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World Series of Absolute Misery

June 18, 2023

You always know it’s possible to go on a cold stretch when it comes to tournament poker – I’ve certainly done it many times – but having it happen during the World Series of Poker when I’m playing my biggest schedule ever has been extremely brutal. I’m writing this on June 18th. I’ve played 15 bullets across 14 tournaments and I’ve managed just two min-cashes. In a nutshell, this is how it looks so far:

Both times I cashed a tournament, I busted a bigger tournament for more than I profited on the same day… so I actually haven’t had a single winning day in the month of June. I’ve only played cash games twice this month and those sessions went not well and extremely awful – not that I gave myself much of a chance. I played 3.5 hours the first session and about an hour the second one and both times the accumulated tilt of a bad Series overwhelmed me to the point where I didn’t feel like playing anymore.

I’ve made Day 2 in four WSOP mixed events, but I think I’ve only had one day since I’ve been here where I felt like I ran even close to above average and that was on Day 1 of Limit Hold’em. I had some bad levels at the end of the night in that one, but most of the day I was building a stack. That hasn’t happened in any other tournament this year. Everything else has been a struggle and any time I’ve had some momentum going, I haven’t been able to maintain it.

All my Day 2s have been absolute shit.

In Limit Hold’em, I 3-bet all in with the KQ and Pads 4-bet behind me. The flop came K83 with two diamonds and Patrick Leonard (Pads on Pads) bet the flop and turn and his opponent called both times. On the river, they both checked and I figured that meant I was tripling up, but the early position player was going for the trap trap trap line with 88 and I was somewhat surprisingly out of the tournament.

In Badugi, I didn’t bag a very big stack but I found myself in a crazy pot early on in Day 2. Middle position opened, the button called, Daniel Weinman 3-bet from the small blind, and I looked down at A53x. I decided to go with a 4-bet to see if I can get either of the dudes out behind me. It’s rare for people to fold in limit games once they’ve put in multiple bets preflop, but it can certainly happen in Badugi. For instance, if the middle position player opened with a bad queen high Badugi, he should just fold here. We are always pushing equity against the button, so we are indifferent on whether he puts more money in or not. Weinman obviously has at least a good 3-card dugi, so it’s probably a fair fight with him. Anyways, everyone calls. Weinman draws one, I draw one, the middle position player stands pat, and the button draws two. I don’t improve and we check to the pat player, he bets, and we all call. Same exact draws as the first time: one, one, pat, two. We all check to the pat player and he bets and we all call again. And then something crazy happens: Weinman draws one, I draw one, and out of nowhere for no reason at all the player that has been pat the whole time suddenly decides to draw a card. It blew my mind. I looked at Daniel Weinman and I could tell his mind was blown too. This was an amazing result. There’s a chance Weinman had a better 3-card hand than me, but there was also a good chance I had the best hand and now that this guy broke his Badugi, I might be a favorite to win this massive pot. I actually reduced to A43 on my last draw, but didn’t make a Badugi. Everyone checked to the button and he bet. Weinman folded so I torched another big bet just in case this dude was trying to steal a monster pot with a bluff. Unfortunately he made a 97 Badugi and won the pot. Before the river action there was 180k in the pot which was well more than average stack at this point. Instead of sitting on 200k+ and cruising to the money, I had 30k or so and was out shortly afterwards.

Razz was a pure nightmare. My worst limit showing of the summer so far. I couldn’t win when I had the best draw, I couldn’t win when I made a 7, I lost when I check-raised 7th with a 6, my bluffs all got picked off and the one time I made a wheel I was all in on 3rd street. Nothing but pain.

I lost all my chips in Razz hands in the $1500 8-Game as well. By the time I busted the 8-Game I was feeling like I wasn’t capable of winning a Razz hand. In fact, when I was mega short in the Aria 8-Game a few days later on the bubble, I came back from break with 4-5 hands of NL Hold’em and I was curious what the next game was going to be…

SHOCK

Somehow Razz didn’t kill me in that one. But I dwindled so low that I posted my big blind in limit Hold’em with one big blind behind on the stone bubble and had to defend Q3 offsuit vs a raise and a call. I was pretty delighted to see the 733 and that triple up helped me mincash my second tournament of the summer.

My Day 2 of the $1500 2-7 Triple Draw was more pain. I started the day with a below average stack but plenty enough to spin it up and make a run. The first hand I played, I opened 742 and the big blind defended. We both drew two. I improved to 7542 and she check-called my bet. She drew two again and I drew one. I made 97542 and this time she check-raised me. My hand is not great but since I was still drawing and she was a card behind, I thought she might check-raise worse pat hands or break ones that were slightly better, so I decided to 3-bet. If she called and pat, I could consider breaking my hand and draw to a 7. If she 4-bet, I could call and break. Fortunately, she called and broke her hand. Huge victory! She checked dark on the last draw and I snap checked behind. She turned over a 7 and had 6542 down. Unreal. She told me she broke a 96 so she had me beat and I got her to break the best hand. And my reward: losing the pot anyway. I was extremely short after that, so naturally I made a wheel after one draw when I was already all in. I got short again after I got dealt a pat 97653 vs a CO open and they ended up making an 8 on the last draw. I made an 86 on my all in hand on the second draw and had to fade a one card draw on the last draw to double, but he made a 7 and I was out in the first level of the day.

This reminds me of a key pot that I played (poorly) late in the Aria 8-Game mix. The button was short stacked and opened in 2-7 Triple Draw. I defended with 733xx, figuring I could fold if I brick the first draw and continue if I improve. I do improve to 743 on the first draw and check-call a bet. I catch a king and a jack and he’s all in for half a big bet so I call even though my hand and draw are pretty damn bad. I draw two and he draws one. I turn my cards over one by one to show him what he needs to beat: a deuce and a six! Unbelievable. I botch this hand completely and end up making #2 (76432) to knock my opponent out and win a key pot for myself… unless… he shows 7432 and rips over a 5 to make a wheel. Even when I play bad and get incredibly lucky and make the second nuts… I still can’t win.

I had a really good table draw in the $1500 NL Monster Stack and even though I was floating just below starting stack most of the day, I felt really good about my chances of accumulating chips because no one seemed capable of challenging me for the position of Table Captain. I was about 4.5 hours in when the spot I was waiting for came up. Someone limped in early position for 600, the next player made it 1600, one other player called, I defended the QJ of spades in the big blind, and the limper called also. The flop was QJ7 rainbow and I decided to donk lead 3500 since the pot was multiway. I didn’t want hands like TT or AK or AJ to check behind and if he had KK or AA, I figured I was going to get it all with this line. Sure enough, the limper calls and the preflop raiser does raise it up… to 7500. I fist-pump rip it in for 40k and high five all my friends in the group chat and then the dude snap calls and turns over QQ and I’m dead to running jacks. In retrospect, his flop raise sizing is mega sus (so small it should raise alarm bells), but my hand is way too good to ever consider folding and you never know what random, somewhat inexperienced players are capable of doing. Maybe he makes this raise size with AA or KK or AQ (but probably not). Just like that, I was out.

I was going to skip Monster Stack Day 1B because I was over it and also because I didn’t want to be trapped on the strip if I busted early due to the parade for the Golden Knights Stanley Cup win. But against my better judgment and after much badgering from my friends…

Monster Stack Day 1B I did accumulate some chips, getting my 50k up to around 80k. I ended up getting moved to a pretty tough table though through pure magic bad luck. My table broke and the seat card I was given had a player in it already. So the floor person just had me follow them and sat me at the first open seat they saw. Chaos. I somehow managed to play nearly ten hours without winning with a single pocket pair. My medium pairs (99-JJ) were all in tough preflop spots and my small and medium pairs all whiffed. I was pretty short with about 20 minutes left in the day when the hi-jack opened to 5500, the cutoff 3-bet to 15k, and I looked down at two red kings on the button. I ripped my last 30k knowing I’m always getting called. The cutoff turns over black JJ and I’m 80% to more than double up. The flop comes quite bad – three spades – the turn is another spade and I’m completely dead and my night is over (and it took me over an hour to get out of the parking garage at 1 AM anyway).

I was going to take today off, but I heard I could put money on WSOP.com with PayPal and play a $500 bracelet event. That sounded fun so I did that and I was doing okay up until late registration ended. About 100 spots off the money, this happened:

I picked up some pots without confrontation after that and then about 50 spots off the money, this happened:

And… I was out. After the tournament, I thought I’d dabble in cash for a bit and then this happened:

I’m not going to lie. I’m in a lot of pain. I sold 30-45% of myself in everything from the jump and as the Series goes on, I’ve sold more and more of myself. Despite that, June 2023 is already the worst month of my career by a long shot. I have two small cashes across what is now sixteen total bullets for a total of -$14,420. I’ve only played nine hours of cash since I’ve been here but I’ve managed to lose another $1848 doing that also. There is still plenty of time to turn things around, but I’m losing more and more willpower by the day and there’s only so much damage I’m willing to do to my bankroll before I call it quits. In the big picture, this 2 for 16 showing is completely normal, but this is the biggest schedule I’ve ever played and I’ve put a substantial portion of my bankroll at risk. You always know a bad run like this is possible, but you really hope it doesn’t happen during the most critical stretch of your poker career.

This next week I’ll be playing the $1500 HORSE on Tuesday, the $1500 Super Turbo Bounty NL on Wednesday, the $2500 Triple Draw Mix on Thursday, the $1500 Millionaire Maker on Friday, the $1500 Stud 8 on Saturday, and… the tournament I’m most excited about: the $3000 6-max Limit Hold’em on Sunday. If this next week goes poorly as well, I’ll be taking a break until the Main Event and heading to New York City for the first time in my life to visit my girlfriend because she’s out there trying to do big things for her career right now. If I do that and then don’t make a deep run in the Main, that will be it for my 2023 WSOP. I’ll go home early and lick my wounds and spend the next year getting ready to show and prove in 2024.

Missing them a ton

It can be hard to celebrate other people’s wins when you’re drowning in your own misery, but I would be a shit friend if I didn’t mention my buddy Eric Trexler (Godzilla when I used to blog regularly with nicknames) making a sick ass run to 2nd place for a $300k score in the second biggest field for a live tournament of all-time (interestingly, my friend and Team Torch member Jared took 2nd in the biggest live field of all-time). If you have a PokerGo subscription you can watch ET boss it the fuck up at the final table and I think it might even be free on YouTube. It’s a must watch. He put on an absolute show. Here are some fun videos I took while railing him:

Anyways, let’s hope I have much better things to report next time I make an update. STOP THE BLEEDING!

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2023 WSOP Schedule

May 5, 2023
Team Torch is READY

We are officially less than a month away from the next World Series of Poker. This is going to be by far the most important WSOP of my poker career. I’m planning on playing my biggest schedule ever and there is really no reason for me not to be in Vegas for seven weeks straight. My girlfriend is moving to New York City for 3-4 months this summer for her own work and she’s taking Kirby with her. I’ll have no one to telling me to come home and no one and no dogs at home I’m excited to get back to. No excuses. I’m really excited, but I’m going to spend this next month making sure I’m mentally prepared for what’s ahead.

That’s a daunting schedule I have down there. The thought of whiffing everything is pretty scary, but I’m here for it. Unlike in previous years, I will be trying to play a lot more no limit hold’em tournaments. I love playing mix game tourneys, but I’ve put in FAR more work on my NL hold’em game over the past few years than anything else and it’s no surprise that four of my top five all-time cashes are NL hold’em as it’s by far the most popular variant of poker and thus creates the biggest fields and prize pools. So why I’ve mostly been avoiding those events at the WSOP the past half decade is a mystery to everyone, including myself. I guess I’m just more comfortable playing limit games, but if Covid did anything positive for me, it certainly forced me to start focusing on NL hold’em and I feel like I have exponentially improved at it since 2020.

I will also be playing very few non-WSOP events. I want to give myself the best chance to win a bracelet so I’m thinking at least 80% of my volume will be in bracelet events. I only I have a handful of tourneys that aren’t at WSOP down there and almost all of them are bigger mix events. Maybe it will work out that I end up playing a bigger off site NL tourney, but what I really want to avoid is committing myself to multiple day events that aren’t WSOP.

It would be an absolute disaster if I played every event on this schedule below. I should be making deep runs in some events and missing others, but this is just every event I’m legitimately interested in while I’m down there. Events in purple are my must plays on those days if I’m not advancing in something else already. I’ll also noted some BIs in yellow highlighter because they are my biggest events of the series and I’m selling more action than normal for those particular ones. I’m sold out of the majority of my WSOP package but I may sell more of the bigger BIs if I am doing poorly. I will reach out to people I’m pretty sure want action if that ends up being the case.

Hopefully it’s a huge summer! Leggo.

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2022 WSOP $1500 Limit Hold’em – The Joker vs The Batman: Team Torch Runs Deep!

June 20, 2022

My next event is always a marquee WSOP tournament for me: the $1500 Limit Hold’em. Granted, I’ve been playing mostly no limit cash games the last two years, but I spent almost all of my live cash game hours in limit Hold’em games the 17 years before that. It’s surely my best game and I figure most of the elite mix game pros don’t spend much time playing it.

I started off keeping notes for this tourney, but it didn’t last long. I felt like I was the strongest player at my starting table but a solid margin so I was playing a lot of pots and by the first break I had already increased my 25k starting stack to 34.1k and soon after hit a WSOP limit event peak of 41.4k.

With roughly 45 tables in play and some 450 players left, my table either broke or I got high-carded to a new table and one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me in a WSOP event happened:

I got seated on Joker’s immediate left. For the rest of the night. I was having a good day and after nine levels of play I had built my stack up to 52.9k and Joker had his at 37.1k. We actually did a fair amount of battling too. I should have probably at least kept notes on those hands. The only one I remember distinctly was raising under the gun with JJ, the next player called two bets cold (wearing an honorary Team Torch patch!) and then Joker 3-bet his big blind like an absolute psycho. I know this range is strong as hell, so I just called and so did our third opponent. The flop was Q52 and when Joker led out, I raised it to try and get the pot heads up. Perhaps this is foolish considering the range Joker is repping. He’s probably not betting that flop with AK. But he would bet it with TT, so raising can’t be that bad. The third player called though and Joker punished me with a 3-bet. I peeled looking for a jack only on the turn, but it was a 7 so I folded and Joker got raised by the other player in the pot. He ended up calling down and getting shown a set of fives.

Both of us managed to build our stacks a little over the next three levels and going into the last break of the night I had 58k and Joker had 41k. And this is where our fortunes completely switched course. I got absolutely decimated over the last three levels and Joker crushed. I ended up bagging a measly 10k in chips and Joker bagged 135k. I barely had one big bet left and Joker was top 15 in chips.

And Patton didn’t make it through the beer level
My Day 2 starting stack

I was pretty much counting myself out as I’d need to win several hands in a row to even think about being back in contention in this tournament. In another improbable turn of events, Joker started Day 2 seated on my immediate left. I was positive he was going to be the one to knock me out because when I put chips in the pot, he usually can’t help but wake up with some sort of hand.

Spoiler alert

To make matters worse, I started under the gun on the first hand. I was going to have to put it in with anything reasonable or go all in from the big blind on the next hand. I ended up getting a piece of cheese and taking my chances in the big blind. It folded around to the small blind and I snap-called blind when he put me all in. I turned over the absolutely beautiful T4o vs his J7o and flopped a ten and turned him dead for a double up. Then I picked up JJ vs AK and won that race for another full double and found myself at 42k and halfway to an average stack! The ball really got rolling for me when I played a 3-bet pot with 88 against KK and flopped a set for another full double up. This had me at 82.5k when the average stack was 102k and feeling like I was really back in this thing. By the end of the first two levels, I had dipped down to 60k and Joker had surged to 265k, about double the average stack with 100 left and 79 of us making the money.

My rise continued after the break and I rather comfortably made the money and when the bubble burst, I found myself sitting on an average stack, in position to actually make a deep run. Plus, Joker and I were getting some coverage from PokerNews.

After four hour long levels, I was nearing 200k and Joker had a massive 325k stack with 58 players remaining. Meanwhile, our friend Lee Markholt, #2 on Washington’s all-time money list, had a massive stack that was near the chip lead. So three of us PNW boys were in the hunt with less than 60 players left. We had tried to get Lee to wear a patch but he said he needs to get paid to do so. I was like, “bro.” BROW. Come on.

Joker and I eventually switched tables and I ended up on the right of 2015 Main Event winner Joe McKeehen. I’ve actually played with Joe before and I don’t think he said a word to anyone the whole time. That’s the kind of dude I expected him to be. This time was a completely different experience. First, he said something to the dude to his left about a tweet Brock Parker made thinking that he was Brock (he wasn’t) and then said, “and that’s why I never talk to people.” I was watching a hand he played and he was wondering if he took a different line if he would have saved a bet and I commented that it would have saved him half a bet because his opponent never bets the river and he agreed. After that, Joe didn’t stop talking to me for hours. I guess he felt like I knew my limit Hold’em? It was strange, because I’ve always heard he basically doesn’t like anyone, but here he was yapping away at me to the point where I was thinking, “dude… give me a break.” Plus, he’s a mumbler so I kept having to ask him to repeat himself. One thing he did mention to me was that I needed to stop defending my big blind. It made me think… in cash games, I’m a liberal blind defender. Anything connected, most suited hands, anything remotely playable, I’m seeing a flop – especially from mid-to-late position openers. But the thing about poker tournaments is that you can’t put more chips on the table and playing marginal hands out of position can be very costly – and unlike a no limit format, the implied odds of making the best hand are limited to the fixed bet sizes. The lesson: tighten up from the big blind, avoid those marginal spots, and save your chips for when you have the range and positional advantage. It makes sense to me. Thanks, champ!

Here’s a key hand I played vs. Joe that he said I played perfectly and that he thought he could arguably fold preflop:

In a shocking turn of events, Joker busted out in 38th place and I had 240k with average stack at 350k as I headed to dinner break with 35 players left. Just goes to show how swingy tournament poker is and how important it is to have a chip and a chair. Joker started the day with a top 10% stack and I had to put my tournament life on the line the second hand of the day with two random cards. And six hours later, he was out and I still had a chance to win a bracelet. Wild stuff.

The pot that unofficially ended my run in this tournament was when I opened with the JJ under the gun and only the big blind called. The flop came KQx and I checked back. The turn was a blank and I called a bet. The river was also a blank and I called another bet and lost to K3. Maybe I can save a bet on the river – especially with two straight draw blockers – but I feel like my hand is too good to fold when I check back the flop and show weakness. The whole point of that line is to get to showdown cheaply and/or pick off bluffs.

I didn’t note any of the hands I’m talking about, but here’s what my input in the Team Torch chat looks like over the next 50 minutes:

Crippled
Doubled
Crippled
Doubled lol
Doubled
Crippled
Bust 28th

And that was that. 28th place for $3900 and probably the least annoyed I’ve ever been busting a WSOP event. Why? Because I had no chance at the start of Day 2! And I made a deep run. And I sat right next to one of my best friends (and worst enemies) for most of the tournament! It was an absolute blast and an experience I hope we get to duplicate many times over the next several years. You know, if Joker can ever escape from Arkham for more than a few weeks each summer.

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2022 WSOP: $1500 Dealer’s Choice Blog

June 4, 2022

My first event of the summer was the $1500 Dealer’s Choice at the World Series of Poker – an event I’ve always wanted to play and have always skipped. There are games in the mix that I’m definitely not adept at (Pot limit 2-7 Triple Draw, 5 Card Draw) so I’ve been skeptical about this event in the past, but I decided to go for it this time.

I sat down in level 3 with betting limits of 400/800 for the limit games and a starting stack of 25k. 30 big bets. That’s playable.

My first notable hand was in Stud Hi-Lo with no qualifier – a game I never play and my table picked over and over all day. I can’t blame them. From what I saw, there were multiple players that were absolutely awful at it, including one that kept picking it – a known pro whose name I won’t put on blast because, uh, it might get back to him. Someone opens and I have 97-5 – a hand that would be unplayable in Stud 8, but has way more potential in this variant. We end up going 3-ways and my board runs out 97-5468-J. I took the betting lead on 5th street and I was so shocked when I got raised on 7th that I started to announce “9 hig-“ before realizing what happened. Both my opponents had Badugi upcards so neither of them could have a flush. There was one bigger straight available but it would be impossible for them to have and neither of them had a pair on board. I had the nut high and it seemed likely my low was probably no good, but I still had an easy 3-bet and they both called it and somehow neither of them could beat my low either and I scooped a very nice pot.

This had me up to 31.5k after three levels and on the first break.

I only had one notable hand over the next three levels. We are playing No Limit 2-7 Single Draw and with blinds of 100/200 with a 300 ante, the under the gun player tries to limp in which you can’t do in this variant and ends up being forced to min-raise to 400. I make it 1500 with A9732. He calls and we both draw one. I pair the deuce and decide to bet 2200 when he checks to me. He snap calls with a 98 and I get picked off.

I was down to 22.3k after six levels on the second break.

I played a weird Badugi hand against Rick Fuller – a pretty well known pro from the Washington area. With blinds at 300/600, I open with 842x and Rick 3-bet from the big blind. I called, he stood pat, and I drew one. I reduced my tri to a 542 and called another bet. I made a Q542 Badugi after the second draw and decided to raise it. I’m honestly not sure about this play. My thought was he might break or fold a better Badugi and I also thought it was pretty reasonable that I actually made the best hand, but patting and calling leaves me pretty clueless about my hand strength, even if he checks the river. Like, if I call and pat here, he’s probably not going to bet a ten high Badugi. So I raised it up and he ended up calling and standing pat. I tanked for quite a while thinking about if I should break or not and ultimately decided he wouldn’t call and pat with worse and I had a really good draw. I drew one, bricked, checked behind, and rolled my eyes when he turned over a QJxx Badugi. I mean… I’m obviously capable of raising as a bluff after the second draw… and the pot is large… but damn.

During the same round, I had 652x in the big blind and it was raised and 3-bet to me. I’m actually not sure about this spot either, but the 3-bettor is super loose so I decided to go with it. The opener 4-bet and we went draw one, pat, draw one. I caught a suited ten and it was one bet after the draw. The second draw was the same and I caught an off suit 3 to make a premium Badugi. I got in a check-raise and calls from both players and then paid off by one of them after the last draw.

Back to Stud Hi-Lo no qualifier and another strange spot. I have 65-7279 in a 3-way pot against xx-6TT3 and xx-8643. The 86 led out and I decided to raise it in an effort to get the tens to fold and improve my chances of winning the high. He didn’t cooperate and then the 86 made it 3-bets and we both called. I paired my 9 on the river but when the tens called two bets cold on 6th, I figured he had tens up and wasn’t folding, so when the 86 bet 7th, I mucked, the tens called and the bettor just had a low and the tens just had… tens. I got fancy trying to get the pot heads up and then I folded half of a very large pot when it didn’t work and I improved on 7th. Seems bad.

I won a nice scooper in Stud H/L no qualifier with a 7h3x-3h that ended up making an 8 low and a flush.

I ended this level with a hand of Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better by limping along on the button with QTT8 double suited. I flopped a set of tens on KT3 and ended up overcalling pot-sized bets on the flop and 5x turn from a solid player in the big blind and then checked back on a 7x river and my hand ended up scooping somehow. The big blind flashed K3. I was peaking after this pot with 38.3K after eight levels.

I came back from break with my blood sugar plummeting and played a super fuzzy Badeucy hand against Rick Fuller. I opened and he called from the big blind and then drew one, which seems like a hand he should probably be 3-betting, and then he stood pat after leading into me. This made me think he had a pretty weak hand both ways so I chased him down and made a 9 low and an 8 badugi and he showed me a 7 low with a 6 badugi and I actually had to stand up and look at his hand because I couldn’t believe it and my blood sugar was low enough that I thought I might actually be seeing things.

I was very card dead for these three rounds but did play a couple of No Limit 2-7 Single Draw pots that I wrote notes for.

The first was with blinds at 400/800 with a 1200 big blind ante and I had 97762 in the big blind. It folded to the small blind and he made it 3K. We had like 18k effective and I’m guessing I should just be shoving it here with a premium draw one and probably lots of fold equity… but I honestly don’t know what I’m doing. I called. He drew three and said I was supposed fold. Sigh. I draw one and pair my 6. He checks, I bet 4000 because wtf and he shows me a pair of 5s and folds. Disaster avoided.

The second hand I opened to 2400 with a pat 98642 and the button and a blind called. They both drew one and I think I have a hand strong enough to value bet here, but I also think I don’t have very many bluffs here when I bet so I felt like putting a good hand in my checking range made some sense. It checked to the button and he made a rather small bet and showed 987xx and I won the pot.

I had 32k after twelve levels.

In level 13, I was down to 22k and played an all in Big O pot with Jeremy Harkin a.k.a. Worm, a well-known Big O specialist and bracelet winner from Oregon. We both had aces and my AAJ94 made a better low than his AAJ5x and I got three quarters of the pot.

After two ice cold levels, someone picked Limit Omaha Hi for the first time all day. I defended 6544 with a suit against a cutoff raise from Worm and then whiffed my check-raise on T64 rainbow. The turn was a Kh opening up a back door flush draw, I bet and Jeremy called. The river was the 8h and I check-called and lost the nut flush. I think Jeremy is capable of bluffing the naked ace of hearts here, but he has all the flushes too. I think this is just a check-fold and save a big bet spot.

I was very short now and 3-bet the QJJ9 with a suit in the same game and one of the blinds woke up with AAKx and we got my five blinds in preflop and I failed to outdraw his aces and I busted with 30 minutes left in Day 1 for nearly maximum torture.

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Poker Update: Spring 2022 – Huge Life Change & 2022 WSOP Plans

May 24, 2022

Well, first things first: I am no longer married. Technically, I am, but my divorce will be final next month. That relationship has been a huge part of my life for ten years now, but I think this is a good thing for both of us and I’m ready for the next chapter in my life.

Interestingly, after separating from my wife in late February, I had my best cash game month of all-time in my first full month as a single man. Coincidence? Yeah, probably! I did play my most hours of any non-WSOP month and that certainly wasn’t an accident. In fact, it was the first time I’d played 160+ cash game hours in a single month since November 2018. I did have a rather miserable trip to Houston in March, but I was battling a never ending cold (Covid? I tested negative four times) the whole time I was there and somehow found myself feeling absolutely homesick on top of that. I ended up losing $3600 in cash games while I was there and went 1 for 5 in tourneys for another $2450 loss. But my home court was treating me like a king as I bludgeoned the 3/5 game at Palace for over $13.5k in profit in under 100 hours.

The momentum carried over into April, as I booked wins in six of my first seven sessions and found myself up over $6k in my first 50 hours of the month. One problem, those 50 hours came over two weeks. After finding a volume resurgence in March, I was already back to bad habits of not playing even close to full-time hours. It’s been even worse since then. I finished April with 108.5 hours and I’ve played 140 hours over the last six weeks, as I find myself in the midst of a rather nasty breakeven stretch. Actually, breakeven is generous. I’m on a -$3k downswing over the last month and a half and that doesn’t even count an additional $5k I’m down in a private game that I’m being staked in. Coincidence? Honestly, probably not. I was just watching Winning Time on HBO and Jerry West has a quote where he says, “Happiness is a distraction.” I feel it.

Needless to say, I find myself rather burned out and mentally drained as I head into the final stretch before the 2022 World Series of Poker. I’ve decided to take eight of my final ten days in town off before I head down to Vegas next Tuesday for a grueling five weeks of tournament poker.

I’ll talk about my WSOP plans in a second, but first let’s look at some YTD poker numbers. By the end of 2021, I had started to transition to playing mostly 3/5 NL and in 2022 that has undoubtedly become my main game, as I’ve logged almost 60% of my live cash game hours at that level. I’ve logged another 20% at the 1/3 NL level and my win rate in that game has dropped drastically compared to last year ($5.40 per hour vs $56 per hour). The good news is I have been crushing the 3/5 overall this year, running at a $72 per hour clip, even after a six week losing stretch that I still find myself in the midst of. I did book my biggest loss of all-time with a -$2400 in a 30/60 mix game during my Houston trip – something I’ve been threatening to do for quite some time now. It feels like a right of passage and I’m surprised it’s taken me so long to set a new mark considering I’ve been playing higher stakes for quite some time now. It’s not that I’m so good I never lose that much, it’s actually that I’m so wimpy that I usually find myself wanting to quit whenever I get around the -$2k mark. But this year, I’ve been powering through and I had actually passed my worst loss ever mark on multiple occasions – even inching into -$4k territory once – before fighting back and avoiding a record loss. But I finally did it, and it feels kind of good. I’m ready to do it again! But maybe a few months after I break this skid I’m on.

Here’s what my current WSOP schedule is looking like. Events highlighted in purple are must plays unless I make some Day 2 or 3s that overlap a Day 1. There’s some chance I’ll add some NL events since that’s pretty much all I’ve been playing the last 15 months or so… but I’m a sucker for good mixed events.

I bought myself a handy iPad Pro so I should be able to do a decent amount of blogging while I’m down there. I’m really liking the way this Magic Keyboard feels as I’m typing at the poker table right now. Still trying to figure out the Apple Pencil though. Game on next Wednesday. Leggo!

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2021 Year in Review – WSOP Edition – Part Two

March 23, 2022
Loyal Mariners fan

My plan after busting Day 2 of the $3k HORSE was to immediately jump in the $1500 2-7 Triple Draw tournament, but it was 1 AM when they finally sent me to the rail and I missed the tournament I was looking forward to playing more than any other event in 2021. Sometimes these things happen for a good reason though. Joker was in town to play the deuce though and I decided to not get a piece of him because I know his experience in the game is super limited and my goal during WSOP is to reduce my personal variance so I don’t really love taking action from my friends when I’m down there.

Well, a funny thing happened. Joker crushed that tournament. He made the final table with the chip lead and ended up taking 2nd place after losing to David “Bakes” Baker heads up for the bracelet and a $54k score that bested my own personal records. I was impressed to say the least. Not just with the run, but also with hearing him talk about the pots he was playing and realizing how much he was leveling up from the experience. I thought when the tournament started that he was a bit of a 2-7 TD fish and by the time it was over, I thought he was legit better than me at the game. I didn’t have faith in him and it cost me. Never again. Ride or die.

Heads up for a bracelet

My next WSOP event was a $500 NL Freezeout and I was crushing on Day 1 until I punted it away (can’t remember how now) and found myself with a stub as we neared the money bubble. I ended up making the money and finishing Day 1 with 25 bigs, sitting above average with 133 players left from a field of nearly 3000. Once again, I fizzled on a Day 2 and ended up busting in 51st place for a $3200 payout. This cash made me 3 for 3 in No Limit Hold’em events though. I definitely focus on mix game tourneys, but I had been playing NL cash all of 2021 and it felt like the experienced paid off. I played a little bit of cash after busting out on Day 2 of this one, but the results were basically breakeven.

My next event was the $1500 Razz – the first time I’ve ever played a straight up Razz live tournament. I bagged 82.5k on Day 1 (shock) which left me middle of the pack with 98 players left and 47 of us cashing. Joker bagged a huge stack in this one finishing with 175k on Day 1. The Day 2 curse stayed alive as I never got any momentum and busted far from the money. Joker also got rekt on Day 2 this time and ended up finishing two spots out of the money.

Talking myself out of punting in Razz

I late regged the $3k 6-Max Limit Hold’em event after busting the Razz and spent most of the Day 1 smacking everyone around. I got torched the last level of the night with a number of sick connections: I had AJ of clubs on AK4cc2cK vs 44; KJ vs KT on KQ5T5; and AK vs AQ on KQ9Qx – all of which were at least 3-bet pots preflop. I ended up bagging 81.5k after peaking around 132k. After a night of sleep, the doom switch was immediately activated again and I lost every key pot I played on Day 2 and finished out of the money again. I did get to play with the GOAT poker commentator Nick Schulman though. He was cool, but I’ve noticed when he’s actually playing he’s not outgoing or overly friendly. That was definitely my experience as well.

By this time, I was completely over all the Day 2 run bads and I had a getaway planned for the next five days and headed to Zion National Park in Utah for some much needed rest, relaxation, and sight-seeing.

I actually really loved the way the WSOP schedule was organized last year. All the mix game events were kind of jumbled together and when I returned from Utah, the events I was interested in were all NL Hold’em tournaments which was a nice warm up for the Main Event.

I got back to Vegas in time to play the $2500 9-Game tournament, but I talked myself out of it even though I had mostly just been going for it. That left me open to fire all the bullets in the $400 Colossus and I sure as shit did exactly that, getting in for the maximum of four bullets. I definitely punted a couple of them but I somehow managed to make the money on the last one, but it was a min cash that only got me half of my overall investment back.

I played an uneventful online NL event before hopping in the $600 NL Deep Stack the next day and making yet another deep run. I actually had some momentum on Day 2 this time, but I lost an insanely bloated pot where my opponent absolutely punted with KQ when I had AK and got there against me. It killed me late in Day 2 and I ended up finishing in 67th for a $3500 score.

I took a couple days off before playing Day 1B of the $10k Main Event. This was my third time playing the Main and so far I was two for two on making Day 2 and busting relatively early. My 2021 WSOP was full of Day 2s and I had cashed every live NL tourney I played in the series (plus two online NL events), so I was feeling like I had a really good chance to get my first Main Event cash in 2021.

Things were going pretty well for me during the first two levels and I felt like my game was on point and that I was at a good table… and then a crazy hand happened. With the blinds at 200/400, I was on the button and the dealer dealt me a ten face up and a ten face down. They replaced one of my tens with the 8 of spades and I had T8 suited when the action went raise to 1000 and a call in front of me. I decided to see a flop in position and made the call also. The big blind made a very large 3-bet to 7200 and I was folding this hand almost all the time, but then both players called in front of me and I decided to gamble. I was 60k+ effective behind with the 3-bettor and the other two players had around 40k behind. The flop came down 874 with two spades, giving me top pair and a flush draw. With around 30k in the pot everyone checked to me. I thought it was unlikely my hand was good here and if I put a bet in, I was going to have to commit my whole stack to this pot, so I checked back to see what happened on the turn. It was the ten of diamonds, giving me top two pair and a flush draw. The big blind checked again and the original opener bet 9400 and Cole Ferraro (who had just won the $600 Deep Stack I cashed a few days earlier) called. I think it’s pretty clear I always have the best hand here. The preflop 3-bettor never has a hand. Neither Cole or the turn bettor would check the flop with a set or a straight after the 3-bettor checked in front of them and with a ten exposed preflop, it was impossible for anyone to have a set of 10s. Both guys that put chips in on the turn only had like 30k behind so putting them all in made the most sense to me. I jammed. The bettor ended up tanking forever and I was hoping he would call because it was obvious I had him beat… and he did end up calling… when Cole snap-called I knew that couldn’t be good news. He immediately rolled the J9 of spades over and I was absolutely fucked. He had the nut straight AND had my flush draw covered. It’s really the only hand combo that made any sense for him to play this way and there it was. The other ding dong got it all in with pocket jacks and luck boxed the river by spiking a 9 to chop the pot with Cole. I ended up losing like 2/3 of my stack in this spot that I could have very easily folded preflop.

I had about 30 bigs when someone opened the pot from middle position and I 3-bet him with AA from the big blind. The flop came K98 and I overbet jammed the flop and he ended up tanking for a while before nit-rolling me with 98 suited. I didn’t improve and found myself stunned to be an unlikely Main Event Day 1 casualty.

And that was my 2021 World Series of Poker.

Final Stats

Live Cash: -$1499 in 30.5 hours
Online Cash: +$2150 in 25 hours
Online Tourneys: 4 cashes in 12 events for +$3786 in 35 hours
Non-WSOP Live Tourneys: 0 cashes in 2 events for -$1000 in 11 hours
WSOP: 5 cashes in 12 events for -$10,714 in 171 hours

Overall: -$7277 in 272.5 hours

It looks worse than it was. My average buy in excluding the Main Event was probably around $1500 so bricking that one event has an absolutely massive affect on my overall results. Also, I had the biggest pieces of myself in the smaller events that I did really well in and much smaller pieces in the biggest events I played, so my personal net actually ended up being pretty good while my backers definitely took the worst of it. Sorry guys! I felt really good with how I played the whole series. I played 12 WSOP events and I made Day 2 nine times. That’s pretty damn good. Things never went well for me on a Day 2, but I still managed to cash in nearly 42% of the WSOP events I played and felt like I was a contender in every single tournament except the Main Event – both of my other two non-Day 2 bust outs were at the buzzer of Day 1. It wasn’t the greatest series for me as far as profitability, but it was a phenomenal year as far as experience and networking went. I’m on people’s radar now and I plan to stay there. I’m going to play an even bigger and bolder schedule in 2022 and I’ll be GODDAMNED if I have same kind of Day 2 run bad as I did in 2021. A breakout is coming. I’m calling it.

Some Zion pics:






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2021 Year in Review – WSOP Edition – Part One

March 12, 2022

I never wrote about my 2021 World Series of Poker so I guess I’ll start there. I was ecstatic to be back fighting it out with the best players in the world. 2020 was a depressing one for my poker career. I had my least profitable year since 2014 (and I didn’t go full-time pro until the fourth quarter of 2016) and if I wasn’t eligible to collect unemployment I probably would have had to get a job somewhere. So being able to lock horns at the WSOP after an absence of over two years felt really good. I don’t care that everyone had to be vaccinated. I don’t care about the hypocrisy of the staff not needing to be vaxxed. I don’t care about having to wear a mask while walking around. I was just happy to be BACK and able to compete in the most prestigious tournament series in the world. 2018 was a horrible WSOP for me and 2019 was mostly uneventful outside of a 12th place run in the $2500 Stud 8/Omaha 8 that was a nice reminder that I’m capable of doing things like that. But I definitely had a chip on my shoulder for this series.

My first event of the 2021 series was the $1500 Omaha 8 or Better and I was pretty thrilled to bag a decent stack on Day 1. I don’t remember much of Day 2, but (spoiler alert!) I didn’t have any good Day 2s, so I’ll just assume I dwindled for most of the day while winning a small pot here and there – enough to hang around long enough to take 32nd and start my series off with a nice profit and a cash of $4116.

Next I played a small Triple Draw Mix event at Golden Nugget and did absolutely nothing in it. My next WSOP event was the $1500 Limit Hold’em and I once again bagged a nice Day 1 stack. If I remember correctly, I really liked my chances heading into Day 2, but nothing good happened for me and I busted far enough away from the money that I didn’t even bother inputting the relevant info in my app.

The $2500 Triple Draw Mix at the WSOP was next up on my schedule and I was really looking forward to that one even though I figured I was probably an underdog in that field. I practiced draw a ton during the pandemic lockdown and I was excited to see how much progress I had made even if the buy-in price point was a bit high. Hey, that’s what backers are for! (don’t worry, they all wanted to gamble with me). I feel like I mostly held my own in this event and I was at a pretty tough table. I didn’t get a lot of upward momentum and the wheels finally fell off for me at the very end of the night and I busted about 20 minutes before bagging on Day 1. But I was mostly happy with my play, pleased with the experience gained, and really looking forward to this same event in 2022.

I didn’t play much cash while I was in Vegas so I don’t have too much to say about that, but I did play a four hour 1/3 NL session at the Rio around this time of the Series and I was pretty shocked when Jamie Kerstetter sat down on my immediate left. I’m generally not a talkative person at the poker table and I prefer to keep to myself, but I decided to engage Jamie and she couldn’t have been more personable. She wasn’t just answering my questions but asked me questions about myself, gave me recommendations for my upcoming trip to Zion National Park and was generally hilarious. I was already a fan of her poker commentary but this interaction made me feel like she’s someone I could actually be friends with. I really wanted to play mix that night, so it pained me quite a bit to leave her table and go do that… and considering I only made $17 in that game, I probably should’ve just stayed and networked. Oh well. Jamie did end up giving me an indirect shoutout during her Main Event coverage by mentioning me on the broadcast (awesome), although not by my name (lame).

One thing I did this series that I’ve never done before was lug my personal computer to Vegas with me. I don’t have a laptop and I don’t want to play on my iPad, and since I was driving anyway, it made sense to bring it with me in case I wanted to play online. Plus, it makes tracking my finances way easier and allowed to me do some solver work on the road if I was so inclined. I had Sunday, October 10th, earmarked for a couple of online events, so that’s what I spent my day doing and it ended up being a really good decision. I played the $215 NLH WSOP online circuit ring event and ended up taking 8th of 576 entrants for a solid $3200 score. I also played the $400 NLH WSOP online bracelet event and finished 17th of 1024 entrants for $3078 in that one. I’m past the point where I can remember anything about the circuit event, but the bracelet event will be unforgettable for two reasons: 1) I finally played at the same table with Daniel Negreanu and I beat him in the only pot we played together; and 2) I had a top 5 stack with 18 people left when the small blind decided to limp in with a 30bb and trap me with AJ. I had AQ suited in the big blind, so I was happy to raise his limp and snap-call his 3-bet jam. Unfortunately, he rivered a jack and instead of being 1st in chips of a WSOP bracelet event with 17 players left, I was short stacked with 18 left and busted out shortly after – an absolutely crushing blow when my adrenaline was riding sky high from an awesome day of online poker. I had a lot of my own action in these two small buy-in events, so it was great day for me personally and it was nice to see all the practice I’ve put in for no limit Hold’em immediately pay off.

My next event was the WSOP $1500 8-Game mix tournament – one of my favorites, but also one that I haven’t been able to get past Day 1 in. I had a great starting table and I was excited about my chances of building a big stack and bagging when I got high-carded to a new table and put on Shaun Deeb’s immediate right. I was already annoyed that I got moved, but this was a brutal spot to be in and I couldn’t help but mutter, “are you fucking kidding me?” as I sat down in my new seat. Shaun was amused enough to say, “not what you were hoping to see?” and we ended up chatting a decent amount throughout the day but he lost enough pots early on that he didn’t wind up being much of a nuisance for me. It looked like I was going to finally bag this thing, but the wheels fell off for me in the last level and I found myself hitting the rail with exactly 20 minutes left in Day 1 for the second time of the series.

After busting out around 2 AM and probably not going to sleep until much later, I decided to play the 11 AM HORSE tourney at the Orleans the next day anyway. I showed up about an hour late and absolutely torched my first bullet in record time for a limit tournament. I re-entered and ended up lasting 6.5 hours overall, but busted far from the money and felt like I was dead money all day. I was playing tired and I was in no mood for running bad and just had no patience for unfavorable variance. I should have skipped this one entirely because I was in no mental shape to be playing that early after such a late night.

Next up was the WSOP $1500 HORSE – the event I earned my all-time best cash in all the way back in 2017. That doesn’t feel like that long ago, but if you told me back in 2017 that five years later that would still be my best achievement in tournament poker, I probably wouldn’t believe it. But here I am. Still searching for a $50K+ score. I think I flirted with the Day 1 overall chip lead at some points and ended up bagging a top 10 stack at the end of the day.

Unfortunately, I may have prophesized my own demise by warning my followers on Facebook that even though I was top 10 in chips, I still only had just over 21 big bets – or the equivalent of $170 in a $4/$8 limit game. I’ve dusted two racks in a few hours of limit poker many times, so while my stack size relative to the field was really good, it wasn’t all that massive compared to the limits we were going to be playing.

Sure enough, I ended up moving off a good starting table to be sat on David Williams’ immediate right. Long time readers of my blog may remember that David knocked me out of the Millionaire Maker on the very first hand of the very first $1500 tournament I ever played, so… I already had some crazy history with him. Naturally, we locked horns in a very memorable Stud Hi hand where I completed with the ace and queen of spades buried and the six of spades up and David raised me with a queen up and I called. I caught the 7 of diamonds on 4th and he caught a brick, so I check-called. On 5th street, I paired my 7 with a spade, giving me a four flush and an open pair. David caught another brick, so I decided to lead out and he ended up raising me. I thought that was a bit strange. If he just had a pair of queens, I wouldn’t expect him to raise very often here. I called again. We both caught bricky-looking cards on 6th street and I check-called again. It feels like he probably has two pair so when I caught the 7 of the clubs on 7th, giving me trips, I decided to lead out like I would if I had made a flush. Maybe he bet-folds with two pair, but I was concerned he was going to do a lot of checking back. To my utter shock and amazement, he ended up raising me! This man didn’t have a pair on his board and it was impossible for him to have a flush with his door card! I had a goddamn queen in the hole! My head exploded. But I paid it off and he showed me queens full of fives. He said he started rolled up. Unreal. That was a huge pot that derailed all my momentum and I never recovered from it, busting 20 spots out of the money.

After taking a couple days off from tournaments, it was at this point of the series that I decided I was just going to go for it this year. My backers were on board with whatever I wanted to play and I just shifted my focus to only playing WSOP events and pushing my financial comfort level. Aside from the Main Event, I’ve only played one tournament in my life that had an entry greater than $1500, but I hopped in the $3000 H.O.R.S.E. and made a pretty good run. I didn’t make a Facebook post about this tournament until I was in the money so I don’t have a thread of hand histories to report here, but this was a really fun tournament to play. The field was substantially tougher and smaller than the $1500 H.O.R.S.E. so I was playing with notable pros at my table pretty much the whole time.

I had a key hand on Day 1 against Michael Trivett, a Vegas-based pro that I’ve had a couple of run-ins with over the years where I’ve beat him in big pots and he proceeded to verbally berate me about it. It’s always made me think he’s kind of an asshat and here we were butting heads in a pot late in Day 1 of this $3K H.O.R.S.E. I can’t remember the exact dynamics of this hand, but we were playing Stud Hi and he opened with the 4 of diamonds up and I raised him with a buried pair that was smaller than his door card. I ended up catching an ace on 4th so I was able to take the betting lead and he raised me after catching the jack of diamonds on 5th street. I figured he probably had a four flush here so I wasn’t prepared to fold just yet – even though I only had a pair of deuces at this point. I ended up pairing my ace on 6th and leading out, he called. I didn’t see much point in betting unimproved on the river, so I checked it over to him and he checked back. I showed him aces and deuces and that was good for the pot. But he was not impressed at all and said, “wow, what a punt” and possibly some other not-so-nice things. I mean, it doesn’t hurt my feelings any, but it also doesn’t make me like the guy.

It’s funny. I kind of feel like Michael has become my tournament arch-enemy over the years. He’d left enough of a sour impression on me that I’ve always followed what he does and actively rooted against him. But he had really leveled up since the last time we played together. I could tell he’d hit the lab hard, put in the work, and has networked and made friends with plenty of elite players. He had a hell of a 2022 WSOP, finishing in the top 15 on five different occasions. He didn’t capture a bracelet, but he will soon and I was really impressed with how good he has gotten. But I wasn’t impressed with his inability to lose with grace, so, like, fuck that guy.

Plot twist. Fast forward to post-WSOP and I was pretty shocked when I got message from Michael apologizing for anything negative he’s ever said to me over the years. I accepted his apology and we started talking on a regular basis and quickly discovered that we actually have a ton of things in common and would probably be pretty good friends. Now, we talk daily about rap mostly, sometimes about movies, and definitely about poker (turns out he had jacks and fours on that Stud hand I beat him in) – and he’s even offered to let me stay with him any time I’m in Vegas. Crazy how life works sometimes.

Well, back to the $3K H.O.R.S.E… I had another solid Day 1 and bagged a nice chip stack, but once again, I didn’t do jack shit on Day 2. I just sat and watched Scott Bolman play like a maniac/wizard all day and never got any hands to play or found any good spots to chip up. I did win ONE pot. I made aces up versus Maria Ho and she literally stared daggers at me for the next orbit like she couldn’t believe this nitty little nobody had put a halt to her absolute steamrolling of the table. That one pot was enough to get me to the final three tables redraw and playing live with Daniel Negreanu for the first time in my career. I said hi to him and he said “cheers” and then I promptly busted on the first hand dealt when the cutoff opened in limit Hold’em and I 3-bet to get it in with A7 suited on the button and lost to whatever hand my opponent ended up showing. Yet another mega disappointing Day 2, but a pretty decent showing in one of the tougher mixed events of the schedule, finishing 24th for a $6500 score.

I was initially going to write my whole WSOP trip report in one post, but I’ve already been working on this for a few months and this is only half the series, so I’ll divide it into two parts. I’m actually flying to Houston today for the tournament series that former LAPC co-tournament director Justin Hammer put together so I might be blogging about that or at least posting updates on Facebook. I suddenly find myself with a lot of extra time on my hands, so I’ve been thinking about making the poker blog a priority again. I always enjoy sharing my adventures, but if I’m being honest, I find the process of typing them out to be a bit tedious sometimes. When I get back from Houston, I’ll finish my WSOP trip report with a second part and eventually post up my final 2021 numbers.

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2020 WSOP First Draft Schedule

February 27, 2020

Welp, the schedule has been finalized and here’s a list of all the events I have marked so far:

5/28 – $1500 Limit Omaha 8/B
5/30 – $1500 Dealer’s Choice
6/1 – $2500 Triple Draw Mix
6/2 – $1500 7 Card Stud
6/4 – $1500 HORSE
6/7 – $3000 HORSE
6/11 – $1500 Stud 8/B
6/12 – $1500 2-7 Triple Draw
6/16 – $1500 Razz
6/19 – $2500 9-Game Mix
6/27 – $1500 Limit Hold’em
7/5 – $3000 6-Max Limit Hold’em
7/12 – $1500 8-Game Mix

I will be targeting zero No Limit Hold’em events. That’s not unusual for me, but I’ve never been more out of practice than I am right now and I’m not exactly planning to ramp up my NLHE volume in the next three months. I’m going to sit the Main Event out this year unless I have a big Series before it starts. As great as that tournament is, I can’t really justify firing $10k at a No Limit Hold’em event right now. I’m wondering how my time in Vegas would play out looking at this schedule. There’s a good chance I make two trips this summer. The first trip is pretty easy to see: I’ll be there for the $1500 O8 on May 28th and I’ll probably stay through the $1500 Deuce on June 12th. With only two tournaments I really care to play over a two week stretch, I’ll probably come home until the $1500 LHE on June 27th. Somehow the $1500 Razz never seems to fit my schedule – I’ve never played that tournament. Of course, the schedules for all the neighboring casinos haven’t been released yet and I’m sure they will have events I want to play.

This is all assuming that the entire series doesn’t get cancelled because of the Coronavirus!

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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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h1

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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