Utah with the garbage time cover!!!

Won a satellite to the $1650 HPT main event @ Ameristar East Chicago. Almost sold the seat to Chainsaw but we couldn't come to terms so here we go.

Also lets go Wizards tonight

Very good table draw, the drunk guy next to me has already questioned Aaron Massey's sexual orientation (Massey isn't at the table, I guess the fellow was just curious).

Glgl

Thank you sir.

Busted one of the last levels of the night. Frustrating day as I grinded my 30k stack all day, never getting it above 39k. Had a drunk Romanian guy with a 100k stack immediately to my right most of the day and just never made a hand on him. Oh well.

Aiii yaaa, may have just flubbed a job interview for a job I thought I had in the bag. Time to spend some quality time in the horseshoe wsop warm up as an attempted defense of life tilt.

Do you happen to know if there's any wsop main event satellites in Chicago 5-9 June? Have heard Harrah's Joliet sometimes run them but can't see any advertised. Horseshoe seems to be 3rd and 10th. Gl in tourney!!


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Aw man that sucks. Guarantee you did better than you think you did

Yes for sure-- I saw the advertisement for Horseshoe sats running in June. I forget the details but I'll snap a pic when I'm out there this weekend. I'm not sure about Joliet, I've actually never played there, do you like it?

Thanks brotha, plan A is to ship the main event and the day job to become a VC anyway, so that's certainly still a possibility.

It has been ages since I made a full update. I'm gonna try to do one tomorrow night (my new goal is to make 40 this year rather than 1 every week)/ Here's where things stand:

--I still need to get in 91 miles and 27.5 hours of cash game play by the time my plane takes off for Vegas 13 days from now to avoid paying the $500 bounty I set for myself. I set the odds of me paying up at about 5%, I got this. Also very close to the threshold I set for myself of moving up to 2/5

--Have been smoking sports betting including a $700 hit on the Kentucky Derby. I'm probably giving back $1500 when the Cavs win the east, but I plan to bet whatever it takes to get even on the Warriors vs the Cavs in the finals (probably $4k or so?). The Cavs are drawing dead and no amount of easy wins over **** eastern conference teams can change that

--13 days to Vegas bubba. 2 weeks from right now I'll be firing my Xth bullet in the Colossus and loving life

Never been to Joliet was just looking for local sats while I'm in town. How did tourney go?


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Oh man, tourneys have not been treating me well recently. Actually not many forms of gambling have. I busted the HPT main late day 1, then lasted 5 hands on the only bullet I fired in the $680 Horseshoe wsop warmup. I've now gone 4 weeks without a post so I'm gonna put a bounty of $200 on me making the following 3 posts by Friday afternoon (I wonder if there's a good way I can pay bounties to readers of this PGC rather than to charity?):

1. State of my poker game / HPT main event hands write up

2. Vegas trip goals / write up on hands from other tournaments

3. Update on life goals / write up on cash game hands from may

I have almost precisely 48 hours until I take off for Vegas. I still owe 18.7 miles and 8.5 cash game hours before I leave and I'm fully taking care of the latter tonight at the horseshoe. I briefly passed my threshold to move up to 2/5, but had a rough weekend and now need to make $531 tonight or else I'm starting the vegas trip at 1/2.

Woke up this morning with 9.7 miles left to go to hit my pre-Vegas goal. Cleared it about 1 hour 40 minutes before boarding for my flight closes. In an Uber to ohare now-- full update forthcoming once I get on the flight!


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Post 14: May 3-30
Vegas Trip Goals / Hands from Other Tournaments

HERE WE GO!!! This post being sent from somewhere over Nebraska, and I will touch down in Vegas in just around 2 hours.

I’ll be posting more this trip than the rest of the year, including some photo blogs. Here are the plans for the summer, in roughly descending order of importance:

TOURNAMENTS – Shout out to SpaceyFCB’s awesome summer schedule. The printed copy I have on me is my bible for the next 18 days. The tournament I’m looking forward to most is definitely the Colossus which should be a total **** show. I expect the field to be just absurdly soft, and intend to fire as many bullets as possible to make day 2.

SNGS – You can also find me grinding these at the Rio and maybe Venetian; have always found them to be sick soft and I love the opportunity to quickly run up cashes in just an hour or two.

CASH GAMES – Sticking to this year’s plan of playing the level where I’ve made at least 300 BB profit on the year. So far I’m at $1,465 so one winning session at 1/2 gets me back up to 2/5, and a heater gets me into some big games relatively quickly. My guess is WSOP cash games have a much more polarized player pool than what I see in Chicago. The 5/10 regs (and even to some extent the 2/5+ ones) will be better than the regs at home, but there will probably also be some rich gamblers throwing parties. I’m not gonna screw around if I can’t find the latter; assuming I move up to 2/5 I expect to have a bunch of 30-60 minute sessions. I’d rather play SNGs unless there’s some easy money.

HOCKEY – My team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, is 3 wins away from their 5th time winning Lord Stanley’s Cup. I may have to skip out on some grinding sessions in order to watch the games if the series is close; otherwise I’ll be watching at the tables on the NBC app.

BASKETBALL – You already know I’m firing hard on the Warriors. Will be line shopping tonight after I touch down. F the Cavs.

FOOD – Man I love the Vegas food scene. ChazDazzle made a reservation at Lotus of Siam for this weekend, where I’ve never been. I’m a gobboboy fan so gonna make a point to hit some of his favorite picks this summer too: Chada & Kabuto in particular. My girlfriend might be able to make it to town for the weekend of the 15th—if I’m not deep in a tournament may try to take her to Joel Robuchon or Guy Savoy. Also need to hit at least some of my long-time strip/downtown favorites: Carnevino (GOAT lamb chops), Secret Pizza, Holstein’s, Bonanno’s, Cut, Banger Brewing, the taco truck @ LVB & Sahara. If anyone has other good LV restaurants I should hit (in particular, better versions of the places I listed), please let me know!

NIGHTLIFE – Not a huge priority but I do want to get out and meet some poker players while I’m in town; gonna need to draw a fine line between taking it easy enough to stay fresh to grind, and not being a nit. To anyone reading this who wants to meet for beers during the series – I’m always down to meet other 2+2ers. Generally speaking I like going to places with the best craft beer selection—Vegas has a decent scene these days (Tenaya Creek, Banger, Joseph James). I have a buddy coming into town for EDC weekend; he’s extremely hooked up in the EDM world, and there’s above a 2% chance a night ends up with us backstage with Armin van Buuren or something similar. Oh and I’m sure I’ll end up in the pit with friends a few night, but obviously trying to keep the -EV gambling as small as possible.

GENERAL SCHEDULING – Against common sense, I think soft games can be found early in the day and plan to get a good amount of grinding in during the 8:30 AM – 1 PM timeframe. As an example—I guarantee the 10 AM colossus flights will be softer than the afternoon flights. There are a bunch of young, good poker players who hate being up early. I wanna make money when they’re not around. Since I want to make sure I’m getting 6-8 hours of sleep a night at least, this may mean some early nights.

QUANTIFIABLE GOALS – From now until 6/18, I’ll set 2 tiers of goals; my minimums ($500 bounty for each if I don’t hit) and my stretch goals. Minimums (minima?) are 100 hours of poker and $9k in tournament buyins. Stretch goals are 140 hours of poker and $15k in tournament buyins)

Hands

HAND 1

$680 WSOP Warmup @ Horseshoe Hammond. Any time I bust a tournament in the first round 160 BBs deep in my first 5 hands, I think I’ve got to post it. Flame away but I’m OK with how I played this. I have 15.8k, both villains cover, and we are at 50/100 w no ante.

PREFLOP: I make it 300 in the hijack with AKo, button raises to 1050, BB calls, I make it 4000 and both players call.

Button is a guy in his 40s with huge headphones, and looks a lot like a pro. BB is an old guy who’s been playing loose passive in the few hands I’ve seen. This is close between a call and a 4bet; I opted for the latter because (1) given appearance BU likely doesn’t only 3bet premiums (2) BBs cold call feels like dead money; he is never getting tricky with a hand he’s willing to go to the felt with, and has a pretty weak range so I’m sure I can fold some equity.

FLOP (12,000): KQ4hh (I have Kh). Checks to button who bets 6600, I go all-in for 11800. Button nitrolls for 10 seconds, says “well I guess you have KK”, then flicks in a chip and calls with QQ. We don’t get there.

Given the nitroll I wonder if button was tighter than I thought. Maybe 4betting wasn’t great in retrospect but I’m fine with it given the info I had at the time.

HAND 2

$210 WSOP Warmup @ Horseshoe Hammond. This is not a huge pot, but still one of the worst plays I’ve made all year. We are at 75/150 and I have 15k. Don’t have villain stack sizes in my notes but they aren’t terribly relavant.

PREFLOP: UTG limps, I raise to 550 UTG+2 with AQcc. MP, SB and UTG call.

FLOP (1,950): J32hh, checks around

TURN (1,950): offsuit A. UTG bets 1400, I call and everyone else folds.

RIVER (4,750): 9 of hearts. He bets 2600, I call. He has A8hh.

I don’t think randoms in a $210 tournament are ever value betting worse, and there are simply not that many bluffs in his range (KQ?). I hated this call as soon as I made it. I remember thinking at the time that my thought process was as simple as “I have top pair good kicker, call”. Bleh.

Gambling Results (Since Last Update / YTD)

Poker (-$982 / -$4,748) (YTD total was $10 off last time)
*Live Tournament (-$1,640 / -$5,597)
*Live Cash (+$658 / +$1,465)
*Online Tournament ($0 / -$565)
*Online Cash ($0 / -$61)

Algo Trading (-$16,135 / +$29,038) – think May is first losing month of the year

Sports Betting (-$176 / +$9,175) – Took a $1400 hit on the Cavs making the finals, but ran great on other betting particularly the Kentucky Derby. NBA finals will swing this significantly in one direction or the other

Blackjack ($0 / -$510)

Degenning other casino games (+$190 / +$4,282)

Total -$17,103 / +$37,237

Wow, chazdazzle was correct. I indeed got a job offer 20 minutes before touching down in Vegas. Nice start to the trip!

Almost 24 hours in Vegas and I'm break even-- stuck $700 in tournaments and up $740 in cash. Let's channel some rungood for the warriors and for colossus!!!

Made one of the better hero calls of my life, shipped the nightly $575 mega satellite for $5k, and finish the first full day of the Vegas trip up about $4700. Can't wait for colossus!!

the hero we need

Post 15: May 31-June 2
State of my Poker Game / HPT Hands Write Up

As I get ready to fire Bullet #2 in Colossus (bullet #1 ended with me taking a beat 3 tables from the money and busting—more on that in a future entry), I feel pretty decent about where my game stands. The main thing I have focused on recently has been paying more attention at the table. I picked up these 2 habits:

1. Joey Ingram suggested in his book to pick 1 player at the table, usually the player you consider the best, and study them whenever they are in a hand. This feels, and is, a lot more doable than paying 100% attention all the time (which I’m guessing few players actually do).

2. From watching Andrew Brokos’ videos on TPE I learned that he takes copious notes on the action on every hand he VPIPs and I’ve started doing the same (exceptions being when I’m shortstacked and playing push/fold, and when it’s 4 handed or less and I simply don’t have time to take notes). This seemed like it would be tough but it quickly becomes habit. Also greatly steps up the level of attention I’m paying to the game.

A couple leaks I’m looking to plug over the next few months.

1. Flatting too many hands from the blinds, especially the SB. I need to start finding more 3bets here, and figure out how to play more marginal hands after 3betting

2. I’m pretty sure I generally cbet way too infrequently in heads-up and 3way pots. This is a spot where it’s awesome to refer to the notes I’ve taken and compare frequencies to those of good opponents.

3. Gotta learn some more ICM. If I get lucky enough to make a final table I’m a little shaky with how I’d manage going for the win vs. trying to get pay jumps.

When I get back from the WSOP I’ll do some studying and work on these, probably in small stakes ACR/Ignition tourneys. Having said that, at this point I’m pretty confident I’m a huge winner in any $200-400 tournaments and vs. the soft WSOP fields up to at least the $1500 buyin level, and at least marginally +EV vs. any $1500 field.

Hands

HAND 1

$1650 HPT Main Event from May. I’d end up grading this as a good but not outstanding table draw. The 2 definite pros at my table are to my right which is nice. It’s been a frustrating day where I’ve bounced around the 30k starting stack, and indeed I start this hand at 500/1000/100 at exactly that amount.

PREFLOP: CO makes it 2200, button calls 2200, I call in the BB with A9o.

Button is a pro with $500k in Hendon mob cashes and no noticeable leaks other than occasional limping from EP

FLOP (8,600): AK7ss (I have no spade) checks around.

TURN (8,600): 8 of spades. CO bets 3500, button calls, I call
Could this be a fold? Feels tight but I hate overcalling.

RIVER (19,100): Offsuit K. Checked to the button who bets 12,400 and wins.

I thought this was a really interesting bet. While the button can have a bunch of made hands (Kings, flushes), the size is kind of bluffy and it struck me that it could have been a great spot to turn his hand into a bluff (namely, a pair of aces with a weak kicker), given that CO looks weak and I really can’t have too many kings in my range after I overcall. I decided that looking him up would be too light here, but this hand served as an “a-ha” moment for me as I realized I don’t look for spots like that often enough.

HAND 2

Same tournament, 600/1200/200 level, I start hand with 33k and villain covers.

PREFLOP: I make it 2700 on the button with K2dd, SB 3bets to 7800 and I fold.

SB is a pro-looking guy in his 20s wearing Detroit Lions gear who just came to the table this orbit. Doesn’t seem too significant but this IMO is absolutely a mistake on my part. This should be a 4bet jam all day. I’ve seen this pattern before many times (aggressive player new to table wants to establish himself vs. a likely weak range)—next time we are getting it in the middle no doubt.


FWIW I ended up busting late day 1 on a standard shove A8 < AQ.

Gambling Results (Since Last Update / YTD) (These results are up to date even though I’m not posting hands from Vegas yet)

Poker (-$982 / -$4,748) (YTD total was $10 off last time)
*Live Tournament (-$1,640 / -$5,597)
*Live Cash (+$658 / +$1,465)
*Online Tournament ($0 / -$565)
*Online Cash ($0 / -$61)

Algo Trading ($0 / +$29,038) – I’m not updating this because I’m having trouble accessing my brokerage account and getting privacy warnings on the Rio’s wifi. In reality I think I made about $5k the first few days of June but I’ll account for this next time.

Sports Betting (-$176 / +$9,175) – Took a $1400 hit on the Cavs making the finals, but ran great on other betting particularly the Kentucky Derby. NBA finals will swing this significantly in one direction or the other

Blackjack ($0 / -$510)

Degenning other casino games (+$190 / +$4,282)

Total +$4,175 / +$41,412

Poker (+$3,600 / -$1,148) (YTD total was $10 off last time)
*Live Tournament (+$2,860 / -$2,737)
*Live Cash (+$740 / +$2,205)
*Online Tournament ($0 / -$565)
*Online Cash ($0 / -$61)

Algo Trading ($0 / +$29,038) – I’m not updating this because I’m having trouble accessing my brokerage account and getting privacy warnings on the Rio’s wifi. In reality I think I made about $5k the first few days of June but I’ll account for this next time.

Sports Betting (+$560 / +$9,735) – Go Warriors. The game 2 line sure moved a lot from where Game 1 was, so I’m gonna lay off.

Blackjack ($0 / -$510)

Degenning other casino games (+$15 / +$4,297)

Post 16: June 2
Update on life goals / write up on cash game hands from may

Double update here! Wanted to check in on my life goals set earlier this year and make some adjustments. What I said earlier this year was:

1. Buy into $40k in live MTTs, including the WSOP ME
2. Buy into $5k in online MTTs
3. Log 10 hours/wk of +EV gambling or studying Jan 1-March 31 (work will be busy), 20 hours/wk April 1-December 31 (work should slow down)
4. Log all gambling results
5. Make 1 post/wk to this blog

I’ve done great on #4. I need to check the figures but after this WSOP I should be in fine shape to nail #1 (Although I may skip the main event). For the other 3:

2. Buy into $5k in online MTTs – ehh, I think I may go ahead and scrap this fully. I prefer playing live, and as long as I am living close to casinos I don’t see much reason to screw around on Ignition, other than to use it for reps to tune up my game.

3. Log 10 hours/wk of +EV gambling or studying Jan 1-March 31 (work will be busy), 20 hours/wk April 1-December 31 (work should slow down) – I haven’t logged hours but I’m positive that I’ve been clearing the 10/hr week bar all year, though 20 was a stretch that I was never going to hit to begin with. For the rest of the year I’m going to set the goal at 10. As I alluded to earlier, I got a new job which will likely start in late July. This means a few things for me: (1) I am gonna have to work pretty hard at this one. It requires far more technical skills than my previous role and I need to work extra hard to keep up with the established data scientists. (2) I’m moving to Redwood City, CA, so when I do get time off there will be plenty of opportunities to grind at M8trix and Lucky Chances.

5. Make 1 post/wk to this blog – Yeah sadly I just don’t have this much time. New goal = 40 posts in the year 2017.

Hands

HAND 1

I have really started to like playing cash games and the creativity the deeper stacks allow you to make some fun plays. I still prefer tournaments but want to mix in a lot more cash in the 2nd half of this year. Here are 2 fun bluffs I ran. The first one is from 2/5 @ MGM National Harbor – I have $480 and villain covers. Villain is a tight-ish white guy in his 50s

PREFLOP: I open Button to $15 with A8o, SB calls.

FLOP ($32): 753hh (I have no heart) he bets $30 I call.

I don’t believe you bro.

TURN ($92): Offsuit 9. He bets $40 I call.

I still don’t believe you, plus you used a crappy bet sizing and now I have a gutterball and an overcard.

RIVER ($175): Offsuit 10. SB bets $65, I make it $175 and win.

Ship.

HAND 2

$1/2 @ Horseshoe. Straddle pot (for $5), I start hand with $445, straddle covers and EP has about $400

PREFLOP: EP and MP limp. I complete the SB with KTdd. BB completes. Straddle makes it $15 and everyone calls.

FLOP ($75): K42hh. Checked to the straddle who bets $39. EP limper raises to $127, MP folds, I shove for $430 total and win.

Reasons why I pulled the trigger here: (1) The straddle and EP were the 2 spazziest players at the table. No reason to put either one of them on a big hand. (2) I was pretty card dead and have been playing tight; in fact I’m spending half my time watching the Penguins game instead of paying attention to the poker game. (3) When building a GTO range for betting here, I can come up with 6 value combos I’m shoving here (44 and 22). To balance that with a bluff range, I can think of two ways to go: either bluff with my nut flush draws, or bluff KT/KJ. I think I prefer the latter to the former because of the blocker effect – I want them to have hearts, I don’t want them to have kings.

Anyway, I obviously showed the T of diamonds after I got the bluff through, the table went nuts, and I planned to play like a rock and get a bunch of value bets called the rest of the night, but went right back to being card dead and that didn’t really work out. Still one of my most fun hands of the year though.

Gambling Results – See last update

Well colossus was a dud, fired 4 bullets and couldn't find a cash. Just won a $125 sng to dull some of the pain from that and our p&l for the trip sits at $3300. Next up: MSPT tomorrow, Goliath late tomorrow afternoon if I don't cash that, and the $570 heads up tourney at golden nugget on Tuesday.

Full update coming soon but I've managed to go from +4700 to around -1500 on the trip. Busted 2 $1500 bracelet events relatively early, busted the $1100 MSPT pretty early too, whiffing a bunch of smaller tournaments. Running hot in cash but playing short sessions because the games simply aren't that great. About to go in on some drunken 1/2, wake up with a hangover, watch the Pens win the cup, and resume the quest for tournament glory on Monday.

Glgl keep your head up you'll get it back. Following

Just want to thank JoeC2012 for introducing me to the great game of monkey poker. Show down jacks or better and the rest of the table has to take a shot of your choosing. I got hit with the deck last night and showed down 3 separate qualifying monkey hands. Can confirm that Jameson picklebacks are a good choice.