DAY ONE, PART THREE: JRB'S DICK

After finishing dinner and hitting the shower, I jumped back into the Thunderdome and registered for the $150 10 pm turbo.

When I sat down at my table and play finally commenced, I could not believe my eyes. It was as if I had stumbled upon a previously-undiscovered tribe of poker refugees from the year 2002. Once believed to be an extinct species, these loose/weak specimens were happy to limp a family pot and check down all three streets. It was the most polite poker I've witnessed in years, so of course I was tempted to ruthlessly run them over. I did chip up pretty well, but kept it friendly.

In general, this tournament had some of the most bizarre and inexplicable play I've seen in a while. A guy bluffing the river in a huge pot with napkins and no fold equity. A guy calling my big AK shove with 23s because "I'm running good." People folding down to 2 BBs.

I won't bore you with all the details, but I hung around for a long time. We were down to 17 players from 98 entries with 15 spots paid. I had one of the shortest stacks. BBs were getting massive. It folded around to me in the SB with Q2o and about 7 BBs. This is a junk hand, but with only one hand behind me and players in these things usually having a poor understanding of pot odds/fold equity, I was ready to rip atc. BB called with A2, hit an ace on the turn to add insult to injury, and I was out on the soft bubble after 4+ hours of play. Maybe this was ICM suicide, but I was one of the shortest stacks left and felt it was a good chance to steal some chips. I'm not looking to fold my way to a min cash and blinds were just brutal by this point.

The 10 pm $150 is so fast that it's largely a luckfest, but there's so much bad play that you can probably be solidly +EV if you are comfortable with general MTT and short stack play. Personally, I think I played decently except for a couple spots where I got too aggro with trash hands.

But when I really look back on this tournament, what I will remember most is JRB's dick. When the 10 pm went on break, the $10k 2-7 was also on break and the former Survivor contestant was my stall neighbor during piss time. Dude is a giant IRL. Must be about 6'6". Absolute elephant. I wonder if he keeps his 6-max bracelet wrapped around his trunk, but I didn't check to find out. Nevertheless, sharing a piss break with a player whose antes are more than your annual income is one of those weird WSOP moments that you remember.

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One other hand from the 10 pm that you might find amusing: I've just moved to the table a few hands ago. I have ten BBs. I'm UTG. I look down at KdTd. I know we're crushed by a lot of stuff, but feel I have to jam here with a 10 BB stack. Everyone folds.

Dolled-up middle-aged southern woman with decadent jewelry brags to the table about having folded QQ. "The way he put his chips in. It was so fast. No hesitation. I just had a feeling. He's not just going to stick...whatever...40 thousand or whatever in there."

I had 10 BBs.

White magic.

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I hear you re shoving light when BBs get big. I don't play tourneys often, but I'm always surprised how low most players will go without shoving.

Shoving atc from SB when folded to you and you're short, even one off the bubble. Like you said, who cares about a mincash. I know the 4.40/180 mass tabling grinders might disagree, but live lowstakes MTTs, as you said players make way too many folding errors. Plus you didn't go to Vegas to win $75 after a few hours in a donkfest.

Long day today. The rungood finally came in though! More on that later.

Waking up in about 7 hours for the $1k.

It may be the only day this year when I can say I have a non-zero probability of winning a bracelet.

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Yes to both posts about the short stack play. I'm no poker coach, but it seems like a big leak for people in these lower stakes MTTs.

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DAY TWO: THE RUNGOOD

After aun uneventful morning, I regged the $1pm $250 at the Rio again. My starting table was relatively solid and I mostly just treaded water for the first three hours. Then I got it in very good pf for 2.5 starting stacks with TT vs. 77. 7 on the flop and I was out of the tournament. Rough. This trip is not off to a good start at the tables.

It was about 4:30 when I busted, so I had a few options: I could have a proper dinner, kill some time, and then head over to Aria for the 7 pm $240, or I could jump into the Rio 4 pm $200 and be playing again within minutes. I wasn't really in the mood for a break, so I regged for the 4 pm.

After several levels of being card dead and folding, I began to question this decision. I was really starting to get depressed from all the cold decks and run bad. I was down to about 10 bigs and half the starting stack when I managed to find a double with AK vs. QK aipf. From there I began to chip up steadily.

Before I knew it, we were on the money bubble. A shorty who'd been at my table all night got coolered with TT vs. another player's QQ and hard bubbled. The guy looked kind of stunned and hung around the tournament area for a few moments after, as if hoping to be told he hadn't really been eliminated.

I felt bad for him, but the tournament kept moving. I continued to run well and accumulate chips. A player who I read as solid raised my button. I was going to jam wide here because I thought he'd be stealing with lots of crap. Luckily I woke up with a good hand: the same KQ that spelled my demise in yesterday's 1 pm. I shipped and he called quickly. Uh-oh. But he wasn't far ahead with his As6s and a Q on the flop held for me. I took another big pot off this player when I flopped top two with AT and then busted him when I called his 8-10 BB button jam with AT, only to be dominated by his AQ. Remember when I said most players are never as light as I expect then to be? Luckily for me, the runout was gross for him, as I hit a straight with a river queen. I guess all my runbad from the past two days was transeferred to this unlucky player.


I had an above average stack when they broke us down to two tables. On one of the first hands against these new players, I made a very nitty fold with JJ vs. a UTG open and a MP jam. I had no history with these guys and didn't feel like I needed to take a tricky spot to chip up since I was relatively deep. UTG folded too and MP showed 44. Had I known then how both guys played, I would've snapped it off. Oh well.

In a weird way, it might've worked out for the best, as 44 man was moved to the other table, and went on to build up a big stack, presumably by busting some other people.

The play from 18 to 9 actually went very quickly and before I knew it I was at the FT with maybe the 6th or 7th best stack. One moderately interesting hand before the FT: Semi-aggro old guy in BTN raises my SB to 2.5x. I have KdJd. I decide just to peel. BB also calls. Flop is paired rags: 442. 0-1 diamonds. SB checks. BTN bets 25-30. I know he has a lot of bull**** here and the flop probably missed both of them. I think I can fold out most Ax here, so I raise to about 75 and they both go away. This isn't some type of amazing play and maybe I was bluffing with the best hand (pretty likely), but I do think selective aggression in good spots can work very nicely deep in tourneys where people tend to either melt down or play very cautiously.

The FT itself was mostly a game of patience and caution. At this point there was only one clear short stack, but I was also on the shorter end of the scale. A few players eventuallt went bust, including a French woman who started the FT with ~20-25% of the chips in play before having a mini meltdown and spew. I survived several eliminations before jamming A2o UTG for 10 BB and running into QQ (and a folded AK). At that point I was the shortest stack by far and each round of BBA+SB represented 25% of my stack, so I felt like the play was fine even though you never want to get called.

Anyway, I didn't win the tourney, but I hit my goal of making a FT in something and topped my best live score by a few hundred $$$. I can't possibly be disappointed, as it puts me in good financial position for this trip and will allow me to relax and enjoy the coming days regardless of what happens at the tables.

Weirdly, it's almost an exact mirror of last year's trip, where I bricked my first day, bricked an early tournament at a venue the next day, then snap-regged the very next tournament on the schedule and made a nice run.

Chip porn and FT pictures included. Starting stacks were 15k and I think my stack peaked at around 280k.

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Alan Boston with the hat in the last picture?

I don't think so.

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No I kid but it kind of looks like him.

nice run!

DAY THREE: WSOP EVENT 28 $1k NLHE

Vegas is such a late night town that 11 am here feels like 8 am anywhere else. On a modest amount of sleep I shuffled into the Brasilia room along with all the other poker-playing zombies just in time for the 11 am $1k NLHE event. This was going to be my first $1k ever, so I knew it would be a memorable experience regardless of the outcome.

I got a lucky early double when a double gutter came through to bail me out of a mess, then lost a large pot when I trapped with AA and had my opponent drawing to four broadway outs for his whole stack. That pot would've put me at four starting stacks, but I was still on two starting stacks even after the suckout.

That fickle creature Lady Luck repaid me on the last hand before the dinner break. Action folded to me in the CO with Ah3h. I raised. BTN and BB called. Flop came KJx with two hearts and one spade. Checked around. Turn was the Ts to complete the straight. I bet 70% of pot. BTN called. River was my dream card: a low heart. Knowing that BTN almost certainly had an ace, I I thought about it and decided to jam for twice the pot. Sick spot for him. He called with Ad2d and went bust. That pot put me on 3.5 starting stacks.

Unfortunately, I never got much momentum after the dinner break. I lost a big pot with AJ when I made a questionable c-bet and got ripped on. Eventually I jammed over a steaming shorty's 5BB shove for 19BB from MP with AcJc. I had his As6s crushed, but the BB woke up with QQ and had me covered.

GAME OVER

It was a disappointing end to a promising day after 8 hours at the felt, but I'm glad I was able to play the event.

We had a few pros late reg and make cameos at our table throughout the day, notably Bakes and Foxen. Neither had much luck with the deck today to spin up a stack. I did win a small pot against Foxen. I watched the most recent SHRB and thought he came across as a bit of a bully with his constant staredowns, but he actually seems like a friendly dude IRL and now I can tell my buddies a stupid Rounders story about how I "sat with the best" even though the hand in question was pretty standard.

General observations on the $1k: The level of play was higher than the cheaper tournaments I've played, but there were definitely still a lot of people spewing. It always surprises me how someone can sit and play tight for 3-4 hours only to inexplicably punt in spots where they're never good.

The level of play improved throughout the course of the day as most of the true dead money types were gradually busted. Compared to the Daily Deepstacks events, there was A LOT more pre-flop aggression and I got punked many times opening the bottom of my range.

It's been a whirlwind three days in LV and I have no concrete plans for the next 2+, so I'll take a moment to regroup and then figure out the next adventure(s).

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Ran into some random donk in line for pizza at Aria. He ordered two pies at 7 pm and let them blind down for 5 hours before he finally showed up.

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Great jokes and great TR so far.

Subbing! and wishing you GL!

Awesome update.

Thanks for the sweat so far, fellas. It's always nice to know someone is reading and that I'm not just talking to myself like a madman.

Just to clarify the Ah3h hand from above, the board wasn't KJxT. It had a KQJT on it at the turn, so any ace had a straight. That's why the nut flush on the river was such a gin card for me and such a gross spot for my opponent.

I've looked at the schedule of events around town today and I don't see anything notable that really works for me. The $3k 6-max at the WSOP looks like an awesome event and would surely be a great learning experience and a fun challenge, but it's beyond my budget and current skill level. Wynn and Venetian are running $1ks, which is higher than I am really rolled to play despite my foray yesterday. Aria has a big seniors event, which I'm not eligible for. I talked about playing the 6 pm 8 game mix at the Orleans and that's still an option, but I've literally never played half those games before and would be lighting money on fire in all likelihood. I don't know if I'm in a Human Torch kind of mood right now.

Add it all up and I may opt for the boring option of grinding Rio deep stacks again. These really are good tournaments for the price point and when you're staying at the Rio without a rental car, it makes a lot of financial sense to just play here instead of taking a Lyft to the strip or elsewhere, which for a low stakes player is going to cost you 5-10% of your entry fee for the round trip.

Another plus point for the Rio is that there aren't a lot of people smoking down in the Pavilion/Amazon/Brasilia/Miranda area, so you don't have to worry about your clothes and body smelling like an ash tray after a long day at the tables.

On that note, I'll probably head over to the smokey wasteland of the Gold Coast shortly to plunk down $13 for the all-you-can-tolerate lunch buffet. After entire days of subsisting on a diet of beef jerky, trail mix, and pizza slices, I think it's high time I sat down and had something resembling a proper meal. I was a reg at the GC buffet on my trip last summer and while I just joked about the quality, it's actually pretty good value if you don't need top tier cuisine.

I know time is short, but take at least a couple of hours to just relex. They you can gear up for a final epic night or two. Run it up!

DAY FOUR: I HATE POKER

After mauling a couple plates at the GC buffet, I rushed back over the Rio just in time to get in line for the $250 1 pm deep stack registration. I got a ticket and a table after a moderate wait. The table seemed quite passive and soft, but I ran badly and played badly. My stack never got above the starting 20k and I eventually went out with QQ < AA aipf. It's a spot where I maybe could've folded because the guy who three-bet me was a colossal nit, but I was short on chips, bored, and unfocused. I wouldn't call it a punt because I was down to 8k by this point at 600/300 blinds, but realistically I think I was always behind his range. In general I just played badly in this event and got virtually no good spots to work with. Life goes on.

I took a few hours to relax and then decided to reg the 7 pm $400 turbo Rio deep stack, which typically has some nice prizes up top. I hit the Starbucks on the Guy Fieri highway beforehand for the caffeine boost to help me stay focused. After my early day struggles, I wanted to bring my A-game in the night cap. Things went pretty smoothly and I managed to chip up modestly before hitting a slight snag on the last hand before the first break. I raised with AK on the BTN. SB (pretty nitty) and BB both called. Ace on the flop. I c-bet. SB called. BB folded. Irrelevant turn. I decided to check here hoping to induce a shove, as SB was somewhat short and I thought he might jam with middle pairs or weaker aces (although he was pretty nitty, so maybe that was a dumb plan). He checked back. A jack hit on the river. I swear I had a strong feeling that his exact hand was AJ, so I checked to him despite planning to fire almost any river. He made a modest bet. I called. He flipped over AJ. Unlucky, but I think I lost the absolute minimum.

Things went really well after the break and I managed to chip up steadily. I won a huge pot with AK aipf to bust two clowny players who late-regged, one of whom had A6s and the other of whom had a medium pocket pair. I played pretty tight and picked spots carefully to take down small pots.

Pretty soon we were down to the final 36, with 26 places set to be paid. I had roughly an average mathematical stack at this point, which probably put me ahead of the median. A good spot presented itself to me when a shortly jammed from the CO and I found AK in the BB. His Jh9h couldn't improve and I knocked him out. I was now on 180-200k and one of the bigger stacks at the table. I dusted off about 60k of that with an unimproved AT by trying to bluff a guy who had hit bottom set 222 on 289Jx board. He checked flop, bet minimum on the turn (I called), and bet bigger on the river. I put him to a pretty gross decision by re-raising him on the river, and he agonized over it before finally calling. I suppose that was a suspect play on my part. What hand was I really repping? Does my line make any sense? Probably not when you scrutinize it, but I thought I could leverage my stack to put a lot of pressure on him on the money bubble. I happened to run into a very big hand and maybe I should've given his river bet more respect in the circumstances. Not sure if spewy or just unlucky, but if you are going to spew at least be ballsy.

I still had a good amount of chips, so it wasn't code red just yet, although the blinds were getting crazy high very quickly. I found a good spot to jam KQs from the BTN and was called by a short stack in the BB who held K9o. You can guess what the first card that came out on the flop was. After I doubled him up, I was now in the danger zone with fewer than 10 BBs. There were still 28-29 players left, so I needed to fade 2-3 eliminations to burst the money bubble. I was watching the monitor with keen interest, but honestly playing for the win was more important to me than the min-cash. $16k would be a huge score for me, but $650 doesn't move the needle at this point. I was dealt 44 with 4 players left to act behind me. On fewer than 10 BBs with blinds about to get buck wild, this was an automatic jam. SB re-shipped for a lot of chips. Uh-oh. I was quite worried at that point, but he only had A9o.

The runout looked clean.

823...

You might be able to guess where this going...

4 on the turn...

"Ooooh," from another player at the table. I appear to be in great shape with my set.

"He can still catch a five," I mutter to no one in particular.

At this point, the next card should be completely obvious.

5 ball, corner pocket.

Even the tournament director winced.

I was tempted to do my best Matt Affleck and murder every water bottle in sight, but instead I just marched out of the Pavilion Room in a dazed stupor.

Realistically, it was always a flip and I was perhaps a bit lucky not to be crushed when I got snap re-shoved. Moreover, even if I'd won the pot, there were still lots of players to get through before the big money places. Despite all of that, the K9 > KQ hand for a lot of chips and the filthy wheel runout on the bubble had me in full "I want to vomit" mode.

I can't say I haven't been smashed by the deck once or twice on this trip, but lordy poker is sure a disgusting game sometimes. I've been kicked in the teeth by all-in EV numerous times throughout this week and I'm thinking maybe tomorrow, on my last full day in town, I'll take a break from the tables and find something mellow to enjoy before watching the Dubs/Raptors game.

Ouch, that KQ vs K9 and 5 on the river were tough to read. Sorry about the bad luck.

Good results or bad, you'll always have JRB's Dick

Truly a special life moment.

A couple small bets on tonight's game. I'm a big Dubs fan, so here's my reasoning: With KD going down and us playing at home in the last ever game at Oracle, the guys will come out firing with a lot of hustle and energy. Whether we win or lose the game, I think we take the first quarter.

Klay should be hoisting tonight and I like his chances to hit the over on 24.5 points. Game 6 Klay!

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DAY FIVE: ARIA GONNA WIN ANY $$$?

After the brutality of last night's bubble collapse, I took a morning break to relax and chill before deciding to play the Rio 4pm $200 again.

When I finally made my way down to the Pavilion Room, I was greeted by an ocean of gray hair. The Senior Event was underway and it turns out the field was so massive that they had to cancel the 4 pm due to a lack of space.

Instead I decided to jump over to Shake Shack at NYNY before hitting Aria to sweat my NBA bets and eventually play the 7 pm $240. I took a seat in the plush sports book only to be given the boot swiftly because all the seats were reserved for high rollers. Don't they know who I am? I'm ranked top 35,000 on the GPI with $5000 in career live MTT winnings, damnit. I've generated literally dozens of dollars in rake for their casino. I deserve the VIP treatment and a suite on the top floor.

Anyway, I lost my seat and the Warriors lost the series in brutal fashion. Would I fare any better in the tournament?

I won a huge pot early with two hooks on a TTx board when the guy to my direct left made a very clowny play with A8o. After picking off his river bluff, I mostly treaded water for a few hours before finding a small double with KK vs. AT.

I raised 5BB in LP in a 4-way limped pot with AT and a grandpa shipped over the top for another 5-6BB. I called and he showed Qs9s. Would the poker gods punish this man for his clowny shove with no fold equity? Of course not. I hit the ace, but a queen on the flop and 9 on the river send the pot to Gramps and now I'm on a nub with ~55 players left and 21 spots paid.

I get a 10 BB jam through with 44. Two hands later I I have 55 UTG+1. Not a great spot, but +chip EV in this field (we were eight-handed at this point FWIW). JJ re-shoves, Gramps calls with AQ and hits an ace to bust us both. 5 hours of play for nada. I'm not mad because I think I played relatively well and simply had few good spots all night at a 10-handed table.

This will be my last MTT on the trip and while I haven't quite had great success, my high finish in the $200 4 pm earlier in the week ensured that I hit my goals of making a FT and besting my personal best score. I'm grateful for that despite some savage disappointments in other events.

The other good news is that the aforementioned score has preserved enough of my MTT budget to allow me to go forward with the second leg of my summer MTT adventure in ten days.

Like a true masochist, I went down to the registration area and ponied up the combined $1k to buy my tickets for the $600 bracelet event on the 25th and flight B of the Colossus on the 27th. Look out Brasilia Room. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I'll be back. Here's hoping for a sun run and my first WSOP cash.

Looking back on this week, I think I played relatively well in 7/8 MTTs, but definitely botched a few spots. In particular, I got myself into trouble 2-3 times by 3-betting pre-flop with fringe hands (AJ, KQ) vs. likely strength. These hands are fine to 3-bet vs. maniacs and in blind vs. BTN type of situations, but in general they are poor three-bet candidates vs. a tight opening range because you just fold out trash and end up playing big pots vs. dominating hands. I plan to be more careful in these spots going forward.

Moreover, I'm also learning to be careful about c-betting with vulnerable hands when you miss the flop and when the c-bet will cost a big chunk of your stack. It's very dangerous and you risk getting blasted out of the pot with hands that want to see a cheap showdown. Better to do this with a more polarized range when short or when playing deep enough not to need the chips, when it's good to variety of boards for maintaining balance. When you are short though, you need to play pot control and be a chip conservationist.

Thanks for your patience. Here's a pic of Shake Shack below. One burger and one chicken sando. Always a solid choice, albeit overpriced.

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Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders re: MTT variance. I hope you run well on part 2 of your summer adventure. Will you just add it in this thread, possibly w a reworked title?

Thanks.

Yea, I intend to continue the TR when I get back to LV in 10 days.