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.