The Bat Cave

So I didn’t end up blogging during two pretty epic sessions. I had a +$2666 PLO session that I didn’t blog any hands from and this past Saturday was possibly the craziest 8/16 game I’ve ever participated in.

The Triple Up

I always sit down in PLO with between $500 and $800 on the table and $1000+ in black chips in my pocket for swift and discreet top offs and reloads. I wouldn’t need those extra chips for this session.

I’m UTG with QdJd8d8. I decide to limp in because I want to play, but I don’t want to bloat the pot from early position and risk getting 3-bet. I don’t mind limp-calling with it and going from there. So I limp in, someone does raise it and six of us go to the flop for $25 each.

Pot is $150 and it checks to me on Td9d3. Now I’m pretty happy to get it in and I start trying to build the pot by leading out for $80. Tormund raises me a couple of stacks and John Kim pots it. Everyone is about $800 deep on the flop and though I’d rather get this in heads up (3-way action could indicate a set and a bigger flush draw), I decide to go with it. All three of us get our stacks in and agree to run it twice.

First Board: Td9d3-X-K

Second Board: Td9d3-Xd-Y

I scoop this $2400+ monster pot in the first 30 minutes of the session. John Kim had TT. Not sure what Tormund had. My diamond draw was obviously the nuts, so folding here would have been a catastrophe.

Leveling Up

It’s been five days since this session, so some of the finer details are lost on me. In this pot I had A873 with nut hearts. I believe this pot was limped around preflop.

The flop is JT3 with two spades and one heart. Everybody checks.

The turn is the four of hearts. It checks to me and I decide to bet my pair plus nut flush draw plus weak gutter and this much weakness in front of me. I bet $20 and the player on the button – the most experienced and possibly the best PLO player in the game – makes it $85 to go.

Everyone else folds.

I’m not buying it. What hand other than 44 in the hole can really justify a value raise here? There’s two spades on the flop and sets are vulnerable to the straight draws around the jack and ten, so I’m basically eliminating non-44 sets from his range when he checks back the flop. I think I can remove JT for the same reasons. I don’t think he has a strong made hand and I suspect he thought the same about my range and that’s the main reason he was raising me.

Time to level up. This isn’t like hold’em where I can check-call with bottom pair some of the time. If he has a good bluffing hand like 7665, I’m still losing to that if neither of us improve.

It’s worth noting at this point that I thought he raised me to $105 based on how his chips were positioned, so I wasn’t trying to put max pressure on him when I made it $310. But I do end up potting it because I can only make it $280. He ends up calling.

The river pairs the 4 and misses both flush draws. Seems like a very safe card to continue my story and since I don’t think he has much and I want to look like I might want a call, I bet $200 and he tanks for a tiny bit before folding.

A friend and I were talking about the final table of the WSOP and all the close spots that came up. Like Tony Miles huge bluff with the 75. If John Cynn calls there he’s a genius hero. He just won the WSOP Main Event. If he calls and Tony Miles shows… jacks full or something of that nature, John Cynn looks like an idiot for doubling his opponent up with such a weak hand.

These spots come up all the time, especially in big bet poker. This PLO hand I just posted is a good example. I felt like a gangster after that hand. My analysis was solid and led me to good conclusions and a nice pot when I didn’t have anything. But what if he had a four and a flush draw and decided to call it off on the river with trips? Am I an idiot now? Naw. I analyzed correctly and got unlucky. But what about when he has threes full? How cool do I feel punting $500+ in this pot that had $30 in it on the turn?

And that’s what makes poker so fun, deep, and exhilarating!

Running Good

I open with KKJ4 double suited and three players call. Flop is 99x and I decide to check back when it’s checked to me.

Turn is the ten of diamonds and one of the blinds leads out $20 into $50 and one other player calls. I have a gut shot, a weakish flush draw, and an overpair. Also, neither of my opponents are experienced PLO players. I don’t trust their abilities to determine hand strengths in this game. I decide to peel and see what happens on the river.

It’s the king of diamonds, giving me the nut full house and bringing in the flush. The first guy leads out for $40, the second player calls again and I make it $135 to go. The first player tanks for a bit and then jams on me for $300+ and the other guy folds. I call and beat his T9.

Obviously I got super lucky here but that river action is what I’m thinking of when I say I don’t trust their ability to read hands or recognize relative hand strength.

The Craziest 8/16 Game Ever

By the time I got to the main game I had already hit a High Hand for $400, so I moved over with about $1000 in chips.

And then I found out they were playing 16/32 Overs. What? I’ve legitimately never seen or heard of that happening in a Palace game. But I was excited because pretty much everyone at the table had a button. And the pots were MASSIVE.

The first time I saw someone try to raise the turn to $64 with blue chips, I immediately went and got myself $500 in red, to make betting on the big bet streets swift and easy.

First, A Hand

This hand happened at a previous table, but it’s important to note because the main villain is in the main game when I get there.

This player had already proven to be speeding around a little bit, so when he opens and one other cold calls, I 3-bet 77 on the button. He caps it. We go 5-handed to the flop.

It’s Q74 with two diamonds. He leads out, there’s a call, I raise, the small blind calls cold, and the other two call.

Turn is a 6 and the speeder and small blind both check-call.

River is an 8 and the small blind leads out. He definitely has some fives in his range so I’m not happy about this, but then the preflop capper raises! I know he’s been speeding around, but he capped it preflop! And bet the flop! What is he trying to say he has? He doesn’t look like he’s bluffing, plus I have the small blind to deal with also, so I muck my hand in disbelief. The small blind calls and flashes 86 of diamonds (good lead, champ) and the speeder tables…

…wait for it…

…oh my god it’s so good…

…T9 offsuit!

Wow. MAGA indeed.

So yeah. That guy is in this crazy 16/32 game and so is a newer player that has a big mouth and a very itchy trigger finger. In fact, I counted five maniacs/spewers sitting in a row before I even sat down. I was practically hyperventilating in anticipation while I was waiting to move to the table. What if all the money’s gone?! I didn’t even know these psychos were playing for double the stacks after the flop.

So I finally get my seat in this insane game and The Flea is sitting on my right and we have a quick and abrupt conversation.

Flea: Did you just get back from Vegas?

Me: Nope.

Flea: Oh, I thought that was you that was in Vegas.

Me: Nope.

A Bad Beat Story

I open AA under the gun. One psycho raising every hand 3-bets me and the psycho with T9o caps it.

Flop is AK3 and we all check.

Turn is a blank. I bet and they both fold.

Foul Deck

This game is jammed up and I’m in there speculating with the T9 of spades in a raised pot on the button. There’s like 13 people in the pot.

Flop is J62 with two spades and there’s a flurry of action. Guy in s4 donks, Flea raises, I call it cold, FanBoy’s girlfriend (I’ll call her FanGirl for the rest of this hand) calls cold and six of us see the turn for two bets.

It pairs the jack and brings in the flush. Everyone checks to me, I bet, FanGirl check-raises, and s4 cold calls with what is clearly three jacks. It seems like FanGirl has a flush and if that’s true, I kind of have to lean towards bigger flushes than I have. She can have all the ace high, king high, and queen high flush combos and she may be folding junky suited hands like 83 of spades. So I play it cautious and call.

River pairs the six, FanGirl checks, s4 bets, I basically snap fold and she pays it off. He wins with KJ.

Me, to FanGirl: How big was your flush?

FanGirl: Ten high.

Me: Uhhh… I had a ten high flush.

FanGirl: 97 of spades.

Me: 👀

Sorry Ass Dealers

I’m not going to lie, I felt a little bad for the dealers during this game. But only slightly. It wasn’t the easiest game to manage. There was criticism, lots of cursing, some dealer abuse. One player in particular was a real difficult customer. But he was also the main catalyst in the game.

I tried to prime the dealers as they sat down. “Just deal and pretend like you can’t hear anything.”

Well, the catalyst ends up losing a pot and calls the dealer a “sorry ass dealer” and the floor happens to hear something as he’s walking by and it’s repeated what he said and now he’s getting kicked out. On his way out, he grabs a stack of blue chips and tosses it across the room and then says “fuck you” and “suck my dick” to everyone on his way out.

And yes, his ejection totally ruined the game. It went from being off-the-charts good to being pretty good.

I was crushing this game at one point and my stack looked something like this:Unfortunately I started running absurdly bad and wound up cashing out +$202 (and that includes the $400 I got for High Hand. Yikes!). It was quite an epic collapse. I think I may have been +$1500 at my peak.

Sick Cameo

A rare in-season appearance from the legend Radio Mike: I told him I had to snap a pic because I’d never seen him with so many chips in front of him (those racks are seat 2’s).

WSOP Main Event Bust Out Hand

I’ve been interested in messing around with solvers and I wound up downloading a free trial of PokerSnowie and while I haven’t sunk my teeth into the intricacies of the software I did try to run a sim of the hand I busted out on in the WSOP Main Event.

The numbers aren’t exact (I start the hand with the same number of blinds) and I didn’t bother adjusting irrelevant stack sizes. I’m covered by my one opponent and that’s all that matters.

To recap, I opened with KK under the gun, it folded to the big blind and he defended. Flop was 763 with two diamonds and he check-raised my 8k bet to 25k. While I did consider checking back the flop, facing the check-raise is the first interesting spot in the hand.

PokerSnowie’s suggestion:PokerSnowie suggests calling 100% of the time. As you know, I jammed and busted to 63o. What’s interesting about that screenshot, is that even though the AI suggests 100% call, the EV of calling and raising are pretty similar. I’m not sure what to make of that and I haven’t figured out how to analyze that further.

So let’s pretend I called and the turn was a black ace, as it was. And let’s pretend my opponent goes for a bet size of about half-pot, a reasonable assumption considering I would still have 1.7x pot behind after the flop action. Here’s what PokerSnowie suggests:

Both calling and raising have negative expected values. It’s a 100% fold… and I continue on in the Main Event with 46 bigs and plenty of play for the rest of Day 3.

Conclusion? I can now sleep easily at night knowing that I did, indeed, punt my way out of the 2018 Main Event.

10:26 PM: Making an appearance at Muckleshoot in an attempt to increase my live tournament volume. $300 buy in gets you 25k in chips with blinds starting at 100/100 and 30 minute levels.

I already bluffed off 20% of my stack after getting a free play from the small blind with Q9o.

I lead out for 200 in a 4-way pot on T86 and only the small blind calls.

Turn is an ace. I check, not really planning to call very often. He bets 500 and I’m not surprised to see him bet. None of the draws improved and it’s pretty hard for him to have made hands that can stand a raise, so I make it 1700. He calls.

River is king. I bet 2100 and he snaps with A6. Bad result but I’m fine with my line there.

Dealer just told me I can’t have my headphone charger on the table. I use it as a card protector so I’m pretty annoyed. She asks, “is it an electronic?” I respond, “yes, it’s a card reader.”

A little help, Big Daddy?

I recognize a few players at my table. I’ll give one a nickname, since he pops into Palace on occasion and always plays the same local tournaments I play. I will call him Minh Cash.

Looking around the room to see who else in here. I see Bill W and Solomon Grundy but that’s it. Field is kind of small so far. Only six tables in play and all of them have multiple open seats. Registration is open for another 95+ minutes though.

10:51 AM: Defend 3x raise in 4-way pot from small blind with KTo (note: small and big are both 100).

Flop is T74 with two spades. It checks around.

I lead 600 on deuce turn and only the cutoff calls.

River is an ace. A card players will bluff on a lot. If I had the best hand on the turn, I still expect to have the best hand most of the time. I’m losing to nut flush draws that checked back on the flop in position and A7, A4, and A2. Basically I expect him to be bluffing a lot if he bets, so I snap call his 1300 and I guess we’re going to have to include 53 in his preflop cold calling range now.

18.5k

Bright side: unlimited re-entry for 90 more minutes!

11:04 PM: Minh Cash coolered for stacks in a 5-bet pot with his QQ running into AA.

11:23 PM: More bluffing. Open 98hh. C-bet total air. He calls on K32. Turn blank. River ace. Prompts me to bet again. He calls with K6.

Had another weird spot. SB makes it 800 after multiple limps. I defend A3dd.

Four ways to 762 one diamond, one spade flop. Everybody checks.

Turn 3 of spades. I bet 1600, button calls and SB makes it 4100. Really weird spot. Hard to imagine what good hands he plays this way. Probably not overpairs. Sets make some sense, I guess. Spade draws? Probably not with that small of sizing, out of position against two players. He’s been playing pretty aggro so I’m tempted to stuff it on him, but I reluctantly muck instead. So does the button.

Defend 76cc in 5-way pot. Flop is AK3 with two clubs. It checks to cutoff and he bets 1100. He probably has the weakest range of anyone besides me (this is 53 guy), so I jam it on him. Everyone folds.

11.6k

My image is horrible right now, so time to tighten up for a bit and go for extra value when I have something.

11:47 AM: A5hh whiffs on J76hh4-2. Poker is so annoying sometimes.

12:18 PM: Decided to jam the QJdd with 30ish bigs against what I knew was a strong hand. I was planning to forfeit my stack if I was going to L5 with 20-30 bigs, so I just gambled here and tried to double up. He had AA. And I flopped a king. That was the extent of the sweat for me.

Starting 200/400 with 25k now on bullet #2.

12:28 PM: New table has Bill W on my direct right and a player that has 120k somehow.

12:54 PM: Mentioned to Bill W that today is my 8 year anniversary since my last drink… and that got him started telling me all kinds of stories that blew my mind.

If you don’t know, Bill W runs an addiction/recovery center. My nickname originates from one of the founders of AA, so while that name might seem like I’m poking fun at what he does, as someone that has dealt with repercussions of alcoholism since I was in high school, I actually have a tremendous amount of respect for him.

1:09 PM: Bill W limps UTG, I make it 1700 at 300/600 and we go 4-ways to J94 flop. I don’t really like c-betting with my stack size, so I check, the first caller bets 3000 and the other two fold. Not to sure about this spot. It costs me 3000 to win a pot that has 11.3k in it so I’m getting almost 4 to 1 on a call. The board is coordinated around the J9 so there’s no guarantee both my cards are live. The bet size is pretty small in relation to the pot, so I go ahead and speculate.

Turn is a ten. Let’s. Go. I check. He puts me all in and I snap. He tables 44.

River: Ten.

GG.

Pretty solid showing. Two bullets and I never had more than the 25k starting stack.

👍🏻

That’s probably all the poker for me today. I don’t want to jump in a cash game right away so I’m not heading to Fortune and Palace doesn’t even have an 8/16 game yet.

I plan to make a post of my “highlight reel” for my PLO session on Wednesday and the insane 8/16 game I played in at Palace on Friday night.

This could be a short post if I can’t bring myself to adjust properly to these fields.

Details coming shortly… looks like 60 players to start.

7:04 PM: I mostly took yesterday off but I did play the $5.50 Rebuy on Global, the $33 $10K GTD, and the $11 6-Max nightly Limit Hold’em.

I was cruising in the rebuy until I opened KT, a player with good results flatted in position, I c-bet the T43 flop and he crammed it on me. I snap called and he showed 63 of clubs. What? Turn: Kc. River: 3.

No clue what happened there. Dude has a 70%+ ROI over 750+ tournaments so… what was this? I have no idea, but it cost me the tourney chip lead and apparently all my momentum as I busted out of the money.

I did win the limit hold’em though. 1st of 25 for a whopping +$101.50.

🙌🏻

7:10 PM: Cards still not in the air. 2k staring stacks with blinds starting at 5/10 with 15 minute levels. I know FanBoy is out there somewhere. Not too sure about anyone else.

7:41 PM: 2275 starting 25/50 blinds. Nothing too exciting to report. I’ve been playing loose and aggressive, but nothing spewy.

7:48 PM: KJ v KQ on T73K5. 1800.

8:10 PM: Down to 12 bigs on the button, with blinds doubling in three minutes.

Time to get it in.

Jean Segura though. MVP!

8:33 PM: QJ > 77 > AK all in pre for ten bigs. Sitting on 5900 at 200/400 with 50ish left.

8:46 PM: Min-raise to 800 with JThh and BB defends with 1100 behind. Flop is 854 with two hearts and I put him all in. He snaps… with… AK. 🤔 Okay…. he holds.

2800 at 400/800 lmfao. 40 players left and average stack is 5 big blinds. 👍🏻

Wait, why am I here?

9:00 PM: Jam two bigs from cutoff and get folds around. Lol.

Jam 3.5 bigs after a limper with A6ss. He tank-calls (lol) with KQ. KK33x.

GG.

Never again.

9:07 PM: Jean Segura wins the MLB All-Star Game MVP with a clutch go ahead 3-run bomb.

9:09 PM: Wait. What? Alex Bregman? Because he hit a solo shot that won the game? What?

Nice job, Diaz.

9:11 PM: 15/30 on the verge of starting… so I think I’m staying here to play… for now.

I’m working on a wrap up post for my Vegas trip, but haven’t had much time to focus on it. Hopefully I’ll have that up within a week.

Spoiler Alert: it’s ugly.

The Joker on the All-Star Game MVP:

9:26 PM: 15/30 going 7-handed. Starting lineup: Scrappy Doo, Part-Time, a new somewhat wild player that’s good action, a loose-passive older regular, FanBoy, a solid regular, and myself.

9:33 PM: Blinds just went up to 2000/4000 in the freeroll. There are 17 players left. The average stack is 9500. That’s barely two big blinds. Three spots pay.

🤯🤯🤯

I honestly can’t wrap my mind around how ridiculous it is.

10:07 PM: 15/30 is 6-handed and that means I probably won’t be blogging too much because the action is too fast and furious.

10:44 PM: Game is full now. The Invisible Man is in. Plus another super LAG player.

11:42 PM: Nothing worse than getting pwnd by The Invisible Man. I mean he’s such a nit it’s disgusting. So here I am in the small blind with Q3 on a final board of A2336.

I’m the small blind and he’s the big blind. Pot started 3-ways and it checked around on the flop. I led out with my trips on the turn. There was a spade draw available on the turn, so I guess he can have that, but this is a limped 3-way unraised pot and we are in Overs. Hard to imagine him calling with a spade draw on a paired board.

Like I said, so here I am on a final board of A2336 and he’s raising me. I practically want to fold but then I start thinking he could play a 3 this way and I beat most of the threes and since he got a free play from the big and a free turn, all of them are in play.

I call and he shows 54o.

Heads up vs FanBoy. He opens button, I defend K2 of diamonds.

Flop is J95 with two spades and he checks back.

Turn is 7 of spades and I bet as a pure bluff. He calls. Okay, I’m looking to fade spades on the river but I should have a lot of good cards to bluff on, like tens, 6s, 8s, maybe board pairs…

River is a king. Now I can show down. He has some good kings in his range, so I check and call and he shows me AQ high and says, “you’re the man” while making eye contact with Snowflake as if to say: You see this shit?

1:51 AM: Open A5o from the cutoff and both blinds defend.

I bet 852 flop and the small calls, but a speeder in the big check-raises. I have enough hand here against this player to 3-bet and I definitely prefer to play this hand heads up, so I raise it up. The small blind folds and the big blind caps it. Hmmm… okay.

Turn is a queen and he checks it to me. It’s quite tempting to bet here but I really don’t want to get check-raised and I have a pretty good idea what his range is here. I check back and I’m planning to call on rivers that don’t improve 76.

River is a 9. Sigh. He bets and I stick to my plan and fold. Obviously I can be beat anyway, but when his most likely drawing hand gets there (the flop was rainbow), I think he has too many hands now that I’m losing to to make calling profitable. Even the gutshots like 98 and 97 improved to a pair. Obviously the 43 missed but there was one hand I totally overlooked: the 64 double gutter. That hand also missed. I think I’m still okay with the fold though. It seems like strong hands on the flop and 76 are his most likely holdings.

2:22 AM:

Flummoxing the FanBoy

There’s a limper, FanBoy raises and I look down at the QT of clubs on the button. I like to 3-bet with suited Broadway hands when I’m in position a lot because when you take charge of a pot good things can happen. Two players call and FanBoy caps it.

Flop is AT6 and everybody checks to me. I love it. I know FanBoy has JJ-KK and if any of the yahoos call me I think he’ll fold a lot. I bet, the other two both call and FanBoy snap-folds. Hahahaha. I feel like I’ve already won.

Turn is a blank and only the small blind calls me. He’s pretty unlikely to have an ace here since he should be trying to check-raise the other two out on the flop.

River is the jack of diamonds. Ugh. That’s a good card for his range, so when he checks to me, I check back and he shows 63, for a pair of sixes and I win the pot.

FanBoy is tuned out so I ask him what he folded as the cards are collected and the pot is pushed to me. He says, “Jacks” and I say “ahhh… good fold” and then he asks what I had and I won’t tell him.

I’m sorry John, I don’t remember.

He eventually uncovers that I had the ole QT of clubs and he is not pleased and claims he will call me down now forever. It’s always fun when you play poker in a way that people think is… unconventional. If only I could play in a way that made it easy for everyone else. 🤷🏻‍♂️

2:39 PM: FanBoy gets a modicum of revenge when he gets AA vs TT and my QQ, but a K42ccK3c board gets me a free card on the flop and a free showdown.

Sigh. Open 65cc, get the J4c3c flop heads up vs the big blind. He calls flop and the ace on turn gives me some nice fold equity but he calls again there too. I barrel off on the 9 river and he snaps with QQ.

Open QTdd and only the blinds call. Flop is QJ3 with a diamond. The big leads, I raise, the small calls, and so does the big. Turn is a 2. I bet and they both call. River is a 5. Nice clean runout, safe for value betting. I bet and only the small blind calls. I table and then the tables J5.

Running good all the sudden.

3:19 AM: Session saver? I open TT on button and only the big defends. I’m pretty exited when he check-raises me on the JT4 flop. I call and jack him up on the turn and he calls. River… ten! He pays me off and so does Uncle Leroy. $100 Jackpot! About 3 minutes after the floor said we couldn’t turn the PSJ drop off 6-handed.

That’ll teach him.

4:04 AM: After that bad stretch earlier I was kind of surprised to see that I was down $800, so I guess I should take some solace in the fact that I just cashed out -$28.

Add the $40 last longer bet I won from FanBoy in the freeroll and I had an ever so slightly profitable night.

Firing off in the $225 monthly no limit hold’em tournament @ Palace. All the top players in the area seem to be here. I see The Joker, Flexxx, Bill W, FanBoy, Flipper, The Legend (dealing), The Riddler (flooring), The Crypt Keeper,

Starting stacks are 10k and blinds are currently 50-100 in L2.

My starting table has FanBoy, Flexxx, and multiple other players I know. Not a great draw in this field.

10:58 AM: Flexxx basically immediately challenged me to a last longer bet and then he modified it to first one to rebuy, heavily swinging the odds in his favor. I declined.

Flexxx’s open seat has been filled by Bill W.

11:09 AM: Tormund’s fiery locks have shown up for level 3.

Open to 250 with KTo. Splashiest player at the table calls.

Flop is T98. I bet 325 and he calls.

Turn is a 7. I figure this player will be pretty straight forward and transparent in this spot, so I bet 500, not necessarily for value or as a bluff, but to charge when I’m ahead and make his decision-making more pure most of the time. He calls.

River is an ace and I’m pretty happy when it checks around. I table my hand and he doesn’t like what he sees, but then he looks at his hand again and now he likes what he sees because he has T6 of hearts.

11:17 PM: Bill W and FanBoy just punted their stacks in the same hand, so three players have already felted at my table but I’m obviously below starting stack still.

The bet-sizing in this tournament kills me. There will be no speculating, floating or trying to outmaneuver these people because every preflop raise is > 3x and every postflop bet is at least 75% of the pot size.

11:27 PM: On that note, here’s a punt from me:

Two limps, guy that opened 5.5x from the cutoff the previous hand makes it 700 this time, I decide to gamble with the 87 of clubs from the small blind and the big blind and both limpers call.

Flop is A54 with two clubs, giving me a straight flush draw. I’m planning to pile it here and the PFR bets 4000, so I should probably just fold, but I don’t mind gambling here during he rebuy period, so I stuff it for 7700. One of the limpers calls and the original bettor tries to go all in. I say he can’t go all in and five different people tell me I’m wrong. No need to argue. Just call the floor over. Nope, he can’t raise. Also, I tabled my hand out of turn. Twice. So… maybe I don’t really know what’s going on.

Turn pairs the 5 and the PFR bets, other guy folds, and he tells me I have one out. I don’t hit it. His AA is good.

New table has The Crypt Keeper and Two Face at it. Sitting down with 33 bigs.

11:47 PM: 3-way all in at my table: AK vs AK vs JJ with two of them getting 30+ bigs each in. Two Face has the JJ so we are rooting for lots of aces and kings and… there’s an ace in the window! Crypt Keeper stays alive and Two Face busts out. Everything is right in the world.

12:08 PM: Sitting on 6400 coming back to 200/400 blinds. Coming back from… a thirty minute break. What in the actual fuck? THIRTY MINUTES? What kind of cruel punishment is this? Wtf am I going to do for the 25 minutes after I use the bathroom? This is brutal. And incredibly unnecessary.

12:12 PM: This is my second time playing this tournament and so far I have spent roughly 95% of both tournaments on some level of tilt. I haven’t been adjusting to this field very well. It’s very, very soft and I know my skill edge is immense, but it bums me out that that edge is basically just making better preflop decisions. I can’t get in there with wide ranges and try to punish them. When I do that, I’m just punishing myself because they don’t fold and the bet sizes are way too big and the stack-to-pot ratios are way too small.

Get it together, Dark Knight.

12:43 PM: One of the first hands back from break, a loose player open limps the cutoff, and I look down at A6o on the button. I should probably just jam it here but I opt to make it 1100 and one of the blinds and the limper call. So now the pot is 3300+ and I have 5400 behind holding A6 offsuit with two opponents. Seems pretty bad.

Flop is A85 with two hearts and they check to me. I bet 1500 and only the cutoff calls.

Turn is a deuce and I go ahead and pile when he checks. He thinks for two seconds before calling with… 74. By some miracle, I somehow dodge all seven of his outs with one card to go and double up.

Poor execution. Great result.

1:01 PM: So lame. Open 77, two callers. C-bet 855 flop and one calls. Turn ace, I bet 1800 and he min-raises. I fold.

Open K9hh, two callers. Flop is T7x with two hearts. The blind leads out for 5400, leaving herself with 400 behind. I call. Let’s gamble. Other guy calls also. Sigh.

Turn 8. She checks, I bet my last 3300 knowing I’m also getting called but also knowing I’m never folding. They both call.

Blind has Q8 of hearts and the other player has QTo. 4 of clubs.

GG.

Second 8/16 game is starting and that sucks because it means it will be that much harder to get a 15/30 off the ground later.

Sigh.

My home casino is depressing me. Before I left, the 15/30 game was really waning. It went from going every day and starting at a decent time to struggling to get off the ground most days and not starting until pretty late… like 7 or 8 PM.

That’s not the casino’s fault but they also started charging for food and took away rakeback.

And then while I was gone, they increased the PSJ drop.

Jesus. Bad news on top of bad news. In a matter of months, the changes made here have effectively shaved $7-$10 off my hourly winrate… on top of the 15/30 not running regularly. It’s brutal.

And it’s not going to stop. Ten years from now, the majority will still be playing 4/8 and they will be taking $10 a hand. That day might come even sooner.

It’s an ugly cycle because as the rake and PSJ gets higher and higher the players are conditioned to realize that their only chances of actually winning anything are by hitting the jackpots and high hands they are paying for every hand… but a big reason they can’t beat the games is because they are getting raped by the drop.

I get it from the casino’s perspective. And for most players this model probably makes the most sense. But it really does take the pureness out of the game and makes it incredibly tough for anyone trying to make money playing poker. You have to be playing at least 15/30 that to be feasible now and unfortunately that game is no longer something I can rely on.

2:01 PM: Crypt Keeper and Bill W have abandoned ship. Joker is threatening to leave. The 15/30 is that much further from starting. I really have no desire to grind 8/16 with a $7 drop unless I’m waiting for something else. This sucks. I might leave too.

2:32 PM: Pretty cool start to my session. I’m down almost $300 already and not much has gone right, especially this hand:

I cold call along on the button in a multiway pot with J9 of clubs. I flop an open ender with a flush draw, make my flush on the turn and lose to KcJ on the river.

Notables still in the tournament with 31 left: Flipper, Part-Time, Flexxx, and FanBoy, plus three Palace dealers still in the field.

Elmer, Tormund, and The Queen in my 8/16 game.

2:45 PM: I have been informed by a few people that saying the “rake” increased is misleading and untrue. They are right. I went back and edited some words to make my statements accurate. It’s the PSJ drop that has increased and that is technically a neutral drop since (almost?) all of it comes back to the players. Still, I’m personally not happy to see more money coming off the table every hand. Especially on the heels of rakeback disappearing and food comps changing.

Good for the room. Fine for the recreational players. Not great for me.

2:51 PM: Open JJ from MP, Elmer cold calls, The Queen calls from the small, and big blind defends.

Flop is J82 rainbow. Beautiful. I bet flop and the two blinds call and I’m thinking ‘pretty much fading T9 only here.’

Turn is a queen. Lol. I bet, The Queen calls, and the big blind check-raises me. Lol. Way too high in my range to call, especially with a third player in between, so I 3-bet, she folds and he just calls.

That’s good. He is capable of flatting here and raising the river though, so I’m not 100% sure I have the best hand.

He check-calls a brick on the river though and I win the pot.

3:20 PM: Sigh. Floors are trying to start the 15/30 and I definitely appreciate that, but the execution was bad. Tormund flaked and then two others followed suit. Now I’m sitting here with Joker, FBI Guy, and one other and FBI Guy is 0% to play 4-handed. So I’m just sitting here twiddling my thumbs and my former 8/16 seat is occupied.

Looks like I’ll be going home instead.

3:27 PM: There’s hope! Part-Time somehow turned 60 bigs into 0 bigs and is now sitting in the 15/30 game and I guess Tormund has been guilted into turning his blue chips into red ones.

False alarm: Tormund is staying put. Joker thought someone was coming over but they just cashed out and left the building instead. We are now sitting here 5-handed and not playing.

3:32 PM: Almost a dream spot. Playing 5-handed with no PSJ drop, a $1 rake, and no chopping. Lineup is not great but we are playing poker!

3:55 PM: Joker playing some fantasy poker. He’s saying he would have beat my red 99 with T8o if I didn’t 3-bet it preflop or lead out on the 532 flop. Obviously he wouldn’t be in there from the big blind if I did any of those things.

Right?

Nice parlay: I open AQdd, Joker raises, FBI Guy calls and I call. Flop is king high with two spades and a diamond. Joker bets, FBI calls, and I check-raise. Joker folds but FBI calls.

Turn is 6 of diamonds. I bet and he folds JJ face up.

4:31 PM: Flipper, Flexxx, and FanBoy all still in with 16 left. All are short as they approach the bubble of 10 paid.

4:55 PM: A rare photo of The Invisible Man:

He’s been in this 5-handed game for 30+ minutes and his VPIP is still at 0%.

5:26 PM: Flipper and FanBoy bust 13th and 12th. Flexxx still in there with a chance to stone bubble.

15/30 is 8-handed now. First pot of full game: unknown player opens, I 3-bet TT and he calls. I double barrel KJ66 even though it feels like I could be losing a lot here and he calls both streets. River is a queen and now I’m losing like 85% of the time. I check back. He shows AQ.

7:03 PM: Interesting hand: someone raises, there are three callers, I have 44 on the button and call, FanBoy and Joker defend the blinds.

Flop is 764 and there is lots of action in front of me. I make it three bets and FanBoy cold calls from the small, Joker calls, they all call.

Turn is a king and now I get check-raised by FanBoy and that clears out all but one of them. He called two bets from the small blind so I expect him to show up with 77 and 66 a decent amount. I’d be surprised to see sets and there was no flush draw on the flop so a flush draw that turned a pair is out. I decide to just call.

River is a 9 and now FanBoy checks. So does the other player. I can’t check a hand this good so I bet, FanBoy calls, and flashes me the K7 of clubs before tossing it.

This 15/30 game filled up with Rosanne and a couple other key players so it’s nice and juicy now.

7:26 PM: Flexxx has a pretty massive chip lead with 7 left and has his over-the-ear headphones on to block out all the chop chatter.

And would you look at that:

Just look at it.

8:16 PM: Flexxx picks up a nice score as part of a 5-way chop.

8:39 PM: Joker opens under the gun, it folds to me in the small blind and I 3-bet 99 and he calls.

Rosanne says, “let’s see who can outbluff who.” It’s funny because there’s some truth to that… but probably not when he opens under the gun and I 3-bet the small blind in a full game. Lol.

8:47 PM: There’s a raise, calls, I 3-bet AK of clubs on button, Joker caps from the big.

Flop is 653 two clubs. Joker leads, opener raises, I 3-bet and they both call.

Turn pairs the 6, they check to me and I do something absurd: I bet. Joker check-raises and the other player 3-bets. I decide to continue because the pot is massive.

8d on river. Joker check-calls and his AA loses to A6.

Yeesh.

9:01 PM: FanBoy heroes it off. I raise one limper with K6 of spades and FanBoy 3-bets it.

Flop is A62 with one spade and I put a check-raise in.

Turn is another spade. I bet and he calls.

He seems pretty determined to show this one down so when I brick the river we both check and he tables 77.

NICE HAND, BUD.

9:49 PM: Joker just lost his shit. He has A9 on T87J board and it goes multiple bets on the turn. River is a queen and he says, “I think that card saved me.” Other player rolls over K9. Someone says, “no, that card kill you.”

Joker responds, exacerbated, “you all fucking kill me.”

I tried to snap a pic of what that face looks like but you have to draw the line somewhere.

10:04 PM: Player in s8 wins a pot and player in s9 puts his $5 small blind in but it goes into the shuffler and he gets the dealer’s attention to get it out before it shuts and the dealer goes into the shuffler, fishes it out, drops it in their box and says “thank you.”

I look at the small blind and he’s just sitting there with his hand on his chin rolling his eyes.

12:06 AM: Obviously running out of steam, both in writing and playing. I think it’s time to rack up and call it a night soon.

2:43 AM: Powered through another 2.5 hours. Riddler stopped in and tried to 3-bet bluff me on the river when I made a flush because FanBoy bluff-raised him on the river with a total airball.

Bullet #1 -$225

Bullet #2 -$225

8/16 -$195

15/30 +$820

Since my last blog update I played 17 minutes in the $365 NL Giant on Friday night when I played a massive pot with AA against AJ of clubs that found me all in on the river on a board of K64ccA9c and heading for the exit in stunned fashion yet again.

The pot had roughly 24k in the middle after the turn action and I had about 15k behind. I knew he had a made hand and I thought it was very unlikely that he would fold to a river jam, so I stuffed it in. Of course, I was aware that the missing ace was the ace of clubs but I’m never gonna check-fold my hand getting 2.6-1 with top set and I definitely thought it was more likely for him to call a jam than it was for him to bluff the river and despite the numerous monsters under my bed at this stage of my trip, I had zero interest in trying to show down my hand for free.

He made it 600 pre and I made it 2500 facing two opponents from out of position so even though it’s certainly not impossible for him to have smaller suited aces, I would expect him to fold anything less than AT suited and since AK of clubs is not possible he usually only has a few flushes on the river: AQcc, AJcc, ATcc, QJcc, QTcc, JTcc. I would be surprised, but not shocked, to see anything else.

Meanwhile there are six combos of KK and AK alone. Granted, he might be inclined to raise these hands (and the other sets) earlier in the pot.

Shrug. Just another stupid cooler spot where I feel like pot size and strength of hand has me totally handcuffed. Considering all the variables in retrospect, he probably shows up with a flush here more often than not, despite more non-flush combos in his range.

With that said, it’s always worth reviewing certain pots to see if you took the optimal line. I’m not sure I did here.

With two players in position that have 600 committed, I’m not sure that 2500 is a big enough raise preflop. 4x seems big – and if I was opening from the cutoff it would be – but considering the situation, I don’t think it’s big enough. With 25k starting stacks, my raise to 2500 puts both opponents right in that sweet spot of speculating for 10% of their stacks.

Let’s say I have AK here. Would I give them such an attractive price? Seems unlikely. So what’s a good sizing? 3750 would get 15% of the stacks in, but that does seem rather large. 3500 doesn’t seem so bad. That gets 14% of stacks in pre and imagine if my opponents have hands like AK or TT+ – that’s a pretty gross spot. Most players aren’t going to fold there and that’s obviously great for me.

As played, I think my flop sizing is fine. Once I get called there though, there is almost 13k in the pot and when I bet 5k I’m giving him 3.6 to 1 on a call. He needs to win ~22% of the time to make calling profitable and with his actual holding he is ~18% to make a flush. When you factor in implied odds (which he clearly had here), it’s a very easy continue for him with his flush draws.

Since I perceived his holding as strong, I like some other options better.

Option A) I can size up. With 13k in the pot and ~20k effective behind, I think a turn bet of 8k can be easily justified. Now he needs to improve to the best hand on the river ~28% of the time. The problem here is that it’s probably still profitable for him to continue here since he’s basically always getting paid off on the river since my price will be way too good to fold, which is why I like…

Option B) I can check-jam. In real time I was considering this line, but when I improved to top set, I didn’t think it was super likely for him to bet. I can’t imagine him betting his naked kings here. I knew he was strong when he called the turn so I didn’t quite have that information before I acted here.

In retrospect I really like checking here for a ton of reasons.

1) If he has a king, he’s drawing dead and he will likely pay off a smallish bet on the river after the turn checks through.

2) If he’s at the top of his range (AK, sets) he’s going to bet and I will be able to get stacks in here with him drawing nearly dead most of the time.

3) If he’s on a flush draw, he might try to take it away and I can check-jam and put myself in an amazing spot – whether he folds or calls doesn’t really matter.

4) If he decides to check-back his draws on the turn and the river comes a club, I can proceed with caution and check-call. When I check turn and river, my hand doesn’t look super strong here so he will probably size down with his flushes and I will get off relatively cheaply and remain in the tournament. I can’t imagine him going for much more than 60% pot here which I could check-call and still have 60+ bigs.

Let’s rewind to preflop and imagine if I made it 3500. That makes both players continuing decisions tougher, which we want to do. Even though I’m nutted here, I won’t always be in this particular spot so we don’t want to make their decisions easy just because I’m at the top of my range.

If I size at 3500 and the AJcc decides to continue and the other player folds, there will be almost 8k in the middle heading to the flop. Now if I bet half pot, I can reasonably get stacks in on the turn. There will be ~16k in the middle and I will have around 17k behind and jamming seems pretty damn optimal. If the third player decides to call the 3500 (a reasonable assumption) preflop it would make jamming the turn here automatic. In that case, there would be 20k+ in the middle and I’d have less than a pot-sized bet left on the turn. Perfect.

👌🏻

I don’t think I played this hand bad. I doubt anyone would argue that I should have folded at any point in time. I got insanely unlucky like I have so many times this series. That’s undebatable.

But just because I took an insane beat and can seemingly chalk it up to simple bad luck, doesn’t mean I can’t learn from the hand.

Did I take the best line possible? I don’t think so and I think I’ve illustrated why. The “mistakes” I made in this hand can be attributed to my lack of experience in no limit hold’em. I feel like I’m an above average NL player in the scope of the entire poker world, but if you narrow it down to the top 25% (and assuming I’m even that high is quite a leap), there’s no way I’m above average at NL hold’em in that smaller pool of players.

I have busted with AA in two of the last three NL tournaments I’ve played… both times in the first orbit of the tournament!!!

My takeaway from both those pots is that I need to rethink my 3-bet sizings and try to plan ahead better. In the typical month, I might play one NL tournament, on average, so it can be hard for me to get practice in deep stacked NL. I did play a ton of NL tournaments online over the past year but those events tend to play with a much quicker structure and the decision-making and planning becomes much more trivial.

I think this is an important hand to review as I head into my first MAIN EVENT ever. I’m not planning to play any poker until then as I’m going to be spending my time relaxing and studying before I hop into Day 1C on the 4th of July.

Tormund was ridiculing me for not getting some live NL warm up in at the Rio… like in the Daily Deep Stack, but my pain threshold has been really low as the summer has progressed and multiple days off in a row to recover and recoup mentally seems like a better use of my time.I will not be live blogging my Main Event progress, but I will make a blog post you can follow that will have stack updates throughout and if I feel like mentioning a hand it will only happen during breaks. The Main obviously deserves 100% of my focus.

Good luck to me! Last chance for 2018 WSOP redemption!