Where are you playing cash these days? Wondering if I have to avoid you at my table. I'll be there tonight-Sunday and I want my run good back.

*Big update so I'll be breaking it up into a few parts here is PART ONE.

I slacked so much on updating thread in March that this update has to be pretty enormous. This is actually my second time writing it up, I ran really bad in cash and unrealistically bad in tournaments in March so the original came off as a long string of bad beat whines and just overall too depressing which serves no purpose. Sufficed to say I lost a few thousand at 2-5 (and ultimately dropped down to 1-2 for the month since I had so many mtts going on) and only cashed a single mtt out of a ridiculous amount and that was the Wynn main which is so epic deep/slow structure its hard not to. The one cash was still a disappointing finish after a lapse in my game coming up on the bubble. My cash volume was way lower than I would like too in March partly from being out sick a good chunk of it.

The plan going into March was to hit up pretty much all of the WSOPC events at Ballys, unfortunately some life run bad got in the way of most of those. I played a few of the events quite well but ran insanely bad then got sick...like sicker than I remembered people could get. I was pretty much laid out in bed with crazy fevers for a solid 5 days then took quite some time to recover.

Grinded a little 1-2z at Bally's before the series started to nab that little buffet promo they were running (for the record this was a short lived promo, last I checked it was done but it was like 4 hours = free buffet at CET properties)



Guinness on Tap facilitated the mental shift stepping down from the 2-5 quite a bit


Heard the one at Paris was as good as any so tried it out...meh was aight I guess but I'm pretty generous on reviews bc I like food so much I'll overlook some things and look for any reasons to enjoy. I would certainly never pay the price to eat there. Some things were edible, hard to mess up vegetables and the shrimp served cold were serviceable so I binged on those. The crab was served cold, was kinda bland/watered down from too much freezing and was served cold. The meat, in this case roast beef I believe??? had a boiled taste to it, the fat was not rendered and I found it disappointingly inedible.




then it was Bally's time for the WSOPC and I was pumped up to go ring chasing.


this guy had that "if I have to deal with one more of these poker player's ****" look haha


got off to a good start building some momentum in the very first event


cruising along with good momentum, we somehow end up all in pre I think the dude 4 bet jammed over my utg limp raise or something? Obvs we got the goods, AA vs his KK, flop comes down blank with 2 spades, and turn is brick with a 3rd spade, now he has ONE out in the entire deck bc the K of spades gives us da' nut flush, in fact, a player at the table feels it necessary to bring this to my attention haha...badadada BINK non spade K on river for the bust out ...this was a harbinger of things to come this month in the tournaments.



managed to fire a few more of the circuit events before getting super sick but it was the same story, build stack, gain momentum, get it in super good, get crushed. I had originally included a number of the unfortunate hands and bust outs but it got so long winded so sufficed to say, I played really well and ran BADLY!





oh yeah...saw the most epic 'card protector' for sale at Bally's...it was just so tastefully offensive I knew I just had to have it but I forgot to buy it as I was leaving after a bust out.


Right about this time I got the most vicious flu-like illness I have experienced in memory, every day I thought I had to be for sure getting better and would wake up the next day ready to fire more events but every night got worse and it dragged on for almost a week.

After I finally felt able but still not capable of a mtt grind I hit up a $ session down the road at GVR and went ahead and just freerolled it to the people invested in my then current tournament package since I had been forced to reschedule a number of events. Played well and game was better than expected but fatigue got me fast so only lasted a few hours and picked up $140 or so profit.



will post part 2 tomorrow where we take on the pro infested Wynn Main Event for the second consecutive year

I've actually been grinding online this week, was playing at the Wynn prior. I really need to fix my volume though so will most likely be back on the Venetian 2-5 grind again if not that the Bellagio.

MARCH PART 2, THE WYNN MAIN...again.

Finally crawling out of my illness induced slump, I had to reschedule a number of events from the missed WSOPC. The only practical thing to replace the main event that was here or in driving distance was the upcoming Wynn Main $1600. I was definitely going to play this event anyways because the structure is just insane and I placed I think 13th in it last year but was just going to run it on its on; that said it provided a great substitute for the missed circuit main $1675.

With only a day or 2 to go before the Wynn series started I played one more 1-2 nl session over at the MGM to make sure my brain was still intact (went through some serious fevers!) was able to play substantially better/longer than the GVR session and would have left up quite a bit if not for a few bad run outs, played about 4 hours and left pretty even.

I always park on the roof at MGM, garage is huge so finding car can be a pain +nice view and breeze. Also, I can easily leap off if I ever lost like 25 buy ins at a live nl game or something.



Ode de Trooper


Best place to hit up late at night at MGM for the foodz has got to be the little Wolfgang Puck joint that I believe is open 24 hours. Solid pizza and these Blue Cheese Truffle Chips that are also quite good.



Can't say enough how ridiculous the Wynn Main structure is for that level of buy in, I'm pretty confident in saying that it's the best structure under $5000 that there is. Its a 25k starting stack and hour long levels and it seriously skips NO levels so progresses super slowly. The tournament becomes so skill based that it's one of the few I go into with as strong a certainty of cashing as possible in a mtt...that said, it tends to be pretty pro infested so that marginalizes some of that edge.

was time to go for this damn thing again


they held the main in the space of the recently deceased Ferrari dealership which was kind of cool


25k starting chips


Things started off pretty familiar...I told myself "hour long levels, great structure...we can be patient here, we can even afford to bleed out 4-5k no problem while waiting" ...yet after some enormous made hands (flopped set of Ks, broadway on turn, and three-bet JJ pre 4 callers then fold on A high flop, all of a sudden I was at a low of 16k which was pretty astounding.


Crawled back to just over 20k before first break; Went to the desk lady to find out no, we do not get a food comp this year on the $1600 ticket lol...we have to make day 2!?...well obviously now I HAD to make day 2 so walked through the little garden getting my Zen back.



got a little more aggro after break and had some hands finally hold to climb up towards a super comfortable 50k


every good mtt run needs a big setback, I played a hand less than ideal and got back into the mid 30ks...then a shortstack guy bet me on an A26flop, I had AJ and he felt super weak and it was such a weird bet bc it committed him but was sized like he wanted to get me off the hand, I feel like I'm good but also like he will punt like all turns, turn is a 3 and I check, he jams, I snap...he's got the A5 and binks 5 on the river so I'm down under 30k. I open AK shortly after, one flat, and a shortstack jams in, I rejam and lose the AK< JJ...I'm down to a mere 12k or so...less than half the starting stack after hours of working some smart play. sigh.

Last hand before the dinner break, I'm in bb with Q4os, a super active guy in mid position min raises, only the SB calls, and I'm debating jamming bc the pot is fat with the antes and I think it gets through very often. I decide I still have too many chips to chance running into the top of his extremely wide range though so decide I have better move in flatting and having a gross sizing to open jam tons of flops. Flop takes any consideration out, it's QQ5 2 clubs! I lead small, opener flats SB chk re raises??? I'm not super pumped bc wtf can he have but a hand beating me but I make the jam on the off chance he has AcXc, I don't feel like I can get away from it now anyways. Original better folds, SB snaps.

This next part is a bit embarrassing, ok very embarrassing but I advocate full disclosure so here goes...we flip cards and he has KQ! ...the board runs out
6-9 or something and that's it, I'm out on the last hand before dinner break. I pull out phone and snap a pic because I like to take pics of my more entertaining bustouts. I post it on twitter, saying butso...get up grab my sht, and head out to dinner. I look at my twitter post on my phone and wtf...take a look at pic...

Ya...that's a Q-FIVE. I was a little rattled from going from 50k to 12k, and a little off still from my time out sick. I guess I just was so focused on the Q idk!? I quickly head back into the now empty poker room and yeah, there's 30k sitting in front of my seat in a big sloppy pile. Yeah it's entertaining now but at the time I came super close to just lighting $1600 on fire if I hadn't looked back at that picture. In retrospect I guess noone stopped me because they though I was just one cold SOB who burnt the other dude and walked off to dinner before the hand was even concluded/chips pushed haha

so yeah now I'm free-rolling right?

flop the nut straight when I get back from dinner, I had planned to sit on my new found surprise chips longer but hey the hand escalated fast on the flop I got chk/raise/reraised and it was the nuts...gii and held vs a set! This would be the one tournament in March I won 'flips'. I say flips but obvs I'm usually pretty dominant getting it in for all the manies but holding is another story.


that hand gets us to 60k at 300-600 so 100bigs and were right back in this game

chipped up to 70.5k as we head into 400-800


set back #2...we gii with KK to lose to the QQ, lost very large pot from the dead money from some flatters to my open then the shorter stacks jam pre


managed to grind it back and bag 73,600 for Day 1, the average would be 91k for that flight and we would come back to 800-1600


back for Day 2


I limp late position 1010 over several other limpers because bb has been playing very aggro from blinds and is shorter stacked, he puts in raise as I though, I flat, he lead jams A high flop...oops for him.


picking up steam




heading towards the bubble AA holds vs JJ to send me to my peak of 387k



at this point the 2 day grind after being sick started to become a small issue...I made mistakes that were not typical of my game, I started lines that I didn't commit to, I failed to trust my reads; I got stuck between wanting to push the big stack and wanting to maintain it into the bubble and so failed to commit to either one effectively. I bled out a lot chips into the bubble which was quite long. Finally Ryan Leplante was outed bubble boy, I think he got virtually punted into twice and lost from significantly ahead 2 races. I kept grinding as well as possible but my stack just was not as competitive anymore. I finally found a good spot when a particularly loose opener opened from EP and I jammed over with 99, unfortunately another player rejammed and he had the AA. gg...out in a super disappointing 38th our of paying 52 for $4k. This one definitely stung because I had such a big stack at one point that I could have really crushed this into the final table if I hadn't had some major lapses in my game coming up on the bubble.


so second year cashing this one in a row but a lower result. I'm really upset I didn't make more of this opportunity to go super deep but I suspect having been ill a few days prior compromised my game when the fatigue kicked in a little.

Went and hit up one of my favorite late night 24 hr China Town spots to eat some chicken curry


*This ones getting super long so will stop here and continue tomorrow as we continue eating away our sadness and take on the hellish experience that was the most recent Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza.

So you're the guy who stacks the dude and then just walks off to dinner before the dealer even pushes the pot

Reading comprehension

Great update. Was the Wynn tournament the one that Joe McKheehan won?

No: http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=370948

Ludo is such a boss

thx, hopefully part 3 tomorrow been busy, have to hurry because i go out of town in 3 days!

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/18...bonus-1598992/

lol I think I'm stalling on part 3 just because it's the most depressing part, may just edit it down to food porn and a general run down tonight. much more exciting things to come which I'll also mention. Good news is back on track at the 2-5, been playing only Aria this month for 2-5 and while I don't think its the best 2-5 games by any means I've bought in full and gone +$340 +$700 +$1170 in the last three sessions.

What's the max buyin at aria? 1k? If so how many people actually buy in full? I'll be in town next weekend and usually play 2-5 at my home casino with a 500 max.

I buy in at $1k...lot of regs seem to, many players especially more casual do $500, it's not at all uncommon for some to buy in at $300 which I don't mind because most of them proceed to play pretty terrible with that stack size. Wynn has like a $2500 2-5 so plays super deep and would be advantageous to me except it's another pretty solid game and tbo it is a little more $ than I'm comfortable with at the moment (assuming buying that deep and facing comparable stacks with the potential variance involved)

Ok cool thanks. I'll deff be checking it out.

Has Wynn changed their buy in? Last I played there a few months ago was a 1500 2/5 buy in.

you are correct I don't know why I put a 2. but yeah still deeper than I've become accustomed to yet in 2-5 especially since I had been buying in at $500-700 for some time.

Time for PART THREE March update, may get lazy in this one since it's mostly just a series of losing tournaments and binge eating...looking forward more to whats happening NOW.

OK so like I mentioned in Part 2, they gave us a buffet comp to the Wynn when we made day 2 so the next stop obviously was giving that one a little review. Obviously the Paris buffet had set the bar low on this bad boy, overall it was not bad. The snowcrab once a notch of the Paris but still frozen too long so bland and once again the shrimp were kinda my go to staple. the The meat was the biggest issue here as well which seems to be a reoccurring issue at these buffets. The cuts were all super dry/overdone as was the Cornish game hens and the spare rib had that unrendered charbroiled taste that is appalling when you've had good ribs (smoked). The desert station left a big to be desired, the apple crepe from the crepe station was basically filled with applesauce rather than the sliced cooked apples one would expect.






Just re-read that and it sounded pretty hard...there was a lot of edible food there it just didn't come close to justifying the rather hefty pricetag had I paid. A final word on buffets for right now; once you have both Bachannal at Caesars and Wicked Spoon at the Aria, high price be damned, you will find it hard to justify paying anything less than a very nominal cost for other buffets. Those are the two where it stops being "it was ok for a buffet" on some foods to being some genuinely good dishes that hold up vs higher restaurant quality.

Next up for the mtts was the Venetian Deepstack series running in March.

I ran deep in several events and played quite well in all of them but pretty much ran like...


Got coolered a few times and gii very good more times all to no avail...it was in my opinion the worst I've ever 'run' in any consecutive spree of live mtts. I've had cold streaks before but never with such good focus/energy and solid playing with no lapses in my game.








I'm not going into all the gross details on the beats but cant resist this one. It happened very deep in the $600 big GTD event coming up on the $...I have KJ, call from bb with some action from the crazy player at table. He's severely intoxicated and playing super wild all in every other hand calls down with nothing ect. The thing is he is winning every hand with any 2 cards. Flop comes QT3 2 spades, I have a backdoor flush draw with the open ended so I call the flop bet from original raiser as does crazy man, turn is the A of spades, SB (original better/flop cbetter) checks, I bet BIG with broadway, only the crazy guy calls. river is the 4th spade. I check...why? because turn bet was so big that he either had a made hand that I'm beating or he called to get a spade in which case, having watched him play and his huge chip stack, NO amount I can bet will get him to fold ANY spade. He checks behind and I lose most of my stack to 3d...FIVE OF SPADES. He called a 1.5x pot bet with the bottom pair and the draw to the five high four card flsh. fml. I got the rest in shortly after with less than 15 min left in Day 1 and close to the bubble with AK pre to lose to his 1010.

Crazy Guy


So, had to go regroup and lick wounds after this nasty series. Sage Fried Chicken at Hash House was absolutely necessary to reengage some form of run good or at least run neutral...

Now I want to catch up with April and whats going on.

I've been back at the 2-5 winning 5 of 7 2-5 sessions this month for a nice profit thusfar.

I have some big mtt plans this month as well but that's already hit a little snag. Last night after having booked plane and hotel in Cali for the Thunder Valley WPT Deepstacks event, a somewhat personal issue of a very unforeseeable nature arose involving someone else literally hours from getting on the plane and there was absolutely no way I could leave town. I hate being vague because I'm pretty open about everything on here but it is sort of a private matter esp in the interest of the other person sufficed to say it was health related.

So that sucked as I'm allllways super hyped for the next mtts but we've got the Wynn 250k GTD next weekend that I feel strong about and then at the end of the month I'm flying out to Jacksonville Fla to fire two bullets at the WPT Deepstacks 300k GTD down there!

Tomorrow I'll work on an update basically focusing on/outlying my current goals as someone had inquired both for the present and the upcoming summer. I've definitely been throwing around various considerations and have arrived at a pretty firm plan that should be in my best interest to keep moving up in things out here.

Awesome update. Those Lemonade Rockstars are my goto, especially when it's too hot for coffee but you don't want all the carbonation of a regular energy drink. Crazy beat on that crazy guy with a stack. I would never chip up playing that crazy in a big time tournament, but there's always that guy near the chip lead getting there with any 2 cards.

Here's to some rungood at the Wynn next weekend!

Too bad you couldn't make it to Thunder Valley man. I'm here right now and the field looks super soft. It seems like every local 2/5 fish is playing it.

...I suspected as much all the traveling peoples are down in Fla for Hardrock series...

Jacksonville should be comparably soft so well get it done anyhow lol

Good luck if your playing btw!

I wish. In the process of rebuilding a BR from scratch after going busto. So grinding 1/3. Actually moving to Vegas next week though and will start a thread here. Check me out my when I do my man!

Bummer March buddy...

Tournaments can (and will) suck some of the life out of your soul but keeping a solid life and cash game balance (as I know you are good at) while mixing in some tourneys will help keep things upright in your head.

Been a while, I'm sure we will cross paths again soon... I'm all settled into the new place out near Red Rock so hit me up for a hike sooner rather than later! My bro and I have been hiking a ton out here the last 6 weeks or so, and look to keep that up as long as this weather stays awesome!

(Not to mention the games are always amazing at the old Red Rock Casino!)

Cool, moving from where? Planning on working/job lined up or just da' cardsD? Can pm me for # if you want to text exchange hand histories/lines, food/rent info, games/rooms, "this whales dropped 3k already at 'x' 1-2 game" ect...lol

Lol ya I've heard from tournament grinders far more experienced than myself about just terrible cold streaks far worse than this but it sucks. Would be down for some hiking next week or something but be warned I'm in pretty terrible shape at the moment.

Thanks, I will for sure. I'm running good already. I've been lurking this thread for awhile and you're a legit crusher. I'm from Sacramento tho. I'm a reg at thunder valley, that's how I know the field was looking super juicy. But yeah I'll hit u up when I get out there buddy. Cheers!