****I tend to be very verbose so... if you arent a big fan of TL;DR; content, probably not a great TR to read, but i can provide a short synopsis at the end of each section at least on this one cuz it looks pretty damn long lol.****

Hey guys, never done one of these before but I have followed a few before,and figured id see if i enjoy them, or if they help me improve my play. Leaving in a few days, figured Id type up the background stuff a few days early.

Personal life stuff

I would probably just post my life graph, which I had stretching back to 2011, but I had a fire about 3 months ago and lost everything, including my poker tracker, so I dont have a ton of tracked time. (insurance covered everything but still sucks)


I am an early 30s WG government working stiff, reasonably enjoyable easy job, good benefits good pay, work from home, I dont play poker as a job or for the money. I have never taken any money out of my bankroll, so my poker earnings has had a net -$10 effect on my life thusfar (my intial $10 i invested into poker). I just toss my winnings into a bag. In my mind I bought a video game for $10 a long time ago, and if I earn enough points (money) in the game, I get to level up to the next level. I dont have any intention to go pro, although i certainly can beat the game for better than minimum wage, and I dont think I could resist the temptation if my winrate started to get to a point where it was double or more my job's hourly rate over a decent sample size.

*TL;DR; working stiff plays poker for fun.

Reason for the trip

I have a big group of poker buddies from my old home game which are scattered to the four winds, so we have started a yearly meetup in vegas, decided to screw around during WSOP this year to see if the action warrants dealing with the weather. Got a group of 9 poker buddies flying in on tuesday and wednesday, 4 of us are going to do the 4 person "tag team tournament" WSOP event and otherwise playing mostly cash games i think. We as a whole arent super into tournaments.

My sister and her husband (who both play poker) and my wife and a few of our mutual friends (who dont play poker) are going to be there friday-tuesday with me, I expect to get distracted by them into some table games and drinking and brunch and whatnot sunday-tuesday, so may not be a lot of updates around then.

*TL;DR; going with friends and family, dont expect many updates Sun-Tues. Playing in WSOP tag team tourney

Poker background

I played a $0.05/$0.10 home game in 2009, bought in for $10 and won $30 back in early 2010 (?) and decided this could be a real money maker (lol). I bought a book, found this website, started reading the beginner forums here, and after reading that you should buy in as deep as possible, and have ~20 buyins at a level, and seeing that the lowest stakes on poker stars was $0.01/$0.02 with a $2 buyin, i decided to deposit my $40 bankroll (lol) into poker stars to be properly rolled during boredom from being off of work for like 3 weeks during a massive snowstorm in feb of 2010.

So, following strict bankroll management, I rolled my $40 into $100 at $0.01/$0.02, and moved up to $0.02/$0.05, then on to $0.05/$0.10, $0.10/$0.25, and was playing at $0.25/$0.50 and had gotten my roll up to ~$1100 when black friday hit. I withdrew my money and started playing $0.25/$0.50 in a local weekly game (a full group of reasonably solid players, we are all winners at live, although most of them play 1/2), and $1/$2 under rolled at the borgata about once every 3 months, and was reasonably break even for a decent stretch of time (gained maybe $1k, was probably a $2/hr winner) until early 2015, and was not taking poker incredibly seriously, and found my style to be a bluff maniac in live play.

Over my long break even session, by trying nearly every single bluff in the book over the course of 4 years, I think I learned a lot about what worked and what didnt against who, and emerged on the other side absolutely crushing people.

In 2015 i decided to take poker more seriously, tried to tighten my range some, and hit MD live every few weeks. Since then, I rolled my ~1800 BR up to $10k, by the time MGM NH hit in december 2016, winning ~$30/hr at 1/2 for im not sure how long. I moved up to $1/3/$500, and was beating it for ~$60/hr over 200 hours, and got up to a ~20k BR. I have been beating $2/5/$1k for ~$80-100/hr over another 100-200 hours. (also im a loser at table games if youll believe it, which I take out of my poker BR) My current BR is $27,978

*TL;DR; started at $10, currently at $27,978

Current tracker

It has me at 53 hours at 2/5, +$9,705 for a $189/hr winner (lol sample size). I played 5/10 for the first time ever a month or two ago, it didnt go so well, so my life stats at 5/10 are -$2465 in 6 hours 4 mins for a -$406/hr winrate. So yeah, I have beaten every level at a supposed "unsustainable" pace for the past 3 years over ~700 hour medium sample size, and now im taking a shot and moving up to 5/10 a bit early where I may well be overmatched.

overall graph looks not so exciting because I am also very bad at "drunk 1/2 poker" which i have had several sessions of recently...

2/5



Overall



Current play style

I think I am extremely good at making live reads, so some moves that maybe dont make "sense" are things I wouldnt typically do and are based on me sensing weakness. Or maybe thats just my excuse for bad play, who knows. I am still pretty much a complete maniac. If a fish limps to me and I have passive players behind me on the button i pretty much raise with a 100% range, I double and triple barrel bluff a good amount. I am regularly trying to find new moves to add to my arsenal which often has a bit of growing pains on learning what does and doesnt work. My most recent bluff ive been running a lot is to bluff 4 bet pre against straightforward ABC players who are just learning to 3 bet bluff, and then if they call, I triple barrel on lots of boards. I think its worked 5 of 6 times heh.

Since I dont play with real money and basically view all this money as Chuck E Cheese Bux, I dont care at all about variance pretty much, so basically in the context of poker I would be willing to do a $1k coinflip at neutral EV just because of the fact that it may lead to EV- play from a more risk averse player.

My play style moves more and more towards "normal" the better my opponent is, so at 2/5 I play more in line than i did at 1/3 where I probably raised something like 85% when limped/folded to me on the button, and at 5/10 especially earlier on, ill probably have a realm of normal 15-25% VPIP.

*TL;DR; Im a maniac, good at making live reads

Intention in LV

Taking $13k with me. $4k BR for 2/5, $8750 for 5/10, and $250 as my 1/4th towards the $1k buyin for the tag team tournament. Going to play 5/10 on weekends, 2/5 on weekdays unless the 5/10 games look juicy still, fully willing to go busto on my full $13k and have to rebuild back from 15k at 2/5. If i keep running like God, and am having a big winning trip I might yolo take some of my winnings up the ladder some more at the tail end of the trip.

Staying at Park MGM next to Bellagio. Im thinking ill be playing mostly at Bellagio becuase the $1500 max sounds less scary than the $3k at aria, and willing to hit some other casinos but not really sure what else if anything runs 5/10 when WSOP is going on.

Getting in late friday, and may head straight to sleep, but having a full sunday on the back end.

Conclusion

So the bottom line here is that I am probably Icarus about to fly too close to the sun and get my ass burned for like 1/3rd of my BR. Should be fun to watch.



Edit

Asked my wife to spellcheck and her only comment is that its rude I didnt mention my cats, so I have 2 cats and they are the best. They will unfortunately not be attending the trip to Las Vegas

Please make it to 25/50 with a suntan instead of full on burn. Will make the TR much better.

This TR looks promising! Will be following you along OP!

pay yourself back the $10

Gogogo!

As a fellow mgm nh grinder, I wish you luck in LV.

Geez, stay away from my tables. You sound hard to play against
Good luck!

Not a lot to report, but heading to the airport, so TR should be starting up in earnest in the not too distant future. I tend to be exhausted from traveling so i may just eat and sleep but im hoping to get in a session tonight.

The portion of my BR i snagged happened to be $13,846, so i suppose ill up my “shot at 5/10” to an even 9k and the rest can cover some light degenning.

Also i came up with something I called the “Degen Decathalon”, we are gonna do a test run of it on Thursday, made it low stakes so everyone can play although I think itll mean most people will busto, but we will see. Here are the rules:

1) everyone starts with the same BR ($150 BR)

2) A side bet is made on who survives the furthest (tiebreaker being who wins the most, everyone makes a $69 side bet for the lols, could pay out additional places based on number of players)

3) games are played on the old strip, which presumably will have $5 mins but the players may choose their table. Hell they could play in the high stakes room if they so pleased.

4) You are welcome to bet on side bets or any sort of thing, but you are required to place the normal bet for the exact number of hands shown. (No more, no fewer hands) If at any time you cannot meet the minimum bet at any table of the game type, you lose, even if you still have $$$ left over.

5) My current choice of games are as follows (played in order):

Pai Gow (10 hands, poker or tiles, player choice)
Let It Ride (10 hands)
Casino War (10 hands)
Caribbean Stud (10 hands)
Roulette (5 rolls, must bet the table minimum on a single number at least once, but otherwise you can go red/black or odd/even or whatever if you want)
Flop Poker (10 hands)
Spanish 21 (10 hands)
Ultimate Texas Hold Em (10 hands)
Big Six/big wheel (one roll)
Criss Cross Poker (10 hands)

Notable missing games and why: Craps (everyone wins and loses together), blackjack (doing spanish 21 instead to make it more degenny), 3 card poker (has really bad odds so i went with other poker variants), baccarat (boring).

6) no peanut gallery. Aka no "im just gonna watch". Dont be a cheapass :P.


Im not sure if criss cross is on the old strip or if some of these other ones are gonna be too high of a min so ill have to do some mid week scouting before the event happens late thurs.

looking forward to this TR; sounds like you play a little poker and don't have a lot of fear of losing; both of which are key ingredients; GL!

Finally headed down to the bellagio around 1145, and after a decent walk (tram was helpful) and a decent wait, got started around 1 AM.

First hour at 5/T i cultivated a nit image by only playing 2 hands in an hour from being completely card dead, and then the table broke before i could abuse my image.

Move to a new table, pick up 54s (wrong suit) in the SB ($1500 stacks), V (only real read is he just topped off which to me means more likely he is decent) raises to $30, i go $90, he calls.

Flop (pot $180) QhTh2, i bet $120, he calls (iffy cbet on that board, meh.)
Turn ($420) Q, i bet $150 (bet small to rep PP, i figure Tx and PPs fold) he calls
River ($720) 4, i check, hoping for showdown he bets $520.

I mean i think some of his Qs are gone, since youd think hed put some value on charging the draws and all of his draws are still there, seems like im winning enough here from AK (which doesnt bluff a ton) and whatever FDs that i have odds for a crying call so i called. He shows KQ. Idve felt better if it was TT.

2 hands later...

MP raises to $30, next 2 call. I call with K6dd (heh) BB calls

Flop ($155) AKQr with a d, folds to MP+1 who bets $60, i call, BB calls

Turn 3d ($335), MP+1 goes $200, BB grabs cards to fold, i go $600, MP+1 instafolds, claw a few bucks back.

Not really playing awesome, ill blame the jetlag but i think im just easily excitable and wanna mix it up and cant catch a hand.

Im shocked at how passive these tables have been, i really maybe shouldnt have called that first hand, i saw zero bluffs shown in 2 hours, betting 1 street with top pair, i shouldnt have been surprised a guy calls down 2 streets with trips on a drawy board, i saw it happen again a few hands later where I value bet myself with top pair into trips just check calling on a wet board OOP. Ive seen very few postflop raises.

They really need more late night food. I guess my only option is “snacks” between aria, bellagio, and park MGM combined and it has a line out the door. Borgata has that great quick and easy food court that is open late. guess im having sleep for dinner haha.

Left after 2.5 hrs -$569

Order with the chip runner. They phone it in and skip the line to pick it up, I think. Also Noodles is available past midnight.

With the K6dd hand, was raising the turn purely based on picking up the flush draw? Did villians bet size help you decide?

Yeah pretty much purely because of FD. I think even AQ has a tough time calling ott, I dont think i wouldve bluffed without something there. I also think he basically has 2 lines, c/c or f. So basically his whole calling range calls otr if i flush up.

Friends and family went to brunch at the aria buffet, i was still sorta asleep so i didnt make it. Still havent eaten in vegas. Headed to aria to check the 5/T game. Looks pretty juicy at first look. Bought in for 2k not the 3k max haha.

Gogogogo

Raised pre from HJ to $30 w 55. Btn (player from the KQ hand last night) calls, bb calls

Flop ($90) TT4r, check, i bet $30, he raises to $80, bb folds, i call (i figure my 5s are good, he JUST called a small bet with trips on a wet board yesterday, why would he raise on this bone dry board? There are no draws. I mean this is overs all day. I couldve 3 bet but i think calling lets me see how much he continues his bluffs, because im just calling down a low runout)

Turn and river come 8 and 7, checks thru, i show 55 and scoop.


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1 limper ($450 stack) i raise with TT MP, bb calls limper calls

Flop ($125) 965r, checks to me, i bet $100, BB folds limper goes $250, i ship, he calls and has JJ (??????????)

Zzz.


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Been getting beat up, down to about 950. Both the table fish limped in, so i raise to $50 with 76o from CO. One caller.

Flop ($125) J63hh, he donks $70, and i... um... call? Maybe shoulda raised

Turn ($265) 5o he bets $120, i ship for like 700, he snap folds.

I think i like this line better than raising flop, although obviously 7/6/5/4 makes the turn easier.


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Ok im tilted, which doesnt happen much, so i waked away. Got a bluff called down by 32o for bottom pair. I cant bluff when i have it literally 0% of the time.

-$1174 session

-$1743 for trip.

Its not that bad, but meh. Table seemed good so its unfortunate i got tilted

Stop being a spewtard.

Haha but spewtard is basically my playstyle! I just need to hit a hand from time to time.

Anyway, tilt subsided, ate some food at Holsteins steak and burgers. Got kobe beef, blue cheese and an egg, was very good.

At bellagio again. Table looks not exciting again.

I think im going to do an hour or two at several places today. Wynn venetian maybe caesars if they get a table going.

Your style is not going to work in those games at this time of year.

We are 3 hours in, lets not dance on my grave yet. Ive found plenty of success at 2/5 and i do plenty of adjusting. We will see what i end up doing! If you want some nit play youre in the wrong thread.

Also i didnt say id win, i said id burn up in the sun.

Flopped a set of Ts on QTx board vs a shortie with AQ. Up ~620 this session so far. Here comes the comeback!


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~$1700 effective stacks. CO raised to $40, btn calls, i call in Bb with 55.

Flop ($125) 442ss, i check, CO bets $40, btn calls, i make it $210, everyone folds

Maybe i overplayed it and basically turned it into a bluff, but calling OOP seems bad too, and donking seems bad... idk.

Im up ~$100 right now, lost a decent sized (not super interesting) bluff hand haha.

I am now past 5 hours without seeing QQ+, and only 1 hand that was (non paired board) 2p+.

As soon as i post, next hand i got QQ so lets try this again. >5 hours without **KK+


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Delivers.

gtfo

OP; keep at it and good luck!