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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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2019 WSOP: Main Event Day 2 Sweat Post

July 6, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They each started that hand 140 bigs deep.

Unreal.

Two people already busted from this table.

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

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

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

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

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

I go all in.

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

He turns over two red aces.

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

GG, Vegas.

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2019 WSOP: THE MAIN EVENT – Day 1 Sweat Post

July 3, 2019

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

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

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

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

Info on today’s structure:

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

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

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

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

Jack Effel and John Cynn about to kick things off.

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

First Break

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

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

95,000

Dinner Break

75,400

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

Three More Hours

Couple of dumb hands have prevented me from chipping up.

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

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

Pretty cool.

75,000

One Hour Left

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

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

97,300

End of Day

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

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

Day 2 is not until Saturday at 11 AM.

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WSOP 2019: $1500 Limit Hold’em

June 29, 2019

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

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

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

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

xx-K2

xx-55

66-9T

I bet and both call.

xx-K2A

xx-553

66-9T8

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

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

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

xx-K2AQ

xx-5533

66-T988

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

Heeyyyyyy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Poker is weird.

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

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

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

Oh well, time to spin it up!

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

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

Edit: 12k starting stack

First Break

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

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

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

17,000

Second Break

Welp. I was cruising to a big stack.

Key pot:

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

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

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

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

KT of clubs.

Well, okay then!

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

18,600

Third Break

Chipped up a little.

Key pot:

Open AThh and get called in four spots.

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

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

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

Dumb hand:

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

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

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

River brick. He checks back with A8o.

Come on bro.

BRO!

23,200

Fourth Break

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

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

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

15,500

END OF DAY ONE

Pot of the tournament:

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

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

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

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

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

Old guy calls and she shows QJ.

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

Pretty. Fucking. Brutal.

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

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

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

Turn pairs the 4 and I call a bet.

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

Sigh.

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

So I was crippled again after that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

With ten minutes left in the day.

So dumb.

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

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

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

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