Played about 8 hours of 1/2 PLO at the Venetian yesterday. It was one of my longer sessions and I was happy with how I played throughout. Basically what I did was buy in for the minimum and short stack it at first because everyone plays so crazy preflop that I could just wait for aces (and a few other premium hands) and people would get it in with me with some pretty horrible hands.

I played for about 5 hours before taking a dinner break, during which I more than doubled my buy in. Came back after dinner and played another 3 hours, though I lost some of what I won in the first session when I got my stack in preflop with AA35 against JT92 when a spade flush came in on the river.

So not a huge winning session, but a winning session nonetheless. I plan to continue to play most of my cash game sessions at the Venetian simply because the games there have been really good with lots of bad players throwing money around. I'm also going to be playing that daily deepstack quite a bit as the main event gets closer and the fields get bigger.

Thanks for reading.

Played two sessions yesterday, one at the Venetian and one at the Rio. It felt like two separate days because the sessions were so different. At the Venetian I was basically continuing my short stack strategy of the 1/2 PLO game. However, the table was really tight so even if I got a good hand, it wasn't all that easy to get paid. I then got a table change to the other 1/2 PLO going and it was almost as bad as the first table. So after about 4.5 hours I left up a little from a hand at the first table.

I went and got dinner and checked my phone for updates from other casinos. Aria posts updates on twitter and several other casinos update their games on an app I have on my phone. Well it turns out that there were 4 1/2 PLO games going at the Rio and as much as I don't like playing there I decided to go. That turned out to be a good decision. The table I got sat at was pretty crazy. People were playing so bad. The game structure at the Rio is a bit different than the Venetian, the main difference being the max buy in is 500 instead of 1000, so instead of short stacking, I was playing my normal strategy. I won two big pots, both against the same guy. On the first I flopped top two pair and the second top set and basically just bet-bet-bet and was good both times.

I've gone back and forth with whether or not I'm going to play cash at the Rio. The rake is higher, the dealers suck, and the chairs are uncomfortable...but the games are really good. Though they have been good at the Venetian and Aria also, it just seems like every time I'm at the Rio the games are unbelievable whereas sometimes the games are tough at V or Aria. I only have 15-20 hours at each room so this could just luck that I've been getting good tables at the Rio, but I think I'm gonna start playing more at the Rio and see if the games really are better there or if its just selection bias.

Thanks for reading!

Playing at the rio is a must during every series, but its a one or two session max for me. Like you stated, the dealers suck, service sucks, no automatic shuffler, and the rake is so California style. I like the aria and wynn

Played a 4 hour session of 1/2 PLO yesterday at the Rio. The game was crazy when I first sat down but it quieted down after about half an hour, though there was still plenty of money to be made. Though I wasn't playing a short stack strategy, within the first 20 minutes I was all in preflop with aces against two other people. The board ran out something like Q7338 and I lost to one guy with JJ23. The other player later told me he had kings. With both of them having lower pairs I'm a huge favorite, having 48% in a 3-way pot, so I was happy with it even though I lost the particular hand.

I re-bought and soon was back to even when I got it all-in of the flop with KK85 on a KT3 board. The river brought another heart and I won with my flush.

From there I bled down a bit and was planning to leave at 11, but at 10:53, this hand came up:

Folds to me and I raised to 15 on the button with 8867. Just the BB calls. The flop comes 984. The BB leads out for 25. At this point I am fairly sure he does not have top set since I don't think he would lead into me if he did. There were a few previous hands where he bet into the pre-flop raiser, got raised and folded so I feel like he is leading with straight draws here a lot. So I make it 100 knowing that he doesn't have top set and I have blockers to some of the draws he may have. Having blockers means that I hold cards that he would need to make his hand, in this case a straight. The most important blocker I have is the 7, since if he has JT in his hand, that is one less card he can hit to make a straight. He re-pots, which almost put me all-in, I go all-in and he calls. We ran it twice and the boards ran out 5-Q and 3-Q. He shows QJT3 for the 13-card wrap and took down both sides with his straight. Running the equity simulation I am a 60-40 favorite so again, even though I lost the hand I'm happy with my play.

Gonna take today off and then tomorrow picking my mom up from the airport for her visit.

Thanks for reading.

you're welcome

When you say short stack, the min is 200 at the V?

yep

What did you do after you graduated college?

Left for Vegas two weeks later so if you mean career/job related, then nothing.

Do you realise you start every post with the word "played". haha. What else have you done? where have you been eating out? Have you been out clubbing? Gone to any shows?

haha that was just the last 3 or so. I never know how to start. I pretty much just eat out at the casinos, usually taking a break between sessions. I haven't gone clubbing, just not really interested. As far as shows go, I'm not gonna go by myself so I haven't gone to any yet.

Once fall/winter rolls around and its not 100 degrees every day I'll start golfing again.

Picked up my mom at the airport yesterday. We went to lunch and then back to my apartment so she could check it out. Around 4 we headed to the Rio. I again played the 1/2 PLO game. I played for about 2 hours before breaking for dinner, during which I basically only got into one big hand. In a 3-way pot I got my AK99 all in on a 349 board. Unfortunately for me I ran into basically the two worst hands possible. One guy had 2566 for a 16-card straight draw and flush draw and the other guy had 449 in his hand for middle set and the last 9, blocking 3 of my board pairing outs. So against the big draw I'm already behind, but now its even worse because the other guy has 3 of the cards I need to make a full house or quads in case the big draw gets there. Well the A fell on the river to give the big draw a straight flush. I decided to leave about an hour later, which was a littler earlier than expected but for some reason our table got like 3 horrible dealers in a row and I was sick of having to count the pot every hand because the dealers couldn't figure it out.

Had dinner at this chinese place at the Rio, which was really good. Afterwards I went back to play the 1/2 PLO again. A sort of backstory is that some people were talking about running it twice and this asian woman said she didn't like twice because there is no winner since so often they split the pot, so she liked either once or 3 times since at least with 3 someone "wins" and both people usually get something back. I haven't seen people run it 3 times yet but I kinda liked this idea. Well maybe 45 minutes later I flopped top set with KK56 on a K72 board. It checked to me and I bet the pot. The asian woman reraised and I set her all in and she called. Then she asked if I wanted to run it once, twice, or 3 times. Because of our previous conversation I said hey, why not try 3. Well she had just the bare nut flush draw, making be about a 70/30 favorite. Of course I won the first runout and she hit her flush on both the 2nd and 3rd and I didn't pair the board for a full house or quads once and she took down two thirds of the pot. I guess I should have run it once but hindsight is always 20/20 I guess. In the past 2 days I've played I've gotten in a set 3 times against some sort of draw and only won 1/3 of one of the pots.

Despite that pot my second session went well as I took down a few decent pots without a showdown and I ended the day in the black.

I might play the 2pm deep stack tourney today if I get out there in time, otherwise it will be more PLO. Thanks for reading.

Well I was gonna play the deep stack but I didn't get out there in time so I decided to go to the Venetian for 1/2 PLO. When I got there they were starting a new table so I got a seat pretty much right away. In the first few hands I doubled up after flopping top two pair. After about 45 minutes I got moved to the main game. Really not much happened there. I called a few raises pre-flop but nothing ever materialized so I lost a little bit at that table before breaking for dinner.

After dinner went back for another short 2 hour session. The only hand I got in was in the last 10 minutes or so of my session I got it all in 3 ways with AA53 against AA84 and KK37. Of course a king flopped and the guy with kings tripled up but since he was a short stack I did get about half my money back since I split the side pot with the other guy with aces.

Taking today off since I have to go to the DMV to get my car registered and do a few other errands.

Good luck at the DMV. Enjoyable TR!

Thanks, other than getting wallet-raped for $284 to register my car, the DMV visit went relatively smooth.

So after going back and forth in my head as to what my game plan would be for tournaments for the rest of the series, I ended up playing the 4pm mega satellite today. It got 96 players and I made it just past the dinner break, out in 30th-ish. I am happy with how I played it, though I did get fairly lucky in a couple all-ins after getting extremely short stacked due to other hands. The hand I busted out in I squeezed a fairly loose player and two callers with K2 from the sb with about 17 big blinds. The blinds were at 100-200 with a 25 ante. He opened for 450, two callers and I shoved. The original raiser called with 44, the rest of the table folded and I lost. I'm pretty surprised he called with 4's there as he is usually either flipping or crushed and I just happened to have one of the few hands he's doing well against there, though I still have just over 30% equity

When I say squeeze it means when you re-raise, often all-in, when someone open raises and gets a caller (or two in this case). The play works best against players that open raise fairly loosely. The idea is that they don't often have a good hand since they open a lot of hands and the callers are still left to act behind them so they will be hard pressed to call. Furthermore, the players that just called are unlikely to have good hands and will likely fold. So I'm not making the play purely because K2 is a great hand, I'm doing it knowing that often I will pick up the pot pre-flop and even when called I will often have decent equity against all but KK, AA, or better Kx hands.

When I busted it was about 6:30 so it was a good time to break for dinner. When I came back I got on the list for PLO and within 20 minutes or so had a seat. Ran into Bart Hanson while I was waiting and talked to him for a couple minutes, seemed like a pretty nice dude. I'm sure most of the 2+2ers know who he is but for everyone else he does a live poker training podcast that I've listened to for the last few years and he does some of the broadcasting for the WSOP tournaments.

Anyways only played for 2 hours. Made a few good plays early in the session and was up a bit when I misread the board and it cost me. I raised preflop with T987 and flopped top two pair with an open-ended straight draw on a 974 rainbow flop(rainbow means there is no flush draw). I bet the flop and got called by two guys one behind me and one in front. The turn was a 3, putting 2 diamonds of the board and completing the 56 straight, though at the time I missed this part. Well the first guy bet the pot and I figured I had top two so it was hard for him to have top or middle set and I still have an open ender, so I went all in, which was just a bit more than his bet. Unfortunately for me he had 4567 and I felt pretty dumb for not realizing the turn completed a straight. These are mistakes I can't afford to make. Even though I have his bottom two pair and open-ender crushed on the flop I probably need to fold this turn. Although after running it through an equity simulator, I have either 28% or 21.5% depending on whether or not he had diamonds, which I didn't notice. Effectively I was getting 11:4 pot odds, which means I need to have 36% to break even, so it wasn't as huge a mistake and I thought at first, but its still a mistake.

Since I basically misread the board I figured it was time to call it a night.

Since the Main Event starts in a week the satellites have started to get more players. Because of this I think my focus this week is going to be on playing tournaments, mostly that 4pm mega satellite and the 2pm deep stack. There are also some satellites the 3 days before the Main that I heard are really good because pretty much everyone that doesn't have a seat yet plays in them so I might play a couple of those even though they are a bit above what I want to pay for tourney buy-ins.

Thanks for reading.

Yesterday we went over to Red Rock so my mom could check it out since she's never been there. I didn't end up playing there since there was only one table of 2/5 with a long list so I decided to head to the strip to play. First went to Bellagio since I haven't played there yet and I was thinking of playing some hold'em for a change and I heard the 2/5 games there are really good. Well all tables were in use and I was 23rd on the list so instead of waiting it out we went to the Venetian to eat and then play there.

After we ate I got a seat pretty much right away at 1/2 PLO. At my first table not a whole lot happened and soon after I sat down I was moved to the main game. Basically right away I doubled up getting KK87 all in preflop against JJ85. We ran it twice and I won both. A little while later I raised preflop with AKQ9 and got 4 callers. The flop came QQ8. The same guy I beat in the previous hand bet the pot, I re-potted and he put me all in and I called. He ended up having just a flush draw. We ran it twice and he hit the flush on the second board but it was with the A, making me a full house, so I scooped the whole pot.

Maybe two hands later I picked up AAT5 badugi (meaning they are all different suits, so I can't make a flush). I limped in, just wanting to see a flop cheap and flop an ace, since my hand doesn't really play well unless I flop a set. Someone behind me raised and got a few callers, and then the same guy from the previous 2 hands re-raises. At this point I can get over half my stack in preflop, and since any AA hand is a favorite over any other non-AA hand, the only play here was to re-pot, which I did. It folded back to him, he went all-in and I called. We ran it twice again and again I won both, with him flashing something that looked like AKQJ when he mucked.

So a pretty big session to say the least. I won all 3 hands in which I got all the money in as a favorite, which I don't think I could say about any other session yet. Thanks for reading.

Haven't had anything of note to have an update in a while so this will be short. Played a short session of 1/2 PLO at the Venetian on Sunday and basically broke even getting in pretty much no pots of note.

Today I played 1/3 PLO at the Aria, a game I haven't played for a while. Waiting for the game I played 2/5 no limit hold'em for about 45 minutes, losing a little bit. I got moved to the PLO game just before 5. Lost a big pot with AAK2 against 789T where I re-raised preflop and shoved the flop. My opponent had flopped a pair of 7's with an open ended straight draw and hit a T on the turn for two pair. After I rebought I built my stack up a little bit when a huge hand came up. I will be posting it in the small stakes PLO forum and I will link it here once I do.

At about 8:30 I decided to pack it in so I could get to bed early enough to make it to the 2pm deepstack, which I have been meaning to play for a week and just never make it out in time. From tomorrow until the Main Event I will be taking a break from PLO cash games and playing either the deepstack or a satellite every day in an attempt to win a seat.

Here is that hand:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/38.../#post33592164

funny... knowing that you had re bought really changes the perspective a little, even though it really should not effect the answers to how to play that hand. without a solid read on that player, shipping is overly hopeful in my humble O... it seems better to call and see what comes on the turn with pot control in mind.

certainly I am not folding for a pot bet even though any boat would not be good against KKxx.

going all-in was only like 100 more than the pot-raise so really his raise was effectively all-in so I don't see any real merit in calling because if I call the raise (which was to 605) I'm not folding for 100 more on any turn.

Do you mean only calling the $40 bet?

Cooler if lost but there are so many combos that were ahead of.

Sounds like a great session. Keep playing smart. Looks like law of averages is finally working in your favor.

Thanks, for this session it certainly seemed like it. Hopefully it continues.

Played the 2pm deepstack yesterday and I feel like I played pretty well. However I was pretty card dead the whole time. With about a stack of about 13k I overshoved a pre-flop all-in from a short stack of 5k. Everyone folded and my AK was against his 55. Flopped two kings and he rivered a 5 to win, so I was down to about 8K. For a few rounds I stayed afloat by stealing the blinds and antes a few times. About 3 hours in to the tournament I got AQo all in pre-flop against 66 and again was in a race. The board ran out 22558 and I was out. All in all I was happy with my tournament, just lost a couple races.

I decided to go home after the tournament since I sorta had a headache. Had some dinner and around 9 went back to the Rio for some cash games. Switching it up I played some 2/5 nl holdem. I got sat at a great table. A few people were drinking and there was this one very wealthy foreign guy just giving money away. Lost a pot early and basically spent the rest of the session winning small/medium pots, basically breaking even. I was sort of disappointed that I couldn't snap off the foreign guy for a big pot but I know that as long as I play with guys like that it will eventually happen.

One of the worst feelings in the world is sitting with a drooler and never finding yourself in posiiton to stack him. you see his stack decreasing and you want your piece. Frustrating.