 80% of my stack on my first hand dealt in.
I guess this is a good time to mention that the last longer bet is NOT in play. If it was, I probably would have check-folded this hand on the turn because the button reraising is so likely.
I wasn’t planning on playing snug, survival poker with my remaining 6k and I dwindled down to 5k before squeeze-jamming over a 1200 open and call at 100/200 with ATdd. This is a total gamble since I really don’t expect a 6x open to fold to a jam of my stack size, but I’m not looking to sit on a 25 big blind stack this early in a re-entry tournament with deep stacks. Unfortunately the small blind reshoves with a huge stack, which is always Fuck City for me. The other two guys fold and I’m heads up against AA.
The board runs out QJxKx which looks good but the river is a fourth spade, giving him a flush and I head to the counter to buy my second bullet.
11:07 AM: I guess I can offer the particulars now. Starting stacks are 25k with blinds beginning at 100/100 and currently at 100/200 with an additional 200 ante from the big blind. Registration is open for another hour.
Big Daddy started his job as poker room manager at Muckleshoot yesterday so hopefully he makes an appearance at some point today.
11:34 AM: One of my buddies and fantasy baseball foes is currently sitting behind the Pacers bench at Game 7 of the Pacers-Cavs series and I’m trying to spot him on TV. You can too. He’s wearing a big blue clown wig so it should be hard. He says he directly under the State Farm sign to the right of the Pacers bench. So sick!
11:45 AM: Notables in the field: Solomon Grundy, John Kim (on his third bullet!), Bill W, and Chief Wiggum.
12:09 PM: Some gifts from Muckleshoot:
I actually like the jacket, but I’m not sure I can wear a jacket with my name on it in public and not feel like a tool.
12:11 PM: 21.7k @ first break. Blinds are 200/400 with 400 big blind ante. Registration is closed. 89 players entered and 73 remain.
12:39 PM: Obviously super card dead. I’ve won one pot when I opened with AJ and flopped an ace on a super dry board and got two streets of action. I’ve speculated with A3ss and 77 and whiffed in raised multiway pots. I opened AQ and whiffed and the man called a river bet when all the draws missed and the board paired, losing to J9o.
12:44 PM: Blinds just went up to 300/600 and I have 17.6K. The good news: even though I’ve had ZERO momentum, I still have 30 bigs nearly three hours into this tournament.
12:51 PM: Tourney life decision: folds to me in hijack, I make 1500 with AKhh, button 3-bets to 5100, and it folds back to me. One thing I know for sure is that I’m not folding. Standard 4-bet jam here. Calling would put almost a third of my stack in pre so that’s not an option and folding is just silly. The only play here is JAM. I stick it in and he winds up folding.
A short while later, I open KK to 1500 and the next player is my only caller. Flop is QQJ with two hearts and I decide to check-call 2k. Turn is a 9 and I take the same line and she checks back. River ace of hearts and I’m very happy to see her check behind because that means my hand is always good.
Not exactly a huge coup with the kings but it’s better than losing the pot on a very dangerous board.
27.7k
How good is Mitch Haniger at baseball? Didi Gregorius is getting all sorts of attention for his ridiculous start – and deservedly so – but Haniger is basically right there with him and has received almost zero national attention. Maybe it starts today?
1:26 PM: Heads up with Solomon Grundy in the blinds, he limps, and I check back T3o. He reads my blog sometimes so it’ll be fun if he winds up reading this hand.
Flop 654, he bets 1k and I call.
Turn is a 3 and he check-calls 2k.
River is a 2, bringing a final board of 65432 and putting a straight on the board and he checks to me. It would be pretty sick if he was inducing me with a 7 here, but I don’t think he’d take this line, so I bomb it for 10k and he folds.
1:31 PM: Two hands later and we have lift off! I have AA on the button and there’s a 2k open and a call from Solomon Grundy in front of me. I check the stack sizes and eventually make it 7500 because I’ve come to learn that my 3-bet sizing has been too small. Only the opener calls.
Flop is 876 with two clubs and I’m 100% committed and now I have to figure out the best way to get my remaining 24kish in. How likely am I to get action if I jam 20k into a 15k pot? Not really sure. It seems like he has an overpair or… nothing. I decide to go the milk route and bet 10k and if he has a set here, bless his soul. He calls.
Turn pairs the 6 and now I have an easy jam and, after acting like I have a decision, I put it all in and he snap calls with… KK, for the ultimate cooler. I dodge a king on the river and get a full double up.
62.2K
2:14 PM: 64k coming back to 600/1200.
Here’s my buddy at the Pacers game with the blue wig and the shellshocked face in the background:
2:45 PM: Middle position opens to 3200 and I flat on button with AA. Sometimes you have to take some risks to accumulate chips and I think he’s more likely to put more chips in the pot with a c-bet than calling my 3-bet. Plus other good things can happen. The small blind jams go over 30k, the big blind and opener fold, and I snap call and roll and hold vs AQ.
106k at 600/1200.
2:52 PM: Just called a 20k jam with JJ and held vs KTcc to bust a player. We are surging!
3:08 PM: Here’s Bill W’s bust out hand. 100k pot, all in on the flop. Doesn’t get any sicker than this (might have to zoom in):
3:23 PM: Currently at about 150k with blinds at 800/1600. 29 players remain and ten of us will cash. First place is $10.2k.
3:41 PM: Here I am trying not to be embarrassed as Aquaman stops by to blatantly take a picture of me:
And here’s what my wife is doing:
Eating bugs.
And spiders.
😮😮😮
4:11 PM: Here’s an aspect of no limit that drives me nuts: players that hold their cards in a way that blocks their chip stack so that you can’t see how much they have. It’s pretty damn relevant and it’s kind of awkward to ask the same person every time how much they have. Ugh.
Of course I could memorize the stack sizes but that seems to be a skill set I don’t have.
4:30 PM: Dinner break. 140k coming back to 1500/3000. I think there are 25 players left. Cards back in the air at 5 PM.
5:24 PM: One limper, cutoff makes it 15k at 1500/3000 and I call with 88 on the button. We are heads up to 752 flop and he leads 25k. He has about 55k behind and I have an overpair to the board. Not really sure what else I can do but put him all in here and hope my hand is good, so that’s what I do and he starts tanking and I’m ecstatic that I have the best hand.
He does wind up making the call though and I have to dodge… wait, what the hell? He has TT? Jesus. You can never be too careful, I guess, but he thought long enough that I was positive I had the best hand. Kind of a brutal unintentional slow roll. The turn is a 9, giving me straight outs, but I brick the river and I’m down to 52k just like that.
I know I had 52k because he opened the next hand and I jammed on him with AQ suites and he folded.
I’ve lost some more pots since then and I find myself in that special comfort zone of about 14 big blinds.
Not sure if that 88 hand qualifies as a blowup but it sure feels gross. I had 140k 36 minutes ago. 🤮
5:38 PM: Jammed AT right after posting that last update and busted a 32k stack when I outflopped his 88. Back up to 88k and we are down to 19.
5:55 PM: Open to 10k with KJdd and a loose player jams 27k. I snap and hold vs QTo.
Back to 111k. 16 left. Chief Wiggum and Solomon Grundy still in also.
6:06 PM: 14 players left and all seven at my table have 20+ bigs. Not sure what’s going on at the other table, but could be a bit of a bubble.
6:20 PM: Currently telling stories about getting arrested while I was playing poker at All Star Lanes and how I’ve been kicked out of every poker room in Kitsap County and Shoreline. Most people have a hard time seeing that but that’s because I’ve been sober eight years and basically no one on this side of the Narrows Bridge has ever seen that side of me.
6:31 PM: 13 players left. Blinds are up to 3000/6000 now and I have a little over 90k, which is the smallest stack at my table.
6:37 PM: 12 left.
6:49 PM: Dwindled all the way to 38.5k. Button opens 20k, I jam with A7dd and he calls, obviously, with… AJ.
Flop… all diamonds! And we are back to 90k.
6:55 PM: Cutoff opens 20k, folds to me in the big and I look down at JJ and all my chips go into the pot and he snaps so fast and excitedly I know I’m not going to see AK. Up against AA and there’s no miracle this time.
Bust in 12th for maximum time wasted and pain felt.
Ohhhhh it hurts.
No more poker today. Just gonna head home and lick my wounds.
Solomon Grundy still in with a short stack and Chief Wiggum has a very serious 300k+ stack, primed to make a run at first place.
There is a mixed house game tomorrow that I will most likely be attending and Global’s Rattlesnake Open events officially kick off at 5:30. I believe I will be multitasking but I haven’t talked to my wife about either, so who knows.
POSTSCRIPT
I went home and fell asleep before 9 PM which is absolutely absurd and woke up to messages from The Joker trolling me because The Gnat outlasted me in the tournament today.
That’s funny. The Gnat wasn’t there. But that’s not stopping him from telling everyone at the Palace that he made the final table and finished in 9th (a weird lie – why not say you took 1st or 2nd or 3rd?).
I’m sending Joker questions to ask The Gnat about his deep run and so far he has whiffed on everything: first place prize, tournament start time, did anyone from Palace go deep, etc. I thought there was some highly improbable chance that I overlooked this guy that is totally on my radar now, even though I walked through the whole room sizing every table up and seeing who I knew that was playing.
He is also claiming that he won this same tournament the last time it was played. Curious, I typed his first name on Hendon Mob and only four entries showed up and I quickly determined which one is his. He has three recorded cashes, all in the 2016 Muckleshoot Spring Classic:
13th in the $250 Shootout for $700
24th in the $300 NL for $500
9th in the $500 NL for $3070
That’s it. For his CAREER.
What a fucking clown. I’m half tempted to drive to Palace just to make him look stupid, but I need to be up around 8:30 AM for yoga and gym time.
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:
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:
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 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.
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:
*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.
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.
This tournament kind of snuck up on me. The South Sound Championship series at Little Creek isn’t exactly on my radar. The preliminary events aren’t that attractive and the weak field sizes don’t really make them worth playing. You typically have to final table to make the money and probably have to finish top 3 to feel really good about it. Well, at least I would.
The Main Event is a little different though. I don’t play it every time it comes around – mostly because I forget about it – but it’s decent enough. I actually took 4th in this event back in spring of 2014 and that was a career high score for me at the time. I think I cashed for a little over $4K. 20K in starting chips for $340, 45 minute levels and the level jumps are tolerable. There’s definitely some play in it. Also, the fields at Little Creek are insanely soft. Overall, the play is surprisingly passive and pretty straight forward. There are some guys that can play and put pressure on you, but they are the Puget Sound rounders, not the locals. Most of the Shelton area players are really easy to play against. That makes this event with a deeper structure attractive even though the field size is kind of ho hum. There were 92 entrants in this one and that paid the final table only.
One annoying feature of the Little Creek tourneys is that they are 10-handed. How is this still a thing in 2018? Just brutal. 10-handed poker sucks period, but feeling crowded the whole time you’re playing makes it so much worse. And this isn’t a temporary thing. You have to suffer all day long, even at the final table.
I only had one player I’m familiar with at my starting table. The highly unorthodox, extremely talky, and slightly obnoxious Puget Sound superstar known as Flex. I actually wrote about Flex in a very unflattering light (I believe I called him “Loudmouth”) in one of my first tournament write-ups back in 2012. Oh hell, I’ll go ahead and link it even though it’s somewhat embarrassing for myself as well: Freddie’s $110 Deep Stack. It’s worth noting this was over six years ago and propping $4/$8 limit hold’em was my only job at the time. So… fair warning! Anyways, having Flex at the table isn’t a great thing. He is capable of making things difficult for you and drastically increasing your variance in a field that otherwise doesn’t require much risk early on. It also means you could double up early, so there’s that!
Levels 1-2
Blinds 25/50, there’s a raise to 150 and I defend T6hh from the big blind. Four of us see the QJ8 with two hearts flop. I end up calling 300 on the flop and all four of us are still in. My draw is pretty big, but this isn’t the board texture I expect to get folds on, so jacking it up here just bloats the pot out of position when I haven’t made anything yet. The turn bricks and I have to call another 600. I think we are heads up at this point and the small blind has been the aggressor the whole time and he checks when the river is a 9 and I make my straight. I bet 1500 and he pays it off.
Blinds 25/50, I call 150 from the cutoff with KQo with multiple players in already. The flop is Q52 with two hearts and one diamond. There are six of us in and Flex leads out for 500 (after PFR checks), player to my right makes it 1000, and I immediately have the instinct that I want to raise. That’s odd because raising seems like the worst of my options in this spot most of the time. I push this thought aside and decide to just call and see what happens. Everyone else folds and Flex calls also. The turn is the 9d and both players check to me. I do not believe this is any sort of trap and I’m not really surprised by this action considering my instincts that neither player seemed strong on the flop. I bet 1700. Flex calls and the player that raised the flop snap folds. Yup. With that said, I don’t expect to get paid off on many rivers, so I will be checking back a lot of cards. The Kd on the river is an interesting one, but before I can think too long about what I’m going to do, Flex fires out a healthy bet of 7500. There is a key piece of missing information that makes this not a snap call. I don’t have the Qd and the Qd was not on the flop. If Flex has a queen, which seems likely, then he has the Qd half of the time and it makes a lot of sense that he just went running diamonds. In fact, it makes so much sense that this might actually be a clear fold. The only other logical hand I lose to is JT of hearts. It’s also hard to come up with hands he could be bluffing with. A4hh? A3hh? 43hh? Other missed heart draws? QJo? QTo? I don’t think so. Sometimes I think I’m taking up too much time in spots that actually probably require a bit more thinking. In retrospect, all things considered – especially the bet sizing – this seems like a pretty easy fold, but in real time, I decided to pay it off even though I called out his hand before he showed it to me: queen high flush.
There was another hand at the 50/100 level where Flex had limped in under the gun, there were two other limps and I made it 600 to go with AK and Flex ends up beating me with J7o on AJ67x, making two pair and getting another healthy river bet from me. As I said, he’s sticky and drastically increases your variance. On the bright side, I decided to pot control turn and check back.
Still, after the first two levels I had 7700, which means I had lost over 60% of my stack already and was wondering if I should punt the rest of it and rebuy if I didn’t chip up early in L3 (the last level to rebuy).
Levels 3-4
Blinds 75/150, I defend J4cc from the big blind for 400. Three of us see the A84 with two club flop. I check, the next guy donks 700 into Flex (the PFR) and he calls. I started the hand with about 10K I think and, again, I don’t expect anyone to fold on the flop and I have too many chips to want to get them all in right now. I call. The turn is a 7 and I check again, the next guy bets 1000 and Flex makes it 4500. I actually give some thought to making a mathematically incorrect call here. If I make my flush on the river, I can’t imagine that Flex will be able to fold with such favorable pot odds, so I could feasibly call here and fold when I brick and probably double up when I make flushes and maybe trips. It’s 100% a bad play, but there is appeal to gambling to double up since I have a half stack and if I miss I’ll be that much closer to rebuying for a fresh stack. I ultimately decide to make the prudent play of laying it down though and so does the other player and Flex shows us both the A7.
Blinds 100/200, I open to 500 with A9 of spades and only the big blind defends. Flop is 762 with two spades and the big blind check-calls 500. The turn pairs the 2 and I decide to keep barreling and bet 1200. He calls again. Sigh. I guess I have to get there. Oh, hello 3 of spades! He checks and I have 5500 and really think if he has anything he’s going to call jam, so I stuff and he does call… with 75o and I double up to 15.5K. We’re healthy again!
Blinds 100/200, someone opens to 600, Flex calls, and I make a very loose defend with 96o. Flop is J65, I check, PFR bets 1200, and Flex folds. I think this is a standard peel. I bink the 9 on the turn, check, he bets 2100 and I make a somewhat hefty raise to 7200, he stuffs it and I snap call. He tables AA and I hold to double up to 37K. Hey, loose preflop call justified! You cooler these people when they have big pairs and they are not folding.
Levels 5-6
Blinds 200/400, someone min-raises to 800 and I call with 33 in position. Flop is 742 and he checks to me. I bet 1300 and he calls. Turn is a jack and he checks again. I already ran this hand by someone else because I ended up hating it. He has done nothing in this hand to make me think he has anything at all, so I feel like betting again here is best. I bet 2200 and he raises me to 7500. And then he proceeds to stare daggers at me. I take my sweet time with this decision and whenever I look at him, he is staring me down, not breaking eye contact. This, plus his two checks and extremely narrow value range (sets? KK, AA?), has me thinking I have the best hand and that he probably wants me to fold. I noted that we were 20K effective and this is basically a decision for his stack size. I ultimately decide this is the kind of high variance spot I’m trying to avoid in this field and make the fold, but I hated it. When I ran this by a friend he suggested checking back turn and possibly calling rivers. I countered that it seems better for me to set my own bet size on the turn while protecting my weak hand and check back rivers than it is to check turn and let him set the bet size on the river and have to play more of a guessing game. Oh well.
Blinds 300/600, I open to 1500 with TT and call a ~9k jam and hold vs AK.
Blinds 300/600, four callers and I check 92o from the big blind. The flop is K92 with two hearts and a diamond and I lead out for 1300 and get two callers. The turn is a very safe 5d and I bet 5000. The next player goes to call with a 5K chip and accidentally drops two of them into the pot, effective min-raising me to 10K. The other player folds and it’s back to me. I do believe it was an accident, but I’m also not in love with the situation. I decide to play it safe and just call. The river is the Qd, which is not a great card for me and I’m pretty happy to see him check back and my two pair holds vs KT.
Blinds 300/600, I open to 1600 with AJhh and only the big blind calls. Flop is T63 with one heart and we both check. The turn is the 2s and I call 2200. River pairs the 6 and he fires out 2600. This is the guy that was staring daggers at me earlier and this spot is much less pressure and I’m getting the same live read and basically snap call this time. He shows A9ss and I win the pot.
I have 68K after six levels on the third break of the day.
Level 7
Blinds 400/800, someone jams 5400 and I call with JJ, but wind up losing to his AJ.
Blinds 400/800, someone opens to 1700, there’s a call, and I make it 4800 with AA. The opener jams for 11K and the other player is pretty deep behind with me and goes into the tank. For the briefest of moments, I actually think he’s going to jam, but he ultimately winds up folding. I snap call and the all in tables… AA. What. The player that folded audibly winces when a ten spikes the river and claims he folded pocket tens. Considering how much time he took and that he looked like he might jam, I believed him. What a dodge! I end up splitting with the other aces.
Another player familiar to me is at my table now, a long time frenemy that I named after Batman villain Solomon Grundy a long time ago because, well, there’s a resemblance. I’ve been crossing paths with Solomon Grundy for years now and he pops into my cash games once in a while but I almost always see him in the bigger local tournaments and even sometimes on the road.
Once upon a time, I sat in a $5/$10 no limit hold’em cash game at Little Creek, thinking it was just a $3/$5 game and ended up selling action to my wife (back when she was my girlfriend and we didn’t share money yet) when I realized I was playing in a bigger game. I was a $4/$8 limit player at the time and didn’t play much no limit and certainly didn’t play it at this level (and never have again), so I was far out of my comfort zone. Anyways, Solomon Grundy was in this game and I will never forget the pain of getting all $800 I had in front of me in the middle with KK and seeing him table AA. It broke my heart and crushed my soul at the time. Losing $800 was a lot to me back then and having it all happen in one hand was stunning.
Well, I bring Solomon up because he opens the button to 3k here with blinds still at 400/800 and I look down at 99 in the small blind. He has about 16K behind and his sizing is quite big, so I decide that I’m just going to have to embrace the variance of this spot and play for stacks. I 3-bet to 10K because the big blind was deep with me, but he folds and Grundy stuffs the rest of his stack in. I snap and he tables 77 and I win a big pot and wish him well.
Blinds 400/800, very next hand and I’m on the button now and open to 2200 with AJo. I have two very capable and aggressive players in the blinds, so I don’t expect to get folds very often and I will be continuing if the SB 3-bets and probably getting it in against the BB’s stack size. Only the big defends and the flop comes down A84 with two diamonds. He check-calls 2700 on the flop and then check-calls 6000 when the 4 pairs on the turn. The river is a queen and he has about 10K behind and checks. I don’t see much upside to betting here since I’m chopping with all the aces I was beating now and it’s hard to imagine him calling with worse. I check back and win and after he makes a comment about “how does he have an ace on the button after winning a big pot?” and I wonder if jamming river actually makes perfect sense because of the metagame dynamics.
87.4K on dinner break.
Levels 8-9
Blinds 600/1200, I defend K8hh for 3000. Flop is KQ8 all clubs. Not excited to play a huge pot here, so I check-call 5500 on the flop and then we both check when the turn brings the four card flush in. The river is a blank and he sizes super small at 5200 and I pay it off.
Blinds 600/1200, one limper, button makes it 3100, and I have AKcc in the big blind. Button has been playing rather snug and we are both deep, so I elect to take the lower variance line of just flatting and taking a flop and the other player comes along as well. Flop is A73 with two spades and I check-call 3500 and the other player overcalls. The turn is the 4s and since I expect to be ahead of the button’s range and am now highly vulnerable to spades on the river, I decide to lead out for 8500. I’m a little concerned about the limper, but I also realize my hand can look like a flush here, so I think it’s fine, even though my sizing is quite small. I am happy to see both players fold.
I open to 2800 with 33 and only the big blind defends. The flop is 942 with two diamonds and he donks a hefty 6k. He has about 18k behind and his flop sizing is big, so this is a really weird spot. Still, it seems way too weak-passive to just fold flop. How often is he leading out big with strong hands? Instead of making sure I put a c-bet in first? I flat. The turn pairs the 9, which I love, but he jams for 18k, which I don’t love. This is a tough spot and I spent a long time in the tank thinking about it and came quite close to folding. Ultimately, his line didn’t make much sense to me and he did not seem comfortable at all. I was quite sure he was bluffing. My main dilemma was if he was bluffing with hands I lose to, like 4x of diamonds or 55 maybe. Since losing this pot wasn’t going to cripple me and I thought he was full of crap, I made the call and he tables A8o and bricks the river and I ship a sexy pot, leaving the rest of the table in legit shock.
Blinds 600/1200, I open to 2800 with JJ and the sticky, solid player on my direct left calls. We are heads up to AT8. Here’s the thing, I expect this guy to continue on this board texture a lot of the time and that is going to make things difficult for me if I’m the aggressor. I also expect him to bet worse hands a lot when I check and checking would be my go to line when I have hands like AK or AQ here. We both check the flop. The turn is a 9 and since I’m never bet-folding this card and I showed weakness on the flop, I think check-calling is best here. I check-call 3000. The river pairs the 8 and I am quite happy to check-call 5000, expecting to win this pot almost all the time. I don’t think he has an ace and I’m blocking straights pretty hard. Unfortunately, he shows me the 87o for trips.
I’ve been jotting my hands down all day and after that hand, as I’m typing stuff on my phone, he asks “are you writing down that I’m a donkey” and I say, “no, I wrote that down a long time ago,” which got a solid laugh out of him. We banter a little more and then he says something about “let’s just take their chips” motioning to the other players like we should just stay out of each other’s way and I’m like, “wait, what did you just call me with?”
Blinds 600/1200, I call 3100 with AJ on the button and we are heads up to KT9 flop with two clubs. I have the ace of clubs and peel for another 3100. The turn pairs the ten and he bets another 3100. I’m not sensing strength and I feel like that’s a better card for my range than it is for his, so I eventually pop him to 8500, expecting him to fold a lot. He calls though and the river double pairs the board with a 9 and I decide to give up. He shows K2 of clubs and I feel a little sick. First, that I didn’t consider 3-betting pre and second, because I didn’t put pressure on him on the river. I felt much less sick about this hand when I saw this guy pay off a turn bet and a massive river bet on a 98xQJ board with AJ a short while later (his opponent had 97). I’m pretty sure I saved chips on the river here.
Blinds 600/1200, my notes say I opened to 3500 with QQ here. That seems strange. Maybe there was a limper or I must have had some other reason to increase my sizing. Anyways, I end up getting called in three spots. The flop comes down 873 with two hearts and the big blind just donk-jams 25k. I call, the others fold, and he tables 98o. Just a total overjam spazz with a weak top pair hand. Unfortunately, his suicide attempt gets a safe landing when a 9 spikes the turn and I can’t counterfeit him on the river. The first hand of the tournament that made me truly nauseous.
Blinds 1000/2000, dealer accidentally gives the small blind a third card and the SB has it set to the side, not touching his actual hand and says “it’s this one.” Meanwhile, I’m looking down at KK in middle position, sweating the situation. The dealer calls it a fucking misdeal. Jesus, we know what card is the burn, buddy, wtf are you doing? I’m tempted to say he should call the floor, but I think that reveals my hand strength anyway, so whatever. It’s a misdeal. So gross and unnecessary.
Levels 10-11
Blinds 1200/2400, we have some bad note taking here. It says someone opens to 5000 and I make it 14k with a 60k stack and he calls. Flop is ten high and I c-bet 16k and he folds. What I didn’t list was my actual hand. I believe I had QQ.
Blinds 1200/2400, I open 6k with AA, big blind defends and folds to a c-bet and I am peaking again with 19 players left.
Blinds 1200/2400, I open 6k with AQhh and big blind defends. I bet 8500 on Q62 two spade flop and he check-raises to 28.5k, leaving himself with ~14k behind. I jam and he snaps with Q5 and I hold and bust him. Peaking!
Blinds 1200/2400, it folds to the small blind and he says “5 more” and then tosses out a single 5K chip. Dealer rules it a raise to 7400, which is 5000 more than the big blind. I’m sitting there with K7o and I’m not really liking what’s going on here. I’m not even sure saying “5 more” and throwing in a single oversized chip is a raise, and if it is, it almost certainly is a raise to 6200 and not to 7400. But whatever. I try not to be “that guy” if I can and don’t say anything. I call. The flop is 742 and the small blind hardly even looks at the flop before betting 12k. Since he is giving off such strong physical tells, I think calling and letting him continue to bluff (or folding if his demeanor changes) makes more sense than raising. Turn is a 3 and again he puts zero thought into the situation and bets 16k. Easiest call of my life. The river is a 6 and since I think my hand is good 98% of the time here and that he probably can’t call anything on this run out, I check back and win vs AK.
I now have 190k with 17 players left and average stack is 108k.
Blinds 1500/3000, I open to 7500 with KQo and someone jams to 33.4K. Easy call. He tables QJss and spikes a jack to double through me.
Blinds 1500/3000, someone opens to 7500, there’s a call, and I decide to call with KQo. Four of us see a king high flop and after the opener checks, the first call jams for ~42k total. Can’t really call with KQ pre and fold here, so I make the call and the other players fold. He tables AK and I get super lucky by spiking a queen on the turn, winning a huge pot, and busting a player. I am peaking again at just under 200k.
Blinds 2000/4000, I open to 10k with 99 and the sticky player on my left makes the call. The flop is K72 with two spades. I would pretty much always c-bet this flop texture, so I bet 14.5k and he calls. Turn pairs the king and also brings a third spade. We both check. The river is a 7, which I actually hate because this guy has proven he’s capable of having 7x hands in his range. I check again and he bets 30k. Kind of a tough spot here. What am I really beating with that he can call on the flop with? Small pairs only really. Unfortunately, he would now have to bluff with those hands. But really, it’s a pretty small range: 66-33. He would almost certainly check back with 88. Anything else he can have, I am probably losing to, unless he’s on a weird airball. Again, seems like an easy fold in retrospect, but I called and he shows KJ.
That dips me below average with 12 players left. I have 125k and average is 141k.
Blinds 2000/4000, I open to 11k with AJ and call a 40k jam and bust a player holding KT. Down to 11 and on the money bubble.
Blinds 2000/4000, button opens to 10k and I make it 40k from the small blind with QQ. I am quite surprised to see him call. Flop is 886 with two diamonds. There is 84k plus antes in the pot and he has about 125k behind. The board texture isn’t super wet, so I can probably get away with betting something like 33-40% pot here, but I decide I don’t want to do any guessing if bad turns come. I just put him all in and put max pressure on him. We are on the stone bubble, so I’m actually surprised when he starts thinking about it and when he ends up tanking for a very long time, it dawns on me that he has a real hand. A pair. I want him to call. He does. Tables JJ. Turn blank. River blank! He’s out! And I basically get a full double as we move to the final table and into the money.
In fact, I start the final table with 350k, which is either the chip lead or close to it, and the average stack is 184k.
A look at the prize pool:
10th – $608
9th – $608
8th – $1065
7th – $1220
6th – $1520
5th – $2130
4th – $2890
3rd – $4560
2nd – $6235
1st – $9580
In other words, the payouts are brutally flat. There is a bigger jump from 9th to 8th than from 7th to 6th and all the jumps are pretty insignificant until four players left. At this point, I am going to be disappointed with anything less than 4th place, I think.
Blinds 3000/6000, I open to 16k with AJ and the big blind defends. Flop is AJ9 one spade and he check-calls 18k quite quickly. He checks-calls 40k very fast on the Ts turn also. River is the 6s, which brings in a backdoor flush, but I have the ace of spades and the jack of spades is on the board, so I’m not concerned about a running flush and he has shown such an eagerness to call that I go for it all on the river and put him all in for his remaining 150k. Unfortunately, he mucks it. Still a nice pot for me to start the final table.
Blinds 3000/6000, folds to me in small blind with AJ. Big blind is nitty and has about 12 big blinds. Easy jam. He snaps and rolls QQ. Sigh. He holds and I double him up. 370k with 8 left.
Blinds 3000/6000, I open to 14k and the button calls. Flop is AKJ and I think this is a good board to pot control. I check-call 25k. Turn is a blank and I check-call 25k again. I’m very unconcerned about my hand with his bet sizing. River bricks again, I check, he bets 30k and I snap. He rolls KQ and I’m good.
Blinds 3000/6000, folds to me on the button and I have A5o. The small blind has a decent-sized stack and plays too tight to play for stacks with him, but the big blinds started with 40k and I’ll definitely get it in with him. I open to 16k and only the big blind calls, which is really strange considering his stack size. Flop is 775 and he open-jams. Snap call. He tables AT and I hold and bust him.
I am now peaking near 500k with 7 left and am totally set up to ship this whole thing.
Blinds 3000/6000, one limper, I make it 20k with AJ and he calls. Flop is QJ5 and he donks 50k. Did I say I was set up to win this thing? Hold that thought. Can I possibly fold AJ here? It is atypical to donk good hands into the PFR so the line is toying with me. But the fact that I am thinking about folding it means that my instincts are telling me something is different here. Sigh. I don’t listen to them. I decide my hand is too good to fold on the flop and if I’m not folding on the flop, then it’s hard to imagine folding ever given his stack size, so I jam. He snaps with QT and I dust off an extra 125k to him.
Blinds 4000/8000, and I’m about to make another misstep. I open to 20k with 55 and the nitty player on my left jams for ~100k. If I asked myself before the hand if I was willing to get 100k in pre against this player before I opened the answer would have been “no.” The problem is, this guy is so tight, I feel like he’s folding roughly 85% of the time. Maybe more. Since he’s almost certainly jamming AK and AQ and probably some more unpaired hands, I have to call and I end up doubling him again when his AA holds up. I actually did flop a one card four flush, but nope!
Blinds 4000/8000, I open to 22k with T9 of clubs. I am increasing my opening sizing when the sticky player that was on my left earlier is in the blinds. He calls and the flop is AAK. He checks to me and I size way down at 15k to make it look like I’m itching for a call and he folds 77 face up.
Blinds 4000/8000, I open to 23k with 44 and only the small blind calls. Flop is K76 all spades and we both check. Turn is 4d, giving me a set and he checks to me again. He has somewhere between 70k-80k and with the pot size at around 60k, I just go ahead and put him in. He then flashes me the ace of spades and a 7… and mucks. Wow. What a flop check by me and what a turn.
Blinds 6000/12000, I open to 30k with QT suited and the nit on my left jams for 85k. Goddammit. I call. He has KK and doubles through me for the third time. UGHHHHHHHHHHH.
That puts me down to 178k and the sticky, good player has all the chips now and proposes a deal. He offers us all $3500 each and he gets the rest (which is a little over $7k). I have about 15 bigs, which is either the shortest stack or the second shortest, and the second biggest stack probably doesn’t even have 22 bigs. The next player out gets $1220 and we are going to have to finish in at least 3rd to get more than $3500. I don’t particularly want to make a deal, but I have zero leverage, and neither does anyone else really. Still, I stay silent and let everyone else talk it out. I am fine playing. Absolutely fine. But if everyone else agrees, I think I have to take the deal. The reality is, the six of us are all very close to push/fold stacks and I might be the only one that actually realizes that and will play accordingly. Also, the payout structure is so flat that surviving and laddering up isn’t overwhelmingly appealing. They all eventually agree to the deal and I begrudgingly agree as well. Can’t be too upset about a $3500 return on a $340 investment, but the competitor in me was a little sad. The competitor in me also would have been pissed if I was the next person out for $1220, so….
A nice little score that gets me almost even in live tournaments for the year.
I have six more possible events in the Muckleshoot Spring Classic over the next week and after typing 5000+ words in this post, I will definitely not be posting play-by-play blogs for each event! Heck no. But I will keep you guys updated.
Sorry, this is way overdue, but better late than never! My playing schedule is going to be very tournament heavy over the next couple weeks. I will be playing $15/$30 today and tomorrow at Palace, but I’ll be heading to Little Creek Casino for their $340 No Limit Hold’em Main Event on Saturday. I have an online fantasy baseball draft on Sunday night, so I’ll probably just take the day off or play on Global that day, then back to Palace for a $15/$30 Marathon Monday session. Tuesday will be an off day and then Wednesday is the first day of the Muckleshoot Spring Classic series. They have events every day, Wednesday through Sunday, and I sold action to all of them, so that’s my tentative plan for next week. I typically skip the $500 on Saturday if I’m not in the running for Player of the Series (which I never am) so that I can be rested up for the $750 Main Event the next day instead. I have multiple cashes in the Main Event of this series over the last several years, but I have zero final tables and I think only one or two cashes in preliminary events. My phone data goes back to August of 2014 and Muckleshoot has been my worst location during that stretch. I have 0 cashes in the last 11 Classic events I’ve played, so I’m looking to break a cold stretch and finally do something big in this series. I’m way overdue! I will take notes and try to make posts at the end of the day, but that’s something that is much easier to do when I’m on the road by myself than when I’m at home with my wife.
Now onto the goals!
Volume Goals
-play 1800 live hours
-play less than 33% of live cash game hours at $8/$16 or lower
-play 500 hours of PLO (online and live)
-play one mixed game session a month (house games)
-take more shots
-play at least one online tournament a week
-play a bigger WSOP schedule
-play 100 hours of NLHE cash (online and live)
Comments:
1800 total live hours is 150 hours a month which should be easily attainable and if you’ve been following my blog, you know I’m on pace to crush that number.
Playing 67% of my cash game volume at $10/$20 or higher seemed problematic a few short weeks ago, but $15/$30 has been going basically every day at Palace and this should be another goal I will demolish. I was mostly an $8/$16 player for the last three years, but this year I will be playing almost entirely red chip games.
With online play, 500 hours of PLO should be a number I will hit, but my real goal here is to play more in live PLO cash games, particularly when I’m traveling out of state. Even locally, I wouldn’t say I’ve been committed to playing PLO. I average about two sessions a month and I went three months in a row without playing at all last year. I would like to add an Omaha 8 or Better goal but really the only place I go specifically to play O8 is The Orleans in Las Vegas, so it’s not something that comes up much and I only play it when I’m in Vegas if it wasn’t my priority for the day… meaning, I busted out of tournament and it’s 9 PM and I still want to play some poker, but with like zero pressure.
I want to play more mixed game poker this year, so that I’m fresh and ready come WSOP time. Ideally, I’d like to play a mixed game a couple times a month, but even 12 sessions in a year would be a big improvement over my past volume. I seem to play most of the games pretty well using mostly natural instincts and card sense, but I’d like to gain more actual experience.
When I say take more shots I mean in games I might not exactly be bankrolled for. For instance, I shouldn’t be such a nit when I’m in L.A. and Vegas and I should sit down in the $40/$80 games some of the time. A bad session isn’t going to crush me, but a great one could be huge. The concept of having a bankroll for a particular game assumes that you are playing that game regularly. Taking shots seems fine if I’m smart and careful about it. Also, I have some interest in playing the $100/$200 mix game at Muckleshoot, but I wouldn’t do so without taking on a partner or two. Hit me up if you’re interested!
On average, playing one tournament online a week is a piece of cake. When I do play online, I typically play 5-8 tournaments in a single night. This is to help keep me sharp for NLHE tournaments, which I very rarely play live.
My WSOP schedule has been increasing every year, but I’m ready to kick it up a few notches. I already have a room booked for May 30th through June 12th and that could cover up to seven WSOP events and I may wind up staying through – and playing – the Main Event. Certainly I will not be done with Vegas after June 12th. There are at least two more must play events on my schedule after that first trip. The most events I’ve played in a year was five in 2017 and it would be cool to at least double that number for 2018. In all likelihood, if I play the Main Event, I will be selling up to 90% of my action and I will probably need more assistance than my usual backing arrangement.
My weekly goal is 30 minutes of NL cash games online. This seems like the bare minimum practice I need. When I’m playing online though, I drastically prefer PLO and when I play live, it is incredibly rare for me to actually sit in a no limit cash game. 100 hours is way more than my actual weekly goal would add up to, but this is a skill set that I really need to start developing. I feel like I’m a fine NL cash game player, but I’m far from being an expert and I wouldn’t feel comfortable playing anything bigger than $3/$5.
Win Rate Goals
-$15/$30 LHE: 1.25 BB/HR
-$20/$40 LHE (and higher): 1 BB/HR
-$8/$16 LHE (and lower): 1.25 BB/HR
-$1/$3/$5 PLO: $50/HR
-Live PLO: 10 bb/HR
-$0.25/$0.50 6-max PLO: 1 bb/HR
-Online PLO: 5 bb/HR
-No Limit Hold Em: 10 bb/HR
-Live Tournaments: 50% ROI
-Online Tournaments: 30% ROI
*note: limit games are expressed as big bets per hour and no limit and plo are expressed as big blinds per hour
Comments:
First off, it’s not going to break my heart if I don’t meet some of these goal. My real goal is to play amazing poker all the time and hopefully the money comes my way. These numbers just seem like reasonable bench marks. For the non-LHE games, I probably won’t play enough hours for short-term variance not to have a dramatic affect on my final results. But still, I feel like this is where I would like to be at.
I imagine I will play more $15/$30 LHE than any other game this year. When I was sitting at $7/hour after 200 hours in the Palace $15/$30 (thanks mostly to High Hands and Jackpots), I thought a final goal of even 1 BB/HR might be a reach after such a rough start. But after making $11k in four days, my numbers look more like what I’m accustomed to and I think continuing to beat Palace LHE games for somewhere between 1.25 and 1.75 big bets per hour is plenty doable.
Bigger games are tougher, but last year I smashed my goal of 0.75 BB/HR at $20/$40 or higher. No reason I can’t do that again, but since $30/$60 happens at Palace a few times a month now, and I plan to take some shots in even bigger games, I’m going to temper my expectations for the time being.
As I noted earlier, I don’t expect to be playing much $8/$16 this year, so this could be a number that could see a lot of variance.
I won $100 an hour in the PLO game at Palace last year, but I’m positive that’s unsustainable. If I won even half that much an hour in 2018, that’s probably still smashing. I may have set this goal too high, but whatever. Shoot for the moon!
I listed the Palace game separately since it has a 1/3/5 structure. For all other games where you can limp for the price of the big blind, I think a 10 bb/hour goal is solid. Same can be said for no limit hold cash games.
My goal of 1 bb/hr for $0.25/$0.50 6-max PLO online is a joke. Considering I lost 26 bb/hr at this exact game last year, anything in the positive is a huge turnaround and I’ll take it. My results in full ring PLO games are basically the opposite. I don’t really know what I should be making at PLO online, but anything positive seems like a good start and somewhere between 5 and 10 bb/hr is probably a solid target.
I will come back to earth eventually with live tournaments and when I do, it will probably be to the tune of my first losing year of tournament poker ever. Even when I was an idiot alcoholic I never had a losing year in tournaments. But with my average buy-in increasing every year and a rather small sample size, posting a final score in the red is bound to happen.
My ROI in tournaments on Global Poker is currently 13%. My ROI in 755 online tournaments over the past 3+ years is -1%. Setting a goal of 30% here is actually kind of a big deal. But there are so many different players absolutely smashing the Global Poker tournaments that I refuse to believe I can’t drastically improve on my past performance. I can’t speak to my performance on sites before Global, but I do know my biggest reason for lack of success on Global is an abysmal performance in anything with a buy-in of $20 or higher. My average ROI is 83%, which is on par with the beasts on the site, but basically all my good fortune has happened in the smallest buy-ins.
Life Goals
-Reach a new bankroll peak
-clear credit card debt
-pay off final student loan
-visit a new MLB stadium
-play poker in a new part of the U.S.
-meditate every day
-do yoga twice a week
-run/jog more
-lift twice a week
-drink more water, drink less soda
-eat better and smarter, less fast food
-bring my average blood sugar below 150
-bring my A1C below 7
-less distractions
-no toxic chatting/arguing/debating
-keep blogging about poker
-read Jared Tendler’s books
-study mix games
-watch at least two vlogs a week
-read about mindfulness/meditation
Comments:
I had a very successful first year as a professional poker player, but my bankroll at the end of 2017 was actually smaller than it was when I quit my job. To be fair to myself, we did buy a house and I put more money down than I ever planned to and then we spent the first several months fixing up our new home and the costs piled. We also aggressively paid down our debt. I paid off two student loans and one credit card and now we have one of each to go. Then I sent a very painful bundle of money to the IRS for taxes and did so all throughout 2017 as well. I also dropped a chunk of change into an IRA account and invested in some digital currencies. Plus, I like to spend money on experiences. We go to multiple MLB games a year, see plays like “Hamilton”, travel a lot, and I’ve been to Universal Studios and Disneyland twice each since October 2016. I make a budget every month, but we aren’t exactly pinching pennies. I enjoy living and experiencing life. With that said, there have been multiple moments where I look at my total bankroll number and think “WTF?” I had a massive year for an $8/$16 player and I had less money than I started with? I’ve been working on this post for a while now and I’ve gotten healthy over the past few weeks and saw considerable growth for the first time in a while. Being able to play $15/$30 on a daily basis five minutes from home should be like giving myself a raise that is nearly double my previous cash game hourly. That’s obviously extremely helpful. With that said, I feel comfortable playing $30/$60 regularly. I want to say I felt comfortable playing $40/$80 – I didn’t have any nerves – but I also quit the game after dropping a couple racks in about an hour. That’s not giving myself a chance to overcome a poor start. I do that all the time at my normal limits. I want to end 2018 with at least a $40/$80 bankroll, even if I won’t be playing it regularly.
I mentioned we still have a little credit card debt and I have one student loan left. Even though I want to grow my bankroll, clearing unnecessary debt is and has been a bigger priority for us.
My wife and I travel once a year to visit a new MLB stadium. We’ve been doing this since 2014 when we went to Anaheim to watch watch the Angels play the Dodgers. In 2015, we went to San Francisco; 2016 we went to Denver, Colorado to watch the Rockies; and last year we went to Dodger Stadium and the Mariners spring training complex in Peoria, Arizona; I also happened to be driving into L.A. during Game 2 of the NLCS and made a spur of the moment decision to buy tickets to watch some playoff baseball and make my third visit to Dodger Stadium of the year (I did a park tour in January 2017). This year our current plan seems to be to visit New Orleans then drive to Houston for an Astros game and then drive to Arlington for a Rangers game before flying back home out of Dallas.
I would also like to go to somewhere I’ve never been for a poker trip. I played at Thunder Valley last year and some new casinos in L.A. earlier this year, but the only place I’ve played poker outside of Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada is at Ameristar in Blackhawk, Colorado. One of the best things about my profession is that I can travel and work at the same time and seeing new places is one of my favorite things to do.
Lots of health goals. I was doing really well with meditation and yoga for a while there and I’ve fallen off the cliff since $15/$30 started getting spread every day. I’ve mentioned this before, but my balance has been struggling, and on the days that I plan to play, I want to be there as soon as the game starts and I typically don’t leave before 1 AM, which leaves very little room for production on my work days. I plan to play today and I haven’t looked at Bravo yet, so I just need to accept the fact that I need to get some things done before I go play and I might have to wait a bit to get into the game. Meditation, yoga, lifting, and jogging are all things I can incorporate back into my life when I normalize my sleep schedule and accept that I don’t need to be playing poker every waking hour of my work days.
My diet is absolute shit. I’ve never been huge on preparing my own meals, but I am at an all-time worst right now. I’ve always been skinny and gaining weight has been near impossible for me throughout my life. Well, I’m finally average weight for my height and I have some actual flab going on. I’m sort of happy about that, but I’m not happy about how I got there. I eat at the casino probably 10+ times a week and I eat fast food now more than I ever have because I feel I don’t have time for anything else. I used to have a goal of making one meal a week, but that’s fallen off to like once a month, if that. It’s all quite pathetic and I’d like to focus on eating better and healthier, starting with making my own meals more often. I also would like to make water my drink of choice. I do pretty good about that when I’m playing poker, but I tend to gravitate towards diet soda when I’m at home.
I have some goals for my diabetes as well. I think I do a decent job overall with my blood sugar, but I can definitely manage it better and I’m certainly not helping myself with a lot of my meal choices. My numbers still trend higher than they should and I want to work on lowering them. Exercising regularly and eating healthier will go hand in hand with that.
Less distractions. I just want to use my time more efficiently. My days can start off really poorly. I might spend the first two hours drinking coffee and doing pointless stuff online and before I started live blogging my sessions (which I think is productive), I would spend my time out of hands doing stupid stuff on my phone and not paying attention. I am a pillar of strength at the poker table, but when I play online, that chat box gets me sometimes. It’s so much easier to tell someone what you think or respond to their stupid comments when you’re sitting at home behind your computer screen. I admit I can be a bit toxic in that regard and I need to work on channeling my live table presence into the online arena. I also have a tendency to get into stupid and pointless arguments and debates on Facebook, online forums, and the like. I suppose I enjoy debating and witty banter, but it’s a bad use of time that I could spend doing something else way more productive and healthier.
I plan to keep blogging about my poker experiences. It’s amazing how much my audience has grown since I decided to start posting regular poker content. I appreciate everyone that has been reading and rooting me on!
Finally, some study goals. By goodness, I’m going to read through both of Jared Tendler’s books and do all the damn work he asks me to do. My rough stretch through January and into February proved that I still have a lot of work to do on my mental game. I also want to study and play mix games more often, keep watching poker vlogs, and continue reading about meditation and mindfulness – and making the time to do all that.
Volume Goals:
-Play 1800 live hours
-Play 600 hours of 20/40 or higher
-Play 100 hours of Omaha 8 or Better
Comments: My final live hours tally was 1729.5 hours, so I came up just short of that goal. However, I did add another 1100+ hours in online play, which sounds massive, but can actually be reduced somewhat because each table I play at is accumulating time in my app tracker. So one hour while 4-tabling is actually four total hours. Still, if you include the online volume, I easily played 160+ hours a month in 2017. In addition, 85% of my live hours were in cash games and 15% were in tournaments. Online, my volume is closer to 50/50 between cash and tournaments.
I only played 239 hours of $20/$40 LHE, but I did add 74 hours of $15/$30, 98 hours of 1/3/5 PLO, 11 hours of $30/$60, and 15 hours in bigger mix games. Add all that up and that’s 437 hours in bigger games, which is still short of my goal – and this would have been much worse if Palace didn’t start spreading bigger games in the last couple of months of 2017. When it came down to it, I just preferred to commute 5 minutes to play poker rather than 30+, even if it sort of hurt our bottom line.
I played 35 hours of live Omaha 8 or Better, far below my goal – and only an additional 21 hours online. I did play 90 hours of O8 tournaments though, so I guess this goal is somewhat of a wash. On the bright side, I didn’t plan to become a Pot Limit Omaha player in 2017, so that was a fun development. I played 96 hours of live PLO and 234 hours of online PLO, plus another 111 hours in PLO tournaments. So all in all, I played 587 hours in four card games, which seems like a check mark for this goal. I imagine I will be playing even more PLO in 2018, but Global Poker currently doesn’t offer O8 games and the only live casinos with O8 are either too far away or spread it too small for me to want to play consistently. I did hear Muckleshoot brought back a $20/$40 O8 game on Saturdays, but I’m yet to play it.
Win Rate Goals:
-1.5 BB/HR @ $8/$16
-0.75 BB/HR @ $20/$40 or higher
-1 BB/HR @ Omaha 8 or Better
-50% ROI in live tournaments
Comments: I came up just short on my $8/$16 goal. After posting a win rate of 1.12 BB/HR in 2015 and 1.8 BB/HR in 2016, I thought somewhere in the middle for 2017 would be reasonable, and I was right. I didn’t quite hit 1.5 BB/HR, but I did finish at 1.41 BB/HR for 2017.
My goal for bigger games went much better. After finishing 2016 with a disappointing 0.5 BB/HR in $20/$40 LHE games, I wasn’t sure if I was really capable of putting up the numbers I’ve become accustomed to in smaller games, but I’m happy to report that I finished 2017 with a 1.19 BB/HR win rate in $20/$40 (and 1.47 BB/HR in the Fortune $20/$40) and 1.23 BB/HR in LHE games of $15/$30 or bigger.
As I mentioned earlier, my Omaha 8 or Better volume was really small for 2017, so individual sessions had a really big impact on my final results. I won $29/hour playing O8 in 2017 while posting a win rate of -0.05 BB/HR! How did this happen? I played a seven hour $30/$60 O8 session and won $1300 and that accounted for more than 100% of my profit for the year.
I didn’t set a Pot Limit Omaha goal for 2017, but since I played so much of it, I figure I should share my results. As I’ve mentioned many times on my blog, I don’t think I’m a particularly good PLO player, but the game that’s spread on Wednesdays at Palace is so incredibly soft that I’ve managed to put up some monster results. I won over $100/hour in a 1/3/5 structured game. I don’t really know how to express that as a win rate since big bet games are usually expressed as big blinds per hour and this game has a $3 big blind but it’s $5 to call. Shrug. $100/hour is pretty much all you need to know – and it’s totally unsustainable. I actually lost money in PLO cash games online, to the tune of -$12/hour in over twice as many hours as my live volume and this is why I’m pretty sure I’m not that great. In fact, I lost $14/hour in $0.25/$0.50 6-max PLO, which is 28 big blinds/hour. That’s BAD. I seem to do better in full ring games than I do in short-handed PLO. I know I have run bad in online PLO, but I also know I’m not that good. On the other hand, I did really well in online PLO tournaments. I cashed in 23 of 65 events (35%) for an ROI of 119% with six wins and three seconds in fields that typically had 50-120 players, which means I finished in the top two of nearly 14% of the PLO tournaments I played. That’s either dominant or super lucky… or both.
I once again crushed my ROI goal for live tournaments, thanks to another WSOP final table and a new career high score for my 5th place finish in the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. event.
I ended up playing 37 events with a buy in of $100+ and an average buy in of $476 and finished with an ROI of 256% which smashed my goal of 50% I set for the year. As I noted in my 2017 Goals, I guessed I would play about 3 live tournaments a month and that was a spot on estimate. All my success basically came in the WSOP where I cashed 4 of 5 tournaments and found myself in the WSOP Player of the Year running before deciding not to play any more events.
It’s worth noting that I whiffed completely in the Muckleshoot Classic series, posting an overall 0-9 effort. I still have zero final tables in that series to date and it remains a location that I am yet to have a breakout in.
I only had two notable cashes outside of the WSOP – I took 4th of 188 in my first tournament of the year back in January at the LAPC at Commerce in the $350 Omaha 8 or Better for $5600 and then I took 1st of 75 in the $125 All In Or Fold tournament at Run It Up Reno in October for $3900.
I played many, many more tournaments online. This is basically what I did on my “days off.” I played in 500 total tournaments with an average buy in of $21.50 and I cashed in 106 (21%). Despite a decent cashing percentage, I actually finished with a -8% ROI and lost $1.25/hour overall. LOL. To be fair, I did punt the majority of my bankroll on Ignition when the future of that site went into question. In July, I switched over to Global Poker and cashed in 82 of 303 tournaments (27%) with I think about ten wins, an overall ROI of 11%, and a sexy hourly of $1.56!
Training/Study Goals:
-read through MG1&2 and do all the work
-do APT weekly challenge every week
-memorize all the typical LHE drawing odds
-watch at least one WSOP FT a month
-play at least four hours of PLO and four hours of NLHE every month
-play at least ten tournaments a month
Comments: Most of my studying is in the form of playing micro stakes cash games and tournaments online. Basically my goal is to stay sharp or gain experience in no limit hold’em tournaments and pot limit Omaha cash games. With that said, I crushed the bottom two goals listed above. The rest of my study goals didn’t go nearly as well. I never finished Jared Tendler‘s books and as you can tell from some of my recent blog posts and my mind state at the end of my last LAPC trip this is an area that I could still use considerable work on. I subscribed to PokerGo and there’s tons of content on there – and I’m even watching the $25K Mixed Games Championship in the U.S. Poker Open as I type this (Go DeathDonkey!) – but most of my poker watching has been on the streams and vlogs of Lex Veldhuis, Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen, Tonkaaa, and JNandez. There is so much good poker content out there right now that it’s overwhelming at times. I also read Tommy Angelo‘s Painless Poker and while I prefer his older work, it did spark some lifestyle changes.
Top 5 $8/$16 Sessions:
1. +$1867 @ Palace
2. +$1808 @ Palace
3. +$1550 @ Palace
4. +$1530 @ Palace
5. +$1465 @ Palace
Worst 5 $8/$16 Sessions:
1. -$905 @ Palace
2. -$887 @ Palace
3. -$873 @ Palace
4. -$857 @ Palace
5. -$758 (x2) @ Palace
Top 5 non-$8/$16 Sessions:
1. +$4010 in $1/$3/$5 PLO @ Palace
2. +$3535 in $1/$3/$5 PLO @ Palace
3. +$2907 in $20/$40 LHE @ Fortune
4. +$2725 in $15/$30 LHE @ Palace
5. +$2540 in $15/$30 LHE @ Palace *$2352 Royal Flush
6. +$2348 in $30/$60 LHE @ Palace
Worst 5 non-$8/$16 Sessions:
1. -$2265 in $15/$30 LHE @ Palace
2. -$2100 in $1/$3/$5 PLO @ Palace
3. -$1442 in $20/$40 LHE @ Commerce
4. -$1242 in $20/$40 LHE @ Fortune
5. -$1191 in $20/$40 LHE @ Fortune
The Bat Cave 