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WSOP 2019: Recap

July 9, 2019

It’s official. I will not be returning to Vegas to play the $3k H.O.R.S.E. event this coming Sunday. Even with a $600 H.O.R.S.E. the day before at Venetian, I’m having a hard time justifying the trip to myself.

First off, I’m going to be adding somewhere around $500-$800 in expenses to play one (maybe two) tournaments? That’s some serious rake. Secondly, how soft is that field really going to be? By this weekend, the Main Event will be down to the last day or two and I imagine Vegas will largely be cleared out and when the dust settles, only the most serious of WSOP grinders will be left behind. It would be a fun challenge to battle with that crowd, but I’m happy to be home and I’m eager to start gearing up for next year already.

So that means my 2019 WSOP is a wrap.

How was it?

I’ll grade it as okay. I’m sure some people would be ecstatic with the results I had. I did well in cash games, almost made another WSOP final table, and I got to play in the Main Event! But the goals I have for myself are a lot higher than what I achieved this summer. I’m not mad about it… but I would say I’m slightly disappointed. It does rank as my third best WSOP ever, but that’s not really saying much. I only played 1 or 2 tournaments in 2014 and 2015, had really good summers in 2016 and 2017, and got my ass kicked last year.

This year I played 72+ hours of cash games and won a total of $9400. I won basically all of that in 25 hours of 40/80 limit Hold’em at Bellagio and broke even in ~50 hours of everything else, mostly mix games. Makes you wonder why I didn’t play more 40/80, especially when mix games move at a snail’s pace compared to limit Hold’em. All I can really say is… I’m a wimp. I played my last 40/80 session on June 28th and with my Main Event starting on July 3rd, I wanted to make sure I locked up a solid profit for my trip rather than see if I could really run it up or have variance bring me back to ground zero.

As far as tournaments, I went 3 for 10 for -$6680 over 91+ hours, but I didn’t cash the Main, so that accounted for a $10,000 loss and I only had 20% of myself in that one. Removing the Main, I cashed 3 of 9 for +$3320 with my 12th place finish in the $2500 Stud 8/Omaha 8 accounting for basically all my tournament success this year.

Since I only had 20% of myself in the Main, I personally finished with a small loss in tournaments during the Series and my personal poker profit was somewhere north of $8000.

Here’s a look at some expenses for the trip:

Airfare/Luggage: $780 (two round trips)
Lodging: $1300 (22 nights at ~$59/night)
Ubers: $530 (~$23/day)

Not including food, my Vegas stay cost me around $2600 and my net profit was somewhere around +$5500 which is a pretty decent but slightly disappointing overall result. With games in the SeaTac area as dry as they get at any point in the year, it is highly unlikely I could have done better by staying home, so there’s that at least.

I went 1 for 6 in WSOP events this year, so I now have 1 cash in my last 16, which feels super gross to even type out. However, lifetime, I now have 8 cashes in 30 tournaments with two final tables and a top 12 finish, so even with two bricks in the Main Event my career ROI is still way above average at the Series. I guess I can’t complain, but the last two years have left me feeling extremely unsatisfied, especially since I’m a way better player now than I was in 2016 or 2017.

I have found balance difficult to achieve when I’m in Vegas for long periods of time. I went to the gym once while I was there; I ate like shit and I slept like shit, going to bed past 4 AM most nights and waking up past 1 PM most days. I didn’t meditate. Basically, the only productive thing I did besides play poker was study poker. I’ll give myself credit for at least doing a decent amount of studying. Also, even with getting a late start and coming back home for a week, I still found myself homesick by the end.

Ideally, at this stage of my poker career, I feel like I should at least be playing every $1500 buy in with a limit structure. This year that would have been nine tournaments. Plus I think the $2500 Mixed Triple Draw and Stud 8/Omaha 8 tournaments should be a focus and some day the $3000 limit Hold’em 6-max and H.O.R.S.E. tourneys should be must plays as well. And I should be playing at least some no limit Hold’em events. That means I want to be playing something like 12-15 events at the WSOP every year and this year I only played six?

So the question is, how do I reach that goal while keeping myself sane and productive in Las Vegas and my wife happy at home while I’m gone for weeks at a time? That is a mystery I’m going to try to solve by this time next year. My ultimate goal is to win a bracelet and that’s pretty hard to do if I’m not playing as much as I possibly can during June and July.

I never posted goals for 2019, so I’ll be thinking about that over the next few days as I assimilate to being back home and getting myself on the path for maximum success come this time next year.

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2019 WSOP: Main Event Day 2 Sweat Post

July 6, 2019

Here’s what my Day 2 table is looking like:

This looks way more favorable than my Day 1 table where it seemed like everyone could play pretty well. Of course, past results don’t indicate everything. I know some NLHE players that are better than me that have very few recorded live cashes.

Still, it looks promising. There are only three players with more in career cashes than me, but I actually rank second in the GPI at this table. Even 2016 Main Event champ Qui Nguyen is less seasoned and accomplished than I am since his big win.

The only bad news is that the likely best current player at this table is on my immediate left with twice as many chips as me.

Playing with Qui Nguyen should be interesting. I imagine there will be cameras on him today and maybe even a long shot chance that he gets us on a feature table. Qui is a loose cannon so I will be looking to play pots in position against him and let him bluff chips off to me. He is capable of pulling the trigger in insane spots that don’t even make sense, so I’m not planning to get into any leveling or raising wars with him. I doubt I will be attempting to squeeze light against him and I’m curious how the player behind me will react when he opens and gets callers. I expect everyone else at this table to be playing pretty straight forward.

I have the second smallest stack at my table, but it hardly matters – I’ll be starting the day with exactly 70 bigs. Plenty of stack to work with when we have two hour levels.

I think I made two avoidable mistakes on Day 1 and I would guess they cost me about 35k total in chips, so I’ll be looking to find clarity in similar murky spots today. I think I’m at a good table to chip up and put myself in position to contend for a cash on Day 3.

Let’s get it. Stack updates after every level here.

Dinner break is at 8 PM! That’s nine long hours from now. Gross.

Qui Nguyen doing the “shuffle up and deal” right now.

He sits down and I say, “that speech cost you a small blind.”

Seat one literally just punted his entire to stack to the champ.

Qui opens, he makes a small 3-bet from out of position, Qui calls.

Flop 543. He bets, Qui raises, he snap-calls.

Turn 10. He donks 25k, Qui makes it 60k, he snap-calls.

River 5. He donks all in, Qui snaps. s1 has AA, Qui has A2.

They each started that hand 140 bigs deep.

Unreal.

Two people already busted from this table.

Under the gun makes it 1800 at 400/800, one player flats, and I call with QJdd from the small blind and the big blind also calls.

Flop is A64 with two diamonds. It checks to the original flatter and he bets 3200, I call, the big folds and the PFR check-raises it to 9000. The flop bettor folds and I have no fold equity here, so I’m not jamming, but I want to see a turn card. I call, planning to fold if I miss the turn.

It’s the king of diamonds. This is a very good card. Not only do I make my hand, but his most likely ace high flushes are severely blocked. He can’t have AK, AQ, or AJ of diamonds. He can have ATdd or any small suited aces, but if that’s the case, I guess I’m just flying home today.

There’s around 29k in the pot already, my hand looks a lot like a flush draw, and I only have around 36k behind, so I’m not gonna give him a chance to check behind here, nor do I want to make any tough decisions if the board pairs on the river or another diamond comes.

I think when he check-raises the flop he probably has a set or an ace high flush draw. If he has the latter, there’s nothing I can do about it now.

I go all in.

He doesn’t snap, so that’s nice, but he also doesn’t think very long.

He turns over two red aces.

And now I’m packing my bags to fly back to Seattle.

GG, Vegas.

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2019 WSOP: THE MAIN EVENT – Day 1 Sweat Post

July 3, 2019

It’s pretty amazing that this is something I’m able to do. Play the World Series of Poker Main Event? It’s my second year playing it and I feel like I’m already taking the opportunity for granted. Today feels just like another day, but maybe that will change when I actually sit down at the table.

I’m playing Day 1A. I’m not sure what to make of that. I imagine that Day 1C is the best day to play. For one, July 4th is tomorrow and for two, Day 1C is a Friday. I imagine that people that have day jobs are far more likely to plan their trip around a Day 1 starting on a Friday than a Day 1 starting on a Wednesday. I think Day 1A is historically the smallest of the fields.

Oh well. My strategy with playing today is that if things go horribly I can book a flight home and be back in Washington instead of prolonging my trip for no good reason. If I make it to Day 2, I will be playing again on Saturday and will have the next two days off to do whatever I want.

Since busting the $1500 LHE event, I’ve played two cash game sessions with relatively breakeven results. Most notably, I finally got the Orleans out of the lifetime red, but I played my first ever session at Wynn and booked a $1k loser, which is amusingly big enough to put it in my bottom five locations of all-time!

Info on today’s structure:

We start with 60,000 in chips, or 300 big blinds, which is 10k more in chips than last year but actually smaller effective stacks. Not that it matters much. If you can maintain a starting stack all day, you’d start Day 2 with 75 big blinds.

I’ll be taking it super easy and abc for the first level or so, as I build profiles on my opponents and see what I’m dealing with, before moving on to a more exploitative approach as the day progresses.

I had really favorable table draws my first two days last year so hopefully I can continue that streak today.

Cards in the air at noon. I’ll post stack updates here on breaks and, as usual, maybe a key pot or two, but my focus is going to be on paying attention when I’m not in hands.

Jack Effel and John Cynn about to kick things off.

Names at my starting table I’ve sniped: Sergei Kislinskii, Dustin An (from Seattle!), Samuel Gagnon (I think), Austin Lewis, and Steve Gee (9th in the 2012 Main and 24th in the 2013 Main!), Jakub Wojtas

First Break

I don’t think I have a great table. Everyone seems competent and the two most active players are on my direct left.

Fortunately, I already put a dent in Steve Gee’s stack when I played a 3-bet pot in position with QJo and got the KT639 runout and he paid off a sizable river bet.

95,000

Dinner Break

75,400

Restart at 5 pm, or whenever I wake back up.

Three More Hours

Couple of dumb hands have prevented me from chipping up.

I had 33 vs 54 on 543 and he escaped with a 2-6 runout for a chop.

Then I had 86ss on 995hhs77 vs A7o. Obv he check-raised me on the flop with total air, I hit my gin card vs someone that had nothing and still can’t win at showdown.

Pretty cool.

75,000

One Hour Left

Other than the hands I noted earlier – and one I botched before that – I’ve been running pretty good today. I’ve had AA four times and I haven’t lost with them and I’ve gotten some form of action every time.

One hour left in the day before we bag for Day 2.

97,300

End of Day

Bagged up 56k. Lost a dumb one with two hands left. Probably leveled myself in a button vs blind with bags looming situation and overvalued my hand to lose the max.

Welp, I could have registered on Saturday and started with 60k. Oh well. Let’s hope my table draw on Day 2 is better because it sure sucked today.

Day 2 is not until Saturday at 11 AM.

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WSOP 2019: $1500 Limit Hold’em

June 29, 2019

Since I busted out of the $2500 Stud 8/Omaha 8 I’ve played four cash games sessions – mostly $40/$80 Limit Hold’em at Bellagio – and I’ve won a tad over $4300 during that span.

I also played the $550 Triple Stud tournament at Binion’s on Thursday and it was a strange run for me.

Sometimes I forget to dumb it down when I play these smaller non-WSOP events. You just have to show these people the best hand and not do stuff like this:

Razz, King brings it in and I complete with 66-9 from the cutoff with a 5 up behind me. The 5 and K both call.

xx-K2

xx-55

66-9T

I bet and both call.

xx-K2A

xx-553

66-9T8

My board is still “leading,” but even if I didn’t have a pair in the hole, I think this is a good street to check.

So even if I had the best low at this point, it makes sense to check here because I am actually kind of crushed if either one of them has a smooth draw. Even if they both have a pair, I’m a favorite to lose the hand.

So since I wouldn’t bet a made ten here, I’m not going to bet as a bluff with a pair in the hole either. I check and I’m happy to see them both check as well.

xx-K2AQ

xx-5533

66-T988

Now the bring in says something about I “must not have anything to check 5th street” and leads out with what is at best a made queen but since he didn’t bet 5th is probably a made king with a queen draw, so now I raise it, with the worst hand and the worst draw, and both of them fold.

Heeyyyyyy!

I’m not bragging here. That hand is going to be a torch most of the time and I just caught the ultimate parlay – not only for their boards to run out horribly but for them both to check 5th and then this guy leading out on 6th for who knows what reason.

Through eight levels and 4+ hours I hadn’t found a good spot to chip up in. Starting stacks were 30k and I had 30.8k on the first break and 20.2k on the second break. I wouldn’t get back above the starting stack until level 11 and I didn’t have an average stack until like level 15!

I had a really sick hand where I quadruple barreled in Stud 8 against a board that was showing 83J9 when I ended up bricking my low draw and finishing with just a pair of 5s. He called my bluff and… I scooped… a huge, super meaningful pot.

I think I had about 1.5x average stack after that pot but the rush was short lived.

I started with AK-K in Stud Hi and the bring in defended with 34-3 and immediately caught a 4 when I caught a jack and we put the rest of his chips in and he dodged all my outs for a double up.

And another sick hand (sorry, poker short hand copy and pasted from chat):

Stud 8, raise AA-T, 3h calls; I catch a Q, he catches 6c; I bet, he raises, I call; he catches J, I catch a 8; I bet, he calls; I catch a 3, he catches open jacks, and leads… I’m like… “you just said you had one hand and now you’re saying you have another?”… super tempted to jack him up here, but I decide on call; he bets 7th, I river a 3 and call with aces up. He shows 74… JACK

I guess his 6th street lead makes some sense because he probably thinks I have split tens, but… losing to three jacks is the last thing I expected there and it’s pretty nasty because I think this player would lead jacks up on 7th also.

This tourney paid seven spots and after this downswing, I had about half the average stack with 13 left. I was looking like a favorite to be the next person out but I won one small pot and managed to squeak my way to the final table, 8th in chips with 9 left.

There was one mega short stack and three other players with stacks similar to mine.

The mega shorty immediately tripled up, a similar stack doubled and another similar stack chipped up. Meanwhile I put money in the pot once and lost, so things were looking really bad for me.

I got all in once and survived for half (when I was a favorite to scoop) and that’s the only pot I got a piece of at the final table.

I still can’t believe it, but I somehow managed to finish in 6th place despite winning half of one pot since there were 13 left.

I guess I’ll take it. I finished 6th for $1280 in a tournament where I ran good for about 15 minutes total and spent the other 10.5 hours losing most of the pots I played.

Poker is weird.

Binion’s has a really, really good HORSE tournament that had Day 1A yesterday and Day 1B today and I was really torn about skipping it. I figure first place in that will be maaaaaybe $30k tops. But it’s hard to justify skipping a bracelet event for Limit Hold’em – my best game – when first place will probably be around $200k.

Cards are in the air at 3 PM and stack updates will be here and on the PokerNews app.

Ouch. Just spent a solid hour in the registration line so I’m sitting down at the end of level one right now. Can’t say I was expecting that. Bad planning? I guess the Crazy 8s tourney is the culprit? I late regged the $600 Deep Stack last weekend and the line wasn’t half this bad.

Oh well, time to spin it up!

Starting with 10k in chips and blinds at 100/200.

Don’t know anyone at my starting table, which seems strange. Very early impression is that I’m in a good spot here.

Edit: 12k starting stack

First Break

Pretty good start. I really like my table. It seems quite soft, even with Shirley Rosario and Tony Ma at it now.

I’ve kind of been running over everyone so far and I rivered a two outer against Shirley with 99 in a 4-bet pot when I would have folded the turn on K837 if she bet again. But she checked back with jacks and let me hit a 9 and then paid me off.

Yes, I fold turn. Even if her cold 4-bet range is wider than I think it is, I’m only beating AQ, AJ and hands like 66 and 55. I’m not sure she has any of those hands in her range here. Maybe AQ suited?

17,000

Second Break

Welp. I was cruising to a big stack.

Key pot:

Tony Ma limps under the gun, I raise with KK from middle position and big blind defends.

Flop is T86 with two clubs and Tony donks right into me. I raise, the big calls and Tony 3-bets. Eh. I’m either behind or against a big draw. I just call, planning to reevaluate on the turn.

It is the king of diamonds. Tony bets, I raise, other guy clears out, Tony raises again, I 4-bet and he 5-bets! I mean… he either has 97 or must think I’m some kind of chump.

He bets dark on river! It’s an offsuit queen. When I get 5-bet on turn, it’s hard to imagine what I’m beating against someone that has a clue, so I just call and he tables…

KT of clubs.

Well, okay then!

I think I had about 25k after that hand, but it was a tumultuous last 40 minutes or so, as I was involved a lot and lost a lot. I lost KJ vs 99 on K739x when I opened and big blind defended and then I called down with 77 in a 3-bet pot on 8332K against someone that has been raising and 3-betting a lot of garbage ace hands, but he had AA this time.

18,600

Third Break

Chipped up a little.

Key pot:

Open AThh and get called in four spots.

Flop is Q73 all hearts. I bet, aggro old guy raises next to act (boo), folds to big blind and he 3-bets (yay!), I just call, so does old guy.

Turn is 2x. BB leads, I raise, old man calls two cold, BB goes deep in tank and folds.

Still have nuts on river. I bet and he calls with QJ offsuit with a heart.

Dumb hand:

Open JTss, aggro old guy 3-bets and I call.

Flop is K95 with two spades. I check-raise and he calls.

Turn is an ace. No sense betting this card. He’s proven that he’s playing any ace and I’ve seen him overplay lots of weak Ax hands. I check-call.

River brick. He checks back with A8o.

Come on bro.

BRO!

23,200

Fourth Break

Things not going well for me. Lost with 99 to 88 on the river. Guy on my left has been playing way too many hands and running super hot. I’ve had a hard time beating him, but he’s been bleeding back to everyone else at the table.

Nothing else too exciting. Free Throw and Sandman both still in.

Two more levels tonight. Let’s find a peak stack, yeah?

15,500

END OF DAY ONE

Pot of the tournament:

Fishy old guy limps under the gun, Shirley Rosario raises, and I defend with QTo.

Flop is T97 with two diamonds and old guy donks right out, Shirley calls, and so do I.

Turn pairs the ten and I check-raise and both of them call.

River is an 8. I check and I want it to check around but Shirley bets. I can’t even contain my displeasure and blurt out, “are you serious?!”

And then I have to talk myself out of snap-tilt-calling and mutter, “never bluffing here” before tossing my hand in the muck.

Old guy calls and she shows QJ.

18.8k pot. After that hand I had 9.5k instead of 28.3k.

Pretty. Fucking. Brutal.

I dwindled down from there until I was mega short and flopped a pair with T3hh, blind vs blind, and doubled through QJ.

Then cutoff opens and I 3-bet red jacks and he calls.

Flop is A54 with all hearts. I check back and I’m planning on showing down.

Turn pairs the 4 and I call a bet.

Ten on river and I call a bet and lose to A2dd.

Sigh.

Two and 3-outers look pretty easy to hit… but 11-outers? Fuck. No.

So I was crippled again after that.

But then I cold 4-bet KK all in and got a reasonable K63Kx runout to triple up.

And then I lost another blind vs blind hand vs the old man where I had Q7cc vs 62o on 88676 runout. Another two-outer.

Then button opens, I 3-bet with KJdd and old guy calls. I bet in the dark, leaving myself with 1/4 of a big bet behind, and when I get called by both players on A75 I figure I’m probably close to dead.

Turn pairs the 7 and I bet my last 500, old guy calls, and button makes it 2500 and old guy calls. I stop the action and mention he can only make it 2000 and then the side pot gets messed up and I literally had to wait five fucking minutes knowing I’m drawing stone dead for them to figure it out.

I actually pulled out my phone to film the lunacy but I guess I didn’t press record.

They can’t even figure it out and the floor finally just says, “finish the hand” and button turns over 87o and I’m able to make my exit.

With ten minutes left in the day.

So dumb.

I guess I could have tried to bag one small blind?

Tomorrow there is a $360 HORSE tournament at Golden Nugget. That sounds fun and if I can wake up at a decent time that’s probably what I will do tomorrow.

That will be my last tournament until Day 1A of the Main Event on Wednesday.

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WSOP 2019: The Adrenaline Rush and Heartbreak of a Deep Run

June 25, 2019

When it comes to playing poker there is no greater feeling than making a deep run in a WSOP event. I’ve done it a couple of times before.

My third place finish in the Industry Event was a lot of fun, but the fact that it’s not an open bracelet event combined with the fact that it’s the luckiest I’ve ever been in a live tournament makes me feel like it will always come with an asterisk in my head. On the other hand, my big suck outs in critical spots felt like a lot of justice for all the brutal beats I’d taken super deep in all the tournaments before that one that had prevented me from making a real run at a major title.

In contrast, my fifth place finish in the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. in 2017 was just a surreal and amazing experience. By the time we got down to three tables, almost everyone left in the tournament was a known poker star.

This $2500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 felt pretty similar. Like, I know I’m capable of making runs like this and I think I can play most of the games at a high level, but another part of me is like wtf am I doing here with 15 left in a World Series of Poker tournament playing with the Shaun Deebs of the world?

It’s crazy.

I broke down a hand history with Phillip Hui on break and he was very happy to talk with me about it. I absolutely loved his table presence and I knew he would be approachable.

I spent all Day 2 locking horns with Andrey Zaichenko to the point where he finally lamented: “I can’t beat you.” He was on my direct right with an unfathomable amount of chips, looking destined for a final table appearance (he would take 4th), while I was on the bubble of this thing feeling the maximum amount of pressure about it.

Seriously.

After cashing 7 of 10 WSOP events with two top 5 finishes in 2016-2017, I was on an 0-11 WSOP stretch heading into this one and that’s overlooking the fact that I’ve been tossing up bricks all year everywhere else too. I really, really wanted to cash this tournament.

It was looking like I was going to sweat it out the entire bubble, but then I caught a little rush and suddenly found myself way above average, a lock to cash, and thoughts of having a real deep run.

Ironically enough, I ended up finishing Day 2 with more chips than Zaichenko. He was a total pain in the ass all day though. Every pot went through him. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say he played around 60% of his hands. Is that really possible? He was a beast. A borderline maniac. I was impressed though.

Here’s a sick hand with two tables left:

Thompson completed on 3rd with a ten up and got called in four spots!

I led out on 4th when I made open aces and Shaun Deeb, Danny Ratigan and Denis Stebkov all called.

On 5th, I honestly didn’t know what to do. This is where lack of experience can be costly. I’m not sure what my best line is here. My hand is 65-AA7. Deeb and Ratigan both had good looking low boards, so I ended up checking and it checked to Ratigan and he bet. I gave some thought to raising here to try and get heads up with Ratigan, but I didn’t think it was likely Deeb would fold to a raise, so I just called. Denis folded and Deeb called.

I checked again on 6th and it checked to Ratigan. He bet, I called, Deeb raised, and Ratigan 3-bet. I had a strong feeling I was getting squeezed here. Deeb looks like he can have a flush but if you look at the upcards reported above, it’s actually not likely at all, as the ace, 4 and 5 of diamonds are all accounted for on other boards. So he basically needs to have exactly some combo of the 2, 7, and 8 of diamonds in the hole to have a flush here. Also, how likely is he to check a made low with a four flush on 5th street? Not fucking likely.

Still, it seems like I’m drawing dead to the low half of the pot here, so calling off three more big bets to maybe win half seems precarious. I folded.

Ratigan ended up having 75 in the hole and caught an 8 on 7th to make a straight, so I would have got scooped on 7th anyway (I was in last position so the cards would be the same on 7th).

Deeb was making a play. He had a pair and a six low draw and got me to fold the high half of the pot. He would have looked like a genius if it worked and Ratigan bricked the river.

I hated letting him get away with it and I’m not going to lie… I was happy to see Danny scoop that pot and Deeb bust in 13th a short while later. I didn’t want to deal with Shaun at a final table, plus Danny Ratigan is from the Seattle area!

I’ll say this though. I don’t post much on Twitter but I’m pretty in tune with the poker Twitterverse and, well, Shaun is a controversial figure and can be extremely opinionated and pretty mean. I would not have been surprised to not like him. It was the opposite. I was impressed with everything about the guy. He was nice to everyone and the floors practically treated him like he was the Tournament Director. And his focus was unreal. He didn’t miss a thing at the table. I wish I had 20% of that focus level. I was blown away. That kind of thing is scary to play against.

One more hand from Day 2:

I think it would be pretty hard to report poker hands, especially when you start watching in the middle of a pot, and I think the PokerNews team generally does a really good job, but man, this one couldn’t be further from the truth.

Here’s what really happened:

Matt Vengrin is the bring in with the 2d and everyone folds to Phillip Long, in the effective cutoff position, and he completes with a ten up. I have the Qc up and two jacks in the hole and raise it. Vengrin defends the bring in and Long also calls.

On 4th street, Vengrin pairs his door card, Long catches an offsuit 6 and I catch an offsuit jack: a total gin card for me. It checks to me, I bet, and Vengrin raises to put himself all in. It’s enough of a raise that it allows me to re-raise if I choose to, so Phillip Long reluctantly folds and I call. Vengrin thinks he has me crushed because he has a deuce in the hole, but I show him the ultra bad news by turning up two jacks. Things had been going bad for me so I had a feeling he was going to fill up and I was going to lose this critical pot, but we both bricked through 6th street and I snap rolled my last card to give me jacks full and he only had the case deuce for a win. He squeezed the 9 of clubs and then crumpled it up, tossed it in the air, and hit the dealer in the head with it.

Compare the real hand to the hand reported above and it’s quite a different story.

Even Vengrin had his own version of events:

I mean… he was super unlucky to catch a 2 on 4th and be behind, but he definitely wasn’t rolled up here.

I finished Day 2 8th in chips with 12 players left and that was reason enough for my wife to wake up at 6am and book a flight to Vegas so she could be here if I somehow found my way to a bracelet. Blackjack even booked a flight to come sweat my Day 3 run.

When you get this far in a bracelet event it’s easy to start dreaming about what might happen. Based on chip distribution alone, my fair share of the bracelet heading into Day 3 was greater than 6%! A few pots going my way early while others bust out and that number starts to swing heavily in my favor.

What’s harder to imagine is the worst possible outcome happening.

I’ll let Blackjack tell his story:

It literally could not have gone worse for me. We started with about four hands of Stud 8 and I folded all of them, but I was super active in the Omaha round.

First, I flopped the nut low draw and a small pair on an all diamond flop. I checked back the flop but called down when the low came in and my A43x got quartered by A44x.

Then this happened:

I opened with AJ72 and no suits and Gerard 3-bet me on the button. With top top on the flop and the backdoor nut low draw, check-calling seemed best. While I’m blocking AA hands, it’s still something to be weary of when you get 3-bet in O8.

I loved the turn, as it gave me the nut low draw in addition to top pair. While I was happy to check-call the turn, I was going to lead the river if I made the nut low. If I get quartered with top pair and the nut low, then so be it. In fact, the only cards I don’t want to see on the river are a king, queen, ace or deuce. Ironically, I was still scooping if an ace came.

In fact, this is what my odds looked like heading to the river:

So I’m scooping this crucial pot 70% of the time and getting scooped 30%.

Obviously, I don’t know what he has exactly, so when the river comes a queen and he bets, all I know is this: I fucking hate it.

As noted earlier, a queen is one of the few cards where my hand feels like it gets destroyed. I have an easy showdown on pretty much every other card and now I have a super marginal one way hand. In fact, it’s so easy for me to get scooped here that I should probably just be folding when each big bet is so critical to my stack.

On the other hand, there are 7.75 big bets in the pot and if he’s bluffing as much as 11% of the time folding the best hand here would be an absolute catastrophe. Is he bluffing enough? It’s hard to say – not like I have a ton of history with the guy. What hands could he triple barrel with? A23x? Raggedy A2xx hands? A245? What if the river was a 9 or ten? Is he betting with AK53? The fact he double barreled the hand he did have leads me to believe if he missed the river, he would have to fire another bullet and that makes me feel better about my call.

Regardless, an absolutely sickening runout and, essentially, my knockout blow.

A hand or two later, I’m in the small blind and Phillip Long opens the button, I 3-bet all in with the AK53. He showed the QJ52 and the A87 rainbow flop meant we were going to chop 80% of the time and each of us had about 10% scoop equity. Somehow, he managed to realize his scoop equity when the board ran out 9-T to give him the nut high along with a better low and just like that… I was out.

I’m not going to lie… I was pretty shellshocked to be out in 20 minutes and sad that my wife flew out to sweat me and this is what happened. On the other hand, I got to spend a whole day with her on the weekend before her birthday so that was really nice. She gave me the go ahead to play the $1500 Razz – even urged me to play it – but I was feeling a bit demoralized and I wanted to spend time with her since she was here.

So we went and saw Ka at the MGM Grand.

Here is how Dina felt before the show:

And here is how she felt after the show:

In fact, she gave the show a 3 out of 10, which I thought was super harsh. I can’t say I really enjoyed the experience either though.

First, they wouldn’t let me bring my backpack in, even though I carry all my diabetic supplies and emergency items in it. I’ve never had anyone forcefully turn me away after I pull out the debilitating disease excuse, but they wouldn’t let me in. So we went to the bellhop to check our bags and that took 20 minutes to happen and in the process, I lost my Contigo water bottle because I’m not used to carrying it around as it is normally slotted on the side of my backpack. So that was cool.

Then, with 5 minutes before show time, our bags checked, all my items in my wife’s purse, we get our tickets scanned and they tell us her purse is too big to bring in. The same purse they saw earlier and didn’t say anything about. Well, I wasn’t having that and I didn’t get to throw much of a fit before they just waved us in.

I’ll give Ka a 6 out of 10. It is my least favorite show I’ve seen in Vegas. If it was the first one I saw, I would probably think more highly of it. I thought the music was really good and the stage was very impressive, but the show was the least interesting I’ve seen and while the stunts were pretty cool, they were also the least spectacular I’ve seen. Even Absinthe has better physical performances.

Updates Vegas Show Rankings

1. Absinthe

2. Michael Jackson: One

3. The Beatles: Love

4. O

5. Penn & Teller

6. Ka

I played the $600 No Limit Hold’em WSOP Deep Stack today and I had about 35k when this hand came up during the 300/600 level. An older white gentleman opened from MP to 1600 and I decided to flat with AQo. I think this is a fine hand to mix flats and 3-bets with against this player type. I think it’s an easy fold if he 4-bets and I don’t mind playing AQ in position in a single-raised pot either.

The small blind, a younger, capable-looking Asian guy 3-bet to 6200 and the opener folded. I’m not about to fold AQ in a squeeze spot against a player that seems capable of pulling the trigger, and I think there is serious merit to just stuffing it preflop at this point, but I elected to call.

The flop was QJ5 rainbow and he checked to me. I down bet 5500 into over 15k and he stuffed it on me. This sent me into the tank for a good three minutes. Obviously, I don’t love this spot, even with top top. On the other hand, I’m blocking queens and aces and I have ~20% equity if he has KK. I’m fucked if he has JJ, but I also think he can have some KQ, QT, KT, and maybe some spazzy Qx or Jx hands. I probably can’t have AA or KK here, so AQ is one of the best hands I would even think about folding here and that means I probably have to call with it.

I call. He tables KT, the turn bricks, but the river is an ace and I was busted.

Also, saw this guy in the Rio hallway yesterday and I have to wonder if I even have the right to be The Dark Knight when this guy is playing poker in this outfit:

That’s a level of commitment I will never reach.

Now I’m at the Bellagio playing some $40/$80 Limit Hold’em.

Spotted FanBoy doing work in the $80/$160 game:

Maybe I’ll post some hands here. Maybe I won’t.

Either way, I will post my end result after my session.

Result: +$3157

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WSOP 2019: $2500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 Sweat Post

June 21, 2019

I actually didn’t know I was going to play this one, but after spending a week back in Washington and spending all my study time thinking about Stud 8 or Better, I saw this on the schedule and realized I could make a deep Day 2 run and still be able to play the Monster Stack if I so desired.

Plus, I wasn’t too fond of landing in Vegas at 12:30 am last night and having a 10 am start for the Monster Stack today. The O.E. tournament doesn’t start until 3 pm. It feels good to have slept in and still have three hours to energize myself.

Cards in the air at 3! I expect this to be a pretty star-studded field. Maybe I’ll finally get to play with a Negreanu, Hellmuth, or Ivey. Leggo.

I don’t recognize anyone at my starting table and that seems pretty fortunate for a $2500 buy in.

I’ll post stack updates on breaks. Starting stacks are 15k with 60 minute levels. Kind of surprised to see the betting limits starting at 200/400.

First Break

Wow. I have an amazing table. It’s 8-handed and I had determined that only one player at the table is tough. I’ve seen some absurd play in both variants from multiple players.

My key pot during the first two levels, I have Qd8d-4d and get the bring in with an otherwise super marginal holding. However, there are multiple limpers and someone with an ace up completes and only the 5d is dead, so I called the 200 extra at 300/600 betting limits.

On 4th street, I catch the Td and the ace pairs his door card. Meanwhile, I’ve seen 14 up cards and only one diamond that wasn’t in my hand. The ace leads out, I call and one other player does.

On 5th street I catch a low non-diamond and the aces catch a big card, and the other player has 9cKxAx showing. The aces lead, I call, and the other player raises! This is pretty shocking. Hard to figure what he has here. AcKc-9c makes some sense but the player with open aces has the ace of clubs showing m, so who knows. The aces just call and so do I.

I catch another low non-diamond on 6th and suddenly it looks like I have the only low draw and a super live flush draw. I check-call and we are still 3-handed to 7th.

I get the 6 of diamonds! That card pairs me so I don’t have a low, but that hardly matters. I lead, they both call and I scoop a nice pot.

A floor came over and high carded to move a player off our table and ended up taking the only good player and he immediately responded with “God-fucking-dammit” because he clearly felt the same way I do about our lineup.

Unfortunately, he was somehow replaced by Sandman. Wtf. Small world?

Still… we are on the far side of the room so hopefully the tables are breaking in the opposite direction because Sandman and I appear to be in a favorable situation.

21,200

Second Break

I have been absurdly card dead. That Stud 8 scooper is still the only real notable hand I’ve played. I’ve picked up some small pots here and there but otherwise I’ve been folding every single hand.

I got scooped by Sandman in a pot where I have AJ32 on K62hhhJh2 and Sandman has K62x, but it was a 6-way limped pot with only one bet on the flop and none on the turn, even though someone flopped the nut flush.

My table did add a poker legend in David Benyamine.

18,400

Third Break

Good couple of levels. No big scoopers but got half of some big multi-way pots. Finally a little momentum!

29,800

Fourth Break

We’re in this thing. One of the torchers at my table is betting out of turn on 7th with three pair in Stud 8 when my board is showing Ah9hQx4h… and the 235 in the hole! So huge scooper for me.

Also, Phil Ivey is sitting directly behind me.

Two more levels tonight.

52,200

Basically scrapped and clawed the last two levels. Dipped all the way down to 30k and rallied back in a big Stud 8 pot where I have a four flush on 4th, David “ODB” Baker is all in, and a third player is in there betting me on the side. I brick my flush, but river a pair of fives and that is somehow good for EVERYTHING. What a nice surprise.

So I busted ODB, which is cool, because he busted me in the 8-Game a couple years ago and I owed him one.

Somehow managed to bag near my peak.

Restart at 2 PM tomorrow. The only thing I know about my new table so far is that Phil Ivey won’t be on it (he’s still in though).

55,000

DAY 2

Here’s my starting table:

Probably not going to be many easy tables from here on it and this one certainly isn’t great. Alex Foxen is #1 in the GPI Rankings so he’s basically the top tournament player in the world right now. But he’s also a big bet specialist (and is double dipping here while carrying a big stack into Day 2 of the Monster Stack) and I’m not sure how adept he is at the mixed games. Chris Bell, Andrey Zaichenko, and Phillip Hui are all accomplished mixed games players though and Hui already has eight cashes and three (!) final tables in the 2019 World Series of Poker.

I’ll start the day 39th in chips with 128 players left and 61 of us cashing, so I’m in pretty decent shape to make the money right now but it would be really refreshing to get off to a fast start today and put this WSOP cold spell behind me.

Sandman is just behind me with 52.3k to start the day.

There are three other Washingtonians still alive and I’m familiar with Daniel Ratigan but don’t know him and Gregory Smith (Everett) and Kristy Means (Vancouver) I don’t know at all. I always like to see people from the PNW doing well here, so good luck to them also!

Ivey and Hellmuth still alive. Would be cool to play with either one of them at some point today.

Cards back in the air at 2 PM.

First Break

What a rollercoaster first two levels. I have a couple of really sick hands but not enough time to talk about them.

The good news is I am still in and I have more chips than I started with and around 40 players have busted already.

Actually… 80 left and I’m a little below average.

19 spots until the money.

60,800

Second Break

The streak is over! I cashed a WSOP event!

55 players are left.

Sandman still in also.

123,000

Dinner Break

Really don’t want to type about poker on my breaks, but the last two levels were really good to me, even though I made a mistake that led to a big loss on the last hand before break.

Real crazy pot with Andrey Zaichenko. He brings it in with 4d, I complete with Ac2c-4c, Chris Bell raises with a short stack, and Andrey raises when it gets back to him. I just call and Chris is all in. The pot is already massive.

On 4th, I get a 6x and Andrey leads with 48 showing. I love this spot, but I just call him with no immediate potential for high.

On 5th, I get the 5c and Andrey gets a jack, so I lead and he calls.

DK: Ac2c-4c6x5c

Andrey: XX-4d8xJ

Yum yum!

Meanwhile, Chris Bell’s board is bricking out. What a spot.

On 6th street, I make a wheel with a 3 and Andrey pairs his 8. I bet and he goes into a deep, deep tank.

Dear God. Is he actually going to pay this off? He does.

Huge scooper.

I think there’s about 37 left and average stack is around 162k.

206,000

Fourth Break

Still in. Didn’t bust like PokerNews said I did for a minute. 19 left. I have over 400k and average stack is 314k.

What a rush.

400k+

End of Day 2

I’m wiped. After peaking around 416k and being on a pretty good rush, things fell completely apart in level 19. I bricked some extremely strong hands and Shaun Deeb really put me in the fucking cage but wound up saving me because Danny Ratigan (Seattle!) ended up making a straight on 7th street. I won’t get into the details of that hand, but it was a brutal spot and Shaun got me to fold half of a very big pot and I would have got scooped.

I fell all the way down to about 130k but rallied back and ended up putting 387k in a bag.

There are 12 players left and I’m currently 8th in chips. Everyone is guaranteed $10k+ but there are big pay jumps starting at the final table and $213k and a bracelet at the top.

Let’s go get that tomorrow!

Day 3

Sorry… I barely had time to write yesterday and my wife is flying in today so I’m definitely not going to have time to write today. Best place to follow along will be on PokerNews or if someone here is updating progress on Facebook.

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WSOP 2019: Update

June 18, 2019

I always start off thinking this, but this is really going to be an abbreviated post. I feel like I should probably post a little update since I haven’t made a new post since June 9th.

Here’s what has happened since then.

On June 10th, I played Day 2 of the $1500 WSOP 8-Game Mix and busted out before the money bubble burst. I had another tough table draw and I never had more chips than I started the day with and felt like I was constantly put in brutal spots.

Here are a couple:

I was the bring in for Razz with a 9 up and Jameson Painter opened utg with an 8 up. Obviously, there were four other low cards out, but they all folded and I defended with A2-9. On 4th street Jameson caught a King and I caught a Jack. I bet and he called. On 5th street, He caught an ace and I paired my 2, but my board was still leading so I bet out and I was immediately punished with a raise. This is just a mistake on my part. Let’s say I didn’t pair the 2 and I had something like A3-9J2 and Jameson has a hand like 34-8KA, he’s still a 60% favorite even when the 2 helps me, so his raise here makes a lot of sense and my bet actually sucks… and it really sucks since the 2 actually hurt my hand. Clearly, my best play is just to check-fold here even though my board is “leading.”

Another hand that helped cripple me was in Stud Hi. The least established player at the table limped in with the ace of spades up, I completed with JJ-8 and Jameson Painter called with a 9 up. On 4th street, we all seemingly bricked, so I bet again and they both called. 5th street felt similarly bricky, so I bet again, Jameson called, and the ace up check-raised. By now, his board looked like xx-As5c2c. I was perplexed, but I also hadn’t improved. However, both Jameson and I had a three on our boards, so a straight didn’t seem likely. My board hadn’t improved at all, so this is probably just a fold here, but I convinced myself to take another card off and Jameson called as well. I bricked again and the As5c2c caught the 4s and I folded when he bet again and so did Jameson.

Neither of those hands are too catastrophic, but I should have saved at least two big bets between the two of them.

I ended up taking the rest of the day off on the 10th as I was tired and annoyed.

On the 11th, I played 10 hours of $20/$40 Mix and got off to another absolutely brutal start, almost immediately gifting them two racks and playing catch up the entire session, but I managed to settle for a modest -$345, which is ironic because…

…that’s exactly how much I won the next day in 5.5 hours of $40/$80 LHE at Bellagio.

On the 13th, the last full day in Vegas of my first trip this summer, I started by busting the $400 NL tournament at Aria in a timely fashion, laughed off thoughts of a re-entry, took a nap and watched the Raptors win the NBA title, then headed to Bellagio for a late night $40/$80 LHE session. I played from 9:30 PM to 5:30 AM and booked a rather sick +$5515 winner – my second biggest win in a cash game session (in terms of actual money won) ever and a total trip saver!

Sexy:

So overall my first trip looked like this:

+$4955 in 30 hours of cash games
One mincash in five tournaments for -$3410

Makes you wonder about priorities. Yes, tournaments can lead to life-changing scores, but cash games are how I make my living. I feel like I should make them more of a focus during WSOP time and I’ve adjusted the back half of my schedule a bit to give myself more time for cash game. Basically, I’ve just eliminated all the smaller NLHE tournaments from my schedule. I like them as a warmup for the Main Event, but I had four on my schedule and I’ll probably wind up just playing one of them now.

I’ve played one session since I’ve been back in Washington, but it was only 4.5 hours of $8/$16 for -$292 while my dogs were at the groomers. I may play another session tomorrow and maaaaaaaaaaybe PLO at Palace on Wednesday night and I land back in Vegas Thursday after midnight and my next event is the $1500 No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack at 10 AM on Friday.

Other WSOP Notes: Through 36 completed events, Washington state hasn’t shown up very much.

Rep Porter took 5th in the $1500 Stud Hi for almost $20k and his good friend Rick Fuller took 10th in the $1500 Omaha 8 or Better for $12.3k.

FanBoy got a mincash in the $1k Double Stack.

Sandman has been our MVP so far, following up his 5th place finish in the $2500 Mixed Triple Draw with a 5th place finish in the $1500 2-7 Triple Draw for a $26.8k score despite showing up over an hour late on Day 3 while sitting 6th in chips of 17 left.

Also, Noah Bronstein just busted 15th in the $1k Double Stack for $29.6k. He also took 13th in the 8-Game Mix for $7.5k and has six cashes total now.

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WSOP 2019: $1500 8-Game Sweat Post

June 9, 2019

Quick update:

Friday I had to switch from the Rio to some condos across the street and I really wanted to go grocery shopping to stock up and put a stop to spending $60/day on food.

I happened to wake up at 6am though, so I put in a 7+ hour session in the 20/40 Mix game before checking out at 2 PM. I got off to a rough start, bottoming out at -$1300, before rebounding for a -$560 finish in my first cash game session of the summer.

My buddy didn’t get in til after 7pm and we weren’t done with groceries until like 10pm, so my thoughts of putting in another cash session were extinguished due to a 11 AM start on Saturday.

Yesterday, I played the $400 8-Game Championship at the Orleans and finished 21st or 22nd for $860 – which is somehow my biggest cash of the entire year, online included. Jeebus. The 8-Game at Orleans was one of the two cashes I had all last summer, so a nice little 8-Game repeat heading into the 8-Game tournament that really matters.

Cards will be in the air at 3 PM. I’ll post stack updates here on breaks but no hand histories (probably). I’m 0-2 in this one lifetime and on an 0-10 stretch in WSOP events. Let’s break the snide and build a stack today!

First Break: 13,750

10k starting stacks with 60 minute levels. Got off to a fast start at an easy table until it started filling up with accomplished mixed games players.

I won a crazy limit Hold’em pot. I’ll let my tablemate Sean Snyder tell it (note: I’m under the gun):

😂😂

I show that tweet to Joker and he says:

I got moved of that table shortly after and I know no one at my new table. I think I recognize one of them but I’m not sure.

Next update in two hours!

Second Break: 16,500

That’s all. See you in two hours!

Third Break: 18,800

I went ice cold for about 90 minutes and then I got scooped in a brutal Stud 8 hand where I had three aces on 5th street and I fell below 10k for the first time after that hand.

But then I played a 3-bet 3-way 2-7 Triple Draw hand and made #1 after one draw and ended up busting someone and went on a little rush after that to get back near my peak stack size.

I have a pretty brutal table. Everyone is playing well and the guy I busted was replaced by end boss Benny Glaser.

Four more levels to a bag!

Fourth Break: 26,500

Benny Glaser busted in an hour, which was nice, but he was replaced by another world beater in Naoya Kihara. Things have been going pretty well so far, even with a somewhat unfavorable table draw.

Two more hours!

Day 1: 17,000

Ugh. I was peaking around 32k after level 9 and then my table broke and I got moved where I proceeded to get wrecked.

Restart tomorrow at 2 PM.

Day 2 Restart

Cards in the air at 2 PM. I have Matt Glantz on my right with heaps. I’ve seen the names Ian O’Hare and Jameson Painter but I’m not familiar with them.

225 left, 92 cash and average stack is 27k or so. Time to spin it up!

BUSTED

Brutal spot after brutal spot. Lots of fun.

$1100 Mega Satty to the $10k HORSE next @ 8 PM.

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WSOP 2019: $1500 H.O.R.S.E. Sweat Thread

June 5, 2019

First off, some shoutouts to some locals that have had success so far:

-Bulletproof cashed the Employee Event for a little profit.

-Sandman final tabled the $2500 Triple Draw tournament for the second year in a row, this time finish in 5th (3rd last year) for just over $30k. What a boss.

-Joker finished 120th out of 6100+ runners in the WSOP $600 No Limit Deep Stack for ~$2600 and JJ Neville from Kitsap finished 84th in the same event for ~$3500.

-Billy Dubz’ significant other participated in a 3-way chop for $14k each in the $300ish Omaha 8 or Better tournament at the Orleans.

And I’m looking to do damage today! Amazingly, I have a Palace regular (no nickname) at my starting table. Unreal. Joker and Ducky are playing this event also, but probably late regging.

10k starting stacks. Hour long levels.

H.O.R.S.E.

Let’s go.

Stack updates on breaks here.

Note: I’ll update my chip count occasionally via the MyStack app, so my stack s will automatically show up in the PokerNews coverage. But don’t get excited if you see my name near the top. All that means is I’m updating my stack myself and no one else!

Just know this: trending above 10k = good and trending below 10k = bad.

Break #1: 9550

Nothing notable to report. My table is full with no one I recognize outside of the local player, so no world beaters are going to be starting there. That’s nice.

I won a decent-sized Razz hand and lost a decent-sized Stud Hi hand.

Best hand so far, it folds to small blind, he raises and I 3-bet AJhh and double barrel on KT8cc4 before he donks on the queen of club river. For some reason, I’m not convinced he has a flush here and I will fold to a 3-bet so I end up raising my straight and he just calls and my hand is good.

Just lost five blinds with AQ right before the break and that’s about it so far.

Just sat back down and my fellow Palace player has been moved off my table. Good luck to him.

Break #2: 2100

I’m on fumes. The first 20 minutes or so of this tournament were fun but nothing good has happened since then. I’ve lost every significant pot I’ve played with some particularly gross runouts in Omaha and Razz.

I’m coming back to 8.5 bigs so I’m in bad shape here.

Joker is sitting on 14k.

Break #3:

Wait. There’s no break yet. I’m out. Got up to 3000 and busted in Stud with KT-TAJx-x. I got all in on 4th street vs split jacks that never improved. Pretty frustrating day and start to my summer.

Joker just reached dinner break with 23k. Ducky still doesn’t have a seat. Dude is going to sit down with 25 bigs. What a baller. I’ll update this post with their stacks throughout the rest of the night.

Not sure if I’m going to play cash tonight. I have an 11 AM start at Aria for their $470 O.E. tournament tomorrow, so I’m not gonna travel or play super late. I would like to play the 20/40 Mix here at the Rio but they have one game with 18 on the wait list right now? Same with 20/40 o8. Not sure what’s going on there and currently I don’t feel much like investigating. There’s a basketball game on T.V. right now so I think I’m gonna watch that for a bit.

9:21 PM:

Joker 35k

Ducky 30k

Sandman 40k

End of Day 1:

Joker 25.5k

Ducky 23.1k

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May 2019 Results

June 4, 2019

I’m going to try to make this quick because I’m flying out to Vegas tomorrow morning (now today) and, well, I’m ready to go to bed.

Monday @ Palace

Played some 8/16 and isolated a limper on my first hand dealt in with 98 of spades and got a friendly 88648 runout and a chance to Coast again.

Sure enough, I got off to a very fast start and was up $600 in 40 minutes and the only real threat to not completing The Challenge for the second time in five days was the strength of the game. I wasn’t sure it was going to make it the requisite six hours. It was weak and fragile, but somehow it never collapsed and I finished at +$840 in 6.5 hours for my second Coast-to-Coast of the week – and also of the last 6+ months.

Wednesday @ Palace

I may have been lured into Palace on Wednesday. I’d made my decision to avoid big bet cash games until after I got back from the WSOP but there I was walking in at 6 PM on the promise of a juicy game and I see four people waiting for a game to start. Sigh. I sat down and of course it went miserably.

First, I 3-bet QJT9 double suited from the small blind after Mr. Freeze opened and he called. The flop was T74 with two spades and one diamond. With no spades in my hand, a weak gut shot, and lots of good backdoor equity – not to mention top pair – I decided to start with a check-call of $50. The turn was an offsuit 2 and I check-called $100. With Mr. Freeze firing barely more than half pot bets on the flop and turn, I gave serious consideration to check-potting the turn, but I decided for the lower variance route. The river was the queen of spades, giving me top two, but bringing in the spade flush. I checked and Mr. Freeze bet the max of $300. I really wanted to call. I really, really wanted to. And I even thought he looked weak and uncomfortable. But I folded and then he showed me the K954 with three diamonds in his hand. A total suicide mission. Man, I hate when I don’t trust my instincts.

Then I flopped a wrap against top set and got stacked.

After reloading, it was my turn to flop top set in a 3-bet 3-way pot. I had AAKK double suited on a board of KT6 with two hearts and a club, so I had top set and the backdoor nut flush draw and one of my opponents led out for $200 after calling $65 preflop. Charlie Hustle also called and then they both called when I raised the maximum to $500, leaving myself with less than $300 behind. It was going in no matter what the turn was. Unfortunately, it was the 5 of hearts and the flop donker led out again, Hustle folded, and I stacked off and the river bricked and he ended up winning the pot with a rather shocking holding of AATT with two hearts in his hand. I wasn’t shocked he had the flush, I was shocked we both had AA with another big pair.

I didn’t reload after that and left, pissed at myself for even showing up, a -$1500 loser.

Thursday @ Red Dragon

I started the 20/40 Mix game and after folding some free hands I got a freeplay with Q7xx in Omaha 8 and three streets of value on a Q9727 runout and I was Coasting again.

The next game was 2-7 Triple Draw and I snowed a hand successfully, got paid off with a 7, and made a couple other winners and I had a $700 cushion to Coast with after two variants.

I never got below +$400 after that and I ended up finishing a +$1055 winner for my third Coast-to-Coast in eight days. So weird that I went months and months without doing it and now I’m the first person to do it three times. It seems so easy now!

I’m sure Jesus wants me to post more hands, but he showed up around 6 PM and never shuts up when he’s playing, so I literally didn’t take a single note after he got there.

Friday @ Palace

No Coasting this time. I was down $800 in the first two hours of 15/30 but finally found some momentum when I won a huge pot with AA that was capped pre with multiple bets going in on the flop and turn against at least three opponents.

Then I opened with A2 of spades, FBI Guy called, someone else 3-bet and we saw a flop of KT8 with two clubs and one spade. I was done with it, but it checked around. The turn was the 7 of spades and I decided to start with a check, but I had a plan. If FBI Guy bet, I was just going to check-call, but if the preflop 3-bettor bet the turn, I was going to raise. I just didn’t think he would let the flop check through with any sort of made hand. He did end up being the turn bettor and I raised him and we went heads up to a board-pairing river and he folded AQ of clubs face up to my bet. Not sure wtf he’s doing on the flop. High Hands are worth $200 now, so… who knows.

At 10:15 PM, after 6+ hours of play, I broke the surfaced and had sugar for the first time in the session. This is notable because the game broke around 12:20 AM and by that time I was +$2915! It was sick. I just went on a scorcher. I even messaged Ducky at one point and asked, “when did I win every chip on the table?” because it really happened so fast.

A couple of notable hands:

Dude just took a bad beat and is on level 9 reactionary tilt and could be on level 10 suicide alert. He raises after a limp or two and I 3-bet with QQ from the small blind and he winds up capping it. We are heads up after capping again on the 885 flop and I’m not ready to cry chicken until he raises me one more time on the big bet street when a 6 hits the board. He’s now raised me four times since I 3-bet him before the flop, so I guess maybe queens aren’t good here? But like I said, he’s on suicide alert. There’s still hope! The river is an ugly looking 7 and now I’m losing to all the real hands that can beat me plus random 9s and random 4s. I check-call and he just instantly pitches his cards into the muck. Yeah buddy. That whole hand I was giving off the vibe of someone that couldn’t wait to fold.

I’m up against the same opponent a while later and we are getting short-handed now so I open the K9 of clubs, FBI Guy calls and my dude 3-bets from the big blind. We just call. The flop is J95 and I raise it up with middle pair to try to get heads up with what might be the best hand, but the big blind 3-bets again and I call. 9 on the turn. Bink! He leads and I raise. He starts thinking for a little bit, not acting, but I can genuinely see him trying to work it out here and decide if I have a 9 or not and he lands on, “nope, nothing beats my big pair here” and 3-bets it again. My read is pinpoint here so I put the cap on it. The river is a ten and he gives me another big bet and shows his AA in dismay as I win another big pot.

Really bizarre session. I went from solidly stuck immediately and stuck for 75% of an 8 hour session and somehow won almost $3000. Crazy.

Saturday @ Palace

This was supposed to be day off, but The Leak is feeling it lately and wanted to go play poker, so I played some more 8/16. I ended up winning +$181 in 8.5 hours and I wish I didn’t have any hands to mention, but they are pretty good, so I have to:

First one, I have AQ in a pot I raised and get two callers on the QQ8 two tone flop. The turn is a 5 and now the player in position raises me and the player in the blind calls two bets cold. I think the raiser probably has a worse queen and it seems like the other guy has a flush draw, so I 3-bet it and I’m sure I have the best hand after they both call. The river is a 7, I bet for value, the first guy calls, and now the blind says, “I’ll raise it one time.” Woah. Did not see that coming. My hand is never good here. I’ve shown a shit ton of strength and this dude is raising me on the end? I can actually fold here and still sleep soundly at night. I’m that sure. But I put the call out because I think I’m still supposed to and he shows me the 55 and I can’t help but privately thank the other guy for slow-playing his queen on the flop. Way to go, dude.

Two raises in front of me, I cap with 99 on the button and six of us end up seeing the Q82 rainbow flop. Everyone checks to me and I commit what many would probably consider a faux pas here and check back. Here’s my defense: I’m not going to get many folds on the flop, my hand is not a big favorite against multiple continues, I might be beat already, I don’t want to get check-raised, and I have decent backdoor equity when I’m behind. If I do have the best hand, my equity will drastically increase if the turn bricks off. So I checked back and the turn does brick off. It checks to the guy on my right and he says, “oh send it” and then whispers to me “save your money” after I call his turn bet. This guy has been fanboying me all day. At some point, someone asked me about my World Series plans and I answered cordially and now this dude thinks I’m somebody, plus he happened to be sitting next to me when I had that +$3.4k 8/16 session last weekend. So he’s been peppering me with all sorts of questions, telling me about all his own tournament successes, and trying to make eye contact with me after every single pot he wins because…. why? It’s all I can do not to ask for a seat change to get away from him. So when he tells me to save my money, I think he really is trying to do me a favor. But that didn’t stop me from paying off in this huge pot when the river also bricked and then this dude produces AJ high. I mean… nothing wrong with speech play, but wow. I was going to offer to coach him until this bullshit.

A Palace Classic! Two players limp in front of me and I limp along with the K9 of hearts, there’s another limp, and then the button raises and we all call and maybe a blind or two does too. The flop is K96 with two diamonds and a heart. My plan is check-raise and that’s what I do after the button bets and the first two limpers call. The player in between me and the button cold calls and then the button 3-bets. We all call. My standard play is to cap here, but I’m so confident that the button is clueless and reckless and I fully expect him to fire a turn bet and I can check-raise the field again. Of course, there are some turn cards I won’t check-raise (i.e. ten of diamonds), so maybe I should just collect the extra bets while I’m sure I have the best hand. Well, the turn is an offsuit ten and the button proves just how smart I am and checks back. Jesus. The river is the 5 of diamonds. The first two guys check and I think I can safely bet-fold this card, but in the moment, I thought it was too thin and checked along and it wound up getting checked through and my hand was good.

But wait! The button tables after checking and shows KQ, a hand I’m surprised he checked the turn with given my read of his style. And then the first limper shows… AA. I actually end up slow rolling a little here because my mind is so blown by that holding that I’m honestly in shock for a second. Seriously, go back and read that hand history knowing that the first limper has AA. Amazing stuff.

Sunday @ Palace

Palace had the first of their $110 deep stack Sunday tourney they will be doing every other week. It had a decently slow structure and I cruised to the final table with people punting to me left and right, plus I was running way above average.

We were in level 2 and I was very active at my table when this hand came up. I opened to 250 at 50/100 with QQ and got three callers. The flop came down 663 and I bet 250 because it seemed like I’m way ahead here and I get one caller. The turn is another 6 and I bet 400. He makes it 1000. Woah. Well, I’m only losing to quads here and it seems like he has a medium pair, so I make it 2500 and he stuffs it on me. I immediately tell the dealer, “this should probably be a snap-call, but realistically, my hand shouldn’t be good here, so I’m going to need some time.” I do some tanking, I start talking about quads and aces and kings, then I even start quizzing the player and trying to pick up info that way. Finally, the floorman happens to be walking by and I get to ask a question I don’t know the answer to: “Is there re-entry in this tournament?” “Yes.” “Call.”

And my opponent tables 44 and is drawing dead. Maybe a nit roll, but come on… I don’t want to bust out of this event in the second level when I can fold here and still have 140 bigs in a field I expect to have a massive edge in. I can’t even imagine what is going through someone’s head for them to 4-bet jam with 44 on the turn there. Really the only way my hand is good here is if I’m playing against someone that is losing their fucking mind. And, believe me, I thought that was a strong possibility.

I got all sorts of gifts like that all throughout the tournament, but it wasn’t meant to be.

I made the final table with a hefty stack, but as soon as they started talking chop and I started talking “how about we actually play a final table” the Poker Gods decided to punish me for my “greed.” I mean, 6th place was $306 and a 6-way chop was a little over $700. I can’t really say that got my blood flowing. Locking up that extra $400 doesn’t make any difference to me. I just wanted to play, plus I thought I was going to have to get unlucky not to win the tournament outright.

First, I lost a flip.

Then I lost my mind.

I opened to 10k at 2k/4k with AKhh and the big blind defended. He was the only player that had me covered, even though my stack had shrunk to about 25 bigs. The flop was T72 with two clubs and NO heart and I… checked? Why? Why would I do that? Because I lost my fucking mind. That’s why. These people don’t have the balls to play back as a bluff. They will check-call good draws and pairs, raise their big hands, and fold everything else. Just fire a half pot c-bet and win the pot right there 70% of the time. But no, I checked back. And then I called 12k when he bet the 4c turn. And I don’t know why I did that either. I told myself to fold… and then I called. Then he bet 15k when the river paired the 2 and I called that bet too. He showed me K4o and I had to muck my hand. Holy shit. I was considering bluffing if a club hit the river, but I really have zero defense for any of my postflop actions this hand. It was just a total choke job. I punted the tournament in this hand. Not only did I bleed 27k on the turn and river, but I should have picked up the 22k pot on the flop. Just an embarrassment.

That left me with like 7 bigs and I ended up getting them in with AQ and got called by KJ of hearts and they flopped a flush and just like that I was out. 6th place for $306 and they happily chopped the rest of it up 5-ways. Good for them. I don’t care about busting in 6th and not being part of the chop, but I do care about how I played that AK hand. I played so well this whole tournament and, as my friend put it, “blacked out” for one hand and it cost me all my momentum. Can’t afford lapses like that this month.

Oh well. Live and learn.

On the bright side, I woke up on May 20th stuck over $4000 for the month and ended up having a really good last 11 days and not only had a winning month, but an above average one. Didn’t see that coming.

I’m ready for the World Series of Poker! Let’s get it!

First event is $1500 H.O.R.S.E. on Wednesday. My best finish in that event is 5th in 2017 for ~$45k, my best score ever. I wasn’t even supposed to be in Vegas yet for this event, so it would be really cool if I can make another really deep run it. Destiny?

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