JeffreyLipsey.com

I woke up in the morning with a little bit of stomach sickness but it wasn’t that bad; I felt like it was just some bad pizza I had the night before. After taking some medicine I was feeling good and motivated to play the $2k at the Rio. I wasn’t originally going to play that and instead play the 1500 on Tuesday but after some backing fell through I really wanted to play this one. As soon as I sat down at the table though I got really sick, like I was going to throw up if I didn’t sit extremely still (there’s a way to work on your live reads lmao). My stomach was in my throat and at the break I went to go buy some pepto-bismol; hopefully it will work.


My first table was pretty decent; the players played fairly predictable and had a fair amount of leaks. There was an aggressive guy to my right and a couple of passive players to my left and I think one of them was a live pro, although not that great.


Blinds start at 25/50 and I get AQo in the BB. UTG raises and gets 2 cold callers, one random tag and another internet player who has a ton of leaks; I decide to just call getting a good price. Here is the hand:


UTG raises to t150, 3 folds, MP Calls, 2 folds, Button Calls, 1 fold, Hero Calls
Flop: Ad 9s 4s (Pot 600)
UTG Checks, MP Checks, Button Bets 400, Hero Calls, 2 folds.
Turn: Qs (Pot 1600)
Hero Checks, Button bets 1200, Hero Calls
River: Qc (Pot 4000)
Hero Checks, Button bets 2400, Hero Shoves, 1 Fold.
Hero wins a net of t4500


I don’t think he had a real hand or anything as I saw a 4c in his hand when he mucked. I spent the first 2 levels doing not much else except that one hand. I remember doing a lot of folding and just watching what others were doing. The aggressive player on my right would reraise ANYONE isolating the donk open limper–an interesting and effective strategy and he really didn’t care much about the position of the isolator. I go into the first break with around 9500 chips.


It was the 3rd and 4th levels where I started to amass a huge stack. UTG open limps and he’s down to t3000 after starting with 6000, blinds are 75/150. This guy is the table fish; he always open limps and then calls raises only to fold the flop and when he doesn’t do that he’ll just fold preflop. The aggressive player, instead of isolating, over limps as well and I isolate to t750 with ATo. It folds around to the fish and he gets a frustrated look on his face before he just says ‘fuck it’ and goes all in. I wasn’t getting 2-1 on a call but I didn’t need it: his hand reeks of a small pocket pair and he’s tired of getting pushed around. I called and he showed 88, probably the top of his range. I binked two pair off and I’m up to around 13,000 chips.


Blinds go up to 100/200. The aggressive player to my right raises to only t475 and I called with QTs (my new favorite hand on this trip). It was such a small raise and we were deep that I can show a profit by calling; 3 others came along with me so it’s a 5 way pot. The flop couldn’t really get much better: QT4 rainbow. Only one hand beats me and if someone outflopped me with a set then gg. The original PFR checks, I check, the suspected live pro bets about 1/2 pot, SB check/raises half her stack to around 4000 then I shove to go over the top. For some reason the live pro hemmed and hawed before folding–he either hand TP or the straight draw but both would be insta-folds. The SB committed herself with her raise so she has to call with AQo and I hold. I’m up to 20,000 chips and we are moved to a new table.


This 2nd table I had a horrible draw. There was a Card-Runners instructor to my left (I don’t know his name though), a (bad) tag to his left, Brief (a very aggressive, very good tourney player) wearing a PokerVT sweater across from me. Later, a Deuces Cracked tourney pro would sit down across from me as well as two other Card Runner players, one a high-stakes pro. Luckily for me I had my big stack.


I had sat there for only 3 hands before I figured out the guy to my right, with the second largest stack on the table other than me (probably only 10k at the time), was the table donk. Inexperienced and he did a lot of calling but pretty much unbeatable because he was so bad lmao. The first hand I played I isolated the fish up in MP with TT to t800; SB 3bets me t2000 and he seemed to be fairly solid player. We’re 50 bb deep and I don’t think I could fold TT in that spot given how deep I am and how wide my range is in that spot. Calling wouldn’t be that great either so I just grab a big stack of 1k chips and ship it in. He thinks for a while so I figured him for the bottom of his 3betting range, either a thinly for value or for a bluff. He open folds JJ face up and I take the chips, narrowly dodging the wrong end of that 80/20 and building my stack up to $22.5k.


The next hand I play I’m in the big blind with QJo. The (bad) tag to my left was going to open raise but instead limped accidentally; everyone on the table noticed so obv no one would raise him here; one other player limped in and I checked in the big blind. Here’s the action:


1 Fold, UTG+1 Open Limps, 4 folds, CO Limps, 2 Folds, Hero Checks
Flop: Ts 9s 3d (Pot t700)
Hero Checks, UTG+1 Checks, CO Bets 300, Hero Calls, UTG+1 Raises to 700, CO Calls, Hero Calls
Turn: Ad (Pot $2800)
Hero Checks, UTG+1 Checks, CO Checks
River: 8d (Pot $2800)
Hero Bets 2000, UTG+1 Calls, CO Folds
UTG+1 says: You rivered me didn’t you?! Fucking bull shit.
He shows: 99 for worst played flopped set in history of WSOP
Hero shows QJ for straight and wins net 3800 chips.


If that back door flush draw didn’t hit I bet I get the rest of his stack. Oh well, my stack is now up to 26k with blinds still 100/200. The next hand I get Ac Jd in UTG+1 and I raise it up to t600. Button, the guy who folded and showed JJ to me before, cold calls in position and its HU to the flop. I was putting him on the range of any pocket pair, including now JJ-QQ and possibly AQ-AK because he’s playing a bit scared. The flop comes Tc 9c 7c giving me a nice little combo draw and we’re only around 40 bb deep. I cbet 1200 and he raises me to 3000 and I put the rest of my chips in. I figured him now for 77+ in his range but I have a ton of equity even vs that range so lets just get it in. He actually thinks for a long, long time and he almost folds; alas he didn’t though and showed QQ. This guy has absolutely no idea what he’s doing haha but oh well, I’m still a favorite with my 1 overcard, straight draw and flush draw. I bink my flush on the river and I hit the top of my stack at a massive 35,000 chips with blinds of 100/200.


For the rest of the hour I pretty much just fold, as I know I have pretty close to the chip lead right now and I can fold to the end of Day 1 and almost fold to cash. The donk to my right though has started to amass a large stack too, he’s up to around 25,000 chips and my goal is to try and get those! We’re about ready to go on break when I get 99 UTG and raise it up to 600 again. Here’s the hand:


Hero raises 600, 7 folds, Button Calls, BB Calls
Flop: Qd 9c 8h (Pot 1900) – This was a sick situation, the very first card I see when the dealer pulls the cards up is my middle set and near nuts vs the guy to my right. My goal is to get his stack and this is the perfect hand to do so.
Hero bets a large 1600 (build that pot), Button folds, BB raises to 4600, Hero shoves for 25,000 and BB calls.
When he raised me I was a little worried about JT, but I mean not that worried. I know he has the extreme top of his range and he’s not bluffing me here so I don’t feel like I was turning my own hand into a bluff. I think he rarely has QQ in this spot too but it is a possibility; given how much he’s calling though he just as likely has 98, 88, or Q9 as he is TJ or QQ. When I shove though he ‘probably’ folds 98 for 125 bb and it would probably be a good fold too. I overshoved for 2 reasons: to represent like I have an overplayed AA to get a call out of Q9 and I don’t want a T or J to come to either give him a possible straight or lose value on a worse two pair hand.


So when he calls there rather quickly he showed JTs for the nuts. I’m sure he has JTo and JTs there in his range and if he calls the all in with Q9 that gives him 19 (16 for JT and 3 for QQ) combos that beats me when calling a shove and 12 that I beat (9 for Q9 and 3 for 88). That makes getting it in on that flop a not-so-great play, at least shoving it like that. I think a reraise to like 10.5k keeps 98 in his range for at least the turn and see if I can’t get it in on the turn. Given both our hands though I had a super, super sick cooler in the biggest tournament of my life for 25,000 chips. I missed my draw and now I’m down to 11k going into the 2nd break with blinds going to 100/200/25. I went back to the drug store to buy some aspirin because my stomach sickness moved to my head and I now had a small fever. This is fun.
I pretty much fold my way to the third level where blinds go to 150/300/25 and I'm down to 8000 chips and 27bb. Kinda bad CardRunners player raises in EP and he gets 3 cold callers, all fairly solid but also all on the weaker end of their range; they would have reraised if they had anything. I wake up with AQo and have a solid squeeze opportunity; I shove. Original raiser folds and the first cold caller asks for my stack size--this is a tell of him having a medium strength pair wanting to know if he can call profitably. He did call and showed TT and I was in standard flip mode. I managed to actually win that coinflip; I have little hapiness though because I feel horrible and I can barely stack my chips. I fold to dinner break and will start the next level with 16,000 chips at blinds of 200/400/50.


I blind down for a while after dinner, maybe stealing a couple times but nothing too substantial. I play very tight and before I know it blinds are 300/600/75 and then the final break. Only two hours to go until we end day 1 and it can’t come soon enough; we’ll probably get in the money very early in Day 2 and if I can come back the next day I’d feel so much better and hopefully play better too. Blinds will be 400/800 and I float (both in my head and in my chipstack) around 15 bb ~ 12k chips for as long as I can.


I’m down to 12 bb in the big blind and it folds around to the donk to my right who has managed to donate 1/3 of his stack back to the rest of the table. He’s stolen my blinds a couple times even though I’ve wished for a walk. I’d reraise him if I had something but so far when he goes to showdown he has the best hand. This time though he raises me again to 3x – t2400 and I look down and see KK. If it was a solid player I would reraise all in and expected to get looked up by an extremely wide range. Since he’s a donk though and he should have a fairly blind stealing range I don’t want him to fold and I want to get max value. I flat in the big blind (probably to other regs this would be suspicious) and I’m just hoping for a non-ace flop, even though i’m committed to any board given there is 5700 chips in the pot and I have 6500 behind. Flop comes QQ5 with a flush draw and he checks. I bet 3000 and he raises me all in and I call, expecting to see the flop Q but hoping for something worse. Unfortunately he did have AQ and it didn’t matter how I played it nor if I had even double my stack as we’re getting this in preflop 100% of the time (I’d be more likely to reraise with the larger stack) and he’s beating me regardless.


So that was my very long Day 8, I played for nearly 9 hours and busted 340/1500 with top 170 pay. I feel like I played fairly solid and I was able to stay alive for 5 hours after losing my mammoth stack. I don’t like making excuses but my sickness had to have played a role at some point as I have 1 final hand to share:


Brief, who has been raising my blind every single time (correctly too) as I haven’t done shit, feel like shit and look like shit, throws out several chips while I’m in the big blind. It folds around to me and I look down and see A3o and throw it into the muck. I had no idea but apparently he didn’t raise my blind, in fact he just called it. Granted, I probably wasn’t going to win the hand anyway but it can’t hurt to see a free flop; Brief’s open limping range is probably fairly polar there but even if I hit the weak ace I will be screwed. It didn’t do well for my table image and looking back the dealer never said raise; I might have been tilted had I not been so out of it. Either way it was fairly embarrasing.


I’m taking Tuesday to recover and hopefully play Wed-Friday at the Venetian before I go home on Saturday.

These are taken from the FTR Twitter:

http://twitpic.com/75az8

http://twitpic.com/735y8

I get up and head over to the Rio where they hold all the WSOP Events. Today started my first WSOP tournament in almost 3 years; the last time I played one must have been in 2006 during my first summer in Vegas while I was still playing Limit Hold’em. We start with 4500 chips and blinds at 25/50 and 60 minute levels; I’m pretty happy with their blind structure and it seems to move the tourney along fairly well too.


Nothing much happens in the first two hours for me, I steal a couple blinds and I basically just chip down and enter the first break with 4000 chips with blinds going to 75/150. I met an old friend Maxxscam from FTR (Chris) outside the room and caught up with him for a while, as he explains to me that he knows a guy at a table who is a complete donk (he didn’t have to tell me haha). This guy apparently won 800,000 Euros in Austria and since then buys in to every live event; he’s absolutely horrible but more on this guy later (referred to as Donk).


One thing that I would like to say is that the players and dealers on my table were all very friendly and they made the time enjoyable. I think there was a live female pro but I have no idea who the heck she was; she played fairly straight forward but it seemed she paid off way too much when it was obvious she was behind.


The first hand of consequence did happen at 75/150 blinds though, with around 4500 effective stacks. The same lady raises it to 450, Donk from above calls as does Aggro-Asian. I wake up with AQo in the big blind and have no idea if I should reraise or just call. Frankly, I know calling is a +EV play because I’m sure I have a ton of equity against all of their opening ranges. I’m a little worried though on stacking off; the last thing I want to do is turn my hand into a bluff by reraise/folding preflop so if I were to reraise it would be to call the all in. I’m still up in the air on whether I should stick it in or not, but I decide to just call and the flop bricked everybody, including the lady who raised which tells me nothing. So, I spent about an hour debating whether I should have reraised that hand and it would have cost me about 1000 chips on top for value so I hoped that it wouldn’t come back to bite me in the end lol.


So after the first break I raise up AQo in EP and it folds around to the aggro-asian; I feel like I have a pretty good set of reads on him and fortunately I both have position on him and he’s a deep stack so I could eventually get my chips from him. Here’s the hand, we’re about t4000 deep at 100/200.


Hero raises to t600, 8 folds, BB Calls (He had earlier called me in the same spot with 85s and played two pair passively on drawy board when I checked down ace high, my guess is that he was inducing)
Flop: 9c 8h 3d (Pot 1275)
BB Checks, Hero Checks
Turn: 9d (Pot 1275)
BB Checks, Hero Checks
River: 3s (Pot 1275)
BB Bets 1200, Hero Calls
BB Shows 22 for two pair, Nines and Threes with 8 Kicker
Hero Shows AQ for two pair, Nines and Threes with A kicker
Hero wins t3600 pot.


It’s not exactly the hardest of calls as I feel like we split this a lot but I also feel that he would have value bet me on the turn with a marginal 1 pair hand, like 8x or even 77 or something. Secondly, his big river bet was fairly polarized and it seemed like he didn’t want me to call, so I did. I was thinking about this hand afterward and I don’t know of a good amount that he could have bet that would have made me fold, except for maybe a massive overbet or a shove but that would be retarded too. With this hand I’m now up to around 6500 chips.


The next hand I get I call in the bb with a set and enduce a bluff from one guy that got me an additional 1500 chips or so. I then raised up 88 and flopped a set and slow played the flop, resulting in an additional value bet of 1000 chips on the turn.


An aggressive opponent makes it t475 to go at 100/200/25 and I thought this was a ridiculously small sized raise so I cold called in position with QTs. Luckily several other guys came along too which added profitability to my call but at least I was in position (if he made it t600 i probably insta-muck it). The pot on the flop is 2400 or so and it comes QT9r, giving me top two pair. The SB with 3000 chips open shoves, the original PFRer folds and I call; I’m shown JJ for the OESD + 2 out set draw. I couldn’t express joy for too long as he turns the J for the set but luckily I river the K for the split pot. I didn’t ‘lose’ chips but I feel like I lost 4k in value there from the suckout, but I played it pretty well and there isn’t much else I could have done. After these I’m up to 9900 chips and that is as high as I would go as it wouldn’t be long until I busted.


Blinds remain 100/200/25 and I’m in MP and open raise it to t600 with KTo, not exactly the tightest of ranges but it plays fairly standard and I normally raise this up in this spot with my chip stack. I get called on the button from the guy who had JJ earlier and I get called in the BB from the donk I mentioned earlier at the beginning of this post. Here’s how the hand worked out:


Hero in MP Raises to 600, Button Calls, BB Calls
Flop: Tc 7d 2s (Pot 2250)
BB Checks, Hero Bets 1200, Button Folds, BB Calls (t5000 behind)
Turn: Jh (Pot 4650)
BB Checks, Hero bets 3000, BB Raises AI, Hero calls remaining 2000.
BB Shows J9o for Top Pair, Jacks
Hero shows KTo for Second Pair, Tens
River: 3c; BB Wins t12000 pot


After this hand I was down to only 3100 chips, or roughly 16 big blinds. This guy was pretty bad though, three times had he called an all in on the turn with only a draw and he got there 2/3 times too which was just gross. The Jack certainly isn’t a scare card or anything as J9 was the last hand I put him on. My only problem would be my small flop bet but I forgot to add in the antes into the pot size when doing the calculation. I would have liked to have made it 1300-1400 otherwise but I don’t think that is going to effect him folding the flop or anything.


Five hands later I’m in the BB and down to 2800 chips with 66. The donk open raises in MP and he gets two cold callers and I try and find a reason to not resteal/squeeze. I was worried that one of the guys would have cold called with a higher pair but I wasn’t getting correct odds to set mine and I figured I was getting a good enough price that I could make the resteal. Well, the Donk rather quickly reshoves Allin to isolate and he shows AQs for a coinflip. The board comes KJ78T and he hits the broadway FTW and I’m busto.


In all, I’m pleased with the way I played the tournament. The 1000 chips that I might have missed in the first hour didn’t come back to haunt me at all and if I was going to lose a coinflip there wasn’t much I can do about it. No more tournaments for me until Monday so until then I’m out! I’ll continue to update my blog though with non-poker related aspects of the trip.

I got a phone call around 6ish I think to head over to the Venetian, where the FTR Admins and GMML (Carl) have landed and are having drinks in their suite. Sounds fun; I must first buy some mixers though, which turns out to be the least annoying part of my trip to their suite.


Once I get to the Venetian its takes a few minutes to find the right set of elevators to the suites. Before doing that though every person must get checked by security to get up the first set of elevators and if you don’t have a room key then that security person must call the room you’re going to. OK, so, whatever. Just call and get me up there.


Apparently you go up to the 10th floor and its not really the 10th floor, its the 1st floor again (I’m confused) and we’re at another lobby. I cross this kind of bridge to another wing and head right, where I’m met by another (douchebag) security guard. This guy is such a tool its hilarious; anyway he asks for my room key. I explain to him that I’m just going up to the rooms and I’ve already had security call and he basically just says ‘yeah whatever OK go.’ Before I realized that I was on another lobby I go and knock on someone else’s door until I realized that I was on the wrong floor and I needed to go up another 10 levels.


So I go back the way I came right by the douche bag security guard who stops me again. I feed him the same story and he does just say ‘yeah whatever leave, but you need a key to get upstairs in the elevators.’ This guy reminds me somewhat of Detective Lassiter on Psych, but he knows his life sucks as he works for $10/hour as a security guard. Anyway I go the other way from where I came from, passed another security guard who just nodded at me as I passed (what’s with all the security?) and eventually make my way up to the correct room.


We had drinks between us and probably 8-9 other FTRers which is always a big load of fun. It got to the point where we were all pretty loaded and just started all talking over each other and having a blast. They’re hungry so we go down to get food at the Grand Lux Cafe and afterwords they wanted to play drunken live poker. I wasn’t really interested in that so I make it back to the hotel and crash after a long day.

I decided to play the $550 at the Venetian on Wednesday and I was playing/running pretty well. The very first hand of the tournament I raise AcQc UTG, 15,000 chips deep at blinds of 50/100:


Hero (UTG) raises to t300, 6 folds, Button Calls, SB Folds, BB Calls.
Flop: Jc 7c 3c (Pot t950)
Hero Cbets 700, Button Folds, BB Calls
Turn 8s (Pot t2350)
Hero Bets 2100, BB Raises to 5700, Hero Shoves to 14,000, BB Tanks and Folds
Hero Nets 6700 Chips.


He folded after hemming and hawing, he said the worst I could have there would be a badly played AcAx or something and I figured him for a set. I was debating whether to call the turn or wait to get it in on the river but given the way it is played I’m still up in the air. His c/r range on the turn is only lower flushes and sets and he should probably be folding 100% of his range in this spot; basically I gave him a way to play his hand correctly. The main reason why I didn’t wait until the river was there were a shit ton of cards that were scary or I would lose value from. Any board pair I would have to call because he’s still representing a flush/boat and any club I would lose all value from sets and lower flushes alike. So basically I’m looking at 8 clubs and 10 cards to pair the board out of the remaining 46.


So 8/46 I net 0 chips, 10/46 I lose -(3600+8300), and 28/46 I win 8300. So that’s -2825 + 5052 = Net 2227 Chips, or rather 22 big blinds. That’s actually a rather large EV and if its a cash game its the best way to play it. The biggest difference in this spot though is that if we lose we are out of the tournament and fore go a ton of $ev by busting so early. Either way I ended the hand with close to 22,000 chips and I am feeling good.


The next hand came blinds of 75/150 and I raise up 88 from MP. A semi-station calls from the SB; he’s the type of player who ‘defends’ his blinds a lot and calls down too much so I don’t mind it when he plays. Here’s the hand:


Hero raises 8h8d in MP to t450, SB calls, BB Folds.


Flop Th 5h 2h (Pot 1050)
SB Checks, Hero bets 600, SB calls
Turn 2s (Pot 2250)
SB Checks, Hero Checks
River 4s (Pot 2250)
SB Bets 1300, Hero Calls
SB Shows 9d9s, Hero Mucks


I actually thought I was ahead here almost always and I was surprised to see he value bet 2nd pair there. I feel like my play was fairly standard it’s just annoying I dropped like 10% of my stack on this hand.


The next hand was my final hand, I wake up with AA in the SB vs an Aggressive opponent in the big blind. I had t16,000 and blinds of 100/200/25 and he had me covered. This guy was a pretty solid opponent, and willing to make big bluffs. Already I have seen him make a good bet/3bet bluff with Ace high on the flop vs someone who likes to turn a made hand into a bluff. I’ve also expected some of his other hands to be bluffy as he’s very aggressive and has shown at least one other bluff. He’s also Australian if that matters


Hero raises to 600 with AA in SB, BB calls
Flop Kd Jc 8d (Pot 1200)
Hero bets 800, BB thinks and calls
Turn 9c (Pot 2800)
Hero Bets 2200, BB raises to 5000, Hero Shoves 15,000ish, BB Calls
Hero Shows AA
BB Shows K9
River 2h, BB wins with two pair Kings and Nines
Hero Mucks and Gets up.


I mean obviously we have Aces with less than 100 bb, blind vs blind against an aggressive opponent on a drawy board. Any other opponent and I would try and 2nd guess myself and maybe play it a little slower on the turn; to be honest I didn’t even think I was behind here either and there are a ton of scare cards on the river, including any card 8-K as well as either of the flushes. So I stuck it in there and lost, but if I lose every tournament on KK or AA I should be good to get a couple day 2s.


I get up, head to the Rio to register for the 1500 the next day and go back to the room for partying that night.

The title pretty much sums it up here. I decided I’m no longer playing live cash games because my hourly online is exponentially higher and it doesn’t make much sense, especially when the internet is working well at the casino.


I never left the hotel today; the only times I left the room were to get food or drink. I guess you can call that relaxing I just call that doing what I normally do at home. Otherwise I just played online and made some money that way instead of live.

I finally met up with some other Poker Buddies out here that I met last year. We went to dinner at Dos Caminos at the Venetian which I went to last year and is a pretty baller Mexican restaurant.


I ordered some Queso Fundido and a side of Mexican Street Corn on the Cob; both were extremely good and relatively inexpensive–$16 for the two combined. There was a bit of problem with the tab at the end of the meal as 10 of us were at the table and I only owed $16 for the meal and they wanted me to pay $45. I gave them $20–enough for the tip and when told I needed another $25 I sternly but confidently said ‘I’m not paying for your guys’ alcohol. I felt like I might have been a little out-of-line but I also felt like I had a right to defend myself and I just hoped nobody took offense to it. I do not have the kind of money some of these guys have and I certainly wasn’t ordering many $11 margaritas (although I did order 1 and paid cash for it). Looking back at it now I should have given another $5 because we ordered some Guac at the start and I didn’t contribute any to that and for that I feel bad for. Hopefully no one else noticed but I’ll just give $5 extra the next time we go out.


Afterwords we go up to their pimp room at the Venetian; I swear its larger than my apartment and it has 2 (yes two!) bathrooms for the one bed. They got a good deal and certainly beats the hell out of my shitty place at the Imperial but I am saving like $150/night so I don’t feel so bad . They had a few bottles up there as they wanted to pregame before going to a strip club; I had some tequila while catching up. We then went down to the floor to gamble some; I spent $5 on some stupid game but I did get a Corona out of it, which is worth the price lmao had I ordered it at a restaurant but it was more me just spending time with them than anything. We walked around for a while until their limo arrived then I headed back to the IP to write up my posts.


I need to do some research regarding tomorrow’s Ceasar’s tournaments as there is a chance that I may not play it given some changes they may have made. If it becomes true tomorrow I’ll explain more about it and probably play cash most the day. I also might play a couple satellites into other Venetian tournaments but not certain on that.

I didn’t play Cash Games for too long today, given I had already put in like 3 hours at the tournament table but I think in total I put in 2.5-3 hours but I don’t remember. Like yesterday the session was made or lost in just a few hands.


The first big hand of the day occurred in the 2nd session (I played 2 small sessions instead of 1 big one); I’m dealt TT and I’ve done nothing but fold, fold and fold some more. I isolate up several limpers and get 3 callers at $11 apiece; the pot is $40 after rake and I get a pretty good flop for my hand: 653 with two clubs. Its checked to me and I bet $30 and get two calls, the pot is $100. The turn brings an offsuit jack and I still have a good feeling that I’m ahead, although if I get raised its a pretty easy fold. I bet $60; enough of a bet that it protects against draws and I leave myself room to fold to an all in. Luckily that doesn’t happen and I do take the enlarged pot down on the turn.


Not 10 hands later I again get TT and I isolate a limper to $11, and again I get 3 callers. The flop comes a very safe 965r and the SB donks $15 into the $40. I put his range a lot for value/information rather than a complete bluff although I guess he shows up with a semibluff here too some of the time. I don’t think about it too much and raise it to $45 to get it HU between the two of us. He thinks for a bit and calls and the pot is now $130 (I play big pots!). The turn brings a dry 4 and I still have a feeling I’m ahead, although again if he raises me I’m dead. He checks to me and I bet a strong $90 into the $130 leaving me with probably $120 behind; I thought maybe I could have bet $70 and it would be more +EV but I don’t want to induce a bluff shove so I’m fine with my bet sizing. He thinks then calls for a second and the river brings a K with the pot being $310; I wasn’t planning on shoving anyway but now it gives me reason to check it behind and my opponent shows 65s for two pair and the winning hand. I shrugged it off as I feel like the number of two-pair type hands there is extremely limited and if he had a set/straight he would have raised on the turn.


Also not 10 hands later I get KK in the big blind. An aggressive player who likes to pay off raises in MP to $11 and another aggressive opponent reraises it up to $33 preflop; I’m pretty much doing back flips in my head lol. The guy who reraised had also reraised earlier as a bluff with KJo vs the same open raiser and then fired 2 horrible barrels only to suck out on the river so never do I expect to be behind.


I did have a decision to make though, did I want to cold 4 bet or just call and then check/bomb any flop; I chose the latter and induce the other guy to call and if the ace comes on the flop then gg. Luckily for me, the other guy did call and the pot going to the the flop was $100 pre-rake and the board came 994r. I checked to the reraiser who cbet $60 and I went all in for my remaining $170 and flipped up my cards. The board bricked out only to have my opponent show AA For-the-Win and I get stacked. Not much I can about that either unfortunately.


In all I finished down $300 at the 1/2 cash game. It’s not a whole lot but the prospects of me playing 2/5 have severely gone down hill given my downswing. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Tourney: I played the $330 deep stack at the Venetian and I lasted about 3 hours. There were only 3 important hands that I played the entire tournament and the summary could be summed up with those.


Hand 1: We are in the first level of the tournament probably not 30 minutes in, I had some pretty good reads on my opponents even though I haven’t played with them before. I get AQo in EP and raise it to t300 (blinds 50/100 effective stack 12k) and the button calls; he’s very taggish but in a bad way–very predictable and easy to put on hands. I put his cold calling range on pocket pairs and broadway cards, which is fairly narrow given how bad some of these players can be.


The flop comes J92 rainbow and since I’m OOP here my standard play is to C-bet and get my opponent to fold 33-88 as there aren’t many strong hands in range given this flop, although there are a fair amount of draws that I get value from. I bet t400 in the t600 pot and he flats; the turn is a blank 4 and I check to him and he checks behind with the pot being 1400. I fully expected him to bet though if he did have a hand like 33-88 on that turn just because a lot of bad online regulars/tournament players turn those hands into bluffs and I would have folded. Once he checked back though his range was much weaker than had he bet so that’s a plus for me. The river paired the 9 on the board and was a very good card for me. Not only did it reduce the likelihood that he has the 9 but its a relatively safe card not likely to help me either and makes it a good card to expect a bluff on. I check to my opponent and he fires t900 into the t1400 pot and I started to think of all the hands that he would do that with and it didn’t add up.


Before I played a lot of HU I wouldn’t even have thought about calling, or maybe I would have attempted to turn my own hand into a bluff and fired again. Assuming my preflop reads are good he’s not likely to bet 33-88 here as that would make no sense (and if someone did bet it here it is extremely note worthy) so his river bets are going to be JJ+ (unlikely), Jx and I guess 98s for value and a ton of missed straight draws like KQ, QT, T8s. The problem is a Tag isn’t likely to have too many Jx hands in this spot, maybe QJ, KJ and AJ only (30 combos) and then 98s (2 combos) to complete the value range. The bluffs will make up 22 combinations and my opponent needs to be bluffing only 900/2300 for my call to be profitable. Since he’s bluffing 22/54 our call is mainly on the break even variety but I felt like he was bluffing a lot more than for value so I did make the call, and he showed QT for the missed draw. This call alone pretty much made my day even if the results didn’t turn in my favor. My chip stack: ~t13,500.


Hand 2: The only woman at the table was sitting to my right and thankfully she was friendly because otherwise it would be a complete Bore to play as I was doing a lot of folding. She seemed to know what she was doing to some degree, but you could tell from the way she complains about the beats that she’s not the most experienced of players. She’s down to roughly t5500 chips with blinds of 75/150 and limps in EP; I make a fairly loose isolation play with QsJs up to t600 and I get 1 caller plus the lady to my right. The flop is KdTs7s giving me a sick draw; the lady to my right leads into me 1000 chips and I don’t think too much about it and raise it up to 3000 chips. These players like to lead fairly weak into the Pre-flop raiser mainly for ‘information’ so i wouldn’t be surprised if she did bet there with Tx and I don’t expect her to ever fold a king anyway. My raise size made it so that if she did have top pair her most +EV move would be to just go all in right there and give me my most equity; if she called though and she checked to me on the turn I could very easily check behind when I missed as she’s committed anyway. Unfortunately she did just call though to my displeasure but no worries, I turned my flush. She decided to put the rest of her chips in after I hit it and she was fairly upset that I raised here ‘with just a flush draw’ but oh well. Chip stack: t19,500.


The final hand for me had the effective chip stack at t18,000 with blinds of 100/200/25. I’m on the button with KK and it folds around; I make it t600 to go and both the SB and BB defend their blind, the pot is t1800. The flop comes T54 two-toned and my Taggish opponent in the big blind leads t1000 into me and I don’t really hesitate to raise it to t3000 and he quickly makes it t7500. At this point I had some pause but with the flush draw out there this is how many people would play naked flush draws like 4 years ago when they thought they had fold equity. Fortunately I know better than to fold an over pair to my opponents while playing tournaments lmao and I just ship in my last 15,000 chips. He didn’t snap call but he did make a ’sigh’ before calling and flipping over K5s for the bare flush draw. His equity was pretty poor and I really don’t like the bet/3bet line as a semi-bluff in this situation; I would have either bet/called the flop or check/called and possibly check/shoved had the stacks been small enough. The turn brings the flush and its gg; I bust probably around the 675th mark out of a mammoth starting crowd of 850 and head to find something to do.

Hand 1: It was seriously my 3rd hand at the table so I have no reads on anyone. I’m dealt JJ in MP on a 10 handed table and UTG+1 makes it $15 to-go at 1/2 blinds (a very big open raise). Right now I have no idea what kind of player he is but i did notice that A) he didn’t have a full stack so he probably wasn’t that great and B) I had previously seen him open limp/fold A5o from UTG+2 the hand before so I know for a fact he plays too many hands and has no value for position.


Even still I decide to call it and not re-raise it as I give myself an opportunity for post-flop play. I get a real good flop: T82r I believe and he bets out fairly strong–probably $25 into the $30 pot. I call, the pot become $80 and the turn brings in a backdoor diamond draw. My opponent rather quickly over-shoves the pot for his remaining $110 and I couldn’t think of a reason to fold, especially with no read so I call. He flips over AA and I get it in pretty bad. I later find out he’s very passive and had I had this read I would have folded the turn so with that I consider it a cooler. Not bad, 3 hands played already down $150.


Hand 2: I fold for pretty much 30 minutes trying to build reads. There is an aggressive guy wearing an FTP hat to my left, halvsame across from me and 2 stations to my right; in all I think I have a fairly decent seat. I didn’t know how aggressive this guy was to my left but I opened once in my MP to $7 and he 3bet me when I held JTs. I wanted to call but being OOP here pretty much forced me to fold; if I’m in position I have no problem peeling one and playing 3-bet pots (something that playing a lot of HU gives me confidence to do). The next rotation around I’m dealt Q6s on the button and I think we are 5 handed so i open it to 7. I already have it in my head that I will 4bet bluff the aggressive player if he does decide to 3bet as he’s been getting out of line. I make it 7, he re-raises me to 25 now that he’s OOP and I think for a moment and make it $60 total. Its a rather large size but I couldn’t think of making it too much smaller but right now I would have preferred to make it $55. Either way it didn’t matter as he shipped me in 100 bb deep and I folded; he showed ATo and I still am confused at his play. I can’t decide if he was doing it as a bluff or for value, both in the 3bet and the 5bet. Obviously ATo is a pretty big underdog to my 5bet calling range let alone my 4betting range including bluffs and I know my ratios; given he showed the ATo I think he was just a maniac and I’m leveling myself. However, with perfect information I like my 4bet bluff in that spot even if it was a bit on the large size; but I should probably get out of this mindset if I’m playing 1/2 live.


Hand 3: Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take advantage of any meta-game with the maniac on my left as it seems like I folded every hand for the next 90 minutes. I did win a coin flip for 30 BB while 6 handed with 88 vs AQs and that helped somewhat (that was actually before Hand 2 above). An old guy from Texas sits down wearing a cowboy hat and a bunch of bling; he was pretty bad and he seemed like he just wanted to gamble. The first hand he plays he shoves all-in 100 BB deep with 44 vs an UTG reraise and a bunch of cold callers and gets called by the manic’s ATo and holds. That set the tone for one of several of his 100, 200 and even 300 BB Allin pre-flops in minuscule pots. He was also straddling and would limp in every time he had the opportunity. This set the tone for me as I folded myself down to 65 BB or so (I was all out of cash I only brought $400 with me) and I opened 77 from MP. The hand before, the cowboy shoved Allin and showed Kx, although he said he had KT and they were well over 200 bb deep. So I open my 77 and get 3 callers and cowboy says ‘why not I’ll do it again’ and I pretty much insta-call for my remaining 60 bb. Unfortunately for me he had QQ and I don’t hit and I’m forced to take a loan from Halvsame because the table is just that good.


Hand 4: This hand happened before hand 3: I get AQo and open it like normal and get 4 callers, including halvsame. The flop comes Q92 all diamonds and I don’t have a diamond; Halvsame leads $25 into the $35 pot and I figure him for either A) a strong draw or B) a made hand as it doesn’t make much sense for him to just plain bluff into the 4 of us, especially when the other 3 were pretty horrible. To be honest, I really wanted to fold TPTK vs him there but I felt like that would have been too exploitable as I can see myself leading Qx with the x of diamonds a ton in that spot (probably the easiest way to play it). So I call and the others fold and its HU between me and Halvsame with a pot of around $80. The turn brings the Ad so its 4-flush to the board and he bets $60 into the main pot. At this point I couldn’t think of a single hand I beat even though I have 2 pair so I just fold my hand, feeling very dirty about it. Thinking about it though even if he was semibluffing the flop the only hand that DIDN’T get there was JT with no diamond, and it doesn’t make much sense for him to play it that way. He later said he flopped the gutshot+FD+overcard and led it; not a bad play and I don’t fault either of our plays there.


That was pretty much my day though in terms of 5.5 hours. I did finish down about $440 but I feel like I didn’t have too much of an excuse to not play the way I did even if I could have done a better job of isolating + continuation betting.